Speculation rife despite German manufacturer no-go policies
It is meant to be, indeed is, the week of Adelaide's Clipsal 500 -- the first Australian round of the V8 Supercar Championship. However, amid the plethora of puffy picture opportunities in the City of Churches, the focus in Australian motorsport this week has been more on the prospect of new car manufacturers in V8 Supercar racing.
Experienced and expert motoring/motor racing journalist Bruce Newton produced a story in V8X magazine, which he then recycled in the Fairfax press, suggesting Mercedes-Benz was "seriously examining" the idea.
"It is believed AMG (Mercedes' high-performance associate) has begun initial engineering studies for a race car probably based on the next generation CLS," Newton wrote. And there was a hint, indeed a big hint, of others too.
V8SA head honcho Tony Cochrane was quoted saying: "I would say there would be a low-end one and three high-end new manufacturers joining the championship in 2012."
Our colleague Stephen Ottley too ran with a story here that one of AMG's C63's was being prepared in Melbourne as a "ride-day taxi" and could be precursor to a Mercedes entry into V8 Supercar racing.
The C63 is being readied by Brock Engineering -- the company of James Brock, son of the legendary and tragically late Peter Brock.
Credit to Newton and Ottley for going with news they sniffed in the breeze. Others, including Simon Canning, a marketing writer for The Australian, and the national wire service, Australian Associated Press -- followed up on the story.
It's all related to the Car of the Future project being headed by semi-retired Mark Skaife and on which we believe there may be an announcement in Adelaide tomorrow (Saturday).
While it's natural that the talk about new entrants translates into headlines and more, and that the speculation spreads like a bushfire, we detected a couple of telling comments amid all the excitement.
Mercedes-Benz Asia-Pacific spokesman David McCarthy was quoted in Newton's Fairfax version of the story saying: "We are not permitted nor does it interest us to be involved in motorsport."
And Tony Andreevski, spokesman for BMW Australia, another manufacturer touted, was quoted saying: "BMW has no interest in the V8 Supercars franchise."
While these are the official stances of the two German manufacturers from their local representatives, there was at the same time a tease -- what was interpreted as a nod and a wink even -- from McCarthy that there might be interest in a V8 Supercar program among Mercedes-Benz's Australian dealers or customers.
Yet, "at this stage", McCarthy was "sticking by our official position" -- that Mercedes-Benz Australia was not allowed or interested in being involved in its own motorsport activity.
So what is the situation here? Cochrane talks of one low-end manufacturer, presumably Hyundai, and three high-end manufacturers, presumably referring to Mercedes-Benz, BMW and perhaps Audi.
In all that's four, on top of Holden and Ford, the duopoly from the start and who presumably want it kept that way, as indeed do many fans. And Cochrane is talking about those four new manufacturers in the sport by 2012 -- little more than 21 months away. This, in an environment where manufacturer motorsport programs across the world are under intense internal scrutiny and cost containment or cutting.
Cochrane is a man of big, bold statements and actions -- some of which come to fruition. But we'd have to say that if he can entice four new manufacturers into V8 Supercar racing by January 1, 2012, and keep the existing two, then he will be next in line after Mary McKillop in becoming a Saint, because that will be a certified miracle.
Any sainthood for Cocho won't be conferred by the diehard red and blue fans, though. And sainthood only comes after death, which is not something we wish on old Cocho in a hurry.
Still, the category has to find a way forward and is facing up to the reality that the tried-and-true pushrod V8 Commodore and Falcon formula may not endure forever -- although it's done pretty well to date for something that was widely perceived as outdated when revived in the early 1990s.
As much as what is now the two-make V8 Supercar racing has to evolve, we have what we will call the "Villeneuve alarm" ringing in our head over this talk of four new manufacturers in a hurry.
Jacques Villeneuve, remember, was the subject of a very prominent story a little more than a year ago that he was going to come race a V8 Supercar in Australia.
The 1997 Formula One world champion popped into Australia early this year, for a wedding we gather, but has anybody seen him anywhere near, let alone driving or more particularly racing, a V8 Supercar?
In this world there are facts and there are fictions. This author's reading of the tea leaves is that there is more of the latter than the former in this speculation about new brands in V8 Supercar racing.
Remember that Australian motor racing fans were teased for years that, first, Mitsubishi and then Toyota might just be on the verge of going racing against the Holdens and Fords. What did it all amount to? A big, fat zip.
And Nissan has been tossed up too, but just last year it had an unhappy V8 Supercar experience as the pace car provider -- an arrangement that stalled almost as quickly as it started.
