Before HRT could release an official statement, Daniel Ricciardo confirmed reports he will be making his formula one race debut next Sunday.

It is now widely reported that the Australian, who turns 22 on Friday, will replace Spanish team Hispania’s Indian regular Narain Karthikeyan from Silverstone.

“It’s pretty, pretty exciting,” he told the Herald Sun newspaper at Heathrow airport, where he was departing for Budapest for his next Formula Renault 3.5 race.

“It’s awesome, just awesome,” added Ricciardo, the Red Bull-backed youngster who in 2011 has been the Friday driver at the energy drink company’s junior Toro Rosso team.

The Herald Sun said Ricciardo is being loaned by Red Bull to HRT.

“To make the first one at Silverstone, it’s great,” Ricciardo said. “It’s a circuit I know well and it’s just up the road from my second home in Britain.”

Ferrari is happy with F1′s engine formula for the future.
The FIA had earlier announced controversial four-cylinder engines for 2013, but in the face of opposition from teams and engine makers has now agreed to let the sport be powered by 1.6 litre V6s in 2014 and beyond.

Ferrari, whose founder Enzo Ferrari’s main passion was big engines and horse power, had been the most staunchly opposed to the four-cylinder plan.

But after the FIA rubber-stamped the V6 compromise this week, team boss Stefano Domenicali said: “This decision is good for the sport.

“We now have the necessary time to prepare for this new project,” he is quoted by the German news agency SID.

It is believed Renault and Cosworth are also happy.

“It is good that the compromise reached has been confirmed by the World Motor Sport Council,” agreed Mercedes-Benz’s Norbert Haug.

Sebastien Buemi has hit back at claims he has become the driver under pressure at Toro Rosso.

Rumours in Valencia had indicated the Swiss’ teammate Jaime Alguersuari was most in danger of losing his race seat to Daniel Ricciardo after struggling to match Buemi’s pace so far in 2011.

But Spaniard Alguersuari, 21, drove strongly to two consecutive eighth places in Montreal and Valencia, triggering new speculation that it is Buemi whose future is now most in doubt.

Veteran Blick correspondent Roger Benoit revealed that Buemi has been spending time this week in Red Bull’s Milton Keynes simulator.

“I am working harder and at some point it will pay out,” Buemi told the Swiss newspaper.

He insists that although Alguersuari’s race results were better in Canada and Valencia, the truth is more complex.

“I was clearly faster than Alguersuari in both qualifyings,” said Buemi. “And in Valencia he had another set of tyres because he missed the first hurdle in qualifying!” he exclaimed.

“Of course I have to live with it, and what counts in the end is the speed, and I have that,” added Buemi.

McLaren slapped a three-race ban on Niki Lauda after the triple world champion’s hefty criticism of Lewis Hamilton recently. After Montreal, Austrian legend Lauda – now the regular pundit for Germany’s RTL coverage – called McLaren’s Hamilton “completely mad” and warned that his aggressive driving “will result in someone getting killed”. Auto Motor und Sport magazine reveals that McLaren’s media manager Matt Bishop responded by banning Lauda from interviewing Briton Hamilton for three races. Lauda subsequently met with team boss Martin Whitmarsh in Valencia and “smoothed things out”, according to the German report. “I’m a fan of Hamilton’s,” the 62-year-old insists. “I only wish he would sometimes use more of his brain.”

Red Bull could lose up to five tenths of a second per lap when the exhaust blowing clampdown takes effect at Silverstone next weekend.
But team boss Christian Horner has thrown a cat amongst the pigeons by saying on Austrian television Servus TV that, until now, the RB7 has only been benefitting from “cold blowing”, not the “hot” concept that is so effective when the drivers are off the throttle under braking and in corners.

“In our case, this (effect) happens only with cold-air blowing. Other teams blow hot air and get even more benefit,” said the Briton.

If true, Red Bull’s key rivals might fall even further away from the pace of the dominant RB7 in Britain and beyond.

“How this affects us compared to the others, we will only see at Silverstone. According to our simulation it’s as much as 3 to 5 tenths and perhaps a bit more with some other teams,” said Horner.

