FORMULA Magazine

Jan.27 (GMM) Vitaly Petrov is still in the running for a 2012 race seat.

Officially, the only remaining vacancy is at HRT, the struggling Spanish team.

“HRT?” the Russian and former Renault driver is quoted by the Spanish sports daily AS.

“I can’t say anything about that.”

The AS interviewer asked Petrov if that means the former Hispania team is out of the question.

“The answer is not no, the answer is that I can’t say anything.”

The more conventional wisdom among F1 insiders is that Petrov and his manager Oksana Kosachenko are convincing their sponsors to pay to oust Jarno Trulli at Caterham.

Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport said Adrian Sutil is also a contender for that seat, but only pending the outcome of his forthcoming assault trial.

“I want to stay in F1,” Petrov admitted, “because if I lose a year it will be very difficult to return in 2013.

“It is very important to stay on the grid. My manager is in Europe trying to find a place.”

It is obvious that his fallback option is to be Pirelli’s 2012 test driver.

“I was asked to be part of this event,” Petrov said at the launch of the tyre supplier’s 2012 season in Abu Dhabi this week.

“… Drive the cars, work with them, maybe we can reach an agreement but I still want to be at the Jerez test with a team, that is goal number one.”

Finnish newspaper Turun Sanomat quoted Petrov as also admitting that a reserve driver role is a possibility for 2012.

O Estado de S.Paulo correspondent Livio Oricchio, meanwhile, said that Petrov – with the inaugural Russian grand prix on the horizon and the driver backed personally by Vladimir Putin – is also enjoying Bernie Ecclestone’s help in his bid to stay on the grid.

Jan.27 (GMM) Adrian Newey is Red Bull’s guarantee to remain a F1 frontrunner, according to Gerhard Berger.

The former ten-time race winner knows the Briton well, having won the 2008 Italian grand prix as a constructor when Sebastian Vettel drove the Newey-penned Toro Rosso to victory at Monza.

“As long as they have Adrian Newey and his technical staff, Red Bull will have either the fastest or the second fastest car,” Berger told this week’s Auto Motor und Sport magazine.

“And with Vettel in one of the cars, with so much confidence and experience now, he can make the difference even with the second best car,” added the Austrian.

But according to Berger, it is a different story for Germany’s former world-beater Michael Schumacher.

“I don’t think he’s going to extend the contract,” he said, referring to the fact 2012 is the third and final year of the 43-year-old’s existing deal with Mercedes.

“At some point he has to get tired.

“He has no chance against Rosberg,” explained Berger. “He will have to admit that at more than forty years of age he can’t beat a young driver at Rosberg’s level.”

Indeed, young talent is now Berger’s specialty, after he was asked by his former Ferrari boss Jean Todt to head the FIA’s single seater commission.

Berger thinks the junior categories cost youngsters too much.

“What I think would be reasonable is EUR 50,000 at the most for a kart season, 100,000 for an entry-level series, 300,000 for formula 3 and half a million for the last series before formula one,” he said.

Jan.25 (GMM) F1 fans on Wednesday got their first glimpse of a 2012-specification car.

Caterham is launching its new CT01 in the pages of British magazine F1 Racing on Thursday.

But some subscribers got their copy a day early, and so a side-angle photo was released by the team on Twitter.

A leaked front-view photo is also doing the rounds, and the most eye-catching feature is the radically stepped nose.

The nose is the result of new regulations dictating a lower front section for crash impacts, and given Ferrari’s admission about its own “ugly” car, the look is likely to be widespread on the 2012 grid.

Jan.25 (GMM) Pirelli’s tyres for 2012 are brighter, squarer and softer, the Italian marque announced on Wednesday.

F1′s official supplier had summoned F1 journalists to the venue of the Abu Dhabi grand prix to launch its second season on the grid.

This year’s range is “more angular” and the compounds are softer, while the wet tyres bear the word ‘Cinturato’ — the brand of Pirelli’s F1 debut in 1951.

The coloured sidewall markings, meanwhile, are bigger and brighter.

President Marco Tronchetti Provera told reporters the tyres are designed for “deliberate degradation” in order to produce “spectacular races”.

And Pirelli’s F1 boss Paul Hembery said he is looking for a replacement for the 2009 Toyota test car, with talks scheduled for a forthcoming meeting of the F1 Commission.

Former Renault driver Vitaly Petrov – in Abu Dhabi – is a likely signing if he does not find a race or reserve seat, but existing tester Lucas di Grassi may also be retained.

Jan.25 (GMM) A hundred F1 journalists are in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday at Pirelli’s behest — but Vitaly Petrov stole the show.

The former Renault driver’s appearance at the 2012 tyre launch was a complete surprise, stirring obvious speculation he will be the official supplier’s new main test driver.

Indeed, the Russian news agency Ria Novisti quoted his manager Oksana Kosachenko as confirming the news.

That story was then corrected and finally withdrawn.

Kosachenko said Petrov is actually still holding out hope of a race seat — surely the one currently occupied by Jarno Trulli at Caterham.

But she hinted the only vacancy for 2012 is at HRT.

“I don’t comment on rumors,” Kosachenko said, “but for those in the know about formula one, it’s totally clear where Vitaly could end up.

“All you need to do it take a look at the driver list, and it’s totally clear.

“I won’t hide it, the main issue at the moment is over our partners and sponsors, whether they will support the programme we are offering,” she said.

“Unfortunately, we are running out of time. There is a chance that Vitaly will end up in a formula one team, even as the lead pilot.”

Petrov told reporters at the Yas Marina circuit that he cannot say anything for another week.

