An off-the-record Adrian Newey was furious on Thursday as the big topic in Valencia was the FIA’s mid-season clampdown on blown exhausts.
“I’m not really a friend of rule changes during a season,” agreed Michael Schumacher, whose Mercedes team as well as Renault and Red Bull are tipped to be the biggest losers of the clampdown that takes effect across this weekend and also the British grand prix in two weeks.

“I don’t know or understand all the background,” added the seven time world champion, indicating the FIA decision has a political flavour.

Schumacher predicted the clampdown will affect all the top teams but is a “big blow” to runaway championship leaders Red Bull, the pioneers of the technology.

Eric Boullier, Nick Heidfeld and Vitaly Petrov were also outspoken about the fact the ban is taking place right in the middle of the 2011 season, because the Renault R31 is built entirely around the innovative concept of its front-exiting exhausts.

Red Bull designer Newey said: “Renault is going to feel it because their entire exhaust concept is based on having the exhaust gases (flowing) all the time.”

When talking about the impact on Red Bull, Newey’s private conversation to Brazilian journalist Livio Oricchio was off the record.

“Too bad I can’t write what he said. Nor use the tone of his comments,” said the O Estado de S.Paulo correspondent.

Team boss Christian Horner added: “Directly, the FIA’s decision was based on a technicality. Indirectly, you should ask the FIA.”

The ban that takes effect this weekend applies to the aggressive engine mapping settings that some teams, notably Red Bull, have been using in qualifying before reverting a race mode.

Red Bull’s engine supplier Renault admits it is worried.

“If Saturday is 30 degrees and Sunday is 15, the temperature difference requires a very different operation of the engine,” said Renault Sport F1′s Brazilian engineer Ricardo Penteado.

“So (the ban means there could be) a high risk of damage to the engine. We have explained it to the (FIA) officials and they said we will only be allowed to intervene with their consideration.”

Just as Christian Horner and Lewis Hamilton were diffusing the rumours, Red Bull’s Dr Helmut Marko was stirring them up.
“It is our goal to have the two best available drivers, and it’s also good for Vettel to work with the very best,” said the outspoken Austrian.

“I think everyone in the paddock at the moment is interested in getting a seat at Red Bull,” he added.

The comments were doing the rounds in the Valencia paddock along with the cover of the Austrian magazine Sport Woche, depicting McLaren’s Hamilton mocked up in a pair of Red Bull overalls.

The 2008 world champion had met with team boss Horner in the Red Bull motor home for between 5 and 15 minutes in Canada two weeks ago.

Horner admitted the visit was a “surprise” but would not talk about what was discussed. Vettel is under long-term contract and the Briton said Red Bull is “very happy” with Mark Webber.

“Of course, there are always positives and strengths you can have to help you in negotiations with your team, but that wasn’t the aim,” Hamilton said in Valencia on Thursday when asked if he is using the Red Bull rumour to get more money from McLaren.

He indicated a new deal with McLaren is the most likely scenario, telling Auto Motor und Sport that “I don’t see myself in that team (Red Bull).

“Definitely, hopefully, by the end of the year I’ll have something in place and I can continue on,” said the Briton.

The other big rumour on Thursday was that Hamilton’s teammate Jenson Button is either on the verge of getting a lucrative new McLaren contract, or kicking off talks with Ferrari.

The 2009 world champion said the latter speculation is “hilarious because it’s not true.

“I don’t know who put that out there, but it wasn’t us and it wasn’t Ferrari. I think it’s just some column inches,” said Button.

He indicated the next step will be sitting down with his current boss Martin Whitmarsh.

“I’m sure we’re going to have to talk about it soon because it’s been mentioned so much in the press. We didn’t plan on talking about it quite yet,” said the 31-year-old, who can be retained by McLaren in 2012 due to a contract option.

Jaime Alguersuari reacted angrily on Thursday after journalists expressed doubt about the health of his formula one career.
The Spaniard had kept cool in the official FIA press conference at Valencia, when reporters asked him about rumours Daniel Ricciardo could replace him at Toro Rosso before the end of the season.

“At the time it was just one more rumour among all the thousands of others.

