Auto News 5

The success of the segment-busting Nissan Qashqai and Range Rover Evoque was a wake-up call to automakers. Now they are ready to push the trend to a new level.

Tesla will open more than 30 new service centers and stores in Europe as it anticipates a jump in sales in the region.

Ferrari and PortAventura Entertainment plan a new Ferrari Land amusement park near Barcelona, Spain.

Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne predicted first-quarter earnings will rise amid 'strong' industrywide demand this month for Chrysler in the United States.

BMW and Mercedes-Benz are reducing their number of vehicle architectures to speed development and cut costs.

Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne predicted first-quarter earnings will rise amid ''strong'' industrywide demand this month for Chrysler in the United States. Marchionne also forecast that Fiat-Chrysler's deliveries may reach 5 million in 2016.

The Ukraine crisis has led to a sharp depreciation of the ruble, making imported cars more expensive for Russians. That is bad news for VW.

Few auto executives predict that Europe's intense discounting battle has eased despite six straight months of sales increases in western Europe.

Few auto executives predict that Europe's intense discounting battle has eased despite six straight months of sales increases in western Europe and multiple forecasts that show the region's total volume rising about 3 percent this year.

The Ford Motor Company Fund, the automaker's philanthropic arm, has set up a $1 million scholarship for automotive design students to honor the legacy of William Clay Ford Sr., who died Sunday at age 88.

From GMM

Pirelli has denied it decided to 'go conservative' for 2014 after the tire-exploding criticism of last season.

After 2013, when the quality and degradation of the tires were regular paddock buzzwords, the Italian marque has had a low-profile start to F1's new era with reportedly a better and more durable product.

Even the compound choice for Melbourne, where usually the very softest tires can be used, has raised some eyebrows, but boss Paul Hembery denied Pirelli has gone conservative simply to quieten the damaging criticism of 2013.

"No," he insisted. "We did not take our decisions out of fear of criticism," the Briton told German-language Spox.

"It was just logical, because even now no one really knows how the cars with the new engines, the higher weight and less fuel will react with the tires."

As for the obviously more conservative tire choice in Melbourne, Hembery explained: "It is true that the choice appears cautious.

"But it is so the teams can focus on their programmes rather than having to work so hard on understanding the tires."

Photo: WRi2

Hembery said the criticisms of 2013, particularly those made by world champions Red Bull, have not affected Pirelli's paddock relationships.

"Last year is over," he insisted. "We learned a lot, made changes.

"What was expressed in the media is not always what is said behind closed doors," added Hembery. "So we should let it go and instead look forward to the new season."

From IndyCar

Bosses of IndyCar announced Friday a multi-year entitlement agreement with Verizon that will see North America's premier open-wheel racing championship named the Verizon IndyCar Series.

INDYCAR and Verizon will engage in a multi-dimensional partnership linking sports, entertainment and technology beginning at the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, which kicks off the 18-race season March 30.

The collaboration includes significant network coverage upgrades to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway as part of its Project 100; short- and long-term technology enhancements to INDYCAR Race Control; the addition of pit lane monitors and enhancing connectivity for spectators at each domestic race venue.

Verizon will also deploy its LTE Multicast solution at racetracks in the future, complementing the Verizon INDYCAR 14 app and indycar.com, the official website of INDYCAR. This emerging technology delivers rich multi-faceted multimedia content to multiple devices at once rather than sending it in a separate stream to each user.

From Pirelli

Formula 1 entered a fresh era with the debut of new tire regulations for 2014 Friday at Albert Park in Melbourne, Australia.

The first new rule affects free practice, with the teams now allowed an extra set of tires to be used in the first 30 minutes of FP1 only: always of the harder compound from the two nominated.

Thanks to these new rules there was increased running, a total of 937 laps throughout both sessions Friday.

The P Zero White medium and P Zero Yellow tires that have been nominated for the Australian Grand Prix displayed no blistering or graining, with the performance gap between the two compounds currently in the region of two seconds.

The new tire rules also include an extra set of softer compound tires for all cars in qualifying.

These can only be used in Q3, after which they have to be returned to Pirelli. But the teams that do not get through to Q3 can keep them to use for the race. So in total, all teams are now allocated 13 rather than 11 sets of slick tires for every race this year.

