Force India has been ordered by a British court to pay over a million dollars.
With team boss Vijay Mallya already in financial strife over his collapsing airline Kingfisher, his Silverstone based team must now pay Italian wind tunnel Aerolab.

The high court judge on Wednesday said the amount, which according to the Daily Telegraph will skyrocket to over $6 million once legal costs are added, is for unpaid fees following a copyright dispute with Aerolab and Caterham.

The newspaper said the bill could be the final straw for struggling Mallya, who may now cede control of Force India to 42.5 per cent shareholder Subrata Roy, another Indian billionaire.

But Force India hit back in a media statement on Wednesday by revealing that Aerolab and its client Caterham were found “liable for copyright infringement”.

“Some parts created using Force India confidential information were used on the Team Lotus race cars in the early part of the 2010 season,” it read.

Force India said it has referred the court’s ruling to the FIA.

Lewis Hamilton looks set to be recalled as a witness as the Adrian Sutil assault saga rolls on.
German Sutil, and his father Jorge, described former close friend and 2008 world champion Hamilton as a “coward” and “pathetic” after the McLaren driver did not appear at the recent hearings in Munich.

But with the former Force India driver – and Munich prosecutors – now filing appeals against the judge’s verdict, Hamilton’s personal testimony might be regarded as crucial.

Hamilton is clearly visible in the video footage of the incident with Eric Lux in a Shanghai nightclub last April, but Sutil’s manager Manfred Zimmermann claims the judge neglected the gravity of the security camera evidence.

“Not asking one of the witnesses to court and other important circumstances have not been considered as well,” Zimmermann charged.

London newspaper the Daily Telegraph claims Hamilton “is happy to testify provided the date does not clash with prior commitments”.

Mark Webber has contradicted recent reports that said he re-signed with Red Bull for 2012 because he had no other options.
The Australian revealed that, in fact, the interest expressed by rival teams when he was still on the market was “amazing”.

Webber, 34, has had a difficult season alongside Sebastian Vettel, failing to win a grand prix compared with his dominant teammate’s ten so far.

“What was amazing this year was the amount of response I had from other teams when I was about to sign with Red Bull,” he is quoted as saying by the Sydney newspaper Daily Telegraph.

“They were very, very interested in having a chat to me, which was another little reminder to me that things were going pretty well.”

Webber therefore leaves the door open to switching teams after next season, saying he considers retirement to be “incredibly overrated”.

“I’ll go again next year, (but) to say where I’ll head in 2013 and 2014, we need to another six months and see how we go,” he said.

As for 2012, he insists that F1′s youngest ever back-to-back reigning world champion Vettel is beatable.

“Yes, it’s possible, absolutely. I’ve seen enough, and knowing how close it is, it’s possible,” said Webber.

The current regulations are a reason for Lewis Hamilton’s current struggles, according to David Coulthard.
The veteran Scot analysed the reasons for the 2008 world champion’s difficult season, with Hamilton’s teammate Jenson Button the leading McLaren at present, in his latest column for the Daily Telegraph.

“There is no doubt that these tyre regulations are better suited to drivers who pace themselves; who feel their way through a race rather than go all-out,” said Coulthard, a former McLaren and Red Bull driver.

He is referring to the new era of no refuelling and heavily degrading Pirelli tyres, insisting Hamilton needs to quickly adapt.

“All world-class drivers have been able to adapt to new regulations. Think of Michael Schumacher, who has run the full gamut from 3.5 litre, active ride-height cars to 2.4 litre V8s with slicks,” said Coulthard.

“Until he (Hamilton) can adapt fully to these regulations and play a cuter game he is unlikely to be consistently competitive.”

Some in the F1 paddock reacted “with cynicism” to Vijay Mallya’s sale of almost half of the Force India team.
Just last week, the Indian billionaire said he was “shocked” to read the media speculation about his negotiations with Sahara’s Subrato Roy.

But on Wednesday, the $100 million deal was announced in Delhi.

“Some in the F1 press are (therefore) unimpressed with him, with rumours persisting that this is merely the first phase in a gradual exit,” wrote Daily Telegraph correspondent Tom Cary in a blog from Korea.

