Sharpshooter: Julien Mahiels

If you follow Axis you know Julien's work very well and we are quite proud to follow his success ever since he came onto a radar a few years ago on Flickr.   Mahiels has recently launched a new web site showcasing his work, go visit it as soon as you are done reading this.

Part of being a successful photographer is knowing how to be in the right place at the right time and once there, convey the emotions of what you are seeing.   Mahiels is a master at it,  every time we se one of his images we wish we were right there over his shoulder smelling the castor oil  and brake pads.


As part of our series on motorsport photographers we asked Julien a few question:

AXIS:                 When did you start  shooting?
Julien Mahiels:  My grandfather always been a photo enthusiast and passed that to my mother who did photo school in the 70s. I was a aviation nut since I was 9yo and I always wanted to take pictures in air shows. I finally had my first try with my mother Nikkormat at 12yo but I really got into photography 2 years later with mountain biking and BMX.

 

AXIS:  Your favorite track?
JM:      It is a tough one because there is an awfully long list of track I dream of visiting. From those I've seen I must say the Nurburgring. You can pop anywhere around that track and find a new cool angle. The surroundings are superb and since I am driving nut I love to rack up miles on it after the shooting is done.
For 2012 the Tour auto paid a visit to the Charade racetrack and I think if I could spend more time around it could be my all time favorite. Such a balsy track even the ring looked tamed next to it. The nature around it is glorious too.

AXIS:   Your favorite car?
JM:       I have a real soft spot for the 250 SWB and 911 R

AXIS:  Your favorite tool?
JM:       Favorite tool would be my 200F2 I bought barely used 4years ago. It gave me image quality and versatility I needed to evolve as a car photographer. But my 85 1.4 is getting his own share of use.

AXIS:   Your ideal photograph is?
JM:       My ideal photograph is combination of a timeless subject (car and track) getting properly used (sideways) with a lot of motion blur. Motion is everything for me. You must be able to feel what was going on when the picture was taken. Of course showing a beautiful car in glorious dawn is nice but I prefer to capture a moment than showcase its beauty.

You can get in touch with Julien Mahiels via his brand new web site julienmahiels.net where you can find a huge selection of stunning images. Thank you Julien!

Car Porn: Ford GT 40 Lightweight.

One of two surviving Lightweight GT40 versions.
Driven by the likes of Jackie Ickx, David Hobbs, Brian Redman.
First car to ever win with the famed GULF livery.
Used as camera car for McQuesn's Le Mans.
Restored to
And yes it's for sale but if you have to ask...

Hungary onboard

Photo: Dave Morecambe

I'm sure it wasn't so boring for Lewis Hamilton but man, once again the Hungarian GP was a horrid snooze.
Blame the go-kart track layout (at least when a Formula 1 car is circulating), blame the relatively short main straight, but even KERS and DRS could not produce a single relevant pass.   The only excitement came from Romain Grosjean fighting Raikkonen exiting  the pits, other than that all passes were accomplished by the pit crews.    I'm not sure why F1 bothers with this track anymore, is it really because of the hookers?

Hamilton effectively won the race on Saturday with that incredible qualifying lap,  On Sunday Mclaren may have sacrificed Button's race to give Lewis the win.  Button came in very early, the only explanation had to check wear on the tires.
Alonso was pretty happy to receive the extra points  when Button was forced to stop towards the end of the race for a third time.  After fifth on a very "non Ferrari" track,  goes into the summer break a healthy 40 points ahead of Webber, 42 ahead of Vettel,  47 from Hamilton.     Plenty of racing left and anything can happen, but it's his to lose.

As far as Red Bull, after all the controversies, well, not exactly slow but they certainly did not run away with it as much as in the past. They claimed innocence, they complimented themselves on their own genius... generally they protested a bit too much.

Stars of the race: Hamilton, Raikkonen, Grosjean.
Fail: Mercedes, Schumacher, Rosberg,  Mercedes has announced today it changed its technical staff. There are also rumors of "big decisions" for the F1 team as soon as Dieter Zetsche (the infamously mustached Dr. Z), chief supporter of the MB F1 program retires.

