Racers

Imagine if F1 let Antti Kalhola rummage through its archives without fear of banishment from YouTube?

Ferrari conducts more testing at Fiorano

Forget mysterious turbo sounds, Marc Gene was conducting testing on a special traction device yesterday.

Ferrari Testing the 2014 F1 V6 Turbo at Fiorano?

Hard to say what exactly Ferrari is up to but it certainly sounds turbocharged.   The idea they would go to the, not minor trouble of installing a 2014 drivetrain to a road going car is rather strange: it's hard to see what they could learn they could not on a dyno, where they can potentially simulate every track in the world.  
On the plus side,  if it is a 2014 spec "power unit",  it sounds much better than previous  clips from Mercedes and Renault.

Black Friday Tonic: Top Drivers try to put Golf on two wheels, fail.

Oops

Well it definitively was Black Friday for someone....

Possibly the first if not crash,  at least fender scratcher for a LaFerrari.  I happened in Mantova according to our friend Robby.  You have to feel for the trucker.

Axis Black Friday Special @ TrackDecals.com

Our friends at TrackDecals are running a special for Axis readers on Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
No need to go out an beat anyone over the head to get 50% off any order (no $50 limit, for Axis readers).

Sweet!

Not just track outlines but numbers, driver name tags and NASA/SCCA club racing decals and more.

Go to TrackDecals.com and use the promo code:   axis50off.

This happened

Outside of Venezuela, I'm not sure there is a single person who thinks this was a good idea....

RSR

Yes, I know, yesterday in Italian and today in German. Trust me, you'll enjoy it. Thank me later, after the turkey!

Thus Spoke Montezuma: Luca di Montezemolo Unfiltered.

Above is an extended version of the interview Luca di Montezemolo gave to Italy's RAI. It's in Italian, which will make it hard on many of you, but I thought it was important to have the complete interview rather than have it filtered. The tendency sometimes is for creating headlines so after LdM's CNN interview you saw plenty of "Alonso is not number one at Ferrari" titles. That was not exactly what he said.

Of course since not everyone speaks Italian, like most F1 drivers apparently, I will try to bullet point as extensively as I can.

On 2013:

-Good thing it's over because it was a year to forget
-The issues of 2013 were three:  Our inability to develop the car in the second half of the season.  The change in tires damaged Ferrari which had designed the car around the original specs.  Massa did not produce points towards the Constructors Championship.

On Ferrari's supposed diminished political power within F1.

"I've been hearing this theory every since I started working with Enzo Ferrari in the 1970s.  We have signed an accord with Ecclestone and the FIA  making us the only team with a right to veto any decision so, more power than that you cannot have" "We are also very conscious of out weight in F1 because F1 without F1 would be a very different thing" "but in the end, power comes from creating a winning car and that has been missing from us, everything else is just talk"

On losing second place in the Constructor's because of Massa's penalty

"the penalty was out of proportion with the offense, as was Hamilton's.  Sometimes FIA stewards are just people with gold buttoned blazers who show up at these races and want to make a splash and have some rather ridiculous attitudes, this is something the FIA needs to address.  When you have  teams that invest so much and drivers who risk their lives, you cannot have someone with a little blue jacket trying to make a splash is not right"

On Alonso's frustrations

"Alonso is the strongest race driver in the field, he has lost three championships at the last race, I understand his frustrations, we have to give him a better car.  I gave hims an 8 out of 10 but that's because one needs to keep 10 in your pocket to motivate"

"I was mad when he said he wanted an RB9 for his birthday, but I was mad because, mostly he was right!  but he should not have said it publicly"

"Alonso is mistaken when he says he's competing against Newey, his real adversaries are other drivers, starting from Vettel who's a great driver,  but also Hamilton and Rosberg and Raikkonen who will be there to try and win, to push Fernando and to get us more points"

On Raikkonen

"Raikkonen, like Alonso and in the past Schumacher and Barrichello know that whoever has the honor to drive for Ferrari will never be able to damage the team.  No driver starts the season as number one.  Alonso deserves an important role for all he's done and for being the strongest driver during a race I have ever met.  We took Raikkonen because of his experience and popularity, he will get an equal chance to win for Ferrari.  it will be a very strong team"

On Vettel

" A great driver, a serious kid, when a driver wins as much as he has won, he deserves respect.  My compliments to him and Red Bull, but more to him."

