Hitech Grand Prix has been awarded a late entry to the 2020 Formula 2 season, adding the series to its growing junior formula portfolio.
Their entry, which comes with less than six weeks to go until pre-season testing in Bahrain in March, takes the 2020 F2 grid up to 11 teams. Hitech has not yet announced either of its drivers, although it is reportedly set to sign Nikita Mazepin alongside either Luca Ghiotto or Sergio Sette Camara.
Last year Hitech finished second in the FIA F3 teams’ championship with Juri Vips, Leo Pulcini and Ye Yifei. The team will return to the series this year, alongside the 2019–20 F3 Asian Championship.
2020 will be Hitech’s first appearance in F1’s feeder series since they partnered with Piquet Sports to enter the 2004 and 2005 GP2 seasons.
Carl Bingham, LAT Images / FIA F3 Championship
Hitech owner Oliver Oakes said: “Stepping up to F2 was always something we were aspiring towards, once we had established ourselves in the new era of Formula 3.
“With the new 18-inch rims coming to F2 in 2020 it made entering now much more necessary than at the end of 2020 where we would be a year behind the learning process.
“Of course, joining the grid this late means we are slightly up against it, but at Hitech we like a challenge! I believe in our group and I am really excited for the first event in March at Bahrain.”
F2 CEO Bruno Michel said that he is pleased to add a team of Hitech’s “prowess” to the grid, and added: “Hitech Grand Prix enjoyed a strong Formula 3 season in 2019 and I know that although they are joining late, they will be able to adapt quickly to Formula 2.”
Welcome to Part Two of my Interview with Rich Millener.
Warren
Let’s talk about Esapekka. Have you just signed him up on a one-year contract?
Rich
Yes, just one year at the moment, with the potential for further if we both agree, but it was a bit of a tough decision for him and tough decision to come with us, but a tough time for him. He found himself in Australia, finding he could be out of a job and it came to fruition. You’ve got to have four, five years of WRC at the top level to get your experience, and he’d just done that, had a tough season at Citroen and then it looked like it was all over, so luckily he found a way to come with us which is great and we really wanted him to have him on board and as I said we can prove a point and we can help him show his best and that’s the goal, we only chose him because we think he’s capable. If we didn’t think he was capable, we’d have stuck with Teemu and Gus, but he was there and we both agreed that we wanted to get him in the car and that’s happened, so yeah, we’re looking forward to it.
Warren
Teemu as well, a second consecutive year for him.
Rich
Yes, he did some really good performances last year, especially on tarmac, some really quite promising stage times, when you keep reminding yourself of his experience level, a couple of silly mistakes which he would be the first to admit to, which we want to try to get rid of. That really made his season, you know the history books say one thing, but we know the pace was good for the rest of it, and then a couple of problems from our side, and it was a bit of a mixed year. We want to try and take that away and go from there really.
Warren
Gus is doing a lot more rounds. He did Portugal, and then did a couple more because of Elfyn Evans’ situation.
Rich
Yes, going from three to nine is a big step, no R5 this year, so concentrating fully on WRC which is great, but it’s the biggest step he’ll make and it’s the top level and you’re in the limelight, and got all the pressure on you. He’ll want to prove himself, doesn’t want to be seen as someone who’s not capable of results. At the same time, it’s tough competing with those guys and he’ll have some good times and bad times. Our goal is to help him through it, he’s taking it incredibly seriously, to be fair to him. We mentioned to him in the middle of last year we thought he ought to get a bit more serious on a couple of issues, we said his personal fitness needs a bit of a look at and he’s dropped 21 kilos since Germany last year, which is incredible and that is dedication and for us to mention something like that and to go away and do what we’ve asked is great and shows his commitment to the project. It’s not just that, he’s upped all sorts in the background as well, and he’s really doing everything he can and it’s our responsibility and our job to do everything we can, and so we’re excited to see what he can achieve.
Warren
Finally, sum up Elfyn’s year. Came close to that win, had the problem in Estonia, missed three rounds.
