FORMULA 1 - 2014

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PDVSA and Maldonado staying with Lotus says Lopez

Team owner Gerard Lopez has denied reports that Lotus could be set to lose their lucrative PDVSA backing.

The Enstone team secured the deal with the state Venezuelan oil company when Pastor Maldonado moved from Williams over the winter.

In Monaco, however, Maldonado had to deny reports that his PDVSA backing will end, after the Venezuelan sports minister said he will allocate “not one dollar more” to motor racing due to a scandal.

He said the media story about PDVSA pulling out was a “very big misunderstanding”, because the comments were made by the sports minister, not the oil company itself.

“PDVSA, as with Maldonado, is staying with us,” Lopez, the founding partner of the Lotus owner Genii, is quoted by Blick. “In Venezuela, it is this company (PDVSA) that has the final say, not the government.”

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Kimi: Stewards need to sort priorities

Kimi Raikkonen was unhappy with the stewards in Monaco, saying more needed to be done when Max Chilton hit him while unlapping himself behind the Safety Car.

The Safety Car was brought out for the second time on Sunday afternoon when Adrian Sutil crashed his Sauber at the exit of the tunnel.

After the debris was cleared up, lapped cars were allowed to pass during which time Chilton hit Raikkonen's Ferrari.

The impact caused a puncture, forcing Raikkonen to pit and effectively putting an end to his podium challenge.

Chilton was later reprimanded, however, Raikkonen, who received a reprimand of his own for a later incident with Kevin Magnussen, feels more should have been done.

"Nobody talked about the Safety Car thing until I asked," the Ferrari driver told ESPN.

"It's not very straightforward unfortunately with those things sometimes.

"Obviously that was the thing that destroyed the race, but clearly they were not very interested.

"They asked why I missed the drivers' parade, but that was because I did not feel very good. So they make a big story about that, but not the main things."

Raikkonen finished the grand prix in 12th place, one lap down on race winner Nico Rosberg.

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Kamui blames Jules for lost points

Kamui Kobayashi blamed rival driver Jules Bianchi for damaging his Caterham car and knocking him out of the points in Sunday's Monaco Grand Prix.

Kobayashi said he felt sure to have delivered a points finish if the Marussia man had not hit him during the 78-lap race before going on to score his team's first points finish.

"Even though we finished in 13th, I'm really not happy as I'm sure I'd have finished in the points if Bianchi hadn't hit me when he forced his way past," said the Japanese driver.

"The car was basically undriveable after that so just finishing is a good result."

The Caterham driver said the impact caused a lot of damage to his side pod and floor, and he could not understand how Bianchi had avoided being called to see the stewards.

"As we went into the chicane after the tunnel, Bianchi hit me on the side and I had to cut through the chicane to avoid more contact," he explained.

"I don't really know why nothing was done about that as he basically just forced me out of the way by hitting me which meant both the Marussia and my teammate could pass me and after that the car felt really bad."

Despite a gearbox penalty prior to the race, a five-seconds penalty for starting in the wrong grid slot and then a further five-seconds time penalty at the end of the race for taking his initial penalty under the Safety Car, Bianchi held his nerve to secure two vital points for Marussia with his ninth place finish.

"The team are really happy, as I am," said Bianchi.

"We've been waiting for this for a long time. I'm proud of the team. They did a really good job and I'm really happy to give them a result.

"It was really stressful for me in the car and I guess it was for the team as well

"We had some penalties, so we were lucky to finish in the points. But I cannot say any more. It's amazing for us."

Bianchi's points puts Marussia into ninth in the Constructors' Championship - their best-ever position.

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Positives for McLaren

Claiming a P6 and a P10 are usually not something to write home about for McLaren, but the team are happy to leave Monaco with nine points.

After three consecutive races without picking up any points, they looked set for another tough race in Monte Carlo with Kevin Magnussen qualifying P8 and Jenson Button down in P12.

However, the pair impressed with Magnussen, Button and Kimi Raikkonen battling Nico Hulkenberg for P5 during the latter stages of the race. However, the Dane was clipped by Raikkonen and he eventually had to settle for P10.

Button, though, kept the pressure on Hulkenberg, but he ended up finishing behind the Force India driver.

"This was a typical Monaco Grand Prix - it was messy out there; people were making mistakes; there were cars all over the place; you had to stay focused; keep up with the pack, and look after the tyres, using them when necessary," he said.

"For the entirety of my final stint, I looked after my tyres and dropped back into the clear air behind Kevin. Then it was just about pacing myself to the end. I couldn't quite get past Nico [Hulkenberg] at the end - he was struggling with his tyres, but whenever I pushed, I struggled as well, so I couldn't make it stick. In the closing laps, we had a good little battle, but it's so tough when you're shoved up behind another car. It's difficult enough as it is, but when you can't really see anything because there's a car in front, it's even more difficult. This wasn't a bad result for us - I just wish I could have picked off Nico at the end."

Rookie Magnussen, driving in Monaco for the first time, had an eventful afternoon, but was disappointed that he only ended up P10 after running so high for so long.

"Despite a lot of things going against us today - the long hold due to traffic at my pitstop, the unsafe release in front of me in the pitlane, and the engine issue - I can draw a lot from the fact that our car felt really good," he said. "That's a real positive: it might be hard to see from the outside, but things are moving forward within the team. There were lots of little issues - Jean-Eric's team probably didn't calculate his release properly - it's never the driver's fault - it's just one of those things that happens.

