Bahrain GP cancellation decision imminent

Formula 1 looking increasingly unlikely to take place in Bahrain this year

The FIA seemed ready on Thursday to overturn its decision to take Formula 1 back to Bahrain in late October, in effect paving the way for Formula 1 boss Bernie Ecclestone to put an end to the saga which has already embarrassed the sport.
Following the withdrawal of Ecclestone’s support for the Bahrain Grand Prix rescheduling, F1′s governing body published correspondence between the FIA and the teams association FOTA which suggests that the opposition is such that a decision to cancel will probably be announced this weekend in Canada.

FOTA’s letter, addressed to Todt, Ecclestone and Bahrain International Circuit chairman Zayed Alzayani, stated that the new calendar was “unrealistic” for logistical and insurance reasons. The letter was signed by chairmen Martin Whitmarsh and Eric Boullier.

The letter also said F1 should only return to Bahrain “once the security conditions have been fully re-established”.

FIA president Jean Todt responded by writing that it is the responsibility of F1′s commercial rights holder, represented by Ecclestone, to “set the calendar and submit it to the FIA for approval”.

“The FIA always has at heart the smooth running of the championship and the interests of the teams, and is always prepared to address any issues, however difficult,” added the Frenchman.

“I have listened to your last-minute objections and have asked the commercial rights holder (Ecclestone) to re-examine his calendar proposal, and if necessary, to resubmit a revised proposal to the World Council,” wrote Todt.

Source: YallaF1

Seb Vettel Is The New King Of Monaco

Sebastian Vettel claimed his maiden Monaco Grand Prix win, but for the second time in two days his performance was overshadowed after a fellow driver was injured in a heavy shunt

On Saturday, a serious accident involving Sergio Perez's led to qualifying to be delayed while on Sunday Vitaly Petrov was involved in a crash that saw him being taken away by ambulance after picking up a leg injury.

The race was red flagged, but restarted after an 11-minute stop and Vettel - who had fresh rubber fitted to his car during the break - eased his Red Bull home with Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button closely behind.

Earlier, Vettel made a clean start alongside Button and Alonso. From then on it turned into a battle of the strategies.

McLaren looked like they had one over their rivals when they pitted Button earlier than usual for supersofts and got him out in clean air. However, his team-mate Lewis Hamilton's crash with Felipe Massa probably cost Button a potential win after the Safety Car was deployed.

That allowed the field to bunch up and with Button forced to stop for a third time, he lost valuable time to the top two, but Red Bull and Ferrari's decision not to pit their drivers again gave the McLaren driver an opportunity to attack on fresher rubber.

The trio found themselves tail-to-tail for the best part of 15 laps, but more drama was to follow with eight laps to go after Adrian Sutil, Petrov and Hamilton got tangled up during their scrap for sixth place together with backmarker Jaime Alguersuari. Petrov and Alguersuari both crashed out and the Safety Car was deployed. The race was then red-flagged as the medical team was called to tend to Petrov.

Once the track was cleared, the race was restarted under the Safety Car and turned into a five-lap shoot-out. Vettel, Alonso and Button held station, but there was one final incident when Hamilton tried to squeeze past Pastor Maldonado in sixth place. The duo made contact and the Williams driver came off second best.

The McLaren driver finished sixth while Mark Webber fourth and Kamui Kobayashi was fifth.

Results
01. Vettel Red Bull-Renault 2h09:38.373
02. Alonso Ferrari + 1.138
03. Button McLaren-Mercedes + 2.378
04. Webber Red Bull-Renault + 23.100
05. Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari + 26.900
06. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes + 27.200
07. Sutil Force India-Mercedes + 1 lap
08. Heidfeld Renault + 1 lap
09. Barrichello Williams-Cosworth + 1 lap
10. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari + 1 lap
11. Rosberg Mercedes + 1 lap
12. Di Resta Force India-Mercedes + 2 laps
13. Trulli Lotus-Renault + 2 laps
14. Kovalainen Lotus-Renault + 2 laps
15. D'Ambrosio Virgin-Cosworth + 2 laps
16. Liuzzi HRT-Cosworth + 3 laps
17. Karthikeyan HRT-Cosworth + 3 laps
18. Maldonado Williams-Cosworth + 5 aps

