Sebastian Vettel’s Suzuka crash was an embodiment of the kind of “perfect year” he has enjoyed in 2011.
That is the claim of Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso, referring to the Red Bull driver’s nudge into the Degner wall on Friday morning.

The fact Vettel lost no track time, because the crash happened right at the end of the session and the mechanics had enough time to repair the car for the afternoon, shows that “When you do everything right, everything goes right for you”.

“This has been a perfect year for him, also with a tremendous superiority of his car,” Alonso is quoted by the EFE news agency.

“He has always done a perfect job in the moments that he had to; with his pole positions, in the races, with his problems only on the Fridays.

“There have been some extremely difficult races, for example in the rain in Canada where he managed to stay calm to finish second.

“It is true that he has had some luck but he has done the perfect job at the key moments,” the Spaniard added.

On Suzuka, Alonso said Vettel might finally be challenged by a rival team – McLaren – in the qualifying hour, with championship rival Jenson Button topping every practice timesheet.

But the Briton played down his tiny mathematical chances.

“It’s like challenging a four year old to a 100 metre race. You’d totally destroy him,” said Button.

Mark Webber broke his teammate Sebastian Vettel’s run of pole positions on Saturday, after impressive earlier practice pace at the scene of his win a year ago.

But it emerged shortly after the qualifying session in Barcelona that while the energy-recovery system was working on the Australian’s dominant RB7, the one aboard Vettel’s did not work in Q2 and Q3.

“It’s not right to say that’s why Mark got pole — he deserved it,” insisted Vettel.

“We had some problems but Mark did a good job. He did a better job today. I’m sure we will have it (KERS) tomorrow,” he added.

Lewis Hamilton starts from third, but he thinks the gap between Red Bull and McLaren has only widened in Spain. Worse still, he flat-spotted the set of soft Pirelli tyres he must start Sunday’s race with.

“Fortunately we can rebalance the wheels (for the race) so it shouldn’t be a problem,” said the Briton.

The Italian press has leapt to the defence of Fernando Alonso, following media reports that he has so far refused to congratulate F1′s new world champion Sebastian Vettel.

Widespread German reports in recent days quoted Vettel, whilst on a triumphant return to his hometown Heppenheim last week, as saying “He (Alonso) still has not congratulated me”.

Asked to explain Alonso’s cool, Vettel added: “Someone from Heppenheim took the title from him.”

But a report in Italy’s authoritative daily sports newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport insists that the Ferrari driver “in fact congratulated him (Vettel) repeatedly in the press”.

Alonso said in an interview with the broadcaster Rai that he is already looking ahead.

“There’s definitely a lot of sadness but at the same time thinking that 2011 will arrive soon when we can win as we know we can,” he said.

Alonso said his and Ferrari’s disappointment at missing out on the 2010 title is “normal”.

“It happens when you are second in any sport; Wimbledon, (French Open tennis) Roland Garros, the World Cup, NBA — there is always a feeling of sadness.

“From 2011, I am expecting a lot.  2009 was a difficult year for Ferrari but now we are back in form, the worst is over.”

As for the title winner Vettel, he insisted: “He was the fastest of all, with 10 pole positions and some mechanical problems that took points away from him, but he won in the end.

“Congratulations, but we hope that next year is more difficult for him,” added Alonso.

If a head will roll at Maranello for Ferrari’s 2010 championship loss, it will be Chris Dyer’s, according to press speculation.

“Some things will change and, sure, some heads will roll,” said the authoritative Italian daily La Gazzetta dello Sport.

The newspaper did not name Dyer – Ferrari’s chief track engineer – but some Spanish sources did, claiming it was the Australian’s decision to “cover” Mark Webber’s Abu Dhabi race strategy that stranded Fernando Alonso behind Vitaly Petrov.

“The only thing we can do is try to take a breath, recharge the batteries and push people to do a better job next year,” team boss Stefano Domenicali said.

