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Ferrari, BMW lend expertise to Olympic bobsled, skeleton, luge

LONDON — There are plenty of reasons why the sport of bobsleigh is sometimes referred to as Formula One on ice, but few as obvious as Italy's World Cup sleds. Resplendent in Ferrari red, and with a set of team sponsor Pirelli's P-Zero tyres painted on the sides, they are even liveried to look like racing cars. Ferrari, Formula One's most glamorous and successful team, have worked with the Italian federation, whose sleds run without sponsor branding at the Olympics, since 2010 and in the run-up to next month's Pyeongchang Winter Games. Former rival BMW, title sponsor of the World Cup, has long partnered the U.S. bobsleigh team, while McLaren teamed up with Britain's bob and skeleton athletes for the 2014 Sochi Games in Russia. "There's always the link between the Formula One companies, or any motor company, and skeleton and bobsleigh," says Rachel Blackburn, the engineer who has been involved in Britain's skeleton program since 2006 and who used to work for McLaren. "There's the Ferrari sleds and the BMW sleds ... when we were at McLaren it kind of made a good story," she told Reuters by telephone from her home in Dubai. That somewhat manufactured rivalry has died down in the years since Sochi, with McLaren no longer involved and Ferrari's presence low key. But the worlds of grand prix motor racing and sliding sports still have plenty in common. Bobsled, luge and skeleton are among the fastest of Olympic sports, with bobsleds reaching speeds over 90 mph. Drivers are subjected to gut-wrenching G-forces, and crashes can be fatal. And then there is the ongoing debate about cost controls, the direction of future rules, preserving a level playing field and obsessive secrecy — all endlessly recurring themes in Formula One. 80 mph on a tea tray Blackburn said skeleton, where riders hit 80 mph on what has glibly been compared to an oversized tea-tray, sits somewhere between Americas Cup yachts and Formula One cars in terms of speed and aerodynamics. "Applied engineering is far more interesting than the pure stuff, so when its applied to something that's fun and exciting it does make it a lot easier to solve problems," she said. "There is the Americas Cup, sailing, Formula One and the high speed ice sports as well. It's the same concept.

F1 2013 Classic Edition to make Lauda's 1976 Ferrari playable

We'll cop to the fact that we might be a bit overly excited about the upcoming F1 2013 video game, specifically the Classic Edition. Codemasters has released umpteen trailers for the title already, mostly pretty cool ones, with cars lapping classic Formula One tracks that are set to be included in the fun.
With that said, this very latest historic addition to F1 2013 is pretty worthwhile, we think. Doing a kind of double promotion with Ron Howard's upcoming film Rush (which you all know by know to be the story of Niki Lauda, James Hunt and the chase for the 1976 F1 Championship), Codemasters is making the 1976 Ferrari 312 T2 a playable car in its new game. That's right, you can now walk in Lauda's racing boots, without all the painful crashing and superhuman recovery bother. Watch the video trailer below.

A Ferrari SUV? First you'll have to shoot Marchionne

Almost every car company has its own SUV in the range. Porsche added this kind of vehicle almost 15 years ago and it may have saved the company, Bentley decided to join this growing segment launching the Bentayga, and Jaguar is doing the same with the F-Pace. Everyone is trying to get the most from the growing Asian market (China especially) launching models very appreciated over there. But not Ferrari. This is what came out from an earnings call with the Ferrari CEO where analysts asked how he was thinking to reach the goal of selling 7,000 units/year, balancing the slump of 22% of the Chinese market: "I don't think it's going to recover this year," said Marchionne, "but we won't make an SUV. You have to shoot me first." Since the spin off from Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, Ferrari's share price has fallen and this news is not good for investors that expected high profit for 2016. Ferrari has a racing history, and SUVs are not to be part of this history any time soon; the image of the Prancing Horse would come out damaged from this choice and Marchionne seems to know it very well. Related Video: Image Credit: Ferrari Ferrari Crossover SUV Sergio Marchionne open road