Narain Karthikeyan has played down reports he could lose his seat at HRT because of a lack of sponsorship.

An Indian newspaper this week said the 35-year-old is a million euros short of guaranteeing his place at the struggling Spanish team through November’s Brazil finale.

“Right now, everything is as it should be,” he is quoted by France’s autohebdo.fr.

“Early in the season, (team boss) Luis (Perez Sala) said that if I was not close enough to my teammate, there is a chance I will not finish the season.

“That was put into my contract, but for now I respect all the conditions. There is no reason that I will not be driving (the rest of) this season,” added Karthikeyan.

He admits, however, to some frustration about HRT’s continuing rear-of-the-field position.

“To be honest I wasn’t expecting the start of 2012 to be on the same lines as last year,” the Indian driver told the Hindustan Times newspaper.

“Yes I expected teething problems but not to this extent.”

He also admits he expected the team to test at Mugello last week.

“Personally speaking, I would’ve preferred some seat time at Mugello since I didn’t get any pre-season testing compared to my teammate who did the Jerez test with the old car,” said Karthikeyan.

“I was originally told that we would do the Mugello test but we decided to focus on putting the car together instead.”

Narain Karthikeyan is not guaranteed his HRT seat for the whole of the 2012 season.

Following what the reporter referred to as a ‘chat’ with the Indian driver, the Times of India claimed Karthikeyan is “a million euros” short of a contract that will see him definitely race through November’s Brazil finale.

The 35-year-old also began the 2011 season for the struggling Spanish team, but was replaced by the Red Bull-funded Daniel Ricciardo mid-season.

The Times of India said securing the extra million in sponsorship is proving “difficult” for Karthikeyan.

“Sponsors are happy to give him money but not to the team, as obviously they do not want to be associated with a struggling outfit,” the report said.

The good news for Karthikeyan, according to the journalist Harish Samtani, is that his sponsorship deal with Tata brings to HRT the Williams gearbox, valued at about EUR 5 million.

The report said the link between Karthikeyan and Williams is the British team’s joint venture with Jaguar, which is owned by the driver’s sponsor Tata.

 They are famously close on a personal level, but for the sake of his sport Bernie Ecclestone wants to see Sebastian Vettel suffer in 2012.
The Red Bull driver has won the past two championships on the trot, including last season when the title battle was over long before the finale.

“It wasn’t good. The only person that would say no to that would be Sebastian, but I think everybody else would agree with it,” F1 chief executive Ecclestone told reporters on Thursday.

He had just announced a new connectivity deal for F1 with Indian multinational Tata’s communications subsidiary.

The aim is to modernise F1 in that area because, as the 81-year-old puts it, he is “getting old” and was “asleep” to the world’s new digital era.

But more immediately important to Ecclestone is a better show in 2012.

“I’m surprised we survived with (the TV ratings) we got right at the end,” said the Briton, referring again to Vettel’s dominance. “We need to see everybody else wake up.”

Another element he hopes is in place this year is a fully-firing Lewis Hamilton, but Ecclestone admitted the 2008 world champion might have to farewell McLaren.

“I think if he doesn’t perform this year, he’ll be looking maybe to move on, and the team may also be looking for him to move on,” he said.

And yet another golden egg for Ecclestone would be a winning Michael Schumacher, but he admitted the seven time world champion might need to sit at the wheel of a Red Bull for that to happen.

“I don’t think Sebastian would mind,” he said.

“I’m not saying I don’t want Mark (Webber) around, I’m just saying it would be nice to see him (Schumacher) in the car where you know that if he doesn’t win it’s his fault, not the car.”

Less important, Ecclestone argues, is the rare absence in F1 of a single Italian driver.

“If Ferrari is winning,” he insisted, “it doesn’t make any difference.”

Indeed, there are bigger fish on the F1 supremo’s plate: the thorny issue of Bahrain’s return in 2012, and a looming fight with the teams over the next Concorde Agreement.

On Bahrain, he joked: “Pity I’m not going to be there myself but don’t worry. No, I shall be there, don’t worry.”

As for the teams wanting a bigger share of F1′s revenue pie, Ecclestone answered: “I think they are right. If they don’t ask they are not going to get (it), are they?”

