Pure racing: Overtaking class on Mount Panorama.

Chris Walsham/Facebook

Some of the best racing you never hear anything about.

Fast, new cars are glamorous and exciting but even Saint Ayrton said the best, purest racing he ever did was as an amateur.

So you probably seen Sabine "Queen of the Ring" Schmitz passing a spectacular number of cars in a VLN race  before.   Amazing stuff but the (hopefully) future Top Gear host is a full time professional,  driving the latest model from Porsche, prepared by a very experienced team, on a track she literally grew up driving on.

With that in mind,  I give you Joseph Lethal, killing it at a support race for the 2016 Bathurst 12 hours.    Lenthall built and prepared his first gen RX7 and this was his first time racing on the mountain course!
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Couple of things jump out:  

Very smooth, cool driving.

Love the dog leg box and how the engine seemingly revs to 4 million rpm.

That car is hooked up.

Damn, the track is narrow,  makes passing at the Nurburgring seem simple.

So why did Joseph start 49th anyway ?  

“Last weekend, I travelled to Bathurst to race at Mount Panorama for the first time. After walking the track and being told where not to stick it into the fence, I came back to a prepared car thanks to my crew.

“Practice was great and we finished P14 out of a 61- car field. Qualifying was also good, with another P14 and some time left in the car.

“I got a woeful start in race 1 and dropped back to about 18th. After making my way past a few cars, the alternator belt flicked off and the car stopped coming out of turn 3. Unfortunately, between myself and the marshals, we then badly bent the front of the car while trying to load it on the truck.

“Enter my crew again, who through a drill, hammer, cable ties and race tape straightened the front and got the car ready for Race 2. I started 49th and around the last corner; eventually I finished 15th with a straight and running car.

“I can now say that I have raced my Mazda at Bathurst and it was bloody fantastic.”

Pure racing.

Enjoy it

(tx to Gordon Mellis and Autoaction.com.au)

Why Formula 1, WHY?

It seems F1 has approved a ridiculous new qualifying format which is likely to take effect in 2016.

Qualifying was one of the few things F1 had gotten right.

It made sense, it worked.

So of course, they changed it.

Blame people relentlessly complaining about wanting a better "show".  the threat of artificial reversed grids resulted in this abomination of a compromise.

Here is how it will work

Q1

-16 minutes duration;
- After 7 minutes, the slowest driver is eliminated;
- Slowest driver eliminated every 1 minute 30 seconds thereafter until the chequered flag;
- 7 drivers eliminated, 15 progress to Q2.

Q2

- 15 minutes duration;
- After 6 minutes, slowest driver eliminated;
- Slowest driver eliminated every 1 minute 30 seconds thereafter until the chequered flag;
- 7 drivers eliminated, 8 progress to Q3.

Q3

- 14 minutes;
- After 5 minutes, slowest driver eliminated;
- Slowest driver eliminated every 1 minute 30 seconds thereafter until the chequered flag;
- 2 drivers left in final 1 minute 30 seconds.

Say goodbye to last minute hero laps, for one thing. Ayrton Senna who was electrifying finding time through a full field in qualifying must be spinning in his grave.

2016 Formula One Testing: first pictures and sounds

First day of the 2016 F1 tests in Barcelona, the headline is Vettel was fastest but the truth is Mercedes turned twice as many laps, 156,  as the rest of the field.  

Granted, the W07 is an evolution of last year's car and changes will have been the least of any team, but keep in mind that over the past two seasons Mercedes was not just the fastest but also the most reliable.

Ominous.

Ferrari powered teams had the least number of laps although Haas was held back by a front wing failure.

McLaren and Renault seem to be in the in the weeds with McLaren running a frankenstein motor based on their early 2015 unit.

These clips are courtesy of  F1analisitecnica.com

Button,  Hamilton and Vettel.



Bottas



Vettel and Button




Is the sound better with the new, more open exhausts?   I would say it's an improvement, less whizzy and more rumbling.  

Check out some more random clips below.

Witness the greatest race car launch ever!

Witness the amazing debut of the Rover 3.9 v8 powered Tinsi-I at the Buddh International Circuit.  former home of the Indian Grand Prix.

In this age of managed PR you have to admire the frank evaluation of the "small teething issues" the Tinsi engineers experienced.

