McLaren car launch: quotes of the day

So, what were the highlights of McLaren’s hour-long video feed of the launch and the following press conference?

Here are some soundbites from some of the key players, including team principal Martin Whitmarsh, engineering director Paddy Lowe – and of course the drivers, Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton.

Button and Hamilton at the MP4-25 launch

“It is an extreme diffuser and we won’t be the only ones.”

Martin Whitmarsh on the car’s veiled diffuser.

“This is the standard of car we will start to test, not the standard of car we will start to race.”

Whitmarsh comments on the newly-unveiled MP4-15. Well – mostly unveiled.

“There are very few parts in common with last year’s car.”

Paddy Lowe discusses how McLaren have started 2010 with more or less a design clean sheet.

“Silver is a McLaren brand colour. I am sure our colleagues in Stuttgart would like to see four silver cars at the front. We might differ on the order of those cars. But we remain close friends and work together.”

Whitmarsh on the current state of the relationship between McLaren and Mercedes.

“We are going to go out and get the best drivers we can. We have two drivers who are very honest and very open. They both want to beat each other. It should be clean, open and positive. Fighting a one-man team could be difficult but it is good to go racing with a team that are good personalities.”

Does Whitmarsh gets a bit pointed when asked about competing with Michael Schumacher’s Mercedes team?

“Moving to a new team is always difficult. It is a big change but the team has welcomed me and it has been a good atmosphere. It is good to see the car in one piece. I am looking forward to the season but do not want to get carried away yet.”

A cautious Jenson Button on his first month at McLaren and his expectations for the next month

“To be on the same grid as him is going to be pretty special. Jenson has raced against him before but for me it will be a new experience.”

Lewis Hamilton on racing Schumacher for the first time

“F1 is a team effort and you need both drivers to be working together to develop a car.”

Button responds to suggestions that McLaren will be disadvantaged by driver equality

“Money is something we do not talk about. It is so important for us to be working together as a team”

Button responding to questions about his and Hamilton’s respective salaries

“I am going into this season so much more excited than in any other season in F1. I am going in as a much stronger driver than ever before, I want to be 100 per cent ready, no excuses.”

Button is determined to build on his world-championship winning season with Brawn GP

“No-one knows who is going to come out on top in any team in 2010. That’s why we are going racing.”

A timely reminder from Button about making too many assumptions.

“That’s not the way we look at it, not the way the team looks at it. In our team we have people from over 25 nationalities. It is an international team.”

Hamilton responds to the notion that McLaren and Mercedes will be fighting out an Anglo-German football-style national rivalry.

All smiles as Button and Hamilton launch the MP4-25

It was all smiles between Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton as the pair teamed up to launch McLaren’s challenger for the 2010 season, the MP4-25.

The reigning world champion said his new team’s difficulties at the start of 2009 had spurred it on to great things for this year, while the 2008 champion predicted the two drivers would form a strong partnership for “years to come”.

Button was given top billing in the introductions, ahead of Hamilton, and spent most his time praising how easy it had been for him to slot into his new team. He even fended off the opportunity to dwell on his title victory by indicating the new car and saying “we have to look to the future – and this is the future”.

For his part, Hamilton managed to remind the media and guests assembled at Vodafone’s Newbury HQ that this was his fourth such launch with the team, and that he had been involved in the car’s development.

But he went out of his way to praise Button and his father John, reminding the audience that he had won one of his earliest championships with support from the elder Button and saying his ambition had been to follow in Jenson’s footsteps as a driver.

And the pair even shared a joke about the previous year’s car. As Hamilton dutifully said the new one would handle better Button, whose Honda years were blighted by a succession of evil-handling machines, interjected “I hope so!”

The reply was a heartfelt “You don’t want to try last year’s car”.

Later Hamilton was asked what he thought of Button as a team-mate, and raised a laugh by relaying his colleague’s whispered instruction: “He says ‘be nice’.”

McLaren's 2010 challenger, the MP4-25

The car itself, when unveiled, revealed a development of last year’s fashion for a sharks fin behind the cockpit – in contrast to the previous day’s Ferrari launch where the car had more traditional lines in that area. Team boss Martin Whitmarsh said the MP4-25 had parts on it that he’d never seen on an F1 car before, but declined to elaborate when prompted.

The rear diffuser was covered up and the media was asked not to photograph it.