Former F1 driver Karl Wendlinger said: “I believe Red Bull’s superiority will be greater at Silverstone. The (exhaust) system is being banned for all but Adrian Newey is a genius in aerodynamics and this is very important at Silverstone.”

But McLaren reserve driver Pedro de la Rosa told EFE news that “nobody has the foggiest idea” how precisely the field will line up in Britain.

“It will have a strong impact and the cars will be slower because of the lost downforce,” he said.

“There is a ray of hope, as we all know which car was the pioneer of the technique and have been able to maximise the performance better than anyone else,” said the Spaniard, presumably referring to Red Bull.

At least Timo Glock is aware of the effect that the clampdown will have on his struggling Virgin car.

“We have never benefitted from this technology, so for us, everything stays the same,” the German told Auto Motor und Sport.

Italian tyre supplier Pirelli has shown it does not favour Ferrari by deciding to take its hardest compound to Silverstone next week.

Team boss Stefano Domenicali as well as Ferrari driver Felipe Massa had openly admitted they hoped Pirelli would swerve the hardest tyre because the Italia 150 car has struggled on it elsewhere this season.

But having originally announced a month ago the hard/soft combination for the British grand prix, Pirelli re-confirmed that decision on Wednesday.

“Silverstone is one of the quickest tracks of the year, requiring the use of the hard tyre to cope with the sustained high speeds that are a characteristic of the British circuit,” the marque said in a media document.

Said motor sport director Paul Hembery: “We are confirming the decision we took a few weeks ago, after once more consulting all the teams”.

Italy’s La Gazzetta dello Sport quotes him adding: “Silverstone is a big challenge for us and probably one of the hardest circuits that we face during the year.”

Hembery told ANSA news agency: “Ferrari should not be unhappy, as after Barcelona their engineers understood the problems they have had.”

Commented Massa’s Ferrari teammate Fernando Alonso: “The tyre choice is the same for everyone and there’s no point discussing if the pair of compounds chosen is more suited to one team or another.”

Officials have played down reports Valencia is set to be the only Spanish host of formula one.
Currently, both the port city as well as Barcelona host annual grands prix, but Bernie Ecclestone said recently that each country should have only a single race.

On Tuesday, Cadena SER and Radio Valencia reported that Valencia will be the only Spanish race from 2012.

It is believed representatives of the Circuit de Catalunya attended last weekend’s Valencia event and told Ecclestone they want to pay a lower annual race fee in future.

At the same time, the Spanish radio reports said Valencia is willing to pay EUR 20 million per year and wants an earlier date in the European race season.

“At the last World Motor Sport Council the 2012 calendar was ratified and Barcelona was assigned a date,” Spanish motor racing president Carlos Gracia said.

“I think the two races can coexist perfectly.”

Circuit de Catalunya director Salvador Servia, meanwhile, told Marca sports newspaper that the latest reports about Barcelona losing its place are “invented”.

“Spain has just held two successful grands prix. Everything else I would hope are just rumours,” he said on Onda Cero radio.

“I think someone has said ‘I want this to happen’ and so somebody else said ‘This is going to happen’. For next year they have already set the dates,” added Servia.

Red Bull appears likely to extend its engine supply agreement with Renault Sport F1 through to the end of the current V8 regulations.
The sport looks likely to adopt turbocharged V6 engines for 2014 and beyond, and in the meantime Red Bull is enjoying a significant sponsorship deal with the Renault-linked Nissan brand’s Infiniti label.

Italian magazine Autosprint’s auto.it website said Red Bull is therefore looking to extend its current Renault deal “at least until 2013″.

Red Bull’s technical boss Adrian Newey admitted this week that he is relieved he will not be working with a four-cylinder engine in 2013.

The AAP news agency quotes the Briton as revealing that F1 pushed ahead with the four-cylinder plan to help brands like Volkswagen enter the sport.

“They subsequently decided that no, they won’t bother after all thank you very much, and we were lumbered with a four-cylinder turbo,” he said.

