F1′s class of 2012 will take some more shape at the F1 Commission meeting this week in Geneva.
It was already known that Team Lotus, set to be Caterham next season, and Enstone based Renault – to be renamed Lotus – will likely have their applications rubber-stamped on Thursday.

The Sunday Times also reports that Virgin could be set for an official name change.

The team is currently known as Marussia Virgin Racing, in deference to its Russian supercar partner, but the chassis continues to be called simply ‘Virgin’.

“The team are to ask the F1 Commission for permission to erase the Virgin title and replace it with Marussia”, said the British report.

Another touted change was the rebranding of Red Bull’s Renault engine deal to reflect its partnership with the luxury Nissan marque Infiniti.

Renault president Carlos Ghosn ruled that out.

“I don’t think you can have a name artificially,” he is quoted by the SID news agency. “If Renault supplies the technology you can’t say that for marketing reasons we call it Infiniti.”

He also ruled out the possibility Renault will return to the grid as a works chassis manufacturer any time soon.

“We adapt according to the circumstances but we will not change our programme in the next three to five years,” Ghosn is quoted by France’s autohebdo.fr.

“I am more comfortable with our current strategy, where next year we are the partner of four teams,” he added.

Jun.13 (GMM)  Sir Richard Branson would like to see a United States grand prix held in Las Vegas.

The British billionaire, sponsor of Virgin Racing, said he welcomes the news that an American race has been scheduled for Texas in 2012.

“The US market is extremely important,” the Virgin mogul told La Presse newspaper at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.

“We have a cell phone company here in Canada, our airline will fly to Toronto soon and we will invest in the Canadian investment community.

“But we must also go to the United States,” Branson insisted.  “I think the best places would be San Francisco, or the streets of Las Vegas.”

When told that F1 is planning to be in Texas in a couple of years, he answered: “Texas?  Yeah, ok, but I would still go to Vegas.

“Imagine the cars on the Strip,” he smiled.

For Timo Glock, the trip paid to Montreal in the past for ever. The 28 year-old made his debut in 2004 for Jordan as a substitute pilot for Giorgio Pantano. In the qualifying Glock was only one place behind team-mate Nick Heidfeld. In the race, he captured his seventh first championship points and thus belongs to a small group of riders, who succeeded, at the debut. In 2005 Glock would have won by a hair, the race of the Champ Car Series at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. The last appearance in 2008 conquered the German his first points for Toyota.

The presence at the moment does not look rosy. The Virgin was too slow on Friday and was even beaten by HRT. Points lie outside the range, but with a crazy race and the happiness could Montréal for the weekend, Glock nor the conciliatory. “Every time I’ve driven in Canada, is something special happened in the race,” says Glock recalls in an interview with ‘Autosport’. “Hopefully it will be another crazy weekend and we can benefit from it.”
Ideally, the new team plays the fight for third place from 19th Nevertheless, it is difficult to motivate Glock not himself, “I just hide from the 20 cars ahead of me. I have never been so hard fought for a 19th place as recently in Turkey. The battle to win under new team is our only option get a sense of victory. If you’re not even a goal, you will lose power. The duel with Lotus is a way to motivate yourself. ”

Glock only twice in the seven races so far has seen the checkered flag. Despite the difficult season, he is convinced of Virgin: “I am very satisfied. It’s easy to say that I or anyone at Renault would have to wait still can, but you never know what happened, so I made the right decision. Virgin developed in the right direction. The problem is that you only see number 20 and nothing more. We have, however, improved a lot. ”
“The car is more difficult to drive than the Toyota is missing. Especially in medium and slow corners us contact pressure. Then we placed our focus.” It can also bring his experience from Glock recent years. “In discussions I am now a little more aggressive. The team can respond very well, but unfortunately we have not had the capacity as Toyota, where new parts were produced very quickly.”

Even with his former employers after two years, many ideas in the Glock-2010s construction of the model incorporated. The 28-year-old has seen the Toyota for the current season and is convinced of the merits: “The car would have been very fast. Everyone laughed when I said that we want to fight for the title. We were constantly in the top 5 been. But unfortunately the car is never driven on the track. It is a pity, but that was precisely the decision. There were few details on the car, where I could see my signature significantly. It would have been nice, the fruit of hard work to harvest. ”
(TotalMotorSport)

Adrian Sutil had a big crash at the end of Friday’s opening practice session in Turkey.

