#Felipe nasr

[skitskatdacat63]

F1 Drivers with Kangaroos - A right of passage for the Australian GP

+ bonus Koalas

[nick-cassidy]

📸: porschepenskemotorsport on instagram

[lck-toilet]

Roger and his kids

[ryo-hirakawa]

thinking about the last time f2 (in its gp2 iteration) was in singapore. so many familiar names

[visualvocabulary33]

[yaolukexi]

Be careful when you teasing drivers in other series, because they may become your colleagues💀

[motorsportsminiatures]

[ruskatartx]

Pfaff #9 2022 be like:

[cafedeotocom]

IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, Round 1, Daytona (USA)

[nick-cassidy]

📸:@/porsche.motorsport stories on instagram

[gardenofadonis]

(not) ur typical gym pic

[idontshitpostbuttheolympicpark]

still can't get over the confluence of circumstances that led to felipe massa and felipe nasr competing in the same seasons of f1.

[opelman]

24h Mans 2023 by Ste Tit

[umseb]

What speaks for a Le Mans start?

Sebastian Vettel could compete in Le Mans with Porsche as early as 2024. The former Formula 1 world champion impressed in the first test. There are increasing signs of a racing comeback for the German. Porsche has postponed the planned announcement of the driver pairing of the third car for Le Mans.

Sebastian Vettel was abstinent for fifteen months. Apart from a few demonstration laps in a Williams FW14B at Silverstone and a Red Bull RB7 at the Nürburgring, the four-time world champion stayed away from the race track, but the thoroughbred racing driver regularly admitted that he misses racing. That's why his name was mentioned again and again when an attractive door opened-or seemed to open-in Formula 1, just like at Mercedes next year. The transfer of Lewis Hamilton to Ferrari frees up a cockpit at Mercedes, and of course Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff and Vettel were already in contact. The Heppenheimer also has his eye on the World Endurance Championship (WEC) with Porsche. On March 21st, Vettel took part in the roll-out test of the third Le Mans car in Weissach. The 36-year-old shared the cockpit with Porsche works driver Laurens Vanthoor. The Belgian drove two stints of twenty laps each, after which Vettel took over the Porsche hypercar for several runs between ten and fifteen laps.

Vettel fast straight away

According to information from our sister magazine, Motorsport aktuell, Vettel was on the same lap time level as Vanthoor after just fifteen laps. First conclusion: Vettel was immediately competitive at raw speed, and he also impressed with good feedback. The second stage of the test plan was then initiated: Vettel and five other works drivers will take part in a 36-hour test at the Spanish Motorland Aragón racetrack from March 25th to 27th, which was planned as preparation for Le Mans. The test is intended to evaluate how the 53-time GP winner copes with the 700 hp LMDh car in the dark. Vettel wants to use the test to find out whether the LMDh class cars will rekindle the fire in him. With a curb weight of 1,030 kilograms, the hybrid racers are significantly heavier than a Formula 1 car and have less power, but with hybrid technology and biofuel, they fit into the green world view of the man in the cockpit. The first impression behind the wheel of the Porsche 963 already left a clear mark on the thoroughbred racing driver from Heppenheim: "I'm looking forward to testing the Porsche and have already had the opportunity to get to know the car a little in Weissach. I've always had other racing series, and my curiosity for long distances encouraged me to just give it a try. Now I'm excited about the endurance run in Aragón and am looking forward to my time behind the wheel. It will definitely take some adjustment and some getting used to, but the whole team is very open and helps me with that. We'll see what happens next. At the moment there are no further plans for the future."

Porsche postpones driver announcement

After that, at the latest, a decision must be made as to whether Vettel will be included in Porsche's Le Mans squad. The Penske team will compete at Le Mans in 2024 with three cars: the two WEC cars plus an additional 963, which so far only has Mathieu Jaminet named. The original plan was for Jaminet to share the Porsche with Felipe Nasr and Nick Tandy. The trio should have been confirmed this week on Thursday, March 28, but that announcement was postponed. This suggests that there is a real chance that Vettel could still jump on the Le Mans bandwagon. The Heppenheimer is still keeping the ball low: "We'll see how things continue. At the moment there are no further plans for the future." Theoretically, it would be possible for Vettel to contest one of the two World Championship races in Imola or Spa, although not with the works cars, but with the two customer teams, Proton Competition or Jota Hertz Racing. Vettel would obviously like to drive a test race because this is the only way to optimally prepare for a race at Le Mans. As expected, there is no doubt about Vettel in terms of driving, but a test race would allow him to get a feel for the demanding traffic situation in endurance racing, where the fast hypercar top cars share the track with the much slower GT3 cars.

Further Porsche tests possible

Because of the great competition in the field, the sports prototypes are now the second most attractive racing series in the world. In Aragon, Vettel also gets to know the competition straight away. It's not just Porsche that is preparing for Le Mans. Alpine with Mick Schumacher has also registered on the Spanish route. If everything goes well, Vettel could complete a third test soon: Porsche will drive in Spa on April 5th and 6th, and there is also the possibility of another 36-hour test on April 10th and 11th at the French track Le Castellet, even if Porsche has not yet officially registered for the test. The decision on a Le Mans start must be made by mid-April at the latest. The Porsche board is said to be enthusiastic about the idea of ​​Vettel driving with Porsche at Le Mans as early as 2024.

