Motorsports

The latest generation of grand prix cars are petrol-electric hybrids that also use a range of high-tech systems and technologies, right down to long-life oils, that will eventually find their way into everyday road cars.An F1 hybrid is very different from a Toyota Prius, since braking energy is stored and released for a burst of speed and not for low-speed electric driving, but the work done on high-tech batteries and computer control systems is easily transferred to production line heroes.It's typical of grand prix technology transfer, which has been a reality in racing for decades. Still, it's ironic that some of the most advanced safety features in road cars - ABS brakes and ESP stability control - are banned from Formula One and there is no way yet to adapt airbags to the violent and unpredictable crashes in grand prix races.Tracing the F1 roots of today's road cars is relatively easy, starting with engine and gearbox technology from the 1990s. Honda developed and refined the V-Tech adjustable camshaft timing that combines power and economy in racing and Ferrari led the world into the era of robotised manu-matic gearboxes."V-Tech technology came directly from Formula One. At the time it was new to the Honda V10 engine used by McLaren, but now it's on every road going Honda car, right down to our economy cars and hybrids," says Mark Higgins of Honda Australia.Current F1 cars used gearboxes which have a 'seamless shift' system that's similar to the double-clutch gearboxes fitted to growing number of cars, including the Volkswagen Golf. Aerodynamics and high-tech materials are two other important areas.Carbon fibre is starting to find its way into top-end sports cars, including the Lexus LF-A supercar, after being adapted from aerospace to racing. McLaren was the first to do the job and now the ultra- strong composite is universally used in F1 and being adapted to lightweight city cars of the future.A range of other 'on the aero' front, this year's grand prix cars have a driver-adjustable rear wing - a long way ahead of the 1950s 'air brake' used by Mercedes-Benz at Le Mans - and that technology is coming fast for road cars.Ferrari has aerofoils in the nose of its latest 458 Italia that change shape at various speeds to assist cooling and downforce. In future, 'active' aero systems will blank the front ends of road cars at speeds to cut drag and improve fuel economy - then open again for cooling when the car is stopped in traffic. This sort of work is also made easier by the complex artificial wind tunnels contained in F1 computers - the programs are called Computational Fluid Dynamics - used to test and develop new body parts.Ford recently credited CFD work on the upcoming Ranger pickup and almost every major maker uses CFD for early design and development work. Even F1 fuels and oils are used for road car work, with Shell trumpeting the V-Power development it did with Ferrari before introducing its current flagship fuel. And it has used grand prix engines for decades to test the oils which now allow road cars to run for more than 10,000 kilometres between changes.

... from Clipsal 500 dramas to taking McLaren's amazing Formula One machine for a run up and over Mount Panorama.In Adelaide we had good car speed with the Commodore, the car was strong and I was comfortable. But on Saturday we didn't qualify where we should have and I got bumped out of the ten, that was disappointing. So we had a bit of a battle on our hands but through strategy and everything else it worked out. We moved through the pack and got a great result _ third from eleventh. I was delighted with that, a great result and I couldn't have wished for anything more.Then Sunday was full of ups and downs. We qualified ninth, probably didn't put a lap together as good as we should have, but we were maintaining position in the race. Then we got a flat tyre from debris off turn two, I think it came from Brighty's car.I just didn't see it, I'll need to have a look at the replay and see what it was all about. I felt it on the previous lap but by the time I'd radioed in, and the guys checked as I went past and said 'come in', it was completely flat.And then there was that pit exit. It was exciting to have contact with Murph, get turned around and then look at everyone coming out of pit lane _ quite amazing.Sunday was all about recovery. We recovered from a poor qualifying, then got a flat. Recovered from that, then had problems on the pit exit. Then we just ran out of laps.But the car speed was good all weekend and we managed to get back to 12th, so we still got good points. Jamie did a great job. He was disappointed after Saturday's results. No doubt he was going to try and fix that up the next day, he hates losing.So he was pretty determined on the Sunday to make it work. He had good car speed, was sensible about the wet, looked after the car and away he went. It was an awesome weekend, great audience and Clipsal's always a class act.Jonathon Webb had a great run on the Sunday, as did Dave Reynolds, he qualified well on the Sunday and raced well in the wet. There's some great guys, the normal guys up the front but the next generation of drivers are coming through and proving to be fast.We flew into Bathurst on Monday and weren't sure whether the F1 run was going to go ahead, it was bucketing down with rain, rivers running everywhere across the circuit. It was still raining Tuesday morning but about 8am the clouds started to clear and it dried about 11am in time for Jenson to do his observation lap.It was a great day and the McLaren better than I expected over Skyline and the Dipper, going over the top it was just really nice to drive. It had that much downforce and that much grip, it turned. Through the Dipper it wasn't as bad I thought. It surprised me, being the style a Formula One car is I thought it would struggle around Bathurst.I bottomed out going down Conrod, which is pretty normal, but it was flat down into the Chase, flat coming out of the Chase, really good, just pulling gears. The corners do come up faster but the car's built for it and you get your mind up to speed. And those brakes are sensational, it was the first time I've driven a car with carbon fibre brakes..amazing.Now it's off to the Melbourne GP weekend. We've got some new components in the car we want to give a few more miles so it's a good opportunity to do that in race conditions.It's another big, great audience for V8 Supercars and the McLaren and Vodaphone bosses out for the weekend we'll be taking it all pretty seriously.

