Formula 1 is in its summer break down each team must be between the last race in Budapest and the next Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps for a total of two weeks to work in his factory. Ferrari has in common with his engineers and Fernando Alonso last week still used to prepare in Maranello on the remaining races of the 2010 season and the coming year.

Alonso at the weekend after a visit to Madonna di Campiglio for the presentation of Ercole Colombo’s book on the 20th had made birthday of the “Wrooom” events, the Spaniards now also occurs to a two-week vacation. can release mention the F1 events of the double world champion, however. “It will not be possible to switch off my thoughts in those two weeks complete,” Alonso is quoted on the official website of the team.
“Next I’ll try to relax a bit, do some sports at least once a day, perhaps for ten minutes, inevitably think about the next race in Belgium,” said Alonso. “I think this will all be the same and the timing of the break makes no difference.”

The Fifth World Cup is expected that Ferrari will catch up after the recent uptrend in the coming races even further to the top. “In Spain we will have some new parts and we hope that they bring us even further forward. The others will do the same, which means that we are better than they work and have to be faster in terms of development.”

Alonso builds on the strength of Ferraris. “We needed only two normal race to again be full in the title fight. It is true that we in the championship remains the rear, and it is always better to be ahead, but I am convinced that we, in the end, I mean the last two or three races, to be closer to their peak, as we are now. ”
It was important to stay calm and focused, so Alonso on. The Red Bull pilots he has in the fight for the world title but not on the bill. “It’s hard to say who my rival is worst – we are almost on par, perhaps Hamilton, Button and myself. We all have already won a title and will tackle the final sprint quiet, as we have already experienced something similar.” He gave himself while a fifty percent chance.

While fighting with McLaren and Red Bull have in each case both pilots at the World Cup crown, Alonso can support his team-mate Felipe Massa to be certain. “Here’s a great atmosphere. One that is better than any other team,” Alonso is secure. The pending decision of the FIA World Council regarding Ferraris stable government in Hockenheim dazzled by the Spaniards from as far as possible. “We have drivers and engineers the task of concentrating on the car and to continue our work.”

Germany’s free to air television broadcaster has denied it is disappointed with Michael Schumacher.

Sunday’s Hockenheim race was not a sellout, and predicted astronomical TV ratings earlier this year have now subsided, given the seven time world champion’s modest return to formula one in 2010.

An impressive 10 million Germans tuned into his comeback race in Bahrain, but the average figure is now between 5 and 7 million per race.

“We are far from disappointed,” spokesman Matthias Bolhofer told Der Spiegel.

“On average we are 1.13 million higher than last year’s average.  That we would not be able to keep up the hype of the opening race was obvious,” he added.

Besides Schumacher, there are five other German drivers on the 2010 grid.

Ferrari is not appealing its $100,000 penalty for imposing illegal team orders in the German grand prix.

The stewards, also directing the matter to the World Motor Sport Council, found the Italian team guilty of both team orders and disrepute.

The team denies the charge, arguing that Felipe Massa made the decision to let Fernando Alonso pass him at Hockenheim after struggling on the hard tyres and receiving advice from his race engineer that Alonso was faster.

“In the interests of the sport, we have decided not to go through a procedure of appealing against it (the decision), confident that the World Council will know how to evaluate the overall facts correctly,” said team boss Stefano Domenicali.

With just three days now until the F1 circus re-congregates in Hungary, the other story to emerge is that Massa might now be considered Alonso’s number two.

When asked specifically about playing a longer-term subordinate role to the Spaniard, Brazilian Massa said on Sunday: “Well, I cannot say that I’m there fighting for first position in the championship.”

He also denied that his decision to give way to Alonso will damage his reputation.

“For sure not, for sure not,” said Massa, the 2008 championship runner-up.

“I’m very professional and I’ve shown in my career how professional I am. You (reporters) are professional as well, you work for a company.

“I believe you are doing what you have to do, so I’m professional and today I showed how professional I am. That’s it,” he insisted.

Force India has become the latest team to commit to using KERS in 2011.

When the energy-recovery systems were first permitted by the technical regulations last year, the Silverstone based team opted not to use the technology.

But for 2011, the FOTA gentleman’s ban on the systems will lapse, and the efficiency of KERS will improve due to the increase in the minimum car/driver weight by 20kg.

Moreover, the interaction of KERS with the car’s weight distribution will also be negated in 2011, due to the introduction of a mandatory 46:54 ratio.

“There is no other option than to go with KERS,” Force India’s chief operating officer Otmar Szafnauer is quoted by Auto Motor und Sport.

However, Auto Motor und Sport said it is not clear if independent teams Sauber and Toro Rosso will use KERS next year, adding that all three new teams will probably not race the systems.

Teams not developing their own KERS systems for 2011 will be able to buy a supply for 1 million euros, while a 5 million euro per team development cap applies.

Robert Kubica and his manager are turning their focus to 2012, as the chances of switching to a title-winning team next year fade.

Ross Brawn in Valencia scotched reports that Mercedes is looking to sign the 25-year-old Pole for 2011, and the lineups at McLaren, Ferrari and Red Bull are also not changing.

Kubica will therefore almost certainly re-sign with Renault, and the simplest way to do this would be to activate a contract ‘option’ that it is believed will otherwise expire on July 15.

“Very soon I will have to take my own decisions and then we will see,” he said at the weekend.

The online magazine GP Week believes Red Bull could be an option for 2012, with Kubica’s manager Daniele Morelli confirming that “next year is not our focus any more, 2012 is”.

(GMM)

Only one Williams is running the F-duct in Sunday’s European grand prix.

Both Nico Hulkenberg and Rubens Barrichello tried the British team’s improved system in Valencia practice, but Hulkenberg apparently had trouble finding the hole in the cockpit with his knee.

So the rookie German elected to remove the system from his FW32 in qualifying, but still managed to out-qualify Barrichello, whose car is fitted with the F-duct.

“No one expected me to be ahead of Rubens today because he’s been quicker than me all weekend,” said Hulkenberg, eighth ahead of Barrichello’s ninth.

Over the past four races had Sebastian Vettel Mark Webber from his teammates were beaten in qualifying at the European Grand Prix in Valencia could fight back the German. Accordingly, happily presented itself the Red Bull pilot.

“In the last few races we had a good run on Saturday, so it is a good result,” said Vettel, who was quicker to just 0.075 seconds as his Australian team-mate.

“These lines do not, Canada and here in Valencia are among those, usually our strongest. It is good for this reason that we have set the car on the pole. Our speed looks good.”
A hair of the driver from Heppenheim would have to hire again later: “Until the end it was a tight qualifying session. On the first attempt I had a huge shock moment in the first sector. I knew I was in the second test everything on must set a card, and it worked. ”

After the qualy for once again successfully ran Vettel now looks optimistic for the race: “To this day I’m happy. It was out there very difficult, especially since we installed the F-shaft, and many other things back to the car have. Some mechanics had only an hour of sleep. ”
In the first race with the F-bay system says Vettel, for the racers expect a benefit, even if this was enormous: “He’s probably not too big, but we feel the difference. We see how much so that McLaren rectified by. We get on each round and at every attempt. ”

“Yesterday we were not quite so happy, but overnight we have taken another step forward. We sat in front of the monitors to see how we can optimize and improve the system. Also, thanks to this circumstance we find ourselves for tomorrow’s race in a good position. “

Jun.18 (GMM) Luca di Montezemolo has continued his sustained attack on formula one’s new teams.

The Ferrari president thinks the grid should be filled by the bigger teams fielding three cars, rather than by opening the doors to newcomers including Lotus, Virgin and HRT.

Next year, another small team is likely to make its debut.

Spain’s El Mundo newspaper this week claims that the budget of the new Spanish outfit HRT is ten times smaller than Ferrari’s.

“In modern F1 races cars with GP2 levels of performance shouldn’t be allowed to participate — they are supposed to race on Sunday mornings,” Montezemolo is quoted by Italy’s La Gazzetta dello Sport.

Montezemolo argues that Fernando Alonso’s push for Montreal victory was ruined by the lapping of backmarkers, an apparent reference to his delays behind Jarno Trulli’s Lotus and the HRT of Karun Chandhok.

