MOTORSPORT: Engine win for Webber

However, it is not quite what it sounds and won't affect Webber's chances at this week's Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne.

The improvements are meant to be for cost and reliability reasons rather than performance.

Instead of increasing speed the changes -- the details of which are not yet clear -- should ensure that Red Bull Racing and Renault's factory team do not exceed the stipulated number of engines they are allowed to use -- eight per driver, we believe, in this 19-race season -- and incur grid penalties.

Red Bull Racing was worried about its Renault engines last year as it battled BrawnGP (now Mercedes) for the world titles.

Red Bull had felt it unfair that not all F1 engines were equal despite the engine freeze.

There has still been a feeling within F1 early this year that Mercedes has the best engine, although Ferrari's performance in the season-opening grand prix in Bahrain eight days ago suggests any advantage is slim.

Red Bull set the pace in Bahrain, in qualifying and for the first two-thirds of the race, courtesy of German wonderboy Sebastian Vettel before he lost power and dropped back to fourth.

The advantage Red Bull's RB6 car has comes from its aerodynamics, thanks to the brilliance of its technical director Adrian Newey, but the team has continued to be concerned about its engines compared with its main opposition.

Autosport.com reported at the weekend that Renault has been told by the world governing body of motorsport, the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), that it can make "a number of changes to its engine for cost and reliability reasons".

All Renault's requests "in this area" had been approved, it said.

However, Autosport continued: "It is understood that further changes that were requested, which would helped improve Renault's fuel consumption, were rejected because these were purely for performance reasons."

It is not clear when the changes allowed will be implemented, but we suspect after the first four GPs outside Europe -- unless Renault has already been working in anticipation of the FIA approval it got.

The upshot, whenever the changes take effect, will be not only to improve the chances of Vettel and Webber in the world championship but also perhaps to make Renault's own team a fifth player in the title race -- with Red Bull, Ferrari, Mercedes and McLaren-Mercedes.

That team now has Polish star Robert Kubica, winner of the Canadian GP two years ago and who could be a serious world title contender in the right equipment, and Russian rookie Vitaly Petrov, who has shown some signs of being much more than a pay driver.

Meanwhile, McLaren's 2008 world champion Lewis Hamilton has claimed Red Bull already has a "ridiculous" margin of superiority over its rivals.

Hamilton reckons Red Bull had the most downforce of any team last year and, judging by Bahrain, had maintained that edge this season.

"The Red Bull is ridiculously faster than anyone else's car," Hamilton said.

"It's insane. The downforce they had on their car last year was at some points just about double what we had.

"Even at the end of the year they had so much more than us, even though we had won a couple of GPs.

"They have both got the fastest car by quite a big step. They should be quite a lot further ahead in general."

Hamilton reckons not even Ferrari, which finished first and second in Bahrain, can match Red Bull for pure raw speed.

"Fernando was very quick in the race (in Bahrain) and they are obviously a little bit closer, but it's a good half second (gap)," Hamilton said.

"We (McLaren-Mercedes) are kind of on the same level as Mercedes."

There have been widespread concerns since Bahrain that this year's rules are going to produce mundane racing, especially with no refuelling during races to create varying strategies.

Reigning world champion Jenson Button, now Hamilton's McLaren teammate, and F1 commercial supreme Bernie Ecclestone are saying it may just take a while to see how the new rules are working.

They are perhaps speaking out of a sense of duty to talk the sport up.

For Webber it is something of a balancing act -- between his usual frankness and being diplomatic ahead of his home GP.

His reactions after Bahrain were negative, with suggestions of a lot more of the same processional racing to come -- certainly in Melbourne, unless there is rain to spice it up.

However, within a couple of days Webber seemed to assume, or reassume, a responsibility to promote his home.

Expect the pressure to mount on him over the next few days, especially after the glowing 60 Minutes program on Channel Nine on Sunday night.

The Australian public now knows that Webber is capable of winning GPs and is increasingly aware that Red Bull's cars are not only the best Webber has had in almost a decade in F1 but at least equal favourites with Ferrari for this year's world titles.

As always, Webber's main opponent is going to be his teammate Vettel.

