| By Matt Beer | Wednesday, May 8th 2013, 14:10 GMT |
Formula 1 could not reintroduce mid-season testing without teams setting up separate test squads again, reckons McLaren managing director Jonathan Neale
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| By David Evans | Wednesday, May 8th 2013, 15:22 GMT |
Volkswagen team principal Jost Capito says he will not be pressured by his drivers into delivering upgrades to the Polo R WRC before they are ready
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| By Jonathan Noble | Wednesday, May 8th 2013, 16:12 GMT |
Formula 1 bursts back into action at the Spanish Grand Prix this weekend for the start of what will be a crucial phase of the world championship battle
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| By Jamie O'Leary | Tuesday, May 7th 2013, 15:41 GMT |
Gary Paffett has called on DTM race officials to take a harder line over dangerous driving, following the opening round of the season at Hockenheim last weekend
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| Monday, May 6th 2013, 16:08 GMT |
Marc Marquez followed up his controversial second place in the Jerez Grand Prix by setting the pace in MotoGP testing at the Spanish track.
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| Monday, May 6th 2013, 16:43 GMT |
Toyota believes the form of its latest TS030 HYBRID in Saturday's Spa 6 Hours proves it can challenge arch-rival Audi at next month's Le Mans 24 Hours.
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| Monday, May 6th 2013, 17:58 GMT |
Ducati MotoGP test rider Michele Pirro will fill in for Ben Spies in the satellite Pramac squad for the French Grand Prix
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| By Mark Glendenning | Sunday, May 5th 2013, 18:36 GMT |
James Hinchcliffe won an extraordinary IndyCar race in Sao Paulo by taking the lead from Takuma Sato on the final corner of the last lap
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| Sunday, May 5th 2013, 19:42 GMT |
Pramac Ducati MotoGP driver Andrea Iannone will undergo arm surgery on Tuesday
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| By Connell Sanders Jr | Monday, May 6th 2013, 00:31 GMT |
David Ragan claimed his second NASCAR Cup series win by heading an unlikely one-two for Front Row Motorsport in a rain-delayed race at Talladega
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| Saturday, May 4th 2013, 17:13 GMT |
Carl Edwards will start from NASCAR Sprint Cup pole at Talladega by virtue of his practice performance after rain forced the cancellation of Saturday's qualifying session
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Subscribe to Premier Sports TV to watch all Sprint Cup events live in the UK. Visit www.premiersports.tv for more information.
| By Mark Glendenning | Saturday, May 4th 2013, 19:13 GMT |
Ryan Hunter-Reay will start Sunday's IndyCar race on the Sao Paulo street circuit from pole position after coming out on top from an eventful qualifying session
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| By Gary Watkins | Saturday, May 4th 2013, 20:23 GMT |
Andre Lotterer, Marcel Fassler and Benoit Treluyer led home an Audi one-two-three victory at the Spa round of the World Endurance Championship
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French President Francois Hollande is under pressure to accelerate economic reforms even as recession means the country will need more time to reduce government borrowing.
LONDON (CNNMoney)
The European Commission published new forecasts showing that the eurozone economy would shrink by 0.4% in 2013, slightly worse than its previous estimate of 0.3%. The 17 countries in the eurozone contracted 0.6% in 2012.
France, the region's second largest economy, was back in recession in the first quarter of 2013, the commission said, and would contract by 0.1% over the year as a whole. The French government still expects the economy to grow slightly this year.
"The French government forecast is in our view overly optimistic," EU finance chief Ollie Rehn said at a news conference.
The European Central Bank cut interest rates for the first time in 10 months Thursday as hopes of a recovery later this year fade.
Unemployment continues to hit new record highs, inflation has fallen way below the central bank's target and recession is spreading to core countries including France and the Netherlands.
Recent survey data even point to troubling weakness in Germany, the only one of the eurozone's five biggest economies still expected to grow this year.
EU policymakers are pinning their hopes on a recovery in exports to lead to a return to modest growth in the second half of this year. But the prolonged recession has forced them to allow some countries to reduce debt more slowly to avoid making matters worse.
Spain, stuck in recession for 21 months and with unemployment at 27%, has been given two more years to bring its budget deficit to below 3% of gross domestic product.
Stagnation in France means it too will need similar leeway, Rehn said.
"Considering the economic situation, it may be reasonable to extend the deadline by two years and to correct the excessive deficit at the latest by 2015 in France," he said.
The extra time should be used to introduce new reforms to product and labor markets and the French pensions system, he added.
"That is key to unlocking the growth potential that France so badly needs," Rehn said.
France's budget deficit will rise to 4.2% of GDP next year from 3.9% in 2013 unless policies change, according to the European Commission. Germany is forecast to balance its budget next year, after running a small surplus in 2012.
Economists are becoming increasingly concerned at the growing divergence between France and Germany, historically the twin motors of the EU economy and political integration.