“From what we can see so far, we were satisfied with both the performance and degradation of the medium and soft compounds, both of which are completely new this year,” said Pirelli's motorsport director, Paul Hembery.

“The degradation on the medium tire is very low, with degradation on the soft slightly higher. We've seen no blistering or graining at all today and also fewer marbles, so up to now we have met our objectives. The new tire regulations seem to have worked well so far, with the fans able to see more of the cars out on track, which was exactly the intention.”

From GMM

Valtteri Bottas says he is enjoying working with his new teammate Felipe Massa.

Last year, the Finn made his debut with Williams alongside the often bad-tempered Pastor Maldonado, who has now switched to Lotus.

Venezuelan Maldonado left Williams with his PDVSA millions in a highly-critical mood, but Williams is now regarded as a 2014 title dark horse while Lotus is struggling merely to run its E22.

"From an aerodynamic point of view," Maldonado said in Melbourne, "the (Williams) car is very similar to what we had last year. It's the (Mercedes) engine making the difference at the moment."

Maldonado insists he has no regrets about joining Lotus just as the respective teams' fortunes switched so dramatically, and continuing Williams driver Bottas indicated he too is happy with the move.

"I believe this season is an opportunity for me to learn from a team guy a little bit more than last year," Bottas, 24, is quoted by the Finnish broadcaster MTV3.

"This year the team has a more experienced guy (Massa) and he is quite different (to Maldonado) -- a little more open and more willing to be more of a team player and to provide more information," added Bottas.

Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa, Williams Martini Racing. (Photo: WRi2)

He said the sort of openness being shown by Massa is what a team needs.

"I think if you are sharing information in the team meetings and both trying to contribute to the team's performance and providing the best possible feedback -- it always helps, of course," said Bottas.

After a particularly bad 2013, Williams is emerging as a surprise force in 2014, with Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton even nominating the Grove team as his pick for the title.

Ferrari's Fernando Alonso, however, said he doesn't believe Red Bull can be written off, despite the perception the reigning world champions are struggling with the new Renault 'power unit'.

"In the past we saw it many times before," he told the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. "Red Bull were behind but in the end their car was usually the fastest of all.

"I think in two races they can be back at the top," Spaniard Alonso added.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier will hit the big screen on April 4th, and the list of superheroes in that movie also includes a few GM products.

Steve Rogers aka Captain America (Chris Evans) will drive a Blue Metallic Chevrolet Silverado 1500, and spend time in The Black Widow's (Scarlett Johansson) custom Chevrolet Corvette Stingray Black Widow Bows. The latter recently wowed fans at the 2014 Chicago Auto Show.

A new character named Sam Wilson aka The Falcon (Anthony Mackie) will be seen in the film driving a 2014 Chevrolet Impala 2LT.

Captain America will also ride a 2015 Harley-Davidson Street 750.

Source : ridefree.harley-davidson.com

Photo: Harley-Davidson

From GMM

Renault is giving its F1 customers full power in Australia.

The French marque is still grappling to solve the serious problems encountered during the winter test sessions, where the new Viry-made turbo V6s were 'turned down'.

"We did not have the necessary experience with well-functioning software," said Renault's Remi Taffin, "so we had to be careful, limiting the engine power.

"But now I'm not worried about it," he is quoted in Melbourne by Russia's f1news.ru.

"We have done a huge amount of work, we feel a lot more confident here and our customers will be able to use the engine to maximum capacity. Progress has been made, but we will not rest until we are winning races again," added Taffin.

Photo: Renault Sport F1

From GMM

Lotus' new team boss is Federico Gastaldi.

It had been reported that Citroen rally chief Olivier Quesnel, or perhaps even ousted McLaren boss Martin Whitmarsh, would be drafted in to fill the hole left by Eric Boullier's departure.

But the Enstone team announced on Friday that Argentinean Gastaldi has in fact secured the job, with his role officially 'deputy team principal'.

Federico Gastaldi, Lotus deputy team principal. (Photo: WRi2)

Team owner Genii's Gerard Lopez is still the chairman and, at least nominally, the team principal.

Gastaldi has been promoted from within, having served until now as director of business development, but his history dates all the way back to the Benetton days.

