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Pre-Race notes from the 2015 Nurburgring 24-Hours

Autoblog has come to the German countryside to watch the Nurburgring 24-Hour race, and just one day in, we have to say it's outstanding. Le Mans has been the highlight of our summer racing schedule for the past few years, the 'Ring 24-Hour event being the appetizer we always skipped. Earlier this year, however, while visiting Miami to check out the Cigarette Racing 50 Marauder GT S, we met Scott Preacher. He oversees digital marketing for both Cigarette and AMG during the week, then comes to Germany to compete in the VLN race series on the weekends, driving an Aston Martin Vantage GT4 for Team Mathol. If Le Mans is the Oscars of endurance racing, the Nurburgring 24-Hour race is the Screen Actors Guild award – the one voted on by the actors, for the actors. In this case it's the race by the teams and fans, for the teams and fans, even though the increasing manufacturer presence has altered the team equation. We were told that it wasn't so long ago that true privateers could win the overall, but that's not really the case anymore. Front-running teams have heavy factory involvement – Audi Sport Team Phoenix, for instance, which finished in first and third last year, has its own 'Ring race center and is running the 2016 R8; Aston Martin is represented by Aston Martin Racing and Aston Martin Test Center, and Bentley has a Bentley Motors team and uses HPT to run another team. The fan component hasn't changed, though, and you can't talk about the race for more than 60 seconds before someone brings up the battalions of spectators. Every driver we spoke to cited them as the most incredible part of this race after the track itself. It feels to us like a giant German Sebring, with thousands of people camped out in the ginormous, forested infield, many of whom have been here since Monday erecting their ornate camping compounds. There will be parties everywhere Saturday night, and so much bratwurst on the grill that the drivers can smell it when as they're blasting full speed through Wehrseifen. Even when we drove a Mercedes S63 AMG Coupe on a lap before the race, the fans waved like it was a competition. Scott Preacher's Australian co-driver Robert Thompson said, "You come around a corner and it's like you're driving full speed through the middle of a carnival." The race field itself could also be called a carnival, with an officially invited field of more than 170 cars. Even on a track that's 24.4-km long, that's like racing on the 405 at midday.

Mercedes sues Ferrari-bound F1 engineer for stealing secrets

Mercedes is suing one of its Formula One engineers, one Benjamin Hoyle, claiming he was planning to take sensitive data to a competitor. An experienced powertrain engineer, Hoyle came to Mercedes AMG High Performance Powertrains in 2012 with previous experience at Prodrive and Cosworth. One of four team leaders at the company, Hoyle headed up the performance application department until he notified his employers of his intention not to seek renewal of his contract that expires at the end of this year. Once they found out that Hoyle was switching to Ferrari, the higher-ups at Mercedes reassigned him to other, less sensitive duties, however Hoyle was reportedly discovered accessing race reports and other sensitive data relating to the performance of the team's engines. In response, Mercedes has filed suit against Hoyle, claiming that he "and potentially Ferrari have gained an unlawful advantage." The German automaker is seeking the return of all documents and the payment of its legal fees. It also seeks to prevent Hoyle from working for another F1 team throughout next season. Mercedes AMG High Performance Powertrains is the Daimler's F1 engine division. Based in Brixworth, UK, it was founded back in 1983 together with Ilmor before Mercedes bought it outright. Aside from the company's own works team, the outfit this year powered Williams, Lotus, and Force India, and previously worked with McLaren as well as Sauber. This is not the first time that a case of industrial espionage has emerged in F1. A similar controversy erupted in 2007 surrounding engineers Nigel Stepney and Mike Coughlan. The highly publicized incident became known as "Spygate" or "Stepneygate" and involved the illegal sharing of secrets between Ferrari, McLaren, and Renault. News Source: BloombergImage Credit: Martin Meissner/AP Government/Legal Hirings/Firings/Layoffs Motorsports Ferrari Mercedes-Benz F1 industrial espionage

VW could look outside its own ranks for next CEO

Companies have two options when coming up with succession plans – hire within, or go outside its ranks. Either choice comes with advantages and disadvantages, to be sure. Hiring within means generally getting someone familiar with the company and its culture and traditions, while going outside is ideal if you're looking to shake things up and bring in fresh ideas. It's unclear which avenue the Volkswagen Group will go down when it comes time to replace its head man, Herr Professor Doctor Doctor Herr Martin Winterkorn, but he isn't ruling out a trip outside of Wolfsburg. Winterkorn has already given the reins of the VW brand to former BMW board member Herbert Diess, while Andreas Renschler, a former Daimler board member, is heading up VW's truck group. Now, Winterkorn has made some statements to a German weekly that indicate the most important thing about his successor isn't necessarily his (or her, though no women appear to be on the short-list) previous employer, Motoring.com.au is reporting, so much as his qualities as a leader and an engineering background. "A Volkswagen boss has to have a big affinity to our products. He needs to be close to customers and he needs to have a relationship with dealers," Winterkorn told Stern. "Like always, it depends on the personality and it also helps if the candidate is an engineer." Motoring throws out a couple of potential candidates from within, including Porsche boss Mathias Muller, Audi Chairman Rupert Stadler and engineering guru Ulrich Hackenberg, in addition to both Diess and Renschler. And while each candidate has a lot of potential, the only thing that's guaranteed right now is what Winterkorn has already said: "The decision about who will succeed me is not an easy one for the supervisory board."