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Do the teams own the garage signage rights?

Bernie Ecclestone is said to be threatening a clampdown on F1 teams displaying sponsor signage in and outside their garages.

For decades teams have displayed logos in their garages without any outside interference. However yesterday they received a letter from Allsport, the organisation that controls trackside advertising, which in effect pointed out that it owns the garage advertising space.

Teams have no doubts that Ecclestone is behind the letter. The suggestion is that it’s part of a wider political game that is going on in relation to Pirelli and the deal it will have with teams, with some teams apparently still trying to negotiate their own special arrangements with the Italian company.

However when questioned by this blog, Ecclestone denied any involvement with the letter or its aims.

“It’s nothing to do with me,” he said. “It’s Allsport that look after all this stuff. Apparently these people [the teams] are putting up signs where they don’t have the rights.”

Asked if Allsport really did have the rights to the garages, Bernie said: “Yes. Everything on the circuit.”

He also denied that there was any connection with the tyre negotiations: “It’s nothing to do with Pirelli. I hope Pirelli don’t get the contract, and Michelin don’t get it, and we can have Avon…”

Teams say that they can find nothing in the Concorde Agreement that suggests any restrictions on advertising in their ‘designated garage space,’ which is defined by the FIA.

It’ll be interesting to see what happens next…

Jenson Button confirms that as far as he was concerned he was racing Lewis Hamilton when the pair traded places in Turkey, and a miscommunication led Lewis to not expect an attack from his team mate.

Hamilton had asked his engineer whether Button would try to pass, and was told he wouldn’t. The team has subsquently said that was an opinion, rather than any reflection of instructions given to either driver.

“It was definitely a miscommunication,” said Button when asked by this blog. “I was there to race, and Lewis was there to race. I was told to save fuel, I was given a lap time.  That was a 1m31s, on lap 46. I passed him on lap 48 and I did a 1m30.85s, so almost a 31s – you can’t judge the lap time exactly. And the next one was a 31.9s. So it wasn’t that I went quicker to overtake him. Lewis had done a 1m33s, so he was 2s off the lap time we were given.

“We had a good battle. I completely believe that when I came up behind Lewis on the exit of Turn 8 he knew that I was closing on him and he understood that I was going to try and pass him. It’s not like I overtook him and he let me have the position. We had a lot of fun and we were wheel to wheel. We never touched. It was a fun battle to have with your team mate, who you have a lot of respect for.

“Afterwards we were told you still need to conserve fuel, I was told it was critical. So I conserved fuel. I was doing mid-31s most of the time from then on.”

Button said he had no chance to stop Lewis coming straight back past: “I got a bad exit onto the last corner, because I was on the outside through Turn 12, I picked up some shit on my tyres, I think. I turned into the last corner, I got oversteer – you can’t see it on the TV – and I lost traction on the exit. It screwed me a little bit for the straight.

“Obviously I would rather have finished first, but it was a fun battle, and if you can’t finish first, it’s the second best thing, fighting with your team mate and fighting for a win.”

He thinks it’s inevitably that they will be fighting each other again:  “We’re all here to race and to fight, and sometimes it’s going to happen, if you’re racing wheel to wheel. If you’re both competitive drivers and you’re both quick, you’re going to find yourself next to each other on the grid quite often. You’re going to be racing each other, and you both want to beat each other, and sometimes you obviously go a little bit too far, and you touch, and things happen.”

Jenson thinks that the Vettel/Webber collision was a little unusual: “The accident with Sebastian and Mark was very strange. It wasn’t like they were fighting in a corner, collided because they got a bit too close or they were wheel banging.

“It looked to me as though Mark was just carrying on a straight line, and Sebastian thought he was going to move to the right to take his line for the corner, but Mark didn’t, he stayed still. That’s what it looked like. Sebastian went right and he didn’t expect that Mark was still going to be there.”

Meanwhile Jenson believes that Montreal will suit McLaren and its F-Duct, although he thinks Red Bull won’t be too badly off.

“Because there aren’t any high speed corners, I don’t think they will have that advantage. But I don’t think that you can forget that they have very good mechanical grip also. Also the way that their car works, there are a few things on their car that are different to most. I think those things will help them around here, with so many traction areas. They are still going to be quick. You can’t forget about Red Bull, they’re going to be for sure up the front.

