Paul di Resta has hinted he would leap at the chance to replace Michael Schumacher at Mercedes.

The German marque’s Brackley based chief executive Nick Fry this week earmarked impressive Force India driver di Resta, earlier a Mercedes protege, as an ideal successor should Schumacher not stay beyond his 2012 contract.

Asked about Fry’s comments and the media speculation on Wednesday, di Resta said in Monaco: “It’s always nice to have the press interest and people looking out for you, but I need to stay focused on doing the best job I possibly can.”

He told Sky Sports News: “It’s no secret that I want to be a race winner and world champion — and to do that, I need to be in a great car.”

Red Bull has poured cold water on expectations the reigning back to back world champions could be set to resume their reign over formula one.

After a victory drought spanning the opening three races of the 2012 season, Red Bull broke through with Sebastian Vettel’s familiar win-from-pole triumph in Bahrain last weekend.

It means he has leapt to the top of the drivers’ standings, while the Milton Keynes based team is now 9 points clear of its nearest rival, McLaren.

“King Sebastian is back!” exclaimed the authoritative Italian newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport after Bahrain.

“Vettel and Red Bull dominated like old times.

“They have worked hard in recent weeks to have a great car again, so it will be difficult once again to take the throne from Sebastian.”

The energy drink-owned camp, however, is not so bullish.

“To predict our performance in Bahrain just a week after what happened in China would have been tricky,” said team boss Christian Horner, referring to Vettel’s fifth place in Shanghai.

“I am sure that with 16 races to go, we are going to see a lot more variation.”

24-year-old Vettel agrees that, despite the familiar pole-and-victory in Bahrain, 2012 is not the same as 2011, when the RB7 car utterly dominated F1.

“We’re not as confident as we used to be,” he is quoted by the Sun newspaper, “so small things can make a difference in qualifying and have a big impact on the race.

“We’ve only had four races but I’m not entirely happy with where we are.”

Vettel will be back in action next week, when F1 moves to the Mugello circuit in central Italy for a rare in-season test.

“In Italy we’ll be able to test and evaluate a lot of things and get the car in a happier place for Barcelona,” he said.

Jaime Alguersuari is staking a claim to a 2012 Toro Rosso race seat.
The Spaniard made his debut with the second Red Bull team in mid 2009, but Dr Helmut Marko is known to be considering the future of the current Toro Rosso lineup.

At the Brazil finale next month, whether Alguersuari or his more experienced teammate Sebastien Buemi will sit out Friday practice for French hopeful Jean-Eric Vergne will be decided by the points standings.

Spaniard Alguersuari, 21, was already ahead of Buemi prior to Korea, but he extended the gap to 7 points by finishing a strong seventh on Sunday.

He will therefore also be in boss Franz Tost’s good books, given the team’s late-season development push to catch up with Sauber for seventh place in the constructors’ championship.

Alguersuari told EFE news agency Korea was “my best” result in his 43 career races, as he was the highest placed runner behind the grandee Red Bulls, McLarens and Red Bulls.

“I think we’ve taken a huge leap,” he added. “I am very excited because next year we can have a great car.”

And if Marko decides to drop just one Toro Rosso driver at the end of the season, Swiss Buemi appears very much in the hot seat now.

“This is not important, only getting Toro Rosso ahead of Sauber,” insisted Alguersuari. “He (Buemi) is also doing a good job.”

As was feared by its rivals before Monza, Red Bull erased its final lingering weakness with Sebastian Vettel’s dominance of the Italian grand prix.
In recent seasons, Adrian Newey’s blue, yellow and red single seaters have been arguably the best when downforce is a premium, but not as good when the Renault engines must cope with long stretches of asphalt.

“The difference between this year’s car and last year’s car here at Monza is huge,” said runaway championship leader Vettel after Sunday’s win, according to O Estado de S.Paulo newspaper.

His teammate Mark Webber agreed: “The tracks where you do not need high downforce were our biggest problem. So I think our biggest improvement this year was in that area.”

Felipe Massa, whose 2011 Ferrari car has struggled this year on hard tracks and in cold temperatures, fully agrees.

“Red Bull have managed to develop a car that is capable of being fast and reliable on any track and in any kind of temperature,” said the Brazilian.

“They have a big advantage,” agreed his teammate Fernando Alonso.

“As the regulations will not change much for 2012, we need to find more than one second in our car for next year, which will not be easy,” the Spaniard admitted.

Fernando Alonso has defended Sebastian Vettel amid reports the reigning world champion is “not a real racer”.

As the Red Bull driver runs away with his second consecutive title in 2011, former grand prix winner David Coulthard observed in his latest Telegraph column that doubts remain about the 24-year-old German’s quality.

“He (Vettel) continues to sweep all before him, and yet there are still those who question Seb’s driving,” wrote the Scot. “As if he is simply fortunate to have found himself in a Red Bull. As if he is an average racing driver because he wins races from pole.”

Coulthard however thinks Vettel could go on to be F1′s “best driver ever”, and Alonso – Ferrari’s lead driver and also a two-time champion – also rates the young German highly.

“I don’t understand the criticisms about him, that he is not a real racer,” Alonso told Germany’s Auto Bild Motorsport. “He is a great champion about to win his second title and has remarkable qualities; a lot of speed.

“Yes he has the best car that gets a good place on the grid, but you need to be able to get the most out of it at every race and Sebastian does that very well.

“Even in difficult moments or when he makes a mistake, he is always fighting for the win. It is proof of his great qualities,” added the Spaniard.

Alonso however also has great respect for Vettel’s team, including the famous designer of the Red Bull car, Adrian Newey.

“They have played to the regulations better than us and the others and this year they have a great car,” he said. “Adrian Newey is obviously the key person but behind him is a strong team.

“Ferrari attracts drivers but also technicians, so if Newey wants to come to us it would be a pleasure to drive his car,” smiled Alonso.

The 30-year-old, meanwhile, has indicated he will keep on signing Ferrari contracts at least until he has added a third world championship to his resume.

“It’s very important to me,” Alonso admitted.

“I will not stop my career until I am champion with Ferrari. If it doesn’t come by 2016 then I will stay in formula one until 2021 — for twenty years like Michael!”

Adrian Newey is a “genius” but his contribution to a team’s success is overrated, according to Ferrari driver Fernando Alonso.
As technical boss, Briton Newey has also won titles with Williams and McLaren and is credited as a core reason for Red Bull’s current success.

But Alonso told Spain’s Marca sports newspaper at the Ferrari summer media event in the Italian Dolomites: “In F1, there is no magic, no genius who can do everything but still everyone talks about Newey.

“He really is very good and he has made a great car, but he was the same genius for the first five years and their cars were no so good.

“To have success you need many things, including a group of intelligent people, budget — without just the right mix it is not possible.

“Newey would not go to Virgin and win the world championship without the right structure,” added Alonso.

Sebastian Vettel’s dominance this year is not comparable to 2009.
That is the view of Jenson Button, who won the championship two years ago after a start to the season similarly as meteoric as Vettel’s this year.

But Briton Button, now with McLaren, claims the situation at Brawn GP in 2009 was vastly different to Vettel’s at Red Bull.

“We had no money,” he is quoted as saying by f1today.nl. “We had a good car at the start of the season but could not develop it. Red Bull can keep it up.”

According to laola1.at, Vettel’s start to 2011 is not just as meteoric as Button in 2009, but also Jim Clark in 1965, Jackie Stewart in 1969, Nigel Mansell in 1992 and Michael Schumacher in ’94, 02 and ’04.

On every occasion, the driver went on to be champion.

“He is in great form in a great car and a team behind him so that only abnormal things can stop him now,” former driver Alex Wurz told Kleine Zeitung newspaper on Tuesday.

“The title for him is at hand.”

Jaime Alguersuari has revealed he has “no idea” why the recently published FIA entry list does not feature his name.

But the Spaniard is quoted by the sports newspaper Marca as insisting he will be on the 2011 grid next March at the wheel of a Toro Rosso.

The Red Bull-owned team has announced on more than one occasion that Alguersuari, 20, and his Swiss teammate Sebastien Buemi are staying put for 2011.

And even after the publication of the double ‘TBA’ on the entry list alongside Toro Rosso’s name, official team sources clarified that the driver lineup is not in doubt.

Asked why he was left off the list, Alguersuari – a keen amateur DJ – joked: “Because I’m thinking about leaving F1 for music.

“I am with Toro Rosso, for sure. I don’t know why people are playing this game — I am in formula one, 100 per cent.”

He said his goal for 2011 is to “be among the top ten in every race”.

“I want to keep doing the work we have been doing and above all to finish seventh or eighth in the constructors’ championship,” added Alguersuari.

“The team and I gave everything this year. We didn’t have the car for any more. On a personal level I’m happy with myself and I hope that in 2011 we can keep improving,” he said.

On his goals beyond 2011, Alguersuari told La Vanguardia: “I want to be with Red Bull (Racing) and I’d like to be there in two years.”

He admits that “depends on how next season goes”.

