With his second consecutive title now wrapped up, Sebastian Vettel is continuing to impress the international media.
The Red Bull driver secured his crown recently in Japan with a third place but quickly returned to the top step of the podium in Korea last Sunday.

“He is now chasing after Schumacher’s record of 13 wins in a season,” said Italian daily La Gazzetta dello Sport.

“The celebrations at Suzuka did not rob Vettel of his determination,” added the report.

Other publications were also impressed with Vettel’s determination to win even without the goal of a championship.

“He is hungry for more success and never satisfied,” praised Corriere dello Sport.

Agreed Tuttosport: “Vettel is a cannibal, like his hero Schumacher.”

The German’s will to keep his foot on the throttle even with the title wrapped up was demonstrated by his unprecedented pace on the last lap in Korea.

“I think they (the team) will kill me now,” joked Vettel afterwards. “They came on the radio and said ‘idiot, you got it (the fastest race lap)’.

“It’s a small thing; it’s probably more to do with the ego because there are no points (for it) so it’s really stupid from my side but now I’ve got it, I’m happy.”

 Martin Whitmarsh has refused to comment on whether it is Lewis Hamilton’s troubled private life that is steering his formula one career on the wrong track.
Despite winning pole position and finishing a fighting second in Korea last weekend, the 2008 world champion was visibly and audibly despondent on the back of a terrible run of form and on and off-track incidents.

The Swiss newspaper Blick reports that his girlfriend Nicole Scherzinger has linked up with “a new man”, pushing Hamilton in a foul mood that is affecting his job.

“The McLaren mechanics are upset with Lewis,” reported veteran correspondent Roger Benoit, “because he treated them so coldly in Korea.

“They say he is behaving like a stubborn child.”

Hamilton, 26, hinted at his split by saying he has received “massive support” from those close to him in the past days in the form of “emails from my brother, my mum and in particular my dad”.

Team boss Whitmarsh also hinted at behind-the-scenes troubles by telling the PA Sport news agency that “professionally, he’s happy”.

“I comment on his professional life,” said the McLaren principal.

“He says he is happy, and any other enquiry regarding his state of happiness should be directed to Lewis and not me.”

The death of Indycar driver Dan Wheldon is making waves even in the world of formula one.
As a Briton and a former track rival of contemporaries including Jenson Button, the 33-year-old was well-known in the F1 paddock and his death has been felt as a big blow.

Not surprisingly, formula one figures suggest Indycar has a lot to learn from F1.

“It is the most dangerous form of motor racing at the moment,” 1979 world champion Jody Scheckter, who wants his son Tomas to quit Indycar, told the BBC.

Also criticised since the crash has been the small size of the Las Vegas speedway, the large number of competing cars, the skills of some of the drivers and the very nature of high speed oval racing.

Former Super Aguri driver Anthony Davidson, a former junior rival of Wheldon’s, said: “The safety record in Indycar is not good and I would never drive there. It’s just not worth it. The cars are agricultural.”

Agreed David Coulthard – who moved to German touring cars after retiring from F1 in 2008 – in his Telegraph column: “I could have moved my family over there and made a life for myself in the United States.

“But the risk-reward ratio was simply too high for me. Formula one, I felt, was at an acceptable level but Indycar was, and is, probably 20 years behind F1 in terms of safety.”

Added 1992 world champion Nigel Mansell: “Formula one does an exemplary job.”

Coulthard added: “With any luck it (Wheldon’s death) will spur on the IRL to improve its safety record. Say what you like about Max Mosley but one thing that we in formula one must all thank him for was his response to (the deaths at) Imola in 1994.”

Sir Jackie Stewart agreed: “I think there needs to be more discipline by the (Indycar) governing body. If drivers do consistently collide with each other, there should be heavier penalties.”

British Racing Drivers’ Club president Derek Warwick said: “They need to understand the quality of the drivers that are in the field as well.

“With formula one the drivers are all great drivers who have won championships from working their way up from formula 3 to GP2 before they get a super licence to be able to race.

“I sometimes question the depth of talent in Indycar races and that will lead to inexperience and the inexperienced generally end up having accidents. They need to tweak what they’re doing a little bit,” said the 162 grand prix veteran.

Former McLaren driver Mark Blundell, who has also raced in America, added: “These kinds of cars shouldn’t have been running on these kinds of circuits.”