“But this is a circuit that should work for us quite well. There’s long straights, and we’re very efficient. I think braking for us is a reasonably strong point, and mechanically we’re quite strong. I don’t think we’re going to be alone up front, the Red Bulls are going to be very quick, and I even think that Mercedes will be competitive. And you never know about Ferrari, they’ve been very up and down the last couple of races, but this is such a different circuit to Turkey, they could be competitive here also.”

Mark Webber says he has put the Turkey incident behind him and is ready to move on with the season. Despite all the fuss of last week, he says his views on what happend have not changed.

“Same as I said Sunday night to be honest,” he said in Montreal. “A tough day for the team, it was unfortunate. Move on.”

However, he did elaborate on what happened: “I turned my engine down because I had to save a bit more fuel, asked what position Seb was in with his fuel. I didn’t need much clarification because I knew that he was all over me. He’d saved a bit more fuel in the slipstream, so he could have a few more laps in a better fuel mixture if you like. We raced each other, and we knew what happened.

“In terms of these messages from the pit wall, it all happened in 70 seconds, basically. Everything was fine and 70 seconds, ‘Use to push to pass, don’t, where is it?, I don’t know, shit what happened?….’ Bang, it was all over. It happened fast. You guys [the media] have had 10 days to get your stuff together, and we had 60 seconds, and that’s actually what happened.

“I’m cool, absolutely fine. I’m totally over it, and ready to go this weekend. I’m looking forward to getting on the track.

“I was disappointed with the consequences, absolutely, but we’re moving on from there. You can talk as much as you want about it, but it doesn’t change anything.”

Webber says that the incident will not stop the two team mates racing each other.

“Yeah, we need to race each other still. Sometimes when you’re even more careful, different things happen. It was such a fine line what happened, the result wasn’t great obviously, one car didn’t finish, and in the future there is a big chance that we will race each other again.

“Your judgement as F1 drivers needs to be correct, whether I’m lapping Chandhok or racing Seb for the lead of the race, always as drivers we’re doing what we can to make the right calls from the cockpit, as I have done most of my career. When you’re racing at the front week-in, week-out, sometimes you’re going to have some action.”

Asked if he would now give Vettel more room he said: “Or vice versa? We’ll see. Every situation is different. Off the start we’ve Malaysia, we’ve had China, we’ve had stuff last year. I think the fans want drivers to race each other as well. The team had done their best to keep us driving at the front, and when you’re spending every fortnight on the same rows of the grid together, potentially racing each other all the time, you’re going to be close to each other. So we try to get the balance right for us, also as individuals in the team. Milton Keynes is working for both of us, and they want the best results out of whatever car that is.”

One of Webber’s biggest critics after the accident was Red Bull motor sport boss Helmut Marko, but Webber says he has no problem with him.

“Helmut wasn’t fully up to speed with all the facts at the time. Obviously he went pretty quick with his comments, we probably all learn and move on from that. Had a good chat to Helmut at the factory, he’s fine. He brought Seb along, he speaks the language, all those types of things. So you can expect a bit of emotional support that way. But I’m fine with that. There’s a lot of things that have happened with this time through his support, and I’ve been off the back of that as well.”

Meanwhile the Aussie recently signed up for another year with the team, a development that did much to calm things down in the camp.

 “We were very close to signing the contract before… Friday in Barcelona we were talking and very close to getting things done, and obviously Barcelona went very well for me. I’m bloody comfortable in the team, and have been since I arrived.

“Obviously when Seb arrived there was some nice momentum, you new charger, all that sort of stuff. I’ve just kept my head down and tried to do my job. It’s turned out pretty well for me this year, and the team have been great for both of us. That’s why we’ve got a good package and we’re pushing each other.”

Sebastian Vettel was giving very little away when quizzed on the Turkey collision today.

The German, clearly very keen to put the accident behind him, did not want to dwell on who was to blame, or express any regret for his actions.

