Weekend Racing Wrap: The 2015 season so far

Weekend Racing Wrap

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It’s that time of the season again where Formula One has shut down for the summer, and seemingly so has nearly every other form of motorsport. With just NASCAR scheduled to race this weekend, it’s the perfect time to go through the Weekend Racing Wrap Mid-season report.

IndyCar

Season Highlight: Montoya beats Power to Indianapolis 500 win

Remarkably, the 14 races so far have seen nine different winners with no driver taking more than two victories. There are just two races left to run in IndyCar’s condensed schedule and over 150 points up for grabs.

The series has enjoyed some fantastic races on road and oval courses, several rain-hot races and a first-time winner. However the controversial new aerodynamic kits may have contributed to some serious crashes at Indianapolis and the unwelcome return of ‘pack racing’.

The Indy 500 scrap between year-long points leader Juan Pablo Montoya and his Penske team mate Will Power saw the championship leader come out on top to repeat his 2000 triumph. But if he’s to avoid having the title snatched from the grasp he needs to answer the impressive recent performances of his rivals, notably Graham Rahal, who’s had two wins and four top fours from the last four races.

PosDriverPoints
1Juan Pablo Montoya465
2Graham Rahal456
3Scott Dixon431
4Helio Castroneves407
5Will Power406

Stand-out driver: Graham Rahal

Seven years had passed since Rahal’s maiden win when the series began, but this year he finally returned to victory lane. More impressively, he’s been a consistent contender taking two wins and four other podium finishes – the most of any driver – to make him the leading Honda-powered driver in the points standings, and the biggest threat to Montoya.

World Endurance Championship

Season Highlight: Porsche’s Le Mans triumph

The World Endurance Championship is nearing the end of the two-month break which follows its blue riband race, the Le Mans 24 Hours. Porsche won a tooth-and-nail fight with Audi at the Circuit de la Sarthe, with the their third car featuring Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg taking victory along with Nick Tandy and Earl Bamber.

Prior to that Audi held sway, winning at Silverstone and Spa with Andre Lotterer, Marcel Fassler and Benoit Treluyer. The introduction of their low-drag package at the latter raised their confidence for Le Mans, but it was unrewarded.

Le Mans was a disappointing experience for reigning WEC champions Toyota, and a crushing defeat for Nissan, whose radical GT-R LM NISMO was miles off the pace. The car will not appear when the championship resumes at the Nurburgring at the end of the month.

PosDriverPoints
1Andre Lotterer, Marcel Fässler, Benoit Treluyer80
2Nick Tandy60
3Earl Bamber, Nico Hulkenberg58
4Marc Lieb, Romain Dumas, Neel Jani57
5Timo Bernhard, Mark Webber, Brendon Hartley53

Stand-out drivers: Andre Lotterer, Marcel Fassler and Benoit Treluyer

The number seven Audi has been on the podium in all of the three races so far and only missed out on the top spot at the famous Le Mans 24 Hours to the much quicker Porsches. The trio have been driving together since 2010, and it’s clear they have a good bond and great teamwork. Since the WEC started in it’s current format in 2012, they haven’t finished outside the top two in the championship, and their performances so far this season make it look as though they’ll extend that run.

GP2

Season Highlight: Austria – Sprint Race

McLaren-backed driver Stoffel Vandoorne was undoubtedly the favourite heading into the 2015 GP2 season, but even his biggest supporters could not have predicted the kind of year he’d have. An 85-point advantage at this stage means Vandoorne could wrap the title up comfortably before the final round, providing he doesn’t suffer a Stefano Coletti in 2013-style collapse.

As always in GP2, the racing has been fast and frantic, with Austria serving as a high point thanks to the action and overtaking, a large portion of which came from Feature Race winner Vandoorne, who fought from eighth to second in the Sprint race.