A trio of respected paddock regulars have played down the latest twist in the saga surrounding Lewis Hamilton’s difficult weekend in Singapore recently. The McLaren driver’s 2008 title nemesis Felipe Massa accosted Hamilton during a television interview after their clash that cost the Briton a drive-through penalty. But it has now emerged that, prior to the collision, Massa’s Ferrari race engineer Robert Smedley told the Brazilian over the radio to “destroy” Hamilton’s race. “Hold Hamilton as much as we can,” Smedley is heard saying on the official edit of the race published at F1′s official website. “Destroy his race as much as we can. Come on, boy!” added Smedley. The news has triggered suggestions in the international media that Massa, who last year obeyed Smedley’s opaque instruction to move over for Fernando Alonso, may have followed another ‘team order’ in Singapore. But former driver and British television commentator Martin Brundle wrote on Twitter that he is sure Smedley wanted Massa to “wreck Hamilton’s strategy, not his car”. “Why would Massa damage his own car intentionally? “(The) real story is Smedley must constantly direct and motivate his driver (and) has done for some time,” said Brundle. Daily Telegraph correspondent Tom Cary agreed that the radio message saga is “much ado about nothing” rather than a “sinister” anti-McLaren plot by Ferrari. “He (Smedley) said it on an open radio channel after all,” he said, admitting however that Smedley’s use of the word ‘destroy’ was “ill-advised”. Livio Oricchio, a Brazilian journalist for the O Estado de S.Paulo newspaper, also defended Massa and Smedley. “Anyone who understands how things work in formula one and have a modicum of common sense knows that reactions like that of Smedley are normal during a race and more frequent than you might think,” he said. “‘Destroy Hamilton’s race’ doesn’t mean ‘destroy Hamilton’, so the disclosure of the (radio) recording has no great meaning,” added Oricchio.

Yet more drivers, experts and pundits are crowning Sebastian Vettel the likely 2011 champion after his latest victory in Belgium.
At the German’s rival team McLaren, team boss Martin Whitmarsh insists giving up on the championship would not be right despite Vettel’s huge points lead.

Veteran test driver Pedro de la Rosa however acknowledges that realism could be about to set in.

“Perhaps this is the moment to forget Spa,” said the Spaniard after the Red Bull one-two, “perhaps it is even the moment to forget the drivers’ world championship”, he wrote in a column for formulasantander.com.

“Forgetting the calculator now, and accepting that there is already virtually a winner of this world championship, we can begin to think of 2012 and how to avoid at all costs the domination of Red Bull being prolonged for another season,” added de la Rosa.

Another former McLaren racer David Coulthard, now a British television commentator and Red Bull advisor, agrees that Vettel’s chasers have left their run too late.

“Ferrari and McLaren have the resources and personnel to catch Red Bull, and in fact they have done so,” he wrote in his column for the Daily Telegraph.

“McLaren probably had the quickest car in Belgium at the weekend. They just didn’t get the job done.

“Seb’s lead … has almost certainly assured him of a second successive world title,” agreed the Scot.

Also succumbing to the eventual mathematics of the current points standings is ten time grand prix winner Gerhard Berger, who thinks Red Bull is right to keep its optimism under wraps for the moment.

“As long as it (defeat) is still theoretically possible, it is bad luck in sports to celebrate in advance,” he told Red Bull-linked Austrian television Servus TV.

“But for me there is no question; barring a disaster for him, this year’s world champion is Sebastian Vettel,” said Berger.

Jenson Button is pushing McLaren to trigger the one-year option the British team has on his services for 2012. The Daily Telegraph said the 2009 world champion would be happy with that solution for now, with the 2012 option expiring next month, “rather than hurrying into” a new longer-term deal. “All Martin (Whitmarsh) has got to do is say ‘yes’ and I will say ‘yes’ because I want to be here next year,” the Briton, who on Monday was demonstrating the Woking based team’s single seater in Manchester, said. Team boss Whitmarsh said after Sunday’s Belgian grand prix that Button’s was a performance “that marks out a true champion”. It is possible that Button, 31, is happy to stay at McLaren in 2012 whilst leaving his options open for a change of teams – maybe Ferrari – in 2013. Putting the pressure on McLaren amid other teams’ interest next year could also mean Button can “cut down the number of PR days and sponsorship activities he must perform” beyond 2012, according to Telegraph correspondent Tom Cary. Button edged ahead of Lewis Hamilton in the 2011 points standings at Spa-Francorchamps. But he told the Mirror: “Neither of us will remember where we finish if we don’t win the championship.”

