MOTORSPORT: Aussies are the best!

Friday motorsport report

We are the top nation, with 40,779 points to Germany’s 38,690, with Britain, France and the US next best.

Yet, as confirmation is awaited (now expected early next week) of the sale of 60 per cent of V8 Supercars Australia to Sydney private equity firm Archer Capital, the top V8 Supercar driver is ranked only 77th in the world.

Mark Webber, without a win in Formula One this year but after a couple of sterling drives in China and Turkey, is the top Aussie in the Castrol rankings at No. 2, behind only his German world champion team-mate Sebastian Vettel.

IndyCar series leader Will Power is No. 6 in the rankings after his second win of the year recently in Sao Paulo and four pole positions this season, while his Penske team-mate and fellow Aussie Ryan Briscoe is No. 17.

French rallying great Sebastien Loeb jumped from fifth to third this week after his victory in the Italian round of the World Rally Championship.

That put him ahead of F1 world champions Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton.

While Jamie Whincup is the top V8 Supercar driver at No. 77, there is another Australian ahead of him – David Brabham at 75. Our NASCAR racer Marcos Ambrose is No. 86 on the latest list – the sixth Aussie in the top 100.

Yet the Australian endorsed as our next F1 driver, Daniel Ricciardo, doesn’t make that top 100 – or even the top 150.

He’s No. 151 in the rankings, perhaps because his main job this year is Friday morning test driving with the Toro Rosso team and he missed the opening round of the World Series by Renault and finished ninth and 10th in the two races at the second round in Belgium.

Ricciardo, who Toro Rosso chief Franz Tost reiterated last weekend is earmarked for an F1 race drive next year, is in action this weekend at the third round of the Renault series at Monza in Italy.

It appears he has never been in the top 100, certainly not in recent months, while fellow Red Bull junior development program driver Jean-Eric Vergne of France, who is second in this year’s World Series by Renault, is ranked No 62 this week.

Canadian Robert Wickens, leader of the World Series by Renault, just makes the top 100 at No. 99.

Toro Rosso’s race drivers, Switzerland’s Sebastien Buemi and Spaniard Jaime Alguersuari, one of whom will have to make way for Ricciardo next season, are ranked 49 and 56 respectively.

Four other V8 Supercar drivers are ahead of Ricciardo in the Castrol rankings – Mark Winterbottom at 131, Craig Lowndes at 132, James Courtney at 149 and Tander at 150.

Winterbottom as the No. 2 V8 Supercar driver and ahead of others who have won races this year and are higher in the championship – including way ahead of Ford Performance Racing team-mate Will Davison – as well as having Courtney ahead of Tander highlight some contradictions in these rankings.

Nonetheless they make a good talking point.

The other Australians who appear in the rankings are Superleague open-wheeler racer John Martin at 182, then V8 Supercar drivers Rick Kelly at 192, Lee Holdsworth 222, Jason Bright 228, Steven Johnson 252, Paul Dumbrell 277, Michael Caruso 298, Will Davison 308 and Russell Ingall 309.

The website to find all the rankings is CastrolDriverRankings.com.

Increasingly we wonder how much longer seven-time world champion Schumacher will continue with his comeback, and what chance he will see out the full three years of his contract until the end of next season.

Came across some interesting comments from the BBC website’s – and formerly Autosport’s – respected Andrew Benson.

“The future looks less bright. Sunday (the Turkish Grand Prix) was another difficult day in Michael Schumacher‘s ill-starred comeback,” Benson wrote this week.

“Trounced by Rosberg in qualifying, when he was -- just like for much of last year -- guilty of over-driving, Schumacher had another poor race, wrecking any hopes of a recovery by completely misjudging his defence against Renault‘s Vitaly Petrov in the early laps and ripping off his own front wing.

David Coulthard said in the commentary: “I don’t know why he doesn’t know when to give up.” Martin Brundle, sharp as ever, replied: “On the track or in his career?”

BBC pundit Eddie Jordan’s post-race analogy with an aging and punch-drunk Muhammad Ali when he fought Larry Holmes in 1980 was perhaps a touch harsh, but you could see where he was coming from.

“Fascinatingly, Schumacher’s mask slipped a little for the first time since making his comeback. He had always insisted that he was enjoying himself, and that the pace and touch would come back. On Sunday, though, he admitted "the big joy is not there right now."

“I’ve known Schumacher for a long time, and he looked and sounded like a man beginning, as Coulthard put it, ‘to ask himself some questions’.

“Perhaps it was the immediate post-race emotion talking, perhaps not. But, not for the first time, many in F1 will be asking whether his second career will last the three years for which he signed up.”

Yet Mercedes this week pledged its full support to Schumacher, this yarn from Autosport.com.

Ecclestone fears the 1.6-litre turbos won’t sound right, while teams claim to be concerned about costs escalating in the sport again.
And Ferrari, run for more than a decade by Todt in Michael Schumacher’s heyday, says the proposed engines have no relevance to its road car operation.

Todt has emphasised that Ecclestone and Ferrari voted for the new rules at a World Motor Sport Council meeting.

“It was unanimously agreed,” Todt said.

There is to be a meeting on the future engine rules at next weekend’s Spanish GP in Barcelona but Todt said: “At the moment there is no reason to reconsider it (the switch to the turbos).”

They are Ho-Pin Tung, who is trying to become the first Chinese driver to race in the “Greatest Spectacle in Racing”, and Scott Speed, the last American to race in F1 and who had a couple of seasons in NASCAR.

They are entered Dragon Racing, which is run by Jay Penske – son of 15-time Indy 500 winning team owner Roger Penske.

Golfer Fuzzy Zoeller is associated with the team, which also is linking up with Sam Schmidt Motorsports for this campaign.

They both look like pay drives – that is, the deals have come together because the drivers have brought sponsorship to the team – but add to the biggest field for the classic for years – more than 40 cars for 33 starting spots.

It is the 100th anniversary of the Indy 500, although only the 95th race.

Tung was born in Holland but represented China in the now-defunct A1 GP series, finishing third in a race at Sydney’s Eastern Creek in 2007. He is reserve driver for the Lotus Renault F1 team.

Speed raced in F1 for Scuderia Toro Rosso for 18 months in 2006 and ’07.

Apart from the Indy 500, Speed also is entered for the final of the IndyCar championship in Las Vegas – at which there is a $5 million prize on offer for any non-regular drive to win the race.

Dragon Racing fielded Ryan Briscoe in the 2007 Indy 500 and he finished fifth before being installed in Team Penske the next year.