Romain Grosjean has admitted he hopes France’s touted return to the F1 calendar is shown the green light.

Amid expectations he would announce a race at Paul Ricard will go ahead in 2013, French prime minister Francois Fillon instead said last Friday that talks are ongoing.

“I’m crossing my fingers that it will happen,” Lotus driver and Frenchman Grosjean told RMC Sport.

“I think the enthusiasm for motor sport (in France) has been reborn,” he added, referring to the presence on this year’s grid of three French race drivers, plus Force India reserve Jules Bianchi.

“There has been lots of positive feedback after the first two races and also the first points for Jean-Eric (Vergne).

“I hope we will have a grand prix soon enough,” added Grosjean.

Patrick Tambay, a former grand prix driver from France, believes politics can be thanked for the country’s touted return to the calendar.

“I feel that the grand prix de France broke into the presidential campaign,” he said.

“Since 2008, we hardly heard anything about it, and now it’s a hot topic. There is a strong desire to make it work.

“All that remains is to validate the decision and set a timetable,” he added.

Claude Sage, the administrator of the Le Castellet circuit, said Paul Ricard will be ready.

“The circuit is approved for formula one,” he said.

“We need to prepare the facilities for the public, in the form of temporary stands, as in Monaco. We have room to install them,” added Sage.

Dr Helmut Marko has admitted Red Bull has work to do in order to return to the front in formula one.

Having dominated F1′s recent history, the energy drink owned team is now behind McLaren in the constructors’ standings after two races in 2012, while its highest placed driver is Mark Webber in fourth.

Austrian Marko, the motor racing advisor to Red Bull mogul Dietrich Mateschitz, insisted that Adrian Newey and his technical team have built a good car for 2012.

“But it doesn’t help,” he told Salzburg television channel Servus TV, “if we are the fastest only in certain conditions, rather than consistently.

“To tell you the truth, at the moment it’s almost as though the car decides when it is the fastest, and when it is not,” Marko said during the ‘Sport und Talk aus dem Hangar-7′ programme.

The outspoken manager also vigorously defended Sebastian Vettel in the wake of the Narain Karthikeyan affair, after Red Bull’s world champion lost his temper with the HRT driver following a clash in Malaysia.

Marko firmly pointed the finger at F1′s backmarkers.

“We have told our team manager to talk to both Marussia and Hispania about getting their drivers to simply pay more attention,” he said.

“They are driving in another league, they’re six or eight seconds slower, and so they need to watch out more than they do.

“They are 12 points Vettel lost that could be crucial in the world championship,” added Marko.

He also fended off the claim that Vettel’s behaviour in Malaysia, featuring the display of middle fingers and calling Karthikeyan an “idiot”, was not worthy of a role model.

“You’ve just been in a race, you’ve seen the chance of possibly a third place go away — you’re naturally upset because he’s a human as well.

“I think we can understand an emotional reaction,” added Marko.

 At the very end of last season, Adrian Sutil had four options to stay in formula one in 2012.
That is the claim of the German driver’s manager Manfred Zimmermann, who has so far failed to secure Sutil a race seat for the forthcoming season after his five consecutive years with Force India.

“We will fight to stay in formula one and we’re still hoping to get a seat for 2012 — even if it is in the course of the season,” he told the Sport Bild magazine.

He played down the impact of the 29-year-old’s grievous bodily harm conviction, insisting there has been “encouragement and support from all sides”.

Zimmermann said that at the very end of last season, Sutil was juggling four concrete options for 2012 that ultimately “slipped like soap” through their fingers.

“Unfortunately in formula one, money is always important,” he explained. “It simply didn’t work out in the end.”

As for the role the assault charge played, Zimmermann conceded: “I can’t really judge.”

However, for Sutil’s career, all is not lost.

“We have had enquiries in the past days from several series such as Indycar and touring cars. In America Adrian is a very highly regarded driver.”

A dark cloud continues to hang over Bahrain’s scheduled return to the F1 calendar in 2012.
In the UK – where eight of the twelve formula one teams are based – the violent attack of a British man by Bahraini youths is making waves.

