Reigning Formula One world champions Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes have agreed to expand their joint commitment to improving the representation of minority ethnic groups in UK motorsport.
This expanded commitment is due to take the form of a joint charitable foundation, which is designed to support wider diversity in motorsport and nurture talent that would otherwise be overlooked.
Last June, in partnership with Royal Academy of Engineering, Hamilton, with Mercedes, launched The Hamilton Commission – a standalone piece of research designed to identify and improve the representation and progression of black and other minority groups in UK motorsport, while also providing actionable recommendations to overcome barriers to entry in the STEM sector.
Speaking of the expanding partnership, Hamilton commented, “I’m equally determined to continue the journey we started to make motorsport more diverse for future generations and I am grateful that Mercedes has been extremely supportive of my call to address this issue. I’m proud to say we are taking that effort further this year by launching a foundation dedicated to diversity and inclusion in the sport. I am inspired by all that we can build together and can’t wait to get back on the track in March.”
Toto Wolff, CEO and Team Principal of the Mercedes F1 team, chimed in, noting that this was the right time to “begin a longer-term project to take the next step in our shared commitment to greater diversity within our sport.”
Mercedes’ Non-Executive Chairman, Markus Schäfer, added that, “Lewis is a warm-hearted personality who cares deeply about the world around him and wants to make an impact. As a company, Mercedes-Benz shares this sense of responsibility and is proud to commit to a new, joint foundation to improve diversity in motorsport. Opening the sport to under-represented groups will be important for its development in the future and we’re determined to make a positive impact.”
As as aside, it was also revealed that Hamilton has signed a one-year extension with Mercedes, as he looks to claim an eighth Formula One title – an achievement that would take him beyond the seven won by Michael Schumacher between 1994 and 2004.
January is both an interesting and infuriating time to be a motorsport writer. On one hand, the lack of action and the continued slow drip feed on news means there is often precious little to report or discuss.
It goes some way to understanding why so many publications publish retrospective copy, list-articles, predictive pieces and “what if” speculative drivel. It is what it is, and eyeballs are needed, so why the hell not?
Truth be told, unless you bathe in the sea of rallying and ultra-hardcore endurance racing, January represents a month where there is precious little news to get too terribly excited about. For most championships, teams at this time are busy building the stories and timelines that are soon to come, particularly for the livery launches.
That’s not to say there is nothing to report, but rather the morsels of news that do appear are often not very interesting. In essence, January announcements are the kind of things that could often be covered in single paragraphs. It’s easy: headline – breif opening paragraph – a four-line story. Ta-dah!
I jest of course. Slightly.
Of course, the cleverer sources will occasionally drop a positive major story in this period of relative quiet, as one may be guaranteed plenty of extended coverage. The announcement of Davide Brivio’s move from the Suzuki MotoGP team to become Racing director of the recently renamed Alpine F1 squad to replace Cyril Abiteboul raised some eyebrows.
And yet, Abiteboul’s move to become Head of Car Performance with the Alpine brand – alongside his role as his Team Principal position – sent signals that maybe his long-term path lay in the grander corporate machinations of Alpine. What really surprised was the news of Abiteboul leaving the manufacturer altogether, with Laurent Rossi slotting into what was due to be Abiteboul’s position.
This was a story that got the column inches it deserved.
Naturally, January is also the month where you really don’t want negative headlines to emerge for precisely the same reason as above; with no other stories to detract, bad tales linger like bad smells.
But not every bad story is a negative one. The postponement of the Australian and Chinese Grands Prix were unfortunate, but given the sprawling COVID-19 pandemic, these postponements can be forgiven with relative ease. After all, in days like these, it is better to tiptoe with caution than it is to stumble haphazardly over a cliff.
If one wants an example of a negative story, one only needs to look to the embarrassing tales emerging from the Australian Open tennis tournament, as players and their partners openly lament the nature of their lockdown on social media channels.
It showed a relatively small percentage of players and entourage behaving and complaining like spoilt brats from the verandas of a five-star hotel. Whether one agrees with the players or not, it was a bad look and utterly misjudged the tone of the situation in the State of Victoria.
