Motorsport News

The Sahara Force India F1 team was finally put to rest when the team changed hands from Vijay Mallya to Lawrence Stroll, and was renamed Racing Point Force India. The new Stroll-led consortium of investors decided to drop Force India altogether and keep the name as just 'Racing Point' for 2019. Now, however, it seems that the Silverstone-based team is planning a completely new name that will be revealed ahead of the 2019 season, with Racing Point just being a placeholder.

23-time Isle of Man winner John McGuinness will pilot the Superlight at next year's Isle of Man TT.

Aravind KP has been announced as fourth rider to join the Sherco TVS Rally Factory Team for Dakar 2019. Aravind's name has been announced after the rider recovered completely from his injuries sustained in the PanAfrica Rally earlier this year. In his third outing at Dakar, the 33-year-old joins Michael and Adrien Metge as well as Enduro Champion Lorenzo Santolino at Sherco TVS. Aravind has also been training in Spain and will be riding the Dakar-spec RTR 450 motorcycle across one of the most gruelling rally in the world.

Lance Stroll has been finally confirmed as the new driver for Racing Point Force India. While the team may have only made it official now, Stroll moving to Force India was hardly a surprise and possibly the worst kept secret at Formula 1 this year.

It was a spectacular end to yet another season of the Formula 1 Championship with the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton took this season's 11th win amidst much drama at the Yas Marina circuit, while Fernando Alonso completed the last race (for now) of his F1 career in 11th place, bringing an end to an illustrious career in the sport. The former world champion was also announced as the driver of the day after a fantastic drive. Finishing on the podium though behind Hamilton were Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel, who finished second 2.5s adrift, while Red Bull's Max Verstappen finished third, 12.7s behind the race leader.

Driver Robert Kubica has been confirmed to make his Formula 1 come back next year with Williams F1 team. The 2008 Canadian Grand Prix winner was serving as as the reserve and test driver for Williams through the 2018 season, and now steps into the driver's seat in place of Sergey Sirotkin, and will be teaming up with George Russell. Kubica's last race in F1 was in 2010 season finale, after which he suffered severe injuries to his right arm in a rally crash in early 2011. The serious injuries had left him with long-term injuries, which hindered his racing opportunities for several years. The return to F1 in 2019 is big news for the Kubica, who is now 70 per cent left-handed. He was expected to return to racing last year with Williams, however, the team decided to bring Sirotkin instead.

Indian racer Jehan Daruvala will be making his GP3 Series debut this weekend at the Has Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi. The GP3 is a support series that runs alongside Formula 1 and comes as a big push for the Mumbai-based driver's motorsport career. Jehan, who became the first Indian to win a race in the FIA F3 European championship, has collaborated up with Dutch team MP Motorsport for GP3. He will be a teammate to Dutchman Richard Verschoor and Canadian Devlin Defrancesco.

Ducati India had a memorable debut in the 21st edition of the JK Tyre FMSCI National Racing Championship at the Buddh International Circuit (BIC) over the weekend. The Italian motorcycle maker was competing in two categories and swept with podium finishes over the weekend. Gurvinder Singh Matharu from Redline Racing and Chennai's Deepak Ravi Kumar bagged the first and third positions in the superbike category onboard the Ducati Panigale V4 S and Panigale V4. Both bikes were competing in the stock setup in the series.