“But at the end of the press conference I realised for the first time that I’m sick and bored of all the nonsense.

“Apparently the rumour has more weight than the comments of (team chiefs) Franz Tost or Helmut Marko. I’m not worried about my future.

“I am sure of myself and feel the appreciation and the respect of the whole Red Bull organisation,” insisted Alguersuari, 21.

“If someone wants to know more about my future, or Buemi’s or Ricciardo’s, there is only one authority — Helmut Marko. Any other source is not valid.

“It’s stupid and I’m bored of it,” he concluded.

Sebastian Vettel has warned those expecting Red Bull’s dominance to be seriously dented by the blown exhaust ban to instead expect a “surprise”.
At Valencia this weekend, teams will no longer be able to run different off-throttle engine maps in qualifying, and two weeks later at Silverstone the practice of ‘hot blowing’ will be effectively banned altogether.

“I am very interested to see how the situation will evolve with the redefined regulations,” Renault driver Nick Heidfeld told Luxembourg newspaper Tageblatt.

“It’s though at the moment that Red Bull is getting the most from their system,” he added. “We will have to see whether after the regulations change that is still the case.”

German reigning world champion Vettel, 23, is apparently running away with this year’s title but in the pages of Sport Bild he sounded cool as the FIA moves to break down his advantage.

“It doesn’t particularly worry me,” he said on Wednesday. “I think our car is the best of all in its overall concept and is therefore not dependant on just one component.”

Vettel adds: “Anyone who believes Red Bull will be the most disadvantaged I think will be surprised.”

Karun Chandhok will contest the Friday morning practice session for Team Lotus at Valencia.

The Indian is the team’s official reserve driver, appearing at the wheel of the T128 previously in 2011 for initial practice in Australia and Turkey.

“I have not had much running in the car and my aim will be to get more comfortable with the car and add as much value as I can to the team,” he said on Wednesday.

A Hollywood movie about Niki Lauda will be called ‘Rush’.
We reported in April that British script writer Peter Morgan, best known for The Queen and Frost/Nixon, was working on a screenplay to immortalise F1′s 1976 season.

35 years ago, Austrian great Lauda almost burned to death in a fiery crash but returned six weeks later to battle James Hunt for the title.

It was recently believed that Bourne Ultimatum and Green Zone director Paul Greengrass would direct Rush, but the LA Times quotes a source as saying The Da Vinci Code’s Ron Howard is now being touted to lead the project.

The film, having gained the financial backing for the project, “aims to shoot this year in Europe”, added the report.

Jenson Button intends to celebrate his 200th grand prix next month in Hungary, the scene of his first formula one race win in 2006.
F1′s official website lists the 2009 world champion as having “entered” 198 grands prix, meaning his double centenary could technically be marked at his home event at Silverstone.

But the typical practice is for the sport to only count grands prix that drivers actually start.

Button, 31, did not start in Monaco in 2003 after a practice crash, while in 2005 at Indianapolis all the Michelin runners pulled into the pits after the formation lap.

“I only count my race starts,” the Briton confirmed to Roger Benoit, the veteran correspondent for the Swiss newspaper Blick.

“So my 200th will be on the 31st of July in Hungary,” confirmed Button.

On August 6, 2006, then contesting his 113th grand prix at the wheel of a Honda, Button recorded his first formula one win at the Hungaroring.

Only Jarno Trulli (118) and Rubens Barrichello (123) took longer than Button to become grand prix winners, while with 179 races under his belt Nick Heidfeld is still trying to join them.

Only 11 F1 drivers have contested more grands prix than Button, with current rivals Rubens Barrichello (310) and Michael Schumacher (274) topping the list.

The Briton will climb to eighth on the all-time list by the end of the 2011 season, by surpassing the records of Alain Prost (198), Jean Alesi (201) and Nelson Piquet (203), and equalling Andrea de Cesaris’ 208.

Fellow ten-time grand prix winner Gerhard Berger retired after his 210th grand prix.

The French prime minister has confirmed high-level efforts to revive the country’s formula one race.

