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Tom Cruise has tried a Red Bull-Cosworth - at the age of 49

Tom Cruise had a run in the Red Bull show car at Willow Springs on August 15, the company has revealed.

The Cosworth-powered car was in the States as part of a promo tour that included a visit to Austin.

Cruise has driven various racing cars over the years – inspired in part by working with Paul Newman on The Color of Money – and of course he starred as Cole Trickle in the 1990 NASCAR movie, Days of Thunder.

His test was supervised by David Coulthard, who gave him tips in a road car first. Cruise completed some 24 laps of the Californian track, which is not a bad effort given that he is 49, and his neck would have taken a pounding even at relatively modest speeds.

Coulthard commented: “Tom’s the real deal. I was surprised that he picked it up so quickly and is such an accomplished driver. His recall was incredible considering how complicated driving an F1 car is. He’s a guy who really pushes the envelope in real life. This day was not green screened. He thoroughly impressed me.”

Twenty years ago this week Michael Schumacher officially became an F1 driver when he took to the track at Spa on Friday August 23. It was his first public outing for Jordan GP, following a test the previous week at Silverstone.

Michael is sure to be a focus of attention this coming weekend, and he has already acknowledged that – even for a man who professes no interest in statistics – that it will be a special anniversary.

Funnily enough at Spa in 2001 when I quizzed him on the significance of the 10th anniversary he looked at me blankly and said that as it was his 11th F1 season, he didn’t agree with my maths! This time, apparently it does mean something.

“The race in Spa will certainly have a special touch to it this time, as this is where I drove my first ever Formula One race 20 years ago,” said the German in a team preview. “It’s hard to believe that this was such a long time ago.

“A lot has changed in those 20 years, but one thing has not – the track is still sensational. I just love the great nature of the location and the resulting layout with all the ups and downs. To me, Spa remains my ‘living room’, because it has been the stage for so many things which have been remarkable for my sporting career.

“This is why this time I would like to specifically send a big thank you to all my fans for their loyalty and support, which I was happy to receive during those 20 years and also since my comeback.

“Talking about the sporting side prior to Spa, we are all returning from the summer break with fresh motivation and energy, and will try to set an exclamation mark at the Belgian Grand Prix.”

Jenson Button is the third World Champion confirmed so far for the Race of Champions in Dusseldorf on Dec 3-4.

He will join local heroes Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel.

Button previously took part in 2008 and 2009, but skipped last year. It’s unusual for McLaren to release a driver to compete in such an event.

“I’m really looking forward to coming back to the Race Of Champions again in December,” said Button. “It’s a great way to round off the season and it’s always fun to meet up with old friends from all the different forms of motorsport. Apart from last year when I had a clash of commitments, I’ve turned into something of an ROC regular.

“It’s a lot of fun and everyone wants to put on a good show for the fans. In the ROC Nations Cup Team Germany had an annoying habit of beating us at Wembley so it’s probably about time someone managed to pay them back on their home ground…”

Organiser Fredrik Johnsson added: “We are delighted that we will see Jenson back at the Race Of Champions in 2011. He has always been a hugely entertaining performer in this event and we’ve always appreciated his appearances.

“The last two were particularly memorable as he came to Wembley in 2008 when he didn’t know if he’d still be driving in F1 in 2009. Then, 12 months later, he returned to ROC as F1 world champion. We look forward to plenty more excitement from him in December.”

Rubens Barrichello has responded to doubts about his future at Williams.

The Brazilian is out of contract at the end of this season, and has yet to conclude a deal with his current team. However tonight he used Twitter to deny media suggestions that he intends to retire.

“I saw some news saying that I wanted to stop racing,” he wrote. “Makes me laugh really. All I want is to carry on racing.

“Working double hard to have a good car for next year. Problems do exist and we are here to solve them. Williams need me as much as I need them.

“And to be honest I told Williams that if they offered me a two years contract that I would sign right now.”

New Jersey has once again emerged as a potential host for a second US GP, which would run in addition to the Austin event.

The mayors of two neighbouring New Jersey towns have expressed an interest in holding a race as early as 2013 – and insist that it will be a source of profit, and that no tax dollars will be spent. A group of investors led by Le Mans racer Leo Hindery Jr are behind the project.

The street track would be close to the Hudson River and will have New York City as a back drop.

Weehawken Mayor Richard Turner and West New York Mayor Felix Roque said in a joint statement:  “In these uncertain economic times when every direct and indirect revenue source is vital, our own Formula One race could be a very positive boost to our citizens. This said, we need to ensure that the financial benefits from the privilege of having these races in our towns are equitably shared and that no tax dollars are used.

