MOTORSPORT: Webber-Vettel peace settlement

It won't happen again:  Webber
A truce has been called within Red Bull Racing. The detente should bring to an end the hostilities between Australian Mark Webber and German Sebastian Vettel over the collision that denied the team a likely one-two finish in the Turkish Grand Prix and cost it the lead in the Formula One constructors' world championship.

Team principal Christian Horner had already been hard at work trying to defuse the enmity between drivers Webber and Vettel before a meeting yesterday at Red Bull Racing's headquarters at Milton Keynes in Britain. The drivers have agreed, at least publicly, to bury the hatchet and get on with trying to deliver maximum results for the team.

And the powerful Dr Helmut Marko (the Austrian ex-F1 driver and motorsport adviser to Red Bull tycoon Dietrich Mateschitz) who had blamed Webber for the Turkish crash appears to have agreed to bite his tongue.

Whether the "peace settlement" lasts only time will tell, but outright leader in the drivers' championship Webber said after yesterday's meeting: "It [the Turkish incident] is a shame for the team, as we lost a good opportunity to win the race. It's sport and these things can happen, but it shouldn't have done. I feel for everyone at Red Bull, at the factory and everyone involved.

"Seb and I will make sure it doesn't happen again and will continue to work openly together, no problem. We have talked enough on it now, it's done -- we're looking ahead and I'm focused on the race in Canada next week [June 13]."

Vettel, who dropped to fifth in the standings after not finishing in Turkey, said: "The team had got us into a great position and it wasn't good for them what happened - so I'm sorry for them that we lost the lead of the race.

"Mark and I are racers and we were racing. We are professionals and it won't change how we will work together going forward. We have a great team and the spirit is very strong. I'm looking forward to Canada."

A statement on the team's website says: "It was a positive meeting, which draws a line under the incident that happened on lap 40 of the Turkish GP. The team are now fully focused on next week's Canadian GP."

Horner had already said: "What we expect from our drivers, as teammates, is that they show respect for each other and allow one another enough room on the race track. Unfortunately neither driver did this on Sunday and the net result was an incident between the two.

"During the previous six one-two finishes we have achieved, there have been many incidences of close racing between our drivers and they have previously always abided by this understanding."

Horner had said then that the two drivers were equally to blame for the collision and that Dr Marko now "also fully shares this view".

Horner also said that Red Bull owner Mateschitz is equally supportive of the drivers, contrary to the perception that Vettel is the favoured ‘son' because of his youth, that his image fits better with the Red Bull culture and that he is a German speaker like the team financier and ultimate boss.

As much as the media will be baying for "blood" between Webber and Vettel over the rest of the championship, they stand to be disappointed if the team's discipline is strong enough. And, contrary to suggestions that the events in and after Turkey may have driven Webber to join another team next year, indications are that his Red Bull contract will be extended for another year sooner rather than later.

A mega payday for Indy winner
Dario Franchitti earned around Au$3.27 million for winning his second Indianapolis 500 last weekend. Total prizemoney paid out on the US classic this year was in excess of Au$16.0m.

Once the IndyCar season is over Franchitti will partner new V8 Supercar Championship leader James Courtney in the revamped Gold Coast endurance round in October. At this stage it's looking like the most formidable combination in the event.

Jacques Villeneuve, the former F1 and Indy champion (who will partner another Ford V8 Supercar driver, Paul Dumbrell, at the Gold Coast but has done little racing in recent years), is set to contest two rounds of NASCAR's Nationwide Series -- that's the second tier of American stock car racing -- on road courses in coming weeks.

Those races will be at Road America in Wisconsin and on the circuit named after Villeneuve's legendary father Gilles in Montreal, Canada.

Australian rock ban AC/DC's anthem TNT is going to be heard a lot at heard a lot at Sprint Cup rounds over the next few weeks, while America's Beach Boys were announced this week as the lead act for the revamped Gold Coast Supercarnivale.

A taste of V8 Supercars for WA fans
In the absence of a V8 Supercar Championship round in Perth this weekend, four teams have made an effort to ensure West Australian fans are not totally deprived of the category this year.

The Barbagallo Raceway round was axed from the calendar before the season got underway, with V8 Supercars branding the facilities at the track "third world" and an occupational health and safety hazard.

While a return to the calendar is going to require some upgrade at Barbagallo, and a compromise that could see that may not be far away, new V8 Supercars Australia chief executive Martin Whitaker is quoted in Auto Action magazine this week saying that restoring a presence for the championship in all states is a priority and indeed critical.

"There's been talk about adding another international round to the series, but right now we need to recognise where our fan base is," Whitaker said.

Meanwhile, Toll Holden Racing drivers Garth Tander and Will Davison have been in Perth this week -- for an appearance at a fast food outlet, sponsor visits and a function for HRT ‘members' at a West Perth dealership.

"It is important not only me, but for the Toll HRT that we make a trip to visit our fans regardless of whether we are racing in Perth or not," Tander said.

Team Vodafone/Triple Eight Race Engineering has made a far stronger commitment to WA fans, with the gates to Barbagallo Raceway to be opened to fans next Monday, June 7 (the Foundation Day public holiday in Perth) at a ride day for sponsor Vodafone.

It will be the first opportunity WA fans will have to see the team running Holden Commodores at Barbagallo -- and two fans will win a hot lap of the 2.42km circuit with dual V8 Supercar champion Jamie Whincup.

Whincup and superstar teammate Craig Lowndes will be on hand throughout the day to sign autographs, pose for photos and meet the fans.

Next Tuesday night a function has been organised called the "Norton 360 V8 Perth Challenge" for members of the Team Vodafone and Ford Performance Racing fan clubs, Lowndes Force members and Norton 360 members.

FPR star Mark Winterbottom and development driver James Moffat are to be there with Whincup and Lowndes.

Garry Rogers Motorsport/Fujitsu Racing also is having a ride day at the AHG Driving Centre near Perth airport. The team is taking its cars and drivers Lee Holdsworth and Michael Caruso to give laps to guests.

Openwheeler young guns in Europe
Australia's two rising open-wheeler stars in Europe, Daniel Ricciardo and Scott Pye, are in action this weekend -- in the Czech Republic and Holland respectively.

Ricciardo, from Perth, is competing at the Formula Renault 3.5 Championship -- or World Series by Renault -- round at Brno in his first start since winning at Monaco just a couple of hours before Mark Webber won the F1 GP there three weeks ago.

Ricciardo has had two other podiums in the five races so far in the series, in which he is in second place -- seven points behind Russian Mikhail Aleshin, 43-50.

Ricciardo is driving for French team Tech 1, while Aleshin is with Britain's Carlin Motorsport -- for which Ricciardo won last year's British Formula Three Championship.

The World Series by Renault races are screened on Eurosport -- Channel 511 on Foxtel.

Pye, from Mt Gambier, is running a close second in the British Formula Ford Championship, having four of the six races, and this weekend's round is at Zandvoort in Holland.

Pye ran in two Dutch Formula Ford races there last weekend, winning one and finishing 10th in the other after having been punted into a gravel trap. His Jamun Racing teammate, Josh Hill, son of 1996 F1 world champion Damon Hill, won that second race.

Le Mans only a week away
Next week in Europe it's the 78th Le Mans 24-Hour sportscar race in France, with Peugeot chasing a second straight victory after ending eight years of Audi dominance.

Australian David Brabham, part of the victorious Peugeot team last year, is going back there, but with his American Le Mans Series team, Highcroft Racing, for which he drives an Acura.

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