Formula One 2012

[MJB]

My word, what a race. Well, except for Jenson in the lead.

Raikkonen vs Schumacher was a lot of fun and I was pleased to see the Force India's and the Toro Rosso's getting up amongst the big boys. Grosjean and Maldonado really need to start taking more care at the start, Alonso could have been seriously hurt then and it ruined the race for both Saubers.

Great drive from Vettel aswell.

[Katsuya]

Grosjean has been banned for a race, which seems unnecessarily harsh and they'll probably wrangle that down. No idea who the third driver at Lotus is, though. Maldonado will take a ten place grid drop for the start jump and causing an incident.

ETA: Wiki says its D'Ambrosio. I'd love it if Kubica returned from nowhere, mind.

[MJB]

Grosjean has been banned for a race, which seems unnecessarily harsh and they'll probably wrangle that down. No idea who the third driver at Lotus is, though. Maldonado will take a ten place grid drop for the start jump and causing an incident.

ETA: Wiki says its D'Ambrosio. I'd love it if Kubica returned from nowhere, mind.

A suspended race ban or a big grid drop would have probably been better for Grosjean.

Maldonado however, probably should just be banned for the next eight races

[Katsuya]

In defends of Grosjean, his "cut" across the circuit was a lot less drastic than Maldonado's and Lewis had room to move over some more. It was also hindered by the fact that Kamui couldn't get away quickly, which bunched Perez up AND Maldonado's jump start meant he had blocked up a bit of road he shouldn't have. It was an unfortunate chain of events that warranted a five/ten place drop at most for Romain, but to ban him for a race is far too harsh.

Ironically, Webber's gearbox change probably saved him from being caught up in that. If Maldonado hadn't have impeded Hulkenburg too, then the likelihood is he would have managed to not be where he was to help cause it.

Also: how the hell did Hulkenburg and di Resta get up there?

[MJB]

In defends of Grosjean, his "cut" across the circuit was a lot less drastic than Maldonado's and Lewis had room to move over some more. It was also hindered by the fact that Kamui couldn't get away quickly, which bunched Perez up AND Maldonado's jump start meant he had blocked up a bit of road he shouldn't have. It was an unfortunate chain of events that warranted a five/ten place drop at most for Romain, but to ban him for a race is far too harsh.

Ironically, Webber's gearbox change probably saved him from being caught up in that. If Maldonado hadn't have impeded Hulkenburg too, then the likelihood is he would have managed to not be where he was to help cause it.

Also: how the hell did Hulkenburg and di Resta get up there?

Really?

Grosjean stuck him on the grass.

[Katsuya]

I could have sworn he had a bit of room left. I was watching the race on my iPhone though, so maybe I missed it.

[MJB]

I've not really seen it again but it looked as if Romain knocked Lewis' front left and shoved him onto the grass, Hamilton then got all out of shape as they both got tangled up and then slammed into the back of Fernando.

But yeah, a race ban seems a bit harsh. Especially with everything that Maldonado has gotten away with this season.

The Force India's were both on the inside at the first corner, Kimi and Jenson went through with no worries and everyone else either got caught up in the accident, or they were stuck behind it. Meanwhile, Di Resta, Hulkenberg and Michael got through and made up the top five.

[Katsuya]

Alonso has made the point that this was Grosjean's seventh first lap incident in 12 races, mind.

Also, I'm far too tempted to put a fiver on Kimi to win the title. He's done it before...

[MJB]

Yeah, decent few points for Kimi today. And you just have to feel that a win will come soon. I know everyone has talked about it since Bahrain, but it will come.

[GA!]

But yeah, a race ban seems a bit harsh. Especially with everything that Maldonado has gotten away with this season.

I imagine when Maldonado has his next racing incident, he will get a ban too. He and Romain have been as bad as each other all year, and Romain isn't the malicious one.

[Katsuya]

Lotus, when they were Renault at least, had a habit of picking it up at the end of the season too (thinking of Alonso's return years)

ETA: Lewis definitely had room to move over to the right before Grosjean hit him. The first contact is what pushed Lewis on to the grass which meant he had no control.

[LUKIE]

It was certainly Grosjean's fault. To be honest, Hamilton could have potentially avoided the accident by braking a bit earlier, but then again, maybe he didn't think Grosjean was going to keep coming over.

I do think a race ban is very harsh though. It's not like it was malicious. It is the run down to the first corner, where you are trying to watch four sides of your car at once.

[Lineker]

What a race - just glad nobody came away from it with a serious injury.

Jenson Button dominated a Belgian Grand Prix that began with a huge startline crash in which title contenders Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton were eliminated.

With Sebastian Vettel coming through to finish second, the incident meant Alonso saw his championship lead slashed to 24 points.

The accident started when Lotus driver Romain Grosjean moved across the track on the approach to La Source and squeezed Hamilton's McLaren.

The two made contact and ploughed into the cars ahead in dramatic fashion. Alonso and Sergio Perez were also eliminated, while slow-starting front-row man Kamui Kobayashi and Pastor Maldonado (who jumped the start) both picked up damage.

The latter pair rejoined, but Maldonado was soon out following a restart clash with Timo Glock's Marussia.

The accident totally reshuffled the race order, with Button leading Kimi Raikkonen's Lotus, Force India duo Nico Hulkenberg and Paul di Resta, Michael Schumacher's Mercedes and Toro Rosso pair Daniel Ricciardo and Jean-Eric Vergne.

The Red Bulls were delayed in the chaos, leaving Mark Webber in eighth and Vettel 12th.

Button charged away from the outset, making a one-stop race work to perfection as he followed up his maiden McLaren pole with his first win since the season-opener in Australia.

Raikkonen lacked pace early on and was overtaken by Hulkenberg and Schumacher.

An early first stop helped the Lotus regain ground, but the best strategy appeared to be to pit once. A combination of that tactic and several early passing moves helped Vettel emerge in a clear second place.

Schumacher also tried to pit once, but found himself under big presser from two-stoppers Raikkonen and Hulkenberg.

This led to some spectacular racing, including Raikkonen overtaking Schumacher around the outside into Eau Rouge, as the seven-time champion twice managed to fight back past his rivals using DRS. Eventually he had to admit defeat and pit again.

By then Raikkonen was long gone and heading for the final podium spot, ahead of Hulkenberg, Ferrari's Felipe Massa, and Webber.

Schumacher salvaged seventh, as the Toro Rossos and di Resta fell back to the tail of the top 10.

Nico Rosberg and Bruno Senna also had to make late tyre stops, leaving them outside the points.

Caterham briefly looked like it might achieve an upset as Heikki Kovalainen emerged in 10th on lap one. But he soon fell back and would later have two spins and a pitlane clash with Narain Karthikeyan.

PROVISIONAL RACE RESULTS


The Belgian Grand Prix

Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium;

44 laps; 308.052km;

Weather: Sunny.


