Last year, Sebastien Loeb swapped his WRC Championship winning Citroen Xsara for a test in Renault's F1 car (and former Renault driver Heikki Kovalainen hopped in the Citroen). This year, Loeb's going to take a turn in Red Bull's F1 runner for a test at the Catalunya circuit on November 17th -- Red Bull also sponsors Loeb's WRC team. The difference this time: instead of a quiet get-to-know-the-car session, Loeb will be running with the other teams and drivers during an official F1 testing session. Although he'll be piloting the Renault-powered RB4 with a mission not to embarrass himself, he has no plans to vacate his Citroen rally seat. After five straight WRC championships, piloting an F1 car is just what you do in your time off, for fun. Must be nice...
Every year towards the end of the season, the world of Formula One racing plays a big game of musical chairs as drivers' contracts come up for renewal and seats open up. Sometimes drivers end up in the same chair they were in before, but this season we've got reason to believe there'll be a big switch. And the key to that switch depends on Fernando Alonso more than anyone else, according to Ross Brawn.
The former Ferrari technical guru and current head of Honda's F1 racing program points towards the lackluster performance of Renault this year as clear evidence that Alonso will seek out a new team. Where he will end up remains a big question mark, however, as almost all the teams would welcome the two-time world champion to their ranks, and would be willing to hold off signing their other drivers until Alonso has sat down.
It always seems a bit presumptuous when a "world champion" is declared for a sporting event played in America. After all, other countries have leagues for baseball, basketball, football, etc. Formula Drift, the most well known drifting association in the United States, isn't about to declare world superiority in the art of maneuvering a car sideways through a course, but it does want to find out who's the best. Partnering with Red Bull Energy Drink, Formula Drift will be bringing together the best drifters from around the world to compete head to head in one single event. The competition will be held in November on the docks in Long Beach, CA and will feature a purpose-built course that will test the limits of each driver's skills. With a few of us located in Los Angeles, you can be sure that Autoblog will be bringing you live coverage of the event. Full details in the press release after the jump.
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The latest in the string of car launches ahead of the 2008 Formula One World Championship is the Red Bull-Renault RB4, which was quietly unveiled – rather contrary to typical Red Bull glitz – while undergoing testing at the Jerez track in Spain.
Stability is what Red Bull Racing is banking on this year. An evolution of last year's RB3, the new RB4 is the second Red Bull car designed by celebrated technical director Adrian Newey, powered by the same Renault engine and driven by the same experienced drivers (David Coulthard and Mark Webber) from last season, when reliability issues cost the team 24 points in the constructors' championship.
Red Bull Racing also took the opportunity to announce another Sebastien as their third driver. Sebastien Buemi – not to be confused with the Sebastien Bourdais or Sebastian Vettel, who will be driving for RBR's Ferrari-powered B-squad Scuderia Toro Rosso – comes on as a test driver and stays on reserve in case Coulthard or Webber can't race, while simultaneously driving for Arden Racing in the GP2 feeder series.
There's probably a good reason why nobody has launched a truck off a ramp to execute a backflip. Despite that, Rhys Millen wants to be the first to pull it off. However, the dangers are very real and sometimes one's health is more important than the glory. While recently practicing for his Red Bull Experiment, Rhys Millen suffered an unfortunate accident leaving him with five fractured vertebrae. The incident took place after Millen successfully completed the flip three times into a cushion of cardboard boxes. It was the fourth and final jump test that landed him in the hospital. The truck apparently overshot the landing area and hit the ground -- hard. Thankfully, Rhys's injuries are non-threatening and although he won't be performing the trick in Las Vegas for New Year's Eve, he'll be back in action in due time. We wish him well and hope for a full and speedy recovery.
Scott Speed's climb through the Red Bull Young Driver's Program was a great deal more promising -- and lengthy -- than his actual Formula 1 career. As of today, the 24-year-old Californian has been replaced in his Scuderia Toro Rosso seat by former BMW test driver Sebastian Vettel. Vettel, a 20-year-old German, is highly regarded by STR half-owner Gerhard Berger, and will race in this week's Hungarian GP.
Speed's tenure has been a forgettable year-and-a-half of no results and more than a few skirmishes and crashes -- not all of which are entirely Speed's fault. Even the Red Bull cars, piloted by the much more experienced Mark Weber and David Coulthard, haven't shown too much life. The drama has been stoked by the STR team owners', Berger and Franz Tost, increasingly acidic and public comments about how displeased they are with the STR driver lineup. Things reached a nadir when, after Speed's exit from the European Grand Prix, he was physically assaulted by Tost.