... for the 2011 V8 Supercars Championship and let the title slip from his grasp as it did last year.The 2008 and 2009 champion was deeply hurt that despite winning more races than any other driver last year he had to watch James Courtney lift the championship trophy after minor things went wrong for Whincup in certain events, including the deciding final weekend of the year, in Sydney.In the first four races of 2011 Whincup, driving his TeamVodafone Commodore, has two first places, a second and a third. This gives him 567 points to Orrcon Falcon driver Mark Winterbottom's 423.That 144-point gap is almost worth one race win (150 points) and has been established so early in the season.But Whincup is well aware of what happened last year, when he won all four races at the start of the year - and that there are still 23 more races to go in 2011.He said even after his Clipsal 500 win he would not be backing off to play safe for the championship."I am here to win races," he said of his philosophy. "I was in a similar (leading) position last year and got mowed down and spat out the back. We need to keep our heads down this time."Garth Tander (Toll-HRT, Commodore) is third on points with 363. After a win in Adelaide on Saturday over Whincup and a fifth place on Sunday, the 2007 champion is still more than 200 points behind Whincup.TeamVodafone remained at Adelaide's Victoria Park pit garages yesterday preparing Whincup's and Craig Lowndes' Commodore for the three V8 Supercar races at the Melbourne GP this coming  weekend - races which will not count towards their championship.The cars were due to leave on their transporters last night.Meanwhile, Lowndes has headed to Bathurst, outside Sydney, to try his hand today in the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes Formula One car on  Australia's most famous race track.Lowndes raced in Formula 3000 open-wheelers in 1997 in UK-Europe but it will be a huge change stepping from his V8 Holden on the Adelaide street circuit to a Grand Prix F1 racer at Mount Panorama.In the exchange, Jenson Button, winner of the past two Australian GPs in Melbourne, will drive a V8 Supercar around the Bathurst track and is greatly looking forward to it.

JASON Richards is planning to be cancer free and ready for Bathurst, starting with a Ferrari cameo this weekend at the Clipsal 500 meeting.  The BOC Commodore racer has stepped down from his V8 Supercar seat while he battles cancer but could not resist a guest drive in the  Australian GT Championship opener in Adelaide.TODD Kelly joins the 150 club in Adelaide this weekend when he clocks  up a milestone V8 Supercar start at the Clipsal 500. The Jack Daniel's  racer is the 16th driver to hit the 150 mark and will do it at a track  where he was a winner with the Holden Racing Team in 2007.MARK Webber's young protege, New Zealander Mitch Evans, heads to the  GP3 championship in Europe with another title in the bag. The 16-year-old has just become the latest Toyota Racing Series champ after dominating the series in New Zealand.SCOTT Pye has had a promising start to his campaign in the British F3  International Series, setting the fifth-fastest time in a shakedown at  Silverstone with his new team, Double-R Racing. Pye was only three-tenths of a second behind the pace setter and is looking forward to  his race debut at the Monza circuit in Italy in early April.MARCOS Ambrose has become a team owner in the USA with a late-model  stock car program including another transplanted Australian racer,  George Miedecke. Ambrose plans to mentor Miedecke as he tries to  follow him into NASCAR racing after some promising starts last year in  America.DAVID Brabham is facing another busy year, joining Stone Brothers  Racing for the V8 Supercar endurance races while racing a sports car  in the USA's major events and tackling the FIA GT1 series in Europe.  Brabham will race a Nissan GT-R in the GT1 title, driving for the  British Sumo team that includes former F1 drivers Riccardo Zonta and  Enrique Bernoldi.ELEVEN of Australia's brightest young talents will compete in a Fujitsu-backed development program this year, aiming for a test drive  that could take them to the next level. The Cool Driver initiative  sees seven kart racers - Jason LeCocq, Brody Appleby, Renee Gracie, Damon Strongman, Joey Mawson, Royce Nott and Todd Hazelwood - vying for a test in a Formula Ford and four Formula Ford drivers - Cameron  Waters, Nick Foster, Shae Davies and Rhett Noonan - hoping to win a  test in a V8 Supercar.