"Will he land at Ferrari in the future?  the ways of the Lord are infinite.... we'll see.    For now our drivers are not the issue, we need to build them a better car and we hope that the new regulations will give us a chance to compete in areas where we are traditionally strong like, for example, engines"

On Alonso's Tweeting

We are going to not allow it,  he can tweet all he wants, but not about team matters because things can be misconstrued and built up into issues that can damage the harmony of the team"

On The Future of the Sport

"We need fairness and openness, we need clear rules that are enforced fairly but also that on track penalties are handed out with more common sense, especially in cases where no advantage was gained.  I expect Todt to work on renovating and improving the FIA in his second term."

On Ecclestone suggesting Christian Horner as his successor

"Ecclestone, as years pass  enjoys making jokes more and more.  I'm glad to see he's still having fun"

Interlagos was the end of the road.

The 2013 Formula One Championship ended at Interlagos and the final race of the season put a period at the end on many stories in the series.

It was, of course, the end of the road for the 2.4 liter normally aspirated V8.  Renault has put it's stamp all over the era, winning the last race and more than half of all races in the past eight seasons but there's more to say goodbye to before drawing some conclusions about this controversial yet boring year.

The end of the road, in F1 at least, for Mark Webber.  You must read Webber's comments on  Peter Windsor's  blog,   rather priceless I thought.   Here's a preview:

 On Helmut Marko

I still don’t really know his role in the team, so….yeah…. He was very critical of me from Day One but in the end he’s obviously brought Seb through and done a great job with that. He’s probably disappointed that F1 teams have to have two cars. But they do.

Mark bows out of a bad situation in the best possible way and with class,  well done.  Funny how now everyone loves him at Red Bull.

End of the Ferrari road for Felipe Massa.     The penalty in the race was harsh, but, given drivers were warned rather specifically before the race, inevitable.   What remains to be seen is how many others did the same exact thing.     Massa goes out of Ferrari with a silly mistake costing the team second place from Mercedes not to mention millions of dollars.

The end of Brazil as the final race of the season, next year the season ends in AbuDhabi.    A shame really because Interlagos has shown once again that despite being constantly badmouthed for it's lackluster VIP accommodations , it is just a magical track, far better than any modern bazillion dollar Tilkedrome.  Too bad the rain never came on Sunday.

The 2013 championship, despite Vettel's records will always have an asterisk  beside it,  The changing of the tires in the middle of the season, spoiled it and was profoundly unfair to teams that had designed their car to work with what was, after all supposed to be a tire with a certain engineered limit to it.  Red Bull and Mercedes bullied the series into giving them a tire that worked for the car  they designed.   Magically after their respective tests, with current cars, their performance improved.

Be that as it may, Vettel did an amazing job taking advantage of his advantage,  I just don't think routinely winning by 30 seconds over the likes of an Alonso and Hamilton is driver alone.
Hopefully the new formula will mark the end of the road for Red Bull's domination.  It's not a team easy to like, what with Marko and Multi 21 and braking the spending cap agreements and Newey telling the press the only reason Lotus and Ferrari won at all this year was because of luck.   Great image management but underneath it, they can make Mclaren feel warm and fuzzy.  No wonder people boo'd and RB embarked on that massive PR campaign to "humanize" Vettel in the final races (which most of the press bought hook line and sinker).

In the bigger picture, Formula One needs to take a long hard look at itself:  diving in the "eco" rabbit hole and  spending so much money even top teams struggle to survive,  forcing them to take on lousy pay drivers and leaving clear talent sidelined, is a dead end for what is supposed to be the pinnacle of the sport.

You know something's not right if racers like Hamilton and Alonso have to resign themselves to being tire managers.  Next year, potentially they will have to be fuel managers as well.    F1 had always thrown tough technical challenges to teams but nobody really cares to see engineers compete at who's the cleverest, it's a side interest but nothing if the main attraction is missing.

More vortices...

In case you doubted you are witnessing the sculpting of air, check out the curlicue vortex created off the RB9's front wing as it twists around the sides of the car.