For the technical team, Paddy Lowe spoke about the extra pressure that came from designing for two world champions and said the car, which he described as “sophisticated and elegant”, had represented an “extreme” aero challenge.

The drivers in quotes

Jenson Button: “I must say it looks pretty amazing, stood here looking at it. I’ve always thought the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes team have always put a car together properly, particularly meticulously, so to me it looks great. We’ve seen all the numbers and everything is very positive, and we’ve driven the simulator, but the real work for us will start in a couple of days in Valencia when we put this car through its paces.”

Lewis Hamilton: “For me, obviously it’s my fourth year here at Vodafone McLaren Mercedes and to see the car evolve every year and to see a new design and to see how the guys work, and to work with them, it’s such a pleasure to see the final outcome. The car looks so much different to last year’s car, completely different, and I feel very proud because I’ve also had quite a bit of input into it and I really can’t wait to get on the track with it. I’m sure it’s going to handle completely differently from last year’s car.”

JB: “I hope so.”

LH: “You don’t want to try last year’s car. I think it’s going to be very special for us.”

JB (in reply to being asked if seeing the Number One on the car brought home his achievement): “It does. After the last race you obviously think about what you’ve achieved and it goes through your mind the road to becoming world champion. But soon after that you start forgetting because you’re already concentrating on 2010 and the new challenge. I’ve been to a few events this season and award ceremonies and they bring back the memories of what I’ve achieved last year and here with Number One on the car it’s very special but we do need to start forgetting about last year. In the back of your mind it’ll always be there but we’ve got to start looking to the future – and this is the future.”

LH: “We’ve been working on this car for a long time now, the guys are working flat out trying to build the components, trying to develop and improve the downforce and the aero efficiency we have with the car as it stands. Obviously through the winter testing – we don’t have a lot of testing compared to normal, usually we would have 15, 20 days but now we only have seven days in the car each, and we have this big heavy fuel tank to get used to, these different tyres – this is the first time I’ve seen these narrower tyres – and so the important thing is the feedback we give to the team, the amount of running we get will hopefully… we need to maximise each of those days, do as much running as possible, and hopefully we’ll go in the same direction in terms of our driver input and we’ll get us to the first race in a great position.”

JB: “It has been a very busy January and a very good January. You never know what to expect going into a new team, you have your opinion from the outside but you never know what the atmosphere is going to be until you go into that team. And I’ve been pleasantly surprised, I really feel that I’ve become a part of this team in the short period that I have been in it. It’s been a good few days I’ve spent at the factory and the great thing about the team is, I think the start of 2009 was obviously a difficult period for them and for them to have such a difficult time is I think good for now, it makes them that much hungrier to succeed in 2010 and you can really see that as you go round the factory. Every person I’ve met and had a little talk to, they’ve said ‘it’s been possibly the busiest winter ever but I don’t care, I’m producing something that is hopefully going to be very special’. It’s been a good month. I’ve spent a lot of time in the simulator, which has been very useful, because I’ve spent time with my new engineers, it’s always very difficult with new engineers, there’s change, but it’s all going very smoothly. January’s been great, but I can’t wait for February to start because I get to drive this car.”

LH (asked what he thought of Button): “He says ‘be nice’. We’ve been very welcoming to Jenson as a team, what he achieved last year and in his career in Formula One has been fantastic. I’ve known Jenson and his Dad for quite a long time now, I remember I won my first ever British championship on John’s engines years and years ago and I always wanted to follow in Jenson’s footsteps, so to finally be in the same team with him and both won a world championship, I think it’s a really great partnership, it’s great for our team and I really look forward to working with him for the rest of the year and the years to come. Hopefully we’ll be able to push this team forward to both championships this year.”

F1: Paul di Resta to get some track time

The role of reserve driver for Force India is really going to mean something for young Scots hopeful and DTM star Paul di Resta, according to one F1 team principal.

Martin Whitmarsh of McLaren, who has links with the Silverstone team through a technical partnership and a shared engine supplier, says he expects to see the youngster out on track and learning his trade during Friday practice sessions throughout the 2010 season.

Di Resta has confirmed that he is in the final stages of negotiating a contract with Force India and added that he hopes to convince the team that he can do as good or better a job than one of its existing drivers in 2010.

Whitmarsh told Reuters: “Paul will be running I believe in the majority of the Friday sessions for Force India, so it’s a great opportunity for him. I’m happy for him.

