A third major team has joined the crusade against Mercedes’ so-nicknamed ‘W-duct’ innovation.

Until now, only Red Bull and Lotus were pushing hard for the FIA to ban the drag-reducing system that Britain’s Sky television is calling ‘Super-dooper DRS’.

Auto Motor und Sport reports that Ferrari has now joined the anti W-duct group, providing a new argument about why a driver is not permitted to activate a separate system by pressing the ‘DRS’ button on the steering wheel.

“So far I have heard nothing that convinces us that it is illegal,” the FIA’s Charlie Whiting is quoted as saying.

He is not, however, ruling out an eventual change of heart.

“As we understood more about how the mass damper worked and as more arguments came onto the table, eventually we could no longer turn a blind eye,” said the Briton.

Still, Whiting is not expecting a post-race protest in Malaysia.

“I think everyone understands that that is not good for the sport,” he said.

So far, McLaren is staying out of the fight, with Auto Motor und Sport believing that Martin Whitmarsh “will not wage war against his engine supplier”.

Nonetheless, Mercedes boss Ross Brawn is more than unimpressed with the warring trio.

“There are a massive amount of things we do with DRS, so to pick on one thing and say ‘We don’t like that very much as we haven’t thought about it’, is wrong,” the Briton charged.

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.

 Kimi Raikkonen has revealed he is no fan of F1′s ‘DRS’ concept.
The former world champion was busy in the world rally series last year when formula one introduced the moveable rear wing system, designed to boost overtaking.

Having skipped the 2010 season entirely on television, Raikkonen began to watch some grands prix last year when his thirst for circuit racing returned.

“The way the DRS wings work is for me a little ridiculous,” he admitted to Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport. “Overtaking is not really a great art anymore.

“You just put the wing down and go past easily,” said the 32-year-old. “The guy in front can’t really do anything.

“But I agree that at least it makes the show better,” added Raikkonen.

He admitted that his brief stint in American Nascar racing last year rekindled his love for wheel-to-wheel.

“I realised how much I was missing it,” said the former McLaren and Ferrari driver. “That doesn’t mean I am sick of rallying; actually I’d like to do both but that’s not possible.

“But if you want to race and you have the choice, first you look at formula one,” he added.

Raikkonen was the fastest of all when 2012 testing kicked off at Jerez on Tuesday, insisting he is not fazed at the prospect of returning after two years away.

“For me it’s easier to get used to the (Pirelli) tyres than it was for the others a year ago. For me it’s more like a new beginning.”

As for the refuelling ban, which came in last year, Raikkonen insists: “That’s no big deal — the pitstop is just a little shorter.

“Driving with the heavier car is not like day and night; it’s still the same sport. There’s just a few more buttons to push on the steering wheel.”

Stefano Domenicali on Tuesday said he can imagine Fernando Alonso working alongside F1′s new double world champion Sebastian Vettel.
“Would Alonso accept it? I think so, I think it could work. Fernando’s strength is that he is not afraid of anyone, a force that comes from his maturity,” the Italian told La Gazzetta dello Sport newspaper.

But it’s not a minor detail that Vettel is contracted to Red Bull until 2014, and tipped to extend his stay for a further two years.

For Ferrari team boss Domenicali, the seat to fill is currently occupied by Felipe Massa, whose deal ends next season.

“He will do everything to prove what he has to Ferrari, and the other drivers with contracts expiring will want to prove that they are ready to come,” he said. “Among those, probably, is Hamilton.

“But it’s early,” said Domenicali, referring to McLaren’s 2008 world champion Lewis Hamilton, whose deal expires in unison with Massa’s next season.

“Felipe had a good weekend (at Suzuka), until the contact with Hamilton. It was a shame it happened in a very positive weekend for him,” he added.

Ferrari’s first priority is to have a better car for 2012, and Domenicali revealed that only minor “details” of the current Italia 150 car will be saved.

“We will change everything; even the steering wheel,” he said.

Charlie Whiting on Friday denied the FIA’s mid-season clampdown on blown exhausts is a political move aimed at slowing down the dominant Red Bulls.
“I am aware of some stories being written but to be frank with you I know it is not a political one,” the governing body’s technical delegate told reporters at Valencia.

Red Bull team figures including Adrian Newey, Christian Horner and the drivers of the RB7 have been pointing out that earlier innovations, like the F-duct and double diffusers, were banned only at the end of a season.

“I know it is a purely technical intervention from our side and I feel perfectly comfortable with that,” insisted Whiting.

