F1′s blown exhaust saga is not over quite yet.
The controversy over aggressively using engine gases for an aerodynamic effect came to a spectacular head at Silverstone in July, but it was ultimately resolved that the practice should be banned for 2012.

Then, recently, it emerged that the FIA was clamping down even more vigorously in next year’s regulations to guarantee that the exhausts cannot be used to increase downforce.

But when asked by O Estado de S.Paulo in Abu Dhabi if Red Bull will still dominate in 2012 even without a blown diffuser, Mark Webber answered: “Maybe we can still enjoy this concept.”

What? “There are rumours that it (exhaust blowing) will continue,” the Australian explained.

Indeed, it is the FIA’s latest clampdown that has reinvigorated the saga, according to Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport.

Reportedly, with an unlikely ally in the form of McLaren, Red Bull is pushing back, arguing that the designs of their 2012 cars were too far advanced when the latest FIA clampdown was issued.

On the other side of the debate is Ferrari, Sauber and HRT, vehement that the 2012 rules should not permit any ‘blown exhaust’ loopholes of any kind.

The new problem has arisen because Red Bull and McLaren refused to approve the revised clampdown rules ahead of the recent F1 Commission, with those rules needing to be agreed before they can be ratified by the FIA in December.

HRT is the joker in the pack, with rumours in the paddock that the non-FOTA Spanish team might break the current peace by protesting the legality of the current exhaust layouts.

The Colin Kolles-led team would presumably justify the action by claiming their rivals have broken their Silverstone promise to agree to a total blown exhaust ban in 2012.

At the scene of his 2010 championship failure, Fernando Alonso has refused to acknowledge in Abu Dhabi that this season has also been a bad one.
“This season is the best I’ve ever done in my life,” he is quoted as answering emphatically to the Spanish sports daily AS.

Alonso was asked if he finds offensive the suggestions his Ferrari career has been a failure so far.

“I don’t care about that,” said the former back-to-back Renault world champion, “but I think it’s strange to be asked about it because, without a doubt, 2010 and especially 2011 have been the best.

“It has been something difficult to repeat; finishing most of the races, doing incredible laptimes, fantastic starts, great pitstops, successful strategies, podiums, a grand prix win.

“Of course we all want to fight for the title, but when you cannot you have to accept where the others have been better.”

By that rationale, Alonso thinks that if he had a Red Bull, he would have won the titles just as Sebastian Vettel has.

So would he swap places with the German?

“No, no, no,” started Alonso, “I am in my dream team even though it is true that we are now in a dead heat, with two titles each.

“But if I look into the future for the next five years, I would rather be where I am than where he is.”

Alonso visibly rankled when it was suggested that he failed to beat Lewis Hamilton at McLaren in 2007, but he also praised Jenson Button for emphatically doing so in 2011.

“We know about his talent and how fast he is and he has done a fantastic championship,” said Alonso. “Perhaps we have had a Hamilton less brilliant than in the other years and that combination has the result (in 2011).”

Finally, he disagrees with his manager Flavio Briatore that 2012 will be another walkover for Red Bull.

“That’s what was believed when it seemed that Hamilton would win ten years in a row, and the same with Button and Brawn who apparently found the magic formula.

“Now Red Bull has won in two years and everyone thinks they will win 20 more, but it will not happen,” said Alonso confidently.

Sebastien Buemi is not far away from easing all the speculation about his future in formula one, according to his boss Franz Tost.
It is well known that with Jaime Alguersuari ahead in the points standings and Daniel Ricciardo and Jean-Eric Vergne knocking hard on the door at Toro Rosso, a big question-mark hangs above Swiss Buemi’s head regarding 2012.

“I will push until the last metre, no matter what is going to happen,” the 23-year-old told Blick newspaper.

“The people in charge know my situation very well,” said Buemi. “If wheels are not attached properly or the engine fails, is that Buemi’s fault?

“Of course it is true then that I am missing important points,” he added.

Buemi is responding to recent doses of foul on-track luck, but in the end it is rumoured that Red Bull’s Dr Helmut Marko told both him and Alguersuari that the driver with the lower points score will be ousted at the end of 2011, full stop.

It is therefore possible that Abu Dhabi is Buemi’s 54th and penultimate grand prix?

“For Buemi, it is not the speed, for he is definitely as quick as Alguersuari. He is just usually at the front (of the queue) for the problems,” said team boss Tost.

“But I am convinced that Sebastien can still deliver a super race, and then all the talk about his future will be over,” he added.

If worse comes to worse, however, what will Buemi do?

