F1: Raikkonen heads to NASCAR

If you were surprised when Kimi Raikkonen quit Formula 1 to move to WRC in 2010, this might shock you! The Iceman has now made a move to NASCAR.

The Finnish driver will be racing with the new ICE1 Racing Team. Raikkonen will reportedly be racing in the Truck series to begin with, and will then move on to the Nationwide and Sprint series.


While talks are still on as to which car the 2007 F1 champ will pilot on his NASCAR debut, Kimi has confirmed that he will take part in eight rallies of the 2011 World Rally Championship too.

BSM says: Come back to F1, why don't you!

Sebastian Vettel streets ahead in Melbourne

Sebastian Vettel set the fastest lap of the final practice session for the Australian Grand Prix as Red Bull finally showed its hand.

Vettel set a time of 1:24.507 on the soft tyres, which was eight tenths quicker than team-mate Mark Webber as the world champions confirmed the outright pace of the RB7. In doing so, the German set the fastest three sector times of the session.

There was still some encouragement for McLaren as Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button finished the session third and fourth fastest respectively, albeit a second off Vettel's pace. Vitaly Petrov impressed for Renault with the fifth fastest time as many drivers did qualifying simulations, ahead of Fernando Alonso and Kamui Kobayashi.

Plenty of drivers were pushing hard in the hour-long session as they tried to understand the full characteristics of the Pirelli tyres ahead of qualifying, which led to a lot of mistakes. Button ran off the track at turn three, while Vitaly Petrov went wide at high speed exiting turn twn. Pastor Maldonado also went off in to the gravel after taking too much speed in to turn six, and his car had to be recovered after stopping just before the wall.

Mercedes will be slightly worried at being two seconds behind Vettel, although times in practice are still not completely representative of outright pace. It was a bad morning for Williams as there was little running for Rubens Barrichello, who suffered a gearbox oil leak and only managed seven laps. Sergio Perez didn't reach double figures either after he toured back to the pits midway through the session.

It was a bittersweet session for HRT, who managed to get Tonio Liuzzi on track early in the session only to have the engine cut out after three corners. They did get Narain Karthikeyan's car running though, and he completed five laps to set a time 17 seconds off the pace, although the team will have been carrying out system checks.

There were problems for Virgin too, as Timo Glock became the first driver to be forced to make an engine change after a loose bolt dropped in to a trumpet inlet. However, the team will have been heartened by being within half a second of Lotus.

Red Bull's Vettel takes pole for F1 season-opening Australian Grand Prix

Reigning Formula One champion Sebastian Vettel will start from pole position in Sunday's season-opening Australian Grand Prix after a dominant performance in qualifying on Saturday.

Vettel posted a fastest lap time of one minute 23.529 seconds. It was the 23-year-old German's 16th career pole.

"It's a good position to be in. It's the best position, pole position, so I'm very happy with that. But we need to keep our feet on the ground and see how we get on tomorrow," the Age quoted Vettel, as saying.

A late dash from Lewis Hamilton underlined McLaren's improvement as he closed within 0.778 seconds of the German to join him on the front row.

Red Bull's Mark Webber will start third in front of his home crowd, with McLaren's Jenson Button at fourth.

Ferrari's Fernando Alonso qualified fifth and Mercedes' Michael Schumacher was 11th.

Hispania Racing Team's Narain Karthikeyan won't be on the starting grid, as he failed to set a qualifying lap under new rules requiring drivers to get within 107 per cent of the fastest time

Sebastian Vettel: My F1 car has a 'sexy butt', just like Kylie Minogue Read more: http://www.metro.co.uk/sport/oddballs/859147-sebastian-vettel-my-f1-car-has-a-sexy-butt-just-like-kylie-minogue#ixzz1HhLaBweu

Reigning Formula One world champion Sebastian Vettel is so happy with the rear-end of his new Red Bull he has decided to name the car after Aussie pop star Kylie Minogue

Vettel could hardly contain himself as he described his new RB7 to reporters ahead of this weekend's season opening Melbourne Grand Prix.
'It has a tight butt, is supple and is good to look at,' the 23-year-old petrol-head said.
'Hopefully, it will be quick as well.'
The Red Bull driver also revealed a history of naming his cars after good looking women who catch his eye.
Apparently there was a Randy Mandy (Moore perhaps?) and Luscious Liz (maybe Hurley?), but perhaps the ladies in question are of the fraulein variety.
But while Vettel had time to joke as the first practice session got underway, McLaren drivers Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton set off to work registering the quickest two lap times of the session.
The pair had been left worried that their cars wouldn't compete after winter testing, but the team appear to have ironed out design problems.
'For the first time this year nothing has gone wrong, which is great, and now we have to build on that.' said Button.
'We have reliability, which is something we haven't had all winter, so to finally have a car in which we can do as many laps as we want is great.'
'The feeling is so much better, the car feels a lot more complete, one that we can really make some progress with.'

