F1′s governing body has played down claims Sebastian Vettel faces a penalty for his behaviour during the Malaysian grand prix.

After the race, the reigning world champion dismissed HRT’s Narain Karthikeyan as an “idiot” following their on-track collision.

On-board footage subsequently proved that Red Bull driver Vettel, 24, twice showed his Indian driver a ‘middle finger’ salute.

Reports in Germany suggested the behaviour was a breach of the stricter code of conduct under FIA president Jean Todt, with the German theoretically facing anything from a warning to the revocation of his superlicense.

“My understanding is these matters are dealt with by stewards at each grand prix,” an FIA spokesman told us. “I am not aware of any other action being contemplated.”

Karthikeyan, who was penalised after the clash, told the Hindustan Times newspaper that the stewards favoured world champion Vettel’s explanation.

“They (the stewards) didn’t care about what I had to say because Mr Vettel told them god knows what when he went and talked to them,” he said.

But Red Bull team boss Christian Horner defended Vettel, telling the Mirror that it is “Karthikeyan’s responsibility to get out of the way for the leaders”.

Force India driver Nico Hulkenberg, meanwhile, partly excused Vettel’s outbursts.

“I think Vettel was just emotional at that point of time. At the end of the day, he is just human and sometimes you get emotional,” the German is quoted by the Times of India.

Former driver Adrian Sutil goes even further.

“I can understand him (Vettel),” he told Die Welt newspaper in Germany. “I was often angry when I was lapping people, when they make no room for you while they are fighting for places that have almost no significance.

“Karthikeyan ended up influencing not only Vettel’s race, but also Jenson Button’s. They (backmarkers) have to understand that as well.”

Red Bull has hit back at claims the team lied about a technical problem in Malaysia in order to gain a tactical advantage for the forthcoming races.

Near the end of the Sepang race, Sebastian Vettel’s engineer repeatedly instructed the back-to-back world champion to retire his RB8 car.

Team boss Christian Horner said the brake temperatures had risen to a dangerous level, but Vettel nonetheless raced to the chequered flag and finished eleventh, one position out of the points.

Horner explained Vettel did not hear the radio calls due to a “lightening strike”, but photos prove that the German driver was also repeatedly shown pit boards with the same messages.

And the 24-year-old revealed after the race: “Of course you can save the car, but I wanted to see the chequered flag. I think that’s how it should be.”

Moreover, the authoritative Auto Motor und Sport quotes Vettel as confirming: “I heard the command.”

Red Bull has been accused in some media reports of feigning the brake problem in order to retire the car for tactical reasons and therefore install a fresh gearbox for China next month without penalty.

Dr Helmut Marko told Bild newspaper: “After the crash (with Narain Karthikeyan), the temperature of the brakes rose far above the allowed level.

“We called him in purely because the car was no longer safe. It was not a tactical decision,” the Austrian insisted.

It is reported that Vettel will sit with his team bosses this week in Milton-Keynes to discuss the apparently ignored team order.

German racing legend Hans-Joachim Stuck said: “Another driver would be fired, but Vettel has the confidence of being a double world champion.”

According to Welt newspaper, Swiss commentator Marc Surer added: “It was the right decision by Vettel, as the team needs to be careful with commands like that.”

Adrian Sutil has admitted that discovering Lewis Hamilton was not a friend was one of life’s “disappointments”.

Since their F3 days as teammates, Sutil and Hamilton have been arguably the closest pair of friends in the formula one paddock.

That changed, however, when the German driver was charged with assaulting Lotus team executive Eric Lux, and Hamilton was summoned as a witness to the Shanghai nightclub incident.

But Briton Hamilton declined to appear and also changed his mobile phone number without informing Sutil.

Sutil and his father reacted by calling the McLaren driver “pathetic” and a “coward”.

When asked about his former close friend, Sutil told Die Welt newspaper: “Basically I only had a problem with one person, which was Mr Lux.

“He has offered me his hand and said that for him, the issue is finished.

“What Lewis Hamilton does is not decisive for my ambitions to get back to formula one. Just as with defeats, you have to deal with disappointments, it’s as simple as that.

“I think no one should expect to find any friends in the paddock — and I don’t look for them there either. I have enough friends outside of F1,” added Sutil.

The FIA could sanction F1′s reigning back-to-back world champion for his behaviour during the recent Malaysian grand prix.

