MOTORSPORT: Ferrari gets engine jitters

Ferrari chairman Sergio Marchionne is nervous now about supplying Red Bull Racing with the same Formula 1 power units next year as his factory team.

Red Bull energy drink tycoon Dietrich Mateschitz and his motor racing lieutenant, Helmut Marko, have renewed threats to pull RBR out of F1 if they don't get engine parity with the works Ferraris.

While Red Bull is contractually obliged to remain in F1 until at least 2020, a well-informed source said overnight of billionaire Mateschitz: "He really is ready to walk. For him it is like a fizzy drinks business. He has no emotional connection to F1 like the grandee teams such as Williams and McLaren. He can do what he likes, but there's a bit of the spoilt brat about this [complaining about not winning after four consecutive years of world titles and then Australian Daniel Ricciardo's four victories last year]."

Reports continue about the Volkswagen group being RBR's long-term saviour, either as its power unit supplier from about 2018 or perhaps acquiring the team and retaining Red Bull as major sponsor.

But equally denials continue from VW, and its Audi brand in particular, although leaks from within the group suggest there is serious interest in the four-ringed brand switching to F1 from sports car racing, in which it has won the Le Mans 24-Hour 14 times in 16 years. Adding to that speculation is former Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali being parked at Audi on "special projects".

However, for the time being the VW group has more than enough on its plate with its diesel emissions controversy in America, the billions of dollars that is going to cost it, and the replacement of chairman Martin Winterkorn, who has fallen on his sword just months after ascending to that throne. 

Ricciardo's attitude is 'she'll be right, mate'
Daniel Ricciardo (pictured at Monza) says he is not overly concerned about who replaces Renault behind his seat in next year's RB12 car.

"I'm more curious [than concerned] to see what happens," Ricciardo said ahead of this weekend's Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka, which marks the anniversary of the crash that ultimately claimed the life of Frenchman Jules Bianchi in July.

"I have spoken to Helmut [Marko] and [RBR team principal] Christian Horner [about the team's future engines].

"I have not broken Dietrich's balls yet – I am sure he has a lot on his plate, so I let him do what he needs to.

"They [Marko and Horner] are confident that we will figure it out one way or another.

"They are not promising me anything, but I have confidence that it will figure itself out."

Fresh from his best result of the season, second to Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel in last Sunday night's Singapore GP, Ricciardo is talking a top-five finish at Suzuka this Sunday – and perhaps another podium if it's a wet race, which is quite on the cards.

Although he knows the RB11 will struggle on Suzuka's straights because of its power disadvantage against its Mercedes and Ferrari rivals, Ricciardo feels it will be well-suited to this circuit's high-speed corners.

Ben Anderson, GP editor of Autosport.com, the website of motor racing's long-time British print "bible", gave Ricciardo a 10 out of 10 rating after Singapore for the second race in a row. The previous accolade was for coming from the rear of the field to eighth at Monza in Italy, while in Singapore only a "Vettel at his very best" also got a perfect score from Anderson.

He gave Mercedes' world champion Lewis Hamilton seven out of 10, and his teammate Nico Rosberg and Ferrari's third-placed Kimi Raikkonen only six. Fernando Alonso scored a nine for his efforts with a McLaren-Honda and Ricciardo's teammate Daniil Kyvat seven.

Anderson said Ricciardo had "a more classical driving style" than Vettel.

"It [Ricciardo's style] generally relies a bit more on carrying corner speed and using the car's momentum to progress through the turns as quickly as possible," Anderson wrote.

"This is perhaps naturally better suited to this current generation of [V6 hybrid] car, which lacks downforce and doesn't always seem to respond so well to aggressive inputs."

Ferrari's Marchionne torn between dollars and defeat
No deal is signed for Ferrari to supply RBR next season, but Ferrari's Sergio Marchionne indicated weeks ago that the Italian company – unlike Mercedes – was happy to do so, and Red Bull's Mateschitz accepted it as a medium-term solution.

Marchionne welcomes the prospect of the millions of dollars generated for Ferrari in a deal with RBR, likely including junior team Toro Rosso as well. That money is additional to deals for supplying engines to Sauber, tailend team Marussia and American newcomer Haas. But there are concerns at Maranello about the works team getting shown up.