Rich
He had a strong year, considering how many events he did, and he finished equal fourth in the championship and missed five rallies effectively. Two through retirement and three because of the injury, so if you think he hasn’t scored on five rallies and still fourth he’s done right in between and we knew that kind of performance would eventually get him a drive somewhere else. As much as we’re all disappointed, that he’s gone, we’re also happy that he got the opportunity to go show that he’s got the speed with another manufacturer, because you run the risk that people think he’s only ever going to stay at M-Sport and now he’s got his opportunity to show what he can do. It’s going to be hard for him, he’s got to prove it now over the next two years, but he’s capable, so we wish him the best of luck.
F1 pundit Karun Chandhok believes F2-style reverse-grind sprint races on Saturday afternoons would be a beneficial change to the current Grand Prix weekend format.
Sprint races, either as standalone races or in place of qualifying to set the Grand Prix grid, were mooted as potential ideas for F1’s 2021 overhaul, but were ultimately rejected by teams last year.
Despite this pushback Chandhok still believes sprint races could improve F1, although only if they are introduced as an F2-style secondary race and not as an alternative qualifying format.
McLaren Racing
Speaking to ThePitCrewOnline about his ideal Grand Prix weekend, Chandhok said: “You’d have a Saturday morning qualifying with the same format that we have now. I think qualifying is one of the most exciting things we have in the [current] format, it really works with three segments. So I’d have that on Saturday morning, and that would be the grid for the Grand Prix.
“But on Saturday afternoon I’d have a 45-minute sprint race with the top 10 [from qualifying] reversed, with half points because it’s half the distance.
“And you don’t do it at every race. For example, you wouldn’t do it at Monaco where overtaking’s impossible. I would take eight races in the year, or half the races in the year, and do that on a Saturday afternoon.”
Chandhok said that awarding points for the sprint race was essential, as that would incentivise drivers to race their way through the pack and teams to set up the cars for overtaking rather than peak qualifying pace. He also said he believes his version of a sprint race would help bring in new and younger fans, while not upsetting F1 traditionalists as the races aren’t being used to set the grid for Sunday’s Grand Prix.
In addition to a Saturday afternoon sprint race, Chandhok said that his idea of the F1 weekend would see FP3 dropped to make way for the sprint race, and include a requirement for all teams to run at least one young driver in every FP1 session throughout the season.
Rich Millener had a lot to say about the new season at Autosport International.
Here is part one of my interview with M-Sport’s Team Principle.
Warren
Your feelings after the win that got away?
Rich
It was a bit of a baptism of fire for me in some ways. Doing the job in the background for the last three or four years. I approached Malcolm at the end of 2018 when Seb Ogier left and asked if I could do the team principle role, to which he agreed- this was surprising- if you don’t ask, you don’t get. It was a nice opportunity to be given. I think last year was a bit of a learning curve in some ways. It wasn’t hugely different from what I’ve done before- there were elements we knew – More involved in areas that I’ve not been involved with before, and then we had the Corsica issue. It was a very easy job at the start. Three rallies in and three good results. Fourth rally in and on for a win. I think people thought M-Sport were going to be in the way and pretty competitive, but unfortunately it unravelled. Then we had a tough mid-season and then we came back stronger at the end of the season.
I think overall not bad but there are a few things I’d like to change this year. There was nothing I wanted to change this past year, because you’re still learning. You don’t come in and try to change everything as you don’t have the experience to do it. Overall, I think we were very happy – the whole team is aware of the structure and how it’s working. We’ve tried to improve communication with mechanics and engineers, every part of the team really, just to work together as best we can, and just try to continue to improve. The drivers are all capable of winning, so we just want to perform as best we can, to give them everything we can to do well.
Warren
What do you think Lappi has brought to the team so far in terms of his experience with the previous cars he has driven?
Rich
Ah, difficult to say at the moment, as he’s done so little. He’s done two and a half days in the car so far, but the experience he has as he’s been with two manufacturer teams already, and we’re the third, all the current generation cars, which is great. He’s got experience and knowledge of the two rivals. He has been through the highs and lows himself and has won a rally and then had a tough season last year, so the kind of pressure of being in the top level of WRC, he’s been there which is great.
