The Ferrari SF15-T from the horse's mouth

There will be tons of analysis on the latest Ferrari car but I figure you might as well hear it some of it straight from those who put it together, James Allison and Maurizio Arrivabene,

The first outlines some of the technical choices made while Arrivabene highlights new long term strategies, for the team and for the direction of F1 in general.

Both quite interesting.

Alfa Romeo branding on the Ferrari SF15-T!

Perhaps the biggest surprise of Ferrari's 2015 F1 car reveal was the presence of an Alfa Romeo logo in place of FIAT branding.  The first time the Milanese "Biscione" has been on a Ferrari since the 1930's, the epic Nuvolari era.

Modern corporate considerations aside, there is deep history there as Scuderia Ferrari started life as an Alfa Romeo team in 1929 and continued for about a decade before Enzo Ferrari started building his own cars.

Mclaren Honda MP4-30

McLaren released images of its 2015 contender, the Honda powered MP4-30.

Elegant livery, a touch of red evokes Japan but also the classic cars of the late 90s Hakkinen era.

No new title sponsor on the car though Mclaren teamed up with CNN international who used to have a spot on Caterhams.

The nose, long and low, hangs over the front wing, without that quasi-obscene appendage on the 2014 car.


Oddly, for a company whose boss professed not to want to look back just last month, the shadow of the MP4/4 looms large.   Can't disagree with that marketing decision but the Alonso-Button "Back to the Future' video?  

Awkward  would be the kind way to put it.



Ouch!  The internet however did not miss the chance at a new meme

via F1B

The Scuderia's FIST

Funny how if happens. Last season, as soon as Ferrari announced the F14T, fans pointed out how that spelled out FIAT, in custom plate grammar anyway.

This year's car will be the S F15T and already it's the Scuderia FIST.

Actually, quite appropriate for the car Maranello hopes will be the basis of its fight back to the top of the sport.   If F14T evoked and performed along the lines of that old "Fix It Again Tony" cliche, the F15T is meant as the basis for Ferrari's revolution,  a revolution which saw an unprecedented turnover of what had always been a fundamentally conservative organization.

If you read here regularly, you are familiar with what happened but it's worth going through the names of those who left, one way but mostly the other, from Maranello:   Alonso, di Montezemolo, Domenicali, Mattiacci, Fry, Tombazis, Marmorini are well known names but at least as many less know engineers have  also left.    In their place Sergio Marchionne promoted mostly from within,  a noble strategy he used successfully at FIAT but not before, as Cesare Mannucci in Autosprint points out, trying hard to hire Adrien Newey from Red Bull and Andy Cowell from Mercedes' engine department.

We'll see how that will turn out: Ferrari made a lot of hires in areas of organization and race simulation, things they have clearly been behind on.

Another noticeable area of change at Ferrari this year will be their social media strategy.  
Up to now Ferrari produced perhaps the most boring, dated, unwatchable videos in all of F1, its tweets and FB accounts were rather boring and unimaginative.   But the pre-launch teaser videos released  ahead of this week official reveal, while not groundbreaking by any means, are a move in the right direction.

The SF15T will be an evolution of last year's car.  The most controversial aspect will be the insistence with the pull rod front suspension much criticized for the past few years.   It gives some aero advantages but is stiffer and more difficult to set up.

Why did Ferrari stick with it?   Most likely because it was not the biggest problem with the 2014 car and they have had four years to develop it.

This year they will count on two drivers with closer driving styles than in the past so perhaps that will help and by most accounts of the '14 car's problems focused on corner exit grip (rear suspension) and lack of power from the MGU-H (turbo) which had been undersized for failed aerodynamic reasons.



2015 will see a revised rear suspension and a much larger turbo along with a conventionally positioned oil tank (last year it was inside the gearbox!)

Part of Ferrari's larger strategy has been to reposition itself more clearly on the side of the fans, calling for more interaction between the series and the public.    You have probably read about team manager's Maurizio Arrivabene, calls for concentrating innovations on aspects of the car average fans can understand and appreciate rather than arcane hyper technical details only engineers can appreciate.  It was all a bit vague as these pronouncements tend to be but the sentiment is admirable.

Certainly, Mr. Arrivabene has been successful in the pre season negotiations over engine modifications.
How manufacturers will use their 32 tokens over the course of the season will be a point of interest in 2015.  Mercedes is apparently ready to come into the season with all its tokens spent,  a confident move but also one a strategic one as it will, in effect, limit Honda's options this year.    Honda will be able to make changes to it's power unit but will have a number of tokens determined by when Ferrari, Renault and Mercedes finish "spending" theirs.   Confused?  hey, it's the FIA.   but it boils down that the faster the other three use their tokens the less options Honda has.

