Last Sunday proved that Pastor Maldonado is no mere ‘pay driver’.

“If he was a fool, he would not be with us, no matter how much money he brings,” Sir Frank Williams is quoted by Brazil’s Globo Esporte.

Venezuelan Maldonado, whose links to the state owned oil company PDVSA and president Hugo Chavez controversially deliver many millions to Williams’ Oxfordshire based team, became F1′s fifth different winner of 2012 last weekend in Spain.

It has helped him to shake off the ‘pay driver’ insult, Williams insisting he is now a potential world champion instead.

“Without a doubt. He is very fast and makes no mistakes,” the newly 70-year-old Briton said.

Williams does, however, acknowledge that Maldonado’s money was a key factor in the decision to sign him.

“Yes, it was to some extent,” he said. “I don’t deny that. But he’s also a real driver. He fully deserves to be on the team, with or without money.

“The truth is that if you don’t have money, you don’t get to be in formula one,” added Williams.

Team shareholder Toto Wolff agrees: “If you want to race in GP2, you need a few million pounds. So, the drivers need not only to be fast and talented, but able to attract the sponsors.

“So let’s forget this thing about ‘pay drivers’,” he insisted.

Triple world champion Nelson Piquet, however, has some lingering doubts.

He ran Maldonado in his own GP2 team some years ago, and this week recalled a driver who was often “too aggressive” and made too many mistakes.

“We’re not talking about a guy who shone in his youth, like Nico Rosberg,” said the famous Brazilian, “or someone like Lewis Hamilton, who always had everything he needed thanks to Ron Dennis.

“In GP2, when you don’t stand out in your second year, you begin to be doubted. In Maldonado’s case, he only shone in his fourth year.

“Perhaps because of this he only made it to formula one as a paying driver, without having anything special, apparently. He was perceived as just a good pilot, but clearly no Alonso.

“Now he was at the right place at the right time but he still managed to beat Alonso in Spain as well as another world champion, Kimi (Raikkonen). So hats off to him.”

Bahrain, the controversial island Kingdom, could have been central to McLaren’s decision to agree the terms of the next Concorde Agreement.

Bahrain’s ruling family, through its investment arm Mumtalakat Holdings, owns half of the famous British team.

The Times’ F1 correspondent Kevin Eason quoted a source as saying the link “pushed (McLaren’s) Concorde deal over the line”.

In return for signing up, Bahrain reportedly received a “pledge” that last month’s highly contentious grand prix would go ahead.

Eason also said it is possible that one of McLaren’s two Bahraini directors, rather than the obvious choice Ron Dennis, could be appointed to the F1 board once the sport is floated on the Singapore exchange.

Bernie Ecclestone denied the 2012 Bahrain grand prix and the Concorde Agreement deal were linked.

“It was nothing to do with the Bahrain race (going ahead),” the F1 chief executive insisted. “But McLaren liked the deal.”

Intriguingly, however, F1′s post-stock market floatation chairman Peter Brabeck-Letmathe has defended the controversial decision to push ahead with Bahrain last month.

“The race was exploited by the opposition in Bahrain, not vice versa,” he told the Austrian newspaper Kleine Zeitung. “That was not interpreted correctly by the media.

“If groups want to exploit sporting events for their interests, then the worst thing you can do is give way.”

Brabeck also compared Bahrain to England.

“In what countries are there no riots?” he asked rhetorically. “A year ago there were riots in London — should the Olympic Games now be cancelled?”

Olivier Panis is happy with the early progress of French rookie Charles Pic’s 2012 season.

Panis, the 1996 Monaco grand prix winner and veteran of over 150 formula one races, now manages the career of 22-year-old Pic on behalf of the Lagardere group.

“I had the chance to talk with Ron Dennis on the grid,” the former Toyota racer and McLaren test driver Panis told RMC, “as he had come to see him (Pic).

“It shows that nobody is indifferent to what he is doing so far.”

Panis, 45, revealed that Pic is also spending “a lot of time” in McLaren’s driver simulator, thanks to the technical agreement between Marussia and McLaren.

“He is building an image slowly, which is positive. He has earned the respect of the paddock, and now we have to continue,” Panis added.

The F1 team’s parent company, McLaren Group, could be listed on the stock market in five years.

In Singapore on Friday, the company’s executive chairman Ron Dennis – the former long-time boss of the Woking based team – revealed ambitious plans to build 4,000 production sports cars per year.

“In five years, which is the point of which we have the mathematics to logically have an IPO, we will look at all markets,” he told reporters.

Reuters said the company is currently valued at more than $750 million.

Fernando Alonso has some fond memories of his single season alongside Lewis Hamilton in 2007.