The race was so dull it does not warrant a highlight reel,  more interesting the onboard channel with natural sounds.   Once again, Please Speed,  please FOM,  I would happily pay a healthy amount for the kind of coverage you offer in other countries,  make it happen!

Porsche 991 GT3 Cup, first testing video

This is described as a Porsche 991 GT3 Carrera Cup testing in black livery at the Oschersleben Motorsport Arena in central Germany. The successor to the 997 GT3 Cup is slated for the 2014 season.

Our friend Sergini, who is well plugged in with these things is sure the car will have a single clutch hydraulic gearbox not a double clutch like say, the Ferrari 458 Challenge.

All Porsche racers are eagerly waiting for the new generation of race cars, especially the RSR, so they can have a fair fight with the various 458 and Audi R8s dominating now.

Meanwhile at Spa...

the 2012 Total 24 Hours of Spa turned into a motorboat race for a while, whith predictable results...





Mclaren is making a big push in GT3 customer racing with two cars in the PRO category and seven in Pro-AM.



Oh and note to self,  don't touch the inside curb between Eau Rouge and Radillion!



or



Live Timing

In the end, Audi won another endurance race, congratulation.

Looks like the race was a major apocalypse for Mclaren. Maybe Leo Parente messed with their buttons!...

2012 Brickyard Grand Prix at Indianapolis Motor Speedway

Sebastien Bourdais and Alex Popow survived a rough-and-tumble round of the GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series to win the inaugural Brickyard Grand Prix at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in the No. 2 Soloson Ford/Riley for Starworks Motorsport.

Bourdais pulled away on the final restart on the 2.534-mile Indy road course to clinch the Daytona Prototype division's first North American Endurance Championship presented by VISITFLORIDA.com.

It was another highlight in the team’s incredible season, which has included second-place finishes in the Rolex 24 At Daytona and Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen in addition to class titles in the endurance classic at Le Mans and Sebring.

The No. 01 TELMEX BMW/Riley of DP leaders Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas took second in the three-hour event, while Max Angelelli and Ricky Taylor finished third in the No. 10 SunTrust Racing Corvette DP.

Juan Pablo Montoya, who teamed with Scott Dixon in the No. 02 Chevron BMW/Riley Ganassi entry, stoked controversy with his driving stint, bumping Joao Barbosa and then Ryan Dalziel out of likely top-five finishes in the late stages of the race.

Andy Lally and John Potter prevailed in GT in the No. 44 Magnus Racing Porsche GT3, securing the $50,000 NAEC honors in the division.

Scary Red Flag Fail

This happened recently in a German Formula Master, which is a lower level Formula 3 series with cars powered by 1.6l VW engines. What might have been lacking in active safety was made up by passive safety of the cars, we shudder to think what a crash like this might have looked like fifteen or twenty years ago.
(thanks to Motordangerous)

Anthony Davidson on the Le Mans 24

Tom Sandford - camera/edit/grade
Alan van der Merwe - camera/dp
Contact: tom@thirtyfive.eu

That blacked out part, where you hear a big crash? In case you missed it HERE IS WHAT HAPPENED

Red Bull graced by the FIA again!

There's a term in Italian, not clearly translatable: "Fare il furbo" it's somewhere between being clever and devious. F1 is naturally rife with "furbi" but currently Red Bull Racing are the champs.

While Helmut Marko is lamenting a conspiracy against the team with the FIA and Bernie Ecclestone conspiring to keep Sebastian Vettel from winning a third title, Christian Horner is usually answering questions with a "who us? we are not doing anything..." and rival teams have been grumbling about RBR and Renault since pre season testing, e the FIA has been quite lenient with the team.

Sure there have been on track penalties (all deserved) and the FIA disallowed their brake ducts venting through the front axle in Canada but let's have a look at what they have gotten away with, without sanctions, this season so far.

1. Illegal holes in Monaco: FIA could have disqualified RBR and not let them start. Of course that's not the sort of thing you want in Monaco, not with that enormous Red Bull Energy Center floating in the middle of the harbor. Michael Schimidt of Auto Motor und Sport writes Jean Todt himself intervened with the other teams to stop them from protesting. Webber went on to win that race.

