Midweek Motorsport s21 e13

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Hello everybody and at a little after eight o'clock, pretty summer time, just after three

o'clock, eastern daylight servings time in the US. This is Midweek Motorsport. I'm

John Hendoff, series 21, episode number 13 and I'm sure that's a wee bit

different tonight. No, Tim Gray, he is on another assignment. It's Hugh who is up in

London making sure that we go to the world. It's also sure that has some of the

usual features, but not all of them. Nick Damon in the show tonight was

certainly not in the first part of the show. We might try and get him on in

hour two. So we are packed with guests this evening. Guests that span the

gamut of motorsports, actually quite a bit of sports cars to be honest. We've

tapped up John De Geest to come and talk to us for another double stint new

segment here on Midweek Motorsport and it's an incredibly busy few weeks of

sports cars. So we'll have him on. We have got Peter McKay and a rally report

that'll come up in the second hour of tonight's program. More of a rally

preview with the European Rally Championship about to get underway in

the next few days. And so he'll be looking forward to that. I promised you

last week that we after having Dan say is on the program would have some

Logan Sargent will have that as well. He'll be talking about his WEC

program and the Ford hypercar all to come up tonight. And you of course

expect your team and let's rattle through some of the parish notices

because I've got a guest for our top story tonight. So it's going to be a

very, very quick one here. Hello to Dave Alcock who's joining us. Jake Parrott

is AFA tonight, but he's going to be staying at Reams on his way to

Spa for the WEC. That sounds brilliant. N. G. Autoart. Neil is there.

New puppy in that house. Hello to Jesse Young. Tom Marshalek as well who's

listening in this evening. Right turn lover, surprisingly in terms of the

choice of location. Be tuning in from the Western Abort for RTL tonight.

AFA for Ed Moses enjoying some Easter family time in the sun. You've

been busy at circuits this week as well. Thanks for your

marshalling time, Ed. James O'Donnell listening in live with a

glass of beer after being out in the GT4 today. Oh yes. Very good. What a way.

What a way. Arnaj Rob back from his jollies. Beautiful evening. I

suspect I should have been doing this outside by the fire this evening,

but I've been sitting in the sun quite a lot today and I've almost had

enough of it. Hello to Caffeine Jones listening from Sonny Birmingham to

Lindsay and to Jim Mooney racing and to Tom Marshalek. I think we mentioned

Tom already. The responsible adult is tuned in as always. Also to J. G.

Hello, Johannes. To Brody who's busying himself around on another project. I

have somebody who's got a lift, a car lift for sale if you want to

message me separately. James Brown, Blur Fiends taking an engine out of a Porsche.

Oh my goodness me. And so on and so forth. Chris Sucu, Alexander Orkin with us this

evening as well. Elliot Lindemöy, Sean Crockett, Alan Ayers finally tuning in after

months getting his new restaurant open. Oh, when are we coming for a meal?

Well, Alan, you tell me where it is and we'll be across. We know your quality.

Simon Hoffs in tonight. So is Thomas Pitts. And yes, some of my usual features says,

J. G, I want my money back. Yeah, well, we'll pack in as much as we can.

And first, a public service announcement. A few people after we had,

after we had Brian Sheen on a couple of weeks ago about Le Mans and Le Mans classic

asking us about that again. There is still availability for Le Mans classic. There's

limited availability with first tickets, which is 1ST-tickets.co.uk. And also somebody asked

about the Ford hospitality, the VIP hospitality that we were talking about.

There are still some places there. It's 2900 euros each. That's from

Thursday onwards, I think, possibly Wednesday. But anyway, all the details,

Ford Racing, Le Mans.com. Ford Racing, Le Mans.com. I'm saying it like that. Don't

hassle me for the pronunciation, but it's Ford Racing, L-E-M-A-N-S, all on word.com.

And that 2900 quid is unlimited everything and a car parking spot inside the circuit.

I'd expect your team, if you want to get in touch, it's 0-0 in both of the big matches tonight.

The early kick-offs finished 1-1. I keep an eye on that. But with no team to rustle his papers,

it's just my turn to say, here's the top story.

Well, we're going to start this rather different midweek motor sport with

actually some Nurburgring news. I was going to say some sports car news and it is.

We've got a lot more Nurburgring news to come as well with John De Geese joining us in this

first hour for another double stint, as we mentioned. So let's get to the top story.

And this is a story and a half, really. You know, we've been following Ford

a little bit recently and we had an update on the hypercar program last week. Well,

not content with doing that and getting ready for the ELMS and WEC. They only went out and

set the fastest emerging car lap around the Nordschleife last week. Now, I'm going to

talk about that with the man who did it. It's Frederick Vervesh who is joining us now on the

line. First of all, Frederick, congratulations. I have watched the onboard. It's on the Ford

racing page at the moment. That was incredible. And, well, first of all, we're going to talk

about the car. The car is the Ford GT Mark IV. It's the track-only supercar that came out

two or three years ago. Tell me a little bit about this car and about how the whole few days went,

because I know it won't have just been that one run. How did it all go?

Hi, John. Yeah, thank you very much for having me on your podcast. It's an honor.

So that's what I had to do to make it on your podcast, right? To do a record.

Pretty much, yeah. So that's good to know. Now, all jokes aside, yeah, that was a great run for

the whole team who was involved. And also for me personally, to be selected to have the honor

to drive this car around it. Yeah, it was amazing. I think we were lucky as well,

because I think on the rain you always need to be a bit, you need some luck. You need to respect

the track, let's say. And I think the conditions were there, even though they were difficult,

but they were there to make a good lap time. I heard from some of the team that I've been

speaking to that the day before the weather was awful. The onboard that I've seen,

it looked pretty good. What time of day did you set that stunning 6 minutes, 15.9 second lap?

Was that in the morning or in the afternoon? Yeah, it was early afternoon. So basically,

you're right. Maybe you know when Max Verstappen, I think was practicing

in the rain. I think he wanted, from what we heard, he wanted rain conditions to be

prepared for the 24-hour. So yeah, there was bad conditions, I would say. There was no race

the week before. So normally there would be like an RCN or a bit similar like an LS. So then you

get some rubber on track. So that was also not the case. And on top of that, there was freezing

overnight. So we were scared. I mean, we thought we would not be able to do something at least

not in the morning. But it was drier than we expected and less ice early morning. So again,

with that, we were lucky. But then the lap time came quite soon, to be honest, because we didn't

know what the rest of the day would be. And so we did all the official stuff, let's say. And then

that went for our first run, basically, first run where we did the lap time. So that was good.

Let's talk about the car a little bit. As I said, this was the ultimate iteration of the Ford GT,

the Mark IV, specially engineered by Multimatic with some very clever adaptive spool valve

rear suspension and longer wheelbase than the cars we've seen in the past.

And 800 horsepower, which seems more than adequate to me.

Looking at the onboard, the car looks really stable. You were keeping off the curbs in quite a lot of

the places, I know. But the car looked really stable. And what was impressive to me, Frederick,

was just how smooth you were making it look. Yes, you could see the car was going quickly

because the scenery was going past like something out of Warp Speed Star Wars. But your control

inputs were very smooth. You would sort of come onto the throttle, maybe about half to three

quarter throttle and then go to full throttle. We were seeing that, we can see that on the onboard.

The lap itself, did it feel like a quick lap when you were doing it?

The thing is, let's say how we started the day. So basically, we started with, I think,

the first lap of the day was just under seven minutes. And at that time, it was so cold. And

I had no grip. And I would say, okay, guys, this will be nothing. But then we did a couple

of laps more and later in the morning, temperature just came around five degrees,

which is just the start of the operating window of the tires. And then things started to be better.

And then we were making big chunks of lap time. And that's a bit both ways. I mean,

I, as a driver, start to feel how the grip is coming. But also, I need to, I mean,

it was our first time with the car on track. We did a lot of simulation. But you never know

what can happen because you have these high speeds, you have these compressions that you cannot really

simulate. Touching of the car, unexpected touching. So all these things was a bit up to me,

let's say, to judge how much I could do. So I think you can always go faster, you know,

because that's our nature. But you also don't want to crash. And you have a whole team

there. You have this big car. Yeah, there are a lot of things. And like you say,

I didn't use all the curves because I also was not sure if they are dry enough. And I was not there

to take the last 10th of a second. So I needed to have, let's say, a good speed where I thought,

okay, this is within reason. And then try to make the lap. So does the lap feel fast?

I think until that point, I think we made really good progress. And that was what I felt was good

at that time. All of the track is spectacular. However, and bear in mind, I've only done

some tourist laps and some test days there and never had the place to myself. But the bit that

always impresses me, and I like to see how cars work, two bits actually, going down

the foxhole if you can throw it, yeah, because your pick up speed so quickly down there.

And then that breaking on the uphill into that I don't know, forced and then also

from the bottom of Begvec and up towards the mood curve and how the cars work there as well.

And it looked fantastic. I noticed you had a little lift just going through the last of

the left handers going up towards mood curve. Yeah. And I thought, when I thought, oh, that,

oh, and then I looked at your speed through there. And I don't know, it was 300 and something.

Okay, you topped out at about 310, 312 and you were nearly 300 K going up the hill and I'm

thinking, oh my goodness me, that's incredible. What was the bits that you found that were

most easy or most difficult, Frédéric? The Döttinger was the most easiest.

That was like, oh, we're going too slow. We need to go faster because we reached the 310,

which was a limit by Michelin due to the temperatures and conditions.

That was the easy part. And then also, you know, okay, I made most of it. Now just bring it

home. And that's it. I mean, oh, even though you still have tear garden, which is before the repay,

there was more tricky, but still, yeah, if you know that this was only our third run at that

moment, you know, so I was also still discovering and we added lap time or we made big steps

because in the beginning we drove only 290. We were limited to 290 from Michelin.