Triple world champion Niki Lauda told the Austrian press on Monday: “There should be three days of morning, then they all eat spaghetti again and forget the defeat.”

Fernando Alonso said the reason for the championship loss was the pace of Red Bull’s car.

“They had the best car, and Vettel showed with his 10 pole positions that he was the fastest. And that’s not easy.

“It’s worse to lose the title when you have the best car, like we did at McLaren in 2007. This time it’s clear that Red Bull were better,” the Spaniard told El Pais newspaper.

Bruno Senna, the nephew of the great Ayrton Senna, is in talks to switch for 2011 from struggling HRT to F1′s best new team Lotus.

That is the claim of Brazil’s Globo Esporte, noting that the move would reinvoke the fabled Lotus/Renault/Senna combination of the 1980s.

Rookie Senna, who turned 27 earlier this month, has had a difficult debut season in 2010 at the wheel of the slowest and least developed car on the grid fielded by the Spanish newcomer Hispania.

“Bruno Senna is close to getting something better,” said the Portuguese language report.

“He is in talks with Lotus and these talks are already well advanced,” Globo added, nominating Jarno Trulli as the driver most likely to leave the Malaysian team in the event that Senna is signed.

The report cited sources “close to the driver” as insisting that Senna cannot finalise the deal until his sponsors agree, adding that these talks with “several companies” are also already taking place.

Globo Esporte also said Lotus’ announcement of its Renault engine deal for 2011 will be made next weekend at Interlagos.

Late triple world champion Ayrton Senna won his first grand prix at the wheel of a Renault-powered Lotus in 1985.

He won a further 5 grands prix in a Lotus-Renault, as well as 24 podiums, 16 pole positions and 150 points before moving to McLaren.

Sebastian Vettel is adamant he is still on course for the 2010 title, despite being roundly criticised for making too many mistakes.
 
Fellow contender Jenson Button has revealed that the 23-year-old German apologised after crashing him out of last Sunday’s Belgian grand prix.
 
“Seb called after the race to apologise, which was good, but it doesn’t give me my points back,” the McLaren driver told Talksport.
 
The pair are now more than 30 points off the championship lead, but Red Bull’s Vettel remains remarkably upbeat.
 
“I know how good we are — I will take the title,” he confidently predicted in the pages of Germany’s latest Auto Bild Motorsport.
 
“Someone who has the most pole positions must think that way. These 13 races have not run completely smoothly, but I’m only 31 points behind.
 
“Assuming we maintain our speed, we can catch up quickly,” added Vettel.
 
He said he is “honest enough” to acknowledge the mistakes he has made in 2010.
 
“In the end, it makes you a better driver,” insisted Vettel, but he admitted that he is not a good loser.
 
“Why should I be? If I could lose well, I should not be in the sport,” he said.
 
“But I’m also someone who can put things in the past and look ahead when the next morning comes.”

Ferrari has been the most reliable team so far in 2010.

Red Bull is leading the championships and has collected the most wins and pole positions, but ranks only second in the reliability stakes, an analysis by Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport has found.

The F10, driven by Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa, has completed a remarkable 1471 of the possible 1474 laps throughout the 12 races so far.

That is 98 laps more than the Red Bull drivers.

But the Italian team is just third in the constructors’ championship, while Alonso is the highest-placed Ferrari driver in fifth place.

The Spaniard’s late engine failure in Malaysia was Ferrari’s only retirement, with neither he or Massa crashing out of a race.

Mercedes is the only other team fielding drivers that have not retired due to accidents in 2010.

In contrast, Red Bull has recorded one failure and two driver crashes, while McLaren has had two technical failures and one accident retirement.

Renault has the worst reliability of the top teams, with 4 technical retirements and 2 crashes.

The least technically reliable teams overall were Virgin (11 technical retirements) and Sauber (10).  HRT is the most reliable new team (8), ahead of Lotus (9).

Red Bull Racing is building up a new chassis for Mark Webber after his backflip crash during last Sunday’s European grand prix.

