Vitaly Petrov has hit out again at his ‘pay-driver’ label, insisting even the highest paid driver on the grid has a similar arrangement with his team.
“I see no difference between myself and Alonso,” said the Russian, who has moved his lucrative backing from Renault (now Lotus) to the Caterham team for 2012.

His new appointment is controversial, given he has ousted the experienced veteran and former Monaco winner Jarno Trulli, who was the last Italian in F1.

Comparing himself with Alonso, Petrov told La Stampa newspaper: “Everyone knows that he is funded by the money from (Ferrari sponsor) Banco Santander.

“Anyway, you only get to F1 because of talent.”

And Petrov, 27, insists he does not feel sorry for Trulli.

“Life is hard,” the Italian newspaper quotes him as saying.

He admitted that having friends in F1 is impossible, whilst making some comments that will also not endear him to the sport’s Italian followers.

Asked to explain the rare absence of Italians on the grid, Petrov criticised the country’s junior categories and added: “Your drivers lack the passion.”

And as for Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo’s complaints about the dramatic role being played by aerodynamics in F1 at present, he answered: “When you’re not winning, it’s easy to complain.”

Petrov, however, lived in Italy in his past, revealing that his favourite elements of Italian life are “the food and the girls”.

But on the latter, he does not expect to be wheel-to-wheel with the opposite sex any time soon.

“They do not have the physical ability and also are not prepared for the high speeds. But everything in life is possible,” said Petrov.

 Luca di Montezemolo insists heads will not roll, as Ferrari looks set to race into the 2012 season without the chance of a podium.
The famous team wrote off last year’s championship early to focus on 2012 with an aggressive project, with new British technical chief Pat Fry in the spotlight.

But also feeling the pressure is team boss Stefano Domenicali, who said at the weekend that he has “the support of president Montezemolo”.

“I am not the one who designs the car: my task is to give my people everything they need in terms of organisation and structure,” said the Italian.

But Montezemolo denied that Ferrari will react in arguably typical fashion by making sweeping changes.

“I’ve always given my staff time and trust,” he told La Gazzetta dello Sport. “We have not even begun and already you’re putting the people in doubt?

“Let’s not have that talk,” insisted the Ferrari president.

He admitted the F2012 has untapped potential.

“There are too few tests and unfortunately they are in public. But I would still wait before drawing conclusions about the title fight.

“According to the drivers, the F2012 has some negative elements, but also some positive. The problems have been identified and I hope they can be fixed quickly,” he added.

Marussia Racing’s new MR01 finally made its first on-track appearance during a promotional ‘filming’ day at Silverstone, just a few miles from is Banbury base.

The Anglo-Russian team endured a torrid time in its attempts to get the car ready for the third and final group test at Barcelona last week, having skipped the opening session in Jerez to prepare the MR01 for early March, only to fail the mandatory FIA crash tests. Although both Timo Glock and rookie Charles Pic got some miles under their belts in Barcelona last month, it was at the wheel of the 2011-spec car, leaving them preciously short of time in the new machine ahead of its race debut in Melbourne next weekend.

The Silverstone shakedown, part of a promotional event ahead of the car’s departure for the Australian Grand Prix, will provide both team and driver with vital information on the new machine, which has been conceived after a ground-up re-evaluation of the way Marussia designs its racing cars. As such, the car is almost entirely new, with very few carry-over components from last year’s Marussia Virgin MVR-02.

The desire to make a clean break from the previous CFD-only creations presented the design team, led by technical consultant Pat Symonds, with the challenge of going back to basics to produce a solid mechanical package, whilst maintaining an eye towards achieving the incremental performance steps required to move the team forward.

The starting point for the design programme was a consideration of the people and resources available to the Banbury-based team. The former three-base operation has been consolidated into one site, the Marussia Technical Centre in Banbury, bringing the various elements of the business together to form ‘one team’. In particular, the design department and practices now benefit from far greater integration and collaboration. Furthermore, the aerodynamic department has been completely restructured and the aero methodology reinforced, blurring the boundaries between CFD and experimental work in the wind tunnel, as well as enhancing the fidelity of the team’s aero approach.

The technical partnership forged with McLaren Applied Technologies in July of last year has also been influential in the design process and the relationship is starting to yield benefit as the advanced facilities that the Marussia team has access to have been used to prove the correlation process with the MVR-02. It is however early in the relationship and the MR01 will become a beneficiary of the relationship in due course.

The key design priorities were to address previous aerodynamic deficiencies and, mechanically, achieve greater weight saving. At the same time, a lot of the detail of the car has been refined and the design team have been a little more adventurous than before, stepping closer to the engineering boundaries. The car can best be described as a significant evolution of its predecessors. The relationship with McLaren is also evident, as the MR01 is only the second car launched this season, after the Woking giant’s MP4-27, to eschew the stepped nose concept favoured by the rest of the field.

“We are very pleased to be running the new MR01 for the first time this morning,” team principal John Booth admitted, “It has been a long and frustrating wait for everyone in the team, but we can now get back on track – literally – and start working towards the first race of the season in Australia next weekend.

