A lack of official information has triggered speculation about Ross Brawn’s health.

And another rumour is that his absence in Barcelona could be connected with Mercedes’ billion-dollar dispute with Bernie Ecclestone over the next Concorde Agreement.

The German squad announced on Thursday that Bob Bell is leading the team in Barcelona because regular boss Brawn is back in Britain on doctor’s orders.

Bild newspaper said the 57-year-old was given the advice in hospital earlier this week, following a dizzy spell at his home in England.

“It’s more than the flu,” chief executive Nick Fry is quoted as saying, “but I can assure you that it’s nothing life threatening.”

Indeed, a spokeswoman told us on Thursday that Brawn will be back to work at Monaco in a fortnight.

For Spain, Brawn will watch the action on television.

“We will still keep in touch,” Michael Schumacher revealed. “Ross cannot be replaced. That’s simply impossible.”

Dr Helmut Marko has denied reports Sebastian Vettel was summoned to Red Bull’s headquarters this week to explain his behaviour at the recent Malaysian grand prix.

The Narain Karthikeyan-saga aside, reports suggested the German deliberately ignored his bosses’ instruction that he retire his RB8 – ostensibly due to a brake issue – so that he could fit a new gearbox without penalty in China.

The reports suggested Vettel had confessed immediately after the race that he heard the instruction but chose to ignore it.

“That is all nonsense,” Red Bull’s motor racing consultant Marko told Sport Bild.

“Sebastian did nothing – absolutely nothing – that was against our wishes.”

Marko said Vettel’s visit to Milton Keynes this week was scheduled long ago, adding that he will be working inside the driver simulator amongst other things.

He also hit back at claims the 24-year-old could be penalised by the FIA for breaching the code of conduct when he showed the ‘middle finger’ to Karthikeyan.

“The matter was resolved during the meeting with the stewards (in Malaysia). For me, the case is closed.”

Speaking to Kolner Express newspaper, however, an FIA spokesman confirmed that the code of conduct forbids superlicense holders from insulting their rivals.

But he added: “I imagine the application of this paragraph was considered by the stewards in Malaysia.”

And Sebastian Vettel’s spokeswoman said: “We know of no investigation.”

 Singapore, the southeast Asian city-state and the scene of F1′s annual street night race, could be at the centre of the sport’s plans for the future.
Sky News reports that Temasek Holdings, one of Singapore’s principal sovereign wealth funds, has been approached by F1′s majority owner CVC with a proposal to buy into the sport.

It is also rumoured that F1 could be floated on the Singapore stock exchange.

F1 chief executive Bernie Ecclestone admitted last November that, “It would be better (for CVC) to float the company in Singapore than sell it”.

The Singapore Exchange (SGX) would not comment.

“It is not our practice to publicly comment on our dealings with individual entities,” a spokeswoman told the AFP news agency.

Ferrari could be set to race back into a controversy surrounding cigarette advertising.
Earlier this year, amid fresh criticism of the team’s ongoing sponsorship by the Philip Morris company, Ferrari dropped the ‘Marlboro’ from its official name.

But the association continues. India Today reports that Hriday, a health organisation in India, has lodged a complaint.

It claims the sale of Marlboro cigarettes in India this week alongside posters of Ferrari single seaters violates the country’s anti-tobacco laws.

The report also said the cigarette packets include message inserts about the fabled Maranello based team.

“The message is basically to promote the brand surreptitiously,” said a spokeswoman for Hriday.

Sebastian Vettel is calling in the lawyers after a ‘psychological coach’ claimed to be employed by the new back-to-back world champion.
A 31-year-old Austrian woman has in recent days claimed on several articles and interviews to have helped the Red Bull driver to achieve his unprecedented success.

“I don’t even know this woman,” Vettel told Bild newspaper.

Red Bull’s driver manager Helmut Marko revealed: “We have referred the matter to the lawyers.”

In fact, the woman might also be the victim of a fraud, after producing a recent email supposedly from Vettel.

Vettel’s spokeswoman Britta Roeske insisted: “That letter did not come from Sebastian’s email address.”

The mental coach said: “Maybe I’ve been misled by a charlatan.”

Geoff Willis has not left the HRT team yet, a spokeswoman for the Spanish team insisted on Friday.

It has been reported in recent days that Briton Willis – the former Red Bull, Williams and Honda technical chief – was leaving due to not being happy about the plans for the 2012 budget and car.

