Confusion surrounding the blown exhaust saga is set to continue, with conflicting reports throughout Sunday about a teams agreement.

Bernie Ecclestone told the BBC on the Silverstone grid that an unanimous agreement to revert to the Valencia regulations is “all done. It’s been agreed”.

Earlier, it was the case that Ferrari-powered Sauber was yet to sign the letter to the FIA confirming unamimity so that the clampdown could be repealed.

After teams meetings on Sunday morning, Red Bull’s Christian Horner said: “There’s no agreement.”

It is rumoured Ferrari, whose Fernando Alonso won the British grand prix with the clampdown regulations now in place, has also not signed the document to go back to the older rules.

“I think that we have the right direction,” said an evasive Stefano Domenicali after the race.

German reports quote Horner as adding: “There is a commitment to talk about this again before Germany.”

Four hours before the inaugural Korean grand prix, the brand new Yeongam venue is awash with rain.

It started raining just before 10pm on Saturday night, and was heavy at times throughout the night and did not completely stop at any point.

Some forecasts had predicted the weather would ease on Sunday morning, but at 11am the precipitation is still light and the skies still completely grey.

The sheer amount of water that has fallen on the new track surface will ensure that the rubber laid by the F1 cars on Friday and Saturday has now been washed off.

And the ‘weeping’ of asphalt oils from beneath the newly-laid top layer, mixed with the rain that is still falling at Yeongam, will ensure a very slippery surface for the race at 3pm.

Expert forecasts at the circuit think the rain could stop completely and sunshine emerge at about midday, which would mean a damp surface for the race start is still a possibility.

“I hope it stays wet and slippery!” enthused Lotus driver Heikki Kovalainen.

Confirmation of Jarno Trulli’s extended stay at Lotus next year is due before the forthcoming Korean grand prix.

That is the claim of the Finnish newspaper Turun Sanomat, insisting that the Italian’s current teammate Heikki Kovalainen has already penned a new deal for 2011.

It was reported from Suzuka that Trulli, 36, was bullish about the future, even though it had been expected that Lotus’ 2011 lineup would have been confirmed by now.

Turun Sanomat said Finn Kovalainen – who is currently staying in Kuala Lumpur at team chief executive Riad Asmat’s house – signed his new deal on the Sunday morning of the Italian grand prix last month, but that Trulli’s salary talks were ongoing.

The report added that Trulli still hasn’t signed a contract, but that news on the driver front is sure to be announced before Korea.

Lotus has been making many announcements recently, including the termination of its Cosworth contract, an altered name for 2011 and the Red Bull technical deal.

Confirmation of the Renault engine deal is still pending.

Lotus joked about the situation after qualifying was rained off at Suzuka last Saturday, revealing that the team “has nothing to announce for the first time in several weeks”.

McLaren’s racing duo have disagreed about how the early development of the 2010 car impacted the pecking order at the British team this season.

Jenson Button, whose decision to switch to the Woking based team this year was made late, explained at Suzuka that he is expecting a better 2011 season.

“The fact is when I arrived in January the car was already built,” said the reigning world champion, who qualified two tenths behind his teammate Lewis Hamilton on Sunday morning.

Button, 30, is also five points behind Hamilton in the drivers’ standings, despite two consecutive race-ending crashes for the latter Briton.

He continued: “Next year I’ll definitely be a stronger driver just through experience and having a bit more direction when it comes to development of the car.”

But Hamilton denies that the gap between the pair is easily explained by his greater involvement in the development of the MP4-25.

He argues that Button had “just as much input as me” into the car, with the exception of early seat fittings and other minor influences.

“But he was as much a part of it from when he joined the team as I was,” said Hamilton, 25.

“So he has only missed out on a couple of months really.  And he wouldn’t have wanted to drive last year’s car.

“This is a completely new one.  It is not like this year’s is an evolution of last year’s,” he insisted.

Ralf Schumacher on Sunday indicated he thinks it is possible 2011 will be his older brother’s last season in formula one.

Mercedes this weekend denied reports that 41-year-old Schumacher could be shown the door is he again fails to match the pace of his teammate Nico Rosberg next season.

Currently, the seven time world champion is contracted to the end of 2012.

Asked about his brother’s full three-year commitment, former Williams and Toyota driver Ralf Schumacher, standing in this weekend for absent RTL commentator Niki Lauda, said: “You have to be realistic, and Michael is a realist.

“If he finds out next year that it is still not working, he will base his decision on that,” added the German.

