| Tuesday, February 26th 2013, 18:58 GMT |
AJ Allmendinger will return to the NASCAR Sprint Cup to drive for Phoenix Racing again in this weekend's Phoenix round
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| By Mark Glendenning | Tuesday, February 26th 2013, 21:39 GMT |
Daytona 500 winner Jimmie Johnson believes NASCAR needs to learn from the accident in last weekend's Nationwide Series race that left several fans injured, although he urged against any knee-jerk reactions
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| Tuesday, February 26th 2013, 22:19 GMT |
Ex-Formula 1 driver Gianni Morbidelli will continue with Audi Sport Italia in the Superstars Series for a third season
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| By Gary Watkins | Monday, February 25th 2013, 17:17 GMT |
Aston Martin Racing will field a second Vantage GTE in next month's Sebring 12 Hours as a possible precursor to running a fifth car at the Le Mans 24 Hours.
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| By Jonathan Noble | Monday, February 25th 2013, 17:40 GMT |
McLaren may have been putting on a brave face over Paddy Lowe's defection to Mercedes on Monday, but there is no hiding from the fact that his departure is a blow.
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| By Jonathan Noble | Monday, February 25th 2013, 19:32 GMT |
Renault has unveiled the first images of the new V6 turbo engine that it believes will help attract fans back to Formula 1
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| By Matt Beer | Sunday, February 24th 2013, 15:23 GMT |
Daytona International Speedway president Joie Chitwood says the venue is confident that it has done everything it can to ensure crowd safety for Sunday's NASCAR Sprint Cup opener following the fan injuries in Saturday's Nationwide event
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| Sunday, February 24th 2013, 21:45 GMT |
Jimmie Johnson ended his run of poor Daytona 500 results by holding off Hendrick team-mate Dale Earnhardt Jr to win NASCAR's premier race for the second time
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| Sunday, February 24th 2013, 22:12 GMT |
All bar two of the 14 Daytona spectators hospitalised after Saturday's NASCAR Nationwide Series race incident have now been released
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| By Matt Beer | Saturday, February 23rd 2013, 13:50 GMT |
Sergio Perez came away from his second test as a McLaren Formula 1 driver with the fastest time of the week at Barcelona.
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| By Charles Bradley | Saturday, February 23rd 2013, 22:00 GMT |
A last-lap crash in Saturday's NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Daytona International Speedway has caused injuries among the crowd after the front end of one of the cars was torn off and pierced the debris fencing
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| By Charles Bradley | Sunday, February 24th 2013, 00:44 GMT |
Sunday's 55th running of the Daytona 500, American racing's biggest stock car event, will go ahead despite 28 fans being injured in a violent crash at the end of Saturday's NASCAR Nationwide Series event
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| By Edd Straw | Friday, February 22nd 2013, 18:29 GMT |
Mark Webber believes his Red Bull team is operating better than ever based on what he has seen so far in testing this year.
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| By Pablo Elizalde | Friday, February 22nd 2013, 18:31 GMT |
Dean Stoneman will return to racing full-time after securing a drive to compete in the British Porsche Carrera Cup this year
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| By Glenn Freeman | Friday, February 22nd 2013, 19:00 GMT |
New McLaren junior driver Stoffel Vandoorne topped the first Formula Renault 3.5 test of 2013 at Aragon on Friday.
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| By Sam Tremayne and Glenn Freeman | Thursday, February 21st 2013, 18:36 GMT |
Romain Grosjean believes that he has already been able to show his new approach for 2013 during pre-season testing.
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| By Charles Bradley | Thursday, February 21st 2013, 22:23 GMT |
Kyle Busch won the second 150-mile 'Duel' qualifying races at Daytona on Thursday afternoon, finalising the grid for Sunday's 500-mile NASCAR Sprint Cup season opener in the process
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| By Charles Bradley | Thursday, February 21st 2013, 20:33 GMT |
Kevin Harvick won the first of the 150-mile 'Duel' qualifying races at Daytona on Thursday afternoon, setting one half of the grid for Sunday's showpiece 500-mile Sprint Cup opener
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| By David Evans | Wednesday, February 20th 2013, 18:49 GMT |
The organiser of the Acropolis Rally has guaranteed this year's event will go ahead despite continued concerns regarding the financial state of Greek motorsport's governing body
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| By Edd Straw | Wednesday, February 20th 2013, 18:52 GMT |
Sebastian Vettel dismissed any concerns over Red Bull's reliability despite causing a red flag during today's running at Barcelona.