Classified:


Pos  Driver        Team                       Time

 1.  Button        McLaren-Mercedes           1h29:08.530

 2.  Vettel        Red Bull-Renault           +    13.624

 3.  Raikkonen     Lotus-Renault              +    25.334

 4.  Hulkenberg    Force India-Mercedes       +    27.843

 5.  Massa         Ferrari                    +    29.845

 6.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault           +    31.244

 7.  Schumacher    Mercedes                   +    53.374

 8.  Vergne        Toro Rosso-Ferrari         +    58.865

 9.  Ricciardo     Toro Rosso-Ferrari         +  1:02.982

10.  Di Resta      Force India-Mercedes       +  1:03.783

11.  Rosberg       Mercedes                   +  1:05.111

12.  Senna         Williams-Renault           +  1:11.529

13.  Kobayashi     Sauber-Ferrari             +  1:56.119

14.  Petrov        Caterham-Renault           +     1 lap

15.  Glock         Marussia-Cosworth          +     1 lap

16.  Pic           Marussia-Cosworth          +     1 lap

17.  Kovalainen    Caterham-Renault           +     1 lap

18.  De la Rosa    HRT-Cosworth               +     1 lap


Fastest lap: Senna, 1:52.822


Not classified/retirements:


Driver        Team                         On lap

Karthikeyan   HRT-Cosworth                 30

Maldonado     Williams-Renault             5

Perez         Sauber-Ferrari               1

Alonso        Ferrari                      1

Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes             1

Grosjean      Lotus-Renault                1


World Championship standings, round 12:


Drivers:                    Constructors:             

 1.  Alonso       164        1.  Red Bull-Renault          272

 2.  Vettel       140        2.  McLaren-Mercedes          218

 3.  Webber       132        3.  Lotus-Renault             207

 4.  Raikkonen    131        4.  Ferrari                   199

 5.  Hamilton     117        5.  Mercedes                  112

 6.  Button       101        6.  Sauber-Ferrari             80

 7.  Rosberg       77        7.  Force India-Mercedes       59

 8.  Grosjean      76        8.  Williams-Renault           53

 9.  Perez         47        9.  Toro Rosso-Ferrari         12

10.  Schumacher    35

11.  Massa         35

12.  Kobayashi     33

13.  Hulkenberg    31

14.  Maldonado     29

15.  Di Resta      28

16.  Senna         24

17.  Vergne         8

18.  Ricciardo      4


All timing unofficial[/code]


Romain Grosjean has been given a one-race ban and €50,000 fine for triggering the Belgian Grand Prix start crash.


The Lotus driver moved across on Lewis Hamilton on the run towards the first corner of the Spa race, causing the McLaren to take to the grass.


The two cars then made contact and ploughed into Fernando Alonso's Ferrari and the two Saubers.


Grosjean said he could not be sure who had caused the crash.


"[i had] a very good start and then boom - it was the end of the race. I haven't seen the images and I need to see them to have any point of view," he said.


"But the main thing is that everybody is OK. That is the most important for me."


But the stewards held Grosjean responsible and bestowed a one-race ban for next week's Italian GP.


"The stewards regard this incident as an extremely serious breach of the regulations which had the potential to cause injury to others," said a statement from the officials.


"It eliminated leading championship contenders from the race."


It added that Lotus and Grosjean had not tried to contest the stewards' verdict. Lotus confirmed it would not appeal.


"The stewards note the team conceded the action of the driver was an extremely serious mistake and an error of judgement," it said.


"Neither the team nor the driver made any submission in mitigation of penalty."


Lotus has former Virgin racer Jerome D'Ambrosio as a reserve driver.


Romain Grosjean has accepted his one-race ban for causing the multi-car accident at the start of the Belgian Grand Prix, but says the punishment is hard to take.


The 26-year-old Frenchman was banned from participating in next weekend's Italian Grand Prix and fined €50,000 after the Spa stewards concluded he caused an avoidable crash at La Source.


"When you love racing this is very hard," said Grosjean. "I accept my mistake."


Grosjean maintained he did not intend to squeeze Lewis Hamilton's McLaren towards the pitwall on the inside, prior to the contact that caused them both to collide with Fernando Alonso's Ferrari and both Saubers.


"We know that La Source is a very tough corner. It was a bit of a crazy start as well with [Pastor] Maldonado leaving [the grid early] and the Sauber [Kobayashi] smoking a lot," said Grosjean.


"I did a mistake and I misjudged the gap with Lewis. I was sure I was in front of him. So a small mistake made a big incident.


"I didn't change my line, I went from left to right. I was not really wanting to put anyone in the wall - I'm not here to stop the race in the first corner. I'm very, very sorry and I'm glad that nobody is hurt.


"But I have to say it is a very, very hard decision to hear."


Grosjean, who has been involved in seven early-race incidents this year, said he was more angry with himself than with the penalty, but added that the accidents were not all caused by over-aggression.


"I did too many," he said. "If there is more than one then that is too many, I agree. But as I say it is not always the same. It's not over-aggressive by braking 200 metres too late, it's just most of the time misjudgement of the space I have in front or the space I have on the side.


"It's true that we don't see much in the mirrors and stuff like that and it goes very quick at the start.


"I was to be honest 100 per cent sure I was in front of Lewis but I was not so I need to rethink about my view of the car.


"I am the most angry at myself to have misjudged the gap with Lewis's car."


Grosjean said that his focus now was on analysing what led to the ban and to ensure that the rest of the season continues without error, adding that he hoped it would not affect his chances of keeping his drive with Lotus in 2012.


"It is too much. I know that. Some are not my fault, but yeah I will analyse that and I will try to not repeat it in the seven last races," he said.


"For sure I don't want to do any more [crashes] by the end of the season. So I will work, I will analyse as much as I can to try and avoid those. Some were misfortune, some were my mistake but now it is time to finish that."


Lotus boss Eric Boullier hopes that Romain Grosjean learns lessons from the errors he has made this season, in the wake of his one-race ban.


Grosjean will be forced to miss the Italian Grand Prix after stewards deemed his involvement in a startline crash in Belgium was a "serious" breach of the regulations.


Although Boullier believes that the punishment was "severe", he reckons that Grosjean will go forward aware of what he needs to change to avoid future dramas.


Asked if he felt ultimately that the ban will help make Grosjean think about what he is doing, Boullier said: "I can only say yes, I hope so. Obviously the penalty is done to make people understand what they did.


"So the penalty can help him learn to do better in the future and I am happy about that."


Grosjean has been involved in seven early race incidents this year - in Australia, Malaysia, Spain, Monaco, Britain, Germany and Belgium.


Boullier says that he will have to sit down for talks with the Frenchman to try and help him avoid getting involved in further crashes.


"He was not responsible for seven incidents," he said. "He was involved in seven incidents, which is different.


"But obviously being in the wrong place is not good; and that means we have to keep working and talking, which is more talking I think, about the reason why he is in the wrong place."


He added: "I guess part of the problem is that he wants to do it. He is somebody who is a perfectionist and wants to do really well and deliver really well, and I think he needs to just understand.


"And he will learn even more if he does not put too much pressure on himself at the start of the race."


Boullier said he was undecided whether Grosjean would attend the Italian GP, even though he would not be driving.


