Lotus could become the next team to withdraw from the formula one teams association FOTA.
Already departed are HRT, Sauber and Toro Rosso and also the top teams Red Bull and Ferrari, leaving fellow grandees McLaren, Mercedes and the others on the wrong side of their competitors’ former unity.

Now, this week, team owner Gerard Lopez has been quoted as admitting that Lotus is contemplating pulling out.

The reasons for the withdrawals appear different, with Red Bull having been accused of breaching the gentleman’s Resource Restriction Agreement (RRA) and Ferrari rumoured to want to use its individual power to shape the future of the sport’s rules and structure.

The formerly BMW-owned Sauber, however, insisted that recent cost-cutting in formula one has not made it easier for smaller teams to survive.

“The RRA was a step in the right direction, but now other steps must urgently follow,” he told F1′s official website.

“It definitely has not become easier for the smaller teams.”

But beneath the surface, unity has not broken down completely, argues McLaren team boss Martin Whitmarsh, who doubles as the FOTA chairman.

It is true, for example, that the new non-FOTA members will continue to respect aspects of the body’s agreements, such as the summer factory closure.

“I’m not too hung up on the brand ‘FOTA’,” Whitmarsh said recently.

“I think what’s important is that the teams realise there are critical issues within this sport where it will be better if we cooperate and take sensible decisions, and I hope and believe that we’ll continue to do that.”

He added last month: “Relations between McLaren, Red Bull and Ferrari remain very good indeed.”

Rumours persist that this weekend’s grand prix will be the last in Turkey.

Since the Istanbul Park venue hosted its first race in 2005, the layout – featuring the now famous Turn 8 – has received widespread praise.

But spectator numbers have been conspicuously low.  “It’s an enormous market in Turkey.  Eventually they will get themselves sorted out,” F1 chief executive Bernie Ecclestone said earlier this year.

But the German newspaper Die Welt now reports that the track, managed by Ecclestone, is too far from the city and on the wrong side of the Bosphorus strait, causing long and frustrating rides from hotels through thick traffic.

“The rumours are getting louder that the fastest circus in the world will no longer make the journey to Istanbul,” read the report.

(GMM)

Rubens Barrichello has denied claims he recklessly endangered his F1 rivals after crashing out of Sunday’s Monaco grand prix.

The Brazilian veteran threw his steering wheel onto the racing line after shunting due to a technical problem whilst climbing Beau Rivage at high speed.

The impacts dented the Armco barriers on both sides of the Monaco layout, and in apparent frustration Barrichello, who turns 38 this Sunday, threw his $50,000 steering wheel onto the track.

It was promptly run over by Karun Chandhok, who dragged the expensive debris all the way to the tunnel before it came loose and was run over again by Bruno Senna.

It was a spring from Barrichello’s Brawn that last year struck the hapless Felipe Massa on the helmet.

It is also a fundamental rule breach not to re-connect the steering wheel after abandoning a stricken car.

“What was he doing?,” Chandhok said of Barrichello.  “Charlie (Whiting) actually asked me about it.  You see on the video that he just throws it.”

But the Williams driver insists: “I threw the steering wheel because I wanted to get out of the car as soon as possible.

“After the shunt I was facing the wrong side of the track and the car was on fire,” he argued.

Williams co-owner Patrick Head also defended his driver.

“If you are standing in the middle of a 120mph corner, you tend to think ‘let’s get out of here as quickly as you can’.”

(GMM)