Paddock regulars insist the formerly-dominant Red Bull team cannot be written off after a single defeat in Australia.
On paper, reigning back-to-back champion Sebastian Vettel’s second place on Sunday doesn’t look bad.

But Melbourne was in fact the first race since before either of the German’s title-winning campaigns in 2010 and 2011 that a Red Bull car failed to lead a single lap.

“You cannot discount them, they (Red Bull) are always there,” said Albert Park winner Jenson Button, “but it seems that the tables have turned.”

After not winning a title since 2008 with Lewis Hamilton, Button’s McLaren colleagues will hope that is true.

“Red Bull needs to dress warmly,” German racing legend Hans-Joachim Stuck told Sport1, “although I see McLaren on an equal footing only.”

He warned against over-analysing the Melbourne result.

“This is not a benchmark for the rest of the season — the Malaysia circuit is much more meaningful because who is good there is good everywhere.”

However, McLaren hinted after Melbourne that it could actually have performed more strongly last weekend.

“We were more than marginal on fuel,” boss Martin Whitmarsh is quoted by Kleine Zeitung newspaper. “There is no question we could have been faster (in Australia).”

But so could Red Bull, Vettel insists.

“In Melbourne, we learned a lot about the behaviour of our car, which has great potential,” he said.

“We need to make it harder for McLaren in Malaysia.”

Triple world champion Niki Lauda agrees: “Red Bull will catch up quickly.”

Team advisor Dr Helmut Marko insisted: “We have not brought everything out of the car yet. So we are very optimistic about the next races.”

He is also dismissive of Red Bull’s other rivals.

“Only McLaren are on par with us,” said Marko, who scorned at Mercedes, the team who fared strongly in Melbourne before suffering in the race.

“They were more like a chicane,” the acid-tongued Austrian added, according to laola1.at.

Robert Kubica is unlikely to meet Renault’s deadline as the team looks to finalise its driver lineup for 2012.
Boss Eric Boullier recently imposed a mid-October deadline for the Pole, who is under contract only to the end of 2011, to say whether he will definitely recover from horror injuries sustained in a February rally crash.

He has agreed to extend that deadline a little further, but Kubica’s doctor this week admitted that the 26-year-old is still “a few months” from the end of his rehabilitation.

“Our goal is to get him back in F1,” Dr Riccardo Ceccarelli told Tuscan television Lucca.

“But he will still need a few more months of rehabilitation. The cuts were so bad that many colleagues and specialists had ruled out a return to the wheel for Robert.

“But, clinically, little by little everything has improved and the hope to see him driving as soon as 2012 is becoming more and more concrete.”

Davide Valsecchi is visiting HRT’s German headquarters this week.

Last month, it was reported that the 23-year-old is a candidate to make his formula one debut with the Spanish team in 2011 if he can find enough funding.

Valsecchi, a race winner in GP2 this year, was the quickest of any of the young runners with F1′s three new teams at the Abu Dhabi test in November.

“Italy should support him,” team boss Colin Kolles was quoted as saying.

Italiaracing magazine said Valsecchi’s strong pace in Abu Dhabi “surprised” Kolles and his management colleagues, who therefore invited him to Germany for a meeting.

Not even a week after securing the 2010 world championship, Sebastian Vettel is back at the wheel of his Red Bull in Abu Dhabi on Friday morning.

The German is among a multitude of his race driver colleagues testing Pirelli’s development 2011 tyres at the Yas Marina circuit.

Also running on Friday for their respective teams are Felipe Massa, Nico Rosberg, Robert Kubica, Rubens Barrichello and others.

“We will begin to understand the characteristics of the new tyres and what they mean for the suspension and the aerodynamic design,” Red Bull’s technical boss Adrian Newey told O Estado de S.Paulo newspaper.

“In short, this data will be used to finalise the 2011 cars,” added the Briton.  “There will be surprises.”

Each team has been supplied eight sets of medium and soft compound tyres in Abu Dhabi – four for Friday and four for Saturday – and a dedicated Pirelli engineer.

