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Red Bull boss Christian Horner was quick to express his frustration after Sebastian Vettel retired from the Italian GP with an alternator failure – a part that is supplied by Renault.

Vettel lost victory in the European GP after a failure, and had another problem in FP3 at Monza. Jerome D’Ambrosio also experienced an issue in Italy, which led to a precautionary change.

Asked to compare the Monza race problem with the one that stopped Vettel in Valencia, Horner said: “I haven’t seen the component itself, but the similarity is it’s caused another DNF. Two race stopping failures – one that cost us a certain victory, and today a sensible amount of points – is extremely costly, and something that needs to be rectified for the remaining races.

“It looks like there was a similar issue on another car with the same component during the weekend. Very disappointing, but we need to work with Renault to try and understand, and make sure it doesn’t happen again.

“We need to find rectifications for the DNFs that have occurred. DNFs are extremely expensive, and it’s our first non points scoring race since Korea 2010, which also happened to be an engine failure that cost us on that day as well. We can’t afford to not be finishing races.

“It makes the mountain higher, but both the drivers are still in the championship race, we’re still leading the constructors’ by 19 points, and with seven races to go we’ve got to make sure we throw everything at it.”

Horner said that Vettel was doing a good job in the race, despite a lack of straightline performance.

“Sebastian was really hanging on, and he was doing a really strong job. He managed to hold onto Jenson early on in the race, but then the Ferraris were just too quick for us on the straights. We were powerless to defend. But Sebastian did nothing wrong, he drove as hard as he could, and this circuit unfortunately just exposes our weaknesses.

“We were on target, we felt we could one stop. We knew it was marginal, but we really felt we could do it. Certainly in Sebastian’s case his tyres were in pretty good condition right up until the terminal failure with six laps to go.”

He declined to say much about Vettel’s drive through penalty for forcing Fernando Alonso off the road: “It’s irrelevant effectively after the DNF. Judge it for yourself – it seemed a bit harsh. It didn’t seem to warrant a penalty, but that’s my opinion.”

Sergio Perez left rivals scartching their heads by taking a stunning second place for Sauber at Monza, having started only 12^th.

The Mexican was the highest placed driver to start on the hard rather than the medium tyres. He was able to find unexpected pace on them, and was able to run a long opening stint as he worked his way up the order.

In the second half of the race he was on the medium tyres while those ahead were on the hard, and on the rubbered-in track, that proved just the ticket. He passed both Ferraris and was closing on winner Lewis Hamilton at the end of the race.

Although Perez and Sauber have pulled off some similarly successful strategies before, rivals struggled to explain the advantage he had.

“It was really enjoyable,” said Perez. “One of those races where you have the pace, and you are the one attacking. It was very crucial moments during the race, especially during my first stint, to go that long and to be able to keep the pace was not easy at all. I did quite a lot of laps on those tyres.

“Then in the second stint we managed to go maximum attack, and I was able to have good fighting with some drivers. It was just a great race.

“With the first stint I was a bit worried, especially with the data we had from Friday. I was a bit worried I was feeling some degradation from the tyres, so I was a bit worried that it was going to drop, that the tyre was going to drop but once I got until lap 20 it was looking really good.

“Before that I was in contact with the team every lap, trying to say that everything was fine. Every lap I asked them to stay in contact every lap, just in case we were in need to change the strategy.”

Perez admitted that qualifying had been something of a mess.

“I don’t think we had the pace in qualifying, on a single lap, to be even close to gaining the front row or close to the top five. We were not quick at all, we were lacking too much speed on the straights, and that was our problem. I’ve been sick all weekend. It’s been difficult, but it did not affect me at all, just yesterday in qualifying I did not have the good lap.

“I was too close to Bruno Senna so I lost a lot of downforce – it was the reason why we qualified just out of the top 10. Maybe top 10 was reachable, but more than that, not. It helped us, in a way, to change the strategy. We risk, I don’t know if we were the only one, or one of a few, to go for prime and it worked quite well. We were a bit worried about the warm up in the beginning, but it worked quite OK.”

Long linked with a future at Maranello, Perez downplayed the fact that he passed two Ferraris.

“I’m fighting for my team and will always fight for the team that I’m in. I will always give my maximum I can. And I will fight any driver, no matter if it’s Fernando or Lewis, I will fight for my team to get the result – and I think every driver will do the same.”

Sebastian Vettel will start the Italian GP from fifth place despite Red Bull struggling for one lap pace at Monza.

Vettel only just made it out of Q2, while his team mate Mark Webber was left stranded in 11th place.

In Q3 Vettel benefited from problems for Fernando Alonso to take sixth, and gained another place from Paul Di Resta’s penalty.

In Spa Vettel qualified 11th, made a bad start, and still managed to finish second. Asked by this blog if today had been a good case of damage limitation, Vettel agreed.

“Yeah I think P6 was probably the maximum we could get today,” he said. “The final attempt was a bit messy with traffic. Obviously I tried to get a bit of a tow. It probably wasn’t working perfectly but nevertheless as I said sixth on the grid and then with Paul’s penalty to start from fifth was more than we probably expected this morning, to be honest.”

