JSBM 11.07 - Joe Saward

Contents:
The effects of the Kubica accident
McLaren Electronics wins NASCAR deal
The new style Williams F1
Ford versus Ferrari (again)
Silverstone looks for investors
Back to the future?
The trouble with testing in F1
February 14 2011
Issue 11.07
joesaward'sbusinessofmotorsport
N E W S , T R E N D S , I D E A S A N D E C O N O M I C A N A LY S I S F RO M T H E M OTO R S P O RT W O R L D
The effects of the Kubica accident
Robert Kubica's career in Formula 1 will remain uncertain until the day that the Polish driver is ready to attempt to return to
the sport. The injuries that he received in an accident on an obscure Italian rally came fairly close to killing him, the primary
problem being loss of blood in the immediate aftermath of the crash when he was trapped in the wreckage of his Skoda Fabia
for an hour. He was then rushed to hospital by helicopter and once he had medical attention the immediate danger quickly
disappeared. Nonetheless, he still had a series of major injuries which included a collapsed lung, a severely damaged hand and
forearm, a broken shoulder and elbow, plus injuries to his foot and leg. Immediately after the accident he underwent a seven
hour operation to save his right hand and then later in the week he underwent a nine hour operation to repair his foot and
shoulder. A further operation is required for his elbow.
The crash was unfortunate not only for the Polish driver and the Lotus Renault GP team - which lost its primary asset for the
season ahead - but it was also a blow for the sport, as Kubica and the Renault were seen as being potential challengers for the
World Championship, albeit based on the results of just one short test in Valencia, where the new Renault R31 was fastest. It
remains to be seen whether all the teams have shown their hands or not. The general feeling at the moment is that the Red
Bull and the Ferrari are still the fastest cars but that we have yet to see the best from the new McLaren.
The Lotus Renault GP team called in Nick Heidfeld to replace Kubica in the tests and late on Saturday afternoon in Jerez he
set the fastest time of the day, making a strong bid for the job. The team also ran Bruno Senna and has said that it is interested
in Tonio Liuzzi, but it is not yet clear if the Italian will be given a run or not. Vitaly Petrov in the meantime has been working to
adapt to the KERS system, something which Heidfeld is used from his time with BMW Sauber.
Kubica's accident has also opened a debate about whether or not it is wise for teams to allow their drivers to compete in other
forms of motor racing. This is an interesting argument. Kubica says that rallying improved his F1 driving, which may be true, but
ultimately it may also have cost him his career. There are others who argue that the drivers should be protected from their own
competitive instincts because of the levels of investment involved and the responsibility that a driver has to be fit for his team.
McLaren Electronics wins NASCAR deal
NASCAR has been out of step with the automotive industry for the
best part of 20 years, continuing to use carburetors despite the fact that
most of the gasoline engines in the United States have been using fuel
injection systems since the late 1980s. The last US-built road cars with
carburetors were introduced in 1990, but NASCAR ignored the trend
and stuck with the same old system that had been used since the sport
began in 1949.The logic behind this was that things are always best if they are kept simple.The Holley Carburetor has powered
every NASCAR Sprint Cup car since the 1960s and the scrutineers know the units well. NASCAR wanted to avoid opening
the door to complicated fuel injection system that would be much harder to police as such systems mean that the cars must
carry computers and these could be used for many other purposes. Inspecting high-performance software is a much more
complex - and expensive - task than checking old-fashioned carburetors.
At the same time it meant that teams could also not extract much more performance from such a well-tried unit and that
meant that cars could not be made to go quicker. This was necessary to stop cars taking off whenever they went sideways at
speed which was making NASCAR's insurers nervous. In the end this led to the less than elegant "restrictor plate" solution on
the superspeedways. As time went by, therefore, NASCAR engines had less and less relevance for the automotive industry.The
plan is to reconnect the racing with the industry using tamper-proof McLaren Electronics ECUs, which have been produced in
alliance with Freescale Semiconductor of Austin, Texas.
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This means that only approved software is allowed and NASCAR will have systems provided to make sure that the software
being used is legal. The plan now is for the systems to be checked during the 2011 season and introduced for next year's
NASCAR Sprint Cup.
As part of this programme, Freescale will become the "Official Automotive Semiconductor of NASCAR" and McLaren the
"Official Engine Control Unit of NASCAR."
