After Sergio Perez’s surprise push for victory in Malaysia three weeks ago, things are looking bright on the Sauber balance-sheet.

The small Swiss team announced in Shanghai that it is continuing its deal to promote the North American country with colourful ‘Visit Mexico’ signage.

“We can assume that our good results in the first two grands prix have contributed to the renewing of the agreement,” said team boss Peter Sauber.

Not only that, another big deal is on the way, according to the well-connected Swiss publication Blick.

During Friday practice in China, the C31 was bearing mysterious ‘Out of the blue’ signage on the engine cover.

It is a ‘teaser’, the newspaper revealed.

“A big sponsor will be announced in a few weeks,” wrote the veteran correspondent Roger Benoit.

That is good financial news for Sauber, but Perez – who finished second three weeks ago at Sepang – is not getting carried away.

The Mexican was fourth in first practice in China.

“I think we are really realistic as a team,” Perez is quoted by AFP news agency.

“I think in normal conditions this (second place) is not where we belong, we have to be very realistic and our target is still to score as many points as possible.”

New media reports have contradicted claims French PM Francois Fillon will on Friday announce the country’s 2013 return to the formula one calendar.

Le Parisien newspaper on Thursday said Fillon’s visit to the Paul Ricard circuit on Friday is to confirm the successful end to long negotiations to revive the French grand prix.

Those negotiations were for Paul Ricard to annually alternate a race date with Belgium’s fabled Spa Francorchamps.

But the French-language RMC insists that Belgium is “not ready for the alternation”.

“If France has received a contract to organise a grand prix every other year, this is not the case for the Belgian promoters, who are still waiting for the document to send to the government of Wallonia,” the report read.

RMC said the hold-up could be because Spa is having trouble paying its sanctioning fee for this year’s race date in September.

The French magazine Sport-Auto agrees, insisting that Fillon “will not announce the return of the grand prix de France on Friday”.

“The prime minister will travel to the (Paul Ricard) circuit,” an official close to Fillon is quoted as saying by AFP news agency, but Fillon “will not announce the return of the grand prix to the calendar in 2013″.

The official, however, said Bernie Ecclestone as approved “in principle” France’s presence on the calendar every other year, beginning in 2013.

But “It (the alternation) will not necessarily be with Belgium,” the report added.

In an interview to be published by the Nice-Matin newspaper on Friday, Fillon is quoted as saying a grand prix is crucial to France.

“Bernie Ecclestone has just sent us a draft contract,” said the prime minister, “which is the result of negotiations that began several months ago.

“We now have a concrete basis for discussions,” he added.

 Singapore, the southeast Asian city-state and the scene of F1′s annual street night race, could be at the centre of the sport’s plans for the future.
Sky News reports that Temasek Holdings, one of Singapore’s principal sovereign wealth funds, has been approached by F1′s majority owner CVC with a proposal to buy into the sport.

It is also rumoured that F1 could be floated on the Singapore stock exchange.

F1 chief executive Bernie Ecclestone admitted last November that, “It would be better (for CVC) to float the company in Singapore than sell it”.

The Singapore Exchange (SGX) would not comment.

“It is not our practice to publicly comment on our dealings with individual entities,” a spokeswoman told the AFP news agency.

Organisers of the inaugural Indian grand prix have sold 80,000 tickets ahead of Sunday’s race.
The capacity of the new Buddh circuit is 120,000, the AFP news agency said.

“We have sold close to 80,000 tickets which is pretty encouraging considering that its the first F1 race ever in the country,” said a spokesman for race promoter Jaypee.

“Of course we would have been happier had we sold off 90 per cent tickets because ticket sales are the only source of revenue for us. But there are still a few days to go and we are keeping our fingers crossed,” he added.

In a late bid to fill the circuit, tickets are now being sold at a discounted rate.

London’s Telegraph correspondent Tom Cary wrote on Tuesday that the Buddh circuit is “rough and almost ready” for Sunday’s race.

“But what do you expect?” smiled the country’s motor federation president Vicky Chandhok. “I think people anticipated worse.”

This weekend is proof that India, now a major economic player on the global scale, has also arrived in formula one.

“I would not put it past the (race promoter) Jaypee Group to start investing in a formula one team,” said Chandhok. “That may be the next step.”

Sebastian Vettel has hinted he might be willing to give up a race victory to help his team perform a perfect score in 2011.
Red Bull and the 24-year-old German have already secured the constructors’ and drivers’ world championships, but Mark Webber currently lies in only fourth place behind Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button with three races left to run.

Webber has failed to win a single race in 2011 compared with Vettel’s ten so far, so the Australian might need some help to curb the 13-point gap to second place.

“With three races left, we hope for the best results possible for ourselves but also for the team,” Vettel is quoted by the AFP news agency.

Agreed team boss Christian Horner: “He (Webber) has had a very strong year and we want to get him second in the drivers’ championship.

“That’s our remaining target for the remainder of the year — to get him a race win and finish the season in style.”

When asked if that might involve him giving up a win so that Webber can reach the top step of the podium, Vettel answered: “Yeah, definitely.”

Ferrari has joined Red Bull in questioning the viability of the formula one teams alliance FOTA.
Amid fears some teams are breaking the gentleman’s cost-limiting agreement and faltering talks in Korea, Red Bull chief Christian Horner said the group needs to shape up “or we’ll stop”.

According to a French language report by the AFP news agency, his Ferrari counterpart Stefano Domenicali also has grave concerns.

“In terms of the cost cutting (disagreement), we can no longer afford to continue like this,” said the Italian, referring to the burgeoning debate.

“If there is no trust, there is no need to go forward,” added Domenicali.

