UNITED KINGDOM: In 2021, Formula 1 delivered the most exciting season the sport has witnessed in recent years. Both drivers’ and constructors’ championship battles between Mercedes and Red Bull went deep into the season, unlike in the previous years.
The drivers’ championship was decided on the final lap of an exciting yet anticlimactic finale at Abu Dhabi. With the cost cap introduced for the first time in 2021, the car development race was also tightly knit.
The 2021 season saw plenty of action on the track, with the 7-time world champion Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen duelling each other throughout the season.
Off the track, there was no shortage of fireworks as Mercedes boss Toto Wolff and his Red Bull counterpart Christian Horner exchanged comments ever so often.
Mercedes successfully retained the Constructors’ championship for the 8th time running. Still, Lewis Hamilton was ‘robbed’ of his championship due to a disappointing show of race control by then-race director Michael Masi and the team of race stewards.
In the end, Max Verstappen benefitted from the decisions made by race control and claimed his first driver’s championship.
In early October, Red Bull had overspent their allotted budget of $145 million in 2021. The cost cap administration found Red Bull guilty of a minor overspending breach, which means that Red Bull overspent by 5% of $145 M.
The FIA is yet to announce what action will be taken against Red Bull. Recently, a video of an interview with Ross Brawn resurfaced in which he can be heard saying that the cost cap regulations “have teeth”. He adds that if any team “fraudulently” broke the cost cap, they would lose their championship.
The team from Milton Keynes maintains that they have not breached the regulations. They expressed their surprise and disappointment regarding the FIA’s ruling.
The exact amount of overspending by the team isn’t clear as the 5% margin can cover any amount up to $7,25 M. Zak Brown, the CEO of McLaren racing, in an open letter, urged the FIA to tighten up the margin by reducing it in half, i.e., 2.5%.
When a media outlet asked Bernie Ecclestone for his views on the cost cap saga about potentially losing championship points in 2021, he warned that it would get worse.
UNITED KINGDOM: Zak Brown, the CEO of McLaren Racing, wrote a letter to Mohammed Ben Sulayem, president of Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA), the governing body of Formula One, and sent a copy of the same to F1 president Stefano Domenicali. He called for penalties that will affect both the finance and performance of the guilty parties.
Zak Brown, however, didn’t refer directly to Red Bull or Aston Martin, the teams which were found to be not per the cost cap regulations. Aston Martin was found to be in a procedural breach, while Red Bull was found to have spent over the set limit by a minor margin. Williams Racing was fined $25,000 in May for an earlier procedural breach.
In the letter dated 12th October, Zak Brown expressed his regarding the cost cap breach. He praised the FIA’s work on the cost cap, saying the policing of the cost cap was ‘critical’ for the sport’s future. He suggested that any team guilty of breaching the budget limit should be sanctioned strictly by giving a fine equal to twice the amount of overspend and a reduction in their permitted research and development for next year.
According to Zak Brown, the overspending breaches constituted cheating as they offered a significant advantage across the technical, sporting, and financial regulations set by FIA. He felt that the FIA had run an extremely thorough, collaborative, and open process in enforcing the cost cap.
The teams were given a one-year rehearsal in 2020, with many opportunities for the teams to seek any clarification in case any of the details were unclear. He adds that there was no reason for any team to have misinterpreted the rules. Any team who had overspent the limit would gain an unfair advantage in both the current and following year’s car development.
Zak Brown, in his letter, adds that a financial penalty alone would not be enough for an overspending breach or a serious procedural breach.
Zak Brown proposed a set of tweaks to the rules of the cost cap regulation to negate what he sees as weaknesses, exposed by the process of regulating cost cap in its first season. He suggested moving teams that were found guilty of accumulating and benefiting from the multiplier effect of several minor overspend breaches to a major breach category and applying sanctions that were set for a major overspend.
He called for more transparency in the administerial proceeding as the information regarding Red Bull’s breach and whether the team will accept the FIA’s findings and related ‘accepted breach agreement’ has not yet been made public.
The budget cap was introduced in the 2021 season in an attempt to bridge the gap between resources available to the big and smaller teams due to the financial constraints of the latter. It took until October this year for the FIA to release its findings because of the complex nature of the process.
SWEDEN: In recent research conducted by a team of Swedish researchers, those with elevated levels of prostasin, a protein found in the epithelial cells which cover the body surfaces and organs, are more prone to develop diabetes. The study was published in the journal of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD), Diabetologica.
