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.

Niki Lauda is sure Michael Schumacher will return to the top step of the podium this year.

As Mercedes took a step forwards with its new W03 car in 2012, it was the famous seven time world champion’s teammate Nico Rosberg who tasted success first, securing pole and victory in China last month.

But triple world champion Lauda told Germany’s Bild newspaper: “Michael Schumacher will win this year.

“Finally Mercedes are good enough to be able to attack the best.”

Schumacher, 43, has not been on the podium since he returned to F1 in 2010.

The German has also played down the team’s chances on the demanding Circuit de Catalunya this weekend, even though Mercedes is debuting a new ultra-light carbon gearbox in Barcelona.

Lauda, meanwhile, played down Schumacher’s widely-reported criticisms of this year’s Pirelli tyres, which have seen him labelled either a sore loser or a spoil-sport amid the exciting 2012 season.

“Schumi can’t spoil formula one,” laughed the Austrian legend. “He has been in the business so many years — he knows how it works.

“I see Rosberg’s success as spurring him on rather than frustrating him. He will fight through it,” predicted Lauda.

There remains a chance Lewis Hamilton will not have to move back five places on Sunday’s Chinese grand prix grid.

It emerged on Thursday that McLaren had discovered a problem with his Malaysia gearbox, requiring an out-of-sequence change and penalty in Shanghai.

“Of course it’s not the nicest thing to hear that we’ve got a problem, but you just have to take it on the chin,” the 2008 world champion told reporters.

“We’re still here, we’ve still got a great chance to win.

“It just means I have a steeper hill to climb this weekend,” Hamilton is quoted by the Times.

Indeed, Hamilton set the pace in the initial practice session.

And it then emerged that he had comfortably outpaced his rivals with the very gearbox that is bearing a worrying crack.

Team boss Martin Whitmarsh confirmed to the British broadcaster Sky there is a “very, very small chance” Hamilton can keep the damaged gearbox throughout the weekend, thereby avoiding the penalty.

However, he also confessed that the chance it will be replaced by a fresh gearbox on Saturday morning is “99 per cent”.

Either way, defending Chinese grand prix winner Hamilton – who has started the first two races in 2012 from pole – insists he is not overly fussed.

“When I was a kid I always used to like coming from the back of the grid,” he smiled.

Ferrari is planning to follow Sauber’s lead when the first major development of the disappointing F2012 car is unveiled soon.

“No doubt about it,” Fernando Alonso said after winning the Malaysian grand prix, “they (Sauber) were quicker than us.”

The Italian magazine Autosprint have mischievously christened the updated Ferrari a ‘Ferrauber’, explaining that the rear of the ‘B’ F2012 will be very similar to Sauber’s impressive C31.

Right at the end of the pre-season test period, Red Bull rolled out a Sauber-esque solution at the rear of Adrian Newey’s 2012 car, the RB8.

In the wake of the blown diffuser clampdown, the Sauber exhaust layout reportedly flies close to breaching the spirit of the 2012 rules, but the FIA has declared it legal.

“We are not in a position to be able to say exactly how much aerodynamic influence each individual system has,” said the governing body’s technical delegate Charlie Whiting.

“Hence, it’s impossible for us to say ‘That’s too much, or that’s ok’. The aim of the new regulation was to ensure that we don’t have to do that,” he explained.

So, Ferrari looks to be the next in line to copy Sauber’s rear solution, particularly as the small Swiss team already uses Ferrari’s engine and gearbox.

It is believed the new 2012 Ferrari gearbox is narrower than last year’s unit.

Autosprint reports that the F2012 ‘Ferrauber’ will also be similar to the Sauber in the area of the sidepods.

Dr Helmut Marko has denied reports Sebastian Vettel was summoned to Red Bull’s headquarters this week to explain his behaviour at the recent Malaysian grand prix.

The Narain Karthikeyan-saga aside, reports suggested the German deliberately ignored his bosses’ instruction that he retire his RB8 – ostensibly due to a brake issue – so that he could fit a new gearbox without penalty in China.

The reports suggested Vettel had confessed immediately after the race that he heard the instruction but chose to ignore it.

“That is all nonsense,” Red Bull’s motor racing consultant Marko told Sport Bild.

“Sebastian did nothing – absolutely nothing – that was against our wishes.”

Marko said Vettel’s visit to Milton Keynes this week was scheduled long ago, adding that he will be working inside the driver simulator amongst other things.

He also hit back at claims the 24-year-old could be penalised by the FIA for breaching the code of conduct when he showed the ‘middle finger’ to Karthikeyan.

“The matter was resolved during the meeting with the stewards (in Malaysia). For me, the case is closed.”

Speaking to Kolner Express newspaper, however, an FIA spokesman confirmed that the code of conduct forbids superlicense holders from insulting their rivals.

But he added: “I imagine the application of this paragraph was considered by the stewards in Malaysia.”

And Sebastian Vettel’s spokeswoman said: “We know of no investigation.”

Red Bull has hit back at claims the team lied about a technical problem in Malaysia in order to gain a tactical advantage for the forthcoming races.

Near the end of the Sepang race, Sebastian Vettel’s engineer repeatedly instructed the back-to-back world champion to retire his RB8 car.

Team boss Christian Horner said the brake temperatures had risen to a dangerous level, but Vettel nonetheless raced to the chequered flag and finished eleventh, one position out of the points.

Horner explained Vettel did not hear the radio calls due to a “lightening strike”, but photos prove that the German driver was also repeatedly shown pit boards with the same messages.

And the 24-year-old revealed after the race: “Of course you can save the car, but I wanted to see the chequered flag. I think that’s how it should be.”

Moreover, the authoritative Auto Motor und Sport quotes Vettel as confirming: “I heard the command.”

Red Bull has been accused in some media reports of feigning the brake problem in order to retire the car for tactical reasons and therefore install a fresh gearbox for China next month without penalty.

Dr Helmut Marko told Bild newspaper: “After the crash (with Narain Karthikeyan), the temperature of the brakes rose far above the allowed level.

“We called him in purely because the car was no longer safe. It was not a tactical decision,” the Austrian insisted.

It is reported that Vettel will sit with his team bosses this week in Milton-Keynes to discuss the apparently ignored team order.

German racing legend Hans-Joachim Stuck said: “Another driver would be fired, but Vettel has the confidence of being a double world champion.”

According to Welt newspaper, Swiss commentator Marc Surer added: “It was the right decision by Vettel, as the team needs to be careful with commands like that.”

 Former boss Colin Kolles and his Greding-based company is no longer involved, but there remains a strong German input with the struggling team HRT.
A report in the Augsburger Allgemeine newspaper reveals that the new Cosworth-powered F112 car, which failed to qualify in Melbourne last weekend, was designed and built in Augsburg, a city in the south-west of Bavaria.

It is there that, since November 2011, the Holzer-Gruppe company has been frantically building up the Cosworth-powered cars for Pedro de la Rosa and Narain Karthikeyan.

“Under our management almost everything has been made here in Bobingen,” said Gunther Holzer.

“For the wind tunnel we used the Mercedes facility in Brackley (UK),” he added.

Eight of F1′s 12 teams are based in England, with the others either in Italy (Ferrari and Toro Rosso) or Switzerland (Sauber).

HRT uses Williams’ gearbox.

“We wanted to go our separate way, not like almost everyone else who are all within a few miles of Oxford,” said HRT chief executive Saul Ruiz de Marcos.

The team’s longer plan is to be solely based in Madrid, but for now Holzer will lead the development of the F112.

“For the start of the European season in Spain we are planning the first improvements to the car,” said Marcos.

Holzer explained: “The car is designed first for safety and so is heavy compared to the competition. For the future we are focused on making it lighter.”

Before the lighter car debuts in Barcelona, HRT faces three more challenges – Malaysia, China and Bahrain – at which the sport’s 107 per cent rule will be a major hurdle.

“The goal is to qualify, there is no other,” admitted de la Rosa. “Race reliability is something else we need to work on, but first we have to qualify.”

Red Bull is now the works Renault team.
That is the claim of Red Bull principal Christian Horner, after the team’s new engine supply deal with Renault Sport F1 was announced at Monza.

It was announced not only that Renault engines will continue to power the Red Bull cars through 2017, but that the parties will collaborate “to develop innovative technical solutions” for the new V6 engine of 2014.

Renault’s managing director Jean-Francois Caubet added that the deal, to utilise Red Bull’s “input, resources and vast in-house F1 car expertise”, will also benefit Renault’s “other team partners” like Lotus-Renault, Team Lotus and Williams.

For example, according to Renault’s chief operating officer Carlos Tavares, Red Bull’s input could be used to devise “formidable aerodynamic packaging” for the new engine.

So even though an entirely separate team still bears the Renault chassis name, and in light of Williams’ historic ties, it is Red Bull that should now be considered as having works status, according to Horner.

“The partnership with Renault/Nissan alliance is an important one for the team,” he told the Red Bull website.

“It guarantees stability, it makes us the premier, factory team of Renault Sport, so our colleagues where the engines are produced will be working hand in hand with the engineers and designers at Red Bull.”

Horner added that Renault and Red Bull will also set up a “joint venture” to supply gearbox and KERS systems.

Peter Sauber has admitted he is “angry” after both his cars retired with gearbox failures at Monza.
The units, like the Swiss team’s engines, are supplied by Ferrari.

“It was like going back to formula one’s stone age,” Sauber growled to Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport, referring to the fact that technical problems are today increasingly rare.

The magazine said Ferrari “has yet to analyse” the cause of the double failure, which caused both Sergio Perez and Kamui Kobayashi to retire from the Italian grand prix.

Sauber said the defects cost the Hinwil based team points amid its close championship battle with Force India and Toro Rosso.

“For the second time this year like Australia we have given our opponents points in a big way,” he added. “But we have to take it in a sporting way and go to full attack for the last six races.”

Beyond 2011, Sauber is hoping to have a bigger budget to make better use of its facilities at Hinwil, once the headquarters of BMW’s works team.

“I think the infrastructure is excellent,” said the team’s 67-year-old owner and boss, “and, of course, with more money we can be faster. In our case it is very easy.”

Sauber also admitted he wants to expand the team’s staff count beyond its current 280.

Team Lotus has struck a deal with its technology partner Red Bull to use a KERS system in formula one.
Malaysian Tony Fernandes’ small team is this year using the hydraulics system and gearbox run by the reigning championship-winning outfit in 2010.

And Finland’s Turun Sanomat newspaper reports that, next year, the green liveried team will take yet another step forward because its Red Bull parts will be the ones currently used on Adrian Newey’s dominant RB7.

And the KERS to be used by Team Lotus, Turun Sanomat continued, will be the Magneti Marelli system that is developed in cooperation with Renault and Red Bull.

Fernandes confirmed: “Yes, we have agreed with Red Bull on KERS.”

Red Bull might be an odd choice as KERS supplier for Team Lotus, given the team’s struggles with the technology so far in 2011.

Newey said last month that energy recovery is “Not really our forte. We are an aerodynamics and, sort of, chassis composite engineering group rather than a KERS group”.

Team Lotus will develop its formula one cars in one of Williams’ two wind tunnels at the famous British team’s Grove headquarters.
Williams is already supplying the rear end and gearbox to another of F1′s new 2010 entrants, Hispania.

The deal announced on Monday will see Team Lotus expand its aerodynamics programme beyond the Aerolab facility in Italy, while the team develops its own tunnel at Hingham.

“When that facility is operational all activity will be transferred to the team’s own site,” said Team Lotus in a statement.

Team boss Tony Fernandes’ link with Williams was already strong following his former sponsorship of the Oxfordshire based team through his airline AirAsia.

“I owe a great deal of thanks to Frank Williams, Patrick Head and Adam Parr as they were the first people I ever worked with in formula one,” he confirmed.

Meanwhile, it emerged in Canada over the weekend that Team Lotus has inked a new sponsorship deal with the famous computer chip maker Intel.

Ferrari is already working on the fundamental elements of its 2012 car, according to a report.
The Spanish sports daily Marca said the Italian team is still developing the 150 Italia car in parallel, particularly the floor, diffuser, exhausts and the engine mapping.

But the chassis, gearbox, suspension and cooling systems for its successor are also on the drawing board at Maranello, with the report saying the approach for next year “will be more aggressive”.

Ferrari is just third in the constructors’ championship behind Red Bull and McLaren, with Fernando Alonso achieving the team’s first podium of the season last weekend in Turkey.

As for the 2012 car, chief designer Nikolas Tombazis said it is underway in May “because otherwise it will be too late”.

“For this development we have spoken about the problems of this year to have more aggressiveness in the project,” he added.

Timo Glock has denied he might throw in the towel, also playing down suggestions his patience with Virgin is running low.
Updates to the German’s MVR-02 car failed to work properly in Turkey, and he then did not even make the grid due to a gearbox failure that could not be fixed in time.

“Every weekend we seem to start at the beginning,” Glock was quoted as saying in Istanbul by Die Welt newspaper.

“I somehow have the feeling that we could save all the test driving and just have a coffee instead,” he added.

But in an interview with Sport1, Glock denied that his ‘coffee’ comment was a stark criticism of the struggling team.

“It had nothing to do with the team,” he insisted.

“I had told a journalist that it was difficult to understand why we had so many problems with the deterioration with the tyres, but the issue looked very different for the actual race,” said Glock.

“I was commenting generally on the tyre situation, but it was neither a criticism of the team or of Pirelli. I read the (coffee) comment but it was never explained what I meant.

“That’s why I was surprised that it was portrayed so clumsily,” explained Glock.

However, he does not hide the fact that he is disappointed, after joining the start-up team following Toyota’s withdrawal from formula one.

“I knew it would be a difficult first year but we all hoped to make a big step forward and we didn’t quite make it. We need to ask ourselves and understand why we are not on par with Lotus,” said Glock.

As for whether he has considered throwing in the towel, the 29-year-old insisted: “No, never. We must keep going together as a team.

“It’s going to be difficult but we have to do all we can to come forward. That’s the only goal we can have at the moment.”

Virgin will attempt to get to the bottom of its problems with the Turkey upgrade during a straightline test at the Idiada facility in Spain this weekend.

After the team’s new car sat out the entire pre-season test period, owner Jose Ramon Carabante insists there is no risk that HRT will also miss the 2011 season opener in less than two weeks.

“It is certain that we will be in Australia and race there,” Carabante is quoted as saying by El Pais newspaper.

The F111 was finally launched in the Barcelona pitlane late last week but the team said it could not be tested due to components being held up in customs.

Carabante admits that Hispania’s preparation for its second formula one season was not ideal.

“Maybe we will not finish the first race, we’ll see, but the car will develop from here with the clear aim of fighting with and beating the other two teams that started last year,” he added, referring to Virgin and Lotus.

HRT has said the F111 is entirely new, but expert observers pointed out striking similarities with the back-of-the-grid Dallara car of 2010.

“We are relying on last year’s chassis,” admitted chief engineer Toni Cuquerella, “but 95 per cent of the car is new.

“We have a Cosworth engine with the latest specification and we have adapted the chassis for the new gearbox and hydraulics supplied to us by Williams.

“The collaboration with them (Williams) has allowed us to make a technological step of three years. It is clear that the car is much better than last year’s,” he added.

El Pais said HRT’s 2011 budget is EUR 45 million, to potentially be covered by some as yet unsigned sponsors.

“We are negotiating with several sponsors,” insists Carabante, who is reportedly willing to make up the shortfall if the budget is not finally completed.