Another grand prix another stroll in the park for Sebastian Vettel. At least the photographers were given a tougher ride than Vettel at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, having to contend with twilight conditions before freezing the action under lights. We think you’ll agree they did a fine job, too.
Last week it cost Red Bull €25,000 so newly crowned world champion Sebastian Vettel could indulge in the art of the donut. This week the team has not only learnt its lesson but seen both Vettel and Mark Webber celebrate their one-two finish with a simultaneous donut display.
The best part is, it turns out if you return your car back in parc ferme, as per usual protocol, you are free to do donuts to your heart’s content. Although, we do wonder how long the FIA will humour drivers before providing some guidelines on when you can and can’t be a loon.
The future of Australia’s automotive manufacturing sector has been in the news quite a bit lately. The decision by Ford to cease local manufacturing in 2016 has certainly helped. But increased scrutiny has also brought government assistance to the automotive sector into the spotlight.
In the face of declining sales the public is asking why the government is spending so much to support local manufacturing if the multinational companies making merry with our taxpayer’s loot are just going to leave anyway.
So the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries is here to put things right. They’ve commissioned a report to investigate what would happen to the local economy if Holden and Toyota were to follow Ford’s lead and close down their factories by 2018.
The magic number produced by the FCAI report is $21.5 billion. Apparently that’s the size of the hole our economy would find itself dealing with if cars were no longer made in Australia.
As it currently stands Australians contribute $18 each on a per capita basis to come up with the $500 million passed on to the automotive sector. According to the FCAI report that investment gives a return of $934 per person, bringing us back to the impressive $21.5 billion figure.
That’s a pretty good return on investment, don’t you think.
You can download the FCAI report here (1.8mb PDF), all 86 pages of it. Yet in the whole report just two thirds of a page is set aside to discuss the demand for the motor vehicles made in Australia.
It’s true a potential $21.5 billion hit to our economy is no laughing matter, but unless the FCAI can come up with some buyers, you know, actual people who want to buy our locally made cars in sufficient numbers, then isn’t the end inevitable?
[Pic: GM Corp]
As Mark Webber’s F1 career draws to a close it’s only natural that media outlets will be after time with Mark to chew the fat over his 11 years in the sport. Andrew Maclean from Fairfax Media was fortunate enough to be granted a relatively long interview with Mark which has been published as a 15 minute video on Drive.com.au.
Webber talks about the highlight of winning his first F1 race at the 2009 German Grand Prix, his motivations and moving to Porsche in 2014. As always it’s worth taking the time to hear what Mark has to say. He’s passionate, honest and committed to being the best he can be.
[Source: Drive.com.au | Pic: Red Bull/Getty Images]
Reflecting on his victory at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Sebastian Vettel was asked what it was like to equal the record of seven successive race wins jointly held by Michael Schumacher and Alberto Ascari. As is often the case Vettel spoke with humility and grace. He may be Formula 1’s pantomime villain, but after some time he’s maturing into a pretty decent guy, really.
In his comments Mark Weber spoke openly about his struggle with the Pirelli tyres, especially the soft compound rubber. He looked very happy on the podium last night and it was great to see him enjoying himself.
Meanwhile, Daniel Ricciardo expressed his disappointment after starting in the top 10 but finishing down in P16. Let’s hope he doesn’t develop Mark’s habit of poor starts when he moves to Red Bull. “This was not at all the race I was hoping for,” he said. “In this sport, if the start doesn’t go well, it’s hard to recover, so I want to look at the data to understand what happened. The car didn’t get off the line well and then, at Turn 1 there was a bit of chaos as I dropped back into the group behind me.
“I had to run wide to avoid some accidents and from then on, my race was pretty much over. At the moment, our pace is not sufficient to fight back into the top 10 if something like this happens. We must see what we can do to have better starts, because when we get good ones, we have generally gone on to score points.”
The full transcript of the post-race press conference featuring the first three drivers can be read after the break.
[Pic: Red Bull/Getty Images]
Sebastian Vettel literally drove off into the sunset at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, on the way to another all too familiar dominant victory. It’s his seventh grand prix win in a row and his 30.8 second margin over Red Bull teammate Mark Webber tells the story.
Mark got off the line okay but was quickly gobbled up by Sebastian then Nico Rosberg (Mercedes AMG), who slipped back to third at the end of the race. Rosberg finished less than three seconds behind Webber and felt a second place may have been possible but was happy to be the best of the rest.
An expected challenge for the podium from Romain Grosjean didn’t bear fruit for the Lotus driver who finished fourth. Fernando Alonso (Ferrari) once again raced better than he qualified, finishing fifth ahead of Paul di Resta (Force India) and Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes AMG).
Felipe Massa (Ferrari) and Sergio Perez (McLaren) provided some entertaining moments in mid-pack battles on the way to P8 and P9 respectively. While Adrian Sutil (Force India) picked up the final point on offer in a close fought affair.
Daniel Ricciardo couldn’t convert his ninth place start into points and he and Toro Rosso teammate Jean-Eric Vergne took a form finish of sorts back in sixteenth and seventeenth.
Kimi Raikkonen’s (Lotus) fight through the field from last place on the grid was short lived after contact with Giedo van der Garde (Caterham) forced him into retirement after the first corner.
Red Bull will be pleased with the one-two finish taking them to a total of 100 podiums in F1. But, as usual, the night was all about Sebastian and for the second race in a row he delighted fans with a series of donuts. This time though he took his car back to parc ferme as required.
Right now, he’s just too bloody good.
