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Alonso and Rossi to field Ferrari at Le Mans?

The plot thickens and just keeps thickening when it comes to Ferrari's potential return to Le Mans. Antonello Coletta, the head of Ferrari's sports car racing program, first suggested that the new regulations being implemented by the ACO could potentially see the Prancing Horse marque compete in the top-tier LMP1 class. His thoughts have since been echoed by Stefano Domenicali, the head of the Scuderia's F1 team, and by chairman Luca di Montezemolo. And now we're hearing rumors over its potential driver lineup.
Word has it that Ferrari could send Valentino Rossi and Fernando Alonso to pilot its prototype at Le Mans in 2015 or 2016. The rumors were tweeted by Mark Webber (embedded below), who recently left F1 to drive for Porsche at Le Mans - and could amount to pure speculation, to some inside track on hard news or (as is often the case) something in between. One way or another, both Rossi and Alonso are multiple world champions in their fields with strong ties to Maranello and would make a formidable lineup - particularly if paired, we'd venture, with Ferrari's test driver Marc Gené, who won at Le Mans with Peugeot in 2009.
Although the Rossi connection would seem the greater stretch, it might actually make the most sense of the two. With nothing left to prove on two wheels, the seven-time MotoGP champion has been talking about leaving the series. He's test-driven Ferrari F1 cars on several occasions and raced the Ferrari 458 Italia GT3 in the Blancpain Endurance Series last season. The move would be a rare departure for Alonso, however, who has raced almost exclusively in open-wheel single seaters his entire career, and would need to balance the program with his F1 commitments. That is, assuming he doesn't get fed up with chasing after Sebastian Vettel and teaming with Kimi Raikkonen by then.

Ferrari officially teases hybrid V8 before official reveal

This is Ferrari's official teaser for the V8 hybrid debuting this week, so let the Photoshop and parsing games begin. Among what we'll call the traditional supercar makers — Ferrari, Lamborghini, and McLaren — the Maranello outfit takes the first dive into the hybrid pool, and they're going to make a show of it. The motorcycle rider who ran down the prototype a few weeks ago looks to have been correct about the rectangular taillights. The last time we saw anything other than round taillights on a production Ferrari was on the much-loved Testarossa and the much unloved 348. There's some deliberate obfuscation going on, unsurprisingly. In the teaser, the rear wing stands up extra tall in the middle. The wing on the prototype spotted last week carries across the car from fender to fender; you can trace the line it makes around the rear three-quarter underneath the camouflage. Based on where there's mesh in the camouflage paneling to let air through, our guess is that the wing does more than channel air under its middle as on the F8 Tributo. And we'll wait to see if the twin exhaust outlet truly dominate the backside like bazookas. VIP clientele have apparently been headed to Maranello as of this morning, ready to witness a three-day event for the production sports car that will sit above the 812 Superfast and below whatever succeeds the LaFerrari. Eyes in Italy say there's a large tent at the Fiorano circuit erected just for the cause. Word is that Ferrari will reveal the car online around the same time as VIP showing, with an in-the-sheetmetal showing sometime next month, perhaps at Le Mans. Ferrari hybrid supercar View 9 Photos

Party boy videos his night of drinking, driving - and downfall

So, I've thrown around the word "Schadenfreude" a lot around here. Roughly translated as "joy at another's misfortune," it's one of those lovely German-language compound words that perfectly sums up some part of the human condition. Another of my favorites is " B ackpfeifengesicht." This one translates as "a face in need of a fist." In this story out of Morocco about a rich young man drinking, driving, and crashing a Ferrari, both of those words come immediately to mind. According to NDTV, a 20-year-old spent a wild night on the town in Rabat back in April. The unnamed man spent his evening partying, drinking champagne, dancing at clubs, and racing his slate-colored Ferrari California around the city. Someone who was with him recorded the evening for posterity, and caught him drinking out of a bottle of champagne, completely annihilated, while driving and generally acting the fool. As you can imagine, the evening didn't end well for him. In the morning, he was still apparently drunk and driving around. He smashed into a small, silver sedan, which caved in that car's door and mangled the California's frontend. Unfazed, our man shot a little video of himself dancing around the crash scene, giving the cops lip, and smoking in the back of an ambulance. I guess he thought his wealth and status would get him out of trouble. Joke's on him, though. Morocco's official MAP news agency stated that the Ferrari driver was found guilty of driving while intoxicated and driving without insurance. For this, he got two years in jail and was slapped with a 2,000 euro fine. And that, friends, is Schadenfreude and B ackpfeifengesicht in action. Related Video News Source: NDTV Auto News Weird Car News Ferrari drunk driving morocco