THE organisers of the Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour have outdone themselves again, assembling perhaps the most well-credentialed grid ever to grace Mount Panorama.
A 53-car field was unveiled on Tuesday, spearheaded by 13 ‘Pro’ class entries and a further 12 ‘Pro-Am’ entries, packed with a wealth of driving talent that it’s hard to know exactly where to start.
Among the grid’s combined achievements are three FIA world championship titles and as many Le Mans 24 Hours wins; 12 Supercars championships and over 400 race victories; 36 Bathurst endurance race wins; 220 Formula 1 race starts; and 32 wins across the revered 24 Hour GT races at Spa-Francorchamps and the Nurburgring.
Reigning winners Jamie Whincup and Craig Lowndes are back but with different teams and in different cars, trading their Ferrari for a Mercedes and a McLaren respectively.
Shane van Gisbergen and Scott McLaughlin, the two fastest drivers around Mount Panorama in a GT car and a Supercar, are also McLaren mounted, the quartet leading a contingent of 11 full-time Supercars drivers to be suiting up for the once-around-the-clock enduro.
Chasing back-to-back Mount Panorama wins are reigning Bathurst 1000 champs David Reynolds and Luke Youlden, while Chaz Mostert would become the first driver to win all three major Bathurst enduros (1000, 12 Hour, 6 Hour) should his Schnitzer Team BMW M6 cross the line first on February 4.
The overseas contingent is just as formidable, with Audi, Mercedes, McLaren, Porsche and Bentley bringing the best of their factory stars to Australia for the race.
Tickets remain available for the event, with race day General Admission tickets priced from just $46, including free access to the paddock area.
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The former Renault and Red Bull racer was scathing in the aftermath of Grosjean’s crash, saying it was “disgusting” that the live TV broadcast continued to show a loop of replays of the scary incident during the hour-long break before the re-start of the race.
Ricciardo’s outburst resulted in him in December agreeing to meet with Formula 1 director of marketing and communications Ellie Norman to reach a peaceful resolution.
That had appeared to be the end of it, but an interview has now revealed Ricciardo is far from finished in his push to clean up the sport from its own employees.
Formula 1 had a much less dramatic race in Bahrain this year.Source: Getty Images
Ricciardo has told UK lifestyle magazine Square Mile Formula 1 is still habitually crossing the line with its internal coverage of crashes and on-track drama.
He highlights a social media post from last year where the official F1 account promoted crashes as some of the biggest moments of the 2020 season, which was famously derailed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I think last year, F1 put on their social channels, like, ‘top 10 moments of the year’ or something, and eight of the ten were crashes,” he said.
Romain Grosjean of France and Haas F1 is pictured on a screen escaping his crash during the F1 Grand Prix of Bahrain at Bahrain International CircuitSource: Supplied
“I was just like, you guys are f***ing idiots. Maybe 12-year-old kids want to see that kind of content, and that’s cool because they don’t know any better, but we’re not kids. Just do better, guys. Do better than that.”
He says in the interview the trending focus on drama has also been propelled in the highly-acclaimed Netflix documentary series Drive To Survive.
“I think the first season of Drive To Survive was awesome,” he said.
“I spend some time in the States, and I noticed it literally from one trip to the next.
“It was the first time I started being recognised and people referencing that TV series. So it certainly did us wonders, even – not to talk social media – but numbers on social media went nuts. It did a lot for us and the sport.
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“I mean the second season, there were some episodes or parts where I feel they forced it a little bit.
“They tried to create a bit of a rivalry between me and [Carlos] Sainz and it wasn’t really there. Like, he’s no more a rival than anyone else. There wasn’t any personal grudge with him, but I think [Netflix] wanted something, so a lot of questions led with asking about Carlos.
“Maybe no one noticed, but for me, I was like, he’s fine. I’ve probably got other guys that I dislike, you know, as opposed to Carlos… I mean, he dresses like a 60 year old, but otherwise he’s alright.”
Ricciardo’s comments strike a very different tune to the one that followed his initial meeting with the sport’s marketing boss.
“I think she was very understanding and appreciative, and I think also accepted my concerns as well,” he said at the time.
Romain Grosjean of France and Haas F1 walks in the Paddock with his wife Marion before final practice ahead of the F1 Grand Prix.Source: Getty Images
“She didn’t push back, I think she was trying to listen and learn as well, how they could maybe do things differently. But she also talked me through the reasons why they broadcast what they did.”
