Williams has promoted the former ‘spygate’ engineer Mike Coughlan.
The former McLaren chief designer was sacked and also banned after receiving secret Ferrari information in 2007.

He went to NASCAR but in June returned to F1 with the famous British team Williams, whose technical director Sam Michael has just departed.

Coughlan initially joined as chief engineer.

“We have just confirmed (Coughlan) as our new technical director,” team chairman Adam Parr told reporters in India.

Mark Gillan joined Williams last month as chief operations engineer.

“In terms of how they are going I think it has been a very positive step for us,” added Parr.

Williams is the lowest-placed team in the 2011 constructors’ championship except for newcomers Lotus, Virgin and HRT.

“There are some areas where we need to invest a little bit and we are doing that as fast as we can to really try and take a big step forward for next year,” said Parr.

Rubens Barrichello has revealed he has been impressed with the step forward taken by Team Lotus for 2011.
Lotus finished its debut season as the best of the three newcomers, but still significantly off the pace of the established teams.

“Lotus were four seconds behind Red Bull in 2010,” Williams driver and grand prix veteran Barrichello told O Estado de S.Paulo newspaper.

“They seem to have improved two seconds for this year.”

Little can be said about HRT’s untested new F111 car, but Barrichello has admitted he is worried for the Virgin team.

“With the return of the 107 per cent rule, it is possible that a few times they will not qualify. At the moment they seem slow,” said the 38-year-old.

Eric Boullier has answered “yes” when asked if Nick Heidfeld and Adrian Sutil are still in the running to drive for the Renault team in 2011.

The Enstone based squad is considering whether to re-sign Vitaly Petrov, the Russian rookie who brings substantial backing to the race seat but has scored more than 100 fewer points than team leader Robert Kubica this season.

The situation means Renault has missed out on the additional revenue of beating Mercedes to fourth in the constructors’ championship, moving Auto Motor und Sport to ask team boss Boullier “if a second Kubica” would have proved better value in 2010.

“A sentence beginning with ‘if’ is wrong,” answered the Frenchman.

“Vitaly is lacking experience at a high level. He started very late in motor sport and is needing to learn more than the other newcomers.”

But can Renault afford to wait for the 26-year-old to develop, given its plans to return to world championship contention?

“The title is at the end of our master plan,” answered Boullier. “We must take one step at a time.

“It would be stupid to get a second top driver if we are not ready for it. I want to establish ourselves as a top team, for the long term. Then the top sponsors will come again.”

But he insisted that Petrov’s place is not necessarily safe.

“We have said we are supporting Vitaly until the end of the season to give him a chance. Then we will make a decision.”

When asked if Germans Heidfeld and Sutil are still in the running, Boullier answered: “Yes. But first we have to give Petrov his chance.

“Only then can we enter serious talks with them. Nick is free for 2011, as we know, and he wants to be with us.”

What about Kimi Raikkonen, who was earlier linked with a return to F1 with Renault but then angrily slammed the speculation as a “marketing” ploy?

“We were interested; his management contacted me,” answered Boullier. “But the media reported about it and it annoyed Kimi. He then told me that he would prefer to keep rallying.”

The struggling Spanish team HRT insists it is reluctant to respond to Bernie Ecclestone’s latest scathing comments.

The F1 chief executive said this week that while Lotus is worth keeping in F1 and Virgin should simply invest more money, the sport’s newcomers are “cripples” that have been “an embarrassment”.

When asked about the 80-year-old Briton’s jibe, Hispania’s communications boss Alba Saiz said the team prefers “to work, not respond to everyone who talks” about them.

“We have nothing more to say,” Saiz is quoted by the Spanish news agency EFE.

Ecclestone had said F1 needs “to get rid” of its stragglers, but the HRT official said the team is pushing ahead for 2011.

“We are working and already thinking about next year, and in that way we have just announced a partnership with Williams for two years.

“In a couple of weeks we will make a further announcement,” added Saiz.

Peter Sauber has admitted his ideal driver constellation would be a promising young rookie alongside a steadier hand.

Presently, the Swiss team’s lineup is fiery Japanese newcomer Kamui Kobayashi next to the dependable veteran of 169 grands prix Nick Heidfeld.

But the latter German is currently searching for a job for 2011, after Sauber signed the Telmex-sponsored Mexican GP2 driver Sergio Perez.

“We think he has great potential and is very fast,” Sauber said at his team’s Hinwil headquarters this week, where the 20-year-old Perez was having his first seat fitting.

“But of course there are no guarantees,” admitted the 67-year-old.

According to the Swiss daily Blick, Sauber was asked whether sitting two young newcomers in next year’s C30s is too great a risk for the team still recovering from the loss of BMW ownership.

“It would be better to have an experienced driver beside a younger one,” he admitted, “but Kobayashi has matured and next year can take over the role of team leader.”

A Red Bull-style blown exhaust and diffuser layout is “in the works”, according to Toro Rosso driver Sebastien Buemi.

Although still owned by the energy drinks maker, Faenza based Toro Rosso is now going it alone from a technical perspective, no longer receiving updates from Red Bull Technology in the UK.

Toro Rosso is the lowest ranked of the established teams in the constructors’ championship, and concerned about falling further off the pace.

With all F1 teams except the newcomers now running a blown floor, Buemi said the innovation is “in the works” for the Ferrari-powered STR5.

“We just want to do it thoroughly and properly before we use it at a race weekend,” the Swiss is quoted by German language Speed Week.

His teammate Jaime Alguersuari is confident the car might look stronger at the faster Spa-Francorchamps layout than at recent outings.

“If our closest rivals have tended to look stronger than us in medium to high downforce configuration, I am hoping that Spa might see us run more competitively,” said the Spaniard.

Michael Schumacher is probably the pilot, in which demand and reality currently the most gape. But the world champion is known for his strength of will – that’s why he has checked off the 2010 season as well as his Mercedes racing team already and concentrate fully on the coming year.

Before that, however, must be analyzed why the comeback season, the 41-year-olds went so far as disappointing. Schumacher for his own theories. “You simply must emphasize that we got this car down into the hands”, he explains that he and team mate Nico Rosberg on the development work as a team newcomers had little impact. “This is practically a relic of what last year was developed. And there are quite a few compromises that we must respond to driver.”
Thus, Schumacher refers primarily to the fact that his predecessor Jenson Button preferred a much understeer car, he is even better but with a tendency to oversteer cope. But that’s not enough: “The tires are of course a big issue. But the fact is that the car is not at all in harmony – not with the tires, even with the drivers. So it is to invest all the time is that the next years is not the case. ”

2010 Schumacher is two-thirds of the season knocked off at the ninth World Cup standing. missing on championship leader Mark Webber him 123, to team-mate Rosberg 56 meters. “If you look at the points table, then we must certainly not be satisfied,” Schumacher is too open. However, he doubts not on his own performance: “There are good reasons why the difference is relatively large. The fact is that I feel completely at home. We are on the right track to compete again next year.”

Jun.18 (GMM) Luca di Montezemolo has continued his sustained attack on formula one’s new teams.

The Ferrari president thinks the grid should be filled by the bigger teams fielding three cars, rather than by opening the doors to newcomers including Lotus, Virgin and HRT.

Next year, another small team is likely to make its debut.

Spain’s El Mundo newspaper this week claims that the budget of the new Spanish outfit HRT is ten times smaller than Ferrari’s.

“In modern F1 races cars with GP2 levels of performance shouldn’t be allowed to participate — they are supposed to race on Sunday mornings,” Montezemolo is quoted by Italy’s La Gazzetta dello Sport.

Montezemolo argues that Fernando Alonso’s push for Montreal victory was ruined by the lapping of backmarkers, an apparent reference to his delays behind Jarno Trulli’s Lotus and the HRT of Karun Chandhok.

But while it is true that, earlier this year, the small teams were vastly off the pace, all of the six cars were faster by multiple seconds than the entire GP2 field in Turkey recently.

And in Canada last weekend, Heikki Kovalainen’s Lotus qualified just two tenths behind the Ferrari-powered Sauber of Kamui Kobayashi, while Virgin and HRT runners were also easily within 107 per cent of the pole time.

The new teams’ laptime deficit in Canada was between 3 and 4 seconds, compared with Giancarlo Fisichella’s 2.2 second qualifying deficit in a Ferrari-powered Force India at the same circuit two years ago.

A report at Italiaracing said: “It should be noted that the only complaints this season about the smaller teams have come from Ferrari.”

May 27 (GMM)  Lucas di Grassi will this weekend finally race Virgin’s updated car, but it may still be slower than the one piloted by his teammate Timo Glock.

Due to the volcanic ash cloud and then the short turnaround between Spain and Monaco, di Grassi had to drive the original car with the famously small fuel tank while Glock raced one with significant developments.

Rookie di Grassi, 25, will finally receive the longer-wheelbase VR-01 in Turkey, he confirmed to Brazil’s Globo.

“For the first time I have the upgraded car,” he said ahead of the Turkish grand prix, “although it is a little heavier than Glock’s, because of our difference in height.”

Heavier drivers are not normally penalised with heavier cars in F1, due to the 620 kilogram car-plus-driver minimum weight.

But because Virgin’s basic car-plus-driver weight exceeds the 620kg minimum, the 10cm-taller di Grassi is unavoidably penalised in performance terms.

But di Grassi is still hopeful of taking a big step forward at Istanbul Park.

“These improvements will bring half a second in our laptime,” he said.

“I love to race in Turkey, a track where I have won twice in GP2.  I know it’s a quite different reality now, but let’s look to be the best team among the newcomers.