Stewart told Sky Sports: “It was such high speed on such a small track with too many cars together and not that many top racing drivers in there.

“It may be that we have to have smaller engines with smaller horsepower and slower speeds in Indycar racing.”

But Johnny Herbert, who flirted with a switch to America after retiring from F1 in 2000, thinks Indycar fatalities are inevitable.

“They will continue as long as this extreme form of motor sport exists,” the Briton wrote in his column for The National.

“The tremendous speed at which the cars travel, while separated by inches on those steep oval tracks, means you will likely see more deaths, no matter what safety measures are implemented.”

Robert Kubica is still in the running to return to formula one with Renault in 2012.
Originally, team boss Eric Boullier imposed a rigid mid-October deadline for the injured Pole to let him know if he will be able to race next season.

That deadline has now passed, but Frenchman Boullier admitted in Korea that he has agreed to wait a little longer.

The new deadline is the “end of October”, he is quoted by Germany’s motorsport-total.com, “and maybe even longer.”

It seems the deadline is a moving target.

“It also seems that way to me,” smiled Boullier, “but if Robert can go back to formula one, then I want him to drive for us. So I have to give him a chance.

“We will be flexible to the point where we cannot.”

Boullier does not deny that a time will eventually come when he has to overlook Kubica for the good of the team.

“No, no, I will not act against the interests of the team,” he insisted. “If I see that something is going wrong with next year’s driver lineup, we must make a decision.”

Vitaly Petrov, Bruno Senna, Romain Grosjean, Rubens Barrichello and others are reportedly also all in the running to race for the team in 2012.

Boullier said in Japan recently that he intended to call Kubica in the next few days.

“I spoke with (his manager) Daniele Morelli,” he revealed. “They are very confident that Robert will return, which is good to hear.”

Boullier said the 26-year-old is in the midst of his rehabilitation process but could be ready to sit in a driver simulator “perhaps within a month”.

Second place improved Lewis Hamilton’s mood in Korea, but not much.
The unshaved 2008 world champion was strangely miserable as he started from pole in Sunday’s grand prix, but he at least managed some small smiles after finishing the race behind Sebastian Vettel.

His mood, however, had triggered some wild speculation, including that he has split with his girlfriend, joined the celebrity religion Scientology, or had a raging row with his McLaren bosses.

On the latter theory, Hamilton told reporters: “Whoever wrote that, it’s a load of rubbish; I am very happy.”

But he also admitted that a single second place was not going to completely brighten his misery after what he calls the “worst year” of his career.

“So if you expect me to be all happy-doolally after a race like that you’re not going to hear it,” said the 26-year-old.

On Monday, the British Mirror and Daily Mail tabloids are reporting that Hamilton is on the verge of splitting with his Pussycat Dolls girlfriend Nicole Scherzinger.

But the British driver on Sunday indicated that it is the specialist motoring publications that worry him the most.

“Time will tell,” Hamilton said when asked if his performance had “redeemed” him after a run of bad races.

“It depends what you guys write. It depends how people perceive how the race went, how my attitude is, how I behaved. I am sure it is a few brownie points that I scored.

“It’s (about) positivity, positive stories, positive fans, it’s standing on the podium smiling. It’s that energy that you get that stays with you until the next race and then you do it again,” he added.

Jaime Alguersuari is staking a claim to a 2012 Toro Rosso race seat.
The Spaniard made his debut with the second Red Bull team in mid 2009, but Dr Helmut Marko is known to be considering the future of the current Toro Rosso lineup.

At the Brazil finale next month, whether Alguersuari or his more experienced teammate Sebastien Buemi will sit out Friday practice for French hopeful Jean-Eric Vergne will be decided by the points standings.

Spaniard Alguersuari, 21, was already ahead of Buemi prior to Korea, but he extended the gap to 7 points by finishing a strong seventh on Sunday.

He will therefore also be in boss Franz Tost’s good books, given the team’s late-season development push to catch up with Sauber for seventh place in the constructors’ championship.

Alguersuari told EFE news agency Korea was “my best” result in his 43 career races, as he was the highest placed runner behind the grandee Red Bulls, McLarens and Red Bulls.

“I think we’ve taken a huge leap,” he added. “I am very excited because next year we can have a great car.”

And if Marko decides to drop just one Toro Rosso driver at the end of the season, Swiss Buemi appears very much in the hot seat now.