PosDriverPoints
1Stoffel Vandoorne194
2Rio Haryanto109
3Alexander Rossi105
4Sergey Sirotkin103
5Alex Lynn85

Stand-out driver: Stoffel Vandoorne

Vandoorne won the opening four feature races, took pole for three of them, and followed three of them up with second places in the sprint races, only missing out in Monaco. His form has dipped recently – with his first non-score of the season in the British sprint race – yet he has still managed to make the podium in every round, and lead the championship by a whopping 85 points. If he wins the title, he won’t be eligible to return to the category next season, potentially adding to Mclaren’s queue of talented drivers with nothing to race.

Formula Renault 3.5

Season Highlight: Vaxiviere takes last-lap win in Spain

Oliver Rowland and Matthieu Vaxiviere are giving us a Formula Renault 3.5 season to remember. The pair are the class of a field which contains real quality, and last time out at the Red Bull Ring Vaxiviere held off Rowland to cut the Fortec driver’s championship lead.

Vaxiviere’s last lap attack on Nyck de Vries at Motorland Aragon has been the pick of the action so far. But there have been equally impressive performances from rookies Dean Stoneman and de Vries, plus Jazeman Jaafar’s Monaco triumph. Keep an eye on F1 driver Roberto Merhi in the final races as he looks to end a long win-less streak for Pons as he continues to dovetail this series with his Manor F1 duties.

Motor racing politics may have led Renault to inform teams they are pulling out of the series, but the final year of Formula Renault 3.5 can still go out on a high as it visits the Nurburgring, Silverstone, Le Mans Bugatti and Jerez.

PosDriverPoints
1Oliver Rowland166
2Matthieu Vaxiviere140
3Jazeman Jaafar90
4Dean Stoneman86
5Nyck de Vries71

Stand-out driver: Oliver Rowland

Rowland has emerged as a real talent this season having seemingly gone under the radar before now, despite finishing in the top four in every championship he’s participated in since 2011. Seven podiums from nine races – including four wins – speak for themselves, and there has rarely appeared a chink in Rowland’s armour, even picking up strong points finishes when he hasn’t been at his absolute best. He also impressed on his GP2 debut at Silverstone, and will return for Manor MP at Spa this weekend.

European Formula Three

Season Highlight: Hockenheim race three

After a stellar 2014, the leading Formula Three championship has bordered on farce this year. Two races at Monza were cut short due to repeated crashes, and after a further accident at Spa Ferrari-backed driver Lance Stroll was handed a race ban.

However several drivers have distanced themselves from their crash-prone rivals in the vast F3 field. Antonio Giovinazzi leads the points ahead of Felix Rosenqvist – the latter, a six-year veteran of F3, has won the most races but lost 25 points due to the shortening of the Monza rounds where he won. Jake Dennis has also enjoyed a successful year, matching Giovinazzi’s five wins.

PosDriverPoints
1Antonio Giovinazzi333.5
2Felix Rosenqvist313
3Charles Leclerc304.5
4Jake Dennis248
5George Russell163

Stand-out driver: Charles Leclerc

While Giovinazzi and Rozenqvist have more wins and podiums – and overall better results – rookie Charles Leclerc is hanging on to their coattails. The 17-year-old former karting rival of Max Verstappen is driving for the Toro Rosso racer’s former team Van Amersfoort. He opened his account with victory in the first weekend at Silverstone and followed it up with a superb drive to win in the wet at Hockenheim (above).

However he’s been off the podium in the last two triple-header meetings, and needs a strong end to the season at the Algarve, Nurburgring and Hockenheiming to keep the title leaders in reach.

Super Formula

Season Highlight: Suzuka

Only three races of the short eight round calendar have been completed, but the series that is closest in speed to Formula One has already produced some great moments and an open title fight.

In round one at Suzuka the podium was locked out by former F1 drivers Andre Lotterer, Kazuki Nakajima and Narain Karthikeyan, and Kamui Kobayashi brought his car home in second in race two at Okayama.

It’s too early to call a title favourite this season as the top four are covered by just six points (equal to a third place finish).

PosDriverPoints
1Hiroaki Ishiura21
2Joao Paulo de Oliveira19
3Kazuki Nakajima16
4Andre Lotterer15
5Kamui Kobayashi8

Stand-out driver: Kazuki Nakajima

Nakajima missed one race after fracturing a vertebrae in a World Endurance Championship crash at Spa, but he finished second in the other two. The former Williams racer looks entirely capable of repeating his 2012 title success.

