Bernie Ecclestone is the subject of ever-worsening claims about the sale of F1′s commercial rights five years ago.

It has already been alleged that it was the sport’s chief executive and long-time ‘supremo’ who paid German banker Gerhard Gribkowsky a mysterious $50 million kickback.

And the latest explosive details have been published by the German weekly Der Spiegel.

The report said F1′s current owner CVC Capital Partners paid $837 million for the share of the rights that at the time was controlled by the Munich bank BayernLB.

But BayernLB reportedly only received $770 million.

Der Spiegel alleges that $40 million was received directly by Ecclestone, with the other $27m flowing to his family trust Bambino.

Robert Kubica’s recovery from horrific rally crash injuries might not take as long as a year.
The 12 month prediction was made by the surgeon in charge of the Polish driver’s nearly eight hour operation on Sunday, but Renault team boss Eric Boullier said on Monday that doctors’ forecasts are always conservative.

“With yesterday’s (Monday’s) news and the medical bulletins, I was worried,” Flavio Briatore, who visited the 26-year-old in hospital, told the ANSA news agency.

“I was prepared for the worst. But when I saw him we even shared a joke and he asked about my son.

“I called Alonso and Bernie and told them I think they will see him on the track before the end of the season.

“He’s a great and tough guy and I am sure he will come back soon,” added the Italian.

“Considering the terrible accident he suffered, he’s ok.

“We didn’t talk about the accident but about formula one and about a quick return. Considering his will and his fitness, I would bet he will come back within five or six months,” said Briatore.

Kubica’s friends Fernando Alonso, Vitantonio Liuzzi and Pastor Maldonado have also visited the hospital.

“He didn’t tell me anything special,” new Williams driver Maldonado told 422race.com, “(except) that he’s quite well.”

La Gazzetta dello Sport tracked down for comment Alessandro Nannini, who was driving for Benetton in 1990 when his right arm was severed in a helicopter crash.

The Italian did not return to F1 but he subsequently raced touring and sports cars.

“His injury is different to the one I had,” the 51-year-old said. “His arm was not completed separated, and the nerves, tendons and muscles will grow back in just a matter of time.

“For sure Robert will come back to racing,” added Nannini.

Kubica’s hand surgeon Igor Rossello is also confident, but he warned that it is “impossible” to make precise predictions.

“With the nervous system, you never know, but if Alessandro Nannini managed to go back, why shouldn’t Kubica?” he said.

With Robert Kubica facing a long recovery from his horror rally crash, the candidates to fill his Renault race seat are beginning to line up.

The Lotus-sponsored team’s boss Eric Boullier acknowledged on Monday that with the Polish regular out for several months, he is likely to look beyond contracted reserve drivers Bruno Senna and Romain Grosjean.

“The difference is that it is not going to be for one race but probably all of the first half of the season,” Flavio Briatore, who visited 26-year-old Kubica in hospital on Monday, is quoted by O Estado de S.Paulo.

“So it has to be an experienced driver. The team has come forward compared to last year, so they will need someone who knows how to race at the front,” added the Italian.

The most famous name in the mix is Kimi Raikkonen.

“I’d be amazed if Kimi is still fit enough for F1,” Martin Brundle wrote on Twitter, “and (the world) rally programme trips over F1 tests.”

Numerous journalists’ attempts to contact Raikkonen’s manager Steve Robertson on Monday were fruitless.

“Personally I’d crowbar (Nico) Hulkenberg from FI (Force India),” continued Brundle, the British commentator and former driver and manager.

Timo Gans, a member of Hulkenberg’s management team, admitted the German would be interested in the appointment, even though he is signed up to be Force India’s Friday driver this year.

“We have a contract with Force India and we will not take the initiative to contact Renault,” Gans told the Daily Mail.

“If Renault should contact us we will start thinking about that, but we are not doing that yet. Hopefully Robert gets well soon,” he added.

Also mentioned have been Nick Heidfeld, Jarno Trulli, Pedro de la Rosa and Christian Klien.

Axed Force India driver Vitantonio Liuzzi visited his friend Kubica on Monday and admitted to 422race.com that he would be interested in sitting in for the Pole.

“It’s obvious that when Renault should be sure that Robert won’t be able to step in the car, this chance might be open and I hope to be chosen instead of somebody else,” he said.

It might be said that Vitaly Petrov is either hoping for an experienced driver to replace Kubica so that he is not forced into a leadership position, or hoping for Renault to promote from within to enhance his status in F1.

“I believe it is senseless to discuss Vitaly’s status because there is no such thing as first pilot and second pilot,” his spokeswoman told Ria Novosti agency.