"He is part of the team, he should be there and that is it," he said.


Lotus says there is a "very high" chance that its reserve driver Jerome d'Ambrosio will be drafted in as replacement for Romain Grosjean at the Italian Grand Prix.


Grosjean has been handed a one-race ban for causing a major startline crash in Belgium - which means he will miss next week's event at Monza.


And although Lotus says that it is going to wait a bit more before committing to its decision, team principal Eric Boullier admits that it is likely that d'Ambrosio will be called up.


When asked about the chances of the former Virgin racer being given his opportunity, Boullier said: "Very high.


"There are many drivers around who are looking for a drive. We will consider first Jerome, who is our third driver. He has most of the chance to drive the car.


"But I need to sit down with him. I need to do a couple of things and then we will see."


Other contenders with race experience who are available are Adrian Sutil, Jaime Alguersuari and Rubens Barrichello.


D'Ambrosio raced for Virgin in 2011, but was replaced by Charles Pic for the start of this season.


He has already driven this year's Lotus E20 at the Mugello test, which took place after the Bahrain GP.


Lewis Hamilton declined to discuss the Belgian Grand Prix startline crash that began with contact between his McLaren and Romain Grosjean's Lotus.


Grosjean appeared to move across on Hamilton on the run towards La Source, putting the McLaren on the grass.


They then crashed into Fernando Alonso's Ferrari and the two Saubers going into the hairpin.


Hamilton said he just wanted to move on and celebrate team-mate Jenson Button's victory.


"I don't want to talk about the start crash," he said.


"Just congratulations to Jenson, he did a fantastic race. It looked like a walk in the park for him."


While Button took a commanding pole position and race win, Hamilton only qualified eighth following a controversial decision to stick with an older-specification rear wing.


"It's great to see that the team had the pace and I've got to try to pull that out of my car in the next race," said Hamilton.


The start incident saw Hamilton, Alonso and Grosjean's cars all slightly airborne at times, but the Briton played down the severity of the crash.


"I've had a lot worse than that," he said.


Fernando Alonso said he felt fortunate to escape serious injury in the Belgian Grand Prix startline crash.


The world championship leader's Ferrari was hit by Romain Grosjean's Lotus and Lewis Hamilton's McLaren as they tangled on the approach to La Source.


The Lotus flew over the top of the Ferrari, which also briefly got off the ground as it was pushed into Sergio Perez's Sauber.


"I'm disappointed because of the points lost," said Alonso, whose championship lead is now down to 24 points over Sebastian Vettel.


"But I'm also lucky that I can be in the car in five days at Monza because looking at the image, we were turning in so you could have a problem with your hands or even your head because [Grosjean's] car was so close.


"I think we broke everything on top of the car. It was lucky in that aspect."


Alonso said he could not understand how the accident unfolded until he saw the replays.


"I didn't know what happened until I saw on TV because it was difficult to imagine how the hit could be so big or how a car could be on you so quickly," he said.


"After seeing it on TV, I saw Grosjean and Lewis touch each other. They lost control and then it was in front of us."


The Spaniard took a few moments to assess his condition before getting out of his wrecked Ferrari.


"I stayed in the car for a few seconds because I had back pain," he explained.


"Then there was a little bit of fire so they came with extinguishers and I decided to jump out because I could not breathe with all the smoke there."


Alonso added that the start had been eventful even before the accident.


"The first thing was [Pastor] Maldonado," he said. "I was surprised because we still had the red lights and he was already P3 or P2. So it was a big jumped start.


"Then the start was good, I overtook the two Saubers and was in third position.


"Then I started turning in and then it felt like a train coming. It was a big, big hit."


A slow getaway was crucial in Jean-Eric Vergne's impressive run to eighth place at the Belgian Grand Prix, according to the Frenchman.


Both Vergne and his Toro Rosso team-mate Daniel Ricciardo benefited greatly from the first corner crash that marred the start of the race. They went on to finish eighth and ninth respectively, the first points-scoring outing for Toro Rosso since the Malaysian GP.


Vergne said it was a slow start that put him in a position to avoid the carnage.


"I did not get a very good start, as I just touched the anti-stall," he admitted.


"That meant quite a few cars passed me and that's when I saw there was a crash. I braked and took a line as near to the inside as possible and I came out of it without too much trouble.


"I enjoyed myself today and I think we are on the right track, although it's hard to say exactly what was better about our car this weekend. We will analyse everything that happened this afternoon with the intention of being even stronger in Monza next weekend."


Ricciardo, meanwhile, was ecstatic to score his first points since Melbourne, although he did acknowledge that his two stints on the hard tyre cost him a couple of positions.


"That was good fun!" said the Australian.


"We managed to benefit from the incident immediately after the start, when I had got a good run off the line. Then I managed to move right to the inside going through the hairpin and came out sixth.


"My first stint was on the medium tyre and I think I ran as high as fourth at one point. However, I was not quite as quick in my last two stints which were on the prime, so I dropped a couple of positions.


"You always want to do better, you always want more, but you can't complain with ninth."


Kamui Kobayashi said seeing his Spa front-row start wasted in the first-lap accident was a "terrible" feeling.


The Japanese driver had achieved the best qualifying result of his Formula 1 career with second behind Jenson Button, but made a slow start and was involved in the first corner clash that removed Romain Grosjean, Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton.


Kobayashi made it to the finish in 13th despite damage to his car from the incident.


"This is a terrible race result after doing so well in qualifying. There was nothing I could do when a car came flying into mine at the start," he said.


"I had to pit once for some repairs and then again after seven laps because of a slow puncture.


"During the race I didn't really know how bad the damage to the car was, but I could see a tyre print on the cockpit all the time.


"Later in parc ferme I understood why the car was so slow."


His Sauber team-mate Sergio Perez, who started fourth, was taken out in the crash.


"I am very disappointed for myself and the team because this was a great opportunity for us to fight for a victory," he said.


"Cars came from behind and hit me, it was a big mess."


Sauber CEO Monisha Kaltenborn promised the team would bounce back.


"It is very disappointing that once again factors beyond our control have ruined the race," she said.


"We have to take the positive out of the weekend and if we don't make any mistakes and get qualifying right we can be at the front. That is the target for the next race."


Ferrari team boss Stefano Domenicali believes the Belgian Grand Prix start accident should spur action on driving standards throughout the Formula 1 feeder series.


World championship contenders Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton were taken out when reigning GP2 champion Romain Grosjean caused a dramatic crash on the run to La Source on lap one at Spa. The Saubers, which had been the sensations of qualifying, were also caught up in the incident.


The stewards subsequently gave Grosjean a one-race ban for causing the crash.


Domenicali believes further action should be taken to improve driving standards in F1's feeder series.


"In my view, the most important thing is looking at the behaviour of drivers," he said.


"It has to start in the championships before Formula 1.


"You see it too often in the other series that drivers are very aggressive and try to do something almost over what it is possible to do, so it is important to be very strict since they start racing and then they will arrive in F1 in a better condition for that."