"And it was a pity I didn't get to finish the battle with Nico [Hulkenberg]; I'd been saving my tyres in the expectation that Nico would struggle, but then I had a problem with my power-unit, which dropped me back. I'm still not really sure what happened with my car at the end of the race. And I didn't see what happened with Kimi - I went to the inside to block his entry into the hairpin, but he chose to make a move anyway. It's hard to overtake here, but he tried and it didn't work. That's racing."

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Big team bosses support F1 customer car concept

The issue of Formula 1 customer cars arises just about every year, this time around it was raised during the Monaco Grand Prix weekend and it transpires that both Red Bull team boss Christian Horner and newly instated Ferrari Team Principal Marco Mattiacci support the concept, with Mercedes’ Toto Wolff not against the idea.

Ferrari have always lobbied for the return of customer cars, and Mattiacci is clearly a supporter, “We strongly believe in customer cars. I think that if there is a way to guarantee an entry level that is less expensive than probably a top team budget it is a customer car, to give more support, probably, that’s another way to go, to go different supporting integration with customer cars but we believe in it.”

Customer cars were for many years the backbone of Formula 1 fields with the likes of Ferrari, Lotus, McLaren, Brabham, March, Williams and Tyrrell at some point in their history servicing customer teams, through into the late seventies.

John Watson drove a customer Brabham BT44 in Hexagon colours during the 1974 season

Mattiacci believes that customer cars would provide new teams with “the possibility to have two, three years’ experience and to gain the knowledge and then to become competitive. So, this is a practical way, realpolitik, to move ahead.”

Horner agreed, “To encourage new teams to come into Formula 1 then a year-old car would surely be the most cheapest, more cost-effective way of introducing a team into Formula 1 that hasn’t got to have the investment in a design and R&D department, manufacturing, go through all the crash-test process, [they] can just be focused on being a race team while they build their infrastructure up.”

“One would think that might be a logical way to help the small team and perhaps a new team coming into Formula 1,” added Horner.

During the 1975 F1 season Mark Donohue drove a Penske PC1 which was essentially a customer March 751 with some mods

Mercedes Executive Director Toto Wolff agrees with the customer or three cars per team scenario only “to guarantee a competitive field with enough cars.”

“If we really run into a situation where the number of cars on the grid drops to a critical level – whatever that critical level is, 20 or 18 cars – I think then measures need to be taken, whether it is a third car, whether it is a customer car,” said Wolff.

It is an open secret that Team Haas, who have a place on the F1 grid for 2105, are in talks with Ferrari about potentially supplying customer cars for them to get on the grid from next season.

Without that option it is unlikely that the team, led by NASCAR team owner Gene Haas, will be on the grid next year but instead will have to delay their debut until 2016.

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Vettel: Sh*t happens, we move on

After four consecutive Formula 1 World Championship triumphs, Sebastian Vettel’s fall away from glory has been alarmingly swift in 2014.

Although a chassis change after China appeared to have worked for the German, Vettel’s troubles returned with a vengeance in Monaco, where poor reliability spoiled not only his Qualifying chances, but also his race.

“A turbo engine with no boost is not a turbo engine,” he joked to the German media.

Monaco was actually Vettel’s 100th grand prix for Red Bull, but a far cry from the highs of having won the last nine rounds of 2013 without so much as breaking a sweat. But after Sunday’s race, he couldn’t wait to get out of the principality.

“How do I get out of here?” he asked reporters, reaching hard for his customary humour. “I don’t have a boat!”

But not much earlier, his in-race frustration on the radio was obvious. “Come on guys,” he pleaded to the pitwall. “I mean, you’ve trying everything.”

At the very same time, team newcomer Daniel Ricciardo is sweeping up the plaudits and making Vettel look like Red Bull’s ‘number two’.

“Every champion goes through a phase like this at some point,” ex Formula 1 driver turned commentator Martin Brundle is quoted by Die Welt.

“It seems as though he has inherited Mark Webber’s car,” the Briton quipped, referring to the fact that, in the past, it was usually Vettel’s teammate with the lion’s share of problems.

Vettel agreed: “It’s always something different going wrong, but it can’t go on forever.”

Mercedes Team Chairman Niki Lauda admitted that he feels for the beleaguered champion, “This can happen when a team is trying so hard to come back, but unfortunately it’s always happening to Sebastian. When things go wrong, they go wrong,” the triple world champion told RTL television.

The German news agency DPA quoted Vettel as saying: “Sh*t happens. We move on.”

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Raikkonen: I am still not happy with the car

After an incident packed Monaco Grand Prix Kimi Raikkonen admitted that he is still not completely at ease with his Ferrari F14T, and that the Maranello outfit have a long way to go to challenge the all conquering Mercedes team.

Speaking to reporters after the race in Monte Carlo, “I’m still not happy with the car – the race was better than Qualifying but we still have a long way to go to where we want to be.’

The post race declaration prompted memories of his long time discomfort in the Lotus E20 back in 2012 – the year in which he made his return to Formula 1. It took most part of the season for the Finn to get comfortable, and he was only really content when the follow-up E21 broke cover, having been designed with him in mind.

At Monaco this past weekend, Raikkonen had a luckless afternoon despite a flying start which saw him running in third early on, a podium beckoned but two skirmishes on the narrow confines of Monte Carlo streets required unscheduled pit stops which eventually relegated the Iceman to 12th when the chequered flag waved.

“This was a very unlucky day for me, a real shame after getting a good start and managing to move up to third place. The car was handling well and had a good pace,” reflected Raikkonen who set the fastest lap of the race in the late stages, aided by being on low fuel and the freshest Super-soft Pirelli tyres out there at the time.

