MOTORSPORT: A new formula for Australia in 2015

Little Bernie's shadow still looms large
Australia is to get a new open-wheeler category in 2015 as the Confederation of Australian Motor Sport's attempt to ensure the country continues to have drivers in Formula One beyond Mark Webber and Daniel Ricciardo.

Confirmation that Australia will adopt the proposed new international feeder category Formula 4 came this week as, but separately from, F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone made clear he still thinks the highest level of world motorsport can't do without him, even at 83 years of age.

Ecclestone told a London court that the F1 commercial empire would be "worth nothing" without him.

"I'm sorry if I seem to be taking a very arrogant position but I am just talking about facts," Ecclestone said.

The other man who together with Ecclestone made the most powerful pair in world motorsport for a quarter of a century or so, Max Mosley, also has returned to the spotlight somewhat this week, winning a case that could force Google to block images of his infamous sadomasochistic sex romp five years ago.

More on those matters below, but quickly a snapshot of other news this week.

Belgian Thierry Neuville is to head Hyundai's line-up in its return to the World Rally Championship next year.

Neuville, 25, has been a revelation in the WRC this season, sitting second to Volkswagen's new world champion Sebastien Ogier.

He will leave the Ford M-Sport team to join Hyundai, while Australia's Chris Atkinson -- a full-time WRC driver with Subaru until its withdrawal several years ago -- still waits to hear whether his recent testing duties with the Korean manufacturer will be rewarded with a drive as Neuville's teammate next season.

Both the West Australian round of next year's V8 Supercar Championship and the event at the only permanent circuit among the three Queensland rounds, at Ipswich's Queensland Raceway, have been locked in now after having asterisks against them when the calendar was announced.

The event at Perth's Barbagallo Raceway will be on May 16-18 and that at Queensland Raceway on August 1-3.

This weekend's tarmac rally, Targa High Country in Victoria, is likely to be a contest for outright honours between Tasmanian Jason White in a Lamborghini Gallardo and South Australian Steve Glenney in a Nissan GT-R.

The penultimate round of NASCAR's Sprint Cup is at Phoenix International Raceway, with Jimmie Johnson (Chevrolet) narrowly leading Matt Kenseth (Toyota) ahead of the final race at Homestead-Miami Speedway the following weekend.

CAMS, having announced the end -- or the end of its support for -- the Australian Formula Ford Championship a few weeks ago, has decided to adopt the new control category Formula 4 anointed by the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) as the stepping stone to international open-wheeler competition for young Aussies.

Unlike Formula Ford, the cars will have aerodynamic wings, slick tyres and carbon monocoque chassis.

These chassis will come from a single supplier, as will the 1600 engines in them. CAMS has flagged that it will call a tender soon for a promoter to run the new category for three years from 2015.

In the meantime there is likely to be a five-round Formula Ford national series next year at least.

While the possible demise of Formula Ford, certainly as a national championship, is greatly lamented within Australian motorsport, Webber moved to Europe promptly in his youth rather than complete -- and perhaps win -- the Formula Ford title at home.

And Ricciardo, with the assistance of a $50,000 scholarship from overseas, opted to race in Asia's Formula BMW series rather than the Australian Formula Ford Championship as his "bridge" to Europe and top-level open-wheeler success.

Webber's F1 career will end this month after more than 200 GPs and with at least nine wins, while Ricciardo will replace him next year as four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel's teammate at Red Bull Racing.  

CAMS president Andrew Papadopoulos said Formula 4 would provide "a better, more defined and relevant pathway in open-wheel racing for Australia’s emerging young talent".

New CAMS chief executive Eugene Arocca had already said that Australia continuing to be represented on the F1 grid was a top priority -- ahead of the development of V8 Supercar drivers.

Gerhard Berger, the Austrian 10-time grand prix winner, heads the FIA Single Seater Commission overseeing the introduction of Formula 4 globally.

"To see such a major player such as CAMS become involved in the adventure of Formula 4 sends out a strong message in favour of this new competition," Berger said.

Australia's last F1 world champion Alan Jones and five-time motorcycle world champion Mick Doohan, now heading karting in Australia, have given the introduction of Formula 4 the thumbs up.

“It sounds terrific ... I am in favour of any formula which allows a young person to further their career in open-wheel racing at a more affordable price,” Jones said.

Doohan said there would now be "a great conduit from karting through a proper single-seater, wings-and-slicks category that will help aspiring drivers move on to the next level".

Meanwhile, Bernie Ecclestone has appeared in court in London this week in the case in which German sports media company Constantin Medien is claiming huge damages -- although almost a third less now than the earlier $180 million -- from the sale of almost half of the F1 empire several years ago.

The company alleges it lost out heavily when shares were sold at less than their true value.

German banker Gerhard Gribkowsky, who arranged the sale to private equity company CVC, is serving an 8½-year jail term for receiving US$44 million from Ecclestone, who has denied making "a corrupt bargain" and claimed that what he paid Gribkowsky was not a bribe but something to avoid him being "shaken down" [blackmailed].

In the course of his evidence in court Ecclestone said that if he had been ousted from running F1, as he has for three decades, the business would have been "worth nothing".  

"I don't care who the shareholders are and who is on whatever boards ... I run the business," Ecclestone said.

And the US$44 million to Gribkowsky was "a very small amount, what I call an insurance policy ... quite a cheap insurance policy" to stop the German embroiling him in a potentially time-consuming and costly tax case.

The court also heard of personal cheques of US$10 million to three then F1 principals Alain Prost, Eddie Jordan and the late Tom Walkinshaw in 2001, seemingly to assure their support for the sport's commercially-governing Concorde Agreement.

While Ecclestone's long-time associate Mosley, 73, won his landmark case against Google in Paris he is to receive only a symbolic €1 in damages after reportedly having spent more than £500,000 on having material about his sex life removed from websites.

The French court ordered Google to filter out nine of the images obtained in an undercover operation by the now-defunct British tabloid newspaper the News of the World.

Google has said it will appeal the decision, which it has called a “troubling ruling” that “should worry those who champion the cause of freedom of expression on the internet”.

Image: www.independent.co.uk

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