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Ferrari wants upcoming SUV to stand out in increasingly crowded segment

Whether you like it or not, Ferrari's highly controversial SUV is well on its way to production. The Purosangue won't be the firm's first four-seater; its family tree is full of luscious 2+2s. But it will be the first high-riding model with the Prancing Horse emblem on its nose. Conquering this territory is presenting the brand with unique engineering challenges. Independent from Fiat since 2016, Ferrari isn't exempt from the need to save money through economies of scale, so it will build the Purosangue on a modular platform shared with other upcoming front-engined cars. The SUV will offer a height-adjustable suspension, and an available plug-in hybrid powertrain, according to British magazine Autocar. The publication added the gasoline-electric setup will be built around a new, twin-turbocharged V6, but a flagship model with V12 power will likely slot at the very top of the range. Mid-range model might use a V8. The design brief Ferrari gave engineers and designers was relatively simple: The Purosangue needs to stand out from the other luxurious SUVs on the market. It can't be a copy of the Lamborghini Urus, the Bentley Bentayga, the Rolls-Royce Cullinan, or whatever Maybach is cooking up. Michael Leiters, the company's chief technical officer, thinks his team has nailed it. "I think we've found a concept and a package which is on one side a real SUV, and will convince SUV customers to buy it, but on the other side there's a huge differentiation of concept to existing SUVs," he enigmatically told Autocar. He stopped short of providing more concrete details, including his definition of a real SUV. We're not expecting the Purosangue to follow a Jeep Wrangler down the Rubicon Trail, or to outpace a WRC car on a rally stage, but it should be capable of light off-roading.  The Ferrari Purosangue is tentatively scheduled to make its debut in 2022, meaning it might arrive for the 2023 model year, and pricing will almost certainly start north of $300,000. It's one of 15 new models the firm plans to release by 2023 in a bid to fatten its profit margins without diluting its image

Recap: 2013 Australian Formula One Grand Prix is all about the rubber [w/spoilers]

A pre-season full of talking points was swapped for a brand-new set of talking points after the running of the opening grand prix of the 2013 Formula One season. The consistency of the regulations from last year to this year and the triplicate dominance of Infiniti Red Bull Racing meant that no one would have been that surprised if the relative order of things remained the same. But teams found so many ways to switch things up that, in typical pre-season fashion, no one was ready to make any bets on in-season performance, and a couple of surprising players suffered the ignominy of getting it really wrong: McLaren knew it was in trouble from the very first test, while Williams drivers applauded their car as the best in years, only to have Pastor Maldonado call it "undriveable" on the very first day of practice in Melbourne.
And then there were those Pirellis, the Italian company talking up the fact that its super soft tires would only go off so quickly that it would force teams to pit at least twice during the race.
Even then, no one could have seen the first round of pit stops beginning on Lap 5.

Race Recap: At the Abu Dhabi grand prix, the caravan chases a mirage

Both championships have been claimed this year, with Sebastian Vettel taking the Driver Championship and Infiniti Red Bull Racing the Constructor's. But there's no skunk rule in Formula One, so the last three races of the schedule are going on as scheduled.
Abu Dhabi was the latest venue, and what the Yas Marina Circuit has lacked in racing excitement, it has more than made up for in drama. It's where Lewis Hamilton always does well and should have won but for an engine blow-up. That lead to Kimi Räikkönen taking the first win of his return, and giving Lotus its first win. It's where a championship was decided when Fernando Alonso was stuck behind Vitaly Petrov and Timo Glock and couldn't put up a fight against Vettel. And this year, it was where Mark Webber again out-qualified his Red Bull teammate and grabbed pole, just three rounds away from retirement.
He was followed by Vettel, the Mercedes-AMG Petronas pair of Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton, the unstoppable Nico Hülkenberg in the first Sauber in fifth, Romain Grosjean in the first Lotus, Felipe Massa in the first Ferrari, Sergio Perez in the McLaren, Daniel Ricciardo in the Toro Rosso and Alonso in the second Ferrari in tenth. Tenth.