MOTORSPORT: The year getting into gear

Formula One testing starts in Europe tonight -- at Valencia in Spain. The sport's two biggest teams, traditionally, Ferrari and McLaren, have launched their cars, as have Renault (which has named 25-year-old Russian Vitaly Petrov as Robert Kubica's teammate) and Sauber, while three more -- Mercedes (nee BrawnGP and Honda), Williams and Scuderia Toro Rosso -- will unveil their new models tonight. However, Red Bull Racing's RB6 car for Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel -- replacing the RB5 that won the last three grands prix last year -- is still 10 days away.

While the Ferrari F10 for Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa is evolutionary, and there is already talk of a B-spec car early in the season starting in Bahrain in mid-March, the McLaren MP4-25 for Lewis Hamilton and reigning world champion Jenson Button is quite radical, with a higher, much flatter nose and shrunken sidepods.

This year's cars are longer to cater for much bigger fuel cells because of the banning of refuelling in races.

The authorative racefax.com has said of the MP4-25 that "from chin to tail" it and last year's McLaren "have virtually nothing in common".

"Everything but the front and rear wings and the mirrors appears substantially smaller," Racefax's Forrest Bond has reported.

He has described the McLaren's airbox, which has been extended from the engine air inlet to the rear wing, all but replacing the conventional dorsal fin, as "other-worldy".

To us it is a variation of some recent Renault aerodynamic themes.

Bond reports that McLaren believes it has found a way to significantly increase the downforce available from double diffusers pioneered last year by Brawn and the now-defunct Toyota and that engine partner Mercedes has found a way for its powerplants to operate at higher temperatures.

Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo rambled again the other day, about MotoGP icon Valentino Rossi perhaps driving for Ferrari in 2011.

But Rossi's move would require two things -- F1 teams, or at least the top ones, being allowed to run three cars in GPs (unlikely), and the Italian world champion quitting motorcycle racing (equally, even more unlikely).

Indeed, after F1 outlawing "customer" cars [David Richards' Prodrive prevented from running another team of Mercedes-McLarens and Toro Rosso having to run chassis instead of one of Adrian Newey's Red Bulls this year], we wondered whether Montezemolo was hallucinating when he said:

"The third car could also be helpful for young drivers, to let them grow. It's not right that a boy, who has never driven in F1, starts into a race without training and tests.

"Here's the idea: I would happily give a Ferrari to an American, German or Australian team and let the car be managed by them. They would definitely spend less than if they had to build a car on their own from scratch. They could hand it over to a talented and strong driver or try it with a young driver with a certain potential."

An Australian team being lent a Ferrari to field a young driver in F1? Sounds terrific, doesn't it?

It's something that may have happened in the 1950s or '60s. Imagine if a Frank Matich or even Alan Jones, who conquered the world later with a British team, had had the opportunity to start in F1 last century in a Ferrari supplied by the factory and run by fellow Australians!

But not in the 21st century -- and surely not after the damage to the Ferrari brand done through its association with A1 GP as an engine supplier.
 

It doesn't seem to have dawned on anyone in Queensland public life yet that this is very odd, as this is the same Teixeira whose A1 show didn't show at the Gold Coast last October. And the same Teixeira who, as far as we know, hasn't returned Queensland's deposit of almost $2 million on that A1 "show", let alone made the $50,000 donation to charity he pledged.

None of the three rounds scheduled to have been held by now in A1's fifth season (Australia on October 25, China on November 15 and Malaysia on December 6) have eventuated, and none of the remaining six on the calendar are likely to be run.

A1 GP's British operating company has been in liquidation more than six months and administrators are trying to dispose of the fleet of Ferrari-engined Dallara cars.

Yet Teixeira is espousing that his interest in Campos Meta is all about A1.

"It has got to be part of an A1 deal," he says. "It's all for A1. My ambition is to bring A1 into F1."

There has been talk of Ireland's reigning A1 champion Adam Carroll getting the second drive at Campos, as teammate to Ayrton Senna's nephew, Bruno. But the team is unlikely to do any pre-season testing -- an ominous sign -- although Teixeira, with no involvement in the outfit, talks of it doing one or both of the last two scheduled F1 pre-season tests.

Teixeira's problems now extend well beyond motor racing -- his Canadian-based company Energem Resources Inc was delisted from the London Stock Exchange's AIM market 10 days ago. Last year it was delisted in Toronto.

Energem describes itself as "a renewable and alternative energy resources company engaged in a number of African countries in long-term projects in, mainly, the energy sectors".

