Paul Hembery has taken time out of the August break to confirm rumours that qualifying tyres are on the agenda for the future.
We reported in June that ultra-fast and sticky qualifying tyres, designed to last only one flying lap, are among Pirelli’s many ideas about how to maximise its new role as official F1 supplier.

“In the end for something like that the decision is with the teams. They might say no,” the Italian marque’s British motor sport director said.

A British magazine on Thursday said Pirelli is offering to supply qualifying tyres to the teams as early as 2012.

“(There are) many discussions (but the) teams decide, not us,” Hembery said on Twitter when asked about the qualifying tyre rumour.

Asked how much quicker the tyres would be compared to the current ‘super softs’, he added: “Not sure yet but up to 2 seconds a lap.”

Hembery, however, said that there are “no immediate plans” either for 18-inch wheel rims of extra-wide 15-inch tyres: “(The) teams (are) not keen and we would need a test car.”

But he did confirm that he is enjoying his summer break.

“Mega, just lazing, reading and drinking beers and cocktails. Just what I needed,” said Hembery.

After McLaren and Ferrari fielded cars with winning pace in July, Red Bull could be challenged even more once this month’s summer break ends.
That is the view of Mercedes’ Ross Brawn, who thinks the championship is likely to heat up at Spa-Francorchamps and beyond.

“It’s impossible to predict what will happen from Spa,” he is quoted by Brazil’s O Estado de S.Paulo, “but I think that as we saw Ferrari and McLaren managing to make their cars faster over the last three races, they are likely to improve even more.”

Agreed Renault’s sporting director Steve Nielsen: “Because Ferrari and McLaren are developing the aerodynamic exhaust later than Red Bull, they have more potential to improve it.”

Toro Rosso’s veteran technical chief Giorgio Ascanelli, however, disagrees, and HRT’s Geoff Willis explains: “I know Adrian (Newey) well from Williams and how he works when the opposition gets tougher.

“I predict they (Red Bull) will come back to dominating the races, although not like early in the season because the competitors have come to understand some of their solutions.”

While McLaren’s drivers won the last two grands prix, Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso would have won the championship by three points over Sebastian Vettel if the season consisted only of Valencia, Silverstone, the Nurburgring and Hungary.

Red Bull, meanwhile, might struggle on the high speed sections at Spa and then Monza.

“That’s right, those two tracks are not exactly our best ones,” Mark Webber told laola1.at in Austria this week.

“So we need to limit the damage and then attack again when we can,” added the Australian.

Mark Webber’s plans for 2012 could be decided this week, but it might not be public knowledge for “months”, the Australian driver suggested on Tuesday.
Dr Helmut Marko stirred the pot in Hungary by suggesting that the 34-year-old will “probably” retire after racing one more season with Red Bull in 2012.

Team boss Christian Horner played down the Austrian’s comments by suggesting Webber might decide to stay in F1 for a few more years, agreeing that a new deal for 2012 is likely.

“I am having fun,” Webber said on Austrian television Servus TV on Tuesday, “and on Thursday will have a good conversation with Dietrich Mateschitz.

“During the summer break we will discuss it one way or the other, then we will know in the next few months.”

Webber has had a less than satisfying 2011 campaign so far, while his teammate Sebastian Vettel ran away with an arguably unassailable title lead.

But the Australian thinks he is improving.

“The next victory will come when I least expect it. Just as with my first one,” he said.

“I have the feeling that I am getting stronger all the time. It’s going in the right direction.”

Webber insisted that he has not decided what to do in 2012.

“Whether I’m here depends ultimately on my motivation and whether I can race at the top level. At the moment it looks as though I will keep going.

“Naturally I’m speaking to the people who are close to me and who have supported me and I will make my decision when I need to. Soon,” he said.

A long-awaited summer break, including mandatory factory shutdowns, lies ahead for F1 team members.
But the previously dominant Red Bull, beaten by Ferrari and McLaren at the last three grands prix, is planning a significant upgrade for the RB7 to debut at Spa-Francorchamps later this month.