GP3

Season Highlight: Austria – race two

Austria brought a welcome break from GP3’s processional races and was arguably the best action to take place on the Red Bull Ring throughout the grand prix weekend.

In somewhat of a surprise Luca Ghiotto leads the series by a 23-point margin from big names and title favourites Marvin Kirchhofer and reigning European F3 champion Esteban Ocon. It would be easy to say one of these will snatch the title – given their greater experience and results – but so far Ghiotto has performed solidly, and if he keeps up his qualifying speed, he may just be the most surprising GP3 champion yet.

PosDriverPoints
1Luca Ghiotto121
2Marvin Kirchhofer98
3Esteban Ocon96
4Emil Bernstorff75
5Kevin Ceccon54

Stand-out driver: Luca Ghiotto

Ghiotto joined the series in Belgium last season, and immediately shocked with pole position in a qualifying session of mixed conditions. He couldn’t keep the position in the race, but he has retained his one lap pace this season, taking three of the four pole positions thus far in a series that runs in one make cars.

Euroformula Open

Season Highlight: Jerez – Race One

Five of eight rounds have been completed so far yet the opening race of the season at Jerez remains up there as one of the best as an exciting race in mixed conditions saw battles throughout.

Konstantin Tereshchenko – best known for his aerial launch and subsequent roll at the Bus Stop kerbs in GP3 at Spa last season – currently leads the championship from Vitor Baptista. While it looked to be a battle between just the pair of them, strong recent results for Yu Kanamaru mean he is closing on the top, and could mount a challenge should they crumble under the pressure.

PosDriverPoints
1Konstantin Tereshchenko186
2Vitor Baptista178
3Yu Kanamaru137
4Tanart Sathienthirakul95
5Alessio Rovera92

Stand-out driver: Vitor Baptista

Choosing between Tereschchenko and Baptista is incredibly difficult, as both have been clearly the class of the field this season. Baptista however is three years younger, and in his first international series after winning the Formula Three Brazil Lights category in 2014, while Tereschchenko is in his second season. Baptista has also had more consistent results, and with three poles from the last four races, looks to be on the up.

World Touring Car Championship

Season Highlight: Nordschleife – Race One

There have been few surprises in the World Touring Car Championship where Citroen’s substantial investment will surely lead to the second of what could well be a long string of title wins.

Full credit must go to Jose Maria Lopez, however, who is comfortably seeing off multiple champion team mate Yvan Muller and World Rally Championship superstar Sebastien Loeb. Two-thirds of the season have passed and though Muller is never to be discounted, Lopez is beginning to look irresistible.

While usually a tad dull – especially with the Citroen domination not dissimilar to that of Mercedes in Formula One – the WTCC has been invigorated by the addition of two dramatic new venues. The mighty Nurburgring Nordschleife held its first world championship event in more than three decades, and Portugal’s historic Vila Real street track has also played host to WTCC machinery. And in perhaps the biggest surprise of the year, the dreary Moscow Raceway even served up one race to remember.

PosDriverPoints
1Jose Maria Lopez322
2Yvan Muller267
3Sebastien Loeb230
4Ma Qing Hua146
5Norbert Michelisz141

Stand-out driver: Jose Maria Lopez

Much as last season, Lopez has been the stand out driver. Yes, he is in the best car, but he has arguably one of the best Touring Car drivers of all time as a team mate, and he’s simply out-classing him. To put the manners on Muller as Lopez is doing is no mean feat, and his efforts look like being rewarded with another title. We can only wonder how different his career could have been had US F1 ever made the Formula One grid back in 2010.

Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters

Season Highlight: Red Bull Ring – Race Two

The DTM had been having an odd season, then at the most recent round in Austria things took a deeply controversial twist.

