Motorsport Roundup: Dakar 2022 Updates, Hyundai’s 2022 WRC Challenger, And Mumbai Falcons’ Formula Regional Asia Driver Lineup

The past seven days saw the gruelling Dakar 2022 rally have competitors take on Stage 8 in Saudi Arabia. We also had a slew of future announcements which included Hyundai Motorsport revealing its 2022 WRC car, and Mumbai Falcons announcing its lineup for the upcoming 2022 Formula Regional Asian Championship. Here’s all the deets from the last seven days:

Dakar 2022

 

The latest stage in Dakar 2022, had competitors navigate a 830km route to Wadi Ad Dawasir which included 395km of special stages. Currently, Nasser Al-Attiyah (cars), and Sam Sunderland (bikes) hold the lead in the overall standings. Our Indian presence in the rally also had a strong showing, with the Hero MotoSports squad of Aaron Mare and Joaquim Rodrigues now ranked  17th and 15th overall, with Harith Noah, the sole Indian rider 26th in the bikes category.

WRC

 

With less than 10 days to go before the 2022 FIA World Rally Championship kicks off in Monaco, Hyundai Motorsport has become the first team to unveil its new challenger, the i20N Rally1. Crucially, it marks a new era for WRC as the new race cars are hybrids, with a 134PS electric motor being paired with a 1.6-litre turbocharged engine. Ott Tanak and Thierry Neuville will contest the full season, with Oliver Solberg and Dani Sordo sharing the third car at select rounds.  

Indian motorsport

After a successful maiden F3 Asian Championship season in 2021, Mumbai Falcons have announced its driver lineup for the now-renamed 2022 Formula Regional Asian Championship. Fielding three cars with technical support from Prema Racing, Arthur Leclerc, the younger brother of Ferrari Formula One driver Charles Leclerc spearheads the driver lineup. The Monegasque driver is part of the Ferrari driver academy and has recently contested in the 2021 FIA Formula 3 season.

In the other car is another Ferrari junior driver, Dino Beganovic, who placed third in the 2020 Italian F4 championship, and competed in the FIA F3 Asian Championship the year before. Sebastian Montoya, son of ex-Formula One driver, Juan Pablo Montoya, will be contesting in the third car. But unlike Leclerc and Beganovic who are competing for the full five-round season, Montoya will only run for the first three rounds. The final two rounds will have a third Ferrari junior, Oliver Bearman contest in the third car. The Briton comes off the back of winning the 2021 ADAC Formula 4 Championship. The season is set to kick off on January 21 at the Yas Marina circuit in Abu Dhabi.