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Formula 1 Mercedes-Benz Red Bull Racing

2014 Monaco GP: Post-race press conference

2014 Monaco Grand Prix

Here’s the post-race presser from the Monaco Grand Prix. As much as we’d like Lewis and Nico to maintain perspective the media needs to take a chill pill too, with this whole teammate saga they’re trying to manufacture.

While you can’t read body language or tone of voice into this transcript, the two Mercedes drivers seemed to be as cordial as you can expect, despite some very obvious needling from the press.

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Formula 1 Mercedes-Benz Red Bull Racing

Nico Rosberg wins 2014 Monaco GP

Nico Rosberg wins 2014 Monaco GP

Nico Rosberg won his second Monaco Grand Prix in succession overnight with a pole to flag victory that impressed everyone except his teammate Lewis Hamilton.

The Mercedes pair finished one-two yet again and for the most part enjoyed clear air to their inferiors fighting for third place. The form guide remained consistent with Daniel Ricciardo the best of the rest and for the last few laps he was right on Hamilton’s tail but as you night expect on the tight streets of Monte Carlo he was unable to find a way past.

Fernando Alonso managed to somehow find a space between P3 and P5 that meant he barely saw anyone else on track. It’s pretty hard to be unnoticed on this track, but Fernando managed to do that. He’s now gone 20 races without a win, his longest dry spell in the red team.

The so far unflattering return to Ferrari for Kimi Raikkonen looked set for some champagne after he made a banzai start from P6 and found himself in P4 at the first turn and P3 not long after. Alas for the Finn his race went south after the first pit stop when he suffered a puncture and was forced back in almost immediately for new tyres. His next highlight was gently stuffing his car into the tyres at Loews hairpin while attempting to pass Kevin Magnussen. Aside from inconvenience and pride no serious damage was done and he was able to continue on his not so merry way to P12, after a quick stop for a new nose cone.

Sebastian Vettel made a great start, too, and was quickly past Ricciardo, pushing his teammate down to P5. Soon, though, Vettel would be crying into his beer after the engine in his RB10 got hungry for cylinders. It sounded very rough and Vettel’s mood was not helped by seeing how many cars could pass him on a single lap and his race soon came to an inevitable conclusion.

Aside from that the race was a typical Monaco affair. Lots of attrition and the highlight was Jules Bianchi who picked up a couple of points for finishing ninth. He finished eighth on track, but didn’t line up on the grid correctly and was given a five second penalty. No matter, both he and Marussia were overjoyed at earning their first points in Formula 1.

The narrative for the immediate future in Formula 1 is going to be the rift between Rosberg and Hamilton, real or imagined. While understanding how desperate both men are to fight for the championship we’d like to think that both could keep a healthy dose of persepctive and enjoy the position of privilege they are in and find it within themselves to smile from time to time when they don’t get the chocolates.

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Formula 1 Mercedes-Benz Red Bull Racing

2014 Monaco GP: Qualifying report

2014 Monaco Grand Prix

Nico Rosberg will start the Monaco Grand Prix from pole position for the second year running following a dramatic qualifying session. He’ll start alongside his Mercedes AMG teammate, Lewis Hamilton, before further team pairings of Daniel Riccardo and Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull) on row two and Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari) claiming row three.

Rosberg set the fastest time (1:15.989) on his first run in Q3, a mere 0.59s faster than Hamilton’s best. The 2013 Monaco winner was the first of the front runners to start his second run and a lock up heading into Mirrabeau sent him down the escape road to avoid crashing into the tyre wall. That incident brought out local yellow flags meaning anyone behind had to slow through that corner leaving their second attempts thwarted.

The consipiracy theorists were quick to point out that with provisional pole already safe, and the fact that nine out of the last 10 Monaco Grands Prix have been won by the polesitter, that Rosberg had more to lose than he could gain and that his effect on the rest of the field may not have been so innocent.

A theory given oxygen by Lewis Hamilton’s icy claim in the post-quali press conference that he was “up a couple of tenths” on his final attempt at pole.

There was enough hot air in the sabotage theory to see the race stewards launch an official investigation before surmising, “The stewards examined video and telemetry data from the team and FIA and could find no evidence of any offence related to the turn 5 incident.”

We all know that Formula 1 can be a soap opera at times and the level of discussion heard following Rosberg’s innocent mistake and Hamilton’s churlish reaction is perfect proof of that.

Yet the mug punter sitting at home on the couch is the big winner, because tonight’s race is shaping up as an absolute ball tearer. Factor in the chance of some light rain on the streets of Monte Carlo and it’s pretty easy to state the race will be compulsory viewing.

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Formula 1 Video

Reflecting on Senna’s 20th anniversary

Ayrton Senna

The Monaco Grand Prix is a special event. History, glamour and location make it so. It’s the one race Formula 1 drivers truly covet.

