Romain Grosjean is hoping for a long stay with the Lotus team.
Then known as Renault, the Frenchman made his troubled F1 debut with the Enstone based team in 2009 but has returned on much better form this year as the reigning GP2 champion.

The E20 car was a standout of the winter season but Grosjean, 25, told Auto Motor und Sport that Lotus’ target for 2012 is “fourth place” in the constructors’ championship.

“We want to go for the world title in 2015,” he added. “I hope I’m still on board.”

Grosjean’s promising return to F1 last weekend in Australia was left in the gravel when he clashed with Pastor Maldonado.

He says he has not met to discuss the incident with the Williams driver.

“Talking doesn’t make the result come back,” said Grosjean.

Venezuelan Maldonado insists it wasn’t his fault.

“The suspension on the Lotus doesn’t seem to be very strong,” he said. “The contact was not intentional. I’m sorry for Romain, but that’s racing.”

GP2 frontrunner Giedo van der Garde’s manager has revealed talks about the 2012 season with three formula one teams.

Last weekend at Spa-Francorchamps, where the Dutchman emerged in second place behind the new GP2 champion Romain Grosjean, 26-year-old van der Garde was linked with the 2012 Williams seat currently occupied by Rubens Barrichello.

Media reports said he has “the most” sponsorship money to offer a potential F1 employer.

“That (F1) is the goal, yes,” NUsport quotes van der Garde as saying. “My management is in talks with three teams, so there are possibilities. There is no plan B.

“So there are some free places but it (F1) is a strange world.”

Van der Garde’s case is indeed unique, with his manager Jan Paul ten Hoopen doubling as the commercial director of the F1 sponsor McGregor, a Dutch fashion house.

And van der Garde’s father-in-law is billionaire Marcel Boekhoorn.

The Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf reports that Boekhoorn may be interested in buying into the Renault team, and van der Garde has also been linked with Virgin.

“The real conversations (with teams) don’t take place until October, or at least after the Italian grand prix,” said manager ten Hoopen.

Mercedes is investigating how a rear wheel fell off Michael Schumacher’s car during qualifying at Spa-Francorchamps.
Wearing a special golden helmet to celebrate the 20th anniversary of his F1 debut, the famous German will start the race last because he crashed during his outlap in Q1.

“How embarrassing for Mercedes, to destroy his anniversary race because the wheel fell off,” Sky commentator Marc Surer is quoted as saying by Bild newspaper.

20 years ago, Schumacher’s first-ever F1 race ended within half a kilometre because the clutch in his Jordan failed.

And in 2011? “We’ve looked at the data. It happened suddenly, within a second,” Mercedes team boss Ross Brawn said.

“We are still looking into it. There is a locking mechanism and we had a few problems last year but not with the new system this year.

“We have developed the system with our DTM team. There must be an explanation and I’m sure we will find it.”

To many in F1 circles, Bertrand Gachot is arguably best known for vacating his Jordan seat in 1991 for a then unknown youngster by the name of Michael Schumacher.
Just before Schumacher’s meteoric F1 debut 20 years ago, Gachot was jailed in England for spraying a taxi driver with CS gas some eight months earlier.

“The taxi thing happened in December (1990),” Gachot, who now manages his energy drink company Hype, told the German newspaper Bild am Sonntag.

“Eight months later, in August 1991, I was summoned to court. The lawyers told me it’s a small thing.”

It was the week before the Spa-Francorchamps race, but the judge refused to release the French-Belgian driver even on a multi-million pound bond.

“I was a danger to the English population,” he marvelled. “Eight months later!

“I was sentenced to two years in prison and I had to serve two months. And because the gas was considered a weapon, they put me in a cell with a murderer.”

It was, however, good news for Eddie Jordan, who had already collected from Gachot’s sponsors in 1991 and was now receiving $160,000 from Mercedes for the one-off Schumacher debut.

