MOTORSPORT: The incomparable Dakar looms

We'll return to the F1 line-ups in a moment, but firstly the event that creeps up on us at this time every year -- the Dakar Rally.

For more than three decades this incredible event was held in Europe and Africa, but this year -- because of terrorism fears in Africa -- it was run for the first time in South America, although it retained the Dakar name. And it was just as big in Argentina and Chile... Indeed, the move may have given the event fresh energy alone with VW's first victory in the Dakar by a diesel vehicle (Touareg TDI race cars finished one-two).

Now it's all on again, as soon as January arrives.

This will be the 32nd Dakar, with 138 cars, 185 motorcycles and quads, and 55 trucks scheduled to front the starter. They'll face 14 stages and 9000km over more than two weeks of competition.

It's an event that has genuine purpose and meaning for the motor industry and attracts serious global attention.

Bruce Garland is Australia's representative on four wheels, chasing a top 10 finish in his Isuzu ute after 11th place this year (pictured), while in the motorcycle section Port Stephens-based Christophe Barriere-Varju has gained some support from Hyundai.

While Mitsubishi has ended the factory participation that saw it dominate the Dakar for so long, we noted this week Volkswagen motorsport director Kris Nissen's perspectives on the event as VW heads back to South America with five factory Touaregs.

"The Dakar represents an excellent platform for an internationally active manufacturer like Volkswagen to demonstrate technical expertise, and this in the toughest motorsport discipline overall,” Nissen said.

"Compared with other leading categories, the Dakar offers a broad platform since these events are followed by billions of people around the world. [GH: "billions” is an exaggeration]. The media interest is unique. Television reports are broadcast in 189 countries.

"To be successful in cross-country rallying a great deal of know-how and experience are required from the technical side. Among other things you have to deal with extremely different conditions and correspondingly different terrain. Just the subjects of reliability and the mileage of individual components requires years of experience.

"It is not possible to compare this category with others in motorsport. You have to prepare for a new route every day that has never been driven before.

"The sporting challenge (for VW) is enormous against the X-raid BMW and (American) Robby Gordon's Hummer, which were already our toughest opponents in 2009."

"The entire world talks now about vehicles with lower emissions and alternative fuels," Nissen said.

"The TDI engines are highly efficient, which they also proved in the Dakar. [But] Natural gas is an innovative, market-ready fuel and Volkswagen already leads in this segment with a 40 per cent market share of assembly line production.

"With the Scirocco Cup in 2010 we will demonstrate without compromise that sporting dynamic and environmental awareness are compatible with each other.

"Up to 260hp despite reducing the CO2 emissions by over 80 per cent are impressive values."

[Ed: in the past VW has raced CNG-fuelled Sciroccos at the Nurburging 24-hour]

Daimler took control of the team apparently thinking it had a three-year sponsorship worth 90 million euros from German consumer goods conglomerate, Henkel. Now that may not be the case.

According to London's Financial Times, Brawn signed the sponsorship contract with Dutch company ERE BV, owned by Willy Luchs -- a German who was convicted of fraud in the 1990s. Henkel said the deal had been done with the help of Kai von Bargen, a former middle manager with it who had been responsible for sponsorship activities. The company has now claimed that von Bargen's authorisation for the deal was a forgery, that he has been sacked and that he and Luchs are being pursued by German prosecutors.

The bottom line is that Mercedes will have to provide that extra funding, in the face of opposition in its boardroom and from unions concerned at what they see as the extravagance of F1 when workers are being retrenched.

Nonetheless, the speculation continues about seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher making a comeback with the Mercedes team next year.

F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone says he will be surprised if it doesn't happen -- and that he will be "absolutely over the moon" about it.

Schumacher (supposedly given a medical all-clear on the neck injury from a motorcycle accident that prevented him from substituting for Ferrari's injured Felipe Massa from the middle of this year) is already ranked 8-1 for another world title by the Coral betting agency. He's behind McLaren's Lewis Hamilton at 5-2, Ferrari recruit Fernando Alonso at 3-1, and Jenson Button (now at McLaren), the returning Massa, and Red Bull Racing's Sebastian Vettel all at 6-1.

Australia's Mark Webber is at 12-1 in the second Red Bull car.

Eddie Irvine, who was Schumacher's Ferrari teammate (1996-99), reckons the great German has been "very, very bored" since retiring at the end of 2006 and needs F1 like a drug.

"Michael has been karting since he was four or five, so he knows nothing else [than racing]. He's not at the peak of his game, but he's still good enough to win races as he has such an immense talent. It's still four wheels, a steering wheel and an engine -- and there's never been anyone better than Michael," Irvine said.

Genii is headed by Spanish businessman Gerard Lopez, an early investor in Skype.

The team will still be called Renault and its president, Bernard Rey, says the manufacturer's decision to stay in the sport was conditional on F1 improving its "green credentials".

The management of the team will be announced soon, perhaps around the time of former principal Flavio Briatore's appeal against his life ban in early January.

Renault will continue to supply engines to Red Bull Racing, but the position of Polish recruit Robert Kubica in the factory team is now clouded.

Japan's Kamui Kobayashi, something of a sensation when substituting for Glock in the now-defunct Toyota team at the end of last season, has scored a drive at Sauber, now back under the control of Swiss businessman, Peter Sauber.

British tycoon Richard Branson has taken his Virgin brand from Brawn to Manor, which boasts that it is F1's only 100 per cent British-owned team. The crafty Branson said: "We haven't put in a lot of money -- we've put our brand in."

That is meant to attract other backers, and -- although Manor/Virgin will have the smallest budget in the F1 paddock -- 10 backers are already lined up. These include the private equity arm of the Lloyds Bank that had to be bailed out by the British government during the global financial crisis, which has invested US$16.2 million.

But what is most interesting about the Manor/Virgin project is that technical director Nick Wirth, who designed the Simtek F1 car David Brabham raced in 1994, is creating a car without using a wind tunnel.

Instead, the design is being done totally digitally - with computational fluid dynamics.

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