ge5606479837225571317
Geoffrey Harris4 Nov 2014
NEWS

MOTORSPORT: Multiple aces in Lone Star State

Lewis Hamilton’s 10th GP win of the year was almost perfect and Daniel Ricciardo was on the podium again too.

Texas triumph lets F1 forget its woes for one day at least
Despite its many problems -- the latest being the collapse of two teams and others talking of a boycott as they seek a greater slice of the financial pie -- Formula One is thriving in Austin, Texas, which turned on a third terrific F1 grand prix today.

Australia’s Daniel Ricciardo (pictured) was an excellent third after having qualified fifth but lost a couple of places at the start. He made brilliant passes on McLaren’s Kevin Magnussen and Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso, then overhauled the Williams cars of Valterri Bottas and Felipe Massa with the help of slick pitstops by his Red Bull-Renault crew.

Lewis Hamilton won for Mercedes, his 10th victory of the year, his fifth in a row, his second in Austin (and he finished second last year) and the 32nd win of his career -- making him the most successful Englishman, with one more than Nigel Mansell now.

It also was the 10th one-two finish of the season for Mercedes, with Nico Rosberg 4.314sec behind at the chequered flag after having been brilliantly overtaken by Hamilton on the 24th of the 56 laps.

Mercedes has tied McLaren’s 1988 record for the most one-twos in a season. Ominously, there are two races to go, in Sao Paulo, Brazil, next Monday (Australian time) and in Abu Dhabi on November 23.

The 14 Mercedes victories this year are only one less than the 15 by McLaren in 1988 and Ferrari in 2002 and ’04.

Hamilton now leads Rosberg by 24 points in the drivers’ world championship. By rights he would be champion next Monday for the second time (the first was in 2008 with McLaren) if he finishes ahead of Rosberg at Sao Paulo’s Interlagos, but the double points in Abu Dhabi virtually ensure the title fight goes to the wire -- with Rosberg still a chance if things go wrong for Hamilton.

Ricciardo is mathematically out of the championship equation now.

But Austin’s Circuit of the Americas yielded Ricciardo’s eighth official podium in his first season with Red Bull Racing. It was his fifth third place and there have been the victories in Canada, Hungary and Belgium -- all since he was denied second place in Australia after Red Bull breached the new fuel regulations in Melbourne.

While Ricciardo can’t finish higher than third in the championship, and is unlikely to finish any lower with Bottas 59 points behind him in fourth, he may rate higher in some authorative rankings of F1 drivers this season.

Britain’s annual Autocourse publication can be expected to plump for British driver Hamilton as #1, but Ricciardo may well be #2 ahead of Rosberg and Alonso – the latter widely regarded as the best driver in the field (and whose future is still not clear). The Aussie may also be ranked ahead of Red Bull’s world champion of the past four years, Sebastian Vettel.

Elsewhere Ricciardo may even be ranked #1 for his performance in the Red Bull-Renault RB10 that clearly is so inferior to the Mercedes W05 and against such an esteemed teammate as Vettel.

Vettel had a noteworthy race in Austin today, finishing seventh after starting from the pitlane behind the rest of the field and making four pitstops.

The Williams team, whose 72-year-old quadriplegic founder Sir Frank Williams missed the race because he is in hospital, now leads Ferrari by 42 points in the battle for third in the constructors’ championship.

Venezuelan Pastor Maldonado scored his first world championship point of the season (and his first since crossing to Lotus from Williams) despite two 5sec stop-go penalties. His last points had been 25 races earlier.

But Swiss team Sauber remains without a point this season. It has gone 17 races without a top 10 finish. Adrian Sutil was knocked out of today’s Austin race by Mexican Sergio Perez’s Force India, while Esteban Gutierrez (the other Mexican in the race) was 14th and the second last finisher in the other Sauber.

Sauber, Lotus and Force India are the teams demanding bigger payments from F1’s revenue pool in the wake of Caterham and Marussia having gone into administration.

F1 commercial supremo Bernie Ecclestone made some odd statements during the weekend, seemingly taking the blame for the very favoured treatment traditional top teams Ferrari, Red Bull and McLaren receive and seemingly saying he would fix the carve-up if he could.

There are two big impediments there: the top teams won’t agree to getting less money, and private equity company CVC takes far too much out of the sport while contributing nothing.