Had I been the Head of Communications of the Australian Open, it is likely that my hair would have been ripped out in frustration, although it entirely plausible that I may have become Malcolm Tucker to their Ben Swain or Nicola Murray.
The tournament has not yet begun, and the news is all negative. This could have been the time where the ATP and WTA delivered a feast of enjoyment and hope; where positivity could have been matched by charitable tokens at a time when people are living through an incredibly difficult and tragic time. Instead, the tournament has only dumped self-entitled faeces on the mat. Well done. People tend not to like that.
Thankfully Formula One has not yet dropped a giant news turd, but there is always time. Trust me, there is always time.
Conor Daly has spent much of his Indycar career securing temporary drives and moving from team-to-team where needs met.
World in Motorsport spoke with Daly during a fast-paced season that saw him switch back-and-forth between two squads, secure his first Indycar pole and several top ten’s in his first full season in the sport since 2017.
Inconsistent. If there was one word to describe the nature of Conor Daly’s career up until now, it might probably be inconsistent.
That’s not a criticism of his performances, but rather an acknowledgement of the path his racing career has taken so far.
“It’s crazy man, crazy. It’s tough, because I’ve never had the luxury of controlling my own destiny,” admits Daly. It is not a subject that the 28-year-old shies away from, but where the younger Daly may have allowed frustrated to overcome him, the current, more mature man is rather phlegmatic and is better for it. “Some drivers, when they have sponsorship support, they can control their own destinies and they know what they have got and where they can go with that. I haven’t really had that luxury ever.”
Making his Indycar series debut back in 2013, while simultaneously competing in the GP3 Series, Daly has never truly enjoyed the stable environment necessary to allow his career to flourish.
He stayed in Europe the following year, but a disastrous campaign with the woefully underfunded and underprepared Venezuela GP Lazarus team finally ended his Formula One ambition and Daly returned to the US in 2015. In that time, he has driven for seven teams, including two separate stints with AJ Foyt Racing, Dale Coyne Racing and Schmidt Peterson Motorsport respectively.
Such is the epileptic nature of Daly’s Indycar career, the Indianapolis native has only twice enjoyed full-season agreements (2016 with Dale Coyne and 2017 with Foyt). “It’s definitely tough to make sure you are absolutely performing at your highest level in times where you might know two days before you get into a car that you are going to race it, but that’s sort of what I ended up getting used to and that’s how I’ve lived my life over the last few years.”
He has also taken in stints at Harding Racing, Andretti Autosport and latterly Carlin Motorsport and Ed Carpenter Racing, with confirmation of some of the drives have come at very short notice; however, he does take some positives from his experience so far. “It feels like it’s helped me get up to speed quicker. I’ll be able to use some of what I’ve learned over the past couple of years and hopefully be full-time for a long time to come.”
Daly’s part-time relationship with Carlin began in 2019, when the team’s eponymous owner asked the American to fill in for Max Chilton when it came to the series’ oval races, with the latter having stepped away, but Daly is keen to emphasise that a large dose of luck played into his hands. “Last year only having the Indy 500 on my schedule, Trevor Carlin had made me aware, even before the Indy 500, that Max Chilton might not be interested in competing on the ovals anymore.” A free agent, Daly stepped into Chilton’s vacant seat, securing a best finish of 6th at Gateway.
There is a previous relationship between driver and team, with Daly having raced for Carlin in GP3 in 2011. The respect between them is clear cut, with Daly praising the Englishman and his team. “I really like Trevor, he is a great team owner, they’ve got a great team there.”
Despite the uncertainty that has followed his path, Daly has latterly found consistency on the sponsorship side of his career, particularly with US Airforce – a partnership which is now in its third season. “Every year, it’s been a bigger investment into the series, the sport and myself, so the numbers they’re getting out of it when it comes to return [on investment] is good.” Although this partnership is proving fruitful for all parties, growing it beyond its present is a difficult task given the current economic climate at a time when motorsport is far from being a primary sport in the United States.
