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The Austin F1 track will cost $180m to build, according to documents given to the Statesman newspaper.

An apparent battle of wits between the local media and promoter Tavo Hellmund continued when the newpaper requested information on the project. Despite them being marked “Confidential” and copyrighted to Hellmund;s company, they were released by City Hall after the attorney general decreed that they were not exempted under the Texas Public Information Act.

The actual building of the track is being funded privately, and thus in theory the number is not of any great relevance to the taxpayer. Of more interest perhaps is the claim that the race will have a $300m annual impact on the Austin area. In theory the $25m granted by the government to help offset running costs will be funded by sales tax.

Aside from quoting the cost of building the track, the documents contend that the project will require 1500 construction workers, and that 1200 people will be employed over the Grand Prix weekend. There will also be 40 full time employees at the venue.

Other activities expected to keep the track busy for up to 250 days a year include testing, alternative fuel research (as previously outlined here), driving schools, police training, music concerts and “high-end auctions.” There is also mention of NASCAR and drag racing events.

Fernando Alonso insists that the championship is still wide open with seven races to go, and says that Ferrari has to stay calm as it tries to close the gap to the leaders.

Alonso gave his thoughts on the season  in an interesting video interview today on the Ferrari website, in which he also said that his experience of battling for titles could pay dividends.

“I think we have to be happy with our championship so far,” said Alonso. “We had some good races and some disappointing races as well, but overall I think we are in a position in the championship now very close to the leader. In a short distance we are five drivers fighting for the championship, so we are there. There are seven races to go now, anything can happen in these seven races. We always start from zero, so we need to be the best one in this last part of the championship.”

The Spaniard said that the gap to the Red Bulls in Hungary was disappointing, but he was happy to get points for second place.

“I think at Ferrari we need to think always about the win, we need to aim for pole positions and victories every race we go. In Hungary this was not possible, we were not as quick as our competitors, the Red Bulls, so it was a little bit of frustration, a little bit of disappointment in Budapest. But in the end we know that there will be some circuits that will suit our car, and we need to take the opportunity to win, as we did in Germany.

“And there will be some circuits which maybe are not perfect for our characteristics, so we need to make the best of the race, as we did on Hungary. Overall I think as a team group we worked very well in the last part of the championship, and we maximised always our performance.”

He pointed out that while Red Bull pulled away in Hungary, Ferrari was still the same margin ahead of the rest relative to the previous race.

“I think we need to start with the gap from Ferrari to the rest of the teams, McLaren, Renault, Mercedes. It was a couple of tenths in Germany or half a second, and in Hungary it was the same. So we maintained more or less our good level of performance, it was more Red Bull that was maybe underperforming a little bit in Germany and overperforming in Hungary, due to the characteristics of the Hungarian circuit.

“I think with these medium/high speed corners, not many straights, that was a perfect circuit for Red Bull, and we knew that. We have to remain calm. The championship is 19 races, and for the overall picture of the 19 races, I think Ferrari has a very competitive package.

“I think we have to respect everyone. So far until Hungary McLaren and Hamilton were dominating the championship, and we know how strong they can be. Also Red Bull has a very quick car this year, and they are now leading the championship with Webber. It’s going to be tough, it’s going to be difficult, but we are there.

“We are in a position now that we are able to take the lead of the championship if we win one race. I think we have to remain calm we know that four or five drivers will fight until the last race, but we need to use our experience as a team, Ferrari winning so many championships, and my personal experience as well, fighting for three championships. We have to stay calm, and in these seven races do as many races as possible. I think continuity will be key to winning the championship.”

Regarding the next race in Spa, he added: “It’s a circuit with all types of corners, slow and high speed corners, the circuits goes up, down, so the feelings that you have driving in Spa are very unique. But at the same time I think we have fantastic races in the calendar. We have Malaysia in my case, I love this track as well, we have the Monaco GP which is special for all of us. At Spa we know how beautiful is that circuit, and how important it is to win at Spa.”

