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”.

Fernando Alonso has denied Ferrari is on the verge of giving up on the 2012 championship.

The Maranello based team has brought significant updates to its so far disappointing F2012 car for this weekend’s Spanish grand prix.

Imagining the single seater doesn’t make a major step forward in Barcelona, Alonso was asked whether Ferrari might start turning its focus to an all-new project for 2013.

“We’ll see, we’ll see after the race, because we don’t know what car we have (yet),” the Spaniard told reporters on Thursday. “I answer you on Sunday.”

Alonso said more updates for the F2012 are also scheduled for the forthcoming Monaco and Canadian grands prix.

But what if the Barcelona changes leave Ferrari with a midfield car? Would the time be right to get an early jump on the 2013 project?

“I don’t think so,” answered Alonso. “If the step is not good enough … we need to work harder, for Monaco and for Canada, and bring more new parts in a more aggressive approach.

“The championship is long and we will never give up in May,” he insisted.

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.

A race seat with Virgin could be the next step for Canadian Robert Wickens.

Driving in Virgin and title sponsor Marussia’s colours this season, the 22-year-old wrapped up the Renault World Series championship in Spain last weekend while F1 raced at Suzuka.

“We look forward to celebrating with him this weekend in Korea,” announced Virgin’s F1 team boss John Booth.

A few months ago, Wickens was announced as the F1 team’s new reserve driver.

And while the formula one world was in Japan last weekend, the Belgian newspaper De Morgen reported that Wickens is in the running for a 2012 seat because he has “more (sponsorship) money” to offer than Jerome d’Ambrosio.

Wickens told the Toronto newspaper Globe and Mail: “F1 has always been the goal in my whole career and now I am the closest I have ever been.

“Definitely, I will switch now to trying to secure a seat for next year.

“At the end of the day, if I could get corporate Canada’s support it would be a dream come true.”

A race contract for an inaugural Bulgarian grand prix in 2012 could be signed as soon as next month, according to the head of the south east European country’s motor racing federation.

A proposed race in Bulgaria has been on the table for some time, including when F1 chief executive met with the country’s economy minister at Monza last month.

If talks with a funding consortium reportedly comprised of Arab, US and Canadian companies and the government go well, Ecclestone could travel to capital Sofia to sign the contract between November 15 and December 15, Bogdan Nikolov told the Sofia news agency Novinite.

The report said Bulgaria aims to be unique on the F1 calendar by having an asphalt surface that can be artificially heated.

Nikolov, chairman of the Bulgarian Motorcycling Federation, added that the circuit will bid for both F1 and its two-wheeled equivalent MotoGP.

“We have created a project that meets the requirements of both FIA and (MotoGP governing body) FIM,” he said.

Jacques Villeneuve has admitted he wants Mark Webber to beat his Red Bull teammate Sebastian Vettel to the 2010 title.

The 1997 world champion, in Australia for a touring car race, said the Australian driver has been “amazing” in the face of difficult conditions.

“He’s been very strong mentally, it’s the best he’s ever driven, and the team has been against him as well,” said Villeneuve, referring to Webber’s struggle for status alongside the rising star Vettel in 2010.

Earlier this week, French Canadian Villeneuve said he thinks Webber has a mental advantage over Vettel, who he denounced as “spoilt” by Red Bull.

The German newspaper Die Welt said Villeneuve’s opinion is widespread within the driver camp, its headline announcing that Vettel is “unpopular among his colleagues”.

Rubens Barrichello said the ill-feeling can be traced back to Silverstone, where Webber triumphed despite publicly declaring he felt like a “number 2 driver”.

Red Bull has pledged equality, at least for the three-race run to the Abu Dhabi finale, but team boss Christian Horner thinks the team has bigger problems.

“We are going to have to reckon with tactical games,” said the Briton, referring to Ferrari’s clear system of preference as Felipe Massa supports Fernando Alonso’s title charge.

“Our philosophy,” added Horner, “is different.”

Red Bull has pledged driver equality for the 2010 title fight, whilst openly admitting that Sebastian Vettel is regarded as the man of the future.

“The main thing now is that we become world champions,” said Helmut Marko, who was accused earlier this year of wanting Vettel to beat Australian Webber to the top spot.

