Motorsport Prospects Weekly Debrief for October 4, 2021 – Investing in a Driver Simulator and more

This week the Motorsport Prospects Weekly Debrief is once again jam-packed with information all race drivers can use. From webinars that you should attend to overcoming the fear of selling to tips on buying a driver simulator, there is something for everyone so let’s go!

Driver Development News, Tips & Techniques

• Ross Bentley of Speed Secrets has teamed up with Samir Abid of Your Data Driven to present a webinar called Tires for Drivers which will cover such things as:
  • How to get the most grip from your tires
  • How to find the best “hot” pressure to run your tires at, no matter what the ambient temperature is
  • How to measure & manage your tire temperatures
  • How to use tire pressures & temperatures to sort handling/balance issues
  • How to adapt your driving to suit your tires

The webinar takes place on Tuesday, October 26th 2021 at 5:30pm Pacific/8:30pm Eastern and costs $79.00 USD to attend. Registration closes on October 24th. Full details are available at the webinar website here.

• Sports car racing team Madpanda Motorsport will host 2 Junior test days at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya at the end of October as they test for 2022 talent. You can get more details by emailing the team at epcompanc@madpandamotorsport.com.

• We all know that motorsport is serious business but at the same time it should be fun! This is racing not brain surgery. That’s the philosophy that Matt Travis and Jason Hart apply as they explain in GT4 competitors Hart and Travis take a fun approach to serious business.

• There have been a whole lot of developments related to various driver development programs and scholarships over the last week and here are just some of them. Congratulations and good luck to all!
  • Ten Finalists Selected for Diverse Driver Development Scholarship
  • Bearman, Edgar, Foster and O’Sullivan make Autosport BRDC Award final
  • Castro, Esterson Named as 2021 Team USA Scholarship Winners
  • Two official “rookies” announced for FIA WEC Bahrain test in November
  • Nominees Announced for Mazda’s Club Racing Factory Team
  • Cooper Murray wins Carrera Cup Australia nomination for Porsche Junior Shootout

• There are many different ways to develop your racecraft as you move up the motorsport pyramid. USF2000 driver Simon Sikes explains his approach and how the SCCA fits into them in USF2000 Driver Sikes Seeks More Success, Growth in SCCA Runoffs at IMS.

• Realizing that they have a glut of talented young drivers, all F1 teams are to run rookie drivers twice in 2022. F2 driver Robert Shwartzman feels that this change will benefit the F1 teams as well as the rookie drivers taking part while some of the other F2 drivers sees this as a positive development overall.

• Finally, driving simulators have become increasingly important in allowing drivers to work on developing their racecraft using technology not available to drivers even 5 years ago. On the Motorsport Prospects blog, race driver, coach and racing sim consultant Dan Wells explains the 8 Top Tips for Investing in a Driving Simulator.

The Business of Being a Race Driver

• MotiV8 Training have announced their 2021 Online Motorsport Conference taking place from November 12-14, 2021. According to the organizers, “The focus will be on motorsport careers and development, specifically the key areas of mindset, fitness, nutrition, media, sponsorship and the business of the sport with presentations and exhibitors covering these key areas. The Conference is being built around interactivity so attendees can maximise benefits and personal development from the presentations. A networking ‘online drinks’ component will be a feature of each day allowing delegates to interact with one another, select presenters and industry members.”

• There are some great speakers presenting on a whole range of important topics for the racing driver so it looks like it would be well worth the investment of both your time and money. You can register here to access either one session or the full two days. (Full disclosure in that this registration link is an affiliate link on behalf of Motorsport Prospects. The non-affiliate registration link can be found here.)

• Enzo Mucci discusses how to overcome the fear of selling and pitching, skills much needed in the search for sponsorship.

