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Renault reaches deal to remain in F1

Renault is staying in Formula One racing after agreeing yesterday to sell a “large stake” in the team to a private investment firm to keep the cars on the grid in 2010.

The French carmaker had been weighing whether to continue in F1 or pull out following a crash scandal that led to the departure of former team principal Flavio Briatore.

After the proposed sale to Luxembourg-based Genii Capital, Renault said in a statement that the two companies would operate the team together.

The team will continue to race under the Renault name, using Renault engines.

Neither Renault nor Genii elaborated on the size of the stake to be sold, though reports said it could be as high as 80 percent.

“In 2010, the team will retain its name, its identity and the core ingredients that led to the successes achieved in 2005 and 2006,” Renault said.

“The team will continue to be supplied with engines by its sister company in Viry-Chatillon.”

The companies said a letter of intent should be concluded early next year.

Renault’s reputation was recently damaged by the crash scandal, which caused it to lose sponsorship deals with insurance companies Mutua Madrilena and ING.

There had been speculation that Renault would follow Honda, BMW and Toyota out of F1 due to the economic downturn.

At the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix, Renault driver Nelson Piquet Jr purposely crashed his car to help teammate Fernando Alonso, who went on to win the race.

Gerard Lopez, the businessman behind Genii Capital, said restrictions on spending in Formula One had made it a more attractive investment for new owners.

“This is a period of opportunity for Formula One, not a period of uncertainty,” Lopez said yesterday. “Formula One has an extraordinary level of global awareness that can be used to develop new business-to-business opportunities in traditional and developing markets, and there are exciting new revenue streams to be explored.”

Genii said it intended to run the team on a restricted-budget model, similar to that of new team Virgin Racing, which was unveiled on Tuesday.

“Together with Renault, we intend to run the team with the same values as any of our other investments, prioritizing ambitious performance targets without neglecting cost efficiency,” Genii chief executive Eric Lux said.

“We strongly believe that on-track performance can be compatible with business performance, and we will use all our entrepreneurial spirit and commercial know-how to achieve this goal.

Renault also said it will continue as engine supplier for Red Bull next season.

Polish driver Robert Kubica will drive for Renault.

Hamilton to learn from Shanghai low

Lewis Hamilton was a hair’s breadth from securing his first world championship here in his rookie season last year but crashed out of the race and squandered a massive 17-point lead in the driver standings.

McLaren Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton of Britain celebrates taking poll position in front of team mate Heikki Kovalainen after the qualifying session for Sunday’s Japanese F-1 Grand Prix at Fuji Speedway in Oyama, central Japan, October 11, 2008. [Agencies]
Now at his second Shanghai Grand Prix, again as championship leader, he is ready to learn from the mistake that triggered a late meltdown last year and drive an error-free race.
“There is always some experiences that build you as a person and add to your character,” the McLaren-Mercedes driver said of last year’s painful withdrawal during a promotion for technical partner Mobil 1.
“That was not the end of the world.”
Hamilton would have secured the championship in the Chinese financial hub provided he finished the Shanghai race in the top eight and ahead of then teammate Fernando Alonso.