The day after suffering horrific injuries in a rally smash, Robert Kubica awoke from an induced coma, talked to his father and moved his fingers.
The Pole will miss the start of the season and almost certainly all of the forthcoming 2011 schedule, but the early signs are good that he will make a recovery despite earlier fears he might lose his right hand.

However, a statement issued by his F1 team Lotus-Renault said “it will be several days before it is known if the (hand) operation has been 100 per cent successful”

Kubica, 26, was put back to sleep on Monday, while doctors considered further surgery to treat elbow and shoulder fractures.

He also has leg fractures.

“Kubica is conscious,” said an intensive care spokesman at the Santa Corona hospital. “The first thing he thought about was his co driver and was informed about his condition.”

The spokesman added that Kubica “lost a lot of blood” in the accident and had been “critical” but is now stable.

Virgin on Monday became the tenth F1 team to reveal its 2011 car.
The now partially Marussia-owned team launched the MVR-02 at the BBC television centre in London.

The car, with a notably lower nose than many of the other single seaters unveiled already this year, has once again been designed solely and uniquely with the aid of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) rather than a wind tunnel.

But rumours the MVR-02′s exhaust outlets might be similar to Renault’s radical front-exiting solution proved wide of the mark.

Also on Monday, Gary Paffett gave McLaren’s 2011 car, the MP4-26, its debut for filming purposes near Barcelona.

The Briton’s real work will begin on Tuesday with a shakedown at the Idiada Proving Ground, ahead of the car’s proper circuit debut at Jerez on Thursday.

Eric Boullier on Monday admitted Renault’s mind is already turning to what to do now that Robert Kubica is out of action.
Pole Kubica, the fastest man at last week’s Valencia test, had a positive night in an induced coma after surgery to repair his partially severed right hand and other injuries in a rally crash on Sunday.

Lotus-Renault’s team boss Boullier told the BBC on Monday that the 26-year-old woke up successfully early on Monday and “is having good communication” with those around him.

“He is suffering (with pain) but the brain activity is ok and we are certainly more relieved than 24 hours ago,” said Kubica’s manager Daniele Morelli.

However, the harsh reality of the F1 world is that testing resumes at Jerez on Thursday, when there will be just four weeks until the F1 circus is in Bahrain for the season opener.

“Yes of course we are already starting to think about and work on a contingency plan,” Boullier confirmed.

It has been suggested that Kubica will be out of action at least for the whole of the 2011 season.

“He (Kubica) is definitely out for a couple of months but I expect the recovery will be quicker than one year.

“But today it’s a bit too early to know exactly how long it is going to take,” he added.

“Should it be a short-term replacement we will take one of our reserve drivers,” said Boullier, referring to Bruno Senna and Romain Grosjean.

“If it has to be longer we may have to consider different options,” he added.

Aldo Costa has played down fears the new Ferrari is too conservative when compared to its rivals.
Among the new class of 2011 are the new McLaren, with radically shaped sidepods, the Renault with front-exiting exhausts, Williams’ ultra-low rear and small gearbox, and the double-floor of the new Toro Rosso.

“Futuristic projects are not always better than more conservative ones,” Fernando Alonso insisted to La Stampa newspaper last week.

The famous team’s technical director agrees.

“I think the fastest car will be the one with the best performance balance between aerodynamics, the mechanical side and reliability,” Costa is quoted by L’Equipe in France.

“If you attempt something extreme in one area, you might pay in another, so for a car that wins you need a balanced approach,” he added.

Costa also revealed that Ferrari’s F150 will evolve between now and the first race of the season in Bahrain.

“Mechanically, the car will be almost complete at Jerez (this week),” said the Italian, “but from an aerodynamic standpoint, there are still a lot of changes coming.

“More than an extreme approach, we are seeking a productive approach,” he insisted, “and ultimately it will be the laptimes that will make the verdict.”

The pace shown by Renault’s new formula one car at last week’s Valencia test was genuine, team boss Eric Boullier insists.

Before his rally crash on Sunday, Robert Kubica left Valencia having set the fastest time of the first group test of 2011 in the newly launched R31, which features innovative front-exiting exhausts.

“We did not try to just do a (good) laptime with soft tyres and a drop of petrol in the tank,” insisted Boullier, who was speaking before Kubica crashed during Sunday’s Ronde di Andora rally.

“It (the laptime) just came after we started to adjust the settings for the first time and (adjust) the car to the Pirelli tyres,” he is quoted by French commentator Jean-Louis Moncet’s column in Auto Plus.

“The car became more comfortable for Robert, and he did his time,” added Boullier.

Sebastien Bourdais is certain his formula one career is over.
After a dominant career on the American open-wheeler scene, the Frenchman switched to F1 in 2008 but struggled with Toro Rosso.

The junior Red Bull team dropped him mid-way through its next campaign and he has since raced in sports cars and the open wheel series Superleague.

