Rubens Barrichello’s future at Williams remains clouded.
The Brazilian veteran recently admitted he has not yet been offered an extended contract by the famous British team.

He then arrived at the Nurburgring announcing that talks about 2012 with Williams chiefs should be “straightforward”, after bosses Sir Frank Williams and Adam Parr both indicated a deal is likely.

But long-time Blick correspondent Roger Benoit revealed that he asked team principal Williams inside the Nurburgring’s Dorint hotel if the team will line up next year with Barrichello still alongside Pastor Maldonado.

“Not necessarily,” Benoit quotes Williams as smiling.

The wheelchair-bound 69-year-old then suggested that it is not the well-backed Venezuelan rookie Maldonado whose seat is in doubt.

“Many people believed we only have him because of the money. But he (Maldonado) is also super-fast, straightforward and the team loves him.

“With a Renault engine, we can give him a better car in 2012,” added Williams.

Bernie Ecclestone has admitted the possibility that Barcelona could lose the Spanish grand prix.
Circuit de Catalunya officials recently rubbished reports that F1′s other Spanish host, Valencia, had proposed to replace Barcelona on the calendar from 2012.

“Two weeks ago it looked like Barcelona was not going to have the race any more, and not just next year,” F1 chief executive Ecclestone told Spain’s TV3 television before departing the Nurburgring.

He then admitted the possibility that Barcelona and Valencia might from now on annually alternate the running of a single Spanish grand prix.

Ecclestone, 80, also said Spa-Francorchamps and France might similarly alternate the hosting rights to a single annual calendar slot in the future.

“The negotiations to alternate Barcelona and Valencia are still on,” he is quoted as saying by EFE news agency.

After a cold and damp week at the Nurburgring, some of F1′s travelling circus are already reporting rain in Hungary.
British commentator and former driver Martin Brundle travelled straight from Sunday’s German grand prix to the Hungarian capital, scene of the eleventh round of the world championship at the Hungaroring this weekend.

“Pouring with rain,” he wrote on his Twitter channel. “Looks set to stay that way until mid week.”

International weather reports say the outlook for the weekend is indeed better, but with a continuing risk of rain and the absence of Hungary’s usually scorching conditions.

“It is raining a lot here and it’s not so warm!” Team Lotus’ Brazilian test driver Luiz Razia said.

Mark Webber has now signed a one-year extension to his Red Bull contract.
The Finnish newspaper Turun Sanomat said the 34-year-old Australian’s 2012 deal will be announced in Hungary this week.

Earlier, it was rumoured that another driver, perhaps Lewis Hamilton, might be drafted in to replace Webber as Sebastian Vettel’s teammate.

But team owner Dietrich Mateschitz said recently that Webber, who achieved pole at the Nurburgring and outperformed Vettel all weekend, is staying put.

“I always said that I expect our 2012 driver lineup to be the same,” team boss Christian Horner told F1′s official website, adding that the news becoming official is a “formality”.

“I am very happy with the two drivers we have. They push each other hard and I can’t imagine any other driver in our car, or Mark Webber in any other team’s car next year,” he added.

Kamui Kobayashi is the first formula one driver to announce he has no fears about travelling to his native country for October’s Japanese grand prix.
Bernie Ecclestone and Masuru Unno, a spokesman for the Suzuka circuit, said at the Nurburgring that despite some MotoGP riders planning to boycott the Motegi race, Suzuka – hundreds of kilometres further from the Fukushima nuclear plant – is “completely safe”.

Sauber driver Kobayashi insists he is not worried.

“I went there and I am fine,” he said. “Nobody is worried in Japan. Going to Suzuka will show support for the people. I expect people to come from everywhere to Suzuka,” he is quoted by Al Jazeera.

F1 chief executive Ecclestone, who announced he is personally buying 3,000 tickets to the race to give away, said he is confident no one in F1 will follow the MotoGP example and announce they fear travelling to Japan.

“I do not know why motorcycle riders are reacting like they are,” he is quoted as saying by the journalist Agnes Carlier. “Here in F1, no one thinks that there is a problem.”

Christian Horner on Sunday said he thinks Red Bull will be better next weekend in Hungary.
Championship leader Sebastian Vettel ended his 15-race run of front row berths at the Nurburgring, while pole sitter Mark Webber was the team’s best finisher with third.

