They are famously close on a personal level, but for the sake of his sport Bernie Ecclestone wants to see Sebastian Vettel suffer in 2012.
The Red Bull driver has won the past two championships on the trot, including last season when the title battle was over long before the finale.

“It wasn’t good. The only person that would say no to that would be Sebastian, but I think everybody else would agree with it,” F1 chief executive Ecclestone told reporters on Thursday.

He had just announced a new connectivity deal for F1 with Indian multinational Tata’s communications subsidiary.

The aim is to modernise F1 in that area because, as the 81-year-old puts it, he is “getting old” and was “asleep” to the world’s new digital era.

But more immediately important to Ecclestone is a better show in 2012.

“I’m surprised we survived with (the TV ratings) we got right at the end,” said the Briton, referring again to Vettel’s dominance. “We need to see everybody else wake up.”

Another element he hopes is in place this year is a fully-firing Lewis Hamilton, but Ecclestone admitted the 2008 world champion might have to farewell McLaren.

“I think if he doesn’t perform this year, he’ll be looking maybe to move on, and the team may also be looking for him to move on,” he said.

And yet another golden egg for Ecclestone would be a winning Michael Schumacher, but he admitted the seven time world champion might need to sit at the wheel of a Red Bull for that to happen.

“I don’t think Sebastian would mind,” he said.

“I’m not saying I don’t want Mark (Webber) around, I’m just saying it would be nice to see him (Schumacher) in the car where you know that if he doesn’t win it’s his fault, not the car.”

Less important, Ecclestone argues, is the rare absence in F1 of a single Italian driver.

“If Ferrari is winning,” he insisted, “it doesn’t make any difference.”

Indeed, there are bigger fish on the F1 supremo’s plate: the thorny issue of Bahrain’s return in 2012, and a looming fight with the teams over the next Concorde Agreement.

On Bahrain, he joked: “Pity I’m not going to be there myself but don’t worry. No, I shall be there, don’t worry.”

As for the teams wanting a bigger share of F1′s revenue pie, Ecclestone answered: “I think they are right. If they don’t ask they are not going to get (it), are they?”

But when asked to rate their chances of success, the Briton replied typically: “Slim to none.”

A 20-race calendar is too long for formula one, according to former FIA president Max Mosley.

2010′s tally of 19 races was the equal-biggest in the history of the sport, and next year the rally is growing to twenty rounds.

The USA and Russia are set to join possibly more additional grands prix in the near future, moving Sir Frank Williams to recently muse that he can envisage a 22-race schedule before long.

“For me personally, it’s too much,” Mosley told the German newspaper Welt.

“In my opinion that’s too many Sunday afternoons to expect people to dedicate to formula one. At some point, it starts to become tiresome.

“And then if you start skipping a race here and there it can quickly become a habit and it can snowball in terms of the TV ratings,” he added.

Mosley, whose successor as FIA president is the former Ferrari boss Jean Todt, is also worried that F1 team budgets are still far too high.

“In January 2008 I warned that without cost reduction it won’t be only the small teams having problems,” said the 70-year-old Briton.

“It has arrived: Honda, BMW, Toyota and Renault have gone because the budgets are out of proportion.

“This continues to be true and it worries me,” admitted Mosley.

“There is the risk of a crisis in the short term,” he insisted. “Currently, a great season is being celebrated but the future looks bleak.

“For 2011 you need $100 million, with 30 or 40 from Bernie Ecclestone, perhaps 20 to 25 from sponsors or the drivers. I’d say six teams are wondering where the rest is coming from.

“It’s quite possible we’ll lose two or three teams,” warned Mosley.

His final act as FIA president was to entice new privateers onto the grid with very small budgets, but Lotus, Virgin and HRT have been criticised for lacking competitiveness.

“I don’t agree,” said Mosley. “They need to be given time to improve.

“Virgin’s development has been downright revolutionary. Their car was built entirely without a wind tunnel and that’s a warning for the likes of McLaren because their wind tunnels are like running a small town.

“On the other hand Virgin developed a car only with computer simulation and it’s only two or three seconds slower.

“No one can argue that the huge cost of the wind tunnels is justified.”

Mosley said a quick fix to the looming crisis would be a budget cap for 2012 and 2013, requiring teams to tighten their belts immediately.

Not even at the press conference the technology currently makes what Michael Schumacher will. On the podium before the Hungarian Grand Prix weekend in Budapest, the world champion several times unsuccessfully pressed the button labeled, to be heard. But only as a Mercedes sports chief Norbert Haug intervened game was Schumacher’s lead free.

“If Norbert touches, works for you too,” Schumacher said, adding with a grin: “Maybe he should touch it my car, it would also work again.” His humor is not the seven-time world champion has lost also. In the 41-year-old experienced so far the most frustrating phase of his already so disappointing first year after the sensational comeback.
Of all the home race at Hockenheim on Sunday he had been lapped. Actually, a humiliation, especially since the Kerpener then even the “best result” spoke. The young team-mate Nico Rosberg drives more successful than he. And the race in Budapest for Schumacher can not be more than one test run under competition conditions.

“In that situation there is only one directive: to work more hard,” says Schumacher and assured: “We did not get nervous. We just have to attempt to understand the car better. We must remain calm, view all the details exactly and everything closely . Analyze Why Schumacher, at least outwardly so calm remains is obvious. This season he has accepted as a learning year. The title of 2010 he had checked weeks ago, but the 2011 quite briskly re-issued as a target.
Results, times and points this season are now secondary. That Schumacher forages possessed as of old values and data. Even now he is working on the project “World Cup title in 2011,” it comes to knowledge for the construction of the new car. A strategy to his team chief Ross Brawn as early as 2009, the year before to the end at the World Cup crown struggling competitors by surprise.

For the Formula 1 scene Schumacher is either way a gain. The TV ratings rise, ‘RTL recorded’ on average over a million viewers more than last year. And the ticket to many places. In Budapest, currently at almost ten percent compared to 2009. “We have to thank to Michael Schumacher,” said Vice President Tamas Frank Hungaroring.

The audience favorite in honor they even have an audience rank in “Michael Schumacher stands renamed. “A great idea,” says Schumacher. He has visited “his” stand still, “but I will pass this weekend so more times.”