MOTORSPORT: Wins unlikely for Ricciardo

Daniel Ricciardo is a proven grand prix winner, and Australians want to see him doing it again this year, but already a huge dampener has been put on that prospect.

While perhaps wanting to under-promise and then over-deliver, Red Bull Racing (RBR) team principal Christian Horner clearly is not imbued with confidence that Renault’s V6 hybrid power unit is going to be much better this season.

Horner has predicted that the energy drink company’s junior team, Toro Rosso, will beat RBR, at least early in the season, because of its switch from Renault to Ferrari power – albeit last year’s spec from the Italian stable.

He has estimated that change will automatically improve the lap times of the Toro Rossos driven by teenage Dutch sensation Max Verstappen and young Spaniard Carlos Sainz Junior by as much as 0.8 seconds at some circuits.

The season begins in a month at the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne, with new cars starting to be launched tonight – Ferrari will win that ‘race’  – and the first of two four-day tests starting in Barcelona on Monday.

Rejuvenated Ferrari is expected to close the gap further on dominant Mercedes this season, while Honda could take a major step forward in its second year supplying hybrids to the McLaren team after a hugely disappointing 2015 reunion.

The hybrids, loathed by F1 purists for two years for their lack of the traditional engine noise, are supposed to be 25 per cent louder this year – and the Barcelona trials will be the first test of that.

RBR, having failed to secure a different engine supplier after not winning a race last year, has been forced to stick with Renault power units, although its will be badged TAG Heuer while the French manufacturer will use identical units in its return to F1 as a fully-fledged F1 constructor.

“It’s going to be a season of evolution for us (RBR),” Horner said.

“It’s probably going to be a season of two halves – the first half is going to be less competitive than the second, but we are expecting to make significant progress during the year.

“We’ve got our heads down and hope to create surprises later on in the year.

“Toro Rosso has bolted in 0.8 seconds into their car through a different power unit – that is a significant amount of performance.

“We are hoping to make similar gains throughout the year, but obviously the chassis (traditionally RBR’s strength, designed by the genius Adrian Newey) is going to have to prop that up.”

After the slanging matches last year between RBR and Renault, Horner said he thought the Regis “are addressing the right areas now”.

West Australian driver Ricciardo won three GPs in 2014, when he outgunned four-time world champion teammate Sebastian Vettel in his first season with RBR after his ‘apprenticeship’ at Toro Rosso, but went winless last year – although he came close to beating Vettel, now with Ferrari, in Singapore.

Ricciardo also is circumspect about how competitive the Renault power unit will be this season.

He endorsed Horner’s comments as “sensible ... rather than getting us excited for nothing”.

“If you come out in Melbourne and Christian and everyone is saying ‘It’s awesome and the aerodynamics and everything...’ and then it doesn’t work, it’s demoralising,” Ricciardo said.

“I think it’s realistic that we will need a bit of time to make strong improvements from last year.”

Horner said Red Bull, whose owner Dietrich Mateschitz threatened to quit F1 several times last year, was determined to return to the top, having won the driver and constructor world titles from 2010 to 2013 in the era of naturally-aspirated V8 engines.

“Probably most people have written Red Bull off for this year, but we’re fighters and focused on getting ourselves into a competitive position,” Horner said.

Indonesian pay-driver completes GP field
The driver line-up for the new F1 season has been completed overnight, with backmarker team Manor confirming Rio Haryanto as the first Indonesian at the top level of motor sport.

The 23-year-old will make his debut in Melbourne on March 18-20 alongside Manor’s other rookie, Mercedes junior Pascal Wehrlein.

Wehrlein is a German (with a Mauritian mother) who won last year’s German touring car championship, while Haryanto has spent four years in the GP2 series, in which he had three wins last year.

“Melbourne will be a huge moment for me, my country, supporters and fans and I want to thank everyone who’s been with me since I started in single seaters; 2016 is my chance to reward that faith and represent Asia in F1,” Haryanto said.

However, neither Manor (now using Mercedes power units) nor Haryanto made mention that his ascendancy to F1 has come courtesy of the A$23 million sponsorship he brings to the team from Indonesia’s national oil company, Pertamina, and more directly from the government.

2016 Formula 1 driver line-up
MERCEDES – Lewis Hamilton (Great Britain), Nico Rosberg (Germany).
FERRARI – Sebastian Vettel (Germany), Kimi Raikkonen (Finland).
WILLIAMS-MERCEDES – Felipe Massa (Brazil), Valtteri Bottas (Finland).
RED BULL-RENAULT (badged TAG Heuer) – Daniel Ricciardo (Australia), Daniil Kvyat (Russia).
FORCE INDIA-MERCEDES – Nico Hulkenberg (Germany), Sergio Perez (Mexico).
RENAULT – Jolyon Palmer (Great Britain), Kevin Magnussen (Denmark).
TORO ROSSO-FERRARI – Carlos Sainz Junior (Spain), Max Verstappen (Netherlands).
SAUBER-FERRARI – Marcus Ericsson (Sweden), Felipe Nasr (Brazil).
McLAREN-HONDA – Fernando Alonso (Spain), Jenson Button (Great Britain).
MANOR – Pascal Wehrlein (Germany), Rio Haryanto (Indonesia).
HAAS F1 (new US team) – Romain Grosjean (France), Esteban Gutierrez (Mexico).

Southern Cross set to shine again
The V8 Supercar season is only a fortnight away from kick-off, F1 a month, America’s NASCAR starts with this weekend with the Daytona 500, and entries close today for the new Bathurst Six-Hour production car race at Easter – with more than 50 expected.

It’s also set to be a big year in rallying.

Not so much the Australian Rally Championship, unfortunately almost moribund, but with Rally Australia becoming the World Rally Championship’s finale in mid-November – and the 50th anniversary celebrations of the Southern Cross Rally leading into, and overlapping with, it.

The Southern Cross was Australia’s first truly international rally in 1966 and a “golden anniversary” edition is to be run from November 8-19.

It will start at Albury and head south into Victoria through Mansfield and Sale, then through Gippsland and across the Great Dividing Range to Jindabyne in the Snowy Mountains.

From there it will advance to Cooma, Canberra and Sydney.

Then it will head north to Newcastle and Port Macquarie before arriving at Coffs Harbour, where Rally Australia is to be run from November 17-20 – two months later than normal.

The Southern Cross cars will take part in a night stage of Rally Oz around the streets of Coffs Harbour.

Golden anniversary organiser Bob Watson said the Southern Cross field – including Aussie rallying greats Ross Dunkerton and most likely Barry Ferguson – would go over roads used in three Southern Crosses that travelled between Sydney and Melbourne, while the course north of Sydney included stages in the mountains used in the rally when it was based at Port Macquarie.