Before calling backmarker Narain Karthikeyan a “gherkin” and “idiot” in the wake of their collision, Sebastian Vettel was captured by his on-board camera twice displaying his middle-finger to the Indian driver.

“I think he’s highly frustrated because he’s having a tough season,” Karthikeyan told the Deccan Chronicle on Wednesday.

“It’s completely unprofessional to blame me for the incident. The derogatory remark only goes to show him in bad light.

“Just because he has a good car, he can’t call others an idiot,” Karthikeyan continued.

“I have won races in all the previous single-seater championships I have participated in so I don’t need a certificate from Vettel.”

Reports in Germany, including in the Kolner Express, Bild and Die Welt newspapers, claim that Red Bull driver’s behaviour may have breached the new stricter code of conduct introduced by FIA president Jean Todt.

The FIA has been contacted for comment.

“He has breached the code of conduct,” former F1 driver Marc Surer told Germany’s Sky television. “You sign it when you get the license and then you have to behave correspondingly.

“Any behaviour that hurts other people or the sport is an offense,” added the Swiss.

Asked what the penalties might be, Surer explained: “Anything from a warning to a license revocation. In this case I think it was quite understandable and there will be a mild punishment, if there is anything.”

Hans-Joachim Stuck, however, is slightly less forgiving.

“When you’re overtaking, misunderstandings can occur. I think Vettel needs to learn this.

“With him, the curve was always upwards and now it’s not the case, and he needs to deal with that,” the German legend told the DAPD news agency.

As for Vettel’s description of Karthikeyan as a “gherkin”, Stuck insisted: “It’s better than ‘asshole’.”

Vettel’s attack, however, was sustained, with Kleine Zeitung newspaper now quoting the Red Bull driver as having said: “Maybe formula one is not the place to learn how to drive.”

Stuck responded: “If Sebastian had left more space, it would not have happened. It happens sometimes so it’s a racing incident.

“He (Karthikeyan) didn’t do it on purpose and it always takes two.”

The HRT driver hit back by calling Vettel a “bully”, and even David Coulthard – a Red Bull team consultant – defended Karthikeyan.

“He can’t make his car invisible,” the Scot is quoted as saying by the Mirror.

Also defending Karthikeyan was Force India driver Nico Hulkenberg, who told the Indian press this week: “From what I saw, it was not Narain’s fault.

“So I don’t really understand why he (Vettel) said all that.”

Hukenberg’s Force India teammate Paul di Resta added: “Narain is entitled to do as much on the track in comparison with someone like Vettel.

“Both are F1 drivers and are there to represent their teams.”

 Championship leader Jenson Button has admitted he is impressed with Sauber.
Button’s McLaren team is the dominant force of 2012 so far, ahead of Red Bull.

But not far behind the leading pack, the Briton argues, is the former BMW outfit from Hinwil, Switzerland.

“They have definitely impressed me,” Button is quoted by Die Welt newspaper. “They are very, very fast.”

Team boss Peter Sauber agrees: “We went into the season with great expectations. Now we know that we have a fast car.”

 Ferrari has fallen over by being too ambitious with the design of its 2012 car.
That is the assessment of Marc Surer, a former formula one driver from Switzerland who is now a pundit for German television Sky and the Die Welt newspaper.

He referred to Ferrari’s decision mid last year to abandon the 2011 car in order to restructure technically and philosophically and produce the radical F2012.

But the new car has proved unreliable and uncompetitive in testing, leading some analysts to predict Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa will this weekend be beaten by not only Red Bull and McLaren, but also Mercedes, Lotus and possibly even Sauber, Force India and Toro Rosso.

“They wanted to build an aggressive car, but they have changed too much,” Surer said.

“Now they have realised that it doesn’t work and are having to back-track with parts.

“For them, it’s a serious crisis. They’ll be lucky if they finish fourth”, he added, referring to the constructors’ championship.

Alonso, however, sounded confident in Melbourne on Thursday.

“In winter testing, we see some teams that are quite quick and then when we arrive at the race they are not quick anymore.

“Maybe we didn’t reach targets that were very optimistic but that doesn’t mean we are slower than the other cars,” he warned.

The precise pecking-order is clouded, but one thing is clear: 2012 looks set to be a highly competitive season in formula one.
“There are a lot of cars out there that look competitive,” said McLaren’s Jenson Button, on the day Williams’ Pastor Maldonado set the quickest time in the midst of the second group test in Barcelona.

Earlier this week, Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg was the pacesetter, causing Mercedes’ Norbert Haug to tell Bild newspaper: “That’s great.”

