It is possible formula one teams will be limited to a budget cap in 2013, according to Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport.

The budget cap idea saw the sport almost implode amid the bitter political war of 2009, when proposed by controversial former FIA president Max Mosley.

But it is back on the agenda in 2012, and according to new rules – where a majority of teams can now push through a change – it could be imposed next season.

“Ten of the 12 teams are in favour,” Auto Motor und Sport said, referring to the push to have cost-cutting moved from the FOTA gentleman’s agreement to the actual sporting regulations.

It means that the two dissenting teams, the Red Bull-owned Red Bull Racing and Toro Rosso, will have no say.

“The cost to be competitive in formula one at present is too high,” the boss of the energy drink company’s premier team, Christian Horner, said recently. “I don’t think anybody will dispute that.

“The debate is how we achieve it.”

Not only that, the German report said nine teams are in favour of Mosley’s old budget cap idea, with annual expenditure limited initially to EUR 170 million and then diminishing to 100 million over a few seasons.

Lotus is the “biggest surprise” of the 2012 season so far, Red Bull’s team owner Dietrich Mateschitz has admitted.

In an interview with Austria’s Salzburger Nachrichten newspaper, the billionaire mogul was mildly critical of the “lottery” that is this year’s championship, with Pirelli’s unpredictable tyres setting the scene.

“That is going to continue,” Mateschitz said.

“Then it will gradually turn into a duel between McLaren and Red Bull Racing,” he predicted.

“Mercedes are still not able to keep doing in the race what they are doing in qualifying. So we are not convinced of their F-duct (double DRS) system and we won’t try to copy it.

“Ferrari needs to try the hardest to catch up. And Lotus are the big surprise for me,” he insisted.

It is too early to name a frontrunner for a seat at Red Bull’s premier team.

That is the claim of Franz Tost, the boss of the energy drink company’s junior team Toro Rosso.

Following the ousting of Jaime Alguersuari and Sebastien Buemi, the Faenza based outfit has two new Red Bull youngsters to groom in 2012.

Daniel Ricciardo and Jean-Eric Vergne are therefore at the front of the queue to potentially replace Mark Webber at the senior team, even though Red Bull chiefs have appeared to indicate that Australian Webber is staying put for now.

So when asked by Austria’s Laola1 whether Ricciardo or Vergne are winning the race to Red Bull Racing so far, Tost insisted: “We have no thoughts about that.

“The important thing is that they continue to develop in every area.”

So far, Frenchman Vergne has four points compared with Ricciardo’s two.

“Jean-Eric is willing to take more risks,” Tost admitted, “while Daniel has a grasp of the car overall with his extra experience.”

Red Bull’s two teams look set to test alone in Abu Dhabi later this season.

Until recently, the now-traditional young drivers’ test – giving inexperienced drivers the chance to drive current F1 cars amid the sport’s strict testing limits – was scheduled to take place as per usual at the Yas Marina circuit in November.

But those plans were reconsidered due to this year’s congested calendar.

India takes place just one week before Abu Dhabi, the young driver test is scheduled for the week after and then the races in the US and Brazil happening back-to-back next.

In the light of that arduous schedule, Reports in March said the teams were keener on having the young driver test at Silverstone.

“It’s a long season as it is and there are a lot of back-to-back races this year, so it’s tough for them (the teams),” Abu Dhabi circuit boss Richard Cregan conceded.

The German-language Speed Week reports in its May 2 edition that the majority of teams want to test instead at Silverstone, in July.

But the magazine said Red Bull’s two teams – Red Bull Racing and Toro Rosso – are sticking with the original Abu Dhabi plan.

The report also said other teams might cancel Silverstone at the last minute and join Red Bull in Abu Dhabi, should weather reports indicate the British weather would likely affect the July test.

Mark Webber has denied signing with the Ferrari team for 2013.

Spanish media reports, indicating that a letter of intent may already have been written, said Fernando Alonso favours Australian Webber to replace the struggling Felipe Massa.

