Eddie Jordan has advised Lewis Hamilton to stick with McLaren.
With the 2008 world champion’s current contract coming to an end this year, he said recently he would address the issue of his future “sooner rather than later”.

“After the first couple of races it’s something we will probably want to get out of the way,” said Hamilton last month.

For the moment, however, there is speculation, after Bernie Ecclestone said he doubts the 27-year-old will stay with the Woking based team forever.

The major German daily Bild then reported that Hamilton has been earmarked as Mercedes’ ‘plan-B’ in the event Michael Schumacher does not stay in 2013.

But Jordan, a former F1 team owner and boss, believes Hamilton should stay put.

“Given their (McLaren’s) resources and level of investment, can you tell me that Lewis would be better off in another team?” he said on Tuesday at a BBC event.

Jordan believes, however, that the famous British team can do a better job of handling Hamilton.

“I think – and this is in some way a criticism – that they will have learned from their mistakes last season,” he said.

One remedy is the placement by Hamilton’s management of Mika Hakkinen’s former manager Didier Coton, and another is the driver’s move from secluded Geneva to bustling Monaco.

Hamilton has also reunited with his girlfriend Nicole, and had a long winter break.

“McLaren appear to have given him a chunk of time off, to go away and to focus,” former long-time McLaren driver David Coulthard said.

Mark Webber has backed his rival Lewis Hamilton to bounce back in 2012.
McLaren’s 2008 world champion had a tumultuous season on and off the circuit last year, but has returned having reunited with his girlfriend and with extra support in the form of Mika Hakkinen’s former manager Didier Coton.

“It’s normal for a sportsman or woman to go through some headwinds in their career — particularly someone like him who had so much success so early, and he’s black, and he’s got interest, and he’s got a girlfriend of profile,” Red Bull driver Webber is quoted by the Sun newspaper.

“Let’s hope he’s strong but not too strong. As a competitor you hope he can realise his potential but clearly we still want to beat him,” added the plain-talking Australian.

Despite winning the season ending Brazilian grand prix last year, Webber also had a less than ideal 2011 as his teammate Sebastian Vettel utterly dominated.

The 35-year-old, however, has lost a couple of kilos over the winter and insists he is ready for 2012.

F1 chief executive Ecclestone backs Webber to succeed.

“I think Mark will be the guy who will threaten him (Vettel) if anybody,” the 81-year-old told The Australian newspaper.

“The last time I spoke to him about it, he was really motivated.”

 A former world champion has dealt Lewis Hamilton a mild rebuke after the Briton refused to appear at Adrian Sutil’s assault trial.
Not only did the McLaren driver defer to his team’s looming car launch date rather than leap to his former friend’s aid in Munich, he has also refused to contact Sutil or answer a single question on the matter posed by the media.

Sutil’s father has called the 2008 world champion “pathetic” while the former Force India driver himself described Hamilton as a “coward”.

“I don’t know whether you’d call him a coward,” 1980 title winner Alan Jones told GMM, “but I don’t know whether I’d like to have him in the trenches with me.”

Hamilton, who recently reunited with his girlfriend Nicole, had a tumultuous 2011 season and so this year will be accompanied to races by experienced manager Didier Coton.

When involved with Mika Hakkinen’s career, Coton worked for the management company headed by Keke Rosberg.

“In the past, Lewis has certainly made mistakes in the professional organisation of his life,” Rosberg, backing the changes Hamilton is making, commented to the Finnish broadcaster MTV3.

“You can’t go flying every other week to America when you’re making a serious job of being a formula one driver,” he said.

Keke Rosberg also questioned a recent claim made by the 27-year-old Briton.

“He says he wants to win all the races this season. That’s quite a claim.

“I would think Jenson Button wonders how he will do it when he will probably win a few races in the same car,” said Rosberg.

Lewis Hamilton has a new day-to-day manager, British newspapers have revealed.
As his on and off-track woes worsened last year, the 2008 world champion insisted he was happy with his management team headed by pop industry agent Simon Fuller.

But Fuller’s company, XIX Entertainment, has now appointed Didier Coton – the famous F1 driver manager who handled Mika Hakkinen’s career – to look after McLaren’s Hamilton.

Formerly with Keke Rosberg’s outfit, Coton now heads his own management firm, Monaco based Aces Group.

“Didier’s appointment builds on the existing strengths of XIX and I am delighted to have him as part of the team,” Hamilton is quoted as saying.

British tabloids also report that Hamilton, 27, has reunited with his girlfriend Nicole Scherzinger.

Sebastian Vettel’s rise to the top of formula one has been meteoric, but three other grand prix drivers achieved even more in their first 73 races.
That is the finding of the veteran Swiss correspondent for Blick newspaper, Roger Benoit.

Vettel, 23, is the youngest ever race and title winner in F1 history and very likely to add a second consecutive championship to his impressive tally in 2011.

But in terms of how much he has achieved in his first 73 grands prix, Sir Jackie Stewart ranks slightly higher with his 18 race wins and two titles in the same period.

Vettel, by comparison, has only one title and 16 wins.

Achieving even more than Stewart in the 73-race period was Michael Schumacher, who had 19 wins and two titles.

And Damon Hill tops that list, amassing a single championship but no fewer than 21 wins within 73 races — an almost 30 per cent strike record.

However, Vettel has achieved more in his career so far than had Alain Prost, Lewis Hamilton, Niki Lauda, Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen in the same period, while the great Ayrton Senna in his first 73 races won just 13 times and had failed to secure a title.

Nigel Mansell, meanwhile, only won his first grand prix at the 72nd attempt, while Mika Hakkinen was approaching his 100th race before he finally broke through at Jerez in 1997.

Ron Dennis has named Mika Hakkinen’s near-fatal crash in 1995 as the worst memory in his long McLaren career.

The 63-year-old, for a long time the Woking based team’s F1 principal and still the executive chairman and shareholder, said his first title as boss – with Niki Lauda in 1984 – is his best memory.

“The finest moment?” Dennis is quoted by Turun Sanomat in Finland. “Of course I should say it was the last championship with Lewis, but for me it was the first one with Niki.”

The Briton did not hesitate when contemplating his lowest point.

“The worst was when I had to go to a hospital in Adelaide after Mika’s accident,” revealed Dennis. “There was a possibility that a driver had died in my car.

“Fortunately that never happened,” he added.

Dennis named Hakkinen, Lewis Hamilton and Ayrton Senna as McLaren’s best drivers.

“Mika I choose for his honesty, Lewis for his uncompromising attitude, and Ayrton because of his passion,” he said.

Michael Schumacher is a “tragic ex-hero” who should return immediately to retirement.

That is the view of Mika Hakkinen, who was once named as the only rival the seven time world champion truly feared.

The Finn has issued a harsh critique of Schumacher in a column for the Munich newspaper TZ, despite the pair always referring to each other with the greatest of respect.

“Michael is for me now a tragic ex-hero,” 42-year-old Hakkinen wrote after the final race of Schumacher’s comeback year; the only full season in the German’s entire career that did not net even a single podium.

“I ask myself why on earth he got back into the cockpit. There is the most successful man in motor sport driving down in the pack and making a ridiculous mistake in Abu Dhabi that almost cost him his life,” he added.

Hakkinen is referring to his spin on the first lap that resulted in Tonio Liuzzi’s Force India riding over Schumacher’s Mercedes and almost striking his head.

Afterwards, Schumacher admitted the incident gave him a fright and a trip to the medical centre, but has pledged to return in 2011.

But “What a tragedy this would have been for the Germans — and on the day of Vettel’s triumph,” said Hakkinen.

“What has the man who has won more than anyone else still to prove?” Hakkinen wondered. “In my view, he is dismantling his own legacy bit by bit.

“And I see it making no difference whether it is for technical reasons or because he can no longer keep up with the boys.”

Hakkinen said he can understand Schumacher’s urge to return to action after three years of retirement.

“After three years I returned to the cockpit myself — for Mercedes in the DTM,” he recalled. “And I also had to recognise that even as a formula one world champion, there are no gifts for the older ones.

“I won only three times more,” said Hakkinen.

“You can neither stop the wheel of time, nor turn it back,” he insisted.

“Personally, we were never close friends because he always came across, to me anyway, a little bit too arrogant.”

Michael Schumacher will have a new race engineer at Mercedes next year, according to reports.

The French-language Eurosport said the identity of the engineer is Mark Slade, who this year is working alongside Vitaly Petrov at Renault.

Slade moved to Renault this year from McLaren, where he worked with famous Finns Heikki Kovalainen, Kimi Raikkonen and Mika Hakkinen.

After 15 years with the British team, he left McLaren early this season due to a technical staffing reshuffle.

Schumacher’s engineer in 2010 is Andy Shovlin, who in 2009 worked at the Brackley based team – then Brawn GP – alongside world champion Jenson Button.

It is expected that Shovlin will have a more general engineering role next year.

Schumacher’s teammate Nico Rosberg will also have a new race engineer in 2011, having worked this year with Jock Clear. It is expected that Tony Ross, Rosberg’s former race engineer at Williams, is switching to Mercedes.