Gachot doesn’t directly accuse Jordan of pushing the CS gas case to court in order to collect more sponsorship money.

“I don’t want to put that name in my mouth. I don’t mean Michael, who is a great guy, a great racer. My bad luck was his good fortune. His career might have been very different if I had not gone to prison.”

Michael Schumacher has pointed the finger at his first formula one boss Eddie Jordan as he recalled his grand prix debut 20 years ago.
At Spa-Francorchamps this weekend, the seven time world champion is marking the passing of two decades since he burst onto the scene with Jordan.

It was a one-off event as Schumacher, then 22, was snapped up after Belgium by Benetton after qualifying in seventh place.

But his actual race lasted less than a lap when he retired with a broken clutch.

“The story is that we had problems in the warmup,” Schumacher, now racing with Mercedes, wrote in a celebratory column for Auto Motor und Sport.

“I pointed it out at the de-briefing and we talked about whether we should change the clutch or not, but Eddie said that would cost too much money. Then it broke,” added the German.

Schumacher also recalled how he and his then manager Willi Weber had stayed in a hostel that weekend.

“I remember I was surprised because I had thought ‘Yes, I am now in formula one, the premier class’. I was not particularly bothered with the hostel except that it was cold and the heater didn’t work,” he said.

Weber had negotiated his charge’s F1 debut after Jordan regular Bertrand Gachot was jailed for attacking a London taxi driver.

Weber told Jordan that Schumacher knew Spa well.

“I have to clarify the story that we lied about it,” Schumacher said. “Eddie had asked Willi if I had raced there before and Willi said yes, because he could not imagine that I had never been there.”

Jordan reportedly wanted to draft in the experienced Stefan Johansson, but Schumacher’s Sauber-Mercedes sports car team – headed by Peter Sauber – offered $150,000 in sponsorship.

“That was a pretty penny for a single grand prix,” Sauber told the SID news agency this week.

The Swiss believes that Mercedes’ other hotshoe, Heinz Harald Frentzen, “had a similar amount of talent and perhaps even a little more”.

But Schumacher was “a hard worker, very ambitious, mentally strong and also so well prepared physically. It soon became apparent that he was a very special talent”, added Sauber.

“You also need talent and technical knowledge and if you get all these factors close to 100 per cent, you get Michael Schumacher who wins seven titles.”

Sauber said Schumacher or Weber never repaid the $150,000.

“He didn’t have to,” Sauber explained. “He was under contract to us and it was quite normal that we allowed him to have his first race.

“Ultimately it didn’t work for us because Mercedes didn’t come in as a works team and so we could not keep him.”

Schumacher retired from F1 at the end of 2006 but returned three years later with Mercedes, where he is under contract for next year and even considering prolonging his comeback.

Eddie Jordan told The Sun this week: “Michael really is an old fart. He’s had his time.

“I don’t think his legacy has been affected yet by what has happened in his comeback. But he has to make sure he gets the timing of his exit from F1 right.”

The time for Sebastien Buemi’s evaluation as a future Red Bull driver will be up at the end of the season.

Toro Rosso team boss Franz Tost told F1′s official website that drivers should get a “maximum (of) three years” to show they have the potential to follow Sebastian Vettel in readiness for a top seat.

“Or let’s put it this way: if you are not sure after three years whether he’s going to make it, I would bluntly say forget him, period,” said Tost.

Swiss Buemi, 22, made his F1 debut at the start of 2009 and is now considered the most likely Toro Rosso driver to make way for Red Bull’s latest protege Daniel Ricciardo.

“I expect him (Ricciardo) to best (HRT teammate) Liuzzi after not more than three or four races,” said Tost.

He admitted that both Buemi and his current teammate Jaime Alguersuari are “still deep in” the self-discovery phase.

“They are moving forward … so let’s wait and see how the second half of the season works out. Then at the end of the year we will sit together with Red Bull to discuss who will sit in our cars in 2012.”

