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From press release

The 2015 season is a special one for Scuderia Toro Rosso, because the team has reached the significant landmark of a decade of competition in Formula 1.

The Italian team is also marking the occasion with a special logo that fans will be seeing a lot more of this year.

Since those early days in 2006, when Red Bull decided to set-up a feeder team to provide seats for the best drivers to come out of its Young Driver Programme, the team has grown considerably.

Indeed, including the 2015 season, the Faenza-based team has provided cars for a total of 11 drivers, the majority making their Formula 1 debuts with them.

Toro Rosso drivers have covered a total of 83,034 racing kilometres, the equivalent of two laps of the circumference of Planet Earth!

The team ranks 20th in the all time total distance for Constructors, just one place behind Red Bull Racing. The Scuderia is also right behind the sister team when it comes to race laps. Toro Rosso drivers have rattled off 16,491 of them, putting the team 19th overall.

Powering their Toro Rosso cars have been three different engine configurations - V10, V8 and now V6, from three different engine manufacturers.

The team has also used up a lot of rubber from three different tire companies: Pirelli, Bridgestone and Michelin.

Canadian race car driver and 2012 DTM champion Bruno Spengler is happy with the new, two-race format of the DTM meetings for 2015.

“That is something new for me. In the eleven years I have been racing in the DTM, I have never contested two races on one weekend,” Spengler explained.

“It is fantastic for the fans. We are offering them even more action and twice the show. I can well imagine, that the races will be even more competitive. And it goes without saying that we drivers are always happy to spend more time in the car.”

Spengler will start the new season at the Rolex 24 at Daytona, the opening round if the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship.

Spengler will be co-driving a BMW Z4 GTLM for BMW Team RLL.

“It all kicks off on Tuesday, when I fly to the USA. I have never driven in a 24-hour race - except in a kart. The preparation test a week ago gave me the opportunity to tackle the Daytona International Speedway at the wheel of the BMW Z4 GTLM for the first time,” Bruno Spengler explained.

“It was great fun, but is very different to sitting in a DTM car. However, the guys at BMW Team RLL made it easy for me to find my feet quickly in the BMW Z4 GTLM. I am now very comfortable with the car. The amount of traffic at a 24-hour race is also new to me. Furthermore, I have never raced at night. All this makes Daytona a real challenge for me. However, we are well prepared and have a great squad of drivers. Despite this, it is hard for me to say what to expect. Maybe we can discuss that 20 hours into the race,” the Canadian declared.

From GMM

Mercedes has reportedly dismissed claims it will begin the 2015 season with its 'old' V6 engine of last year.

With the FIA agreeing to allow a development loophole under the existing 'freeze' rules, the sport's engine makers are currently contemplating how best to deploy their 32 upgrade 'tokens' throughout the 2015 season.

One rumour this week suggested Mercedes, having utterly dominated last year with its title-winning turbo V6, in fact planned to start the season with the 2014 unit in order to strategically upgrade to a 2015 specification over time.

Mercedes V6 turbo hybrid. (Photo: Mercedes-Benz)

But Italy's Omnicorse insists those reports are untrue, claiming the Brackley team is "assembling the car that will be taken to the Jerez test, and it will have the power unit configuration of 2015".

"The rumour that has spread in recent days about Mercedes doing the first four races with the 2014 power unit was denied," the report added.

Not only that, Omnicorse claims that Mercedes' 2015 engine will be significantly different this year, including a new Bosch injection system capable of turbo pressure to the regulations-maximum of 500 bar.

The report claimed Mercedes' 2014 turbo was limited to little more than half that figure.

At 2,350kg, it's easily the weightiest variant of the newly facelifted range. Somehow, though, the PHEV Cayenne is Porsche's most officially fuel efficient SUV yet.

SAIC, BYD & GM are the first manufacturers to have announces world premieres for Auto Shanghai 2015.

SAIC and BYD are the first manufacturers to have announces world premieres for Auto Shanghai 2015.

SAIC is the first manufacturer to announce a world premiere for Auto Shanghai 2015. The show's press preview days are 20 & 21 April.

