While not all of our readers were impressed with the 515kW V8 petrol-electric hybrid Audi Sport quattro revealed at this year’s Frankfurt Motor Show, we thought it was pretty bloody special. So too does Audi Communications who have released a new video featuring the car.
The reason for the video? In the six months since Audi AG launched its Facebook page it has attracted 100,000 likes. Enough to persuade Audi to build the car this time?
Sebastian Vettel’s decision to celebrate his fourth world championship with a series of donuts after winning the Indian Grand Prix earned him a post-race appointment with the FIA race stewards.
An FIA statement read in part: “The driver failed to proceed directly to the post race parc ferme as detailed under article 43.3 of the FIA Formula One Sporting Regulations.
“Due to the special circumstances the Stewards accepted the explanation of the driver. The team failed to instruct the driver sufficiently to return directly to post race parc ferme.”
Vettel was handed an official reprimand, his first of the season, and Red Bull Racing was fined €25,000 for failing to instruct their pesky charge to return his car to his reserved #1 parking spot in pit lane.
We’re not sure what the FIA will do with that money, but we think there’s probably a worthy charity or two in India which could continue to benefit from the presence of Formula 1 in their country.
[Source: Autosport | Pic: Red Bull/Getty Images]
Hats off to Sebastian Vettel, this gallery from the Indian Grand Prix is all about celebrating his achievements. There’s still heaps of photos from the rest of the field, of course. But it’s not every day a 26-year-old is crowned a four-time Formula 1 world champion and so we begin with a large sample from Red Bull’s media collection.
In the unlikely event you haven’t heard the news, Sebastian Vettel is now a four time Formula 1 world champion, thanks to his Indian Grand Prix victory. There’s no surprises that Nico Rosberg and Romain Grosjean didn’t attract too many questions in the post-race press conference; it’s not every day a guy wins four titles in a row.
Before you get to the transcript of the post-race press conference a few words from Mark Webber (DNF) and Daniel Ricciardo (P10).
Mark Webber: “Obviously I’m pretty disappointed with today’s race, but there is not much I can do, the alternator went wrong with very short notice so we had to stop straight away. It’s tough because we did a lot of things right this weekend, but I’ve got a smile on my face as I could not have done any more.
“Well done to Seb on his Championship and also to all the Team; to get a fourth title is amazing. It’s been a great job by the whole team to achieve the title four years on the trot and it has once again set itself as the benchmark for the others.”
Daniel Ricciardo: “I am pretty pleased with today’s performance, even if during the race I thought we were looking better than a tenth place finish, especially after the first stint went well and the pace was looking good. It seemed as though we could have matched Sutil and Di Resta, so there’s a little bit of disappointment about the fact I couldn’t get past them and get a couple more points. Generally, I am pleased with what I did in the car and now we move on to Abu Dhabi, where we have a lot of support, so I hope we can give them a good result next Sunday.
“Vettel? Phenomenal! Particularly since the summer break, when he grabbed the title and never let anyone else look at it.”
[Pic: Lotus F1 Team/LAT Photographic]
It’s just too easy for him isn’t it. So it would seem from afar at any rate.
Sebastian Vettel has cruised to victory at the Indian Grand Prix and in doing so secured his fourth consecutive world championship. He’s just 26 years old and while he has his fair share of detractors noone can take away what he has achieved. It’s quite remarkable.
From pole position, Vettel established an early lead; 2.4 seconds by the end of Lap 1. It was clearly a case of how far for the Red Bull ace. He took a small risk by pitting early to rid himself of his soft compound tyres but then showed his class by carving his way through the field to re-establish a race winning position.
Despite a messy start, suffering light contact with both Kimi Raikkonen and Fernando Alonso, Mark Webber spent quite a bit of time leading the race. His different tyre strategy giving him an early edge over the other drivers around him. The plan was to establish a strong enough gap over Vettel to keep the lead. On this day, again, Vettel was unstoppable and his victory proved to be a formality. However, Mark was driving well and was on track for a comfortable second place.
Unfortunately for Mark he was instructed by his team to retire on account of an alternator problem. Vettel received a few warnings, as well, but he still posted quick laps and managed to win the race by almost 30 seconds over Nico Rosberg.
Even with Vettel’s huge achievement the drive of the day goes to Romain Grosjean who fought his way to P3 after the disappointment of starting from P17. His growing maturity has been one of the stories of the latter half of the season.