Porsche against seven manufacturers

The Stuttgart team won the first race of the season in Qatar with the 963. The WEC is enjoying particular attention this year because eight manufacturers are represented: Porsche, Ferrari, Toyota, Peugeot, BMW, Cadillac, Alpine and Lamborghini. The 24 Hours of Le Mans is even more than usual one of the big motorsport highlights of the year. Another large car company, Aston Martin, is expected to join in 2025. There are persistent rumors about a McLaren entry. For Porsche, Vettel's testing is a prestigious experience. The example of Alonso at Toyota and Hülkenberg at Porsche shows what advertising value the deployment of a Formula 1 driver on foreign terrain can have. Thomas Laudenbach, Head of Porsche Motorsport, is pleased that the former champion is showing interest in Porsche's long-distance activities: "There was no question for us that we would be happy to support his request for a test opportunity and provide him with extensive preparation and sufficient time. We can certainly learn a lot from his valuable feedback. Our 36-hour endurance run with our factory drivers in Motorland Aragón offers a perfect environment for this."

[coimbrabertone]

What is the Greatest Team in Motorsports?

So last weekend, Team Penske swept the three-wide front row for the 2024 Indianapolis 500, marking only the second time that a team has locked out the front row. The first time? Penske in 1988. Oh, and just to add a cherry on top of that, Penske won the NASCAR All-Star race at North Wilkesboro with Joey Logano.

This comes on the heels of Penske winning the 2021 Daytona 500 with Austin Cindric, the 2022 Indycar championship with Will Power, the 2022 NASCAR championship with Joey Logano, the 2023 Indianapolis 500 with Josef Newgarden, the 2023 NASCAR championship with Ryan Blaney, and the 2024 24 Hours of Daytona with Dane Cameron, Matt Campbell, Felipe Nasr, and Josef Newgarden. Yeah...they're on a run and a half, aren't they?

Beyond that, Penske has been everywhere and done everything.

Formula One? Won the 1976 Austrian Grand Prix with John Watson.

Sports Cars? Well in addition to the aforementioned Daytona 24 win, their Porsche-Penske RS Spyder dominated LMP2 racing in the 2000s - you know how everyone talks about how dominant the Diesel Audi LMP1s of the 2000s were? Well at the 2008 12 Hours of Sebring, the Porsche-Penske RS Spyder LMP2 beat the Audi R10 TDI LMP1. Penske won, a privateer RS Spyder finished second, and the Audi had to settle for third. Damn.

That's not even to mention how the Penske Porsche 917-30 with its 5.4L Twin Turbo Flat-12 was so dominant in 1973 that it killed Can Am.

Three Daytona 500s, nineteen Indianapolis 500s, four NASCAR championships plus two in the Xfinity series, seventeen Indycar championships across USAC, CART, and Indycar, and a grand total of over 500 race wins makes for a pretty compelling case.

Pretty much the only major feather messing in Roger Penske's cap is the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and, well, the Penske-Porsche partnership is at it again. The #6 Penske Porsche driven by Kevin Estre, Andre Lotterer, and Laurens Vanthoor has gone first-second-second in the first three WEC races of the season. That kind of form, plus some of the historic context I established for the Porsche-Penske partnership...are you really going to write them off ahead of Le Mans this year?

So yeah, Penske is a powerhouse of a team and they've been everywhere.

Including Australian Supercars of all things. Scott McLaughlin in the DJR Team Penske Ford took forty-eight wins across four years and won three championships in a row from 2018 to 2020, including the 2019 Bathurst 1000. He then went on to race in Indycar, has taken five wins so far, and just set a 233.220 four-lap average to take that pole position for the Indy 500.

Running the same classic Pennzoil yellow submarine livery as Rick Mears did in 1988. In the race itself, he'll wear a retro red and yellow suit of overalls modeled on the ones that Rick Mears wore in the 80s. If the stars align and Scott repeats what Rick did in 1988 and wins the Indy 500, then he'll have done something truly remarkable. He'll have cut his teeth in Australian supercars and come out of it one of the best Indycar drivers of the modern era.

Of course, his teammates will challenge him.

Will Power, who has more poles in Indycar than anyone else in history.

Josef Newgarden who won last year and has turned into a dominant force on ovals in Indycar.

Not to mention thirty other cars that want to wipe the smile off of Team Penske's face.

There is a lot of talk about Kyle Larson doing the double this year, racing the Indy 500 for Arrow McLaren and then racing the Coke 600 in Charlotte for Hendrick Motorsports, and he'll start fifth. That legitimately gives him one of the best chances of anyone to attempt the double. That being said, last year...Team Penske did the double as a team.

Josef Newgarden won the Indy 500, then Ryan Blaney won the Coke 600. Both of them went into the crowds to celebrate. If Kyle Larson wants to win the double, he'll be up against the mammoth that is Team Penske. Perhaps one of the greatest teams in all of motorsports, and they'll be facing him in both Indianapolis and Charlotte.

Let the games begin.

Sunday, May 26th, 2024 is going to be Motorsports Christmas. The Catalan Motorcycle Grand Prix, the Monaco Grand Prix, the Indianapolis 500, and the Coke 600. Two triple crown events, one of NASCAR's crown jewel, and the home race for about half of the MotoGP field, all in one day.

It's going to be a damn good day.