It came after he gave the administration a public slap in Bahrain last year.
“The way the incident of Grosjean was broadcast over and over, the replays over and over, it was completely disrespectful and inconsiderate for his family, for all of our families watching,” he said.
“We’re going to go race again in an hour and every time we look on the TV it’s a ball of fire and his car’s cut in half.
“I mean we can see that tomorrow, we don’t need to see it today.
“For me, it was entertainment and they’re playing with all of our emotions and I thought it was pretty disgusting.”
Formula 1 at the time defended the decision to replay the incident, saying the footage only rolled again when officials were certain Grosjean and the marshals who came to his aid were all safe.
Daniel Ricciardo’s new team principal at McLaren has opened up on the reason the Formula One outfit was so keen to sign the Australian.
After losing Carlos Sainz to Ferrari – a move that somewhat surprised the British-based unit – McLaren took less than a week to unveil Ricciardo in his new orange livery alongside British rising star Lando Norris.
Now McLaren boss Andreas Seidl says the decision to sign the former Renault and Red Bull racer was based on maintaining a competitive driver pairing where each would push the other.
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F1 world baffled over new Lewis vision
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While many rivals use a clear ‘number one’ and ‘number two’ driver – such as Ferrari clearly placing Charles Leclerc as their top priority ahead of new recruit Sainz, or Red Bull’s Max Verstappen leading that charge – McLaren’s rise up the constructors championships in the past two years has come from both drivers regularly banking strong points.
Continuing that balanced two-pronged approach is crucial this season, Seidl told Motorsport.com.
“As you can imagine it was obviously important for me that when we made the decision to go for Daniel that we simply made sure for the team that we have again also from this year onwards, a very strong driver line-up,” Seidl said.
“Because key in the last two years for securing these positions we could secure in the constructors’ championship was that we always had two drivers who were there and always ready to score good points.
“I’m really happy with what we have seen so far from both guys. It’s great that we again seem to have a very strong driver line-up. We managed to get through both cars in Q3, both guys always very close together.”
The pair was separated by just 0.055 seconds in third qualifying at the season-opener in Bahrain. And while Ricciardo struggled with floor damage – and therefore pace – Norris rose from seventh to fourth in a strong finish for the McLaren duo.
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With Ricciardo dropping to seventh from his grid position of sixth, the pair’s combined 18 points was good enough to move the team to third on the constructors championship – a highly promising beginning to the season.
Even more promising was the margin between Red Bull’s Max Verstappen in his best qualifying lap and the McLaren duo, which was 0.3 seconds smaller than last season.
“The gap we had to pole position was smaller compared to what we could do last time we have been here in Bahrain, which is again an encouraging sign that we’re making a step as a team with the car towards the front and that we are heading in the right direction,” Seidl said.
Supercars champion Scott McLaughlin has outlined the huge differences between his former career in Australia and his current one in America with the IndyCars series.
The Kiwi left Supercars a three-time champion before heading to IndyCar with Team Penske, who part-owned the Dick Johnson Racing team he drove for in the championship.
McLaughlin is in pre-season training for the upcoming IndyCar season, which starts with the Grand Prix of Alabama on April 18th, and revealed the main challenges with adapting from a closed-wheel race car, to an open wheeler – including the near 100kmph increase in speeds.
“It’s completely 180, it’s so different,” McLaughlin told Fox Sports News.
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“You’ve got to really muscle the car here in America. There’s no power steering, in Supercars there’s power steering. I have to lie down in the car, I’m basically lying down in a bed. In Supercars we drive like in a road car so I’ve really had to build up strength in areas I haven’t had before, especially around my shoulders.
“I’m building up my neck strength because the G-Force is over five Gs – that’s five or six times my body weight. It’s pretty full on. In Supercars it’s more focused on heat and trying to adapt to that – here it’s a little bit different.
“It’s so bloody fast. You’re doing close to 400kmph on an oval – it’s phenomenal. The closest we got to 300kmph was at Bathurst and that was a thrill in itself.
“Learning how the slipstream works and the runs you get on other cars – it’s full on. There are things that I won’t learn until I get out and race. And that’s probably the hardest thing.
“Doing the laps by yourself, that’s the easy part. It’s going out and racing wheel to wheel, when in a Supercar I could bang doors, but in an open wheeler if you bang then wheels fly off and all sorts happens.”