In the investigation of almost 4000 individuals aged over 22 years, researchers found that those with higher protein prostasin blood levels were 76% more likely to acquire diabetes and 43% more likely to die from cancer. Notably, the results indicate that individuals with high blood sugar and protein levels had a higher chance of dying from cancer.
Despite taking a variety of important lifestyle variables like age, sex, drinking and smoking patterns, waist circumference, cholesterol, and blood pressure, the findings remained constant. The source of blood samples for the study was the Malmö Diet and Cancer Study, a population-based prospective study in Malmö, which has been operational since 1993.
Professor Gunnar Engström of Lund University in Malmö, who was the co-lead author of the study, said, “This study is the most thorough of its sort to date and adds fresh information about the biological link between diabetes and cancer. This is interesting because it increases the possibility of targeting this protein with future treatments for both diabetes and cancer. Prostasin may just be a signal that disease may arise or could be causally relevant.”
Numerous studies have preliminarily established a correlation between diabetes and an advanced threat of getting various cancers, along with an increased mortality rate because of it. Diabetes medications are proven to be a factor in the correlation between the two diseases.
Apart from having a 30% more risk of bowel cancer and a 20% higher risk of breast cancer, the chance of individuals with type 2 diabetes acquiring pancreatic, endometrial, and liver cancer is double.
According to the study, Younger participants, those with lower blood glucose levels, and those with better kidney function were shown to have prostasin levels that were a stronger predictor of diabetes than older participants.
UNITED STATES: Kanye West found himself embroiled in fresh controversy after he claimed that George Floyd had died because of fentanyl, an opioid drug used as a pain medication. He also added that the police officer’s knee “wasn’t even on his neck like that.”
George Floyd, an African-American, was killed in mid-2020 in an argument with the police in Minneapolis, following which a video emerged showing police officer Derek Chauvin with his knee on Floyd’s neck for almost nine minutes.
Floyd could be heard asking the officer to release him as he couldn’t breathe. Kanye West made the comments in a podcast on Saturday while discussing Candace Owen’s documentary The Greatest Lie Ever Sold: George Floyd and the Rise of BLM.
Kanye West said, “They hit him with the fentanyl; if you look, the guys knee wasn’t even on his neck like that.” He went on to compare George Floyd with late fashion designer Virgil Abloh, who had succumbed to cancer in November last year. Then he attacked the ‘Jewish Media’ who he claimed he had been blocked by.
“Tell me, could you even rally run this interview? Mav (Maverick Carter) didn’t even run my interview, they blocked me out, the Jewish media blocked me out. This s*** is lit, right? I am lit, right, I am lit. I put $140m into JP Morgan, and they treated me like s***, so if JP Morgan Chase is treating me like that, how are they treating the rest of y’all, I am outraged, people want to calm it down. I didn’t break the law,” he added.
Police officer Chauvin was convicted of multiple charges, including murder and manslaughter in April last year. Earlier this year, he pleaded guilty to violating Floyd’s civil rights and was sentenced to serve 21 years in prison.
West’s latest controversy comes on the heels of recent controversy he had created after he wore a “White Lives Matter” t-shirt at a Paris fashion show. Kanye also had an interview with Tucker Carlson, who is known for his right-wing ideology.
In unaired footage from the interview, which was leaked, later on, Kanye West made a barrage of anti-semitic comments as well as bizarre conspiracy theories. He could be heard saying he preferred his children with Kim Kardashian to learn about Hanukkah rather than Kwanzaa as it would come with some financial engineering.
AUSTRALIA: Scotland outclassed West Indies by 42 runs, aided by George Munsey, who carried his bat through the Scottish innings to help his side post a competitive target of 161 before Mark Watt led the bowling attack to skittle West Indies out for 118.
Scotland Innings
After the West Indian skipper won the toss and opted to field on a green and firm pitch in the 3rd qualifier for the group stages of the T20 World Cup, Scotland openers George Munsey and Michael Jones took on the pacers as the Scottish batsmen hit them around the Hobart oval, smashing boundaries at will to give their side a flying start.
George Munsey (66 not out) punished Kyle Mayers’ (24/0) and Alzarri Joseph’s (28/2) poor lines by hitting three boundaries in the third and fourth overs of the innings.
Mayers and Joseph gave away 16 and 15 runs, respectively, as they could only watch the ball run away into the gaps as Munsey hit the ball mercilessly.