"Federico was instrumental in nurturing our relationship with PDVSA and he continues to be a vital link for us with Venezuela," said Lopez.

"As a figurehead, no one better embodies the Lotus team spirit."

Volkswagen Canada is recalling 6,047 Jettas, Golfs, and Passats from the 2013-2014 model years that are equipped with a diesel engine and factory installed block heater.

Apparently, the block heater could overheat while in use, possibly resulting in a fire. Volkswagen dealers will replace the block heater at no cost, but affected owners are advised to stop using it in the meantime.

Photo: Volkwagen

Another recall for Volkswagen Jetta and GTI
The Jetta (2009-2010) has been hit with another recall that also targets the GTI (2009). Overall, 19,349 units are affected in Canada.

In some cases, a fuse can overheat and damage the fuse box, causing a partial loss of exterior vehicle lighting and therefore increasing the risk of a crash. Here, dealers will update the fuse.

Source: Transport Canada

Photo: Volkwagen

From GMM

'7 tenths'. That term must have been music to the ears inside the Red Bull garage late on Friday, after a disastrous winter for the reigning world champions.

As the scale of the crisis became clear, Red Bull threw its vast resources behind struggling engine supplier Renault in the two weeks between the Bahrain test and now.

Friday in Melbourne showed that the RB10 has made a giant step from the back of the grid towards the front, as both Sebastian Vettel and Daniel Ricciardo were just 7 tenths off the leading pace in the two 90 minute sessions, and also surprisingly reliable.

"That's extremely encouraging for our team," said team boss Christian Horner. "In many respects this is where we would have ideally liked to have been at our first test. Now we have some ground to make up."

Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull RB10-Renault, in Melbourne. (Photo: WRi2)

World champion Vettel, having reportedly thrown a 'hissy fit' at one point during the winter, was wiping the figurative sweat from his brow in Australia.

"In a way it's a relief," agreed the German in a masterstroke of understatement.

"It was a huge step forward compared to two weeks ago in Bahrain. I have no doubts we will eventually be at the top -- the only question is how long it takes," Vettel added.

Red Bull's Dr Helmut Marko raised hopes even higher when he said the RB10 is not even being run at its full potential in Melbourne.

"We are not yet at the point where we can use the full performance of the power unit," he said.

Renault chief Rob White told Germany's Auto Motor und Sport: "We are not yet where we want to be, but we've made a good step."

Helmut Marko said Red Bull has been helping Renault to improve the troublesome engine software. "We have been working in shifts and are now reaping the first fruits," he revealed.

Christian Horner said: "I think we are faster than Mercedes in the corners."

Sebastian Vettel explained: "I can now use full power when accelerating. There is still a power dip, but not nearly as bad as at the tests."

Daniel Ricciardo agreed that the team can be "very, very happy with what we did" on the opening day at Albert Park.

"We were probably expecting to be a bit further off the pace -- there's not too many guys in front of us for now," he grinned.

Ricciardo's predecessor Mark Webber is trackside this weekend, but he has been warning consistently throughout the winter that his highly successful former team will ultimately get back on track.

AAP news agency quoted him saying on Friday: "It would be a very brave man to underestimate Red Bull."

Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton got the 2014 Formula 1 season underway for Mercedes AMG at Albert Park Friday with the first two practice sessions of the Australian Grand Prix weekend.

Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes W05. (Photo: WRi2)

Hamilton missed most of P1 after his car stopped on track during the installation lap due to a sensor calibration problem.

A consistent second practice saw the pair top the timesheets, and a total of six Mercedes powered cars in the top ten.

Fernando Alonso, Ferrari F14-T. (Photo: WRi2)

Hamilton's fastest time in P2 of 1m29.625 compared to a fastest time of 1m25.908 in 2013, albeit with harder compound tires

“It really was a day of two halves today. While it was disappointing to not get any track time this morning, these little hiccups are going to happen with the new cars and we'll have to get used to that,” said Lewis Hamilton.

“It felt like I was on the back foot from there but then we got up to pace quite quickly in P2 and found the balance relatively fast. I feel quite comfortable in the car so overall it's a positive start but we need to look at the data now and understand where we are. We got a nice foundation for the weekend in the second session today so hopefully we can build on that in P3 tomorrow afternoon and then see where we are in qualifying,” he added.

