Motorsport101

So much for a break in January eh? Welcome back to Formula E on the Motorsport101 Channel, and for our 2024 Season Preview, we brought in Motion Podcast host Sascha Garlick back to chinwag over the Season 10 that starts this Saturday in Mexico City! In this 2-hour preview, we talk about the big issues for the series off the track - Such as their pre-season testing fire in Valencia and the knock-on effect it'll have on Mahindra. We talk about the upcoming Attack Charge pitstops being added that have been pushed back to Misano in April. There's also a big culture clash incoming as more conventional road courses in Misano and Shanghai are being added to the calendar, with Hyderabad pushed out due to a change of governance. Does the series know what it wants to be? Even more so now it's off free-to-air television in the UK? Then we break down all the runners and riders for 2024. Can the Mahindra teams get off the bottom? Can McLaren find some form with Sam Bird now in the ranks? What about Nissan and the retu

It's one of your favourite moments on the Motorsport101 Content Cycle, a little later but better than never, it's the Autosport Top 50 Podcast for 2024, and Dre Harrison and RJ O'Connell deeply analyse it... ...But first some catching up in the intro section! First up, Sauber have renamed themselves (Again), to the Stake F1 Team as the gambling company becomes a full title sponsor ans chassis name holder for the team. Good luck team! There's also some chat about IndyCar's engine manufacteur crisis, with Honda openly admitting they could be three years away from quitting the series unless major costs are cut. Is the series in serious trouble if they can't find a third supplier? We talk about the ramifications of Honda potentially quitting. And finally, a full breakdown of all 50 drivers on the list, as well as someone the names who didn't. Who did we think was too low? Was Japan better represented in 2023? And which IndyCar ranking made Dre pull his hair out? All that on another 2-hour edition of Motors

From now on here at Motorsport101, all written articles will have an audio track to accompany them to help improve accessibility in general. And this is an Ask Dre post on the website for January 2024! In it, Dre gets asked if IndyCar's in crisis after Honda threatens to leave, silly season talk for F1 and MotoGP for 2025 already, is IndyCar making more strides with Diversity than F1 is, and what should we expect from Manchester United now Sir Jim Ratcliffe's in control? Link to written version here:

It's time for the 8th annual Motorsport101 Award Show with your hosts, Dre Harrison, RJ O'Connell and Cam Buckley! (In tribute to the late passing Cale Yarborough and Gil De Ferran. RIP.) In one of the longest M101 Episodes we've ever recorded, we decided to hand out awards for the best, the worst and everything in between in Motorsport in 2023! From our race of the year, to our Breakout Star of the Year, as well as the best Internet jokes and quotes, overtakes and more! And of course, the big ones, who wins the Golden Cock for the very worst of Motorsport in 2023, and who wins our bike rider, driver and Athlete of the Year awards! Was it Jake Dennis, Alex Palou, Ritomo Miyata or Max Verstappen? Listen in to this super-special 165 minute edition of the show, right now!

It's about time we put a bow on Season Review Season, as Dre and Cam go wild and review the good, the bad and the ugly of MotoGP in 2023, as the season eventually went back, to Bagnaia! We go factory by factory across the grid. The end of an era as Honda loses their Shohei Ohtani with Marc Marquez leaving for Gresini, and what happens to the genuinely talented team left behind. What about Yamaha? Are they about to walk into their own Marquez situation, but with Fabio Quartararo instead? And does Yamaha now have the best lineup in the sport with Alex RIns joining over? Aprilia kinda spun their wheels this season, beating Yamaha but losing out to KTM. But their riders are still strong, is that enough? And what do we make of the Trackhouse move now its official that the NASCAR outfit are joining the grid in 2024? KTM themselves are in an interesting place, after moving up to second, but a distant second. Is Brad Binder alone enough to close the gap for an inconsistent factory effort? Has Jack Miller become co

