Fernando Alonso’s manager has denied reports the Spanish driver pushed to be the undisputed number one driver at McLaren in 2007.
The Mirror newspaper in Britain claims the now Ferrari driver made the demand around the time of that year’s Hungarian grand prix, when he was penalised for deliberately holding up teammate Lewis Hamilton in a qualifying pitstop.

“During that phase I remember talking to the drivers and their management and saying what a great driver would want to do is look at himself in the mirror and say ‘I have won this world championship on merit’ and not by the team leaning one way and giving him an advantage,” said team boss Martin Whitmarsh.

The newspaper’s revelation comes amid the Hockenheim team orders scandal, with Alonso saying “this is ridiculous” on the radio shortly before Felipe Massa was ordered to move aside for the double world champion.

Alonso’s manager, Luis Garcia Abad, was reluctant to comment on the 2007 claims.

“I don’t want to talk about it but in any case, it’s not true,” he said.

The site location and the primary investor have been revealed by organisers of the 2012 United States grand prix.
Zak Brown, boss of the company that represents F1 sponsors including LG, Johnnie Walker and Hilton, said he thinks the news will allay some of the recent scepticism about the Austin project.

“A phased approach led a lot of people to wonder, How the hell is this going to come together?” the Just Marketing CEO is quoted by USA Today.

“I think the timetable is the biggest question as opposed to whether it’s going to happen,” he said.

Ron Dennis, the long-time McLaren chief, agrees.

“The race in Austin is challenging in the time scale, but I think it’ll probably happen,” he said. “But we will be in America (somewhere). We always get to America somehow.”

Red McCombs, former owner of American sporting teams San Antonio Spurs, Denver Nuggets and Minnesota Vikings, was revealed as the primary investor.

And promoter Tavo Hellmund confirmed that the track will be built in southeast Austin in an area formerly known as Wandering Creek.

“They’ve got to start putting shovels in the ground really quick,” Brown continued.

Ron Dennis added: “Even if they’re one year late, it won’t stop the project happening.”

A spokesman said the actual track layout, designed by Hermann Tilke, will be released later this summer.

Rubens Barrichello has confirmed he is close to extending his tenure at Williams.
The Brazilian veteran made the admission whilst contemplating the Hockenheim team orders furore, comparing it to his famous move to let Michael Schumacher win the 2002 Austrian grand prix.

“Many understand now how it was (at Ferrari) in 2002,” he is quoted in Spanish and Portuguese language reports.

“They understand why I left Ferrari a year before the end of a contract,” added the 38-year-old Brazilian.

Barrichello drove for Ferrari between 2000 and 2005, but claims he is much happier now.

“I may not have been champion in that time, but I was always fair, and now it is past,” he said.

“Now I’m at the team I want to be with and am about to extend my contract for another year. I want to be champion with Williams,” said Barrichello.

Karun Chandhok has now turned his eye to next month’s Belgian grand prix as he prepares to sit out a second consecutive F1 race.

The Indian rookie will nonetheless travel to Hungary this week, to reprise the British radio commentary duties he had to settle for at Hockenheim last weekend.

Chandhok, 26, was sidelined in Germany due to HRT’s Japanese test driver Sakon Yamamoto reportedly having more sponsorship to offer the struggling Spanish team.

Hispania has now confirmed that Yamamoto will continue to be Bruno Senna’s teammate in Hungary.

“They are going to do what they need to do from their point of view,” Chandhok, who at Hockenheim had said he hoped to return to the car for Hungary, told Reuters.

“The long summer break is coming up and we’ll have to see what happens for the rest of the season,” he added.

HRT insists that Chandhok is still a team member, but strong rumours indicate that test driver Christian Klien is expecting a race or two later in 2010.

A team spokesperson said the driver lineup for Spa-Francorchamps and beyond is not finalised.

In their blogs on the official Ferrari website, Felipe Massa said Hockenheim had been a “great team result”, while Fernando Alonso said victory was a “great feeling”.
They did not even mention the team orders scandal.

Team boss Stefano Domenicali summed up the internal mood – while the F1 world is alight with controversy – by saying he wants Ferrari to “remain focussed on our own work, starting in Budapest” this weekend.

But the headline in Brazil’s Globo summed up the attitude as ‘no remorse’, while the Jornal do Brasil published a cartoon of Paulista Massa as a puppet.

In Italy, however, Tuttosport backed Luca di Montezemolo’s claim about team order “hypocrisy”, accusing Martin Whitmarsh of having “amnesia” when he suggested there are no team orders at McLaren.