But with Webber 14 points clear, and Vettel level-pegging with Ferrari’s chasing Fernando Alonso, the Austrian-owned team must give the 34-year-old an unimpeded run to the chequered flag.

For the future, however, Red Bull’s ambitions are well known.

“I repeat: we are building the team around Sebastian,” team boss Christian Horner is quoted by Auto Bild.

“Sebastian has a long career ahead of him and hopefully he will spend it with us,” said the Briton. “Mark is in the autumn of his career.

“He wants to retire while he’s at the top, not when he’s past his peak like some other drivers,” added Horner.

1997 world champion Jacques Villeneuve, however, thinks Red Bull are making a mistake by giving 23-year-old Vettel so much cover.

“Just look at the differing seasons Mark and Sebastian have had,” the French Canadian is quoted by the Telegraph.

“Vettel has shown he has an impetuous streak but if he makes a mistake and the team don’t tell him it was his fault, he won’t learn.

“It’s Red Bull’s fault for spoiling him,” insisted Villeneuve.

The plans for a formula one team are reportedly still alive, but Villeneuve/Durango is now more likely to turn its attention to NASCAR.

Ivone Pinton, principal of the Italian team Durango that pulled out of GP2 in 2009 with financial problems, echoed Jacques Villeneuve’s comments of last month that the collaboration is looking to buy one of the existing F1 teams.

Colin Kolles said in September that the rumours linking the struggling HRT team with Durango left him “speechless”.

But Durango’s Pinton insists F1 is a real option, telling the Italian website 422race.com that he and the 1997 world champion Villeneuve are “still working together” and in talks with “a couple of” the sport’s current teams.

“If we can do it in 2011, fine.  Otherwise we will go on working on it,” he explained.

French Canadian Villeneuve told the Canadian media last month that another option is to switch focus to NASCAR.

Pinton agreed, explaining that a successful foray in North America could precede a later attempt to “do things well in Europe”.

“This (NASCAR) is the most logical and possible situation,” he said.  “It’s useless to do something if you aren’t sure of the quality.  And we already saw how it is to do F1 without quality.”

Jacques Villeneuve has admitted to being annoyed that his plans for a formula one team were publicly leaked.

The 1997 world champion is bidding to re-enter the sport as a constructor next year in collaboration with the Italian former GP2 outfit Durango.

But Germany’s Auto Bild quoted Villeneuve, 39, as indicating he sees it as an unfair advantage that his opponents for the 13th team entry have not been similarly outed.

It is believed the only other contenders for the grid space are Stefan GP and Epsilon Euskadi.

But the French Canadian said: “I have no idea who or what we are fighting against.

“Everything was kept quiet and we were happy with it that way.  But someone who is not even part of the project decided to talk about it.  That’s pretty annoying.

“I can’t really say anything, because we don’t have all the facts yet,” added Villeneuve.

Earlier, he was quoted as saying Epsilon Euskadi’s declaration that it is testing a wind tunnel model of its 2011 car is like “putting the cart before the horse”.

He also refused to confirm or deny reports that the three 2011 hopefuls have been summoned to an interview later this week with the FIA in Paris.

But Villeneuve did confirm that he is no longer affiliated with Stefan GP.

Michael Schumacher on Thursday accused British pundits of exaggerating their criticisms in the wake of his performance in the Canadian grand prix.

His former teammate Martin Brundle had said the seven time world champion drove “appallingly badly” in Montreal, while fellow BBC commentators Eddie Jordan and David Coulthard also criticised Schumacher.

“I don’t take them seriously because there are different elements to formula one, and one part is showbusiness,” the 41-year-old is quoted by PA Sport in Valencia, a street circuit on which he has never raced.

Schumacher said he is “quite happy” with his return to F1 so far, and Mercedes team chief executive Nick Fry said he is doing “an excellent job despite what I understand has been said about Michael”.

“All in all,” argued Schumacher, “I don’t think there are many guys around the world who, at 41, come back after a three year break and compete at this high a level.”
(GMM)

His McLaren job involved a much higher salary, but Pedro de la Rosa is not keen to go back to mere test driving.

