MSport Talk: Frank Motorsport Opinions & Debate

Having watched motor sports for more than 30 years I've seen many dressed in a colour scheme that really stood the test of time, and I'm not just talking 200mph cigarette packets here. It goes without saying that Marlboro, JPS and the like are always going to be synonymous with motor racing but, what of other iconic liveries that have graced cars - and bikes up and down the motor sports ladders. I'll keep this fairly picture light as searching Google gave me plenty of fun looking in the first place. We'll start in F1: As mentioned in the opening, Marlboro and JPS will always be two of the most recognisable liveries to those who know their F1 history but what of the others? The late 60's saw more and more teams accept money in exchange for product placement and so the movement started. Marlboro, JPS, Martini, Yardley and Brooke Bond were early title sponsors, The French oil company Elf and tobacco brand Gitanes following soon. Tobacco giants aside there wer...

On the 2nd of June this year, the Williams F1 team headed to Silverstone armed with an impressive batch of their F1 machinery - and more from the 1970s right up to the present day and offered fans a unique opportunity to see some of these machines run on track.  Many of the teams former drivers were also in attendance along with machinery from other motorsports and outside of motorsport entirely. Below is a brief gallery showing off just a little of what was going on on track that day, and a thank you to two people who allowed me to use some of their (better than my) photographs. A crowd of photographers assemble as drivers past and present along with Sir Frank Williams, Sir Patrick Head and Claire Williams pose with Williams machinery old and new. The latest of the Williams F1 machines, the FW40 prior to being crated up ready for shipping to Canada, while Sky's David Croft interviews David Coulthard for the benefit of those in attendance. Not the only Red 5 on display, a...

Earlier today (Wednesday) I saw the Mclaren Honda Andretti @MclarenIndy  twitter page using the hashtag #RaceOfTwoWorlds which, got me thinking about a little known event in the late 1950s, Yes many F1 fans already know that the Indy 500 was a part of the F1 championship up until 1960 and, many F1 fans also know that the likes of Jim Clark, Graham Hill and a few others took on the challenge with varying levels of success in the 60's. But, to celebrate the opening of the oval at Monza, an event was planned as documented in the short video above, teams and drivers from the USAC (United States Auto Club) National Championship - effectivley what we know as IndyCar today, were invited to compete against team from Europe. The inaugural event is pretty much covered above but, for 1958 a few more European teams squads chose to race, Ecurie Ecosse bringing a pair of D Type Jaguars and a Lister for Maston Gregory, Ivor Bueb and Jack Fairman, while 3 Ferrari's of various construction ...

Now, this little rant for the want of a better term has come off of the back of the horrendous accident that Billy Monger suffered on Easter Sunday. As you follow and read my musings you are no doubt already familiar with the incident and, the fantastic showing of unity of the "Motorsport Family", raising over (at current time of posing) £700,000 for the young guys future. However, it's got me thinking. "Without incidents like this, would Billy Monger or F4 be in the headlines?" Now, I'm not trying to detract from the incident, quite the opposite in fact but, that Sunday night, while searching online for updates in conditions etc I was faced with lazily thrown together article after article from the major press all reporting the incident as "news" yet nothing on the WEC race that had happened the same day at Silverstone, nothing of the rest of the BTCC rosta, nothing about Aiden Moffat taking his first BTCC victory, little on anything un  -F1...

OK, something a little different but sort of motorsport relevant. Yes, I purchased a Lego Porsche, at 40 years old I am still building Lego thanks in part to my children reaching that age and becoming re acquainted with the Danish brick and, partly because in the last few years some truly awesome motorsports themed sets have become available featuring F1, Le Mans and GT machinery. The Porsche on the other hand is a different beast all together. Weighing in at over 2700 pieces and with over 800 steps in an instruction book that also depicts Lego and Porsche's involvement with the project this 1/8th scale offering is as big in size as it is in fun to build. It took me a week of evenings to put the set together and now, it sits atop my bookcase next to another of my larger technic creations! Anyway, back to the Porsche, yes at £200 it is an expensive luxury for something you will probably only build once, especially as there appears to be no alternative model to build from...

