MOTORSPORT: Mercedes boss returns Bernie's serve

Less than two weeks out from the start of the new Formula 1 season in Australia, the chairman of Daimler and head of Mercedes-Benz Cars, Dieter Zetsche, has ticked off F1 commercial chief Bernie Ecclestone for his negativity about the sport's hybrid cars.

Ecclestone said a fortnight ago that the F1 spectacle was the worst in history and he would not pay to take his family to watch it.

Mercedes has won 32 of the 38 GPs since the V6 hybrids were introduced in 2014, claiming the constructors' world championship both years while Lewis Hamilton has been its driving world champion.

The new season begins with the Australian Grand Prix at Melbourne's Albert Park on March 18-20.

Firing back at Ecclestone's comments during a Mercedes E-class presentation at Portugal's Estoril circuit, which previously hosted F1 GPs, Zetsche said he would never advise people not to drive Mercedes cars.

"I don't understand how someone who is not only the CEO but partial owner of that product [F1] talks that way about this product," Zetsche said.

Echoing the sentiments of Jean Todt, the president of the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) which governs F1's rules, Zetsche said Ecclestone's concerns should be discussed in meetings behind closed doors rather than aired publicly.

Frustrated at his inability to get major change amid dwindling audiences in the era of the hybrids lacking the traditional screech of F1 engines, Ecclestone also accused Mercedes and Ferrari of operating an illegal "cartel".

The provocative 85-year-old billionaire has since claimed that, in his comments in an interview with London's Daily Mail, he "wasn't talking down the sport at all – quite the opposite".

"I was trying to sort of explain that unless we did something that's the way we'd be going," he said.

In another sign that Ecclestone is losing his grip on the business and sport he has largely controlled for about 40 years, the FIA's World Motor Sport Council has given the green light to a revised qualifying system he said could not be introduced in time for Melbourne.

The system – under which the slowest drivers will be eliminated at 90-second intervals during the three phases of qualifying – had already been okayed by F1's strategy group and its commission, but Ecclestone then said his Formula One Management could not adapt its computer software in time.

Pre-season testing ended in Barcelona on Friday night with indications that Mercedes remains the benchmark among the 11 teams, including the new Haas outfit from the US, but that Ferrari has halved the tristar's advantage – from 0.6 seconds a lap to 0.3 seconds.

While Australia's Daniel Ricciardo was only 12th fastest over the eight days of testing, his best lap was done on Pirelli's soft rubber compound rather than its super-soft or new ultra-soft tyres.

The BBC's chief F1 writer Andrew Benson recalculated the testing results to allow for the various tyre compounds and other factors and placed the Red Bull RB12 driven by Ricciardo and the Toro Rosso in the hands of Dutch teenager Max Verstappen equal fourth – behind Mercedes, Ferrari and Mercedes-powered Williams, and 0.3 seconds ahead of Force India, also powered by Mercedes.

"Honda has undoubtedly made some serious steps with its engine – hybrid energy deployment, a major shortcoming last year that left the engine as much as 250bhp down on the straights, has improved 'massively', according to [McLaren-Honda driver] Jenson Button," Benson reported.

"But the engine is still a long way off the pace. Even Fernando Alonso [the other McLaren-Honda driver] allows it may be 80bhp down. Some say it could be as much as 100bhp.

"The best evidence is that they [McLaren] will be mixing it towards the back of the midfield with the likes of Renault and the new US-based Haas team.

"Between McLaren and the front is still the best part of two seconds – and the Williams, Red Bull, Toro Rosso and Force India teams."
Ricciardo rebuffs Hulk's heroism on halos
Daniel Ricciardo has told fellow F1 driver Nico Hulkenberg not to try to be a hero by opposing the 'halos' being developed to provide greater head protection from next year.

Hulkenberg slammed the 'halo' that appeared briefly over the cockpit of Ferrari's SF16-H model on the last two days of Barcelona testing as looking horrible and further diminishing the risk factor he reckoned F1 needed to retain.

"I heard Hulkenberg say some things. I don't agree with that because there's no need to be a hero about this situation," Ricciardo said.

"It doesn't change the sport or the speed of the car. It's just if there are any flying objects. It's extra protection for us.

"I don't know why he's puffing his chest out on something like that. It doesn't make sense."

Reigning world champion Lewis Hamilton, who initially declined to provide media with a soundbite of his opinion on the 'halo', later objected to it as "the worst-looking mod[ification] in F1 history" and expressed the hope the devices would be optional for drivers.

"I appreciate the quest for safety, but this is F1 and the way it is now is perfectly fine," Hamilton said.

"You have to decide how much of a risk you are going to take. I'd rather drive without it."

However, Sebastian Vettel, world champion four years in a row before Hamilton's past two titles and who had the 'halo' on the Ferrari for his first lap on Friday, said it was about saving drivers' lives.
Qualifying change back on ... perhaps
Vettel and Hamilton oppose the change to qualifying that now seems imminent again – indeed Vettel claims all the drivers are against it, while the four-time world champion, retired Alain Prost, doubts it will happen.