Button hopes to see out F1 career at McLaren

MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Jenson Button has banished thoughts of retirement to the back of his mind and said he hopes to see out his Formula One career with McLaren.

"I've a few years that I still want to race in Formula One," the 2009 world champion said at the Australian Grand Prix where he was surprisingly quickest in free practice on Friday after a troublesome pre-season.

"I'm sure it will come to a point with me where I'll think 'Right, I don't want to do any more, I want to do something else.' That point isn't yet, and I can't even imagine it happening yet.

"I'll be here for a couple more years," added the 31-year-old Briton, who joined the Mercedes-powered team on a multi-year deal at the end of 2009 after winning the world championship with Brawn GP.

"I can't imagine going somewhere else in Formula One after McLaren. I'm really happy here.

"When I was younger, at the start of my years in Formula One, I never thought I'd drive for McLaren."

Button, who has won in Australia for the past two years in a row, said he particularly enjoyed the team spirit at McLaren even in tough times.

"When something goes wrong there is no finger-pointing. You talk about it," he said.

"For instance, (technical director) Paddy (Lowe) will come up to me, and say 'I'm so sorry, this isn't what we want, and what we want you to see either. We're going to get back on track.'

On F1: Rain, no, wings and fragile tires, yes

PARIS — Formula One and professional cycling, sports poles apart which share a common problem: how to pass the bacon butty and tea test.

That is when sports are so lacking in suspense or surprise that couch potatoes comfortably feel they can go to the kitchen, make themselves a bacon sandwich and a cup of tea without having to worry that they're missing crucial action. Make me one, please, while you're at it.

Predictability is not good for a sport. F1 is aware of that and so is adding bells and whistles to improve the show, including tires that with luck should fall apart as quickly as an ice cream in a hot hand. Drivers sliding around on worn-out rubber should make for more riveting viewing and unforeseen race outcomes in this new season that starts Sunday with the Australian Grand Prix. Both are most welcome in a sport which, given the hundreds of millions its teams spend on the cars and their drivers, should be delivering far more bang for all those bucks.

Cycling, on the other hand, should embrace the fact that there are always quiet moments in races, especially its most important ones, the three-week tours of France, Italy and Spain, when spectators will pour themselves a glass of wine and doze off.
And that's fine. Because in cycling, as with tennis, action often builds toward a crescendo. The first few hours of a race, the first games in a set, aren't so important in themselves, you can slip away to the kitchen for refreshments. But they lay the foundations for the denouement — the tiebreaker, the 5-4 game, the bunch sprint, the last mountain climb — that no fan wants to miss.
Cycling will never deliver adrenaline through a fire hose — thrills! Spills! All the time! — like F1. Its tantalizingly gradual delivery of excitement is one of its charms. International cycling boss Pat McQuaid should tell television executives to buzz off and defend the sport's idiosyncrasies instead of pandering to their demands for more spectacle.

To add spice, McQuaid is trying to strip riders of the two-way radios they use to communicate with their managers during races. The International Cycling Union president figures that will make riders think more for themselves and that left to their own devices, they'll race with more derring-do and be more exciting to watch.

But there's no compelling evidence that it will work. Since many riders and team bosses are opposed, McQuaid risks simply aligning the sport against him. Somewhat insultingly, his plan suggests that riders with radios are little more than remote-controlled robots.
Cycling puts on a fine show as it is. If anything, the best way to improve it would be to make it more believable. Redouble efforts to catch drug cheats, and more viewers will tune in.
As for F1, there were worrying indications from Friday's practice sessions that the new Pirelli tires may not be quite as fragile on Melbourne's Albert Park circuit as was thought during offseason testing.

Damn. The idea that drivers might be forced to dip into the pits as much as four times in a race to replace tires worn to the canvas was exciting. The Bridgestones used until last season were so durable that cars looked at times to be riding round and round on rails, which was as boring as watching the hands of a clock.

Hopefully, the new Pirellis will wear much faster, as they are designed to do, and reward drivers who know how to take care of tires, like Jenson Button — which is only fair. Hopefully, those drivers who don't or who are saddled with poorly balanced cars will be punished with crumbling tires that will cause them to slow dramatically. That is only fair, too. It should make for a much better show.

So, too, should the go-fast rear wing that drivers will be able to activate when they're closing in on the car ahead, giving them an extra burst of speed to overtake. Overtaking shouldn't be too easy. But nor should it be as impossible as it was for Fernando Alonso at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix last November, the season-ending race that had the potential to be a thriller but instead was a crushing anticlimax because so little happened.