“He’s going to push like hell to make his case to have a race drive at Force India during the course of this year.”

McLaren is also retaining the services of di Resta’s colleague in the Mercedes DTM team and long-time McLaren tester Gary Paffett as well as contemplating recruiting another tester.

In fact, Paffett will be the first to drive the MP4-25 at a test after Pedro de la Rosa, pencilled in for the task, accepted a race drive with the Sauber team.

Whitmarsh said: “Gary probably did 60 days in the simulator last year for us and he’ll do the same sort of number and maybe a bit more this year. But he’s got other commitments so we need another driver.

“We are seeing what’s happening at the moment. There’s no great panic. We are very confident in Gary; we’ve worked with and supported Gary for a number of years.”

F1: Whitmarsh says he’s still keen to know what you think

Heard the one about the head of the Formula One Teams’ Association who was actually bothered with hearing what fans thought about the sport?

No, it’s not a joke, believe it or not.

Martin Whitmarsh, McLaren team principal and recently-appointed FOTA chairman, has said he intends to continue the organisation’s 2009 work to gather the opinions of fans, whether hardcore viewers who catch every race, practice and qualifying session or those who follow the sport more casually.

In a Q&A issued by the McLaren press office this week Whitmarsh followed up on some comments he made at the height of the F1 breakaway saga in June 2009.

After a vocal groundswell of support by F1 fans against the FIA status quo, and in favour of the teams opposing it, FOTA showed that it was alive to the power of social media and viral video.

In a video clip released then via McLaren sponsors Vodafone, Whitmarsh said: “A lot of changes that have occurred in Formula One over recent years haven’t really taken into account the wishes of fans and we haven’t brought those into the thought process. And hopefully in future we will see much more of that.”

This week he added: “The survey we conducted last year enabled us to learn some very useful and interesting things, we are now looking at canvassing an even broader range of opinion-holders in order to bring in a far more detailed series of responses.

“It’s an ongoing project, and we still have more work to do before releasing any findings.”

In the interview Whitmarsh also covered a wide range of other subjects, including saying that he was very pleased with the development work that had been carried out so far on the MP4-25, and tackling the question of equality between his two world championship-winning drivers (“I’m relatively relaxed”).

He also spoke about regulation changes, the future direction of FOTA and the fate of the common launch proposal, which would have seen all the teams unveiling their cars on the same day as a costcutting measure.

He said: “It was initially recognised that two or three of the teams would not have their cars available for the event, but it was agreed that they’d have old cars or show cars featuring the 2010 livery, which seemed to be an acceptable compromise.

“But as the event got closer, it became apparent that there would only be three teams in a position to display their new car. And it was felt that there would be disappointment if we couldn’t display a suitable number of 2010 cars.”

On whether the MP4-25 was a championship-winner, he said: “It’s still far too early to say. Will it win races? We certainly hope so. Am I proud of the effort we’ve currently invested in the car? Most definitely.”

• Read the thoughts of Chairman Whitmarsh in full here:

How is progress going with the 2010 car? What are your plans for testing?

MW: “Clearly, the absence of testing in January has eased the car-build schedule to a certain degree, but we’re still working as hard as ever at the McLaren Technology Centre. We’ll be launching the car at Vodafone’s UK headquarters in Newbury on January 29, and we’ll be running one MP4-25 at the first test at Valencia on February 1.

“Obviously, Pedro’s decision to sign with Sauber will have a slight impact on our test programme, but we’ll overcome it. We’re very happy that Pedro has got a race drive for 2010 – he’s been a great asset to our team and, above all, a very dear friend to all of us.

“As has become customary with most teams, the first tests will be about establishing a baseline of performance, allowing the engineers and mechanics to learn and understand the new car and the impact of the new regulations. And, as in previous years, we’ll introduce a series of upgrades at one of the later tests, and that will be the car we take to the opening race.”

What is the initial feedback from your data and simulation work about the performance of MP4-25?

MW: “During the development of MP4-25, we set ourselves some very high targets – and I’m enormously pleased with the way our designers and engineers have tackled the approach to the new car. The new regulations have obviously had an effect on the car’s appearance, with the much higher-capacity fuel tank looking more striking than before.

