Nico Hulkenberg has played down claims Force India could be a podium-getting ‘dark horse’ of the 2012 season.
Behind the top battle involving Red Bull, McLaren and Mercedes, there appears a closely-packed midfield, with potential challengers including Ferrari, Toro Rosso, Sauber and Force India.

German Hulkenberg is returning to F1 with Silverstone based Force India this season, after being ousted by Williams at the end of 2010.

Asked what his goals are by Germany’s Sport1, the 24-year-old answered: “First I want to establish myself (in F1), after the bad experience of 2010.

“A couple of points would also be great,” he smiled.

Some pundits, however, are predicting that podiums may be possible for Hulkenberg – the 2010 Brazil GP pole sitter – and his highly rated teammate Paul di Resta.

“Clearly this is a dream,” the German admitted.

“But at the moment I don’t think that’s our goal. Of course if we should be in that situation in a race, then we will try everything for it.”

Hulkenberg conceded that Force India is not ready to challenge F1′s frontrunners.

“I think Red Bull have their nose in front again, and McLaren are the closest to them. I have no idea what Ferrari are doing at the moment and Mercedes is also difficult to assess because they haven’t shown much.”

He said countryman Sebastian Vettel’s crown, however, may be challenged.

“It’s clear that he is the man to beat,” said Hulkenberg.

Andre Lotterer on Friday boasted that his Formula Nippon single seater is faster than the F1 cars produced by F1 backmakers Virgin and HRT.

The 29-year-old German, who is leading the Japanese championship ahead of former Williams driver Kazuki Nakajima, won the series’ Suzuka round in May.

“Theoretically, if I would have entered today’s first free practice with my Formula Nippon, I would be nineteenth,” Lotterer, a Jaguar test driver in 2002, said at Suzuka.

In May, Suzuka pole sitter Naoki Yamamoto’s Honda-powered Nippon qualified with a time of 1.40.470, which was faster than any Virgin or HRT driver could manage on Friday morning at the same Japanese circuit.

And that Formula Nippon time is just half a second behind Friday morning’s slowest Team Lotus runner Karun Chandhok.

The 2011 Formula Nippon single seaters are built by American manufacturer Swift and powered by 3.4 litre V8 engines supplied by Toyota or Honda.

Christian Horner on Sunday said he thinks Red Bull will be better next weekend in Hungary.
Championship leader Sebastian Vettel ended his 15-race run of front row berths at the Nurburgring, while pole sitter Mark Webber was the team’s best finisher with third.

“Yes, it’s been interesting,” said team boss Horner, referring to Fernando Alonso’s win at Silverstone two weeks ago, and Lewis Hamilton’s in Germany.

“It’s been Ferrari one race, the next McLaren — and the constant factor is Red Bull. Hopefully now we’ll get a few tracks that should be good for us,” he told German Sky television.

Confirmed Australian Webber: “The car should go ok in Budapest. It should be better than this track for us.”

In post-race news, Sebastien Buemi has been handed a five-place grid penalty for Hungary for his crash with Nick Heidfeld.

But there is also bad news for German Heidfeld, who will have to hand over his Renault to test driver Bruno Senna on Friday morning at the Hungaroring.

Meanwhile, Alonso will keep his second place on Sunday despite fears his stricken Ferrari might not have contained the mandatory one litre of fuel for the scrutineering checks.

And he has also not been penalised for hitching what he described as a “taxi” ride back to parc ferme on his friend Webber’s Red Bull engine cover.

“They are friends and it would have been a long walk back,” grinned Horner.

Despite making mistakes, being slightly off the pace and beaten by three of his championship leaders, Sebastian Vettel’s huge championship lead dimished by just 3 points at the Nurburgring.
The German finished a distant fourth in his home grand prix, but because his closest challenger, teammate and pole sitter Mark Webber was just third at the flag, the massive 80-point gap shrinks to just 77 after the tenth round of the season.

McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton, fourth in the championship prior to the Nurburgring and now third, brilliantly won the German race, mere seconds ahead of his old nemesis Fernando Alonso’s Ferrari.

Briton Hamilton called it “one of the best races I think I’ve ever done”, after travelling to the country downbeat following what he described as a “crap” performance on his own home turf two weeks ago at Silverstone.

For Vettel, it ended with successful yet “unsatisfying” damage limitation, following unforced errors and a bizarre last-lap pitstop to relegate Felipe Massa to fifth place.