“What happened, happened,” said Vettel. “There’s not much more to say. You can look at it from many different angles. I think you can’t change it now. Looking back I wouldn’t have done anything differently. Obviously what happened was bad for both of us, for the team especially, because we made quite some presents to McLaren in particular.”

Asked if he blamed Webber, Vettel said: “I didn’t say that did I? If you look from the outside… If you look at how much time there was from when I was close enough to the accident, it’s not that you have hours to think about it, with the speed about 310km/h, things happens so quickly that being 20cms more left more right whatsoever can make a lot of difference.”

He denied that he had made an aggressive move to the right.

“If you look at my onboard, I don’t see any aggressive movement. I did what I did and it didn’t work. You want to know what I did? I was close enough, I made the move, in F1 it’s not that easy to get close enough, so I got in the tow and went on the left, dived on the inside. Obviously there was not a lot of room for me on the inside, it was just one car width, which was fine. And then obviously I had the tow, so the overspeed, so I was passing, was more than half a car ahead, and then tried slowly to come back to the right. Then I spun.

“To be honest F1 is not about yesterday, it’s about tomorrow, so I don’t want to spend much time talking about what happened. There has been so many things in the press about engine turning down, turning up, whatsoever, being this and that. And most of it is not true.

“But the most important thing is we carry on, we have to move on. There is the next race here so two difficult races for us probably. But I’m confident, I mean so far we’ve see that our car works pretty well on all types of circuits, no matter the characteristics. So it should be good here as well. Let’s see.

“If you look, all four cars, Mark and myself, Lewis and Jenson, were in similar pace. I think it was quite exceptional to have a race for 40 laps within three or four seconds. Nobody was a second faster than anybody else. At that time I felt that I could do quicker, as I said got close enough, tried to pass, and it didn’t work.”

Asked if he would treat Webber differently now on track, Vettel said: “To cut a long story short, what happened, happened. Obviously it looks extremely stupid when it happens amongst team mates, so as I said I’ve talked to him, and I think we’re both fine with the situation. If it happens again then it looks very stupid. I think it will not happen.”

This chassis mock-up is the only evidence of progress at US F1

The US F1 dream finally ends today when the contents of the factory go up for auction in Charlotte at 0930 local time.

The list of lots reveals just how much equipment the team had bought, and which represents a considerable investment. Items include everything from office chairs and wastebins to a truck along with some state-of-the-art machinery.

However there is virtually nothing that relates directly to the car apart from a chassis mock-up, a chassis mould, and a single wheel.

The most unusual items are paintings of Dan Gurney and Mario Andretti, a barbecue, and an apparently unused bottle of champagne…

http://www.bidspotter.com/forms/imagegallery.php?gallery=10981&page=1

Ferrari has caught the F1 paddock by surprise by announcing that it has added two more years to Felipe Massa’s contract, which means the Brazilian will be on board until 2012.

Robert Kubica has be linked with the team for some months, but the news means that there won’t be an opening for the Pole or anyone else for some time to come.

Ferrari usually announces driver decisions late in the season, but clearly this time there has been an effort to provide Massa with a comfort zone after a difficult start to the year.

“I am happy to be given the opportunity to drive for Ferrari for a further two seasons,” said Felipe in a team statement. “Throughout my entire Formula 1 career, I have always raced with an engine made in Maranello and it is a matter of pride for me to be able to continue working with a team that I regard as a second family.”

Team boss Stefano Domenicali said: “Felipe has been part of Ferrari for almost a decade and together with us, he has grown as a driver and as a man, going through some very difficult times as well as giving us moments of great happiness. We wanted to show proof of stability for the future, believing in the worth of a driver pairing that is without equal in terms of talent, speed and its ability to work together for the good of the team.”

Red Bull has confirmed that Mark Webber has extended his contract and will stay with the team in 2011. The news comes hot on the heels of the Istanbul controversy and will go some way to calming things down.

Over the winter Webber had been rumoured to be contemplating retirement, and it was widely believed that Kimi Raikkonen had a deal in place to take over the seat, should he want to return to F1 in 2011. However Christian Horner recently denied that there was any such arrangement.

