Romain Grosjean has emerged as the most likely candidate in the event Robert Kubica cannot return to Renault next year.
Injured Pole Kubica’s current substitute Nick Heidfeld is pushing to keep his seat, but Frenchman Grosjean’s manager is Eric Boullier, the boss of the Renault team and a major player in a government committee to revive France’s presence in F1.

“We are working hard to get Grosjean there (to F1). France needs a good F1 driver,” Boullier is quoted as saying by Polish publication Wirtualna Polska.

There are rumours, however, that with Vitaly Petrov staying put next year, Boullier does not consider the Russian ready for a leadership role at Renault.

Mark Webber and Felipe Massa are therefore the other names doing the rounds.

It is believed Boullier is hoping for clarity about Kubica’s situation by the end of August.

“The situation is unusual because of Robert, because we want to wait and see how his situation develops and how and when he can come back,” Boullier is quoted by Germany’s motorsport-total.com.

Red Bull and Ferrari will fight it out for victory this weekend, David Coulthard has predicted.
“It would appear that Ferrari and Red Bull have the edge on McLaren,” the Scot, a veteran of almost 250 grands prix, surmised after watching the practice sessions at the Nurburgring on Friday.

“Red Bull have taken pole at every race this year and I would expect that trend to continue,” he told the Telegraph.

It is a neat summary in the wake of Ferrari’s continued resurgence and the fact that McLaren, as at Silverstone two weeks ago, appears to have taken a step backwards.

Also looking stronger is Mark Webber, with his team orders stoush with Red Bull and Sebastian Vettel appearing to have given him wings.

At the same time, championship leader Vettel appeared to struggle somewhat in front of his home crowd, but forecast rain and low temperatures could give him the edge over Ferrari in the coming days.

“In the rain we still have a problem,” admitted Silverstone winner Fernando Alonso to Auto Motor und Sport. “The worst thing for us is a wet and cold track.”

German Vettel told O Estado de S.Paulo: “Our forecast is for rain.”

With his 80 point lead, however, the weather is a minor concern for the bigger picture. More important for Alonso is a consistently quick car — and for McLaren to improve.

“I need six or seven ‘teammates’ to be able to finish ahead of Vettel and take points off him. Otherwise it (the title) is going to be difficult,” he said.

There are also mind games at play, with McLaren’s Jenson Button openly admitting to trying all he can off the circuit to add to the current tension at Red Bull.

“I love it that there is a disagreement. It is what McLaren need,” he said.

Silence may not descend on formula one, despite the FIA announcing that cars will have to drive with only regenerated electrical power in the pitlane in 2014.
The FIA said that part of the new ‘green’ V6 rules for the future is that the cars will not be able to use their conventional petrol engine propulsion between the garages and the pit entrance and exit.

“There are different opinions on that,” admitted Ferrari boss Stefano Domenicali at the Nurburgring, admitting that “some manufacturers” are not keen.

“This is a topic that in my view, because of the situation that it is for 2014, it can still be discussed, we have the time to discuss it in a proper way,” he added.

Domenicali said one potential problem is that F1 would lose some “passion” with a silenced pitlane, while another is that cars not making any sound could be a safety issue for those working in the area.

Agreed Renault technical director James Allison, who is also FOTA’s new technical chief: “There are pros and cons with it from an operational point of view that we’re still discussing.”

Bernie Ecclestone appeared at the Nurburgring on Friday, despite suggestions he might skip the journey to Germany for fear of being arrested.
The F1 chief executive is finally admitting he paid $44 million to jailed German banker Gerhard Gribkowsky, but he denies it was a bribe.

Even so, some suspected the fact the charges laid against Gribkowsky coincided with Germany’s F1 event would convince Ecclestone to remain in Britain to avoid potential trouble.

But he told the reporter for Bild newspaper at the Nurburgring: “I said I would come, so here I am.”

And Ecclestone told the Financial Times when asked if he fears being arrested: “No, not at all.

“I’m concerned it’s going to be bloody wet and cold. Otherwise, should be a good race.”

But many paddock insiders on Friday cast serious doubt on billionaire Ecclestone’s explanation that he was blackmailed by Gribkowsky to avoid trouble with inland revenue.

“Bernie does not get blackmailed,” one was quoted by the Telegraph.

At the very least, Ecclestone admitted that he regrets paying the money.

“So many things in life are hindsight,” said the 80-year-old.

“It’s not my style to have anyone threaten me. Believe me, in my life I have been threatened properly. But in this case they (the lawyers) advised me to pay up.

“But don’t worry, I have nothing to worry about,” added Ecclestone.

One rumour is that the diminutive Briton, perhaps under pressure from F1 owner CVC’s investors, might step aside to allow the scandal to play out away from the sport.

“There is no sign of him backing off,” Ecclestone’s former power ally Max Mosley told the Financial Times. “On the other hand, maybe he will.”