2. Traction Control and blown exhaust: that was the net effect of some engine maps RBR have been running. If you've been to any races this year, or perhaps if you have heard nat sound clips, you might have noted the odd ratcheting sound coming at times from the RS27 in the back of the Red Bulls. The issue with the engine maps boils down to creating a dip in the torque curve with the effect of limiting chances of wheelspin. This was apparently accomplished by allowing unburned mix to flow through the combustion chamber and ignite in the headers. Hot blowing as specifically forbidden by the rules.

While you have to admire the brilliance of Renault engineers in finding a way to do this in the gray areas still in the rules specifically banning the very thing they accomplished, you can see how this would irk others, much like Brawn's double diffuser did a few seasons back. The FIA rather than punish the intent, preferred to put a patch on the wording of the rules.

3. Red Bull was,according to AutoMotor+sport,  caught adjusting the ride height on Vettel's car in Parc Fermée in Canada. This might be the most outrageous instance, again outlined in Schimit's article, officials discovered a ride height adjustment made by changing the extension on the front third shock on the RBR which is designed to be easily adjusted by hand.

Shocks settings cannot be changed between qualifying and the race. Rather than punish, the FIA allowed RBR to reset the shock and enacted a rule forcing all suspension adjustments to require a clearly visible tool so tech inspectors can better police Parc Fermée. How many times has Red Bull adjusted suspensions before?

Of course, anything not specifically forbidden in the rules is by definition legal so the FIA does share some responsibility and perhaps they simply don't want to look bad for having missed those points.

As I said... Furbissimi!

Ferrari F12 Berlinetta

Because 700 hp is the new 500 hp....

(ANSA)

A case for manual transmission

Photo: Christian Tulipano

You probably noticed we are not especially sentiment at Axis when it comes to man machine interfaces on new cars,  flicking a paddle is more efficient, faster, better?  We're good with it, we want it.

For those who prefer fondling sticks and doing the three stem in the foot box,  there are many, many beautiful machines out there which offer  the opportunity tho wrestle with cogs and levers and they need to be preserved.

Of course if your argument is the joy of eye-hand coordination, or more specifically the eye-ear-hand-butt-foot coordination,  you really should try cars with a center gas pedal and non synchronized gears.  Wait why stop there,  real men only drive cars where the shifter is on the outside of the cabin,  it all went downhill when they moved that stuff inside!

A provocation, of course.   Enjoy this in-car from the recent Le Mans Classic.  You are riding in the 1979 Ferrari BB LM owned and driven by the mysterious "Mr. John of B". In the second part of the clip there is a driver change when Soheil Ayari jumps in. Turn the volume up, marvel at the amazing sound of the Ferrari 180 12 boxer, cringe when the driver money shifts!
(a third to second accelerating out of Arnage at 10:20 in the clip)

Bonus video after the jump, onboard a Ferrari 365 GTB4 and more from the BBLM.

The Silly Season, not so silly,

The Driver's championship is all well and good but it's the Constructor's championship that brings the big bucks to the teams. Points are dollars and no rumor is casual in the Formula One shark tank.

Don't discount strategic thinking when you hear talk of , say, Webber talking to Ferrari. Ferrari may or may not have had an interest in signing @aussiegrit but that "conversation", which certainly did happen, had the net effect of forcing Red Bull's hand early.

Before Webber resigned, on the heels of his very timely win at Silverstone, Red Bull was most certainly weighing the possibility of poaching Hamilton. That option is now almost closed off in the short term.
What does that mean? that Ferrari has potentially forced Red Bull into not having the team they would want to have and they have limited the option of the driver with the most raw speed in F1, Hamilton, to move to a new situation he clearly was looking for.

After Webber's signing you heard Webber say he "preferred Red Bull".  Yet RBR only offered him a one year renewal and those words were likely suggested by Red Bull management. Hamilton also, right after Silverstone started proclaiming his love for Mclaren, his best or even only option, again.

Ferrari does have to find a replacement for Massa who after a brief return to form made a mess of his race in Germany.    Massa is paid like a Hamilton, why would Ferrari keep him even if he agreed to a drastic pay cut.   Ferrari, against all predictions, finds itself with a super competitive package, one that might attract the big guys. I'd look for a driver who is consistent and professional to fill the gap until the post Alonso phase.