“The investor group has already told us that our towns would be substantially compensated annually. If this advances, we will make every effort to ensure that these events will be highly enjoyable for the people of our towns.”

Once the home of Fred Astaire, Weehawken has a population of just 12,000, while West New York has 49,000 residents. Clearly they are not big enough to provide any public funding and would be open to suggestions of ways to generate more income – not to mention some PR.

According to the WSJ a spokesman for New Jersey governor  Chris Christie said: “The prospect of having Formula One come to New Jersey is exciting.”

The 63-year-old Hindery was the founder and former CEO of the The YES Network, a sports cable channel that is the TV home of the New York Yankees and several major sports teams. He has won Emmy awards as an executive producer, and written books about management.

He is now managing partner with New York’s InterMedia Partners, a private equity fund with investments in a range of cable channels, including Universal Sports and Soul Train. He is also active in Democratic politics, and is an advisor to Barack Obama.

Hindery competed at Le Mans between 2002 and 2005, and was a regular in the ALMS series.

It remains to be seen whether his group can fund the sanctioning fee and the creation of the venue, although a street race will be a lot cheaper than building a permanent venue from nothing.

Although the calendar looks pretty packed for the forseeable future – Turkey has been dropped for 2012 – a New Jersey race would form a perfect double header package with Montreal, now that Austin has been moved to November.

In recent times attempts to bring a GP to Jersey City and to the Monticello track in NY State have both failed. In the former case it was the local mayor who raised objections.

Weehawken itself may be small - but this is the view across the Hudson...

Christian Horner says that there is no hurry to finalise a deal with Mark Webber for next season, but insists that he expects the Australian will stay.

Red Bull’s Helmut Marko has added a twist to the story by apparently suggesting in an interview that Webber would retire at the end of next season and create an opening for Daniel Ricciardo.

“Things can get lost in translation,” said Horner. “We’re talking with Mark about next year. I’m expecting him to be here next year. He’s a popular member of the team. He could have another two, three, four years, that’s down to him. He’s still very competitive and very hungry.

“We always agreed that later in the summer we’d sit down and talk. Mark and I have got a very good relationship. Conversations with Mark, as you all know, tend to be fairly straightforward. Both sides are keen to continue. During the next few weeks we’ll take this opportunity to sit down, and during this break in the championship, look at next year.”

Horner says that there are no firm plans for Ricciardo.

“I think Daniel is on a development phase. He’s got this opportunity to come into F1. He looks a really interesting talent. But he’s just starting to cut hid teeth in F1. He’s got his opportunity with HRT, it’s hard to benchmark his ability, because effectively he’s only racing his team mate. It’s a great opportunity for him which I’m sure he’ll hopefully make the most of.”

Martin Whitmarsh says he’s confident that Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton can race each other safely after the pair exchanged places several times in the Hungarian GP.

Although they collided in Canada they have raced without problems on many other occasions over the past two seasons.

“It’s happened a few times this year and last year,” said Whitmarsh. “And it’s tough, but I trust the drivers. They’ve bumped and scraped each other a few times, and they trust each other. They’re going to race each other and clearly that’s how it is. They’re there to race each other, they get no instruction, I think it’s great television. It’s good for the team spirit to see two drivers racing in that way.”

Meanwhile Whitmarsh praised Button for his afternoon’s work: “A fantastic job by Jenson in those conditions. It was easy to make a mistake, easy to get it wrong, but I think he didn’t put a foot wrong and really deserved that win. He just drove, a great, great race. For a 200^th GP, to win it in those conditions, is great. He’s proven several times already that in these changeable conditions he can read it, he can feel it, he can get it right.”

He also lauded Hamilton for not being downbeat despite a busy afternoon that included a penalty and some decisions that didn’t work out.

“He stayed calm, came back, overtook two cars, came fourth, and got some valuable points. He’s conducted himself very well after the race. He’s been probed provocatively by various members of the media, who wanted some reaction about his penalty, but I think he stayed calm. He’s been mentally strong this weekend and just done a fantastic job.”

Although his car was not changed as much as Sebastian Vettel’s, Mark Webber says his mechanics also had a late night on Friday, finishing at 0330 after the team broke the FIA curfew.

Webber made some intriguing comments about the serviceability of Adrian Newey’s RB7.

“People think we’re re-inventing the whole car, but it’s a pretty tough car to work on,” he said. “Even pretty small changes take a long period of time. That’s all you can read into that. When you start to make some reasonable changes it takes the guys quite a long period to do that.”

Webber said he was not worried that Vettel’s car had changes that his didn’t get.

“The decision for Sebastian to change rear suspension was done very, very late last night. I’d already left the track. I don’t have a problem with that. Obviously that was a call that was made. It wasn’t really on the radar to do it, to be honest.”

