Narain Karthikeyan is not guaranteed his HRT seat for the whole of the 2012 season.

Following what the reporter referred to as a ‘chat’ with the Indian driver, the Times of India claimed Karthikeyan is “a million euros” short of a contract that will see him definitely race through November’s Brazil finale.

The 35-year-old also began the 2011 season for the struggling Spanish team, but was replaced by the Red Bull-funded Daniel Ricciardo mid-season.

The Times of India said securing the extra million in sponsorship is proving “difficult” for Karthikeyan.

“Sponsors are happy to give him money but not to the team, as obviously they do not want to be associated with a struggling outfit,” the report said.

The good news for Karthikeyan, according to the journalist Harish Samtani, is that his sponsorship deal with Tata brings to HRT the Williams gearbox, valued at about EUR 5 million.

The report said the link between Karthikeyan and Williams is the British team’s joint venture with Jaguar, which is owned by the driver’s sponsor Tata.

Montreal has been warned to spend around $15 million on the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve or risk losing the Canadian grand prix.

La Presse reports that Bernie Ecclestone has said only a major redevelopment of the circuit will lead to talks about a new contract beyond 2014.

The report said that, in light of the F1 chief executive’s warning, Montreal mayor Gerald Tremblay has appealed to higher levels of government for the necessary money.

“Negotiations are underway between the three levels of government and the bodies of formula one”, the report said.

Race promoter Francois Dumontier told RDS: “It’s premature to talk about this.

“There are still two years to go on the current contract. We have started talking, but that it’s out now I find excessive. Honestly, I don’t know where it’s come from.”

He added: “Given that the permanent installations of the circuit, including the control tower and the garages, are nearly 25 years old, it is likely that their repair is an important element in the negotiations for an extension to the current agreement.

“But it seems to me to be premature to talk specific sums.”

 Williams will not rush into signing a new title sponsor, chairman Adam Parr insists.
The famous British team performed woefully in 2011 and lost its naming backer ATT, yet recently revealed improved turnover and profits.

And Parr told Reuters the Grove based team has more than $45 million in the bank.

“I am very satisfied with what we have done overall with the business,” he said.

“We don’t have a title sponsor at the moment and obviously that’s an important initiative for us. But it’s something that you have to get right because your title sponsor is the most visible of your partners,” Parr explained.

“In many ways, it sets the character of the team. You want a title partner who is very active in the way they promote and activate the partnership.

“This is not something we are going to rush into, this is something we want to get right.”

For the moment, Williams’ main source of income appears to be the controversial deal with Venezuela’s state-owned oil company PDVSA, including Pastor Maldonado as driver.

“PDVSA is an important partner of the team in financial and other respects but it is by no means the only one,” insisted Parr.

Bernie Ecclestone is leading the negotiations as France tries to return to the formula one calendar.
The country’s government is pushing hard to include Paul Ricard on the 2013 calendar, with a deal to alternate annually a single race date with Belgum’s Spa Francorchamps.

RMC Sport reports that Paris has formally requested Ecclestone, F1′s chief executive, send them the contract.

But the report said a crucial detail is missing: the necessary race fee.

As those negotiations begin, it is revealed that Eric Boullier – the Lotus team’s French team principal – met with Ecclestone in London on Wednesday to talk about it.

Boullier had tried to “speed things up”, the French language report said.

RMC added that Spa-Francorchamps’ Belgian promoters currently spend EUR 22.5 million per race on the grand prix, a figure neither they nor France are willing to pay in 2013 and beyond.

“Both have set a maximum of EUR 15 million per race,” said the report.

The responsible Belgian minister, Jean-Claude Marcourt, declined to comment.

Bernie Ecclestone has accused Indycar of playing with drivers’ lives by organising “wrestling”-style races.
Briton Dan Wheldon was killed just over a week ago in a 15-car crash at Las Vegas speedway, a 1.5-mile oval whose event boasted Indy 500-like speeds.

“We would never have let that race take place in Las Vegas last week,” F1 chief executive Bernie Ecclestone told the Daily Mail.

“With 34 cars racing on a 1.5-mile oval track, they were heading for disaster.”

Wheldon started the race dead last and, in an Indycar season finale gimmick, he stood to share a $5 million prize with a fan if he carved through the field and won.

At the time of his crash, he had already passed ten cars.

“It made the race a little like all-in wrestling — with a high risk attachment,” said Ecclestone, referring to British no-holds-barred professional wrestling.

“While our sympathies lie with Dan’s family, the whole episode has not been good for motor sport in general.”

Bernie Ecclestone has proposed to ink a new contract with the Nurburgring with terms equal to those of Hungary’s formula one race.

The new politically-sensitive coalition government has announced it no longer intends to offer funding for the Nurburgring’s grand prix, which alternates annually on the F1 schedule with the other German venue Hockenheim.