He said Grosjean had to shoulder full responsibility for the Spa accident.


Grosjean's Lotus flew over the top of Alonso's Ferrari as the crash unfolded.


"For sure it was not the fault of Fernando - that is the basic point!" said Domenicali.


"I have to say after what happened I am pleased and happy that nothing happened to him.


"Having a car flying almost over his head could be really dangerous.


"Specifically on that point, for sure I believe that all was caused by the move of Grosjean."


Pastor Maldonado will be demoted 10 places on the Italian Grand Prix grid as a punishment for both jumping the start in Belgium and colliding with Timo Glock.


The Williams driver had already been given a three-place grid penalty at Spa for blocking Nico Hulkenberg in qualifying.


He then made a premature getaway in the race, before being tagged into a spin as the crash involving Romain Grosjean, Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alonso and the Saubers unfolded.


Maldonado rejoined, only to collide with Timo Glock's Marussia at the restart, ending his race.


Although Glock was able to continue, the stewards ruled that Maldonado's actions in the clash deserved a five-place penalty.


They also bestowed an additional five-place drop as he had been unable to take the usual drivethrough penalty for a jump-start in the race due to his early retirement.


"The driver failed to finish the race so the usual penalty for a false start could not be imposed," said an official statement.


Maldonado accepted the blame for the start error.


"I made a slight mistake at the start because the clutch slipped out of my hands before the red light switched off," he said.


Caterham has been given a €10,000 fine for releasing Heikki Kovalainen from the pits in an unsafe manner during the Belgian Grand Prix, but other pit incidents involving Mark Webber and Michael Schumacher were not punished.


Kovalainen made contact with Narain Karthikeyan's HRT in the lap-14 incident. The clash damaged the Caterham's nose, prompting an additional pitstop and contributing to Kovalainen's disappointing 17th-place finish.


Caterham Group chief executive Riad Asmat admitted the team had made a mistake.


"This has been a tough race for the team and it is fair to say we have not helped ourselves with a number of avoidable errors costing us over the weekend," he said.


The stewards said Caterham had accepted responsibility: "The team admitted to the stewards that it considered itself at fault in causing the unsafe release and apologised to HRT accordingly. The stewards did not consider that any sporting advantage was gained."


Webber and Red Bull had also been investigated for an unsafe release after a near-miss with Felipe Massa's Ferrari on lap 27.


The Australian had been confident there was no transgression, and the stewards agreed.


"It was OK. I knew I had Felipe there," said Webber.


"I rolled out of it a little bit to let him merge back in, and then took the fast lane."


A stewards' statement backed Webber's view: "The stewards noted the evidence that indicated the driver of car #2 [Webber] was aware of the approach of car #6 [Massa] into the pitlane and deliberately, after being released, kept to the right and momentarily lifted throttle to allow car #6 to enter its pit unimpeded, before car #2 turned out into the fast lane."


The stewards also looked into a moment on lap 19 when Schumacher cut across Sebastian Vettel's Red Bull to dive into the pits while they were engaged in a wheel-to-wheel battle, but again felt no action was required.


"Red Bull Racing admitted to the stewards that their instruction to the driver of car #1 [Vettel] was to 'do the opposite of car #7 [schumacher]'. Therefore when car #7 headed for the pit entry car #1 aborted its entry to the pits," said the officials' statement.


Sebastian Vettel says the Belgian Grand Prix result shows that the 2012 Formula 1 title fight is still wide open.


As points leader Fernando Alonso and title contender Lewis Hamilton were eliminated in a frightening first-lap tangle with Romain Grosjean, Vettel came through from 10th on the grid to finish second and reduce Alonso's points lead to 24.


"It's better than before!" said Vettel. "I had a look when I went on holiday, and right now I don't care about scoring and points, but I care about the championship.


"I don't know what happened in the first corner but [Alonso] didn't finish the race.


"I am not bothered by gaps and points. You saw the first corner and you see how quickly things can change - that is racing.


"Next week we go to Monza, and it would be nice to qualify on pole and be first into the chicane. Behind there it can be a bit more of a risk."


The first-lap crash had not initially worked to Vettel's benefit, as he was delayed behind the tangled cars and came out in 12th. A series of passes and a one-stop strategy then brought him through to second behind runaway winner Jenson Button.


"I think after the first corner I was probably only one not improving," Vettel said.


"A lot of cars crashed in front of us. I had a poor initial launch and lost positions.


"I started around the Force Indias and they were with Jenson at the first corner, and I was with Caterham.


"The pace was there but it was not easy up the straight when everyone has DRS available.


"You're still on the limiter and it's difficult to benefit from that.


"But we made reasonable progress through the field and then were able to have a couple of good laps in clean air.


"That allowed us to come back through strategy, which enabled us to finish second.


"We didn't expect the tyres to last that well. Most people were thinking of two or three stops and one stop seemed out of reach, but after a couple of laps it was clear the tyres were lasting pretty well and the pace was not too bad.


"Saturday morning went quite well, [b]qualifying was shit[/b] and Sunday was OK. I'm happy with second."


Jenson Button says he is not thinking about mounting a late challenge for the Formula 1 world championship, despite taking a dominant win at the Belgian Grand Prix.


After qualifying fastest on Saturday, the McLaren driver said a win was crucial if he was to stay in the fight for the title. But having won the race, he admitted that he would not be thinking about bridging the 63-point gap to leader Fernando Alonso in the lead-up to next week's Italian GP.


"This is a great weekend for the team, and for me as well," Button said.


"It is a good 25 points, and if we can keep fighting for victories like this there is still a small chance I can fight for that championship.


"But going to Monza, I don't think about the championship. We go there to do best job we can and bring back home most points we can.


"As I said before the race, it is a massive long shot to win the title, but today proves you can claw back 25 points very, very quickly."


Button also said he was encouraged by just how dominant his Spa win was, particularly as he and McLaren opted for a risky one-stop strategy on a day where there was a big question over tyre degradation.


"We were not sure what to do with strategy, whether it would be one or two, or if some thought it was three [stops]," he said.


"When Nico [Hulkenberg] got into second it did help a little bit. I could feel the car and not push too hard, but at that point I still didn't think it would be one stop.


"And then on lap 12 the tyres started working. The car was really consistent and I could drive and I could control degradation of tyres. [it's a] great feeling to go so much further than everyone except for Sebastian [Vettel]."


Kimi Raikkonen said he was happy with third place considering how difficult his Lotus was to drive in the Belgian Grand Prix.


Raikkonen moved ahead of Lewis Hamilton into fourth in the championship with his third straight podium finish and his sixth of the season, but could not challenge a dominant Jenson Button.


The Finn struggled for straightline speed in the race. He faced a tough battle getting past the Mercedes of Michael Schumacher, which had high tyre wear but was faster on the straights.


"We did not have much speed. Considering how difficult the handling was and how tricky the car was to drive I am very happy to finish third," Raikkonen said.


"I wasn't expecting a very easy race and it turned out to be very difficult.


"The first few laps on new tyres were good and then I started sliding. We had a bit more high downforce to get more grip which meant we struggled in a straight line."


