MOTORSPORT: Go, go, go -- but for how long?

Thursday motorsport reportMarch 13, 2008

F1 racing set to roll after messy lead-up
Three ... two ... one. Melbourne's contract to stage Australia's Formula 1 Grand Prix runs until 2010, but a few cynics are saying this weekend's race could be the last. We doubt that.

Perhaps next year's may be. It's largely forgotten that Adelaide's hosting of the GP ended a year earlier than was intended when Melbourne "stole" it.

Most likely, though, is that 2010 will see Australia's last F1 GP.

Forget any thought of it becoming a night race, even though there's a report around today suggesting that the Hella company could brighten up Albert Park enough for racing for just $5 million a year.

The Italian company that will light F1's first night GP in Singapore at the end of September and the American company Musco that lit Melbourne's Calder Park Thunderdome almost 15 years ago and Qatar's MotoGP last Saturday -- for US$19 million -- would have a head start on Hella in getting F1 tsar Bernie Ecclestone's blessing, and that of Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) president Max Mosley, for the job.

Forget also the notion of NSW Premier Morris Iemma grabbing the GP and staging it at Sydney's Eastern Creek at night if this Sunday's 3.30pm start and next year's proposed 5pm "go, go, go" -- to borrow  Murray Walker's famous GP starting catchcry -- don't satisfy Ecclestone's demands for a race more time-friendly to European viewers.

We'll see pigs flying before there's an F1 race at Eastern Creek.

And, on "porkies" past, it's been interesting among all the fuss about the future of the GP to note in the past few days the Melbourne organisers repositioning some of their long-stated numbers.

The global TV audience, once claimed to be many hundreds of millions of viewers, if not billions, and in recent years said to be 350 million, has belatedly become 100 million -- which is pretty much what we've been saying here for a year.

The GP Corp's repositioning on that score was buried at the end of a press release last week. And twice this week we've noted that the event's number of corporate guests being stated as 60,000 over the four days.

Up until this year it's been claimed to have been 80,000, and on occasions the hype meter even reached 86,000.

Now to have shrunk from 80,000 to 60,000 means that a quarter of the corporate attendance has gone.

Anyway, enough of all that. Thankfully the cars will be on the track within a few hours now.

That might blow away a lot of the politics. But then again, in the world of F1, perhaps not.

A few key facts and figures
The statistics provided by the Reuters news agency before each GP are always an enjoyable read for us, so we'll pluck what we think are the most interesting out for your benefit as this new season begins.

McLaren's Lewis Hamilton, who just missed out on the F1 world title in his debut season last year and turned 23 in January, can still become the youngest champion.

Fernando Alonso took his first title with Renault in 2005 aged 24.
Before that the youngest winner was the great Brazilian Emerson Fittipaldi at 25 -- in 1972.

Alonso has won more races (19) than any other active F1 driver. Reigning world champion Kimi Raikkonen has 15 wins and David Coulthard 13.

Raikkonen is chasing his third win in a row after victories in China and Brazil at the end of last season.

McLaren has the least experienced driver line-up now, with Hamilton and his new Finnish teammate Heikki Kovalainen each having just one season behind them.

Ferrari has won more often in Melbourne than any other team -- with six victories to McLaren's three, Renault's two and Williams' one.

Brazil's Nelson Piquet and France's Sebastien Bourdais are making their F1 race debuts in Melbourne.

Fifty six drivers have finished their first race in the points since the world championship began in 1956.

Bourdais is the first French driver to start an F1 season since Olivier Panis in 2004.

Now that Jacques Villeneuve and Scott Speed are out of F1, there are no North American drivers starting the season for the first time since 2004.

Webber has seven-year itch for victory
Mark Webber, entering his seventh F1 season and still chasing his first GP victory, is now writing a column for the internationally-popular BBC website.

Here's the best of what our boy has to say first-up:

"My aim ultimately is to win races in F1, and I would be very disappointed if I was not able to do that if I was given a Ferrari.

"But whether I could operate at Kimi Raikkonen's level for a whole season is another question, and that's what I'd like to find out.

"If you are in the position that Kimi is in, and Michael Schumacher and Fernando Alonso were, then you really find out where you are.

"I have beaten David (Coulthard, his Red Bull teammate) fair and square, and he has won GPs, so that is satisfying for me.

"That gives you a bit of confidence, but the best drivers do find the best cars.

"I was given the chance to go to Renault or Williams a few years ago, and I made the wrong choice in going to Williams.

"You have to make the right decisions to put yourself in those positions."

We have often stated here that Red Bull is a team of great potential in this post-tobacco sponsorship era, and the reality for Webber is that if he is going to win a GP it is now going to have to be in a Red Bull car.

He may well have done so in Japan last year with a bit more luck.

The reality is, though, that he is not likely to be hired by any of the teams ahead of Red Bull.