Not only is it Mercedes-Benz policy that its operations in various countries not get involved directly in motorsport, this author's reading of things is that the Mercedes-Benz parent board is not even united on the company's takeover of the world championship-winning BrawnGP and its transformation into the Tristar's factory team in preference to McLaren.
We also recall that there was disquiet around that Mercedes board table that Michael Schumacher was hired on a huge pay packet (although nowhere near as huge as when he was at Ferrari) while thousands of jobs in the motor industry, including at Mercedes, were being lost or on the line.
BMW, having abandoned its hugely expensive Formula One program, perhaps has more scope to diversify into V8 Supercar racing if it saw any good reason.
The hint from the Mercedes camp is that the AMG connection could be a way to get around the official company line of non-participation in motorsport other than what's approved from the top (which already includes the German touring car championship, or DTM, apart from F1).
But is AMG, off its own bat, going to fund the kind of program that would be required to enter V8 Supercar racing, even if it got the nod for the existing 4-litre Mercedes-Benz double overhead cam, 24-valve DTM engine?
Don't place too much credence in talk of cost-cutting with the Car of the Future project. Is there any evidence that legislated cost-cutting has ever worked in motor racing? We can't see it. To our mind, budgets only get smaller when those participating haven't got the money, or can't find it, to spend.
The notion of a rash of new manufacturers, and the competition that would bring, and curbing costs at the same time is patently contradictory.
Could, or would, a Mercedes-Benz dealer or syndicate of dealers, or customer or syndicate of customers, be prepared to spend the kind of money that inevitably would be needed for a motorsport program, especially without the blessing of the German headquarters?
Even if they were, would they -- or would it be wise -- to entrust such a project to Brock Engineering, surely unproven on projects of such scale and significance. Alternatively, what existing V8 Supercar teams could take on properly representing the prestigious Mercedes brand?
We can imagine many that might like to, but can think of only one worthy -- Triple Eight Race Engineering, or Team Vodafone. Yet it has only just wed Holden.
Triple Eight chief Roland Dane is a brilliant and ruthless businessman, but is he going to swap his manufacturer partner almost as often people change their shirts.
The Brock-prepared C63 is said to be for some rides at Melbourne's Albert Park grand prix circuit in a couple of weeks. There's also talk of Aussie motorcycle racing legend Mick Doohan taking selected passengers for rides around the Phillip Island circuit in the near future.
The latter, especially, could be a sales winner for Mercedes, provided Doohan doesn't do what he did with an earlier AMG vehicle in Targa Tasmania a decade ago.
At the end of the day Mercedes would want any activity to generate more road car sales for it, and Doohan giving potential buyers a few thrills could be a whole lot more cost-effective than a full race program.
There's a lot of water to go under the bridge on this speculation of new entrants into V8 Supercar racing. But, for the meantime, we will just make a note in the diary for late on December 31, 2011, or even the early hours of the next day, to check on what the score is. Six, five, four, three, or still two?
Almost a full banquet - V8 Supercars, F1, IndyCar
Oh, and there's racing this weekend. Lots of it. Adelaide obviously. Looking forward to it. Good to have the V8 Supercar show home. Am staggered at the lingering hostility to the overseas start to the season.
Even Auto Action editor Rob Margeit wrote this week that "watching the V8s strut their stuff 12,000km away on TV was just plain wrong". Rival Motorsport eNews publisher Chris Lambden tossed up an idea from one of his photographers, Dirk Klynsmith, that the Clipsal 500 should be brought forward to February in future, ahead of the two Middle East rounds. A simple solution, although it could see a return to the heat problems of Adelaides past.
Other major racing this weekend ... Formula One begins in Bahrain, with Mark Webber in what looks to be a very competitive Red Bull RB6 before his home GP in Melbourne, and the American Indy Racing League begins in Brazil (yes, a new race there) with Aussies Ryan Briscoe and Will Power in the powerful Penske squad.
No NASCAR Sprint Cup round for Marcos Ambrose until next week -- at Bristol, Tennessee.
Broken body and a wrecked championship
A couple of items of bad news out of Britain this week.
The 80-year-old Sir Stirling Moss has broken both legs in a three-storey fall down a lift well at his home. He has other broken bones in his feet and damage to his vertebrae.
The assets of the A1GP series that so ignominiously failed to come to the Gold Coast SuperGP last October have been put up for sale by an administrator and liquidator.
Twenty Ferrari-engined open-wheelers are reportedly up for grabs, as well as a dozen of the earlier Lola-Zyteks and Maserati and Ferrari safety and medical cars.
Offers are being sought for all the cars and equipment collectively, or separately if nobody bids for the lot.
Wonder if there might be an attempt to block the sale, as we would have thought the Ferrari engines would have been leased.
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