monaco

ISSUE 64 - MAY 26, 2014
BIANCHI BRINGS
HOME THE BACON!
INDY 500
HUNTER-RAE TAKES IT BY A NOSE
WRX
BAKKURUD WINS AT LYDDEN
THIS WEEK
F1: Monaco GP
GP2: Monaco
Formula Renault 3.5: Monaco
IndyCar: Indy 500
World RX: Round 2 Lydden Hil
SARC: Gauteng Rally
REPORTS & PREVIEWS
OPINION
Start Your Engines: Graham Harris
Smithy in the Slipstream: Luke Smith
Homes on the Case: Martin Holmes
Commentators’ Curse: Hendrik Verwoerd
F1 Shortcuts
Farming in the USA
Rally News
Pacenotes
ODDS & ENDS
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START YOUR
ENGINES . . .
“It’s Monaco baby, what happens in Monaco, stays in Monaco”
The Wall Street Journal ran
an article about Monaco last
Friday that was in keeping
with its general F1 coverage:
showing a lack of balance
and on-the-ground nous. The
point that was missed when
talking about Monaco is that
it is not motor racing in the
purest sense of the word; it
is show business. It is the
showcase of F1, not because
drivers go wheel to wheel,
but rather because of the
spectacle of what they do
with their cars. Watching the
current F1 cars thread their
way through these narrow
twisty streets is to see great
artists in action; and if you
come away unimpressed
then you have no soul. For
a driver, the first visit to
Monaco is intimidating.
“The first time I came here in
the Renault World Series, I
was shocked,” said rising star
Stoffel Vandoorne. “I thought:
‘there’s no way I can do what
the experienced guys were
doing’. But then after a few
laps you get into it and you’re
doing it. It’s amazing.”
To watch even the junior
drivers threading the needle
between the barriers time
and time again, looking for a
tenth here, a tenth there, is
inspiring. Some say that they
have taken away the bump
after Casino Square and the
gully at Mirabeau and it is not
what it was - but it is. The
drivers all find it energising
and, for a spectator, it is great.
Anyone who goes to Monaco
and is not excited by what
they see on the race track
suffers from a dullness of
soul, for this is majestic, in the
true sense of the word. The
folk in this part of the world
have always had ambitions
as dramatic as their towering
corniches. The world’s first
hill climb was held here from
Nice to La Turbie. There were
insane hill climbs up the Mont
des Mules and Mont Agel, and
of course there’s the iconic
Monte Carlo Rally!
And then in 1929 Anthony
Noghes proposed holding a
Grand Prix on the streets. Some
thought that the Automobile
Club de Monaco was mad to
embark on such a project.
“They have the most
astounding audacity in some
parts of Europe,” wrote
The Autocar when word
of the idea first filtered
back to England. It was,
the magazine concluded,
“an unlikely event in a
Principality which does not
possess a single open road
of any length, but has only
ledges on the face of a cliff”.
The French were only
marginally little less cynical,
with La Vie Automobile noting
that although it was the first
time that a race had been held
right in the heart of a city, “it
goes without saying that the
track is made up entirely of
bends, steep uphill climbs and
fast downhill runs.”
But it went ahead and became
very quickly a key part of racing
folklore.
That is part of the attraction.
It is, despite the developers, a
stunning part of the world and
there are enough of the buildings
from the Belle Époque to retain
some of the style from those
formative years. From the start,
old money and new money lived
side by side. Today Monaco sings
with crisp new dollars and rather
grimy roubles.
They don’t ask where the money
comes from... And they don’t
care, money is money!
Those needing to show off have
the usual girlfriend/supercar/
yacht to do so; those who
know how to understate, do it
exquisitely. Everybody thinks
that this the place to be, that this
is glamorous. And it is.
And, of course, the Monaco
Grand Prix is a great party,
the chance to drink a lot and
all that goes with that. For
the wealthy it is all about
the right bars, salons, yachts
and friends; for the rest of us
it is the chance to impress
your facebook friends with
the obligatory ‘selfie’ against
the backdrop of towering
apartment blocks and super
yachts with the message: ‘Hey,
look at me, I’m in Monaco. I’m
glamorous’.
Yeah baby, it’s Monaco!
MONACO GP:
MONTE CARLO
Joe Saward
MONACO:
SOCIAL SEEN
Rubens Barrichello (left) with Keke Rosberg.
Flavio Briatore with wife Elisabetta Gregorac on the grid.
Andrea Albert Pierre Casiraghi, nephew of HSH Prince Albert of Monaco.
Jackie Stewart (left) with Sir
Martin Sorrell, WWP CEO.
Benedict Cumberbatch (Left) on the grid.
Jean Alesi.
(L to R): Peter Brabeck-Letmathe ,
Formula One Chairman with Sir Philip
Green, Arcadia Group CEO; Eddie Jordan,
BBC TV Pundit & Donald Mackenzie,CVC
Capital Partners Managing Partner.
Jacky Ickx,
on the grid.
Noel Edmonds, TV Presenter (Left)
with Nick Mason, Pink Floyd Drummer.
Tamara Ecclestone and husband Jay Rutland with their baby daughter Sophie.
Chalerm Yoovidhya, Red
Bull Racing Co-Owner.
Glenn Johnson, Liverpool FC Football
Player with his wife Laura Johnson.
Tasha de Vasconcelos,
Model and Actress.
MONACO:
QUALIFYING
Joe Saward
Did he or didn’t he?
Going into the Monaco Grand Prix weekend, Lewis Hamilton was favourite
to extend his lead in the World Championship.
McLaren struggled again, with Jenson
Button only managing 12th on the grid.
F
or many the real question
was not whether Nico
Rosberg would beat him on
the track but rather whether
the German could find a way
to destabilise Lewis and knock
him off balance. The theory
was that while Hamilton is
a stronger racer, Rosberg is
more stable a character and
so the battle for the World
Championship might require
some psychological games
from Nico. He’s not known as
someone who plays tricks but
when his Mercedes went up the
escape road at Mirabeau on his
last Q run, just ahead of Lewis
Hamilton, who was going faster,
there was clearly a feeling that
Nico had done it on purpose.
Hamilton was very obviously
unimpressed but was trying to
remain calm.
“It is ironic,” said a stone-faced
Hamilton. “Nico’s been quick
all weekend. And I was just
working away at it, one step at
a time. I remember starting the
last lap and said ‘This is it, this
is going to be the lap’. I was
two and a half tenths up and
didn’t get to finish it.”
Nico apologised to Hamilton
but insisted that he had made a
mistake.
“Of course I’m sorry for Lewis,”
he said. “Of course that’s not
great, but that’s the way it is.
I thought that I had lost it and
that somebody would beat the
time so I am really, really happy
that it worked out. It couldn’t be
better.”
Well, it could be because there
were a lot of suspicious people,
not least Race Director Charlie
Whiting, who sent a report to
Q3
Q2
1
3
Nico Rosberg
1:15.989
5
Daniel Ricciardo
1:16.384
2
7
Fernando Alonso
1:16.686
4
Lewis Hamilton
1:16.048
9
Jean-Eric Vergne
1:17.540
6
Sebastian Vettel
1:16.547
8
Kimi Räikkönen
1:17.389
11
Daniil Kvyat
1:18.090
Nico Hulkenberg
1:17.846
10
Kevin Magnussen
1:17.555
12
Sergio Perez
1:18.327
Jens
1
Daniel Ricciardo secured
his now traditional 3rd
place on the grid.
the FIA Stewards and asked
them to look into the incident.
After checking out video and
data they concluded that there
was no evidence to suggest it
was a deliberate accident. But
not everyone agreed. Being not
guilty and being innocent are
not the same thing.
Mercedes played the incident
down as much as they could.
“I don’t think anybody does
that deliberately,” Toto Wolff
said. “He missed his braking
and he took the exit. That’s it.”
There was clearly bad feeling,
however, and so there was
a little spice for Sunday,
particularly as Rosberg’s starts
in recent times have not been
great. Hamilton hinted that he
would get his own back…
in 2-1 formation, with Dan
Ricciardo two-tenths ahead of
Sebastian Vettel.
“I think I could have been
closer to the front today,” The
Australian said. “I made a
mistake in the last run in Q3
and lost the time. I would be
disappointed not to finish on
the podium tomorrow. I think
we have the pace to hang with
Mercedes.
The Red Bull team watched all
of this with some amusement
and hoped that the two silver
cars would end up falling over
one another and handing them
a victory. The cars were closer
to the pace of the Mercedes on Vettel was less chirpy but the
the twiddly stuff at Monaco, but team reported that his Q runs
the Red Bull drivers remained
had been spoiled by technical
Q1
13
son Button
1:17.988
15
Valtteri Bottas
1:18.082
17
Pastor Maldonado
1:18.356
14
16
Romain Grosjean
1:18.196
19
Jules Bianchi
1:19.332
Esteban Gutierrez
1:18.741
18
Felipe Massa
no time
21
Kamui Kobayashi
1:20.133
20
Adrian Sutil
1:18.745
22
Max Chilton
1:19.928
Marcus Ericsson
1:21.732
MONACO:
POLE MAN
Nico Rosberg secured pole
after causing a yellow flag in Q3.
g
litch
hes which
whic
ch required Sebastian to qualifying
glitches
u
sing
g a different
diff
ffe
ere
e power unit setting.
using
“We ran
ran a different
diiff
“We
mode,” he explained. “It
w
as fi
fin
ne b
utt n
was
fine
but
not as good as it should have
b
een. W
e weren’t
were
e able to improve on the
been.
We
second
flying
s
econd fl
fly
ying
g lap in Q3 as there was a yellow
fla
fl
ag.”
flag.”
The
Ferraris
T
he ttwo
wo F
erra were next with Fernando
A
lo
onso fi
fift
fth
ft
h an
n Kimi Raikkonen sixth. It was,
Alonso
fifth
and
Alo
onso
o said,
said, more
m
Alonso
or less what had been
expected.
e
xpected.
“We
“We are
are closer
close to the Red Bulls, “ he said. “We
have
h
av
ve made
made more
mo changes than usual here,
be
ecause we
we were
w
because
suffering with understeer and
we
some
w
e had
had s
ome problems under braking but the
car
has
c
ar h
as iimproved
mprrov
v a lot even if we are struggling
a lot
lot to
to get
get tthe
he
e tyres up to temperature. “
K
imi was
was less
les
ss enthused about the level of
Kimi
p
rogress
s.
progress.
“We are
are
en
ott a
“We
not
able to make the tyres work well
h
ere and
and in that
th situation, it’s not easy to put
here
ttogether
ogether a g
oo lap,” he said. “You don’t get a
good
s
econd c
han
nce
second
chance.”
O
ne tteam
eam th
hatt had definitely taken a step
One
that
fforward
orward w
as
sS
was
Scuderia Toro Rosso which had
JJean-Eric
ean-Eric V
erg
g seventh on the grid and
Vergne
M
onaco new
new boy
b Daniil Kvyat ninth. There
Monaco
w
as half
halff a second
se
ec
was
between the two but that
w
as not
not a representative
re
eprr
was
picture as Kvyat was
k
nocked off
off balance
ba
knocked
a little in Q1 when he lost
c
ontrol o
he car and hit the wall (albeit lightly)
control
off th
the
a
he e
xitt o
att tthe
exit
off tthe tunnel. He was lucky not to do
m
ore damage
da
amage
e to the car.
more
““II had
had to
to come
come back to the pits for a nose
c
hange b
ut I m
change
but
managed to do two good laps
iin
n Q2.
Q2. Unfortunately
Unfortu
u
Q3 was a bit unlucky,
b
ecause I was
was
s not able to go for a proper
because
llap.
ap. When
When I went
we out for the final run on new
O
ptions, I h
ad to back off because of the yellow
Options,
had
fla
fl
ag.””
flag.”
A
McLa
are
en th
h were less cheerful with Kevin
Att McLaren
they
M
agnussen eig
Magnussen
eighth and Jenson Button 12th.
Fernando Alonso felt 5th on the grid
was the best they could expect.
“We pretty
pretty mu
“We
much got the best out of what we
h
ad,” the
th
he Dane
Dane said. “Maybe seventh would
had,”
Rosberg, all on
his own for the
qualifying photo.
have been possible but it always a challenge
to hook up the perfect lap around here - and it
never really feel like you succeed.”
“It’s very hard to get a perfect lap in Monaco,”
he said. “I had some traffic in both Q1 and Q2, it
was not at the crucial moments.”
Button complained of traffic on his final run in
Q2.
Williams, on the other hand, was disappointed
to have Valtteri Bottas 13th and Felipe Massa
16th. The two complained that heating up the
tyres was a problem and that they needed more
downforce.
“I came across one of the Toro Rossos at the
Swimming Pool,” he said. “I don’t think he saw
me to start with but then he tried to back out
of the corner, but there wasn’t enough room for
two cars. It’s a pity.”