Series News

• Over the last week two new driver development series utilizing F4 cars in the United States have been unveiled. Anderson Promotions has announced USF Juniors as part of the Road to Indy program and Parella Motorsport Holdings has introduced the Speedtour Formula Development Series. The stated intention of both series is to give young (14 years old) drivers entering from karting a less expensive, less stressful way to prepare to race cars in either USF2000 of USF4. Both series stress that driver coaching is an essential part of the purpose of these series so that when the drivers begin racing in bigger grids with more experienced opposition they will be better prepared. Both series will offer scholarships enabling the championship winning driver to progress to the next level of the respective motorsport ladders and projected budgets are expected to be lower than both USF2000 and USF4. Interestingly, both series will be using the same Ligier-branded Crawford F4-16 car, although Anderson Promotions has indicated that this will only be for 2022 before they move to a new halo-shod chassis. Parella Motorsports Holdings, which also owns Formula Regional Americas, has marketed its new series in a similar way to Jonathan Palmer’s GB4 championship by committing to first-generation F4 machinery rather than halo-shod successors.

• This means that there will be eight F4 series in the United States. Whether these series are truly needed, whether the market can support these series and what kind of an effect will they have on the various F1600 and F2000 series currently running are questions that remain to be answered. Ultimately, the market will decide.

• As mentioned in last week’s Weekly Debrief, Penske Entertainment has taken over the running of Indy Lights starting in 2022. While the Freedom 100 is not scheduled to return to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Speed Sport has some interesting insights into what the future may hold. According to the article, more Indycar teams could field Indy Lights teams in the future with the two series becoming more closely connected.

• The changes that were implemented this year in F2 and F3 are being undone for 2022 for a number of reasons but the major one according to series boss Bruno Michel is that the format changes were “not easy to understand.”

• Speaking of F2, it looks like HWA Racelab is leaving but there are rumors of a revival of the pre-war Belgrade Grand Prix.

• The DTC is set to return in 2022. The Deutsche Tourenwagen Challenge (DTC) will feature its own new regulations for cars of the B-segment such as the Citroën DS3, Ford Fiesta, Hyundai i20 and Peugeot 208.

• Finally, the endurance-spec 911 GT3 Cup car completed a successful debut in the latest round of the NLS at the Nürburgring-Nordschleife. Daily Sportscar has all the specs.

Esports & Sim Racing

• Veloce Esports and Codemasters have announced the Versus Ultra Series set to debut in 2022. Details are still to come but Lando Norris will be competing.

• With the announcement of a new Formula E race to take part in Vancouver, Canada in 2022, organizers have also announced an accompanying E-Fest that will feature an esports component with a $50,000 prize pool. You can get more info here.

• The technology used in driver simulators has grown in sophistication exponentially. Nothing will confirm that fact better than watching this video that shows how far the graphics have evolved in the last 30 years.

Business of Motorsport

• With the new world of LMDh having only four manufacturers authorized to build the “spine” of the cars, how do they juggle the various demands from different manufacturers? According to Dallara, BMW and Cadillac LMDh Projects are “Very Separate.”

• The 2nd annual online Race Industry is looking even better as it has been announced that McLaren head honcho Zak Brown is to be a featured speaker.

• According to Giles Morgan, sponsorship is about to enter a new golden age, and here’s why.

• Along with the horrible human toll on health and well being, the pandemic has really put a monkey wrench into a lot of sports sponsorship plans. Sport Dimensions looks at how sponsors can work to recover lost value as a result of the last 18 months of chaos.

From the Motorsport Prospects Archives

In case you missed it, the latest edition of the Sustainable Motorsport Round-Up was published recently and is jam packed with news of developments in the sustainable motorsport field. Always a good idea to stay abreast of developments and debates regarding the future of motorsport.

The Last Lap

This week I am featuring two videos that will make you smile.

• Ok my timing is a bit off but here is Patrick Long taking a lap of the Long Beach street circuit in a Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R.

• The Goodwood Revival should be on the bucket list of all motorsport fans and the 2021 Glover Trophy is just one of many reasons. Watch the full race featuring vintage F1 cars below.

That’s it for this week. Stay safe and I will see you at the track!