Daly concedes that the biggest challenge is to get people who don’t know enough about racing to really take it seriously. “[Its about getting] around that first wall of, ‘Well, this racing, it’s good, but we’ve got an NBA team, or NFL team, we’re fine.’” Although confirming that the series still lacks mainstream awareness and appeal, Daly sounds confident, telling World in Motorsport that the key is about, “trying to figure out what [partners] want and what they need.”
There is little doubt that the reunification of the Indycar Series in 2008 has helped the cause for drivers and teams a great deal. With a sense of balance and certainty, confidence has returned to the series, although audience attention for Indycar is a long way from its peak during the CART days of the early-90s. “The best part about Indycar right now is the product is not the problem. We know that we put on a great show. We need to make sure that more people are aware that Indycar is happening and that it is a great product. The series has done a great job formatting the rules, formatting the aerodynamic rules and how the cars work to make that a great product,” enthuses Daly.
Indycar is still far from the peak it enjoyed in the early-90s, and although Daly had some sponsorship to play with over the 2019/2020 winter, he knew he was still somewhat short on backing to fulfil a full season schedule.
Following discussions with Carpenter Racing, the 28-year-old signed with Indiana-based team to compete on the series’ road and street courses, while the team boss took the seat for the six oval events. “Ed [Carpenter] had an idea of what he wanted to do and what he needed and the US Air Force fitted in perfectly with his number 20 car for the road and street courses and a third car for the Indy 500, so I found myself saying, ‘Alright, you know what, this is going to be great. This is going to be the majority of the season – it’s not the full season, but it’s going to be with a great team.”
However, as the beginning of the season drew in, Daly once again received a request from Carlin to fill in on the ovals, bringing a potentially awkward situation to the fore. Thankfully, it was a situation solved with relative ease. “I talked to Ed about it and said, ‘Hey look, this is an awkward conversation to have. I know driving for two teams in one season is not ideal’, but Ed was cool with it. Ed knows that I want to compete for Indycar championships, I want to compete every weekend, every day on track, I want to be there, and it just worked out perfectly. I’ve got to thank Trevor and Ed for letting me do that and the teams have been really nice.” While some would consider it a distraction, Daly does consider it an advantage to work with two teams simultaneously, learning from each entity with every event.
For Daly right now, he is clearly enjoying his current Indycar stint in the series. “I really enjoy what Indycar is doing and I hope as we continue here and get out of this pandemic, we will continue to expand the schedule and continue to get to new tracks and new places and hopefully some new countries as well and see what happens as we keep going.”
The work for 2021 started long ago, and Daly will be hoping to build on his 2020 season with another full campaign – whether that will be with one team or two remains to be seen.
For the full version of this discussion with Romain Grosjean, as well as conversations with Rubens Barrichello, Conor Daly and WRC’s Richard Millener, Yves Matton, Andrea Adamo and Colin Clark, check back for the next issue of World in Motorsport – coming soon.
George Russell may not have won the Sakhir Grand Prix on Sunday, but his efforts in replacing Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes may have formerly confirmed his potential.
It may have also gone a great distance to settling his driver from 2022 onward.
“Very quick, very tidy. Great potential.” As the 2015 European Formula 3 season got underway, that was my quick assessment of a then 17-year-old George Russell – before taking a race win in his first weekend in the category.
Admittedly, it was something of a false dawn {note 1}, but the potential was clear and following stints in GP3 and Formula 2, there was no surprise to see the Mercedes junior promoted to a Williams F1 seat last year.
So far in his F1 career, Russell has had two comparatively weak teammates in Robert Kubica and Nicholas Latifi, but his performances in the difficult FW42 and FW43 cars have been startling, but as with all great talents, a single turn was needed to genuinely propel Russell to the top.
It is genuinely unfortunate that Mercedes team leader Lewis Hamilton fell afoul of Coronavirus, but with the champion sidelined, the German squad offered Russell a significant opportunity that only a fool or the meek conservative would have turned down.
