Bernie Ecclestone appeared at the Nurburgring on Friday, despite suggestions he might skip the journey to Germany for fear of being arrested.
The F1 chief executive is finally admitting he paid $44 million to jailed German banker Gerhard Gribkowsky, but he denies it was a bribe.

Even so, some suspected the fact the charges laid against Gribkowsky coincided with Germany’s F1 event would convince Ecclestone to remain in Britain to avoid potential trouble.

But he told the reporter for Bild newspaper at the Nurburgring: “I said I would come, so here I am.”

And Ecclestone told the Financial Times when asked if he fears being arrested: “No, not at all.

“I’m concerned it’s going to be bloody wet and cold. Otherwise, should be a good race.”

But many paddock insiders on Friday cast serious doubt on billionaire Ecclestone’s explanation that he was blackmailed by Gribkowsky to avoid trouble with inland revenue.

“Bernie does not get blackmailed,” one was quoted by the Telegraph.

At the very least, Ecclestone admitted that he regrets paying the money.

“So many things in life are hindsight,” said the 80-year-old.

“It’s not my style to have anyone threaten me. Believe me, in my life I have been threatened properly. But in this case they (the lawyers) advised me to pay up.

“But don’t worry, I have nothing to worry about,” added Ecclestone.

One rumour is that the diminutive Briton, perhaps under pressure from F1 owner CVC’s investors, might step aside to allow the scandal to play out away from the sport.

“There is no sign of him backing off,” Ecclestone’s former power ally Max Mosley told the Financial Times. “On the other hand, maybe he will.”

Red Bull is confident about getting on top of its recurring KERS problems in the near future.
The RB7 has dominated the 2011 season so far, but the team has at the same time struggled consistently with its energy recovery system, having not used the technology when it was first seen in formula one in 2009.

Red Bull has taken a different approach to KERS than its main competitors, reducing the size and weight – and therefore power – of the basic Magneti Marelli unit in order to maximise Adrian Newey’s parameters for the car’s aerodynamic packaging.

“I’m still sure that we’ve done the right thing,” the team’s chief designer Rob Marshall told The Sun newspaper.

“Once we get it to work, we’ll be happy that we’ve made the right choices. We haven’t made any wrong decisions,” he insisted.

However, according to Newey, Red Bull underestimated the challenge taken on by deciding to considerably tinker with the unit that is proving reliable aboard the Renault cars.

“It needs a lot of research, lots of development. It is not really our forte. We are an aerodynamics and, sort of, chassis composite engineering group rather than a KERS group,” said the Briton.

He admitted that Red Bull implemented the project with quite a small group of engineers dedicated to KERS.

“With hindsight (the group was) probably a little bit too small,” said Newey.

Alain Prost has admitted he is frustrated that moves to revive a French grand prix have so far not succeeded.

After the demise of the Magny Cours event, the quadruple world champion actively supported the major alternative projects, including one at Flins-Les-Mureaux as well as Disneyland Paris.

He told RMC radio that he is concerned efforts to put France back onto the F1 calendar is losing momentum.

“It must not be buried now,” said Prost.

“There was a great opportunity last year at the time of the regional (elections), and a first draft for Disney which in hindsight was perhaps a bit complicated.

“But Flins was an exceptional site with a real project, a real business plan, and formula one to happen for only eight hours in a year, to appease the critics,” he explained.

“There was a real programme for the utilisation of the circuit, with an economic and social advantage.

“There would have been 100,000 extra people near Paris.  Everyone was enthusiastic, especially Bernie Ecclestone.

“But the project was abandoned when everything was ready and financed, because of the regional election and an environmental problem that was essentially political,” Prost charged.

He confirmed that the biggest problem seems to be a lack of political will.

“Do we want a grand prix of France?” wondered Prost.  “Today, there are no French drivers in F1, Renault will soon not be called Renault … it’s a bit complicated and a financial issue.

“The price asked by Bernie Ecclestine (for a GP) is variable — about EUR 15 million per year in Europe.  Abroad, it is between 30 and 40 million, as in Abu Dhabi.

“It’s an economic equation: how many spectators can you get?  (If it’s) about 50 or 60,000, and the price is 15 million, your losses are about 8 million.

“Who can put up 8 million?  So if the politicians or the government are not saying ‘it’s important for France to have a grand prix’, it’s not worth talking about.

“It’s rubbish when I hear that what is needed is a promoter.  The promoter (of the Disneyland Paris project) was the Lagardere group and myself.

“Above all what is important is that the economics are sustainable,” added Prost.

Team orders will be “regulated” rather than allowed in formula one, FIA president Jean Todt has revealed.

The issue came back onto the agenda in 2010, when Felipe Massa was ordered aside for Fernando Alonso at Hockenheim by a Ferrari engineer telling the Brazilian: “Fernando is faster than you”.

“Personally, I’m not against team orders, but I am against lying,” the Frenchman is quoted as saying in interviews this week.

He said covert team orders “deceive the audience and the media” and subsequently require teams and drivers to lie afterwards.

“Team orders have been banned since 2002, but I ask myself how many have been issued in a ‘soft’ way.  The difference with that and what Ferrari did (at Hockenheim) is that it was anything but soft.