Force India were not as strong as they have
been in recent races but with Sergio Perez 10th
and Nico Hulkenberg 11th things were not bad at
all.
“My hot lap in Q3 was quite difficult and I had a
lock-up going into the chicane,’ said Perez. “There
was definitely more speed in the car and I don’t
think we got the maximum out of the tyres.
Hulkenberg was happier, saying that he reckoned
he had done a good lap at the end of Q2.
“The car felt ok,” Bottas said, “but I didn’t have
the grip that I wanted.”
Massa was unfortunate to be taken out at the
end of Q1 by the Caterham of Marcus Ericsson.
“That ruined my qualifying,” he said. “It would
have been a fight to get into the top 10, not easy,
but possible, so I am disappointed.”
The Lotuses were 14th and 15th with Romain
Grosjean ahead of Pastor Maldonado.
“We were not fast enough,” said Romain. “We
were hoping that the warmer conditions might
help a little bit. The E22 is much better in the
high speed areas.”
“My first run was OK,” he said, “but the second
one was compromised by the yellow flags and
traffic and I lost around 0.5s, with no chance of
improving. Still I am encouraged by our pace.”
Pastor Maldonado said that the track did not
suit the car and complained about traffic.
Caterham was down in the dumps with Kamui
Kobayashi 21st and Marcus Ericsson 22nd. The
problem, as with many teams, was getting tyre
temperature. Ericsson was banished to the pit
lane for the start as a result of his assault on
Massa.
Sauber ended the day 17th and 18th with
Esteban Gutierrez ahead of Adrian Sutil.
“It was a big challenge to find a clean lap,”
Esteban said. “Bringing the tyres up to
temperature took a few laps, which was not
ideal.”
Sutil complained about the yellow flags at the
end of Q1 saying that this meant he missed his
chance to get the best out of the car.
Down at the back, Marussia outgunned
Caterham on this occasion with Jules Bianchi,
in particular, doing a good job, although 19th
place did not really look very different to
normal. The Frenchman was on it and reckoned
that he might have got through into Q2 on
merit.
Daniil Kvyat continued to impress
by getting the Toro Rosso in to
the top ten even after a Q1 shunt.
“It was my mistake,” he said. “It’s unfortunate.”
As the paddock debated whether Nico was a
good guy or a bad guy, the eyes were also on
the skies. Sunday promised an interesting race
– one way or another…
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MONACO:
RACE REPORT
Joe Saward
Sarah
Holt
Yet More secrets...
There was plenty of excitement
as the grid lined up. What was
going to happen between Nico
and Lewis after the events of
Saturday. What would happen
if the two cars went into the
first corner together? Would
Hamilton really mete out
Senna-like justice as he had
hinted at while still a little
worked up on Saturday?
Nico Rosberg (GER) Mercedes AMG F1 W05 leads
at the start of the race.
Everyone knows that at Monaco
the best chance to overtake
comes at the start of the race
and so the atmosphere was
tense. The lights went out
and both Mercedes came off
the line. There was not much
between them. The focus
however switched quickly to
the cars behind them as Kimi
Raikkonen scorched off the
line and went from sixth on the
grid to third, passing Fernando
Alonso before they got to Ste
Devote and then going around
the outside of Sebastian Vettel
at the corner. Vettel fought
back and retook the position in
the hustle and bustle as they
went up towards the Casino, As
they went down the hill towards
Mirabeau it was Rosberg from
Hamilton, Vettel, Raikkonen,
Ricciardo, Alonso, Magnussen,
the two Toro Rossos and the
Force Indias. At Mirabeau there
was a bungle as Button and
Perez tangled. Sergio thought
he was in the right, Jenson
thought the Mexican was
asleep. The Stewards looked at
the incident and decided it was
a racing incident.
With all this going on, no one
seemed to notice (or care)
that Pastor Maldonado was
gone (no sympathy at all was
noted amongst the media).
Sutil pitted for repairs. Vettel
did not survive long, his Red
Bull stuck in first gear. If he has
been lucky in recent years, he
is certainly not lucky now. He
really does seem to be in the
doldrums and on a downward
spiral that is starting to show
cracks in the all so previously
dominant super-man.
With Vettel gone, it was left to
the hard charging Kimi whose
fast start had leapfrogged from
up the grid to fourth going
into San Devote to chase after
the two Mercedes. Despite
the Finn’s pace he was soon
caught by Daniel Ricciardo and
these two would lead the pack’s
attack on the Silver Arrows.
Alonso by now (almost invisible)
had settled into fifth place with
Kevin Magnussen chasing in
his rather competitive McLaren
which seemed to like the cooler
overcast race conditions.
During this phase of the race,
no-one really much cared about
Kimi Raikkonen (FIN) Ferrari F14-T and Daniel Ricciardo (AUS) Red Bull Racing RB10
battle for position at the start of the race.
the small fry, as at the front
Nico strove to stay ahead of
Lewis.
For the first 10 laps of the
race, the gap was never less
than a second. After 10 laps
Kimi was five seconds behind
and offering no resistance.
Ricciardo followed close behind,
chased by Alonso. Then came
Magnussen, Vergne and Kvyat.
Although the Russian did not
last long.
“We looked competitive all
weekend and had a good
chance of finishing in the points
here,” said Kvyat. “I was able to
hold my position at the start of
the race and even move up to
eighth before I had to retire,”
said the despondent young
driver.
After that it was status quo
until the recovering Sutil got
into a tank-slapper, hit the
infamous tunnel exit dip and
proceeded to crash all the
way from the tunnel exit to
the chicane which, with all
the debris covering large area
of the track, brought out the
inevitable safety-car. This was
one of those moments that are
rather definitive at Monaco.
Mercedes needed to have both
drivers in the pits as quickly as
possible. The deal was that the
man ahead should be first. And
so Lewis had to wait. He was
clearly irritated but it was the
same rules of the game that he
had played from the other side
and he had to swallow it. Lewis
being Lewis was emotional for
a number of laps afterwards
on the team radio, but this
situation was a knock-on effect
from the qualifying. Either
way, Lewis was not happy with
that, feeling it all went back to
that escape road incident at
Mirabeau on Saturday…
Suddenly in the middle of the
race there was a conversation
about fuel consumption with
Rosberg’s crew asking him to
short change and try coasting
at the end of straights. But if
Rosberg had used a lot at the
start, he managed to cut back
later and it made no great
difference on the result. The
computers of modern F1 are
way smarter than that. If you
use too much driving in one
style, it is simple to change the
style and cut back on the gas.
Jules Bianchi had a great
race and scored a very valuable 2 points for Marussia.
Despite all of this, the RosbergHamilton game had all the feel
and cut-and-thrust of good
old-fashioned racing. “I had to
change my driving style, and
use different gears and lift and
coast, but the team got me
to do what I had to do.” Nico
said after the race in the rather
stilted press conference.
No matter what Hamilton
tried, he could not find a
breakthrough and it was
probably never going to be
any different. In the end Lewis
claimed to have got something
stuck in his eye that came
through a loose visor and that
hurt.
“I can tell you, driving with one
eye is just not possible round
here,” he said. “To do that in
the low-speed corners I was
trying to open the visor and
clear it out, but that was only
making it worse. I lost a lot of
time.” He hit the wall a couple
of times and Ricciardo was right
with him, but he stayed ahead
as long as it was possible.
Raikkonen was unlucky. He got
hit by one of the Marussia’s
while behind the Safety Car.
“The car was handling well and
had a good pace,” he said, “but
I was unfortunately, my car was
hit by Chilton’s Marussia and I
had to make an unscheduled
stop and that meant the end of
any chance of getting a good
result.”
Fernando was happy with
fourth. “Today was a good
result,” he said. “At the start,
something in the motor didn’t
work, but even if I’d had full
power, there was no room to
overtake. The three cars ahead of me deserved
to be there as they were un-catchable. I am
pleased with fourth place.”
Nico Hulkenberg (and his employers, no doubt)
was happy with fifth. “Ten points today is a great
reward after such a difficult race,” Nico said.
“The last 20 laps were really tricky because my
supersoft tyres were at the end of their life and it
was hard to hold off the cars behind me and stay
away from the barriers. There were a few close
moments when I kissed the wall, but I survived
and managed to hold on to fifth place.”
Button ended up as a rather tired sixth. “This
was a typical Monaco Grand Prix,” he said. It
messy out there; people were making mistakes;
there were cars all over the place. Massa too was
happy with seventh. “Starting 16th on the grid?,”
he said. “I took some risks when I changed
strategy. I made the most of the opportunities.
Eighth place fell to Romain Grosjean, after a fight
back from last place for Lotus. “That’s Monaco!”
he said. “You can have thousands of misfortunes
in the race, but still be in the points at the end!”
Never has a ninth place been more talked about
and discussed that in Monaco yesterday. This
particular ninth place was, well, bloody amazing
with Marussia surviving to grab points, thanks
to a good performance from Jules Bianchi. He
battled his way ahead of Kamui Kobayashi’s
Caterham early in the race, and then never
looked back. “It wasn’t an easy race,” he said.
“There were some enjoyable highs along the
way, but also a couple of concerning moments
too. What matters at the end is that we got
there.”
The points might have gone to Caterham but
Kobayashi could hang on no longer. In the end
his place was taken by team-mate Marcus
Ericsson who finished 11th, with Max Chilton
bringing up the rear in 14th in the second
Marussia which keeps his finishing streak alive,
for another race.
Race winner
Nico Rosberg.
Sauber’s Esteban Gutierrez fought hard for
eighth place with Valtteri Bottas’s Williams; the
unlucky Mexican lost the back end powering
out of Rascass and hit a wall, while Bottas’s
run ended soon after with an engine failure at
Daniel Ricciardo chased Hamilton in the final laps of the race,
but just couldn’t find a way past.
Loews. Jean-Eric Vergne ran
very strongly initially and was
fighting with Magnussen for
sixth when they pitted under
the safety car on the 26th lap.
Toro Rosso got him out just
ahead of the McLaren but it
was too close for comfort and
the stewards gave him a drive
through penalty for unsafe
release. That dropped him
initially from sixth to 13th, and
then his engine gave up.
After the race a philosophical
Hamilton said, “People speak
Race winner Nico Rosberg (GER)
Mercedes AMG F1 celebrates with
the champagne on the podium.
of Nico and I as best friends.
But we’ve never been best
friends since we started racing
together when we were 13. We
live in the same building and
we say hi to each other, but
we don’t have lunches and
dinners together! The priority
is the team, and I’m not stupid
enough to do anything to
jeopardise that. I know people
are going to write whatever
they’re going to write, so I’m
going to keep my mouth shut.”
That only served to add fuel
to the fire that something is
seriously amiss between the
long time “acquaintances” and
who knows when this little spat
may reach “Prost/Senna” on
the temperature scale?
The bottom line however is
that Lewis knows what he is up
against. If there were doubts,
they have now gone away. Nico
may get away with appearing
to be the good guy, but you
have to be really good to beat
Lewis Hamilton - particularly
when the knives are out...
RACE RESULTS
FORMULA 1 GRAND PRIX DE MONACO 2014
Pos
No. Driver
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
Ret
Ret
Ret
Ret
Ret
Ret
Ret
6
44
3
14
27
22
19
8
17
20
9
7
10
4
21
77
25
99
26
1
11
DNS 13
Jules Bianchi (FRA) Marussia F1
Team celebrates his and the team’s
first F1 points with his team crew.
Nico Rosberg
Lewis Hamilton
Daniel Ricciardo
Fernando Alonso
Nico Hulkenberg
Jenson Button
Felipe Massa
Romain Grosjean
Jules Bianchi
Kevin Magnussen
Marcus Ericsson
Kimi Räikkönen
Kamui Kobayashi
Max Chilton
Esteban Gutierrez
Valtteri Bottas
Jean-Eric Vergne
Adrian Sutil
Daniil Kvyat
Sebastian Vettel
Sergio Perez
Pastor Maldonado
Team
Mercedes
Mercedes
Red Bull Racing-Renault
Ferrari
Force India-Mercedes
McLaren-Mercedes
Williams-Mercedes
Lotus-Renault
Marussia-Ferrari
McLaren-Mercedes
Caterham-Renault
Ferrari
Caterham-Renault
Marussia-Ferrari
Sauber-Ferrari
Williams-Mercedes
STR-Renault
Sauber-Ferrari
STR-Renault
Red Bull Racing-Renault
Force India-Mercedes
Lotus-Renault
Laps
Time/Gap
78
78
78
78
77
77
77
77
77
77
77
77
75
75
59
55
50
23
10
5
0
0
1:49:27.661
+9.2 secs
+9.6 secs
+32.4 secs
+1 Lap
+1 Lap
+1 Lap
+1 Lap
+1 Lap
+1 Lap
+1 Lap
+1 Lap
+3 Laps
+3 Laps
Accident
Power Unit
Exhaust
Accident
Exhaust
Turbo
Accident
Fuel pump
GP2 SERIES:
MONACO
PALMER STEALS VICTORY IN MONACO IN FRANTIC GP2 FEATURE
Jolyon Palmer claimed his second GP2 Series win of the season in a
chaotic Feature Race at Monaco.
FEATURE RACE
In a 40- lap tussle, the Englishman won out
over Mitch Evans and Felipe Nasr, with the top
three covered by just 0.6s at the flag.
tight bend. With a number of cars in close
proximity to the Negrao / Binder fight, the field
came to halt, blocking the track.
Poleman Palmer lost the lead to Evans when he
bogged down at the start, but the 22-year-old
regained both his composure and the lead, as
Evans began to slow dramatically after several
laps.
After almost forty minutes, the race restarted
with Palmer setting a devastating pace at
the front of the field. Within twelve laps, the
Englishman had pulled out a 9.3s gap over the
increasingly pressurised Evans.
Palmer made the decisive move on lap eleven,
when he slid down the inside of a defenceless
Evans to retake the lead. From there, the DAMS
man pulled a gap of 3.6s over Evans, only for
the red flag to emerge on lap 13, as a result of a
pile-up at Loews hairpin.
When the safety car was deployed to clear
away Julian Leal, who had thrown his Carlin
machine into the barriers at the Nouvelle
chicane. It signaled the best opportunity for the
leading group to make their mandatory pitstop, with only Stoffel Vandoorne (ART Grand
Prix) and Simon Trummer (Rapax) staying out.
The accident – the first of a few instigated by
Arden’s Rene Binder – came to be when the
Austrian attempted a gloriously unrealistic
move on teammate Andre Negrao at the ultra
Palmer slotted in between the pair and retook
the front of the pack when Vandoorne stopped
for tyres on lap 33. It was not the ideal time for
a stop by Vandoorne, but the ART squad took
the chance when Vandoorne’s ART teammate
Takuya Izawa crashed, followed by a clumsy
collision between Stefano Coletti and Trummer
at Anthony Noghes.
Palmer led the rest of the running, but had to
face down Evans who closed to within 0.4s at
the flag but there wasn’t enough time for the
Kiwi to make a move for the win.
Nasr’s climb to 3rd place was a startling one.
The Brazilian started 18th on the grid, but a
stunning getaway took him to 12th by the end
of lap one. From there, Nasr held a solid pace,
pitted on lap 7 and was able to slowly climb the
order after the red flag as the field one-by-one
changed their tyres. His biggest gain came on
lap 27, when the safety car for Leal’s moment
propelled the Brazilian from 13th to 5th in one
fell swoop. That became 3rd when the overly
aggressive Coletti removed both himself and
Trummer from the action. Nasr closed in on the
leading pair in the final tours, but there was
never going to be enough time to make more of
it.
Title picture, opposite page: Jolyon Palmer
on his way to vicotry.
This image: Mitch Evans (NZL, RT RUSSIAN
TIME), leads Jolyon Palmer (GBR, DAMS) &
Stephane Richelmi (MON, DAMS) at the start
PHOTO: GP2 Series Media Service.
Johnny Cecotto Jr drove a mature race to 4th,
while his Trident teammate Sergio Canamasas
stopped one lap after Nasr and claimed
positions en masse under the Leal safety car
period. Arthur Pic assumed 6th spot from Rio
Haryanto, Stéphane Richelmi took 8th and
reverse grid pole for DAMS. Adrian QuaifeHobbs ended his day in 9th spot, while Tio
Ellinas grabbed the final point for 10th place.
It was not a good day if you were Binder
though. Aside from the Loews error, the
22-year-old was caught up in two other
incidents: first he pummelled into the side of
Artem Markelov at the Nouvelle Chicane on lap
35 and when he had been pushed away by the
marshals, the Austrian crashed into the barrier
three corners later, finally ending his day.
Meanwhile Facu Regalia retired on the opening
lap with an electrical failure. His car, which had
stopped near Tabac, brought out a safety car
on lap two, signalling a brief neutralisation of
the race.
Mitch Evans qualified and finished 2nd.
PHOTO: GP2 Series Media Service.
Nasr charged from 18th on the grid to
finish 3rd in the feature race on Friday.
PHOTO: GP2 Series Media Service.
Results: Feature Race
Pos No.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
7
1
3
23
22
26
18
8
14
21
20
5
25
10
27
19
24
16
2
9
15
6
4
17
11
12
Driver
Team
J. Palmer
M. Evans
F. Nasr
J. Cecotto
S. Canamasas
A. Pic
R. Haryanto
S. Richelmi
A. Quaife-Hobbs
T. Ellinas
D. De Jong
R. Marciello
C. Daly
S. Vandoorne
K. Sato
A. Rossi
N. Berthon
R. Binder
A. Markelov
T. Izawa
S. Trummer
S. Coletti
J. Leal
A. Negrão
D. Abt
F. Regalia
DAMS
RT RUSSIAN TIME
Carlin
Trident
Trident
Campos Racing
EQ8 Caterham Racing
DAMS
Rapax
MP Motorsport
MP Motorsport
Racing Engineering
Venezuela GP Lazarus
ART Grand Prix
Campos Racing
EQ8 Caterham Racing
Venezuela GP Lazarus
Arden International
RT RUSSIAN TIME
ART Grand Prix
Rapax
Racing Engineering
Carlin
Arden International
Hilmer Motorsport
Hilmer Motorsport
Feature race podium
(LtoR) Mitch Evans (2nd), Jolyon
Palmer (1st) & Felipe Nasr
PHOTO: GP2 Series Media Service.
Laps
Time/Gap
40
40
40
40
40
40
40
40
40
40
40
40
40
40
40
40
40
35
35
31
31
31
24
11
9
0
1:38:31.193
+.427
+.653
+2.175
+2.884
+6.187
+8.718
+9.594
+9.785
+10.187
+10.689
+11.727
+12.291
+12.705
+26.761
+29.166
+56.107
DNF
DNF
DNF
DNF
DNF
DNF
DNF
DNF
DNF
SPRINT RACE
RICHELMI WINS AT HOME
Stéphane Richelmi secured his first GP2 Series victory on the streets of
Monte Carlo on Saturday.
The Monegasque racer held Sergio Canamasas
at bay for the thirty-lap duration, with a stellar
display.
On pre-used Pirelli tyres, Richelmi made
an unremarkable start, as Caterham’s Rio
Haryanto attempted a move around the
outside of St Devote; however Richelmi held his
line solidly, edging Haryanto wide and allowing
Canamasas into 2nd spot.
From there, Canamasas pushed his DAMS
rival hard, with the gap lingering around halfa-second for much of the running, although it
did close to 0.2s come the end of lap seven;
however despite his presence, Richelmi rarely
ever looked like giving up the lead.
The leading pair had a little breather at the
halfway point, when Artem Markelov (RUSSIAN
TIME) smashed into the barrier at St Devote,
bringing out a brief safety car.
When the race restarted on lap 17, Richelmi
continued to hold the lead out front, yet
Canamasas continued to push until three laps
from the end, when a small error gave the
leader a two second advantage, effectively
killing the competition. In the final few tours,
Richelmi maintained his advantage, eventually
taking the victory by 2.1s from a delighted
Canamasas – a breakthrough result for both.
Haryanto kept the 3rd position he fell to at the
start; however for a time, it appeared as if the
Indonesian had dropped away from the leading
pair. By the one-third distance, Haryanto was
some five seconds adrift of Canamsas, but
pulled that back to just over one second when
the safety car emerged.
When the race restarted, Haryanto held a
reasonable pace, but considering the form of
Canamasas and Richelmi, a better result than
3rd was not likely.
Johnny Cecotto Jr held off a sixteen-car train to
assume 4th place for Trident. The Colombian
had very little pace during the sprint and was
Title picture, opposite page: Stephane
Richelmi - sprint race winner.
This image: Rio Haryanto tried to take the
lead at the start, but Richelmi held on.
PHOTO: GP2 Series Media Service.
some two seconds per lap
slower than the leaders during
the final third of the race.
Behind Cecotto Jr, Arthur Pic
pushed in the Campos Racing
entry, but could not find a way
past the determined Cecotto
Jr. RUSSIAN TIME’s Mitch Evans
assumed 6th, ahead of points
Jolyon Palmer (DAMS, 7th) and
Adrian Quaife-Hobbs (Rapax)
who took the final point in 8th.
Sergio Canamasas on his way to
second place.
PHOTO: GP2 Series Media Service.
It was a poor day for
championship contender
Felipe Nasr (Carlin), who
suffered a lap one puncture
when clipped by Pic. Markelov
backed into the innocent Tio
Ellinas through Massenet, while
Raffaele Marciello also made
an uncharacteristic mistake on
lap five, when he climbed the
kerbs at Loews and ran into
the side of Daniel de Jong as
a result – both Markelove and
Marciello received drive through
penalties for their woes.
After three rounds, Palmer
now takes a 46-point lead over
Nasr, while Cecotto Jr and Julian
Leal linger less than ten points
further back.
Current
Standings
Results: Sprint Race
Pos No.
Driver
Team
Laps
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
S. Richelmi
DAMS
S. Canamasas Trident
R. Haryanto
EQ8 Caterham Racing
J. Cecotto
Trident
A. Pic
Campos Racing
M. Evans
RT RUSSIAN TIME
J. Palmer
DAMS
A. Quaife-Hobbs Rapax
S. Coletti
Racing Engineering
C. Daly
Venezuela GP Lazarus
A. Rossi
EQ8 Caterham Racing
N. Berthon
Venezuela GP Lazarus
S. Vandoorne
ART Grand Prix
K. Sato
Campos Racing
A. Negrão
Arden International
J. Leal
Carlin
D. Abt
Hilmer Motorsport
S. Trummer
Rapax
R. Marciello
Racing Engineering
R. Binder
Arden International
F. Regalia
Hilmer Motorsport
T. Ellinas
MP Motorsport
A. Markelov
RT RUSSIAN TIME
T. Izawa
ART Grand Prix
D. De Jong
MP Motorsport
F. Nasr
Carlin
30
30
30
30
30
30
30
30
30
30
30
30
30
30
30
30
30
30
30
30
30
29
12
11
2
0
8
22
18
23
26
1
7
14
6
25
19
24
10
27
17
4
11
15
5
16
12
21
2
9
20
3
Time/Gap
0:43:17.087
+2.179
+8.295
+25.32
+25.753
+25.973
+26.587
+26.956
+28.473
+28.721
+29.987
+30.105
+30.604
+31.228
+31.657
+32.085
+32.582
+33.458
+34.328
+35.417
+36.078
1 LAP
DNF
DNF
DNF
DNF
Pos
Driver
1
J. Palmer
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
F. Nasr
J. Cecotto
J. Leal
A. Pic
S. Richelmi
R. Haryanto
S. Vandoorne
M. Evans
S. Canamasas
S. Trummer
S. Coletti
T. Dillmann
A. Quaife-Hobbs
T. Izawa
T. Ellinas
R. Binder
A. Markelov
C. Daly
D. De Jong
A. Rossi
D. Abt
R. Marciello
N. Berthon
K. Sato
J. Lancaster
A. Negrão
F. Regalia
A. Jefferies
103
57
49
48
40
32
26
25
24
22
18
15
14
10
8
7
3
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
Pos Team
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
Stephane Richelmi (MON, DAMS)
PHOTO: GP2 Series Media Service.
DAMS
Carlin
Trident
Campos Racing
ART Grand Prix
Rapax
EQ8 Caterham Racing
RT RUSSIAN TIME
Arden International
Racing Engineering
MP Motorsport
Venezuela GP Lazarus
135
105
71
40
33
28
26
24
17
15
7
0
Not on Toto’s Agenda
D
uring the rather stilted FIA team bosses
press conference last Thursday at Monaco,
Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff was constantly
being pestered by the assembled hacks as to
what could be done to make the racing (between
Mercedes and the other teams) closer this year
given the current white-wash in progress from
the Brackley team. After fending off the question
asked in a number of variations, he finally relented
and answered Dieter Rencken in a most business
like and professional manner, “Do you think Dieter
it’s on our agenda to close the gap between the
teams? I think it is not on my agenda”. For this
column, that said it all. It wasn’t his job to make the
others look better. He was doing his job, perhaps
the others should try and do theirs a bit better.
Renault, Late for the 2014 Bus!
A
lthough he is an ambassador for the Renault,
former four time World Champion Alain
Prost doesn’t mince his words. Speaking in the
Monaco paddock last week, he did not hide his
belief that Renault were simply unprepared this
year for the all-new turbo V6 era. “We were just
too late,” he said. “We have seen in recent years
how success is made — Red Bull had a plan and
was world champion four times. Mercedes had a
plan and is now far ahead at the front. Renault
needs a plan for 2015.”
Despite this outspoken opinion, Prost also felt
that the French F1 engine manufacturer couldn’t
just give up on 2014 and focus exclusively on a
total redesign and new homologation of their
power train for next year. Backing down, a bit,
he said, “We have to improve continuously.
Nobody can say where Renault is today
compared to Mercedes — Renault made a big
leap in the Spanish Grand Prix. Mercedes is still
ahead, but many have misunderstood that the
jump really came from their car.”
Officially, Renault says it is now approaching the
full potential of its current V6 unit with engine
boss Rene Taffin being quoted in Monaco, saying
“We are still with our plan of getting 100 per
cent from the engine in Canada.” Despite this
confident declaration, defending F1 Champions
Red Bull were not entirely won over. After
hearing fellow team boss Toto Wolf suggesting
that in Monza his Mercedes powered cars may
be reaching 380kph, Red Bull boss Christian
Horner was more circumspect quipping, “I don’t
think we’ll be seeing 380 from our car in Monza.”
Confidence indeed!
Who’s the Boss? Boullier’s the Boss!
F
ollowing the whole unfortunate debacle
around the unannounced departure of Martin
Whitmarsh and Ron Dennis’ return to “power”
at McLaren F1, no one seemed to know exactly
who was taking over just which role. Despite
former Lotus team Principal, Eric Boullier being
recruited as the new “Racing Director”, he always
looked like taking over from the unfortunate
Whitmarsh.
The big question in the paddock for the last
four months or so has been who would become
the new team principal? Ron was quick to say
that this would be announced at the end of
the organisational review that he had tasked
the Frenchman to do as part of his Racing
Director duties but despite sources close to
the team saying that the review has come and
gone, nothing has been announced. Hence the
surprise during Thursday’s FIA team boss press
conference when Eric was answering a question
from Racing Lines’ Dieter Rencken about having
the same team win every week, he said, It’s
always the same story. Let’s say for the fans, for
the show, for the show on the track, you would
like to have, obviously, a different winner every
weekend. As the team Principal of McLaren I
would like McLaren to win the 19 races….”
Well, better late than never.
Grosjean is in Demand
R
ival teams are interested in signing Romain
Grosjean, claimed Lotus team owner Gerard
Lopez. The Luxembourger revealed the news
while responding to criticism (including this
magazine’s), of the Enstone team’s other driver,
Pastor Maldonado, who is enduring his very own
annus horribillis this season and to be honest
a continuation of the one he had last year at
Williams.
Having switched his lucrative Venezuelan PDVSA
sponsor money to Lotus, Maldonado initially found
an unreliable and uncompetitive E22 car, but he
has also struggled to keep up with both the team’s
progress with the car and his more fancied team
mate Grosjean. This is on top of being involved in
yet more on-track incidents. Lopez however has
backed his South American charge to eventually
get it right.
“We’ve lived the same thing with Romain, and
people wrote him off, but now we’ve got people
knocking on our door to see if he can be in their
team,” said Lopez, referring to the Frenchman’s
2012 struggles when Mark Webber branded him a
“nutcase” and he was even banned for one race by
the FIA after his Spa antics.
But Lopez says Grosjean, is now a wanted driver in
the F1 paddock. “His drives last year meant there
were a couple of teams knocking on the door to
find out what he was doing, and now we’ve the
same this year,” he said.
Lopez admitted Lotus, who lost Kimi Raikkonen to
Ferrari over the winter, might similarly struggle to
hang onto the on-form Grosjean. “We don’t have
the budget of some of the other teams, so there
is a point up until which we will fight,” he said.
“But Romain is really happy here, he is part of the
family, and I don’t think he is planning on going
anywhere.”
Alonso, Back to the Future at Woking?
I
t’s generally accepted that
McLaren’s current downward
glide slope began when Adrian
Newey left for Milton Keynes and
that the final nail in the coffin
was when Fernando Alonso
prematurely left at the end of the
2007 season. So when rumours
surfaced along the Monaco pit
lane suggesting that the Spaniard
was again being courted by the
Woking team, tongues started to
wag.
Fuelling the fire was McLaren
boss Ron Dennis, who reportedly
told the assembled Italian
press that, “Fernando would be
welcome back at McLaren.” After
picking themselves up off the
floor, the shocked journalists
asked if they were hearing things
right and Dennis elaborated,
“You’re surprised that I’m talking
about Fernando? I don’t have any
problem — the most important
thing is for us to win again. In
2015 we have the Honda engine
and we need a great driver.” Even
McLaren team leader, Jenson
Button, chimed in, “He has a
Ferrari contract,” JB replied with
a sly smile, and stirred things
further, “Yes it would be a great
challenge to have him as a
teammate.”
Simona to Test in Valencia
K
eeping up with their pre-planned program
to ready the Indianapolis based Swiss
IndyCar driver Simona de Silvestro for the
rigours of becoming a Formula One driver,
possibly as early as 2015, the team plan to run
her on the Circuit Ricardo Tormo in Valencia
towards the end of June.
Speaking in the paddock at Monaco, team
communications director Hanspeter Brack said
that Simona will be testing an “older” Sauber
at the Spanish circuit between the 25th and
27th of June in a private test. Confirming this,
the Swiss driver told this column that she
“couldn’t wait to get back” behind the wheel
of a race car and was “very excited” about
finally getting to drive an F1 car around a
contemporary European race track. Reports
from her first test at the Ferrari in-house
Fiorano test track were impressive and Brack
stated just how impressed the team were in
that it was not only her obvious speed but
also how, “she interpreted the feedback from
the race engineers and translated this into
improved performance”. Clearly Simona has
started to build a fan base within the team!
Newey, Still Staying on the Milton Keynes Round-About?
D
espite every reporter and
their dog speculating,
implying, confirming or
whatever else they can think
of that Adrian Newey is looking
for a house near Maranello,
it would now seem that the
ace designer has decided to
speak out. Sitting down with
Red Bull media director Katie
Tweedle last week, he released
a short statement in which he
is quoted as saying, “I remain
committed to Red Bull for the
foreseeable future.” Well that’s,
that then?
Final confirmation (or not), and
the end of this rather long and
tortuous rumour came from new
Ferrari team principal Marco
Mattiacci (yes, he really can,
and does talk) when pressed on
the point, in Thursday’s press
conference, of Newey being
chased by the Scuderia, stated
categorically “If I invite Adrian
Newey to work at Ferrari? No.”
Well there you have it, from the
horse’s mouth, but he didn’t
mention though if Newey had
already been “invited” by Luca di
Montezemelo before his recent
appointment!
The Wonders of Modern Medicine
D
espite managing to rewrite the
procedural code for criminal trials in
Bavaria and have an examining Court sit
only two days a week, Bernie Ecclestone
still felt the need to reduce his “dock time”
even further last week when his legal team
presented a doctor’s sick note to Judge
Noll. Apparently 83 year old Mr. E was
deemed too ill by his doctor to attend the
two days of scheduled proceedings last
week.
Imagine all our surprise however when
the FOM boss was spotted in the Monaco
paddock in the run up to the grand prix.
Indeed he was so much recovered that
he even took time out from his duties to
have lunch with his daughter Tamara and
his new grandchild in the floating Red Bull
Energy Station. Clearly, these days, Red
Bull gives you much more than just “wings”
Whether or not such an exceptionally lenient
attitude would be shown towards us mere
mortals of the world is up for debate but as
they say in the classics, “if you don’t ask, you
don’t get…”, Bernie obviously did!
COMMENTATOR’S CURSE:
THE CUSTOMER ISN’T ALWAYS RIGHT
Hendrik Verwoerd
Is the concept of customer cars the solution to
Formula One’s financial woes and the survival of the
smaller teams?
I
t’s not a new concept, after
all – in the fifties, sixties
and seventies it was normal
practice for larger constructors
to sell chassis to smaller teams.
“Re-introducing
customer cars
can, and will,
cost the sport its
integrity.“
Title photo above:
Could we see the likes of a
Haas-Ferrari in the future?
It can be argued that, had
they been allowed to purchase
chassis from existing teams,
Marussia and Caterham would
now have been much higher
up the order, while HRT might
have survived. If Gene Haas is
able to buy, say, two F14 Ts for
next year, his team is likely to
have a much stronger start to
the season than is inevitable
building its own car. The same
would go for whoever lands the
remaining 13th slot on the grid.
Allowing this would certainly
be in the league of cost
savings that Jean Todt is
looking for. Red Bull’s Christian
Horner made the case during
the Thursday Monaco FIA
press conference last week:
“… to encourage new teams
to come into Formula One,
then a year-old car would
surely be the most cheapest
[sic], more cost-effective way
of introducing a team into
Formula One that hasn’t got
to have the investment in a
design and R&D department,
manufacturing, go through all
the crash-test process, can
just be focussed on being a
race team while they build their
infrastructure up. One would
think that might be a logical
way to help the small team and
perhaps a new team coming
into Formula One.”
Ferrari has long been in favour
of re-introducing customer cars
and its new team principal,
Marco Mattiacci, re-iterated this
point during the same press
conference: “… basically give
them the possibility to have
two, three years’ experience
and to gain the knowledge and
then to become competitive.
So, this is a practical way,
realpolitik, to move ahead …”
Toto Wolff of Mercedes was
more ambivalent: “… it’s the
Formula One Constructors’
Championship but not the
Formula One Customer
Championship. The entry level
is high because this is the
pinnacle of motorsport; we
don’t want to … make it very
easy to come into Formula
One. This has value if you are
participating in Formula One …
you need to have infrastructure
and it’s like in any other
business where the entry level
is high because the field is so
Will the Caterham (left) an Marussia’s (R) of the F1
grid, become the “C-teams” or dissappear altogether?
competitive … so we believe in
being a constructor.”
He went on, “Having said
that, the rules for the future
nevertheless could be loosened
up a bit … If we really run into
a situation where the number
of cars on the grid drops to a
critical level - whatever that
critical level is, 20 or 18 cars - I
think then measures need to be
taken, whether it is a third car,
whether it is a customer car.”
As ever in Formula One, it’s
an issue that not everybody
agrees on. The Williams team
has always been vehemently
against the idea of allowing
customer cars back into the
sport and its deputy team
principal, Claire Williams,
re-iterated its argument on
Thursday: “Everyone knows
Williams’s position on customer
cars - we think it goes
completely against the DNA
of our sport. We’re not signed
up to it and we think there are
other ways to drive costs down
in Formula One before we have
to have that conversation.”
It may not be strictly true
that customer cars goes
against the DNA of Formula
One, but in practice it does,
and has been against it for
by far the largest slice of F1’s
existence. And Williams’s
resistance against the idea is
completely understandable.
Since its birth in 1972 the team
from Grove has experienced
the highs and the lows of
competing in Formula One and
spent hundreds of millions
– if not more – to build up
its infrastructure in order
to be successful on track.
In the process it has given
employment to and built the
careers of thousands of people,
thus ploughing back into the
community. In other words, it
has a history – a history that
Toto Wolff, Mercedes AMG F1 is ambivilent towards the idea of
customer cars, unless necessary to keep the grid populated.
has touched lives.
How unfair would it be, then, if
an upstart like Gene (nothing
against Mr Haas – just as an
example), who has the money,
can come along, set up a
small facility with just a few
employees, buy two F14 Ts and
beat Williams straight out of
the starting blocks? Not only
would such an unfair advantage
be extremely irritating to Frank
and everybody in the team, but
it would also devalue the ontrack success of Team Haas, as
people would justifiably reckon
Gene didn’t really earn or
deserve it.
There are other, more practical
considerations too.
Which version of the F14
T would be sold to Gene?
Theoretically it would be a oneyear-old car, but the version
that started in Australia will be
vastly different to the one that
starts in Abu Dhabi. This would
obviously have performancerelated implications for the new
team – and its competitors.
Or should Ferrari be allowed
“It may
not be strictly true
that customer
cars goes against
the DNA of
Formula One.”
to build and sell more of its
current cars, i.e. the 2015
model? This would effectively
mean Team Haas becomes the
Ferrari B-team.
Not being a constructor in
its own right, does Team
Haas compete and score
points in the constructors’
championship? If it does, who
gets the points? Ferrari? You
can bet your bottom dollar it
won’t be only Williams who
wouldn’t like this idea. If
Team Haas gets the points
it would likely push a team
like Williams further down
the order, which would not
only irk Frank even more, but
also have negative financial
implications for his team.
In this example, Ferrari would
hold a development and set-up
advantage over its competitors
by having available four cars
and all their data. Selling
additional cars would also
be a nice little earner for
Ferrari, who could use the
extra dough as another
development advantage over
its competitors.
What about the racing? With
Team Haas being the Ferrari
B-team, would it be allowed
(by Ferrari) to race and possibly
beat the A-team? Somehow I
doubt it. Would it be deployed
by the A-team as a tail gunner,
interfering on-track with the
progress of others who might
be a threat to the A-team? Yes,
I can see that happening.
This scenario includes only one
customer in Formula One. Now
extend it, with all the questions
above, to two, three, four or five
customers (either newcomers
or possibly the remnants of
some of the current smaller
teams). As a “customer team”,
they would likely only want to
purchase cars from one of, at
the most, the top three teams,
you’ll end up with three superteams (say Mercedes, Red
Bull and Ferrari), each with
a number of customers and
hence a number of B, C and
possibly even D-teams.
Could just three super-teams
who genuinely compete
against each other be good for
Formula One?
Of course not!
Would their strings of tail
gunners be good for Formula
One?
Of course not!
If a B team is not allowed to
beat an A team, then a C team
wouldn’t be able to beat a B
team and a D team not a C
team. Imagine the team orders
during a race where a superteam has three or four tail
gunners, each with a different
status in the team hierarchy,
Williams has always been and remains against customer cars.
and trying to get them across
the line in the correct intrateam order. Now multiply this
by three…
So the grid may be full and the
cost-saving objective has been
met. But with all the additional
income for the top teams,
coupled with their ever-growing
slice of Bernie’s pie – the
inevitable result of this scenario
– the financial gap between
them and the smaller teams will
continue to grow. So too will
the improbability of any of the
lower teams working their way
up the order.
Re-introducing customer cars
can, and will, cost the sport its
integrity. It will go against the
very nature of Formula One. To
me, the answer to the question
posed right at the beginning is
obvious: NO!
SMITHY IN THE
SLIPSTREAM:
Luke Smith
The Problem with Pastor
2014 certainly hasn’t been Pastor Maldonado’s year
so far. Then again, nor was 2013.
“He just needs
to chill out a little bit, and let his
driving do the
talking.”
Title photo above: The remains of
Maldonado’s Lotus F1 E22 after a shunt in FP2.
Chinese Grand Prix,
I
n fact, it’s been over two
years since that stunning win
at the Spanish Grand Prix
where he bested Fernando
Alonso in his own back yard.
Whatever happened to that
Pastor?
When his Spanish Grand
Prix weekend started with
a bang – literally a bang, a
crash during qualifying – I
was left questioning just who
this imposter was that had
ascended to the top step two
years ago? A colleague of mine
was cheeky enough to ask him:
“Was the wall too close?” – an
excuse he has used in the past,
mind. Surely the driver who has
not scored a single point since
the 2012 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix,
and only finished in the top ten
just seven times in his Formula
1 career, couldn’t also be in the
“Grand Prix Winners Club” that
still rejects the likes of Nico
Hulkenberg, Romain Grosjean
and Sergio Perez?
Maybe that sunny day in
Catalunya was an “anomaly”;
a bizarre result on the reading
that would ordinarily be
ignored and put down to
a glitch. In truth, it was no
error: it was a combination of
blinding pace, luck and frankly
being in the right place at the
right time. This wasn’t a win
like Jenson Button’s first at
Hungary in 2006 which was
full of luck; nor did it see his
rivals crash into each other in
the pits à la Kubica’s win at the
2008 Canadian Grand Prix. The
only luck he had was indeed
a huge error by McLaren. By
under fuelling Lewis Hamilton
during qualifying, he was
unable to supply a sample
to the FIA and was duly
disqualified. This gave Pastor
pole, but remember he had to
put the Williams on the front
row in the first place.
In the race, Alonso got the
jump on the Venezuelan down
into turn one, and it appeared
to have been lost – the
Spaniard would surely bring it
home. But no, Pastor wrung
every last tenth out of the
Williams, going one lap longer
than Alonso at the final round
Maldonado celebrates
that win in Barcelona 2012.
of stops and getting into the
lead. He didn’t look back.
Whatever happened to that
guy?
“It’s unlikely he
got much of a
leaving party at
Williams”
I feel a tad divided when
writing about Pastor
Maldonado. There is no
denying that he is, to put it
mildly, a bit wild. It has been
noticeable throughout his
entire motorsport career. In
fact, he once hit a marshal
at Monaco when racing in
the lower formulae, and was
banned from ever racing at
the principality again (only for
this to be repealed when he
reached GP2). However, he is
also a bloody quick racer. He
is a former GP2 champ, and in
2012, when he had the right
car underneath him, he was
regularly qualifying on the
front two rows.
Sadly, his wild streak came to
the fore, and he rarely scored
points. Despite winning a race,
he was still outscored by Bruno
Senna, but the Brazilian was
dropped at the end of the year
to make way for Valtteri Bottas.
Last year, the FW35 was a total
dog of a car, and Pastor scored
just one point: Hungary, when
Maldonado crashes his Williams
FW34 in qualifying for the 2012
Canadian Grand Prix.
Nico Rosberg retired with a few accused his Williams team
laps to go, that bumped him up of sabotaging his car. That
weekend, a small update
into the top ten.
saw Valtteri Bottas launch
up the order and find some
I’ve only dealt with Pastor
remarkable pace; so much
in the paddock on a few
occasions, but every time
he has been courteous and
very informative. Most media
sessions see the driver sit
down, face questions, mumble
answers (quite literally in Kimi’s
case), and then leave. Pastor is
very different, though. Before
each session, upon arriving, he
shakes each and every one of
our hands – a very nice touch.
Then, when we ask questions,
he holds no bars. He’ll go
on for about five minutes in
reply to just one question,
sometimes. It’s great for
pace that four points for P8
stories, but only if he’s talking
was a great disappointment.
about what you want him to…
Pastor, on the other hand,
dropped out in Q1, and said
So I was dismayed when, at
that there must be a big
the United States Grand Prix,
difference between the cars.
he went on the record and
“ I was left
questioning just
who this imposter
was that had
ascended to the
top step two years
ago? ”
It’s partially a journalist’s
dream, sensationalist stories
like that: “MALDONADO:
WILLIAMS SABOTAGED MY
CAR.” However, from the more
‘human’ point of view, it’s
quite sad. You win and lose
as a team. Some weekends, it
doesn’t go your way. However,
in Austin, it was not the first
time that it hadn’t gone
Pastor’s way in 2013. He knew
by this point he would be
leaving, and he knew he had a
pick of seats thanks to PDVSA’s
backing. It’s unlikely he got
much of a leaving party at
Williams, though.
This is where Pastor’s problem
lies: he puts his heart in gear
way before his head. This
not only relates to off track
incidents such as this, but also
when he is working on track.
When things aren’t going his
way, he’ll keeping pushing
and try to find a solution that
sometimes – honestly – just
isn’t there. Sometimes, you just
have to accept that you’re not
going to score any points on a
race weekend. It’s doubtful that
Pastor ever has this mentality,
though. Ahead of the race in
Spain, he boldly said: “We’ll
finish in the top five.” He wasn’t
far off: one Lotus qualified P5,
and finished eighth. However,
unfortunately for Pastor, it
was his teammate, Romain
Grosjean. Pastor once again
failed to qualify after a crash
during qualifying, but the
stewards were happy to let him
race. This isn’t an HRT, after all.
Even looking at this crash,
this one minor incident amid
Maldonado exited the pits and took Gutierrez
out of the Bahrain Grand Prix earlier this year.
“ he went on
the record and
accused his
Williams team of
sabotaging his
car. ”
a plethora of prangs and
smashes over the years, you
can see Pastor’s will and never
say die attitude. Turn three
at the Circuit de BarcelonaCatalunya is one of the most
difficult corners on the track.
Coming out of turn two, it’s
full power, but you’ve got to
have the kahunas to keep the
throttle in and not lose the
back end of the car. You can
take the corner nice and wide,
and even use a little bit of the
rumble strip. However, with the
new cars, it is a little bit more
difficult. Pastor found this
to his cost: he ran wide, but
instead of bailing, kept his foot
in there and binned it in the
wall.
Maldonado is a quick driver,
but he just lacks the nouse
of a champion; that sense of
when it is right to back out of a
corner or an overtake. His win
in Spain was a true example
of his ability, but note how he
didn’t actually pass anyone
on track. Essentially, it was 66
qualifying laps of the track.
stick the Williams in the top
five on the grid. He just needs
to chill out a little bit, and let
You can call this a defence of
his driving do the talking. He
Pastor Maldonado. Sure, on
may never be world champion,
a scale of pay drivers from 1
but alongside Romain
to 10, he’s at about 15. But –
Grosjean, he has a chance of
remember – he has won a race. returning to the podium – if not
He was GP2 champion back in the top step – with Lotus.
2010. In 2012, he did regularly
But to finish, a classic quote:
“Moving to Lotus was the best
decision I have ever made.”
Well, Pastor, Williams are doing
pretty well this season. Go on,
prove us wrong. I dare you.
Car rental
free of limits.
(Best price in Prague)
www.sixt.cz
JUNIOR DIGEST
Leigh O’Gorman
FORMULA RENAULT 3.5: MONACO
Norman Nato Takes First FR3.5 Win in Style!
P
iloting his DAMS machine,
the Frenchman led from
start-to-finish, beating Tech 1
racing rival Marco Sørensen,
despite the Dane applying
pressure for the duration of the
30 lap race.
Oliver Rowland which kept the
unusually large Monaco crowd
entertained and fully warmd up
for the afternoon’s main event.
Nato had much of the start
pressure removed from his
shoulders when fellow front
Behind them, Jazeman Jaafar
row man Jaafar pulled slowly
secured his second Monte Carlo away from the line. With
podium in the category after
the Malaysian adrift in 3rd,
lead a three-car ding-dong
Sørensen slipped into 2nd
battle with Carlos Sainz Jr and
spot and immediately began
Nato - winner.
to pressurise Nato for the lead
right from the first time they
entered Casino Square.
The 21-year-old held his nerve
however and, apart from
the occasional blip, the gap
stayed between 1.1s and 1.8s
for much of the running. As
happens at Monaco, lapses of
concentration resulted in brief
losses – both Sørensen and Nato
suffered these on laps 10 and 11
Sorensen - 2nd.
respectively and again on laps 20
and 21 – yet neither ever looked
so lairy that they could throw their
machines off the road.
With each tour, the gaps held
and Sørensen discovered – as
many have before him – that
overtaking at Monaco is as
close to impossible as you can
get in motorsport.
It was a stellar drive and
deserved victory for Nato and
one that may finally lift his
season out of the doldrums.
Meanwhile, behind the leading
pair Jaafar did have a touch of
luck on his side. Despite his
sluggish start, the ISR man was
unchallenged once Sørensen
had slipped through.
In Jaafar’s mirrors, Sainz Jr and
Rowland were side-by-side
in St Devote, with Rowland
momentarily gaining the upper
hand; however the Englishman
ran slightly wide on the exit,
allowing Sainz Jr back through.
The pair continued to tussle
through Massenet and through
Casino Square, but as the racing
line evened out toward Mirabeau,
Sainz Jr solidified his advantage.
races. The Swiss racer battled
hard to keep Pierre Gasly
(Arden International) at bay,
with the latter unable to force a
way through into 6th place.
Will Stevens drove a lonely
race to 8th position for Strakka
Racing on a day when he
desperately needed to better
championship leader Sainz Jr.
Roberto Merhi took 9th place;
Thereafter the trio played
both unchallenged from behind
a game of ping-pong with
and unable to challenge ahead,
the gaps, but – as with the
unlike Meindert van Buuren
battle for the lead – finding a
useable space to pass was rare. who fought over 10th place
and the final point with Pietro
Remaining close to the finish,
Fantin until the final lap, when
Jaafar headed Sainz Jr and
Rowland, with the 3rd, 4th and a mistake by the Brazilian
dropped him out of contention.
5th place battle covered by a
mere 1.7s at the line.
One driver who could well have
earned the “drive of the race”
Zoël Amberg (AVF) continued
his steady improvement with
award
his fourth points finish in five
was
Top row (L-R)
Norman. Nato
Cars lined up an waiting.
Race start.
Middle row (L-R)
Harbour sunset
Jazeman Jaafar
Norman Nato - winner.
Bottom row (L-R)
Carlos Sainz jr.
Carlos Sainz jr.
Podium Nato, Sorensen, Jaafar & Rowland
Sergey Sirotkin who stalled
on the grid and only managed
to just get going before the
pack came around for the
first lap. Despite having a
hard charging Nato on his
Stockinger.
tail, Sirotkin grabbed his
SMP backed car with both
hands and drove the wheels
off it chasing the pack.
Unfortunately after setting a
number of fasted laps while
continuously appearing in
purple on the timing screens,
he did just that and put the
car into the barriers in the
short squirt after Rascass.
On a day when all his main
title rivals finished behind him,
Sainz Jr managed to open up
his points lead even further.
With a tally of 74 points from
five races, the Spaniard now
leads Rowland by 15 points,
with Gasly an addition eight
adrift and Stevens another
seven behind Gasly.
They will not have to wait long
to do battle again. In a series
of extremes, the Formula
Renault 3.5 series moves to
Spa-Francorchamps next
week, where the battle will
reconvene in the forests of
the Ardennes.
RESULTS
2014 Formula Renault 3.5 Series, Monaco
Pos
No
Driver
Team
Laps
Gap
1
2
Norman Nato
DAMS
30
1:23.601
2
9
Marco Sorensen
Tech 1 Racing
30
0.790
3
17
Jazeman Jaafar
ISR
30
12.228
4
1
Carlos Sainz
DAMS
30
13.268
5
4
Oliver Rowland
Fortec Motorsports
30
13.960
6
20
Zoel Amberg
AVF
30
20.962
7
7
Pierre Gasly
Arden Motorsport
30
21.395
8
11
Will Stevens
Strakka Racing
30
31.911
9
22
Roberto Merhi
Zeta Corse
30
38.853
10
26
Meindert Van Buuren
Pons Racing
30
50.019
11
15
Marlon Stockinger
Lotus
30
55.954
12
25
Oliver Webb ESP
Racing
30
1:00.594
13
12
Matias Laine
Strakka Racing
30
1:00.803
14
6
Luca Ghiotto
International Draco Racing
30
1:00.874
15
5
Pietro Fantin
International Draco Racing
30
1:03.676
16
8
William Buller
Arden Motorsport
30
1:04.448
17
19
Beitske Visser
AVF
30
1:14.137
18
28
Andrea Roda
Comtec Racing
29
1 lap
19
21
Roman Mavlanov
Zeta Corse
29
1 lap
20
3
Sergey Sirotkin
Fortec Motorsports 6
24
laps
21
16
Matthieu Vaxiviere
Lotus 1
29
laps
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FARMING IN THE USA
Josh Farmer
GABBY CH
HAVES NIIPS BRABHAM IN
N FREEDOM 100
F
or the second straight year,
the Indy Lights Freedom
100 at the Indianapolis Motor
Speedway had a photo finish.
This year, Gabby Chaves, one
of the antagonists in last year’s
4-wide finish, slipstreamed past
Matthew Brabham coming to
the chequered flag to take the
win. This marked the fourth career win for the Columbian and
the second straight win in the
Freedom 100 for Balardi Racing.
Being in the number 5 car,
which beat me last year, now
I know he did it,” Chaves told
NBCSN’s Jake Query in victory
lane. “We had a rough weekend two years ago. To win here,
third race of the season. That
was just in the right moment in
the right position. I tried getting
around Zach for second, to save
a run for later.
not the love for the sport. To
come in here, you have to have
fun, work hard and deliver,”
“With a rough last race weekend we had here, I realized, I
let the result get to me. I let my
passion be driven by results,
Chase Austin, who was making his first Indy Lights start
in a year, suffered a serious
accident when he lost control
of his car in turn 1 on lap 14.
Austin tried to correct it but
spun into the turn 1 infield
and hit a tyre barrier and then
the concrete inside retaining wall. Austin was transported to the infield care centre, where he was diagnosed
with a broken left wrist and
was transported to Methodist
Hospital for observation.
Brabham, who led much of the
race, finished in second, Zach
Veach finished in 3rd, pole sitter Luiz Razia finished in 4th
and rounding out the top 5 was
Jack Harvey.
2015 INDY LIGHTS CAR UNV
VEILED
T
he all new Dallara IL-15 was unveiled at the
Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Thursday.
This will mark the first new car for the series
since the series was resurrected under the then
known Indy Racing League banner.
The new chassis also features a new 2 litre turbocharged AER engine producing 450 horsepower and will also have a 50 horsepower boost
via push to pass, similar to what the Verizon IndyCar Series car features. The car also boasts a
state-of-the-art carbon fibre chassis and also
features a six speed paddle shifting transmission. The cars will be built in Dallara’s Indianapolis
based facility.
“Choosing Dallara as our chassis partner for the
new Indy Lights car has turned out to be a great
decision,” said Dan Andersen, CEO of Andersen
Promotions, which runs the Mazda Road to Indy
ladder which the Indy Lights Series is part of.
“They have crafted a state-of-the-art race car
with the latest technology and safety enhancements which will provide the necessary training
as we develop the next crop of Verizon IndyCar
Series drivers.”
Current GP2 driver Conor Daly will be the first
turn a wheel in the new car on US soil at the MidOhio Sports Car course on Auguest 5th after an
initial shakedown of the car at Dallara’s facility in
Varano, Italy. 2012 Indy Lights champion Tristan
Vautier will also assist in the car’s development.
The series is also taking upon itself to help its
drivers progress into the Verizon IndyCar Series
by providing the 2015 champion an IndyCar ride
for 3 races in the 2016 season including the 100th
running of the Indianapolis 500.
TIM KEEN
NE JOINS
S DELTA WIN
NG RACING
V
eteran motorsport engineer Tim Keene has
joined Delta Wing Racing effective early June.
Keene has a wealth of experience in the sports
car world as he previously worked for Chip Ganassi Racing in the both the teams early IndyCar
prospects in the 90s working with drivers such
as Alex Zanardi, Jimmy Vasser and Juan Montoya.
He also led the team to 7 Daytona Prototype
championships and 5 Rolex 24 at Daytona victories. He was released from the team after the
Rolex 24 of this year.
on the car’s development and I think they’re
really close to becoming a contender, so it’s a
good time to come on board and do whatever it
takes to get the car and team to that next level.
Keene is looking forward to the challenge ahead
of him with new team as well as the challenge
in of itself working with a radical car such as the
Delta Wing.
“It’s totally different from what I’m accustomed
to, as far as the car goes - and that’s what is really appealing to me. I think the car is very capable of winning. The team has worked very hard
PHOTO: Richard Dole.
CHIP
P GAN
NASSI RACIN
NG’S #9 CREW BEATS DREYER AND REINBOLD
IN
N PIT STOP COMPETITION
S
cott Dixon’s #9 Target Chip
Ganassi Racing crew won
the annual Pit Stop Challenge
on Carb Day. This gives the
#9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing crew their second win in
the competition in 3 years. The
crew posted the fastest time of
the day, a lightning quick run of
11.658 seconds from start to finish to beat Sage Karam’s Indy
only entry #22 Dreyer and Reinbold/Chip Ganassi Racing car.
“I’ve been very lucky and blessed to have such a great team
for many years and to win the
pit stop competition two times
within three years is pretty
tough to do,” said Dixon. “It’s a
bit hard with strategy with lane
choice and things like that but
straight up, all but one race this
year, this team has been the
quickest on pit road. They’re
amazing at what they do. Without them, I wouldn’t have the
success that I have had.”
to’s crew and finally kicking Will
Power’s team to the curb before taking on Dixon. In the end,
they came up around 3 tenths
short, but the crew made it
to the finals for the second
straight year.
In the end it was lane choice
that made the difference, as
Dixon had the preferred left
lane which had a groove set in
and gave the New Zealander
more grip as he peeled out of
his pit zone.
“To lose to Scott (Dixon), he’s a
pretty good guy,” said Karam.
“To get Chip to get two guys in
the final is a great accomplishment. He was on the side with
better grip. We got to the box
at similar times, when I let go
of the clutch it was just wheel
spin, wheel spin.”
Karam started from the first
round and one by one, Karam
and his crew beat the competition. First it was Ryan HunterReay’s crew, then Takuma Sa-
LEAVE
THE COMPETITION BEHIND.
ZZZSUDJDJOREDOFRP
VERIZON INDYCAR SERIES:
INDIANAPOLIS 500 Josh Farmer
The 98th edition of the Indianapolis 500 went
down as one of the greatest duels in the history
of the Greatest Spectacle in Racing.
ALL PHOTOS: Courtesy of Indycar.
In the end, a historic duel
between Ryan Hunter-Reay and
Helio Castroneves came to be
with the two swapping the lead
back and forth in the final 5
laps after a late red flag set up
a battle to the bricks that will
go down as another fantastic
finish at Indianapolis.
Pole sitter Ed Carpenter led the
field to the green flag but gave
way to Andretti Autosport’s
James Hinchcliffe for the early
laps. Carpenter retook the lead
on lap 10 and led until the first
round of green flag pit stops
and the lead was retaken by
Hinchcliffe.
The race settled into a rhythm
and the lead was swapped
under green by Carpenter,
Helio Castroneves, Hinchcliffe
and Will Power who all took
turns up front. Scott Dixon
and Juan Montoya got better
fuel mileage than the rest of
the field and that brought
them into contention. Montoya
unfortunately was issued a
speeding penalty on lap 132
which set him back in the pack.
Meanwhile, Hunter-Reay had
quietly worked his way from a
19th place starting position to
the front of the pack with good
pit stops and an quick car and
found himself in the lead pack
as the race rounded the three
quarter mark.
The first yellow of the day flew
on lap 150 as Charlie Kimball
looped his car in turn 2. The
yellow bunched up the order
and put everybody back on the
same pit cycle. Hunter-Reay
kept the lead with a quick pit
stop and as the race restarted
Ryan Hunter-Reay holds
his son in Victory Lane.
Marco Andretti, Hunter-Reay
and Castroneves all swapped
the lead over the next 18 laps
until the yellow flew for Dixon
spinning off of turn 4 and Josef
Newgarden getting spun by
Martin Plowan off of turn 3.
The yellow brought the leaders
down pit road for the final time
on lap 170. The race restarted
with Hunter-Reay leading
Hinchcliffe, and Townsend Bell
who had worked his way up to
the top 5 in a similar fashion
to Hunter-Reay and Carpenter.
Helio Castroneves and James Hinchcliffe. ALL PHOTOS: Courtesy of Indycar.
battle. Hunter-Reay regained
the lead on lap 190 after 2 laps
of fighting with Castroneves
and the yellow flew a flap later
first for debris from contact
between Sebastian Saavedra
and Jacques Villeneuve and
then for Bell crashing in turn
two while running 5th. The
red flag was displayed in
The race restarted on lap 180
with Hunter-Reay still in the
order to insure a green flag
finish as the SAFER barrier
lead. From there, the Andretti
Autosport duo of Hunter-Reay was repaired. That set up a
and Andretti swapped the lead remarkable duel between
Hunter-Reay and Castroneves.
and Castroneves joined the
On the restart Bell made a 3
wide pass for second place
as Carpenter and Hinchcliffe
made contact going into turn
1 fighting for 2nd place and
careened into the turn 1 wall
taking them both out of
the race.
The race went green on lap 195
and Castroneves immediately
took the lead while Andretti
tried to pass Hunter-Reay
put could not get around his
teammate. Hunter-Reay made
a gutsy pass going into turn 3
on lap 197 while Castroneves
set himself up to make
another pass on the American.
Hunter-Reay’s .0600 margin of victory
was the second closest in 500 history.
ALL PHOTOS: Courtesy of Indycar.
Castroneves took the lead
going into turn 1 and held the
lead until coming for the white
flag when Hunter-Reay gained
a head of steam and passed
him at the white flag. He held
off Castroneves the entire lap
but the Brazillian gave it one
last shot coming to the line but
came up short by .06 seconds,
the second closest margin of
victory in Indy 500 history.
“It’s a dream come true!’ said
an ecstatic Hunter-Reay in
victory lane. “There was no
practice for this. We never ran
those lines all month. I did what
it took to pass Castroneves.
I had the team behind me. I
knew I had a good race car
even though we didn’t qualify
well and started 19th. It was
a fantastic finish to win under
green. I was on the edge of my
seat that’s for sure.”
This marks the first time in 4
years that the 500 has finished
under green flag conditions. It
also marks the first win for an
American in the 500 since Sam
Hornish, Jr. in 2006.
and Ryan Hunter-Reay. They
did an outstanding job. I want
to thank Roger and my team.
It’s a shame it was so close, but
Castroneves finished 2nd at Indy today it’s Ryan Hunter-Reay’s
for the 2nd time in his career.
day.”It’s a shame, I wanted to
give this to Roger so bad. It was
“Well, certainly, the (red flag)
a great fight. I’ll tell you what,
kind of broke the rhythm, but
it was great TV. I was having a
first of all congrats to Andretti
great time.”
Ryan Hunter-Reay takes a sweet sip
of milk after winning his first Indy 500.
Baloon spectacle.
Red Flag for caution during the race.
ALL PHOTOS: Courtesy of Indycar.
The start of the Indianapolis 500.
Juan Pablo Montoya leaves pit lane.
ten finish. Rounding out the
top ten was JR Hildebrand, who
challenged early for the lead
but fell off as the day went on.
The other returnee to Indy,
Jacques Villeneuve overcame a
penalty for entering a closed pit
lane and ended an otherwise
uneventful day in 14th place.
ALL PHOTOS: Courtesy of Indycar.
Finishing in 3rd was Andretti,
4th was Carlos Munoz, making
it three Andretti Autosport
cars in the top 4. Montoya
rebounded from his speeding
penalty to finish 5th in his
return to Indy after a strong
day.
his way through the field and
got caught a lap down under
a yellow but took the waive
around and got his lap back
and soldiered on to claim a top
In his first 500 appearance
before heading off to Charlotte,
NC to compete in NASCAR’s
600 miler, Kurt Busch finished
a quiet 6th place, matching
Tony Stewart for best finish of
any driver attempting the Indy/
Charlotte double in the Indy
500.
