Mark Webber must love the Nürburgring. Back in 2009 he cracked his maiden Formula 1 victory in the Eifel mountains and early this morning he, along with his Porsche teammates, won the 6 Hours of Nürburgring. It was Mark’s first WEC race win.
It was a huge day for Porsche too, who dominated with 1–2 victories in both the LMP1 and GTE Pro categories.
Full results available HERE.
No, I’m not Daniel Ricciardo, but he is. Infiniti Red Bull Racing has put together a short clip with Daniel. Check it out below and hear what the three-time Formula 1 Grand Prix winner has to say about the beginnings of his career.
There’s also a few words after the video taking us through Daniel’s pathway to F1.
And if you’re a Daniil Kvyat fan, you might want to watch this.
It was another dismal weekend of racing for Daniel Ricciardo at the British Grand Prix. He was forced to retire on lap 22 with electrical problems.
He more than anyone would have enjoyed the recent report from Autocar suggesting Red Bull Racing could cast Renault aside in favour of a new partnership with Aston Martin Racing. The most obvious benefit of such a union would be the connection Aston Martin has with AMG and the hope that Red Bull could use the seemingly unstoppable Mercedes-Benz engine.
Alas, any such hope has been dashed after Niki Lauda, Mercedes AMG F1 non-executive chairman, rubbished the rumour in no uncertain terms.
“There’s not even a discussion. No discussion at all,” implored Lauda. “I haven’t heard anything from them and we never talked about it. I have breakfast every morning with Helmut [Marko] so I should know.
“We never thought about it because we have four teams running our engines, so we don’t even have capacity.”
More damning comments came from an unnamed Mercedes AMG F1 spokesperson who slammed Red Bull’s treatment of current engine partner Renault: “Red Bull have been asking [for engines] since February 2014—they ring up every week! If you see how they’ve treated Renault they are not a good partner to have…”
Oh well Daniel, there’s always 2016. At least that’s the final year of the Renault contract. Fingers crossed for 2017, maybe?!
[Source: Motorsport.com]
UPDATE: It seems Niki and Toto Wolff, Mercedes AMG team principal, aren’t on the same page. Wolff telling Autosport that he’s “leaving the door open” to discussing a deal with Red Bull.
Today is Daniel Ricciardo’s birthday. Happy birthday Dan, would you like to drive for Ferrari in 2016?
Ricciardo has spoken candidly about his future ahead of this weekend’s British Grand Prix, so, let’s see what the man himself has to say.
“I won’t go into too much detail, but first and foremost, not talking about contracts, but what I want is to win and I guess that is a lot of my frustration this year as we are not in a position to win,†Daniel said.
“Obviously with contracts it is not as easy as saying ‘I’ll go to Ferrari and that is that’, there are things in place and from my understanding of contracts it is not likely that I can get out.
“But at the same time I really feel that Red Bull can make a change for next year and can get back up the front. We have the people in the team and the ingredients to do it, it is just making that next step.
“On the Ferrari thing it is nice to be recognised by a team like that, I guess I’ll take it as a compliment and see what happens.
“I will probably never rule anything out completely, because I don’t have experience with contracts. I haven’t been in F1 all that long. I am sure things can change; anything can change.
“Dietrich (Mateschitz, Red Bull owner) said some things in the press as well, and you never know what is going to happen. As I said, it is unlikely but yeah …â€
The question about a move to Ferrari was posed to Daniel following ongoing speculation that Maurizio Arrivabene, Ferrari Team Principal, is ready to dump Kimi Raikkonen at the end of this season.
Sensing the apparent departure it’s been reported several drivers have approached Ferrari to offer their services. When Arrivabene was asked if a potential shortlist of drivers included Daniel Ricciardo he said no, but added: “Perhaps he does not have my number.”
Was that a subtle invitation to Daniel there? Either way we can’t imagine his bosses will be overly happy with Daniel’s willingness to talk about leaving Red Bull before his contract expires.
And no surprises for guessing that Sebastian Vettel is very happy with his current (under performing) teammate.
[Source: Fox Sports]
At the end of Mark Webber’s appearance on Australian Story (ABC TV) a graphic appeared warning there would be “carnage” when his autobiography was released. Mark’s book, Aussie Grit, was released in Australia today and in it he reveals how Sebastian Vettel escaped punishment from the Red Bull Racing hierarchy.
