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Ferrari launches new F1 logo for 2011

Ferrari on Thursday unveiled a new logo for its Formula One team.
The current logo features the infamous "barcode" that was recently removed from the F10 car, following suggestions it subliminally advertised Marlboro cigarettes.
But the new logo, to be used from 2011, remains red and white and is more angular than before, moving some observers to surmise that it reminds them even more of main sponsor Philip Morris' product.
And team boss Stefano Domenicali told reporters at Silverstone:
"I can confirm that next year the team name will be the same -- Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro.

‘Yamamoto replaces Senna for British Grand Prix’


According to sources in the Silverstone paddock on Thursday evening, Hispania Racing test and reserve driver Sakon Yamamoto is set to replace regular racer Bruno Senna for this weekend’s British Grand Prix.
Yamamoto first joined a Formula 1 event as a third driver for Jordan at the 2005 Japanese Grand Prix before switching to Super Aguri and competing in seven races the following year.
In 2007 came a move to Spyker and the subbing of The Netherlands’ Christijan Albers from the Hungarian Grand Prix onwards.
Having joined HRT earlier in 2010, the Aichi man replaced Senna in Friday’s first practice session in Istanbul.
Stay tuned to GPUpdate.net for the latest on the HRT situation.

DRIVERS: Fernando ALONSO (Ferrari), Jenson BUTTON (McLaren), Lewis HAMILTON (McLaren), Mark WEBBER (Red Bull)

PRESS CONFERENCE

Q. Lots of things have been said about team-mates and the relationship between team-mates. How good is your relationship? Could it be better, could it be worse? Mark, would you like to start.

Mark WEBBER: I think the press are bored. There is nothing else to talk about, so they want to talk about team-mates. That seems to have been the topic for the last 10 days or whatever.

Q. You seem to have chipped in as well though?

MW: Well, the press continually ask and try to put some fireworks on these two. My opinion was exactly as it was. It is not the easiest to have a warm, fuzzy relationship as we are all competitors but we don't hate each other's guts. It's the way it's always been at the front in Formula One, in the 70's, 80‘s, 90‘s and it will continue in the future. It is certainly not rocket science.

Q. And the relationship with your team-mate?

MW: Sensational, amazing.

Q. We have heard this before.

MW: Yeah, it's a broken record.

Q. Fernando?

Fernando ALONSO: Very good as always.

Q. As always?

FA: Yes.

Q. You have always had a good relationship with your team-mate?

FA: Yes.

Q. Working relationship or...?

FA: Both.

Q. Lewis, would like to comment?

Lewis HAMILTON: About what?

Q. Team-mates. Previous team-mates even.

LH: I have had great team-mates and great relationships.

Two of the sport's leading figures - Sir Jackie Stewart and Bernie Ecclestone - have reflected that disappointing F1 comeback kid Michael Schumacher will no longer be on the grand prix grid in 2011...
Michael Schumacher will call time on his painfully uncompetitive F1 comeback and return to retirement two years earlier than planned at the end of the 2010 campaign – that is the opinion of two of the sport's most well-recognised figures, Sir Jackie Stewart and Bernie Ecclestone.

Schumacher signed a three-year contract with Mercedes Grand Prix last winter to make a much-hyped and celebrated comeback to active competition three years on from originally hanging up his helmet. Since then, however, the driver who broke all records in F1 by claiming no fewer than seven world championship trophies, 91 grand prix victories, 154 rostrum finishes and 1,369 points between 1991 and 2006 has sadly been little but a shadow of his former self, with mediocre performance after mediocre performance seeing him tally a mere 36 points with no finish higher than fourth place. In stark comparison, young team-mate and compatriot Nico Rosberg has notched up 90 points and a trio of podiums.

The younger German has also out-qualified his elder countryman eight times out of ten, and at Silverstone last weekend the 25-year-old was some eight tenths of a second quicker than the man who was once unbeatable. Race day witnessed more of the same – third place for Rosberg, a distant ninth for 'Schumi', with a difference in lap time of some 1.2 seconds.
“He cannot even keep up with his team-mate,” the Scot told the Cologne-based newspaper Express when asked whether he believes the most successful driver in the sport's history can yet take the fight to the likes of Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel, adding that Schumacher should swallow his pride and call it quits come season's end before his illustrious reputation suffers any more damage. “He (Rosberg) is usually faster and has not won a grand prix.

“I would have preferred to have seen Michael not come back. Why did he do it? He had achieved everything and could only lose. In my opinion, he retired too early – he should have stayed another two years with Ferrari, and I have no idea why he didn't. Now he's in a difficult situation and has to live with the criticism.

“The first question should be 'will he do another year?' I believe he will stop after this season. What does his heart say? I will believe it only when I see him on the starting grid in March.”

Those sentiments are echoed by influential F1 commercial rights-holder Ecclestone, who has invariably defended Schumacher but now similarly concedes that his return may have been an ill-conceived and ill-fated one.

“He is obviously fit, motivated and talented but the car hasn't been up to him,” the British billionaire acknowledged. “If Schumacher doesn't perform, I doubt whether he will want to stay.”

Scuderia Toro Rosso drivers Sébastien Buemi and Jaime Alguersuari will continue to race for the Italian based team in 2011. The duo, who scored a total of ten points for Toro Rosso, are team-mates since the 2009 Hungarian Grand Prix.

Ono što je započelo još u Turskoj prije skoro mjesec i pol dana, dramatično se razbuktava u najveću kontroverzu F1 sezone 2010., i gotovo da zasjenjuje samu borbu na naslov svjetskog prvaka. Dva vozača Red Bulla sada su već u skoro otvorenom ratu, i bit će uzbudljivo pratiti daljnji razvoj događaja.

Da, Mark Webber na bajkovit je način završio Grand Prix u Silverstoneu, u vikendu koji je za njega počeo obeshrabrujuće, ne rezultatski već zbog saznanja da ekipa prilično otvoreno od svoja dva vozača njega ne smatra prioritetnim. Naime, novo, navodno bitno efikasnije, prednje krilo ekipa je u Silverstone donijela u samo dva primjerka. Kad je u petak ono na automobilu Sebastiana Vettela puklo, jedino preostalo bez puno ceremonija premješteno je s Webberovog bolida na nos mladog Nijemca. Zbog ovog ili ne, Vettel je potom bio najbrži u kvalifikacijama, što je pak Webberu bilo povod za javnu žalopojku o nepravdi i nepoštivanju statusa jednakosti između vozača u ovoj ekipi.

I onda ― baš kao iz inata, Australac pobijedi i obrecne se o tome u radio-prijenosu izravno nakon utrke, nazvavši sebe cinično "vozačem broj 2", što je u situaciji u kojoj je bilo jedno krilo za dva vozača, netko to morao biti. Drugi mogu lakonski govoriti kako oni nikome ne bi dali krilo u toj situaciji, ali s druge strane, ekipa bi bila nerazumna da dobar hardver ― ako njime raspolaže ― ne iskoristi.

Naravno, bez obzira da li novo krilo u takvim okolnostima dobio Webber ili Vettel, onaj drugi bio bi smatran nepravedno degradiranim u br.2, skupio bi saveznike, i sad se oko tolike podrške Webberu na svim stranama digla strahovita graja, kao da je prekršeno sveto pravilo Formule 1 kojeg se svi drže otkad je izumljen benzinski motor. A, ne tako davno, sjetite se odnosa Alonso-Piquet, Schumacher-Barrichello, Hamilton-Kovalainen... Ovi drugi vozači možda nisu bili toliko izraženi odnosno simpatični karakteri poput Webbera, niti toliko brzi vozači, ali ako ćemo biti pošteni, prolazili su u svojim ekipama još gore neravnopravnosti nego Australac, bez da je to ikoga previše mučilo.

Ferrari 'not asked' to let Kubica pass

By Jonathan Noble and Michele Lostia Friday, July 16th 2010, 17:44 GMT

Ferrari was not given an immediate order by the FIA for Fernando Alonso to give back his position to Robert Kubica at Silverstone, according to newly-published information relating to the pit wall radio conversations that took place during the British Grand Prix.

FIA race director Charlie Whiting told Italian magazine Autosprint earlier this week that he advised Ferrari straight away to let Kubica retake his position from Alonso.

However, according to a detailed report in Gazzetta dello Sport today, the team's version of events is very different.

Massimo Rivola, Ferrari's team manager, told the newspaper: "This is not polemics, these are elements to clarify why Ferrari made certain decisions and the logic behind them, after Alonso's move on Kubica."

According to Gazzetta dello Sport, this is the chronology of the events from Ferrari's perspective.

13:31:05 The overtaking move takes place at Club and after one second Rivola calls Whiting, who replies after 11 seconds. Rivola asks: 'Have you seen the pass? In our opinion there was no room to overtake.'

26 secs after the pass, Whiting asks to be given time to watch the TV footage.

13:33 Ferrari makes a second radio call - 1m55s after the pass. Alonso has completed another lap plus one sector, and is behind Nico Rosberg and Jaime Alguersuari, while Kubica drops further back.

Whiting tells Ferrari that the stewards think Alonso could give the position back. Rivola asks: 'Is this the decision?'

Whiting replies: 'No, but that's how we see it.'

Rivola informs the team while Rosberg overtakes Alguersuari. On the GPS screen that shows the position of the cars, Ferrari sees Kubica dropping further back. Meanwhile, Alonso overtakes Alguersuari at Turn 2.

13:33:22 Ferrari makes a third radio call.

Rivola tells Whiting: 'Alonso doesn't have only Kubica behind. He would have to concede two positions now.'

While they discuss the matter Kubica is overtaken by Barrichello so Alonso would have to now give up three positions.

Whiting replies: 'We have given you the chance to do it or not. Things being this way, the stewards will hear the drivers at the end of the race, but I understand your position.'

13:35:30 Kubica stops so Alonso can no longer give the position back.

13:45:31 The stewards investigate the Alonso/Kubica incident. The monitors then display 'car number 8 under investigation', 14m26s after the pass.

13:46:26 Just 55 seconds later the stewards decide that Alonso should have a drive-through penalty.

Stefano Domenicali rekao svojim zaposlenicima, ili da veruju u titulu ove godine, ili da napuste posao.

Iako je Ferrarijeva borba za titulu ometena razvojem evropskog i britanskog Grand Prix-a, tim iz Maranella smatra da još uvek postoji šansa za osvajanje šampionata.

Fernando Alonso je i dalje uveren da može da osvoji titulu ove sezone, a i šef tima, Stefano Domenicali, je takodje veoma optimističan po tom pitanju.

"Svako ko ne veruje da možemo osvojiti šampionat ove sezone, neka traži drugi posao", izjavio je Domenicali na sastanku višeg rukovodstva Ferrarija.

"Niko, ovde, ne odustaje. Ima još devet trka i sve je moguće. Moramo da odradimo perfektan posao, u stilu Ferrarija i rezultati će doći", dodao je Domenicali.