Rubens Barrichello has alleged that Ferrari made a threat that might have ended his motor racing career during the infamous 2002 Austrian grand prix.

Ten years ago, the Brazilian led the race at the A1-Ring but eventually, at the very last corner, succumbed to team orders that allowed number one teammate Michael Schumacher to pass him.

Subsequent video footage has depicted then Ferrari team boss Jean Todt asking Barrichello on the radio to simply “let Michael pass for the championship, please”.

But Barrichello, having left F1 at the end of 2011 for a seat in Indycar, says it was not quite as simple as that.

“It was eight laps of war,” he is quoted by Brazil’s Globo.

“It’s very rare that I lose my temper, but I was screaming on the radio. I kept going right to the end, saying I would not let him pass.

“That’s when they said something about something much broader. It was not about the contract.

“I cannot tell you what they said, but it was a form of threat that made me think about re-thinking my life, because the great joy for me was driving,” said the 39-year-old.

Mark Webber has denied signing with the Ferrari team for 2013.

Spanish media reports, indicating that a letter of intent may already have been written, said Fernando Alonso favours Australian Webber to replace the struggling Felipe Massa.

The reports also said Webber, 35 and with an expiring Red Bull contract, could be signed for a single season ahead of Sergio Perez joining in 2014.

“Sergio was flavour of the month last week for the Ferrari drive; now it’s me,” Webber said at the Mugello test on Tuesday.

“I’m focusing 100 per cent on this season and doing the best job for myself and Red Bull Racing. I’m not putting any energy into anything else.”

Italian-language reporters also quote Webber as saying: “There’s a whole season ahead of us before we need to think about the future.

“One day the talk is about Jenson (Button joining Ferrari), then it’s Sergio, now it’s me. I haven’t signed anything.”

“My focus is on this team (Red Bull); we’ve had a good start to the season, we’re only four races down and the road is very, very, very long before we start talking about the future.”

As for the closely-contested 2012 championship, Webber added: “The grid is very close together.

“Sebastian (Vettel) had a weekend without problems in Bahrain and won but he didn’t dominate, and that’s the same for everyone.

“No one will be dominant in the first half of the season, so to be third at the start of the European season is not bad,” he said.

All this year’s title contenders know after four ‘flyaway’ races in 2012 is that they do not know what will happen in Spain next month.

“The only certainty is uncertainty,” read the German headline at Netzeitung.

With F1 generally regarded in the wider world as a sport with predictable results, this is an entirely new situation.

“The statistics show that it’s been nine years since there have been four different winners in the first four races,” said Ferrari team boss Stefano Domenicali.

Indeed, the famous Italian team as well as McLaren, Mercedes and Red Bull have won the opening races of 2012, and also with potentially winning pace have been Lotus and Sauber.

“More than that,” continued Domenicali, “you have to go back 29 years to find the last time four different cars won.”

One explanation is that F1 has never been more competitive, with plenty of well-oiled teams and no fewer than six world champion drivers on the grid.

But Domenicali thinks Pirelli is the dominant factor.

And not everybody is happy about that. Michael Schumacher told Bild newspaper that this year’s tyres degrade so fast that rubber “flies from the rim” if he pushes too hard in a corner.

“We drive around like the safety car. It is not a satisfying situation,” the seven time world champion said.

Pirelli’s motor sport director Paul Hembery is unimpressed with the rebuke, insisting that the Italian marque is only trying to “make tyres that make the races exciting”.

“We cannot take individual drivers into consideration,” the Briton insisted.

“It would be dead easy for us to make tyres that don’t break down. Then the top ten would also be the top ten in the race.

“But no one wants to see boring processions,” Hembery claimed.

Agreed the Swiss headline at Blick: “Pirelli is sweeping away the boredom”.

Indeed, not even the other Mercedes driver, Shanghai winner Nico Rosberg, agrees with Schumacher.

“It’s total chaos. You don’t know who is going to be fast at the next track,” he is quoted by DPA agency. “Formula one has become almost unlike any other sport.

“Yes, you cannot drive any laps any more at full throttle. Often, it’s like driving on ice. But that’s a big and an interesting challenge,” said the German.

