Motorsport101

The next episode in our season preview series is live as MotoGP returns on March 6th for its largest season ever! 21 rounds with the best riders in the world and we break it all down on Motorsport101! We went factory by factory, so KTM come up first. Is Miguel Oliveira at risk of losing his seat as KTM position its star talent. Tech3 is right there with the dominant Moto2 lineup of 2021 fo Remy Gardner and Raul Fernandez. Is there too many mouths to feed for the sport’s biggest underachievers! Then Aprilia, who have their strongest line-up ever with Aleix Espargaro and Maverick Vinales ready to go. They were playing down their pace in testing, but then they were also dabbing after topping timesheets. Can their concessions help them bridge the gap? Is their riders actually the weakness going forward? Then we tackle Honda - Who seem to have a completely new bike to navigate. Everyone else in the setup seems to love it, but can their talisman in Marc Marquez adapt to a bike he’s struggling to understand? Suzu

Time for the second in our Season Preview series heading into 2022, and in this one, it’s IndyCar Season coming to you from St Pete in Florida this weekend! In this 90 minute special, we preview all the key storylines going into the season. From the back half gaining reinforcements like Callum Illot, Tatiana Calderon, Conor Daly’s return, and Meyers Shank Racing going with a huge Indy 500 style Death line-up with Helio Castroneves and Simon Pagenaud having a Penske homecoming! We look at the challengers at the front, as Rahal Letterman Lanigan racing bring in reinforcements with Jack Harvey and F2’s Christian Lundgard to up themselves to three cars. McLaren rolling on as Pato O’Ward eyes up F1, and then the big three, with Penske trying to iron out their constant struggles. We have Andretti with Colton Herta now leading the charge, alongside the sport’s new most popular driver - Romain Grosjean now in the DHL #28 car, and the sixth rookie in the field with Devlin Defrancesco, King’s favourite iRacing frie

You know you’re a badass when you can extend a race by an extra lap and cripple a Formula E field… Just because you can. Welcome to Formula E in Mexico, Round 3 of the World Championship, and we had a genuinely great time with this one. We had Edo Mortara gunning for pole sideways in a brilliant set of improved Duels, and that was the pre-show! Mexico City’s ePrix was a superb race. We had some great action up the front as Mortara, Frijns, the Porsche’s and the DS Techeetah’s up the front. But we were all bamboozled by Porsche’s second half of the race, saving energy, taking the front of the field and then dominating to take a 1-2 finish. They even had time to sprinkle in a little of the classic Formula E chaos as with just a second left on the clock, the Porsche’s crossed the line to extend the race by an extra lap, and it wrecked havoc with the midfield as Jaguar and Avalanche were caught napping as they were essentially out of battery. And in all of that, Pascal Wehrlein finally gets his first Formula

Welcome back to Formula E everyone! And now, with added Children’s Card Games, because it’s time to Duel! Formula E’s new controversial Duel Format took centre stage on Friday as part of the series revamp and trying to create a more competitively balanced series… Did it work? We’d like to think so, but it might have also created other problems we discuss in the show regarding entertainment value. We also spoke about the Alexander Sims crash in Race 2 and the awkward recovery that came with it as a tractor, a big ol’ queue, and a Safety Car under yellow. We discuss the incident itself, some of the safety related backlash on social media, and why it might be unfair to pin all the blame on Race Direction (Given that seems to be the wave at the moment.) We also take a look at the state of play of the current field and how the entertainment and craziness within the series might actually be fading away with the moves the series has made. Do we actually want the Mercedes powered cars to run away with it? Is a mo

(Yes, we know it’s a little late, come laugh at our picks at the end instead!) We’re about to get into the meat and potatoes of the 2022 Motorsport season, and to bring us up to speed, we’re getting into Formula E’s 8th season, and 2nd as a World Championship. We discuss the new qualifying format, and how the Groups and Super Bowl format got thrown out for a new, “Duel” system that involves a knockout tournament. We also talk about the newly revamped calendar with some double headers to chuck in there like Diriyah and Seoul! We also go through the teams and preview their chances going into the new season. New debutants such as Antonio Giovinazzi, Dan Ticktum and Oliver Askew. We talk about some of the reshuffles that teams have had, such as Avalanche in life after BMW, or DS Techeetah after a year of relative turmoil. Or Porsche, with renewed focus in their management. And we even make picks as to who we think wins the Championships. Do we go with Mercs as they enter their Last Dance with Nyck and Stoffe