“McLaren have made the biggest leap in the blown diffuser (area),” team boss Christian Horner told Der Spiegel in Hungary, adding that there is still developmental “potential” in Red Bull’s car.

The report said a new floor and diffuser, to be tested in Friday practice in Belgium, should make the Red Bull three tenths per lap faster.

Brazilian journalist Livio Oricchio said it is a myth that F1′s smartest chiefs will simply lie on beaches in the next few weeks.

“Who really believes that, as McLaren and Ferrari move ahead, Adrian Newey for example says to his guys tomorrow at Milton Keynes: ‘Ok guys, see you in two weeks!’”

Actually, more than 100 points ahead in the constructors’ and 88 points clear of the first non-Red Bull in the drivers’ chase, Red Bull are not panicking.

“We are on a par with McLaren. And we have a head start,” consultant Dr Helmut Marko told Kleine Zeitung with eight races left to run in 2011.

He also confirmed that development of the RB7 is moving ahead.

“We will continue to make the car better,” said the Austrian.

Die Welt headlined after Sunday’s result that second place was “The perfect defeat” for German Sebastian Vettel, whose championship lead actually extended due to Jenson Button winning.

“I definitely can live with P2,” he said.

“Perhaps we don’t have the strongest car at the moment, but we can still achieve good points.”

Nick Heidfeld has revealed he wants to stay at Renault next year, in either Robert Kubica or Vitaly Petrov’s place.
The 34-year-old German was drafted in for 2011 in the wake of Polish regular Kubica’s horror rally crash in February.

Kubica’s management insist the 26-year-old might return late in 2011, but Heidfeld has admitted he wants to stay at Renault beyond that.

Asked at Silverstone if he is thinking about 2012, he replied: “Yes I am and I am doing that by focusing entirely on this season.

“Nothing is more convincing than good results,” Heidfeld told F1′s official website.

“I would like to stay at Lotus Renault very much but I don’t know what the exact situation is with Vitaly, and even less so with Robert.”

But both Renault and Heidfeld have been struggling for form recently, with team boss Eric Boullier criticising the veteran after Monaco for not delivering in qualifying.

“I can truly say that in the last couple of races I’ve performed almost to maximum,” he insists.

As for the car, added Heidfeld: “I think it is fair to say that we’ve fallen a bit behind compared to the beginning of the season, but I am convinced that we will move forward again and it would be nice to see this trend before we head into the summer break.”

The decision to tie-up with McLaren and enter a wind tunnel might have convinced Timo Glock to stay at Virgin in 2012.
The German driver has had a frustrating season and a half with the struggling 2010 start-up outfit, but Virgin recently split with designer Nick Wirth and ended the policy of building its cars exclusively with computer modelling.

Glock, 29, happily told Auto Motor und Sport that a scale model of the Virgin car will soon enter the McLaren wind tunnel.

He also said he will try McLaren’s state-of-the-art driver simulator “as soon as possible”.

Asked if the developments could affect his plans for 2012, Glock smiled: “It is quite possible.”

As for any hope of a dramatic improvement when the McLaren tunnel programme begins, he explained: “Unfortunately we have the two week summer break coming up, where the factories are closed.”

And Wirth’s scheduled Silverstone development has been called off.

“Maybe we’ll do something for Singapore,” said Glock. “This is still not decided.

“Only if we find something in the straight line testing or the wind tunnel that can be a big step forward without much effort, we will act now. Otherwise, I do not expect any big jumps (this year).

“Our direct competition, unfortunately, is already far ahead.”

Bosses of the McLaren and Mercedes teams on Saturday signalled the end of F1′s latest flexible bodywork saga.

New FIA tests to ensure the rules compliance of the front wings and floors are taking effect this weekend and at Monza in two weeks, after Red Bull and Ferrari’s cars came under the spotlight.

McLaren team boss Martin Whitmarsh told reporters at Spa-Francorchamps that the offending wings are not flexing as much in Belgium.

“I wasn’t that confident that it (the problem) would be nailed but I have to say … the wings were of a different stiffness and positional domain than they had been in previous races,” he is quoted by Reuters.

