Auto News 5

Fiat Chrysler says it has launched an expected share offer and a $2.5 billion mandatory convertible bond as it seeks to reduce its mounting debt pile and fund an ambitious five-year investment plan.

Seat's reliance on Europe and a weak brand image have led the VW unit to rack up big losses over the years. CEO Juergen Stackmann told Automotive News Europe how new products and cost cuttings are now changing this.

The Audi Q7 will be the first model from the Volkswagen Group to offer a plug-in hybrid diesel powertrain, an Audi source told Automotive News Europe.

Audi's Q7 will be the first model from VW Group to offer a plug-in hybrid diesel powertrain, an Audi source told Automotive News Europe. The variant gives Audi a technology edge over BMW and Mercedes, which currently offer gasoline plug-ins.

Spanish supplier Grupo Antolin is forming a joint venture with Dongfeng Visteon to produce interior components in China. The JV will supply components to Renault, PSA/Peugeot-Citroen and other customers.

Seat's reliance on Europe and a weak brand image have led the VW unit to rack up big losses over the years. CEO Juergen Stackmann told Automotive News Europe how new products and cost cuttings are now changing this.

Marussia Formula 1 driver, Frenchman Jules Bianchi received serious head injuries when his car hit a heavy crane during this year's Japanese Grand Prix in Suzuka.

A few weeks ago, Bianchi was transferred back to France from Japan. He is now under treatment at St. Roch hospital in his native Nice.

Local newspaper Nice Matin called his father Philippe to get his reaction to the publication of the report of the FIA Accident Pannel. Not surprisingly, Mr. Bianchi refused to comment.

Every day, Philippe Bianchi and the other members of his family pay visit to Jules.

“Jules remains in a stable condition”, Philippe Bianchi told Nice Matin, adding that he was still unconscious.

“He needs time. We need to be patient. When he gets better, we'll let you know. Jules is strong, and we try to be as strong as he is. We keep supporting him as hard as we can. We try to give him as much positive energy as we can,” he declared.

Philippe Bianchi also said he tightly knit community has been very protective of the Bianchis.

“We are surrounded by good people. They leave us alone, which is a good thing”, he added.

Jules Bianchi, Marussia-Ferrari, à Suzuka, Japon. (Photo: WRi2)

From GMM

The F1 drivers' union GPDA has welcomed the outcome of the investigation into Jules Bianchi's Suzuka crash.

At Wednesday's meeting of the World Motor Sport Council, a ten-man panel headed by Ross Brawn and Stefano Domenicali handed down its nearly 400-page report.

The results were controversial, finding that the French driver "did not slow sufficiently" and "over-controlled the oversteering" Marussia prior to hitting a vehicle recovering crane.

The report also said Bianchi may have been "distracted", while the panel did not recommend F1 react to the crash by enclosing cockpits or fitting skirts to cranes.

Former French F1 driver Patrick Tambay said the report appeared to have been a case of F1's governing body declaring "We wash our hands".

"I think it's a shame to accuse the driver," he told RMC Sport. "It is a judgment to exonerate responsibilities, but I think it's a little bit too hard to just blame the driver."

Jules Bianchi, Marussia. (Photo: WRi2)

Among the 10-man panel, however, was F1 veteran Alex Wurz, who now represents the bulk of the active drivers as president of the Grand Prix Drivers' Association.

"It has been a difficult time for our sport," he said, "but we are grateful for the thorough and comprehensive way in which the FIA's investigation has been conducted and for the exceptional professionalism, experience and expertise of all those involved."

Also in the FIA's 400-page report were recommendations such as the imposing of speed limits for yellow flag zones, ensuring that races do not begin less than four hours before sunset, and reviewing the F1 calendar to avoid rainy seasons.

Alex Wurz said: "We are working closely with the FIA to ensure that these recommendations are fully implemented."

From nascar.com

NASCAR Sprint Cup driver Tony Stewart was released from the hospital Wednesday following surgery on his right leg and will attend NASCAR's Champion's Week festivities in Las Vegas later this week.

The planned surgery was to replace a rod in Stewart's right leg -- routine follow-up for a severely broken right tibia and fibula suffered in a sprint car racing accident in August 2013.

It's the fourth surgery since the accident and Stewart told NASCAR.com last month that there would be one more in the future.

The co-owner of the Stewart-Haas Racing team missed the remaining 15 races of the 2013 season recovering.

Stewart will be attending the Myers Brothers Luncheon on Thursday and the formal Sprint Cup Series Awards banquet on Friday evening to celebrate his Stewart-Haas Racing driver Kevin Harvick's first Sprint Cup championship -- the second for SHR in the last four years.

Co-owner Gene Haas will be sitting on stage at the head table with Harvick with Stewart -- on crutches -- in the audience.

From press release

The Hyundai Shell World Rally Team has begun preparations for its second season in the FIA World Rally Championship (WRC) with a four-day test in the region of Ardèche this week.

The team's appointed rally drivers for 2015, Thierry Neuville and Dani Sordo, have both put the Hyundai i20 WRC through its paces in anticipation of the opening round of next season, which will take place 22-25 January - just seven weeks from now.