Undoubtedly exciting for the fans, but the teams are having to adapt quickly. Italy’s La Gazzetta dello Sport said on Sunday that Vettel’s victory could mean Red Bull resumes its dominant grip on F1.

Dr Helmut Marko doesn’t think so. “We don’t even know who our opponents are!” he exclaimed.

Peter Sauber has added his own denial to rumours Sergio Perez could be imminently headed to Ferrari.
The Mexican driver played down the speculation at Sepang on Thursday, as did Ferrari, amid reports the famous Italian team is contemplating replacing the struggling Massa with its development driver.

But a flaw in the rumours is that Perez, 22, is under contract to Sauber for 2012.

“No one has spoken to us,” team boss Sauber, when asked about the Perez/Massa switch, told Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport.

All eyes will be on Massa this weekend in Malaysia, after Ferrari agreed to change his chassis following a dire performance a week ago in Melbourne.

Michael Schumacher backed his former Ferrari teammate.

“If you look at all the winter testing I think it was very clear that the two drivers (Massa and Fernando) were very close together,” he said.

“So to see the big difference that we saw in Melbourne, I can only assume there must have been something not right for him.”

 One mystery to be solved this weekend is just how much trouble the Ferrari team is in.
Depending on who is asked in the paddock, the famous Italian team is either in full-speed ‘crisis’, slightly off the pace, or bluffing after apparently struggling with its all-new F2012 car in winter testing.

Pirelli’s Paul Hembery warned that writing off a great team like Ferrari is “very dangerous”.

“From the data I’ve seen,” he told Auto Motor und Sport, “they seem to have some good pace.

“They have made many changes and have many innovations on the car — I find it a bit strange to write off a team like Ferrari at this stage.

“From the data that I know of, it looks as if they have potential, so as ever in formula one, things can change very quickly,” said the Briton.

Agreeing with Hembery is Mercedes’ Michael Schumacher, who won five of his record seven titles with Ferrari.

“All the hype about their situation is too much,” said the German. “They seem to have some problems, but you should never write off Fernando Alonso.”

Schumacher’s Mercedes boss Norbert Haug added: “I don’t think Ferrari’s problems are (as bad) as they have been reported everywhere.”

Jarno Trulli has revealed he was offered a seat at Ferrari some years ago.
After fifteen consecutive seasons in formula one, the 37-year-old Italian has lost his Caterham race seat to the well-backed Russian Vitaly Petrov.

2004 Monaco grand prix winner Trulli, 37, drove since 1997 for Minardi, Prost, Jordan, Renault and Caterham’s former guise Lotus.

Writing in his New York Times blog, correspondent Brad Spurgeon said Trulli was made the Ferrari offer while he was racing for Toyota between 2005 and 2009.

Trulli reportedly told Italy’s Autosprint magazine that Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali’s predecessor, the now FIA president Jean Todt, made him the offer.

“Nobody knows this, but at this point I think I can publicly thank Jean Todt for having been one of the few top team managers to consider me during my career,” he said.

“I won’t tell you when exactly — I was racing for Toyota and I was doing very well. But I had signed a rather long contract with the Japanese, and in my career I’ve always honoured my commitments.

“In 15 years of F1 I’ve never needed lawyers,” added Trulli.

Trulli left Renault for Toyota at the end of the 2004 season, driving for the carmaker until it pulled out of formula one at the end of 2009.

Rubens Barrichello left Ferrari at the end of 2005, replaced by Felipe Massa. Michael Schumacher retired a year later, replaced by Kimi Raikkonen.

At Ferrari, Frenchman Todt handed over to Domenicali at the end of 2007.

 Rubens Barrichello on Saturday said it is “sad” another established formula one veteran, Jarno Trulli, has lost his race seat.
After 19 consecutive seasons, Barrichello is poised to switch to Indycar in 2012, while Trulli – who made his debut in 1997 and is a Monaco grand prix winner – has lost his seat to Vitaly Petrov.

“Money is dominating everything,” said Barrichello, with Caterham even admitting that the “global economic market” influenced the decision to replace Trulli with the well-backed Russian.

And with F1 now not boasting an Italian driver for the first time since the end of the 60s, Trulli lamented that no one is poised to succeed him.

