Here’s a relaxing video to start your week. There’s no words, just soothing music as you are taken on a video tour of Ferrari’s factory in Maranello. Perhaps it would have been better if they followed one car from start to finish. But that’s just being picky!
Thanks to market demands and well funded egos the title of the world’s most expensive car is a fluid thing. The current title holder is this 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO which just sold at auction for a shade under AU$41 million.
Sold by Bonhams as part of the Pebble Beach festivities in California this weekend the car was introduced with the following text:
The Ferrari 250 GT ‘Omologato’ needs little introduction as the most iconic, most habitable, street-useable, race-winning, World Championship-winning – and simply gorgeous – closed two-seat Coupe car from the world-famous Maranello factory. The GTO was developed to contest the 1962 3-litre class FIA GT World Championship series of classical endurance racing events. Selective production at Maranello and in the Scaglietti body plant in Modena ran on through the 1963 FIA GT World Championship and – sure enough – the Ferrari 250 GTO won the World title both seasons in succession.
Chassis 3851GT was last purchased in 1965 by Fabrizio Violati, then a young Ferrari enthusiast, who has kept the car for 49 years. The car’s original owner was French racer Jo Schlesser, who ensured his 250 GTO saw plenty of competition.
It’s a beautiful car with outstanding heritage and the sound of its screaming 3 litre V12 would be hard to put a price on. Still, $40 million plus would buy you a fleet of some truly outstanding cars!
There’s a little bit too much talking in this video from Evo, but seeing as the subject matter is the truly awesome Ferrari F40 it’s worth listening to.
Henry Catchpole was asked by the Secret Supercar Owner to drive the F40 from Switzerland to the UK and naturally he jumped at the chance. Photographer Dean Smith tagged along and took some stunning pictures, too.
The roads covered look amazing and included the Susten Pass, the Furka Pass and the Grimsel Pass. Even with the F40 being a tough gig to drive this still would have been a remarkable day out.
[Thanks to Tiaan for the tip]
Determination, courage, pride and, most of all, talent; Daniel Ricciardo has them all. His results so far in 2014 have exceeded expectations and let’s hope that continues for some time yet.
You can relive Daniel’s victory in the Hungarian Grand Prix below. There’s over 100 photos on offer and some of them even feature subjects other than Daniel and his winning celebrations!
It’s always a great feeling being a Formula 1 fan in Australia when you go to bed late at night after an Aussie victory and you wake up on Monday morning and hear all about the race win on the morning news bulletins. It’s a great way to start the week. Thank you Daniel!
The most pleasing thing about Ricciardo’s win at the Hungarian Grand Prix was the way he had to fight for it. Same with Canada, too, he hasn’t yet dominated a race from start to finish. That’s a legacy of not having the best car this year. It’s meant Daniel has had to either create opportunities for himself or take advantage of good luck coming his way during a race.
It seems odd to say it, given he’s the only non-Mercedes driver to win a race so far in 2014, but Daniel’s two wins have been great development for him as a driver. He’s still learning and he’s proving he has the bottle and the skill to fight for race wins. Let’s hope it’s not too long until we see him fighting for a world championship. Clearly, he has the class.
Even Fernando and Lewis agree, as you will read below.
[Pic: Red Bull/Getty Images]
What the hell just happened? I’ll tell you what happened, Daniel Ricciardo just won the 2014 Hungarian Grand Prix! That’s what just happened.
Proving the Murray Walkerism that “Anything can happen in Formula 1, and it usually does” Fernando Alonso finished second and Lewis Hamilton, who started from the pit lane, finished third. So, again, what the hell just happened!
The track was wet for the race start and all the drivers started on intermediates. Nico Rosberg made a clean getaway and went about opening up a sizeable gap to those behind. Valtteri Bottas showed some smarts off the line and overtook Sebastian Vettel at the first corner to claim P2.
Daniel lost a couple of places at the start and was in P6 but worked his way back to P5. Marcus Ericsson then had his most influential F1 race to date after he binned his car and invited the Safety Car onto the track.
