Rumours that a top English premier league football club is entering formula one as a sponsor have proved correct.

Ever since Sauber has been running teaser ‘Out of the blue’ and ‘True blue’ graphics on its engine cover livery in China and Bahrain, speculation about the identity of the forthcoming sponsor have been swirling in the F1 paddock.

We reported the rumour that the deal could be with the Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich, to promote his football club Chelsea.

Swiss F1 team Sauber confirmed the “new and innovative partnership” on Monday.

“The C31 sporting the blue logo of Chelsea FC will be seen for the first time at the Spanish grand prix,” the Hinwil based team announced in a media statement.

“A partnership like this between formula one and football has never existed before in this form, yet there are numerous commonalities and possible synergies,” said Sauber chief executive Monisha Kaltenborn.

The statement said Chelsea will in turn display Sauber’s logo on its advertising boards and interview walls, ensuring one another “a significant market presence outside their original sport”.

 Many team bosses reportedly left the Melbourne paddock angry late on Sunday, amid claims Ferrari and Red Bull have agreed special deals for F1′s future beyond the current Concorde Agreement.
Rumours of the top teams’ deal – part of a reportedly planned $10 billion stock market floatation of the sport – began to swirl following the publication and then retraction of a Sky News internet report.

The report was reportedly based on a leaked copy of the draft 2013 Concorde Agreement, which according to London’s Telegraph newspaper “could hand Ferrari a direct stake in the sport”.

Red Bull, the reigning champions, “also stand to make a huge sum”, the report claimed, adding that the energy drink-owned team as well as Ferrari will be asked to nominate directors for F1′s holding company board.

Team boss Christian Horner revealed Red Bull is “in discussions with FOM” about a new Concorde Agreement, adding that talks are “progressing reasonably well”.

How the other major teams – like FOTA members McLaren and Mercedes – fit into the picture is unclear at present, but the Times newspaper reports that there are “no seats” at the boardroom table allocated for them.

An unnamed senior team executive described the rumoured special deals for Ferrari and Red Bull as “outrageous” and “against every facet of European competition law”.

Ferrari declined to comment.

Horner added: “We want one (a Concorde Agreement) which reaches into the future … a floatation is really down to the shareholders.

“It is not really the teams’ business,” he added. “It is more of a question for Bernie (Ecclestone) or CVC.”

Many paddock insiders, however, believe the deals are already done in principle, leading one angry rival team boss to blast: “Formula one stopped being about racing a long time ago”.

“There will be an end game to this,” he added. “We just have to figure out what it is and what it means for the people in the teams who want to go racing and not be involved in this kind of thing.”

Organisers of the grand prix in Melbourne are reportedly considering sharing the city’s formula one rights with another Australian state.
Under financial strain, Germany alternates the annual hosting rights between Hockenheim and the Nurburgring, and Spain is set to begin a similar scheme for the struggling Barcelona and Valencia organisers.

Under pressure to ease the burden on Victoria’s state taxpayers, organisers of the annual Albert Park race are considering something along those lines, the local Herald Sun reports.

Citing “high placed sources”, the Melbourne newspaper said Sydney or Perth could be the alternate race hosts.

Perth is the capital of Western Australia, and premier Colin Barnett said: “(The) grand prix is a great event, but WA will not be bidding for it.”

A spokesman for Victorian premier Ted Baillieu, however, did not rule it out.

“We’ve got the race until 2015 in its current form,” he said. “Negotiations beyond that will focus on value for money for the Victorian economy.”

Australian Grand Prix Corporation chairman Ron Walker, however, described the idea as “a formula for disaster”.

“All of our major events are hard won and we are not about to share ours with another Australian city,” he said.

The rumours are already swirling in the Melbourne paddock.

“I think to move it interstate would cause more headaches than it’s probably worth,” said Australian driver Mark Webber.

“It’s been so successful in Melbourne for so long now. (But) you never say never, nothing is forever.”

