Source: http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2014/01/31/formula-one-fast-enough-moment-sutil/
Saturday
Formula One not fast enough at the moment ? Sutil | 2014 F1 season
Adrian Sutil believes the new generation of F1 cars aren't quick enough - but expects designers to make rapid progress.
Friday
Looking Back At 2013 - Rating The Factories: Honda, Yamaha, And Ducati
In the final part of our look back at 2013, we review the performance of the factories. How did Honda, Yamaha and Ducati stack up last season? What were their strong points, and how did they go about tackling their weaknesses? Above all, what does this mean for 2014? Here's our rating of MotoGP's manufacturers.
| Honda | |
| Manufacturer's Championship Standing: | 1st |
| Score: | 10/10 |
It seemed as if every technical rule change and tire decision swung against Honda in 2012. First, they found themselves outfoxed over the minimum weight by Ducati, after the MSMA first told the Grand Prix Commission that they had unanimously rejected a proposal to raise it from 153kg to 160kg. It turned out that only Honda and Yamaha had rejected it, with Ducati voting in favor, which meant the rule should have been adopted and not rejected. As a concession to the manufacturers, the weight was raised in two stages, to 157kg in 2012, and 160kg in 2013. Then, after being tested at Jerez, the riders voted to adopt the new, softer construction front tires, despite complaints from the Repsol Honda riders.
Honda struggled for much of 2012, first working out where to place an extra 4kg (a problem the other factories did not have, as they had struggled to get anywhere near the previous minimum of 153kg), and then running through chassis and suspension options in search of the braking stability they had lost with the introduction of the softer front tire. After the test at the Mugello round, they had most of the problems solved, and Casey Stoner and Dani Pedrosa went on to win eight of the last nine rounds.
Come the 2013 season, and Honda were well-prepared. They already had their braking stability issues under control, and the only point left was the extra 3kg they had to carry. Having had all of 2012 to prepare for the extra weight, they arrived at the start of the season with few issues. Dani Pedrosa took a little while to get used to the extra weight, his slight frame a disadvantage when it comes to flinging the extra bulk around, but he soon had the situation under control.
Red Bull ends test early again | 2014 F1 season
Red Bull have been forced to cancel their running for a second day at Jerez after further problems with their RB10.
Source: http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2014/01/30/red-bull-ends-test-early/
Thursday
Wednesday
Tuesday
Monday
LMP2 Lola Mazda Skyactiv -D ? Detroit 2014
The creation of the new unified championship racing American resistance Tudor has helped many brands are reactivated and submit new weapons to compete in it . Mazda has already announced a couple of years I wanted a new prototype Brand ago, and that the dream of Le Mans (such as rotary engines ) still very […]
Source: http://www.autocarblog.co.uk/626-lmp2-lola-mazda-skyactiv-d-detroit-2014.html
Sunday
A Car of Tomorrow Renaissance
I read a post the other day over at Autoextremist�(a fantastic automotive blog)�about the optimism surrounding the introduction of the Gen 6 car even in the face of continuing struggles for NASCAR, and it got me thinking about the recent evolution of our race cars. In the post, Mr. De Lorenzo talks about NASCAR’s unwillingness [...] 
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Eric Bernard Enrique Bernoldi Enrico Bertaggia Tony Bettenhausen
Saturday
Guest Blog: Mat Oxley: Inside the mind of Casey Stoner
MotoMatters.com is delighted to feature the work of iconic MotoGP writer Mat Oxley. Oxley is a former racer, TT winner and highly respected author of biographies of world champions Mick Doohan and Valentino Rossi, and currently writes for Motor Sport Magazine, where he is MotoGP correspondent. We are featuring sections from Oxley's blogs, which are posted in full on the Motor Sport Magazine website.
Inside the mind of Casey Stoner
I spent some of the festive break reading Casey Stoner’s autobiography, Pushing the Limits. It’s an enjoyable book and should be required reading for any aspiring kid racer (presuming they’ve been off the bike long enough to learn to read) and for any parents of same.
