Motorsport report
Has Mercedes got something special for Schumacher?
Mercedes has given its 2012 car – not seen at last week’s first pre-season test at Jerez in Spain – a shakedown at Britain’s Silverstone circuit. And F1 pundits suspect that Mercedes may have a trick up its sleeve with the car… In the same way as the team – then called BrawnGP – introduced the double diffuser in 2009.
Mercedes was only allowed to run the car for 100km at Silverstone, with Michael Schumacher – yet to stand on the podium in two seasons of his comeback - and Nico Rosberg each driving 50km, ahead of next week’s second four-day F1 pre-season test in Barcelona.
The final, four-day test also will be in Barcelona in early March ahead of the cars being flown to Melbourne for the season-opening
Australian Grand Prix on March 16-18.
At the Jerez test Mercedes ran last year’s car, complete with the now-outlawed blown diffuser, to familiarise itself with Pirelli’s latest tyres, while all the other top teams ran 2012 cars with the new “stepped” or “platypus” noses.
Pirelli has denied it has soften its tyres this year primarily to suit fellow Italian company Ferrari, which struggled on last year’s hard compounds – winning only one of the 19 races in the season.
Pirelli chief executive Marco Tronchetti Provera has said: “Naturally, if you’re Italian your dream is for Ferrari to win. If you’re English then it is McLaren.”
However, he dismissed suggestions that it will favour Ferrari as “nonsense”.
Ricciardo gets his instruction – solid performances
Franz Tost, the Austrian who heads Red Bull’s second F1 team, Scuderia Toro Rosso, has told his two young drivers, Australian Daniel Ricciardo and Frenchman Jean-Eric Vergne, what he expects from them this year – good solid performances.
He said it is Toro Rosso’s job to produce a driver with a “wow factor” capable of filling a seat in the dual world championship-winning Red Bull team when one opens up.
“Toro Rosso's mission is to nurture young Red Bull talents to make them fit for Red Bull Racing,” Tost said.
“And if Mark Webber should decide to finish his career then we need to be able to hand them over a driver that we’ve brought up to the level of being a race winner.”
Could that be as early as next year? “I have no idea,” Tost said.
“I doubt it, as the level of Red Bull Racing is extremely high. So my guess is that they will have to wait a little more. So far Mark has not given any hint that he is thinking of retirement.”
Red Bull motorsport chief Dr Helmut Marko said when Swiss driver Sebastien Buemi and Spaniard Jaime Alguersuari were dropped from the Toro Rosso line-up that they didn’t have “the right stuff” for Red Bull Racing, even though Buemi has since become its reserve driver.
“When we speak about the ‘right stuff’ for Red Bull Racing we are talking about a double world championship-winning team, which means that drivers who get elevated there must have the ability to win races and championships,” Tost said.
“And it was from that perspective that second thoughts set in when it came to Sebastien Buemi and Jaime Alguersuari.
“Toro Rosso is a rookie team - and we will head into the 2012 season with two rookies [although 22-year-old West Australian Ricciardo drove 11 GPs last year for small Spanish team HRT]. I fully support this decision.”
Incidentally, Buemi has been hired to drive in Toyota’s second hybrid TS030 sportscar at Le Mans in June, along with Japan’s Hiraoki Ishiura and Anthony Davidson, the British ex-F1 driver who was out of a drive after Peugeot pulled the plug on its sportscar program.
Click here for the latest news from the Australian Grand Prix brought to you by Megane RS250
Read the latest news and reviews on your mobile, iPhone or PDA at carsales' mobile site…