Retirements
Petrov Renault 68
Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari 68
Massa Ferrari 33
Schumacher Mercedes 33
Glock Virgin-Cosworth 31
Perez Sauber-Ferrari 1

Source: Planet-F1

Webber: 'A lot of question marks' ahead of Monaco

Red Bull Racing star Mark Webber suggests this weekend's Monaco Grand Prix could be even more of a lottery than usual - as Christian Horner warns McLaren-Mercedes has taken a big step forward

As he bids to make it back-to-back victories in the most glittering race on the annual F1 schedule, Red Bull Racing star Mark Webber contends that there are 'a lot of question marks' approaching this weekend's Monaco Grand Prix.

Webber celebrated the finest moment of his top flight career to-date around the narrow, tortuous streets of Monte Carlo last year, leading from lights-out to chequered flag in the glamorous Principality to seal a tremendously popular triumph and confirm his status as a genuine title contender.

Returning to the scene of his success twelve months on, the Australian is under pressure to deliver a good result and turn the tables on runaway Red Bull team-mate Sebastian Vettel – but he cautions that with so many changes this year, a race already renowned as one of the most unpredictable on the calendar could throw up even more surprises than usual.

“We know this is one of the most prestigious races of the year,” the 34-year-old acknowledged. “There are a lot of question marks going into this year's race in terms of how the tyres will be, and the strategy could be the most complicated of the year. It's a track that I've always seemed to do reasonably well at, though, and I have some of my best memories as a racing driver there.

“It's clearly a demanding street circuit, which requires incredible concentration and composure for the drivers throughout the weekend, starting with Thursday's practice sessions. The dramatic coastline and cliffs make an incredible backdrop to one of the most famous tracks in the world – it's clearly like no other circuit we race at.”

“It's remarkable to drive an F1 car around Monaco,” concurred Vettel, who will arrive there with a commanding 41-point margin over any of his pursuers in the chase for the drivers' crown, having won four of the five grands prix this season to-date. “It's a completely unique track and a unique challenge for the driver. You have to push as hard as on a normal racetrack, but the smallest mistake can bring a big penalty.

“Grid position is very important and can determine your race, as traditionally, overtaking in Monaco is very tricky. Managing the traffic during qualifying is also a big challenge. As an event, it's one of the highlights of the year. We did well there last year, and I hope we can be very strong again.”

Meanwhile, RBR team principal Christian Horner has argued that the reason Vettel was pushed so hard for victory by Lewis Hamilton in last weekend's Spanish Grand Prix – despite an advantage of the best part of a second in qualifying – was that McLaren-Mercedes had brought a substantial raft of upgrades to its MP4-26.

“We knew it would be a close battle,” the Englishman told Finnish newspaper Turun Sanomat. “It would be very presumptuous to believe we have a car that is one second per lap better. We just had a phenomenal qualifying. I stress that McLaren brought an enormous update to Spain – it's almost a B-model.”

Source: Crash.net

Kimi Räikkönen at Nascar Charlotte in pictures

Photos of Kimi Räikkönen at Nascar Camping World Truck Series Charlotte 2011












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Video: Start to blame for fourth in Turkey - Lewis Hamilton

McLaren's Lewis Hamilton says too much front wing at the start of the race was the reason he could only finish fourth at the Turkish Grand Prix



Source: FiftyBuckss

Video: Press Conference with Top three drivers after Turkish Grand Prix 2011

Sebastian Vettel, Mark Webber and Fernando Alonso give their thoughts on an enthralling Turkish Grand Prix



Source: FiftyBuckss

Turkish GP: Vettel Cruises To His Third

Sebastian Vettel demonstrated his maturity and Red Bull their pace as the German put in a faultless drive to take his third win of the season

Starting from pole position, the defending World Champion stormed into the lead, completely untroubled by those behind him.

From there it was but a walk in the park for the Red Bull driver, who only reliquished the lead when he stopped for fresh tyres.

Cruising across the line, having opted for a four-stop strategy, which included a late stop to ensure that no one on fresher tyres could take the victory away from him ala China style, Vettel bagged another 25 points towards his title defense.