Lotus Renault driver Vitaly Petrov says fiddling with all the gizmos and dials on their steering wheels — gears, rear wing, KERS power-boost button, et cetera — while driving at top speed could prove to be like answering mobile phone text messages, frying eggs and tying one's shoes all at one time. But isn't this why these guys are paid fortunes, because they are the best and have reflexes as sharp as razors? If they're unhappy, they can drive a taxi.

F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone's whacky suggestion that "suspense would be guaranteed" if tracks were sprayed with water to make them slippery and treacherous is just silly. Race outcomes would be too random. F1 does not need to become a lottery to rediscover excitement.
But Ecclestone is right that F1 should be delivering the unexpected. If not, there is always a bacon sandwich and cup of tea calling our name.

F1 : 2011 Australia - Cosworth Albert Park Formula 1 preview - Engine perspective Thursday, 24 March 2011

Formula One preview - The opening practice session for the 2011 FIA Formula One World Championship is set to get underway at the Albert Park Circuit in Melbourne tomorrow.


Picture credit Cosworth
Cosworth have provided their own look at each race weekend with a fact list and table analysing the circuit from an engine’s perspective.

The ‘Cosworth Circuit Tracker’ details specific engine metrics that give an ‘at a glance’ comparison of the race track related to the other venues on the 2011 calendar.

Engine’s Eye View
Albert Park presents a stiff challenge to the engine with disruptive external factors making the track one of the 5 most difficult.
Street race means a lot of debris on the track, such as rubbish or leaves, which has adverse effect on the cooling systems as the race progresses.
High fuel consumption per kilometre which means that cars run one of the highest fuel loads of the season.
Wet weather and safety car incidents can help manage fuel consumption and safety car periods can often dictate race strategy.
First race with CA2011k, KERS adapted engine, with new oil tank, on Williams-Cosworth FW33.
From the Race Track
Circuit is essentially unchanged since last year’s event so teams will be dealing with a known quantity as far as the track layout is concerned.
Tyre wear can negate engine performance. If tyre wear is high, chunks of rubber deposited on the track can compromise the car’s cooling system.
Cooling levels could become marginal towards the end of the race. Important to define an adequate cooling specification on Friday.
Increased number of pit stops could see races return to a series of individual sprints with drivers jostling for position at each stop. Higher engine output modes could become more prevalent.

Australia fears being 'priced out' of welcoming F1

The Australian Grand Prix could be killed off the F1 calendar once its existing contract expires in 2015, cautions Ron Walker, with the Grand Prix Corporation chairman pointing the finger of blame firmly at Bernie Ecclestone’s ‘wretched fee’ that he claims could just ‘break the camel’s back’.

The future of the race has been a hot potato Down Under for several weeks, all prompted by Melbourne Lord Mayor Robert Doyle asserting in January that the event had cost Victoria state taxpayers too much money for too many years – and that it was consequently time to pull the plug on it

Since then, debate has raged on, with Ecclestone himself intervening – not uncharacteristically – on both sides of the argument, conceding in one breath that the Australian Grand Prix could easily be removed from the annual schedule and in another that the race is as important to F1 as is Monaco and that as such he ‘would hate’ to lose it.
With combined losses of some £156 million since the event switched from Adelaide to Melbourne 15 years ago, however, Walker contends that it is the licence fee charged by Ecclestone’s Formula One Management (FOM) company – estimated to be in the region of £15 million last year alone, and in excess of £140 million over the past decade-and-a-half – that is crippling the grand prix and casting its future into doubt.

The inaugural outing in Melbourne in 1996 cost the city just under £5 million in hosting charges, whilst yielding more than £31 million in revenue, the Daily Express reveals. Those benefits, however, fell to barely £19 million in 2010, whilst Ecclestone’s fee has conversely tripled. The ability of other venues around the world to offer more for the privilege of welcoming F1 could just be the final nail in the coffin, Walker fears.

“That will break the camel’s back,” he lamented. “We all know that could kill it. We could be priced out of the market in 2015, and that’s what the [Victorian] government is saying. This could be an end of an era but, on the other side, the Melbourne Major Events Company and Tourism Victoria are saying it’s worth it – and we can prove it’s worth it.

“Revenue has started to fall for reasons we never worked out, and you have to understand the international costs of staging the event have gone up. When the Victorian government signed the original deal, oil was £5 a barrel. Now it’s more than £61 a barrel and it takes six ‘planes just to transport all the equipment to Australia. There are 150 staff who travel to Australia paid for entirely by Ecclestone.”