So on that run, that was the first time we did over 300. So 310 was the limit, but so there was also

you have like sound boxes on the track, which is actually something I didn't know. And you always

had to lift before because you don't want to go over the sound, but then it makes a big,

big difference on how you approach the corner. So these were things I discovered.

I didn't know, Frédéric, that there was sound monitoring. So you've got to stay under

a certain decibel level around the track on days like that. That's news to me.

Yes, exactly. And that's actually a big challenge for all the brands who go there

for testing and driving and even record attempts. You have to stay below 138 dB,

but it's in specific areas. So it's basically, it's around fluk plots, entry, exit, and then

it's between low-dark curve and bright side. And then on the coming onto the main straight,

the thing over here. Yeah, it's interesting. And it's, of course, it's the same as like on

every track. Now you have these sound limits. But anyway, for our car, it was safe, but we didn't

know until then. So because then, let's say that lap, we said, okay, now we go for it. If we go over the

sound, then at least we can finish the lap and then they cannot take it away anymore. So that

was good. The whole idea. Nice. Very good. I like that planning. Now you know the Nürburgring

Nordschleife. We're going to see you in NLS3 this weekend. And you can follow that along here

on the Radio Show Limited network of audio and visual channels, sound and vision,

no blocks. It's all free. And the English audio will be me and a Nürburgring specialist,

Peter Kate. Actually, he's going to join me this Saturday morning. So Frederick, here's a question

then. The Ford GT Mark IV, a track day supercar. How does that compare with your GTD or your GT3

Ford Mustang that you'll be racing for HRT? How much quicker is the GT much quicker than the

Mustang? Well, that's a very good question. Yes, it is. It is a quicker car. So I think

Multimatic and Ford, they made this, I would say all time beast, but it's a car you can buy.

Well, you have to be very fortunate to buy it, Frederick, in fairness. There's only 67,

67 builds. But as I see your point, it is available. I find it amazing. The thing looks

incredible. And well, how much are you looking forward now then to NLS3 this weekend and the

Mustang? Yeah, I'm really looking forward to Nürburgring in general, Nordschleife. It's always

in the many years we are there for that period of the year. And that's an awesome period. You

know, they have like these typical restaurants around this typical atmosphere. And then again,

the challenge between driver car and the track. And I think it's an awesome period. I really

like it as a driver. So yeah. Does the evolution of the Mustang, will that help at the Nürburgring?

Obviously, it's one of the places that the car races, but it's the Nürburgring is totally

different to pretty much anywhere else at races, whether that's in IMSA or in the FIA WEC or

in any of the GT3 championships around the world. But does that evolution to this year's car,

is that helping at the Nordschleife and on the Nürburgring as well?

I think it definitely should help because it's a high speed track and we gained a lot in our

downforce. But of course, I think we are now, let's say in the window of the other GT3 cars,

which was, let's say, a weak point of the first, the initial Mustang GT3, but of course,

really the right BOP to be able to use that. So and that's something we hope to show this year

because we did evaluate really well and really hope that we can show that potential. So it

should definitely help the Nordschleife. Well, I heartily congratulate you on your

regular braking lap. Ford and Multimatic together as they are with the Mustang GT3

and I'm going to get a chance to drive a dark horse through Europe in the next week or so.

So I'm looking forward to getting some of that race car inspired technology underneath me as I

drive down to Imola next week. Fred, brilliant stuff. Thank you very much indeed. I say to

everyone, go to the Ford Racing website, go and have a look at the onboard and marvel in

Fredrik Vervesh and the Ford GT Mark IV around the Nordschleife. Congratulations, my friend,

you're a brave man and if you think there's more to come, then sign me up. I'll be

standing trackside to see the next one if you think you can shave more off that.

Well, John, I want to say just one thing for the listeners. If they want to buy one, this is now

the last run of the Mark IV being built. I think there are 25 left. So like you said,

you have around 1.7 million I thought without taxes laying there, then you can maybe try to

get one. Yeah, but don't try and do six minutes, 15, 9.77 around the Nordschleife on a tourist

firing. I think you might get thrown off at that point. Yeah, probably. And of course,

available, those 25 available through Fred Vervesh Ford. Yeah, that would be great.

I need to negotiate my commission then. Not only quick behind the wheel, but quick

as a salesman as well. Frederick Vervesh, thank you very much indeed and I'll see you in a race

track very, very soon. All right. Thank you, John. Thank you for having me. Bye-bye. Brilliant

stuff from Frederick Vervesh in the whole Ford team. Are you listening to Midweek Mortar

Sports Series 21 Episode 13? And we're going to stay with sports car news right now. It's

a very busy couple of weeks of sports car racing coming up. So a perfect time. We thought to

have one of our regular, not every week, but sort of infrequent, but regular, if that makes

any sense, double stint catch-ups with John DeGase. Now, here's the point. We've got NLS,

we've got ReCards, and we've got ELMS this weekend. Mr. DeGase, which one will you

be gracing with your presence? Well, I'll actually be going to Barcelona for the ELMS

season opener. Haven't been to a standalone ELMS race in quite some time, and it's a record 47 car

grid. There's a lot of compelling storylines there with some new drivers, some teams as the,

in case of the Proton number nine car, you know, sort of using some Ford staff in preparation

for their WEC program. So anyway, I decided to go there. And then next week, I'm going

straight to the prologue because all of a sudden that got rescheduled directly after,

after the unfortunate consequences in the Middle East. So, and then I go directly to

Long Beach after that, because I can't make, I can't make the the actual six hours of

them a little because of my commitments in Long Beach for IMSA. But it makes it for an

interesting next 10 days for sure. Wow. Logging up the air miles early in the,

in the qualification year as well. Right, let's, let's do some of those stories then. And stories,

a couple of stories about drivers who we might not have expected to see perhaps

what will come to Ricard in a moment, but unsurprisingly, I think the N24 qualifiers

talking about being graced by presences, Max Verstappen will be back now that he's got a

weekend free. And this is entirely sensible. It'll just be him and is it Jill's going on? Who's going

to be? Actually, it's Lucas Hour because Jules will be in Imola for helping. So they didn't

actually have anybody else. I think Luke Lucas Hour is the fourth driver in the car for the

N24. Correct. If I'm not mistaken. Yeah. So that'll be his first time driving with Max.

Obviously it was Jules and Danny Junkadea that did the NLS2 event that they provisionally had one

then got thrown out because of the tire discrepancy. But certainly a pair of four hour races,

Saturday, Sunday in two weeks time. Yeah. We have NLS3 this weekend still and he's and Max

is not taking part in that based on what we understand is due to. Sorry, go on.

We don't believe Max. Max is not taking part this weekend because I believe Winward is busy

otherwise in GT World Challenge Europe at Paul Ricard. Yes. And I understand. I understand

that. I think it's entirely sensible that he comes now that he's got that weekend and gets another

four hours of driving probably between those two races. Crucially in two weeks time,

the Saturday race starts later in the day. And if not going into the dark, it will give him the

chance to see the the Nürburgring Nordschleife in dusk conditions at the very least. And then on

the Sunday, it's a practice run really of top qualifying, which he'll have in in the the

ADSE N24, which is slightly different this year of how they're going to knock people out.

But basically, it's still as close to single car qualifying you can get. So that's that's good

practice for what has to be said. He's still one of the favorite entries for the for the N24,

John, when you look at that driver lineup. Yeah, no doubt. I think we said last time on the

the last double stint segment that they're definitely one of the favorites. Just looking at

the different manufacturers of different lineups, you know, BMWs certainly

in a stronger position than they were last year, but they won the race last year with one car only.

So it only takes one good lineup and a trouble free run to get the job done. And that's

that will be the be the target for the Verstappen racing, windward racing run entry.

If we flip flop down to the South France and JT World Challenge Europe, perhaps more of a surprise

is the fact that Lance Stroll is going to be driving a GT3 Aston Martin.

Yeah, this really came out of left field for me. And I have to think it might have some influence on

Max joining the GT3 ranks himself just just because, you know, hey, what do you want to do

during this one month off break for Formula One with with the two Middle Eastern rounds

canceled. You know, why not jump in a GT3 car and come to you had an extra one and they put

put together a lineup. I believe it's in the gold cup. And yeah, it's it's it's quite interesting.

We obviously know Lance has previous sports car racing experience. He took part in the Rolex 24

on two occasions. One in a Tripp Genesi racing Daytona prototype of all things. And then a

Jackie Chan DC racing LMP2 car, I believe the following year.

So he's not completely foreign to sports car racing. But I believe this will be his GT3 debut.

I saw some footage or pictures now. I can't remember. I'm getting old of Max doing some

testing somewhere. And I'm pretty certain in the background was Kimmy Antonelli.

He was standing in the pit lane as well. Obviously Mercedes driver and Max testing

the the the windward doing a bit of extra testing in the windward car, which I think

somehow in my head, I have it, it might have been Barcelona, but I may be I may be wrong.

As you say, drivers month off. It's a bad thing. Drivers need to be doing stuff. Otherwise,

they get themselves into trouble. Many a team manager has has told me that I'd like to see

Lance come in and have a proper go. I think he's driving style. I know he's

sometimes a bit maligned in Formula One. Nobody gets to Formula One without being talented,

even if your dad does own the team and the manufacturer. But I do think his driving

style suits endurance racing really well. And he's very good with these tyres.

So maybe that's something that will come later on down down the line.

I mean, tell me a little bit about you mentioned ALMS and some interesting bits and pieces there.

Where's the storylines for for Barcelona and the circuit to Catalonia this weekend?

I think it actually comes from the entry list alone. 47 cars, which I believe isn't a record

for the series. And actually, I believe more pro cars, pro M cars than pro cars this year.