Vettel is 100% at RBR? Probably. Is Ferrari interested in him for real? Yes, certainly in the longer term. Has he signed anything? Maybe but with all the talk Ferrari have succeeded in injecting a measure of uncertainty in both of its top rivals at a time when their own top driver is sitting pretty and quite comfortable within the team, the effect has been tangible.

Call it silly if you want.

Tooned 2

2.8 Seconds is actually slower than Mclaren's real pit stop a Hockenheim, but I guess they did not have to square Lewis' forehead!

Why the stewards were correct to penalize Vettel.

With the premise that this type of pass happened a lot in the past, especially out of the hairpin at Spa but that the FIA has made it so that a driver cannot make a pass by using the space outside the "circuit", let's have a look at the incident again.

After the race, during the podium interview, Vettel claimed he could not see Button and did not know where he was so he decided to go straight. Well that's his story and I'm sure he'll stick with it but I'm sure anyone reading these pages knows enough about racing to see right through that steaming pile.
But let's have a closer look.

Notice how Jenson, who's always a gentleman, leaves the Red Bull at least enough space to keep two wheels inside the line. Vettel is lucky, imagine if it had been Maldonado there?

Now pay close attention to the high overhead shot, check out the point where you see Vettel clearly get on the gas and look at where he is pointing.

He can't see Button, really?    And if we all know best acceleration comes with zero turning do you think Sebastian Vettel is unaware or vehicle dynamics?

Vettel did himself a real disservice lying about this incident, especially lying about it on the podium when he claimed Jenson had not brought it up. Hey Seb, there is a thing called "television recording"....

Vettel penalized for off track pass

Sabastian Vettel was given a 20 Sec. penalty for his off track pass on Jenson Button on the penultimate lap of the German GP.

He will be classified a 5th behind Alonso, Button Raikkonen and Kamui Konbayashi.

Vettel stated he could not see Button and wanted to give him room.  When asked about the move in the podium interview with Niki Lauda, Vettel had also said Jenson Button had not mentioned anything about it to him.  TV pictures of the drivers in the moments after the race clearly showed Jenson and Seb discussing the incident...

How do you feel about this rule?

German GP: Fernando is faster than you

Fernando Alonso dominated the 2012 German GP with a little help from...Lewis Hamilton?.

Fernando did have the measure of the field and took full advantage of starting from pole but benefitted from a lapped Lewis Hamilton's sudden point of pride when, after being told by the Mclaren wall not to hold up Jenson Button coming up behind him.  
At that point Hamilton, who  had just been lapped by Alonso and Vettel decided to attack the latter and un-lap himself, which he accomplished using DRS.
There will be some arguments about the use of DRS by lapped cars (after all, you are not one second down, you are one lap and one second down) but, be that as it may, Vettel, who had been gaining quickly on Alonso for the lead,  seemed to be momentarily stunned is not psychologically wounded.    Hamilton continued on and tried to attack Alonso but Fernando was faster, DRS or no DRS.

Mclaren, in a legal but questionable move, later retired the car with Hamilton out of the points allowing them to make penalty free changes before the Hungarian GP.

The race ended with further controversy, after the pre-race Red Bull "cheater"engine mapping affair, when Vettel passed Button for second place with two laps to go.   He did have all four wheels outside of the painted lines, so it is possible he would get penalized.  Stay tuned.

