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.”

Niki Lauda will not be wearing his famous red cap in the formula one paddock this year.
The iconic Austrian racer, businessman and German TV commentator has worn the red cap – and sold the space on the front to a sponsor – ever since a near-fatal shunt in 1976 left him with head and facial scars.

A four year deal with Swiss machinery maker Oerlikon has now ended, and triple world champion Lauda has inked a new deal with Liechtenstein finance company Money Service Group.

Lauda’s new cap is dark blue, a company spokesperson confirmed, providing a photo of the 61-year-old wearing his new colours.

“We are very pleased to have Niki Lauda as an ambassasdor,” said founder and owner Michael Seidl, whose company Money Service Group also sponsors Toro Rosso.

Heikki Kovalainen was on Sunday knocked unconscious in a crash at the Race of Champions event in Germany.

“Hardcore shunt with throttle jammed and rear suspension damaged, got knocked out, now some medical checkups,” the Finnish driver wrote on Twitter after the crash in an Audi R8 in Dusseldorf.

Kovalainen’s British girlfriend Catherine Hyde was seated alongside the Lotus driver, who had already taken the chequered flag to win the race, but she emerged unscathed.

“Catherine is sore and her back is painful, got to look after her now,” 29-year-old Kovalainen, who went to a local hospital for checks, added.

He also said on Twitter that, after arriving home to Switzerland, he will have further medical checks on Monday.

“Head’s a bit sore, (I) was unconscious for 30 seconds,” revealed Kovalainen, a former Race of Champions winner.

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)

Jun.18 (GMM)  Niki Lauda is on the lookout for a new sponsor for his famous red cap.

Ever since a near-fatal shunt in 1976 left him with head and facial scars, the iconic Austrian racer, businessman and TV commentator has sold the commercial rights to the front of his ever-present baseball cap.

For more than two decades, ‘Parmalat’ paid for the privilege, and in 2002 the German heating company ‘Viessmann’ took over the deal.

In 2007, the name and logo of the Swiss machinery maker ‘Oerlikon’ began adorning 60-year-old Lauda’s head, with speculation suggesting an annual six-figure sum.

The daily Osterreich newspaper is now reporting that the Oerlikon deal is set to lapse at the end of the year due to cost cutting.

“The contract with Oerlikon is running out — that’s right,” Lauda confirmed to the APA news agency.

As Red Bull drew a line under the matter on Thursday, former FIA president Max Mosley waded into the debate about the collision between Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel in Turkey.

After a meeting in Milton-Keynes on Thursday, the team issued a statement that included a jovial photo of the teammates with the caption ‘Shit happens’.

“I’m sorry for the team that we lost the lead of the race.  Mark and I are racers and we were racing,” German Vettel, 22, is quoted as saying.

With the blame-game apparently put to bed, Mosley however told the German newspaper Die Welt that he thinks the crash was Australian Webber’s fault.

Interestingly, 70-year-old Briton Mosley is a close friend and former F1 ally of Red Bull’s Austrian billionaire owner Dietrich Mateschitz.

Dr Helmut Marko, also Austrian and Mateschitz’s right-hand man on motor racing matters, also initially blamed Webber for the lap-40 shunt at Istanbul Park.

“From my perspective,” said former long-time FIA president Mosley, “I do not think that Sebastian Vettel should receive the blame for the collision.”

Mosley added: “At the time of the accident Vettel was clearly faster than Webber.  At this stage he (Vettel) had the right and the duty to overtake.”

Red Bull has revealed that Webber was running a fuel-saving engine setting while Vettel was not, and that the Australian radioed the pits to ask the McLaren-pressured Vettel to drop back.

Moreover, the team claims Webber’s race engineer Ciaron Pilbeam failed to pass on a radio message warning the 33-year-old not to repel an attack by Vettel, whose tyres were reportedly also in better shape than Webber’s.

Marko aside, most of the F1 world said it was Vettel who aggressively turned right whilst alongside the sister RB6 driven by Webber.

“I do not agree,” said Mosley, strongly siding with Marko, who along with team boss Christian Horner also attended Thursday’s clear-the-air meeting.

Said Mosley: “It can be clearly seen that Vettel had already passed Webber before the collision, and at that time Webber should have given him more space — especially as they were already on the far left side of the track.

“Now you could argue (about the blame) if it had not been Webber’s teammate, but as it was, he (Webber) should have respected his responsibility to the team.

“Remember, both cars were doing almost 300kph, so considering the risk, he (Webber) should have taken a chance to improve his position at another point in the race.”