Related: Hard-up France sells presidential wine
French President Francois Hollande, who was elected a year ago after campaigning to put growth before austerity and introduce higher taxes on the rich, has seen his approval ratings fall sharply as unemployment continues to climb.
In recent months he has begun to reform labor markets and pensions, and announced plans to cut capital gains tax. But he is moving too slowly for some, and his government continues to send mixed messages.
Plans for a 75% tax on incomes above a million euros are being redrafted to apply to large companies rather than individuals, and this week the government used its stake in France Telecom to prevent the company selling video site Dailymotion to Yahoo.
France Telecom has lashed out at the intervention, saying it should have been left to the company's management to decide on the deal. 
First Published: May 3, 2013: 9:10 AM ET
NEW YORK (Fortune)
Fortune wants to make it even easier for you to eavesdrop. The Fortune Brainstorm podcast is a weekly show that features recorded conversations from Fortune's live events.
Brainstorm Green 2013 wrapped up on Wednesday, so we have fresh audio from the conference. Today's podcast focuses on a town hall- style talk given by Procter & Gamble (PG, Fortune 500) CEO Bob McDonald, who was presenting some of his company's sustainable products, such as a concentrated version of Tide laundry detergent meant for cold water.
But how much do companies really care about sustainability? We talk to Fortune managing editor Andy Serwer and P&G's vice president of global sustainability Len Sauers to try to get some answers. In a tough economy with vocal investors, how easy is it to go green?
Subscribe to and download the podcast from iTunes.
Or stick the podcast's RSS feed into your favorite podcast app: http://fortunebrainstormpodcast.libsyn.com/rss.
First Published: May 3, 2013: 10:55 AM ET
The U.K. government currently owns just over 80% of the Edinburgh-based Royal Bank of Scotland. Shares in the bank have severely underperformed London's benchmark FTSE 100 index over the last five years.
LONDON (CNNMoney)
Five years after the British state was forced to rescue Edinburgh-based RBS during the financial crisis, the bank believes its house-cleaning operation is nearly complete.
RBS (RBS) chairman Philip Hampton says the bank will work with the government to prepare a privatization prospectus by the middle of 2014, allowing it to extract itself from what has been a troubled relationship.
"It could be earlier [than 2014], that's a matter for the government," Hampton said in a statement. "But certainly we think the recovery process will be substantially complete in about a year or so."
The British government owns just over 80% of RBS and holds a 40% stake in Lloyds Banking Group (LLDTF).
Related: UBS and Deutsche Bank show signs of life
Senior politicians have been pressuring the banks to prepare for privatization ahead of national elections in 2015.
The use of taxpayer money to bail out the banks has been hotly debated, and politicians are looking to rid themselves of the responsibility for two of the country's biggest players.
If the government is able to exit its investments in both banks in the next few years, it will book a multi-billion pound loss, unless share prices recover substantially. However, there is no firm decision yet about how or when the government will sell its holdings.
Shares in RBS have plunged by 95% since their peak in 2007. Shares in Lloyds have also fallen by over 80% since their peak.
Both banks have struggled to recover from the financial crisis. They've introduced massive restructuring programs while dealing with a host of legal problems and increased regulation.
Since being rescued by the U.K. government at a cost of £45 billion in 2008, RBS has been trying to make the bank smaller and financially sound. It has shed over £900 billion in assets.
In February, RBS was fined $612 million by regulators after an investigation found 21 bank employees tried to rig the global benchmark interest rates over a period of four years. RBS was one of 14 global banks implicated in this Libor scandal.
Swiss bank UBS (UBS) and Barclays (BCLY), paid out $1.5 billion and $450 million, respectively, to settle their Libor charges.
First Published: May 3, 2013: 10:46 AM ET
NEW YORK (CNNMoney)
Retail and food services experienced some of the strongest job growth in this month's jobs report, adding 29,000 and 38,000 positions respectively.
Economists say these sectors are growing because people feel better about the economy.
Housing prices and stock prices have been rising for the past several months, which has boosted consumer confidence. Gas prices have also been falling, putting more money in people's pockets.
Related: April jobs report: Hiring picks up
"We're seeing more confidence and households are more able to go out and spend and drive job growth," said James Marple, a senior economist at TD Bank (TD).
Marple warned not to read too much into one month's data. Retail jobs in particular have generally lagged overall job growth over the last year, though some of that is due to fewer workers needed in stores as more retail sales shift online.
But hiring at food service and drinking establishments has been brisk over the past 12 months -- rising at a 3% rate verses 1.9% for the overall job market.
"That's usually one of the best barometers of the pulse of the consumer," said Anthony Chan, chief economist for Chase Private Client, a wealth management division of JPMorgan Chase (JPM, Fortune 500). "They don't need a calculator to figure out things are getting better."
There's some concern that retail and restaurant jobs tend to be part time or low wage positions. Indeed, the number of Americans saying they worked part time when they really wanted full time jobs rose by 278,000 in April. But economists said that, on balance, it's still positive news.
