Valencia will not be on next year’s F1 calendar, Bernie Ecclestone said on Saturday.

He confirmed that, starting in 2013, an annually alternating deal between the Spanish port city and Barcelona will begin.

Barcelona, the scene of this weekend’s Spanish grand prix, will host the race in 2013, before Valencia returns to the schedule in 2014, the F1 chief executive told Reuters.

Less secure, meanwhile, is France’s touted spot on the 2013 calendar, particularly with the country’s new anti-F1 president Francois Hollande now taking power.

Until recently, the F1 chief executive was saying Paul Ricard was set to join the 2013 calendar, annually alternating a race date with Belgium’s Spa Francorchamps.

As for the state of the deal now, the 81-year-old admitted: “I have no idea. No idea what they (France) are doing.

“It’s a funny arrangement they were making anyway. So I just don’t know.”

Ecclestone is also working on a new deal for the popular Canadian grand prix, having told promoter Francois Dumontier that the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve needs to be upgraded.

“There are two ways of looking at it,” Dumontier, in the paddock of the Circuit de Catalunya, is quoted by La Presse newspaper.

“Either Bernie requires an annual fee windfall, or he will charge a reasonable fee and ask in return for investment in the infrastructure.”

He said the contract on the table is for 10 more years, taking Montreal’s existing deal through 2024.

Ecclestone said on Saturday that he is sure an agreement will be reached, because Canada is one of F1′s most loved destinations.

“I remember saying to Bernie, ‘New York, Austin, I don’t know why you want to go there. Your sure bet is Montreal’. He knows that.

“He’s been in Montreal for 34 years. And in the 22 years of the grands prix in the United States, they’ve had eight different cities.

“He said ‘You’re right’,” added Dumontier.

Another rumour, repeated by The Times’ Kevin Eason on Saturday, is that the planned 2014 Russian grand prix in Sochi “is doomed”.

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.”

Monaco has made changes to its famous street circuit in the wake of Sergio Perez’s high-speed crash last year.

Ahead of his debut Monaco race, Mexican Perez lost control of his Sauber on the exit of the tunnel in qualifying, sustaining concussion when he hit the chicane barrier.

Perez sat out the subsequent Canadian grand prix and later admitted it had taken him most of the rest of the season to recover completely.

L’Automobile Club de Monaco, the organisers of the annual race in the Principality, have announced that the severity of the bumps on the approach to the harbour chicane have been carefully reduced ahead of late May’s event.

And the ‘Tecpro’ wall that Perez hit has been moved back by almost 15 metres, the Spanish sports newspaper Marca added.

F1 chief Bernie Ecclestone has long hoped to bring the world’s most lucrative motor sports championship to the New York City area and that will be realised as a deal was reached with a consortium of investors and city and state governments.

Formula One will unveil a New Jersey Grand Prix for the 2013 season, the mayor of West New York told Reuters on Monday.

New Jersey governor Chris Christie will announce the deal at a press conference in Weehawken, New Jersey, on Tuesday.

“This is going to be an economic boom for this whole region. While political and public servants talk about creating jobs, the governor has put the pedal to the metal and delivered,” West New York mayor Felix Roque told Reuters.

“This is the top of the line in motor racing, it’s incredible.”

The race will run along the Hudson River in Weehawken and West New York, according to Joe DeMarco, an attorney with West New York.

“It will provide a very challenging course – they compare it to Spa in Belgium, but will have the feel of Monaco,” said DeMarco, who added that the race will take place on a four-lane highway, two lanes in each direction.

The proposed course should offer easy access to New York city residents and visitors staying in central hotels.

DeMarco said that it was hoped the event would become a long-term part of the global F1 calendar.

“It has been contemplated to at least run for ten years but there are options and so on depending on the success of it,” said DeMarco. “Hopefully it will be a long term event, embraced by residents and the community.”

The US returns to the Formula One calendar next year with a stop in Austin, Texas, but the New Jersey race will provide a cost-effective way to twin the event with the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal.

F1 had previously held races in the state of New York at the track at Watkins Glen in Schuyler County, some 250 miles from New York City.

Watkins Glen International held the United States Grand Prix from 1961 to 1980 while F1 races have also been held at Long Beach in California, Las Vegas, Detroit, Dallas, Phoenix and Indianapolis.

The last F1 race in the US was held at Indianapolis in 2007 and was won by British McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton.

Jean Alesi has welcomed news his native France looks set to rejoin the formula one calendar.
It is expected that, three years after Magny Cours dropped off the schedule, France will return in 2013 with a single annual date to be alternated between Paul Ricard and Belgium’s Spa-Francorchamps.

“The drivers love Spa and I think it is very important to always go there because of the spectacle, the history and everything else,” Frenchman Alesi, who contested more than 200 grands prix until 2011, said.

“But the problem is the money,” the 1995 Canadian grand prix winner and Group Lotus ambassador is quoted by France’s Auto Hebdo.

“Spa doesn’t have enough (money) to compete with places like Abu Dhabi. So it would be a shame to lose Spa but I say it’s better to go every other year than not at all.

