Fernando Alonso has backed his beleaguered teammate Felipe Massa.

Massa is fighting to save his Ferrari seat, but his team boss Stefano Domenicali insists the Brazilian also “needs to improve” for the sake of his very “future in formula one”.

On the other hand, the Maranello based team is more than enthralled with the occupant of the sister F2012, Fernando Alonso.

In fact, Domenicali told El Mundo newspaper last weekend that Ferrari has a “moral obligation” to the Spaniard, that might also extend to his involvement “in the important issues”.

One important issue is the identity of his 2013 teammate.

On Massa, Alonso is quoted by El Pais newspaper after Massa finished ninth in Bahrain: “He had a great start, pulled away from the traffic and ran a super race.

“But we didn’t discover this just now: Felipe has won in Bahrain twice. He doesn’t need to prove anything,” said Alonso.

As ever in the high-intrigue world of formula one politics, what is not said always has more value that what is freedly revealed.
That is doubly true if the shrewd Bernie Ecclestone is at the steering wheel.

Firstly, while some interpreted Saturday’s news as a 2013 Concorde Agreement being done and dusted, the F1 chief executive’s short statement in fact merely said “the terms” of the next contract have been agreed.

And the major keyword was that “the majority” of the teams – including Ferrari, McLaren and Red Bull – are on board.

“Bernie’s used the word majority,” McLaren team boss Martin Whitmarsh is quoted by the Mirror. “If there are 12 teams, that’s seven or more.

“I don’t know any more.”

The big missing domino is Mercedes, who according to multiple media sources are holding out for now.

Another is the famous British outfit Williams.

“All agreements between FOM and the teams are normally subject to confidentiality clauses,” Red Bull’s Christian Horner is quoted in German reports.

“So I can’t comment.”

Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport reported that, in addition to the aforementioned top teams, also set to sign up for 2013 are Red Bull sister team Toro Rosso and Ferrari-powered Sauber.

Lotus and Force India are reportedly also part of that group.

That leaves just the three slowest teams Caterham, Marussia and HRT as the other teams remaining in the cold.

The McLaren drivers and beaming returnee Romain Grosjean on Saturday looked to have knocked Red Bull from its dominant perch.
“McLaren had an upgrade at the last test and it’s performed here at Albert Park,” said former team driver and BBC commentator David Coulthard.

Lewis Hamilton beat his teammate Jenson Button to pole in Melbourne, but just a few tenths behind is the reigning GP2 champion Grosjean.

Frenchman Grosjean’s teammate Kimi Raikkonen had a dire return qualifying performance by missing the Q1 cut, describing the session as “shit” according to the German press.

In total contrast, Grosjean was beaming: “A few people believed in me through the toughest time and I’m back — almost at the top!”

The surprises continued beyond the top three: Mercedes’ Michael Schumacher is fourth, and reigning champion Sebastian Vettel sixth.

“We are aware we need to improve,” said Mark Webber, who qualified the sister Red Bull in fifth as both RB8 cars had KERS issues.

In much bigger strife is fabled Ferrari, with neither F2012 making it through to Q3.

Fernando Alonso threw his red car into the gravel and Felipe Massa is a disastrous 16th, with Sky analyst Martin Brundle described the handling of the F2012 as “horrible”.

“Forget the reds,” the summary report at Italy’s La Gazzetta dello Sport website, written by correspondent Andrea Cremonesi, said.

Said Spaniard Alonso: “We need to change the direction quickly if we’re to challenge for the championship. We have to react.”

Meanwhile, Lotus boss Eric Boullier answered “maybe” when asked on Sky UK television if the team will lodge an official protest against Mercedes’ qualifying result, based on the belief the W03′s F-duct solutions are illegal.

 Red Bull has been isolated from F1′s other teams, as the FIA is asked to step in and police their cost-cutting efforts.
Last year, there remained suspicions the energy drink owned team – the winner of the past two world championships – flouted the ‘resource restriction agreement’ (RRA).

But the agreement was only an initiative of the teams’ trade union FOTA, which has now essentially collapsed.

Moreover, the agreement includes only financial sanctions for breaches, and Red Bull was never penalised anyway — Ferrari’s Luca di Montezemolo said recently he didn’t push the issue “Because I didn’t want it to be an excuse for our performance”.

A letter has now been addressed to FIA president Jean Todt requesting that the governing body step in and make the RRA an official sporting regulation.

Breaches would therefore carry a sporting sanction, such as the loss of points, or race bans.

“Yes, it (the letter) was unanimous. Most of the teams have signed it,” said Lotus team boss Eric Boullier.

He would not, however, confirm the identity of the teams that did not sign.

But a report in the Kolner Express newspaper claims “only two teams did not sign: Red Bull and the sister team Toro Rosso”.

 HRT was a “risky team” for Bruno Senna to drive for in 2010, the Brazilian’s mother Viviane has admitted.
Senna, whose mother is the great Ayrton Senna’s sister, went on to race for Renault (now Lotus) last year and for 2012 has switched to Williams.

“What matters is that the team can give Bruno the best conditions to develop his ability,” Viviane Senna told TV Globo.

“I was not happy with Hispania. They had no spare parts, so if something was broken it would be patched up for the next race. You never knew when the next thing was going to break.

“Yes, that was a risky team,” she admitted.

Many observers see 2012 as 28-year-old Senna’s last chance to prove he is even a shadow of his late, great uncle.

Viviane insisted: “People remember Ayrton the winner, the champion, but few remember how long he took to get there.

“Bruno went from nothing to F1 in five years. It’s an unfair comparison to those who have done it (racing) for their whole lives.”

Lewis Hamilton has admitted it “would be fantastic” to have his teammate’s support in his quest to win a second drivers’ title in 2010.