“It was a provocation against the regulations,” Todt told Italy’s La Stampa.

But when asked if the FIA will react to the latest affair by simply abolishing the rule, he answered: “It will be regulated.

“F1 is a team sport and each team will have responsibility for their behaviour.  We will not tolerate lies or coded messages like ‘Save fuel’.”

Fascinatingly, former Ferrari team boss Todt blamed Rubens Barrichello for the original team orders controversy of 2002, when the Brazilian was explicitly ordered on the radio to ‘Let Michael (Schumacher) pass for the championship’.

“I shouldn’t have had to say anything,” Todt said this week.

“We had agreed beforehand that if he (Barrichello) is in front after the pitstop, he was to let Schumacher pass without making a fuss.

“It was agreed, and drivers are paid to accept certain decisions.

“But he made me call him 50 times and he moved at the last corner — the audience booed, Schumacher gave him first place on the podium and Ferrari was fined $500,000 for violating protocol,” he explained.

Asked if he regrets the affair, he admitted: “Yes, because with hindsight it could have been avoided.  Schumacher would have won the championship anyway.

“But I would have regretted even more if we had lost the title by a couple of points,” added Todt.

And in an interview with France’s L’Equipe, Todt said he thought the works Renault drivers “helped” Renault-powered Red Bull to win the 2010 championship by holding up key rivals in Abu Dhabi.

“They (Robert Kubica and Vitaly Petrov) helped Red Bull, even though this team often complain about the lack of competitiveness of the Renault engine,” he said.

Flavio Briatore does not think Ferrari will be heavily punished by the FIA for the Hockenheim team orders affair.

The governing body is set to consider the matter no later than September 10 at its scheduled World Motor Sport Council meeting in Como, Italy.

Ferrari breached article 39.1 of the sporting regulations by ordering that Felipe Massa give way to German grand prix winner Fernando Alonso, and was also charged by the race stewards with bringing the sport into disrepute.

Former Renault boss Briatore was banned from F1 last year by the World Motor Sport Council for the Singapore crash scandal.

He told Italy’s Sky Sport 24: “This (team order) rule makes no sense and should be abolished.  Formula one is a team sport.

“I don’t believe Ferrari did anything wrong,” added the 60-year-old Italian.

“Fernando has more points than Massa and it is logical to bet on the driver with the best chance of winning the title.

“Could it have been better handled?  It’s easy to say so with hindsight, but during a race it’s different.

“It is however clear that Massa’s engineer (Rob Smedley) should not have made certain comments.  But only one guy can win the drivers’ championship.

“It is pointless to stand around being critical.  It is the rule that is completely absurd,” added Briatore.

He does not think Ferrari needs to worry about draconian penalties like exclusion from the world championship or race bans.

“The chairman of the World Council is Jean Todt, who managed Ferrari when in 2002 in Austria he ordered Barrichello to let Schumacher overtake at the chequered flag, so I think we can all relax,” laughed Briatore.

Mark Webber has revealed that he and the Red Bull team have “cleared the air” in the wake of the Silverstone front wing saga.

After reacting angrily to losing the newest specification wing to his teammate Sebastian Vettel before qualifying, the Australian declared on the radio after winning the race that it was “not bad for a number two driver”.

But in a written statement, the 33-year-old says he now accepts that Red Bull’s reasons for the wing switch were sound.

And Webber said his obvious “disappointment” at the British grand prix was due to Vettel receiving the wing “for reasons which were not clearly explained” at the time.

“Obviously I can see why a team may at certain points have to favour a driver with more points in the championship, if there are only enough resources to fully support one of us,” he said.

“We’ve already debriefed the race weekend at the factory and have cleared the air.”

Webber said he acknowledged that some of his comments at Silverstone were “said in the heat of the moment which, with hindsight goggles on, probably shouldn’t have been said”.

“Formula one is a highly charged and fiercely competitive arena where emotions and adrenalin do run high from time to time like in many sports and my comment on the radio after the race was an example of Australian sarcasm either at its best or worst depending on how you choose to take it,” he added.

And he insists that his relationship with team boss Christian Horner is intact.

“We’re friends and have a strong mutual respect which continues and extends to other activities, such as our GP3 team and interest in finding and nurturing young racing talent,” said Webber.

“The respect within the team extends to the drivers. I know I have a very good driver as a teammate and I wouldn’t want it any other way.

“Seb and I are not enemies, we’re just two drivers that are pushing hard and want to do the best for ourselves and the team, it’s as simple as that.”

Mercedes’ debut of a Red Bull-like blown exhaust layout in Valencia recently “backfired”, team chief executive Nick Fry has admitted.

The Brackley based team has struggled to move forwards with the W01 car this season, and the Briton said on Friday that the Valencia upgrade was a particular disappointment.

“We have tried to copy the Red Bull exhaust system in Valencia and that probably backfired, if you’ll excuse the pun,” Fry told the BBC at Silverstone.

“With the benefit of hindsight we maybe should have stuck with the setup we had previously.”

Fry insisted, however, that the situation will not cause Michael Schumacher to abandon his return to formula one, even though the seven time world champion has admitted he will not win the 2010 title.

“Sorry to the other drivers, but he is going to be around for next season,” said Fry.