A hot topic in India this weekend is the rumoured return to formula one next year of 2007 world champion Kimi Raikkonen.
Reports suggest the 32-year-old Finn, who left Ferrari to try his hand at world rallying and NASCAR two seasons ago, could come back in 2012 with the beleaguered Williams team.

The famous British squad’s chairman Adam Parr was asked directly about the speculation in India on Friday by Finnish journalist Heikki Kulta.

“I am afraid there is only one answer to that question, which is that our race drivers are Pastor Maldonado and Rubens Barrichello and if, and when, that changes we will make an appropriate announcement,” he answered.

Parr was later asked a nearly identical question in the Buddh paddock by MTV3, Finland’s television broadcaster.

“Kimi has been one of the most competent drivers in the last few years,” acknowledged Parr, “and I think everyone would like to see him back in F1.”

The Former McLaren driver is notoriously unforthcoming with the media, but German-language reports this week have quoted Raikkonen as responding to a question about a hypothetical return to F1.

“Of course you always want a winning car,” he said, “but as we have seen this year, there is only one team that really has that.”

Jules Bianchi could be headed to Force India to become the team’s official reserve and ‘Friday’ driver in 2012.
That is the claim of German-language Auto Bild Motorsport, referring to the Ferrari-backed Frenchman who finished this year’s GP2 championship in third place.

Bianchi, 22 and a Ferrari test driver in 2011, “is a great talent and he had a positive season in GP2 but he needs to grow and gain experience next season”, Ferrari’s Stefano Domenicali said last week.

“I cannot say now where he will be,” added the Italian, “but for sure we want to invest because we believe in him.”

Auto Bild claims Bianchi, who is managed by Felipe Massa’s manager Nicolas Todt, is a frontrunner to be Force India’s third driver next year.

That role is currently occupied by German Nico Hulkenberg, who is tipped to move into the Silverstone based team’s race seat in 2012.

Red Bull insists the champagne is not yet on ice, but the team’s owner has already decided what present he will be giving Sebastian Vettel for winning the 2011 world championship.
“The same as last year,” Dietrich Mateschitz said in an interview this week with the German news agency DPA. “His championship-winning car.”

In 2010, when German Vettel became F1′s youngest ever title winner, Mateschitz delivered the Adrian Newey-inked RB6 to his home in Switzerland.

Red Bull’s team management are coy over the 24-year-old’s chances of wrapping up a second consecutive championship in Singapore this weekend, but billionaire Mateschitz is more honest.

“We anticipate that, once again, we will achieve both of the titles this year”, said the famously low-profile Austrian, 67.

He has high praise for Vettel, who enters this weekend’s Singapore night race with a lead so big that his only championship rivals have already given up the fight.

“The fact that Sebastian is highly capable, we knew,” said Mateschitz. “That he would be able to deliver it so consistently over a long time has surprised many people.”

Bild newspaper said Vettel’s championship present, the RB7 chassis that he has unofficially dubbed ‘Kinky Kylie’ – but minus a EUR 200,000 Renault engine – is worth almost a million euros.

“Slowly, his garage in Switzerland is becoming too small,” confirmed Red Bull driver manager Dr Helmut Marko.

So what does Vettel think about his championship present?

“I am not thinking about that because I haven’t won anything yet,” said the driver at Zurich airport before boarding a flight to Singapore.

Vettel told the German-language Eurosport that he is not counting on celebrating his second title this weekend.

“When it happens does not matter. As long as we are still first after the final race, that will be ok,” he said.

The RB7′s designer Newey insisted that Vettel will not be playing a points-counting game under the Singapore lights.

“Seb doesn’t want to cruise to the world championship, he really wants to earn it,” the Briton told The Sun newspaper.

Niki Lauda has scoffed at Spa winner Sebastian Vettel’s claim that the fight for the 2011 world champion is still on.
“Things can change quickly, two races you are out and others have good races,” the Red Bull driver said after extending his runaway points lead into the 90s with now just seven races to run.

