MOTORSPORT: Things unspoken ... until now

And there's another matter we've come across that readers won't have heard about via other Australian media outlets -- F1 tsar Bernie Ecclestone supposedly prepared, even wanting, to cut GP race fees. What might that mean for the losses on the Australian GP if it ever happened? Mind you, we doubt it will.

And we've come across a claim about how F1 TV ratings have ballooned with the introduction of twilight races at the start of this season. A claim made without the slightest skerrick of evidence provided, we must point out. More of all that later.

Meanwhile, victory for a Nissan GT-R driven by Queenslander Tony Quinn in Targa Tasmania (the report is here); Australia's rising international star Daniel Ricciardo notches his third win in four starts in the British Formula 3 Championship; Ireland wins the A1 GP "World Cup of Motorsport" but Australia's John Martin sets the fastest lap in the final race; and Kyle Busch becomes the most successful driver under 25 in NASCAR history as Aussie Marcos Ambrose finishes the latest race just outside the top 10.

Now back to where we began ...

The third round of the V8 Supercar Championship has been run and won -- both races by Triple 8/Team Vodafone's Craig Lowndes -- and the introduction of a set of super-soft compound tyres spiced things up and seems to have been generally well accepted. But the race meeting ended in controversy over the front splitters on the Triple 8 cars -- and not just those of Lowndes and championship leader Jamie Whincup, but all those built by Roland Dane's outfit.

While those front splitters were cleared by officialdom Sunday night you can bet that won't be the end of the matter. Indeed, we understand there is a V8 Supercar Australia board meeting today at which we expect there will be lots of discussion about the topic, irrespective of whether it's on the official agenda.

We won't attempt to dwell on the intricacies of the issue here right now, especially as we anticipate this might be something that bubbles on for a while, and indeed there has not been any formal protest by rivals, but a few points:

Dane says the Triple 8-built cars only had on them at Winton something they'd been running for four years, and that when they reverted to the same as other teams on Sunday morning a Team Vodafone car still got pole position.

This topic is sure to focus the spotlight on the position of V8SA technical chief Campbell Little, who was with Triple 8 before taking up his latest role. We note mention of a possible advantage in the discussion. Surely the question is not whether someone has an advantage but whether a car, or cars, are legal.

Now we expect this matter to take a while to play out fully, but what if -- just if -- there is found to be some illegality here. We're not suggesting there is, or has been, but in the event that there is found to be some illegality, how can it be addressed?

A lot of races have been won with Falcons in the shape that is now being questioned. How could the results of those races, particularly Bathurst and championship deciders, be reconsidered after all this time. And the cars have been passing scrutineering for, literally, years.

We hope the air can be cleared quickly and conclusively, but this matter has brought back to mind something from the mid-1990s when it was discovered that Ford Falcons had been run illegally for quite some time. We're a bit rusty on all that, but we're not sure that matter was properly resolved -- although months and even years after the event it is inevitably hard to do that.

It came to our attention that when three team representatives went to see V8 Supercar chief executive Cameron Levick at Winton about the splitter issue, there was music playing -- indeed, as we heard it, even blaring -- and that one of the team reps, in asking for it to be turned down or off, had to make the point to Levick that "This is serious ... this is not meant to be a disco."

A good few months into his job Levick may be coming to comprehend just what a hot seat he's in -- and that there are times he'll be called to face the music.

Now to the matter of the participating manufacturers and the weekend telecast ...

A reliable contact rang us late Saturday afternoon staggered at how muted mention of Ford and Holden had been during Saturday's race. Indeed, this contact counted only one mention of Ford during that 33-lap race -- and none of Holden. However, apparently the Nissan safety car got a mention when it was called into action.

Our contact reported after Sunday's 66-lap race that he did not hear the names Ford or Holden mentioned at all during Sunday's race -- although this impertinent chap did confess to a very brief powernap a couple of laps before the checkered flag

"However up till a few laps from race end the words Ford and Holden were not mentioned," he assured us.

"Although (Seven host) Matt White at one stage did say the word Commodore. When using the word Commodore I assume he was referring to the motor manufacturer that spends millions of dollars on V8 Supercar teams and not the captain of the Royal Benalla Cruising Yacht Club."

And our impertinent informant raised what we thought to be a very pertinent question: "How does V8 Supercars management expect to attract more manufacturers if the existing players are not mentioned in dispatches?"

