Auto News 5

Audi's vehicle sales rose 10 percent to 144,000 in July, helped by strong demand for the A3 model range.

Tesla said it has resolved its trademark dispute in China which threatened company plans to expand rapidly in the country.

News 7 Aug, 2014

BMW continues work on 3 Series’ mid-life update, including minor styling tweaks, new engines and revised in-car tech

Pictures See all 7 pictures 7 Aug, 2014

BMW's Mini is claiming a world first - dashboard access to the JustPark service that enables drivers to reserve parking direct from the car.

Chrysler Group said net income rose 22% to $619m in the second quarter of 2014 on sales up 14% to $20.5bn. Operating profit was also up by 22%, to $985m.

Russia's risk profile for overseas investors is changing "dramatically" as the war of words between Moscow and the West continues to escalate, making potential new auto suppliers twitchy about entering the market.

Mercedes-Benz brand had its highest monthly sales to date in July, up 11 percent to 130,003 cars, boosted by strong demand for its compact cars and SUVs.

News 7 Aug, 2014

The final installment of the Bugatti Legends series is the Veyron Ettore Bugatti – only three will be produced

Pictures See all 6 pictures 7 Aug, 2014

News 7 Aug, 2014

Skoda reveals full price and specification details for new Yeti Monte Carlo, on sale now for £24,390

China's National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) continued to expand its anti-trust probe in the automotive sector, with Chrysler and Audi the most recent companies revealed to have come under scrutiny.

Europe automakers are speeding up the introduction of alternative fuel powertrains in a bid to cut CO2 emissions ahead of tougher limits planned by the European Union.

Bosch will sell a laser-based radar known as lidar by 2020 to meet demand for high-tech sensors in autos. Auto companies have started using lidar to get the high-resolution images needed for self-driving cars.

If there is one thing that Audi's first-half results prove, it's that VW Group's premium brand earns so much cash it could easily swallow Fiat-Chrysler whole

Russian car sales are expected to fall by between 8 and 12 percent this year, PricewaterhouseCoopers said. Russia's sharp economic slowdown and devaluation of the ruble will hit sales, PwC said.

From Albatec Racing

Albatec Racing has secured support from Canadian food giant St-Hubert for tomorrow's round seven of the FIA World Rallycross Championship at the Grand Prix of Trois-Rivieres.

St-Hubert will back the fledgling rallycross team comprising Team Principal Andy Scott and 1997 F1 World Champion Jacques Villeneuve in a pair of 600bhp two-litre, 16v Peugeot 208 Supercars for the event, which takes place around a purpose-built rallycross track.

Jacques Villeneuve's Peugeot 208 Supercar (Photo: Albatec)

Founded in 1951 in St-Hubert Street in Montreal the restaurant's tradition is rooted in innovation. Offering free home delivery service and an avant-garde approach to advertising using radio and TV commercials to attract people to the restaurant, the Hélène and René Léger-founded St-Hubert eatery is now at the forefront of the Quebec restaurant industry.

“I am delighted to welcome St-Hubert aboard as a supporter for arguably the biggest event on the calendar for Albatec Racing' said Andy Scott, Team Principal, Albatec Racing.

“Aside from our own home event in Lydden Hill, the event here in Canada marks a huge weekend for Jacques and I'm very happy to be a part of the prestige event alongside one of the oldest, longest-running companies in Quebec.”

From GMM

Sauber has vowed to "stay together" with its troubled engine supplier Ferrari.

The Swiss team, already struggling financially, has not scored a single point so far in 2014 and therefore is in danger of being left outside the lucrative top ten positions in the constructors' championship.

Team boss and co-owner Monisha Kaltenborn admitted that Ferrari's troubled first turbo V6 design for 2014 is "one of the major factors" in Sauber's current situation.

"But I think it is too easy to say something is the fault of others," she is quoted by Italiaracing.

"We must always look first of all at what we do, be honest about it and say that this car is definitely not one of the best that we have produced."

Sauber C33. (Photo: WRi2)

But particularly in the sport's all-new 'power unit' era, the engine package is a crucial element and there have been rumours Sauber could soon become the first non-works customer of returning supplier Honda's latest F1 foray.