Vettel has now scored more points in 2011 than he did to win his first title last year.

McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton, who crashed out heavily on Sunday, acknowledged the near-impossibility of the task.

“Everyone should forget about the title because it is not going to happen,” said the Briton.

Triple world champion and now German-language pundit Lauda agrees.

“It’s certainly all over,” he said. “No question about it, the only question is when. It (Vettel’s title) could happen theoretically in Singapore. It could easily happen in Japan but for sure in Korea if not before.”

McLaren test driver Pedro de la Rosa told Spain’s Europa Press that Vettel’s win on Sunday was a “brutal lunge” for the German “towards the championship”.

The veteran said the 24-year-old would “have to do very badly” to fail to win now.

“He already has more points than he scored in total last year, which indicates the alarming situation for the championship with a clear dominance,” added de la Rosa.

Spaniard Fernando Alonso, the lead Ferrari driver with a more than 100-point deficit to Vettel, agreed that “there are cars that are normal and one car that is a bullet”.

“The earlier the work we can do on the car for next year,” he added, “the better.”

Bernie Ecclestone has slammed suggestions the F1 teams will negotiate changes to the 2012 grand prix calendar.
A revised version of the provisional schedule for next year shows seven ‘flyaway’ races within a ten week period on four separate continents, causing figures including deputy FOTA chairman Eric Boullier to call for “a rethink”.

“We have a thought between us (the teams) already and we would like to suggest a couple of ideas,” added the Renault boss.

F1 chief executive Ecclestone, however, baulked at the suggestion he will re-jig the order of the races at the teams’ behest.

“It is not the teams who make the calendar, it’s me,” the Briton is quoted by German-language reports including SID news agency and sport1.de.

“They cannot come to me now with their proposals, it’s my decision. If someone’s going to do something, it’s going to be me,” added Ecclestone.

Ferrari has laughed at reports it could be in the middle of a new spying scandal.
After the Spanish grand prix, Helmut Marko accused the famous Italian team of secretly listening in on Red Bull’s race strategies.

“We have noticed that Ferrari is doing some kind of espionage,” the Austrian said.

“We called Mark (Webber) into the box relatively late, and yet they (Ferrari) managed to get Alonso in as well. They had been able to respond to us.”

It is believed Marko’s suspicions hardened when Red Bull issued fake commands for its drivers to pit in Barcelona, and Ferrari still moved to respond.

“We can only laugh at that,” Ferrari spokesman Luca Colajanni is quoted as saying by German-language sport1.de.

“It is clear that everybody observes everybody else,” he added.

At the Valencia test this week, F1′s governing body gave teams more details about the operation of the mandatory moveable rear wings in 2011.

Drivers have been experimenting with the overtaking aid this week, with observers able to visibly see the rear wing open up on the straight to stall the downforce before it is clicked back into place at the braking zone.

It has been feared that if chasing drivers are allowed to press the rear wing button too often, overtaking will become commonplace and uninteresting.

So the FIA has told teams that if the chasing car is within a certain time of his rival – say, one second – he will be allowed to activate the wing only within a 600-metre zone at the end of a straight.

These zones will reportedly be marked out with white lines, and Guardian correspondent Richard Williams reported that the one second gap will be calculated at the corner before the designated straight.

“Further information, going into detail and the various scenarios still has to be clarified,” said Ferrari’s technical director Aldo Costa, adding that the wings for now will not be operated in the wet.

“Then it will be a case of seeing how things go in the race to understand how to proceed,” he added, suggesting that the rules may be tweaked depending on the outcome of the initial races.

The early feedback from the drivers is that, combined with preparing and triggering KERS and watching for the rear wing green light, their cockpit workload is increasingly unreasonable.

“It’s just not enjoyable — pressing buttons, changing gear, pressing and holding,” said Rubens Barrichello.

Of the newer generation, however, Fernando Alonso said he was beginning to get his head around the new functions after a few days in the car.

The old guard is unconvinced.

“It’s not motor racing. It’s calculation,” slammed Swiss ex-driver and German-language commentator Marc Surer.

Team Lotus’ technical boss Mike Gascoyne thinks the FIA is right to flag possible changes to the rear wing rules this year.

“I don’t think we’re going to get it right straight away,” he predicted, admitting his own concerns about the loss of racing’s purity.

“Some of the greatest drives were by people like Gilles Villeneuve, holding off the rest of the field. Are you going to say ‘Well, that’s never going to happen any more’?”

Another fear is that chasing drivers will call off a genuine overtaking attempt on another part of the circuit in order to simply press the button in the designated 600-metre zone.

But F1′s most successful driver, Michael Schumacher, backs the concept.

“It’s a good innovation,” he told Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport.

“We know that in F1 we have a problem with cars following other ones. If there is no dramatic change in the ratio between aerodynamic and mechanical grip, you need something else. This might help,” added the German.

And Schumacher said he doubts pressing the button will make overtaking easy.

“There is no button for just driving past someone. It could be that we just close the gap and get in the slipstream to start a fight. Or it could be that it’s not quite enough.”

Ferrari’s Costa agrees: “Our calculations say that it (600m) is on the edge.”

Two teams have recently utilised the facilities of the departed formula one team Toyota, it has emerged.
The German-language Speed Week said Cologne based Toyota Motorsport GmbH, whose impressive facility including two wind tunnels is available for external parties to hire, has counted Williams and Toyota among its latest clients.

The report said Ferrari has confirmed that some of the development of Ferrari’s new F150 car was done after booking time in the Toyota tunnels.

Technical director Aldo Costa has reportedly confirmed that Ferrari turned to Toyota due to the cost-cutting limitations placed on staff and wind tunnel time.

Williams, meanwhile, has two wind tunnels of its own at its Grove headquarters, but Speed Week said the British team “has developed parts for its new car at Toyota”.

The report said as many as six other teams will also use the Toyota facilities.

Marlboro is set to stay as Ferrari’s title sponsor until at least 2014, according to a report on Thursday.

The German-language Motorsport-Total.com said it learned about the likely contract extension at the team’s recent ‘Wrooom’ media event in the Italian Dolomites.

An official announcement could be made on January 28, when the famous team launches its 2011 car at its Maranello base.

Philip Morris brand Marlboro has remained in F1 long after the sport’s total ban on cigarette advertising.

The team’s so-called ‘barcode’ logo and livery was controversial in 2010, leading to the launch of a new logo for this year, which will be incorporated into the design of the 2011 car’s livery.

“We see no obstacles to an extension,” the report quotes a spokesman for Philip Morris International as saying.

Helmut Marko has admitted his plan is to see Daniel Ricciardo with a full race seat in formula one “no later than 2012″.
Red Bull-backed Australian Ricciardo, 21, has been placed for the 2011 season with Toro Rosso and will drive on the Friday mornings at grands prix.

His placement is seen as putting strong pressure on the Faenza based team’s regular drivers Sebastien Buemi and Jaime Alguersuari.

Indeed, Marko did not categorically rule out a 2011 race debut for Ricciardo during an interview with German-language motorsport-total.com.

“It all depends on the parties involved,” said Red Bull’s driver programme manager Marko, clearly referring to Buemi and Alguersuari.

“The plan is to see him in a race cockpit in 2012 at the latest,” added the Austrian.

Robert Kubica will be forced to sit out the famous Monte Carlo rally for the second year in succession.
Last year, the Pole’s Renault Clio suffered an engine failure after just 4km.

Rally enthusiast Kubica, 26, wanted to return in 2011, and had even signalled his intention with organisers to contest the January 18-22 event.

But according to German language speedweek.de, he has had to withdraw due to wanting to take part in the S2000 category with a car other than a Renault.

Kubica’s F1 employer Lotus Renault GP reportedly did not give him permission to drive a rival carmaker’s car.

