MOTORSPORT: Schumacher rules out Gold Coast

Seven-time world champion Schumacher will retire from Formula One for good at the end of this season after a three-year comeback with Mercedes in which he has not added to the record 91 grand prix victories he notched before his first retirement in 2006. Last weekend there was an attempt to drum up stories that the entry of customer AMG Mercedes-Benz E63s in the V8 Supercar Championship next year could be a clue to Schumacher becoming one of the international co-drivers at the Gold Coast in what will be the last event there under the existing contract with the Queensland government.

A V8 Supercar official was quoted saying: “The chances of him competing at Surfers’ Paradise have only got better with AMG [Mercedes-Benz’s performance car division] on the grid next year. It will depend on whether he’s available and how much he wants.”

As pointed out earlier today the fee Schumacher could command would be much higher than that paid to any of the 28 visiting drivers at the Gold Coast this weekend. But, in any case, Schumacher has made it known that he’s not interested in competing in any form of car racing after F1.
He has told Italy’s Gazzetta dello Sport newspaper: "F1 offers the maximum as far as emotions, speed and work completeness are concerned.

"Another type of car wouldn't give me the same feelings. I'm stopping completely.”

Jokingly he added: "I think I'll do Western riding competitions. My wife Corinna, who has done this sort of competition for years, has already chosen the right horse for me."

Reflecting on his two careers in F1 Schumacher, the most winning and arguably the most ruthless driver in the sport’s history, said he had come to terms with losing since his comeback.

"Yes, I've learned how to lose,” he said. “I've had two distinct careers - one where I won everything, and a second one where I discovered what losing means. This has made me more mature and more patient too, partly thanks to my age. Today I have to consider what I have done overall and I'm satisfied with myself. I have no regrets, just joy for what I've done.

“From now on life will offer me plenty of new possibilities. I'm looking forward to them. If I look into my life's rear-view mirror, I find myself happy and smiling.”

Schumi was asked how he wanted to be remembered.

"Everyone describes me a racing legend. I prefer to be described as a fighter, someone who never backed down," he said.

Only half as much V8 Supercar racing in Abu Dhabi
After this weekend’s Gold Coast 600 the V8 Supercars will be flown 24,000km in the next couple of weeks for less than 200km of racing.

The format for the Abu Dhabi round of the V8 Supercar Championship has been revealed and it comprises three 12-lap races of the 5.554km Yas Marina circuit in the capital of the United Arab Emirates. The V8 Supercars are running as the support show to the F1 GP there this year after organisers decided after the previous two years that they did not stack up as a stand-alone event.

The three races on the first weekend of November – two on the Saturday and the other on the Sunday – amount to a halving of previous V8 Supercar rounds in Abu Dhabi which featured two 200km races. After the 12,000km flight to the Middle East there will be two short practice sessions on the Friday and then a 20-minute qualifying session from which the three fastest times of each driver will determine the grids for each of the three races.

Dunlop’s hard-compound tyres will be used for the first Saturday race and its soft-compound rubber for the other two.
A dozen tyres of each compound will be allocated to each car.

Running three races instead of two means this year’s championship will now have 30 races. After the 12,000km return flight from the Abu Dhabi the remaining rounds are at Victoria’s Winton in mid-November and the Sydney 500 at Homebush streets on the first weekend of September.

Ferrari has retained Brazilian Felipe Massa for another year after his recently-improved form. The short extension has been seen in some circles as another clue that Ferrari is preparing to bring Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel in as Fernando Alonso’s teammate in 2014, which will be the first season of new rules that introduce 1.6-litre turbocharged engines.

In the world rally championship, Finn Jari-Matti Latvala will depart Ford for Volkswagen next season after this week’s news of the Blue Oval withdrawing its financial support of its flagship team, Brit Malcolm Wilson’s M-Sport. After five years and seven wins in that squad Latvala will become teammate to Frenchman Sebastien Ogier in VW’s debut season with its Polo.

Ford-M-Sport’s other driver, Norwegian former world champion Petter Solberg has been chased by dominant rally manufacturer Citroen following nine-time world champion Sebastien Loeb’s decision to compete in only selected events next year. However, Solberg may remain with M-Sport, saying it “can win rallies and the championship next year” as a privateer with Ford’s Fiesta RS. If Solberg stays put Spaniard Dani Sordo is in line to join Citroen as Finn Mikko Hirvonen’s teammate.

The Citroen DS3s of Loeb and Hirvonen led the penultimate round of this year’s WRC, Rally d’Italia, after yesterday’s first two stages, with Australian Chris Atkinson eighth in the MINI he is driving for the BMW works-backed Portuguese-owned, Italian-run team.

Like Ford, BMW has withdrawn its works MINI support next season but Prodrive will continue to prepare customer versions.

After trailing by 40 points early in the season BMW’s Canadian star driver Bruno Spengler is just three points behind Mercedes-Benz’s British ace Gary Paffet ahead of this weekend’s last round at Hockenheim. Spengler is racing for the Schnitzer team.

Australian Chris Dyer has been named BMW’s new chief engineer for its DTM project. Dyer worked closely with Michael Schumacher at Ferrari in the first half of last decade, eventually becoming the Italian team’s head of race track engineering until Brit Pat Fry was brought in last year. Now 43, Dyer’s career began in Australian touring car racing with Holden Racing Team in the mid-1990s.

This weekend’s Hockenheim round will mark the retirement from the DTM of 11-time GP winner and Mercedes' favoured son David Coulthard. Mercedes motorsport chief Norbert Haug said Coulthard would be particularly fondly remembered for scoring the company’s first F1 win of its modern era in the 1997 Australian GP in Melbourne. Not so fondly remembered, especially by Coulthard, was the next year’s Melbourne race when he slowed in the closing stages to let McLaren-Mercedes teammate Mika Hakkinen win ahead of him under team orders.

Marcos Ambrose’s NASCAR slide
An interesting perspective from America on Australian Marcos Ambrose’s disappointing results recently in NASCAR.

The dual V8 Supercar champion has not finished higher than 15th in the past seven races. The article points out that he will need two top-five finishes and four top 10s in the remaining five Sprint Cup rounds this season to match his performance last season.

What it fails to mention is the crew swap at Richard Petty Motorsports which has coincided with the downturn in Ambrose’s results. This weekend’s Sprint Cup round is at Kansas Speedway.

Cosworth for sale – Rolls-Royce a buyer?
The Cosworth engine company is for sale after the failure of an 18-month attempt to float it on the British stock market. Cosworth was founded in 1958 and for more than a decade from the late 1960s provided the dominant engine in F1 for Ford.

The Times newspaper in London has reported that Rolls-Royce or aerospace company GKN are potential buyers of the company. Cosworth is supplying engines to F1 tail-end teams HRT and Marussia this year and has indicated it is willing to remain a supplier under the turbocharged formula from 2014.

Hydereabad International Airport sought Mallya’s arrest after $2 million of cheques from his troubled Kingfisher airline bounced. It has now been reported that the matter has been settled, but Mallya still has big problems. Kingfisher’s planes have been grounded all month and many of its employees have not been paid for seven months.

Once India’s second-largest airline, Kingfisher has debts of $2 billion and faces having its licence cancelled.

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