Narain Karthikeyan is not guaranteed his HRT seat for the whole of the 2012 season.

Following what the reporter referred to as a ‘chat’ with the Indian driver, the Times of India claimed Karthikeyan is “a million euros” short of a contract that will see him definitely race through November’s Brazil finale.

The 35-year-old also began the 2011 season for the struggling Spanish team, but was replaced by the Red Bull-funded Daniel Ricciardo mid-season.

The Times of India said securing the extra million in sponsorship is proving “difficult” for Karthikeyan.

“Sponsors are happy to give him money but not to the team, as obviously they do not want to be associated with a struggling outfit,” the report said.

The good news for Karthikeyan, according to the journalist Harish Samtani, is that his sponsorship deal with Tata brings to HRT the Williams gearbox, valued at about EUR 5 million.

The report said the link between Karthikeyan and Williams is the British team’s joint venture with Jaguar, which is owned by the driver’s sponsor Tata.

Pedro de la Rosa insists he is not afraid to admit he will tackle next weekend’s Australian grand prix at the wheel of the “worst” car.
“We will have a difficult year,” said the veteran Spaniard, who is yet to actually drive HRT’s newly-launched F112.

“It will also be interesting because the team is 80 per cent new,” added the 41-year-old former Arrows, Jaguar and Sauber driver, who for years was McLaren’s main test driver.

“We should not be afraid to admit that we are the worst, but we must have the ambition to not stay that way,” he told Antena 3 television.

“Our goal is to finish races, stop being the last across the line and to grow, trying to close the gap to pole position.”

The next stop, he said, is the Melbourne pitlane.

“The team is packing up everything and preparing a second chassis. Tomorrow night it is all put onto planes and sent to Australia.

“I leave on Monday,” revealed de la Rosa.

Former Jordan and Jaguar designer Gary Anderson has singled out Lotus and Force India to impress in 2012.
The Irishman stood trackside at the Barcelona test on Thursday and later told the German-language Speed Week magazine that Mark Webber in the Red Bull suffered from “a bit too much understeer” in the new title-defending RB8.

He admitted, however, that the team may have been experimenting with setup, as the new Red Bull and McLaren have so far been “model students” in terms of handling.

Force India’s Paul di Resta, meanwhile, did not look impressive on the end-of-day timesheet, but Anderson said he was pleasantly surprised with the long-run consistency of the VJM05.

He said both di Resta and Nico Rosberg were both circulating at the same time with medium times, and the Force India was faster than the Mercedes, which was suffering from heavily-degrading tyres.

And Anderson added: “Lotus had to miss last week in Barcelona, but today they could confirm their good impression of Jerez.

“The car is fully sorted and the laptimes are consistent.”

Ferrari, however, is another matter.

“They are still using the coloured (aerodynamic) paint, which for me is a sign that the engineers don’t understand what is happening with the airflow.

“And just before the start of the season, that’s pretty alarming.”

Also trackside on Thursday was Sky commentator Martin Brundle, who confirmed Anderson’s view that the new McLaren looks “very good”.

Similarly, he added: “The Ferrari looks a bit of a handful, especially when it’s coming out of a corner trying to put the power down.

“It doesn’t look as bad as the McLaren did last year, but they’ve got some issues — there’s no doubt about it.”

Brundle also agreed with Anderson that, unlike the cakewalk of 2011, Red Bull could be set for a close fight this season.

“You can see Mark Webber working quite hard at the wheel,” said the former McLaren driver, “so I can understand why some of my mates in the paddock are saying it’s looking really close.”

Lotus is grappling with a major problem less than one month before the start of the 2012 season.
The former Renault team has sensationally abandoned this week’s Barcelona test and returned to its Enstone headquarters, after an unspecified chassis fault was detected on the new E20 car on Tuesday.

“We’ll put the right measures in place and we will be able to fix the problem before next week,” said technical director James Allison.

But Gary Anderson, formerly the designer of Jordan and Jaguar cars, believes Lotus is playing down the problem.

“You would have thought they could have fixed it overnight — chassis are made of carbon fibre composite so you’d be looking to bond new strengthening parts on,” he told the BBC.

“In my experience, if you can’t do it in 24 hours, I don’t think you can do it at all. I wouldn’t be surprised if this meant they needed a new chassis, which would make it touch and go for the first race.”

Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport thinks Lotus did not experience the fundamental problem at Jerez last week because the Circuit de Catalunya is a much more demanding circuit.

Meanwhile, Red Bull’s world champion Sebastian Vettel was Tuesday’s fastest as the second of three group tests began, but he admitted Lewis Hamilton – in the new McLaren – was also impressive.

“Ferrari is a bit of a secret at this stage and nobody knows whether they are really good or really bad,” admitted the German.

Dario Franchitti insists he has no regrets despite never adding success in formula one to his list of career achievements.
The famous Scot, whose wife is the Hollywood actor Ashley Judd, is the cousin of impressive Force India youngster Paul di Resta.

Last week, 38-year-old Franchitti joined his family member at the Jerez test.

The four-time Indycar champion and double Indy 500 winner was asked by Sky Sports if, despite flirting with Jaguar at the beginning of last decade, he regrets not having made it to F1.

“You can live your life thinking ‘I wish I’d done this, I wish I’d done that’,” he answered.

“It would have been great to race in formula one at some point, but when the chances were there I didn’t take them; I didn’t feel that they were better than the opportunities I had in America.”

Added Franchitti: “I made the decisions I made, I’m delighted I won a couple of Indy 500s and the four championships, so I wouldn’t change that for that world.”

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.

Jenson Button is the “best number 2″ in formula one, and his laid-back style is because he is happy to retire without adding a second world championship.

That is the typically outspoken claim of former Ferrari and Jaguar driver Eddie Irvine.

“Jenson is doing nothing special. He just does a reasonable job,” the Ulsterman told Germany’s Auto Bild Motorsport amid suggestions the 2009 world champion has got the upper hand on his McLaren teammate Lewis Hamilton this season.

Irvine said of Button: “He knows he will never again be world champion and he drives accordingly. Lewis on the other hand absolutely wants to be champion again and so he’s too aggressive.

“He fights not only against the others but against himself; in some races he has been simply stupid,” said the 45-year-old Ulsterman.

Irvine said he would like to see Hamilton switch to Red Bull.

“Then we will see how good (Sebastian) Vettel is,” he insisted. “And we really would, because one thing we already know is that Hamilton has beaten Alonso in the same team.”

Irvine said German Vettel, 24, is clearly “very, very good, but many drivers have taken a title in Newey’s car. And, for me, his teammate Webber is not a top driver”.

Eddie Irvine has outpaced F1′s current British stars on the Sunday Times’ sporting rich list for 2011.
The former Ferrari and Jaguar driver and 1999 championship runner-up has made a US $128 million fortune in property development since retiring from formula one in 2002.

1979 world champion Jody Scheckter, now a successful organic farmer, has $96 million, with Prodrive boss David Richards and David Coulthard coming next.

2008 title winner Lewis Hamilton’s $80m fortune matches Scottish veteran Coulthard’s, which is more than McLaren’s other driver Jenson Button at $77m.

1992 world champion Nigel Mansell’s fortune is the same as Button’s, according to the list.

Williams expects its new deal with Jaguar Land Rover to have a positive effect on its formula one foray.

The famous British team announced last week that it is teaming with the Tata-owned carmaker to create a $1 million Jaguar-branded hybrid supercar.

According to the Telegraph, Williams chairman Adam Parr said the deal “is fundamental to understanding our business going forward”.

He was speaking on Tuesday after the team announced improved profits.

“A core element of the strategy set out to investors in March was a partnership with a leading car manufacturer. Our new association with Jaguar Land Rover demonstrates the strategy is on track,” Parr said in a statement.

He told the Telegraph: “Our plan is to develop a very strong relationship with JLR outside of formula one, to have a long-term partnership based around high-performance road cars.

“It will help us attract better people and to perform on the track as well as off,” he added.

Famous F1 team Williams is teaming with British carmaker Jaguar to create a $1 million hybrid supercar.

Jaguar, wholly owned by India’s Tata Motors, said the C-X75 will reach 200 miles per hour with “incredibly low C02 emissions”.

Williams has been appointed for its “engineering expertise in areas including aerodynamics, carbon composite manufacture and hybrid technologies”, according to a media statement.

“Williams has always considered itself an engineering company and so this project will allow us to combine our technical expertise to create something truly exceptional,” said Sir Frank Williams.

Christian Klien admits he is hopeful of returning to the F1 grid next year with HRT.

Although the struggling Spanish team’s driver-swapping has been much derided within the paddock this season, Austrian Klien says his appointment is a good sign for the future.

“At the end they’ve relied more on experienced drivers,” the Jaguar and Red Bull veteran said in an interview with APA news agency. “It shows that the team is performance-oriented.

“For me I think it’s a positive sign that for next year things will go in the right direction,” said Klien.

He said he is confident he will be back at the wheel next March.

“These two races at the end of the season are definitely a positive signal. After this race we will have some further discussions,” explained Klien.

Asked if he will be disappointed if he is not selected by HRT to race in 2011, he admitted: “Yes, you could say that.

“At Virgin there is a place available there and possibly two seats at HRT.”

Klien admitted his chances will be boosted significantly if he can find some significant sponsorship.

“Today in the private teams, it is almost a must to bring money.”

Johnny Herbert will make his third appearance in 2010 as a formula one steward this weekend.

The 46-year-old Briton, who won three grands prix during his career spanning 165 races until 2000, debuted in the role in Malaysia and then wore an FIA shirt again in Turkey.

A spokesman for the Brazilian grand prix confirmed to O Estado de S.Paulo newspaper that Herbert will be the driver representative on the stewards’ panel at Interlagos.

He raced in F1 for Benetton, Tyrrell, Ligier, Sauber, Stewart and Jaguar.

His best finish at Interlagos, an event he contested nine times, was fourth in 1993 at the wheel of a Lotus.

Singapore was a “one-off” stint at the wheel of team regular Sakon Yamamoto’s car, HRT reserve driver Christian Klien said after Sunday’s night race.

Despite the struggling Spanish team saying Yamamoto was sidelined due to food poisoning, Klien’s graduation to the race seat coincided with the arrival of the logo of a new Austrian sponsor on the Cosworth-powered car.

Paddock sources also said one of Yamamoto’s personal sponsors was removed from the car in Singapore.

So just as Karun Chandhok and Bruno Senna have also been sidelined by HRT earlier in 2010, paddock cynics now expect the Japanese to have to make way for the better-funded Klien.

The 27-year-old former Jaguar and Red Bull driver also performed well in Singapore, considerably outqualifying teammate Senna before retiring from the race with an hydraulic problem whilst running 18th.

When asked about the future, Klien answered: “Singapore was a one-off to replace Sakon Yamamoto.  Anything else is not in my hands.

“It was really great to be feeling like a proper racing driver again and I do hope I could make my mark this weekend.”

He was less flattering about the Dallara-designed F110 car.

“It behaves just like a rally car,” he told Finnish newspaper Turun Sanomat, before joking: “I should probably ask Kimi Raikkonen for advice.”

Sakon Yamamoto will not be driving in Singapore this weekend because he has food poisoning, HRT team boss Colin Kolles said before Friday’s initial evening practice practice.

The Japanese driver, who due to his powerful Japanese sponsors replaced team regular Karun Chandhok earlier this season, will be replaced by Christian Klien.

Austrian Klien, 27, a former Honda and BMW test driver, is the struggling Spanish team’s reserve driver, with almost 50 grands prix of experience with Jaguar and Red Bull.

Despite saying he thinks Yamamoto has food poisoning, Kolles said he cannot guarantee the 28-year-old will be recovered by his home race in Japan in two weeks.

Fernando Alonso has refused to criticise the Sauber team for ousting fellow Spaniard Pedro de la Rosa.

De la Rosa has been replaced with immediate effect by former long-time Sauber driver Nick Heidfeld, 14 races into de la Rosa’s return to the F1 grid.

“From the outside, we don’t know what happened. You can’t really judge these sorts of decisions that a team makes,” said Alonso, whose employer Ferrari supplies engines to Hinwil based Sauber.

“All I can do is send all the encouragement in the world to Peter and to tell him to keep fighting, because he is a fighter,” added the two-time world champion to Spanish newspapers.

“With Sauber it didn’t work out and hopefully he will get another chance,” said Alonso.

Before 2010, 39-year-old de la Rosa spent the previous seven years as McLaren’s test driver, but he vowed not to give up his desire to keep racing in F1.

The veteran of 84 grands prix told TV broadcaster Sport1: “I will come back.

“It will be difficult, but I’ve done it before and I will do it again,” added former Arrows and Jaguar driver de la Rosa.