“Maybe I will not test Pirelli but maybe we can work together in different parts,” he said.

The BBC quoted a Pirelli official as saying a deal with Petrov is “not signed yet but probable”.

Jan.24 (GMM) Details of Ferrari’s unlaunched 2012 car have emerged in the pages of Italian specialist publications.

On Tuesday, Autosprint publishes drawings by technical illustrator Giorgio Piola of Maranello’s latest creation, with some parts – including the sidepods – reportedly “inspired by (the) McLaren” of last year.

The weekly said the car, to likely be named F12 or F2012, also has “many other features that should make it really extreme”, as ordered by Ferrari team boss Stefano Domenicali last year.

“Some people called it (the car) bad after seeing the shapes, probably because of the hump on the nose,” read a report at Autosprint’s auto.it website.

“But the final version should be smooth.”

The magazine also says Ferrari has innovated to exploit the safety regulations for crash structures, producing a wing-like aerodynamic effect with the sidepods.

Another all-new feature for Ferrari – breaking a philosophy of more than a decade – is the Red Bull-style pull-rod suspension, and an engine cover rear ‘hole’ also similar to Adrian Newey’s title-winning 2011 design.

The car’s exhausts reportedly exit even higher than the new regulations dictate, possibly so the gases flow onto the main element of the rear wing.

This feature may not be seen – possibly for reasons of secrecy – on the initial launch version displayed by Ferrari on 3 February.

La Gazzetta dello Sport, meanwhile, said the 2012 Ferrari has “long, low and narrow” radiators and sidepods, with a lower seating position for the drivers.

Jan.23 (GMM) F1 “must be prepared for problems” as Europe and the world suffer economically.

That is the admission of the sport’s chief executive Bernie Ecclestone, when asked if Peugeot’s withdrawal from Le Mans sports car racing could also indicate tough times ahead for F1.

Amid the world’s last financial crisis, F1 lost multiple carmakers including BMW, Toyota and Honda.

“They had good reasons to go and save their money because they just weren’t successful enough and didn’t get the media coverage they wanted.

“Simple as that,” Ecclestone told Austria’s Salzburger Nachrichten newspaper.

So, with Peugeot pulling out of Le Mans and grand prix promoters considering the future of their races due to the costs, Ecclestone was asked if he is worried F1 could now lose more of its marques and sponsors.

“Due to the length of our contracts, we are almost immune,” he insisted.

“But if the situation does not change globally, we must be prepared for problems,” admitted Ecclestone.

A report in the UK newspaper Express said every one of F1′s twelve competing teams unusually failed to pay their bills on time last season.

“The findings … show that the recession has hit the motorsport”, wrote journalist Christian Sylt.

“The five slowest paying teams all have backing from carmakers, which could indicate that in the current economic climate F1 may not be sustainable for them,” he added.

Jan.23 (GMM) Vitaly Petrov is promising news about his future “very soon”.

Caterham’s Jarno Trulli last week played down rumours the well-sponsored Russian Petrov, a refugee of the former Renault (now Lotus) team, could be set to replace him.

“Very soon is all I can say,” Petrov answered his Twitter followers when asked when official news about his plans for 2012 can be expected.

“My friends, be patient,” he added in Russian.

Meanwhile, Finland’s Turun Sanomat said it has not yet been decided if Trulli or his teammate Heikki Kovalainen will give Caterham’s new CT01 car its track debut at Jerez on 7 February.

The newspaper reported rumours that the matter will be resolved with the toss of a coin.

The former Team Lotus’ 2010 and 2011 rivals, Marussia (nee Virgin) and HRT, will not be taking their new cars to the opening test of the pre-season.

Jan.21 (GMM) F1′s governing body has banned the 2012 innovation known commonly as ‘reactive ride height’.

The concept, pioneered by Lotus and first spotted in action at last November’s young driver test, was also reportedly being worked on by teams including Ferrari, Mercedes and Williams.

The system, until now deemed legal by the FIA, cleverly adjusts a car’s ride-height under braking via a passive method in the suspension.

But the BBC said the Paris federation changed its mind about the legality following “further investigations and representations from rival teams”.

Some team figures are believed to have said the intention is only to improve braking stability, but some rivals argued that the primary function is aerodynamic.

One F1 regulation says “any car system, device or procedure which uses driver movement as a means of altering the aerodynamic characteristics of the car is prohibited”.

An FIA spokesman told Reuters that Whiting sent the directive on Friday following “a number of technical enquiries from teams” about the legality of the Lotus-type concept.

Jan.20 (GMM) Lewis Hamilton has been summoned as a witness in the forthcoming Munich trial of his friend and F1 rival Adrian Sutil.

It was expected the McLaren driver would have to appear, given the fact that – on the night of his Chinese grand prix win last April – he was present when German Sutil allegedly glassed Lotus team executive Eric Lux in a Shanghai nightclub.

The Hamburger Morgenpost newspaper said the former Force India’s grievous bodily harm trial will take place over two days beginning 30 January.

It means that Hamilton will have to head almost directly from the trial to attend the launch of the 2012 McLaren on 1 February.

“Lewis Hamilton will be called as a witness on the first day,” a Munich court spokeswoman confirmed.

“The appearance is mandatory,” she added.

Sutil’s manager Manfred Zimmermann said he is not worried.

“We have a video where it can be seen clearly that this was not Adrian attacking or intentionally hurting someone,” he said.

“We expect an acquittal, or at worst a conviction for negligent injury. But that would not jeopardise his career,” insisted Zimmermann.

It is reported that former Virgin driver Jerome d’Ambrosio and a F1 journalist might also appear as witnesses.