If you're the sort of person who likes an old school Motorsport101, this is the episode for you, a 2 hour-long deep dive into the 2023 Formula 1 Season, and a bonus segment into what happened the previous week in what we called Wolffghazi - As the FIA opened and very quickly closed a conflict of interest investigation against Susie and Toto Wolff as all 10 F1 teams distanced themselves from a governing body who took a story from a baseless sourced. Ugly. Then we get into the season review itself, as we go in reverse and break down team by team. The battle for seventh comes first between a struggling Haas team, Alfa Romeo and the participation trophy role they became infamous for, Williams massive improvement and their fight with the mess that was AlphaTauri. Then the midfield as Alpine was in no mans land and a mess of a management structure fell on its head again, then the heated battle for second between Ferrari and their poor start, McLaren with one of the greatest comebacks of all-time, Aston Martin's

And just like that, MotoGP's 2023 season is over. And just when we got a Jorge Martin reeling Francesco Bagania in moment by taking the Sprint, the Spaniard has a meltdown at the final Grand Prix to let Bagnaia go back-to-back, the first Champion to do so since 2019! We break down Pecco's brilliance, as well as where it all fell apart for Martin! We also talk about the shocking news coming off the test, with the CryptoData RNF Team being booted off the 2024 MotoGP grid, with the heavy rumour that... *checks notes*... NASCAR's Trackhouse?! No, really, we breakdown in detail just how we got to this point! MotoGP also unveiled the new concession system as well, we break down how it pumps up Japan, with Honda and Yamaha set to make big gains with more wildcards, tyres, free testing choices and more! And finally, some thoughts on Marc Marquez's first test on a Ducati, as the Valencia test made shocking headlines of their own kind, as Honda may have had their best day of 2024? One of the busiest MotoGP podcast

And just like that, the 2023 F1 Season is over, and Max Verstappen put the cherry on top of a dominant season with his 19th win of 2023, cementing quite possibly the most dominant season in the history of Formula 1. We break down all his records, as well as soak in just how ridiculous it has all been. We talk about the fight for second in the Constructors as Charles Leclerc went full galaxy brain and tried to use Sergio Perez as a pick in the fight for the silver medal, with George Russell saving his best season for last! And we talk about the F1 talent bottleneck situation as Theo Pourchaire finally won the F2 title, but seemingly has nowhere to go as Alfa Romeo have kept Zhou Guanyu on, and only Logan Sargeant's seat is open. With it being the third year running that the F2 Champ doesn't make the grid immediately, just how big an issue is it? Let's close out F1 in 2023 on Motorsport101!

It was a weekend of emotion during MotoGP's penultimate race of the season in Qatar, and none showed that more than Fabio Di Giannantonio, who after finishing 2nd in the Sprint, would beat Francesco Bagnaia straight up in an intense fight for his first Grand Prix victory in the top flight, even after Pecco nearly wrecked himself in retaliation! We also talk about Jorge Martin getting a dud rear tyre at the worst possible time after a 10th-place mark could very well be the end of his title campaign. Is Michelin to blame, Martin, or somewhere in the middle? We also talk about the Aleix Espargaro vs Frankie Morbidelli fight as Aleix laid some hands on Franky after a dispute over dawdling on the racing line. Finally, the Moto3 title decider got ugly as Jaume Masia and teammate Adrian Fernandez staged a coup on the title as Ayumu Sasaki was borderline intentionally taken off the racing line in the middle of the race. Legal? Unsportsmanlike? Or worse? All that with Ryan King sticking around in a loaded Motorspo

What Verstappens In Vegas, Stays In Vegas. And that includes winning apparently! Yes, it's time for the most anticipated rounds in F1 history, its return after a 40-year hiatus to Las Vegas, and its GP down the strip! And we even brought back new Vegas visitor Ryan Erik King to come down and give us his take on the event! And we got off to a rocky start after the weekend had to be held due to Carlos Sainz hitting 1 of 30 loose water valve covers across the track, with the track not checked properly because of the Wednesday night opening ceremony. Fans were sent home as a result of the late running of an FP2 that finished at 4am. Wild. But the race was generally really good, with Charles Leclerc on a one-man mission to try and beat not one but two competitive Red Bulls as Max Verstappen eventually overwhelmed him for the Dutchman to take his eighteen win of 2023, but how we got there was fun! And let's not forget the brilliant efforts of Esteban Ocon and Lance Stroll too, coming from Q1 eliminations to fini