The reports also said Webber, 35 and with an expiring Red Bull contract, could be signed for a single season ahead of Sergio Perez joining in 2014.

“Sergio was flavour of the month last week for the Ferrari drive; now it’s me,” Webber said at the Mugello test on Tuesday.

“I’m focusing 100 per cent on this season and doing the best job for myself and Red Bull Racing. I’m not putting any energy into anything else.”

Italian-language reporters also quote Webber as saying: “There’s a whole season ahead of us before we need to think about the future.

“One day the talk is about Jenson (Button joining Ferrari), then it’s Sergio, now it’s me. I haven’t signed anything.”

“My focus is on this team (Red Bull); we’ve had a good start to the season, we’re only four races down and the road is very, very, very long before we start talking about the future.”

As for the closely-contested 2012 championship, Webber added: “The grid is very close together.

“Sebastian (Vettel) had a weekend without problems in Bahrain and won but he didn’t dominate, and that’s the same for everyone.

“No one will be dominant in the first half of the season, so to be third at the start of the European season is not bad,” he said.

“The majority” of F1′s teams have agreed a deal over a new Concorde Agreement.
The news was announced by the sport’s chief executive Bernie Ecclestone, who remains in Europe, in time for Saturday’s final practice session in Malaysia.

Previously, it was reported Red Bull and Ferrari were set to agree separate new deals for F1′s future beyond the current commercial contract in 2013 and beyond.

But Ecclestone said on Saturday F1 has in fact “reached commercial agreements with the majority of the current formula one teams, including Ferrari, McLaren and Red Bull Racing”.

It was not revealed which teams have not agreed the terms for the new Concorde.

 Toro Rosso’s new drivers look set to be given longer than just a single season to prove they can step up to the senior Red Bull team.
Daniel Ricciardo and Jean-Eric Vergne have replaced the Faenza based team’s 2011 lineup and are tipped as likely contenders to oust the Australian veteran Mark Webber at Red Bull Racing next year.

But Franz Tost, Toro Rosso’s team principal, said a 2013 promotion for either Ricciardo or Vergne is unlikely.

“I have no idea. But I doubt it, as the level of Red Bull Racing is extremely high,” he told F1′s official website.

“So my guess is that they will have to wait a little more. So far Mark has not given any hint that he is thinking of retirement.”

Tost said Red Bull will only be looking for a driver with the ‘wow-effect’ to replace Webber, so 2013 could be too soon for Australian Ricciardo, or the French rookie Vergne.

“In general I would say that this wow-effect is not so easily manageable in a first season,” said the Austrian. “But it definitely has to be delivered in the second season.

“I don’t have a problem when a driver has a good race and at the next race he has a shunt — that’s part of the game. Both drivers will have a ‘crash period’ but that is part of their development phase,” he insisted.

“It was the same with Sebastian Vettel. But at some point they have to get their game together — and the question is who will be better at doing that? Let’s wait and see.”

The mystery surrounding Red Bull’s disappearing front wing has unravelled in the Spanish press this week.

Before the very similar-looking and ‘fluttering’ Ferrari version made its debut recently, Red Bull revealed they never recovered the front wing of Mark Webber’s car after his Monza crash.

Speculation suggested it had made its way straight to the design desks at Maranello.

But a Spanish fan, who attended the Italian grand prix, went some way to allaying those suspicions this week in the pages of the Marca sports daily.

He submitted photos showing pieces of the Webber wing, and revealing that other fans took home the other bits as similar carbon-fibre souvenirs.

“It never entered my head to give it to Ferrari,” the unnamed fan said. “I didn’t think it was so important.”

Red Bull has not only the fastest car, but also the fastest pit crew in formula one this year.
With Pirelli supplying heavily degrading tyres this season, the efficiency of a pit crew has taken on a new importance.

An analysis distributed by Mercedes has found that Red Bull Racing, the reigning and now back-to-back drivers’ and constructors’ champions, has left a grand prix event this year with the fastest pitstop time on eight separate occasions.