Talks about a new contract began at the German grand prix last weekend, and DPA news agency reports that Bernie Ecclestone has offered to lower the sanctioning fee.

The report said Ecclestone is willing to offer a contract identical to that possessed by organisers of this weekend’s race at the Hungaroring.

“The contract in Hungary is definitely cheaper,” a spokeswoman for Nurburgring GmbH confirmed.

It is believed the Nurburgring’s current contract involves a EUR 20 million per race sanctioning fee, and that the race last weekend recorded a loss of 13.5 million.

Hugo Boss is getting some of the best value for money as a formula one sponsor, a leading sponsorship consultancy firm has found.

The evaluation by Cologne based Sport Und Markt compared brand awareness versus the amount spent by F1 sponsors in 2010.

The result showed that fashion brand Hugo Boss, a long-time McLaren sponsor, had among the most efficient investments in F1, reaching 4.9 million people for its $3.1 million annual spend.

The very best however was Hewlett-Packard, reaching 6.6 million people by spending just $1.5 million for its minor Renault branding.

Allianz comes in at 11th place, Puma 14th and Mercedes-Benz far behind in 23rd, because each person reached cost the German marque a considerable $4.78.

Also struggling for sponsorship efficiency is DHL, one of F1′s official partners, ranking 32nd with its $10 million annually buying recognition among only 300,000 people.

A spokeswoman insisted to German business newspaper Handelsblatt: “This long-term partnership is for us one of the most powerful marketing platforms.”

A Spanish arbitration court has ruled that HRT team owner Jose Ramon Carabante owes almost 50 million euros to a business partner.

Mid last year, the payment dispute with Trinitario Casanova, from whom Carabante bought the Grupo Hispania in 2008, emerged, with each claiming the other owes them multiple millions.

The Madrid commercial court La Corte y Mercantil de Arbitraje ruled a few days ago that Carabante pay EUR 47.5 million to Casanova within 20 days, according to the La Verdad newspaper.

But according to another report in the Spanish newspaper Expansion, “Trinitario and I came to an agreement before” the ruling, Carabante is quoted as saying.

In the same report, Carabante defended HRT’s lacklustre debut season in 2010.

“We finished more races than many other teams, and Virgin, for instance – with a much higher budget – fell behind us,” he insisted.

“At first it was said we would not be at the first race, then it was said we would last two races, then three, and finally we finished the season with dignity,” added Carabante.

He also said HRT is close to reaching an agreement with an investor.

“We are in advanced negotiations for the entry of an international investor,” he announced. “It would be for a minority of capital because I don’t want to sell completely.”

The Colin Kolles-led team said on Friday that it has “expanded (its) resources” for 2011 and is confident of “becoming more competitive”.

Mikhail Aleshin is a contender to make his F1 debut next year with Force India, according to Finland’s Turun Sanomat.

His father and manager Peter revealed last month he is in talks with Vijay Mallya’s Silverstone based team as well as Lotus and Virgin about 2011.

The 23-year-old, who would be the second Russian in F1 after countryman Vitaly Petrov, recently secured the Renault World Series title and a test with the Renault team in Abu Dhabi later this month.

But he told the Sovetsky Sport newspaper that he does not have the full EUR 10-15 million in sponsorship that he needs to buy a seat for 2011.

“Now it’s the sponsors’ turn to decide,” said Aleshin, who is already backed by state-owned Gazprom and the tyre company Cordiant.

The holdup on Nico Hulkenberg’s contract extension for 2011 is because Williams wants him to commit for a very long time, according to a German report.

It has been reported that the British team is contemplating replacing the 2009 GP2 champion next year with the Venezuelan pay-driver Pastor Maldonado.

But Sir Frank Williams has now described 23-year-old German Hulkenberg as “exceptional”, raising doubts about the reason for the delay in his re-signing for 2011.

According to Sport Bild, the Oxfordshire based team wants him to sign a new five-year contract.

The deal will reportedly include a EUR15 million ‘out’ fee in the event that Hulkenberg wants to switch to a different team before the five year term is concluded.

Singapore telecommunications company SingTel has denied it has agreed a deal to extend its naming sponsorship of the city-state’s night grand prix.

“We agreed terms with SingTel for the renewal of their contract for a further two years,” F1 chief executive Bernie Ecclestone was quoted earlier by the local media broadcaster MediaCorp.

The news had followed rumours during Singapore’s third F1 event in September that SingTel was considering ending its association with the grand prix.

“We have companies worldwide that wish to have association in formula one and I always prefer to have local sponsors for the title sponsorship,” added Ecclestone.

A spokesman for SingTel told us on Friday: “We are still in discussions with F1 management regarding the sponsorship of the Singapore grand prix.”

An industry expert said SingTel would be spending $10-15 million on the deal.

