Auto News 5

Automotive glass supplier Guardian Industries next week will have a new CEO in Ron Vaupel, a vice president at Koch Industries, which recently purchased a minority stake in Guardian.

Audi plans to spend 13 billion euros ($17 billion) through 2016 to develop new cars and expand production capacity as it pursues BMW's lead.

Audi plans to spend 13 billion euros ($17 billion) through 2016 to develop new cars and expand production capacity as it pursues BMW's lead.

High fuel prices and a sagging economy have handed motorcycling its biggest opportunity in a generation: a clear need for affordable, high-efficiency urban transportation.

John Z. DeLorean's greatest contribution to the world, his eponymous car (other than the Pontiac GTO, the

A continued slide in the Japanese yen could tip the competitive balance on pricing back in favor of Toyota and away from its toughest and fastest-rising global competitor, Hyundai Motor -- a new dynamic that would likely be repeated across other...

EXECUTIVE EDITOR BOB GRITZINGER: This Skyactiv stuff can be a real downer in the

Plaintiffs' lawyers are seeking up to a $200 million cut from Toyota's agreement to settle unintended acceleration claims for millions of its vehicles in the United States in 2009-2010.

Plaintiffs' lawyers are seeking up to a $200 million cut from Toyota's agreement to settle unintended acceleration claims for millions of its vehicles in the United States in 2009-2010.

Ford plans to invest more than $773 million on new equipment and capacity expansions across six manufacturing plants in southeast Michigan. The plan is part of its commitment to invest $6.

Toyota shares gained 2.6 percent today in Japan on relief that its proposal to pay $1.1 billion to settle class-action litigation claims in the United States over unintentional acceleration in its vehicles was smaller than expected.

Two paved circle tracks in Southern California should be up and racing by spring, good lord willing and the creek don't rise. The two facilities plan to cooperate in order to maximize the chances of success.

Infiniti has scaled down its ambitions for Europe in the wake of the region's economic slump.

Toyota Europe's boss reconfirmed that the company's automaking operations will make money for the first time in five years.

From GMM

Vitaly Petrov's hopes lie with Caterham, as the Russian bids to stay in Formula 1 for a fourth consecutive season in 2013.

His manager, Oksana Kosachenko, admitted that while there is also still a race seat vacancy at Force India, the 28-year-old driver is only waiting on Caterham's call.

"At the moment, all the necessary work on our part is done -- and it's for Caterham to decide," she told Russian web site sportbox.ru.

Admitting that talks with other teams had all fallen through, Kosachenko insisted it is "difficult to say" whether Caterham will make its decision in the days immediately after Christmas.

She told f1news.ru: "Yes, Vitaly is among the contenders, however, so are six drivers."

From GMM

A major local newspaper has said that the circuit of the Nurburgring will host this year's Grand Prix of Germany as scheduled.

The fate of the 2013 race had been in doubt because of the Nurburgring's well-documented financial problems.

But the Bild-Zeitung daily said the German Grand Prix, as well as GP2 and GP3 support races, will be held at the track in early July, as per the published FIA calendar.

"Formula 1 will be held at the Nurburgring on July 7, 2013," Nurburgring Automotive GmbH spokesman Karl-Heinz Steinkuhler confirmed.

Sport Bild quotes him adding: "The major sponsors are making their bookings now."

From GMM

According to international reports, British engineer Pat Symonds' paddock exile is about to end.

Although working as a crucial technical consultant with Marussia in the last couple of seasons, the Briton -- who worked for Renault with Fernando Alonso -- was officially serving his F1 ban in the wake of the 2008 Renault 'crashgate' scandal.

But the Spanish newspaper ABC, and Italy's specialist Autosprint magazine, said Symonds will return to the paddock with Marussia in a direct role in 2013.

ABC said the 59-year-old veteran will be Marussia's technical director.

From GMM

Williams Formula 1 driver Pastor Maldonado last Saturday married journalist Gabriele Tarkanyi in Canaima, Venezuela.

International media reports said the event was attended only by the couple's closest family and friends.

Pastor Maldonado and Gabriele Tarkanyi (Photo: WRI2)

Maria Gabriela Chavez, the daughter of Hugo Chavez, was slated to attend, but she is reportedly at her father's side as the Venezuelan president recovers in Cuba from cancer surgery.

Twenty-seven-year-old Maldonado, sponsored by the Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA, won May's Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona, but finished the 2012 season just fifteenth in the drivers' championship.

From GMM

Red Bull Racing Formula 1 team also has a clear number 1 driver, Scuderia Ferrari team boss Stefano Domenicali has alleged.

The fabled Italian team is open about its policy of hiring a clearly superior top driver - presently Fernando Alonso - alongside a capable 'number 2' such as Felipe Massa.

In Austin last month, this policy was highlighted when Ferrari deliberately incurred a gearbox penalty on Brazilian Massa's car in order to give Alonso a better grid position.

"If the others don't like it, we don't care," Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo is quoted by Marca sports newspaper.

"Others are critical but do the same, although less transparently."

Team principal Domenicali picks up the theme.

"Why does Webber have so many failures on his car? Because the best parts go to the driver getting the better results.

"And this is normal, and it seems so logical that we never say anything.

"We don't like to speak of the others, but the others like to talk about us," he added.

Meanwhile, Domenicali admitted Ferrari is looking forward to 2013, even though Red Bull and McLaren had superior cars this year and the rules are not changing much.

Ferrari, though, thinks the banning of DRS on Saturday is a "major change", while Pirelli will supply softer tires.

"This year it took us between two and five laps to heat the tires," said Domenicali.

Brazilian race car driver Rubens Barrichello has confirmed Thursday that he is leaving the IZOD IndyCar series to race in his native Brazil in 2013.

On his official web site, the former Formula 1 driver confirmed that he will contest the full season in the Copa Ciaxa Brazilian V8 stock cars series next year.

Rubens Barrichello (Photo: Copa Ciaxa)

Barrichello was part of the Williams Formula 1 team in 2011. After a disastrous season, he was released by Williams and decided to join his life time friend Tony Kanaan at KV Racing in the IndyCar series.

But after a disappointing season, Barrichello said he'll now move to Brazil for good and contest the 2013 Copa Ciaxa, driving a Peugeot sponsored by Medley and entered by Full Time Sport.

The winner of 11 Formula 1 Grands Prix contested some rounds of the Brazilian stock car series this fall. Unable to find the sponsorship required to continue racing in the IndyCar series in 2013, Barrichello elected to switch series and go back home.