MOTORSPORT: Other fields of battle

Friday motorsport reportOctober 12, 2007

Motorsport playing a part in war
Motorsport is playing a part in the West's efforts in the wars that have been going on in Iraq and Afghanistan for some years now, with the prospect of a bigger role in future.

We have come across some material this week about links between global defence and aerospace company BAE Systems and Britain's Motorsport Industry Association (MIA), which represents 4000 companies invovled in the sport -- from Formula 1 teams to small engineering and consultancy companies. The information we discovered is not top secret; indeed it's a press release.

BAE Systems, born out of a merger of British Aerospace and Marconi Electronic Systems almost a decade ago, is a long-time sponsor of McLaren-Mercedes, the most successful team in F1 this year -- although it has been stripped of its constructors' championship points for having confidential Ferrari information.

BAE Systems says its technology partnership with McLaren has resulted in significant cross-fertilisation in areas such as aerodynamics and rapid engineering.

BAE Systems' association with the MIA had already resulted in high-efficiency radiator technology being adopted for armored vehicles. And, in the release we stumbled on, BAE Systems tells us it now "has turned to the motor racing industry to capture 'best of breed' technology for current and future armoured fighting vehicles".

"British troops are facing determined and innovative adversaries in Iraq and Afghanistan, which means that vehicles have to be modified very quickly when a new threat emerges," it says.

"BAE Systems Land Systems has responded to over 80 UORS (urgent operations requirements) in the last 18 months, mainly to provide better protection for vehicle crews.

"Motor sport has been identified by the UK Ministry of Defence as a potentially valuable source of appropriate technology and rapid processes for this sort of high-stress, high-reliability, rapid-turnaround engineering. For instance, there are many parallels between the demands of endurance races such as the Paris-Dakar event and armored vehicles operating in hot and dusty climates.

"Car racing technology looks promising for refuelling military vehicles in dusty conditions," says BAE Systems' head of vehicle support Mike Pope. "And scout vehicles on 'silent watch' could benefit from the latest lithium-ion batteries, which are now lower-volume, higher-power and more reliable.

"We are also interested in low-cost LED lighting technology, with its low power consumption and high reliability."

BAE Systems technology will likely be part of the A$30 billion Future Rapid Effects System which will equip the British Army with a fleet of medium-weight armored vehicles with the protection of heavy armor but the deployability of lighter equipment.

Prodrive's F1 plans stalled - for now
Prodrive's hopes of becoming the 12th team in F1 next year are up in the air now, with a London court to rule on October 24 on the eligibility of "customer cars".

Prodrive's David Richards has been intending in his new team's debut season to field McLaren-Mercedes cars virtually identical to those of the McLaren factory team.

Even if Prodrive gets a favorable ruling on October 24 it will then most likely face another challenge by the Williams team, which argues the world championship is for constructors -- and that only they should share in the money pool.

It had been widely anticipated that customer cars would be allowed in 2008, but delays in the signing of a new Concorde Agreement (the commercial document under which F1 operates) has prevented a rule change being ratified.

Richards says Prodrive "will consider all our alternative options for next season".

"We cannot do the plan that we had with McLaren now," he told Reuters. "There will not be a full-blooded equal car arrangement from day one -- it cannot be.

"It is Prodrive's opinion that the financial viability of a new team will not be possible until agreement is reached on a revised Concorde Agreement."

Three-year Renault deal for Alonso?
Germany's Bild newspaper is to report today, according to news wire Agence France Presse, that Fernando Alonso -- questioned for two hours this week by Italian police in the latest round of 'Spygate' -- is to return to Renault on a three-year contract.

World champion the past two years with Renault, Alonso goes into the final grand prix of this season in Brazil next weekend four points behind his McLaren rookie teammate Lewis Hamilton -- meaning that even if Alonso wins in Sao Paulo that Hamilton only need finish third.

While 22-year-old Hamilton would be the first rookie to win the world title, Alonso could become the first driver since Juan-Manuel Fangio to win consecutive titles with different constructors, although his relationship with McLaren is in tatters. He has been quoted in Spain this week saying: "My confidence in this team is zero."

The Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) -- which has been particularly harsh on McLaren this season, especially with the US$100 million fine and loss of all constructors' championship points for having Ferrari secrets -- will reportedly designate an official at the Brazilian GP specifically to ensure Alonso gets equal treatment to Hamilton from McLaren.

From the other side of the world it is often difficult to assess how much of what we read is correct, but it seems that Alonso's comments about McLaren and its chief Ron Dennis are becoming ever more savage.

Among those we have seen this week is: "We [the Alonso camp] are going to try to make the impossible possible [in Brazil], but I know the team are never going to be favorable towards me."

And: "You always hear him [Dennis] talk about that [equal treatment for McLaren drivers] or promising things and it's not like that."

And: "Many of the scandals McLaren has been involved in off the track this year have been created by his approach. It's better to be quiet than to lie. That's something I think he should do more often. I have spoken a lot with [former McLaren drivers] David Coulthard, Juan Pablo Montoya, Kimi Raikkonen. They have all left the team and found a lot of happiness. There must be a reason."

Dennis, always so careful in choosing his words, may have been badly caught again by something he said at last weekend's Chinese GP about the disastrous decision to delay Hamilton's tyre change, which led him sliding off the track and out of the race.

"We weren't at all fazed about Kimi [Raikkonen's Ferrari]. We weren't racing Kimi, we were basically racing Fernando."

As The Times of London pointed out, the use of "we" will only have added to the conspiracy theories in the Spanish quarter.

That quarter might take some consolation from the revelation this week by Bridgestone tyre technicians that McLaren ignored their advice to bring Hamilton in two laps earlier. The Spaniards may not be quite so pleased, though, with a retort by a McLaren engineer to Alonso complaining that the team's tampering with his tyre pressures was the reason Hamilton outqualified him by 0.6sec in Shanghai.

"Perhaps if he [Alonso] had worked with us choosing them, instead of telling us to get on with selecting them, he would have felt happier," the engineer grumbled.

Webber sticks to his Hamilton script
Australia's F1 driver, Mark Webber, is standing by comments he made on the eve of the Chinese GP about Lewis Hamilton's driving behind the safety car in the previous week's Japanese GP.

"I got pretty much slaughtered by the British gutter press about what I said, but I guess that's what happens when you say something negative about the golden boy," Webber says.

"It doesn't bother me what the press said about me -- whinging Webber and all that. Cowboys don't cry, I say, and I have some pretty thick skin. I said what I said because I thought he didn't do a great job behind the safety car. And, to Lewis' credit, he came out and said exactly the same; first to me and then in public."

The partnership with the 'World Cup of Motorsport' includes an exclusive licensing agreement for A1 GP merchandise to use the Ferrari name and words "Powered by Ferrari".

A1 GP's South African chairman Tony Teixeira told Reuters: "From today, A1 GP will be taken very seriously as a true global motor racing series. For A1, I think the credibility issue is totally resolved and put to rest. Ferrari would not do anything to jeopardise its brand."

It certainly is a huge boost to a series that otherwise has looked in danger of faltering, even folding, as it begins its third season -- the first round has already been run in Holland, and the second is this weekend at Brno in the Czech Republic, with Sydneysider Ian Dyk the Australian representative.

The deal is perhaps a super-smart insurance policy for Ferrari in case F1 implodes if F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone, already in his late 70s, dies in the next few years.

Teixeira says Ferrari is expected to provide about 50 cars and engines a season, with the design likely to be based on this year's F2007 F1 car but built by another company. So far the A1 cars have been made in Britain by Lola with Zytek 3.4 litre V8 engines.

An A2 GP series is planned to start by 2009-10 -- the engines in which may carry another brand from within the group of Ferarri parent, Fiat.

And Texeira says: "every single nation competing in A1GP (now 22) will have to have a national series, and a driver will have to win his national championship to represent his country in A1GP".

Teixeira says that, with the emphasis on driver skill rather than technology, A1 will never be a rival to F1 but could become more of a feeder series.

Meanwhile, Teixeira has reiterated something we reported on recently -- that he's interested in buying into an F1 team.

"I have been speaking to two or three different teams that are maybe available for sale. If I find the right deal that makes sense ... and it's the right price and I think that I can get up to the top 10 positions in F1 -- I'm not going to do it to come last -- then I will conclude a deal."