“It was an easy decision to remain with Red Bull Racing,” said Webber in a statement. “We began talking very early this year and were in a position to sign by the Barcelona Grand Prix. The decision to extend for a further year was a mutual one; it’s widely know that I’m not interested in hanging around in Formula One just for the sake of it and at this stage of my career, I’m happy to take one year at a time. I continue to feel very comfortable here – I have a fantastic relationship with the whole team and the factory at Milton Keynes feels like home.

“It’s been incredible to be part of the team as it’s moved forward from a mid-field competitor to one that is challenging for the Championship. I hope we experience more success together in the future and achieve our ultimate goal of winning the World Championship.”

Horner said: “The decision to retain Mark was very straightforward. He is an important member of our team and is currently in the best form of his career, as the current leader of the Drivers’ Championship. The team is extremely happy that the driver pairing of Mark and Sebastian will remain unchanged for a third season in 2011.”

Button looks chilled before the start in Istanbul

Jenson Button says that he’s enjoying life at McLaren and especially the role he’s having in helping the team to progress.

Speaking in a Q&A on his website, he said how much he enjoyed last weekend’s Turkish GP, and the scrap with Lewis Hamilton that could so easily have ended the same way as the Red Bull battle. He also praised his team mate for being fair. The mood in the camp would seem to be very different from that at RBR.

“It was a great race, yeah,” said Button of Turkey. “It was very satisfying to have the performance to take the race to the Red Bulls, and to have been able to put pressure on them in the way we did. The last laps were fun too, proper racing, but fun, and fair. It was great to be able to race with Lewis, it’s actually the first time in our careers that we’ve actually been able to do that, and he’s a very fair guy on the track.

“It was tricky in those closing laps, because we knew we were pretty marginal on fuel, but the team lets us race and that’s exactly what we did. Lewis and I had a good scrap, and I want to congratulate him again for his win, it was a great drive.”

Button said he was pleased with the way the car performed in the race.

“I was, but we know that there’s still a way to go to beat the Red Bulls on sheer pace. But while that’s important, it’s not a target that we’re continually aiming at. We know they’re quick, but it’s more important for us right now to focus on what we’re doing, and make sure we’re absolutely performing at the limit.

“So that means we’re looking at improving every area; whether that’s reliability, performance, strategy, pitstops or operations, there’s a constant rate of improvement in every area of the team and that won’t stop.”

He says he”s impressed by the way that the team is building up some momentum.

“I’ve been in teams before where we’ve perhaps started the season strongly, or we’ve had a bit of a performance improvement towards the end of the season, but I’m really overwhelmed by how much this team can just keep developing.

“It’s incredibly exciting to be a part of, because it’s a different side to my role as a racing driver it’s not just about getting in and driving every two weeks, but it’s great to be part of the process that helps to test, refine and approve the new components we bring to the track each week. The feeling of contributing is incredible, and very rewarding.

“And you just can’t believe how hungry this team is: when I joined back in January, I was really struck by just how much we were pushing ahead of the launch, then during testing. But we’re now into an incredibly tough series of races, and we’re still bringing these huge new development parts to the track, and we’re bringing enough parts for both Lewis and myself it’s awesome.

“It makes you realise why Vodafone McLaren Mercedes is so strong  – there’s just no let-up. I’ve never known a team be so hungry to go racing. And, like I say, it’s just great to be part of.

“Qualifying pace is still something that we’re not entirely satisfied with, but we’re pleased that we do appear to have closed the gap to Red Bull. Certainly, if you look at our relative pace in Barcelona, and compare it with Istanbul, then we do seem to be closer. We’re not there yet, but we think we’ve got a good package for Canada, and we’re working hard to bring a series of larger improvements to the car later on in the summer.”

Hamilton and Button join the celebrations in Turkey

Lewis Hamilton has made it clear that his win in Turkey was the start of a push by McLaren that could see it take the World Championship fight to the end of the season.

Speaking in a Q&A issued on his website, he praised the way McLaren has kept up momentum in the development race so far this year.

“I can’t keep the smile off my face – we are absolutely on it!,” he said. “Last year, you saw what we could do when we came from behind – we started the season at the back of the grid, but we were back at the front halfway through the year, and were still able to win two races. This team is just an incredible development machine – it never stops. We live and breathe racing, and we are just churning out new parts, working harder than I’ve ever seen the team work to try and help us win these world championships.