McLaren Electronics has been the Official ECU Supplier to the FIA Formula One World Championship since 2008 and, in that
role, has provided the standard powertrain control and data systems to all of the teams. It also supplies systems and parts to
the IndyCar Series. The company already has an office in Mooresville, North Carolina, from where it markets a wide range of
control, data and telemetry systems.
The McLaren/Freescale bid beat eight other companies that were tendering for the ECU.
This is, of course, great advertising for the McLaren brand at a time when the Woking company is rolling out its new MP4-12C
road car, which will be sold in the US on a regular retail basis, with the vehicles being built to US federal standards and McLaren
having its own dedicated dealer network when the cars start arriving in the US in the late spring.
This may also explain the big announcement last week of the McLaren F1 team is extending its partnership of 17 years with
ExxonMobil, the biggest company in the US.
"This relationship has been long, deep, wide and fruitful,” says McLaren's Ron Dennis. "It’s tremendously pleasing that companies
of such scale and global reach choose not only to become partners with Vodafone McLaren Mercedes, but to continue that
relationship over so many years. We have worked with both TAG Heuer and Hugo Boss, both hugely successful and iconic
lifestyle brands, over a consecutive period of three decades. We work with them still. The success and longevity of these
relationships send a clear message that working with Vodafone McLaren Mercedes offers a consistently impressive return
on investment, not only in terms of the marketing value of our success on track, witnessed by hundreds millions of people
worldwide, but also in terms of measurable results from the targeted B2B and B2C campaigns we orchestrate in close
collaboration with our partners."
The new style Williams F1
More details are now emerging about the decision to float the Williams F1
team on the Frankfurter Wertpapierbörse, the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. The
team last week transferred all the shares in Williams Grand Prix Engineering
Ltd to a new company called Williams Grand Prix Holdings PLC (WGPH). At
the same time the shareholdings were altered with the company founders
Sir Frank Williams and Patrick Head selling more of their shares to Austrian
businessman Toto Wolff. In addition, they placed 3.5 percent of the shares
in a company called WGP Trustees Ltd. This meant that the original share
structure was changed with Williams's 63 percent being transformed into a
56.7 percent share, and Head's 27 percent dropping to 23.5 percent. This
left Wolff with 16.3 percent, held through two separate entities (Williams
Invest Holdings and Williams Holdings Ltd). WGP Trustees Ltd has three
shareholders: the team's chairman Adam Parr (who now, in effect, owns
1.25 percent of the team), technical director Sam Michael (1.25 percent)
and chief executive officer Alex Burns (1.00 percent).
The sale of 27 percent of WGPH will raise $95 million, and will give the
team a book value of $360 million. The flotation means that Williams
will be selling 6.6 percent of his shares, which will drop his shareholding
to 50.1 percent, but will earn him in the region of $23 million, while
Head will sell17.7 percent of his 23.5 and will thus end up with only
5.8 percent of the business, but with around $63 million in the bank
- plus whatever he may have gained from the additional shares sold
to Wolff. Wolff will sell only 3.3 percent of his shareholding, and only
if there is sufficient demand for the shares. If he holds on to his shares
he will retain 16.3 percent, while Parr, Michael and Burns will retain their existing shares,
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which cannot in any case be sold for at least 18 months.
There will be two independent non-executive directors appointed shortly.
Amongst all the paperwork is the announcement that Head “will retire in the course
of 2011".
This arrangement allows the founders to benefit from all their work over the years,
leaves Williams in control, allows Head (right) to retire, gives Wolff a return on his
investment and gives key employees the incentive to stay with the team.
None of the money being raised will go into the team, despite rumours to this effect
and investors can look forward to sharing any profits that the team can generate
in the future. This will not affect the F1 operation if the Resources Restriction
Agreement remains in place, which limits what the team is allowed to spend on
Formula 1. There is also potential that subsidiary company Williams Hybrid Power
Ltd will generate considerable profits in the years to come and there remains the
possibility that the company will expand into other new companies to generate more
revenues. McLaren sells many of its F1 technologies in a company called McLaren
Applied Technologies and there is no reason why Williams could not do something along similar lines. The Williams F1 brand
is also something that has not really been developed over the years, beyond a few Williams-branded Renault road cars back
in the 1990s. Williams and Head were never very interested in developing this side of the business, but the new generation of
management has a broader vision than the old style racers, although they need to be careful to ensure that the racing is not
affected by their other activities.
