How Red Bull can plan for Webber departure, if it happens - MotorSportsTalk

If Mark Webber does in fact go to Porsche’s new LMP1 program for 2014 as is rumored, there’s several domino effects from a Formula One standpoint.

The obvious is the situation at Red Bull. My colleague Luke Smith penned a piece a little while back on potential replacements, and certainly Daniel Ricciardo did himself no harm this weekend with his best career weekend of qualifying and finishing seventh in the Scuderia Toro Rosso in China.

Red Bull has to wonder whether either of its Toro Rosso prospects, Ricciardo or Jean-Eric Vergne, is worthy of the jump to the main team, but this is as good a time as any for it to happen. This is Toro Rosso’s eighth season since Red Bull bought Minardi at the end of the 2005 championship, and only Sebastian Vettel has made the jump from an STR to a Red Bull race seat. Vitantonio Liuzzi went the other way from 2005 to 2006, when he made a handful of starts in Red Bull’s first season, and then raced two full years at STR.

Red Bull’s top junior prospect, and its reserve driver in China this past weekend, Antonio Felix da Costa, is also a contender. That could happen more realistically if da Costa makes his Grand Prix debut later this year. Red Bull, you’d think, would want to see da Costa in a partial season race situation – a la Ricciardo at HRT in 2011 – before making a decision on where to place him in 2014.

Webber would join a list of ex-F1 drivers now racing in the WEC. Just this weekend at Silverstone, the list included Allan McNish, Alex Wurz, Anthony Davidson, Sebastien Buemi, Stephane Sarrazin, Nick Heidfeld, Antonio Pizzonia, Vitantonio Liuzzi, Gianmaria Bruni, Giancarlo Fisichella, Kamui Kobayashi, Pedro Lamy and Bruno Senna. McNish (LMP1), Pizzonia (LMP2) and Senna (GTE Pro) all won their respective classes.

In a continuing effort to help fans keep track of the on track action, SuperMotocross is in the process of developing and implementing leader lights for the unified series.

Currently Supercross (SMX) utilizes stanchions in the infield that are triggered manually by a race official. At least two stanchions are used in each race as a way to draw the eye to the leader, which is especially useful in the tight confines of the stadium series when lapping often begins before the halfway mark in the 22-bike field. This system has been in place for the past two decades.

Later this year, a fully automated system will move to the bike itself to replace the old system. At that point, fans will be able to identify the leader regardless of where he is on track.

The leader lights were tested in the second Anaheim round this year. An example can be seen at the 1:45 mark in the video above on the No. 69 bike.

“What we don’t want to do is move too fast, where it’s confusing to people,” said Mike Muye, senior director of operations for Supercross and SMX in a press release. “We’ve really just focused on the leader at this point with the thought that maybe down the road we’ll introduce others.”

Scheduled to debut with the first SuperMotocross World Championship race at zMax Dragway, located just outside the Charlotte Motor Speedway, a 3D carbon fiber-printed LED light will be affixed to each motorcycle. Ten timing loops positioned around the track will trigger the lights of the leader, which will turn green.

SMX’s partner LiveTime Scoring helped develop and implement the system that has been tested in some form or fashion since 2019.

When the leader lights are successfully deployed, SuperMotocross will explore expanding the system to identify the second- and third-place riders. Depending on need and fan acceptance, more positions could be added.

SuperMotocross is exploring future enhancements, including allowing for live fan interaction with the lights and ways to use the lighting system during the race’s opening ceremony.

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