News that the man had his fingers severed by a sword came on the same day as a letter in the Times newspaper signed by several influential Lords called on Bernie Ecclestone and the governing FIA to cancel the race.

“Given the current dire situation, with daily street protests and the deaths of more civilians, we do not believe that the time is right for formula one to return to Bahrain,” the letter read.

HRT team members had their fingers crossed this week that the 2012 car would pass the FIA’s mandatory crash tests.
Most of the Spanish team’s rivals have already begun testing their new single seaters, but at Jerez Pedro de la Rosa had to be content with the outdated 2011 machine.

“If it (the new car) passes (the FIA tests), we will have the car at the next test in Barcelona,” said the Spanish driver.

“It is very important that we pass the tests even though we know it’s not easy given that some top teams failed at the first attempt.

“We need every mile,” de la Rosa was quoted in Spanish reports.

But bad news about two of the crash tests emerged late on Thursday, meaning de la Rosa and Narain Karthikeyan will not get their hands on the 2012 car at the forthcoming Barcelona test.

New rules in 2012 mean teams cannot test their new cars until they are fully homologated by the FIA.

Red Bull has set its sights on powering Mark Webber to second place in the drivers’ standings, but the Australian has revealed he is not overly interested.
The achievement will complete a perfect clean sweep for the energy drink-owned team in 2011, comprising the constructors’ championship and first and second places in the separate drivers’ standings.

But Webber, currently fourth, admitted to Die Welt newspaper: “I’m more interested in victories than the overall standings.

“If I have not won a race and at the end of the season I’m second (overall), I won’t be satisfied,” added the 35-year-old.

Separately, France’s L’Equipe reportedly suggested that team boss Christian Horner’s eagerness to help Webber in the last races of 2011 has come “late”.

“We will see how the next races go,” he responded. “I have not answered your question!”

The implication is that Red Bull is happy to see him fall in line behind Sebastian Vettel, but the Australian denies he has a bad relationship with his German teammate.

Welt said evidence of their frosty friendship was the missing congratulations after Vettel wrapped up his drivers’ title in Japan.

“That’s not right,” insisted Webber. “On the night he won the title I sent him a text that said ‘Well done, you deserve it’.

“He answered it the next morning, and I thought it was amazing that after the night he had he could still move his fingers,” joked the winner of 6 grands prix.

Organisers of the inaugural Indian grand prix have sold 80,000 tickets ahead of Sunday’s race.
The capacity of the new Buddh circuit is 120,000, the AFP news agency said.

“We have sold close to 80,000 tickets which is pretty encouraging considering that its the first F1 race ever in the country,” said a spokesman for race promoter Jaypee.

“Of course we would have been happier had we sold off 90 per cent tickets because ticket sales are the only source of revenue for us. But there are still a few days to go and we are keeping our fingers crossed,” he added.

In a late bid to fill the circuit, tickets are now being sold at a discounted rate.

London’s Telegraph correspondent Tom Cary wrote on Tuesday that the Buddh circuit is “rough and almost ready” for Sunday’s race.

“But what do you expect?” smiled the country’s motor federation president Vicky Chandhok. “I think people anticipated worse.”

This weekend is proof that India, now a major economic player on the global scale, has also arrived in formula one.

“I would not put it past the (race promoter) Jaypee Group to start investing in a formula one team,” said Chandhok. “That may be the next step.”

One of Robert Kubica’s doctors has revealed that the Pole is already driving a road car and preparing to step imminently behind the wheel of a much faster vehicle.
F1′s well-known Dr Ricciardo Ceccarelli sparked pessimism about Kubica’s 2012 return last week when he said the 26-year-old will have to spend “a few more months” in rehabilitation.

That would likely race him long past Renault’s deadline as the team presses ahead with deciding its next driver lineup.

But Kubica’s hand surgeon Igor Rossello has told Polish radio Trojce this week that the driver “has recovered; he can move and lift with all his fingers.

“We can now think about getting him back as soon as possible into a car. Sorry, into a racing car, because he is already in a (road) car.

“His recovery is a miracle but the unknown thing is whether he will be able to be as fast.

“We still have to do a small intervention for improving the mobility of his wrist, as with this type of accident the hand is never as flexible as it was before. Then it will take a lot of exercise.

