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Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel crashes in F1 preseason testing

MONTMELO, Spain — Sebastian Vettel crashed into a tire barrier in Formula One preseason testing on Wednesday, damaging his Ferrari but not sustaining any injuries. Vettel lost control on Turn 3 at the Barcelona-Catalunya Circuit, going through the gravel and hitting the wall. Ferrari said Vettel was "off due to a mechanical problem." It said the car was sent back to the garage "for all the needed checks." The Italian team did not specify what problem led to Vettel's crash in the morning session of the second of four days of testing. The crash prompted a red flag, and Vettel's Ferrari had to be towed back to the garage. McLaren driver Carlos Sainz was leading Wednesday's session with a time of 1 minute, 17.144 seconds, the fastest so far after six days of testing. Vettel had the second fastest time of the day, followed by Red Bull driver Max Verstappen and Mercedes rival Valtteri Bottas. Also Wednesday, McLaren said two-time world champion Fernando Alonso will be the team's ambassador and continue to advise its drivers and engineers, as well as "drive at selected tests to support the development" of the team's cars for 2020. Alonso, who was at the Barcelona track on Tuesday, will drive for McLaren in this year's Indy 500. Renault said Russian driver Sergey Sirotkin, who raced for Williams last season, will be the team's reserve driver in 2019. Testing will continue through Friday at the Barcelona-Catalunya Circuit, home to the Spanish Grand Prix. The season-opening Australian Grand Prix is on March 17. More AP racing Motorsports Ferrari Racing Vehicles F1 Sebastian Vettel

Ferrari wants more hybrids to lift volume to 10,000 cars a year

Ferrari CEO Sergio Marchionne is looking towards hybridization as the way of bumping the Italian automaker's production figures to 10,000 vehicles per year by 2025, reports Automotive News. To do this, Marchionne plans to hybridize every vehicle with a Ferrari badge starting in 2019. As Automotive News points out, Ferrari is dedicated to delivering roughly 8,000 vehicles this year. The automaker has plans in place to raise that figure to 9,000 cars by 2019. Raising its volume numbers to 10,000 vehicles a year, though, would require Ferrari to meet certain fuel economy and emissions requirements, which it currently does not have to do, reports Automotive News. According to Automotive News, in addition to producing more hybrids, Marchionne is also interested in producing Ferraris that appeal to a larger demographic, helping to increase sales. As Automotive News points out, the recent biturbo V8 GTC4Lusso T is an example of this trend, being both more useable and less expensive than its V12 counterpart. Performance will still be a priority. The CEO believes hybrid powertrains are a way to "yield additional performance," reports Automotive News. This isn't the first time Marchionne has spoken about increasing Ferrari's production as the CEO hinted at upping the automaker's output to 10,000 vehicles annually back in 2014. At that time, Marchionne also revealed that Ferrari would come out with a new car every year between 2014 and 2018. More recently, Ferrari announced plans to increase production to approximately 9,000 cars per year by 2019. Related Video:

Watch this Ferrari 288 GTO get a top-flight detailing job

Detailing was once the last thing we had any interest in doing, and if such a thing were possible we had even less interest in watching someone else detail some other car. We don't feel that way anymore, fascinated by the minutiae uncovered in while watching Todd Cooperider and Polished Bliss detail some examples of Prancing Horses.
Next up on the detailing honor roll is Larry Kosilla of Ammo NYC. Company founder Kosilla said he has wanted to be the best detailer on Earth ever since he was a kid, and his company makes products to serve detailers with that kind of passion. Now, we can watch him put his knowledge and elbow grease to work on a Ferrari 288 GTO.
The biggest issue with the eighties wondercoupe is that it is made of three different materials, each of which will cause the same coat of paint to react differently to the same products according to Kosilla. There's also the fact that he's working in what appears to be a rather poorly lit garage, but by the time he gets to the end of the two-day job it's clear he knows exactly what he's doing. Detailing school begins in the video just below.