“But we’re pleased with a number of solutions we’ve been able to bring to the car, and I think we’re cautiously optimistic that, after the experience of last year and, in particular, the momentum we gathered in the second half of the season, we’ll have a competitive car for both Jenson and Lewis.

“Is it a championship contender? It’s still far too early to say. Will it win races? We certainly hope so. Am I proud of the effort we’ve currently invested in the car? Most definitely.”

You have the previous two world champions on board. How easy will it be to manage Lewis and Jenson, and ensure that both work for the benefit of the team?

MW: “I’m relatively relaxed about the driver partnership. Knowing Lewis as I do, and having got to know more of Jenson during the limited time I’ve spent with him during his busy visits to MTC, I feel relatively confident that our driver line-up this year will be a very stable and mutually productive one.

“But neither became world champion simply by driving at the limit on the racetrack; they’ve each been responsible for moulding and developing an organisation around them, and in exploiting the skills of their respective engineers to the best of their abilities. And it’s that sort of approach that we’ll be looking to encourage from both drivers in order to give us a performance advantage.

“We’ve also got an extremely experienced and capable race team, and we feel that will play absolutely to our drivers’ strengths.

“Equally, they know that Formula 1 in 2010 will be more competitive than ever before. Collaboration, understanding and the shared development of the car will be at the forefront of everybody’s mind. And given the testing limitations and the minimal track time at the weekend, it’s the only way to get ahead. Both Jenson and Lewis fully understand that.

“That’s why I’m so thrilled with our driver partnership – I really think it will play to the strengths of modern Formula 1. Of course, we wouldn’t be going racing if we couldn’t let our drivers ‘off the leash’, but our absolute priority is to develop a frontrunning car.”

The main regulation change this year is the banning of refuelling. What impact will this have on the racing? Will it be better, or will it result in more processional races?

MW: “Inevitably, when you make a change, there are pros and cons. Regarding the pros, it arguably makes qualifying purer because the fastest car/driver combination will be setting the fastest times, and the public can understand that. Secondly, in the race itself, overtaking was often being planned and implemented to occur as a consequence of strategy, and therefore happening in the pitlane and not the circuit.

“In the absence of that effect, drivers will have a greater incentive to overtake. There have been occasions in the past where a driver hasn’t had that incentive because he knows he will be running longer and can get past the car ahead strategically through the pitstops.

“Additionally, the fact that drivers will qualify on low-fuel, and then the next time they drive the car in anger into the first corner will be after a standing start with cold tyres and cold brakes and 160kg of fuel. That will be very challenging for them, not just in terms of getting round that first corner, but in terms of how they look after their tyres and how the balance of the car will alter as a consequence of that. And there will be drivers who are able to deal with those changes better than others.

“Those are all the positives. On the negative side, it’s possible that if all of the above is managed equally well by every driver, then we’ll have lost one of the strategic campaign interests that the more avid fans enjoyed in the sport. Hopefully the former points will outweigh the latter.”

You have been elected as chairman of FOTA – what will the organisation be doing this year to improve Formula 1 and make it better for the fans?

MW: “FOTA has put a lot of effort into reducing costs in Formula 1, and that will increase the likelihood of teams surviving and hopefully thriving. We’ve had a number of interesting initiatives, but there is no magic wand.

“FOTA will continue to develop ideas and changes, but we mustn’t tear the sport inside out overnight. We’re conscious of the need to cultivate the sport’s reputation while also enhancing the spectacle. FOTA needs to continue working with the FIA, CVC and FOM to achieve that, and that’s a continuous process.

“We have a range of ideas, so has Bernie, so we have to work together, rather than have FOTA say what it’s going to do. We want to continue doing our bit and to contribute in the best possible way to improve our sport.”

Are there any plans to do more fan research this year?

MW: “Yes. We’ve commissioned what is, in my view, the only broad-based fan survey that will take into account the opinions of those who aren’t hardcore Formula 1 fans. It’s those fans with a mild or passing interest in Formula 1 that we need to concentrate on, because we can convert them into more avid fans.

“The survey we conducted last year enabled us to learn some very useful and interesting things, we are now looking at canvassing an even broader range of opinion-holders in order to bring in a far more detailed series of responses. It’s an ongoing project, and we still have more work to do before releasing any findings.”

What happened to this year’s common launch proposal and what will happen to the idea for 2011?