 Nico Hulkenberg has played down the link between Vijay Mallya’s struggling Indian airline Kingfisher and the billionaire’s formula one team Force India.
According to mainstream media reports, debt-ridden and loss-making Kingfisher is on the brink of collapse.

And new speculation swirling in the Melbourne paddock this weekend suggests the situation could affect Silverstone based Force India.

“The rumours are nothing new,” the team’s new race driver Nico Hulkenberg told Frankfurter Rundschau newspaper.

“The problems (with Kingfisher) have been there for over a year. But it’s nothing to do with us, it’s another business — this is formula one, not an airline,” said the German.

“I can’t judge what is happening to his business. I just know that he (Mallya) is still motivated and for sure will be here for many races,” added Hulkenberg, who qualified ninth for Sunday’s Australian grand prix.

India’s Economic Times this week reported that Mallya has pumped an extra $32 million into Force India via his personal investment company Watson and the sponsorship of Kingfisher’s beer and spirit arm.

 Hot on the heels of the new technical controversies, the 2012 season has also kicked off in the sport’s high-intrigue world of politics.
A fascinating blog post by Sky News’ City editor Mark Kleinman has been pulled from the internet just hours after it went live.

It was about “F1 finance and control allegedly involving Ferrari, Red Bull and (the sport’s owner) CVC”, according to veteran journalist and broadcaster Maurice Hamilton on Twitter.

“Has someone spoken out of turn?” wondered the Times’ Kevin Eason.

The Telegraph’s Tom Cary said the rumour is that a $10 billion stock market floatation for F1 could be in the works “with Ferrari (and) Red Bull getting special deals”.

“There is no smoke without fire with this one,” added Eason. “No wonder Ferrari and Red Bull ditched FOTA.”

The document that currently governs F1 and its finances, the Concorde Agreement, runs out this year, and now F1′s most famous team – Ferrari – and the reigning world champions are outside the trade union FOTA.

“Coincidence? Highly unlikely,” said Cary.

F1 chief executive Bernie Ecclestone insists no deals have been done yet.

“I’d like to try to do something before the season starts,” he said this week. “I don’t want it dragging on.”

As for his take on FOTA, “Ferrari would never go do a deal with those clowns,” the 81-year-old scowled.

 Rumours are swirling in the Melbourne paddock that Red Bull and Lotus are preparing to lodge a post-qualifying protest.
“I’ve heard something like that,” confirmed Mercedes’ motor sport director Norbert Haug to German Sky television.

They are reportedly unhappy with the new ‘F-duct’ solutions seen on the W03 car.

British television Sky confirmed that team boss Eric Boullier has confirmed that Lotus will protest the outcome of Saturday afternoon’s qualifying result.

“The FIA has its opinion and so do we,” Haug added.

“I remember the noise made about the double diffuser; a noise, incidentally, that came from the same place,” said the German.

Vitaly Petrov has lashed back at suggestions he will not be racing with the Renault team in 2012.

With a contract already in his pocket, the rumours began to swirl in Monza two weeks ago but the Russian insisted: “My contract is safe for next year.”

But in the last few days, new speculation has suggested team boss Eric Boullier could be planning to keep Bruno Senna for 2012 and pair him with GP2 champion Romain Grosjean.

As for 27-year-old Petrov’s signed deal, Boullier said: “You have contracts, but there are some exit clauses for every party.”

In Singapore, Petrov once again insisted he feels secure for next season.

“I think everything’s fine, it’s just bullsh*t in the newspapers,” he told reporters.

“As I said at the beginning of the season, we signed for two years and I don’t see the reason I need to be worried.”

Petrov said it was not unusual for his boss Boullier to talk about the possibility of breaking a contract.

“I think it’s everywhere in the world that a contract can be finished not just because of a bad season or I did less points.

“The contract can finish by another thing like money or things like this. So this is why he said it.

“But if you ask him a different question maybe he can answer you differently also,” added Petrov.

