Robert Kubica will be forced to sit out the famous Monte Carlo rally for the second year in succession.
Last year, the Pole’s Renault Clio suffered an engine failure after just 4km.

Rally enthusiast Kubica, 26, wanted to return in 2011, and had even signalled his intention with organisers to contest the January 18-22 event.

But according to German language speedweek.de, he has had to withdraw due to wanting to take part in the S2000 category with a car other than a Renault.

Kubica’s F1 employer Lotus Renault GP reportedly did not give him permission to drive a rival carmaker’s car.

As the 2010 world championship battles heats up, so too is the competitive rivalry between Red Bull’s teammates.

Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel are openly not friends, but with just two races to go this season and 14 points between them, some believe Vettel should now be helping his Australian teammate to the title.

“I am not giving up,” 23-year-old German Vettel said on Thursday in an interview with the DPA press agency.

“It would be stupid to give up the belief in the title. I will continue to fight,” he promised.

Vettel was asked whether he has a cooperative “deal” in place with Webber as the season winds down.

“That is too far away,” he answered. “I must just concentrate on my performance.”

Earlier this week, Webber indicated Vettel is only regarded as the team’s “superstar” because of his young age.

Vettel’s apparent rejoinder is a barb about the pair’s exits from the recent Korean grand prix, with Webber crashing and Vettel retiring with an engine failure.

“Let’s put it this way: I would have been far more disappointed if I had thrown away the car over a personal fault,” said the German.

He said he is not worried about losing the support of his team in deference to Webber.

“I know that my team supports me and that I don’t have to be worried,” answered Vettel.

Sebastian Vettel needs to accept the reality of a number 2 role for the good of Red Bull’s 2010 title chances.

That is the claim of former triple world champion and outspoken commentator Niki Lauda, following reports the young German is reluctant to give up the chase for his first title in deference to the team’s points leader Mark Webber.

The news also follows boss Christian Horner’s insistence that the team will “support both (drivers) equally” in Brazil and Abu Dhabi “in line with Red Bull’s credible sporting ethos”.

But with Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso leading the championship and fully backed by his teammate Felipe Massa, Lauda said Red Bull’s policy is a road to failure.

“Red Bull needs to establish the team hierarchy now,” the great Austrian is quoted by Bild newspaper.

“If they don’t get behind Mark Webber, they may have to go without the title.”

Lauda’s only concern is that the exercising of team orders within Red Bull is done in a way that does not “cheat the spectators”.

Jos Verstappen, who in the mid-90s at Benetton was Michael Schumacher’s number 2, agrees that Vettel should be playing that role now.

“Purely mathematically, he has a chance to be champion. But as a team they really have to put everything behind Webber.

“He (Webber) has a better chance of winning the title,” the Dutchman wrote in his column for De Telegraaf newspaper.

“Of course it’s a difficult position for Red Bull, as the whole world knows who they would prefer to be in the best position.

“It’s unfortunate for Vettel, but with his engine failure in Korea his championship did literally go up in smoke,” added Verstappen.

But Horner sounds unlikely to have a change of heart, telling the BBC he finds it “frustrating” that 7 points of leader Alonso’s 11 point lead was due to inheriting the German grand prix win from his teammate Massa.

“It (losing the title to Alonso) would be frustrating because we’ve obviously worked under the auspices that team orders have been illegal,” he told BBC radio.

Sebastian Vettel sounds unlikely to voluntarily fall in line behind Mark Webber as Red Bull pushes for its first ever drivers’ world championship.

Although heading for the championship lead in Korea before his engine failure, Vettel is now 25 points off Fernando Alonso.

It means Ferrari’s Spanish driver is the favourite for the title, with Vettel’s Australian teammate Mark Webber the most likely challenger due to his 11 point deficit.

But Germany’s Bild newspaper said it sounds unlikely that Vettel is going to give up.

“Nothing is going to change in my approach to the final two rounds,” he is quoted as saying. “My (engine) failure makes everything more interesting and difficult. But it is still possible.

