AUSSIES IN FOR A BUSY YEAR
- 27 May 2013
Australian motor sport stars are in for a busy year in all major categories of the sport.
Mark Webber got his season underway last week at Jerez when he gave his broken leg its first test and surprised everyone with a time that equaled his “wunderkind” team-mate Sebastian Vettel. Only two drivers at this test managed to beat Webber’s time and as they were Hamilton and Alonso, he can’t be too disappointed. It must be said however that neither Ferrari nor BMW were on hand as they were both down at Bahrain along with Toyota. Mark’s speed wasn’t the only thing to give satisfaction either. As he completed 175 laps over two days in the car he was pretty happy with how his broken leg had mended.
The first of our exports to have a hit out this year was Chris Atkinson who was left without a ride in the WRC when Subaru pulled the plug in early January. He has signed a deal with Citroen to drive for there “junior” squad throughout this season although he will not compete in all the rounds. One must say it was typical Chris in the opening round in Ireland, he was very quick when he wasn’t bending the car. Eleven top four stage times out of Seventeen stages including seven in a row as he hunted down and passed Henning Solberg’s Ford Focus for fourth place. Like his World Champion team-mate Sebastien Loeb, Chris used the wrong type of tyres on the first two stages and compounded this when he forgot to secure the bonnet after removing his fog lights, resulting in the bonnet smashing his windscreen. On stage six he got it completely wrong entering a right hander and leveled a telegraph pole. Then came the superb string of drives that had him in a comfortable fourth place with just one stage to go. And he beached it on a rock wall on the very first corner and lost a minute, and fourth place. Still, fifth was a pretty good result first time out in the C4 and it must be said that the conditions were appalling.
In other categories, David Brabham will line up for two championship contending teams in sportscar races this year. He will drive for Gil de Ferran’s semi-works Acura (Honda) team in the American Le Mans series and has snared the plum drive with the works Peugeot squad for the Le Mans 24 hours. In the IRL Team Penske has become Team Australia with Will Power joining Ryan Briscoe in the famous squad. Depending on what happens with Helio Castro-Neves’ trial for tax evasion the two Aussies may be the teams drivers for the entire season. If Helio gets off, Will will at least start the season and have a ride for the Indy 500 with Penske.
A little way down the ladder we have the steadily improving John Martin in the A1GP series who has scored points regularly so far this season including a fine fourth place last time out at Taupo. After his stunning debut season in Europe where he won the West European Formula Renault series and finished runner-up in the Euroseries, Daniel Ricciardo has signed on with the current champion team in British F3, Carlin Motorsports. With Red Bull backing and VW engines Daniel could well be on the way to being our first British F3 champ since David Brabham.
On two wheels, Casey Stoner has had his wrist operated on and has made it through his first test session with some pain and difficulty but still came out on top of the timesheets. Once again he will be leading the Ducati team in Moto GP while Chris Vermeulen will once again partner Loris Capirossi on the Suzuki. Troy Bayliss may have ridden off into the sunset with last years Superbike title but the “other” Troy (Corser) will head the new factory BMW team whose bike has been showing excellent pace in testing. A third title for Corser perhaps? Who knows. That’s the beauty of Motorsport, until the racing starts, no-one really knows anything. Come November we may be celebrating world champions in seven categories or none at all. But one thing is for certain, it will be fun following their efforts.
Sam Snape
14/02/2009