Tost said he is looking forward to working with Red Bull’s next youngsters including Ricciardo and Frenchman Jean-Eric Vergne.

“Red Bull bought this team with the intention to give youngsters a chance to prove themselves and eventually rise to a seat with Red Bull Racing,” he said.

Three formula one teams are interested in signing Romain Grosjean, according to Renault chief Eric Boullier.
Frenchman Boullier, who also heads the Gravity driver management company, is reportedly considering his countryman as an immediate replacement for Nick Heidfeld.

But L’Equipe quotes Boullier as saying “three teams” are in the running to have the 25-year-old – who is leading the current GP2 championship – in their 2012 lineups.

And Renault team owner Gerard Lopez admits Grosjean is a candidate to replace Heidfeld in 2012.

“Vitaly (Petrov) has a contract to the end of 2012,” he said. “We could consider Vitaly with Romain, but that doesn’t depend on us. It depends on the health of Robert (Kubica).”

Boullier admits Grosjean struggled in 2009 when he made his F1 debut amid the ‘crashgate’ scandal alongside Fernando Alonso.

“As I am very close to him, I can confirm that he is different now, much more mature than two years ago,” he said.

He told Globo Esporte: “We’re waiting to see what happens with Robert.”

There will only be a single ‘DRS’ overtaking zone at Silverstone this weekend.
In Canada and again at Valencia two weeks ago, there were two overtaking zones but only a single detection point — a system that arguably worked too well in Canada, and not well enough on the streets of the Spanish port city.

For Silverstone, the FIA has reverted to the formula of the first six races of 2011, with a single detection zone at the new Village corner (turn 3) and eligible drivers able to trigger the rear wing after turn 4.

This weekend is the F1 debut of Silverstone’s new Wing pit and paddock complex, but the only real changes for the drivers is the pitlane and the location of the new Turn 1.

“The (pit) entry is shorter than staying on the circuit, so we will have to ensure that drivers don’t use these changes to the pits to their advantage,” said race director Charlie Whiting.

On the stewards’ panel this weekend is 1992 world champion Nigel Mansell.

“As for the (pit) exit,” continued Whiting, “this is now quite a steep uphill into an extremely fast corner, so it’s certainly going to be different. It’s going to be quite significant in terms of strategy as there’s not too much cost in changing tyres.”

Before HRT could release an official statement, Daniel Ricciardo confirmed reports he will be making his formula one race debut next Sunday.

It is now widely reported that the Australian, who turns 22 on Friday, will replace Spanish team Hispania’s Indian regular Narain Karthikeyan from Silverstone.

“It’s pretty, pretty exciting,” he told the Herald Sun newspaper at Heathrow airport, where he was departing for Budapest for his next Formula Renault 3.5 race.

“It’s awesome, just awesome,” added Ricciardo, the Red Bull-backed youngster who in 2011 has been the Friday driver at the energy drink company’s junior Toro Rosso team.

The Herald Sun said Ricciardo is being loaned by Red Bull to HRT.

“To make the first one at Silverstone, it’s great,” Ricciardo said. “It’s a circuit I know well and it’s just up the road from my second home in Britain.”

Jerome d’Ambrosio has admitted he is still working to get up to speed gainst his Virgin teammate.
2011 is the Belgian 25-year-old’s first season in formula one, and in the telling battle for grid position so far, the experienced German Timo Glock has been comfortably in charge.

“Clearly I still need to improve my Saturdays,” d’Ambrosio told La Libre newspaper.

Glock made his F1 debut with Jordan in 2004, but he also raced with the top-budget Toyota team in 2008 and 2009 before moving to the start-up Virgin last season.

“His experience is the most prominent on stop and go tracks like Valencia, or Canada where there is little grip and braking is therefore difficult.

“I still have more to understand to get the last tenths in those conditions. But I’m not ashamed to say he was simply stronger,” added d’Ambrosio.

He added: “What I’m thrilled about is that on race pace, I was consistently with his times.”