Daniel Ricciardo drove a long first stint, running as high as third and may have had eyes on a better result than the P10 he managed. That said he’ll be pleased with his efforts after he managed to hold off Fernando Alonso in the closing laps to grab a championship point.
And not much else really matters from tonight’s race because, deservedly, it’s all about Sebastian Vettel. His win secured a fourth constructors’ title in succession for Red Bull as well. Instead of returning his car to parc fermé, Vettel chose to entertain the crowd with a series of donuts on the main straight. Is there a better way to celebrate a record-breaking dual championship result?
It’s worth noting at the mid-season break, after the Hungarian Grand Prix, Vettel lead the championship title race by 38 points over Raikkonen. Handy, but not insurmountable. Fellow world champions Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton were also in touching distance. Since then, though, Vettel has won the ensuing six races and his unbeatable championship lead is now a staggering 115 points.
Vettel joins Juan Manuel Fangio, Alain Prost and Michael Schumacher as the only men to win four world titles. By some margin Vettel is the youngest man to achieve this record. The rule changes of 2014 may well upset Red Bull’s on-track dominance, making a fifth title harder to predict. But you sense a fifth world crown, and perhaps more, will come before he retires from the sport.
The evolution of the Golf GTI has entered its seventh stage and it’s almost as if the model has become a victim of its own success. The Mk5 GTI created a tidal wave of hype and the Mk6 followed suit, perhaps to a lesser degree despite sales remaining strong. But this time around it feels like the Mk7 GTI has quietly snuck onto Australian shores without much fanfare.
Not only did the Mk5 GTI reignite Volkswagen, especially in Australia, it reignited the hot hatch segment. Last decade you didn’t have to do too much to make people take notice. That’s not to say the Mk5 wasn’t a great car, it was, but we’re now in a more competitive market where buyers have a firm idea of what to expect from a Golf GTI. The likes of Ford and Renault, in particular know that too and provide very capable alternatives. Has the Mk7 advanced the cause enough for Volkswagen to ensure it still has a hot hatch winner on its hands?
In an interview with Formula1.com Daniel Ricciardo says he has the self-confidence required to push four-time world champion* Sebastian Vettel when he graduates to Red Bull Racing in 2014:
Q: It is no secret that you have to have sound self-esteem to succeed in F1—and you definitely need more of that self-esteem to survive alongside Sebastian. Do you have that?
DR: It is probably the type of person I am. I believe that I’ve got this far for a reason—so there is no reason why it should stop here. With each year I get more hungry and determined. I see Seb and I know that he is a phenomenal driver—but he is also only human. If I really put the hard work in I should be able to challenge the top guys. I have other interests as well that keep me quite grounded and I think that also plays a huge part. I also have a life outside F1. That healthy balance is good for success.
We recommend you follow the source link below to read the full interview.
*Come back to us after this evening’s Indian Grand Prix.
[Source: Formula1.com | Pic: Toro Rosso/Getty Images]
Sebastian Vettel pole has pole position for another grand prix, with a pair of Mercedes AMGs on his tail. Nothing new there and yet the biggest stories to come out of this latest round of qualifying centre around tyre selection.
Vettel blitzed the field needing only one flying lap in Q3 to set a time nobody could match (1:24.119). Nico Rosberg was the best of the challengers, but was a over seven tenths behind (1:24.871). Lewis Hamilton qualified third (1:24.941).
In fourth place is Mark Webber (1:25.047) and while the three guys ahead of him qualified on the faster option (softs) tyres, Mark elected to use the primes (mediums). On that basis he’s happy with P4 and the expectation he’ll be able to run a longer first stint with the plan to build up a decent lead.
“We thought it was worth trying something a little bit different with the strategy today, so that’s why we ran the primes in Q3,” Mark said. “We thought we would probably be a bit further back than the second row to be honest, so it turned out to be a good session for us.
“We’re in a good position to capitalise on a different approach tomorrow. The option tyre (used by the first three cars) shouldn’t last too long and we’ll be on a different strategy.”
Meanwhile, Romain Grosjean, who has shown excellent recent form took the gamble that the primes would be enough to progress from Q1 and he missed out by some margin too, half a second. He’ll be starting from P17 and will be one to watch when the lights go out.
Daniel Ricciardo (1:25.519) failed to make Q3 by just six hundredths of a second and will line up from P11. His Toro Rosso teammate, Jean-Eric Vergne (1:25.798), will start from P14.
