A hot car, a hot blonde and the promise of some après-ski action? Well, two out of three ain’t bad I guess.
This is a new video from McLaren showing the 12C Spider with Rhys Millen at the wheel chasing snowboarder Chanelle Sladics down the Loveland Pass, some 3655m above sea level, in the Rocky Mountains.
The clip was directed by JF Musial from Drive, too, so it’s a bit of an all in collaboration here.
Koenigsegg reckons their Agera R, first shown in Geneva two years ago, still has what it takes to see off the latest hypercar challengers from Ferrari and McLaren.
Firstly, with 830kW (1115hp) available the Agera R has more power than the LaFerrari (708kW) or the P1 (675kW) and, crucially, at 1418kg with fluids they say it weighs less as well. The Huayra is lighter than the Agera R, just, but with a paltry 539kW on tap it’s little wonder Koenigsegg is having a wee chuckle.
Oh, and with a v-max of 420km/h the Agera R really does laugh at its competition, which are all wallowing in top speeds that start with a lowly three.
Koenigsegg is also confident it can see off any of its challengers at the track as well and on road tyres. Which is a not so subtle dig at Pagani who fitted its Huayra with specially made hand-cut slick tyres before handing it over to The Stig, who then set a new lap “record” around the Top Gear track.
Of course, the Agera R does hold a number of world records regarding acceleration and braking, so it’s no surprise they are so confident. All we need now is for someone to get all four cars in the one location and let them rip!
[Source: Cars UK]
Sergio Perez has been parachuted into to full promo mode since his arrival at McLaren. First he was on hand in Geneva to help launch the P1 and now he’s the star in an unreasonably priced car driving around the Top Gear test track in Dunsfold, Surrey.
During the launch of the P1 in Geneva Ron Dennis claimed he lapped the Top Gear track 10 seconds faster than the lap record, which currently stands at 1:13.8 in the Pagani Huayra. If true, that means old Ron lapped in the 1:03s and you’d reckon one of his F1 mates could knock a few more seconds off that.
Remember many years ago when The Stig drove a Renault F1 car around the track? He did it in 59 seconds. So, on Ron’s figures, the P1 is within touching distance of a 2004-spec F1 car. Really?
Anyway, back to the video with Checo in the P1, sadly there’s no timing revealed, just some nice footage of the car in action with the appropriate script detailing all the good things about McLaren’s latest hypercar.
Aww, isn’t that cute, Kimi and his Australian Grand Prix trophy sharing a quiet moment together in front of their adoring fans.
And with that image another pictorial journey in Formula 1 begins. It’s AUSmotive’s third year of compiling F1 pics after each race to share with our readers and so perhaps now is as good a time as any to share a little about how it all works.
The images are all sourced directly from each team, via their media portals. While we wish we had the budget, time and ability to either commission photographers to act on our behalf or attend every race ourselves that’s simply not the case. It’s all done from AUSmotive HQ in Canberra.
As to the image selection, generally, we select six images from each team, three for each driver. So with 11 teams competing in 2013, at a minimum, you’ll see 66 pics in each gallery. Actually, make that 60 images, because Marussia still won’t answer our emails.
In addition to the base selection of images we give the winning driver and his team extra attention with anywhere from 12 to 30-plus photos. That often depends on the team. Pics from Red Bull normally feature heavily, in part due to having an Australian driver on its books, but also because they provide the best gallery each race and make it the easiest to access them. Ferrari is probably next best. But Mercedes, and sometimes McLaren and Lotus, don’t always give us a lot to work with, which some may argue is fair enough.
Ideally, we like to get photos from raceday, and where there’s a good behind the scenes shot we’ll include them too, no matter the team. Getting back to Mercedes, as this article goes live they only had a handful of images from Sunday in Melbourne, although none of them were on-track photos, so all the F1 W04 images you see are from the practice days. Unfortunately, this is typical for Mercedes/Daimler.
