MOTORSPORT: Midyear silly season

COMMENT

It's July 1, but anyone broadly interested in motorsport could be forgiven for thinking it's April 1.

There's been talk of IndyCars on the Gold Coast again and endless reports linking Daniel Ricciardo to Ferrari next year as a replacement for Kimi Raikkonen.

Neither's happening.

It was in the Gold Coast Bulletin newspaper that the prospect of IndyCars coming back to the Gold Coast was raised, "maybe as soon as next year".

"A private consortium is negotiating with Tourism and Events Queensland to bring the US version of Formula 1 back to the Gold Coast streets during an annual weeklong motorsports extravaganza," the Bulletin reported.

"The Bulletin has seen documents giving a Gold Coast-based consortium the right to negotiate for an IndyCar race in Australia."

Who has the right to grant such right? And what would it amount to anyway?

The consortium is anonymous. It would be well advised to remain so.

An IndyCar race on the Gold Coast ain't happening next year, or the year after. Almost certainly never.

The deal between the Queensland government and Supercars for the Gold Coast 600 as it is now has just been renewed for three years. That's it.

The IndyCar organisation in the US has given the story no credence. It hasn't raced at Surfers Paradise since 2008. Even by then it had become a non-championship event.

The temporary circuit is shorter these days for the Supercar round there each October. A new light rail line would prevent going back to the longer street circuit.

Other IndyCar races outside North America have fallen over too. Roger Penske, the most powerful and successful of the team owners, doesn't want Indy races outside North America.

The Gold Coast Indy was a fun event in its heyday, but as a business model it was a disaster. As it was in terms of international exposure, the premise on which it was created. We published the US TV figures for the event years ago and they weren't a pretty picture. Apart from the Indianapolis 500, there is little interest in Indy racing even in the US.

Ricciardo not in running for Raikkonen seat
Now this Daniel Ricciardo business.

Remember, we told you here two weeks ago that Australia's F1 driver would not be joining Ferrari or any other team until at least 2019.

Ricciardo had come to the realisation that, despite recent hiccups with Red Bull Racing – which cost him victory at the Monaco Grand Prix and probably the Spanish GP – and without any vacancy at Mercedes, his best chance of becoming world champion in the next couple of years was by staying put.

Not that he really had any alternative. Red Bull had him contracted until the end of 2018.

He didn't have to sign or re-sign anything. The Honey Badger, who turns 27 today, and Dr Helmut Marko, the powerful motor racing adviser to Red Bull energy drink tycoon Dietrich Mateshitz, simply confirmed in mid-June that both sides would stand by the existing contract.

Yet this week the Ricciardo-to-Ferrari story got fresh legs.

All the talk, the romance of an Aussie guy of Italian heritage joining the most famous team that is a kind of Italian national team and the most revered in F1, has been hugely flattering to Ricciardo.

But last night he tried to put a stop to it.

"Every word I say ... one word turns into 10, and then 30 and 50. So I'll just leave it," he said ahead of this weekend's Austrian GP on Red Bull's home ground – the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg.

Ricciardo reiterated that Red Bull Racing, with the combination of the aerodynamic genius of Adrian Newey and Renault's improving power unit, was "the best place to be to try to challenge Mercedes".

So perhaps Mexican Sergio Perez or Frenchman Romain Grosjean might end up as Sebastian Vettel's Ferrari teammate. Certainly the scuderia prefers experienced GP drivers.

But, despite the perception that Raikkonen is past his use-by date, might it yet give Kimi another year?

Progress on 'halo', but Todt over-ambitious
Confirmation is expected within weeks that F1 cars next year will have to incorporate the 'halo' cockpit protection device, although there have been suggestions of Bernie Ecclestone trying to scuttle it.

The 'halo' is the design now associated with Ferrari, although it originated inside Mercedes. Red Bull's alternative, and more attractive, 'Aeroscreen' design has been put on the backburner.

Ferrari did some static tests with the 'halo' in Austria yesterday, focusing on the ease and speed of a driver getting out of the cockpit.

The design has been refined somewhat since it was first seen on a car at pre-season testing in Barcelona and it is now made of titanium.

It will be fitted to Sebastian Vettel's car for the installation lap in first practice at the Red Bull Ring tonight, Australian time.

More trials are planned at Silverstone during next weekend's British GP, with a third version of the device anticipated before it is mandated for next year.

Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) president Jean Todt has made it known he then wants the cockpit protection applied to all the junior open-wheeler categories.

"It's important to see that these improvements are also implemented through the single-seater pyramid," Todt has said.

A noble sentiment, but in reality is it practical for someone racing a 10-year-old Formula Ford?

It is admirable that safety be paramount in the mind of motorsport's top official. There have been some horrible incidents prompting the move for greater cockpit protection – especially the deaths of Justin Wilson in IndyCar and John Surtees' son Henry – but is it realistic to expect every open-wheeler car racing around the world to be fitted with such a device?

