Auto News 5

British car production will remain flat in 2014 as model changes and economic uncertainty in export markets hit output.

From GMM

Lotus really was one of Fernando Alonso's options for the 2015 season, team owner Gerard Lopez has admitted.

As the long saga preceding the Spanish driver's switch from Ferrari to McLaren played out, many teams in pitlane were linked with the double world champion.

With Mercedes' dominant works team all locked up, at the top of the list were the Mercedes-powered customers Williams and Lotus.

"It was a real option," Lopez confirmed to Spain's El Mundo newspaper. "We opened the door to Fernando, but it was clear that he had his objectives."

Fernando Alonso. (Photo: WRi2)

Instead, Alonso has gone back to his old 2007 team, McLaren, where despite rumours of exit clauses he openly admits he is unlikely to be a winning force from "day one".

Asked if he thinks Alonso can win his long-awaited third title in Woking grey, Lopez answered: "I hope so. He is a driver who deserves to win at least one more championship. We'll see if McLaren can do what it needs to do.

"Everything takes time. It's an adventure, we'll see what happens," Gerard Lopez added.

Alonso's McLaren 'adventure' is boosted by a man close to Lopez's heart, Eric Boullier, the current team boss.

"We signed Eric from GP2 and he was with us for four years," he recalled. "He is an engineer and he knows the technical side, which is not always the case with F1 people. It is not a guarantee of anything but it is a good starting point."

Eric Boullier, McLaren. (Photo: WRi2)

Finally, in the wake of his recent outspokenness about the income crisis facing middle-ranked teams, Lopez was asked if he can imagine joining the list of potential successors to the 84-year-old Bernie Ecclestone.

"I don't think so," the Luxembourger answered.

"It is actually unthinkable because I have many businesses and could not attend to what formula one needs from a chief executive."

Jock Clear, Jacques Villeneuve's race engineer in 1997 when the Canadian clinched his world title and current performance engineer of Lewis Hamilton is said to be on his way to Ferrari.

In fact, Clear is a lot more than just a race engineer as he also plays the crucial role of a coach with his drivers.

The Scuderia Ferrari has several vacancies to fill after the discharges of top engineers such as Pat Fry, Nikolas Tombazis and Hirohide Hamashima.

Sky Sports says that another Mercedes man, Bob Bell, has also been heavily linked with Ferrari. Mercedes AMG announced Bell's departure as technical director in April, confirming that Bell would depart at the conclusion of 2014 “with the intention of pursuing new challenges outside the company”.

Jock Clear, Jacques Villeneuve, Patrick Head, Williams. (Photo: WRi2)

Aurelien Panis, son of former Formula 1 driver Olivier, will graduate to the fast and furious Formula Renault 3.5 series next year.

Panis ‘junior' moves up the motorsport ladder after having contested two seasons in Formula Renault 2.0.

“I am extremely determined to attack for this new challenge and I am pleased with the confidence placed in me by the Tech 1 Racing team,” Aurelien Panis said.

“This is a significant milestone for me and I look forward to it!”

Aurelien Panis, Formula Renault 3.5, Tech1 Racing. (Photo: Facebook Aurelien Panis)

The World Series by Renault Formula 3.5 and the GP2 series represent the last echelon before Formula 1.

Aurelien's father, Olivier won just one F1 Grand Prix in his career, but in spectacular fashion. He won the 1996 Monaco Grand Prix behind the wheel of a Mugen Honda-powered Ligier.

From GMM

Bernie Ecclestone has poked fun at the legal troubles that almost landed him in jail this year.

Every Christmas season, the F1 supremo sends out a card to his friends in the sport featuring a personalised cartoon.

In past years, he has poked fun at 'spygate', depicted Max Mosley whipping sore bottoms, shown Jean Todt holding hands in Concorde marriage and Lewis Hamilton fleeing a smoking McLaren for Mercedes-fuelled dollars.

For 2014, the 84-year-old Briton has turned the humorous heat on himself.

The card depicts a robber on horseback pointing a gun at Ecclestone, who is carrying a hefty sack marked '$100 million'.

"This is not a robbery," the thief tells Bernie. "I am collecting for the Bavarian state."

(@alanbaldwinf1)

As ever, however, a cheeky Ecclestone hinted he might get something in return, saying inside the card: "Maybe now we can have a formula one race in the really nice city of Munich, Germany."

Recently, Ecclestone sat down with a close group of specialist reporters and admitted that the Gerhard Gribkowsky scandal and trial had made 2014 a "difficult" year.

"It's not easy to take your mind away when somebody tells you that you might get ten years," he was quoted by Forbes' Christian Sylt.

From Formula1.com

CVC, the controlling shareholder of the Formula One Group, today announces three appointments to the Board of the Formula One Group.

