Adam Cooper F1

Lotus F1 investor Infinity Racing Partners has changed its name to avoid the unfortunate clash with Infiniti Red Bull Racing.

The new name is Quantum Motorsports Ltd, which has a similar astrophysical theme. Ironically Google indicates that more than one business with a similar name already exists, including a Texan motorcycle shop and a supplier of after market brake cooling kits for performance road cars…

Infinity was announced in June as a 35% shareholder in Lotus. The company is a consortium is backed by Middle Eastern money.

Charles Pic has landed a drive through penalty before the Japanese GP has even started. The Caterham driver will have to serve it in the first five laps of the race.

Pic was called before the FIA stewards for crossing the white line at the pit exit when the red light was on. He arrived at the light 5s after it went on – and the stewards noted that this was the second time he’d missed a light, having failed to stop for a weight check in Korea.

Because Pic already had a 10-place grid penalty for accumulating three reprimands the stewards decided to give him this unprecedented new penalty…

McLaren Racing managing director Jonathan Neale confirmed today that Red Bull’s head of aerodynamics will return to the Woking team.

Prodromou, who worked at McLaren from 1991 to 2006 before following Adrian Newey to Red Bull, is set to rejoin in 2015 – although his current employer is still hoping to hang on to him.

“Yes we have recruited Peter,” said Neale. “We’re really excited about him joining the team. It’s not a one-off thing that we’re doing, in that we’ve made some moves in the course of this year.

“There are other things that we are doing to strengthen our team, so it’s a series of moves as we head towards 2015 with Honda to make sure that this team stays at the forefront of F1 and is set for winning ways. It’s very difficult for the guys here this weekend to put the amount of effort in and deliver the result that we’ve just done, but we don’t intend to hang around here for very long.”

Neale said that other people will be joining the team before Prodromou.

“As you’d expect in our organisation there’s a pipeline of things coming through. I would say that the one that’s broken in the press today is the furthest away, but there’s a lot more happening in the short term.”

Expanding on the contribution Prodromou could make, he said: “I’ve worked with Peter before, worked closely at McLaren when he was on his last tour of duty there. He’s a great guy, he’s very competitive. But no one person makes a difference in a team like this. It’s how they fit in, how we play to their strengths, and it’s who else we put around them.

“I’m very confident that Peter can make a good contribution, but I’m very confident as well that the guys that we have internally and some of the developments we have are equally as exciting, and it will play as a good squad.”

Meanwhile Jenson Button said he was encouraged by the recruitment drive.

“It’s great,” said Button. “Looking at this season it’s not been a great year for us, it’s been a pretty tough year for us all. You do have to remember that we’ve brought very good cars for the last few years, we’ve got many victories and we’ve been very close to winning World Championships.

“The people that are already working within this team and have been for many years since I’ve been here are still doing a mega job, but I think that it is nice that we are adding to their skills and experience of working up and down the pitlane. It’s great that Jonathan, Martin [Whitmarsh] and everybody else are looking outside of the box, if you like. It’s going to help us a lot in the future.”

Red Bull Racing is fighting to prevent its head of aerodynamics Peter Prodromou from joining McLaren.

Prodromou started his career with the Woking team in 1991, and progressed to be a key member of the design team, latterly under Adrian Newey. He left to join Red Bull as its aero chief, again under Newey, in 2006.

Martin Whitmarsh promised in Korea that the team would be announcing some “headline grabbing” signings.

Christian Horner told this writer that Prodromou “has a significant amount of time left on his contract,” and insisted that nothing is “set in stone.” He confirmed that Prodromou would not be able to work elsewhere until 2015.

The likely scenario is that Prodromou has decided to go to McLaren and RBR is now using everything in its power to change his mind, just as McLaren was once able to convince Adrian Newey to do a U-turn on his move to Jaguar Racing. However it may well be too late.

Williams has been fined €60,000 by the FIA Stewards for failing to properly secure the left rear wheel that became detached from Pastor Maldonado’s car in FP1 in Japan.

The stewards noted that “this is regarded as a serious safety issue,” the FIA having paid extra attention to the securing of wheels since Mark Webber’s incident in Germany.

The wheel fell off at Turn 13 on the Venezuelan’s third consecutive fast lap. Fortunately it bounced harmlessly into a gravel trap as the car spun around.

The Stewards explained that “examination of the parts revealed that the wheel fastener had not been completely fastened, thus not engaging the first retaining plunger. This is a breach of Article 23.12 of the FIA Formula One Sporting Regulations. The secondary retaining plunger failed to keep the wheel in place. This ia a breach of Article 14.7 of the FIA Formula One Technical Regulations.”

They also noted that “the team has assured the stewards that the appropriate measures will be immediately implemented to ensure compliance.”