Forza Motorsport 3 review

I thought that when Need for Speed Shift came out, I had seen the best racing effort of the year. Realistic with minimal arcade style driving incorporated, and highly pleasing visually, I was wowed. But less than two weeks later, and Need for Speed has already been thoroughly outclassed. Forza Motorsport 3, the latest entry in the series, digs deep and provides gamers with enough content to keep them busy for days. Even as I write this review, I’m still only 37% through the game and have sunk around 3 days into the game. So now, give me the honor of presenting you with Forza Motorsport 3.

This game is one of the best racing games I’ve played. When I opened the box, I was surprised to see not just one disc of content, but a second disc full of extra cars, racing tracks and other tidbits to expand on the already immense experience. I booted up the first disc and immediately ran a race and was surprised by how the controls were more fluid than the controls for Need for Speed: Shift and Gran Turismo. The race wasn’t too bad and as soon as it was over, I sat back and thought about how the game looked.

Racing Sim
Publisher: Microsoft
Developer: Turn 10 Studios
Oct. 27, 2009

Need for Speed: Shift had gone all out for realism, right down to first person driving and actual effects for crashes (blurred vision in black and white, a nice touch). Forza’s realistic nature stems from the controls and the graphics. When you play in first person, it looks sharper than the graphics for NFS: Shift. All around, everything was sleeker in this game. When you go through your cars, the menu highlights them in a glamorous fashion which accentuates the beauty of the car’s design and makes you want to own it. Numerous models are included in the game, from brands ranging from Ford to Bugatti (racing in the Ferrari was always a treat).  When you race, the graphics of the layout are amazing. In first person, you feel like you’re actually driving the car in real life. In third person, you enjoy the view as you race against beautiful cars on tracks which range from stunning to borderline perfect.

The Cars are the lifeblood of this game. The sheer number available from the onset is amazing. There are a few which have to be unlocked, but the cars which are already available are pretty good. So you won’t have to worry about driving crappy cars since you can choose a good one if you’re inclined. As you win races you’ll receive credits to customize, upgrade and unlock other cars which furthers the game play and gives you goals.  Once you’ve got a garage full of your favorite cars, just tear up the expansion tracks on the second disc to fulfill your every racing desire.

The difficulty of the game is like most games, easy at first with a proportional rise in difficulty as you go on. You can also control your handicaps by going into options and choosing what controls you want to be automatic and which controls you want to be manual. For a real driver’s challenge, go with change gears manually for an added dose of a realistic driving experience. Once races start getting difficult, the amount of skill needed to win increases as well. The handicaps allow beginner players to get in the game, and there are also features like rewind which allow players rewind the race if they mess up. It’s an interesting feature, which docks you some points in performance, but allows beginners not to get too aggravated if they mess up.

Graphics are also pretty impressive. I’ve mentioned tracks and the load of the cars, but when you play the game, the amount detail put into it is clear. When I hit barriers, it sounded and looked like I was hitting barriers. Every crash takes its toll on the car. I would cry whenever I scratched my car since I could see the damage done to the sides and the paint scratched off. It’s an impressive feat which makes NFS: Shift and Gran Turismo’s crash effects look childish. That’s no easy feat.

The whole game is damn near perfection. But I still have a few issues with it. It’s got a load of content and stunning visuals, but the game doesn’t push the line. It doesn’t really delve into groundbreaking territory. The rewinding features and the handicaps are creative but they’re not pushing the envelope, something I wanted this game to do very well. You can get too dependent on the handicaps, which is ok but doesn’t allow you to experience the full potential of the game. The sheer amount of content can be a little overwhelming and you can feel like there’s too much to do, but this is definitely a game that offers so much game play in return for the amount you pay for it.

Blast Factor: This is everything a racing game should be. Realistic, practical, sleek and well designed. Overall the gameplay is magnificent and will attract gamers who are casual fans and please those who are hardcore racing fanatics. Beginners have helpful automatic driving and rewind to help them through the beginning stages until they’re ready to fly solo. Players have a highly customizable experience and also have an absurd amount of cars at their disposal. This game is everything Need for Speed Shift aspired to be and definitely buries the other entries in the Forza series. If you’re looking for a great holiday game for racing fans, this is definitely the game you’ll want to get.

David Smail is sophomore at Boston College. He writes for the video game section and loves movies, television and music, too.

London to Brighton, in a museum piece

Poop poop! Parked outside the glossy red windows of the Ferrari store on Regent Street, an 1896 Salvesen is letting off steam. The stoker, for the car is coal fired, pulls a chain and two high-pitched parps cut through the background rumble of a busy shopping Saturday in central London. Fashionably logoed young men amble by gawping, camera phones extended, as John Brydon, 63, explains how this oily dogcart with a big black chimney – in Darwinian terms, the missing link between the carriage and the car – will propel itself the 60 miles to Brighton today.

"You shovel the coal into the furnace, which heats up the water, which produces steam, which powers the pistons, which connect to the crank shaft, which move the chains which propel the wheels." Simple.

Mr Brydon is one of 100 participants in the concours d'�l�gance that precedes the annual London to Brighton veteran car rally. The Salvesen, named after the Norwegian aristocrat who commissioned it for his estate, makes an unlikely entrant for a concours, what with the lack of any shiny brassy bits. But the crowds love it. Having never been restored, it has what a dealer might call "patina", and for the past two years has been voted the spectators' favourite.

This morning, the Salvesen, with a top speed of 10mph, will be among 500 cars setting off from Hyde Park to compete in the world's longest running motoring event. All cars must have been built no later than 1904, but unlike the Salvesen, most have petrol engines, although many with just the one cylinder. They come in all shapes, sizes and seating configurations – including the vis-à-vis, where passengers face the driver – but what is most noticeable, as heavy grey clouds brood overhead, is that the thing they mainly have in common is a lack of any kind of roof.

"We all get wet," beams Herbert Pritchard of Enfield, resplendent in a three-piece tweed suit, when I ask what happens when it rains, as is forecast for today. "Part of the fun is the challenge of getting there. There's a much greater sense of achievement if you're battling the elements as well."

Mr Pritchard is here with his entire family, including his mother and nephew and niece, and describes the event as a "big party". "It's a very social activity. This is just one of many rallies we do all year all over Europe." The route remains practically unchanged since the first rally in 1896, and is watched by more than 100,000 spectators, who line nearly every inch of the way.

There are a lot of extravagant whiskers and tweeds about, but veteran cars are not just for old men. The Bishop sisters, Emma and Elizabeth, in a 1903 Panhard Levassor, laugh off the suggestion there's anything unusual about their hobby. "Some of our best friends are in the old-car world." Like many, they are in period costume, elegant, trailing, wasp-waisted gowns with huge bustles.

Tonight, those who make it to Brighton celebrate with a black tie ball, while the drivers of the 50 or so cars that usually fall by the wayside make arrangements for the vehicles to be trailered home. Jan Haussling, over from Heidelberg in Germany, already has problems: the brakes on his 1898 Benz dramatically snapped off yesterday. But an RAC man is on hand, and promises to get them welded on by the morning. "That's the thing about these machines," says Mr Brydon. "They're living museums." Poop poop!

New-Look Belgian GT Aston Challenges For Podium At Zolder

Posted by: MSulka on Friday, October 30, 2009 - 03:33 PM Talladega: NASCAR Truck Final Practice Results - Skinner, Toyota Fastest

The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series drove their final practice this afternoon preparing for the Mountain Dew 250 fueled by Fred's at Talladega Superspeedway.

Leading the way was Mike Skinner and his No. 5 PC Miler Navigator Toyota with a lap of 50.032 seconds/ 191.398 mph.

Mario Gosselin and his No. 12 MyTireMonkey.com/JamesCarter Att. Chevrolet were second quick with a lap of 50.389 seconds/ 190.041 mph. He was over three and a half tenths behind Skinner's leading lap.

Third quick was Chad McCumbee and his No. 07 tiwi Chevrolet with a lap of 50.410 seconds/ 189.962 mph.

Ryan Hackett and his No. 76 jandrsupply.com Ford were fourth overall, while NASCAR Sprint Cup regular Kyle Busch and his No. 51 Micco. Resort/Graceway Pharm Toyota was fifth.

In all, 38 trucks turned laps during the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series practice session.

Read more... (22803 bytes more) Todays Big Story Today's most read story is:

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Ferrari sales up 35% in UAE, 30% in region

Ferrari sales up 35% in UAE, 30% in region

Company says global economic crisis has helped reduce post-booking waiting period

Abu Dhabi: Ferrari, the luxury carmaker from Italy, has sold 35 per cent more cars in the UAE this year and 30 per cent more cars in the Middle East in 2009 compared to a year earlier, despite the economic recession, the company's general manager for the region said here.

"This year, we have sold 500 Ferrari cars in the Middle East region. This includes sales of 150 cars in the UAE," Edwin Fenech, general manager for Ferrari Middle East and Africa, told Gulf News in an interview.

"The cars will be delivered through to the end of the year to our customers."

Fenech said that at a time when luxury car sales in the region have shrunk 25 per cent year on year, Ferrari's business hasn't been affected.

"Dubai and Abu Dhabi are our biggest market in the Middle East and they helped our sales to grow," he said.

"Our business was not affected, but the waiting period for our cars came down a little bit due to the crisis," he added.

"Ours is a niche product. All the cars are handmade and we produce only 6,000 cars a year," said Fenech.

Fenech said the average waiting period for a Ferrari customer in the region is currently ten months.

