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Sebastian Vettel could join Ferrari “in a few years”

May 17, 2010 at 10:05 am By Jacob Alexander Filed Under Ferrari, Formula 1, Motorsports

Young hotshot Sebastian Vettel, who is seen by many (including Bernie Ecclestone) as the brightest spark in F1, has expressed his desire to one day join Ferrari. The 22-year old stated to Spain’s El Pais newspaper, “I am very happy with Red Bull, I am not going anywhere else, but in the future, I don’t know.

“I want to fight for the world championship, and if you look at the past, Ferrari has always designed very competitive cars. Why not go there in a few years? Ferrari is unlike any other team, it’s a legend. There are other brands that achieve great success, but Ferrari is special,” he praised.

While the above quote is just Vettel not closing any future doors, his on-form team mate and new championship leader Mark Webber has already been linked to the Maranello based team for the 2011 season. It’s very early in the season but all sorts of transfer talk are already circulating in the paddock. While everyone successful will be inevitably linked to the Scuderia, Red Bull is not a bad team to drive for, as clearly displayed by the super quick RB6 that rivals have no answer for at the moment.

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Schumacher the opportunist penalised, Mercedes appeals

May 17, 2010 at 9:34 am By Danny Tan Filed Under Formula 1, Mercedes Benz, Motorsports

Yesterday’s Monaco GP saw plenty of action, right till the final corner of the race when the safety car returned to its bay for the fourth time. Everyone else took the last corner in procession, except for one Michael Schumacher, who couldn’t help but to display his opportunist streak to the world again when he overtook Fernando Alonso for sixth.

The stewards did not find it funny and handed the seven-time champion a 20-second penalty, pushing the German to 12th place and with zero points after an otherwise good day at the office.

Stewards deemed the race was still finishing under the safety car. Rule 40.13 states that “if the race ends whilst the safety car is deployed it will enter the pitlane at the end of the last lap and the cars will take the chequered flag as normal without overtaking.”

Mercedes boss Ross Brawn revealed a different interpretation of the situation. “There’s a regulation which is new this year that says you can race between safety car line one and the start/finish line. We were advised before the end of the race that the safety car was coming in. There was no instruction that the race was going to finish under the safety car, so for us as soon as we got the instruction ‘safety car in this lap’ at 15:51 we considered the race was now on again.

“And I think you saw the reaction of all the other drivers. If what Stefano (Domenicali, Ferrari boss) has said was true, they would just cruise to the start/finish line because they knew they couldn’t be overtaken, but everyone went for it and I’m afraid Fernando was a little asleep and we took advantage,” he told the BBC.

Mercedes GP Petronas has appealed the decision, which will now be handled by the FIA’s Court of Appeal.

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Red Bull takes home Monaco crown with 1-2 victory!

May 17, 2010 at 2:01 am By Harvinder Sidhu Filed Under Formula 1, Motorsports

Red Bull has done it again with its second 1-2 finish of the season. Pole sitter Mark Webber pretty much sealed first place from the beginning of the 2010 Monaco Grand Prix and led teammate Sebastian Vettel to second place. Robert Kubica who was challenging Vettel for second made it onto the podium yet again for Renault with his third place.

Ferrari’s Felipe Massa who started the race from fourth place managed to convert it into a race result as well while McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton settled for fifth place. Fernando Alonso finished in sixth as he did a remarkable job in steering his scarlet car from the very back of the grid to sixth considering overtaking is not an easy thing to do in Monte Carlo.

Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg secured seventh place ahead of both Force India drivers Adrian Sutil and Vitantonio Liuzzi. Toro Rosso’s Sebastien Buemi filled the final top ten spot. The 78-lap race was a dry affair and at the start Webber led the pack and Vettel managed to jump to second ahead of Kubica while Massa maintained fourth place. This top four standing was maintained till the end of the race.

Alonso who missed qualifying yesterday and started the race with a new chassis did a lot of overtaking and went as high as sixth place but had to settle for seventh at first as Schumacher passed him after the final Safety Car period. Schumacher crossed the line as a sixth-place finisher but the German was slapped with a 20 second penalty after the race and is now classified as 12th.

Talking about Safety Car periods, we saw a total of four of them. The first was at the beginning of the race when Nico Hulkenberg drifted his Williams and suffered from a crash in the tunnel.

The next period was mid-way through the race when the other Williams of Rubens Barrichello’s had a mechanical problem and crashed, which meant that Williams was the first team to pack its bags.

The SLS AMG was deployed again when the marshals thought there was a loose drain cover on the track however it was a false alarm. The final period was at the dying moments of the race when both Jarno Trulli of Lotus and Karun Chandhok of Hispania had a joint-accident.

As always Monaco claimed a lot of non-finishers and officially there were nine of them excluding Trulli and Chandhok. Included in the retirement list is Heikki Kovalainen who had a steering-related problem. Both Virgins also retired along with Bruno Senna of Hispania. This means that all six drivers from the three new teams retired.