Meanwhile, French commentator Jean-Louis Moncet wrote in his latest Auto Plus column that Mercedes GP chiefs Ross Brawn and Norbert Haug will have more distinct roles in 2011.

Moncet said he believes team boss Brawn’s role will be partially factory-based.

Valtteri Bottas has refused to criticise the Williams team for not scheduling a test day for him in November.

The 20-year-old Finn has been a frontrunner in the F3 Euroseries in 2010, whilst serving as the famous British team Williams’ test and reserve driver.

He said earlier in 2010 that he has done some aerodynamic straightline testing in the FW32 this year “and after the season (I will do) the young drivers test in Abu Dhabi”.

But whilst confirming that Bottas is staying as test driver next year, Williams announced this week that it will be F2 champion Dean Stoneman and Pastor Maldonado at the wheel of the car for November’s Abu Dhabi test.

But Bottas is not critical of the team, despite missing out on the test opportunity.

“They need to test someone else,” he is quoted by Turun Sanomat newspaper. “It doesn’t change anything for me.

“I respect their decisions and I’m working as usual to support the team,” added Bottas, who is managed by Mika Hakkinen.

Bottas will still be in Abu Dhabi, having scheduled a test with the GP2 team ART.

Mika Hakkinen followed eagerly the current World Championship match between Webber and Vettel. The criticism of Michael Schumacher does not understand the ex-F1 racer.

Mika Hakkinen has hung up his F1 helmet while 2001 to the nail, but the two-time champion continues to pursue racing. Specifically, the current World Cup situation has done to the Finns. “The last few years in F1 were exciting, but this year surpasses everything. This is just unbelievable, because so many drivers are still fighting for the championship. This is great,” gushed Häkkinen. Mark Webber has impressed with his performance Häkkinen.
“Webber has made 2010 a great job. He has shown a trend and become very mentally strong. Something has changed with him in a positive way,” said the Finn. Although the Australians in the lead, Hakkinen will not be fitted into a championship favorite. “There are still three races and Vettel is not an easy opponent. He is a young, energetic man, and he pushes to the limit,” said the Finn. The former McLaren Mercedes driver can see parallels between Vettel and his former rival Michael Schumacher.

“Vettel has to go no fear over the limit, as then Schumacher. But reckoned with the fact that mistakes happen when you go over the limit. This can be painful, but I myself have also preferred to be on the limit as under. I understand the mentality of the two “, said Hakkinen. The Finn also follows the progress of Schumacher in his comeback season trusts, however, not to evaluate the performance of the record world champion.
“I still know from my F1-time for the people to practice criticism and a fast rate. This is really hard. I do not want to say anything about his performance, because you never know from the outside, making the team, what the reasons for performance, or what the team is working. Therefore, the criticism of Michael is unfair, “said Hakkinen. For him, the German has lost none of his skill. “I know Michael and he is an incredible racer and a great person. I think his comeback is great for F1,” said the Finn.

Whether Schumacher will drive in 2011 in Formula 1, he could not answer because he knows how hard the F1 world. “F1 is a great challenge. It takes a lot of energy, because you experience more disappointments than successes. It is a very tough world, but if he can handle it and enjoy it, then I wish him all the best,” said Hakkinen off of the DTM race at Hockenheim.

(TMS)

The minority share of the Williams team now owned by Austrian Christian ‘Toto’ Wolff is 10 per cent, it has emerged.

sThe stake bought in 2009 by the motor racing enthusiast and investor, whose girlfriend is the Scottish DTM driver Susie Stoddart, was not disclosed at the time.

But according to a report in London’s Evening Standard, based on company filings by the Oxfordshire based team, the figure is 10 per cent.

The report said Wolff is believed to have paid about $16 million for the stake, which would value the British outfit at about US $160m.

Sir Frank Williams’ stake has therefore dropped from 70 to 63 per cent, and Patrick Head’s from 30 to 27 per cent.

Wolff, 38, also owns shares in Aces Management, the driver management firm involving Didier Coton and Mika Hakkinen, as well as the F3 engine supplier HWA.

Williams reserve driver Valtteri Bottas has put his hopes of stepping into the team’s race cockpit on hold until 2012.

The 21-year-old Finn, third in the F3 Euroseries standings, admitted recently that British team Williams was “not likely to change” its current driver lineup for 2011.

“The next step would be GP2,” Bottas, who is managed by Mika Hakkinen, said in July.

He has now told Finland’s Turun Sanomat newspaper that Rubens Barrichello does indeed look set to have his Williams deal extended.

“He is still fast,” Bottas is quoted as saying.

“He has been really useful to the team and it’s true to say a big part of the development of the car is due to him,” he added.

Meanwhile, Williams’ Austrian minority co-owner Toto Wolff has told the Kleine Zeitung newspaper that Barrichello’s rookie teammate Nico Hulkenberg is also likely to keep his seat.

“Of all the young drivers he is probably the best at the moment,” he said.  “He is actually remarkable; only the experience is missing.

“I feel quite comfortable with this driver combination.  My word has at least as much weight as the others on the board, and this applies to the drivers as well,” added Wolff.

After the lost tempers and the blame game, Red Bull is now moving to put its championship campaign back on track in the ten days before reconvening in Canada for the next grand prix.

Turkey not only staged a crash between teammates Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel whilst leading, it triggered a hotbed of intrigue as fingers were pointed and garage divisions were revealed and strengthened.

Australian Webber, now the clear championship leader but at odds with both his team and his apparently favoured teammate, indicated he wants to patch up and move on.

“We’ll probably have a difference of opinion about what happened until we go to our graves, but we’re both adults and we need to find a way of racing together that doesn’t compromise the team,” he wrote in his column for the Australian newspaper Daily Telegraph.

A Red Bull source told the Independent that a calm-down meeting had already been held in Turkey, but that is at odds with reports that Vettel left the circuit early.

“We had a detailed meeting and everyone had their say.  There was no way that feelings were going to be allowed to fester.  The matter is now all talked through,” said the unnamed source.

Speaking to Finland’s Turun Sanomat newspaper, former McLaren driver David Coulthard warned of the dangers of an internal conflict.

“It is a fact that within a racing team, it’s the worst possible scenario,” the Scot said, recalling his collision with Mika Hakkinen in Austria in 1999, where afterwards the Finn “did not want to talk to me”.

But “You need to sort out these messes before the next race, otherwise it just continues to be a distraction,” said Coulthard.

“The team’s task is to get the drivers to talk it through.”

At the same time, Red Bull’s nearest title rival McLaren is attempting to use the saga to its advantage.

“If they don’t kiss and make up it means they won’t be sharing information as much at the next race,” said Jenson Button.

Offering advice to the warring Red Bulls, he added: “It’s about owning up and moving forward.  If they can’t do that, it will play into our hands.”

And Lewis Hamilton took a dig at Webber and Vettel by pointing out that he and Button did not collide when they similarly diced for position in Turkey.

“That’s why we are world champions.  I am proud to have him (Button) as my teammate,” said the Briton.

(GMM)

At the end of the traditional ‘rest day’ in Monaco, formula one drivers on Friday are limbering up for a night on the catwalk.

They are heading to the exclusive and highly expensive VIP ‘Amber Lounge’ event, hosted by former grand prix winner Eddie Irvine’s sister Sonia.

It is a fashion show, with drivers donating their time to model designer Missoni, Elizabeth Hurley Beach and Jimmy Choo fashion to benefit the Elton John AIDS Foundation.

On Friday night, world champions Jenson Button, Lewis Hamilton and Mika Hakkinen will all be on the poolside catwalk, in addition to Nico Rosberg, Adrian Sutil, Vitantonio Liuzzi, Lucas di Grassi, Jaime Alguersuari, Heikki Kovalainen and Timo Glock.

(GMM)

(GMM)  Lewis Hamilton has played down rumours Mika Hakkinen will shortly be unveiled as his new personal manager.

The McLaren driver admitted exaggeratingly that he has fielded “millions” of calls from potential candidates after announcing his professional split with father Anthony.

But as his day-to-day affairs are currently handled by his Woking based employer, the 25-year-old suggested he wants a non-F1 expert to focus on developing Lewis Hamilton the “brand”.

Referring to conventional driver managers, the 2008 world champion told British newspapers in Barcelona: “I think what they can offer me is a bit limited — limited to F1.

“There are other ways you can go.”

It was reported that former McLaren champion Hakkinen was a frontrunner, but Hamilton insists there has been “no movement” in terms of a decision about his new manager.

“I’ve not spoken to anyone.  I’m not in any rush.  It’s not necessary to appoint anyone now.  The team are helping me.  They are providing the things I need.  It could be six months before I get anyone,” he said.

Hamilton also said he is patching up his relationship with his father, who has not attended a grand prix since Lewis decided to go it alone.

“Things are slowly progressing,” he said.  “We have been in contact recently.  He’s said he is supporting me and that’s all I’ve always wanted from my dad.

“More and more he’s coming to terms with it.  I’ll probably speak to him but we won’t decide together on my new manager.  I want to set the direction I’m going in,” said Hamilton.