Vettel said that any weaknesses in the package this weekend were not related to previous events.

“We think it’s a different story here compared to other races. It’s not a big secret that we are not quick enough on the straights, and equally we’re not quick enough in the corners. If you combine the two then it’s difficult to be fastest.

“I think race pace should be a little bit better. It’s difficult to know what’s going to happen, but I think since yesterday we made progress, and if anything our most competitive run was the long run yesterday. So we should be in better shape.

“Obviously we need to wait and see how the others are, how quick they will be, maybe they have done little tweaks or adjustments, but I think we should be alright in the race. But surely we are not expecting to win. I think the pace was not there at any time this weekend. I’m looking forward to a good car in the race, but it’s difficult to know what we can do.”

One extra concern for RBR is that in FP3 Vettel suffered an alternator failure – something that Renault and the team thought had been addressed after Valencia.

“It was a big surprise, it happened this morning, and we didn’t expect it at all after what happened earlier this year in Valencia. We had a fix and we were convinced that we would not run into any kind of problem again, therefore it was a big surprise. At the moment obviously it’s not clear why it happened. It’s difficult to react – you obviously just put a spare alternator on the car, and you go again. But I’m reasonably confident that with the mileage we’ve done so far without any trouble then we should be fine tomorrow.”

Fernando Alonso says he would have had an easy pole position had he not hit a technical glitch in Q3 at Monza.

The Ferrari driver was fastest in both Q1 and Q2 but suffered an anti-roll bar failure when it mattered in Q3. The car was still driveable but clearly lost speed, and he was left stranded in 10^th place.

“Something was broken on the car in Q3,” said Alonso. “I think we lost the most easy pole position of the year because we did 1m24.1s with an easy lap, and Lewis did 24.0s. We were expecting 23.5s or something like that. So we lost the best opportunity for pole, but that’s the way it is.

“For tomorrow the car will be OK, but for sure starting 10^th will be more difficult. We know the problem, and we went out just to check if we could overtake one or two positions, maybe P8 or P9 or something like that, but it was not enough, and we lost too much performance. We’ll see tomorrow.”

Ferrari has something of a history of being fast on Friday at the Italian GP, so it was perhaps no surprise when Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa finished the afternoon session in third and fourth places – just behind the two McLarens.

However it was not a perfect day for the team, as Alonso suffered an engine problem in FP1 and a gearbox issue in the afternoon. Both were well used units reserved for Friday use, and there will be no gearbox grid penalty.

The Spaniard said the failures were not a handicap.

“It’s just a little bit of a strange Friday because of mechanical failures,” he said. “Sometimes we push some parts to the limit or have some experimental things on Friday that you need to get some mileage, some experience. I think it’s not any problem at all.

“What we need to concentrate on is the performance for tomorrow. I think McLaren looked very strong again today, so we need to find something extra for tomorrow, and then we’ll see. I think it will be an interesting weekend. The weather should be stable all weekend so that should help us to be very precise and maximise the performance of the car.”

Alonso said that the team learned a lot today after having so few dry Fridays recently.

“I think they were good sessions. Obviously it’s extremely important for example today what we learned from Felipe, when you have a session that you have to stop for any reason you have to trust your team mate and all the information from the other car, so thanks to Felipe today we will not miss any of the laps that we were not able to do.

“We need to improve the car, as I said. I think we are more or less happy with the performance. We don’t need to change the car black to white for tomorrow, which some Fridays we need to do, because we were not happy at all. It’s just small tweaks that we need to do for tomorrow. It was a positive Friday in terms of performance.”

Red Bull struggled for one-lap pace at Monza today, but both drivers insisted that the situation could be resolved with some overnight work.

Mark Webber finished FP2 in 11th place, two spots ahead of Sebastian Vettel. In the first session they were ninth and 11th respectively.

“I think overall we are not as quick as we would like to be, so still some work to do I guess,” said Vettel. “I don’t know what [Mark] did, I don’t know what the others did, but I think we are probably more competitive in race trim.

“But for sure today wasn’t as good in terms of true pace. I think you could see we were not quick enough, so a lot to do. So far we ran through our programme and we didn’t have any problems. There’s a lot of work to do but I think the tyres will be good for a single stop in the race.

“I think it looked pretty tight at the top in general. We’re a little bit away from that, we need to do a little bit of a step tomorrow, and then we’ll see.”

Webber seemed a little more upbeat about today’s progress.

“We are working hard, not quite there yet,” said the Australian. “A little bit more competitive with fuel in on the long run, but we’ve got a bit of work to do with the fuel out. We’re normally not Friday World Champions, so we’ll do a bit of work tomorrow.

“Like I say we generally find a good step on Friday. With fuel it’s pretty good, short runs, we need to look at it.”

Jenson Button doesn’t expect his team mate Lewis Hamilton to leave McLaren next season.

However the former champ insists that he doesn’t have any inside information and knows only what he’d seen in the media.

“Obviously we all read newspapers and we all read magazines and we all go on the internet, so you hear things,” he said. “I was surprised to see what I read yesterday. I haven’t got a clue if there’s any truth in it at all. I think I’ll have the same team mate next year – because this is the best choice for him.”