“I didn’t feel too good all weekend,” said the world champion. “I never got to the pace Mark had in his car.”

Meanwhile, the day at the Nurburgring ended with two technical rules breaches; Webber giving his friend Alonso a lift back to the pits after the Ferrari ran out of fuel, and Hamilton hurdling the parc ferme barriers to greet his mechanics.

The FIA has proposed to scrap its controversial mid-season clampdown on blown exhausts.
Silverstone 2011 has been the scene of a highly-charged political saga about the technology, with major players Red Bull, McLaren and Ferrari all involved.

As Red Bull and McLaren battled over the extent and details of the clampdown, Ferrari was left smiling on Saturday as it came closer than ever in 2011 to the front of the field.

“Normally on tracks like this we’d be further down the road,” acknowledged Red Bull pole sitter Mark Webber.

“There might be a bit of a form card starting to build, but we need some more races to see if that is the case.”

Asked if he thinks his Australian friend is right, Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso said: “It’s a difficult question to answer.”

It might never have to be answered, as the governing body is now proposing to definitively end the complicated debate and revert to the pre-Silverstone rules whilst waiting for a seamless ban in 2012.

The FIA said in a statement that the status quo will remain for Silverstone, but beyond that “the viability of returning to the pre-Silverstone set-ups and strategies” is being discussed.

“If the teams are in unanimous agreement, the FIA is prepared to adopt this arrangement until the end of the current season,” the Paris federation added.

Sunday is Nico Hulkenberg’s last grand prix for Williams, his manager has announced.

“Nico is leaving Williams,” the Cologne tabloid Express quoted Willi Weber as saying on Saturday in Abu Dhabi.

German Weber, however, promised that the 23-year-old will return to the formula one grid in 2011 with another team.

Express said Hulkenberg is being replaced by new GP2 champion Pastor Maldonado, who has a sponsor purse of a reported EUR 12 million.

Also on Saturday, Hulkenberg had said the Grove based team is “struggling for some money”. He said he has “other options” for 2011.

“We may have to wait for a decision for another one or two weeks,” added the Interlagos pole sitter.

Williams chairman Adam Parr confirmed that a decision has not yet been made, but hailed Hulkenberg’s performance in Brazil last weekend and hinted it had been a taste of the future.

“Sadly we don’t get those very exciting moments very often, but the taste of it has got everyone rather excited about what is possible in the future,” he said on Friday.

“What we have seen with Nico is him making great progress through the year in terms of consistency and performances,” added Parr.

A gutted Red Bull team on Sunday night was ruing a catastrophic Korean grand prix, where Mark Webber lost the championship lead, and Sebastian Vettel the race.

The immediate attention centred on pole sitter and race leader Vettel’s Renault engine failure, which Helmut Marko said took the team and its supplier by complete surprise.

“It did,” the Austrian said on German television RTL. “It’s our first engine failure this year.

“The mileage was at about 1600 kilometres, and normally the average (life) is 2000-2100,” added Marko.

“Something broke in the valve area, so it’s the first time. On Friday we were using an engine with much higher mileage,” said the team’s motorsport consultant.

He advised German Vettel, 23, not to give up.

“It’s not easy, but there are still 50 points to get,” said Marko. “Alonso is on his last engine. We’re not giving up.”

Renault apologised for the failure.

An eventful and marathon inaugural Korean grand prix, beginning in boredom and ending in darkness, has changed the face of the 2010 world championship fight.

Championship leader Mark Webber lost his 14-point lead with a crash on the slippery track, and his Red Bull teammate Sebastian Vettel failed to pick up the pieces because of a Renault engine failure.

“Totally my mistake,” admitted Australian Webber after his crash, which also took out Nico Rosberg.

The result means Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso – who laughed hysterically on the radio at the chequered flag – is the new championship leader, 11 points ahead of Webber with two races to go.

“Nothing has changed really,” said the Spaniard. “We all know the new points system. Anything can happen.”

After driving through the carnage and finishing second, Lewis Hamilton is now third in the championship, 21 points behind but four ahead of Vettel.

“It’s obviously not a nice moment,” said Vettel, the pole sitter and leader until his failure, as the race finished in near-darkness.

Jenson Button, 12th at the finish and among the slowest cars on track, is now a distant 42 points behind.

“I’m not really in it anymore,” said the reigning world champion on BBC television.

