Latest F1 news in brief

Arrivabene livid over Mercedes accusations

Arrivabene slams Mercedes after accusations
Alonso needs Indy for 'motivation' – Verstappen
No one-year Renault contract for Alonso – Abiteboul
Brake-by-wire failure behind Max Verstappen's retirement
Are Grosjean's days in F1 numbered?
Mallya: They want to hang me on the holy cross

Arrivabene slams Mercedes after accusations
(GMM) Ferrari boss Maurizio Arrivabene has hit back with fury at Mercedes, after an accusation of deliberate foul play at Silverstone.

There had already been Ferrari vs Mercedes trouble in Austria a week ago, so when Kimi Raikkonen hit Lewis Hamilton at the start of the British grand prix, tempers flared.

"To word it like James Allison, was it deliberate or incompetence?" Mercedes boss Toto Wolff said.

The Mercedes Crying Towel

Sebastian Vettel, who re-takes the championship lead after winning at Silverstone, called the accusations of deliberate Ferrari sabotage "silly".

But Wolff's counterpart at Ferrari, Arrivabene, was livid.

"Who is incompetent? Kimi? Who is he to judge what the drivers are doing in the car?

"If he really said something like that, he should be ashamed," he told Sky Italia.

"Allison worked at Maranello for many years, but now we are here in England teaching him to be a gentleman.

"I accept it from Jacques Villeneuve because he was a driver. But this guy?"

Red Bull's Christian Horner said it is obvious that "tension" between the top two teams is heating up at the mid-point of an intense championship fight.

"When you have that growing tension, speculation is unavoidable when these incidents occur," he said.

"But I believe it's nothing more than a racing incident. I would be surprised if there was anything else or if Kimi is that kind of driver."

Mercedes' Valtteri Bottas also played down the incident and the accusations.

"We are always racing closely with Ferrari and there can always be contact," he said.

However, Mercedes team chairman Niki Lauda commented: "The accident was just unfair. It was the second time a Ferrari has hit us in the first corner. That's not funny."

Alonso needs Indy for 'motivation' – Verstappen

Verstappen says when he is old and slow maybe he will try the Indy 500. Ouch. What a slam on IndyCar

(GMM) Max Verstappen suspects Fernando Alonso is looking outside of F1 because the Spaniard's motivation has gone.

Many have hailed Alonso for not only continuing to focus on formula one, but also expand his horizons by targeting the 'triple crown' including Le Mans and Indy 500 wins.

But Red Bull's Verstappen says he is not interested.

"Doing things outside F1 is something that happens mainly with drivers who are not winning," said the Dutchman.

When asked if he is interested in following Alonso to America and Le Mans, Verstappen answered: "Maybe. If I'm old and slow I will do it.

"When you have the best car on the grid, everyone can win with that car. Any F1 driver could have won in the Mercedes for the last four years. Everyone knows that.

"That's why you don't see Hamilton leaving to do these things because he doesn't need to. It's the same for me. I'm in a position to fight for victories so my motivation is very high and I don't want to do Le Mans or Indycar or whatever," the 20-year-old added.

"My father had the same problem," said Verstappen, referring again to Alonso's change of focus as well as his father Jos.

"He (Jos) was in F1 but he didn't win, and there's a moment when the motivation simply disappears and it kills you inside."

No one-year Renault contract for Alonso – Abiteboul

Cyril Abiteboul says no to Alonso rumor

(GMM) Renault has not outright denied a rumor suggesting Fernando Alonso could drive for the team in 2019.

The French team currently runs Nico Hulkenberg and Carlos Sainz, but the latter is in doubt as he is merely 'on loan' from Red Bull for a year.

"We are not in a hurry and we also have to see what are the side effects of the (Red Bull) decision on the engine," said team boss Cyril Abiteboul.

"But in general the drivers we have work well and we would like to keep them. But I am also calm in the sense that, if we have a good car and progress as a team, we will have a selection of drivers who want to be with us."