“I am a racing driver and I have no plan B,” he insists.

Mercedes is not rushing to re-sign Michael Schumacher beyond 2012 because the seven time world champion has no mind to switch teams.
That was the explanation of Norbert Haug on Friday, one day after the German marque extended Nico Rosberg’s contract for 2013 and beyond.

Schumacher’s existing deal similarly expires late next year.

But while Rosberg’s name was being whispered in connection with alternative teams for 2013 and beyond, it seems Schumacher and Mercedes only need to decide whether they are going to keep the seven time world champion’s new F1 career running.

Haug is quoted by the German broadcaster Sky as explaining that there is “no reason” to move early on Schumacher’s next deal.

“I do not expect that Michael will switch teams anymore,” said Mercedes’ motor racing vice-president in Abu Dhabi. “That’s why we are in no kind of a hurry.

“He is focusing now on the end of the season and then we will come into the new year. Then we’ll see,” added Haug.

He described Rosberg alongside Schumacher as a “perfectly complementary” driver lineup.

Away from the F1 track, Force India boss Vijay Mallya is enduring tough times.
Reports on Friday are revealing an ever-worsening situation within the Indian billionaire’s airline Kingfisher, which is crippled under more than $1 billion in debt.

Flights are being cancelled, unpaid suppliers are threatening to reclaim planes and the share price is crashing, and Bloomberg reports that the Indian government has been approached about a bailout.

“Unless there is an infusion of money at this point, I don’t really see how it’s going to survive,” said an Indian aviation expert.

“That infusion of money has to come from Mallya. I can’t see anybody else who’s going to put money in.”

Kingfisher is a visible sponsor on this year’s Force India car.

Mercedes aims to give Nico Rosberg a winning car soon, but the German is also learning to be patient.

Now with more than 100 grands prix behind him, the 26-year-old is yet to record a single race victory and he has now re-signed with Mercedes for at least the next two or three seasons.

Then called Brawn, the Brackley based team won the world championship with Jenson Button in 2009, but that was on the coat-tails of the hundreds of millions invested by Honda.

Today is different, Mercedes-Benz’s Norbert Haug warns.

“He needs to understand that the team is still young,” the German is quoted as saying by Turun Sanomat newspaper.

“Brawn won the championship in 2009 but now the team has a completely different structure.

“Mercedes makes the engines but the rest of the budget comes from sponsors and the income from FOM.”

Haug likens Rosberg to Mika Hakkinen, who after years of toiling without tasting a win finally broke through at the end of 1997 with Mercedes power.

“After that he couldn’t be stopped,” he said.

With his new contract in his pocket, Rosberg revealed in Abu Dhabi that he is prepared to wait a little longer for his breakthrough.

“I would say that right now it will be a lot of patience (needed),” he told F1′s official website. “But there is no doubt in my mind that it is absolutely worth it.”

The German is quoted by Auto Motor und Sport as revealing that amid the recent interest of some other teams, he was buoyed by Mercedes’ obvious determination to succeed.

“The decisive thing for my decision was the commitment of the management, underlined by the signing of Geoff Willis and Aldo Costa.

“It is quite clear that Mercedes wants to be the best team on the grid.”

Finally, Rosberg – who doesn’t have a manger – thanked his famous father Keke for his help in organising the new Mercedes deal.

“He took care of the paperwork and I am grateful for that,” he said.

Sam Michael is in Abu Dhabi making his first appearance with McLaren.

The Australian’s last race as Williams’ technical director was Korea, and it was expected that he would sit out the rest of the season on ‘gardening leave’ before starting his new job as McLaren’s sporting director in 2012.

But Michael has been spotted in the McLaren garage on Friday, the British broadcaster BBC reports.

The report said Williams has “allowed” Michael to start work two races early, but not in official team gear. Indeed, the 40-year-old is wearing a plain white shirt.

He will ultimately have “responsibility for the development and management of the team’s trackside operations”, McLaren said earlier this season.

Williams’ new technical director is Mike Coughlan, the sacked McLaren ‘spygate’ designer.

Lewis Hamilton has urged Felipe Massa to “be a man” and meet him halfway in ending their on and off-track feud.
The 2008 championship rivals have clashed so many times in 2011 that one betting agency is offering 5-1 odds on another coming-together this weekend in Abu Dhabi.

Asked by reporters if he likes those odds, Brazilian Massa said on Thursday: “I don’t think so, and anyway I will do everything right, which is what I’ve done all the time.”

Briton Hamilton, however, admitting he hasn’t “particularly enjoyed” Massa’s attitude of late, said the blame game needs to stop.