There is no doubt that Williams could generate a great deal more sponsorship if it was more successful and the team knows
from experience that the key to getting sponsors is success in the races. A manufacturer engine deal would also help with the
funding, although using customer engines has not stopped Red Bull Racing or Brawn GP from being successful. The first step is
probably to be able to raise sufficient funding to not have to have drivers who are linked to the sponsorship, as is clearly the
case with Pastor Maldonado. Having only one truly competitive driver is a major handicap and means that the team cannot
hope to get into the top placings in the Constructors' title.
The focus now, therefore, is on creating a better technical package that will get Williams back to the front of the F1 grid. If that
happens money will cease to be a problem.
Ford versus Ferrari (again)
In 1963 Henry Ford II and Lee Iacocca decided to try to buy the Ferrari road car company.
What they wanted was to use Ferrari to help Ford make a mark in international racing and
so sell more road cars. An approach was made with the suggestion that Ford would take
over the road car business, creating a company called Ford-Ferrari.
Enzo Ferrari would retain all motorsport activities and run a separate business called FerrariFord and this would be taken over by Ford when Ferrari died. There were two weeks of
negotiations, but Enzo would not compromise on racing. He would run it and he would race
where he pleased.
The deal fell apart and Henry Ford II was sufficiently irritated by it all to decide that Ford
would defeat Ferrari at Le Mans, where the Italian cars had been dominant for several
years. The result was a battle between Ford and Ferrari which resulted in Ford winning four
consecutive victories between 1966 and 1969. It may also have been one of the reasons that
Ford decided to fund the Cosworth Formula 1 engine in the same period.
Ferrari ended up doing a deal with Fiat in 1969 which was not very different to what Ford
had been proposing and the two companies went their separate ways, although there has always been a sense of emnity
between them. This was seen again last week when Ford went to a Federal court in Michigan and accused the Italian firm of
trademark infringement for allegedly misappropriating the F-150 name, which has long been used for the company's pick-up
trucks and of cybersquatting, by registering the domain name www.ferrarif150.com. The American giant claimed that it had
suffered "irreparable harm" to its F-150 trademark and asked the judge to block Ferrari from using the trademark in the US and
asking for damages and any revenue and profits earned in the US through the use of the F150 name. Ford also wants $100,000
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over the question of cybersquatting. Ferrari responded by explaining that its F150 is not actually called that and that its full
name is the F150th Italia, but that this has been abbreviated. Ferrari added, not without humour, that "there will definitely not
be a production run of single-seaters" bearing the name.
"This year the decision was taken to dedicate the car name to a particularly significant event – the 150th anniversary of
the Unification of Italy," Ferrari said."Ferrari believes that its own contender in the forthcoming F1 championship cannot be
confused with other types of commercially available vehicle of any sort whatsoever, nor can it give the impression that there is
a link to another brand of road-going vehicle. Therefore it is very difficult to understand Ford’s viewpoint on the matter."
Silverstone looks for investors
The British Racing Drivers’
Club (BRDC) has finally
announced that its is looking
for commercial investment
to "realise the potential" of
the Silverstone circuit and its
estate. The BRDC has asked
PriceWaterhouseCoopers
to prepare an information
memorandum to share the
Club’s vision with potential
investors. The plans include
hotels, a Hall of Fame, young
driver academies, simulation
motor sport training, a
development and technology
park, an enterprise zone, international kart track and off-road facilities, in addition to the current facilities. It all makes sense.
Work is nearing completion on the new pit and paddock (above) which will be used this year for the British Grand Prix, but it
is clear that additional funding is required if the circuit development plan is to continue.
"The commercial potential of Silverstone and the Estate is significant," says Stuart Rolt, Chairman of the BRDC. "With the new
circuit, new pit and paddock complex and other existing key motor sport developments all funded, the time is right for the
BRDC to consider potential investment from third parties who share our vision and can help us realise the full potential of
Silverstone more rapidly. The redevelopment of Silverstone will be undertaken under the umbrella of the ‘BRDC Members
Charter’. This Charter requires that the race circuit is both protected and enhanced. Any developments around the venue and
Estate will thus go hand-in-hand with further improvements to the circuit and motor sport facilities.
"We are seeking external investment to help us realise the full potential of Silverstone more quickly. We have asked Robert
Brooks, previous Chairman, to lead the process. If we cannot find a suitable investor, or are unable to agree satisfactory terms
on a deal, we will continue with the development ourselves, albeit at a slower pace."
Back to the future?