Formula One Drivers’ World Championship after 17 of 19 rounds: 1. Lewis Hamilton (Great Britain, Mercedes) 316 points; 2. Nico Rosberg (Germany, Mercedes) 292; 3. Daniel Ricciardo (Australia, Red Bull-Renault) 214; 4. Valtteri Bottas (Finland, Williams-Mercedes) 155; 5. Sebastian Vettel (Germany, Red Bull-Renault) 149; 6. Fernando Alonso (Spain, Ferrari) 149; 7. Jenson Button (GB, McLaren-Mercedes) 94; 8. Felipe Massa (Brazil, Williams-Mercedes) 83; 9. Nico Hulkenberg (Germany, Force India-Mercedes) 76; 10. Kevin Magnussen (Denmark, McLaren-Mercedes) 53; 11. Sergio Perez (Mexico, Force India-Mercedes) 47; 12. Kimi Raikkonen (Finland, Ferrari) 47; 13. Jean-Eric Vergne (France, Toro Rosso-Renault) 23; 14. Romain Grosjean (France, Lotus-Renault) 8; 15. Daniil Kvyat (Russia, Toro Rosso-Renault) 8; 16. Jules Bianchi (France,  Marussia-Ferrari) 2; 17. Pastor Maldonado (Venezuela, Lotus-Renault) 1.
      
F1 Constructors’ World Championship: 1. Mercedes 608 points; 2. Red Bull-Renault 363; 3. Williams-Mercedes 238; 4. Ferrari 196; 5. McLaren-Mercedes 147; 6. Force India-Mercedes 123; 7. Toro Rosso-Renault 31; 8. Lotus-Renault 9; 9. Marussia-Ferrari 2.

Austin on a big winner with permanent facility
Formula One flopped at many previous venues in the United States, but it has been a huge winner at Austin’s Circuit of the Americas (COTA).

It is a permanent circuit with facilities that match other grand new tracks that have been built around the world in recent years - mainly in countries with huge oil revenues.

COTA draws healthy attendances locally as well as F1 fans from elsewhere in the US and more particularly from Mexico. Its financials tally much better than those at temporary street circuits such as Melbourne’s Albert Park, where the annual costs of staging a grand prix are now close to $100 million a year and the revenues barely $40 million.

Economic impact studies need to be viewed with great circumspection, but one by New York-based Greyhill Advisors (admittedly commissioned by COTA) highlights the advantages of a permanent circuit.

Greyhill found that COTA had generated US$897m in economic impact to the Austin area in the year to September 30, including US$507m from its 2013 F1 GP. This is about twice the most extravagant claims for Melbourne’s annual race.

Other events at COTA included its MotoGP, ESPN’s X Games and American and world sportscar championship (WEC) rounds, with other revenue generated by track rentals, concerts and other activities at its at Austin360 Amphitheatre.

"COTA has turned out to be much more than just a racetrack," said Austin mayor Lee Leffingwell.

"It’s a job creator, a revenue generator, and a destination for quality, year-round entertainment. These benefits to taxpayers result from racetrack construction that was solely funded by private investment," he said.

Unlike Melbourne, where the Victorian government basically underwrites the shortfall of revenue against costs, in Austin the only taxpayer money that goes to COTA is under a reimbursement program after authorities have seen proof of the financial benefits to the area.

The Greyhill report said 1.1m people attended COTA events in the year, leading to $731m in economic impact, with an extra $166m attributed directly to COTA operations.

It said COTA’s activities and operations "combined to support 9100 jobs in the Austin metro region, representing US$306m in annual payroll for Austin-area workers".

"Direct visitor spending injected into Austin area business establishments such as restaurants, bars, hotels and retailers totaled US$423m," Greyhill said.

Austin Convention and Visitors Bureau chief Bob Lander said COTA was "a thoughtfully-designed facility that has helped Austin successfully compete for and host events that put our city in the global spotlight".

"We attract over 21 million visitors annually – three times as many as only a decade ago," Lander said.

"Tourism has a substantial impact on the Austin economy, providing nearly 54,000 jobs and US$6.2 billion in direct traveler spending.

"World-class facilities like COTA greatly enhance our ability to attract new international audiences and markets that widen our spectrum of business."

COTA’s cumulative economic impact on Austin since construction began in 2010 has been put at US$2.8 billion.

"We built COTA to be a part of the economic and cultural fabric of Austin… It’s gratifying to see the enormous benefit to local businesses big and small," COTA chairman Bobby Epstein said.

Hodge a golden boy
A 20-year-old Adelaide driver, Simon Hodge, has won Australia’s major open-wheeler title, the Gold Star. Hodge’s honour came through clinching the Formula Three Australian Drivers Championship at Sydney Motorsport Park. He is the first South Australian to win the Gold Star since John Walker in 1979, when it was awarded to the Formula 5000 champion.

Hodge notched 12 wins and 18 podiums in F3 this year on the way to winning the 58th Gold Star. It was the first achieved in a Mygale car after recent years of domination by drivers in Dallaras.

It also meant a record eighth F3 championship for Team BRM and a sixth Gold Star, equalling the Gold Star record of Birrana Racing - both of them South Australian teams.

Tim Berryman clinched the Radical Australia Cup at Sydney Motorsport Park, Justin Ruggier the Kumho V8 Touring Cars crown and Tony Ricciardello an eighth Sports Sedan title. Ruggier’s V8 triumph was the second recently for Eggleston Motorsport, which last month won the V8 Supercar Development Series with Paul Dumbrell.

