Before Rally Sweden kicks off next weekend, take some time to relive Volkswagen’s dominantion of Rallye Monte Carlo, where the reigning world champions went Ogier one, Latvala two and Mikkelsen three!
Category: Motorsports
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Reminder: 2015 Bathurst 12 Hour
A quick reminder that the Bathurst 12 Hour is being held this weekend. We’ll be taking a very low key approach to coverage this year due to a number of reasons. However, you will still be well served because all 12 hours of the race will be shown on free-to-air television.
Coverage will start bright and early on Sunday morning on 7mate before switching across to Channel 7 for the final three hours of the race. That’s actually pretty cool. And remember, we don’t want any of you to spend a single second watching the V8 Supercars practice session; join the AUSmotive boycott and #SayNoToV8SC!
If you’re a social media butterfly then you have heaps of options to cover the event. Photographer Joel Strickland has compiled a thoroughly excellent and comprehensive guide to following the #B12hr on social media.
Finally, the ever reliable, enthusiastic and near iconic Radio Le Mans crew are at the mountain to provide commentary to the world as well. So you’ve got no excuse for not knowing what the hell is going on this weekend.
All the best to the competitors and crew we hope you have an awesome weekend and that the TV coverage rates its arse off!
[Pic: Joel Strickland]
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F1 winter testing: Jerez day 4
Kimi Raikkonen ensured Ferrari ended its pre-season testing at Jerez in the headlines by setting the fastest time of the day (1:20.841).
“Over the winter, we have made a good step forward and this car is definitely an improvement over the 2014 one,” Raikkonen said at day’s end. “It’s the whole package that has progressed, but there is still a lot of work to do.”
Second quickest was Felipe Nasr (1:22.019) in the Ferrari-powered Sauber C34. Defending champions Mercedes found themselves with the third best time of the day, thanks to world champion Lewis Hamilton (1:22.172), who completed 117 laps, more than any other driver.
Max Verstappen piloted his Toro Rosso to the fourth best lap (1:22.553), more than half a second ahead of Felipe Massa (1:23.116) in fifth.
Pocketing a helpful 53 laps for Lotus with its switch to Mercedes power was Romain Grosjean (1:23.802 ) who recorded the sixth fastest lap. Daniil Kvyat (1:23.975) managed to keep the front wing of the RB11 in one piece but was well off the leading pace, going seventh fastest.
In a consistent last place on the lap charts was the McLaren-Honda. Jenson Button (1:27.660) was at the wheel and did at least take the MP4-30 below the 1:30 barrier for the first time this week.
Pre-season testing will resume in two weeks time at Barcelona (19–22 February) and will conclude with a second session in Barcelona (26 February–1 March).
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F1 winter testing: Jerez day 3
Sauber’s F1 rookie Felipe Nasr (1:21.545) has kept Ferrari power at the top of the timesheets in Jerez overnight. He completed 109 laps overall and this is in stark contrast to pre-season testing last year when cars were falling over themselves to break down first.
Kimi Raikkonen (1:21.750) went second fastest and managed 94 laps in his SF15-T. Nico Rosberg again covered more miles than any other driver doing 151 laps and setting the third best time (1:21.982).
The fourth best time was set by Felipe Massa (1:22.276) who racked up 71 laps. Half a second behind was Pastor Maldonado (1:22.713) in the Lotus E23. He managed 96 valuable laps.
Carlos Sainz Jr managed the most laps of the two Renault-powered teams, 137 in all, and went sixth fastest (1:23.187). Daniel Ricciardo had a slow start to the day after his RB11 was given a new engine. He was not chasing outright pace and went seventh quickest (1:23.901), managing 49 laps.
“Although we were limited with running today, we got some long runs together and that was encouraging,” said Daniel. “I was happy to do some 10–15 lap runs as that’s always where you get a better understanding of the car.
“I think the consistency today was good, we put a few laps together in the end, so a few positives to take away from today.”
McLaren took its place at the bottom of the pile, with Fernando Alonso some 14 seconds off the pace (1:35.553). Still, he’ll be pleased that he managed to complete 32 laps. The Honda-powered McLarens have a long way to go although the team remains bullish and says its happy with the progress being made.
“Operationally, we’ve already covered everything in our programme,” enthused Eric Boullier, McLaren racing director. “But what’s even more positive is that we’ve been able to carry out a number of longer runs. They’ve shown us that the car doesn’t have any conceptual or architectural issues.”
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VIDEO: 3rd-gen MINI Challenge car
MINI Challenge cars are very, very cool. Take one road-going JCW hardtop, rip its guts out and turn it into a bona fide racecar. Do that a few times over and put them all on a track and you have a recipe for fun and rubbing doors.