Alonso targets third F1 title

Fernando Alonso is convinced he faces another nail-biting fight for the Formula One world title this season.
Alonso was pipped at the death last year by Sebastian Vettel, with the Spaniard denied a third world crown by a bungled call from his Ferrari team in the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
"If you race for Ferrari there is no other goal than fighting for the World Championship. That is the history of Ferrari, the power of Ferrari," said Alonso, who was speaking ahead of this Sunday's season-opening grand prix in Australia.
"This team and its history is about passion, motor racing and about winning. That is our aim, that is our goal for the 2011 campaign, trying to fight for the World Championship.
"At the end you can win, you can lose. It depends how competitive you are. It depends on many other factors as well. But we need to be there, and I am sure we will be until the last moment."
For now, Alonso simply intends to be firmly in the hunt throughout the opening few races in order to build a solid platform on which to build the remainder of his season.
"Right now it's impossible to determine the order or say who is competitive and who isn't before race one," added Alonso.
"On paper there are five, six teams capable of winning races and to fight for the championship.
"After three or four races you see maybe only two or three can really fight for the championship.
"The important thing for each team, and for us especially, is to do well and be competitive in these first three races, to be in that smaller group of two or three teams. But at the moment everything is very open."

Formula 1: Team Lotus Confirms Karun Chandhok as Reserve Driver

Team Lotus has today finalised its 2011 driver line-up with confirmation that Karun Chandhok is the team’s Reserve Driver, joining Race Drivers Heikki Kovalainen and Jarno Trulli, Third Driver Luiz Razia and Test Drivers Davide Valsecchi and Ricardo Teixeira in the Anglo / Malaysian team’s stable of driving talent.
Karun is one of the most exciting and popular drivers in global motorsport and has enjoyed a stellar career in his rise up through the ranks to Formula One. He will be taking part in a number of Friday Practice sessions for Team Lotus including FP1 in Melbourne and his technical input and obvious talent will provide the team with more valuable insights into how to optimise the T128’s performance potential on-track, alongside his ambassadorial role for the team as one of its official drivers.
Team Lotus Team Principal Tony Fernandes is delighted that the team can now confirm Karun’s role for 2011 and beyond: “This is another great day for Team Lotus. Karun’s appointment to our team gives us not only his immense driving talent and F1 experience, both of which will help us develop the car even further, but also brings one of the warmest, most professional personalities I have the pleasure of knowing into the Team Lotus family.”
“I do not think it is going too far to say that Karun represents the future of motor racing – he is living proof that geography is no boundary to talent and ambition and that you will succeed if you work hard and keep dreaming. He is fiercely proud of his Indian heritage but he has a truly global outlook and I am honoured that Team Lotus is now giving one of India’s brightest stars the chance to continue to develop his talent. Everyone in the team is excited about working with Karun, and I cannot wait to see him representing the Indian nation in our car.”
Karun Chandhok: “I’ve been talking to the team for quite a while about a role with them and I’m delighted we’re now able to confirm that I will be driving for Team Lotus in 2011. The details of exactly which sessions I will be in the car for are being worked out now and after having spent some time with them at the recent pre-season tests I can see exactly how passionate everyone in Team Lotus is about taking this team back to the top of the F1 grid. These are very exciting times for Team Lotus and it’s a real honour to be able to play a part in helping shape this team’s future. I want to thank Tony, Din, Nasa, Riad and Mike for having the faith in me to give me a chance to help the team develop and I’ll do my best to repay that faith wherever I can.”

Motor Racing: F1 team McLaren to exhaust all efforts

MELBOURNE : Two-time winner Jenson Button said Thursday McLaren will introduce a new exhaust system into their cars for Sunday's Australian Grand Prix in a bid to stay with Red Bull and Ferrari.

The 31-year-old Briton revealed his team's planning after a troubled winter testing programme which left McLaren trailing the two hot shot teams heading into the Melbourne season opener.

And Button also predicted that the faster-degrading Pirelli tyres to be used by all teams this season may help McLaren in the final stages of Sunday's race on the abrasive Albert Park street circuit.

Button praised his team's aggressive approach to go after the points with the new exhaust design.

"We have a new exhaust system here," Button told reporters. "Winter testing was not easy for us, it was very tough and reliability was not as good as we would have hoped and we didn't do a lot of mileage.

"I don't think we could really see the pace of our cars and we knew we weren't as quick as the Red Bulls and the Ferraris, but we just don't know where we were.

"With the new exhaust system, if everything goes to plan and with a few other tweaks to the cars, we hopefully have made up quite a bit of ground."

Button, who beat Renault's Robert Kubica in last year's rain-disrupted race, supported his team's pro-active move.

"Whether it's enough to make up with the other teams we'll have to wait and see, but I like the aggressive approach of bringing another exhaust system here and really fighting for it," he said.

"The aggressive approach is a good approach and we've just got to hope that tomorrow is dry so we can do some set-up work with it, because the set-up work so far has been limited."