“We need to improve in many areas. We’ve done a lot of things already, particularly with the engine, but we’re still lacking speed. We have to compare to Mercedes and they’re still quite a way ahead of us. We know what we have to do but those things will not be easy to fix. It just takes time,” explained the 2007 F1 World Champion, the most recentFerrari driver to have held the world title.

“We’re going forward all the time but other teams are improving also. We know where the weaknesses are but if it [was] easy, everybody would have a fast car,” mused Raikkonen.

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Alonso: Bianchi will have a good career

Jules Bianchi’s stunning race into the points with tiny Marussia at the Monaco Grand Prix could be the start of something big for the French Formula One driver, according to Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso.

The Spaniard, who started his own F1 career with now-defunct minnows Minardi, is a friend and travelling companion of Bianchi who is also under contract to Ferrari as part of their young driver academy.

“We spend a lot of time together in Maranello, we play football, we go cycling, we travel together on the same plane for some races,” he told reporters after Bianchi finished eighth on the track and ninth after a penalty was taken into account.

“He’s a friend and I’m extremely happy for him and very proud of what his result will mean for him in his career. I have no doubt it will be a good career,” continued double world champion Alonso.

“Hopefully with this result he can have a more competitive car next year and show his talent even more.”

The points, in a showcase race watched by many millions around the world, were cash-starved Marussia’s first in more than four years of trying and propelled the Ferrari-powered team to ninth in the constructors’ standings, ahead of Ferrari-powered Sauber.

Marussia team principal John Booth agreed that Bianchi was destined for a bigger stage.

“I think he’s ready to go now. If they (Ferrari) need him, I think he’s ready to go,” he told Reuters. “I think he’s got a long career in F1. Absolute top driver.”

Bianchi’s race was all the more impressive because he started on the back row of the grid after a penalty for an unscheduled gearbox change.

He gained five places at the start but then had to fight back from two stop/go penalties, the second imposed for serving the first during the safety car period.

The Frenchman was helped by retirements and crashes ahead of him but he still finished ahead of Ferrari’s 2007 world champion Kimi Raikkonen and McLaren’s highly-rated Danish rookie Kevin Magnussen.

To cap it all, he pulled off a daring overtake of Caterham’s Japanese driver Kamui Kobayashi – a man renowned for his own crowd-pleasing passes – around the tight Rascasse corner.

Bianchi said he was thrilled for the team, “It was not an easy race; there were some enjoyable highs along the way, but also a couple of concerning moments too. What matters at the end is that we got there and we can savour the highlights for a long time to come.”

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Button: Hamilton will come back stronger than ever

Nico Rosberg had better brace for the backlash from Lewis Hamilton after ending his Mercedes team mate’s run of four wins in a row and taking the Formula 1 championship lead.

Jenson Button, who partnered Hamilton at McLaren from 2010 to 2012, was sure from his own experience that his fellow-Briton would come back harder than ever from his Monaco Grand Prix weekend.

Mercedes, winners of all six races so far this season, are in a class of their own and the next race in Canada is one of Hamilton’s old favourites, having won there three times in the last six years.

“I always remember with Lewis that when we had a tussle in a race, or there was an issue between us or with the team, he would have a really bad race and be quite outspoken and quite emotional about it,” Button recalled. “And the next race he would destroy me, he would come there and be stronger than ever.”

Monaco exposed more glaringly than ever just how intense the rivalry has become between Hamilton and Rosberg, how much their relationship has cooled since the start of the season and how much suspicion and intrigue is going on behind the scenes.

Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button battle at the 2012 Brazilian GP, their last race as McLaren teammates

The two team mates have finished the last five races one-two and would surely have done so also in the Australian opener had Hamilton not suffered a costly retirement through no fault of his own.

Button said that Mercedes were so far ahead of the rest that their drivers would have to ‘wipe each other out’ for anyone else to have a chance of winning.

That fact, with the drivers fighting for every advantage, is turning the championship into a round-by-round bout reminiscent of the duels between Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost at McLaren in 1988 and 1989.

Rosberg won the latest battle after he secured a controversial pole position on Saturday, skidding off at a crucial moment in a mistake that forced Hamilton to slow just when he looked like going faster.

Race stewards investigated and found no wrongdoing by the German but Hamilton was clearly suspicious that Rosberg had pulled a fast one, knowing it would be nearly impossible to overtake in the race.

“Whether he (Nico) did it on purpose or not, Lewis is going to think that he did,” Button told Reuters. “And that’s the way it is when you are team mates and pushing that hard and fighting for a championship.

“This has really helped Nico’s championship, breaking Lewis’s (run of) wins but is Lewis strong enough to come back? I really do think he is. You will see an even more determined Lewis at the next race.

“The mind games people play on him will not work. Initially, he is quite an emotional character, initially it might hurt but he will come back stronger than ever,” said the 2009 world champion.

Button recalled how Hamilton had chafed at the Belgian Grand Prix, which Button won in 2012, over running a different downforce level to his team mate.

“It hurt him that weekend but the next race he came back and he won it,” recalled the Briton. “He’s very good at turning it around and coming back because he is a superb driver, he is very fast and he can wrestle a car around a circuit.

“He won’t have any issues going into the next race with Nico, even if there are any games going on – and I don’t think that there are.”

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Mattiacci says super-cool Raikkonen is great to work with

One thing Kimi Raikkonen and Marco Mattiacci have in common is the fact that they are not men of many words, but the newly instated Ferrari boss has only good things to say about universally popular driver fondly known as Iceman.