The Australian emerged unhurt from the frightening impact, which included a backwards somersault, a smash against an advertising hoarding whilst airborne, and a high speed final shunt into the tyre barrier.

The actual chassis was the one driven by Webber, 33, to a handful of pole positions and his wins in Barcelona and Monaco.

“It’s been good to me,” he said.  “It was very safe, thank god.”

BBC’s pitlane reporter Ted Kravitz on Wednesday reported that Webber will drive a brand new RB6 at Silverstone next weekend.

The new chassis is “currently being built up at the team’s Milton Keynes factory”, he said.

Webber slipped from third – a position now held by his teammate Sebastian Vettel – to fifth in the world championship with his Valencia crash.  Recently the drivers’ standings leader, he is now 24 points behind Lewis Hamilton.

“I lost some points, but in the end when you’re up there (in the air), you’re not worried about points, I was worried that I was ok and ready for Silverstone,” he said.

“The chassis has been good to me, and it has been good to me (in Valencia) as it saved me from some injures.

“I remain incredibly positive, we go on, it’s half way through the championship.  Bloody hell, let’s get on with it,” added Webber.

(GMM)

Mark Webber awoke on Monday morning determined to return to the cockpit of his Red Bull at Silverstone next weekend.

The Australian on Sunday survived one of the most frightening crashes seen in recent times, when his RB6 struck the rear of Heikki Kovalainen’s Lotus before backflipping and wiping out an advertising hoarding.

Webber, 33, then careered into a tyre barrier but emerged from the cockpit relatively unscathed.

After a visit to the medical centre and a shower, he told reporters at the circuit that he is sporting a few bumps and bruises.

“I’m a little bit tender here and there but the car did a great job,” he said.

And after a night’s sleep, he wrote on his AussieGrit Twitter account: “Feeling good this morning, roll on Silverstone”.

He told Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport: “I have a bit of swelling in some places, but I’ll be fit for Silverstone.”

Red Bull is yet to confirm the health of the actual car; the same one driven by Webber to a handful of pole positions and his wins in Barcelona and Monaco.

“It’s been good to me,” he smiled.


A car defect has prevented Sebastian Vettel from scoring pole position for the Turkish grand prix.

Instead, his on-form Red Bull teammate Mark Webber netted his third consecutive qualifying triumph, and on Sunday could complete a hat-trick of wins from pole.

But Vettel, with his new ‘Randy Mandy’ chassis at Istanbul Park, was actually quicker in Q1 and Q2, and on course for a much faster lap when his front wheel began locking under braking.

“The chassis change has paid off, if only they had changed this braking part too,” Niki Lauda said wryly to Motorsport-Magazin.com after qualifying.

The problem translated to a half-second deficit to Webber for Vettel, allowing McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton to slip between them on the grid.

“It was a tight fight with all of us and I think Seb had a bit of a problem with his car,” admitted Australian afterwards.

The disappointment clearly told on 22-year-old Vettel’s face, having come so close to bouncing back to top form after two races clearly behind his teammate.

“It should easily have been a lot quicker,” said the German.  “I’m not the type of guy who says ‘the car is broken, that’s it’.”

Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko described Vettel’s problem as a “pity”, but for the energy drinks brand, its run of pole positions in 2010 remains unbroken.

“One and three is not so bad,” said the Austrian Marko.

(GMM)

The rain that affected the programs of the teams on Friday was still pouring down at the beginning of the session.  However, dry conditions as of mid-morning allowed the single-seaters to roll out with more confidence on this test day at Jerez (this week), where Rubens Barrichello, did best time with 1:22.319.

Robert Kubica was the first to start out to a wet racetrack, with Sebastien Vettel in the Red Bull and Barrichello behind the wheel of the Williams FW32 following his trail.