The reports also said former BMW and Brawn designer Jorg Zander is set to join HRT.

The team’s communciations boss Maria Serrat said on Friday that Willis is officially “still rendering his services to HRT”.

It is understood, however, that the 51-year-old will definitely not be leading the 2012 car project.

Bernie Ecclestone has proposed to ink a new contract with the Nurburgring with terms equal to those of Hungary’s formula one race.

The new politically-sensitive coalition government has announced it no longer intends to offer funding for the Nurburgring’s grand prix, which alternates annually on the F1 schedule with the other German venue Hockenheim.

Talks about a new contract began at the German grand prix last weekend, and DPA news agency reports that Bernie Ecclestone has offered to lower the sanctioning fee.

The report said Ecclestone is willing to offer a contract identical to that possessed by organisers of this weekend’s race at the Hungaroring.

“The contract in Hungary is definitely cheaper,” a spokeswoman for Nurburgring GmbH confirmed.

It is believed the Nurburgring’s current contract involves a EUR 20 million per race sanctioning fee, and that the race last weekend recorded a loss of 13.5 million.

Narain Karthikeyan is tipped to return to the cockpit of the HRT car this weekend at the Nurburgring.
Despite his sponsor Tata’s ongoing backing of the small Spanish team, Indian Karthikeyan was sidelined earlier this month to make way for Daniel Ricciardo’s Silverstone debut.

HRT has confirmed that the Red Bull-sponsored Australian will once again be racing alongside Vitantonio Liuzzi this weekend in Germany.

But according to the auto.cz website, 34-year-old Karthikeyan – who was at Silverstone to entertain HRT’s VIP guests – will be driving Italian Liuzzi’s car during initial Friday practice at the Nurburgring.

“The Tata Group is very supportive of what I do and that’s all that matters,” Karthikeyan told Reuters last week following criticism by Force India chief Vijay Mallya.

A spokeswoman for HRT told us early on Wednesday: “Narain will continue playing his key role in the team and get in the car when he is required.

“This will be decided in the coming days,” she added.

Hugo Boss is getting some of the best value for money as a formula one sponsor, a leading sponsorship consultancy firm has found.

The evaluation by Cologne based Sport Und Markt compared brand awareness versus the amount spent by F1 sponsors in 2010.

The result showed that fashion brand Hugo Boss, a long-time McLaren sponsor, had among the most efficient investments in F1, reaching 4.9 million people for its $3.1 million annual spend.

The very best however was Hewlett-Packard, reaching 6.6 million people by spending just $1.5 million for its minor Renault branding.

Allianz comes in at 11th place, Puma 14th and Mercedes-Benz far behind in 23rd, because each person reached cost the German marque a considerable $4.78.

Also struggling for sponsorship efficiency is DHL, one of F1′s official partners, ranking 32nd with its $10 million annually buying recognition among only 300,000 people.

A spokeswoman insisted to German business newspaper Handelsblatt: “This long-term partnership is for us one of the most powerful marketing platforms.”

Ford is suing Ferrari after the famous Italian formula one team decided to call its 2011 car F150.
Ferrari had said the single seater is named in tribute of the 150th anniversary of Italian unification.

But F150 is a model of Ford’s famous series of full-size pickup trucks.

Ford Motor Co. owns the trademark to F150 and is suing Ferrari in Detroit Federal Court.

The Ford lawsuit filed on Wednesday, claiming damage to the brand and unspecified damages, also refers to Ferrari’s creation of the ferrari150.com website.

Reports said Ferrari’s F150 logo, which can be seen at the aforementioned website, is similar to the Ford F-150 logo.

$100,000 in damages are therefore being claimed pursuant to the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act, relating to internet domains that confuse the public.

Ford said it is seeking to prevent Ferrari from using the trademark in the US.

“Ferrari has misappropriated the F-150 trademark … in order to capitalise on and profit from the substantial goodwill that Ford has developed,” Ford said in its lawsuit.

Maranello based Ferrari is yet to comment.

“This is an important trademark for us and we’ve spent many years and lots of advertising resources on establishing this name and getting the trademark,” Ford spokeswoman Anne Marie Gattari is quoted by the Detroit News.

“It’s one we take very very seriously. It’s one of our flagship vehicles.”

Colin Kolles has categorically denied FOTA’s claim that HRT was suspended from the teams association due to not paying its membership fee.