Speed says he doesn't want to want to ruin his relationship with parent team Red Bull, and would work with them even if not in Formula 1 -- but he wouldn't race for STR again for any amount of money. As for the premiere motorsport category, with Speed's ouster, the record of American drivers in F1 remains, uh, nothing short of dismal.
As expected, Rhys Millen and his Pontiac Solstice GXP dominated not only the inaugural 2WD Time Attack class, but when the dust settled, he was four-seconds faster than Nathan Conley in an '03 Subaru WRX Wagon competing in the 4WD division. Millen made it up the mountain in 12:45.153, while his nearest competitor in the 2WD class, Colin J. McCleery in an '89 Ford Sierra, was a full minute and 50 seconds behind.
Millen was pleased with both his driving and the GXP, but was less enthused with the course conditions, citing poor traction on parts of the gravel-strewn stages.
You can read Millen's full account of the race in the press release after the jump, while the overall standings of all the competitors can be viewed here.
Red Bull has been sponsoring all sorts of competition Volkswagens in the last few years including the Touaregs that ran the Pikes Peak Hill Climb last year, four Dakar Rallies and the Darpa Grand Challenge. For the first time VW will be bringing a pair of diesel powered Touaregs to this year's Baja 500 with support from Red Bull. Veterans of this year's Dakar Rally, Mark Miller and Ralph Pitchford, will pair up in one truck while the other will be run by Giniel de Villiers and Dirk Von Zitzewitz. Presumably the Touaregs will be based on the Dakar trucks and have wings, because Red Bull gives you wings.
Red Bull has finally confirmed the engine suppliers for both its F1 teams – Red Bull Racing and Scuderia Toro Rosso – for next season and beyond.
Last season, Ferrari supplied the engines to the main Red Bull team, while the second squad, Toro Rosso, was powered by engines from independent supplier Cosworth. Ferrari was hoping to power both teams for next season, and keep Red Bull Racing, with veteran drivers David Coulthard and Mark Webber already confirmed, from posing too great a challenge to the boys in red. But newly-crowned Ferrari CEO Jean Todt can't always get what he wants, as Red Bull switches to Renault power for 2007.
Toro Rosso (formerly Minardi) will become even more authentically Italian, motivated by Ferrari power for 2007 and 2008 with an option for 2009. STR is run by former Ferrari driver Gerhard Berger, but struggles to escape the back of the field. Last year the team also fielded Italian driver Tonio Liuzzi, but they've yet to announce their line-up for next season.
Had Ferrari secured deals with both Red Bull teams, their engines would be in over a third of the cars on the grid next year, including their own as well as the Spyker cars which switch from Toyota to Ferrari power for next season. Maranello already secured special dispensation from the FIA to supply engines to two teams, and that should be enough to gain extra testing data and support from the back of the field as Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa fight for the title.
Can you say, "Show me the money?" Champ Car's Rookie-of-the year in 2005 and currently second in championship points with only one race remaining, A.J. Allmendinger (shown at right with commemorative glass guitar after winning Cleveland's Champ Car race back in June) has signed a multi-year deal to drive the #87 Toyota Camry for Red Bull Racing in the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series in 2007.
Why are open wheel superstars suddenly jumping ship into NASCAR, besides the dollar and cents? Could it be built up road rage from the sometimes-too-timid open wheel arena?
Juan-Pablo Montoya traded cars for a day at Indy with Jeff Gordon to make some good TV and ended up signing a contract with Chip Ganassi to run first an ARCA car, then a Busch car and ultimately for 2007, a full-time Nextel Cup car. Jaques Villeneuve has also reportedly signed up wish ROUSH to run a car in the Busche leagues after losing his F1 ride with BMW-Sauber. Now, A.J. Allmendinger will make the jump to Nextel Cup after running a couple of NASCAR Craftsman Series truck races earlier this season. Of course, Allmendinger is a 23-year-old American-born racer, so the jump to NASCAR isn't quite as large a leap perhaps than the one Colombian-born Montoya is taking.
These guys are sure in a hurry, too. Bill Elliott has stepped aside to let Allmendinger run the Red Bull Nextel Cup entry in the next two races at Texas and Atlanta, two of the series' fastest tracks.
As expected, 
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