Motorsport Roundup: Dakar 2021 Updates, National Karting Champions Crowned And More

 

Dakar 2021

This week saw the Dakar 2021 rally continue to soldier on with stage 7 and 8 taking place over the weekend. As things stand, Stephane Peterhansel (cars), Jose Ignacio Cornejo  (bikes), and Dmitry Sotnikov, (trucks) lead the overall standings. The Hero MotoSports pair of Joaquim Rodrigues and Sebastian Buhler are ranked 16th, and 19th. The sole Indian rider of the rally, Harith Noah, stands 32nd overall. 

In the latest stage, it was Nasser Al-Attiyah (cars), Jose Ignacio Cornejo (bikes) and Anton Shibalov (trucks) that took top honors. Another consistent showing for Hero MotoSports with Sebastian Buhler 10th and Joaquim Rodrigues finishing in 27th position. Harith Noah kept his consistency within the top 30 to finish 29th in the end.

Stage seven had seen  Yazeed Al Rajhi (cars), Ricky Brabec (bikes) and Dmitry Sotnikov, (trucks) take the stage win. As for the Hero MotoSports squad Joaquim Rodrigues finished 9th and Sebastian Buhler took 23rd in the end. Harith Noah had one of his strongest finishes in the rally with a 25th place finish. The next stage will cover 579km as a loop within Neom.

Indian motorsport

This week saw the MECO-FMSCI National Karting Championship 2020 Rotax Max season crown its champions with the season ending round 3,4 and 5 at the Meco Kartopia circuit in Bangalore. In the end, it was Ishaan Madesh (Peregrine Racing) Rishon Rajeev (Birel Art India) and Arjun Maini (NK Racing Academy) took the season title in the Micromax, Juniormax and Seniormax categories. The teams standings saw Peregrine Racing (Micromax), Birel Art India (Juniormax) and NK Racing Academy (Seniormax) crowned champions. The three driver’s champions will get to represent India at the Rotax Max Grand Finals in Portimao from January 21 to 28. 

Aside from this, Jehan Daruvala, who is recovering from COVID-19 is reportedly set to join Mumbai Falcons alongside Kush Maini to form an all-Indian lineup for the upcoming 2021 F3 Asian Championship. The season will be held predominantly in the UAE with the opening round kicking off on January 29-30. The season will come to a close with round five on February 19-20, which won’t clash with his upcoming 2021 F2 campaign.

Formula One

Off-track news continues ahead of the 2021 season as Williams has announced  a closer technical partnership with Mercedes with the team set to use Mercedes gearboxes and related-hydraulic components starting from the 2022 season. Aston Martin has also announced that it will switch to a British-racing green based livery and has agreed a multi-year deal with IT consulting company Cognizant Technology Solutions as its title sponsor. Aston Martin will reveal its 2021 challenger in March.

With Renault set to be rebranded as Alpine this season, the company has announced that team boss Cyril Abiteboul will be leaving the team effective immediately. Laurent Rossi has been appointed as Alpine CEO with Marcin Budkowski expected to take over Cyril Abiteboul’s  role of team principal.

MotoGP

It was a shocking week in the world of two-wheels as Suzuki team boss, Davide Brivio has announced his exit from the team. This comes off the back of leading the team to championship success in both the team’s and rider’s 2020 campaign. He was earlier linked for a move to Alpine Formula One squad, but nothing has come of his future so far. This is quite a huge blow to Suzuki with not a lot of time to find a replacement before the 2021 season kicks off in March.

WRC

A new venue made its way into the 2021 FIA World Rally Championship calendar in the form of Rally Belgium. It will be held in August as the eighth round of the 11-round season with dates yet to be determined. 

Formula E

While Formula E will be facing the loss of Audi and BMW after this season, another Formula One team has moved a step closer to entering the grid. McLaren has announced that it has acquired the option to join the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship in the Gen3 era which will kick off in the 2022/23 season.