Enthusiasm in the F1 paddock for the scheduled visit to Korea in October could be described as lukewarm at best, and ongoing speculation to the effect that the race won’t happen continues to leave people a little sceptical.

Sources suggest that even Korean companies are not in a rush to book Paddock Club hospitality, since the venue is so far removed from the focus of their activities in Seoul. Nevertheless Bernie Ecclestone insists that all is well.

“They’re getting on with it,” he told this blog. “Like all new events, until it happens, it’s a new event, and people won’t believe it. Even when I went to Abu Dhabi three months before the race I thought, ‘This isn’t going to happen.’”

Matters have not been helped by increasing tensions between North and South. Even Bernie concedes that that doesn’t help.

“That’s been going on for a long time. You mean if they started a war? It’s not good. It would probably be difficult, the spectators wouldn’t come to the race if there’s a war, which wouldn’t be good. But I shall be there…”

A Korean delegation met with Bernie at the recent German GP to update him on progress. Event boss Yung Cho Chung, the CEO and President of the Korea Auto Valley Corporation, says everything is on schedule.

“Our preparation and construction is under control, and will be completed in August,” he told me. “Pre-inspection from the FIA is already done, and Charlie Whiting is quite happy with our progress. Now he is checking a report every day, but our schedule is in place so actually we e-mail him every day on what’s happening. Very soon FOM and other people will check out our preparations. We are very comfortable.”

He says the political situation is not a worry, and the government is happy to see the race go ahead: “I don’t think it’s a problem. If something goes wrong investors from overseas will know, but it’s never impacted our markets. We are trying to get the World Cup and the inspectors were in Korea recently.”

“The sports culture minister is coming to us, and already government workers come to our organisation. We have 55 people from the government in our area. Ticket sales are on schedule, and we are confident in selling the Paddock Club. Big companies are interested.”

If Korea does drop out there will be a gaping three-weekend hole between Japan and Brazil.

The FIA has finally followed up on the Ferrari team orders controversy by confirming that the World Motor Sport Council will indeed look into the affair.

The hearing will take place in Paris on Wednesday September 8. There has been suggestions that it would be added to the agenda of the meeting already planned for Como later that week, but clearly it would have been tricky to get hold of the Ferrari drivers and personnel, who will be busy at Monza from Thursday.  

The FIA announcement makes it clear that FIA President Jean Todt personally approved the decision to follow up on the recommendation of the Germn GP stewards that he case go to the WMSC. However he won’t be at the centre of the actual hearing, as his predecessor Max Mosley was in the past. It’s a co-incidence that the first major F1 scandal on his watch involves Ferrari and Felipe Massa, but naturally Todt will be somewhat in the spotlight as things unfold.

The full announcement reads as follows: “On 25 July 2010, on the occasion of the Grand Prix of Germany counting towards the 2010 Formula One World Championship, the Stewards of the meeting, after hearing the persons concerned, noted an infringement by the Scuderia Ferrari of:

– Article 39.1 of the 2010 Sporting Regulations (“Team orders which interfere with a race result are prohibited”)

– and Article 151 c) of the International Sporting Code (“Any of the following offences (…) shall be deemed to be a breach of these rules (…) any fraudulent conduct or any act prejudicial to the interests of any competition or to the interests of motor sport generally”).

“In the light of the information in their possession, the Stewards decided to impose a fine of $100,000 on the Scuderia Ferrari and to forward the dossier to the FIA World Motor Sport Council.

“On the basis of that decision and of the inquiry report, and following the receipt of a report sent by the Stewards to the FIA, the FIA President has decided, in conformity with the new rules of disciplinary procedure adopted at his initiative on 11 March 2010, to submit the case to the judging body of the World Motor Sport Council.

“The disciplinary hearing of the World Council will be chaired by the FIA Deputy President for Sport and will take place in Paris on 8 September 2010.”

Red Bull boss Christian Horner says that his team can he happy with the outcome of the Hungarian GP, despite Sebastian Vettel throwing away a win and dropping to third.

In the end an inspired strategy call – in which Horner himself played a part – gave Mark Webber the chance to jump Fernando Alonso. And ultimately, thanks to the penalty Vettel suffered, it got him past his own team mate.