And it’s about time we brought back another one of our off-season traditions, and that’s a reaction video of the Autosport Top 50 list for the year! Now, for those newer to the show, Dre deliberately DOESN’T read what or who’s on the list year to year, so he can react as other co-hosts run down the Top 50 name-by-name. Now normally, the publication throws up some names that are… somewhat left field (Valtteri Bottas was #12 last year for example), and the reactions and trying to deconstruct the logic behind them make for… interesting content! And in this year’s return of the format, we make things even more interesting with some guessing games. It was Dre’s dream to be a game show contestant, so RJ happily obliged to indulge him! Higher or lower, guessing the order, and of course, Hamilton vs Verstappen, who ended up #1? All that and more in our reaction to the Autosport Top 50, enjoy!

Get your suits and prepare for a spicy open monologue, because it’s award season again! After a year out, the 2021 Motorsport101 Awards are back, celebrating the worst and the best in the sport over the last 12 months or so. We have some fun awards like the Race of the Year where the Indy 500 might have been hijacked with an genuinely GREAT race at Monaco, but not from the series you might expect. We dish out the Scotty Award for the series best overtake and there were some doozy’s from Formula E, and the recent F1 World Champion… …We celebrate a young man winning a Moto3 from the pitlane, and the opposite as a participation trophy for the man who was just… “there”. Sports Cars also get featured, but not in a particularly pleasant way, and we actually seriously debate if F1 was the best series in Motorsport this year. No, I’m not joking. And of course, the big ones, the Golden Cock for the biggest ballsup of 2021, and then our Drivers and Riders of the Year, with Hamilton and Verstappen going to battle o

A 10/10 season with a 2/10 ending. Formula 1 in 2021 might as well have been the Mass Effect 3 of Formula 1 seasons. In our yearly tradition, and with the dust settled over Christmas, the gang sat down for their annual Season Review of the 2021 F1 Season. We go down and then up the grid to talk about the team's respective seasons, their ups and downs, the drivers, and in some cases, their questionable futures. Haas, and Mick's promise alongside Nikita's struggles. Williams's future after George Russell moves onto the big leagues. Alfa Romeo clearing the decks for a race-winning Bottas, and China's first F1 driver in Guanyu Zhou coming in. Aston Martin and their incredibly underwhelming season, as well as some interesting observations about their head-to-heads. Pierre Gasly potentially being the driver of the year in a very lopsided relationship with Yuk Tsunoda at AlphaTauri. Alpine and the Happy funtimes club before Alain Prost got pissed off with them last week. Mclaren and Ferrari re-engage an old riva

Well.…. That was an ending wasn't it. Sorry you've had to wait a little bit for this, but we've had a backlog of episodes to record over the off-season. But given we're STILL relentlessly talking about Abu Dhabi a month on, now’s as good a time as any to bring our thoughts to the table. For just the second time in modern F1 history, two title challengers went into this final round tied. And even before that final lap, we had a stoking 10tt pole lap from Max Verstappen, a horrible start that changed the entire complexion of that race, an opening lap clash where the stewards made another controversial no-call, and a strategy battle that left Lewis Hamilton more vulnerable than you might think… ..But as you can imagine, half the episode is dedicated to Nicolas Latifis late Safety Car causing clash and everything that came afterwards. Michael Masi breaking the sport's own regulations in order to guarantee a last lap decider. Verstappen's Championship and the impact that finish may have had on it. Lewis Hamilto

Welcome to major Championship flashpoint #4 and this one, got really ugly. It's the Corniche Clash, at the new Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, and we had a lot to talk about here. We had Max Verstappen blow a golden chance to take pole position on Saturday before a mistake had him hit the wall on the final corner, gift-wrapping pole to Lewis Hamilton. We had a ridiculous F2 weekend with cars heading to the grid BACKWARDS, and poor Theo Pourchaire and Enzo Fittipaldi sent to hospital after a 72G impact in a 9 minute feature race. And it barely made the Top 5 in ridiculous dialogue to come from this race. Nope, it was all going to plan until Mick Schumacher put it in the wall early on. 2 Red Flags, 2 Standing Restarts, 3 Virtual Safety Cars and 3 debatable incidents from Max Verstappen later... God help us all. We had Max cut Turn 1 twice to keep position. Michael Masi cutting a PLEA DEAL to balance the books, only for Max to do it again and then get accused of brake checking Hamilton into the final corner in a de