Timo Glock has refused to definitively confirm that he will still be with the Virgin team in 2011.

Earlier, the new British team’s boss John Booth said the German’s contract for next year is “set in stone”.

But when asked for confirmation at Interlagos, 28-year-old Glock said when asked if he is staying in 2011: “At the moment it looks like it.”

Glock, who spent the previous two seasons with Toyota, told the German language spox.com that it has been a particularly difficult year.

“I knew we would have problems, but I didn’t expect so many,” he admitted.

Glock was also asked why he is reluctant to confirm 100 per cent that he is staying for 2011.

“In F1 you never know. Who would have thought that Michael Schumacher would come back?” he answered.

Glock was also asked about Bernie Ecclestone’s reference to the new 2010 teams as “cripples”.

“I read the headline and decided not to read the article!” he smiled. “I just wonder what he thinks about when we beat some of the established teams.”

The union of formula one drivers, the GPDA, revealed in Korea last weekend their push for more influence in the sport’s decision-making processes.

According to the German magazine Speed Week, the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association – now headed by president Rubens Barrichello – met at the Yeongam circuit with FIA president Jean Todt.

“We want a permanent dialogue with the governing body,” Brazilian Barrichello, accompanied to the meeting by fellow GPDA directors Sebastian Vettel and Felipe Massa, is quoted as saying.

According to another German language report in motorline.cc, Barrichello and his colleagues believe some of the problems in Korea – like troublesome kerbs and the dangerous pit entry – would not have been encountered if the drivers were more seriously canvassed.

“It was ok,” Barrichello said after the meeting with Todt.

“We discussed three or four things and he was very open. All we want is for the GPDA to be able to contribute more to the future of the sport,” he added.

Red Bull’s two drivers will take different approaches to the last four races of 2010, team consultant Helmut Marko has revealed.

Mark Webber is 11 points clear at the top of the drivers’ championship, while his teammate Sebastian Vettel – 21 points further adrift – is also still in the running.

“With Sebastian we will take an aggressive strategy, while with Mark we can be safer and let him drive more defensively,” Dr Marko is quoted by Germany’s Auto Bild.

German Vettel, 23, confirmed that he is not prepared to write off his chances of beating Webber and his other rivals to the title.

“It will be tight but I’m optimistic,” he told the German language TV Movie.

“There are still four races to go; to throw in the towel now would be stupid,” added Vettel.

He said recently that Suzuka, the scene of next weekend’s race in Japan, was “made for” Adrian Newey’s RB6 car.

“We still have to go there and prove it,” said the 2009 winner and pole sitter.

Michael Schumacher’s first formula one team boss remains unimpressed with his 2010 return.

Eddie Jordan, who gave the then young pay-driver Schumacher his first cockpit in 1991, has been among the 41-year-old German’s staunchest critics so far this season.

But in Singapore the former team owner ramped up his attack.

After Schumacher’s incident-strewn race to finish 13th and a lap down, Jordan – now a pundit for British television – told the BBC: “Let’s ask this question.

“If Michael Schumacher was not Michael Schumacher, driving as he is currently, would he be in the seat next year?

“My guess is no,” the Irishman said.

“I’m sorry, I’m going to be controversial this time,” Jordan continued.  “I would sack him, he’s clearly not good enough on this performance we’ve seen today (Sunday).”

He said Schumacher is risking his “legacy and his reputation” by struggling this year at the wheel of a Mercedes.

Schumacher is under contract for the next two seasons, but there are rumours he might move into a management role for 2011, to be replaced by countryman Adrian Sutil.

“I was very surprised when I heard about Michael’s return,” Fernando Alonso, who beat Schumacher to the title before the German originally retired in 2006, told German language spox.com.

“He could be relaxing at home.  But our life in racing is so intense that it’s difficult to lead a normal life,” added the Ferrari driver.

“So if you get the chance to try it again, then it’s hard to say no,” Alonso said.

Asked where he will be in his 40s, the double world champion insisted: “I will be sitting comfortably on my sofa!”