“But he will be able to drive his formula one car again and press all the buttons — we’re talking about a racing driver, not a pianist,” added Rossello.

“I look at him and I can’t stop wondering how well it has all gone; all the breaks and the wounds have healed, the only question is whether he will drive as he did before.

“He will have some limitations; remember that we considered amputation.

“But that (whether he is fast enough) will be assessed by the (F1) specialists. We have done our job perfectly.”

Timo Glock will race on at Valencia this weekend despite nursing a deep cut on his left index finger.
Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport reports that the Virgin driver cut himself whilst slicing break earlier this week.

“I did it on Tuesday. It’s a pretty deep cut — I thought I had cut it (the finger) off,” he laughed.

“I have to use the steering wheel slightly differently because I can’t really bend it, and I will use the gear shift paddle with the three lower fingers.”

The 29-year-old admitted Virgin has bigger problems than his sore finger.

“Hispania have taken a giant step,” said Glock in Valencia. “I’m afraid that they will be in front of us here.”

The day after suffering horrific injuries in a rally smash, Robert Kubica awoke from an induced coma, talked to his father and moved his fingers.
The Pole will miss the start of the season and almost certainly all of the forthcoming 2011 schedule, but the early signs are good that he will make a recovery despite earlier fears he might lose his right hand.

However, a statement issued by his F1 team Lotus-Renault said “it will be several days before it is known if the (hand) operation has been 100 per cent successful”

Kubica, 26, was put back to sleep on Monday, while doctors considered further surgery to treat elbow and shoulder fractures.

He also has leg fractures.

“Kubica is conscious,” said an intensive care spokesman at the Santa Corona hospital. “The first thing he thought about was his co driver and was informed about his condition.”

The spokesman added that Kubica “lost a lot of blood” in the accident and had been “critical” but is now stable.

Fernando Alonso is confident his waning championship charge will not be further impeded by running through his allocation of engines.

This week’s Monza event is among the toughest on engines, and at Spa-Francorchamps two weeks ago, the newly-installed Ferrari V8 in Pedro de la Rosa’s Sauber had to be replaced.

The unscheduled change tipped the Spaniard over his allocation of eight engines for the season, resulting in a grid penalty.

And a look at the allocations of F1′s other cars at Spa showed that while most drivers are now on their fifth new engine, Ferrari’s Alonso and Felipe Massa have used six.

“I see no reason to worry,” said team boss Stefano Domenicali before leaving Belgium.

And Spaniard Alonso has now told GPWeek: “We are confident.

“The plan of the engines is well in control at the moment.  Fingers crossed everything stays like this and we know the programme for all the remaining races,” he added.

“It should be enough with the engines we have.  If everything goes normal there is no problem.”

A bigger headache for the Italian team is that, with Alonso more than 40 points behind with just six races left to run, the F10 seemed to take a competitive step backwards at Spa-Francorchamps two weeks ago.

“Monza will be a very important race, because the championship is not looking so easy for us,” admitted the Spaniard’s teammate Felipe Massa.

Paul di Resta has his “fingers crossed” for a formula one race debut with Force India in 2011.

He is currently the team’s reserve driver, and at Silverstone will make another track appearance during Friday morning practice.

Mercedes-backed di Resta, who also races with the German marque in the DTM series, is managed by Lewis Hamilton’s father Anthony.

The 24-year-old is quoted by the PA news agency as remaining focused on his 2010 duties.

“It’s taking one step at a time because it is a big task this year, and hopefully I’m impressing the team enough that I can build a future,” said di Resta, whose cousin is the successful Indycar driver Dario Franchitti.

Although Force India’s current race drivers are Adrian Sutil and Tonio Liuzzi, di Resta admitted he would like a seat next season.

“It’s certainly a great team to be part of. I’d love to be driving one of their cars next year, so fingers crossed.”

According to a media report, Red Bull’s first race with the F-duct concept in Valencia could have contributed to Mark Webber’s huge crash.

In-car footage of the moments before the Australian struck the rear of Heikki Kovalainen’s Lotus show him activating the downforce-stalling device.