After Abu Dhabi, Pirelli will move to Bahrain in early December for more private testing.

Davide Valsecchi is a candidate to race with the HRT team in 2011 if he can find enough funding.

Alongside Pastor Maldonado and Josef Kral, the 23-year-old Italian was comfortably the quickest of the young runners with the Spanish outfit in Abu Dhabi this week.

In fact, he was the fastest driver at the wheel of any of the cars fielded by F1′s new teams, including Jerome d’Ambrosio, Rio Haryanto and Luiz Razia (Virgin) and Rodolfo Gonzalez and Vladimir Arabadzhiev (Lotus).

“Italy should support him,” team boss Colin Kolles is quoted by La Gazzetta dello Sport.

“He definitely did an awesome job.  It took him a few laps to understand the car, while some of his colleagues did not succeed even after a full season,” he quipped.

Auto Motor und Sport reports that Venezuelan Maldonado’s tests with HRT and Williams in Abu Dhabi cost his sponsors an incredible EUR 1 million, while Czech Kral reportedly paid HRT 300,000 euros for his single test day.

Today’s FIA press conference at the Interlagos circuit was an all-Brazilian affair, with the two “new boys,” Lucas di Grassi and Bruno Senna, joined by their senior colleagues, Rubens Barrichello and Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro’s Felipe Massa. Indeed, it was an all Paulista affair as the four are from the city of Sao Paolo.

Asked to look back at this season, Felipe singled out his qualifying performance as the worst feature of 2010. “This year’s results have not matched my expectations, especially in qualifying where I struggled to put together a good first lap on fresh tyres,” he said. “It’s true there have also been some races where I failed to finish in the points and then there was Singapore, where a qualifying problem meant I had to start from the back.”

As to this weekend’s home race, Felipe shared his fellow panelists’ enthusiasm for the Interlagos circuit. “I have great memories from here with two wins and poles in 2006, ’07 and ’08, which was the last time I raced here. Then going even further back, at the start of my career, I won here twice in Formula Chevrolet. This track has many interesting challenges and you can be creative with the set-up, while many sections of the track require a very technical approach. It might be a short lap, not like most of the new tracks, but this circuit is very well thought out and there is always overtaking here and some nice fights. But it is really the Brazilian people who make Interlagos special – they are so hot with emotion and they sing all day long in the grandstands, which is great for us Brazilian drivers, giving us some extra power.”

Mathematically, Fernando Alonso has a chance of winning the Drivers’ title on Sunday and Felipe was asked if he felt it might happen. “Well, Fernando is leading right now, so for sure I think he can do it here, but as we have seen this season, everything is possible. My personal aim is to try and win the race and of course I can help Fernando by taking points away from his rivals.”

This week sees the premiere of a film made about the life of Ayrton Senna and all four drivers were asked for their memories of the great Brazilian champion, who died during the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix. “Ayrton was really amazing and I remember so many of his races,” said Felipe. “But what really stands out in my mind was his ability in qualifying, not only taking pole in so many races, but often doing so with a big gap over the rest. For me, that was his strongest point.”

The union of formula one drivers, the GPDA, revealed in Korea last weekend their push for more influence in the sport’s decision-making processes.

According to the German magazine Speed Week, the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association – now headed by president Rubens Barrichello – met at the Yeongam circuit with FIA president Jean Todt.

“We want a permanent dialogue with the governing body,” Brazilian Barrichello, accompanied to the meeting by fellow GPDA directors Sebastian Vettel and Felipe Massa, is quoted as saying.

According to another German language report in motorline.cc, Barrichello and his colleagues believe some of the problems in Korea – like troublesome kerbs and the dangerous pit entry – would not have been encountered if the drivers were more seriously canvassed.

“It was ok,” Barrichello said after the meeting with Todt.

“We discussed three or four things and he was very open. All we want is for the GPDA to be able to contribute more to the future of the sport,” he added.

