Jaime Alguersuari has told Spanish publications he is “absolute certain” he will be on the 2013 grid.

“This is the best year of my life,” he told Mundo Deportivo, referring to 2012, the year after his young F1 career stalled when he was dropped by backer Red Bull.

“I’m only 22,” said Spaniard Alguersuari, who is now Pirelli’s main test driver and a co-commentator for British radio. “I’m in the prime of my life.

“It is increasingly clear that what happened with Toro Rosso was not a sporting decision. It was an internal decision and I don’t want to go deeper.”

He sounded confident about the future.

“It is 100 per cent that I will return in 2013. After being with Pirelli I will have very important knowledge. I knew that this transitionary step was necessary and I’m very happy,” said Alguersuari.

“If I had gone (to be test driver) with a team, with all due respect, I’d have no options now.

“I am developing a product (Pirelli) that nobody understands but that is vital for formula one — to know the tyres and to understand them. I’m in the right place,” he is quoted by La Vanguardia newspaper.

“I chose to be with Pirelli because I knew it would be the most important (element) in formula one.

“I know where I am and I know where I’ll be next year,” he insisted.

Felipe Massa’s formula one career is on the brink of collapse.

Ferrari boss Stefano Domenicali left Barcelona insisting he expects the struggling Brazilian to “fight back starting in Monaco”.

“We absolutely need his points to also fight for the constructors’ title,” he said.

Earlier, the Maranello based team said on Twitter that Ferrari is “disappointed with” the 30-year-old’s performance.

When asked about that comment, a Ferrari spokesman told the Sunday Times: “It was a poor choice of grammar. We are disappointed in the outcome of Felipe but not with Felipe himself.”

But the very latest development is that Ferrari is now making it abundantly clear that Massa needs to up his game immediately.

In a statement posted on its official website, Ferrari said Massa’s teammate Fernando Alonso “has always maintained a very high level”.

As for Massa, his “drop off has made itself felt”, the report stated.

“The Brazilian had picked up 49 points two years ago and 24 the following year, while so far this season he has just 2,” said Ferrari.

“Everyone, he more than anyone, is expecting a change of gear starting right away with the Monaco grand prix”, the statement concluded.

Even Massa’s strongest supporters in Brazil, like the O Globo journalist Celso Itibere, admit the situation is dire.

“He is at risk,” said Itibere, “his decline is progressive, he is failing to react and he runs the real risk of not finishing the season.

“At this time Ferrari has no one to take the job. Everyone they would like to have there – Perez, Kobayashi, Webber – are not available.”

Tuesday’s edition of the Italian sports daily Corriere dello Sport will report that Massa’s ousting is imminent.

And the latest edition of La Gazzetta dello Sport did not even once mention Massa’s name. “It is as though he does not exist,” wrote the Brazilian journalist Livio Oricchio in O Estado de S.Paulo newspaper.

“Yet it is an Italian newspaper, and he is a Ferrari driver.”

When asked if he fears for his F1 career, Massa said in Barcelona last weekend: “No. I live in the present. What will happen will happen.”

Asked if he is afraid another bad performance will seal his fate, Massa insisted: “I’m not afraid of anything, especially criticism. It doesn’t affect me.”

F1′s astonishing season continues to live up to the hype, as a fifth driver and constructor on Sunday won the fifth grand prix of 2012.

Not only is the victory Pastor Maldonado’s first, his walk up the steps at the Circuit de Catalunya was the first taste of the podium in his two-season F1 career.

It’s also the first Venezuelan triumph in the sport’s history, and a hugely popular victory for Williams, the once-great British team headed by Sir Frank Williams, whose 70th birthday was warmly celebrated in the paddock on Saturday.

“Boy did we need that,” said Williams on BBC television.

And asked how he feels on Sky television, he smiled: “Relief.”

“Some said Maldonado was a pay driver and he didn’t deserve his place in formula one but they’ll be eating their words now,” commented former team driver David Coulthard.

“That was a fantastic drive,” added Coulthard, referring to Williams’ first win since Juan Pablo Montoya in 2004.

Williams enthused: “I didn’t see him (Maldonado) make one single mistake.”

“You can’t really fault him,” agreed Williams’ 1996 world champion Damon Hill.

Amazingly, however, away from the champagne, Sebastian Vettel’s sixth place leaves him at the top of the drivers’ championship, and he is now neck-and-neck with Fernando Alonso, who finished second on Sunday in the improving Ferrari.