The German driver went off the track at high speed on the exit of the Istanbul Park layout’s famous four-apex Turn 8 corner, incurring heavy damage to the Force India car.

“He said he had understeer and went off into the marbles, which then put him into the barriers,” the team said on its Twitter page once Sutil had returned to the garage.

It was otherwise a fairly quiet session under warm and blue skies and near-empty grandstands, amid rumours there is a chance of light rain for Sunday.

Bruno Senna had to sit out the initial 90 minutes of practice in deference to Friday test driver Sakon Yamamoto, who ended the session slowest of all.

Also making its 2010 debut was Red Bull’s first F-duct solution, fitted only to Sebastian Vettel’s car in order to provide a back-to-back comparison with Mark Webber’s RB6.

Vettel ended the session fifth, two tenths faster than Barcelona/Monaco winner Webber.

Lewis Hamilton topped the times in his McLaren, but he might now be reprimanded by the stewards for wearing newly-pierced earrings under his helmet.

The wearing of jewellery is prohibited according to article 2.2.1 appendix L of the sporting regulations.

Practice 1.1 -  Istanbul Park

.1º  	2  	 	Lewis Hamilton  	McLaren  	00:01'28''653
.2º 	1 		Jenson Button 		McLaren 	00:01'29''615 	00:00'00''962
.3º 	3 		Michael Schumacher 	MercedesGP 	00:01'29''750 	00:00'01''097
.4º 	4 		Nico Rosberg 		MercedesGP 	00:01'29''855 	00:00'01''202
.5º 	5 		Sebastian Vettel 	Red Bull 	00:01'29''867 	00:00'01''214
.6º 	11 		Robert Kubica 		Renault 	00:01'30''061 	00:00'01''408
.7º 	12 		Vitaly Petrov 		Renault 	00:01'30''065 	00:00'01''412
.8º 	6 		Mark Webber 		Red Bull 	00:01'30''097 	00:00'01''444
.9º 	8 		Fernando Alonso 	Ferrari 	00:01'30''294 	00:00'01''641
.10º 	14 		Adrian Sutil 		Force India 	00:01'30''501 	00:00'01''848
.11º 	23 		Kamui Kobayashi 	Sauber 	        00:01'30''615 	00:00'01''962
.12º 	15 		Vitantonio Liuzzi 	Force India 	00:01'30''853 	00:00'02''200
.13º 	7 		Felipe Massa 		Ferrari 	00:01'30''867 	00:00'02''214
.14º 	16 		Sebastian Buemi 	Toro Rosso 	00:01'31''011 	00:00'02''358
.15º 	22 		Pedro de la Rosa 	Sauber 	        00:01'31''238 	00:00'02''585
.16º 	10 		Nico Hulkenberg 	Williams 	00:01'31''355 	00:00'02''702
.17º 	9 		Rubens Barrichello 	Williams 	00:01'31''464 	00:00'02''811
.18º 	17 		Jaime Alguersuari 	Toro Rosso 	00:01'31''735 	00:00'03''082
.19º 	19 		Heikki Kovalainen 	Lotus Racing 	00:01'32''161 	00:00'03''508
.20º 	18 		Jarno Trulli 		Lotus Racing 	00:01'32''990 	00:00'04''337
.21º 	20 		Karun Chandhok 		HRT 	        00:01'34''876 	00:00'06''223
.22º 	25 		Lucas di Grassi 	Virgin Racing 	00:01'35''137 	00:00'06''484
.23º 	24 		Timo Glock 		Virgin Racing 	00:01'35''583 	00:00'06''930
.24º 	21 		Sakon Yamamoto 		HRT 	        00:01'36''137

(GMM)

Sir Richard Branson on Saturday insisted Virgin Racing is not in danger of dropping out of formula one.

After Bernie Ecclestone hinted that one of the new teams is in trouble, HRT’s Jose Ramon Carabante as well as boss Colin Kolles insisted the F1 chief executive was not talking about the Spanish outfit.

“I’m surprised Bernie said what he did,” billionaire Branson said in Monaco.  “He might know something about the other teams I don’t.”

The Briton told the Daily Mail that Virgin has sponsors on board and will definitely “go all the way to the end of the season, and hopefully for many seasons yet”.

