Formula One 2011

[Lineker]

Not through Bernie's lack of trying

Lewis Hamilton has insisted that he remains focused on doing all he can to win the world championship this year, despite having admitted in Valencia on Sunday night that the title fight was all but over.

Less than 24 hours after Hamilton suggested that runaway championship leader Sebastian Vettel had 'pretty much' guaranteed the title already, the McLaren driver amazingly took a snipe at the media reports of what he had said.

Writing on his Twitter feed, Hamilton said: "To all our supporters, ignore what u read in the papers today. My team will never give up & I WILL NEVER GIVE UP!!!!

"Bring on Silverstone, ur support will make a world of difference to us. I'm going to the factory now to do all I can with our team. Lewis."

Hamilton's annoyance with the media reports of what he said, on the back of a difficult weekend in Valencia, provides further evidence of the frustrations he is feeling at the moment at the dominance of Red Bull Racing.

However, speaking to the Press Association, Hamilton said it would be wrong of him to ask McLaren to do any more than it already is - because everyone is pushing to the maximum.

"They are doing what they can, working as hard as they can," said Hamilton. "Can we all do a better job? I can do a better job, they can do a better job, and we can always improve.

"But you know, they are on the limit, being pushed as hard as they can. The engineers and people designing things back home are flat out, and sometimes you get it right, sometimes you don't. I really don't have any answers to it.

"I pushed as hard as I could in the race, but I just didn't have the car beneath me and I don't expect to have it massively beneath me in the next race.

"We hope it's a bit cooler there, maybe that will play into our hands, but we don't have the downforce the Red Bull has, and now the Ferrari."

Red Bull Racing is hopeful that Mark Webber can get himself into a position now to challenge Sebastian Vettel regularly for race victories, on the back of his strong showing in the European Grand Prix.

Webber has struggled in the opening phase of the campaign to get the most out of Pirelli's new tyres - and the only time he has beaten Vettel in qualifying was at the Spanish GP when his team-mate's pace was hindered by a lack of KERS.

However, Webber appeared to make a breakthrough in Valencia last weekend. He qualified right behind his German team-mate and then delivered his strongest race performance so far this year.

And, with that pace having been shown at a track that Webber has not particularly liked in the past, it bodes well for venues coming up - like Silverstone - where the Australian won last year.

Red Bull Racing team principal Christian Horner has no doubts that Webber is now better than he has been at any point this season, and thinks that is a positive sign looking forward.

"It was Mark Webber's best race of the season in terms of his performance on the tyres," explained Horner about his Valencia performance. "I think that it is closest he has been to Seb all season, and he drove very well this weekend. Nobody is taking anything for granted."

When asked if he believed Webber could build on his performance, Horner said: "I hope so. I hope he keeps up the momentum he has built this weekend, because he has made no secret of the fact that he has struggled more with these tyres.

"He understands them better now. You only have to look at the time difference in the race, because he was only four to five seconds away for 90 percent of the race. Hopefully he will take a lot of confidence out of the weekend."

Webber's chances of challenging Vettel for the win at the British GP will be dependent on what impact the forthcoming ban on the off-throttle use of blown diffusers has.

And although some are suggesting that the regulation clarification could hurt Red Bull Racing, rival teams actually fear it could help the championship leaders – because it has not been using the concept as much as other outfits.

"It is a little bit of an unknown," said Horner. "It is the same regulation clarification for everybody, but the effect it will have on the others is impossible for us to predict.

"I don't think we have gone as extreme as the others have, either with the type of the air that is being blown or the position. One team has built its entire car around it.

"So one would have thought it would have a bigger impact for them than the others, but you will see the net loss, be it plus or minus, being fairly consistent across the teams."

Red Bull Racing has set its sights on extending its engine partnership deal with Renault - having revealed it was already close to a new contract before last week's rules switch to 1.6-litre V6 turbos for Formula 1 in 2014.

The Red Bull Racing/Renault tie-up delivered its maiden world championship last season and the current dominance of Sebastian Vettel looks set to result in another title this year.

Despite that success, however, Red Bull Racing has not always been totally happy with the ultimate power of the Renault - and two years ago it came close to making a switch to Mercedes-Benz.

However, with the overall performance of the Renault power unit now paying dividends, Red Bull Racing has said that its priority is to renew its Renault contract, which comes to an end after 2012.

Red Bull Racing owner Dietrich Mateschitz said: "We always tried to be associated with a big manufacturer. Renault will remain our first approach for a deal for 2013 and beyond."

When asked by AUTOSPORT about the plans going forward, Red Bull's motorsport advisor Helmut Marko said: "Talking with Renault about 2013 and further on had progressed very well, as we expected to run the 1.6-litre four cylinder turbo.

"An extension of our contract was close until the new situation came up. Concerning the V6 turbo from 2014 we have received positive signals from Renault, but we have to discuss the details of the new situation."

There has recently been speculation that Red Bull could consider building its own engine in the future, with the Austrian company AVL List having been singled out as a potential partner.

Mateschitz has played down the idea, however – stating that "only in extreme conditions with no manufacturer available for us" would his company follow that route.

Marko added: "I would consider AVL capable of building a F1 engine, however only with a couple of re-enforcements in several areas."

Renault is keen to supply four teams in F1 in the future, with deals currently in place with the Enstone-based Renault team, Team Lotus and Red Bull Racing.

Discussions have taken place with Williams about a renewal of their old partnership, and AUTOSPORT understands that the French car manufacturer is weighing up the formation of a works-type tie-up with one of its team in the near future – with Williams or Team Lotus the most likely candidates.

Williams has made the next steps in its ongoing technical rethink by appointing a new head of aerodynamics and a new chief operations engineer.

Following the first phase of its regig, which will see technical director Sam Michael and aero chief Jon Tomlinson leave later this year, the team has signed Jason Somerville to take charge of aerodynamics and Mark Gillan to head up operations engineering.

Somerville first worked in F1 with Williams, where he helped work on the race-winning FW23, FW24 and FW25 cars, before he made the switch to Toyota in 2003. He moved to Renault at the end of last year following Toyota's withdrawal and will rejoin Williams on August 15.

Gillan's F1 career began at McLaren in 1998, where he as a vehicle dynamicist, before he was promoted to Principal Operational Aerodynamicist in 2001. In 2002 he switched to Jaguar and he remained there through its takeover by Red Bull Racing until 2005, where he since worked in both academia and for Toyota. He will join Williams on October 1.

Williams team principal Frank Williams said: "Williams F1 is looking forward to welcoming Jason and Mark to the team. They bring with them talent, experience and good team skills. We now feel that, together with Mike Coughlan, Jason and Mark can form the right technical leadership to take the team forward as we work our way back to the front of the grid."

[Lineker]

Formula 1 will officially switch to a 1.6-litre V6 engine format from 2014 after proposals finalised by the sport's stakeholders during last weekend's European Grand Prix were rubber-stamped by the FIA's World Motorsport Council on Wednesday.

According to a statement from the sport's governing body, WMSC members agreed in a fax vote to formalise the new turbo-charged engines, which will feature energy recovery units.

The statement read: "Following a fax vote by its members, the World Motor Sport Council has ratified the engine regulations recently drawn up in consultation with the main stakeholders in Formula One.

"The new power plant will be a V6 1.6 turbo unit with energy recovery systems. This new formula will come into effect as from the start of the 2014 FIA Formula One World Championship season."

F1's teams and the FIA were in deadlock over the engine situation for several weeks until agreement was reached during a Formula 1 Commission meeting prior to the European Grand Prix weekend to delay introducing the regulations by a year to 2014.

The new plans also featured a change in the format from a four cylinder engine to a six cylinder unit - Ferrari having been against the former on marketing grounds. Mercedes and Cosworth had also voiced concerns about development costs. F1 technical chiefs then met in Valencia to give their formal backing to the V6, 1.6-litre plan.

The teams indicated after the Valencia gathering that they would ask for a rise in the proposed rev limit of 12,000rpm to 15,000rpm. It remains unclear whether this was included in the ratified plans. Similarly it is not known whether a request to delay the introduction of new chassis rules set for 2013 - to coincide with the new engine plan - has been successful.

Pirelli has announced that it will take its soft and hard compounds to the British Grand Prix weekend, despite Ferrari's admitting its chances will be hurt with the use of the latter.

Pirelli's decision means teams will be using the same tyres ran at the Spanish Grand Prix, where Ferrari's drivers finished a lap down as they struggled with the hard tyres, despite Fernando Alonso leading the race while running with the softs.

Team-mate Felipe Massa had admitted before the Pirelli decision that his team would be in trouble if the Italian manufacturer opted for the harder tyres for Silverstone.

"I am not so optimistic with which tyres we are going to have there, because I have heard that maybe we are going to have medium and hard," said Massa.

"If we have that, it can be a problem for us - not just for us but for most of the teams maybe taking away Red Bull or even McLaren."

Pirelli said it would not be pressured into favouring one team over a rival when making the decision.

"Our nominations are designed to maximise the opportunities for strategy and find the right compromise between performance and durability," said Paul Hembery. "For Silverstone, we are confirming the decision we took a few weeks ago, after once more consulting all the teams, and for the next two races we have arrived at what we feel to be the best solution based on the information that we have so far.

"As has been the case up to now this year, we think that there will be quite a wide variety of different strategies for the next three grands prix, but for all the races it's reasonably hard to predict how many pitstops there will be: it ultimately depends on the strategy and strengths of each individual car and team."

Fernando Alonso is staying philosophical about the tyre choice for the British GP, although the Spaniard admits the hard tyre will be one more challenge for Ferrari.

Pirelli confirmed on Wednesday that it will take the hard and soft compounds to Silverstone, the same rubber that was used in the Spanish GP, where Alonso finished a lap down after struggling with the harder compound.

Alonso said there was no choice for Ferrari but to accept that all teams will be using the same tyres, and try to do the best job possible to adapt.

"For us that means one more challenge, namely being able to make all types of tyre work as well as possible," said Alonso on Ferrari's website.

"Anyway, the tyre choice is the same for everyone and there's no point discussing if the pair of compounds chosen is more suited to one team or another. It's up to the teams to adjust the cars to get the best out of the tyres both in terms of performance and life."

Alonso, who finished in second place in the European Grand Prix last weekend, said he was happy to see Ferrari's progress in recent races.

But the two-time champion insisted the Maranello squad is yet to turn the corner, and reckons Silverstone could be a challenging weekend for the Italian team.

"We are moving forward, as could be seen in the last three races, but now we must also confirm the progress seen at Monaco, Montreal and Valencia on a track with completely different characteristics, which is definitely more suited to our main rivals," he said.

"At Silverstone, you need a lot of aerodynamic downforce and this is area where we are lagging behind. We will have some new parts, but there's a step from that to saying we will have made up the difference...Maybe!

"We must be realistic and accept that it's not possible that in less than two months - the time past since the Barcelona race - we have closed the gap that was seen at the Catalunya circuit. It wasn't a whole lap, because that was down to the way the race panned out, but it was definitely bigger than what we have seen in the last three races.

"We must continue to work on improving the car and then I am sure the win will come. When? I don't have a crystal ball to be able to give a definite answer."

Red Bull's motorsport advisor Helmut Marko says the team will lose half a second per lap with the introduction of a ban on off-throttle blown diffusers from the British Grand Prix.

But Marko is adamant the team has taken the right measures to make up for that with new set-ups and aerodynamic updates.

The ban, which is likely to affect most teams to some degree, will kick in in next week's race at Silverstone.

"We expect to lose approximately 0.5 seconds per lap without the blown diffuser," said Marko.

"However, we made preparations to equalise this in terms of set-up and aero measures. We are optimistic that we will keep our performance level."

He admitted, however, that Red Bull was disappointed about the FIA decision to introduce the ban in the middle of the season.

"We would have understood if this was implemented at the end of the season like many other technical developments recently," he said.

"But to do this halfway through the season is a bit strange and not quite understandable."

World champion Sebastian Vettel says he is "completely happy" at Red Bull Racing, admitting he is not into "myths" like Ferrari or Mercedes right now.

The German has been linked with Ferrari several times, but he claims he is perfectly happy at Red Bull because it is providing him with a car to win races.

"Let's get this straight. To win races is not easy; to win championships even less so - at whatever team," Vettel told Formula 1's official website.

"I feel completely happy at Red Bull. Of course Ferrari and Mercedes do come with a huge legend, but I am not into myth right now.

"What's important for me is that when I come from the track and look in the mirror in my hotel room I want to be able to say, 'yes, that's me and I am satisfied with what I see'.

"After Abu Dhabi it feels good to know that I don't have anything to prove to myself any more."

Vettel also admitted he is not too worried about his possible future team-mates, as he is aware that he needs to beat everybody to be the best.

"In the end I don't waste too many thoughts on who is my team-mate," he said in a joint interview with Formula 1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone.

"I want to be the best so I have to beat them all, with the same car or any other. I would never ask my team to get me a team-mate to my liking, but I expect two things from whoever has the second cockpit: honesty and respect."

Vettel has won six out out eight races this season and is currently leading the championship by 77 points, having also secured seven pole positions.

Ecclestone said Vettel's dominance of the sport is no turn-off for the spectators, as they tune in to see if someone can beat him.

"Sebastian is in a similar position as Michael (Schumacher). Sebastian is the best right now and that's why he is dominating, and that's what makes it so interesting for the fans, because every race weekend starts with a big question mark - who will be able to beat Vettel? That's why fans tune in."

[Lineker]

Big changes at HRT, including the first unforced driver change of the season. Plus, USGP news and Jenson Button on his future:

Daniel Ricciardo is set to make his Formula 1 debut at the British Grand Prix for HRT as replacement for Narain Karthikeyan.

After discussions between the Spanish outfit and Scuderia Toro Rosso, for whom Ricciardo is a test driver, it is understood that a deal is close for the Australian to be drafted in to a race seat at Silverstone.

Ricciardo has impressed for Toro Rosso this year, and the outfit had openly admitted that it was looking to promote him to a race seat this year - with Sebastian Buemi and Jaime Alguersuari under pressure to perform.

However, with both Buemi and Alguersuari having lifted their game – and Alguersuari in particular securing his future with a strong drive in the race in Valencia last weekend – it is understood that an alternative plan has been put in place with HRT.

It is understood that Ricciardo will take Karthikeyan's place for the remainder of the season – except at the Indian Grand Prix where the local driver will return to the cockpit.

AUTOSPORT understands that Red Bull chiefs are trying to discover just how competitive Ricciardo can be in a race environment – which is why they want to put him up against former Red Bull Racing and Toro Rosso driver Vitantonio Liuzzi.

Any deal with HRT is likely to be only until the end of this season, with Ricciardo then moving to either Toro Rosso next year – or even Red Bull Racing if he impresses greatly.

HRT was unavailable for comment about the situation.

Hispania has confirmed that Daniel Ricciardo will make his Formula 1 racing debut in one of its cars at the British Grand Prix.

Red Bull protege Ricciardo has been third driver for Toro Rosso so far this season, alongside a campaign in the Formula Renault 3.5 Series.

"It's a dream come true for me - for the first time on an F1 starting grid!" said Ricciardo. "I had to pinch myself a couple of times to be sure that it's real. I'm excited and can hardly wait to drive at Silverstone. It's a new challenge, a new experience, a new team, but I'm ready and will give of my best in any event."

AUTOSPORT understands that Ricciardo will take Narain Karthikeyan's seat alongside Tonio Liuzzi for all remaining 2011 races bar the Indian Grand Prix, with Karthikeyan still set to run at his home race.

Ricciardo is effectively being loaned to Hispania by Red Bull so the organisation can assess him in a race situation and up against a known quantity in Liuzzi. The Australian had been tipped to replace either Sebastien Buemi or Jaime Alguersuari at Toro Rosso during the season if either's form proved disappointing.

Hispania team chairman Jose Ramon Carabante is optimistic that the deal to run Ricciardo could be the start of a greater collaboration between his squad and Red Bull.

"This agreement is a reward for all the hard work Hispania Racing has shown since we started in Formula 1 last year," he said. "We're proud that the Formula 1 world champion team has trusted us in their effort of developing their drivers. Let's hope that this is just the start of a fruitful relationship."

First post updated to reflect driver change.

HRT is set to undertake a management reshuffle in the next few weeks, with team principal Colin Kolles poised to step aside to allow the owning Carabante family to take more direct control.

Kolles was drafted in at HRT on the eve of the 2010 season after the Carabantes' planned efforts with Adrian Campos failed - and he succeeded in pulling the team back from the brink to get it onto the grid for the opening race of the campaign.

Since then he has worked hard to put in place the infrastructure needed to move it forwards – with Geoff Willis having been put in charge of technical affairs, a team rebranding being done and a deal struck to use a Mercedes GP windtunnel.

Although progress is being made, it is understood that Kolles now wants to step back from the day-to-day running of the outfit.

It is believed that one scenario being considered is for team owner Jose Ramon Carabante or his son Jose to be made team principal, with Kolles working alongside him during a transition phase.

Speculation over the last week that Willis could become team principal is believed to be wide of the mark, although the Briton could take on a more senior role in the restructure.

Kolles will stay involved with the outfit, and it is likely that the team and the cars will continue to operate out of his Greding facilities in Germany until a deal is done for the Carabante operation to sort out the plans they have for a base in Spain.

It is not clear when the looming management changes will happen, but already Kolles is being strongly linked with a switch to Williams for 2012 – where he could be made team principal.

Kolles was unavailable for comment.

Next year's United States Grand Prix in Austin has been given a major boost by the city council officially endorsing the race.

The vote, which was passed 5-2, comes despite high-profile criticism of the cost of the event during the lengthy deliberation period. There were objections to the $25 million per year that the Texas government has promised organisers from its major events budget.

Kathie Tovo was one of the two council members to vote against the plans, saying that "I cannot support something that would [put] more than £250 million in state funding to fund a recreational activity."

But despite the vocal anti-race lobby it was felt that the financial benefit to the area outweighed any such expenditure, with fans and F1 workers each expected to spend over $700 per day while in Austin.

"I know why so many people have a hard time with an auto race," said councilor Chris Riley, who voted in favour. "But when thousands of people from around the world say they want to spend money in your community, you listen."

Ground work at the Circuit of the Americas is in its advance stages and organisers are confident that the track will be ready in time.

However, questions have been raised over the June 17 date that the race has been allocated for next year. Temperatures can climb above 40 degrees Celsius in June, which has led some to call for a switch of date.

AUTOSPORT understands that discussions are under way to switch the date to later in the season. This means that the United States Grand Prix could run as a back-to-back event twinned with Brazil in November.

The circuit, according to its officials, will be among the most technologically and environmentally advanced venues in the world.

Race organisers and a group of community environmentalists have devised a 54-point plan to position the track as the "greenest" sporting facility in the Americas.

The plan includes elements ranging from offsite transportation options and dedicated bicycle lane access to incorporation of a community garden area, water-conservation measures, and the planting of over 800 trees.

FOTA chairman Martin Whitmarsh wants Formula 1 to hold two races per season in America to enable the sport to 'conquer' the country.

The McLaren team principal was speaking at Thursday's FOTA Fan Forum held at his team's Woking base. He expressed the importance of the American market to Formula 1, and added that he feels it is worthy of two races.

"America doesn't need us, but we need to conquer it," said Whitmarsh. "In the past we didn't do enough. I think we need to go there; maybe we need two races per year.

"We need to have a proper marketing programme and create the interest. We can't just have a race there and come back, we've actually got to try harder."

Whitmarsh highlighted the east and west coasts of America as the best areas for the sport to target, but he added that he was hopeful the new race in Texas can be a success.

"We've got Texas and I hope it's going to be a very successful race, but the natural place for us is east coast/west coast," he said. "There's a great opportunity there, and we've really got to make sure of it.

"I think there should be two races, it's a big enough and important enough market that we should be over there. Long Beach, and around New York, those are the places where we can really create an interest in Formula 1."

The McLaren boss added that he expects the sport to have to push harder to promote itself in years to come.

"Formula 1 hasn't had to sell itself in the past, the fans have come to us," he added. "We've got to recognise that there's lots of competition in the entertainment business, we're just part of it.

"We've got to do a lot better. We have to go there, educate, explain, promote and market our sport."

Jenson Button says he is not ready to discuss his future just yet, as he is enjoying working with McLaren so much at the moment.

"I don't want to think about the future because I'm still enjoying the present. I really enjoy working with McLaren," said Button during a Vodafone event in Hungary.

The Briton, who joined the team last year, looks set to stay on after McLaren said it has no plans to change its line-up at the moment.

Button, the 2009 world champion, admitted he would like to race alongside Fernando Alonso, although he conceded that is unlikely to happen.

When being asked who his ideal team-mate would be, he said: "Ayrton Senna. Fernando Alonso too - although I don't think that'll ever happen. I've never spoken to Ferrari about a drive."

The McLaren driver also suggested he would like to race in other series when he retires from F1.

"I'd love to race in something after Formula 1 - maybe DTM or Aussie V8s? And I'll definitely do some driver management, because I think I'd have a lot to offer."

Red Bull Racing's head of car engineering Paul Monaghan believes that the level of competitiveness at the front of the grid is exaggerating the difference between Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber.

Webber has come under pressure for failing to match Vettel this season, leaving him 77 points adrift of his championship-leading team-mate.

But Monaghan believes that there has not been much between the two drivers this year.

"When you look at the gaps, they are actually minute," Monaghan said at Thursday's FOTA Fan Forum in Woking. "It's the consequence of such a competitive sport ­ one small mistake can cost you quite a lot."

Monaghan believes that the penalty for a small mistake in qualifying is being heavily punished this year, and that can lead to even bigger gaps between team-mates on Sunday afternoons.

"In the last part of qualifying, you might see that one driver makes a mistake in one corner, and then pays the price for it all the way down the subsequent straight," he said. "That can produce a laptime difference of two tenths.

"All of a sudden that's three places on the grid, and you've got people saying 'what's happening there?' The gaps are surprisingly small, so I wouldn't say that anybody was underperforming.

"The cars are separated by eight metres on the grid, so all of a sudden you can be 36 metres behind your team-mate wondering what on earth has happened.

"In our case, I'm sure Mark will sort Sebastian out at some point during this year, and he probably can't wait to do it at Silverstone. So we'll see what happens."

Edited June 30, 2011 by Lex Lineker

[Lineker]

Ken Block's plans to test Pirelli's Formula 1 car at Monza in August have hit an early hurdle after it was discovered he is too tall to fit into the car.

The WRC driver, who is famous for his Gymkhana videos, had planned to test the former Toyota F1 car on the final day of a Pirelli test at the Italian Grand Prix venue.

The American travelled to Toyota Motorsport's factory in Cologne on Thursday for some early preparations, and a run in the simulator, but the plans hit a snag straight away.

AUTOSPORT understands that Block's legs are too long for the car and, although he could sit in the cockpit, he could not turn the steering wheel when it was fitted.

Although it appears unlikely that modifications can be made to the updated 2009 F1 car to accommodate him, Toyota staff are looking at alternatives - including former cars - that could be suitable.

Block told AUTOSPORT at the Canadian GP that he was hugely excited about the prospect of driving an F1 car.

"I never imagined that something like this would even be available," he said.

"But Pirelli saw the idea of doing something unique and different with me. They have been a great partner with me for everything I have been doing, so it is just something that for me is a dream come true.

"I have so little experience in open wheel asphalt, so it will be a huge learning experience for me."

The FIA is adamant that the sound of the new generation of Formula 1 engines due to come into force in 2014 will be 'representative' of the contemporary power-units.

Following complaints from Bernie Ecclestone and race promoters about the spectacle of grand prix racing being weakened by an originally planned switch to four-cylinder turbos in 2013, F1's teams and manufacturers agreed an alternative plan for 1.6-litre V6 turbos which are limited to 15,000rpm from 2014.

And although that may not be enough to quell dissent among race promoters, who have threatened to ditch F1 races for IndyCar, the FIA says it has no concerns about the sound.

In a Q&A issued by the FIA on Thursday, the governing body explained the thinking behind the increased rev limit.

"This parameter has been updated from 12000rpm to 15000rpm to allow engineers more flexibility in power and energy management," stated the governing body.

"However, as a consequence of the new architecture (V6) and the change in rev-limit, the engine will sound different, but will remain representative of Formula 1."

Nico Rosberg has told his Mercedes GP chiefs that he remains fully committed to helping the outfit make the push to the front of the grid - but admits he needs to get himself in a winning car as soon as he can.

Team principal Ross Brawn said recently that he wanted Rosberg to be patient in giving Mercedes GP time to achieve success, amid speculation that other outfits are ready to swoop for the German's services.

And although Rosberg, who has an option with Mercedes GP for 2012, could be tempted away by the prospect of more competitive machinery, he says that he is ready to be convinced by Mercedes GP that it can deliver him the car that can make him a winner.

In an exclusive interview with AUTOSPORT about the importance of the next step in his career, Rosberg said: "To start off, the answer on that is that I am driving for Mercedes GP as a German, and I am part of the process of building up this team.

"I have the opportunity to help lead this team - so it is pretty clear that it is a fantastic opportunity. I would never say that I am uncomfortable or something.

"Additionally I feel very comfortable in the team because there is a great bunch of people, so all in all it is a nice situation to be in, to be part of this project and part of this challenge. But of course, I am a racing driver - and above all I would like to win races.

"I wouldn't say I am impatient for it, but I hope that it will come soon – and that is why I am pushing hard at the moment. As always."

When asked if he was willing to give Mercedes GP that time that Brawn hoped he would, Rosberg said: "At the moment, yes. In my current situation of course, but I don't want to now look into the distant future.

"I am in a pretty strong position at the moment. I really have to see. The fact is that I would like to win races, at the same time that I am feeling very comfortable in this team. I just have to judge for myself how likely that is going to be that this team win races soon."

Rosberg says he has no doubts that Mercedes GP has the ingredients to ultimately be successful – but it was a question of how long that would take.

"Yes, 100%," he said. "And I think everyone can be convinced. Come on: we have Mercedes-Benz, we have Ross Brawn, masses of other clever competent people working together. Mercedes is building the engine.

"It is a fact that the team will have success, and everyone will agree on that. There is no reason why it won't. But the big question mark is, when? Currently it looks like it is still going to take time, for sure. But Mercedes is very committed."

And speaking about his feeling on speculation that has already linked him to McLaren, Ferrari and Red Bull Racing, Rosberg said: "Obviously there is interest from other top teams, which is a good thing for my career for sure. But that is about it at the moment. There is nothing more than that."

McLaren's Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button are both hoping a partisan home crown can inspire them to victory at the British Grand Prix next weekend.

Although McLaren face a tough challenge at Silverstone, having struggled to cope with the pace of Red Bull last time out in Valencia, further restrictions to off-throttle exhaust blowing could offer them a chance to reclose that gap.

Also in their favour is Hamilton's previous race-winning form at Silverstone, and the Briton is predicting another thriller this year as he bids to win again and close down Sebastian Vettel in the championship standings.

"My victory at Silverstone in 2008 was one of the sweetest and most satisfying moments of my entire Formula 1 career - and it's a memory that I always carry with me," Hamilton confessed.

"For this year, of course, we head to a very new Silverstone – and while much has changed around the circuit and in the paddock, I'm sure that all those thousands of fans will be just as passionate as ever – it's one of the greatest things about the Santander British Grand Prix.

"Going into this race, we're facing some very stiff new interpretations of the regulations; while they'll affect all teams, it will be interesting to see if the competitive order is changed as a result.

"It's going to be a busy weekend for our engineers as they adapt – as always, they'll do a fantastic job to ensure we stay competitive.

"I'm really looking forward to Silverstone: it's one of the best circuits in the world, and I really think that the arrival of DRS and KERS Hybrid will make this one of the best and most exciting British Grands Prix ever."

In contrast to his team-mate, Button's best finish at his home Grand Prix remains fourth, a position he earned in 2004 and again last year – and one he is determined to improve upon in 2011.

"It would mean everything to me to be able to win my home grand prix – that would be my dream come true," Button said.

"My best finish at Silverstone is fourth, which I earned in 2004 and last year, after a great charge through the field after a disappointing performance in qualifying. Although it's a place that's not been too kind to me, I'm really looking forward to this year's race.

"With a new startline, a new first corner and an all-new pit and paddock complex, the new facilities should be fantastic, and I think they'll confirm Silverstone as one of the best circuits in the world.

"As always, we'll see once again that the British fans are some of the most passionate, knowledgeable and loyal in the whole world. Whatever happens, it will be a great weekend."