Another rumour flying about at Suzuka this weekend is that Felipe Massa could leave Ferrari at the end of the year, even though Sebastien Buemi laughed at wild Italian reports indicating he might be the replacement.

“I will have a Ferrari engine but not a Ferrari car,” the Toro Rosso driver told BBC television.

And Ferrari team boss Stefano Domenicali also said it is “categorically wrong” that Massa, who failed to qualify inside the top ten on Sunday morning, is leaving the team.

Lewis Hamilton’s bad weekend at Suzuka and fading championship chances got even worse on Saturday night.

The 2008 world champion learned he will have to move five places down the grid, whose order will be determined by an unusual Sunday morning qualifying session.

McLaren confirmed it detected “abnormal gearbox oil pressure” on Hamilton’s MP4-25 during the Saturday morning practice session.

“As we fired up Lewis’s car several times in preparation for qualifying, we became aware that the symptoms were worse than we’d originally diagnosed,” a team spokesman, revealing that the gearbox had to be changed out of sequence, said.

After an 80 minute delay, race control has finally confirmed that qualifying will not take place at Suzuka on Saturday.

FIA race director Charlie Whiting confirmed that the session will now take place on Sunday morning at 10am, with the stewards to confirm that decision shortly.

It is believed the decision was taken at 1520 – instead of 1630 as earlier expected – because the natural light has already begun to fade.

Upon learning of the decision, Sebastian Vettel came out of the Red Bull garage to applaud the massed grandstands, with the passionate Japanese fans having patiently waited for cars that ultimately did not run.

“I hope they all turn up tomorrow for a busy day,” said Heikki Kovalainen.

Charlie Whiting has admitted qualifying will not take place in Saturday afternoon’s heavy rain.

With the session already officially delayed for 90 minutes beyond the scheduled 1400 start-time, the FIA will wait until 1630 – when the light will be fading – before announcing the postponement of qualifying to 10am on Sunday.

But as bored drivers and team personnel pushed makeshift boats down the pitlane stream, the BBC ceased its live broadcast and the Virgin drivers played poker in the garage, race director Whiting all but admitted the Sunday postponement is now a certainty.

“With so much rain, we cannot start qualifying — not in these conditions,” Whiting told France’s Auto Hebdo website.

He said he will recommend to the stewards that qualifying be held on Sunday morning.

“That’s feasible because there is no minimum time between qualifying and the race,” the Briton confirmed.

Suzuka qualifying has been delayed for at least 30 minutes by the FIA.

The session had been scheduled to begin at 2pm local, but after an inspection by the safety car, race director Charlie Whiting has decided on the delay to give the torrential conditions a chance to subside.

Just before 1430, the FIA will inspect the circuit again, and teams will be given 10 minutes notice of a session start.

If the conditions are still too unsafe, a series of 15 minute delays might then be commenced, and if the conditions are still too unsafe at 1630, the session will be postponed altogether due to fading light.

If that happens, qualifying will be held at 10am on Sunday morning, when the rain is scheduled to have stopped.

“I imagine qualifying will be tomorrow,” McLaren team boss Martin Whitmarsh told BBC commentator Martin Brundle at 1400 precisely.

World champion Jenson Button added: “If it carries on like this, we’re not going to be out today.”

With drivers reporting undriveable conditions and the local radar predicting even heavier rain ahead, the FIA has reserved a 10am timeslot for Sunday morning qualifying at Suzuka.

“I really don’t think there is going to be qualifying,” said Sebastien Buemi’s race engineer, just before Toro Rosso’s Swiss driver entered the circuit and spun during Saturday morning practice.

Lotus’ Mike Gascoyne confirmed that the weather forecast for qualifying is for even worse conditions than in practice, where the McLaren and Ferrari drivers were eventually grounded due to rivers of water causing aquaplaning.

“I cannot even drive on the straight,” complained Jaime Alguersuari.

Gascoyne told the BBC: “If it’s like this, they’ll have to look at postponing qualifying until tomorrow morning.”

Suzuka qualifying was run on Sunday morning in 2004 in order to avoid the typhoon Ma-on.

David Coulthard is taking a special interest in the developing events at Suzuka, having been scheduled as Red Bull’s reserve driver for the Japanese weekend.

The team’s usual reserve Daniel Ricciardo is in Europe for Formula Renault.

“Would I cope with the rigours of a race?” Coulthard wrote in the Telegraph.  “Well, I’m in semi race-trim now but physically it would be tough, I must admit.”