[Pic: Red Bull/Getty Images]
The Alain Prost–Ayrton Senna rivalry is perhaps the most intense intra-team stoush Formula 1 has ever seen. After Ron Dennis put his money on Senna when the inevitable split came, McLaren’s Tooned animated series starts by bestowing more credit than you might imagine on the four-time world champion.
So it was always going to be interesting to see how this light-hearted look back at McLaren’s history was going to handle Ayrton Senna. It’s all pretty harmless really, but in attempting to delicately tiptoe around the Prost rivalry it seemed they forgot to properly respect Senna’s own immense on track achievements.
For the trivia buffs Bruno Senna provided the voice for the role of his uncle.
Porsche has just updated its Panamera Turbo S and for the first time it now includes an Executive model. The Panamera Turbo S Executive features a 150mm extended wheelbase for greater interior comfort.
So not only do you have an extra 20hp to play with in the Turbo S, for a new peak of 570hp, if you get the Executive version you can have an extra 120mm rear seat space to enjoy it in.
Find out more after the break.
Hyundai Motorsport had a busy October spending 15 days testing the i20 WRC on tarmac and gravel roads in Spain and Germany. Included in the itinerary were stages used in both Rally de Espana and Rally Deutschland.
With two prototype cars now in action Hyundai is able to speed up its development process.”This month was exceptionally busy for us,” explains Hyundai Motorsport Team Principal Michel Nandan. “We were out testing the i20 WRC on both surfaces for more than half of the month, with our three test drivers swapping the seat on four separate test sessions.
“We now have two latest-spec i20 WRC cars, which allows us to further intensify the development schedule by alternating between the two chassis. Overall, it was a positive month as we managed to test new parts, try different set-up solutions and cover some good mileage with the car.”
Hyundai has also lodged its paperwork to the FIA for homologation of the i20 WRC in readiness for the 2014 season.
It’s expected Belgian ace Thierry Neuville will switch from M-Sport to lead Hyundai’s charge next year. That would leave a fight between current Hyundai test drivers Juho Hänninen, Bryan Bouffier and Chris Atkinson in the chase for remaining seats.
Mark Webber spoke with the London Evening Standard recently about the end of his 210+ race Formula 1 career and the new challenge of Le Mans that awaits.
On forging a long career in F1: “When I left Australia I didn’t realise what I could do. Sure, you can do things differently here and there but I’ve had some incredible moments behind the wheel, racing the best guys in the best cars on the best tracks.”
On his near miss for the 2010 world championship: “I didn’t pick the best year to win the world title. It was one of the most special years in that world championship battle and I was in it to the last race. I can be proud of that.”
On the forthcoming F1 rule changes: “There’s huge change in Formula 1 next year and I’m not super stimulated by the changes. So it was great timing—it made the decision easy. I’ve enjoyed it, I’m done.”
On Sebastian Vettel: “Seb and I had our issues but it’s been a great leveller for me. There is no ideal team-mate, well, apart from one that you destroy but that’s only good for your ego. I’ve seen one of the best in the business operate so it’s challenging yet rewarding. I’d like him to have done it in a different period in my career!”
On Le Mans: “F1 was my absolute goal as that was the pinnacle but Le Mans is a classic, big race. It’d be nice to put that with Monaco. There’s a lot of classic, good guys to have won both. It’d be nice to win both, it shows your versatility—that you can do both.”
As usual Mark is open and honest, make sure you use the source link below to read the full article.
[Source: Evening Standard | Pic: Red Bull/Getty Images]
For the second time in three races Mark Webber will start from pole position. In qualifying at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix overnight Webber (1:39.957) was the only driver to lap below 1 minute 40 seconds after he nailed his lap to leave everyone in his wake.
Speaking after qualifying Mark said greater experience at the Yas Marina circuit helped him achieve pole. “You can never stop learning, mate, even at this age, so it was a good day and puts us in a good position tomorrow,” he said.
Teammate and newly crowned 2013 world champion Sebastian Vettel (1:40.075) was close behind, with some margin back to Nico Rosberg (1:40.419) in P3. Lewis Hamilton (1:40.501) will start alongside his Mercedes AMG teammate and will be happy to do so after spinning out late in Q3.
Kimi Raikkonen (1:40.542) qualified fifth but he was disqualified when stewards found fault with the floor of his car. He will start at the back of the grid and his relationship with Lotus must be close to breaking point.
Nico Hulkenberg (1:40.576) is the first driver to benefit from Raikkonen’s misfortune, moving to P5. Behind him will be Romain Grosjean (1:40.997) and Felipe Massa (1:41.015), who once again qualified ahead of his more fancied teammate Fernando Alonso (1:41.093) back in P10.
Daniel Ricciardo (1:41.111) got himself into Q3 and now moves to P9 after Kimi’s penalty, but says he could have done better. “My Q2 lap was a very good one, but not the best, so I came into Q3 feeling I could improve in a few areas. We decided to make a slight adjustment to the front tyre pressures which turned out not to be the right decision, as I then had to work harder to warm the tyres. The lap itself was not too bad, but the time never came.”
And so we wait for the start of the race, with Webber in P1. It’s Mark’s thirteenth career pole position and brings him equal with Sir Jack Brabham to hold the record for most pole positions by an Australian driver. Fingers crossed he can make a clean and fast start.
[Pics: Red Bull/Getty Images]
Aside being forced (presumably) to treat his car like a love interest in the terribly cheesy start to this clip, we’re guessing British racing driver Andy Priaulx had fun working with BMW UK to thrash about in a new M235i for the day.