2023 Indian Racing League

2023 Indian Racing League

Entrant Champion:
No. 24 Goa Aces
Raoul Hyman & Sohil Shah
Teams' Champion:
Bangalore Speedsters

Previous

2022

Next

2024

Support series:
F4 Indian Championship

The 2023 Indian Racing League was a single seater motor racing championship held across India. ^[1] The season was heavily disrupted by Cyclone Michaung making landfall at the Indian east coast.

After three of the planned four rounds were held, the season was concluded early, with the No. 24 Goa Aces car piloted by Raoul Hyman and Sohil Shah winning the Entrant Championship and the Bangalore Speedsters victorious in the Teams' Championship

Teams and drivers

All drivers competed with single-seater Wolf GB08 Thunder cars, fitted with a 215 bhp (160 kW) Aprilia engine. ^[2]

Team	No.	Driver	Rounds
Hyderabad Blackbirds	1	Akhil Rabindra [3]	All
		Álvaro Parente [4]	1
		Neel Jani [5]	2–3
	9	Laura Camps Torras [6]	All
		Anindith Reddy [7]	All
Godspeed Kochi	2	Nikhil Bohra [8]	All
		Alister Yoong [9]	All
	5	Ruhaan Alva [10]	All
		Fabienne Wohlwend [11]	All
Chennai Turbo Riders	6	Nicole Havrda [12]	1–2
		Mohamed Ryan [13]	All
	33	Jon Lancaster [14]	All
		Sai Sanjay [15]	All
Goa Aces	7	Gabriela Jílková [16]	All
		Amir Sayed [17]	All
	24	Raoul Hyman [18]	All
		Sohil Shah [19]	All
Bangalore Speedsters	16	Ashwin Datta [20]	All
		Oliver Webb [21]	All
	70	Kyle Kumaran [22]	All
		Sarah Moore [23]	All
Speed Demons Delhi	18	Mitchell Gilbert [24]	All
		Sandeep Kumar [25]	All
	22	Akash Gowda [26]	All
		Chloe Chong [27]	2–3

Team changes

Chennai Turbo Riders were initially confirmed to be re-named "Chennai Supersonics", but the "Turbo Riders" moniker was later reinstated. ^[28]

Driver changes

Oliver Webb was the only returning driver at Bangalore Speedsters. Bianca Bustamante, Rishon Rajeev, Anshul Gandhi and Webb's substitute driver Yash Aradhya all left the team. The team signed W Series driver Sarah Moore and MRF F2000 drivers Kyle Kumaran and Ashwin Datta to replace them.

Chennai Turbo Riders replaced their Indian drivers. Parth Ghorpade, Vishnu Prasad and his injury substitute Sandeep Kumar were replaced by 2022–23 MRF F2000 champion and runner-up Sai Sanjay and Mohamed Ryan. Kumar moved to Speed Demons Delhi as a last-minute replacement for Shahan Ali Mohsin, who moved to the F4 Indian Championship, whilst F1 Academy driver Chloe Chong replaced Célia Martin as original signing Belén García did not compete. ^[29]

Raoul Hyman rejoined Goa Aces after having to sit out the second half of the 2022 season to conduct Super Formula testing. This saw his replacement, Kevin Mirocha, leave the series.

British GT driver Jordan Albert, who was entered for reigning Teams' Champion Godspeed Kochi for the cancelled opening round of the 2022 season, did not return to the series.

Hyderabad Blackbirds announced GT driver Álvaro Parente for the first half of the season, replacing Thomas Canning. Neel Jani is expected to return to the team in the second half having contested most of the 2022 season. Lola Lovinfosse was originally confirmed to be competing for the team, but was replaced with Laura Camps Torras the day before the season started.

Calendar

All events were held in India and were run in tandem with the F4 Indian Championship.