Kaltenborn admitted: "The engine is one of the major factors, especially from the point of view of driveability, but this is not the reason to give up.

"We have a long relationship with Ferrari and we have had our ups and downs over the years, but let's stay together and we will come out together," she added.

Kaltenborn played down any similarity between Sauber's situation and that endured by Red Bull and Renault, whose relationship has clearly been strained by the French marque's 2014 troubles.

"I do not know the situation between Renault and Red Bull," she insisted, "but we are very close to Ferrari and have a very open relationship.

"We have never pointed the finger. If there are times when things do not go as well, we say it openly and put the focus on everyone getting together in this situation.

"I'm quite sure that if I'm sad or unhappy, my colleagues at Ferrari are twice as sad or unhappy. The important thing is that they are on the right track, they know what to do and I have full confidence in their potential," said Kaltenborn.

Entering the summer break, Force India F1 team has scored one podium and lies fifth in the constructors' standings, and - until Hungary - has scored points in every single race.

Force India chief operating officer Otmar Szafnauer says it was impossible to predict how the new Mercedes-Benz V6 power unit would perform.

“Until the first race, we didn't know, for example, who would do the best job at developing the power unit. That said, we did have a choice and we went with Mercedes because we thought they would do the best job, even if we didn't know by how much. But we started development early, in May, so our expectation was that we would perform well - we just didn't know how well,” said Szafnauer in an interview posted on Formula1.com.

Sahara Force India, VJM07-Mercedes. (Photo: WRi2)

Technically, moving away from the reliable, normally aspirated V8 to the highly complicated V6 turbo hybrid was a huge challenge.

“The big thing was cooling the power train. There are a lot of trade-offs between cooling the power train; between gaining horsepower and losing aerodynamics,” Szafnauer explained.

“You have to run those trade-offs in CFD [Computational Fluid Dynamics] and in the wind tunnel. If you over-cool you don't gain any more power, but you lose aerodynamic efficiency. If you go the other way, you're more efficient but you lose power. That is an iterative process: you learn it through a logical series of increments, not just up front.

“If you have a lot of resource, say 30 teraflops of CFD, 150 people in the tunnel and two tunnels at your disposal, you can do it quicker. But what you want to do is get it right, because if you get it wrong it has a big impact,” he continued.

Sahara Force India, VJM07-Mercedes. (Photo: WRi2)

So is it all about the power unit this year?

“I don't think so. To win you have to get it all right. Look at Mercedes - I believe that their car would still be good enough to win even with Renault or Ferrari power. They have a good aero package, good mechanical package, they understand the tires, have good drivers and strategy - they're going to win. Remove the powertrain and stick another one in and they'll still be competitive.

“Is it more of an engine formula this year? Maybe a bit more than in the past when the engines were all frozen. But is it a complete engine formula? No way. We have the same engine as Mercedes, so do Williams and McLaren - and they're not winning,” Szafnauer declared.

From GMM

Officials of a German children's charity were completely surprised when it emerged Bernie Ecclestone would pay them $1 million.

The payment to the Deutsche Kinderhospizstiftung, a children's hospice foundation, is part of the F1 supremo's $100 million settlement reached with Munich prosecutors to end his high-profile corruption trial.

SID news agency said the payment is the largest in the charity's history.

"Three years ago, an individual donated 100,000 euros to us," board chief Margret Hartkopf told Tagesspiegel newspaper.

She said the foundation was "totally surprised" when the court announced that Ecclestone's settlement would involve the 83-year-old paying $99 million to Munich authorities and $1 million to the charity within one week.

While the payment will make Ecclestone a free man, however, that does not mean the Gerhard Gribkowsky corruption affair is over.

APA news agency reports that Ecclestone has also offered to compensate the Munich state bank to the tune of EUR 25 million, but first BayernLB must agree to the proposal by Friday.

The report said BayernLB, whose spokesman was not commenting on Wednesday, was earlier pushing for compensation in the realm of hundreds of millions of euros.

And DPA news agency reports that Ecclestone's $100m payment also does not include the settlement of related criminal proceedings against his former right-hand man, lawyer and F1 board member Stephen Mullens.

Prosecutors claim Mullens, who left F1 in 2011, helped Ecclestone to make the disputed millions in alleged bribe payments to the jailed Gribkowsky.