Motorsport

Dorna Sports, the agency that operates and promotes MotoGP, has agreed a five-year extension to its partnership covering the structure and promotion of the motorcycling championship with the International Road-Racing Teams Association (IRTA).

The Formula E electric car-racing series has made a fresh move to embrace esports by revealing plans for an innovative virtual reality race next year.

London, Formula E’s current venue for its season-finale, is set to be dropped from the 2016-17 calendar for the electric car-racing series, with a host of new events added, including a double-header in New York.

US motor racing series IndyCar has moved quickly to replace its cancelled event in Boston by announcing a return to the Watkins Glen International circuit in upstate New York.

IndyCar chief executive Mark Miles has confirmed that the North American motor-racing series is in talks to stage a non-championship event in Beijing in October.

The Formula E electric car-racing series has removed Moscow from its 2015-16 schedule due to “unforeseen circumstances” related to road closures and traffic management in the Russian capital.

Paraguay will host the start of the 2017 Dakar Rally endurance motorsport event, it has been announced.

Formula One team Williams has reported a significantly enhanced set of results for its 2015 financial year and has joined other participants in calling for a more even distribution of revenues in the motor racing championship.

The Australian state of Victoria has secured long-term extensions to its race contracts for MotoGP and the Superbike World Championship (WSBK), ensuring that the motorcycling series will continue to host their Australian rounds at the Phillip Island circuit.

Officials behind the Circuit of Wales, which is due to become the new home of the MotoGP motorcycling championship in the UK, have said they hope to have a new financing deal in place that would allow construction to proceed within six to eight weeks.

International Automobile Federation (FIA) president Jean Todt has suggested motorsport’s global governing body “should have complete control” over the Formula One motor racing championship.

The Autódromo Termas de Río Hondo circuit in Argentina will continue to host a MotoGP event for the next three years after an agreement was reached between local organisers and the motorcycling championship’s commercial rights holder, Dorna Sports.

Formula One chief executive Bernie Ecclestone has said talks are taking place to return the motor racing series to Las Vegas, but has stated a new race would not replace the existing US event in Austin, Texas.

Recognised as one of the most enduring partnerships in motorsport history, the relationship between Scuderia Ferrari and Shell dates back to the founding of the race team by Enzo Ferrari in 1929.

The Formula E electric car-racing series and the MotoGP motorcycle-racing world championship have both unveiled projects that will focus on the growing eSports sector.

Claire Williams, the deputy team principal and commercial director of the Williams F1 team, writes exclusively for SportBusiness International about the changing face of the sport.