Carlos Sainz jr is on course for a future in formula one.

The 17-year-old Spaniard is the son of Carlos Sainz, the former two-time world rally champion.

Sainz jr, however, has pursued a career in open wheelers, and – now that Daniel Ricciardo and Jean-Eric Vergne have stepped up – he is the new cream of energy drink Red Bull’s junior driver programme.

And another direct link to the world of formula one for Sainz jr is his new sponsorship deal with Cepsa, the Spanish oil company that is also Red Bull-owned Toro Rosso’s main backer.

Sainz jr’s new Cepsa deal is for his participation this year in the British and Euroseries F3 categories, but “Our intention is to continue (beyond 2012),” Cepsa co-chairman Santiago Bergareche is quoted by Marca newspaper.

“Hopefully everything goes well and Carlos will be in that world (F1) one day,” added Cepsa chairman Alfonso Escamez.

He said the deal does not guarantee Sainz jr a future in f1.

“The sponsors have no say on the teams of the drivers. We can try to influence, to give our opinion, but we are not (able to decide) on that side.

“We hope that it does happen, but it will not necessarily.”

Pirelli’s 2011 tyres have improved since Romain Grosjean last tested them, the Swiss-born French driver has declared.

The former Renault race driver, who is 24, was in Bahrain last week until Sunday where the Italian marque continued its test programme with a 2009 Toyota.

The test programme at Sakhir was delayed by a sandstorm, meaning Grosjean had to call off his participation in the latest round of the Andros ice-racing series.

“The programme was quite diverse, including sequences of short and long runs, to understand the behaviour of the compounds,” he said.

Grosjean’s previous taste of F1′s 2011 tyres had been in Italy in September.

“(In Bahrain) I immediately felt an improvement over the tyres that I had used at Monza,” he is quoted in Italian by stopandgo.tv.

Red Bull’s 2010 title charge would be easier if F1 dropped a race, but Mark Webber is confident the sport is still headed to Korea.

There have been widespread doubts about the readiness of the new Yeongam venue for its inaugural October 24 date; one of the remaining seven rounds this season.

Australian Webber is currently leading the drivers’ championship by a slender 4 points, and he admitted on Thursday that he would be feeling more comfortable if there were fewer races still to run.

“If this was the last race,” he said at Spa-Francorchamps, “then we would be in a very good position. But you can’t think about it that way.

“Obviously if there were 30 races left then our position would be worse than with 6 or 7 to go.

“But I think we are going to Korea and we are going to race there,” added Webber.

The optimism about Korea of Webber, who turns 34 on Friday, could be significant, given Red Bull’s participation in the circuit’s inaugural laps late next week.

Karun Chandhok is scheduled to drive a Red Bull show car around the new Korean layout next Saturday.

“It will be a real honour to be one of the first people to drive around the new Korean circuit,” said the Indian driver.

Two months after the fracture of T12 vertebra remedied in the warm up at Silverstone, Hiroshi Aoyama in Brno is now back on track in test day Post-GP ‘available to the teams. The reigning World Champion of 250cc has covered 46 laps without any major problems with positive signs in preparation for participation in Grand Prix in Indianapolis on August 29: The decision, however, will be taken only in the coming days.

“My physical condition is better than my expectations, I am very happy about this, “said Hiroshi Aoyama finished the tests in advance to 16. “Today was a test just to check my healing process and see if they can run without problems. My back is not 100% yet and this is why we have not yet made a decision: we do these days, depending on how I feel. In any case I will return as soon as possible in the saddle!”.

Tom Jojic, technical Interwetten Honda MotoGP already wanted to thank Alex de Angelis for her work in the last three races to replace Aoyama, showing happy with the potential expressed by Hiro in a few laps equaled the reference in the lap of his replacement During the Friday practice.

At this point it seems obvious that Hiroshi Aoyama run the Indianapolis Grand Prix, with Alex De Angelis said yesterday that “There is the possibility of my return in the short term. “

Norbert Haug has joined McLaren’s Martin Whitmarsh in admitting he is not a big fan of the August shutdown.

Due to a cost-reducing agreement between the teams, every outfit in pitlane must close their factories for a full two-week period during the month-long gap between Hungary and Spa-Francorchamps.

“I would love not to have a shutdown and be ploughing on,” Whitmarsh admitted in Hungary on Sunday, in the hours before the team’s Woking headquarters closed its doors.

Also keen to keep working on its 2010 car is Mercedes GP.

“This is actually a forced vacation,” the German marque’s competition director Haug is quoted by DPA news agency.

“Particularly when you’re in a catching-up phase, you do not want to be interrupted,” he said.

Williams’ Nico Hulkenberg does not agree.

“The summer break is the same for everyone,” said the rookie.

“I will have a little holiday, a little bit of time at home and a little bit of training,” added Hulkenberg.

And Adrian Sutil said his colleagues at Force India deserve a break.

“I think it’s good because the team works so hard.  It’s a tough job for the engineers and mechanics and extremely tiring.  It’s good for them,” said the German.