Mark Webber has admitted he was happy to settle for second place at Suzuka last weekend.

Already leading the world championship before Japan, the Australian finished the race one second behind his teammate, the pole sitter and winner Sebastian Vettel.

“Sebastian drove well and deserved to win,” Webber is quoted by Italy’s Autosprint magazine.

“I knew before the start that it would be difficult to win with him in pole position.

“I have no regrets about not trying to overtake him.  I could have (tried), but I thought about the championship.  And then overtaking at Suzuka is not easy.

“At this point you cannot make mistakes,” he continued.  “The points for second place are very important and it wasn’t worth the risk.

“The most important thing is that I have increased my advantage to the ones behind,” he added.

But even though Vettel, 14 points behind Webber, is equal on points with the charging Fernando Alonso, team boss Christian Horner insists there will be no favouritism through to next month’s Abu Dhabi finale.

“It’s not correct – as we’ve always said – for us to favour one driver over the other,” said the Briton this week.

It is clear, however, that there is still some needle in the Red Bull garage, with Webber fleeing Suzuka for a helicopter to Tokyo before the team’s traditional victory photograph.

He also beat Vettel’s fastest race lap on the final tour of the race; a “mind game” that must have caused “great angst” for their bosses, according to BBC commentator Martin Brundle.

And Vettel admits he was relieved when he saw Renault’s Robert Kubica, not Webber, behind him at the start of the Japanese race.

“Nothing against Mark or the team, but it would have made my life easier,” said the German, regretting that Kubica’s wheel soon fell off.

“That (Kubica’s retirement) was of course good for the team, but for the championship I would not have objected if he would have stayed in second.”

A spectator’s video depicts pole sitter and Suzuka winner Sebastian Vettel almost jumping the start of Sunday’s Japanese grand prix.
The footage, shot from the main grandstand opposite the pit buildings, shows the German’s Red Bull making a slight forwards movement just before the five red lights went out.

The footage, with the incident located at 4:28 at the internet URL http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pifm8fE40Yo, also depicts Vettel’s engine note dipping slightly as his RB6 lurched forwards.

It is likely he was not penalised for the brief clutch release because Vettel’s car was apparently once again stationary by the time the lights did go out.

The 23-year-old admitted his “good start” from pole at Suzuka “was the key” to victory over his teammate and championship leader Mark Webber on Sunday.

With three races left to run in 2010, McLaren’s title-winning rhetoric has turned a corner.

After Suzuka, Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button are now 28 and 31 points respectively behind the leader Mark Webber, moving Hamilton to admit that even a winning streak through to November’s Abu Dhabi finale might not be enough now.

“Podiums won’t do it,” he said after a nightmare weekend in Japan, having nursed a second gearbox problem of the event to the chequered flag with an ear infection.

“Wins will get it if the others have problems.  But if Red Bull finish all the races then it’s a walkover,” added Briton Hamilton.

Button is also downbeat about defending his world championship after Japan.

“If we don’t turn up in Korea with some good improvements to get us near the Red Bulls, it is almost impossible,” he said.

“I would like to think we don’t have to hope Red Bull crash or have reliability issues and we have a car to challenge them.  But when they have the pace they had here, they can cruise it,” added Button.

Closer to Webber’s lead – and level-pegging with Sebastian Vettel’s 14 point deficit – is Fernando Alonso, who remains confident of winning his first title at the wheel of a Ferrari.

“We are convinced that this was the worst track of the remaining races for us,” said the Spaniard after finishing third in Japan.

“To be world champion I need one more win and two podiums,” Alonso is quoted by La Stampa.

Also smiling after Suzuka is pole sitter and winner Vettel, despite admitting that his Australian teammate is now tantalisingly close to the title.

“His 14 point lead is of course an advantage,” he said, referring to Webber.

“If he wins again, it will be difficult for all of us,” German Vettel is quoted by Auto Motor und Sport.

“But anything can still happen.”

The 23-year-old’s confidence was boosted by the apparent ease with which he won in Japan.

“Without sounding arrogant,” he said, “I would say I always had Mark under control.

“I could see him all the time,” Vettel told Bild newspaper.  “He was one, two or three seconds behind.  Every time he came a bit closer, I went on the gas a bit more.

“It’s looking okay.  If I win the next three races, everything will be fine, so that must be my goal,” he said.

