A contract extension for Mark Webber may come this weekend, Kimi Raikkonen is not coming to Rally Oz, light penalties for Will Power and Kyle Busch, and Danica Patrick's big switch
Spa 'is what we do it for'
Mark Webber turns 35 tomorrow (Saturday) and his birthday present might be the announcement of another year in Formula One with Red Bull Racing. Webber is in Belgium for the resumption of the world championship after a four-week break and the confirmation of a new deal for him could come over the weekend. He has said that he expects his future to be finalised "in the very near future" but that it's not a formality.
"I stopped off in Salzburg for a meeting with Red Bull boss Dietrich Mateschitz on my way to the Hungarian Grand Prix last month and, as planned, the August break gave me a good opportunity to have a chat with team principal Christian Horner about me continuing in 2012," Webber said last night.
Asked by Autosport about the timing of announcement, he said: "Not far away, mate. "Decisions will be made shortly." But, somewhat curiously, he said: "My decision has to be taken into account ... all will become clear shortly." In his latest column for the BBC's website Webber's speaks eloquently and emotionally about Spa-Francorchamps, venue for the Belgian GP. "When you head out on to the track for the first time at Spa you always think: "Yeah, this is what we do it for,' " he wrote. "There are beautiful long, flowing corners, elevation changes and it's so isolated on the back of the circuit... The lap is so long (7km), and it's just you and the car... Spa is ... about the beauty and flow of the lap."
Red Bull is yet to win in Belgium. Ferrari and McLaren have won every race at Spa since 1999 -- and four of the last five GPs this year, although Webber's world champion teammate Sebastian Vettel has won six of the 11 races to date. Webber, who qualified on pole position at Spa last year and finished second to McLaren's Lewis Hamilton, reckons that the dominance Vettel showed early this year is over. However, with an 85-point lead over Webber in the championship, Vettel could finish third in all remaining eight races and still win his second title even if either Hamilton or his McLaren teammate Jenson Button were to win all eight.
Michael Schumacher, who as we noted midweek is celebrating 20 years in F1 this weekend, has been the most successful driver at Spa with six victories, but there is unlikely to be a seventh heaven for him on Sunday -- unless it's very wet.
Bruno Senna, nephew of the incomparable Ayrton, returns to F1 this weekend with the Renault team, in place of Nick Heidfeld. While Heidfeld, a consistent finisher throughout his career, has been seen to have under-performed as the substitute for the injured Robert Kubica, the sponsorship dollars attached to Senna almost certainly have played a part in the switch.
The governing Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) has banned the use of the drag reduction system (DRS) -- the ability to manipulate the rear wing from the cockpit -- through the hallowed Eau Rouge section on safety grounds.
The second Australian in the field of 24, Perth's Daniel Ricciardo, will line up for his fourth GP with Spanish team HRT having won at Spa two years ago on his way to the British Formula Three Championship -- yes, a round of a British series in Belgium.
Ricciardo and Italian teammate Vitantonio Liuzzi anticipate that the Cosworth-engined HRT cars will be better suited to the high-speed Spa than most other circuits.
"I'm really looking forward to driving an F1 car here," Ricciardo said. "In the small formula cars it gets boring because you run out of power on the long straights."
$30,000 fine for Power is Mickey Mouse
It's taken almost two weeks but IndyCar has hit the Australian contender for this year's title, Will Power, with a $30,000 fine for his two-fingered gesture to officials after the chaotic finish to the New Hampshire race.
But it's a Mickey Mouse penalty -- instead of paying the fine Power can work it off by making a series of appearances for IndyCar. He's also on probation for the rest of the season, but there are only four races remaining -- the first of them this weekend at Infineon Raceway at Sonoma, California.
Power won at Sonoma last year after a horrific crash there the previous year that ended his 2009 season. He's second in the championship this season, 47 points behind Dario Franchitti, while fellow Aussie and Penske teammate Ryan Briscoe is sixth. Briscoe has twice been runner-up at Sonoma.
While Power and Franchitti have had a couple of public spats this season, the Toowoomba racer says the Scotsman's strength is how few mistakes he makes.
"But (with an IndyCar race win worth 50 points) it will only take him to have one bad day and we'll be right on him," Power said. In the last 10 IndyCar races on street and road courses Power has won six and had two other podium finishes.