A distinction between the F-ducts and double diffusers and the blown exhaust issue is that while the FIA deemed the former as clever rules interpretations, it believes using the engine as an aerodynamic aid is illegal.

“What we are doing is stopping people breaking the existing rules,” said Whiting. “We are not changing the rules; they’re staying the same.”

And he clarified that changing engine maps between qualifying and the race has not been completely banned.

“They (the drivers) are allowed to change things that they can do with a switch, on the steering wheel for example,” he said, explaining that connecting laptops to the cars to change the settings is now forbidden.

Mercedes team boss Ross Brawn backed Whiting’s action and said it has probably prevented some teams from lodging official protests.

“And that (protests) wouldn’t be very good for formula one,” said the Briton. “The stewards would probably find it quite a difficult argument to resolve and it would probably end up in the appeal courts and that’s no good.”

Timo Glock will race on at Valencia this weekend despite nursing a deep cut on his left index finger.
Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport reports that the Virgin driver cut himself whilst slicing break earlier this week.

“I did it on Tuesday. It’s a pretty deep cut — I thought I had cut it (the finger) off,” he laughed.

“I have to use the steering wheel slightly differently because I can’t really bend it, and I will use the gear shift paddle with the three lower fingers.”

The 29-year-old admitted Virgin has bigger problems than his sore finger.

“Hispania have taken a giant step,” said Glock in Valencia. “I’m afraid that they will be in front of us here.”

McLaren excused Lewis Hamilton after denouncing his “very poor” race strategy in Sunday’s Malaysian grand prix.
The Briton started second but finished just seventh at Sepang, and was further demoted to eighth place following a penalty for weaving in front of Fernando Alonso.

“I tried my best,” the visibly angry 2008 world champion said after stepping out of the MP4-26, while his teammate Jenson Button climbed the podium.

“I stopped before everyone else and then the wrong tyres were put on. It was very poor strategy but there’s nothing I can do,” added Hamilton.

Team boss Martin Whitmarsh said he understood the 26-year-old’s initial frustration.

“Lewis said a few things straight after the race which were from his view in the cockpit,” he said. “He’s already smiling and laughing and when he looks back and sees the full picture I think he’ll have a different opinion.”

Whitmarsh also said he thought Hamilton’s post-race 20-second penalty for weaving was “harsh”, but Ferrari driver Alonso said his former teammate had been “very aggressive”.

“At 300kmh he did some very aggressive moves with the steering wheel,” the Spaniard told AS newspaper, but he wasn’t critical of the stewards for his own 20-second penalty.

“It was a normal racing incident,” he explained, referring to when he clipped the rear of Hamilton’s McLaren.

“We are racing drivers, I would do the same thing tomorrow, while others make the decisions,” added Alonso.

Photos of Bernie Ecclestone giving a middle finger salute are complementing reports on Thursday about the F1 chief executive’s birthday.

F1′s chief executive and long-time ‘supremo’ is turning 80, and Red Bull marked the forthcoming occasion in Korea last weekend with a mischievous present.

It was a zimmer frame, featuring a Red Bull front wing and a special F1-style steering wheel with a range of custom buttons.

One of the buttons was labelled ‘Viagra’, another ‘Nurse’, and yet another ‘Pasquale’ — referring to his ever-present assistant Pasquale Lattuneddu.

Posing at the front of the Red Bull garage with Christian Horner and his favourite driver Sebastian Vettel, Ecclestone greeted the massed photographers with good humour and the obscene single-finger gesture.

And according to Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport, Ecclestone does not intend to mark the occasion of his actual birthday on Thursday.

“I hate parties,” he said.

When asked what he really wants for his 80th birthday, the Briton was quoted a few days ago by the German weekly Die Zeit: “I just want to get there.”

According to a media report, Red Bull’s first race with the F-duct concept in Valencia could have contributed to Mark Webber’s huge crash.

In-car footage of the moments before the Australian struck the rear of Heikki Kovalainen’s Lotus show him activating the downforce-stalling device.

Unlike McLaren’s pioneering system which is triggered by the drivers’ knee, the Red Bull F-duct – debuted in qualifying and the race in Valencia – works by Webber and Sebastian Vettel blocking a hole with the four fingers of their left hand.

The footage showed Webber’s four fingers off the steering wheel on the straight, with his thumb still loosely in the steering wheel hole.

Immediately before he struck the Lotus, Webber put his left fingers back on the wheel in a failed attempt to dodge Kovalainen.

When hand-activated F-ducts appeared on the Sauber and Ferrari cars last month, Red Bull team boss Christian Horner said “drivers driving with fingertips and no hands … is a safety issue”.