A revised race package had seen the addition of an extra round each weekend, and the fluctuating form of the three manufacturers’ on the series’ rubber produced wildly varying results. Mercedes’ Jamie Green won three of the opening four races but hasn’t scored in the last five. BMW locked out the top five in both races at Zandvoort, but failed to get a single car in the same places in either race at the Red Bull Ring.

However it was the antics of rivals Audi in the same race which has made the championship a focus of attention. Driver Timo Scheider was instructed to take out his Mercedes rivals by the team manager – in a message broadcast live on air – and the Mercedes camp was enraged after he deposited Robert Wickens and then-pointed leader Pascal Wehrlein into a gravel trap.

Audi’s Mattias Ekstrom therefore leads the points race from team mate Edorado Mortara. However the DTM’s governing body is investigating the foul play in Austria, and Audi may race repercussions in the remaining eight races.

PosDriverPoints
1Mattias Ekstrom111
2Edoardo Mortara98
3Pascal Wehrlein94
4Jamie Green81
5Gary Paffett61

Stand-out driver: Pascal Wehrlein

Mercedes F1 reserve driver Wehrlein is giving the three-pointed star several reasons to consider him for a return to open-wheel racing. However strong performances in the DTM don’t necessarily equal results or even a drive: just ask Paul di Resta and Gary Paffett. Nonetheless Wehrlein has driven with incredible maturity for a 20-year old, and his consistent points scoring has kept him in the hunt for the title.

Australian V8 Supercars

Season Highlight: Adelaide – Race Three

Mark Winterbottom’s long wait for a V8 Supercar crown looks set to end this year. The Prodrive racer’s eight wins so far this year have contributed to a healthy lead in the championship over Craig Lowndes.

But while the championship is looking increasingly settled there’s plenty to savour in the second half of the season, including the annual visit to the stunning Mount Panorama circuit in Bathurst, which rarely fails to excite.

PosDriverPoints
1Mark Winterbottom1744
2Craig Lowndes1488
3Chaz Mostert1452
4David Reynolds1420
5James Courtney1373

Stand-out driver: Mark Winterbottom

Admittedly the scoring system helps considerably, but to lead any series by over 250 points at the mid-season stage is an impressive accomplishment. Winterbottom has been incredibly consistent, finishing outside of the top seven just twice and making it on the podium in 60% of races, in all of which he’s seen the chequered flag.

British Touring Car Championship

Season Highlight: Donington Park – Race Three

There are growing questions over whether the BTCC’s gimmicked-up racing is delivering the same bang for its buck it once did, but the series continues to pack in crowds around Britain’s national circuits.

And at times the action has been from the top drawer – witness the thrilling race three at Donington Park. An all-action encounter of wheel-rubbing and paint-trading saw a few collisions and lots of overtaking, and an edge-of-your-seat moment as Aron Smith re-joined the track at high speed amongst a four-car pack at the Craner Curves, incredibly without contact.

After six of the ten rounds Jason Plato leads the way, though team mate Colin Turkington isn’t far behind. Nor, in BTCC terms, are Gordon Shedden, Sam Tordoff, Andrew Jordan or Matt Neal. While the next round should suit Tordoff’s BMW, expect the closing rounds to be a Volkswagen benefit, tipping the title battle in faVour of Plato and Turkington.

PosDriverPoints
1Jason Plato230
2Colin Turkington214
3Gordon Shedden198
4Sam Tordoff191
5Andrew Jordan189

Stand-out driver: Sam Tordoff

Champions Plato, Turkington, Shedden, Jordan and Neal are the familiar names among the top six in the championship but the sixth, Sam Tordoff, stands out. For two seasons Tordoff was team mate to Plato at Triple Eight, picking up the odd win but doing nothing spectacular, but a move to West Surrey Racing has reinvigorated him.

While the BMW is far from the best car at most circuits, Tordoff has usually picked up the best result available, and made use of his car at tracks it’s suited to, such as Croft. By being consistent Tordoff has kept himself in the championship fight, and with the next round at Knockhill being a BMW favoured track, Tordoff could fire himself right into genuine championship contention.

