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Lewis Hamilton takes pole as Mercedes speed stuns rivals

MELBOURNE, March 16 (Reuters) - Formula One champion Lewis Hamilton blazed to a record-extending eighth pole and sixth in succession at the Australian Grand Prix on Saturday to lead Valtteri Bottas to a Mercedes sweep of the front row of the grid. Hamilton struggled with a brake problem during the frenetic final session at Albert Park but edged his Finnish team mate by 0.112 seconds with a searing second lap of one minute 20.486 seconds that set a record at the lakeside circuit. The one-two punch by Mercedes left Ferrari and their championship rivals stunned, with Hamilton's chief challenger Sebastian Vettel, who qualified third, more than seven-tenths of a second off the five-times champion's pace. "Oh man, I'm shaking it was so close out there," Briton 34-year-old Hamilton said after extending his pole record to 84 on a warm, sunny afternoon in Melbourne. "Coming from winter testing, we had no idea where we would be. We were hoping to be where we are ... Valtteri did an exceptional job out there, it was very close." Hamilton matched Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher for the record number of poles at a single race track. Senna took his eight at Imola, with Schumacher dominating the Suzuka circuit. Four-times champion Vettel, bidding for a third successive win at Albert Park, was separated from his new team mate Charles Leclerc by fourth placed Max Verstappen of Red Bull. It would have felt like 'deja vu' for Ferrari, having trailed Mercedes by nearly seven-tenths of a second in qualifying at last year's race. "Certainly Mercedes are the clear favorite," Vettel told reporters with a touch of resignation. "I'm certainly surprised (by their pace), I think everybody is, probably even themselves." "I think, there is still a bit of margin (to improve) but certainly the gap is there today, and it was a surprise," the four-times champion told reporters. "We didn't expect it coming here but now it is that way. ... Obviously there is a lack somewhere, because we are too slow – but didn't feel like it." German Vettel's new team mate Charles Leclerc qualified fifth fastest behind Red Bull's Max Verstappen but the highly regarded 21-year-old was harder on himself than the car. "I'm not happy with myself. I didn't do the job in Q3, which is a shame," said the Monegasque, who locked up in turn one of a "messy" second lap.

LaFerrari design secrets explored at Ferrari museum

For every finished vehicle design we see, there are probably hundreds of drawings and models that have long since been discarded. Housed in its own room inside the Ferrari Museum in Maranello, the LaFerrari has a unique exhibit that shows off some of the car's design evolution, and Autocar caught up with Ferrari design director Flavio Manzoni for an even deeper look at what went into creating this hybrid supercar.
In addition to the final product, the LaFerrari exhibit also reveals some of the designs that didn't make the cut - two of which made it to the full-size scale model phase, though. The display shows off five different designs (three from Ferrari and two from Pininfarina) that were in the running to become the final LaFerrari.
The interview with Manzoni even adds in some juicy bits of info, including news that one of the potential LaFerrari designs has been locked away and could resurface as a special, one-off model. Manzoni gets in a couple of good quotes while voicing his opposition of the current retro design language currently being used by some automakers, as well. Check it all out in the video below.

Faraday Future to hire former Ferrari exec Marco Mattiacci

Electric car manufacturer Faraday Future has lured a very big fish to its executive pond, hiring former Ferrari executive Marco Mattiacci, a source told Autoblog. Business Insider also reported the move. It's unclear what role Mattiacci will have at Faraday, but he served with distinction at Ferrari. Between 2006 and 2014, he was the head of Ferrari North America and Ferrari Asia Pacific, though that success didn't translate to motorsports. Mattiacci succeeded Stefano Domenicali as team principal of Scuderia Ferrari in April 2014 and led the team to a fourth-place finish, behind Mercedes, Red Bull, and Williams. The Scuderia were not pleased and Mattiacci resigned. Faraday is no stranger to snagging talent from other automakers. It hired employees from Ford, GM, and BMW and has done an especially good job of poaching talent from Elon Musk. It lured Tesla's vice president of regulatory affairs and deputy general counsel, James Chen, last month. Faraday hired the head of Model S production, Dag Reckhorn, to serve as its global VP of manufacturing, and in April it brought in Tesla's director of global supplier industrialization, Andrew De Haan, to run the Faraday's Nevada factory. Business Insider reports Faraday has even poached SpaceX employees. We expect more hiring from Faraday in the future, too. The company's website is packed with California-based positions for everything from vehicle safety to autonomous driving to product planning. Related Video: News Source: Business InsiderImage Credit: Dom Romney / Getty Images Green Hirings/Firings/Layoffs Ferrari Autonomous Vehicles Electric faraday future faraday marco mattiacci