But as the youngest ever to do so he's looking ahead more than back. "I feel like there is a fair bit left in me; another 150 would be nice," says the 31-year-old who races a black Jack Daniel's Holden Commodore in the family Kelly Racing outfit. Todd Kelly started in V8 Supercars in 1999 in Holden's Young Lions team, then joined Kmart Racing and on to Holden Racing Team to partner then-king, Mark Skaife, the pair sharing the win of the Bathurst 1000 race in 2005. He went to Jack Daniel's Racing, then run by Larry Perkins in 2008 before Kelly Racing was formed. In his 149 events so far, Kelly has done 330 races for six poles, 19 wins and 26 podiums. He still is the youngest winner ever of a V8 Supercar Championship race - in Canberra in 2000 when he was 20 years and 8 months old. "Over the 150 starts I've been fortunate to have a go at a bit of everything," he said yesterday as he made final preparations for track action at the Clipsal 500 from Friday. "The only reason we race is to be successful. So when I've had race wins, pole positions and things like that I obviously remember. But once those boxes are ticked and you get a pole or a win, a lot of drivers will hang their hat off that for six months; where for me that's fallen out the other end of my brain by the next morning and I turn to working on how to do it again. So I'm 99 per cent looking forwards, not really one that's looking backwards just yet." Kelly is only the 16th driver to clock 150 events in the history of the 51-year Australian Touring Car Championship, more lately known as the V8 Supercar Championship.

Garth Tander, 33, won each of the Saturday and Sunday races of the Clipsal 500 last year for HRT.  James Courtney, 30, came second in each race and, as reigning V8 Supercar Champion, now has shifted to HRT to make a formidable combination. As if that driver line-up and Adelaide track record was not enough, they said yesterday there was more to come.  On a visit to the Holden plant at Elizabeth, the Commodore racers said they were still pushing for more. "Because we won last year doesn't mean we're going to win this weekend," Tander said.  "We can't rest on last year's results. The standard in this sport is going up year by year. "You have to get it right on tyre life, fuel, strategy - you have to be as sharp as you can be." Courtney said HRT had done intense development work in the summer break to make the cars better. "The team did about 12 months (worth of) development over the Christmas period," he said. The pair's credentials are boosted by Tander holding the qualifying lap record on  the Adelaide street circuit and Courtney the race lap record. Each driver played down any suggestion of rivalry or acrimony  between them, Tander saying that was all "made up.""The best way to get the team to work is to work together," he said of co-operation with his new team-mate. He admitted not knowing Courtney closely before but said any sport or business needed time to develop a partnership.  Courtney said he was excited about being in HRT; his comeback from Race 1 to win Race 2 at the first 2011 event, at Abu Dhabi last month, showed the strength of the team. He said he loved street circuits -especially Adelaide's and the Clipsal 500 was a great event.  Courtney said he was over any minor injury sustained in a training accident on the Gold Coast two weeks ago. He was riding bicycles with former world motorcycle champion Mick Doohan when a ute - "I think it was a Ford" - pulled in front and suddenly braked. Doohan "being a bit better reacting on two wheels" missed the ute but Courtney went into the back and underneath, his hand being hurt when the driver tried to accelerate away.  Drivers will appear in  an autograph session in Rundle Mall, city from noon today.