Ruggier did it in the ex-HSV Dealer Team Holden Commodore in which Rick Kelly won the V8 Supercars title in 2006 and Tony D’Alberto the Development Series in 2007.

Slade a winner across the Tasman
V8 Supercar driver Tim Slade and New Zealander Richard Moore won the second round of the NZ SuperTourer series, the Waikato 400 at Hampton Downs, in a Holden Commodore.

But Shane Van Gisbergen was the star of the weekend, winning two of the three races with fellow Aucklander Simon Evans in another Commodore. However, they missed out on overall honours after problems in the second race, when Evans had trouble getting out of the car for a driver change and then the left front door twice flew open requiring van Gisbergen to stop twice for it to be taped closed.

Greg Murphy and Jack Perkins in yet another Holden were second in Saturday’s shortest race of the weekend and the first longer race on Sunday, then third in the other 60-lapper at the 2.68km circuit.

Tyre woe costs Webber Porsche in Shanghai
Mark Webber and his Porsche team finished an unlucky sixth in the Shanghai Six-Hour round of the World Endurance Championship.

Toyota TS040s were first and second in Shanghai, the winning car driven by Anthony Davidson and Sebastien Buemi.

The other Porsche 919 Hybrid started from pole position and finished third, followed by two Audi R18 e-tron quattros.

The Porsche that Webber shared with New Zealander Brendon Hartley and German Timo Bernhard ran second early but a damaged tyre after Hartley’s pitstop cost a lot of time.

"We had a lot of catching up to do and in the end it was just too much for us to gain a better position," Webber said.

"It was bad luck that Brendon had a puncture, and furthermore that it happened in the beginning of a lap, so he had a lot of slow driving to do to get back to the pits.

"That really hurt our race, but despite that we were competitive. I think this was almost a better team effort than our third place recently in Fuji [in Japan]," Webber stated.

The category-two Honda Performance Development ARX-03b HPD that David Brabham shared on the 30th anniversary of his motorsport career finished 13th.

Toyota leads the WEC on 226 points from Le Mans victor Audi on 197, while Porsche has 133.

Penske driver in another NASCAR brawl as Ambrose 27th
Marcos Ambrose was 27th today in his last NASCAR race on a 1.5-mile (2.4km) oval track, Texas Motor Speedway, but he kept his Richard Petty Motorsports Ford Fusion on the lead lap.

The Chevrolets of Jimmie Johnson and Kevin Harvick led home the Penske Ford of Brad Keselowski, who was involved in another post-race brawl -- this time with Chevrolet veteran, Jeff Gordon.

Ambrose will drive for Roger Penske in V8 Supercars once the NASCAR season is over, with the dual V8 Supercar champion returning home and Penske taking over Dick Johnson’s long-running Ford Falcon team.

In the Texas race today Gordon had taken the lead from Hendrick Motorsports teammate Johnson on a restart with nine laps left and seemed headed for victory. However, Gordon lost the lead back to Johnson after choosing the outside lane for the final restart and Keselowski collided with him.

Gordon spun with a flat left rear tyre, dropping a lap and finishing 29th.

"Out of nowhere I just got slammed by the 2 [Keselowski]. He's just a dipshit. The way he races, I don't know how he's ever won a championship [in 2012]. I'm just sick and tired of it. We had the car. We had the position," a heated Gordon stated.

"I’m proud of Jimmie Johnson for winning that race. I didn’t want that you-know-what [Keselowski] to win that race. It's total crap. The kid is just doing stuff way over his head."

Keselowski was fined US$50,000 recently by NASCAR for rough-house antics on and off the track.

Penske’s Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin in a Joe Gibbs Toyota are joint leaders of the Sprint Cup with two rounds to go, two points ahead of Ryan Newman in a Richard Childress Chevrolet with Gordon another 10 points away in fourth -- narrowly ahead of Matt Kenseth (Gibbs Toyota) and Carl Edwards (Roush Ford), with Keselowski and Stewart-Haas Racing’s Harvick seventh and eighth.

The finale of the three-race segment in The Chase for the Sprint Cup Championship dubbed the "Eliminator Round" is next Sunday at Phoenix International Raceway and will determine the four drivers eligible to fight for the title in the November 16 season grand final at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Share this article
Written byGeoffrey Harris
See all articles
Our team of independent expert car reviewers and journalistsMeet the team
Stay up to dateBecome a carsales member and get the latest news, reviews and advice straight to your inbox.
Download the carsales app
    AppStoreDownloadGooglePlayDownload
    App Store and the Apple logo are trademarks of Apple Inc. Google Play and the Google Play logo are trademarks of Google LLC.
    © CAR Group Ltd 1999-2024
    In the spirit of reconciliation we acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.