“During a crisis as we have in our country, I can’t see how a youngster can find the help needed to be considered by any team,” he told the Ansa news agency.

“I knew of the difficult economic situation that would force the (Caterham) team to look for a driver with adequate backing,” added the 37-year-old.

Also lamenting the new dearth of Italian drivers, Ferrari team boss Stefano Domenicali admitted: “It’s a difficult moment for our sport, partly for external reasons.”

Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport said former Lotus driver Petrov is bringing a “double digit” sum in the millions to Caterham for Trulli’s 2012 seat.

Red Bull has already produced the t-shirts to mark Sebastian Vettel’s 2011 world championship victory.
The German is tipped to secure the single point he needs to mathematically wrap up his second consecutive drivers’ crown next weekend in Japan.

And according to the Bild-Zeitung daily, Red Bull has jumped the gun by producing a run of white t-shirts bearing Vettel’s logo and the words “2011 F1 drivers’ world champion”.

It will be sold for EUR 29.95, Bild added.

Actually, however, the 24-year-old is highly superstitious and refusing to count on his title victory until it is definitely in the bag.

“Statistically the chances are on our side but generally in sports there have been a lot of stories written, and this one also has to wait to be closed,” he said.

Swiss newspaper Blick reports that Vettel and his parents Norbert and Heike therefore hosted a “One-Point-Missing-Party” in the Singapore paddock late on Sunday.

One interesting attendee was Luca Colajanni, the Ferrari team spokesman.

Eddie Irvine is convinced his former Ferrari teammate’s return to formula one is a “waste of time”.
Michael Schumacher, who shared the Ferrari team with the outspoken Ulsterman in the late 90s, had a strong weekend at Monza but his comeback has generally been regarded as mediocre.

“It’s a waste of time,” Irvine scolded on a visit to the Monza paddock, according to Der Spiegel newspaper.

“Schumacher is good but no longer good enough and he was already on the decline in 2005 and 2006 at Ferrari.

“I have no idea why Mercedes invests in such an old driver as the performance curve can only be downwards. He’s too old now to beat the top drivers like Nico Rosberg,” added Irvine.

Stefano Domenicali was baffled on Friday when reporters asked for his thoughts on a war of words with Red Bull counterpart Christian Horner.

“Me? That’s the first time that I hear that,” said the Ferrari team boss.

Media reports said Horner had responded angrily to some recent comments made in the specialist press by Domenicali, including the suggestion that Red Bull is a one-man team with star designer Adrian Newey at the helm.

And the Italian had told a German newspaper that Sebastian Vettel is not yet a true leader.

Horner hit back by insisting that Red Bull doesn’t “disrespect or underestimate the achievements of our peers”.

When told Horner apparently had a problem with some of his comments, Domenicali said: “That’s a new one. I will speak with him, without speaking to journalists. I want to see what he’s saying.

“I don’t think that I’ve said something strange but it’s interesting to see Christian’s reaction. Maybe he will have something to say to me. He knows my telephone number,” added the Italian.

Ferrari and Sauber brought an end to the exhaust blowing saga that marred the British grand prix weekend.
The teams rowed at Silverstone about the FIA’s clampdown and how it could be equitably applied to the four engine manufacturer’s distinct V8 engines.

Ultimately, Charlie Whiting proposed to scrap the clampdown and simply revert to the Valencia setup, where changing engine settings between qualifying and the race were banned but off-throttle blowing was unrestricted.

Williams initially opposed the reversion but eventually signed the letter of unanimity, leaving Ferrari-powered Ferrari and Sauber yet to agree.

“We thought primarily of the image and the fans of formula one,” Sauber managing director Monisha Kaltenborn told Auto Motor und Sport, explaining the Swiss team’s eventual change of heart.

“We are glad that we now have an agreement,” she added.

In the pages of La Stampa, Ferrari team boss Stefano Domenicali agreed: “These stories, with everyone thinking only of what advantage they can get, are not good.

“For this reason we kept a low profile. Without thinking about what we will or will not lose, we have signed the agreement to return to what we had before Silverstone,” he confirmed.

Fernando Alonso is among the best in formula one but his situation at Ferrari is unique.

