Coulthard says he's paid a high price for '98 Oz GP
Tens years and 4½ months after the checkered flag was waved there is still an odour from the 1998 Australian Grand Prix.
As the Australian motorsport public awaits an announcement -- perhaps tomorrow (Friday) about whether the NSW government is giving the green light to a V8 Supercar Championship round at Sydney Olympic Park -- that odour from so far back has wafted in again.
That's because David Coulthard, as he nears retirement from grand prix racing after 15 seasons in Formula 1, is cleansing his soul publicly about what took place at Melbourne's Albert Park on March 8, 1998.
That was the day he was leading in the closing stages of the race and then curiously slowed at the last corner of the street circuit with a couple of laps to go to let teammate McLaren-Mercedes Mika Hakkinen take the win.
Hakkinen went on to become world champion that season and the next, before Michael Schumacher's dominant run with Ferrari kicked in.
There was controversy worldwide about "team orders" after that '98 Oz GP, and the sport's governing body, the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), issued a bulletin supposedly outlawing such tactics but which was made a mockery of in subsequent years when Rubens Barrichello repeatedly moved aside for Ferrari's No. 1 man Schumacher.
Coulthard was to become McLaren's longest-serving driver and has always stuck strictly to its party line on that '98 incident -- that the pair had agreed pre-race that whichever of them got to the first corner first that day would be allowed to beat the other at the finish, which meant winning.
Even beyond his McLaren career at Red Bull Racing, where Australian Mark Webber has been his teammate since the start of 2007, Coulthard has maintained his diplomacy.
But now the Scotsman has been quoted in Glasgow's Daily Record newspaper saying that he regrets moving over for Hakkinen that day, that it was disastrous, and "a defining moment" in his career.
Effectively what the 13-time GP winner, including twice at Albert Park, is saying is that it was such compliance, and the reputation for it, that ensured he will leave F1 without a world title.
The Daily Record report begins by saying that Coulthard has now claimed his ethics cost him the chance of ever being champion.
"You could win any hindsight world championship you'd like to, but the reality is that you make the decisions you make," Coulthard said. "Of course I wish I'd made different decisions on many things -- like not moving over in 1998 for Mika in Melbourne.
"That was the defining moment for how I was perceived and for the championship.
"I honored a team agreement, so I can look at myself in the mirror in terms of my sporting ethic and know I did the right thing. But in this dog-eat-dog world it probably wasn't the right thing."
Shock stop in F1's KERS development
The FIA's move towards a "greener" F1 next year, through the introduction of systems that recover energy from braking (or KERS -- Kinetic Energy Recovery System), have had a setback this week.
A BMW-Sauber mechanic got an electric shock at the Jerez circuit in Spain as he tried to push back into a garage a 2007 F1 car driven by ex-GP driver Christian Klein on which KERS was being tested.
The mechanic's left hand was injured and his arm grazed and he spent a night in hospital after complaining of dizziness.
BMW-Sauber promptly abandoned the KERS testing.
A few days before last weekend's German GP the Red Bull Racing factory in England was abandoned when a fire started after a battery failure as it worked on KERS development.
As so often, F1's future rules are mired in politics.
FIA president Max Mosley, trying to reaffirm his power after the disgrace of his sex scandal (although he may well win his court case against the News of the World newspaper), is demanding teams come forward with the regulations they want soon.
His haste appears too much for the F1 team chiefs, who are to meet next week anyway at Ferrari's headquarters in Italy -- in what, for the moment, seems a new sense of co-operation among the often so-bitter rivals.
Vodafone executive to join Cochrane crew
While word is seemingly imminent on V8 Supercars Australia chairman Tony Cochrane's dream of a street race at Sydney Olympic Park, it has been reported today that a successor to retiring V8SA chief executive Wayne Cattach -- Vodafone executive Cameron Levick.
Teams have been told of Levick's appointment but it won't be made official until the end of the month, News Ltd motoring writer Paul Gover reported.
Levick, 38, is Vodafone's Queensland and Northern Territory manager and previously worked for Diageo, the agent for Johnny Walker scotch and Bundaberg Rum.
Among those he reportedly beat for the job were former Gold Coast Indy boss Geoff Jones and Bahrain circuit manager and former Ford F1 and world rallying manager Martin Whitaker.
We'll leave commentary on the Sydney street race proposal until we hear the outcome, except to say that while we have noted previously the public invisibility of the new NSW major events organisation on this matter we now glean that there are strong links between its chief, John O'Neill, the renowned rugby and soccer administrator, and James Erskine, who is Tony Cochrane's main partner in SEL (Sports Entertainment Ltd, 25 per cent owner of V8SA) and perhaps the real powerhouse behind that business.