KV Racing’s Sébastien Bourdais
also had a quiet day and
was able to translate it to a
7th place finish, his best at
Indianapolis. Eighth was Power,
who also rebounded from a
pit speed penalty. Ninth was
19 year old rookie Sage Karam
who started 31st and charged
Marco Andretti and Ryan Hunter-Reay.PHOTO: Jim Haines
The 98th edition of the
Indianapolis 500 mile race
produced another duel for
the ages. This duel to the
finish joins the ranks of 1992
with Al Unser, Jr. and Scott
Goodyear, 1982 with Rick Mears
and Gordon Johncock, 2006
with Marco Andretti and Sam
Hornish, Jr. and 1989 Emerson
Fittipaldi and Unser, Jr. The next
round for the Verizon IndyCar
Series is next weekend’s Duel
in Detroit, the first of three
doubleheader races of the
season.
RESULTS
Verizon IndyCar Series 98th Indianapolis 500 Mile Race. Indianapolis
Motor Speedway. Indianapolis, Indiana, USA. May 25th, 2014
200 laps
Place
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
Driver
Ryan Hunter-Reay
Helio Castroneves
Marco Andretti
Carlos Munoz
Juan Pablo Montoya
Kurt Busch
Sébastien Bourdais
Will Power
Sage Karam
JR Hildebrand
Oriol Servia
Simon Pagenaud
Alex Tagliani
Jacques Villeneuve
Sebastian Saavedra
James Davison
Carlos Huertas
Ryan Briscoe
Takuma Sato
Jack Hawksworth
Mikhail Aleshin
Justin Wilson
Martin Plowman
Team
Andretti
Penske
Andretti
Andretti
Penske
Andretti
KV
Penske
Ganassi
Carpenter
Rahal
Schmidt
Fisher
Schmidt
KV
KV
Coyne
Ganassi
Foyt
Herta
Schmidt
Coyne
Foyt
Engine
Honda
Chevy
Honda
Honda
Chevy
Honda
Chevy
Chevy
Chevy
Chevy
Honda
Honda
Honda
Honda
Chevy
Chevy
Honda
Chevy
Honda
Honda
Honda
Honda
Honda
Time/Gap
2h40m48.2305s
+0.0600s
+0.3171s
+0.7795s
+1.3233s
+2.2666s
+2.6576s
+2.8507s
+3.2848s
+3.4704s
+4.1077s
+4.5677s
+7.6179s
+8.1770s
+8.5936s
+9.1043s
+12.1541s
+13.3143s
+13.7950s
+13.8391s
-2 laps
-2 laps
-4 laps
24.
Pippa Mann
Coyne
Honda
-7 laps
Townsend Bell
Tony Kanaan
Ed Carpenter
James Hinchcliffe
Scott Dixon
Josef Newgarden
Charlie Kimball
Buddy Lazier
Graham Rahal
KV
Ganassi
Carpenter
Andretti
Ganassi
Fisher
Ganassi
Lazier
Rahal
Chevy
Chevy
Chevy
Honda
Chevy
Honda
Chevy
Chevy
Honda
190 laps
177 laps
175 laps
175 laps
167 laps
156 laps
149 laps
87 laps
44 laps
Retirements:
All Cars are fourth-generation IndyCar Series Chassis (Dallara IR-12) and use Firestone Tires
WORLD RALLYCROSS
Record Entry for Lydden Hill
Rachel Cavers
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Bakkerud won t
The sun has
shone, the
racing has been
action-packed
and we’ve had
huge numbers of
spectators.”
R
ound two of the FIA
World Rallycross
Championship presented by Monster Energy,
after a near perfect run at Lydden Hill race circuit yesterday.
Robin Larsson claimed the
runner’s-up spot in his Audi A1
Supercar, with Britain’s Andrew
Jordan ending the event third
in front of a delighted home
crowd.
and a full class of TouringCar
and Super1600 cars plus the
supporting RX Lites Cup. Wildcard entrants Tanner Foust – a
two-time Formula Drift Champion – and reigning British
Touring Car Champion Andrew
Jordan were also part of the
stellar line-up, with both drivers reaching the Supercar final
alongside Bakkerud, Larsson,
Petter Solberg and Topi Heikkinen.
A record number of cars descended on the Kent-based
“This is a dream come true,”
circuit over the weekend includ- gushed an emotional Bakkerud,
ing 37 flame-spitting Supercars, whose team-mate Reinis Nitiss
lost his place in the final due to
an electrical problem with his
car. “We didn’t make a mistake,
we had a clean run and it was a
close fight until the end. I even
won the Monster Energy Super Charge Award and to have
two trophies feels good! But
now I’m concerned… I promised
Norway’s biggest broadcaster
that I would grow a moustache
for my home round in Hell
next month if I was leading the
Championship after Lydden so
now I must stick to my promise
and grow a moustache!”
Sweden’s Larsson – who makes
the transition from TouringCar
to Supercar in 2014 - was bewildered at the end of day press
conference. “I’m actually very
surprised to be here and in second place,” said Larsson whose
Audi A1 Supercar made its in-
ternational debut in Britain this
weekend. “The car has been
fantastic and apart from a broken gearbox, it’s gone perfectly.
We had a good start in the final and I couldn’t believe I was
leading for most of the race.
It’s been an awesome weekend!”
“This is
a dream come
true.”
Englishman Andrew Jordan
joined Larsson and Bakkerud
on the podium to round off
what had been a near-perfect
weekend for the newly-turned
25-year-old. “If you’d told me
at the start of the weekend that
I’d be on the podium today then
I would have been smiling from
ear to ear. I was driving like a
bit of an idiot in the heats and
then I had to reign it in. I started off the back of the grid for
the finals but then I had a good,
clean race. I couldn’t have
asked for anything more.”
Elsewhere, a final race tussle
between Foust and Solberg saw
the duo end the weekend fifth
and sixth respectively. “We
kept on pushing and pushing
each other as everything was
so close but then we knocked
each other out of winning the
race. But that’s rallycross and
that’s how it goes, it’s been a
good weekend,” Solberg explained. Volkswagen Marklund
Motorsport driver Topi Heikkinen ended a solid weekend of
racing fourth overall.
After two heat victories and the
final race win, Russia’s Sergej
Zagumennov took his second
Super1600 victory in a row
and now leads the Super1600
category by nine points. Second place was awarded to Ulrik Linnemann, with Kasparas
Navickas taking the third step
of the podium.
In the TouringCar category, Daniel Lundh clinched the victory in
a Volvo C30. Anders Braten –
who worked with Petter Solberg
in his workshop in Torsby over
the winter – took second, with
Tom Daniel Tanevik third.
“We had a good
start in the final
and I couldn’t
believe I was
leading for most
of the race. It’s
been an awesome
weekend!”
Mitchell DeJong made a sensational debut in round two of the
RX Lites Cup, a support category of World RX. The 16-yearold American won two of the
heats, and had a dominant final
race to finish his first race on
European soil top of the class.
“My goal this weekend was to
learn as much as possible here
for my first round in the US this
season at X Games so to finish
with a win is more than I could
“The car has been
fantastic and apart
from a broken
gearbox.”
have asked for!” beamed the
promising young driver.
Martin Anayi, World RX Managing Director for IMG Motorsport,
concluded: “It’s been a terrific
weekend at Lydden: the sun
has shone, the racing has been
action-packed and we’ve had
huge numbers of spectators
over the course of the weekend. Andreas drove a fantastic race and all credit to Ford
Olsbergs MSE for another win
in the teams’ championship.
Only seven points separate the
top four drivers now and with
two Norwegian drivers at the
top of the drivers standings,
the scene is set for an exciting
battle when the Championship
resumes in Norway in just over
three weeks time.”
Round three of the Championship, World RX of Norway, will
take place at Hell from 14th to
15th June.
DRIVER POINTS AFTER ROUND 2, AUTOSPORT WORLD RX OF
GREAT BRITAIN
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
Andreas Bakkerud, 49 points
Petter Solberg, 46 points
Toomas ‘Topi’ Heikkinen, 44 points
Reinis Nitiss, 43 points
Anton Marklund, 26 points
Robin Larsson, 25 points
Timmy Hansen, 20 points
Timur Timerzyanov, 19 points
Koen Pauwels, 17 points
Andrew Jordan, 17 points
TEAM POINTS AFTER ROUND 2, AUTOSPORT WORLD RX OF
GREAT BRITAIN
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Ford Olsbergs MSE, 92 points
Volkswagen Marklund, 70 points
PSRX, 55 points
Team Peugeot-Hansen, 39 points
Albatec Racing, 14 points
Monster Energy World RX Team, 0
RALLY NEWS
COMING THIS WEEKEND
M
ajor rallies are being held all over the globe this weekend, but the pick of the bunch are to be
found as far afield as the USA, France, Britain and Brazil. Briefly, this is what lies in store for
our readers next week:
Rally America
British Rally Championship
The Waste Management Susquehannock Trail
Performance Rally (30th to 31st May) is to
be round four of the Rally America national
series halfway point in the season. Based at
the Tioga County fairgrounds at Wellsboro,
Pennsylvania, the STPR will run over
gravel roads in Susquehannock, Tioga and
Toadaghton state forests as well as private
roads. The rally starts on Friday afternoon and
finishes on Saturday evening.
The second round of this year’s MSA British
Rally Championship is the all-asphalt Jim
Clark Rally (30th to 31st May) based at Duns,
Scotland but with the central servicing this
year at the Kelso showground instead of at
the racecourse. This year eight stages will
be held on the Friday evening stretching
into darkness with ten stages in daylight
on Saturday. Favourites are expected to be
Osian Price’s and Daniel McKenna’s Citroën
s while usual Peugeot R2 driver Gary Pierson
this time drives a special non-homologated
Fiesta R200. Though the British championship
activities end on Saturday, the stages are
kept open for the Scottish Rally Championship
Reivers Rally to be run on the Sunday (1st
June).
French National Asphalt Rally Championship
This surprise inclusion is all down to Bryan
Bouffier who makes a surprise appearance as
the “Wild Card” entry on the Rallye d’Antibes
Cote dAzur (30th to 31st May), the fourth round
of the French national asphalt championship,
at the wheel of a factory run Hyundai i20
WRC. Hyundai Motorspot said this is a one-off
event for one of Hyundai’s line-up of drivers
who helped develop the i20 WRC before it was
presented for homologation in 2013. Bouffier’s
car will be run by the team’s test team while
the WRC team prepare to go to Sardinia one
week later. The event runs Friday-Saturday.
Friday’s stages will be to the west of the river
Var, Saturday’s stages in the Alpes Martimes
region including Turini. The rally is based at
Antibes with the service park at the MIN retail
centre at Nice.
FIA Codasur Regional Championship
The most popular round of the FIA’s South
American Codasur regional championship is the
Erechim Rally (31st May to 1st June) for which 72
entries have been received. The event is centred
on farmland to the south of Erechim (Rio Grande
do Sol state), with six stages on the Saturday
morning and then four stages run on the Sunday
morning. The rest of the weekend it’s party time!
Most of the cars will be internationally familiar
but also entered are three of the rare Peugeot
207XRC cars specially built for the Brazilian
National Rally Championship, while at least one
competitor also has a Maxi Rally vehicle.
THE WAITING GOES ON!
C
ontinuing delays for deliveries of the
new Peugeot and Citroën R5 cars are
affecting the projected rally programmes
and sponsorship plans for many drivers, but
there has now been a recent high profile
change of plan. The Spanish ACSM team
which had projected a major programme
of ERC (Ypres) and WRC events (Germany,
France, Catalunya and GB) for Xevi Pons with
a Citroën DS3 R5 are among teams who have
been told that delivery of their Citroën DS3
R5 has now been postponed until September.
ACSM have now ordered a Fiesta R5 instead
Craig Breen /Martin Scott
- Peugeot 208 T16 R5
One of the lucky few -Miroslav
Jakes in his Citroën DS3 R5.
from M-Sport. Pons’ rally programme, which
had already been disrupted by the Spanish
National Championship dispute over the
system of selective eligibility of cars, will
resume in Sardinia with a Mitsubishi Lancer
Evo X. Meanwhile happier news is that Karl
Kruuda has now received his Peugeot 208T16
in which he has entered Rally Italia Sardegna.
At M-Sport, it is reported that the number of
Fiesta R5 cars in active service is now 63 and
another 15 are on order. Current delivery dates,
for new orders, at the moment start in August
2014.
ERECHIM HAS WORLD CUP FEVER
O
rganisers of the
forthcoming FIA Codasur
Erechim Rally in Brazil have
confirmed that Simon Larkin,
the Events Manager for WRC
Promoter, will attend the
rally with “the intent that the
city can host a round of the
World Rally Championship in
the coming years”. Regional
authorities are reported to
be strongly in support of the
project, the local mayor stating:
“We have done as much as
possible for this to be viable.