He displayed some potential during Friday’s free practice sessions, before Max Verstappen’s Red Bull briefly assumed the top spot at the close of FP3 and while Valtteri Bottas may have secured pole position in the second Mercedes, Russell’s charge to the lead at the race start not only signalled his intent for the Grand Prix, but also for 2022. That he brilliantly repeated that feat during a late race restart merely cemented his intentions.
What an incredible shame it was that a late race puncture stole the race victory from his grasp. Come the end of 87 laps, a recovery to 9th place would secure Russell’s first ever points in Formula One, but it was not the 25 he so dearly desired.
But tongues are now wagging. Mercedes are looking at a future beyond Hamilton and that future is not Bottas. For all his worth, Bottas’ reputation in recent seasons has been downgraded and where once it was believed he may push Hamilton very hard – and at times he has – Hamilton has merely extended himself further still, ensuring Bottas’ inter-team successes are rare.
As needs must, Russell must wait. Bottas signed on for 2021 several months back and while negotiations with Hamilton are still ongoing, the seven-time champion isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.
So – unless there is some additional drama in the next few days – Russell will return to Williams and to the less stable FW43 machine and he will once again beat Latifi into submission.
Russell’s stock has raised significantly now and should another year with Williams be the price to pay for a top Mercedes seat in 2022, then it is critical that those around him work hard to keep his head in check and cap any frustrations that may inevitably come to the fore. From here on in, Russell’s biggest battle may be with himself.
{note 1}
Russell finished 6th in the standings in 2015 but did not manage to win again that season.
Of the drivers competing at this weekend’s Portuguese Grand Prix, Lance Stroll, Antonio Giovinazzi, Charles Leclerc, George Russell and Alex Albon all raced there in F3 in early September 2015.
Yet despite the nods to it in various record books and websites, none of the above group managed to race on the Grand Prix layout that weekend in what proved an embarrassing solution to a solvable problem.
Nothing quite raises eyebrows like a mid-week announcement following the first day of a Formula 3 test session, mainly because there generally shouldn’t be one at all.
Indeed, the idea of any news at all emerging from testing is a novel one. Those reports are primarily reserved for the unusual or severe or in the case of Formula One, the need to rummage 500 words together from the pit of nothing.
This was slightly different. In 2015, a round of the European F3 Championship had to rescheduled and a new date was offered to the Algarve Circuit in Portimão.
A wonderful flowing track on the southern tip of Portugal, Portimão is something of a modern wonder – a 21st Century circuit layout that is interesting, challenging and often delivers some wonderful action.
As the track was a late addition to the calendar, the field was gifted an extra two test days in the week leading up to the event to enable drivers to gain further mileage prior to the beginning of the meeting.
However, the circuit provided a challenge that the assembled drivers failed to meet – the field could not keep to the track limits, particularly in the short chute that extends between the double right-handers from the exit of turn one at Primeira and the nameless turn two.
By not even coming close to properly using or respecting the track, the drivers achieved some extra speed into the flick that is turn three (Lagos).
So, rather than drive home the serious nature of managing track limits, the Clerk of the Course decided to utilise an alternative layout for just F3 that weekend. Instead of longer run into turn one, the first turn was introduced a couple of hundred metres earlier, leading to a double chicane in the form of a quick right-left-right, before drivers came to turn three.
Alas, the pro-am GT field from the (then) Blancpain Sprint Series managed the original layout perfectly well, so they decided to keep using it. However, that required the first corner to be altered between every session, as corner boards were moved and later moved back, plastic bollards were placed to remind the F3 competitors of an upcoming corner, before marshals settled at their new post {note 1}.
One wonders if it made any difference in the end. Following the 2nd race of the weekend, Prema Powerteam’s Jake Dennis informed me that following the layout change, track limits were then not going to be monitored on the exit of the new T1/2/3 Primeira chicane, thereby rendering the process an utterly pointless exercise.
The allowance offered some of the same additional pace that the original track cutting allowed, giving drivers an easier exit from Lagos toward the Torre Vip hairpin, before the switchback on the curved back straight.