“We know why FOTA was put together so we need to understand whether we still need it. What are the objectives for the future of FOTA, if it has a future?”

The news of the fracturing alliance will be music to the ears of Bernie Ecclestone, who would prefer to negotiate separately with the teams as F1 looks towards its next Concorde Agreement.

 Paul di Resta is not sure if the news of Force India’s part-sale will affect his future.
Boss Vijay Mallya – who now owns an equal 42.5 per cent share in the Silverstone based team rather than a majority, controlling stake – announced recently that he will not decide the 2012 driver lineup until mid December.

The fact the decision will be taken so late had raised eyebrows within the F1 paddock, so whether the deadline still stands now that Sahara’s Subrato Roy is now also in charge is not known.

“At this point I don’t know how the structure will work within the team,” rookie Scot di Resta is quoted as saying in Korea by the AFP news agency.

He said he knows Mallya remains team principal for now.

“The team have said they’re going to do it (the driver decision) in December. Whenever they want to do it, they will do it,” he added.

The inaugural running of last month’s Korean grand prix has been brought into question with a piece of emerging news on Thursday.

Although F1′s FIA inspectors cleared the bespoke venue in Yeongam for the October 24 event, it has emerged that state inspectors have deemed mobile stands unsafe for an international F3 race scheduled for late November.

Organiser Barry Bland said in a statement: “(Local promoter) KAVO have had to cancel the (event) due to Force Majeure.”

He said the reason was a “legal technicality with the circuit”, and a KAVO spokesman told AFP news agency that the cancellation is due to “delayed approval from inspectors”.

KAVO, or Korea Auto Valley Operation, is a joint private venture involving the Jeollanam-do regional government.

The spokesman Kim Jae-Ho said the decision will not affect next year’s Korean grand prix, unconditionally scheduled on the 2011 calendar for 16 October.

“We will do our best to build complete mobile stands,” he said.

“Compared to the lack of experience, we believe the first F1 race was staged in a satisfactory way, but we need to make perfect preparations for the F3 race next year,” the spokesman added.

Spa-Francorchamps fell more than 10,000 tickets short of its spectator target for the recent Belgian grand prix.

Only 52,500 spectators attended last Sunday’s race, after the organisers had targeted the figure of 65,000 in order to “achieve a balanced financial position”.

Crowds well above 100,000 were regularly recorded early last decade.

According to the AFP news agency in a French language report, the organisers are concerned about seeing the event’s local government funding reduced when the current contract expires in 2012.

“It is necessary to reduce the impact of this event on the finances of the Walloon region,” admitted local economy minister Jean-Claude Marcourt.

Added budget minister Andre Antoine: “It doesn’t mean we intend to end the contract. But at the time of negotiation, it (the finances) will be borne in mind.”

It was reported in August that Spa is under threat from potential rival hosts who can offer much higher annual promotional fees to formula one.

One solution known to be under consideration for Spa-Francorchamps is an annual race-alternating scheme with another European circuit.

“We are playing with the idea. That is the current situation, even if we are not quite at that stage,” Spa president Etienne Davignon told hln.be.

The actual financial figures for the 2010 event will only be known in October, and Spa official Andre Maes is not jumping to any conclusions.

“Obviously the horrible weather all weekend was little incentive for people to come,” he said.

Construction of Korea’s formula one circuit is running late.

Based on a statement provided by race promoters KAVO on Tuesday, it was reported by multiple outlets that construction of the track in Joellanam-do province is “on schedule”.

The reports follow rumours that F1 chief executive Bernie Ecclestone is lining up a potential replacement host for Korea, amid reports construction might have been delayed by the regional political situation.

The inaugural Korean grand prix is scheduled for October 24.

A KAVO official told AFP news agency that the track will be ready at the end of August at the latest.

“Our initial plan was to complete it in July but construction has been delayed,” he said, without giving details.

Entering formula one will not cause Pirelli to increase its budget, chairman Marco Tronchetti Provera said on Thursday.

The Italian company has won its bid to succeed the sport’s departing exclusive supplier Bridgestone in 2011, but its boss played down suggestions the sport is still extremely expensive for participants.

Tronchetti Provera confirmed that teams are paying Pirelli for service over the next three years, adding that the cost to the marque “will be zero compared to our budget”.

And “the advertising campaign … will be switched from other races where we’ve reduced our presence, first of all rallying, where there are new rules starting next year”, he is quoted as saying by the AFP news agency.

“We’ll reduce our budget in other racing (categories) and be fully dedicated to formula one,” he said, although Pirelli will also supply GP2 and GP3 next year.

Meanwhile, Pirelli’s director of motorsport Paul Hembrey played down reports the unraced 2010 Toyota car will be used by the marque for F1 tyre testing.

Revealing that a GP2 car will be used instead, he said as “a test-bed, particularly for integrity reasons, reliability and stability, it’s probably a good starting point”.
(GMM)

Renault wants to build its team around Robert Kubica.

That is the claim of the team’s new majority owner Gerard Lopez, amid rising speculation that Pole Kubica is being lined up for a 2011 switch to Ferrari.

In the wake of the French carmaker’s part-withdrawal from F1 at the end of 2009, Kubica has been widely credited for Renault’s solid season so far this year.

The 25-year-old looks particularly impressive on the streets of Monaco, where Lopez admitted that Renault is willing to fully embrace Kubica’s presence into the future.

“He is in a unique position, as a racer, to have a team built around him now and we see it that way,” Lopez, who announced he has sold a share of the team to oil company PetroSaudi CEO and friend Tarek Obaid, is quoted by the AFP news agency.

Kubica declined to comment about his future in Monaco.

(GMM)