Button, who is about to drive in his 192nd GP this weekend, conceded that world constructors' champion Red Bull and 16-time champion team Ferrari were ahead of McLaren going into the first race.

"You would say that Ferrari and Red Bull have dominated winter testing in terms of their pace and reliability," he said.

"Those two teams are probably the happiest coming out of winter testing, so they've done everything that they wanted to.

"I just don't know where we are, we could be pleasantly surprised this weekend.

"Hopefully, reliability is not an issue any more, because we haven't done a lot of mileage in the car, and we've got to start working on our pace."

Button predicted that the new season regulations of using faster-wearing tyres will play a role in the latter stages of races which could feature up to four pit stops.

"The tyres are going to be interesting. We haven't raced them and it will be interesting to see how people do look after the tyres or do we take our brain out and go full speed ahead," he said.

"I think tyre degradation will work for us in the last stint. The first few stops are going to be happening quite early and the last stint is the one where I think you will need tyre management.

"I think you will see so much overtaking here in the last stint that it will shock everyone," he said.

"It's going to be until the last corner this race, which is great, because we don't understand the tyres yet."

Lewis Hamilton: McLaren 'ready for battle' in new F1 season

Press Association
Last Updated: Mar 23, 2011

MELBOURNE // Lewis Hamilton is convinced McLaren-Mercedes will provide him with a car "ready for battle" when the new Formula One season kicks off on Sunday.

Both Hamilton and his teammate Jenson Button voiced their concerns throughout preseason that the car was not as good as they hoped it would be.

Although lacking in pace, of greater concern was the reliability as the MP4-26 failed to complete a single race distance during testing due to a variety of issues.

Martin Whitmarsh, the Team principal, has since claimed the car has had a radical revamp they hope will claw back the second gap to their rivals.

The clock is ticking for McLaren, with first practice for Sunday's Australian Grand Prix just two days away.

"We can't hide the fact testing has been tougher than we expected," said the 2008 world champion Hamilton.

"Our test mileage hasn't been as high as our rivals, nor have we had the outright pace of the fastest cars.

"Still, I have a good feeling with the car, and I understand we'll be making further performance steps ahead of this opening race.

"Nevertheless, we know we go to Melbourne ready for battle. Some teams are extremely well prepared, both from a pace and reliability point of view.

"But that can sometimes count for little in the unpredictable and somewhat chaotic opening races where it's equally vital just to take points home.

"I strongly believe that, while our preparations haven't gone as smoothly as we'd have liked, we'll be arriving in Melbourne with everything finally meshing together — and that makes me really excited."

Nothing would give Hamilton greater pleasure than a reasonable result, while at the same time staying out of trouble both on and off the track.

Melbourne has been a far from pleasant place to visit for Hamilton these past two years, although he claims his stock has risen with the Australian public.

In 2009, in his first race as defending world champion, Hamilton was caught lying to stewards in a post-grand prix investigation which resulted in him being stripped of his third place.

A year later and Hamilton's antics extended to outside the circuit as he was caught "hooning" or burning rubber by the Melbourne police in his hired Mercedes which was later impounded, earning the Briton a £280 (Dh1,682) fine.

Eager for the quiet life on this occasion he said: "This year should be a little more dull for you guys [the media] — hopefully.

"Outside of the track I won't be doing any driving. I'll be keeping to myself in the hotel."

Although eager to stay away from the long arm of the law, Hamilton knows he has many fans on his side.

"I get really good support. Surprisingly people really like me over there," said Hamilton.

"I've always had decent support when I go to Australia, and I've met a lot of Australians since.

"I think they can relate to me a little bit more, that I'm not a robot, saying 'Ah, you're like one of us. Nice to meet you.'"

New 2012 Mercedes C63 AMG Estate F1 Medical Car Set to Debut

Mercedes-Benz is planning to debut their updated 2012 C63 AMG Estate F1 Medical Car at this weekend’s Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne. The refreshed C63 AMG Estate will be sporting the new C-Class facelift along with its AMG Speedshift MCT 7-speed transmission. Additional aesthetic changes include an aluminum hood with modified powerdomes, radiator grille, headlights, redesigned front and rear apron featuring larger intake and side air vents.

The wagon is equipped with a 6.3L V8 powerplant that AMG has taken to 487-hp, giving it a 0-62 time of 4.5 seconds. AMG’s Performance Package for the C63 includes an intake manifold painted in titanium gray and AMG’s infamous braking system. This particular wagon will be sporting 19-inch AMG wheels on all four corners. To give it the true race-inspired theme as an F1 medical car, the interior has been revamped with four bucket seats with six-point harnesses and screens in the center console to monitor the race.

The SLS AMG F1 Safety Car has seen no changes, but we figured it’d be worth drooling over again.