“I am going to fight until the end,” Vettel vowed.

Like McLaren’s Martin Whitmarsh who is in a similar situation, Red Bull chief Christian Horner said before leaving Korea that team strategy will be discussed internally before the season’s penultimate event in Brazil.

Former Ferrari driver Jean Alesi thinks Red Bull made a big mistake by not establishing a hierarchy some time ago.

“They needed to take advantage of the fact they had the best car,” the Frenchman told CNR Media. “It’s doubtful they will have the same advantage next year, so you have to say they have mismanaged this season.

“I think they’ve missed a great opportunity,” added Alesi.

Joan Villadelprat, a veteran F1 team manager who now operates his own Le Mans team Epsilon Euskadi, agrees.

“There has been a lack of solidarity at Red Bull, who have not been able to manage their superiority and are now giving the title away to Ferrari,” he wrote in his El Pais newspaper column.

“When a double world champion like Alonso takes the kind of advantage he has now, he does not fail,” the Spaniard added.

The Schumacher brothers are adamant Red Bull must now impose team orders if it wants to win the 2010 drivers’ world championship.

Their young countryman Sebastian Vettel looked set to take the points lead from his Australian teammate Mark Webber, who crashed on the slippery Yeongam circuit, after controlling Sunday’s Korean grand prix from pole position.

But Vettel also retired from the race with an engine failure, leaving him 14 points shy of Webber, who is now 11 points behind new championship leader Fernando Alonso.

With just two races to go, Ralf Schumacher thinks Red Bull’s new strategy should be obvious.

“Now Red Bull need to play a single card; Mark Webber,” the former grand prix winner, in Korea to commentate for German television, is quoted by Bild newspaper.

“Sebastian needs to get as many points as he can, but Red Bull must see to it that Webber gets the title,” Schumacher added.

Reluctantly, because it will be to the detriment of his friend Vettel, seven time world champion Michael Schumacher also said a team strategy must now be taken by Red Bull for the remaining Brazilian and Abu Dhabi grands prix.

“I’m sorry for Sebastian,” he told German television Sky. “I have to recall almost a decade ago, when everyone thought we at Ferrari were crazy to be thinking about the championship so early.

“But if Red Bull had done the same, their worry lines would be much smaller now,” added the German.

His reference to “almost a decade ago” must surely be about 2002, when Ferrari was roundly condemned for moving Rubens Barrichello aside so that Schumacher could take maximum points from the Austrian grand prix.

Ferrari implemented a similarly controversial strategy at Hockenheim earlier this year, and on Sunday Fernando Alonso moved to the head of the drivers’ title standings.

But Red Bull team boss Christian Horner was quoted on Sunday as saying he will not be making Webber the number 1 driver for the rest of 2010.

But he also told reporters at Yeongam: “I haven’t had time to look at all the mathematics and scenarios. It’s something that obviously we will look at pretty closely between now and Brazil.”

Vettel, however, made clear he is not personally ready to give up, even though his engine failure seriously dented his charge in Korea.

“It is very significant for the championship situation, but I am the last to give up,” German media quote him as saying.

A gutted Red Bull team on Sunday night was ruing a catastrophic Korean grand prix, where Mark Webber lost the championship lead, and Sebastian Vettel the race.

The immediate attention centred on pole sitter and race leader Vettel’s Renault engine failure, which Helmut Marko said took the team and its supplier by complete surprise.

“It did,” the Austrian said on German television RTL. “It’s our first engine failure this year.

“The mileage was at about 1600 kilometres, and normally the average (life) is 2000-2100,” added Marko.

“Something broke in the valve area, so it’s the first time. On Friday we were using an engine with much higher mileage,” said the team’s motorsport consultant.

He advised German Vettel, 23, not to give up.

“It’s not easy, but there are still 50 points to get,” said Marko. “Alonso is on his last engine. We’re not giving up.”

Renault apologised for the failure.

An eventful and marathon inaugural Korean grand prix, beginning in boredom and ending in darkness, has changed the face of the 2010 world championship fight.

