Well-known US motor racing team owner Chip Ganassi has ruled out entering formula one.
His cars have been winners in Nascar, Indycar and US sports car racing.

So with Austin joining the calendar this year, and New Jersey to follow in 2013, might it be the ideal time for Ganassi to look into running a F1 team?

“There was a time when I would think about that,” he is quoted by examiner.com.

“But now when I get that feeling I go lay down until it goes away.”

 Toyota will shortly confirm Sebastien Buemi as the lead driver for the Japanese marque’s second Le Mans entry for 2012.
That is the claim of the Swiss website 20min.ch.

Earlier, it emerged that the former Toro Rosso driver – who has been signed by Red Bull Racing as its official reserve driver for this season – wanted to add the fabled 24 hour Le Mans race to his 2012 programme.

“His wish will come true this summer,” said the report.

On Wednesday, Toyota announced that former F1 drivers Alex Wurz and Kazuki Nakajima will front the lineup for one Toyota prototype at Le Mans.

“Discussions are still ongoing to finalise the driver lineup for the other (car),” said a spokesman.

 Virgin’s part-ownership by the British bank Lloyds is threatening to run the struggling formula one team off track.
Part taxpayer-owned Lloyds bought an undisclosed stake in the team – to be renamed Marussia in 2012 – last year.

The Independent now reports that directors risk prosecution by Companies House as a deadline to lodge documents relating to the Virgin investment runs out.

“On 25 October, Companies House sent a notice of dissolution to them and all of the company’s other directors, including team principal John Booth” read the report written by Christian Sylt and Caroline Reid.

Companies House confirmed: “If they’ve promised to file a document and they don’t, it will go through prosecution.

“They go through the courts for prosecution and if they don’t bring it up to date, they could close the company down. So they’ve got until Wednesday really.”

Team co-owner Marussia and Lloyds declined to comment, and a Virgin team spokesman said the story was a “procedural communication from Companies House”.

(pitpass) The future of the United States Grand Prix at the Texas venue took a further twist tonight when the organizers issued the following statement:

“Organizers of Circuit of The Americas, a premier motor sports racing and entertainment venue being developed in Austin, Texas, are suspending further construction of the project until a contract assuring the Formula 1 United States Grand Prix will be held at Circuit of The Americas in 2012 is complete. The race contract between Formula One and Circuit of The Americas has not been conveyed to Circuit of The Americas per a previously agreed upon timetable.

While construction at Circuit of The Americas has progressed as scheduled with over 300 workers at the construction site daily, all work will suspend immediately. The delivery of the Formula One Grand Prix race contract will allow construction operations to resume.

“We have spent tremendous resources preparing for the Formula One and MotoGP™ Championship races, but the failure to deliver race contracts gives us great concern,” said Bobby Epstein, founding partner of Circuit of The Americas. “We believe the United States is vital for the future of Formula One and its teams and sponsors. Given the purpose-built Tilke design, creating a unique fan experience and iconic challenge for drivers, we hope that Texas will not be left behind. More than 100,000 fans have expressed an interest in purchasing tickets for Formula One alone.”

“It is in the best interest of all parties to reach a timely resolution,” said Red McCombs, chairman of McCombs Enterprises and founding partner of Circuit of The Americas. “Local businesses, fans and the State of Texas are counting on us.”

 Most Italians do not believe Sebastian Vettel will ever trouble Michael Schumacher’s record of seven world championships.
But a significant 45.4 per cent of respondents answered ‘yes’ when asked by La Gazzetta dello Sport if the Red Bull driver, the youngest ever back to back world champion, will smash Schumacher’s record eventually.

54.6 per cent of the almost 9000 survey respondents answered ‘no’.

In India last weekend, Vettel beat Nigel Mansell’s old record for the number of laps led in a single season.

“I love what I do,” said the German when told about the record. “I think we all do so it is great and in a way we don’t want this (season) to end.”

F1 commentators might have a better view of next year’s Indian grand prix.
At the brand new Buddh circuit, television broadcasters were horrified to discover that the commentary booths did not have windows.

“I might as well be in Shepherd’s Bush,” said the BBC’s David Coulthard.

So annoyed were Coulthard and his colleagues that the broadcasters called a meeting with F1 chief executive Bernie Ecclestone.