At least F1 came to it's senses and threw the Japanese a bone, immediately alienating one of the world's top manufacturers just entering the series would have been a grave mistake both with Honda and the public.

Stay tuned.

Passing on the grass almost never works...

Leaving pavement in favor of grass almost never works and whatever you do, don't crash into your teammate.

Those are two fundamental rules of racing newly crowned Porsche Supercup champion Earl Bamber got completely wrong at Daytona overnight.

Bamber looks to have misjudged slower traffic at the kink and went wide onto the infield grass. Perhaps it was all over then, perhaps he though he could save it,  either way, he slams into the 911 car driven by Marc Lieb at turn 5 taking them both out.

Awkward.

Why WRC is awesome.

Via Rally Channel HD

Rallying is a game of supreme skill but also of luck. It's a fine line between what Ogier pulls off above and running into something solid like Sebastien Loeb and Robert Kubica did on SS8 today.

But rallying is also about not giving up and here again Loeb shows how it's done. Rear corner came off? Nothing a strap and a ratchet can't fix, at least enough to get back to the end of the stage.

It does not look good for Loeb, he's now over 6 minutes behind leader Ogier and might be assessed a further 10 minute penalty if he cannot fix or convince officials he has 4 wheels attached to the car for the upcoming road section.



(thanks Wojtek, our super rally producer!)

Bonus video

Even Sebastien Loeb can't believe how good he is!

Photo: Best of Rally Live

Sebastien Loeb is a nine time WRC champion, with 900 stage wins under his belt, it's fair to say he knows what he's doing but even he was shocked at how well he drive on the opening stage of the 2015 Montecarlo Rally.

Thing is,  Loeb  retired from full time rallying in 2012.  Sure, he did a couple of rallies in 2013 but basically he's been relaxing, a bit of le Mans here, a bit of WTCC there, schooled everyone at Global Rallycross, broke the Pikes Peak record,  you know, normal retiree stuff.  

This year, Citroen was able to talk him into one more Monte Carlo Rally, Loeb has won seven, it's his favorite event.   Loeb's target is rival Frenchman Sebastien Ogier, the current champion driving for VW.

The first stage of the Montecarlo rally was brutal: ice, snow and fog along the  21 km night stage.  Ogier set the early pace and led comfortably over the field until he's bested by Ott Tanak, driving for Ford. The Estonian beat Ogier by 9 seconds,  quite a feat in the conditions.

Then it was Loeb's turn.  He beat Tanak by 22 seconds, Ogier by over 30 seconds.   That is just ridiculous.   As he's mobbed by reporters waiting after the finish, Loeb, head soaked in sweat, asks how far back he is, he has no clue because new for this year drivers are not allowed to receive split time information.

"I just said to Daniel (Elena his co driver) three kilometers from the end, we are completely stopped" said Loeb "It was very difficult"

Masterclass.

This clip is taken from the live broadcast. If you love following live (or watch replays) we recommend you look into the WRC+ service which offers all that and more for $49 per season.

The Montecarlo Rally was something else in 1984.

On the eve of the start of the 2015 edition let's look back about 30 years,   to 1984.

Two wheel drive was still seen as a competitive technical solution in the early 80s but only in tarmac and gravel/tarmac .

1984 was the final nail in that coffin.

While boxy Audis looked awful as they plowed on dry tarmac, the Monte was almost all snow that year so anything with two driven wheels had no chance,  Audi swept the podium led by Walter Röhrl.

The first clip is in Italian, it essentially tells of Lancia's (and everyone else's) tale of woe in the face of the teutonic turbos.  Still the Lancia 037, the Renault 5 and the Nissan 240 RS the Open Manta (and was that a Subaru Leone?)   all look glorious fighting their way around the icy hairpins.

No wonder everyone is so excited about the new R-GT championship this year,

The second, in English is a condensed version focusing mostly on the Audi and Lancias
Bonus clips in French and German  at the bottom

GT3 on ice, not on the rocks.

From horrendous driving to sublime control.

It wasn't always the case but, these days,  a Porsche GT3 is an odd if glorious choice as a rally car.

While having all the weight behind the driven wheels helps with traction and certainly helps swing the tail around hairpins, the platform  is only really viable on tarmac and relatively slow  compared to a state of the art WRC car driven by a one armed man.

But who cares,  good thing Europeans don't and have been using 911s for national rallies for long enough that the FIA was compelled to publish an RGT spec in the last few years.