No.		Circuit	Date	Map of circuit locations
1	R1	Madras International Circuit, Irungattukottai (Full layout)	4 November	Irungattukottai
	R2		5 November
2	R1		1 December
	R2		2 December
3	R1	Madras International Circuit, Irungattukottai (Short layout)	9 December
	R2		10 December

Calendar changes

Duplicate rounds in Hyderabad and Irungattukottai were initially dropped in favour of new races at the Buddh International Circuit and a new street circuit around Island Grounds in Chennai. ^{[30] [31]} An updated calendar was released later on that dropped the planned round at Buddh International Circuit in favor of a second round at Irungattukottai. ^[32] In the week leading up to the opening round, the first round was announced to also be moved to Irungattukottai because of the code of conduct surrounding elections in Telangana. ^[33] Because of concerns regarding the arrival of Cyclone Michaung in the area, the penultimate round at Irungattukottai was postponed on short notice, with two more races to be added over the weekend at Chennai to compensate for it. ^[34] This event did not come about, also because of the cyclone, with all races instead held at Madras. ^[35] After six of the planned eight races were held over three weekends at Madras, the season was concluded early. ^[36]

Format changes

Unlike the previous season, two qualifying sessions and two races were held per event – with the "feature race" including driver swaps discontinued. Two drivers were entered in each car, with each driver contesting one of the two event days – consisting of one 20-minute practice session, one 10-minute qualifying session and a 25-minute + 1 lap race per day. ^[37]

Season summary

The 2023 season began as the 2022 season left off – under a cloud of mismanagement, as the first round had to be relocated from the Hyderabad Street Circuit to the Madras International Circuit less than a week before the start of the season due to the knock-on effects of the 2023 Telangana Legislative Assembly election. The first race of the season was postponed by a day due to torrential rain, with Kochi's Ruhaan Alva claiming a lights-to-flag victory as Hyderabad's reigning champion Akhil Rabindra crashed with Alva's teammate Alister Yoong on the opening lap. Bangalore's Sarah Moore became the series' first female race winner in the wet second race, following both Goa's pole-sitter Sohil Shah and Kochi's Nikhil Bohra spinning out of the lead early in the race before Bohra punted Goa's Gabriela Jílková out of the race lead on the final lap. ^{[38] [39]}

Sandeep Kumar competing for Speed Demons Delhi.

The second round was heavily disrupted by bad weather - originally, the weekend was supposed to be a double round with four races, but after multiple delays, only two races were held. Goa's Raoul Hyman dominated the first day, claiming pole position by over 1.3 seconds and leading the first race from start to finish. Bangalore's Oliver Webb was his closest opposition, but did not attack him. Hyderabad's Akhil Rabindra came third. Bohra took pole position for the second race, where the start was aborted when Bangalore's Ashwin Datta stalled. Bohra pulled away at the restart, with only Chennai's Jon Lancaster managing to stay close to him, but the Brit was unable to get into the lead. Rabindra completed the podium, while Moore in fourth was able to consolidate a three-point championship lead over Lancaster and Sai Sanjay. ^[40]

As Cyclone Michaung then hit India, the third round was relocated from Chennai to Madras. Shah earned pole position for the first race, defended his lead at the start and led until he made a mistake and ran off track. This promoted Bohra into the lead and he did not look back from then on, taking the win. Hyderabad's Anindith Reddy came second, while Lancaster had a brilliant race, starting last and finishing on the podium after overtaking Jílková at the final corner. Webb took pole position for the second race, but Hyman took the lead through the first corner. He held on all throughout the race to win, thereby allowing him and Shah to take the championship lead. Webb had to be content with second, while Hyderabad's Neel Jani came third. As the final two planned races of the season were cancelled, Hyman and Shah took the championship title. ^{[41] [42]}

While the season started with little information given by official sources regarding topics like the sporting format, coverage improved throughout the season. The heavy, short-term disruptions posed by the landfall of Cyclone Michaung were handled and communicated well. Still, the reduction from a planned eight-race schedule across three locations down to six races at a single venue hurt the championship, and a champion confirmed away from the track through cancellation of the rest of the rounds is never a good look.

Results and standings

Results summary

Round		Circuit	Pole position	Fastest lap	Winning driver	Winning team
1	R1	Madras International Circuit	Ruhaan Alva	Raoul Hyman	Ruhaan Alva	Godspeed Kochi
	R2		Sohil Shah	Nikhil Bohra	Sarah Moore	Bangalore Speedsters
2	R1		Raoul Hyman	Raoul Hyman	Raoul Hyman	Goa Aces
	R2		Nikhil Bohra	Jon Lancaster	Nikhil Bohra	Godspeed Kochi
3	R1		Sohil Shah	Sohil Shah	Nikhil Bohra	Godspeed Kochi
	R2		Oliver Webb	Raoul Hyman	Raoul Hyman	Goa Aces

Championship standings

Scoring system

Points are awarded to the top ten classified finishers as follows:

Race Position	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th	9th	10th	Pole	FL
Points	25	18	15	12	10	8	6	4	2	1	1	1

Drivers sharing a car add the points they get in their respective races to a shared total.