Chan said that part time employment is often a stepping stone to a full time position, and that people may be also taking part time jobs to improve their chances of getting hired elsewhere. It's one thing to be unemployed when the job market's lousy, he said, but it's another to have to explain in an interview why you still don't have work when the economy is on the upswing.
Marple also wasn't too concerned that these might be part time or low wage positions.
"A job's a job. I wouldn't consider it a negative," he said.
First Published: May 3, 2013: 12:19 PM ET
Cuts in government spending on construction projects led to the drop in April's construction employment.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney)
The sector lost about 6,000 jobs overall, according to the Labor Department's jobs report. This was largely due to a decline in hiring for non-residential buildings or public works projects like roads or sewer plants. Combined, these two areas lost 19,700 jobs.
Meanwhile, home builders and their subcontractors added 13,300 workers, even more than in March.
A big part of the sector's pullback is due to a drop in government-funded construction projects, a trend that has been going on for about two years.
Federal construction spending is down 28% since peaking in August 2011, when stimulus spending was still going strong, according to Ken Simonson, chief economist of the Associated General Contractors of America, an industry trade group. Local governments, particularly school districts, have also been pulling back on construction spending after building a rush of new ones during the housing boom.
"You don't need to open a new school every month if people aren't coming," he said.
Related: April jobs report - Hiring picks up
Additionally, many builders are having a hard time finding skilled construction workers.
David Crowe, chief economist with the National Association of Home Builders, said residential construction hiring likely would have been even higher in April if not for the shortage of skilled workers in some markets. He said a survey of his trade group's members found about half couldn't find workers with the necessary skills.
Simonson and other experts say the cutback in federal spending -- known as the sequester -- that went into effect March 1 hasn't halted work on any construction projects already underway. But they said federal agencies knew the sequester was looming and did scale back new construction contracts earlier this year.
Record low mortgage rates, a rebound in home prices and strong new home sales prompted the fastest pace of home building in nearly five years in March, according to a separate government report.
First Published: May 3, 2013: 12:54 PM ET
NEW YORK (CNNMoney)
Nearly 4.4 million Americans were out of work for at least 27 weeks in April, according to Labor Department data released Friday. That's a drop of 14% from last April, when the figure topped 5 million, and a far cry from April 2010, when a record 6.7 million people were unemployed for more than six months.
The long-term unemployed also make up a smaller share of the pool of those looking for jobs these days. Only 37.4% of the jobless have been out of work for at least six months, compared to 40.5% a year ago. Americans are out of work for an average of 36.5 weeks, down from 39.1 weeks a year ago.
What's harder to discern is whether these formerly jobless folks are finding new positions or are simply giving up and dropping out of the labor force.
The jobless are finding more positions to apply to, but they are still having trouble landing them, said Mitchell Hirsch, who manages the unemployedworkers.org website for the National Employment Law Project. Many employers aren't keen on hiring people who have been out of work for a long time, he said, and the jobs that are out there are often in low-paying fields, such as retail or food service, or are temporary spots.
"It's still very tough to even be considered by employers for the kinds of jobs they had previously," Hirsch said. "But we don't hear of a lot of people just giving up on their job searches."
The curtailment of federal extended unemployment benefits could also be having an impact. Congress scaled back this safety net from an unprecedented maximum of 99 weeks to 73 weeks at most.
Conservatives have long argued that the jobless don't try as hard to find new positions while they are covered by unemployment insurance. When the checks stop coming, they are forced to find work to stay afloat.
"There was a lot of incentive for people to remain unemployed," said Richard Vedder, an economics professor at Ohio University.
It's also possible that some of these long-term unemployed have landed part-time positions, he said. The number of people working part-time soared by 441,000 last month, including a jump of 278,000 in the number of people who can't find full-time work or are encountering slack business conditions.
First Published: May 3, 2013: 12:19 PM ET
Chipmunk, a subsidiary of Keystone, sells guns designed for children, along with its sibling subsidiary, Crickett.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney)
The gun used in the recent shooting in Kentucky was a Crickett .22-caliber rifle, marketed with the slogan "My First Rifle," from Keystone Sporting Arms in Milton, Pa. The single-shot rifle uses the smallest caliber available and is sold by major retailers, including Wal-Mart (WMT, Fortune 500), Cabela's (CAB) and Gander Mountain.
The Crickett website was down Friday due to "difficulties," according to John Renzulli, an attorney representing Keystone . But the site for Chipmunk, another Keystone brand, exhibited "quality firearms for America's youth" on its site, including .22-caliber rifles and pistols, with photos of children shooting them. The site includes a "kids corner" section.
Renzulli insisted that the company is not marketing firearms to children.
"No one's marketing to children," he said. "They're marketing to parents who would buy guns for children."
On its website, Wal-Mart markets the Crickett as a "youth rifle," while Gander Mountain's site describes it as a "great beginner's gun."
"All are lightweight and easy for youngsters to carry at the range and in the woods," reads the Crickett description on Cabela's site, which describes it as "a fun firearm to get your young shooter started with."