Jarno Trulli should vacate his seat completely if he is no longer enjoying formula one.
That is the view of the veteran Italian’s contemporary David Coulthard, who today travels to the grands prix as a consultant to Red Bull and commentator for British television.

Team Lotus boss Tony Fernandes this weekend admitted Trulli, 37, had been “extremely accommodating” in agreeing to step aside for the Nurburgring weekend so that Karun Chandhok can have a full weekend in the car.

It is suggested that Trulli is happy to wait until Hungary for a new power steering system and in order to guarantee a contract for 2012, but Scot Coulthard said the Italian should consider whether he is still enjoying the sport.

“If Jarno is not enjoying it any more it would be better if he made way for someone who did,” the former Williams, McLaren and Red Bull driver wrote in his Telegraph column.

“I don’t see his results, and by extension his motivation, improving significantly from this season to next.”

Niki Lauda has axed his sponsorship by the financially embattled company Money Service Group.

Sauber is also sponsored by the Liechtenstein based firm, who convinced Austrian legend Lauda to ditch his famous red cap in favour of a blue one for 2011.

But reports in recent days suggested MSG is in difficulties, with its founder and boss departing and suggestions the company has liquidated.

“I have tried to reach Mr Seidl but unfortunately I have not heard from him yet,” Lauda said this week.

The Austrian Independent reported on Friday that the former triple world champion has now cancelled the deal and reverted to his familiar red cap colours.

Other media reports said Liechtenstein prosecutors are investigating Money Service Group for commercial fraud.

“I’m glad about wearing a red cap again,” Lauda said on Friday, confirming he decided to cancel the sponsorship deal “due to the turbulences of the past few days”.

62-year-old Lauda’s new cap does not feature a sponsor logo.

Jarno Trulli on Friday sounded confident about his future with Team Lotus, despite sitting out this weekend’s German grand prix.
The Italian veteran, eagerly awaiting the arrival of a new power steering system for the T128 car, is not racing this weekend as boss Tony Fernandes hands over the seat to Indian reserve driver Karun Chandhok.

But Fernandes insisted when he announced the Chandhok news that Trulli can expect a new contract for 2012.

“This clears the air for so many people who have been talking rubbish,” the 37-year-old is quoted by the Daily Mail at the Nurburgring.

“I couldn’t talk before, but things have to happen at the right time. The future is looking bright,” added Trulli.

Trulli confirmed he will be back in his deep-green car in Hungary next weekend, when the steering system he so dislikes will be replaced with an updated version.

“I’d rather do this (sit out a race) now so I can start a complete new season from the next race,” he said.

Bernie Ecclestone has finally confirmed reports he paid $40 million to jailed German banker Gerhard Gribkowsky.

But the F1 chief executive, who was officially named in the Munich prosecutors’ charges against Gribkowsky this week, denies it was a bribe, hinting instead that he was effectively blackmailed.

Ecclestone, 80, told the Daily Telegraph he was “threatened” by Gribkowsky who was warning of tax trouble for the diminutive Briton.

He said Gribkowsky was alleging irregularities with Ecclestone’s offshore family trust Bambino and “threatened that he was going to say that I was running it”.

Ecclestone added: “The taxation people in England at the time were in the middle of settling everything with the trust and the last thing you need is for them to start thinking something different.

“He (Gribkowsky) was shaking me down and I didn’t want to take a risk.”

Ecclestone said he asked his lawyers for advice about how to deal with Gribkowsky’s alleged threat.

“They said ‘I tell you what would happen, the (inland) Revenue would assess you and you would have to defend it, because you could defend it, and you would be three years in court and it would cost you a fortune. Better pay’,” said the F1 chief executive.

Ecclestone said he paid Gribkowsky through Mauritius and British Virgin Islands-based companies because “he wanted to be paid so it didn’t look like it came from me and didn’t look like it had come from England”.

And he said he has consistently denied making the payment at all until now because “the prosecutor had asked me not to say anything”.

Gribkowsky’s legal representative declined to comment.

McLaren’s race drivers have rubbished speculation they might soon have a new team boss.

The Woking based team’s managing director Jonathan Neale this week said rumours Martin Whitmarsh might lose his job was “part of the media circus” of a disappointing home performance at Silverstone recently.

Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button have now also publicly backed Whitmarsh amid rumours Ron Dennis might be looking to return to his post at the helm of the famous British team.

“There’s no chance of that,” Hamilton told the Daily Star when asked about reports of Whitmarsh’s possible demise.

“There is a better atmosphere within the team than there ever has been, it is constantly growing.

“I am certain there are no plans for him to go anywhere.”

Teammate Button agrees: “It was said people are unsure of his (Whitmarsh’s) position within the team, the engineers and mechanics. That’s absolute rubbish.”

