RICCIARDO SPEAKS OUT NO RENAULT REGRETS .COM.AU
SINCE 1971
BULL FIGHT Holden factory team not giving up
SHOWDOWN! ROLAND VS FOGES BATTLE OF THE BELLIGERENTS
ALFA CENTAURI
Inside TCR’s Italian stallion
Issue #1764
27 June to 10 July , 2019
$7.95 NZ $8.50
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Ricciardo’s fresh outlook on car set-up has provided minor breakthroughs at Enstone, as he and teammate Nico Hulkenberg look to make Renault a force in Formula 1 once more. His working relationship with Renault team boss Cyril Abiteboul is very open and the development that Renault is putting in makes the ex-Red Bull driver confident of future success together.
“No, it was a comfort zone, for sure, and part of it was getting out of that,” he admits. “This was more with me as opposed to Red Bull, but I felt like at times I was maybe getting just a bit too comfortable. “I felt like I needed a kick up the arse to force myself to work with new people in a team that still has a lot of work to do and try to extract a bit more out of myself. Also, having a new teammate is really good because every driver has something different – a technique or something we do with our style. No two drivers are identical.
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“I spent a bit of time with Max Verstappen and I felt like we had both learned from each other. He was very strong and I could see that. I thought for me to get better, I should go up against another guy and see if I could take one technique from Nico Hülkenberg which I could put into my repertoire.”
THE TEAMMATE BONUS
IS NICO Hülkenberg underrated because he never had a podium finish in F1? Ricciardo doesn’t hesitate to acknowledge the German’s prowess.
“Having Nico as a teammate was a bonus for me signing with Renault,” Ricciardo reiterates. “I always knew he was strong. I watched him a lot as a junior driver and he won many championships. He was very highly rated “He has always been in a mid-field F1 team and never had a break. I know that the talent is there, but I am sure that there is also a bit of frustration over the years of never being in a top team. “With me coming in, as a driver who has won grands prix, it is a real chance for him to say now I will show everyone. If I can beat Ricciardo, people will be reminded remind of how good I am. will get the best Nico this year and “I wil that is good for me because then my chance chanc of learning something from him higher. It will push me to do better. I is high this whole dynamic.” like th Speaking of teammates, was he Spe surprised that Valtteri Bottas has surpr been challenging Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes this year? Or is this finally Merc Bottas that Ricciardo fought the B against 10 years ago in Formula agai Renault? Ren “T “That is a good question,” Ricciardo say says. “Valtteri came out strong at the sta start of this season, so maybe I am a littl little bit surprised. But I know that he is ttalented. I know that he is capable of getting results. ““Yet if he really pushes Lewis to the las last race this year, then I will be a bi bit more surprised. If Lewis starts to p put all his energy into it, then I think LLewis will be hard to beat.”
TOO MANY RACES
RACE DRIVERS love to race, but there is a limit to that affection. One of the rules proposals for the future is two-day race weekends and up to 25 races in a season. Ricciardo is wary about that. “When we go to a place like Montreal, I am happy to stay there for five days because it is a cool place,” he says. “If 25 races mean more flying, maybe not. That is a lot of flying. “It is a lot of races. Maybe they need to rethink this. This is where the drivers can have a say as well. This is where we as the GPDA (Grand Prix Drivers Association) need to get together and find out what the plans are for the future. “If there is something we are really against, we need to speak up.” One of the underlying reasons why Ricciardo left Red Bull was because it was switching from Renault to Honda power this year. Honda got off to a rocky start when t returned to F1 in 2015 with McLaren. Is he surprised at Honda’s progress this year – not only the performance, but also the reliability? “I’m not surprised about the performance because I have seen some of their infrastructure and there is no reason that they should not be performing,” he says. “The reliability has been good. In the first part of this season, Renault was the one struggling a lot more. “So with the reliability, Honda seem to be doing quite well. From the pure power and performance, I’m not sure if it is anything crazy or unexpected.”
