The dreaded four-week summer break which plagues Formula One every year is upon us. With a forced two-week factory shutdown, and no on-track action for almost an entire month, fans of racing will be twitching their thumbs for a very long time. However, as with last year, there is more than enough motor racing continuing elsewhere to keep fans more than occupied for the time being, including a few series nearing their respective championship finales. Thus, here is how to survive the 2015 Formula One summer break.
IndyCar
Oddly, IndyCar has just one race within a four week period as it nears the end of its very tight 16-race schedule. On 2nd August, the Honda Indy 200 at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course takes place, and if last season is anything to go by, this race will be an epic. James Hinchcliffe scythed his way through half the field on the opening lap, whilst Scott Dixon somehow managed to go from starting last to winning the race, before running out of fuel on the cool-down lap en route to victory lane – amazing stuff.
Championship standings:
- Montoya – 445
- Rahal – 403
- Dixon – 397
- Castroneves – 391
- Power – 390
2015 Season playlist:
MotoGP
Thrilling racing, an in-form Valentino Rossi, and Marc Marquez proving that he is indeed human, what more could be asked for from MotoGP at the moment? MotoGP (and the Moto 2 and Moto 3 support races) will take place on the ninth and 16th of August at the Indianapolis Grand Prix and the Czech Republic Grand Prix respectively. Admittedly I have not watched much MotoGP this season due to watching other series, but what I have seen has proven to be fantastic. The Moto 3 racing is also just as bonkers as ever.
Championship standings:
- Rossi – 179
- Lorenzo – 166
- Iannone – 118
- Marquez – 114
- Dovizioso – 87
British Touring Car Championship
The 2015 BTCC season has seen eight winners from the first 15 races, with no clear runaway championship favourite. The sixth meeting of the year takes place at Snetterton on the ninth of August along with the brilliant full support package. Championship leader Gordon Shedden has not won since Thruxton however, and the likes of Sam Tordoff and Jason Plato are beginning to snap on his heels. Tweaks to the second race format has given mixed results this year too, with the grids being determined by the fastest laps set in the first race, and not by the race result of the previous race.
Championship standings:
- Shedden – 195pts
- Plato – 185
- Neal – 173
- Tordoff – 162
- Turkington – 161
European Formula Three Series
Known for two reasons: for bringing Max Verstappen to the world’s attention and for the very poor driving standards this year, the Euro F3 series will head to the tight Red Bull Ring on the first and second of August. The experienced Felix Rosenqvist has been highly critical of the other drivers this year, and due to the poor driving standards he missed out on a large amount of points at Monza due to two of the three races being red flagged.
Championship standings:
- Giovinazzi – 288
- Leclerc – 280.5
- Rosenqvist – 261
- Dennis – 216
- Russell – 146
Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters
Unlike last season’s domination, Marco Wittmann and BMW have only just really got their 2015 campaign underway. Three victories from the first four races for Audi’s Jamie Green saw him propel into a dominant early championship lead, with Mattias Ekstrom in another Audi taking the only other win from the first two events. Mercedes took charge at the Norisring, with Mercedes test driver Pascal Wehrlein and Robert Wickens sharing the honours there. It was not until the start of the month at Zandvort where Wittmann and Audi finally got to winning ways, with Formula E racer Antonio Felix da Costa taking his first victory in the series in the second race as is the case this season with the new two-race format. This leaves the championship very much wide open as the teams head to the Red Bull Ring on the first weekend in August.
Championship standings:
- Green – 81
- Ekstrom – 76
- Wehrlein – 76
- Mortara – 58
- Wickens – 57
On the internet
There’s a wide range of wonderful things you can find on the internet, especially on YouTube. On one channel, there are recent DTM seasons in their entirety in addition to classic CART seasons from the late 1980s and early 1990s, something I certainly plan to watch some of myself.
Another thing which is slowly taking off is sim racing. Certain online racing series upload entire seasons of racing onto their YouTube channels, and you may even recognise a name or two in the series below:
Main image:
