It is possible formula one teams will be limited to a budget cap in 2013, according to Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport.

The budget cap idea saw the sport almost implode amid the bitter political war of 2009, when proposed by controversial former FIA president Max Mosley.

But it is back on the agenda in 2012, and according to new rules – where a majority of teams can now push through a change – it could be imposed next season.

“Ten of the 12 teams are in favour,” Auto Motor und Sport said, referring to the push to have cost-cutting moved from the FOTA gentleman’s agreement to the actual sporting regulations.

It means that the two dissenting teams, the Red Bull-owned Red Bull Racing and Toro Rosso, will have no say.

“The cost to be competitive in formula one at present is too high,” the boss of the energy drink company’s premier team, Christian Horner, said recently. “I don’t think anybody will dispute that.

“The debate is how we achieve it.”

Not only that, the German report said nine teams are in favour of Mosley’s old budget cap idea, with annual expenditure limited initially to EUR 170 million and then diminishing to 100 million over a few seasons.

Pirelli stands ready to supply special ‘qualifying tyres’ to formula one teams next year.

With the emphasis of the sport’s spectacle now relying on the complex and heavily degrading control tyres, it was the qualifying session that suffered last weekend in Barcelona.

Arguably to the detriment of Saturday’s spectacle, teams took an exceedingly strategic view of the fight for pole position, with some drivers sitting out the decisive ‘Q3′ runout altogether.

One solution, according to Pirelli’s chairman Marco Tronchetti Provera, is the return of ‘qualifying tyres’.

The proposal has been made following recent criticism, notably by seven time world champion Michael Schumacher, of Pirelli’s 2012 product.

Tronchetti defended his marque’s approach.

“What we have is many competitive cars, which is what the teams wanted — opprtunity for everyone who is able to win,” he told Italian radio Rai GR Parlamento.

“So it’s fine if someone complains. We are available to the teams. We are ready to make qualifying tyres tomorrow.

“But they are choices that are not ours.”

A major golf tournament is set to go ahead in Bahrain.

The BBC is reporting on Wednesday that “a number” of formula one teams now fully expect next weekend’s Bahrain grand prix to be called off – with the final decision to be made this weekend in China – due to the security risk.

If that happens – despite Bahrain’s contract to 2016 – it could be the end of the grand prix forever, with rules stating that a cancellation for two years running will result in exclusion from the calendar.

It is interesting, therefore, that organisers of the inaugural Bahrain Invitational – a Pro-Celeb-Am golf competition – are reporting that the two-day event is definitely going ahead this weekend.

“We are looking forward to welcoming all the participants and safety around the event is assured,” said a spokesman.

Sir Jackie Stewart, a triple world champion in F1, backed the continuation of sports in Bahrain, admitting that if the grand prix is cancelled again “they may never get it back”.

“If this race is cancelled then I think it is a very backward position to have in sport,” he told the Herald Scotland.

“Sport is a positive force, it brings people together.”

“The majority” of F1′s teams have agreed a deal over a new Concorde Agreement.
The news was announced by the sport’s chief executive Bernie Ecclestone, who remains in Europe, in time for Saturday’s final practice session in Malaysia.

Previously, it was reported Red Bull and Ferrari were set to agree separate new deals for F1′s future beyond the current commercial contract in 2013 and beyond.

But Ecclestone said on Saturday F1 has in fact “reached commercial agreements with the majority of the current formula one teams, including Ferrari, McLaren and Red Bull Racing”.

It was not revealed which teams have not agreed the terms for the new Concorde.

 Rival formula one teams complained when Sky News published a report suggesting Ferrari and Red Bull will receive special deals for the next Concorde Agreement.
There has been speculation the Bernie Ecclestone-headed Formula One Management ordered the article be pulled from the internet because it divulged secret plans about the teams’ deals and a $10 billion stock market floatation.

But the Financial Times (FT) reports that it was parent company BSkyB’s chief executive Jeremy Darroch who intervened because the article “had upset formula one racing teams”.

The producer of Sky’s new dedicated F1 channel reportedly “called his bosses from Melbourne”, where the broadcaster was making its debut as Britain’s new full-time live host.

He said “the article had caused a strong negative reaction from some F1 teams”, people familiar with the situation reportedly told the FT.

“The piece was withdrawn for further review,” a BSkyB spokesman confirmed. “We stand by the story and, following that review, took the decision to re-publish on Monday.”

The teams alliance FOTA, which no longer involves Ferrari and Red Bull, reportedly met in the Melbourne paddock on Sunday “to discuss how to respond to the (Sky) report”, the FT continued.

The fact the Geneva-based body no longer features two of the major top teams apparently gives Bernie Ecclestone the opportunity to agree deals with them, forcing their rivals to follow suit.

“FOTA can’t sign anything with anyone,” Ecclestone scorned, before declining to discuss the reports of Ferrari and Red Bull’s special deals.

Ferrari and CVC also declined to comment, but an unnamed senior team executive dismissed the apparent deals as “a pipe dream”.

Another said the story was a typical example of Ecclestone’s “divide and conquer” tactics.

The original creator of the Red Bull energy drink has died.
Chaleo Yoovidhya formulated the drink – Krathing Daeng, which translates to ‘Red Bull’ in English – in the 70s, before co-founding a company with Austrian Dietrich Mateschitz in 1984.

Thai state media MCOT on Saturday said billionaire Yoovidhya, 89, died of natural causes.

Billionaire Mateschitz owns the Red Bull and Toro Rosso formula one teams.

 Red Bull and McLaren have the quickest cars as formula one teams prepare for the final pre-season test before Melbourne.

That is the view of Sauber designer Matt Morris, despite the Swiss team’s Kamui Kobayashi setting the fastest overall time at last week’s Barcelona test.

“The top teams are yet to show their hands,” read a report in the German magazine Auto Motor und Sport.

Morris agrees with that assessment.

“If we are to believe our own analysis then Red Bull and McLaren are in front, there is a question mark about Ferrari, and behind them is a very close group of several teams.

“I think the gaps between those in this central group will be smaller this year,” he added.

The F1 world’s real gaze this week will however be on the apparent title contenders, with Lewis Hamilton quoted by the SID news agency as saying: “Maybe Red Bull are a bit quicker than us.”

But McLaren’s team boss Martin Whitmarsh revealed: “We will have a fairly substantial (update) package in Barcelona this week.

“We assume Red Bull will do the same,” he added.

Unlike last year, however, there will be no last-minute technical sensation that determines the pecking-order for the start of the season.

Sauber’s Morris explains: “There will be nothing spectacular; the rules don’t allow it any more.”

But he admitted that the best-funded teams will continue to tinker at the edges, as demonstrated by McLaren, Ferrari and Red Bull who have so far run several different exhaust configurations in the wake of the blown diffuser ban.

Morris said: “Any modification in this area is an expensive pleasure, while before we (Sauber) do anything, we have to be sure that it is clearly better.”

 Even the formula one teams do not trust end-of-day testing timesheets as a guide to the sport’s likely pecking order.
That is the claim of HRT’s chief engineer Toni Cuquerella, in the context of Force India and Sauber setting Wednesday’s pace at Barcelona, and the grandee Red Bull, Ferrari, McLaren and Mercedes runners spread further down the order.

So while a full-tanks race simulation versus a qualifying run could make an obvious 4 or 5 second per lap difference, the games being played in pre-season testing are more complex, he explained.

“In Jerez or Montmelo, let’s say, all you need is to pop 30 kilos more fuel in and your times are increased by a second on average,” the Spaniard is quoted by El Pais newspaper.

“In that case, all you have to do (as a team) is refer to your time and add the second. The problem is that only they know that they are doing it,” said Cuquerella.

“That’s why no one trusts anyone,” he added.

HRT is not running at this week’s Barcelona test.

 Lotus could become the next team to withdraw from the formula one teams association FOTA.
Already departed are HRT, Sauber and Toro Rosso and also the top teams Red Bull and Ferrari, leaving fellow grandees McLaren, Mercedes and the others on the wrong side of their competitors’ former unity.

Now, this week, team owner Gerard Lopez has been quoted as admitting that Lotus is contemplating pulling out.

The reasons for the withdrawals appear different, with Red Bull having been accused of breaching the gentleman’s Resource Restriction Agreement (RRA) and Ferrari rumoured to want to use its individual power to shape the future of the sport’s rules and structure.

The formerly BMW-owned Sauber, however, insisted that recent cost-cutting in formula one has not made it easier for smaller teams to survive.

“The RRA was a step in the right direction, but now other steps must urgently follow,” he told F1′s official website.

“It definitely has not become easier for the smaller teams.”

But beneath the surface, unity has not broken down completely, argues McLaren team boss Martin Whitmarsh, who doubles as the FOTA chairman.

It is true, for example, that the new non-FOTA members will continue to respect aspects of the body’s agreements, such as the summer factory closure.

“I’m not too hung up on the brand ‘FOTA’,” Whitmarsh said recently.

“I think what’s important is that the teams realise there are critical issues within this sport where it will be better if we cooperate and take sensible decisions, and I hope and believe that we’ll continue to do that.”

He added last month: “Relations between McLaren, Red Bull and Ferrari remain very good indeed.”

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.

The cracks in the unity of the formula one teams association FOTA are continuing to show.
After talks broke down in Japan just over a week ago, the next round of meetings will take place in Abu Dhabi next month.

The main bone of contention is the cost-limiting resource restriction agreement, with some teams – but primarily Red Bull – suspected of swerving around the gentleman’s pact.

