There is a place in formula one for teams like HRT, the struggling team’s Indian driver Narain Karthikeyan has insisted.
Lures to potential new backers like ‘This could be you’ aside, Karthikeyan’s sponsor Tata is the only significant logo on the livery of the F111.

Hispania had an horror start to its 2011 campaign and is still at the back of the grid, but team figures now believe they can soon be troubling the next target, Virgin.

And despite Bernie Ecclestone suggesting the sport would be better off without them, Karthikeyan insists that F1′s minor spat also brings value.

“The fact is we are never in contention for the title,” he told the Hindustan Times. “But teams like these are equally important for F1.

“We are all a part of the show.

“(Those teams) provide the platform for younger drivers and for drivers like me who are coming back. There’s this hierarchy in every sport, but it only makes it more interesting,” added Karthikeyan.

Sebastian Vettel needs to accept the reality of a number 2 role for the good of Red Bull’s 2010 title chances.

That is the claim of former triple world champion and outspoken commentator Niki Lauda, following reports the young German is reluctant to give up the chase for his first title in deference to the team’s points leader Mark Webber.

The news also follows boss Christian Horner’s insistence that the team will “support both (drivers) equally” in Brazil and Abu Dhabi “in line with Red Bull’s credible sporting ethos”.

But with Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso leading the championship and fully backed by his teammate Felipe Massa, Lauda said Red Bull’s policy is a road to failure.

“Red Bull needs to establish the team hierarchy now,” the great Austrian is quoted by Bild newspaper.

“If they don’t get behind Mark Webber, they may have to go without the title.”

Lauda’s only concern is that the exercising of team orders within Red Bull is done in a way that does not “cheat the spectators”.

Jos Verstappen, who in the mid-90s at Benetton was Michael Schumacher’s number 2, agrees that Vettel should be playing that role now.

“Purely mathematically, he has a chance to be champion. But as a team they really have to put everything behind Webber.

“He (Webber) has a better chance of winning the title,” the Dutchman wrote in his column for De Telegraaf newspaper.

“Of course it’s a difficult position for Red Bull, as the whole world knows who they would prefer to be in the best position.

“It’s unfortunate for Vettel, but with his engine failure in Korea his championship did literally go up in smoke,” added Verstappen.

But Horner sounds unlikely to have a change of heart, telling the BBC he finds it “frustrating” that 7 points of leader Alonso’s 11 point lead was due to inheriting the German grand prix win from his teammate Massa.

“It (losing the title to Alonso) would be frustrating because we’ve obviously worked under the auspices that team orders have been illegal,” he told BBC radio.

Sebastian Vettel sounds unlikely to voluntarily fall in line behind Mark Webber as Red Bull pushes for its first ever drivers’ world championship.

Although heading for the championship lead in Korea before his engine failure, Vettel is now 25 points off Fernando Alonso.

It means Ferrari’s Spanish driver is the favourite for the title, with Vettel’s Australian teammate Mark Webber the most likely challenger due to his 11 point deficit.

But Germany’s Bild newspaper said it sounds unlikely that Vettel is going to give up.

“Nothing is going to change in my approach to the final two rounds,” he is quoted as saying. “My (engine) failure makes everything more interesting and difficult. But it is still possible.

“I am going to fight until the end,” Vettel vowed.

Like McLaren’s Martin Whitmarsh who is in a similar situation, Red Bull chief Christian Horner said before leaving Korea that team strategy will be discussed internally before the season’s penultimate event in Brazil.

Former Ferrari driver Jean Alesi thinks Red Bull made a big mistake by not establishing a hierarchy some time ago.

“They needed to take advantage of the fact they had the best car,” the Frenchman told CNR Media. “It’s doubtful they will have the same advantage next year, so you have to say they have mismanaged this season.

“I think they’ve missed a great opportunity,” added Alesi.

Joan Villadelprat, a veteran F1 team manager who now operates his own Le Mans team Epsilon Euskadi, agrees.

“There has been a lack of solidarity at Red Bull, who have not been able to manage their superiority and are now giving the title away to Ferrari,” he wrote in his El Pais newspaper column.

“When a double world champion like Alonso takes the kind of advantage he has now, he does not fail,” the Spaniard added.

Felipe Massa has not been relocated to a purely supportive role for the rest of the 2010 season, Ferrari team Stefano Domenicali has insisted.

Brazilian Massa, who contentiously moved over to let his teammate Fernando Alonso win July’s German grand prix, sounded resigned to a subordinate role on Sunday at Monza.

“I will continue to fight for the wins and for the good of the team,” said Massa, who is 63 points behind the leader with five races left to run.

But despite the perception that Ferrari’s main focus is now Alonso’s 21 point gap to the championship leader, Domenicali insists there has been no recent change of position with regards to Massa.

“For myself and for us, the consideration is always that everyone does their best for the team,” he is quoted by Brazil’s Globo Esporte.

“We have not changed our position from the start of the season, but maybe some others have.

“But for ourselves we are happy with our way at looking at the whole situation,” added Domenicali.

Felipe Massa on Thursday insisted he is not Ferrari’s number two driver, confirming he is aiming for victory this weekend in Hungary.
Since Hockenheim, where the Brazilian obeyed a team order to let teammate Fernando Alonso win, Brazilian cartoonists have depicted Massa as a puppet.

“People will see him now as a ‘yes man’ who bends to the will of the company,” David Coulthard wrote in his latest Telegraph column.

“And maybe they are right. Team player or stooge? The line is thin.”

Mercedes’ Norbert Haug said at a pre-race press conference in Hungary that the application of a driver hierarchy can affect motivation.

“If you say ‘you are number two’ … it’s a complex issue,” said the German.

“If the drivers are not fully motivated you will not achieve anything. That needs to be kept in mind,” added Haug.

Massa told reporters at the Hungaroring that he is aiming to win this weekend’s race, where last year he suffered life-threatening injuries in a qualifying crash.

“The time I have to I say I am the number two driver, I will not race anymore,” he pledged.

Earlier, he arrived at the Budapest venue with Ferrari team boss Stefano Domenicali.

Comments by Felipe Massa’s father suggest the Brazilian driver’s camp is unimpressed with the events of last weekend’s German grand prix.

After standing miserably on the Hockenheim podium, the 29-year-old insisted it was his decision to pull over and let his Ferrari teammate Fernando Alonso win.

But Luiz Antonio Massa, who a year ago was sitting at his son’s bedside in a Budapest hospital, has declared that Felipe did in fact obey a team order.

The comments follow a period of criticism in the Brazilian press, with writers saying Massa showed a lack of courage.

“It is regrettable and unfortunate that Ferrari took this decision,” Massa Snr is quoted in Italian language reports, including the Libero newspaper.

The reports said the comments originated on Brazilian television CATV.

“It is clear to everyone that this was a team order,” added Massa’s father.

“Like any good employee, Felipe must obey the boss; there is a hierarchy and he followed orders showing loyalty.”

Massa Snr indicated that he agrees in principle with team orders, but not when the driver in question is still fighting for the world championship.

“It is a good choice when only one of the two drivers has no mathematical chance, but this was not the case.  Both still had a chance to win,” he said.