Mark Webber overtakes Jenson Button in the Driver’s Championship with 78 points. Sebastian Vettel also has 78 points and lies in second ahead of Fernando Alonso. Button is now fourth with 70 points. Red Bull is also leading the Constructor’s Championship with 156 points. Ferrari is second with 136 and McLaren drops to third with 129. Looks like its turning into a very competitive and interesting season despite the ban of mid-race refueling. Lets see what happens in a week’s time in Turkey!

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Toyota to suspend production in Thai factory

May 16, 2010 at 2:12 am By Jacob Alexander Filed Under Cars, International News, Toyota

Toyota will suspend production at one of its four vehicle plants in Thailand as part of restructuring efforts to boost efficiency and profitability. Vehicle production will stop by the end of this month at Thai Auto Works, located in Samrong on the outskirts of Bangkok. The plant opened in 1988 and is responsible for churning out the Vigo (Hilux to us) and Fortuner to the tune of around 60,000 units per year.

The 960 workers at TAW and production of the two models will be transferred to two other Thai plants that build them. This development has nothing to do with the current political situation in Thailand, as the decision was made in November last year.

Toyota made 435,000 vehicles in Thailand last year, which is a quarter lower than 2008 figures. It’s not the only manufacturer faced with the problem of excess capacity due to lower demand from the global economic crisis.

However, Toyota may have to readjust a bit more than others after its aggressive expansion plan to build more plants and cars when times were good.

Source

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Mark Webber clinches second consecutive pole after Monaco qualifying

May 15, 2010 at 9:10 pm By Harvinder Sidhu Filed Under Formula 1, Motorsports

Red Bull’s Mark Webber will start tomorrow’s Monaco Grand Prix in Monte Carlo from first position following his second consecutive pole which is also his third of the season. The Australian who just got back from his first victory of the year a week ago in Spain is positioned in front of Robert Kubica from Renault while third place went to teammate Sebastian Vettel in the other Red Bull.

Felipe Massa who showed good performance through out the session is in fourth place for Ferrari however his teammate will have to start the race from 24th place. The former World Champion suffered from a crash during the previous practice session and his car couldn’t be repaired in time. Its shame though as he was fastest in the first two practice sessions.

Lewis Hamilton will start from fifth place ahead of both the Mercedes drivers Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher who was just 0.046 slower than his teammate. Championship leader Jenson Button of McLaren only managed eight while ninth went to Williams’ Rubens Barrichello. The final top ten position was taken up by Force India’s Vitantonio Liuzzi.

Further down the grid both the Lotus’ will lead the new comers. Heikki Kovalainen who spun twice during the first session but escaped with an undamaged car out-shined his teammate yet again with his 18th position. Trulli was 19th. Both the Virgin drivers settled for 20th and 21st positions followed by the Hispania drivers. Dry weather is predicted tomorrow and hopefully it will be an interesting race considering overtaking is anything but easy in the principality.

Click here to view the full results.

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Three horse race for a spot in 2011 Formula 1 grid

May 15, 2010 at 3:03 am By Jacob Alexander Filed Under Formula 1, Motorsports

Since this season’s no-show from USF1, their slot on the grid has been coveted by many aspiring teams from the lower rungs of single seater racing, from Formula 3 to GP2. And when FIA gave out the invitation to join the Formula 1 circus next year, these teams took the chance to throw their names into the hat.

Among them would be French team ART Grand Prix, a joint venture between Frédéric Vasseur and Nicolas Todt (son of FIA boss Jean). The outfit is based in France, and currently competes in the GP2 series. Current F1 stars such as Lewis Hamilton, Nico Rosberg and Sebastien Buemi have all raced for this team before.

Also in the list is Italian team Durango. They were a GP2 team that also raced in Le Mans, the British Formula 2 Championship and Renault Formula 2. Durango dropped out of GP2 at the end of last year due to financial issues, but boss Ivone Pinton had apparently found deep pocketed new backers for this F1 push.

Other speculative entrants include the American Cypher Group, a collection of Formula 1 engineers seeking to form a US based team. Cypher is hoping to accumulate a sufficient budget to be able to submit an application to FIA. While the team has ex USF1 staff, they are distancing themselves from Ken Anderson and Peter Windsor’s failed attempt to join F1.

These three hopefuls surely have a confidence that Lola and Prodrive lack, despite the fact that it’s not easy to be thrown into the deep end of the pool and be competitive.

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Volkswagen Golf GTI “Excessive” Concept at Wörthersee

May 15, 2010 at 1:56 am By Paul Tan Filed Under Cars, International News, Volkswagen

Is there really such a thing as too much modification to a Golf GTI? Volkswagen’s Austrian Wörthersee Show debut is a concept Mk6 called the Volkswagen Golf GTI Excessive, which incorporates a series of small but effective modifications to the vehicle’s running gear to create a sharper, more focused iteration of the iconic GTI.