But when asked to rate their chances of success, the Briton replied typically: “Slim to none.”

 F1′s governing body will assist in the investigation of Dan Wheldon’s death.
Briton Wheldon, 33, was killed in a 15-car crash last Sunday on lap 12 of the 2011 Indycar finale in Las Vegas.

According to the Associated Press, the Paris based FIA as well as the US sanctioning body ACCUS “will assist in a full investigation” of the fatal crash.

Indycar confirmed the news whilst saying “the safety of our drivers, their crews … staff, racetrack staff and spectators is always our paramount concern”.

Jaime Alguersuari is staking a claim to a 2012 Toro Rosso race seat.
The Spaniard made his debut with the second Red Bull team in mid 2009, but Dr Helmut Marko is known to be considering the future of the current Toro Rosso lineup.

At the Brazil finale next month, whether Alguersuari or his more experienced teammate Sebastien Buemi will sit out Friday practice for French hopeful Jean-Eric Vergne will be decided by the points standings.

Spaniard Alguersuari, 21, was already ahead of Buemi prior to Korea, but he extended the gap to 7 points by finishing a strong seventh on Sunday.

He will therefore also be in boss Franz Tost’s good books, given the team’s late-season development push to catch up with Sauber for seventh place in the constructors’ championship.

Alguersuari told EFE news agency Korea was “my best” result in his 43 career races, as he was the highest placed runner behind the grandee Red Bulls, McLarens and Red Bulls.

“I think we’ve taken a huge leap,” he added. “I am very excited because next year we can have a great car.”

And if Marko decides to drop just one Toro Rosso driver at the end of the season, Swiss Buemi appears very much in the hot seat now.

“This is not important, only getting Toro Rosso ahead of Sauber,” insisted Alguersuari. “He (Buemi) is also doing a good job.”

Toro Rosso’s current drivers are still unsure if they will be racing beyond the 2011 season.

Team owner Red Bull’s driver manager Dr Helmut Marko is famous for the pressure he puts on contracted drivers.

And hanging over Jaime Alguersuari and Sebastien Buemi’s heads at present are the advancing careers of Marko’s latest favourites Daniel Ricciardo and Jean-Eric Vergne.

“We have not talked about the future or next year’s contract,” Spaniard Alguersuari told the EFE news agency at the weekend.

“It is very important that the whole team is focused on the rest of this year,” he added, referring to Toro Rosso’s push to beat Sauber to seventh in the constructors’ world championship.

According to veteran Blick correspondent Roger Benoit, Swiss Buemi is in exactly the same situation with “five penalty shots” yet to kick in Japan, Korea, India, Abu Dhabi and Brazil.

“I know it’s going to get harder and harder up to the finale in Sao Paulo but I can live with the pressure, and my morale is intact,” the 22-year-old, who trails his teammate Alguersuari by 3 points, said.

He confirmed that Toro Rosso is pushing hard to beat Sauber.

“We have a different car now; front and rear, everything has changed,” said Buemi before his flight to Tokyo.

Australian Ricciardo, meanwhile, is currently at HRT but tipped to move to Toro Rosso in 2012.

But “All this is rumour,” he insisted to the Press Trust of India at the weekend.

Nick Heidfeld on Friday said he is not so sure his countryman will be crowned champion at the end of the Singapore grand prix weekend.
German Sebastian Vettel only needs 13 extra points to win his second consecutive title with five races to go in 2011.

But in Singapore practice, the 24-year-old – although quickest – was trailed by just a couple of tenths by two-time Singapore winner Fernando Alonso.

Ferrari’s Alonso, albeit 112 points behind, is Vettel’s nearest championship challenger, even though he answered “yes” on Thursday when asked if he has written off his chances of chasing down the leading Red Bull before Brazil’s finale.

“Alonso was second today with quite a bit gap behind him,” Heidfeld, in Singapore to look around for a race seat for 2012, told the German broadcaster Sky. “So I don’t think he (Vettel) will get it.”

Heidfeld, of course, was referring to Vettel’s chances of wrapping up the title this weekend, as he needs to win and then depend on Alonso not appearing on the podium on one of the Spaniard’s favourite circuits.

