A Frenchman may have moved into pole position for a Virgin race seat in 2012.
Reporting that Jerome d’Ambrosio’s seat is in danger, the Belgian newspaper De Morgen this month said Charles Pic, fourth in this year’s GP2 series, has “more money” from his sponsors to spend next year.

Pic, 21, is also in talks with Toro Rosso about next month’s Abu Dhabi young driver test, team boss Franz Tost revealed last week.

But it was in the column of French commentator Jean-Louis Moncet that Pic’s links with 1996 Monaco winner Olivier Panis were revealed.

Pic is working with “his mentor” Panis through the Lagardere management outfit, and Moncet reveals that officials made a “very important working visit” to Suzuka recently.

“The Virgin team could soon announce the arrival of Charles Pic as a race driver for 2012,” said Moncet in his Auto Plus blog.

Daniel Ricciardo’s F1 race debut is due to a “collaboration deal” with world champion team Red Bull Racing, the Spanish team HRT has revealed.

The Australian rookie, 22 on Friday, will switch from being Red Bull junior team Toro Rosso’s Friday driver to a full race cockpit at Silverstone next weekend.

It was believed that a Toro Rosso driver would be moved aside this mid-season for Ricciardo’s debut, but both Jaime Alguersuari and Sebastien Buemi have impressed sufficiently to stay with the Faenza based team for now.

Hispania is therefore Red Bull’s plan B.

“This agreement is a reward for all the hard work Hispania has shown since we started in formula one,” said team owner Jose Ramon Carabante.

“We’re proud that the formula one world champion team has trusted us in their effort of developing their drivers. Let’s hope that this is just the start of a fruitful relationship.”

It is believed that Narain Karthikeyan will sit out Silverstone, but HRT is yet to formally announce Ricciardo’s teammate for the British grand prix.

Indeed, the Spanish team said both Karthikeyan and Vitantonio Liuzzi remain “official drivers” for 2011, with sources telling the media that Karthikeyan will be in the cockpit for the inaugural Indian grand prix in October.

Red Bull, meanwhile, confirmed that Ricciardo will split his new F1 racing duties with his season in the Formula Renault 3.5 series.

But he will not be able to continue driving for Toro Rosso on Fridays, causing French commentator Jean-Louis Moncet to speculate that Red Bull’s next up-and-coming youngster Jean-Eric Vergne will take over that role.

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.

Christian Horner has warned Red Bull’s rivals that the exhaust system of the RB6 car is not a silver bullet.

At Valencia nearly two weeks ago, Ferrari, Mercedes and Renault got so-called ‘blown rear diffusers’ up and running on their cars.

And this weekend at Silverstone, the concept is part of McLaren’s latest upgrade, with some estimating the laptime benefit at half a second or more.

But Red Bull team boss Horner has moved to play down those predictions.

“Our rivals overestimate the benefits of the blown diffuser,” he is quoted as saying by Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport.

“It’s only about two or three tenths,” added the Briton.

The team’s German driver Sebastian Vettel agrees.

“It gives us a bit, but only together with the whole package, and that includes our rear suspension.  That can’t be copied during the season,” he said.

The Auto Plus column of French commentator Jean-Louis Moncet reports that, as well as the blown diffuser, McLaren’s Silverstone upgrade includes new cooling, suspension and dampers.

Ferrari, on the other hand, is not expecting the fast Silverstone layout to suit the F10, even though the new Arena section features some new slow corners.

“The track seems reasonably similar to the way it was, with a lot of very fast corners, which will not suit us that much,” said Fernando Alonso.

(GMM)

According to well-known French commentator Jean-Louis Moncet, a notable meeting involving the Mercedes GP team took place on Monday.

Moncet wrote in his Auto Plus blog that the video conference would involve the Stuttgart based Daimler chairman Dieter Zetsche, and the Brackley based team’s Ross Brawn, Norbert Haug, Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg.

He said the “various statements by members of the team to the media” would be discussed, even though a Mercedes spokesman rubbished the report.

And although Mercedes insists the comments were taken out of context, Moncet could be referring to Rosberg’s quoted claims about being frustrated by a lack of development progress.

There have also been hints from Rosberg, Schumacher and Brawn that development of the 2010 car could be stopped in favour of focusing on next year’s project.

But in a team statement late last week, those figures insisted the team is still working hard on the W01.

“It’s been tough for us over the last few races but we are working hard to improve and I am confident we will get there,” said Rosberg.

However, a headline in the German daily Die Welt said “Expectation and reality are far apart at Mercedes”.

The article included Zetsche’s warning of early this year when he said that “If there are clear indications that we can use our money more effectively outside of formula one, we will have to take a new decision”.

And former Jordan and Jaguar designer Gary Anderson said: “The people around Brawn understand the car they have built for 2010 in the same way they understood it in the second half of last year.”

But Bernie Ecclestone thinks Mercedes needs more time to get up to speed with its own team.

“Of course it takes a bit of time to revive a myth, but I am sure they are on the right track and that the Silver Arrows will come back to full strength,” said the F1 chief executive.

(GMM)

Mercedes, McLaren and Renault look set to become the next formula one teams to emulate the unique exhaust layout of Red Bull’s 2010 car design.

With the RB6 proving the most consistently competitive chassis of the 2010 season so far, it has emerged that Ferrari’s Valencia-spec upgrade features low-mounted engine exhausts.

Rival engineers believe the layout, pioneered by Adrian Newey, allows air to be channelled more efficiently into the downforce-producing double diffuser.

The benefit, with also the fast-moving exhaust fumes channelled through the diffuser, is believed to be up to half a second per lap.

“We have a reasonably big upgrade that we are fighting to have for Silverstone, and if that is there then I would be disappointed if it is not a much bigger step than that,” said McLaren team boss Martin Whitmarsh.

And on the Auto Plus blog of the respected French journalist and commentator, Jean-Louis Moncet said Mercedes’ W01 car will also be modified for the new exhaust philosophy by the time of the British grand prix in July.

It is believed that, while the new Mercedes might even be ready for the streets of Valencia this weekend, a similar upgrade by Renault is also in the works.

Mercedes GP chief executive Nick Fry admitted that the Brackley based team is focusing on improving its F-duct system as well as implementing “the special exhaust system” seen on the Red Bull.

“If we can get both of those things on the car then we’ll be in a lot better position,” he said.

Team boss Ross Brawn has also admitted that “aspects” of Red Bull’s RB6 car will appear elsewhere in pitlane “over the next races”.

“For instance, I know that everyone is looking with interest at their exhaust system,” he confirmed.

(GMM)

Jun.17 (GMM)  Nick Heidfeld is tipped to combine an ongoing role as Mercedes’ reserve driver next year with a race cockpit in the German touring car series DTM.

The 33-year-old said recently he wants to be back on the F1 grid in 2011 because “I feel too young for DTM or for taking part in Le Mans”.

But with many teams likely to secure unchanged driver lineups next year, Heidfeld admitted this week: “I’m afraid that the top ten seats are gone already.”

Now, in the Auto Plus column of the well-known French TF1 journalist-commentator Jean-Louis Moncet, veteran of 167 grands prix Heidfeld may be leaning towards a move to DTM.

But Heidfeld would combine the 2011 seat, presumably in one of the Mercedes-powered DTM cars, with an ongoing role at grands prix, Moncet added.

The same split is being managed this year by David Coulthard, who races a 2008 C-Class as well as attending F1 events as a British television pundit and occasional Red Bull reserve driver.

However, Germany’s Bild newspaper recently said Sauber, currently fielding Pedro de la Rosa alongside Kamui Kobayashi, could host Heidfeld’s return to formula one in 2011.

Heidfeld drove for the independent Sauber team between 2001 and 2003, and then again with BMW ownership in 2006-2009.

Jun.10 (GMM)  Mercedes is reportedly considering a 10 per cent cut to its formula one budget.

According to the well-known French commentator Jean-Louis Moncet, the German marque’s board of directors met on Monday to discuss spending on formula one.

Moncet, whose blog is published by France’s Auto Plus, said Mercedes will review its budget after July’s Hockenheim race with a view to a 10 per cent reduction in 2011-2012.

He also writes that the Mercedes directors discussed supplying customer engines to a fourth team in 2011.