Jean Alesi would like to see the pressure eased on the shoulders of France’s new F1 hope.

Until Sunday, Alesi was the last French driver to have stood on a formula one podium, after taking his Sauber to third at Spa in 1998.

Romain Grosjean therefore ended a 14-year podium drought for France, tasting top-three spoils in just his eleventh race in formula one.

“(Grosjean as) My successor?” Alesi told RMC Sport. “I don’t see it that way.

“It’s promising but we need to leave him alone now,” the 47-year-old veteran of 202 grands prix over 13 seasons insisted.

Alesi is referring to the media hype about Grosjean after the first two races, when he failed to get his Lotus around even the first lap in Australia and Malaysia.

He then scored his first ever points in China and seven days later was on the podium, triggering press speculation in France that the tones of ‘La Marseillaise’ are next.

But there remains other pressures on Grosjean; exalted as France’s new hope, and at the same time accused of preventing Kimi Raikkonen from winning in Bahrain by not letting his faster teammate through in the absence of team orders.

“I know what I’m talking about,” said Alesi. “Since the beginning of the season there have been all sorts of comments about him.

“That isn’t right.

“He needs to have calm and take the time that he needs to get on top of everything.

“When it’s a podium, we’re all happy but when it’s a bad performance, we all have to be behind him too,” he added.

Pirelli has confirmed it will try to contribute to the F1 ‘show’ next year but warned it must also be seen as a competent tyre maker.

In Canada this year, the products supplied by the sport’s departing official supplier Bridgestone fell apart, resulting in a highly entertaining race.

The event sparked suggestions the arrival of a new tyre supplier next season is an opportunity to manufacture more Canada-like thrillers.

F1 teams and drivers got their first taste of Pirelli’s proposed tyres for 2011 last week in Abu Dhabi, and noted that while the harder compound wore quickly, the soft was oddly much more durable.

The marque’s motor sport boss Paul Hembery confirmed that Pirelli has responded to the desire that tyre strategy influences the entertainment-value of grands prix.

“We have been asked to produce tyres to improve the show,” he is quoted by the Finnish newspaper Turun Sanomat.

“But if we are very criticised by the teams or the drivers, yes, we will be able to bring to the next race very durable tyres,” added Hembery.

Overall, he insisted that the teams were generally “very enthusiastic” after their first encounter with Pirelli, and played down estimates that the tyres are about 2 seconds slower than this year’s Bridgestones.

“It is pointless to make those sorts of comparisons at this stage,” said the British engineer, who also speaks fluent Italian.

Sebastian Vettel is making the same sorts of mistakes seen in Lewis Hamilton’s early career, according to triple world champion and pundit Niki Lauda.

“Sebastian is very fast but he needs time to learn not to make so many mistakes,” the Austrian is quoted in an interview with Spain’s El Pais.

Asked whether the Red Bull youngster’s mistakes can be compared with Hamilton’s a few years ago, Lauda answered: “Perhaps, but now Hamilton has matured a lot and makes not many mistakes despite being incredibly aggressive.

“Today, Lewis is far more complete.”

Lauda thinks Vettel, but particularly Mark Webber, has the best chance of winning the 2010 title.

“Red Bull has had many ruined races, especially with Sebastian, but their car is the best and they’re the team to beat.

“McLaren has been too inconsistent, Ferrari as well.”

Lauda also said he rates Fernando Alonso very highly, despite recently being embroiled in an argument with Ferrari after issuing some critical comments.

“I don’t have a problem with him at all. First, from my point of view, he is the best driver currently in F1. There’s no-one like him — not Vettel, or Hamilton, or any of the others.

“The only criticisms I’ve had is when he was at McLaren, and now with the team orders at Ferrari.

“You can’t do what he did after Germany — when he came out and said he knew nothing about what happened on the track.

“He tried to convince people that he had no idea what his team had done from the pitwall. That’s all I’ve criticised,” explained Lauda.

Jun.12 (GMM)  Leading bosses have rejected David Coulthard’s suggestion that formula one overturn its ban on team orders.

In the wake of the Turkish grand prix two weeks ago, it was reported that the controversies may have been triggered by Red Bull and McLaren trying to circumvent the prohibition of race-altering team instructions.