MW: “We haven’t yet discussed it for 2011. It was initially recognised that two or three of the teams would not have their cars available for the event, but it was agreed that they’d have old cars or show cars featuring the 2010 livery, which seemed to be an acceptable compromise.

“But as the event got closer, it became apparent that there would only be three teams in a position to display their new car. And it was felt that there would be disappointment if we couldn’t display a suitable number of 2010 cars.

“For the season ahead, we have new regulations, and it would have been extremely tight for some of the smaller teams to have met the common launch deadlines. As a result, it became understandable that we had to pull away from it. We still think it’s a good idea; it’s now a question of whether we can co-ordinate the availability of sufficient new cars to make a joint launch an interesting spectacle for next year.”

What’s FOTA doing for the environment?

MW: “We want to find ways in which we can contribute. There’s already a commitment to push forward with the introduction of new technologies for 2013, and that’s going to take a lot of investment and isn’t something that’s easy to do overnight.

“For the future, Formula 1 needs to be about efficiency, so we have to ensure we develop regulations that encourage the development of technologies that aren’t just a benefit to the automotive sector, but to society in general. We want to be seen as making our contribution, just as every business has to.

“But it’s a balance at the moment: we have a lot of new teams entering the sport, and they’ll have a number of significant challenges ahead of them. If we start to load a number of new environmental challenges onto them, it will make their lives more difficult. But we’re confident we can make progress over the next few years.”

This Q&A is provided courtesy of McLaren.com

Teixeira sees hope for A1GP’s future with F1 tie-in

Just as the overwhelming majority of race fans had finally written off A1GP’s World Cup of Motorsport as over and done with, its promoter Tony Teixeira has claimed to be in talks to reposition it as a feeder series for F1 team Campos.

Earlier this year the South African claimed to have secured funding to see his cash-strapped series, which features around 20 national franchises racing a spec car based on the F1 championship-winning Ferrari F2004, through another four seasons.

But the funding failed to materialise and a dispute over the assets of its UK-based operating company saw the cars impounded and unable to fulfil the opening date of the 2009/10 season calendar, a high-profile and partially government-funded showcase on Australia’s Gold Coast.

The no-show damaged Teixeira’s stock badly since he and other members of A1GP’s management had given repeated public assurances that the date would be honoured and that the series’ future was secure. The cancelled five-year contract to appear in Australia has been made the subject of two separate public inquiries.

Nothing much has been heard from Teixeira since the Gold Coast fiasco in October – until rumours surfaced that the Campos Meta F1 team was seeking funding to help it fill its newly allocated grid slot this year.

Today he gave an interview to Reuters’ motorsport correspondent Alan Baldwin, in which he confirmed he is one of several parties talking to Campos, and that his motivation for doing this is to provide a route for A1 champions to break into F1.

He said: “For us it has got to be part of an A1 deal. It’s all for A1. My ambition is to bring A1 into F1.” Read the full interview here.

Teixeira makes no explicit claims for the future of A1GP in the interview and offers no explanation how he might be able to transform its fortunes to a position where it could provide a launch-pad into F1 for the likes of Adam Carroll or Neel Jani, its last two champions.

But the article quotes insiders suggesting the series could be re-launched later this year, and it is clear that Teixeira would not be bothering to negotiate with Campos on the series’ behalf unless he felt there was some point to the exercise – and some chance of its survival.

It’s safe to say that motor-racing fans are probably feeling pretty sceptical on this subject by now. Teixeira built up a store of credibility during the four years his series successfully operated, but the Gold Coast fiasco used it all up.

Rebooting A1GP and buying into Campos will require more than just a verifiable guarantee of cold, hard cash from him – it will also require some very good answers to quite a few difficult questions.

Opinion: Mercedes team launch is bittersweet for Brawn fans

It had to happen, ever since the announcement in November that Mercedes had bought a controlling stake in Brawn GP.

But then came more than two months during which the Brawn website stayed black, white and acid yellow. During which the team continued to appear on social networking site Twitter as Brawn GP.

During which Brawn-branded world championship merchandise was on offer and during which fans and journalists continued to refer to the Brackley-based double world championship-winning entity using the name engraved on both the F1 drivers’ and constructors’ trophies.

Scary, isn't it?

But any chance for fans to remain in denial any longer about the corporate German takeover of our plucky British privateers went out of the window on Monday with the official launch of the 2010 Mercedes Grand Prix team, livery and drivers – the returning seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg, a young man going into 2010 with high expectations and much to prove.