The article referred to Hockenheim 2008, when Heikki Kovalainen gave way to Lewis Hamilton.

Other reports have referred to the arguable ‘low fuel’ messages for Jenson Button and Hamilton recently, with Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport claiming the pair received a similar order last Sunday.

Indeed, in La Gazzetta dello Sport, writer Umberto Zapelloni appeared to praise Ferrari for applying its team orders “without subterfuge”.

“Massa was not told he was consuming too much fuel or his tyres were in crisis, but others have been (told those things) this season,” he wrote.

“One or two” of F1′s existing twelve teams might bow out of formula one before November’s Abu Dhabi finale, Bernie Ecclestone has warned.

“I think there are a couple of teams in formula one who really shouldn’t be there. They are a bit out of their depth at the moment,” he said in an interview with the Daily Telegraph.

Losing two teams would drop the grid down to 20 cars, but the FIA is in the process of perhaps allowing Villeneuve/Durango, Epsilon Euskadi, Stefan GP or Cypher Group to debut next year.

But Ecclestone insisted: “All we ever want is 10 teams. Lotus is a good name. I wouldn’t want to lose them. But in general this year has been a bit of a nuisance because it has cost money to keep these (new) teams in.

“It has cost a lot of money to pay for them to compete.”

It is likely the Briton is referring to HRT, who are now shuffling around drivers with the deepest pockets for the two race seats, and Virgin, whose main sponsor Sir Richard Branson said last year the team would have F1′s smallest budget.

“The bottom line is they haven’t really and truly given us value for being there,” said Ecclestone.

“If suddenly these teams don’t turn up at races then I don’t think the crowds will get any smaller, or the TV sets will turn off, or the newspapers will stop writing, will they?” he added.

The German grand prix will definitely revert as scheduled to the Nurburgring next year.
The track has recently been alternating the annual hosting of the formula one race with Hockenheim, with the arrangement originally set to run only until 2011.

But at Hockenheim last weekend, there were rumours that Bernie Ecclestone is so happy with his new arrangement with that circuit that he wants to return next season and beyond.

Last year, when Hockenheim said it could no longer afford the F1 chief executive’s race fees, Ecclestone agreed to share the “business risks and opportunities” with a new deal through 2018.

In the days before the race, attended by 65,000 spectators, organisers confirmed that the 2010 event was set to break even.

On Tuesday, operating company Nurburgring Automotive GmbH played down the rumours about Hockenheim now taking its place in F1.

“The fact that the race will take place (in 2011) is beyond question,” the company said according to the news agency SID, as advance ticket bookings commenced.

Late last year, local Rhineland-Palatinate state politicians said they wanted a new F1 contract for the Nurburgring with “more favourable conditions” and not “at any price”.

HRT on Tuesday confirmed that Sakon Yamamoto has retained his race seat for the weekend’s Hungarian grand prix.

The Japanese, reportedly with $5 million in sponsorship to pay to the struggling Spanish team in 2010, raced initially in Bruno Senna’s cockpit at the recent British grand prix.

He then replaced Karun Chandhok in Germany, but the Indian rookie – whose new sponsor Japyee was on the Cosworth-powered F110 at Hockenheim – said it is possible he will be back in the car this weekend in Hungary.

But in a media statement, Hispania Racing announced its Hungaroring lineup as Yamamoto, 28, alongside Senna.

“I can’t wait to go back to the Hungaroring as I know the circuit already very well from my formula one races with Super Aguri, Spyker and with ART in the GP2 series,” said Yamamoto.

Nick Heidfeld remains committed to returning to the formula one grid in 2011.
After holding out for a competitive seat with an established team in the wake of BMW’s withdrawal at the end of last season, the veteran of 167 grands prix found himself without a drive at all.

German Heidfeld, 33, has therefore attended the grands prix this year as Mercedes’ reserve driver, but on Tuesday he revealed that he does not think he will graduate to a race seat with the Brackley based team in 2011.

Heidfeld said his current job is not all bad.

“There are worse things than to get to drive beautiful AMG models,” he said on Austrian ‘Servus TV’.

“That’s not the problem. The problem is when I see them (his former F1 rivals) driving and not me.

“But I am quite clear with my motivation and I know that the prospects for the future are quite good,” added Heidfeld.

He has recently been linked with the vacant 2011 seat at Renault alongside his former BMW teammate Robert Kubica, and at Hockenheim was actually spotted inside the Enstone based team’s motor home.

