Jenson Button has dreamed up a new victory salute, after growing weary of last year’s “crooked finger”.
McLaren’s Button, who beat reigning double champion Vettel to victory last week in Melbourne, admitted last year that the German’s winning salute had started to grate his nerves.

“He keeps doing that,” Button grimaced a year ago, demonstrating Vettel’s awkward index-finger salute that always followed the Red Bull driver’s latest pole or victory.

“It would be alright if it was straight.”

At one point, just after yet another Vettel pole, the young German saluted the ranks of photographers with his finger, and Button jokingly attempted to bite it off.

So, after winning in Albert Park ahead of Vettel in the 2012 opener last weekend, Button unfurled a new salute.

Asked if Vettel will now get sick of the two-handed ‘W for winner’ gesture, Button smiled: “Hopefully he will.

“I actually did the ‘W’ with a water bottle in my hand, which didn’t really work very well,” said the Briton.

“I’m sure we will sometimes see the crooked finger but hopefully not very often this year.”

 Christian Horner has admitted Red Bull is keeping its cards close to its chest ahead of the 2012 season.
Under the glare of the F1 world’s eyes, the title-defending RB8 has been in action for four days at Jerez recently.

But when the Adrian Newey-penned car was officially launched, the team refused to host a traditional unveiling ceremony, instead releasing a short animated video.

“We didn’t want it photographed at the first opportunity from every side by our competition,” admitted team boss Horner to Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport.

Amid Red Bull’s meteoric recent success, rival teams have copied the blown diffuser and flexible wing concepts, and this year’s ‘step’ noses are all the result of yet another Newey design philosophy beneath the chassis.

“At last year’s launch at Valencia there were 100 photographers all doing their shots from the roof of the pits,” Briton Horner exclaimed.

“In no time at all, everyone knew every dimension of our car.”

So, in 2012, some mysteries about the RB8 continue to exist — one is the real or secondary function of the letterbox-style nose slot, and another is an unlaunched development of the exhaust layout.

“Last year we had to have the blown diffuser out early,” explained Horner, “because we had to find out how the exhaust gases affected the tyres.

“This time, the secret is in the detail, and you don’t want to give your competition too much of a helping hand,” he smiled.

Fernando Alonso has landed himself in a controversy within the Spanish-language media.

After arriving in a private jet for a holiday on the small Portuguese island of Porto Santo, the Ferrari driver lost his temper with a group of paparazzi photographers as he walked through the airport.

A video shows the 29-year-old telling the group in Spanish: “The first photographer or camera I see in the next days, I will leave the next day and tell everyone that Porto Santo is a disaster.

“Ok? So please leave us alone,” added Alonso, who gestured with a thumbs-down.

The footage was featured in the news coverage by several media, with some reporting that Alonso has been even more aggressive on occasion.

Alonso’s next official engagement is Ferrari’s traditional Wroom event in the Italian Dolomites.

Photos of Bernie Ecclestone giving a middle finger salute are complementing reports on Thursday about the F1 chief executive’s birthday.

F1′s chief executive and long-time ‘supremo’ is turning 80, and Red Bull marked the forthcoming occasion in Korea last weekend with a mischievous present.

It was a zimmer frame, featuring a Red Bull front wing and a special F1-style steering wheel with a range of custom buttons.

One of the buttons was labelled ‘Viagra’, another ‘Nurse’, and yet another ‘Pasquale’ — referring to his ever-present assistant Pasquale Lattuneddu.

Posing at the front of the Red Bull garage with Christian Horner and his favourite driver Sebastian Vettel, Ecclestone greeted the massed photographers with good humour and the obscene single-finger gesture.

And according to Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport, Ecclestone does not intend to mark the occasion of his actual birthday on Thursday.

“I hate parties,” he said.

When asked what he really wants for his 80th birthday, the Briton was quoted a few days ago by the German weekly Die Zeit: “I just want to get there.”

F1′s travelling circus is arriving in South Korea, and the first reports are mixed.

BBC television anchor Jake Humphrey summed up the Yeongam venue as satisfactory but “far from finished”.

“Things look pretty ready to go,” said Virgin driver Lucas di Grassi, “with some beauty work still to be finished but the main structure is ready.”

Others talked about their long journeys from the huge Seoul airport to Mokpo, the closest city to Yeongam, in the impressive high-speed KTX train with free wi-fi.

Photographer Darren Heath was less impressed with the journey, tackled by many in buses.  “F1 in Seoul?  Nah, let’s have it in the middle of nowhere 100s of miles from anywhere,” he wrote on Twitter.

Veteran Swiss correspondent Roger Benoit, writing in Blick newspaper, said the F1 track itself is an “enormous construction site”, and his hotel room one of the ones usually rented by the hour.