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| By Matt Beer | Wednesday, February 20th 2013, 21:11 GMT |
Auto GP champion Adrian Quaife-Hobbs will move into GP2 with MP Motorsport this season
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| By Matt Beer | Tuesday, February 19th 2013, 18:47 GMT |
Leading Formula 1 drivers are predicting the 2013 season will start with higher tyre degradation and more pitstops than the early races of 2012
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| By Sam Tremayne | Tuesday, February 19th 2013, 18:48 GMT |
Sebastian Vettel insists Red Bull is not wasting any time worrying about the progress of rival Formula 1 teams and has confidence in its own development plans
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| By Edd Straw and Glenn Freeman | Tuesday, February 19th 2013, 19:13 GMT |
The new Williams FW35 is a big improvement on its Formula 1 predecessor according to the team's lead driver Pastor Maldonado
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| By Jamie O'Leary | Monday, February 18th 2013, 20:08 GMT |
Formula Renault 3.5 rookie Stoffel Vandoorne has joined McLaren's Young Driver Programme
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| By Kevin Turner | Monday, February 18th 2013, 16:43 GMT |
British Touring Car racer Jeff Smith has confirmed he will stay at Eurotech Racing for this season.
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| By Marcus Simmons | Monday, February 18th 2013, 17:53 GMT |
The Masters of Formula 3 at Zandvoort is closing in on a new date of July 7.
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| By Glenn Freeman and Matt Beer | Sunday, February 17th 2013, 15:55 GMT |
Mark Webber has welcomed the adjustment to DRS regulations for the 2013 Formula 1 season, saying drivers had long felt the system's free use in practice was pointless
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| By Matt Beer | Sunday, February 17th 2013, 19:45 GMT |
Ducati carried out a three-day private test at Jerez from Friday to Sunday with Pramac's Andrea Iannone and factory test rider Michele Pirro
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| Sunday, February 17th 2013, 20:16 GMT |
Danica Patrick became the first female driver ever to take a NASCAR Sprint Cup pole position as she outpaced her rivals in qualifying for the Daytona 500
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| Saturday, February 16th 2013, 16:11 GMT |
A spectator was killed on the opening stage of the Snowman Rally in Scotland on Saturday morning
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| Saturday, February 16th 2013, 21:04 GMT |
Danica Patrick lived up to her prediction that she could challenge for Daytona 500 pole by leading Saturday's practice sessions
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| Saturday, February 16th 2013, 22:25 GMT |
Nissan's V8 Supercars test debut went even better than the team could have hoped, according to drivers Rick and Todd Kelly
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| By Mark Glendenning | Friday, February 15th 2013, 17:30 GMT |
Dragon Racing has responded to Katherine Legge's threat of legal action by acknowledging that it has ended its relationship with the Briton, although it has refrained from commenting on the details of the split.