Speaking to the media during the Monaco GP weekend, Mattiacci said, “I have worked before in Finland for several months and I know quite well Finnish people. Kimi is someone that is Finnish but grew up internationally because of Formula 1 travel.”

“He is a super-cool guy and I like him very much. He always has open and very frank discussions and he is professional. He is a great person to work with.”

“We are all different so sometimes we need to tune the level of communication and the way we talk to people in order to be in the same frequency. I don’t find any issue in dealing with Kimi, it’s the opposite and I have no problem,” added Mattiacci.

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Rosberg won battle of mind games in Monaco says Massa

The Monaco Grand Prix was a victory for Nico Rosberg not only on the track, but also in the realm of the ‘mind games’ that seems to have emerged within the Mercedes camp.

That is the view of Felipe Massa, who in 2008 only just lost the battle to Hamilton when the Briton won his sole title.

“He’s a guy who needs to be perfect on the psychological side,” Brazilian Massa is quoted by Totalrace, “otherwise there is the chance of him making mistakes. He lost in 2007 because he lost the car in China, also in Brazil. It was his mistakes.”

So Massa thinks Hamilton’s reaction to the events in Monaco, where he missed the chance at pole position due to Rosberg’s controversial mistake, is a big victory for the German.

“If Rosberg did that on purpose then that is not something that is part of my mentality,” said Massa. “But without a doubt it is something that could hurt Hamilton on the psychological side and end up being good for Rosberg.”

Qualifying aside, there were plenty of mind games at play in Monaco, as Hamilton made his foul mood with Rosberg clear by complaining about the noise outside his quarters by the German’s kicking of a football with his trainer Daniel.

And the 2008 world champion initially refused to appear for the post-race Mercedes victory photo, until it was reportedly made clear to him that his snub was also against the waiting Daimler Chairman Dieter Zetsche.

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Verstappen says F1 world interested in son Max

Jos Verstappen was in the Monaco paddock this weekend touching base with old contacts in the world of Formula 1 where he might soon be seen more regularly.

The 42-year-old Dutchman was a popular Formula 1 driver for several teams until 2003. He made 106 grand prix starts between 1994 and 2003, driving for Benetton, Simtek, Footwork, Tyrrell, Stewart, Arrows and Minardi, and scoring two podiums in the process.

In 1998 he replaced Jan Magnussen at Stewart. This year, Dane Magnussen’s son Kevin made his Formula 1 debut for the top team McLaren. Now Verstappen is hoping his own son is close to making the leap.

De Telegraaf newspaper reports that the reason for Jos Verstappen’s Monte Carlo paddock visit was to talk to his Formula 1 contacts about his son, 16-year-old Max.

Last year, Verstappen junior made the step from karts to cars, and in 2014 he is racing in the FIA’s highly-regarded European F3 championship.

Verstappen has already secured his first pole and win, and so his well-known father was keen to spread the word among the decision-makers in the world of Formula 1.

“It’s nice to see that there is plenty of interest in Max,” Jos is quoted as saying afterwards.

“His performances have not gone unnoticed, people are talking about him, and that’s always a good sign,” he added of his son, whose mother Sophie Kumpen was a successful kart driver.

Toro Rosso rookie Daniil Kvyat raced in the European F3 series last year. Another F1 family member on the grid this year is Lucas Auer, the nephew of Formula 1 legend Gerhard Berger.

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Jordan advises friend Sauber to sell F1 team

Ex Formula 1 team owner turned TV pundit Eddie Jordan has urged Peter Sauber to follow him into stress-free retirement.

Actually, having sold his Silverstone based team back in 2005 that today is called Force India, Irishman Jordan is now an outspoken expert pundit for British television.

But selling up, he told the Swiss newspaper Blick, “was the best decision of my career. Since then I have enjoyed every day of my life.”

Earlier, the veteran Swiss correspondent Roger Benoit described Sauber’s 2014 predicament as “embarrassing”, after the backmarker Marussia in Monaco moved ahead in the constructors’ world championship.

“We talked in Monaco for a long time about Sauber,” Benoit said, recounting his conversation with the 66-year-old Jordan.

“Sauber are in the biggest crisis they’ve ever been in, but I’ve always rooted for [them] Because he (Peter Sauber) is the most honest guy in the paddock.” And added with a laugh, “I can’t say the same thing about me!”

“But it’s obvious that they’ve reached the point where it can’t go on like this. Before the damage is even greater, the best solution would be to stop and sell the team. I don’t say this lightly, but Sauber can no longer compensate for their disadvantages on the financial side, and also on the engine side as well,” Jordan added.

Already reportedly up for sale is the Caterham team, and in Monaco it was said that an obvious potential buyer was the former Benetton and Renault chief Flavio Briatore. But the flamboyant Italian told the news agency PA Sport that he would rather hang on to his millions.

“What you are sure of is the team is losing money, and I’m not interested in buying any team that loses money,” said Briatore.

Caterham’s current team owner, Tony Fernandes, is yet to respond to multiple media enquiries about the situation, after his London football club Queens Park Rangers earned promotion to the premier league.

“Am so behind on tweets and emails and SMS,” he wrote on Twitter. “Got thousands of congratulations. Apologises for delay.”

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Pirelli tyres are too hard claims Alonso

Two weeks ago Sergio Perez declared that Pirelli tyres allocated for Barcelona were boring, now in the aftermath of the Monaco Grand Prix Fernando Alonso has come out and also criticised the 2014 tyres.