Branson, however, is only the naming sponsor of the rebranded Manor team, and Virgin has struggled both for pace and reliability so far in 2010.

But he insisted: “If they (the team) continue the kind of progress we’ve made to date, we will be delighted and will continue to support it, and there’s no reason why we shouldn’t.

“We went into this with our eyes open and we plan to stick with it as long as they get other sponsors on board, which they are managing to do,” added Branson.

(GMM)

Timo Glock is looking for an improvement from Virgin Racing before committing long-term to the new British team.

Despite interest from established teams for this year, the German signed with Virgin with a contract that is believed to be for a multiple-season term.

The team has notably struggled for pace and reliability, with Glock only notching up his first finish of the season last weekend in Spain.

That was with the much-vaunted updated VR-01 car featuring a bigger fuel tank, which was not substantially faster in Barcelona than the older model still driven by Lucas di Grassi.

Asked if he is already contemplating how to extract himself from his long contract, 28-year-old Glock said on Tuesday: “If the situation never changed, eventually you would have those sorts of thoughts.

“But at the moment I’m not thinking about that, and neither am I walking around looking for somewhere else (to drive).  We have to wait for a few more races and then see,” Glock told motorsport-total.com.

He admitted that the updated car did not work “as expected” around the Circuit de Catalunya.

“Especially on Friday it was a disaster because I was even slower than the old car.  What’s going on, I don’t know.

“At least we have sorted out the tank.  The fuel supply (issue) for qualifying is significantly improved, but the aero updates have not worked in the way we wanted.”

Virgin’s technical boss Nick Wirth is famously developing the VR-01 car with only computer technology, and asked if the lack of a wind tunnel is hurting the team, Glock answered “I don’t know.”

(GMM)

With rival Lotus hoping for a more than one second improvement in Barcelona, Virgin’s Timo Glock believes his similarly heavily-revised VR-01 car will be faster by about seven tenths per lap this weekend.

Due to the volcano-induced travel chaos three weeks ago, his teammate Lucas di Grassi’s car does not feature the major package upgrade in Spain.

Glock’s car has a longer wheelbase, a bigger fuel tank, a fuel system that allows the car to run light on fuel in qualifying, a new front wing, floor and bargeboards.

“The fuel tank is the main one,” the German told Auto Motor und Sport.  “If it works, it gives us five or six tenths alone.”

Glock added that the rest of the package will add a further one or two tenths.

“Our goal is to beat Lotus,” he confirmed.

May 3 (GMM)  Virgin on Monday confirmed reports that the Icelandic volcano spoiled the new team’s preparations for the Spanish grand prix.

We reported two weeks ago that because team personnel were stranded in Shanghai, the teams plans to debut two heavily modified cars in Barcelona this weekend might be affected.

With FIA clearance, Virgin has been busily designing a new chassis to accommodate a fuel tank big enough to take its cars to the end of races.

Because the sport’s freight was held up for several days in China, the new British team only had a single VR-01 monocoque to work on at its UK factory.

In a statement on Monday, Virgin said it would have needed the “three full weeks of manufacture, homologation and race preparation” to get two modified cars up and running for both Timo Glock and Lucas di Grassi in Spain.

“As a consequence, Virgin Racing will debut only one revised chassis in the Spanish grand prix this weekend, which Timo Glock will put through its paces,” read the statement.

Glock commented: “I have done some work in the simulator in preparation for this race and we have a good idea of what to expect from the modified chassis, so I’m looking forward to seeing how we shape up when we hit the track in Barcelona this week.”

Technical director Nick Wirth admitted that running the two fundamentally different specifications of cars in Spain “will certainly challenge the team”.

Apr.22 (GMM) Most of the Force India and HRT teams are still stranded in Shanghai, it emerged on Thursday.

Four days after the chequered flag waved at the end of the Chinese grand prix, it was reported that most teams – and the crucial F1 freight and cars – are now arriving back on European soil.

Red Bull’s Christian Horner said the air travel delays due to the famous volcanic ash cloud will have little effect on the team’s plans for Barcelona, while Lotus’ Mike Gascoyne said planned developments for Spain will be applied “to both cars”.

But a Force India spokeswoman said in Shanghai on Thursday that while the drivers are back in Europe, “the majority of the team” is still in China.

With the team owned by the Kingfisher airline magnate Vijay Mallya, she told Reuters that they are hoping for their charter to leave “at some point tomorrow”.