According to FIA sources Vettel dropped as much as 110 metres, or 22 car lengths, behind Webber. The rule says you have to stay within 10 car lengths at all times.

“It was a fantastic race for Red Bull, to win our 100^th Grand Prix with a one-three finish,” said Horner after the race. “The start was where we were always going to be exposed, and from the dirty side of the grid, Seb made a great start. Mark form the dirty side dropped a place to Fernando, and then the pace car came out at one of those crucial and uncomfortable times where we elected to split the strategy.

“It was a bit of a risk with Mark. We got Seb in right at the at the last moment, we managed to get him into the pit lane, because if he had completed that lap as we saw with [Fernando] in Valencia it would have been a disaster. We managed to get Seb serviced and back out.

“For Mark it was always going to be about building 20 seconds to the Ferraris, to get him ahead. Which was always going to be a tall order. Unfortunately at the restart Sebastian dropped too far behind the 10 car lengths he was supposed to be. I’m not quite sure why, we’ll have to have a chat with him to fully understand that. And then he had a drive through penalty which was fair, because Seb was that far behind Mark.

“And then Mark had to get his head down and achieve that 20 second magic number, which was the number he was chasing, to be able to do a pit stop and get ahead of the Ferraris. He managed to achieve 23, a great pit stop from the boys, and then it was a very comfortable second half of the race for Mark. Sebastian put Fernando under a huge amount of pressure, but at a track like this overtaking was always going to be very, very difficult.”

Horner said he didn’t know why Vettel had dropped so far behind in the safety car queue, although it seems pretty clear that the German had brainfade and just forgot the rule, assuming that he was fully aware of it in the first place.

“I think this kind of thing is obviously covered in the drivers’ briefings, and there was some discussion after China about this. We had a few radio issues with Seb, where it wasn’t fully clear whether he could fully hear us or not, which is why I spoke to him a couple of times in the race.

“It was something we discussed on the pit wall, and we obviously told him to push. I’m not sure how many of those messages he got, because we didn’t get a lot of response from the car, and that’s why I also delivered the message, because again he didn’t understand why he had the penalty, so I used the radio to try and explain to him.

“It was one of those things, which unfortunately for whatever reason, caught him out. What would have been a relative comfortable victory for him today turned into a third place, but a third place on a day when Lewis Hamilton didn’t score any points, and Jenson scored very few, it’s still a great team finish to get a dominate victory and a third place.”

Ferrari boss Stefano Domenicali says that the team is still in the fight for the World Championship, despite Red Bull’s ominous performance advantage in Hungary.

Domenicali says that Ferrari has to take any opportunities that come its way, especially when the opposition slips up.

“I think that for sure if you look from the beginning they were consistently faster than anyone else,” he said. “Certain Grands Prix, like Spain, Turkey, they were able to be faster by more than one second. Here it was the maximum gap. But then we had a couple of races, Canada, Valencia, Silverstone, where the gap was pretty much smaller.

“So I think for sure it’s our objective, but it’s not easy. In order to fight for the championship we need to do the maximum we can in terms of development, and then score the maximum points that we can, because as we saw today, anything is possible and everything can happen to anyone.”

Ferrari is hoping that an upgrade package for the next race in Spa will give the F10 a boost: “We have some developments that will be done, considering the downforce level of the Spa track. If it’s enough to close the gap, we will see. We will have a feeling on the Friday evening of the Spa weekend.”

Rubens Barrichello made his feelings about Michael Schumacher’s driving in Hungary clear by suggesting he didn’t want to beat his former team mate to heaven.

He also accused Michael of using karting tactics as he tried to defend 10^th place by edging Rubens into the pit wall. Schumacher was given a 10 place grid penalty by the stewards for the next race in Belgium.

“I like a fair battle, and I don’t think it was a fair battle,” said Rubens. “It was a bit of a go-karting manoeuvre. If he wants to go to heaven before me – if he goes to heaven, I don’t know if he goes to heaven. But if he wants to go before me, go up or down, I don’t want to go before him.

