Following on from our Best of 2014 WEC gallery, we’ve trawled through our 2014 WRC image archive and picked out the best 13 pics from the 13 rallies.
And here they are!
Category: Motorsports
In the 2014 WEC season the three main LMP1 teams all got something they wanted. Toyota won the drivers’ and manufacturers’ championships. Audi won yet another Le Mans and Porsche found its way to the top step of the podium in the final race of their return to the top flight.
Now you can get something from the WEC year too by taking a look at our gallery of the best images brought to you right here on AUSmotive.
We trust you’ll like looking back at the season that’s gone and make sure to click the headings if you’d like a recap of each race.
Stay tuned for a similar look back at the 2014 WRC and F1 seasons.
M-Sport will be tackling the 2015 WRC season with one of the most youngest driver line ups in the field. Elfyn Evans returns to follow his rookie season with M-Sport and will be joined by Estonian Ott Tanak.
Both drivers have shown good pace on the WRC stage, but neither has much experience. Maybe that’s why Malcolm Wilson has decided the 2015 livery should hark back to Hannu Mikkola’s 1979 Ford Escort RS 1800 MKII and the later 1989 Ford Sierra RS Cosworth of Colin McRae.
You’ll get your first chance to the the new-look 2015 Fiesta, along with all the other WRC machines when Rallye Monte Carlo kicks off on 22 January.
If you’re missing Formula 1 action during the off season here’s video from the Hungarian Grand Prix that will allow you to cram in four times the action in one go.
Starting from top right and moving in a clockwise direction we’ve got Jenson Button, Nico Rosberg, Sergio Perez and Marcus Ericsson. The footage was filmed during qualifying and it’s no surprise to see who was fastest.
[via WTF1]
Bruce Thomson is an all round good guy. We know this because he hits our inbox from time to time with some seriously cool automotive drawings. Over the last few days he’s been sharing with the world a few illustrations showing how he would like the F1 cars of 2015 to look.
So far he’s given us the Ferrari F15, McLaren MP4-30, the Mercedes AMG W06 and the Red Bull Racing RB11.
If you follow those links then you’ll be treated to much larger versions of these images where you can further appreciate the detail.
Even better, there’s the promise of a Lotus and Williams concept to follow. Keep up the great work Bruce!
UPDATE 11 January: Now with Williams FW37 and Lotus E23 concepts.
Categories
FIA makes bad Korea move
In a move that’s almost as crap as the headline above and that should surprise noone the FIA has quietly removed the Korean Grand Prix from the 2015 F1 calendar.
That leaves us with a 20-race season, with the proviso that the previously published 21-race season should trigger a clause allowing drivers to have access to five engine units in 2015, instead of four as originally planned when the new engine regulations were launched.
In relation to engine allowances the sporting regs state: “This number will be increased to five if the number of Events in the Championship, as originally scheduled, exceeds 20.â€
According to the BBC, the FIA came under pressure from Renault and Red Bull to add the extra race to the calendar. By signing off on the 21-race calendar last month it would appear that the teams, or at least Red Bull, will be happy to have more engine units to play with.
However, there is a recently discovered loophole in the regs that will allow all engine manufacturers, except Honda, to stagger engine improvements throughout the season. Honda will have to comply with rules as applied to engine makers in 2014 and therefore must finalise its engine by the end of February.
Pretty daft, huh?
Back to realiuty for a moment; you can see the revised 2015 calendar after the break.
As you can see we’ve enjoyed a quiet break here at AUSmotive HQ and it’s a bit remiss to be starting the year with an update that’s well over a month old. That said, here’s a gallery of images from the final WEC race of the 2014 season.
It will be remembered for a few reasons. First, it was the maiden win for Porsche since their return to the LMP1 category. Their progress in 2015 will be well worth watching.
Second, it was the final race for Audi’s Tom Kristensen, who, thanks to his incredible nine wins at La Sarthe is known as ‘Mr Le Mans’. Kristensen’s #1 Audi R18 finished third and it was great to see him on the podium in his farewell appearance.
Finally, Mark Webber had a very big shunt towards the end of the race, which subsequently ended under yellow flag conditions. Thankfully, Mark escaped with nothing more than a “stinking headache”.
In a recent update the family of Jules Bianchi confirmed he remains unconscious but continues to fight. He has been moved from intensive care and has commenced a program of rehabilition therapy.
“It was a significant and very comforting step for us to be able to bring Jules home to France last month, to continue his rehabilitation surrounded by his family and friends. This is very important for Jules and also for us,” Bianchi’s family said in a prepared statement.
“Jules’ neurological status remains unchanged; he is unconscious but able to breathe unaided. Whilst there is no significant information to report, we take a great deal of comfort from the fact that Jules continues to fight, as we knew he would.”