Interesting how it appears to "turn on" and off like a switch. as soon as Webber reaches a certain speed or hits the brakes. That may be to do with the conditions needed to make the vapor visible, perhaps aero guys out there can shed some light.

Spaghetti Dakar

Sergio Leone would be proud.

F1 season may be coming to a close this week end in Brazil but, with the new year comes the Dakar.

The route for 2014 will take the raiders through Argentina, Bolivia and Chile for an epic 5000 km race which for the first time will see two separate tracks, one for bikes and quads and another for cars and trucks.  This was done partly for safety and partly to create routes more suited to each group.

The 2014 Dakar starts on the 5th of January, 2014.
(h/t Gully!)

Nissan GT-R Nismo development Story

If you have a half hour of time, this clip from Nissan is quite a bit more interesting just the single lap video you may have seen, well, on every other car site on the internet.

ありがとう Nissan!   

Vortices

During practice for the US Grand Prix in Austin, the Texas air was humid enough to condense as it was compressed by all those sophisticated aero devices.   Check out the air swirling out of the sides of Alonso's F138.

Axis wins in Austin!

@axisCG and Stefano Domenicali

Big props to out own CG for winning Ferrari Challenge race 2,  also know as "the good one" because it's on Sunday, at Circuit of the Americas.

After starting from  P5,  Carlos escaped a first lap pile up which caused a long full course yellow and made a mess of the track.



When the race resumed,  the Orange and Chrome Axis 458 was in third and still experiencing some of the handling issues which troubled it all week end.  In the final laps, second place runner Harry Cheung made a lunge at race leader Damon Ockey spinning him.   The incident was caught,  sort of, with full emotion by Mrs CG...

Cheung went on to cross the finish line first with CG behind but was given a penalty for causing the spin and the #26 awarded victory.

After having all the speed but none of the luck earlier this year in Montreal, Carlos happily takes the luck and the win!   Brilliant.

Again, if you were at the race and took pictures of the car, send them to us for a chance at some Axis swag!

PS, there is no in car video because Mr B will fine you $250K if you are caught running a camera on track during GP week end!

The 2013 US Grand Prix went precisely as you thought it would.

Steve Etherington/LAT Photographic. AGPCF1/Flickr

Vettel took off from turn one, Webber got a bad start, Alonso struggled but by the end of the race pulled himself up a bit, Lewis was not happy with the tires, Maldonado crashed.  Vettel won by a comfortable margin and did some donuts.  People cheered.

Yawn.

Glenn Dunbar/LAT Photographic.AGPCF1/Flikr

And while we have to give full marks to Circuit of the Americas as a venue (love that they have lots of open seating, not just bleachers), it was hard  not to be appalled by the lousy coverage from NBC.
 
As longtime US based F1 fans, we've come to expect a low bar as far as coverage but NBC, which just bought the rights and hyped the extended coverage through web sites all over the internet, failed spectacularly in Austin.

It was not just the endless commercials which seem to get inserted precisely at key moments when something actually does happen or the incessant, disconnected dribble from Mr Diffey. It was a huge technical fail when NBC completely missed the podium ceremony at the end of the race.    Stunning after they way they butchered the re-broadcast of qualifying where they casually went to commercial halfway into Q2 and rejoined as Vettel was getting out of the car after setting the pole lap.  Incredible.

You would think a US network renowned for their sports coverage would put the United States Grand Prix in the hands of a producer who understands the sport and would not, for example place the hosts somewhere OUTSIDE the track!  

Yes, F1 is hard to cover for a commercial network, races can be dull but every race has a flow and there are story lines that develop as it unfolds,  there has to be an understanding of strategy and the background of the sport beyond offering vomit inducing giant donuts to Sebastian.   This will be more crucial next year and one wonders if anyone at Speed in the past or NBC now has ever bothered to study Sky Sports coverage.    Americans love baseball, a sport all about strategy, I'm sure they can handle tire and fuel plays.

There's more to it than donuts and F1 really needs to have a subscription service model going forward.

Bored with the US GP? Try this mental motorcycle video.

Didier Grams and his BMW at Macau

There's a very good chance today's US Grand Prix will be a snoozer after the first lap, with Sebastian Vettel once more taking off beyond DRS range, winning the race and then playing to the crowd with donuts and Kimi Raikkonen imitations.

