2003 Ferrari 360f1 Spyder In Rare Tdf Blue on 2040-cars

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Race recap: 2016 Australian F1 Grand Prix a rowdy start to season

The three brief Formula 1 tests ahead of the current season belied how much had gone on since the last race in November: Infiniti subbed out for Tag Heuer, Renault is back, the all new Haas F1 team, a revamped Manor, three brand new drivers and two returning drivers, a raft of regulation changes among the newly tilled soil. The four engine manufacturers spent a combined 67 tokens among the 138 in the kitty, Renault using just seven of their 32. The only conclusive proof to come from the annual intermission was the otherworldly capability of Mercedes-AMG Petronas. The Silver Arrows didn't even try the super- and ultra-soft tires, focusing on reliability instead of speed. The result? They ran more than 19 race distances, obliterating the lap totals of every other team. There are certainly a few people who enjoyed the complicated new rolling-elimination qualifying format fast-tracked to approval just a few weeks ago. They were wildly outnumbered by those who thought it was awful, including the same team heads who voted for it. We'd probably have to go back to the debacle at the 2005 Indianapolis Grand Prix for an equivalent fiasco when Michelin pulled its teams over safety fears, leaving six cars out of 20 to qualify. In Australia, within 24 hours of the conclusion of qualifying, the new format had itself been eliminated. Nevertheless, qualifying also taught us what didn't happen over the winter: any other team progressing enough to outduel Mercedes. After admitting that he dropped off after winning the championship last year, then getting questioned in the press for some dubious off-season activities, Lewis Hamilton proved he can still turn it on when he wants to. The Brit smoked the Albert Park track in 1:23.837, more than three-tenths of a second ahead of teammate Nico Rosberg in second place. Ferrari did make strides during the off-season, but only enough to keep the same gap it had to Mercedes last year: Sebastian Vettel lined up third, a half-second behind Rosberg, teammate Kimi Raikkonen another four-tenths back in fourth place. Max Verstappen said Toro Rosso is the best of the rest, the Dutchman taking fifth place in front of Felipe Massa for Williams in sixth and Toro Rosso teammate Carlos Sainz in sixth. Daniel Ricciardo – who wasn't smiling after qualifying – kept Red Bull and its new "Tag Heuer" engines in the conversation with eighth on the grid.

Two Ferrari LaFerraris are for sale in Dubai

You can rest assured that a disproportionate share LaFerrari production run headed to the United Arab Emirates. Of those, two examples of which are now listed for sale in Dubai alone on Dubicars.com. Both of them are red, which is no surprise. The first, pictured in the image gallery above, is a brand-new 2014 model for sale at the emirate's famed dealership Al Ain Class Motors. The 2014 model is listed with zero miles on the odometer, though we'd be surprised if it hadn't racked up at least a few delivery and test miles. All it will cost you is a small matter of 11,000 Emirati Dirham, which works out to a hair under $3 million at current exchange rates. GTR Motors hasn't listed how much it wants for this second example depicted in the video below. But you can bet that – even with 398 kilometers (or 247 miles) on the clock – this 2015 example will still command a significant premium over the $1.35 million the factory charged for these hybrid hypercars when they were new. If you can scrape together the cash for either, you'll be getting arguably the ultimate Ferrari road car to date, packing a 6.3-liter V12 hybrid powertrain good for 950 horsepower and a 2.5-second 0-60 time. The factory in Maranello only built 499 of them, so finding one – let alone two – up for grabs is a bit of a rarity. Of course if this particular Prancing Horse isn't your cup of tea, there's plenty of other enticing machinery on offer, including a McLaren P1, Koenigsegg CCX, three Porsche 918 Spyders, and a handful of Bugatti Veyrons. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. Featured Gallery 2014 Ferrari LaFerrari for sale in Dubai View 14 Photos News Source: Al Ain Class Motors, GTR Motors via Dubicars.com Auto News Green Ferrari Coupe Hybrid Supercars dubai ferrari laferrari laferrari

Despite early struggles, Ferrari F1 still has Mercedes in its sights

It would be an understatement to say that Ferrari has not had the opening to the 2016 Formula 1 season that it had hoped for. Having come in to the new campaign brazen about wanting a winning start, that Mercedes has taken all the poles and all race victories so far has come as a disappointment. There have been other headaches too – including reliability problems for both Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel, and of course the points lost with the China/Russia incidents with Daniil Kvyat. But perhaps of more concern is that the trend of performance has not pointed towards a narrowing of the gap between Mercedes and Ferrari – as the Silver Arrows advantage seemed greater than it had been any point this season in Russia. So with the results against it, and it seemingly having no response in pace terms, the cynics are already suggesting that it is game over for Ferrari's 2016 title ambitions. But that is not how Maranello itself sees the situation: and it still has reason to believe not only that there is plenty to play for this season: but that it can take the fight to Mercedes. Pressure game Ferrari is well aware that it needs to quickly make up lost ground in both championship standings (Mercedes has more than double its point haul) and pace terms. But rather than be downbeat about what has happened, team principal Maurizio Arrivabene still senses opportunities: especially with Mercedes appearing to be on the edge in reliability terms. And it this area that he thinks needs to be exploited to give Ferrari the opening it needs. "If you have before you a team that has won four races out of four, you cannot but take note that they are very strong," he said after the Russian Grand Prix. "But if we look at what happened to [Lewis] Hamilton [with engine problems in qualifying], we see that they also have had reliability problems. "We must put pressure on them. That is our first goal. "All their problems have happened on a single car, while ours have happened on both. But there are still 17 races to go, that is something worth emphasising, so there time to make up the difference." Power battle Ferrari introduced an upgraded engine at the Russian Grand Prix that it hoped would lift it closer to Mercedes in the power stakes. But the weekend appeared to show that wasn't the case, with Mercedes' advantage on the Sochi circuit – the fourth most power-sensitive venue on the calendar – appearing bigger than ever.