Updates from the weekend’s motor sport including news from the final rounds of both the WTCC and the Nascar Sprint Cup. We also have some news from the ever changing world of Formula One.

WTCC

The final round of the WTCC took place over the weekend in Macau and although Jose Maria Lopez had already mathematically won the championship last round he did not sit back and take it easy for the finale.

Not only has he finished the season in a very positive note but his win in race one means he has broken the record for the most wins in a season (10), and the most number of points scored in a season (462).

The real surprise was Rob Huff taking his second win in his Lada this season, although it is his seventh overall. It was a great moment for a team that has had very few moments to celebrate this season with Citroen and Honda absolutely dominating most races. Rob Huff spoke about his win after the race: “It’s absolutely great to win again at Macau, for the seventh time! There is really a special bond with this track, and to win with LADA makes me feel very happy.”

Yvan Muller, who was the 2013 champion, simply could not deal with Huff. Although Muller was all over Huff he could not pass and Huff put on a really great display of skill to keep last years champion at bay. His win meant that he actually managed to finish tenth overall which is a great way to end the season for the Brit considering it was only a few weeks ago that Huff took his first ever win in the Lada sport car.

Yvan Muller did end up finish second in race two but also second overall in the driver’s championship which was a fitting way for him to concede his title to Lopez.

Nascar

The Nascar Sprint Cup finished with a flourish over the weekend too when Ryan Newman came just one position shy from snatching the whole title from under Kevin Harvick’s nose. The whole affair was made more impressive because of the issues Newman had previously in the season but had managed to make a fantastic comeback and was breathing down the favourite’s neck on the final race. 

Newman tried desperately to clinch the win on the final lap but coming into turn four he started to slip off the power due to being on older tyres than Harvick and generally just having an inferior car. Newman spoke about his final battle with the now cup champion, “I could have kept it wide open and washed up into him, but it wasn’t the right move. It wasn’t what I would have wanted him to do to me”. It is good to finally see a bit of sportsmanship in a season that has been so full of arguments, fighting and questionable racing tactics.

It marks a really great moment for Harvick, after finishing third in the points standing for the last four seasons he really wanted the win and get the win he did.

F1 Off The Track

The Formula One drama continues to unfold, some good and some bad depending on who you ask. Every single day there seems to be something new said or some new development it can be difficult to keep up so we have condensed it into nice bite size chunks.

Caterham

Caterham turned to crowd funding last week to try and keep their F1 dream alive and it actually paid off. They realistically needed $4 million to be able to race the final round at Abu Dhabi but it was looking unlikely that they would be able to raise the money required. They enlisted the help of crowd funding website crowd cube, rewarding donators with very special gifts such as parts of the car when the season is finished and the highest donator would have their name written on the car for the final race.

They didn’t actually quite reach their crowd funding target, still under $3 million but they will definitely be racing in Abu Dhabi as they stated they would be able to source the remaining amount of money from investors. The whole process has certainly made waves in the F1 world and it is clear that fans will not give up on their favourite teams.

Bernie Ecclestone

Bernie Ecclestone is back to his old tricks again making ridiculous statements , this time stating that he is not interested in young F1 fans and would rather cater to an older audience. Amidst swathes of people saying he is simply too old and set in his ways to be running such a huge and expensive sport he keeps making outrageous PR blunders, simply adding fuel to the fire.

Here is the full comment, “So there’s no point trying to reach these kids because they won’t buy any of the products here and if marketers are aiming at this audience, then maybe they should advertise with Disney.”

Quite alarmingly he went on to talk about social media and why he does not see the point in it, “I couldn’t see any value in it. And I don’t know what the so-called young generation of today really wants”. To many these statements sum up everything that is wrong with Bernie, he doesn’t want to move on with the times and it so stuck in his own ways that he doesn’t even see the point in attracting new fans. It is almost as if he wants to take F1 to the grave with him.

Fortunately there was a bright side to these ridiculous comments, many of the teams took to social media and started poking fun at him and they were very well received. Below McLaren make the point that they love both new F1 fans and social media.

Lotus went even further and directly made fun of the old boy by posting a picture of a western union telegraph, saying they thought twitter was a good idea and singing it off with #F1.

Many have called for Ecclestone to step down but he gave a very clear response to those people, “The only way my job in Formula One will come to an end, unless somebody with the power decrees it, is when they are carrying me away in my coffin. And then they’d better make sure the lid is nailed down,” he added. This is a worrying insight into the mind of Bernie as he clearly won’t relinquish control of the sport until he is gone, regardless of how unfit he might be for the job. That’s it for the racing round up. Check back next week for more! Missed the previous weekend’s motor sport? Check out the updates here. Fancy something different? How about our best car videos from last week?