With his second consecutive title now wrapped up, Sebastian Vettel is continuing to impress the international media.
The Red Bull driver secured his crown recently in Japan with a third place but quickly returned to the top step of the podium in Korea last Sunday.

“He is now chasing after Schumacher’s record of 13 wins in a season,” said Italian daily La Gazzetta dello Sport.

“The celebrations at Suzuka did not rob Vettel of his determination,” added the report.

Other publications were also impressed with Vettel’s determination to win even without the goal of a championship.

“He is hungry for more success and never satisfied,” praised Corriere dello Sport.

Agreed Tuttosport: “Vettel is a cannibal, like his hero Schumacher.”

The German’s will to keep his foot on the throttle even with the title wrapped up was demonstrated by his unprecedented pace on the last lap in Korea.

“I think they (the team) will kill me now,” joked Vettel afterwards. “They came on the radio and said ‘idiot, you got it (the fastest race lap)’.

“It’s a small thing; it’s probably more to do with the ego because there are no points (for it) so it’s really stupid from my side but now I’ve got it, I’m happy.”

Luca Badoer is leaving Ferrari after a long tenure as test driver.

The almost 40-year-old Italian has been in the role since the late 90s, and according to Autosprint magazine he accumulated more than 130,000 kilometres at Fiorano in Ferrari’s F1 cars during that period.

But Badoer was heavily criticised for his lack of competitiveness when he replaced the injured Felipe Massa in the Brazilian’s race cockpit mid last year.

Autosprint said Badoer, who raced 58 other times for minor Italian teams throughout the 90s, is now leaving the team.

The magazine said his last laps in a F1 car were during the recent Valencia celebrations, when he reaquainted with the F60 he raced three times in 2009.

Ferrari announced last month that 21-year-old Frenchman Jules Bianchi has been signed as a test driver for 2011.

Also contracted in test roles are Giancarlo Fisichella and Marc Gene.

Not yet a week after winning the 2010 world championship, Sebastian Vettel has already scooped his first financial benefit.

German reports say the 23-year-old has signed a multi-million dollar sponsorship contract with American multinational Procter + Gamble to promote the ‘Head + Shoulders’ shampoo.

Bild newspaper said Vettel, who manages his own affairs, is being “advised by a lawyer and a financial expert” and is “in negotiations with other brands”.

On Friday, he is testing Pirelli tyres in Abu Dhabi, and on Sunday he will return for celebrations to Heppenheim, where “tens of thousands” are expected to welcome him back to his German hometown.

Filed the “triple” extra-European Jorge Lorenzo is back in his Palma de Mallorca for the due and deserved celebrations for winning his first world title in MotoGP. Long celebration, a few days to stop taking the high level of concentration in the shorter distance to Estoril in its agenda.

On the track where he won his first race in MotoGP in 2008, repeating the claim last year dressed as an astronaut … the world champion aims to return to the top step of the podium where missing from Brno: six races, too many for a driver like him.

“Now we have two races in a row, two very special race, “said Jorge Lorenzo. “The first of these two stages is Estoril where I had my best moments in MotoGP over the past two seasons. Here I had never won in 125 or 250, but I won two Grand Prix wins out of two races, is the only circuit where he won twice in this category!

The track I like very much and I seem to run into the house because there’s a lot of fans from Spain and I always feel their support. Also for me it will be the first time in a circuit ‘home’ by World Champion: I want to try to win maybe even repeat performance of 2009 when the astronaut arrived!”.

Jorge Lorenzo’s early in the last few days in Estoril will present a surprise to his devoted fans: what is it? We’ll find out only in the race weekend …

Peter Sauber has denounced members of the Ferrari and McLaren teams for displaying “unsporting” behaviour during Sunday’s Korean grand prix.

Hinwil based Sauber’s founder and boss said he was upset to see team members of the rival teams celebrating jubilantly when Red Bull’s Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel retired from the front of the inaugural Yeongam event.

In terms of the championship fight, it was indeed Ferrari and McLaren who benefitted most from Red Bull’s problems, but after he saw their celebrations on the pitwall monitors, Sauber said: “They were scenes that didn’t please me at all.

“Very unsporting,” the 67-year-old told Swiss daily Blick.

Meanwhile in Korea, Bernie Ecclestone helped veteran Blick correspondent Roger Benoit celebrate his 600th grand prix.

The Red Bull crash hogged all the headlines, but a dice between another pair of high profile teammates in Turkey could also have spiralled into an intense controversy.

While Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber spectacularly crashed, it is believed McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button actually clanged wheels when they also fought for first place at Istanbul Park.

Television images of boss Martin Whitmarsh’s face captured the horror reaction of the all-British team that had effectively called off the fight for victory.

Button and Hamilton’s engineers had told the pair they needed to save fuel.

“Jenson is closing in on me, you guys,” Lewis Hamilton told his team via car-to-pit radio, according to the race review video posted at F1′s official website.

Added the 2008 world champion: “If I back off, is Jenson going to pass me or not?”

“No Lewis, no,” came engineer Andy Latham’s reply.

Moreover, while Hamilton was set an actual minimum lap time target for his fuel-saving, Button was not.

“They didn’t put a lap time on it.  They just said you have got to save a bit of fuel,” Button confirmed.

At the same time, Hamilton explained that it was his “slow” lap time target that allowed Button to mount his overtaking attack.

“I was slowing down to keep that target and all of a sudden Jenson was right up my tail,” said the 25-year-old.  “He just appeared from nowhere and he was up my tail and there was nothing I could do.”

Ultimately, Hamilton re-passed Button after a five-corner battle and won the race, but on the podium his celebrations were restrained.

In the week since the race, McLaren has released interviews with both Button and Hamilton that depict the clash as fair racing.

“It was tricky in those closing laps, because we knew we were pretty marginal on fuel, but the team lets us race and that’s exactly what we did,” said Button.

Hamilton denied that the incident soured his twelfth career win.

“Not at all, I think it added to the win if anything.

“I am looking forward to many more races like that where we have fun, hard battles yet fair in our race to the championship,” he insisted.

(GMM)