Historically many drivers have competed in more than one race series in a single season, Le Mans, Daytona and the Indy 500 being the big events attracting drivers worldwide from various disciplines, however more recently once a driver had secured an F1 seat it was very unlikely that we would see him driving in any other series save for promotional reasons due mainly to sponsorship and manufacturer conflictions, yes we may have seen Lotterer take a short race stint at Spa for Caterham in one of his many Le Mans winning years and, of course Hulkenberg becoming a Le Mans winner while doing a full F1 season but. This is a little different. On the 12th of April 2017 it was announced that two time F1 champion and current Mclaren Honda driver, Fernando Alonso would be racing in the Indy 500 instead of the Monaco Grand Prix. Now, this is the difference. A lot of people are seeing this as a good thing, teams giving their drivers the chance to experience a different car or championship but...

I want to use this part of my blog to bring to attention those who didn't quite but should have or would have made it to the top of the motorsports ladder. The history books will always mention the likes of Ratzenburger, De Angelis, Villeneuve, Paletti and those associated with F1 who succumbed at the wheel of a race car but, what of those who were still on the way up? Unless you were a fan in the day or follow the series involved a lot of these drivers become just another statistic. Yes, Clarke, Bellof, Winklehock, Pironi and Alboreto lost their lives in non F1 machinery but, due to their own F1 involvement were more publicised. Young Austrian, Markus Höttinger was one of those drivers, he should have been more of a name in the world of Motosports in the 80's, maybe if things were different we would have seen both him and Bellof fighting for Group C or F1 victories. Unfortunately we will never know. Markus Höttinger made an early name for himself in sports and touring cars...

The BTCC returned this weekend just gone and, subject to "news" broken on this very blog did not race anti clockwise - who knew! What we did witness however was two of the sports more elder statesmen involved in two separate start line incidents, now, without wanting to cause too much controversy I am beginning to wonder: Is It Time For The "Old Guard" To Call It A Day? Don't get me wrong, Neal and Plato have been fantastic ambassadors to the sport and to Touring Car racing in general but, two, fairly similar, start line incidents while all those around them - many young enough to be their sons get through a weekend relatively unscathed one wonder if it is time for the two of them to take a back seat and let the younger blood through.  Neither driver has won a title since 2011, and while both have gone into the final weekend with an outside chance of glory on most occasions since one would argue that plenty of other drivers would have too. To ...

Rumors began circulating last night that, the BTCC opener, happening this weekend *may* see the cars take to the Indy loop at Brands Hatch in the opposite direction to normal. Initial leaks suggest that 32 cars all jostling for position on the series shortest laps creates too many incidents in the early part of the lap.  By reversing the lap it would give te drivers a better chance to settle down before taking the - now right hand turn into Graham Hill Bend before the short uphill dash to the Druids hairpin and t he downhill towards Paddock Hill Bend and the end of the lap. Msporttalk belive that the day's opening practice session *may* see the cars run in the opposite direction to normal before race direction make a decision on the race direction.  I'd like to thank my mole within the series who gets me these stories and snippets as they break. She is always number one with the news and, to protect her identity I call her April The First! Thank-you. 

As many of you may have no doubt seen, last weekend saw the 75th annual Members Meeting at Goodwood Circuit and, featured many races & demonstrations from many different type and class of race car, many driven by enthusiasts and current owners, some by the drivers who raced the machinery at the time and, some drivers competing in various disciplines currently taking time out to try something different, and this got me thinking. 1978 saw the 25th anniversary of the Macau GP, an event that still takes place to this day but, to commemorate the silver jubilee if you like, a race was held and, saw many famous names from the world of motorsports compete against one another in identical MkII 1.6 Litre Ford Escorts. Yes you read that correctly. Among the drivers turning out for this event were:  Prince Bira Baron Toulo de Graffenried Phil Hill Mike Hailwood Stirling Moss Jack Brabham Dan Gurney  Bobby Unser Denny Hulme Jacky Ickx Teddy Yip, the then o...

This winter a friend and I decided to attempt to predict who would be driving and in what in the 2017 BTCC series. I'm not proud to say we were very very wrong, some of obvious choices aside we were in some places so far away we were on a different grid. However. This very evening I laid down another challenge. How many race winners in the 2017 season and how many races do they win? In the interest of fairplay and transparency I'm posting mine here, tonight, a few days before "Media Day", before the last driver has even been announced. Hopefully, come October it'll give me some better results to look back on. My BTCC prdictions for 2016: Champion: Colin Turkington Indy Champion: Mat Jackson Team Champions: WSR Manufacturers Champions: Honda Jack Sears Rookie: Luke Davenport There will be 12 race winners as follows: Colin Turkington: 5 Matt Neal: 4 Gordon Shedden: 3 Andrew Jordan: 3 Mat Jackson: 3 Jason Plato: 2 Rob Collard: 2 Jack Goff: 2 Tom I...