Scotland’s first fifty runs came within the powerplay in just five overs. Obed McCoy (25/0) raised hopes of the first breakthrough when he appealed for an LBW against Munsey, but the extra bounce of the pitch turned out to be the saviour for the hard-hitting Munsey as the replays showed that the ball would have clipped the top of the leg stump. The third umpire decided to stay with the umpire’s call as not out.
The play was stopped in the middle of the 6th over as the wind failed to blow away the steady drizzle.
After a 45-minute rain-induced break, West Indies lost their first review as McCoy appealed again for an LBW against Munsey, only for the replays to show that the impact was outside the off stump while being a long way down the pitch.
Jason Holder (14/2) bowled the first over after the powerplay struck immediately as he struck twice in consecutive overs. He castled Michael Jones (20 off 17 balls) with one that nipped back at the right-hander from a good length in the 7th over.
The new man in, Matthew Cross (3 off 5 balls), was caught by Shamarh Brooks at mid-on as he tried to swat a back-of-length delivery from Holder in his second over of the spell.
George Munsey celebrating his half-century. Photo Credit: ICC
The two quick wickets pegged back the early impetus given by the openers as George Munsey held fort at one end. After the 10th over, Scotland were 72 for the loss of 2 wickets, a far cry from 50 for no loss after the 5th over.
Richie Berrington (16 off 14 balls) began to free his arm as he deposited Akeal Hosein (31/0) for a massive six in the 11th over, but couldn’t keep the momentum going as he pulled a short delivery from Joseph in the very next over, straight to Mayers at short mid-wicket, who pouched the offering with glee.
Calum MacLeod (23 off 14 balls) showed aggressive intent early on as he pulled Holder for a four before hitting Obed McCoy for consecutive boundaries in the next over, which yielded 11 runs as the scoring rate began to rise.
MacLeod and Munsey milked Akeal Hosein’s final over for 10 runs thanks to some brilliant running between the wickets and a beautiful boundary by MacLeod.
Odean Smith (31/1) cut short the dangerous-looking MacLeod’s cameo by having him caught at cover by Brandon King. George Munsey soon brought up his first T20 World Cup fifty by nudging Joseph for a single.
Number six batsman Michael Leask (4 off 6 balls) was bowled by a yorker from Joseph as Munsey watched wickets tumble at the other end.
Chris Greaves (16 off 11 balls), who came in after the dismissal of Leask, began with a bang, hitting McCoy for consecutive boundaries in the 18th over.
Alzarri Joseph, who was bowling a tight line, struck Munsey on the thigh pads off the first ball of the 19th over and the umpire raised the finger of doom.
Munsey successfully reviewed straightaway as the ball seemed to pitch outside of the leg stump. Munsey survived another LBW scare two deliveries later as West Indies captain Nicholas Pooran decided to use up the last DRS for a delivery that was pitching outside the leg stump.
Munsey smashed three boundaries off Odean Smith, who was handed the ball for the last over of the innings to take Scotland to 160/5 in their stipulated 20 overs.
West Indies Innings
Slow-left-arm bowler Mark Watt (12/3) started the proceedings with a measly first over, giving away a single run.
Wicketkeeper Matthew Cook missed out on a stumping opportunity off the fifth delivery as he fumbled while collecting the ball, which allowed Evin Lewis (14 off 13 balls) to get back into his crease.
The early pressure created by Watt was somewhat relieved by Kyle Mayers (20 off 13 balls), who smacked the bowler for consecutive boundaries in the second over of the innings.
His onslaught continued into the next over as he smashed Josh Davey (34/1) for a four and a six off successive deliveries before holing out to George Munsey, who took a fine sliding catch to dismiss the punitive left-hander.
The new man in, Brandon King (17 off 15 balls), and Lewis collected 14 runs off the bowling of Safyaan Sharif (23/1) with the help of two boundaries and a couple of wides in an erratic bowling performance by the pacer.
Lewis and King were smashed for a six and a four respectively, as runs came freely off both batsmen’s blades.
Brandon King brought up the fifty for West Indies by driving the ball through the covers past a couple of diving fielders for a boundary off Brad Wheal (32/2).
Lewis was dismissed one ball later as he mistimed a pull shot and ended up giving Michael Jones an easy catch at square leg. At the end of the powerplay, the West Indies were 54 for the loss of 2 wickets.
Brandon King didn’t last long, with the right-hander missing the length of a slow delivery from Mark Watt as the ball crashed into the top of the middle stump.