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.”

F1 team Lotus Racing is taking a naming dispute with Malaysian carmaker Proton to London’s High Court.

After terminating the team’s license of the Lotus Racing moniker, Proton on Monday vowed to challenge boss Tony Fernandes’ intention to call itself Team Lotus in 2011.

Team Lotus, separate from the Proton-owned British sports car maker Group Lotus, was sold to Fernandes by David Hunt, who acquired the name when the original team folded in the 90s.

But Proton said: “We are the owners of this brand, and will take all necessary steps to protect it.”

Lotus Racing has now responded to Proton’s statement.

“We have today issued proceedings in the English High Court for a declaration that Team Lotus Ventures has the rights to use the Team Lotus name and everything associated with that brand in relation to formula one,” announced team chief executive Riad Asmat.

He said he was confident the court will permit the use of the Team Lotus name because Group Lotus “recently tried to revoke the Team Lotus trademarks at a hearing … but they were unsuccessful”.

And “When we signed our licence to compete as Lotus Racing, (Group Lotus) were very clear that we could not make any reference to Team Lotus as they had no rights at all to the Team Lotus name”, added Asmat.

Asmat also confirmed that a small team sponsorship by Proton, worth about 1.5 per cent of the team’s 2010 budget, is ending.

“Personally I think it’s odd that our colleagues at Group Lotus have not embraced what we are giving them — a global platform for creating huge awareness and great value for their operations, all at no cost to them,” he added.

On Twitter, team boss Fernandes commented: “Funny how after we deliver a formula one team that’s professional and has promise, everyone wants a piece.

“But this is great because all the facts will come out and the shareholders and government will see the real story.”

Misano was a great disappointment for Casey Stoner. Party with big ambitions found himself away from the podium, even on the fifth goal with great detachment not only against Pedrosa and Lorenzo, but also by Rossi and Dovizioso.

Motorland Aragon thus represents an important opportunity for redemption, in a circuit where completely unknown, unlike several of his colleagues, had no way of proving in recent weeks.

“I’m happy to go to Aragon. The last two races have been difficult for us and run on a new track is definitely challenging. We will tackle the weekend with optimistic spirit, hoping that the track is beautiful and suits the Ducati, but also trying to be realistic that we must strive to find something extra.

The team and all the technicians are doing a fantastic job we only have to dig deeper and think of something new to try to improve the feeling with the bike, bend it better and to find more grip. And above all we are to overcome these last two weekends. “

Mercedes has played down an apparent incident between its F1 drivers Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg.

During Friday practice at Silverstone, Italian media colleagues spotted Schumacher waving his fist from his cockpit at his younger countryman Rosberg.

Blick newspaper said the 41-year-old had been held up on a fast lap, but quoted a Mercedes official as describing the incident as a “misunderstanding”.

And a British media colleague said Mercedes insists the relationship between the pair is still in good shape.

Also in the Silverstone paddock, Rosberg played down his recently misreported comments about the development pace of the W01 car.

“It is true that Valencia was a disaster for us,” he is quoted by Finland’s Turun Sanomat. “Who wants to be in positions 12 or 15?

“But I never criticised Ross, who I respect as a great personality and a skilful team leader.”

Jenson Button is at his home race never stood on the podium. Last year, the 30-year-old was leading the championship and as the clear favorite to Silverstone. In the race, finally gave it only to a disappointing sixth place. The best result in 2004 he took fourth. As McLaren has many improvements in the luggage, Button now wants the big triumph.

“I have triumphed in Monaco and won the World Cup. I lack only the victory in my home,” is the two-season winner of ‘ESPN’ quoted. “Everyone wants to win, of course, the home race. The British Grand Prix is something special, since in this region are many teams and many fans come year after year.”
His team mate Lewis Hamilton is also hot on a home triumph. Two double victory celebrated the chrome arrows in this season. In the UK, which is in 45 years, however, happened only once. 1999 saw David Coulthard (McLaren) to the checkered flag in front of Eddie Irvine (Ferrari). This day is mainly with the broken leg of Michael Schumacher remembered.