Wal-Mart did not immediately comment on whether their policy on sales of guns for children would change. Gander Mountain said it would not comment on potential policy changes, but added that it has launched a responsibility campaign aimed at keeping firearms away from "the underaged, untrained and unauthorized." Cabela's did not return a request for comment.
Related: Remington jobs rule the Rust Belt
Lawrence Keane, vice president and spokesman for the National Shooting Sports Foundation, the firearms industry group, described the youth firearm market as a relatively small slice of the gun industry, though large enough to have plenty of participants.
"A number of manufacturers make youth models of firearms for parents to purchase to introduce their children to adult-supervised target shooting," said Keane. "Millions of families all across America participate in the shooting sports as a family recreational activity. Children cannot purchase firearms from licensed dealers, of course."
Keane said safety has improved in recent years, saying data show that accidental fatalities involving firearms and children younger than 14 dropped by more than half over two decades to about 600 in 2009, the most recent year for available data.
Related: Gun and ammo sales fuel jobs boom
Brian Rafn, gun industry analyst and director of research at Morgan Dempsey Capital Management, described the youth gun segment as a small enough portion of the $4 billion industry to call it a "ghost market." He added that most states won't issue a hunting license to children younger than 10.
"I don't know of any state, and I've been hunting for 30 years, that would allow an armed five-year-old out in the woods during hunting season," he said. "In Wisconsin where I go hunting, if you were found out in the woods with a five-year-old with a gun, the game warden would have you in cuffs."
First Published: May 3, 2013: 2:44 PM ET
Click for more market data.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney)
The Dow rose 0.9% to end the day at 14,972. The S&P 500 gained 1%, rising above 1,600 for the first time. The Nasdaq gained 1.1% to end at the highest level since November 2000.
"The round numbers are psychologically important, especially for those cautious investors sitting with their cash on the sidelines," said Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at BMO Private Bank.
Stocks could continue moving higher as individual investors who missed the rally of the past few years have been drawn back in as stocks hit new highs.
There's also a lack of alternatives for investors who hope to earn more than the meager rate on U.S. Treasuries. (See: Waiting for the bond bubble to pop)
"I'll call it a momentum effect," said Ablin.
Click here for more on stocks, bonds, currencies and commodities
The rally caps a solid week: The Dow rose 1.8%; the S&P gained 2% and the Nasdaq added 3%. April was another strong month, with the S&P 500 advancing for the sixth consecutive month.
Friday's gains came on the back of positive jobs data. The U.S. economy added 165,000 jobs in April, according to the government's latest report. The unemployment rate dipped to 7.5% from the prior month's rate of 7.6%.
Both numbers were better than expected, easing concerns about a summer slowdown in the economy. But the unemployment rate is still well above the level at which the Federal Reserve has said it will ease its stimulus program.
"Good numbers all around, but still shy of where they need to be to drive the economy forward or get the Fed to consider lowering its 'buying' number in the coming months," said Kevin Giddis, head of fixed-income at Raymond James.
The jobs data, which came after a string of disappointing reports this week, overshadowed other less encouraging economic data released Friday.
Factory orders fell 0.4% in March, according to the Census Bureau. The report was worse than expected and came after a 1.9% drop in February. The Institute for Supply Management said its index of activity in the services sector fell in April, but remained above the level indicating growth.
Related: Fear & Greed Index gets greedy again
What's moving: LinkedIn (LNKD) shares plunged after the professional-networking site offered weak second-quarter guidance.
AIG (AIG, Fortune 500) shares rose after the insurer reported earnings that beat expectations Thursday.
Shares of 3D Systems (DDD) rose after office supplies retailer Staples (SPLS, Fortune 500) announced plans to sell the company's 3-D printer.
Yahoo (YHOO, Fortune 500) shares rose to a five-year high on renewed optimism over the Internet pioneer's turnaround plan.
Warren Buffett's investment firm Berkshire Hathaway (BRKA, Fortune 500) is scheduled to release quarterly earnings after the market close.
European markets rose despite a grim economic forecast from the European Union.
The EU trimmed its forecast for the eurozone gross domestic product, to a decline of 0.4% in 2013. The forecast for 2014 was also trimmed, to a gain of 1.2%.
Asian markets ended higher. The Shanghai Composite added 1.4% and the Hang Seng increased 0.1%. Japan's Nikkei was closed for a holiday.
First Published: May 3, 2013: 9:42 AM ET
3D Systems' "The Cube" can print 3-D plastic objects, and it is now available at Staples.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney)
Staples (SPLS, Fortune 500) says it is the first major U.S. retailer to sell a 3-D printer. It began selling The Cube, made by 3D Systems (DDD), on Staples.com Friday, and the printer will hit "many" of the retailer's brick-and-mortar stores by June.
While 3-D printers have long been used in industrial manufacturing, a recent "maker" movement is slowly popularizing in-home versions of the devices.