If that's the case, or perhaps at some points during the inevitable and interminable commercial breaks NBC will insert at crucial points during the race,  have a look at this.



The rider is Didier Grams on a BMW who placed 8th in the 47th edition of the Macau Motorcycle Grand Prix

(Hat tip to Kevin York!)

Maldonado has accused Williams of sabotage.

Unhappy with the team and out the door next season with at least part of his Venezuelan government oil company sponsorship, Pastor Maldonado today got his ass handed to him by young teammate Valteri Bottas in qualifying

Asked about his poor performance, the Venezuelan has accused  Williams  of sabotaging his car.

"There is someone who's had fun playing with my tire pressures" Maldonado told Italy's RAI TV.

Now, it's a well known practice for every race driver to first blame the car for his or her's own failings but, as my good friend Andres said: Williams is hovering in 9th spot in the championship with just a single point scored this season, why would they bother to sabotage anything and jeopardize any chance of scoring?

What next, Maldonado blame a US government conspiracy agains Venezuela?

Ferrari paid Hulkenberg's salary to prevent him racing with Lotus

Hulkenberg got a call from his bank...

This is the revelation, or perhaps, the allegation made by Italy's BlogF1 about the reason why Nico Hulkenberg will not race for Lotus in Austin and Interlagos.

The article goes on to  describe how, up to very recently, Hulkenberg had not been paid by Sauber  invalidating his contract with the Swiss team, a situation which allowed him to not only talk with Lotus but got to Enstone for a session in that team's simulator.

Right in the middle of that simulator session, BlogF1 continues, his bank account balance was replenished.  Where did Sauber find the money?   Ferrari supposedly came to an arrangement with Monisha Kaltenborn's team.

Why would Maranello do that?  Of all drivers available to fill Kimi's vacant seat at Lotus, Hulkenberg is without a doubt the strongest and Ferrari is in a fight with Mercedes and Lotus for the second spot in the constructor championship and the additional revenues it would bring.

True, not true, certainly a strategic move if it was.  There is much strategy in F1.

Who does not love a Renault 5 Turbo?

OK, the video below is in German but you'll figure it out, I'm sure.
(via Caroholics)

Watch the 2014 Porsche LMP1 testing at Paul Ricard

(via Ryan Walker and Midweek Motorsport Listeners Collective)

Return of the Axis of Oversteer Photo Contest: Austin Edition

Our own CG will be racing Ferrari Challenge in Austin on this coming Formula One week end and while, sadly, no others from Team Axis can make it to Texas, we know we can trust in many of you who will be there  to come up with glorious shots of the Axis 458 in action.

It's easy to spot, it's the one with the orange and chrome livery that says Axis all over it!

Send us your best shots and we'll pick the winners on our Facebook page.   

The prize you say?  Aside from the glory, a full complement of Axis stickers in two tone, solid white and chrome to the winner.  And prizes for runners up too of course.

I need not add, Axis stickers by their presence alone will cut lap times by a minimum of 7/10th of a second and/or add 12.6HP*.

Send your pictures to:  ac (at) axisofoversteer.com.  Happy Hunting

*your results will vary depending on your imagination and our power of suggestion

Experience, Youth, Size and Money

Patterns developing in driver choices for 2014.

Photo: Lotus F1

Youth vs Experience

Ferrari chose Raikkonen  but Mclaren chose Magnussen over a presumably well funded and still young Checo Perez.    With the coming regulations and the real possibility cars will need to be raced in new ways,  what will count more:  long experience or a clean slate for engineers to create a driver to fit the car?

Think Vettel 2.0,  without taking away anything from Vettel, his talent was developed along with a car designed to his driving style.    In 2014 cars will be completely new, what better way to optimize the package than to insert a driver without pre conceptions and pliable enough to just follow instructions from engineers.  

This may have been part of the reason Perez was dropped.  Mclaren, despite a tough year, is not a team that needs a pay  driver and perhaps Checo was not doing enough listening.

Toro Rosso chose Daniil Kvyat in part for marketing reasons but also because he is a blank slate.

Williams chose Massa, probably because of  Brazilian sponsorship but leo because Massa is very experienced and certainly a good team player.

Ferrari decided to go for experience and one might be tempter to make old men with bad backs jokes given recent events.