And one of those drivers could be Alonso, who won his two titles with Renault over a decade ago.

The 36-year-old Spaniard currently drives for McLaren, whose competitiveness has not improved markedly since the decision was made to end the works Honda era.

Abiteboul told Marca: "I don't want to encourage that rumor.

"I think Fernando first has to decide what he wants to do for himself, which is whether to continue driving in F1 or not," said the Frenchman.

"We have a lot of respect for Fernando, but we are more interested in drivers who want to be with us in the long term.

"We could still reach an agreement with Alonso, but doing it for a year would not make sense," Abiteboul added.

Brake-by-wire failure behind Max Verstappen's retirement

Teammate Daniel Ricciardo had no such problems

Red Bull suspects that a brake-by-wire failure was to blame for Max Verstappen’s exit during the closing stages of Formula 1’s British Grand Prix.

Verstappen had scrapped with Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen following the Safety Car period, caused by Marcus Ericsson’s crash, and managed to maintain fourth position.

A wide moment through Chapel at the second restart demoted Verstappen to fifth position, before he spun under braking for Club with six laps remaining.

Verstappen was able to recover his RB14 from the gravel trap but lasted only a few corners more before he was forced to retire.

Red Bull boss Christian Horner explained that the brake-by-wire failure “caused him to spin into the left hander.

“We damaged the clutch from that point and therefore the car ended up stuck in gear. A shame because he’d driven a hard race."

Red Bull team-mate Daniel Ricciardo went on to finish the race in fifth position, having chased the tire-limited Valtteri Bottas to the checkered flag.

Verstappen has slipped to sixth place in the standings as a result of his early exit, 78 points behind title leader Sebastian Vettel.

Are Grosjean's days in F1 numbered?

Romain 'Crash' Grosjean

Haas driver Romain Grosjean was in the wars again, this time at the British Grand Prix after he clattered into the side of Carlos Sainz’s Renault on lap 38 British Grand Prix at Silverstone, putting an end to both their races.

The pair were racing for position, with Grosjean apparently faster but his impatience got the better of him as he kept it pointed ever-narrowing gap through flat-out Copse, he locked up and was seen (through the onboards) correcting the slide before the collision.

The Stewards “reviewed video evidence, heard from the driver of car 8 (Romain Grosjean), the driver of car 55 (Carlos Sainz) and the team representatives."

“The drivers gave clear evidence that agreed. Car 55 had a run on the outside of Car 8 going into the very fast Turn 9. While the driver of car 55 did slightly tighten his line towards the apex, the drivers agreed that this was not the entire reason for the incident."

“The driver of Car 8 explained that he had braked, where he would not normally brake, at the entry of the turn to avoid an incident, but as soon as his front wing was in the turbulence from Car 55 he had a slight understeer and as the cars were very close they made contact and subsequently both cars crashed."

“The drivers agreed that it was a racing incident and the Stewards determined that neither was wholly or predominantly at fault and took No Further Action."

Grosjean, who famously blamed Marcus Ericsson for his silly mistake during the race in Baku, this time reported over the team radio: “He just turned into me, mate."

But later toned it down, “I haven’t seen much. Obviously, Carlos can say I didn’t leave him enough room, I can say he didn’t leave me enough room. It’s a shame it finished like that. It was still possible to score points."

Sainz simply called it as the stewards saw it with Grosjean present, “I think it could have been avoided – but this is Formula 1. We gave each other just enough room and I think he lost the car."

“I was risking to try and overtake Romain, made a move around the outside into Copse and I think he just lost a bit the car on entry and we just tangled," explained the Spaniard.

On the opening lap of the race, the Frenchman once labelled the first-lap-nutcase by Mark Webber, clattered into his teammate Magnussen who was not pleased with his teammate.

Magnussen recovered to finish ninth on a day when a double points finish was a real possibility for the American outfit.

