MOTORSPORT: Red Bull failure stalls Ricciardo

Red Bull Racing continued to have electrical and overheating problems with the complicated hybrid energy recovery system in its RB10 car on the third day of the first pre-season test at Jerez in Spain.

It was three hours late getting Ricciardo out on the track and then he stopped early on his first lap with the RB10 smoking.

It was returned to the pits on a truck and Ricciardo only got in two laps of the 4.42km circuit later in the day as other top teams clocked up mileage and four drivers with Mercedes power topped the timesheet.

In three days of testing Red Bull, the dominant team of the past four seasons, has completed only 13 laps – the first 11 of them by Sebastian Vettel, winner of nine grands prix straight at the end of last season.

Red Bull's race engineering co-ordinator Andy Damerum said the team had been working overtime for two days on changes but they had not solved the problems.

“It's obviously not where we want to be and naturally the whole team is frustrated by these issues, however we're pretty good at bouncing back from this type of thing," Damerum said.

Red Bull technical director Adrian Newey and team principal Christian Horner left Jerez last night, with a day remaining in the Jerez test, to return to the team’s base at Milton Keynes in England to try to find the solution to the RB10’s problems.

While disappointed to have had so little time in the car, Ricciardo was hopeful that a quick answer might be found for tonight’s final session at Jerez and certain that a final fix would come by early in the season starting at the Australian GP on March 16.

“We have still got a lot of time. Time is on our side still,” Ricciardo said. “Even if we go to Melbourne still a bit whatever, it is a long season. These guys know how to win – that is important.

“I am sure sooner rather than later we will get it all together. It is still really early days.”

Autosport magazine analyst and former F1 designer Gary Anderson has said that “the technical rumour mill in the paddock suggests that Renault is less than pleased with Red Bull’s installation of the control electronics” in the RB10.

“While this is just a rumour, Red Bull has done the fewest laps of any of the [major] teams so far, so it’s clear something has gone wrong,” Anderson said.

But he too was sure a solution would be found – and most likely by the start of the season.

“Rome wasn't built in a day and Red Bull and Renault are having a harder time than anyone else, but I would not be writing either off for the Australian GP just yet,” Anderson said.

Two more four-day tests will be held in Bahrain before all 22 F1 cars are flown to Melbourne for the season opener.

McLaren’s Danish rookie Kevin Magnussen went quickest at Jerez overnight, ahead of Felipe Massa now in a Williams – which has Mercedes rather than Renault power this season.

Lewis Hamilton in the factory Mercedes car and Jenson Button in the McLaren were next quickest, although lap times of the new 1.6-litre V6 turbocharged machines are still several seconds slower than the previous V8s.

McLaren’s rivals are intrigued by its innovative new rear suspension and are expected to start trying to copy it. Williams chief test and support engineer Rod Nelson said the rear leg of the McLaren MP4-29’s wishbones “have got a kind of dog leg in them now”.

Others in the paddock referred to “blockers” which they said could be generating more aerodynamic downforce at low speed and less drag at high speed.

“This could be McLaren’s secret weapon because, if it does work, it is not something that can be copied in five minutes as it is dependent on a number of design parameters at the rear of the car,” Anderson said.

Fernando Alonso had his first drive of Ferrari’s F14T last night, taking over from Kimi Raikkonen, doing 58 laps and clocking the fifth fastest time.

While Red Bull has been plagued by a spate of problems, smaller sister team Toro Rosso has had the best of the Renault-powered cars – having switched from Ferrari engines this year.

Toro Rosso’s Jean-Eric Vergne did 30 laps last night, although he also brought out the red flags twice.

One step in right direction for Schumi
At last some official, positive news on Michael Schumacher.

A day after dismissing a report that the seven-time world champion was being brought out of his induced coma after a skiing accident more than a month ago, Schumacher’s manager Sabine Kehm confirmed that his medical team at the Grenoble university hospital in France have begun to reduce his sedation in what they call “the waking-up process”.

However, that process is likely to be long and it is still way too early for the doctors to know Schumacher’s chances of anything like a full recovery.

Mercedes, the F1 team for which Schumacher drove in his three-year comeback, will carry the words “Keep Fighting Michael” on its cars this season.

Some big drop-outs from Bathurst 12-Hour
A week out from the start of practice, this year’s Bathurst 12-Hour already has proved a race of attrition with 20 per cent of the field out.

The record entry of 55 cars organisers boasted about before Christmas has shrunk to 44, meaning the field will be smaller than last year. The latest to drop off the entry list were the pair of BMW Z4s entered by the Vita4One team of Germany’s GT ace Michael Bartels.

A Corvette Z06R in which Greg Murphy and ex-F1 racer Ivan Capelli were to have been drivers has also been scratched.

Murphy instead will race in the second round of New Zealand’s V8 SuperTourer series, which he leads after the first round at Highlands Park.

Despite the shrunken entry list, the 12-Hour still has a strong line-up, including 31 cars in the three GT classes – 15 of them in Class A-GT3 Outright.

Carsales.com.au Editor in Chief Mike Sinclair will co-drive one of three Fiat Abarth 500s in Class F – the Invitation Cup for cars up to 3000cc.

See the full Bathurst 12-Hour entry list here http://www.bathurst12hour.com.au/competitor-info/entry-list

Winning even more important in NASCAR
NASCAR has confirmed changes to its Chase for the Sprint Cup that place greater emphasis on race wins and will ensure four drivers compete for the title at the final round, with the highest finisher becoming the champion.

The Chase has been a contest between the top 12 (last year 13) drivers after 26 rounds over the final 10 races.

This year it will be expanded to 16 drivers, based on race wins and guaranteeing the points leader a place.

Four drivers will be eliminated after every three races in the Chase until four are left for the finale at Homestead Miami Speedway.

NASCAR chief Brian France said the revised format “makes every race matter even more, diminishes points racing, puts a premium on winning races and concludes with a best-of-the-best, first-to-the-finish line showdown race – all of which is exactly what fans want”.

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