Briton Lewis Hamilton answers questions at a press conference on Tuesday in Shanghai. Gongguan
However, the Briton and his team approached the race too riskily and wore out tires before pit stop.
The incident was a big blow to then sizzling rookie driver, who made no mistakes before coming to Shanghai in his astonishing and record-breaking debut season.
But the 23-year-old son of a Caribbean immigrant said he is not haunted by the memory and believes the experience was vital to his development.
“Having such a fantastic year, it was a good time to have an experience like that because it prepared me to come here for this race,” the 23-year-old said of this weekend’s return event.
Ahead of it he is in a similar position to what he was in last year: He had previously won four titles before; he can still become the youngest champion in Formula One history and has an opportunity to secure the title with one race remaining.
“It’s another opportunity to prove myself in Shanghai,” he said. “I have a great opportunity (to win the championship).”
“My confidence is not knocked and it is not different (with previous races),” he added.
“I still come here with confidence, perhaps with more humility.”
Hamilton stressed he and his team would not push the envelope too much to secure more points but play things safely.
“I hope with the same approach, we can do a better job this weekend,” he said.
“I hope this time in Shanghai will be better than last year.”
After a disappointing weekend in Fuji, Japan, where he incurred drive-through penalties with title contender Felipe Massa of Ferrari and scored no points, Hamilton said he can’t wait to race in Shanghai in front of a swelling fan club.
“It’s great to be back. There were more fans in the airport and I am more excited,” he said. “I had not so great a weekend in Fuji. But I learned from the experience and I am still positive.”
Hamilton is sitting on 84 points, five ahead of Massa. BMW Sauber’s Robert Kubica is in third with 72 points followed by defending champion Kimi Raikkonen on 63.
Hamilton’s McLaren teammate Heikki Kovalainen is fifth with 51 points.
In constructor standings, Ferrari leads McLaren Mercedes by seven points.
Former champions urge Hamilton to keep his cool
Britons Jackie Stewart and Damon Hill have told compatriot Lewis Hamilton he must keep his cool in the season’s last two races if he is to join them as a Formula One champion.
The 23-year-old McLaren driver leads Ferrari’s Brazilian Felipe Massa by five points and could become the sport’s youngest champion if circumstances favour him in China this weekend.
However Hamilton failed to score in Japan on Sunday, reviving fears that history may be repeating itself after he allowed a commanding lead to slip through his fingers at the same stage last year.
“This was not his finest hour,” triple champion Stewart told the RBS website (www.rbssport.com/f1), commenting on Hamilton’s wild start and subsequent drive-through penalty at Fuji.
“His approach in that first corner was slightly arrogant to other drivers.
“The Japanese race demonstrated that Lewis is still very young, in only his second season, and although he comes across as very cool in interviews, he doesn’t always have the same level of mind management when he’s racing.
“Lewis Hamilton can still win the championship, but not if he drives the last two races the way he drove in Japan.”
Both leading contenders have struggled for consistency in the final run to the title, with Massa finishing seventh in Japan and failing to score in the previous race in Singapore due to a team blunder at his first pitstop.
Renault’s Fernando Alonso, the double world champion who was Hamilton’s team mate and foe at McLaren in 2007, has won the last two races.
Hamilton had scored 107 points by this stage last year but currently leads with just 84.
Whoever wins the title will end up with the lowest overall tally by a champion since Ferrari’s now-retired Michael Schumacher triumphed with 93 points in 2003.
“If Lewis keeps a cool head, then he’ll be fine. I think he will get the job done,” Hill, Britain’s last champion with Williams in 1996, told BBC radio.
“There is no question about his speed or ability, he just needs to stay cool and let it happen.
“Lewis is impatient to win that first title but you can’t force it.
“It is a mark of Lewis’s career that he’s always been very keen to get the job done and move on, and you need that impatience. But it can sometimes trip you up if you’re not wary.”
 

Toyota to cut costs but vows to remain in F1

Toyota will scale back costs on Formula One racing, but is vowing not to drop out despite expectations it will record its first yearly operating loss in seven decades.

Toyota Motor Corp. President Katsuaki Watanabe did not give details on how the Japanese automaker would cut spending in the glamorous but expensive F1.

Toyota has not had an F1 victory in seven years.

“To keep it up at the current level is extremely difficult,” he told reporters. Watanabe said F1 was a good way to attract young people.

Earlier this month, Honda Motor Co., Japan’s No. 2 automaker, announced it was pulling out of F1.

Japanese automakers have been battered by the downturn in the US auto market, the world’s biggest. The slowdown is spreading to other regions, including emerging markets, where they had been holding up. In recent weeks, Subaru and Suzuki have both quit the World Rally Championship, citing concerns about the global economic crisis.

Fuji Heavy Industries, which makes Subaru cars, announced the decision earlier this month, a day after fellow Japanese automaker Suzuki Motor Corp.’s departure.

Toyota is expecting to eke a net profit for the fiscal year ending March 2009, as it racks up its first operating red ink since it began reporting such numbers in 1941.

The only other time it has ever had an operating loss was unofficial, in 1938, a year after its founding.

Toyota had been on track to sell 10 million vehicles around the world, but now sales for 2008 are expected to slide below 9 million vehicles.

Honda has also slashed its fiscal year profit forecast. Its global vehicle sales will show negligible on-year growth at 3.77 million.

Honda President Takeo Fukui looked crestfallen when announcing the decision to quit F1, but he said Honda needs to focus on its core business to ride out hard times. He reiterated last week again that the withdrawal wasn’t temporary.

F1 stakeholders announced measures to reduce the costs for teams in 2009 in the wake of Honda’s withdrawal and the earlier departure of Super Aguri in April.

Auto racing governing body FIA and the teams agreed to a series of changes which include longer-lasting engines, limits on expensive testing and cheaper, off-the-shelf engines for smaller teams.

