F1′s controversial “DRS” innovation is staying put for 2012, according to an Italian report.
While many hailed the moveable rear wing flaps’ contribution to overtaking last season, others criticised the drag reduction system for compromising the purity of wheel-to-wheel racing.

According to Autosprint, DRS is staying this year.

But the FIA will reportedly modify the number and length of the overtaking zones at some circuits.

“The reason is to facilitate overtaking by extending the zones at those circuits where it proved too difficult, and shortening them where the passing was too exaggerated,” the Italian language report read.

One DRS supporter is the Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg.

“The important thing is that we are overtaking — who really cares why?

“However it is good to optimise everything, especially where it has been possible to gain 50 metres (on a rival) by the end of a straight.

“It’s better that it (passing) is a bit more difficult than too easy,” the German said.

1996 world champion Damon Hill will return to the F1 paddock in 2012 as an expert television pundit.
The 51-year-old has signed up with Sky as part of the broadcaster’s new split British broadcasting deal with the BBC.

Hill will appear on-screen as a pre and post-race pundit at ten of the 20 grands prix, including the season opener in Melbourne.

“It’s a few years since I stopped driving but I’ve never stopped looking at F1 and never lost interest. It’s a sport that I love,” he said.

Eric Lux scoffed when asked if Adrian Sutil was ever really a contender to race for the Lotus team in 2012.
German Sutil has lost his Force India race seat after five seasons and is hoping he can rescue his embattled career by switching to Williams.

Earlier, however, the 29-year-old was linked with Lotus, the former Renault team now owned by Genii, the investment firm headed by Luxembourgian Lux.

Lux claims he was attacked by Sutil in a Shanghai nightclub last April, in an incident that will go to trial in Germany later this month.

“I realised in the elevator what had just happened and I thought to myself ‘now you have three minutes to live’,” Lux is quoted by the FAZ newspaper.

Sutil reportedly claims he was trying only to tip his drink over Lux’s head after a verbal quarrel.

As for whether the driver was ever in the running to race for Lotus in 2012, Lux scoffed: “That would be a joke, right?

“At least he has now apologised to me,” he added.

The Sutil camp argues Lux’s injury was “completely unintentional”, amid reports the German’s friend Lewis Hamilton could be called to testify.

“I think there is enough evidence and witnesses for the court to take the view that Adrian did not attack someone,” said manager Manfred Zimmermann.

In the meantime, Sutil’s F1 career is in serious peril, although Zimmermann insists: “The trial will have no influence on Adrian’s future.

“We expect the truth to come out during the hearing and, for us, it is important the incident is then concluded,” he is quoted by DPA news agency.

 F1′s governing body will decide if it is right for the sport to return to Bahrain in April, the bosses of top teams Red Bull and Ferrari said this week.
Amid reports of continuing unrest in the island Kingdom and claims F1 should boycott the event also on moral grounds, the Sakhir circuit on Wednesday was pushing ahead with preparations for Bahrain’s return in 2012.

Track boss Salman bin Isa Al-Khalifa said staff sacked amid the protests that last year caused the race’s cancellation have been offered their old jobs.

It is “an important initiative towards national reconciliation and unity”, he insisted.

F1 chief executive Bernie Ecclestone has suggested the event will only be cancelled again in extreme circumstances.

“We enter a championship run by the FIA,” Red Bull team boss Christian Horner told the BBC, “and we need to trust in their decision.”

Agreed Ferrari’s Stefano Domenicali: “We need to rely on the competent authorities.”

But the famous Italian team’s boss was asked if the FIA’s judgement can still be trusted after a delegate last year gave Bahrain the all-clear.

“Maybe (that) experience will give a different approach and the information will be more accurate,” Domenicali is quoted by the Telegraph from Ferrari’s annual winter media event in the Italian Dolomites.

Ferrari chiefs have denied reports the famous Italian team has already inked a new Concorde Agreement with Bernie Ecclestone.
In the wake of Ferrari and also Red Bull’s departure from the FOTA alliance, it was rumoured the top teams must have secretly agreed lucrative new deals with the F1 chief executive.

But at the same time it is also understood that the existing Concorde, which will run until the end of this year, prohibits teams from breaking ranks unless the same offer is made throughout the paddock.

Asked in the Italian Dolomites about rumours of Ferrari’s 2013 Concorde, team boss Stefano Domenicali insisted: “It’s not true.”

He told La Gazzetta dello Sport: “It is true that Ferrari and Ecclestone have been speaking to one another. They always do because they are both … they have always both been in F1.”

At the same time, president Luca di Montezemolo defended Ferrari’s decision to leave FOTA by insisting the fabled marque “has the right to have its say in an autonomous fashion”.

“Clearly this is a very important year and we are all aware of that,” agreed Domenicali.

He is referring also to the teams’ voluntary resource restriction agreement (RRA), which earlier this year Red Bull was accused of flouting.

Domenicali thinks the penalties for cheating are not severe enough.

