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Ferrari boss Stefano Domenicali remains optimistic despite a nightmare weekend at Silverstone as Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa finished 14^th and 15^th.

Both men suffered punctures from collisions and Alonso received a drive through penalty for gaining an advantage when he passed Robert Kubica, but it was magnified when he was forced to wait to take it until after a safety car period had bunched up the field.

“The situation was Fernando was attacking Robert, because he had potentially much more speed in the car,” said Domenicali. “He tried to be aggressive and overtake, and we complain that the drivers are not aggressive and complain about the lack of overtaking. We spoke to race control on the radio to check the position.

“As soon as we received the information that let’s say, in the opinion of the stewards Fernando should hand back the position to Robert, he was already very far behind, and Robert was really slowing down, because he had a problem.”

While getting a penalty when the car overtaken had retired may seem a little strange, the stewards clearly also considered the time Alonso gained relative to other cars he was racing, although Ferrari is not convinced by that argument: “It’s a matter of gaining an advantage or not, and compared to whom, because that’s the point of discussion.”

The bottom line is that the penalty proved to be a lot more damaging than even the FIA had suspected.

“For sure we feel that it’s very harsh. It’s strange that these things appear when everything is going in the wrong direction. At this moment we have to stay cool, we have to react with the facts and it is positive to see that the cars have done a good step in performance.

“I’m sure that after these bad moments the luck will come back, and maybe we’ll move toward the others. We just need to believe in ourselves, we believe in the people that work in Maranello, we believe in our drivers. As I said, better times will come.

“We are really on the right side because we are going up with the performance of the car, so this is the best sign that we can take from this weekend, because really it was very bad for us today. The sun of a very good result is there in the middle of the clouds, this period of a difficult situation and also very unlucky scenarios will pass, I’m sure. We just need to stay strong and try not to be too emotional.”

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner says that championship order was the determing factor that led to Sebastian Vettel getting the only new RB6 wing today.

The move has caused a huge amount of controversy as it has been widely perceived as reflecting support for Vettel, but Horner denies that charge.

“It’s very simple,” he told this blog. “If you have two components and you lose one, one into two doesn’t go. We faced a situation today where we’ve had one component, there’s been a request from both sides of the garage for it, and a decision has to be made. You have to apply a logic to it, and that logic was we look at the championship, we look at P3, and that was what the decision was based on.

“Also, performance is unquantified. Adrian was particularly keen to run that wing this weekend to learn about it, and from a team perspective, it is right to run that wing. So therefore it has to go on one driver’s car. And whichever car it went on, you’re going to have one aggrieved driver. So to do it fairly, or to look at it objectively and rationally, the most logical thing is to say, OK championship order.

“If Sebastian had crashed the car, and damaged the front wing, it would have been a completely different scenario, because it would have been his mistake.”

Perhaps next time the choice should be made by an octopus…

For the full interview see: http://formula-one.speedtv.com/article/cooper-great-day-for-red-bull-tarnished/

Jenson Button admits he’s disappointed to have endured a disastrous qualifying session in front of his home fans at Silverstone.

The World Champion will start 14^th, 10 places behind team mate Lewis Hamilton, having found the car “undriveable” during qualifying.

“I am very disappointed,” said Button. “I wanted to have a good day here in front of the home crowd, and I love driving round here, so it’s frustrating to be so far back. This morning we obviously had a lot of work on, because everything changed from Friday to Saturday with the car.

“But I thought we went through the programme very well with both cars, and I was very happy with the balance. We didn’t actually change anything going into qualifying, because I was happy with the balance.

“As soon as I got into qualifying I just had very low rear grip. I had to dial out a lot of front end, which means taking a lot of front wing out of the car, locking up the diff. And I don’t know where the rear grip went.

“To me it felt I was taking front end out of the car to balance the car, but in truth it felt like I had less downforce than I had this morning. I don’t know why that is, maybe the conditions changed that much. It’s very sad, because I felt confident this morning, and happy with the car.”

Button said he had no regrets about the team’s decision to go back to the old spec, despite the obvious disruption that it caused.

“No, I think it’s the right decision. We had an update package, and in some ways it was positive, and in other ways it needs more work. We ran with the new wing and some other parts which are definitely a benefit. I think the blown diffuser needs a little bit of work, as we’ve found. We understand how it’s working, we have to spend a bit more time with that before we put it on the car for a race.”

Sebastian Vettel had a nasty moment at the end of morning practice in Silverstone when the entire nose of his car came loose and tipped forward, leaving the front wing dragging along the ground

The incident happened on the approach to the high speed new righthander at Abbey, and fortunately the German was able to run wide across the run-off area. Unaware of what happened he told the team that he’d just lost steering, and was told to return to the pits.

The team had done a ‘hot swap’ – ie a fast nose change – earlier in the session, but that was some time before it came loose. The nose is held on by four screws at the top and side which are tightened by mechanics before the car goes out. After the session Adrian Newey and the team engineers spent some time examining the front of the car.

“It’s a bit of a strange one,” said team boss Christian Horner.

McLaren has decided to revert back to standard specification for the rest of the British GP weekend after struggling with the update package on Friday.

The team experienced some problems with getting the car to work in its new configuration, especially after a set-up change between sessions made the car particularly difficult over the bumps. There were also some issues with cooling that had to be addressed. In the second session Lewis Hamilton was eighth and Jenson Button only 13^th.

The reversal is not as big a deal as it might first sound because the cars were scheduled for engine and gearbox changes anyway on Friday evening, so in effect the team is just rebuilding them with different bodywork, floor, exhausts and heat shielding.

If nothing else the team now has some useful knowledge with which to try again at Hockenheim with the new spec.

