MOTORSPORT: Ricciardo out to sate appetite in Hungary

In a world championship calendar with a record 21 rounds, Red Bull Racing and Daniel Ricciardo knew that, realistically, they had three chances of winning Formula 1 races this year.

The Monaco Grand Prix was one, but RBR blew that by not having the right tyres ready for Ricciardo when it called him in for a change – something that will haunt both forever, especially after the Australian's 'Lap of the Gods' in qualifying and race pace.

Singapore in mid-September is another opportunity to challenge the dominance of Mercedes.

The other is Hungary. This weekend.

Ricciardo might have jagged a win in Spain in May after the Mercs of Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton collided on the opening lap, but RBR pulled the wrong rein there on its strategy for him and instead produced a fairytale victory for his new 18-year-old teammate Max Verstappen on his debut with the team.

The Dutch kid is the new glamour boy of F1 and has outperformed the Aussie in the past two GPs – even outqualified him last time, in Britain. That was a first by either of Ricciardo's teammates in 10 GPs this year.

Questions are being asked about whether the teenager already has an edge on our man.

Ricciardo acknowledges Verstappen's performances and says that, while he's not only a competitive teammate for him, he will be "frightening for quite a few people" – meaning everyone on the F1 grid.

"The only thing I'm scared of are sharks and snakes… I won't make excuses if he's beaten me fair or square," Ricciardo said.

The Aussie has won at Hungary's Budapest circuit before – in 2014. It was the second of his three victories in his RBR debut season, when his teammate was Sebastian Vettel – who won none that year.

A BBC preview of this weekend's race by Allan McNish, ex-F1 and sports car racer, and Andrew Benson, top F1 correspondent for 'The Beeb', contained some interesting numbers.

RBR, now very much the main rival to Mercedes, has made up ground this season.

Up to this point last season RBR was an average of 1.4sec off pole position, the 'Beeb' boys pointed out. This year that gap to Mercedes has been narrowed to 0.963sec.

That's still huge, but it's an average. And Budapest is a track to which RBR is particularly well suited.

Indeed, it is the only track in F1 at which Mercedes has not won in this turbo-hybrid era now 2½ years old. Vettel was there last year for Ferrari, which is now struggling for pace and reliability although it is second in the constructors' championship, albeit only six points ahead of RBR.

"We can be really close here [in Budapest]," Ricciardo said.

"At least a podium is what we're thinking."

Of course, if RBR's Renault-powered RB12 works well in Hungary it's likely that Verstappen will be in the hunt too.

Jenson Button, driving for McLaren-Honda which – coming from further back – has narrowed its gap to Mercedes by 0.8sec a lap this year, sees RBR threatening Mercedes this weekend.

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff said RBR produced cars that "function" well in Budapest, with only one straight, and that his outfit "will need to be flawless to come out on top at this track".

That will include, obviously, Rosberg and Hamilton – now separated by just one point after Rosberg led by 43 early on – not running into each other as they so often and infamously have.

Fiat and Ferrari president Sergio Marchionne has stepped up his already intense heat on his scuderia to lift its game promptly.

There could be bloodshed in Maranello soon if its SF16-H can't allow Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen to produce better results.

The Budapest circuit has been resurfaced and is likely to be very grippy for the Pirelli tyres.

In the wake of the controversy that cost Rosberg second place to Hamilton in Britain, with a 10-second post-race penalty dropping him behind Verstappen, the ruling Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) has tightened its radio communication rules this week.

The gist of it is that, rather than give drivers advice on how to handle technical problems during a race, cars will need to pit for technical problems to be rectified or for drivers to be told how to handle them.

Vettel says the radio rule change is "a joke … complete bull----".

"It was quite interesting to hear a driver [Rosberg] panicking a little bit on the radio – and the team [Mercedes]panicking at the same time," Vettel said.

"It puts the element of human being into our sport that arguably is very complicated and technical. We should just go back to being able to say what we want."

RBR team principal Christian Horner reckons that Vettel, who won four world titles consecutively with RBR, is "a bit rattled" at Ferrari and may be eyeing a move to Mercedes.

"I'm not sure whether he [Vettel] likes Sergio Marchionne's pressure," Horner said.

"I can well imagine that in 2018 Seb will switch to Mercedes if he doesn't start making progress with Ferrari."
Sauber draws a Longbow to its rescue
The Sauber F1 team, which has been in dire financial strife in recent times, has been acquired by fellow Swiss company Longbow Finance, which already was a shareholder.

Team founder Peter Sauber will bow out completely, while Monica Kaltenborn, the woman Sauber brought in as a shareholder and to run the team several years ago, will remain.

Longbow's Pascal Picci will become Sauber chairman with an aim "to stabilise the group and create the basis for a competitive and successful future".

