Hockenheim's F1 future in doubt

The future of Formula One at the Hockenheim circuit is in doubt unless the government decides to help financially, a track official has said.

"Without grants from the state there will be no more Formula One in Hockenheim," Karl-Josef Schmidt told the Der Tagesspiegel newspaper.

The track will be absent from the calendar next year because it is alternating the event with the Nurburgring.

According to the newspaper, Hockenheim made a loss of 5.3 million euros this year after hosting the German Grand Prix.

The Canadian and French Grands Prix will not be on next year's schedule due to financial reasons.

Schmidt believes only Arab countries will be able to afford hosting a Formula One race if the future unless they start to get better deals.

"Formula One will disappear not just from Hockenheim but from Germany as a whole. Then it will only be run in Arab countries," he added.

There are currently five German drivers racing in Formula One, plus companies such as BMW and Mercedes.

Hoops pass through draft unscathed

Germany preview quotes: Honda

Ecclestone: Medal system next year

Bernie Ecclestone has declared that his controversial medal system to decide the Formula One world drivers' champion will be introduced next year.

Speaking at the announcement of a technology partnership between F1 and Korean electronics giant LG in London today, Ecclestone said he expects his plan to be ratified at the next FIA World Motorsport Council meeting.

"It's going to happen," said Ecclestone. "All the teams are happy. The whole reason for this was that I was fed up with people talking about no overtaking. The reason there's no overtaking is nothing to do with the circuit or the people involved, it's to do with the drivers not needing to overtake.

"If you are in the lead and I'm second, I'm not going to take a chance and risk falling off the road or doing something silly to get two more points. If I need to do it to win a gold medal, because the most medals win the world championship, I'm going to do that. I will overtake you."

Ecclestone added that his system would promote a more exciting world championship fight.

"This year, we saw on a number of occasions Lewis not overtaking Massa for that reason," said Ecclestone. "If he'd driven for me, tried it and made a mistake, I would have complained. It's just not on that someone can win the world championship without winning a race."

When asked of the timescale for implementing his plan, Ecclestone replied: "Next year. I'm hoping it will be approved at the next FIA meeting."

When then asked if it was fair that someone who wins six races but doesn't finish any others, beats someone who had finished every race in second place, Ecclestone replied: "He'll have to try harder next year."

Under the proposed medal scheme, Felipe Massa rather than Lewis Hamilton would have won this year's world championship with six race victories to Hamilton's five.

Ekpo, Nigeria win silver in Beijing

Ecclestone wants medals instead of points

Nowak trying to shape Olympic roster

Bourdais: Money crucial in STR decision

Frenchman Sebastien Bourdais says Toro Rosso's line-up for the 2009 season will be decided by money as much as skill.

The four-time ChampCar champion is yet to find out if he will have a racing seat at the team with which he made his Formula One debut this season.

Toro Rosso have both seats available and they tested Japanese Takuma Sato and Swiss Sebastien Buemi this week at Barcelona alongside Bourdais.

The Frenchman, however, has denied he was part of a shoot-out between the other drivers, and reckons money, and not only talent, will decide the line-up.

"No, it's not a shoot-out," Bourdais told the official Formula One website. "I am here as a reference to the team because they know me quite well, and whatever they are trying, in the end it is mainly tyre comparison stuff, tyre usage.

"You obviously run the 2008 car with 2009 downforce, but that's far more effective than the (actual) '09 car because it is the same downforce, yes, but quite a bit less drag.

"So it will produce some quite impressive laptimes, but they have got nothing to do with the 2009 car - not yet, at least.

"So I am not here for a shoot-out. The problem is purely financial. The team needs some money and I think until they find a driver package which is fast enough and has got the funds - or they find a solution themselves - they won't find a solution for their line-up."

Bourdais signed a three-year contract with Toro Rosso, but he admits he has no guarantees he will continue at the team next year.

He also believes the line-up will not be confirmed any time soon.

"Absolutely not at all," he said when asked how sure he was to stay. "As far as I am concerned I don't see a decision being made any time soon because I don't see anybody being able to guarantee money right now, or tomorrow or the next day.