In Red Bull’s case, Mark Webber’s engine had been turned down ostensibly to save fuel, amid continuing rumours that the chasing sister car driven by Sebastian Vettel was temporarily running higher revs in the moments before their crash.

And teammates Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton set hearts racing on the McLaren pitwall at Istanbul Park when they fought wheel-to-wheel despite being told to slow down and conserve fuel.

13-time GP winner and British commentator Coulthard said it is an “absurd situation whereby teams have to defend the indefensible”.

“Do they (team orders) happen in F1?  Yes, is the short answer,” the Scot wrote in his latest column for the Telegraph.

Coulthard, 39, argues not only that teams can easily steer around the team order ban, but that some sorts of instructions are legitimate.

Indeed, team orders were completely legal until 2002, when Ferrari’s Rubens Barrichello was crudely ordered by then Ferrari team boss Jean Todt – who is now president of the governing FIA – to let Michael Schumacher win in Austria.

But while their lives may have been easier in Turkey if team orders were permitted, the bosses of Red Bull and McLaren said they would not support a push to overturn the ban.

“I think team orders are wrong,” Christian Horner said in Montreal.

“You employ professional drivers and we shouldn’t dictate how they drive the car.  I think it would be wrong to deny the public from what a grand prix should be about which is man and machine competing with each other,” said the Red Bull team principal.

His McLaren counterpart Martin Whitmarsh agrees.

“I think we’re happy with the regulations as they are.  I don’t mind if other teams want to (use team orders) and that’s up to them, but within our team, we’ve tried to treat all of our drivers with respect,” he said.

Timo Glock is looking for an improvement from Virgin Racing before committing long-term to the new British team.

Despite interest from established teams for this year, the German signed with Virgin with a contract that is believed to be for a multiple-season term.

The team has notably struggled for pace and reliability, with Glock only notching up his first finish of the season last weekend in Spain.

That was with the much-vaunted updated VR-01 car featuring a bigger fuel tank, which was not substantially faster in Barcelona than the older model still driven by Lucas di Grassi.

Asked if he is already contemplating how to extract himself from his long contract, 28-year-old Glock said on Tuesday: “If the situation never changed, eventually you would have those sorts of thoughts.

“But at the moment I’m not thinking about that, and neither am I walking around looking for somewhere else (to drive).  We have to wait for a few more races and then see,” Glock told motorsport-total.com.

He admitted that the updated car did not work “as expected” around the Circuit de Catalunya.

“Especially on Friday it was a disaster because I was even slower than the old car.  What’s going on, I don’t know.

“At least we have sorted out the tank.  The fuel supply (issue) for qualifying is significantly improved, but the aero updates have not worked in the way we wanted.”

Virgin’s technical boss Nick Wirth is famously developing the VR-01 car with only computer technology, and asked if the lack of a wind tunnel is hurting the team, Glock answered “I don’t know.”

(GMM)

Jamie McMurray held off Dale Earnhardt Jr. at the Daytona 500 on Sunday, a finish so thrilling it just about made up for a pothole that nearly derailed the Super Bowl of  NASCAR.

NASCAR needed two stoppages of well over two hours total to patch a pesky pothole between turns 1 and 2 of Daytona International Speedway. The setback brought the biggest race of the season to a frustrating halt and had NASCAR executives fretting over the potential fallout.

Hoping for a spectacular season-opener to re-energize the industry, the delays instead sent NASCAR chairman Brian France into the broadcast booth to calm an agitated audience.

In the end, though, the hole inadvertently improved the racing.

The action picked up tremendously after the second patch was applied, partly because drivers had to race as if the hole could rip open again and end the event on any lap. And did they ever.

They beat and banged their way through the field in a white-knuckle final 32 laps. Then a flurry of late-race accidents put NASCAR’s ”green-white-checker” policy — an overtime of sorts — to the test.

McMurray, using a boost from former teammate Greg Biffle, powered into the lead on the second and final green-white-checkered attempt. But Earnhardt, who restarted the final sprint in 10th place, was slicing his way through the field.

He weaved in and out of traffic, shoving his Chevrolet into three-wide lines, eventually darting his way to McMurray’s bumper. It was vintage Earnhardt — he’s a 12-time Daytona winner spanning NASCAR’s top two series — and McMurray was terrified to see him growing in his rearview mirror.