The Ferrari driver, who finished fourth in Monaco, said of the tyres: “They are too hard. There are no secrets. When they bring normal tyres with good grip, we finish the tyre in two or three laps. When they bring harder tyres we finish the tyre in eight or nine laps but we go very slow.”

“This is what we have – it is the same for everybody. The tyre is what it is and what it has been for the last four years unfortunately,” lamented Alonso.

Pirelli, who were tasked to spice up the show when they came on board as exclusive F1 tyre suppliers, responded to Alonso’s latest criticism, saying: “Pirelli prefers not to reply to remarks which have not been made directly to us. The only direct comments we [have] received so far are positive.”

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Baku to be a hit with F1 in 2015 predicts Briatore

Baku will be a big hit with Formula 1 when oil-rich Azerbaijan hosts a grand prix for the first time next year, according to Italian Flavio Briatore.

The controversial and colourful former Benetton and Renault team boss, who has business interests in the Azeri capital and is close to Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone, helped make the deal happen.

“I have had a lot of friends there (in Baku) for many, many years and we hope it happens in 2015,” said Briatore, speaking to Reuters outside Ecclestone’s motorhome in the Monaco Grand Prix paddock at the weekend.

“It’s very close to Europe, the city is amazing – it’s like a little Dubai. And more importantly, everything is new,” added Briatore, who left Formula One under a cloud in 2009 after a race-fixing scandal involving the previous year’s Singapore Grand Prix.

“The heart of the town is renovated completely so you have the flavour of the old days and of the oil money. The hotels are amazing, the facilities for your guys is super. It’s very nice.”

Ecclestone confirmed separately that an agreement had been signed for a street race in Baku next year.

The grand prix, in a city on the shores of the Caspian sea, will be the second in the former Soviet Union, with Russia due to host its first this year in Winter Olympics venue Sochi.

There is space on the calendar, with South Korea and India already dumped for this season and ruled out for 2015 while Mexico and a proposed New Jersey race look uncertain.

There has also been talk in France of a possible comeback for their race, last held at Magny-Cours in 2008, but Ecclestone poured cold water on that when asked whether it was likely to return in 2015.

“No. They’ll knock at the door but I don’t think we can do anything,” the Briton told Reuters.

Magny-Cours head Serge Saulnier was quoted last week in the French media as saying the circuit was still in negotiations with Formula One Management and also looking for funding from regional authorities.

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Ecclestone gives thumbs down to Magny Cours F1 return

Formula 1 Chief Executive Bernie Ecclestone gave a clear thumbs down when asked if France is on the brink of returning to the grand prix calendar.

A week ago, former Grand Prix venue Magny Cours’ boss Serge Saulnier told Infosport: “If the will of a number of people is confirmed in the coming weeks, we are very close [to returning].”

He claimed that Magny Cours, located a remote 260 kilometres from Paris and absent from the calendar since 2008, is heading for a comeback race next year.

“We are still in negotiations with FOM,” said Saulnier, referring to Formula 1′s commercial rights company that is run by Ecclestone.

But in Monaco, when Ecclestone was asked about those French reports, the Briton told Reuters: “No.

“They’ll knock at the door but I don’t think we can do anything,” he added.

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Merc unity won't last forever - Boullier

McLaren Racing Director Eric Boullier believes unity within Mercedes will be impossible to uphold if Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg continue to go toe to toe at the front of the grid.

Following an action-packed Monaco Grand Prix, where the tensions between the two title rivals seemed to reach boiling point at times, Boullier expects more trouble at Mercedes before long.

During an interview with Autosport, Boullier said that it is "impossible at this early stage of the season" when asked how difficult it is for a team to keep its drivers in check after they have fallen out.

"It is very early in the season so I don't know what they have been doing.

"But it is going to be tough for them going through the rest of the season.

Fernando Alonso believes a bit of tension between the two drivers is inevitable, particularly if they continue to be relatively evenly matched throughout the season.

"I think it's normal in all sports, especially Formula One," Alonso, who was Hamilton's team-mate at McLaren during a tumultuous 2007 season, said when asked about the kind of tension that can exist between rivals in the same garage.

"There's media attention, a lot of pressure, things going on inside the team.

"You should beat your team-mate to get respect. Of course if there's also a championship battle in the [team] garage it becomes more tense and more public, sometimes even separated.

"I'm sure if they have some other [difficult] times in the year, everything will be separated, but I hope they have clean battles and a good championship [fight].

"Whoever wins will hopefully be the best of the two and the one who deserves it more.

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Massa: Monaco not as hard as expected

Felipe Massa admitted that he didn't find last week's Monaco Grand Prix as difficult behind the wheel of the Williams as he expected.

The Brazilian predicted in the lead-up to the race in the Principality that he expects it to be the "toughest race of the season" when the rise in engine torque and lower levels of downforce are taken into account.

After a couple of minor crashes occurred during practice and Daniil Kvyat's collision with the barrier during qualifying, it seemed Massa's prediction might come to fruition.

However, during the race, only the Saubers of Esteban Gutierrez and Adrian Sutil crashed out unaided - much to Massa's surprise.

"I expected Monaco to be much more tricky than how it was," Massa said after the race.

"It was better than expected.

"We didn't see so much mistakes and people crashing alone, so it shows it was a bit better than expected.

"I thought it was going to be very difficult with more torque but it was no problem."