World Rally Championship

Season Highlight: Mexico

Despite taking five wins from eight rounds, Sebastien Ogier has fewer points than he had at this stage last season, but his rivals are further behind. Two second places and a 17th are his other results, with his only non-point score coming after a rare breakdown for his Volkswagen on day one of Rally Argentina.

Unlike last season however, Latvala has been unable to keep pace with his world champion team mate, yet while Volkswagen still appear to be far ahead, the emergence of young talents such as Hayden Paddon and Ott Tanak has sparked hope that in years to come, Ogier may have genuine competition, though Tanak will be hoping to avoid plunging into any more reservoirs.

PosDriverPoints
1Sebastien Ogier182
2Jari-Matti Latvala93
3Mads Ostberg84
4Andreas Mikkelsen83
5Thierry Neuville70

Stand-out driver: Hayden Paddon

It’s hard to look past the reigning double world champion, but when a driver of Ogier’s calibre is wielding a car which is the class of the field the only real way he can stand out is to win everything in sight, yet Latvala has beaten him on occasions.

Paddon – in his first full season – has starred meanwhile in a car that’s not as good, and has regularly muscled his way into the Volkswagen scrap, most notably for his first podium in Italy, while outshining more experienced team mates Neuville and Sordo. A shout-out must also go to Tanak, who has himself taken the fight to the Volkswagen’s on occasions, yet his game is blighted by more mistakes.

World Rallycross Championship

Season Highlight: Sweden

In its second season, the World Rallycross championship continues to attract competitors from other championships, such as the DTM’s Mattias Ekstrom and BTCC’s Andrew Jordan. The second half of its season will include a new event using the final sector of the Circuit de Catalunya.

PosDriverPoints
1Petter Solberg176
2Andreas Bakkerud130
3Johan Kristoffersson124
4Timmy Hansen122
5Davy Jeanney115

Stand-out driver: Petter Solberg

Last season Solberg won the inaugural World Rallycross title with some ease, taking five victories en route to the title. This year has started out even better, as five top two results in the opening five rounds have given him a healthy lead. Despite dropping off slightly in recent events – including missing out on a final for the first time ever at the last event in Canada – Solberg retains a 46 points advantage.

NASCAR

Season Highlight: Daytona

NASCAR’s gargantuan 36-round series meant it was one of few championships racing last weekend – Matt Kenseth took his third win of the year.

Kevin Harvick has a 58-point lead in the standings, but he will lose most of that in three races’ time when the Chase for the Cup begins. This is to ensure a four-way title fight in the final round at Miami in November.

PosDriverPoints
1Kevin Harvick823
2Joey Logano781
3Dale Earnhardt Jr750
4Jimmie Johnson747
5Brad Keselowski719

Stand-out driver: Kyle Busch

Probably the first time ever that a driver languishing down in 30th in his respective championship has been chosen, but for Kyle Busch there’s a very good reason he isn’t further up. On the day before the opening race of the season he suffered a broken leg in a crash in the Xfinity series, and subsequently missed the first 11 races of the season. Since his return however, his form has been phenomenal, picking up four wins from eleven races.

Formula E

Season Highlight: Beijing

Formula E is preparing for its second season after a promising debut year. The first race set the bar high, as race leaders Nicolas Prost and Nick Heidfeld collided at the final turn of the race.

Nelson Piquet Jnr came out on top after a season long scrap with fellow former F1 drivers Sebastien Buemi and Lucas di Grassi. However the former was left to rue a costly mistake by his DAMS team in Moscow where they got the mandatory pit stop time wrong and left him stationery for too long.

Is all-electric racing the future of motor sport? A good measure of its potential will be how many fans tune in for the second season which begins later this year, and whether the revised machinery currently being tested packs a more powerful punch.

PosDriverPoints
1Nelson Piquet Jnr144
2Sebastien Buemi143
3Lucas di Grassi133
4Jerome d’Ambrosio113
5Sam Bird103

Stand-out driver: Jean-Eric Vergne

Vergne joins the championship later on after being dropped by Toro Rosso. He immediately took pole position and repeated the feat twice more in his Andretti car, yet failed to pick up a win, often due to some technical gremlin or other misfortune. Yet still, his achievements having joined mid-season were impressive, and enough for seventh in the championship. If he sticks at a full campaign next year with Virgin, he could be a serious contender.