So that just shows how much interest is coming from bronze rated drivers. You have somebody like

Stephen Thomas, who had been a longtime driver in the in the LMP2 class in the IMSA Weather

Tech Sports Car Championship with TDS. He's moving over to ELMS full time with that team,

bringing Scott Huffaker with them. Also, in the top class where there is the silver mandate,

Jonas Reed is paired up with Sebastian Prio and Mike Rockenfeller in a proton run

orica that may not raise a lot of alarm bells. But like I said a little bit earlier,

that's basically the Ford trajectory team, more or less, you know, similar to what Genesis did last

year with with their program with Edexport. So it sounds like according to Dan Sayers that

there's going to be a good amount of of crew sort of rotating through that program, just

getting experience in prototype racing in general and also with Seb and Rocky getting

reacquainted or acquainted with ACO rules racing for the first time. Yeah, I thought for the first

time in a while. I think that's immensely sensible. Going to have some of the vector sport

engineers in there who effectively be running the WEC program when that gets underway. And

they I think he said on that round table that that Rachel Organize Rachel came as organized

for us last week, I think he said something like 80% of the people on that on that team

will be from the the WEC program what morphs into the WEC program. And I agree with you,

I think that's eminently, eminently sensible. And I liked Dan, what was he said last week.

Well, we're not really that a win without a learn, but of course, when you get to a race track dot

dot dot dot dot. But I think you raised a good point also in that being that they don't want this to

be a sacrifice to the once they get their hypercar on track in the second half of this year.

So I think we'll see a trickle down of staff working these ELMS races later in the year

and maybe some more Germans from proton filling some of those places as the development of

the yet to be named hypercar goes in the full swing. Yes, it cannot be a distraction.

It's meant to add to the program not to take away from it. Yeah, totally totally agree with you.

Let's let's quickly flip. So that's this weekend. And the usual supports without including

leisure. We had the Ellis on last week, he'll be making his leisure just before

debut at the weekend. And Michelin the Moncoupe as well. Next week is John's already mentioned

we're off to Italy and the show will be coming from Italy. The show coming from Italy next week

as we will have had by then the rescheduled deer long prologue at Imola and then of course

the six hours at the weekend. Whilst I will be there for the full time and as you've

heard, John will be there for part of the time. Ben Keating will not be John.

Yeah, a really unfortunate incident for Ben. He broke his elbow in a training accident. And I

would I don't have the details, but I know he's an avid off road biker,

bicycler, you know, not motorcycle. But I have a feeling it probably came from that.

But it's really unfortunate because he'll be missing the first two rounds and their

TF Sports said they're targeting to have him back for Le Mans. But in the meantime,

they have a very interesting bronze rated driver to fill his shoes in Blake McDonald,

a name that may not be super familiar to people in Europe. But he is coming off an

Asian Le Mans season with TF in the Corvette. And he was a standout competitor in GT World

Challenge America powered by AWS in the Pro Am class. He was partnered up with Matt Bell,

the British Matt Bell for the season. And they've finished runner up in the in the Pro Am

standings, which is the most competitive class out of the three in that championship. I was

really impressed with his driving. And he I think he's going to be a real

maybe I'm saying a little too early, but a revelation of sorts, maybe for these first

two races. I always sort of thought his goal would be to get to WBC. But again,

obviously not this early and not under these unfortunate circumstances.

And of course, we wish Ben all the best. It'll be killing him, not driving.

I think it's it's an awful joint to have a problem with your elbow elbows and knees.

And I've had knee problems down through the years. And oh, it's it's awful. And

the fact that they've already said he's going to be missing two rounds tells you that it

isn't or he hasn't just chipped a bone. I say no, this is going to be something

quite serious. And we wish Ben all the best. Staying with GTs in WEC. Jamie Klein had a bit

of a chat with Esteban Masson for a CODIS last week. And he's really revved up for the season.

Yeah, it's pretty interesting because Esteban is, you know, the reigning European Lamar series

LMP to pro class champion, if you would call it. And but he's sort of taken the leadership role in

one of the CODIS ASP Lexus is this coming season in LMG T three. Obviously, he has been in and

out of that program for the last couple years. But sort of getting the call up to to be the

pro driver in that lineup. You know, he's on Toyota's radar, obviously is potentially

one of the few drivers to succeed. A few others that may have a shake up in the hypercar lineup

in the coming years. So I think he's the Frenchman is really trying to place himself in a good

position with the Japanese brand and and to show well this year in LMG T three.

Yeah, he's such an interesting character, very good driver. I think this team leadership role

will really suit him. Sometimes, you know, when you when you make a player or an athlete,

a team captain, if you will, it can sometimes affect their primary performance either behind

the wheel or as a soccer player or a basketball player or whatever. I think with Esteban,

I think he'll thrive on this. And as you say, again, I think it's sensible. He is looking

looking towards the future. You talked about the changes there in

in hypercar. A driver who is a little bit underutilized at the moment is Julian Andlar.

However, we heard again, back end of last week, that he's going to be going to Le Mans,

not with Porsche Penske Motorsport, of course, because they aren't there. But he's going in

an LMP 2 car. Yeah, it's a quite interesting development. I know myself and Jamie were sort

of making the rounds at the IMSA media day at the start of the season at Daytona asking the

Porsche drivers, the PPM drivers specifically, you know, are you pursuing a ride for Le Mans?

We actually never got to talk to Julian. We spoke to Kevin Estra and Lawrence Vanthorne.

Kevin said he was pursuing one. Lawrence said no. But Lawrence was quite, Lawrence was quite

vociferous in that I got a contract to drive a 963. So that's what I expect to be doing for the

rest of the season. Yeah. And he said he didn't really want to go back to a lower class. He

wants to go for the overall win, which is understandable, of course. But anyway, Julian

Andlauer will join Richard Vashour and Dorian Pyn in Duquesne's LMP 2 effort for the French

endurance classic. This is a pro AM entry in ELMS, but it's being bumped up to a regular LMP 2 for

the race with Andlauer in the lineup. So I think this is really great for Julian. Obviously,

he's doing a full IMSA season this year, which is going to be quite interesting to see,

especially next weekend, making his debut on the streets of Long Beach and leading the championship,

mind you, as well of being undefeated. If you want to call it that way after the first two races

on paper, he is, but you know, the whole team order's drama. But we're hoping to get maybe

some clarity on later this week with some opportunities to talk to some team management

at PPM. But anyway, that's that's over. That's in the past right now. But certainly great for Andlauer.

He's he's won Loma and Ellen in GTD. Sorry. All these nomenclatures mix in together after

these years. GTE AM, that's what it was. Yes. Good memory. Yeah. With proton. I remember

the team, the 77 car was a Dempsey proton, obviously. But I think he was like 18 at the time. He was one

of the youngest winners, class winners. But obviously, this is great for him. And

let's see if maybe Kevin Estra can maybe find a seat as well. I haven't really dug too deep into

the entry list to see if there's any other openings. But there I know there's slim

opportunities because most of them are taken up by full season teams.

And dates. So is there any more clarity on what Matt Campbell's doing for the rest of the season?

We know he's only doing the longer races in himself. But there was some thought he might not

even finish all of all of that. So yeah, that's an interesting one. We believe at least there

are rumors out there and we don't want to confirm anything. And he is likely headed off to

another manufacturer for next year. And it points potentially in the direction of Ford

for hypercar. But again, nothing confirmed. I think the idea was Sebring was to be his last race

in the 963. He's obviously doing NLS this weekend, I believe in a Porsche in the,

perhaps the Grello Porsche, just because of probably lack of available drivers. But

so we'll see what happens. I heard it wasn't set in stone if he's coming back for Petit or not.

That was the last I heard with PPM. Again, it may sort of depend on the development

process of that other manufacturer he's likely to be headed to. I guess there's only really

only two to say it could be McLaren or Ford. And like I said, I've heard Ford. But again,

there's been no definitive confirmation on that. Yeah. And Dan Sears was kept his cards close to

his chest, let's say, when we spoke to him last week. But he said they would look at people

who had previous experience in some of the technical side. They've got J.P. Sarazan having

there as an engineer from the 963 program. Okay, that's one to keep an eye on. I'm

bouncing around a little bit at them. Oh, actually, before I move on to talking of things,

Porsche, was that good liveried Porsche? Was that an April Fool? Or was that real?

So as far as I know, that was real. So I haven't fully dug into this and I was planning to this

weekend. So we'll hopefully get some more clarity. But there is an active tender open

for the hypercar tire partner tire manufacturer from 2030 onwards. And part of that tender process,

I understand, is allowing that those prospective tire brands to evaluate their

products on hype on current hypercar machinery. So there was a test at Paul Ricard right around

April 1. So I could understand why that could be a little confusing. It involved a Toyota,

a Porsche, and I believe a Peugeot, maybe it was a third one. I don't remember the third one.

But the most striking one was the Porsche and it was decked out in a full Goodyear livery.

Again, I don't think this was generative AI. I don't think this was an April Fool's.

I would suspect the only team that could actually run such a thing would be Proton.

I surely wouldn't be PPM running it. But anyway, the bottom line for that is for Goodyear to evaluate

to see what it would sort of take for them to put the tender in. You have to sort of evaluate the

costs of development and to see what kind of undertaking it is. And a hypercar is a lot

different than an LMP too. So that all makes sense. But yeah, why deck out an entire

963 in a Goodyear livery? That did seem a little strange to me.

And then, I mean, it was clearly they were pretty decent photographs if they were

real and there's no reason to think. So they weren't hiding it. I just wondered whether it

was something to do with the potential Goodyear. They were doing some filming there as well for

an art. Oh, that could be it. And also the other thing is we don't know yet what's

happening with Asian Lamont series and whether what tire company will be asked to supply.