Nonetheless, it was Felipe Massa, who did the first timed lap of the day with the Ferrari F10.  In his first attempt, the Brazilian made a time of 1:29.534, but little by little he found the rhythm until his car stopped on the grass of the pit-lane entrance.  It seems as though the team is pretending to go the limit.  There was the rumor that the car was deliberately left without fuel to confirm the tank’s capacity.

Michael Schumacher, Massa’s ex-team mate was slightly shaky during the first moments, achieving the best lap with 1:29.768 before taking his Mercedes GP W01 to boxes, where it remained the rest of the morning.  The spectators were surprised.

The changing weather conditions forced the teams to the difficult task of choosing tires.  Even though the pools of water in different parts of the racetrack were drying, the teams decided to play it safe and made pauses, waiting for the track to dry.

Barrichello informed through the radio that the driving and visibility conditions were quite good and hoped that the team could realize an evening session “to its fullest.”  Lewis Hamilton was glad with these news, who seemed distraught after he began his work with Jenson Button’s McLaren MP4-25, on Friday.  He declared that the day had been a waste of time, since neither him nor McLaren had been able to make a remarkable progress on their test program due to the wet racetrack.

On the contrary, Nico Rosberg, was filled with confidence after his second day with the Mercedes W01 GP, despite the fact that he was not allowed to drive in dry during two sessions.  He announced feeling comfortable with the car and to be sure that the Silver Arrow “will be near the racing pole positions when the competition begins in Bahrain, on March 14^th.”

“We have some valuable data, like all the procedures.  It’s difficult when you change teams; there is so much to learn.  It’s like airspace science, you know?  Two days ago I did four dry laps, and a one and a half today.  I felt extremely comfortable with the car, as if I could really up.  That gives me a lot of confidence, so I’m not worried with the fact that there was not much time to roll in dry” Nico assured.

The first appearance of the red flags came when Vettel skidded out of the racetrack and left the Red Bull trapped at the circuit end.  Yet, the delayed caused by this incident was minimal, thanks to the quick response of Jerez circuit recovery team.  In 15 minutes, the RB6 was back in the boxes.

At the end of the morning session began to improve quickly.  Barrichello did 1:22.319 after 39 laps and Massa stopped the chronometer at 1:22.697 after 94 laps.  The red flag indicated that Barrichello reached midday as time leader, three tenths faster than Massa.

The Toro Rosso’s pilot, Jaime Alguersuari is already at the Ricardo Tormo, where he assured he has not yet talked with the team about the season’s objectives.  Anyhow, , “it’s all the same to me whomever has to make demands on me, because I’m concentrated on my own business and know where I have to be at,” he explained.

The Catalan is optimistic.  “This year I’m running because I have the tools to do it,” he pointed out with relation to the poor experience prior to his debut in the race.  “As the season advances, I’ll have more tools,” he added..

Alguersuari established as his main “personal” goal to be ahead of Buemi” his Toro Rosso’s team-mate.  “One has to be realistic and know where he is at, but I’m in no hurry to be ahead;”, he assured.  Regarding him being ahead of Buemi, he stated that the Swiss “is racing with advantage until the first half of the championship,” because he didn’t make it last year.

However, he did not venture any clear results. “When the tests are over, I’ll say the position we’re in.  It will not be easier than last year.  As a matter of fact, I think it will be quite complicated,” he announced in advance.

In spite of the difficulties he assured he’s “ready.”  “It’s complicated to win because we don’t have the economic resources that others do –Ferrari or McLaren–, but we’re trying to do our best.”  The pilot recognized he thinks that it will be possible to “get pole positions” and even win a race.  Why not?”, he inquired.

Alguersuari thinks that in the Valencia’s tests it will be possible to see “who goes fast and who doesn’t.”  “The target is that the car does not have any problems, that it’s reliable and that it does not break down, allowing it to finish the race.  Once that is achieved, we’ll expect it to go fast,” he declared.

“IT’S A POSITIVE THING THAT THERE ARE SO MANY SPANIARDS.”

