Ferrari is closing in but Red Bull has nothing to fear, according to 1992 world champion Nigel Mansell.
The winner of 31 grands prix was the driver steward at Silverstone last weekend, where Fernando Alonso seemed to break through Red Bull’s dominance at the half-way point in the 2011 world championship.

Some commentators saw the Spaniard’s win as the turning point for the season, despite Red Bull leading McLaren by more than 100 points, while Sebastian Vettel is almost the same margin ahead of Alonso in the drivers’ standings.

“The result (in Britain) was great for Ferrari and good for formula one,” Mansell is quoted by Germany’s Speed Week.

But he warned: “Red Bull was as strong as ever, second and third, which with its clear lead in the world championship is no problem.

“Red Bull are still going to be very, very difficult to beat,” added the Briton.

Alonso’s Ferrari teammate Felipe Massa agrees.

“My experience in 2008 (against Lewis Hamilton) and Kimi’s in 2007 shows that anything can happen,” said the Brazilian, “even if this year (winning the title) will be difficult.

“Vettel would have to make a lot of mistakes,” added Massa.

With Sebastian Vettel tipped for a supporting role in the build-up to the 2010 finale, the shoe is now on the other foot ahead of Sunday’s decisive race.

Although with fewer points than both his Red Bull teammate Mark Webber and leader Fernando Alonso, Vettel is starting the Abu Dhabi decider from pole.

But if he goes on to win, Alonso – starting from third – will need just a fifth place finish to deliver the drivers’ title to Ferrari.

“Now we have to rely on Mark Webber,” Red Bull’s motor sport consultant Helmut Marko is quoted by Welt newspaper.

Niki Lauda agreed: “I don’t think Sebastian is in the situation anymore where he has to let Webber past.”

Webber’s most realistic chance of winning the title for himself is to win the race, with the Australian then needing Alonso to finish third or worse.

That might require Vettel’s help, but the German – separated from Webber on the grid by three rival cars – sees the shoe now on the other foot.

“It is funny how the tables turn,” Vettel is quoted by F1′s official website.

“On Friday I was confronted with those kind of questions (about helping his teammate) and now it is Mark who has to answer them!”

Some good news for Red Bull’s title hopes comes from Germany, with Bild newspaper reporting that Mercedes has secretly agreed to help Vettel to beat Alonso.

And Norbert Haug is quoted in German by Sky television: “Two hearts beat in my chest for the championship; one for (Mercedes powered) Lewis Hamilton, but … honestly I would be very, very pleased for Sebastian Vettel.”

As for whether Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg or Michael Schumacher could help to influence the outcome, Haug answered: “Given our pace, that’s probably a bit presumptuous.”

In a bit of good humour or championship finale-needle, or both, Fernando Alonso’s title rivals could not hide their grins in Abu Dhabi.

Lewis Hamilton admitted that he and Mark Webber noticed on Thursday that the Ferrari driver was sporting smooth and shiny legs in the Yas Marina paddock.

“I’m surprised how Fernando was able to take the pain of having his legs waxed,” smiled Hamilton, who at McLaren in 2007 clashed memorably with his former teammate.

“Mark pointed it out and was asking how far it goes up,” he added.

“I was like, ‘Wow, they’re shiny’,” said Hamilton.

He admitted that Alonso, who is a keen cyclist, took the jibes in good humour.

“He has shown over the years how solid he is mentally. He just doesn’t care. You ask him questions about (the team orders in) Germany and he isn’t bothered,” said Hamilton.

Indeed, Alonso confirmed that he is not bothered that some colleagues and commentators are suggesting that he needs to win the title by more than 7 points if the achievement is not to be tarnished by his controversial victory at Hockenheim.

“I think winning by 7, or one or 25 points is the least important thing in my mind right now,” the Spaniard said on Thursday.

“Our only picture at the moment is winning the race or finishing second, that is the target and I think that is what we can achieve,” added Alonso.