The 3rd-gen MINI Challenge car is ready to terrorise circuits around England. We trust you’ll enjoy this video brought to us by Xcar.
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F1 winter testing: Jerez day 2
Sebastian Vettel has kept himself and Ferrari atop the lap charts in Jerez overnight, going fastest (1:20.984) for the second day running. The four-time champ knows it’s far too early to get excited about his season’s prospects yet, but admits “we have a good basis to work from.”
Inclement weather late in the day interrupted proceedings although some teams did get some testing done on intermediate tyres.
Before the rain set in Sauber also showed it’s relative pace on day 1 was no fluke, with rookie Felipe Nasr (1:21.867) posting the second best time during his first day as a bona fide F1 driver. Around half a second back was Valtteri Bottas (1:22.319) for Williams in the first of the Mercedes powered cars.
Lewis Hamilton enjoyed his first day out for Mercedes AMG in 2015, racking up 91 laps, more than anyone else and laying down the fourth quickest time of the day (1:22.490).
The baby of the bunch, 17-year-old Max Verstappen, managed 73 useful laps for Toro Rosso and was fifth fastest (1:24.167). In its track debut with the Mercedes power unit Lotus notched up 41 laps with Pastor Maldonado at the wheel. His best time (1:25.802) was the last of the meaningful laps with Jenson Button (1:54.655) and Daniil Kvyat (No time) having difficult days.
McLaren hopes to have a better day tomorrow with Yasuhisa Arai, Honda’s chief motorsport officer, telling journalists, “Today was another tricky day, but we feel like we’ve overcome the main issue that affected our running during the first two days of the test. For tomorrow, we’re hopeful that we’ve moved on, and that we can get some more laps completed.”
Meanwhile, Daniil Kyvat’s Red Bull career got off to an embarrassing start when he clipped a wall on his out lap and broke the front wing. At this early stage of the year the team did not have a replacement readily available and he had to make do testing other aspects of the car.
Red Bull will have a replacement wing ready for day 3 of testing which begins late tonight (Australian time).
Nissan has just revealed information and photos for its 2015 LMP1 challenger, the GT-R LM Nismo. And if you think it looks a bit wacky just wait until you cop a load of the car’s specifications. The GT-R LM Nismo is a front-engined, front-wheel drive racer. Yes, really, it’s a front-wheel drive; a bum dragger! It has 14″ rubber on the front axle and 9″ on the rears. It is, quite literally, totally arse about compared with what we’re used to seeing in top line motorsport. Remaining relatively true to its GT-R badge the petrol engine is a twin-turbo 3.0 litre V6. Ben Bowlby, Nissan LMP1 Team Principal and Technical Director, is the man responsible for this madness, or perhaps outright brilliance, only time will tell. He explains himself by saying: “The Nissan GT-R LM NISMO is in automotive-speak a front-engined, front-wheel-drive car. The internal combustion engine drives the front wheels and the energy recovery system harvests energy from the front wheels. We’ve used the relatively low-powered internal combustion engine to drive the front wheels and then we add power from the ERS to augment acceleration. “The regulations have allowed us the freedom to create a significantly different looking car. Nissan are bold challengers who are prepared to innovate in order to get a high performance outcome so we’ve turned the whole concept of the conventional LMP1 car of 2014 on its head. The result is that our car looks different as the cockpit has been moved significantly rearwards to accommodate the engine at the front of the car.” Former F1 driver an winner of the 2009 24 Hours of Le Mans Marc Gene has been named as the driver who will lead the charge in the GT-R LM Nismo. He’ll be taking part in the full 2015 WEC calendar and has realistic hopes for the year ahead and is hopeful of a good showing at Le Mans. “This season we should just focus on learning about and improving the car every time we head out onto the track,” Gene explained. “Making it to the finish would already be an achievement on it’s own. I hope we can show that the car is competitive, especially at Le Mans. “I like the aggressive look of the car, which is a consequence of a well-thought and different design, not seen before at Le Mans. From the very first laps I felt very comfortable. I could feel the very powerful engine and high efficiency of the aerodynamics.” This is one wacky racer that will be fun to watch in 2015!
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F1 winter testing: Jerez day 1
Sebastian Vettel has started his Ferrari career on a high after setting the fastest time (1:22.620) on the opening day of pre-season testing in Jerez.
Ferrari power proved strong, with Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson going second fastest (1:22.777). You get the sense though, even this early on, that Mercedes is just playing with its rivals. Nico Rosberg completed 157 laps, more than Vettel and Ericsson combined, and bossed the morning session setting the quickest time and third best overall (1:23.106).