Fernando Alonso on Thursday did not back Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo’s latest attack on the new teams.

Montezemolo insists that the grid should be filled by bigger teams fielding three cars, while struggling outfits like Lotus, Virgin and HRT “are supposed to race on Sunday mornings” in GP2.

The Italian also said Alonso’s push for victory in Canada two weeks ago was ruined by the lapping of backmarkers.

Ferrari driver Alonso, 28, was asked by reporters about the comments at Valencia, but said he would have “nothing to say” about the slow teams in Friday’s briefing with Charlie Whiting of the FIA.

“Next year I don’t think we will see the difference that we’ve seen this year,” he answered, referring to the difference in pace between the established and new teams.

“I think the three new teams arrived very late this year and I think next year they will be better prepared and the gap will be closer,” added Alonso.

(GMM)

Jun.18 (GMM) Luca di Montezemolo has continued his sustained attack on formula one’s new teams.

The Ferrari president thinks the grid should be filled by the bigger teams fielding three cars, rather than by opening the doors to newcomers including Lotus, Virgin and HRT.

Next year, another small team is likely to make its debut.

Spain’s El Mundo newspaper this week claims that the budget of the new Spanish outfit HRT is ten times smaller than Ferrari’s.

“In modern F1 races cars with GP2 levels of performance shouldn’t be allowed to participate — they are supposed to race on Sunday mornings,” Montezemolo is quoted by Italy’s La Gazzetta dello Sport.

Montezemolo argues that Fernando Alonso’s push for Montreal victory was ruined by the lapping of backmarkers, an apparent reference to his delays behind Jarno Trulli’s Lotus and the HRT of Karun Chandhok.

But while it is true that, earlier this year, the small teams were vastly off the pace, all of the six cars were faster by multiple seconds than the entire GP2 field in Turkey recently.

And in Canada last weekend, Heikki Kovalainen’s Lotus qualified just two tenths behind the Ferrari-powered Sauber of Kamui Kobayashi, while Virgin and HRT runners were also easily within 107 per cent of the pole time.

The new teams’ laptime deficit in Canada was between 3 and 4 seconds, compared with Giancarlo Fisichella’s 2.2 second qualifying deficit in a Ferrari-powered Force India at the same circuit two years ago.

A report at Italiaracing said: “It should be noted that the only complaints this season about the smaller teams have come from Ferrari.”

Niki Lauda apologised personally to Robert Kubica in Monaco last weekend.

Former triple world champion Lauda, whose straight-talking assessments are still heard at every grand prix, referred to the Renault driver live on German television as “der Polack” (the Polack).

Polack is a derogatory reference to a Polish person, and even more offensive within Germany given the 1939 Nazi invasion that marked the start of World War II.

Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport said officials of the German TV station RTL demanded that Lauda, 60, apologise.

“I have to say to Robert that it was meant in a nice way,” said the Austrian.  “I was just happy that he drove his car onto the front row.”

Lauda reportedly waited for 15 minutes at the Renault motor home on Sunday morning and did apologise publicly to the 25-year-old.

(GMM)

After no less than three meetings in Monaco, a final decision about F1′s tyre situation for 2011 still has not been made.

The latest meeting was held on Sunday morning, with team bosses discussing solid proposals made by Michelin, Avon and Pirelli, amid reports Bridgestone might be persuaded to stay.

According to the BBC, FOTA’s technical chief Ross Brawn said the Italian marque Pirelli’s proposal is a viable one.

“We’ve had a good proposal from Pirelli which we’re looking into seriously,” he said.

It is believed another meeting will be held within the next few days, where a final decision is likely.

(GMM)

Rumours have resurfaced once again that suggest Bridgestone is contemplating staying in formula one beyond 2011.

Michelin, Pirelli and Avon are all vying to replace the sport’s apparently departing official sole supplier.

But in Barcelona on Saturday, FOTA chairman Martin Whitmarsh met with Bridgestone officials.

The FOTA group then met on Sunday morning.

Admitting that a new name entering F1 is a “risk”, Whitmarsh is quoted as saying by Motorsport-Magazin.com: “Bridgestone has done a great job in F1.  We would be happy if we could persuade them to stay.”

Whitmarsh also admitted that FOTA is reluctant to re-open the door to a tyre war, as per Michelin’s wishes, due to the need to control costs for the sake of the smaller teams.

It is believed next weekend’s Monaco event has been set as a target for the finalisation of the issue of 2011 tyre supply.

(GMM)