Group Lotus will no longer sponsor the formula one team that bears its name.

But – as F1′s perpetually bizarre ‘Lotus’ saga takes another twist – the Enstone based team, formerly Renault, will continue to be known as Lotus in the coming years.

Last year, and in 2010, ‘Lotus’ was the name of the team that is now called Caterham, but a bitter dispute soured that relationship as the Proton-owned car company Group Lotus ended the naming license and made its own bid to enter F1.

Group Lotus’ new foray blossomed in 2012 with Renault’s renaming to Lotus, amid speculation team owner Genii was keen to get more involved with the iconic sports car marque.

When asked recently about his team’s relationship with Lotus, Kimi Raikkonen answered clumsily on the Top Gear motoring programme: “Well it’s, er, it (the car) is not a Renault. Lotus is just a sponsor.”

The Autosport website revealed on Good Friday that the sponsorship deal has been “terminated”.

However, “We are happy to carry the Lotus name as we believe it is a good name for F1,” explained team owner Genii’s Gerard Lopez.

“So Lotus are still Lotus despite no longer being sponsored by Lotus?” the Telegraph’s Tom Cary wittily surmised on Twitter.

And in yet another twist, Lopez refused to rule out a scenario in which Genii actually takes over Group Lotus.

“We don’t know yet, because we really do not know what the new owner wants to do with it,” he said.

 The latest twist in F1′s endless ‘blown diffuser’ saga was reportedly triggered by Mercedes.
Amid last week’s Barcelona test, it was rumoured that Mercedes and Renault-powered teams would have to make tweaks, after a loophole was discovered in the standard electronics software.

For 2012, the FIA has clamped down on engine exhaust blowing for aerodynamic purposes, but speculation continued to sweep the paddock that some teams had devised ways to minimise the impact of the ban.

Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport reports that it was Mercedes engineers who found the loophole, in terms of how to utilise the standard electronic software to maximise the off-throttle exhaust blowing effect.

“The FIA has responded by rewriting the software,” read the report.

Auto Motor und Sport said Mercedes was right about the loophole, but that it could only have been exploited at the price of dramatic fuel consumption, and potential damage to the engine.

“We have erred on the safe side,” an FIA source is quoted as saying.

Writing in Spain’s Mundo Deportivo, Raymond Blacafort said the 2012 Red Bull’s exhaust was making a strange sound in the chicane in Barcelona last week.

The Red Bull team does not fear straight lines as much as it did earlier in 2010, according to a German media report.

After dominating on the slow, corner-dominated Hungaroring in August, the RB6 was subsequently beaten to the flag at Spa and Monza; circuits punctuated by long stretches of asphalt.

Then, before he dominated at Suzuka, Sebastian Vettel said the Japanese layout was “designed for” the Adrian Newey-penned car, even though the Renault engine was not expected to be strong on the front straight and the long run between Spoon and the chicane.

Team consultant Helmut Marko has been vocally worried about F1′s forthcoming trip to Korea, with the new layout featuring twistier sections separated by some very long straights.

After Mark Webber and the team pulled out leads in both world championships at Suzuka, the Austrian said “we need a cushion, especially for the next race”.

“One of the three long straights (in Korea) is 1.2 kilometres long,” Marko groaned.

According to Auto Motor und Sport, however, the RB6 is now performing better on the straights, thanks to the latest development of the car’s F-duct.

The report said Newey has essentially aped the Renault team’s F-duct solution, and as of Suzuka the RB6 is producing better straight line speed.

“We are no longer losing so much on the straights,” confirmed Vettel.

Jun.11 (GMM)  F1 is considering a radical innovation for 2011 in order to make overtaking much easier.

Technical bosses of the twelve teams met at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve on Friday, where it was agreed that the adjustable front wings will be scrapped at the end of the season.

Instead, drivers will next year be able to adjust the angle – by a factor of 50mm – of the rear wings, meaning that straight-line speed can be dramatically increased when the cars are not negotiating corners.

The intriguing twist, designed exclusively to boost overtaking, is that only chasing drivers will be able to adjust their cars’ wings.

A green light will shine in the cockpit when a car is close enough to the rear of his rival, thereby allowing the driver to trigger the rear wing button.

The systems will not be available to drivers during the first three laps of a race, but the wings may be triggered after a safety car period.

“Why do we need KERS now?” Red Bull team boss Christian Horner joked to Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport.  “The overtaking wings will be enough!”

Jun.9 (GMM)  Jacques Villeneuve has become the latest pundit to comment on the crash between the Red Bull cars at the recent Turkish grand prix.

The aftermath of Sebastian Vettel’s clash with Mark Webber was highly controversial, as most outsiders initially blamed Vettel but Red Bull chiefs pointed the finger at Australian Webber.

It emerged that Webber’s engine was in a fuel-saving mode – although team figures initially refused to confirm that was the case – and that his engineer had declined to pass on a radio message advising him to let his young German teammate through.

