Kamui Kobayashi will return to Wayne Taylor Racing next year when he bids for a third victory in three starts at the Daytona 24 Hours IMSA SportsCar Championship season-opener.

The two-time World Endurance Championship title winner with Toyota was named in the #40 WTR with Andretti Cadillac V-Series.R for Daytona in January when the team announced an unchanged full-season driver line-up after its switch from Acura.

The regulars in the #40 car will be Jordan Taylor and Louis Deletraz, who came together when WTR expanded to two cars this year, while Ricky Taylor and Filipe Albuquerque will continue a partnership that dates back to 2021 in the #10.

The drivers who will join the two regular pairings are all veterans of previous WTR campaigns.

Kobayashi drove WTR Cadillac Daytona Prototype international machinery before the team’s four-season stint with Acura at Daytona in 2019 and 2020, winning the race both times, with Fernando Alonso among his team-mates in the first year.

The 38-year-old, who is also team principal of the Toyota Gazoo Racing WEC squad, was unable to drive for WTR on its switch to another Japanese brand and moved to the Action Express Racing Caddy DPi-V.R run in conjunction with Hendrick Motorsports under the Ally Cadillac Racing banner in 2021 and 2022.

The line-up in the #40 V-Series.R will be completed by Cadillac regular Alex Lynn, who will race the car at the Daytona, Sebring and Petit Le Mans enduros that make up part of the five-event IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup segment of the series.

Current Cadillac driver Lynn will join WTR for enduro events

Photo by: Art Fleischmann

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The Briton, who looks certain to continue with Cadillac in the WEC on its switch of teams from Ganassi to Jota next year, has a 100% winning record with WTR, like Kobayashi.

Lynn contested the 2017 Sebring 12 Hours with the team, winning the race aboard a Caddy DPi shared with the Taylor brothers, who are the sons of team founder Wayne.

Ricky Taylor, who is returning to Cadillac after seven seasons with Acura that began at Penske in 2018, and Albuquerque will be joined by Will Stevens for Daytona, Sebring and Petit Le Mans.

The Briton was part of the WTR Acura line-up in 2022 at Daytona and Sebring and is expected to move over to Cadillac with Jota next year after racing one of its customer Porsche 963 LMDhs in the WEC since last season.

Brendon Hartley, also a Toyota driver in the WEC, completes the line-up in the #10 car with a one-off at Daytona.

The New Zealander has raced for WTR since 2022 when he joined the team for the end-of-season Petit Le Mans 10-hour race at Road Atlanta and this year contested three of the five IMSA enduros in one of its Acura ARX-06s.

Kobayashi described his return to WTR as a “homecoming”, adding: “I have such an amazing and fun memory of racing with his team and also with Cadillac Racing.

“I am really appreciative not only to WTR and Cadillac to give me another opportunity to race for them but also Morizo-san [Morizo is the racing alias of Toyota chairman Akio Toyoda] and TGR for allowing me to compete in this historic event in the United States.”

WTR boss Taylor said that Kobayashi’s abilities “speak for themselves”.

American Express has become an official partner of Formula 1 after expanding its sponsorship deal with the series.

Having previously been a regional partner in the Americas, Amex will now be visible at 15 of F1’s 24 grands prix next season.

Amex card members will gain access to a raft of perks, including pre-sale tickets and a range of on-site experiences at the tracks where the company will hold activations – including the Monaco, British and Italian Grands Prix.

The multi-year expansion of the previous agreement is a reflection of the close partnership that has developed, not only through Amex’s sponsorship in the Americas but also its commitment to the F1 Academy.

Earlier this year, Amex became an official partner of F1 Academy, sponsoring a car in the female-only series, supporting British racer Jess Edgar and also hosting a “Celebration of Women with Drive” event at the Miami Grand Prix back in May which featured an appearance from award-winning musician Camila Cabello.

“American Express has been a fantastic partner to Formula 1 in the Americas and as a supporter of F1 Academy, and I’m delighted that they have chosen to expand their relationship with us to become an official partner,” said Formula 1’s chief commercial officer Emily Prazer.

“We look forward to working with Amex to enhance the experience of card members at our races and showcasing Amex perks to our existing fans everywhere we race.”
Amex will continue to have a presence at the races in the Americas, including at this weekend’s Mexico Grand Prix.

Jessica Edgar, Rodin Motorsport

Photo by: F1 Academy Limited

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Complimentary race radios will be available for card members, while the Amex Fan Experience will allow ticket holders the chance to design their own car livery and record their own driver intro video.