Nico Rosberg is planning to use his spare time to make his triathlon debut.

“I’ve never done one before,” said the Mercedes driver.  “It’s a new passion.”

But unlike Jenson Button, who is raising money for charity with his participation in the London Triathlon this month, Rosberg wants to keep his passion under wraps.

Asked how spectators can watch him in action, the 25-year-old answered: “I don’t want to say.”

Although the German carmaker pulled out of the sport at the end of last year, Peter Sauber’s once-again independent team retained the official title BMW Sauber F1.

It is believed the reason was so that the commercial rewards due from Sauber’s participation in the 2009 world championship, resulting in sixth place in the title, were not jeopardised.

However, the situation means the C29 has been known officially and awkwardly as the BMW Sauber-Ferrari, due to the use of a Ferrari customer engine.

But although initially using clearly visible signage, the team has increasingly moved away from even mentioning BMW, now running a red ‘S’ logo and Sauber Motorsport branding.

According to Germany’s motorsport-total.com, the F1 Commission met on Monday ahead of a Geneva meeting of the World Motor Sport Council on Wednesday.

Sauber reportedly lodged a request with F1 Commission members – among them key stakeholders including FOM, fellow teams, promoters and sponsors – for a name change.

The next step is the approval of F1′s governing body.

(GMM)

Jun.16 (GMM)  Jacques Villeneuve has admitted he is not yet in talks with any teams about making a return to formula one.

The French Canadian, who came close to driving for the hopeful Serbian outfit Stefan GP this season, said last weekend he will make a final effort to find a seat for 2011.

“I am working on it more than ever, and for that reason I have postponed a participation in the NASCAR circuit,” 1997 world champion Villeneuve, who turns 40 early next year, said in an interview with Austria’s Salzburger Nachrichten.

Stefan GP, however, seems unlikely to be on the grid any time soon, and Renault team boss Eric Boullier said recently that he is not interested in signing Villeneuve.

Asked if there are already “concrete negotiations” with any teams, he answered: “No, nothing concrete, because it’s too early in the season.

“There are some positive contacts.  If the Stefan project had worked out, I would be driving in F1 already this year.”

Villeneuve acknowledged that a place with a top team is not initially likely.

“I have a longer term plan,” he said.  “The most important thing is to get inside, and then you can look around and find the right place.”

Sebastien Buemi is wearing a bandage on his right elbow in the Istanbul paddock.

“It was my fault,” the Toro Rosso driver is quoted by Speedweek.  “I was jumping over a railing and hit my arm.”

Asked by a reporter if his participation in this weekend’s Turkish grand prix was ever in doubt, the young Swiss answered: “Not for a second!”

(GMM)

Daimler’s President, Dieter Zetsche, has warned that for Mercedes F1 racing team to continue in Formula One, it must pay its participation by winning races, and thus helping its headquarter company.

Mercedes, together with Aabar stockholders, took charge of Brawn at the end of last year, satisfying the long cherished dream of becoming a Formula One constructor.  The manufacturer chose the seven-times champion, Michael Schumacher for the project, who will partner with Nico Rosberg to win the championship in his first comeback year.

However, Zetsche reveled in an interview that, “winning is the project’s “condition,” and he also warned that if there are “clear signs” that Daimler’s money could be better invested in some place else than Formula One, “a new decision will have to be taken.”

“The fact that Aabar is beside us as an investor, not only shows that we are allocating our risk, but it is a sign that the Formula One racing team has to pay itself;” added Zetsche.

Danica Patrick who finished 6th in the ARCA 200-mile race last Saturday, February 6^th,  will participate Saturday’s Camping World 300 NASCAR Nationwide Series race.

Beyond Daytona, Patrick’s 2010 campaign is confirmed starting with the Feb. 20 race at Auto Club Speedway and the Feb. 27 race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Following Vegas, Patrick will take a four-month hiatus to focus on her IndyCar Series responsibilities before returning to drive June 26 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway

ARCA stock cars are almost identical to Nationwide Series cars. Patrick’s ARCA start Saturday was the first race in a stock car for the Roscoe, Ill., driver, who in 2008 became the first woman to win an IndyCar event.

Her participation in the Camping World race was contingent on her performance on the high-banked Daytona track. Patrick veered off track after contact with a car driven by former Formula 1 driver Nelson Piquet, Jr., and slid sideways through the grass into Turn 1.

Her car sustained minor damage when it struck the 31-degree banking of the corner, but she rallied from the back of the pack and ran as high as 5th before the checkered flag waved.

JR Motorsports will still field two cars for the Nationwide Series season opener. Due to sponsorship reallocation for the upcoming season, Dale Earnhardt Jr. will drive the No. 88 Chevrolet in place of Kelly Bires in what is the first of two scheduled races for the JRM co-owner. Bires will return to the seat of the No. 88 Chevy the following week at Auto Club Speedway and could be called upon to drive the No. 7 Chevrolet at Daytona should Patrick not compete in that event.