“I will never back off from a situation like that. It’s not fair for me to comment, I’m just happy for the team that we scored good points after a not very good qualifying. I’m a little bit sorry that the safety car came in and I lost out, but still it was a good race.

“It’s not up to me to give penalties. But if I was sitting there I would know exactly what to do. I’m a racing driver, I will never back off in a situation like that, especially after all I went through in my life with that, and who was it.

“He kept on coming, coming, coming. He should have chosen his line much before, and all of a sudden he chopped me across.”

The FIA is to clamp down on so-called ‘flexible wings’ – or at least attempt to clear the air on their use – by introducing more stringent load tests by the next race in Belgium.

The teams are being informed tonight at the governing body is making use of a rule which allows it to change the load tests in the course of the season, should it be deemed necessary. In essence teams are being told ‘this is what the tests will be like at the next race, be prepared’…

The FIA is to use Article 3.17.8 of the F1 Technical Regulations, which reads as follows:

“In order to ensure that the requirements of Article 3.15 are respected, the FIA reserves the right to introduce further load/deflection tests on any part of the bodywork which appears to be (or is suspected of), moving whilst the car is in motion.”

Article 3.15 covers movable bodywork as follows:

“With the exception of the cover described in Article 6.5.2 (when used in the pit lane), the driver adjustable bodywork described in Article 3.18 and the ducts described in Article 11.4, any specific part of the car influencing its aerodynamic performance:

“Must comply with the rules relating to bodywork must be rigidly secured to the entirely sprung part of the car (rigidly secured means not having any degree of freedom):

“Must remain immobile in relation to the sprung part of the car:

“Any device or construction that is designed to bridge the gap between the sprung part of the car and the ground is prohibited under all circumstances.

“No part having an aerodynamic influence and no part of the bodywork, with the exception of the skid block in 3.13 above, may under any circumstances be located below the reference plane.”

Ferrari young driver Jules Bianchi suffered a back injury in a crash in today’s GP2 race in Hungary, and will be out of action for a while.

Bianchi spun and was hit head-on by Ho-Pin Tung at the start of the race. He will likely miss the Spa and Monza races, and clearly his absence won’t do much for his career momentum. Ironically he is managed by Nicolas Todt, who had to deal with the Felipe Massa at the same track last year.

A Ferrari statement said: “Jules Bianchi, the talented young GP2 Series driver of the Ferrari Driving Academy, will be out of action for quite a long time following his accident on the Hungaroring circuit at the start of the first race of the seventh round of the championship. The Art Grand Prix driver fractured his second lumbar vertebra and is now recovering at Budapest’s AEK Hospital. The French driver, who never lost consciousness after the heavy impact of the accident that happened during the early stages of the race, will not be back in the cockpit until he has fully completed his rehabilitation programme.”

Jenson Button says he ended up stuck in 11^th in qualifying in Hungary simply because he couldn’t get the soft tyres to work.

That was despite him taking an extra set of the them at the start of Q2 so that he could make sure that the McLaren was dialled in on the options.

“We chose to run with option tyre in Q2 because we were worried that we would put it on the end of Q2 and find a very different balance with the tyre,” said Button. “I did a find a different balance with the tyre, I was struggling with entries quite a bit at the rear, and a lot of understeer apex and exit. The problem was the difference from entry to exit was so different it was very difficult to find a balance.

“So basically I just couldn’t find the grip on the option tyre. On the prime tyre the pace was good in Q1, but I couldn’t find the time in Q2 on the soft tyre. Obviously disappointing, Lewis did a great job in Q3. The frustrating thing for me was it seemed that in Q3 everyone apart from the first five didn’t really get a lap together, they weren’t quick.”

Despite his problems, Button is trying to see the glass as half full.

“It’s disappointing to be outside the top 10 by about two-hundredths. But looking on the positive side, which we have to now, I’m starting on the clean side, which makes a big difference around here. And I have a new set of tyres to put on the car. It’s not all bad, we can still have a good race from there tomorrow.”