He said Ferrari is selling its California, 599 GTB, 612 Scaglietti and 458 Italia models in the Middle East.

Asked if Ferrari will introduce a lower priced car to boost its sales, Fenech said: "Definitely not. This is not our business model.

"Our 458 Italia is a new model which replaces the F430 (Coupe and Spider) model. The 458 Italia costs a bit less than 200,000 euros (Dh1.08 million)."

Abu Dhabi's Mubadala Development Company owns a 5 per cent stake in Ferrari, which it purchased in 2005. Italy's Fiat SpA owns a majority 85 per cent stake, and Pierro Ferrari, son of Ferrari's founder Enzo Ferrari owns 10 per cent of the Maranello-based company.

On Thursday, Pierro Ferrari, who is visiting Abu Dhabi, ruled out any further stake sale in Ferrari to Mubadala near-term.

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Ferrari 599 HGTE

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New handling pack for 205mph coupe - PH joins the premier league

Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano

Rain, sleet, floods and storms. PH decided to treat a Ferrari 599 to some traditionally diabolical British weather...

Ferrari 430 Scuderia

PH looks at the world of weight saving from behind the wheel of a Ferrari Scuderia

Ferrari F430 Coupe F1

Ferris Bueller got his hands on a Ferrari for the day - why should he have all the fun?

Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano

Can Nick Hall stop giggling long enough to drive it? Read his report.

Novitec Rosso F430

Ian Kuah gets behind the wheel of a very special Ferrari

Ferrari F430 F1

Ian Kuah assesses the Ferrari F430 F1 and its controversial gearshift. He likes it. A lot.

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Ever wondered what it's like to spend time in a Ferrari V12 GT? Richard Fiennes has done just that.

Ferrari 360 Spider

Nauman Farooq had the pleasure of a 360 to test in Toronto

Abu Dhabi GP Preview: The Spectacle Descends on to the Emirates!

 

Jenson Button and Brawn GP may have wrapped up the Championship at Interlagos but there is still more important battles to be fought on track apart from the grand debut of the 1st ever Abu Dhabi GP at the Yes Marina Circuit which is not only the 2nd grand prix in the Middle East but this race is the first twilight race in F1’s history and this race would want to be the Monaco of the East.

 

Though Button can relax, his teammate Barrichello is locked into a fierce battle for 2nd place in the driver’s championship with Red Bull’s Vettel. Though Vettel leads only by 2 points, this seesaw battle has seen both drivers swapping places nearly at the end of each race so anything can happen and both cars are evenly matched at this circuit which has one of the longest straight lines in F1. Brawn may have won the Championships,but have yet to secure Button’s signature for the next season and if things do get hostile after yet another contract talk deadlock, McLaren may once again have the #1 car on the gird.

 

Though both Brawn and McLaren look  strong in practice, Red Bull is not too far off and both Webber and Vettel will be looking for a strong showing during the race but McLaren with KERS will have a slight edge over rest of the field. Hamilton for the first time in his career is going into the last race without having the pressure of having to win the championship. He will be the favourite going into the race and he would want to finish 2009 on a high. His only condolence could be finishing ahead of Kimi who can actually race with Hamilton at McLaren for the next season. Heikki Kovalainen did not make the most of his chances at McLaren and it is certain that he would not race for them for 2010 but he would want to leave the team at a high.

 

Ferrari may have given up on the season but both its drivers will be pumped up for what could be both men’s last race. Kimi though may still end up with a race seat but teammate Fisi has signed on as a tester for the team and though he may still drive for one of the teams. However, unless Sauber gets an entry, the Ferrari powered team may have Fisi behind the wheels for them. It is highly important in terms of ego for Ferrari as they are behind McLaren by just a point and Ferrari would want to finish ahead of their arch rivals while Kimi too would want to finish ahead of Hamilton who also happens to lead Kimi by a point. Fisi will be hoping for some good luck as though he may be living a dream, but his departure from Force India was just when the team went through a surge and at times were on par with the likes of even McLaren and Brawn.

 

BMW  Sauber will have mixed feelings going into this race as this is the last race for the BMW team. Though the team has supplied engines to the likes of Brabham in the 80’s and Williams during the early part of this decade,  apart from this season, ever since BMW took over Sauber, the team has been a force to reckon with and till last season, it overtook Williams and joined the likes of Ferrari, McLaren and Renault as the new big 4 of F1. Though Kubica has secured a drive, his teammate Nick Heidfeld is yet to secure a drive and he has been linked to every other team with a vacant spot and he definitely would like to end his Sauber career with a team with which he has driven for most of his career in both the BMW and the Petronas avatars.

 

Toyota has had a last minute revival and though Trulli had an intense battle with Force India’s Sutil outside the track, the team will be hoping for a good show on a track which is fast paced and which could help them. However,everyone will be looking at Kamui Kobayashi who has the speed and the driving skills to become the next Sato, a highly entertaining gutsy driver. Though he may not always be consistent, he does not mind banging wheels with anyone on the track. Another good show here may seal a seat with Toyota for the next season.

 

Williams will have wholesale changes for 2010 as not only have they announced a new engine partnership with Cosworth but also will have a completely new driver line-up for the next year. They are most likely to field veteran Brazilian Barrichello and rookie German protégé Hülkenberg who is managed by Weber, the same guy who managed Schumacher during his glory days. Frank Williams has already given hints that Rosberg would drive for a Mercedes powered team and that could be only one of the 2 between Brawn and McLaren.

 

Alonso is very emotional about having his last race for Renault and this time it could actually be his last race for the French team as he would want to retire from the sport with Ferrari. Then again, Kimi said the same thing and he could infact be making a dramatic comeback for 2010 with McLaren. Teammate Romain Grosjean needs to drive the best race he has ever driven if he wants to retain his Renault seat for 2010.

 

Both STR and Force India are strong, but Force India with more experienced drivers seem to be in a better position to score points while STR thought maybe in reckoning but the drivers at times make errors to just throw a race from point scoring positions and on a new technically challenging track, they need to be at their best.

 

Abu Dhabi GP has made tall claims on wanting to be the Monaco of the East but with a twilight race and a brilliantly designed track, they may end up having that distinction if the race turned out to be “Any One Can Win” race. Yes Marina circuit is a great addition to the F1 calendar and this track will definitely separate the talented drivers from the rest.

 

Abu Dhabi GP Top 8 Predictions:

 

1. Sebastien Vettel

2. Lewis Hamilton

3. Jenson Button

4. Mark Webber

5. Rubens Barrichello

6. Kimi Räikkönen

7. Heikki Kovalainen

8. Sebastien Buemi

Alonso: I'll prove I'm better than ever

Fernando Alonso is confident that his move to Ferrari next season will allow him to prove that he is “better than ever” as a driver.

The double world champion has only rarely been able to contend for wins or podiums since his return to Renault in 2008, and admits the uncompetitiveness of this year’s car in particular has been a big disappointment.

However the Spaniard is still regarded as one of Formula 1’s very best drivers, and says he is pleased with his own performance this season, having emphatically beaten his team-mates Nelson Piquet Jr and Romain Grosjean.

“It was a disappointment, because we started the championship with very high hopes,” he said of the 2009 campaign.

“We were thinking to fight for the world championship and very soon we realised that we were not in that position. So it was a frustrating season.

“But overall, you need to take the positive things.

“I am happy with myself and my performance, relative to my team-mates all season.

“I know that people think that I need to beat my team-mate always by rule – but this is not mathematics.

“Formula 1 is always different and I have been beating for two years guys who are winning in GP2 and are champions in different categories.

“It’s not that I am beating someone who arrived in Formula 1 by luck.

“So I am happy with my performance and hopefully next year I can prove that I’m better than ever now.”

Alonso said it would be wrong to conclude from his superiority that Piquet and Grosjean lacked the talent to compete in F1.

Instead he argued they had the misfortune to race for Renault at a time when it was slipping down the pecking order, and claimed that this year’s R29 was now the slowest car on the grid.

“I think they don't [should] suffer, I think they are doing a super job,” he said.

“We have at the moment one of the worst cars on the grid unfortunately – or the worst car now, because Toro Rosso is in front of us, Force India is in front of us, and Williams and Toyota are in front of us.

“So with that case, we do whatever we can and we do our maximum all the time.

“Unfortunately they arrived in Renault at the moment we were not competitive.”

Alonso feels he has had to dig extremely deep to haul the Renault into the top 10 in qualifying so often this season.

“I have been doing some good laps in qualifying and I’ve been putting myself in Q3 in 90 per cent of the races, but they were little miracles every Saturday,” he said.

“If you take apart that, we were not competitive, so they were doing the maximum and a very good job.

“For sure, if they were sitting in a Toyota now like [Kamui] Kobayashi, they might even be able to fight for a podium because they are champions in GP2.”

Despite his low regard for this year’s car, Alonso added that he would be sorry to leave Renault and would be striving to give the team members the best possible parting gift in Abu Dhabi this weekend.

“It’s very important, because it’s the last race and I want to finish on a high for all the people, the mechanics and engineers,” he said.

“I’ve been with them seven years now, so it will be a shame if we do the last race in the middle of the pack, fighting for nothing.

“It will be nice to grab some points, but at the moment we are realistic and we are not in that position.

“So tomorrow (Saturday) we need to find a good four- or five-tenths to be in Q3, so let's hope for that.”