Mercedes’ Ross Brawn added: “I think all of us can see that what was visible in the last couple of races doesn’t seem to be the case here.

“I don’t know what has happened but it looks visually to me to be different,” said the Briton.

Red Bull’s Mark Webber on Saturday secured pole for the Belgian grand prix, less than one tenth ahead of McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton.

Both Red Bull and Ferrari have said they are using identical wing designs this weekend to the ones raced in Hungary before the summer break.

For Jaime Alguersuari Formula 1′s summer break, now in the harder phase: Fitness Camp in Austria, Italy in Karting
While many other Formula 1 driver still occupies a bed in a dream beach, Jaime Alguersuari goes back to work. The young Toro Rosso driver will enter on Monday back to the intensive fitness training to prepare for the rest of the season. “I will be with Sebastien Buemi in the Red Bull Performance Center in Fuschl and there for three days at the gym work,” the 20-year-old said on his homepage.

“We will be working on our physical condition, to be prepared for the rest of the season. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday I’ll be in the gym, there are medical checks,” said Alguersuari. “We will also probably take hundreds of miles by bicycle uncoil and other outdoor activities.”
After three days in the Austrian Fuschl an unofficial competition of some Formula 1 drivers on the program. “On Thursday and Friday I meet with Fernando Alonso, Michael Schumacher, Nico Rosberg and several other Formula 1 drivers at the kart circuit in Lonato. Where we test some new KZ1-karts for the World Cup,” said the Toro Rosso Youngster who has a contract with Intrepid kart.

The young Spaniard then remains the same in Italy, to the team in preparing for the next Grand Prix in Belgium to help. For Alguersuari obviously many appointments with the Toro Rosso engineers at the factory in Faenza on the program. “I want the team to be as close as possible.” The goal for the rest of the season is to get on the basis of our technical possibilities always the maximum in the Grand Prix. ”
“I feel better, stronger and more balanced than ever before,” is pleased Alguersuari before returning to his Formula 1 work. The passionate DJ used the summer break and to hang up in some top clubs in Europe. “Now the music has only one break to the end of the season,” said the 20-year-old. “I’m going home to perhaps work on my private studio. But always only when I have finished my five-hour fitness program per day.”

“In my life all happened so fast,” says the pilot from Barcelona, who could well earn his money as a DJ. “Formula 1 fans might wonder if I can really be a good DJ. The music fans ask the same if I actually a good racer am. But the fact is that I am at two things for many, many years of work. I I sat with eight years in karting since I was 13, I’m going international races. ”
“Even though I enjoy the status as the youngest Formula 1 driver, it must be said, however, that I have eleven years working very hard towards this goal. And the music was similar. If one has put in thousands of clubs plates, then it is already not a hobby, “says Alguersuari. “I’ve been practicing 13 years ago in real high-tech devices. But still: Formula 1 is my passion, music is more of a side job.”

Among other things, showed Alguersuari his skills as a DJ in the club last icon in Budapest in Formula 1 after show. This was followed by short performances in Barcelona, London and Ibiza. “Nevertheless, I am recovering well. I had had with my parents a little sailing, visiting with them and my aunts a mountain village in the Spanish Pyrenees. Also, I’ve been to Formentera and Ibiza, and am a bit jet-ski driven. This holiday were among the most beautiful I have ever experienced. “

Formula 1 is in its summer break down each team must be between the last race in Budapest and the next Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps for a total of two weeks to work in his factory. Ferrari has in common with his engineers and Fernando Alonso last week still used to prepare in Maranello on the remaining races of the 2010 season and the coming year.

Alonso at the weekend after a visit to Madonna di Campiglio for the presentation of Ercole Colombo’s book on the 20th had made birthday of the “Wrooom” events, the Spaniards now also occurs to a two-week vacation. can release mention the F1 events of the double world champion, however. “It will not be possible to switch off my thoughts in those two weeks complete,” Alonso is quoted on the official website of the team.
“Next I’ll try to relax a bit, do some sports at least once a day, perhaps for ten minutes, inevitably think about the next race in Belgium,” said Alonso. “I think this will all be the same and the timing of the break makes no difference.”