”When I saw the 88 behind me, I thought, ‘Oh no.’ He had a good car and I just thought — Earnhardt and Daytona, they win all the time it just seems like,” McMurray said. ”You never know what to expect.”

But with just two laps to make up so much ground, Earnhardt ran out of time and had to settle for second as McMurray sailed to his first career Daytona 500 victory.

”I didn’t know where I was, you know, ’til I really kind of got done almost wrecking down the back straightaway,” Earnhardt said of his charge. ”Then I looked up — there’s just one car in front of me, ‘Jamie’s gonna win this damn race!’

”I was happy for him. He deserves it. They’ve been through a lot. It’s a great team.”

McMurray climbed from his car and ran to the Daytona 500 logo in the infield, dropping to his knees and pounding on the painted grass. Overcome with emotion, he sobbed in Victory Lane as he celebrated with his Earnhardt Ganassi Racing team.

It was McMurray’s first race back with Chip Ganassi and Felix Sabates, who gave him his Sprint Cup Series shot in 2002. But McMurray left and spent four frustrating seasons with Roush Fenway Racing, only to lose that ride at the end of last season when NASCAR forced Roush to drop a team to meet its four-car limit.

McMurray had to fight to get a seat back with Ganassi, and it included convincing sponsor Bass Pro Shops’ owner Johnny Morris to take a chance on him.

The risk was well rewarded Sunday with the biggest win of McMurray’s career.

”It’s unreal,” McMurray sobbed. ”You know, to be where I was last year and for Johnny Morris and Chip and Felix. What a way to pay them back. It’s just very emotional.”

Biffle, a close friend of McMurray’s, was disappointed in finishing third because he was the leader when the caution came out after the first green-white-checkered attempt. But he was able to give McMurray the push that got his buddy into Victory Lane.

”I just made my move too soon, a mistake on my part probably,” Biffle said. ”This is a big, big win for anybody’s career. You got to be happy for anybody that ever wins this race. I was especially happy, the guys I was up there beating and banging with, you know, I would rather see Jamie win than those guys.”

Clint Bowyer finished fourth and was followed by David Reutimann and Martin Truex Jr. — teammates for Michael Waltrip, who finished 18th in what’s expected to be his final Daytona 500.

Kevin Harvick was seventh and was followed by Matt Kenseth, last year’s race winner, Carl Edwards and Juan Pablo Montoya, McMurray’s teammate.

After the race, DIS president Robin Braig apologized for the hole and the delays that caused many fans to head to the exits long before the finish.

”We’re the World Center of Racing. This is the Daytona 500. This is not supposed to happen, and I take full responsibility,” Braig said. ”We can come back from this. We know how to fix it. This is hallowed ground. We understand that. We accept the responsibility.”

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Last season Heikki Kovalainen stuck his way. Twin with Lewis Hamilton at McLaren for a second year, he struggled to get the most out of the MP4-24 and finished the championship 12th, 27 points adrift of his illustrious team mate.

This season Kovalainen have a different challenge as he competes for one of 2010’s four new teams – Lotus. Following is the interview that the official F1 have done to Kovalainen.

Q: Heikki, you have switched from massive manufacturer team to small, private outfit this year. How are you finding the change?

Heikki Kovalainen: Obviously McLaren is a very big team, but as we saw last year, it doesn’t necessarily mean they will always be quick. They can obviously turn it around quickly, but I see a lot of potential at Lotus and that’s why I decided to come here. At the beginning it will be tough, we’ll have a hard first few months, but once we get going, I think I’ll have a better opportunity here than I would do with anyone else.

Q: You are so familiar with the inner workings of McLaren. How do you think the departure of Mercedes will change the team?

HK: I don’t really know. It’s obviously a big change for them but they’re a big team and, to be honest, it’s not really my business anymore!

Q: While McLaren’s image is quite reserved, Lotus seems a bit different, especially with the fun and relaxed Tony Fernandes at the helm as team principal. It must be quite a change. Are you already comfortable in the more laidback environment?

HK: I think they are very different teams, but I did have a good time with McLaren. We tried as hard as we could to get the best results, but it just didn’t work out for me as it should have done. However, what I can do is bring what I learnt there. They are highly motivated, and they always push to the maximum to achieve the best result. I think I can bring that here and it will work well at Lotus as well.