PROVISIONAL RACE RESULTS

Pos  Driver        Team                       Time
 1.  Alonso        Ferrari                    1h31:05.862
 2.  Vettel        Red Bull-Renault           +     3.732
 3.  Button        McLaren-Mercedes           +     6.949
 4.  Raikkonen     Lotus-Renault              +    16.409
 5.  Kobayashi     Sauber-Ferrari             +    21.925
 6.  Perez         Sauber-Ferrari             +    27.896
 7.  Schumacher    Mercedes                   +    28.960
 8.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault           +    46.900
 9.  Hulkenberg    Force India-Mercedes       +    48.100
10.  Rosberg       Mercedes                   +    48.800
11.  Di Resta      Force India-Mercedes       +    59.200
12.  Ricciardo     Toro Rosso-Ferrari         +  1:11.400
13.  Massa         Ferrari                    +  1:16.800
14.  Vergne        Toro Rosso-Ferrari         +  1:16.900
15.  Maldonado     Williams-Renault           +     1 lap
16.  Petrov        Caterham-Renault           +     1 lap
17.  Senna         Williams-Renault           +     1 lap
18.  Grosjean      Lotus-Renault              +     1 lap
19.  Kovalainen    Caterham-Renault           +    2 laps
20.  Pic           Marussia-Cosworth          +    2 laps
21.  De la Rosa    HRT-Cosworth               +    3 laps
22.  Glock         Marussia-Cosworth          +    3 laps
23.  Karthikeyan   HRT-Cosworth               +    3 laps

Fastest lap: Schumacher, 1:18.275  

Not classified/retirements:

Driver        Team                         On lap
Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes             58


World Championship standings, round 10:                

Drivers:                    Constructors:             
 1.  Alonso       154        1.  Red Bull-Renault          238
 2.  Webber       120        2.  Ferrari                   177
 3.  Vettel       118        3.  McLaren-Mercedes          157
 4.  Raikkonen     95        4.  Lotus-Renault             156
 5.  Hamilton      92        5.  Mercedes                  105
 6.  Rosberg       76        6.  Sauber-Ferrari             78
 7.  Button        65        7.  Williams-Renault           47
 8.  Grosjean      61        8.  Force India-Mercedes       46
 9.  Perez         47        9.  Toro Rosso-Ferrari          6
10.  Kobayashi     31       
11.  Maldonado     29       
12.  Schumacher    29       
13.  Di Resta      27       
14.  Massa         23       
15.  Hulkenberg    19       
16.  Senna         18       
17.  Vergne         4       
18.  Ricciardo      2       
       
All timing unofficial

Ferrari gets it right

F1fanatic.co.uk

Super entertaining qualifying session in Hochenheim at least for us watching,  maybe not so much fun for the guys driving.

With the weather growing worse throughout the sessions the balance of power seemed to shifted from Mclaren to Ferrari  culminating in Alonso's crushing pole lap.  Ferrari benefitted from a good stately call bringing in Alonso for a fresh set of extreme wet tires in the final minutes of Q3.

Tire availability may also play a role tomorrow,  Red Bull were the only top team to have used a set of options to get out of Q1 and that could be a factor in the race.

David Morecambe

(Webber and Rosberg get 5 grid spot penalties for gearbox change)

Pos  Driver                Team                 Time           Gap   
 1.  Fernando Alonso       Ferrari              1m40.621s
 2.  Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault     1m41.026s  + 0.405
 3.  Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault     1m41.496s  + 1.838
 4.  Michael Schumacher    Mercedes             1m42.459s  + 2.880
 5.  Nico Hulkenberg       Force India-Mercedes 1m43.501s  + 3.329
 6.  Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Renault     1m43.950s  + 3.492
 7.  Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes     1m44.113s  + 3.565
 8.  Lewis Hamilton        McLaren-Mercedes     1m44.186s  + 0.875
 9.  Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes 1m44.889s  + 4.268
10.  Kimi Raikkonen        Lotus-Renault        1m45.811s  + 5.190
Q2 cut-off time: 1m39.729s                                   Gap **
11.  Daniel Ricciardo      Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1m39.789s  + 2.424
12.  Sergio Perez          Sauber-Ferrari       1m39.933s  + 2.568
13.  Kamui Kobayashi       Sauber-Ferrari       1m39.985s  + 2.620
14.  Felipe Massa          Ferrari              1m40.212s  + 2.847
15.  Romain Grosjean       Lotus-Renault        1m40.574s  + 3.209
16.  Bruno Senna           Williams-Renault     1m40.752s  + 3.387
17.  Nico Rosberg          Mercedes             1m41.551s  + 4.186
Q1 cut-off time: 1m16.686s                                    Gap *
18.  Jean-Eric Vergne      Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1m16.741s  + 1.048
19.  Heikki Kovalainen     Caterham-Renault     1m17.620s  + 1.927
20.  Vitaly Petrov         Caterham-Renault     1m18.531s  + 2.838
21.  Charles Pic           Marussia-Cosworth    1m19.220s  + 3.527
22.  Timo Glock            Marussia-Cosworth    1m19.291s  + 3.598
23.  Pedro de la Rosa      HRT-Cosworth         1m19.912s  + 4.219
24.  Narain Karthikeyan    HRT-Cosworth         1m20.230s  + 4.537