Gleaming Parade of 100 Ferrari Cars Welcomes F1 Grand Prix to Abu Dhabi

Gleaming Parade of 100 Ferrari Cars Welcomes F1 Grand Prix to Abu Dhabi Posted: 30-10-2009 , 13:43 GMT

The Poltrona Frau Group Design Center today played host to an unprecedented gathering of around 100 Ferrari cars and their owners, at their showroom in Abu Dhabi, to celebrate the arrival of F1 to the emirate.  The parade of Ferraris, which started in Dubai, made a scheduled mid-day �pit-stop� at the Poltrona Frau Group Design Center, for a gathering of true Italian style, performance and cuisine.

 

The parade and luncheon is one of the many ways the UAE is welcoming and celebrating the arrival of F1 to Abu Dhabi.

 

Premium Italian furniture maker Poltrona Frau supplies Ferrari with luxurious leather fittings for its car interiors, offering the owners of these high-performance cars unmatched luxury, quality, comfort and style.

 

In addition to its relationship with Ferrari, Poltrona Frau has also been selected as Etihad Airways� strategic partner for the development of its new first class suite, and Poltrona Frau � through the Poltrona Frau Group Design Center � enjoys strong support from a growing number of elite corporate and private clients in the UAE.

Abu Dhabi marks end of roller-coaster F1 ride

Brawn GP's Jenson Button led the Formula One pack for most of the year before clinching the drivers' title last Sunday in Brazil.Photograph by: PAUL CROCK, AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES FILE PHOTO, The Gazette

This weekend's inaugural Grand Prix of Abu Dhabi marks the end of the road for the 2009 Formula One season, and not a minute too soon.

Oops. Did I really say that? Sorry. I'm trying to keep an open mind; really, I am.

But let's face it - this year has been marred by too many controversies and distractions on and off the track, and too few real racing highlights to muster much excitement.

The best that can be said is that the Canadian Grand Prix could not have picked a better time to have been left off the calendar.

The trouble began even before the start lights blinked at the opener in Australia, where Brawn GP faced a protest by rival teams over the legality of its cars.

The matter was later decided in favour of Brawn by the governing Fédération internationale de

l'automobile - a controversial decision that Renault driver Fernando Alonso warned would determine the outcome of the championship.

Turns out he was right.

Britain's Jenson Button went on to steer his Brawn car to six wins in the first seven races, allowing him to pile on the points while other teams scrambled to get up to speed.

By the time they did, it was too late. Button secured the title last Sunday with a fifth-place finish in Brazil. So what if it was the ninth race in a row where he failed to climb the podium?

Now, it's been argued that Brawn deserves full points for coming up with a design innovation that gave it a competitive edge over its rivals. After all, technology is what F1 is largely about, right?

Except that's not what happened. Turns out there was no secret potion in the Brawn garage.

Truth is, other teams knew exactly what Brawn was up to with its "double diffuser" and had rejected similar bodywork for their cars on the understanding that it did not conform to the new rules for 2009.

Where did they get that idea? Well, from the FIA, or at least from its technical chief Charlie Whiting. His opinion during the winter testing season: Such diffusers were not legal.

Trouble is, his opinion was strictly that - an opinion. Only when a car is officially entered in a grand prix can a formal challenge be launched. For better or worse, such is the process in F1.

To widespread surprise - and to the dismay of F1 powerhouses - the Brawn cars were given the all-clear by the stewards in Melbourne and, weeks later, by a full FIA tribunal in response to a protest launched by Ferrari, Renault and other teams.

In Sao Paulo, Button clinched the drivers' crown with one race to spare, rendering this Sunday's exercise in Abu Dhabi meaningless, since Brawn secured the constructors' trophy as well.

On the other hand, it's probably worth tuning in to catch a glimpse of the state-of-the-art Yas Marina circuit, parts of which extend under the grandstands and a five-star hotel.

The track features the longest straight of any F1 venue at 1.2 kilometres - drag racing, anyone? - and an underground pitlane exit.

It's also the first grand prix described as a day/night event, beginning at twilight and finishing under floodlights.

But the flash of Abu Dhabi can't distract fans from drawing dark conclusions.

Because it wasn't just the diffuser uproar, remember. In Australia, again, McLaren's Lewis Hamilton was disqualified for giving false statements to the stewards during a post-race briefing. Then there was the Ferrari-led threat of a breakaway series. And last month's low point: ugly revelations that Renault had staged a crash in Singapore last year.

F1 fans deserve better. Let's hope for a clean, hard-fought 2010.

See you then.

On the tube: Live coverage of the Abu Dhabi GP qualifying session airs Saturday at 8:52 a.m. on RDS and 8:55 a.m. on TSN. Race coverage airs Sunday at 7:30 a.m. on RDS and at 7:55 a.m. on TSN.

walterb@thegazette.canwest.com

From Esprit to Elora, I love Lotuses

The Lotus sports cars began as the brainchild of enthusiast Colin Chapman just after the Second World War. He built niche cars to compete on the race track in club events and minor professional races. By the 1970s, Lotus was an established maker of sports cars and was a major force in the world of Grand Prix racing. Even mighty Ferrari took a back seat to the often eccentric cars from Lotus.

The Lotus company's first foray into the world of mass-produced cars with an appeal greater than just sports cars came with the introduction of the Lotus Esprit.

This was a car that challenged the supercars of the day, at least from a performance standard, but the Esprit was never seriously considered as a rival for Lamborghini or Ferrari simply because it was powered by a turbocharged four-cylinder. That was a shame as it was every bit as good a car despite its small displacement. I had a four-cylinder turbo Esprit and it easily embarrassed its contemporary Ferrari 308s and 328s.

After decades in production, the Esprit had a major change with the introduction of the twin-turbo V8 Esprit. I still own one of those and I enjoy it greatly, but I still miss the four-cylinder Esprit. While considerably slower than the V8, the four seemed just a bit more capable in corners, unless the huge turbo lag caught you unawares. The twin-turbo V8 does not have the turbo lag, but it seems a little more reluctant to behave during high-g cornering, or perhaps it is just that you are entering such corners at much higher speed.

The Esprit was produced for more than three decades from its debut in 1972 to the final version in 2004, but its replacement was already gracing the twisting roads of Europe-- to great critical acclaim.

The Lotus Elise first appeared in the mid 1990s and was far truer to the Lotus heritage than the larger Esprit. The Elise was a small sports car with a small-displacement engine and it behaved as if glued to the road. It soon made a name for itself on race tracks around the world, but, because of its small size, difficult entry and Spartan appointments, it was a purist's car and never a rival for Porsche as far as sales were concerned -- even if it could embarrass any other car in the world in a tight corner.

The Elise was followed by an even more competent coupe version, the supercharged Exige, which is a holy terror on the track but still a difficult car for picking up milk in.

Both the Elise and the Exige have been worldwide sensations and the favourites of purists, professionals, automotive journalists and dyed-in-the-wool sports car enthusiasts. But these cars were just harbingers of what Lotus is about to release on to the roads of the world.

That car is the Evora, a much larger car than the Elise and Exige. It is also a car that may soon find itself much sought after by buyers who would normally purchase a Porsche but have always yearned for something as competent, comfortable and fresher in the looks department.

I recently had my first look at the Evora in Toronto. It was not a car that could be road tested as the Evora is currently going through its North American certifications and is not allowed for road use. While driving it would have been great, just looking at it was enough for now.

Raikkonen deal would include rallying in 2010

Kimi Raikkonen insists that any 2010 F1 contract would allow him to explore his interest in rallying. Kimi Raikkonen has confirmed that he is likely to combine outings in both Formula One and rallying next season - provided he finds a new home in the top flight after leaving Ferrari.The Finn, world champion just two years ago with the Scuderia, will be replaced by Fernando Alonso in 2010 and has yet to find a new ride, despite being linked to a number of teams, including former employer McLaren. However, wherever he does end up - and it may not even be in F1 - Raikkonen insists that he will be out on the stages as well as the track."It's going to be in the contract that I'm allowed to do [rallying]," he claimed to journalists in Abu Dhabi, where he will line up for Ferrari for the last time, "It's not going to hurt you - any kind of driving is always going to give you some experience, so I don't see what's the issue. It's been working well this year so, as long as it doesn't disturb what you're doing in F1 or whatever you do, I don't see that there's any problem."Despite claiming that his future is 'definitely going to be F1', Raikkonen also intimated that he was exploring other options outside of the top flight, and dismissed the various rumours about potential destinations for 2010."Basically, I have a few different options and we will see what is the best one overall and then make my decision," he maintained, "[Rallying] is definitely one of them, but I mean it is not just F1 and rallying. There are other things I could do and we will see what happens. I can [take a sabbatical] if I want. I can do whatever I want, but like I said before, I haven't made my decision what I want to do yet."It is not any different than a few races ago. I don't have a contract [with Ferrari] any more, it is the last race [with them], and we will try to make a good result. Then we will see what happens in the future."Toyota has not even been discussed,” Finland's MTV3 quoted him as saying prior to the weekend, “If I want to drive [in F1], then McLaren in the only option. I should know the situation in the next few days.”Despite Ferrari having struggled to match the likes of Brawn and Red Bull Racing this season, the Finn believes that he has done enough - particularly in the second half of the season - to justify interest in his services next year."I think we had a good second half," he confirmed, "The car is definitely not the fastest, but we found a pretty good way of working with the car and getting the best out of it. It has been more normal to drive than for a long time and, once you get something that you have a good feeling with, then usually you get good results."The bigger teams, or the better teams who have been faster this year, should have done better - better cars, better results and better points overall in the last part - but they haven't and I think we did pretty well."

Fisker Automotives buys a former General Motors plant to start producing ...