“The compromise would be beneficial for everyone. As I am French, I would love to see the French grand prix coming back,” added Alesi, “and with the sharing (scheme), we can have both (France and Spa).”

Sergio Perez felt dizzy on Friday after returning to the wheel of his Sauber.
The Mexican rookie pulled out of the recent Canadian grand prix weekend when he felt dizzy, two weeks after his heavy qualifying crash in Monaco.

But his Swiss employer said on Friday that Perez, 21, will contest the rest of the event on the streets of Valencia.

“At the beginning of the first session I still felt dizzy,” Perez told the Spanish news agency EFE, “but as it went on I felt better and in the end I felt good.

“Tomorrow (Saturday) I hope to be 100 per cent. I think it’s a normal situation as the body gets slowly used to it again. The second session was much better,” he explained.

Perez said he had trained and prepared hard for his Valencia comeback, almost a month after his hospitalisation in Monaco.

“I think we have succeeded,” he added.

Lewis Hamilton is still in the fight for the 2011 world championship.
That is the insistence of his father Anthony Hamilton, who after splitting with the McLaren driver as manager now handles the career of Force India rookie Paul di Resta.

Even before crashing out of the recent Canadian grand prix, 26-year-old Hamilton said of Sebastian Vettel’s runaway points lead: “He’s gone, he’s on his way.”

Then, in the Montreal race, Hamilton’s retirement dropped him behind his teammate Jenson Button and also Mark Webber in the drivers’ standings, a full 76 points shy of Vettel’s lead.

“For me, Valencia will be a weekend of consolidation after two disappointing results in Monaco and Canada,” said the Briton.

But Hamilton’s father thinks a merely solid result is an underestimation of his son’s true potential, tipping him to take the chequered flag by the time of the season finale in late November.

“If I were a gambling man, I’d put some money on Lewis winning the championship this year,” Hamilton snr told the Daily Mail. “You’ll get some great odds. He can do it.”

At present, 2008 world champion Hamilton is about 14/1 to win his second title in 2011, while Red Bull’s Vettel is the overwhelming odds-on favourite.

Said Lewis Hamilton: “We’ve arguably had the fastest race car in the last three races, and that’s really encouraging because I know that, when it’s put to best use, I should be able to finish at the front.”

Bruno Senna could soon replace Nick Heidfeld in injured regular Robert Kubica’s Renault race seat.
According to Auto Motor und Sport, team owner Gerard Lopez spent some time before the Canadian grand prix in reserve driver Senna’s native Brazil.

The Luxembourg businessman was reportedly looking for sponsors, on the assumption 27-year-old Senna is drafted in to replace German Heidfeld, who is under pressure by the Enstone based team to up his pace.

Renault figures have played down recent rumours of financial trouble, but the German magazine insists the team “desperately needs money”, including to pay outstanding bills to its engine supplier.

It is believed, however, that 34-year-old Heidfeld’s place is not immediately in doubt, despite him crashing out in Montreal after hitting the rear of Kamui Kobayashi’s Sauber.

“Until the crash, his race had been perfect,” said team boss Eric Boullier.

Not long after some were calling time on Michael Schumacher’s poor comeback, the seven time world champion raced almost to the podium in the chaotic Canadian grand prix.
“That’s sport; the situation changes quickly,” said Mercedes’ motor racing vice-president Norbert Haug.

“It showed he can still do a good job if we can give him the right car,” the German is quoted by Italy’s Tuttosport.

Haug told L’Equipe: “It’s like what happened with his brother Ralf in DTM. He had a lot of criticism but is now doing good results.”

Indeed, during the weekend at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve rumours abounded that Schumacher, 42, was set to sign a two-year extension to his current contract, which is set to expire at the end of next season.

The rumours were based on the German’s claim that it will probably be after 2012 that Mercedes will reap the benefits of the groundwork being laid now.

“I heard the speculation and it was an interpretation of my comments,” said Schumacher. “I still have the three seasons to complete and will decide my future soon also on the basis of the results.”

Also on his “five years” comments, L’Equipe quoted Schumacher as saying: “It (a contract extension) is not what I meant.

“At the right time we will talk about the future.”

Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo said he had noted Schumacher’s performance in Canada, in which he came the closest so far to securing a comeback podium.

“I find it incredible that in a year in a half he has failed to do so,” the Italian told Sky Sports 24.

“I was pleased to see him up there and do not forget all that he gave to us,” said Montezemolo.

Many race-goers walked out of the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve during the Canadian grand prix’s excruciatingly-long rain delay.
“Stay or go? That was the question that haunted the soaked audience on Sunday afternoon,” wrote La Presse.

The Montreal rain caused the F1 world and its global television audience to wait more than two hours for the rain to stop.

But spare a thought for the drenched local spectators who had nothing to watch but the rivers running down the track.

“I never thought about leaving,” one spectator, who travelled from New York with his brother, said. “We came too far to give up that easily!”

A Montreal local added: “I have waited for this all year. It’s the biggest sports event in Canada.”