So there you go, we hope that helps you understand a bit more what we’re doing with these galleries and if you have any ideas on the type of images you’d like to see, or any other ideas, please let us know. You can think about it while you’re taking in the 105 images waiting for you after the break.
McLaren published info on its P1 hypercar well ahead of the Geneva Motor Show, but here is the video from the car’s presentation. The two key numbers to take away from this clip are 600kg of downforce and 2g cornering speeds. Although, perhaps the biggest claim is Ron Dennis’ bold statement that the P1 will lap the Nürburgring Nordschleife in sub-7 minutes.
Formula 1 fans from the 1980s and 1990s will welcome the news that a McLaren-Honda partnership is expected to return to the F1 grid in 2015.
McLaren currently has a contract with Mercedes-Benz that gives them the option of using their engines until the end of the 2015 season. However, when asked directly if McLaren would stick with Mercedes for the full term of their contract Martin Whitmarsh said: “We have a contract that covers the next three seasons at the moment and we will certainly go into next year with Mercedes-Benz.”
A specific mention for 2014, when the new V6 turbocharged engine regs come into play, but no mention of 2015. Autosport reports that Honda officials have confirmed with them that they are planning to reunite with McLaren in 2015.
As it stands 2014 faces the prospect of having just three engine makers in F1: Ferrari, Mercedes-Benz and Renault. Martin Whitmarsh says new manufacturers entering F1 would be a good thing “We have read the stories about Porsche, Hyundai and Honda and I think they are to be encouraged,” he said.
“The sport needs new automotive manufacturers to come in and if we can help that in any way, we will do so, but at the moment we are very focused on our partnership [with Mercedes], which has been a very good partnership.”
When McLaren last used Honda engines, 1988–92, the net result was four driver and constructor championship doubles.
Meanwhile, McLaren has confirmed that 2013 will be the last year it will carry Vodafone sponsorship. They say a new title sponsor has already been sewn up, but they won’t make any announcement until December, after the season has finished.
[Source: Autosport | Pic: Wikimedia Commons]
There’s just one more sleep until the 2013 Formula 1 season kicks off in earnest, so put up your hand if you’re a bit excited!
To help prepare you for what is sure to be another fascinating year in F1 we bring you this quick reference guide. We have the full entry list and numbers for all the drivers, plus links to our launch articles for all 11 teams. Very useful will be the coloured boxes which indicate which drivers will have a red grey camera atop their car and who will have yellow.
We’ve also included an introductory video from Pirelli explaining some of the changes they have made to their tyres for the season ahead. You can also download the full 2013 Pirelli Media Guide to really sink your teeth into the art of the black rubber.
And, finally, there’s a handy calendar with the start times for all 19 races converted to Australian Eastern time.
For easy reference be sure to save this link: ausm.tv/f1guide2013
You can have your fancy pants limited-edition Lambo, or your stonking new LaFerrari, even the McLaren P1; we’re not really interested. The car of Geneva, for us, is the Porsche 911 GT3. That’s the one we’d like to take home and get intimate with. And so begins the second and final part of our Geneva Motor Show image gallery. There’s over 120 new images to see and enjoy.
It’s well known that lap times achieved in Formula 1 pre-season testing can only be relied on as a loose guide to genuine pace, but it’s still interesting to look back and see who did what.
For example, defending champions Red Bull Racing only managed to see one of its drivers top the time sheets once and that was on a day affected by inclement weather so is perhaps an even more unreliable sample. Ferrari managed to top the charts twice, once each for Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa. While Lotus, Mercedes AMG and McLaren shared the spoils, each topping the charts on three occasions.
