F1: Mercedes F1 team boss foresees wins

Ross Brawn says there's nothing stopping the W03 Mercedes that will make its debut at Melbourne's grand prix this week genuinely competing with F1's top teams

Is this the car to return Schumacher to the top of the podium?

In the third year of his Formula One comeback, seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher hasn't dared predict a grand prix win, but his Mercedes team boss Ross Brawn has -- in a roundabout way.

Rather than tip a win outright, Brawn -- the man who guided Schumacher to all his championships and 91 GP wins with Benetton and Ferrari and headed the team then bearing his name and Jenson Button to world titles in 2009 -- says he hasn't see anything in the new W03 Mercedes that tells him it can't deliver a race victory.

The understated Brawn's confidence is a big clue that the revered German brand will genuinely join Renault-powered Red Bull, Mercedes-engined McLaren and Ferrari in F1's top bracket in the season starting at this weekend's Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne.

"Sometimes you have a car and you struggle with it and you see things that you say are not working how we expected and wanted, but certainly there is nothing about this car that says we should not achieve our ambitions -- and our ambitions are to do a lot better than we have done for the past two years," Brawn has told Britain's Autosport.

His reluctance to make more precise predictions was because of teams still adapting solutions to rules intended to ban the blowing of exhaust gases over the rear diffusers of their cars.

"Some teams have gone for a design that is clearly still blowing the exhaust in the area of the rear tyre -- that may have an effect when rear tyre degradation is critical because it is much more difficult to manage where the exhaust flow goes this year than it was last year," Brawn said. "Last year it was quite precise. This year it is more general, because you cannot have the exhaust pipes to blow through the diffuser... There will be some interesting twists and turns over the first few races."

Brawn said that, as always, it had been difficult to judge pre-season testing form in Spain "because you don't know what fuel other people are running".

F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone has said he sees Mercedes "looking pretty competitive" and that, if it is good enough, Schumacher can still wins GPs at 43. But if the WO3 is a winner the intrigue will be whether it is Schumacher or his much younger teammate Nico Rosberg who is victorious in it first.

Ecclestone predicts a third straight year of championship glory for Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull, with that team's Australian driver Mark Webber runner-up. That would be a career best for seven-time GP winner Webber, who has been third in the championship each of the past two seasons. To Ecclestone the tests at Jerez and Barcelona "spoke quite a clear language".

"The Red Bull looks super competitive again -- and Sebastian is only 24, so he still has enormous potential to fill," he said. "Realistically, everything points to Sebastian. He's got it all -- talent, passion, zeal, a clear head -- and he hates to lose... I could imagine him beating Michael Schumacher's record.

"I hope that McLaren is faster than at the start of last season and able to fight for wins right from the first race... If I were to bet now it would be Sebastian world champion, Mark Webber second and one of the McLarens third -- probably Lewis Hamilton... He was probably mentally a bit unstable last year and didn't show his full potential.

"If Hamilton and Jenson Button both are able to show their full potential Lewis will be in front of Jenson because in the end he's faster."

Ecclestone said that 2007 world champion Kimi Raikkonen, returning to F1 after two years in the World Rally Championship and a brief flirtation with NASCAR, "seems to be super-motivated" with his new team, Lotus -- formerly the Renault works team but with the French company now an engine supplier and sponsor.

Ferrari's new British technical director Pat Fry has publicly doubted that the Italian team can make the podium in Melbourne, and Ecclestone has named its aerodynamics department as its problem. And he has suggested a solution. "Instead of firing someone they rather should hire someone -- Adrian Newey (Red Bull's technical director)!"

Rough ride for Atkinson in Rally Mexico

Australia's Chris Atkinson had a rocky return to the World Rally Championship in Mexico. Driving a Ford Fiesta for American YouTube and X-Games star Ken Block's team, Atkinson crashed at high speed on Saturday when he found himself without brakes as he crossed the finish of a stage.

Then on the final day the Fiesta had a suspension failure.

Atkinson said Saturday's crash was one of the scariest he had had in a career that included four years with Subaru's now-defunct WRC factory team.

"It was heart in the mouth stuff," he said. "We (he and Belgian co-driver Stephane Prevost) had to make a second gear corner coming from a sixth without any brakes.

"The brakes had been fading but then on the final straight over the finish line of the stage they went completely due to overheating."

Atkinson, who had been eighth in the Mexican event before the crash, said the WRC cars had changed a lot since he was full-time in the championship four years ago.

"When I last drove a WRC car they were 2-litre engines and paddle gear shifts. Now they're 1.6-litre and back to the sequential lever for gear changes. The cars are a lot different to what they once were," he said.

Atkinson is to drive with Block's team in this year's WRC again in New Zealand and Finland, but for Queensland's Asia-Pacific Rally Championship round on the last weekend of May he will drive a Super 2000 Skoda Fabia for India's MRF team. That could a clue to the possible relationship with Volkswagen mentioned here last Friday.