Nick Heidfeld could sue Renault if the team confirms its reported plans to drop him for the rest of the 2011 season.

Enstone based Renault on Tuesday released its usual pre-race quotes ahead of the Spa-Francorchamps race weekend but did not mention the proposed driver lineup.

The development comes amid rumours Bruno Senna, apparently with millions in potential Brazilian sponsorship, is set to replace German Heidfeld in Belgium and beyond.

But Daily Telegraph correspondent Tom Cary on Tuesday said Heidfeld, 34, would likely tackle those plans with legal action.

“The (newspaper) understands that … Heidfeld … is prepared to use legal channels to hang on to his race seat,” said Cary.

He added that Heidfeld “may argue that it is unreasonable to replace him on grounds of performance” given that he has actually scored more points than teammate Vitaly Petrov so far.

The Gerhard Gribkowsky saga has gone from bad to worse for F1 chief executive Bernie Ecclestone.
Already under investigation by German prosecutors, the 80-year-old now faces a multi-million dollar lawsuit filed by the sport’s former 50 per cent shareholder Constantin Medien.

The German company, formerly known as EM.TV, has filed legal action in London’s High Court, according to a report in the Daily Telegraph.

Also being sued is Ecclestone’s holding company Bambino, business partner Stephen Mullens and the jailed Gribkowsky, who is accused of receiving millions from the F1 chief executive surrounding the sale of the rights to current owner CVC.

Constantin claims the manipulation of the sale to CVC cost it more than $100 million in missing profit proceeds.

Constantin, Ecclestone and CVC all declined to comment.

Bernie Ecclestone has finally confirmed reports he paid $40 million to jailed German banker Gerhard Gribkowsky.

But the F1 chief executive, who was officially named in the Munich prosecutors’ charges against Gribkowsky this week, denies it was a bribe, hinting instead that he was effectively blackmailed.

Ecclestone, 80, told the Daily Telegraph he was “threatened” by Gribkowsky who was warning of tax trouble for the diminutive Briton.

He said Gribkowsky was alleging irregularities with Ecclestone’s offshore family trust Bambino and “threatened that he was going to say that I was running it”.

Ecclestone added: “The taxation people in England at the time were in the middle of settling everything with the trust and the last thing you need is for them to start thinking something different.

“He (Gribkowsky) was shaking me down and I didn’t want to take a risk.”

Ecclestone said he asked his lawyers for advice about how to deal with Gribkowsky’s alleged threat.

“They said ‘I tell you what would happen, the (inland) Revenue would assess you and you would have to defend it, because you could defend it, and you would be three years in court and it would cost you a fortune. Better pay’,” said the F1 chief executive.

Ecclestone said he paid Gribkowsky through Mauritius and British Virgin Islands-based companies because “he wanted to be paid so it didn’t look like it came from me and didn’t look like it had come from England”.

And he said he has consistently denied making the payment at all until now because “the prosecutor had asked me not to say anything”.

Gribkowsky’s legal representative declined to comment.

The FIA is sticking to its May 1 deadline for the possible rescheduling of Bahrain’s 2011 grand prix.
With the date fast approaching amid reported continuing problems inside the island Kingdom, F1 chief executive Bernie Ecclestone on Thursday indicated he is now willing to wait for Bahrain until “early June”.

“We need to wait a little bit to see exactly how progress is made,” he is quoted as saying by the Mirror.

Daily Telegraph correspondent Tom Cary said Ecclestone’s new position caught the FIA “off guard”.

“As far as we are concerned a decision is still due on Sunday,” said a spokesman for F1′s governing body.

“Because it’s a weekend it may be Monday morning that we announce the decision, but we haven’t spoken to Mr Ecclestone about any delay,” he added.

Especially as Ecclestone indicated on Thursday that there have been discussions with Jean Todt, the comments are an indication the 80-year-old remains at loggerheads with the FIA president.

