MOTORSPORT: Blue Oval shines on big stages

So often Ford is seen as having little interest in motorsport, yet it’s the defending world rallying champion manufacturer, has won two of the three rounds in the WRC so far this year, and has just completed a hat-trick in NASCAR.

And if it’s overtaking you want to see, the race series to watch is going to be IndyCar with its sleek new generic aero kit on its open-wheeler cars.

Although its season-opener ended under caution, there were a record 366 passes on the street track at St Petersburg, Florida, breaking the series’ decade-old record of 323.

Overtaking was halved in Formula 1 last year despite the introduction of faster and wider cars, with 435 passes in 20 grands prix after 866 overtakes in 21 GPs the year before.

With F1’s new season starting in Melbourne in less than two weeks, at least our Daniel Ricciardo is F1’s ‘pass master’, with 43 last season.

What is meant to be the world’s premier race series will need the carsales.com.au global ambassador to keep providing action this year – perhaps his last with Red Bull Racing.

But back to the Blue Oval…

Ogier to the fore in WRC

A charge by five-time WRC champion Sebastien Ogier on the middle day of Rally Mexico ended with his fourth victory in that event and the 42nd of his career.

Ogier took his Ford Fiesta from fifth place and more than half a minute down after the first day to a lead of more than half a minute starting the final day, when he stretched the margin further to 1 minute 13.6 seconds.

He has retaken the lead in the drivers’ championship lead from Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville, who finished only sixth in Mexico after winning in Sweden, although the Korean maker – with a deeper pool of driver talent – leads the manufacturer standings with 84 points to Ford’s 72.

Sebastien Loeb, the nine-time world champion competing in his first WRC event for three years, and his first on gravel for five years, led on Saturday before a puncture on his Citroen C3 cost him 2½ minutes and dropped him to fifth. He finished 2:34.6 behind French compatriot Ogier.

Last year’s winner Kris Meeke rolled his C3 on the last day but was still third, behind Dani Sordo and ahead of Andreas Mikkelsen – both in Hyundai i20s.

It was a woeful weekend for Toyota, apart from Ott Tanak winning the final power stage.

Fired up by NASCAR penalties

Ford’s NASCAR hat-trick was completed on the oval at Phoenix, Arizona, where Kevin Harvick won – also for the third straight round – for Stewart-Haas Racing.

It was Harvick’s 40th career win and gave him the Monster Cup lead after penalties on him and the team for two technical breaches on his Fusion – with its two-year-old bodyshape against the new Chevrolet Camaro and year-old Toyota Camry – when it won at Las Vegas a week earlier.

Harvick said the penalties, which he claimed were largely a reaction to social media, “put a fire in our belly”.

The last driver to score a Cup hat-trick had been Roger Penske’s Joey Logano in 2015, also in a Ford.

Wild times for Will Power

Little joy for Penske’s IndyCar drivers though at St Pete at the weekend.

Aussie Will Power started on the front row alongside polesitter Robert Wickens but slid into the Canadian rookie at the first corner and spun. He pitted for a new rear wing, spent the rest of the race playing catch-up, saying it was “pretty wild at times”, and finished 10th.

“The field is just very, very competitive, but [with the new aerodynamics] you can race close to people,” Power said. “You don't get a draft, but you can almost get right behind them. [IndyCar] did a good job of making the kit with almost zero tow, so [that] makes the racing better.”

Power’s reigning champion teammate Josef Newgarden was seventh and they were the only Chevrolet-powered drivers to finish in the top 10 as Honda-engined cars dominated.

Sebastien Bourdais won for Dale Coyne Racing for the second year after Wickens, who led 69 of the 110 laps, and Alexander Rossi collided on a restart two laps from the finish. Rossi wound up third, behind Graham Rahal, and Wickens 18th.

Bourdais’ win was his 37th, equal sixth (with Bobby Unser) now on the IndyCar list, one behind Scott Dixon and 12 ahead of Power, who is equal 15th (with Gordon Johncock).

Pirelli projections support Ricciardo’s optimism

Daniel Ricciardo reckons Red Bull are “looking OK” and should be “in the hunt” at the Australian GP on March 25.

While Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel clocked the fastest time of the eight days of pre-season testing in Barcelona, and his teammate Kimi Raikkonen was only 0.039 seconds slower on the last day, tyre supplier Pirelli’s projections suggest Ricciardo was the quickest driver there.

Ricciardo’s best lap on the final day of 1:18.327 was more than a second down on Raikkonen but it was set on the supersoft tyre compound rather than the hypersoft on which the Ferrari times were done.

Mercedes, the champion team in all four previous years of the V6 hybrids, didn’t use the hypersoft tyres at all, concentrating on long runs on high fuel loads and clocking up the most laps.

“I don't think we're the fastest car yet, I think we've still got to find a bit of time, but I think we'll be close enough to be in the hunt,” Ricciardo said.

“It's been a better [northern] winter than last year as far as our performance went and we did a lot of laps, so we're feeling better about ourselves than we were 12 months ago.

“I’d love to challenge in Melbourne. I’m looking forward to a battle. We’ll try and come out with strong intentions.

“It looks like Ferrari may be able to challenge Mercedes at this stage if we can't.

“I think we still can be close. Hopefully it’s not too spread out this year – it looks like it could be quite close.”

Red Bull has made French engineer Pierre Wache its technical director, while Adrian Newey remains chief technical officer but is spending a lot of his time on Aston Martin’s Valkyrie hypercar project.

Wache started in motor sport at Michelin, went to the Sauber team after the French tyre maker pulled out of F1 at the end of 2006, and joined Red Bull in 2013.

Wache told L’Equipe that, while Newey’s specialty is aerodynamics, “I’m more focused on putting the power down on the ground”.