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European automakers' credit profiles will be helped by a modest global increase in vehicle sales, including growth in Europe of up to 4 percent next year, Fitch Ratings says.

European automakers' credit profiles will be helped by a modest global increase in vehicle sales, including growth in Europe of up to 4 percent next year, Fitch Ratings says.

European automakers' credit profiles will be helped by a modest global increase in vehicle sales, including growth in Europe of up to 4 percent next year, Fitch Ratings says.

Mary Barra feels good about General Motors' urgent restructuring of product safety after millions of cars were recalled for an ignition fault. Now the GM CEO's sights are set on a broader cultural change, which she says will take five years.

CEO Mary Barra feels good about how GM handled a major restructuring of its product safety after millions of cars were recalled for an ignition fault. Now her sights are set on a broader cultural change.

2014 is almost over, and that means it's time for the annual car company boasting ritual.

2014 is almost over, and that means it's time for the annual car company boasting ritual.

From press release

During the inaugural Motorama Custom Car & Motorsports Expo, Vintage Auto Insurance will unveil the winner of its 2014 Vintage Auto Championship Series.

The Motorama show takes place March 13, 14 & 15, 2015 at the International Centre, across from Toronto's Pearson Airport.

The Vintage Auto Championship Series is a competition comprised of 14 ‘Best of Show' cars that were determined at a series of prominent car shows and cruise events throughout southern Ontario during the summer of 2014. Two additional ‘wild card' entries will be added to the mix, creating the final ‘Sweet 16' list of eligible championship contenders.

An online vote being conducted at VintageAutoInsurance.ca will whittle the list down to two finalists. Both of these cars will be on display in the Vintage Auto Insurance booth at Motorama, and the overall champion will be announced live on the Johnsonville Stage during the show.

The identities of the finalists will be revealed in the coming months, along with details about the time of the championship announcement at Motorama.

Test and reserved driver for the Caterham and Marussia Formula 1 teams this season, Alexander Rossi has decided to turn his attention to American racing and the IZOD IndyCar series more specifically.

In an interview he gave to Racer.com's Marshall Pruett, Rossi explained that after he spent the last six years in Europe, working his way up the ladder, he feels he has little chance to breaking into F1.

The American driver took the wheel of an F1 car on a few occasions, but has yet to take the start of a Grand Prix.

The two teams he was in contact with - Caterham and Marussia- both closed their doors.

"For 2015, I'm very excited about the prospects in IndyCar, and I'm not the first person to say it's some of the best racing on the planet,” Rossi told Racer.com.

"I have been speaking with IndyCar teams for a while now, and have made multiple trips to Indianapolis to hold meetings about next season," Rossi continued.

"There have been some positive things to come from those meetings, and some things are moving forward, but there are still a lot of boxes that need to be ticked to finalize everything.

"I want to be in a competitive car, and after coming up the European ladder and being able to win races in all the championships I competed in, I feel I'm ready to do the job at home and compete straight away.

"All of the experience racing in GP2, being able to win there, and all of the F1 testing will help me right away in road racing here, and when it comes to ovals, I have no preconceived notions that my experience will translate. It will definitely be a new frontier for me, but racing drivers will figure out whatever they need to figure out when something new is put in front of them. It just takes time, and it's actually something I can't wait to get into," Alexander Rossi said.

From GMM

Just as Carlos Sainz settles in at Toro Rosso, it emerges that a major sponsor is staying with the Red Bull-owned team after all.

When Sainz started out in the British and European F3 categories in 2012, we reported that he was doing so with the direct backing of Cepsa.

The Spanish oil company has also been Toro Rosso's major backer.

But while Red Bull remained undecided recently over promoting Sainz into F1 for 2015, it emerged that Cepsa was contemplating leaving Toro Rosso.

Spain's El Confidencial reported last month that Toro Rosso contemplating about whether to keep Jean-Eric Vergne on board next year "could be interpreted as pressure on Cepsa not to withdraw".

Ultimately, Sainz was signed up, and the newspaper now reports: "In the end, the oil company will continue to sponsor the Italian team".