Luca di Montezemolo and Paul Walsh have been appointed as Non Executive Directors, with effect from 1st January 2015.

Luca di Montezemolo was previously Chairman of Ferrari, a position he held from 1991 until 2014.

The Italian previously served as a Non Executive Director of the Formula One Group between 2012 and 2014 in his prior capacity as the representative of Ferrari.

Paul Walsh was formerly CEO of Diageo plc, the global leading drinks business, from 2000 to 2013. He is currently Chairman of Compass Group, as well as a Non Executive Director of FedEx Corporation and Unilever plc.

Bernie Ecclestone has been reappointed to the Board and will continue as CEO of the Formula One Group.

Peter Brabeck-Letmathe will continue to serve as Chairman of the Board.

From nascar.com

NASCAR announced today the 2015 schedule for the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series presented by Mobil 1.

The nationwide slate features 11 dates across five provinces and includes seven oval and four road course events.

The season will open at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park's road course for the third year in a row on May 17, and the series will return there on Aug. 30 to join the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series.

Kawartha Speedway has played host to the last race on the schedule each year of the Canadian Tire Series' existence, and that tradition will continue in 2015 with the Sept. 19 season finale.

Louis-Philippe Dumoulin will be the defending Canadian Tire Series champion in 2015. The Trois-Rivieres native was formally recognized for his first series title last week as part of the NASCAR Touring Awards at the NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte, N.C.

2015 NASCAR Canadian Tire series' schedule*:
Date   Track   Location
5/17   Canadian Tire Motorsport Park  Bowmanville, Ont.
6/13  Autodrome Chaudiere  Valle-Jonction, Que.
7/5  Circuit ICAR  Mirabel, Que.
7/11  Edmonton International Raceway  Wetaskiwin, Alta.
7/15  Auto Clearing Motor Speedway  Saskatoon, Sask.
7/25  Autodrome St-Eustache   St-Eustache, Que.
8/2  Circuit de Trois-Rivieres  Trois-Rivieres, Que.
8/15  Riverside International Speedway  Antigonish, N.S.
8/30  Canadian Tire Motorsport Park  Bowmanville, Ont.
9/12  Barrie Speedway  Barrie, Ont.
9/19  Kawartha Speedway   Fraserville, Ont.

*Calendar subject to changes.

From Audi Motorsport

Audi has unveiled its driver line-up for the 2015 FIA World Endurance Championship and the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

The only place that has become vacant due to the retirement of Le Mans record winner Tom Kristensen will be filled - and, as usual at Audi, with a driver from the brand's own young-driver promotion program: Oliver Jarvis will move up from the third Le Mans car into the WEC regular driver squad and contest the full WEC season in the Audi R18 e-tron quattro.

In the WEC, Audi continues to rely on Audi Sport Team Joest as in the past. The most successful Le Mans team of all time will be fielding two further-developed Audi R18 e-tron quattro cars in all eight races.

An additional R18 will be entered in the 6-hour race at Spa and in the Le Mans 24 Hours, with GT driver René Rast completing the line-up for these events.

2015 WEC drivers :
• Marcel Fässler (CH)/André Lotterer (D)/Benoît Tréluyer (F)
• Loïc Duval (F)/Lucas di Grassi (BR)/Oliver Jarvis (GB)
• Filipe Albuquerque (P)/Marco Bonanomi (I)/René Rast (D)

2015 Audi endurance drivers (Photo: Audi Motorsport)

Formula 1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone Thursday proposes to all F1 teams a return to the loud normally aspirated engines.

The teams are today all together for a Strategy Group meeting.

Ecclestone has been strongly against the new V6 turbo hybrid Power Units since Day One.

Additionally, the switch from 2.4-litre V8 normally aspirated engines to 1.6-litre V6s units has seen costs rise from a reported £5m ($8m) to £15-20m ($23-31m) for customer teams.

The Renault 2.4-litre V8 engine. (Photo: Renault Sport F1)

"We recognise the biggest problem these teams have is the amount they have to spend on the power unit," Bernie Ecclestone told to SkySports UK.

"I believe if you got everybody in the room, secret ballot, there would only be one company interested in retaining this engine, and that is Mercedes. You can't blame them because they have done a super job, and the others haven't, so they've a big advantage.

"Is that good for Formula 1? I think not, because we can all put our money together and have a wager they will win the championship next year, and probably the year after, which is not really the sort of thing we are looking for,” Ecclestone said.

"I have been proposing, and am going to propose, at the next meeting we go back to a normally-aspirated engine with some hybrid bits built into it.

"The teams, manufacturers will have to call it a 'McLaren hybrid', 'Ferrari hybrid' or a 'Williams hybrid'. It's so we get across the message they are hybrids, but nobody tells anybody.