There have been reports that Virgin is preparing to abandon the 2011 project in order to be much stronger next year, but d’Ambrosio insists there are “many things” the team is doing to be stronger this season.

“We do not want to end up with the red lantern,” he said, referring to Virgin’s battle to avoid finishing the world championship in last place.

As Daniel Ricciardo admits there is a chance he could make his F1 debut in 2011, Sebastien Buemi insists he is not losing sleep.

“Compared to my teammate I’ve never done badly,” Swiss Buemi, referring to Jaime Alguersuari, is quoted as saying by the British newspaper The Sun.

The pair have both been told to up their game in order to keep their seats at Toro Rosso this year, but rumours suggest it is 22-year-old Buemi who is first in the firing line.

Australian Ricciardo now appears in the Ferrari-powered STR6 each Friday morning at grands prix, with Buemi well aware of his presence.

“Red Bull gives young drivers a chance to get into F1, so you always know that besides you there are other guys that try to show their abilities and aim to drive for the team.

“If you give up, it’s over for you,” said Buemi.

Ricciardo, 21, was asked by motorline.cc about the rumours a race seat could open up before the end of this season.

“That would be great,” he admitted, “but my focus is on the Formula Renault 3.5, and for the rest we will see.

“I want a fixed place in formula one in 2012,” the Australian clarified.

Another young Red Bull-backed charger close to his F1 debut is Frenchman Jean-Eric Vergne, who denied the next step for him after 2011 is a season in GP2.

“Definitely not,” he insisted. “I want to do a good job in Formula Renault 3.5 this year and have an F1 cockpit for 2012. At the moment, for me, that’s the only goal.”

Another way for Buemi and Alguersuari to look at the situation is that if Ricciardo does arrive at Toro Rosso in 2012, and Mark Webber moves on, they might be staring at the vacancy at Red Bull’s senior team.

“From my point of view I know that if I do my maximum and get important results, then my value can increase and I can have a chance,” Buemi said.

“I focus on this. The rest is just gossip.”

Ahead of his test in Team Lotus’ newly launched T128 at Jerez this week, Karun Chandhok insists he is still yet to sign a deal for 2011.
It is expected that the Indian driver, who made his F1 debut with the HRT team last year, will be signed up by Team Lotus as a reserve driver.

It has also been reported that Chandhok needs to bring a specified amount of sponsorship to the Tony Fernandes-led squad and that he might get the chance to race at his inaugural home grand prix in Delhi this October.

“There are lot of ‘ifs’ in it,” confirmed the 27-year-old at the Spanish test circuit.

“Right now I am here to do a test drive in one of the next three days. The deal is later and the rest comes way later,” Chandhok told the Times of India.

It is believed Chandhok will drive on either Thursday or Friday. The Jerez test also runs over the weekend.

“It has been months since I last drove an F1 car and I am very excited to be back in the elite club,” he added.

“I am sure I can add value to the team and its development programme. Tony (Fernandes) and Mike Gascoyne understand the value I can bring to the team as a test driver.

“The final deal is yet to be finalised but things look bright at this point,” said Chandhok.

HRT is expected to confirm officially on Friday that Narain Karthikeyan has secured one of the Spanish team’s race seats for 2011.
“I am sure that his experience and speed will be very useful for the team during the season,” team boss Colin Kolles said.

The news comes after the Indian driver, who made his F1 debut in 2005 with Jordan, announced on Twitter that he has been signed thanks to the support of his sponsors.

It emerged late last year that Karthikeyan, turning 34 next week, had up to $8 million to spend on a seat, including the backing of Mumbai-based carmaker Tata who are thought keen to associate with the inaugural Indian grand prix in October.

“Huge thanks to my long time supporters (the) Tata Group. Their support has been instrumental,” he tweeted on Thursday.

After his Jordan debut, Karthikeyan spent some time as Williams’ test driver but more recently has been racing in the Superleague and NASCAR Truck series.

