Pirelli test driver Lucas di Grassi has defended the F1 tyre supplier following Michael Schumacher’s criticism.

Schumacher attacked the Italian marque’s 2012 product after the Bahrain grand prix, complaining that the tyres wear so fast that drivers often have to take corners at half-pace like the safety car.

“In some ways he’s right,” Brazilian di Grassi, who along with Jaime Alguersuari tests tyres for Pirelli, is quoted by Globo.

“You can’t go at 100 per cent all the time because the current tyres are designed to highlight the strategy during the races.

“Drivers have to think more about what part of the race to make best use of the tyres,” said the former Virgin driver.

Di Grassi, 27, credited Pirelli for the exciting races seen so far in 2012.

“The championship is very balanced, which is good for everyone, especially the public,” he said.

“It’s partly because Pirelli has been able to use the data it collected last year and make good decisions for this year,” added di Grassi.

Also with a view contrary to Schumacher’s is the seven time world champion’s own teammate, Nico Rosberg.

“F1 has become more interesting,” said the Shanghai winner, “as everything has been shaken up — it’s much better than the same cars and drivers always driving away from the front,” he is quoted by German media.

“Due to the tyre situation, the races have been very varied, which is an extraordinary challenge but also very exciting. And we have to get used to it,” added Rosberg.

 Lotus could become the next team to withdraw from the formula one teams association FOTA.
Already departed are HRT, Sauber and Toro Rosso and also the top teams Red Bull and Ferrari, leaving fellow grandees McLaren, Mercedes and the others on the wrong side of their competitors’ former unity.

Now, this week, team owner Gerard Lopez has been quoted as admitting that Lotus is contemplating pulling out.

The reasons for the withdrawals appear different, with Red Bull having been accused of breaching the gentleman’s Resource Restriction Agreement (RRA) and Ferrari rumoured to want to use its individual power to shape the future of the sport’s rules and structure.

The formerly BMW-owned Sauber, however, insisted that recent cost-cutting in formula one has not made it easier for smaller teams to survive.

“The RRA was a step in the right direction, but now other steps must urgently follow,” he told F1′s official website.

“It definitely has not become easier for the smaller teams.”

But beneath the surface, unity has not broken down completely, argues McLaren team boss Martin Whitmarsh, who doubles as the FOTA chairman.

It is true, for example, that the new non-FOTA members will continue to respect aspects of the body’s agreements, such as the summer factory closure.

“I’m not too hung up on the brand ‘FOTA’,” Whitmarsh said recently.

“I think what’s important is that the teams realise there are critical issues within this sport where it will be better if we cooperate and take sensible decisions, and I hope and believe that we’ll continue to do that.”

He added last month: “Relations between McLaren, Red Bull and Ferrari remain very good indeed.”

Dario Franchitti insists he has no regrets despite never adding success in formula one to his list of career achievements.
The famous Scot, whose wife is the Hollywood actor Ashley Judd, is the cousin of impressive Force India youngster Paul di Resta.

Last week, 38-year-old Franchitti joined his family member at the Jerez test.

The four-time Indycar champion and double Indy 500 winner was asked by Sky Sports if, despite flirting with Jaguar at the beginning of last decade, he regrets not having made it to F1.

“You can live your life thinking ‘I wish I’d done this, I wish I’d done that’,” he answered.

“It would have been great to race in formula one at some point, but when the chances were there I didn’t take them; I didn’t feel that they were better than the opportunities I had in America.”

Added Franchitti: “I made the decisions I made, I’m delighted I won a couple of Indy 500s and the four championships, so I wouldn’t change that for that world.”

Williams sees Kimi Raikkonen as the key to securing a major new sponsor, according to a Finnish newspaper.
The 2007 world champion recently visited the British team’s headquarters, and rumours in Singapore said the parties are serious about potentially working together next season.

According to Ilta Sanomat newspaper, signing Raikkonen could secure the team the backing of the part state-owned Qatar National Bank.

Williams already has links with Qatar, including the Williams Technology Centre located in the Arab emirate.

The report said Sir Frank Williams has been trying “for several years” to sign the Qatari bank as a sponsor.

During his last grand prix as Williams’ technical director in Singapore two weeks ago, Sam Michael was asked if the team is now taking its driver decisions on financial grounds.

“I think Williams will make the choices that are best for the company and the best results. That’s what it will come down to,” he said.

The Australian also hinted that Pastor Maldonado, strongly backed by Venezuala, is set to stay in 2012.

“You can definitely start to see the signs as to whether a rookie is capable or not by mid-season and I would definitely put Pastor Maldonado in that category,” he said.

“And if he wasn’t in that category, he wouldn’t have kept his drive going forward. So I can see the guy having an even stronger year next year,” added Michael.