Oh boy. We'd be lying to you if we called this one a classic. It wasn't. Sepang brought out the worst of the current era of MotoGP. While we were delighted for Enea Bastianini to take his first win for the factory Ducati team, the distance between the Top 4 was exacerbated by a heavy amount of dirty air. The tyre pressure issue reared its ugly head again as well as five riders break the rule on the limits and Bagnaia loses his practical "joker" after Martin's "illegal" win in Thailand. Is there anything that can be done to fix the problem? And we also talk more about the incoming mess at Repsol Honda. Red Bull will be walking away from the team as a key sponsor at the end of the year, and Luca Marini has now become the favourite for the Marquez replacement seat in 2024. But with Valencia's test now just 13 days away, is it a good look for the most decorated team in the business to have no confirmed lineup and 50 crashes on the season? It's a headache inducing M101 and it starts now!

Apologies for those who have waited patiently, the bikes are back on Motorsport101. Sincerely, sorry for having to wait so long, Cam's not been in the best of knick health-wise lately and we wanted to wait and do it justice by waiting until he was well enough to come back. So here we are! In this episode, we catch up by reviewing both the Philip Island and Buriram MotoGP rounds. In Philip Island, we had weather-related chaos as the threat of heavy winds led to a Saturday Grand Prix for the first time in eight years, and a cancelled Sprint as the sport tried to beat an oncoming storm. We break down Johann Zarco finally getting his first premier-class win in his 120th attempt. 20 podiums, 91 laps led in his career and finally, he led the one that mattered most, just before his window for it likely will slam shut. And Cam asks an important question on the strategy call of Jorge Martin: "Why are you the way that you are?" We break down the thin line between genius and crazy. We also talk about an ongoing hea

How does a boring GP weekend produce so much news? The boys are back together as a threesome to talk about a hectic Brazilian GP weekend, as Max Verstappen took his 17th victory of 2023, but Lando Norris clearly established himself as the leader of the chasing pack with a valiant second place. We talk about Max's dominance, as well as McLaren's incredible turnaround. We also talk about the awful days from Mercedes and Ferrari, as Charles Leclerc couldn't even take the grid after an electronics failure in his car left him in the wall. On the formation lap. As you. A golden opportunity missed given Lewis Hamilton could only manage eighth after a combination of tyres being butchered, a car draggy as hell due to the rear wing being so big, and still lacking downforce. Besides that, it was great! And of course, we have to talk about the epic Fernando Alonso and Sergio Perez battle for the podium, with Spain winning the fight with an incredible final lap, one of the season highlights of 2023! All that and more

Now included: A Bonus segment on the Romain Grosjean to Juncos move and Callum Illot's departure is covered in here too! But Dre and RJ go in-depth on the 2023 Mexican Grand Prix, and for Checo, a lot of genuine hope was extinguished in just 15 seconds after a nasty accident at Turn 1 when trying to send it for the lead of the race! And with AlphaTauri's Daniel Ricciardo having his best F1 weekend since his McLaren win, is there even more pressure on the Mexican to win after his hometown failure? We also talk about Aston Martin's struggles too, with their worst weekend of the year cementing a tough post-Zandvoort stretch of just 17 points in their last 4 weekends. And with rumours spinning around in the air regarding their future, do questions need to be asked about the Silverstone team? Is Fernando walking away? Surely not again... ...All that and more on another Motorsport101!

Safe to say this wasn't your standard weekend. F1 returned to the United States this weekend for its first Sprint Weekend and it indirectly led to some madness after the race. On the track, Max Verstappen tied his own record with his 15th win of 2023, but was pushed to the limit when nursing a braking problem as Lewis Hamilton was chasing him down at the end. All this off the back of a Mercedes team that botched their strategy after not being sure about whether they wanted to run a 1-or-2 stop strategy and it may have cost them their first win... ...Only for them to be disqulaified, alongside Ferrari's Charles Leclerc for having their floors too low tot nhe ground and losing too much wear from their skid block. This led to a big debate about the FIA's scrutineering process and whether it's fair or not that only four cars (Verstappen and Norris' being the other) got their skid block spot checked. Is this okay? Or does it expose a flaw in the system? Some of the more under the radar drives like Yuki Tsunoda'