In second place is Mercedes, with seven fastest pitstops, while F1′s traditional grandees McLaren and Ferrari recorded only a single fastest pitstop apiece.

Red Bull is also leading the pack in terms of the consistency of its pitstop times, with the analysis showing the team changed its cars’ tyres fastest on average at nine of the 17 grands prix in 2011 so far.

Again, Mercedes comes a close second, with five best average pitstops (China, Germany, Singapore, Japan and Korea).

McLaren had the fastest average pitstops twice, and Force India once (at Monaco).

Overall, Red Bull and Mercedes’ pitstops have been 0.3 seconds faster than McLaren, with Force India (+0.4) and Ferrari (+0.5) next best.

Interestingly, HRT’s pitstops have been by far the slowest in 2011, a huge 1.6 seconds off the next-slowest pit crew, Virgin.

And the other new-in-2010 team, Team Lotus/Caterham, is mixing it with established names including Williams, Sauber and Toro Rosso.

“That sort of attention to detail is what separates the quick from the really quick and it is down to hard work, practice and attention to detail,” said technical boss Mike Gascoyne.

Toro Rosso will not select from outside of Red Bull’s own talent pool for its 2012 driver lineup, team boss Franz Tost has confirmed.
It is believed Sebastien Buemi, Jaime Alguersuari, and young Red Bull hopefuls Daniel Ricciardo and Jean-Eric Vergne, are all in the running for the Faenza based team’s two race seats next year.

“It is 100 per cent certain that next year we will have two Red Bull drivers,” Austrian Tost told the Sportwoche publication.

“That is the meaning and the purpose of why Red Bull bought the team,” he added.

“Our job is to allow young drivers from the Red Bull pool to enter formula one in training for (the move to) Red Bull Racing,” said Tost.

Since the Minardi takeover in 2006, however, the only driver to successfully move from Toro Rosso to the premier team is Sebastian Vettel.

“The reasons for that are simple,” said Tost. “First, he is more talented than the others.

“He is also more disciplined, brings more passion for the sport, is more innovative, open and more flexible in accepting suggestions to make himself better. And that’s why he’s the world champion,” he added.

“In their development too many drivers get to formula one and think ‘Now I have made it’. Actually, the hard work has only just begun. Everything before is kindergarten.

“In formula one you have to live formula one, 100 per cent, yet only a few do that completely,” said Tost.

Red Bull has no plans to scale back its involvement in formula one, owner Dietrich Mateschitz insists.
Red Bull Racing’s Nascar equivalent is being wound up but it is a different story in F1, where Sebastian Vettel is on the verge of being crowned the youngest ever back to back champion.

Mateschitz told the Independent newspaper he is even happy with his second F1 team Toro Rosso.

“No,” he insisted when asked if the Faenza based team is for sale, “although partnerships would not be ruled out, as long as the partner is the right one.”

Also not being sold is the premier Red Bull team, even though “a forecast is difficult and a decision always depends on the wider picture, the politics, influence of F1 shareholders and many other factors”.

He played down the supposed cost-drain of being involved in F1.

“The total marketing investment for (the) Red Bull (brand) is 10 times as much as in F1,” said Mateschitz.

There is, however, no title sponsor as it is “difficult to find one due to the strength of the Red Bull brand”.

Sponsor issues reportedly led to Narain Karthikeyan losing his seat at HRT.
The Indian driver’s main backers, Tata and Base batteries, are still showing at the Spanish team’s website. Hispania has been contacted for comment.

At Silverstone, HRT regular Vitantonio Liuzzi will for the first time share the garage with Australian rookie Daniel Ricciardo, as part of a new driver deal with Red Bull Racing.

Karthikeyan is officially still on the books as an official driver, amid rumours he might return for the inaugural Indian grand prix in October.

His sponsors Speed, Tata and Base are still showing on his official website, although the Italian magazine Italiaracing claims “economic difficulties” meant Karthikeyan lost his seat.