The FIA said the first batch of changes for the 2009 season will help the larger teams cut costs by about one third over 2008.

Rossi: I could have been a good F1 driver

MotoGP world champion Valentino Rossi said on Thursday he could have been a good Formula One driver if he had made the switch three years ago.
Rossi tried out Ferrari’s 2008 F1 car at the Mugello circuit as a gift from the Italian team after his eighth motorcycling world title.

Moto GP World Champion Valentino Rossi looks on during the first training session in his 2008 model Ferrari Formula One car at the Mugello racetrack, northern Italy, November 20, 2008. [Agencies]
He had serious tests for Ferrari in 2005 and 2006 but decided to stick with two wheels.
“With a lot of work I could have become a good F1 driver. It is hard to say if I would have become a winner or not, but the potential was there,” he told reporters after a strong test.
Rossi managed a fastest lap of one minute 22.5 seconds, less than two seconds behind recent times recorded by Ferrari drivers Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen on the same track.
Wearing his distinctively-coloured helmet, he was roared on by around 1,000 fans and could have gone faster had his 51-lap run not been cut short by an approaching thunderstorm.
The chances of Rossi ending up in Formula One look to have gone but the 29-year-old has talked about the possibility of moving into rallying permanently when he finishes with MotoGP.
The Italian was second in the Monza rally last weekend and is due to race in the British round of the world championship next month.
Ferrari’s seven-times champion Michael Schumacher has entered occasional motorcycle races since retiring in 2006 while rally champion Sebastien Loeb tested for the Red Bull Formula One team in Spain this week.

Hamilton sees tough year in 2009

Lewis Hamilton believes cost-cutting changes will make it “very tough” for him to repeat as Formula One champion next year.
Governing body FIA and the F1 teams agreed to a series of measures for 2009 last Friday, which include longer-lasting engines, limits on expensive testing and cheaper, off-the-shelf engines for smaller teams.

McLaren’s Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton of Britain and Ferrari’s Felipe Massa (background L) of Brazil wave to the crowd before the Brazilian F1 Grand Prix in Sao Paulo Nov. 2, 2008.(Xinhua/Reuters Photo)

“I don’t think it will make it easier,” Hamilton said on Tuesday. “With the new regulations it’s going to make it very tough to win the championship again.”
The sweeping changes come as automakers reel from the global financial crisis. Honda pulled out of F1 this month after Super Aguri quit in April. FIA said the first batch of changes for 2009 will help larger teams cut costs by about one-third over 2008.
“We have less testing obviously but I think we as a team are in a position to pull together and make a difference in some other way,” Hamilton said. “But everyone’s in the same boat.”

Formula one driver Lewis Hamilton poses with the trophy during the 60th Bambi media awards ceremony in the southwestern German town of Offenburg Nov. 27, 2008.   (Xinhua/Reuters Photo)

Changes to be introduced after next season will be even more radical with races maybe shortened to save money and refueling banned, which could dramatically alter the spectacle for fans.
Hamilton’s McLaren team boss Ron Dennis called it a “challenging period.”
“It’s amazing how many different things happen in a year but all we’re thinking about is how we can continue in the sport and continue to put on a good show,” Hamilton said.
Hamilton missed out on becoming the first rookie champion by one point last year, but rebounded to become the youngest F1 champion at 23 in November – by a single point.
Hamilton overtook Toyota’s Timo Glock on the final bend at the season-ending Brazilian Grand Prix to finish fifth and secure the title after Ferrari’s Felipe Massa had won his home race as he needed to.
Hamilton expects more of the same close racing next season despite the dramatic changes. “We don’t know who’s going to be quick, surely we’re going to be at the front, with Ferrari maybe, BMW, but you never know. Maybe there’s going to be a fourth team up there with us.”
Hamilton added that becoming F1’s first black champion “was hard” because of having “to break down the barrier and it was not easy but we got there, and I have been accepted very well.”

Australian Grand Prix reports heavy losses

The Australian Formula One Grand Prix lost a record A$40 million ($26.7 million) in 2008, organisers said on Thursday.

The announcement came just months after the Victoria state government and race organisers agreed to underwrite the costs of staging the event until 2015.
Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone had threatened to dump Melbourne from the calendar after 2010 unless organisers switched to a night race to accommodate European television audiences.
Local officials refused to stage a night race but agreed to a compromise with a twilight start time.
They signed a five-year extension to 2015 in July, despite criticism that the race was becoming an unnecessary burden on taxpayers.
Organisers lost $35 million on the race in 2007 and Australian Grand Prix Corporation chairman Ron Walker said the losses were likely to continue in future years.