Over to you

Aside from Formula One, which other series have you enjoyed watching this season, and what are your thoughts at the mid-point of the year?

Which drivers in which series’ have impressed you, and who has let you down, and what have been your season highlights? Let us know in the comments below.

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26 comments on “Weekend Racing Wrap: The 2015 season so far”

  1. The Beijing race for Formula E was a good enough start (it wasn’t that exciting until Heidfeld started closing down Prost), but I really enjoyed the Uruguay and Argentine races, which had almost constant twists and action.

  2. No MotoGP?? even Niki Lauda is a fan :v

  3. I can’t say I agree that Lotterer, Treluyer and Fassler have been the standout performers in LMP1. Obviously Andre has been amazing, as ever, but I sense Benoit and Marcel are more reliant than ever on Lotterer to bring a good result. I have been really impressed by Brendon Hartley, who has really answered the critics with truly blistering speed in 2015 building on a solid 2014. Hartley beat Webber’s qualifying lap at Silverstone by three tenths (the same margin over Sergey Sirotkin’s GP2 pole lap – yep, the fastest thing outside F1 now has a roof).

    However we cannot forget Nick Tandy’s efforts at Le Mans. Regardless of a demoralising error at Spa against the sister GT, and in spite of his inexperience versus Porsche’s LMP1 regulars, it was the former GT ace that was the fastest driver at La Sarthe. For me, that was the motorsport performance of the year so far.

    And as for not ranking the utterly masterful Jason Plato as the performer of BTCC this year, I need not say anything.

    1. @countrygent

      yep, the fastest thing outside F1 now has a roof).

      Well, not exactly… Keith also mentions it in his part about Super Formula – it’s SF that is closest to F1.

  4. petebaldwin (@)
    17th August 2015, 14:46

    I only got as far as “Remarkably, the 14 races so far have seen nine different winners” and then I felt depressed at what F1 has become…. :(

    1. Really? Lottery-style racing pleases you then? Maybe Pirelli should bring back the old tyres then.

      1. F1 is about excellence, which Mercedes and its drivers have achieved and deserve plaudits for. Even so, it’s more entertaining to have a variety of drivers capable of winning. Ferrari, RBR and Mclaren need to get themselves sorted, and the gap between works and customer teams needs to close like in the V8 era. Then we can have a classic season like 2003 or 2012.

        1. What you are describing is not called lottery. But, 14 races and nine different winners is lottery. I don’t want lottery.

          1. You can’t just look at X winners in Y races and call it a “lottery”. It could just be several closely matched drivers, teams and cars, which is what was being alluded to.

          2. That’s not Indy Car. And the example given here is Indy. It’s much closer to lottery really…

  5. as an Indonesian i am proud when seeing Rio Haryanto doing well this season in GP2. Second in the championship this year is i think already a very impressive feat and no mean slouch. But in the same time it is very disheartening seeing his name barely mentioned in the possible future F1 drives. You can call me naive but why he isn’t getting the praise i think he deserve by contending one of the possible driving duties in f1 2016 or 2017 season at least ? Is he because a pay driver ? Not enough bright CV in junior formulae might held him back ? Or because he is yet to win a race until the 4th season competing in the GP2 that makes the teams in F1 overlooked him so far ?

    1. @reza-pratama24 I think you’ve picked out a few of the reasons, to which I’d add that he hasn’t actually qualified in the top four all season and all his wins have come in reverse-grid races.

      He’s clearly one of the best drivers to have come from Indonesia, perhaps the best, and that alone may propel him to F1. But I can’t see him doing it on talent alone.