Lewis Hamilton, who finished dead last on Sunday and finished eighth, is third in the points classification, ahead of Lotus’ Kimi Raikkonen.

Finn Raikkonen finished third on Sunday, and is the favourite to become F1′s sixth different winner of 2012 in Monaco in a fortnight.

“We showed we still have the speed,” the Lotus driver said after the Spanish grand prix. “If we had a few more laps, we could have fought for a victory.”

F1′s newest winner has admitted he has no plans to leave his team.

After more than a century of grands prix, Nico Rosberg finally broke through with his first race win recently in China.

Although pressed harder than in recent seasons by his famous teammate Michael Schumacher in 2012, the German has a comfortable position at Mercedes.

The 26-year-old told Sport Bild he might stay put for the rest of his career.

“Forever in silver? Why not?” he is quoted as saying.

Rosberg said he is in a “great position” to lead the famous German marque to the world championship.

“My big goal is to be world champion with the Silberpfeil (Silver Arrow),” he insisted. “It occurs to me that it would taste even better than to win with Ferrari.”

Rosberg said he wouldn’t even mind sharing the team with Sebastian Vettel, F1′s back-to-back reigning champion who has expressed interest in racing one day for a great marque like Mercedes or Ferrari.

“I don’t mind, it could be anyone — Sebastian, whoever. I don’t see any problem with that,” said Rosberg.

He said his first choice as teammate is Schumacher.

“I think it would be great if he stays,” said Rosberg, referring to the 43-year-old’s expiring contract. “He is at an extremely high level right now.

“I can well imagine that Michael will extend.”

Ralf Schumacher has ruled out following his older brother Michael back into formula one.

At the weekend, 36-year-old Ralf kicked off his fifth consecutive season driving a Mercedes in the German touring car series DTM.

He was a respected winner of 6 grands prix, driving most recently for Toyota in 2007, but despite his famous brother’s return to F1 with Mercedes, Ralf told Germany’s Der Westen that his own grand prix career “is over”.

“Formula one is exciting and beautiful, but the DTM is much more friendly, we don’t have to travel all around the world, everything is familiar.

“I like that,” the German said.

 Sebastien Buemi has revealed surprise and disappointment with Toro Rosso’s reaction, after the Italian team performed a clean sweep of its driver lineup for 2012.
The Swiss and his teammate Jaime Alguersuari were given their marching orders just before Christmas, leaving the aforementioned Spaniard without a role this season.

Buemi has at least kept his F1 career alive with the Red Bull reserve role, but the 23-year-old has expressed disappointment with comments made recently by his former team boss Franz Tost.

“Of course I would prefer to race for myself,” he told the Blick newspaper, “but maybe this new role is the opportunity of my life.”

At the same time, he takes issue with Austrian Tost, who is appointed to head Red Bull’s rookie team Toro Rosso.

He said recently: “We are talking about a double world championship-winning team (Red Bull), which means that drivers who get elevated there must have the ability to win races and championships.

“And it was from that perspective that second thoughts set in when it came to Sebastien Buemi and Jaime Alguersuari,” said Tost.

Buemi responded: “After we were put out, Alguersuari and I said not a single bad word about Toro Rosso, we were always loyal.

“So I am amazed that from the boss there comes suddenly such negative comments.”

The Italian press has pointed the finger at Vitaly Petrov’s “rubles” as Jarno Trulli races out of formula one.
With Vitantonio Liuzzi replaced at HRT by Narain Karthikeyan, and veteran Trulli ousted at Caterham by Petrov, F1 history enters a new phase as Italy no longer has a single driver on the grid.

“If you look,” said former grand prix winner Riccardo Patrese to La Stampa, “the drivers coming in now are from central America and the East.”

The unsponsored Trulli, 37, said he still wants to race but also has his wine and hotel businesses to keep him busy.

“More than anything else, apart from the results, I am proud to have been able to fulfil my dream of racing in F1 for many years and stay on the grid on my own power, without anybody’s help,” he is quoted by La Gazzetta dello Sport.

Switzerland’s Blick newspaper points out that no fewer than 81 Italian drivers have raced in the modern F1 championship.

And Brazilian correspondent Livio Oricchio reminded that in 1989, no fewer than 16 drivers in the field were Italian.

Some Italian fans are pointing the finger at Ferrari, annoyed that the famous marque has not signed a full-time Italian race driver for many years.

And why Felipe Massa? “Because we believe in him,” an official of the Maranello based team is quoted by Spain’s Marca newspaper.