 “We are thrilled to expand our relationship with Formula 1, building on the strong momentum of the sponsorship in the Americas over the past year,” added American Express chief marketing officer Elizabeth Rutledge.

“With more than 300 million fans worldwide age 18-34, F1 continues to grow in popularity and as a passion area for Millennials and Gen Z – American Express’ fastest growing customer segment.”

The Nissan and Jaguar Formula E teams have been handed a partial testing ban and been fined after both outfits broke the championship’s cost cap limit for the 2022-23 season.

Having completed its review of documentation from all 11 Formula E teams, the FIA announced on Wednesday that it had found Jaguar and Nissan to be in breach of the cost cap limit of €13,668,000 (£11,634,213).

Nissan were found to be 1.96% over (€269,252/£223,730), while Jaguar exceeded the limit by 0.6% (€88,883/£73,849), with both teams now forced to miss the opening three hours of pre-season testing in Valencia on 4 November as punishment.

It means Nissan’s Oliver Rowland and Norman Nato, as well as Jaguar’s Mitch Evans and Nick Cassidy, will sit out the afternoon session, while the teams have also been fined €300,000 and €100,000 respectively.

“The Cost Cap Administration recognised that they [Jaguar and Nissan] have acted cooperatively throughout the review process and have sought to provide additional information and evidence when requested in a timely manner,” according to an FIA statement.

“That this is the first year of the full application of the Financial Regulations and that there is no accusation or evidence of aggravating factors or that they have sought at any time to act in bad faith, dishonestly or in fraudulent manner, and nor has it wilfully concealed any information from the Cost Cap Administration.”

Norman Nato, Nissan Formula E Team, Nissan e-4ORCE 04

Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images

An Accepted Breach Agreement (ABA) was signed by both Nissan and Jaguar on 15 October, confirming the teams accepted the findings as well as the sporting and financial punishments.

Nissan placed seventh in the teams’ championship for the 2022-23 season, which was the first year of Formula E’s new financial regulations and the Gen3 car.

“The Nissan Formula E Team has determined that these minor breaches are exclusively related to the process of interpretation and adaption of the new Financial Regulations at a time when the team was also facing specific challenges linked to its change of ownership, full restructure, and relocation,” read a statement from Nissan.

“Nissan Formula E Team has since put in place all the necessary precautions to avoid these kinds of miscalculations and oversights in the future.”

Jaguar finished the 2022-23 season runner-up in the teams’ championship, having lost out on the title to customer squad Envision, while Evans came within reach of the drivers’ crown.

“It’s an extremely complex process and while at all times Jaguar Racing acted in good faith with honesty, integrity and in a spirit of transparency and cooperation, we acknowledge that procedural filing errors have led to the minor overspend breach,” read a statement from Jaguar.

“Following consultation with the FIA, we believe that had we filed correctly, we would have been fully compliant with Teams’ Cost Cap and the minor overspend breach would not have occurred.

“Unfortunately, we understand a re-filing is not allowable by the current regulations and therefore due to these unintended procedural errors we are in a very minor overspend position.

“At no time did we seek or gain a technical or sporting advantage, as can be seen and confirmed by the Cost Cap Administration’s findings and the nature of the ABA.

“We will continue to work closely with the FIA going forward on the development and application of the cost cap and in the best interests of Formula E – the pinnacle of electric racing.”

Francesco Bagnaia’s face in the post-race press conference at Phillip Island on Sunday, after finishing third in MotoGP’s Australian Grand Prix, was the best imaginable projection of the 10 seconds that separated him from the victorious Marc Marquez and runner-up Jorge Martin.

Reigning two-time champion Bagnaia’s gesture was one of concern, a logical reaction considering that Marquez created that gap over him despite losing ground at the start when he ran over the plastic visor that he himself had just thrown to the ground. That mishap cost him 12 positions and put him back in 13th, before he staged one of the best recoveries in recent memory to claim his third grand prix win of the season.

Leaving the Desmosedici’s obvious potential aside, another key factor that led Marquez to forgo the final year of his multi-million dollar Honda contract to sign with a Ducati satellite team for 2024 was the sophistication of the protocols used by the Borgo Panigale brand to increase the overall performance of the eight bikes it currently has.

The computers that receive the information downloaded from the bikes each time they return to the garage send this data to a server, to which the authorised technicians of each team have access. Not only does this operation take place in near real-time, but it is also combined with sophisticated analysis tools, including artificial intelligence, with a very high capacity for interpretation. With this in mind, it is much easier to understand the leaps in quality made by certain riders, both from Friday to Saturday and from Saturday to Sunday, when the sprint race becomes the best generator of all that information.