107% time: 1m20.991s

* Gap to quickest in Q1

** Gap to quickest in Q2

The Last Privateer

Reading about thet horrible Maria De Villota's accident, you may have read about how her father Emilio De Villota used to be a Formula One driver.

Mario Donnini wrote an article about Emilio's adventures of Autosprint.  It is not only an interesting sidebar but a fascinating bit of Formula One history, happening right at that moment when the series changed dramatically and forever.

Maria De Villota's dramatic accident turned back the spotlight on one of Spain's beloved racing families, up to now known mostly for the passions and tribulations of Emilio.

Madrid, end of 1976.  For a spaniard  in the post Franco era,  Formula 1 is little more than a dream.  Emilio De Villota is almost thirty an knows he will never impress any team manager, but he's not one to give up.  From a wealthy background, a bank manager and  owner of a manufacturer of articles for children, he has many friends among the sporting authorities and the confidence to jump into a seemingly impossible situation.

He started racing late, in national touring cars, then tries theShellsport Gr8 series in the UK. In that marvelously insane Formula 1 where in 1976 season 56 different drivers sign up for at least one GP,  Emilio got behind the wheel of an old Brabham  run by John McDonald and Team Ram and tried to qualify for Jarama, his home race.  Nada, he qualifies 28th, the last to be cut from the starting grid.

Back in Great Britain, racing in F5000 with Lyncar, Emilio does a little accounting and gets his crazy idea.  Crazy but not stupid,  F1 is an open circus,  used cars are inexpensive, there is no Superlicense, tires can be found cheap.  Electronics are still a dream  and you could run a team with a bunch of friends recruited at the local bar.  A round of phone calls, a few promises and the miracle really did happen.

Hertz Sponsors Porsche GT3 Cup Championship

Hertz, the first American rental company to feature Porsche products for its customers, will be a major sponsor of the IMSA Porsche GT3 Challenge by Yokohama race series.  The deal will be announced tomorrow and all  Porsche GT3 race cars in the series will be featuring new Hertz stickers at this week end's race in Mosport Canada.

This is fantastic news for the IMSA series and we look forward to the new Hertz stickers on the Axis GT3!

Now how about some black and gold GT3 available at the rental counter?

Open letter to Ken Block

Dear Ken

Your Gymakana videos are some of the most awesome automotive footage ever filmed and what you have accomplished in terms of exposing hundreds of millions to... well, hooning, is beyond description.

But let's face it,  as fantastic as your videos have been, they are a variation on the same theme: awesomely produced shots of a monster 4WD rally car dodging assorted obstacles on a closed course.

As you are certainly planning future hooning excellence, let us humbly propose a new challenge for you.
Axis will gladly provide a polo shirt, white socks and loafers for you to properly recreate what is possibly the one video that got us all started thinking sideways:  Stefan Roser's classic RUF Yellowbird run at the Nürburgring.

Picture it,  Schwedenkreuz sideways at 140 this time in glorious multi camera HD. Maybe you could throw in a loop around a biker!

I know you have a deal with Ford, I know you have your own line of shoes and clothes but you're Ken Block, you can do anything you want at this point, will you not find a way make the most rabid of your fans happy?

Cheers
Axis of Oversteer

Sharpshooter : Camden Thrasher

Second installment of our new feature at Axis showcasing our favorite motor sport photographers.  After Darren Heath  here is  Camden Thrasher.



Memorable name, even more memorable images, Washington state  based Camden has been on a quest to "capture the story and emotion of man and machine at speed in a still image".  We're pretty sure he's on the right track.

Get in touch with Camden Thrasher and check out much more of his great work HERE