“When he learned of the economic difficulties of Narain Karthikeyan, Helmut Marko did not think for a second and reached the agreement with Hispania for the debut of his young protege (Ricciardo),” read the report.

Karthikeyan was not available a few days ago, and his management has once again been contacted for comment.

F1 team owner Red Bull looks set to pull the plug on its NASCAR project.
The failure of the project compared with the energy drink company’s meteoric success in formula one is being blamed for the decision.

Reports in the American media early this week say staff at the Red Bull Racing Sprint Cup team are being told the operation will close at the end of the season.

“We are not at liberty to comment on details while negotiations (with investors) are under way,” said the team.

NASCAR insiders say North Carolina based Red Bull Racing, headed technically by ex-F1 figure Gunther Steiner, has struggled since its debut in 2007.

A report in the Toronto Sun said it is “well known” that Red Bull mogul Dietrich Mateschitz has been “unhappy” with the NASCAR effort.

“They never really had the level of success (in NASCAR) that I’m sure they were hoping for,” said F1 marketing guru Zak Brown, according to USA Today.

“And on the flip side, you have enormous success around formula one. I’d probably say it’s a combination of both, and I’m not sure there was ever the same level of excitement and passion (for NASCAR).

“Dietrich is a winner, and he’s not going to go on forever if he doesn’t get the results,” added Just Marketing’s Brown.

He said it is likely Red Bull will chose instead to spend its North American dollars on title sponsoring next year’s US grand prix in Austin.

“Not that the US GP will ever be the size and magnitude of NASCAR,” admitted Brown, “but I’m sure they’re not going to just drop the NASCAR team and not fill the void in another sport or with a title sponsorship. The US is too big a market for them.”

Christian Horner has hinted strongly that Mark Webber will stay with Red Bull in 2012.
Dr Helmut Marko, the energy drink company’s motor racing manager, stirred the nest this week when he said that if the Australian leaves the team at the end of the season, Red Bull is likely to promote a Toro Rosso driver.

But Horner, the Milton Keynes based team’s British principal, told reporters in Canada that 34-year-old Webber wants to stay in 2012, and Red Bull Racing feels the same way about him.

“Mark has made it clear that he wants to drive next year, and conversations with Mark tend to be quite straightforward,” said Horner.

Horner revealed that the conversations will take place later this year, and will involve gauging if Webber still has the right “motivation and desire”.

“We believe he does and we’re happy to continue,” he is quoted as saying by the BBC.

While teammate Sebastian Vettel has roared to a position of dominance so far in 2011, Webber admitted this week that he is struggling with the Pirelli tyres.

“He has had these issues with the tyres that he is working hard to get on top of,” confirmed Horner, “but we are very happy with him in the team.”

Germany’s Bild said on Thursday that Red Bull looked into signing another driver for 2012, with recent rumours pointing to Lewis Hamilton, Jenson Button, Felipe Massa and Nico Rosberg.

“The problem is that no one wants to go up against Vettel,” said the newspaper. “He is just too good.”

It is likely a Toro Rosso driver will step up if Mark Webber does not stay at Red Bull beyond 2011, the energy drink company’s motor racing chief Helmut Marko has admitted.
While most key players including teammate Sebastian Vettel, Christian Horner and Adrian Newey recently had their contracts extended, Red Bull Racing is holding off re-signing Webber until his ongoing performance and motivation is gauged.

Already fighting for survival at the junior team Toro Rosso, Jaime Alguersuari and Sebastien Buemi are therefore also dicing for arguably the most coveted seat in F1 at present.

“This is by design,” Marko, the manager of Red Bull’s driver development programme, told the Italian magazine Autosprint.

“We will try to do what we did three years ago with Sebastian Vettel, when David Coulthard retired,” he said.

“Of course, this will not be automatic,” insisted Austrian Marko. “If a driver does not meet all of the professional requirements, we will not offer him the opportunity to drive at Red Bull.”