The Ford Mustang was introduced to the public by Lee Iacocca at the1964 New York World's Fair. The original Mustang
spawned an entire new class of stylish and sporty compact cars, which were affordable for the man on the street. The Mustang
was a huge success and led to the introduction of the Chevrolet Camaro, the Pontiac Firebird, the Mercury Cougar and the
AMC Javelin. The Mustang has been redesigned several times, notably in 1974 when a more fuel-efficient model was deemed
necessary after the Oil Crisis. There followed new Mustangs in 1979, 1994 and then again in 2004. During this period the
car was used to win many SCCA titles in the 1960s, was used successfully in TransAm in the 1970s and then became hugely
successful in the IMSA series in the 1980s before Jack Roush took the Mustang back to TransAm in the 1990s.
Ford wants to keep the success story running and the company has now informed NASCAR that it would like to race the
Mustang in the Sprint Cup, beginning in 2013, to replace the current Fusion model. The approval process could take a year and
is dependent on the car being in the same competitive range as its rivals from Chevrolet, Dodge and Toyota.
Ford says that it has embarked on the switch because it wants to have a competition car that is closer in appearance to
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vehicles that can be bought in showrooms across
the United States.
Ford Motor Company's love affair with NASCAR
goes back to the very beginning when the first
NASCAR Grand National race took place at
Charlotte Speedway in 1949. This was won by
Glenn Dunnaway's Ford, although the car would
later be disqualified. Ford's first official victory
came the following year when Jimmy Florian won
at Dayton, Ohio, although in the early years rivals
such as Hudson, Oldsmobile and Chrysler were
dominant. In the late 1950s Ford recruited 1925
Indianapolis 500 winner Peter DePaolo to create
a Ford factory-backed team and the team was
soon dominant but after Billy Myers's Mercury
went over the wall at Martinsville in 1957 and
injured a number of spectators, the Automobile
Manufacturers Association recommended that all US car companies withdraw from the sport. DePaolo's operation was
disbanded, but two team members manager John Holman and driver Ralph Moody formed their own team and in the years
that followed Holman Moody scored a string of victories, with the Wood Brothers, Ned Jarrett and Banjo Matthews also
enjoying success in Fords.
President John F Kennedy changed things dramatically in 1961 by asking the Ford Motor Company president Robert
McNamara to be his Secretary of State. This opened the way for Lee Iacocca to get the top job and Ford soon announced
that it was withdrawing from the AMA boycott. There was much success for Holman Moody in the late 1960s, although Ford
cut back again in 1971 and it was not until 10 years later than the company set up its Special Vehicle Operations division and
a new era of success began with Bill Elliott (Melling Racing), Davey Allison (Yates Racing), Rusty Wallace (Penske Racing) and
more recently years Roush Racing leading the Ford challenge. The company's total number of NASCAR Cup wins now stands
at 599 with the most successful drivers having been Ned Jarrett (43 wins), Bill Elliott (40), Mark Martin (35), Dale Jarrett (30),
David Pearson (above) (29) and Fred Lorenzen and Junior Johnson, who both scored 26 wins.
The trouble with testing in Formula 1
Rubens Barrichello clocked the fastest time of the week after
four days of testing at Jerez, in southern Spain, but no-one is
really sure if that means the Williams FW33 is the fastest car,
or whether Rubens was the only driver really going for it. The
test saw Ferrari fastest on the first day, Mercedes GP Petronas
on the second, Lotus Renault GP on the third and Williams on
the final day. Did it prove anything at all? The test saw all the
teams with the exception of Hispania Racing Team in action, the
Spanish team having issued images of its car (right), which is still
being built at the moment.
Rubens set the best time on Sunday morning, with a best of
1m19.832s after two days and 202 laps of the track. Heavy rain
spoiled further any fast runs in the afternoon. His team mate
Pastor Maldonado was 23rd fastest after two days during which he did just 50 laps and set a best of 1m22.591s, although clearly
he can do better than that if there are no problems.
Second fastest overall was Michael Schumacher, who set his best time on the second day of the test (the German did the
second and third days). He was half a second slower than Barrichello's best but completed 225 laps. Nico Rosberg ended up
18th overall after 118 laps.
Nick Heidfeld set the third fastest time overall in the Renault on the third day of the test, completing 86 laps and setting a best
of 1m20.361s.The first two days of the test were done by Vitaly Petrov, but he had troubles with the KERS system and although
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he did 122 laps, his best time was a 1m22.493s, which was 20th fastest. Bruno Senna took over the car on the final day and
completed 68 laps, but his best was only a 1m21.400s, which was the 11th fastest time. He would probably have gone faster in
different weather conditions on the last afternoon.