Team principal Martin Whitmarsh echoed his driver's enthusiasm, saying: "Silverstone has been the spiritual home of Formula 1 in Great Britain since the birth of the world championship back in 1950, and it's hugely rewarding to see that, not only has the circuit gone from strength to strength, but that it's still leading the way.

"This weekend will also be exciting for different reasons, with new restrictions placed on off-throttle exhaust blowing and the anticipated effect that may have on the competitive order. I'm optimistic that we'll remain competitive and will hopefully be able to provide the many thousands of home fans with a good result next weekend.

"As our home race, I sincerely hope this will be a great Santander British Grand Prix!"

Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo says he does not want to hear any talk of giving up on this year's championships despite the gap to Red Bull.

The Italian squad is yet to win a race this season, with Fernando Alonso's second place in the European Grand Prix as its best result so far in eight races.

The Spaniard is 99 points behind championship leader Sebastian Vettel, while Ferrari is 166 behind Red Bull in the constructors' standings.

Despite the gap, di Montezemolo says Ferrari must keep pushing all year to try to win and reduce the distance to the top.

"In the past few days, I have gone over the situation with Stefano Domenicali and his engineers," said di Montezemolo.

"We are working flat out and one can see improvements compared to the early races and this is partly down to adopting a different approach to the development of the car.

"We know the situation in both championships is very difficult, but I don't want to hear any talk of giving in: we must try to progress continuously and to fight for the win at every race, which is a must for Ferrari.

"Obviously, we have also started talking about the 2012 car, which is normal for this time of year. I have faith in what Domenicali and his team are doing and I am convinced we will see the results of their work."

The Italian also admitted he was pleased with the show provided by Formula 1 so far this year, and praised Pirelli's contribution.

"I think that it's been a positive start to the season for Formula 1. I have to say the races are all unpredictable and full of overtaking and interesting for the public, both in the grandstands and in front of the television, right to the end. That was one of the objectives this sport had set itself and I believe it has been reached.

"I want to take this opportunity to congratulate Pirelli on its return to Formula 1. In fact, I'm not surprised: we have a great relationship with them and we have known them for a long time, given that historically they have been one of our suppliers for our extreme high performance road cars."

[Lineker]

Jenson Button will be fully fit for next weekend's British Grand Prix despite a minor jet-ski injury forcing him to abandon plans to run in a 2008 Formula 1 McLaren at Goodwood yesterday.

The Briton knocked his knee during filming with the BBC in London earlier this week, and it was decided that he would be better off not driving the F1 car at the Goodwood Festival of Speed as he had originally intended to.

Although that change of plans prompted questions about his fitness for his home race at Silverstone, both driver and team insist that pulling out of the Goodwood run was purely precautionary and he will be raring to go later this week.

A McLaren spokesman told AUTOSPORT: "Jenson drove a McLaren MP4-12C road car and a McLaren MP4-12C GT3 race car at Goodwood yesterday.

"He didn't drive a McLaren Formula 1 car, for purely precautionary reasons, in order to protect a small bump he'd received on his left knee during a jet ski event in London last week. But he isn't even limping, and he'll be fighting fit for Silverstone, as usual."

Button is heading into the British GP as Sebastian Vettel's closest challenger in the championship - although he is 77 points adrift of the Red Bull Racing driver.

Kamui Kobayashi is confident Sauber can achieve a good result at the British Grand Prix.

Kobayashi has bagged points in six of this year's eight races, only failing to score in Australia, where Sauber were disqualified, and last time out in Valencia where he finished a disappointing 16th.

However, the Japanese driver is adamant he can get back into the points at Silverstone as the Northamptonshire track's characteristics should suit his Sauber C30.

"Silverstone is a high speed track, so I expect us to be good at the British Grand Prix and in a position to fight for points," Kobayashi said.

"For me personally Silverstone is my favourite circuit of all, because I really love such high speed corners and also the crowd is very enthusiastic there.

"Last year it was there where I achieved my best result of the season when I finished sixth in the race.

"The weather is always difficult to predict, but it doesn't worry me after we proved in Canada we can adapt to any track conditions."

The team's technical director James Key admits next weekend's grand prix could be decided by the tyres with Pirelli making their he hard and soft compounds available to the teams.

"We expect that the tyres will be key again this weekend," said Key. "We have the soft and the hard tyre compound. We have to be careful with the hard tyre, because it does require a lot of warm up, although Silverstone should be as a circuit better depending on ambient conditions.

"With the soft tyre we are happy, it should be right as an option tyre for this circuit. Silverstone is typically quite heavy on tyres with the amount of loadings they get, and the surface of the track is quite rough and abrasive.

"For the car we've looked a lot in detail at where we seemed to suffer some performance issues particularly during the last two events in qualifying. We have some new directions to take in Silverstone although the track is very different from the last two we've been to.

"We'll be working closely on the tyres and on the set up of the car in order to extract its full potential on a single qualifying lap. We will have some developments around the diffuser and a new rear wing to test."

The HRT Formula 1 team is reported to have been sold to Japan’s merchant bank Nomura by the Banco Popular, which controls the shares of the operation, which were pledged by Jose Ramon Carabante when he borrowed the money to run the team. The news has been confirmed by several sources and is believed to involve around $35 million. It remains to be seen what happens next in terms of the day-to-day running of the business but the bank is unlikely to be too keen on leaving things in the hands of the Carabantes. The news is expected to be confirmed on Monday.

Sorry folks, slow news weekend all around, not just in F1. Been working today and have maybe recorded three files for journalists? It's only Wimbledon and Thailand in the news today.

Edited July 3, 2011 by Lex Lineker

[Lineker]

F1 news - you wait ages for some and then a whole fleet of it comes along! The famous Williams-Renault partnership is back, Virgin become McLaren's Toro Rosso, Hispania purchased by a Spanish investment company, and much much more below:

Lewis Hamilton has admitted that he is concerned about his place in Formula 1's record books if he is not able to emulate the dominant form Sebastian Vettel is currently showing.

Vettel took Hamilton's place as F1's youngest ever world champion when he secured the 2010 title, appears to be on the way to a second straight crown, and after Valencia last weekend has now won more grands prix than the McLaren driver.

Hamilton told the Daily Express that it was extremely important to him that he left the sport as a multiple champion.

"It would massively suck if I only won one world title - massively suck," he said.

"It would feel like a waste of so many years. A lot of people say it's just about participating, but it's not.

"I want to win. I'm here to win. It's all I care about, it's what I live for. Second feels less devastating but third, fourth is not good.

"Then you have to look at things, you could be down at HRT F1 and be finishing 20th or worse. I wouldn't be able to race then."

He acknowledged that he was aware of the potential for Vettel to become the top driver of the current generation.

"He won the world championship at a younger age than me, taking me out of the record books," said Hamilton. "I just hope he doesn't get too far ahead of me in terms of wins."

Hamilton has been linked to a move to Red Bull when his McLaren contract expires, and said he was open-minded about what to do next.

"I feel I have quite a few peak years left in me, but I think I'm at a good point in my career," he said.

"Of course every decision you make is important. You will always ask questions and look at all options and think: Is there anything better you can do?

"Who knows what regulations are going to do? But we have a very strong team, and Mercedes Benz always have the best engines."

McLaren is confident that Lewis Hamilton will remain a part of the team in years to come, despite further speculation about his future in Formula 1.

Newspaper reports at the weekend suggested that Hamilton could activate a clause in his contract to leave the Woking-based outfit at the end of this year if the team does not win the world championship.

However, team principal Martin Whitmarsh said that there was every indication Hamilton was fully committed to remaining a part of the outfit that he has raced for since he entered F1 in 2007.

"Lewis loves this team and he knows the car is capable of winning races," Whitmarsh said in an interview with the Independent. "He's sat with me here in the last 10 days and explained his passion, enthusiasm and desire to remain part of this team.

"I've known him since he was 11. I don't think he would look me in the eye and say that if he didn't mean it."

Whitmarsh has also defended Hamilton from recent criticisms about his driving etiquette - especially following collisions with rivals at the Monaco and Canadian Grands Prix.

"A racing driver has to attack," he said. "If you are going to overtake another Formula 1 car, you are going to take a risk."

Speaking about the comments made by Niki Lauda and Emerson Fittipaldi, Whitmarsh said: "These are very quotable people, and very quotable people say things for effect.

"I know Niki and like him, and I accept that there are people around who want to say things to create controversy. Niki's in that category. You know, there was a famous encounter between Jackie Stewart and Ayrton Senna, which I think is in the new Senna movie, and it's basically them having the same conversation. Ayrton's response was that he was there to race.

"Now, does Lewis regret his accidents? Of course he does and so do I. Would you want him to change his style? With due respect to the great and the good, we're living in the here and now."

Virgin Racing has announced a technical tie-up with McLaren in a bid to help it improve its form in Formula 1.

Just weeks after the team parted company with its technical director Nick Wirth, Virgin Racing revealed on Monday that it had concluded a deal that will see it receive assistance from McLaren, as revealed by AUTOSPORT.

As part of the deal, Virgin Racing will have access to McLaren's facilities - such a test rigs, simulators and computer technology - plus its wind tunnel. Furthermore staff from McLaren will be placed within the Virgin Racing group.

As well as the McLaren tie-up, Virgin Racing has also purchased the business of Wirth Racing Technologies and its facilities in Banbury to provide a technical base for its future. The team will continue to use Cosworth engines.

Andy Webb, CEO of Virgin Racing, said: "When we undertook our detailed review of the team in the first half of 2011, it was clear that our bold ambitions for the future would need to be matched with some equally bold steps towards achieving them.

"I am delighted that in a relatively short space of time we are now in the fantastic position of being able to make these two very important announcements, which will enable us to make some dramatic strides forward with immediate effect.

"Our technical partnership with McLaren is very exciting indeed. McLaren is one of the most prestigious and successful marques in grand prix racing history, with an enviable record of success over many years.

"We can benefit enormously from McLaren's far-reaching techniques and capabilities and I have no doubt that this partnership will see us take the technical steps necessary to make a significant leap forwards.

"In addition, our acquisition of the WRT Formula 1 business ensures continuity of technical infrastructure for the period ahead, which means that the transition to working with our new technical partner can begin immediately and is not frustrated by logistical considerations.

"Our three-centre operation has served us well in our formative years but our ambitions for the future will rely on the full might of the team coming together under one roof."

The technical changes at Virgin Racing come after an in-depth analysis of the team's situation by Pat Symonds, who has acted as a consultant for the team since the start of this year.

Symonds will continue assisting the team, even though he still cannot officially return to a full-time role in F1 as a legacy of the punishment he received for his involvement in the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix race fix controversy.

Speaking about the tie-up with Virgin Racing, McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh said: "Under the terms of this technical partnership, Marussia Virgin Racing will be able to access McLaren's wind tunnel, simulator, rigs, and fitness and well being programmes.

"These properties are state-of-the-art, and we confidently therefore expect Marussia Virgin Racing to derive significant benefits from them.

"During the period in which we were agreeing this deal, our experience of dealing with Andy and his team was extremely positive and we recognise that he and his colleagues are very serious about making developments that will lift the competitiveness of their cars over the coming months and years."

McLaren already has an existing technical partnership in place with the Force India team.

Pirelli is to keep pushing on with its plans to give Ken Block a run in a Formula 1 car later this year, despite the American proving too big to fit in the company's Toyota test car.

Block, who is as famous for his World Rally Championship exploits as he is for his Gymkhana videos, had been scheduled to test Pirelli's updated 2009 Toyota at Monza in August.

However, as AUTOSPORT revealed last week, those plans have hit an early snag after it was found Block's legs were too long for the Toyota cockpit - and meant he could not turn the steering wheel.

Pirelli's director of motorsport Paul Hembery has said that the company is now looking for a larger car for Block – and has not ruled out approaching current outfits to see if they can help.

"We are still looking for alternatives," Hembery told AUTOSPORT. "We are trying to find a team that has had a long-legged driver. I think we need to speak to Red Bull Racing, because Mark Webber is a tall guy.

"Obviously it is slightly embarrassing, because we hadn't quite foreseen that Ken was that big, and he doesn't look that big – but he obviously is long legged. We need to solve it."

Hembery said that Pirelli was determined to ensure the test happened, because it felt F1 would benefit tremendously in the American market from having Block try grand prix machinery.

"We want it to happen," he said. "We are trying to promote F1. Ken is huge in the US and we need to get more interest in F1 in the US, and he will help that by doing these sorts of things.

"All sports can learn from some of the work he has been doing, with the Gymkhana videos and the downloads. F1 should look at Ken's approach and see the good things he does – and maybe there are some things we can adapt for F1 going forwards."

Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo says the decision to go to turbocharged V6 engines for Formula 1's next generation regulations package rather than the previously proposed four-cylinder units has firmed up the company's commitment to the sport.

The famous Italian squad had been one of the leading critics of the original plan for 'greener' engines, but di Montezemolo told reporters in Japan that the V6 choice ensured that F1 stayed relevant for Ferrari.

"I [will] do Formula 1 as long as Formula 1 represents for us the most important research centre," he was quoted as saying by Reuters. "The decision [to go for the] V6 is important because turbo-six is good for the future, not only for Ferrari but also for Mercedes and others."

F1's commercial rights holder Bernie Ecclestone is now a lone voice of opposition to the new engine rules, which were agreed last month in a compromise deal by the teams and FIA. Ecclestone has argued that the noise from the turbocharged engines will not be adequate for the F1 spectacle, and will cause disappointment among fans and promoters. The new rules will come into effect in 2014.

Di Montezemolo added that the next regulation change he would like to see would be a limit on aerodynamics.

"Today, aerodynamics means 90 per cent of the performance," he said. "But I think this is not good because we are not building satellites or airplanes; we're building cars. Aerodynamics have to be less relevant in the performance of the car."

Spanish investment company Thesan Capital has taken a controlling stake in the Hispania Formula 1 team.

The firm takes over the team from previous owner Jose Ramon Carabante.

A statement from HRT said Thesan would work to strengthen the team and give it a more Spanish character.

"The Spanish investment group will lead the development of Hispania Racing in the upcoming years, maintaining the current team and directors, which is one of the main assets of the company, and will try to develop and search for opportunities to optimise and improve the performance of the team in the upcoming seasons, alongside progressively making the team more Spanish and definitively settling the team in Spain," said the statement.

"The Thesan Capital team, who consider the acquisition of Hispania Racing as an opportunity to enter a sector with great prospects of growing, will work with the aim of strengthening the strategic management of the group."

Hispania entered F1 at the start of the 2010 season. It had initially been created as Campos Meta 1, but during a troubled gestation period shareholder Carabante took full control, with founder Adrian Campos departing and ex-Jordan/Midland/Force India team boss Colin Kolles coming in to run the squad. AUTOSPORT recently revealed that Kolles is set to step down from his role in the coming months.

The squad has been at the back of the field for most of its Formula 1 life so far, although it has made progress under the direction of former Williams, Red Bull and Honda designer Geoff Willis, and is now often matching nearest rival Virgin.

Renault technical chief James Allison thinks the team's forward exhaust system will mean it suffers less than its rivals when the ban on off-throttle exhaust blowing comes into effect from Silverstone this weekend.

As part of a mid-season rules clarification, teams will no longer be allowed to configure their engines so that exhaust gases continue to flow onto cars' diffusers and floors - helping aerodynamic performance - even when drivers lift off the throttle.

Allison believes that Renault's unique forward-exiting exhaust might withstand the effect of the rule tweak better than traditional rearward exhausts - though he still expects it to be a blow to performance.

"It is not easy to judge the effect of this change on our competitiveness," he said.

"The loss for each blown floor car will come from two separate effects - how much downforce will be lost and, in addition, how much will the loss of this downforce upset the balance of the car. All blown floor cars will lose downforce under braking as a result of these new restrictions. Some teams will lose more and some teams less; it is hard to know exactly what relative loss LRGP will suffer.

"However, it is possible that we will suffer less on the balance shift side of the equation because our forward exit exhausts produce their effect quite near the middle of the car. This means that as the exhaust blow waxes and wanes, it does not really disturb the aerobalance of the car too much.

"With a rearward blower, the downforce from the exhaust is all generated at the rear axle.

"As the new rules reduce the blowing effect on corner entry much more than corner exit, it is possible that the rearward blowers will tend to suffer more nervousness under braking and more understeer on exit as a result of the new restrictions. We will find out at Silverstone!"

Team boss Eric Boullier was unsure how Renault would stand when the revised rules come into effect, but was confident that his squad had done everything possible to prepare for the impact of the change.

"It's a complicated issue and difficult to state their exact impact just yet," said Boullier. "What's certain is that we need to anticipate the changes to the regulations in the best way we can.

"It will definitely affect every single team, and it's up to us and our engineers to cope better than our competitors with the changes."

The Abu Dhabi Grand Prix organisers will wait until after this year's race before deciding whether to adjust the Yas Marina circuit's layout to encourage more overtaking.

The track was criticised following last season's processional title decider, in which championship hopeful Fernando Alonso became stuck behind Vitaly Petrov's slower Renault for the majority of the race and was unable to prevent Sebastian Vettel snatching the crown.

Yas Marina circuit bosses had looked into options for modifying the track to encourage more overtaking, but with Formula 1's 2011 rules package having triggered significantly more exciting racing at almost every event so far this year, track chief executive Richard Cregan suspects the remodelling might no longer be required.

"With all the changes implemented by the FIA, the racing so far this year has been full of overtaking and excitement," Cregan told Abu Dhabi newspaper The National.

"So we decided, rather than spend a whole lot of money making these changes, we'll wait and see how [this year] goes first."

But he said the proposed changes to the track configuration - which AUTOSPORT revealed in April - would still be implemented quickly if the 2011 Abu Dhabi race proved disappointed.

"The plans are effectively postponed until we see how things go at this year's race," Cregan said.

Team Lotus will run with Caterham branding on its cars for the first time from this weekend's British Grand Prix.

Tony Fernandes' company bought the British sportscar firm in April and had always intended to incorporate the brand into its Formula 1 programme. Its decals appeared on the team's GP2 arm AirAsia's cars in Valencia last month.

In addition to the Caterham logos, new sponsor GE's colours will also be on the Lotus cars from Silverstone.

"This is a big race for us, both in terms of track performance where we want to keep bringing down the gap to the midfield, and because we will see the GE and Caterham logos on the cars and across the whole team for the first time," said Fernandes.

"Being able to race with two such important additions to the team is a very big step forward for us - our partnership with GE is a clear sign that one of the most important members of the global business community shares our vision for the future of our team, and the plans for Caterham will start being revealed very soon.

"The long-term strategy for the Caterham Group is taking shape and we are all very excited about the direction we are taking, as I am sure our fans and our partners will be too."

Williams has announced that it will use Renault engines from the 2012 season, in a renewal of the partnership that dominated Formula 1 for much of the 1990s.

The initial deal is for 2012 and 2013, with an option to continue when the new rules are introduced in 2014.

Renault previously supplied Williams with factory engines from 1989 to 1997 in a collaboration that delivered four drivers' and five constructors' titles. The team is currently using Cosworth engines.

Team principal Frank Williams said he was extremely happy to reunite with Renault given their past successes together - but that both parties were now looking to an equally strong future.

"We are delighted and excited by our new partnership with Renault," he said. "This reunites the F1 team with a leading car manufacturer and complements our new relationship with Jaguar.

"At the same time, we are grateful to Cosworth: they have been a fair and reliable partner both on and off the track for the past two years and we look forward to working with them across our business in the future.

"Our previous relationship with Renault was one of the most successful in Williams' history but we will not allow ourselves to dwell too much on the past. We must look to the future and continue to re-build our on-track reputation, which I am hopeful that today's announcement will help us to do."

AUTOSPORT revealed earlier this year that Renault was keen to expand the number of teams it supplies engines too. Currently the Genii-owned Renault team, champion squad Red Bull Racing and Team Lotus run Renault V8s.

Renault Sport F1 president Bernard Rey said: "Renault remains in Formula 1 to achieve success in a cost efficient way and the partnership with Williams has great potential to add to the results we have notched up over recent years with our other partner teams.

"Williams has recently taken several important steps, both commercially and technically, to update its operations and we feel that this partnership is another important step in its rigorous plan. It reiterates how determined the team is to achieve results, which matches perfectly with our own objectives."

Rey added that supplying multiple teams was extremely important to Renault.

"From 2012 onwards the fact that we will have four partners puts us ahead of other engine manufacturers in terms of market share, but off track it will also enable us to further use Formula 1 as a marketing platform for our parent company, Renault, to try to bring a bit of this association to our fans and our customers worldwide," he said.

"Of course there's also a great pride in reviving the Williams-Renault name. Together, we produced racing cars that are recognised for their technical innovation and it is still Renault's most successful period in F1 to date. It's a hugely exciting opportunity for both Renault and Williams."

Williams chairman Adam Parr does not believe that Renault's Formula 1 engine programme will be spread too thinly next year.

The British team announced on Monday that it will utilise the French manufacturer's engines in 2012, joining Red Bull, Lotus and Renault itself as a user of the powerplants.

While this means that Renault will supply a third of the cars on the grid next year, Parr does not anticipate that this will cause any problems.

"Given the massive investment that Renault has made in its V8 and will make in the V6, they need a decent group of teams to supply - remember that they do not have their own team [it does not own any part of the team that bears its name] and so linking up with a number of successful chassis makers is essential," Parr said.

"In addition, the number of engines now used each season is very small. From over 200 per team a decade ago we are now down to about a tenth of that. From 2014 it may well drop by half again.

"Also with limited, single-car testing four teams gives Renault much more data for reliability and whatever development will be allowed in the future. Renault has always shown total integrity in offering parity to its partners and that is another essential factor for all of us."

Renault Sport F1 president Bernard Rey echoed Parr's sentiments and said that the French manufacturer, which won four drivers' and five constructors' titles as Williams' works engine supplier between 1989 and 1997, would not have taken on a fourth customer team if it had not felt capable of doing so.

"At the end of 2010 we announced a third team, Team Lotus, would be added to our existing partners of Lotus Renault GP and Red Bull Racing," Rey said.

"By the results we have achieved this year we have already demonstrated that there has been no drop-off in performance or service in doing so.

"We have sufficient facilities to adequately service a fourth client and will consider our internal structures before recruiting more personnel if necessary. Our priority is maintaining the excellent customer service and satisfaction and we'll take necessary measures to restructure operations if necessary."

Rey also confirmed that none of Renault's engine customers would be given preferential treatment over another.

Williams team boss Frank Williams has warned that the reunion of his squad and engine supplier Renault is no guarantee of future success.

The previous Williams/Renault partnership, which ran from 1989 to 1997, delivered four drivers' and five constructors' titles. The team announced today that it would switch back to Renault engines from next season, having most recently run Cosworth power units.

"On the face of it, people will assume Williams-Renault back together is a great story - watch the winning happen," said Williams, "but I remind people F1 never stands still, what we achieved in the 90s is no guarantee of what we can achieve in the future.

"Renault can win races and does still win races, and we have ahead of us at Williams a steep mountain. We will climb it, how long it will take us we don't know but we will deliver our side of the bargain. I'm really thrilled and delighted and slightly nervous."

Team chairman Adam Parr reiterated that Williams had gone back to Renault because of the potential the 2010 title-winning engine offered for the future, rather than for nostalgic reasons.

"Today is about the future, it is very tempting to dwell on the past, but we must not do that," he said.

"We are a team that needs to do better than we are doing today and this partnership is incredibly important to us as a team and company.

"Building on past success and a good relationship with Renault, we are looking forward to uniting their astonishing technology with a renewed and revived chassis side of the team.

"We have been through a difficult process of selecting a new technical group to take us forward. We announced in the last few days three technical appointments for the future, and bringing this engine partnership to join them will be a phenomenal boost.

"Frank announced this to the factory one hour ago and you could feel enthusiasm from team towards it."

Parr said that the collaboration would stretch beyond an engine supply, and was likely to be extended past the current two-year deal.

"We hope this partnership will go on for many years, it is a partnership based around the V8 they have raced successfully," he said. "The rules are fresh off the press with the V6 for 2014 but we are discussing that for the future.

"Beyond the F1 relationship we hope there will be collaboration with a number of technical and commercial areas. There is enormous potential for us to work together."

Williams co-owner Patrick Head believes using Renault engines from 2012 will provide a better benchmark for his team and remove a degree of uncertainty about its form.

At present Williams is one of three Cosworth-powered teams, alongside the back-of-the-grid Virgin and Hispania squads.

Renault already supplies world champion team Red Bull, its own former works squad still running under the Renault name, and Team Lotus.

Head pointed out that switching from Cosworth to Renault was no guarantee of success, but would remove one question mark over Williams's package.

"A lot of these engines are very close in their ultimate performance, some of their characteristics will vary quite a bit," he said.

"With Team Lotus one can see changing with engine, it didn't light their performance up.

"We are never a team that looks for excuses but if someone says how much [of the deficit] is in the car and how much in the engine, the difficulty with the current engine and with the other teams running it...

"With the Renault engine in the back of a car from Milton Keynes at the moment, if someone went around saying it is not a decent engine... The Renault engine seems to be very good across the board."

Head is also excited about the other technical opportunities offered by the Renault partnership.

"Renault got resources that are not available to us in terms of dyno facilities, and other technical areas, but it removes one of the variables of uncertainties going forward," he said.

"We decided going forward, being led very much by Adam [Parr], we said 'let's go for it, this is the right direction for Williams.'"

Williams chairman Adam Parr sees no reason why his team's new partnership with Renault cannot hit the ground running straightaway in 2012.

The Grove-based outfit announced on Monday that it was renewing its successful tie-up with French car manufacturer Renault from next year, in the latest of a string of major changes that are taking place at the team.

And although the results of its overhaul - which includes a new direction for its technical department – may take several years before it reaches its peak performance, Parr is upbeat about how quickly its switch to Renault engines will pay off.

"Why not?" said Parr when asked if he believed the tie-up with Renault could immediately deliver big progress in 2012. "The margins are so slim in F1. I see no reason why we cannot make the progress next year that we should have done this year. And it will not just be down to the engine, it will be down to everything."

Parr undertook a detailed evaluation of Williams's strengths and weaknesses on the back of the outfit's worst ever start to a Formula 1 season – and the end result included the departure of technical director Sam Michael, who will leave at the end of the year, and the hiring of Mike Coughlan.

With the team's Renault tie-up now delivering even more optimism for a future recovery, Parr said he felt the team was now in the shape it needed to move forward.

"I am very proud of what we have done in the last two or three months because we have obviously had a very decisive review of the technical side and where we have been weak and where we need to go," he explained.

"The new people that we are bringing in are first class and we are very excited about that. Then secondly we announced the Jaguar partnership in May which is very significant for us as a company, and a bit of a positive for the team as well.

"Then today, it adds another substantial element to our foundations as a team and a company. If you add an IPO in March, it has been a busy six months really.

"I think we have got all the ingredients. I am very excited. And things are looking more positive. The on-track performance is not there, but it is better than it was and we can see light at the end of the tunnel. We can see where we are going now and it looks quite exciting."

Parr admitted that the decisions taken by the team over the past few months had not been easy, but said that he and other chiefs needed to stick their necks out if the team's situation was going to be sorted.

"When you are in a situation like this you have to be bold," he said. "There is no way that you can just plod along and do the same old stuff and it is going to sort itself out. It doesn't happen like that.

"Every decision we have made just made perfect sense. Referring to Mike [Coughlan], he is a joy to work with. He is totally motivated, he works seven days a week, he has tremendous experience, he has lost none of his flair and his understanding for what we do. And if other people don't see that, then great for us. Long may it live!"

Parr said that the return of Renault would also give the team no excuse to blame its engine for a lack of results on track – and said his outfit had tried to secure a manufacturer tie-up with current engine partner Cosworth.

"You never know in F1 where your weak points are, so if you can eliminate them, then so much the better," he said.

"This deal will make a number of fundamental differences. First of all it is a world championship winning engine, and we are in a world where a tenth matters. Secondly, it is a partnership between us and an independent engine maker as well as a car maker, and that is very important.

"We did explore that with Cosworth – could we bring a car maker into the partnership? Unfortunately we were not able to do that. From that minute onwards, it is Cosworth who said that we cannot develop an engine for 2013, and I can understand that because it is a huge investment.

"The other thing is for our partners, and for our drivers, and for our colleagues. It sends out a message that we are going to get back, and it is a sign of great encouragement."

Parr also played down talk that HRT team principal Colin Kolles was set to join his outfit, despite speculation suggesting the option is being considered.

"I don't know who started that rumour, but we have very much got the group we want now for the future. We were not far off the mark. It is just that we were not quite there."

