TIN-TOP TRAIL
Andrew Jordan in the BTCC
2019: Andrew Jordan hits the ground running with a win at the opening meeting at Brands Hatch, but misses the three races at Donington Park due to a lap-one crash that injures him. Rebounds with six wins but misses out on the crown by two points 2018: Having found his feet at WSR, Jordan only takes one win at Knockhill but his consistent season means he finishes fifth in the points table
2017: A swap to WSR and into a rear-wheel-drive BMW 125i M Sport brings three wins and ninth in the points
2016: Moving to Motorbase Performance in a Ford Focus, Jordan has a struggle during the season. He wins twice, but has a fractious relationship with team-mate Mat Jackson. Lands up in eighth place in the table
2015: Jordan swaps to the works MG team, but has a tough year and is unable to return to the winner’s circle. He does take four second place finishes though, and ends up fifth in the points
2014: Defending the title in the Honda Civic Type R,
Jordan takes four wins before the midpoint of the campaign but a shunt in practice at Snetterton leaves him with concussion. It knocks the stuffing out of his campaign, and he finishes fifth in the points 2013: A title-winning season in the Honda Civic Type R. Jordan takes six wins, including his first double success at a sodden Rockingham to push him to the crown. Survives contact in the penultimate round at Brands to take the title 2012: The team swaps to the
Team Dynamics-built Honda Civic Type R. There is one win at Snetterton but he finishes fourth in the points overall 2011: Another season with the Vauxhall, Jordan is a much more consistent threat with seven podiums on his way to sixth in the points, and third in the Independents Trophy 2010: A return to the family-run team in a Pirteksupported Vauxhall Vectra and he becomes the first driver to win a BTCC race with the new TOCA BTCC bespoke engine when he prevails at Croft. He wins again before the end of the season to place 10th in the table
2009: A switch to the works Vauxhall team in a third car alongside Fabrizio Giovanardi and Matt Neal. He takes four podiums including three second places on his way to 10th in the standings
2008: Jordan joins the BTCC in a two-car team running Honda Integra Rs alongside his father Mike. The younger driver takes two podium finishes on his way to 13th in the points standings
Ferrari is making “quite significant changes” to its Formula 1 engine as well as adding “a lot more downforce” to its car for 2020, in its bid to topple Mercedes.
Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc won just three races between them in 2019 as
Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes swept to another title double, Mercedes’ sixth in a row.
F1’s four engine manufacturers have converged in the V6 turbohybrid era’s fifth season but despite aerodynamic and engine regulations remaining stable for 2020, Ferrari has opted for an overhaul because it believes there is more potential to exploit.
“We have changed, by quite a lot, our power unit, in terms of architecture, the cylinder,” said team principal Mattia Binotto.
“It’s quite a big review just to show that here again, there is much that can be done.
“The change we are looking for next year is quite significant changes on the engine itself.”
Though Ferrari established a heavily-scrutinised straightline speed advantage in 2019, it had a cornering deficiency that proved too costly at several races.
While its engine development will aim to keep, if not enhance, the power advantage Ferrari has established, addressing its downforce weakness is another key area that has been targeted for 2020.
“Our car next year is aiming for a lot more downforce by having more downforce, certainly more drag,” said Binotto.
“We are not expecting to be as far [ahead] on the straight as we have been. But you never know what the others are doing.
“The things that we learned, we recognise that we need to have certainly more downforce – as we saw at the end of the season, still there is a gap to close.
“So, our car is aiming for more downforce and by consequence, we are certainly working more on drag.”
Ferrari is in the process of finalising the design of its 2020 chassis, with Binotto saying there are “still a few sessions” to set the car’s specification for pre-season testing at Barcelona.
The team will launch its car on February 11, eight days before the first three-day test in Spain.
“We are going through all the homologations,” said Binotto. “We go through a crash test for homologation, but we are still developing at the windtunnel. Certainly, the concept has been defined.”
Hyundai driver Norbert Michelisz sealed the World Touring Car Cup title in the final race of the season at Sepang after rival Esteban Guerrieri dropped back with overheating issues. Michelisz finished fourth, having eased off when Guerrieri slowed after his Honda Civic Type R ingested grass while he defended the lead. Michelisz’s weekend had got off to a good start as he won the opening race, but Guerrieri then kept his title hopes alive by taking victory in race two… A new award for the Formula 2 rookie of the year has been named the Anthoine Hubert Award, and has been given to
Renault Formula 1 junior Guanyu Zhou. Zhou took five podiums and a surprise pole position at Silverstone, where he now holds the F2 lap record. The Chinese driver received the accolade at F2’s awards ceremony in Monaco, presented by Hubert’s brother Victhor… Twotime Le Mans 24 Hours winner Timo
Bernhard made the decision to retire from the cockpit and become a Porsche ambassador in order to concentrate on team ownership. Bernhard, whose new role was announced at the Porsche Night of Champions prize-giving earlier this month, says that the “timing is right” to shift his focus to Team 75 Bernhard… British GT outfit Balfe Motorsport scored a 1-2 finish in the GT4 class of the Gulf 12 Hours in Abu Dhabi last weekend, as Motogp legend Valentino Rossi finished on the outright podium. The two Mclaren 570S GT4S finished just 24 seconds apart at the finish, with 2004 SEAT Cupra Cup champion James Pickford joining Ollie Millroy, Nick Moss and Brendan Iribe in the winning car, which took the flag in 18th overall. British Touring
Car Championship race winner Josh Cook teamed up with Euan Hankey, Mia Flewitt and Issam Charrouf to finish second in class. The Attempto Racing Audi R8 GT3 driven by Christopher Mies, Dries Vanthoor and Rinat Salikhov took the outright victory, the first time an Audi has won the event after five straight successes for Ferrari… WRT Audi has announced former Indycar driver Ed Jones and EX-FIA Formula 3 driver Fabio Scherer for its 2020 DTM line-up, with no car for Haas Formula 1’s Pietro Fittipaldi. Jones has been testing for Audi in the DTM young drivers’ test at Jerez in a surprise addition to the line-up.