Rivals, and champions, of the 1970s and 1980s Dick Johnson and Allan Moffat now have their sons driving for the same team, run by Johnson. Up-and-coming James Moffat, 26, will race a Jim Beam Falcon in the Clipsal 500 Adelaide this weekend, his team-mate being Steve Johnson, at 36, a seasoned campaigner with the outfit. Moffat Jnr has earned the drive in the top level of the sport after doing well in the Fujitsu development series for V8 Supercars. The sons can only hope to get some of the achievements of their fathers ... Allan Moffat was four times Australian Touring Car Champion, had 36 race wins, 52 podiums, 39 poles and four Bathurst race victories. Dick Johnson was five-times champion, had 30 race wins, 65 podiums, 27 poles and won at  Bathurst three times. Moffat Snr says that creates an issue for James as people will expect him to live up to the surname when he has to make his own way. Allan Moffat has determined to be at the Adelaide race and then not attend any more this year. "I'll be hiding at the back of the garage this weekend," he said. "I don't want to be a distraction for the team," Moffat added of the autograph hunters who appear wherever he does. He said James had got to where he is ("this crossroads in his career, an opportunity of a lifetime") by hard work. "It's all been his doing; he's worked his backside off in every category of racing he's been in," Moffat said. Moffat Snr said the closeness of competition was now far greater than in his day, exemplified by lap timing - "in our day, girls on stop-watches timed to a tenth of a second and now they go to four decimal points because that  can make the difference in a lap time." Moffat said he and Dick Johnson while track rivals always respected each other. "We never had a scrape between us," he said. "And I can't say that about everyone in pit lane then." Dick Johnson said he had full confidence in James and Steven to perform well. James Moffat said his surname had been a help and a hindrance. "It's meant publicity for me, which I've grabbed with both hands," he said. "At the same time the surname does bring extra expectation. Dad was so successful and it's not something I can do overnight." Their Jim Beam Falcons were among the 28 V8 Supercar Championship racers unloaded into the pit garages at Victoria Park in yesterday's set-up day. Track action for support categories has begun. The championship V8s take to the track tomorrow (Thursday) for their practice sessions ahead of the 250km, 78-lap race of the 3.22km street circuit on Saturday and again on Sunday.

I classify this as one of the hardest races for fitness, mechanical sympathy - because we bash over all the kerbs and chicanes that we can _ and a driver's mental strength.Most drivers get through Saturday pretty much unscathed, everyone's pretty fresh. But then to recover Saturday night, redo it all again Sunday for the same distance, same strategies _ that's when soreness comes in and drivers start to fatigue.So you try to survive Saturday to make sure you're in good shape for Sunday, try not to put the team under too much pressure Saturday night in the sense of repairing cars. You don't want them to be tired going into Sunday's race and fatiguing.So it's definitely a big, big, weekend for team, driver and car.  Generally the one that comes out with a win here goes on to have a pretty successful championship. I don't know why, but it definitely starts the championship off well.It gives the drivers a lot of confidence in surviving a street circuit like this. This one's quite a demanding track, ninety per cent of the corners are blind and it's a very challenging circuit.The car set-up here translates to other V8 Supercar street races and we spent a lot of time at Sydney's Homebush last year trying to perfect a street circuit style of set-up. That'll put us in good setup for this weekend.Adelaide's a tough, bumpy circuit. The driver with good car speed here is one that has confidence that the car will turn, especially in the blind corners but it also needs to ride the kerbs, needs to put its power down well. And you need to try and do all that with the least amount of effort, you want it to come easy so you don't fatigue.It's a softer set-up than for a permanent circuit so the car rides the bumps and makes it easy on your body.  It's a tough weekend and a big team effort, strategy will play a big part this year because of fuel consumption. And if the temperature continues in the high 20s it'll be difficult fitness-wise.There will be six to eight good, competitive cars this weekend - HRT, the FPR cars have shown to be reasonably good around here, Garry Rogers cars have been extremely quick on street circuits, Jamie will be quick and the Stone brothers have got three good, competitive cars.I've won here before a couple of times but it's been a little while.