“I don’t know what the cost is but I am sure somebody in SingTel must have done a cost-benefit analysis,” said Nervik Singh, chief executive of the marketing communications company Grey Group Asia Pacific.

Renault and Force India have emerged as the most likely teams to keep Nick Heidfeld’s formula one career alive beyond 2010.

Although returning from Mercedes and Pirelli test roles to complete the current season with Sauber, Heidfeld has not been signed for next season by the Swiss team, who are instead pitting the Telmex-backed rookie Sergio Perez alongside Kamui Kobayashi.

But veteran Heidfeld, revealing in Korea this week that he does not carry any personal sponsorship, has emerged as a candidate to replace the disappointing Russian pay-driver Vitaly Petrov at Renault.

Team boss Eric Boullier, suggesting that a decision could be made by Abu Dhabi next month, told Auto Motor und Sport: “Both Heidfeld and Sutil have a chance.”

Renault’s thinking is that, with a good driver alongside Robert Kubica this year, the team might have beaten Mercedes to fourth place in the constructors’ championship — with prize-money arguably beyond even Petrov’s impressive dowry.

Adrian Sutil, with a solid offer to stay at Force India, is also an interesting candidate, especially with his EUR5 million in Medion sponsorship to offer.

The good news for Heidfeld is that Sutil is also in the running for the Williams seat, and his departure to either Renault or Williams would free up the place at Force India.

“That place is only free if Sutil goes,” Heidfeld confirmed.

And if Sutil does go, the 33-year-old German must be a strong contender.

“It is hardly conceivable that Force India will go into 2011 with Vitantonio Liuzzi next to Paul di Resta — one a newcomer and another who has been disappointing,” said the German media report.

Pastor Maldonado has signed a deal to race alongside Rubens Barrichello at Williams in 2011.

That is the claim of Warm Up, the electronic version of Brazil’s Grande Premio publication.

The report said Maldonado, the new GP2 champion, will replace Nico Hulkenberg.

The 25-year-old Venezuelan reportedly inked the contract in the second week of October in Caracas, in the presence of a top official of the Grove based team and Maldonado’s sponsor PDVSA, the state-owned petroleum company.

The report said Williams essentially had no choice, amid the prospect of losing four main sponsors – RBS, Philips, AirAsia and McGregor – at the end of the current season.

PDVSA will reportedly pay EUR 15 million for Maldonado’s seat.

Williams has been contacted for comment.

With just three races left to run in his rookie season, Nico Hulkenberg admits he is still yet to sign a new contract for 2011.

It is believed that while Williams has secured the services of veteran Rubens Barrichello for another year, the Grove based team is looking seriously at the $15 million in sponsorship offered by Hulkenberg’s successor as GP2 champion, the Venezualan Pastor Maldonado.

That would leave 23-year-old German Hulkenberg without a seat, despite arriving on the F1 grid just seven months ago with arguably a more impressive formative racing record than Lewis Hamilton.

“I’m doing my job and I’m confident about what I’m doing,” he is quoted by the German-language Speed Week.

“I cannot do more.  I would like to stay with Williams because I believe next year’s car will be competitive, because I feel comfortable in the team and get along with my teammate very well.

“I’m hoping for a new contract,” added Hulkenberg.

But the British tabloid The Sun believes dramatically that the ‘Hulk is facing incredible axe’, with Force India’s Adrian Sutil also linked with his seat and reportedly offering $3m in backing.

Another report in the Evening Standard recently said Williams’ combined losses in the past five years amount to more than $9 million, with profits falling 50 per cent last year on top of millions in debt.

Williams’ minority co-owner Christian ‘Toto’ Wolff is known to be a keen Hulkenberg supporter, but he admits the team’s driver situation is presently in the air.

“At the moment everything is possible — we are currently trying to get as much information as possible,” he said in an interview with motorline.cc.

“Generally speaking, the team is making great progress,” added Austrian Wolff.

Force India is already missing the input of its departed technical director James Key.

The team is locked in a close battle with Williams for sixth and seventh places in the constructors’ championships, which some analysts believe is worth $5 million.

Force India has had some difficult races recently, including in Singapore, where Adrian Sutil and Vitantonio Liuzzi qualified on the 8th and 9th rows of the grid.

The Silverstone based team and Williams then had a bitter post-race argument in the stewards’ office, with Sutil initially penalised for cutting a corner and then Force India lodging a protest about Nico Hulkenberg doing the same.

Sutil confided to Auto Motor und Sport that the loss of Briton Key to Sauber has not been without consequence.

“I actually thought there would be no problem,” said the German, who is thought to be close to deciding whether or not to stay at Force India beyond 2010.

“I have confidence in the people who have taken over,” Sutil continued.  “His successor Mark Smith is doing a good job, but I’m sorry to say that we have lost ground.

“It’s no longer easy for us to get into the top ten in qualifying.

“You only see how good a person really is when he is no longer there,” said the 27-year-old driver.