Volkswagen, the German carmaking giant, has played down suggestions it could launch a formula one project some time soon.

“There are always rumours about Volkswagen and formula one,” said Jost Capito, who has taken over from Kris Nissen as the head of the Wolfsburg-based company’s motor racing boss.

However, he is quoted by Germany’s Sport1 as insisting that VW is only concentrating on its world rally programme.

“The WRC programme is approved from 2013 to 2015,” Capito insisted. “There is no room to think about anything else.

“It (F1) is not on our radar,” he is also quoted as saying by France’s L’Equipe. “Our hands are full already.”

In the wake of BMW, Honda and Toyota’s departures, the only mass production carmakers in F1 are Renault – as an engine supplier – and Mercedes.

Ferrari, McLaren, Lotus and Caterham produce niche sports cars.

Rubens Barrichello is still refusing to give up on his formula one career.

After a record-setting 19 consecutive seasons on the grid, the 39-year-old Brazilian lost his Williams race seat for 2012 and switched to the premier American open-wheeler series, Indycar.

“I’m enjoying it,” insisted Barrichello to O Estado de S.Paulo newspaper.

“I have been welcomed and the feeling is a much more open one.

“But the fact that I keep active and am competing is, for me, still a way to be seen and to attract the eye of formula one.

“For all that I did in F1, I would be able to go back there,” added the former Ferrari and Honda driver.

Ross Brawn insists great wealth has not affected his drive to succeed.
As team boss, the Briton bought Brackley based Honda for a nominal pound after the 2008 season, before ‘Brawn GP’ and Jenson Button raced to the drivers’ and constructors’ titles.

At the end of that campaign, Brawn sold the team to Mercedes, and the Financial Times claims the Briton – still team principal – collected dozens of millions of dollars.

“I’m obviously a lot wealthier now than before and you wonder if you still have the same motivation to get up in the morning,” Brawn said.

“But it did not alter my perspective or my passion and ambition to succeed in racing.”

His job now is to win for Mercedes, and 2012 is year three, and the end of Michael Schumacher’s initial contract.

“If it does not come off I will have to recognise there is something missing, something I am not able to do that perhaps someone else should have a go at,” revealed Brawn.

Norbert Haug on Monday played down reports Mercedes could be set to be a shock title contender in 2012.
Some new analysis in the sport’s specialist media claims the W03, to be raced by Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg this season, was actually quicker than all comers in the crucial ‘long runs’ during recent pre-season testing.

But Haug, Mercedes-Benz’s motor sport vice-president, insisted it is unlikely the former Brawn, Honda and BAR team can leap from fourth in the constructors’ world championship to first in just a single bound.

“You don’t go from the the creation and restructuring of a team to (winning) the world championship in two years,” he is quoted by SID news agency.

“The reigning world champions (Red Bull) didn’t, and we didn’t either (as engine supplier) with McLaren.

“You just have to accept this building-up period,” added the German.

 Alain Prost believes it is “absolutely impossible” for F1′s newest teams to ever break the dominance of the sport’s top five.
He is referring to small privateers Caterham (formerly Lotus), Marussia (formerly Virgin) and HRT (formerly Hispania), who were enticed into formula one in 2010 following the departures of manufacturers Honda, BMW and Toyota.

As well as winning four championships as a driver, Frenchman Prost also ran his own team between 1997 and 2001, when it succumbed to financial problems.

The Russian website F1News asked Prost what advice he would give to F1′s current tailenders.

“I will say quite frankly that they cannot become competitive in today’s formula one,” he answered. “It’s impossible.

“They can make some progress, but – of course – you must immediately put the question ‘What goals do they pursue?’

“To break into the top five with a new team like this in formula one — it is absolutely impossible,” said Prost.

 Former Williams driver Alex Wurz has returned to the famous British team as a “driver mentor”.
Austrian Wurz, 38, was Oxfordshire based Williams’ Friday driver in 2006, and Nico Rosberg’s teammate the following year, before he left F1 with 69 grands prix under his belt.

Now a Le Mans driver, he will return to the F1 paddock in 2012 to mentor Bruno Senna, Pastor Maldonado and test driver Valtteri Bottas.