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| By Stephen D'Albiac | Friday, February 15th 2013, 17:32 GMT |
Former GT1 world champion Lucas Luhr has joined Jota Sport for the Le Mans 24 Hours
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| Friday, February 15th 2013, 18:39 GMT |
Ex-Formula 1 driver Giancarlo Fisichella plans to rejoin Superstars for its newly-announced season finale at his home track, Vallelunga
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| By Mark Glendenning | Thursday, February 14th 2013, 18:21 GMT |
Former GP3 racer Gabby Chaves has joined reigning champion team Schmidt Peterson Motorsport for the 2013 Indy Lights season
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| By Matt Beer | Thursday, February 14th 2013, 18:37 GMT |
Extreme Speed Motorsports will move up from the GT class to LMP2 for this year's American Le Mans Series
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| By Mark Glendenning | Thursday, February 14th 2013, 22:00 GMT |
IndyCar has delayed the introduction of its next-generation Indy Lights car and engine until at least 2015
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| By Pablo Elizalde | Wednesday, February 13th 2013, 17:51 GMT |
Tech 1 Racing has faith that Mikhail Aleshin can deliver a 'great season' in 2013 despite a disappointing campaign in Formula Renault 3.5 last year
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| By Mark Glendenning | Wednesday, February 13th 2013, 18:09 GMT |
Katherine Legge is planning legal action following yesterday's announcement that she will be replaced at Dragon Racing by Sebastian Saavedra for the 2013 IndyCar season
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| By Mark Glendenning | Wednesday, February 13th 2013, 21:36 GMT |
Conquest Racing has sold its DW12 IndyCar chassis and will focus exclusively on sportscars in 2013
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| Tuesday, February 12th 2013, 16:59 GMT |
The Croatian round of the European Rally Championship will move from June to September, in a change that also switches Rally Poland's date
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| By Jonathan Noble and Stephen D'Albiac | Tuesday, February 12th 2013, 17:34 GMT |
Mika Hakkinen believes Mercedes' early form from last week's Jerez test makes it unlikely that Lewis Hamilton will be able to challenge his former team McLaren this year
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| By Mark Glendenning | Tuesday, February 12th 2013, 21:26 GMT |
Dragon Racing has signed Sebastian Saavedra to partner Sebastien Bourdais for the 2013 IndyCar season
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| By Edd Straw | Monday, February 11th 2013, 15:38 GMT |
The new Williams-Renault FW35 has passed the final crash test ahead of its track debut at next week's Barcelona test.
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| By Gary Watkins | Monday, February 11th 2013, 15:48 GMT |
Formula 1 refugees Kamui Kobayashi and Karun Chandhok are among a raft of new drivers testing for the factory AF Corse Ferrari team in Spain this week.
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| By Sam Tremayne | Monday, February 11th 2013, 17:05 GMT |
Sebastien Loeb admits he was powerless to halt Sebastien Ogier's run to victory on Rally Sweden.
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| By Matt Beer | Sunday, February 10th 2013, 09:42 GMT |
Sebastien Ogier's Rally Sweden lead was eroded by Sebastien Loeb on the final morning, but the Volkswagen driver was confident he would not come under threat
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| By Matt Beer | Sunday, February 10th 2013, 13:01 GMT |
Three-time Daytona 500 winner Jeff Gordon believes the new-for-2013 NASCAR Sprint Cup technical package will demand more driver skill in close racing
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| By Matt Beer | Sunday, February 10th 2013, 13:44 GMT |
Sebastien Ogier clinched the Volkswagen Polo R's first World Rally Championship victory as he broke Sebastien Loeb's challenge on the final day in Sweden
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| Saturday, February 9th 2013, 11:14 GMT |
Nelson Piquet Jr will continue his progress through the NASCAR ranks in 2013 after sealing a full-time Nationwide Series deal
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| By Matt Beer | Saturday, February 9th 2013, 15:43 GMT |
Sebastien Ogier edged away from Sebastien Loeb once again as day two of Rally Sweden came to an end
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| By David Evans | Saturday, February 9th 2013, 17:55 GMT |
Qatar M-Sport driver Mads Ostberg says he will launch an all-out attack on the two Frenchmen ahead of him when Rally Sweden moves into his native Norway for its final day on Sunday
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| By Matt Beer | Friday, February 8th 2013, 18:29 GMT |
Sebastien Ogier goes into leg two of Rally Sweden in a class of his own at the front of the field.
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| By David Evans | Friday, February 8th 2013, 19:06 GMT |
Nine-time World Rally Champion Sebastien Loeb says his countryman and Rally Sweden rival Sebastien Ogier is impossible to catch.
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| By Edd Straw | Friday, February 8th 2013, 19:12 GMT |
Pedro de la Rosa admitted that his Ferrari debut was a day of mixed emotions after fearing that he would not be able to do more than a few laps.
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| By Mark Glendenning | Thursday, February 7th 2013, 18:28 GMT |
EJ Viso has been named as the driver of Andretti Autosport's long-anticipated fourth entry in a car jointly run by Andretti and former Lotus-aligned squad HVM.
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| By Glenn Freeman | Thursday, February 7th 2013, 18:32 GMT |
Charles Pic believes that Caterham's Renault engine and KERS is its biggest advantage over rival team Marussia.
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| By Matt Beer | Thursday, February 7th 2013, 20:03 GMT |
Sebastien Loeb claimed the early Rally Sweden lead by winning the Karlstad superspecial on Thursday night.
