Luca di Montezemolo insists heads will not roll, as Ferrari looks set to race into the 2012 season without the chance of a podium.
The famous team wrote off last year’s championship early to focus on 2012 with an aggressive project, with new British technical chief Pat Fry in the spotlight.

But also feeling the pressure is team boss Stefano Domenicali, who said at the weekend that he has “the support of president Montezemolo”.

“I am not the one who designs the car: my task is to give my people everything they need in terms of organisation and structure,” said the Italian.

But Montezemolo denied that Ferrari will react in arguably typical fashion by making sweeping changes.

“I’ve always given my staff time and trust,” he told La Gazzetta dello Sport. “We have not even begun and already you’re putting the people in doubt?

“Let’s not have that talk,” insisted the Ferrari president.

He admitted the F2012 has untapped potential.

“There are too few tests and unfortunately they are in public. But I would still wait before drawing conclusions about the title fight.

“According to the drivers, the F2012 has some negative elements, but also some positive. The problems have been identified and I hope they can be fixed quickly,” he added.

Karun Chandhok has warned motor racing that danger and risk must not be removed entirely.
The recent Indycar and MotoGP deaths of Dan Wheldon and Marco Simoncelli respectively has put the spotlight on how to further reduce the danger of premier motor sport.

F1 is regarded as much safer than the aforementioned sports, but Team Lotus reserve driver Chandhok insists no form of racing should be completely safe.

“Enough element of danger is also involved in F1,” he told the Press Trust of India. “But it’s an exciting career and the essence of excitement would get lost thinking of too much safety measures.

“You have to take your chances on the track. No one asked us to join formula one or placed a gun on our head that you have to race. It’s a career we chose,” he added.

Chandhok insisted that global motor racing should not be regarded as in “crisis”.

“It is not like that,” he is quoted by Calcutta’s Telegraph. “What has happened in the last one week is extremely sad but accidents do happen.”

Sebastien Buemi is now the Toro Rosso driver under pressure after two strong races by his teammate Jaime Alguersuari.

Alguersuari was besieged at Valencia by widespread speculation that he will soon lose his race cockpit to the promising Australian Daniel Ricciardo.

But he ran strongly to eighth place in both Canada and Spain, and the AS and Blick newspapers now believe it is Swiss Buemi who is most at risk of losing his seat.

“With these two races he has secured his year and his future,” the Faenza based team’s boss Franz Tost is quoted as saying, referring to Alguersuari.

Veteran Blick correspondent Roger Benoit wrote: “Must the Swiss (Buemi) now tremble?”

Ferrari test driver and Alguersuari’s countryman Marc Gene agrees that the Spaniard has looked stronger of late.

“Previously his big problem was understanding the behaviour of the tyres, but his pace is now impressive. Valencia was a super result when he needed it the most.”

Alguersuari, 21, is quoted by El Mundo newspaper: “My goal is to finish races, score points and be ahead of my teammate.”

Jean-Eric Vergne has a future in formula one, Red Bull’s driver development chief Dr Helmut Marko insists.

The spotlight at present is on Daniel Ricciardo, the young Australian who is at the pinnacle of Red Bull’s junior driver programme and tipped to enter F1 next year with Toro Rosso.

But Frenchman Verge, 20, is also high in the Red Bull programme and tipped to replace Ricciardo as the F1 reserve driver in 2011.

He comfortably won this year’s British F3 championship, and finished eighth in the Renault World Series despite only replacing the ousted Brendon Hartley in July.

Marko told France’s Auto Hebdo that the success of new world champion Sebastian Vettel “justifies all of our efforts” to develop young drivers for F1.

“What we want now is another driver into F1 who can win,” the Austrian added. “Jean-Eric might be the one!” said Marko, referring to Vergne who recently tested the Toro Rosso in Abu Dhabi.

“He has a completely different character to Seb, but that’s ok so long as his performance is there,” he added.

Staff changes as the result of Ferrari’s failed championship campaign in 2010 are on the horizon, according to Italian reports.

Autosprint magazine reports that it is “not a secret” that the man most directly in the spotlight is Australian Chris Dyer, Ferrari’s chief engineer and in charge of race strategies.