“Alex will start his duties at this week’s Barcelona test before accompanying the team to races this season,” said Williams in a media statement.

Wurz made his grand prix debut in 1997, and was also highly regarded as a test driver for McLaren and Honda.

On his new role, he said: “This is a great initiative by Williams and highlights just how hard the team is pushing to optimise its performance.”

Sepang will look into the safety of the Malaysian grand prix venue following Sunday’s death of MotoGP rider Marco Simoncelli.
The Italian, whose helmet came off during the incident, died in Malaysia after he partially fell from his Honda and was struck from behind by rivals Valentino Rossi and Colin Edwards.

Sepang, built ahead of its 1999 debut, also hosts F1′s annual Malaysian round.

Circuit chairman Mokhzani Mahathir told AFP it is a “safe track”.

“It is a sad and unfortunate racing accident but the circuit is designed to the highest safety levels,” he said.

“(The) accident was beyond anybody’s control or expectation.”

He added however that officials will look into whether safety can be improved at Sepang.

“We will see from it (the investigation) if there is anything we could have done differently,” said Mokhzani.

Also referring to Dan Wheldon’s recent death, Force India driver Adrian Sutil told reporters in India on Monday that “everybody knows” MotoGP and Indycar are more dangerous than F1.

“I can say that formula one is pretty safe and secure,” said the German.

At 14:56 the announcement: Marco Simoncelli , following the tragic accident during the second lap of the race for the MotoGP at Sepang, has died. In the 2008 250cc World Champion Marco Simoncelli was engaged for two years in MotoGP with Team San Carlo Honda Gresini a contract renewed for next season, HRC rider.

During his career, “SuperSic” has won 14 victories, 31 podiums, 15 poles, 2 this year in the top class in Barcelona and Assen.

By all the staff at BIKEracing.it, my deepest condolences to the family of Mark, his friends and all the members of Team San Carlo Honda Gresini.

Rubens Barrichello in Korea sounds desperate to extend his long formula one career into a twentieth consecutive season.
Williams has not yet decided whether to keep the veteran Brazilian alongside Pastor Maldonado in 2012.

“I want to be here next year, whatever it takes for it, and wherever,” the 39-year-old is quoted by the German news agency SID.

“I am talking to the entire paddock.”

He clarified, however, that he is actually seeking only “a competitive car”, hinting that his preferences are Williams or Renault.

“I hope to know from Williams before Brazil,” Barrichello is quoted by Brazil’s Globo Esporte. “The fans need to know as well.

“Williams have said they would like to make a decision before Interlagos and I hope that’s a positive sign,” he added.

As for his other options, the former Ferrari and Honda driver added: “I think there are still two or three opportunities that are very good.

“I will not drive in formula one for anything, just to say ‘I have completed 20 years here, even without a competitive car’. That is not the point.

“The teams that I am talking to have the conditions for a good car.

“If my fate is that I am not involved any more with F1, 19 years would be wonderful and I will see if Disney wants me to drive the cars at Disney world,” Barrichello joked.

Andre Lotterer on Friday boasted that his Formula Nippon single seater is faster than the F1 cars produced by F1 backmakers Virgin and HRT.

The 29-year-old German, who is leading the Japanese championship ahead of former Williams driver Kazuki Nakajima, won the series’ Suzuka round in May.

“Theoretically, if I would have entered today’s first free practice with my Formula Nippon, I would be nineteenth,” Lotterer, a Jaguar test driver in 2002, said at Suzuka.

In May, Suzuka pole sitter Naoki Yamamoto’s Honda-powered Nippon qualified with a time of 1.40.470, which was faster than any Virgin or HRT driver could manage on Friday morning at the same Japanese circuit.

And that Formula Nippon time is just half a second behind Friday morning’s slowest Team Lotus runner Karun Chandhok.

The 2011 Formula Nippon single seaters are built by American manufacturer Swift and powered by 3.4 litre V8 engines supplied by Toyota or Honda.

Geoff Willis has not left the HRT team yet, a spokeswoman for the Spanish team insisted on Friday.