The event took place at the Mercedes Benz museum in Stuttgart and featured Dieter Zetsche, Daimler chairman and head of Mercedes-Benz cars. Actually, despite the fact that Ross Brawn will retain operational control of the team he led to such success in 2009, Dr Zetsche referred to the creation of a “Deutsche nationalmannschaft” – or German national team.

And, of course, the livery is a deliberate throw-back to the days when countries went racing in national colours – even though the story of how the earliest Silver Arrows came about as mechanics scraped their cars down to bare metal in search of aerodynamic perfection might actually be a little on the fanciful side.

The national team concept appears to be becoming increasingly popular in F1, at least at a superficial level, with USF1, Malaysian-backed Lotus F1, Dr Vijay Mallya’s Force India squad, the British-based McLaren with its driver pairing of Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button – and, of course, Ferrari in Italy’s traditional red.

But, at a deeper level, top-flight motor racing and the business interests that support it are so utterly global that it’s really very hard to take such national branding seriously – as we have argued before.

McLaren, founded by an American and a New Zealander, can hardly be described as archetypally British when the Bahraini sovereign investment fund and the French-Saudi Arabian Mansour Ojjeh are significant investors, and it has built its reputation partly on the skills of Finnish drivers. And it is, thankfully, showing no signs of adopting British Racing Green.

Force India is based at Silverstone, Lotus is based in Norfolk for the present, and USF1 is relying on British expertise in the form of Peter Windsor and has had to expand its concept to something more akin to “Americas F1″ with the signing of Argentinian driver José Maria Lopez.

And Mercedes Grand Prix itself is still based at the epicentre of performance motorsport, Northamptonshire. Crucially for its future prospects, it’s still run by Ross Brawn and Nick Fry and staffed by the people that caught fans’ imagination so strongly last year – the engineers like Peter Bonnington and Andrew Shovlin.

Nico reckons it'll be England vs Germany, a bit

Rosberg also talked up the England versus Germany rivalry, saying: “It’s a fantastic thing, and we are a little bit up against an English team…” (And Schumacher revealed that Brawn had been chasing him since his team principal days at Honda, but that’s another story entirely.)

But were we really the only observers who were a bit dismayed to see the double world champions, with Schumacher at their head, lining themselves up as a kind of Dick Dastardly and the Vulture Squadron complete with cartoon Fokker Dreidecker?

And does anyone really want to see the level of back-page journalistic sophistication generally served up with international football coverage also being applied to motorsport? Yes, we’re a site supporting British drivers and the British motorsport industry – but that’s a place we really don’t want to go, even with a ready-made ‘enemy’ supplied for us.

Brawn’s passage in less than a year from a team without an owner, running out of options and faced with the prospect of making hundreds of staff redundant, to double world champions, was nothing short of a fairytale. And, like all fairytales, it has come to an end. We have had to put the book aside and come back to the real world.

Large-scale corporate backing from a car manufacturer does, of course, provide the funding for the former Brawn GP to maintain its staffing levels and continue to challenge for championships. And those are both causes for major fan optimism. But still, sports fans love a fairytale. They really do.

Luckily, at least for those that enjoy the Schumacher legend, the cold light of day was maybe tempered a little on Monday by the possibility of a magical comeback season for the 41-year-old former World Champion in the manner of cyclist Lance Armstrong.

We’ll have to wait and see what happens in the coming weeks and months to find out whether the team formerly known as Brawn GP is going to have a second, if very different, fairytale season courtesy of Schumi.

To finish, it’s worth just mentioning one person who is presumably very pleased to have avoided the Groundhog Day scenario currently unfolding at Brackley.

That would be Rubens Barrichello – installed about 35 miles to the south west of the new village of Stuttgart-am-Northants in what his fans hope will be a productive and fulfilling season with Williams.

We saw last season just how passionately the veteran Brazilian wanted to win, and how bitterly disappointed he was at the suggestion that team orders could have been invoked to favour Jenson Button’s prospects over his own.

For him the resurrected Brawn-Schumacher axis could have been a long way from a fairytale. More of a nightmare, in fact.

And how he’ll enjoy beating it, if he can.

Rockingham freezes ticket prices for second year

The Rockingham Motor Speedway in Northamptonshire has announced a price freeze on adult admission tickets for the second year running in a bid to encourage fans to come along and enjoy the fun of live racing.