RGT spec is for two wheel drive, series derived cars and stipulates, among other things,  a maximum power to weight ratio (1hp/3.4kg) and a manually operated clutch.

Since 2011 RGT cars have competed agains every other car in WRC (Remember Bill Caswell?)  but as of this season there will be an official RGT championship run only on tarmac rallies (Montecarlo, Germany with WRC, Corsica and Belgium with ERC).

The Monte starts officially today with the first shakedowns (or recce if you want to be cool).  Conditions up behind Monaco are cold with mixed precipitation expected, possibly snow when the competition starts mid-week.  

Mixed conditions is what Montecarlo is all about so it might very well be the same kind of crud François Delacour is driving though in the clip below.

On ice but keeping it off the rocks.

Darwin and Lamborghini

Just because you can afford a Lamborghini Huracan and said Italian marvel can go 200 mph it does not mean you should be doing multiple 200 mph pulls on an open public highway with an 80 mph speed limit, especially one flanked by guard rails and ditches.

This video was posted by Hungarian Police presumably as a warning.  The results of the crash are not  good,  essentially a plane crash.    Why it happened is not clear, there's a slight bend on the road but at that speed, an over heated tire or even a gust of wind might be a factor.

But it seems Darwin has failed here as I see Jalopnik's article explains how the driver and the passenger both survived!    Score one for intelligent design...of the Lambo's survival cell which survived long enough before self immolating.  

In any case, we'd recommend that:

A:  you don't just press the pedal and go 200.
B: Never, ever, ever be the filming passenger as your buddy shows off his brand new 200 mph car.

How good are the shocks on your car?

Photos: Racing Management

Loud exhaust? Ok, I hear you.

Big Brake Kit?  On so many cars it just announces to the world you brake too much.

Truth is, you cannot be a serious tracktard until you've had  explain to someone how you dropped 6 to 10 grand on a set of shock absorbers.

What?  Wait , a set of Bilsteins for my Miata cost $120 a piece, you say?  Well, there is so much about shocks you need to learn then.

Shocks  (or  dampers if you are British) are the vital component keeping wheels in contact with the the ground and,  a car can only steer and move forward is there is a contact patch.

With shock absorber, maybe more than any other performance part, you get what you pay for: adjustability, range of adjustment, build, travel and ability to be serviced.  For a club racing track car, a good set of shocks might  be in the $4K to $6K range but for a WRC car?  You can do the math.

Why you'd need the best available shock  technology is well illustrated in this video of Robert Kubica testing his LOTOS Ford Fiests RS WRC ahead of the Montecarlo rally.  

That particular  stretch of road was clearly chosen to work on shock settings and you can see why as Kubica rips at ridiculous speed over bumps and troughs that would sent an ordinary car flying into the woods.
 
The Fiesta bottoms out and bounces off the ground but Kubica is able not to lift, in part because of his huge balls, in part because he knows he can count on his wheel having maximum contact with the tarmac.



(H/T Wojtek!)

Miracle at the Dakar?

Unbelievable new amateur footage of Canadian Matt Campbell's crash at the seventh stage of the Dakar in Bolivia.  

Thanks to modern safety standards and a car that spent so much time spinning in the air rather than hitting things, none of the three man crew was seriously hurt but, considering the crowd that was helping recover a previous wreck, a different bounce, a few meters over this way and it could have been a massacre.

Watch sparks fly at Formula E's Buenos Aires race

(photo vis Technovortex)

I'm trying to like Formula E, I really am but it's not easy, I even tried a misleading pseudo exciting title.   The horrid tracks, the hideous sound, the lame speeds, it all just reminds me of why gas powered karts are so much better then electric ones.

However, dodgy driving during the final lap of the most recent race in Buenos Aires from  the remarkable assemblage of F1 rejects,  does provide some entertainment!

Lewis Hamilton winning friends and influencing people in Vegas

Lewis Hamilton celebrated his birthday in Las Vegas lest week at a club called Light.   CES in full swing, Will. i. am in the DJ booth, Nicole and entourage by his side the 2014 F1 Champ was called out on stage, his name in blazing lights.

A good opportunity to make some new fans, especially since we are told not many in the crowd seemed to know who Lewis is.   Hamilton is trying to figure out how to jumpstart his music career amidst rumors he's being mentored by Drake.

Sounds like a fun evening except not for one F1 fan who did recognize him when Hamilton and his entourage were standing next to his table.   The fan asked one of Hamilton's "people" if he could say hello and congratulate him on his win but was told "Lewis is not talking to anyone tonight".