Fisker Automotives buys a former General Motors plant to start producing hybrid plug-in vehicles

Danish car designer Henrik Fisker is set to begin making eco-friendly cars in the US.

Fisker, a former designer with BMW, Aston Martin and Ford, received a 2.66 billion kroner loan from the US Department of Energy in September to produce plug-in hybrid cars.

The Californian-based Fisker Automotives has bought the ex-GM assembly plant in Delaware for 91 million kroner after a four-month evaluation period. US Vice President Joe Biden announced the deal.

Fisker Automotive has already invested 850 million kroner of the US loan to produce the luxury plug-in hybrid Karma sports car, the production of which is entirely outsourced. A Finnish plant assembles the Karma as no suitable US factory could be found.

But the car to follow the Karma will be assembled solely in the Delaware plant, with Fisker assigning 1.8 billion kroner of state funding to the project.

Fisker described the new car, known for now as Project Nina, as a ‘green BMW’. Vice President Biden also released some details, describing it as a ‘four-door Ferrari’.

‘Technology is so expensive that we have to start with a luxury car and go into a market where people can afford to pay for the product,’ Fisker told trade publication Ingeniøren.

The Nina will be launched in 2012 and is expected to cost half as much as the 430,000 kroner Karma, which hits the US market next summer.

‘We’re positioning ourselves as a green BMW. We don’t want to compete with Toyota, Kia and all the others. It’s going to be a BMW family car, not a Kia one. There are millions of cars around the world in this premium market and that’s what we want to cover,’ Fisker said.

The designer also believed that now was the time to hit the US automotive market, not least because he felt the competition was weak.

‘If you got all Americans driving plug-in hybrids like ours it would have a dramatic effect on oil consumption in the US. Eighty percent of Americans drive less than 80km a day and our car doesn’t use any gas for the first 80km after charging,’ he said.

Pole position does not come cheap for teams in F10

The picture is more confusing with Brawn, the new constructors and drivers world champions. Jenson Button�s car was initially developed by Honda under the direction of the current team principal, Ross Brawn. The Japanese car maker pulled out of F1 at the end of last year after spending more than $480m a year. Mr Brawn then stepped in to salvage the team from the scrapheap. Some observers feel Honda�s move was justified.

�There is no business rationale for owning an F1 team,� said Tim Urquhart, an analyst at IHS Global Insight. �Now that times are tough for the major car manufacturers, it�s much harder for them to justify spending vast amounts of money on F1.� BMW became the latest constructor to pull out of F1 earlier this year. While the cost of failure on the grand prix money-go-round can be counted in millions, success can bring in billions. Revenue from F1 was $3.9bn last year and that figure will probably be topped this year.

�This is an event that happens on four different continents, with millions of viewers,� said Simon Berger, the director of the Motor Sport Business Forum. �It is one of the best proven global platforms to spread your brand. It�s a huge business.�Fuelled by sponsorship and television rights, F1 has managed to retain its status as the richest sport on the planet despite being buffeted by the global economic slump. About 100 firms pay more than $800m to be associated with the glitz of grand prix racing, including Mubadala, which owns 5 per cent of Ferrari, and Etihad Airways, a major Ferrari sponsor.

estimated cost

US$900,000Engine$1.2 millionGearbox$230,000Fuel tank$380,000Wings$80,000Steering wheel

�On the right team and in the right circumstances, a client�s brand registration may far outweigh [in terms of the number of seconds his logo is on-screen] any paid-for media,� Scott Garrett, the head of marketing for the Williams team, said in the Financial Times.Behind the scenes, millions of dollars are pumped into research and development. One tenth of a second per lap can mean the difference between winning a grand prix race or coming in fifth. With so much money going into the sport, teams have to constantly evolve to stay competitive.

To do this, they have technical laboratories working on engine and aerodynamic modifications. F1 has pioneered the use of ultralight carbon fibre materials. As a result the entire car including the driver, fuel and engine weighs a maximum 605 kilograms. By comparison, a Ford Focus weighs 1,150kg.�Contrary to popular belief, Formula One is not all about glitz and glamour, parties and celebrities,� said Ron Dennis, the chairman of the McLaren team �Of course it attracts more than its fair share of all of these but � at its heart, it is about technology and scientific innovation.�

McLaren and Ferrari have been key players in the technology race with the development of their own wind tunnels, which are used to perfect new aerodynamic technology. That is changing as big–name companies with deep pockets get more involved in the sport. 1Malaysia, funded by the aviation mogul Datuk Seri Tony Fernandes, is building an F1 centre in the next two years that will include a $17.8m wind tunnel.

Although development costs are high, the innovations pioneered by grand prix teams have led to technologies used in everything from baby incubators to wheel chairs to parts that make cars run cleaner and longer.�The knowledge and experience that designers get from F1 help to accelerate road car development programmes,� John Barnard, the legendary F1 designer who perfected the first carbon fibre composite chassis and semi-automatic gearbox, told the International Herald Tribune.

�That�s why a lot of big manufacturers are involved in F1. The Japanese used it to educate their young engineers by presenting them with time scales that weren�t known in commercial work.�While a team�s technical director may not stand on the podium at the end of the race, he is just as important as the driver. Take for example Mr Brawn, the man behind this season�s world champions. He explained recently that the team decided to write off last season, finishing at the bottom of the constructors table, to concentrate on the following year. The move paid off.

�The thing I always try and introduce to a team is some methodology and some logic in what is being done, and that then gives confidence that you�re doing things in a certain way and you�re getting results,� Mr Brawn said. �You just try and bring that confidence to people, to show that if you do things properly and in the right way and stick at it, then things will come together.�bhope@thenational.ae

Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Offers Glimpse of Ferrari World

Ferrari World is expected to be completed in 2010.

“It’s an organic shape, derived from the structural forms and historic design language of the Ferrari.” Mike Lewis of Benoy Architects was shouting through a bad connection from Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, in a car on his way to Ferrari World and a concert by Beyoncé.

Mr. Lewis is the concept designer of Ferrari World, an immense red theme park (with a prancing horse on the roof) and incorporating a Formula One racetrack on Yas Island near Abu Dhabi’s airport. It’s an attraction that lends itself to superlatives, with nearly everything on a grand scale. According to Mr. Lewis, it will have a total area of nearly two million square feet.

The attraction is about 65 percent finished with a 2010 completion date, but it’s far enough along to host not only concerts in the next few days by Aerosmith, Kings of Leon and Jamiroquai, but also this weekend’s end-of-season Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. The event is sold out, with 50,000 spectators expected. (Like the Grand Prix of Bahrain, the Abu Dhabi race is primarily for a television audience.)

The building’s roof features what Keith James of Cincinnati-based Jack Rouse Associates, designer of the theme park’s attractions, describes as the largest Ferrari logo in the world. That prancing horse and the building, which looks something like a bright red curvy amoeba, is clearly visible from planes taking off from Abu Dhabi airport. “Our aim was to capture the essence of the Ferrari brand without being too literal,” Mr. Lewis said. “If you look at a Ferrari 250, you see the double-wave curve from back to front, and you see the same design language in the newer cars, including the California.”

The “multisensory” Yas Island project, a short drive on a new 10-lane highway from Abu Dhabi city, also incorporates both a huge retail mall with 700 shops as well as theme park attractions, including a roller coaster. According to Mr. James, coaster passengers sit in replicas of Formula One Ferraris for an intense two-minute experience. Mr. James, whose other big projects include Volkswagen’s Autostadt in Germany and the World of Coca-Cola in Atlanta, said the coaster was capable of 150 miles per hour, but may be operated at lower speeds.

Ferrari World in Abu Dhabi is the automaker’s first theme park, but the company has already opened the Ferrari retail store in nearby Dubai. Nearly 100 Ferraris, including several new California models, will parade from Dubai to the racetrack on Friday, according to a news release.

Both Mr. Lewis and Mr. James said that Ferrari was heavily involved in the planning for Ferrari World. The company declined to comment directly on the park, but in a statement it said, “There will be over 20 state-of-the-art attractions at Ferrari World Abu Dhabi, each designed to bring to life a different part of the Ferrari story.” Among the attractions are films and water rides.

According to Mr. James, “Ferrari is an aspirational brand, arguably one of the best known in the world, and the company is very exacting in terms of protecting it.” Mr. Lewis puts it slightly differently. “The company was involved in the entire decision-making process,” he said. “It’s a very specific, high-profile brand, and everything has to meet a very high standard.”

It’s not surprising that Ferrari’s first theme park is in Abu Dhabi. The park is owned by Aldar Properties. Mubadala Development Company, which owns 15.8 percent of Aldar, also owns 5 percent of Ferrari. Mubadala, which is itself owned by the government of Abu Dhabi, paid Ferrari $138 million in 2005, according to the Formula1.net blog.

Abu Dhabi Ferrari World exterior finished

DUBAI - Abu Dhabi-based Aldar Properties is in talks with Ferrari about developing further projects under the Italian car maker’s brand in the UAE capital, including luxury accommodation, its chief commercial officer said on Thursday.

Mohammed al-Mubarak said the accommodation would “offer the super rich the very best in housing”, speaking at a press conference about the progress of its Ferrari-branded theme park.

Mubarak would not go into greater detail about future ventures with Ferrari.

Aldar is building the world’s first Ferrari theme park on Abu Dhabi’s Yas Island, the venue for this weekend’s inaugural Formula One Grand Prix.

Aldar owns 100 percent of Ferrari World, while the car maker will receive royalties for lending its name to the venture.

Mubarak said Ferrari World will open in the second half of 2010. He said construction of the indoor theme park's exterior has now been completed.