The Cube, like other 3-D printers, is a machine that creates physical, three-dimensional objects. The printer uses a digital design file as a blueprint, then builds the item layer by layer with plastic. Users can print anything they can design, including action figures, iPhone docks and coffee cup holders.
The Cube can print items up to five-and-a-half inches tall, wide and long in 16 different colors, and it comes packaged with 25 free design templates. Shares of Cube maker 3D Systems rose 4% after the announcement but ended the day up 1%. Staples stock closed nearly 3% higher.
George Young, a partner at 3D Systems shareholder Villere & Co., says the Staples announcement validates 3D Systems' mission, "because they've been saying their technology can cover all ends of the spectrum -- from manufacturing lines to consumers' homes. And a retailer like Staples is obviously cognizant about what their customers want."
3D Systems says it is devoted to the "democratization" of 3-D printers, making the complex and expensive technology available to the masses. But the company faces a lot of upstart competition.
Perhaps the buzziest 3-D printer company is Brooklyn, N.Y.-based Makerbot, which unveiled its $2,800 "Replicator 2x" at the Consumer Electronics Show in January.
Following Makerbot's success, crowdfunding site Kickstarter quickly became full of similarly named rivals: Printrbot, TangiBot, Ultra-Bot, RigidBot, Gigabot, and Bukobot.
While many 3-D printer owners may be using the devices to prototype inventions or simply have fun making plastic toys, other industries are tapping into the printers' potential. Chefs are using the printers to create intricately designed food. Doctors are even experimenting with advanced versions of the machines to make artificial organs and prosthetic limbs.
In some cases, 3-D designs have been controversial. Makerbot found itself under pressure to crack down on downloadable designs for printable gun parts late last year, after the school shooting in Newtown, Conn. MakerBot's design file repository, called Thingiverse, had long prohibited "the creation of weapons" -- but they were loosely enforced before the crackdown in December.
First Published: May 3, 2013: 10:42 AM ET
NEW YORK (CNNMoney)
Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (BRKA, Fortune 500) handily beat analyst estimates with its first-quarter earnings on Friday, booking strong gains in its investments and insurance business.
Excluding certain investment gains, Berkshire reported earnings of $3.8 billion, or $2,302 per Class A share, blowing past the prediction of $1,995.50 per share from analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters.
Including investment gains, Berkshire's earnings hit $4.89 billion, rising more than 50% versus a year prior.
Berkshire is a broad-based investment conglomerate whose holdings include everything from Geico insurance to Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad to Dairy Queen. It also has stakes in a variety of other large firms.
Earlier this year, Berkshire was part of a consortium along with private equity firm 3G Capital that purchased ketchup maker H.J. Heinz Co for $28 billion.
Berkshire earned $901 million in the first quarter from its insurance underwriting business, up from just $54 million in the first quarter of 2012. The company said its gains came from the lack of significant catastrophe losses in the first three months of the year.
Related: Buffett is worried about Fed policy
On the investment side, Berkshire has substantial holdings in derivatives that serve as bets on the value of global stock indexes like the S&P 500. Berkshire's position improves when these index values rally.
Berkshire earned more than $1.1 billion from investment and derivative gains in the first quarter, up from $580 million a year ago.
With stakes in several large banks and homebuilders, Berkshire also has significant exposure to the housing market, which appears in the midst of a solid recovery. Earlier this week, the S&P Case-Shiller index of home prices showed a 9.3% rise over the past 12 months, the biggest gain since near the height of the housing bubble.
The aging Buffett has not publicly revealed a succession plan, but says he has informed Berkshire's board about his preferred candidates. He underwent radiation treatment last year for prostate cancer, though he said the illness was "not remotely life-threatening."
Investors will descend on Buffett's hometown of Omaha this weekend for Berkshire's annual meeting, where he and business partner Charlie Munger typically hold forth on their business and the state of the U.S. economy.
You don't have to be in Nebraska to get real-time updates on Buffett's thinking, however; the 82-year-old joined Twitter this week.
First Published: May 3, 2013: 6:00 PM ET
| Friday, May 3rd 2013, 19:58 GMT |
Sebastien Loeb moved 40 seconds clear of Sebastien Ogier as the Rally Argentina drama continued on Friday afternoon
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| Friday, May 3rd 2013, 22:35 GMT |
Sebastien Loeb will start the final day of Rally Argentina with a 39.8-second lead over Sebastien Ogier
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| Friday, May 3rd 2013, 23:13 GMT |
NASCAR Sprint Cup star Kurt Busch is to test an Andretti Autosport IndyCar at Indianapolis next Thursday, and is open to attempting the Indy 500 in the future
You have viewed over 30 free stories this month. Why stop there? Click here to find out how to continue reading.
| By David Evans | Thursday, May 2nd 2013, 18:17 GMT |
Sebastien Loeb is adjusting his driving style closer to Citroen team-mate Mikko Hirvonen's as he sticks with a compromise set-up for his World Rally Championship return in Argentina.
Unable to attend the team's final test for this event, Loeb took the same set-up as team-mates Hirvonen and Dani Sordo for this week's Villa Carlos Paz-based event, but could not find his rhythm with his Citroen through Thursday morning's opener.