The streets of Monte Carlo are etched into the story of Ayrton Senna. It was in the wet in 1984 that Senna first made the F1 world stop and take notice. Then in 1988 during that qualifying lap he stood head and shoulders above his peers. He also stands alone as a six-time winner in Monaco.

Moments before qualifying for the 2014 Monaco Grand Prix it’s timely then to reflect once more on the twentieth anniversary of Senna’s death with this video which documents the activities which took place at Imola earlier this month.

The highlight is hearing F1 photographer Keith Sutton share his memories of both Senna and Roland Ratzenberger.

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Motorsports Video

Some things never change at Bathurst

Bathurst 1967 Easter races
Feast your eyes on this classic retro footage of the 1967 Easter race meeting at Bathurst. Featuring open wheelers and tin tops a spritely 26-year-old Kevin Bartlett was the man of the moment as the YouTube descriotion states:

Easter weekend meetings at the Mount Panorama circuit in Bathurst, NSW ran from 1938 to 1973. In 1967, Kevin Bartlett starred in Alec Mildren open wheelers and Alfa Romeo touring cars. Look out for Spencer Martin, Max Stewart and Bob Jane, to name a few. This was the weekend that Bartlett achieved the first 100mph average lap speed at Bathurst. All credit to The Golden Age of Motor Sport for this terrific video, originally commissioned by Alec Mildren himself. Awesome!

We agree. It’s amazing to see Mount Panorama like this with no concrete barriers. We can only imagine how specatacular the descent after Skyline would be from one of those Brabhams.

Oh yeah, the image above will make perfect sense when you watch the clip.

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Audi Video

A short history of the TT gang

Audi TT

Got a couple of minutes to spare? Then here’s a a short video from Audi UK bringing you up to speed on all things TT.

As you’ll see the first gen started off all French curves and bendy and now its becoming aluminium rulers and angular. To us, all three generations of TT look pretty damn fine. But so far our pick is the middle child.

Although, we are very keen to see this new dash display in action.

[Thanks to John for the tip]

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Volkswagen

Volkswagen plans to raise the roof at Wörthersee

2014 Volkswagen Golf GTI Roadster concept

Last year Volkswagen rocked up to Wörthersee with the Design Vision GTI, which was powered by a 370kW (500hp) 3.0 litre turbocharged VR6 engine. Very tasty, indeed. This year, we’re told they’ll be stuffing that engine into a GTI Roadster concept, which first began life as nothing more than a fantasy project for Gran Turismo 6.

A few UK outlets have got the scoop right now, but when we get our mitts on the official details we’ll be sure to pass them on.

[Source: Autocar]

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Audi Jaguar Mercedes-Benz Volkswagen

Ringing it with Audi, Jag, Mercedes and VW

Mercedes-AMG GT prototype

Regardless of what the new owners will have in store for the Nürburgring when they takeover next year it’s clear the industry pool is still in full swing.

Here’s four videos thanks to Dale from Bridge to Gantry which show a Mercedes AMG GT, an Audi R8 of some description (possibly turbocharged), a Jaguar XE Saloon and a VW Golf R Wagon being put through their paces.

What a lovely way to spend an afternoon!

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Porsche

Porsche 911 Carrera GTS in development

Porsche 911 Carrera GTS prototype

The next model on the 911 rank is the Carrera GTS. That mashed up looking thing above is it, apparently. We rather liked the old one, so let’s hope Porsche gets it right again. We’ve no reason to doubt they won’t.

Designed to bridge the gap between the Carrera S and the GT3, this new GTS will take the 3.8 litre flat six from the S and give it a bit more power (expect around 315kW, up from 294kW), but not as much as the GT3 (which has 350kW).

The last model was rear-wheel drive only but there’s a suggestion this new model could be all-wheel drive—which we’re not so sure about—and that it could also get a manual transmission. Hmm, that doesn’t seem to follow Porsche’s recent trend either, but we’d like it if PDK got to remain on the option list of at least one upper-end 911.

It’s expected the GTS will be on sale sometime next year and will also bring with it a cosmetic facelift, some of which will carry over across the entire 911 range. Just the usual nip and tuck, new lights and body kit etc. If you can’t wait that long then you’ll be pleased to learn there’s a chance the facelifted 911 and GTS could appear on the show car circuit before 2014 is done and dusted.

One thing that is new is the appearance of centrally mounted exhaust tips. Yes, the GT3 has those, but not like the ones on this test mule, which are a bit more spread apart (see below). More pics, including a Cabrio prototype, can be seen by following the source link, as well.

[Source: World Car Fans | Thanks to John for the tip]

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News Video

/DRIVE shifting to pay TV

Drive NBCSN promo

Back in December 2011 we were given our first taste of the YouTube channel /DRIVE. Since then it’s given the world countless hours of quality content. And all for free. Zero dollars. Nada. Just free.

