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.”

More reports are suggesting Mark Webber could be Ferrari-bound.

One of Spain’s leading F1 correspondents, Raymond Blancafort, wrote in El Mundo Deportivo that “there may be a pre-contract” between the Maranello based team and Red Bull’s experienced Australian driver.

Webber, 35, was also linked with Ferrari last year, before Red Bull decided to sign him up for another single season alongside Sebastian Vettel.

He is now touted as Felipe Massa’s 2013 replacement, not only because of his “experience (and) the consistency of his results” but because “he gets along” with number one driver Fernando Alonso, Blancafort said.

Flavio Briatore also manages both Alonso and Webber.

Following Blancafort’s claims, Spain’s El Confidencial is now reporting similarly.

The publication said Webber has been earmarked as Alonso’s ideal teammate for 2013, perhaps pre-dating Sergio Perez’s move to the team in 2014 when the young Mexican has gathered another season of experience.

That may mean yet another single-season deal for Webber, but it might be better than what he is offered by Red Bull, given the energy drink-owned team’s grooming of youngsters Daniel Ricciardo and Jean-Eric Vergne at Toro Rosso.

El Confidencial said Webber is also Spaniard Alonso’s first choice, with a source saying a deal has been “already reached but not signed”, possibly therefore in the form of a letter of intent.

Force India is Nico Hulkenberg’s only chance to return to the formula one grid in 2012.

Last year’s impressive Williams rookie had to settle for the reserve role at Force India in 2011, including the opportunity to practice on most Friday mornings.

With current race lineup Adrian Sutil and Paul di Resta also in the running for next season, team owner and boss Vijay Mallya has said he will not make a decision about 2012 until mid December.

German Hulkenberg, 24, therefore said on Twitter this week that he is “not sure yet” if he will be able to call himself a F1 race driver once again next year.

“I hope I can race with Force India but the team will decide not before December, so I must wait,” he added.

According to Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport, Hulkenberg must be hoping that his countryman Sutil cannot hold out until December and therefore decides to market his experience and personal sponsors Medion and Capri-Sonne elsewhere.

Mallya’s December deadline means that the options in his drivers’ contracts will by then have expired, but Sutil manager Manfred Zimmermann insisted recently: “We still have our destiny in our own hands”.

28-year-old Sutil has already visited Williams’ Grove headquarters but Zimmermann insisted on Monday that Force India is the first choice.

Auto Motor und Sport however said Sutil “has also been seen in the paddock in conversation with (Williams) team boss Adam Parr”.

For Hulkenberg, the only option is Silverstone based Force India.

He told the German magazine: “Everyone from Renault down wants to see money (from its drivers).”

He is referring not only to Renault and Williams but also F1′s newest teams including Virgin and HRT.

Adrian Sutil’s manager has rubbished reports the German driver is looking to switch to Williams for 2012.
It has emerged in recent days that Kimi Raikkonen as well as Force India’s Sutil recently made separate private visits to Williams’ Grove headquarters.

The famous British team on Monday refused to deny or confirm the rumours.

But the suggestion is that Sutil, 28, would make an ideal replacement for veteran Rubens Barrichello thanks to his backing by the German computer company Medion.

Sutil’s manager Manfred Zimmermann said the story is “nonsense”.

“Our first choice for 2012 is Force India,” he told the Daily Mail newspaper. “At this time there is no action talking to other teams.”

Zimmermann also rubbished the suggestion it is Sutil’s sponsorship that makes him a frontrunner for the Williams seat.

“There is no need to bring sponsors or money to a team for Adrian,” he insisted.

“Last year and this year, he is fighting for a top ten result in the world championship.

“Medion make their decision after we have signed a contract. If there is a nice offer they become a sponsor of the team, if not, they will not.”

A deal for Pedro de la Rosa to return to the grid next year could be announced officially next week.

After being ousted by Sauber, the 39-year-old Spaniard was recruited as Pirelli’s main test driver but said he would be interested in driving for HRT in 2011 if its “sporting project is interesting and ambitious”.

“I am in contact with the (team owner) Carabantes,” he revealed last month.

Citing the information of a member of the Spanish team, the Brazilian publication Terra said “almost everything is done” to secure de la Rosa’s services for 2011.

And after HRT sealed its deal for a Williams transmission, the report said the team will base its next car on the unraced 2010 Toyota.

