The Alfa Romeo 4C doesn’t launch in Australia until later this year, but thanks to its role as the official Safety Car for the World Superbike championship you’ll be able to see one at Philip Island this weekend.
We wonder how many Alfisti will be making a special trip.
The UK High Court has dismissed an £85 million damages claim made by German media company Constantin Medien against Bernie Ecclestone. However, Mr Justice Newey did find that Ecclestone entered a “corrupt” deal with jailed German banker Gerhard Gribkowsky and the payments made to him by Ecclestone “were a bribe”.
Constantin Medien was seeking damages from Eccelstone, claiming he sold to CVC Capital Partners in 2005 on the cheap. Constantin Medien, a former F1 shareholder, stood to benefit from massive commissions if the sport’s rights were sold for more than £1 billion. The sale price in 2005 was £830 million.
In a blow to Ecclestone’s integrity Justice Newey went on to add that the 83-year-old could not be considered a “reliable or truthful” witness.
Explaining his decision Newey said: “No loss to Constantin has been shown to have been caused by the corrupt arrangement. That fact is fatal to the claim.”
In response to Justice Newey’s comments Ecclestone said: “Let’s assume I am a liar and let’s assume I am unreliable.
“I’ve run the sport for the last 30-odd years and nothing has changed. So if I was unreliable, and whatever, I have been lucky to have been as successful as we have been.”
Ecclestone will face a German court in April to answer the separate, but related, bribery charges against Gerhard Gribkowsky. If found guilty the F1 supremo could face a prison sentence.
[Source: BBC]
Pre-season testing lap times aren’t always a reliable guide as to who is fast, yet McLaren rookie Kevin Magnussen can do no more than his best and overnight in Bahrain his best (1:34.910) was 1.5 seconds better than anyone else.
“The team is doing a great job to help me,” Magnussen said afterwards. “They’re giving me really good guidance and making me feel confident.
“There’s a lot of discussion about lap times, and it feels good to get some good times recorded, but winter testing is just that—testing. It isn’t about times.”
The young Dane only managed 46 laps in the MP4-29, the third fewest of the 11 drivers who took to the track. Second fastest was Force India driver Nico Hulkenberg (1:36.445) with Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso (1:36.516) close behind.
The fourth quickest time was posted by Nico Rosberg (1:36.965). Despite racking up a healthy total of 85 laps the Mercedes W05 stopped twice on the Sakhir circuit with technical glitches and necessitated red flags. Valtteri Bottas (1:37.328) was the busiest man of the day with 116 laps under his belt in the Williams.
Kamui Kobayashi (1:39.855) was sixth fastest and enjoyed a good day in the Caterham. Also able to be positive, for the first time this pre-season, was Sebastian Vettel (1:40.340) who won’t care that he only went seventh quickest on the day and will be happy to have managed 59 laps. In the five previous days of winter testing Red Bull had only managed a cumulative total of 35 laps.
Daniel Ricciardo will be at the wheel of the RB10 for the next two days in Bahrain and the team is cautiously optimistic it can continue to without further issues.
Red Bull’s sister team Toro Rosso also had a good day with Jean-Eric Vergne (1:40.609) completing 58 laps. Esteban Gutierrez (1:40.717) was ninth quickest in the Ferrari-powered Sauber.
Bringing up the rear were Romain Grosjean (1:41.670) in the Lotus and Marussia’s Max Chilton (1:42.511) who could only manage 18 and 17 laps respectively.
Focus is beginning to move from the woes of reigning world champion constructor Red Bull and onto Lotus. Speaking after testing Trackside Operations Director, Alan Permane, didn’t shy away from his team’s issues.
“Obviously we fell way short of what we want to achieve here which is a strong tally of laps at a representative pace,” he said. “The car itself has looked solid at the pace we’ve run so far, but you only learn so much from lapping at our current level.”