Entrant championship

Pos Entrant Drivers MIC1 MIC2 MIC3 Pts R1 R2 R1 R2 R1 R2 1 No. 24 Goa Aces Raoul Hyman 2 1 1 87 Sohil Shah Ret 6 8 2 No. 33 Chennai Turbo Riders Jon Lancaster 3 2 3 83 Sai Sanjay 3 5 6 3 No. 2 Godspeed Kochi Nikhil Bohra 4 1 1 79 Alister Yoong Ret 8 4 4 No. 70 Bangalore Speedsters Kyle Kumaran 5 3 5 78 Sarah Moore 1 4 7 5 No. 16 Bangalore Speedsters Ashwin Datta 6 DNS 10 58 Oliver Webb 4 2 2 6 No. 1 Hyderabad Blackbirds Akhil Rabindra Ret Ret 3 5 56 Álvaro Parente WD 1 Neel Jani 4 3 7 No. 7 Goa Aces Gabriela Jílková 7 6 4 42 Amir Sayed 7 8 7 8 No. 9 Hyderabad Blackbirds Laura Camps Torras 5 Ret 9 38 Anindith Reddy 6 Ret 2 9 No. 5 Godspeed Kochi Ruhaan Alva 1 9 Ret 28 Fabienne Wohlwend Ret Ret Ret 10 No. 18 Speed Demons Delhi Mitchell Gilbert Ret 5 Ret 28 Sandeep Kumar 8 7 6 11 No. 22 Speed Demons Delhi Akash Gowda Ret 2 7 Ret 25 Chloe Chong Ret 10 12 No. 6 Chennai Turbo Riders Nicole Havrda Ret 10 7 Mohamed Ryan Ret Ret 9 8 Pos Entrant Drivers R1 R2 R1 R2 R1 R2 Pts MIC1 MIC2 MIC3 ^1 – Parente qualified and Rabindra raced. Teams' championship Pos Driver MIC1 MIC2 MIC3 Pts R1 R2 R1 R2 R1 R2 1 Bangalore Speedsters 4 1 2 5 7 2 136 5 6 3 DNS 10 5 2 Goa Aces 2 7 1 6 4 1 129 7 Ret 6 8 8 7 3 Godspeed Kochi 1 4 8 1 1 4 107 Ret Ret Ret 9 Ret Ret 4 Chennai Turbo Riders 3 3 5 2 3 6 90 Ret Ret Ret 10 9 8 5 Hyderabad Blackbirds 6 5 4 4 2 3 89 Ret Ret Ret Ret 5 9 6 Speed Demons Delhi 8 2 7 3 6 10 58 Ret Ret Ret 7 Ret Ret Pos Driver R1 R2 R1 R2 R1 R2 Pts IRU1 IRU2 MIC3

Colour Result Gold Winner Silver Second place Bronze Third place Green Points finish Blue Non-points finish Non-classified finish (NC) Purple Retired (Ret) Red Did not qualify (DNQ) Did not pre-qualify (DNPQ) Black Disqualified (DSQ) White Did not start (DNS) Withdrew (WD) Race cancelled (C) Blank Did not practice (DNP) Did not arrive (DNA) Excluded (EX) Bold – Pole Italics – Fastest Lap

References

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27. "📢 DRIVER ANNOUNCEMENT". Indian Racing League on Instagram. 17 October 2023.
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29. "📢 DRIVER ANNOUNCEMENT". Indian Racing League on Instagram. 27 October 2023.
30. "New Chennai street circuit to host F4 India night race". Autocar India. 17 August 2023.
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34. "Indian Racing League on Instagram: "Event Update"". Instagram . 3 December 2023. Retrieved 3 December 2023.
35. Wood, Ida (6 December 2023). "Indian F4 round three cancelled, round four relocated due to wet weather". Formula Scout. Retrieved 6 December 2023.
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41. RACERS (9 December 2023). "IRL: Gabriela Jílková close to a podium finish in Round 3 race 1". Racers. Retrieved 8 January 2024.
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External links

• Promoters website