Then, as the official line became more conciliatory, figures close to team owner Dietrich Mateschitz including Max Mosley and Gerhard Berger renewed the criticism of Webber, before the 33-year-old was re-signed for the 2011 season.

The latest twist is that Mateschitz’s right-hand man Dr Helmut Marko says the pair are still free to race, but must not stridently resist each other’s advances.

“Both cars were out in the lead, but drivers are drivers and it is always difficult for one to give 110 per cent while the other does not,” Villeneuve wrote in a column for rds.ca.

“After the race, the reaction of the team seemed strange — to assign fault to someone so quickly and categorically.

“But you never know what really happened when you’ve looked at the situation from the outside as I did,” added the 39-year-old French Canadian.

Meanwhile, 2007 world champion Kimi Raikkonen thinks the only lingering effect of the crash is that Vettel and Webber will from now on behave “a bit more carefully” when they are wheel-to-wheel.

“In a similar situation you would just behave a bit differently so that it doesn’t happen again,” the Red Bull-sponsored world rally driver told Austrian Servus TV.

“It was just an incident in the race and now it’s finished,” he added.

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)

Nico Rosberg insists he is not disappointed with the reversion to the newer long-wheelbase Mercedes car for the forthcoming Turkish grand prix.

After Michael Schumacher struggled with the original short-wheelbase car earlier in 2010, he was the team’s pacesetter in Barcelona, where a longer-wheelbase was introduced along with other car developments.

But for the twisty curves of Monaco, the original car is being used once again, and Rosberg has once again been in front of his famous teammate.

But for F1′s next stop in Istanbul, it has been confirmed that the newer car will be back in action.

Rosberg, however, insists it will not disadvantage him.

“Michael and I have the same driving style,” he told Germany’s Bild-Zeitung.

“Even if Ross Brawn wanted to make a car that only worked for Michael, it would also work for me,” insisted Rosberg.

(GMM)

At Monaco, the less competitive pace of the new Lotus, Virgin and HRT teams has been the main topic of conversation, with frontrunners worried about being held up on the short and twisty layout.

F1 chief executive Bernie Ecclestone has admitted that HRT is struggling for survival, while David Coulthard insists that the sport needs “quality, not quantity”.

“If teams are not competitive they will not stay on the grid for long anyway as sponsorship is driven by results on track,” the Scottish veteran wrote in his Telegraph column.

But fellow veteran Trulli, who now drives a Lotus despite previously working with big teams including Renault and Toyota, insists that the new teams have a place on the grid.

“Without us, it would have seemed that F1 had just a handful of teams,” he is quoted by Finland’s Turun Sanomat newspaper.

“I would be more cautious in asserting that we are not worthy of our place in F1,” the Italian added.

Like fellow new team Lotus, Virgin is also not planning to develop a so-called F-duct system in 2010.

Confirming the news, Lotus’ Heikki Kovalainen said in Barcelona last weekend that he hopes the team soon shifts its full focus to next year’s car.

F-ducts, the downforce-spoiling innovation pioneered this year by McLaren and subsequently emulated by Ferrari, Sauber and Williams, have been banned for 2011.

German driver Timo Glock told Auto Motor und Sport on Thursday that it would therefore be “nonsense” if Virgin “invested time” on an F-duct rather than on more fundamental areas.

And team boss John Booth also said in Monaco that Virgin’s priorities are elsewhere.

“99 per cent of our effort is on reliability but hopefully from this race forward we can start adding performance to the car,” he said.

McLaren’s Martin Whitmarsh admitted this week that he is disappointed with FOTA’s decision to ban F-ducts.

“It’s a low-cost technology.  There are lots of reasons why it’s good for the sport,” said the FOTA chairman, whose MP4-25 is the only car fitted with an F-duct for the twisty curves of Monaco.

Ferrari’s F-duct will be back on the F10 at Istanbul, where it is expected that Red Bull could get the technology running for the first time.

Whitmarsh said on Thursday: “It’s something that will work better on the long straight than a circuit like this.”

(GMM)

A week of bad weather could lead into a wet 2010 Monaco grand prix.

Weather forecasts said rain in the Principality is expected to persist intermittently throughout the entire race weekend.

Lewis Hamilton said on Monday that McLaren’s forecast is also for “extremely unpredictable” weather and likely “heavy rain”.

The 2008 world champion is also quoted widely as worrying about the effect slow backmarkers will have this weekend on the twisty Armco-barrier lined circuit.

One calculation has shown that if the entire field was evenly spread around the famous street layout, there would be less than 140 metres between each car.

“Even if it doesn’t rain on the Sunday, the possibility of heavily disrupted practice and qualifying sessions means that we’ll probably go into the race with a chance of one of the most exciting and unpredictable Monaco grands prix for many years,” said Hamilton.

(GMM)

Backmarkers will make the Monaco grand prix “very tough” for F1′s faster cars, according to Lewis Hamilton.