Newey also revealed that the V6 rules will feature a higher rev limit than the 12,000rpm proposed for the inline-fours.

But whether it is high enough to appease angry circuit promoters, who want the current 18,000 limit to remain in place, is unknown.

“The revs are still being debated,” admitted Newey, “but it looks as if it will probably be around 14,000 or 16,000.”

Technical reliability in formula one has taken a great leap forward in 2011.
Last Sunday at Valencia was the first-ever 24-car finish in F1 history, with every competitor entered in the world championship making it to the chequered flag.

And Germany’s Die Welt newspaper noted that in the eight races so far this season, there were only 18 technical failures, compared to 38 at the same point one year ago.

“Reliability is at least as important as speed,” said Red Bull team principal Christian Horner, “and to be the best requires a combination of both.”

But Jarno Trulli, a veteran driver who has spent the last season and a half at the back of the field with Team Lotus, is not so sure perfect reliability is good for F1.

“When I started racing (in F1), a driver knew how he’d start a race but not how he would finish it.

“This implies two things,” he wrote in a column for La Repubblica. “The first is that the chances for a small team to get in the points have sensibly reduced; the second is a further loss of appeal for F1.”

Despite Lewis Hamilton no longer thinking the 2011 title fight is effectively over, not everyone in the F1 paddock agrees with him.

Renault’s departing team manager Steve Nielsen told Brazilian O Estado de S.Paulo correspondent Livio Oricchio that he thinks Sebastian Vettel will wrap up his second championship long before the 2011 season has ended.

“I believe the points gap will grow and that will Vettel will do it by Suzuka,” he said, referring to the Japanese grand prix in October.

After Suzuka, there are still four grands prix left to run, and Telegraph correspondent Tom Cary admits he is also worried.

“We are entering dangerous territory here; slow death by asphyxiation,” he wrote after Valencia. “Not since Michael Schumacher bored everyone into submission in 2004 have fans been forced to contemplate hegemony on this scale.”

F1 chief executive Bernie Ecclestone said before leaving Valencia last Sunday that Vettel is “sure to be champion” in 2011.

Former Renault team boss Flavio Briatore told Radio Monte Carlo that he reckons Vettel will have won by Monza, two races before Suzuka, but Rubens Barrichello thinks that is unlikely.

“To win at Suzuka he needs to increase his gap to 100 points, which at this rate is very possible,” said the Brazilian.

Ferrari boss Stefano Domenicali is reserving his judgement until after Silverstone, where the off-throttle blown exhaust clampdown takes effect.

“There may be a change in what we have seen so far, even if I recognise that Sebastian has a considerable advantage.”

Christian Horner has revealed it is “very, very likely” Mark Webber will be signed up to stay at Red Bull in 2012.
Australian Webber, one of the only key members of the Austrian team not already contracted for the foreseeable future, has struggled this season alongside Sebastian Vettel.

Speculation has linked Lewis Hamilton with a high-profile switch from McLaren, but team boss Christian Horner told Servus TV that the most likely outcome is a new deal for Webber.

“Well, that’s very, very likely,” said the Briton. “We have agreed to sit down a bit later and then focus on next year,” Horner told the Red Bull-linked Austrian broadcaster.

As for the Hamilton rumours, Horner smiled: “I really don’t think blue is his colour. For Red Bull, the most important thing is the harmony.”

But according to former F1 winner Johnny Herbert, Red Bull should think hard about its driver choice for 2012.

“He (Webber) is showing none of the fire that he showed last season, which helped him fight Vettel and make the championship so exciting. Until he finds it again I do not see him competing for wins,” he wrote in a column for The National.

Felipe Massa has admitted he is worried Ferrari will struggle if the team has to use Pirelli’s hard tyres.
The Italian team, which in Valencia last weekend looked to have taken over from McLaren as Red Bull’s nearest challenger, has struggled on the hard compound at other races in 2011.

“If we have it (the hard tyre), it can be a problem,” Brazilian driver Massa is quoted by Globo Esporte. “Not only for us but also for others, possibly excluding Red Bull and McLaren.”