“It is not really up to Sebastian,” Heidfeld insisted. “He is doing a fantastic job and I expect him to do well here.”

Vettel’s title, if he wins on Sunday, also depends on Jenson Button or Mark Webber not finishing the race in second place. “It’s really up to what the others do,” added Heidfeld.

Former Renault driver Heidfeld, meanwhile, has been linked with a switch to the DTM series with BMW for 2012.

“That (DTM) is definitely an option or an alternative, should I find no reasonable place in formula one,” he admitted. “I have always said that I could imagine it after I am finished in F1.”

Chris Dyer has admitted a return to formula one next year is possible.
The Australian, formerly the title-winning engineer for Michael Schumacher and Kimi Raikkonen, was ousted by Ferrari after the bungled race strategy that cost Fernando Alonso the championship in Abu Dhabi last year.

At Monza this weekend, he is making his first visit to the paddock since the ill-fated 2010 finale.

The big rumour ahead of the Italian grand prix is that Dyer could be snapped up by Mercedes, where his former Ferrari boss Ross Brawn is now team principal.

“I have many job offers,” Dyer confirmed to Brazilian journalist Livio Oricchio’s O Estado de S.Paulo column, “but I cannot go under contract until the end of the year.”

Ferrari’s former head of track engineering said F1 has not changed at all since 2010.

“It’s like Abu Dhabi was just last week,” Dyer, 42, smiled to the Spanish sports newspaper Marca.

He sounded only slightly bitter about the whole Ferrari affair.

“Look, we’re a team but ultimately I was responsible for the group of people who make the decisions, so in the end it was my responsibility.

“We’re not stupid, we don’t make decisions for fun. At the time we thought it (Alonso’s strategy) would give him the best chance to get the result we needed.

“We decided, we told Fernando and he made the stop. We are a group and no one was forced to do anything they didn’t want to do, we all thought it was right at the time.

“It was a bad experience but, in a sense, you have those experiences every week, every race, and looking at them again you would change them to make them better,” added Dyer.

Nick Heidfeld will not be racing this weekend in Belgium and is unlikely to return to the Renault cockpit.
That was the claim on Monday of the German’s 2004 team boss Eddie Jordan, who is now an expert pundit for British television the BBC’s television coverage.

Earlier this week, the Irishman said he considered the recent criticism of 34-year-old Heidfeld’s performances this year by Renault bosses as “bullying”.

He wrote in a BBC column on Monday that Heidfeld “has been dropped by the Renault team in favour of Brazilian Bruno Senna for this weekend’s Belgian grand prix”.

Jordan said the move will save Renault money because reserve driver Senna, who is also “expected to race for Renault in the eight remaining races this season, has “several million pounds of sponsorship”.

27-year-old Senna raced most recently in the Abu Dhabi finale last year, at the end of his rookie season with the struggling Hispania team.

He has been Renault’s reserve driver in 2011, and in Hungary last month replaced Heidfeld in Friday morning practice.

Robert Kubica has answered “we’ll see” amid expectations he might be fit enough to return to formula one in the coming months. It emerged this week that the injured Renault driver’s recovery from his horror February rally crash will speed up after another elbow operation this month. There have been varying reports that estimated a return to the grid could take place as soon as November’s Interlagos finale, while Italy’s Autosprint said it is “unlikely” the 26-year-old will be ready for the start of next season. “I always enjoy setting a goal, when circumstances allow,” the Pole is quoted as saying. “We’ll see how my rehabilitation goes over the next few months. “I’m satisfied with what’s been happening until now, there are no complications. There is no hurry. What is important is that Renault is keeping my place.” Renault doctor Riccardo Ceccarelli is quoted by the Sapa-AFP news agency as saying the forthcoming surgery is to improve the mobility of Kubica’s right elbow. “With his elbow blocked, we haven’t had the chance to work on a full recovery programme as we would do normally,” he said.

A defeat for Sebastian Vettel in 2011 would involve the biggest formula one comeback since James Hunt won the championship 35 years ago.
Finland Turun Sanomat newspaper reports that the task for Vettel’s pursuers – including his teammate Mark Webber, Fernando Alonso and the McLaren drivers – is greater even than Briton Hunt’s in 1976.