Nicholas Pooran in action. Photo Credit: ICC
Michael Leask (14/2) cleaned up Nicholas Pooran (4 off 9 balls), two balls after the right-handed batsman had survived a review for a stumping. He struck again in his next over by dismissing Rovman Powell (2 off 4 balls), who toe-ended a fuller-length delivery straight into the waiting hands of MacLeod.
The West Indies skipper, Jason Holder, came in at number seven with his team tottering at 69/5 as the Scottish spinners blew away the West Indies’ top order. Shamarh Brooks (4 off 9 balls) didn’t fare any better against the disciplined bowling from Scotland.
Brooks mistimed a pull shot off Brad Wheal, only for Michael Leask to take a diving catch.
Holder was involved in a mix-up with Akeal Hosein (1 off 1 ball), who ended up falling short of his crease as the keeper-bowler duo of Matthew Cross and Leask whipped the bails off the stumps.
The situation turned from bad to worse when Berrington called back Mark Watt for his third over. Watt had Alzarri Joseph (0 off 1 ball) caught behind off his very first ball of the over.
With 72 runs required to win in 30 deliveries, the West Indies looked down in the dumps. Jason Holder hit Brad Wheal for a six over mid-wicket and followed it up with a fine boundary past point a ball later.
Mark Watt claimed his third wicket of the day by dismissing Odean Smith (5 off 8 balls), who heaved one into the hands of Chris Greaves at long-off. Mark Watt ended his spell with glorious figures of 4-0-12-3, consisting of 16 dot deliveries.
In the 18th over, Jason Holder hit Josh Davey for consecutive deliveries as he attempted to mount a West Indian comeback from 102/9.He eventually perished trying to hit Safyaan Sharif out of the park, only to be caught out by Chris Greaves.
The Scotland bowlers displayed supreme execution of plans as they bowled tight lines throughout the match and, with the spinners led by Mark Watt spinning their web around the batting order, the West Indian batting crumbled for 118 in 18.3 overs.
George Munsey was adjudged player of the match for his superlative batting performance, which helped Scotland post a competitive total which ultimately was too much for the West Indies.
AUSTRALIA: Alex Rins gave Suzuki one last win at the iconic Phillip Islands circuit before the Japanese teams’ exit from MotoGP. Suzuki made the shocking announcement of quitting MotoGP at the end of the 2022 season in May, a couple of years after they had won the World Championship with Joan Mir.
Alex Rins mounted a stunning comeback ride down from 10th on the starting grid as he beat Marc Marquez in a last-lap heroic effort to become the seventh different winner of the MotoGP 2022 season.
Francesco Bagnaia now leads the MotoGP championship by 14 points after Fabio Quartararo endured a painstaking start, only to crash out of the race on lap 11 of 27. Pramac Ducati’s record-breaking rider Jorge Martin converted his pole from Saturday into the lead off the line as Marquez and Quartararo slotted behind.
Quartararo had an excellent launch from fifth on the grid and was up into 3rd position within the first two corners of the Australian GP. Bagnaia and Aleix Espargaro went past Quartararo as the Yamaha rider was demoted back to 5th. Home hero Jack Miller came charging through from 8th in his Ducati works team bike to take 5th place from Quartararo.
This wasn’t the end of Quartararo’s woes as Luca Marini demoted him to 7th, as the GP22 of the VR46 team out-dragged the Frenchman into turn 1 of the 6th lap. Quartararo’s race transformed for the worse three corners later as he suffered a snap under braking into turn 4 and went off track, and dropped down to 22nd.
He managed to claw his way back into points in 15th over the next few laps, only to crash out at turn 2 on lap 11. Quartararo lost the championship lead for the first time since Portuguese GP after his 3rd nonscoring finish in four races.
Up ahead, Alex Rins, who was in 3nd as he scythed through the order from 10th in the grid, was sneaking up on 2nd-placed Marc Marquez. Rins had overtaken Aleix Espargaro and Jack Miller at turn 2 in consecutive laps.
Alex Rins went past Marquez at turn 1 of lap 11 before overtaking Martins at turn 3 after 3 laps. Bagnaia came through to snatch the lead from Rins after he had passed the dueling duo of Martin and Marquez at turn 4 on the lap before.
On lap 20, Alex Rins briefly retook the lead from Bagnaia at turn 3, only to be overtaken again in the next lap. He lost out 2nd place as the VR46’s Marco Bezzechi passed him. Rins fought back to retake 2nd place on lap 25, as he fended off a Marquez in the following lap.
In the dramatic final lap of the race, Alex Rins took the lead of the race as he sneaked past Bagnaia at turn 4, with Marquez squeezing his Repsol Honda through the gap behind Rins. Marquez was unable to overtake Rins, who ran a defensive line into the final hard braking of turn 10.