Mark Webber and Fernando Alonso were involved in a thrilling battling seven laps from the end of the grand prix. It started earlier in the race when Alonso past Nico Rosberg in the opening few laps and then later took Webber with the use of his adjustable rear wing.

The Aussie had no answer for the Ferrari driver as he stormed by and had to settle in behind him. Both drivers opted for four-stop strategies to give them the edge in the closing stages but it seemed to give Webber more of the edge and paid Alonso back, overtaking the Spaniard to finish second in a Red Bull 1-2.

Meanwhile, Lewis Hamilton lost his chance of fighting for a podium finish when his third stop took precious extra seconds+ due to a problem with his front right wheel nut.

He dropped down the order but fought back to fourth place before coming in for his fourth stop, which put him behind team-mate Jenson Button, who was on a three-stopper to Hamilton's four. With Hamilton on fresh rubber, Button had no answer to his team-mate, who took the position off him without a breaking a sweat.

Nico Rosberg, another four-stopper, was the next to take Button, a welcome feeling for the Mercedes GP driver, who seemed to spend much of the race dropping down the order. He had been P2 after the opening lap.

Nick Heidfeld, Vitaly Petrov, Sebastien Buemi and Kamui Kobayashi completed the points.

Results
01. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull 1:30:17.558
02. Mark Webber Red Bull +8.807
03. Fernando Alonso Ferrari +10.075
04. Lewis Hamilton McLaren + 40.232
05. Nico Rosberg Mercedes + 47.539
06. Jenson Button McLaren + 59.431
07. Nick Heidfeld Renault + 1:00.857
08. Vitaly Petrov Renault + 1:08.168
09. Sebastien Buemi Toro Rosso + 1:09.300
10. Kamui Kobayashi Sauber + 1:18.000
11. Felipe Massa Ferrari + 1:19.800
12. Michael Schumacher Mercedes + 1:25.400
13. Adrian Sutil Force India + 1 lap
14. Sergio Perez Sauber + 1 lap
15. Rubens Barrichello Williams + 1 lap
16. Jaime Alguersuari Toro Rosso +1 lap
17. Pastor Maldonado Williams + 1 lap
18. Jarno Trulli Lotus + 1 lap
19. Heikki Kovalainen Lotus + 2 laps
20. Jerome D'Ambrosio Virgin + 2 laps
21. Narain Karthikeyan HRT + 3 laps
22. Tonio Liuzzi HRT + 5 laps

Source: Planet-F1

Webber: Looking good for the race

Mark Webber: We spoke before qualifying and decided that, as tomorrow is going to be a long race, every lap you could save today might help tomorrow. It turns out that we're in the best possible grid positions and the team did a good job, as we have saved a set of tyres too, so it's looking good

Red Bull Racing's Mark Webber is feeling confident ahead of tomorrow's F1 2011 Turkish Grand Prix.

Webber will start the fourth round of the season from second on the grid and while the Aussie was disappointed to again lose out to his team-mate, Sebastian Vettel, having been four tenths slower, he reckons the team's decision to only opt for one-run in Q3 will pay dividends in the race.

“I would have liked to have got a couple more tenths to have the margin. But obviously Sebastian did a very good lap for pole, but my lap wasn't too bad either,” Webber reflected.

“We spoke before qualifying and decided that, as tomorrow is going to be a long race, every lap you could save today might help tomorrow. It turns out that we're in the best possible grid positions and the team did a good job, as we have saved a set of tyres too, so it's looking good.

“There were some good decisions from the team. I'm happy with today and am looking forward to tomorrow's race.”

Red Bull Racing team boss, Christian Horner meanwhile was delighted to see his two men lock-out the front row, the first time the squad has managed that this year.

He also added that while it was a bit of a risk not to do two-runs in the shoot-out, the gamble did pay off.

“A great team performance,” he continued. “We elected not to do a second run with both drivers; we knew it would be a little tight, but strategically we believe it was the right thing to do, as both drivers now have a new set of tyres available for tomorrow's race.”