The Lotus F1 Team usually presents itself as the media tarts of F1’s pit lane. They take a less serious and often irreverent approach with their communications. But they’ve taken low key to a whole new level with the reveal of its 2014 car, the E22.
In the team’s media archive we’ve got a total of 11 pics to choose from, only five of which feature the car itself. And as for a press release telling us how wonderful the E22, with that I am the Walrus goo goo goo joob nose, is going to be?
Nothing.
It’s all a little bit odd from where we’re sitting, some 15,000km away. Nevertheless we’ve got those five pics for you and the team’s press release after a disappointing first day of testing in Bahrain.
Nico Hulkenberg set the fastest time on the opening day of F1 pre-season testing in Bahrain overnight. It’s the first of two four-day blocks of testing at the Sakhir circuit and Mercedes-powered cars continued to dominate proceedings, following on from last month’s testing in Jerez.
Hulkenberg registered 78 timed laps in the Force India VJM07, his fastest was 1:36.880. That was one second quicker than Fernando Alonso (1:37.879) who completed 64 laps in the Ferrari F14 T. Lewis Hamilton (1:37.908) did 74 laps in the Mercedes AMG W05, while new boy Kevin Magnussen (1:38.295) racked up 81 laps in the McLaren MP4-29.
Sebastian Vettel (1:40.224) was fifth fastest overnight and will be elated that he managed to complete a timed lap in the Red Bull RB10. Yet the world champion team has new struggles after its woeful performance in Jerez. Vettel only managed 14 laps and said shared his thoughts afterwards.
“We sorted out the issues from Jerez and we were able to do some laps today,” Vettel said. “However, very often you fix one problem and another pops up, which is what happened. That’s testing. We all knew this year was a massive challenge and we knew it would be difficult. We obviously didn’t want this, but it is what it is and we are working flat out to solve the problems.”
Andy Damerum, Red Bull’s Race Engineering Co-ordinator tried to remain positive. “It’s been a very long two weeks for everyone back at the factory and I have to say that while it might not appear so on the surface there has been a big improvement since Jerez,” he explained. “We are obviously playing catch-up and for us this was very much like a first test, so we were sending the car out to do one lap, then two and trying to build from there.
“In that regard the laps completed were good. However, we were sidelined by a mechanical gremlin but one unrelated to the issues in Jerez.”
Sixth fastest was Adrian Sutil (1:40.443), who ran for 82 laps in the Ferrari-powered Sauber C33. The most laps completed by a Renault-powered driver was Robert Frijns (1:42.534) in the Caterham CT05 who notched up 64 laps.
However, the other Renault-powered cars didn’t fare quite so well. Daniil Kvyat (1:44.346) could only manage five laps in the Toro Rosso STR9, while Romain Grosjean (1:44.832) did just eight laps in the first outing for the Lotus E22.
Meanwhile, the Williams FW36 could not repeat its strong form from Jerez with Felipe Massa failing to record a lap time in any of his five laps. Similarly, Marussia driver Jules Bianchi completed only three laps and failed to record a time.
Good news race fans, the FIA has given post-race donuts the green light after making revisions to Formula 1’s sporting regulations.
It’s better than that, too, the change to the regs is quite open ended and states the winning driver can “perform an act of celebration” after the race. There are some caveats to this unbridled joy, of course. Any post-race celebrations must be “performed safely” and not “endanger other drivers or any officials”. Further, the actions must not “not call into question the legality of his car” and should “not delay the podium ceremony”.
After winning the 2013 Indian Grand Prix, thereby securing his fourth world championship, Sebastian Vettel celebrated the hell out of his rear tyres and faced the wrath of the FIA in the form of €25,000 fine. Undeterred, he repeated his act of celebration routine after winning the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix and again at the season finale in Brazil (pictured above) without sanction.
Going back to the wording of the revised regs, what other actions could a driver to when performing “an act of celebration”?