To promote a younger person into leading a team, you run the risk of that being difficult for them to get their head around and be prepared, but he’s kind of ready and nothing seems to stress him out which is great and like Malcolm said, the team and environment is very good, we’re a younger team with all the same goals, we’re all hungry to improve and win and so is he. If we can make him feel comfortable, then we know he can perform well. That’s our main goal at the minute. He seems to understand British humour, which is helpful so he can see a joke and be serious at the same time, and I think if he feels comfortable, then he should be on the pace right away.
Warren
Are you looking at any events for victories?
Rich
I think Monte Carlo will be difficult. I’m not sure tarmac would be EP’s favourite subject, but on the other side, Teemu’s tarmac pace has been really good the last few rallies. We didn’t do any testing before Christmas, we didn’t have the budget to do that, so we did that this year instead, a really good test, but unfortunately no snow but, we know how much that rally can change, so Monte will be hard. Sweden, we expect to be strong, like last year with Teemu, again it will depend on the road conditions and how much snow there is. Now really the rest after that, we should be strong in all of them and there’s no reason we can’t challenge in all of them. So, we’re not focusing on anything in particular, just be the best for all the events.
Warren
Now, three new rounds and this is a question that I asked Esapekka and Teemu. How do you go about preparing for Rally Safari?
Rich
I think Safari realistically is going to be quite different from what people expect. I think a lot more of the European style event is likely. It won’t be horrendously rough, it won’t be huge great deep-water splashes, cars will look pretty much look as they are. If people are expecting snorkels and everything that goes with it, which is great but we have the reality of the costs of designing a one-off car and it’s not feasible for anybody. However, having said that all new stages, very different from what we’ve seen, it’s quite sandy in places which is a different skill, fast and actually narrow in some places and if you go offline, there’s big rocks and everything.
The temptation to cut will be there, but the reality of cutting might not be so ideal and there is the wildlife, you know that you can’t get away from wildlife, there’s still going to be that gone are the days of the star helicopters and everything that went along with that because going to that level again would be like doing two rallies for the price of one. We can’t really afford. It will be very interesting, we sent some people out to the candidate rally to try and understand what it’s about, the same with Japan, New Zealand we know a little bit more, but all these new rallies are good for the drivers, because everyone’s in the same boat, new stages and new pace notes. I don’t think any of the drivers this year have been to any of these places, so that will be interesting. We’ll just prepare in the normal way, testing is most difficult because we don’t know the exact conditions you’re going to get in Safari, so you don’t know where you’re going to test. We’ve got a few options in mind, and I think that will be a key part of doing well.
Warren
Do you know if Rally Chile is going ahead?
Rich
It looks like it will be cancelled, and I don’t think there will be a replacement to be honest, I think it’s too late in the day to be able to find a solution to the logistics, to change everything around. We’re all planned around the thirteen rallies. Fourteen was always a push to be honest. It’s hard on the guys, yes less rallies than say Formula One, but you’re away for a longer time, over a week and last year with Argentina and Chile we were away for over three weeks and it was hard to keep morale up in the team because a lot of people have families and kids and it’s a long time for fifty people that you work with day in and day out. Thirteen is not a big drama for me. I appreciate that we need to go to new places, and it’s a shame that we’ve lost them, but we can still have a good championship.
Warren
I’m of the opinion that Formula One has too many races.
Rich
Yes, you become a casual fan, because you switch it on and it’s always there, which is great because it’s in your mind at the time, you don’t build up to the weekend, ah F1’s on at the weekend, I’ll watch that, but then it’s on every other weekend and WRC isn’t strong enough to warrant that many events, so got to be careful. I think thirteen or fourteen is acceptable.
The 2020 British Touring Car Championship puzzle is slowly coming together, after a flurry of announcements at the Autosport International show in Birmingham at the weekend.
No less than seven drivers were announced over the course of the weekend, with some big names catching the attention.