The venue says it has extended its racing calendar for 2010, giving motorsport fans the opportunity to watch some of the most exciting and exhilarating motor racing action in the UK, and all at last year’s prices.

Its season kicks off in April with the opening round of the Dunlop Great & British Motorsport Festival, a series of races organised by the British Automobile Racing Club (BARC) and promoted by Dunlop.

The British Racing and Sports Car Club (BRSCC) will be hosting three events throughout the season while the BARC returns twice to the track. The Britcar series will be providing the entertainment in a double racing header over the August Bank Holiday weekend.

Advance adult Sunday tickets for the Dunlop Great & British Motorsport Festival, Britcar and the BRSCC and BARC club meetings cost £12 with weekend passes priced at £18. Entry on Saturday is £8.

After successfully staging last season’s penultimate round of the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship, Rockingham makes an early appearance on the 2010 calendar when it hosts round four, five and six on Sunday April 25.

Fans can save up to 20 per cent on adult admission prices by booking in advance. Tickets for Sunday’s race day cost £23, weekend passes are priced at £28 and entry for the qualifying rounds on Saturday is £11.

Book your tickets before January 31 and receive a free BTCC programme worth £5.

Rockingham also has a summer date with the Cooper Tires British F3 International Series and the Avon Tyres British GT Championship in July. Advance adult tickets cost £16 (Sunday), £20 (weekend) and £10 (Saturday) respectively.

December sees the return of the popular Rockingham Stages for the seventh year running as the circuit continues to support rallying at grassroots level.

Rockingham Chairman Len O’Hagan said: “With the addition of extra race meetings this year, we are delighted to announce a bumper race calendar for 2010, which builds on the success of the past few years.

“Once again our calendar offers a diverse range of events from the UK’s premier motor racing series right down to grass roots motorsport. Coupled with the price freeze on adult admission tickets, race weekends at Rockingham provide great value for a fantastic family day out.”

During each race weekend there will be plenty of opportunities to get close to the racing action with an open paddock and free grandstand seats for everyone.

The circuit also offers free admission for children aged 15 and under (with a maximum two child tickets per one paying adult).

Season passes for 2010 provide holders access to a minimum of 10 race events at Rockingham, including the BTCC, and cost £115 each – a saving of more than 20 per cent.

Advance bookings for all race meetings can be made by calling the ticket hotline on 01536 500500 or on-line at www.rockingham.co.uk – fans who are registered disabled can apply for a free season pass or event ticket for their carer. Written proof is required.

Rockingham 2010 Race Calendar

• April 10/11 – Dunlop Great & British Motorsport Festival featuring the Pick-up Trucks
• April 24/25 – Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship
• May 29 – BRSCC featuring the Pick-up trucks
• July 3/4 – BRSCC Caterham Festival
• July 17/18 – The Cooper Tires British F3 International Series & Avon Tyres British GT Championship
• Aug 28 – Britcar
• Aug 29/30 – BRSCC featuring Pick-up Trucks
• Sept 11/12 – BARC featuring Pick-up Trucks
• Nov 13 – BARC Winter Series
• Dec 4/5 – Rockingham Stages rally

Superleague’s engine manufacturer wins industry award

The performance engineering company responsible for building the V12 engines that power Superleague Formula, as well as contributing to the Bloodhound SSC land speed record project, has won the Motorsport Industry Association’s (MIA) Technology and Innovation Award.

Menard Competition Technologies, which has a base in Leafield, Oxfordshire, fought off competition from companies including Williams Hybrid Power and Millers Oils to collect the accolade at the NEC in Birmingham on January 14.

The MIA Business Excellence Awards recognise outstanding work within the motorsport and high-performance engineering industries and MCT took its prize for the quality of its design and engineering.

Kevin Lee, MCT’s managing director, said: “All of us at MCT are thrilled with our success at this year’s awards. To be awarded this honour by a panel of our peers is truly gratifying.

“The whole team back at Leafield continues to deliver reliable, innovative and high-performance products and this award is vindication of their hard work.

“We have an exciting year ahead of us; the Superleague championship has been extended to 12 rounds and the Bloodhound SSC land speed record project continues to gather pace as engine testing continues.

“This has been a great way in which to start the year and further demonstrates MCT’s passion and commitment to being one of the world’s leading motorsport and high performance engineering organisations”.

