Motorsport: Webber hopeful rule change won't nobble Red Bull

The V8 Supercar Championship resumes this week too, at Townsville, the IndyCars go to Toronto in Canada, and Australia’s Will Power has been cleared to race after suffering concussion a week ago, while NASCAR’s Sprint Cup now rolls on to Kentucky Speedway.

Daniel Ricciardo, the 22-year-old from Perth who is to join Webber in the F1 racing ranks at the British GP, crashed on the formation lap for the first of what were to be his two races at the weekend in the World Series by Renault at Budapest’s Hungaroring. In Sunday’s race he finished only 12th -- an improvement of one place on his qualifying position.

French driver Jean-Eric Vergne, who like Ricciardo is a member of Red Bull’s elite junior development squad, won both races in Budapest and leads Canadian Robert Wickens by four points as that series now begins its mid-season break.

Ricciardo, who missed the opening two races in Spain because he was at the Chinese GP in Shanghai, is sixth in the Renault series, with his attention now firmly on his F1 debut at Silverstone.

In the USA Marcos Ambrose was a pacesetter in early practice for NASCAR’s second Sprint Cup race of the season at Daytona, but qualified 15th and was 17th at the chequered flag.

“We played the waiting game, but it all came undone at the end,” said Ambrose, who got caught in a pile-up towards the end.

The Aussie made the final restart but had to crawl through wrecked cars to finish after another pile-up.

“These restrictor plate races are a lottery, and our number didn’t come up tonight,” Ambrose said.

Fellow Ford driver David Ragan won the race. It was a positice return for Ragan after penalty for dipping below the yellow line at the bottom of the famous tri-oval in the final two laps cost him victory in February’s Daytona 500.

Chevrolet driver Kevin Harvick has taken a five-point lead over Ford man Carl Edwards after 17 of 36 races, with Ambrose 21st in the series.

The best international news of the weekend on Australians was David Brabham scoring his second GT1 World Championship podium of the year, finishing third at the Circuito de Navarra in northern Spain.

Driving a Nissan GTR, Brabham and teammate Jamie Campbell-Walter finished the qualifying race fourth and then were third in the championship race behind the Lamborghinis of Nicky Pastorelli-Dominik Schwager and Markus Winkelhock-Marc Basseng
Brabham and Campbell-Walters are eighth in the series with four rounds remaining.

And blown diffusers will be banned completely from next year.

Just what are these things? London’s The Independent had an explanation at the weekend.

Firstly the blown diffuser.

“Clever designers started to divert exhaust gases last year so that the hot, high-speed gas flows over the aero-dynamic diffuser at the back of the car,” The Independent’s David Tremayne wrote.

“As the airflow is speeded up by this process, all-important downforce is increased, which in turn increases grip and therefore the speed of the car through corners.”

And so what is an off-throttle blown diffuser?

“Designers use special engine maps to maintain the flow of exhaust gases over the diffuser and ensure that the amount of downforce remains consistent even when the driver takes his foot off the throttle in slow corners,” Tremayne said.

“This design is known as a ‘cold blowing’ system. The more ingenious use the ‘hot blowing’ system, which flows fuel through the engine even when the driver lifts off.

“This ignites when it reaches the hot exhaust, thus helping to keep hot and fast airflow over the diffuser and maintain downforce.

“This technique increases fuel consumption by around 15 per cent, however.”

The question was then posed about which team will lose out most from this week’s change.

“Lewis Hamilton [McLaren’s 2008 world champion] thinks Ferrari will be the least affected, then McLaren,” Tremayne said.

Tremayne commented that Red Bull has the best off-throttle technology and its driver manager, Helmut Marko, suggested the team could lose its 0.5-second performance advantage. But says Marko other changes to the aerodynamic set-up, especially their very effective DRS (drag reduction system) rear wing, should offset any loss.

Mark Webber is optimistic, suggesting in London’s Daily Mail that the new rules might even work in the world champion team’s favour.

Double duty for Ricciardo?
Daniel Ricciardo will have a heavy racing schedule for the rest of the year, continuing in the World Series by Renault (also known as the Formula Renault 3.5 Series) as well as driving in F1 for Hispania.

“People have been asking me if racing in two different championships is going to be too much, but as a young driver [22 last Friday] you just want as much experience as possible,” Ricciardo said.

“I think that racing in two different championships is awesome! I’m just so grateful for the opportunities that I’m getting. I’m so excited [about his F1 debut] I can hardly wait until the first race at Silverstone.

“Thankfully Silverstone is a track I know really well, and, other than Australia, it’s probably the next best thing to a home race for me -- so that will make it a slightly easier experience.

 “It will be a steep learning curve working with a new team and racing a car that I’ve no previous experience of, but I’m determined to do my best.

“Even though I’m a young driver I really want to try to help the team and develop the car. Hopefully my experience in the Friday sessions with Toro Rosso will help with that.”

Ferrari chief calls engine decision ‘common sense’?Meanwhile, Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo says the world governing Federation Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) has made the right decision in deciding to switch to a V6 turbo engine from 2014.

Montezemolo, along with F1 commercial supreme Bernie Ecclestone, had been a vocal critic of plans to introduce a 1.6-litre, four-cylinder turbo engine from 2013.

The Ferrari chief says “common sense prevailed” in deciding on the replacement for the existing normally-aspirated V8s.

No sign yet, though, that Ecclestone is similarly convinced.

Sebastian Vettel: Infiniti FX 50S,VW Transporter T5, Mercedes SL 65 AMG Black Series, Fiat 500?
Mark Webber: Nissan Navara, Porsche Turbo, Porsche GT2 RS, BMW X5, Infiniti M37?
Fernando Alonso: Maserati Gran Cabrio, Ferrari 458?
Felipe Massa: Ferrari 599, Maserati Quattroporte
?Lewis Hamilton: Mercedes GL450?Jenson Button: Mercedes C63 AMG DR 520, Smart fortwo
?Nico Rosberg: Mercedes C63 AMG?
Michael Schumacher: Mercedes S65 AMG, Mercedes GL, Mercedes C63 AMG, Ferrari California
?Nick Heidfeld: Lotus Exige, Mini Cooper S, Toyota Siena, Porsche 959S, Fiat 500, VW Beetle Convertible, Ford Mustang
?Vitaly Petrov: Lotus Evora, Renault Megane?Sergio Perez: BMW X3, BMW Z4?
Kamui Kobayashi: BMW X5, Lexus IS-F?Pastor Maldonado: Jeep Grand Cherokee
?Rubens Barrichello: Audi RS6, Ferrari 575
?Adrian Sutil: Techart Porsche GT2, Techart Porsche Cayenne, Audi RS4
?Heikki Kovalainen: Infiniti FX 50S, Nissan GT-R?
Jarno Trulli: Fiat 500 (original 1964 model)
?Timo Glock: VW Touareg 3.0 TDI, Audi A4 3.0 TDI?
Sebastien Buemi: VW Golf R
?Jaime Alguersuari: Seat Leon Cupra R?
Tonio Liuzzi: Mercedes C63 AMG

The property was bought for about US$3.3 million.

Speed, who drove in F1 in 2006 and ’07 and finished only 35th in the Sprint Cup in 2009 and 30th last year, sued Red Bull last December, seeking damages of at least US$6.5 million.

A judge has already denied Red Bull’s request to dismiss the case.