“No joke,” he said.

Reportedly so unimpressed was Williams with the local accommodation on offer that the British team has committed to a 3 hour round trip every day in order to stay in a nicer hotel.

“Dominating the venue are the excavators, debris and waste,” wrote Benoit, who said a bridge over the front straight is still littered with scaffolding and hard-hatted workers.

Sauber’s team manager Beat Zehnder complained about the cost of the team buildings, with the rent costing $40,000.

“Whoever wants to use the upper floor must pay another 20,000,” he said, “but everyone has decided to just use the ground floor!”

Said Benoit: “I’m already looking forward to the final races in Sao Paulo and Abu Dhabi!”

Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport said rolling machines are still working on the recently-laid top surface of asphalt, with the paint for the starting grid yet to be sprayed.

“Only on Friday will we know whether the surface will withstand the stresses of formula one cars,” read the report.

“Everything on the sandy site is under construction.  Next to the pitlane is a large pile of sand.  Whoever didn’t know that F1 is running here in a few days would think it’s not happening until next year,” it added.

German Sky television pundit Marc Surer reports in Speed Week that the seating in some grandstands is not complete.

“Much remains to be done, but as for the track itself, I am surprised that it is ready,” he said.

“Whether it can withstand hours of practice and racing, however, is another question.”

Gallery with all happened on this race. McLaren Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton won when he took the chequered at the Turkish Grand Prix. We provide a gallery of selected images – shot by the great photographers from Sutton Images and Hoch Zwei – that capture Lewis’ weekend in Istanbul.

A development of Ferrari’s rear double-diffuser was spotted in the Istanbul pitlane.

The F10 was wheeled out of the garage so that international photographers could see the engine cover logo celebrating the team’s 800th grand prix this weekend.

But a reporter for Spain’s AS newspaper also spotted an upgraded diffuser with enlarged elements “not seen at other races”.

“We know that in Barcelona we had a disadvantage in the total downforce generated by the car and have worked on this issue,” Fernando Alonso is quoted as saying.

But the Spanish driver is not expecting Ferrari to catch the dominant Red Bulls this weekend.

“In Barcelona they were almost a second faster than the others, and in the three weeks since it is impossible to have recovered that difference,” he is quoted by El Pais newspaper.

(GMM)

Higher kerbs have been installed at key sections of the Monaco circuit ahead of this week’s formula one race.

Last year, race director Charlie Whiting warned the drivers about cutting the kerbs and installed observers at the Nouvelle and Swimming Pool chicanes.

It is at those corners that new “higher elements have been added behind the existing kerbs” for the 2010 event, the governing body confirmed on Tuesday.

F1 photographer Mark Sutton inspected the new kerbs on Tuesday and remarked on Twitter that the drivers will “not want to touch them!”

Sutton was also disappointed to find new debris fencing at the Rascasse corner, recalling that in previous years “you could just lean over the barrier and shoot as the driver went past at speed”.

The Monaco circuit has also been resurfaced in the pitlane, from Ste Devote all the way up the hill, from Place du Casino to the tunnel entry, and from the tunnel exit to the chicane.

(GMM)

At 9:30 the single-seaters began to go out to the racetrack of the Jerez de la Frontera circuit, during the first day of the 2010 season’s second official unveiling.

In the morning, Fernando Alonso, started to try out the new parts that arrived all the way from Maranello, with the intention to verify mechanical elements performance, for next week when they expect to have new aerodynamic components.

The rain did not miss the appointment.  Even though it was not intense, it certainly was annoying enough during the performance checkup of the F1 racing cars.  When the rain pour began, all the single-seaters had to be taken to the boxes to make wet condition adjustments.

By the time the cars started to go out again, it was almost 10 AM and Nico Rosberg, with his Mercedes GP, was the leader of the first timesheets, even though it was not significant because he was one of the few who made some time before the rain began to fall.  Later on, the pilots were around 12 seconds higher.

Time went by without any interesting event.  In the circuit were: Ferrari, Mercedes GP, Williams, Red Bull, Force India, Toro Rosso and BMW Sauber. The Virgin VR01 must not be prepared for rain for it did not make any lap.

At midday the rain was heavier and the only thing that caught our eye were again the hard-working mechanics running to cover the diffusers to avoid photographers from pleasing us with the latest in aerodynamic novelties.

It was almost 12PM and nothing interesting happened.  There were almost no single-seaters in the racetrack and everything was extremely quiet.  My laptop (mini) seemed to say, “it’s enough for today.”  “I think a diving suit would be a good idea,” I thought and looked for shelter waiting for the rain to stop.