“I didn’t expect that,” agreed world champion Sebastian Vettel.

Hulkenberg smiled: “‘Test champion’ gives me nothing. But I am in good shape.”

Vettel continued to Kleine Zeitung newspaper: “This year everything is closer together”, he said, after his teammate Mark Webber admitted there is “no question” Red Bull needs to keep working on the pace of its new RB8.

According to Die Welt newspaper, Vettel continued: “Most of the competitors are difficult to assess. It’s the same old game.”

He is referring to unknown fuel levels, tyre age and differing approaches and programmes — and teams’ deliberate sandbagging or ‘show-run’ efforts.

“I never paid too much attention to direct comparisons on headline laptimes,” insisted David Coulthard, “but on the longer runs you can start to build a picture.”

Williams engineer Mark Gillan told Auto Motor und Sport: “It seems as though the entire field has moved much closer together. It will be a tough fight.”

An early assessment of the pecking order might have Red Bull and McLaren at the front, and Mercedes and Lotus possibly ready to join the fight.

“It looks like Red Bull are fairly stable,” Coulthard agreed to Russia’s Ria Novosti news agency, “(and) McLaren and Mercedes maybe closer than they were.

“Ferrari is a bit of an unknown but I wouldn’t write them off. Let’s be patient, another three weeks of tweaking and then we’ll find out,” said the former McLaren and Red Bull driver.

 Paddock insiders already have a name for Mercedes’ new front wing innovation — ‘W-duct’.
We have reported that the German marque has already tested the F-duct style concept at the front of its newly-launched W03 car.

The Finnish broadcaster MTV3, describing the system as ‘W-duct’, has provided some detail as to how it works.

When the car is being driven in a straight line, air flows into the tip of the silver car’s nose and is dispersed in a W-like pattern across the length of the front wing.

But when the car is cornering, the air flows more predominantly to one side or the other, improving the balance and handling.

Unlike the driver-operated rear wing F-duct, which was banned for 2011, Mercedes’ system is entirely passive and requires no moving parts, and is therefore legal.

Meanwhile, team boss Ross Brawn on Tuesday defended Mercedes’ strategy of employing numerous technical bosses, including Aldo Costa, Bob Bell and Geoff Willis.

“How it works is a mystery to me,” Red Bull’s Dr Helmut Marko told Die Welt newspaper, “but Mercedes must know what they’re doing.”

 HRT’s tumultuous history could be set to continue, if a report in an authoritative German newspaper is right.
Die Welt claims Thesan Capital, the Madrid-based investment company that bought the Spanish team from Jose Ramon Carabante last year, is already on the lookout for a new buyer.

Originally known as Hispania, HRT was actually founded as Campos by former Spanish F1 driver Adrian Campos when the FIA opened up the grid ahead of the 2010 season.

Die Welt claims that the latest owner Thesan’s desire to sell follows the departure of team boss Colin Kolles, who left with almost every one of the team’s 120 employees back to his Greding based company.

Kolles also took all of HRT’s technical equipment back to Greding, Germany, leaving the team on a desperate struggle to be ready for the forthcoming season.

Nonetheless, HRT announced on Wednesday it is establishing a permanent base at the Spanish tennis open headquarters Caja Magica in Madrid.

But Die Welt claims the team may soon be sold to Carlos Slim, the richest man in the world who already backs Sauber through Sergio Perez and his Mexican companies.

Red Bull has set its sights on powering Mark Webber to second place in the drivers’ standings, but the Australian has revealed he is not overly interested.
The achievement will complete a perfect clean sweep for the energy drink-owned team in 2011, comprising the constructors’ championship and first and second places in the separate drivers’ standings.

But Webber, currently fourth, admitted to Die Welt newspaper: “I’m more interested in victories than the overall standings.

“If I have not won a race and at the end of the season I’m second (overall), I won’t be satisfied,” added the 35-year-old.

Separately, France’s L’Equipe reportedly suggested that team boss Christian Horner’s eagerness to help Webber in the last races of 2011 has come “late”.

“We will see how the next races go,” he responded. “I have not answered your question!”

The implication is that Red Bull is happy to see him fall in line behind Sebastian Vettel, but the Australian denies he has a bad relationship with his German teammate.

Welt said evidence of their frosty friendship was the missing congratulations after Vettel wrapped up his drivers’ title in Japan.