Perspectives on V8 Supercar popularity
An extract from Sydney-based sponsorship evaluation and intelligence company Repucom International's 2007 SponsorLink Research Study found its way to us this week -- and very interesting read it was too.
It was just six pages from the V8 Supercars summary of what is apparently a massive report on many sports and which costs the sporting bodies and sponsors that get it close to $10,000.
Repucom surveyed 4000 people in online interviews last year -- about 1000 people a quarter -- and about a quarter expressed interest in V8 Supercars.
On Repucom's General Sports Interest chart, V8 Supercars ranked 8th -- a jump from 11th in 2006 and putting them on a par with rugby union.
Heading the table was cricket with 45.9 per cent, followed by AFL 43.8 per cent, tennis 43 per cent, swimming 42.6 per cent, rugby league 34.7 per cent, football (soccer) 33 per cent, rugby union 25.7 per cent, then the V8s at 25.4 per cent, having overtaken golf and basketball on this Repucom research (indeed, basketball -- and netball -- dropped out of its top 10 in '07, while fishing made it in at 10th).
Formula 1 was 13th at 19.8 per cent and rallying 19th at 15.7 per cent.
MotoGP, superbikes, drag racing and speedway -- which all have their solid core of fans -- were not included for whatever reason.
Repucom's V8 Supercar Interest by Region chart shows South Australians to have the greatest interest at 34 per cent, not surprising in light of the popularity of the 10-year-old Clipsal 500, but Queenslanders to be the most passionate -- registering 3.7 out of 5 on the passion meter compared with SA's 3.6.
Interest in V8 Supercars across the rest of mainland Australia is pretty even -- 25 per cent in Victoria (passion reading 3.4), NSW 24 per cent (passion 3.6), WA 24 per cent (passion 3.5) and ACT 23 per cent (3.4).
Tasmania apparently is not on the map in this research, even though the Symmons Plains round of the V8 Supercar Championship is the island state's biggest annual sporting event, and it's interesting that the ACT -- which ditched its street race after a couple of years -- is included, but the Northern Territory, where the Hidden Valley round has seemingly been a big success, has not.
Still, the overall findings are confirming most of our impressions of where V8 Supercars stand in the national sporting landscape, although we are surprised at some of the results on the Favorite V8 Supercar Team chart -- and that almost 52 per cent of V8 Supercar fans polled in this survey said they had no specific favorite team (quite a contrast to what we expect the football codes, particularly AFL and NRL, would reflect).
Team Vodafone is the favorite V8 Supercar team with 14.9 per cent and Holden Racing Team runner-up at 14.4 per cent.
While Team Vodafone/Triple 8 is still a relative newcomer to the Australian motor racing scene, we perceive that factor to have been easily offset by the popularity of driver Craig Lowndes, the massive success of the team in the past couple of years -- especially its back-to-back Bathurst victories, even if not a championship -- and perhaps the overall marketing and promotion that goes with a big-budget team.
Behind the two favorite teams there was a big drop to Toll HSV Dealer Team (re Toll, remember this is 2007 research) at 3 per cent, then Jim Beam Racing (Dick Johnson Racing) at 1.5 per cent, Stone Brothers Racing at 1.2 per cent, Tasman Motorsport at 0.9 per cent, Jack Daniels Racing (Larry Perkins Engineeing) at 0.6 per cent and Ford Performance Racing 0.4 per cent - and the others either zip or effectively zip.
Remember again that this is '07 research, but on this chart the only two teams that Ford has chosen to continue giving financial support beyond this year, Stone Bros and FPR, together get just 1.6 per cent - just a fraction of the 14.9 per cent of Team Vodafone which will no longer be a financial beneficiary of the Ford factory, primarily it seems because of the clash of its predominantly red livery with Ford's desire to promote itself in blue.
Overall at the top of the scale we note that the top 3 Holden teams score 18.3 per cent versus 17.6 per cent for the top three Ford teams, again tallying with our gut feeling.
Despite that relative equality, the finding on fans who favored a manufacturer (rather than any particular team or the many who said they did not favor any specific team), Holden was more than twice as popular as Ford -- 7.4 per cent to 3.2 per cent.
Although that is a comprehensive "win" for Holden, the surprisingly low figures on the car makers tally with, and indeed may even be the foundation for, V8SA chairman Tony Cochrane's recent comments that the category is now more about teams than manufacturers.
That may be so, although we are not convinced that the viability of V8 Supercar racing is enhanced by the erosion of the place of the manufacturers in the jigsaw.
Repucom's V8 Supercar Fan Profile shows us that interest in the category doesn't really kick in until people are at least 25, with only 10.5 per cent of fans in the 18-24 age bracket, but that it remains strong in later life -- 21 per cent are over 55.