Button did concede that sometimes it’s good to try a new challenge, although he didn’t think it was worth leaving McLaren for that.

“I think for all of us if you’re in the same place for too long it can get a bit stale, but not here. It’s a great team and a team that’s always giving us an opportunity to fight for wins. Whether we’ve had a chance to fight for the World Championship, that’s another question, but they always give you the possibility of winning Grands Prix, and that’s what a driver wants. But also a driver likes excitement and adrenaline and new challenges, and that’s the reason why I came here in the first place.

“I don’t think anything will change in terms of driver line-ups, but I might be wrong.”

Ross Brawn says that Mercedes remains committed to a future in F1, despite its reluctance to sign up for the latest Concorde Agreement.

The team boss expects a solution to be found which will allow Mercedes to join the other established teams in agreeing terms for a new deal.

“There’s no doubt,” said Brawn of the company’s commitment. “We’ve had, as you know, tough discussions. I’m optimistic that we’ll be able to close those discussions soon. And obviously that’s a high level of commitment. So I think Mercedes are very committed to F1.

“Bernie’s new deal is until the end of 2020, I think so, he’s asking for a commitment from the team’s for eight years. So the new Concorde or whatever develops is for a substantial period. We’re working with Bernie to find the best solution, and I think we’re very close.”

Ross Brawn refused to be drawn today on speculation that Lewis Hamilton could be on his way to Mercedes next year.

Brawn said that no decision had been taken on who will drive alongside Nico Rosberg, who has a multi-year contact with the team.

“We don’t comment on speculation, I’m afraid,” said Brawn. “So when we make our driver decision, then you’ll be the first to hear about it. But it’s still some way off.

“Coming to a conclusion on our driver situation will take some time still and when we’re there we’ll be very happy to share it with you. But we’ve still got some way to go.”

Inevitably the idea that Michael will stop at the end of this season is gathering momentum, although Brawn said nothing was clear yet.

“We’re discussing things with Michael and there’s no panic in those discussions. That’s what we’re focussed on at the moment.

“I don’t think it’s his [decision] alone, we’ve got to find a solution together. I can’t honestly go into details, but it’s not Michael’s decision to stay, it’s not our decision for him to stay, it’s a joint decision.

“It could be tomorrow, it could be a month. We’ve got a lot of things we’re discussing with him, and when we reach a conclusion, we’ll be happy to share it with you. I can’t set a timescale, I’m afraid.”

Asked specifically if he would like Michael to stay on, Brawn said: “I think Michael has a huge amount to offer. We saw his driving in Spa – a great performance in Spa that we didn’t back up with as strong a car as we’d want. And he’s had lots of performances like that this year.

“I’m very happy with Michael’s performance. With these technical challenges that we’re going to face particularly in 2014 someone of Michael’s experience and calibre would be great asset to any team, but particularly our team.”

Regarding Hamilton, he said: “Lewis is a very good driver, an excellent driver.”

Brawn made the point that Mercedes should be a team that’s capable of attracting the best drivers, whoever they might be.

“We want to be a team that every driver wants to drive for. We’ve got a tremendous history that we’d like to live up to. We haven’t quite got there yet. I think the plans we’re making, and the structure we’re putting in pace, particularly with the changes in regulations that are coming over the next couple of years, we  are very ambitious in what we want to achieve.

“If we achieve what we want to achieve then we want to put ourselves in a position where every driver in F1 would consider driving for us. The last couple of years Red Bull has been a team that’s been very competitive, and most drivers want to have a red Bull under them. We want to be in a situation where most drivers want to have a Mercedes under them, and that’s what we’re trying to do.”

Former Force India and Sauber technical director James Key has joined Toro Rosso in the same role, replacing Giorgio Ascanelli.

Key officially started work on Monday after the appointment had been rumoured for some time.

“With James Key in the role of Technical Director, we start a new chapter in the history of Toro Rosso and I hope it’s an interesting one,” said team boss Franz Tost.
“James comes to us with a strong reputation and has proved he can help smaller teams punch above their weight. We cannot expect miracles in the next few races, but James has joined early enough to have an influence on our car for 2013, when we hope to have a better season than this one, even if last weekend’s result in Belgium, with both cars in the points, was encouraging.”

Key added: “It’s a great opportunity for me to join a team that strikes me as extremely ambitious with a workforce that is very motivated. Even after just a few days, I have sensed, from everyone I have dealt with, an enthusiasm to move the team forward. There are clear opportunities coming up through regulation changes and we intend to look not only at the long term, but the short term too.

“We will be studying the team’s working practices, throughout all the departments, while looking to see which areas need strengthening further. Our aim has to be to move the team up a level in terms of its position within the F1 hierarchy. Next year’s car project is already well underway and it seems to be going in the right direction and now we have a few months left to ensure it is a step forward from this year’s car.

“Looking closer to home, there is still some development to come on this year’s STR7 and we will be doing our best to make the most of the remaining eight races with the developments already in the pipeline, all of it coming off the back of a good weekend in Spa.”