The big news of the weekend was Tom Chilton making the switch from Motorbase to BTC Racing for 2020. The veteran replaces Chris Smiley in the team and joins Josh Cook, forming a formidable partnership in the FK8 Honda Civics. BTC are also taking on a third Civic for this season, and racing in it will be new fans favourite Michael Crees, creating a strong team.
Excelr8 Motorsport announced their first driver for 2020 with Senna Proctor joining the team from BMR Racing. Proctor will be behind the wheel of the brand new Hyundai i30 with three years of BTCC experience behind him. His team mate is yet to be announced.
Elsewhere Ciceley Motorsport have decided to retain their lineup of Adam Morgan and Daniel Rowbottom, with both having had strong 2019 seasons, but knowing there is more to come from the Mercedes A Class.
Trade Price Racing announced former British GT champion James Gornall will be joining the team racing the Audi S3 Saloon, joining Bobby Thompson. While Sam Osborne was announced as the team mate for Jake Hill in the AMD team Honda Civic FK2’s.
David Coulthard has said that he would like to see more, regional W feeder Series in the future ahead of the launch of W Series season two later this year.
Coulthard, 48, has played an active role in the series since it was announced back in 2018 and believes it is important that the championship that acts as a feeder series to Germany’s DTM builds on a successful first season.
“I personally would like to see a North American Championship, an Asian Championship, a number of championships which could then come together for one world championship over a number of races.
“We have tapped into the available talent that recognised W Series in its first year and grown from that, but actually having a feeder championship, that would be good as longer term view. Right now, we’ve got to focus on this championship and grow the reach we have and continue the journey. The year one foundations we currently have in place, we’re very happy with.”
During the first year there was a gap between those who had more single seater experience such as Jamie Chadwick and Alice and those without much single seater experience such as Esmee Hawkey and Caitlin Wood.
“We can do the selection process, which was done fantastically and Alex Wurz is an FIA affiliated selection processor and we felt that we gave everyone as fair an opportunity as possible to really show themselves before getting behind the single seater wheel, of course those that have been doing the single seaters will have an advantage.
“It is a little bit like my journey, when I started at 17 in cars I had no experience of cars and I was going up against people who had three or four years experience but we can’t drive the cars for them, we can’t control what they do away from the championship.”
The 13-time Grand Prix winner is of the belief that those who are quick enough will gravitate towards the front of the grid while suggesting some drivers may decide to test other single seaters.
“This is a free to enter championship, any funding they build up they can put into their programme or test in other cars. Some may choose to invest that in other forms of racing in conjunction with W Series. It is up to them to make that decision, but they have got to make that decision and if you believe in cream rising to the top through hard work, endeavour and all the rest of it then in the same way that Max Verstappen ended up in Formula One at the age of 17.
“That was not by accident it was because of a whole series of testing and planning and having everything set up for it. You’re never going to have it completely fair in terms of the experience they have and how many miles they have done because there is that age discrepancy.”
Sunoco Whelen Challenge and Aston Martin Autosport award winner Johnathan Hoggard says he has interest from a variety of series for 2020.
Hoggard, who was also runner up for Fortec Motorsport in BRDC British F3, suggested he wasn’t far from confirming his plans for 2020.
“Nothing has been confirmed just yet but we are in talks with a variety of teams and we have different options including single seater, but off the back of the Autosport Award there has been a few GT offers. It’s down to me to decide what to do and what is best for my future.
“I enjoyed both at the Autosport challenge, so anything is good for me.”
While he is used to short sprints in the British F3 series and previous junior formulae, Hoggard has suggested that there are more similarities between the LMP2 car that he will drive in January at the Daytona 24 Hours and single seater formulae.
“The Sunoco Whelen Challenge includes a fully funded Rolex 24 Hour drive in the LMP2 category at Daytona. I’m really looking forward to the race and experience. The British F3 and the LMP2 are quite similar in that they both have a lot of downforce but the LMP2 car obviously has a lot more power. Obviously having a roof over your head and there is a lot more adjustability with things like traction control and power steering so you work more with the car than against it.”
And there are few more obvious challenges to overcome driving in a 24 Hour race, and Hoggard has admitted that long runs have been in short supply in testing.