“When I crossed the line, my engineer came on the radio and told me I was currently P9 and I thought this could be good, but a few corners later I had dropped to P11. So I was a bit disappointed, even if I think I probably got the most out of it,” Daniel explained. “All the same, we did a good job in qualifying and being eleventh, I get a free tyre choice for the start, although I know some of the top ten opted to do their final runs on the Prime.”
And so Vettel claims his 43rd career pole position and needs only a fifth place or better in the race to wrap up a fourth consecutive world championship. It looks like only a mechanical failure or accident stands in the way of the inevitable.
The full transcript of the post-quali press conference featuring the first three drivers can be read after the break.
[Pics: Red Bull/Getty Images]
Porsche has checked in with this brief video to remind us a) that they’re German and b) that they’re busy working hard on Mark’s new car. That blurry thing in the middle of the screen cap above is their new LMP1 engine. They don’t want us to know how many cylinders they’re using, you see. Crafty buggers, hey.
Finally the BMW 2 Series is here. We’re not going to pretend it’s the prettiest coupé we’ve ever seen, but with the revised styling on the front-end alone, it’s a great leap forward in aesthetics from the 1 Series hatch on which it is based.
If you’re itching to get yourself into a 2 Series you’ll have to cool your heels until its market launch in March 2014. The public debut of the F22 coupé will take place in Detroit next January and its Australian sales launch is scheduled for the middle of next year.
BMW has published details on five models, which we’ve listed below:
BMW M235i
Power/torque: 240kW @ 5800–6000rpm / 450Nm @ 1300–4500rpm
Engine: 2979cc six cylinder turbo
Weight (unladen): 1455kg (manual), 1470kg (auto)
0–100km/h: 5.0s (manual), 4.8s (auto); 0–1000m: 23.8s (manual), 23.7s (auto)
BMW 220i
Power/torque: 135kW @ 5000–6250rpm / 270Nm @ 1250–4500rpm
Engine: 1997cc four cylinder turbo
Weight (unladen): 1350kg (manual), 1365kg (auto)
0–100km/h: 7.0s (manual), 7.0s (auto); 0–1000m: 27.3s (manual), 27.7s (auto)
BMW 220d
Power/torque: 135kW @ 4000rpm / 380Nm @ 1750–2750rpm
Engine: 1995cc four cylinder diesel
Weight (unladen): 1375kg (manual), 1390kg (auto)
0–100km/h: 7.2s (manual), 7.1s (auto); 0–1000m: 27.5s (manual), 27.4s (auto)
BMW 225d*
Power/torque: 160kW @ 4400rpm / 450Nm @ 1500–2500rpm
Engine: 1995cc four cylinder diesel
0–100km/h: 6.3s (auto)
*Provisional figures
BMW 218d*
Power/torque: 105kW @ 4000rpm / 320Nm @ 1750–2750rpm
Engine: 1995cc four cylinder diesel
0–100km/h: 8.9s (auto)
*Provisional figures
Like us you’re probably most interested in the M235i. Until the M2 arrives, it is the closest thing we’ve got to a replacement for the much loved 1 Series M Coupe after all. So you’ll be pleased to know, among its kit bag of M Performance Automobile tricks, it gets a proper slippery diff. BMW says, “the mechanical rear axle differential system optimises traction in suitably dynamic driving situations.”
You can read more about the M235i and the full 2 Series range after the break.
Porsche has released this short video with Tony Hatter, Design Manager, talking about the very cool 911 50th anniversary edition. We just wish we could borrow one from work too.
In an interview with Auto Motor und Sport Ron Meadows from the Mercedes AMG F1 Team claims they broke the record for the fastest ever pit stop. The old mark was set at 2.05 seconds by Red Bull, but Meadows says his team did a routine pit stop in 2.02 seconds during the Japaense Grand Prix.
True, we’re splitting hairs here as the times are so close, but Meadows reckons their record stop wasn’t perfect. “The mechanism of the jack was too slow,” he claimed. “If it had worked properly, the time would have been 1.93 seconds.”
That’s damn fast. However, it seems as though there would still be room for improvement. “In practice we have done a 1.68 second stop,” Meadows added.
For the pedants among you, yes the above pic was taken during the Korean Grand Prix. With Mercedes AMG F1 pics we only have a small sample to choose from compared with other teams.
[Source: World Car Fans]