The pilot described as “positive” that there are “so many Spanish pilots in the F1 grid: himself, Fernando Alonso (Ferrari) and De la Rosa (BMW Sauber).  “The rivalry will be among all the pilots and not only between the Spaniards.”  The pilot indicated that he’s glad that Pedro Martinez de la Rosa “has a wheel, because its something he wanted for a long time,” he recalled.

Alguersuari analyzed the fact that next season it will not be possible to refuel the cars during the race.  “This way we’ll see a different type of Formula One.  From the fans’ point of view, it’ll be more fun,” he predicted.  The pilot believes there will be “more surprises” and that there will not be strategic games.”  “There will be a real  ‘pole’ in the ranking and not a fictitious one, because the quantity of fuel is the same for everyone.”

The pilot thinks the new single-seater ‘STR5′ is a “longer and higher car in its front, but the base is similar to last year’s.”  “A good base is the safest thing for everybody,” he added.  The idea of the team is to do 500 kilometers by day so to arrive to Bahrain with a good base.”

The Spaniard was asked about Michael Schumacher’s comeback to the competition.  “His presence is important at technical level and as a professional athlete,” he answered.  In addition, he’s a man with “passion for this sport and very few pilots like this can be found.”

Ferrari formula one racing is the best in the formula one world. Ferrari fans around the world watch Formula one every week. What makes Formula one so special? It’s hard to say. But Formula one gains more and more interest in public.
Scuderia Ferrari is a division of the Ferrari automobile company, which is concerned with racing. Scuderia means “stable” in Italian and Ferrari is after the name of Enzo Ferrari, the founder of the brand. Scuderia was formed in the year 1929 and consisted of 40 racecar drivers including Enzo at that time.
Ferrari achieved great success in the Le Mans Races. The team made its debut into Formula One at the Italian Grand Prix with the model 125F1. Since then the team has been involved in the Formula One Racing and is one of the best racing teams in Formula One history.
Few of the finest drivers such as Niki Lauda, Phil Hill, Lorenzo Bandini and Michele Alboreto have contributed towards the success of the Ferrari Formula One team over the years. Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen are the current contracted drivers for the team. Both the drivers have been signed for three years contract after the retirement of “Michael Schumacher”. Michael Schumacher was the one of the best race drivers in the history of world racing.
Marlboro was a major sponsor for the Ferrari team since 1984. They backed the team till 2005, but had to withdraw, as tobacco sponsorship was made illegal in the European Union. Acer was one of the sponsors for the company till late 2008. Acer also sold laptops with Ferrari badges. Vodafone was also one of the sponsors till 2005, however they too withdrew in favor of the McLaren team.
Many others played the part of sponsors for the Ferrari racing team. FIAT is a major sponsor of the team including others such as Bridgestone, AMD, and Martini. Ferrari also saw sponsorship from the Gulf, such as Mubadla, an investment company of Abu Dhabi and Etihad Airways.
The Ferrari racing team has achieved great success over the years particularly in the Formula One racing championships. The team and its drivers have won the “Mille Miglia”‘ 8 times, the “Targa Florio” 7 times and the “24 Hour Le Mans”, 9 times. Formula One achievements for the team are still marked distinctly.
Most Constructors Championship: 15, Most Drivers Championship: 15, Most wins (all time): 208, Most wins (season): 15, Most podiums (all): 617, Most podiums (season): 29, Most points (all): 4,887.27, Most points (season): 262, Most pole positions (all): 201, Most pole positions (season): 262, Most fastest laps (season): 262, Most fastest laps (all): 215, Highest winning percentage: 26%
The Ferrari team also managed to lead over Ford as the most successful F1 engine manufacturer with 182 wins compared to Ford’s 176 wins.
With years of hardship and trial, the Ferrari team still continues to dominate the Formula One racing world with its unmatchable endurance. The team has witnessed a massive fan following over the years. Italian fans for the team are known as “tifosi”. Recently, the Ferrari Formula one team saw its first win of the year 2008 at the Malaysian Grand Prix.