Source: Crash.net

Video: Press Conference with Top three drivers after Qualifying at Turkish GP 2011

Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber and Mercedes' Nico Rosberg give their reactions after finishing in the top three positions after qualifying for the Turkish Grand Prix



Source: FiftyBuckss

The Turkish GP timetable

The Turkish GP, which takes place around the Istanbul Park circuit, marks the fourth round of the 2011 F1 World Championship

All times are local (Turkey is GMT +3)

Thursday 5 May
15:00: FIA press conference

Friday 6 May
10:00 - 11:30: First free practice
14:00 - 15:30: Second free practice
16:00: FIA press conference

Saturday 7 May
11:00 - 12:00: Third free practice
14:00 - 15:00: Qualifying
15h00: FIA post qualifying press conference

Sunday 8 May
15:00 - 17:00: Turkish GP
17:00: FIA post race press conference

Turkish GP Info
No of Laps: 58
Race Distance:309.396 km
Lap Record: 1:24.770 - JP Montoya (2005)
2010 Winner: Lewis Hamilton (McLaren)

Source: Planet-F1

Schumi vows to see out his Merc contract

Michael Schumacher insists he is not ready to throw in the towel following another difficult start to the season

A lot was expected of the seven-time World Champion when he came out of retirement in 2010 to sign a deal with Mercedes GP. However, he failed to live up to expectations last year and finished a disappointing ninth in the Drivers' Champions - 70 points behind team-mate Nico Rosberg.

Although there has been a marked improvement this year, he is still finding it difficult to match the performances of Rosberg.

There have been suggestions that Schumacher could pack it in before his contract expires in 2012, but he is having none of it.

"I will fulfil my three-year contract with Mercedes after which I will work as a representative of the team's brand," he told Germany's Bunte.

He added: "I am on a mission to take Mercedes GP to the top step of the podium. Fighting for 10th place is not always pleasant. I expect to be in a better position soon."

Although he is confident of improving, Schumacher also admits that being 42-years-old "is not the same as 25".

Source: Planet-F1

Harsh critic in Italy over Ferrari's anemic car

Italian Auto Sprint put thoroughly down all Maranello's accomplishments in their issue on Tuesday.

According to the paper 150 Italia -car's anemic aerodynamics is of such class that Ferrari only has two choices out of which one is hidious and the other one is horrible.

The hidious option is to try and catch up with the car's three months belated car project and develop it into more competitive. They say that Ferrari still only analyses their mistakes while their competitors are working fulltime making new updates to their cars.

The horrible option again would be to do what they did two years ago: stop the current car's development work and invest everything into next year. According to the paper this would be horrible for both the drivers as for the sponsors who have invested so much especially in Fernando Alonso.

– Although Red Bull would retire in the next races McLaren is also too far away to be reached by Ferrari. Ferrari has to battle with Mercedes and pray that Renault won't come cruising past them from behind, the verdict says about the current car.

Their attempt to improve their competitiveness in China didn't bring any results. Auto Sprint describes Ferrari as the red crab going backwards while the lead is improving.

As basis they compared the China-qualification from last year: Red Bull was now 0,85 and McLaren 0,55 seconds faster while the 'red crab' was 0,2 seconds slower than last year.

The magazine accuses Ferrari of making two basic mistakes. One is failing in estimation and the other one is arrogance.

The estimation went wrong when Ferrari abandoned the elastic front wing they had developed. Technical Manager Aldo Costa had admitted that they had worked with a front wing that bended more closer to the track but they gave it up because they didn't think it would have passed FIA's strictest test.

Now they are working long days in Maranello so that they could get as soon as possible a front wing that works the same way Red Bull's wing works. Yet it requires a lot of time to get it to function in a similar way because the wing changes all air flows in the car, which again requires in practice re-development of the whole chassis.

The accusation of arrogance again comes from Ferrari's decision to continue with the traditional suspension while seven other teams followed Red Bull's suspension-idea. Auto Sprint lists that the only teams who are in the same camp with Ferrari when it comes to their thinking are Hispania, Virgin and Sauber, who has to use the rear end inherited from Ferrari.