And the Ferrari driver also insisted he is not worrying about whether Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber will be swapping places on the last lap to prevent him from winning the title.

“I don’t think I will lose even one second of my energy thinking about what is going to happen on Sunday afternoon,” he insisted.

Niki Lauda has equated Red Bull’s apparent approach to the Abu Dhabi finale this weekend as akin to handing the title to Ferrari.

The energy drink company’s chief Dietrich Mateschitz has been quoted as insisting it is “never a possibility” that Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber will be asked to swap positions.

“It is a sporting choice, but in the end it is (Fernando) Alonso who will laugh,” Niki Lauda, pointing out another 1-2 result with Vettel in the lead this Sunday will result in the Spaniard winning the title, told ORF.

Even Jaime Alguersuari, the Spaniard driving for Red Bull’s second team Toro Rosso, said the use of a team strategy this weekend is “logical”.

“I’d be very surprised if they didn’t (use team orders),” he said on Spanish radio Cadena SER.

Pedro de la Rosa also thinks Red Bull would be mad to give up the opportunity of its first drivers’ crown.

“Everyone can think what they like, it is my opinion that they will (use team orders),” he said.

Ralf Schumacher does not agree.

“I doubt it,” answered the German when asked if he can imagine Vettel pulling over on Sunday.

“It would mean Webber becoming world champion at Red Bull before him, and defeats within your own team never feel good,” he told Bild newspaper.

So while Mateschitz has ruled out team orders, less clear is what the team feels about Vettel making his own personal decision to help Red Bull Racing.

“The drivers race for the team,” boss Christian Horner told Austrian newspaper Salzburger Nachrichten .

“Our drivers are team players and know that at stake is the biggest title in motor sport,” added the Briton.

“I don’t think it is a decision I will have to make. Ultimately, if he was in that position, it would be down to Sebastian,” said Horner.

Of course, all the speculation about team orders in Abu Dhabi could prove meaningless given that Fernando Alonso can guarantee a third drivers’ title if he just finishes second.

“The Ferrari should suit the track with its many fast straights,” said former Swiss driver Marc Surer.

De la Rosa agreed: “That is a weak point for Red Bull. It is also why McLaren will be very strong in Abu Dhabi.

“It is a far less suitable circuit for Red Bull than many people seem to believe,” added the Spaniard.

Sebastian Vettel is too young and immature to win the 2010 world championship.

That is the claim of 71-year-old Sir Jackie Stewart, who won his first of three drivers’ world championships in 1969 at the age of 30.

When asked about 23-year-old German Vettel’s chances of winning the title this year, Scot Stewart told Auto Motor und Sport: “He is too young for the world championship.

“He has all the time in the world to do it, and he will. The defeat will make him even stronger for 2011,” he said at Interlagos.

“I can’t even remember when I was 23 years old. You’re far too immature for the title.

“I was 30 when I became champion for the first time, and 34 when I won my last one. And I can tell you that I was a better champion when I was 34,” said Stewart.

He also advised Red Bull to take a strategic approach to the last two races of 2010.

“As a team boss, in their situation, I would say that the constructors’ title is virtually in the bag. If I wanted the bonus of the drivers’ title, I would put all my chips on Webber,” said Stewart.

Sebastian Vettel needs to accept the reality of a number 2 role for the good of Red Bull’s 2010 title chances.

That is the claim of former triple world champion and outspoken commentator Niki Lauda, following reports the young German is reluctant to give up the chase for his first title in deference to the team’s points leader Mark Webber.

The news also follows boss Christian Horner’s insistence that the team will “support both (drivers) equally” in Brazil and Abu Dhabi “in line with Red Bull’s credible sporting ethos”.

But with Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso leading the championship and fully backed by his teammate Felipe Massa, Lauda said Red Bull’s policy is a road to failure.

“Red Bull needs to establish the team hierarchy now,” the great Austrian is quoted by Bild newspaper.