Daniel Ricciardo was fourth fastest (1:23.338) in the RB11. The young Aussie completed 35 laps and his day ended in the afternoon due to an undisclosed technical glitch.
“We got going pretty well this morning and I got a few laps under my belt,” said Daniel. “I can feel a step forward. I won’t go into too much detail but it’s there. We didn’t do a whole lot of laps but definitely more than at this test last year!”
Red Bull can expect a much closer relationship with engine provider Renault in 2015 now that it is in effect Renault’s sole customer, in conjunction with its junior Toro Rosso team.
Valtteri Bottas tallied up a handy 73 laps for Williams and posted the fifth best time (1:23.906). Carlos Sainz Jr finished his first full day on track as an F1 driver with the sixth fastest lap (1:25.327) in the STR10.
The slowest time of the day was left to Fernando Alonso (1:40.738) who was well off the pace in the McLaren-Honda. The dual world champ managed just six laps and it’s likely to be a difficult pre-season for the MP4-30.
Force India has chosen to delay its first pre-season appearance until Barcelona (19 February). Meanwhile, Lotus is trackside in Jerez and says it expects to debut its E23 on Tuesday.
After showing off its new car via twitter last week Mercedes AMG went with a low key launch for its 2015 Formula 1 car on the morning of testing in Jerez.
World champion Lewis Hamilton and teammate Nico Rosberg were on hand to take the covers off the F1 W06 Hybrid for the second time. Rosberg then took to the track to begin the car’s official test season.
Toto Wolff, Head of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport says his team will not be taking anything for granted as it prepares to defend its dominant 2014 season.
“From outside, winter might look like a rest time in Formula 1. But this couldn’t be further from the truth,” Wolff said. “Long before the end of last season, development work on our 2015 car became the main priority. The winter months are the most intense, with everybody at Brackley and Brixworth working around the clock to prepare for the season ahead.
“There’s a famous Babe Ruth quote I always say to people: ‘Yesterday’s home runs don’t win today’s games.’ We are fully aware that success is not only hard won but can also be short-lived without the right approach.”
Toyota has officially confirmed it will be returning to the World Rally Championship in 2017. Its new rally weapon of choice will be the Yaris WRC, featured here in special launch livery.
Testing of the Yaris WRC has been underway in Europe for some time. Toyota’s commitment will now increase following this announcement and will include a young driver development program as well. The team will be based in Colgone, Germany.
Why wait until 2017 if you’ve already been testing the car for close to 12 months? It’s a pretty good question and the answer lies in the expectation that new regulations will be introduced to the WRC at the end of the 2016 season.
It wouldn’t make sense to introduce a new car with only one season to go before a regulation overhaul. But then why run a three-year test program without knowing what the regs will be for your first race?
In the end that’s for Toyota to worry about, all we know is we’re glad to see the four-time constructors’ champions returning to one of world motorsport’s greatest categories.
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2015 Williams FW37 revealed
Williams has released this single image of its new FW37 on the morning of its track debut in pre-season testing. Pretty stingy, hey! And it’s not even 2000px in size.
Truth be told, the pictorial offerings from Williams have been pretty tight since Martini began to sponsor them.
It’s okay, there is a video of the car launch, too. Just don’t blink!
Day one of Formula 1 pre-season testing is currently underway in Jerez and without any fanfare or launch of any kind Daniel Ricciardo simply wheeled out of the pits and drove onto the circuit.
And with that the 2015 RB11 was revealed. Well, kind of.
As you can see, for reasons best known to them, Red Bull has chosen to run with a temporary camouflage livery. They do say that, obvious nose change aside, most changes to the car compared with the RB10 have been made under the skin.
Outwardly Red Bull has been rushed in its preparation of the RB11 and has only just had its chassis’ crash tests approved. Team boss Christian Horner is downplaying any such talk, of course.
“We’ve been pushing to the limit as usual,” Horner said. “We had a very tight timescale for the car to be prepared in time for the first test, but that’s normal in this team.
“If you’re not on the limit you’re not trying hard enough.”
Daniel Ricciardo is keen to build on his stellar 2014 season and is itching to get back on track.
“There was plenty of pressure on me last year to prove myself in a top team,” Ricciardo said. “I think everyone knows now what I’m capable of so I’m excited—excited to build on what we achieved in 2014 and ready to give Mercedes a good fight.”
Young Daniel will be joined by an even younger Daniil this year and the expectation will be that D1 is faster than D2. We look forward to seeing how this intra-team rivalry pans out.