Cepsa brand on Toro Rosso. (Photo: WRi2)

Red Bull's driver programme manager Dr Helmut Marko, however, insists that 20-year-old Sainz "convinced us" by winning the Formula Renault 3.5 title.

And he described the Spaniard's Abu Dhabi test in the Red Bull car recently as "very successful".

"He's done everything we expected, so I'd say he was the natural choice," Marko added.

From Red Bull

On Friday an era ended when Sebastian Vettel officially parted company with Infiniti Red Bull Racing Formula 1 team - but it's been a great six years and everyone wanted to say goodbye properly.

And so today Sebastian popped in to the factory for a final round of applause, several - thankfully brief - speeches and a selection of going away gifts.

Sebastian Vettel and Christian Horner. (Photo: Twitter/Red Bull Racing)

The lobby of Building Two, home of the race bays, was festooned with German flags and hot chocolate and pretzels were served.

For those who've been on Mars for the last six years, a video loop of Seb's greatest hits was playing. The whole team assembled - at least as many of the personnel that could fit into the race bays with the rest hanging off the rafters on the mezzanine - and the team had one last group photo with Sebastian.

Photo: Infiniti Red Bull Racing

Horner presented Vettel with a goody bag to take away. It featured an espresso cup, some very tight red Speedos and a pair of sunglasses - none of which have ever been required in Milton Keynes.

Seb also got a 50 per cent scale model bull with his championship laurels engraved on the plinth.

Photo: Infiniti Red Bull Racing

One of his championship-winning cars will also be finding its way into his garage - but not just yet because, as Christian explained, "we don't want it turning up in Maranello."

Vettel waved goodbye and went over to the main factory where he spent the rest of the day signing kit and memorabilia for pretty much everyone in the factory.

Sebastian Vettel. (Photo: Infiniti Red Bull Racing)

The IZOD IndyCar is set to introduce a certain number of changes to their sporting regulations for 2015.

Standing starts, which were introduced in 2013 at Toronto and utilized at Long Beach, Indianapolis road course, Houston 1 and Toronto 2 in 2014, have been eliminated for the 2015 season.

“Most of the tracks we run on, few meet the space criteria for our cars, which are bigger than most formula cars,” IndyCar president of competition and operations, Derrick Walker said.

“There is also some development needed with the launch. I wouldn't say it's out of the picture for the future. We know the fans enjoy it, and we love it, too,” he explained.

Last May, the Grand Prix of Indianapolis started with a massive crash when polesitter Sebastian Saavedra stalled at the start and was hit hard in the rear by the cars of Carlos Munoz and Mikhail Aleshin.

Following successful trial runs held at the final three Grands Prix of the 2014 season, the Formula 1 teams and the FIA gave their approval to the introduction of the new virtual safety car system next season.

The need to reduce the speed of the cars under the yellow flags became a priority after Jules Bianchi's terrible crash at the Japanese Grand Prix.

The new procedure requires the drivers to slow down to a certain speed under the yellow flag, without the need to deploy the Mercedes safety car our on the race track.

An imposed speed limit is set in a specific sector of the circuit rather than around the whole lap.

Once the teams approve the rules, they will be added to the 2015 F1 Sporting Regulations.

Autosport magazine adds Tuesday that more trial runs will be held during the three winter test sessions before the virtual safety car is introduced for good in Australia in March 2015.

Virtual Safety Car at Interlagos, Brazil. (Photo: WRi2)

From Williams

Williams Martini Racing Formula 1 team announced Tuesday a new multi-year technology partnership agreement and sponsorship with Avanade, a global business technology, cloud and managed services provider.

Avanade and Williams will develop a suite of tools to ensure that the team fully optimises its new enterprise platform. Williams will also be drawing on Avanade's expertise to make sure that future digital and cloud investments lead to improved business performance both on and off the race track.

The partnership agreement and sponsorship will see the Avanade logo appear on the side pod leading edge of the team's racing cars and team apparel from the 2015 season onwards.