Championship leader Mark Webber lost his 14-point lead with a crash on the slippery track, and his Red Bull teammate Sebastian Vettel failed to pick up the pieces because of a Renault engine failure.

“Totally my mistake,” admitted Australian Webber after his crash, which also took out Nico Rosberg.

The result means Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso – who laughed hysterically on the radio at the chequered flag – is the new championship leader, 11 points ahead of Webber with two races to go.

“Nothing has changed really,” said the Spaniard. “We all know the new points system. Anything can happen.”

After driving through the carnage and finishing second, Lewis Hamilton is now third in the championship, 21 points behind but four ahead of Vettel.

“It’s obviously not a nice moment,” said Vettel, the pole sitter and leader until his failure, as the race finished in near-darkness.

Jenson Button, 12th at the finish and among the slowest cars on track, is now a distant 42 points behind.

“I’m not really in it anymore,” said the reigning world champion on BBC television.

Ferrari has been the most reliable team so far in 2010.

Red Bull is leading the championships and has collected the most wins and pole positions, but ranks only second in the reliability stakes, an analysis by Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport has found.

The F10, driven by Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa, has completed a remarkable 1471 of the possible 1474 laps throughout the 12 races so far.

That is 98 laps more than the Red Bull drivers.

But the Italian team is just third in the constructors’ championship, while Alonso is the highest-placed Ferrari driver in fifth place.

The Spaniard’s late engine failure in Malaysia was Ferrari’s only retirement, with neither he or Massa crashing out of a race.

Mercedes is the only other team fielding drivers that have not retired due to accidents in 2010.

In contrast, Red Bull has recorded one failure and two driver crashes, while McLaren has had two technical failures and one accident retirement.

Renault has the worst reliability of the top teams, with 4 technical retirements and 2 crashes.

The least technically reliable teams overall were Virgin (11 technical retirements) and Sauber (10).  HRT is the most reliable new team (8), ahead of Lotus (9).

Everything looked in the run-off after a dull Hungarian Grand Prix, finally, was the overwhelming dominance of Red Bull and the Hungaroring is not known for his overtaking. But in the end it was just Sebastian Vettel, who could benefit from the pole position starts once more not the chance to get the victory. It was triggered by a safety car phase, which led to some incidents in the field.

The victory secured instead teammate Mark Webber ahead of Fernando Alonso in a Ferrari. For the Australians it was the fourth win of the season. Vettel was on the end of third parties was allowed, after all happy that he managed to make up properly because of a failure of Lewis Hamilton at the British soil.
Also in the points came Felipe Massa in a Ferrari in fourth position ahead of Vitaly Petrov (Renault), Nico Hulkenberg (Williams), Pedro de la Rosa (Sauber), Jenson Button (McLaren-Mercedes), Kamui Kobayashi (Sauber) and Rubens Barrichello in Williams. Michael Schumacher was in eleventh without points, as Sebastien Buemi to twelfth and Timo Glock in 16th position

Not the finish alongside Lewis Hamilton came Robert Kubica (Renault), Nico Rosberg (Mercedes), Adrian Sutil (Force India) and Jaime Alguersuari (Toro Rosso).

Fernando Alonso got off to a strong start to the Hungarian Grand Prix, Mark Webber grabbed and placed first next to Sebastian Vettel, was temporarily in front, but had to re-sort in the first corner in second place. Caught a bad start, however Jenson Button, 15, on the Rank came back. Jaime Alguersuari had his Toro Rosso with an engine failure leave already after one round.

The order after the second round: Sebastian Vettel in front of Fernando Alonso, Mark Webber, Felipe Massa, Lewis Hamilton, Vitaly Petrov, Nico Rosberg, Robert Kubica, Rubens Barrichello and Nico Hulkenberg on the tenth. Adrian Sutil ahead of Michael Schumacher twelfth. Jenson Button 15th, Sébastien Buemi ranked 18th Timo Glock 21st After five laps Vettel had been exactly five seconds ahead of Alonso.