The 2008 world champion’s car-to-pit radio was broadcasted live last Sunday when he said Virgin’s Lucas di Grassi did a “terrible job” being lapped.

“I don’t know what the hell he was doing there,” Hamilton later expanded in comments reported by British newspapers.  “It wasn’t very safe.”

The reporters asked the Briton if he thought the slow Virgin, Lotus and HRT runners would “screw” the pacesetters this weekend in Monaco, a twisty circuit confined by Armco barriers.

“It’s just very difficult when there is such a big (speed) difference,” said Hamilton, who was one of the drivers who had called for Q1 qualifying to be split into two groups for the fabled event.

“I lapped di Grassi four times in Spain.  That’s one of the biggest gaps I’ve had in formula one.

“You catch them so quick, it’s unreal.  When you see them you are second guessing where they will move out of the way, and then they move into the wrong position.

So far, fortunately, there have been no incidents and it has been ok, but Monaco will be very tough.  It could be a disaster,” added the McLaren driver.

His teammate Jenson Button agrees that traffic in Monaco will be “a nightmare”, as BBC commentator Martin Brundle describes the six slowest cars as “mobile chicanes”.

“Expect complaints and contact aplenty” in Monaco, Brundle added.

David Coulthard wrote in his latest Telegraph column that it is up to the teams to use their sophisticated GPS technology to help backmarkers let the faster cars through.

“They should be well able to get straight on the radio warning them that a faster car will be with them within a few seconds,” said the Scot.

(GMM)

Mercedes will revert to its original 2010 car for the Monaco grand prix this weekend.

The Brackley based team unveiled a car with a longer wheelbase in Spain last weekend, which is tipped to have helped Michael Schumacher get the upper hand over his teammate Nico Rosberg for the first time in 2010.

But according to German media sources, the pre-Barcelona package – which in Rosberg’s hands was driven to the podium twice in four races – will be up and running again in Monaco because it better suits the slow and twisty curves of the unique street layout.

The shorter-wheelbase car will however be fitted with the latest aerodynamic innovations in Monaco, including the knife-like rollover structure and engine cover air inlets.

“I am very optimistic that we will be more competitive than in Barcelona,” team CEO Nick Fry is quoted as saying by Germany’s RTL.

(GMM)

A team bosses meeting in Barcelona is likely to knock on the head the concept of a ‘split’ initial qualifying session for Monaco.

Some drivers want the split so that cars with vastly different speeds are not tangled up in traffic on the Principality’s famous twisty curves.

“I expect teams from the middle of the grid downwards to vote against dividing qualifying,” said FOTA chairman Martin Whitmarsh before the meeting on Sunday.

After a cold and overcast start to the day at the Circuit de Catalunya, the sun is now shining with two hours to go until the race.

Predicted rain should hold off until after the chequered flag.

Meanwhile, occupants of the paddock are relieved to hear that Barcelona airport was reopened on Sunday due to the volcanic ash cloud moving on.

But with next week’s grand prix to be held in Monaco, Spanish radio said the cloud is now heading to the south of France!

(GMM)

Nick Heidfeld on Friday admitted it is unlikely the ‘Q1′ qualifying session will be split for next weekend’s Monaco grand prix.

Some drivers have called for the split so as to prevent the traffic chaos of 24 cars – some with vastly different pace – all circulating the short and twisty street layout within a short 20-minute window.

But the FIA’s Charlie Whiting reportedly told the drivers during their regular pre-race briefing in Barcelona that such a rule change would need to be unanimously proposed by the teams.

“We therefore hope that the teams will get together and make a proposal,” Mercedes reserve Heidfeld, also the new president of the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association, told Motorsport-Magazin.com.

“I hope so, but honestly, I think that within a week it is a little difficult,” acknowledged the German.

Formula one drivers will propose that the ‘Q1′ qualifying session for next weekend’s Monaco grand prix be split into parts.

A group of drivers from both ends of the grid fear the traffic implications of 24 cars being on the short and twisty street layout at the same time, particularly with three teams vastly off the pace.

“I don’t think it’s a bad idea (to split Q1),” said reigning world champion and current championship Jenson Button.

According to ITV, his McLaren teammate Lewis Hamilton agreed that the session split “would be a sensible move”.

Veteran Jarno Trulli, whose Lotus car is several seconds off the pace of the pacesetters, said it would be better to discuss the issue now “rather than making a big mess” in Monaco.

“I am slow, so I’m going to probably impede someone else,” said the Italian.

But while Ferrari’s Felipe Massa acknowledged the potential traffic chaos, he said he isn’t sure Q1 should be changed, and Mark Webber expressed a similar view.

“It’s blind,” he said of the famous Monaco layout, “you can come up on someone very, very fast. A split session is something I wouldn’t be in favour of, but it could be beneficial.

“It could help, but I think we could get on with it,” added the Australian.