Bourdais, now almost 32, recently tested an Indycar with an eye to a return to the American scene, but in an interview with sports.fr he admitted his F1 career is definitely over.

“For me, F1 is finished, and – anyway – I don’t want to run at the back any more.

“Unless someone comes to me with a very interesting offer, which I doubt very much, I turned the page after the Nurburgring in 2009 and I don’t miss it (F1) at all.

“I had some good races, some bad ones and some terrible (ones). I have the experience but I’ll be 32 soon so I am aware that the time has passed.

“I had my chance, it didn’t go exactly as I wanted, but it happened. Now, I am looking for other challenges,” added Bourdais.

Team Lotus looks set to have no fewer than four reserve drivers in 2011.

It has already emerged that Davide Valsecchi and Luiz Razia will almost certainly appear in the T128 race cars on some Friday mornings this year.

And Karun Chandhok is also close to securing a role with the Hingham based team in support of race lineup Jarno Trulli and Heikki Kovalainen.

Media reports at the weekend suggested that yet another contender is 26-year-old Portuguese born Angolan driver Ricardo Teixeira.

Throughout his formative career, including GP2 and Formula 2, Teixeira has enjoyed the substantial backing of the Angolan national oil company Sonangol.

After the rest of the F1 teams departed Valencia late last week, and attention turned to McLaren’s launch in Berlin, Lotus stayed behind and Teixeira spent some time at the wheel of the T128.

“I am really pleased I could help out with the filming (of the car) and after my first taste of an F1 car I can’t wait to have another go,” he said.

Technical boss Mike Gascoyne said Teixeira “acquitted himself well and that was exactly what we needed him to do”.

Jaime Alguersuari insists he has no problem with new Friday driver Daniel Ricciardo breathing down the necks of Toro Rosso’s regular racers in 2011.
Australian Ricciardo is the new cream of Red Bull’s young driver programme and next in line to take a Toro Rosso to the grid.

In 2011, the 21-year-old will switch between Alguersuari and teammate Sebastien Buemi’s race cars in the Friday morning practice sessions, but Spaniard Alguersuari insists he fully accepts the situation.

“His appointment is a very good confirmation of the operation of the Red Bull junior team,” said 20-year-old Alguersuari.

“Without this programme and the determination of Dr Helmut Marko, I would not be in formula one,” he is quoted by France’s autohebdo.fr.

Marko’s driver development scheme has gained a reputation over the years for being particularly cut-throat, but Alguersuari has only praise.

“Sure, but that’s what the Red Bull programme has taught us. For us there is nothing more normal than to see Ricciardo, Buemi, Vettel or myself do our best without worrying about the others,” he insisted.

Alguersuari therefore wishes Ricciardo all the best for 2011.

“His participation in the Friday practices will be a great experience for him, because he will be sharing information with me and Buemi and it will make him a better driver and a serious candidate for a place at Toro Rosso in the future,” he said.

Using a football analogy, Alguersuari contrasted Red Bull’s approach to drivers with Ferrari’s.

“Red Bull is like Barcelona, building its drivers from when they are 15 and turning them into champions,” he is quoted by Diario AS in Spain.

“Ferrari is more like Real Madrid, buying the most expensive players in the market.”

Eric Boullier has fended off criticisms that Robert Kubica’s full-time employer should have forbidden the Pole from contesting the minor Ronde di Andora rally.
The 26-year-old is currently in an induced coma and recovering from seven hours of surgery after suffering multiple injuries including a partially-severed hand.

Dangerous activities like rally driving are usually forbidden in F1 driver contracts, and commentator and ex-racer Martin Brundle admitted on Twitter that he thought Kubica rallying between “key” F1 tests was “crazy”.

Well-known British freelance photographer Darren Heath added: “Is driving F1 not enough for Kubica? Utterly irresponsible to crash in a club rally. Can’t see Alonso, Vettel, Hamilton being so stupid.”

Another point of note is that the car Kubica crashed was a Skoda and not a Renault.

Indeed, last month, Renault had to play down rumours of a rift after issues sidelined Kubica from the famous Monte Carlo rally.

But team boss Boullier is quoted by the French news agency AFP: “This is nothing to do with business.

“Robert is allowed to do it because it is close to his heart. For him, rallying is vital, it is his balance. From that side, it’s a mutual agreement.

“We knew the risks as well,” added the Frenchman, with Boullier also quoted by ANSA agency as adding: “We don’t want a robot or corporate driver.”

Whatever the background, Kubica – still in a ‘serious’ condition – is facing at least a year of recovery time, hand surgeon Igor Rossello told reporters after the surgery.

“I don’t want to be too optimistic,” he is quoted by Sky Italia, “but we expect a good outcome.”