“Yes, it’s been interesting,” said team boss Horner, referring to Fernando Alonso’s win at Silverstone two weeks ago, and Lewis Hamilton’s in Germany.

“It’s been Ferrari one race, the next McLaren — and the constant factor is Red Bull. Hopefully now we’ll get a few tracks that should be good for us,” he told German Sky television.

Confirmed Australian Webber: “The car should go ok in Budapest. It should be better than this track for us.”

In post-race news, Sebastien Buemi has been handed a five-place grid penalty for Hungary for his crash with Nick Heidfeld.

But there is also bad news for German Heidfeld, who will have to hand over his Renault to test driver Bruno Senna on Friday morning at the Hungaroring.

Meanwhile, Alonso will keep his second place on Sunday despite fears his stricken Ferrari might not have contained the mandatory one litre of fuel for the scrutineering checks.

And he has also not been penalised for hitching what he described as a “taxi” ride back to parc ferme on his friend Webber’s Red Bull engine cover.

“They are friends and it would have been a long walk back,” grinned Horner.

German police visited the Force India team in the Nurburgring paddock on Saturday.

Bild am Sonntag and Express newspapers report that the visit was not connected to the criminal assault charges laid against the team’s German driver Adrian Sutil by Renault co-owner Eric Lux.

Rather, a German supplier is pressing the Vijay Mallya-led team for an unpaid EUR 50,000 bill.

“After a brief interrogation, the officers left the paddock,” said Bild.

Express cited team manager Otmar Szafnauer as reporting that the debt dates back to the pre-Force India days, when the Silverstone based team was known as Jordan, Midland or Spyker.

Another piece of intrigue on Saturday was Sebastien Buemi’s exclusion from the qualifying results when his Toro Rosso was found running illegal fuel.

However, the Red Bull junior team had not cheated. Rather, a chemical inside a new fuel system installed in his STR6 on Friday contaminated the car’s fuel.

Swiss Buemi must now start the race from the back. “What can I do if there is something wrong with the fuel?” he is quoted as frustratingly telling Blick newspaper.

Meanwhile, Renault F1 PR representative Andy Stobart was struck by a car whilst cycling in Germany prior to this weekend’s Nurburgring race.

Now walking wounded in the paddock, he is sporting cuts to his eyebrow, chin, cheeks and torso after being knocked unconscious and hospitalised.

Despite making mistakes, being slightly off the pace and beaten by three of his championship leaders, Sebastian Vettel’s huge championship lead dimished by just 3 points at the Nurburgring.
The German finished a distant fourth in his home grand prix, but because his closest challenger, teammate and pole sitter Mark Webber was just third at the flag, the massive 80-point gap shrinks to just 77 after the tenth round of the season.

McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton, fourth in the championship prior to the Nurburgring and now third, brilliantly won the German race, mere seconds ahead of his old nemesis Fernando Alonso’s Ferrari.

Briton Hamilton called it “one of the best races I think I’ve ever done”, after travelling to the country downbeat following what he described as a “crap” performance on his own home turf two weeks ago at Silverstone.

For Vettel, it ended with successful yet “unsatisfying” damage limitation, following unforced errors and a bizarre last-lap pitstop to relegate Felipe Massa to fifth place.

“I didn’t feel too good all weekend,” said the world champion. “I never got to the pace Mark had in his car.”

Meanwhile, the day at the Nurburgring ended with two technical rules breaches; Webber giving his friend Alonso a lift back to the pits after the Ferrari ran out of fuel, and Hamilton hurdling the parc ferme barriers to greet his mechanics.

Williams is experimenting with a no-KERS configuration aboard Rubens Barrichello’s car this weekend at the Nurburgring.
Before the recent Silverstone race, we reported that Force India was toying with not using the energy recovery technology to see if the differences in weight-ballast and brake-balance had a positive effect.

The Silverstone based team ultimately decided to keep KERS aboard.

It has now emerged that Williams is experimenting with a no-KERS setup on Barrichello’s car this weekend, in conjunction with a new diffuser.

Technical director Sam Michael said the decision to leave the system off the Brazilian veteran’s car is to “give us more information going forward”.

“On Rubens’ car we chose not to race with KERS here in order to get some more data for comparison,” he added.