First, here’s was Mark had to say on Australian Story on Monday night:
So we got off the podium [Malaysia 2013] and yeah. He [Vettel] just come over. Just, “We need to talk,” you know. He said, “I’ve just fucked up. I fucked up, mate. I fucked up so bad,” you know. I said, “Mate, well,” I said, “Well, let’s just talk, let’s talk next week.”
I don’t know who spoke to him between Malaysia and China but we had a discussion in China and the discussion didn’t go well. And yeah, he just said that yeah: he had massive respect for me as a driver and, and not much as a person. So that really affected the relationship, obviously. At the time, we would hardly stand the sight of each other.
We now know who spoke to Vettel about the Multi-21 fiasco between Malaysia and China. That’s if we’re to believe this claim made by Mark in his new book:
When Ann (Neal, Webber’s partner) later pressed (Christian Horner) about why the team had never reprimanded Seb or issued any punishment for the ‘Multi 21’ incident, he admitted that the team had received a two-page letter from Seb’s lawyer a few days after the Malaysian race stating that they were in breach of his contract by giving him an ‘unreasonable instruction/team order’.
So, when running back to the team for support didn’t work, Sebastian was happy to get his lawyers to provide protection.
Just when you think Vettel might be likeable, along comes another story—and let’s not forget, it is only one side of the story—to make you think what an absolute tool the guy can be.
[Source: Fox Sports]
Here we go again, another season of Formula 1 images starting in the best place on the calendar, Australia! You can relive the 2015 season opener after the break with our gallery of 89 images, all clickable to 2560px mega image sizing.
Red Bull Racing had a pretty ordinary time of it at the Australian Grand Prix. Daniel Ricciardo lost one of his four engines for the year during practice. Daniil Kvyat lunched a gearbox on the way to the starting grid and didn’t start the race.
Even junior outfit Toro Rosso suffered, with Max Verstappen forced into retirement with engine woes.
After previously having its own way for four years in succession the prospect of a second year with no world title is not pleasing the top brass at Red Bull Racing one little bit. In fact, you could say it’s tantrums all round. And the blame is being laid squarely at the feet of power unit supplier Renault.
“Across the four cars we’ve had two engine failures, one within five laps, and a whole bunch of driveability issues, so it’s not the start that Renault can afford to have,” Horner said.
“I think it masks so many things regarding corner entry, corner exit, degradation, slip control of the tyre,” Horner added. “You’re not able to drive the car properly. So you then start moving your brake balance around to try to compensate, so you are so far away from optimum. You start to lose temperature in brakes, and then the tyres aren’t working as they should. It’s a spiralling effect.”
Meanwhile, there’s conflicting views on the long-term interest in Formula 1 held by Red Bull’s owner Dietrich Mateschitz.
Red Bull’s motorsport advisor Helmut Marko is leading the charge there telling reporters in Melbourne: “We will evaluate the situation again [in the summer] as every year and look into costs and revenues.
“If we are totally dissatisfied we could contemplate an F1 exit.
“Yes, the danger is there that Mr Mateschitz loses his passion for F1.”
Predictably, and coming back to Renault, it’s the power unit regulations that are the sore point for Marko.
“These power units are the wrong solution for F1, and we would say this even if [Red Bull supplier] Renault were in the lead,” he claimed.
“The technical rules are not understandable, much too complicated, and too expensive.”
However, Cristian Horner denies a Red Bull departure is on the cards and he attempted to hose down rumours that Audi is willing to buy out Red Bull and, crucially, that Mateschitz is willing to sell.
“You’re wide of the mark. There’s been statements from Dietrich to clarify that, It’s a non-issue,” Christian Horner told F1 reporter Adam Cooper.
There’s also talk that Renault might want to have its own factory team again, with Toro Rosso being the most likely match.
And all of this simply because Mercedes AMG has cleared the pack once again. Where was Mercedes when Red Bull was dominating and were they whinging and carrying on like pork chops that it just wasn’t fair?
Dominance in any sport, in particular in Formula 1, is cyclical. If Red Bull is prepared to stick around it has shown it has the capacity to reach the top.
It’s one thing to achieve success once. But coming back to succeed again after losing that dominance, that takes true courage and determination. And that’s how legends like Ferrari, McLaren and Williams have been made.