"I think it will drag on for quite some time and I am a professional driver and at some point I will need to make sure that I have a job for next year. And when the time comes I will have to make a decision."

He added: "Well, it was not a one-year contract, it was a three-year deal, obviously with options. And in the end it does not matter whether you have a three-year deal or not - there is always a line in the contract which says that if they are not happy with you they can get rid of you.

"The fact is that there is no such thing as a sure deal in racing, whether it is Formula One or any other series. As long as it works it's good for everyone and then it is all rosy, but if it doesn't work out as expected, then ciao! That's the way it is."

Bourdais said he was not very pleased with how his season went, especially after the introduction of the new car, which did not suit his driving style.

"Not very much. It was quite disappointing as far as I am concerned because obviously we had a good beginning with the STR2, where I was fairly close to Sebastian Vettel, and then with the STR3 it became a lot harder because I was facing balance issues which we really could not solve.

"So we had one happy driver and one fairly unhappy driver. The time difference was getting very big sometimes and you really don't look good and you can't really be satisfied with that.

"It has nothing to do with my teammate but everything to do with my driving style and my window of operation where I can deliver and feel confident with the car.

"This obviously was a bit easier for Sebastian and that was his big chance to be able to adapt to a car and to get the best out of it. I can do this as well with a car I am quite happy with, but if that's not the case it's getting a bit harder."

Quakes hope to keep building blocks

Buemi expects quick Toro Rosso decision

Sealy trade gives K.C. options

Toro Rosso to test trio at Barcelona

Rested Revs shoot for clean sheet

RBR trust Webber's absence won't be felt

Red Bull Racing team boss Christian Horner is confident the outfit's winter testing programme will not be hindered by the absence of Mark Webber.

The Australian driver is expected to miss most, if not all, of winter testing after breaking his leg in a accident while riding a bicycle.

Red Bull are optimistic that he will be fit for the start of the 2009 season, however.

Horner, whose team will use Sebastian Vettel and Sebastien Buemi in the final test of the year, said that at least the timing of Webber's injury was not too bad.

"We planned to do only the second Jerez test," Horner told autosport.com, "and there we will have Buemi on the first day and Vettel on the next days in the car.

"If there is anything positive in Mark's accident it is the timing."

Horner also ruled out using David Coulthard in testing already, the Scot having just retired from racing.

"No, DC at the moment has a lot of other duties," said Horner of Coulthard, who became a father for the first time last Friday.

Red Bull: Webber will be fit for Melbourne

Real won’t sit back with chance to advance

Hartman closing on MLS save mark

Vettel: Webber will be missed in testing

Vettel: Webber will be missed in testing

Sebastien Vettel says Red Bull Racing will miss Mark Webber's feedback during winter testing following the Australian's injury.

Webber broke a leg after crashing head-on with a car while taking part in a cycling event of the Mark Webber Pure Tasmania Challenge.

The Australian underwent surgery and is expected to miss much of winter testing, although the team are confident he will be fit for the first race of the 2009 season.

Vettel, joining Red Bull from Toro Rosso, says the team will have to be very focused to get their job done while Webber is absent.

"What happened to Mark was a shame and I hope he gets well soon," Vettel told the official Formula One website. "I didn't have the chance to talk to him yet.

"We will proceed as usual with testing and for sure he will be missed but it is more important that he is back next year to get the new car running.

"We have to be even more focused down in Jerez at our next test and can't afford to make any mistakes, as time is valuable."

The German driver had a promising debut as as official Red Bull racer, topping the times for two days in testing at Barcelona last week.

Vettel, who had tested for Red Bull before, admitted he still needs time to get used to the new team.

"From the previous tests I did for Red Bull Racing I know pretty much the whole engineering staff and I'm getting to know them more and more," he added.

"It will surely take some time to get the perfect understanding and finally speak the same language, but we are definitely getting there. And my race engineer will stay with Toro Rosso and I will have new people to work with."

