Geoffrey Harris•1 Oct 2012

NEWS

MOTORSPORT: GP and rally may lose biggest names

Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes, Sergio Perez at McLaren, but Michael Schumacher may be gone when F1 comes to Australia in March, and Rally Oz could be missing various big names

WRC teams only have to do one event outside Europe

It’s the week of Australia’s biggest domestic motor race, but before turning our mind to Bathurst in the next day or two, the country’s two big international four-wheel events have been confirmed for next year.

The Australian Grand Prix will open the 20-round Formula One World Championship in Melbourne on March 17 and Rally Australia at Coffs Harbour will be the 10th event in the 13-round World Rally Championship in mid-September. The confirmations came from the World Motor Sport Council, although there are clouds over both – darker over Rally Oz than the GP, where there may indeed be a silver lining.

As already mentioned here last week, rallying’s greatest driver Sebastien Loeb, on course this year for his ninth world title, will only drive selected WRC rounds for the Citroen factory team next year – and they will be his favourite rallies. It’s not yet clear whether Australia is among the Frenchman’s favourites. Only one of the previous 21 Rally Australias have been at Coffs Harbour and the memories were not that fond for Loeb as he ended up only 10th.

In a broader picture there is an even bigger worry for Rally Australia organisers than the possible non-appearance of Loeb. It is this sentence in Friday’s announcement following the World Motor Sport Council meeting in Paris: “As part of a cost-reduction process and to attract greater entries, WRC teams … will now only have to contest one non-European event.”

The five events on the WRC calendar outside Europe are in Sweden, Mexico, Argentina, Finland and Australia. While making it easier for teams to participate in the championship, requiring them to contest only one event outside Europe could be to the very great detriment of the Rally Australia field.

Positives for the WRC next year will be the entry of Volkswagen to compete against Citroen, Ford, Mini and perhaps Hyundai and confirmation of Red Bull Media House and The Sportsman Media Group as the new promoter of the series.

On the GP front, F1 next year could well be without the driver who has been its biggest name even if he has only once been on the podium since his comeback in 2010 - seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher. At best Schumacher may be with the Sauber team, but he is even less likely to achieve victory there than at Mercedes – from which he is being squeezed out in favour of Lewis Hamilton. Hamilton’s debut with Mercedes in Melbourne could be the silver lining for the Oz GP – although it is a huge gamble for him.

Since taking over the 2009 world champion Brawn team, Mercedes has only scored one victory – by Nico Rosberg in this year’s Chinese GP – compared with McLaren’s 16 wins in the past three seasons.

“For anyone leaving McLaren, and wanting to win, I think that’s a mistake,” McLaren chief Martin Whitmarsh said of Hamilton’s pending exit after the six remaining races of this season. “Whether you measure it over the last four races, four years or 40 years, we’re a fantastic team.”

Indeed McLaren and Sergio Perez, the 22-year-old Mexican recruited from Sauber to replace Hamilton, may end up the bigger winners.

Mercedes not only get Hamilton but Lauda

News of Hamilton’s move came after weeks of speculation but was still a bombshell. A bigger surprise though is Niki Lauda being installed as part of the Mercedes team management that already has Ross Brawn and Norbert Haug.

Lauda’s achievements in winning three world titles and coming back from the fiery crash in 1976 that almost cost him his life are not properly acknowledged, perhaps because of the successes of Alain Prost, Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher after him, but the Austrian’s F1 involvements since his driving days – at Ferrari and Jaguar - have not displayed any midas touch.

It appears it was Lauda who was intent on getting Hamilton to Mercedes, while it is not difficult to imagine that Brawn and Haug would have liked Schumacher to stay another year – even at 44. Lauda has described Hamilton as “unbelievably quick” and said rather pointedly that Mercedes “have realised their weaknesses”.

“If Schumacher couldn’t get the Mercedes team running up front for three years and you (Hamilton) next year are doing much better it makes a huge impact on your personality and people will rate you much higher,” Lauda said.

The BBC’s chief F1 correspondent Andrew Benson commented: “Mercedes have sold the move to Hamilton on the basis that they are preparing for a huge push in 2014, when new chassis and engine rules are introduced, but Lauda is confident Hamilton’s arrival will also motivate the team to design a more competitive car for 2013.”

Perez lands dream drive at McLaren

McLaren, of course, had to put the brightest face it could on losing Hamilton – and it did in its announcement of Perez as his replacement.