Kubica’s manager Daniele Morelli said the key question is whether the right hand will regain its functionality, but Rossello said some days will pass before it is sure that the hand “will survive”.

The surgeon did, however, express confidence that 26-year-old Kubica, who badly injured the same arm in a road car crash in 2003, will indeed be able to “resume his activity” in the future.

As ever, Niki Lauda’s assessment is the bluntest.

“Robert has the makings of a champion, if he can ever come back,” the triple world champion told Blick.

It is “too early” to be publicly considering a replacement for the badly injured Robert Kubica.
That is the claim of the Pole’s Renault team boss Eric Boullier, who was speaking just hours after Kubica emerged from surgery in an induced coma after sustaining multiple injuries including a partially severed hand in a rally crash on Sunday.

The surgeon said Kubica’s injuries are likely to take at least a year to heal, which leaves Lotus-sponsored Renault in a bind after producing a new car for 2011 in which Kubica drove to the fastest time in its maiden test last week.

At the R31′s launch one week ago, the team’s new third driver Bruno Senna joked that if Kubica or Vitaly Petrov “break a leg or something like that, then … they know who is going to replace him”.

Another candidate is Senna’s fellow third driver Romain Grosjean, but as Telegraph writer Tom Cary points out, Petrov “has only one season’s worth of experience”.

“Can Renault afford to make the Russian their lead driver and promote one of their reserves to the second race seat? Or do Renault try to replace Kubica with another experienced driver?” wondered Cary.

Among the earliest candidates in that scenario are new Force India third driver Nico Hulkenberg, Team Lotus driver Jarno Trulli, Pirelli tester Pedro de la Rosa and the out-of-work Nick Heidfeld and Vitantonio Liuzzi.

And Cary continued: “Even Kimi Raikkonen(‘s name) … (was) being bandied about last night.”

Team boss Boullier is travelling with Petrov to Italy on Monday to visit Kubica.

“It is too early and impolite to think of a replacement driver. We are waiting for news of Robert and how long he will be out of action before we think of taking such a decision,” he is quoted by AFP news agency.

Robert Kubica’s career is in the balance, and his 2011 season almost certainly over, after his rally crash on Sunday.
Also with right leg fractures reportedly caused by armco barriers piercing the car, the Pole underwent seven hours of surgery conducted by seven doctors in Italy with the main focus being efforts to save his badly damaged right arm and hand.

“He … suffered severe cuts to his forearm, which could have an impact on his right hand mobility,” confirmed his F1 employer Renault.

The statement said doctors are “reasonably satisfied” after the surgery, but 26-year-old Kubica remains in a serious condition in an induced coma.

“It has been a very important and difficult operation,” said hand surgeon Mario Ignor Rossello.

“Robert Kubica’s right forearm was cut in two places, with significant lesions to the bones and the tendons. We did our best to rebuild the functions of the forearm.

“At the end of the operation, Robert’s hand was well vascularised and warm, which is encouraging,” he added.

When asked by reporters about what the future holds for Kubica, he answered: “We will see in the next days what will happen.

“The danger is that in five or seven days we have vascular problems. He could have surgery again to resolve the problems.”

It has been suggested that Kubica will take at least a year to recover, but Rossello insisted: “Drivers are always very special patients. I have a lot of motorbike patients and they heal in the fastest way possible, much faster than normal people.”

It is believed Kubica’s friend Fernando Alonso has already visited him in hospital.

Among the candidates to replace Kubica in 2011 are team reserves Bruno Senna and Romain Grosjean, new Force India third driver Nico Hulkenberg, Team Lotus driver Jarno Trulli and the out-of-work Nick Heidfeld and Vitantonio Liuzzi.

Although Robert Kubica’s condition is serious, the amputation of his hand injury has been ruled by the attending medical team at Hospital Santa Corona in Pietra Ligure.

According to the latest medical report, the operation on his injured hand of Robert Kubica will continue until late at night. Italian media speculated that the amputation appears to have been discarded. However, labor mobility is not yet known until after completing the operation, “it is too early to make accurate diagnoses,” said Dr. Riccardo Ceccarelli Renault team and the specialist Igor Rossello.

The manager Daniele Morelli said: “Surgeons are trying to reconstructed by Robert’s right hand.”

“Now they have to worry about muscle function, but Robert is a tough guy. He will succeed, “said Morelli.

His co-driver in the accident, Jakub Gerber said: “Robert was conscious. I still woke up several times, without really knowing what had happened. ”

Meanwhile, the accident triggered worldwide messages of great consternation. Many brokers sent their best wishes to Polish through Twitter, surprised by the tragic accident. “I’m thinking of Robert and hope to see you soon on the tracks, especially off the court, as a friend”, published Timo Glock.