Head happy to see two wheels less
Patrick Head, the man who created all the cars that have won Williams' nine constructors' world titles, is always worth listening to -- and he's had something to say that many in the F1 paddock may feel, but few would dare say publicly.

"I come across a lot of people who say they like watching motorbikes (MotoGP) and I have to say I'm a little bit in that camp because there isn't a lot of overtaking in F1," Head has said in a BBC interview.

Head admitted F1 races can be boring and called for reverse grids -- based on championship positions.

He said that previous attempts to increase overtaking in F1 had failed and urged the FIA to "be a bit more adventurous".

"If you allow the guys to do all this practice and testing and then you line them up with the fastest at the front and the slowest at the back, why should there be any overtaking?" he said.

"I've suggested (reverse grids) to the FIA in the past and I've made those suggestions at times when Williams have been winning races (not just now it's a struggling midfield team)."

Magma comes to Super Aguri's rescue
It seems that Ron Dennis remains at the helm of the McLaren team despite all the speculation that he would be out his post by the time the season starts, while the struggling Super Aguri has found a partner to, hopefully, bail it out of its difficulties.

That partner is Magma Group.

The deal involves technical cooperation and engine supply by Honda continuing and what is described as "the acquisition process" will take at least some weeks to complete.

Magma is run by Martin Leach, a former president of Ford Europe as well as ex-chief executive of Maserati and ex-managing director of Mazda Japan.

Drivers Takuma Sato and Anthony Davidson keep their seats with Super Aguri under the deal.

V8 driver shoots credibility in the foot
The V8 Supercars are back at the Grand Prix and that's a good thing.

A sponsor, automotive gas conversion company Sprint Gas, was announced almost on the eve of the event, and that also was a good thing.

Indeed, the sponsorship is for the three years until the expiry of the contract for the GP to be run.

But in amongst all this came one of the silliest things we've heard out of the V8 community -- and it confirmed a suspicion of ours.

Jason Richards, one of the drivers in the Tasman Motorsports team that also enjoys Spring Gas sponsorship, let it be known that lots of V8 drivers won't be going 100% at Albert Park over the next four days.

It has long been a suspicion of ours that many of the V8s have not run at full tilt at the GP, and indeed at times at other street circuits,  because of the risk of severe damage with the concrete safety fences so close to the track verges.

The fact that the V8 races at the GP are not part of the national championship has also been seen as a reason that the Supercars may not have been flat out.

Now Richards has said that the new format of a manufacturer challenge between Holden and Ford has put less emphasis on winning and more on testing car set-ups.

"The top five, top 10 cars will all be about winning the race and then if you are in the bottom 20 you'll be worried about testing (for the next championship round, the new street event at Hamilton, New Zealand)," Richards said.

"We are all racing drivers and winning races is your No. 1 priority, but if you've got no chance then you'll get radical about why you are here and what you can get out of running the car here."

Now that can hardly be music to the ears of a sponsor which, apart from backing this driver's team, has just made a commitment, presumably quite substantial, to the V8 races this weekend -- and at Albert Park over the next two years, if the event runs its full term.

But far worse is the message it sends to the fans, and -- despite the fuss about free tickets at the GP -- most of the V8 fans are probably paying full whack to be there.

Those people are entitled to see the full field of V8 Supercars being driven at the absolute limit for the 39 laps of the three races they have.

Otherwise those fans are being short-changed.

In football, particularly the AFL, there has been a lot of fuss in recent years about teams "tanking" -- clubs deliberately losing games to finish at the bottom of the ladder so that they can ensure the best picks in recruiting young talent.

And in horse racing stewards call in jockeys or drivers, and sometimes connections, if they have reason to question whether horses have been given full opportunity to run on their merits.

We don't think Jason Richards intended anything sinister, but our judgement is that his remarks were silly and naïve -- and that he, and all competitors, ought to bear in mind their responsibility to put on a proper show for people, and promoters, who pay them lots of money to see them.

Power emerges from American ruckus with KV drive
Aussie driver Will Power's career in American open-wheeler racing will continue in a new-look but still Craig Gore-funded Team Australia that has left former team operator Derrick Walker high and dry -- and presumably fuming, and perhaps, we suspect, litigious.

Gore has hooked up with Kevin Kalkhoven, a co-owner of the Champ Car organisation that is now being put into bankruptcy protection, and his partner, 1996 CART champion Jimmy Vasser, to place Power in the KV Racing Technology for the Indy Racing League season.

Power and teammate Oriol Servia will race Honda-engined Dallara cars on Firestone tyres for KV Racing, which is entering its sixth year of competition.

Power had two wins in Champ Car with Team Australia, as well as six pole positions and six podiums.

Vasser will be helpful to him in learning the oval tracks on which many of the IRL rounds are held.

Gore's deal with KV will have surprised many people after he folded his V8 Supercar team on the eve of this season.