It is mainly getting used to finding the different reference points and getting used to the lack of visibility that comes with night time driving. Daytona is very well lit so that shouldn’t be as much of a problem. We have had a few issues which have limited running to 7 laps at the Raw event, but they should hopefully be out of the way now.”
Let’s talk about this year then. It’s your third different team in three years.
Photo credit, Anna Rudd and M-Sport
Esapekka Lappi
It’s also Seb’s as well. Everyone keeps asking me, but also him as well. He’s gone in the opposite direction.
Warren
I wanted to talk about your preparations, but before that what about last year? You had a lot of issues at Citroen, and you didn’t score as many points as the previous year. You went from one of the best cars, to the not so good car. Could you put into words what the issues were?
Esapekka
I’d say the biggest problem, the first half of the 2019 year was hard, I just couldn’t change my driving style as much as the car needed, and we couldn’t introduce the parts which would suit my driving style and we didn’t have the kind of parts like the differential and then in Monte we had an wishbone issue after hitting a rock and then we had an engine explode. Sweden was fine with the podium and then since then it was very challenging and it felt with the natural driving of mine we were not competitive, I was not fast enough and then I knew to push harder and made mistakes, but then we got new differentials and then the pace on gravel was there immediately. Finland and Turkey were good. In Wales it was kind of going to be fine and we were not far away but then I made a mistake and went wide on a corner and broke a wishbone. Also, in Spain we were not far away and then the engine blew again, so in the end I felt positive steps throughout the year but for some reason on tarmac it was just sh*t. I don’t know why, but it was not only me, Seb also was struggling a lot and we never found out why. That’s mainly coming from the car, that I couldn’t drive it fast enough, and then when I got the parts, then it was better.
Warren
Yeah, you took two stage wins in Finland, so things came together a bit better for you there. Okay, that’s the past. Let’s look at this new year. It’s great to have a driver of your calibre still here. When did the conversation with M-Sport begin, and when did you find out about Citroen? Did you know before the press release?
Esapekka
Two hours before, I got a phone call and I didn’t have long to prepare for that, and then on the same day, we contacted Malcolm as I know it’s the only chance, because Toyota hadn’t released anyone yet, but still I knew who would be driving over there, so then we set all the meetings soon, and after a few days I was meeting Malcolm in England already in November. Things went forward quite quickly and we settled the things very soon, it was just today the guys wanted to announce it. Things were very clear. The funny thing is the rumours, they were flying about already before I even called Malcolm. This was the funniest! But in the end luckily it did happen.
Warren
Looking at the new season, you’ve had some time in the car, can you describe and compare to you two previous cars what it’s like?
Esapekka
Well, the first impression is that it’s quite easy and very logical, at least on tarmac it’s quite logical even if the conditions are tricky and challenging with a lot of surface changes, wet conditions it feels logical, so that’s giving a good confidence for the driver and for sure compared to last year it felt so much easier. I really enjoyed the test the chassis is working even better than the Toyota I believe. Performance wise, Citroen, the engine was kind of only in the top power, no torque but this is opposite again, the torque is quite nice like the Toyota, but when you’re in fifth or sixth gear, in the high revs it’s not really going like the Citroen. We are gaining more in the low revs but missing out of the high revs, but I think we will have a new engine before Argentina, which will fix these problems, and they are saying it will be a big improvement. This is promising, so I’m really quite looking forward that we can surprise people.
Photo credit, Anna Rudd and M-Sport
Warren
Okay, there’s three new events of course, in terms of preparations for those events, particularly the Safari, the roads are going to be quite different.
Esapekka
This is quite tricky to find a place which is similar, I’ve seen some videos from last years rally and looks like they are just making a road with a tractor, where to find these kind of conditions maybe Poland, but’s its maybe too fast, Kenya looks quite sandy, I don’t know what we should do with that. But for the New Zealand I go with the Finland set up, I’ve done this rally once, seven years ago in the Skoda S2000, when I did the Asian Pacific Championship, so I drove over there. Japan, we did the recce last year and it looks super slow and technical, even more corners than Corsica, it can be interesting, but to prepare for Kenya, I have no idea and I’m a bit afraid of this rally, it can be quite an adventure!
