Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull could be set to reign over a new era of dominance in formula one.
That is the view of former grand prix winner and paddock personality Gerhard Berger, a countryman and close friend of Red Bull mogul Dietrich Mateschitz.

He is also the former team co-owner at German Vettel’s first team Toro Rosso.

“If he keeps it up like this and Adrian Newey keeps on building such brilliant cars, then it pushes slowly into dimensions that have only been seen with Schumacher and Ferrari,” Berger told Die Welt newspaper.

But another Austrian, triple world champion Niki Lauda, is not so sure Schumacher’s seven world titles will be troubled. “What happened with Michael will probably remain out of reach for Sebastian,” he insisted.

Lauda referred to Schumacher’s era of success that featured a Ferrari budget approaching EUR 400 million a season, unrestricted testing and a works-style relationship with tyre supplier Bridgestone.

“For them it was the perfect system,” he said.

According to Pirelli’s Paul Hembery, however, it is the little things making the difference for Vettel, who he said was the only F1 racer in 2011 to make a surprise visit to the new tyre supplier’s factory.

Hembery told Spain’s Marca newspaper that the visit was in the dead of the Christmas period.

“He wanted to know what was going on, to see the labs, meet the staff, think about the sporting side and strategies, compounds, everything.

“I can’t say what advantage that gives you but if that’s what you do with each aspect of the car then you can understand the results,” he said.

Dietrich Mateschitz insists that team orders will play no role in whether a Red Bull driver secures the energy drink-owned team’s first title in 2010.

A myriad of pundits believe Mark Webber, with a higher points tally, should now be backed by his teammate Sebastian Vettel in order to chase down the lead of Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso with two races to go.

But Austrian billionaire Mateschitz told Der Spiegel newspaper that there will be no team orders.

“This is a sport and the best should win,” he said.

“Power, politics, manipulation and so on should be kept as far away as possible.

“The game is ‘come and get me, if you can’, and not ‘let me through because I’m better’,” insisted Mateschitz. “Racing must remain racing.”

And their points tallies aside, he is adamant that the events about to happen on the circuit will determine whether Webber or Vettel triumphs.

“They are different in personality, but equally fast,” he said.

Jaime Alguersuari has offered a less than flattering opinion about the personality of his fellow Spaniard and F1 driver Fernando Alonso.

“He is cold (frio), very cold,” said 20-year-old Alguersuari, the youngest driver on the grid who races with the second Red Bull team, Toro Rosso.

“He is a man of few words,” he is quoted as saying by Dir Emotions.  “I have no relationship with him.”

Alguersuari also described the Ferrari driver and double world champion as “a great” F1 racer.

Alonso, 29, recently moved to clarify some misperceptions by revealing that when people actually meet him, they often remark that he is “nicer” than his media image.

The German-language spox.com compared Alonso’s apparent win-at-all-costs attitude with that of Michael Schumacher.

“In the media we read again and again things about ourselves that are not right,” said the Spaniard.

“People are making judgements from the outside, but that’s the business.”

Asked to clarify the misperceptions, Alonso said: “I am very calm and relaxed, even romantic.  Actually, I’m a normal guy.

“A little bit shy, but when everything’s right, that’s when the Spaniard in me comes out,” he laughed.

In Singapore last weekend, Ferrari team boss Stefano Domenicali agreed that Alonso is “cool and calm and sometimes difficult”.

And after back-to-back victories from pole, Alonso says he is on the top of his game.

“The F1 championship is very long compared to other sports so you can’t be completely fit, focused, motivated 100 per cent of the time.

“But now, in this part of the championship, I’m at a peak,” he is quoted in the Spanish press.

Jun.16 (GMM)  Robert Kubica is the first formula one personality to oppose plans for ‘proximity wings’ in 2011.

After a meeting in Canada last weekend, teams agreed that drivers should next year be able to adjust their rear wings when they are following a car, in order to boost their chances of overtaking.

“I think that could be quite exciting,” said FOTA chairman Martin Whitmarsh, insisting that drivers will not be able to use the straightline speed-boosting system to defend position.

FOTA’s technical chairman Ross Brawn added: “It’s going to be an enhanced F-duct, where the car that is following will be allowed to reduce its drag to attack the car in front.

“I think that will give a lot more opportunity for overtaking.”

But Renault driver Kubica insists that grands prix have been exciting enough in 2010 without the radical innovation.

“And secondly,” he told Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport, “why it is only now that people are noticing that overtaking is difficult?

“I watched my first formula one race in 1997, and there was not much overtaking then,” noted the Pole.