Michael Schumacher and Mercedes improved and looking for podium finishes

MELBOURNE // Michael Schumacher, the seven-time world champion, believes Mercedes has made "huge" progress with its car and is ready to challenge for podiums but has written off the team's championship hopes three days before the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.

"Mercedes has done a huge step forward with this year's car, it's a very performance-orientated car and it has paid out," said Schumacher, who lapped fastest in the final preseason test in Barcelona after the car initially seemed sluggish and plagued with reliability problems.

"I think this year our target and our realistic possibility is to fight for podiums and if things go very well, maybe to win a race," the German said in Melbourne

Ricciardo's Formula One quest starts in earnest on home track

MELBOURNE // After impressing in Abu Dhabi last November with Red Bull-Renault, Daniel Ricciardo, the 21-year-old Australian, is taking a massive step forward in his quest to race in Formula One.

He will take part in Toro Rosso’s first practice session at every race this season, starting with his home Grand Prix today in Melbourne.

We catch-up the talented driver just before he jumps into the car for the day.

How are you feeling ahead of your first outing at Albert Park this afternoon?

“I’m very excited for this weekend. It’s my first time out on the track with everyone else and to do that in Australia is going to be pretty special.

You were the fastest in Abu Dhabi at last year’s Young Drivers Test. Is that how the Toro Rosso deal came about?

"Yeah, last year, I got my foot in the door with Red Bull’s Formula One team and I had a good season, so they have pushed me up and given me a chance with Toro Rosso this year.

"Since I signed a contract with Red Bull three or four years ago, they have made a lot of things possible; they have made it all happen for me, really. If it wasn’t for them, I don’t think I would have had this opportunity with anyone else."

As well as your Formula One duties, you will also be racing in the Formula Renault 3.5 Series. What targets have you set yourself for the next 12 months?

"The first thing on my list is to win the World Series by Renault – that is 100 per cent clear for me. After that, it is really just about improving, progressing and learning about Formula One.

"I want to try and do as much I can in the first practice session to prepare me, hopefully, for a race seat in 2012. That is really the long-term aim.

With your compatriot Mark Webber coming so close to winning the drivers’ championship last year, how do you see the future of motor sport developing in Australia?

"It’s definitely going in the right direction. Mark has made a big impact and helped develop it on an international scale.

"Five or six years ago, all my friends at school weren’t so much into Formula One and now with Mark’s recent success and myself coming up, there are so many more people who are getting interested and involved in it.

"It’s definitely getting bigger and if I can step up then that can only help develop it even more.

There has been a lot of talk in recent weeks regarding Melbourne losing its race. Bernie Ecclestone has said Australia needs F1 more than F1 needs Australia. How important do you think it is for the country to remain on the calendar in the future?

"Keeping the race is so important and it would be a huge disappointment if this was one of the last times I was to come here.

"Australia is a great sporting nation, as we all know, and if it lost Formula One it would be a massive blow, so I am just praying really that this doesn’t happen."

F1's force pushes Webber

ONLY days out from his attempt to win the Melbourne grand prix for the first time, Australian Formula One ace Mark Webber has revealed how driving his Red Bull car was the same as pushing his body in an adventure race.

Webber was in Hobart to launch his 2011 Swisse Mark Webber Challenge Tasmania which will be held in Tasmania's wilderness from December 7-11, after the completion of the F1 season.

"When I'm in the car I'm always pushing hard and looking for ways to make it go faster," Webber said.

"It's the same when I'm doing the race. I'm always pushing hard and trying to get more out of myself, so the two are very similar in that way."

Webber also revealed how France and Switzerland tried to poach his world-class adventure race from Tasmania.

The Challenge is in hot demand in countries that fancy adventure racing but Webber said the Tasmanian wilderness was tailor-made for his five-day test of fitness and mental fortitude.

The MWC is the F1 driver's other passion, and he expects it to attract plenty of world-class athletes as well as celebrities.

"There are so many beautiful places we get to race here like Cataract Gorge in Launceston, over the top of Mt Wellington here in Hobart, Cradle Mountain, the Walls of Jerusalem, Port Arthur," Webber said.

"There really are some unbelievable locations here."

The Challenge will be held in Tasmania for the next three years after the State Government backed it until 2013.

The last time Webber competed in his own event, he crashed into a four-wheel-drive on his mountain bike and broke his leg, jeopardising his F1 career.

"I always say I'll do some of the event and end up doing all of it because my competitive instincts kick in," Webber said. "Over the three events we've already held, of the 30 days of competition I've done 29 and a half because - on the last day of the last one I fell off my bike broke my leg."

The field will be restricted to between 80 and 100 competitors for safety reasons.

"We can't have 2000 people roaming around in the wilderness," Webber said.

Olympic rower James Tomkins has already signed on, so has Dancing With the Stars host Daniel Macpherson.