Heidfeld confirmed that a return to the grid in 2011 means he will have to leave Mercedes.

“Yes,” he admitted. “In the near future it will not be possible to be a race driver (with Mercedes) so I am having to look elsewhere.”

Heidfeld revealed that he is not yet close to a deal.

“Unfortunately no, not yet,” he said.

“We are in talks with almost all the teams that have a cockpit for next year open. I was a bit surprised this year how early the top seats were confirmed so now we’re having to look at what is still available.”

Flavio Briatore does not think Ferrari will be heavily punished by the FIA for the Hockenheim team orders affair.

The governing body is set to consider the matter no later than September 10 at its scheduled World Motor Sport Council meeting in Como, Italy.

Ferrari breached article 39.1 of the sporting regulations by ordering that Felipe Massa give way to German grand prix winner Fernando Alonso, and was also charged by the race stewards with bringing the sport into disrepute.

Former Renault boss Briatore was banned from F1 last year by the World Motor Sport Council for the Singapore crash scandal.

He told Italy’s Sky Sport 24: “This (team order) rule makes no sense and should be abolished.  Formula one is a team sport.

“I don’t believe Ferrari did anything wrong,” added the 60-year-old Italian.

“Fernando has more points than Massa and it is logical to bet on the driver with the best chance of winning the title.

“Could it have been better handled?  It’s easy to say so with hindsight, but during a race it’s different.

“It is however clear that Massa’s engineer (Rob Smedley) should not have made certain comments.  But only one guy can win the drivers’ championship.

“It is pointless to stand around being critical.  It is the rule that is completely absurd,” added Briatore.

He does not think Ferrari needs to worry about draconian penalties like exclusion from the world championship or race bans.

“The chairman of the World Council is Jean Todt, who managed Ferrari when in 2002 in Austria he ordered Barrichello to let Schumacher overtake at the chequered flag, so I think we can all relax,” laughed Briatore.

Bernie Ecclestone thinks formula one should overturn its 2002 ban on team orders.

As the sporting world debates Ferrari’s order for Felipe Massa to hand Hockenheim victory to Fernando Alonso, there are those who believe teams should be free to run their businesses on track.

“I must confess I would agree with anyone who thinks that,” said the F1 chief executive.

Article 39.1 of the sporting regulations, added after Rubens Barrichello was crassly ordered to let Michael Schumacher win the 2002 Austrian grand prix, states that “team orders which interfere with a race result are prohibited.”

The Hockenheim stewards fined Ferrari the maximum $100,000 and directed the matter to the World Motor Sport Council.

Ecclestone is a member of the FIA body, but is not sure the overturning of the ban will be on the agenda.

“I don’t know, we’ll have to see,” said the Briton.  “It’s something that needs to be discussed.”

Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo this week said team orders date back to Tazio Nuvolari’s days in the 30s and 40s, and Ecclestone agrees that the practice is part of the sport.

“I believe what people do when they are inside the team and how they run their team is up to them.  Of course, if a team does something that’s dangerous then they’re going to be in trouble.  Otherwise, get on with it,” he said.

As the Hockenheim team orders furore continues, Ferrari team president Luca di Montezemolo has cried “enough of this hypocrisy”.

Leading figures of the top rival McLaren, Red Bull and Mercedes teams have lashed out at the famous Italian marque after Felipe Massa was ordered aside for Fernando Alonso for victory at Sunday’s German grand prix.

“We all have to obey the rules,” said Mercedes GP chief executive Nick Fry.

Red Bull’s Christian Horner added: “It’s a great shame that the race was manipulated to give one driver a victory over the other.”

And McLaren’s Martin Whitmarsh, also chairman of the F1 teams union FOTA, said: “We do desperately want to win but it’s about how you win.”

The Briton also said he would speak “privately” about the issue to Ferrari.

While hitting back at what he describes as “polemics”, Montezemolo at least seemed to steer away from the team’s earlier denial that Massa was given a team order.

“These things have happened since the days of Nuvolari and I experienced it myself when I was sporting director, in the days of Niki Lauda and not just then,” said Montezemolo.

“The polemics are of no interest to me,” added the Italian.

“Enough of this hypocrisy, even if I can well believe that some people might have liked to see our two drivers eliminate one another, but that is definitely not the case for me or indeed for our fans,” he said.

The FIA is yet to confirm reports that it will consider the Ferrari team order issue at its scheduled meeting on September 10.