I think it would be Michelin. Well, I can't say anybody else because nobody would be ready in

time with it. Yeah. Michelin has been the exclusive tire supplier for Asian Lamont for forever. I

think it's a start. So I couldn't see them not doing that. But let me put that on my list

of questions for this weekend as well. And we'll see what we can come up with.

I have to say, I know what happens in Asian Lamont series, but not in the ELMS. There's

a mix of tire supplies in the ELMS. Oh, is it all Goodyear there? No.

It's Michelin and LMP3 in the ELMS. Correct. I can't see for WEC in Lamont.

I honestly can't see the ACO saying we'll only have one tire supplier.

I think the only way it would work is if Michelin and Goodyear may be flip-flop.

Michelin be an LMGT3 and Goodyear in hypercar. But I honestly have mixed feelings about it all.

Hey, I would like a tire war to come back, but I know we're not going to have that.

I know. But Michelin has such a legacy of winning overall Lamont. Yeah, it's a little

tainted now because they're the only tire provider in the hypercar class. But still,

it would be a seismic shift, especially being a French tire brand and all. And with the long-term

contract in IMSA through 2035, having the hypercar and GTP cars on different tires that

could start causing a little bit of problems. So we'll see. Again, this is early stages,

but I believe the tender will be announced at Lamont this year. So for 2030, that is.

Well, and that just tells you, doesn't it? And in a period as well, where we don't know what exactly

what the LNP tools will look like in 2030 might look slightly different in the top class as well,

in terms of the regulations, or at least be moving towards something different. It just

tells you how long it takes. As people tell me, well, they're just the round black things on each

corner. It just tells you how much goes into that, John, doesn't it? Exactly. Yeah, there's so much

development. And especially having been pretty close to the development schedule of Michelin and

having seen some behind this, our team has been privy to some behind the scenes testing and

other analysis and deep dive interviews. It's amazing what Michelin has done just for their

second generation set of tires, the Pilot Sport Endurance, that will be making its debut in WEC

this year that already debuted at Daytona. Yeah, absolutely right. I do see, obviously, that

Goodyear have rebranded the old Dunlop Bridge because Dunlop isn't the company that it used

to be all those years ago and hasn't been involved in Lamont for quite some time. And I

wonder if this is just a little bit of a flexing of the muscles. Now, they've got a bit more

marketing cash behind them as well, because that will, what is called activation money is

very important to the series, even at a place like Lamont. And I'm sure that some money's

changed hands for that Goodyear Bridge. And apparently as well, I'm hearing from people

that I know down there saying that the old bridge was in pretty bad condition. I haven't walked across

it for many years now, but people who I know who have said it was in bad condition. And there's

been pretty much a full refurbishment of that bridge paid for by Goodyear in terms of

repainting it for their branding. That's one thing. But actually, there was some fairly

big structural reconditioning that had had to be done. Let's get back to the circuit you mentioned

Long Beach. That's not that far away now is your travel schedule a test. And we've got Spencer

Pumpelli back in the GT3 and back in the Aston Martin Vantage. Yeah, interestingly enough,

I believe he actually sits second in the GTD point standings. If you take out all the

Michelin Endurance Cup runners, I was having a look through this the other day and it was really

fascinating because the number 27 Heart of Racing car leads GTD after two podium finishes.

Dudu Barrakello is the only full season driver. Obviously, Spencer is going into

sub for Tom Gamble who'll be on WEC duty in Imola. So that car is definitively leading

on 690. Then on 661 points as Foucault, Lilou Wadou and Simon Mann, which is an endurance cup

only entry that won Sebring. And then third is James Rowland, Houdena's and Scott Andrews,

which is a lone star of Mercedes, which is also as far as I know, an endurance only entry. So

right now, the Heart of Racing team will be one, two of sorts in the GTD points. And the

next closest is the 13 Autosport Corvette. So it's looking really good really early for the 27 crew,

but great to see Spencer continue his role. It'll be his third different team in three races,

having started the season, I believe with Magnus and then going to RS1 last time out. So

it'd be quite a story if he's able to sort of piece together a season with multiple teams.

I know that's probably not the current plan, but you never know.

No, indeed. I want to talk a little bit about some slightly worrying news. Now,

as we are speaking here on Wednesday evening in the UK, there has been some movement on

diplomatic and diplomatic lines along in the issues in the series issues in the Middle East.

But Jamie Klein got into a story about super GT, perhaps not going to to Sepang because

the local government are not keen perhaps on the optics of that given

petrol rationing and all sorts that's going on in the country at the moment.

How serious is this in terms of motorsport globally, John, that a big event like super GT,

which is supported by all the major Japanese manufacturers, could be affected so badly?

Yeah, actually, the super GT round has been officially postponed for Sepang,

and that decision follows a quote comprehensive assessment of the current global environment,

including the escalation and uncertain situation in the Middle East, which is brought upon

significant operational and logistical challenges. So the official statement from GTA,

GT Association, doesn't officially pinpoint it to the fuel. But I think that is a concern

amongst almost all organizers everywhere. We've seen it happen in Australia already.

The Bathurst six hour was a bit of a stretch to get have enough fuel for that race this last

weekend. We know airlines are cutting routes because of to save fuel. Right now, in the

geopolitical world, it looks like the straight up Harmuz is going to could be open for the

next couple weeks. But things can change very quickly. So I think it is a something that every

organizer is keeping an eye on. And I wasn't around for this. But you know, back in the oil

crisis, we had canceled races, we had shorter races. Daytona was a short race, right? Like a

12 hour safe break as well. Yeah. Yeah. So it wouldn't set a precedent if something

serious like this happens. Of course, the US, I believe has a larger stockpile of oil. But

I think particularly in the Asian region, that's the area of concern. Yeah, correct. Because we're

slightly in Europe, I think we're slightly protected because we don't get as much of the

crude. It's some of the other products actually that we will struggle for things like aviation

fuel. And that, of course, is logistics and travel and transportation and all of that something

certainly to keep keep an eye on. More positive news and WSA will see the cars next week for

the first time this season. The the prologue single day prologue will be on Tuesday of

next week. And we'll have this show, as I said, on Wednesday, John will be doing his paddock

notes. And there'll be lots of pretty pictures, particularly as well, of the new TR or 10

evil, which is significantly changed around the front end in terms of its looks. But it's

the livery that's caught my eye, John, because that's one of my favorite liveries from the late

1990s, that red and white streaked livery for the new TR or 10 evil effectively. And these

changes on some under the skin, some, as I said, the front a little more noticeable, apparently

have produced some quite big gains for the car. Yeah, I know they've done a lot of testing in

the off season. And certainly it is a very different looking Toyota than we've seen in

the past. And this comes amid the rebranding of the program is no longer Toyota Gazoo Racing,

but Toyota Racing. It's a bit of a very complex situation with Gazoo Racing Toyota Gazoo

Racing Toyota Racing. Ultimately, I was trying to get clarity on this a few weeks ago in an SRO

race and even talking to two of the North American bosses, I was left more confused than I was

before going into conversation. And this is all off the record. So I anyway, the WEC

hypercar program will be branded as Toyota Racing. That's why it's the TR 010 now instead

of the GR. And it comes with the refresh of the car, much like what BMW did with the smaller kidney

grills. Toyota has probably gone a step above that and have modeled theirs off of a some of their

production cars from the nose, which is great because their first car, they were the first

factory LMH car that debuted back in 2021. And it looked very much like a LMP one plus,

you know, kind of a design. So I'm great that they fully embraced the whole idea of LMDH,

LMH of what it should be to try to have some crossover. But yeah, I think Toyota is going

to be very strong this season. They know what they're doing. They're the most experienced

team with these these these platform of cars and certainly looking to get back into the

winning ways of years past. They didn't have the season they wanted last year in any

by any stretch of the imagination. And it just seemed that the car was

difficult, shall we say it was difficult more times than it was successful, let me see.

I wonder we've heard this so many times, haven't we, from these EVOs on the top category cars

both in WEC and in IMSA across both of the the rule sets for LMH and LMDH.

Engineers, team managers, project leaders saying, what we want to do is get this car to have a bigger

operating window. And in some ways, perhaps that was the issue last year with Toyota, they weren't

good at fast circuits, bizarrely, which didn't help them at Le Mans, obviously. So is this what

which this has not been a root and branch redesign of the car, which it was being

talked about at one stage, John, but it's it is strikingly different.

Yeah. And also, we have to remember that all these cars have now visited the same wind tunnel,

the wind shear wind tunnel in North Carolina. LMH cars previously did not have to do that

unless they were homologated for the Weathertech Championship. So every all the cars are now

under a more strict performance window, I wouldn't say it's a tighter performance window,

at least IMSA says it's not. We'll see what the ACO and FIA say on their end. But I think there's

a lot more information they were able to glean by using that same wind tunnel, especially

at least from IMSA side going through these with these with their cars the second time,

and having the Toyota go through there, the Ferrari, the Pugeot and Aston Martin again,

all cars have little minor updates like the Ferrari has not taken an Evo Joker,

but they've have some flicks and some other areas that have changed just like the the

Valkyrie. So I'm hopeful that we're going to see a more competitive season, but ultimately

it's going to come down to the BOP process. And we're still sort of waiting to see how that

will be administered this year in the WEC. Yeah, and yes, exactly. And with one fewer races than

planned before Le Mans, and I know Le Mans is an outlier, well it'll still for me be of great

interest. It's just traditionally been an outlier, but let's wait and see on that. There you go.

You never know what could change. And quite clearly the first race of the season at

Imola was not the first race not the same characteristic as the first race that the

teams were expecting at Qatar, which is smooth and flat and fast. And Imola is none of those

things. It's fast. It's always fast. Just round up. I'm appreciative of your time. And I know

that you are traveling tomorrow. So travel well will say that for you. You mentioned, of course,

that David Barrichello is going to be at Long Beach, so he can't be at Imola.