What is it with F1 and heading to deserts for GP’s? In this episode, we break down what happened when the sport took a page out of MotoGP’s book and headed to the Losail International Circuit for the first ever Qatar Grand Prix. We talk about the controversy over Mercedes' right to appeal the Brazil clash being rejected and why Dre always thought it was going to go down that way, even if the sides of the divide saw it differently. We also talk about the stewarding itself being quite time consuming to the point of “Hollywood” as that appeal announcement landed right in the middle of a Toto Wolff/Christian Horner joint press conference. With Netflix breaking COVID protocol to be in the room to film it. We also talk the race itself, as Verstappen and Bottas took grid penalties for ignoring yellow flags, Lewis Hamilton took off for an easy win for #102, and Fernando Alonso activated “El Plan”, singing to his 1-stopping tyres en route to his first podium since Hungary 2014. So of course, we had some fun and talk

And just when you thought Red Bull had one hand on the trophy… Lewis Hamilton did THAT. It was a Brazilian GP (And DRS wing) of epic proportions as we break down one of the most drama-filled race weekends of recent memory. So crazy that Hamilton taking a 5-place grid penalty barely moved the needle. Seriously. We talk about Lewis Hamilton passing 25 (Yes, 25) cars over the weekend as he turned a controversial Qualifying disqualification into a win from 10th on the grid, and how Mercs screwed the pooch over a rear wing’s DRS flap that was 1/50th of a centimetre too wide. Oh, and Max Verstappen taking a 50,000 dollar fine for stroking the bad boy. Strange times we live in. We also talk about the third major Hamilton/Verstappen flashpoint of the weekend, the Lap 48 clash as Hamilton tried an audacious outside pass that Max decided to… drift slightly wide for. An incident that the FIA is still sitting down and deliberating as we speak because the onboard footage went missing for it and the stewards decided to

Hey, remember a week ago when Red Bull were absolutely, definitely winning the Championship? That was fun, let’s relive it here! The Mexican Grand Prix featured… and if we’re honest, it’s going to go down in the books as a Verstappen #BEATEMDOWN, and not much else. But at least we peaked early with a pass of the year contender from the Dutchman, doubling up on both Mercs on the way through Turn 1! After that, crickets! We also check in with the man of the weekend, Sergio Perez, as he drove well, attacking Lewis Hamilton in a close fight for 2nd, and 360,000 fans in Mexico that weekend cheering almost exclusively for him. And his Dad. His damned Dad, what a sweetheart, carrying flags, hugging anyone who’d be prepared for him and essentially adopting Max as a new member of the family. You love to see it. We also, annoyingly had to cover a new update on an older story as we talked about F1 changing their pre-race procedure to remove bodyguards from the grid and how it’s another example of why we think the sp

It’s time for El Diablo to take the stage. MotoGP headed back to Misano for the second time this season, and we had a thrilling fight at the front of the field between Marc Marquez and Francesco Bagnaia… Until the latter made a carbon copy error from last year and gift wrapped Fabio Quartararo the world championship. We break it all down, as well as Fabio’s impact as the new World Champion and why Dre thinks he could be a huge win for the sport. We also talk Marc Marquez’s breakthrough win on a clockwise circuit, and despite Bagnaia’s heartbreak, the tantalizing prospect of the four best riders in the world on four different machines going into 2022. We also responded to the news that the FIM and Dorna will be fundamentally changing the junior scene forever with age limit restrictions being tightened in the junior series. For example, Moto3’s World Championship will be 18+ only from 2023, as well as 16+ for the Junior World Title. We get into why the age limit change is only a bandaid on the problem, and Dr

Living in Ammerrrrrrrrrrrica. For the first time in 2 years, Formula 1 returned to the United States for a good old fashioned time trial showdown between Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton, with the Red Bull man coming out on top. Just. We break down an intense fight that was decided on tyre conservation, strategy and the two best racing drivers on the planet beating the shit out of each other over 300km, and where we think the title race might be heading with four rounds left. We also had a man over there, RJ O’Connell of course! And we touch base with him on what makes COTA special. It was an overriding theme of the weekend, with an estimated 400,000 people descending into Texas, pushing the infrastructure, with a lot of people adamant that Formula 1 is on the brink of a Mainstream push in a market it seems desperate to crack. But is that actually the case? Dre and King break down the hard numbers behind the attention to make sense of it all. Annoyingly though, the biggest story of the weekend might have b