Stoner’s abilities and his success confirm the verity of the 10,000 hour rule which suggests that’s the minimum amount of time you need to spend doing any pursuit if you want to be world-beating good at it. In other words, there are no short cuts on the way to the top – it’s just work, work and more work.
The young Casey Stoner
Zsolt Baumgartner Elie Bayol Don Beauman Karl Gunther Bechem
Portimao Private WSBK Test Press Release Round Up
Press releases issued by some of the World Superbike and World Supersport teams present at the Portimao test held over the past few days:
Year:
2014 Zsolt Baumgartner Elie Bayol Don Beauman Karl Gunther Bechem
Friday
The Simply MUST Improve This Season
McLaren cannot afford another so-so season if they want to still be considered as a big team this year. 2013 was sub-standard for the Woking based outfit, which finished the year fifth in the constructors standings, their worst performance since 2004 if you do not count their expulsion from the 2007 championship. They had to [...]
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Formula1Fancast/~3/vel37RPVJBQ/the-simply-must-improve-this-season
Christian Danner Jorge Daponte Anthony Davidson Jimmy Davies
Thursday
It?s Your 2013 Exit Interview: No. 17 Paul Menard
Welcome to From the Marbles' 2013 driver reviews. Here, we're going to critique, praise and bloviate about the top 30 drivers in the 2013 NASCAR season. A Menard minute.
Paul, if every season has signature moments, yours had two. However, they were both explosions. That's not the best way to be remembered.
Much like the driver who finished just below you in the standings, you had a strong open to the season and it all came crashing down on you at Daytona. That was explosion number one.
Just 23 laps into the race, your engine bit the dust in a nice bit of fire and smoke. You entered that race 15th in the points standings. Because no one else had issues yet, you finished last. You left that race 20th in the standings. It was all over from there.
You did move back up to 16th, but by then the Chase was an afterthought. You needed a win or two.
The second explosion was that tire at Homestead. Rubber from a tire issue wrapped around your brake line, which started a fire in the right-rear hub of the car. And then when your crew went to change the tire and extinguish the fire, the tire on the car got so hot that it exploded. That might have been a bigger impact than the engine.
With Kevin Harvick's departure at Richard Childress Racing, you're now the longest-tenured Cup driver at the team. That takes a second to sink in, doesn't it? There were some giggles and jokes when you moved over to RCR before the 2011 season -- being sponsored by family does that to you. The Dillons can relate -- but in those three seasons, you've finished 17th, 16th and 17th. That's acceptable, isn't it?
- - - - - - -
Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
Previous Reviews: No. 18 Aric Almirola, No. 19 Ricky Stenhouse Jr., No. 20, Jeff Burton, No. 21 Juan Pablo Montoya, No. 22 Marcos Ambrose, No. 23 Denny Hamlin, No. 24 Casey Mears, No. 25 Mark Martin, No. 26 David Gilliland, No. 27 Danica Patrick, No. 28 David Ragan, No. 29 Tony Stewart, No. 30 Dave Blaney
Wednesday
Tuesday
It?s Your 2013 Exit Interview: No. 24 Casey Mears
Welcome to From the Marbles' 2013 driver reviews. Here, we're going to critique, praise and bloviate about the top 30 drivers in the 2013 NASCAR season. It's Casey's corner now.
Thanks for joining us Casey. Where should we begin?
You potentially had the most consistently nondescript season of anyone in the Cup Series this year. And before you get all riled up and think that's going to merit a bad review, it's not. It's the truth, and in your situation, it's not a bad thing, is it?
Your team is small, has fairly limited resources and just a year or so ago was in a situation where you were having to do the start and park furlough thing. This year, there was none of that and it showed in your performance.
The restrictor plate lottery fell in your favor once this season as it seems to do for all small teams and that July Daytona night was the best finish of the season for you all. Below that, there were a lot of top 20 qualifying efforts -- eight of them -- and nine top 20 finishes.
However, there is a bit of cause of concern. Perhaps it's because you're on such a small team, you had four of those top 20s in the first six races. Your last top 20 was at Watkins Glen in August. Woof.
But here's where that consistency comes in. Save for three races in which you retired from because of crashes, you were running at the finish in every race. No terminal issues is a big victory for a small team.