“We’ve had our collisions on the track, but I really don’t have any problems with him,” the McLaren driver said.

“I would like to clear the air, but we have to meet in the middle, it can’t just come from one side.

“If you want to be a man about it, then be a man about it and sort it out. I’m a reasonable person so I’m happy to squash things,” added Hamilton.

At the same time, and oddly, Hamilton’s relationship with his 2007 nemesis Fernando Alonso has never been better.

The Spaniard, who is Massa’s Ferrari teammate, recently admitted he thinks Hamilton is one of very few F1 drivers who can win races even without the best car.

“I am honoured that Fernando is so positive about my qualities, despite this season and the differences that we had,” Hamilton is quoted by F1′s official website.

“Our relationship has got a lot stronger and the respect that we have for each other is much stronger.”

The mystery surrounding Red Bull’s disappearing front wing has unravelled in the Spanish press this week.

Before the very similar-looking and ‘fluttering’ Ferrari version made its debut recently, Red Bull revealed they never recovered the front wing of Mark Webber’s car after his Monza crash.

Speculation suggested it had made its way straight to the design desks at Maranello.

But a Spanish fan, who attended the Italian grand prix, went some way to allaying those suspicions this week in the pages of the Marca sports daily.

He submitted photos showing pieces of the Webber wing, and revealing that other fans took home the other bits as similar carbon-fibre souvenirs.

“It never entered my head to give it to Ferrari,” the unnamed fan said. “I didn’t think it was so important.”

Nico Rosberg’s new Mercedes deal is for the next four years and will earn him almost EUR 50 million by 2015, the major German daily Bild reported on Thursday.

Earlier, Mercedes announced that the 26-year-old – who was already scheduled to stay at the Brackley based team next season – has extended his stay for 2013 and beyond with an unspecified new multi-year deal.

Bild said Rosberg, with his new contract reportedly running through 2015, “will earn around EUR 12 million” per season.

 Michael Schumacher on Thursday insisted he is not yet even talking to Mercedes about extending his contract beyond 2012.
His teammate Nico Rosberg has inked a new multi year deal beyond 2013, and earlier this week it was reported that Schumacher is set to do the same.

But Schumacher said in Abu Dhabi when asked about the possibility of a new deal: “It’s not the time to talk about it.

“Whether I want to extend my future in this sport and for how long is something I have to decide for myself in due time,” the 42-year-old is quoted by SID news agency.

As for Rosberg’s new deal, Schumacher described it is a “perfectly reasonable and good decision. Frankly I would not have expected something else”.

The Rosberg news, however, followed speculation he might replace Felipe Massa at Ferrari, with some reports saying he even visited Maranello recently.

“That (story) was completely out of thin air,” Rosberg said in Abu Dhabi. “At the time the new (Mercedes) contract had been made long ago.”

 Lewis Hamilton has described as “rubbish” boss Martin Whitmarsh’s claim that he has been spooked by the good form of Jenson Button this year.
McLaren principal Whitmarsh floated the Button explanation recently when contemplating Hamilton’s uncharacteristically bad 2011 season.

But according to the BBC on Thursday, Briton Hamilton dismissed the theory that he has withered beneath Button’s pressure as “rubbish” and suggested Whitmarsh might have been “misquoted”.

“He (Whitmarsh) made some comments which I disagree with,” he said. “It’s rubbish.

“My issues have been much, much bigger than that — more personal,” added Hamilton, who recently split with his girlfriend Nicole Scherzinger.

He admitted however that his teammate Button, 38 points and 3 places ahead in the drivers’ standings, has a “great bubble” of support around him at grands prix, featuring his father, manager, friends and girlfriend.

“He’s in a much stronger position than me so I wouldn’t expect anything less than the results he’s been getting,” said Hamilton.

“I lost that (sort of) bubble. It is a priority for me to create that atmosphere around myself because it’s a happy bubble.”

 As Williams considers its options, Pastor Maldonado has revealed he is happy to race at the British team alongside Rubens Barrichello.
With his millions in Venezuelan backing, the 2011 rookie’s race seat is considered safe for 2012.

But the same it not true of Brazilian veteran Barrichello, as Williams admits talks with Kimi Raikkonen and reportedly also eyes Force India’s experienced and sponsor-backed Adrian Sutil.

“The season might not have been great but I believe, at Williams, we have one of the best driver pairings in F1,” said Maldonado.

“Unfortunately, the car is not competitive but, to have Rubens as a teammate, for me, is great because he has helped me with everything,” he is quoted by The National.