"It's not 100 per cent with the car," he said. "After the first stage, I talked to the engineer and he told me I had to drive more in the style of Mikko, I had to be more aggressive with the car.
"This is not me, but I did it and the time was not so bad in the second stage."
Citroen engineer Cedric Mazenq said: "We found a couple of things new in the tests in Portugal and the one before this rally [the pre-event test in Sardinia] and Sebastien has never driven like this, which is why we pushed for him to modify his driving.
"These were not big changes, just a lot of details. He is beginning to understand how the car is working and he decided to leave the car for this afternoon.
"We saw in the first one [in the morning] he lost a little bit of time, but in the second one, he is already making the time."
Mazenq confirmed the team has the parts to change the DS3 back to Loeb's usual Rally Argentina set-up if he loses time on the afternoon loop.
| Thursday, May 2nd 2013, 19:06 GMT |
Lewis Williamson has completed the 2013 GP3 Series driver line-up by filling the final vacancy at new team Bamboo.
Williamson has tested for the squad, which replaced Atech CRS in the series when it expanded into single-seaters alongside its World Touring Car Championship programme, throughout the winter and been a regular pacesetter.
"I've been involved in testing with Bamboo for all the sessions both in and out of the car and am relieved to be on the grid this season, plus it's exciting signing at the last minute," said Williamson.
The 23-year-old Scot was a GP3 frontrunner with MW Arden in 2011.
He moved up to the team's Formula Renault 3.5 arm with Red Bull support the following year, but lost his place on the drinks firm's young driver scheme halfway through the season.
Williamson subsequently returned to GP3 with Status.
2012 recap: Red Bull lets a talent slip through the net
Bamboo team boss Richard Coleman expects Williamson to prove his squad is a match for its more established rivals.
"It will be great to see Lewis show the true potential of the Bamboo Engineering GP3 car and put us up there in our first season," said Coleman.
Williamson joins Carmen Jorda and Melville McKee in the Bamboo line-up.
2013 GP3 Series line-up: ART Jack Harvey Facu Regalia Conor Daly MW Arden Daniil Kvyat Carlos Sainz Jr Robert Visoiu Carlin Eric Lichtenstein Luis Sa Silva Nick Yelloly Jenzer Patric Niederhauser Alex Fontana Samin Gomez Manor Dino Zamparelli Tio Ellinas Ryan Cullen Status Jimmy Eriksson Josh Webster Adderly Fong Bamboo Carmen Jorda Melville McKee Lewis Williamson Trident Emanuele Zonzini David Fumanelli Giovanni Venturini Koiranen Kevin Korjus Aaro Vainio Patrick Kujala
| Thursday, May 2nd 2013, 19:28 GMT |
Sebastien Ogier stretched his Rally Argentina lead to 16.3 seconds over Sebastien Loeb by the end of Thursday's leg.
Ogier's Volkswagen was quickest on both the loop's stages, stretching away from the Citroens in the process.
But the frustrated Loeb did not feel there was anything more to the deficit than an errant tyre choice on Citroen's part, as its hards proved less compliant than Ogier's softs amid unforeseen drizzle.
Ogier did not have a flawless run, completing the long Asochinga stage with a loss of pressure in a rear tyre and some bodywork damage, but his lead was not jeopardised.
Mikko Hirvonen remains in contention. Although he has lost second place to Loeb, he is only 1.8s behind his team-mate.
Jari-Matti Latvala was very happy with his pace as he took second to team-mate Ogier on SS4, but ended the day peeved when a handbrake issue cost him time on SS5's hairpins, leaving him 41s off the lead.
Mads Ostberg dropped out of fifth place when his M-Sport Ford broke a steering arm on the loop's first stage.
But M-Sport still has a car in fifth as Evgeny Novikov moved past the third VW of Andreas Mikkelsen to take the place.
Myriad dramas for the top-class tailenders mean Dani Sordo is already back in the top 10 after rolling his Citroen in the morning.
Leading positions after SS5: Pos Driver Team/Car Time/Gap 1. Sebastien Ogier VW 1h57m14.1s 2. Sebastien Loeb Citroen + 16.3s 3. Mikko Hirvonen Citroen + 18.1s 4. Jari-Matti Latvala VW + 40.7s 5. Evgeny Novikov M-Sport Ford + 1m37.7s 6. Andreas Mikkelsen VW + 1m55.1s 7. Thierry Neuville M-Sport Ford + 2m12.5s 8. Martin Prokop Czech Ford + 6m41.4s 9. Gabriel Pozzo M-Sport Ford + 10m10.3s 10. Dani Sordo Citroen + 10m32.6s
| By David Evans | Wednesday, May 1st 2013, 15:34 GMT |
Volkswagen driver Jari-Matti Latvala set fastest time at this morning's Rally Argentina qualifying stage.