The FIA spokesman concluded: “The decision will be a joint one between the FIA, Formula One Management (Ecclestone) and the Bahrain authorities.”

Red Bull has accused McLaren of using Jenson Button as a “sacrificial lamb” in Sunday’s Japanese grand prix.

It could be seen as simply the latest tit-for-tat exchange of hostilities between the British based teams, but Christian Horner’s theory would explain Button’s very long first stint at Suzuka on the hard tyre.

The Red Bull team boss hypothesised that McLaren’s plan might have been to have Button out of sequence ahead of teammate Lewis Hamilton’s rivals – including Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber – to slow them down.

“But then it looked like Hamilton developed a problem and they aborted that strategy for Jenson.  It looked a little bit like he was a sacrificial lamb.  I don’t know.

“It just seemed strange,” Horner is quoted by the Daily Telegraph.

McLaren’s Martin Whitmarsh acknowledged the logic of Horner’s theory but said the truth is that Button’s race strategy had simply not worked.

“Yes there was,” said the Briton when asked if the possibility existed of using Button as a ‘blocker’ for Hamilton with the unusual strategy.

“If we had left him out there longer … it is not how we play our game,” insisted Whitmarsh.  “Maybe others would but that is not how we go motor racing.”

Peter Sauber has denied the signing of Telmex as a major new sponsor means he might be prepared to sell his Swiss formula one team.

On Monday, the Hinwil based team announced that Telmex, headed by the richest man in the world Carlos Slim, will have “a significant presence” on the livery of next year’s Sauber car.

The deal involves Mexican GP2 driver Sergio Perez joining as race driver, with the 20-year-old the most prominent member of the company’s motor sport arm Escuderia Telmex.

“For Telmex and our racing project it’s a great step forward,” said Slim’s son Carlos Slim Domit, chairman of the Mexico City-based company.

Swiss newspaper Blick, traditionally close to Sauber, said the two-year deal is worth about 20 million Swiss francs (EUR 15m).

“And who knows whether Slim will buy his new toy completely,” the report speculated.

But amid lingering rumours that GP2 team ART’s Nicolas Todt was also keen on buying into Sauber, boss Peter Sauber told the Daily Telegraph that is not going to happen.

“I own 100 per cent of the shares, and I have no plans to sell the team or part of it,” he insisted.

But having fielded a mainly blank livery in 2010 after the BMW withdrawal and the Qadbak sale debacle, the 66-year-old sounded relieved to have inked the major deal.

“With Telmex we want to send a clear message to other (potential) sponsors,” Sauber told Blick.

Ferrari race drivers Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa will address Wednesday’s FIA disciplinary hearing by video link.

It emerged last week that the pair, accused of obeying illegal team orders by swapping places at Hockenheim in July, had been summoned to the World Motor Sport Council session in Paris.

Reports indicated that the pair may appear in person or by video, probably from a location within Italy.

An article in the British newspaper Daily Telegraph, confirmed by the Maranello based team, said Alonso and Massa will be available to the FIA by video.

After Wednesday’s hearing, it is expected the verdict will be published later that day.

Team boss Domenicali and team manager Massimo Rivola, alongside the obligatory lawyers, are slated to be in attendance at the Place de la Concorde.

Alonso’s world championship chances are riding on the outcome, given his already 41 point deficit to leader Lewis Hamilton.

Should his Hockenheim points be deducted as a further penalty by the World Council, the Spaniard’s deficit – with six races left to run – would blow out to 70 points, because other championship contenders also stand to benefit.

Giorgio Beghella Bartoli, director of the Italian grand prix venue Monza, thinks Ferrari should escape sanction.

“As for the (team orders) regulation, an instruction (at Hockenheim) was not there,” he is quoted in Italian reports.

“Because an engineer (Rob Smedley) said ‘sorry’?  What kind of proof is that?” he insisted.

Livio Oricchio, an authoritative Brazilian journalist, went a step further, urging the FIA to scrap the team orders ban altogether.

“There is no way to control them.  Ending the ban respects the truth, therefore the fan.  And, as paradoxically as it may seem, the sport.

“On some occasions, the outcome of a race has been decided within a team and few people knew about it,” he wrote in his column in the Jornal da Tarde.