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| By Glenn Freeman | Wednesday, February 6th 2013, 18:21 GMT |
Romain Grosjean believes the Lotus E21 is an improvement "in all areas" following his first two days of testing in the new car at Jerez
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| By Edd Straw | Wednesday, February 6th 2013, 19:10 GMT |
Sergio Perez admitted that the step up to a top team lived up to his expectations, with the new McLaren MP4-28 impressing him immediately
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| By Jamie O'Leary | Wednesday, February 6th 2013, 23:03 GMT |
Former DTM driver Maro Engel will make a full-time switch to V8 Supercars this year with the Erebus Racing Mercedes squad
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| By Edd Straw | Tuesday, February 5th 2013, 20:44 GMT |
Marussia will be able to continue its pre-season testing programme at Jerez on Wednesday despite suffering a suspension failure that caused Max Chilton's crash
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| By Mark Glendenning | Tuesday, February 5th 2013, 21:07 GMT |
Rahal Letterman Lanigan has become the second single-car IndyCar team to expand to two full-time entries in as many weeks, with James Jakes having been announced as Graham Rahal's team-mate for the 2013 season
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| Tuesday, February 5th 2013, 21:23 GMT |
Four-time Bathurst 1000 winner Greg Murphy will return to Holden Racing Team as an endurance co-driver for this year's long-distance V8 Supercars events
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| By Sam Tremayne | Monday, February 4th 2013, 18:39 GMT |
Toro Rosso team principal Franz Tost believes there is more pressure on his team than his drivers in 2013
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| By Edd Straw | Monday, February 4th 2013, 18:50 GMT |
The new Toro Rosso STR8 is set for major aerodynamic changes as the year progresses after the team focused on mechanical improvements with its launch-spec car.
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| By David Evans | Monday, February 4th 2013, 21:07 GMT |
Matthew Wilson will return to the World Rally Championship with the Qatar M-Sport team in place of Nasser Al-Attiyah on this week's Rally Sweden
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| By Matt Beer | Sunday, February 3rd 2013, 14:27 GMT |
Red Bull Racing boss Christian Horner insists that Helmut Marko's recent criticisms of Mark Webber should not be taken as a sign that the Formula 1 team itself has any doubts about the Australian's talent.
Marko, a motorsport advisor for Red Bull, told the company's own in-house magazine earlier this month that he felt Webber lacked the consistency and psychological strength to win a world championship.
At the launch of the Red Bull RB9, Horner distanced himself from Marko's opinions.
"We all know Helmut can be outspoken at times. His comments reflected his opinion, and these things can be misinterpreted," Horner said.
"If we weren't happy with Mark we would never have signed him for this year.
"We give both drivers equal opportunity and it's down to what they do on the circuit.
"Certainly in the team, that's the approach and we'll continue to do that.
"For us, it doesn't matter which driver wins as long as it's in one of these cars."
Webber added that he did not let Marko's comments have any effect on his self-belief, and that he would not be at Red Bull if he doubted the team had faith in him.
"I do believe I can have a crack at the championship again this year, as I have done in previous seasons," he said.
"That's what I'm getting up each day thinking.
"The team know I need 100 per cent support. You cannot win world championships with 90 per cent support.
"That's what I'm confident of."
| By Matt Beer | Sunday, February 3rd 2013, 14:39 GMT |
Red Bull technical chief Adrian Newey is open to the Formula 1 champion team using a passive DRS-style device during the 2013 season, but admitted it was tough to make such a system effective.
Newey acknowledged that devices such as that used by Lotus had great potential, if their challenges could be conquered.
"It's for sure an interesting area," he said at the launch of the RB9.
"It's also very tricky to have a system that's reliable, that withstands following another car without being triggered at moments that would be embarrassing, and to make it a positive gain on balance over the weekend.
"None of those things are straightforward."
He would not be drawn on how far Red Bull had progressed with its own DRS addition.
"We have certainly investigated it," said Newey.
"I wouldn't like to give away what we may or may not do during the season.
"It's a very interesting area, and it's there to be explored.
"Deriving lap time benefit, or more importantly points benefit, out of it, is more difficult."
| By Matt Beer | Sunday, February 3rd 2013, 16:50 GMT |
You couldn't say that Red Bull technical genius Adrian Newey resented being at the launch of RB9 - his demeanour was plenty breezy enough - but he did seem somewhat bemused at the whole concept of a pre-season unveiling.