The 200,000 square metre complex will feature 20-plus amusement rides, including the world’s fastest roller coaster travelling at 200 km per hour.

The building’s roof will carry Ferrari’s famous yellow “prancing horse” logo, measuring 66 metres in diameter.

Aldar’s venture with Ferrari is just the latest partnership between Abu Dhabi and the car maker.

Mubadala, an Abu Dhabi-owned investment company, has a 5 percent stake in Ferrari and sponsors the Ferrari F1 team along with Abu Dhabi-owned airline Etihad Airways.

The car maker has been boosting its ties with the oil-rich emirate over the last couple of years in the face of declining sales amid the global recession as consumers, even the super-rich, cut back spending.

Ferrari has witnessed a 7-8 percent drop in worldwide sales in 2009, Vice Chairman Tiero Ferrari said on the sidelines of the press conference.

Ferrari said the Middle East has bucked the global downturn, with sales jumping 30 percent this year.

“The new car market is down generally ... but in the Middle East we have seen very healthy increases," he said.

'Forza 3' welcomes newcomers, satisfies veterans

'Forza 3' welcomes newcomers, satisfies veterans

By LOU KESTEN (AP) – 5 hours ago

Like most drivers, I don't think much about how my car gets me from point A to point B. The idea of fiddling with my Nissan Sentra's engine, brakes or suspension is as appealing as being stuck in traffic. About the only thing I can do to my car is fill it with gas.

And yet I'm easily seduced by high-end auto-racing simulators like "Forza Motorsport" and "Gran Turismo." I enjoy popping the hood on a virtual Ferrari or Lamborghini — because if I do any damage, I can easily reverse it.

"Forza Motorsport 3" (Microsoft, for the Xbox 360, $59.99) still lets you play grease monkey. But if you don't know the difference between a transmission and a carburetor, you can still coax maximum performance out of even a Ford Focus, thanks to a handy "quick upgrade" button.

That simple addition is emblematic of developer Turn 10's approach to "Forza 3": maintaining all the options that serious gearheads love while making the game accessible to people who just want to go for a spin.

Once you're on the track, the most noticeable new feature is the ability to rewind a few seconds of the race. Anyone who's ever played a racing game knows the frustration of seeing a big lead wiped out by a spinout on a corner. Gameplay rewind lets you try that corner again, and it really comes in handy if you've gotten bleary-eyed at the end of a long race.

For true beginners, "Forza 3" offers a variety of assists, including automatic braking, traction control and overlays that suggest when and where you should slow down. Once you start piling up easy victories, you'll want to turn off each of these options and add factors like tire wear and standard transmission control.

One other welcome change is that all of the game's 400-plus cars are unlocked from the start — you just have to earn enough cash to buy them. That means you can get one of the more exotic vehicles fairly early on, so you can upgrade quickly from a Hyundai to a Maserati.

"Forza 3" looks sharper than ever, with gorgeous race tracks, detailed car modeling and the ability to paint whatever you like on your ride. And the in-car cockpit view, combined with the fact that every vehicle feels somewhat different, really makes you feel like you're behind the wheel.

Fans of more action-packed, arcade-like racers like "Burnout Paradise" may find the simple presentation of "Forza" boring. And it does suffer from achingly slow loading times, taking about a minute to go from starting a race to actually putting the pedal to the metal.

But since most of us don't make Jay Leno money, this is the only way we'll get a garage full of Jaguars and Porsches. And you won't get oil under your fingernails. Three-and-a-half stars out of four.

No looking back in anger

ABU DHABI // Kimi Raikkonen�s tenure as a Ferrari driver comes to an end on Sunday after the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix and the Finn does not expect to be at the front fighting for victory in his swansong for the Italian team.It has been a difficult year for the 2007 world champion and Ferrari as they have struggled to match the pace setting BrawnGP and Red Bull-Renault cars, with Raikkonen expecting the status quo to remain at the Yas Marina Circuit for the final race of the year.

�The new places are always hard to say and even the normal places this year it has been changing so much up and down where people have been fast and then not so,� he said. �It is the same story in that we will look at the track on Friday [in practice] and see where we are and how fast the car is.�Ferrari, as one of the two teams along with McLaren-Mercedes running the Kers (Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems), could be expected to have an advantage due to the speed boost the system will give them on the long 1.2km back straight, but Raikkonen does not think that will be the case.

�The other cars are faster and have more downforce, I think the difference between the teams will be the same,� he said. �It is my last race with the team and I have no bad feelings and they have no bad feelings. We will try to have a good race and see what happens.�This year has been a frustrating one for Raikkonen and the team as they have struggled to claw back the advantage that Brawn and Red Bull had over them at the start of the year, leaving them to fight with McLaren for third place in the constructors� table. �The car hasn�t been good, as everyone knows,� he said.

�After the second part of the year we have been able to do some good races, win a race, got some good podiums and got some points.�Overall we want to be first and winning championships so in that way it has been disappointing.�Despite the car�s aerodynamic deficiencies, Raikkonen was able to triumph at the Belgian Grand Prix in August for his 18th career win. �It is definitely the best feeling and you are only really satisfied when you win,� he said.

�With the car that we had it was even more satisfying when we won.�Raikkonen is being replaced at Ferrari next year by the double world champion Fernando Alonso.He has been offered a contract to drive for Toyota and has also been linked with McLaren, the team he raced for between 2002 and 2006, but said any announcement on his future will be made after the season is completed.Raikkonen joined Ferrari in 2007 and became only the ninth driver to win the championship for the team at the final race in Brazil that year, pipping the McLaren duo of Lewis Hamilton and Alonso by one point.

In 2008 he finished joint third in the standings, while this year he is sixth in the standings on 48 points, having finished on the podium five times in total.�We won the title and last year started very well and after the first three races we had hard times, made a few mistakes and took too long to recover,� he said.�This year the car is what it is and it has not really given us chance to be in the championship.�

Ferrari�s main battle heading into the race in Abu Dhabi is trying to take third place in the constructors� table. They are currently fourth and trail McLaren by a point, and Raikkonen hopes to help usurp the British team from that spot.�The car has improved and allowed us to fight for third place but McLaren have also worked hard to improve their car so it has been difficult,� he said.�We were unlucky at the last race with what happened on the first lap [he lost his front wing in a collision with Mark Webber, but recovered to finish sixth] but we will do our best here and see what he can do.�

gcaygill@thenational.ae

Brad Pitt and Josh Brolin May Hop in Some Race Cars and GO LIKE HELL

On Adam Carolla’s podcast today, producer Lucas Foster, whose credits include “Law Abiding Citizen”, “Mr. & Mrs. Smith”, and “Man on Fire”, mentioned he wanted to make a movie based on A.J. Baime’s book “Go Like Hell: Ford, Ferrari and Their Battle for Speed and Glory at Le Mans” and that Brad Pitt and Josh Brolin have shown interest in starring  The story is about Henry Ford I,  Lee Iaccoa’s, and Carroll Shelby’s attempt to dethrone Enzo Ferrari in the 24 hour race at Le Mans.  Foster says that Brad Pitt and Josh Brolin have both expressed interest in hopping in the driver’s seat.  Hit the jump for details.

On Carolla’s show [via The Playlist] Foster said he wanted to focus more on the drivers than the behind-the-scenes politics.  While some may find the politics interesting, I find a focus on the drivers far more exciting for the reason Foster describes:

Carroll Shelby is a big character, Lee Iacocca is a big character, Enzo [Ferrari] is a big character, Henry Ford II is a big character and we’ll obviously cast them well but, to me, it’s really about the drivers and I’m trying to make a first-person experience out of this where it really puts the audience in the cockpit. This is what it’s like to go 200 miles an hour with a car that not really all that controllable.

Sounds fun to me.  Carolla noted that both racers and spectators died from the intensity of the 24 hour races and that there wasn’t really a huge focus on safety in European racing in the 1960s.  Carolla also mentioned that getting an actor to spend six months in France racing vintage cars shouldn’t be the hardest sell in the world.  While producers may mention huge names in order to shore up interest in their projects, Foster is legit and I can understand why big-name actors would show interest in joining.  However, Foster drops a lot of names for people he’d also like to see in the film including Daniel Day Lewis, Matt Damon, Russell Crowe, and Eric Bana.  Foster says that the project won’t probably go into production until 4-5 years from now but if and when it does hit theaters, I predict it will be better than the “Fast & Furious” movies but nowhere near as good as “Speed Racer”.  I draw this comparison because all the movies feature racing and I’m choosing to forget how they differ in every other way.

Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Preview

And so we come to the last race of the season, F1's first Day/Night race at a 'street' circuit that has some very unstreety characteristics. As somebody tagged on to a PF1 story the other day - Abu Dhabi probably wanted a night race, but they didn't want to be F1's second anything, they wanted to be first.

So it's the first Day/Night race at a track that can boast the longest straight in F1 at 1.2 kilometres. And that's not the only star feature - there's some run-off area at the end of that straight that go UNDER a grandstand,plus some new high-tec impact absorbing barriers which mean that the crowd can get close to the action.

It also has the only underground pitlane exit. After leaving the pits, the drivers descend into a tunnel that turns 90 degrees left and runs underneath the track after Turn 1. Now in the 11 years I've been reporting on F1, it always seems that the one thing that new circuits fail to get right first time is either the pitlane entry or the pitlane exit. So that should be fun.