Indian rookie Karun Chandhok also revealed that most of the HRT team is still in China, amid reports that hundreds of other F1-related personnel are in a similar situation and face waits for flights that could extend well into the weekend.

Apr.22 (GMM)  Christian Horner on Thursday said delays caused by the Icelandic volcano will not disturb preparations for next month’s Spanish grand prix.

With the sport’s freight – and all the cars – stranded in China while FOM’s 747s were grounded in Europe, it was feared that teams’ car developments would not be ready for the next race in Barcelona.

Red Bull boss Horner said before departing Shanghai with his travelling companion Mark Webber that an F-duct should be on the RB6 in Spain “providing we make it back to Europe” soon.

McLaren’s Martin Whitmarsh was also worried about the delay, explaining that if it (the delay) is a week or so … it will become an issue”.

We reported earlier on Thursday that the FOM freight has landed in Bilbao, and Horner confirmed that the team’s trucks are due to arrive in Milton-Keynes “today”.

“Thankfully, the way the calendar is with the extra week between the Chinese and Spanish grands prix, it (the delay) has a very limited impact,” said the Briton.

Horner also said the bulk of the race team is also due back in the UK on Thursday afternoon.

Apr.21 (GMM)  A couple of formula one drivers came within a cloud of volcanic ash of racing in this weekend’s season opener of the 2010 DTM championship.

Because Mercedes’ Paul di Resta and Gary Paffett were delayed in Shanghai due to the ongoing European air travel disruptions, the German marque feared the pair might not be back to drive at Hockenheim.

Mercedes’ F1 reserve driver Nick Heidfeld, who was among the first to leave China, and his German countryman Timo Glock, were lined up as potential replacements.

Like Heidfeld, Glock – who drives for Virgin but with close ties to the DTM backer Deutsche Post – was among the fortunate few to secure an early return flight to Europe.

“We did not know when they (Paffett and di Resta) would come back.  There was definitely the possibility that Nick and Timo would have driven the cars,” Norbert Haug is quoted as saying by motorsport-total.com.

Ultimately, the two DTM drivers – and Mercedes’ competition director Haug – arrived in Germany “earlier than anticipated”, Haug said.

“But on Monday afternoon, no one could tell us whether we are flying on Thursday, Friday or Saturday,” he added.

Glock confirmed that driving in DTM this weekend was part of Mercedes’ “emergency plan”.

“I have had a good relationship with Norbert Haug and Mercedes for many years, so I would have helped them out.

“I felt honoured that in this case they thought of me,” he added.

(GMM) While F1 personnel devise imaginative routes back to Europe, the harshest impact of the volcanic ash lingering above Europe could fall on Virgin.

With FIA clearance, the new British team has been busily designing a new chassis to accommodate a fuel tank big enough to take its cars to the end of races.

The package, at an estimated development cost of 1 million pounds sterling, was due to debut in Barcelona in three weeks.

But F1’s hundreds of kilos of freight – including the two race cars driven by Lucas di Grassi and Timo Glock in Shanghai – are currently holed up at Shanghai airport while the six 747 jets are stranded back in Europe.

It means the Virgin cars, including a third spare monocoque, might not be returned to the Yorkshire base in time – or at all before being shipped to Barcelona – so they can be modified for the new chassis package.

It is believed Virgin only has a single VR-01 monocoque already at the factory, so it is possible that either di Grassi or Glock could be forced to contest Spain next month with the too-small fuel tank still fitted.

However, given Virgin’s reliability record so far, the drivers are rarely in need of a full tank of fuel. Only in Malaysia did Brazilian rookie di Grassi make it to the chequered flag.

At every other race so far, the 25-year-old has retired, while Glock has not completed a full grand prix distance at all in 2010.

Good race to Virgin, went all the way today as Lucas di Grassi brought his VR-01 home in 14th position, helping his Virgin Racing team to achieve an important first race finish.

Lucas drove a very mature race to see his own maiden chequered flag. He beat the other new teams into submission at the same time as having to contend with a missing front wing end-plate after an unsuccessful 11th lap challenge from the Lotus Racing car of Heikki Kovalainen.