So a couple of weeks back, we had a rare week where none of the series we cover had a major race, so we thought it would be a good time to take stock and review the 2021 IndyCar Series. King, Dre, RJ and special guest Zoeey Hamilton go team by team and evaluate where they’re at, future prospects, thoughts on expansion or in some cases, scaling down, and it’s a 100 minute special for you guys to enjoy. So, included on the bill, but not limited to, we have: A Zoeey rant for the ages on Carlin, Max Chilton’s commitment to the series and whether an entity like Juncos buys their team up! Dale Coyne and a breakdown of Romain Grosjean’s incredibly fun and emotional rookie season, his future on ovals and with the #28 car in Andretti for 2022, and who gets the #18 if Ed Jones isn’t coming back? Call forth the good ol’ Dale Coyne *TBC entry*! Rinus Veekay almost felt forgotten about in the land of youngsters winning in the new age of IndyCar, remember when he y’know… won at Indy’s Road Course? We talk about his futu

No, despite the occasional 10/10 in a Season Review, Ryan King doesn’t stan Valtteri Bottas. Honest. Even if the episode title MIGHT suggest otherwise! F1’s travelling circus moved to Istanbul Park this past weekend for the return of the Turkish Grand Prix. And since coming back, its 100% wet record has been maintained as it was an Intermediate damp fest for the 2nd time. But the biggest news of all was that Championship Leader Lewis Hamilton was taking a new ICE engine on, and hence, a 10-place grid penalty. What we perhaps didn’t see coming was the rise of Valtteri Bottas. After Hamilton took “pole”, Bottas was bumped up to the top, and Verstappen… Who then proceeded to get seal clubbed in a near flawless drive from the Fin. His 10th GP win, the 35th member of the double digit club. But this race still found a way to be the Hamilton show too, after a controversial decision to disagree with his team as to when to pit for fresh Inters, with Hamilton wanting to copy pseudo-leader Charles Leclerc and run on

Forgive us regulars, we don’t normally talk NASCAR unless something really crazy happens. Like saying your ex is a trained Assassin (Look it up, we talked about it). But for just the second time in the sport’s top flight history, a black man won a race. This in the same year Wendell Scott’s family finally got the winner’s trophy they denied him of back in 1963 by creating a scoring error, the sport being so afraid of the potential backlash of a black man winning in Florida. We talk about Bubba Wallace’s historic win at Talladega at the top of the show. For this episode, we stay stateside for MotoGP in America. Only three things in life are certain. Death, Taxes, and Marc Marquez winning at the Circuit of the Americas. For the seventh time in eight attempts, the Spaniard took the holeshot, and never really looked back. In fact, it was one of his biggest American wins since joining the top flight. All this while the world’s press was looking for any excuse to talk the man out of it… yet more proof none of us h

And in the second party of our double header, we headed to Long Beach to IndyCar and its season finale at Long Beach. Three men still eligible for the Series Championship and the Astor Cup, Spain’s Alex Palou for Chip Ganassi Racing, Mexico’s Patricio O’Ward for Arrow McLaren SP and Josef Newgarden for Team Penske. And just to make it even more fun, Josef snagged pole for an extra point, and O’Ward and Palou had to start from the midfield, even if Palou only needed a Top 11 finish to seal the deal… ….Goddamnit Ed Jones. Of course a Lap 1 spinout essentially poured cold water on the whole thing. But it still gave us a whole lot of fun as Colton Herta had the final word on 2021 in IndyCar with a brilliant comeback to win from 14th on the grid, including some sensational passes on Simon Pagenaud and Scott Dixon. We sit down and speculate, could Herta be THE guy for the series going forward? Of course, we also gush over Palou’s Championship win and the fact we don’t think enough people have gone wild about it -

Just when you thought this Formula 1 season couldn’t get any stranger, we get a classic race of the year contender… At Sochi. Objectively, one of the worst tracks on the calendar. We really HAVE seen everything. From the moment we knew it was going to be a largely wet weekend, there was also potential for shenanigans, and we got that in Quali. Because who else needed an Internet favourites Top 3 of Norris’s 1st pole, Sainz and George Russell (AGAIN!) Hamilton 4th after two spins, and Verstappen now at the back after taking another power unit. Madness. We had Carlos Sainz lead for a while, but Norris took back control, cars running long thinking the rain would come but didn’t, and Lewis Hamilton ended up stuck behind a McLaren again. With 6 laps to go, we thought it was going to be Norris vs Hamilton for the win, then the rain actually landed, as opposed to half an hour AFTER the race like it usually did. We talked about the intense dancing in the rain and whether Norris lost this race, or whether Hamilto