“We want to give Danica the best opportunity to compete at Daytona, and that includes making sure she is 100 percent comfortable in that driver’s seat,” said Kelley Earnhardt, JRM co-owner and general manager.

The owner of Force India team, Director and Co-Owner, Vijay Mallya played down reports that Force India will disappear in 2010.

In an article presented by the Daily Telegraph newspaper, it was mentioned that the team based in Silverstone is facing the dissolution of the Great Britain companies, the reason being that it has not delivered their accounts since 2008.

“It is not unknown for companies to file their annual returns late, the reasons for which are varied,” Indian billionaire Mallya, declared.

It has been confirmed that the Companies House has granted an extension until February 25^th, to file the delayed paperwork.

“We’re taking all the necessary measures to guarantee the submission of the documents prior to that date.  Hence, participation of Force India in the championship is not and will not be in jeopardy; “ Mallya stated.

Meanwhile, a spokesman from the team clarified that the 2010 Force India single-seater, the Mercedes-VJM03 made its debut at Silverstone, on Wednesday of this week, not Thursday as was previously informed.

The afternoon session began with comments in the paddock regarding the possibility of seeing Fernando Alonso testing the Ferrari F10.  With a warmer weather and more grip on the tracks the single-seaters started to leave the boxes heading to the Valencian Ricardo Tormo Circuit’s racetrack in Cheste.

With a lost Austrian –we say ‘lost” because we didn’t see him through all the morning (strange thing)-, Lewis Hamilton started by lowering his morning times, 1:12.256, but still far from Felipe Massa’s chronometer and his F10.  That’s how the afternoon started.

At 3:30 the pilot from Austria was seen around the box, and rumors spread with regards to his possible participation in today’s tests.

Massa carried out many tyre tests –we assumed he was testing their performance-, explaining why the Brazilian entered the box continuously.  The same as Ferrari, the rest of the ‘scuderias’ tested their performance, thus the morning times were not improved.

The Renault improved only a bit.  The Polish, Robert Kubica, wearing a completely black helmet, continued to average very high times ( 1:14 ).  The R30 seems to have very little performance evolution compared to its predecessor, last year’s R29.

Today was a hard working day for Nico Rosberg who commanding his Mercedes GP made all kinds of tests.  Yesterday, his single-seater was very fast, but today it was slower marking 1:14. high times and running 25 lap periods to try the tyres out.

The Ferrari engine Sabuer of Kobayashi, after completing a period of 30 laps started to lower its times, becoming one of the fastest of the afternoon ( 1:12.667 ).  The Sauber is giving a good impression in these first tests.

The first impressions of Barichello on his Williams FW32’s Cosworth engine, indicate less speed (point) than the rest.  Specifically, around 8-12km/h (Mercedes and Ferrari).

In a bit more than an hour the session will end.   We’re walking towards the paddock to pick up some feelings.

Today, the Valencian circuit has had around 7.000 spectators, according to the organization.  A good number of people has gotten together to see the tests, so if climate conditions permit it, a higher number is expected for tomorrow with the attendance of Fernando Alonso in the racetrack.

Best times of the day.

1º Massa (1:11.722)

2º Kobayashi (1:12.056)

3º Hamilton (1:12.056)

4º Rosberg (1:12. 899)

5º Barrichello (1:13.377)

Ferrari’s chairman, Luca Cordero di Montezemolo, left a door open to the future incursion of the motorcycle pilot, Valentino

Rossi in the Formula One.

The nine-times world champion has two days of training last week in a Ferrari at the Montmeló Circuit and the Italian ‘Scuderia’ was impressed with his presentations.  ”He’s a friend and an indisputable champion.  He’s a great Formula One fan and of the engines, and a potential champion,” he assured during the new single-seater’s presentation, the ‘F10′.

This way, the highest person in command of the ‘Cavallino Rampante’ made it clear that there’s a possibility that Rossi will be given the opportunity to drive in Ferrari in 2010.  ”If he can train and adapt to the F1, why not?” he added.

On the other hand, he declared that Mercedes is not a real manufacturer and that Michael Schumacher is back in the competition thanks to Ferrari.  ”Let’s not talk about Schumacher,” Montezemolo suggested in a press conference, before he was forced to point out the differences between Ferrari and the new Mercedes ‘Scuderia’ which bought Brawn GP, the world champion.

“I have great respect for Mercedes.  I have said and repeat that it’s good to see its total participation in the F1.  But it’s a different kind of participation from ours,” he said, at a building located in the “Piazza Michael Schumacher”, spiritual home of Ferrari, in northern Italy.  ”Its participation is based in Great Britain.  They bought Brawn,” he clarified.

Montezemolo is proud of the Ferrari’s Italian “heart,” of the fact that it’s one of the few car manufacturers left and the only team which has competed in the 60 Formula One seasons.

In addition, he does not believe that Mercedes will be able to reproduce that special atmosphere, even though Schumacher might have taken some information with him.  ”Honestly, I’m no longer worried about the secrets that filtered with Schumacher.  I was the one who planted in this head the idea of coming back to the Formula One,” he concluded.