“Today is the first of two promotional events, so while the drivers will be able to get a feel for the car, they won’t be able to draw any real conclusions until we start running in anger in Melbourne. Nevertheless, this is an important day for us and we’ll enjoy every minute on track with the new car.”

Glock turned the first laps with the MR01, beginning his third season with the team and providing the all-important element of continuity required to keep moving the package forward. He is joined in 2012 by Frenchman Pic, who embarks on his rookie year in F1, having made the step up from GP2 to replace Belgium’s Jerome d’Ambrosio. Both drivers will get track time with the new car over the next two days, albeit running on demonstration tyres as opposed to the Pirelli P-Zeros that they will use once competition starts in Melbourne.

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 450 workers are pushing to enable Austin’s new Circuit of the Americas to be ready for the US grand prix later this year.
After the Texas project’s earlier hiccups, the rooves and walls of the paddock and medical buildings, media centre and main grandstand are now taking shape.

Another recent setback, however, was 2 inches of rain in the last ten days.

“We’ve got a lot of dry weather we know is going to be coming, and are hoping to be gaining some time,” said a contractor spokesman.

He revealed that the first layer of track asphalt will be poured around April “so we can get other elements, the tire barriers (and) the FIA fence going on”, he told the local Austin American Statesman.

The report said construction is scheduled to be essentially completed two months before the November 18 race.

Ferrari’s 2012 car will borrow some ideas from Red Bull and other rival teams in formula one.
That is the admission of chief designer Nikolas Tombazis, who is heading the project of what has been described as an “aggressive” change of direction for the famous Italian team.

But recently in Korea, Ferrari ran a 2012-style new wing that some observers analysed as similar to the philosophy seen this year in Red Bull’s dominant car.

“One can not ignore the competition, nor that Red Bull wins (the championships),” Tombazis is quoted by the website of Italian magazine Autosprint.

“But Red Bull are not the only ones with interesting solutions; there are also solutions to consider on the slower cars,” he said. “We don’t need to hide that.

“However I believe that next year’s car will have lots of different elements, all ours. It would be absolutely unfair to say that it is a Red Bull.

“It will be a Ferrari but it will be different in different areas, with new solutions in other areas. It will be a mix,” added Tombazis.

McLaren has rejected any claims it has fallen behind in the development of its 2011 car.
It had emerged that that the Mercedes powered MP4-26 would not get its maiden run until after an interim 2010 car contests the opening group test at Valencia.

But Paddy Lowe, the British team’s engineering director, said during a teleconference on Thursday that McLaren sees its plans as “optimal”.

“It’s always been in our plans to launch it after the first test,” he said.

“One of the reasons was we wanted to make use of the first test to work with the car as a stable and known platform while we understood the new (Pirelli) tyres,” added Lowe.

“It also gave us a bit more time in the programme for the new car.”

One theory about McLaren’s approach is that the 2011 car features some key innovations that the team either wants to spend more time perfecting or shield from its rivals for as long as possible.

McLaren pioneered the so-called F-duct last year that was ultimately copied by almost every team.

“Yes, there will be some new elements,” team boss Martin Whitmarsh admitted to F1′s official website, “but as you can imagine I’m not prepared to add more detail at the moment!”

Sao Paulo authorities reportedly suspect that the attempted robbery or kidnapping involving Jenson Button’s entourage last Saturday was a hoax.

According to Tuttosport newspaper, based on a report in the Brazilian news weekly Epoca, the authorities are investigating the matter and have discovered irregularities in the story.

“Various elements do not add up,” read the Italian report.

Among the discrepancies is that the off-duty policeman driver did not make an official report about the incident, and no calls to emergency phone numbers were made.

Epoca, suspecting that the incident was staged for publicity by the security team protecting Button, wrote: “What really happened?”

A spokesman for the security organisers of the Interlagos race said: “We have no hard data to say what happened, if it happened.”

Formula one teams have agreed a budget cap for operational spending in 2011 and beyond, according to an Italian media report.

Earlier this week, we reported that team bosses discussed the so-called Resource Restriction Agreement in Singapore last weekend.

There are signs that, despite the cost-cutting pact negotiated at the end of the 2009 political war, some teams – notably the new and independent ones – are still struggling financially.

Italy’s Autosprint reports that a new operational budget limit was therefore agreed within the FOTA group, with engine and transmission costs not included.

The report said teams may no longer spend any more than EUR 20 million each on operational elements, while team staff numbers have been capped at 415.

Michael Schumacher on Thursday accused British pundits of exaggerating their criticisms in the wake of his performance in the Canadian grand prix.

His former teammate Martin Brundle had said the seven time world champion drove “appallingly badly” in Montreal, while fellow BBC commentators Eddie Jordan and David Coulthard also criticised Schumacher.

“I don’t take them seriously because there are different elements to formula one, and one part is showbusiness,” the 41-year-old is quoted by PA Sport in Valencia, a street circuit on which he has never raced.