In charge of the design of the new Indian venue was Hermann Tilke.

On the window controversy, he told Auto Motor und Sport: “This is a problem that we definitely have to solve.”

As for whether the solution will be in place for 2012, he answered: “We’ll see.”

(Reuters) – IndyCar officials have begun an investigation into the cause of the 15-car crash that killed two-time Indianapolis 500 winner Dan Wheldon, series boss Randy Bernard saying on Monday they need to understand what went wrong.

After attending Wheldon’s funeral in Florida on Saturday, many of the Briton’s fellow drivers were back in Indianapolis on Monday to meet with IndyCar officials for what was described as a frank discussion about driver safety.

“We must continue to move forward with a thorough investigation,” IndyCar CEO Bernard said in a statement. “Fortunately, that has already begun, and we have the protocols in place to get this done.

“This was a tragic accident, and IndyCar needs to understand everything possible about it.”

Phase one of the investigation, led by series safety and competition officials, has already begun and is expected to last several weeks.

An evaluation of the data will be used to make a factual determination of the circumstances surrounding the entire incident and the results handed over to an independent, third-party group for validation.

In the aftermath of the crash, which occurred during the opening laps of the IndyCar season-ending finale on October 16 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, drivers voiced concerns over several factors, including the safety-fencing that surrounds the oval and the number of cars and extreme speeds that produced dangerous “pack” racing.

Investigators will have access to data retrieved from the Accident Data Recorders (ADR) from all 15 cars involved in the accident.

The investigation will also include analysis of hours of photos and videos, including footage from in-car cameras and safety vehicles.

“We’re heading in the right direction,” said 2004 series champion Tony Kanaan. “(The meeting is) not something that is being done because something happened now. We set the standards. We’re just trying to make it better.

“What people have to understand is that we’re not going to make motor racing 100 percent safe. That’s the fact. We’re the lab and hopefully we can make it better, make it safer but we’ll never make it 100 per cent safe.”

By Steve Keating

Bernie Ecclestone has accused Indycar of playing with drivers’ lives by organising “wrestling”-style races.
Briton Dan Wheldon was killed just over a week ago in a 15-car crash at Las Vegas speedway, a 1.5-mile oval whose event boasted Indy 500-like speeds.

“We would never have let that race take place in Las Vegas last week,” F1 chief executive Bernie Ecclestone told the Daily Mail.

“With 34 cars racing on a 1.5-mile oval track, they were heading for disaster.”

Wheldon started the race dead last and, in an Indycar season finale gimmick, he stood to share a $5 million prize with a fan if he carved through the field and won.

At the time of his crash, he had already passed ten cars.

“It made the race a little like all-in wrestling — with a high risk attachment,” said Ecclestone, referring to British no-holds-barred professional wrestling.

“While our sympathies lie with Dan’s family, the whole episode has not been good for motor sport in general.”

(Yalla F1) Twenty years ago, on October 20th 1991, Ayrton Senna won his third world championship in Japan, bringing joy to millions of fans all over the world as he did so.

The overcoming of such great challenges and the intense battles fought out on track throughout that great season make up part of the Brazilian driver´s legendary figure, whose shine remains strong to this day.

Now, for the first time fans will have the chance to virtually relive the Senna experience racing to the limits on race tracks around the world, as Reiza Studios is proud to announce a partnership with the Ayrton Senna Institute to develop a new Game for Windows – PC.

With the recently released Game Stock Car, the Brazilian developer has already demonstrated its capacity to combine professional level simulation with first-class gameplay, in order to create the most realistic and immersive racing games.

The new project will see Reiza going beyond, combining a brand new Game engine with a meticulous research process – passion and technical perfectionism in the best Senna style, to recreate in all its details a magic era in racing, when Ayrton wrote his history

The new Reiza project will also have a social purpose, as part of the revenue will be destined to the various educational programs developed by the Ayrton Senna Institute all over Brazil, which every year benefits over 2 million children and youngsters with quality public education.

The Ayrton Senna Game is currently under development and is predicted to be released at the end of 2012.

World champion Sebastian Vettel had a high-altitude scare when returning to his home in Switzerland from Singapore earlier this week.