At 39, the Spaniard returned with Sauber to the formula one grid this year after a long spell helping McLaren develop its cars.

The C29, however, has not been a good car, and de la Rosa said after the Canadian grand prix that he is “available” for future employment “even if I have to go back testing or as a reserve driver”.

But in interview with El Pais newspaper, de la Rosa insists he is much happier with an actual race seat, even if he is paid “three times less” than he was by McLaren.

“I have enough goals … I want to be the oldest champion in history,” he said.  “Fangio won at 45, and (at that age) was just as good!”

Salary aside, there are other ironies: such as the fact that when he was at McLaren, he learned the layout of the Valencia circuit on the Woking based team’s state-of-the-art simulator.

But now that he actually has to race on the streets of the port city this weekend, Sauber does not have a simulator.

(GMM)

Bridgestone is taking a radical approach to next month’s German grand prix.

After extreme degradation and graining was credited for spicing up the recent Canadian grand prix, many paddock regulars suggested that it is the sport’s approach to tyres that that should be targeted for producing more exciting races.

F1′s sole tyre supplier announced on Monday that for the Hockenheim round late next month, the compounds on offer will be vastly different.

Both supplied compounds must be used at least once during grands prix, and in Germany, they will be the Montreal-spec ‘super soft’ as well as Bridgestone’s hardest tyre.

It is the first time there have been two hardness steps between the supplied compounds.

“The characteristics of the Hockenheim circuit allow us to bring the compounds from the extremes of our softness range,” confirmed head of development Hirohide Hamashima.

“This will give us very good data for evaluation and will be interesting for those who have called for a bigger difference between the allocated tyres.”

He explained that a similar approach was not possible for the subsequent Hungarian, Belgian, Italian and Singapore rounds.

“The Hungaroring requires a softer allocation as finding grip is always a target there.  Spa and Monza are high speed tests for cars and tyres, needing a harder allocation because of the heat durability requirements.

“Singapore is a high-speed street course where the softer allocation is suited,” said Hamashima.

Bridgestone said the compound allocation for the final five rounds of 2010 will be made later in the year.

(GMM)

Jun.18 (GMM)  Before departing F1, Bridgestone is considering equipping teams with its ‘super soft’ compound at more races in 2010.

The compound is credited with spicing up the recent Canadian grand prix by graining and degrading on the track’s slippery and smooth surface in cool conditions, thereby opening up a range of pitstop strategies.

And according to a report on Autosprint magazine’s Italian-language auto.it website, although harder tyres are necessary at Silverstone, the softest compound is tipped to re-appear for the subsequent Hockenheim round.

The report said Bridgestone will be happy to supply the super-soft to spice up further races, if as in Canada the tyres are still deemed to be adequate from a safety standpoint.

“Safety is our priority, so if we can avoid the phenomenon of blistering then we can supply the super soft at other races this season,” director of motor sport Hirohide Hamashima is quoted as saying.

Jun.17 (GMM)  Gerhard Berger has dismissed claims that Pirelli is a questionable choice as formula one’s new tyre supplier.

Although the news is not yet official, it is now expected that the Italian company will succeed the departing Bridgestone — with confirmation coming possibly at next week’s meeting of the World Motor Sport Council.

The other serious contender has been Michelin, Bridgestone’s most recent tyre competitor between 2001 and 2006 with 43 grand prix wins in this period, and utterly dominant in 2005.

The fact that Pirelli’s proposal is the one that has gained the majority of support has therefore been surprising to some; not only because it has absent from F1 since 1991, but also because the development time for 2011 is now so short.

Moreover, there has been some criticism in the past during Pirelli’s forays in world superbike racing as well as world rallying.  The Milan based brand is currently also the GP3 supplier and tipped for a deal with GP2 for 2011 and beyond.

“This (criticism) is absolute nonsense,” Berger, who won the 1986 Mexican grand prix with Pirelli tyres and Benetton in 1986, told Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport.

“Pirelli equips the fastest sports cars in the world.  There are also people in formula one who have been successful with Pirelli,” added the Austrian.

Pirelli’s last grand prix win was with Nelson Piquet and Benetton in Montreal in 1991.

On his visit to last weekend’s Canadian grand prix, director of motor sport Paul Hembery declined to comment.