Briatore says Renault have 'solid future'

Renault chief Flavio Briatore is confident his team have a 'solid future' in Formula One despite the impact of losing title sponsor ING at the end of this year.

With Renault having already been surrounded by widespread speculation about their future in the sport because of the increasingly gloomy financial outlook for car makers, the team's situation has not been helped by ING's decision to end its involvement in F1.

However, Briatore remains upbeat that, with F1 embracing a number of cost-cutting measures, he can look to the future with confidence.

"During the past three years, the team and ING have enjoyed a rewarding and successful relationship," Briatore said in a statement on his team's official website.

"ING has been an enthusiastic and supportive partner for the Renault F1 team in all respects. They have been a true success story and have become a brand that is recognised worldwide thanks to an innovative and proactive sponsorship programme with our team and Formula One.

"However, we have been aware for quite some time that the world's current financial climate was calling for a restructuring of our sport and with FOTA we have moved in that direction.

"Drastic cost reductions have been on FOTA's agenda as one of the first priorities and with the ongoing programme of measures we are confident we can guarantee a solid future for our team and for Formula One."

Patrick 'flattered' by USF1 link

Danica Patrick says she has been flattered to be linked to the USF1 project, but the IndyCar racer admitted she hasn't heard from the team.

The team's technical director Ken Anderson said earlier this week that they would be interested in testing Patrick, the first female winner in the IndyCar series.

The 26-year-old said in Toronto on Wednesday, however, that she hadn't had any contacts with the team.

"There weren't any quotes from me because they haven't spoken to me," Patrick was quoted as saying by the Globe and Mail newspaper.

"It's very flattering. I think that any time you are in the same sentence as Formula One, it's a flattering thing."

"I haven't really expressed a lot of excitement and interest in world travel. We'll see what they'll say though. Maybe they'll call."

USF1 are scheduled to unveil their plans next Tuesday in a special television show on SpeedTV.

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Raikkonen tops test despite KERS scare

Kimi Raikkonen set the fastest time on the second day of this week's Formula One test at Bahrain, as the good weather allowed the three teams present to get plenty of mileage under their belts.

The Finn's day, however, was not without trouble, as he lost three hours due to a problem with his car's KERS cooling circuit.

The problem, however, was used by Ferrari to experiment with an emergency in case of a KERS failure.

Raikkonen ended the day just more than one tenth clear of Toyota's Jarno Trulli - pointing once again to how close the competitiveness between the teams looks.

Trulli completed a total of 149 laps over the course of the day, and was pretty happy with how much progress had been with the TF109.

"This has been a very good test for us," he explained. "I've covered well over 2000km in three days and I feel happy with the car. It seems competitive and reliable so a start like this gives us a solid base for the season ahead.

"There is still a lot of time before the first race and there is plenty of scope for teams to make big steps between now and Melbourne. So we will have to keep pushing hard to keep up the momentum in the factory and at the remaining tests. Still, so far so good."

The only other driver present was BMW Sauber's Nick Heidfeld, who spent the day concentrating on mechanical set-ups.

"Today I drove the new BMW Sauber F1.09 in warm weather conditions for the first time, so the most important thing for me was to learn more about the general balance of the car", explained Heidfeld.

"Overall it was a good day because I tried a lot of different set-up solutions. I already feel happy about how the car reacts to changes."

Today's times:

Pos Driver Team Time Laps 1. Raikkonen Ferrari (B) 1:32.102 103 2. Trulli Toyota (B) 1:32.230 149 3. Heidfeld BMW-Sauber (B) 1:32.585 104 All Timing Unofficial

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Sepang rules out night race before 2015

Malaysian Grand Prix chiefs have ruled out the possibility of turning their event into a night race before their current contract expires in 2015.

The start time of this year's race at Sepang has been shifted back to 5pm, with race organisers unable to justify the higher costs of lighting up the track that would be required for a night event.

And although Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone has been keen for Malaysia to hold its event at night, race organisers have now confirmed that the 5pm start will now remain until 2015 at the earliest.

Sepang track chief Mokhzani Mahathir was quoted as saying by the AFP news agency: "We have amended the contract. The race will start at 5.00pm. It is another way of saying that there will be no night race until 2015."

Mahathir said the track's resistance to shelling out for a night race had increased because of the worldwide financial problems faced at the moment.

"Bernie said to me that 'we will no longer raise the issue'. I told him that we are facing an economic crisis. The night race may or may not attract more people to the circuit," he said.

Sepang said back in 2007 that, under the contract signed then, the circuit was committed to holding the race at night 'at any time upon notification' of Formula One Management.

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Suzuka on course for April re-opening

The revamp of the Suzuka circuit is scheduled to be finished within the next two months, ahead of its return to the Formula One calendar later this year.

Suzuka's owner Honda has used the opportunity of the Japanese GP's switch to Fuji to undertake an upgrade of facilities at the track.

And Honda has confirmed in a statement about its 2009 motorsport activities that the track will be ready in time for a grand re-opening in April

"Full-scale renovation work will soon be completed," stated Honda, which will host a 'Start Suzuka Opening Thanks Day F1 Kick Off Party' on April 12.

