GETTING BACK TO THE RACING
While the off-season seems to be shrinking due to F1’s habit of racing deep into December, the hunger for this year’s Formula 1 battle is higher than ever. The conclusion to 2021 is fresh in the memory and the TV audience has never been higher. What grand prix racing needs now is a gloves-off season where what happens on the race track is the only arbiter of the result at the end of the year. The rancour of 2021 needs to be firmly put to bed and the sport, not the backbiting, needs to take centre stage.
Lewis Hamilton is urging caution over the pace of his Mercedes, while World champion Max Verstappen says he can push his
Red Bull even further despite topping the pre-season testing timesheets in Bahrain last week. Hamilton has been here before, telling the wider world that the Mercedes is likely to struggle and then going on to scoop the opener, so all bets are off.
As well as the top two teams, there are some encouraging noises from Ferrari and McLaren too. The truth will only become apparent on Sunday afternoon but we can only hope that Formula 1 has a season to remember for the right reasons, rather than the reasons that clouded the end of the 2021 battle.
There were clouds hanging over the 1982 season too. It was a year like no other in grand prix racing with no driver winning more than twice over the 16-race schedule. Fan favourite Gilles Villeneuve was killed at Zolder, as was young Osella driver Riccardo Paletti in Canada, Didier Pironi was cut down on the cusp of a title challenge and Keke Rosberg claimed a gutsy crown in a normally aspirated Williams against all the turbocharged machines. Our columnist-at-large David Addison takes a forensic look at the year that packed a decade’s drama into just eight months.
TV sports broadcaster Steve Rider knows all about the dramas that exist in front-line sport. For so long, he has been the face and the voice of motorsport, beaming into people’s living rooms every other Sunday to bring its latest instalment. Although he is too humble to admit it, Rider had significant influence to help bring the British Touring Car Championship into the television spotlight in the 1980s, which helped created the UK motorsport juggernaut it has become today.
We have reports from the latest round of the MN Circuit Rally Championship from Donington Park, the BTRDA curtain-raiser and the first national race meeting of the year at Silverstone.
Also don’t forget to help Motorsport News determine its favourite rally car. The shortlist and the details of how to make your voice heard are on page 34.