[Source: Autosport & Adam Cooper]
This time next week we’ll be well and truly in Australian Grand Prix mode. To help get you ready for the forthcoming season, and with a local Aussie flavour, here’s a 13-minute highlights package from 2014 that’s all about Daniel Ricciardo.
Last season Dan made his mark on the world of F1. It was a big challenge to take on the well-entrenched four-time world champion on the other side of the garage at Red Bull. Not only did Ricciardo take Vettel on, he beat him handsomely.
Moreover, Daniel showed he has balls of steel when he is on a charge. He made overtaking moves stick that he had no right to make. And he did it cleanly. Ricciardo was a breath of fresh air in 2014 and his three race wins amidst a season-long Mercedes AMG domination shows he is a superstar in the making.
Let’s hope we see a lot more of Daniel soaked in champagne atop the podium in 2015 and beyond.
When Red Bull first revealed their RB11 in its eye catching camouflage testing livery they told us the final look for 2015 would be just as awesome. Yeah, not really chaps, you’ve just moved a few bits around from the 2014 car, taken some stripes away and made the purple a bit brighter.
Anyway, here’s what the 2015 Red Bull Racing F1 car will look like. Let’s hope Daniel Ricciardo can get across the line first a few more times this year too.
Day one of Formula 1 pre-season testing is currently underway in Jerez and without any fanfare or launch of any kind Daniel Ricciardo simply wheeled out of the pits and drove onto the circuit.
And with that the 2015 RB11 was revealed. Well, kind of.
As you can see, for reasons best known to them, Red Bull has chosen to run with a temporary camouflage livery. They do say that, obvious nose change aside, most changes to the car compared with the RB10 have been made under the skin.
Outwardly Red Bull has been rushed in its preparation of the RB11 and has only just had its chassis’ crash tests approved. Team boss Christian Horner is downplaying any such talk, of course.
“We’ve been pushing to the limit as usual,” Horner said. “We had a very tight timescale for the car to be prepared in time for the first test, but that’s normal in this team.
“If you’re not on the limit you’re not trying hard enough.”
Daniel Ricciardo is keen to build on his stellar 2014 season and is itching to get back on track.
“There was plenty of pressure on me last year to prove myself in a top team,” Ricciardo said. “I think everyone knows now what I’m capable of so I’m excited—excited to build on what we achieved in 2014 and ready to give Mercedes a good fight.”
Young Daniel will be joined by an even younger Daniil this year and the expectation will be that D1 is faster than D2. We look forward to seeing how this intra-team rivalry pans out.
Bruce Thomson is an all round good guy. We know this because he hits our inbox from time to time with some seriously cool automotive drawings. Over the last few days he’s been sharing with the world a few illustrations showing how he would like the F1 cars of 2015 to look.
So far he’s given us the Ferrari F15, McLaren MP4-30, the Mercedes AMG W06 and the Red Bull Racing RB11.
If you follow those links then you’ll be treated to much larger versions of these images where you can further appreciate the detail.
Even better, there’s the promise of a Lotus and Williams concept to follow. Keep up the great work Bruce!
UPDATE 11 January: Now with Williams FW37 and Lotus E23 concepts.
Over 60 trophies have been stolen from the Red Bull Racing factory in Milton Keynes during a ram raid attack yesterday morning.
Thames Valley Police say a silver 4×4 was used to crash through the front doors and a dark coloured Mercedes-Benz estate was also involved, with both cars understood to have foreign number plates.
According to the police report six men took part in the burglary although no description has been released other than to say they were all wearing dark coloured clothing.
“Beyond the aggressive nature of this break-in, we are perplexed why anyone would take these trophies,” said Christian Horner, Red Bull Racing Team Principal. “The value to the team is of course extraordinarily high due to the sheer hard work and effort that went into winning each and every one. But their intrinsic value is low; they would be of little benefit to those outside of the team and, in addition to that, many of the trophies on display were replicas.
“The actions of these men mean it’s likely that we will have to make our site less accessible in the future, which will be unfair on the hundreds of fans that travel to visit our factory each year to see our trophies and our Formula One car.”
Full statements from RBR and Thames Valley Police can be read below.
[Pic: Red Bull/Getty Images]