Red Bull instead took a page straight out of the old Ferrari playbook, it's Vettel's team and Ricciardo is there to do the boring stuff like come in second and do new part testing.

Size and Money

If Maldonado ends up a Lotus at the expense of Hulkenberg,  that will be the end for that team which has enjoyed fan popularity exclusively because of Kimi.  That they would, perhaps not by choice, pass on one of the best available drivers in favor of one of the best available wallets would put them in a position no cute social media campaign can fix.

Hulkenberg faces an issue he can do nothing about, his size. It's certain the fact Alonso and Raikkonen are essentially identical in size was a factor in Ferrari's decision to pass on the German.   Webber, who's not as tall as Nico, had the same issue, he could never fit in the RB9 quite as comfortably as Vettel.

Hulkenberg has a real chance of having to sit out next season, a crazy situation  F1 absolutely has to address and not by creating a trillion dollar genetic breeding program for future drivers!

Kimi Raikkonen will miss Austin and Brazil.

Kimi Raikkonen will miss the final races of 2013 (Photo: Andrew Ferraro/ Lotus F1)

Kimi Raikkonen will not race the final two Grand Prix of the season at Austin and Interlagos choosing instead to undergo surgery in order to remedy his recurring back problem, a result of a crash in 2001,  which flared up at the Singapore Grand Prix earlier this year.

Since the Abu Dhabi race, according to the Finnish paper Turun Sanomat which first broke the story,  Kimi's condition has worsened to the point where he cannot sleep without strong painkillers.

Raikkonen had just visited Maranello for a seat fitting for the 2014 car and no doubt this development was discussed with the team brass,  Ferrari must be relieved this can be taken care of now rather than later int he year, but there must be a question mark there.   Raikkonen will be operated in Austria.

So who will fill Raikkonen's seat for the final two races?   Will Lotus give their reserve driver, Davide Valsecchi a chance or will they try to make a deal with Saube perhaps, to have Hulkenberg drive?

Did Alonso really sustain a 28G hit at Yas Marina?

It was one of the key episodes of the Abu Dhabi GP, Fernando Alonso's Ferrari had to take to the curbs to avoid contact with Jean Eric Vergne's Toro Rosso as he tried to beat Massa back onto the track after a pit stop.

Luis Garcia Abad/Twitter

It looked like a pretty rough ride but Alonso went on to finish the race setting fastest laps in the process and avoiding a penalty after Vergne admitted he had not seen him ad had not given him room.  After the race Fernando was giving interviews and seemed fine which explains the surprise then pictures popped up of him being taken to a  hospital strapped to a gurney like a salame.

What happened?  F1 regulations state that a driver must be checked out at a hospital is a g-force sensor alarm, installed in every chassis is triggered.   The sensor is there to alert medical personnel of the severity of an accident and is triggered at 18G.   Well placed journalists like the BBC's Andrew Benson reported the sensor had measured a whopping 28G.

28 G is a heck of a hit,  for reference what happens when when a pickup truck slams into a solid wall at 30 mph.  The Ferrari tub and Alonso's butt are very strong but perhaps the real figure was much lower as suggested by Autosprint who say the sensor came loose and registered a much higher energy spike.    

Ferrari has had no comment either way.

Ferrari 458 Challenge Evoluzione

Ferrari 458 Challenge Evoluzione,  testing. (photo: Ferrari)

Ferrari have announced a new version of their Challenge  single make series race car.  The 458 Evoluzione will be officially presented at Mugello on November 11 during the Ferrari Challenge world finals.

The Evoluzione package will bring development parts from the GT program and  increased downforce thanks to the addition of a rear wing and  revised front splitter and underbody.   The modifications will be available to current cars and next season the series will be split  into two groups on for 458s and one for the faster 458 Evos.

It will come as no surprise CG will make sure the Axis 458 will indeed, evolve!

Will Porsche go Back to the Future at Le Mans?

Fans love it, it's no accident Porsche chose it as one of the retro lovelies for the 918 Hybrid super car but, will they have the classic Martini livery on their Le Mans prototype when it lines up at la Sarthe next year?

Autosprint thinks there's a decent chance,  it certainly gets our vote!!

Check out more classic Martini liveries after the jump