Mark Webber’s manager has refused to back the Australian’s stance against Red Bull’s imposition of team orders at Silverstone last weekend.
Britain’s Sun newspaper says Australian Webber, 34, “put his job at risk” by openly ignoring boss Christian Horner’s instruction to end his challenge on teammate Sebastian Vettel towards the end of the British grand prix.

“I wasn’t happy with that (order) because you should never give up in F1,” Webber said on Monday.

Although the winner of six grands prix effectively handles his own career with his partner Ann, former Renault boss Flavio Briatore is still involved as a manager.

He told Italy’s Sky Sport 24 that he thinks Red Bull was justified in asking Webber to hold station.

“Welcome to F1,” Briatore is quoted as saying. “I would have done the same.

“If you’re playing for a world championship, you have to take decisions and drivers need to understand that it’s not your car and it’s a team of hundreds of people. They (drivers) need to respect that,” he added.

Briatore’s other charge, Fernando Alonso, won the British grand prix but the flamboyant Italian does not believe Ferrari can chase down Vettel.

“He (Alonso) might be second or third in the end, but he has no chance of winning because the championship is over already.”

After splitting with Nick Wirth, the next rumour at Virgin is that the struggling team is set to move into the former Arrows and Super Aguri facility in Leafield (UK).
Since entering formula one based on the F3 team Manor, the outfit has been located at Dinnington, but with the crucial technical headquarters at Wirth Research in Banbury.

It is rumoured Leafield has been proposed as the ideal base after the Wirth split by team consultant Pat Symonds.

Symonds is the previously highly-respected engineer who was banned from a direct operational role in F1 following the Renault crashgate scandal two years ago.

Virgin Racing chief executive Graeme Lowdon told the Sheffield Star newspaper: “We are always evaluating our options but we have had no discussions with them (Leafield).

“It is way too early to make any decisions on that. We are reviewing everything and looking at what the best solution is going forwards.”

Williams chairman Adam Parr on Sunday refused to deny speculation the struggling team might oust its technical director Sam Michael.
The famous Grove-based squad has had a difficult start to the 2011 championship and Parr told Reuters the main problems are in the technical areas.

“If Sam thought that the right thing for the team is for him to stop, he’d stop tomorrow. He wouldn’t even quibble. He will do whatever is necessary for the team,” he said.

Parr admitted that Williams “will be changing things” in the near future and said only organisational restructuring is not enough.

“You can’t change what we are doing without changing people,” he said, admitting that some of the decisions will be “tough”.

Rubens Barrichello’s FW33 was fitted with a Red Bull-style exhaust earlier in Shanghai but it was removed for qualifying.

“There are other areas (too) where we’ve just not been smart enough,” said Parr. “We’re not lacking in creativity or ambition but it’s not enough.

“There are other people who are being more creative and more ambitious,” he added.

The National Bank of Abu Dhabi has emerged as a possible sponsor of a formula one team in 2011.

The bank, into the second year of a three-year deal sponsor deal with the F1 event at Yas Marina this weekend, has an increased signage presence around the track.

And it is now rumoured that Williams is in the running for a team sponsorship deal, as it prepares to lose existing bank sponsor the Royal Bank of Scotland after Sunday’s race.

However, the British outfit’s chief executive Adam Parr said Williams is already in “great shape” financially for 2011, despite reports the Dutch electronics brand Philips is also leaving the team.

It had been suggested that Williams was having to consider signing the well-financed new GP2 champion Pastor Maldonado for next season despite the team being happy with Nico Hulkenberg and Rubens Barrichello.

“We haven’t made any decisions about our driver lineup for next year,” said Parr on Friday. “What we have done is replaced all the sponsorship we have lost.”

Lucas di Grassi has admitted there is a risk he will not stay with the Virgin team beyond the 2010 season.

The Brazilian made his debut with the new British team this year, but the Belgian newspaper La Libre is reporting that Dutchman Giedo van der Garde will almost certainly replace him for 2011.

Earlier, it was expected that Belgian Jerome d’Ambrosio, currently a Friday morning driver in di Grassi’s car at grands prix, had secured enough sponsorship to buy the cockpit.

“There is no threat from them,” di Grassi, quoted in the O Estado de S.Paulo newspaper, answered when asked about the spectre of pay-drivers.

“If it was up to them (Virgin), they would continue with the same drivers,” he added, also referring to his current teammate Timo Glock.

“But we know that it depends on other factors as well — financial (ones), yes,” added di Grassi, 26.

La Libre said van der Garde is expected to sign the 2011 contract this weekend at Interlagos, having come up with almost twice as much personal sponsorship as d’Ambrosio.

Meanwhile, also in Sao Paulo on Wednesday, Bruno Senna commented on reports he could switch from HRT to Lotus next year.

“There is nothing certain with regards to 2011, my focus now is to finish this championship in the best possible way,” he told Brazilian media.

“There are still plenty of decisions yet to come,” added Senna.