"There are plenty of Olympians and celebrities keen to do it, but they will make up only 10 per cent of the field," Webber said.

"The celebrities don't pay [to enter] and are high maintenance, so 90 per cent of the field will be people who will get a lot of out it personally."

Motor racing heaven at Bathurst as F1 hits track

Yesterday a Formula One car roared around the iconic Mount Panorama race track nine times. Thousands of devoted fans flocked from around the country to witness one of the greatest publicity stunts ever undertaken in Australian sport.

The event was a variation of the promotion last year where Jenson Button and Jamie Whincup swapped their cars for a spin around Albert Park leading up the grand prix.

This allowed the very capable and enormously likable drivers to gush about the experience of being in a different beast to their normal steed with their major sponsor plastered all over the background.

The difference this year was that Whincup’s place was taken by Craig Lowndes and the track they drove around was Mount Panorama. The magnitude of the awesomeness of this decision is almost unconscionable.

For as long as I have followed the sport (mid-eighties), F1 fans have pondered what it would be like if a car went around Bathurst, only to shake their heads knowing it couldn’t be done.

Too steep, too twisty, too hard, as if everyone would cooperate!

But thanks to the enthusiasm of Lowndes, Button, McLaren, Triple 8, Vodafone and the Bathurst City Council, a dream came true for countless fans around the world and indeed the nearly ten thousand that came to the track. Fans had come from around the country to see a F1 car race around Mount Panorama.

The question everyone was asking was simple, how fast? How fast would a Formula 1 car with a world champion behind the wheel be around the track? Fortunately, we didn’t have long to wait.

After both the drivers introduced themselves to the crowd, the F1 was fired up and Button took it out for an installation lap to make sure it was all put together properly. Normally these laps seem painstaking slow but he was around and back in the pits in just over a couple of minutes!

Anticipation grew in the crowd for what was about to take place as he headed out again for a four-lap run, featuring two flying laps.

The noise was such that no matter where he was on the track you could hear his engine roar. The helicopter struggled to keep pace as the car darted across the top of the mountain and the crowd watched transfixed as he thundered past pit straight, engine screaming as the car hugged the apexes like a rollercoaster carriage.

And it was quick, 1:48 by my watch, a full 18 seconds faster then what a V8 Supercar can do in anger.

At this point, the delight in the crowd was only matched by Button who buzzed on the rush he had experienced and talked excitedly about how much faster he could go with more time.

Lowndes then had the bizarre experience of doing hot laps around Bathurst in a V8 Supercar and leaving the crowd feeling underwhelmed while being largely ignored while attention turned to the other big two issues for the day. How fast would Button go in a V8 Supercar and how would Lowndes go in the F1?

The answers to both questions were easy, Jenson was quick and Craig was magnificent.

Jenson managed a 2:16 lap in the V8 Supercar which is terribly slow when one considers pole in normally 2:07 or faster.

But a few points, firstly, it was on his third lap ever in a supercar and only his eighth lap ever around the Mountain.

Secondly, each lap he completed in the V8 was faster each lap he did, and finally, he was only five seconds slower then Lowndes best lap earlier that day. Clearly if Button decides to come and race the 1000 when his F1 career has ended he will be a very handy addition to any team.

But the revelation of the day was Craig Lowndes in a Formula One car.

After a slightly awkward getaway, he thundered into Hell Corner and spent the next four laps doing a remarkable impersonation of Michael Schumacher.

He drove the car like he had been doing it for ten years, not ten minutes, breaking and accelerating with poise and confidence and scything across the mountain with amazing authority. His final fastest lap was only a second behind Button, leaving this correspondent gasping for breath.

When a driver who is no longer at the very pointy end of the V8 Supercar grid can match an F1 ace, it is a rounding endorsement of the quality of the much maligned local motor racing product.

This was a masterful piece of promotion by all parties, capturing the attention of motor-racing fans across the country and indeed the world.

All by bringing the best racing cars to one of the world’s greatest circuit and letting two magnificent drivers put on a mighty show.

Bernie Ecclestone - 2011 opener may be last Formula 1 blast in Melbourne

After the niceties of last week, Bernie Ecclestone has now hinted Australia might be dropped from the Formula One calendar as soon as next year.

The Melbourne race has a contract through 2015, but Formula 1's Chief Executive has latched onto a rising local rhetoric about the escalating cost of the annual event to Victorian state taxpayers.

80 year old Ecclestone revealed to the UK Express newspaper that next Sunday's 2011 season opener could be the last blast at Albert Park.

Despite saying last week that Australia is important to Formula 1, he now says the current calendar is stretched to the limit and one or two races therefore need to be dropped.

"We are probably going to have to drop two races to fit in Austin and Russia," said Ecclestone, referring to the 2012 calendar.