When told by the Welt interviewer that the same rationale also applies to Vettel, Mosley answered: “The crucial point speaks for Vettel and against Webber — that one driver in this moment was fast, while the other was slow.”

Mosley, who speaks fluent German, also said he does not believe Red Bull’s apparent desire to see Vettel ahead of Webber amounts to illegal team orders.

“I cannot see that,” said the Briton.  “Vettel was under pressure from Lewis Hamilton, he was faster than Webber, and to shake off the McLaren he needed to pass the slower Webber.

“Even if this situation was declared to the drivers by radio, this would not be a team order or a manipulation of the drivers’ championship, but rather an explanation of a particular situation — (it is) necessary information for the drivers.”

Comparing the situation to Ferrari’s infamous place-swapping in Austria in 2002, Mosley said “one was a conscious manipulation of the world championship, the other is the legitimate explanation of a racing situation.”

(GMM)

A crisis meeting will be held in the next few days at Red Bull’s Milton Keynes headquarters, in a bid to ease the ill-feeling in the wake of the Sebastian Vettel-Mark Webber shunt.

“The goal is to win the world championship with the fastest driver.  Above any individual interest must be the general interest, and that is the success of the team,” team advisor Helmut Marko said on Austrian television Sport und Talk aus dem Hangar-7.

“The two drivers do not need to go out for dinner with each other, but they must cooperate,” he insisted.

Marko maintains that, prior to the contact whilst leading the Turkish grand prix, Webber’s race engineer Ciaron Pilbeam should have passed on the team’s instruction that Vettel was not yet in a fuel-saving mode because he had an extra lap of fuel.

“Why (he did not pass on the information) is still not entirely clear,” said Marko.  “This engineer simply had a blackout; he did not respond properly.”

He insists the turning down of Webber’s engine did not amount to a team order.

“The message to Webber should have been ‘You’re too slow.  At this rate, Hamilton is going to be straight past you.  If Vettel is faster, don’t fight against him, concentrate on Hamilton’.

“That is not a team order,” Marko said.

(GMM)

May 30 (GMM)  Red Bull had instructed Mark Webber to switch his engine to a fuel-saving mode in the moments before his crash with teammate Sebastian Vettel in Turkey.

In the aftermath of the controversial incident, rumours began to swirl inside the Istanbul Park paddock that there was more to it than met the eye.

Australian Webber alluded to the intrigue by telling reporters after the race that Vettel had a “big top speed advantage” when he launched the move.

Pressed for whether there was a reason for the speed difference, Webber answered: “Hmm, maybe.

“You guys need to dig more, somewhere else.”

The media therefore went to team bosses Christian Horner and Helmut Marko, who initially did not confirm that Webber and Vettel’s engines were running on different settings.

“I think it was in the tyres,” said advisor Marko, when asked specifically if there was a reason that Vettel was so much quicker than Webber at the time of the shunt.

Both Horner and Marko seemed to blame Webber for the crash, directly contradicting many experts within the paddock.

It is rumoured that, as the pair were on equal points at the head of the world championship at the time of the shunt, Red Bull wanted Vettel to pass Webber and win the race.

Marko denied that Webber’s engineer had been instructed to tell the driver to let Vettel past.

“That is not correct,” said the Austrian, “because that would mean a team order.

“We informed Mark about the situation and it is for the driver to decide.  The fact is that if Sebastian hadn’t passed he would have been overtaken by Hamilton.”

Rubens Barrichello has denied claims he recklessly endangered his F1 rivals after crashing out of Sunday’s Monaco grand prix.

The Brazilian veteran threw his steering wheel onto the racing line after shunting due to a technical problem whilst climbing Beau Rivage at high speed.

The impacts dented the Armco barriers on both sides of the Monaco layout, and in apparent frustration Barrichello, who turns 38 this Sunday, threw his $50,000 steering wheel onto the track.

It was promptly run over by Karun Chandhok, who dragged the expensive debris all the way to the tunnel before it came loose and was run over again by Bruno Senna.

It was a spring from Barrichello’s Brawn that last year struck the hapless Felipe Massa on the helmet.

It is also a fundamental rule breach not to re-connect the steering wheel after abandoning a stricken car.

“What was he doing?,” Chandhok said of Barrichello.  “Charlie (Whiting) actually asked me about it.  You see on the video that he just throws it.”

But the Williams driver insists: “I threw the steering wheel because I wanted to get out of the car as soon as possible.

“After the shunt I was facing the wrong side of the track and the car was on fire,” he argued.

Williams co-owner Patrick Head also defended his driver.

“If you are standing in the middle of a 120mph corner, you tend to think ‘let’s get out of here as quickly as you can’.”

(GMM)