MOTORSPORT: Hotting up… on and off the track

But personalities are in the forefront of V8 Supercars and Formula One, as always.

More has seeped out this week from the soon-to-be-published book Dick Johnson: The Autobiography of a True-Blue Aussie Sporting Legend.

The latest revelation from the book, contained in the cover story of this week’s Auto Action magazine, is that the late television deal for this year’s V8 Supercar Championship cost Johnson a five-year sponsorship agreement with the Hungry Jack’s fast-food chain which the sport’s veteran team owner reckoned denied him $15 million revenue stream.

Johnson also has told of the angst he felt at having to drop his sons Steve from Dick Johnson Racing’s driver line-up this year as he took on young drivers with sponsorship to keep the DJR wheels turning.

And yet again he vowed that, despite continual financial difficulties, DJR will survive.

Another of the sport’s legends, Mark Skaife, has been the centre of speculation that there is strong opposition to him remaining chairman of the V8 Supercar Commission.

However, it seems that for the time being Skaife will remain in that chair – as well as continue to wear his many other hats, including as the head of the Car of the Future project and a TV commentator on the championship. That said it he is unlikely to have support to continue as commission chairman beyond the expiry of his two-year term in October.

Among the younger breed of V8 Supercar greats, Craig Lowndes (39 now – so hardly a youngster) is a hot favourite for the Ipswich round, having won the past five events at Queensland Raceway. In contrast, the track hasn’t been a hugely productive venue for his series-leading Triple Eight teammate Jamie Whincup.

Holden Racing Team’s Garth Tander and James Courtney and Ford Performance Racing’s Will Davison and Mark Winterbottom and Tekno Autosports’ Shane Van Gisbergen loom as challengers to the Triple Eight pair after their success in the previous round at Townsville three weeks ago.

Attention at Ipswich will also be on two-wheel legend Casey Stoner, fastest in early practice for the V8 Supercar development series but revealed this week to be set to undertake MotoGP testing for Honda. The HRC deal could, at a stretch, lead to him the world’s premier motorcycle world championship next year rather than pursue a four-wheel career.

In Formula One there are increasing signs that 24-year-old West Australian Daniel Ricciardo is in line to replace departing fellow Aussie Mark Webber in the world champion Red Bull Racing team next season.

Amid indications that Kimi Raikkonen may stay at Lotus-Renault rather than partner Sebastian Vettel (and with RBR team principal Christian Horner declaring that third favourite French youngster Jean-Eric Vergne is not ready to step up to the plum seat), Red Bull tycoon owner Dietrich Mateschitz has spoken glowingly of Ricciardo.

“Ricciardo did an excellent job at Silverstone [in last week’s tyre testing],” Mateshitz said.

“Vergne was good too.”

However, Vergne only got to drive his regular Toro Rosso STR8 while teammate Ricciardo drove both the STR8 and Red Bull’s RB9.

“No decision has been taken yet [on Webber’s replacement], it is still under discussion within the team, but it will be announced after Budapest [this weekend’s Hungarian GP],” Mateshitz said.

That points to an announcement in the coming four-week break in the season.

Red Bull traditionally keeps the drivers in its junior development program waiting until late in the year to tell them what, if anything, it has planned for them the following year.

In this instance, it seems, it may want to name Webber’s successor sooner rather than later – and may have given Raikkonen a deadline to indicate his intentions.

“Kimi’s qualities speak for themselves. He has a proven track record. You can’t question Kimi’s credentials,” Horner said this week.

But he said that “what Daniel has demonstrated so far has been very positive” while “at this stage it’s probably too early” for Vergne to be given such a plum drive, “which is why we chose to look at Daniel at the test at Silverstone”.

“They are both very capable drivers … Jean-Eric is six months behind Daniel in terms of F1 experience. He is still learning, still developing.”

In Hungary this weekend temperatures are forecast to go as high as 40C – and to 50C on track. That heat will coincide with the introduction of Pirelli’s latest tyres, in the wake of the blowouts at the British GP four weeks ago. Pirelli has retained this year’s compounds but reverted to the construction of last year’s F1 tyres.

While the new rubber should be safer it is unlikely to add greatly to the spectacle at the Hungaroring, the slowest permanent circuit in the world championship and notorious for little overtaking.

On the safety front, F1 now will impose 10-place penalties on cars that leave the pits with a wheel flying loose – as happened to Webber at this month’s German GP.

The pit lane speed limit also has been reduced from 100 to 80kmh for all three days of most GPs, and is even stricter at some, and there is talk of introducing a minimum pit stop time now that F1 teams are changing all four tyres in less than three seconds.

Hungary is the 10th of 19 rounds of the world championship and it is one of only two races on the calendar that Vettel has not won – the other is the US race at Texas, run for the first time last season.

The German, already champion the past three years and only just turned 26, has won four GPs this season – including the Malaysian race in which he denied Webber victory by ignoring  team orders. More recently Vettel has won two of the past three races – and most likely would have won the third, at Silverstone, but for a clutch failure.

Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso trails Vettel in the championship by 34 points, with Raikkonen another seven points back, while Lewis Hamilton has won three times in Hungary and is chasing his third straight pole position – and his first victory with the Mercedes factory team.

It is the 10th anniversary this weekend of Alonso’s maiden victory (with Renault) which made him F1’s youngest winner, and within two years he became its youngest champion. Vettel subsequently broke both records.

While temperatures at Ipswich won’t be anywhere near those of Budapest, they will be much warmer than much of Australia is experiencing during winter, with forecasts of 21-22C for the V8 Supercars as they return to a shorter format – a 60/60 Super Sprint on Saturday, with points only for the second leg, and then two 100km races on Sunday.

Only the soft-compound Dunlop tyres will be used there this weekend.

Four-time champion Jamie Whincup still leads teammate Craig Lowndes by 111 points despite his poor round at Townsville. Whincup admits he struggles, comparatively, at Ipswich, despite it being Triple Eight’s test track.

“It’s been one place I’ve probably had my worst results … I think we get a little bit lazy,” Whincup said.

Lowndes has won 11 races at Queensland Raceway over the years and is looking for a ‘three-peat’ to narrow Whincup’s lead further. Each race win this weekend will be worth 100 points.

HRT’s Tander -- the last-start winner at Townsville, ending the 21-month drought by Holden’s factory team -- has been the most successful driver at Queensland Raceway other than Lowndes. He has had six race wins there, including a clean sweep in 2007.

Tander’s teammate Courtney scored his maiden V8 Supercar victory at QR in 2008 and won both races in 2010, on soft-compound tyres, on the way to the season title in a DJR Ford.

Ford Performance Racing also is upbeat about the Ipswich 360 after two race wins, five podiums and three pole positions at the Darwin and Townsville rounds.

FPR’s Will Davison and Mark Winterbottom are third and fourth in the championship, while Tander is sixth (behind Tekno’s Van Gisbergen) and Courtney is ninth (behind Brad Jones Racing’s Fabian Coulthard and Jason Bright and ahead of Tekno team owner, Jonathon Webb).