FIA president and Frenchman Jean Todt revealed recently that “many people … at the highest levels of government” are pushing to end France’s three-year hiatus since Magny Cours stopped hosting its annual event.

We reported on June 7 that the most likely venue for a reinstated French grand prix is Paul Ricard at Le Castellet, a circuit with close links to F1 chief executive Bernie Ecclestone.

At the same time, the Journal du Dimanche said French PM Francois Fillon has appointed countryman and Renault team boss Eric Boullier to help with the efforts to organise the event.

“It’s true that I have put together a team,” the L’Equipe sports daily quoted Fillon as having told the Var Matin newspaper on Tuesday.

“It (the team) is led in particular by one of my former colleagues Gilles Dufeigneux, working with the French motor sport federation, the FIA and also Eric Boullier and the director of Le Castellet, Gerard Neveu,” confirmed the prime minister.

The last grand prix at Le Castellet, which has since been redeveloped as the Paul Ricard High Tech Test Track, was won by Alain Prost in 1990 before the French event moved to Magny Cours.

Red Bull’s preparations for the FIA clampdown on so-called ‘hot’ exhaust diffuser blowing are well advanced, Dr Helmut Marko has warned.
Marko said on Austrian television Servus TV that he regards the clampdown as a move against Sebastian Vettel’s dominance, after Red Bull pioneered and perfected the technology for its RB7 car.

But team owner Dietrich Mateschitz’s right-hand man on F1 matters warned: “We would not be Red Bull if we did not already have ideas about how to mitigate the effect (of the ban).”

Off-throttle hot-blowing will be effectively banned from Silverstone next month, and on Tuesday it emerged that the FIA has immediately banned teams from running highly aggressive engine maps in qualifying and then switching to a more reliable race mode for the grand prix.

Marko has compared the FIA’s moves with the end-of-season banning of double diffusers and F-ducts, noting that “This time it (the ban) seems to be in a hurry.

“I would say it is about (the dominance of) Red Bull,” he charged.

But the Austrian thinks McLaren will be similarly affected by the clampdown because “they copied our system very well”, while Ferrari “never really got it under control”.

Marko, meanwhile, predicted Renault – with unique front-exiting exhausts – to be hit particularly hard.

But Renault’s technical director James Allison responded: “Some teams will lose more and some teams less; it is hard to know exactly what relative loss we will suffer.”

Meanwhile, a FIA spokesman explained that the immediate engine-mapping clampdown is because the spirit of the ‘parc ferme’ rules was being exploited.

Charlie Whiting’s technical note to the teams on Tuesday insisted that cars “should be raced exactly as they qualified”.

Ferrari has decided to wait until after July’s three grands prix before possibly switching its focus to the 2012 season.
Team boss Stefano Domenicali said in Canada two weeks ago that the Italian team will make a decision about the success of this year’s campaign after Silverstone, where the FIA’s hot exhaust blowing ban takes effect.

But Germany’s Speed Week is now reporting that Ferrari, buoyed by stronger performances recently at Monaco and Canada, will now wait until after Valencia, Britain, the Nurburgring and Hungary before deciding if the current 150 Italia car should continue to be aggressively developed.

Ferrari’s chief designer Nikolas Tombazis confirmed: “We have made quite a lot of progress over the past few months and I believe that was visible in recent races and we hope that trend will continue.

“How well these next few races go will decide whether or not we feel we are still in with a chance of fighting for the championships this year, even if we are quite a long way behind in the points,” the Greece-born engineer added.

Pedro de la Rosa has revealed he has “no idea” if he will be called up by Sauber to race on the streets of Valencia this weekend.
The veteran Spaniard, who is McLaren’s reserve driver, was called up at the last minute in Canada almost two weeks ago when Sauber regular Sergio Perez fell ill after Friday morning practice.

Sauber managing director Monisha Kaltenborn this week then said that although Mexican rookie Perez, 21, is now fully recovered from his Monaco qualifying crash, 40-year-old de la Rosa is once again on standby.

“I am being constantly asked if I’m going to race in this (European) grand prix, and actually I don’t have the faintest idea,” said de la Rosa on Wednesday.

“I would like to clarify that I am McLaren’s reserve driver and indebted to them before any other team.

