MOTORSPORT: Good and bad for Ricciardo

While Daniel Ricciardo is looking forward to the upgraded aerodynamics for his Red Bull RB13 at next weekend’s Spain grand prix, the introduction of an improved Renault power unit has been postponed until July.

The arrival of a better Renault unit, badged TAG-Heuer in the Red Bull cars of Ricciardo and Max Verstappen, had been expected by the Canadian GP on the second weekend of June, or at Baku in Azerbaijan two weeks later.

But it now may not come until the 11th round of the Formula 1 World Championship in Budapest, Hungary, at the end of July.

Carsales.com.au global ambassador Ricciardo’s hopes of contending for the title this season unfortunately fade further with the news.

Ricciardo was the fastest qualifier of the Renault-powered drivers at last weekend’s Russian GP, but 1.7 seconds slower than Sebastian Vettel’s Ferrari, and – while he was an early retirement from the race with a brake fire – teammate Verstappen finished more than a minute behind the victorious Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas.

If Kimi Raikkoen’s time with the team of the prancing horse ends this year, a Ferrari seat in 2018 must be increasingly attractive to Ricciardo – if he could break free from Red Bull.

Renault F1 managing director Cyril Abiteboul told Autosport this week the latest changes to his company’s power unit were “still work in progress”.

“We are touching some limitations, but we believe the concept that we have introduced this year is the right concept,” Abiteboul said.

“There is innovation in the pipeline and there is performance in the pipeline.”

The governing Federation Internationale de l’Automobile said in Sochi last weekend that measurement of F1’s four power units at the Bahrain GP two weeks earlier had found the top three – Mercedes, Ferrari and Renault – to now be within a 0.3 seconds-a-lap bracket, although Renault disputed that.

An Australian who worked with former V8 Supercar team owner Larry Perkins 12 years ago, William Attard, may have been instrumental in the improvement in Ferrari’s power unit this year.

Attard worked for Mahle – the company that has patented the turbulent jet ignition (TJI) used by Mercedes – but left there in 2014 and is now with the advanced engine and transmission controls division of Ferrari’s parent company, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles.

Ferrari acquired the Mahle technology in 2015 for its F1 program and veteran F1 correspondent Joe Saward has blogged that the Italian team “may be using Attard”.

Meanwhile, McLaren sporting director Eric Boullier says that Honda’s disappointing 2017 power unit “combines all the disadvantages” that could be found in one of the modern V6 hybrids.

“As far as technology is concerned, F1 has a downside: the distances (gap) between the teams has increased even more than before,” Boullier told the German-language Speed Week.

“An engine that is more powerful is also more efficient, (with) better consumption and stability.

“The more powerful engines have all the advantages, the weaker engines have more disadvantages. Our engine combines all of the disadvantages.

“We are still not fast and we are still shooting ourselves in the foot. So it is a delicate situation.”

Indianapolis ‘pure adrenaline’ for Alonso
Fernando Alonso, the unhappy McLaren-Honda star who will skip the Monaco GP at the end of the month in favour of the Indianapolis 500 in the US, sailed through his first test of a Dallara-Honda IndyCar at ‘The Brickyard’ this week.

The Spanish dual world champion called the experience “pure adrenaline”.

Although Alonso was on the track alone, he said “the feeling is real racing”.

“The car can be unpredictable. Here the driver has more input [than in F1] into what the car can do.”

Michael Andretti has high hopes for sixth Indy 500 entry calling Alonso’s performance “perfect”.

He drove 110 laps of the 2.5-mile (4km) Indianapolis Motor Speedway, with the average speed of his best lap 222.548mph (358.156kmh).

He will return to Indianapolis after the Spanish GP and get his first taste of driving ‘The Brickyard’ in traffic.

Social media interest in Alonso’s test was more than twice that for a normal IndyCar race!

Unable to win on track, McLaren now goes esports
Keen for anything that creates distraction from its woeful F1 under-performance, McLaren has announced what it claims will be “the world’s most intense and demanding competition for virtual racers”.

Its entry to esports with ‘World’s Fastest Gamer’ is a collaboration with Darren Cox, the former Nissan global motorsport chief and founder of virtual motorsport’s GT Academy, which – among other things – unearthed a couple of Bathurst 12-Hour winners and Brisbane ‘postie’ Matt Simmons, now racing for Nissan in Europe’s Blancpain series.

The winner of ‘World’s Fastest Gamer’ will be offered a role an F1 simulator driver with McLaren for a year.

Six international finalists will be chosen by experts in gaming and F1 to join the competition, along with four from qualifying events to be held mid-year.

“The winner will genuinely be a key part of our team at McLaren,” Zak Brown said.

“This is for real. We absolutely require additional support across our two simulator platforms, so the competition and the selection process will be rigorous, ruthless and compelling to watch.”

Brabhams … Supercars, supercar, and maybe an F1 team again
Not only is Matthew Brabham suddenly in Supercars, but the family name is being linked to a road supercar project – and even buying back into a Formula 1 team.

Joe Saward, the veteran scribe already mentioned above, has reported in Britain’s Autocar this week that the business headed by David Brabham, youngest son of late triple world champion Sir Jack and uncle of Matthew, may buy the Force India F1 team, whose owners Vijay Mallya and Subrata Roy are both in hot water.

“There are plans for a Brabham-branded supercar, which would be promoted by a new Brabham F1 team, following the McLaren business model,” Saward wrote.

Roy, who has been in jail for a couple of years, and Mallya, who faces deportation from Britain, supposedly hope to get between A$350 million and A$470 million for the sport’s
No.4 team, but the value is thought to be more like A$300 million.

While Saward says that David Brabham “is believed to be backed by money from US investors”, the crowdfunded Project Brabham he announced in September 2014 is yet to realise its stated ambition to enter sports car racing and compete at the Le Mans 24-Hour.

It hoped to be there in 2015 yet is still not on the entry list for next month’s running of the French classic (the “dress rehearsal” for which is this weekend’s Spa Six-Hour in Belgium).

David Brabham is quoted by Saward in Autocar saying: “Brabham is a brand with more than 69 years of racing heritage and it is our intention to see the name back on track. Since Project Brabham was launched we have received a lot of inquiries from different parties who have expressed an interest in licensing the name and we are evaluating a number of options. We have no further comment.”

Nor is there any sign of anything like A$300 million to bid for an F1 team, let alone the money for a supercar project.

Tough times for Joey Mawson
Australian rising international open-wheeler driver Joey Mawson has upstaged Mick Schumacher in Europe the past two seasons, but the tables have been turned in the European Formula 3 Championship this year.

Mawson, driving for Van Amersfoort Racing, is 11th with 14 points after two rounds and said, “nothing went right”, at Italy’s Monza last weekend.

Schumacher, the teenage son of seven-time F1 world champion Michael and driving for the Italian-based Prema team, was on the podium at Monza after third place in one of the races there.

In the other two races he advanced from ninth on the grid to finish sixth and from 12th to sixth.

He is fifth in the championship with 43 points, while Swede Joel Eriksson leads Britain’s Lando Norris by one point – 104 to 103.

First Gold Coast Indy winner has cancer
The winner of the first Gold Coast Indy in 1991, John Andretti, has cancer.

Andretti, 54, a nephew of the great Mario, is having chemotherapy for the stage four colon cancer, which has spread to his liver.

His victory on the streets of Surfers Paradise for Texan Jim Hall was his sole success in IndyCar, although he made 11 starts in the Indianapolis 500 – with a best finish of fifth, also in 1991 – and won two NASCAR Cup races in the late ’90s.