Robin Webb, Superleague Formula’s Competitions Director, added: “Congratulations to everyone at MCT for this prestigious award. The whole team at Leafield has worked tirelessly with us over the last few years to engineer an instantly recognisable product and this is just reward for their endeavour.

“The V12 engines are certainly one of the championship’s calling cards and we’re delighted that they will be powering Superleague again in 2010 as we enter our third season”.

The MIA Business Excellence awards are presented at the industry association’s annual dinner at Autosport International.

Organisers say the event attracts more than 500 people from across the world of motorsport and is the largest and most prestigious gathering of the year for all involved in the business of UK motorsport.

GP3: New car breaks cover in Britain

The British teams set to take part in 2010’s inaugural GP3 season have got their hands on the first of the three cars they will be racing when the series kicks off in May.

Carlin, Manor and Hitech are the UK-based squads set to be competing in the 10-strong series, set up as a feeder series to GP2 and therefore F1, and due to launch at Barcelona on May 8-9. Irish team Status GP, which ran the Team Ireland car to a championship win in A1GP, is also signed up.

The first test of 2010 is due to be held at Le Castellet, France, on March 3-4 with further testing taking place at the same venue on March 31-April 1 and the teams are now in a position to start readying the cars for those events.

The cars’ chassis has been designed and built by Dallara, with hydraulics and electronics supplied by Magneti Marelli. The engine, based on a road car two-litre turbo, has been developed by the Renault F1 Team at its engine plant in Viry-Châtillon, France.

The organisers say that, after months of preparation the first generation car, to be raced for a three-year period, has been completed on time. The second batch of cars are due be delivered during the first week of February and the third during the third week of February in time for the first test.

Series organiser Bruno Michel said: “The manufacturing of the first generation GP3 car is complete and on time, and I am confident that it will achieve the same level of quality competition and reliability reached in GP2.

“We always kept in mind during the design process to produce a car that will offer great racing to the fans whilst keeping it affordable for the teams. “It’s also great to see that the 2010 grid is fast taking shape.

“A number of teams already have promising young drivers signed for the series, and one can only be impressed by their high calibre.”

Could Anthony Davidson move to DTM?

We all enjoy listening to Ant Davidson’s F1 commentary on the radio, but what his fans really want to see is the fomer Honda and Super Aguri driver back in a race car. Could that now be on the cards again?

Davidson could be about to join a long list of successful Brits racing in the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters (DTM) tintop series after he travelled to Spain to test with title-holders Audi earlier this week.

Already driving for Audi last year were Brits Oliver Jarvis, who made his name in British F3 and racing for Team GBR in A1GP, and former Champ Car pilot Katherine Legge. The team has a vacancy after star sportscar driver Tom Kristensen announced his retirement from the series.

Driving for their rivals Mercedes were four more British drivers – Paul di Resta, Gary Paffett, Susie Stoddart and Jamie Green. And F1 veteran David Coulthard has been linked with a possible seat at the team, whether replacing an existing driver like Ralf Schumacher or filling a vacancy caused by, for example, Paul di Resta choosing to concentrate on F1.

Davidson told Autosport magazine: “I would definitely be interested in racing in the DTM. It’s something I’ve got my eye on and, if I was given a chance to do it, I would. They invited me to come and do the test and you can’t turn down a company like Audi.”

Davidson impressed during his time in F1 by punching far above the weight of the cash-strapped Super Aguri team, and is renowned as one of the best development drivers available, but has been unable to translate his reputation and popularity with fans into another solid drive in that series.

He spent the last year as a reserve driver for Brawn GP but the focus of that team on recruiting German drivers has been another blow to his prospects.

Speaking about his F1 future, he said: “I’ve tried very hard to get back into F1, and I’m still trying but with the chances of finding something diminishing there I’ve decided to look at opportunities elsewhere. I’ve always wanted to drive a DTM car, so this has been a good experience.”

Since leaving F1 Davidson has been involved in sportscar racing with Essex-based Gigawave Motorsport, and with Aston Martin Racing, for whom he competed in this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans alongside Darren Turner and Jos Verstappen.

Gigawave had been working along Nissan’s sports division NISMO on developing its GT-R racecar, although the partnership was concluded at the end of 2009. Davidson raced for the team at the 24 Hours of Spa event.