Paul di Resta has admitted he isn’t sure he will still be with the Force India team in 2012.

Team boss Vijay Mallya said recently he has “clear options” to retain the impressive Scottish rookie – who maintains strong links with Mercedes-Benz – beyond this season.

But di Resta told Press Association Sport at the Nurburgring: “There are many things you hear, but you don’t know. I really don’t know where I am next year.

“Of course, I’d like to stay here if this is an opportunity. I came in here with a long term view.”

But there have also been suggestions that Mercedes would like to run reigning DTM champion di Resta at its works team, despite indications Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg are both staying on board for 2012.

“Naturally, I’d love to be with a bigger team battling up at the front, that’s my ambition, but Force India is an up-and-coming team,” he said.

“This year has been more difficult than we thought. We’ve not picked up from where we left off last year.

“But sometimes things go down before they go up, and you take one step back to go two steps forward.

“So I certainly hope we can build a future in F1. That’s always been the intention,” added di Resta.

Heikki Kovalainen insists there is no chance he might be the next Team Lotus driver asked to step aside.
Italy’s Autosprint argues that Jarno Trulli so readily agreed to vacate his T128 for Karun Chandhok at the Nurburgring on the promise of a new deal for 2012.

Trulli’s regular teammate Kovalainen, however, insists there is no chance he will also have to move aside at some point this season.

“It is not an option,” the Finn told Turun Sanomat newspaper. “There is no such agreement and I will not accept that my car is given to someone else.”

Kovalainen, 29, explained that occasionally vacating his green car for a practice session is a different matter.

“I accept that even though I don’t really like it,” he said. “If next year we are driving for points then I think we should do all of the seasons, but right now if you miss a practice it’s not so critical.”

Italian Trulli is expected to return to his green cockpit in Hungary next weekend, but Chandhok said he isn’t sure if he will be back when his native India hosts its inaugural race in October.

“You will have to ask Tony Fernandes,” he said. “I will definitely be there, but I don’t know yet know what my role for that weekend will be.”

Chandhok denied that his only goal for the weekend is to appear better than Trulli, who has struggled in 2011 with the car’s power steering system.

“It’s not about that, it’s about building for the future,” he insisted.

“I assume they want to see how we work together as a team. I admire Fernandes’ vision to build a team of Asian people, drivers and engineers and he seems very committed to the objective.”

Jaime Alguersuari has admitted he is hoping the grey weather at the Nurburgring so far stays around until Sunday.

“We’re expecting a wet race,” the Toro Rosso driver told El Mundo Deportivo newspaper.

“We have more to gain than to lose if it is (wet),” Spaniard Alguersuari, 21, added.

“If you can’t activate the DRS system (on a wet track) that benefits us more than the others. But points are possible in the wet or in the dry.”

Adrian Sutil has got his home grand prix off to a bad start this week by crashing at the Nurburgring’s fabled Nordschleife circuit.
Ahead of the German grand prix at the adjacent modern circuit, the 28-year-old was turning laps of the notorious 28 kilometre north loop at the wheel of a Gumpert Apollo.

German Sutil was photographed walking away from the black carbon fibre supercar, which apparently suffered mainly superficial damage.

A defeat for Sebastian Vettel in 2011 would involve the biggest formula one comeback since James Hunt won the championship 35 years ago.
Finland Turun Sanomat newspaper reports that the task for Vettel’s pursuers – including his teammate Mark Webber, Fernando Alonso and the McLaren drivers – is greater even than Briton Hunt’s in 1976.

Then, flamboyant Hunt won the title by one point after Niki Lauda sat out races to recover from his near-fatal Nurburgring crash, before the great Austrian voluntarily pulled out of the treacherous Japanese finale.

Asked if he is enjoying his near-unprecedented dominance this season, Red Bull’s Vettel told DPA news agency this week: “No, I only enjoy success when I have it.

“Ask me again after the last race in Brazil.”

Narain Karthikeyan is tipped to return to the cockpit of the HRT car this weekend at the Nurburgring.
Despite his sponsor Tata’s ongoing backing of the small Spanish team, Indian Karthikeyan was sidelined earlier this month to make way for Daniel Ricciardo’s Silverstone debut.

HRT has confirmed that the Red Bull-sponsored Australian will once again be racing alongside Vitantonio Liuzzi this weekend in Germany.

But according to the auto.cz website, 34-year-old Karthikeyan – who was at Silverstone to entertain HRT’s VIP guests – will be driving Italian Liuzzi’s car during initial Friday practice at the Nurburgring.

“The Tata Group is very supportive of what I do and that’s all that matters,” Karthikeyan told Reuters last week following criticism by Force India chief Vijay Mallya.

A spokeswoman for HRT told us early on Wednesday: “Narain will continue playing his key role in the team and get in the car when he is required.

“This will be decided in the coming days,” she added.