Amid suggestions Renault is disappointed with Nick Heidfeld’s recent form, the name Roman Grosjean has returned to the F1 rumour mill.
The Swiss-born Frenchman had a poor start to his F1 career amid the ‘crashgate’ scandal with Renault in 2009, but is once again associated with the team under the management of Eric Boullier.

25-year-old Grosjean is currently leading the GP2 championship and was mentioned by Italy’s Autosprint in an article about Robert Kubica and Heidfeld.

The report said the spat between Renault co-owner Gerard Lopez and Kubica’s manager Daniele Morelli indicates not all is well in that relationship behind the scenes.

“One senses that the cooperation between driver and team is compromised,” said the sport.

At the same time, Boullier is reportedly not happy with the performance so far of Kubica’s 2011 stand-in, German Heidfeld.

All those are good signs for Grosjean’s F1 return.

“It’s my condition, my target,” he told motorsport-magazin.com.

Asked if it will happen with Renault, the Frenchman answered: “That’s too hard to say. Renault is well implanted in F1, and that’s good to be with them.”

As rumours persist that Timo Glock might be looking to move on, it emerges that Virgin has been in contact with Esteban Guerrieri about a 2011 race seat.

German Glock has a firm two-year contract with the struggling new British team, but he has been mentioned in connection with the potentially vacant seat next year alongside Robert Kubica at Renault.

He has been playing down those rumours in recent days, but this week admitted that running at the back of the grid has not been easy for him.

“For someone like me who has won the GP2 title and been on the podium with Toyota several times, it is no secret that it is not easy to be at the back,” Glock is quoted by DPA news agency.

The 28-year-old said he still wants to win the F1 championship one day.

“If I didn’t think this, and did not do everything I can to make it a reality, then I would not belong in the premier class of motor racing,” said Glock.

As those rumours swirl, it emerges from Argentina that the government could be set to support the potential F1 debut of 25-year-old Buenos Aires-born driver Esteban Guerrieri.

Local reports say there has been contact between his manager, Julio Gutierrez, and Virgin team boss John Booth, and also that the Formula Renault 3.5 driver has met with the Argentine interior minister.

“It was a very good meeting,” said manager Gutierrez. “The minister expressed his intention to collaborate so that Esteban can reach formula one.”

Guerrieri said: “I think the time is right to try (F1). I have an invitation from the Virgin team and we’re working on it, because in principle to get one of their seats we need to have about 8 million dollars.

“There should be developments within September, and the limit would be November.”

The Argentine government was also involved in the ill-fated 2010 deal between Jose Maria Lopez and the abortive USF1 team.

May 30 (GMM)  Red Bull had instructed Mark Webber to switch his engine to a fuel-saving mode in the moments before his crash with teammate Sebastian Vettel in Turkey.

In the aftermath of the controversial incident, rumours began to swirl inside the Istanbul Park paddock that there was more to it than met the eye.

Australian Webber alluded to the intrigue by telling reporters after the race that Vettel had a “big top speed advantage” when he launched the move.

Pressed for whether there was a reason for the speed difference, Webber answered: “Hmm, maybe.

“You guys need to dig more, somewhere else.”

The media therefore went to team bosses Christian Horner and Helmut Marko, who initially did not confirm that Webber and Vettel’s engines were running on different settings.

“I think it was in the tyres,” said advisor Marko, when asked specifically if there was a reason that Vettel was so much quicker than Webber at the time of the shunt.

Both Horner and Marko seemed to blame Webber for the crash, directly contradicting many experts within the paddock.

It is rumoured that, as the pair were on equal points at the head of the world championship at the time of the shunt, Red Bull wanted Vettel to pass Webber and win the race.

Marko denied that Webber’s engineer had been instructed to tell the driver to let Vettel past.

“That is not correct,” said the Austrian, “because that would mean a team order.

“We informed Mark about the situation and it is for the driver to decide.  The fact is that if Sebastian hadn’t passed he would have been overtaken by Hamilton.”