The press office for the race promoters would not speculate upon the percentage of the crowd that remained until the late chequered flag, but spectators guessed that between 25 and 50 per cent went home.

“It was just common sense,” said one departee, who had come with his 10-year-old son. “It was like a flood and not at all fun in those conditions.

“But we still had a great weekend in Montreal,” he added.

A spectator from New Jersey also left: “It was like being in the centre of a typhoon, with the rain so strong I dared not move from my seat. I can understand why they had to suspend the race.”

Another couple had attended every Canadian grand prix since 1978 but decided to leave when the red flags were waved.

“Anyway, Vettel is going to win,” said the woman at the exit.

Lewis Hamilton “goes a bit too far”, is “clumsy” or “completely mad”, depending on who you listened to after the Canadian grand prix. After several run-ins with the stewards this year, the McLaren driver was involved in more incidents in Montreal, including one that moved his teammate Jenson Button to exclaim on the radio: “What is he doing?” The pair and boss Martin Whitmarsh later played down the incident and the stewards took no action after an investigation, but Mark Webber hit out at Hamilton’s earlier “clumsy” manoeuvre that tipped him into a spin. “I think Lewis thought the chequered flag was in turn three,” said the Australian dryly. F1 legend Sir Stirling Moss said on BBC radio that he thinks Hamilton, 26, often “goes a bit too far” now that he is no longer managed by his father. On RTL television, Niki Lauda went much further: “He is completely mad. At some point, there has to be an end to all the jokes. You cannot drive like this — as it will result in someone getting killed.” But the stewards remained calm, also when after the race investigating a collision between Button and Fernando Alonso that threatened the former’s victory. Alonso was unhappy with the decision. “The McLaren is an indestructible car,” he said, apparently referring also to Button’s contact with his teammate. “The officials have investigated but I have a different opinion,” Alonso told Spanish reporters. “I think when we finally get our luck back we’ll win a championship in half a season,” he rued.

A stormy weekend of weather has been forecast for Montreal’s Canadian grand prix.
That is one more variable thrown in the face of Red Bull’s current dominance, alongside expected high tyre degradation, two ‘DRS’ overtaking zones for the first time and the fact that McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton dominated a year ago.

“I’ve always got on really well with the track, the layout seems to suit my driving style,” said the Briton, referring to the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.

“We have a great engine, the best KERS system in the sport and excellent traction out of slow corners. I’ll be looking for a strong result on Sunday,” added Hamilton.

As in Canada last year, 64-year-old former double world champion Emerson Fittipaldi will be the driver representative in the stewards’ room.

Peter Sauber on Sunday said he is “very optimistic” Sergio Perez will be in action this weekend in Canada.
The Mexican rookie spent two nights in a Monaco hospital with concussion and a bruised thigh after his high speed qualifying crash.

He must be cleared by FIA doctors before getting the green light to race this weekend.

But team boss Sauber wrote in the Swiss Sonntagsblick newspaper that, after the 21-year-old’s hospital stay and some further rest days in the Principality, Perez was at the weekend examined in a speciality clinic in Zurich.

“The results were positive, so we are very optimistic that he will be at the start in Canada,” he said.

Sauber revealed that the FIA doctors will examine Perez on the Thursday before the Canadian grand prix in Montreal.

Despite playing down the rumours mere days ago, Virgin boss John Booth on Friday confirmed Robert Wickens as the team’s new reserve driver.
It had been reported Canadian Wickens, 22, backed substantially by Virgin team sponsor and investor Marussia, was set to join the British based team.

But Booth said two weeks ago: “Robert is concentrating on his Renault series.”

However, Virgin Racing announced on Friday that he has signed on as a 2011 reserve driver alongside Japanese Sakon Yamamoto.

“Toronto-born Robert will attend each of the remaining grands prix where there is no clash with the Formula Renault 3.5 series, with effect from next weekend’s Canadian grand prix”, said the team.

“We are delighted to welcome him to Virgin Racing’s roster of reserve drivers,” said Booth.

It has been reported Wickens is first in line should race driver Jerome d’Ambrosio’s sponsors continue to delay their payments.

Sauber on Friday was uncertain Sergio Perez will be back in the C30 for next weekend’s Canadian grand prix.
The Mexican rookie spent two days in hospital but has now returned home after his big crash during qualifying in Monaco.

On Friday, his Swiss team Sauber explained that – because the 21-year-old was concussed – he will have to “pass the usual medical test with the FIA doctors” before being cleared to race in Montreal.

“I feel very good and fit. Of course I want to race in Montreal, but I also know the final decision is up to the FIA doctors,” he said.

Perez revealed he had to call off his scheduled session in the Ferrari simulator this week due to his crash.

“Anyway, it is not the first unknown circuit for me and I have never had difficulties adapting,” he said. “I found it very hard to be just a TV spectator for the race in Monaco, and can’t wait to get into the car again.”

Team technical director James Key sounded confident the FIA doctors will give Perez the green light.

“When I spoke to him he sounded very well and was looking forward to getting back to work. We are looking forward to having him back in the car,” he said on Friday.