Unikum has done a deep dive into the events that have taken place in the motorsport world from June 1st to July 26th. With stories ranging from results, news from the driver marked and silly seasons, feeder series news and following up with what our Norwegian drivers have been up to these past months. As there is quite a lot to catch up to everything will be split into sections, formula section, Norwegian news and big scale breaking news. So, sit back, relax and catch up to the world of motorsport.
Spain GP
The first triple header is upon us, Spain, Austria and Great Britain, and exiting three-part series of events where not just Formula 1 will race but its junior series F2 and F3 will take part in all three events, with Spain also hosting an F1 academy race. With the recent series of upgrades seeing McLaren and Mercedes rapidly catch up to the pace of Red Bull, these races will truly be all to play for amongst the top three teams with Ferrari starting to lag behind in terms of pace. Hoping to score a podium after their most recent win in Monaco where Leclere scored his first home race victory, long overdue but well deserved. With an even tighter mid field, points will be up for grabs for everyone.
After Friday and Saturday practice alongside qualifying rounding out Saturday, it was time to race. Home country heroes Fernando Alonso and Carlos Sainz will hope to score well in front of their fans as will the rest of the drivers. The five lights turned green, and the race commenced. Max Verstappen caught the early lead and continued in first position till the race ends with Max and Red Bull taking another win of the season, beating out pole sitter Lando Norris and 7-time champion Lewis Hamilton. For the junior series F3 saw Mari Boya with an excellent home race victory with Arvid Lindblad winning on Sunday with an 11th and 14th finish by Martinius Stenshorn. F2 saw French Alpine backed driver Victor Martins finished on the top step on Saturdays sprint with American Jak Crawford finishing on top on Sunday. For Saturday, Hauger brought home a 12th place missing out on points by little over a second, a lap 1 collision saw him retire shortly after. Last, but not least was Formula academy with Alpine backed driver Abby Pulling taking another win with Haas backed driver Cloe Chambers taking where first F1 academy win.
Austria GP
The following weekend, the second part of the triple header saw Formula 1 head to the track at Austria with a sprint weekend. Fridays sprint qualifying saw Max Verstappen once again takes a sprint pole, and after taking the sprint pole, he took to the track on Saturday and took the sprint victory finishing on top ahead of Lando and Oscar. Following his already stellar performance all weekend he continued his qualifying form, taking another p1 for the feature race. Starting from pole Max had to endure and defend with an attacking Lando Norris closing in behind him, ending with both colliding resulting in Norris retiring and Max finishing p5 and George taking his second ever win. In the junior categories Nikola Tsolov won the sprint race on Saturday in F3 with Luke Browning taking home the feature race win. In F2 Oliver Bearman F1 points scorer and recently announced Haas 2025 driver took his first win of the season in Saturdays sprint with Gabriel Bortoleto taking home the feature race win on Sunday, rounding out an exciting weekend in Formula racing.
British GP
Great Britain and Silverstone, the last leg of the first triple header of the year, which started in Spain and ends on one of the most famous racetracks in the world. And a race which brings fans all over the world to Great Britain and Silverstone. With three brits currently on the grid with another joining next year when Oliver Bearman becomes the fourth, the pressure for a home race victory was high especially with Mercedes, McLaren and Red Bulls close race pace. Saturdays qualifying saw three brits in the top 3, with recently two-time winner George Russel p1 with Lewis alongside him eager to take his first win since 2021. Filling out the second row was Lando Norris and championship leader Max Verstappen. With practice and qualifying over and rain starting to cover the circuit before the lights turned green it was an exciting start to the race with Max quickly passing the McLaren of Norris. And, after George had to retire with car problems, Max took p1 as the rain started to cause fall and cars flowing in and out of the pit lane. After an exciting stint of racing where Lewis took the lead Max showed his inner fire, taking large chunks of time every lap till the last which saw the 7th time champion take his first victory since 2021. With Max and Norris finishing behind him. And, as for the junior formulas F3 and F2, F3 saw Arvid Lindblad the two-time F3 race winner takes home both victories. Whilst F2 saw Mercedes junior Kimi Antonelli take home his first victory in the sprint with Red-Bull junior Isack Hadjar ending the weekend with a feature race victory.
The major news during the summer is:
- Oliver Bearman as noted will drive one of the Haas cars in 2025.
- Mick Schumacher and Jack Doohan test drove the 2022 Alpine at Paul Ricard.
- Apple produced F1 movie will be titled F1 and premieres June 2025.
- First electric Nascar was unveiled.
- Extreme E planning to transition to Extreme H ditching electric powered cars for Hydrogen instead.
- Ferrari once more won the 24Hour of Le Mans race for the second time in a row.
- Indy car began to trial its hybrid engines during the past few races.
As for some of our Norwegian drivers:
- Hedda Hosås is currently busy testing the future Formula H car being a key part in the development.
- Isabell Rustad is gathering podiums at a rapid pace in sprint challenge Scandinavia.
- Tough times for the Norwegian juniors in Formula 2 and 3 with hopefully brighter roads ahead.
- Mia Rusthen the Norwegian VM driver was placed in artificial coma after an accident during a world championship race in Italy and we wish her a speedy recovery.
- Mads Østberg and crew finished fourth in rally Estland,
- And at the Norisring in Germany Emil Christian driving a GT4 race finished 15th.
That was all, so thank you for reading and enjoy the rest of your summer.