The duo’s championship scrap at McLaren was billed as a highly tumultuous one, but Spaniard Alonso – now at Ferrari – insists that his only argument was with the British team’s then management led by Ron Dennis.

“If we were teammates at another team it would be a much cleaner struggle, and a real one,” said Alonso, who finished the season equal with Hamilton and a single point shy of Kimi Raikkonen’s title.

Recalling 2007, he explained to Spanish sports newspaper Marca: “You always learn lessons in tough times.

“That year was good overall, both Lewis and I learned many things. When you share a team with a top driver you learn to grow together.

“You improve in terms of preparing for a race and even from his driving style, because you share telemetry, so it was a great experience,” added Alonso.

As for 2011, Ferrari is now switching its focus to 2012, with Alonso admitting chasing down Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel will be almost impossible.

“Ferrari can not go to races not thinking about winning, but we are realists and know how difficult it is. We need Vettel to have failures,” he said.

The Spaniard is therefore much more confident about 2012.

“Of course we can catch them (Red Bull),” insisted Alonso. “The rules have changed, the blown diffusers will be forbidden, so the philosophy in the development and in the wind tunnel has to change.”

He said Ferrari’s recent structural changes have already made a difference.

“I have noticed more desire and general optimism, more speed in decision-making, more courage in the development. Yes, we have improved the structure and how we work.”

McLaren’s race drivers have rubbished speculation they might soon have a new team boss.

The Woking based team’s managing director Jonathan Neale this week said rumours Martin Whitmarsh might lose his job was “part of the media circus” of a disappointing home performance at Silverstone recently.

Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button have now also publicly backed Whitmarsh amid rumours Ron Dennis might be looking to return to his post at the helm of the famous British team.

“There’s no chance of that,” Hamilton told the Daily Star when asked about reports of Whitmarsh’s possible demise.

“There is a better atmosphere within the team than there ever has been, it is constantly growing.

“I am certain there are no plans for him to go anywhere.”

Teammate Button agrees: “It was said people are unsure of his (Whitmarsh’s) position within the team, the engineers and mechanics. That’s absolute rubbish.”

Martin Whitmarsh has admitted that McLaren’s current situation has raised questions about his future at the helm of the British team.

McLaren was the most notably affected by the exhaust blowing clampdown at Silverstone, where on Sunday Jenson Button retired with a loose wheel before Lewis Hamilton had to slow down because his sister car was running out of fuel.

They were the latest in a series of mistakes for one of the most successful and best funded teams, whilst former boss and perfectionist Ron Dennis has been lifting his profile at several grands prix recently.

“I am confident that I will stay in my job,” Whitmarsh said late on Sunday.

“I answer to the board, not just Ron, and they seem happy with the job I’m doing — for now, anyway.”

He admitted however that his relationship with Dennis, McLaren’s executive chairman and shareholder who stepped down as team boss in the wake of the hugely damaging spygate saga, is “interesting”.

“We have ups and downs but I think our relationship is strong at the moment. I am firm about where I draw the line in terms of what my responsibilities are and what his are with regard to the F1 team,” he said.

He had a long face on the Montreal podium but Sebastian Vettel might still be cruising to the 2011 title.
The Red Bull driver was gutted after handing his Canadian grand prix lead to McLaren’s Jenson Button almost within sight of the chequered flag.

“If you have got it in your hands and you give it away, it’s not the sweetest feeling,” admitted the German.

But in actual fact, because his closest challenger Lewis Hamilton did not finish, Vettel actually extended his championship lead in Canada,
now over the sister McLaren.

“Vettel is only counting down the time before his new world championship comes,” wrote Italy’s Tuttosport, while Marca said the outcome in 2011 is “practically decided”.

Agreed Joan Villadelprat in his El Pais column: “Make no mistake, the Red Bull is still the best car and Vettel extended in Canada. I’m guessing it’s going to be very difficult to beat him in the coming races.”

Red Bull, meanwhile, said all weekend that Canada is perhaps its “weakest” race of the season with the RB7.

“He should not be too disappointed,” said boss Christian Horner afterwards.

Der Spiegel quotes Vettel as agreeing: “It’s annoying to lose a race because of a moment of distraction just before the finish.

“But when I look at the world championship standings after the seventh race, I am quite satisfied.”

Long-time McLaren team boss Ron Dennis, however, said before leaving Canada that the race had proved “Vettel is not invincible”.

And the RB7′s dominance might be affected by the forthcoming restrictions on blown exhausts.

“The rule changes are going to spice things up,” Lewis Hamilton predicted, according to The Independent.

In the Telegraph, Montreal winner Button agreed: “There’s a lot happening this year in terms of the regulations. It could go our way, it might not. We’ll have to see.”