Massa promises a clean race

Brazilian Felipe Massa, who races for the Ferrari Formula 1 team, announced on Monday that he has no plans of playing dirty in order to win in next Sunday’s race in Interlagos, Sao Paulo.
The race will decide the winner of this year’s World Championship of Drivers.
On one of his many promotional appearances, Massa took time to stop by an elementary school in Campo Grande, Sao Paulo. In front of more than 400 kids, Massa gave a motivational speech to the children and teachers alike. Apart from donating more than 1,200 books to the school’s library, the driver also inaugurated the reading room of Felipe Massa.
In relation to Sunday’s race, the Brazilian needs to win the race and hope that his rival, Lewis Hamilton, does not arrive better than sixth place. In order to win, Massa hopes to do his best and promises a clean race.
“Playing dirty has never been part of my game. I don’t want anything to do with it. The only thing on my mind is winning the race. The rest does not depend on me. If I am champion, it will be a dream come true. If not, that’s OK, I will try again next year,” said Massa.

Formula One champion Button attends book signing in London

World Champion Formula One driver Jenson Button of Britain poses during a book signing in London, November 19, 2009. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo)

Brawn sheds light on Honda buyout

New owner Ross Brawn said on Tuesday he had not hesitated in taking over Honda’s Formula One team because it would otherwise have been closed down with hundreds of jobs lost.

“If I am frank, there were no choices,” the Briton told reporters during the second day of testing Brawn GP’s new Mercedes-powered car at Barcelona’s Circuit de Catalunya.

“If the management group, because it is not just myself, had not taken this task on, there would be no team. Then all of the staff would have been made redundant.

“It wasn’t a difficult choice in that respect. Things can go wrong, but we are optimistic and if we can capitalize on the performance of the car, and the car looks good, then I think the team have got a future.”

Honda, Japan’s second largest carmaker, announced in December that it was pulling out of Formula One due to the credit crunch. It had employed around 700 people at their Brackley factory in central England.

Black days

Brawn said there had been some “very black days in trying to keep the team alive” but a majority of the staff would now be kept on.

“It is fair to say that we will have to look at the size of the team because we have gone from a manufacturer to a privateer,” he said.

“It is not going to be an easy process but I think everybody in the team understands the situation and the team survives. And it will give a career to a majority of people.”

Brawn said the team had a secure budget for this season but now needed to address the longer term and find sponsors and partners.

“We are completely flexible on what we do in the future, but I hope we will have a proper long-term planning and proper structure for the team going forward,” he added.

Brawn’s Brazilian Rubens Barrichello did 111 laps and was third fastest on Tuesday, building on teammate Jenson Button’s impressive Monday session.

Brawn, the master-strategist who guided now-retired Michael Schumacher to a record seven world championships with Benetton and Ferrari, explained that his team had decided to use Mercedes engines this season simply because they fitted the chassis better than Ferrari ones.

Schumacher ‘really sad’ about canceling comeback

Michael Schumacher called canceling his much-anticipated Formula One comeback a “really sad moment.”

Former Formula One driver Michael Schumacher reacts as he attends a news conference in Geneva August 12, 2009. Seven-time world champion Schumacher has cancelled plans of a temporary return to Formula One with Ferrari because of fitness concerns, the German driver said on Tuesday. [Agencies]
He had wanted to help the Ferrari team by replacing injured driver Felipe Massa but was unable to do so because of lingering pain from a motorcycle crash six months ago.
“It’s a really sad moment, probably one of my toughest,” Schumacher said. “I felt back alive and now I had to cancel all this.”

The German, who retired at the end of the 2006 season after a 15-year career in which he won 91 races in 250 starts, said any talk of later returning to F1 was speculation.
“From a purely medical point of view, there are no reasons why that couldn’t be the case. But it’s certainly not a topic that I’m considering right now,” he said.
Schumacher, visibly subdued sitting between his doctor Johannes Peil and manager Willi Weber, said the euphoria surrounding his possible return was “extreme, and so of course the disappointment is extreme, too.”
Peil said it was a fracture at the base of Schumacher’s skull that prevented the return, rather than the fractured vertebra and rib he also hurt in the bike crash earlier this year.
It was too early to say whether the injuries would heal enough to allow Schumacher to make a later comeback, Peil said.