Scuderia Toro Rosso, previously Minardi, is the most likely option for him.

A whopping business, but Williams loses out
The latest article on the business of F1 by London journalists Christian Sylt and Caroline Reid says the sport's annual turnover is now US$4.3 billion -- about A$5 billion.

They report that sponsorship on the 22 cars is about US$835 million, that prizemoney is US$480 million, and that TV rights earn US$380 million. They also write that fees to host a GP have increased on average over the past five years by 70% -- from US$11.3 million to US$19.3 million -- and that the highest fee this year will have been for the Malaysian GP at US$38 million.

Meanwhile, the Williams team reportedly lost £28 million -- or about A$70 million -- last year following its split with BMW, after a £29.5 million profit in 2005.

The team's turnover was down 30.6 per cent last year to £58.1 million and it used its retained earnings from previous years to support its spending, with its cash in the bank dropping from £20.8 million to £30,000.

There will be separate titles for two-wheel drive and four-wheel drive showroom vehicles.

"We're hoping that, over the next three to five years, Showroom will become the major modern category with full support from manufacturers producing fully prepared cars for private owners," says Targa director Mark Perry.

Mazda's motorsport manager, Allan Horsley, says the showroom category "is particularly attractive to manufacturers as it pits stock standard production cars against one another -- essentially it creates a fair and realistic competition comprising cars customers can literally purchase off the showroom floor."

WRC on a Mediterranean diet
Just a week after Rally Catalunya in Spain, the world rally championship is on the Mediterranean island of Corsica this weekend for the French round of the series -- the 13th of 16 and the second straight tarmac event.

Corsica, off the south-eastern coastline of France, is dominated by forests and mountains and its abrasive roads are hard on tyres.

This year's Corsica event comprises 16 special stages after just 12 last year, and more than half the route will be completely new for all the crews.

Because of the author's technical difficulties earlier in the week we did not have the WRC points after Catalunya, where Australia's Chris Atkinson finished eighth in his Subaru, so we make amends today.

WRC drivers standings after 12 of 16 rounds: Marcus Gronholm (Finland, Ford) 96 points, Sebastien Loeb (France, Citroen) 90, Mikko Hirvonen (Finland, Ford) 74, Daniel Sordo (Spain, Citroen) 39, Petter Solberg (Norway, Subaru) 34, Henning Solberg (Norway, Ford) 29, Chris Atkinson (Australia, Subaru) 26.

WRC constructors' standings:  BP-Ford 170 points, Citroen Total 131, Subaru 64, Stobart M-Sport Ford 57, OMV-Kronos Citroen 39, Munchi's Ford 6.

The Greens' candidate for the federal seat of Herbert, Jenny Stirling, has condemned MPs pushing for the race. Stirling says the Queensland and federal governments should be more aware of the threat of climate change and not be encouraging the race.

"To see an event like this where thousands and thousands of litres of fuel are just going out the ends of exhaust pipes is incredibly insensitive to the people in this country who are suffering the effects of climate change," she says.

Meanwhile, Queensland cabinet minister Craig Wallace, the minister assisting the premier in North Queensland, says the $1 million a day the federal government has been spending on political advertising would have been better spent on getting the race off the ground.

"In the 10 days since the National Rugby League grand final, $10 million in taxpayers' money has been blown. That $10 million could have been spent getting the V8 Supercars to Townsville, with all the huge benefits the race would bring to the city," he said.

The deal is reportedly worth US$10-$12 million a year.

Nationwide has agreed to give competitor Geico a two-year "sunset" provision to handle Geico's sponsorship of Mike Wallace's No.7 car. That sponsorship will be able to move up to the Nextel Cup or down to the pick-up truck series but must be out of the secondary series in two years.

The agreement avoids the Nextel Cup acrimony NASCAR is litigating because of rival sponsor AT&T's involvement in the sport.

Four-time Cup champion Jeff Gordon is leading The Chase for this year's championship with six races remaining after his victory at Talladega last weekend, where he led only one lap -- the last!

The 40-year-old Italian will use a handcycle in the 42km race -- which he hopes to finish in less than two hours, faster than the best runners. Fitted with prosthetic limbs, Zanardi now drives a BMW in the World Touring Car Championship.

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