We don't really care that "every grandstand is covered" - the seated capacity for the circuit is a mere 50,000. That's less than Manchester United, Arsenal or Newcastle can hold for a week-in, week-out football game. And it's the middle-east for goodness sake, if it were the rain-favoured Suzuka, Spa, Silverstone or Mount Fuji that might be a blessing. Or if the race took place under the fierce midday sun it would be a relief. But nobody's going to die of heat-stroke during a day/night race.

A spanking new circuit will be a level playing field for all the drivers, of course, and so Friday and Saturday will be fascinating to see who are the fast learners in the teams and who are the Ozzy Osbournes.

Jenson Button will at last be let off the leash having had to safeguard his World Championship ambitions since the end of the Australian GP in Melbourne. Rubens Barrichello has outqualified him 9-7 so far this season and though Jenson can't square it, he can get close.

The major pitlane battles - apart from the pride of winning the first Abu Dhabi grand prix (F1's first day/night race) - are between McLaren and Ferrari for 3rd place and between Williams, BMW and Renault as to who'll pick up that coveted 6th place in the Constructors' title race.

Whereas McLaren have two drivers capable of picking up points, Ferrari still only have Raikkonen who is likely to figure in the top ten. Unusually, going into the last race of the season, we don't know where Raikkonen will be driving next year, or who will be in the second McLaren seat, or who's going to be in the Williams

We don't know who'll be sitting in the Toyota seats either, but Kamui Kobayashi has given himself a good start with a mix of good qualifying and unnecessary combativeness...particularly towards the company's other favourite son Kazuki Nakajima in Brazil.

Kobayashi, like Romain Grosjean, has it within himself to make the most almightly cock-up out on track. Whereas rookie drivers like Nakajima, Buemi and Alguersuari have concentrated on keeping their cars on the road, both Grosjean and Kobayashi have risked a lot more and looked a lot closer to the edge. Let's hope it's not in that brand new tunnel, eh.

There will be quite a few farewells this weekend, so in many respects it's probably a good thing that we've got the two titles out of the way. Kimi is saying goodbye to Ferrari, the team that he said he wanted to end his career driving for. Giancarlo Fisichella might be gone from F1 for good. Fernando Alonso is leaving Renault again. Robert Kubica will be saying adieu (or whatever the Polish is for it) to BMW Sauber. Rubens is probably saying farewell to Brawn. Nico Rosberg will be saying goodbye to Williams - Nakajima will be saying au revoir also. And Jarno Trulli will be saying ciao to Toyota. Forget the air-conditioned garages we're going to need a truckload of man-size tissues this weekend.

Given the cars' all-round lack of predictability this season, combined with a new track and a circuit that has a very long straight and a lot of fiddly bits (like Indy) it's anyone's guess as to who comes out on top. But on novelty value alone it'll be worth watching.

All 50,000 grandstand seats have been sold for Sunday's race of 55 laps round the 5.55 kilometre track. With that size of crowd it will no doubt be 2055 before the race begins to break even. Abu Dhabi isn't just F1's first Day/Night race, it's also F1's first 'boutique' grand prix.

Andrew Davies

Group Lotus hires new Director of Motorsport

Group Lotus’s new motorsports ambitions will be spearheaded by its newly appointed Director of Motorsport Claudio Berro, who will report directly to CEO Dany Bahar. Both Berro and his boss Bahar are ex-Ferrari men. Berro was previously the Operations Racing Director for the Speedcar Middle-East International Race Series.

Before that, he held positions at Ferrari, Maserati and Fiat as Formula One Team Manager, Director responsible for all sport activities for Ferrari and Maserati (excluding F1), General Manager Maserati Corse and Director of Fiat Group’s Motorsport Activities, and Racing Operations Director for Abarth. So he’s definitely a man with experience.

“Lotus has a peerless motorsport heritage, not just in Formula One, but we have also won in sportscar racing, saloon car racing, world rally championships, Le Mans and the Indy 500. There is no other car company in the world which can lay claim to so many accolades and championships in such a wide variety of motorsport fields, and I am looking forward to re-introducing Lotus to high level motorsport to not only compete and win but also to demonstrate the shared technology between Lotus sportscars and future racing cars,” said Berro.

Of course, Lotus is also in Formula One, except it actually isn’t. The new Lotus F1 Team is actually run by Litespeed in terms of technical expertise.

Related Posts:
Lotsu eyeing Indy car series, GT and Le Mans

Xotic Dream Cars is Now Renting Ferrari, Lamborghini, Aston Martin, Mercedes ...

West Palm Beach, FL, October 28, 2009 --(PR.com)-- Visit the new Xotic Dream Cars website at www.xoticdreamcars.com

Xotic Dream Cars your lifestyle on high octane

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· All weekly exotic rental packages, include free daily services such as:
· Clean and wash the client's rental car daily at his/her location

Xotic Dream Cars Fleet includes:

· BMW M6 - New
· Range Rover Sport Supercharged - New
· Mercedes Benz S55AMG - New
· Audi S5 - New
· Dodge Viper SRT-10 Convertible - New
· Lotus Elise Convertible
· Lamborghini Murcielago - Loaded - Web Special
· Lamborghini Gallardo Spyder - Loaded - Web Special
· Lamborghini Gallardo
· Aston Martin Vantage V8
· Bentley Continental GTC White
· Lamborghini Gallardo Spyder
· Mercedes SL555 AMG - 2 Door Convertible
· Spyker C8 Convertible
· Ferrari F430 Spider
· Rolls Royce Phantom
· Ferrari 360 Modena - Web Special
· Bentley Continental GT - Web Special
· Hummer H2 - 7 Passenger
· Lotus Elise Convertible

Potential clients are more than welcome to email Erica at erica@xoticdreamcars.com.

### Contact Information Xotic Dream Cars LLCDeric Tikotsky866-XOTIC-4Uerica@xoticdreamcars.comwww.xoticdreamcars.com Click here to view the list of recent Press Releases from Xotic Dream Cars LLC

Suncorp-Metway's new chief executive, Patrick ''Montgomery'' Snowball, seems ...

Max Moore-Wilton … playing a familiar tune by the Doughnut Tribe. Illustration: John Shakespeare

Suncorp-Metway's new chief executive, Patrick ''Montgomery'' Snowball, seems reluctant to let go of his memories as a British army tank commander.

''My polite message to those who seek to target us is: 'Get your tanks off our lawn','' said Snowball in his address to shareholders at yesterday's annual meeting.

Snowball explained his career as an ''armoured soldier'' taught him about decision making and the ''value of clarity of thought'' . The Suncorp chief also got shareholders wondering who he was talking about when he said he had a ''determination to execute in a timely and efficient manner''.

CBD is looking forward to see what battlefield formations Snowball might come up with in the event of a takeover attack. Will Snowball don battle fatigues? Snowball also attempted to show that he - or at least his speechwriter - had a sense of humour.

''As you have no doubt worked out by now, I have about the best surname one could ever wish to have were one to be leading a company with SUN in its name.''

Another chief executive not to mess with is Caltex's Julian Segal, who allegedly learnt some sharp-shooting skills from the Israeli Defence Force.

TANGLED WEB

The independent directors of Macquarie Media must be exhausted after bullying their manager, Macquarie Group, into agreeing to a proposal to internalise the management of the radio network, which reported an impressive $85 million loss last financial year.

Just weeks after independent directors of Macquarie Airports (MAp) intimidated Macquarie into taking $345 million to go away, the Bermuda-based MMG has announced a plan to follow up with a $40.5 million payment to the silver doughnut.

Again the radio network's executive chairman and head disc jockey, Max ''the Axe'' Moore-Wilton - also the chairman of MAp - has been forced to stand back from the negotiations.

Macquarie Group's two big bananas, Nick Moore and Michael Carapiet, were also left out of the MMG negotiating team. This meant they could only be on the Macquarie side in the talks.

In proving the independence of the ''independent'' MMG directors in the talks, the media group noted some of them had been appointed by Macquarie and that its independent chairman, Michael Hamer, was also on the board of the Macquarie International Infrastructure Fund.

It noted the independent director Bob Richards also served on the Macquarie Special Situations Fund. According to MMG, another independent, Tony Bell, despite being the former head of the MMG-owned Southern Cross Broadcasting, ''has the ability and willingness to operate independently, objectively and to challenge the boards and management of MMG''.

''The measures announced today represent a significant step in the development of MMG,'' explained Leon Pasternak, another independent chairman and partner from the law firm often used by Macquarie, Freehills.

Macquarie Group is at risk of exposing itself to more media scrutiny after agreeing to shed its management rights over its listed fund. It is believed some of MMG's radio stations, such as Coffs Harbour's 105.5 Star FM and Hobart's Heart FM, will now looking to step up their hard-hitting coverage of Macquarie Group.

MMG's chief executive, Mark Dorney, is so excited about the future of the media group that he will stay with Macquarie, leaving it to his right-hand man, Rhys Holleran, to take the reins if shareholders approve the company's internalisation plan.

BRISBANE TOLL

Celebrations will no doubt be in full swing at Macquarie and Deutsche Bank today when they are welcomed as the two largest shareholders in the massively successful listed toll-road company BrisConnections.

The banks will take a collective 81 per cent stake in the company, whose security price for its two instalments has surged from $2 to 17c.

The stake comes courtesy of Macquarie and Deutsche assuming ownership of the 276.5 million securities defaulted on in the listing of the second $390 million instalment of the road, which has kept Macquarie's lawyers, Freehills, busy this year.

Macquarie at least has recouped some recent costs. On Tuesday the Federal Court judge Arthur Emmett ordered the banned company director Jim Byrnes to pay the silver doughnut $185,000 in legal costs. The costs stem from the failed $1.3 billion class action Byrnes tried to launch against Macquarie and the managers of BrisConnections in April this year.