Latvala was three hundredths of a second quicker than returning world champion Sebastien Loeb across the 3.75-mile stage just outside Villa Carlos Paz.
"I'm happy with that," smiled Latvala at the end of the stage.
"I made some changes to the car after shakedown this morning - the car felt soft – so we fitted stiffer springs, but we need to go stiffer still. This is a good start."
Quickest after two practice runs in the morning, Loeb admitted to feeling a little rusty when it came to finding the limit in qualifying.
"It didn't feel natural at the start of the stage," Loeb told AUTOSPORT. "I wasn't sure on the braking point, but then it was OK."
Championship leader Sebastien Ogier was third fastest almost three tenths down and ruing one small mistake in the stage.
"I ran wide in one corner," he said, "it's small, but it cost time. The road was very soft and we just slid a little bit more than I thought we would."
Loeb's fellow Citroen drivers Dani Sordo and Mikko Hirvonen were next up with Mads Ostberg the leading M-Sport runner 1.371 seconds down on Latvala's benchmark.
None of the drivers suffered any significant problems through the stage, which determines who will run where on the road for the event's opening leg tomorrow.
Local hero Gabriel Pozzo was slowest of the World Rally Car qualifiers in his M-Sport Ford Fiesta RS WRC, 9.234s off.
| By David Evans | Wednesday, May 1st 2013, 17:45 GMT |
Jari-Matti Latvala has gambled on the weather staying dry, despite the threat of rain, on tomorrow's opening leg of Rally Argentina.
Latvala elected to run last on the road of the World Rally Cars in Villa Carlos Paz this afternoon, with only Qatar M-Sport's Evgeny Novikov bucking the trend - the Russian star leads the crews away from first on the road.
"There is some talk about some rain," said Latvala, "but I don't think it will be much if it comes.
"I think the conditions will clean. In the past, in the dry conditions, I have gone first on the road – like I did in Sardinia – and it was not so good."
Latvala added that another advantage of following his rivals through the stage came from knowing what they were doing ahead of him.
"In my position, I can see the split times and see how the guys ahead are driving," said the Finn.
Local hero Gabriel Pozzo follows Novikov into the stage. The order for the rest of the drivers is reversed from the result of qualifying. Sebastien Loeb is ahead of Latvala, with Sebastien Ogier one place in front of him.
| By David Evans | Wednesday, May 1st 2013, 20:30 GMT |
Sebastien Ogier took first blood in Rally Argentina by winning Thursday afternoon's superspecial stage.
The Volkswagen Polo R WRC driver was 1.9 seconds ahead of Dani Sordo, with the Spaniard's Citroen team-mate Sebastien Loeb third fastest, 2.2s down on the
early leader.
Ogier's inch-perfect run through the 3.75-mile gravel stages on the outskirts of Villa Carlos Paz was watched by 60,000 fans.
The World Rally Championship leader's early success was doubly satisfying as he beat countryman and rival Loeb in a head-to-head race on the stage.
"It's a nice feeling to start the rally like this," said Ogier at the finish. "There are so many people here, it's a good atmosphere."
Sordo admitted to a slightly cautious run, following his roll at a promotional event in Buenos Aires last weekend.
"I didn't want to push like hell. OK, this is part of the rally, but it's more for the show and I didn't want to make a mistake," he said.
Unusually, Loeb did make mistakes in the sister DS3 WRC.
"There were a lot [of mistakes] in the stage," said Loeb. "They have to stop. But it's always a great atmosphere on this rally and it was in this stage. Ogier was very fast."
Jari-Matti Latvala and Andreas Mikkelsen ensured there were three Polo R WRCs in the top five overnight, with the Finn admitting to a slightly cautious approach to his opening lap of the stage.
Mikko Hirvonen rounded out the top six, conceding he found the opener slippery, while local hero Marcos Ligato took an early advantage in the WRC2 category aboard his Subaru Impreza.
Rally Argentina proper gets underway on Thursday, with two loops of the Santa Catalina-La Pampa (16.83 miles) and Ascochinga-Agua do Oro (32.33 miles) stages planned.
| By Marcus Simmons | Tuesday, April 30th 2013, 15:45 GMT |
FIA Single-Seater Commission president Gerhard Berger has given the clearest indication yet that this year's Macau Grand Prix Formula 3 race will not include cars powered by engines built to the new regulations.
Moves had been made for Macau, F3's flagship race, to be solely for all-new powerplants this November to herald the new rules, which will be mandatory in the FIA F3 European Championship in 2014.
But the scheduling of the final two rounds of this year's European championship, at Hockenheim and Paul Ricard, does not allow teams enough time to convert their cars ready for air-freighting to the Far-Eastern event.
With the new engines offering approximately 10 per cent more power, performance-balancing measures have been weighed up by the FIA.
But AUTOSPORT understands that there is not enough room to incorporate the ballast on the current Dallara chassis if this was to be accomplished on weight, and there are reliability concerns if it was done via engine air restrictor tweaks.