After the latest World Motor Sport Council meeting, the first phase of qualifying is supposed to run for 16 minutes, with the slowest car eliminated after seven minutes, and then another six every 90 seconds.

The second phase with 15 cars is to run for 15 minutes, with the first driver to be eliminated after six minutes and then others at 90-second intervals until eight remain.

For the 14-minute third phase the first driver will be knocked out after five minutes, with the session continuing until only the top qualifier is left.

"I'm not a fan of the qualifying changes and, speaking on behalf of all the drivers, no driver is," Vettel said.

"We don't get what is wrong with the old qualifying and why to change it.

"I can see the excitement for some people with the introduction of the element of randomness.

"But it's important for the sport to remain a sport so in the end the fastest driver comes out on top paired with the strongest team.

"That has been in the DNA of F1 forever.

"It is the wrong way to go and creates chaos. It creates criticism against us drivers and among the fans.

"The decisions lately, it is fair to say, it is lacking leadership.

"It's a bit chaotic if, a couple of weeks before the season, you start to reinvent certain rules and formats of qualifying.

"I don't think it is broken. In terms of the show, F1 is doing fine."

Hamilton said: "I've generally enjoyed the qualifying we had for the last few years so that's why the changes we've made don't make sense to me."

Prost, whose main interest now is the Formula E electric championship but who will appear at F1 events again as a Renault ambassador, said he did not believe the qualifying change would happen in Melbourne.

"I also hope that it will not come," he said.

The great Frenchman was more optimistic about F1 than many commentators, saying that while "we do need to analyse and adapt some things, the situation in F1 is more positive than it seems".
Volkswagen's Polo R keeps making history
Having rewritten many chapters of rallying's history books the past three years, Volkswagen is poised for a major new record next month.

Its success at the third round of this year's World Rally Championship in Mexico at the weekend marked the second time the German manufacturer has won 12 events in a row with its Polo R.

This time it was Finns Jari-Matti Latvala and co-driver Miikka Anttila who triumphed in Mexico ahead of French triple world champions Sebastien Ogier and Julien Ingrassia, the victors for VW there the previous three years.

The company has won every WRC event since Rally Portugal last May. It previously achieved a dozen straight victories between the 2013 Rally Australia and 2014 Rally Finland.

The next longest winning streak was by Citroen, with eight straight wins in 2011.

Rally Argentina on April 22-24 will be VW's opportunity for a 13th consecutive victory.

The Polo R has had 37 wins in 42 WRC events. Only three cars have had more success – the Subaru Impreza and Lancia Delta, each with 46 wins, and the Ford Focus with 44, while the Toyota Celica also had 37 and Citroen C4 36.

Latvala and Anttila's success in Mexico was the 16th of their careers, aided by their advantageous starting position after a poor start to the season in the previous two events.

Rally Mexico took competitors to the highest point of the season, 2746 metres above sea level on the 'El Chocolate' stage, and had the longest WRC stage in 30 years – the 80km Guanajuato stage on the last day.

Ogier and Ingrassia had the disadvantage, as the championship leaders, of having to open the route but they finished little more than a minute behind their teammates and collected three extra points for winning the Power Stage.

Ogier extended his drivers' championship lead over M-Sport Ford's Mads Ostberg to 38 points as the Norwegian finished fourth in Mexico – and almost two minutes behind third-placed Spaniard Dani Sordo in Hyundai's new-generation i20. Ostberg has since been promoted to third place after Sordo was found to have used 29 tyres rather than the 28 allowed and was consequently penalised two minutes.

Volkswagen Motorsport also claimed the most successful Facebook post in its history with video of Ogier swerving to avoid cows at full speed viewed by more than 5.2 million users.

Sordo's third place meant a hat-trick of podiums for Hyundai with the new i20 following Belgian Thierry Neuville's third place in the Monte Carlo Rally and New Zealander Hayden Paddon's second in Sweden.

Paddon and co-driver John Kennard achieved their Mexican goal of a top-five finish and picked up a bonus point for third on the Power Stage.

Paddon said the "monster" Guanajuato stage had been "a really interesting experience in how to look after the tyres and the brakes over 80km".

World Rally Championship driver standings after three of 13 rounds – 1. Sebastien Ogier (France, Volkswagen Polo R) 77 points; 2. Mads Ostberg (Norway, Ford Fiesta RS) 39; 3. Andreas Mikkelsen (Norway, Volkswagen Polo R) 33; 4. Daniel Sordo (Spain, Hyundai i20) 33; 5. Hayden Paddon (New Zealand, Hyundai i20) 29; 6. Jari-Matti Latvala (Finland, Volkswagen Polo R) 27; 7. Ott Tanak (Estonia, Ford Fiesta RS) 24; 8. Thierry Neuville (Belgium, Hyundai i20) 15.

WRC manufacturers' championship – 1. Volkswagen Motorsport 97 points; 2. Hyundai Motorsport 64; 3. M-Sport 45; 4. Volkswagen Motorsport II 30.