Rather than a perception that he under-achieved in Bahrain, the Australian public is sensing that Webber is a big chance of winning in Melbourne this weekend.

It would be a great fillip for F1 in Australia if he could.

To give himself the best shot at it, Webber needs to qualify on the front row this Saturday -- and drive a faultless race on Sunday.

That would be something to celebrate!

NASCAR champion reaches half century of wins in Sprint Cup
While the motorsport world focuses on the outstanding array of F1 driver talent this week, across the Pacific NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson has just won his 50th race in the Sprint Cup.

Johnson is now level with Ned Jarrett and Junior Johnson in 10th on the all-time Cup win list, but they have only a quarter of the number of wins by the legendary Richard "The King" Petty.

Only one driver still competing, Jeff Gordon, has won more than Johnson.

Californian Johnson's 50th victory also was his first at Bristol, Tennessee, where he won a short sprint to the finish after the 11th caution period of the day.

Fellow Chevrolet driver Tony Stewart took second place, ahead of Kurt Busch who had led 275 of the 500 laps in a Dodge fielded by Roger Penske, who looks set for a stellar year in NASCAR as well as Indy racing.

A dozen stock cars at Bristol were caught in a pile-up triggered as veteran Mark Martin lost control of his damaged Chevrolet trying to get to the pits.

Among the victims were Juan Pablo Montoya, who had led the race twice for 30 laps, and Australia's Marcos Ambrose, who was classified 33rd and 52 laps down.

Ambrose's best finish in his Toyota this season remains 11th.

Young star Joey Logano earned his first Sprint Cup pole position at Bristol -- at just 19 years of age becoming the youngest driver to have qualified fastest in the premier NASCAR series, and it was as first for Toyota this season.

However, Logano was classified only 27th in the race.

Championship leader Kevin Harvick finished 11th at Bristol which enabled him to stay at the top of the standings by the narrowest margin.

NASCAR Sprint Cup standings after five of 36 rounds - Kevin Harvick (Chevrolet) 777 points, Matt Kenseth (Ford) 773, Jimmie Johnson (Chevrolet) 760, Greg Biffle (Ford) 750, Tony Stewart (Chevrolet) 685, Kurt Busch (Dodge) 677, Jeff Burton (Chevrolet) 677, Dale Earnhardt Junior (Chevrolet) 621, Paul Menard (Ford) 614, Kyle Busch (Toyota) 606, Jeff Gordon (Chevrolet) 603, Clint Bowyer (Chevrolet) 601. Australia's Marcos Ambrose (Toyota) is 31st on 413 points.

NASCAR's most winning drivers -- Richard Petty 200, David Pearson 105, Bobby Allison 84, Darrell Waltrip 84, Cale Yarborough 83, Jeff Gordon 82, Dale Earnhardt Senior 76, Rusty Wallace 55, Lee Petty 54, Ned Jarrett 50, Junior Johnson 50, Jimmie Johnson 50.

At the weekend Wurz and Gene won the Sebring 12-hour in Florida for Peugeot, this time with Britain's Anthony Davidson as the third driver, while Brabham finished second in class two, behind a Porsche, and fifth outright in a Honda Acura ARX-01c.

An electrical fire during a pitstop cost the Acura, fielded by Highcroft Racing, a lot of time in a handover from Brabham's new French teammate Simon Pagenaud to Marino Franchitti, younger brother of Scottish IndyCar star Dario.

"I can't help but feel a little bit flat at the end of the day," Brabham said.

"The car was running reliably, the pitstops were excellent, but we just picked up a bit of an electrical issue that cost us 24 minutes in the pits.

"You can't afford to do that in these type of races.

"I think overall, there is always a positive to come out of this and what happened today will help us get even better prepared for the other (American Le Mans Series) long distance races and Le Mans (in France) as well.

"I had a great time driving with Simon and Marino for the first time and I think we made for a very good combination."

Peugeot, which took first and second at Sebring, with Portugal's Pedro Lamy and Frenchman Sebastien Bourdais and Nicolas Minassian in its second 908, was the only diesel entrant in the race after blocking Audi's entry.

A Lola-Aston Martin took third place.

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