The list of mods include firmer springs and dampers, a wider track as well as 30mm wheel arch extensions to accommodate the wider track, uprated 370mm brakes at the front and 310mm brakes at the rear, new 19 inch flow-formed BBS alloys with 35mm offset wrapped with 235/35ZR19 track-oriented tyros, a free-flowing exhaust system that’s also lighter in terms of weight, a deep front splitter, revised airdams on the either side of the grille, gloss black sill extensions and a new rear diffuser.

On the inside, you get redesigned bucket seats with integrated headrests finished in black and red, with brushed aluminium and gloss black trim. It’s definitely an interesting set of equipment for one to pimp out his Golf GTI in order to make it stand out a little more. There isn’t a day driving around KL where you won’t see at least one Mk5, and if the new Mk6 becomes as popular as the Mk5 here in KL, it will become a dime a dozen as well. There will always be those who value individuality and will splurge on such mods.

Volkswagen is already seeing the dollar signs and says that if there is an enthusiastic reaction to the concept at Wörthersee, the GTI Excessive may inspire an accessories pack which could be retrofitted to the MkVI Golf GTI to put it somewhere in the middle of the GTI and the Golf R.

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KBS Goodyear Drift Challenge in Putrajaya this weekend

May 14, 2010 at 3:52 pm By Danny Tan Filed Under Local News, Motorsports

As part of an effort to promote drifting, Goodyear Malaysia has teamed up with the Ministry of Youth and Sports (KBS), to kick start the KBS Goodyear Drift Challenge 2010 as part of Hari Belia 2010.

The event, which will be held throughout this weekend (15-16 May) at Putrajaya, will feature local novice and expert drifters including Team Goodyear Malaysia drifters Ariff Johanis, Azrina Jane Abdullah, Hanizam bin Hamzah and Michael Gan.

The quartet will be putting up an exciting drift demo for spectators at the event location in Precinct 3. This is a chance for the public to get up close and smell the burning rubber from these four experienced drifters, fresh from competing in Formula Drift Singapore.

Lucky spectators will be given “taxi rides” around the circuit by the pros. Best of all, entrance is free! You can click the event information poster on the top left to view more information.

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Ford Fiesta Flash Mobbers at Menara Millenium

May 14, 2010 at 3:06 pm By Paul Tan Filed Under Cars, Ford, Local News

The Ford Fiesta Movement Malaysia Mission Two started this noon with the Ford Fiesta Flash Mobbers together with a white Ford Fiesta at Menara Millenium, Bukit Damansara. The Fiesta Flash Mobbers put up a funky dance in front of the building while onlookers checked the white Fiesta out.

Mission Two is a follow up of Mission One where participants (referred to as Fiesta Movement ‘agents’) had to snap a photo of themselves with the Fiesta preview car at 1 Utama. In Mission Two, the participating agents have to record a video of themselves with the Flash Mobbers at the Flash Mob locations.

I was there at the Flash Mob today and there were quite a few interesting participants performing breakdances and etc on their own while the Flash Mobbers were dancing. Agents have to upload their video to the Ford Fiesta in Malaysia Facebook Fan Page and the top three videos with the most “Likes” will win RM250 of Top Shop vouchers each, while the next 20 winners will get a pair of GSC tickets.

These prizes are for EACH Flash Mob scene and there’s no limit to the amount of times one can participate so if you’re a really good dancer with the time to attend each Flash Mob scene you might just go home with many multiples of RM250 to spend at Top Shop. The next Flash Mob scene will be at Jalan Bukit Bintang today at the Bangunan Yayasan Selangor junction at 5:30 PM.

Look after the jump for a gallery from the dance at noon today.
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Brabus takes the SL 65 AMG Black Series to the extreme

May 14, 2010 at 3:04 pm By Jacob Alexander Filed Under Cars, International News, Mercedes Benz

Even the already extreme Black Series SL65 AMG is not spared by the tuners. The perpetrator this time is Brabus, which managed to coax 800 horses from the SL’s 6.0-litre V12 engine. 0-100 km/h is 3.2 seconds and you’ll only need 9.8 seconds to double that speed (the new 911 GT2 RS achieves the same 0-200 km/h time with half the number of cylinders!).

Best effort is 330 km/h, but most hands will already be shaking at the electronically limited 320km/h. That’s not the only thing that has been limited – after outworking themselves to create 1,420 Nm of torque from as 2,100 rpm, they decided to spare owners’ lives by pegging it back at 1,100 Nm.

Responsible for this insane performance is Brabus’ twin-turbo system that includes two special exhaust manifolds with integrated turbine housings. A specially made Brabus carbon-fiber hood scoop feeds four big intercoolers while a bespoke stainless-steel high-performance exhaust system with free-flow metal catalysts are included. An ECU remap coordinates the altered ignition and injection timings.

Called T65, this car was a one off model done for a Brabus customer, but the famous Mercedes tuner has decided to go public with it. Customers can pick whatever they want from the Brabus catalogue. As you can see from the gallery, this car was finished in matte black while the interior is covered in breathable black leather and Alcantara. This particular owner specified stainless-steel scuff plates with illuminated logos and the car’s name (Vanish) on the 360 km/h speedo and the brakes.

More images after the jump.
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