MOTORSPORT: Oh no, Canada for Ricciardo this time

Canada has been kind to Australia’s Formula 1 drivers, who have had good reason to come to enjoy the country’s national anthem, O Canada.

Triple world champion Jack Brabham won the first Canadian Grand Prix, in 1967 at Mosport  in the province of Ontario.

Alan Jones won twice in Canada, in 1979 and ’80 at Montreal in Quebec province – the second of those victories clinching his world title.

Mark Webber made the podium in Montreal with third place in 2011, was fourth there in his final F1 season, 2013, and fifth two other times – in 2005 and 2010.

And last year Daniel Ricciardo scored the most unlikely of maiden victories on a day the Mercedes cars of Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg both had brake troubles – and a safety car came out after the West Australian had taken the lead in his Red Bull-Renault with three laps to go.

“It still feels very vivid in my mind,” Ricciardo said this week.

“Winning has made me love the circuit (named in honour of Canada’s legendary Gilles Villeneuve) a little bit more, but really I’ve loved it since my first lap, back when I was driving for Toro Rosso.

“It’s a ridiculous amount of fun. You can jump across the kerbs and really get the car bouncing around.

“You can get aggressive with it, and aim to just brush the wall (known as the wall of champions).

“The nearer you are the faster you’ll go. Give the wall a ‘kiss’ and you feel pretty good; ‘kiss’ it too hard and that’s it.”

On June 8 last year Ricciardo mastered the circuit completely. His victory was the first of three in his first season with Red Bull Racing, which had won the previous four world championships.

Back there now Ricciardo is his eternal and infectiously enthusiastic self, but behind the big smile he must wonder whether he’ll be in the top 10 at the finish on Monday morning, before breakfast time in Australia.

Last season the Renault power unit did not have anything like the grunt of its Mercedes rival – not only in the German marque’s factory cars, but three other teams – and its disadvantage is even bigger now, with Red Bull’s renowned aerodynamic strengths unable to fully compensate.

And making matters worse is that Ferrari has used three of its allowed seven “tokens” for the season for engine changes since the Monaco GP two weeks ago.

Honda, engine supplier to McLaren, has turned up the power too after its first world championship point in this era of V6 hybrids in Monaco, using two of its seven tokens.

It is not clear yet, though, that Ferrari will race with its upgrades in Montreal, although the Italian team already is reputed in some quarters to have – at least in race trim – 25 horsepower more than world champion team Mercedes, winner of five of the six GPs so far this year.

Renault has not yet used any of the 12 tokens for change it is allowed this season, instead concentrating on reliability – especially in its pistons – rather than significant performance improvement.

The Red Bull RB11s of Russian Daniil Kyvat and Ricciardo finished fourth and fifth in Monaco, the circuit in the championship where outright power is of least importance, but Renault’s director of F1 operations Remi Taffin acknowledges that Montreal’s 4.36km street circuit “will be tough” because of its high-speed straights.

It will be even tougher for Ricciardo if he needs an engine change at any point in practice or qualifying as it would be his fifth power unit of the season and incur a 10-place grid penalty. If a replacement was not needed until after this race the penalty would carry over to the next GP in Austria.

Mercedes has not had an engine change yet in either factory team car and is said to have found a way to run its power units closer to their limit without  design changes.

Ever-optimistic Ricciardo is pinning his hopes this weekend on the unpredictability of the Montreal event.

“This year it is going to take even more of an effort than it did last year to get that same success, but Montreal has always had a bit of a style – and the race never disappoints,” he said.

“There is always a bit of excitement around it, whether it is the weather or, as we saw last year, some problems at the front and a real fight at the end.

“I always stay optimistic and hope something will happen and we can spray champagne.”

In reality, the chances of him spraying the bubbly on Monday are remote, but Ricciardo’s view gets some support from the motorsport director of F1’s monopoly tyre supplier Pirelli, Paul Hembery.

“Canada often turns out to be one of the best races of the season, with a set of track characteristics that are not replicated anywhere else throughout the year,” Hembery said.

“As a result it often throws up a few surprises and it’s also possible to win from lower down the grid, especially if you use a clever tyre strategy, or if it rains, or if there is a safety car – all of which are very possible in Montreal.

“Once again we have nominated the soft and super-soft tyres: the super-soft compound has been completely redesigned this year to provide even greater resistance to graining and blistering. With the cool weather that we often see in Montreal, this resistance to graining in particular is something that should be appreciated by the teams.