A recent audit by a company called Capgemini involved visits to the Red Bull, McLaren, Ferrari, Mercedes, Sauber and Williams factories.

Auto Motor und Sport reports that after the visit to the unnamed ‘Team 4′, the auditors had to write the words “no information” in almost every column.

“The allegations will only stop when all the teams agree to any inspection,” Mercedes’ Ross Brawn is quoted as saying.

The concern is that FOTA will have to abandon the resource restriction agreement amid turbulent economic times, or even fold the Geneva-based organisation altogether.

Red Bull chiefs last week dismissed the allegations as “gamesmanship”.

“This year it has moved away from the car to the RRA (agreement) which gets a little bit boring after a while,” team boss Christian Horner is quoted by the Guardian.

“It is almost inevitable within the sport that there are those areas of gamesmanship.”

Contrary to some team bosses earlier remarks, ‘Delhi belly’ is a concern for formula one teams as they head to India next week.
‘Delhi belly’ is a colloquial term for the sort of sickness often picked up by travellers to India as they sample local foods and drink the tap water.

But McLaren and FOTA boss Martin Whitmarsh warned the media not to “overstate” the risks of racing and eating in Delhi.

“I don’t think we should single out India as a particular challenge in that regard,” he insisted.

Fellow boss Christian Horner added that Red Bull has had a crew running a show car in India recently and there was only “one incident of an upset tummy”.

“No, we’re not taking any additional precautions,” he revealed.

But that’s not the case with some of the other teams. A spokesperson for Swiss team Sauber said stomach bugs “could seriously compromise the team’s performance if team personnel fall ill”.

“This is why so many precautions are being taken,” the spokesperson is quoted by the Indian Express.

Added a Toro Rosso spokesperson: “It is a fact that Europeans often pick up stomach bugs when in India”.

And a Mercedes spokesperson said its catering team had been deployed to India ahead of time to “source local produce in a new destination”.

An influential boss has revealed there is “no chance” the formula one teams will buy the sport.
A consortium led by News Corporation expressed interest in buying the commercial rights from CVC earlier this year, and the teams themselves have also been linked with a possible bid.

But according to a report in the Daily Express newspaper, an unnamed but ‘influential’ team boss insists there is “no chance” they will buy F1 because the teams “are struggling to keep themselves afloat”.

The report’s journalist Christian Sylt wrote that rumours of the teams buying F1 could be a negotiating tactic to increase income under the next Concorde Agreement.

The new tactic could be because the current agreement prohibits the teams from threatening to set up a rival championship.

Ferrari has joined Red Bull in questioning the viability of the formula one teams alliance FOTA.
Amid fears some teams are breaking the gentleman’s cost-limiting agreement and faltering talks in Korea, Red Bull chief Christian Horner said the group needs to shape up “or we’ll stop”.

According to a French language report by the AFP news agency, his Ferrari counterpart Stefano Domenicali also has grave concerns.

“In terms of the cost cutting (disagreement), we can no longer afford to continue like this,” said the Italian, referring to the burgeoning debate.

“If there is no trust, there is no need to go forward,” added Domenicali.

“We know why FOTA was put together so we need to understand whether we still need it. What are the objectives for the future of FOTA, if it has a future?”

The news of the fracturing alliance will be music to the ears of Bernie Ecclestone, who would prefer to negotiate separately with the teams as F1 looks towards its next Concorde Agreement.

 The inter-team agreement to curb costs in formula one is at a crossroads as the latest rumours sweep across the paddock.
First it was Red Bull, but now Mercedes is the subject of the latest speculation about teams breaking the gentleman’s agreement known as the FOTA-sponsored resource restriction agreement (RRA).

The Mercedes rumours have gained strength since Mercedes signed Geoff Willis and Aldo Costa to join Mercedes’ existing technical bosses Ross Brawn and Bob Bell.

“Each of the teams and team principals continue to assure FOTA that they are abiding by the limitations that are contained within the RRA,” formula one teams association chairman Martin Whitmarsh said in Korea on Friday.

Red Bull has made clear it will only agree to a new agreement – one that “doesn’t involve commenting or politicking” – if the other teams don’t power speculation about breaches.

“Red Bull does favour the RRA being around, but in a way that’s clear, tangible, policeable and encompasses all of what formula one is rather than cherry-picking elements of it,” added team boss Christian Horner.

Mercedes figures including Brawn and Norbert Haug have this weekend denied the bolstering Brackley based team is stepping over the line in adhering to the RRA.

“I think for us, we’re respecting the RRA but I think it’s at a crossroads,” said team boss Brawn.

“I think it’s at a crossroads because it’s now starting to bite those three or four teams who have to control their resource to comply.

“The teams have to come together to find a solution … or else we will have a continuation of the problems that we’re having at the moment, all the comments, the rumour, the innuendo, the distrust.”