Apart from the fact that F3 was/is a learning category, the changing of the layout to accommodate the competitors was an absolute cop-out and the only low during an eventful weekend. This was a solvable problem, but changing the layout to accommodate troubled young drivers set a very poor precedent.
{note 1}
It reached a special ridiculousness during the final race of the weekend when, following a botched overtaking move on Alessio Lorandi, Sam MacLeod decided upon an adventurous detour.
Going side-by-side into the new turn one, MacLeod – on the outside of corner entry – banged wheels with MacLeod, then decided to take the original turn one, but got that wrong and ran into several plastic bollards, dislodging a front wing suspension column in the process. Despite this, MacLeod kept his foot down through the original layout, overtook Lorandi on the now-disused section of circuit and decided to keep the position.
The moment prompted some criticism from me while on commentary duties, noting that MacLeod had got the corner utterly wrong, but had not even attempted to correct the error. It was a criticism that got me benched from commentating for the next race.
My thoughts and notes on the 3rd round of the 2020 Super Formula season from SUGO. Also some spiel about returning and departing drivers ahead of next month’s 4th round at Autopolis.
Sunday morning saw the Japanese Super Formula season finally begin.
Alas, as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to rumble on, there were no visits to the studio for the race – this was a home conversion.
And beyond some minor technical setbacks, it all worked out rather well.
In the end, the race was not the most exciting, but one can accept that in motorsport from time-to-time, just as long as you know how to fix it by taking the right steps.

For this show, it was important just to get on screen and get the race out to audiences everywhere and in that, it was a success.
Congratulations to The Race for their efforts and to Sam Collins for another excellent job in the commentary “box”.
There are still six more Super Formula rounds to go.
Let’s continue to nail it.
“Jesus Christ! What that f*** is that!?”
Or something to that effect.
Imola. Friday October 10th, 2014 and a colleague had sent a message urging me to come down to the far end of the paddock. Apparently, there was something that needed to be seen.
Things had quietened down somewhat. Having just finished – and enjoyed – lunch, there was more than enough time for a fifteen-minute stroll to walk off the local pasta and Ragú.
Situated toward the north-east of Italy, the province of Emilia-Romagna can be quite beautiful. By October, the height of the summer heat has dissipated, and the days are shorter, but the region still carries delightful wisps of warmth through the air. Having already taken in the Ayrton Senna memorial site, I started for the support paddock before too much of the day was lost.
In the background, the sombre quiet was punctured by the sound of gaggles of Formula 4 cars in circulation. From time-to-time, the driver’s lack of experience and skill overtook their speed and craft, with the resulting off necessitating brief red flags, during which the noise dissipated again, allowing the Santerno River to sing in ripples.
Being a relatively quiet weekend – European Formula 3 and Italian Formula 4 were supporting Italian GT – and as such, portions of the circuit’s extended paddock were rather empty.
There were scatterings of people around with pictures waiting to be signed. Only two months earlier Van Amersfoort Racing’s Max Verstappen had been announced as Toro Rosso’s 2015 signing, drawing the attention of a few autograph hunters, most of whom departed with a smile.
As well as that, Antonio Fuoco’s fan club arrived that weekend – a curiosity considering the Italian had shown precious little of his championship-winning Formula 4 form in the European Championship.
Unfortunately for Fuoco, the arrival of Verstappen and fellow rookie – and eventual European F3 champion – Esteban Ocon spooked him and apart from occasionally sharp performances, the results simply weren’t there. His inconsistency was carried into later formulae, ensuring Formula One was never going to be a realistic prospect.
There was another prospect at the far end of the paddock and as I crossed the tarmac, detoured around the helipad, a large, mundane grey monstrosity came into view.
“Jesus Christ! What that f*** is that!?” Or something to that effect.
Amidst the simpler awnings oft associated with Formula 4 was the Lance Stroll motorhome – a Formula One sized motorhome, planted at the base of the support paddock. The unpainted, decadent mammoth was a disconcerting statement of intent and a message that the Stroll’s meant serious business.