Avanade helps customers realize results in a digital world through business technology solutions, cloud and managed services that combine insight, innovation and expertise focused on Microsoft technologies.

The company, founded in 2000 by Microsoft and Accenture, has 22,000 professionals in more than 20 countries.

Mercedes-Benz announced it would have eight DTM Mercedes AMG C-Coupés in the line-up for the 2015 DTM season.

Mercedes-Benz will rely on the services of three teams in the DTM next season.

French team ART Grand Prix will make its debut in 2015 in the internationally popular touring car series alongside the established teams fielded by DTM development partner HWA AG and Mücke Motorsport.

Mercedes-Benz and ART Grand Prix have enjoyed a long-standing partnership in Formula 3. Working together in the Formula 3 Euro Series, ART Grand Prix (known as AMS Formule 3 to begin with) and Mercedes-Benz achieved 78 victories, 55 pole positions and 70 fastest laps during 2003-2010.

The outfit won the team championship seven times (2003-2009) and took the drivers' title six times (2004 Jamie Green, 2005, Lewis Hamilton, 2006, Paul Di Resta, 2007 Romain Grosjean, 2008 Nico Hülkenberg, 2009 Jules Bianchi).

Mercedes AMG C-Coupés. (Photo: DTM)

From GMM

2014 engine rivals Renault and Ferrari appear unlikely to close the gap to dominant Mercedes before the start of next season.

The struggling marques pushed hard for the current development 'freeze' regulations to be relaxed ahead of 2015.

But Andy Cowell, the engine boss at Mercedes, insists there is no good reason for the German carmaker's rivals to be complaining about the current rules.

"The situation is clear," he is quoted by Spain's El Mundo Deportivo.

"You can develop the engine all year long and then race your great evolution at the beginning of next season. There is a very long list of development opportunities for our opponents to take a big step forward," he added.

V6 turbo hybrid. (Photo: Mercedes-Benz)

But according to Germany's Auto Motor und Sport, Renault and Ferrari are now running out of time to prepare meaningful upgrades to their 'power units' before 2015.

The report said neither engine maker even looks set to use all the available 'tokens' of allowed performance upgrades by the end-of-February freeze deadline.

"They started to develop their 2015 engines too late," said Auto Motor und Sport.

A baffled Mercedes team chairman Niki Lauda said: "Why didn't they start already in Melbourne, when they knew how far behind they were?"

The report said Renault, for instance - although now enjoying the input of engine guru Mario Illien - has run out of time to mimic Mercedes' components layout.

Auto Motor und Sport said Ferrari, on the other hand, will enter the 2015 season with a more Mercedes-like layout.

But the boss of Renault's works team Red Bull, Christian Horner, sounds defeated already.

"We expect a slight increase in performance," he is quoted by El Confidencial. "We know we cannot reach Mercedes' level, but we want to be closer."

Ferrari is also expecting 2015 to be another struggle.

Reports suggest Mercedes' engine chief Cowell turned down an offer to switch to Maranello, while Ferrari's designer Nikolas Tombazis is understood to be close to the exit.

Sebastian Vettel at Maranello. (Photo: Ferrari)

New Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel described his first taste of a red cockpit as "magical" on Saturday, but others are more realistic.

"In the midst of all this euphoria," a Ferrari engineer told the insider Leo Turrini, "we should not forget to apologise in advance to Seb and Kimi for the car they will drive in 2015."

It has emerged that Kimi Raikkonen will have a new race engineer for 2015, but fellow Finnish champion Mika Hakkinen remains worried about his countryman.

"I watched Kimi in Abu Dhabi and I could see that he had no pleasure of driving," Hakkinen said in his latest interview for sponsor Hermes.

"One can only hope that Ferrari is preparing a much better car for Kimi. If Ferrari stays at this level, it will affect the motivation of both drivers," he added.

Former Formula 1 driver, Australian Mark Webber has been released from the Bandeirantes hospital after the crash that took place Sunday during the 6 Hours of Sao Paulo, Brazil, final round of the FIA World Endurance Championship.