"We are looking at different scenarios," said Berger, who was a podium finisher in Macau in 1983. "There is one logic: the engines we are running at the moment."
The likely Macau rules will put teams from the Japanese championship, which did adopt the new regulations for 2013, in a difficult situation. To compete in Macau, they would have to convert their cars back to old-spec engines.
Regarding the Japanese situation, Berger said: "It's a limited number of cars [seven appeared for the opening round in the main championship class]. We have to find the right thing for the sport altogether."
The move could jeopardise participation from the Japanese in Macau.
Top team TOM'S has won more the race more times than any other (with five victories) and has the longest unbroken record of participation (since 1991).
But team boss Susumu Koumi told AUTOSPORT that reverting to old-spec engine, electronics, set-up and driving style (due to the different characteristics of the new engine) would make it extremely difficult to be competitive.
AUTOSPORT SAYS
Marcus Simmons
(@marcussimmons54)
If Joseph Heller were alive today, he would surely be greatly amused by the current situation in Formula 3.
Here's the deal: the Japanese have the only championship running to current FIA rules, yet look likely to be barred from taking their machinery (in its current state) to the FIA's flagship F3 race, because it would comfortably beat all the cars from the FIA's own championship, none of which run to FIA rules.
This particular Catch 22 is an inevitable consequence of events dating back to March 31 2012, the deadline for engine makers wishing to lodge their intention to build new-rules powerplants - and therefore to be granted homologation – for 2013.
For various reasons, Mercedes and Volkswagen didn't meet that deadline. And, with their support absolutely vital to the FIA as it strove to rebuild F3, they (along with Tomei, which did meet the deadline but never really pushed to build a new ThreeBond engine for 2013) were allowed to field their old units in European F3 this season, with guarantees from Merc and VW that they would come on board with the new rules for 2014.
So, as far as European F3 was concerned, the new engines were swept under the carpet – without actually being banned – for 12 months.
But the inevitable bulge in that carpet is Macau, the fact that the Japanese pressed ahead in good faith with the new rules for 2013, and the logistical impossibility for the Europeans to convert their cars.
Having arrived at this point, it's difficult to see what else the FIA can do for Macau, but our sources indicate that the Japanese are none too impressed.
The Japanese have long been an intrinsic part of F3, and TOM'S, Mugen and Toda are all racing new engines this season. Their participation is vital for the long-term strength of the category.
What's more, the TOM'S record in Macau is superior to any European team. The squad has taken victory there with Rickard Rydell, Peter Dumbreck, Darren Manning, Oliver Jarvis and Keisuke Kunimoto.
Berger is correct in saying there is a need to "do the right thing for the sport". Certainly, barring the new engines from Macau 2013 appears to be the 'least wrong' thing, because if they were allowed to compete then the European teams who provide the bulk of the field would find it very tough to sell drives for the event.
That said, the FIA clearly needs to do some bridge-building with the Japanese who, if this goes through, will have been penalised for acting throughout with the best of intentions.
| By Mark Glendenning | Tuesday, April 30th 2013, 16:32 GMT |
Pippa Mann will make her second Indianapolis 500 start next month after securing a drive with Dale Coyne Racing.
The 29-year-old Briton announced on Tuesday that she will drive a third car for the team alongside Justin Wilson and Ana Beatriz.
"I actually first met Dale several years ago, before I came to the US, at what turned out to be the final Champ Car test at Sebring right before the open-wheel merger," she said.
"We've sort of had an ongoing conversation ever since then, and I actually got very close to getting in one of Dale's cars on Bump Day last year.
"A year later, we've now put this programme together."
Mann finished 20th in her Indy 500 debut with Conquest in 2011 and made the only other IndyCar start of her career later that year when she was classified 22nd at Kentucky Speedway with Rahal Letterman, although she was also on the grid for the cancelled Las Vegas race.
She has been without a full-time drive since finishing fifth in her second season of Indy Lights in 2010. Her last single-seater outing was at Sonoma in Auto GP last year.
Her addition to the grid brings the confirmed Indy 500 field to 30, three short of the traditional car count of 33, although several drivers including Townsend Bell, Jay Howard and Jacques Lazier are all reportedly working on deals.
| By Matt Beer | Tuesday, April 30th 2013, 16:47 GMT |
The San Marino Rally has lost its place on the 2013 European Rally Championship schedule.
The event had been due to form round seven on July 11-13, but financial issues mean it will not now join the series.
Francois Ribeiro, motorsport development director for ERC organiser Eurosport Events, said all involved had done everything within their power to keep San Marino in the fold.
"We have tried everything to find a number of solutions to keep the San Marino Rally on the ERC calendar but, unfortunately, this has not been possible with the new management of San Marino's motorsport federation," said Ribeiro.
"We regret the idea of losing a compact gravel event in Italy, but the cut in public funding went beyond expectations."
There will be no replacement for San Marino, reducing the ERC calendar to 12 rounds.
Drivers will now count their best four scores from the first six and best four scores from the last six events on the calendar, rather than the previous six/seven rally split.