Thanks to Esapekka for his time.
2020 FIA World Rally Championship Ford Fiesta WRC 2020 Livery January 2020 Photo: Drew Gibson
James Gornall has rounded off Trade Price Cars Racing’s BTCC line up for 2020, and has confessed to a somewhat unusual way of spending New Years’.
“The first thing I did before I went to sleep at New Year was watch the pole position laps at every single circuit in 2019.”
Gornall joins after winning the Mini Challenge UK series in 2019, and confesses he will be taking as much advice as he can ahead of making the step up.
“I’ll ask Bobby as many questions as I can think of and take any advice he can give me, same as any other friends that race in this series. There’s always a lot that you can learn. When I go back to my British GT days I used to watch onboards of all the cars I was racing against to see what their characteristics were like so I could see where to best lunge at them or find an advantage. I’m going to do the same stuff here.”
While he has been racing in other series, notably in the British GT series, the British Touring Car Championship has been an itch that Gornall has long wanted to scratch.
“We’ve been talking about Touring Cars for a few years now as I feel it has always been my destination. We came back into saloons and did the Minis last year to learn front wheel drive ahead of a move into the Touring Cars.
“I spoke with Dan (Kirby, team owner) a year ago about this when he launched the team and I am happy that we made it happen as I did say to him then that I would win the Minis and the come and race for him.”
While he wanted to use the Mini Challenge to help prepare for a full British Touring Car programme, Gornall acknowledges that the schedule will be totally different even if he is now more used to his machinery.
“I’d say Minis are completely different. I did it to learn the car characteristics or a similar car characteristics but the Touring Car weekend is certainly light years ahead and in on-make championships like the Minis you do get a bit of rough and tumble, no-one really is planning to have rough and tumble but it’s nice see how that is in that environment. It’s been good preparation, this is something completely new and I will be going for it.”
Teemu Suninen starts his second full season with M-Sport Ford. Photo credit, M-Sport
Warren Nel
Let’s talk about your stats from last season. It was really interesting to note that you took more stage wins last year than Esapekka last year. Anyway, give us an idea of your hopes for this new season.
Teemu Suninen
It would be the same before the new season, because we are having new rallies that we haven’t seen so I don’t have any expectations for the new rallies, as we have seen the pace can change quite a lot between rallies, which we saw last year like Sweden, and Germany I was able to set top three times all the time, Citroen were struggling in Germany, yet the rally after they improved and took the top two spots and then Toyota took the top three positions in Germany, and then in Turkey they were nowhere, so it’s difficult to say what the expectations are for the new events.
Warren
What are your hopes though?
Teemu
My hopes are to have more podiums and it would be great to finish the season in the top five or six and try to be close with the second group of drivers.
M-Sport Ford’s new livery. Photo credit Warren Nel
Warren
Are you hoping to be closer to the top three drivers?
Teemu
Yes, basically to be more consistent, everyone can challenge them on some rallies but not in all rallies.
Warren
There’s three new rounds, Safari, New Zealand and Japan finishing the season. In terms of those events you can’t test outside Europe, so how are you going to prepare for those events?
Teemu
That’s a good question, because it’s not easy to find the same kind of roads, they are quite different to the roads in Africa, so I think we need to be quite open minded about with the roads and testing places for Kenya, yeah and we doing the recce in Japan and we saw what kind of roads there is and everyone is wondering where can we find these kinds of roads, because it’s so different. They are in a deep forest, there is no sunshine in the daytime, as they’re so deep in the forest, and a lot of leaves on the tarmac, so it’s never clean and it is also quite slow. It going to be quite challenging with the daylight lights and not losing too much power from the alternator.
Warren
You scored one podium last year. Are there any events that you’re looking to get a podium this year apart from Italy? Score a few more and perhaps your first win?
Teemu
Proper rallies like Portugal and Sardinia, also Turkey. In those rallies I try to get a good pace and set good times.