“Today, only a financial type of penalty is planned, but we need to decide if it would not be better to think also of something on the sporting front and, in that case, who should decide the outcome,” he said.

Ferrari said the team regards a cost-limiting agreement as important, but insisted that – amid the European economic crisis – Ferrari remains strong.

“In 2011 we beat the record in our history for cars sold, so our financial position is very solid,” he is quoted by Spain’s El Periodico.

Formula one was in “a lot of trouble” some years ago before the commercial rights were bought by CVC.
That is the claim of Donald Mackenzie, who on Monday testified in Munich during the corruption trial of former F1 banker Gerhard Gribkowsky.

Gribkowsky, formerly in charge of bank Bayern LB’s F1 shareholding, is accused of accepting huge bribes from F1 chief executive Bernie Ecclestone.

Ecclestone claims Gribkowsky subtly shook him down over his personal tax affairs.

“Formula One was in a lot of trouble at the time, including the threat that the teams would leave it,” Mackenzie, CVC’s managing partner, testified.

“We were in fact the only one of a very small group of companies who could buy it so our offer must have been seen like a present from heaven,” he is quoted by the Bloomberg news agency.

The Financial Times quotes Mackenzie as saying F1 was a “very high risk investment” for CVC, one of the world’s top five private equity firms.

He said F1 teams were threatening to split with the official FIA series to set up their own championship.

“Because of that it was very important to have Mr Ecclestone on our side,” Mackenzie said.

It is possible Niki Lauda, the legendary cap-wearing triple world champion, will be absent from the formula one paddock in 2012.
Blick newspaper reports that the 62-year-old, recently an expert television pundit, is yet to ink a new agreement with the German broadcaster RTL.

“I’m very optimistic,” the Austrian insisted, amid suggestions he is arguing with the channel’s sports boss Manfred Loppe over the size of his retainer.

Blick said DTM driver Ralf Schumacher, the former Williams and Toyota driver and brother of Mercedes’ Michael Schumacher, is on pole position to succeed Lauda.

Jos Verstappen has been arrested in his native Netherlands.
The former Benetton, Stewart and Minardi driver turned himself into police after fleeing the scene following an incident involving his 24-year-old ex-girlfriend, according to Flemish newspaper De Standaard.

Dutch police confirmed the arrest of a 39-year-old man after an incident in the southeastern city Roermond.

Unconfirmed media reports say Verstappen deliberately struck his former girlfriend – who was taken by ambulance to hospital with heavy bruises and abrasions – with a car.

Verstappen was previously accused of beating his girlfriend.

“It’s definitely not the first time he does this,” the unnamed woman told RTL television. “I think now I need to go and hide — I don’t know what to expect now when he is released.”

In 2008, Verstappen was fined and sentenced to three months suspended jail time over an assault case involving his ex-wife.

And more than ten years ago, he was convicted of assault after fracturing a man’s skull at a kart track.

Verstappen contested over 100 grands prix between 1994 and 2003.

 A new overtaking rule has been added to formula one’s official sporting regulations for 2012.
Last month, the FIA flagged the forthcoming rule by announcing that drivers “may no longer move back onto the racing line having moved off it to defend a position”.

The rule has until now been an unwritten one that was agreed and understood by the drivers, with the stewards empowered to issue penalties for questionable manoeuvres.

But from 2012, the actual regulations now declare: “More than one change of direction to defend a position is not permitted.

“Any driver moving back towards the racing line, having earlier defended his position off line, should leave at least one car width between his own car and the edge of the track on the approach to the corner,” the rule goes on.

 Niki Lauda has admitted he is no fan of the overtaking innovation ‘DRS’ that debuted in 2011.
The system, which allows a chasing driver to move a flap in the rear wing and increase top speed when he is close to his rival, is set to be retained and even ramped up for next season.

The BBC reports that in Melbourne next March, for instance, there could be two DRS zones, while other zones – like at Valencia – will be extended.

The system was designed by a working group including McLaren’s technical director Paddy Lowe, who insists DRS was a good idea amid the long debate about tweaking the cars to boost overtaking.

“What’s great (is) at least we can move on from this debate of trying to change the aerodynamic characteristics of cars to try to improve overtaking,” he said.

“We’ve found something much more authoritative, much cheaper, easier and more effective, and adjustable from race to race.”

Many purists, however, are unhappy, arguing that overtaking can now be too easy, has been devalued, while the spectacle of a driver successfully holding off his charging rival is diminished.

“You’ve got to take the rough with the smooth to a certain extent,” argues the FIA’s Charlie Whiting.

F1 great Lauda, the famous triple world champion of the 70s and 80s, told Austrian newspaper Salzburger Nachrichten that DRS “bothers me”.

“To see passing at the push of a button is fundamentally the wrong direction (for F1),” he insisted.

“The front man (the driver in front) is totally defenceless. I think from the sporting point of view it is not right.”