Mark Webber finished second in Sunday’s Japanese grand prix but still moved another step towards winning the 2010 world championship.

At Suzuka, the Australian finished a second behind his Red Bull teammate – the pole sitter and winner Sebastian Vettel – but because Fernando Alonso finished third, Webber extends his lead to 14 points with just three races left to run.

That handy points margin for Webber is over both Ferrari’s Alonso and Vettel, who are level-pegging on 206 points.

“The last two races were a little bit difficult for us but we came here with quite some confidence,” said the delighted Vettel, who also won from pole in 2009.

“This track is kind of made for us.”

Lewis Hamilton drops from third in the championship to fourth, after a nightmare weekend topped off by another gearbox problem that caused him to lose pace and voluntarily yield fourth place in the race to his teammate Jenson Button.

Briton Hamilton is now 28 points behind and faces another five-place grid drop in Korea if his gearbox needs to be replaced again.

Button in the sister car is a further three points adrift, but team boss Martin Whitmarsh is not giving up.

“We’re still pushing hard.  Anything can happen, it’s that close a championship,” said the McLaren chief on BBC television.

Asked what he needed for success this weekend, Nico Rosberg’s jovial answer might have raised eyebrows within his Mercedes team garage.

“A Red Bull,” laughed the German.

“The car, not the drink,” added Rosberg, musing the dominance of Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber at Suzuka so far while his own W01 looks at least a second off the pace.

Williams’ Rubens Barrichello also predicts an easy margin for the Adrian Newey-inked RB6 car.

“For me, the Red Bulls will be a good half a second in front,” said the Brazilian.

If Ferrari and McLaren are unable to keep up in Japan, pole and victory is therefore likely to be contested by the two Red Bull drivers.

“I find what’s happening incomprehensible,” said Webber’s manager Flavio Briatore in the Italian press, angry that Red Bull is not ordering Vettel to play a Felipe Massa-style supporting role.

Australian Webber’s own needle is more subtle, quietly questioning his teammate’s decision to use a new white helmet livery this weekend.

“He always has bad luck when he uses a new helmet,” Webber joked.

But so far, the 2009 Suzuka pole sitter and winner is once again obviously enjoying the Japanese layout.

“I was running around the track and I thought ‘Why can’t they all be like this?’” smiled Vettel.

Red Bull’s two drivers will take different approaches to the last four races of 2010, team consultant Helmut Marko has revealed.

Mark Webber is 11 points clear at the top of the drivers’ championship, while his teammate Sebastian Vettel – 21 points further adrift – is also still in the running.

“With Sebastian we will take an aggressive strategy, while with Mark we can be safer and let him drive more defensively,” Dr Marko is quoted by Germany’s Auto Bild.

German Vettel, 23, confirmed that he is not prepared to write off his chances of beating Webber and his other rivals to the title.

“It will be tight but I’m optimistic,” he told the German language TV Movie.

“There are still four races to go; to throw in the towel now would be stupid,” added Vettel.

He said recently that Suzuka, the scene of next weekend’s race in Japan, was “made for” Adrian Newey’s RB6 car.

“We still have to go there and prove it,” said the 2009 winner and pole sitter.

Mark Webber extended his championship lead to 11 points on Sunday night, despite finishing on the lowest step of the podium and colliding with Lewis Hamilton during a long and hot Singapore grand prix.

The Australian finished behind pole sitter and winner Fernando Alonso, as well as his Red Bull teammate Sebastian Vettel.

At the chequered flag just before the 2 hour time limit was up, Ferrari’s Spaniard and German Vettel were separated by just 3 tenths of a second.

But Vettel’s points gap to Webber, who was a further half minute behind the leading battle at the finish, is still more than 20 points.

Webber’s closest challenger is now Alonso, who has won the last two races from pole position in the resurgent Ferrari.

He leapfrogs Hamilton in the drivers’ standings, after the Briton retired for the second race in a row due to a collision.

This time his clash was with Webber, whose RB6 was sporting significant damage to its wheel and tyre in parc ferme after the race.

Hamilton’s MP4-25 came off worse, and he came close to writing off his title chances after retiring at mid-distance.

“Let’s just hope myself or Jenson can do it,” said the 2008 world champion, who remains five points ahead of teammate Jenson Button’s sister car.

“20 points is massive and with four races to go that is a big gap,” Hamilton told reporters.

Button confirmed: “There is everything to play for.”