To him, the idea of revealing a brand new car in February has become as anachronistic as grooved tyres and profligate testing.
"What's really changed Formula 1 over the last 10 or more years is the rate of development through the year.
"It used to be that if you came out with a dominant car at the start of the year, as long as you were reliable it would win the championship," explained Newey, a man with plenty of experience of delivering winter bombshells to rivals.
"That's not the case anymore. It really is a case of continual development. Where you've got stable regulations, you can almost picture a new car as another evolution for another race.
"It just happens that this time we've had two months between races rather than two weeks."
The glitz of Red Bull's pre-launch hospitality was certainly at odds with the coyness of its actual unveiling.
From between-the-lines scouring and facial expression monitoring, you could deduce that Newey found the benefit/drawbacks quandary of DRS-boosting devices fascinatingly irksome, that Christian Horner could've done without Helmut Marko's latest verbal grenade in the direction of Mark Webber, that team status questions still niggled Webber, that Sebastian Vettel didn't fancy a Fernando Alonso-esque winter lie-in but didn't think his arch-rival would miss much at Jerez, and that the late-2012 development push really had taken so much out of Red Bull that it feared a lacklustre start to 2013.
Dynamite revelations were few and far apart, unless you counted Sebastian Vettel responding to a curiously worded question about his "plans for world domination" with "I know I'm German, but I didn't say I wanted that..." Three world titles have not dulled Vettel's talent for glint-eyed mischief...
Yet the centre of attention - the RB9 - kept a low profile.
Photography in the unveiling area was banned, and wi-fi limited to reporters' own intrepid dongles.
You could squint at the RB9 from a distance, but the covers were swiftly pulled back across as the press conference drew to a close. And Red Bull bucked the trend for online launch broadcasts too.
Infiniti's enhanced role as title sponsor got plenty of exposure, which was ultimately the point of the event from Red Bull's perspective.
But, Newey reckoned, it wasn't as if his team was being any more secretive than its peers.
"The other teams have only made limited-view pictures available - rather like we're presenting today," said Newey with a touch of his lead driver's impishness.
"It's easy to make big styling or feature changes, but whether that really brings much lap time benefit or not is another matter.
"Often it's the small details that aren't very clear to a faraway camera that are most significant."
And those details have to be spotted in the pitlanes of tests or grands prix. They certainly weren't going to be flaunted to the world at a mere car launch.
| Saturday, February 2nd 2013, 19:23 GMT |
Former World Rally champion Marcus Gronholm will make his return to a WRC car after his 2012 injury on Monday when he tries Motorsport Italia's Mini.
Gronholm had to withdraw from the second half of last year's Global Rallycross season following a violent crash in practice for the X Games in July.
On Monday he will drive Michal Kosciuszko's Mini in Likenas in Sweden while tutoring the Production class graduate ahead of next weekend's Swedish round of the 2013 WRC.
Motorsport Italia team boss Bruno di Pianto said he was thrilled his team would have the chance to benefit from Gronholm's experience.
"Marcus is a legend in the world of rallying and one of the most inspiring drivers of all time," said di Pianto.
"We'll run for about 100km and Marcus will help Michal with the particular style of driving needed for Sweden based on how much a driver can use or lean on the snow banks.
"He'll also take our Mini John Cooper Works WRC out for a spin and test her limits, which'll allow us to compare his and Michal's data on the 6km test stage, then work on speed-saving details like technical corner entry, mid-corner speed and corner exit.
"I've rarely met a driver as keen to learn and be the best he can be as Michal, so I'm sure that he and the team will benefit a lot from Marcus' masterclass."
Gronholm won the 2000 and '02 titles with Peugeot, and last competed in the WRC full-time in 2007.
| By David Evans | Saturday, February 2nd 2013, 14:20 GMT |
Mikko Hirvonen is confident he can get his 2013 World Rally title challenge underway properly by winning Rally Sweden next week.
Citroen's Finn was expected to lead the team's championship assault this year now that erstwhile number one Sebastien Loeb was in semi-retirement.
But a tough Monte Carlo Rally ended with Hirvonen only fourth, as Loeb and fellow Citroen driver Dani Sordo finished first and third.