Volkswagen, Skoda's parent company, may still be looking for a teammate to Frenchman Sebastien Ogier when it enters the WRC next year with its Polo R.

France's eight-time world champion Sebastien Loeb won in Mexico for the sixth straight ttime with his new Finnish teammate Mikko Hirvonven 42.4 seconds behind, giving Citroen its first one-two finish this season.

Norway's Petter Solberg claimed third for Ford's factory team after his Finnish teammate Jari-Matti Latvala crashed, claiming he was distracted by Russian Evegny Novikov's crashed Ford. Solberg had lost time early in the event with punctures but beat Loeb on the final Power Stage. While Latvala initially continued after losing several minutes when he crashed on the rally's longest stage the rollcage in his Fiesta was then deemed unsafe.

Qatar's Dakar Rally star Nasser Al-Attiyah was sixth in his second outing for Citroen, Ogier eighth in his Super 2000 Skoda and Block ninth in his Fiesta.

Drivers' World Rally Championship standings after three rounds -- 1. Sebastien Loeb (France, Citroen) 66 points; 2. Mikko Hirvonen (Finland, Citroen) 50; 3. Petter Solberg (Norway, Ford) 47; 4. Mads Ostberg (Norway, Ford) 28; 5. Jari-Matti Latvala (Finland, Ford) 26;

6. Evgeny Novikov (Russia, Ford) 21; 7. Daniel Sordo (Spain, MINI) 18; 8. Ott Taenak (Estonia, Ford) 14; 9. Nasser Al-Attiyah (Qatar, Citroen) 8; 10. Francois Delecour (France, Ford) WRT 8.

Constructors' World Rally Championship standings -- 1. Citroen Total WRT 108 points; 2. Ford World Rally Team 70; 3. M-Sport Ford WRT 38; 4. Mini WRC Team 26; 5. Qatar World Rally Team 16; 6. Adapta World Rally Team 12; 7. Citroen Junior WRT 6.

Agonising wait for Ambrose as Stewart conquers Vegas

Still Marcos Ambrose waits for that breakthrough Sprint Cup win on one of NASCAR's oval tracks. Having raced up front at Daytona and Phoenix in the first two rounds, although he eventually had an engine failure at the second race, he finished 13th in today's round at Las Vegas on the track where IndyCar racer Dan Wheldon died four months ago.

Reigning Cup champion Tony Stewart won at Vegas for the first time and has now won a race every season for 14 years. It was Stewart's 45th Cup race win -- and a third of those victories have been on 1.5-mile (2.4km) ovals.

The three-time series champion withstood the challenge of fellow Chevrolet driver and five-time Cup champ Jimmie Johnson, while Greg Biffe was third for the third time this season and took the series lead.

This year's three races have been won by three different manufacturers -- Ford at Daytona, Toyota at Phoenix and now Chevrolet at Vegas.

Stewart, who took last season's title with a withering late burst, has now won six of the past 13 Cup races -- and four of the past six on 1.5-mile ovals.

NASCAR Sprint Cup standings after three rounds -- 1. Greg Biffle (Ford) 125 points; 2. Kevin Harvick (Chevrolet) 115; 3. Denny Hamlin (Toyota) 113; 4. Dale Earnhardt Junior (Chevrolet) 107; 5. Matt Kenseth (Ford) 102; 6. Carl Edwards (Ford) 102; Tony Stewart (Chevrolet) 100. Australia's Marcos Ambrose (Ford) is 18th on 74 points.

Flying start to Muller/Chevrolet WTCC defence

Yvan Muller, well-known to Australian fans from his visits to Bathurst and the Gold Coast, began the defence of his and Chevrolet's World Touring Car Championship crowns with victories in both races of round one at Italy's Monza.

Frenchman Muller survived a trip across grass as he locked the brakes of his Cruze on the second lap of the first race and then being tapped into a 360-degree spin by British teammate Rob Huff on the second lap of the second race.

"I do spins like that all of the time during the winter at Lapland, but I don't enjoy doing it in racing," Muller said.

Chevrolet remains the dominant manufacturer in the WTCC, with Muller and Huff heading SEAT's Italian star Gabriele Tarquini across the line in the first race before Chevrolets swept the podium in the second race, with Frenchman Alain Prost sandwiched between Muller and Huff -- and little more than 0.6 seconds between the trio.

Another European known to Australian fans, Rickard Rydell, made a one-off appearance in the WTCC for Chevrolet Motorsport Sweden, finishing fourth and 10th in the weekend's two races.

Hong Kong's Darryl O'Young, a driver in the Audi R8s that have won the past two Bathurst 12-Hours, was a non-starter in both races after his SEAT's engine caught fire in the morning warm-up.

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F1: Mercedes F1 team boss foresees wins

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