MOTORSPORT: Ricciardo hastens slowly in testing

The Red Bull RB13 to be raced by Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen has come within a second a lap of the Mercedes W08 and Ferrari SF70H in the first half of Formula 1 testing.

Yet 27-year-old Australian Ricciardo and Dutch 19-year-old Verstappen are confident they'll narrow the gap further at the Barcelona circuit next week and be close to the front of the grid at the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne on March 26.

"We haven't really got too involved in the performance runs [yet]," Ricciardo said.

"The lap times [already a couple of seconds faster than last year] are not too representative. There is a lot more to come.

"By the end of next week everyone will be seeing what they've got."

Ricciardo declared himself "pretty happy" with the latest version of Renault's V6 hybrid power unit and "confident we can again be a bit closer [to dominant Mercedes] than we were last year", when Red Bull Racing was the only team other than Mercedes to win GPs – Ricciardo in Malaysia and Verstappen in Spain.

Like Ricciardo, Verstappen was "quite happy" with the RB13's first week and not bothered at the gap to Mercedes and Ferrari. "All in reach, all good," he said.

Mercedes racked up 558 laps of the 4.655-kilometre Circuit de Catalunya over the four days of testing this week – more than the distance of eight GPs and including two full-race simulations.

Valtteri Bottas, the Finn snared from the Williams team to replace reigning but retired world champion Nico Rosberg, bettered the fastest lap of the triple world champion to whom he is now teammate, Lewis Hamilton.

While the Merc pair did their best times on 'ultra-soft' Pirelli tyres, Ferrari looked to be in the same league with Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastien Vettel setting their fastest laps on 'soft' rubber, two grades harder than that used by Bottas and Hamilton (with 'super-soft' the compound in between).

The Ferrari pair chalked up 468 laps, with Raikkonen topping the timesheets on two days.

Red Bull's mileage was restricted to 294 laps by teething troubles when Ricciardo was in the RB13 on the first morning, but he wound up fifth fastest that day and third fastest on his second day.

Verstappen was third and second on his two days in the car, with each of the 10 teams as yet running just one car built to this year's rules – reintroducing fatter tyres and wider bodywork.

The year has not started well for McLaren-Honda, nor for 18-year-old Canadian rookie Lance Stroll in the Mercedes-powered Williams FW40.

Stroll, who will be the youngest driver on the grid in Melbourne, had three "offs" in two days. His billionaire father Lawrence has reportedly spent US$80 million of the fortune he made from the Tommy Hilfiger and Michael Kors fashion brands on his son's career.

In the last incident Stroll Junior hit a barrier, damaging the Williams badly enough that the team could not participate in the fourth day of testing.

"Lance was out on cold tyres, on an out-lap with a lot of fuel in the car, and the tyre stepped away from him," Williams' head of performance engineering Rob Smedley said.

"He was an innocent victim. What should have been an innocuous sideways moment brought him around into the barrier. That happens ... there is no blame on his part."

McLaren's MCL32 did few laps the first two days, with a new oil-tank design not scavenging the oil properly in Fernando Alonso's car. Then the Honda power unit, massively revamped to follow the Mercedes philosophy of splitting the turbine and compressor at opposite ends of the V-bank of the internal combustion engine, mysteriously faded on Belgian youngster Stoffel Vandoorne.

Honda immediately flew that engine back to Japan for examination.

The company's F1 chief, Yusuke Hasegawa, apologised to the drivers, while McLaren racing director, Eric Boullier, admitted to "many issues" but claimed they were "nothing fundamental".

After two fruitless years back at McLaren, which has now gone four seasons and 78 GPs without a win, Alonso was almost inconsolable after the first day of testing.

"You've been working for three months on your physical fitness, on the simulator, on the sponsor commitments and launching the car ... and now you hit the track and do an installation lap and something breaks down," he said.

British publication Autosport's grand prix editor, Ben Anderson, commented: "Alonso must be seething at the thought of potentially seeing his three-year stint with McLaren-Honda go to waste in uncompetitive machinery. The more time passes, the more McLaren's decision to give up Mercedes customer power for this works partnership with Honda looks like a big mistake."

Honda had already scheduled an upgraded power unit, close to the spec it expects to run in Melbourne, for next week's testing.

"I expect most of the teams to bring nearly a new car in Australia," Boullier said.

Drivers say this year's cars are much more physically demanding on them – Hamilton said the W08 was "a beast ... so much better than last year".

However, the drivers are finding it harder to follow other cars – ominous news for fans hoping to see more overtaking this season.

Hamilton said that, with the tyres degrading less now, there were likely to be a lot less pit stops. "Most likely we're going to be doing a lot more one-stoppers," he said.
Aussie progresses up 'Road to Indy'
Anthony Martin, the young open-wheeler racer from Kalgoorlie who won last year's USF2000 Championship, will put the scholarship worth about A$500,000 he received towards contesting the Pro Mazda Championship this year with the same Cape Motorsports team.

Pro Mazda is the next step up the 'Road to Indy' path, with scholarships available to advance to Indy Lights.

The series starts as a support category to the IndyCars on the streets of St Petersburg, Florida, next weekend.

Cape Motorsports, owned by brothers Dominic and Nicholas Cape, is based in 'St Pete' and has been in open-wheeler racing more than 20 years, winning six USF2000 titles – six of them consecutively.

"Going with Cape Motorsports again was a quite easy decision," said Martin, 22, who won six races last year.

"I could not leave the team. The way they run the show is impeccable."
Rally bombshell – Queensland ARC event 'dead'
The International Rally of Queensland – long a round of the Asia-Pacific, Australian and Queensland rally championships – has been cancelled this year.

Making the announcement today, CAMS general manager of motor sport events, Michael Smith, said it was unfortunate for the International Rally of Queensland to be cancelled but plans were underway to find another host for the Australian round of the APRC.

"We appreciate the tremendous support from the Sunshine Coast Regional Council, Tourism Events Queensland and the army of volunteers that have worked so hard over the years," Smith said.

The rally was originally scheduled for May 26-28 as the third round of the Australian Rally Championship.