So, Timo was less fortunate on a day where both cars were looking good to make it to the finish. He was going great guns at the start, but was losing time behind Jarno Trulli. In a bid to dispense with the Lotus he was about to execute a crucial overtaking move when he locked his rear wheels into the corner, the back end of his VR-01 stepped out and he inadvertently struck Jarno’s car, which resulted in Timo’s race coming to an end after only 2 laps.

Nevertheless, everyone at Virgin Racing is delighted that their season is now properly underway and both drivers will be heading straight back to Bicester for some all-important race preparation on the Wirth Research Simulators in readiness for their next challenge – the Chinese Grand Prix in two weeks’ time.

Lucas di Grassi
“It was a very tough race today – physically and mentally – but I’m so happy to bring the Virgin Racing car home to the finish. I had a great start and was able to make up five places on the opening lap. We had very good early pace and continued to be strong, despite losing my front wing end-plate when Heikki tried to overtake me. We had a good pit stop and we were still looking very strong in the second part of the race. We were well ahead of the other new teams, which meant that we could afford to ease off a little to make sure nothing got in the way of our result today. It has been a long wait and we’ve had some tough times in the past few months, but we know that we’re making progress and we can go on to achieve better things. Today showed that we are truly competitive and it’s a great feeling that our fight has really started now. Timo’s DNF was a real shame but I think we can start to look forward together to some great racing now.”

Timo Glock
“I had a pretty good start and the first laps were quite fun with a lot of fights going on. I dropped behind Jarno and in general I was quite a lot quicker than him. I tried to overtake but locked the rears and for some reason the anti-stall didn’t kick in. Unfortunately I hit Jarno and it was my mistake. But it’s great that Lucas finished the race, and ahead of Lotus, which is good for the team. I hope that in the next race we can get both cars to the finish.”

Michael Schumacher led the way in the opening hour of Wednesday’s Jerez test as two red flag situations kept running to a minimum.

Overcast skies and a damp track greeted the drivers on the first morning of this week’s four-day Jerez test.

Felipe Massa was the first to venture out, followed by Fairuz Fauzy, who was given the honour of getting behind the wheel of the new Lotus T127 in its first official test.

Following a brief break after the installation laps, which were completed by all the teams excluding Virgin Racing within the first 20 minutes, Fauzy hit the track again to put in his first timed lap.

The Lotus test driver clocked a 1:46.652 in his brief two-lap run. However, the team had no complaints.

“Fairuz just did a couple of laps on a wet track with no problems, he’s in now for some adjustments,” Lotus reported on Twitter.

The Malaysian driver’s time, though, was over 16s off the lead time set by Michael Schumacher.

While his rivals were lapping in the 1:33s to start with, Schumacher’s first flying lap of the day was a 1:30.549.

It wasn’t a good start to the test for Lewis Hamilton and McLaren as the Brit brought out the red flags when he stopped out on track.

After a 16 minute hold-up the session was resumed only to be stopped four minutes later as Paul di Resta spun his Force India.

Schumacher therefore ended the opening hour in the P1 slot with Pedro de la Rosa 0.214s behind and Felipe Massa in third place.

Under a sunshine that the ‘scuderias’ in the racetrack were thankful for, the second session of unveiling began in the Jerez circuit.  With the absence of Virgin Racing in the tracks, because there were no spare parts to repair the single-seater, most of the pilots ran for long periods of time.

Today restarted the work that could not be done yesterday due to bad weather.  The teams have collected more data and have been playing the cat and the mouse.  Buemi’s Toro Rosso stopped the chronometer at 1:20.026, getting the best time of the day.

Many tests and many data, would be the balance of the day, where the expected Valencia time duel did not happen.  The media were left with the feeling that the duo reserved for later on.  However, tomorrow if the climate allows it, there will be new unveiling with other pilots.

Time classification

1. Sebastian Buemi (Toro Rosso) 1:20.026 (121 laps)
2. Jenson Button (McLaren) 1:20.618 (83)
3. Nico Hulkenberg (Williams) 1:21.565 (67)
4. Vitantonio Liuzzi (Force India) 1:20.754 (80)
5. Michael Schumacher (Mercedes GP) 1:21.083 (122)
6. Kamui Kobayashi (Sauber) 1:21.377 (100)
7. Fernando Alonso (Ferrari) 1:21.424 (129)
8. Robert Kubica (Renault) 1:22.003 (101)
9. Mark Webber (Red Bull) 1:22.043 (29)
10. Timo Glock (Virgin) 1:29.964 (11)