So who's taking his place at Imola? Yes, so that will be none other than Aston Martin Academy

graduate Kobe Pals. He's making his WEC debut. He's a 21-year-old, won the Sprint Cup Silver

class title last year with Come to You Racing. He admitted in his quote that he

didn't expect to be making his WEC debut so quickly. So much like Blake McDonald, I have to say. Although

Kobe is a younger driver that has high aspirations. I think this is just sort of leaning on the

resources and how many different up-and-coming drivers Aston Martin has through their various

junior and development programs. So the big question is, who will fill that seat

at the six hours of Sao Paulo? Ian James has been adamant that Dudu is confirmed for the full

IMSA season. But that's the CTMP race. And Dudu was a very big star at Sao Paulo last year,

being Brazilian, obviously, and getting the car on pole. And I think they finished on the podium

and everything like that. So if their IMSA season isn't going well or takes a U-turn by

CTMP, I could very well see maybe Dudu prioritizing that WEC round just because of his home race.

Yeah, absolutely right. Jon, thank you very much for your time. As I said, travel well.

I can say this now. See you next week in Italy, which has a nice ring to it. I might stick a

microphone under your nose at some stage and find out what you've found out over this

weekend in the first couple of days of next week. Thanks very much for being on

Midweek Motorsport and this double stint segment. Thanks, Jon. Absolutely. Thanks.

It's Midweek Motorsport Series 21 Episode 13.

Oh, sorry. You caught me off guard there. It's Midweek Motorsport. And here's what's coming up.

Always makes me laugh. Always makes me laugh. That one.

Coming up in a second now, tonight's program, Peter McKay with a rally report, which is more

like a preview for the ERC, the European Rally Championship. We will have also the

promised Logan Sargent Audio as well, which I mentioned last week. And if we've got time,

some of your tweets at spectamen as well. But next, a surprise guest of Midweek Motorsport,

Series 21, Episode number 13. I wasn't expecting this.

So you might have noticed, keen heedlessness, might have noticed that I didn't mention

Nick Damon at the start of the show. And that's because he is and your Bradley's

attendance have been demanded in one of the world's hotspots. They have been deployed

to Dubai in a peacekeeping rule, I believe, for two car meetings this weekend and next

weekend. We've got to get him on there before his flight gets called to fly out. Good evening,

Nick Damon. Good evening. Join the hindoff. Good evening over in there.

And welcome to the ceasefire. Yeah. Oh, is that where you are? Right. Okay. Ready to fly out.

He is literally a T3 Royal Portable. Are you a T3 at the moment, are you?

Yeah, T3 at Preté Monge. Preté Monge with Joe. Excellent. Good stuff. Formula one news.

So I'm not going to ask you to do a hooray because I do actually want you to get on that flight.

And perhaps it might draw slightly too much attention to you. Let's talk about this downtime.

There's a lot, there'll be a lot of nonsense coming out. But one of the things that we do know

is going to be discussed is this F1, and I use this word advisedly and in inverted commas,

the crunch 2026 rules meeting. What do we think is going to come out of that?

And what needs to come out of it? Well, basically, well, I mean, it's a question because,

you know, you have various different camps within the F1 world with various different

opinions about what is wrong with the new set of rules. Pretty much down the line,

it seems to depend how well or badly they're doing with the particular rules. Then you have the

who are upset about F1 anymore. And then you have people with sensible heads on who go,

well, some of it's better and some of it's worse. So trying to change,

but they haven't decided what's better and what's worse.

Are we going to see major changes? It's going to be tinkering around the edges,

isn't it? It's going to be maybe a change in the percentages of ICE versus

battery power or something like that.

I think prior to the Japanese Grand Prix that the focus was very much on trying to improve

qualifier. The way they thought of improving qualifier was actually reducing

electrical usage. And whilst the cars be slower, they'd be able to go as fast as they could possibly

go for much longer because they wouldn't be having to lift in close or

if it was. And there were three or four proposals to enable

flying that to much more attest to the ultimate speed of the car.

Unfortunately, after Japan, and they had the instant with Oli Berman and

Frank Colapinto, there's no idea about how do we make up for this sudden

changes of massive, massive differences in closing speeds.

And so they're now trying to work out what they can do with that.

There's also this question that Martin Brundle brought up, which I thought was interesting,

that in the battle between, it was Lewis Hamilton and one of the McLarens, wasn't it?

Was it, was it Piastri in the McLaren?

Norris, it was Norris.

Yeah, where Landau said, I didn't actually want to overtake, my car decided to go faster.

And Martin's brought up this regulation, which has been around for a very, very long time

because the technology that it addresses has been around for a very, very long time.

In that the driver must always be in control of the car and automatic systems,

which could have been shifting down, which could have been changing brake balance automatically,

etc, etc. For many years, this is that technology has been available for a very long time.

That's not allowed.

So how close are we getting to the cars doing some of their own driving here and

therefore getting close to that FIA regulation?

Well, it's a very good point.

I mean, I think Norris was being a little disingenuous.

He basically made it.

Suddenly had more power and he just went, because Lewis wasn't going as fast.

And he doesn't like, suddenly he had no throttle on the car,

accelerated to 200 miles an hour because he wanted to.

But the point about it, when you don't have a linear power and the amount of power

you have at any part of the track is decided by the car, not by the driver.

The driver decides how much throttle are in.

He says that 50% could be 450 horsepower or it could be 150 horsepower,

depending where you are on the track.

And so the full throttle can be 900 horsepower or it can be significantly less.

It could be as little as 200 if it's used.

The point is that you're not a direct correlation.

I know we've been on fly by wire for years.

There's no longer a direct correlation of the amount of power you ask for.

Now, whether that means you're not driving it,

it's hard to say because software has been driving,

has been controlling power output for years.

It's just a dream.

Interesting. Very interesting.

So I suppose the question is how close is that to actually breaking those regulations, Nick?

Well, the people who make the rules now, the FIA obviously.

I mean, we've been close.

The thing to remember is that there have been workarounds.

If you remember back in the late 90s, perhaps early 2000s,

they had gearboxes, which if you pressed,

if you wanted to go from the 7th to 1st, would do it on one press.

Oh, yeah.

And they then said, no, you can't do that anymore.

You have to actually go 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.

I mean, it's a small point.

There was that argument about brake bias.

You're absolutely right, Joe.

I think it was the Alpine team or Rena or whoever they were at the time

who had this auto brake bias for two or three years before it was found out.

And they were told they couldn't do it anymore.

So, but FIA make the rules.

And so the FIA can decide what is not driving yourself.

I think it's, you know, the point is, is it safe?

That's the real thing.

It's not really, do I like it?

Does it make a good spectacle?

But is it safe is what really comes down to?

Yeah. Yeah, I think that's, that certainly was the people who were pushing the safety

angle after the Japanese Grand Prix with, with, with Bearman.

It could have been a far bigger accident.

It could have been a far smaller accident, depending on which circuit you've been,

you've been out, but been out.

And of course, there was no white flags out because he wasn't actually

quote unquote, the jalapeno was not actually a slow car on the circuit.

No, it was just, he was just a different part of his cycle.

Yes.

So, you know, what can you do now?

I think they're talking about also changing the lights in the back of the car and making it

more obvious.

The thing is, this set of regulations, as we've discussed, whether you like it or not, is flawed

in place.

It comes from a place of trying to get 50, 50 electrical and proper fossil and petrol.

But that was based five years ago.

And that's what everyone thought the industry wants.

As we know now, you know, electricity is not even with the current situation of petrol

prices.

Electricity is not the panacea it was thought to be for the manufacture of anybody else.

So, you know, I'm sure if they were writing the rules now, it wouldn't be this.

It would be 70, 30 or something, right?

You know, just a bit more electric than they used to have.

But they've got what they've got.

And the problem is, there is an obvious solution.

And that is you massively derate the amount of electrical power you can use.

And then suddenly you'll have it the whole time.

The problem with that is, it makes the cars three, four, five seconds a lap slower.

Does it matter though?

My question is, does it matter?

Because what we have seen with these regulations, Nick, and it was clearly shown

at Suzuka, which is a notoriously difficult place to pass or get close to cars anyway.

Following through the Esses, I've never seen people following that clause through the

Esses for 20, 25, 30 years.

So, if we could get rid of this, this pierce differential, then the racing could actually

be really rather good because it seems that we can follow other cars.

So, does it matter if the four seconds a lap slower or is that just that formula one

thing of it has to be the best ever.ts?

It's just pure hubris.

It doesn't matter at all.

No one can tell the difference between a lap of 130 and a lap of 134.

Can't tell.

You can't tell it.

But if you say you can, you're either some sort of autistic savant or a liar because you can't.

So, the point about it is they want it with the fastest TM and that's it.

And they're very worried they were going to be seven seconds slower than it was last year

and then a bit too close to Formula 2.

But that doesn't matter either.

None of this matters.

It's all how it seems.

And it's the impression they want to make for social media and this sort of stuff.

But a situation they've got themselves into, the problem is that they can't completely

backpedal anything to the beginning of next year because that would require too much

re-jigging, retooling, re-homologating of engine.

If you turn around the engine manufacturer, so I think they've got 400,

don't probe me.

I think they've got 480, 475 horsepower I think at the moment.

Now, if they said next year you can have 575 horsepower,

none of the manufacturers have an issue with that.

A 1.6-litre turbo has no issue in racing trim making another 100 horsepower.

It's just not allowed to.

But they certainly can't do it before the beginning of next season.

So, you can start adjusting that power offset and trade.

But it's really trying to sort it out for this manning 19 races this season.