The distances for the first ten laps before Alonso Vettel 9.0 seconds, 10.0 ahead of Webber, 12.3 ahead of Massa, 13.8 in Hamilton, 18.2 before Petrov, before Rosberg 24.5, 25.3 before Kubica, Barrichello to 27.0 and 28.3 seconds on Hülkenberg in tenth place. Tenth Sutil (+30.4 seconds), Schumacher 13th (+32.5), Button 14th (+34.5), Buemi 17th (+38.8), Glock 21st (+54.7).

Already in the 15th Jenson Button came round and Vitantonio Liuzzi in the box. Liuzzi had lost part of his front wing, which was located on the right track. The race then sent the safety car on the track, which led to a lot of pit stops. Vettel responded here in the last second and bumped over the curb of the pit lane entrance.

Adrian Sutil in the pit lane and Robert Kubica collided with each other. The Renault team had had his driver pull out, although Sutil was on the march. While Kubica was able to continue the journey, Sutil had to retire with a broken front suspension. Also for Nico Rosberg the race was over – he lost a right rear wheel, which was apparently not tightened properly.

The order after the first stops: Webber (without stopping) before Vettel, Alonso, Hamilton, Massa, Barrichello (without stopping), Petrov Hulkenberg, de la Rosa, Button and Schumacher on the eleventh place. Buemi 13, Glock 17th Kubica and 21st

In the 24th Round brim over the events. First, Robert Kubica won by the race after the incident in the pits a 10-second stop-and-go penalty aufgebrummt, which he served immediately before he turned off the car in the pits.

In the same moment the world championship leader Lewis Hamilton’s McLaren-Mercedes had problems with park next to the track. In addition, the stewards announced an investigation against Sebastian Vettel, who obviously had not respected during the safety car period, the correct distance to the Safety Car.
In the 29th Round the stewards announced that Vettel must complete a drive-through because he had left too large a distance to the safety car. In the 32th Round of the German completed his furiously gesticulating through penalty – and went behind Alonso and in front of Massa back on track.

The order after 33 laps: Webber 16.1 seconds ahead of Alonso, 20.2 ahead of Vettel, 22.5 ahead of Massa, Barrichello in front of 39.6, 40.7 before Petrov, 42.4 before Hulkenberg, 44.2 before de la Rosa, 46.1 and 47.1 ahead of Button before Kobayashi tenth on the field. Michael Schumacher finished eleventh (+48.8), Glock 16th (+1 Lap).

In the 42nd Webber came round with more than 23.7 seconds ahead of Alonso for his stop – and turned loose in the lead back on track. While Webber took the new tires a new fastest lap after another, Vettel managed to catch up on Alonso, and go round after round in his slipstream.

In the 56th Round came the fifth-placed Rubens Barrichello to his first stop. The Williams driver went behind Michael Schumacher in eleventh place back on the track, was in the 60th Round, however, caught up with the Germans.

The distances after 60 rounds: Webber 21.2 seconds ahead of Alonso, Vettel before 21.9, 27.4 on Massa, 71.7 to Petrov, 75.2 Hülkenberg before, to 77.5 before de la Rosa, 80.6 Button, Kobayashi and 81.6 before a lap before Schumacher. In the 66th Lap Schumacher overtook Barrichello at the end of the start-finish straight, where the German pushed the Brazilians brutal towards pit wall, whereupon Barrichello claimed by radio the black flag for Schumacher. The stewards are investigating the incident at the end of the race.

Jenson Button is at his home race never stood on the podium. Last year, the 30-year-old was leading the championship and as the clear favorite to Silverstone. In the race, finally gave it only to a disappointing sixth place. The best result in 2004 he took fourth. As McLaren has many improvements in the luggage, Button now wants the big triumph.