Of the penalty from the New Hampshire race, he said: "I understand that the series has to make a reasonable effort to ensure that this type of behavior will not be repeated by anyone else in the future. I have expressed my feelings about the incident that prompted my poor behavior, and I've apologised and continue to regret the inappropriate gesture I made as well."
IndyCar competition director Brian Barnhart, who came under massive criticism for his role in the mayhem after restarting the race on a wet oval track that triggered a pile-up, said of the Power incident: "While the circumstances around the chequered flag were highly unusual, they do not justify this type of behavior, especially in a family-friendly environment. Emotions always are on display in our sport and we know these actions are not indicative of Will's normal behavior."
Kimi pulls plug on Rally Oz
Contrary to earlier indications, Kimi Raikkonen won't be driving in Rally Australia on NSW's Coffs Coast on September 8-11. Raikkonen's backer Red Bull has cut back its support of the World Rally Championship, forcing the 2007 F1 world champion now driving a privateer Citroen in the WRC to skip the trip Down Under.
Raikkonen has been sixth in two WRC rounds this year, in Jordan and last weekend in Germany, and is eighth in the championship. He is expected to drive the final three WRC rounds -- in France, Spain and Britain -- but this week tested a Peugeot 908 sports car at Aragon in Spain, perhaps as a precursor to a Le Mans 24-hour start next year. He also has dabbled in NASCAR this year, in the second-tier Nationwide Series and third-tier ute series.
$12 million woman goes NASCAR
It has finally been confirmed this week that 29-year-old American woman racer Danica Patrick will switch full-time to NASCAR racing next year. She will drive in the Nationwide Series for JR Motorsports, co-owned by Dale Earnhardt Junior, and in eight to 10 Sprint Cup races for Tony Stewart's Stewart-Haas Racing.
Patrick is the only woman to have won an IndyCar race -- in Japan in 2008. Her best IndyCar series season finish was fifth in 2009 and this year she is 13th.
Patrick drove 13 Nationwide races last year, without a top 10 finish, and in seven Nationwide starts this year she has had one top five and three top 10 finishes. Yet, on that record, she already earns $12 million a year, according to Forbes magazine.
Patrick is hoping her first Sprint Cup start will be next year's Daytona 500 and, while she's quitting the IndyCar series, it is possible she will drive in the Indianapolis 500 on the same weekend as contesting a Nationwide race.
Ambrose revved up for 'bullring'
The 24th round of this year's Sprint Cup is at the daunting half-mile (800m) high-banked Bristol "bullring" in Tennessee. Aussie Marcos Ambrose, winner of two NASCAR road course events (one in the Sprint Cup, the other in the Nationwide Series) in the past two weeks was third in a Cup race at Bristol two years ago.
Increasingly confident that an oval victory is just around the corner, Ambrose said as he prepared for Bristol this week: "I enjoy short-track racing - and especially on a Saturday night."
Meanwhile, the right rear spring from the Ford Mustang in which Ambrose won the Nationwide race in Montreal last weekend has been declared legal by NASCAR after checks at its research and development centre in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Superstar gets off speeding count light
Sprint Cup leader Kyle Busch is free to continue racing after losing his road licence this week for 45 days -- after he was booked driving a $400,000 Lexus 133.57kmh over the speed limit in May.
Busch also was fined $1000 -- yes, only $1000 -- and put on probation for a year. He has volunteered to assist a program for teenage drivers called BRAKES (Be Responsible And Keep Everyone Safe). He will sponsor 10 days for 300 students and participate in some of the sessions.
Busch, 26, could have been jailed for up to 60 days and lost his licence for a year after he was caught driving at 128mph (206kmh) in a 45mph (72.4kmh)zone near his North Carolina home. He pleaded guilty to speeding and no contest to reckless driving.
Busch's lawyer Cliff Homesley argued in a 35-minute address to this week's court hearing that Busch should have been offered a better plea deal so that he might have kept his licence.
"An automobile in his hands is like a scalpel in the hand of a surgeon -- not a knife in the hand of a five-year-old," Homesley said. But Busch admitted it his speeding had been a case of "wrong place, wrong time".
Read the latest Carsales Network news and reviews on your mobile, iPhone or PDA at the carsales mobile site
Powered By Motoring.com.au
Không có nhận xét nào:
Đăng nhận xét