Eyes on Premat, Holdsworth and Reynolds
All 28 V8 Supercar Championship cars will be on track at Melbourne’s Sandown circuit on Saturday February 11 for the first official day of the final season before next year’s introduction of the Car of the Future.
This year’s line-ups will be on track between 9.15am and 12.30pm, then from 1.30pm until 5.00pm.
It is the second year there has been an on-track season launch and test day. Last year’s was at Sydney’s Eastern Creek and well attended. This year it has been lower-key in the lead-in to the Sandown test, overwhelmed by the news of Nissan’s re-entry to Australia’s premier championship and speculation that there will be at least one more car brand before too long.
There is unlikely to be much of technical interest about the Sandown test of the existing cars as engineers increasingly turn their minds this year to the Car of the Future. Of most interest tomorrow will be three drivers – Alex Premat, the Frenchman hired by Garry Rogers Motorsport; Lee Holdsworth, who has moved from Rogers and a Holden to Stone Brothers and a Ford Falcon; and David Reynolds, finally free from the Kelly Brothers Holden team (that will be Nissan’s flagbearer next year) and confirmed yesterday as the driver of the third Ford Performance Racing Falcon entered by Rod Nash.
Premat is of particular interest. As we said here a week ago, he has impressive credentials – mostly in open-wheelers but including almost four seasons in the DTM (German Touring Car Championship), in which he scored podiums but never won.
Garry Rogers has said: “I truly believe he was the best driver available for me to hire.”
On paper, perhaps. What is incredible is that Rogers – who has performed a few minor miracles in V8 Supercar racing, as well as making a few blunders (like letting Jamie Whincup go) – hired Premat without any test drive of a V8 Supercar. It may prove to have been an inspired decision. In any case, Rogers is a smart businessman and presumably has given himself an “out” in the contract if the relationship doesn’t meet expectations.
Holdsworth’s switch is a step up to a higher-ranked team with more factory assistance and may give him the opportunity to become a serious title contender. Stone Brothers already had young New Zealand star Shane Van Gisbergen becoming just that and, with its third driver Tim Slade (another youngster coming off a good 2011) they have a formidable line-up. Holdsworth will make his debut with the Ford team with the right perspective on things.
Reynolds’ move, after much acrimony, is a step up for him too. The highly regarded 26-year-old said he was feeling highly motivated about driving a Falcon prepared by the factory team and being reunited with engineer James Small.
Entrant Nash, another canny businessman, said: “All the ducks are in a row for car 55 to gain some great results. He has the right personality to fit into our close-knit team.”
The Sandown test will give some points but, like the Formula One testing in Spain this week, the results will have little – certainly no lasting – meaning.
The V8 Supercar Championship begins on the first weekend of March with Adelaide’s Clipsal 500.
Holden’s two factory-backed squads – Triple Eight/Team Vodafone and Holden Racing Team – are pretty much guaranteed to be at the pointy end, with unchanged line-ups: Triple champion Jamie Whincup and veteran Craig Lowndes, plus reigning Bathurst 1000 winner Garth Tander and 2010 champion (for Ford team Dick Johnson Racing) James Courtney.
One of the big questions to be answered – well beyond the Sandown test – will be whether Ford Performance Racing can mount a better season-long title fight rather than come on strong at the end. It too has a strong and now experienced line-up – Mark Winterbottom, always in the top five in the series without winning a championship, and Will Davison, entering his second season with FPR. Triple Eight has been the benchmark team for years now, HRT has been inconsistent but has landed important prizes, but FPR is the factory team that most needs to lift its overall game in 2012.
Incidentally, some minor tweaks have been made to the championship race schedule this week. The Saturday races at Symmons Plains in Tasmania and at Phillip Island and Winton in Victoria have been stretched from 120km to 140km, while at Queensland Raceway there will be a single 140km Saturday race rather than two 70km sprints. That reduces the number of races from 30 to 29.
Aussies on F1 pace, Ferrari struggling
It’s been an intense week of Formula One testing at Spain’s Jerez circuit, with the final day today before two more four-day tests in Barcelona ahead of the season-opening Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne on March 16-18.
Australia’s Mark Webber and Daniel Ricciardo went well on the first two days at Jerez in the Red Bull RB8 and Scuderia Toro Ross STR7 respectively, although Red Bull had a three-hour delay on the opening day. By the time they wrapped up their two days in the cars, before handing over to teammates Sebastian Vettel and French rookie Jean-Eric Vergne, Webber and Ricciardo were fastest and second fastest of the drivers in 2012 cars.
Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg have been quickest overall to date, but driving last year’s Mercedes until the German marque’s new machine is unveiled in Barcelona. Returning 2007 world champion Kimi Raikkonen and Frenchman Romain Grosjean have been on the pace in this year’s Lotus car from the team formerly called Renault. They were fastest of drivers in 2012 cars on the first and third days, with Grosjean heading Red Bull’s dual world champion Vettel and Lewis Hamilton in the new McLaren MP4-27. Vettel said this year’s rules changes had meant “there is quite a big loss in grip”.