Q: There must have been many times during 2009 when you doubted you’d be able to stay in Formula One racing. How did your deal with Lotus come about? When did it all happen?

HK: The deal was eventually signed quite late, but the team first contacted me directly during the season, asking me what my situation was. At that point I didn’t know anything really about Lotus. I was concentrating on finishing the season well. I had a number of options, but with rumours going around about some teams struggling for money, I was interested in talking to Mike (Gascoyne) and Tony, as I knew they had a stable budget for the next three years and a strong technical team joining later. In the end it was an easy decision to make and the best choice available for me.

Q: Have people underestimated your talents as a driver?

HK: I don’t think people have seen the best of me yet, and I don’t think I got the best out of McLaren. My aim at Lotus is to get the best out of the team and the car, and I don’t see any reason why the results won’t come. I don’t think there are any areas I particularly need to improve. Some people think I’m a good qualifier, and not such a good racer, but that’s only been while I was at McLaren. If you look at my time at Renault in 2007 the race performances were actually very strong, and I felt I got more out of the Renault than I did the McLaren. I don’t really care what people think – I’m more determined than ever to do a good job for the team.

Q: Your team mate Jarno Trulli may have an advantage as he’s worked with technical director Mike Gascoyne for many years. How will you muscle into that picture?

HK: I think Jarno and I will fit very well into that picture. I know the direction I want the team to go, and the team obviously wanted to get two experienced drivers on board so we do go in the right direction straight away. Together with Jarno I know we can do that.

Q: The driver announcement in Kuala Lumpur was very emotional and the location and guests were top notch…

HK: I didn’t really know what to expect when I got out there, but I was a little surprised by how well everything went. The team out there are experienced, but not really in terms of F1 so I wasn’t sure how much guidance I’d need to give them. In fact I didn’t have to give them any advice – everything was organised really well, and Tony had made sure all the main people knew what was going on and what they had to do. The Malaysian people were really excited about Lotus coming back as well and the whole atmosphere was very positive.

Q: You are at the factory right now. What is your impression of it? How does it compare to McLaren’s factory in Woking?

HK: It’s obviously very different. In terms of area – Woking and Norfolk – are both very similar. They aren’t big like London, but there are good golf courses around. The facilities are obviously very different. McLaren is a big, hi-tech kind of space centre that nobody else has, and this is where we are building a new operation. When you go from a space station to a building site it’s obviously different, but I know that once the team is fully set up here it will be as efficient as McLaren and we can go for good results.

Q: What is the schedule for the weeks ahead?

HK: We are preparing as well as we can at this time. One thing is that we could possibly join an earlier test. The car would probably be able to run but we wouldn’t have spare parts and we wouldn’t be able to test properly. If we had any problems, the test would be over. So at the third test we know we’ll be able to push the car hard. I can push it to the limit, get a feel for the car and hopefully we can do a lot of mileage. I expect the car to be pretty reliable straight out of the box because Mike and the design team are all experienced people who know how to build a race car. Then the question mark will be how much performance we have. When the factory’s all set up and running we’ll be able to get decent upgrades relatively quickly, and that’s when we’ll see the real performance.

Q: Tony has thrown down the gauntlet to Virgin’s Richard Branson in what could be the funniest bet Formula One racing has ever seen (the loser will spend a day as an air stewardess on the other’s airline). How confident are you that the team will beat Virgin? How much personal pride is involved there do you think?

HK: I’m sure there’s a lot of pride there. They’ve known each other a long time and they’re both very successful, so I’m sure it’s quite personal. I do know Tony will be kicking my ass to beat them, and I fully expect Mike to be doing the same. I think it’s cool – we already have one definite target to aim for. But a lot will depend on how quick the car is. If it’s very quick then we’ll be fighting all sorts of people, but I know that if I see a Virgin car I’ll have to get in front.

Q: When will we see you in the car for the first time?

HK: That will be at the third group test at Jerez. Jarno and I will be sharing the driving equally there, then at Barcelona. It’s not a lot of testing but I’ve done a lot of F1 driving so I’d be ready to go straight to the race if necessary.

source: formula1