The F1 pre season testing has been and gone, cars have been launched, tested and speculation has begun about who will be on top come November (Mercedes). It'll come as no surprise to regular readers (if I have any) that I am fast falling out of love with F1, the series still needs a huge shakeup, costs need to be reduced to enable and encourage new squads and manufacturers to join. The sport and it's stars need to be more accessible and affordable to the fans and, more importantly the spectacle and excitment needs to return. But back to now, unfortunately I cannot see anyone other than one of the Mercedes drivers winning the title this year. Red Bull and Ferrari will be there or thereabouts but, I don't think they'll have the consistency to keep with the "Silver Arrows" for the whole season.  The Williams and Force India cars should be along next (Mercedes engines) with Reanult, Haas, Toro Rosso, Mclaren and Sauber battling for the low points places. B...

Friday the 10th of March and, around tea time like many others I heard the sad news that the multiple 500cc, 350cc, Isle of Man TT Winner and 1964 Formula 1 World Champion, John Surtees had passed in hospital in London. Known to many as the only man to win world championships on both two and four wheels, but he achieved so much more than that both on the track and in the garage. Surtees won only one F1 title but early in his career took multiple 2 wheeled titles including the 350cc and 500cc (MotoGP / Moto2 equivalents) titles in the same season for three years running between 1958 and 1960 (he also took the 1957 500cc title), and seemed to make the switch to 4 wheels pretty easily.  Joining the F1 circus as reining 500cc champion in 1960, Surtees competed in four rounds for Team Lotus in the Lotus 18 Climax scoring a second place in his second ever start. Seasons in Coopers and Lolas followed before he was signed by Ferrari for the 1963 campaign, winning the German Gran...

Many of you may not be aware but, the upcoming WEC opener at Silverstone will not be the only chance to see prototype racing in this country this year. No, I’m not talking about the Silverstone Classic, or the Festival of Speed but, having already run a single event last October at Snetterton the Henderson Insurance Brokers LMP3 Cup to give it it’s full name will be running its first full season this year, Brands Hatch, Silverstone, Donington (both layouts), Snetterton and Spa in Belgium host the 6 event championship for LMP3 machinery. Expect a high level of competition from this series considering the pedigree of some of the teams already signed up, a few of which you may recognise from other series. RML, Speedworks, Team Parker Racing, United Autosports and Redline Racing to name but a few, all of whom know how to build and prepare a quick, fast racecar. For those of you unfamiliar with the LMP3 category, LMP3 cars often race in the ELMS and Asian LMS series as a second...

Those of you who attended the 2017 Autosport International Exhibition in January may have witnessed, in the Live Action Arena, the UK debut of the Tesla Model S EGT (Electric GT) car, to be know as the P100DL. The P100DL boasts an impressive set of stats: 0-100kph in 2.1 seconds 778 BHP  995 Nm Torque Pirelli tyres help to keep this beast - and the 19 others that will contest the inaugural series in contact with the tarmac when it begins this August at Silverstone before taking in a short trek of Europe, ending at in November Paul Ricard in Southern France.  The race weekends will feature a 20 min practice session, 30 min qualifying and two races of around 37 miles distance, one in the daytime, one at dusk which leads me to ask the question.  "Is It Time For Formula E To Ditch The Cities and Head to the Circuits?" Don't get me wrong, Formula E is a great series, for one it proves you CAN overtake in a single seater, and on a narrow (usually) street track...

OK, So, Happy New Year to you all, it's been a while I know. 2016 was a particularly bad one here but, as promised in 2016 I do intend to get more content out in '17. What better way than to start with a rant. So according to reports both the British Grand Prix and Manor Racing are in danger of disappearing in 2017. With Bernie in an "advisory" position with Liberty Group the addage "The more things change, the more they stay the same" couldn't be truer. I for one am quite upset for many reasons, the last few years I have stopped watching F1, partly through circumstance (no Sky and work) and partly because, well it's not that good anymore, I can sit in my chair at home or at work on a Sunday and scroll twitter and read many comments on how bad the XXX Grand Prix is this weekend, part of me fells happy that I'm missing it, part of me feels very sad because a sport (if it really is still a sport) that I have watched for over 35 years is slowly dy...