Mercedes AMG and Pirelli will face the FIA International Tribunal on 20 June over charges of conducting a secret in-season test. The hearing will take place in Paris at 9:30am local time and the decision will be made public as soon as possible.
You can read the full statement from the FIA after the break.
Apparently there’s a real problem in Mexico with women applying makeup while they drive. In response MINI has come up with this public safety announcement.
[Source: MotoringFile]
Honestly, we don’t really like featuring stories of banged up BMWs. Alas, this video gives us an excellent lesson in understeer. We don’t know all the circumstances surrounding this video and its results, so we won’t cast judgement, we’ll just say the E46 BMW M3 is acknowledged as an immensely capable motor car.
[Source: Autoblog]
Last time we brought you photos of BMW’s forthcoming new 2 Series we had a big smile on our face. We liked the front end that has done away with the gawkiness seen on the 1 Series hatch on which it is based.
This, we don’t like so much. Here you can see the aftermath of a 2 Series prototype following a coming together with the guardrail on the A72 near Zwickau in Germany.
As far as we can tell the driver suffered minor injuries and nobody else was hurt. Although, as many as four other cars travelling in the opposite direction were also damaged, forcing the highway to be closed in both directions while the mess was cleaned up.
Normally you’d reckon a cushy test driver gig with BMW would be a great job to have. But it just goes to show even factory test drivers have a bad day at work sometimes.
[Source: SZ-Online via 2addicts | Thanks to John for the tip]
Imagine this, you’re about to tackle the Nürburgring in a car powered by a 1.0 litre three cylinder engine. Hardly seems worth getting worried about. How fast can it be? Allow Chris Harris to tweet, fart and whistle his way around the Nordschleife and show you.
[Thanks to Tiaan for the tip]
Back whenever it was that the FIA started to interview the drivers on the podium after each race (2012 British Grand Prix) we thought it was a clumsy approach. To be fair, there were some teething problems and it did get better. It’s true, also, that fans at the track probably deserve to hear from the drivers they have paid, in many cases, several hundred dollars to watch.
And yet, when you read the transcript below, you won’t really get too much of a clue that all the while during Eddie Jordan’s interview with Sebastian Vettel the German was being booed while Fernando Alonso was being cheered along.
To be fair, the transcript does read a little odd and Jordan seems to cut-off Vettel. In fact he did cut-off the race winner mid-sentence partly to stop the jeering from the crowd we suspect. It was a bad look all around and perhaps the FIA may have cause to reconsider the practice of on-track interviews.
For now, we expect the status quo will remain, as it probably should, but as much as we dislike Vettel at times, he deserved better than the Canadian crowd gave him.
[Pic: Red Bull/Getty Images]
As we touched on in our race report a marshal was killed in this morning’s Canadian Grand Prix. We know of at least two AUSmotive readers who continue to work trackside at Formula 1 races and it really brings it home that there are real dangers involved in this type of work. We hate hearing news like this and we hope we never have to report on such news again.
This is the full statement from the FIA:
Mon 10.06.13, 1:01AM
The FIA is sad to announce the death of a Formula 1 Grand Prix du Canada circuit worker, at 6:02 pm.
The worker, a member of the Automobile Club de l’Île Notre Dame, was the victim of an unfortunate accident that occurred at the end of this afternoon’s Formula 1 Grand Prix du Canada. The worker was helping to recover a car which had stopped during the race. The recovery vehicle had lifted the car to return it to the pits and while doing this the worker dropped his radio and attempted to pick it up. As he did this, he stumbled and was hit and run over by the recovery vehicle.
The worker was transported via helicopter to Sacre-Coeur Hospital where he was treated by the traumatology department of Dr Ronald Denis, Deputy Chief Medical Officer and Dr Jacques Bouchard, Chief Medical Officer of the Grand Prix. Unfortunately, the worker succumbed to his injuries at the hospital.
The FIA, l’Automobile Club de l’Île Notre-Dame and the Formula 1 Grand Prix du Canada want to communicate their deepest condolences to the family and friends of the victim. The identity of the worker cannot be revealed at this time.
[Pic: Red Bull/Getty Images]
The Sebastian Vettel–Red Bull dominance of recent years was captured perfectly at the 2013 Canadian Grand Prix, as the three-time world champion converted his 39th career pole position into his 29th career victory.
Vettel wasn’t troubled during the 70 lap race and the 14.4 second margin back to Fernando Alonso (Ferrari) in second place flatters the rest of the field. Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) rounded out the top three.
Mark Webber (Red Bull) flirted with the podium positions for much of the race, despite minor front wing damage suffered on lap 37 in a collision with Giedo van der Garde (Caterham). Webber was not pleased with van der Garde’s actions either, slamming the 28-year-old as a “a pay driver with no mirrors”.
“I got a sensational start, but I didn’t have too many places to go,” said Webber.”We lost some time with Nico in the first stint, and the car was getting hot behind him in the slip stream. Once I got in free air, the car was handling much better. Then we had the incident with Giedo van der Garde which caused some front wing damage and made it more difficult; the whole top section of the wing was gone on the left hand side, so it didn’t help from then on. I don’t know what he was doing.