“We all know that Pecco will be there to win on Sunday. It doesn’t matter if he seems to suffer a little bit on Friday, because on Saturday he takes a step and on Sunday he takes another step,” says any member of the grid whenever he is asked.

However, in the context of a close duel like the current one, there are ways of camouflaging information to try and complicate that improvement a little. The last event in Australia was a case in point.

Bagnaia was a subdued third in the Australian GP, surpassed by Marquez after his sluggish launch

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

The 10 seconds that split Marquez and Bagnaia’s factory bike on Sunday can be explained by several factors that aligned and worked against Ducati’s leading rider. First of all, the track had been resurfaced, which put the previous years’ record into question. Add to this the weekend’s tricky weather and we get a race with more unknowns than certainties: an ideal Sunday for Marquez’s genius and Martin’s explosiveness, but less conducive to the cerebral Bagnaia.

Friday morning’s storm forced the organisers to cancel the first free practice session, so there was less information to gather. Second practice, already valid to generate the cut between Q1 and Q2, was the first contact with the dry but cold new asphalt.

The rain meant that Saturday’s practice was held on a still-damp track, and so the pack went out for a qualifying session that seemed to bear Marquez’s name as the rider who adapts best and fastest to the changes. Few expected that it would be Pramac rider Martin, with a stratospheric last lap, who would take pole by almost six-tenths over Marquez. The lap gave a preview to Martin’s form ahead of his sprint race victory, while on Sunday he duelled with Marquez until reaching the conclusion that it wasn’t worth risking a crash.

“Jorge was playing with us, because he was much faster” Francesco Bagnaia

“It was an incredible weekend, I scored as many points (32) as I could have hoped for here,” Martin told Motorsport.com after stepping off the podium. “I could have fought for a win or I could have crashed. I don’t focus so much on the wins as on being competitive, and I think we have to continue in this vein.”

Shortly before the race, someone close to him told Motorsport.com that the strategy for the final stretch of the championship had changed. “On the circuits where we know Jorge has some margin, we will not show everything from the first moment, we are not going to give that information away,” said this authoritative voice.

Martin arrived in Australia 10 points ahead of Bagnaia in the standings and will go to Thailand having doubled that advantage, with only 111 points left to play. Considering the distribution of points so far, one can see that the Spaniard has built his chances on Saturdays. In fact, in the pre-sprint era, Bagnaia would lead the standings with a 14-point cushion over the Pramac rider (295 points to Martin’s 281).

On the assumption that in Buriram, where Martin won the sprint and grand prix last year, he will once again look superior to his rival, it is likely that Martin will try to hide his cards until the last moment.

Martin unleashed blistering pace to snare pole, from which he cruised to victory in the sprint

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

“There are ways to play the game of misdirection in order not to give clues,” the track engineer of one of the world champions on the grid explained to Motorsport.com. “For example, looking for the performance of a particular sector, or plotting a particular corner, on a ‘bad’ lap. You always try to show your weapons as late as possible, to avoid the others, who can see your data, benefit from it.”

This paddock voice has no doubt that Martin made his rivals dizzy on Saturday and that feeling was also felt by Bagnaia after the sprint: “Jorge was playing with us, because he was much faster.”

All things considered, Martin will land in Thailand as the favourite to take the crown, which could be sealed in Malaysia in less than 10 days. On the other side of the scale is Bagnaia. He is not only a ‘victim’ of Ducati’s promise not to intervene in the duel, but seems increasingly aware of the strength with which new team-mate Marquez will arrive and how the multi-champion could become the judge of this world championship.

Could misdirection be a key to Martin’s first MotoGP world title?

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

Since ground-effect cars returned from the start of 2022, Formula 1 engineers have faced big headaches in working out ways to get the most performance from them.

In particular, the difficulty has been in managing the compromise between the aero and mechanical platforms, with the cars liking to run super close to the ground because that is where they produce the most downforce.

The challenge is made even harder because of the phenomenon of porpoising, where the car bounces up and down as it gains and loses downforce.

At the start of this year, Mercedes technical director James Allison believed that F1 had suffered because of the nature of this generation of cars.

“I’m sure I bang on about this because it’s been a bugbear of mine, but I personally don’t think it’s a great thing,” he said.

“I don’t think it’s good having the cars operating, when they leave the garage, with that much space [signalling a few millimetres with his fingers] to the ground.”

But as work has advanced on new regulations for 2026, with their latest version signed off at the FIA’s World Motor Sport Council last week, one characteristic change that has emerged is that the cars should not have to run so close to the ground.