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FERRARI RESTRUCTURING MUST ALLOW ENGINEERS TO BE CREATIVE & NEWEY THE MAIN TARGET

Marco Mattiacci, the new team principal of Ferrari, has a good idea of the scale of the job he needs to do in order to return Ferrari to winning ways and it isn’t going to happen overnight.

Ferrari will have a major aerodynamic update package on the car for Montreal, as it traditionally does and a significant step on the power unit, which has been a major handicap on the straights this year.

If this doesn’t bring the team a good step closer to Mercedes, then it will inevitably begin to commit more resources to the engine side and to wind tunnel time to 2015, where it can make a difference.

But Mattiacci’s task is long term. Ferrari has lost the winning habit and he needs to recreate the culture that existed there under Jean Todt.

Current Ferrari technical director James Allison (below left) said at the weekend that Ferrari has no shortage of talented people, but the environment needs to be right for them to take risks. He blames a culture of fear of failure and unrealistic deadlines for Ferrari’s failure to innovate in recent years,

“There is a wealth of talent at Ferrari, the experience and quality of the people on the technical side is a match for any team. It is a question of giving them the encouragement to actually go off and do more unusual things and then have the time to look at them and know that if they fail it’s OK because there’s still time to put a back-up plan in place and for that to work,” he said.

“Creativity and originality will only come if you set out to allow the engineers in your organisation the space and the time to do that.

“If you force them to operate with their back against the wall, up against deadlines that are very tight, then there is no time for them to think about how they might approach something differently.”

In Monaco the talk was once again of Ferrari’s all out attempt to hire Adrian Newey away from Red Bull. Again, this is not going to happen overnight.

“I remain committed to Red Bull for the foreseeable future,” Newey said in Monaco.

But the foreseeable future is only the next year or two. Beyond that, anything is possible if the right circumstances are put in place.

Newey has been with Red Bull for seven years and historically that is about the length of time he was with Williams and McLaren before moving on to seek fresh challenges.

Newey is well aware of Ferrari, what it stands for and the prestige of the brand. He owns, drives and races Ferraris. He has no ideological barrier to working for Ferrari in Italy, merely to its reputation for being a turbulent environment.

He has said that previous attempts to hire him – of which there were many – came at the wrong time in his family life.

Now divorced with children who have mostly grown up, 55 year old Newey is at a different moment in his life. He has a new partner, Amanda Smerczak (above). His son is a keen kart racer and Italy is the hotbed of karting.

Anecdotally, one has the impression that Newey is indeed looking around at the moment, considering what to do next and he has bought himself some thinking time with his Monaco statement.

Ferrari is believed to be offering Newey a spectacular package which would give him, in addition to a massive salary comparable with many F1 drivers, the opportunity to be across Le Mans project, maybe even have a hand in designing a road going super car, but above all to make Ferrari the fastest F1 car out there.

All of this will be very tempting but what Newey needs is certainty that he and his department would be protected; from politics, from internal pressures and interference from FIAT and other outside forces and would be allowed to get on with their work.

He would also need a free rein to know that all the resources he needs are at his disposal, no questions asked. Mattiacci has been given a freedom previous Ferrari team boss Stefano Domenicali never had – to be able to sign things off quickly himself, without needing lengthy approvals. He has things set up more like the Todt regime in that sense. The team management can react more quickly and be more dynamic.

Newey works best in a protected environment and it is the thing he will be most concerned about at Ferrari, given its culture and politics. Todt managed to ring fence the team and was the strong man holding back the inside and outside forces to allow the team and its engineering innovators to thrive.

Mattiacci must reproduce that, and convince Newey very soon that he can do so, or the project will have little chance of succeeding.

[MIKA27]

LEWIS HAMILTON’S FOILED PLAN TO BEAT NICO ROSBERG IN MONACO PIT STOPS

The Monaco Grand Prix has triggered plenty of debate after the controversial incident in qualifying where Lewis Hamilton was denied a shot at pole through the error on the last lap of his Mercedes team mate Nico Rosberg.

It meant that in the race, having lost the start to the German as well, Hamilton’s only shot at winning was to jump him in the pit stops.

However, a Safety Car during the pit stop window changed the game; after both drivers had made their stops on the same lap, Hamilton was heard to complain to his team about the strategy call.

So could he have won the race if things had been done differently?

Pre-Race Considerations

As always at Monaco, the teams had less knowledge than they would like going into the Grand Prix, this time because of a wet FP2 session, so limited long runs.

However with the Pirelli tyres this year being harder than before, it was clear that the race was a one-stop, the question was how early could you pit and make it to the finish on your second set of tyres?

And conversely, for a counter strategy, how late could you leave it on the first set and make gains by stopping later? And what effect would a safety car have on the race?

In the end we got a safety car and a race of high attrition, with many leading cars eliminated. It was a day for staying out of trouble, as points were there for the taking, as Marussia’s Jules Bianchi proved.

Could Hamilton have beaten Rosberg on pit stop strategy?

Lewis Hamilton was not a happy man going into Sunday’s Monaco Grand Prix and he was even less happy after he was called in to pit on the same lap as race leader Rosberg, meaning that he had no chance to try something strategy wise to beat him.

He was heard to question the decision, also suggesting that at McLaren he would have been allowed to pre-empt the safety car and come in early after Adrian Sutil crashed heavily on lap 24.

The first car to pit was Jenson Button. Mclaren always brief the drivers that there is a “Safety Car window”, where they can pit at their discretion if they see an accident or “SC” boards, before the team see it and if they are in a late phase of the lap.

They were very clear on this and it’s something that other teams have been encouraged to try and copy. This is not a policy in place at Mercedes. This is what Hamilton was talking about when he referred to McLaren.