A product of Ferrari’s young driver academy – similar to Red Bull’s junior development squad which has produced Sebastien Vettel and Daniel Ricciardo – and racing with a Ferrari engine behind him in his Sauber, Perez has notched three podiums in his second season in F1. At Sepang in Malaysia and at Monza in Italy he finished second, yet Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo deemed him not to have sufficient experience to become Fernando Alonso’s teammate when Felipe Massa has proven inadequate in that role.

McLaren’s Martin Whitmarsh on the other hand said: “It was a string of giant-killing performances that showed us that Sergio lacks nothing in terms of speed and commitment.

“He’s perfectly poised to develop into a world championship challenger. His addition to the McLaren team provides us with the perfect two-pronged driver line-up (with Jenson Button) for the new season.

“We have got the opportunity to mould and form the rising star of F1. It’s the opportunity to turn him into an international brand, an international star and a world champion.”

Perez admitted “it is indeed a very big step”, but in the next breath he said confidently: “I’m ready for it.”

2013 Formula One calendar

March 17 – Australia

March 24 - Malaysia

April 14 - China

April 21 - Bahrain

May 12 - Spain (Barcelona)

May 26 – Monaco

June 9 – Canada

June 16 – US (Jersey, New York), to be confirmed

June 30 - Great Britain

July 14 – Germany

July 28 – Hungary

August 25 – Belgium

September 8 – Italy

September 22 – Singapore

October 6 – Korea

October 13 – Japan

October 27 – India

November 3 - Abu Dhabi

November 17 – US (Austin, Texas)

November 24 - Brazil

2013 World Rally Championship calendar

(The dates below are the Sunday of each rally weekend. The exact itinerary of each round is subject to final confirmation by individual event organisers).

January 20 - Monte Carlo

February 10 – Sweden

March 10 – Mexico

April 14 – Portugal

May 5 – Argentina

June 2 – Greece

June 23 – Italy

August 4 – Finland

TBC – Germany

September 15 – Australia

October 6 – France

October 27 – Spain

November 17 - Great Britain

Dodge on top near end of NASCAR journey

Three races into NASCAR’s Chase for the Sprint Cup title two wins have been taken by Penske driver Brad Keselowski in a Dodge – the manufacturer that is quitting the sport at the end of the season because it couldn’t find a suitable partner team for next year.

Keselowski now leads Chevrolet-driving five-time champion Jimmie Johnson by five points with seven races remaining.

Toyota driver Kyle Busch led three quarters of the latest race at the Dover “Monster Mile” in Delaware but finished seventh, while Johnson was fourth – with Chevrolet teammate Jeff Gordon and Mark Martin in a Toyota between him and victor Keselowski.

Australia’s Marcos Ambrose finished 18th and three laps down in his Ford.

The Dodge victory was the manufacturer’s fifth this year, all by Keselowski - who is now equal for the most wins of the season with Toyota driver Denny Hamlin. It also was Keselowski’s ninth win in 118 Cup starts, while Penske Racing now has 76 Cup race wins.

NASCAR Sprint Cup standings after 29 rounds – 1. Brad Keselowski (Dodge) 2142; 2. Jimmie Johnson (Chevroelt) 2137; 3. Denny Hamlin (Toyota) 2126; 4. Clint Bowyer (Toyota) 2117; 5. Tony Stewart (Chevrolet) 2110; 6. Kasey Kahne (Chevrolet) 2110; 7. Dale Earnhardt Junior (Chevrolet) 2103; 8. Martin Truex Junior (Toyota) 2100; 9. Kevin Harvick (Chevrolet) 2096; 10. Jeff Gordon (Chevrolet) 2094; 11. Greg Biffle (Ford) 2091; 12. Matt Kenseth (Ford) 2070. Australia’s Marcos Ambrose is 17th on 798 points.

Audi restores order in sports car racing

Stung by Toyota’s recent breakthrough win in the Brazilian round of the World Endurance Championship, Audi bounced back in the Bahrain Six-Hour race, filling the top two positions on the podium.

Two-time Le Mans 24-Hour winning trio Andre Lotterer, Benoit Treluyer and Macel Fassier increased their lead in the championship as they finished two laps ahead of the second R18 e-tron Quattro of Allan McNish and Tom Kristensen.

The Toyota hybrid of Alex Wurz and Nicolas Lapierre led a lot of the first three hours before Wurz damaged the suspension in an incident with the Strakka Racing HPD that ultimately finished third.

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MOTORSPORT: GP and rally may lose biggest names

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