But while it is true that, earlier this year, the small teams were vastly off the pace, all of the six cars were faster by multiple seconds than the entire GP2 field in Turkey recently.

And in Canada last weekend, Heikki Kovalainen’s Lotus qualified just two tenths behind the Ferrari-powered Sauber of Kamui Kobayashi, while Virgin and HRT runners were also easily within 107 per cent of the pole time.

The new teams’ laptime deficit in Canada was between 3 and 4 seconds, compared with Giancarlo Fisichella’s 2.2 second qualifying deficit in a Ferrari-powered Force India at the same circuit two years ago.

A report at Italiaracing said: “It should be noted that the only complaints this season about the smaller teams have come from Ferrari.”

A Singapore official has played down concerns the city-state will run out of time to prepare the floodlit street circuit for this year’s formula one race.

Singapore will host the Youth Olympic Games in the same Marina Bay area until the end of August — less than a month before the F1 circus arrives in town for round 15 of the 2010 world championship.

But Justin Chew, the Singapore Tourism Board’s executive director of F1 projects, told the state-owned MediaCorp: “We do have enough time.

“Based on the timeline set by the Youth Olympic Games organisers, they will take at least two to three weeks to vacate the circuit completely.

“But we have already ‘de-conflicted’ it and whatever time they need to move out and what we need to put in the area have been worked out,” he insisted.

The tight schedule means that fundamental structures for the street circuit such as lighting trusses are already being erected.

Luca di Montezemolo has once again repeated his disapproval of F1′s new teams.

In the wake of the carmaker exodus, the Ferrari president expressed his desire to see the big teams be allowed to field third cars.

Instead, new teams including Virgin, HRT and a relaunched Lotus debuted with the support of the FIA and Bernie Ecclestone.

But earlier this year Maranello based Ferrari ridiculed the new entry list as being more deserving of the name ‘Formula GP3′.

And Montezemolo is now quoted by Tuttosport: “In the 60th year of formula one, Ferrari is celebrating its 800th grand prix.

“Let me say with pride that no one will be able to match this record.

“For us it is a source of great satisfaction and pride because is represents that Ferrari has been here even in difficult times, while other teams have come and have gone.

“I repeat that formula one without Ferrari is not formula one, and this year there are many teams that should be racing in GP2,” added Montezemolo.

(GMM)

Fernando Alonso has warned that he is not necessarily the favourite to take pole position for the Monaco grand prix.

As the paddock and media centre fill up despite Friday being a ‘rest day’, the world of formula one is contemplating Alonso’s dominance of the initial 180-minutes of free practice.

But Ferrari’s Alonso told the Spanish news agency EFE: “Pole position is still far away.

“There has only been Thursday practice and we have seen many sessions this year dominated by McLaren and we were also high up, and then Red Bull surprised everyone in qualifying.

“So we have our feet on the ground, knowing only that we have started the weekend well,” he insisted, also predicting that McLaren will be “very strong” in Monaco.

McLaren’s Jenson Button added: “The Ferrari looks very quick, and I’m pretty sure Red Bull are hiding their pace.”

(GMM)

Apr.21 (GMM)  Luca di Montezemolo has stepped down as chairman of the Italian carmaker Fiat.

He will, however, remain president of Ferrari, with 34-year-old John Elkann – a descendant of the founding Agnelli family – replacing him at Fiat because Montezemolo has “finished the task” he began in 2004.

Montezemolo, 62, denied the move is a precursor to moving into Italian politics or even founding his own party, insisting he is staying on the Fiat board and will not stop heading Ferrari.

On the same day, Montezemolo announced that he still wants “major teams” such as Ferrari “and McLaren” to be allowed to enter third cars in grands prix.

“We want a third car and I would do everything to have Valentino (Rossi),” he told reporters.

“When he wins this year’s MotoGP, enough is enough, he must also win in formula one,” the Ferrari chairman and president added.

Nico Rosberg achieved the first podium finish for the Mercedes GP Petronas team at the Sepang International Circuit in Malaysia today. Nico Starting from second place on the grid, but Nico lost a place at the start and was running in third position at the end of the first lap.