It has been reported in recent days that Briton Willis – the former Red Bull, Williams and Honda technical chief – was leaving due to not being happy about the plans for the 2012 budget and car.

The reports also said former BMW and Brawn designer Jorg Zander is set to join HRT.

The team’s communciations boss Maria Serrat said on Friday that Willis is officially “still rendering his services to HRT”.

It is understood, however, that the 51-year-old will definitely not be leading the 2012 car project.

Mercedes is having to become a bigger team in order to win races as a constructor.

That is the claim of Nico Rosberg, who has been Michael Schumacher’s teammate for the past two years and will stay with the Brackley team in 2012.

Rosberg, 26, is also tipped to sign a much longer contract, in which he hopes to take the benefit of boss Ross Brawn’s efforts to improve the team structure.

Brawn radically downsized the team in the wake of former owner Honda’s departure from the sport at the end of 2008.

The British engineer admitted to F1′s official website this week that “possibly we have been a little bit too optimistic” in cutting staff numbers.

“We need to move up to the (staff) limitations that are allowed,” he revealed.

German driver Rosberg agrees: “The team has not been big enough to build a winning car, but we have recognised the situation and are strengthening the organisation.

“We are now developing rapidly and new faces are showing up all the time,” he told Italy’s Tuttosport. “It shows there is a great desire to improve.”

Targeting the world championship in 2012 is not realistic for Mercedes GP, according to team boss Ross Brawn.
Daimler chairman Dieter Zetsche admitted last week he is not happy with the performance of the Brackley based team, currently a distant fourth in the points standings behind Red Bull, McLaren and Ferrari.

“Our intention is to be better every year and it is clear that in this sense we cannot be satisfied,” Brawn told Spain’s El Pais newspaper.

“Last year we were fourth and we are again. The next step should be to fight for third or second, and then go for the title in 2013,” he added.

“You need to be going forward and when you do not, you have to know why and to change your strategy.”

He said he is not worried about Mercedes possibly losing patience.

“Mercedes knows what kind of challenge competing in formula one is and that’s why they want to prove they are capable of meeting the challenge and succeeding,” said Brawn.

“It is the most competitive and complicated championship and if winning it was easy, it would not be interesting.”

But Brawn warned that with only a couple of minor changes to the regulations for 2012, Red Bull is likely to once again set the pace.

“If you’re winning, as Red Bull are now, that is the scenario that you want,” said the Briton. “When the rules do not change there are fewer possibilities of having different interpretations of them.”

Brawn therefore said he doubts there will be “any revolutionary ideas” seen on next year’s F1 grid.

Meanwhile, he acknowledged that he was not personally responsible for the ground-breaking ‘double diffuser’ idea that was credited for Brawn GP’s title win of 2009.

“It was a Japanese engineer from (former owners) Honda,” said Brawn. “He presented it, we analysed it and found it to be viable.”

Lewis Hamilton’s decision about his new manager is not just about formula one, the 2008 world champion has admitted.
The McLaren driver on Monday said signing up with XIX Entertainment is because its chief Simon Fuller “shared my ambitions for the longer term”.

Fuller is famous for creating American Idol and its spinoffs, managing the Spice Girls and coming up with Honda’s ‘earth car’ concept of 2007.

A report in Germany’s Bild newspaper said Hamilton “Wants to get away from having purely an athletic image”.

26-year-old Hamilton, whose girlfriend is Pussycat Dolls singer Nicole Scherzinger, confirmed: “I’m open to music and film.”

Mercedes is set to take complete control of the Brackley based F1 team that bears its name.

The German carmaker took over the team last year but Ross Brawn and his partners retained 24.9 per cent of the shares, the German magazine Auto Motor und Sport said.

The report said a deal to make Mercedes and Daimler shareholder AABAR the 100 per cent owner will be in place by March’s Bahrain season opener.

The Brackley based team began life in the late 90s as British American Racing (BAR), later becoming Honda who pulled out of F1 at the end of the 2008 season.

Auto Motor und Sport said Mercedes intends to keep team boss Brawn on board as an employee.