Alex Rins stood firm to take the win by a margin of 0.186 seconds as Bagnaia narrowly missed out on a second-place finish to Marquez, who took his 100th MotoGP podium. Bagnaia came third, behind Marquez by just 0.038s at the finish line, and took a 14-point lead in the standings.
Earlier in the race, in a cruel twist of fate for the Australian racer Jack Miller, his race was cut short on lap 9 when he was wiped out by LCR Honda’s Alex Marquez at turn 4, which had been renamed Miller corner this weekend.
AUSTRALIA: Skipper Scott Edwards’ calm head and his crucial 27-run stand with Tim Pringle for the 7th wicket ensured a thrilling victory for the Dutch team. The UAE bowling squad made life difficult for the batsmen, but ultimately didn’t have enough runs on board to defend.
After Scott Edwards won the toss and decided to bowl first, UAE was off to a modest start, with openers Muhammad Waseem (41 off 47 balls) and Chirag Suri (12 off 20 balls) putting together 33 runs for the first wicket in 6.3 overs. Suri was caught behind by wicketkeeper Scott Edwards as he attempted an ambitious reverse shot off Roelof van der Merwe (19/1).
Kashif Daud (15 off 14 balls) tried to up the ante as he pulled van der Merwe for a six over deep midwicket. He was cleaned up by a slower full delivery from Tim Pringle (13/1) in the 11th over. Muhammad Waseem, who was scoring at a steady clip, fell victim to Fred Klaasen (13/2) on the last ball of the 16th over as he holed out to Tim Pringle in an attempt for a big one.
Waseem’s departure triggered a batting order collapse as UAE lost five wickets while scoring just 20 more runs. UAE scored 111 runs in their stipulated 20 overs with 8 batsmen back in the hut.
Netherland’s innings started with a bang as opener Vikramjit Singh (10 off 7 balls) despatched Junaid Siddique (24/3) for consecutive boundaries in the opening over. Singh fell victim to Basil Hameed’s (7/1) guile as the spinner tricked Singh into a poor shot and the ball crashed into the stumps. Max ODowd was aggressive from the get-go as he slammed Hameed for a six into the second tier of Geelong Park.
ODowd drove and swept Karthik Meiyappan (22/1) for two boundaries in the 4th over. He finally was out when he got castled by Junaid Siddique in the last over of the powerplay. Bas de Leede (14 off 18 balls) and Colin Ackermann (17 off 19 balls) hit a boundary each as they seemed to have found their groove.
Netherlands was sniffing their first victory in the marquee event. UAE skipper CP Rizwan held on to a stunning catch to dismiss Bas de Leede. Ackermann followed suit as he fell victim to 16-year-old Aayan Khan (15/1).
Junaid Siddique brought UAE back in the game by dismissing Tom Cooper (8 off 16) and Roelof van der Merwe (0 off 2 balls) in quick succession. Zahoor Khan (11/1) dismissed Tim Pringle (15 off 16 balls) in the 19th over as the match led to a thrilling finish.
With six runs needed in the last over, Scott Edwards (16 off 19 balls) and Logan van Beek (4 off 4 balls) held their nerves to win the match for the Dutch squad by 3 wickets.
Scott Edwards played a composed and steady innings in the later stages of the Dutch innings and was creative with the field in the first half of the match. After the match, Scott Edwards said that the finish was nervy but was pleased that the team got over the line.
INDIA: Reigning Chess World Champion Magnus Carlsen was beaten by Indian Grand Master Arjun Erigaisi in round seven of the preliminaries of the Aimchess Rapid online chess tournament.
19-year-old Erigaisi, who started off the event with a defeat to compatriot Vidit Santosh Gujrathi, is currently in fifth place in the standings with 15 points to his name behind Uzbekistan’s Nobirdek Abdusattorov (17 pts), Shahkriyar Mamedyarov and Carlsen (16 pts each) and Krzysztof Duda (15 pts) after eight rounds.
Erigaisi’s 54-move win over the world champion helped him bounce back after a sluggish start to the event.
He was on a roll as he won three straight games against Nils Grandelius of Sweden, Daniel Naroditsky of the USA, and the Norwegian Magnus Carlsen before settling for a draw against Krzysztof Duda from Poland.
Another Indian, D Gukesh, faced mixed fortunes during the second day of the preliminaries as he stands 6th with 12 points. He beat fellow countryman P Harikrishna in round five before losing to Abdusattorove and Naroditsky in the sixth and eighth rounds, respectively.