“We need an improved car and we must also ensure that mistakes that we made as drivers and as a team are not repeated in 2011,” Fernando Alonso is quoted as saying.

And the Italian daily La Repubblica asked Ferrari’s technical director Aldo Costa if “heads will roll” as a consequence of the failed strategy in Abu Dhabi.

“I’m not for the automatic ‘error-guilt-punishment’ (approach),” he answered.

“I prefer a more rational response, where we understand what happened and what went wrong, and then we act,” added Costa.

He also said it is wrong to point the finger at one individual.

“We must make sure that certain decisions are shared, with responsibility not resting on one set of shoulders.

“But, anyway, we didn’t lose the championship because of the strategy in Abu Dhabi, but because our car was not as fast as another,” added Costa.

He is confident that the F10′s 2011 successor will be faster.

“This year we did reduce the gap to Red Bull,” said Costa.

“What we have done is revolutionise our working methods and this meant a period of adjustment. And we paid for having a wind tunnel that was a bit dated.

“But now we have solved the problem and begun a new era,” he insisted.

Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg drove a little off the Singapore spotlight on a strong fifth place, “More was not today”
While in the lit canyons of Singapore some incidents, especially the duel between Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel were in focus, Nico Rosberg went almost unnoticed a strong Grand Prix. The 25-year-old took fifth in ten major points for Mercedes, Michael Schumacher, meanwhile, went away empty-handed.

“It was definitely a great race,” says Rosberg satisfied. “I had a great start, just as hoped I was able to keep pace at the start with Jenson, from behind made Kubica some pressure but that was not a big problem I have benefited from the fact that Lewis retired Fifth Place -…. Better it did not work today. ”
Start from seventh place to Rosberg worked relatively simply from the Singapore night. It’s always hard. While it was in previous times more exhausting, but it is always hard. That’s always the toughest race. Fortunately, I had in the last 30 laps no pressure. If I’d have to push to the end , then it would not have been easy. ”

“I had to save the brakes. I was in the end, brake problems, but others might be more,” says the native of Wiesbaden. “Mercedes has certainly made a little progress, but there is still immense.” In the overall standings, Rosberg after the Singapore weekend now 122 points. It is therefore only three points behind Felipe Massa.

At night race in Singapore Formula 1 is in the spotlight. 1,500 lighting ensure that the track also appears as bright as day in the late evening, the cars in bright colors seem almost unreal. “Visibility is surprisingly good. There is absolutely no problems with shadows, you will never blinded by the floodlights.”

“Before we first have driven there, there were some reservations,” reports the Lotus-pilot, who took in recent years as a McLaren driver in the Asian metropolis. “In the flood, the cars just look cool. You are almost in the spotlight again and look a lot better than usual”

“I fly at the last minute of the race, so my body can not enforce the will to get used to the time zone,” said the Finn. “Because it is a night race, then you have to maintain the European rhythm. I am not even at my clock. The hotel must be able to darken the window well. We see almost only artificial light.”

“The track is nice, aside times of the bumps,” said Kovalainen. “So far they have not be able to get a grip. No light waves, but really heavy blows. Are the real jump hill. Some drivers were already there back injuries because of it. We are deep in the car, have little suspension – comfort is not the .

“Let’s see how it will be this year. If they have smoothed out the bumps better, it’s just a great road course – a track where I really have a lot of fun,” expressed the 28-year-old from his anticipation. Specifically for the Lotus Event in Singapore is obviously important. It has been “spectacular news,” announced the driver election 2011, change of name of the team and switch to Renault engines.

Red Bull has had to modify the design of the floor of its 2010 car in order to comply with stricter flexibility tests debuting at Monza this weekend.

Although it is Red Bull’s allegedly flexing car primarily in the spotlight, McLaren admitted last week that it – alongside most other teams – will have to run more a more rigid floor from now on.

And a look up and down pitlane at Monza show that McLaren’s prediction is right, with many cars either featuring visibly sturdier front floors, or additional ‘stays’ to prevent them from bending at high speed.

And Red Bull team boss Christian Horner confirmed that the RB6 is featuring “small changes to the underbody” at Monza.

He added: “I would be surprised if this affects our performance in any way.”