[Lineker]

Lewis Hamilton has been warned by former world champions Jacques Villeneuve and Nigel Mansell against being tempted to leave McLaren for the chance of a Red Bull Racing car.

The Briton, whose future has been the subject of speculation since AUTOSPORT revealed he held private talks with Red Bull team principal Christian Horner in Canada, continues to be linked with a switch to that outfit when his current contract ends.

But Mansell, who won his only world title with Williams in 1992, urged Hamilton against making a mistake by walking out on McLaren.

Asked if he would be tempted by a drive with Red Bull in Hamilton's position, Mansell said: "First of all he would have to be fortunate enough to be offered one.

"But for me Lewis has had an amazing career with McLaren and I think as Michael Schumacher proved by staying with Ferrari, if you can have the support of a team totally behind you, then build on that year on year," he added. "He [Hamilton] hasn't exactly had a drought, McLaren is a fantastic team.

"Personally I would stay with McLaren and all the people who had supported him, through thick and thin, I think it might be a mistake if he changes teams."

Villeneuve, who never won another grand prix after leaving Williams at the end of 1998 - a year after his championship season - added that he believed McLaren not only offered Hamilton unmatchable career stability but that the 26-year-old risked being put in an irretrievable situation should he join Red Bull alongside Sebastian Vettel.

"No way, he would be taken there just to pump the image of Vettel," said the Canadian when asked if he thought Hamilton should switch camps. "Why should he go there? He's protected at McLaren, they love him there, they gave him his career, he should be thankful.

"He should never have the right to be angry at them for anything. Without them he would never have raced, he would never have had a career even in the smaller categories. So, be happy.

"But talks about moving to another team can be used to raise your salaries and a lot of things, so it's good and you need to do that, but you might be in a year where other teams don't have a seat available and it's very rare what Ferrari did when they got rid of Kimi Raikkonen.

"That doesn't happen often and you really have to dislike the driver to do that. That really doesn't happen very often."

Regardless of which team Hamilton ends up with, both Mansell and Villeneuve concurred that Lewis needed to think more about his racecraft when passing rivals having been mixed up in on-track incidents at several races this season.

"He [Hamilton] seems to have gone backwards in his evolution which is a little bit strange, because last year he had calmed down," said Villeneuve, at the announcement of the new Williams-Renault partnership. "He was still aggressive but he seemed to me, it looked like that he was thinking a lot more, but this year he left his brain at home.

"He's super aggressive, he's fun to watch, I don't want him to change, it's great. He's the only action there is in the race, everybody else uses the DRS and it's boring, it's useless. But he actually goes for it, it's great.

Once in a while though, he should think a little bit because they are not clever moves. It's okay to be aggressive, but not if it catches you out as well, and he gets caught out himself - that's when it's a mistake."

Asked if he believed Hamilton needed to change his competitive mindset, Mansell, who is the driver steward at this weekend's British Grand Prix, replied: "No, I don't think so. Lewis is a racer and a fighter. The thing he hasn't got quite right is when you pass people just try not to knock 'em off! That's the only thing.

"Still go for the gaps, but give them a little room and don't do it on corners where there's no recovery. People are there to race, just like he is. You know he is a great racer and he has just got get it a bit more right than what he has done in the last few races."

Gary Paffett has extended his test and reserve driver contract with McLaren into next season, the Woking-based team announced on Tuesday.

Paffett joined McLaren back in 2005 and he has helped play a major role in car development - which has included both proper testing and extensive simulator work.

Speaking about his new deal, Paffett said: "I'm extremely pleased to have renewed my relationship with Vodafone McLaren Mercedes.

"As everybody knows, success in Formula 1 is developed through the strength and duration of relationships: I've been a part of this team for more than five years, and it's a place where I really feel happy and comfortable, and where I can confidently speak my mind.

"I'm proud that my contribution has enabled the team to remain a race and championship-winning force in Formula 1, and I truly believe that we'll continue to grow and improve in the future."

Team principal Martin Whitmarsh added: "Gary has become a vital part of our technical support and development team - both at the track and in the simulator.

"Both Gary and the team believes that this deal will underline his reputation as a strong development driver and a true team player."

Paffett has worked alongside Pedro de la Rosa this season, with the Spaniard rejoining the team at the start of this year after a spell as Sauber racer and Pirelli tester.

Pirelli wants to discuss ideas for a major shake-up of tyre rules for 2012 - as well as seek an urgent solution to the lack of testing opportunities currently available.

Although Pirelli is delighted with the way this season has panned out, the Italian company is open to being more creative with the tyre regulations next year if the teams are up for it.

Pirelli director of motorsport Paul Hembery has revealed that one answer he is desperate for is how the teams think his company can continue tyre testing next year – with its current updated TF109 test car getting to the end of its useful life.

"It is a problem with the testing, it is a genuine problem," Hembery told AUTOSPORT. "Going forward it remains a problem that we cannot get access to current cars, and nobody wants to seem to give us an answer or a solution.

"As much as Toyota has done a good job you can only go forward so far, before we have no access to testing. We want to be a good partner for the sport and we want to try and deliver the best product, but until we can test and verify our own results it is becoming a little bit more difficult."

Hembery says that although the Toyota car has been invaluable for its 2011 preparations, the design is now getting dated with the regulations changing so much.

"The car doesn't have the right sized fuel tank, and it doesn't have the DRS. The 2013 regulations are probably going to be less downforce and higher top speed, so we need to sit down and find a solution.

"It is easy for the teams to say no, no, no. But we genuinely need a solution and one that doesn't lead to accusations that we are favouring one team over another. We are not interested in that.

"We just want to do our job to the best of our ability and we don't want to favour anyone between ourselves and the teams. We want to find a professional solution and we have to say, with the collaboration we have had so far, we will find a solution.

"Maybe we do test sessions where we change the car every time. Or all the cars have McLaren Electronics so we could block the channel for the team so no data could be read from the test, or we could make it available to everyone. There are a number of ways to do it."

Hembery said that as well as the testing issue, he wanted to discuss with teams wider changes – including revisions to the Q3 tyre rules and the possibility of qualifying tyres.

"We will probably catch up at a race event just after the summer – probably September time," explained Hembery.

"We will sit down with them and say: 'Look this is what we have learned this year, this is what we think we can do better for you, and do you want us to do it?'

"The teams need to tell us what they want of course because at the end of the day it is the teams that decide where we go.

"At the end of the day we are a partner of the teams and the teams also need to give their point of view. We can have all the ideas in the world but at the end of the day if they don't want to do it, they don't want to do it."

Rubens Barrichello says he is ready to sign a new contract with Williams for 2012 on the back of the team's switch to Renault engines.

The Brazilian says that the raft of technical changes made at the team over the past few months, which includes the arrival of Mike Coughlan, plus the change of power plant, have lifted spirits and made him keen to stay on.

When asked if the new situation at Williams has increased his motivation to sort out a new deal, Barrichello told AUTOSPORT: "Yes, it does.

"My intention was always to be driving next year and more. Like everything, they can see that I am pushing very hard. I am still losing weight. I am still pushing the team to its limits. The car is not good but I am still keeping my motivation. So they have everything from me.

"It is good to see that things are changing because everyone's spirits are high. Of course I want to be racing next year and hopefully with them."

Williams chairman Adam Parr dropped a hint that the team too was keen to keep Barrichello on the back of the speed and technical input that the Brazilian has delivered this year.

"I am very keen to keep him on board for next season," explained Parr.

Barrichello says that the feeling at Williams now is a world away from how it was at the beginning of the campaign - when the Grove-based outfit encountered its worst ever start to an F1 season.

"It is very different," he explained. "I've already talked to Mike Coughlan and talked to a lot of people. I will have a good conversation this week with the new aero guys as well. You can see it is making a difference.

"The guys are working hard. They are not happy to be where they are, and we should not be where we are in a way. It was very frustrating to drive the car for the first time this year, that it did have the grip sometimes but not the ultimate grip, so we did not make that step forwards.

"Hopefully now with a Renault engine, it has all little tricks – it is light, it is driveable, it is so much of a good thing in the back. And that it will help the team go forward."

He added: "You can see some light at the end of the tunnel, that is all I can say. I am not here to make up the numbers and I am not here just to go around in circles. I have had enough of that. I just want to have a car – like a Brawn season – to give me what I deserve to have and the team is in a prosperous situation. It is going in the right direction."

Although the switch from Cosworth to Renault for 2012 in itself will not bring a dramatic step forward in performance, Barrichello believes that psychologically it is an important move for the team.

"Not just for us, but for the mechanics, for the engineers, for the boys at the factory - at the end of the day they just feel, 'wow'.

"They know less than we do, so what this means to them is quite huge. They think, 'wow, we won in the past with Renault so we can win again,' You need the motivation from the factory that goes around and around, and it is a cycle that pushes you to the very top. Psychologically it is a very big thing.

"The team put some brave moves on things, and I am proud of that. It is what we need. You might say, okay this is a bit too late to start a programme or so on, but there is a good project going on already and so whenever the new guys come in, I am pretty sure that they will change the attitude of the wind tunnel. That is what we need and possibly we are going to gain from there."

Barrichello also reckons that he could gel well with chief engineer Mike Coughlan following his first sit-down meeting this week.

"He is a very serene, easy going guy. He took all the notes from what I said. It was a good conversation and we stayed together about three hours. And so, it was a good getting together.

"I am pretty sure that with his experience, and his knowledge he will be good. And he is willing to show that he deserves this place, with all that happened to him. He wants to show that he is a good man and not be considered on the other side. I am pretty sure we can be a good couple, me and him."

Nigel Mansell has praised the performance of world champion Sebastian Vettel this season, the Briton saying the Red Bull driver has been the best at dealing with the new tyres.

"It is phenomenal," said Mansell, speaking during the announcement of Williams's new Renault deal, of Vettel's start to the season.

"Ferrari did set new benchmarks when they went three years without a mechanical breakdowns. Michael Schumacher won three world championships and people have said that it was through reliability as much as anything else.

"So Red Bull now are making a new benchmark - what can be done from out of the starting blocks if you get everything perfect.

"But don't underestimate... Sebastian has done the best job with the Pirelli tyres, and for me my take on it is he's not been used to the other older tyres, where you get a lot of balance and grip and everything else, and there are a lot of drivers out there who have been used to a different type of tyres and they haven't had the same sort of response from the Pirelli as the past.

"And I think that Sebastian is dealing with the tyre situation far better than the others."

The former world champion, who took his only title by dominating the 1992 season, believes however that Vettel cannot afford to relax, just like Mansell himself knew he could not celebrate ahead of time despite his dominance with the Williams 19 years ago.

"No, because I had been bridesmaid three times, and I had lost the world championship by one point at the last race," he said.

"When you have been in those circumstances you never relax and you know I knew in the winter of '91, because I was supposed to go in for an operation on my left foot – which was broken – I couldn't afford three months off.

"So I put that operation off until the end of 1992 and just wore special shoes, because it's so important. You couldn't let anything get in the way, even having a few problems with your left foot, and having broken bones, doesn't matter. Don't let it get in the way."

Another former world champion, Jacques Villeneuve, believes there is no doubt about Vettel's speed, but he reckons the German's mistake in Canada shows he still has to learn to resist the pressure.

"I don't know because he has had it easy," Villeneuve said when asked about Vettel's performance.

"He is super-fast. This year his speed has improved, but the one time he had a bit of pressure, in Montreal, he cracked up. He collapsed. It was an easy race, it was won, and he just collapsed. So that has not evolved from last year."

The Canadian also believes Vettel's age - 23 - should not be an excuse to make mistakes.

"That is not an excuse, you're allowed to give anyone that's in Formula 1. At any top level of sport, excuses aren't available. It doesn't matter how old you are, you've got there and you are not young anymore.

"You are an F1 driver or a football player, but once you are at the top level, no excuses are available. You are not allowed to be young, you are supposed to learn fast."

Former world champion Jacques Villeneuve believes race stewards should be more lenient and allow Formula 1 drivers to race each other more freely.

The Canadian says he did not think Lewis Hamilton was at fault during the Monaco Grand Prix, where the Briton was given a penalty for a clash with Felipe Massa.

And Villeneuve reckons drivers who hurt their own chances due to being too aggressive - like Hamilton in his crash with Pastor Maldonado in Monte Carlo - should not be punished more.

"Everybody blamed Hamilton at Monaco for the Massa thing when it was Massa who was at fault," said Villeneuve during an event in which Williams announced its new partnership with Renault.

"That's why aggressive driving, mistakes should not be punished, his move on Maldonado was bad but it was not on purpose. It was just stupid and it was a mistake.

"Luckily he didn't break his car and Maldonado crashed. Too bad, that's racing, next time it will happen to him, you shouldn't be penalised for that.

"That's racing, too bad, you have to let the drivers race. What you don't want is people putting other people in the wall on purpose, or being just stupid. That's what you have to avoid and that's what you should get penalised on."

The 1997 world champion said he did not expect the FIA to ask him to be a race steward, although he admitted he would enjoy the position.

"Sure, why not? But I would probably disagree with what most people are saying so I don't think I will be invited to do that."

[DJ Ice]

Couldn't agree more with Jacques. This season has been pretty bad compared to past seasons imo, not so much the races themselves, but officials and stewards terrible decisions

[Lineker]

Eh, some bad calls are inevitable in any sport. But there have been good calls as well, let us not forget.

Lewis gets himself fully entrenched back into prick mode in preparation for Silverstone:

Lewis Hamilton has told the likes of Jacques Villeneuve and Nigel Mansell to "keep their opinions to themselves," as speculation continues to surround his McLaren future.

The British driver has been linked with a move to world champion team Red Bull to join Sebastian Vettel when his current contract ends ever since holding private talks with Christian Horner in Canada last month.

Former world champions Mansell and Villeneuve both said this week that he should stay with McLaren rather than risk being forced to play a supporting role to Red Bull academy product Vettel.

"I find it kind of funny," Hamilton told the BBC. "I'm not sure that anyone really cares what some of those people are talking about or their opinions. I think that if you have an opinion, just keep it to yourself."

Hamilton, the 2008 world champion, continued to dismiss rumours about his future, saying that he is more than happy at McLaren - for which he has driven exclusively since making his F1 debut in 2007.

"I have no plans. I'm not in any thinking process in terms of what's going on in the future," he added.

"I'm pretty comfortable in my current contract. [His McLaren team-mate] Jenson [button] has his end this year and mine doesn't end until the end of next year, so I have a job for the next year and a half. All the energy and focus goes into trying to win and that's what I'm trying to do."

Hamilton currently lies fourth in the World Championship ahead of this weekend's British Grand Prix, 89 points behind leader Vettel.

McLaren expects to return to form at the British Grand Prix this weekend, having labelled its downturn in Valencia as a 'blip'.

Managing Director Jonathan Neale said lessons had already been learned from the European Grand Prix, where McLaren found itself behind both Red Bull and Ferrari in the pecking order - with Lewis Hamilton finishing fourth and Jenson Button sixth.

"We underperformed at Valencia, we didn't really get the car dialled in properly," Neale explained during a Vodafone phone-in on Wednesday. "I don't think we delivered to our full potential there, and therefore I'm certainly regarding it as a blip.

"We understand the reasons why, and we've done something about it.

"Canada and Valencia have broadly similar aerodynamic characteristics, but coming into Silverstone there'd be no reason for anybody to make a read on our performance on those circuits relative to Silverstone.

"We've learned from the lessons of the past and we can fit that next time we come to a similar style of circuit. Others nip at the heels of you so we paid a price for that, but I'm not in any way disheartened or dissuaded from our ability to be competitive in Silverstone."

Neale also believes McLaren is catching Red Bull, even if it seemed to take a backward step in Valencia.

"I think if anybody plots the underlying race and qualifying pace, you will see we are catching Red Bull.

"They still have had an advantage, certainly in qualifying, but they have been on record in the media as recognising that we have had a faster race car than them on a few races in the recent past, and we will continue to keep that pressure up."

While Neale conceded the change of rules on exhaust blown diffusers had forced McLaren to change direction, he also insisted it opened the championship up – and revealed the team would still be bringing upgrades to Silverstone.

"We've got a range of upgrades for the car, the aerodynamic package will be improved but I guess the technical landscape will be pretty much dominated by what happens to everybody's car with the changes to the technical regulations on engine loads.

"There is no doubt its going to affect all of the top teams; it's definitely going to affect us, Red Bull have already said its definitely going to affect them, the key question is who is it going to affect most. I don't think we are really going to know that until Saturday afternoon.

"The uncertainty that is raised by the recent engine regulation changes will make it really interesting this weekend and could open the season up.

"We're really looking forward to Silverstone, a high speed circuit. The guys should be optimistic because we have some great upgrades for this weekend.

"Two British world champions, it's like a home grand prix and there's a huge amount of excitement on the build up to it."

Red Bull's technical chief Adrian Newey believes his team will be affected "quite heavily" by the ban on off-throttle diffusers that comes into effect from this weekend's British Grand Prix.

"I think we will be quite heavily affected because our car was designed around the exhaust in as much as it was part of the design right from the outset," Newey told news agency Reuters.

"Probably with the exception of Renault and ourselves everybody else has generally speaking copied someone else's principal, mainly ours, and adapted to the car that they had pre-season.

"So it might therefore be, because our car has been designed around it, it's going to be more of a hit for us but it's very difficult to forecast."

Newey also admitted he was mystified as to why the FIA has decided to ban something that had been legal up until now.

"I'm slightly baffled by it because it's been declared legal forever until this race," he added.

"The obvious parallel is when active suspension was banned at the end of '93, where there was no regulation change. Ferrari couldn't get their active to work and suddenly it was illegal for the next year.

"It's easy to fall into the Machiavellian conspiracy theories. Whether that's true or not, I don't know and I can't comment. My read of it would be that, of our main competitors, which are clearly McLaren and Ferrari, then Ferrari probably haven't got their exhaust to work that well so they are quite happy to see the back of it.

"McLaren probably don't know whether they are going to lose more or less than us. But probably on the basis that they could probably do with a wild card thrown into the pack, they are probably relieved to have something that is different," he added.

Formula 1 fans have been reassured that the new generation of V6 turbo engines that will be used from 2014 will produce a sound 'worthy of F1', as leading figures quashed fears they will rob the sport of some of its attraction.

Following claims from Bernie Ecclestone and his long-time ally, Australian GP promoter Ron Walker, that the new 1.6-litre engines will be a turn-off for spectators, one leading engine guru revealed that details of the planned regulations show they will be every match for the current power-units.

Renault's engine technical director Rob White told AUTOSPORT: "The first thing to say is that whatever engines we have, F1 is going to remain the pinnacle of motor racing.

"The cars are going to be the quickest cars around a closed circuit, and it is not because we are going to be saving fuel and having fuel consumption races that the cars are going to be breaking down or running out of fuel all over the place, or that they are going to be like shopping cars.

"These engines are going to be very loud. They are going to be very high-revving engines."

White said that the way the rules were being framed - especially with a single turbocharger and a single exhaust outlet - ensured that the engines would sound impressive.

"The rules look like they are heading towards a rev limit of 15,000rpm, and the fuel flow limit is intended to drive the operating speed of these engines up towards the upper end of that range, rather than the lower," he added.

"There is a detail in the rules that makes it interesting for the engine people to push the rpm up above 10-11,000rpm, where the engines would have perhaps naturally ended up in the previous incarnation of the rules.

"A single turbo has a number of important advantages - the first of which is it allows some of the energy recovery conceptual development work that was underway for the four-cylinder engines to be carried over, because a single turbo would also have a single electrical machine for heat recovery on the exhaust side.

"In addition, a single turbo will join together the six exhaust outlets and have a single tailpipe from the back, so that would tend to make the frequency of the engine note much higher than the frequency note from either a four-cylinder engine or from a V6 with separate exhausts."

"We have all heard F1 engines from different eras making different sounds and I don't think we have ever been disappointed by the sound of an F1 engine going past. These are still going to be very, very high-revving engines - the crankshaft speed has a maximum limit of 15,000rpm – but there are other shafts on this engine going much quicker than that.

"I am absolutely convinced that the engines will make a noise worthy of F1 and be better than some previous generations of F1 engine.

"The only way to have a sound identical to the current engine would be to have current engines."

Renault Sport's managing director Jean Francois Caubet told AUTOSPORT: "We have had a four-cylinder [powerplant] on the dyno and the sound is nearly the same as the V8 running at 12,000-14,000rpm. With the V6, with one exhaust, the sound will be very good."

Williams chairman Adam Parr thinks it is time that critics of the new engines keep quiet – as he believed unhappiness at the sound was misplaced.

"I don't think it is correct that there is a concern on that," he said. "I think the one thing that we have to be careful about is that if we talk down what we are doing, and why we are doing it, then we are making things unnecessarily difficult.

"What we should all be doing is getting out there and saying why this is such a positive step forward for the sport. It is great for race promoters, great for attracting a new audience. On television it will be just as fantastic as now and there will be a whole new dimension for the sport."

Parr believes the only problem with the V6 plans is that they had not been agreed a long time ago.

"I am happy with the V6. I wish we had done this 12 months ago," he said. "What I am a cheerleader for is a more environmentally thoughtful, road relevant futuristic technology.

"I respect the fact that it has to sound great and has to be a great racing engine, and I suspect the V6 will satisfy some critics on that ground.

"But the bottom line is that we will be running all the electric in the pitlane, we will be having the most energy efficient power unit ever created – and that is what really matters. I am thrilled that all the car makers have reached a common situation."

Felipe Massa says Red Bull rival Sebastian Vettel would have to do a "crazy job" to lose this year's championship following his strong first part of the season.

The world champion has won six of the first eight races of the year and leads in the standings by 77 points from team-mate Mark Webber.

Although Massa is adamant that Ferrari cannot give up this season, the Brazilian concedes the title is Vettel's to lose.

"There has been a lot of discussion about whether Ferrari's championship chances are already over this early in the season," Massa wrote on Ferrari's website.

"I don't know the answer to that, but will still tackle every race in the same way, trying to win it. Getting the first win of the season is our immediate task and then trying to win more.

"Only at the end of the year, should we look at the championship situation. Realistically, Sebastian Vettel would need to do a really crazy job to lose the title.

"But we cannot give up and this situation changes nothing in our approach, because a victory is already a very nice thing to have and some wins this year would show we have done a good job.

"We must not forget that improving the car and its performance can also be important for 2012, because there are not so many rule changes coming which means that the car will not change completely compared to this year. A good car now and at the final race of 2011 is already a good step forward for 2012."

Massa said he is expecting Ferrari to be strong in this weekend's British Grand Prix, despite the nature of the circuit not favouring his car's strongest points.

"It is true, as many people have said, that the last three circuits suited our car well, but I expect it to also perform well at Silverstone thanks to developments we have introduced, although of course the other teams will probably have done the same," he said.

"I expect we will be competitive, but we must wait and see how the car works at a type of track where, earlier in the year, we were not so competitive.

"The reason this is important is that, if we are competitive in England, then it confirms we have improved a lot and have reduced the gap to the other teams. We will also see how much we have improved our performance with the Hard Pirelli tyres, which we have not used them since Barcelona.

"We will also have the Soft tyre in Silverstone as the Option and that is a good thing, because it means we have a tyre that suits us well for qualifying and maybe for a major part of the race as well."

Renault's managing director Jean-Francois Caubet says Williams is very likely to have to wait until February next year before it tests the French engines.

The Grove team announced a Renault engine deal on Monday, in an agreement that sees the two parties reviving a relationship that brought them nine championships in the past.

Caubet said, however, that Williams will have to wait until the first test of 2012 before it can run its new engines.

Teams will get a chance to test before the end of the year in the young drivers' test in Abu Dhabi.

"No," said Caubet when asked if Williams could test the engines this year. "We will have always the same philosophy. Probably not the end of this year but probably the start of next year."

He said the deal with Williams was only natural given the successful partnership both enjoyed in the past.

"It was important because the goal of Renault was to provide four teams and we have such a fantastic history with Williams in the past due to the quality of the relationship. So to choose a partnership with Williams was something quite natural.

"We started speaking last year and it was impossible to finish last year, and we were nearly ready to sign before the V6. But with the V6 situation things were delayed a little, so we asked for the green light from Jean Todt (for a fourth engine supply deal) and he said okay. From a technical and a marketing perspective it is a very good deal."

Caubet denied, however, plans of taking share into any teams or buy its way back into the sport.

"No, I don't think so. I think the strategy is clear. We want to develop a technical partnership with the best teams and to see Red Bull Racing it is one of the best teams. After that we want to develop sponsoring, to avoid only a technical communication, but it is not in the goal of Renault to buy shares."

The Frenchman admitted Renault was 'very close' to securing a new engine deal with Red Bull Racing before the 2014 rules were confirmed, and insisted talks will now start again.

"We were very close to sign the deal before the V6, and we will start again now," he added.

And he made it clear the French manufacturer was happy to be in Formula 1 for the long term.

"We have a long, long term commitment now because it is too early to sign the 2014 contracts, but the 2014 contracts will be for five years so we are happy to be in F1, and we are quite happy to find F1 quite stable now. Even if we have some problems with Silverstone."

Daniel Ricciardo admits it will be a dream come true when he lines up on the grid for the British Grand Prix this weekend.

The Australian is making his grand prix debut at Silverstone, having replaced Narain Karthikeyan at the Hispania team for the rest of the season.

Ricciardo, who was Toro Rosso's reserve driver this year, is aiming to finish his first race and to make progress from there.

"I'm very happy to have my first Formula 1 race coming up at Silverstone," said Ricciardo. "It means a lot to me. I'm sure, as many of us here, we dream it as kids but don't really believe that one day it will actually happen! It will be a very special moment for me, perhaps a little emotional too.

"I am very happy with the deal. I didn't think I would be racing an F1 car this season so for Red Bull to have found me a seat is awesome and I'm grateful to have this opportunity and the support from both teams.

"Hopefully it won't take me too long to adapt to the car, in the past I think I've adapted well to new environments and cars so I'm confident that by the end of the weekend I will have made strong progress from the start.

"My aim is to finish as many races as I can and get the experience under my belt. I think this is most important for me as a young driver, experience is priceless. Of course, I would also love to bring the car and the team further up the grid and have some successful races." For the Silverstone weekend I think my first aim is to finish, physically and mentally this will be a good reward and all part of the learning process."

Team boss Colin Kolles is delighted to have the Australian in his team, praising Ricciardo as one of the "greatest talents in motorsport".

"First of all, I am very proud and happy to conclude the deal with Red Bull Racing and to welcome Daniel to our team. He is one of the greatest talents in motorsport and we hope to give him a lot of mileage in order to prepare him for the future."

Brazilian Lucas di Grassi has been confirmed as Pirelli's new official test driver.

Di Grassi, who made his grand prix debut with the Virgin team last year, will be in charge of developing the latest generation of tyres for the future in at least five tests in 2011.

"A significant part of our tyre development stems from the feedback we receive from our test driver, so this is an absolutely crucial appointment," said Pirelli's Paul Hembery.

"Lucas has impressed us not only with his pace, which is vital if we are going to accurately simulate racing conditions, but also his technical feedback to the engineers. I'm delighted to welcome Lucas into the team."

Di Grassi, who already tested for Pirelli last month, will also attend all grands prix this year in order to collect information and pass on his experience during technical debriefs.

"Pirelli has done a fantastic job so far in a very short space of time and I'm looking forward to helping to make the P Zero tyres even better in the future: not just for the drivers and teams but for the spectators as well," di Grassi said.

"This is a great opportunity for me to get more time behind the wheel of a Formula One car - which is difficult these days because of the current testing regulations - and also to use my knowledge to help make a real difference to the sport."

[Lineker]

Silverstone bosses hope to sign off plans for a major redevelopment plan of the home of the British Grand Prix on Friday, as they continue a push to find investors.

With the second phase of Silverstone's redevelopment - focused around the new £28 million 'wing' pits and paddock complex - now complete, attention is shifting to a wider update that will include hotels, a new kart track, music arenas, car showrooms and experience centres.

The board of Silverstone Circuit hopes to approve the scheme at a meeting ahead of the British Grand Prix, before it is then sent to the local authorities over the next few weeks for approval. It is hoped that the plans can then be signed off fully later this year.

Before the plans can progress, however, Silverstone's owner, the British Racing Drivers' Club, needs to find investors to fund the project.

Silverstone's managing director Richard Phillips said: "It won't happen overnight and it will require funding.

"We've improved viewing, we have improved grandstands and there are a lot of things we have done right. But we have still got a lot more to do in terms of really creating the atmosphere that is required. You are competing in the leisure market and it is quite competitive out there - there is some really good stuff. We have to be up there with it."