A FRESH SET OF EYES
SO WHAT does Ricciardo think that Renault is lacking that he can help with his experience? “Like in any situation, it could be as simple as a fresh set of eyes,” he responds. “When I got in the car the first time, I noticed some characteristics. And I said: ‘When you do this, what about doing that?’ “There were some things with set-up that they had not really thought about. Or maybe they tried two years ago and it didn’t work, so they didn’t try it again. But I could say, actually, at Red Bull we worked on this item quite a bit and we found it was quite a good thing for the car. “So I think let’s look again at developing this part to help in this area. Things like that have been helpful. From an operations point of view, Red Bull has had a very similar team for quite a while now. Renault is still new, and people are still changing around quite frequently. “Red Bull had a real structure in place and operated very well. For sure, I can bring some of that to this team. Like saying at that meeting we can have this guy come into talk. “I don’t want to say that I am the guide to change the whole team, but for sure if I see something, I can tell them. “The good thing with Renault and (team principal) Cyril (Abiteboul) is that they are very open to constructive criticism to get better. Cyril welcomes that. He says if you see something we can do, tell us because we want to get better. “If Red Bull did something like this, tell
us and we will change the way we do it. So I can be an arsehole without being an arsehole!” If a team in F1 does not constantly upgrade its car, it falls behind. According to Ricciardo, Renault is aggressive with its upgrades. “On the positive side, at nearly every race we’ve had something new on the car,” he notes. “That has been impressive. What Red Bull is really known for is its rate of development. I expected to see something significantly
less here, but so far this year Renault’s rate of development has been pretty good. “From what I hear, compared with last year, it is a whole other world. It makes me happy that they are doing what needs to be done to get to a Red Bull level of development.” Such is the way with F1 interviews these days, time is strictly limited. Ricciardo has been gracious and forthcoming as ever, but the minder is winding us down. So one final question:
As the Renault team gets better, is there a track later in the season like Hungary or Singapore where a podium finish would be possible? “I do think we can get a big result this year, but a podium is still a stretch for 2019,” ‘Our Dan’ smiles. “I really believed we could have had a top five in Monaco. A top five is on the cards this year, but where it comes, I’m not sure. “Standing on the podium – we have to first get a bit more out of the car to have that as a realistic target.”
AutoAction
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p ra w S L NATIONA
Sam and Yasser Shahin were top points scorers.
RECORDS BROKEN AT THE BEND Report & Images: David Batchelor
THE THIRD round of the Australian Motor Racing Series visited the The Bend Motorsport Park for the first time on June 22-23, with the series showing off his diversity of categories.
FORMULA 3
NO ONE could catch John Magro (Dallara F308/11) who cruised to victory in all three races and locked away a new outright lap record of 1min 40.7295s in the final race. Reilly Brook (Mygale M07) was next best followed by Roman Krumins (Dallara F307). Josh Buchan (Dallara F308/11) showed good pace after running out of fuel on the final lap of Saturday’s race, as he carved his way from the rear of the grid. He progressed to second in race two on Sunday and also claimed second in the final race. South Australian Andrews Roberts (Dallara F304) ran out of luck when he broke the gearbox in race two, putting him out for the weekend.
FORMULA FORD THE PRESSURE was on with three different winners from three races and the battles for the minor places were epic and track limits stretched to the max. Lachlan Mineef (Mygale SJ10A) took the round by only one point but comfortably claimed his first championship race win in the final heat. Thomas Sargent (Mygale SJ12A) had taken the opening win on Saturday and was credited with second for the round. He tied on points with championship leader and race
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two winner Angelo Mouzouris (Mygale SJ18A). Kiwi teenager Callum Hedge (Mygale SJ10A) had a productive weekend in the second Sonic entry, claiming fourth. Harrison Goodman (Mygale) and Paul Di Biase (Spectrum) had a coming together at the first corner in race one, which bought out the safety car.
Seton fought for over second. Unfortunately Herne had the differential fail while he was leading the final race, gifting Miedecke an outright win ahead of Seton. Consistency paid off for reigning title holder Ashley Jarvis elevating his Chev Camaro into third outright.
TA2
DESPITE FINISHING second in both races, Sam and Yasser Shahin (Lamborghini Gallardo) were the top points scorers. Matt Stoupas (Audi R8 LMS) came out on top in race one after the safety car was bought out on lap one with Peter Corbett’s Lamborghini Gallardo looking very
TA2 HAD the biggest field and it looked like the Mustangs of George Miedecke and Aaron Seton would be fighting for the minors but fate intervened. NSW’s Nathan Herne had dominated proceedings in his Dodge Challenger, winning the first three races while Miedecke and Lachlan Mineef claimed his first championship race win and the round.
GT-AUSTRALIA
second hand as it limped back to the pits. The stranded Porsche GT3 of Rick Mensa had to wait till the race’s end to be rescued by the tow truck. There was a little less excitement in race two with John Morriss (Porsche 911 GT3R) taking the chequered flag first. Shahin and Stoupas took the minor places. Geoff Taunton and Jason Busk were the MARC 1 winners with Taunton the top points scorer.