Raikkonen ultimately overtook Schumacher with a very bold outside-line pass into Eau Rouge.


"Michael passed me once and then he got me back," said Raikkonen.


"Even with DRS I could not pass him, so I had to take a chance to overtake him with KERS into Eau Rouge and he still almost got me back."


He regarded his third place as damage limitation.


"It is better to finish third than not to finish," Raikkonen said.


"We didn't win but we didn't have the speed to win so we didn't deserve to win.


"The last two races we had the speed but in races that you could not overtake. Here we did not have the speed."


Nico Hulkenberg said he was delighted with fourth place in the Belgian Grand Prix despite initially hoping he might manage a maiden Formula 1 podium.


The Force India driver stayed out of trouble in the first corner melee and ran as high as second, battling with Michael Schumacher and Kimi Raikkonen.


Hulkenberg was confident that his two-stop strategy was the correct decision as he raced to his best finish in F1.


The result took Hulkenberg ahead of team-mate Paul di Resta in the championship and elevated Force India to seventh in the constructors' standings, above Williams, which failed to score.


"I've got a big smile on my face today because it's just the result we needed for our fight for the championship," Hulkenberg said.


"I was as high as second and for a while I was even thinking we could finish on the podium.


"But the race was tough. I had some great fights with Kimi and Michael, I was always on the limit.


"The start was eventful, but fortunately I was able to avoid the debris and take advantage of the situation."


Di Resta ran behind Hulkenberg in fourth following the early-race restart, but was compromised by a KERS problem and could only finish 10th.


"[it was] a tough race for me, largely due to a KERS failure on the car just before the race, which really hurt my performance and speed on the straights," said di Resta.


"I couldn't really attack or defend, which is a shame because I ended up in fourth place after the start, but we couldn't capitalise on it."


Michael Schumacher reckoned his late second pitstop in the Belgian Grand Prix would have paid off if his Mercedes had not developed a gearbox problem.


The German driver, celebrating his 300th grand prix, finished in seventh position after pitting for a new set of tyres having been passed by Kimi Raikkonen's Lotus.


Schumacher had originally looked set to complete the race on one stop before having to pit again with nine laps to go. He believes he would have then charged back had he not lost sixth gear - but that the pitstop gamble was still worthwhile as he was likely to tumble backwards had he stayed on his worn Pirellis.


"We tried our luck, it actually looked pretty reasonable at the start," said Schumacher.


"We were fighting in the early laps [of the second stint] with [Daniel] Ricciardo and some other guys, and I needed to push my tyres, and that decided the fact that we had to come in again.


"We could have finished on that set, but I'm pretty sure we would have finished in the same position.


"I think it was a good decision to come in and change tyres and fight again in the last laps for further positions.


"But then I had to stop thinking about that with seven laps to go because I lost seventh gear and I was just lucky to finish the race."


Nico Rosberg also had to pit late in the race, on a tough weekend for the Mercedes team. He could only finish 11th, having started 23rd following a gearbox-change penalty and a poor qualifying session.


"It has been a disappointing weekend for us, without the gearbox problem and the penalty I could have probably scored some decent points this weekend," said Rosberg.


"We were running with a one-stop strategy because I needed to take the risk and move up but it didn't work and we had to come in again quite late on."


Marussia reckons Timo Glock would have had a shot at beating Caterham in the Belgian Grand Prix had he not been hit by Pastor Maldonado at the safety car restart.


Williams driver Maldonado was given a five-place grid penalty for the Italian GP as a punishment for the clash with Glock, which ended Maldonado's race and put the German to the tail of the field.


Glock recovered to finish 15th, half a minute behind Caterham's Vitaly Petrov, but he was adamant that the gap would have been smaller but for the incident with Maldonado.


"We knew we could be stronger in the race and we were; we could have been stronger still but for the problem with Maldonado which lost me time earlier in the race and created a bigger gap to Petrov at the end than might otherwise have been the case," said Glock.


Team boss John Booth also rued the clash with the Williams.


"The incident between Maldonado and Timo left him right at the back of the field behind the HRTs, which was less than ideal in terms of our objective of taking the fight to Caterham after the safety car restart," Booth said.


"We opted to switch Timo to a two-stop strategy to allow him the free air he needed to achieve our pace potential in the middle stint in order to close the gap. This worked well and Timo did a great job to respond to the switch."


He added: "Despite his pace, the gap created as a consequence of earlier incidents meant there was no hope of him catching up to Petrov."


Although frustrated with the collision, Booth was very satisfied with Marussia's pace at Spa.


The team had introduced a major upgrade package for this weekend's race.


"For large portions of the race, the substantial upgrade we introduced here allowed our drivers to match the pace of our immediate competitors, so we can be pleased overall that the margins are reducing and also we only saw a few blue flags and quite late on in the race," said Booth.


"These incremental upgrades will bring the additional pace that will significantly aid our ability to race on the lead lap and minimise our blue flag time loss towards the end of the race."


Narain Karthikeyan's heavy crash in the Belgian Grand Prix was caused by a wheelnut problem at his second pitstop.


The Indian went off at Stavelot on his 30th lap, spinning into the barrier and ending his race.


"Something went wrong with the pitstop," Karthikeyan told AUTOSPORT. "The bolt was cross-threaded and then it came off.


"I was lucky it didn't come off at Eau Rouge or something like that.


"I didn't feel it at first, but a few tenths before the accident I felt the front going and it happened too quickly for it to be possible to react. By then, it was already making me spin."


The Indian suffered a knock to his left foot in the impact but this will not cause him any problems at Monza.


"It was a big impact and there was a knock to my foot, but it will be fine for Monza," he said.


"What happened is a shame because up to that point we were having a good race."


Cosworth is ready to commit to building a new Formula 1 engine for the V6 era in 2014, as it rubbished suggestions it plans to leave the sport at the end of next year.


There has been talk in recent weeks from leading paddock figures that there would be just three engine manufacturers after next year - Ferrari, Renault and Mercedes-Benz.


That came following the PURE company's decision to suspend its operations because of financial issues, and uncertainty over Cosworth's intentions.


However, speaking to AUTOSPORT in the wake of a fresh deal with Marussia for 2013, Cosworth's general manager of F1 Kim Spearman made it clear the famous engine company is pushing to secure its longer-term future in F1 too.


"We are ready to supply engines for 2014," he said. "Initial discussions have been had with some people, and I think by the end of September we would like to know where we are. But I don't think we have to have all the t's crossed and the i's dotted by then. It can go a little bit longer than that."


Although it is believed that all three current car manufacturers in F1 have begun bench testing of their next engines, Cosworth says that there is still more than enough time for it to development an all-new power unit for the start of the 2014 season.


"Regularly we have done clean sheet of paper engines in 10 months," he said. "It is something we can do and have done time and again over the years. We would like a bit more than that because it is a complicated engine, but there is still a good amount of time left to do one. We are not particularly stressed at the moment about getting it done."