BRDC chairman Stuart Rolt said that early feedback from potential investors was positive, but nothing could yet be taken for granted. He also refused to divulge what level of costs the redevelopment would cost - but ruled out any help from the government.

"We've had a good level of interest from investors and we are talking to serious people," he said. "We are happy with the way things are going."

The FIA has elected to stick to just a single DRS zone at Silverstone this weekend, despite evaluating the idea of using two areas ahead of the event.

FIA race director Charlie Whiting said in Valencia that the FIA was looking into the possibility of using a second zone along the old start-finish straight as well as the current one along the Wellington Straight for the British Grand Prix

However, the FIA has confirmed that the DRS zone will start 45 metres after Turn 4, with the detection zone being placed 25 metres before Turn 3.

With the new Silverstone pits being used this year, Whiting has also said that he will look carefully at the pit lane entry - because its layout means it could be quicker to cross the start/finish line coming into the pits than keeping out on the track.

"The new pits are the biggest difference, and the entry and exit bring new challenges," explained Whiting. "The entry is shorter than staying on the circuit, so we will have to ensure that drivers don't use these changes to the pits to their advantage."

Renault thinks it's vital it braces itself for any unexpected consequences that come this weekend as a result of the ban on the off-throttle use of blown diffusers.

Teams are unsure about the differences the rules clarification will make to the competitive order at the British Grand Prix, but they are in no doubt it will affect all teams to some extent.

Although Renault has been confident over the last few weeks that it should not suffer as much as other teams, because of its unique forward-facing exhaust design, team principal Eric Boullier says his outfit should not be complacent.

"It's a complicated issue and difficult to state their exact impact just yet," explained Boullier. "What's certain is that we need to anticipate the changes to the regulations in the best way we can. It will definitely affect every single team, and it's up to us and our engineers to cope better than our competitors with the changes."

Renault has struggled for pace on the recent slow-speed circuits, but Boullier is upbeat that the faster venues coming up - like Silverstone this weekend - should suit it better.

"Considering the races in Monaco and Valencia and our performance there, we can definitely expect the high speed corners to suit our car much better."

Reflecting on the season so far, Boullier said: "My feelings are quite mixed; we had a very strong start to the season with a couple of podiums, but obviously we have now had a few races where we haven't performed as well as we need to.

"We know we have to react well; we think we have a clear understanding of what may have gone wrong and we've started to correct it. If our car was so good at the beginning of the season, we must be able to get that level of performance back for the remaining 11 races.

"Now is a good time to really, really push and comprehend why we haven't been able to keep our pace relative to the other teams on the grid."

Sebastian Vettel may be odds-on favourite for victory in the British Grand Prix this weekend to further increase his runaway lead in the world championship, but he insists he is taking nothing for granted about his dominance continuing.

The German driver is 77 points clear of nearest challengers Mark Webber and Jenson Button in the title chase, and rival teams concede that the high-speed turns at Silverstone are likely to be perfect stomping ground for Red Bull Racing's car.

But speaking ahead of the weekend, Vettel said his mindset was one of simply focusing on doing the best job possible - rather than getting too carried away that it should be another straightforward weekend.

"I don't arrive like that," he said, when asked if it was an easy feeling this year arriving at races convinced he could take pole and the win.

"Obviously, when we arrive we are confident and we believe in ourselves. And we believe that we can have a good weekend. But I can't take it for granted to arrive and say pole, race. It never comes easy.

"In terms of mindset I try to have the same approach as last year. I think last year we had a good start but many things going wrong at some time, mistakes here and there. Also I did mistakes.

"All in all it didn't help us to put ourselves in a strong position for the championship. We were really relying on every single race at the end. This year we had a very good start and it can help us in the end, that's for sure. But it's still a long, long way.

"Just because we won it last year you could argue that, okay, we know how to do it. But it doesn't mean we can forget about all the little steps you need to take to win."

Although only once in F1 history has a driver lost a title with an advantage of Vettel's magnitude (Niki Lauda in 1976), he is adamant that the championship is far from won yet.

"You never know," he said. "If you look at championships in the past, it went according to plan and others when it didn't. It reminds me how quickly things can change. It takes two or three bad races and it could be a different story again.

"We've seen last year, with the points system. On the one hand you might have a big gap, a big number, but it's a bit fake because you are tempted by the big number. But then you get 25 points for a win, but zero if you don't finish."

Vettel also believes that he feels his attitude to racing this year is no different to 12 months ago - even though the results are very different at this stage of the campaign.

"I think the brain is still the same. I didn't change it," he said. "But the nice bit...my biggest dream was to become Formula 1 world champion. And then we obviously achieved that last year. It took some time to sink in and understand that it happened.

"But the best thing about it is the fact that no-one can change that now. No-one can take this away from me, from us, any more. Whatever happens in the future this will always be there.

"More than anything else you try to prove a point to yourself. Of course you want to show the people, you want to show the team. But most of all you want to show yourself you're good enough to be at the top and good enough to win the championship.

"If I compare this year to last year, the way I approach races there's not much difference. It would be wrong to feel too comfortable or secure."

Vettel also insisted that he was not worried by any criticisms he has faced from media or fans – relating to either his position inside Red Bull Racing or the critics of his famous 'finger' waving.

"I am who I am," he said. "Of course at some stage I had to figure out that there are some people against you. I'm trying to achieve something. I have my target. I know what it takes.

"Next to that there are things which other people would like you to do or achieve. But you cannot please everyone. Unfortunately there will always be some people offended by what you do – for instance, with the finger - but that's how it is. But there are so many people following Formula 1 and it's great for us to walk out into a sort of arena and show what we can do in front of so many people.

"I think there are other sports where people work very, very hard as well, but probably don't get so much recognition."

Sergio Perez intends to regain the career momentum he built up prior to his Monaco Grand Prix qualifying crash at this weekend's British Grand Prix.

The Mexican says he feels frustrated that the accident, which forced him to miss the race in Monte Carlo and subsequently the Canadian GP, has interrupted what has been a strong debut season for Sauber, and the 21-year-old intends to get it back on track at Silverstone.

"It [the accident] happened because I was pushing so hard that weekend," said Perez. "I was giving my maximum in Monaco because it is one of those tracks where the driver can make a big difference.

"I was already in Q3, so I was doing a very good job until the crash happened, then I had to lose a weekend. And my team-mate, who was starting behind me, finished in fifth position. So it was a very good weekend for him, which could also have been for me, but unfortunately I missed the GP and I also missed Canada.

"In the end I only have two points, but it has been a very good season so far."

"I think I lost some momentum," he added. "I was going well after Barcelona when I scored points, after Monaco when I was having a very good weekend until qualifying.

"I think now in Silverstone it will be a good moment to restart that momentum again, because we have three races close together so July is an important month for us."

Perez, who finished 11th in the European Grand Prix, also admitted that he was still not 100 per cent in Valencia, in spite of finishing ahead of his Sauber team-mate Kamui Kobayashi.

"Physically it was a struggle for me, because of the impact on the head I still felt that it was not so easy to come back and jump in the car and drive again," he said. "It took me some time to adapt to everything again, but in the end everything was fine.

"I think Valencia was one of the best weekends in terms of giving my maximum, and also all the conditions I faced were very difficult.

"It was not so easy for me to come back and drive, but I did my best and I was still happy to finish 11th and for sure now I will be in a better shape for Silverstone."

Jenson Button is eager to end a run of disappointing races at Silverstone and fight for his first home win this weekend.

The McLaren driver is yet to finish higher than fourth in 11 races at the British track, and he admits a home victory would be very special.

"It is nice to be here at Silverstone. I haven't even got on the podium in an F1 car, so that would be my first aim and obviously it is one you want to win," said Button.

"We all want to fight for the championship. We all want to win Monaco and all want to win our home GP. It is one not achieved yet so one I am fighting for."

He is also adamant that he will get a chance to fight on top this weekend, although he admitted how strong his car will be it is not year clear.

"There is always a chance, whether it is a big enough chance we don't know. Looking at the last race Red Bull was strong and we were quite a bit behind them.

"We have updates for this race which will help us and have different blown diffuser and electronics which might help us more than other teams."

Button also denied championship leader Sebastian Vettel is dominating despite his six wins in eight races, the Briton believing the German is being pushed to the limit to stay in front.

"He is still pushing hard, he is on the limit. He's done a very good job in qualifying, and it's very impressive to put it on pole every race but one.

"It has been a little bit more difficult for them. We have challenged them a few times. Four times we have challenged them, two races we beat them, two races we didn't. It isn't a walk in the park for him, and we hope it continues like that."

Virgin Racing's sporting director Graeme Lowdon has hailed his team's technical tie-in with McLaren as a statement of intent over its long-term ambitions in the sport.

As revealed by AUTOSPORT, Virgin Racing announced on Monday that it had concluded a deal giving it access to McLaren's facilities - such as test rigs, simulators and computer technology - plus its wind tunnel.

Lowdon said the deal has given his team a welcome boost ahead of Silverstone, but predicts its effect will only be fully realised for the 2012 season.

"This is a real statement of intent that we want to be in the pack as quickly as possible, and get to a situation where we are really challenging in races," Lowdon told AUTOSPORT.

"The prime focus is going to be the 2012 car, as it is for most teams in the paddock now, but we think that there will be some benefits for the 2011 car – kind of by osmosis as opposed to a specific focus.

"It's not a case of just forgetting what's happening in 2011. We certainly want to improve where we're at with the 2011 car, but the main realisation will be from 2012 onwards.

"We've always had a great team spirit, and nobody lost any faith in the long term picture of what we wanted to do. I think people know this is actually a pretty good team, it's just not reflected on the track up to now.

"If we can bring that, that's the missing piece of the jigsaw."

Rubens Barrichello is hopeful the ban on off-throttle diffusers will help his Williams team close the gap to the front this weekend.

But the Brazilian believes the picture on top will not change much, even if it affects some teams more than others.

"I think the new rules won't change much the top ten," said Barrichello on Thursday at Silverstone.

"They might lose something but it might not change the places very much, but it might help other teams such as Williams to come a bit closer.

"How much I don't know. We have new stuff on car, new front wings and different things that should help ourselves.

"I am hoping for a competitive weekend. We'll see how what the weather is playing. I would love to get in Q3 and finish in top eight. That is the real target for the weekend."

The Williams driver also hailed his team's agreement to use Renault engines from next year, as he reckons it is a good step forward in the outfit's ambitions to return to the top.

"I was thrilled and glad that Williams is working very hard to get back to the top. This is one of the changes," he added.

"I've been at the factory a couple of times to talk to people and the attitude is very good and I did say a couple of months ago that I needed Williams to get its act together and do things. I am very proud of that.

"It is going towards right direction as far as next year is concerned."

Team Lotus will take a competitive step forward in this weekend's British Grand Prix because of the ban on off-throttle blowing of the diffuser, according to Jarno Trulli.

The Italian is certain that the rule change will cost the teams ahead of Lotus some laptime. But as the Norfolk-based team has not been exploiting the design concept to the same extent, the change will not set it back.

"Taking the blown diffuser off can only improve our situation," said Trulli when asked by AUTOSPORT what he expects for this weekend. "We never had the resources and the experience that everyone in front of us had with it.

"We don't have an exact idea because it will be different from car to car. But we think that we can be closer to the level of the teams that we are targeting in front."

"Maybe if we have enough, we will get through to Q2, but it is still a big challenge."

Trulli stopped short of promising that the shift in the competitive order would allow Lotus to fight for a place in Q2.

The team targeted making Q2 regularly at the start of the season, but has only made the cut once, when Heikki Kovalainen made it through at the Spanish Grand Prix after both Nick Heidfeld and Rubens Barrichello hit trouble.

"It might be that we miss it by half a second, or maybe a tenth, or maybe we will have just enough to get through.

"If we have enough, maybe we will get through to Q2. But it's still a big challenge."

Trulli added that he expects to battle the same power steering problems that he has blamed for his struggles this season.

The team will not introduce an upgraded system until the Hungarian Grand Prix at the start of August.

"I hope that I will get a step for Hungary," he said. "I hope that will be the turnaround for me, but for now I have to stick with what I have.

Adrian Sutil believes that Force India will be barely affected by new technical regulations coming into force at the British Grand Prix, and could move forward as a result.

The FIA has banned off-throttle blowing of diffusers from this weekend onwards, meaning that cars should have reduced stability under braking due to less downforce being generated by the rear of the car.

However, Sutil said that the team had never maximised the performance of its Mercedes-powered VJM04 with off-throttle blowing, and therefore had less to lose than others following its banning.

"It will hurt us less," said the German. "It doesn't seem as though we are losing too much, the driveability of the car is very similar.

"With the blown diffuser, we couldn't get out everything we planned and sometimes the numbers in the wind tunnel told us much better than what worked on the circuit, so it didn't translate really to the circuit.

"Now going back to the normal settings I think the balance will be quite good and probably, as I said, the others are going to lose more than ourselves."

Sutil currently lies 12th in the World Championship with 10 points.

Fernando Alonso thinks that any hope of stopping Sebastian Vettel romping away to his second world championship this year will be all but over after the British Grand Prix, unless his Ferrari team or McLaren show they have made a major step forward with their cars.

Although Sebastian Vettel is well clear at the front of the championship table, and currently holds a comfortable 77-point advantage over nearest challengers Jenson Button and Mark Webber, rivals still believe that there remains the possibility to turn the situation around in the second half of the year.

However, Alonso thinks that this weekend's British Grand Prix - where a tweak to the diffuser regulations comes into force – is key to the title fight going forwards in terms of the changes that clarification makes and the updates that various teams have brought.

"I think we need to wait and see if either McLaren or Ferrari has a big improvement in the car and we are able to fight with Red Bull," said Alonso at Silverstone.

"Their car so far in this part of the championship has been too dominant. I think after eight races we should talk about eight wins from Seb with no mistakes – [because there was] the mistake in Canada and in China he was a little bit conservative.

"It is a dominant position that maybe we did not see since 2004, maybe Michael's [schumacher] time.

"It is difficult to compete like this, and difficult to think about beating Vettel without a big improvement in our car or in McLaren's car for Jenson and Lewis.

"So hopefully here in Silverstone we can see a turnaround of this situation in terms of performance, and then we see. There is always the hope, there is always the motivation to win every race but we obviously need a step forward."

Alonso thinks that the best chances of a turnaround in the championship situation actually now depend on Vettel making slip ups – rather than other teams getting quicker.

"It is true that we need to win races, we need to improve our performance and be much more competitive than we are now," he said. "But at the same point we need some mistakes from Sebastian to recover the gap, because without retirements or problems for Vettel it is difficult to recover the gap to Vettel.

"He needs to do some mistake if we want to have some hope, and we saw already now in China and Canada that it may happen these mistakes.

"So we need to concentrate on our races, try to win every weekend we go to, even if we know it is difficult, but we need some help for sure."

Michael Schumacher insists that there is no doubt he will see out his three-year contract at Mercedes GP, despite recent speculation suggesting he could walk away from the deal early if he was unhappy.

Team principal Ross Brawn said at the European GP that it was Schumacher's decision alone on whether he continued racing in 2012 - with the German understood to have a clause in his contract that would allow him to stop.

Speaking ahead of the British GP, however, Schumacher said there was no question of him activating that clause - and he was fully committed to continuing.

"I always had the option to stop at any time I wanted," he explained. "But I aim for an achievement and a fixed time. I have always said it's a three-year programme and that's what it is."

Schumacher reckoned he was still improving since his comeback – and that he did not yet feel he was at the peak of his ability.

"I feel good first of all, and you always improve," he said when asked for his feelings about his comeback. "In all my first 16 years of F1 I always have felt that I constantly developed, maybe in smaller rates than you do initially. And so I do.

"It actually took a while to get back in to the habit of the whole working arrangement and I guess that's a lot more easy for me now, but I still do understand that I am learning how to work with the team and how to get the car to work for me.

"This is a constant development and I am certainly not yet at 100%, although you could probably say you never can be."

And Schumacher insisted he was not too concerned that his return to F1 has not delivered the level of success that he achieved earlier in his career.

"You always judge your performance possibility with the car that you have in hand," he said. "It was like that in the past and so it is now, and you try to maximise this.

"If you achieve that you can be happy about yourself, if not you can be unhappy. You keep working. You know that only through work and steady development you may arrive back to the top as it happened to me in the past.

"There is no magic to arrive up front. It's all about timing, steady progress, staying motivated and working hard."

Mark Webber insists he has no worries about his future in the sport amid speculation that has linked a number of drivers to his Red Bull seat.

The Australian's position at Red Bull has come under increasing scrutiny in the media, with McLaren's Lewis Hamilton in particular being linked to a future drive with the team.

Webber, however, is ignoring such speculation, and showed signs of resurgence in the previous grand prix at Valencia when he was closer to matching his team-mate Sebastian Vettel's pace than in other recent races.

He is confident that momentum will continue this weekend at Silverstone - where he feels the ban on off-throttle exhaust blown diffusers may even aid his cause.

"I have a very good understanding of what's going on, and I'm very relaxed," Webber said.

"There's a lot of talk but tomorrow there will be a new story, that's how it is in F1. I feel as relaxed as I did at the same time last year when I did have a contract, so I'm sitting very well.

"Monaco was a bit of a black sheep, but in Barcelona I was pretty competitive, and then in Canada and also Valencia I was very competitive. When I've had a smooth run and had no technical issues I've been going a lot better. There's no reason I can't keep that going and I will do I'm sure.

"We don't fully understand [the impact of the new regulations] until tomorrow's session. There's going to be subtleties in driver style which could go either way - we know how sensitive the cars are sometimes to driver preference.

"I'm getting pretty quick with what we had, and if we have to change I still think I can do a good job so I'm relaxed either way."

Webber also insisted he has not lost his hunger to beat Vettel, and said he was looking forward to disrupting the current harmony he believes exists in the team as a result of the German's current superiority.

"[The team] harmony is perfect when results are like this," he said. "I'm not tired of [fighting] at all. It's the same for all of us - you want to do well and get the most out of yourself. We've got some more improving to do and then we can do better.

"I'm not the only guy fighting Sebastian though. He's had a great run but we've got a lot of races to go and a lot of good opportunities. What's gone before is past - a lot of points for him but not too bad for me either - but I would love to start winning and I'm not the only one."

Silverstone will also mark the F1 debut of Australian Daniel Ricciardo with HRT, and Webber had some advice for his compatriot.

"I know how unique and special it is to compete in your first grand prix, for any driver. He fully deserves to be here and it's the early apprenticeship.

"Even if he went for glory you wouldn't see that he did, so [my advice is] just to accliamtise to how an F1 weekend goes. There's a lot of fine print that a driver has to get his head round, it's not just about driving a car. I love competing in front of the English fans, and finishing your first grand prix is going to be a nice feeling whatever car you're driving."

Thursday's press conference:

DRIVERS - Rubens BARRICHELLO (Williams), Jenson BUTTON (McLaren), Paul Di RESTA (Force India), Lewis HAMILTON (McLaren), Daniel RICCIARDO (HRT)

PRESS CONFERENCE

Q. Daniel, what a birthday present. July 1st was your birthday and that was pretty much the day you were announced a Formula One driver full-time.

Daniel RICCIARDO: Yeah, it was quite a nice birthday present for me. It was quite a big surprise. I didn't expect to be racing Formula One this year so it's a huge opportunity for me and still a bit of a shock. But I am sure it will all be realised come Sunday.

Q. You must have a bit of a love-hate relationship with Silverstone. The last time I saw you here you ended up on your head, having flipped at the start of the World Series by Renault race, last September I think it was. Yet here you make your grand prix debut.

DR: Yeah, some mixed emotions here but generally I have gone well and it is one of the circuits I enjoy. I had one of my greatest races here back in 2008, with the Formula Renault, so it's been good to me and it is quite close to my second home in England. I am able to sleep in my own bed this weekend, which is nice. Just looking froward to going out there and trying to do a good job.

Q. What is your aim basically. Obviously the HRT isn't exactly known as a front runner. Does that worry you? Is your only real rival Tonio Liuzzi, your team-mate?

DR: It doesn't worry me at all. As I said it is a huge opportunity to get a chance to race in Formula One. It is something I have dreamed of since I was a boy. For the race I think the first aim is to try to finish and just get the miles under my belt and the experience at this level of my career. That's the most important thing. Never done a race this long so physically and mentally to find out where I am, I think that is going to be good. If I can try and be competitive compared to Tonio, he is very experienced, and I am sure I can learn something from him so we will see how I go.

Q. Rubens, you virtually grew up at Silverstone, obviously, with your F3 races years and years ago. What do you think of the latest version of Silverstone. Amazingly enough the weather doesn't seem to have changed, but apart from that I am sure you have seen so many changes.

Rubens BARRICHELLO: That will never change - the weather. It's the same every year we come here. You look on the TV, they had some sun but it seems like it is going to rain exactly when we come here. It is all good and part of the show. I think Silverstone has been fantastic in what they have done. The track is, the layout and the corners for me, it is one of the best. It is the one I enjoy the most. The facilities now seems to be up to Asia standards and it is all good to go.

Q. Now, you are also a former winner here and six times on the podium as well. What are your thoughts about this weekend with Williams?

RB: Well, I think the new rules won't change much the top end. I think the fight between Red Bull, McLaren, Mercedes and Ferrari, they were all pretty sorted so they might lose something but it might not change the places very much. But it might help the other teams such as Williams to come a bit closer. How much I don't know. We also have new stuff on the car such as new front wings and some different things that should help ourselves so I am hoping for a competitive weekend. We will have to see what the weather is going to be playing. But I would love to get into Q3 and to finish in the top eight. I think that is a real target for the weekend.

Q. What is your reaction to the news on Monday that Renault will be powering Williams next year?

RB: I was thrilled. I was glad that Williams is working very hard to get back to the top. This is one of the changes. I have been to the factory a couple of times this last week to talk to new people, talking to everyone, and the attitude is very good. If I did say a couple of months ago that I needed Williams to get their act together and do things, they are, so I am very proud of that and I think it's going to the right direction as far as next year is concerned.

Q. Jenson, this will be your 12th British Grand Prix. Two-time fourth place, your best here, so how badly do you want to win this race?

Jenson BUTTON: Yeah, I haven't even got on the podium here before in an F1 car. That will be my first aim. It is one you would love to win, your home grand prix. We all want to fight for a World Championship and I think we all want to win Monaco and I think we would love to win our home grand prix. It is the one I haven't achieved yet so that is something I will be fighting for and this is a pretty special race for us as Brits. We get a lot of support from the public here. To see so many Union Jacks and St George Crosses around the place and the rocket red caps, so it's a really, really nice atmosphere. Hopefully we can put on a good show for them this weekend.

Q. Do you think with the new regulations there is a chance there?

JB: There is always a chance. Whether it is a big enough one I don't know. I think if you look at the last race you'd say the Red Bull was very strong and we were quite a long way behind them. But we have updates for this race, which hopefully will help us and also we have the difference in the blown diffuser this race and the electronics. That might help us more than the other teams. I don't know, it might not. That's something we just have to see when we get out on the circuit. But I think the important thing is that we have done a lot of preparation work for this race with the new components and also running with the new blown diffuser system. It's about preparation for this race. This is a pretty tough circuit to get out onto with the new package so preparation is key and I think we have prepared very well and hopefully that will show tomorrow when we get out there.

Q. Lots has been written about where Lewis might or might not be going. It is all speculation of course, but what about your own situation?

JB: I'm going, going, gone.

Q. In the future, next year?

JB: I haven't sat down and talked to Martin (Whitmarsh) yet about the future. They have an option on me for next year, I keep reading in the press. It's not the time to be discussing it I don't think. We have got more important things to be concentrating on, fighting for a victory here, so we will leave that on the back-burner for now and look into that later this season. But I am happy where I am. We are all fighters and we all want to achieve and at the moment we have been a little bit behind the Red Bulls but we are fighting on. I think the team are doing a great job of bringing updates and reasonably big updates to most grands prix, and especially this one, the home grand prix, so I think we are all doing a very good job. We will see if it works out for us when we get out on the track.

Q. Paul, hopefully you regard this as your home race. But apart from the odd DTM race, at probably Donington and Brands Hatch, you haven't had too many home races. So what are your feelings as you come into this?

Paul Di RESTA: It's a massive weekend this weekend. Probably the biggest race of my career so far. Proud to be part of (it with) Jenson and Lewis, they are back-to-back World Champions, and to come to Silverstone, on this new generation, this revamped track, I think it is an interesting weekend. But no doubt a lot of hard work. Our preparation has been as normal, like we have to do for 19 grands prix this year, and will continue to go like that. I am sure the British weather will make it not quite so straightforward this weekend but I will just do my utmost to try to go forward.

Q. You did Friday last year but just one other race here on the national Circuit apparently?

PDR: Yeah, I haven't done a huge amount here. Obviously, I went to Europe when I was very young in cars. Only got the opportunity to drive and race here once. The biggest memory I have it was the first place I drove a Formula One car on the National track as part of the BRDC Young Driver of the Year Award. I mean Silverstone has changed a lot since then. These cars do excel themselves here. It is very fast. It isn't easy but we had a reasonable session on the simulator yesterday so hopefully that has given me a bit of an idea and hopefully the running I did last year I will be able to capitalise on that.

Q. Have you been happy with your season so far or have you expected more? What are your thoughts about it?

PDR: I think it was very positive at the beginning. There have been some definite highs and lows but I think, standing from the outside, you can generally be quite pleased with it. The good thing is I seem to be relatively competitive to my team-mate. We are going forward and hopefully I can just build upon that. But at the end of the year this is a difficult step and certainly the more tracks you go to, all the tracks have been new to me. I haven't raced on any of them. This one isn't going to be any different and these guys have a lot of experience and I respect that. I have watched them over the years and hopefully you can just be in the mix to be competitive against them.

Q. Lewis, pole position here in 2007. You won in 2008 as well. Amazing GP2 race. What are your feelings about this circuit?

Lewis HAMILTON: I have had some good races here. I think my first race we did a Kart GP here years and years ago, probably in 1994 or something like that. Then I did Formula Renault here in 2001 or 2002 but I generally have had very, very good races here and it is a very, very special place. Not far away from where I grew up. But it is very special and I think the circuit is already a special place, but now they have revamped it as well it is just even better. It feels great to be here, coming to the new paddock this morning. It is so much different to previously. It felt kind of odd when we got to the roundabout up the road instead of turning left we have gone right and come down here. I think it is going to be great for the fans, (I'm) really, really pleased and proud of the work that has been done on this place so I hope we can translate that into a good result for the fans.

Q. What everybody wants to know is just how much the regulations might have changed things. What do you think? What sort of chance do you have on Sunday?

LH: I think they have made a reasonable difference. When you take away the engine modes we have been using before it will be different for the likes of Ferrari and for the Renault engines particularly I think as they use it slightly different than us. Whether or not they are hampered more than us, who will know. But I think the team have done a great job with trying to understand and get on top of things and to recover elsewhere, through set-up and through other bits, through updates we have coming. So I really, really hope that we are at least as good as them if not better. In terms of driving style and all that, I think we have had a good chance to be on the simulator again to do a good job there.

Q. I suspect you and Jenson have had a very busy 10 days or week leading up to this race. Just give us some indication of what you have been up to?

LH: Yeah, I went straight from Valencia to Portugal, Portugal straight to Switzerland for a couple of hours then straight to the UK. Quite a lot of work in between there and then just been in the UK pretty much the whole time doing appearances. I think I got a day or so at home over the weekend and then been here again so it has been quite a busy period.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q. (Frederic Ferret – L'Equipe) Rubens, you enjoyed years of domination with Michael and Ferrari. Do you think that Vettel and Red Bull are doing the same, and do you fear it?

RB: I think it's different. I think that you have different tyres that you have to manage. We went through a period where the Ferrari car was fantastic and we didn't have to worry about the tyres so I think that placed us in good hands which was good for the show, is good for everything. Even though you have a Red Bull car, you're still going to have to be looking after the tyres. If any car is following Sebastian and he makes a mistake, with the DRS now you are able to overtake so I think the changes are better for the show in that respect. I think Sebastian has been doing a fantastic job to keep on winning but I think these days it's actually tougher and he cannot sleep.

Q. (Adam Scriven – Racing Post) Paul, you've got lots of experience as a racing driver but in Formula One terms, you're obviously halfway through your rookie season. Give us an idea of the learning curve that you're going through. How much do you think that you're learning at each race weekend?