That is the view of Lewis Hamilton, who clashed memorably with Alonso as they were teammates at McLaren in 2007 as the pair reportedly tussled for elusive ‘number 1′ status.

Alonso decided to leave the British team and is now at Ferrari, where he has just signed a new five-year extension to his existing contract.

Asked by Spain’s El Pais newspaper who he regards as the best in F1, Briton Hamilton answered: “We all believe we are the best and that’s what you have to do, unless you like to finish second.

“(The best) are Alonso, Vettel and Rosberg, who I’ve known since I was 13. He (Rosberg) is about to burst through and he will at any time.

“Sebastian is in a great period with Red Bull and has a lot of confidence.

“Fernando is very talented and is fully supported by his team,” continued Hamilton. “The whole (Ferrari) team supports and follows him. It is he who leads Ferrari.

“I’m not saying it’s good or bad, it’s just the route they have chosen,” he added.

(TMS) Ferrari technical director Costa dares no opinion on the relative strength of: He explains the reasons and talks about Massa’s fiery exit .
Testing is like coffee grounds-reading. This experience also made the Ferrari team in Valencia. After the first three test days of the season, are where Fernando Alonso fifth place and a best time and Felipe Massa also has a fifth place to book, it is also technical director Aldo Costa too early for a location-determination.

“If we only look at our work, we can be satisfied,” sums up the Italians. “We are about where we expected, though much work lies ahead of us to understand the handling of the car -. Especially when it comes to aerodynamics and tire goes But it’s impossible on the question of where we stand compared to the other to give a precise answer. ”
Or will yet say nothing? “I’m not saying that we are groping in the dark completely, but almost, if one takes into account how many unknown factors play in here,” said Costa. A significant factor is the tires. “In that short time, Pirelli has done a great job,” says the chief technology officer his countrymen. “They have the tire and are brought here, in terms of design and reliability, on the right track.”

However, there is a continuous process, especially as both the development of the tires, and the car will constantly progress. “They are working on their mixtures, which will evolve from now on,” said Costa. “Then it’s up to us to work on the mechanical setup of the car to improve the behavior of the tires.”

The program of Ferrari could be reeled off the first of four tests with relative ease, only on the last day of the race car of Felipe Massa was suddenly on fire. Costa explained the reason for the departure of the fiery Brazilian.. “It was really a stupid thing A line was loose and the escaping oil came on the exhaust and the tires caused the turners, the little fire, and consequently the damage which forced us to a longer stop. It was a shame, because until then, everything went smoothly. “

Spanish bank Santander has upped its sponsorship of the Ferrari team to include signage on the front of the team’s official cap.
The cap, making its debut on Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa’s heads at the Madonna di Campiglio media ski event in the Italian Dolomites on Monday, replaces the 2010 edition that featured signage of the Abu Dhabi-owned Mubadala company.

It is expected that Santander’s sponsorship of McLaren could now end, despite the logo still featuring on the corporate partner page of the British team’s website.

A report by Europa Press claims Santander will continue to be the title sponsor of the British, German and Italian grands prix in 2011, whilst also having a significant brand presence in Spain, Valencia and Brazil.

Plans for a formula one race on the Balearic Islands are still progressing.
Mid last year, it emerged that Llucmajor, a short drive from Mallorca’s major Palma airport, was the likely site for the project, which would replace the European grand prix at Valencia.

The German-language Mallorca Zeitung reports that organisers are now seeking investors to fund the first race in 2012, with the estimated cost at between 160-200 million euros.

“The project would help not only the local community but give the whole island a tremendous economic boost,” said Llucmajor mayor Joan Jaume.

The track’s local designer Gabriel Palmer has been criticised for his inexperience, but he said he has consulted with the Ferrari team.

“I have included their (Ferrari’s) corrections in my current draft,” said Palmer.

The head of the Balearic racing federation and mayor Jaume have already met with F1 chief executive Bernie Ecclestone, and F1 event guru Philippe Gurdjian has reportedly also been involved.

“Ecclestone was enthusiastic and encouraged us to pursue the project,” said federation president Agustin Arbex.

He also revealed that September 2012 has been earmarked for the inaugural race date.