“That’s not right,” insisted Webber. “On the night he won the title I sent him a text that said ‘Well done, you deserve it’.

“He answered it the next morning, and I thought it was amazing that after the night he had he could still move his fingers,” joked the winner of 6 grands prix.

Heinz Harald Frentzen has played down the importance of fitness in formula one.
The retired grand prix winner, who last raced with Sauber in 2003, was one of the last drivers in the sport who was an occasional smoker.

But fitness is today a keyword in the F1 paddock, with drivers including Jenson Button and Nico Rosberg now so fit they enter triathlons for fun.

Frentzen, 44, told Welt newspaper: “The issue of fitness was and is overrated in formula one.

“I remember driving in Hungary in 1998 with salmonella poisoning and finished fifth.

“Yes it’s important, but the boys of today are all fit by default. It is the g-forces that my body could no longer withstand.

“I would need about three months to train the muscles to do maybe ten laps,” added Frentzen.

Jenson Button has admitted having a clear number 2 driver is the best approach for a formula one team.
Team orders are now legal in F1 and Eddie Irvine, Michael Schumacher’s clear supporting driver at Ferrari in the mid nineties, recently hailed Briton Button as the sport’s new “best number 2″.

Button, 31, is actually the only driver still in the running with Sebastian Vettel for the 2011 title, and 17 points ahead of his high profile teammate Lewis Hamilton.

He told Die Welt newspaper: “The best way for a team to win the world championship would probably be to have a number 1 driver and a number 2 who is happy to be the number two.

“That’s not what we have at McLaren,” insisted Button.

As for Irvine’s recent criticism, Button hit back with an apparent reference to 1999, when the Ulsterman came close to the championship in the wake of Schumacher’s broken leg.

“It’s (Irvine’s comments) very sweet,” the Briton told PA Sport recently. “All I can say is that it was fun winning the world championship, and I hope to do it again.”

Nick Heidfeld is fully prepared to step into a top race seat in 2011, according to the German’s manager.
German Heidfeld, 33, was believed close to returning to Mercedes as reserve driver for this season before his former BMW teammate Robert Kubica was badly injured in a rally smash.

As the favourite for Kubica’s full-time Renault seat, the 33-year-old will test the R31 over a day and a half at Jerez this weekend.

Heidfeld’s manager Andre Theuerzeit is confident.

“Nick kept himself fit through the winter, prepared to go racing,” he told Welt newspaper.

Theuerzeit indicated that Heidfeld’s other option – the Mercedes reserve seat – is probably more lucrative than the Renault drive.

“Nick is a heart and soul racing driver. To him, racing is more important than money,” he said.

Heidfeld insisted he is relaxed and will not change his normal approach as he effectively auditions for a place on the 2011 grid.

“I’m not going to build up slowly or try to get there quickly,” he is quoted by Dutch website f1today.nl. “I will do it at my pace, which is best because it’s how I’ve always done it.

“It may take some time for me to adapt to new systems and a new car, but I’m used to this type of situation,” added Heidfeld.

Norbert Haug has played down the recent movement of staff between leading formula one teams.
After Ferrari signed Red Bull’s strategy boss Neil Martin, Helmut Marko accused the famous Italian team of trying to poach the “spirit” of the new champions.

Another high profile signing by Ferrari is McLaren’s Pat Fry, but Mercedes’ Haug insists that staff transfers are commonplace.

Asked if the German marque has also tried to engage some of Red Bull’s personnel, he told the Welt newspaper: “I don’t want to rule it out, or the reverse.

“We are all trying to improve our own teams and looking for good people,” added Haug.

Sebastian Vettel has revealed that he is yet to think up a name for his new formula one car.
Last year, the 23-year-old won his first title at the wheel of Randy Mandy, after the original RB6 named Luscious Liz was replaced due to damage after Monaco.

The giving of an amorous female name has become one of the Red Bull driver’s several F1-related superstitions, including the sliding of a lucky coin behind his boot laces.

When asked about his new RB7 wearing the coveted number 1 as it was launched at Valencia on Tuesday, Vettel told Welt newspaper: “The number looks good.

“I saw the car in one piece for the first time this morning. So I haven’t got a name for her yet,” he revealed.

Vettel was also asked about reports that his friend Michael Schumacher suffers from motion sickness at the wheel of driver simulators.

As for whether he has also been sick in a sim, he smiled: “Once, but only very briefly.

“I think it’s an important tool with testing so limited, especially with regards to (learning) the tracks,” added Vettel.