F1 2026 FIA car renders

Photo by: FIA

The FIA’s head of single-seater matters Nikolas Tombazis said: “It is much less of a Venturi effect than the current generation.

“The main driving force for that is we wanted to have cars that are not quite running as close to the ground as current cars, so maybe we try to relax a bit that aerodynamic mechanism.”

Allison had suggested that places like Austin, where the demands of the car stretch across a wide spectrum of the speed range, were especially difficult when the cars needed to be so low all the time.

“[Under the old rule set] you could have a car that was a little bit more one-dimensional at tracks that are a bit more one-dimensional,” he said.

“So if there isn’t a big speed range, then you could maybe set your car up such that the corners coincide with where your good bit is, and you don’t suffer horribly for it dropping away either side.  

“But when you go to a place that’s a bit more of a broad test of a car, like Austin for example, where you’ve got real fast stuff, some slow stuff, and some in-between stuff, and some decent straights, and some bumps, then that’s going to test the bit where it’s falling off the back end of the performance.

“It’s going to test the end-of-straight [downforce] failure, it’s going to need to stay strong in the fast [corners]. And it’s hard to persuade the car to do all of those things with a set of rules that basically don’t want to do anything except be near the ground.” 

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella has insisted he was not prepared to ‘destroy’ the balance within the squad by employing team orders for Oscar Piastri to help Lando Norris in his quest for Formula 1’s drivers’ title.

Norris is hunting down three-time reigning champion Max Verstappen and remains within touching distance of the Red Bull driver, though he lost ground at the United States Grand Prix in controversial circumstances, having been penalised for overtaking off the track.

But outside the team, it has been felt by many that points have been left on the table for Norris by not enforcing orders onto Piastri earlier in the season, the most notable situation at the Hungarian Grand Prix where the Briton was instead asked to give the lead to his team-mate following a change in positions at the final pitstop window.

It has been a scenario the Woking-based team has had to adapt to with a fresh management structure still learning the ropes at an outfit that has been away from the limelight for over a decade.

Discussing the dynamics of number one and two drivers in an exclusive interview with Motorsport.com, Stella explained: “Driver management must be seen in the context of the competitiveness of the car.

Andrea Stella, Team Principal, McLaren F1 Team

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images

“You always need to have a management line, but if you compete for tenth and eleventh place, all your efforts are directed towards achieving competitiveness. It is when you get to fighting for the top positions that the scenario changes.

“Our focus has always been on maximum collaboration. This is because there is a main objective, something bigger than the team principal, something bigger than Lando and something bigger than Oscar, and that is the interest of the team, of McLaren. This aspect is non-negotiable, in any situation.

“We have always approached driver management, and in general, the rules by which we go on the track according to some principles: the first, as I said, is the interest of the team, the second is sportsmanship, or if you prefer, integrity.

“These are very important values, we want to act fairly and correctly towards both our drivers, and this aspect becomes even more important when you have two talents who have the skills and the whole package needed to win races.

“We have worked hard to be where we are today, we have worked hard to have and develop Oscar, as well as Lando. When you have two drivers who work together, the growth of the team benefits, and since we were able to provide Lando and Oscar with a competitive car, that is from the Miami Grand Prix, McLaren has become the team that has scored the most points in the constructors’ championship.

Lando Norris, McLaren F1 Team, 1st position, and Oscar Piastri, McLaren F1 Team, 3rd position, congratulate each other in Parc Ferme

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

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“When you get to be in this situation, you have to define a situation that, I think, many would like to have: how do you manage the drivers? We always start from our principles, we don’t negotiate them.”

On whether the team could really be successful without a designated number one driver, Stella pointed to the dangers of such tactics, replying: “We don’t have a number one driver or a number two. This is a scenario that works well for the media and in pub chatter, but it’s not good when you manage a Formula 1 team because you also have to consider the future.

“I can’t know if we will win this season, but I am aware that we want to be in a position to win in ’25, ’26 and ’27, and if in managing the 2024 season I end up destroying the balance, I will end up not having a solid base in the following years.

“This is the way I believe we should work in Formula 1, then I am aware that complex situations can always arise. When I hear people talking about the mathematical approach of the type ‘Oscar from now on must put Lando behind’, I reply that Lando himself doesn’t want Oscar to make himself available.

“My challenge is to be able to count on a united and compact group, I can’t be sure that we will always do a good job, but we must always be clear that we are here to continue working and building, not with the aim of having a glorious weekend, but to do well in the years to come.”