– When has some other team used Ferrari's development work the last time? It was in 2008 when Ferrari had the hole in the nose. After that nobody has even tried to copy Ferrari's ideas, Auto Sprint shoots.

According to the paper Ferrari sank down in the problems starting from year 2009 when testing was limited with a harsh hand and banned altogether during the season.

Also the problems in the windtunnel from 1988 are only highlighted. According to the paper Maranello's windtunnel is too short and everytime they test a car there they have to make artificial corrections to their calculations.

However KERS worked well in Ferrari. The paper reminds that it was KERS, which put Ferrari back in the winning strike when Räikkönen made the victoriuos pass with additional powers in Spa in 2009.

Turun Sanomat, Rooma

PERTTI LEPISTÖ

Courtesy: Nicole

Hamilton: That was one of the best

Lewis Hamilton has hailed the Chinese GP as "one of the best races I've experienced" after claiming his first victory of 2011

What maked the win sweeter for Hamilton and McLaren is the fact that it put an end to Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull's early-season dominance after the German won in Australia and Malaysia.

Starting P3 on the grid, Hamilton and team-mate Jenson Button both beat Vettel off the line.

The defending World Champion hit back in the first two rounds of pit stops to reclaim the lead, but Hamilton had the last laugh as the decision to pit for a third time paid dividends when his fresher rubber allowed him to pass Vettel with four laps to go.

Hamilton says everything fell into place once the race got underway.

"I am absolutely overwhelmed," said the McLaren driver. "It feels like a long time since I was sitting here. I am proud and grateful for all the hard work I have put in.

"I will continue to push and looking forward to many more like this."

He added: "I think today the strategy that we came up with definitely helped

"My new option tyres seemed to last longer. The pit stops were fantastic. The car felt great and I was trying to nurse my tyres while picking up pace.

"It was one of the best races I've experienced. It feels amazing to be able to bring home a victory for the guys in the factory."

The 26-year-old nearly failed to make it to his P3 slot on the grid after a fuel line came loose before the start of the race. That resulted in a mad scramble to fix the problem. Even though he was able to line up in position on the grid, his mechanics were still working on the car moments before the formation lap.

Hamilton, though, insists he was never worried.

"I don't think worried was coming into my thoughts," he said. "I'm not sure what went on, but we took a lot of bodywork off. We knew there was six minutes to go and then with two minutes fortunately everything came together very quickly.

"But of course for me it is important to stay as calm as possible as that reflects on the guys in the garage. They got the car out which is the most important thing."

Now that McLaren have managed to overhaul Red Bull during a race, the next target will be to catch up with Vettel in qualifying.

"I think obviously we still have a long road ahead of us," Hamilton said.

"We are working very hard to close the gap. In race pace we are quite similar, but in qualifying we still have a lot of work to do."

Source: Planet-F1

Alonso: Car is just too slow

Fernando Alonso insists he wasn't undone by his strategy in China. Rather, he was undone by his slow car

The Spaniard started the Chinese GP fifth on the grid but lost out to his team-mate Felipe Massa off the line. And by the end of the 56 laps, during which Ferrari deployed a two-stop strategy for both drivers, he was down in P7, one place behind his team-mate.

However, the Spaniard says it wasn't Ferrari's decision to go with a two-stopper, when a three-stop proved to be the better option, that cost him.

"We'll see now which one was the best," he told Autosport.

"It's very easy to choose the strategy when you have the fastest car and it's very hard when you are slow. (Mark) Webber today showed qualifying is not very important.

"The most important thing is to have a good tyre degradation and a good strategy, and this year we can overtake. As I say, the easiest thing is to have a quick car, like Red Bull, you pit three, two, one times and you end up on the podium.

"We need to improve the car above everything. I don't think it would have changed much. We were much slower than the cars we had in front so we would ended up with a similar result."

The double World Champ also denied that he had a problem with his car in the closing stages of the race, saying once again the only problem is that the car is too slow.

"No, we didn't have any particular problems. We just weren't fast at any point during the race and we kept on losing positions little by little.

"Then we opted to go for two stops so it looked like we were in a good position during some points of the race and others where they were flying like bullets from behind. We had to try to hold on and finish the race in whatever position."

Source: Planet-F1