Meanwhile Webber will start the Hungarian GP from sixth position after a disastrous first sector of his crucial lap.

The Aussie suffered KERS problems in qualifying, but got it back for his final lap. However when he used it at the start of the lap he managed to fail to activate DRS. He didn’t realise immediately as his speed was the same as before, the gain of one ‘boost’ having in effect cancelled out the loss of the other.

To make matters worse his tyres weren’t quite up to temperature as his out lap wasn’t as fast as intended, as he was behind Jenson Button – whose car did not need to run as fast to get the tyres into the right operating window.

“It wasn’t the smoothest session,” said Webber. “Basically if you look at the last lap, which was the most important lap because it was the only lap I had KERS for, I was very optimistic that I could do a pretty good job. The problems started really on the out lap, because the McLaren’s out lap was like the old Jaguar out laps, just tootling around. They just cruise, and they can go bang, and they have temperature and away.

“We need more pace than that. I couldn’t go any quicker, because JB wouldn’t let me pass. Which is fair enough, that’s all fair game, I don’t have a problem with that. I’d do the same thing if I had to do an out lap like that. And I was also mindful of the fact that there wasn’t a huge amount of time left in the session, I had to keep an eye on that.

“It was my first lap onto the start/finish with KERS and DRS, it looks like I activated the DRS early and it didn’t respond, so I did the whole straight without DRS. The rolling split I didn’t notice that I didn’t have the DRS open because I used the KERS, so the rolling split didn’t look bad compared with my previous lap, because I had the KERS. That in combination with JB, my first sector was a complete disaster. From Turn 5 the lap I did was identical to Sebastian.”

Yesterday I suggested here that F1’s engine makers might not be very happy to see the FIA’s powertrain expert join Craig Pollock’s PURE organisation, and today Renault’s Rob White made its crystal clear that the manufacturers have serious concerns.

Gilles Simon was at the heart of discussions over the 2014 turbo rules – with access to inside information from the engine makers until just a few days ago – and yet will start work as technical director with Craig Pollock’s company on Monday.

It’s believed that previous FIA technical experts such as Tony Purnell – who was hired by Max Mosley – had agreements that ensured they could not make such a move.

“First reactions are fairly predictable and understandable from my part,” said White. “On a personal and professional level, we’ve had good relations with Gilles for a long time in his present – for a couple more days – job, and in his previous job at Ferrari.

“Of course, it’s of concern to all of us that in this close relationship with Gilles and the FIA over the past year, 18 months, that we’ve given unprecedented access to Gilles – we certainly have at Renault and I believe all of the engine companies have done so, particularly in respect of the state of progress in our respective engine development programmes alongside the rules package.

“And so, of course, we would be most concerned to be reassured that information to which Gilles has had access to in those very privileged circumstances as a representative of the FIA is not used in his new capacity as an employee of a competitor.”

Asked if he felt that that such a situation shouldn’t be allowed to happen in the future, White said: “It’s a very complicated sport. In order that the technical and sporting regulations can be administered successfully, then we require the governing body to have good people and they probably require to have access  to the teams, and therefore there’s an obvious risk that needs to be managed, if the same people can crop up in a different shirt very shortly afterwards.”

Lewis Hamilton has made a much better start to the weekend in Hungary than in Germany, where he went on to win the race.

At the Nurburgring on Friday Hamilton was well off the frontrunning pace, and cautioned that he could not fight for pole – only to start second. Given that Jenson Button was also well up it suggests that McLaren will be competitive this weekend.

“It’s a great feeling to already start the weekend on a high,” said Hamilton. “Again, not really expected. I think the climate is working quite well for us, it’s not as hot as it usually is here. And the car is feeling better again. The guys have been working hard back at the factory, we’ve got a couple of small things this weekend, which in such a short time is quite impressive.

“We’re just working on the balance of the car. It’s very early to say what’s going to happen, but we are competitive at least, and I think we can compete with the guys at the front.”

Hamilton insisted that he wasn’t getting too excited just yet.

“I think it’s important not to take too much from a Friday. You can get excited or you can get down, it’s better just to focus on the set-up. We’ll come back tomorrow, the temperatures might be different, the track might be different, the situation could be different.

“But I do think we had the same pace we had last week, so I do think we can challenge the Ferraris and the Red Bulls, which is exciting. And then we’ll see how it rolls from there.”

Asked if he could win this weekend he said: “We do have a positive buzz in the team, but without a doubt we do know it will be massively tough this weekend, with the tyre cooling, the pit stops, the tyres, the way they degrade. But we’ll be pushing as hard as we can, and of course it’s our target.”