Media reports say the Singapore Airbus A380 carrying the Red Bull driver, as well as other F1 personalities including Peter Sauber, encountered a problem just before landing in Zurich.

The pilots diverted to Frankfurt, and Bild newspaper said it was a failure of the aircraft’s instrument landing system (ILS).

Passengers recalled that as the plane descended for landing, the pilots suddenly pulled back up at full power.

“We were never scared, because we were given very good information from the cockpit,” Sauber is quoted as saying by the Swiss newspaper Blick.

“But during the approach I did think, oops, the forest down there is looking rather close. Then we went back up.”

Said Vettel’s press manager Britta Roeske: “The captain came immediately to Sebastian and explained the electronic defect. Sebastian was very relaxed and even let himself be photographed with the crew members and passengers.”

A press officer well-known to F1 journalists a few years ago has passed away.
Canadian-born Graham Jones, who died in Britain last weekend of cancer, worked at Minardi throughout Paul Stoddart’s reign beginning in 2001.

He subsequently worked as a columnist for the Toronto Star.

“What I remember most is his kindness,” said Molson Indy communications manager Sid Priddle. “He was always willing to listen to ideas and was always a gentleman.

“You never felt like you were in a PR/journalist situation but working with a friend.”

BMW’s motor sport boss has refused to comment on speculation Nick Heidfeld could move from formula one to the DTM series next year.

German Heidfeld, 34, was appointed as injured Robert Kubica’s replacement for 2011, but Renault has now dumped him in favour of Bruno Senna.

It is being reported that talks between Heidfeld and his former employer BMW, no longer in F1 but to tackle the German touring car series DTM next year, have already begun.

With Andy Priaulx and Augusto Farfus already confirmed for 2012, there are still four official BMW M3 cockpits to fill.

“We have always said we would look first at the drivers from our own programme,” Jens Marquardt, who has replaced Mario Theissen as BMW’s motor sport director, told the German news agency SID.

When asked if Heidfeld is a candidate, he answered: “We do not comment on rumours.

“I am confident that we will have a competitive driver lineup in 2012,” he is also quoted by sport1.de, denying that BMW will look specifically for a German driver.

Bernie Ecclestone will be trackside on Sunday for the Belgian grand prix.

So far this weekend, the F1 chief executive has been in Rome where he has bankrolled his daughter Petra’s $2 million wedding, which took place on Saturday.

Ecclestone, 80, said the event has actually taken place over three days, but he intends to skip the final lunch instalment in deference to his commitments at Spa-Francorchamps.

“As I said to (new son-in-law) James (Stunt), I shall be there for the practice on Friday and the qualifying on Saturday,” he joked to the Express newspaper.

A group of Russians have scammed former F1 team boss Flavio Briatore to the tune of EUR 86,000.
According to the Unione Sarda newspaper, they got off a superyacht and entered Briatore’s ultra-expensive Billionaire club in Sardinia, charging 90 bottles of EUR 900 Cristal champagne to a Russian oligarch’s account.

Police are now searching for the group.

“We trust our clients and there are some who choose not to settle their bills until the end of the summer,” Briatore’s spokeswoman Patrizia Spinelli told the Daily Telegraph.

“This was a very unfortunate exception.”

Police investigator Giulio Brandanu told The Guardian: “We have seen people here skip out on drinks bills before, but never this much.”

Jean Todt insists he is happy with the safety of Brazil’s formula one circuit at Interlagos.
Following recent stock car fatalities at the Sao Paulo venue’s high speed Cafe corner, organisers vowed to make significant changes that will involve demolishing a grandstand.

But the work will only be done after November’s 2011 season finale, and it recently emerged that a temporary chicane in place for recent stock car races will not be used by the formula one cars.

FIA president Todt, however, insists he is not worried.

“We are aware of the incidents that occurred at Interlagos in another category,” the Frenchman is quoted as saying by Agencia Estado.

“We made detailed inquiries about the cars (involved in the crashes), not the track. Everyone can rest assured that all measures will be taken to avoid repetition of such accidents,” added Todt.

He insisted that, in general, the level of safety in F1 is “excellent”.

“For 17 years there have been no deaths in formula one. We know it is a dangerous sport, but the FIA works constantly to avoid problems like accidents and to reduce the risks.”