Pressure is on Romain Grosjean to have a clean race in China next weekend.

The reigning GP2 champion has shown pace in his return to formula one so far this year, making good use of the competitive Lotus E20.

But in the actual races, the 25-year-old is yet to see much action in 2012, colliding with Pastor Maldonado in Australia and spinning in the Sepang rain.

With Kimi Raikkonen also yet to enjoy a fully clean race on his own return to F1, Lotus’ trackside chief Alan Permane is quoted by the Sun: “It would be nice to have a straightforward race with no penalties and no crashes from Romain after the first couple of corners.

“I think it is McLaren and Red Bull at the front, and then I believe we are there.”

Grosjean has duly vowed to do better.

“When you make mistakes you have to admit it and not repeat that mistake. When it’s not your fault — well it’s not your fault.

“I know that we can do some great things in the future races. My season starts properly in China,” he said.

 Toro Rosso has told its new drivers to push hard rather than fear a crash, Daniel Ricciardo revealed ahead of his first home grand prix in Australia.
The Red Bull rookie team has replaced Jaime Alguersuari and Sebastien Buemi with Australian Ricciardo and newcomer Jean-Eric Vergne.

They are lined up as potential replacements for senior team Red Bull’s Mark Webber in 2013, but at the same time must fear succumbing to the same fate as their instantly-axed predecessors.

“We’re going to be on the edge,” Ricciardo insisted in Melbourne.

“They (his bosses) have said ‘if you make a mistake, it happens. At least we know you’re pushing it’.

“Obviously we’re not going out there trying to crash the car, but sometimes a team needs to see you go off – whether it’s a crash or you run across the grass – to know that you’re trying to find that limit.

“I’m not going to hold back,” he promised.

When ruling out Lewis Hamilton for Webber’s seat earlier this week, Christian Horner said Red Bull was more likely to look “inwardly than outwardly” should the team need to find a new teammate for Sebastian Vettel.

At the same time, Ricciardo feels the pressure to keep his place at Toro Rosso.

“It could be my one and only (year) if it’s not good enough so I’ve definitely got to step up and do as good as I can,” he said.

Gerhard Berger has scolded Mercedes for apparently imposing team orders during last weekend’s Belgian grand prix.

Shortly before Michael Schumacher passed his teammate Nico Rosberg at Spa-Francorchamps, the younger German was told by the pitwall to conserve fuel.

Former grand prix winner Berger told Servus TV that the position switch was conceived deliberately to give Schumacher a grandstand finish on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of his debut.

“It should have been a race and not a commercial shoot,” the Austrian groaned.

Team orders are legal in 2011 but Berger believes that “in the circumstances it is totally wrong for Mercedes to do such strategies”.

“They should be putting more thought into making a winning car,” he said.

Berger also commented on McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton, who was involved in two crashes last weekend at Spa.

“He is extremely aggressive and the best overtaker in the field, but at times he overdoes it.

“If he was sitting in the Red Bull, he would not have to take so many risks and so he would get into a lot less mischief,” he said.

Jean Todt insists he is happy with the safety of Brazil’s formula one circuit at Interlagos.
Following recent stock car fatalities at the Sao Paulo venue’s high speed Cafe corner, organisers vowed to make significant changes that will involve demolishing a grandstand.

But the work will only be done after November’s 2011 season finale, and it recently emerged that a temporary chicane in place for recent stock car races will not be used by the formula one cars.

FIA president Todt, however, insists he is not worried.

“We are aware of the incidents that occurred at Interlagos in another category,” the Frenchman is quoted as saying by Agencia Estado.

“We made detailed inquiries about the cars (involved in the crashes), not the track. Everyone can rest assured that all measures will be taken to avoid repetition of such accidents,” added Todt.

He insisted that, in general, the level of safety in F1 is “excellent”.

“For 17 years there have been no deaths in formula one. We know it is a dangerous sport, but the FIA works constantly to avoid problems like accidents and to reduce the risks.”