Ferrari was very much in business with Felipe Massa doing the first two days and Fernando Alonso the last two. The two
men recorded times of 1m20.413s and 1m20.493s and completed 460 laps between them and ended up fourth and fifth
respectively.
Sauber's Kamui Kobayashi was next with the
sixth best time overall, set on the final day after
170 laps. Sergio Perez was 17th fastest after his
two days, with a best of 1m21.857s, after 150
laps.
The new McLaren MP4-26 was running for the
first time with Lewis Hamilton doing the first and third days and Jenson the second and fourth. Hamilton completed 94 laps
and Button 139 and the two men set exactly the same time: 1m21.009, which put them seventh equal overall.
Ninth fastest of the week was Sebastien Buemi, who completed 182 laps with a best of 1m21.213s, Jaime Alguersuari was a
thousandth of a second slower after 114 laps and thus 10th quickest, while test driver Daniel Ricciardo completed 37 laps with
a best of 1m21.755s, which was good for 15th overall.
Red Bull Racing maintained its low profile with Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber who
together ran for 400 laps.Webber was a few hundredths faster with a 1m21.522s, compared
to Vettel's 1m21.574s.
Team Lotus had made progress since the first
test and Heikki Kovalainen was able to complete
104 laps with a best of 1m21.632s, which was
14th overall. Jarno Trulli did the first two days
and completed 93 laps and his best was only a
1m23.216s, the 24th and slowest time, but given Kovalainen's performance there is more to come from Trulli.
The new Force India VJM04 was going through its first test and Adrian Sutil ended up 16th overall after two days, his best
time being 1m21.574s after 188 laps. Paul di Resta did the first two days of the test and completed 163 laps, with a best of
1m22.945s, the 22nd fastest time of the test.
Virgin also had its new car in action for the first time and Timo Glock and Jerome d'Ambrosio did two days apiece. Glock
completed 100 laps for a best time
of 1m22.208s, the 19th best time
of the test, while d'Ambrosio was
21st after 120 laps with a best of
1m22.985s.
The times should once again
not be taken too seriously as the
teams were all working on different
programmes. The next test is
scheduled to begin in Barcelona on
Friday, February 18.
WHISPER WHISPER WHISPER
g Robby Gordon has switched his NASCAR Sprint Cup team from Toyota to Dodge. This makes the team only the second
Dodge operation after Penske Racing. The car will be funded by Speed Energy drink, which Gordon created last year in the
hope of developing a solid revenue source for the team. Gordon has been sponsored by both Red Bull and Monster energy
drinks during his career and reckons that the only point of importance is the marketing. A team has the right kind of profile to
be able to create customers.The same idea is being tried in Formula 1 by Team Lotus with its EQ8 drink, which is the successor
to last year's LR8 brand.
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g The FIA Institute has named the 12 drivers who have been chosen to be part of the first Young Driver Excellence Academy.
The 12 drivers (in alphabetical order) are: Kevin Abbring (21, Netherlands), Paul-Loup Chatin (19, France), Albert Costa (20,
Spain), Alon Day (19, Israel), Philipp Eng (20, Austria), Robin Frijns (19, Netherlands), Timmy Hansen (18, Sweden), Egon Kaur
(23, Estonia), Andreas Mikkelsen (21, Norway), Alexander Rossi (19, US), Richie Stanaway (19, New Zealand), Stoffel Vandoorne
(18, Belgium). The 12 will attend six separate workshops of between three and five days at different locations in Europe in the
course of the next nine months. The driving elements of the course include the development of technical skills, safety training,
attitudes and awareness. The human performance aspect will feature physiology, psychology, nutrition, media skills and career
management. They will be coached by former F1 race driver Alex Wurz and his company Test and Training International, and by
former World Rally Champion co-driver Robert Reid and his company Elite Sports Performance.
g It has emerged that Pat Symonds, the former Renault engineer who was implicated in the Singapore scandal in 2009, is
banned from attending Formula 1 races until 2013, but there is nothing to stop him working as a consultant and it has emerged
that an agreement has been reached for him to use his F1 experience with Marussia Virgin Racing. It is unlikely that Symonds
would be able to get an FIA licence as a top engineer in the future.
g Practice for the Budweiser Shootout at Daytona resulted in Joey Logano setting a fastest speed of 203.087mph, just faster
than Kurt Busch, who lapped at a speed of 203.082mph. The new surface at Daytona has obviously helped to push up speeds,
while it has also created a different style of racing with the most effective strategy in the Shootout being for drivers to pair up
and work together to pull away from the pack.
g Sweden's Patrik Flodin was thrown out of his home rally at the weekend when his Subaru Impreza, which he uses in the
Production World Rally Championship, was found to be using wheel rims that did not conform to the technical regulations.