Teams moving to the IRL from Champ Car will test at Sebring on March 19-20 and on the Homestead-Miami Speedway under lights on March 24-25.

The first race of what appears to be being renamed the IndyCar Series will be at that speedway under lights on March 29.

Meanwhile, Walker -- who was the first Champ Car owner/operator to commit to the amalgamated series -- will be feeling aggrieved at the loss of Power and, more likely, financial dealings with Gore.

"Mr Gore owes a fair amount of money to this company and he told me he wanted to be part of this team again 2008," Walker told speedtv.com

"It's very sad because the Team Australia concept was working and now this impacts a lot of good people.

"We have two IRL cars in our shop and the boys just finished up one of them and had it painted in Team Australia colors, so we were looking pretty good for the tests next week.

"I feel bad for Will, because he likes our environment and didn't want to leave.

"I've been keeping this thing going for the last four months, because I thought we could work things out.

"But I finally ran out of time and money [and] had to pull the plug.

"My goal would be to come back to IndyCars in 2009."

Up in the air are Walker's three entries in the Atlantic series in which Nigel Mansell's sons, Greg and Leo, having been driving for Walker. They took part in this week's Atlantic group test at Laguna Seca in California.

This whole situation is rather messy, but from an Australian perspective it's good that Power has emerged with a full-time drive in what hopefully will be rejuvenated single-seater racing in North America -- with the round in Australia at the end of October.

Indeed, it was a one-two for the Japanese manufacturer with its Camry stock cars.

Kyle Busch scored the historic victory at Atlanta Motor Speedway, ahead of Tony Stewart -- his teammate in Joe Gibbs Racing.

It was the first big-time NASCAR victory by a foreign -- that is, non-American - manufacturer since 1954, when Al Keller won a race at Linden Airport, New Jersey, at the wheel of a Jaguar.

(Keller was killed in 1961, aged 41, during an Indy race at the Arizona State Fairgrounds in Phoenix).

Carl Edwards, winner of the previous two Sprint Cup rounds in California and Las Vegas, looked like he might make it three in a row before the engine of his Jack Roush Ford Fusion blew after 275 of the 325-lap race at Atlanta.

Behind the two Toyotas at the chequered flag was the Chevrolet of Dale Earnhardt Junior, who said it was the hardest he had ever driven.

Greg Biffle was fourth, two-time champion Jeff Gordon fifth, while ninth place for Brian Vickers came after not qualifying the previous week in Las Vegas.

His Red Bull Toyota fought back from being a lap down to finish in the top 10.

But 22-year-old Busch was the star of the day, and in the opinion of Mike Brudenell, an Australian journalist who writes for the Detroit Free Press, he is now the fastest driver in NASCAR.

"Busch won the Craftsman Truck race (at Atlanta), had the Nationwide Series race in hand before his car blew a tyre, and drove to victory in the Sprint Cup event in a breathtaking performance, leading 173 laps along the way," Brudenell wrote.

"Busch is first in Cup points, third in Nationwide and first in Craftsman Truck.

"With an ounce of luck, he'd be leading all three series.

"The edge is not where Busch works in a race car.

"He is way, way past it. Every time he belts into his Tundra or Camry, he pushes the envelope, like a test pilot.

"Race teams love a really fast driver, but I doubt Joe Gibbs Racing knew how much speed Busch had when he moved there from Hendrick Motorsports this year (to make way for Earnhardt Junior).

"On Sunday Busch had the No. 18 car wiggling through the turns and sliding up to the walls in a display of sideways driving I've rarely witnessed in any form of racing.

"Perhaps Gilles Villeneuve during his F1 days and Juan Pablo Montoya more recently in CART (prior to F1) had as much car-control flair, but Busch is a contender for king of the hill in any era."

That's a hell of a rap.

Safari king Garland mounts Dakar campaign
Off-road superstar Bruce Garland's team is chasing the "holy grail" in that form of sport with a two-car assault next January on the Dakar Rally -- which, after this year's cancellation due to terrorism concerns, will be run in South America.

Multiple Australian Safari winner Garland is building two Isuzu D-Max 4WD utes - previously sold in Oz as the Holden Rodeo - to tackle the gruelling event.

One of the utes is for Garland and long-time navigator Harry Suzuki while the other is being built for Swedish pair Pelle Wallentheim and Olle Ohlsson.

Garland will use the Condo 750 cross-country rally in central western NSW over Easter as a shakedown for the prototype before building the second ute.

The team will then contest the Finke Desert Race in the Northern Territory in June and the Australian Safari in Western Australia in August - and at least one international event before the Dakar.

Garland competed in the 1998 Dakar Rally with a French navigator but failed to finish.

He has won the Australian Safari five times and has the backing of Isuzu Thailand and Isuzu Japan for a two-year deal that includes Dakar 2010 and numerous long-distance events in Asia next year.

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