Adrian Sutil has got his home grand prix off to a bad start this week by crashing at the Nurburgring’s fabled Nordschleife circuit.
Ahead of the German grand prix at the adjacent modern circuit, the 28-year-old was turning laps of the notorious 28 kilometre north loop at the wheel of a Gumpert Apollo.

German Sutil was photographed walking away from the black carbon fibre supercar, which apparently suffered mainly superficial damage.

Michael Schumacher insists his crashes this season are a mark of his push to the front of the grid rather than a sign he is no longer fully focused.

Some commentators have observed that the seven time world champion has been involved in more incidents since he returned to F1 last year as compared with his ultra-successful first career spanning a record 91 victories.

“Each of the collisions this season had a different reason,” the 42-year-old German responded to Auto Motor und Sport.

“I’m no different to before and certainly not unfocused. Believe me, I have found some unfortunate situations unnecessary and would gladly have avoided them.

“I am just fighting as hard as I can to get to the front, and for that I have to take some risks,” added Schumacher.

Pastor Maldonado and Felipe Massa have revealed that Lewis Hamilton apologised personally after Monaco two weeks ago.

As well as making his controversial “because I’m black” comments after the famous street race, McLaren’s Hamilton also labelled Maldonado and Massa “ridiculous” and “stupid” in the wake of his in-race crashes.

“I talked to him. He called and apologised,” Venezuelan Maldonado is quoted by the Spanish news agency EFE in Canada.

“It’s a racing thing and it’s over. I think I paid the consequences of a bad weekend he had, but hopefully it won’t happen again,” added the Williams rookie.

Maldonado, who said the lost points in Monaco were “very important” to the British team, praised Hamilton’s “gentlemanly” act of contrition and confirmed he has “behaved very well” since the outburst.

Brazilian Massa, Hamilton’s championship rival of 2008, was not quite as forgiving but he also confirmed Hamilton telephoned to apologise.

“Everything I said about Lewis after the Monaco race is what I felt,” said the Ferrari driver, who had called on the FIA to impose race bans.

“Then he called me and he said sorry and the most important thing is that he understood what he did on track. So, this is fine and the matter is closed,” added Massa.

Bahrain will not only controversially return to a reshuffled 2011 schedule, the island Kingdom will also kick off the 2012 season.
The news was confirmed in a media statement issued by the governing FIA after its Barcelona meeting on Friday.

The Paris-based body said the decision to reschedule Bahrain to October 30 this year “reflects the spirit of reconciliation” in the troubled Kingdom, following months of civil unrest.

“The World Motor Sport Council feels that reinstating the grand prix is a means of helping to unite people as the country looks to move forward”, the FIA added.

A new date for India has not yet been set, but the FIA hinted strongly that it will be in December, “combined with the FIA annual general assembly and prize-giving gala” in Delhi.

Ross Brawn said in Monaco that December is “totally unacceptable” to the teams, so well-known F1 photographer Darren Heath on Friday dared the teams’ group FOTA to show its mettle.

“The safety of everyone in F1 will surely be put at risk,” he wrote on Twitter.

FOTA responded by saying Friday’s decision will be “discussed internally” with a position to be announced later.

Also on Friday, Bahrain was announced as the season opener for the 2012 season, with the provisional calendar for next year featuring an unprecedented 21 grand prix dates.

Turkey in May, however, accompanies an asterisk warning it is “subject to confirmation”, while Texas is as expected paired with Canada in June.

The FIA also reinforced the 2013 engine rules featuring four-cylinder turbos, but said the “implentation date” could be reconsidered by fax vote “by June 30 latest”.

Next year, meanwhile, the cars’ nose tip height will be limited for T-bone style crashes, while the minimum weight will increase to 660kg.

Kamui Kobayashi was the hero of Sunday’s Japanese grand prix, enhancing his growing reputation as the launcher of kamikaze overtaking moves.

To the delight of his Japanese fans, the Sauber rookie scythed through the field from fourteenth on the grid to seventh at the finish.

