WRC
It came as no surprise that Sébastien Ogier chalked up the Australian stage of the World Rally Championship. By winning 19 out of 22 special stages the Volkswagen Motorsport pilot literally defeated his competitors with 1.5 minute advantage over his closest pursuer Thierry Neuville. The Russian pilot Evgeny Novikov had to settle for 7th place overall. The victory in Australia could have been enough for Ogier to clinch the title. But the wheel of fortune makes sudden spins. Near the end of the race Mikko Hirvonen, who was second at that moment, had a puncture letting Neuville ahead and giving him a chance to compete for the title with the French pilot.
But the breaking news of this race was brought by Kris Meeke. The Chevron-badged team newcomer made an excellent start taking the fastest time in qualifying and joining the podium struggle. But on the second leg of the 50-kilometre special stage at Nambucca on Saturday he ran off the road and crashed the car. Meeke admitted that the accident happened due to his stupid mistake and offered his apology to the team. During the rally in Finland the pilot crashed the car in a similar accident 10 kilometres before the finish line. Nevertheless team’s boss Yves Matton left open the possibility of continuing cooperating with Meeke. The boss of ‘double chevrons’ noted that there are a lot of different moments to discuss and consider but the team does not have the final solution yet. Kris said he was ready for any decision made by the team.
Formula 1
Singapore Grand Prix will take place over the next week-end. The track and schedule of this race have a number of unique peculiarities. The track is 5 km long featuring a1.2-km straight which is a specially built paddock section. The rest of the distance goes along the streets of the city-state. It has a special asphalt mix to provide better adhesion. But in spite of constant track care it is still not possible to keep it ideally flat and teams’ engineers set up the height of suspension to its maximum. Besides that the race in Singapore is held after the sunset in artificial light which is also unique. A light flux of 3,000 lux is provided alongside the whole circuit not blinding the pilots but giving enough light for TV broadcasting and almost not producing any optical flares during the rain. During this season storms are hitting Singapore almost every day but over the past 5 years (Grand Prix is held here since 2008) it was only once in 2010 when the participants were driving on a wet track during the free practice sessions. The circuit is quite fast for city car fellows — there are 3 places on the track where the cars pick up 290 km/h speed. It is also very demanding with regards both to the downforce and the brakes.
Meanwhile FIA warned the Royal races teams about the tough measures for regulation of financial expenses coming up. It’s been widely discussed for a long time but all attempts to pass the Resource Restriction Agreement had been blocked by better-off teams. Due to that fact small teams become ‘second-rate’ being not able to compete with the monsters. It seems like the Federation together with its president Jean Todt, which used to avoid and controversy with the teams, decided to end ‘democracy games’ and get things sorted out in the form of order.
WTCC
Japan WTCC round in Suzuka will also take place over the next week-end. Like it happened during the last two years the race will be held on the East section of the 2.2-km track which means 26 laps in each race for the participants. Yvan Muller who is now leading the Championship might clinch the title in case he wins this race. Unfortunately Michel Nykjær will not be taking part neither in the Japanese round, nor in any other rounds left. NIKA Racing pilot faced financial problems though it has been the best season in his entire racing career. As noted by team’s boss Nicklas Karlsson, during the cooperation with Michel the team was not able to reach an acceptable form of funding his participation. As a result the Dane will be replaced by a local driver Hiroki Yoshimoto in the Japanese race.
Honda's motorsport manager William de Braekeleer admits his team is lagging behind the Championship newcomer — Citroën — in terms of preparations for 2014 season. As stated by team’s boss, ‘double chevrons’ made an early start in car’s setup and there is a strong possibility that they will have an advantage in the beginning of the season. But at the same time Honda has already had racing experience this year and it will help to develop their car more quickly and catch up by the middle of the season.
Meanwhile SEAT refuted the information about its possible return to WTCC. As stated by the company’s Sport leader Jaime Puig, SEAT is now concentrating on monoseries and local championships and does not have plans to come back to the World Touring Car Championship. The World Series is now taking the development vector to the regions on the car markets on which the company has no or little presence. That is why the manufacturer is not motivated to use WTCC participation as a marketing tool.
On the contrary LADA factory team is not only planning to continue participating in the next season but it is also expanding. As stated by team’s boss Victor Shapovalov, right now the development of a totally new Granta is being discussed. It will be based on this season’s field-tested technical solutions. Moreover one more driver might join two current pilots James Thompson and Mikhail Kozlovskiy.
‘Round about’ news
The 24 Hours of Le Mans. FIA International Court of Appeal upheld the decision taken by the judges of the legendary “24 hours of Le Mans” race about the disqualification of G-Drive team due to allegedly increased fuel tank on a LMP2 car. The international team consisting of different drivers (among which is the Russian pilot Roman Rusinov) provided a few technological reasons, due to which the tank could have had that 7% increase, but FIA considered the proof not convincing enough. Consequently the teams’ results were excluded from all records.
Photo: www.conceptcarz.com, www.f1fanatic.co.uk, f1news.ru, fiawtcc.com