Flodin's Uspenskiy Rally Tecnica team submitted a letter of apology for the transgression.
g NASCAR Nationwide Series driver Michael Annett has admitted that he was driving under the influence of alcohol when
he was stopped by police recently in Mooresville, North Carolina. Annett was arrested after he ran into the back of another
car at red light. He was also charged with resisting arrest, unlawful use of a mobile phone to text or send e-mail and having a
blood-alcohol level four times the legal limit in the state.
g Audi and Mercedes-Benz are both yet to announce their driver line-ups for the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters (DTM)
Series. Audi has yet to announce its replacement for Alexandre Prémat, but the names being mentioned include F3 Euro Series
champion Edoardo Mortara.The full Audi team is expected to be Timo Scheider, Oliver Jarvis, Mattias Ekström, Martin Tomczyk,
Miguel Molina, Mike Rockenfeller, Markus Winkelhock and Katherine Legge. Mercedes has at least one seat available with Paul
di Resta moving up to Formula 1 and it is expected that David Coulthard may also step down, having been given a bigger role
in the BBC's television coverage in F1. Robert Doornbos has been mentioned as a possible replacement, but he says that he
is going to be racing in America.
g Kurt Busch is going to try his hand in NHRA Pro Stock dragsters this year. The NASCAR star is aiming to make his debut
in the series at the Gatornationals at Gainesville Raceway, Florida, in the middle of March. In testing last week at Bradenton
Motorsports, Park Busch recorded a 6.58-second run at 210.940mph, which indicated that he has the speed to qualify.
g Toni Gardemeister (right) has set up his own team to contest the Intercontinental Rally
Challenge this season. The TGS Worldwide team is completely new but Gardemeister says that
the crew will all be highly-experienced and many of them have worked with him during his WRC
career with Ford, Seat and Skoda.
g American Ethanol will sponsor Clint Bowyer's Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet in the
NASCAR Sprint Cup this year. The alliance of companies involved in the ethanol industry was
put together by Tom Buis, a former President of the American National Farmers Union, who now
runs a company called Growth Energy. Buis was thought to be a potential candidate for the role
of Secretary of Agriculture when President Barack Obama came to office. Bowyer was chosen
because he comes from Kansas, where ethanol production in a big business.
g Audi Team Joest dominated the Bathurst 12 Hour GT race in Australia with Canadian-born
Hong Kong racer Darryl O'Young, 2009 FIA GT3 European Champion Christopher Mies and
Marc Basseng leading home their team-mates Craig Lowndes, Warren Luff and Mark Eddy in a pair of Audi R8 LMSs.
g Tom Carnegie, the chief announcer for the Indianapolis Motor Speedway from 1946 to 2006 has died at the age of 91. He
commentated on 61 Indianapolis 500s, 12 Brickyard 400s and six United States Grands Prix. Carnegie worked in local radio
after graduating from college and was working at WIRE in Indianapolis when Wilbur Shaw, the president of the Speedway, heard
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him commentating on a vintage car concours d'elegance on the day before the 500 in 1946. He invited him to help out on race
day and Carnegie continued to call races until he was 85.
g English driver Pippa Mann is to test a Conquest Racing Indycar at the Texas Motor Speedway on February 28. She hopes
that the test could lead to an IndyCar oval programme in 2011, with the goal being a fulltime drive in 2012. Mann won an Indy
Lights race in 2010 and finished fifth in the series with Sam Schmidt Motorsports.
g The GP2 Asia series kicked off in Abu Dhabi with victory in the main event going to Jules Bianchi of the Lotus ART team and
the Sprint Race to Stefano Coletti of Trident Racing. Romain Grosjean followed Bianchi home in the first event in his DAMS,
with Davide Valsecchi third in his Team AirAsia entry. In the second race Coletti finished ahead of Josef Kral (Arden) and Marcus
Ericsson (iSport International). Bianchi leads the championship by two points as a result.
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