The team was greeted with a variety of weather conditions this week as 2014 WRC rally winner Neuville carried out two days of testing on Monday and Tuesday before handing over to his teammate Sordo for Wednesday and Thursday's running.

The Hyundai i20 WRC that will start the 2015 season will be a substantially developed iteration of the car that started Monte Carlo earlier this year so the team has spent the past four days understanding how the latest specification car handles on the Monte Carlo Rally roads.

The team will now carry out a similar preparatory test in Sweden mid-December with Neuville and Sordo again sharing the Hyundai i20 WRC for two days each. Hyundai Shell World Rally Team will then head into the festive break with up-to-date information from the car, which will prove useful for the opening two rounds of its second season in the World Rally Championship.

The test team will go back to action early January during a final pre-event test to hone its set-up shortly before Rallye Monte Carlo.

From GMM

Gene Haas, F1's newest team owner, has admitted to keeping a sharp eye on the turmoil at Maranello.

This year, after securing a place on the 2016 grid, Nascar co-owner Haas agreed a deal with Ferrari to receive customer engines and "all related technical services".

Haas Automation, Haas' leading machine tool company, also became an on-car sponsor of the fabled Italian team.

But since the agreements were made, it has been all change at Ferrari as the marque reacted to its poor start to the all-new 'power unit' era.

President Luca di Montezemolo and team boss Marco Mattiacci, for example, have gone, which may be a concern to Haas.

"That's a good point," Haas admitted to Sports Business Daily. "I don't know. I think that the higher-ups know what they're doing. I hope we didn't have any influence over them losing their jobs."

The interviewer, Leigh Diffey, admitted that over lunch Haas confessed that "whoever I spoke to (at Ferrari) got fired. I better stop speaking to people."

Gene Haas commented: "There's a lot of pressure on Ferrari. Ferrari is obviously a marquee car builder, and formula one is their marquee racing series. And they want to win. There's just a lot of pressure there. I have to respect that."

The departed Ferrari boss, Marco Mattiacci, and Gene Haas. (Photo: WRi2)

There is also big pressure on Haas, who are building a modest team from scratch and intending to be the only competitor without its main headquarters in Europe.

And Haas' building phase also coincides with a period of great turmoil in formula one, with backmarkers Marussia and Caterham going out of business and other small teams struggling for survival.

"There are a lot of pitfalls in formula one," he admitted. "We've seen a lot of teams have a lot of problems. There are money issues. There's a lot of rancour in the troops out there as far as what we're hearing. I look at it as a challenge. I've been to some formula one races. I've met the people. I like them. They're good people."

But Gene Haas also admitted that the task of building a car, even for 2016, is almost "overwhelming".

"If you get it wrong," he said, "it's a disaster."

From GMM

The story of Korea's surprise return to the F1 calendar for 2015 has taken another bizarre twist.

Insiders were stunned on Wednesday when the FIA published a 2015 schedule featuring an unprecedented 21 races including the return of remote and unpopular Korea.

The calendar's author, Bernie Ecclestone, had declared only months ago "I don't want to go back there".

And organisers of the Yeongam event, having dropped off the calendar after 2013, declared that the FIA's move to reinstate a 2015 race had been "unilateral".

An unnamed race official told AFP the organisers were basically "broke", had lost the support even of the locals and had held "unsuccessful" talks with Ecclestone about reducing the annual hosting fee.

The French news agency said it is possible the provisional May 3 race in Korea next year might actually take place on the streets of Seoul.

But a couple of F1 insiders have another theory.

They think it is Ecclestone's way of sneaking an extra engine into the allocation of every F1 driver next year.

The future Honda V6 turbo hybrid engine. (Photo: Honda Racing)

The F1 supremo is no fan of the new V6 'power unit' era, but the regulations are due to clamp down even more on the long-life restrictions in 2015.

This year, drivers were allocated a maximum of five 'power units' for the entire season, resulting in penalties once unscheduled sixth engines were used.

But for 2015, the allocation was due to reduce from five to just four V6s per driver.

"That presupposes there are no more than 20 races," Andrew Benson, a BBC writer, said.

He has spotted the clause giving drivers a fifth engine in 2015 "if the number of events in the championship, as originally scheduled, exceeds 20".

Alan Baldwin, the correspondent for the Reuters news agency, agrees: "The key words are 'as originally scheduled'.

"Scheduling Korea, even if the race does not happen, should be enough to ensure the allocation of power units stays at five," he explained. "With rule changes requiring unanimous agreement from the teams at this late stage, it is simpler to tweak the calendar instead."

Alan Baldwin also quoted a team source as confirming that Korea is almost certainly "an elegant way of avoiding bargaining" over a tweak to the engine rules.

Poor weather conditions in Italy severely restricted Max Verstappen's running in the Toro Rosso Formula 1 car, and forced the team to postpone Marco Wittmann's prize test.

At Imola, Verstappen was supposed to do long runs to prepare him with the challenge of running the full distance of a Grand Prix next year.