Mercedes run a clear policy of leading driver stop preference in races, something which Hamilton has benefitted from in the previous four races this year, which he has won.

Here, the situation was that Mercedes had a 1-2 and a margin of 12 seconds over the third car, Kimi Raikkonen. Hamilton was in Turn 13 when the TV cameras revealed that Sutil had crashed heavily, so there was time to call them in.

However there was no guarantee a Safety Car would be deployed, as later incidents like the Gutierrez shunt proved. This was an exercise in managing probabilities – it was 90% likely that a Safety Car would be used, but there was 0% risk to Mercedes of losing positions by by doing an extra lap and waiting to see if a Safety Car was deployed. This is because in that situation, all the cars are obliged to run at a set Safety Car speed, which is 140% of the normal lap time.

If Hamilton had pitted and there had been no Safety Car he would have been behind the Ferraris and could have been vulnerable to Ferrari deliberately leaving one of their cars out to block him while the other built a gap. Given that the “blocking” car would be Alonso, this is doubtful, but you never know.

Incidentally, Button didn’t gain any places by diving into the pits, because everyone went at the same speed once the “Safety Car Deployed” signs went out. It only works when someone does something wrong or unusual – in Australia Button gained two places with this trick because Alonso stacked up the cars behind him. Here there was nothing there for the taking.

But still, it can bring a gain and Hamilton will have remembered that he lost places to Vettel and Webber in this way under the Safety Car in Monaco last year, a painful memory so he felt it was worth a try.

The point is that, from the Mercedes’ point of view, there was no obvious gain for Hamilton in making a stop after Sutil crashed, but there were some risks. Mercedes has a single head of strategy on site and his job is to deliver a Mercedes 1-2 finish. However he has also been tasked with giving his drivers a chance to race.

And it is here that Hamilton’s real frustration lay, because there was a plan in place..

As Rosberg the leader had stop priority, the only way for Hamilton to beat him was to wait until Rosberg had stopped and then push like mad on the supersoft tyres for the next lap. At the same time, Rosberg would be on an out-lap with new soft tyres, which were quite hard and took a long time to warm up. This would have been Hamilton’s opportunity; to offset himself against Rosberg, then pit and hopefully emerge ahead of the German, if he had struggled with new tyre warm-up.

To pull it off he would have needed to have been more than 6/10ths of a second faster on old supersofts than Rosberg on new softs on that lap.

But because the Safety Car came out in a pit stop window, he never had the chance to try it.

So he was immensely frustrated – on top of his resentment at the manner in which he felt Rosberg had gained the advantage in qualifying – and this is what came out over the radio and after the race.

Counter Strategy helps Hulkenberg and Bianchi to strong points finishes

Two standout results in Monaco were the Force India of Nico Hulkenberg, going from 11th on the grid to 5th at the finish and Jules Bianchi going from 21st on the grid to 8th on the road, 9th after a 5 second penalty was applied. This gave Marussia a breakthrough first points finish.

Both did the same strategy: start on the soft tyres and then take the supersofts at the pit stop under the Safety Car. This called for them to do over 50 laps on a set of supersofts. Most teams had budgeted up to a maximum of 45 laps, but Force India has always been able to try these strategies because it can look after its tyres.

In Hulkenberg’s case this was a masterstroke, because on new supersofts he was able, at the restart after the Safety Car, to overtake Magnussen who was on the harder tyres and struggling to warm them up.

However the surprise for Force India was that tyres were dropping off badly in the closing stages, unlike Bianchi’s which still had good pace. Hulkenberg was however able to hold off Button to the flag.

Bianchi’s pace was something of a revelation and this result was well deserved. It was a shame that they drew an additional penalty for taking their original 5 second penalty during the Safety Car period, rather than just adding it on at the end. The Marussia was able to hold off Grosjean’s Lotus comfortably enough in the closing stages and his lap times were comparable to midfield cars.

Another driver who tried something different was Massa in the Williams. He did not pit when the Safety Car was deployed, at which point he was lying in 11th place. It was an unusual call and a roll of the dice really, perhaps hoping for a race stoppage or a track blockage to give him a gap to pit into. With everyone doing one stop there were few other obvious ways to gain.

With attrition and problems for other runners this meant that he was fifth in the second stint of the race, with a stop to take.

He took it on lap 45 and dropped back to 11th again. But with more attrition, he rose to 7th at the flag.

For an interactive graph, which can isolate any particular driver for analysis or compare a number of drivers, click here INTERACTIVE MONACO GRAPH

RACE HISTORY GRAPH, Kindly Supplied by Williams – Click to enlarge

Note how the field is held up in a train behind Hulkenberg in the final third of the race.

[MIKA27]

Ferrari vow to be “a good step faster” in Canada

Ferrari say they will make a significant step forwards with their car at the next race in Canada.

Technical director James Allison said the team will bring a significant upgrade for the race at the Circuit Gilleneuve in two weeks’ time.

“In Monaco, we continued to analyse the areas in which the F14 T can be improved,” he said, “and now we are looking ahead to the next race in Canada, where the package we will use there is a good step faster than the car we raced last weekend”.

However he cautioned that other teams may make gains of their own: “While our development programme has progressed well in recent weeks, it is hard to predict exactly what this will mean for the competitiveness of the F14 T, as we do not know what steps our competitors plan to bring to Montreal.”

“So any improvement has to be seen in relative terms, hoping that the track will deliver an answer worthy of all the efforts we have made so far.”