In case you missed it:

"It was not a puncture but the rear tire actually came off the rim.  The clearance between the rear right toe control rod and the rim was quite less.  While rolling the wheel with the car jacked up, the wheel did not interfere with the toe control rod.  However, when the car was driven, a compliance was induced as the tire experienced some flex due to medium rubber compound.  This compliance made the rim touch the toe control rod.  The rim got deformed and the tire came off.

On the front right wheel, there was a problem with the brake disk.   Due to a manufacturing defect in the brake disk it sheared from it's center bolts.  The broken part of the disk filed the inner part of the front right rim and thus, the whole wheel came off.

We were happy to see out suspension components were fine."

(With thanks to Bill Auberlen)

Straight from the horse's mouth: the Ferrari SF16-H

Not usually a fan of how Ferrari does their social media and press release videos but this series is very good.

Technical director James Allison, chief designer Simone Resta and power unit director Mattia Binotto respond to interesting questions openly obviously while not telling us what they don't want people to know (especially engine man Binotto).

A nice improvement from the usually rather abysmal Ferrari corporate videos.   A good sign?








Before you play this one, I would recommend turning the volume down to avoid the god awful EDM Ferrari's multimedia department seems to love...

Let's take a lap onboard the Formula One favorite for 2016.

Much of the speculation at the end of last season and over the winter break has been of Ferrari matching Mercedes.  
It's very likely that with the SF16H the Scuderia is now on par with, and maybe even surpassed, the all conquering Mercedes W06 Lewis Hamilton  rode to victory in 2015.  

Problem is:

Mercedes has the W07 ready to go.

Here's Nico Rosberg making his way around Silverstone during a "filming day" session.




Haven't bothered much with speculation over the break: if you've been a reader long enough you know speed talks and bullshit walks and winter speculation is mostly the latter.  

Next week, testing starts in Spain and again we will be awash with predictions.

Take it with a tablespoon of salt but look at reliability runs:  Ferrari has a very different power unit layout this year.  Renault and Honda, who knows what they will do.  Toro Rosso a whole new engine to package and Red Bull is presumably running their nerds overtime to make the French lump run to their liking.

Speaking of Red Bull, wonderful "conspiracy" theory on the internet about their new "matte" livery:  It's actually an aero enhancing surface that works much like the dimples on a golf ball.  

Love it!

McLaren monsters the Mountain

Record lap for Shane Van Gisbergen



Van Gisbergen drove the Tekno Autosports McLaren 650S GT3 to a 2:01.286 track record to qualify on pole for the 2016 Liquid Moly Bathurst 12 hour.

Behind the Kiwi is Rene Rast in an Audi R8, and a second McLaren of Warren Luff, separated by a mere 4/1000ths of a second.

You can follow the race live on the official site HERE starting at 1:30 PM ET 10:30 AM PT.

Photos: Matthew Everingham

Don't cry for me...Venezuela.

Face it, F1 will be a less exciting place without Pastor Maldonado.

How many times have we listened to Bernie Ecclestone propose some bizarre scheme to inject uncertainty into races?  He may have never gotten the sprinklers he wanted but he did have Pastor Rafael Maldonado Motta, the embodiment of the uncertainty principle in racing.

Pastor became Crashtor, a living meme.

It's easy to dump on Maldonado, his driving, his story, even his looks, he was made to be turned into a villain.  
The man did not help himself when he started muttering about being sabotaged by his Williams mechanics,  echoing excuses given by the incompetent rulers of his country of Venezuela, who blamed their economic disasters on sabotage by the United States.

You will not have Maldonado to kick around anymore.

But in the end, Pastor will have the last laugh:  for all the scorn and ridicule, the man is part of a select club of Grand Prix winners and nobody will ever take that away from him.  
His one win puts him above the vast majority of drivers and on par with the likes of Alesi, Kubica, Trulli Panis, Cevert, Mass, just to name a few.

That Maldonado had speed at one point in his career is without question: in 2010 he won the GP2 championship against an extremely competitive field.  He won 6 races beating future F1 drivers like Sergio Perez, Jules Bianchi , Romain Grojean,  Marcus Ericsson .    I remember watching him around Monaco and it was obvious he had both speed and consistency.

What happened?   I imagine he never had the right people around him to temper the craziness that must come with the president of your country handing you a trailer full of money and selling you as the sporting savior of his crumbling country.

Sad, on many levels.

For sure, F1 will be a bit less ...uncertain.

Adios Crashtor!