All posts by Adam Tate

By Adam Tate, Associate Editor The biggest open secret in racing is now official; McLaren announced today that it is ending its troubled partnership with Honda, and signed a three year engine deal with Renault that will secure the Woking team with power units through the 2020 season. Takahiro Hachigo was regretful that the duo could not emulate the success of their illustrious past. “It is unfortunate that we must part ways with McLaren before fulfilling our ambitions, however, we made the decision with a belief that this is the bestRead More

By Adam Tate, Associate Editor Renault may yet come out the big winner through McLaren’s separation from Honda. Doing their best to exploit an enemy’s weakness, they have already poached Carlos Sainz from Toro Rosso and dropped them from their engine supply, but if a report by the usually accurate Auto Motor und Sport proves to be true it’s about to get a lot worse for Red Bull. According to the report, the French manufacturer has informed Red Bull that they are cancelling their order of power units for the 2019 andRead More

By Adam Tate, Associate Editor The final hurdle for McLaren to finalize its messy divorce from Honda has been cleared. The parties involved have convinced Scuderia Toro Rosso to a supply of Honda powerplants through the 2020 season. Renault will now supply one less team and Honda will have a partner so the Japanese giant can remain in F1. As widely speculated, Carlos Sainz is set to leave the team and join Renault to sweeten the deal, though it is unclear if he will do so before the end of theRead More

By Adam Tate, Associate Editor Valtteri Bottas will stay in silver for 2018. The two-time race winner has signed a new one year deal with Mercedes AMG Petronas to partner with Lewis Hamilton for a second season. The Finn was quickly added to the team over last winter after 2016 World Champion Nico Rosberg shocked the racing world by announcing his immediate retirement. He has more than proved himself throughout 2017, in addition to his two wins in Russia and Austria, he sits third in the drivers’ standings and has stoodRead More

By Adam Tate, Associate Editor Dallara has begun production on the new 2018 universal aerokits for the Verizon IndyCar Series. After successful tests at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Mid-Ohio, and Iowa Speedway; Tino Belli and his crew have signed off on the first run of kits to be built at the Dallara factory in Speedway, Indiana. The kits will come in super speedway trim (top), road course trim (middle), and short oval trim (bottom) They have 15% less downforce than the current kits from Honda and Chevrolet, and develop much more ofRead More

By Adam Tate, Associate Editor IndyCar continued its round of tests for the new 2018 universal aerokit at Iowa Speedway this week where test drivers Juan Pablo Montoya and Oriol Servia experimented with the Road Course/Short Oval spec car on the 0.894 mile oval. The veteran duo completed 270 laps as they sampled the new kit in various trims to determine a base line set up for next year’s race, where they added and then took downforce off of the cars to find the elusive sweet spot. Like the previous testsRead More

By Adam Tate, Associate Editor IndyCar officials are close to producing an aeroscreen for the new 2018 IR12 bodywork with the goal of testing the device this fall. The screen will be similar to the aeroscreen concept Red Bull pushed for in Formula One and the shield concept that Sebastian Vettel tested during practice for the British Grand Prix. Speaking to Racer, Tino Belli IndyCar’s Director of Aerodynamics said that a prototype is due to be produced soon, after extensive CFD work and testing with Dallara’s simulator. “First and foremost, thereRead More

By Adam Tate, Associate Editor The Azerbaijan Grand Prix had everything this year: crashes, controversy, surprise results and a ton of interesting statistics to process. Chief among them was the fifth win of Daniel Ricciardo’s career. His win from 10th on the grid is the furthest back a driver has won since Fernando Alonso won from 11th in the 2012 European Grand Prix. The last driver who actually won from 10th was Kimi Raikkonen, way back in the 2004 Belgian Grand Prix. With five wins, Ricciardo is tied with Giuseppe Farina,Read More

By Adam Tate, Associate Editor The Canadian Grand Prix gave us many new stats last weekend, not least of all was Lewis Hamilton tying his idol Ayrton Senna with 65 pole positions. Lewis is now just three from tying Michael Schumacher for the all time record of 68. Hamilton also won the Canadian Grand Prix for the sixth time since he joined F1 in 2007. One more win in Canada and he will tie Schumacher again, this time for the most wins in Montreal. Schumacher still holds the record for mostRead More

By Adam Tate, Associate Editor After his first F1 test in six years, Robert Kubica has announced that his goal is to return to Formula 1. In an interview with Sky Sports the 32 year old Polish driver spoke of his satisfaction in being able to drive a Formula One car again and declared that he wants to make a full time return to the series. “For sure it’s kind of a new start for me. I don’t know what it will bring, but definitely it’s a nice feeling to know I can drive anRead More