Red Bull has expressed the wish to extend Sebastian Vettel’s contract for a further two years.
The reigning world champion, and likely back-to-back 2011 title winner, already has a deal with the dominant team to the end of 2014.

But Dr Helmut Marko has revealed to Sport Bild that he wants to add a further two seasons to the contract.

“We made a contract with Sebastian to 2014 because both sides assumed that we would have two years together under the new engine rules. That has now changed,” said the Austrian.

Marko is referring to the fact that, subsequent to the signing of Vettel’s 2014 deal, F1 decided to delay the debut of the new engine regulations from 2013 to 2014.

“That is why we have also extended the agreement with our engine supplier Renault to 2016,” he explained.

Vettel has expressed the desire to one day switch to Ferrari or Mercedes, but Sport Bild quotes him as sounding open to extending his Red Bull stay beyond 2014.

“I feel very, very comfortable where I am at the moment and there is no reason to change. We’re like a family,” said the German.

The FIA handed back Red Bull’s paddock curfew ‘wild card’ in Singapore.
The dominant team was penalised ahead of the night race because a staff member was in the paddock during the working-day blackout period.

Dr Helmut Marko, however, protested that the unidentified staff member in question was wielding a mere guest pass and had no operational connection with either the team or the cars.

Indeed, it is believed he was connected to the sponsor Infiniti.

“After interviewing the person and hearing the explanation it is now clear that this person is not a member of the team,” an official of the governing FIA is quoted by Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport.

The FIA also lifted similar sanctions against the Mercedes and Virgin teams, who argued that they thought marketing staff were exempt from the curfew.

But Auto Motor und Sport quoted an insider as insisting that team bosses agreed in Melbourne earlier this year that marketing staff “are clearly included in the ban”.

A spokesman for Mercedes GP confirmed that a female member of the team’s marketing staff broke the curfew by half an hour.

Meanwhile, Toro Rosso’s curfew penalty – imposed after boss Franz Tost entered the Singapore paddock too early – stands.

Dominant team Red Bull stands to lose a chunk of laptime if diffuser exhaust blowing is banned after Sunday’s Canadian grand prix.

The team’s engine supplier Renault argued for a delay of the ban until after Montreal on the grounds that, because of the basic architecture of the engine, it is a reliability issue.

Adrian Newey explained in Monaco that the Renault V8 opens to full throttle when the driver is not pressing on the accelerator due to “exhaust valve cooling”.

Reliability aside, Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport and Autosprint in Italy claim that the driveability of the Renault engine will also be badly affected by the exhaust blowing ban.

The reports say the 2.4 litre Renault was designed specifically to produce an aerodynamic effect off-throttle, while others have struggled to adapt.

“We lost several engines testing this,” confirms Mercedes’ Norbert Haug.

Auto Motor und Sport estimates the total ban of exhaust blowing will cost some Renault and also Ferrari-powered teams as much as eight tenths per lap.

FIA president Jean Todt is resolute: “It (exhaust blowing) is a pointless consumption of fuel.”

Auto Motor und Sport said the Renault engine is designed to be at open throttle when not accelerating, with Ferrari also at risk of reliability and driveability problems in the event of the ban.

Specifically, Ferrari argues that is opens the valves in that situation to reduce pressure in the crankcase, while Mercedes and Cosworth have an entirely different approach to their valve philosophy.

Red Bull will decide whether to use KERS for the rest of the Monaco grand prix weekend after Thursday’s practice sessions.
The technology has caused problems for the otherwise dominant team so far in 2011, and at Monaco its influence is questionable due to the many tight corners and absence of significant straights.

The energy-recovery unit in Sebastian Vettel’s car functioned only intermittently en route to a narrow victory over Lewis Hamilton in Spain last weekend.

“I was playing around with the buttons and the brake distribution so it wasn’t an easy race and obviously McLaren and Lewis especially gave us a very, very hard time,” he said.

His teammate Mark Webber told Auto Motor und Sport in Monaco: “We will test with it on Thursday.”

German Vettel admitted that removing KERS from the RB7s after practice is an option.