The El Confidencial publication said de la Rosa has “increased, not decreased” his personal sponsorship since leaving Sauber, and that he is HRT’s “first choice” for the 2011 season.

The report said another Spanish publication believes an agreement has already been reached between the two parties, with an official announcement due “in the coming days”.

According to Europa Press, de la Rosa will be in Madrid on Thursday due to his involvement in the first 3D advertisement in Spain with the department store El Corte Ingles.

Among his other sponsors are Banco Santander, Diageo and the watch brand Certina.

Nico Hulkenberg’s manager has played down suggestions the young German will definitely lose his race seat at Williams at the end of the season.

The British team on Monday seemed to confirm speculation it is considering replacing the 2009 GP2 champion with the feeder series’ new title winner, Pastor Maldonado.

Venezuelan Maldonado, 25, is heavily backed by the state owned petroleum company PDVSA, and Williams co-owner Patrick Head in Korea admitted that economic factors would influence the board’s driver decision for 2011.

In a media statement, the Oxfordshire based team announced that Maldonado will test the FW32 in the post-season Abu Dhabi ‘young driver’ session next month.

And he is not in contention for merely the team’s 2011 test seat, because Finn Valtteri Bottas “will remain” in that post next year, Williams said.

Maldonado said last month that he hoped to secure a deal for his 2011 debut “before the race in Abu Dhabi, so I can participate in the tests there after the GP with my new team”.

But Hulkenberg’s manager Willi Weber insists his rookie charge is still in the reckoning at Williams.

“Nico is not ‘out’ already, as has been speculated,” he told the German news agency DPA.

“The talks with Williams are continuing, but there are obviously alternatives,” added Weber.

“Williams is the first choice and we would love to stay, but it is extremely important that Nico has a race cockpit in formula one for 2011,” he said.

Interestingly, Weber seemed to acknowledge the legitimacy of Williams’ apparent reconsideration of Hulkenberg’s place at the team.

“(Chairman) Adam Parr has a great responsibility to hundreds of employees and as the highest priority he must consider the welfare of the team,” he said.

Nick Heidfeld’s manager is confident the German will find a race cockpit on the 2011 grid.

One race after the 33-year-old secured his return with Sauber for the last rounds of 2010, the Swiss team announced it has signed Mexican rookie Sergio Perez for next season.

It is a blow for Heidfeld, but his manager Andre Theuerzeit insisted there are talks with other teams about 2011.

He told the German news agency SID that Heidfeld was “not unprepared” for the Perez news.

“There are still cockpits available in formula one for next season,” said Theuerzeit.  “At the moment we are in negotiations and we are confident there will be a positive outcome.”

The best potential cockpit for 2011 is Renault’s, but the Enstone based team’s French boss Eric Boullier has played down suggestions Heidfeld’s recent role with Pirelli gives him an advantage.

“That Nick Heidfeld should be first choice?” he mused in interview with F1′s official website.

“Because he sits on important information and would without doubt give them to his new team?  I think that Pirelli will inform all the teams in due course,” said Boullier.

Sir Frank Williams admits that letting Mark Webber switch to Red Bull at the end of 2006 was a “mistake”.

After two disappointing seasons with the British team in 2005 and 2006, the Australian moved to Red Bull, where in the past week he has won two grands prix from pole position.

“You could say we made a mistake,” Williams is quoted by Austrian newspaper Kleine Zeitung.

“Our car was a disappointment, and we thought he was a part of that problem.  Therefore, he was not our first choice (for 2007),” added the Grove based team’s eponymous chief.

It is now expected that Webber, 33, will sign an extension to his current contract for the 2011 season.

Williams co-owner Patrick Head confirmed that he and Sir Frank were reluctant to pay Webber a high salary to stay on board in 2007.

“It wasn’t that we thought he wasn’t worth a decent salary, but we’d lost a major sponsor and we were going through some very tough times commercially,” he is quoted by the Guardian.

“For the amount Flavio was asking, we didn’t think we could build a car that would justify keeping him on,” added Head.

The Briton also thinks Webber, the first Australian world championship leader since Alan Jones in 1981, has improved since leaving the Williams team.

Said Head: “He was very quick over a single lap but in our view he had an occasional tendency to make mistakes in the race and suddenly go off.

“In his first year with Red Bull he was pretty much the same.  But in his second year with them we noticed that those in-race mistakes disappeared.”

(GMM)