The timing was such that Daniel was able to quickly dive into the pits for slick tyres while the first four cars had to do almost a complete lap behind the Safety Car. The wash up of all that saw a fortunate Daniel inherit the race lead.
After the Safety Car came in, off he went. The lead was lost briefly to Jenson Button, who was running intermediates on the still drying track, but that didn’t last and Dan reclaimed the lead which he held until lap 22.
Sergio Perez spun on the last corner and smashed his car into the pit wall, which brought out the Safety Car for a second time. Again, Ricciardo was quick to pit, a move which eventually worked to his benefit.
Meanwhile, Lewis Hamilton was able to make solid progress through the field despite starting from pit lane and then spinning off the track momentarily on lap 2. By the end of the first Safety Car period he had risen to P7, only two places behind Rosberg.
Amazingly, as the race progressed it looked as though Hamilton could be in with a chance of victory. Fernando Alonso, too, was having a good run and inherited the lead of the race after Ricciardo came in for fresh tyres with 15 laps to go.
Daniel rejoined the race in good shape and set about chasing those ahead of him including Alonso, Hamilton and Rosberg. Alonso’s strategy required him to do 32 laps in his final stint and Hamilton, too, was on old tyres. Rosberg also came in for a pit stop, gifting P3 to Daniel, before he also started chasing the leading trio.
Alonso was able to hold Hamilton and Ricciardo at bay with clean defensive driving. However, his pace was slowing as his tyres lost more life and this closed the gap to little more than a second back to Ricciardo in P3. On newer tyres Daniel needed a couple of attempts to get past Hamilton for P2, but showed great racecraft to out manouevre his more experienced rival. He quickly caught Alonso and used DRS to great effect to maximise a half chance and take the lead.
With only three laps to go Ricciardo was able to build a safe margin, leaving Alonso to defend against Hamilton and a super quick Rosberg. Somehow the superior Mercedes pair could not do what Daniel did and overtake Alonso. The race settled with a totally unpredictable first three and Rosberg left to rue his chances in P4.
Felipe Massa was fifth ahead of Kimi Raikkonen (his best result since returning to Ferrari). Sebastian Vettel was seventh and had only himself to blame after a final corner spin on lap 32. He was lucky not to have crashed out but did sufficient damage to his tyres to ruin his chances of a better result.
Valtteri Bottas’ day was cruelled by unfortunate pit timing and he could only manage P8. While Jean-Eric Vergne and Jenson Button rounded out the top 10.
His second grand prix win seemed to sit better with a beaming Daniel Ricciardo, who showed he has no fear or talent deficit with the world champions he’s mixing it with. It’s a great result for the young Aussie as the teams go into the mid-season break before racing returns at Spa in late August.
[Pic: Red Bull/Getty Images]
Winning your home grand prix would be pretty cool. We’ve seen it twice in two races now thanks to Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton. Here’s your chance to relive Nico’s German Grand Prix win.
We’re only sorry we don’t have photos of Daniil Kvyat’s car on fire or Adrian Sutil doing donuts on the main straight while spinning out of the race.
As for choosing to keep the Safety Car in the garage and forcing the marshals to scamper out to retrieve Sutil’s abandoned car; that wouldn’t have had anything to do with protecting the German driver’s lead in the German Grand Prix would it?
One of the highlights from the 2014 German Grand Prix was the battle between Daniel Ricciardo and Fernando Alonso. Two-time world champion Alonso eventually won that battle for fifth place, but he was very impressed with the driving abilities of our Daniel.
“Daniel is a surprise from Australia,” Alonso told Sky Sports F1 after the race. “I think he’s doing unbelievable; I think he’s seven-three [in qualifying] in the first ten races with Sebastian [Vettel], so it’s something we probably didn’t suspect.
“He’s driving fantastically and today he was battling very smart—always taking the slipstream of me after I pass him and braking very late, attacking very late and never missing a corner.