“If we have some problems again, we need to consider if it makes more sense to concentrate fully on the driving,” he said.

Adrian Newey has revealed he would like to see Mark Webber stay with Red Bull Racing in 2012.
Along with other key players including designer Newey and team boss Christian Horner, Sebastian Vettel’s contract for next year and beyond was recently extended.

34-year-old Webber, however, is currently scheduled to leave the dominant team at the end of the season, with bosses wanting to gauge his motivation and performance at a later date.

The Australian has struggled to match runaway championship leader Vettel’s pace so far in 2011, with team driver manager Helmut Marko admitting recently that the young German alongside Lewis Hamilton would be a “fantasy” pairing.

“Crikey,” Newey responded in an interview with the Guardian.

“I’m hoping Mark continues next season. Apart from being a great person, his contribution has been significant. He’s been a pillar of the team from the start.

“Seb is very perceptive in his feedback in some regards and Mark is very perceptive in other areas. We listen to both and it helps the car,” the Briton added.

He admitted Webber has struggled recently but is now “closing the gap” to Vettel.

“At the moment he (Vettel) is really on top of his game. It’s certainly not a case that Mark has been driving any slower — that’s for sure. Mark’s just taken a bit longer to adapt to the Pirelli tyres but the gap is closing.”

He said the drivers felt the enormous pressure of last year’s championship battle and also revealed that he was affected physically by the death of Ayrton Senna in 1994.

“The little hair I had all fell out in the aftermath,” said Newey, who designed the Williams that Senna raced at Imola. “So it changed me physically.”

He believes Senna’s crash was caused by a puncture rather than a failed steering column but is nonetheless reluctant to see the new film about the great Brazilian’s career.

“No. It would not be an easy thing to do,” said Newey.

Dyed-in-the-wool racer Martin Brundle on Monday said he sees no quick end to Red Bull’s new self-induced crisis.

“I doubt that trip across the Atlantic for the next round in Montreal will extinguish these fireworks,” the BBC commentator said on Monday, as the international media got to work on Sebastian Vettel’s crash at Istanbul Park with race leader and teammate Mark Webber.

The Sun’s headline referred to the one-two gift handed to McLaren, toying with the energy drink’s slogan by insisting “Red Bull gives you wins”.

Other sections of the press were more serious.

“Red Bull has a conflict of jealously and betrayal,” said El Mundo newspaper in Spain.

Italy’s La Repubblica likened the previously dominant team’s self-destruction to “suicide”.

Britain’s The Independent referred to the fact that Webber, branded crazy by Vettel’s gesticulations and told by his bosses that he should have let the young German past, must now have the impression he is the number two driver.

Webber acknowledged that Vettel’s gesticulations were caused by the “adrenalin” of the moment, but “Red Bull need to take steps to ensure the current world championship leader can have complete faith that the support within the team is spread evenly”, said the newspaper.

And Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport noted that the 33-year-old is “not the kind of guy who is told to finish second”.

Strangely within the paddock, it was only the Red Bull bosses who thought Webber had done something wrong.

“Where should Mark have gone?” Lewis Hamilton – who had a box-seat view of the incident that unfolded in front of him – told German television Sky.

“I think the gap he left him was big enough.

“Even though Jenson and I both want to win, we also have respect for each other.  I’m really happy that I have such a good relationship with my teammate.”

Said Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg: “Mark didn’t move at all.  For me, it was clearly Sebastian’s fault.”

Niki Lauda said the 22-year-old had been “much too aggressive”, and former driver Alex Wurz noted in Turkey: “All my racing colleagues are in agreement that it was Vettel’s fault.”

Ross Brawn thinks these situations can be minimised if drivers know clearly the rules of engagement.

“It depends on what has been said beforehand,” the Mercedes team boss is quoted by Die Welt newspaper.  “Although it’s racing, the rules must be known to the drivers.”

Peter Sauber, meanwhile, had some sympathy for Christian Horner, admitting to Blick newspaper in Switzerland that these situations are “a nightmare for a team chief”.

(GMM)