And here's Part 2 of our little catch-up as the MotoGP travelling circus headed to Indonesia for its second GP at Mandalika Bay! And with it, another shocking twist in the title fight! Jorge Martin dominates the Sprint and was leading the GP by three seconds when going offline at Turn 10 led to him to the ol; Ducati: Death, Taxes, Tuck The Front moment. Ouch. It led to Francesco Bagnaia becoming the first man in 17 years to win a MotoGP race from the 5th row of the grid after qualifying struggles. Does anyone want to win this title? We also had the rumours out of the Honda camp that Miguel Oliveira may end up at Repsol Honda over Johann Zarco and the ramifications that come with a Honda camp now in full rebuild. And we also talk about an excellent written piece and the rumour that Dorna Sports may be sold by their parent company in the near future. Does the sport have a marketing problem? (Yes.) All that and more on another Motorsport101!

Okay, some cleanup to take care of here first! Firstly, massive thanks to Lyla Oakes who let us use her Marc Marquez x Gresini Concept Art, she’s the best and we love her! Also, sincere apologies for the delay on this episode, we had some technical problems cleaning up the audio on the backend, so forgive us - If you’re a MotoGP fan, you’ll be getting a lot of content in the coming days! In this episode, Dre and Cam make sense of one of the biggest MotoGP rider moves ever as Marc Marquez announced he’d be leaving Honda to head to Gresini and Ducati for 2024. We try to make sense of it from all the possible angles. What does it mean for Marc Marquez after 4 years of hell at Repsol Honda? What about Ducati, do they actually want him long-term or do they still see him as a threat? What about Honda, can they now finally have a rebuild with the lack of pressure behind them? And what about the sport as a whole? We also talk about Japan, and a race that was shortened by torrential rain. Jorge Martin doubled up an

Qatar, one of the maddest weekends in F1 history for all the wrong reasons. We had Pirelli discovering that the FIA's new Pyramid Kerb was harming the construction of the tyre, leading to a gamechanger as the track was reduced in width on the fast Turn 12/13 complex by almost three feet, leading to an insane rise in track limits violations, and a race that was a 3-stop mandated sprint with an 18-lap limit on tyre life, regardless as to if they were used or new. It led to another Max Verstappen win, his 14th of the season, but a close fight with McLaren became the story, despite track limit violations out the ass. But the race went without a tyre issue, it was another problem that reared its ugly head - Extreme heat. The race was run at 33-degree heat with 77% humidity and it led to health issues everywhere. Stroll and Russell admitted to nearly passing out behind the wheel. Logan Sargeant had to retire due to a mix of dehydration and flu symptoms. Albon had acute heat exposure. Bottas called it torture. Dre

Was it really Palou-over if it never really began? Welcome to the 2023 IndyCar Season Review, and in this special 130 minute edition of the show, we break down the best and the worst of IndyCar in 2023! Dre is joined by regular RJ O'Connell and Ryan Erik King to go team by team up and down the paddock. From the struggle buses of AJ Foyt and Meyer Shank's disasterous 2023, to the more intriguing teams too. Was it really a good season for Juncos Hollinger, as well as the hot mess of their season finale. Just what is Ed Carpenter going to do with his race team and a Rinus Veekay being lost in the shuffle? Can Rahal Letterman Lanigan hold onto Christian Lundgaard, who drove like a star last season. How did McLaren go winless on the year? How did Andretti win twice and still feel like a disappointment? Is it the beginning of the end for Will Power? And how did Scott Dixon put together an all-time great season and STILL lose by 78 points? All that and much, much more in our 2023 IndyCar Season Review!

We weren't sure days out from the race itself whether this one was even going to happen. But it did. Dorna's first venture to India for the India GP, and while we joked in the intro about the Miami Dolphins putting 70 on the Broncos head, Marco Bezzecchi was running a similar beating of his own on the MotoGP field, because he DOMINATED at the Buddh International Circuit. Winning by nearly 9 seconds on the field, he's firmly put himself back in contention... ...via Francesco Bagnaia hitting the canvas for the first time in a while. With it, and Jorge Martin finishing 2nd while nearly passing out from heatstroke, it's just a 13 point Championship fight, with Bez back in the running at -44. The Italian looked uncomfortable out there and squirmed under braking even before he crashed. Is Bagania vulnerable? We also talk about the mess that was organising this GP in the first place. VISA's being scrambled at the last minute to fly press, staff, and even riders themselves to the track at the very last minute, a tr