MOTORSPORT: Ricciardo v. Raikkonen for Webber seat

The world’s proposed first fully-electric global racing series, Formula E, continues to gather momentum, with America’s Andretti Autosport confirmed for the first championship next year in 10 major world cities.

And Holden Racing Team has reunited 2011 Bathurst 1000 winners Garth Tander and Nick Percat for the Great Race now less than three months away, while Greg Murphy has been paired with James Courtney.

Ricciardo flies – and spins – at Silverstone
Daniel Ricciardo drove a Red Bull RB9 at Britain’s Silverstone circuit yesterday as it appeared F1’s world champion team had narrowed the choice of Mark Webber’s replacement to Kimi Raikkonen and him.

Ricciardo’s Scuderia Toro Rosso teammate Jean-Eric Vergne will not get the same opportunity, despite scoring more world championship points than the West Australian last season and so far this year.

Ricciardo’s better qualifying record and perhaps data showing that he may have been unlucky not to have registered better race finishes at times may have swayed Red Bull to thinking he is the man to replace Webber if it cannot lure 2007 world champion Raikkonen away from the Lotus-Renault team.

The three days of testing at Silverstone, which concludes tonight (Friday), originally was to have been only for young drivers on the cusp of F1 or who had not driven more than two grands prix, but it was broadened to allow testing of revised Pirelli rubber by regular F1 race drivers after this season’s tyre problems, particularly in the recent British GP at Silverstone.

Ricciardo ended the second day in the odd position of being the quickest of 14 drivers on the track yesterday in his usual Toro Rosso STR8 and third quickest in the Red Bull RB9 – 0.2 seconds slower than in the STR8.

Media made a fuss that he spun the RB9 into a gravel trap on his seventh lap in it, but there was no serious damage to the car and he finished the day content that he had done what he could with it.

Ricciardo admitted to the spin being the result of him “pushing a little too hard … just my mistake really”.

“The gravel is a bit like quicksand – I thought I’d get out but I didn’t,” he said. “I saw that the mechanics weren’t really busy in the garage so I thought I’d give them a job to do and clean the car!

“It was just a small error. I think I drove to my ability and did what I could. It was a bit tricky with Pirelli and the circumstances of the test, as we were not really allowed to adjust the car.

“Ideally you would like to make some mechanical changes and set the car up for the conditions; but it is going to be the same for all the other guys. It was a good opportunity to get behind the wheel and experience two different beasts.”

Ricciardo said he was not feeling under any great pressure to perform as Red Bull chiefs now seriously consider him as the alternative to Raikkonen for the Webber seat.

“It was just fun, just excitement,” he said. “It’s nice to get the opportunity to drive the car and I definitely treated it as something more of excitement than a pressure.

“I think I did what I could. Let's see what happens. It is not my decision. I've still got the season ahead with Toro Rosso. I need to switch back my focus to Toro Rosso.

“The last few races have been better, so we need to keep continuing like that, and I think this test is something for Red Bull to look at. I wouldn't get too caught up in today. It was nice to get a few laps in the Red Bull car as testing is pretty limited.

“If I don't get the chance, further down the track, that was already a nice little bonus.”

Vettel will drive the RB9 on the final day of the Silverstone test tonight and Ricciardo said “hopefully he won't put me to shame”.

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said before the test that “we’re very keen to have a look at Daniel as a prospect for next year” and “it’s a great opportunity for him”.

Britain’s Autosport publication has reported that Red Bull wants Vettel’s 2014 partner to be a driver capable of scoring 200 world championship points a season to maximise its chances of continuing to win constructors’ as well as drivers’ titles.

“It has no doubts that Raikkonen would deliver (200 points) if he came on board,” Autosport’s Jonathan Noble said. “The real issue is whether or not Ricciardo can be relied upon to do the same.

“Red Bull is not a team that can afford to be swayed by personal preference, a hunch, or a beaming Australian smile. It is cold-hard statistics that will count for its verdict.”

Second fastest on the second day of the Silverstone test was young Spaniard Carlos Sainz, son of the world rallying and Dakar marathon rally great of the same name, in the Toro Rosso STR8.