"Australia are saying they don't want a race. If they want to go, they can go and the next one (to go) is maybe one of the races in Spain," he added.

"We are alternating in Germany so maybe that's what we will do in Spain," said the British billionaire.

Australian Grand Prix Corporation Chairman Ron Walker acknowledged the risk that the cost conscious Victorian government might pull the plug.

"We could be priced out of the market in 2015, and that's what the government is saying," he told the Sydney Morning Herald.

F1 tyre calls now in drivers' hands

Formula 1 drivers will have a much larger role in managing tyre use and strategy in their efforts to win races than they have done before, reckons former Pirelli test driver Pedro de la Rosa.

Amid growing anticipation about how the characteristics of the 2011 Pirelli rubber are set to spice up the action from the season-opening Australian Grand Prix, de la Rosa thinks the onus of choosing the right tactics will be shifted away from teams and on to the men in the cockpit.

"I think that drivers will have to think a lot more about tyres - and how they manage the tyres," de la Rosa told AUTOSPORT in an exclusive interview. "That is not only related to strategy, because that is down more to the teams.

"As a driver you will feel the degradation earlier than the teams see the lap time loss. So I think that the driver will play a key role in knowing when the tyres are just hitting their end. If you leave it one or two laps too late you can lose five or six seconds.

"The feeling of when the tyre has gone off will be extremely important, and this is something I realised during the Pirelli testing. The tyres have a linear degradation until suddenly they have a huge drop off.

"And that huge drop-off, you will have to avoid it during any of your stints. And it will be a driver dependent decision, not a team dependent one.

"You will have to tell the team over the radio that the tyres have gone off and that you are going in. This will be interesting - as it will not just be a matter of engineers looking at a screen to pit you in."

De la Rosa, who is now a reserve driver at McLaren, believes that the excitement delivered by the tyres may be a headache for drivers and teams – but it good news for those watching the sport.

"I think it will be great for the fans," he said. "It is difficult to predict exactly how many stops we will have. You can say roughly that it will be around three, and that is fantastic.

"I remember last year that on a Thursday you already knew, no matter what the tyre compound was or which circuit it was, whether it was going to be a one-stop strategy with the window opening between lap 12 or 18. That would then be the end of the story.

"Now you have a lot of play with, and it will be more interesting for the fans. In F1 we talk about degradation, about linear degradation and non-linear degradation, but really we should think about the fans.

"Let's go to Australia, let's do the first few races and let's see what the fans think of the whole situation. And then let the teams and Pirelli decide what is next."

Rosberg tops F1 time-sheet on last day of testing

BARCELONA — Germany's Nico Rosberg of Mercedes set the fastest lap time on a curtailed fifth and final day of pre-season testing at the Jerez circuit here on Saturday.
His best time of 1min 43.814sec was over half a second quicker than his nearest rival, Williams' new Venezuelan driver Pastor Maldonado.
Britain's Lewis Hamilton, the champion in 2008, was once again well off the pace in his McLaren.
"I'm not frustrated," he insisted. "It's tough on everyone in the team because everyone puts so much work into (the car), and you see it come out and look so beautiful, and... it's not a disaster, it just doesn't have as much performance as we'd like at the moment.
"But it's a foundation that we can build on, and that's all that really matters. It means that we can get there.
"If you look at last year, we didn't have the fastest start at the beginning but we were there or thereabouts and second in the constructors' championship.
"It's a long, long year and I have no doubts that we can compete with these guys."
Seven-time champion Michael Schumacher (Mercedes) and two-time champion Fernando Alonso (Ferrari) both took part in the session but did not complete a timed lap.
Speaking after the session, Alonso said he would be targeting a podium finish in the first race of the season, the Australian Grand Prix, in Melbourne on March 27.
"We've had a very good pre-season," said Alonso, who finished second behind Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel in last year's drivers' championship.
"We're the team that's driven the most and that has had the fewest problems in terms of reliability.
"In terms of our competitiveness, we'll have to wait until Australia. But the global outlook hasn't changed a lot since last year.
"McLaren will be in there again at the end. It seems that Mercedes have improved. And Red Bull and Ferrari will be at the front."
The Spaniard believes Vettel and his Australian team-mate Mark Webber will start the year as "the two favourites, in theory", but says his team are looking to make a statement of intent in the opening race.
"The podium is the aim for someone who's targeting the title," said Alonso.
"Arriving in Australia and not thinking like that would be too pessimistic. But we know that anything could happen. When everyone has shown their cards, there could be some surprises."
Times
1. Nico Rosberg (GER/Mercedes) 1min 43.814sec, 2. Pastor Maldonado (VEN/Williams) 1:44.333, 3. Lewis Hamilton (GBR/McLaren) 1:44.560