Have you seen this open letter from Alpine about Holopinto and his sabotage claims?

Yeah, I do.

Yeah, I mean, this is the toxic fandom problem, unfortunately.

You know, it's quite good news because Max Verstappen's fans used to be the most toxic,

but now it absolutely is Franke Holopinto's who's thus far the most toxic.

You know, if you look at him the wrong way, half of Argentina tries to put death

out on you. You know, it's just it's it's ferventness of the fans.

They're under the impression that, you know, obviously,

Pierre Gazi is doing as much doing a much better job, but it's much faster than Franke.

And therefore, they are under the impression that Franke is being

disadvantaged by Alpine or by Flavia.

And I think it's something to do with a different wing setting you have with something wrong.

And oh, it's not fair.

It's not fair.

And then they're death threats and a ridiculousness.

So Alpine decided to say stop being so blooming stupid.

But at the same time, what they did say was thank you very much for the money from Argentina

for enjoying cash in the checks.

Yeah, not quite what they said that when we're talking about fast tracking parts

and sometimes only select parts or upgrades arrive at some events.

It's not the desired approach.

They said if a performance upgrade or part is as we hope and intend,

then we make it available on both cars.

Yeah.

I mean, for that again, this is people who don't understand how F1 works,

because that's always been the way.

If you've got one set of parts, you give them to the fast car.

You know, I didn't hear the whole of Mexico moaning when Paris never got anything decent

when the Stappen did.

And it happened last year to the Sonoda as well, but half the season as well.

You know, this is just what happens.

The other part of that is that these, in some ways,

are they might have looked faster in the same,

but you might get them to the track and they might be rubbish.

Now, that's that's that's the that is the, you know,

development part giveth development part possibly take it away.

And it can.

It's that thing, isn't it?

The bottom of all the all of the investment ads,

your investment could go up as well as down.

Your development part may give you a better lap time

or in fact, make you totally rubbish.

That's very true.

Yeah.

But yeah, it's again, it's just, you know,

just the rubbish that's going around on the internet.

And, you know, the problem is when they're getting people emailed

with, you know, threats from, you have to kind of answer it.

I mean, it is a very toxic world, the F1 world now,

especially with Max doing badly.

Stop it.

What else has been going on?

So we've got a break now until the first weekend in May

when we're at Miami, by the way, Nick Damon,

not with a team by team tonight, but doing

jumping in before he literally gets on a plane

to go to Dubai for a couple of weekends of

carting, which you can catch this weekend and next weekend on

carting TV,

carting live TV.

Live TV, live TV on YouTube.

Absolutely.

Out of the teams up and down the paddock then, Nick,

who benefits from this break the most?

Well, that's a brilliant question because they all,

I don't think apart from Mercedes benefits,

Mercedes benefit the least because their car's working

and winning.

But it's kind of cross, you know, people have got problems,

but they also want to be able to test on the track

to see if they've solved their problems.

So, you know, I would say that people benefit the most.

Definitely Aston Martin, because just missing two races

means they miss two potential sources of massive embarrassment.

Is it really that bad there?

Because this week?

Oh, gosh, yes, it's getting worse.

It seems like not only is the car performance an issue now,

but there are all kinds of issues within the team.

There's been people pointing the finger at Adrian Newey

and saying he's not up to the job anymore.

And Damon Hill's weird.

You know what I'm saying?

I think he's seeing Ambassador now for them,

or is he still just talking as a pundit?

I don't know.

But it all seems to be falling apart for Lauren Stroll.

Yeah, I mean, you come in a big splash,

you spend all the money, you employ all the big names,

and it doesn't work.

You are going to pick up some very heavy flak,

but you know, it's Honda having another Honda problem,

but don't forget, you know, prior to the four championship in a row they won,

they had several very bad years.

So, you know, they'll get there,

but it's just really good for to wait and see

if they get there.

And Lauren couldn't the first time round.

Yeah, it's embarrassing.

And it's not wasted for a month.

It means it's less embarrassing.

And there's more chance would be at least below average

rather than terrible when they get to Miami.

And it gives Lance Stroll,

as we were talking about earlier on in the programme,

with John De Geese,

it gives Lance Stroll a chance to go and rest this weekend

at Manicor in a GT3 car,

which may well end up being a hypercar at some stage for Lance.

And I've always thought that that's where he should be,

as I said earlier on.

So, if then the embarrassment factor is an advantage

or the lack thereof for Aston Martin racing,

which I'm still going to keep calling Andrea Morda racing

until they actually do something.

Well, they are, they're not bad.

Who else, who else does it benefit?

If it's Mercedes are getting the least benefit out of it,

who among particularly the top teams on the midfield teams,

who are going to be going, this is mega?

Well, yeah, I mean, you've got a lot of people

everyone's going to bring a massive upgrade to Miami.

Now, whether they work or not, as we said, I don't know,

but certainly McLaren,

you've got to see one from Red Bull,

you're going to see one from Ferrari.

They'll be able to upgrade the chassis quite easily.

Engine-wise, obviously they wait to see what the rules are changing,

if they are changing.

And then they are quite stymied at the moment

because they won't have got the first chance

to get a free upgrade or a free upgrade,

a very expensive upgrade,

but free as far as the rules are concerned.

Because that catch-up method won't be sorted out until after Miami.

So engine-wise, apart from improving the software,

apart from getting the bottom of perhaps some reliability problems,

you're not going to see many changes.

Because genuinely, the way you work that out

is actually on the track now.

That's where they learn the most of that.

But also in the car, in the chassis, absolutely.

If you've got chassis issues or you've got cooling issues,

that's where you absolutely sort it out

because you can bring a massive upgrade package,

which is there.

There would have been upgrade packages,

so there's the last two or the next two of the rest anyway

after the initial run.

But now they've got a chance to stick them all on

and hopefully have them tested.

But then they'll hit the track and hope for their work.

But that'd be all the teams.

But you know, normally, the teams who are furthest behind

have made the mistakes.

They're the ones who like to pick up,

like Williams, for example,

wouldn't might be able to shed some of their excess weight.

And that's free time.

Yeah, absolutely.

We should remind ourselves that Kimmy Antonelli

leads the drivers' championship by,

what is it, nine points over George Russell

with Charlie Claire and Lewis Hamilton

in third and fourth Mercedes,

with a 45-point lead over Ferrari with McLaren,

another 44 points further back and Haas in fourth position.

After the first few grand prix,

is that where you thought it would be?

Nick, who's doing, I know it's not half-distance,

so it's not the summer break,

but it's kind of an enforced half-term, isn't it really,

rather than the half-distance.

Who's doing better?

Who's doing worse than you expected?

Well, I think those who are doing worse is Red Bull

because they should be in the top four

and they looked pretty good in testing

and looked okay in the first race.

But the second-last race has been quite poor,

both reliability and pace wise.

So they're definitely underachieving

both chassis and engine wise.

You know, I think the top three,

everyone thought Mercedes were going to be best than they are.

You know, it's Ferrari getting better than McLaren

and realistically, we don't really know,

because McLaren have had those reliability issues.

So you'd have to say Ferrari are getting better

because they actually managed to get the cars to the end of the race.

So that's kind of a jury's out there

on who's doing better than who's doing better.

I think Alpine are doing very well

and they've produced a good upgrade.

And the rest are kind of,

Williams is doing poorly because it's underdeveloped,

it's too heavy and obviously,

we've always spoken about the people who do really, really badly.

And the rest are kind of doing what you expect them to do.

How so where they are,

because they've had a couple of good results.

But a couple of good results,

you know, a seventh place have gone to somebody else,

they'd be behind them.

So it's all kind of like that typical midfield scuffle.

Yeah, I mean, I think Red Bull are below where they should be.

Well, Red Bull are only two points ahead of racing balls

at the moment in sixth and seventh position.

And they're, you know, they're 16 and 14

for Red Bull and Racing Bull.

Alpine on 16 points and not early days,

Hass on 18 points.

And then there's,

and then there's the big gap to McLaren on 46

and then the big gap from McLaren to Ferrari

and from Ferrari to Mercedes.

I mean, it's early days, yes,

but we're already seeing some kind of pecking order here, Nick.

And those points, those points differences,

when you get to 40 odd points between teams here,

that's quite difficult to pull back

unless you have an absolute nightmare

of a weekend.

Yeah, absolutely.

I mean, yeah, if we'd had the two Middle East races,

that trend would have continued.

We wouldn't have had the reset properly at this point.

It might not have become Miami.

It might be the reset.

It might have been when they got to Europe.

But we haven't got those two races.

So we've got, we have got a semi reset.

The only thing I would say is that in my experience

of the last 30 years of F1, I've only seen,

I think twice, a bad car become a good car.

And once was McLaren about three years ago.

And that's, you know, it just doesn't happen.

It's not the way it works.

You know, there are silver.

Also, the thing to remember as well is that

even though Mercedes and Mars ahead,

they also have a huge amount of time

they can do on a car.

This is the first year of the car.

They're nowhere near the limits.

So Mercedes is not going to sit there,

you know, hanging around the back of the wind

until having a cigarette.

They'll be working as well.

And they've got things that they want to do.

So it's not like, it's not like an easy target.

To try and catch up to them.

Your imagery is outstanding.

And now I have in my head a whole load of Mercedes people

standing, sitting in that boveral or whatever it is they have.

Go on, yeah, we're fine.

We don't have to do anything else.

That's absolutely great.

Who got wordled this morning?

You know, as you rightly said, that's not happening at all.

Was one of the cars that was a bad car that got better?

Was that Red Bull last year?

Was that always a good car that just didn't realize

how good it was?

No, the Red Bull, but that wasn't, that was a,

effectively, that was, they went down the wrong path

three or four months early and they didn't notice it

and they had to retrait and go back again.