“This is not important, only getting Toro Rosso ahead of Sauber,” insisted Alguersuari. “He (Buemi) is also doing a good job.”

 The interest in Ferrari’s 2012 front wing in Korea left Fernando Alonso annoyed.
“I think it’s to do with the team, not the journalists,” La Gazzetta dello Sport quotes the Spaniard as saying in Korea, where his 150 Italia was fitted with the radical new wing.

Media reports analysed in detail the difference between the new and old wing and its performance in Korea relative to the regular specification driven by Alonso’s teammate Felipe Massa.

“As I’ve said before, in these last four races we need to learn a lot about 2012,” Alonso said. “Gaining or losing a tenth is a very low priority at the end of this season compared to finding the direction for next year’s car.

“We are working with a specific goal that is not easy for you (reporters) to understand,” he added.

“I do not think the readers are interested to get up in the morning and read about three or four points of downforce, certain diameters — I think they want to know who is fourth or fifth or whether you are working for the grand prix or the next year.

“The details seem very superficial to me.”

On the radio towards the end of Sunday’s Korean grand prix, Alonso was heard to tell his team “I give up” — a call rarely heard from the double world champion.

Alonso insists his focus is on what will make the 2012 season better.

“I will come to work (in 2011) to gain experience for the things for next year,” he is quoted by AS sports newspaper. “We can try some experimental parts and also (experiment with) how to deal with the weekends.”

The 30-year-old is currently third in the drivers’ championship.

“If we can get one tenth (for the 2012 car) from the information and yet finish fifth in the championship, I would sign it now,” insisted Alonso.

“No one expects us to come to India and have the pole and the win. Expect us to be fourth or fifth in qualifying and third, fourth or fifth in the race,” he said.

After drinking in Red Bull’s title success in Korea, formula one awoke on Monday morning to terrible news from the world’s other premier single seater series.
33-year-old Dan Wheldon, the 2005 Indycar champion and two-time Indy 500 winner, was killed on Sunday during the American category’s 2011 finale at Las Vegas speedway.

Given his nationality and his earlier links with a possible move to formula one, the Briton was well-known in the F1 paddock.

“On a train from Mokpo to Seoul,” wrote Telegraph correspondent Tom Cary on Twitter. “News from Vegas puts everything in perspective.”

Agreed the Mirror’s Byron Young: “Usual cheerful voices that fill the train leaving Mokpo are absent today.”

Wheldon, who due to an Indycar promotional gimmick stood to win $5 million if he won on Sunday, was caught up in a spectacular 15-car crash on lap 12.

Series CEO Randy Bernard said he died “from unsurvivable injuries”.

“Rest in peace Dan,” tweeted Mark Webber. “I remember our early days in the UK (in) 95/96. Miss ya.”

Added The Times’ Kevin Eason: “Dan Wheldon reminds us that motor racing remains almost the only sport in which death is the highest price.”

And former Super Aguri driver Anthony Davidson said: “Spent so many races trying to match Daniel as we grew up and raced together. I’m utterly devastated to hear the sad news.”

Wheldon leaves behind his wife Susie and sons Sebastian (2) and Oliver, who was born this year.

“This is a cruel sport,” said BBC commentator Martin Brundle.

Added Jenson Button: “I can’t begin to imagine what his family are going through and my thoughts are with them at this very difficult time.

“I have so many good memories of racing with him in the early 90s, a true fighter.”

The current regulations are a reason for Lewis Hamilton’s current struggles, according to David Coulthard.
The veteran Scot analysed the reasons for the 2008 world champion’s difficult season, with Hamilton’s teammate Jenson Button the leading McLaren at present, in his latest column for the Daily Telegraph.

“There is no doubt that these tyre regulations are better suited to drivers who pace themselves; who feel their way through a race rather than go all-out,” said Coulthard, a former McLaren and Red Bull driver.

He is referring to the new era of no refuelling and heavily degrading Pirelli tyres, insisting Hamilton needs to quickly adapt.

“All world-class drivers have been able to adapt to new regulations. Think of Michael Schumacher, who has run the full gamut from 3.5 litre, active ride-height cars to 2.4 litre V8s with slicks,” said Coulthard.

“Until he (Hamilton) can adapt fully to these regulations and play a cuter game he is unlikely to be consistently competitive.”

Sebastian Vettel is calling in the lawyers after a ‘psychological coach’ claimed to be employed by the new back-to-back world champion.
A 31-year-old Austrian woman has in recent days claimed on several articles and interviews to have helped the Red Bull driver to achieve his unprecedented success.

