Tag Archives: formula 1

Jenson Button is being targeted for a shock move to Ferrari . The British ace will race for McLaren next season as the team have the option on his services.

But Button, 31, is stalling on an £80million deal for life knowing there will be vacancies at Ferrari and Red Bull in 2013.

The 2009 world champ is happy to stay at McLaren if they can guarantee a competitive car. But he has made no secret of his desire to also drive for Ferrari

Jenson Button has told McLaren boss Martin Whitmarsh: I want to sign for another year.

A day after his brilliant drive in Belgium where he stormed through the field from 19th to take third, Frome flier Button urged his team principal to take up the option in his contract of another year.

Jenson Button said: "All Whitmarsh has to do is say yes, and I will say yes because I want to be here next year. It's up to the team as to when they approach me, but for me I'm the happiest I've been with the car."

Of the top four teams — McLaren, Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes — Button, 31, is the only driver without a guaranteed seat for next season

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner insists that he has no doubts about Sebastian Vettel's strength under pressure as the 24-year-old German bids to secure his second consecutive world championship in the final eight races of the season.

Vettel who has won six races so far in 2011, is 85 points ahead of his nearest rival, team-mate Mark Webber, in the drivers' championship. Mclaren drivers Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari's Fernando Alonso are 88 and 89 points adrift respectively.

But although some have suggested that Vettel is weak under pressure, Horner is adamant that he has proved this not to be the case.

Jenson Button believes Red Bull Racing should have every reason to be worried about its own pace now - with the Hungarian Grand Prix winner confident McLaren is now a match for the championship leaders in both qualifying and races.

On the basis that McLaren has won three of the last five grands prix, Jenson Button sees no reason why the Woking-based outfit cannot continue its good run of form for the remainder of the season.

And, with Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber now being pushed really hard in qualifying - an area where they were dominant earlier this year - Jenson Button thinks that the advantage Red Bull Racing had has now been wiped away.

Mark Webber was quickest for Red Bull in the second Friday practice session for the German Grand Prix at the Nurburgring.

After Fernando Alonso had led the way this morning, Ferrari was once again the pacesetter for much of the session.

Felipe Massa was quickest for a lengthy spell early on, before his team-mate Alonso produced a 1m31.879s just after the halfway mark.

But his time on top only last a few minutes before Webber (Red Bull) lapped in 1m31.770s. He then cooled his tyres for a while before putting in a 1m31.711s just before the one-hour mark, which kept him ahead for the rest of the day.

Alonso, who also had a quick visit to the gravel and a sideways moment over the hairpin kerbs dodging Michael Schumacher's Mercedes, remained second, ahead of the second Red Bull of Sebastian Vettel, and Massa.

Felipe Massa does not believe that Ferrari is out of the running for the Formula 1 World Championship this year, despite trailing leader Red Bull by a huge margin.

Defending constructors' champion Red Bull has a 164-point advantage over Ferrari at the top of the standings while Sebastian Vettel is 92 ahead of Massa's team-mate Fernando Alonso in the race to win the drivers' title.

Despite this, Massa believes that the form shown by the Italian squad at last weekend's British Grand Prix - where Alonso won by demonstrating a clear race pace advantage over Red Bull drivers Vettel and Mark Webber – indicates that a fightback could be on the cards.

He has also been given confidence by Alonso's fightback of 12 months ago, when the Spaniard made up a 47-point deficit at this stage to lead the standings heading into the final race.

Jenson Button is set to be handed a fresh McLaren deal in the next few weeks with the team ready to offer improved terms to keep the Briton on board.

On the back of mounting speculation that Ferrari is interested in tempting Button to Maranello to help bolster its own title challenge in the longer term, it is understood that McLaren is prepared to move quickly to tie Button's future down.

Button is currently only under option at McLaren for next year, with the activation clause on the team's side. That situation means that even if Button had tempting offers from elsewhere, he would be unable to move if McLaren wanted him to stay.

The Bahrain Grand Prix will go ahead this year after Formula 1's ruling body, the FIA, voted in favour of reinstating the race on Friday. The race was scheduled to open the 2011 season in March, but was postponed due to the unrest in the country.

A decision was expected on May 1, but the FIA decided to give Bahrain until today before making a decision on the future of this year's race. On Friday, the governing body's World Motor Sport Council met in Barcelona to vote, and gave the green light for the Bahrain Grand Prix to take place this year.

The event has been given an October 30 date, which is likely to mean the Indian Grand Prix moves to December 4 or December 11, the latest finish to a season since 1963, although the FIA did not confirm the date for the race.

World champion Sebastian Vettel hopes Robert Kubica will continue to go rallying as a sideline once he is fit enough to return to Formula 1, despite the Pole suffering severe injuries in a rally crash last weekend. Robert Kubica required surgery to save his right hand and also sustained multiple fractures in his right arm and leg when an accident in a rally in Italy last Sunday left his Skoda Fabia impaled on a crash barrier. Vettel said he was pleased that the news about Kubica's recovery had been encouraging so far. "First of all I think the most important message was that he didn't lose his hand, everything is still there and as far as we heard after the operation he's had quite a good recovery already," said the Red Bull driver.

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