PdiR: Well, you're always learning as a racing driver. I think the biggest thing is confidence in Formula One and building it the right way, probably starting a bit on the safe side at the beginning of the weekend and building your way up, and that's what I've tried to do, to have that approach. I felt that's the most solid way to go forward. In terms of driving, obviously it's a bit different to what I was recently used to, the DTM car, now in an open-wheeled car but it's good fun and all I can say is that I'm well on to put in the hard work, to be in a Formula One car.

Q. (Mediator) You talk there about confidence; on a high speed circuit like this, is it going to be more difficult to find that confidence than perhaps it was on a lower speed circuit?

PdiR: Yeah, probably. This is the first high speed track this year, really, and even on the simulator you do get the sensation of that and having walked the track this morning, the wind that we're going to have from the exit of Copse all the way down to Stowe I'm sure will make it interesting as well. The wind effect is something that I'm not used to, but it's the same for everybody I suppose. It's who can do the best job out there will be the winner.

Q. (Stephen Howard – The Sun) Rubens said that Sebastian Vettel cannot sleep but for either of you two guys there (the McLaren drivers), perhaps he could sleep and still win it.

JB: I think if I was in that position I would be able to sleep, couldn't you? Maybe it's all the partying that he's doing, that's why he can't sleep. Sorry, I don't even know the question. I just made up my own answer.

Q. (Stephen Howard – The Sun) I mean he's so far ahead he could do it in his sleep perhaps.

JB: Yeah. Really? Is that the question? I like it. No, I don't think so. He's still pushing hard. We've seen that, he's on the limit. He's obviously done a very good job in qualifying. It's very impressive that he's been able to put it on pole at every race except one and in the races it's been a little bit more difficult for them. We've challenged them a few times, probably three or four – in four races we have challenged them. Twice we've beaten them and the other two we didn't. It's not a walk in the park for him. He's still having to push hard and it's good to see and I hope it continues that way.

Q. (Dan Knutson – National Speedsport News) Rubens, you've done over 300 of these things. What sort of advice would you give Daniel, not only for the race but for his first race weekend?

RB: Well, I think that first of all you have to see what your car's like and obviously it will be very different to the one you were driving, by the looks of it. So just pace yourself because there's a lot of high speed here. Knowing the circuit a lot, get a good balance, the tyres are going to degrade a lot. Just have fun, forget you're doing Formula One, just do the same as you've done in the other races.

Q. (Dan Knutson – National Speedsport News) And Daniel, you said that this will be the longest race you have ever done. Have you upped your training for this, or do you think you're ready for it?

DR: I've been travelling a lot, now doing both championships so I can only do so much with the training at this stage but I think the race fitness is pretty good because I've done quite a bit of racing this year. So yeah, we will see how we go on Sunday but I feel ready for it. I've got an idea, being the reserve for Red Bull Racing last year and seeing how the boys handle the race weekend – Mark and Seb – and knowing what they do or knowing a little bit what they do outside of race weekends, I'm able to build up a bit of a programme for myself. I've only known a week ago that this was going to come; I can't change the world in a week. I'd been preparing for it for a little while just in case I got the call, which I have. I'm sure I'm going to be alright.

Q. (Livio Oricchio – O Estado de Sao Paulo) To all drivers; the blown diffuser helps the car in the braking area, brings more speed in the high speed bends and in general improves the car's handling. Now you don't have it any more on a high speed track and you don't have the opportunity to test it on the track. Are your worried about the safety here?

RB: I think that the answers can be different from driver to driver because in my car there wasn't such a difference in the high speed, to be honest. The difference was more in the braking area through the low speed so like Lewis said, there's going to be a lot of set-up adjustments with the new parts on the car, you're going to be looking for adjustment. Formula One moves on very very fast. You cannot just say 'yeah, you have lost like half a second' and that's it. You're going to find something better by the end of the weekend, you've probably got to the level - if you've done a really good job – that you didn't even lose anything, so I suspect it's the same for everyone on that part.

JB: I think that the top teams will lose quite a bit, because we've had this for a little while now so you start designing the car around the systems that you have in place. It's going to be a reasonably big hit and you'll feel it everywhere: high, low speed, not so much on power but it's more under braking and high speed corners. I think the biggest problem will be is that braking and exit will be very different in corners to the feeling of the car, could be changing a lot, so that's probably the thing that you need to get used to.

Q. (Livio Oricchio – O Estado de Sao Paulo) Sorry, but the question is about safety.

JB: Safety? No. It's just like us driving in a slower car, with less downforce. There's no safety issues. We feel the circuit, we feel the car. When it's wet we have to drive the car slower because it's easier to go off because there's less grip. There's no safety issues, no.

Q. (Ian Parkes – Press Association) Jenson and Lewis, is there are any concern amongst either of you that we could be entering a period of domination with Seb and Red Bull like we saw with Michael and Ferrari at the start of the last decade?

LH: I think Rubens answered it well. I don't think so. I think it's a different time, rules are changing all the time. They've clearly established that they're a strong team but you have lots of other strong teams and it even looks like people like Renault is getting stronger this year. You've got Mercedes who are there or thereabouts. You've even got Williams, the updates, the changes that they're going to have over the next couple of years. You never know if they're going to be back up there with us, which I think will be great for the sport. I don't think it will be the same situation. I think there was a lot more to it in the Schumacher days. I don't even bother going into that.

JB: I don't know. It's difficult to compare. They're extremely quick and they have the reliability. Last year they were quick but they didn't have the reliability, so obviously they've taken a step forward. They're very strong in many areas so it's tough to beat them but we've beaten them twice, it's not as much as we'd like to beat them but they are beatable and I think Michael won 13 races or something at the start of one year, so we are just going to hope that doesn't happen but I think we are close. We are close to them. It's not like they have a massive, massive advantage like one and a half or two seconds or something.

Q. (Gary Meenaghan – The National Newspaper, Abu Dhabi) We've seen in recent months that Britain has a lot of sportsmen competing at the highest level, like McIlroy, Andy Murray, David Haye. I'm just wondering where Formula One stands in the British sporting hierarchy?

JB: I've never compared it before but I would say that we're doing alright, as a sport in general. In the history of motor racing, it's been a British driver that's been a fighting near the front. I think we're looking pretty good. You are right. We're doing well at golf at the moment which is great, also in cycling: Cavendish won yesterday which was good to see. And there are many other sports that we're doing very well in. I think we should be very happy with how competitive we are at the moment and I think that's good, looking forward to the Olympics. Obviously we won't be involved in that but I think we should all be very proud with what we've achieved over the last few years and hopefully we will go on to achieve a lot more.

PdiR: Again, as Jenson said, it wasn't that long ago that we had back-to-back World Champions so I think the coverage that's being given in the UK at the moment is great from the BBC. They keep saying their figures are rising which is great. I think the racing's helped that but I think it's very difficult to compare too much. I think it depends on the season and it depends on what's gone on, how competitive it is. I'm relatively new to it, so these guys will speak more about that.

LH: I don't compare them. I'm very proud to be a part of British sport. We challenge competitively in pretty much every sport and for some reason, there's always someone that's competing, pushing hard enough. We've all got very much devoted to achieving our goals and to winning. I think that we as the British public and the British sportsmen we generally have a really good pedigree for sport. I think that's quite impressive, and I think the more support that we can get from the fans and the more support we can get from you guys, that makes a huge difference to us all so we have to keep it up.

Q. (Michael Schmidt – Auto, Motor und Sport) We have a new start and finish line and the first two corners are pretty quick. Do you think that it will be more difficult to gain a position at the start or less than before?

LH: I think there will be more opportunity for overtaking, I think that was the plan. I think turn one and two are fairly straightforward, flat out, but before you go through Copse, everyone would then get in single file, flat out through the next sector. Now it's quite quick through turns one and two but you have an opportunity, it's very wide into turn three so it's probably going to be relatively easy to be able to follow through turns one and two and then have an opportunity into turn three, I think. I think it will be great for the racing and for the start.

Q. (Jeff Sweet – The Sun) Could the McLaren boys come clean and tell us how long you took to make up after that slight shunt in Canada? And have there been any team rules ever since, to not really go for it alongside each other, so it doesn't happen again?

JB: Well, I got out of the car after the first race in Canada, before it was red-flagged, went back to the sort of mobile home thing that we have there and Lewis was there so we had a little chat so it was all done.

LH: It was done before the race was even won, before he won the race.

JB: It's good that way.

Q. (Mike Doodson – Honorary) Daniel, some of us find it intriguing that your name is written one way and you pronounce it another way. Have you considered going back to pronouncing it the way that generations of Ricciardos presumably did in the old country? After all, it could be an important factor when Ferrari comes knocking on your door in a few years time.

DR: An interesting question. I guess that growing up in Australia, coming from an English speaking country, to try and get people to say it as the Italians would, to roll the R and give it the expression, it doesn't really come out the same way. I will always be known as saying Riccardo and you sort of cross out the second i. In Italy – as my father is Sicilian – they will say Ricciardo or however an Italian would say it, probably. So yeah, I say Riccardo because it's a bit easier for most people. That's how it was but I guess the Italians are more than welcome to say it how it probably is meant to be said.

Q. (Kate Walker – Girlracer) Daniel, in the run-up to this Grand Prix, Colin [Kolles] has made some comments about the car not really suiting the track. Are you concerned that your F1 debut might not really happen this weekend, due to the 107 per cent rule?

DR: Oh. I haven't thought about that at all. I hope I'm more than capable of qualifying in that percentage. I don't fear it will be a problem. It's my first time in the car and I do expect it will be different to what I've driven before. I don't expect it to be the Red Bull that I drove in Abu Dhabi for the junior tests. Tonio's done a good job this year and he's qualified all the time so if he's able to qualify then I hope I can too. It hasn't even crossed my mind.

[Lineker]

A big storm is brewing over the backtracking on the diffuser regulations... read all about it:

Mark Webber went quickest in a very wet opening practice session for this weekend's British Grand Prix.

The Australian's best of 1m46.603s came late in the session and it was enough to outpace Mercedes' Michael Schumacher by over half a second on a morning that gave no answers as to how the cars have been affected by the ban on off-throttle diffusers.

On the wet track, however, things did not seem to change much, as Webber kept Red Bull ahead of its rivals once more.

Rubens Barrichello posted the third quickest time for Williams, with Sauber's Sergio Perez completing a promising session by finishing as fourth fastest.

Felipe Massa was the quickest of the Ferraris, the Brazilian completing the top five.

Virgin's Jerome d'Ambrosio was the first man to complete a timed lap nearly 20 minutes into the session, with Nico Rosberg next to set a time, going 11 seconds quicker than the Belgian.

Button moved to the top of the times 26 minutes into the session, while Alonso, using Ferrari's new rear wing, spun without consequence during his first timed run.

Webber was next to go quickest, the Australian stopping the clock at 1m50.032s on intermediate tyres. Button regained first place moments later with the first lap in the 1m49s as the action on track intensified, with team-mate Hamilton taking the top spot with 57 minutes left, only for Button to outpace him right away.

As the times continued to improved, it was Vettel who jumped to first with some 50 minutes to go, the world champion lapping in the 1m48s. Despite a trip through the gravel, Schumacher outpaced Vettel thee minutes later to move to the top of the times.

Schumacher stayed in first place for several minutes, before Webber improved by less than a tenth to relegate the German to second as the threat of rain intensified. The Australian did not last long there, though, as Alonso beat his time by 0.024 seconds just a moment before rain hit the track with some 25 minutes to go.

The biggest incident of the day came when Kamui Kobayashi lost control of his car at Turn 18, the Japanese spinning on the wet kerbs with 13 minutes left. His car came close to rolling, but luckily for Kobayashi it did not, and instead hit the barriers hard sideways.

The Sauber driver managed to climb out unassisted, but his car was heavily damaged and his team faces a race against time to get it ready for the afternoon's session.

Track conditions improved slightly in the last ten minutes and Webber made good use of that to jump to the top, becoming the first man to lap in the 1m47s and minutes later in the 1m46s.

FP1


Pos  Driver                Team                   Time               Laps

 1.  Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault       1m46.603s            19

 2.  Michael Schumacher    Mercedes               1m47.263s  + 0.660   20

 3.  Rubens Barrichello    Williams-Cosworth      1m47.347s  + 0.744   23

 4.  Sergio Perez          Sauber-Ferrari         1m47.422s  + 0.819   22

 5.  Felipe Massa          Ferrari                1m47.562s  + 0.959   13

 6.  Nico Rosberg          Mercedes               1m47.758s  + 1.155   23

 7.  Fernando Alonso       Ferrari                1m48.161s  + 1.558   16

 8.  Lewis Hamilton        McLaren-Mercedes       1m48.549s  + 1.946   21

 9.  Nico Hulkenberg       Force India-Mercedes   1m48.598s  + 1.995   19

10.  Jaime Alguersuari     Toro Rosso-Ferrari     1m48.678s  + 2.075   22

11.  Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes   1m48.730s  + 2.127   18

12.  Sebastien Buemi       Toro Rosso-Ferrari     1m48.778s  + 2.175   18

13.  Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault       1m48.794s  + 2.191   21

14.  Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Cosworth      1m48.809s  + 2.206   17

15.  Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes       1m48.841s  + 2.238   23

16.  Nick Heidfeld         Renault                1m48.941s  + 2.338   20

17.  Vitaly Petrov         Renault                1m49.603s  + 3.000   15

18.  Kamui Kobayashi       Sauber-Ferrari         1m50.133s  + 3.530   17

19.  Jarno Trulli          Lotus-Renault          1m50.222s  + 3.619   14

20.  Karun Chandhok        Lotus-Renault          1m51.119s  + 4.516   17

21.  Timo Glock            Virgin-Cosworth        1m52.470s  + 5.867   17

22.  Tonio Liuzzi          HRT-Cosworth           1m53.143s  + 6.540   20

23.  Jerome D-Ambrosio     Virgin-Cosworth        1m53.469s  + 6.866   26

24.  Daniel Ricciardo      HRT-Cosworth           1m54.334s  + 7.731   24


All Timing Unofficial[/code]




Felipe Massa emerged quickest from a late scramble on a drying track in second practice for the British Grand Prix at Silverstone.



With very heavy rain falling on the eve of the session getting underway, the sodden fans had little to watch for the first half of the afternoon, with only four midfield cars venturing out for exploratory installation laps.



It was 51 minutes into the session before Toro Rosso's Jaime Alguersuari became the first man to try a flying lap. He spent a while swapping the top spot with the likes of his team-mate Sebastien Buemi, Mercedes' Michael Schumacher and Force India's Adrian Sutil, before morning pacesetter Mark Webber went back to the front for Red Bull.



But the rate of improvement as the weather finally improved was such that Webber ultimately fell right back to 14th, while Schumacher - who went back ahead with only a few minutes to go - tumbled to 12th. World championship leader Sebastian Vettel sat out the best of the conditions and was only 18th in the other Red Bull.



Massa then produced a 1m49.967s for Ferrari to take the top spot just as the session finished, deposing Mercedes' Nico Rosberg by 0.777 seconds.



Sauber repaired Kamui Kobayashi's car following his massive morning accident and he took third, ahead of McLaren duo Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button, with Sutil sixth.



The changing conditions allowed a few upsets, with Heikki Kovalainen 13th fastest for Lotus, Fernando Alonso back in 15th in the other Ferrari, and new signing Daniel Ricciardo edging ahead of Hispania team-mate Tonio Liuzzi at the foot of the order.





[code]FP2


Pos  Driver               Team                   Time                Laps

 1.  Felipe Massa          Ferrari               1m49.967s             9

 2.  Nico Rosberg          Mercedes              1m50.744s  + 0.777   16

 3.  Kamui Kobayashi       Sauber-Ferrari        1m51.395s  + 1.428   16

 4.  Lewis Hamilton        McLaren-Mercedes      1m51.438s  + 1.471    6

 5.  Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes      1m51.518s  + 1.551    6

 6.  Adrian Sutil          Force India-Mercedes  1m51.738s  + 1.771   18

 7.  Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes  1m51.781s  + 1.814    7

 8.  Rubens Barrichello    Williams-Cosworth     1m51.992s  + 2.025   13

 9.  Sergio Perez          Sauber-Ferrari        1m52.169s  + 2.202   12

10.  Sebastien Buemi       Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m52.189s  + 2.222   21

11.  Vitaly Petrov         Renault               1m52.198s  + 2.231    9

12.  Michael Schumacher    Mercedes              1m52.325s  + 2.358   12

13.  Heikki Kovalainen     Lotus-Renault         1m52.578s  + 2.611   16

14.  Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault      1m52.587s  + 2.620    6

15.  Fernando Alonso       Ferrari               1m52.869s  + 2.902    8

16.  Nick Heidfeld         Renault               1m54.023s  + 4.056    8

17.  Jaime Alguersuari     Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m54.274s  + 4.307   16

18.  Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault      1m54.545s  + 4.578    4

19.  Jerome D-Ambrosio     Virgin-Cosworth       1m54.714s  + 4.747   13

20.  Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Cosworth     1m55.155s  + 5.188    8

21.  Jarno Trulli          Lotus-Renault         1m55.155s  + 5.188   12

22.  Timo Glock            Virgin-Cosworth       1m55.549s  + 5.582   10

23.  Daniel Ricciardo      HRT-Cosworth          1m55.828s  + 5.861   10

24.  Tonio Liuzzi          HRT-Cosworth          1m56.037s  + 6.070    6


All Timing Unofficial

Ross Brawn believes the FIA had no choice but to impose its ban on the off-throttle use of blown diffusers mid-season, because otherwise the sport faced the prospect of controversial protests.

Although the FIA's decision to impose its rules clarification regarding exhaust use from this weekend's race at Silverstone has caused some controversy, Brawn thinks that it would have been much worse for Formula 1 if the governing body had held off.

With the HRT team having publicly declared that it was considering a protest against other teams over the issue if nothing was done by the FIA, Brawn feels that action had to be taken.

"Leaving things as they were, we were going to get protests and we certainly did not want that," explained Brawn ahead of the British Grand Prix.

"Fundamentally I would rather leave things alone, but what I would not want to see is a lot of protest and F1 getting into a mess and into issues and the appeal court.

"We have all been there, and we all know what happened with the diffusers a couple of years ago. This is different because the FIA were completely happy with the legality of diffusers, but now they are saying, 'somebody made a point and we can see it is a valid point so we want to control this'.

"Once you reach this stage you have to go down that route, and you cannot do anything but. The FIA are saying: 'we are not comfortable; some teams are saying we are going to protest, and we have to resolve it'. And I think the time we were given to resolve it was a good compromise, because the teams concerned could have protested it a few races ago, but they agreed to hold off and let everyone find a solution and get to where we are today."

The implementation of the blown diffuser clampdown is not without controversy, with the FIA letting teams have a variable amount of blowing depending on the type of throttle they are using, and what is needed for normal engine usage.

Brawn is hopeful, however, that no engine manufacturer would gain an advantage from being able to use more blowing than a rival.

"I think the FIA is aware of that," explained Brawn. "Even referencing the old engine maps, if they see some things which are contrary to what they want to achieve, so if for some other reason people were using engine maps in 2009 with a lot of throttle opening, then the FIA will still ask for some explanation of why they are doing it.

"But it is not likely people were doing it because it does use more fuel and does create heat in the system, so you would not do it unless there was some benefit."

Fernando Alonso is bullish that his Ferrari team will benefit from the tweaks to the blown diffuser regulations introduced at this weekend's British Grand Prix.

The FIA has told teams that from this weekend's race at Silverstone they will not be allowed to use their blown diffusers when drivers are off the throttle.

This move will affect all teams to some extent, although what impact it has on the competitive order is impossible to predict.

However, Alonso feels that modifications made to his Ferrari should help his team benefit from the changes.

"We'll see who loses the most," explained the Spaniard. "We are all going to lose something. The ban is a surprise because we have been using it since the middle of last year, so it's a surprise it's banned in the middle of 2011. But we have to adapt.

"We are relatively optimistic that it will help us, or that we can make up for the loss of downforce with some changes to the suspension, and make it as stable under braking as before.

"At the same time, this race is one where we know we are going to suffer because of the characteristics of the circuit.

"It's a circuit that in the last two or three years it has been hard for Ferrari because of the fast corners. So we are approaching the grand prix with optimism but also we are realistic, knowing that this circuit will be better for our rivals."

Renault is considering abandoning its forward-facing exhaust concept in the wake of the clampdown on blown diffuser use, AUTOSPORT has learned.

The Enstone-based outfit is unsure about how big an impact the ban on off-throttle use of blown diffusers will have on its car - with the R31 having been built around the forward exhaust concept.

But amid worries the regulation clarification could dramatically hurt its form, Renault has designed and built a more traditional rearward exhaust layout - which it tried out during a recent straight-line test at Duxford.

And team principal Eric Boullier has revealed that the team could trial it during a free practice session soon – and perhaps as early as the next race of the season in Germany - with a view to racing it later this season.

When asked by AUTOSPORT if the team could switch to the rear layout, Boullier said: "Maybe. We have to cover all scenarios on this side as well.

"Our concept of the front exhausts was obviously to maximise the blowing floor so we have to work forward and think differently, because anyway next year it will not be allowed.

"We still have our concept and still have a lot of gain coming in the coming weeks, but we won't spend too much to develop this one if it is forbidden this year."

Boullier said his team would wait and see what impact the blown diffuser regulation tweaks will have on its car at Silverstone before deciding on a plan for the Nurburgring.

"We may think to bring a solution like this [to Germany]," said Boullier. "To be honest it is still early.

"We have built it up and we have tested it at the aero test, and we still need to wait for the damage/loss with this blowing to see if we want to bring it for one free practice session."

Red Bull Racing has been handed a boost in its hopes of minimising the performance loss caused by the ban on the off-throttle use of blown diffusers, after it emerged that the team has won a concession on how it uses its Renault power unit.

Amid ongoing discussions between engine manufacturers and the governing body about how much teams are allowed to continue blowing their exhausts, Red Bull Racing's supplier Renault has been allowed to keep 50 per cent of its exhaust flow when the driver is off throttle because of reliability reasons.

The original intention had been to limit teams to just 10 per cent - but that was then increased marginally to 20 per cent at 18,000rpm after preliminary discussions with teams.

However, following lobbying from Renault, the engine manufacturer argued that it needed even more throttle use for engine reliability related to the exhaust valves.

The new limit counters a concession handed to rival Mercedes-Benz ahead of Silverstone - which has been allowed to keep firing half its cylinders as engine over run in a bid to ease crank case pressure.

The FIA's decision has provided a dramatic twist to the blown diffuser saga, and could have significant implications on the competitive order because it is understood that Red Bull Racing had only been running at 45 per cent throttle flow before the rules clarification was made by the FIA.

In the wake of teams being informed about the concession to Renault during first practice, Red Bull Racing team principal and McLaren boss Martin Whitmarsh clashed in public during Friday's FIA press conference at Silverstone.

Both believe they were being handicapped by the FIA's ruling on their opposition - with Horner adamant Mercedes-Benz was benefiting from the over-run, while Whitmarsh was sure Red Bull Racing would be helped by the 50 per cent allowance.

Horner said: "There was a technical directive which effectively turned it all off. That was obviously with reticence by the manufacturers and it has been very much a manufacture issue.

"Certain teams were then allowed to have fired overrun, to fuel their overrun, of which there are also, obviously, secondary benefits through the exhaust plumes and thrusts that that creates, But that was permitted."

He added: "It would be unfair to allow fire overrun and not allow the same parameters for another engine manufacturer. I think it's a very very difficult job for the FIA to pick their way through this and I think all credit to them, they've looked to try and be as fair, balanced and equitable as they decreed that they would be through the technical directive, to come up with the solutions that they have.

"We're not totally happy with the solution that we have, that's for sure. I'm sure Martin isn't with his and I'm sure there are a lot of conspiracies in the paddock that these are the reasons why Red Bull is performing or McLaren is performing, or some cars aren't performing. That's just circumstantial at the end of the day. The fundamentals are that the engine manufacturers have been treated in a fair and equitable manner."

Whitmarsh responded: "When the goalposts are moving partway through a practice session, then I think it makes it quite difficult. I think that with the benefit of hindsight, it would have been better to make changes at year end which I think Christian would agree.

"I think that to do this and to do it a fairly cloudy and ambiguous and changing way inevitably, in a competitive environment, every team feels that it's been hard done by. At the moment, I think potentially a lot of teams will end up making an argument to cold blow. Renault have been in that domain for some time, other teams haven't and don't have that experience but we're talking about a very substantial performance benefit here..."

He added: "It's messy and I think the intention people believed was that we were going to stop exhaust blowing when the driver didn't have his foot on the throttle. I think that was the simple concept but that concept has been deflected and therefore it hasn't been clear. And the fact that these things were only coming out during the course of today is fairly extraordinary.

"But nonetheless, I'm sure we will remain calm and pick our way through but I think it's probably better to make changes to the regulations between seasons, not in season and also make changes to regulations which are clear and unambiguous.

"I think at the moment, a lot of people are clearly getting emotional about the situation and I can understand why: it's frustrating for the engineers not to know what it is that we're allowed to do, because these changes... by cold blowing you're getting 30, 40 points of extra rear downforce in braking and that's quite an attractive thing so if you can do it, then you're going to try and do it aren't you?"

Renault team principal Eric Boullier said that it would be almost impossible for the FIA to please all the manufacturers and ensure that no single team was given an advantage.

"I think if Charlie tries to please every engine manufacturer it will be very difficult to make a level playing field," he said when asked by AUTOSPORT about the situation.

The matter was discussed at length in the drivers' briefing, with several drivers unhappy about the 50 per cent limit being introduced mid-session.

FIA technical delegate Charlie Whiting is meeting with the engine manufacturers tonight to discuss the situation.

Mercedes GP team principal Ross Brawn said in the build-up to the British Grand Prix that he hoped the FIA allowances would not benefit an individual engine manufacturer, but said there was a chance it could.

"It is possible," he explained. "I think the FIA is aware of that. Even referencing the old engine maps, if they see some things which are contrary to what they want to achieve, so if for some other reason people were using engine maps in 2009 with a lot of throttle opening, then the FIA will still ask for some explanation of why they are doing it.

"But it is not likely people were doing it because it does use more fuel and does create heat in the system, so you would not do it unless there was some benefit."

Formula 1 teams will be informed on Saturday morning about whether the FIA intends to take any further action over the off-throttle blown diffuser issue, after controversy erupted on the eve of the British Grand Prix.

Red Bull Racing team principal Christian Horner and McLaren boss Martin Whitmarsh clashed in public at an official FIA press conference at Silverstone over concessions that have been given to engine manufacturers to ensure their reliability is not hit by the ban on the off-throttle use of blown diffusers that is coming into force this weekend.

Whitmarsh was unhappy that a technical directive issued by the FIA on Friday morning left the way open for the Renault-powered teams - which include Red Bull Racing – to use 50 per cent of throttle blowing while the drivers were braking.

Horner responded that the decision, given to Renault on reliability grounds and relating to exhaust valves, was only fair because the Mercedes-Benz outfits were allowed to use engine over-run under braking to help with crank case pressure.

The situation rumbled on over Friday evening and FIA race director Charlie Whiting met with engine representatives for a lengthy meeting to discuss their concerns and try to find a solution that was fair for everybody – and prevent a situation where other engine makers try and find grounds to justify a similar 50 per cent limit.

AUTOSPORT understands that Whiting will decide overnight if further action needs to be taken, and the teams will be informed before the start of final free practice about the FIA's view on the matter.

Horner and Whitmarsh both expressed frustration at the situation during the FIA press conference when they were asked for their views on the matter.

Horner said: "There was a technical directive which effectively turned it all off. That was obviously with reticence by the manufacturers and it has been very much a manufacture issue.

"Certain teams were then allowed to have fired overrun, to fuel their over-run, of which there are also, obviously, secondary benefits through the exhaust plumes and thrusts that that creates. But that was permitted."

He added: "It would be unfair to allow fire over-run and not allow the same parameters for another engine manufacturer. I think it's a very, very difficult job for the FIA to pick their way through this and I think all credit to them, they've looked to try and be as fair, balanced and equitable as they decreed that they would be through the technical directive, to come up with the solutions that they have.

"We're not totally happy with the solution that we have, that's for sure. I'm sure Martin isn't with his and I'm sure there are a lot of conspiracies in the paddock that these are the reasons why Red Bull is performing or McLaren is performing, or some cars aren't performing. That's just circumstantial at the end of the day. The fundamentals are that the engine manufacturers have been treated in a fair and equitable manner."

Whitmarsh responded: "When the goalposts are moving partway through a practice session, then I think it makes it quite difficult. I think that with the benefit of hindsight, it would have been better to make changes at year end which I think Christian would agree.