Thinking about the football
World Cup which brings about
300 thousand people to watch
the games, we are planning
that 300,000 people to attend
the Rally Erechim should this
become a round of the World
Championship over the next
three years. It would be more or
less like saying that we would
be hosting a World Cup every
year in Erechim and the region”.
The organisers state that their
intentions are supported by
local authorities but it is not
known to what extent they
are endorsed by the national
motorsport federation CBA.
The final words on this goes
to Larkin, who said, “Brazil
remains a very high priority
of WRC Promoter for a future
round in the WRC, and I
will attend this year’s Rally
Erechim as part of this ongoing
development plan.”
HYUNDAI’S TEAM GETS BIGGER
H
yundai Motorsport has finally filled their
last major vacant position in their WRC
rally project, with the announcement that Nino
Frison will become the teams’ Technical Director.
Among many positions within motorsport,
Frison’s closest connection with the WRC was
working as Chief Designer of the Suzuki SX4
WRC project, with which Hyundai Motorsport’s
Director Michel Nandan was also involved. A
53 year old Italian, Frison enters the team at a
critical period when they are not only competing
in the first year of WRC competition for the first
time in over ten years but are also engaged in
developing another new WRC model ready for
2015. Certainly the team cannot specify when
their 2015 car will first appear, but has confirmed
the 2015 season will be started with the 2014
car.
M-SPORT EXPANDING!
J
ust in from M-Sport is a
confirmation of reports
appearing in local Cumbrian
media that the company
hopes to launch into road
car development work and
have submitted planning
applications for a 60 bedroom
hotel and 25 houses on the
M-Sport HQ -Dovenby Hall, Cockermouth.
edge of the company’s existing
estate at Dovenby Hall, near
Cockermouth for this purpose.
This development involves
demolition of existing but
derelict buildings as well as
expanding existing premises.
The development is reported
to centre on a 10,000 square
meter Evaluation Centre which
will develop, test and evaluate
vehicles. The project is aimed
to become a unique facility able
to design, build, test and then
fine-tune vehicles using parts
tailor-made at one location.
We are here for you
since 1991…
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SARC:
THE PMC GAUTENG RALLY
Defending SARC champion Mark Cronje claimed his first win of the year.
Cronje and Houghton Finally Finish, and Take the Win Too!
F
ord Dealer Team Fiesta pair Mark Cronje and
Robin Houghton capped a dream weekend
and after leading the Pretoria Motor Club’s
Gauteng Rally from start to finish, recorded
their first full finish of the season and their
first win too when the action came to a
finish at the RallyStar Driving Academy near
Bapsfontein, west of Pretoria on
Saturday afternoon.
After winning two of Friday’s three gravel
stages (stage four was cancelled because of
extremely dusty conditions), they controlled
matters from the front on Saturday, adding
another two stage wins (stages five and seven)
and finished 49 seconds ahead of 20 year
old Henk Lategan and Barry White in their
Volkswagen Sasolracing Polo S2000.
The VW pair produced the performance of
the rally after starting from fourth place, 58
seconds behind Cronje and Houghton, at the
re-start on Saturday morning. They ended up
winning three of the days stages (6, 9 and 10)
on their way to the second step on the podium.
The European pair of Hans Weijs Jnr (Dutch)
and Bjorn Degandt (Belgian) made it two
factory VW Sasol Polos on the podium when
they brought their car home in third place, a
further 17 seconds in arrears. They were third
overnight and a steady drive saw them score
six top-six stage finishes throughout the rally.
Castrol Team Toyota’s Hergen Fekken and
Carolyn Swan will be disappointed with their
fourth place after they started the final day
in second place and just 24 seconds behind
Cronje and Houghton. Some overnight
changes to their Yaris didn’t work out and they
lost a lot of time in the early part of the day
before recovering in the final
three stages to finish 1 min 11
sec in arrears.
Privateers Japie van Niekerk
and Gerhard Snyman were
happy with their fifth place
overall in their New Africa
Developments Ford Fiesta.
After a poor start to the
season saw them score just 11
points in the first two events,
they had a steady run on this
rally to add another 16 points
to their tally. They finished 1
min 16 sec in arrears.
in their PZN Panelbeaters
Toyota Auris S2000 C. They
were 3 min 31 sec behind the
winners and 14 minutes 10 sec
ahead of the second-placed
S2000, the Toyota RunX of
Piet Bakkes and Shaun Visser.
Bakkes and Visser competed
in the reduced points Super
Rally on Saturday after they
were forced to drop out after
stage one on Friday with
engine problems. They started
11th and did well to improve to
eighth at the finish.
Sixth and winners of the
S2000 Challenge for older
specification four-wheel drive
cars were Namibian Wilro
Dippenaar and Kes Naidoo
Leeroy Poulter and Elvéne
Coetzee in their Castrol
Team Toyota Yaris, who led
the championship coming
into this event after winning
20 yr old Hank Lategan drove his heart out to 2nd.
the opening two rounds,
completed the rally in seventh
place under half-points
Super Rally rules after engine
problems prevented them
from finishing the first leg
on Friday.
They worked hard for topthree positions in each of the
first four stages on Saturday
(including a win in stage
eight) and went on to earn
valuable championship points
that limited the damage and
they only dropped to second
place (57) in the points, behind
team-mates Fekken and
Swan (59) who now lead the
championship by two points.
Third on 44 points are Lategan
Guy Botterill claimed his third successive Super 1600 class win 3.
and White.
Second in the Challenge
category and eighth overall
overnight, Namibian Thilo
Himmel and Armand du Toit
hit a rock on stage five on
Saturday and tore off a wheel.
They eventually finished
ninth, 26 min 26 sec behind
the winners.
Former S2000 Challenge
winners Gugu Zulu and Carl
Peskin, now competing in a
factory VW Sasolracing Polo
S2000, were credited with
10th place overall under Super
Rally rules despite getting
stuck in stage five. They had
been sixth overall on Friday
and had had high hopes for
improving their position
on Saturday.
Ashley Haigh Smith got his first podium
of the year with 2nd in the S1600 class
Prominent non finishers were
former Dakar Rally winner
Giniel de Villiers and Greg
Godrich in their Imperial
Toyota Yaris S2000, who
experienced engine problems
on the liaison section between
the end of Friday’s stage two
and the first service stop.
S1600 Class
It was three wins in a row for
Guy Botterill and Simon VacyLyle in their Yato Tools Toyota
Etios R2 when they took the
top step of the podium in the
hotly contested S1600 class.
Three wins from the opening
three rounds in the two-wheel
drive class sees the Toyota
pair on a maximum 75 points
and well clear of the
chasing pack.
No other crew in the well
supported and usually hotly
contested S1600 class has
got their act together like the
current championship leaders,
who led throughout the nine
gravel special stages, winning
three on Friday and two
on Saturday. Second and a
distant 2 min 8 sec in arrears
were Ashley Haigh-Smith
and Damian van Ass in their
Castrol Ford Fiesta R2, who
were in turn 24 seconds ahead
of third-placed Paulus Franken
and Henry Kohne in their
Manitou Group VW Polo R2.
Chris Coertse and his 16-yearold co-driver Mari van der Walt
in their Electrothread Toyota
Etios R2 were fourth ahead
of Richard Leeke Jnr and
Rikus Fourie I their ATS Ford
Privateer Japie van Niekerk tried hard and claimed 5th.
Poulter ended 7th under half-point Super Rally rules 3.
Fiesta R2. By sharp contrast,
defending S1600 champions
Clint Weston and Christoff
Snyders in their Reef Tankers
Citroën C2 R2 had to endure
their third nightmare rally
in a row. After scoring just
6.5 points in round one and
languishing at the bottom of
the championship standings
after round two’s DNF, the
talented pair continued
to experience technical
problems with a dead
batteries finally forcing them
to call it quits after just one
stage on Saturday.
The next round of the
championship is the
Volkswagen Rally in the
Eastern Cape on July 11th
and 12th.
Hans Weijs Jr claimed the last step of the podium.
Hergen Fekken now leads the SARC after taking 4th.
HOLMES ON THE CASE:
OFF TO THE ISLANDS AGAIN
Martin Holmes
Next week will witness Rally Italia, the traditional WRC
event which nowadays is held off-shore on the island of
Sardinia.
O
“Yes, islands are
fun and rallies
on islands all
the more so, but
please not all the
time!”
Title photo above:
Parc ferme at Portoferraio
for Elba Rally 1976.
ver the seas and faraway
from the hubbub of metropolitan Europe – and
straight into the endless complications of island rallying! Once
you have safely arrived and
have settled at an off-shore rally
there is a very agreeable gotaway feeling, a holiday spirit, but
it is getting there – and getting
home again afterward, which is
the disaster-zone. Whether it is
a shipping strike, the frustration
of seasonal timetables which do
not cover the week you want to
travel or adverse weather which
leaves you stranded in airport
waiting lounges, the pleasures
of island rallying come at a high
personal stress level cost!
This time the destination is
Sardinia. Sardinia is special because in a sport where
countless regional events are
run off-shore, it is the only
world championship rally run
these days that can be said to
be run on an island. As usual,
things are never quite entirely straightforward on Italian
events. Background organisational uncertainties at this
event traditionally continue
well into the weeks before the
event, just when you need to
make your discounted flight
reservations. It was only a couple of months before the rally
that stories were still circulating
that the rally would start this
year, for promotional reasons, on the mainland.
Sardinia is one of the locations where to-and-fro
transport plans are made for seasonal holiday
tourists or for local people, not visitors with work
who need to make time-saving connections.
Corsica was the same in earlier days before corporate takeovers and new airline companies
finally made it easier to travel there. To travel
to Corsica you used to have to buy separate
flight tickets. Try getting your bags checked all
the way through when you leave home. Established carriers would leave you stranded if you
had connection problems on the budget airlines.
Even now, Air France will laugh at you if you ask
for help with a problem because your onward
journey is with Ryanair or Easyjet.
“One thing I hate
is seeing flight
crews making
the sign of the
cross before
take-off.”
For British enthusiasts (Britain of course being
an island itself until the channel tunnel was built)
the “islands” mean the Isle of Man, a cherished
rallying venue where British competitors have a
rare opportunity to develop their pacenote skills,
or Ireland, where you are lonely when you have
misfortune. Boat trips to both involve some unpleasant motion experiences if the weather was
bad, flights mean uncertainty. One of my original favourite island rallies soon became Elba,
which required you to take your car on a ferry
from Livorno to Portoferraio. Confirmed tickets
meant ‘space permitting’ … I still recall the anguish of passengers on the harbour front as the
ferry set sail when they realised there had only
been space remaining for our little Fiat, and not
for their bigger family cars.
Travellers to the Portuguese Atlantic islands of
Azores and Madeira have developed an innate
sense of fatalistic resignation leading to an almost religious satisfaction after an uneventful landing. Happy landings have not always
happened in those regions. For some time I
Cyprus Rally 2006, downtown Limassol stage.
PHOTO: Maurice Selden
had wondered why passengers from Portuguese speaking lands always clap when
they land. One thing I hate
is seeing flight crews making
the sign of the cross before
take-off. I have seen that
on Cyprus Airways. In earlier days, direct flights to less
visited destinations like remotely located islands were
not so usual, and this meant
that you needed to handcarry emergency living supplies in case your checked-in
case did not arrive with you.
For years I travelled to New
Zealand with their national
airline. Their flights were
the only ones which left London and arrived in Auckland
without changing planes en
route. If you arrived so did
your cases. The company
never advertised this fact but
it was always a very strong
incentive, even if their scheduled times of travel were not
always ideal.
Isle of Wight Rally 1969 upside down, the author with
Peter McDowell when leading with two stages to go.
Island rallies seem to come in
bunches and that is not coincidental. Few promotional
activities on the island can
“the pleasures of
island rallying
come at a high
personal stress
level cost!”
have been some really happy
memories of island rallying. For me the greatest days
came when Corsica was run in
early May. The drive into the
mountains on the main road
from Ajaccio past Corte to
Bastia on a sunny spring day,
when the plants were bursting out, was one of the nicest
I can remember. Yes, islands
are fun and rallies on islands
all the more so, but please not
all the time!
Just as we were finalising this
match the opportunities to
article for publication, news
display with visual attractions came through that it was reof a destination like a rally,
ported in the Azores newsand commercial support is al- paper Jornal do Desporto on
ways more easily available for 23rd May (translated): “Eight
island rallies, but within limvehicles that participated in
its! Events need to be run just SATA Rallye Acores suffered
before or just after the main
damage during the sea voytourist invasion each year.
age between the Acores and
Before the hotels are ready or the mainland due to bad sea
after they have been ravaged
conditions”. It is reported that
by the heavy duty rigours of
a helicopter, carried as cargo,
was also damaged.
the season. Even so, there
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