Although Honda has pulled out of F1, the company has made it clear that it remains wholly behind Suzuka hosting the Japanese GP.

Honda CEO Takeo Fukui said in December: "The Suzuka GP takes place as planned, and the work has started. We are sorry we are not going to be there."

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Williams against wind tunnel use limit

Team boss Frank Williams says he is unhappy about cost-cutting moves to restrict wind tunnel use that could leave his team at a disadvantage compared to their rivals.

The Formula One Teams' Association (FOTA) is currently discussing a proposed framework of aerodynamic development restrictions that will help teams reduce their expenditure on wind tunnels and CFD systems. Once the teams are in unison on the matter, it can then be put to the FIA.

However, reaching a deal that satisfies all teams is not easy - and it is understood that Williams and Toyota are not impressed at a push from their rivals to limit all teams to just one wind tunnel - irrespective of their CFD capabilities.

Early drafts of the aerodynamic limits would have allowed teams to choose to balance their work on either wind tunnels or CFD, depending on their resources.

Speaking about the situation, Williams told autosport.com: "I was happy with that until a few of the other teams said 'oh we've only got one wind tunnel, so you should have too' which I thought was a very strong piece of discrimination.

"We all sort of put our cards on the table recently about our CFD capabilities. We came out joint last with Force India. We've got two very good tunnels. Suddenly for some unbalanced reason it's proposed that we are only allowed to use one."

Williams confirmed that he was not the only one not happy about a proposed ban on teams using more than one wind tunnel. When asked if Toyota adopted his stance, he said: "That's right. And, I would imagine, it's Honda's too. A blind man can see it's discrimination against those with two tunnels.

"What about you've got two of these and I've only got one, so you'll have to run with just one driver? Try that one! You can see where it's coming from. There are some very big investments around and those guys with only one tunnel have said 'yipee you can't have your second."

Williams said he felt the situation showed that competitiveness between teams was now expanding beyond the normal areas of track and finances.

"I'm of the view that the competition should take place on the race track," he said. "It now takes place on the race track and at the bank as well. Then there's a third area where they think they can carve up the rights to which equipment they can use.

Despite his unhappiness at the situation, Williams said he felt a compromise settlement would be reached - even though it would restrict his team to one tunnel.

"Under the Concorde Agreement - and I've presumed that in the last three years that we are racing with a new Concorde Agreement in place, otherwise what binds us together? - that if the technical regulations are changed at short notice it must be by unanimous agreement," he said.

"Well there wasn't unanimous agreement and it still got changed. I think we're getting close to a solution, a solution that is quite acceptable...but I repeat we're unhappy about it."

This week's Autosport carries a full-length interview with Frank Williams, where he talks about the shape of F1, the state of his team and how he can see a bright future amid the current financial uncertainty.

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Williams: Technical challenges key to F1

Formula One must not abandon its core technical challenge in the move to reduce costs over the next few years, reckons Frank Williams.

With the teams and the FIA looking at ways to bring budgets under control to help see the sport through the worldwide economic crisis, Williams has expressed his belief that any rule changes should not rob the sport of the factors that have made it so popular.

In particular, he believes the idea of a standard specification car would be going too far - because it could lead to the unintended consequence of driving the best brains away from F1.

"We still want the very best drivers in the world racing the fastest single-seater cars in an F1 world championship," Williams said in an exclusive interview with this week's Autosport.

"If it's to be spec cars, why not just go and buy some IndyCars? Then I think you'd find all the talent and interest would pretty quickly drift away.

"There has to be a greater challenge than that, but nothing like as expensive as it has been. Max (Mosley) was absolutely right in bringing us down from 10 engines a race weekend, to two to one – totally right.

"And everything done on this new drive the teams are all with him. We're all very mindful of having our businesses stay in business. There is some disagreement over the precise menu of changes in some areas, total agreement in others. But please, not spec cars."

He added: "F1 attracts all these extraordinary people because of what it is. It features all these brilliant brains. People such as Ron Dennis, Max himself, Mario Theissen. In this building (the Williams factory) there are some very clever people, in all the F1 buildings. It's a fantastic collection of individuals that makes the world go around. I'd hate for that to be shattered.

"Because if the racing, financial and technical challenges aren't there such people will find something else more challenging. At the same time, the last people who want to drive themselves out of business are the team principals, so I'm sure it can all be achieved."

Williams has said he supports the initiatives being put in place by the Formula One Teams' Association (FOTA) and the FIA to help reduce costs.

And although he concedes life in F1 at the moment is a 'challenge' for his team, he is optimistic about the future of his outfit.

He says there are no doubts that sponsors currently committed to his team, including the under-fire banking group RBS, will fulfil their commitments.

"A contract is a contract," he explained. "Our existing contracts are okay, as with us and RBS. We have a major new contract (Philips) with one of our existing partners that you will see on the car soon.

"In the summer we had a very good run and I thought 'Crickey this is going well' and a lot of it goes forwards for the next few years. But now the market's pretty much moribund. It's very hard."

This week's Autosport carries the full-length interview with Frank Williams, where he talks about the shape of F1, the state of his team and how he can see a bright future amid the current financial uncertainty.

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