While not making any big statements about the RB8, he said: “So far I think we can be quite happy. We had a couple of issues that stopped us for a little while, but that's normal."
Toro Rosso’s Vergne was fifth overall – and fourth of those in 2012 cars. Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso was only seventh on the latest timesheet and the Italian team did fewer laps than many teams, doing lots of short runs rather than long stints. Although these tests are notoriously difficult to assess, Ferrari’s new technical director Pat Fry said he was a long way from feeling completely happy about the F2012 model.
“We have got a lot of work to do,” Fry told Autosport.
“There is a lot of room for us to improve from where we are. Reliability-wise it is good. Performance-wise I think we are okay, but we can play around with the performance and improve in some corners and some particular parts of the corner, but I would not say I am happy yet until we get the whole thing working."
“Certainly the three tests rather than four [last year] does compress things a little bit. The basic platform [of the F2012] is okay. We are looking at the various characteristics – and all the bits we have to test. We are working through a reasonably large matrix here, so on each run we are trying almost a different configuration.
“There is a lot of analysis here and then back at the factory. We are using the simulation and the simulator to make sure everything ties in, so we can put the right package together.”
Fry said Ferrari had no interest in chasing headline-grabbing quick laptimes.
The F2012 has a new pull-rod front suspension, of which Fry said: “It is a small aero benefit, a small centre of gravity benefit, and it is different from what people have done in the past - but it is not that big a risk.”
Rubens Barrichello, who for so long was Michael Schumacher’s teammate in Ferrari’s heyday, will decide next week whether he wants to race in IndyCar this year. Barrichello has shown signs that he is keen to continue racing after the end of his 19-year F1 career but his legendary fellow Brazilian Emerson Fittipaldi has cautioned him about it – and Barrichello’s original F1 team owner, Eddie Jordan, has been even more direct.
“I love Rubens and I think he should retire with dignity,” Jordan said.
Fittipaldi, who had huge success in Indy racing after winning two F1 world titles, said: “Indy is different now to when I drove. The risk is higher. It is a risk he knows he will need to take [if he decides to drive for KV Racing].”
MINI early leader in WRC round two
Rally of Sweden is underway despite the turmoil in the World Rally Championship, with MINI’s Spanish driver Dani Sordo quickest on the Karlstad special stage that began the second event of the year.
Scandinavian driver Mads Ostberg and Estonian Ott Tanak in Fords as the top Citroen and Ford drivers down the order as they jostled for better positions in today’s leg of longer stages.
Meanwhile, the Federation Internationale de l’Autmobile (FIA) has called for tenders for a new WRC promoter in the wake of the collapse of North One Sport’s parent company and a breakdown in negotiations with Eurosport.
The FIA said it wanted applications from companies “interested in getting involved as an agent, a promoter or an investor in the promotion of the championship with a view to concluding a multi-year contract”.
It said it would announce the winning bid by the end of next month.
Young Brabham wins in America
Third-generation Brabham – Matthew, son of Geoff and grandson of Sir Jack – has a win in America already as he begins his international career.
A Formula Ford winner in Australia, teenager Brabham will compete in the USF2000 Championship this year.
There is a short “Winterfest” series at two Florida circuits, Sebring and Palm Beach, as preparation for the USF2000 Championship.
Brabham won one and finished second in the other two races at Sebring, with the second meeting at Palm Beach this weekend.
Hankook extends motorsport involvement as chosen manufacturer
South Korean tyre maker Hankook has agreed to a long-term supply deal for the Italian-based Superstars International Series and GTSprint International Series.
Currently OE supplier to manufacturers including Ford, Volkswagen, Renault and Mitsubishi, Hankook will supply tyres to the Superstars series, which fields V8-engined touring cars from brands including Audi, BMW, Chrysler, Jaguar, Lexus, Maserati and Mercedes-Benz.
Vice President of Marketing Hankook Tyre in Europe, Hee-Se Ahn, said the new supply deal represented an important development for the tyre maker following its successful first season as exclusive supplier to the German-based DTM touring car series. "The extension of our motor racing program to other touring car series is a logical next step for us, following our successful start with the DTM in 2011," said Ahn.
Hankook will also supply control racing tyres to the new New Zealand-based V8 SuperTourers series, which launches on February 17. "The new partnerships are further proof of Hankook's ability to meet the demanding technical challenge of producing high quality racing tyres for powerful touring cars," said Motor Racing Director of Hankook Tyre, Europe, Manfred Sandbichler.
"The weight of these fast cars combined with very powerful V8 engines is particularly challenging for the tyres."
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