F1 season starts this weekend
Australian Grand Prix
After all the dust has settled from the tumultuous 2007
season, the 2008 season begins in earnest in Australia at
Melbourne’s Albert Park venue. Albert Park is one of the
longer circuits at a tad over 5 km around. Total laps for
the Grand Prix will be 58 and you can expect lap times
around the 1 min 21 mark.
Although this is a relatively new circuit, Albert Park was
used in the 1950s, including two Australian Grand Prix but
these did not count towards the World Championship.
Up till now, the relative performances of the cars have been
purely conjecture as nobody knows fuel loads and such at
testing. Remember that Toyota managed to top the timing
sheets on one day, but it will not do the same again all
season, I predict.
However, on consistency, Ferrari and McLaren will still be
right up there, with Raikkonen quicker than Massa and
Hamilton quicker than Kovalainen. Williams has Rosberg and
Nakajima level-pegging, and BMW has Kubica quicker than
Heidfeld next and Renault behind them. Alonso does look
quicker than Piquet Jnr, but we will see if the sulky
Spaniard can find Renault the 0.6 of a second he claimed he
brought to McLaren as a wedding gift last year. Red Bull and
Toro Rosso also seem quicker this year, but the rest are all
also-rans. Super Aguri has not turned a wheel in anger in
2008, whilst VJM Force India remain an unknown ‘force’.
However, Toyota and Honda are definitely wooden spooners,
with Honda appearing to be in just as much clag as they did
last year. The influence of Ross Brawn will not be seen
until the 2009 vehicle (if the team continues, as Honda
could quite easily pull the plug).
The race begins (I believe) at 11.30 a.m. Thailand time on
the Sunday morning (Qualifying Saturday 10 a.m. and don’t be
surprised to see Mark Webber, a qualifying specialist,
further up the grid than he should be), but check your TV
feed for transmission times. We will gather at Jameson’s
Irish Pub Soi AR (next to Nova Park) around 11 a.m. for
brunch. Do come and join us. We watch the South African feed
as there are no breaks for adverts and the commentary is
better, but we also have UBC running as standby, just in
case there are satellite transmission stuff-ups.
The Germans are also
strong
There is optimism in Europe, as the luxury
automakers see an increase in sales. Porsche reported a 44
percent jump in first half earnings, and Daimler AG said
sales of its flagship luxury brand Mercedes Benz rose by 13
percent to 87,800 vehicles helped along by demand for the
update of its C class model. Total Daimler auto sales jumped
by 18 percent last month helped along by strong demand for
the group’s revamped compact city car, smart, which doubled
its sales to 8,800.
Mercedes-Benz
CLK 63 AMG
“That is a good start to the year,” said Daimler chief
Dieter Zetsche, with a rare tinge of humor, adding that the
company planned to sell more Mercedes Benz cars in 2008 than
in 2007 with a strong growth in sales in leading emerging
economies such as in Asia. There are also upbeat sales and
profit projections from BMW AG and Audi AG.
However, the American market remains a problem as the US
dollar falls while the euro has become even stronger. Last
month the euro surged to an all time high of more than USD
1.52 against the dollar.
BMW chief Norbert Reithofer pumped up his company’s American
sales, saying that he expected total BMW sales in February
to increase in 2008 from sales of its spread of brands -
Rolls-Royce, Mini and its core BMW range.
“We remain optimistic for the full year,” Audi chief Rupert
Stadler said at this year’s Geneva auto show. Audi, which is
part of the Volkswagen group, hopes to sell more than one
million cars this year, compared with 964,151 cars in 2007,
which would be its 13th consecutive year of record sales.
However, Audi said US sales fell 6.9 percent to 6,152 in
February.
Audi’s target is to raise its US sales to 200,000 per annum
by 2015 from 93,000 at present and is considering
establishing a production plant in America.
Having recently moved to tighten its grip on Volkswagen,
Porsche, the manufacturer of the iconic 911 sports cars and
Cayenne four wheel drive vehicles, said it was planning to
spend 10 billion euros to raise its stake in VW to more than
50 percent. Currently owning 31 percent, this put another
484 million euros from VW’s profits into the Porsche piggy
bank.
With Europe being strong, Thailand doing well and China on
the brink of an automotive explosion, the American
manufacturers will have to do something spectacular - and it
cannot come soon enough. For GM this will be the Chevrolet
Volt, provided it keeps its eye firmly on the ball!
Autotrivia Quiz
Last week I asked when did the Porsche 901 come out?
The answer was 1963, but after finding that Peugeot had
registered all the three digit numbers with a zero in the
middle, the factory had to re-christen the follower to the
356 as the 9-1-1. Porsche fans will also tell you that the
early (long bonnet) Porsches had engine cases which were
numbered “901”.