“I think it’s something that has really surprised Jenson – but in a good way; just the intensity and determination with which we push forward.  I think the result in Turkey was the perfect motivation we needed, and I know the whole factory is working flat-out to bring forward the new parts.  We go to Canada feeling pretty highly motivated, and I can just sense there’s a momentum building within the team – I felt the same feeling in 2008, and I know that we can achieve great things together over the next six months, so it’s all good.”

Hamilton says it’s no co-incidence that he and Jenson were able to have an amicable fight on the track in Turkey.

“Firstly, I’ve known Jenson for a very long time, and I think we have a lot of respect for each other, and what we’ve achieved as drivers. We’re both world champions, so we have a certain amount of pressure removed from our shoulders too. And I’ve really got to know Jenson well over the past six months. We’ve been working hard, we’ve spent a lot of time together, at the circuit and at events arranged by Vodafone and our other partners – it’s funny, but I think that, because we’ve spent a lot of downtime together during filming days or appearances, that we’ve actually got to know each other better than if, say, we’d only been working together at the track.

“He brings a lot of positive energy to the race weekends, and he’s made our team stronger, so these are all positives. But look, I think it’s inevitable that we’ll be battling again on the track sooner or later. There are 12 races left, and I’d be surprised if we weren’t racing each other again at some point soon. Of course, we’ll both work hard to make it’s fair, but our eyes are open to the fact that it will happen again – and, actually, I think that’ll be cool, because he’s a good guy to race with.”

He also said that his first win of the year meant a lot: “Looking back on the weekend, it was such a great achievement for the team and for me to finally get a win this year. I have been working hard all year for that win, so for the opportunity to finally arrive I felt it was a blessing. It felt good. I felt strong all weekend and knew I could challenge the Red Bulls and I did. So it was wicked.

“The team did a solid job as they always do throughout the weekend and without their continued hard work – both on and off the track – we would not be in the position we are to compete with the Red Bulls. So for this I am extremely grateful and I want to congratulate them on our success. It was almost 10 races since I had won a race, but it’s all good. I think most drivers would be happy with that. For some its 20, 50 or 100, so I remain grateful to be in the position I am. I have no doubt at all that with this approach we can win more races this year.”

Kubica looks relaxed before the start in Turkey

Amid all the hoopla over Red Bull several interesting performances went largely unnoticed in Turkey, among them that of Robert Kubica.

The Pole finished sixth, which was nothing too exciting after his second place Monaco. However he insists that he was much faster than the Mercedes duo of Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg, who finished ahead of him. 

Alas a disappointing qualifying performance meant that he started behind them and was stuck behind Rosberg all afternoon, eventually finishing right on the tail of the two silver cars.

Intriguingly although Kubica set the fourth fastest lap of the race, all those ahead – Vitaly Petrov, Mark Webber and Jaime Alguersuari – set their best times after stopping an extra time and taking on new tyres.

“Pacewise we were very strong,” he said. “A much better feeling than in qualifying. And unfortunately we started behind the Mercedes, and I think they were slightly slower than us, because I could keep up the pace easy behind Rosberg and Michael.

“Always when you are behind you are losing a bit of downforce, so I think we were quicker than them. But we started behind them, and unfortunately we didn’t gain positions.”

Kubica had hoped that an early stop would get him past the Mercs. He came in on lap 13, followed by Schumacher a lap later, and then Rosberg.

“I did a very good lap after my pit stop, but unfortunately I don’t think my pit stop was the fastest one. I think Mercedes again did very good pit stops. Actually I was really expecting to overtake Rosberg, because my out lap was really quick, around 1.2s quicker than our pace before the pit stop. Unfortunately he came right in front of me.”

Kubica says he’s looking forward to Montreal, where he crashed in 2007 but won a year later. However, he’s going to have to wait a while for some decent updates.

“Coming back to Canada where I won two years ago, I enjoy a lot driving there. Unfortunately we were planning a very big upgrade there, which will not come. So we have to wait another Grand Prix to get a really big step, and we hope this step will bring us to the top.”