JIMMY HOUDINI

Byrnes had a near miss in another court hearing yesterday.

Set to face a grilling in the witness box at the NSW Supreme Court, he pulled off a legal Houdini - avoiding having to answer questions about whether he was in contempt of court - in relation to a case where he is suing a former business partner.

Byrnes skipped having to answer probing questions about whether he had forwarded a copy of a court transcript to business associates, thanks to some deft out-of-court negotiations.

Forwarding a transcript is not usually an offence. It is just that this time the transcript contained confidential details he had sworn to keep secret.

A finding of contempt of court would have landed Byrnes in hot water because he is still serving a three-year good behaviour bond over an unrelated altercation involving a baseball bat and a broken window in the office of the lawyer Hector Ekes three years ago.

At the time Byrnes blamed his behaviour on a ''brain snap''.

Yesterday's case relates to a dispute over a garage full of classic cars in the Philippines.

It was brought by two companies run by Byrnes's wife, Gina. They are BFT Custodians - which stands for Byrnes Family Trust - and BMT Custodians - Byrnes Motor Trust. They are suing one of Byrnes' former business partners in a Phillipine classic car company, Classic Autocraft, over who owns which cars.

The Byrnes family trusts are trying to stop the former business partner from selling or ''dealing with'' about a dozen classic and collector cars, including a ''Dino'' Ferrari, which is a classic Ferrari from the late '60s and early '70s. The cars are in the Philippines.

The trust also wants an order that the cash from the sale of other cars through the British auction house Coys last October be paid to the court until it is decided who it should go to.

The former business partner, who has asked not to be named, says Byrnes still owes him $165,000 in legal costs from two previous legal skirmishes.

For the record, Byrnes gets around town in a black Chrysler with dark tinted windows and the number plate ''0''.

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Vintage Ferrari Commands $730000

Short Nose, long nose, it all goes. We won’t turn our collective nose up at any Ferrari, especially one so nice as this 1965 275 GTB short nose.

We can’t tell you who told us, but this gem went to a dealer in Germany who paid $730,000 to take her home. The market for mediocre vintage cars may be softer than Paul Blart, but exquisite models are still selling. This one was one of the best — a “platinum” car almost as good as the day it rolled out of Maranello.

“To achieve platinum, a Ferrari has to score 95 points or better by the Ferrari Club of America’s tough test, an ultra–high standard for any older Ferrari, and a standard that very few will ever meet,” said Michael Sheehan of Ferraris-online.com.

When the 275 GTB Short Nose first came out, the nose of the car started to lift between 125 and 135 mph, so Ferrari moved the 3.3-liter engine forward for better weight distribution. Coachbuilder Scaglietti reworked the gorgeous bodywork — designed by Pininfarina — accordingly.

The Ferrari 275 line is one of the most desirable among collectors. And while the short noses may be the least sought-after of the 275s, they’re still sublime. Just look at that profile. Gorgeous. And there’s nothing like the sound of a Ferrari V12.

Photo provided to Wired.com by our anonymous source.

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Small Electric Car Company Leads Bigger, Global Rivals

In addition to these challenges, Mr. Maini’s company has to grow from being a maker of niche vehicles for early adopters into a producer of mass-market cars.

“The Mainis are certainly good guys, but I don’t think they have the resources to make that happen,” said Rishikesha T. Krishnan, a professor of corporate strategy at the Indian Institute of Management in Bangalore. They have to “align themselves with a bigger player.”

Reva officials agree that they need partners and they are trying to develop three businesses: building cars under the Reva brand; franchising production of Reva cars to other manufacturers like Bannon; and licensing Reva technology to automakers like G.M.

The company also says it believes that its coming cars will be much more enticing. It has such faith in the NXR that it is building a factory that can produce 30,000 cars a year. The company plans to release one new model every year; it has a sporty coupe, the NXG, ready to be released in 2011.

“It was very clear to the management and the board that we have to do something truly game-changing, and hopefully that’s what we have done with the new design,” said Mohanjit Jolly, a Reva board member and the executive director at Draper Fisher Jurvetson, a venture capital firm based in Silicon Valley that has invested in both Reva and Tesla Motors.

In many ways, Reva is the opposite of Tesla, a Silicon Valley company that has grabbed the limelight with its high-performance electric sports cars. Whereas Tesla’s cars are fast and expensive — in the case of the Tesla Roadster, $101,500 — Reva’s vehicles are small, slow and, by electric car standards, cheap.

And Reva’s compound on the outskirts of Bangalore is a far cry from the Bay Area. To get to it, visitors must drive through dusty, potholed streets in an old industrial area south of the city.

“If Tesla is on one end producing cars to compete with Ferrari, we are on the other end,” said R. Chandramouli, who heads sales and marketing at Reva. “We believe in really small cars.”

Mr. Maini said electric cars have to be small and affordable to succeed in places like India and Europe, where most car trips are short and involve stop-and-go driving, unlike in the United States where commuters can drive 50 miles or more a day, mostly on highways.

The NXR, which is about a foot and a half shorter than the Mini Cooper, will come in two variations. In Europe, the higher-end model will sell for about 15,000 euros, or $22,000, not including batteries, which the company will lease for a monthly fee.

By contrast, Tesla’s Model S sedan will cost $49,900 after a $7,500 tax rebate. That car will seat five adults and two children and have a range of 300 miles. Tesla is taking reservations for the car, but deliveries will start in 2011. It has sold nearly 900 of its Roadster sports cars.

If all goes according to plan — a big if — Reva, which is named after Mr. Maini’s mother, should turn a profit sometime next year, he said. For him, that milestone would be the culmination of a long journey.

His love for motors began early. He built remote-controlled cars and planes when he was 10, and motorized go-carts as a teenager. Because specialized components were hard to come by in India, he asked his father’s friends to buy spare parts when they traveled abroad.

His well-to-do business family supported him then and continues to finance him today. “When I was 11 or 12, I had a hobby room that was bigger than the room where the three of us slept at night,” he said, referring to the room he shared with his two older brothers. “I had my own lathe and mill.”

Mr. Maini studied mechanical engineering at the University of Michigan, where he was on a team that built an award-winning solar car in 1990, and then at Stanford. After working in California for a few years at AEV, he returned to Bangalore in the late 1990s to start Reva as a joint venture between his family and AEV. (His family owns two other companies that make auto parts, golf carts and forklifts.)

The Maini family and its partners have invested more than $50 million, and in-kind services like office space, in Reva.

Review: Fully-loaded 'Forza 3' speeds to front of racing genre

It seems there's a new leader in the dash to become the best video game racing simulation. While players await the arrival of a new Gran Turismo for PlayStation 3 in 2010, its biggest rival on the Xbox 360 has zoomed to the front of the pack.

Developers Turn 10 have finely tuned the racing experience for Forza Motorsport 3, delivering astounding depth and greater accessibility.

Longtime Xbox owners shouldn't be surprised. They've likely been enamored with the critically-acclaimed series since its debut on the original Xbox in 2005.

For the third installment, there's a greater level of openness to the game when compared to its predecessors. Difficulty settings have been tailored in such a way as to invite players of any skill level to sit behind the wheel of Forza 3's 400+ cars.

A series of assists allow players to customize the difficulty for each race, such as equipping autobraking, traction control and stability control. Players can also add driving lines to advise them on how best to approach difficult turns. However, Forza veterans can rest easy in knowing that once those assists are shut off, racing becomes much more challenging. It's also more rewarding, as the game allows players to earn more credits on the tougher difficulties.

Also making its debut is the Rewind feature, a welcome addition for players seeking to drive the perfect race. When a player makes a mistake, they press a button to rewind the race a few seconds to the spot of their choosing. The feature can be used as many times as a player wants. Rewind is an effective way for players to correct errors during an event without having to quit and restart a race.

Another sign of Forza 3's openness is in its overall structure. Players can opt to tackle events individually or through Season Play, which is meant to mimic a standard racing season. Most events are open to race in at any time, as long as you have the appropriate car.

After each race, players notch experience points to boost their overall driver level as well as experience levels for each car. As players move up a level, they're rewarded with a new car for their garage. Advancing through car levels snags discounts players can use on vehicle upgrades. Experience points can be earned in any game mode, even online multiplayer racing. Players also earn credits they can use to purchase new vehicles or upgrades.

During my time with Forza 3, I found myself bouncing around between Season Play and the Event List, for those times when I wanted to use a specific car or try out a particular event, such as drag racing. Most of the major car manufacturers are represented, ranging from Ford and Toyota to Ferrari and Lamborghini. Cars are broken down into performance classes. For example, the lowest group features vehicles such as the Toyota Yaris and Scion xD, while the A class showcases the Audi R8 and Lamborghini Murcielago.

Most impressive is studio Turn 10's ability to make the experience inside each car feel unique beyond just the model and paint color. Differences in speed, acceleration and handling are easy to pick out, while each engine roars with distinct sounds when revved up.

Of course, the cars look absolutely gorgeous, as do the landscapes that house the game's 100 tracks. The game provides players with plenty of different environments to view while speeding down the raceway. Drivers can go from racing inside Germany's legendary Nürburgring to Italy's breathtaking Amalfi Coast or down the streets of New York City.

Events within the single-player experience are focused solely on straightforward racing, ranging manufacturer-specific races to super-lap events and endurance runs lasting dozens of miles. Unfortunately, I didn't notice many other challenges among the single-player options, such as drift events or time trials. However, they are present through online multiplayer.