  6. Great stuff mate, but you still missed Blancpain and I think many also follow the USCC?

    1. FlyingLobster27
      17th August 2015, 20:15

      @xtwl (and also @sudd below), the focus of the Weekend Review is on single-seaters, touring/stock cars and FIA World Championships. It’s a fair enough choice IMO, there is a logic to it, and a choice has to be made given the mass of championships out there.
      Remember that this is an eye-opener to other series on a primarily F1 site – if you want something dedicated to Endurance/GT racing, I personally recommend Sportscar365 and Endurance-Info. If you want even more touring cars (Argentina, ADAC, TCR, China…), there’s TouringCarTimes. I’m not affiliated with them; these are my sources for info on those subjects.

      And this is from someone who watches and loves the Blancpain-sponsored SRO GT Series. If I were to pick stand-outs there, I’d say Laurens Vanthoor in the Sprint, and the Marc VDS Team in Endurance, for their run from last to 3rd at Paul Ricard and their Spa 24 win.

      I watch the USCC too, but I’m a little more disenchanted with it, as the dominance of the Dinosaur Prototypes has driven away the more world-relevant P2s. It’s easy to blame the technical BoP, but I think it’s more of a problem with the driver-lineup BoP: P2 teams are playing the game of having one Silver driver on board, while the DPs, like the WTR Corvette with the Taylor brothers or the Ganassi Riley-Ford with Scott Pruett and Joey Hand, can have an all-pro crew. I can’t really pick a stand-out driver or team, in P (P2/DP/DeltaWing) or GTLM (GTE).

    2. @xtwl The GT series (or whatever the SRO-run GT championship is properly called besides being an advert for watches) doesn’t regularly appear in this feature. Which is to say it’s been left out by design, not accident.

      1. @keithcollantine I understand it was not in the weekly ones but did expect it in this one somehow. It is a major racing series with great racing throughout. I don’t understand how the BTCC, apart from the Brits not much countries get to see it live, gets a spot and the Blancpain does not. Those races are streamed via the internet live with great commentary too.

      2. FlyingLobster27
        18th August 2015, 8:31

        I’m as bothered as you are, @keithcollantine, by title sponsoring. I’ve been looking for a way to call the Blancpain Series that doesn’t reference the sponsor. It’s been under my nose for a while, but I’ve finally seen it and gone for the “SRO GT/Endurance/Sprint Series”.
        Then there’s the USCC, that I’ve never referred to as TUSCC. In fact, the USCC is changing title sponsor and dropping the ‘United’ in its name next year… I’m opting for the “IMSA SCC” as the name for the unified series as of 2014.

        1. Yeah that’s what I mean. I always find myself wondering “and when your sponsor leaves, as sponsors always do in the end, what are you actually called?”

  7. If we’re going down this path, what about US Tudor Championship, Pirelli World Challenge(arguably the best GT racing in the world), moto2, motogp2, motocross, GRC, GT Masters???

    1. @sudd What about them? If you think they should be included, tell me why.

  8. “Keep an eye on F1 driver Roberto Merhi in the final races as he looks to end a long win-less streak for Pons as he continues to dovetail this series with his Manor F1 duties.”

    I’m sure there’s a trivia question in this that I’ve no idea of the answer to.

    Assuming he gets to the end of the season still dovetailing both championships, who was the last F1 driver before Mehri to run a complete full season in another series simultaneously whilst racing in F1?

    1. Arguably Merhi hasn’t because he didn’t drive in FR3.5 at Monaco and I expect he won’t at Silverstone (clashes with Monza) and Le Mans (clashes with Suzuka) either.

  9. The most amazing thing for me is that while every other Formula and Series are happy to get additional exposure via an excellent site like this . . . F1 is absent!

    1. @timothykatz Yeah they don’t like people sharing their videos, sadly.

  10. As much as i love watching Indycar, it IS a lottery! Yeah disappointed to see MotoGP not covered here too, motorsport isn’t just about 4 wheels!

  11. So for me, the WEC highlight of the year wasn’t Le Mans – which, was great, but was the phenomenal race between Audi and Porsche at Silverstone where Porsche just nailed Audi on the straights but Audi were much faster in the corners. This was repeated to a lesser extent in Spa.

    However if you want a single race to define how a clever ruleset can provide equal racing with two different concepts, it’s that silverstone race. Amazing.

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