So to this week. The Chevrolet Corvette Stingray was another
classic sports car in the American tradition. What year did
the Corvette Stingray come out? Hint, think hard, it
revolves around the name!
For the Automania FREE beer this week, be the first correct
answer to email [email protected]
Good luck!
FoMoCo has found the
tunnel
After a few years of stumbling around in the dark
with vehicles unsuited to the marketplace, Ford looks as if
it has found the legendary tunnel with the light at the end
of it.
Ford
Focus
Instead of producing vehicles the public did not really
want, and having to offer huge incentives with price cuts,
money backs and similar ploys to maintain market share, they
have found that the smaller car market is where the sales
(and the money) can be found.
The car which is pulling Ford from the mire is the European
designed Focus, which, by the way, is an excellent vehicle.
Sales figures in the US are increasing exponentially, as
petrol prices increase. In January 2008 Ford saw a 33
percent increase in sales against January 2007. February
will also see a 30 percent rise. There may be greater profit
margins in large trucks and SUVs, but the public are going
away from cars that are expensive at the pumps. When the US
discovers that the Euro-diesels are even more economical,
America will have caught up with the rest of the world.
With the swing towards smaller vehicles, the new Ford
Fiesta, which will be built at the AAT plant on the Eastern
Seaboard Industrial Estate, will be another winner for the
Blue Oval. Unfortunately we have to wait till 2010 before
the first cars roll off the new assembly line, which is
still being built.
Thailand Auto Industry
looking very strong
The Federation of Thai Industries (FTI) in
Thailand has gone on record with predictions of 11.7 percent
growth for 2008, representing automobile production for
export this year reaching 777,000 units, according to
Surapong Phaisitpattanapong, a spokesman for the automobile
industry club of the FTI.
The growth would come partly because of Free Trade
Agreements (FTA), especially with Australia. However, the
FTI believes exports to Asia would grow only slightly due to
the continued sluggish economy in the region. That, of
course excludes the auto industry figures in China.
Automobile production for the domestic market this year is
projected to grow to 657,000 units (around 10 percent
increase from 2007). The Thai automobile market would pick
up this year but the extent would depend on the economic and
political outlook, said Surapong. Like everything else in
this country, everyone is waiting to see what the newly
elected government might do. Having scrapped the 30 percent
withholding tax, economic pointers would appear to be very
positive for foreign investment, which will also drive up
the auto industry.
In total, local automobile production for export and
domestic sales is projected to reach 1.427 million units,
with the export proportion 54 percent.
Toyota should remain the export leader this year, followed
by Mitsubishi. The big movers again being the one-tonne
pick-up segment. In January, this section rose 45.8 percent
to 48,875 units for export. The total export earnings by the
automakers increased in January 2008 to 26.85 billion baht.
In addition, when exports of engines, kits and parts were
taken into account, the value rose 43.4 percent to 38.46
billion baht.
Thailand manufactured vehicles are well regarded in the
world market and the FTA with Australia has certainly helped
the local auto industry.
The 2008 F1 calendar
Time to pencil in the F1 calendar dates again.
The geographic closest to us are the Malaysian, Singapore,
China and Japan. The Singapore GP is also the first F1 night
race, but if you want to go there, I would be booking now.
No joke!
1 Australian Grand Prix (Melbourne) 14 - 16 Mar
2 Malaysian Grand Prix (Kuala Lumpur) 21 - 23 Mar
3 Bahrain Grand Prix (Bahrain) 4 - 6 Apr
4 Spanish Grand Prix (Catalunya) 25 - 27 Apr
5 Turkish Grand Prix (Istanbul) 9 - 11 May
6 Monaco Grand Prix (Monte Carlo) 22 - 25 May
7 Canada Grand Prix (Montreal) 6 - 8 Jun
8 French Grand Prix (Magny-Cours) 20 - 22 Jun
9 British Grand Prix (Silverstone) 4 - 6 Jul
10 German Grand Prix (Hockenheim) 18 - 20 Jul
11 Hungarian Grand Prix (Budapest) 1 - 3 Aug
12 European Grand Prix (Valencia) 22 - 24 Aug
13 Belgian Grand Prix (Spa) 5 - 7 Sep
14 Italian Grand Prix (Monza) 12 - 14 Sep
15 Singapore Grand Prix (Singapore) 26 - 28 Sep
16 Japanese Grand Prix (Fuji Speedway) 10 - 12 Oct
17 Chinese Grand Prix (Shanghai) 17 - 19 Oct
18 Brazilian Grand Prix (Sao Paulo) 31 Oct - 2 Nov