Meanwhile, the Lotus team lost A$100 million last year before it was acquired by Renault for one English pound and recast this season as a fully-fledged factory team.
Toyota and Ford in sports car racing spotlight
The World Endurance Championship (WEC) resumes at Germany's Nurburgring this weekend, with all eyes on the performance of Toyota's TS050 Hybrids after the heartbreaking failure in the final minutes of the 24 Hours of Le Mans last month that handed victory to Porsche.

Although yet to conquer Le Mans, Australia's Mark Webber won the WEC's debut race in Porsche's homeland last year and, barely a month away from his 40th birthday, is looking to repeat that in a 919 Hybrid with German Timo Bernhard and New Zealander Brendon Hartley.

Toyota has not won in the WEC since the penultimate round of the 2014 season in which it won the series title.

Toyota driver Anthony Davidson said the Japanese manufacturer should have won the six-hour race at Spa in Belgium before Le Mans as well as the French classic that slipped through its grasp and wants redemption in the six hours at the 5.137km Nurbringring track in the Eifel Mountains.

Ford is favourite to repeat its GTE Pro class victory at Le Mans with only minor adjustments to the category's Balance of Performance regulations since the Blue Oval's first, third and fourth with its new GTs at the 24 Hour.

In the US Ford and Aussie driver Ryan Briscoe, with his British co-driver Richard Westbrook, will be chasing a fourth straight class win in the International Motor Sports Association series at the short (2.4km) Lime Rock circuit in Connecticut, close to Briscoe's home.

Briscoe and Westbrook trail Chevrolet Corvette pair Oliver Gavin and Tommy Milner by five points in the GTLM class points.
NASCAR … the more things change …
Lots happening in NASCAR, or – in one sense – not happening.

Retired four-time Jeff Gordon returns to Chevrolet team Hendrick Motorsports this weekend for the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis, deputising for Dale Earnhardt Junior – who already has missed one race and will be absent again next week after nausea and imbalance, thought to have been from a concussion.

Gordon has won the Brickyard 400 a record five times.

Triple champion Tony Stewart, back in form recently but retiring from NASCAR at the end of this season, has won this, his home race, twice and has the second-best average finish record in its history.

Although quitting stock cars, Stewart's father Nelson has revealed that 'Smoke' wants to win a World of Outlaws championship even though he has not driven a sprintcar in three years since killing a fellow competitor in a minor race in New York State.

Stewart senior also says his son is interested in Le Mans and attending the Goodwood Festival of Speed in Britain.

The winner of last weekend's NASCAR Sprint Cup round at New Hampshire, Matt Kenseth, was docked 15 points when his Joe Gibbs Toyota failed a post-race check.

And Autoweek's associate motorsports editor Mike Larson went to town in his commentary on the penalty.

"Cheaters never win ... unless they race in NASCAR," Larson wrote.

"In NASCAR you can cheat, win and keep the win even after everyone knows you cheated.

"Last Sunday Matt Kenseth won the NASCAR Sprint Cup race in New Hampshire and then it was promptly announced that his car failed inspection. Rather than vacate the win and give it to Tony Stewart, who finished in second place, NASCAR allowed Kenseth to keep the victory.

"This isn't new. In fact, it's been NASCAR's stance for pretty much ever. If you cheat and win, the win will stand.

"On Wednesday NASCAR announced Kenseth's punishment. The No 20 team was docked 15 championship points in the team owner standings and crew chief Jason Ratcliff was fined $25,000.

"Kenseth was docked 15 points in the Chase standings, which dropped him from eighth place to ninth.

"In other words, the penalty was pretty much meaningless."
Bathurst Six-Hour part of national production car series
The second running of the rejuvenated Bathurst 6-Hour next April will be a round of the Australian Production Car Series, with the same technical rules for both.

"It makes sense to have all levels of production car racing heading in the same direction," said James O'Brien, the Six-Hour director who previously had a similar role with the Bathurst 12-Hour before it was taken over by the Supercars organisation.

Australian Production Cars category manager Iain Sherrin said the revised regulations included an updated vehicle eligibility list featuring new contenders in various classes – especially those chasing outright victory.

The Audi TT RS moves from invited to Class A1 (Extreme Performance – Forced Induction) and is joined there by the new Audi RS3, Ford Focus RS, BMW M4 and Volkswagen Golf R.

The invited class includes the FIAT 500 Abarths seen in the Bathurst 12-Hour several years ago, plus Ford and Holden models complying with Saloon Car and V8 Ute Racing Series regulations.

Invitational class cars will retain a 2 minute 34 second benchmark lap time they will not be allowed to exceed.

Bathurst 6-Hour is on Sunday, April 16, next year.