Click here for Mikko Hirvonen's exclusive AUTOSPORT diary column
Last year, in only his second outing in a Citroen DS3 WRC, Hirvonen finished second overall in Sweden.
Hirvonen says a year's extra experience at the team will be enough for his third Swedish win in four years.
"Since we finished Monte Carlo, I have been totally focused on this rally," said Hirvonen.
"Last year, I was missing that little something you need to grab the win. A year later, I feel ready to secure my first win in 2013.
"Obviously, we'll have to deal with the conditions, which can vary depending on how cold it gets and any snowfall. That can affect the wear of the tyres.
"The new Michelin tyres seem more hard- wearing on the frozen gravel, but we'll only really be able to tell in the race."
Hirvonen concluded his two-day pre-event test in Sweden on Friday.
Rally Sweden is one of Citroen's weakest rallies of the year; the French firm has only won once in Karlstad, when Loeb took the 2004 event in his Xsara WRC.
| Saturday, February 2nd 2013, 15:53 GMT |
Jari Ketomaa moved ahead of Craig Breen in their battle for the Rally Liepaja-Ventspils lead on day two in Latvia.
To his amazement given his lack of snow experience, Breen had won the opening five stages of the event and built up a 10.7-second advantage over his rival.
But Ketomaa struck back just before Saturday's midday service, beating Breen by 11s on the Edole stage and immediately taking the lead.
As the afternoon went on, Breen felt his Super 2000 Peugeot was being outgunned in the power stakes by Ketomaa's Regional Rally Car Ford, and ended the day 12.1s adrift, with six stages to go on Sunday.
Francois Delecour was also frustrated by a lack of outright speed on the increasingly fast stages, and lost third place to top Production driver Alexey Lukyanuk.
Leading positions after SS9: Pos Driver Team/Car Time/Gap 1. Jari Ketomaa Autotek Ford 1h09m19.9s 2. Craig Breen Sainteloc Peugeot + 12.1s 3. Alexey Lukyanuk ASRT Mitsubishi + 1m03.4s 4. Francois Delecour Kronos Peugeot + 1m17.4s 5. Vytautas Svedas Juta Mitsubishi + 2m22.3s 6. Jan Cerny Czech Skoda + 2m32.0s 7. Siim Plangi ASRT Mitsubishi + 2m36.9s 8. Raimonds Kisiels Adapta Mini + 2m51.3s 9. Vitaliy Pushkar Pro Mitsubishi + 3m04.8s 10. Aivis Egle R-Evolution Mitsubishi + 3m42.2s
| Friday, February 1st 2013, 17:27 GMT |
Craig Breen leads Rally Liepaja-Ventspils after the opening afternoon of round two of the European Rally Championship in Latvia.
The reigning Super 2000 World Rally champion is kicking off his Peugeot ERC programme on the gravel and snow event.
Breen has edged away from the DMACK-shod Autotek Ford of Jari Ketomaa through the first three stages, stretching his initial 0.3-second advantage to 6.4s by the end of the loop.
Francois Delecour holds third position in his Kronos Peugeot, 5.7s behind Ketomaa but already 20s clear of the best of the pack behind. The WRC veteran stayed on the pace despite having to hold his door closed with one hand for much of SS3.
Leading positions after SS3: Pos Driver Team/Car Time/Gap 1. Craig Breen Sainteloc Peugeot 22m15.4s 2. Jari Ketomaa Autotek Ford + 6.4s 3. Francois Delecour Kronos Peugeot + 12.1s 4. Alexey Lukyanuk ASRT Mitsubishi + 32.7s 5. Vytautas Svedas Juta Mitsubishi + 50.8s 6. Siim Plangi ASRT Mitsubishi + 59.4s 7. Raimonds Kisiels Adapta Mini + 1m01.0s 8. Vitaliy Pushkar Pro Mitsubishi + 1m02.7s 9. Aivis Egle R-Evolution Mitsubishi + 1m07.8s 10. Jan Cerny Czech Skoda + 1m26.7s
| By Ben Anderson and Glenn Freeman | Friday, February 1st 2013, 17:37 GMT |
Force India has admitted that it had planned to run Jules Bianchi as its reserve driver for two years before considering him for a Formula 1 race drive.
