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2015 Australian Grand Prix all about grooves and trenches [spoilers]

We can't remember the last time 90 percent of the action in Formula One had nothing to do with cars setting timed laps. Yet that's was the situation at the Australian Grand Prix, continuing the antics from a scarcely believable off-season with blow-ups, driver and team absences, a lawsuit, and a clear need for some teams to get down and give us 50 pit stops. Nothing much has changed from a regulation standpoint, and at the front of the field nothing has changed at all. Lewis Hamilton in the Mercedes-AMG Petronas claimed the first position on the grid like someone put a sign on it that read, "Reserved for Mr. Hamilton;" teammate Nico Rosberg was 0.6 behind in second, Felipe Massa in the Williams was 1.4 seconds back in third. Sebastian Vettel proved that Ferrari didn't do another Groundhog Day routine this off-season, slotting into fourth. His teammate Kimi Raikkonen was not even four-hundredths of a second behind, ahead of Valtteri Bottas in the second Williams, Daniel Ricciardo in the first Infiniti Red Bull Racing, and rookie Carlos Sainz, Jr. in the first Toro Rosso. Lotus, now powered by Mercedes, got both cars into the top ten with Romain Grosjean in ninth, Pastor Maldonado in the final spot. However, even though the regulations are almost all carryover, in actual fact, everything has changed this year. Mercedes is even faster. Renault is even worse. Ferrari and Lotus are a lot better. Toro Rosso is looking like anything but a junior team. And McLaren is – well, let's not even get into that yet. Furthermore, this weekend was shambles: 15 cars started the race, the smallest naturally-occurring grid since 1963. Manor couldn't get its cars ready before qualifying. Bottas had to pull out after qualifying when he tore a disc in his back and couldn't pass the medical clearance tests. The gearbox in Daniil Kvyat's Red Bull gave out on the lap from the pit to the grid, and to give misery some company, the Honda in Kevin Magnussen's McLaren blew up on the same lap. When the lights went out, Hamilton ran away and was more than a second ahead of his teammate at the end of Lap 1. The advantage disappeared, though, because behind him, at the first corner, we got our first pile-up. As Raikkonen drove around the outside of Vettel at the right-hand Turn 1 it looked like Vettel, going over the kerbing, hopped to his left and bounced into Raikkonen.

VW could look outside its own ranks for next CEO

Companies have two options when coming up with succession plans – hire within, or go outside its ranks. Either choice comes with advantages and disadvantages, to be sure. Hiring within means generally getting someone familiar with the company and its culture and traditions, while going outside is ideal if you're looking to shake things up and bring in fresh ideas. It's unclear which avenue the Volkswagen Group will go down when it comes time to replace its head man, Herr Professor Doctor Doctor Herr Martin Winterkorn, but he isn't ruling out a trip outside of Wolfsburg. Winterkorn has already given the reins of the VW brand to former BMW board member Herbert Diess, while Andreas Renschler, a former Daimler board member, is heading up VW's truck group. Now, Winterkorn has made some statements to a German weekly that indicate the most important thing about his successor isn't necessarily his (or her, though no women appear to be on the short-list) previous employer, Motoring.com.au is reporting, so much as his qualities as a leader and an engineering background. "A Volkswagen boss has to have a big affinity to our products. He needs to be close to customers and he needs to have a relationship with dealers," Winterkorn told Stern. "Like always, it depends on the personality and it also helps if the candidate is an engineer." Motoring throws out a couple of potential candidates from within, including Porsche boss Mathias Muller, Audi Chairman Rupert Stadler and engineering guru Ulrich Hackenberg, in addition to both Diess and Renschler. And while each candidate has a lot of potential, the only thing that's guaranteed right now is what Winterkorn has already said: "The decision about who will succeed me is not an easy one for the supervisory board."

Mercedes-Benz A45 AMG is Affalterbach's first big leap into the little pond

The recent history of AMG is turning out amped-up versions of Mercedes-Benz offerings that would hardly ever be mistaken for their sedate counterparts. Sure, you'd need to pay attention to pick a G-Class from the G63 AMG, but dual side-pipes are a quick giveaway. The Mercedes-Benz A45 AMG is not only a new era in Affalterbach's attention on smaller cars, it is probably also the most subtle transformation we can think of in the line-up.
Low and chunky enough in standard guise to make a sporting impression, the aesthetic makeover is confined to black trim around the lower rim of the hatch, black wheels with red brake calipers and a single, rectangular exhaust tip on either side of the diffuser. It's easier to make a positive ID inside, where the flat-bottomed steering wheel, red seatbelts and red-rimmed details say, "You know what I am..."
If the car is running, though, it won't take but a second. The 2.0-liter turbo spitting 360 horsepower and 332 pound-feet will grumble through a sport exhaust at idle, and bellow through the same on it's way to a 0-60 time of less than 4.5 seconds. And if you need something that looks a little harder - and you want those quad pipes - then the A45 AMG Edition 1 is the treasure you seek. There's a press release below for all the info you'll need until the hot hatch goes on sale in Germany later this year, and photos for the rest of us while we wait to find out if we'll get a chance to buy it.