So that was always a good car.

That car won all the races in 23.

It was always a good car.

But they actually, you know,

one thing I would say about Red Bull is,

trying to, if you knew a comment,

if you knew, we always said he had a lot more to his Red Bull

than he was given credit for by either Christian Hall

or then they always think Pierre Vache was doing all well.

Well, this is definitely a Pierre Vache car

and it's not very good.

So take into that as you will.

Very quickly, because I know you've got to run for a flight.

Safe travels, by the way, you and Jordan and reminder,

can'ting live TV at the weekend.

Where are you at the weekend, by the way,

before I ask you the last question, you and Alan.

Right. And next weekend as well.

Yep. Yep. We've got two.

Alan, Alan is fantastic because an hour and a half

can do by an hour and a half from Abu Dhabi.

So it's in the middle of nowhere.

And it's a good track, isn't it?

It's a great track.

Yeah. Yeah.

OK. We'll be keeping an eye on that over the weekend.

So Miami, next.

We've had a start of the season, then,

that has had Grand Prix at Australia and Shanghai,

Australia, China, Japan.

None of those really are your quote-unquote

standard European circuits.

Oh, I think Shanghai is quite close.

I think Shanghai is, yes.

They always say all this tracks are unique.

Well, obviously, all the tracks are unique.

So it's not, you know.

Fair point.

I think the Shanghai track is pretty much...

If you deconstruct it and built it in the middle of Germany,

it would be a standard European track.

Zucca, obviously, is an old-school test of machine.

But as we saw, it's impossible to overtake on.

Miami is the same.

Miami is difficult to overtake on

because of the nature and the design of the track.

Well, it was.

Who knows?

Well, that's a good point.

You know, it might remain that way.

Or, you know, it wasn't...

Yeah, you didn't used to get the overtakes.

You got it out of the park.

Now, was that the first race?

Who knows?

But, yeah, we don't know.

Also, we don't know what the power,

how they're going to be able to manage the power.

That's going to change things.

But, yeah, I mean, obviously, one thing I would say

is that Miami was obviously the track

which Kimi Antony restarted out

for the first time last year.

So don't expect a sudden comeback from George.

You're going to have to build up to it.

Well, that was going to be my next question.

Perhaps a bit of a fool's errand to ask this question,

but is it possible to say who has an advantage

on any track now, given that, effectively,

we seem to be rolling the dice

or throwing the cards up in the air

pretty much before every Grand Prix?

Well, yeah, but, you know, what we can say

is that the Mercedes is the best car in clear air.

And we can say the Ferrari is the best car off the line.

And that's it, really.

But that might change.

It's not a great long run down to the first corner at Miami,

so Ferrari may have to qualify better.

Is that a fair comment?

Well, yeah, they've been qualified in the top six.

But, yeah, they need to get past McLaren.

But, yeah, again, we just don't...

Because we don't know what they're going to do with the engines.

It maybe won't be the same as it was.

Then it's off to Canada.

And then we get into the bulk of the

European season with Monaco again, an outlier.

Do we actually find out anything

before we get to Barcelona in June, that Le Mans we get?

Well, yeah, I mean, every single race

is telling us things about the government,

but part of Monaco, which is going to be different in every way.

But every other track will tell you what things you want to find out.

They keep all these tracks different, this tractor.

And I said, before, they're all different.

And then you get to Barcelona,

you get to track which everyone knows,

and then you've got a very interesting read

on where everything is aerodynamically, to be honest.

But, you know, the standard track scenes

and now it's quite short,

you know, that everything has been added

has been a bit different.

You know, you can look at the standard tracks

and, you know, there's 24 races,

and if we ran all 24, then probably you'd say 11,

11 or 12 are standard and 11 or 12 are outliers,

which isn't my definition of an outlier, but there we go.

Final question, folks.

I know you've got to jump on a plane.

I'm just looking at the time.

25 past eight here, in fact, just after that.

So, what is going to be the big nonsense story then

before we get to Miami?

Because they'll have to fill some headline somewhere.

It's just going to be about Max Verstappens.

Will he want you to retire?

Will he want you to get taken to the Spartacals?

Will he want you to stop moaning, really?

And that's it.

Yeah, that's the only story there is at the moment

because nothing else they'll know until the car's at the ground.

That's Nick Damon joining us on his way to Dubai.

Thank you, Nick.

He's on Karting Live TV with Job Bradley this weekend,

Alain on Saturday and Sunday,

and then I'll see him next weekend

as well when everything is happening

in the world of motorsport with RSL.

So, you can watch all of that.

Great little circuit.

Nick, travel well.

Thank you very much indeed.

Nick Damon joining us live from Heathrow Airport.

Yes, really, here on Midweek Motorsport,

Series 21, Episode 13.

Now, ah, yes, that music means it's time

for Peter Mackay and his rally report.

Welcome to this week's edition of Rally Report here

on Midweek Motorsport with me, Peter Mackay,

and I am so excited because next week,

finally, we get started

with the 2026 European Rally Championship season.

The regular risk listeners to Rally Report

will know that the European Rally Championship,

particularly, is very, very close to my heart.

I've had the great joy of working on the championship

since it changed promoter in 2022

and it's been broadcast on Rally TV ever since.

And my role as part of the championship

is to be there at the stage end,

interviewing the drivers

right after they've gone over the finish line.

And I've been so lucky to share moments

of great triumph, of despair, of achievement,

and joy, all in equal measure at the stop line.

And it really is one of the great privileges

to get to do that.

So in this rally report,

I'm going to take you through what we can expect

in the 2026 season

and if you're new to the European Rally Championship,

tell you a little bit about what it's all about.

So let's start there.

What is the European Rally Championship,

or ERC, as it's abbreviated to?

Well, in 2026, it will consist of seven

of Europe's most exciting rallies,

five of which will be on tarmac

and two of which will be on gravel.

We would have had a third on gravel

making up eight events,

but unfortunately rally Hungary had to be cancelled

for reasons outwith of the control of the championship.

And what really typifies the European Rally Championship

is the really intoxicating combination

of young up-and-coming drivers

trying to make their way through to the WRC.

So fans of the World Rally Championship

will know John Armstrong who drives

for M Sport Ford,

Martin Sesks who also appears for M Sport Ford,

Josh McIllain.

These are all drivers who have come through the ERC.

Oliver Solberg had a period in the ERC,

so did Callie Rovin-Perra and many, many others.

It's a proven place to really cut your teeth

and to show what you're capable of

and hopefully make it up to the very highest level

into the World Rally Championship.

But also, you have experienced hands

who've maybe had a time in the World Rally Championship

and for various reasons are looking to change

the way they go rallying

and have set up programs to go and compete

in the European Championship.

Most effectively recently

was when Hayden Padden set up a program with Hyundai

and the BRC Racing Team

and won two European titles

in seriously convincing fashion.

So you sometimes see drivers like that

who have had their success in the past

and have come in to go and try

and win some more silverware.

And then, as if that wasn't enough,

you mix in local heroes

who may have a very specific skill

or a specific knowledge of a particular event.

So, for example, when we go to the Czech Republic

in Barham Rally,

the local drivers are very, very hard to beat

with the knowledge that they have of the stage.

So that's the mix of what you'll get

in the European Championship

and it makes it such a diverse

and interesting story

to follow throughout the year.

But in 2026, who are the drivers

that we expect to line up

for the full season and fight for the title?

Well, the best place to start, of course,

is our defending champion, Miko Marcik,

who last year made a breakthrough

and finally got that European title,

which he's worked very hard

and worked for many, many years

in the European Championship to get to.

Last year, he wasn't necessarily

the quickest driver in the field.

He, you know, his rivals in the Championship title,

Andrea Mabellini and John Armstrong

had more stage wins,

more power stage points, etc.

But it was the podiums

that brought Miko Marcik his title.

Five out of eight podiums

and good results when he wasn't on the podium as well.

That was what got him that crown last year.

It went right down to the wire

but a very strong performance

in the wet on the last day

in Croatia managed to get him that crown.

He returns very much as the continuity candidate.

He's got the same co-driver

in Szymon Gospodarczyk,

over 100 events they've done together.

He returns in his Skoda Fabia RS Rally 2

for the fourth season in a row

and he's competing with the same team,

with Top Cars Rally Team.

That whole combination

could be a key to him defending his title in 2026

and of course returning to several events

that he's done many times before now.

So for Miko Marcik,

everything is going to be pretty much the same

as where he left it

when he came away with the title

from Zagreb at the end of the season last year.

In contrast,

his rival last year throughout the year,

Andrea Mabellini,

most of it is new for him.

Now in terms of co-driving,

as always,

Andrea returns with his co-driver,

Virginia Lindsey,

who's also his partner in life as well.

They're a wonderful couple of people

and they will come very much determined

to get that title in 2026.

They came so close last year

and very, very easily could have won the title.

Little bits and pieces of bad luck

that didn't go their way.

They are determined to return

and take that crown for the very first time.

And also,

they will be doubly determined to do so

because they carry very much national pride

with them this year

because they will be in a Lancia.

And that is a huge story

for the European Rally Championship

with the Lancia brand,

which is of course an iconic rallying brand

returning after a very,

nearly a quarter of a century away

from the European Rally Championship.

So Andrea Mabellini will return

with, of course, an Italian car

and an Italian co-driver.

A few new things in the package there,

a new team to work with.

Of course, new car.

He was in Escoda last year,

but Mabellini, he is super quick,

particularly on tarmac

and proved last year

to be one of the very fastest drivers

anywhere in the championship.

So those are the two returning stars

who were up in the fight last year.

And then we introduce a new character

into the story.

Hayden Padden,

he won his two European titles

and is focusing on other things

and this year, of course,

competing back in the World Rally Championship again.