Then, flamboyant Hunt won the title by one point after Niki Lauda sat out races to recover from his near-fatal Nurburgring crash, before the great Austrian voluntarily pulled out of the treacherous Japanese finale.

Asked if he is enjoying his near-unprecedented dominance this season, Red Bull’s Vettel told DPA news agency this week: “No, I only enjoy success when I have it.

“Ask me again after the last race in Brazil.”

A temporary chicane will not be added to the layout of the Brazilian grand prix circuit in November.
Following recent fatalities at Interlagos’ Cafe corner, circuit improvements – requiring the removal of a grandstand – will not be done until after F1′s 2011 finale.

In the next few weeks, stock car and other formative series will use a temporary chicane to ensure the safety of competitors at the Sao Paulo venue.

“F1 … will not use the chicane,” clarified a report in the local O Estado de S.Paulo newspaper.

Sebastian Vettel insists he is not overly worried about the FIA’s controversial clampdown on blown exhaust solutions.
The reigning world champion has run into a clear lead in 2011, with his Red Bull said to benefit the most from the so-called ‘hot blowing’ of engine gases through rear diffusers.

But that practice will be severely limited as of Silverstone next month, and team advisor Helmut Marko obviously feels Red Bull’s dominance has been targeted as he noted the mid-season timing of the ban as “pretty strange”.

The German news agency SID, however, quoted 23-year-old Vettel as reacting coolly when asked about the possible impact of the clampdown on his so-far impressive 2011 campaign.

“I don’t believe it will hit us harder than anybody else,” he said.

“You can argue about why it is happening in the middle of the season, but in terms of the world championship there is still a very long way to go.

“An awful lot can happen very quickly, as we saw last year,” added Vettel, who in 2010 led the world championship for the very first time only as he crossed the chequered flag at the Abu Dhabi finale.

He won last year’s Valencia race, scene of this weekend’s European grand prix.

“We had a good race there last year and the car should be good,” said the German.

A key FIA official has admitted the opinions of the formula one teams will be considered when the fate of the 2011 Bahrain grand prix is discussed this week.

It is during Barcelona’s World Motor Sport Council meeting on Friday that the FIA body will either rubber-stamp a new date for the postponed event or cancel it completely for this year.

Martial law in the troubled island Kingdom expires on Wednesday, but the teams are expressing concerns about the fact a 2011 race rescheduling would push out their calendars to an unprecedentedly late December finale.

Some team bosses have made their feelings clear, including Mercedes principal Ross Brawn who said a December finale is “totally unacceptable”.

“On Friday, we will need to determine whether teams are against (Bahrain), who is against it, why they are against it — we have some very strong decisions to make,” FIA vice president and United Arab Emirates automobile federation president Mohammed ben Sulayem told The National.

Mark Webber broke his shoulder yet again with just four crucial races left to run in 2010.

In late 2008, after shattering his right leg in a mountain bike smash, the Australian hid from his employer Red Bull the fact that he also broke his left shoulder.

But with his injuries apparently fully healed, it recently emerged that Webber would miss the post-season Abu Dhabi Pirelli test due to surgery.

It was believed the operation was due to his 2009 pre-season breaks, but Webber has now revealed in a book that he was carrying a fresh injury into his recent charge for this year’s title.

In his official book ‘Up front: a season to remember”, the 34-year-old revealed that he broke his shoulder again after returning to Australia after the Singapore grand prix in late September.

Once again, he crashed a mountain bike; this time when a friend fell in front of him.

Webber’s injury is reportedly known as a “skier’s fracture”; not serious but deep in the joint and difficult to treat.

The book said he declined to tell his boss Christian Horner, and that only his trainer Roger Clearly and FIA doctor Gary Hartstein knew about the injury and his cortisone injections in Japan and Korea.

The injury might explain Webber’s crucial loss of form after leading the championship at the time of his accident by 21 points from Fernando Alonso.

And when he crashed, Webber was 31 points clear of his teammate and eventual champion Sebastian Vettel.