The chart shows 24.5 per cent in the 25-34 age bracket, 28.7 per cent in 35-44 and 15.1 per cent in 45-54.
We were a little surprised that the gender split showed, compared with traditional perceptions, such strong appeal to females -- 36.5 per cent to 63.5 per cent males.
By occupation 22 per cent of fans were in the manager/administration/professional category, 18 per cent teacher/clerical/sales, 15 per cent retired, 13 per cent in full-time home duties (somewhat surprising), 12 per cent in retail sales/manufacturing/transport, 10 per cent tradespeople, 5 per cent unemployed and 4 per cent students.
On the annual personal income scale only 5 per cent of fans earned more than $100,000 a year and 16 per cent more than $70,000 (including those over $100k), while 54 per cent were below $50,000 -- including 30 per cent below $30,000.
On that scale not many could afford the full Repucom 2007 SponsorLink Research Study, but we found the six pages that came our way very good value.
Aussie can laugh last and loudest at Kiwi
We mentioned earlier in the week young Melbourne racer James Davison's breakthrough win in the Indy Lights series in the US.
What has largely been missed in the little reporting we have seen of this triumph by a grandson of four-time Australian GP winner (before it was an F1 race) Lex Davison, son of former Sandown promoter Jon Davison, and cousin of V8 Supercar star Will and Porsche racer Alex has been the massive mistake New Zealander Jonny Reid made at the end of the Indy Lights round at Mid-Ohio.
Half the race was run under caution after it started 25 minutes late because of torrential rain, but Reid led 17 of the 20 laps (and fellow Kiwi Mitch Cunningham another 2).
But somehow Reid mistook the finish line and drove into the pit lane instead of taking the checkered flag!
For some reason, the start and finish points on the track were not the same -- a quirk of Mid-Ohio we seem to recall from way back.
Davison, who had clawed his way back up from 15th after an "off'', inherited the victory -- and there was much justice in that as Reid, who has been NZ's main man in the A1 GP series, cost the Aussie a big result a week earlier at the Nashville Superspeedway.
Reid blamed a malfunctioning radio that prevented proper communication from his team, while Davison -- who had previously won in Formula BMW at Indianapolis and twice in Star Mazda in the US -- could hardly believe his sudden change of fortune.
"Maybe the gods of racing were looking out for me," Davison said. "Payback for Jonny putting me into the wall at Nashville!"
He was only joking, and admitted he felt sorry for Reid -- who was classified ninth.
The other Kiwi Cunningham in the race, Wade, who won the Lights series three years ago, was second and brother Mitch wound up 12th while there was fisticuffs between two drivers after a three-car pile-up.
Davison is not yet in the top 10 of the championship point standings, which are led by one of his Sam Schmidt Motorsports teammates, American Richard Antinucci, while another, Brazilian woman, Ana Beatriz, is third, behind her countryman Raphael Matos, who is driving for Andretti Green.
Briscoe clicks with The Captain
Sydneysider Ryan Briscoe's IndyCar victory at Mid-Ohio, his second this season after his June victory at Milwaukee, was further justification of Roger "The Captain" Penske's faith in a driver discarded by Toyota's F1 outfit and Chip Ganassi in the States.
The Penske quinella last weekend, with Brazilian Helio Castroneves finishing behind Briscoe, was the 35th for Penske in American open-wheeler racing.
"Ryan drove a heck of a race," said Castroneves, while Briscoe added: "Finally, something went our way (after three races outside the top 10, particularly after Kiwi series leader Scott Dixon accidentally KO'd his car on the Watkins Glen road course two weeks earlier).
Of the seven drivers who led the Mid-Ohio race Briscoe headed the most laps -- 43.
He's now up to fifth in the series on 296 points, behind Dixon on 455, Castroneves 397, Tony Kanaan 365 and Dan Wheldon 364.
Danica Patrick is sixth on 284, Hideki Mutoh has 276, Marco Andretti 263, Ryan Hunter-Reay 252, Oriol Servia 250 and Aussie Will Power is 11th on 245.
Wonderboy from west jumps into F3
Daniel Ricciardo, the Perth teenager we highlighted last week having great success in Formula Renault in Europe, is to make his Formula 3 debut this weekend at Germany's Nurburgring.
The 19-year-old Ricciardo has a big gap in his Renault calendar and sponsor Red Bull steered him into the F3 drive -- and he will contest the F3 Masters, now at Zolder in Belgium (rather than the traditional Zandvoort in Holland), in two weeks.
The 50 Greatest Racecars
If you're still feeling under-nourished for motorsport chat, this week's Auto Action magazine (edition No.1300) has a feature on the 50 Greatest Racecars.
Its findings don't correspond exactly with our thoughts, but the article is very much worth a look all the same.
Image: Reuters
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