"I think that to do this and to do it a fairly cloudy and ambiguous and changing way inevitably, in a competitive environment, every team feels that it's been hard done by.

"At the moment, I think potentially a lot of teams will end up making an argument to cold blow. Renault have been in that domain for some time, other teams haven't and don't have that experience but we're talking about a very substantial performance benefit here..."

He added: "It's messy and I think the intention people believed was that we were going to stop exhaust blowing when the driver didn't have his foot on the throttle. I think that was the simple concept but that concept has been deflected and therefore it hasn't been clear. And the fact that these things were only coming out during the course of today is fairly extraordinary.

"But nonetheless, I'm sure we will remain calm and pick our way through but I think it's probably better to make changes to the regulations between seasons, not in season and also make changes to regulations which are clear and unambiguous.

"I think at the moment, a lot of people are clearly getting emotional about the situation and I can understand why: it's frustrating for the engineers not to know what it is that we're allowed to do, because these changes... by cold blowing you're getting 30, 40 points of extra rear downforce in braking and that's quite an attractive thing so if you can do it, then you're going to try and do it aren't you?"

Elsewhere...

Formula 1 circuits have asked the sport's bosses for reassurance that the switch to V6 turbo engines in 2014 will not be a turn off for fans - amid fears that it could hurt track profits.

Silverstone managing director Richard Phillips says that circuits are concerned that a minority of fans could turn their backs on F1 if the new power units detract from the sport's spectacle - even though senior engineers are adamant the new engines will be just as impressive as the current ones.

When asked by AUTOSPORT about how genuine the circuit worries were, Phillips said: "Our concern is because we have taken on a 17-year deal, which it is not a cheap thing to do. You have a big crowd coming at the moment, but what if they don't like 1600cc engines and 15,000 rpm? It only takes 10,000 - 15,000 people not to come and it makes a huge difference. That is where we make our money; it is the top end of it.

"So we are objecting because of that. We also think that the footprint of the racing is not much of an issue from a carbon footprint point of view. It is probably more the travel and other things that are far greater and they are not really addressing that."

Although talk that circuits would opt to ditch F1 in favour of IndyCar has been viewed with scepticism - especially because IndyCar is also switching to turbo V6s - Phillips says that the main issue is that the tracks should be consulted about issues that could affect their audience.

"If we were consulted and re-assured that these things will not be an issue, and we felt consulted, then I don't think we would have such an issue," he explained. "But to have it forced upon you? We live with the commercial ramifications of it, they don't. We are not disagreeing; We are all up for greener motorsport and doing what we can...

"I have no problem with the green agenda. We are so close to being a fence sitter on this, but we are just worried about the crowd. If that did go wrong, we know it is right at the minute, but to say, 'yes that is absolutely fine' and then it turned out not to be: that would be very serious as a promoter."

Michael Schumacher says his hopes of a podium finish in the British Grand Prix will depend on the wet weather staying around for the whole of the weekend.

The German's Mercedes GP team has struggled to find the pace needed to challenge right at the front of the field, and the outfit admits it needs to make some solid progress with its car before it will be in a position to fight for wins.

However, on the back of a strong performance from Schumacher in the rain-hit Canadian GP, hopes are high that the outfit could punch above its weight if the poor weather that has blighted the build-up to the Silverstone event stays put.

"I think in the rain we can physically talk about a podium, whereas in the dry although we might have an improvement in the car - a podium I guess would be out of reach," explained Schumacher.

"Having a home race which most of the teams do have here in a way, having our guys working very hard, I would obviously like to give them some pleasure and some fun and a good moment.

"We have a Sunday evening barbecue that we all meet together so it would be great to come home to the base with something in my hands."

Schumacher also said he was unsure about the impact that the blown diffuser regulation tweaks for this weekend's British Grand Prix will have on his team.

"I don't think it will make a huge difference no. It will be different in details but probably invisible for most of us."

Sebastian Vettel has rubbished talk that his domination of this year's Formula 1 championship could prove to be a turn-off for fans of the sport.

Although Vettel has won six of the eight races held so far this year, and holds a 77-point lead in the title chase over Jenson Button and Mark Webber, he insists that his form is not making grand prix racing boring.

"I think we had great races so far," said Vettel, who is favourite for victory in this weekend's British Grand Prix. "Obviously I cannot see the races live, but from what I saw afterwards, if you compare to a couple of years back, I think the races have been great.

"There has been a lot of action and tension until the end, so I think the races are not decided by lap one or after the first corner, especially with the tyre strategy we run these days. It has never really been clear until the end, and it depends on the race.

"Of course you will have some races that are more exciting than others, but I guess that is normal. If you look in other sports, sometimes you have the best two clubs in the world play each other in football and then they draw, no goals, and people switch off the television or go out of the stadium and say that is boring. Next time they come and it was the best game they ever saw!

"It is hard to improve the show every single time. I think they have been thinking a lot about how to help us overtake, or make the races more interesting than they were in the past and it works quite well.

"Of course I think it is human to ask for more and more and more, but I think it also means that you make sure you don't change too much too quickly."

Vettel has also revealed that he does not care - or even know – how big his advantage is at the head of the points table.

"To be honest I don't really think about the gap – and generally I don't want you to tell me now the answer," he said.

"I don't even know the gap to I think Jenson who is second behind me. There is no importance in leading the championship now. The most important time is after the last race, and I think we learned that last year.

"Obviously we are in a bit of a different position right now compared to last year but still a very, very long way to go and a lot of points to get. I think with the points system we run today it might be tempting to feel too safe, so really I try to go race by race and step by step."

Lewis Hamilton reckons he was still able to get some useful information about McLaren's latest upgrades - including a new rear wing - despite the rain in Silverstone practice.

Though most drivers were frustrated with the total lack of dry running on day one of the weekend of the exhaust rules clampdown, Hamilton felt he had managed to learn at least a little about the new parts.

"Despite the lack of running, today was actually quite encouraging; we tested a couple of things and I managed to pick up quite a decent feeling for the car," he said.

"It's going to be interesting tomorrow if it's dry, because I think our car is looking quite good. The new rear wing also felt quite positive, but we've still got to decide whether we carry it over into tomorrow and the race itself."

But his team-mate Jenson Button was less confident about the day's value.

"We don't really know if our new rear wing is an improvement over the older version," Button said. "It has a different downforce level, but I'm still not sure what we're going to run for the rest of the weekend."

Hamilton was summoned to the stewards after the first session, along with Red Bull's Mark Webber, to discuss the use of DRS in the wet but when on slicks in practice - which Hamilton had been doing during aero tests. No action was taken, and Hamilton said the meeting was more about clarifying procedures.

"The reason I went to the stewards was to discuss the correct usage of DRS in wet conditions: the rules don't clearly state whether you can use DRS on slicks in wet conditions, which is what we did this morning," he explained.

"The stewards just wanted to understand so that they could tighten the wording of the regulations for the next race. I also suggested a couple of tweaks to make the regulations clearer and safer, so it was quite a useful visit."

Friday's press conference:

SENIOR TEAM PERSONNEL - John BOOTH (Virgin), Tony FERNANDES (Team Lotus), Christian HORNER (Red Bull), Martin Whitmarsh (McLaren), Frank WILLIAMS (Williams)

PRESS CONFERENCE

Q. Tony, a big weekend in that you are showing the colours of General Electric, which is a major sponsor on the car, and also Caterham as well. Tell us what sort of effect that is going to have on the team having that support.

Tony Fernandes: Well, it is always useful to have a little bit of money. General Electric has been more than just on the sponsorship side obviously. They will do a lot on the technology side, so it has been a welcome addition to the team. Also, with Caterham, one of the principal reasons GE got involved was because of the car side and the production side in terms of electric cars and some of the things we are doing on the Caterham cars. It has been a fantastic symbiotic relationship we have put together. A big day for us.

Q. Where do you believe this will this lead in future, in terms of looking towards next year?

TF: What do you mean?

Q. Well can this bring you into, certainly, the midfield?

TF: Well, this year was always about trying to stay 10th and become a column one team. We are inching away slowly. I think by now we have all the facilities that we require. It's the first time that we have got a full CFD cluster. We have got now a fantastic facility with Williams, our second wind tunnel. So, by September, we will really be able to utilise much more wind tunnel time than we have ever had. We are in a position now to really start developing next year's car from as much of a level playing field with other teams than we have ever had. We will have to see, but it is our best shot. We always said two years, try and be 10th and then build from that.

Q. And of course you are both going to be running the same engine in the future, with Williams also having the Renault engine.

TF: Yep, the three of us here. Could be four if Martin's changing.

Q. The Williams tie-up. Is that a year or so? How long is it for or is it quite a long-term arrangement?

TF: It is for two years but we hope to use it for a long time. I learnt a lot from Frank and hopefully we can continue that relationship for a long, long time.

Q. John, similarly, you have recently announced a tie-up with McLaren. Just give us the details of that?

John BOOTH: Yes, obviously very excited to have a technical partnership with McLaren. It is a wonderful opportunity to tap into years and years of experience and knowledge and give us a real leg up as we look to develop our 2012 car.

Q. How many people can you envisage actually working from McLaren, working with your team?

JB: I don't think that is very clear at the moment. The deal was only finalised seven days ago. Although it is in operation as of now, I think it is an ongoing process working towards next year's car.

Q. And you have also bought the Formula One business of WRT. What was the thinking behind that?

JB: Well, Marussia became a stakeholder in Virgin Racing six months ago. They have led an overview of the team over those six months and we needed to take decisive steps to move forward. It was evident from the start of this year we weren't moving forward as quickly as we wanted to. In fact, arguably not at all performance wise, so we had to take steps to ensure the future of the team and put us on a positive footing. That's the result. We need to take control of our own destiny and we now have our own design team working on the car for next year.

Q. I have seen the classified adds in Autosport this week. It is a double page of recruitment almost, but how quickly can you put it together?

JB: The base of the team is together. We are carrying people forward with us from our existing programme. We have some fantastic people that have been with us from day one and we are carrying the majority of those forward with us and we are just adding as we go along. The process is underway for next year. Design has started, it's a good way down the line. It is just a matter of adding and building to that design team now.

Q. Christian, today very mixed weather conditions. How much did you learn, particularly about the diffuser effect or lack of off-throttle diffuser effect?

Christian HORNER: In reality very little with the way the weather has been. It's been a typically English summer's day where we seem to have three seasons in one day. We have run on the inters. We nearly got to the slicks, didn't quite and then it seems that every other category has had a run on the dry tyres apart from Formula One. But we have learnt a bit about the pit-lane, tried out the new garage. Turned up and thought we were in John's garage, not ours. It has been a restrictive day in terms of what we managed to learn on track.

Q. Are you happy being that end of the pit-lane?

CH: I was quite surprised, as I thought we were going to be up this end of the pit-lane. There is some nice grass up here and so on, but all the garages are the same size at the end of the day. But we are down the other end, which probably isn't great for the spectators as they are not going to see many Red Bull or McLaren pit-stops this weekend, but there you go.

Q. But you could be in the position that you are in the pits and a column of cars come past you as happened in the GT race and there is nothing you can do?

CH: I don't know about that. We will have to see. It's a short pit-lane here, which adds another element to the race. Obviously the entry is a bit tight, so that is going to be interesting for the drivers. It's a very fast run-in to the pit-lane, and obviously if it is wet on the way out we have seen a few cars down at our end of the pit-lane having a few moments on the way out. But I am sure it will be fine. But you have to say, other than being the wrong end of the pit-lane it is a great facility.

Q. Fernando Alonso has been quoted as saying he is going to wait for Sebastian Vettel to make mistakes, which will give him a chance in the championship.

CH: I think at the end of the day we are focused on our own performance. Sebastian has had an unbelievable first half of the year. In reality, I think he is 14 points off the maximum score, so he has not made too many mistakes so far. He has driven impeccably well and deserves to be in that position.

Q. So it could be a long wait?

CH: You know it's a long season. We are not quite at the half-way stage. Eleven races to go. As we all know, with 25 points for a win now, leads can quickly diminish but it's obviously a very useful lead. We hope we can be competitive in the upcoming races.

Q. Martin, to go back to that pit-lane choice. How does that pan out? Who decides which end you are going to be?

Martin WHITMARSH: I am not sure who decides that. I think it is a shame, as Christian mentioned, that we are slightly subterranean where we are. I don't think it materially really affects us but clearly those in the grandstand cannot see pit-stops, which is a bit of a shame. But I have got to say that we can all turn up with opinions, but it is an incredible facility and I am sure a lot of people have put a massive amount of effort to be ready here this weekend, so for us to turn up and be critical I think would be the wrong thing to do. We have got to congratulate the BRDC and Silverstone for a fantastic set of facilities.

Q. Just going back also to the diffuser effect. How much did you learn today?

MW: Well we learnt half-way through the session that Christian hadn't lost as much as we expected as obviously the rules are slightly fluid and appear to change by the hour at the moment, so we are still learning is the answer.

Q. Is that what the conversation with Stefano (Domenicali) was about?

MW: Yeah, I think, again, it is not a criticism of Red Bull. They have got to try to get the best they can out of the situation. I think we were all a little bit surprised when it appeared from whatever we'd been told that the regulations changed half-way through P1 and I am sure that put many teams this weekend a little bit on the back foot, so we are trying to cope with that at the moment.

Q. Can you explain in what way they have changed?

MW: Well, I think the expectation is that when you are off the throttle the engine throttles would be closed but there has been a negotiation and as I understand Renault's throttles are 50 per cent open under braking and I think that is probably not what most of us expected coming into this event. That's been a little bit of a revelation that we gathered during the course of the sessions today and we are trying to understand what we have to do.

Q. Like your own lobbying?

MW: Well, like our own lobbying, I am just trying to understand. Again in fairness to Red Bull, their view is as I understand, but Christian can answer better than I can that this is a reliability issue and they need to blow air through their engines for reliability purposes. I am not familiar with that particular precedent, presumable Charlie (Whiting) is.

Q. Christian, can we just get an answer on this?

CH: I mean Martin's interpretation is interesting. My understanding is that Mercedes are firing on over-run. There has been a series of technical directives that have happened since Valencia and the latest technical directive is quite clear in that engines that have been run in previous configurations the FIA would take into account on an equitable basis. Mercedes argued that they're over-running that they currently do was permitted, which was granted I believe on certain handling characteristics that if offered on a historical basis, and Renault is no different to that. Renault is in a situation as an engine supplier, not just to Red Bull but to two other teams as well, where again precedents have been set in 2009 and 2010. That data has been openly available to the FIA and the primary purpose of opening the throttle and, for want of a better word, cold-blowing as it has become known has been because of two purposes. The primary purpose being the blip on the down-shift and the second being a reliability issue. I think there was an expectation that coming here obviously a lot of focus has been placed on Red Bull. Do Red Bull have a silver bullet ion their car? We don't but at the same time we expect the FIA to regulate in a fair and proper manner and that's exactly what they have done in this case. They are the only ones with all the facts. They are the only ones with the data. They have looked at it. They have listened to Mercedes case and allowed Mercedes certain parameters. They have looked at Renault's case and they have allowed Renault certain parameters based on an historical content, if you like, on what is a very, very complex subject that perhaps would have been better dealt with at the end of the season when the exhausts move to a completely different location which will remove an awful lot of the emotion that seems to surround this topic. I think the FIA have responded in a right and correct and equitable manner as all the engines aren't the same. They operate in different ways. They have different control codes. They are the only ones that are privy to all that information.

Q. Frank, I am sure you are very excited with the tie-up with Renault and the return of Renault to Williams for next year.

Frank WILLIAMS: More concerned in a way than excited, as I think they might be disappointed they are not going to get back what they last knew 10 years ago. We are not quite as top a team as we were then but having that said it's a wonderful opportunity for us to regain our momentum.

Q. Is that what it needed? Did it need the presence of an established engine builder, for example, if you wanted to put it that way, you have had a lot of data over the last many years?

FW: Well, it is different to a company like Cosworth, who sell engines. That's their job. They are very good engines by the way. With ours we have never had a failure. But when you are allied with a manufacturer they have a certain number of facilities available to a team such as ours that we can't afford for ourselves. Some of those little facilities make a big difference. A tenth here and a tenth there and that's what we hope will happen.

Q. In fact, you are allied with a lot of manufacturers as there is Porsche as well, Jaguar and also Team Lotus on the racing side. Is that just part of Williams Grand Prix Engineering?

FW: That's just commercial matters in other parts of the company.

Q. And that contributes to the overall budget to keep Williams Grand Prix Engineering?

FW: Exactly that, yes.

Q. Is that an exciting and hugely beneficial thing for WIlliams?

FW: It is a lot of hard work for a small gain but we need the gain and any Team Principal would tell you he'd give anything to find a couple of tenths of a second between now and the end of lunchtime.

Q. And thoughts on the drivers for next year? Rubens (Barrichello) says he wants to stay with the team for next year.

FW: Well, I can't say anything about our drivers until we have made up our own minds. Rubens is very highly regarded and is truly a treasure trove of information and experience and that's something that will not be thrown away lightly.

Q. Has he done all you expected of him this season?

FW: Yes, I think he has. I think if we had given him a better car he would have been very close to the front, if not at the front. He is a superb driver.

PRESS CONFERENCE

Q. (Mike Doodson - Honorary) This question is for Christian and Martin as you have different engine suppliers. There are some mischievous scare stories in circulation about the noise the new engines will or will not make in 2014. What do you hear from your engine suppliers about this? Are the engines likely to be so anemic as we hear that the fans will be repelled?

CH: Martin.

MW: No, I don't think they will. I think clearly there has been a lot of discussion about the future of engines and I think it is healthy now for Formula One to point forward to 2014 having all parties agreed to the new regulations. I think there was some care, clearly, the increase the number of cylinders, to increase the RPM, to stipulate a single turbo and all of those measures were about enhancing the sound. Everyone is aware and we have made sure that the engineers that are developing these regulations are aware that the very visceral engine notes are very important to Formula One. They are important to us. We all still love the sound of Formula One engines. They still send tingles down most of our spines. I think we will continue to work hard with the engineers and manufacturers to make sure that we have got great sounding engines in 2014.

CH: I agree with everything that Martin said. I think Formula One actually ended up making the right decision. The V6 is a far better engine to install into a Formula One car. It should sound good. I think there was some concern about the straightforward engine but I think all the engine manufactures have got together and agreed on this with the Commercial Rights Holder and then passed it through the various channels to get it approved. I think it is the right move and hopefully they will sound great.

Q. (Mc Greevey - CSMA Magazine) If I can direct this question at Sir Frank and Christian. What are the major challenges facing F1 in the future?

FW: The demise, which will certainly take place, of Mr (Bernie) Ecclestone, that's my opinion.

CH: I think that will be a huge challenge but hopefully that will be in another 80 years at the rate Bernie is currently going. I think Formula One is in good health at the moment. I think the racing has been fantastic this year. I think the best advertisement has been the racing itself, despite the fact that we have had a driver that has been dominant every single grand prix so far this year, has been pretty exciting. I think the regulation changes that have been introduced this season have proved successful but inevitably there will be challenges ahead but I think it is a bright future at the moment. I don't think there is anything that any of us should be fearful of. (Inaudible follow-up)

CH: Whenever you change technology it costs money, so I think stability is crucial and stability of technical regulations is crucial. One of our biggest cost drivers are technical regulations so moving forward, working with the various stakeholders in Formula One, we need to ensure that we continue to keep costs under control.

Q. (Marc Surer - Sky TV) I have a question for Martin: you tried the new wing on Lewis's car this morning and on both cars this afternoon. Did you get the correct data in the conditions today to decide which one you're going to use?

MW: Inevitably in these conditions the data gets a little bit compromised. You're not going as quickly as you'd like. Various pressure tappings that you put on the wings and around the wing don't function if it's too wet but we got reasonable data and the engineers are going through that. I think we've got enough information; whether it's a quick enough wing, that's another story but I think it's doing what we thought it would.

Q. (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Question for Martin as president of FOTA; today we lost a lot of action on the track because there are just eight sets of wet tyres. Are you discussing with the FIA to change the rules, to have more sets of wet tyres?

MW: In fact this weekend we had already spoken to Pirelli and the FIA about our concerns about such a weekend. We've got an extra set of intermediate tyres here this weekend that have to be given back. Had that rule change and the tyres not been available, then I think we would all agree that there would be very little running. So we've made one step better. I think the engineers and the drivers would always like as many tyres as possible and we'll keep pressing to have more tyres available but it has in fact improved this weekend, otherwise I think we would have had a very quiet couple of sessions.

Q. (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Christian, we heard some criticism of the pit lane exit from your drivers, could you confirm that? What is the problem exactly?

CH: For sure, if it's conditions like today, if the speed limit goes up to 100km/h I think it could be a tricky down there. Yeah, it's part of the track, at the end of the day it's the same for all teams and all drivers but I think they probably need to have a look at whether we ¬– because the pit lane tapers as well – whether we remain with 100km/h or whether it would actually be better to look at a 60km/h speed limit.

Q. (Ya'acov Zalel – Hege) In the past there was a strong link between technology of racing cars and road cars. In today's cars, there is very little influence or technology from Formula One into road cars. Do you think it's a problem, or the current situation is OK?

MW: We've just been talking about the new engine regulations. I think that if you look into the automotive field at the moment - increasingly downsized engines, turbocharged engines, hybrid, kinetic energy recovery - those are all very relevant areas and that's one of the drivers behind the rule changes that we're now implementing. I think that it's important that there is some transfer, some linkage, some relevance to what we're doing. Formula One is increasingly about efficiency, fuel efficiency, use of resources and I think that – perhaps belatedly – we're putting quite a lot of effort there now. I think we ought to be hoping, in the coming years, that we will become more attractive to the automotive companies and more come in. I think the automotive industry has gone through an unprecedented recession, it's been tough. It's been tough in Formula One. We've survived. As Christian said, we've had some great races and we've been trying to improve our show, improve our governance, work together more effectively and I think that some of the rule changes that are being implemented now increase the relevance to the automotive sector. There was a problem in that not too many road cars were revving at 18/19,000rpm, unfortunately, and that's why we've had to come down a little, but it's a balance because at the end of the day we're a show, we're a sport, we're a spectacle, we're a technical contest. There's a degree of purity that's necessary in Formula One that those of us who have been engineers in the sport have enjoyed and indulged ourselves in for many years but we've got to have that balance. We can have our fun but it's actually got to be seen as relevant fun.

FW: I think Martin has explained the real situation. I think manufacturers do have a place but Formula One will carry on without them. Their value to us, of course, is the supply of engines; they supply the engines for what they can learn from the use of those engines under very high stress conditions. I think our particular formula works quite well and the chain of events that one party depends on the other but whether manufacturers are dominant within the sport or not... teams like us will always fight them anyway so whatever is the status quo, we're happy to go along with it.

CH: I think Formula One foremost and utmost needs to produce good races, needs to produce a good show. It needs to be a technological challenge and it's finding that balance that people turn on the TV or come to the races because they want to see man and machine at the limit, wheel-to-wheel racing which is something that we've really embraced for the last couple of years. As far as the technology is concerned, I think it is interesting, there are some relevant areas to the automotive sector. In our own case, we've obviously started a partnership with Nissan Infiniti, looking at certain hybrid technologies as the technical regulations become clearer for 2014. Obviously for Renault there is relevance to their road car sector but I think beyond that has to be the quality of the racing. I think Formula One, to a degree, is also a form of escapism, that people are coming here to hear loud cars, fast cars and, as I say, the drivers and machinery on the ragged edge, on the limit and that's what makes Formula One the spectacle that it's been over the last fifty years.

Q. (Andy Benson – BBC Sport) Martin and Christian, the original ruling on the off-throttle blown diffusers was 10 per cent for everybody. Now Renault are being allowed 50 per cent throttle. Mercedes, I assume, aren't but they are being allowed some fuelling on the overrun so how can we be sure we're watching a level playing field, and is this the end of the matter this weekend?

CH: I think, as you clearly say, first of all there was a technical directive which effectively turned it all off. That was obviously with reticence by the manufacturers and it has been very much a manufacture issue. Certain teams were then allowed to have fired overrun, to fuel their overrun, of which there are also, obviously, secondary benefits through the exhaust plumes and thrusts that that creates but that was permitted. Obviously Renault presented their position to the FIA, and let's not forget that this is an extraordinarily complex matter, to demonstrate that precedent is there that, for purposes of throttle blip and reliability, that cold air blowing open throttle was a necessary part of the operation of their engine, otherwise it would cause serious issues. It would be unfair to allow fire overrun and not allow the same parameters for another engine manufacturer. I think it's a very, very difficult job for the FIA to pick their way through this and I think all credit to them, they've looked to try and be as fair, balanced and equitable as they decreed that they would be through the technical directive, to come up with the solutions that they have. We're not totally happy with the solution that we have, that's for sure. I'm sure Martin isn't with his and I'm sure there are a lot of conspiracies in the paddock that these are the reasons why Red Bull is performing or McLaren is performing, or some cars aren't performing. That's just circumstantial at the end of the day. The fundamentals are that the engine manufacturers have been treated in a fair and equitable manner.

MW: I'm sure people set out to do that. I think there have been about six technical directives on the subject so far and it's moved around and when the goalposts are moving partway through a practice session, then I think it makes it quite difficult. I think that with the benefit of hindsight, it would have been better to make changes at year end, which I think Christian would agree. I think that to do this and to do it in a fairly cloudy and ambiguous and changing way inevitably, in a competitive environment, every team feels that it's been hard done by. At the moment, I think potentially a lot of teams will end up making the argument to cold blow. Renault have been in that domain for some time, other teams haven't and don't have that experience but we're talking about a very substantial performance benefit here...

CH: Why is it any more of a performance benefit than fired overrun? At the end of the day, Renault is allowed to fired overrun for reliability purposes. If you can operate your engine in the same way as the Renault, then you are welcome to do it. The secondary effect… I think it is wrong to suggest that there is a benefit beyond that.

MW: No, but clearly if you've got, under braking, your throttles are open 50 per cent then it's a reasonable benefit. There's a lot of gas going through and I imagine that all engines will end up doing that, which I think isn't what was envisaged when it was said we're going to stop engine blowing.

CH: Where is the difference between firing on overrun and creating… so Mercedes engines aren't firing on overrun?

MW: They've been constrained. As you know…

CH: As have Renault.

MW: …so I think, providing the constraints are the same for everyone, but I think that it is clearly, the fact that we are having this discussion, it's messy and I think the intention people believed was that we were going to stop exhaust blowing when the driver didn't have his foot on the throttle. I think that was the simple concept but that concept has been deflected and therefore it hasn't been clear and the fact that these things were only coming out during the course of today is fairly extraordinary. But nonetheless, I'm sure we will remain calm and pick our way through, but I think it's probably better to make changes to the regulations between seasons, not in-season and also make changes to regulations that are clear and unambiguous. I think, at the moment, a lot of people are clearly getting emotional about the situation and I can understand why: it's frustrating for the engineers not to know what it is that we're allowed to do, because these changes… by cold blowing you're getting 30, 40 points of extra rear downforce in braking and that's quite an attractive thing, so if you can do it, then you're going to try to do it, aren't you?

CH: But you also get that from… Let's not make any mistake here, that firing on overrun, the thrust that that generates through the exhaust creates a bigger effect, so let's just be absolutely clear on that.

MW: And that's why it's been largely contained, and a lot of those strategies, as you know, are not permissible now. At least, it wasn't when I came in here. Maybe it's emerged as I've been sat here that maybe we can do it. Maybe you know more about it than I do, Christian.

CH: I don't know. I read the technical directive that said four-cylinder fired overrun was permissible for certain competitors and that, I think, includes your engine. As far as we understood, before Renault were allowed their parameters, obviously there was a significant advantage going to any Mercedes-powered team. As you can see, it's a massively complex subject. I think the one thing that Martin and I will agree on is that it should have been addressed at the end of the year, but unfortunately, here we are.

TF: I've been focusing on these two in front of me. Could I just say something on that, as someone who is very new to the sport, in that I think it's a little bit of a shambles that we're having these kind of discussions, I think you don't have that in many other sports. The rules should be very clear, everyone should understand them and they should be pretty black and white. It costs the sport a lot of money. I think that one of the dangers of the sport is changing the interpretations, it's really got to be black and white and I think it can be. If you look at GP2, it's very clear. I run a GP2 team, we don't have these kind of situations. Of course Formula One is technologically advanced and you need all that sort of thing but I think the regulators of the sport need to make things clear so we don't have this 10 per cent blowing, 50 per cent blowing, hot, cold, in between etc, and teams and engineers have clarity. Even over the last few months we've heard of all the controversy in football but the rules in football are clear, it's black and white, it's easy for the spectators to understand and I think that's a really big challenge for the sport because a man in the stand – I don't understand anything that these two have just said, God knows about all the spectators over there, so that's just something I wanted to add, as someone relatively new to the sport. I think it needs to be simpler, and I don't think it makes a huge amount of difference to the people who are watching it.