He made his sole pit stop on lap 22 where superb work from the team enabled Nico to gain over a second on the chasing Robert Kubica. From there, Nico drove a composed race to the chequered flag to secure third position and his third podium finish,

Michael Schumacher was out of the race when a wheel nut came off one of the rear wheels and forced Michael to retire on lap ten.

Nico Rosberg
“Its a fantastic result today to achieve our teams first podium at the home race for our title partner, Petronas. I want to thank the whole team for all of their hard work this weekend and over the winter. This result is the start of the reward for our efforts. Its a great feeling to be back up on the podium again and to have so much support from the Malaysian fans here. My start didnt go that well today as I had a bit too much wheelspin and once I was in third place, I knew it would be difficult to follow the leading cars. I struggled a little with the options in the first stint which allowed Robert to stay quite close but once we switched to the primes, I felt really comfortable and we could manage the race home to third place. This is a great end to a strong weekend for us. Were not quite where we want to be yet so we need to push on but Im confident that well get there soon.”

Michael Schumacher
“It was a shame that I could not finish the race but unfortunately the wheel nut on the left rear wheel was lost. The car suddenly became very unstable in turn six and I could hardly steer and had no drive left. I initially thought it was something to do with the suspension but after I stopped and had a look, it was evident that was a wheel nut missing. It is something very unusual to happen and in testing we never had problems so we have to look it. I would have obviously wanted to finish the race and I think it could have worked out quite reasonably well. But in the end that is motor racing, I remember that very well. It makes no sense to get angry about it, you have to accept it as part of the game and look ahead. At least Nico scored our first podium finish and I am happy for him and the team.”

Ross Brawn
“That was an excellent drive from Nico today and a first-class performance to secure his third career podium and the first podium for the Mercedes GP Petronas team. We are delighted to have achieved the first podium for the Silver Arrows here in Malaysia and to be able to share the rewards of our hard work with our title partner Petronas at their home Grand Prix. My compliments to Nico for an assured performance today and over the weekend. Michael was in a good position after the start and we were looking forward to having a good race on his side but unfortunately it wasn’t to be. The car lost a wheel nut which is a problem that we haven’t experienced before. The wheel nuts are double-checked on the grid so we will investigate and put in place the necessary solutions.”

Norbert Haug
“A great drive from Nico and our first podium after starting from the first row in our third race. The team had a first-class strategy and Nico did not put one foot wrong and secured this first and for us historic podium finish, at the home race of our title partner Petronas. Our gap to the two Red Bull-Renaults in front of Nico was still considerable and we all know there is more work to be done in order to catch up. However it looks like we are heading in the right direction and the point standings after three races dont look too bad. Sorry for Michael who had a great start and was positioned sixth when a wheel nut came loose which stopped his race. We will work hard and concentrated to make sure that our car will be fully reliable in the future and get quicker step by step. After Melbourne, Nico and the team performed again the quickest pit stop which is very rewarding for our guys and sometimes very important to get the right amount of World Championship points. Last but certainly not least congratulations to Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull Racing for their first and well deserved victory in 2010. Seb was the class of the field today.”

(YF1)

YF1. Ferrari chairman Luca di Montezemolo has echoed the sentiments of his star driver Fernando Alonso by urging his team and the tifosi to remain realistic ahead of the Australian GP.

The Ferrari boss said, “We need some great humility in this race. We know that we have to work and there is still lots to be improved, such as performance and reliability: it’s important to stay realistic.”

Expectations are high, especially in Italy where victory in Bahrain has set the tone for the forthcoming season. Managing these expectations are obviously high on the team’s PR agenda.

Di Montezemolo added, “In Melbourne it will be fundamental to have a good qualifying on Saturday, because as usual on city circuits, also here in Australia to start from the front will determine the final outcome.”

Earlier in the week Alonso said, “The one-two win in Sakhir gave us confidence and was a great result for the hard work during the winter on the track and at the works, but we can’t take anything for granted. We have to stay with our feet on the ground, keeping calm and staying concentrated: in Melbourne we’re starting from square one.”

Alonso and his boss are obviously on the same page…