“I don’t even know this woman,” Vettel told Bild newspaper.

Red Bull’s driver manager Helmut Marko revealed: “We have referred the matter to the lawyers.”

In fact, the woman might also be the victim of a fraud, after producing a recent email supposedly from Vettel.

Vettel’s spokeswoman Britta Roeske insisted: “That letter did not come from Sebastian’s email address.”

The mental coach said: “Maybe I’ve been misled by a charlatan.”

Jean-Eric Vergne is confident of securing his formula one debut with Toro Rosso in 2012.
The 21-year-old Frenchman made his debut as the junior Red Bull team’s new Friday driver in Korea.

Toro Rosso, currently fielding Sebastien Buemi alongside Jaime Alguersuari, is yet to decide its race driver lineup for next season.

“I see myself in one of the cars next year,” the L’Equipe sports daily quotes Vergne as saying. “Then it will be good whoever is next to me.

“I definitely hope to be in the car next year, not just the Friday driving. I still have to do the job properly now, be fast, and Red Bull will do what it takes for me to be in F1.”

As well as practicing in Abu Dhabi and Brazil, Vergne will also do the young driver tests with Toro Rosso in Abu Dhabi next month.

Felipe Massa has admitted 2012 will be “crucial” if he wants to retain a top seat in formula one.
Ferrari will honour the Brazilian’s contract for next season, but Massa has struggled since his near-fatal crash in 2009 – and the birth of his son Felipinho – to keep up with Fernando Alonso.

In Korea, he was told by a reporter for the O Estado de S.Paulo newspaper that 2012 will be crucial.

“I think so too; to do a good year will be very important, crucial for my future of being in a competitive team, no doubt. And so my determination is greater than ever,” said the 30-year-old.

He acknowledged the possibility he will have to leave Ferrari for 2013.

Asked what he would do then, Massa answered: “I go to another team! There is no other option; I will continue to race and thinking about the best for my career.

“I am not afraid of anything that can happen as I’ve always been a guy with his feet on the ground. I know that if I do not have a good 2012, everything can change. Everything follows according to the results.”

Massa said he is confident another team would sign him up if Ferrari does not.

“I think so. Regardless of having a good season, I believe I am among the best in formula one.”

He denied that his struggles are due to the paddock perception of his ‘number 2′ status to Alonso.

“The telemetry in the team is 100 per cent open. Without a doubt, 100 per cent, the treatment and the equipment is the same.

“If you have an inferior car you can see it in the numbers, you cannot help it. I have never had any different treatment,” added Massa.

Despite attending his first race as the 2011 champion-elect, it was Sebastian Vettel who doled out a present in Korea.
The Red Bull driver had learned that Rubens Barrichello, the Brazilian veteran, is collecting F1 drivers’ helmets.

“Great surprise when I received a helmet that was missing in my collection. Thanks Vettel,” the Williams driver wrote on Twitter.

German Vettel, 24, signed the helmet with “your friend”.

Barrichello revealed that he has the helmets of “many” current drivers in his collection, including Mark Webber, Jenson Button and Jarno Trulli.

“Almost everyone on the grid really,” added the 39-year-old.

SID news agency said the helmet gifted by Vettel was the one the German wore to second place behind Lewis Hamilton in China this year.

The next challenge for Team Lotus is to catch up with F1′s established teams, according to technical boss Mike Gascoyne.
The Tony Fernandes-led squad entered the sport last year as one of the all-new small teams alongside Virgin and HRT.

“We’ve left the other new teams well behind, which is great,” Gascoyne told the Guardian. “But we are not quite racing the team in front and we are not scoring our first points.”

Boss and owner Fernandes said last week that Gascoyne is on notice should Team Lotus not take the next step in 2012.

“Clearly if we don’t take another step forward next year then we all need to ask ourselves some difficult questions. Am I the right team principal, is Mike the right chief technical officer?” he told F1′s official website.

Gascoyne, who has worked with grandee teams Renault and Toyota in the past, said the challenge is a big one.

“You’re not going to come in, flick a switch and start beating the established teams,” he insisted. “We have to get all the people in place. They (the big teams) have all of that.

“If you don’t do all the hard yards you’ll never get there. There’s no short cut, that’s the problem when you come in. We’ve got to build a team as well as the car.”