But that doesn't mean we're starved

of a WRC star

in the 2026 series

because quite a surprise

to us all in the service park,

Temu Suninen,

the rapid finish driver

has announced a full season program

with Scoda and with the racing factory.

And with Temu Suninen,

he has only competed

in one ERC rally before.

That was in Estonia in 2015,

but he has got a new co-driver

in Antihapala

and a new car

in the Scodafabia RS Rally 2.

And his tarmac experience

over the last little while

and of course, tarmac

in the ERC is so important

with five out of the seven events this year

going to be held on tarmac,

your tarmac pace

is vitally important.

He's only done,

he's done less than 10 tarmac rallies

since COVID basically

in the last six or seven years.

So there's a lot

of question marks of his pace

on tarmac,

on gravel.

I think he's going to be very,

very hard to beat

particularly

with the two gravel events

that we have

in Royal Rally of Scandinavia,

which is super quick

and the North Portugal rally

or Faf rally

at the end of the season,

the rally that he knows really,

really well.

I think it's fantastic.

It's a great stamp

of the quality

and the expectation

of what is now

the European Rally Championship

and what we come to see

in that series.

It was really, really impressive

and can't wait to get chatting to Teemu

at the stop line.

But then we have

a new raft

of young drivers

coming into the championship.

Isaac Rearson has been

to the European championship

a few times on gravel events,

but this year

he's been able to put a program

together

to go and compete

in the full championship season,

which is great.

A really, really nice young guy

grew up with Oliver Solberg

and he proved

on both gravel events

that he competed on last year

that he is

really the real deal on that surface.

His tarmac pace is

yet to be proven,

but we'll see

how that goes.

Great to see him in

for a full season.

Reigning British Rally Champion

Brooke Will Crichton

who competed in the Toyota

with Melvin Evans Motorsport last year,

he has switched across to

a Citroen C3 Rally 2

for a full campaign

in the European Rally Championship.

Now,

he won't be in a Citroen

for the full season.

He's hoping

that come Rome

he will be switching from the Citroen

to the new Lancia Y Rally 2

which is tipped to be a very strong car

indeed,

particularly

on tarmac surface.

Will's a really strong driver.

He's won the Junior World Rally Championship

in the past

and is starting to build up

really strong Rally 2 car experience now.

He's a wild card

in the pack.

Watch out for him

over the course

of the season.

We have so many other drivers

returning to the European Rally Championship this year,

some for more limited programmes.

For example,

we've got Jandemenico Basso,

multiple champion in the ERC

before he's going to be returning

for a few events

and will be there on the start line

at Sierra Morena.

We often see this

where drivers might announce

a guaranteed three or four event programme

but if it goes well,

they may increase that to a full season.

We've got the young,

promising poll

in Jakob Matulka,

won the Polish Championship last year,

stepping up.

Dominik Strutecki,

returning after a difficult 2025

but super, super quick,

particularly on tarmac,

he'll be there.

Also, our reigning

junior European Rally Champion,

Kali Kalberg,

who started off

his World Junior Championship

in great form

with a win in Sweden.

He's stepping up

to the Rally 2 level as well.

In total,

in the top category,

we have 31 cars.

Quite a remarkable effort

from all concerned

to get so many drivers in there.

A big, big effort

and going to be great to see

who comes out on top.

Now, rallies,

this is,

if the drivers are special,

the events aren't equally so.

This is what makes

the European Rally Championship

just so special.

We start off

on the rapid Spanish tarmac

of Sierra Morena,

which is a really nice blend

of a little bit of Catalonia style,

quite wide roads in places,

a little bit of positive camber

in a lot of the corners.

But then you get more

of a kind of Eastern European style

where you get a lot more cutting

on the road,

which is quite unusual in Spain,

but you get a lot of dirt

coming onto the road in places.

Some very fast stages,

some over 120 kilometers

on our average speed,

which is very, very quick

on tarmac

with a raft of local Spanish drivers

who will be very, very strong

and know the roads better

than the established

European Championship regulars,

just situated just outside

the town of Córdoba

in the rolling hillsides.

It's absolutely glorious

and fingers crossed

we're going to get some typical

Andalusian weather

when we go there.

Then for round two,

switching from tarmac

to gravel,

the Royal Rally of Scandinavia.

Many of these roads

used to be used on Rally Sweden

in the winter time.

They're the exact same road,

so everybody knows Collins Crest

and everyone jumping

through the snow

in between the trees there.

Those same stages are used,

albeit just in the summertime,

so it's just pure gravel

and the quality

of the road surface

on these events.

Oh my goodness.

That Royal Rally of Scandinavia,

we see some of the highest

average speeds

of any stage

all season long.

Big jumps,

big speeds,

trees lining the side of the stage

requires big commitment

and the Scandinavian drivers

are really hard to beat

at that particular event.

Then we switch back on to tarmac

for round three

with the return

of Rally Silesia in Poland

just outside Krakow.

Really cool rally actually.

Remember we used this event

finish the season

in 2024

and it's kind of like

an Ypres Rally style.

Quite a lot of square junctions,

quite flat in its character

but you need a car

that can ride the bumps quite well

but also a car that's got

good traction and torque

coming out of slow corners.

It's a really cool event.

One by Andrea Mabalini

in mixed conditions

a couple of years ago.

It took last year off

and is back in the championship

for this year.

Always good fun.

Then I have to say

I have to be biased.

My favourite event

in the whole of the year

the Barum Czech Rally Zlin.

An event that's been

going continuously

since the late 1970s

and it's gone all the way through.

It's been part of the European

Championship since the 80s

and it's gone all the way through

only missed one year

and that was the Covid pandemic year.

It's for me the fiercest

tarmac rally in the world.

There is nothing like it.

It's so quick,

so bumpy.

The weather is often changeable.

If you make a mistake

the consequences are big.

The local drivers are

almost impossible to beat.

It's very, very rare

to see a non-local driver.

When it's happened only a few

times in the last 20 or 30 years.

If you can go to Barum

and beat the locals

you can do pretty much anything

on tarmac.

It is as special as it gets.

It's raw, it's edgy,

it's one that you cannot miss.

Then we go to Wales.

So we have an international event

coming next year

for WRC Scotland

which is fantastic

but we have the European Championship

coming to Wales

for the third year in a row

for what is one of the best

tarmac events anywhere around.

Always the organisers

come up with new stage routes

to keep the drivers guessing

and last year

had the great joy of switching

from my stage end position

to the commentary position for that

and absolutely loved it.

So John Armstrong

take his first win in the ERC

and six months later

he was on the start line

in WRC

in Raleigh, Monte Carlo.

So it's one that is close to my heart.

So the run through summer

between Barum and Ceredicchi

and very, very cool.

And then we close off the season

in one of the rallying heartlands

of Europe

in Faf in Portugal.

Everyone knows the Faf jump

all of the stages around there.

Faf, Viera D'Aminio, etc.

Really, really cool.

That will be a rally

where the drivers with WRC2 experience

or even WRC experience from the past

will really have an advantage

because they've known those roads

in the past.

And finally

the cars

in the top category

it's the Raleigh 2 car

which you'll see in WRC2

if you watch WRC

four-wheel drive

nearly 300 horsepower

and capable on certain stages

of doing 130 kilometers an hour

average speed on a fast tarmac stage

on a really fast tarmac stage

and on a fast gravel stage

like a non-employer in Finland

135 kilometers an hour average speed.

So if anyone tells you

Raleigh 2s they're not that fast

believe me

they are really, really quick.

Not quite as quick as a WRC Raleigh 1 car

but cost-wise

there is quite a difference between them.

You've got the established player

Skoda

very, very successful

in the European Raleigh Championship

in many national events

good on both surfaces

quick as quick on gravel

as it is on tarmac.

The Citroens have proven

to be very, very strong on tarmac

maybe not quite as much on gravel.

The new Toyota

or it's now in its

this will be its third season now

the Toyota Yaris Raleigh 2

has proven itself

many, many times on gravel

in ERC

but is yet to win

on tarmac in ERC.

Then we might see one or two Ford

Fiesta Raleigh 2s

and Hyundai i20 Raleigh 2s

in there as well

but they're becoming less popular

very much

between the Skodas

and the well

Toyota's particularly

and then of course

as I mentioned

the return of Lancia

with their Y Raleigh 2

HF Integralei

how cool is that to say

Integralei back again

in rallying.

That's a quick synopsis

of what to expect

for the European Raleigh Championship

in 2026.

If you're in the UK

you can tune in on

well if anywhere in the world

you can tune in on rally.tv

get yourself a subscription

you get all of the World Raleigh Championship

and European Raleigh Championship coverage

every minute of every stage

all year round

so if you're a rally fan

that's the ultimate experience

if you're in the UK

for the European Raleigh Championship

there is a highlight program

at the end of every event

on TNT Sports

and some of the rallies

TNT Sports will pick up

the power stage as well

they normally do that

on Raleigh Carradiggian

but to get the full experience

and to watch the season

all the way through

you can get that on Raleigh TV

and I'll be myself

Haley Edmonds

Vex Williams

Julian Porter

Holly McCray

the whole team

will be there

throughout the season

to show you the action

and of course

we'll report back

on all my findings

here on Midweek Motorsport Raleigh Report

I thought we'd give you

a little bit more of propaganda tonight

as you all seem to love it

Chris Suku

among those of you

who seem to like that piece of music

as much as Peter's excellent rally report

Midweek Motorsport s21 e13

About this episode

Ford Gt

Golf Gtd

Ford Mustang

Chevrolet Corvette

Lancia Flavia

Fabia Skoda Fabia

Citroen C3

Seat Cordoba

Chevrolet Monte Carlo

Toyota Yaris

Ford Fiesta

Hyundai i20

Cupra Born

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