“As anything can happen in Canada, the best strategy is always one that has a certain degree of flexibility, allowing teams to react to changing circumstances.

“As we saw in Monaco (where Mercedes cost Hamilton the win, bringing him in for a late tyre change when other frontrunners did not pit, handing to Rosberg ahead of Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel), the strategy stakes can be very high.”

Too high for Red Bull Racing and Ricciardo this time around, you’d have to suspect. For the time being their anthem might be O, no, Canada.

The Confederation of Australian Motor Sport controversially has bought and brought 20 of these cars into Australia to be leased to competitors.

Somewhere between half and three-quarters of them are expected to be leased and on the grid in Townsville, rather than a full field.

A CAMS Foundation drive day at Sydney Motorsport Park yesterday doubled as an F4 test day, with champion racer-turned TV commentator Russell Ingall and TV presenter Greg Rust turning a few laps.

All F4 rounds will coincide with V8 Supercar events.

CAMS’ general manager of motor sport development, Cameron McConville, who will oversee the Australian Formula 4 Championship, said that F4 had  been adopted by the Federation Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) “as being the very first rung on the ladder out of go-karts”.

“Formula Ford has been a fantastic category in the past, there is no doubt about that, but what Formula 4 is trying to do is give these kids something in common with the rest of Europe,” said McConville, the 1992 Australian Formula Ford champion and later a V8 Supercar driver.

“A lot of guys who do go over [to Europe] currently are in the ‘deep end’ when they get over there.

“Thomas Randall, the Formula Ford champion from last year, has already done a one-minute 30.7-second [lap in an F4 car], which is about six seconds faster than a Formula Ford and equivalent to a V8 Supercar qualifying speed.”

Formula Ford traditionalists feel their category has been persecuted – and those in Formula 3 circles even more so – with the introduction of F4 in Australia.

Many will see irony in McConville’s reference to Randall as the Formula Ford champion when that category lost its national championship status at the end of 2013, although a reinvigorated series continues in eastern Australia.

The Formula Ford Association has issued an indignant statement declaring the traditional starting point in car racing, without aerodynamic wings and slick tyres, will be around in this country for a long time.

In a shot at CAMS chief executive Eugene Arocca, the association took exception to “recent comments by a senior member of the CAMS management group regarding the future of Formula Ford at a national level”.

“The Formula Ford Association would like to be clear in stating that we will have a national-based Formula Ford series in 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 and through to at least 2020,” FFA chief John Van Leeuwen said.

“Our long-term objective is for national-level Formula Ford to continue for another 30-plus years in Australia.

“We have put in place numerous prizes and structures for 2016 to ensure that our healthy car counts in 2015 will continue on a high-profile calendar.

“In 2016 we will be visiting some of Australia’s best circuits with the intent of continuing our free-to-air television package and continue our strong relationship with the ever-growing Shannons Nationals series.

“We would also like to remind various people within the Australian motor racing landscape that we have produced more professionally-paid Australian racing drivers than any other development category in the country.

“Whilst we are intrigued to hear what the Australian Motor Racing Commission will put forward with their review, we will not change our plans to continue with a national series next year, or change our five-year strategy as a high-quality, affordable development category through to at least 2020.”

Briscoe raced in the Indianapolis 500 two weeks ago, finishing 12th, after Hinchcliffe suffered hip injuries in a crash during the lead-up to that classic at The Brickyard.

A commitment to test a Chevrolet Corvette at Le Mans last weekend prevented him substituting for Hinchcliffe again at Detroit’s IndyCar double-header.
He has been preferred by Schmidt Peterson again for this weekend because of his seven top 10 finishes in eight previous IndyCar races at Texas Motor Speedway.

Australia’s reigning IndyCar champion Will Power trails Penske-Chevrolet teammate and this year’s Indianapolis 500 victor Juan Pablo Montoya by 21 points this season.

Officials keen to avoid any repeat of three crashes at Indianapolis in which cars became airborne when crashing backwards have approved the use of closure guards on the rear-wheel panels of the aerodynamic kits now fitted to IndyCars.

Rear wings also are to be set at angles of minus six to minus 10.5 degrees in Texas and at Pocono, Pennsylvania and Fontana Speedway in California to increase downforce.

IndyCar vice-president of technology Will Phillips said the closure panels, developed jointly in association with Chevrolet and Honda, “serve as a blocker so air cannot flow through the rear-wheel guards – this will ultimately raise the point at which cars would experience lift when travelling backwards.”