Bianchi was originally relocated from Japan to the Intensive Care Unit of Le Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Nice (CHU) in November last year and is now receicing treatment at CHU’s rehabilitation centre.
[Source: Reuters]
Seven-time Formula 1 world champion Michael Schumacher turns 46 today. We wish him well.
It’s now over a year since his near-fatal accident on the ski slopes of Meribel in France. According to an interview with Reuters given by his manager, Sabine Kehm, late last year Michael still has “long fight” for recovery.
“We need a long time. It’s going to be a long time and a hard fight,” Kehm added. “He is making progress appropriate to the severity of the situation.”
So let’s take a moment to reflect on the extraordinary numbers Michael achieved during his F1 career, as presented on his personal website, while wishing him well in his ongoing recuperation.
David Coulthard is the Champion of Champions after taking out the singles event at the 2014 Race of Champions held in Barbados on the weekend.
The 43-year-old Scot defeated 20-year-old Pascal Wehrlein, DTM racer and Mercedes F1 reserve driver, in the final. Jamie Whincup was representing Australia, along with Mick Doohan, and made it to the final four. He was knocked out by Coulthard in the semis. Whincup caused an upset when he eliminated defending champion Romain Grosjean in the earlier rounds.
The Nations Cup event was taken out by Tom Kristensen (Denmark) and Petter Solberg (Norway), representing Team Nordic. They defeated Team Scotland (David Coulthard and Susie Wolff) in the final.
This year the cars driven by the all-star cast included an Audi R8 LMS, Ariel Atom Cup, Volkswagen Polo RX (rallycross), Stadium Super Truck, KTM X-Bow and the ROC car.
Selected video highlights can be seen after the break.
Kiwi driver Hayden Paddon will extend his WRC career with Hyundai Motorsport in 2015 driving a minimum of nine rallies. In 2014 the 27-year-old and co-driver John Kennard competed in six WRC events, with a best result of P6 in Rally Australia.
“I am very excited to continue working with Hyundai Motorsport with an expanded programme, starting with round 2 in Sweden,” Paddon said. “I learnt a lot and built some really good partnerships within the team this year and it was an obvious choice for us to develop more and chase better results in 2015.”
Paddon clearly impressed team boss Michel Nandan during his limited running this season, explaining his feedback to engineers has been very helpful.
“He had a great first WRC season with us, putting in some eye-catching performances and helping us a lot in the development of our team and car,” Nandan said of Paddon. “He gives excellent technical feedback and works very well as part of a close-knit team with the engineers and mechanics.
“He has already proven himself more than capable of rallying with the best drivers in the world and his personal development was evident as he reduced the gap to his more experienced colleagues.”
Australian driver Chris Atkinson drove for Hyundai at Rally Mexico and Rally Australia in 2014 and it’s unclear what role he will play with the team next year.
Spanish ace Dani Sordo is confirmed for at least 10 of the 13 rounds in 2015, so opportunities for Atkinson may be thin on the ground.
It’s now official, Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button will race for McLaren–Honda in 2015. Kevin Magnussen doesn’t totally miss out and will remain with McLaren in the role of reserve and test driver.
Reliving the glory days of the last time McLaren and Honda competed in Formula 1 Farnando Alonso has confirmed his love of Aytron Senna.
“I have never hidden my deep admiration for Ayrton Senna,” Alonso said. “My favourite driver, my idol on track, my reference.
“I still remember, as a kid, the posters in my wardrobe, my toy cars in which I dreamed I would one day emulate Ayrton, and the kart that my father built for my older sister, and that I ended up falling in love with. That kart had the livery of one of the most legendary partnerships in the history of Formula 1, McLaren-Honda, the car that Ayrton drove, the same partnership to which I am now honoured to join, to take part in the next Formula 1 world championship.
“I am joining this project with enormous enthusiasm and determination, knowing that it may require some time to achieve the results we are aiming for, which is no problem for me.”
Meanwhile Jenson Button said it was Alain Prost who inspired him to become a racing driver. And in doing so he just became a lot cooler.
“Like Fernando, I am certain that McLaren and Honda will achieve great things together,” Button said. “I feel sure that, working together, all of us will pull incredibly hard to create a brilliantly effective winning team.
“I admired Ayrton Senna enormously, but, for me, it was the exploits of his McLaren-Honda team-mate Alain Prost that inspired me most as a boy. The way he stroked those beautifully brutal red-and-white cars to grand prix wins and world championships was to my mind poetry in motion, and I have tried to emulate his driving style ever since.
“Being a part of new-look McLaren-Honda is a wonderful opportunity for all of us, and I am very pleased to have been invited to do my bit. In fact, I am absolutely raring to go.”
You can read the full statement from McLaren-Honda after the break.