As various teams reveal their new cars and liveries this week F1 for 2010 is shaping up to be one of the most exciting seasons ever, the prospect of Schumacher versus Vettel and battles between Hamilton and Button on and off the track enticing to say the least.

But it’s rallying I’ll be following. First, the cars are getting cooler than ever. The various rule changes make my head hurt but as far as I can gather this is the last year pukka WRC cars will be used and from next year we’ll have versions of the Super 2000 cars intended to open up the competition and make it easier for more teams to get stuck in. Which can only be a good thing, especially if the cars look anything like as brilliant as the S2000 Fiesta that won the Monte Carlo Rally the other week.

And a loose-lipped product manager on the Citroen DS3 launch I attended last week let slip a road going, rally-branded hot hatch version of the new supermini will be revealed at Geneva. So it looks like a new generation of rally influenced hot hatches is coming too. If it looks anything like as cool as the DS3 rally car spied testing recently it’ll be a little stormer too.

Then there’s the drivers. Sebastien Loeb owns WRC, with an amazing six consecutive championships to his name. But he faces a new challenge. Because with the kind of nonchalance only possessed by those with monumental coolness, Kimi Raikkonen has turned his back on F1 and swapped his Ferrari for, er, a Citroen. Thing is, he looks totally at home already. He is, after all, Finnish and therefore born to this kind of lark.

You’ve got to feel for Loeb though. Rallying has been his alone for years now and now Kimi casually breezes in like he had nothing better to do and threatens to steal all the headlines.

It’s not just Kimi either. Loeb will also have to contend with American internet sensation Ken Block, who’s just swapped his Subaru for a Ford and will be contesting selected WRC rounds in a Focus. Block’s jaw-dropping talents at the wheel have made him an international star and his Monster World Rally Team is poised to liven up WRC with more than a few cans of fizzy energy drink.

He’ll be competing back home in the states too, in a specially prepped Fiesta. This in itself is an interesting one, the idea of Americans suddenly being turned onto hot hatches one no doubt being closely watched by European and Japanese manufacturers alike. Interesting times indeed. I’d best make sure the beer fridge is well stocked because it looks like I’ll be spending a lot of time in front of the telly!

Dan Trent, Motoring Research

It turns out a youth reading endless copies of Car wasn't quite as misspent as first thought, motoring journalist Dan Trent now living the dream and avoiding pinching himself in case he wakes up.  A lifelong car nut, Dan studied photography at Manchester Metropolitan University, staying on after his degree to edit renowned student magazine Pulp and picking up a Guardian Student Media award for his efforts along the way. He then moved to London to work for Dennis Publishing where, among other titles, he contributed to Auto Express and Evo before leaving to join the launch team for Mercedes Enthusiast. Taking over as editor in 2004, Dan oversaw a far reaching relaunch of the title that cemented its position as one of the leading single marque motoring titles on the market. With a passion for all cars, Dan brings photographic skills and broad editorial and production experience to Motoring Research in addition to his abilities as a writer.

I spent 20 years in and around the paddocks of Grand Prix racing for outlets which included everyone from Motoring News to the Sun and ITV to Sky Sports – but these days my Formula 1 experiences tend to cover working for Silverstone TV at the British Grand Prix and reporting on some of the F1 launches.

Nevertheless I keep a daily interest in the machinations of the Grand Prix world, but in all my 40+ years with the roar of racing engines in my now less effective ears, I have never known anything like the latest “crashgate” scandal. It was the pre-meditated nature of the incident which, I think, has taken so many people aback.

The deliberate driving into a rival by the likes of both Senna and Schumacher are well known and in a way not so surprising. But to have a driver deliberately crash and shred a valuable racing car shows how the sport has been totally perverted by money. Apart from all the other aspects of the incident, the fact that a team can afford to ruin a perfectly good racing car proves that their budgets really do need to be capped.  The cost of repairing the damage inflicted by the brainless Piquet junior could probably have funded several budding automotive engineers through University.

This year I am covering one of Europe’s main race series for the ESPN channel and others. The series is the DTM – or German Touring Car Masters as it is sometimes known – a two way contest between Mercedes Benz and Audi, featuring pure bred space frame V8 powered silhouette versions of the A4 and the C Class.

Arriving at the latest round of the series, at the Circuit de Cataluña, just a couple of days after the FIA hearing, I was keen to talk to some of the ex Formula 1 drivers who frequent the series.

Right on cue in the Media car park, the very first person I see is Patrick Tambay, former Ferrari and Renault F1 driver and a man with plenty of opinions including an interesting take on French politics. But I didn’t want to hear his latest view on M. Sarkozy but what he thought of the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix.

Patrick’s son Adrien is racing in the F3 Euroseries, a sister championship to the DTM, so first we had to cover the latest traumas of his rookie son, “I tell you “grimaced Patrick” being a racing dad is the toughest thing I ever did in my life. It’s terrible!”    

That over with I was able to canvass his views on F1’s latest scandal. “In all my years in Formula 1 I never ever heard anything like it, never the slightest suggestion we might do something like that. It’s incredible
 
“Maybe helping your team mate by driving a wide car and keeping a rival behind but deliberately crashing a car, I simply find it hard to believe. Certainly technically people pushed the rules but this is different. It’s absolutely disastrous”.

The next ex-Formula 1 driver I saw was Ralf Schumacher, now racing in the DTM for Mercedes Benz. It’s his second year in the series and this year he has been promoted to one of the top four cars run by the main factory team.