The Silverstone-based team launched its 2013 VJM06 on Friday, with only lead driver Paul di Resta in attendance.
Bianchi, who drove for Force India in free practice on nine grand prix weekends in 2012, is one of several drivers in contention for the second race seat, with Adrian Sutil and Bruno Senna both considered leading contenders as well.
Speaking at the launch of the new car, Force India deputy team principal Bob Fernley told AUTOSPORT that the departure of Nico Hulkenberg had disrupted the team's long-term driver plans.
"The idea of the Nico/Paul partnership not continuing into 2013 wasn't our plan," said Fernley. "Obviously it slightly de-railed our programme.
"If we'd had an ideal world we'd have liked to run Jules for two years as a third driver.
"Is Jules ready to go into a primary seat? Yes, he is. Absolutely. But we've just got to make sure we tick all the boxes now."
Fernley said that having two drivers on board for the first test of pre-season at Jerez next week was not as important as getting a revised long-term plan in place with its line-up.
"We have all these long-term plans and we want to make sure the decisions we take are the right ones," he said.
"And we don't have to rush those decisions. Today [at the launch], a lot of the talk is about why we don't have other drivers here.
"Well, the key objective today is to launch the VJM06 and two new partners with our programme. We only needed one driver to do that.
"When we go to Jerez, there's no better person to do all the baseline work and get the car ready for Barcelona, than Paul.
"Paul will be the key focus for Jerez. After that, the shareholders will be ready I think to announce the three-driver line-up, which will see us into 2013 and hopefully longer term."
No shootout
Fernley dismissed the idea of holding an on-track evaluation of the various candidates for the 2013 line-up.
"We've got a number of people pooled that we want to look at for the primary drive, and a couple of people that we want to look at for the third driver programme," he said.
"We don't need to evaluate the people we're looking at - we'll make the decision and they'll go straight into the programme.
"As long as the baseline work is done and we can bring the second and third driver in for Barcelona [on February 19], they're going to be competitive straight away."
| By Matt Beer | Friday, February 1st 2013, 19:00 GMT |
Chris Atkinson will rejoin the Citroen fold for round three of the 2013 World Rally Championship in Mexico next month.
The Australian had a one-off run with the Citroen Junior team in Ireland at the start of 2009 after losing his Subaru seat at the end of the previous year when the works team withdrew.
Atkinson subsequently dropped out of the WRC, focusing mainly on Proton's Asia-Pacific programme, before returning for a single appearance with Monster Ford in Mexico last year and later completing the season in a Motorsport Italia Mini.
He will now take over Khalid Al Qassimi's Abu Dhabi-branded Citroen for Mexico.
Al Qassimi is commencing his WRC return in Sweden next weekend but has other commitments that clash with round three.
Citroen team boss Yves Matton said: "As Khalid is unable to take part in Rally Mexico, he wanted us to entrust the DS3 WRC of the Abu Dhabi Citroen Total WRT to Chris Atkinson and [co-driver] Stephane Prevot for this rally.
"Chris competed in the 2012 edition and we know he has the potential to do Abu Dhabi Racing proud."
Citroen will also field an additional DS3 WRC in Mexico for last year's Production WRC champion Benito Guerra, who will make his top-class debut on his home event.
| By Matt Beer | Thursday, January 31st 2013, 16:55 GMT |
Marussia has become the final Formula 1 team to announce its 2013 launch date, as it confirmed the covers will come off the MR02 on the morning of the opening test day.
The unveiling will take place in the Jerez pitlane on the morning of Tuesday February 5.
Caterham is set to launch its new car at the same time.
Marussia has hailed its 2013 car as the start of a new era, as it will be the first car designed completely under its new technical structure, featuring Pat Symonds as a consultant and using windtunnel technology for the first time.
But rookie Max Chilton is the only driver currently signed by Marussia, as it released Timo Glock last week in order to hire a funded driver.
GP2 runner-up Luiz Razia has been strongly linked to the vacant seat.
2013 pre-season dates
Car launches Team Date
Lotus January 28
McLaren January 31
Ferrari February 1
Force India February 1
Sauber February 2
Red Bull February 3
Mercedes February 4
Toro Rosso February 4
Caterham February 5
Marussia February 5
Williams February 19 Testing
Venue Date
Jerez 5-8 February
Barcelona 19-22 February
Barcelona 28 February-3 March
| By Jonathan Noble | Thursday, January 31st 2013, 17:36 GMT |
McLaren may have raised some eyebrows with the step change in its car design for this season, but technical chiefs are adamant it was an essential move if it is to gun for Formula 1 title glory this year.