Schumacher said he is “quite happy” with his return to F1 so far, and Mercedes team chief executive Nick Fry said he is doing “an excellent job despite what I understand has been said about Michael”.

“All in all,” argued Schumacher, “I don’t think there are many guys around the world who, at 41, come back after a three year break and compete at this high a level.”
(GMM)

Last year there were Red Bull and Renault engine supplier to a few races to fight for the title of Formula 1, but even then, the team flirted to Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber in order to replace the units in the rear of the racing cars by Mercedes engines. If it has not been known – and a renewed attempt now seems to fail.

This calculates at least Helmut Marko, Red Bull motorsport consultant to “As the Mercedes engine is apparently not have, according to recent statements of the Mercedes executives, we will probably stay at Renault as an engine supplier,” says the former Formula-1 -driver with ‘Sport Bild’ – all the Red-Bull-Renault wins so far achieved with force.
Maybe the racing team to team boss Christian Horner in the coming season will go even one step further and buy more equipment elements in the French: Red Bull would go with KERS in 2011 at the start. Marko: “Either we then use the hybrid system of Renault or we buy one of their suppliers and Magneti Marelli adapt it to himself.”

Jun.10 (GMM)  Michael Schumacher looks set to stay at Mercedes in 2011.

The famous German, who initially retired in 2006, is believed to have signed a three-year contract prior to returning to formula one this season.

But after a difficult re-acclimatisation, it had been widely speculated that the 41-year-old might prefer to step back out of the race cockpit at the end of 2010.

Boss Ross Brawn said in Turkey that he hopes both Schumacher and Nico Rosberg stay at the team in 2011.

Schumacher’s younger brother Ralf also thinks the seven time world champion is staying put.

“I think he’s pretty happy with what he’s doing and, as far as I know, it’s a three-year plan, so I’m sure we’ll see him around for a while,” he told 422race.com.

And Schumacher himself is quoted as saying on Thursday: “For me this is not a one-year project.”

That commitment might lead to Mercedes eventually calling off development of the silver MGP-01 in order to concentrate early on its 2011 successor.

“By mid-season, we must look to put the F-duct in and catch up to the top,” Brawn added.  “If it is worthwhile to keep attacking then we will do it, if not we will concentrate everything on 2011.”

The Briton told Italy’s Autosprint magazine that he still thinks the pacesetting Red Bull cars are still within reach.

“Some aspects of their car is different from all the others,” he explained.  “Other teams will introduce these elements in the next races.

“I know that everyone is looking with great interest at their exhaust system,” said Brawn.

Yet another element of Red Bull’s pace-setting RB6 had to be modified ahead of last weekend’s Turkish grand prix.

After Monaco, we reported that McLaren had identified a part of the 2010 Red Bull’s rear diffuser that did not conform with the regulations and had to be altered in the Principality.

Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport now reveals that an element of the rear suspension was changed at Istanbul Park last weekend.

The report said the elements in question, hidden behind six burly Red Bull mechanics on recent grand prix grids, were aerodynamically shaped and at a 20 degree horizontal angle rather than the allowed five.

In response, Adrian Newey’s design team reportedly shrouded the parts with round tubing in order to nullify the downforce-producing effect.

(GMM)

A development of Ferrari’s rear double-diffuser was spotted in the Istanbul pitlane.

The F10 was wheeled out of the garage so that international photographers could see the engine cover logo celebrating the team’s 800th grand prix this weekend.

But a reporter for Spain’s AS newspaper also spotted an upgraded diffuser with enlarged elements “not seen at other races”.

“We know that in Barcelona we had a disadvantage in the total downforce generated by the car and have worked on this issue,” Fernando Alonso is quoted as saying.

But the Spanish driver is not expecting Ferrari to catch the dominant Red Bulls this weekend.

“In Barcelona they were almost a second faster than the others, and in the three weeks since it is impossible to have recovered that difference,” he is quoted by El Pais newspaper.

(GMM)

Red Bull’s rivals cannot catch up with the dominant RB6 car simply by copying its technical features, Fernando Alonso insists.

On Monday, McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton was quoted as urging his engineers to study the Adrian Newey-penned single seater in a bid to match its runaway pace.

Asked by Germany’s Die Welt for his opinion about the secret to the RB6′s success, Ferrari driver Alonso answered: “It would be nice if we knew that.

“It is incredibly difficult to figure out why the competition is better here and there. And so it is hard to copy them.”

But the Spaniard admitted that emulating the cleverness of rival teams is commonplace in formula one.

“It can be. But whether it always works is a different matter, because every team also has its own design philosophy into which fits the next elements.

“It means that you have to develop better in your own direction,” said Alonso.

Red Bull’s Mark Webber, the back-to-back winner from pole in Spain and Monaco, insists it is too early to conclude that the Austrian team is now a shoo-in for the title.

“I understand you guys (reporters) have to write stuff but no one knows who is going to be in the hunt with a few races to go,” said the Australian.
(GMM)