He also thinks DRS has proved unnecessary, with new supplier Pirelli’s heavily-degrading tyres credited for much of the success of the racing in 2011.

“This (Pirelli’s approach) is okay,” said television pundit Lauda, who is reportedly arguing with the German broadcaster RTL about the size of his fee for F1′s 2011 season.

“There is enough overtaking already because of the tyres, which often have to be taken right to the limit by the drivers,” he explained.

“And they pose the engineers with the task of making tyre-friendly tyres.”

Jos Verstappen has tipped F1 to race on unhindered when a list of midfield drivers does not return in 2012.
Writing in his column for De Telegraaf newspaper, the Dutchman admitted that with so many drivers bustling for as little as two unconfirmed race seats, it is “an exciting time” on the newswire.

At the same time, drivers apparently at the start of their promising careers, like ousted Toro Rosso pair Jaime Alguersuari and Sebastien Buemi, have lost their seats.

“It’s hard for them, especially so late in the year. But that’s formula one,” Verstappen, who raced for a series of midfield teams in the mid 90s until 2003, said.

With so few seats still available, he said he hopes rookie countryman Giedo van der Garde finds a place.

“He has quite a few rivals.

“Through all the place changes, at the moment Vitaly Petrov, Rubens Barrichello, Adrian Sutil, Jaime Alguersuari, Sebastien Buemi and Tonio Liuzzi are on the outside,” said Verstappen, failing to mention the likes of Bruno Senna, Jerome d’Ambrosio and others.

“It is not a list of names that I would call a real loss for formula one, as for the sport it is good to see some fresh blood.

“Especially with former world champion Kimi Raikkonen, GP2 champion Romain Grosjean and the talented Nico Hulkenberg, the quality of the grid has only improved,” he added.

Luca di Montezemolo on Thursday clarified reports that he intends to stand for the Italian presidency in 2013.
The Ferrari president’s letter to members of his political think-tank Italia Futura this week was interpreted by some as his announcement of a tilt at the top job.

“Going into politics? No I’m with Ferrari,” he clarified, according to La Gazzetta dello Sport.

Montezemolo took the opportunity of the media event at Fiorano to announce the launch date of Ferrari’s 2012 car — 3 February.

And he also addressed rumours about Felipe Massa’s future, insisting that while the Brazilian “could continue” beyond 2012, the Maranello based team is “always looking around”.

Gazzetta reporter Andrea Cremonesi claimed Ferrari has “approached” drivers including Jenson Button, Nico Rosberg and Mark Webber “in recent months”.

Luca di Montezemolo has announced he will be a candidate when Italians vote in the 2013 general election.
The Ferrari president has long flirted with politics and finally confirmed his ambition this week in a letter to members of his party Italiafutura.

“The second republic has failed. We need new faces and new ideas because the next elections will be of historic importance,” wrote the 64-year-old.

He signed the letter with ‘Luca di Montezemolo, future president of Italy’.

 There has been bad news from the London High Court for Bernie Ecclestone this week.
The Telegraph reports that a judge has ruled that the F1 chief executive’s suspect payments to former F1 banker Gerhard Gribkowsky were indeed bribes.

Ecclestone, 81, has denied that description, insisting instead that he only paid the millions after a subtle “shakedown” by the German.

“Isn’t that a bribe”? said Mr Justice Vos.

The judge was entering a default decision against Gribkowsky – because he did not respond to the writ – during the civil proceedings brought by former F1 shareholder Constantin Medien.

“Constantin welcomes this important procedural step and will be pressing on with the determination of damages against Gribkowsky and in the continuing proceedings against Ecclestone and (Stephen) Mullens, and Bambino Holdings,” said Constantin Medien’s lawyer Keith Oliver.

McLaren doctor and fellow Finn Aki Hintsa does not think Kimi Raikkonen will struggle on his return to formula one next season.
2007 world champion Raikkonen’s decision to come back to the sport with Lotus after a couple of seasons away has been compared with Michael Schumacher’s recent struggle to readjust after a three-year sabbatical.

But Hintsa, who knows Raikkonen well after the now 32-year-old’s five-year tenure at McLaren until 2006, plays down that comparison.

“Physically, Kimi is definitely as strong now as he ever was,” he is quoted by Turun Sanomat newspaper. “It is clear that a return to F1 for Kimi will be easier than it was for Michael Schumacher two years ago.

“First of all, Kimi is so much younger than Michael, and secondly, he was not away for as long and while he was away, he kept driving in a very demanding category,” said Hintsa, referring to Raikkonen’s world rallying exploits.

Indeed, while Raikkonen only turned 32 some weeks ago, Schumacher is clearly F1′s oldest active driver as he approaches his 43rd birthday in January.

“At that stage of life a ten year age difference is a major factor in top-level sport,” said Hintsa.

“When an athlete turns 40, the response time begins to slow down naturally and there’s nothing you can do about it. It is not possible to turn back the clock.”