Yearly Archives: 2011

For this year’s Indianapolis 500 race, Dan Wheldon teamed up with yet another veteran of Indy racing Bryan Herta in the Bryan Herta and Steve Newey owned Herta Autosport team.  The team is very young though the drivers are very experienced and this year at the Brickyard Dan Wheldon overcame the challenge of JR Hildebrand to win the famous Indianapolis 500 title.  Bryan Herta has said that this win was due to the motivation that Wheldon brought to the team and said that this victory is akin to a Cinderella story.

Motorbeam.com is carrying a story that buoyed by the success of the Figo and by the enthusiasm to the Fiesta launch, Ford may bring in the Focus to the country to compete with the likes of the Honda Civic, Toyota Corolla Altis and the Chevrolet Cruze.  The sales of the Civic have been sliding down while the Cruze sells below 1000 units per month.  It is only the Corolla that sells more than 1000 units.  Therefore, Ford could see an opportunity here to make a space for it in this segment.  This could also be consistent with Alan Mullaly’s vision of One Ford globally, meaning that all models will be sold in all markets of the world, reducing the cost of development for new models exclusively.  We can only wait and see to know if there is any substance behind the rumour.

Indiancarsbikes.com is carrying a story of the possible introduction of the Suzuki Cervo (it was previously called the Cervo Mode) in India by October, 2011 or this coming festive season when sales are high.  The Cervo like most Suzuki small cars conforms to the kei jidosha regulations that restrict the width, length and engine capacity of the cars.  These regulations basically stipulate engines in the range of 650cc but allow for the addition of a turbocharger to increase power and fuel efficiency.  The Cervo is Japan therefore has a 650cc 54 bhp engine that delivers over 20 kmpl.  ICB is claiming that this car could either be positioned below the existing Alto or above it but below the A Star.  We are not sure if this will happen at all, since Maruti is supposed to be designing a small car here in India which will be below the Alto.  This car is supposed to carry the new two cylinder fuel efficient engine and take the competition to the Nano, not that the Nano is doing wonderfully in the market.  How many small cars does Maruti need?  From the appearance of things, many.

BSMotoring.com is carrying news that a diesel variant of the Nano with a Common Rail System developed by Bosch, a limited edition Manza, a face lifted Indica Vista, a stripped down two wheel drive Aria and a new Safari are all in the offing from Tata Motors in the financial year 2011-12.  The website has said that these from their sources who saw a presentation made by the company.  The Nano diesel with 40kmpl fuel efficiency has been talked about in the recent past.  The same is true of the Aria that has not been doing too well at the hustings and there have been innumerable pictures of a camouflaged Safari being called the Merlin on the internet.  The Vista face lift is the really new news and in the last few months the Indica sales have been severely hit.  The same is the case with the Indigo range of which the Manza is a part.  So obviously these rumours must be true, otherwise Tata faces the prospect of losing important market space to the increasingly aggressive competition.

We had mentioned that the Tata owned Jaguar/Land Rover group had decided on part and component sourcing out of India since the parts from here would be inexpensive and improve margins over products that they make.  Now the tsunami hit Honda and Toyota have also decided on component sourcing from India for their other operations as well for the same reasons apart from the fact that they now do not want to place all their eggs in one basket.

The FIA President Jean Todt is set to meet Formula1 representatives today to discuss the new engine formula.  Todt and the FIA has proposed 1600cc four cylinder turbo charged units as replacements for the present V8 units from 2013 onwards.  This was done to attract Volkswagen mainly and also to try and entice Honda and Toyota back into F1 as engine suppliers.  But that has not happened with the Japanese not saying anything and VW announcing a WRC programme from 2013 onwards.  Ferrari, Cosworth and Mercedes Benz have been opposing the Todt formula and now Ferrari says V6 turbo charged units can be considered but that too only from 2015 onwards.  Cosworth chief Mark Gallagher has said that reduction of cubic capacity and fitting turbo chargers did not necessarily mean reduction in pollution levels or in fuel consumption.  He feels that to switch to a new engine formula is an expensive affair that contradicts the cost cutting philosophy of the FIA.  Cosworth which supplies engines to the privateer teams believes that small teams will not have the capacity to pay more for engines since Cosworth will have to pass on the costs of development to its buyers.  Renault it is believed is interested in Todt’s formula but given the opposition from the others it is likely to not take a stand for the Todt formula in todays meeting.

The beleaguered and under fire Ferrari driver Felipe Massa has blamed McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton for his crash at Monte Carlo.  The pair touched while Hamilton was trying to overtake Massa and Massa’s front wing was damaged when it hit Mark Webber’s Red Bull car in the process.  Massa says that this accident led to his car losing aero performance and crashing out of the race.  He felt Hamilton has been getting away easy and that he needs more penalties.  Pastor Maldonado of Williams who was actually taken out by Hamilton felt that it was his bad driving that led to the crash and saw him ending up without any points even though he was in a points scoring position.  However, he refused to comment on anything else about Hamilton.

Lewis Hamilton of McLaren has slated stewardship of races during this season as being a “joke” and that he was being targetted by the stewards at races.  He was penalized twice during the race at Monaco and once during qualifying.  He has also been reprimanded in other races for too much of aggression.  When asked why he thought he was being picked on by the stewards he said only half jestingly “probably because I am Black, that is what Ali G says anyway”.  McLaren team Principal Martin Whitmarsh later said that Hamilton “on his own accord came back to the race track” and went to “explain” to the stewards as to why he made that joke and that the stewards were satisfied.

As we had predicted after the race, Lewis Hamilton was penalized for his move on Pastor Maldonado of Williams which took the latter out of the race.  As we had also said the equivalent of a drive through in terms of time, which was 20 seconds, was added on to his time but that did not affect his 6th position for 7th placed Adrian Sutil was too far behind, one lap down.