Cosworth's group head of marketing Pio Szyjanowicz said that the company would not reveal who it was speaking to about 2014 - but insisted that any deals would have to make commercial sense for both parties.


"I think what we have seen from Craig [Pollock, head of PURE] putting things on hold is that it demonstrates just how difficult the marketplace is," he said.


"We have said time again that a solution needs to be commercially viable, and it would be remiss of us not to offer something that was commercially viable. The sport owes it to the fans and teams, and everybody involved in our industry, to make sure that they produce something that is sustainable and makes commercial sense.


"We will remain fairly private about our discussions until we have got to the point where we can reveal them to everybody, but commercial confidence is highly regarded in Formula 1. Everyone is trying to understand their options and there are still plenty of them.


"From our point of view we stand ready to provide a competitive engine whatever year that is required."


Cosworth this week announced a new deal with Marussia for next year, and it is in discussions with HRT about extending its deal there for 2013 too.


"We have one team signed and the other team we are working with and expect an announcement in the next 10 days," said Spearman. "Hopefully both teams will go forward for next year."

[Lineker]

Closed cockpits are the future? Apparently so....

Closed cockpits now appear to be inevitable in Formula 1, with technical chiefs set to ramp up efforts to bring them in following Fernando Alonso's lucky escape in the first lap crash at the Belgian Grand Prix.

Romain Grosjean's Lotus flew over the front of Alonso's cockpit in the pile-up, and it was fortunate that the Ferrari driver did not suffer any impact on his helmet.

The good fortune served to highlight the biggest weakness in the modern safety design of F1 cars, and comes as the FIA Institute and technical figures continue work on closed cockpit concepts.

McLaren technical director Paddy Lowe thinks the first corner crash will serve as a reminder about how important this work is and increase a push being made to change cockpit designs for as early as 2014.

"I think 2014 is intended, as we started the project a year ago," said Lowe, who has been involved in work on the cockpit project. "Personally I think something is inevitable because it is the one big [safety] exposure that we have got.

"You see it time and time again and think 'that was lucky'. One day it won't be lucky. At the same time it is an open cockpit formula so we have to protect that, but it should be technically possible one way or another."

Work on closed cockpits ramped up after the injuries that Felipe Massa suffered at the 2009 Hungarian Grand Prix when he was hit on the head by a car component, just a few days after Henry Surtees was killed in a Formula 2 race when he was struck by a wheel.

Lowe says that an initial focus on canopy protection has now been abandoned, with tests highlighting that a bar/cage type design is much better.

"We have made a test piece and it has been tested structurally with various impacts, like firing wheels at it, and that was successful.

"So we understand some of the parameters in terms of the angles that are needed and the strength of the pieces. The work that is currently in progress is assessing its visibility, and we've done some work on the simulator with our interpretation.

"Ideally a driver wants nothing in the way, but in the same way as you drive a road car or even the old VW camper van with the centre pillar, you just get used to it don't you? We found that as long as the pillars don't get too big it is something you can get used to.

"So we have some parameters about pillar size, and now we are looking at making something with that pillar size and to the right strength requirement."

Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali says that work on closed cockpits should not be rushed though, because there are numerous safety considerations needed.

"We were lucky because nothing happened to Fernando on the head," he said.

"We are working with the federation to work on the right system of protection, because on what we are testing and working on, there are also some problems that you may have - like moving the protection in the event of a fire or worse. So we need to be very careful on all these devices."

Fernando Alonso believes that drivers must take their share of responsibility for avoiding future collisions rather than just relying on the FIA to clamp down on bad driving.

The Spaniard was involved in the Belgian Grand Prix start crash that took out a number of cars and was triggered when Romain Grosjean moved across on Lewis Hamilton on the run to La Source.

Alonso insists he is not cross about what happened - as Grosjean did not deliberately drive into Hamilton - but he thinks that it has highlighted the need for more sensible behaviour out on track.

When asked if he was angry at Grosjean, Alonso said: "No. No-one would do this on purpose.

"I think they had a battle and they are two aggressive drivers on the start. This time it was us in the wrong place at the wrong moment, and we were hit. But it is also true that in 12 races, Romain has had seven crashes at the start."

Alonso believes that drivers cannot simply hope that the FIA steps in every time there is trouble, and instead says those in the cockpit have to change their ways.

"This was a weekend where we saw many accidents in GP2 and GP3, and now in F1. It is up to us, the drivers, to have common sense and respect for the others."

Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali believes that driving standards need to be tightened up below F1 so that drivers arrive in grand prix racing better prepared.

Alonso believes the FIA could to rethink its approach to eradicate bad driving.

"I think there is an opportunity," he said. "It is true that we have seen some repeat accidents from the same people, and maybe a different approach from the federation could be the solution.

"But it is not always that you need to take a different approach because Formula 1 with speed, time and distance, it is difficult to combine these three elements.

"And sometimes things that look spectacular on TV are not so easy to avoid for real. But I am sure they will do a good job and take care of all the details."

Red Bull says it was vital for its title hopes that it capitalised on Fernando Alonso's first corner exit in the Belgian Grand Prix.

Alonso had headed in to the race 40 points clear of Mark Webber, with Sebastian Vettel two points further adrift.

But the Spaniard's retirement, allied to Vettel's second place finish, means the gap is now down to 24 points with eight races remaining.

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner thinks that such a big turnaround was essential at some point to give his outfit a chance of winning a third consecutive drivers' championship.

"I have said on numerous occasions that things during the course of a championship tend to even themselves out," Horner said.

"Fernando has had a phenomenal run of points scoring races and, at some point, that was going to come to an end.

"It was unfortunate for him and it looked really nasty when the Lotus went very close to his head. But all the drivers escaped uninjured; that was the most important thing.

"After that it was clear that they were all okay, so on a day when two championship rivals were not scoring it was important to capitalise on it."

Red Bull returns to Monza next weekend, the scene of one of its most dominant victories last year.

But Horner thinks that its form there 12 months ago matters little this time out.

"I think with the way this season has been, everything from last year does not really count," he said. "So we will go to Monza, and we hope to be competitive there.

"It was one of our best races there, it is a great track, hopefully a different challenge, and we hope to be competitive."

Lotus has ruled out bringing its double DRS to the Italian Grand Prix, after being forced to abandon its race debut in Belgium because of poor weather in practice.

The Enstone-based outfit had hoped to be able to race the device at Spa, but the wash out on Friday meant that the outfit could not get it set up to work for the race.

Plus, there was too big a risk of problems in the grand prix if it took a gamble on keeping it on the car.

The fact that Monza is such a low drag circuit from a car setup point of view means that there is limited benefit to using it there.

Lotus team principal Eric Boullier has ruled out the team racing the double DRS in Italy, but it is likely that the device will make a return at the Singapore Grand Prix.

"I am very confident we will not use it, because Monza is Monza," he said. "It is a different aero configuration."

Lotus is not the only team on the verge of racing such a design, because Mercedes began testing components for one in Belgium last weekend.

It is not thought likely that the Mercedes device will be ready to race imminently, but it is being pencilled in for later this season.

