Volkswagen, the German carmaking giant, has played down suggestions it could launch a formula one project some time soon.

“There are always rumours about Volkswagen and formula one,” said Jost Capito, who has taken over from Kris Nissen as the head of the Wolfsburg-based company’s motor racing boss.

However, he is quoted by Germany’s Sport1 as insisting that VW is only concentrating on its world rally programme.

“The WRC programme is approved from 2013 to 2015,” Capito insisted. “There is no room to think about anything else.

“It (F1) is not on our radar,” he is also quoted as saying by France’s L’Equipe. “Our hands are full already.”

In the wake of BMW, Honda and Toyota’s departures, the only mass production carmakers in F1 are Renault – as an engine supplier – and Mercedes.

Ferrari, McLaren, Lotus and Caterham produce niche sports cars.

Mark Webber’s future in formula one seems secure, after reports this week linked him to two top teams for the 2013 season.

First, Spanish specialist reports said Ferrari is interested in the experienced Australian to replace struggling Felipe Massa next season.

And now, the Australian Sydney Morning Herald newspaper claims Red Bull, 35-year-old Webber’s current team, is “all but ready” to extend his contract through 2013.

That would give junior team Toro Rosso’s Daniel Ricciardo and Jean-Eric Vergne, tipped to eventually replace Webber, “a further season to adjust to the category and prove themselves worthy of the top drive”, the report added.

Whatever top team he is in, Webber confirmed he is not ready to retire.

“I’m really enjoying my driving and clearly I’m off to a really good start this year,” he said.

“I feel completely reinvigorated and am just really enjoying it, which has been reflected in my driving and my results.

“So I’ll keep pressing on. Retirement isn’t even on my radar at the moment. The results are there and when they are there I keep driving,” added Webber.

Mark Webber might have signed a pre-contractual agreement with Ferrari, one of Spain’s leading F1 correspondents has revealed.

Raymond Blancafort, writing for El Mundo Deportivo, referred to widespread speculation in the paddock about Sergio Perez’s likely future alongside Fernando Alonso.

“There may be a pre-contract,” he said, “but between Ferrari and Webber.”

Australian Webber was also linked with Ferrari last year, before Red Bull decided to sign him up for another single season.

The 35-year-old was overshadowed by his teammate Sebastian Vettel last year, but he has begun the 2012 season more strongly.

And Webber warned before the 2012 season began that if Red Bull didn’t re-sign him for 2013, “I’d need something (else) competitive (to drive)”.

“Being at the front, is certainly a big, big factor of me staying very hungry and motivated.”

Ferrari may be looking to replace Alonso’s current teammate, the struggling team veteran Felipe Massa, for 2013.

“They (Ferrari) would be able to take advantage of his (Webber’s) experience, the consistency of his results and the fact that he gets along with Alonso.

“Interestingly, Webber is also still involved with Flavio Briatore”, as is Alonso, Blancafort noted.

Two candidates have reportedly fallen off the radar as HRT considers the completion of its driver lineup for 2011.

Arguably the most highly-rated driver in the running for the cockpit alongside Narain Karthikeyan this year was Italian Davide Valsecchi, who was comfortably the quickest of the new team rookies at last November’s Abu Dhabi test.

But team boss Colin Kolles admitted recently that Valsecchi’s sponsorship budget was not yet big enough for the drive, and Turun Sanomat in Finland now reports that he is no longer on the list of candidates.

Another driver no longer in the running, according to veteran Turun Sanomat reporter Heikki Kulta, is 24-year-old Venezuelan Rodolfo Gonzalez.

“In the next few days there will be several announcements,” Kolles said in an interview released on Tuesday.

In the same interview, Romanian-born German Kolles seemed to deny reports that HRT’s 2011 car is simply last year’s car with some modifications.

“As soon as the 2011 car is ready, we will implement it,” he said. “The plan is to use the 2011 car at the Bahrain test. The 2011 car will be a completely new car, and will be called F111.”

Karun Chandhok is facing legal action by his former F1 employer HRT, according to reports in the Indian press.
The Sun this week quoted team boss Colin Kolles as saying the 26-year-old Indian was dropped mid-season in 2010 “because he did not fulfil his contractual obligations”.

A report in the Hyderabad based Deccan Chronicle newspaper said the Spanish team is set to take legal action for breach of contract.

“When he signed an agreement with us for the 2010 season, Karun made a lot of promises on paper. But he failed to fulfil his obligations,” Kolles said.

“We waited for some time, but we didn’t have any other choice than to suspend him at the German GP,” he added.

“However, we did everything diplomatically. We didn’t make it public. Since then, Karun was never in the team’s radar,” said Kolles.

Sources told the newspaper that Chandhok’s sponsors paid only EUR 2 million out of a promised 8m, and Kolles claimed the missing money affected HRT’s progress.

“We were planning to do certain upgrades on the car, but everything got disturbed,” he said.

More rain is headed to the already wet Yeongam venue.

With only 40 minutes to go before the scheduled race start at 3pm, plenty of earlier rain has soaked the new Korean layout and grid.

For the Hyundai support race, there was a crash on the first lap and the rest of the race took place behind the safety car as marshals struggled to clear the cars.

Fears about a safety car start for the grand prix eased along with the easing rain a couple of hours ago, but the radar is now showing more showers on the horizon.

“It feels like it is going to rain again before the race starts,” said a media source at Yeongam at 2.15pm.

FIA stewards at Suzuka have rejected Williams’ protest that was lodged after Sunday morning qualifying.

The British team argued that Nico Hulkenberg, who qualified ninth for the Japanese grand prix, was blocked on a flying lap by Lewis Hamilton.

“I don’t understand why he backed off into me because there wasn’t a car in front of him,” said German Hulkenberg.

It is believed the difficulty with Williams’ protest was that both Hulkenberg and Hamilton were on fast laps at the time of the incident.

Another interesting developing story at Suzuka two hours before the race is a rain shower on the radar, currently scheduled to hit the circuit during the event at 1500.

As afternoon becomes evening in Singapore, the storm clouds are gathering above the city street circuit.

As the experience of the past week has shown, any significant rain from now until the race-start at 8pm is likely to guarantee a wet track for the grand prix.

“The track dries incredibly slowly,” observed Red Bull’s Mark Webber.  “It’s something I haven’t seen in my entire career.”

Until late afternoon on Sunday, the sun had been shining in the Asian city-state’s Marina Bay area.

But with three hours to go until race time, the skies have darkened, the wind is picking up, and there has been the odd drop of rain.

There is rain showing on the longer distance radar, but most paddock sources believe the race should be dry.

“If it does rain, the track will never dry out.  It takes so long,” agreed McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton.

Speculation is rising once again that Virgin is considering a change to its driver line-up for the 2011 season.

Team boss John Booth earlier played down reports he is considering replacing Lucas di Grassi with Jerome d’Ambrosio.

The Belgian reports said GP2 driver d’Ambrosio, already working with Virgin as its new reserve driver, has been offered Brazilian di Grassi’s race seat for 2011 if he can raise EUR 5 million.

“If we can gather the requested budget, Jerome will be in F1 next year,” his manager Yves Decorte told La Derniere Heure newspaper.

“And if we can do it quickly, he might even be able to drive on a Friday morning at the end of the season,” added Decorte.

“Today we have three fifths of the budget, and I still have a lot of meetings lined up. I rate our chances to be there at 80 per cent,” he said.