THUNDER SPORTS
JOEL HEINRICH (Ford Falcon AU ex-Supercar) had looked set to win all four races until a misfire saw him dive into the pits and lose a lap with that race win going
Nathan Nat Na thann HHerne th than errne ne w won onn races tthree th hree TA TTA22 rra acees aan nd then then th en hhad ad tthe ad he he and ddifferential di iffffeerren enti ntitial al ffail. ail.l. ai
A misfire stopped Joel Heinrich from winning all four Thunder Sports races. to Mark Tracey (BMW E36). Rick Newman (Falcon) had been able to outpace the V8-powered BMW but retired from the final race after only one lap. Brett Mitchell was the best of the rest in his OzTruck. Myles Bond (turbo Ford Escort) had given the frontrunners something to worry about, leading race one briefly before running out of
fuel and then withdrawing from the event after some other problems were found. Class A winner Heinrich and Class B winner Tracey were tied on points for the outright win by the end of the weekend.
John Magro set a new outright lap record on his way to three wins.
BMW E3S, UTES & IROC PORSCHES
HAVING IT all their own way, Jeremy Payne and Jesse Bryan filled the top two spots every race of the Garagistic BMW Drivers Cup. There was a bit of movement and a little bit of rubbing in the mid order with Brian Bourke grabbing the last podium position. It was Commodores one, two and three in the Utes with Glenn Hancox leading VE clean sweep. Local Ute campaigner Charlie Kovacs was a close second with Hancox’s team mate Colin Sieders third. South Aussie Wayne Williams was the lone Falcon
runner tying on points with Sieders. Greg Keene was the lone IROC Porsche and spent his weekend at the pointy end showing the Utes and BMW’s how it should be done.
RX8 CUP
SERIES CREATOR Ric Shaw eventually prevailed after Aaron Prosser claimed the first two wins. Prosser struck trouble in race three and finished well down the order but bounced back in the final race to consolidate his second place ahead of William Harris.
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TOYOTA TRIPPED OVER ITSELF … AGAIN THE LE Mans 24 Hours is the most difficult endurance race in the world. Before this dominant era as the sole-manufacturer in LMP1, Toyota had an incredibly poor history in the world’s most famous endurance event. Year after year the Japanese marque would arrive at the Circuit de la Sarthe full of hope, before finding a unique and often spectacular way to throw away a Le Mans 24 Hour victory. Case in point was on the penultimate lap in 2016, when after leading for almost the entire 24 hours, the #8 Toyota rolled to a stop out on circuit and wasn’t even classified as a finisher. In 2017 the team had a clear 1-2 lead but by day break mechanical failures and accidents had put all three cars out of the race. Finally in 2018 Toyota got the monkey off its rear wing and took a 1-2 victory. It wasn’t a trouble-free result because that’d be a lie, but nevertheless the brand finally won Le Mans. As it was in 2018, Toyota had an extraordinary advantage on the rest of the field this year, as clear favourites thanks mostly to its incredible hybrid power unit. The Japanese brand was almost guaranteed a victory unless the team threw the win away itself, but as usual Toyota tried
Toyota has taken two straight Le Mans 24 Hours victories but that is almost in spite of itself. It’s been a long time coming.
LE MANS CROSSWORD ANSWERS 1-Down: Pirro 2-Down: David Brabham 3-Down: Needell 4-Across: Graham Hill 5-Down: Dunlop 5-Across: Diesel 6-Down: Ferrari 7-Across: Kristensen
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8-Across: Hulkenburg 9-Down: Andlauer 10-Down: Thirteen 11-Across: Ickx 12-Across: Nakajima 13-Down: Four 14-Across: Porsche
its best. With a three-minute lead on the sister car with just an hour to go, victory was in the bag for the #7 Toyota. But n on-car sensors detected a rightno, fr front puncture, except that the Toyota a actually had a puncture on the left-rear. Surely with a near-lap lead the team s should have checked all four tyres
in the pits, which is common sense. Instead, the car pitted, the right-front was changed and the #7 sent back out to do another lap ... only to discover that it was really the left-rear that was punctured! A huge amount of time was lost with the #7 crawling back to the pits, to have the correct wheel replaced.
How can a team with this much experience could overlook something like that is baffling. The cause of the sensor problem was a “wiring issue” ... someone quite literally got his or her wires crossed, and it cost the #7 car a certain victory. Fortunately for the team, the #8 car picked up the pieces and took its second straight Le Mans crown. However, if Toyota had had any real opposition such as it had in previous years, Auto Action almost certainly could have added this debacle to its list of Toyota failures. Dan McCarthy
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SINCE 1971
BULLT FIGH Holden factory team not giving up
SHOWDOWN! ROLAND VS ES FOG E OF THE BATTL ENTS BELLIGER
URI A T N E C A ALF R’s Italian stallion Inside TC
27 June to 10 July
, 2019
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Issue #176
FANS ISSING T YOU D S R A SUPERC DON’T CARE ABOU
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