Jenson Button's Belgian Grand Prix victory has put him firmly back in the championship hunt, according to his team principal Martin Whitmarsh.

The Briton was in brilliant form at Spa as he delivered the first lights-to-flag victory of the 2012 Formula 1 season.

And although Button is still 63 points adrift of points leader Fernando Alonso, Whitmarsh thinks there is no doubt that the 2009 world champion can build on his success and set his sights on the title once again.

"He was frustrated when things didn't go well, but I think with a performance like that he's got to believe that he is capable of getting up there now," said Whitmarsh. "It's a long old season to go.

"Clearly we've got a quick car. We've been quick on both sides of the break on very different circuits and that must be reassuring for him. It must give him the confidence that he can really get the job done.

"I think people quickly get on the case of loss of form, but actually I think he always believed in himself."

Although Button's team-mate Lewis Hamilton had a more difficult weekend - both on and off track – Whitmarsh sees no evidence to suggest that his title efforts are stalling.

"It has been a difficult week for Lewis, but he is actually very tough and he's starting to be a seasoned campaigner," he said. "I would not be surprised if he doesn't come back super strong and win in Monza.

"Now both drivers and the whole team will be focused on that and the races ahead of that."

McLaren has vowed to move on from Lewis Hamilton's controversial behaviour on Twitter at the Belgian Grand Prix, which included the former world champion releasing telemetry data.

Hamilton published confidential telemetry of his qualifying lap at Spa to show a speed comparison to Button, whose low downforce configuration was better suited to the track.

However, the image of the data provided other valuable insights in to the performance of the McLaren car, such as ride height and speed data.

One rival team boss told AUTOSPORT that it had been 'gold dust' for his engineers in understanding the performance of the MP4-27.

McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh said the outfit asked Hamilton to delete the image, but that it does not intend to take the matter any further.

"I think he made an error of judgement, and we asked him to take that one down and he did," explained Whitmarsh. "I think he realises that, and I don't think it's had an impact on his weekend."

When asked if he felt it was a breach of confidentiality, Whitmarsh said: "I don't think... no.

"It would be interesting to see how other team principals would deal with it. But I think no, it was an error of judgement, it was corrected fairly quickly and apologised for. We move on."

McLaren technical director Paddy Lowe doubted that rival teams would have gained much from the data, but says it was still wrong for the information to have been posted.

"Like all of these things the internet has an infinite memory and I am sure the tweet has been taken down," he said.

"I have had several engineers approach me and it wasn't great, but in reality it is more about that we don't share data with the world. The actual data in there isn't going to be any great use to anyone, I don't think there is much damage done.

"The actual mistake that Lewis made, which he understands, is that he didn't really appreciate the nature of that information.

"The engineers don't like to see that because we spend our lives trying to keep things like that secret. So it is more what it represents."

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said if one of his drivers had acted in such a manner than it would have been treated much more seriously.

When asked how he would have felt if one of his drivers had done it, he said: "They would not have been able to. It would be a breach of confidentiality effectively."

[MJB]

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said if one of his drivers had acted in such a manner than it would have been treated much more seriously.

When asked how he would have felt if one of his drivers had done it, he said: "They would not have been able to. It would be a breach of confidentiality effectively."

Yeah, of course.

I don't doubt that this would be the case if the offender was named Webber, but Vettel?

[Sam]

I've always defended Hamilton but this weekend his behavior on twitter has been like that of a child, I just don't get what he was trying to achieve. I suspect JB may finish ahead of him again this season, the momentum is certainly shifting his way.

[Lineker]

Lotus has confirmed that its reserve driver Jerome d'Ambrosio will take Romain Grosjean's seat for this weekend's Italian Grand Prix.

Grosjean was given a one-race ban for causing the Belgian GP startline crash.

Team boss Eric Boullier had previously said on Sunday that there was a "very high" chance of d'Ambrosio getting the stand-in role.

"When we signed Jerome as our third driver we signed a man who is highly motivated, fresh, talented and who contested the full 2011 season," Boullier said.

"We hope that this will pay dividends when he drives the car this weekend in Monza.

"We know that Jerome is well integrated into the team and that he did a good job when he drove the E20 at the Mugello test. Now he has the challenge of a grand prix at the challenging circuit of Monza, in a car which is capable of finishing on the podium."

D'Ambrosio raced for Virgin - now Marussia - last season before losing his seat to Charles Pic for 2012.

Part of the Lotus-affiliated Genii driver pool, he moved to the Enstone team as reserve.

"My desire for 2012 has always been to get back into the seat of a Formula 1 car so I am grabbing this opportunity with both hands," he said.

"Monza is a fantastic circuit and I can't wait to take to the track on Friday. As third driver I have worked with the team at every grand prix, attending all the briefings and meetings that the race drivers do, so I am well prepared in this respect.

"Monza is a superb circuit, but it is also quite a technical one so I am not underestimating the task ahead of me.

"I want to reward the faith that the team has in me with a good haul of points from the race. I will hand the wheel back to Romain after Sunday's race and I hope that this one showing in Italy will allow me to show my capabilities fully."

The 26-year-old Belgian already has experience of the Lotus E20 from the Mugello test in May.

Jerome d'Ambrosio was not just the leading contender to fill in for Romain Grosjean, he was the only sensible one.

You only have to look at how long it takes even veteran drivers when they change teams to adapt to different steering wheel layouts, ways of working, operating systems to realise that this is a very specialised job.

D'Ambrosio has at least driven the Lotus E20 and sat in on engineering debriefs throughout the year, meaning he is as well-prepared as he could be in these days of next-to-no testing.

He's an intelligent driver as well, which means he will approach the weekend determined to do the most effective job possible without letting over-enthusiasm cloud his judgement.

That's not to say it will be easy. Any driver jumping in cold faces a near-vertical learning curve given such limited track time, so if d'Ambrosio can make a useful technical contribution and bring the car home, even if he's some way off Kimi Raikkonen in terms of pace, he will have done his job.

A points finish would be an overachievement for any driver with his preparation, even in such a good car.

By AUTOSPORT F1 editor Edd Straw

Lotus boss Eric Boullier believes that his team is still in the hunt for the 2012 Formula 1 world championship, despite Kimi Raikkonen's failure to fight for victory in the Belgian Grand Prix.

Raikkonen had gone into the Spa weekend as many people's favourite for the win, but his set-up choices left him unable to pose a serious threat to race victor Jenson Button and he could only finish third.

Nevertheless, Boullier maintains his faith in Lotus's potential, and is sure a good end to the campaign could still result in Raikkonen becoming world champion.

"I believe in myself that he can fight for the title definitely," explained Boullier, whose second driver Romain Grosjean is banned for the next race in Italy following the first corner crash in Belgium.

"It is up to us to give him a good car and not miss any opportunity, but Kimi does not miss much.

"If you are scoring podiums every weekend then he is going to be in the position to fight for the title. He has three podiums in the last four races and even if he does not have the best car, he is still right there."

Boullier also believes that Raikkonen did the best that could have been expected of him in Spa, including a spectacular overtaking move past Michael Schumacher into Eau Rouge.

