Motoring News

F1.com's Lawrence Barretto picks out his winners and losers from the first 2026 pre-season test in Bahrain.

Cupra Kiro Formula E team-mates Dan Ticktum and Pepe Marti have drawn a line under their late-race clash at the Jeddah E-Prix after clearing the air in the hours following Saturday’s round.
Marti was trying to pass Ticktum for fifth place on the penultimate lap at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit when the two came to blows entering the bus stop chicane.
Formula E rookie Marti subsequently ...Keep reading

McLaren F1 team principal Andrea Stella admitted Mercedes and Ferrari "were quicker than us" in race simulations at the first pre-season test in Bahrain, and also believes Red Bull will be in the mix.
As teams dug into long runs on Thursday and Friday, the fog of war surrounding pre-season testing was lifted little by little. While there are still a lot of question marks over the exact pecking ...Keep reading

Christopher Mies has explained his unfortunate collision with a kangaroo during the opening stages of the 2026 Bathurst 12 Hour, which the Ford driver survived unscathed.
Mies, who was sharing the #64 HRT Ford Mustang GT3 with reigning Supercars champion Broc Feeney and 2019 Intercontinental GT champion Dennis Olsen, hit a kangaroo at 250km/h on the Conrod Straight at Mount Panorama Circuit ...Keep reading

Maxime Martin, Maro Engel and Mikael Grenier have won a dramatic – and dramatically shortened – Bathurst 12 Hour race.
Their Team GMR entry started from 29th on the grid after a series of problems during practice and qualifying, but the trio showed excellent pace throughout the race and when Martin was presented with the lead late in the race, he grabbed the opportunity and did not put a ...Keep reading

At this point, Austin Hill believes he has a mystique of winning NASCAR O’Reilly Series races at Daytona that is more effective than the resume that generated the aura in the first place.
Of his 15 wins at the second-highest level of the discipline, 11 of them have come across Daytona, Talladega and Atlanta. And every time NOAPS comes to Daytona, the narrative is that everyone needs to gang ...Keep reading

Austin Hill now has 15 wins in the NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series, which includes an astonishing eleven on drafting tracks, with four of those coming at Daytona. He dominated the 2026 season-opener, delivering Richard Childress Racing the checkered flag once again.
"I love these guys, man," said Hill in Victory Lane. "Everybody that's been at Chevrolet, everybody at RCR, ECR, everyone that ...Keep reading

Jake Finch believes he should have three wins in the ARCA race at Daytona International Speedway.
He has been beat straight-up. He was once misled by his teammate on a ‘teammate restart’ in overtime and now he and that same teammate (Gus Dean) were involved in a crash while sharing the front row after a push from Gio Ruggiero.
At the end of the day, it was Ruggiero and Joe Gibbs Racing ...Keep reading

It is impossible to understate the impact Dale Earnhardt had on NASCAR, and the void left when he died on the final lap of the 2001 Daytona 500. 
At the time, he was holding back several cars while the two he owned -- the No. 15 of Michael Waltrip and the No. 8 of his son, Dale Earnhardt Jr., drove off to a Dale Earnhardt Inc. (DEI) 1-2 finish. But mere seconds from finishing third right ...Keep reading

The third and final practice for the 68th running of the Daytona 500 was very calm, and there were no issues.
Of the 41 starters, only 18 actually chose to go out on track. There was some drafting, and the biggest pack formed early with RFK Racing and Team Penske Fords, but also a handful of Chevrolets that joined them.
Jimmie Johnson was the only Toyota driver to even go out on track, and ...Keep reading

For the second World Rally Championship event in a row, Hyundai has struggled for outright pace in its battle against Toyota.
Driver Thierry Neuville admitted he was running out of set up options to try as Hyundai explored radical changes to find answers to its lack of grip and speed at Rally Sweden.
The Korean marque had hoped to take the fight to Toyota in Sweden after a difficult season ...Keep reading

19-year-old Gio Ruggiero captured the checkered flag in the ARCA Menard's Series season-opener at Daytona. He's already a winner in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series and the ARCA East division, but that was his first victory in the primary ARCA series.
Nitro Motorsports dominated much of the race, but their lead drivers [Jake Finch and Gus Dean] both crashed while controlling the inside and ...Keep reading

Fourth-generation racer and Rise Racing driver Bobby Dale Earnhardt piloted the No. 89 Chevrolet through the late-race carnage, finishing ninth in the 2026 ARCA Menard's Series season-opener. He spent most of the race at the back of the lead pack, before making a late charge in the final laps. Gio Ruggiero won the race for Joe Gibbs Racing.
Bobby is the son of former racer Kerry Earnhardt ...Keep reading

Elfyn Evans headed into the final day of Rally Sweden with a slender 13.3s lead despite a late push from Takamoto Katsuta, as Toyota’s domination continued.
Evans started Saturday facing a 2.8s deficit to Katsuta, but this was turned on its head after the morning loop. A perplexed Katsuta struggled for grip, which left him 16.1s adrift.
The deficit grew to 18s early in the afternoon as ...Keep reading

Formula 1 held its first official pre-season test for the 2026 campaign in Bahrain this week, offering a glimpse into the wholesale regulation changes which'll debut this year. 
All 11 teams were present and there were several talking points from the action, such as debates over who the benchmark is to Max Verstappen expressing his anger over the new rules. 
So here are the key stats from ...Keep reading

Jaguar Formula E driver Antonio Felix da Costa pulled off a strategic masterclass to win the second leg of the Jeddah E-Prix, as Porsche endured a tough end to the weekend.
Having qualified third, da Costa bided his time in the opening phases of the race and timed his first Attack Mode to absolute perfection, ending a victory drought stretching back to the 2024 Portland E-Prix.
Envision’s ...Keep reading

After historic snow postponed the Clash at Bowman Gray several days into the week, NASCAR has enjoyed optimal weather for Speedweek at Daytona. However, there is a real threat of thunderstorms on Sunday, and it's all about when -- not if -- the bad weather will arrive.
In a proactive move, NASCAR has moved up the start of the 68th running of the Daytona 500 a full hour to 1:30pm EST. The NASCAR ...Keep reading

Jimmie Johnson will end his NASCAR Cup Series career a year from now with 702 starts in the 69th Daytona 500.
Sure, his full-time career with Hendrick Motorsports ended after the 2020 season and then came a chapter that included IMSA and IndyCar with Chip Ganassi Racing but the seven-time Cup champion returned home as a team owner with Legacy Motor Club in 2023.
Since then, Johnson has made ...Keep reading

Ducati is betting on using the same engine base that has been sweeping MotoGP since 2024, extending its useful life until the introduction of the new technical regulations in 2027.
When Marc Marquez arrived in the official Ducati garage at the Valencia test in November 2024 to compare the GP24 and GP25, he understood that the difference between the prototypes he was testing and the GP23 he ...Keep reading

F1.com's Lawrence Barretto tries to answer the five key questions that came out of the first pre-season test at the Bahrain International Circuit.