“If they don’t get behind Mark Webber, they may have to go without the title.”

Lauda’s only concern is that the exercising of team orders within Red Bull is done in a way that does not “cheat the spectators”.

Jos Verstappen, who in the mid-90s at Benetton was Michael Schumacher’s number 2, agrees that Vettel should be playing that role now.

“Purely mathematically, he has a chance to be champion. But as a team they really have to put everything behind Webber.

“He (Webber) has a better chance of winning the title,” the Dutchman wrote in his column for De Telegraaf newspaper.

“Of course it’s a difficult position for Red Bull, as the whole world knows who they would prefer to be in the best position.

“It’s unfortunate for Vettel, but with his engine failure in Korea his championship did literally go up in smoke,” added Verstappen.

But Horner sounds unlikely to have a change of heart, telling the BBC he finds it “frustrating” that 7 points of leader Alonso’s 11 point lead was due to inheriting the German grand prix win from his teammate Massa.

“It (losing the title to Alonso) would be frustrating because we’ve obviously worked under the auspices that team orders have been illegal,” he told BBC radio.

With Dani Pedrosa in Sepang for the infirmary and out of the game, missing only the math Jorge Lorenzo to celebrate winning the world title in MotoGP. The objective pursued by three seasons is now close to “Porfuera, who hopes to succeed in Malaysia where it has its good memories.

“Now I’m just thinking about Sunday and my chance of winning the title, “said Jorge Lorenzo. “It ‘a dream of my life and would be great to appear at the Sepang. I really like the circuit, I tried a lot with the M1 over the years and here I won the 250cc title in 2007.

The track is nice, but the weather can be a problem or it’s too hot, or rain can crear problems. Last year the race was a little crazy, it was raining and I had to start from last position (for a problem with his bike in a matter of education, ed.) Obviously I would prefer good weather for this weekend.

Together with the team to stay focused in the same way this season, working hard from Friday aiming for the podium or to win, as always. “

With Dani Pedrosa Jorge Lorenzo out of the game could do with a 9th place to celebrate, with three games to spare, winning the world title.

Mercedes is waiting on a French supplier before pushing ahead with its latest specification of the blown diffuser.
The German team reversed the specification in Hungary because recent track outings showed that the hot engine exhaust was melting the car — particularly the all-important floor and diffuser.

“The car looked different when it left the pits to when it came back,” Michael Schumacher is quoted by Bild newspaper.

Mercedes was waiting on an order of incombustible space-craft material called Pyrosic, made exclusively by Pyromeral Systems in France.

But there were problems with delivery, with Ross Brawn confirming: “We are now trying a different material.”

In Hungary, Nico Rosberg joined Schumacher in writing off their chances of winning the titles in 2010.

And asked what he can learn from Germany’s leading F1 driver Sebastian Vettel, Rosberg answered: “From Sebastian? Nothing — only the speed of his car.”

Dietrich Mateschitz is confident about Red Bull’s ability to win the 2010 world championship.

But the Austrian billionaire, who owns the famous energy drink as well as the Milton Keynes based team, admitted he is disappointed with the score card so far this season.

With 9 of this year’s 19 grands prix now run, the RB6 has usually proved the quickest in the field.

But Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber are only third and fourth in the drivers’ standings, while McLaren is also leading the constructors’ table.

“I am satisfied with the drivers and the car,” Mateschitz told the Salzburger Nachrichten newspaper.

“What I am not satisfied about is the score, because on paper we should have a lead rather than a deficit.

“Now we have to make up lost ground,” he added.

Asked if he thought Red Bull was capable of winning the titles, he answered: “Of course, because expecting anything else would be absurd.

“If someone with our potential cannot expect to win the world championship, then who?”

(GMM)

After two double victories in a row, the McLaren duo Lewis Hamilton, Jenson Button tip lies in the Formula 1 World Championship, but Sebastian Vettel wants a new car in Valencia back to the place in the sun. “We can be back in front after the next Grand Prix,” said Vettel’s team boss Christian Horner before the Grand Prix of Europe. The bulls want to “keep up with the new R-bay system and without problems in reliability even local hero Fernando Alonso at bay.