Teixeira, described by the company as "a self-made entrepreneur who has been involved in trading, logistics, transport and diamond exploration activities throughout Africa for over 25 years" was Energem's chief executive from 2001 until mid-2006 and has remained its executive deputy chairman.

Energem says it is owed US$63.5 million by "certain related party debtors" -- US$54 million in principal and US$9.5 million in interest. Wonder if the related party debtors may be or include the A1 organisation?

Energem has been unable to produce audited financial results for 2008 or even unaudited interim results for the first half of last year. Yet it's saying it wants to be relisted -- either in London or Toronto again "or such other market" that will give it access to "equity raising capabilities, an enhanced public profile and a reasonable level of liquidity".

This is a company whose former CEO and still executive deputy chairman, Teixeira, said in belatedly announcing a nine-round calendar last September 21 for A1 GP: "It is easy to put out a calendar too soon and then have to make changes. I wanted to make sure we avoided that and so give our broadcasters, teams and fans something realistic. I also wanted to make sure the racing was good and varied. I am confident this calendar, that may still include at least one more event, will achieve our criteria for the series."

Something realistic? Whether it be commerce or motor racing, we wouldn't be trusting a word Tony Teixeira utters.

A1 GP spokesperson Ann Bradshaw said in Britain: "We haven't raced (this season) and we're not in a position to race in the near future, but this won't be the death of the series. Organisers are already working towards the future."
Won't be the death of the series..? It's dead.
And future? For A1 GP, what future?

First he was squeezed out of IMS (despite having reunited IndyCar and Champ Car after squandering as much as US$500 million) and now he's had to shut the doors on his Vision Racing team in the Indy Racing League due to lack of sponsorship.

There's an implication for Australia in all this... James Davison, cousin of V8 Supercar drivers Will and Alex Davison, has been racing for Vision in Indy Lights and has been trying to get an Indianapolis 500 entry with it this year. Vision may yet front, one-off, at Indianapolis in May, but the chances of Davison getting a start - and joining fellow Aussies Ryan Briscoe and Will Power of Team Penske in the field - have become a whole lot harder.

And merchandise company Motorsport Authentics -- jointly owned by NASCAR 'royal family' the France's International Speedway Corp and Bruton Smith of Charlotte's Speedway Motorsports Inc -- lost US$15.5 million on its operations last year and has written off US$136.1 million. And this less than five years after spending US$270 million on the acquisition of two other companies.

Motorsport Authentics is now paying only royalties on sales completed rather than the higher minimum royalties for which it is still legally liable, but trying to get changed.

Targa Tasmania legends Jim Richards and Barry Oliver were fifth in a Porsche 911 GT2 C2, almost three minutes behind the Whites.

Geoff and Leon Duggan won the classic section in a 1969 Datsun 2000 Sports and Tony Warren and Natasha Deniese the showroom category in a 2006 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX. And Chris Long and Anne Gigney completed the Tasmanian quadrella, winning the early modern category in Porsche 993 Turbo.

In the US overnight, a Porsche-Riley run by the new Action Express Racing scored a surprise victory in the 48th Daytona 24-hour sportscar race, beating a more fancied BMW-Riley run by Chip Ganassi's renowned outfit. It was Porsche's 22nd win in the Florida classic and its first back-to-back win there since the late 1980s.

The 755 laps completed by the car's four rather anonymous drivers - Joao Barbosa, Terry Borcheller, Ryan Dalziel and Mike Rockenfeller - was the third most in the race's history and the 50-second winning margin the third closest.

There has been a feast of contemporary and historic racing in New Zealand in recent weeks, with more to come this month, while in Australia the Bathurst 12-hour is now less than two weeks away, with 47 cars entered.

That weekend will coincide with celebrations nearby at Orange to mark the 50th anniversary of the start of the Australian Touring Car Championship at its Gnoo Blas circuit. And the same weekend the NASCAR season will get underway in the US with the Daytona 500.

Holden's motorsport manager Simon McNamara has followed up his recent brash comments in V8X magazine, where he said "Ford dropped the ball and I honestly can't see them winning anything in 2010", by declaring in last week's Auto Action that "I want to fill the entire podium with Commodores" this year.

"I like domination, so I've tried to make sure that's how it might be for us," McNamara said of now having Team Vodafone/Triple Eight Race Engineering in the Holden camp, as well as reigning title team Toll Holden Racing Team.

McNamara said Ford's factory teams FPR and Stone Brothers "haven't performed" and that the Blue Oval should "put some money into DJR [Dick Johnson Racing]" because "they're the team that's going to get him [Ford Australia president, Marin Burela] some results".

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