In the duel approached his stall colleagues said Button: “Lewis is very fast and there is a good competition between us. In the last race he has come before me to the finish, if only just ahead of me. I want to win at Silverstone Lewis as well. He does not think differently than I do. We will just go out there and have fun. Hopefully one of us wins. ”

Button feel pressure to succeed after the departure of the “Three Lions” is not in the World Cup. “Lewis and I have achieved a lot in our sport,” said Button. “We have pressure from outside and from within usual. I do not feel more at Silverstone under pressure, at least I feel it.”
Around the British tradition of track fans in the past have been held much spectacle. Unforgettable is the Mansell-mania in the early nineties, when the red number five was dominated by Williams. After 1987 Nigel Mansell 1991 and 1992 was also celebrated as the winner. After Damon Hill a year later had to retire due to an engine failure on the way to his debut triumph, he finally went in 1994 with the Union Jack as the winner down lap.

Now it is the British Dream Team Button and Hamilton to inspire the fans. “I am very excited and look forward to the many spectators with the British flag in the stands,” said the reigning world champion. “It is a very special Grand Prix. I think this year will be even better for a long time. I want to see not only a British winner, I want to win themselves.”

After the not very successful weekend in Canada is at Renault in reparations from Valencia. Then do it in Montreal, failed to make ground on Mercedes, but considers the silver arrows were not even going, it will run better in Spain. The R30 has been upgraded to catch up in the Spanish port city with new parts. Robert Kubica and Vitaly Petrov, who won there in GP2 already are confident at least for the weekend.

Kubica looks at the layout of lines similar to Montreal. “The biggest difference between the two circuits makes the asphalt. In Montreal, the new pavement proved to be extremely slippery. In this regard, should the tar in Valencia offer a higher level and play for us in the cards – even if the playing field equal for all” believes the poles, the speculation with a higher grip levels: “It is also in Spain, at a road course, we count on Friday again with low grip, in the course of the weekend but should be always better – especially in the framework more racing series at the Start walking with their tire wear should also create a firmer track. ”
Both Kubica and Petrov swarm in contrast to their colleagues about Valencia. “I was not only because of my GP2 victory of good memories of Valencia. I know the track inside out in terms of braking points, racing line, which curbs you can run over any problems and how the tires will behave in the race. Of course, that is in a Formula 1 all represent something different. But my starting point will be better than in Canada, “says the young Russian.

His Polish team-mate, it looks like this: “I know that many drivers assess this differently, but for me, I can say I like the track. The mixture of street circuit and a modern Grand Prix circuit makes the thing from my point of view so interesting. The basic layout reminiscent of the many rather slow corners at the Grand Prix of Canada. As in Montreal, it is in Valencia in the first place on a high braking stability and traction for accelerating out – and this should be our Renault R30. ”
Aerodynamics important than in Canada

However in Valencia, aerodynamics more into play, so Kubica: “We will go with a higher degree of aerodynamic downforce at the start than in Canada, yet comes to the aerodynamic efficiency is very important: As many as four times per round, we penetrate into very high speed ranges before. ” Petrov for the beloved Valencia comes after the disappointment of Canada just right. The Russian said, however, that he has learned from the weekend in his teaching overseas.
“First of all, I am of course aware that I have undermined during the race bug”, there are self-critical and Petrov said: “At the start I have made too much risk when I saw the grass beside the track in line with my incorporated. They paid off Unfortunately not, instead I was given a drive-through penalty. However, it was important to finish the race and collect more information – especially about the handling of the tires in different conditions. This experience I will help in the future, in certain situations better . respond ”

The focus at Renault but at the moment the duel with Mercedes. The French want to finish the season fail before the silver arrows. 29 points separate the two teams currently work from each other. For Kubica, the distance “to the stables, which are currently at the top is not so huge. But we must still make up a lot of ground. And so we will only succeed if we continue to work full steam ahead and improve ourselves constantly.”