Team principal Guenther Steiner confirmed, “Romain apologized to Kevin, I guess he waited with his braking a little bit too long. This is obviously not acceptable because we keep on losing points while having a good car."

Despite the apology, Grosjean said in the post-race Haas team press release: “At the beginning of the race with Kevin, I think it was a mistake from both of us. It shouldn’t happen, so we need to work on that to ensure it doesn’t happy anymore."

A week ago in Austria, Grosjean scored the first points of his season which has been marred by mistakes and track antics not expected of a driver of his experience and stature.

The cost of ‘bent metal’ at Haas must be adding up and mostly inflicted by the wayward Frenchman who is surely on his way out of Formula 1 if he does not change his ways dramatically and rapidly, with Ferrari reportedly happy to snap up his seat for their protege Antonio Giovinazzi. Grandprix247

Mallya: They want to hang me on the holy cross

Vijay Mallya

Embattled Indian tycoon and Force India owner Vijay Mallya said on Sunday he will comply fully with court enforcement officers seeking to seize his British assets, but there was not much for them to take as his family’s lavish residences were not in his name.

India wants to extradite the 62-year-old former liquor baron from Britain to face charges of fraud as a group of Indian banks seek to recover more than $1 billion (752.45 million pounds) of loans granted to his defunct Kingfisher Airlines.

A verdict is expected by early September, with July 31 the final date for closing oral submissions and appeals likely whatever the outcome.

Speaking to Reuters at the British Grand Prix, where he is principal and co-owner of the Force India team, Mallya said he would hand over British assets held in his name. But a luxury country residence belonged to his children and a house in London belonged to his mother, making them untouchable.

“I have given the UK court on affidavit a statement of my UK assets. Which, pursuant to the freezing order, they are entitled to take and hand over to the banks," he said. “There’s a few cars, a few items of jewelry and I said ‘OK, fine. You don’t have to bother to come to my house to seize them. I’ll physically hand them over. Tell me the time, date and place.’"

“There’s no question of being homeless because at the end of the day, they are entitled to take my assets in my name declared on oath to the court. They can’t go one step beyond," added the man branded a ‘fugitive’ by his country.

Mallya said a super-yacht he used for entertaining at races in Monaco and Abu Dhabi, which was recently sold at auction in Malta after a dispute over unpaid crew wages, was not his problem either.

“I have not owned the Indian Empress boat for more than seven years now," he said. It had belonged to “a Middle Eastern gentleman", whose name he would not disclose, in a deal that gave Mallya use of it for one month a year, he said.

Mallya has been in Britain since he left India in March 2016, unable to travel after his passport was revoked, so the annual British Grand Prix is the only race he has been able to attend since then.

The Indian government’s Enforcement Directorate, which fights financial crimes, is seeking to declare him a “fugitive economic offender" and to confiscate 125 billion rupees worth of his assets.

Mallya has denied the charges, decried a “political witch-hunt" and has said he is seeking to sell assets worth about 139 billion rupees ($2.04 billion) to repay creditors.

“I think the overriding consideration that everybody seems to be missing is that I have put $2 billion worth of assets in front of the Karnataka high court which is more than sufficient to repay the banks and indeed everybody else. So the question of attaching assets either in the UK or whatever should not arise."

Mallya repeated recent complaints on Twitter that Indian criminal enforcement agencies had frozen assets in India so he could not sell them, while banks continued to tot up interest.

He said the enforcement directorate had also attached assets inherited from his father, including properties acquired in the 1920s, under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, “How can those be proceeds of crime? This is the injustice that is happening."

The former billionaire, at one time dubbed the ‘King of Good Times’ and a former member of the upper house of the Indian parliament.

“I was always a resident of England and a non-resident of India. So where else do I come back to? So where’s the running away concept? It’s just become too political."

“And now in an (Indian) election year, I guess what they want to do is bring me back and hang me on the holy cross and hope to get more votes," lamented the tycoon. Grandprix247