“We are focused on solving our problems of reliability and looking to get a good result,” added di Grassi.

Williams has emerged as a third possible recipient of Renault engines for the 2011 season.

After the French marque said it has the capacity to add more teams to its current F1 roster, it was rumoured that the hopeful newcomers ART could be eyeing Renault power.

Reports then emerged that the new Cosworth-powered Lotus team might be contemplating a change of engine supplier.

Now, Italy’s Autosprint reports that Williams – openly not entirely happy with its current Cosworth engines – is already in talks with Renault.

There may also be a link between the Williams/Renault talks, and rumours that Renault’s former long-time engineering director Pat Symonds could soon be a consultant to the design of Williams’ forthcoming FW33 car.

Renault currently supplies the team that bears its name, as well as the dominant Red Bull Racing, and Renault’s head of engine operations Remi Taffin said: “We still do not know how it will be in 2011.

“But we do know that we have the ability to assist more than two teams.”

(GMM)

This afternoon although Davide Valsecchi was quickest on track, five newcomers climbed again in the Top 10 finishers. GP2 Series Pre-season testing came to an end today (Friday) in Barcelona with rookies firmly proving their strengths and potential, Christian Vietoris leading the field in the morning session and setting the best laptime of the day. A total of six rookies finished in the Top 10.

On great form since the beginning of the three-day test session, rookie Vietoris at Racing Engineering took top spot one hour after the pitlane opened and stayed put until lunch break. Oliver Turvey moved up to second fastest in the last half hour of the session edging out Dani Clos on the second Racing Engineering car.

Also competitive was Charles Pic at Arden, finishing fourth, his strongest showing so far. Behind him was another Frenchman and newcomer, ART’s Jules Bianchi rounding the Top 5. Yesterday’s quickest man Jérôme d’Ambrosio finished in 6th place ahead of Pastor Maldonado, the two Super Nova cars – Josef Kral ahead of Marcus Ericsson, and Sergio Perez at Addax. The session was red flagged twice, first following the collision between Ho-Pin Tung and Adrian Zaugg at Turn 5, and then after Bianchi hit the barriers at Turn 3 because of a technical gremlin.

While Leimer topped the timesheet for most of the afternoon session, the last thirty minutes where once again extremely animated and saw drastic changes in the classification. It started with Davide Valsecchi taking the lead with Maldonado moving up to second place three hundredths behind. Fabio Leimer at Ocean confirmed his good form in third place ahead of rookies Sam Bird, Turvey and Bianchi. Giedo van der Garde finished in seventh place with Max Chilton, Luiz Razia and d’Ambrosio in tow.

This marks the end of pre-season tests for GP2 Series. The 2010 season will kick off in Barcelona alongside Formula One on May 7, 8, 9.

(YF1)

With March’s season about to begin and the first official test of the year scheduled to start in just a week, the teams are locked up at the factories busily preparing their single-seated cars.

This week may be decisive and surely enough, the teams will begin to unveil their cars to their expectant audience.

After months of waiting, this is always an exciting moment and with four new motor-racing teams, great surprises are guaranteed.

First with Ferrari, which will show its single-seated on January 28^th, with pilots Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa; an appointment one must not miss.

The MP4 McLaren with 25 engine, that will be driven by the current World Champion, Jenson Button and the also British, Lewis Hamilton, will be launched next Friday(January 29th) at Vodafone in Newbury, the sponsor’s British headquarters.

On the other hand, BMW Sauber, Williams and Renault will introduce their single-seaters directly in the Valencia racetrack on January 31^st, one day previous to the year’s first official test.  By the way, they have both refused to take place in the traditional show in the factory.

Mercedes has been the first one to officially introduce its team, but with the Brawn GP painted with the colors they will be using this year.

Red Bull and Force India will present their single-seaters in the second official test of the year, at the Spanish circuit of Jerez in February 10th.  Likewise, Lotus will wait until that second test to launch its single-seated car.  Mike Gascoyne has revealed he plans to start out his car’s engine for the first time in February 5^th, before introducing it in February 12th.

The mystery comes from the other side of the “ocean”, from the new USA team.  USF1 has decided to break conventionalism and its car will make its debut on the Barber Motorsport Park’s tests in Alabama, at the beginning of February.

The thing that is worrying most is the lack of information concerning the newcomers: Virgin Racing and Campos Meta which have not specified any date.

Presentations of single-seated cars and teams

28 January – Ferrari, Maranello, Italy.

29 January – McLaren, Newbury, Great Britain.

31 January – BMW Sauber / Renault, Valencia, Spain.

1 February – Mercedes GP / Williams, Valencia, Spain

10 February – Red Bull / Force India, Jerez, Spain

Beginnings of February – Barber Motorsport Park, Alabama, USA.

12 February – Lotus