Daimler will extend the contract of the head of its China division Hubertus Troska, according to a newspaper report. Troska is said to be a potential successor to CEO Dieter Zetsche.

With industry light-vehicle sales soaring toward 17 million and transaction prices at record highs, the dealer-factory meetings set for this week in San Francisco threaten to break out into hug fests.

Jaguar executives say they hope to gain "relevance" -- and a windfall in sales -- with next year's US launch of the all-new F-Pace crossover and XE compact sedan.

Fresh off launching the NSX sports car, executives at Honda's struggling Acura premium marque are already considering other new entries, such as a coupe and a compact crossover, as part of the brand's quickening revival plan.

Federal safety regulators are investigating whether Ford went far enough with a recall of Super Duty pickups over complaints that they can stall and leave drivers stranded.

Acura used Sunday's AFC Championship game as a springboard for the refreshed ILX sedan's marketing campaign.

Acura is using Sunday's AFC Championship game as a springboard for the refreshed ILX sedan's marketing campaign.

The National Automobile Dealers Association 2015 convention is shaping up to mirror the industry's frothy sales, which last year hit their highest levels since 2006. NADA expects attendance during the four-day convention that kicks off on Jan.

BMW will get 50 percent more i8 plug-in hybrids -- 1,000-plus cars -- in the US this year than in 2014, but that still won't be enough to fill the order bank.

Michelle Christensen, exterior design project leader for the NSX, is the first woman to lead a design team working on a supercar.

As brick-and-mortar dealerships evolve, other operational changes might come, too, requiring alterations in franchise laws and automakers' policies, especially in urban areas.

From GMM

F1's governing body has suggested its tough new criteria for the awarding of super licences in 2016 may actually be flexible.

The FIA clamped down on the 2016 qualifying criteria for obtaining F1's mandatory credential due to the controversial debut this year of 17-year-old Max Verstappen.

But when the strict new criteria was outlined recently, it became clear that champions like Jenson Button and Kimi Raikkonen would not have been granted their grand prix debuts due to a lack of experience.

A driver like Williams tester Susie Wolff would also be excluded, and even the great Michael Schumacher's 2010 return for Mercedes would have been thwarted due to his lack of F1 experience in the three previous years.

But according to a report in Italy's La Gazzetta dello Sport, the FIA has now "admitted that despite the more stringent rules, possible exceptions will be granted".

The Paris federation reportedly singled out Schumacher's return as one obvious exception that would be theoretically presented to the World Motor Sport Council for "consideration" under the new rules.

Formula Renault 3.5 (Photo: WRI2)

It is believed Renault has also complained to the FIA that its top open-wheeler category, Formula Renault 3.5, has not been granted the status it deserves under the 2016 F1 super licence points system.

So, too, has the European open-wheeler series Auto GP, according to Russia's Championat.

"We deserve to be there," promoter Enzo Coloni is quoted as saying.

"We have powerful cars, similar to the Renault world series, so it would be fair to include us in the super licence points system.

"We have requested a clarification of the situation," he added, "with the support of the Italian federation of motor racing."

From GMM

Ferrari needed a sweeping change after a "disastrous" start to the new turbo V6 era.

That is the view of Sergio Marchionne, the Fiat-Chrysler chief who last year ousted the Maranello marque's long-time president and figurehead Luca di Montezemolo.

"Luca did a great job for 23 years," Marchionne is quoted by Italy's La Gazzetta dello Sport, "but we (Ferrari) had a disastrous season last year and it was time for a change."

Indeed, the team is heading into 2015 in a vastly different state, as Marchionne warns that it may be late in the 20-race season when performance starts to improve.

Rory Byrne has workd with James Allison before (Photo: WRI2)

Nonetheless, new lead racer Sebastian Vettel and simulator driver Jean-Eric Vergne have now started work at Maranello, and more big changes may be just around the corner.

The well-connected Ferrari insider Leo Turrini claims that legendary Ferrari designer Rory Byrne - a mastermind of the Michael Schumacher era - could be set to work closely with technical boss James Allison in 2015.

"It is true that the brilliant South African never completely severed the umbilical cord," he wrote in his Quotidiano blog, "but that he is so close to the side of Allison now is a good sign."