“It’s not enough to have an Italian passport to drive for Ferrari,” he added.

Lewis Hamilton thinks he was knocked unconscious after crashing out of the recent Belgian grand prix.

Cockpit replays of the incident, where the McLaren driver actually dented the Spa-Francorchamps barriers after clashing with Kamui Kobayashi, showed Hamilton completely motionless for 15 seconds in the wake of the impact.

The 2008 world champion admits it is possible he was knocked out.

“I don’t really remember much from hitting the wall,” the Daily Star newspaper quotes him as saying at Monza.

“It’s possible I was out for a couple of seconds, I’m not really sure.”

The crash was the latest incident in a series for Hamilton this year, and he told the BBC 2011 might go down as the “worst” in his F1 career so far.

“I have got to find my way, learn from any mistakes and try to smooth out the creases through these last seven races,” he is quoted as saying by the Guardian.

Hamilton, 26, said he has managed to avoid all the media speculation about his aggressive driving style since Spa.

“I don’t read them, but I hear there are pretty bad stories written about me, so I am thinking it will be good to give you guys something good to write about me,” he told reporters ahead of the Italian grand prix.

“I guess I’m an easy target at the moment because I’m always in trouble.”

Some of his rivals defended Hamilton on Thursday, including Sauber’s Kobayashi, who insisted F1 drivers “need to be aggressive”.

Agreed Mark Webber: “He’s not that aggressive, he’s ok. He’s just had a tough run in the last few races.”

Hamilton’s own McLaren teammate Jenson Button, however, admitted he doesn’t always agree with his countryman’s methods.

“I personally feel it’s better to talk to the team than talk though the media, but we are built differently,” he said.

Paul di Resta has revealed he is racing to catch up with his contemporaries and F1 champions Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton.
The rookie Scot has impressed the F1 paddock with his Force India debut this season after rising to the top of the German touring car series DTM.

In an interview with Autosprint, he revealed how his career took a turn after beating Vettel to the F3 Euroseries, when Mercedes offered to pay him to race in DTM.

But Vettel, of course, had already started his F1 career with BMW-Sauber, while reigning F3 champion Hamilton was dominating the GP2 championship that would lead to his sensational McLaren debut.

“I took some time to think about it (Mercedes’ offer),” said di Resta, “because I really wanted to stay in single seaters.

“But I also had a significant problem. I did a test in a GP2 car and it was simply too small for me. I changed seats three times but it was a nightmare.

“I decided that the chance to do DTM was the best choice, but I never stopped thinking I would get to formula one some day. But I knew it was vital to keep myself visible, so I had to win.”

With a good first half to his debut F1 season now behind him, 25-year-old di Resta’s immediate future is secure and he is being linked with a move at some point to Mercedes GP.

But does he rue the success already achieved by his defeated F3 rival Vettel?

“In my F3 team there were four of us: me, Vettel, Kobayashi and van der Garde. I have to say that when he got to F1, Sebastian did an incredible job, capitalising on what he had in the best way.

“Perhaps he would have done the same thing if he had been in my place in DTM, maybe not. It’s also true that I can’t say what I would have done if I had had his chances.

“The same thing happened with Hamilton, he was a good driver in the minor categories, and when he arrived with a great (F1) team straight away it was natural that he did a good job.

“Sebastian and Lewis were able to get what I’m trying to get now,” added di Resta.

Force India will wait until long after the 2011 season before finalising its driver lineup for next year.

Team owner and boss Vijay Mallya is openly keen to hang onto impressive Scottish rookie Paul di Resta, whilst also having long-term driver Adrian Sutil on the books along with significant Medion sponsorship.

And in the wings is Nico Hulkenberg, the team’s current Friday and reserve driver whose F1 career began promisingly with Williams in 2010.

“It is way too early,” said Mallya when asked by F1′s official website about the 2012 Force India lineup.

“I will announce my driver lineup around December 15th. Not before that. I want all my guys to focus on the job at hand and not start speculating about their future.”

Speculation that Nick Heidfeld might lose his Renault race seat is heating up.
Already this week, the German sources Bild and Auto Motor und Sport have wondered whether Heidfeld having to give up his Friday practice seat in Hungary is a sign he has lost the support of team boss Eric Boullier.

On Monday we quoted Boullier as having told France’s Eurosport at the Nurburgring that he has been “clearly disappointed” with the performance of the German veteran so far in 2011.

“We rely more on Vitaly (Petrov) for performance, with Nick more suitable for the development of the car,” said the Frenchman.

