1994 Ferrari 348 Spyder Rosso Corsa Red Tan Meticulously Maintained Clean Carfax on 2040-cars

Auto blog

2015 Malaysian F1 GP springs hot, humid surprises [spoilers]

In the two weeks since Australia both Mercedes and Ferrari spoke of the improved performance from their respective cars. In Malaysia, Ferrari showed it. Lewis Hamilton still put his Mercedes-AMG Petronas on pole position, but Sebastian Vettel got within two whiskers of the Brit, lining up second just 0.074 behind. Afterward, Vettel said Ferrari could win the race if everything went well. But in qualifying we didn't know how much of Ferrari's performance was truly down to the car and how much was down to the wet weather that struck near the beginning of Q2. The rain didn't hamper Nico Rosberg's run – the German said "I just didn't drive good enough" – and he took third spot in the second Mercedes-AMG Petronas. Showing what the Infiniti Red Bull Racing chassis can do when the power unit is working properly, teammates Daniel Ricciardo and Daniil Kvyat grabbed fourth and fifth. Whippersnapper Max Verstappen, in his second race, qualified in sixth with an excellent drive through the rain; just 0.030 behind Kvyat, he said he could have got fifth if he hadn't had a running problem with his brakes. Williams head of vehicle performance Rob Smedley said he wouldn't complain about Mercedes' advantage, but Felipe Massa has spent the whole season so far banging the alarm about Ferrari's pace. He says Williams has lost its straight-line advantage, part of the reason the first Grove car is back in seventh, while Valtteri Bottas is in eighth. Between them was Romain Grosjean in the Lotus, but he got dropped two positions for a pit-lane infraction in Q2, so he'll be tenth. Ahead of him is Marcus Ericsson in the Sauber, who would lead the charge to turn in another surprise for the Swiss team. But the real surprise came from the Scuderia Ferrari, who, on a bright, sunny day proved that they don't need to add water for race-winning pace. While Hamilton got made usual awesome start at the lights, Vettel channeled that other famous German Ferrari driver and immediately cut across the track to intimidate Rosberg, maintaining his second place position into the first turn. Arguably the race-winning move came three laps later at that same turn, when Ericsson plunged in too fast and swapped ends, beaching the rear of his Sauber in the gravel trap. The safety car came out when the recovery truck emerged to retrieve the Sauber, and nearly all of the front-runners took to the pits to swap out of the medium tires. Vettel, however, didn't.

Take a peek inside the cockpit of the Ferrari SF90 Stradale

The Ferrari SF90 Stradale has just been revealed, and the most important thing to know is that it's Ferrari's most powerful production car yet with 986 horsepower. The next most important thing to know is that it's a plug-in hybrid with a turbocharged V8. The powertrain features Ferrari's most powerful V8 yet making 769 horsepower and 590 pound-feet of torque on its own. It also has three electric motors with two at the front and one in the back, and combined they can provide up to 217 horsepower. This also means that the SF90 Stradale is all-wheel-drive. Getting power from the internal combustion powertrain to the wheels is an 8-speed dual-clutch transmission that shifts 100 milliseconds faster than the transmission in the 488 Pista, but it also weighs about 22 pounds less than Ferrari's existing 7-speed dual-clutch transmission. This is due in part to not needing a reverse gear, since reverse is handled by the front motors. In total, the SF90 weighs in at 3,461 pounds. And at 155 mph, the aerodynamics add 860 pounds of downforce. When everything is deployed on pavement, it hits 62 mph in just 2.5 seconds. And for Ferraristi, it lapped the Fiorano test track in 1 minute and 19 seconds. Of course being a plug-in hybrid, it does have a full electric range. It's a bit short at 15.5 miles. Then again, this isn't entirely about fuel economy; the electric motors allows for torque vectoring, and provide extra traction on launch and help fill in any throttle lag from the gas engine. Ferrari SF90 Stradale interior View 3 Photos The interior is high-tech, too. The instrument cluster is a huge 16-inch display. The steering wheel now features touch pads for controlling the instrument cluster, too. You won't see Ferrari's traditional manual transmission selector between the seats. Shifting duties are handled by paddles mounted to the steering wheel. It's also worth noting that this is the first Ferrari that features a head-up display. Want one? Deliveries are scheduled to begin in the first quarter of 2020.

Romania's Forza Rossa to join 2016 F1 grid

Bazac's Maranello ties have prompted speculation that Forza Rossa could be as closely affiliated with Ferrari as Hass. Formula One may be in a bit of a crisis at the moment, with two of its smaller teams collapsing into bankruptcy, but there may yet be light at the end of the proverbial tunnel as two new teams are gearing up to take their place. One of those teams is Forza Rossa, and while we haven't much anything about the Romanian entry in in recent months, a new report from Pitpass indicates that plans are well under way – if not without their complications. Forza Rossa is being backed by a number of Romanian parties, including veteran race strategist Colin Kolles (who was most recently involved in the Caterham buyout) and Ion Bazac, former government minister and Ferrari's Romanian importer (pictured above next to Giancarlo Fisichella). Interestingly, the latter's ties to Maranello have prompted speculation that the team could be at least as closely affiliated with Ferrari as Haas (the American team being started by industrial machinery magnate and NASCAR team owner Gene Haas). A third Romanian individual – former soccer player Constantin Cojocar – turns out to have been the one who bought Caterham Sports Ltd, the company which designed and built the cars for the Caterham F1 Team until its recent collapse. The plan was to supply chassis and components to both Caterham and Forza Rossa, but Cojocar evidently had trouble paying the bills and keeping the lights on. Caterham's bankruptcy, however, could present a golden opportunity for Forza Rossa to scoop up the assets of both the team and the manufacturer at a good price, building the new team on the burnt foundations of the old one – even if it has already been granted the go-ahead by the FIA to form its own entry. That, however, won't happen until 2016 at the earliest, whittling down the grid in the meantime from 22 cars to 18. According to the arrangement between the FIA, Formula One Management and the teams, that threshold would oblige at least the leading teams to make up the lost places on the grid by fielding a third car each – something they couldn't prepare in time for US Grand Prix this past weekend, but which could be put into action for next season.