"It's the best-kept secret actually as to what this engine is for, why it was designed and what have we achieved with it because it is a fantastic bit of engineering, it really is,” the billionaire explained.

From GMM

Christian Horner has confirmed that Red Bull's engine supplier Renault is now working with Mario Illien.

As the French engine marque faltered at the start of the new 'power unit' era, rumours Renault had turned to Swiss Illien - one of the most famous engine specialists in all of motor sport - and his company Ilmor began to swirl.

Illien was then spotted in the Red Bull garage in Abu Dhabi.

"It is great that Renault are now working with Ilmor," Horner, boss of Renault's works team Red Bull, is quoted by the French magazine Auto Hebdo.

"The company has been faced with similar problems in IndyCar. Mario comes with a lot of experience and is able to look at the problems with fresh eyes and perspective."

Christian Horner also said Red Bull is playing an active role in helping Renault to chase down dominant Mercedes.

"I'm talking about modelling, simulation, optimisation of air flow, things like that -- areas where we have some experience and we can help," he revealed.

Renault and Red Bull's engineers working together. (Photo: WRi2)

Mercedes' rivals are having to simply up their game in the battle against F1's new power, given that efforts to change the engine rules for 2015 failed.

Lotus, on the other hand, is going from Renault to Mercedes for the 2015 season, with a team engineer revealing the extent of the problem to Auto Motor und Sport by revealing the switch "gives us 85 horse power more and 18 kilograms less".

From GMM

The sweeping pre-2015 revolution at Ferrari is continuing at full speed.

The latest of multiple heads to officially roll is the former Bridgestone tyre specialist Hirohide Hamashima, hot on the heels of Nikolas Tombazis and Pat Fry.

And Italian reports say yet another new Ferrari refugee is Neil Martin, a disciple of Briton Fry dating back to their McLaren days.

The influential Italian La Gazzetta dello Sport surmised the mood of the past weeks as "full power for James Allison", the now clear and obvious technical chief of a fabled marque struggling in the new aero and energy-recovery era.

Also surviving the upheaval of the past months, weeks and days is Dirk de Beer, the aerodynamics chief.

But Spain's El Mundo Deportivo surmised that Ferrari has essentially "liquidated the (Fernando) Alonso era" as it builds a new foundation for the newly-arrived Sebastian Vettel.

Ferrari, Maranello, Italy. (Photo: René Fagnan/Auto123.com)

"Do not fear change," new president Sergio Marchionne told Ferrari employees at a recent Christmas lunch, "be proactive and have the courage to come up with ideas."

Seasoned observers, however, marvel at the sweeping extent of the changes in red, the Roman daily Corriere dello Sport fearing Ferrari has "lost too many important heads to believe they can rely only on the survivors of the revolution".

Indeed, Germany's Sport Bild said that despite tempting offers to join the Ferrari rebirth, the likes of Bob Bell and Red Bull's chief designer Rob Marshall have both now said no.

"Marshall has signed a new long-term contract with Red Bull," the publication claimed.

Sport Bild also claims, however, that Ferrari has managed to convince a high-profile Mercedes figure to move to Maranello: new world champion Lewis Hamilton's performance engineer Jock Clear.

Airbag maker Takata has sufficient funds to deal with a global recall that has climbed to about 21 million vehicles after five deaths linked to its products, the company's CEO told the Nikkei newspaper.

The era of the GBP80,000+ Jaguar estate has arrived. That's quite a reach for the seven-year old XF range. JLR won't sell many R-S Sportbrakes but it's a gutsy move to get this brand up into the maximum-margin segments, and boost the image of cheaper models.

The era of the GBP80,000+ Jaguar estate has arrived. That's quite a reach for the seven-year old XF range. JLR won't sell many R-S Sportbrakes but it's a gutsy move to get this brand up into the maximum-margin segments, and boost the image of cheaper models.

The newly updated DS 3 is now bordering on true premium qualities and status. But with PSA insisting that DS is a brand, why is there still Citroën badging?

Volvo customers will receive a 4-year subscription to SiriusXM traffic and weather information when purchasing a 2015 1/2 model equipped with the latest generation of Volvo Sensus Connect, the company's connected car platform, Volvo said Wednesday.

Visteon has agreed to sell a majority stake in Halla Visteon Climate Control to South Korea's Hankook Tire and its investment partner for $3.6 billion, to focus on connected-vehicle solutions and cockpit electronics.

The head of Bosch's automotive division, Wolf-Henning Scheider, has quit the world's top-ranked supplier to head smaller German rival Mahle, a maker of engine components.

News 18 Dec, 2014

We get our first taste of the most powerful and fastest Land Rover ever made: the Range Rover Sport SVR

News 17 Dec, 2014

Lexus' BMW M5 rival will be revealed at the Detroit Motor Show next year, but for now here are some official teaser shots