Prior to falling to Abdusattorove and Naroditsky in the sixth and eighth rounds, respectively, he defeated fellow countryman P Harikrishna in round five.
He managed to steal a win in the seventh round as he beat Grandelius. The other Indians in the event, Gujrathi, Aditya Mittal, and Harikrishna, are 10th, 11th, and 15th, respectively, after eight out of the 15-round preliminary rounds.
Gujrathi was off to a flying start with victory over world rapid champion Abdusattorov but draws against Grandelius and Naroditsky, and a loss against Carlsen slowed his progress.
Carlsen defeated Erigaisi last month in the final of the Julius Baer Generation Cup online tournament. But, he has been off-color in the event so far, with defeats to Mamedyarov and Erigaisi, along with a draw against young Indian Grand Master Mittal in round four. He will face Gukesh in the ninth round.
CHILE: A burst of X-ray flare emitted from the middle of the Milky Way Galaxy caught by NASA’s Chandra Space Telescope became the centre of investigation amongst astronomers.
The images developed with the help of the Atacama Large Millimetre/submillimetre Array (ALMA) from the Antofagasta region of the Atacama Desert in Chile, were published in Astronomy & Astrophysics journal, which is part of the Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration.
According to researchers, the gas bubble radiates strongly polarized synchrotron emission, a type of non-thermal radiation generated by charged particles spiraling around magnetic field lines at almost the speed of light.
The overall features of the gas bubble could be captured in detail because of its emission model.
In an interview with Science Daily, Maciek Wielgus from Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy, Germany, who led the study, said: “What is really new and interesting is that such flares were so far only clearly present in X-ray and infrared observations of Sagittarius A*. Here we see for the first time a very strong indication that orbiting hot spots are also present in radio observations.”
The study mentions the orbital radius of the gas bubble to be around 5 Schwarzschild radii, assuming that it is a Keplerian orbit. “We observe hints of a positive black hole spin, that is, a prograde hot spot motion.
Accounting for the rapidly varying rotation measure, we estimate the projected on-sky axis of the angular momentum of the hot spot to be ∼ 60ith a° east of north, w 180° ambiguity.
These results suggest that the accretion structure in Sagittarius A* is a magnetically arrested disk rotating clockwise,” the study added.
Earlier in May, NASA revealed the first images of the supermassive black hole situated at the centre of the Milky Way Galaxy called Sagittarius A. Astronomers used the Chandra X-ray Observatory to try to decode why material around Sagittarius A had an extraordinarily faint X-ray profile.
UNITED STATES: Munich-based car manufacturer, BMW, aims to enter the US IMSA series in 2023 with hopes of fighting for overall victories in the premier class of the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2024. Their challenger for endurance racing, christened “M Hybrid V8”, had already been presented in June.
The engine that powers the BMW is said to be an evolution of the V8 PHEV used for the new BMW XM and BMW M5.
The group’s motorsport bosses unveiled the finished look of the LMDh prototype in Los Angeles on Thursday at the festive launch event at the Petersen Museum.
The prototype bears the iconic BMW white, red, and blue colours. The renowned M logo sits beautifully on the bonnet, slightly to the right and left. In a bid to reduce overall weight, the black-coloured surfaces will be stripped to reveal the shiny unpainted carbon fibre.
As the team prepares for a return to Le Mans in 2024, exactly 25 years after the legendary V12 LMR won, the US IMSA series will serve as a dress rehearsal for the BMW lineup.
BMW announced Connor De Phillippi, Phillip Eng, Augusti Farfus, and Nick Yelloly as the drivers who will drive the two BMW M Hybrid V8 cars with numbers 24 and 25. De Phillippi and Yelloly will be the first driver pairing, with Eng and Farfus being the second. They will be supported at the four IMSA endurance races at Daytona, Sebring, Watkins Glen, and Road Atlanta.
IndyCar driver Colton Herta will be at the Daytona 24 Hours race. He’d previously celebrated a victory at Daytona with BMW M Team RLL back in 2019. The other support drivers will be Marco Wittmann and Sheldon van der Linde.
The BMW M Hybrid V8 features the typical kidney grille but is flatter in comparison to production vehicles. Under the hood of the BMW is a 4-litre V8 engine with twin turbochargers.
The chassis used by the LMDh class was developed and assembled by Dallara exclusively for BMW. The Italian firm put together its own engineering team for the LMDh project.
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