Australian GP kicks off Eff Wun world championships this weekend!

After months of hype and secrecy, all will be revealed this weekend. Is the new F2002 Ferrari race-worthy or will they run the F2001 as they are threatening? We know it’s quick with Schumi lapping quicker than he did in last year’s championship winning car, but will it last? As the wise saying goes - to finish first, first you have to finish. Or as Ron Dennis used to say (and can still say again) - to finish first, first you have to be Finnish.

Will this be Coulthard’s year?

Yes, that is the next question on everyone’s lips. Will Raikkonen hose off Coulthard, or will it really be Coulthard’s year? After that it is the question whether the BMW’s will take the fight to the Ferrari’s and who will be on top? Montoya or Schumi junior? Last year Montoya was fast, but a car breaker. If he has managed to curb that habit he will be a real threat. I would put your money on Montoya, rather than Ralfie baby to be number 1 at Williams.

The big news all this year has been the pace of the Saubers, running with last year’s Ferrari engines. Even the new recruit, Massa, seems to be putting up a good show, while Nick Heidfeld is obviously trying to show McLaren Mercedes they picked the wrong Sauber driver to join McLaren.

Then there is the query regarding the Renault team. Will the car be up to it? Jarno Trulli will be up to it, but will Jenson Button knuckle down to it and be “on the button”? And what about Toyota? So far the Japanese giant has been doing field mouse impersonations, being way off the pace. Is this a sneaky trick to lull the opposition into a false sense of security? I think not. At this stage the Toyota F1 challenge looks like it will be fighting for the last two grid spots, traditionally the foothold of Minardi. Mika Salo is a known entity in F1 but his team mate Alan McNish is fairly unknown in the F1 circles, even though he has driven sportscars with much success in the past few years.

Mark Webber

Minardi? The minnow. This team will do better than before, thanks to generous funding from Alex Yoong’s Malaysian backers, and Mark Webber who will show a lot of people how to handle an F1 car this season. However, I think Alex could be in trouble by mid season.

The others? Jordan and BAR will be midfield runners I reckon, especially at the start of the season, while Arrows will be behind the 8 ball, despite signing Heinz-Harry Frentzen. Jaguar? What between trying to stop Eddie (the mouth) Irvine sticking his foot in it and excusing the (lack of) performance of the 2002 Jaguar, our mate Lauda will be busy. With FoMoCo to keep happy it will take a miracle to keep the crouching cat on the grid next year.

However, all this is pure speculation, let’s see what happens after Qualifying this weekend at Albert Park in Melbourne, Australia.

Join me “trackside” at Shenanigans in front of the new big screen TV with Sensaround Sound. I think (at the time of writing this there was no definite confirmation) that it will be televised at 10 a.m. or 11 a.m., but get there early in case! You can always get breakfast there till 1 p.m. anyway.

Tesco-Lotus selling discount Subaru Traviq’s

That heading is not true - but could be a forerunner of marketing strategies to come if the European experience is anything to go by. A Belgian supermarket chain has just sold 70 cars in two weeks in a marketing trial. These included Alfa Romeos and Ford Fiestas. “I’ll have a large packet of Omo and a blue Fiesta, please.” The offer was done in conjunction with a large auto dealership which put representative models of the cars in the supermarket car park.

The cars were sold 22-25% cheaper than list, and reserving a car only took 50 Euros (under 2000 baht). You then toddled down to the dealers and picked it up (and paid for it)!

Remus to come to Thailand?

For me, the biggest news recently was my discovering the whereabouts of “Remus”, one of the three ERA’s (English Racing Automobiles) owned by Prince Chula Chakrabongse and raced by his cousin, the world renowned Thai (Siamese in those days) racing driver Prince Bira, after whom the local race circuit is named. This occurred after a chance meeting with local identity Philip Mordue who had seen a blue racing car with a white mouse on it on a recent visit to the UK.

Prince Bira’s Remus

After contacting the people representing the seller in London, I ascertained that this was indeed the Prince Bira car, still today in its original Siamese livery, with “Siam” on the tail and two little white mice on the rear vision mirrors. Princes Chula and Bira called their “equipe” Team White Mouse.

Following this I contacted a Thai motor racing enthusiast in Bangkok and there are now moves afoot here in Thailand to bring this historic vehicle to this country. Its significance should not be underestimated, for many reasons. The first being that Prince Bira won the BRDC Gold Star in 1936, 1937 and 1938, an award almost equivalent to today’s F1 world championship and Remus was one of the cars he used to win this award.

There were only 13 “B” type ERA’s built and Bira raced R2B, which was called Romulus, R5B called Remus and R12B called Hanuman.

Other famous owners of the lucky 13 ERA’s included Dick Seaman, Earl Howe, Raymond Mays and Peter Whitehead.

After being sold by the Siamese princes, Remus was driven by other famous drivers including Tony Rolt, Bill Moss and even Jim Clark who later became world champion. 42 years ago, Remus was bought by the Rt. Hon. Patrick Lindsay, who has kept it in pristine condition.

Remus is also famous for being probably the most raced single seater GP car of all time. In 54 seasons of racing it has had 379 starts, 108 victories and 214 podium finishes.

Stay tuned and I will let you know further details on our attempts to bring this car to Thailand.