Still only 11 in Australian F4 field
Australia's second Formula 4 Championship reaches its halfway point this weekend as part of the Shannons Nationals at Sydney Motorsport Park.

Much is being made of one of the young drivers from the first season coming home from Britain for this round.

Luis Leeds has just turned 17 and is now in Red Bull's junior driver development program, racing in the British F4 series.

He's reuniting with DREAM Motorsport for the weekend.

But that still only makes 11 on the entry list.

The Confederation of Australian Motor Sport (CAMS) bought – not just brought, but bought – 20 F4 cars from overseas to start this series.

The field has never been more than 13 cars in 1½ seasons.

Lights out for Formula E in London?
Now, if that doesn't bode well, what about Formula E, the international electric open-wheeler category?

Formula E's second championship concludes this weekend in London's Battersea Park.

It won't be back there next year, because protests have driven it out of that park.

Organisers want an even more plum London location close to landmarks like Buckingham Palace, but there's no sign of it.

Formula E has raced in the heart of some of the world's great cities, Paris and Berlin among them, Hong Kong is to be added next season and there's talk of New York, Montreal and Singapore.

But other places that have had a taste of Formula E have gone cold on it.

And, after two seasons, has it seriously grabbed the attention of the world – or the world of motorsport fans, or the motor industry?

Hard to see that it has.

It's a nice idea, but are the masses interested in watching quiet electric cars racing?

How many know that Switzerland's Sebastien Buemi and Brazil's Lucas di Grassi are vying for the title this weekend, with just one point between them?

And, incidentally, Team Aguri – created by Japanese ex-F1 driver Aguri Suzuki and Australian engineer Mark Preston – is being sold to "new investors".

Preston has claimed that Team Aguri "can be considered true pioneers in the development of electric vehicles, pioneering new technologies and showcasing them to the world".

Suzuki won't be part of the new incarnation and it is not clear yet whether Preston will be.

Darren Cox's new virtual route
Word has reached us that Darren Cox has launched "the first professional virtual race team in motorsport, 'eSPORT+CARS'."

The announcement trumpets that Cox was "the founding father of the hugely successful [Nissan] GT Academy 'gamer to racer' program".

Certainly he was, and – after much scepticism – it has uncovered some real racing drivers. A couple of them, Florian Strauss and Wolfgang Reip, won the 2015 Bathurst 12-Hour, along with Japanese star Katsumasa Chiyo in a GT-R.

Now it's opened the door to international GT racing for an ex-Australia Post courier, Matt Simmons.

But the announcement of Cox's new venture makes no mention of the front-wheel Le Mans hybrid project that was such a disaster it may have been the reason for his exit from the role of Nissan's global motorsport chief.

In his new life Cox "aims to run a motor racing team that exists purely in the virtual world – but to the same standard of any professional 'real world' team".

"Cox aims to reach millennials who are engaging with sports through gaming and help build a new motorsport audience to draw them into the sport to help stem a decline in audience figures," the announcement says.

We'll watch with interest.

New Aussie blood in GT Asia Series
The GT Asia Series will have a bigger Australian presence this weekend at Japan's Okayama circuit.

Melbourne youngster Jonathan Venter is already a star in this series, last year driving an Aston-Martin Vantage and this year a Porsche in which he's third in the points.

The "new blood" from Oz is Nathan Morcom, a recent Australian GT winner from Sydney, and George Miedecke, from Port Macquarie and son of veteran racer and prominent car dealer Andrew Miedecke.

Miedecke Stone Motorsport acquired the Aston-Martins with which Craft-Bamboo Racing won last year's GT Asia Series.

Tourist Trophy for 12-Hour, rallycross at Raleigh
And some other good news around this week.

The Australian Tourist Trophy – a once-prestigious award won in its early years by Stirling Moss, Frank Matich and Bib Stilwell – is to be presented to the winning drivers at the Bathurst 12-Hour from next year.

CAMS general manager of motorsport, Michael Smith, said the trophy – first contested in 1956 – was "an appropriate fit" with the 12-Hour because of its "strong sports car history".

Perhaps making it even more apt is the likelihood that the trophy will be won by tourists – international drivers. Albeit internationals of high quality.

And from Coffs Harbour comes news that Raleigh International Raceway is to host a four-round rallycross series.

There is already a 1.1km circuit there – half dirt and half tarmac – and it is being stretched to 1.5km.

There are hopes of hosting a round of the FIA World Rallycross Championship, but after the couple of false starts in reviving rallycross in Australia last year we'll hold our breath on that.

In the meantime, we await the dates for the four events planned.

Incidentally, it's the sixth round of the World RX this weekend – at Holjes in Sweden, where Mattias Ekstrom has won the previous two years (and he's leading the series this season).

In the World Rally Championship it's Rally Poland, in which Australia's 2014 rally champion Scott Pedder is driving Skoda Fabia R5 with co-driver Dale Moscatt. Poland is on a "yellow card" with the FIA – it could be scrubbed from future calendars if there are any safety failings this year.