Here at AUSmotive we’ve not been too proud to feature pretty much anything published by Chris Harris. He’s one of the best at putting you in the car with him as he tells us why a car is so good, or bad, not just that it is. He was doing this long before /DRIVE came to be, but his latest venture has broadened his exposure greatly and that’s about to increase again.

/DRIVE will soon feature on pay TV station NBC Sports in the States. It’ll be a slow start with the first episode airing this weekend, but then nothing more until July. The full detail was explained yesterday by Spinelli on Jalopnik:

We’re announcing today—right here, in fact—that /DRIVE is bringing its car-enthusiast programming to cable television, on the NBCSN, which will televise 10 episodes of a new show, called /DRIVE on NBC Sports, through the remainder of the 2014 calendar year.

The first episode sounds like a Top Gear rip off, although Spinelli promises, “we’ll stay true to the kind of programming /DRIVE’s audience expects”. Which means there should be a broader gamut of material focusing on motoring as entertainment, rather than entertainment as motoring.

Further, the /DRIVE–NBCSN partnership will produce a new F1 show called Off the grid, to be hosted by Will Buxton and Jason Swales.

Well done to the /DRIVE team, we wish them all the success they so richly deserve.

The guys have promised that their YouTube content will continue, but as Chris Harris hinted at via twitter yesterday it could become user pays.

In response to such a suggestion there has been many whingers criticising Harris and his mates for taking the pay TV route. Thankfully, there’s also been plenty of support and encouragement.

To the freeloaders out there, get a bloody grip, these guys owe you exactly what you’ve been paying to watch their content until now. Nothing.

Now, let’s all enjoy the show (there’s a preview after the break).

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Formula 1 News Video

Remembering Sir Jack

Sir Jack Brabham

Perhaps the only good thing to come from the passing of Sir Jack Brabham is a greater realisation of his enviable, and in many ways unmatched, stature in the world of Formula 1 and motorsport in general.

Equally happy with a spanner in his hand as he was with a steering wheel, Sir Jack excelled in an era where graft and wherewithal were as influential as bundles of cash are today. As Australian F1 fans we should be very proud of his achievements—especially his 1966 championship, won in his own car—and his family doubly so.

It’s no surprise that the tributes have been many since his death. Over the last couple of days we’ve assembled a collection of material that both honours Brabham’s legacy and helps to serve his reputation. Be sure to check out the videos and photos after the break, too, you’ll be glad you did.

Mark Webber: I was very fortunate that I was introduced to Jack before I left Australia and to be in his presence as a 17 or 18-year old as I must have been at the time, just blew me away. He provided me with endless support and advice over the years and became a close confidante—even right up until the last couple of years when, after hearing the rumours that I might move to Ferrari, he told me he would be very disappointed if I went there because for him, it was the absolute betrayal because they were his motivation—the ones he wanted to beat in his day!

Alan Jones: Jack will be the remembered as the greatest Australian racing driver. He is not only the greatest driver this country has produced but is one of the world’s best.

Dan Gurney: A fierce competitor, an outstanding engineer, a tiger of a driver, an excellent politician and a hands-on creator and visionary; he opened the rear-engine door at Indianapolis and raced there. He was a doer, a true Aussie pioneer!

Derek Bell: Above all he created cars in Formula 2 and 3 which allowed numerous young drivers to drive safe fast cars and make names for themselves, myself included. They might not have always been the quickest, but overall the cars never let you down and if not always winning they would always be there at the end!

Edd Straw (Autosport+): What is remarkable about Brabham is that it doesn’t matter that, in terms of pure pace, he was not quite on the same level as a Moss or a Stewart. What Brabham did is unequalled in history, winning the world championship in a car of his own. When greats like him are lost, it seems trite to reflect that we won’t ever see their like again. But in the case of ‘Black Jack’—a nickname he wasn’t fond of—it’s absolutely true.

Peter Windsor: A self-starter, a racer who enjoyed tinkering with damper rebound as much as he enjoyed flying his own aircraft and racing anything on wheels (from F1 cars to sports cars to touring cars to Indy cars), Sir Jack at heart was just a straightforward Aussie who loved motor racing first and the glamour and the publicity just about last.

Further reading

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McLaren Video

VIDEO: Three days with the McLaren P1

McLaren P1

Steve Sutcliffe from Autocar is really showing off now. Already he has spent time behind the wheel of the McLaren P1 and now he’s back for a second helping. A helping which lasted three full days and took in public roads, Castle Combe, an empty air strip and the MIRA test facility.

It is very much worth watching this video, of course. The P1 is a remarkable machine. Alas, after three days with the car, we’re not sure we’ve really learnt anything new.

Flippin’ heck!