While young drivers close to F1 get to do simulator work for the teams, Sainz said of his debut at an official F1 track test: “Everything about it was amazing, but if I had to pick one aspect it would be the car’s agility and the way it can change direction at 300kmh.

“When I got out of the car at the end I went round to every mechanic and said, ‘Thank you for being part of the happiest day of my life’.”

Vergne will drive the STR8 tonight, while 30-year-old Susie Wolff will drive for Williams.

She is the wife of the Williams part-owner and former executive director Toto Wolff who this year has become the motorsport chief at Mercedes, primarily involved with its F1 team, in place of Norbert Haug.

Pat Symonds, the long-time Benetton and Renault technical chief who was given a five-year ban for his part in arranging for Nelson Piquet Junior to crash at the 2008 Singapore GP to help Renault teammate Fernando Alonso win, has become technical director of the Williams team.

Once-mighty Williams, without a world championship point this season after its shock Spanish GP victory last year with Pastor Maldonado, parted company with Mike Coughlan, who it had hired after his two years on the sidelines for obtaining Ferrari secrets when he was at McLaren.

Symonds, 60, has won multiple world titles working with Michael Schumacher and Fernando Alonso at Benetton and Renault.

The rescue of Swiss team Sauber with Russian money reportedly could involve as much as US$170 million. It also could see 17-year-old Russian driver Sergey Sirotkin in a Sauber cockpit next season, although it is not clear whether that would be as a race driver or, more likely, the nominated test driver.

Sirotkin is a midfielder in Formula Renault 3.5, through which Daniel Ricciardo graduated to F1. However, powerful Red Bull motorsport adviser Dr Helmut Marko has rated the young Russian better than Esteban Gutierrez, the Mexican racing for Sauber this season, but said “he will have to show what he can do under pressure”.

Meanwhile, the German lawyers F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone has retained to fight a bribery charge have begun a vigorous defence of him, casting doubt on the credibility of his accuser, the jailed banker Gerhard Gribkowsky.

F1’s main owner, CVC Capital Partners, has said it will continue to monitor developments and the car companies participating in F1, particularly Mercedes and Ferrari, are believed to be keeping a close eye on the situation.

Ecclestone – who could be jailed for up to 10 years if the case proceeded and it was proven he bribed Gribkowsky to ensure CVC became the majority owner eight years ago – has vowed to “keep working and doing my job”.
    

America’s Andretti Autosport – run by Michael Andretti, son of Mario – this week became the third team to sign up for next year’s debut season, joining Britain’s Drayson Racing – which recently set a world electric land speed record – and China Racing.

Rounds of Formula E are to be held in the centre of 10 cities in 2014 - London, Rome, Los Angeles, Miami, Beijing, Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires, Putrajaya, Bangkok, and Berlin.

The identical cars in the first season will be a Dallara-designed chassis built by French company Spark Racing Technology, with a 300bhp electric motor and transmission from McLaren and lithium batteries supplied by Williams. Renault is a technical partner of the series and the cars will run on Michelin tyres.

Bluebird, the British company associated with land speed records, is another potential team, while the series organiser, Spaniard Alejandro Agag, has said he is “sure teams like Ferrari and Red Bull will be in Formula E one day”.

“We would like to be as big as F1 but our focus is different,” Agag said.

Of Andretti Autosport’s entry Agag said: “It’s fantastic for such a highly established outfit to show its commitment to sustainable motoring, and with two US races on the inaugural calendar I’m sure American motorsport fans will have a lot to cheer come race day. As well as being the first team from the US, this now means we have three teams from three different continents and we’re looking forward to announcing many more over the coming months.”

Had he definitely been available Briscoe probably would have partnered James Courtney, but now veteran Greg Murphy has been paired with Courtney instead of Garth Tander.

Nick Percat, the development series driver who co-drove with Tander in HRT’s 2011 Bathurst 1000 triumph and again last year, has been reunited with Tander after initially being slotted in at HRT customer team Tony D’Alberto Racing.

Briscoe, recovering from surgery on a wrist broken in an IndyCar crash last weekend, may yet partner the most experienced V8 Super driver Russell Ingall in another HRT customer car, the Supercheap Auto entry, if his American open-wheeler and sports car commitments allow.

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