This person snapped a few pictures and tried to explain he was a big fan at which point, according to him, someone from the group slapped the phone out of his hand.  A large bodyguard then threatened to "put him to sleep" if he did not leave the club, something he refused to do since he was at a paid table.  His phone was confiscated by Hamilton's people and only returned twenty minutes later.
Hamilton, at arm's length away during all this,  never seem to acknowledge what happened.

So the owner of phone sent us the pictures and the story.  Later I spoke to him on the phone and he did not strike me as some psycho fan, just a guy who's followed F1 for many years.

It's hard in these cases, Hamilton is a celebrity, though in Vegas that night there were few people who knew who he was.   Celebrities and sports figures are certainly entitled to their privacy though perhaps hanging in the middle of a packed club is bound to invite interactions with people.    Pros who are good at it, know how to make fans happy with a smile and a few words,  others don't want to be bothered.

Most likely Hamilton could care less he lost a fan on his birthday.

When you are content to simply be yourself and don't compare or compete, you will be respected. #TeamLH pic.twitter.com/BUwG6rixeY
— Lewis Hamilton (@LewisHamilton) January 10, 2015

Repost: African Turbo

1982 Renault 20 Turbo 4x4 Paris-Dakar

First published in December 2012


"Fait attention au vaches!"... "aaargh" ... "C'est bon. C'est bon"

Short shorts, t-shirts and unfastened helmets mixed with much gallic arguing, it's hard to believe these two managed to get anywhere, much less win the Dakar outright.    In fact Claude and Bernard Marreau were by then veterans of the first three editions of the desert classic and had a long previous experience in African Rally Raids.

A 1982 GoPro equivalent...

Cheers then for the brothers who 30 years ago, not only dodged african cows, managed not to strangle each other  or kill their Safari edition 4WD Renault 20 Turbo but also made this film without the aid of  a single GoPro!

The soundtrack gets pretty silly at times but stick with it and keep in mind that in the 80's turbos were a new and somewhat dodgy technology,  ballsy by Renault to have the confidence their turbo engine would prove reliable in that hellish torture test.

The engine in the car was a carburated 1.6 L  out of an R18 Turbo,  good for 132 hp.  5 speed transmission, rear locking differential.     Front suspension was  double a arms, rear was a solid axle.
It has been restored, you can find that story HERE

Dakar, 30 years ago

(Photo:Porsche AG)

You might be following the 2015 edition of the Dakar as it winds its way through the scorching high deserts of Argentina and Chile.   In 2015 you have the luxury of high definition video clips delivered via YouTube and timing information in real time.

 Dakar is now an international media event.

Thirty years ago it was quite different.  In 1984 the Paris-Algiers-Dakar race was just becoming known outside adventure rally enthusiasts circles and Porsche mounted a first manufacturer effort to conquer the deserts of West Africa.   Races were immortalized in long form documentaries.  

Dakar is still epic, no doubt, but watching Jackie Ickx trying to fix an electrical issue on his 953 with a folding knife just makes you wonder if this was not epic on a whole other level.

Like this?  Make sure you check out the amazing 1982 edition film HERE

24 Hours of Dubai live stream

The first endurance race of 2015

enjoy it with commentary from the best crew in in racing, Midweek Motorsport.

Live timing HERE

You can watch earlier four hour blocks on YouTube

1972 Monaco Grand Prix, Jean Pierre Beltoise's moment in the rain.

Despite what you may read on Jalopnik , Jean-Pierre Beltoise's 1972 Monaco win was not BRM's only victory but it was the last for the British team.

Between 1951 and 1977, BRM managed to build only one championship winning car, in 1962,  Mostly,  British Racing Motors was know for its insistence on insanely complex 16 cylinder engines,  in V and H configurations, both failures for different reasons.    When they did win the championship, in '62,  it was with a conventional V8 in a car  instantly recognizable because if its odd, short, organ pipe exhausts.

By 1972, the Mclaren -BRM was not the class of the field but history tells that on Monaco streets underdogs can have their day and, on May 14, 1972, Beltoise won his only Formula One race, as Panis  did in 1996 and Trulli in 2004.

Thanks to Alex King for saving this clip.  Please note how in 1972 F1 was certainly not what it is today.  How  kerbs  at Monaco were literally sidewalks, Christmas lights are used to illuminate the tunnel.  Pay special attention to where people stood at the start on the climb to Massenet.

Great for pictures and, after all, what could possibly go wrong right?

Amazing.

RSR

There's a very good chance this is the single best picture ever taken of a racing 911.