The confidence in the camp of Red Bull is based on several pillars. On the one copied from the “inventor” McLaren F-shaft system, which is not satisfactory after a test in the free practice in Istanbul for the first time in the race and used in the simulation is to represent a time savings of three tenths per lap. “We hope an ordinary leap forward,” Horner said in the journal ‘Speedweek’.
was distributed to the other, the team hopes that repeat the transmission problems of Montréal and the defect is not the devil, who followed the team and especially since the start of the season Vettel. “Yes, we had defects, but every mistake only once. We are all the quirks to the bottom left. It’s just incredible bad luck, which happens especially in Sebastian this year, everything,” said Horner.

At the very least, the Heppenheim, which is before the ninth of 19 World Championship races in the championship behind Hamilton (109 pixels), Button (106), Webber (103) and Alonso (94) with 90 points in fifth for Valencia to be transmission probably can not change. The new device has “lost a bit of oil,” Horner gives as reason that Vettel was in the final stage in Canada are clearly lying in fourth place from the gas, “he can use it again in Valencia. Team-mate Webber, who lost by Vettel finished fifth behind the championship leader, had lost in Montréal by an unscheduled gearbox change shortly before the race five starting slots.

The Aussie, who recently was quickly four times in a row in qualifying wants to beat Vettel in Valencia again. “That he can create. For if he was behind it, it’s because of a defect, as in Turkey, due to a driving error like in Montreal or he was beaten only a tenth of a second,” said Horner.

imagine Despite the current benefit, the McLaren drivers not in security: “It’s a surprise that the Red Bulls are not in leadership. They were at every race so fast, but we have more made of it,” said defending champion button that as Webber and Hamilton this year has already celebrated two victories. Hamilton also sees its first championship lead since winning the title in November 2008 “not granted” on.
The Mercedes team with Nico Rosberg and world champion Michael Schumacher, who is the first time since 2004 on an unfamiliar route hopes in Valencia placements at less concerned with the tires and thus better. Meanwhile, Alonso is Ferrari’s home race at a comprehensive revised version of the B-F10 available, which also has an R-bay system and has taken some of the bonds in the aerodynamics of Red Bull. With the new car he was allowed to drive even at short film, Alonso will now shine on home soil – and to inspire both the Spanish and the Italian fans.

“The Italian mentality, and the Spanish are similar, and the habits of life. We both also have the same passion for the race,” Alonso describes in the ‘Sport Bild’, why he feels so comfortable at Ferrari. “We might have to say: There are two grown together, which somehow belong together forever. I have the impression that the people enjoy this combination in the world. Especially in Spain and Italy, the mood is downright enthusiastic about it. It makes me proud.”

Jun.10 (GMM)  Emerson Fittipaldi will be the race steward presiding alongside the three FIA officials at this weekend’s Canadian grand prix.

63-year-old Brazilian Fittipaldi won his two F1 world championships in 1972 and 1974, before winning the Indy 500 twice and becoming the Indycar title holder in 1989.

In formula one, he won his first race during his rookie season for Lotus in 1970, and two years later become F1′s youngest champion at 25.

In 1974 he moved to McLaren and won the title again, but then moved to his brother Wilson Fittipaldi’s team and struggled.

He stopped driving in F1 at the end of 1980 at the age of 33, joining his brother in managing the team before it fell apart in late 1982.

Fittipaldi switched to American CART racing in 1984, winning the title in 1989 at the age of 43.  At 47 he won the Indy 500 for the second time, but an injury ended his Champ Car career in 1996 when he was 50.

He was a Champ Car team owner in 2003 and recently the boss of the Brazilian A1 GP team.

Fittipaldi’s nephew Christian drove in F1 for Minardi and Footwork between 1992-1994.