Ron Dennis has named Mika Hakkinen’s near-fatal crash in 1995 as the worst memory in his long McLaren career.

The 63-year-old, for a long time the Woking based team’s F1 principal and still the executive chairman and shareholder, said his first title as boss – with Niki Lauda in 1984 – is his best memory.

“The finest moment?” Dennis is quoted by Turun Sanomat in Finland. “Of course I should say it was the last championship with Lewis, but for me it was the first one with Niki.”

The Briton did not hesitate when contemplating his lowest point.

“The worst was when I had to go to a hospital in Adelaide after Mika’s accident,” revealed Dennis. “There was a possibility that a driver had died in my car.

“Fortunately that never happened,” he added.

Dennis named Hakkinen, Lewis Hamilton and Ayrton Senna as McLaren’s best drivers.

“Mika I choose for his honesty, Lewis for his uncompromising attitude, and Ayrton because of his passion,” he said.

Hot on the heels of renewed talk of a F1 ‘breakaway’ series, reports quote Ron Dennis as accusing Bernie Ecclestone of stealing the sport’s commercial rights from the teams.

The McLaren supremo’s comments appear in the new Ecclestone biography called ‘Bernie’.

“Bernie effectively stole formula one from us,” Dennis charged.

He is referring to the transfer of F1′s lucrative commercial rights from the team-led Formula One Constructors’ Association (FOCA) to Ecclestone’s company in the 90s.

“He used this commercial benefit to persuade the teams to accept a contract that eliminated them from the passing of rights as had previously existed,” Dennis said in the book.

McLaren – as well as Williams – contested the transaction, claiming that some of the profits of the rights’ subsequent sale belonged to them.

The British teams also sued the law firms that represented them for giving bad advice, but Ecclestone insists they simply regretted not making a wiser decision.

“It’s only when things started to look good and I invested the money and it started to work that they thought maybe they should have done it,” said the 80-year-old.

There are some interesting faces in the Singapore paddock this weekend.

One of them is Lesa Kennedy, a prominent NASCAR board member and vice chairwoman of the American series.

It is rumoured she is securing a supply of ECUs with McLaren Electronic Systems.  McLaren group chairman Ron Dennis is also in Singapore this weekend.

Kennedy also met with F1 chief executive Bernie Ecclestone, sparking rumours NASCAR could be put on the bill for the 2012 United States grand prix in Austin.

Also spotted in the Singapore paddock was Dmitry Kozak, Russia’s deputy prime minister, who met with F1 chief executive Ecclestone.

Other notable dignitaries in Singapore are Dr Naviachandra Ramgoolam, the prime minister or Mauritius, and Jacques Regis, formerly the president of French motor racing authority FFSA.

After a stint working on his NASCAR plans, Jacques Villeneuve has returned this week to the other side of the Atlantic to focus on setting up his own F1 team.

While also trying to land a full-time seat in America’s premier series, the 1997 world champion is collaborating with the Italian former GP2 outfit Durango in a bid to fill the 13th and final place on the 2011 formula one grid.

The French Canadian publication Rue Frontenac reports that Villeneuve, 39, is now in Europe where team officials will on Wednesday present their project to authorities in Geneva.

“I’m really proud of our bid,” he is quoted as saying.

“We have no control over what the others will present and how our approach will be evaluated, but everything has been done according to the requirements of the FIA.

“We have cut no corners, we have done everything by the book. My partners have done an impeccable job,” said Villeneuve, who was last on the F1 grid with BMW-Sauber in 2006.

It has been reported that Villeneuve/Durango is competing with two rivals for the 13th team entry — Epsilon Euskadi and Stefan GP.

“We don’t know how many people are presenting a dossier, let alone who they are and their seriousness,” insisted the winner of 11 grands prix.

“Also, the FIA has not committed to having a thirteenth team if a project is not consistent with their requirements,” said Villeneuve.

“If we do get the place, then the real stress will begin!” he added. “It will be difficult to be competitive in 2011, we know that, but we are not building a team only for one year.”

Long-time McLaren team boss Ron Dennis commented: “The finances will decide everything.

“Everyone in the world of F1 hopes it works out — it’s always good to keep the sport’s champions around. But I repeat that it will require extensive financial resources.

“This is not a sport for the faint of heart,” added the Briton.

Jenson Button insists his latest criticism of McLaren’s 2010 car is “positive”.

The British team’s group chairman Ron Dennis publicly scolded the reigning world champion and his teammate Lewis Hamilton recently for pointing out the weaknesses of the MP4-25.

But after qualifying two seconds off the pace in Hungary, and finishing the race eighth as both the drivers and the team lost their championship leads, 30-year-old Button insists his current comments are just a statement of fact.