The Fifth World Cup is expected that Ferrari will catch up after the recent uptrend in the coming races even further to the top. “In Spain we will have some new parts and we hope that they bring us even further forward. The others will do the same, which means that we are better than they work and have to be faster in terms of development.”

Alonso builds on the strength of Ferraris. “We needed only two normal race to again be full in the title fight. It is true that we in the championship remains the rear, and it is always better to be ahead, but I am convinced that we, in the end, I mean the last two or three races, to be closer to their peak, as we are now. ”
It was important to stay calm and focused, so Alonso on. The Red Bull pilots he has in the fight for the world title but not on the bill. “It’s hard to say who my rival is worst – we are almost on par, perhaps Hamilton, Button and myself. We all have already won a title and will tackle the final sprint quiet, as we have already experienced something similar.” He gave himself while a fifty percent chance.

While fighting with McLaren and Red Bull have in each case both pilots at the World Cup crown, Alonso can support his team-mate Felipe Massa to be certain. “Here’s a great atmosphere. One that is better than any other team,” Alonso is secure. The pending decision of the FIA World Council regarding Ferraris stable government in Hockenheim dazzled by the Spaniards from as far as possible. “We have drivers and engineers the task of concentrating on the car and to continue our work.”

Must adapt to the Red Bull Grand Prix of Belgium, the controversial front wings? Or call back at all? In particular, the competition from McLaren calls for some stubborn race tighter controls front wing of the FIA, as the wing on RB6 is suspicious elastic and this brings an aerodynamic advantage. But whatever the FIA did before – the wing was stood all tests and is to be classed as perfectly legal.

But after the summer break to the front wing suddenly meet new requirements: To date they have been burdened with a weight of 50 kilograms and were allowed to deflect by a maximum of ten millimeters. From Spa-Francorchamps is 100 kilograms, this is a welcome elasticity of 20 millimeters. This will prevent the FIA that exploits Red Bull through the use of special materials, a gray zone of control methods.
“Based on our correspondence with the FIA, we believe that our car still meets the criteria,” says team boss Christian Horner to ‘Autosport’ sure. However, if this is not the case, blooms the Austrian racing team based in Milton Keynes Affliction. In two weeks, the three-week summer recess, there absolute from working in factories – not even e-mails may be read. Do you manage not to adapt quickly to the wing, one would have to call back to an older wing.

But Horner does the woman from working in conversation with motorsports ‘Auto Bild’ (Subscribe Now!) Positive: “The enforced break, it is difficult for other teams to catch up.” If his team have to call back but really, then it is properly under pressure, especially in store for Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber perhaps the most difficult race of the season, as Horner knows: “Spa, with its long straights a different route than Hungary. Since we can our output benefits play less. And in Monza’s worse. ”

Meanwhile, Vettel has already prepares for the race in Monza. After two weeks of vacation he is starting a special training program in Switzerland – and explained to ‘Auto Bild motorsport’ the reasons: “I want to optimally prepared to go to the overseas races. Where there is a different climate, to the time change coming up to seven hours.”

Karun Chandhok has now turned his eye to next month’s Belgian grand prix as he prepares to sit out a second consecutive F1 race.

The Indian rookie will nonetheless travel to Hungary this week, to reprise the British radio commentary duties he had to settle for at Hockenheim last weekend.

Chandhok, 26, was sidelined in Germany due to HRT’s Japanese test driver Sakon Yamamoto reportedly having more sponsorship to offer the struggling Spanish team.

Hispania has now confirmed that Yamamoto will continue to be Bruno Senna’s teammate in Hungary.

“They are going to do what they need to do from their point of view,” Chandhok, who at Hockenheim had said he hoped to return to the car for Hungary, told Reuters.

“The long summer break is coming up and we’ll have to see what happens for the rest of the season,” he added.

HRT insists that Chandhok is still a team member, but strong rumours indicate that test driver Christian Klien is expecting a race or two later in 2010.

A team spokesperson said the driver lineup for Spa-Francorchamps and beyond is not finalised.