The Brazilian report said team boss Stefano Domenicali has also stated that Ferrari wants Pirelli to bring the soft and medium compounds to Silverstone, and that the tyre supplier is poised to make its decision.

Pirelli vowed to stay neutral.

“If it is very cold, you will not want to have the very hard compounds,” insisted motor sport director Paul Hembery. “It’s something to consider.”

Sebastien Buemi is now the Toro Rosso driver under pressure after two strong races by his teammate Jaime Alguersuari.

Alguersuari was besieged at Valencia by widespread speculation that he will soon lose his race cockpit to the promising Australian Daniel Ricciardo.

But he ran strongly to eighth place in both Canada and Spain, and the AS and Blick newspapers now believe it is Swiss Buemi who is most at risk of losing his seat.

“With these two races he has secured his year and his future,” the Faenza based team’s boss Franz Tost is quoted as saying, referring to Alguersuari.

Veteran Blick correspondent Roger Benoit wrote: “Must the Swiss (Buemi) now tremble?”

Ferrari test driver and Alguersuari’s countryman Marc Gene agrees that the Spaniard has looked stronger of late.

“Previously his big problem was understanding the behaviour of the tyres, but his pace is now impressive. Valencia was a super result when he needed it the most.”

Alguersuari, 21, is quoted by El Mundo newspaper: “My goal is to finish races, score points and be ahead of my teammate.”

There are management changes afoot at the back-of-the-grid HRT team.

It was rumoured at Valencia last weekend that Geoff Willis, the Spanish team’s technical director, could soon move into a higher management position.

At the same time, Germany’s motorsport-total.com reports that Gary Savage, formerly a close colleague of Willis’ at BAR/Honda some years ago, is close to signing on at HRT in a senior technical post.

Savage was seen in the paddock at Montreal and Valencia, and HRT confirmed that it is in “advanced discussions” with the engineer.

Another ex-BAR man already at Hispania is Jacky Eeckelaert.

GrandPrixActual reports that the Willis/Eeckelaert/Savage trio, with Hispania to soon kick off its aerodynamic programme in BAR’s old wind tunnel at Mercedes’ Brackley facility, might result in current HRT boss Colin Kolles losing his job.

Team owner Jose Ramon Carabante said: “He helped this team to be born but I have not signed a lifetime contract with Colin Kolles.

“If we agree, we will continue together, and if not, we will go on with other people.”

Should Kolles leave, it would raise many questions about the basic structure of HRT, with the team effectively based at the moment at the Romanian’s TME facility at Greding, Germany.

Meanwhile, with technical director Sam Michael set to leave and Mike Coughlan now starting work, Williams on Tuesday announced two more senior appointments.

Jason Somerville, joining from Renault, will be the new head of aerodynamics, while former Toyota man Mark Gillan is joining as chief operations engineer.

“We now feel that, together with Mike, Jason and Mark can form the right technical leadership to take the team forward as we work our way back to the front of the grid,” said Sir Frank Williams.

Jerome d’Ambrosio has admitted he is still working to get up to speed gainst his Virgin teammate.
2011 is the Belgian 25-year-old’s first season in formula one, and in the telling battle for grid position so far, the experienced German Timo Glock has been comfortably in charge.

“Clearly I still need to improve my Saturdays,” d’Ambrosio told La Libre newspaper.

Glock made his F1 debut with Jordan in 2004, but he also raced with the top-budget Toyota team in 2008 and 2009 before moving to the start-up Virgin last season.

“His experience is the most prominent on stop and go tracks like Valencia, or Canada where there is little grip and braking is therefore difficult.

“I still have more to understand to get the last tenths in those conditions. But I’m not ashamed to say he was simply stronger,” added d’Ambrosio.

He added: “What I’m thrilled about is that on race pace, I was consistently with his times.”

There have been reports that Virgin is preparing to abandon the 2011 project in order to be much stronger next year, but d’Ambrosio insists there are “many things” the team is doing to be stronger this season.

“We do not want to end up with the red lantern,” he said, referring to Virgin’s battle to avoid finishing the world championship in last place.