“I have triumphed in Monaco and won the World Cup. I lack only the victory in my home,” is the two-season winner of ‘ESPN’ quoted. “Everyone wants to win, of course, the home race. The British Grand Prix is something special, since in this region are many teams and many fans come year after year.”
His team mate Lewis Hamilton is also hot on a home triumph. Two double victory celebrated the chrome arrows in this season. In the UK, which is in 45 years, however, happened only once. 1999 saw David Coulthard (McLaren) to the checkered flag in front of Eddie Irvine (Ferrari). This day is mainly with the broken leg of Michael Schumacher remembered.

In the duel approached his stall colleagues said Button: “Lewis is very fast and there is a good competition between us. In the last race he has come before me to the finish, if only just ahead of me. I want to win at Silverstone Lewis as well. He does not think differently than I do. We will just go out there and have fun. Hopefully one of us wins. ”

Button feel pressure to succeed after the departure of the “Three Lions” is not in the World Cup. “Lewis and I have achieved a lot in our sport,” said Button. “We have pressure from outside and from within usual. I do not feel more at Silverstone under pressure, at least I feel it.”
Around the British tradition of track fans in the past have been held much spectacle. Unforgettable is the Mansell-mania in the early nineties, when the red number five was dominated by Williams. After 1987 Nigel Mansell 1991 and 1992 was also celebrated as the winner. After Damon Hill a year later had to retire due to an engine failure on the way to his debut triumph, he finally went in 1994 with the Union Jack as the winner down lap.

Now it is the British Dream Team Button and Hamilton to inspire the fans. “I am very excited and look forward to the many spectators with the British flag in the stands,” said the reigning world champion. “It is a very special Grand Prix. I think this year will be even better for a long time. I want to see not only a British winner, I want to win themselves.”

Jun.16 (GMM)  After a dismal Montreal weekend for the Swiss team, boss Peter Sauber admitted the C29 car is not a good one.

But the 66-year-old has also been quoted indicating that he is not happy with the ongoing poor reliability of the customer Ferrari engine.

“Five problems with the Ferrari engine in eight races is unacceptable.  At this rate we will need more than eight engines per driver for the season.

“We need better reliability,” he is quoted by the Swiss newspaper Blick.

In Canada, Pedro de la Rosa’s race ended with an unspecified engine failure.

Earlier in 2010, both Sauber and the works team were struggling with poor reliability, but Maranello based Ferrari were given FIA clearance to implement a fix.

“Ferrari has solved its problems with the engines but Sauber has again had a failure,” Ferrari test driver Marc Gene wrote in his post-Canada column for the Spanish newspaper El Mundo.

“It is an issue that will be analysed thoroughly by the team,” he added.

“Two months ago there was a basic reason, but now … it is very strange,” wrote Gene.  “They will need to work to analyse it with Ferrari.”

The Spaniard seemed to indicate that Sauber’s ongoing engine problems are probably related to the C29 car.

“It is surprising that (Ferrari powered) Toro Rosso have never had a problem,” said Gene.

With the fifth place in Canada got Mark Webber his championship lead to the McLaren duo. Although the Australian strategiebedingt long was in the lead, he ran in the end the damage. The next race will be held in Valencia, but in the last season was the 33-year-old colorless ninth. Team-mate Sebastian Vettel retired with engine failure. This year, so it can only run better.

“This is an event that is probably not easy for us,” said Webber. “But we were competitive in Canada than we actually thought. It was a tight group at the top and at the finish, unfortunately we were at the end of it. I think we can still get a good result in Valencia. I would not pick a race where we can enter an easy victory. ”
“The track layout is not optimal for our car, but that’s to the championship. We have to prove to all the slopes, so that is just,” said Webber and looks ahead to the front. “The courses to Valencia we should again be better.” After eight races, the Red Bull driver only six points behind Lewis Hamilton. So everything is open.

Jun.15 (GMM)  Even in the wake of his impressive performance at Le Mans, Romain Grosjean insists he is still focused on returning to formula one.

The French-Swiss driver’s Ford GT dominated the GT1 class in the famous 24 hour race last weekend until it retired with engine failure.

But 24-year-old Grosjean, who raced in ousted Nelson Piquet’s place last year until Renault replaced him for 2010 with Vitaly Petrov, said returning to Le Mans in 2011 is not ‘option number 1′.