What's in store for next year? We're thinking more of the same.
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Nick Bromberg is the assistant editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
Follow @NickBromberg
Previous Reviews: No. 25 Mark Martin, No. 26 David Gilliland, No. 27 Danica Patrick, No. 28 David Ragan, No. 29 Tony Stewart, No. 30 Dave Blaney
Monday
It?s Your 2013 Exit Interview: No. 2 Matt Kenseth
Welcome to From the Marbles' 2013 driver reviews. Here, we're going to critique, praise and bloviate about the top 30 drivers in the 2013 NASCAR season.
We'll refrain from making a remark about how much a change of scenery helped you, Matt, because that's blatantly obvious, isn't it?
For all of the success that you had this season, it feels a bit overshadowed by what happened at Phoenix. It was the worst time -- OK, so maybe Homestead could have been worse -- to have your poorest race of the season. Going toe-to-toe with Jimmie Johnson was suddenly negated with a ill-handling car and an inability to work through traffic.
But it shouldn't. You won seven races. That's two more than you've ever won in a Sprint Cup season, though your tenure with Joe Gibbs Racing certainly didn't get off to an auspicious start with the engine gremlin attack at Daytona. Imagine what would have happened if that would have been your Phoenix downfall.
Yeah, one of those race wins may had been a tad tainted, but it may have been in spite of the overweight rod and not because of it. That explains how the penalty was sharply reduced. You also won the first race of the Chase, and that set the stage for the showdown with the champion.
After two years outside of the top 10 in 2008 and 2009, you've entrenched yourself (again) as a top 10 driver. That's not going to change any time soon.
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Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
Previous Reviews: No. 3 Kevin Harvick, No. 4 Kyle Busch, No. 5 Dale Earnhardt Jr., No. 6 Jeff Gordon, No. 7 Clint Bowyer, No. 8, Joey Logano, No. 9 Greg Biffle, No. 10 Kurt Busch, No. 11 Ryan Newman, No. 12 Kasey Kahne, No. 13 Carl Edwards, No. 14, Brad Keselowski, No. 15 Jamie McMurray, No. 16 Martin Truex Jr., No. 17 Paul Menard, No. 18 Aric Almirola, No. 19 Ricky Stenhouse Jr., No. 20, Jeff Burton, No. 21 Juan Pablo Montoya, No. 22 Marcos Ambrose, No. 23 Denny Hamlin, No. 24 Casey Mears, No. 25 Mark Martin, No. 26 David Gilliland, No. 27 Danica Patrick, No. 28 David Ragan, No. 29 Tony Stewart, No. 30 Dave Blaney
Bob Anderson Conny Andersson Mario Andretti Michael Andretti
Sunday
It?s Your 2013 Exit Interview: No. 2 Matt Kenseth
Welcome to From the Marbles' 2013 driver reviews. Here, we're going to critique, praise and bloviate about the top 30 drivers in the 2013 NASCAR season.
We'll refrain from making a remark about how much a change of scenery helped you, Matt, because that's blatantly obvious, isn't it?
For all of the success that you had this season, it feels a bit overshadowed by what happened at Phoenix. It was the worst time -- OK, so maybe Homestead could have been worse -- to have your poorest race of the season. Going toe-to-toe with Jimmie Johnson was suddenly negated with a ill-handling car and an inability to work through traffic.
But it shouldn't. You won seven races. That's two more than you've ever won in a Sprint Cup season, though your tenure with Joe Gibbs Racing certainly didn't get off to an auspicious start with the engine gremlin attack at Daytona. Imagine what would have happened if that would have been your Phoenix downfall.
Yeah, one of those race wins may had been a tad tainted, but it may have been in spite of the overweight rod and not because of it. That explains how the penalty was sharply reduced. You also won the first race of the Chase, and that set the stage for the showdown with the champion.
After two years outside of the top 10 in 2008 and 2009, you've entrenched yourself (again) as a top 10 driver. That's not going to change any time soon.