After a spokeswoman for the Spanish outfit said HRT had simply decided FOTA is a body for the big teams, FOTA general secretary Simone Perillo clarified that in fact part or all of the annual EUR 100,000 fee had not been paid.

“I can strictly deny it,” boss Kolles told the Hindustan Times. “FOTA has spread a misleading message which will be rectified in the coming days, however, for the moment I don’t want to say anything else.”

He also referred to the political power FOTA is readying to wield ahead of negotiations for a new Concorde Agreement beyond 2012.

“It is true that FOTA will be trying to be the only counterpart to CVC and Mr Ecclestone, but we feel this is an attempt by FOTA to punch above its weight,” said Kolles.

He explained that HRT therefore “didn’t want to delegate our independent power of negotiation on such a sensitive matter like the Concorde Agreement.”

There is also the matter of the annual 100,000 fee.

“We left because FOTA defends mainly the interests of the big teams. We see no benefit in paying money for being part of it. We prefer investing our money in the car instead of paying membership fees that don’t benefit to us,” said Kolles.

HRT left the F1 teams association FOTA because it did not pay last year’s membership fees.

That is the claim of Simone Perillo, despite an HRT spokeswoman earlier insisting that the departure was the Spanish team’s decision due to FOTA being “more for the big teams than the small ones”.

“For our interests it is better not to be there,” the HRT spokeswoman said.

But Perillo, Swiss-based FOTA’s general secretary, confirmed that HRT did not pay the full EUR 100,000 membership fee for last year.

“I can confirm that (the team) did not fulfil their 2010 FOTA membership fee obligations,” he told the Reuters news agency.

The logos of the other eleven F1 teams are still showing on the FOTA website.

McLaren’s Martin Whitmarsh, with Stefano Domenicali as his vice-chairman, is expected to retain the chairmanship in 2011, despite earlier expectations that Williams’ Adam Parr might be appointed.

Team Lotus will have its 2011 car at the opening test in Valencia but is not planning a traditional “launch”, a spokesperson said on Monday.
After a visit to the team’s Hingham (UK) headquarters last week, owner and boss Tony Fernandes said the new car “is looking great” and “much slicker” than its predecessor but warned that Lotus “won’t do (a) conventional launch”.

But a spokesman clarified to Dutch website f1today.nl that, as per the plans of many rival teams, Team Lotus will be giving the new car its debut at Valencia early next month.

“We will present the car there,” he said, referring to the permanent Ricardo Tormo circuit in Cheste, on the outskirts of the Spanish port city.

Meanwhile, after an HRT spokeswoman confirmed that the Spanish team elected to leave FOTA due to “politics”, Fernandes said on his Twitter account on Monday that Team Lotus will not be following suit.

“We think Fota is very good and very important,” he said.

An official spokesperson has played down reports that organisers of the European grand prix at Valencia are trying to offload the race contract to an alternate host.

The Catalan newspaper El Periodico said Valencia’s regional president Francisco Camps has determined that, with two years left to run on a contract, the port city cannot afford the annual fee and organisation costs.

But Consell spokesperson Paula Sanchez de Leon insists that the Valencian government “has not initiated any change” in the policy about the F1 street race.

According to Europa Press, she said the event “will continue as before”.

“This is not an issue that has been dealt with in the Consell,” added Sanchez de Leon.

Heikki Kovalainen has denied media reports claiming his former manager Flavio Briatore twice prevented his formula one race debut.

A Finnish newspaper had said the Finn could have raced with Minardi and then Williams in 2004 and 2005, but Kovalainen instead had to wait until 2007 for a race seat at the then Briatore-managed Renault to open up.

Kovalainen, now 29, subsequently split with Briatore after the crashgate scandal, and negotiated his own move from McLaren to Lotus for 2010.

But he wrote on Twitter late on Monday: “(The) news about my management blocking my career (is) so not true.

“We had (a) clear plan since I joined (the) Renault junior programme and stuck to it 100 per cent. Ignore the false headlines originating from Finland,” added Kovalainen.

In other driver news, Williams refused to comment on speculation about its 2011 lineup, following reports that Pastor Maldonado is a candidate to join the team next year if Nico Hulkenberg does not accept the offer of a five-year contract.

“We have no comment to make concerning our driver line up for 2011 at this juncture,” said a spokeswoman.