Vettel repeated Webber's first-day domination by taking his RB7 racer to the top of the times on the second day of the final pre-season test ahead leading up to the Australian Grand Prix.Once again, the Bulls' margin to their nearest challenge was clear and obvious around the Barcelona track, although this time it was Sebastian Buemi of Toro Rosso who best-of-the-rest. McLaren, which was runner-up on day one thanks to Jenson Button, was only fourth as Lewis Hamilton jumped into the action while Ferrari, Mercedes and Williams were back in the pack after starting their track work a day late."The speed looks good as far as  we can judge, but I think we have to wait until after Melbourne - maybe in Malaysia or China - to really see where we are," Vettel said."It was a good day and a good time, although to be honest, it's difficult to say where we are, as the lap times of the teams are all over the place." Buemi was quick in the B-team for Red Bull, although no-one is expecting Toro Rosso to be a serious contender at Albert Park."We showed a reasonable performance level and the team did a very good job in preparing the car so well. Overall, it has been a productive test. Now, we must wait and see if we can make even more progress over the next two days with Jaime driving and then we can see where we really are when we get to Melbourne," said Buemi.The other repeat from Monday's track work was Vitaly Petrov's run to the third-quickest time in his Renault.  "The most important thing was to complete the race distance, which we managed this afternoon. It's the first time I've been able to do consistent long runs and really start understanding the tyres," Petrov said.Ferrari said it was not chasing pace with the 150, as Felipe Massa logged an impressive 101 laps to bed-in some aerodynamic changes since the most-recent test.McLaren had a disrupted day as a hydraulic failure stopped Hamilton in the morning and then his car had an exhaust problem in the afternoon. But the former world champion is not optimistic about Albert Park. "Do I believe I have a car to win the world championship at the moment?"I don't. No," Hamilton said. "It was a bit on-and-off today, it wasn't a great day for us, but in terms of how the car felt there was an improvement with some of the upgrades we have. So that is at least a positive, it's not all negative."From today, the improvements we've had, it's something that can grow to be better, so as long as we keep pushing in the right direction with the development, and the new things we have coming several races down the line, hopefully they will enable us to close the gap and compete for wins."BARCELONA TESTING - Day 21. Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull-Renault, 1:21.8652. Sebastian Buemi, Toro Rosso-Ferrari, 1:22.3963. Vitaly Petrov, Renault, 1:22.6704. Lewis Hamilton, McLaren-Mercedes, 1:22.8885. Felipe Massa, Ferrari, 1:23.3246. Paul di Resta, Force India-Mercedes, 1:24.3347. Kamui Kobayashi, Sauber-Ferrari, 1:24.4368. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes, 1:25.8079. Jarno Trulli, Lotus-Renault, 1:26.09010. Pastor Maldonado, Williams-Cosworth, 1:26.989

For the first time since he retired from fulltime V8 Supercar racing, the most successful driver of his generation will be back in action at Albert Park.But Skaife, who won Bathurst last year as a part-timer alongside Craig Lowndes and will continue in their 'dream team' at Mount Panorama this year, will not be racing a TeamVodafone Commodore at the AGP meeting. Instead, the veteran is taking on a new challenge as the guest star in the Carrera Cup championship for idential Porsche 911 racers.Skaife has had a brief trial in one of the cars at Phillip Island and told the Herald Sun yesterday he is looking forward to the challenge, including a battle against Carrera Cup specialist Craig Baird and V8 Supercar refugee Steven Richards."I'm at an age and stage that I can pick and choose what I want to do," Skaife said. "I'm not interested in novelty events or road rallies, but this looks good. It's an opportunity I've never had in my career because I've been so busy doing other stuff."To have a drive at the grand prix is relatively low-key, it's a circuit I really like, and a car I enjoy driving. It's a good thing to do."Skaife drove the Porsche for the first time at Phillip Island and eventually lapped just a half-second slower than Baird in the same car. He said he will take time to adjust to the car at Albert Park but hopes to be a contender."I don't expect to look like a megastar. I'm expecting to be up there somewhere. But I'm under no illusion, the guys who drive these cars are very good - Craig Baird is probably one of the best Porsche drivers anywhere in the world."