“He’s an incredibly talented driver and is still so incredibly motivated. He’s helped me to improve my time and technique out there.”

Williams, likely to finish the 2011 championship ahead only of F1′s small new-in-2010 teams, has had arguably the worst ever season in its decades of history.

It is therefore easy to point the finger at someone like Maldonado, who despite winning last year’s GP2 championship is seen by many as a typical ‘pay-driver’.

“I feel after winning the GP2 championship and the way I did it, I think I deserved my place in F1, that I was ready,” he insists. “And Williams are not a team that just sign up drivers for money.

“When you come here, you expect to win here. That’s what I want to do and that’s the aim for the team. I want to stay here and to win.”

Martin Whitmarsh would be happy if the forthcoming negotiations over F1′s future results in the teams owning a slice of the sport.
With the bitter political battle of 2009 still in memory, many of F1′s paddock players are looking nervously towards the expiry next year of the crucial tripartite Concorde Agreement.

As ever, everyone wants a bigger slice of the lucrative pie.

But this time around, talk of a ‘breakaway’ series is unlikely to be used as a weapon — perhaps because the existing agreement now forbids it.

Instead, the big talking point could be the teams’ interest in joining up with CVC and Bernie Ecclestone as actual co-owners of the commercial rights.

“If you are trying to create partnership in most businesses then a bit of cross equity is useful,” confirmed Whitmarsh, the McLaren team principal and also chairman of FOTA, the 11-team alliance.

“At the moment the teams contract for a finite period to the Concorde Agreement. If teams were equity holders – even on a small scale – then it encourages all stakeholders and potential investing partners that you have some continuity,” he added.

It goes without saying, however, that in the highly competitive world of formula one, it is perhaps surprising that FOTA has essentially stayed together for so long.

That could be about to change, with a burgeoning disagreement over the voluntary cost-cutting resource restriction agreement (RRA) heading for crucial talks this weekend in Abu Dhabi.

Writing in O Estado de S.Paulo newspaper, Livio Oricchio said the meeting is arguably “more important than the grand prix” this weekend.

Mercedes’ Ross Brawn agrees that the body’s continuing harmony is “essential” and “everyone should do everything to keep it together”.

HRT has already left FOTA, and the temptation for others to join the small Spanish team might be high, with F1 chief executive Ecclestone famous for ‘divide and conquer’.

“If the small teams want the money split 12 ways equally then that is unrealistic,” Whitmarsh told the Financial Times. “But it falls on all of us to get to something that is fair and equitable.

“(Without) the small teams we are in trouble. We need them to race against and we would be diminished if we lost them.

“It’s a challenge and it is something that can be preyed upon in a negotiation,” he added. “Bernie is very, very good at that.”

The obvious tactic for FOTA, then, is to stick together.

“We wouldn’t be very smart if we didn’t,” Whitmarsh insisted, urging F1′s strong personalities to “overcome our respective egos, leave the past behind and look forward”.

And a joker in the pack is the Jean Todt-led FIA, who lease the commercial rights to Ecclestone/CVC but do not otherwise have a stake.

“We do not want to grab the rights back. But we definitely want an input in these rights in some sort of capacity,” confirmed FIA spokesman Norman Howell.

Virgin has refused to confirm reports it has already decided to replace Jerome d’Ambrosio with French rookie Charles Pic in 2012.
The French sports daily L’Equipe reported on Wednesday that 21-year-old Pic, fourth in GP2 this year and backed by the Lagardere group, will be Timo Glock’s new teammate.

It is believed Pic will test for Virgin, to become Marussia next season, at the forthcoming young drivers’ test in Abu Dhabi.

“We expect after the testing of young drivers and after the end of the season to make our (2012 driver lineup) decision with a public statement,” a team spokesperson told the Belgian news agency Belga.

“The final decision on Timo Glock’s teammate is not done yet,” the official added.

The French sports.fr portal, meanwhile, quoted Pic’s agent as insisting that the youngster has not yet signed up with any team for 2012.

The report said Pic, who has definitely travelled to Abu Dhabi, could also test with Team Lotus/Caterham at Yas Marina.

D’Ambrosio’s manager Benjamin Mignot, overseeing the Belgian’s career for the Gravity group, insisted all is not lost for the 25-year-old.

“I’m not going to tell you that we are looking at being at Ferrari instead of Ferrari,” he joked to Le Soir newspaper.

“But we know that Barrichello is still not confirmed at Williams and there are also seats available at HRT and also Virgin.

“Clearly we are not willing to have any seat at any price, but we believe firmly that Jerome has a place in F1 in 2012,” added Mignot.