On team orders being legalised for next season, Alguersuari commented: “I see it as positive because each team needs to look out for its own business.”

As for his tip for the 2011 title, he admitted: “I sense that McLaren will have a great car next year, I don’t know why. I think Hamilton can win.

“Ferrari’s (car) will also be great. I see the title between Fernando and Lewis and Red Bull surely also there and very competitive,” added Alguersuari.

Christian Horner on Saturday played down reports Mark Webber might leave Red Bull after the 2010 season.

After his disparaging comments earlier at Interlagos, Australian Webber had also played down the rumours about his future, but did not entirely rule out the possibility of not driving for the energy drinks-owned team next year.

But team boss Horner told the BBC: “There is no doubt in our minds that Mark will be driving for us next year.

“We’ve provided him with a great car and lots of support. He’s got a contract. Why would he want to be anywhere else?”

It had been suggested that Webber’s critical comments in Brazil could have been the final straw for team management, after the 34-year-old driver had also questioned his status within Red Bull Racing earlier in 2010.

But Horner insisted that Webber’s latest statements have not changed anything.

“They (the comments) are not held against him and we will give him all the support we can,” said the Briton.

As F1′s top men battled for pole position at Valencia, the spotlight was once again on an underperforming Michael Schumacher.

His Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg was also sitting out the decisive Q3 qualifying segment, but Schumacher was six tenths off the young German’s pace and a dismal 15th on the grid.

Criticism of the 41-year-old’s F1 return has already been intensifying, amid new rumours Mercedes might want to replace him for 2011 with Robert Kubica.

“If it was any other driver, other than the great Michael Schumacher, we’d be looking for his head, or most of the press would be looking for his head, because clearly this performance in the past couple of races has been very poor,” said BBC pundit Eddie Jordan on Saturday.

David Coulthard thinks his old rival is cutting corners on the kind of detail that, in his first career, made him the most successful driver ever.

“He’s running the (rev) limiter in some places — that’s just sloppy,” the Scot said in Valencia.

“In his first career, even when his car wasn’t performing he would deliver a lap time … even on a bad day.”

For the first time, Mercedes team boss Ross Brawn has admitted some disappointment with Schumacher’s situation.

“We’re a bit disappointed at the moment.  Michael would admit he’s not where he wants to be.

“We’re seeing signs of progress in some races but not in others, but we’ve not had a great car this year, which has not helped him,” added the Briton.

At the sharp end of the grid, Red Bull defied its own predictions by qualifying one-two at Valencia — with the F-duct now fully up and running.

“Valencia should not be our strongest circuit,” said delighted pole sitter Sebastian Vettel, ahead of his teammate Mark Webber and McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton.

The two Ferraris are fourth and fifth, followed by the consistent Robert Kubica.

Wrapped up in a winter jacket that usually only gets used at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit for the Belgian GP, Felipe Massa made a quick dash through the cold paddock to meet the media in the Ferrari hospitality area as usual on a Thursday.

The Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro man might be leading the championship, but he is certainly not complacent about the job in hand. “We need to work as hard as possible, which in fact we have been doing since planning started for the F10 last year, because there are many strong teams with good drivers around us, the two main rivals at the moment being Red Bull and McLaren,” he said. “We have to push hard every day, not just to improve, but to improve more than the others, if we are to fight for the championship race by race. Leading after three races is better than not leading, but it does not mean much at the moment.”

The Brazilian was then asked if the title was already a three-way race or if the former Brawn team, could join the fight. “Everybody says that Mercedes might have almost half the car that is new for the next round in Barcelona and we must take this team seriously, because although it had a different name then, it won the championships last year,” commented the Brazilian. “So they could still be in the fight for the title and they have to be considered along with the other two teams I mentioned.”

Drivers are often expected to see the future, but Felipe was unwilling to pick a China race winner so early in the weekend. “It’s impossible to say on Thursday,” he insisted. “We will have a better idea after tomorrow’s practice, but the clearest picture only comes after qualifying. We saw a strong McLaren and Red Bull in Malaysia, but if you analyse the details of that race, you can see we had a great car. Let’s see how it goes on this track, but there is no reason why we cannot do a good job this weekend.”

Incredibly, after only three races, there is already talk of driver line-ups for 2011. “There is no rush for the moment on this front, from my point of view,” said Felipe. “I’m very happy with the way we are working together as a team. Even before my accident last year, we had preliminary talks about renewing my contract and I can say that those talks are starting again. But at the moment, my main priority is concentrating on this championship and doing the best I can. The contract is not at the front of my mind right now.”