Barrett’s finishing touch under fire

First-place Crew focused on finishing

Red Bull: Webber will be fit for Melbourne

Loeb fast enough for F1, say Red Bull

Multiple World Rally Champion Sebastien Loeb has been hailed fast enough for Formula One by the Red Bull Racing team after the Frenchman tested one of their cars at Barcelona on Monday.

Loeb, 34, set the eighth fastest time of the day as F1 began preparing for the sweeping rule changes set to come in to force in the sport next season, and completed 82 trouble-free laps at the Spanish circuit.

"I expected to be pleasantly surprised and that was the case," Red Bull's race performance engineer Daniele Casanova told Autosport. "Sebastien has been really impressive. He has stepped into the car and not put a foot wrong from the beginning."

Loeb drove an interim RB4 chassis, with new slick Bridgestone tyres and simulated '09 levels of downforce. And while he was eighth quickest of 17 runners, the field was spread unusually wide due to the different configuration packages all the teams ran this week.

Nevertheless Casanova believes that Loeb's performance was of 'midfield' F1 pace.

"It's hard to the tell the exact pace," said Casanova. "From the fastest car to the slowest there is a 25km/h difference, so clearly a lot of people are running many different configurations, including KERS, wings and tyres.

"We are the correct weight, so at a guess I would say Sebastien is running somewhere in the midfield, which is mighty impressive.

"It's obviously fun to run a driver like Sebastien, but we also got a lot of useful work done. The new tyres are things that we have only tested two or three times before and they are really quite different. The idea is that this would be a normal test for us. So he was going at a good test pace, without taking any risks."

Despite proving that he has the speed, Loeb dismissed a switch to Formula One at this late stage in his career.

"Maybe I am too old," he told Autosport. "If I was going to do that, it's something that I should have thought about doing a few years ago. This only came about because it was an opportunity offered to me by Red Bull.

"You can't compare F1 to rallying, they are so different. It's not true that rallying is more of a comfort zone, because when I am flat-out on the stages I am concentrating just as hard as I was today."

The test was Loeb's second experience of F1, having tested a Renault R27 alongside Heikki Kovalainen at Paul Ricard last year - where he lapped 1.5s off the Finn's pace.

The Citroen WRC star added that he would love to drive an F1 car again and felt that there was more to come from him in terms of performance.

"I think there was more speed to come from me, but I am not going to say that I could have gone a second quicker or anything, because I wasn't," he said. "There were definitely areas where I could have improved though, particularly under braking.

"Sometimes I was braking too early and sometimes too late. I think it's the most difficult thing for anyone coming into F1 for the first time. For the rest [of the driving skills], it was not too bad. I studied some videos before, which helped with things like the racing line."

Loeb under no illusions over F1 test

Loeb to join F1 test with Red Bull

First XI: Honor roll

Loeb impressed by F1 car’s power

LG Electronics becomes an F1 partner

LG Electronics has been announced as a new technology partner of Formula One, in a multi-year deal to commence in January 2009.

The electronics firm will become 'the official Consumer Electronics, Mobile Phone and Data Processor' of the world championship, and its logo will feature on F1's live timing system and timing graphics.

"LG is a leader in its field, it pioneers cutting edge technology, delivering innovation and excellence in a stylish package, which is what Formula One is about too," said F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone. "We have so much in common, I am very excited to begin our association and look forward to the technology solutions they can bring to us also."

Dermot Boden, LG's chief marketing officer, said the deal was a major coup for his company, and believes F1 is a good investment even during the global economic downturn.

"Formula One represents the absolute peak of technological innovation and style, which is also our vision for the LG Electronics brand," he said.

"We feel the excitement and electricity of F1 is unmatched by any sport, and we feel the same passion and energy here at LG.

"In today's economic climate, all organisations need to be strategic with their expenditures. Here at LG we can think of no more important investment than our brand.

"After having carefully researched marketing and sponsorship opportunities, I am confident that this exciting partnership will best highlight and enhance the profiles of both global organisations over the long term."

McLaren to work with Freescale on KERS

RSL, Morales agree to extension