International publications including Blick (Switzerland), Turun Sanomat (Finland), Autosprint (Italy), Bild (Germany) and Marca (Spain) believe it is possible the FIA will not schedule a special meeting to discuss Fernando Alonso’s Hockenheim victory.

Ferrari was fined $100,000 by the stewards at Hockenheim for breaching not only the team order rule 39.1, but also the general guideline about disrepute.

“The case will also be referred to the FIA World Motor Sport Council for further consideration,” said the stewards’ statement.

On the day of Friday free practice at Monza, the governing body will be meeting in Como, Italy.

Media sources say it is not likely that FIA president Jean Todt, who as Ferrari boss ordered Rubens Barrichello to “let Michael (Schumacher) pass for the championship” in Austria in 2002, will take part in the disciplinary proceedings.

An FIA spokesman said a date for the consideration of the Ferrari affair has not yet been set.

Nelson Piquet Jr has defended Felipe Massa after the Ferrari driver allowed Fernando Alonso to win Sunday’s German grand prix.

In the wake of the Hockenheim team orders affair, the Brazilian media has been hard on 29-year-old Massa, who according to some publications displayed a lack of courage on the anniversary of his 2009 crash.

Heavily criticised last year was Piquet, who argued he was ordered by Flavio Briatore to deliberately crash his Renault during the 2008 Singapore grand prix in order to bring out the safety car and boost Alonso’s chances of winning.

“Talk is cheap and it’s easy to criticise,” Piquet, now driving in NASCAR’s lower-tier truck series, is quoted by Globo Esporte.

“But the hole is deeper than you think.”

Indeed, Massa has been quoted in Brazil as saying “many drivers” would have acted similarly in his shoes at Hockenheim, and after leaving Ferrari, Rubens Barrichello revealed that he would have lost his job had he not moved over for Michael Schumacher in 2002.

Mika Salo subbed for an injured Schumacher at Ferrari in 1999, and he tells Finland’s Turun Sanomat that “they made it clear that if Eddie (Irvine) is behind me, my job is to give space”.

At that year’s German grand prix, Salo was leading the race.

“I looked in the mirrors and then I saw that Eddie overtook Frentzen.  After a couple of seconds Ross Brawn came on the radio and said Mika, we want you to let Eddie go.

“I think it makes sense that Ferrari sees Alonso with clearly a better chance for the title.  But it could have been managed quite a lot better, especially when the engineer asked Massa if he understood what he had to do,” said Salo.

In his El Pais column, Epsilon Euskadi chief Joan Villadelprat agrees that the team order was a flagrant rule breach.

“Of course, it was very clear.  He (Massa) was left with no choice.  All the fans knew it immediately, although it is possible the World Council will fail to demonstrate it.

“I remember in 2002 that Barrichello received a threat that it would trouble his contract if he did not budge.

“I think the worst damage is not the fine or a penalty, but that the brilliant work on the team and the drivers to catch up to Red Bull was spoiled by unnecessarily unsportsmanlike conduct.

“Ferrari’s errors this year have been too many and too large.  Someone has to take some action, to tell the team leaders that it’s enough.

“And someone should calm down Fernando, so that he doesn’t repeat comments like ‘This is ridiculous’ the first time he tried to pass Massa.

“We’re taking about a double world champion, the best driver in the paddock, a title contender, but on occasion it is necessary to put his brakes on,” added Spaniard Villadelprat.

HRT owner Jose Ramon Carabante has confirmed that the struggling Spanish team is set to collaborate with Toyota.

Team boss Colin Kolles admitted at Hockenheim that working with Toyota Motorsport, the Japanese marque’s former F1 arm based in Cologne, is a “good option” for Hispania.

Driver Bruno Senna, however, indicated that agreements are not yet signed.

But reports suggest HRT, whose partnership with 2010 car builder Dallara has been terminated, will use Toyota’s headquarters and wind tunnel, staff and the designs of its unraced TF110 car.

Carabante has now confirmed the deal by playing down fears in Spain that HRT will no longer be based in Murcia, the autonomous region that is also a sponsor of the team.

In a report by the Spanish news agency EFE, Carabante said that notwithstanding the arrangement with Toyota, the team will remain in Murcia “because the project was born here”.

The report said the deal is worth EUR15 million, with Carabante insisting it “will strengthen Hispania in the battle to be the best of the new teams, which is our first goal”.

EFE said HRT’s technical contract with Toyota Motorsport will be for the 2011 and 2012 seasons.