Q. (Heikki Kulta - Turun Sanomat) Tony, have you been thinking of who will drive your cars next year and if you have, when are we able to hear of your decision?

TF: No, we haven't, it's still very early days. It depends whether we have hot, cold, how our drivers react to it, but I echo what Frank said, it's early days for us to decide where the drivers are next year.

Q. (Nick Westby – Yorkshire Post) Martin, the link-up to Virgin Racing, what benefits does that bring to McLaren?

MW: (Laughter) I think you're aware that McLaren is a group of companies now and we have an electronics business which, I'm glad to say, all of the teams in Formula One are customers, as are all the teams in IRL, as now are all the teams in NASCAR. We have a company called McLaren Applied Technologies which is working with some teams to help them and develop them, and I think it's early days. As John said, they've now acquired some assets and some people and our business McLaren Applied Technology will try and accelerate them up a learning curve to make sure that they've got a competitive car next year. Exactly how we do that is something that's got to be resolved, it's fairly fluid as we look at what resources, what capability, what knowledge that they have and obviously we've got a range of experience and facilities within our group that we hope will bring benefit to Virgin.

Q. (Andrew Frankl – Forza) Frank, do you miss Max Mosley, especially at times like this?

FW: Sorry, my hearing is damaged after 30 or 40 years. Life goes on. Max – I happened to see him yesterday, actually, he came by at the office, clever as ever, sharp as ever, a little more genial at last. Retirement, in a way, is doing him some good. I think he was an outstanding administrator and leader of the FIA – I didn't say Formula One, I said the FIA.

Q. (Niki Takeda – Formula PA) Tony, following on what you have said, you mentioned that the rules have to be black and white so how do you propose in your opinion to remove all the different shades of grey in this sport?

TF: I'm the last person (to ask) because I don't understand half of them, but I think there are enough smart people in this business to make the sport easier to understand the rules and I have proposed it at the last FOTA meeting and I think there are some suggestions being put forward at the TRWG in terms of the terms of reference. I'm coming in as someone who is an outsider and saying how I look at it and making some suggestions. I think there are lots of smart people in there who can make it an easier and more black and white sport and I think that's what I put forward to FOTA last week because I think it is… This blown diffuser, I think it should be at the end of the season. I've always said that. If you're going to make a rule change like that, where teams have invested, it should be at the end of the season and now you're getting things being changed in practice sessions. I think this kind of greyness needs to be taken out. It has, in many other motor sports, where it is black and white, and I think it would be good for Formula One. I don't know how to do it but there are enough people in there who do know and I think there should be less energy spent on so much of the rules and the engineering ways of getting around the rules and they should just be black and white, so you know this is what you can do as opposed to… we spend so much time trying to find ways to circumvent the rules. It should be very clear, and I think it can be done, because it is done in 99 per cent of other sports.

JB: The other point to make there is that I think it's much better to address these problems in private, so that we don't add too much confusion for the spectators. A bit of in-house housekeeping before it goes public would be helpful, I think.

Q. (Byron Young – The Daily Mirror) Putting aside the technological gobbledy-gook that most of us didn't understand just now, am I right in thinking that what you're saying basically Martin, is that you believe that Renault-powered cars have a technical advantage – Red Bull have a technical advantage – and Christian is saying No, they don't?

MW: I don't know whether they've got a technical advantage or not. All I'm saying is that we've evolved into quite a complex set of guidelines as to what's permissible. We've done everything against what Tony's suggested i.e. what was not exactly black and white but what was reasonably clear and what was being exploited has become a whole heck of a lot greyer and subject to negotiation which probably wasn't appropriate and I think that again, everyone here agrees, having clear rules that aren't unambiguous and are changed after good consent and between seasons is the right thing to do.

CH: I agree with Martin. I think that at the end of the day, we don't want to be disadvantaged. We think it's unfair to have been excessively penalised through a technical directive that was released just after Valencia, that has been addressed in an equitable manner and I think that inevitably McLaren or Mercedes will think that they're losing out to Renault and Red Bull. Red Bull feels exactly the same, that the way that they operate their engine offers an advantage. It's something that we're just not going to agree on but I think that that's where the role of the regulator is, to balance this and on what is a very complex subject, they've done their best to do it. I think that as Charlie will probably admit, it would have been best to deal with this at the end of the year, because it is tantamount to a rule change and when you enter the championship at the beginning of the year and you design your car around it – and let's not forget that there's other teams that have significantly designed their cars around this set of regulations – for them to suddenly change halfway through the year is cost, it's time, it's effort, it's money and it's confusing. It's confusing to you, it's confusing to the fans and it's confusing to Formula One. So that's where we are. I think hopefully we can now draw a line under it and move on. It's probably not the last you're going to hear about blown exhausts or whatever else is blown these days but hopefully we can now move on.

[Matt]

:lmao: Hamilton 10th.

Nice to see Paul Di Resta in 6th, would like to see him push on tomorrow and finish in a similar position (podium would be nice).

[Starvinho]

It's forecast rain during the race tomorrow so should be an interesting race. Would be awesome for DiResta to get podium and Jenson to win, Hamilton will probably crash out early trying a stupid overtake.

[DJ Ice]

Great to see DiResta 6th, made my day regardless of the fact that we won't get a Hamilton/Button one-two.

Also, boring Red Bull is boring

[Lineker]

Yeah di Resta was a bit brilliant - and how awesome was it to have Murray Walker back in the booth after the session was over!!

Sebastian Vettel put the ongoing exhaust rules row behind him to put Red Bull Racing on top in the first dry practice session of the British Grand Prix weekend at Silverstone.

After all of Friday's running was affected by rain, teams finally got a reasonable amount of dry mileage in third practice this morning - though showers and drizzle continued to affect the circuit.

One particular shower in the middle of the session looked like it might be prolonged enough to prevent any further improvements, but in the event it dried quickly - prompting a frantic final half-hour.

With two minutes to go, Vettel put in a 1m31.401s to knock Ferrari's Fernando Alonso off the top spot by just 0.063 seconds.

Vettel looked set to go faster still on his next lap, but it tailed off in the latter sectors as the rain increased yet again.

Mark Webber had been quickest early on, then lost a lot of the middle part of the session in the garage while repairs were carried out to his Red Bull. He rejoined to take third, ahead of the second Ferrari of Felipe Massa.

Pastor Maldonado was quickest for a spell late on in a very strong run for Williams. He ended up fifth.

McLaren had a quiet morning, with Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton only sixth and 13th respectively.

Both Saubers were in the top 10, Kamui Kobayashi and Sergio Perez seventh and ninth, split by Mercedes' Nico Rosberg - another man who held the top spot for a while amid the constant changes of the second half of the hour.

The sister Mercedes of Michael Schumacher also needed attention to mechanical issues mid-session before returning to the track. He was only 11th, his last lap having been slowed by the the rain.

Paul di Resta completed the top 10 on home ground for Force India.

The only incident of the session was an out-lap spin for Tonio Liuzzi, who was slower than new Hispania team-mate Daniel Ricciardo as the duo brought up the rear.

FP3


Pos  Driver              Team/Car              Time       Gap       Laps

 1.  Sebastian Vettel    Red Bull-Renault      1m31.401s            17

 2.  Fernando Alonso     Ferrari               1m31.464s  + 0.063s  20

 3.  Mark Webber         Red Bull-Renault      1m31.829s  + 0.428s  12

 4.  Felipe Massa        Ferrari               1m32.169s  + 0.768s  20

 5.  Pastor Maldonado    Williams-Cosworth     1m32.496s  + 1.095s  20

 6.  Jenson Button       McLaren-Mercedes      1m32.956s  + 1.555s  18

 7.  Kamui Kobayashi     Sauber-Ferrari        1m33.014s  + 1.613s  20

 8.  Nico Rosberg        Mercedes              1m33.044s  + 1.643s  23

 9.  Sergio Perez        Sauber-Ferrari        1m33.264s  + 1.863s  21

10.  Paul di Resta       Force India-Mercedes  1m33.423s  + 2.022s  22

11.  Michael Schumacher  Mercedes              1m33.551s  + 2.150s  11

12.  Adrian Sutil        Force India-Mercedes  1m33.660s  + 2.259s  22

13.  Lewis Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes      1m33.842s  + 2.441s  16

14.  Rubens Barrichello  Williams-Cosworth     1m33.905s  + 2.504s  21

15.  Vitaly Petrov       Renault               1m34.042s  + 2.641s  22

16.  Jaime Alguersuari   Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m34.329s  + 2.928s  20

17.  Sebastien Buemi     Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m34.799s  + 3.398s  20

18.  Nick Heidfeld       Renault               1m34.822s  + 3.421s  21

19.  Heikki Kovalainen   Lotus-Renault         1m35.225s  + 3.824s  21

20.  Jarno Trulli        Lotus-Renault         1m36.905s  + 5.504s  21

21.  Timo Glock          Virgin-Cosworth       1m37.614s  + 6.213s  18

22.  Jerome D-Ambrosio   Virgin-Cosworth       1m38.068s  + 6.667s  20

23.  Daniel Ricciardo    HRT-Cosworth          1m38.289s  + 6.888s  19

24.  Tonio Liuzzi        HRT-Cosworth          1m38.568s  + 7.167s  17[/code]




Mark Webber beat his Red Bull team-mate Sebastian Vettel to pole position for the British Grand Prix, as the champion team continued to lead the way in qualifying despite its fears that it would be disadvantaged by the exhaust rules controversy.



Last year's Silverstone winner Webber put in a 1m30.399s early in Q3 to pip Vettel by 0.032 seconds - and when a light shower arrived in the final moments, it ensured that there would be no changes to the leading order.



Ferrari emerged as Red Bull's biggest threat, while McLaren struggled. Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa share row two, Alonso 0.2s off pole, but Jenson Button was 1.5s away from Webber's time as he took fifth - and Lewis Hamilton was way back in 10th.



Hamilton's lowly position was one of several surprises. A heavy rain shower near the end of Q1 left the track drying steadily and getting faster and faster through Q2, leading to a number of minor upsets further down the order.



Paul di Resta will start his first home grand prix in a spectacular sixth place for Force India, with rookie Pastor Maldonado shining for Williams and taking seventh, ahead of Kamui Kobayashi (Sauber).



Their progress came at the expense of the likes of Michael Schumacher - who was four places lower than Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg in 13th - and the two Renaults, which were back in 14th and 16th, Vitaly Petrov 1.1s quicker than Nick Heidfeld.



Toro Rosso was most disadvantaged when the rain hit in Q1, with Jaime Alguersuari and Sebastien Buemi's first runs only good enough for 18th and 19th. That meant Lotus got a car into Q2 with Heikki Kovalainen, who took 17th.



Rubens Barrichello splits the Renaults on the grid in the other Williams, while Adrian Sutil (Force India) and Sergio Perez (Sauber) were the men who only narrowly missed out on Q3 so will share row six.



At the back, Timo Glock managed to get his Virgin ahead of Jarno Trulli's Lotus in 20th, and Daniel Ricciardo will start 24th for his first grand prix, having been 0.6s slower than Hispania team-mate Tonio Liuzzi.



[code]Qualifying


Pos  Driver                Team                 Time            Gap   

 1.  Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault     1m30.399s

 2.  Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault     1m30.431s  + 0.032

 3.  Fernando Alonso       Ferrari              1m30.516s  + 0.117

 4.  Felipe Massa          Ferrari              1m31.124s  + 0.725

 5.  Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes     1m31.989s  + 1.590

 6.  Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes 1m31.929s  + 1.530

 7.  Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Cosworth    1m31.933s  + 1.534

 8.  Kamui Kobayashi       Sauber-Ferrari       1m32.128s  + 1.729

 9.  Nico Rosberg          Mercedes             1m32.209s  + 1.810

10.  Lewis Hamilton        McLaren-Mercedes     1m32.376s  + 1.977

Q2 cut-off time: 1m32.588s                                   Gap **

11.  Adrian Sutil          Force India-Mercedes 1m32.617s   + 0.977

12.  Sergio Perez          Sauber-Ferrari       1m32.624s   + 0.984

13.  Michael Schumacher    Mercedes             1m32.656s   + 1.016

14.  Vitaly Petrov         Renault              1m32.734s   + 1.094

15.  Rubens Barrichello    Williams-Cosworth    1m33.119s   + 1.479

16.  Nick Heidfeld         Renault              1m33.805s   + 2.165

17.  Heikki Kovalainen     Lotus-Renault        1m34.821s   + 3.181

Q1 cut-off time: 1m35.132s                              Gap *

18.  Jaime Alguersuari     Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1m35.245s   + 2.575

19.  Sebastien Buemi       Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1m35.749s   + 3.079

20.  Timo Glock            Virgin-Cosworth      1m36.203s   + 3.533

21.  Jarno Trulli          Lotus-Renault        1m36.456s   + 3.786

22.  Jerome D-Ambrosio     Virgin-Cosworth      1m37.154s   + 4.484

23.  Tonio Liuzzi          HRT-Cosworth         1m37.484s   + 4.814

24.  Daniel Ricciardo      HRT-Cosworth         1m38.059s   + 5.389


107% time: 1m39.156s


* Gap to quickest in Q1


** Gap to quickest in Q2

Red Bull Racing is seeking clarification from the FIA about the state of the off-throttle blown diffuser regulations, after a ruling on Saturday morning prevented Renault-powered teams from being allowed to run a concession handed to them earlier in the weekend.

After an intense 24 hours of controversy over the issue, with McLaren and Red Bull Racing clashing over allowances that have been handed to their respective engine partners ahead of the British Grand Prix, the matter reached a head on Saturday morning.

Following consultation with engine representatives on Friday night, FIA race director Charlie Whiting wrote to the teams shortly before final free practice to inform them about the governing body's stance on the matter.

He told them that the FIA would stick with the position it held on the Thursday at Silverstone - where Mercedes-Benz was allowed to use an engine over-run under braking for reliability reasons relating to crank case pressure.

However, a concession handed to teams on Friday that would have allowed the Renault-powered teams, including Red Bull Racing, to run at 50 per cent throttle under braking has been withdrawn.

The allowance had been given to Renault because the French car maker claimed it needed to have such a level under braking to help with exhaust valve reliability.

The latest stance means that world championship leader Red Bull Racing will be forced to revert to the maximum 10 per cent limit at 18,000rpm that has been imposed on all teams - so could hurt its competitive form.

Following a series of meetings between Red Bull Racing chiefs and representatives of Renault in the paddock on Saturday morning, Red Bull Racing team principal Christian Horner and technical chief Adrian Newey stormed down to see Whiting to discuss the matter.

Although clearly angry, Horner refused to comment at length over the issue.

"I am going down to speak to Charlie about it," he told AUTOSPORT. "I am not saying anything else."

Horner and McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh argued over the issue in the official FIA press conference on Friday when it came to discussing the concessions handed to teams.

Horner said: "There was a technical directive which effectively turned it all off. That was obviously with reticence by the manufacturers and it has been very much a manufacture issue.

"Certain teams were then allowed to have fired overrun, to fuel their overrun, of which there are also, obviously, secondary benefits through the exhaust plumes and thrusts that that creates but that was permitted."

He added: "It would be unfair to allow fire overrun and not allow the same parameters for another engine manufacturer. I think it's a very, very difficult job for the FIA to pick their way through this and I think all credit to them, they've looked to try and be as fair, balanced and equitable as they decreed that they would be through the technical directive, to come up with the solutions that they have.

"We're not totally happy with the solution that we have, that's for sure. I'm sure Martin isn't with his and I'm sure there are a lot of conspiracies in the paddock that these are the reasons why Red Bull is performing or McLaren is performing, or some cars aren't performing. That's just circumstantial at the end of the day. The fundamentals are that the engine manufacturers have been treated in a fair and equitable manner."

An extraordinary meeting of Formula 1's Technical Working Group is taking place at Silverstone in an effort to resolve the exhaust rules controversy that has swamped the British Grand Prix weekend.

After yesterday's public dispute between Red Bull team boss Christian Horner and McLaren's Martin Whitmarsh over the concessions their respective engine suppliers Renault and Mercedes were awarded for reliability reasons in the clampdown over off-throttle exhaust blowing, the FIA announced this morning that the Renault-powered teams would not get their 50 per cent throttle allowance after all.

This prompted Horner and Red Bull technical chief Adrian Newey to make an urgent visit to FIA race director Charlie Whiting, who then called the TWG meeting.

"In order to discuss the subject of engine mapping there will be an extraordinary meeting of the TWG at 11.30 today in the meeting room adjacent to the F1 stewards office," said a note to teams issued by Whiting.

"It is important that each team sends a senior technical representative and we suggest that each team principal should also attend."

In a note issued to teams earlier today, Whiting said that the information that led to the Renault allowance had been received too late.

"Following further discussions with teams and engine manufacturers we are now in a position to offer the following view which we will enforce with immediate effect," said the bulletin.

"In line with the requirements to provide acceptable SECU configurations to the FIA before the start of the British GP, i.e. before the start of the event at 10.00 on Thursday, we consider any information provided after that time to be inadmissible for this event.

"Therefore, for the reminder of this event the requirements of TD/022-11 and TD025-11 stand as written and, as an exception (of which every engine manufacturer was aware before the start oft his event) fired overrun in FC04 will be permitted."

AUTOSPORT understands that Whiting has discussed the controversy with Bernie Ecclestone.

Red Bull team boss Christian Horner says he can accept his squad running at a 'disadvantage' this weekend but wants a compromise deal for the future - or for the FIA to backtrack on its clampdown over off-throttle exhaust blowing settings and return to the pre-Silverstone situation.

After an extraordinary meeting of Formula 1's Technical Working Group was held this morning at Silverstone to try and find a resolution to the growing controversy, Horner said he would accept Red Bull running at what he feels is a 'disadvantage' this weekend if the situation was changed for the following race in Germany and beyond.

Concessions were made to both Mercedes and Renault on reliability grounds, but after disputes yesterday, the FIA decided first thing this morning that the Renault submissions had come too late, so withdrew the allowance to retain 50 per cent throttle opening under braking, while Mercedes kept its over-run firing concession.

Horner told the BBC that he was concerned not only for his team's competitiveness, but about how confusing the situation was becoming.

"We're trying to find a solution," he said. "It's in nobody's interest to have the lack of clarity that currently exists.

"Charlie [Whiting] made an offer. Red Bull has also offered a concession this weekend to run as we are.

"Obviously we need all the teams to agree to move on and put this behind us - which hopefully we're not far from achieving.

"At the moment, in our opinion, we are running at a disadvantage to some of the other engine manufacturers. But we're trying to find a solution which is clear moving forward to put this behind us.

"The most simplistic thing would be to move back to exactly where we were two weeks ago."

Formula 1's ruling body, the FIA, has decided to backtrack on its blown diffuser clampdown following days of controversy over the matter.

The FIA said on Saturday afternoon that if all Formula 1 teams agree, the clampdown will be withdrawn from the next race in Germany.

It said, however, that the rules would stay unchanged for this weekend's British Grand Prix.

"The measures which were communicated to the teams this morning by the FIA Technical Department stand for the rest of the weekend," said the FIA in a statement.

"During Saturday morning's Extraordinary Technical Working Group meeting, the members discussed the viability of returning to the pre-Silverstone set-ups and strategies.

"If the teams are in unanimous agreement, the FIA is prepared to adopt this arrangement until the end of the current season."

Formula 1's Technical Working Group had held a meeting this morning, with Red Bull Racing accepting it would be at a disadvantage this weekend given the diffuser clampdown.

"At the moment, in our opinion, we are running at a disadvantage to some of the other engine manufacturers," said Christian Horner.

"But we're trying to find a solution which is clear moving forward to put this behind us.

"The most simplistic thing would be to move back to exactly where we were two weeks ago."

There are still question marks over the chances of all teams agreeing to reverting to the pre-British Grand Prix situation, however, with Mercedes team boss Ross Brawn saying before the weekend that he was expecting protests if the FIA hadn't acted.

"Leaving things as they were, we were going to get protests and we certainly did not want that," said Brawn.

"Fundamentally I would rather leave things alone, but what I would not want to see is a lot of protest and F1 getting into a mess and into issues and the appeal court."

FIA technical delegate Charlie Whiting had said last month that the clampdown was simply a way to stop teams from breaking the rules.

"We haven't made any changes to the rules; all we are doing is stopping people breaking the rules," he said.

Formula 1 teams will meet on race morning at the British Grand Prix to try and reach agreement on a move to ditch the ban on the off-throttle use of blown diffusers, with outfits not yet unanimous in their support of the matter.

After controversy over the Silverstone weekend about the FIA's imposition of its ban on blown diffuser use under braking, the governing body offered on Saturday night to allow teams to keep the systems if there was unanimous support among them.

Although leading outfits including Red Bull Racing, Ferrari, and McLaren are understood to be in favour of the move, other teams are not totally convinced.

Williams, who was the original catalyst for the blown diffuser clampdown after querying potential future designs with the FIA, said it would wait until after it has discussed matters with engine partners Cosworth before deciding if it supports the move.

When asked about his expectations for the Sunday morning meeting, Williams technical director Sam Michael said: "I don't know yet. I think the main thing is that we had a meeting this morning and it became pretty clear that Williams, Ferrari and Sauber were not fully aware of what all the issues were with Mercedes and Renault.

"And though those teams felt there had been a lot of dialogue about how they needed to re-tune their engines for different throttle and fuel - we didn't know anything about it.

"The first time I heard there was going to be a different throttle position was from a journo at lunchtime yesterday. So I think during that meeting, I came out of there with a lot better picture of what their actual problem was, because unless you sit and look at things in detail it's a bit difficult.

"But during that meeting I had Paddy Lowe explain Mercedes position and Adrian Newey explain Renault's position, and then I had a further quite detailed conversation with Adrian about what Renault's issues were. And now we have a much better view of what their actual issues are. How that is going to affect tomorrow I don't know yet."

Michael added that he was undecided yet on which way he would vote in the meeting.

"I've heard all the arguments and now I need to sit down with Cosworth and our guys to see what our position is," he said. "Really, that's just our view as well, it doesn't mean that's what the FIA will adopt."

McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh said he feared that the rest of the season could be blighted by 'paranoia' if individual teams stood up and blocked the efforts to get rid of the ban.

"Inevitably in F1 self interest sometimes prevails, but I think unless we go back to that, then this season is going to be fraught with paranoia, the feeling of being hard done to, being disadvantaged," Whitmarsh explained. "We have got what we have got.

"It may be worse for other teams. It has certainly hit this team, it has hit the performance of our car, and I think that is evident from the stop watch - and hopefully from our perspective we get to a situation.

"It is not good to change the rules midway through the year. If you do that, the team that has worked hardest to perhaps refine that particular rule may well be disadvantaged."

Whitmarsh believes that going back to the regulations as they were in Valencia was undoubtedly the best solution for everybody.

"This morning it seemed it was likely to happen," he said when asked how confident he was that unanimity could be found. "Whether people like exhaust blowing or not, it is probably the most equitable situation.

"We had a free market so to speak leading up to Valencia. People in good faith expect that is what we have got, that is what we will develop our engines for, that is what we will develop our exhaust for, that is what we will develop the fundamental aerodynamics of the car and the vehicle handling and set-up, so everything we have done is based upon that, and working in good faith.

"No one was complaining about it 18 months or 12 months ago or 6 months ago, so I think it would be the fairest thing."

Mercedes GP team principal Ross Brawn was less optimistic, however, admitting that several teams were not too keen for the ban to be overturned.

"Difficult," he said. "We are meeting at 10:30 tomorrow. It was clear from the meeting that we had today that there were different opinions. It was held in a constructive fashion, but there were different opinions and some of the teams went away to consider their opinions.

"In fairness, Red Bull, Ferrari, McLaren, ourselves were happy to try and find a solution that we felt was good for Formula 1. It was the first time that some of the teams had heard the proposal and they want to reflect on it and give an answer tomorrow. I hope that we find a solution because we want to tidy this thing away and get on with the racing. I really don't know where we will be tomorrow, but I hope that we do find a solution."

Brawn hopes that those teams who felt they would be disadvantaged by the ban not taking place would be open to considering the ultimate benefits for F1.

"If we go back to that [Valencia specification], we will still have some teams that are unhappy with that situation. It's a question of whether they can recognise that it's not easy to find a solution.

"Whichever way we go, someone will feel aggrieved about the solutions that take place. Most people now recognise that it might have been best left to the end of the year and then move the exhausts to a new position next season where they will be more benign and we could have avoided these difficulties."

If agreement is not reached at the TWG meeting, Brawn reckons that the FIA would stick with the regulations as they were in place at Silverstone.

"Where we were today is what the FIA have decreed and are comfortable with," he said. "So I imagine we stay where we are."

McLaren boss Martin Whitmarsh admits his team has been hit hard by the regulation changes introduced for this weekend's British Grand Prix.

The Woking-based squad seemed to be one of the most affected by the changes to the blown diffuser rules, with Jenson Button qualifying in fifth over 1.5 seconds off pole position.

Team-mate Lewis Hamilton finished down in tenth nearly two seconds off the pace.

Whitmarsh conceded his team expected to be hit by the changes, and said McLaren has probably not responded well to them.

"I think we can bore everyone silly about diffusers, exhaust gases, etc," said Whitmarsh. "The fact is that the last 18 months everyone has been working hard to develop exhaust blown diffusers.

"We've worked particularly hard in that area and we have had lots of twists and turns and changes, and the fact is that during the course of this weekend there have been some changes and we did not put on a competitive showing in qualifying and we know that.

"Do we know precisely why? Not entirely. But I think it is reasonable to assume that in all those changes, we haven't been able to respond to them or the impact on us was greater.

"To go from what looked like a competitive car to what looked like a fairly uncompetitive one, there is no magic. That is what has happened. We understand that and we accept it."

Whitmarsh is adamant that McLaren will not give up on this year's championship, although he admitted the focus must be on trying to regain its competitiveness as soon as possible.

He added: "We suspected we were going to get hurt and based on the evidence so far we definitely have been but whatever the rules are, we will adapt and we will compete. W are not giving up, we are not going to give up tomorrow and we are not going to give up on this championship. We are going to try and win races.

"Realistically that is what we are going to try and concentrate on. Do we concentrate on trying to win the championship? Well, frankly at the moment that is probably the wrong focus. It is trying to get back to being as competitive as quickly as possible, win races and see where it goes from there."

The team boss said he is staying realistic about his drivers' chances for the race tomorrow, but he reckons a wet race could help them.

"Tomorrow in terms of strategy maybe we want a bit of rain, maybe we want some confusion, but we are also realistic," he said. "On evidence of today in qualifying our car is not quick enough - that is how it is.

"On the other hand we are a strong team with two great team players. We are not going to be content until we recover. Can we recover quickly enough? From what I am told the rules are going to change again for two weeks' time, maybe the pendulum swings back, maybe it doesn't, but whatever is served to us we are going to be tough enough and resilient enough to power through and that is what we do as a team."

Jaime Alguersuari is staying positive about his chances of scoring in the British Grand Prix despite a disappointing qualifying.

The Spanish driver failed to make it into Q2 after rain hit the circuit before he could complete his final run on soft tyres.

Alguersuari will start the race from 18th position, but the Toro Rosso driver admitted he was still upbeat for the race, although he conceded his strategy was the wrong one.

"We were a bit unlucky and also we didn't get it right, because we should have switched to the soft tyre sooner, as they are worth about two seconds compared to the hard, so we never used our full potential," said Alguersuari.

"But it is not all negative, because we have good data in case it is wet again tomorrow and also as regards the Prime tyre on a long run, so we can be in good shape for the race. If we make the best of any opportunities, then it is not impossible for us to finish in the points again by the end of tomorrow afternoon.

"At least I have lots of new tyres ready to use and with only limited use of the DRS allowed in the race, we could be competitive not only in the wet, as was the case on Friday, but also in the dry."

Team-mate Sebastien Buemi was also unlucky with the weather, the Swiss finishing in 19th place.

"I'm a bit disappointed, as we were not expecting the rain to arrive so soon, which meant we did not run the Option tyre as early as we might have done," he said. "But the rain came down hard on my "out" lap, so I never got a chance to set a good time with the soft tyre, which normally is as much as two seconds a lap quicker than the hard.