While we can understand the umbrage Triple 8 has taken at being dropped from the short list of Ford's financial beneficiaries in V8 Supercar racing after -- and still -- delivering almost all its success in recent years, we find the contempt with which the V8 Supercar community generally regards/treats the participating manufacturers to be something else -- and something quite unfathomable. From deep within one of the manufacturer camps we've been reminded today that, when all the veneer is wiped away, the manufacturers, separately and combined, remain, if not the biggest, then certainly among the biggest, financial contributors to the sport. And on that basis they ought to be treated a whole lot better. What's that saying about biting the hand that feeds?

V8 Supercar Championship top 10 after 6 races -- Jamie Whincup (Ford) 804 points, Will Davison (Holden) 690, Steven Johnson (F) 573, Lee Holdsworth (H) 534, Rick Kelly (H) 531, Garth Tander (H) 504, Craig Lowndes (F) 501, Shane Van Gisbergen (F) 453,  Jason Richards (H) 417, Fabian Coulthard (F) 414.

But we reckon we've heard, or at least read, a couple of gold medal performances over recent days. From none other than F1 boss/ringmaster/impresario/call him what you will, Bernie Ecclestone. The first was a suggestion that he would cut, or consider cutting, fees charged to GP venues for hosting F1 races if the F1 teams would just sign a Concord Agreement, the last version of which apparently expired at the end of 2007. Now those race fees being trimmed is something else we just can't fathom/believe. The mention we saw was in a story in London's Financial Times, see here

Note that the average GP race fee mentioned in this report is US$23.7 million. What's that in our terms? About A$35 million? With losses on March's Oz GP reported to be going in the A$50-60 million range, a discount or rebate would come in mighty handy. Just hope that average fee figure, from the Formula Money report, is a lot closer to reality than the supposed 600 million television viewers mentioned in the following paragraph. Unless that 600 million figure is for a whole season!

And on the subject of TV figures, a favourite of ours we admit, the same authors -- Christian Sylt and Caroline Reid -- report in London's The Independent that Ecclestone reckons the later start times for GPs in Asia and Australia this year have boosted television audiences threefold. Now that is at odds with our simple research of a few weeks back and reported here.

We suspect that the picture/outcome, certainly for the Oz GP, has been better in continental Europe than we found in Britain. But Sylt and Reid quote Ecclestone saying: "All our TV up to now (this year) has been up 300%."

And: "We have been getting more than 50 per cent of the market share."

Yet, dear reader, and we know you may find this difficult to believe, there is not the slightest evidence provided with these claims -- either by Bernie or the authors. That report from The Independent is here.

We'll be happy to be wrong on all this -- if we get to see genuine -- very, very genuine -- evidence. We won't hold our breath waiting for it.

That comment was in an article entitled "Formula 1 -- Without Tiers" on planet-f1.com and it's here.

Other interesting F1 reading material of the minute we recommend is:

Ferrari criticising F1's new optional budget cap as "fundamentally unfair and perhaps even biased" and as being liable to create a two-tier, split-level championship of haves and have-nots, here,

FIA president Max Mosley's response to that criticism, even suggesting F1 could survive without Ferrari, here,

A Mercedes-Benz engineer saying F1's Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems (KERS) are not relevant to road cars, here,

And an update, from The Times, on the saga of the British GP's home, more here.

In the earlier race at Silverstone Ricciardo had started 11th after a crash in qualifying, but charged through the field to finish fifth. Ricciardo drives a Volkswagen-powered Dallara car for the Carlin team, which last year had the top three drivers in the championship -- and for which James Courtney raced several years ago.

Eight rounds -- or 16 races -- remain in the championship, through which many drivers have advanced to Formula 1.

The season's top 10 teams were: Ireland 112 points, Switzerland 95, Portugal 92, Holland 75, France 47, Malaysia 43, New Zealand 36, Australia 35, Monaco 35, Great Britain 28.

Aussie Marcos Ambrose was 11th at Richmond, despite his Toyota being spun into the wall by Penske driver Sam Hornish Junior's Dodge and suffering significant damage.

Sprint Cup standings after 10 of 36 rounds -- Jeff Gordon (Chevrolet) 1441 points, Kurt Busch (Dodge) 1431, Tony Stewart (Toyota) 1402, Denny Hamlin (Toyota) 1321, Kyle Busch (Toyota) 1314, Jimmie Johnson (Chevrolet) 1290, Jeff Burton (Chevrolet) 1257, Clint Bowyer (Chevrolet) 1212, Carl Edwards (Ford) 1204, Ryan Newman (Chevrolet) 1198. Australia's Marcos Ambrose (Toyota) is 19th on 1067.

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