Ralf, reputed to have collected over £100 million in driver fees during his Formula career, seems to be in cruise and collect mode. He’s always the slowest of the factory 2009 Mercedes cars and has failed to finish on the podium this year.

I thought about asking his opinion about the current crisis but decided the answer wouldn’t really add to the debate, so I turned instead to former McLaren racer Mark Blundell – now a pundit , driver manager and sponsorship consultant.

Mark was quick to echo the sentiments of Patrick Tambay but also stress the damage being done to Formula 1. “Its turning off the manufacturers and sponsors “said Mark “a client of mine is one of the bigger sponsors of McLaren and they’ve just been on the phone. They were just about to confirm their deal for next year and now they have serious second thoughts. They don’t want to be involved in a crooked sport. But its not just them, many other sponsors are already thinking the same.”

The former Champcar winner is also worried about how the grid will look for next year. “We hear talk of the various new teams coming in using Cosworth engines but I know that only one of them has actually posted their deposit – the others are all still chasing budgets.”

Mark was also worried about the quality of drivers that the new teams would attract. With not enough budget , the teams such as Campos, USF1 , Manor and Lotus are all seeking so-called “pay drivers” rather than taking emerging young talent or some of the seasoned and fast test drivers such as Anthony Davidson and Gary Paffett , who know their way around the Formula 1 tracks.

Amazingly , Mark tells me, despite the economic climate, there are drivers out there with budgets to buy their way into these new teams but unfortunately they don’t have the talent to match.  One of them could even be Nelson Piquet Junior 

But unlike Nelson, it seems some of these guys won’t need Mr Flavio Briatore to instruct them to throw it into the wall, they’ll be doing it any way.    

Yes Formula 1 could be a poorer place in more ways than one in 2010.

ABOUT ANDREW MARRIOTT

Motorsport Consultant
Andrew Marriott is the Motorsport Consultant for APR and has spent his working life in motorsport as a journalist, TV commentator and producer, media director and sports marketing executive. During his career he spent some 20 years working in Formula 1 Grand Prix but has also enjoyed various roles at such great events as the Le Mans 24 Hours, Daytona 500 and Indianapolis 500. Andrew will work with APR on its plans to grow in the Chinese market. APR already has an office in China, a Joint Venture PR partner with national coverage and a Mandarin speaker on its team in London. One of APR's first projects in China is to build a more professional motorsport industry in the country.

Some of my earliest memories are from when I was four and five years old. My family used to go to my grandmothers on Sundays, and after lunch, we used to watch the Grand Prix on TV, because my dad was (and still is) a fan.

I was born in Monza and so for most of my life every September meant going to the race circuit to watch the Formula One Grand Prix, with all the Tifosi! It has always been fantastic, and a word of advice: if you go there to see the GP or any other races, get tickets for the Ascari chicane…that’s the best place to see the cars!

And so after my marketing degree (or better, a little bit before) I decided to work in the automotive industry. I found my first job in Italy and afterwards, my second, in London!

I’ve now been in London and with Automotive PR for over a month. It’s odd, it doesn’t feel that long, maybe because I speak more Italian than English! This is a really great city, full of things to do, places to see and people to meet.

Ok, but why public relations? Communication is fundamental in our life, we could not live without communicating with others. And, I think that it is the same relationship between a company and its target. You can produce the best product or service in the world, but who will buy it if you don’t tell anyone about it? We all have to communicate to let others know that we are here, what we do, and above all, how we do it.
 
ABOUT MARA PIACENTINO

 A little bit about me… My name is Mara, I’m a 28 year old Italian, and this is my first time in England! I’m very happy to be here, and am looking forward to the new experiences and people I will get to know in the coming months.  I will be working here at Automotive PR for four months. I am definitely a huge fan of cars, beautiful cars! I’ve worked in the automotive industry in Italy in the past and can see myself working in this field for the foreseeable future. I think cars are one of the smartest inventions in human history, and despite the fact that the industry has experienced its fair share of issues due to the economic climate, I’m sure the industry will rebound.

Since London can often be seen as a city that is out of reach for a recently graduated student, I was understandably very excited when I found out that I had been given the opportunity to intern at Automotive PR for work experience this summer, especially in light of the current global economic downturn.

 Before I started I did a lot of research into public relations and specifically how it relates to the automotive industry. I had studied marketing previously, so the idea of PR was not a strange concept, although the ways in which PR works was not something of which I had a prior knowledge, especially in terms of the ways in which the Western PR culture operates in the Chinese automotive industry.

The first few days I spent in London were quite overwhelming. It absolutely poured down with rain on my first day at work, and it seemed to be timed perfectly with when I was walking to the tube! And on the second day, the tube was out of order! Not a great way to start!

Since then, I’ve already learned so much from APR. It has been tough, but I think that the hands-on approach of learning knowledge and then applying it in a practical way has been the most helpful. That combined with the assistance, encouragement and support of my colleagues has really given me a great sense of the PR in the automotive industry and how APR works together.

I have a feeling that when I look back at this experience, I will be able to say that the work and practices at APR will continue to be useful in the rest of my career. It has so far been a wonderful experience and one that I will treasure.

ABOUT SARAH GENG
Sarah grew up in one of the biggest auto industry cities in NW China and loves the industry.  Working at APR has further encouraged her desire to bring the western automotive PR culture to China.