"On the positive side, we have plenty of new tyres for tomorrow, so let's hope it will be dry. From this start position, getting a good start will be essential because, even with DRS, I think overtaking at this circuit will be difficult.

"This season we have started from poor grid positions but still gone on to have a good race and I hope that is the case tomorrow."

Sebastian Vettel was happy with second place on the grid for the British Grand Prix, as the team showed it was still ahead in qualifying trim despite the diffuser row.

"I am happy with the result, as I think it is important to qualify in the front," said Vettel, who finished second, behind team-mate Mark Webber as Red Bull continued with its perfect record of pole positions this year.

"It was not an easy session with the conditions changing. It was easy to go wide and go into travel like Fernando, so all in all it was very tight.

"There's not much between the cars and if you get a chance to try again you could find a sniff here or there. It was a good step today."

The world champion admitted he was happy to be able to leave all the talk about rules behind to simply drive the car.

"We kept our heads cool," he said. "We thought there might be a lot of talk, so we are happy when we jump into car, because we are allowed to focus on what is important. Tomorrow a is long race, the tyres will be very important. It is a bit of driving into unknown tomorrow from the start, but we will see."

Vettel denied Red Bull was under bigger pressure following the rule changes, and was glad to see his team was still the one to beat.

"I wouldn't say the most pressure, but I think it was a difficult session with the conditions changing. When it starts to rain on different parts of the circuit, it is quite difficult to see where it is wet or where it is fine.

It's a shame we could not get the second run, but it was a very good result for us today, especially wit the amount of talk going into qualifying and race here.

"It's good to see that we are still on top of our game and still can produce reasonable quick laptimes. I am quite happy, this circuit is quite tough on tyres so we'll see what we get tomorrow."

British Grand Prix pole-winner Mark Webber denied that there was any extra satisfaction from the result because of the controversy over rule adjustments this weekend.

Red Bull team boss Christian Horner had argued that the champion squad would be at a "disadvantage" after the FIA ruled that the Renault-powered teams could not continue to run 50 per cent throttle opened under braking after all.

But that did not stop Webber and team-mate Sebastian Vettel wrapping up yet another all-Red Bull front row at Silverstone.

Asked if the result was Red Bull's 'reply' to the rules situation, Webber replied: "No, it is not. We are not looking to reply to anything. What has to be reiterated is that our team has turned up very, very early and left very, very late. Every team works hard but this team works incredibly hard.

"We concentrate on that, what is happening in the last few months is not what we have done in the last few months, it is years of work to put ourselves in this situation.

"We have seen today that we are still going okay, but irrespective of lap times it is an interpretation of rules and principles. Whether we are on pole or 10th, the team will continue to have a stance on what is correct. It is not a comeback from what we had today."

He said having to cope with rule adjustment was nothing new for Red Bull.

"I think the team has handled it pretty well, Seb and I concentrate on the driving," said Webber. "It's nothing new for our team - adjustable ride height control, front wing and nothing new, we always have a new thing to talk about.

"Let's hope everyone can find a common ground, even for the fans they cannot understand 0.1 per cent of what is going on."

Jenson Button admitted it was not easy to accept what he labelled as a "massive" gap to the fastest cars in qualifying for the British Grand Prix.

Button will start his home race from fifth position, a place he was not unhappy about, but the Briton conceded finishing over 1.5 seconds off pole position was just not good enough.

"I don't know what to make of that," said Button. "My first lap was not great. I think the balance of the car wasn't quite there.

"Fifth you'd say it's okay after what we've been through the last couple of days, but the gap is massive. One and a half seconds is just massive. That's all I have to say, really."

He added: "It's disappointing to be where we are. I mean, fifth is a reasonable position but 1.5 seconds off the pace... Even if I got the lap perfect it would have been a couple of tenths.

"In two hours I will be all positive and hoping that we can do well, but at the moment I'm disappointed with where we are."

Team-mate Lewis Hamilton was equally disappointed with his team's performance, the Briton hoping for a wet race to try to get a good result after finishing down in tenth today.

"It's disappointing that we are so far behind, and we didn't really do a good job in qualifying. I hope it rains," he said.

Fernando Alonso thinks Ferrari's gains in Silverstone qualifying were due to genuine progress with the team's development efforts, rather than other squads having been pegged back by the FIA's exhaust rules clampdown.

Amid weekend-long controversy at Silverstone over the implementation of the regulation adjustments, Ferrari was tipped by some rivals as a team likely to benefit from the new situation.

But Alonso said the 0.117-second gap to pole position was just because the Italian squad was catching Red Bull.

"I am very happy, it is best qualifying in terms of the gap to pole position of the year," he said. "We have been more or less averaging one second or seven tenths away and being here in Silverstone at a circuit that is not our preference, being one tenth from pole is good news for us."

Asked if he felt Ferrari had come out of the rules rows in better relative shape, Alonso replied: "Difficult question to answer. I am not a technician but I guess [the improvement] is just for the new parts on the car.

"We have exhausts, diffuser and all these talks - we repeat 100 times... We all lose performance with the new rules and we all lose more or less the same performance, maybe from three tenths to five tenths - but one team cannot lost 1.5 seconds and one team lose one tenth. It is not possible.

"We are third and fourth now, the whole team did a good job – and we are more competitive."

In a later interview with the BBC, Alonso added that he felt the whole rules situation was bad for the sport.

"My thoughts are very simple: it's quite boring," he said. "I think for the fans first of all, also for us here in the paddock because we are just concentrating on the performance of the car and there is a lot of talk about this and meetings and things, but we cannot be distracted by it and we need to make sure we give our 100 per cent on the track. That is, I think, what the fans want as well: action, overtaking, qualifying, races.

"For the rules here, as I said we just adapt to whatever rule is written, and for sure some stability is welcome to have the same rules for the whole season or whatever, to have less confusion for the fans. As I said, I think we need to think a little bit of the fans less talk about things that don't happen on the circuit."

Pastor Maldonado is confident of a strong result in the British Grand Prix after qualifying in the top ten on Saturday.

It was the third time the rookie driver has made it into the top ten this year and the fifth he has outqualified team-mate Rubens Barrichello.

Maldonado will start from seventh position, eight places ahead of the Brazilian.

"Our car is working well and we gave a good performance today," said Maldonado. "It is Williams' home race so I'm happy for the team.

"I'm quite confident and really looking forward to tomorrow as I always enjoy racing at Silverstone. The circuit with its quick corners suits our car so let's see what happens."

Barrichello said traffic during the second qualifying segment had ruined both his runs, therefore making it impossible for him to improve.

"I had traffic at the end of my first timed lap in Q2 which damaged my second timed lap as well," he said. "When a track like this is drying out you can lose everything so it's very unfortunate that happened.

"We need to see what the weather is going to do tomorrow but I think the car is a lot better than our qualifying position shows and the team have done a good job."

Paul di Resta is confident that his sixth place on the grid for his maiden home grand prix is a legitimate reflection of Force India's pace at Silverstone and owes little to the rain in qualifying.

Having made it through to Q3 in Britain, di Resta went on to grab a third row spot alongside countryman Jenson Button's McLaren.

Although a rain shower at the very end of qualifying did prevent any changes on the final Q3 laps, di Resta doubts he would have lost many positions even if everyone had managed further quick times.

"I'm really happy with the result today. To be here for my first British Grand Prix and to be starting in sixth place feels great," he said.

"The whole team did an excellent job and made sure we were out on track at the right times. The car has shown very strongly in every session and even in the wet yesterday we were very comfortable.

"Maybe there was a little bit of luck at the end of Q3 when the rain started again, but I think that in the worst case scenario I would have ended up in eighth. Hopefully we can carry the performance into tomorrow and come away with a strong result in my home race."

Team boss Vijay Mallya hailed di Resta's performance as a huge achievement.

"I'm very proud of what Paul has achieved today," said Mallya. "He has come here extremely confident and delivered an outstanding performance."

Post-qualifying press conference:

TV UNILATERALS

Q. Mark, you won here last year, pole position today, what is it about you and this Silverstone circuit?

Mark WEBBER: Oh, not sure. I think I always enjoy driving here. You have still got to put it all together. You don't get these results without applying yourself. It was a very mixed session for all of us. Even the build-up, obviously, with yesterday's rain and things like that. It was important to make sure every lap counted as you never knew if it was the one that would count for your main grid position. So even in Q2 and things like that you wanted to make sure you weren't caught out and having to scramble around on inters to try and do a time. In the end very happy with the job we did. It is easy to slip up in conditions like that from an organisational and logistical point of view, but also from a driver's perspective, so very good job from the team and we are in a very good position for tomorrow's race..

Q. Sebastian, there was a lot going on in the run-up to qualifying. Difficult conditions during qualifying. Was that the most pressure you have felt under during qualifying during a season.

Sebastian VETTEL: I wouldn't say most pressure, but I think it was a difficult session with the conditions changing. When it starts to rain here it can vary on different parts of the circuit and it is quite difficult to see where it is wet or damp or if it's fine. You really rely on the out lap or the lap before as if you arrive flat out and it is still damp it is very easy to go off track. All in all that wasn't easy, but in the end it was dry. Shame that we couldn't get the second run. I would have loved to challenge Mark again but I think he had a good lap and it was a very good result for us today, especially with the amount of talk going into that qualifying or into the race here, so good to see we are still on top of our game and still can produce reasonably quick lap times. We are quite happy. Tomorrow, anything can happen. I think this circuit is quite tough on tyres, so we see what we get tomorrow.

Q. Fernando, you were off track in the first part of qualifying, really flirting with disaster. But you came through in the end to be only a tenth off pole. You must be pleased with that?

Fernando ALONSO: Yeah, very happy. I think it is the best qualifying in terms of the gap to pole position of the year. We have been more or less, on average, one second or seventenths in the last couple of races, and here in Silverstone, on a circuit that normally is not our preference in terms of lay-out and characteristics, with these high speed corners, being one-tenth off the pole is good news for us. The new parts we brought here are working well and (I'm) pleased with qualifying. But the job is tomorrow when the points are given, so hopefully in the race we can still perform well, be close to these guys and put some pressure to be on the podium in the end.

Q. Mark, how big a distraction has all the row over the blown diffusers been in the run-up to the qualifying session this weekend and what are your prospects for the race tomorrow do you think?

MW: Well, I think the team has handled it pretty well. Seb and I have concentrated on the driving, otherwise it gets very, very boring. But it is not new for our team. Adjustable front ride height controllers, front wings, whatever. Every year we have a new thing to talk about. This last few weeks it has been about this. Let's hope everyone can find a common ground. It is incredibly boring also for the fans. I think they cannot understand 0.1 per cent of what's going on. Even for us it is sometimes difficult, so let's get on with the racing. Keep the rules as simple as possible from the start of the year maybe and go from there. But from my perspective for tomorrow I am in great shape. I have prepared well and ready to challenge for the win for sure.

PRESS CONFERENCE

Q. Mark, which side is pole and are you quite happy whichever side it is? Is it on the left side?

MW: Definitely on the left. If it's not, we will change it tonight.

Q. Your second pole after Spain and you were a winner here last year. The eighth pole position of your career. Do you derive a lot of satisfaction from this?

MW: Yes, it is always rewarding when you get the maximum out of the situation. I couldn't have done any better today apart from obviously being on pole by a bigger margin but that's not always possible with these guys around. I did my best and it was enough to be the quickest car when it counted. Hasn't always been the case this year, but today it worked out well. Tricky session. Very easy to look stupid when you make a mistake. Rain and different tyres and what do you do and when do you go and all that sort of stuff. It adds a bit more intensity to the logistical side for the team but also inside the cockpit for us. Particularly in our garage we can't see much. It's like being in an underground car park down there. We can't see the track, we can't see too much of the conditions so we have got to go purely on the television so engineers did a good job.

Q. Looking at what's happened over the last couple of days, you could say last couple of weeks, is this Red Bull's reply perhaps?

MW: No, it's not. We are not looking to reply to anything. What has to be re-iterated is that the last three years our team has virtually turned up very, very early and left very, very late. Every team in this pit-lane works hard but our team works incredibly hard as well. We worked with the RB5, RB6, RB7, whatever, to concentrate on that and that's what we have done for the last few years. What is happening in the last few months is not what we've done in the last few months, it's years of hard work to put ourselves in this position technically. It is a subject at the moment that is topical, which we have had each year, but not maybe as heavy as this one, and we have seen today that we are still going okay. But irrespective of lap times it is all about interpretation of rules and regulations and principles and how you go forward as competing under the right guidelines. Whether we are pole or 10th the team will still continue to have its stance on what they think is correct so it is not a comeback what we did today at all.

Q. Did the car feel any different? Has it felt any different say from Valencia given the regulation change?

MW: It is always difficult from track to track unless we do proper back-to-backs. We had not a bad chance this weekend because the rules changed, especially every session, so we had a little bit of a chance. But the weather was on top of that as well. It is not going to turn the car 180 degrees, the car is still going pretty well and that's it.

Q. Sebastian, front row again as for every race so far this year. At least you have that satisfaction.

SV: Well I am happy with the result. I think it is important to qualify on the front and it wasn't an easy session as Mark touched on. With the conditions changing it was very easy to go wide or go into the gravel like Fernando. All in all it was tight. Not much between cars. I am sure if you get the chance to try again maybe you could find a sniff here and there. But it was a good step today. We kept our heads cool. There was a lot of talk. Still might be a lot of talk. We are happy as soon as we jump into the car because then we are allowed to work and focus on what is really important. Tomorrow will be a long way, long race. I think tyres will be incredibly important. Looking after them, et cetera, this is a tough track for those plus we had no experience on Friday as it was wet so it's a bit driving into the unknown tomorrow right from the start and then we will see.

Q. How well prepared is the team?

SV: As prepared as you arrive on Friday morning I would say. We know a little bit more now, but no one really was able to do a proper run. You cannot catch up the time you lose on the whole of Friday by a little bit of running this morning and then through qualifying. In qualifying, it's a different approach. It's a one timed lap that counts and not the whole distance so we will see and I think we will learn along the way.

Q. A lot of people were saying it is going to be a pretty lively race tomorrow. There are going to be a lot of place changes. Is that your view?

SV: We will see. I think overtaking is not easy around here. Never has been. There is one DRS zone. We will see whether that works or not. I think it is really tricky. It is not an easy job to get things right because distance based on one track, then it is too easy on the other track, it doesn't really help. I think we will know a lot more after we have raced and take that experience into next year, which will help but for this year every circuit is different. The corners before the DRS zone are very decisive so we will see. I think we will see some overtaking, definitely more than last year or in the last years.

Q. Fernando, your second best grid position of the year, obviously some satisfaction and encouragement from your aerodynamic improvements?

FA: Yeah, definitely. I think I was second in Canada but this third feels much better because we are only one tenth off pole position. This is completely new for us this year and a little bit of a good surprise because you normally bring new parts to the races, you always test them on Fridays and then you see which ones are working, which ones need more time before you put them on the car but it seems that this weekend everything we put on the car seems to have worked OK and we've got some downforce back. Especially here at Silverstone, with these high speed corners, being one tenth off Red Bull is fantastic news for us so far this weekend. But we are only happy if, on Sunday, we score points and this is only Saturday. We have a good grid position but tomorrow is when we have to deliver.

Q. Does it make you a challenger for victory tomorrow?

FA: Let's see. I think we are definitely closer than ever, usually being one second behind and sometimes finishing second or third in the race is a little bit closer to Red Bull as in Turkey where we finished third, but we fought with Mark until the end. Last race we finished second, also fighting with the Red Bulls. As I said, having been seven or eight tenths off the pace in qualifying so today when we are a little bit quicker, I'm sure that tomorrow we can put some more pressure on them.

Q. We saw you going off the circuit; you seemed to be heading in the direction of a rather better surface than what you were on and actually discovered one that was worse!

FA: Yeah. Obviously I lost the car in turn six, on the exit, so I knew that I was going onto the gravel. I didn't know whether to try to slow the car and get back quickly onto the asphalt or take the long way. I thought the gravel was a little bit more compact, but that was not the case, so it was a big risk to stop the car there but luckily I was helped.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q. (Mathias Brunner - Speedweek) Seb, you mentioned yesterday that the pit entry will be an issue in the drivers' briefing, so what was the outcome of that?

SV: Some drivers felt that it is unnecessary to do 100 km/h. We had the chance now and I have to see it's possible but it's not really comfortably, particularly with some drops (of rain) it was quite scary. But the majority said nothing so we stick with 100 km/h.

Q. (Niki Takeda - Formula PA) What we used to see, until now, was you negotiating Copse and then a mad dash to Stowe and now we are in a completely different part of the circuit, you have a completely different layout ahead of you. How different is the start dynamics for all of you?

SV: In a way, it's a different circuit. Traditionally, I think you were used to starting a lap and then you had a massive corner straight away into Copse and then the first sector – after that it was... you know, to get your head straight again. Now it's different, now you have a quick corner initially but then a rather slow start into the lap and it just feels wrong when you arrive at Copse and it's halfway round the lap, so you exit onto the Hangar Straight, then after the fast section and your lap is nearly over. In the end, you get used to it I guess but I think there was a lot of tradition on the old layout, the old track. I really liked it. I still like it because I think the character is still there but of course you give away some parts to get some new bits.

MW: I think it's a good question, actually, because it has changed and Seb explains it well, but Copse, Becketts, the first sector was very, very quick, not too dissimilar to Suzuka but at Suzuka you have a bit more of a tighter corner in turn two but the flow is different, but turn three here you obviously have heavy braking not long after the start. It's a different track on the first lap but that's it.

FA: For me it changes nothing, very similar to last year. Only the start will maybe change a little bit. Instead of having the first corner flat out, now we will have the first two corners and then heavy braking, so we will have different lines there, probably more action so it will be better for the show.

Q. (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Fernando, you said that you are just one tenth away from Red Bull at this Grand Prix. Do you feel that is just because of the new parts on the car or also because of the new regulations?

FA: Difficult question to answer. I'm not a technician but I guess it's just because of the new parts that we have on the car. About the exhaust and diffuser and all this talk, we repeat a hundred times: we all lose performance with the new rules and we all lose more or less the same performance, maybe from three tenths to five tenths but I don't think that one team can lose 1.5s, one team can lose a tenth. This is not possible so I guess because we are third and fourth now means that the whole team did a very good job, bringing the new parts here and we are more competitive, not because of the thing.

Q. (Livio Oricchio – O Estado de Sao Paulo) Sebastian and Mark, you were 0.117s fastest in qualifying on a circuit very favourable to your team. Do you think this is an indication for the rest of the season, because qualifying was mainly your big advantage in comparison to your competitors?

MW: I think we are still very, very, very good but the red cars might have done a little bit, to come closer today so the rest of the competition – if you look at just today, not tomorrow, but just today – we look like we're still performing at a very, very high level. Ferrari haven't been slow today so there might be a bit of form card starting to build for the future, but we obviously need more events to see if that's possible, but it's completely fair for you to ask that. Normally we are here – Barcelona, Silverstone, whatever - then you expect us to be down the road but we are, on most people. Obviously these guys (Ferrari) are a bit closer. The cars are very sensitive to lap time at the moment, the tyres, all that sort of stuff, and it wasn't a normal preparation for qualifying in some ways so let's see how we are in the next two events to see if your question is right.

SV: As Mark said, in the end, we can't let go, we have to keep on pushing. That's what the other teams do to catch up and that's what we have to do to maintain our position, otherwise it will change. Sure it varies from circuit to circuit but we have to keep on working hard.

Q. (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Mark, you haven't led a single lap this season. How likely is it that you will do so tomorrow?

MW: Well, it's incredible, isn't it, that I haven't but yeah, good chance tomorrow. If I lead one lap, but it's the right one, then that would be nice but if you lead all the rest, of course it gives you a few more options to control the race and whatnot. It's not the best statistic for me so far this year but I still have a few points so I need to get some more points by doing what you just said.

Q. (Sean McGreedy – CSMA Magazine) To all of you: a lot has been said about Lewis Hamilton's driving style. If you were being criticised in the same way, how would you deal with it, how would you react?

MW: Look, when you're a professional sportsman you're going to get criticised at some point in your career. All of us have been, we will be again and it comes with the territory. You've got to deal with it.

SV: First of all, it's always individual. I think it depends how you take it. If people criticise you, sometimes they're wrong, sometimes they're right. It depends on what they criticise you for. As Mark said, in the end it's something you have to learn to deal with. I'm sure Lewis is aware and Lewis has dealt with some situations in the past as well. In the end, he was always quick on the track, so I think that to us, that's the most important thing.

FA: Same!

Q. (Michael Schmidt – Auto, Motor und Sport) Fernando, as you've said, you've caught up a lot, in particular in comparison to Barcelona which was a similar type of track in terms of lap time. Does the same apply for the hard tyres which were the biggest problem in Barcelona?

FA: That's something we need to find out tomorrow. Obviously we haven't had enough laps in dry conditions: yesterday none and today only I think five or six laps so no real reference at the moment, but what we felt in free practice three and first qualifying was a very good feeling with hard tyres this weekend, so we are quite confident that tomorrow we will not have the problems that we had in Barcelona, where we lost a complete lap in the last forty laps of the race. Maybe we still prefer the soft tyres but with the hard – fingers crossed – that we have no problems tomorrow.

[Lineker]

Formula 1 faces continued uncertainty over its exhaust regulations after this morning's meeting of the sport's team bosses and technical chiefs at Silverstone failed to reach an agreement.

Following a weekend of controversy over the FIA's clampdown on the practice of off-throttle exhaust blowing and the various allowances made to engine builders on reliability grounds, the governing body said it would call off the rule tweak and revert to the pre-Silverstone situation if the teams agreed unanimously that this was the best option.

But this morning's meeting saw no unanimous support for such a deal.

AUTOSPORT's sources have revealed that Ferrari and the Ferrari-powered Sauber team refused to sign the deal to return to the Valencia specification.

There had been speculation that Cosworth engine user Williams would do likewise, but it is understood to have been in favour of this solution.

McLaren team boss Martin Whitmarsh had said yesterday that revert to the pre-Silverstone situation was in his opinion the only sensible option.

"Inevitably in F1 self interest sometimes prevails, but I think unless we go back to that, then this season is going to be fraught with paranoia, the feeling of being hard done to, being disadvantaged," he said. "We have got what we have got.

"It may be worse for other teams. It has certainly hit this team, it has hit the performance of our car, and I think that is evident from the stop watch - and hopefully from our perspective we get to a situation.

"It is not good to change the rules midway through the year. If you do that, the team that has worked hardest to perhaps refine that particular rule may well be disadvantaged."

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Renault team principal Eric Boullier hopes Formula 1 teams can draw a line under the row over blown diffusers when they meet later today - despite senior sources saying they are pessimistic a solution will be found.

Formula 1 technical chiefs and team bosses are set to meet ahead of the British Grand Prix to decide whether they support the ban on the off-throttle use of blown diffusers being ditched.

The FIA has offered to revert the rules back to how they were at the European Grand Prix providing there is unanimous support.

But although it is understood that Williams and Sauber may not support the move, and one source suggested there was 'no chance' of unanimity, Boullier is keeping his fingers crossed that outfits consider the biggest picture.

"We have to fix this," said Boullier. "It is not good to be seen again as a mini war in the paddock – and F1 does not need this wasted debate."

Boullier thinks that the best solution for everybody would be to have the rules how they were in Valencia – where off-throttle blowing was permitted but teams were not allowed elaborate engine maps for qualifying.

"Everyone accepted it, ran it, and it was reliable and safe," he said. "We should freeze the rule until the end of the year as it was. That would be a fair compromise for everybody."

Boullier thinks that the season is far enough advanced now for there to be no worries about teams developing more extreme blown floors - as the FIA fears.

"We are already in the middle of the season so I don't see many teams spending millions to develop onwards, especially for next year when it [blown diffusers] is banned. Maybe the top two teams only in championship."

The row over blown diffusers has dominated paddock talk at the British GP, and led some to question the damage it has done the sport's image, but Boullier thinks there is no lingering problem.

"It is maybe the concept of F1, having everybody in the same paddock so then you have a lot of stories," he said. "At the end, this started from a very simple fact that some teams were concerned about these developments, and Charlie [Whiting] tried to find a compromise. That didn't work – because everyone was pushing for their own interest.

"This is the common sense of F1, but I think the good thing is that there will be a positive outcome for this. People understand we need to find a compromise rather than keep fighting."

Paul di Resta thinks there is even more to come from himself and Force India this season after delivering the best qualifying performance of his career at Silverstone.

The Briton will line up an impressive sixth for his home grand prix and thinks that with the team's update package now working well, there is every reason to feel even more confident for the races to come.

"It is the first time since Barcelona [where the updates were first introduced] we are back at a proper track where you rely on the aerodynamics, and the car has worked well since we have put all these updates on," explained di Resta.

"It was difficult to gauge where we were. We knew we were improving with them and it is nice to confirm that they have worked and we are going forward.

"Coming for the Nurburgring we have some other bits coming, so it will be interesting to see where they are going to lead to.

"Maybe this track suited us, I don't really know. All you can do is go to the grip you've got. Even with the regulation change we seem to be very comfortable with where the car is and nothing is sticking out that is causing huge problems."

Di Resta said that his final qualifying lap, which left him just a few hundredths of a second away from being the fastest British driver, was at the absolute limit.

"Our aim and ambition was to get into Q3," he said. "We have been relatively very competitive when we have been on track this weekend; whether it is wet or dry, and even in the morning it felt quite good.

"There was some rain interruption in Q2. My engineer was quite keen to get out early and I said no, we need to be waiting here to make sure we are out on track at the end of the session. That is when you do the lap.

"We got through and the last lap I did on Q3 was on the edge. There was not much else coming out of that car. It was one of those laps where you come in and are happy you have achieved it. This place does seem to develop quite a bit of commitment and, having not driven on the GP track or raced on it with the new generation Silverstone, and being in front of my home crowd, is obviously very good."

Despite earning headlines because he out qualified Lewis Hamilton, di Resta said that he did not take any specific pleasure from achieving that feat.

"I want to beat the other 23 drivers," he said. "Lewis had a different strategy in qualifying. He went out on an old set at the beginning and maybe got caught out in the rain, but it is not for me to comment on. I just try to do the best job possible for myself.

"But you could say I would probably rather have beaten Jenson, as he only beat me by a few hundredths. So I think that would have been a better one for me, and I narrowly missed out on him. That would be the angle I would go at."

Felipe Massa believes Ferrari has made a genuine step forward in form with its update package at the British Grand Prix - as it targets its first win of the season.

The Brazilian and his team-mate Fernando Alonso will start on the second row at Silverstone and, although it is not Ferrari's best qualifying result of the season, the team is encouraged because it has got so close to pacesetter Red Bull Racing.

Massa says developments introduced at Silverstone have brought the downforce improvements hoped for – and he thinks that could pay dividends when it comes to helping the team use the harder Pirelli tyre.

"I think it is because of the new pieces we brought to this race," he said. "It's the only place that we were competitive on the hard tyres, and I think that means we brought new parts that give more downforce to the car.

"With these new diffuser regulations we lose downforce, and they don't help the car to be any stronger on the hard tyres. But with the new pieces you get more downforce and I think that was the key that made our car more competitive.

"I hope we can have a car that works both sides and this helps a lot for the strategy and everything."

Massa also said that not too much should be read into the six tenths of a second gap between himself and team-mate Alonso.

"I think we were very good over the weekend and I had a very bad lap in the Q3 with the first set of tyres," he said.

"I was supposed to improve a lot from the second set of tyres and I was improving already on the second set of tyres when it rained.

"I was sure I was going to be in the fight with them and then it rained in the second sector and it was too difficult to carry on. But anyway I was happy with the car."

[Lineker]

....although having posted that, Bernie just interuptted Martin's interview with Prince Harry to confirm that the deal is all signed sealed and delivered by all the teams and after this race we'll be reverting back to the Valencia setup rules.

Rain!

1241: Bad news for Sauber as Sergio Perez returns to the pits with a broken front wing after a trip across the gravel and a collision with a polystyrene block at Chapel, the final corner of the Becketts complex. Not the out lap he planned.

[Rich]

Its nice to not see a Red Bull leading this race Now

[DJ Ice]

Superb race with an amazing finish. Hamilton wasn't at fault imo so that should stay the same. Also, Christian Horner should have let them race! Espically if it ment Vettel crashing out

[Rainiac]

The Mclaren lollipop guy will probably be looking for a new job in the morning after that cock up. And that "maintain the gap" call by Horner was complete bullshit. Yes, I understand that he was making sure both drivers finished the race on the podium, but wasn't it Horner just a year ago who said that there were no team orders at Red Bull?