“For the moment, formula one remains option number 1,” he is quoted by France’s Auto Hebdo.

Jun.15 (GMM) Pedro de la Rosa has revealed he is “available” for employment by formula one teams.After a long stint away from the grid as McLaren’s test and reserve driver, the 39-year-old Spaniard this year returned to racing with Sauber.

But his season has been difficult at the wheel of the usually uncompetitive and unreliable C29 car, while also dogged by constant suggestions that he is set to be ousted.

More bad luck followed de la Rosa to Canada last weekend, where after qualifying just 17th he was punted out at the first corner by Vitaly Petrov before his Ferrari engine failed.

“No matter how bad it’s been, it’s better than testing,” he later smiled during an interview with the BBC.

Despite the setbacks, de la Rosa insists he has “fully” enjoyed his return to formula one, but indicated that his career is now in doubt.

“I feel young. For the future, if anyone wants me, I am available,” he revealed.

“I am usable, even if I have to go back testing or as a reserve driver, because I have had another year in formula one racing it will extend my career, simple as that,” added de la Rosa.

The once-promising rookie Kamui Kobayashi is also under the spotlight at Sauber, especially given his first-lap crash into Montreal’s famous ‘Wall of Champions’.

“As is often the case in Canada, it was easy to score championship points today, however, we didn’t collect them,” angry team boss Peter Sauber said.

“We lost one car which was in tenth at the end of lap one through an over-optimistic move, and the second one through an engine failure.”

In what was a thrilling Canadian Grand Prix with great motor racing. Kamui Kobayashi and Pedro de la Rosa played a rather insignificant role. Kobayashi, coming from 18th on the grid, retired in an incident on lap one after he made a remarkably good start and was fighting for ninth on the back straight. De la Rosa (17th on the grid) was hit by another car on the first lap and had to pit for a new nose. But he managed to recover and raced in 13th before he retired with an engine failure which has yet to be analysed.

Weather: sunny and dry, 25-26°C air, 37-39°C track

Pedro de la Rosa: retired on lap 31, engine
C29.03 / Ferrari 056
“To be left empty handed certainly is deeply disappointing. On the first lap of the race Vitaly Petrov spun in front of me on the straight, and hit my car when he came back from the grass. The front wing was broken and I pitted for a new nose. Also the rear wing had some damage, but it wasn’t too bad. I then continued and the car was quite good. We anticipated my pit stop because suddenly the rear tyres went. After this pit stop it seemed all okay but then on lap 31 I felt a sudden loss of top speed on the straight and knew immediately it was a serious problem.”

Kamui Kobayashi: retired on lap 1, accident
C29.01 / Ferrari 056
“This should not have happened. I had made a very good start from 18th and on the first lap was fighting with Nico Hülkenberg down the back straight for ninth. In front of us was Michael Schumacher, apparently having some troubles with braking before the chicane. All three of us were braking late and then I suddenly had nowhere to go. I hit the kerb, the car jumped and I had damaged it so badly that I had to stop.“

Peter Sauber, Team Principal:
“As is often the case in Canada, it was easy to score championship points today, however, we didn’t collect them. We lost one car which was in tenth at the end of lap one through an over optimistic move, and the second one through an engine failure.”

James Key, Technical Director:
“All in all it was a really difficult weekend and a shame not to get to the end. Pedro had a collision in the mix of the first corner, which damaged his rear right tyre and front wing, so he had to come straight in. Kamui made an excellent start. He took advantage of the situation in front of him and got up to tenth. But then in the last corner he spun off – that was the end of his race. There was too much damage to the car to continue, which was a real shame because there was potential to score some points. When Pedro went out after his early pit stop his pace was extremely good, and he caught up to the people ahead of him. He then came in for a second stop because of the tyres degrading. We hoped he would make it to the end but then he had an engine problem which we need to diagnose. That was a pointless end to a difficult weekend, so we have to do better in the next race.”

source: Sauber F1 Team