More of that interview has now emerged at the sports.fr website, with Boullier saying of Heidfeld: “He has not provided the leadership we wanted. He hasn’t taken hold of the team.”

Speculation is now sure to fire up about Heidfeld being replaced in the near future by either Brazilian Senna or the Boullier-managed Romain Grosjean.

According to broadcaster James Allen’s blog, the latter Frenchman could resume his abortive F1 career as soon as he wraps up the GP2 championship.

“He wasn’t ready in 2009 and those seven races alongside Alonso did him a lot of harm,” Boullier said at the Nurburgring. “He’s proved in GP2 this year that he’s a very good driver and he deserves a chance.”

Amid suggestions Renault is disappointed with Nick Heidfeld’s recent form, the name Roman Grosjean has returned to the F1 rumour mill.
The Swiss-born Frenchman had a poor start to his F1 career amid the ‘crashgate’ scandal with Renault in 2009, but is once again associated with the team under the management of Eric Boullier.

25-year-old Grosjean is currently leading the GP2 championship and was mentioned by Italy’s Autosprint in an article about Robert Kubica and Heidfeld.

The report said the spat between Renault co-owner Gerard Lopez and Kubica’s manager Daniele Morelli indicates not all is well in that relationship behind the scenes.

“One senses that the cooperation between driver and team is compromised,” said the sport.

At the same time, Boullier is reportedly not happy with the performance so far of Kubica’s 2011 stand-in, German Heidfeld.

All those are good signs for Grosjean’s F1 return.

“It’s my condition, my target,” he told motorsport-magazin.com.

Asked if it will happen with Renault, the Frenchman answered: “That’s too hard to say. Renault is well implanted in F1, and that’s good to be with them.”

Fernando Alonso has signed up with Ferrari for another five years, the Italian team announced on Thursday.
Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo said last week he hopes to keep the Spaniard, who joined the Maranello based outfit last year, for “a long time”.

Thursday’s press release said Ferrari “has renewed its technical and racing agreement” with Alonso, 29, through the end of 2016.

“Fernando has all the required qualities, both technically and personally to play a leading role in the history of Ferrari and I hope he will be enriching it with further wins very soon,” said Montezemolo.

Alonso said there is “no doubt” he will end his F1 career with Ferrari.

Months may pass until Lewis Hamilton signs a new deal to race in formula one beyond 2012, according to Martin Whitmarsh.

Whitmarsh is the team principal for McLaren, where the 2008 world champion has spent his entire F1 career to date.

The Woking based team has made clear its desire to hang onto the 26-year-old but Hamilton has also been linked elsewhere, notably to Red Bull.

Whitmarsh is quoted by the Daily Mail as saying the British driver “is intelligent enough” to realise that McLaren is the best place for him.

“Lewis has made it clear to me he wants to stay in the team and I’ve made it clear to him I want him to stay,” he said.

“At some point, we need to get a contractual agreement that reflects that, of course. But I don’t think – despite the media interest – that either of us thinks we have to get to a contract in three months or six months.

“I trust him and I think he trusts me,” added Whitmarsh.

Amid the Red Bull rumours, Hamilton said recently that the outfit is “just a drinks company” and Whitmarsh has now repeated the arguably disparaging remark.

“We are focused on winning the championship this year, next year, in five years and 10 years’ time, as motor racing is our core business,” he said.

“A lot of other teams are selling consumer goods, cars or high-caffeine drinks. I’m not criticising them. But can they say, consequently, that they are in formula one for the long run?”

Sebastien Bourdais is certain his formula one career is over.
After a dominant career on the American open-wheeler scene, the Frenchman switched to F1 in 2008 but struggled with Toro Rosso.

The junior Red Bull team dropped him mid-way through its next campaign and he has since raced in sports cars and the open wheel series Superleague.

Bourdais, now almost 32, recently tested an Indycar with an eye to a return to the American scene, but in an interview with sports.fr he admitted his F1 career is definitely over.

“For me, F1 is finished, and – anyway – I don’t want to run at the back any more.

“Unless someone comes to me with a very interesting offer, which I doubt very much, I turned the page after the Nurburgring in 2009 and I don’t miss it (F1) at all.

“I had some good races, some bad ones and some terrible (ones). I have the experience but I’ll be 32 soon so I am aware that the time has passed.

“I had my chance, it didn’t go exactly as I wanted, but it happened. Now, I am looking for other challenges,” added Bourdais.