Webber lost control of his Porsche 919 Hybrid late in the race, slammed into the AF Corse Ferrari 458 of Matteo Cressoni and then went straight into the Turn 14 wall.

The Australian suffered bruising and concussion in the crash, but was deemed well enough for release from the Brazil hospital on Monday afternoon.

Cressoni, who spent a night at the same hospital, was discharged earlier in the day.

On his Twitter account, Webber wrote: “Yesterday I was a lucky boy. The correct angle of impact saved me. Thanks everybody for your incredible messages and support”.

Mark Webber's Porsche after the crash. (Photo: WRi2)

From GMM

Toto Wolff thinks there is little danger the F1 grid will fall below 18 cars for the 2015 season.

Backmarkers Caterham and Marussia stumbled financially at the tail end of last season, although a controversial crowdfunding scheme put Caterham back on track for the Abu Dhabi finale.

Administrator and acting team boss Finbarr O'Connell says he is now talking to potential buyers and clearing hurdles so that Caterham can race in 2015.

Delays have pushed development of the 2015 car way behind schedule, but at key F1 meetings in Geneva last week, O'Connell proposed that Caterham be allowed to race the 2014-specification car and Renault engine next year.

"It was proposed as something to help Caterham and Marussia but will be available to any team if they want to apply to the FIA," he confirmed.

The next step is to urgently find a buyer.

"I am honestly talking to somebody who would like to take this over within the next month," O'Connell revealed.

Starting grid at Interlagos, Brazil. (Photo: Pirelli)

Wolff, the team boss at Mercedes and also still a minor owner of the Williams team, said he thinks Marussia and Caterham failed because their financial models were "not sustainable".

He thinks the next three most endangered teams, however - Sauber, Force India and Lotus - will all survive.

"I do not believe that we will lose any more teams," Wolff told the German trade magazine Sponsors. "At least that is the feedback that I get from the teams. Now we are simply talking about how the cake can be divided up differently."

It has been reported that Mercedes is prepared to make some concessions in order to help the struggling teams.

But Toto Wolff said Mercedes' attitude is not unanimous.

He revealed: "Ferrari and Red Bull take the position that 'This is not our problem but that of the (affected) teams'."

Wolff does not, however, overly criticise that attitude, saying it is people like Christian Horner's job to argue for the exclusive wellbeing of their employers.

"We cannot have a socialist system," he said. "In the end, teams like Marussia and Caterham are ultimately responsible for their failure.

"If a team is in a situation where it is crushed by a mountain of debt, you have to wonder if they were properly managed," said Wolff. "If you spend more than you have, you must have a plan to repay it."

So while Caterham clings to survival in the weeks before Christmas, it appears the forthcoming auction of Marussia's team equipment marks the end of the line.

British team driver Max Chilton is quoted by Speed Week: "We knew all season how tight things were. Every race felt like our last.

"I know that it will be very difficult for me to get a cockpit somewhere else," he acknowledged.

From GMM

Romain Grosjean says he was in talks with teams including Ferrari until the 2015 driver market was "shaken up" by Sebastian Vettel.

The Frenchman, who could have left Lotus due to a team performance-related clause in his contract, has now re-committed to Enstone for another year.

He admitted to France's RMC: "There were some discussions (about my future). Eventually I think the market was quite shaken when Sebastian Vettel said he is leaving Red Bull. It surprised everyone.

"We are still waiting to see what McLaren will do, but there are other big names in formula one like Ferrari and Mercedes. There were discussions," Romain Grosjean added.

Motorhome Ferrari. (Photo: WRi2)

Now, the 28-year-old is looking ahead to the 2015 season, when Lotus will enjoy title-winning Mercedes power after struggling this year with Renault.

But he cautions: "We will not know until after the first winter test, although even early this year, we really thought we had a good car.

"You never really know how it is going to be. There are ups and downs but this is still a good team," said Grosjean.

A House panel on Wednesday is expected to press Takata for the results of recent tests that could indicate whether the supplier's airbag inflators might pose a safety hazard outside hot, humid areas.