MOTORSPORT: Some relief, perhaps, in Ricciardo's 'torture'

Daniel Ricciardo has tried his utmost to remain polite and diplomatic about Renault's V6 hybrid power units amid this difficult Formula 1 season, but in the lead-up to the weekend's Singapore Grand Prix the word "torture" slipped out.

"The torture has gone on so long," Ricciardo said.

Renault chief Carlos Ghosn this week added to the evidence that the French car company won't be supplying the power to Austrian-owned, British-headquartered Red Bull Racing (RBR) and its Italian-based junior team Scuderia Toro Rosso next year.

Either Renault will buy back the Lotus team and become a fully-fledged constructor again, if it can extract a satisfactory financial incentive from F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone for its historic contribution to the sport, or – far less likely – it will walk away altogether.

RBR is certain now to use Ferrari power units next season, but beyond that the picture is hazy.

RBR team principal Christian Horner muttered again overnight that the energy drink brand that owns the team that won four successive world titles in 2010-2013, with naturally-aspirated V8s, may quit F1 if it can't find a long-term hybrid solution.

As mentioned here a week ago, based on a report by Germany's well-informed Auto Motor und Sport, RBR is investigating the possibility of engine projects with Illmor Engineering, Austria's Anstalt fur Verbrennungskraftmaschinen List (AVL) and the Volkswagen group brand.

Audi has long been thought the most likely candidate within the VW stable for an F1 program, but as it accumulated 13 Le Mans 24-Hour sports car victories – in latter years with hybrids – it always shied away from F1.

And, on the eve of a World Endurance Championship round at the Circuit of the Americas in Texas, the head of Audi's sports car racing program, Chris Reinke, has said that F1 would be a step down for the four-ringed brand.

Reinke felt F1's power unit rules were too restrictive and would not allow the kind of technological advances that Audi has made in Le Mans prototype racing. The WEC's LMP1 regulations allow a range of different powerplants, drivetrains, fuelling options and hybrid technologies.

Reinke could not see the point of building a similar style engine to competitors in F1.

"If you look at our [Audi's] success in LMP1, F1 wouldn't be a step up," Reinke told automotive website Jalopnik.com.

"For me they're so far apart they're not even comparable.

"We want to prove our engineering against other manufacturers here at the WEC."

For now Audi has its hands full regaining its superiority in the WEC, having been beaten by VW stablemate Porsche at Le Mans this year and again in the most recent six-hour race at Germany's Nurburgring, where Australian Mark Webber was in the victorious car.

Ricciardo doesn't care greatly what badge the power unit behind him next year or thereafter has, as long as it makes him competitive again – as he was last year, winning three GPs.

"My preference is whatever is fastest," Ricciardo said in Singapore yesterday.

"You just hope moving forward that whatever happens in 2016 that we don't struggle as much as we did this year.

"Whatever gives us a better chance to win ... I don't really care what it is at this stage.

"The torture has gone on so long.

"We have had a pretty long year ... not only me as a driver, but us as a team.

"We just want something that will see us on the podium more often.

"Give us what we deserve as a group."

After a best finish of third this season, although his last-to-eighth drive at the Italian GP two weeks ago earned him a 10 out of 10 rating from Autosport.com, Ricciardo is hopeful about Singapore this weekend.

Outright power won't be the factor it was at Belgium's Spa and Italy's Monza, although for the drivers the night race on Singapore's street circuit is the most physically challenging of the year because of the heat – up to 60 degrees Celsius in the cockpits – and the 23 corners per lap.

But Ricciardo loves the island city-state and had already had said its tight and twisty track would "bring our car to life." He has now emphasised his affection for street courses.  

"They're fun ... you're bouncing off the kerbs, kissing the walls ... it's cool," Ricciardo said.

He still doubts that RBR's RB11s that he and Russian Daniil Kyvat drive can beat the mighty Mercedes factory cars of Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg, but he thinks they can challenge the Ferraris of Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen.

However, Vettel has already won in the heat of Malaysia and Hungary this season and the Ferrari appears to be kinder on its tyres than the Mercs on the high-degradation hot tracks.

The race generally runs close to the maximum two hours and the safety car has intervened in all seven previous years – and 10 times in total.

Another concern in Singapore this time is the air quality, because of smoke from forest fires in neighboring Indonesia. Singapore's pollutant standards index has been classifying the air as "unhealthy" or "very unhealthy" all week.

Tyre supplier Pirelli and the governing Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) will decide this weekend on the appropriate time to measure tyre pressues on the cars after the controversy at Monza, where the left rears on the Mercs of Hamilton and Rosberg were found to be 0.3 and 1.1 pounds per square inch (psi) below what they should have been five minutes before the start.

Mercedes argued that all its tyre pressures were legal when the cars left the garages.

Hamilton, with seven wins this season and a 53-point lead over Rosberg, is chasing a 41st victory that would bring him equal with idol, the late Brazilian Ayrton Senna, and Vettel.

Coincidentally, it is Hamilton's 161st GP – the same number in which Senna scored his 41 wins.

F1 debut for Rossi ... but not the famous one
Formula 1 will have a Rossi on the grid this weekend – but not Valentinto Rossi.

Although the Italian MotoGP superstar tested for Ferrari several years ago, this Rossi is an American.

He's a 23-year-old Californian who has won races in GP2 and is second in that series this year to runaway Belgian leader Stoffel Vandoorne, the McLaren test driver.

Alexander Rossi will be the first American to race in F1 since Scott Speed at the 2007 European GP at Nurburgring with Toro Rosso.

Already overlooked by the new Haas team that is to represent the US in F1 next year, Rossi is to drive five of the remaining seven GPs with Manor Marussia, the team saved from collapse last off-season but which has failed to score a world championship point.

He replaces Spaniard Roberto Merhi, and, while the announcement of the changeover and the reports in it don't mention it, it will be about money. That is, it will concern funding that Rossi can bring the team, particularly for races that are more time-friendly to the American market than Europe.

Merhi will return to the seat for the Russian and Abu Dhabi GPs.

Despite the proliferation of Chevrolets, Joe Gibbs Toyotas driven by Kyle Busch and Matt Kenseth have won seven of the past nine races in the series, with Logano the only other winner in that time.

The five drivers who have made the Chase without winning a race this season – Jamie McMurray, Jeff Gordon, Ryan Newman and Paul Menard in Chevs, and Clint Bowyer in a Toyota – all start the elimination series over the 10 races concluding at Homestead-Miami Speedway in Florida with 2000 points.

The other 11 drivers also were equalised at 2000 points too, but then awarded three bonus points for each win they have had this season.

Jimmie Johnson, a six-time Cup champion in Chevrolets for Hendrick Motorsports, starts on 2012 as do Kyle Busch and Kenseth after four wins each.

Logano is on 2009 from his three wins, while defending champion Kevin Harvick and fellow Chevrolet drivers Dale Earnhardt Junior and Kurt Busch are on 2006 after two wins each, as is Carl Edwards in a Toyota.

Keselowski, Penske's 2012 champion, and Martin Truex Junior (Chevrolet) and Denny Hamlin (Toyota) have 2003 points after one win each this year.

The previous highest number of entries this year was 137 at Queensland Raceway.

There are 35 races for the eight categories competing at Phillip Island.