“The way he overtook several competitors was absolutely spectacular,” said team CEO Monisha Kaltenborn, standing in as team boss in Japan for the absent Peter Sauber.

The 24-year-old launched audacious moves on Adrian Sutil, Rubens Barrichello and Jaime Alguersuari, but teammate Nick Heidfeld was dispensed rather more easily.

“The team asked me not to make any problems for him,” the German is quoted by Swiss newspaper Blick.

The paper’s veteran correspondent Roger Benoit asked Kobayashi precisely how many overtaking moves he attempted at Suzuka on Sunday.

“I can’t remember,” he answered.  “I only know that there were crashes all around me at the start, and later I made some contacts with my opponents.

“My car is rather damaged!” he revealed.

Team manager Beat Zehnder explained: “Some deflectors are missing from the car, and the sidepod has a big hole in it.  Also a part of the front wing isn’t there any more.”

Renault’s Robert Kubica retired from the race after five minutes with a missing wheel.

Said the Pole: “What Kamui did with his car was super.  Because I had to watch on television, he saved my day.”

McLaren’s racing duo have disagreed about how the early development of the 2010 car impacted the pecking order at the British team this season.

Jenson Button, whose decision to switch to the Woking based team this year was made late, explained at Suzuka that he is expecting a better 2011 season.

“The fact is when I arrived in January the car was already built,” said the reigning world champion, who qualified two tenths behind his teammate Lewis Hamilton on Sunday morning.

Button, 30, is also five points behind Hamilton in the drivers’ standings, despite two consecutive race-ending crashes for the latter Briton.

He continued: “Next year I’ll definitely be a stronger driver just through experience and having a bit more direction when it comes to development of the car.”

But Hamilton denies that the gap between the pair is easily explained by his greater involvement in the development of the MP4-25.

He argues that Button had “just as much input as me” into the car, with the exception of early seat fittings and other minor influences.

“But he was as much a part of it from when he joined the team as I was,” said Hamilton, 25.

“So he has only missed out on a couple of months really.  And he wouldn’t have wanted to drive last year’s car.

“This is a completely new one.  It is not like this year’s is an evolution of last year’s,” he insisted.

Wet weather could play a role at Suzuka this weekend.

Huge amounts of rain have been falling in Japan’s Mie Prefecture recently, but better conditions have prevailed in recent days as the teams set up their garages at the popular circuit.

Indeed, mainly sunny and pleasant weather is forecast for the region for the remainder of the working week, although there could be some showers on Friday.

But Saturday and Sunday could be a different story, with early forecasts predicting up to a 50 per cent possibility of heavy winds and rain.

Meanwhile, a significant change to the Suzuka circuit for 2010 is at the fast double-right corners known as Degner.

The alteration, confirmed by the FIA, follows a number of crashes – including by Mark Webber, Sebastien Buemi, Jamie Alguersuari and Heikki Kovalainen – there last year.

The governing body said a new 25mm “negative kerb” has replaced the old kerb and the green concrete section at the exit of the fast first Degner section.

The Spoon Curve also features modified outside kerbing for 2010, including more artificial grass there and also behind the kerb at the final chicane.

F1 is moving to reduce the risk posed by flying wheels.

Last year, GP2 driver Henry Surtees died when a stray wheel from a crashed car struck him on the head.

There was a similar incident during the final practice session at Hockenheim last weekend, with Timo Glock narrowly avoiding a bouncing wheel after Vitantonio Liuzzi’s crash.

“I was lucky that I left a bit of room behind Liuzzi in the Motodrom to warm up my brakes.  Otherwise I would have been right behind him,” the German told Auto Motor und Sport.

A tether on Fernando Alonso’s Ferrari broke in his Monaco crash this year.

F1 introduced wheel tethers in 1998, connecting the wheels to the chassis.  They are made of a special polymer called polybenzoaoxide or Zylon.