Jenson Button says he hopes that McLaren can get the most of its latest update package after a frustrating first day at Silverstone.

Button had a less productive day than his team mate, and was eighth in the morning session and just 13^th in the afternoon as the team chased a good set-up for the revised car.

“We’ve obviously driven it in the simulator and we’ve had it in the wind tunnel, but in reality we don’t have a lot of data,” said Button. “Today obviously we’ve got a lot of information to run through, and that’s why this evening is so important to us. We’re going to work as hard as we can to make it work, that’s what we’re here to do. We’ve got the best people in the pitlane I feel to do that.

“We’ve just got to keep working on the balance because I really want to run this update kit. The guys have worked so hard at the factory on getting it out to us at this race, it arrived very late last night. We want to make it work, and that’s got to be our aim.”

Button has a positive view of the changes to the track.

“It’s different. It takes away a bit from the flow of the circuit, but I think it adds something, which is a couple of slow speed corners. You need good mechanical grip, not just aero. It’s a possible overtaking opportunity as well, which would be nice.

“Abbey is very bumpy. We’ve struggled a little bit through there with our car, the car’s hitting the ground. We’ve had a few moments, so that’s an area where we need to improve.”

Mark Webber says he’s not worried about missing valuable practice time after a problem stopped him during the afternoon session at Silverstone.

The Australia was still quickest in the session, despite running only 15 laps to the 25 of team mate Sebastian Vettel.

“I had an electrical problem, which was a shame,” said Webber. “It would have been nice to complete the programme, but it’s not the end of the world, we still got some good information. The car worked pretty well and [we have] a lot of good stuff to go through tonight. I still did a bit of Sunday work during the day.”

Webber said he was impressed by the changes to the circuit.

“We expected it to be fast and it is, so they got it right. I don’t know if Tilke did this track [he didn’t], but whoever did they got the angles right, to make it difficult!”

He also expects stronger competition from McLaren: “I don’t think they’re showing everything. I think they’re waiting to unleash the car tomorrow.”

Lewis Hamilton was in a good mood after practice at Silverstone, despite finishing the afternoon session in eighth place after several spectacular moments.

The McLaren driver had been second fastest in the morning, and said that a set-up change in the lunch break went in the wrong direction. He’s confident that the car will be competitive again tomorrow when that is rectified.

This is McLaren’s first outing with its new blown diffuser package.

“Today we put on the new components, and I was well excited this morning,” said Hamilton. “The feeling in the car was positive. I was actually surprised at the pace we had this morning. We made some changes, and the changes we made to the car set-up actually didn’t make it better.

“Sometimes you find that’s the case. So we’ve got to go back to the set-up we had earlier on, and start from there again. Hopefully tomorrow the set-up will be better to drive. But generally I think the performance of the car is good.”

Lewis said he enjoyed the new track layout: “It was nice, it is bumpy, probably a bit more bumpy on our car for some reason, so that was we’re trying to fix. Otherwise it’s very fast, very flowing. I don’t think it upsets the swing of the track or anything. Like I’ve said it’s a little bit different turning right at Abbey instead of going left into the chicane. But it’s still very fast, it’s picking up grip bit by bit. There is a big bump going into Turn 11, but that just makes it more exciting.

“Through the couple of hairpins its very slippery. It’s low speed compared to the rest of the track, and obviously you set the car up for the high speed corners, but unfortunately that means at the low speed corners you struggle a little bit more, but that’s the sacrifice you have to make.

“I definitely feel we’ve made a step forward from Valencia. This is track a bit like Valencia where you’d normally see a second gap between us and Red Bull. I don’t think you’ll be seeing that gap tomorrow, I think it will be a lot closer hopefully. If we get the car set-up right, then we should have no problems.

“We knew that they (RBR) were going to be exceptionally fast this weekend, but we have not go the optimum out of the car yet. Tomorrow there’s more to come.”

He said it was hard to quantify the effect of the new package.

“I don’t know, all I can say is when I got in the car they didn’t know how much downforce it as going to give us. I had a big grin on my face when I got to full throttle. It makes a nice difference. I don’t know whether it makes as big a difference as perhaps they thought, but it’s something that you have to tweak.

“You saw the Ferraris ran theirs at the last race, and it didn’t just work. The same for Mercedes, it didn’t just work. You don’t just bolt it on and it works. It’s something you have to adjust. At least it’s running well. I do feel a difference. The front wing’s very good as well, and there’s clearly a lot of potential.”

HRT has confirmed that Bruno Senna will be back in the car from Germany onwards, but Sakon Yamamoto will finish the Silverstone weekend.

The first communication from the team confirmed that “Bruno Senna has all the support of the Spanish team, that he remains one of the Hispania Racing/HRT F1 official drivers and that he will be continuing to drive in the remaining races of the 2010 World Championship.”

The team has made no other comment about the situation but clearly there has been a dispute between team boss Colin Kolles and the Brazilian driver, and he has been ‘rested’ for one weekend.

Bizarrely exactly the same thing happened to his uncle Ayrton during his first year with Toleman in 1984, when he fell out with the team management and was replaced for one race.

No details have emerged of the current situation but one source said that the dispute did not involve either money or any performance factors.

Sakon Yamamoto has replaced Bruno Senna at HRT, not just for Friday morning practice, but the whole of the British GP weekend.

The news was confirmed by team boss Colin Kolles tonight, although he declined to be quoted officially ahead of any press statement from the team. He indicated that full story would come out shortly.

Senna is based in Britain and has a lot of fans here having done his early racing in the UK, so his absence will be especially disappointing for the Brazilian.

Yamamoto has done some Friday running this year, sharing the job with Christian Klien.