Unlike McLaren’s pioneering system which is triggered by the drivers’ knee, the Red Bull F-duct – debuted in qualifying and the race in Valencia – works by Webber and Sebastian Vettel blocking a hole with the four fingers of their left hand.

The footage showed Webber’s four fingers off the steering wheel on the straight, with his thumb still loosely in the steering wheel hole.

Immediately before he struck the Lotus, Webber put his left fingers back on the wheel in a failed attempt to dodge Kovalainen.

When hand-activated F-ducts appeared on the Sauber and Ferrari cars last month, Red Bull team boss Christian Horner said “drivers driving with fingertips and no hands … is a safety issue”.

But Italy’s Autosprint reports that Red Bull’s hand-operated F-duct could have been a factor in Webber’s crash last weekend.

Vettel admitted in Valencia that he was not a fan of the hand-operated system.

“It was a very smart idea, it’s a big benefit if you manage to set it up right but obviously you don’t have your hands on the steering wheel all the time.

“I was managing to drink, I used the right hand side to press a button on the left.  It also depends on how many adjustments you make per lap, brake balance and so on.

“You get used to it but it’s not the most comfortable thing,” said the German.

(GMM)

Jun.7 (GMM)  Sebastian Vettel on Monday refused to accept the blame for his crash with Red Bull teammate Mark Webber during the recent Turkish grand prix.

Despite team bosses no longer pointing their fingers at Australian Webber in the wake of a clear-the-air meeting last Thursday, 22-year-old Vettel said he thinks he was in the right on lap 40.

“You do at the time what you think is right, and in that case you would do it again because you thought it was right,” he said in an interview with the BBC.

“I had already passed Mark and then tried to come slowly back to the right.  At that time I was the leading car and then usually the leader dictates where to go.

“We made contact and that was the end of the race for me,” said Vettel, now fifth in the championship and 15 points behind title leader Webber.

After emerging from his stricken RB6 at Istanbul Park, Vettel wiggled his right index finger around his ear, suggesting he thought Webber had acted crazily.

But on Monday, he refused to confirm the intent.

“I think it was pretty clear at the time.  I don’t think it was a crazy sign.  I think it’s very common.  I think everyone understood,” he said.

After the lost tempers and the blame game, Red Bull is now moving to put its championship campaign back on track in the ten days before reconvening in Canada for the next grand prix.

Turkey not only staged a crash between teammates Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel whilst leading, it triggered a hotbed of intrigue as fingers were pointed and garage divisions were revealed and strengthened.

Australian Webber, now the clear championship leader but at odds with both his team and his apparently favoured teammate, indicated he wants to patch up and move on.

“We’ll probably have a difference of opinion about what happened until we go to our graves, but we’re both adults and we need to find a way of racing together that doesn’t compromise the team,” he wrote in his column for the Australian newspaper Daily Telegraph.

A Red Bull source told the Independent that a calm-down meeting had already been held in Turkey, but that is at odds with reports that Vettel left the circuit early.

“We had a detailed meeting and everyone had their say.  There was no way that feelings were going to be allowed to fester.  The matter is now all talked through,” said the unnamed source.

Speaking to Finland’s Turun Sanomat newspaper, former McLaren driver David Coulthard warned of the dangers of an internal conflict.

“It is a fact that within a racing team, it’s the worst possible scenario,” the Scot said, recalling his collision with Mika Hakkinen in Austria in 1999, where afterwards the Finn “did not want to talk to me”.

But “You need to sort out these messes before the next race, otherwise it just continues to be a distraction,” said Coulthard.

“The team’s task is to get the drivers to talk it through.”

At the same time, Red Bull’s nearest title rival McLaren is attempting to use the saga to its advantage.

“If they don’t kiss and make up it means they won’t be sharing information as much at the next race,” said Jenson Button.

Offering advice to the warring Red Bulls, he added: “It’s about owning up and moving forward.  If they can’t do that, it will play into our hands.”

And Lewis Hamilton took a dig at Webber and Vettel by pointing out that he and Button did not collide when they similarly diced for position in Turkey.

“That’s why we are world champions.  I am proud to have him (Button) as my teammate,” said the Briton.

(GMM)