But flying wheels continue to pose a risk to drivers as well as to spectators, as seen in Melbourne in 2001 with the death of a marshal behind the spectator fencing, and in 2000 when a marshal was killed at Monza.

“Tethers are of great concern to us,” said McLaren’s engineering director Paddy Lowe.

“We discussed the issue at the Technical Working Group and we have agreed for next year to introduce a second tether on every corner,” he revealed to reporters during a teleconference.

Mark Webber awoke on Monday morning determined to return to the cockpit of his Red Bull at Silverstone next weekend.

The Australian on Sunday survived one of the most frightening crashes seen in recent times, when his RB6 struck the rear of Heikki Kovalainen’s Lotus before backflipping and wiping out an advertising hoarding.

Webber, 33, then careered into a tyre barrier but emerged from the cockpit relatively unscathed.

After a visit to the medical centre and a shower, he told reporters at the circuit that he is sporting a few bumps and bruises.

“I’m a little bit tender here and there but the car did a great job,” he said.

And after a night’s sleep, he wrote on his AussieGrit Twitter account: “Feeling good this morning, roll on Silverstone”.

He told Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport: “I have a bit of swelling in some places, but I’ll be fit for Silverstone.”

Red Bull is yet to confirm the health of the actual car; the same one driven by Webber to a handful of pole positions and his wins in Barcelona and Monaco.

“It’s been good to me,” he smiled.


With a last-lap pass of superspeedway ace Todd Bodine, Timothy Peters won Saturday, February 13^th night’s NextEra Energy 250 Truck Series race at 2.5-mile Daytona International Speedway.

With a push from polesitter Jason White passed Bodine on the backstretch and won the race to the finish line. Bodine, who had won the previous two season openers at Daytona, crossed the stripe in second place but spun into the infield grass after taking the checkered flag.

“I can’t believe it — this thing drove like a Lexus tonight,” Peters said of his No. 17 Toyota Tundra. “We just won Daytona! I was just content where I was at, but the No. 23 [White] came up and gave me a great run.

“I can’t believe it — I’m going to Disney World!”

Peters’ only previous win in the series came at .526-mile Martinsville Speedway.

Dennis Setzer, White and Matt Crafton rounded out the top five, as Bodine took solace from his second-place run — magnified by wrecks that ruined the nights of defending series champion Ron Hornaday and Mike Skinner, perennial contenders for the Truck Series title.

“You’re a sitting duck leading,” Bodine said ruefully. “I saw the replay when I was sitting down there in the mud [after spinning]. Timmy did what he had to do.

“We’re disappointed. There’s no doubt about it. But second’s nothing to sneeze at.”

Two separate crashes on the pace laps — before the race had started — promised an action-filled evening, and, indeed, before the race was a lap old, Aric Almirola took the field three-wide in Turn 3. Austin Dillon, making his first superspeedway start, broke loose between trucks and ignited a nine-truck collision that damaged the trucks of Kyle Busch and Landon Cassill, among others.

“I really don’t know what was happening,” Dillon said after exiting the infield care center. “I was sucking up to Jason White and someone got under me. Just looked like they weren’t being very patient there to start. Just caught in the middle and got banged around there a few times and tried to save it — just nothing I could do there.”

Hornaday was the victim of a 10-truck wreck after a bump from Ricky Carmichael turned him into the outside wall at the end of the backstretch on Lap 32. The same wreck ruined the winning chances of front-row starter Elliot Sadler. Skinner’s race ended early after a tap from Peters launched him into the Turn 3 wall on Lap 62

Summary of the results: 1 Timothy Peters (Toyota); 2 Todd Bodine (Toyota); 3 Dennis Setzer (Dodge); 4 Jason White (Ford); 5 Matt Crafton (Chevrolet); 6 Nelson Piquet Jr. (Toyota); 7 Stacy Compton (Toyota); 8 Johnny Benson (Ford); 9 Donnie Neuenberger (Chevrolet); 10 J.J. Yeley (Chevrolet).