Weekend Tip: Return to Jeddah and the Nürburgring 🎥
ONE GP AND TWO LONG DISTANCE RACES Less than four months after the premiere in Saudi Arabia, Formula 1 is back on the fastest GP street circuit. At the Nürburgring and at Mugello, quite a few Swiss drivers will start the season. Everything live on TV and on the Internet.
Just 111 days after its GP premiere in Saudi Arabia, Formula 1 will race again in Jeddah (the city's German name) from Friday to Sunday. At 6174 meters, the Jeddah Corniche Circuit is the second-longest track on the GP racing calendar and, with average speeds of around 250 km/h, the fastest street circuit in the world.
Slight changes to the route
As seen last year, there is a higher risk of safety car phases compared to other tracks. Because it is a street circuit, it takes longer for incidents to be resolved.
At the same time, fast corners like the one in Jeddah can cause major incidents. For the second Saudi Arabian GP, changes were therefore made to increase the run-off zones and improve safety.
Formula 1 already offered spectacle with its completely new race cars last Sunday in Bahrain. This is therefore now also expected at the pure night race - the track is illuminated by 600 light poles. On the track, which is completely different in terms of its characteristics and has no previous test drives as in Sakhir, virtually all the teams will be starting from scratch again.
Motivated team from Hinwil
Bahrain double winner Ferrari and its customer teams Haas and Alfa Romeo Sauber should once again be able to exploit Italian power. After the successful start to the season with nine world championship points scored by Valtteri Bottas and Guanyu Zhou, the head of Alfa Romeo Racing and Sauber Motorsport is both optimistic and realistic.
Frédéric Vasseur: "We feel we have a competitive car and a determined driver duo, and that boosts morale in the team. However, we are under no illusions about the challenge ahead. We saw in Bahrain how close the field is and how competitive qualifying and the race are. If we do our best, two cars in the points is a realistic prospect."
Swiss television will report live from qualifying on its third channel SRF info on Saturday, March 26, from 5:55 to 7:10 p.m. and from the second race of the season on Sunday, March 27, from 6:20 to 8:50 p.m. For the first time, German Oliver Sittler will be the commentator, expertly assisted by ex-GP driver Marc Surer.
Six Swiss aim for Nürburgring victory
The Nürburgring Endurance Series (NLS) 2022 begins on Saturday with the first of eight races. The best sporting and also weather conditions can be expected in the Eifel. For the first time in two years, spectators (with 2G) are allowed everywhere and thus provide the worthy backdrop.
The German GT3 teams in particular are preparing for the 24-hour classic at the end of May in the first three races. That's why there are also quite a few factory drivers in the various GT3 sports cars, including some from Switzerland.
For example, Riccardo Feller, Nico Müller and Patric Niederhauser in three different Audi R8s of the latest evolution. Philip Ellis and Raffaele Marciello/Manuel Metzger are in two Mercedes-AMGs from Haupt Racing. So a Swiss can definitely be expected on the overall podium.
Entire race day live on the Internet
Other people from Switzerland include Frédéric Yerly on a VW Golf TCR from Max Kruse Racing (with whom he captured the SP3T class title in 2021), Roger Vögeli on a Cupra TCR, the duo Iacoma/Calamia on a Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 CS, Philipp Hagnauer on a Cayman S, Roland Schmid and Ranko Mijatovic on two different BMW 330i and Julien Apothéloz on a BMW M240i Racing. In addition, Liechtenstein's Fabienne Wohlwend is now driving a BMW M4 GT4 in the Giti Tires women's team.
The start of the race over four hours will take place on Saturday, March 26, as always at 12 noon. Like the training (8.30 to 10 am) it will be available on the YouTube channel of the NLS (here the direct link) broadcast live.
Autorama remains in Wetzikon
Ten weeks after the 24 Hours of Dubai, the 12H Mugello forms the second round of the 24H Series 2022. As at the Nürburgring, touring cars and GT cars make up the field of participants with some Swiss.
Among them, only Daniel Allemann in Herberth Racing's Porsche is in contention for overall victory, as he was last year. The Ferrari 488 GT3 from Kessel Racing is driven by five Italian customers.
Orchid Racing is aiming for class victory with a new Porsche 992 GT3 Cup and a Cayman GT4 partly with Swiss drivers. The same applies to Wolf-Power Racing from Schwyz with its Audi R3 LMS TCR, in which Jasmin Preisig will be competing.
The partner team Autorama Motorsport, which has won the championship three times, will not be present for the first time since its entry in 2019, but will be at the garage's spring show in Wetzikon.
Return of Hofor Racing
In contrast, Hofor Racing by Bonk Motorsport returns to the 24H Series with two BMW M2 CS Racing. The 2018 champion team did not travel to these endurance races after the outbreak of the pandemic two years ago and concentrated on the ADAC GT4 Germany and the NLS. The only CH driver is Hofor boss Martin Kroll.
This two-part race - Part 1 on Saturday from 1 to 6:30 p.m. and Part 2 on Sunday from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. - will also be shown online at the Livestream completely transferred.