The table below gives you an easy reference to the fastest times seen during the off-season. Times marked with an asterisk indicate a day that was affected by wet weather. The fastest times achieved on those days may have been set on dry tyres, but in general conditions were not ideal.
| Location | Driver | Team | Lap time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jerez (Day 1) | Jenson Button | McLaren | 1:18.861 |
| Jerez (Day 2) | Romain Grosjean | Lotus | 1:18.218 |
| Jerez (Day 3) | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | 1:17.879 |
| Jerez (Day 4) | Kimi Raikkonen | Lotus | 1:18.148 |
| Barcelona I (Day 1) | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes AMG | 1:22.616 |
| Barcelona I (Day 2) | Sergio Perez | McLaren | 1:21.848 |
| Barcelona I (Day 3) | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 1:21.875 |
| Barcelona I (Day 4) | Lewis Hamilton | McLaren | 1:23.282* |
| Barcelona II (Day 1) | Mark Webber | Red Bull | 1:22.693* |
| Barcelona II (Day 2) | Romain Grosjean | Lotus | 1:22.716* |
| Barcelona II (Day 3) | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes AMG | 1:20.558 |
| Barcelona II (Day 4) | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes AMG | 1:20.130 |
The ongoing saga of Paddy Lowe’s rumoured defection from McLaren to Mercedes has reached tipping point with reports confirming the McLaren Technical Director will be joining the Mercedes AMG team.
In true F1 soap opera style, though, Lowe isn’t due to join Mercedes until the end of the year. So, what to does McLaren do with Paddy in the meantime? Well, he can do whatever he likes, so long as it has nothing to do with McLaren’s Formula 1 effort.
Perhaps Paddy can set up the McLaren Bonsai Calming Centre, or the McLaren Macrame Mother’s Group. Or something. Martin Whitmarsh has said Lowe “will be performing a different role” so perhaps we’re not so far off the mark after all.
It’s all a bit of a waste really. What is gained by sending Lowe to the naughty corner? He wants out, just release him from his contract, shake hands and let the bloke get on with his life.
There’s another interesting side note to Lowe’s move as well, and that is the future of Ross Brawn. He’ll be 60 next year and when you hear Ross talk it’s all “when I choose to leave” but there’s also get the feeling the marriage with Mercedes hasn’t quite been the dream that was imagined when they tied the knot after Brawn GP won both the constructors’ and drivers’ world championships back in 2009.
So Lowe will join Mercedes AMG and Brawn will leave Mercedes AMG. On face value both moves look set to take place at the season’s end. But it won’t work like that, really, will it? We think both men will have moved on well before the Grand Prix circus gets to the Belgian Grand Prix after the mid-season break. Let’s wait and see.
[Source: The Guardian]
McLaren has released more information on its P1 hypercar and, while we reckon they might have a few finer details up their sleeve for Geneva, this is as close to the full reveal as we’re going to get, we think.
The P1 will be limited to 375 examples and will priced at £866,000 all in, no more to pay. What a bargain! At around €1 million that price puts the P1 line ball with the expected asking price for the Ferrari F150.
In true McLaren form they have been very clinical in describing the speed of the P1. To quote the official press release: “Instant Power Assist System (IPAS) provides astonishing acceleration: 0 to 300 km/h takes less than 17 seconds, more than 23 per cent faster than the legendary McLaren F1.”
Actually, when you stop and consider those numbers, the P1 will be astonishingly quick. Here’s some more numbers to back that up:
All that pace is achieved thanks to the 903hp offered by the 3.8 litre twin turbo V8 and electric motor, which McLaren detailed a few days ago.
Grip is provided by specially developed Pirelli P Corsa Zero tyres. Stopping power comes courtesy of Akebono, McLaren’s F1 partner, and includes unique carbon ceramic discs, which McLaren claim have never been used on a production car before.
Visually the only major difference between the car you see above and the concept shown in Paris last year is the paint colour. According to McLaren the only other change of note is the addition of some cooling ducts ahead of the front wheels. Which kind of makes a mockery of the prototypes being driven around in full camo attire.
We expect there’ll be a full press kit made available after Geneva kicks off, if so we’ll bring it to you as soon as we’re able. Until then we’ve got a handful of new pics waiting for you after the break.