Ferrari are in third place after the first six races, behind Mercedes and Renault-powered Red Bull.

[MIKA27]

Latest: F1 team boss Tony Fernandes insists Caterham Group is not for sale

Caterham Formula 1 boss Tony Fernandes has insisted the team's parent company is not for sale.

Rumours surfaced in the Malaysian's home country that the Caterham Group had been put up for sale, amid the F1 squad's ongoing poor performance and following a pre-season threat from Fernandes that he would pull the plug on the outfit if it did not improve on track.

While the team did equal its best result in F1 in last weekend's Monaco Grand Prix with Marcus Ericsson finishing 11th, the rival Marussia outfit - which started in the sport in 2010, at the same time as Caterham - claimed its first points finish with Jules Bianchi's ninth place finish.

Caterham had previously been linked with a potential buyout from NASCAR team boss Gene Haas, but the American dismissed the rumours and reiterated his intent to build a US-based operation from scratch for his 2015 F1 entry.

A Caterham statement claimed that Group chairmen Fernandes and Datuk Kamarudin Meranun "remain wholly committed to the Caterham brand".

Fernandes added: "Caterham Group is not for sale. We love what we build and we are always looking for further investment. This is no different to how we started AirAsia [Fernandes's airline business].

"Yes, we are constantly challenging ourselves and making decisions on everything from the structure to projects within the Group.

"That is normal business. That does not mean we are selling."

[MIKA27]

Zetsche happy with driver feud at Mercedes

Potentially the most important man at Mercedes and the one who needs to be impressed most, is Dr Dieter Zetsche, chairman of Mercedes and parent company Daimler.

The German declared he was happy to see Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton feuding on track, whilst the emotions off it are just as entertaining for the fans.

"This is exactly what the viewers want to see," he said on Sunday.

"The worst thing would be nice team orders with one behind the other."

Whilst both Niki Lauda and Toto Wolff are trying hard to keep Rosberg and Hamilton under control, Zetsche described the close racing and intense fights a "beautiful thing".

"Ultimately, we have to be honest - the people are interested in the brands but they care more about the people. They want to see them fight each other.

"Now we have these two young men against each other in a great car, and this is the most beautiful thing that racing can provide," he added.

[MIKA27]

Vettel: We are the second force

Four time world champion Sebastian Vettel has denied throwing a tantrum after Monaco Grand Prix, and “accepts that Red Bull is now the second force in Formula 1″.

It was in the glitzy principality that the reigning quadruple world champion’s season hit a new low, with problems not only in Qualifying but in the race too.

“I heard that I kicked my helmet in the corner and shouted at the team!” the German said at the Red Bull Ring on Tuesday. “I have no idea where that comes from. I prefer to find constructive solutions.”

“Of course it’s not going perfectly at the moment and I was not very happy when I got out of the car, but at the same time the boys were cheering for Daniel [Ricciardo]. I have to say he is doing a really good job, which I respect and say ‘Chapeau’.”

On the other hand, it seems obvious that Vettel has also already said ‘Au revoir’ to a fifth title in 2014.

“Red Bull can forget about the championship,” Mercedes Team Chairman Niki Lauda told Austria’s O3 radio, but Vettel insists that he is not giving up yet.

“As long as everything is still mathematically possible, I keep fighting. We are still having blips but I think we are on the right track generally,” he said.

Part of the reason the maths is still working out for Red Bull is because, at the Abu Dhabi finale, double points will controversially be on offer.

“At the beginning we saw it differently,” Helmut Marko smiled on Tuesday, “but now we are thrilled by this new rule!”

Meanwhile, Vettel said he sees nothing sinister in the fact that all of the ‘bad luck’ is concentrated on his car in 2014, rather than Ricciardo’s.

“Generally I don’t really like the word ‘luck’,” said Vettel. “There is always a reason when something goes wrong.”

Vettel said that every problem is another lesson for the team. Marko insisted that

Red Bull are not giving up on 2014.

“After the shock of the winter, we have established ourselves as the second strongest team behind Mercedes,” Marko said. “It is not over yet.”

Vettel agreed: “We are the second force. But it would be wrong to compete with the goal of coming second to Mercedes.”

[MIKA27]

Ferrari offer Newey €20-million per year

Ferrari has not given up on luring design guru Adrian Newey to Maranello, according to La Gazzetta dello Sport, whose correspondent Luigi Perna outlined the latest plan to sign Red Bull’s highly-coveted technical boss.

In Monaco, Red Bull rejected the speculation about Newey by insisting that the 55-year-old remains committed for “the foreseeable future”.

But that may have been before Ferrari’s latest audacious offer to the Briton. Perna said Ferrari is offering Newey unprecedented technical freedom, and also his own road-going supercar project and involvement in a possible Le Mans prototype bid.

Not to mention annual pay of about €20 million, “If the odds at first were zero, now the odds are 20-30 per cent. It all depends on Newey.”

It has also been claimed that signing Newey might convince Red Bull’s quadruple world champion Sebastian Vettel to join him at Maranello. But German Vettel said on Tuesday: “I feel very good about where I am and have so much to thank my team for.

“You don’t just throw in the towel and look for something else after six bad races,” he insisted.

Curiously, Vettel was at the wheel of Gerhard Berger’s 1988 Ferrari on Tuesday for a promotional event at the forthcoming Austrian Grand Prix venue.

He got out of the car and said “Incredibile!”

Red Bull’s Helmut Marko grinned to reporters: “You can let our friends know quietly in Maranello that Sebastian even drives his Ferraris with us.”