Having already secured the title, Stroll did not take part in the Italian F4 finale, citing an injury picked up during karting, however this was countered by acknowledgements that Stroll had already been testing a Formula 3 car with Prema Powerteam.
As he was not moving up to F3 until the next year, Stroll was not bound by Formula 3’s testing restrictions. The Canadian was far from alone in taking this option. It was an easy way to ensure a driver could get around the testing limitations. If a driver is not actively participating in Formula 3, then how can a testing restriction possibly be applied to that driver…?
“So, this is how it is now?”
Stroll’s arrival signposted not just his ambitions, but also his father’s. Lawrence may never have been a racing driver – although he has tried a competed in Ferrari Challenge occasionally – however he does have visions for Formula One. In 2018, he led a consortium that bought the Force India team and earlier this year, he led another consortium to invest a 16.7% in the struggling Aston Martin company. All this came after a huge spend in the junior categories.
In the space of a few short years, the goalposts had changed dramatically in Formula 3. Latifi money had come and gone – although that was less opulent – the Gelael funding was in the midst of being spread around everywhere and anywhere and soon, the Mazepin cash cow was being milked. And this is before one even begins to consider to endless flow of monies from the Norris’, the Russell’s, the Schumacher’s, the everyone else.
The denomination really didn’t matter, but it did much to drive costs higher and higher, although those taking the money were not ones to complain too much.
Stroll tested and tested and learned and spent much 2015 crashing very hard. When he won the European Championship the following season, a far more restrained Stroll enjoyed the spoils. The then teenager would regularly qualify up front, taking several wins and podiums with oft unchallenged ease, but when Stroll qualified poorly, he would often make little or no progress through a race.
There had been accusations of team orders during Stroll’s two years in Formula 3. With Stroll being the apparent number one driver at Prema Powerteam, there were curious moments when his teammates Maxi Gunther and Nick Cassidy would lift off in strange places or would leave the door wide open in convenient places.
This was not a popular subject, but it was one that simply never went away. Team orders in junior formulae is a tricky talking point – unlike in Formula One, junior categories are supposed to be every driver for themselves, with all entrants operating on an equal playing field. Alas, some drivers were more equal than others.
While he was winning in Formula 3, the preparation behind the scenes continued. Aided by then-Mercedes DTM racer Gary Paffett, Stroll regularly tested the 2014 Williams F1 car in anticipation of an F1 debut.
With all due respect to Stroll, he has carved out a position in Formula One as a driver who is not bad – especially on quicker circuits – but he is also not particularly stellar. Let’s not forget he is a driver who picked up a well-deserved podium at Baku in 2017 behind the wheel of a Williams. Put the Canadian in a car and on a track and give him a set of tasks and he will likely conclude them with relative success.
But actual racing – as in competing wheel-to-wheel with other drivers – has often been his weak point. Attempted overtakes rarely amount to much more than aimless ill-conceived lunges, and his defensive repertoire – often darting across the track – is unsightly and clumsy.
For the moment, he has a job and is hitting his marks and as long as his father is one of the shareholders of the Racing Point Formula One team, Stroll will most likely continue to achieve those aims. With Racing Point becoming Aston Martin F1 in 2021, it seems highly unlikely that the younger Stroll will be unseated and as rumours around Sebastian Vettel’s move to the Silverstone-based team continue to gather speed, Lawrence Stroll’s ambitions also gather pace.
Stroll – with the rest of the Formula One paddock – return to Imola at the end of October for F1’s first Grand Prix there since 2006. In its current layout, only Stroll, Latifi, Ocon and Verstappen, along with George Russell and Antonio Giovinazzi have experienced Imola but coming as it did in F3 and F4 machinery, none of that experience will of any particular relevance to the Grand Prix.
In saying that, for the build up to this race, simulators will be in heavy use, particularly as at this two-day event, there will only be a single ninety-minute practice session, so any knowledge is key knowledge.
Imola is a stunningly quick and evocative place and there is little doubt that Formula One will be quite special there. It is just a shame that for this occasion, I will not be in the paddock finishing a bowl of delightful pasta and eyeing up endless opulence.