F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone, who has been orchestrating the arrangement, said Marchionne was now "frightened he is going to upset his team".

"For F1 he would love to do it, to get Red Bull competitive with an engine, but he doesn't want to damage the team he runs," Ecclestone said.

"If Red Bull get a better engine [than now with Renault] then they are obviously going to be competitive.

"It's an obvious concern [for Ferrari], and he [Marchionne] is frightened now he's going to upset his team.

"It's now down to Sergio to make up his mind.

"I'm sure it will be sorted out shortly one way or the other."

Renault upgrades may not be worth the worry
Renault has been under the pump all year from RBR to improve its power units, not having used any of its "tokens" for upgrades, but now advances scheduled for the next GP in Russia, on October 11-13, have been postponed until the US event in Texas two weeks later.

The French manufacturer is presumably more intent on focussing on its own interests beyond this year, with its buyback of the Lotus team [which is using Mercedes power this season] seemingly imminent, and there is no certainty that RBR will avail itself of the upgrades anyway.

"When the new spec is introduced it will incur a 10-place grid penalty, so the team [RBR] has to weigh up whether they feel the gains are worth the drop," Renault head of trackside operations Remi Taffin said.

"If the team makes the call it doesn't want to use the spec we will respect that, but it will be available for use whatever they decide."

Three rounds of the world championship are scheduled beyond the US GP – in Mexico, Brazil and Abu Dhabi through November.

Honda, which returned to F1 this season a year after the debut of the V6 hybrids, is in a worse state than Renault and had a visit at its Japanese base this week from McLaren team principal Eric Boullier. McLaren reportedly pushed hard recently for Honda to replace its F1 project chief, Yasuhisa Arai.

The partners at least will be hoping for a good showing at Honda-owned Suzuka this weekend from the cars driven by world champions Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button. Button, the 2009 champion with the Brawn team that was acquired by Mercedes after that season, has deflected speculation that he is close to retiring from F1 because of the uncompetitiveness of the McLaren-Honda.

Meanwhile, Lotus could be placed in administration by a London court next Monday over unpaid taxes if the Renault takeover is not finalised.

Pirelli dismisses theories that Mercedes dudded
All eyes at Suzuka will be on whether Mercedes can rebound from its mysterious poor form in Singapore.

"The car felt balanced, but it lacked grip and we don't know why," said Lewis Hamilton, who retired after a mid-race power failure but still heads teammate Nico Rosberg [fourth in Singapore] by 41 points and Ferrari's Sebatian Vettel by 49 – with a maximum 150 still to be scored from the six remaining races [including Suzuka].

"Maybe it was that our car didn't get slower but that others upgraded theirs."

F1 tyre supplier Pirelli has gone to great lengths this week to quell rumours that Mercedes had been given different rubber in Singapore to curb its dominance. Pirelli said all F1 tyres, produced at its Turkish factory, had bar codes embedded in them that were traceable.

"Once the production run for each GP is finished, the Izmit factory sends a list of the bar codes to Pirelli's logistics and distribution hub at Didcot in the United Kingdom," Pirelli motorsport chief Paul Hembery said.

"There Pirelli's system randomly groups the bar codes into blocks of four, comprising two rears and two fronts, which will make up a tyre set.

"This list of blocks is then sent to the FIA [Federation Internationale de l'Automobile, the world governing body of motor sport].

"The FIA subsequently allocates blocks of bar codes – and therefore sets of tyres – to each individual car at random.

"Deciding which tyres are allocated to which teams, or when they are used, is a job taken care of entirely by the FIA once the tyres have left the factory.

"It is just another way that impartiality can be ensured among all the teams, which has always been a huge priority for us as exclusive tyre supplier."

Pirelli shipped tyres with its two hardest compounds to Suzuka, because of the lateral energy and heat generated from the circuit.

"Suzuka is one of the most aggressive circuits we face on the F1 calendar from a tyre perspective – right up there with Silverstone [in Britain] and Spa [in Belgium]," Hembery said.

Suzuka's flowing nature puts a lot of high lateral loads into the tyres through high-speed corners such as the Spoon Curve and 130R, which is taken flat-out in eighth gear at more than 300kmh while generating the highest continuous G-force loading in the world championship.