Jenson Button, McLaren MP4-29-Mercedes. (Photo: WRi2)

Free Practice 1 - Results*
1 - Fernando Alonso (Ferrari F14 T) - 1m31.840 - 20 laps
2 - Jenson Button (McLaren MP4/29-Mercedes) - 1m32.257 - 23
3 - Valtteri Bottas (Williams FW36-Mercedes) - 1m32.403 - 27
4 - Felipe Massa (Williams FW36-Mercedes) - 1m32.431 - 19
5 - Daniel Ricciardo (Red Bull RB10-Renault) - 1m32.599 - 26
6 - Nico Rosberg (Mercedes W05) - 1m32.604 - 17
7 - Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull RB10-Renault) - 1m32.793 - 10
8 - Kevin Magnussen (McLaren MP4/29-Mercedes) - 1m32.847 - 28
9 - Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari F14 T) - 1m32.997 - 19
10 - Jean-Eric Vergne (Toro Rosso STR9-Renault) - 1m33.446 - 30
11 - Nico Hulkenberg (Sahara Force India VJM07-Mercedes) - 1m33.533 - 23
12 - Sergio Perez (Sahara Force India VJM07-Mercedes) - 1m33.855 - 24
13 - Daniil Kvyat(Toro Rosso STR9-Renault) - 1m34.272 - 27
14 - Esteban Gutierrez (Sauber C33-Ferrari) - 1m37.303 - 7
15 - Adrian Sutil (Sauber C33-Ferrari) - 1m36.445 - 13
16 - Jules Bianchi (Marussia MR03-Ferrari) - 1m40.859 - 6
17 - Max Chilton (Marussia MR03-Ferrari) - 1m46.922 - 4
18 - Marcus Ericsson (Caterham CT05-Renault) - no time - 1
19 - Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes W05) - no time - 1
20 - Kamui Kobayashi (Caterham CT05-Renault) - no time - 1
21 - Pastor Maldonado (Lotus E22-Renault) - no time - 2
22 - Romain Grosjean (Lotus E22-Renault) - no time

Pastor Maldonado, Lotus E22-Renault. (Photo: WRi2)

Free Practice 2 - Results*
1 - Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes W05) - 1m29.625 - 36 laps
2 - Nico Rosberg (Mercedes W05) - 1m29.782 - 31
3 - Fernando Alonso (Ferrari F14 T) - 1m30.132 - 28
4 - Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull RB10-Renault) - 1m30.381 - 39
5 - Jenson Button (McLaren MP4/29-Mercedes) - 1m30.510 - 33
6 - Daniel Ricciardo (Red Bull RB10-Renault) - 1m30.538 - 36
7 - Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari F14 T) - 1m30.898 - 32
8 - Valtteri Bottas (Williams FW36-Mercedes) - 1m30.920 - 38
9 - Kevin Magnussen (McLaren MP4/29-Mercedes) - 1m31.031 - 34
10 - Nico Hulkenberg (Sahara Force India VJM07-Mercedes) - 1m31.054 - 33
11 - Jean-Eric Vergne (Toro Rosso STR9-Renault) - 1m31.060 - 34
12 - Felipe Massa (Williams FW36-Mercedes) - 1m31.119 - 31
13 - Sergio Perez (Sahara Force India VJM07-Mercedes) - 1m31.283 - 36
14 - Adrian Sutil (Sauber C33-Ferrari) - 1m32.355 - 36
15 - Esteban Gutierrez (Sauber C33-Ferrari) - 1m32.468 - 26
16 - Daniil Kvyat (Toro Rosso STR9-Renault) - 1m32.495 - 36
17 - Jules Bianchi (Marussia MR03-Ferrari) - 1m33.486 - 29
18 - Romain Grosjean (Lotus E22-Renault) - 1m33.646 - 12
19 - Max Chilton (Marussia MR03-Ferrari) - 1m34.757 - 29
20 - Marcus Ericsson (Caterham CT05-Renault) - no time - 1
21 - Kamui Kobayashi (Caterham CT05-Renault) - no time - 0
22 - Pastor Maldonado (Lotus E22-Renault) - no time - 0
* Unofficial results