[Source: James Allen | Pic: Red Bull/Getty Images]
Formula 1 pre-season testing resumes tonight, this time in Bahrain. The big story to emerge from the Jerez test last month was the paucity of laps completed by the Renault-powered teams.
We’ve taken a quick look at the numbers and come up with this simple infographic comparing the laps completed with a focus on the Power Units used (Mercedes: 4 teams; Ferrari: 3 teams; Renault: 3 teams).
As you can see the big winners from Jerez were the four Mercedes-powered teams. In contrast there were only three teams each for Ferrari and Renault. Of course, Lotus, a Renault-powered team, was absent from the test as well.
The lines beneath the larger numbers represent the laps completed by each team, with the colours referencing the Power Unit used. In the bottom right hand corner is a comparison showing the total numbers of laps completed by all teams combined at Jerez in 2013 and 2014.
If you click on the image above you’ll get a larger version with extra detail.
[Source: Formula1.com]
Prosecutors in France investigating the Michael Schumacher skiing accident have found no party is criminally responsible for the seven-time F1 world champion’s fall.
“No infraction by anyone has been turned up,” French prosecutor Patrick Quincy said in a media conference yesterday. This rules out any suggested fault from the Mirebel ski resort or any equipment manufacturer.
The case looking into Schumacher’s accident is now closed and the official report stated in part: “There were no breaches by anybody. The accident occurred in an off-piste zone. The signage, marking, staking and information provided about the edges of this slope adhere to French norms in place.”
The report said Schumacher hit a rock off the marked ski run and then hit the right side of his head on another rock a further 10.4m away. Both rocks were more than 4m off-piste investigators found.
Schumacher remains under strict medical supervision while doctors slowly ease him out of an induced coma. His family is keeping reports of his progress confidential for now, although it’s understood a full prognosis on Shumacher’s health could still be months away.
[Source: Deutsche Welle]
The official YouTube channel for the Australian Grand Prix has released this teaser video showing some of the stats involved when transforming Albert Park from tranquil green open spaces into an FIA approved Formula 1 circuit.
The 2014 NASCAR season has begun with the bizarre sight of the Chevrolet SS (née Commodore SS) Pace Car catching fire while it was leading the field around Daytona International Raceway.
“Tower, we’re on fire,” came the confirmation from Brett Bodine behind the wheel of the flaming Pace Car.
Feeling a bit sorry for the Pace Car, and perhaps Holden’s plight, racing legend Dale Earnhardt Jr came to the Chevy’s defence: “I guess it was the batteries in the back for the lights, because cars just don’t catch on fire like that,” Earnhardt said.
“It was pretty weird.”
A faulty battery pack to power the safety lights has been blamed for the fire.
The light-hearted incident was best summed up by Brad Keselowski who was the driver behind the Pace Car at the time: “When you think you’ve seen it all, then you see that!
“That was an interesting one; I just saw the whole back of the car on fire. I thought it was a race car, and then someone said it was the pace car and I just started laughing.”
You can see video of the incident after the break.
[Source: SB Nation]
McLaren Racing has been kind enough to share with the world an infographic which takes us through some of the key changes for the 2014 F1 season and, of course, its MP4-29 racecar.
Check it out after the break.
The official entry for the Le Mans 24 Hours 2014 brings confirmation of a minor change to the driver line ups for Toyota Racing.
In effect Nico Lapierre and Stephane Sarrazin have swapped seats. Which means Toyota’s final pairings for the 2014 WEC season will be Alex Wurz, Stéphane Sarrazin and Kazuki Nakajima in the #7 TS040 Hybrid, while Anthony Davidson, Nicolas Lapierre and Sébastien Buemi will race in the #8 car.
The 2014-spec TS040 Hybrid will be revealed at the first WEC test session on 28–29 March. The big news is the TS040 now had power being sent to all four wheels, with electric power at both axles, in conjunction with a V8 petrol engine at the rear.