Red Bull should not take the title, many expect a release Horner as team boss.

After the double failure of Red Bull team boss Christian Horner in Korea is coming under fire. British media speculation already has the replacement of the British should not Mark Webber, Sebastian Vettel still get the title. Many find that Horner, not on sympathy, but a lack of assertiveness. The fact is that Red Bull but the strongest and fastest car in the field has, however, this advantage could not always convert into the necessary results.

“Red Bull has shown time and again in 2010, that they can not consistently enter the results that they are with the car actually able to get,” said Andrew Benson criticized in his blog. Mark Webber is currently eleven points behind new championship leader Fernando Alonso. Sebastian Vettel is in the Drivers’ Championship in fourth with 25 points behind. Said the renowned F1 journalist Mark Hughes told the BBC in terms of a stable direction, “Red Bull has to meet two races remaining difficult decisions.”

Valtteri Bottas has refused to criticise the Williams team for not scheduling a test day for him in November.

The 20-year-old Finn has been a frontrunner in the F3 Euroseries in 2010, whilst serving as the famous British team Williams’ test and reserve driver.

He said earlier in 2010 that he has done some aerodynamic straightline testing in the FW32 this year “and after the season (I will do) the young drivers test in Abu Dhabi”.

But whilst confirming that Bottas is staying as test driver next year, Williams announced this week that it will be F2 champion Dean Stoneman and Pastor Maldonado at the wheel of the car for November’s Abu Dhabi test.

But Bottas is not critical of the team, despite missing out on the test opportunity.

“They need to test someone else,” he is quoted by Turun Sanomat newspaper. “It doesn’t change anything for me.

“I respect their decisions and I’m working as usual to support the team,” added Bottas, who is managed by Mika Hakkinen.

Bottas will still be in Abu Dhabi, having scheduled a test with the GP2 team ART.

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.

Vitantonio Liuzzi has played down rumours Force India is planning to replace him at the end of the season.

Speculation swirled in the Singapore paddock two weeks ago that the Silverstone based team’s rookie ‘Friday’ driver Paul di Resta has secured a deal to move into a race cockpit in 2011.

On paper, Italian Liuzzi, 29, looks the most likely to make way for the Scot, having scored 34 fewer points so far in 2010 than his teammate Adrian Sutil.

But he wrote in his column for ESPNF1.com that if di Resta has in fact signed a deal to race in 2011, “that would mean that Adrian is out because I have a contract”.

“In a few weeks more information will come out, but I’m not worried by the speculation in the press in the meantime,” Liuzzi insisted.

German Sutil, 27, is highly regarded by Force India but has been linked with moves to Renault or Mercedes for 2011.

“We haven’t made any decisions yet on where we go,” the team’s operating officer Otmar Szafnauer, revealing that a decision is due in about a month, told the website of British magazine Autosport.

“I think we have got the luxury of being able to assess the situation and make a decision. But there is a seat available,” he admitted.

Kimi Raikkonen has once again refused to shed any light on his plans for 2011.

It is expected that the 2007 world champion intends to stay at least another year in the world rally championship.

But Citroen recently announced that Sebastien Loeb and Sebastien Ogier are staying put, without mentioning the future of Finn Raikkonen, who has also been linked with a return to formula one.

When asked on Thursday ahead of the Finnish rally if there is any news about his plans, the 30-year-old answered: “No, not yet. We have some decisions to make and I haven’t done that yet.

“I can honestly say that I do not know,” he added in a separate interview.

FIA president Jean Todt told Turun Sanomat newspaper that he respects Raikkonen’s decision last year to move to rallying.

“When he wanted a new challenge, it was very courageous to pick rally. But F1 is a constant pressure so I can understand why Kimi wanted to do something else,” said the Frenchman.

“What I can say is that if the reigning champion Jenson Button, or whoever wins this year’s title should go to rallying, he would not be at the same level of Kimi in their first season,” added Todt.

Both Raikkonen and Todt refused to comment on the Ferrari team orders scandal.

“I’m not in formula one, so I don’t care what’s happening there,” said the Finn.

And Todt added: “We will deal with it in due course, but I don’t want to talk about F1 now.”

The wording of F1′s ban on in-season testing has been clarified.

Red Bull team boss Christian Horner recently said Ferrari’s use of a filming and promotional track day to test updates for the F10 car was “naughty” and breached the “spirit” of the agreement.

And FOTA chairman Martin Whitmarsh suggested that other teams including Mercedes and Renault have also made “some arguable decisions” with regards to the rules about in-season testing.

“If people want to be more comfortable then I know there are discussions in order to tidy up the wording, and I have no problem with that,” said Ferrari team boss Stefano Domenicali.

Italy’s Autosprint reports that during a meeting at Silverstone last week, the teams drafted new wording to prevent the testing of new components during promotional or filming days.