"I think you can appreciate it, because the fight with Michael was amazing," he said. "He was very serious, and he did not miss any opportunity."

Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali says his team must not carry the frustration of Fernando Alonso's non-finish in Belgium into this weekend's Italian Grand Prix.

Alonso had his first retirement of the year at Spa, after being caught up in a multi-car accident that was triggered when Romain Grosjean moved across on Lewis Hamilton at the start.

That allowed several of Alonso's title rivals to close down his advantage in the points standings, and he has seen a 40-point lead reduced to just 24 points over Sebastian Vettel.

But Domenicali insists his outfit must remain calm and not wonder about what might have been if Alonso had not been forced out of the race.

"It was very frustrating no doubt, because looking at the pace of the race he could easily have been on the podium, and easily second," Domenicali explained.

"Obviously it is a big disappointment for that, for the points we could have scored.

"We know that in such a tight championship to lose points is not very good. But I cannot say more than that.

"When something that is not related to the performance or to the reliability but is related to bad luck - being in the wrong position in the wrong moment – then we have to put our frustration behind us and try to concentrate on the performance in Monza.

"This is fundamental; not only because we are in Italy but because we are fighting for the championship. So the frustration has to finish now."

Monza's high-speed nature means that teams have to develop one-off packages for that event.

Domenicali said he hoped that Ferrari could maintain the consistent form that has been key to Alonso's title campaign so far.

"Am I confident? What I can say is that it is a one-off configuration for everybody, so we have to see how the others have prepared for Monza.

"In my view it was good to see in Belgium that we have recovered speed, which is important obviously, as we can see up to now, every race is different.

"From my side it is important that what has been prepared for aero, with gear ratios, with set-up, is done right, because it will be a very important race for us."

McLaren sees no reason why its recent run of good form will not continue at this weekend's Italian Grand Prix.

Updates to the MP4-27 have helped Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button win the last two races, and the outfit is upbeat that its pace-setting speed should keep it ahead for now.

McLaren technical director Paddy Lowe said: "Jenson's set up [in Belgium] isn't that far off what we would run in Monza, so it is encouraging that the package is working well and a lot of the elements that we used here will carry over.

"We were quick here, and Hungary was also a very specific circuit. We have seen such a lot of variability [this season], so it makes us really think that we have strong underlying pace that we can translate in the next eight races."

McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh believes that the run of form - which has resulted in the team becoming the first to win consecutive races this year - means both his drivers are capable of winning the title.

"Jenson certainly has performed well in the last few races, exceptionally well here, and there is no reason why he can't be on a massive roll and score lots of points and lots of victories in the remainder of this season," he said. "But likewise Lewis can as well.

"Our job is to give them the best possible car, make sure we don't make mistakes, do some good pit stops, and run the right strategy. I think we did all of those things right in Belgium and therefore they went unnoticed.

"There are lots of points at stake. It has been a fairly interesting topsy-turvy season so I think anything is possible at the moment.

"Lots of things can happen and we are going to have an exciting final eight races."

Mercedes is investigating whether a wrong set-up direction with its W03 is to blame for its recent drop of form.

Having come into the campaign as front-runners - delivering pole position and a race win early on - the Brackley-based outfit has fallen away from the leaders in recent races.

Team principal Ross Brawn does not believe that there is anything fundamentally wrong with the car, but set-up choices designed to get more out of the tyres could be at fault.

Earlier this year, McLaren found that a set-up direction Jenson Button had chosen derailed his campaign for a while and left him with just two points from four races.

Speaking about why Mercedes' season has trailed off, Brawn said: "If I am honest it is not completely clear why there has been this trend.

"I think we were looking pretty good in the first third of the season, we have not looked so good in the last few races and there is a lot of analysis and a lot of thinking going on as to how we can improve this situation.

"Everyone is working really hard, and we have updates coming up for the next few races.

"We are still learning with these tyres, and some changes you make affect the performance more than we would normally expect.

"We have to look at whether we have taken the wrong step somewhere in terms of setting the car up or how we use the car; and in parallel with that we have to keep pushing for performance improvements. We have some plans for the next few races that I think will help."

Brawn says that Mercedes' early-season efforts to try and improve its race pace may have contributed to its qualifying form trailing off.

"This year's car was a good step forward in many areas and we were able to demonstrate that at the beginning of this year," he explained.

"I think we have struggled a little bit to follow the needs of these tyres and some of the changes we have had to make to improve durability in the race have not helped our qualifying performance.

"At the beginning of the year we had strong qualifying performance but, with the race performance, sometimes we struggled. And in trying to do the opposite perhaps we have moved too much in the other direction."

Formula 1's frontrunning teams could face a dramatic increase in entry fees for next year's championship if plans being considered by the FIA come off.

As part of the ongoing negotiations between the teams, Bernie Ecclestone and the FIA to frame a new Concorde Agreement for 2013, talks have edged towards agreeing potential income that the governing body would like to receive from F1 entrants and the sport's commercial rights holder.

No deal has yet been reached, but high level sources have revealed that one option being considered is for the FIA to seek a much greater share of its funding from the teams - which it can then use to invest in its running of the sport and other road safety initiatives.

AUTOSPORT has learned that one idea that has been suggested to the teams is for the entry fee to rise from its current cost of 309,000 Euro to a level that could see several teams pay multiple millions for their entries.

In a bid to centralise the cost of extra services that teams use, and currently pay extra beyond the entry fee to the FIA for (such as the Meteo France weather service), the governing body wants to have everything included in one fixed price.

Sources have revealed that the proposal that has been put forward to the teams is for the entry fee to rise to 500,000 Euro per outfit, plus 7,000 Euro per point scored in the championship.

This means that the more successful teams would contribute much more to the running of the sport and suffer a dramatic rise in costs.

Taking last year's constructors' championship standings, the entry fees in Euro under that new plan would be:

Red Bull (650 points) 5.050 million

McLaren (497 points) 3.979 million

Ferrari (375 points) 3.125 million

Mercedes (165 points) 1.655 million

Lotus (73 points) 1.011 million

Force India (69 points) 0.983 million

Sauber (44 points) 0.808 million

Toro Rosso (41 points) 0.787 million

Williams (5 points) 0.535 million

Caterham (0 points) 0.500 million

HRT (0 points) 0.500 million

Marussia (0 points) 0.500 million[/code]

Although no team principal would talk on the record about the matter, several suggested that they were keen to discuss the situation with the FIA, and enquire about why the fees were rising so much - and exactly what the extra money was being used for.

[Katsuya]

Holy shit, Hamilton is going to Mercedes.

ETA: Oh, apparently that's what Eddie Jordan "understands". So maybe not. Still, that would be a HUGE change.

[MJB]

Yeah, really can't see that.

Hamilton has always said that he wanted a car to win races and I just can't see Mercedes making that big of a jump for 2013.

[Katsuya]

If he does move, it'll be because Schumacher is retiring, so that means there's spot going at McLaren and Ferrari too. It's going to be all change next season, I think.