“Whatever happens depends on if McLaren lets me, and actually I don’t want to speculate as I find it a lack of respect for Sergio Perez, who has said he is perfectly well,” he added.

While Sauber hopes Sergio Perez will return to his C30 this weekend, the Swiss team has revealed it is more than happy with the occupant of the sister cockpit.
Sauber plucked Japanese Kamui Kobayashi from the ashes of Toyota’s F1 withdrawal at the end of 2009, following some exciting early performances for the then rookie.

He has carried over his daring style to Sauber and now has a secure place at the team, managing director Monisha Kaltenborn told Brazil’s O Estado de S.Paulo.

“We are very happy,” she said.

“Kamui, in his second year of formula one, is already a leader. His exciting style of driving is great for the team and for the fans as well,” added Kaltenborn.

Lewis Hamilton is still in the fight for the 2011 world championship.
That is the insistence of his father Anthony Hamilton, who after splitting with the McLaren driver as manager now handles the career of Force India rookie Paul di Resta.

Even before crashing out of the recent Canadian grand prix, 26-year-old Hamilton said of Sebastian Vettel’s runaway points lead: “He’s gone, he’s on his way.”

Then, in the Montreal race, Hamilton’s retirement dropped him behind his teammate Jenson Button and also Mark Webber in the drivers’ standings, a full 76 points shy of Vettel’s lead.

“For me, Valencia will be a weekend of consolidation after two disappointing results in Monaco and Canada,” said the Briton.

But Hamilton’s father thinks a merely solid result is an underestimation of his son’s true potential, tipping him to take the chequered flag by the time of the season finale in late November.

“If I were a gambling man, I’d put some money on Lewis winning the championship this year,” Hamilton snr told the Daily Mail. “You’ll get some great odds. He can do it.”

At present, 2008 world champion Hamilton is about 14/1 to win his second title in 2011, while Red Bull’s Vettel is the overwhelming odds-on favourite.

Said Lewis Hamilton: “We’ve arguably had the fastest race car in the last three races, and that’s really encouraging because I know that, when it’s put to best use, I should be able to finish at the front.”

A postponement of the proposed 2013 engine rules is “almost certain”, according to the authoritative Italian magazine Autosprint.
With engine makers including Ferrari, Mercedes and Cosworth no longer support the four-cylinder turbo regulations, FIA president Jean Todt has agreed to consider a delayed introduction date.

Following consultation with the suppliers, including Renault who have threatened to quit F1 if the 2013 rules do not debut as scheduled, Todt will make his decision at the end of this month.

“I personally feel we’ve got to seek a compromise,” McLaren boss Martin Whitmarsh, also chairman of the teams association FOTA, is quoted by the magazine Motorsport.

“If it were my call I’d probably go for a turbocharged V6,” he revealed.

McLaren – like Mercedes GP and Force India – is powered by Mercedes-Benz, whose motor racing vice-president Norbert Haug said: “I think establishing rules and then have only two, three manufacturers who are committed is just a problematic situation that needs to be solved together.”

Meanwhile, Autosprint reported that the full blown diffuser ban for 2012 will be policed by mandating that the exhausts exit at the top of the rear of the engine cover.

“It seems to have been Ferrari, represented at the (technical working group) meeting for the first time by Pat Fry, who proposed this solution,” said the report.

The BBC warned Bernie Ecclestone about “facing problems”, the F1 chief executive has admitted.

His comments follow reports this week that the British broadcaster’s highly respected free-to-air live television coverage of formula one might be dropped for 2013.

It has been feared that the only option for F1 in the BBC’s absence would be Rupert Murdoch’s pay network Sky, but the Daily Mail newspaper said ITV – the F1 broadcaster between 1997 to 2008 – might also be interested.

“We want formula one to stay free to viewers,” Ecclestone said. “That is 100 per cent.

“They (the BBC) did warn me that they were facing problems but, so far, nothing more has been said. I hope they want to keep us because it is such a success and I will do my best,” the 80-year-old added.

It has been suggested the reports might indicate the BBC’s desire to continue to broadcast F1 with improved contractual terms.