Max Verstappen, Toro Rosso. (Photo: WRi2)

However, heavy rain prevented any meaningful running and, after just three exploratory laps with the two-year-old, Ferrari V8-powered STR7, the test was cancelled.

New DTM champion, Marco Wittmann was supposed to drive the Toro Rosso as a reward for his title.

But again, rain prevented the German to leave the garage. The test was therefore postponed to a later date.

From GMM

Adrian Newey agreed a sensational move to Ferrari earlier this year, it has emerged.

In June, Red Bull announced that its technical chief - easily the most famous and arguably the best engineer in F1 today - is stepping back from the front line.

He will instead head the energy drink company's all-new 'Advanced Technologies Centre', ostensibly to indulge his desire for other design projects outside of F1.

On Thursday, Red Bull finally confirmed speculation Newey's first project will be working with Ben Ainslie to design an America's Cup yacht.

"Ben Ainslie Racing are really excited to be partnering with Red Bull Advanced Technologies," Ainslie, the most successful sailor in Olympic history, said in a joint statement.

But a report in Russia's Championat claims Red Bull in fact came excruciatingly close to losing Newey altogether this year.

The report said the 55-year-old Briton had even "shaken hands" with now-departed president Luca di Montezemolo on a move to Ferrari for 2015 and beyond.

The report explained: "The agreement was leaked to the Italian press and Newey regarded it as an example of how political Ferrari is and so he informed Luca that the deal was off."

Adrian Newey spying Ferrari. (Photo: WRi2)

Former Scuderia Ferrari boss Stefano Domenicali will replace Gerhard Berger at the head of the FIA single-seater commission.

Berger, himself a former Ferrari F1 driver, was given the job by the FIA to supervise and revamped the single-seater ladder leading to F1.

The Austrian brain mastered the revival of the European Formula 3 Championship, and the creation of the affordable Formula 4 series.

Last October, Berger announced that he would be standing down at the end of the year.

Domenicali's arrival was confirmed earlier this week during FIA World Motor Sport Council meeting, when the leaders of all Sporting Commissions were approved.

The Italian adds the role to his position at Audi, where he is "responsible for the development of new business areas in services and mobility."

Jean Todt and Stefano Domenicali at Monza. (Photo: WRi2)

BMW and Mercedes earlier this week tested several new drivers in their DTM cars at circuit Jerez de la Frontera, Spain.

For BMW, works drivers rookies drove the BMW M4 DTM

DTM champion Marco Wittmann, Augusto Farfus, Maxime Martin, Bruno Spengler, Timo Glock and António Félix da Costa were all in action.

BMW Motorsport also offered several rookie drivers the opportunity to gain a first taste of the DTM. These included Tom Blomqvist, Jack Harvey, Alex Lynn and Sam Bird. BMW works driver Lucas Luhr, Robin Frijns and Richie Stanaway also took to the track at the wheel of the BMW M4 DTM.

Rival constructor Mercedes-Benz gave five young drivers the chance to test drive DTM Mercedes AMG C-Coupé.

This test for Felix Rosenqvist, Esteban Ocon and Lucas Auer was to reward them for outstanding achievements in Formula 3. All three drivers achieved success with the new Mercedes-Benz Formula 3 engine this season.

Mercedes also tested their GT driver, Maximilian Götz as well as Lotus F1 test driver Charles Pic.

From GMM

Reports Audi is contemplating a future in formula one are once again gathering steam.

The rumours were refuelled recently when ousted Ferrari team boss Stefano Domenicali resurfaced at Audi, one of the Volkswagen-owned German carmakers.

He started work in November, but Audi said his role was limited to the areas of service and mobility rather than motor sport.

However, on Thursday a report by the British broadcaster BBC said Italian Domenicali, 49, is in fact "conducting a feasibility study into a potential formula one entry" for Volkswagen.

The report has curiously coincided with news Bernie Ecclestone may soon be marginalised in his role, as the F1 chief executive and his VW counterpart Ferdinand Piech "have long had a difficult relationship", according to the BBC correspondent Andrew Benson.

"At least one of them would need to leave their current position before a VW Group brand could enter F1," he explained.

Starting grid in F1. (Photo: WRi2)

Impending changes at VW might also pave the road to F1, as former team owner and boss Eddie Jordan claims chairman "Martin Winterkorn is being groomed as Piech's successor".

Jordan, now a BBC pundit, said Winterkorn "has always believed that F1 is a great platform for the group's brands. I am told he privately believes VAG (Volkswagen AG) should be a part of F1."

Winterkorn told the German newspaper Bild am Sonntag last month: "Our brands in motor sport are as successful as ever, whether in the DTM with Audi or Le Mans with Audi and Porsche, or in the world rally championship with Volkswagen.

"We feel we have a really good position," he added.

Aluminum giant Alcoa said today it has solved one of the biggest wrinkles automakers wrestle with when stamping aluminum body panels: formability.

The average fuel economy of light vehicles purchased in the United States last month remained unchanged from October and likely will remain unchanged in the near term as gasoline prices drop toward $2 per gallon, according to research posted this...

Mark Rosekind pledged to make the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration a tougher auto safety watchdog if confirmed as the agency's new administrator.