“He was very, very smart, very respectful with the rules and it was a great fight.”
Alonso later added he was managing fuel towards the end of the race and was lucky not to concede P4 back to Daniel on the last lap.
“For the last stint I was saving fuel but I was battling with Ricciardo,” he said. “So for some laps you have to decide to give up the position and cross the line or fight with Ricciardo and be on the limit to cross the line.
“I decide to fight with Ricciardo, be in the position and then I will try to manage the fuel as good as I can.
“On the last lap, I had to save fuel massively and I was in eighth gear all lap and it was lucky that there was not 100 metres more.”
[Source: Sky Sports F1 | Pic: Red Bull/Getty Images]
And just as beautiful.
This is the Ferrari 330 P4. Petrolicious took on the enviable task of filming the car and having Nick Longhi, a Ferrari Corso Pilota instructor, tell us what it’s like to drive and a bit about the car’s history.
Crafted in 1967, the 330 P4 was built during the height of Enzo Ferrari’s battle for track supremacy with Ford. A grumpy Italian guy taking on the might of Henry Ford. Enzo wanted to win Le Mans with this car. He wasn’t able to do that—Ferrari’s last win at Le Mans was in 1965 with the 250LM—but the 330 P4 did claim an historic 1-2-3 finish at the 1967 Daytona 24 Hour.
Just like Scarlett, too, there’s only one of them in existence.
The title of this piece is a quote from a chap called John Pogson. He’s a mechanic (and a bit more) who owns Italia Autosport and, yes, he specialises in Ferrari F40s and most things from Maranello.
John’s quote above might sound like the words of an arrogant man who doesn’t offer his time lightly. Yet, in this Xcar film at least, he comes across as a humble bloke who just loves cars and happens to be good at what he does, either with a spanner or a steering wheel in his hand.
Then, just when you start to think this guy is a pretty cool dude, he goes and wheels out his 600hp AC Cobra!
[Thanks to John for the tip]
The track-only version of the LaFerrari, the LaFerrari XX, was seen lapping Monza recently. Thankfully, YouTube user NM2255 was on hand to record the action.
We’re sure you’ll agree the LaFerarri XX sounds awesome. What you won’t expect to see is the car’s magic bendy wheels, as shown above. The remarkable thing is, when that rear wheel bends like that the driver just plants his right foot and powers away as if nothing ever happened.
You’ll get to see if for yourself a bit after the two minute mark in the video below.
[Thanks to Aaron for the tip]
The return of Kimi Raikkonen to Ferrari has not gone well. In nine races the 2007 champ has qualified ahead of teammate Fernando Alonso only twice and and is yet to finish ahead of him on race day.
Kimi’s best result this year is P7, achieved in Australia and Spain. Alonso has finished sixth or better in all nine races to date. And while many are feeling for Kimi after his big crash in the British Grand Prix his lack lustre results haven’t escaped the eye of Darren Heath. It’s fair to say the F1 photographer has fallen out of love:
Sadly those days of daring-do on a Sunday afternoon followed by wild nights of well-deserved frivolity are long gone. The down-in-the-mouth look and the surly attitude are no longer cool, rather just tedious and old.
The Iceman legend may well be emblazoned on Räikkönen’s helmet and even tattooed large on his left forearm, but I’m afraid the winter is over for our chilly hero. A thaw has set in.
You can read Heath’s thoughts in full over at his blog.
Oh yeah, while Kimi is taking some time off to recover from his 47G impact, Jules Bianchi stepped into his car and set the fastest time in testing at Silverstone overnight.
While it can be folly to compare times from test sessions, Bianchi’s best lap of 1:35.262 was almost 1.3 seconds better than Kimi’s best across the British Grand Prix weekend and only 0.018s slower than Alonso’s quickest lap.
Jules to Ferrari in 2015 and Kimi to have his contract torn up? Stranger things than that have happened in F1 before.
[Pic: Ferrari]