But Italy’s Autosprint reports that Red Bull’s hand-operated F-duct could have been a factor in Webber’s crash last weekend.

Vettel admitted in Valencia that he was not a fan of the hand-operated system.

“It was a very smart idea, it’s a big benefit if you manage to set it up right but obviously you don’t have your hands on the steering wheel all the time.

“I was managing to drink, I used the right hand side to press a button on the left.  It also depends on how many adjustments you make per lap, brake balance and so on.

“You get used to it but it’s not the most comfortable thing,” said the German.

(GMM)

Drivers next year will be allowed to press a button on the steering wheel that spoils downforce in the rear wing and thus boosts the possibility for overtaking.

But driver veteran Jarno Trulli this weekend expressed fears that tinkering with the rear wings is a dangerous move.

Mercedes team boss Brawn, however, insists that the adjustable wing design includes a failsafe.

“The teams have worked on this a lot,” he said in Valencia.

“Should the system fail and is no longer adjustable, the wing will be in its normal position, so there will be no downforce lost,” added Brawn.

(GMM)

Force India has become the latest team to incorporate a F-duct style concept in its 2010 formula one car.

After McLaren pioneered the rear downforce-stalling innovation this year, teams including Ferrari, Mercedes, Williams and Sauber have followed suit.

The already-dominant Red Bull is also expected to debut an F-duct this weekend in Turkey, as will Force India.

The Silverstone based team said on Thursday that the version for the VJM03 car is called a switchable rear wing or SRW.

“Should be a good improvement,” Force India said on its official Twitter.

Vitantonio Liuzzi told reporters at Istanbul Park that he and teammate Adrian Sutil will activate the flow of air through the engine cover and rear wing slot by covering a hole in the cockpit with their wrist.

“The target is to get into Q3 and then score points,” he said earlier this week.

“We deserved to have a double points finish earlier than Monaco, but for some reasons it didn’t happen, so we need to continue to put both cars the top 10 if we want to catch Renault.”

Ferrari, on the other hand, has modified its initial Barcelona-spec F-duct for Turkey so that the drivers block the inlet with their knee rather than their hand.

It is believed Felipe Massa is particularly happy with the change, given that in Spain he had to move his hand further than Fernando Alonso to block the inlet due to the position of his steering wheel.

One of the three stewards on duty in Monaco last weekend has revealed the officials were too busy to consider giving Rubens Barrichello a penalty.

After Michael Schumacher was demoted six places for illegally overtaking Fernando Alonso on the last lap, it was suggested that Brazilian Barrichello should also have received a penalty.

Television footage during the race showed the Williams driver throwing his steering wheel onto the racing line after crashing, only for it to be collected by HRT’s Karun Chandhok.

The steering wheel was then dislodged in the tunnel, only for it to be run over by the other Hispania car.

Barrichello, 37, has denied he acted recklessly by arguing that he wanted to quickly abandon the burning wreck that was facing the wrong way on the racing line.

But Paul Gutjahr, one of the four Monaco stewards, told Switzerland’s Blick newspaper that the incident did not initially escape their attention.

“Actually, we had Barrichello on the list,” the Swiss admitted.

He explained that the issue simply fell off the agenda in the “hectic rush” to sort out the controversial Schumacher manoeuvre.

(GMM)

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)

Sauber removed the F-duct from its C29 for Monaco for safety reasons, the Swiss team’s boss has revealed.

Ferrari also decided not to run the downforce-spoiling concept in the Principality, but the Italian team argued that the device simply was not effective on the twisty streets.

But Peter Sauber said his team’s decision was for a different reason.

“I wanted my drivers to have both their hands on the steering wheel through the tunnel,” he is quoted by Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport.

“Ever since Karl Wendlinger had his accident there in 1994, I have respect for this place,” added Sauber.

Like Ferrari, Sauber’s system involves blocking an air inlet with the drivers’ hand.

The McLaren system is activated by the knee, but Lewis Hamilton acknowledged that the time advantage was just a few hundredths per lap in Monaco.

Ferrari’s system will be back on the F10 car in Turkey in two weeks.

“Our system did not work as desired in Barcelona,” confirmed team boss Stefano Domenicali.  “We are still fine-tuning it.”

The red cars were very fast in a straight line in Spain, but the system was also shedding downforce in the corners “when the system was not being activated”, the Italian admitted.

Red Bull will also begin experimenting with the concept in Turkey.

“We are doing the research and for sure at the next couple of races we will have a look at it, but we will only introduce it when it earns a place on the car,” Christian Horner told F1′s official website.

(GMM)