Turn 10 has also incorporated Forza's devoted community further by adding a new Storefront feature. The series has made a reputation off players who create amazing paint jobs like these using the game's editor. Players can now take those liveries and make them available for purchase using Forza's credit system. A player's storefront also holds in-race photos and specially designed vehicles available for sale.

For now, Forza Motorsport 3 sits atop the list of video game racing simulations, thanks to hours upon hours of content and a willingness to extend the experience to drivers of every skill level.

Publisher: Microsoft
Developer: Turn 10
Platform: Xbox 360
Release Date: Oct. 27
Price: $59.99
Score: 4 stars (out of 4)

By Brett Molina

Formula 1 Betting: I'll be laying Button as soon as 2010 markets open!

Formula 1 Betting: I'll be laying Button as soon as 2010 markets open!

Formula One / Ralph Ellis / 28 October 2009 / Leave a comment

Ralph Ellis salutes the 2009 World Champion but makes the case that, in the long run, this will be regarded as the season when the 2008 Champion came of age...

"This has been the season that Lewis Hamilton has established himself as the modern day Michael Schumacher."

Long before Michael Schumacher was handed the keys to the Ferrari cars that won him five consecutive world titles, everybody in motor racing knew the German was the best driver in the sport. If it rained, if there was debris on the track, if the guys in the fastest cars made a mistake, then Schumacher would be forcing his way onto the podium.

Once he got behind the wheel of the best bit of engineering in Formula One, the combination of driver and car was irresistible. But if you'd put every driver in the same tin box, the German would still have been odds on favourite to win. He was simply the best.

Now I know Jenson Button is the 2009 World Champion, and fair play to him for finally pulling together enough points to get across the finishing line. Regular readers will know I kept laying him for the title at short odds and to be honest it was a gamble I'm happy to have lost. (The moment the market opens again for 2010 I'll be laying Button some more and confident that I'll get my money back). But in my view this has been the season that Lewis Hamilton has established himself as the modern day Michael Schumacher.

Forced to start the season in a McLaren car that was way behind the technical innovations of the Brawn team, he still forced every last second of speed from it. In the F1 equivalent of a sewing machine on wheels, he scored nine points in the early part of the campaign with arguably the best driving of the season. Once his car became remotely competitive he was up there winning, getting 40 points from the last seven races.

Hamilton will inevitably have that will to win spurring him on for the final race this weekend. It's why he's worth backing even at [3.4] favourite. And you know when he's talking to the Sun's Michael Spearman this morning about his hopes for Abu Dhabi it is more than idle words.

Hamilton is quoted: "A win would send us into the winter fully motivated for 2010. All the signs point to Abu Dhabi being another strong track for us, as there are plenty of slow corners leading on to long straights. I want the number one back on my car."

Hamilton has yet to know who will be sharing the McLaren garage next season. There's been talk of Button moving, but that looks less likely as the new world champion gets closer to agreeing a new pay deal at Brawn. The 2007 champion Kimi Raikkonen, who will race for Ferrari the last time this weekend, is a more likely stablemate if he can settle on how much of a cut on his current salary of 51 million dollars a year he's willing to take.

But whoever joins him you can rest assured of one thing. Hamilton will be up there fighting for the title again.

Five things you might not know about Kimi Raikkonen

1. Born in 1979 in Espoo, Finland, his dad was a road builder who ended up working nights as a taxi driver and nightclub bouncer to pay for the young Kimi's early Go-Karting career

2. He was made to leave school at 16 after getting in trouble for using his schoolbag as a snowboard. He took a job as a mechanic to get involved in racing

3. He was only 21, with just 23 car races behind him, when Sauber gave him his Grand Prix debut. He finished sixth in his first race

4. Known for a playboy lifestyle, he settled down to marry former Miss Scandanavia Jenni Dahlman in 2004. They live in Switzerland with two dogs and a collection of cars. Asked to name his most prized possession he said it was "my wife and my Ferrari Enzo"

5. Before his debut for Ferrari in his title winning season, he entered a snowmobile race under the name "James Hunt". He later gave the same name to enter a powerboat race which he drove while dressed in a gorilla suit.

Sponsors make the cars go around

�Apart from that, you have to think about the hospitality that you can run linked to sponsorship programmes and then the promotional activities linked to consumers linked to the image of F1,� Mr Tafa says.�The branding of the car and the driver is just the tip of the iceberg.�One of the companies likely to benefit most from being linked to Sunday�s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix is Etihad Airways. The airline signed a seven-figure, three-year sponsorship deal to see the race named the Formula One Eithad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

From the beginning, Etihad looked at its F1 sponsorship as more than a way to just promote its brand; it wanted to use it to promote Abu Dhabi itself. �F1 is a great story and a great opportunity which somehow comes at the right time, in the sense that there has been a lot of negativity about travel and recession, and here comes this super event for Abu Dhabi,� says Peter Baumgartner, the chief commercial officer of Etihad Airways.

�It will bring not just incremental revenue traffic, but it is a big story about the position of Abu Dhabi, and it will give Abu Dhabi almost overnight fame, which is a strong position to come out of recession. That was the kind of event we were waiting for and looking forward to for a long time.�To raise awareness of the race, it painted one of its A320 aeroplanes in the livery of a racing car; black with the image of a red F1 car together with the official race logo on the rear and on the engines. It also received a major trackside advertising package and podium branding for the race. The airline also is offering customers a series of all-inclusive packages that include flights, accommodation and grand prix tickets.

After becoming a race sponsor, Etihad strengthened its ties to F1 even further last year by signing a three-year deal with the Ferrari F1 team. The airline�s name is emblazoned on the back wing and side of Ferrari�s distinctive red cars, as well as on the jackets and helmets of drivers Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa, who will miss Sunday�s race after suffering head injuries in a freak accident while qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix in July.

Mubadala Development, the strategic investment arm of the Abu Dhabi Government, has a 5 per cent stake in team Ferrari. Philip Cheung / The National

Ferrari is also sponsored by Mubadala Development, the strategic investment arm of the Abu Dhabi Government, with the company holding a 5 per cent stake in the team. The first Ferrari theme park is also planned for Abu Dhabi. Mr Baumgartner points to the airline�s various sponsorship activities with Ferrari as examples of creative use of their association with the team, beyond logo airtime on race day. Last autumn, the company brought Raikkonen to Abu Dhabi for the opening of Etihad Holidays newest outlet in Abu Dhabi�s Marina Mall. As well as performing a ribbon-cutting ceremony, the Ferrari star signed autographs and posed for photos with customers.

The company also uses its association with Ferrari to entertain clients in its various markets around the world.John Adams, the managing director of BSL World, a sports marketing company based in London that is providing some logistical support to Abu Dhabi Motorsports Management for the grand prix, says such a variety of possibilities in sponsorships means they are not limited only to seven-figure deals.

�There is a place in every sponsorship deal for somebody,� he says. �The most important thing for a client to understand is what they are trying to get out of it. �People do sponsorships for different reasons. Sometimes they are passionate reasons and sometimes they are business reasons.�Because of this, he says, there are few limits on who can become a sponsor. �If you look at the sponsors on all the cars, you will see that there is everything from electronics to clothing to financial organisations,� Mr Adams says. �Of course, in the past there was cigarettes and alcohol, and we�ve gone through different eras. They come and go.�

Perhaps no story of sports sponsorship has been as tumultuous as that between F1 and the tobacco industry. Cigarette companies were the first commercial sponsors of grand prix racing, beginning at the Monaco GP of 1968, when Team Lotus drivers Graham Hill and F1 rookie Jackie Oliver ran in Gold Leaf-sponsored cars.Philip Morris entered the market in 1972 with its Marlboro brand, and in the following years, Gitanes, Camel, Rothmans, Mild Seven and Benson&Hedges all became major players.

But in 1976, as the health risks of smoking were starting to become more widely known, Germany began banning tobacco sponsorships at motor races. The UK followed in 1984 and France in 1992. As anti-smoking legislation tightened its grip on the tobacco industry around the world, F1 sponsorships remained one of the few places where the brands could promote themselves, thanks in large part to the formidable negotiating skills of Bernie Ecclestone and the rest of the F1 leadership.

Today, fans will no longer see cigarette logos during the race coverage.In the past year, those troubles with tobacco sponsors were eclipsed by the problems from the financial crisis, as many of F1�s biggest sponsors were financial institutions. In February, ING, the Dutch bank and insurance company, announced it was pulling out of its sponsorship with Renault at the end of the season as part of cost-cutting forced by multibillion-euro losses. ING�s total budget for F1 was about $100m.

That followed the departure of Honda earlier this year and the Credit Suisse Group�s decision to end a sponsorship deal with BMW Sauber.ING�s departure from F1 was hastened last month, when both of Renault�s title sponsors pulled the plug over a race-fixing scandal. Although Renault received only a two-year suspended ban for their involvement in a deliberate crash in Singapore last year, while Flavio Briatore, the former principal, took the brunt of the punishment with a lifetime ban, both companies felt the damage to their reputation was sufficient to end their sponsorships immediately.

And therein lies the downside of the intense association with teams and drivers who are, after all, only human. That was enough to convince Mr Tafa, after years of focusing on F1, to shift his focus to motor GP. The race-fixing scandal has hurt the brand, he believes.�I think that the last year hasn�t been the best for the image of F1,� he said. �But these are just little problems for Formula One. It�s still the pinnacle of motor racing, and a fantastic sport for a sponsor.�

khagey@thenational.ae