“There were some positives from today, but it would have been nicer to have finished a bit further up the road.â€
Nico Rosberg (Mercedes) finished fifth, ahead of Jean-Eric Vergne (Toro Rosso) who finished a career-best sixth.
Daniel Ricciardo was well behind his Toro Rosso teammate and could only manage P15. “I got a really good start, making up two positions off the line,” said Ricciardo afterwards. “I felt we could have a good race, but after just four laps, the car was oversteering like crazy and I couldn’t manage the tyres anymore. As the race went on, we tried to improve the car balance and maybe we improved it a bit, but our pace was really slow.
“We didn’t change so much on the car since Friday, so why we were so slow is a mystery to me at the moment.â€
Both McLaren drivers finished outside of the points in P11 and P12, ending McLaren’s 64-race run of at least one car scoring championship points.
In awful post-race news it emerged that a marshal was killed in a terrible accident with a crane removing Esteban Gutierrez’s Sauber. The marshal slipped while out of sight of the crane driver and was run over. He was rushed to hospital and passed away last night. Our thoughts are with his family and colleagues.
[Pic: Red Bull/Getty Images]
Rain and a red flag couldn’t stop Sebastian Vettel from claiming his 39th career pole position overnight. The Red Bull driver set the fastest time (1:25.425) at the Canadian Grand Prix and will start ahead of Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes, 1:25.512).
Next is a surprise result for Valtteri Bottas (Williams, 1:25.512), who will start from P3, easily the best qualifying position in his short F1 career. Nico Rosberg (Mercedes, 1:25.512) may have started the last three grands prix from pole, but the best the Monaco Grand Prix winner could manage was fourth.
Mark Webber (Red Bull, 1:25.512) will line up on the third row of the grid in P5, with Fernando Alonso (Ferrari, 1:25.512) alongside from P6.
Jean-Eric Vergne (Toro Rosso, 1:27.946) outqualified his teammate Daniel Ricciardo (1:27.946) and it’s the first time this year both made it into Q3. Vergne will start from P7 and Ricciardo qualified tenth but will start from P11 (see below).
Felipe Massa again found trouble in qualifying, following up his crash at Monaco with another barrier-finding moment here in Canada. That brought out a red flag in Q2 with just under two minutes left to run. When the track re-opened all the remaining cars lined up in pit lane to chase entry into Q3.
Several drivers were side-by-side in pit lane, leaving some drivers outside the designated fast lane, which is not strictly allowed. However, only Kimi Raikkonen (Lotus) and Daniel Ricciardo were penalised. Both were given two-spot penalties and will now start from P10 and P11 respectively. In a quirk of process both drivers only move back one grid place, as explained by the FIA.
Hats off to F1 fan Patrick Viola for this livery concept he has created for the return of the McLaren-Honda partnership in 2015.
We can’t say we’re really expecting to see a Marlboro-inspired livery to return to F1 tracks, but as far as fan creations go this one looks pretty good.
[Source: wtf1 | Thanks to Ryan for the tip]
Volvo is expected to be the next manufacturer to join the new era of V8 Supercars. Motoring.com.au reports Garry Rogers Motorsport will announce a deal to race with Volvo on 17 June.
That date also happens to be the day Volvo will launch the S60 Polestar in Australia. When the S60 Polestar concept was revealed last year it had a mighty 508hp on tap from its turbocharged six cylinder engine, but the production model has to make do with only 350hp.
Of course, we don’t need to let the fact the S60 is a six-pot worry anyone in the latest iteration of V8 Supercars by numbers that is the Con of the Future era.
For their part Volvo is officially denying the deal, but we expect there’s enough meat to this rumour that 17 June will be the day.
GRM has been a long-time campaigner in V8 Supercars and won the Bathurst 1000 in 2000, with Jason Bargwanna and Garth Tander at the wheel.
[Source: motoring.com.au | Thanks to Stu for the tip]
Volkswagen Australia has made its first genuine attempt to win back the confidence of concerned owners who have been complaining about a number of reliability problems in the wake of heavy media scrutiny regarding the Victorian coronial inquest into the death of Melissa Ryan.
It follows an official response to Fairfax Media commentary issued by Volkswagen last week. That statement didn’t really offer too much respite for Volkswagen with many critical of the statement’s dismissive tone.
John White, Managing Director of Volkswagen Group Australia, has sent out a letter to owners with the offer of a free inspection if they are concerned about the safety of their vehicle.
“We understand the recent coverage has caused some concern among our customers,” said White. “We feel the best way to demonstrate our commitment is with several immediate measures.
“For peace of mind, we’re offering free inspections of your Volkswagen vehicle at any Volkswagen dealer throughout Australia.”
A special hotline (1800 504 076) has also been established to allow owners to call in with any questions.
You can read Volkswagen Australia’s letter in full after the break. Do you think this is enough for Volkswagen to win back consumer confidence, or do you think they can or should do more?
[Thanks to Stu for the tip]