The Pole is certainly top-motivated: “If it goes for me, after we beat everybody, not just Mercedes.” The new parts on the R30 will bring about change. “I wonder how much the car improved and if I need to adjust my driving style,” said Petrov, who also assesses other strong teams, “In Montréal Force India was very fast. We must see that we can beat them . In addition, enjoys the duel with Mercedes currently the highest priority for our team. “

The competition between the development departments of the Grand Prix teams will be played with the same intensity as the position of duels on the track. Indeed, the pressure to succeed, under the working Formula 1 specialists in recent years grown more and more: Who wants to stay competitive and at the top, must evolve continuously. The cars are compared to the season opener in Bahrain has become consistently faster by about one second.

“The racing teams have realized that the incessant development is during the season just as important as the conceptual design of the next car,” said James Allison, Technical Director at Renault. “Today we hold for our R30 to each Grand Prix, a new package ready parts, whose size is roughly equivalent to those improvements we have introduced in the past, every third or fourth race.”
“We are there but no exception. Every team that wants to stay at the top, must rise to this challenge. This means for our colleagues in the workshops that they have to work so hard, and at such a high time pressure than ever before . The new front wing, which will celebrate its debut in Valencia, provides an ideal example of this: He is already the eighth variant, which comes this year for use – in the ninth race of the season! ”

But where does this escalation? A major factor provided by the new technical regulations, which came at the beginning of last year in force, so is still relatively young, always – and therefore much room for improvement, provides the enabling virtually every week important development steps. This applies in particular to the aerodynamics. Furthermore: Since modifications of the engine are not allowed to search for possibilities for improvement focused almost exclusively on the chassis of the cars.
“As further develop all vehicles on the grid with incredibly high speed, always, we need to bring any improvement found immediately able to use in order to remain competitive,” says Allison. “Previously, we have combined the optimization of a package, which is then flowed into a stage of evolution of the car. This we can not allow today. Each Grand Prix that you wait means lost performance.”

“The heavy workload meets each individual,” said Allison. “The workshop is constantly under the high pressure, constantly develop and produce new parts and need. We are therefore constantly faced with the difficult task of finding a healthy balance between major stages of development and reasonable workload.”

It seems almost an irony of fate that this once again increased rates of development associated with the prohibition of testing during the season goes. But while earlier, thousands of miles on the Grand Prix circuit in Barcelona have been scrubbed to run the team today in the central simulation computer at full speed to check for new parts and votes for their usefulness.
“Thanks to this advanced tools we can use the advantage that we bring some modifications on the track, set with an accuracy that is different from the real output by less than 0.5 percent,” said Allison. “For mechanical parts, we rely on computer simulations, whose results are then verified on test stands. With special durability testing arrangements, we can expose those individual components of loads and forces that occur in the context of a Grand Prix.”

Besides the incessant improvement of the current Grand Prix racer to run the latest from the beginning of summer and work on for next year seater. “We stand every time a difficult compromise on how much we already want to invest in the future without losing its competitiveness in the current season,” says Allison.

An Indian newspaper said the 26-year-old rookie’s sponsorship stream is drying up, leading HRT team boss Colin Kolles to open talks with potential replacements.

Rumours suggest Dutchman Christijan Albers, Narain Karthikeyan and Pastor Maldonado, as well as Chandhok’s HRT test colleagues Sakon Yamamoto and Christian Klien, might be in the running.

“There is so much speculation and I don’t know if it is being started by other drivers who are trying to get in or whatever,” Chandhok told Reuters while visiting Silverstone at the weekend for the MotoGP race.

“Three weeks ago Bruno (Senna) was the one.  All over the internet it was ‘Bruno’s out and so and so is coming in with money’ and this week it seems to be my turn,” he added.

“As far as I know I am in Valencia, I am in the car and I am in for the rest of the season,” said Chandhok.
(GMM)