THE No. 100 Steven Richards Motorsport BMW has been excluded from qualifying for the Bathurst 12 Hour, knocking it out of the Top 10 Shootout.
Philipp Eng, who will share the car with Richards and ex-F1 racer Timo Glock, qualified the car third fastest in the second qualifying session dedicated to Class A cars.
It was an impressive lap, Eng’s sole lap of the session putting him just two tenths shy of the fastest time and giving him a good starting position for the one-lap shootout for the top 10 grid positions.
However, stewards have confirmed that they have excluded the car from the qualifying results over an unspecified technical breach.
Although there were two qualifying sessions, and Eng had set a time in the first session that would still have been good enough for fourth fastest, the rules scrub all times set in the first session for the Class A cars.
That means the No. 100 BMW will start from the rear of the grid in Sunday’s race.
The exclusion elevates Supercars racer Cam Waters into the Top 10 Shootout, the Sandown 500 winner piloting the No. 55 Strakka Racing Mercedes.
David Reynolds will drive for the newly-named Kelly Grove Racing this season after leaving Erebus at the end of last year.
The Bathurst winner will switch to a Ford Mustang for the first time and drive the number 26 car, with Erebus’ former sponsor Penrite following him to the team formerly known as Kelly Racing.
He will team up with young gun Andre Heimgartner as Kelly Grove Racing released the first images of its new livery for the upcoming season.
Reynolds’ former engineer Alistair McVean is also reuniting with him at his new team as the team prepares for round one of the Supercars championship at Bathurst.
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“I’m unbelievably happy to be joining Kelly Grove Racing for the 2021 season and beyond,” Reynolds said. “It’s obviously a very exciting time for the team with the recent investment from the Grove Group and I believe the team has the resources and firepower to achieve great things this year and continue building on some of the success we saw last year.”
“I think we’re on the cusp of something really awesome at Kelly Grove Racing, the infrastructure and culture that’s in place has already really impressed me and I’m excited for the 2021 season. I’m also looking forward to working with André as his teammate, we’ll definitely push each other and hopefully get the two Mustangs up the pointy end.
“It’s awesome for me to have a few familiar faces also join the team with Alistair to engineer my side of the garage and obviously Penrite continuing to back my car which is awesome. Penrite have been a big supporter of mine over the years, they’re family to me so I’m looking forward to continuing that great relationship.”
Daniel Ricciardo is set to be put under an intense pre-season with McLaren giving their star recruit “homework” to make sure he has a fast start to life at his new team.
While typically drivers are given time to get familiar with their surroundings, testing has been reduced to three days in 2021.
As such, McLaren have a key objective to make the most of the pre-season time with Ricciardo, setting a clear goal for the Aussie superstar.
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Daniel Ricciardo has joined McLaren. (Photo by Mark Sutton – Pool/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images
“The objective is to be at the first race, in qualifying, and it be like Daniel has driven the McLaren and has worked with these engineers, and the team, for a long time,” McLaren racing director Andrea Stella said, per autosport.com.
It is consistent with what Stella told McLaren.comback in December, revealing that building a strong rapport between Ricciardo and Lando Norris would be key to the team’s success.
“The most important thing from my point of view is that we preserve the conditions that we created to allow that high level of collaboration between Carlos and Lando,” he said at the time.
“But it’s not just about preserving those conditions, we may have to adapt them. Daniel is not Carlos and his relationship with Lando will be different.”
So, what exactly will it look like?
Ricciardo will need to start fast. (Photo by Mark Thompson/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images
Well, according to Stella the first step will occur well before the team’s attention turns towards testing or the season-opener at Bahrain.
“There will be in January, first of all, plenty of conversations,” Stella added, per autosport.com.
“They will have to be personal, individual, and relationship building.
“These will touch the technical elements, and these will touch the racing element. It will be like, ‘do you remember that race when you were very competitive, what made you so competitive in that race?’ Then you develop a conversation.”
That is not it for Ricciardo either, who will receive some homework to do – all in the name of building that relationship.
Daniel Ricciardo joins Lando Norris. (Photo by Florent Gooden – Pool/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images
“We will, for example, give him quite a lot of homework,” Stella continued.
“We will give him a recording of the radio communications of, for example, [last] season.
“We will say, ‘Daniel, now listen to that, and come back to us and tell us what you hear. What you would improve, what you liked, what you didn’t like, how you want to be spoken to and so on?’
“And then there is the simulator. The simulator is a good way to see how a driver is driving.”
Daniel Ricciardo may have made the switch to McLaren ahead of the 2021 season but he has left with a clear picture of just how much Renault have transformed since his arrival in 2019.
Renault has recorded ninth, sixth, fourth and fifth (twice) placed finishes in the Constructors’ Championship since its full-time return in 2016.
Ricciardo’s signature was a serious coup but his first year did not live up to expectations, with the Aussie admitting that he would ramp up the pressure in 2020.
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“I’ve made the mistake in the past of setting to high an expectation and left disappointed, so I more came into the season excited for something new and a new challenge,” he said at the time.
“We’re still not there but I think in the second half of the season we have had a bit more consistency. That’s been more positive. So looking towards what we are really trying to achieve next year it looks better.”
Ricciardo was able to snare Renault’s first podium finish in nine years last season and while he may not be sticking around, he said there is a key reason why he feels more confident about their chances moving forward.
“I saw a lot more confidence in the team, just as far as personnel,” Ricciardo said, per autosport.com.
“There was that feeling now that, ‘yeah, we can do it’, where I felt like I walked into a bit more of a timid environment early on.
“It’s not criticism. It’s just the team wasn’t used to it. They hadn’t been successful in quite a few years, so everyone can start to have some self-doubts.”
Ricciardo celebrates a podium finish. (Photo by Luca Bruno / POOL / AFP)Source: AFP
Ricciardo and Renault finished the year fifth after picking up two podium finishes while also scoring more than double the amount of points as in his debut year.
There was no title obviously but for Ricciardo it is all about progression and those podium finishes were enough proof that the team is on an upwards trajectory.
“I guess there’s levels of success. Real success would be winning a title in the two years, but definitely stepping on the podium a couple of times made it feel like a success,” he added.
“I’m not obviously claiming it all, but the feedback I was giving and trying to help out and everyone was trying to move forward.”