Fellow McLaren driver Jenson Button is the reigning world champion, but with a bad race in Korea last Sunday his points deficit fell to 42 points with just two races to go.

In the sister MP4-25, Hamilton is 21 points off Fernando Alonso’s championship lead, sparking suggestions the time is nigh for Button to play a Felipe Massa-like supportive role for the rest of the season.

Woking based McLaren, however, operates a strict policy of driver equality, even though boss Martin Whitmarsh said before leaving Korea that a team strategy will be discussed internally “before we get to Brazil”.

When asked about his and Button’s approach with now just the Interlagos and Abu Dhabi rounds to go, Hamilton said: “We both push as hard as we can to score as many points as we can for the team.

“Clearly we’re both far behind, him further than me. I’m 21 points behind, so I’ve got to get a lot of points.

“I don’t know what will happen. You will have to speak to Martin on what he thinks he will have to do.

“All I know is I have to get as high as possible and it would be fantastic to have Jenson with me,” added the 25-year-old Briton.

Button said in Korea that he will only voluntarily fall in line behind Hamilton when he is “mathematically” no longer in the hunt. He also said he is confident he “won’t be asked” to support Hamilton until then.

“Lewis is still very much in the hunt. Mathematically, it’s not impossible for Jenson, but it looks quite tough, very difficult for him,” said Whitmarsh.

Eddie Jordan has praised Michael Schumacher’s performance at Suzuka, despite claiming he would have fired him only two weeks earlier.

“We saw a different Schumacher in Japan,” said BBC commentator Jordan, who in 1991 gave the then pay-driving German his first drive.

Jordan continued: “He was terrible in Singapore.  It was the worst race of his I’ve ever seen.”

At Suzuka, Schumacher was once again outqualifed by his teammate Nico Rosberg, but in the race he was faster than the younger German and finished sixth.

“He couldn’t have gone on being as bad as he was in Singapore,” Jordan is quoted by Auto Motor und Sport.

“It was a big improvement.  In practice he was faster than Rosberg and that’s something we haven’t seen too often.

“I think he just felt comfortable.  Suzuka is a brilliant drivers’ circuit, and Michael is a brilliant driver,” added Jordan.  “I think we saw something of his old self.”

Schumacher said after the race that his true pace this year has often been clouded by inconsistencies between his car and the sister Mercedes driven by Rosberg.

“Sometimes not everything comes together as planned from the technical point of view however our link is strong enough to allow things being criticised if they don’t run as expected — and this refers to all of us,” he wrote on his official website.

“It’s important we stay united within the team.  And I am very confident about this,” added Schumacher.

According to Daniel Ricciardo’s team boss this year, the 21-year-old Australian is ready to move into formula one.

Currently the reserve driver for Red Bull’s two F1 teams, Ricciardo was replaced by David Coulthard for the Suzuka race last weekend as he contended for the Renault World Series title in Spain.

He ultimately lost out to Mikhail Aleshin, a 23-year-old Russian whose prize will be a Renault F1 test in Abu Dhabi next month.

But Ricciardo is also destined for formula one, his Tech 1 team boss Simon Abadi insists.

“We’re all convinced that not only will he get into F1, but above all he’ll win there.  It couldn’t be otherwise,” he said.

Red Bull-sponsored Ricciardo is now leaving the Tech 1 team, and is tipped for a seat in the GP2 championship for 2011.

“I should be taking part in the F1 rookies tests in Abu Dhabi,” he said.  “We’ll see in the coming weeks what Red Bull has in store for me.”

In Abu Dhabi, Red Bull’s sister F1 team Toro Rosso will be running Ricciardo’s Tech 1 teammate Jean-Eric Vergne.

Pedro de la Rosa has vowed to catch up with his former team boss Peter Sauber at the end of the season.

The Spaniard raced with the Swiss team in 2010 until last month’s Italian grand prix, whereafter he was replaced for the last five races by Nick Heidfeld.

Sauber said he made the decision in order to gauge the true pace of the Ferrari-powered C29 car.

De la Rosa has told Spanish radio Cadena Ser this week that he will catch up with the 67-year-old after the Abu Dhabi finale “to see if it was the right decision”.

He admits that Sauber’s explanation that it was de la Rosa’s consistency that motivated the decision “hurt me”.

But he said German Heidfeld is a “good driver, but the quality all the way through the field is very close”.

39-year-old de la Rosa also admitted that the occupant of the sister car, Kamui Kobayashi, is “much better than you think”.

He also said that if he had strong sponsors, “I would still be there”.

On the three-race championship fight, de la Rosa tipped countryman Fernando Alonso “but I don’t know if that’s my brain or my heart speaking”.

He also said the layout of the Korean circuit looks “mixed”, with the tighter sections favouring the Red Bull, and the Ferrari to be better on the long straights.

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.

Both Red Bull drivers had engine problems last weekend at Hockenheim, according to Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport.

For Sebastian Vettel, his problem came between the Friday practice sessions, when his Renault V8 with high mileage was replaced after an oil sample was tested.

Mark Webber, meanwhile, had to reduce his speed in the second half of the race because the supply of oil from an auxiliary tank was not working.

“I was happy to just get to the finish,” said the Australian, who finished sixth.

He believes Red Bull’s raft of reliability problems are due to the team’s unique winter strategy.

“It was our strategy to only show our final package on the very last day of testing.  So we were down on kilometres to guard against all those sorts of issues,” said Webber.

Another problem has been the difficulty to convert pole positions to good race starts.

Vettel squeezed Fernando Alonso against the pitwall at the start at Hockenheim, only to be also beaten to the first corner by Felipe Massa’s sister Ferrari.

“They were definitely not the best starts,” admitted team boss Christian Horner, also referring to Webber’s start in Germany.

“It has happened to us several times this season,” he added.