It was rumoured that he had split unpleasantly with Kolles in late 2005, but insists that he has an “excellent working relationship” with the now HRT chief.

“I have always maintained that I have not given up on my desire to return to the top level of motor sport,” Karthikeyan is quoted by Indian media.

The Delhi-based Hindustan Times newspaper revealed that Karthikeyan chose F1 over NASCAR for 2011 even though he “won’t be making any money” personally this year.

“It was a tough call,” he confirmed, “but one I had no qualms making.”

Karthikeyan was asked about the likely competitiveness of HRT’s 2011 car, after the Dallara-built single seater this year proved the slowest in the field.

“The car can’t be any worse than it was last year,” he said. “Ideally we would like to move ahead of the other two new teams Lotus and Virgin.”

Jarno Trulli believes wealth is becoming too important as the remaining spaces on the F1 grid fill up for 2011.
For the coming season, the likes of Nico Hulkenberg and Nick Heidfeld are facing the prospect of sitting on the sidelines, as respected teams including Williams and Sauber opt instead for race drivers with significant financial backing.

Trulli, one of the oldest and most experienced drivers on the grid, thinks the situation could have knock-on effects for the next generation.

“Today it is so difficult for young drivers,” the Italian told Auto Motor und Sport during an interview.

“Money is playing too big a role and the lower series like Formula 3 are too expensive. I couldn’t repeat my own career these days,” added Trulli, who made his F1 debut in 1997 with Minardi.

The 36-year-old has also raced for major teams including Renault and Toyota, but in 2010 he returned to the back of the grid with Lotus.

“It was not a good season,” said Trulli.

In an interview published in Italian by italiaracing, he was more strident.

“I think I deserved a medal for being the unluckiest driver of the year,” said Trulli, whose car regularly broke down last season. “There’s no need to say it was the worse season in all my life.”

To the German publication, he continued: “It was a bit frustrating but it’s part of the business. I have accepted it as a transitional season.”

Worse still, Trulli insists that the green T127 was not a car to his liking.

“I didn’t have what I needed for my driving style,” he explained, “so it made the task doubly difficult.

“I need a stiff car that gives me good feedback, but from the first test it was clear that I wouldn’t have that.”

He knows Lotus is pushing hard to catch up, but can understand some of the criticism of the new teams from established names including Ferrari.

“In the end we are all in the same race and the incumbents should respect those who are just beginning. On the other hand it is true that four seconds behind is too much.

“Now we are a year further ahead and we need a big aero step and a lighter and stiffer car. There is an awful lot to do and if we can do it, then we can fight with the back of the midfield.”

But even that is not his goal.

“I must still have the skills that make some people keep believing in me, but just being here is not what I want, which is winning races and the title.”

Trulli said he knows first-hand how difficult is Team Lotus’ task.

“I raced for Toyota, with great resources and unlimited possibilities, but they never achieved what they wanted to,” he noted.

Jerome d’Ambrosio will make his F1 debut in 2011 alongside Timo Glock, the Virgin team announced on Tuesday.

We reported earlier this month that the 24-year-old Belgian d’Ambrosio was on the verge of securing the second race cockpit, which in 2010 was occupied by fellow rookie Lucas di Grassi.

D’Ambrosio, reportedly bringing $5m to the new British team and managed by the Eric Boullier-led Gravity group, completed this season as Virgin’s Friday driver and was recently only awaiting the approval of team partner Marussia for the 2011 ride.

“He has secured this seat absolutely on merit and I think coupled with Timo we have the perfect blend of youth, experience, speed and potential and we can’t wait to see what they can achieve together next season,” said team boss John Booth.

Booth thanked the departing di Grassi, who last weekend won Felipe Massa’s annual charity kart event in Florianopolis and is now seeking a F1 role for 2011.

Virgin will launch its next car, the VR-02, prior to the first group test of the pre-season at the beginning of February.