With the rules not changing dramatically for 2013, and teams already devoting much resource to the radical 2014 overhaul, it had been widely expected that the new cars would be mere evolutions of last year's designs.
McLaren has gone much further than that, however. It was reworked its concept in a wide range of areas, including switching to pull-rod suspension, increasing the height of its chassis so it now needs a 'vanity' panel' for a stepped nose, and being ultra-aggressive with the bodywork around the rear.
Although such work may be a bold move with 2014 on the horizon, the team has said that such an effort was vital if the team was to be able to keep up a good enough development rate throughout the forthcoming campaign.
When asked by AUTOSPORT about the thinking behind such an aggressive push with its car, McLaren engineering director Tim Goss said that there was a fear last year's MP4-27 concept was reaching a development ceiling.
"We looked at our performance during last season, in the stages where we were laying down the foundations of this car, and looked at where we thought we would get to in terms of our development rate if we just kept continuing with developing the same car," he said. "We realised we actually needed to make a larger step.
"So in defining the architecture of this car, the philosophy was very much to give ourselves the scope to further exploit the area of the cars that we knew would generate performance.
"We understand how to get the most out of these rules, and we demonstrated that last season under these rules with the quickest car at the beginning of the year and the end of the year.
"But, we decided that we need to give ourselves a bit more freedom and, as a result of that, we have reworked the car from front to back. That has allowed us that bit more freedom to push the areas of the car that we know respond."
Pull-rod front suspension
One of the boldest departures for McLaren is in switching from a push-rod to pull-rod layout with its front suspension, a route that Ferrari went down last season.
Goss insisted that its change was not simply the result of it copying Ferrari's lead, but of doing a lot of work into evaluating the benefits and drawbacks of such a design.
"What convinced us was actually a lot of research," he said. "When you see something new on a car, you always think, why have they done that?
"In F1, it is possible to copy someone else's concept, but invariably they don't work. What you have to do is get a fundamental understanding of why.
"So we looked at it and initially we thought exactly that - why? But after some time and some work we understood how it could benefit our car and certainly what we are trying to achieve with the car.
"We found benefits in terms of aerodynamics, which overcome the kinematic and structural negatives of doing more extreme anhedral suspension."
Exhaust concept
One area where McLaren has stuck to its guns, however, is in its exhaust concept, which is a different solution to the Red Bull style.
This year, McLaren has pushed things much further, dramatically cutting away the bodywork at the rear of the car to try and optimise airflow for both car performance and exhausts.
"It is playing the tunes on the aerodynamics," said Goss. "While trying to achieve one thing with the exhaust, you have to make sure when the exhaust gases are not flowing that the rear end of the car is still performing properly.
"So we have pushed things further. That is our philosophy on this car - to take the things where we know the car responds, push them further and make them more extreme. For us, it was a natural evolution of last year."
McLaren MP4-28 - full coverage:
McLaren unveils new MP4-28 F1 car Lowe staying for 2013, McLaren insists MP4-28 unveiling gallery Perez hails 2013 preparations McLaren won't race passive double DRS
| By Gary Watkins | Thursday, January 31st 2013, 18:47 GMT |
Five-time American Le Mans Series champion Olivier Beretta will return to the series with the Risi Competizione Ferrari team in 2013.
The Ferrari factory driver, who scored his sequence of GTS/GT1 titles with the ORECA Chrysler and Corvette Racing teams, will race Risi's solo GTE class 458 Italia.
The 43-year-old will be joined in the car by Matteo Malucelli, who is returning to the marque with which he won the GT2 class at the 2008 Spa 24 Hours.
Team boss Giuseppe Risi said: "In Olivier and Matteo we have an excellent combination of speed, youth and experience with which to launch our assault on the championship, and I have high hopes for this partnership."
A third driver for the Sebring 12 Hours has yet to be announced.
Beretta joined Ferrari ahead of last season, following his departure from Corvette Racing, and contested the World Endurance Championship with the AF Corse team.
