RACING NEWS Haas pleased Volkswagen

The Volkswagen out entering time, unpredictable For rumours would

F1 newcomer Haas managed more mileage in the opening test than the team was expecting. Despite a front wing failure on the opening day and electronics issues in the final session, Haas still managed to complete 281 laps – more than both Mclaren and Manor. “We are pretty happy with progress of testing,” said team principal Gunther Steiner. “We didn’t anticipate we could get all this running done this week. To do a whole race distance was pretty cool so that gives a good feeling.”

It is hard not to argue with Bernie Ecclestone when he says that F1 lacks excitement. He is right when he says it was clear that Mercedes would usually dominate any given race weekend last year and if it wasn’t Lewis, then it would be his team-mate Nico Rosberg at the top.

He says that the grids need to be reversed to make sure that the racing remains spicy.

This has led to howls of derision from the sport’s purists because F1 is supposed to be about the fastest picking up the biggest rewards and no artificial gimmicks to make the action closer (although, it seems, the Drag Reduction System is OK…).

This is where you will always have the chasm between the pure thoroughbred racers and Bernie himself. The racers want a tenth of a second, Bernie wants a 10 per cent increase in viewership (or maybe, just maybe, a 10 per cent increase in race fees based on that bigger audience) across the world – the two objectives pull in different directions.

But let’s get carried away and follow Bernie’s philosophy for a moment and see where it takes us. He says that you wouldn’t want a full reversed grid, because that would just be ridiculous. Sensible chap. Maybe just the top 10 or so would need to be switched to make it competitive. You would still reward the man who was fastest from the qualifying session with his place in the record books.

He is in favour of the different tyre compounds, a great way to mix up the action should someone overwork the soft options, or underwork the harder ones. So that can stay.

But let’s go further. How about slowing down any dominant car by further artificial means? Many studies would have to be done into the safety aspect of this, but what about lumping success ballast on to a car that clearly has an advantage over the rest?

If that car then becomes unsuccessful, then it would shed the handicap and it would pass on the next driver along to win a race. That could continue throughout the year.

That would keep things nice and open and you could have up to five drivers going for the title in the last round. That would keep Mr E very happy indeed.

Hang on a minute, haven’t I just described the British Touring Car Championship?

Heaven forbid the the very highest level of the sport should go that far...

The Jaguar Land Rover group could soon buy Silverstone and secure the future of the British Grand Prix.

Silverstone owner the British Racing Drivers’ Club has confirmed that it is in talks with the Indian Tata-owned group about a buyout. A proposal was presented to members last week and BRDC president Derek Warwick says it was received positively.

“The deal is definitely not done yet, but we are well down the road,” the ex-formula 1 driver and world sportscar champion told MN.

“There’s still a lot of work to do to get the deal to where both sides are happy and we told the members to get a flavour of what they thought of the deal. The response was favourable so we will now set up an EGM for the members to vote and give the Board a mandate to proceed with the deal and continue with the negotiations with JLR.”

A JLR spokesperson told MN: “Jaguar Land Rover regularly evaluates opportunities to support its long-term and sustainable growth in the UK. As part of this, we are exploring potential options at Silverstone with the BRDC, but it is too soon to share details at this stage.”

The BRDC took over the Silverstone lease in 1952 and purchased the circuit in 1971. In recent years it has invested in many developments, including the new layout first used for the British GP in 2010, but further upgrades require more funding.