The Alfa Romeo 4C doesn’t launch in Australia until later this year, but thanks to its role as the official Safety Car for the World Superbike championship you’ll be able to see one at Philip Island this weekend.
We wonder how many Alfisti will be making a special trip.
Porsche’s official reaction to reports of fires in new 911 GT3 models has moved up a gear with word they will be recalling all 785 model year 2014 GT3s for inspection.
The notice includes a recommendation that owners should not drive their car until it has been checked:
Porsche inspecting engines of current 911 GT3 models
Stuttgart. 2014/02/20 – The sports car producer Porsche is inspecting all engines of 911 GT3 vehicles of model year 2014. Porsche is informing the owners of the affected vehicles directly and recommending that they stop using their vehicles. The company is offering to pick up the vehicles and take them to a Porsche Centre immediately.
Safety is a number one priority at Porsche, and the company takes its responsibility seriously. After engine damage occurred in two vehicles in Europe and the vehicles then caught fire. Porsche decided to inspect all 785 delivered vehicles worldwide. There was no traffic accident and no personal injure. Internal studies to determine the cause of the engine damage have not been completed yet.
Porsche will report on any new findings immediately.
In less than two weeks the third-gen Audi TT will be unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show. To tide us over until then Audi has released four sketches which give us a taste of what is to come.
It’s true that most new cars look better and more aggressive in drawings compared with final production models and, while we think that will remain the case with the new TT, we’re also expecting to like what we’ll see under the brights lights in Geneva.
Certainly, the interior of the new TT looks promising and advances automotive design in a small way with its innovative dash display, removing the need for a screen in the central console.
A small detail of note, too, is the move of the four-ringed badge from the grille to the bonnet, as we see on the R8.
Audi has gone into adjective overdrive in the press release accompanying these sketches, which you can read below. We’re keen to see the real deal and will update once we have the photos and details to hand.
The UK High Court has dismissed an £85 million damages claim made by German media company Constantin Medien against Bernie Ecclestone. However, Mr Justice Newey did find that Ecclestone entered a “corrupt” deal with jailed German banker Gerhard Gribkowsky and the payments made to him by Ecclestone “were a bribe”.
Constantin Medien was seeking damages from Eccelstone, claiming he sold to CVC Capital Partners in 2005 on the cheap. Constantin Medien, a former F1 shareholder, stood to benefit from massive commissions if the sport’s rights were sold for more than £1 billion. The sale price in 2005 was £830 million.
In a blow to Ecclestone’s integrity Justice Newey went on to add that the 83-year-old could not be considered a “reliable or truthful” witness.
Explaining his decision Newey said: “No loss to Constantin has been shown to have been caused by the corrupt arrangement. That fact is fatal to the claim.”
In response to Justice Newey’s comments Ecclestone said: “Let’s assume I am a liar and let’s assume I am unreliable.
“I’ve run the sport for the last 30-odd years and nothing has changed. So if I was unreliable, and whatever, I have been lucky to have been as successful as we have been.”
Ecclestone will face a German court in April to answer the separate, but related, bribery charges against Gerhard Gribkowsky. If found guilty the F1 supremo could face a prison sentence.
[Source: BBC]
Pre-season testing lap times aren’t always a reliable guide as to who is fast, yet McLaren rookie Kevin Magnussen can do no more than his best and overnight in Bahrain his best (1:34.910) was 1.5 seconds better than anyone else.
“The team is doing a great job to help me,” Magnussen said afterwards. “They’re giving me really good guidance and making me feel confident.
“There’s a lot of discussion about lap times, and it feels good to get some good times recorded, but winter testing is just that—testing. It isn’t about times.”
The young Dane only managed 46 laps in the MP4-29, the third fewest of the 11 drivers who took to the track. Second fastest was Force India driver Nico Hulkenberg (1:36.445) with Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso (1:36.516) close behind.
The fourth quickest time was posted by Nico Rosberg (1:36.965). Despite racking up a healthy total of 85 laps the Mercedes W05 stopped twice on the Sakhir circuit with technical glitches and necessitated red flags. Valtteri Bottas (1:37.328) was the busiest man of the day with 116 laps under his belt in the Williams.
Kamui Kobayashi (1:39.855) was sixth fastest and enjoyed a good day in the Caterham. Also able to be positive, for the first time this pre-season, was Sebastian Vettel (1:40.340) who won’t care that he only went seventh quickest on the day and will be happy to have managed 59 laps. In the five previous days of winter testing Red Bull had only managed a cumulative total of 35 laps.
Daniel Ricciardo will be at the wheel of the RB10 for the next two days in Bahrain and the team is cautiously optimistic it can continue to without further issues.
Red Bull’s sister team Toro Rosso also had a good day with Jean-Eric Vergne (1:40.609) completing 58 laps. Esteban Gutierrez (1:40.717) was ninth quickest in the Ferrari-powered Sauber.
Bringing up the rear were Romain Grosjean (1:41.670) in the Lotus and Marussia’s Max Chilton (1:42.511) who could only manage 18 and 17 laps respectively.
Focus is beginning to move from the woes of reigning world champion constructor Red Bull and onto Lotus. Speaking after testing Trackside Operations Director, Alan Permane, didn’t shy away from his team’s issues.
“Obviously we fell way short of what we want to achieve here which is a strong tally of laps at a representative pace,” he said. “The car itself has looked solid at the pace we’ve run so far, but you only learn so much from lapping at our current level.”