MOTORSPORT: Will Power's big tick for Aeroscreen

Australia's IndyCar star Will Power has given America's answer to Formula 1's halo - the Aeroscreen - the thumbs up after the first track test of it at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

The large polycarbonate screen fitted under a halo-type titanium hoop with three mounts (front centre and rear either side the cockpit) will be mandatory on IndyCars next year.

It has been developed by Red Bull Advanced Technologies and has a load-bearing capability of 150 kilonewtons.

The screen has an anti-reflective coating on the inside, an anti-fogging device, tear-offs for the driver and a cockpit cooling duct designed by the supplier of IndyCar's generic chassis, Dallara.

Power, the 2018 Indianapolis 500 winner and 2014 series champion, drove hundreds of kilometres overnight at about 350km/h with the Aeroscreen fitted to the Chevrolet-powered Team Penske open-wheeler in which he finished fifth in this year's recently-completed series.

"It's a really big step in safety," Power said.

"You could race (with it) this weekend, no problem. The vision is fine.

"I'm so happy that we have it, that we're moving ahead with it. When you drive it for a day you're going to feel naked without it because there's so much more protection there."
Power said global motor racing now had "the best of both worlds" with the halo introduced last year in F1 and other European open-wheeler categories - as well as Australia's new S5000 - and the Aeroscreen in North America, in response to British driver Justin Wilson's fatal accident at the triangular Pocono speedway four years ago.

Power talked of "how much stuff you see flying towards your head" in IndyCar pile-ups on superspeedways.

The 38-year-old from Toowoomba, married with a young son, said that with the Aeroscreen now "you probably won't think about retiring so soon".

Australian-born New Zealander Scott Dixon - a 16-year veteran of Indy racing, winner of the series five times and the 2008 Indy 500 victor - also tested the screen at Indianapolis overnight on his Honda-powered Ganassi car.

"It's spot on. It's good to go," said Dixon, who had trialled the screen on a simulator in July.

"It's very quiet, but there's a lot less load on the helmet. Visually there's no real impairment.

"It's almost like you're in a road car driving around. It feels odd, but it's extremely safe and it would be very strange to take it off."

IndyCar has scheduled three more tests at other American tracks between next Monday and November 5, with Dixon taking part in one of them but no more involvement for Power.

Mercedes-Benz has spent about $A570 million on its Formula 1 team in each of the past two years.

Newly-released financial accounts show the team, which has dominated all six years of the V6 hybrid era but is now being strongly challenged by Ferrari, had income of about A$620 million in both the past two seasons.

Parent company Daimler AG put in $A118 million last year, but more than a third of that was recouped from the sale of power units to customer teams.

The wages bill for the almost 1000 employees in the Silvers Arrows team was almost $A172 million.

Its profit after tax last year was about $A24.4 million.

Mercedes featured in about a quarter of F1's TV coverage, which veteran F1 scribe Adam Cooper said represented an advertising value equivalent of US$3.7 billion (almost A$5.5 billion) for the team's commercial partners.

"In parallel to the team's success in recent seasons, the Mercedes-Benz brand has grown in value from $US31.9 billion ($A47.3 billion) in 2013 (the year before the hybrids) to $US48.6 billion ($A72.1 billion) in 2018 (as measured by Interbrand), with F1 making an important contribution to the brand's status as the eighth most valuable in the world," the team said.

It has also revealed that it sacked four employees in August for "breaches of our diversity and equality policy".

There is only six weeks until the last Rally Australia at Coffs Harbour and just one event remaining - in Spain's Catalunya at the end of this month - after this weekend's Rally Great Britain in Wales.

Sebastien Ogier revived his chances of a seventh consecutive world title - and a 16th straight for France after Sebastien Loeb's record run - with last month's victory in Turkey and has won the British round five times in the past six years with Volkswagen and Ford.

Now 'back home' at Citroen, Ogier has 193 points to Toyota's Estonian Ott Tanak's 210, while Hyundai's Belgian Thierry Neuville is third on 180.

However, Hyundai leads the manufacturer standings with 314 points to reigning champion Toyota's 295 and Citroen's 259, while M-Sport Ford has 184.

Australia has been dropped from next year's World Rally Championship, replaced by New Zealand - but perhaps for only one year if a new Oz location near a major city can be found to satisfy the series organisers.

Australia will be represented in three categories at the new FIA Motorsport Games in Italy at the start of next month.

Father and son Stephen and Brenton Groves will race a Porsche GT3-R in what is being touted as 'The Olympics of Motorsport' at the Vallelunga circuit near Rome.

Student Luis Leeds will compete in Formula 4 after winning the last title in that category's short life as an Australian championship.

And eSports star Cody Nikola Latkovski will be on the simulator. Racing under the username 'Nik_Makozi', he is the most awarded sim driver in the Asia-Oceania region.

Gold, silver and bronze medals will be presented to the top three finishers in each category.