“We’re not as quick as the Red Bulls at this moment in time,” he said.  “You can see that on the circuit.  It’s not a negative thing.  It’s a positive criticism.”

Button said he is not being critical of the team, but instead is urging McLaren to work together to bring the car back onto the pace.

“The position we’re in is not about pointing the finger.  When I say our car isn’t as quick as another car, I mean it is not as quick,” he explained.

“But it’s a team effort.  We win together and we lose together.  It’s as much about me giving as much input as I can to improve the car as it is about the guys back at the factory making the car go quicker in their way.

“It’s like me saying I made a mistake out on the circuit.  That’s my fault.  So me saying the car’s not quick enough — it’s not quick enough, but I’m going to try everything I can to ensure it gets quicker,” added Button.

He backs the Woking based outfit – the winner of 12 constructors’ and 8 drivers’ world championships – to improve.

“You do have peaks and troughs in formula one and when you are fighting at championship level,” said Button.

“At the moment we are not in a trough, but we are not as strong as the Red Bulls.

“But I’d be surprised if this team didn’t pull something out.  I have every confidence they will.”

The site location and the primary investor have been revealed by organisers of the 2012 United States grand prix.
Zak Brown, boss of the company that represents F1 sponsors including LG, Johnnie Walker and Hilton, said he thinks the news will allay some of the recent scepticism about the Austin project.

“A phased approach led a lot of people to wonder, How the hell is this going to come together?” the Just Marketing CEO is quoted by USA Today.

“I think the timetable is the biggest question as opposed to whether it’s going to happen,” he said.

Ron Dennis, the long-time McLaren chief, agrees.

“The race in Austin is challenging in the time scale, but I think it’ll probably happen,” he said. “But we will be in America (somewhere). We always get to America somehow.”

Red McCombs, former owner of American sporting teams San Antonio Spurs, Denver Nuggets and Minnesota Vikings, was revealed as the primary investor.

And promoter Tavo Hellmund confirmed that the track will be built in southeast Austin in an area formerly known as Wandering Creek.

“They’ve got to start putting shovels in the ground really quick,” Brown continued.

Ron Dennis added: “Even if they’re one year late, it won’t stop the project happening.”

A spokesman said the actual track layout, designed by Hermann Tilke, will be released later this summer.

It is a balancing act between being a team needs two strong drivers who drive each other to the limit in order to develop the full potential of the car. On the other hand, an excessive stable rivalry affect extremely destructive, as the Red-Bull-collision between Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel showed in Istanbul.

Curiously, it was said before the season benefit that Red Bull from the stable driver pairing and it will be at McLaren with two world champions in the team only a matter of time before the great crash between Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton is. But it can not be said – that proved the two in Turkey, as she fought a tough, but risked no collision.
Jenson Button believes that a competitive situation Ohata has a fertilizing effect: If one were to make Sebastian Vettel is now the number one, “would be detrimental to both.” A prime example is called the world champion his own team: “I know one hundred percent that we will be treated equally. And by that I mean not in terms of material, but how people behave in a team.”

An interesting statement, especially since it was precisely in this respect prior years at McLaren massive potential for conflict. 2007, the then-McLaren team boss Ron Dennis confirmed any cases that Fernando Alonso, the same material as team’s Lewis Hamilton get, but the proud Spaniard felt particularly reprehensible human left in the lurch.

A situation that is Jenson Button in a team match with Lewis Hamilton a stranger, “My mechanic want me to win, and his wish that he wins. This internal struggle is really exciting, but it does not go too far. So it should be – and It works well for us. ” The fact that the Briton at McLaren after seven races so relaxed look to the future, can go quite well on his cap. Alex Wurz had predicted before the season: “Put it in the first six races Jenson not enough to beat Lewis Hamilton, then his time is up.” That he is now in the World Cup standings ahead of his teammate, would probably hardly anyone expected.

World Cup chances are even buttons for more than a third of the season completely intact. We amount at the end of a title duel with Lewis Hamilton? The 30-year-old dismisses: “You can not safely say that this may be between Lewis and myself will decide so much happen. If they had with Red Bull after the race in Monaco said, they would have expected to walk, because the distance was so great. In Turkey, we have shown that we are equally fast if not faster, although we have to improve in qualifying. ”
Button expects Material Battle for World Cup crown

Also at the Grand Prix of Canada, the McLaren drivers are to assess strong – the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve is contrary to the equipped with the F-bay system silver cars. It also knows Button: “We should be here soon. The course is very fast, but that is no place that forgives even the smallest error, because the concrete walls are so close. That is why this weekend, always unpredictable.”
(MotorSportsTotal)