- - - - - - -
Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
Previous Reviews: No. 3 Kevin Harvick, No. 4 Kyle Busch, No. 5 Dale Earnhardt Jr., No. 6 Jeff Gordon, No. 7 Clint Bowyer, No. 8, Joey Logano, No. 9 Greg Biffle, No. 10 Kurt Busch, No. 11 Ryan Newman, No. 12 Kasey Kahne, No. 13 Carl Edwards, No. 14, Brad Keselowski, No. 15 Jamie McMurray, No. 16 Martin Truex Jr., No. 17 Paul Menard, No. 18 Aric Almirola, No. 19 Ricky Stenhouse Jr., No. 20, Jeff Burton, No. 21 Juan Pablo Montoya, No. 22 Marcos Ambrose, No. 23 Denny Hamlin, No. 24 Casey Mears, No. 25 Mark Martin, No. 26 David Gilliland, No. 27 Danica Patrick, No. 28 David Ragan, No. 29 Tony Stewart, No. 30 Dave Blaney
Fred Agabashian Kurt Ahrens Jr Christijan Albers Michele Alboreto
Saturday
What Did We Learn At Daytona? Nothing.
If you read or hear any media member say this week that Jimmie Johnson is on his way to a sixth title, or that Danica Patrick is a contender, or that the Gen 6 car needs to be tweaked, know one thing: they don’t have a clue. Did Jimmie win the 500? Yes. Did Danica [...] 
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Friday
Looking Back At 2013 - Rating The Riders: 8th, Andrea Dovizioso, 5/10
In the eighth instalment of our series looking at 2013, we come to Andrea Dovizioso. This is how the Italian got on in his first year at Ducati. To read the rest of our reviews of last year, you can read part 1, Marc Marquez; part 2, Jorge Lorenzo; part 3, Dani Pedrosa; part 4, Valentino Rossi; part 5, Cal Crutchlow; part 6, Alvaro Bautista; and part 7, Stefan Bradl.
| Andrea Dovizioso | Ducati Factory |
| Championship position: | 8th |
| Score: | 5/10 |
After losing his factory Honda ride at the end of 2011, Dovizioso made the switch to Yamaha, joining Cal Crutchlow in the Tech 3 team. A strong year with six podiums saw him win the slot in the factory Ducati team vacated by Valentino Rossi. Dovizioso felt he deserved a factory ride, and he had got what he wanted.
That proved to be something of a poisoned chalice. The year after Ducati was taken over by Audi proved to be a year of stagnation, with new head of Ducati Corse Bernhard Gobmeier never really able to impose his authority on the race department. A lot of work was done with chassis stiffness, a new aerodynamics package was unveiled, the engine received a minor upgrade with improved throttle bodies. It all helped, a little, but the bike still had understeer, still wouldn't turn.
Enrico Bertaggia Tony Bettenhausen Mike Beuttler Birabongse Bhanubandh
Thursday
JTG Daugherty forms alliance with Richard Childress Racing, moves to Chevrolet
JTG Daugherty Racing's time with Toyota is over.
The single car team announced Monday that it was forming an alliance with Richard Childress Racing and would field Chevrolets for AJ Allmendinger in 2014.
?As a single-car team, we feel that aligning directly with a successful multi-car organization like Richard Childress Racing is what will work best for us in 2014," co-owner Tad Geschickter said in a statement.
Consider it similar to the arrangement that Furniture Row Racing has with Richard Childress Racing. The No. 78, driven by Kurt Busch this year and Martin Truex Jr. next year, served in many facets as basically a fourth RCR car despite the team's shop location in Colorado.
Allmendinger and Bobby Labonte drove for JTG Daugherty in 2013, as Allmendinger drove nine races while Labonte drove in 27. Allmendinger had the team's only top 10 when he finished 10th at Watkins Glen.
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Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
Wednesday
The Nationwide Series Is Going To Be Awesome In 2013
Thanks to a strong mix of young drivers and veterans trying to fight their way back to the top, with help from the NASCAR rule limiting drivers to one series for points, we are about to see the re-emergence of the Nationwide Series in 2013. I mean, have you seen the driver lineup? Instead of [...] 
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