Barrichello ultimately qualified 14th behind his teammate Pastor Maldonado.

Renault will try again with its Red Bull-style rear exhaust exits in Hungary next week, according to Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport.
While Vitaly Petrov continued to use the front-exiting solution that has been on the R31 all season, teammate Nick Heidfeld tested the new layout on Friday at the Nurburgring.

But the German’s car was reverted to Silverstone specification for Saturday.

“It’s too early to consider running the rearward exhaust in anger because it isn’t competitive with the forward-facing yet, but it’s certainly something we are going to keep exploring and considering,” said technical director James Allison.

Added Heidfeld: “The new system definitely has potential but it’s very complicated. It’s hard to get something like that up and running so quickly.

“We didn’t expect it to just work straight away.”

Andy Soucek has revealed he could be on the verge of breaking back into formula one.
The Spaniard was Virgin’s test and reserve driver last year but he left the role complaining that “You don’t even get in the car”.

But now Spanish sports newspaper Marca quotes the 26-year-old as revealing he is “in negotiations” to return to F1 “and not just as a commentator”.

“I will say no more,” Soucek said in Spanish on his Twitter channel.

Soucek’s countryman Javier Villa has been linked with HRT, amid the team’s desire to become more Spanish with its new owners Thesan.

“We have not spoken with HRT yet. We will see how it evolves. You know how complex it is,” added the former F2 champion Soucek, who subsequently moved to the Superleague series.

Timo Glock hopes Virgin will be a better shop window for his talents next year.
The German was earlier critical of the struggling team’s direction but Virgin recently split with its designer Nick Wirth and inked a technical and wind tunnel deal with McLaren.

Even so, the 29-year-old confirmed he would jump ship to Red Bull if offered a seat.

“Every driver would answer the same,” the former Toyota driver told Die Welt. “But that’s a dream. I have to do it the hard way, fighting to go towards the front with my team.”

Glock is set to stay with Virgin in 2012, when he hopes the next red and black car can move into the midfield.

The deal is expected to be announced before Sunday’s German grand prix.

“I have to show that what I can do with a car like the Virgin is deliver quality services,” he continued.

“I will probably not be winning races or getting podiums very soon, but technically we have to try to move ahead and that will make me more visible as a driver.

“This is extremely difficult. If we cut the gap by half a second from five seconds, hardly anyone notices. But on a drivers’ track like Monaco for example, if we have a better car in 2012, then you can really stand out,” added Glock.

Michael Schumacher remains a top driver but Mercedes also has an eye on Sebastian Vettel.
The German marque’s top brass Dieter Zetsche is at the Nurburgring this weekend where he was asked by Bild am Sonntag newspaper if Red Bull’s Vettel would be a better bet for Mercedes’ works team.

“If the cars are very competitive, it is the driver who determines the success,” Zetsche is quoted as saying.

“Michael Schumacher has shown that he still has considerable qualities. As for Sebastian Vettel we have a good relationship. Privately he drives a SLS.”

Alongside Schumacher in 2011 is the highly competitive Nico Rosberg, and team boss Ross Brawn on Saturday confirmed the pair both have a contract for next year.

“We need to do our homework with the cars,” continued Zetsche. “We are certainly quite competitive already, but not as much as we had hoped for. We’re working on it.”

Bernie Ecclestone on Saturday said he will try his best to keep formula one at the Nurburgring.
The new state coalition government has said it will no longer support the German event, with circuit chief Karl Josef Schmidt admitting contract talks for the next race in 2013 have begun this weekend.

“I am very optimistic that formula one will continue as always at the Nurburgring,” F1 chief executive Ecclestone is quoted by the Rhein-Zeitung newspaper.

“I will try my best so that we can stay here,” added the Briton at the track on qualifying day.

It has been reported that the circuit operators are seeking a big discount, similar to the one Schmidt successfully negotiated for Hockenheim some time ago.

Ecclestone said: “How can I give a discount if there is no agreement? No one has come to talk to me from the government.

“But I am sure we will think of something. Of course I am open to negotiations.”

It is believed Ecclestone is convinced Germany is a key market for F1, with Hockenheim not financially able to host a race every single year.

“I have been coming here for about 1000 years and have invested personally a lot in this race,” he said.