Latest F1 news in brief

Rosberg bottoms out through Eau Rouge

Drivers push Pirelli for answers after Rosberg scare
Pic admits Lotus 'did not respect the contract'
Honda's hopes collapse as Alonso targets 107pc
Ecclestone says high chance of Monza axe
Pirelli rules out tire failure in Rosberg blowout
Christian Bale has signed on to headline Michael Mann’s long-gestating Enzo Ferrari biopic
Ecclestone meets with Spa dairy farmers

Drivers push Pirelli for answers after Rosberg scare
(GMM) Drivers are pushing Pirelli for an explanation to the tire failure that pitched Nico Rosberg out of control at more than 300kph on Friday.

The Mercedes driver admitted it was luck rather than talent that prevented a horrifying impact with the barriers at one of F1's fastest and most dangerous circuits.

Paddy Lowe, the team's highly experienced technical boss, said he had never seen a similar incident before, as the tire construction visually "unraveled" in the minutes before the spectacular failure.

"It was at maximum speed … not good," he said.

Rosberg insisted he did not run over any debris.

For its part, Pirelli has said only that it is investigating the failure, while Rosberg's driver colleagues are understood to have expressed concern directly to the Italian marque and FIA.

"We will discuss it at the drivers' briefing," confirmed Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel. "Hopefully we will get some more information about what happened."

McLaren-Honda driver Fernando Alonso added: "They (Pirelli) are investigating, but they (Mercedes') are not the only team that has had problems," he told the Spanish daily Marca.

It is believed that, in the wake of the incident, both Pirelli and the FIA have reiterated to the teams that the operating parameters of the tires – like pressure and camber – must be respected.

But Lowe confirmed that Rosberg's car had been within those parameters.

"The important thing is to understand what happened," Williams' Felipe Massa is quoted by Brazil's Globo. "We need to know what happened because it is not pleasant to have this kind of problem at a circuit like this."

And Mercedes' team chairman Niki Lauda told German television: "The drivers need an explanation and it must be ensured that this does not happen again.

"I hope that by tomorrow (Saturday) we know what is happening and Pirelli can give the right answers."

Mystery blowout aside, Rosberg was fastest on Friday at a track that championship rival and teammate Lewis Hamilton admits is not among his favorites.

F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone knows who he is barracking for.

"We don't want Lewis winning this thing by Monza, do we?" he said in Belgium.

Pic admits Lotus 'did not respect the contract'
(GMM) Yet another cloud has formed above the troubled Lotus team's garage.

The story began to emerge on Friday, when the Enstone team broke the personnel curfew at Spa-Francorchamps.

A clear breach of the rules, Lotus asked the FIA for dispensation.

"Due to extraneous circumstances," a stewards report explained, "after the covers had been placed on the cars, three team members had to remain in the garage in order to comply with the requirements related to these circumstances".

What actually transpired is that bailiffs had entered the circuit and threatened to seize the black and gold cars, due to court action brought by disgruntled former reserve driver Charles Pic.

Team deputy Federico Gastaldi has said Pic, who brought sponsorship to the team last year, is claiming he was not given all of his promised driving days.

"They did not respect the contract," Pic is quoted as confirming by France's L'Equipe.

"It is not just the driving days, but also aspects that I prefer not to go into."

The report said that court proceedings have now begun, and if a resolution is not found by Sunday, the bailiffs could seize the Lotus cars after the Belgian grand prix.

It is just the latest sign of terminal financial strife for troubled Lotus, amid suggestions its only solution now is to rapidly agree a buyout deal with Renault.

Interestingly, the team is no longer insisting that it is categorically not for sale.

"I'm not sure that I actually told you that," said technical boss Nick Chester on Friday, "but there's a lot of press about discussions that are ongoing."

In F1 you are only as good as your car. Fernando Alonso is a backmarker

Honda's hopes collapse as Alonso targets 107pc
(GMM) Fernando Alonso insists he is not distraught, even though a highly-touted Honda engine upgrade appeared not to have pushed McLaren up the pecking order.

Honda chief Yasuhisa Arai had extolled the potential of the upgrade for Spa-Francorchamps, saying it would bring the power unit in line with Ferrari's.

But in Friday practice, Alonso and teammate Jenson Button's cars were faster only than the backmarkers Manor, with Spanish reports revealing the top speed deficit to be in the order of 25kph behind pacesetters Mercedes.

Alonso, however, told the same Spanish reporters that he is not distraught.

"We are realistic and have our feet on the ground," he said at Spa-Francorchamps. "We know this is an extremely difficult weekend for us as Spa is the 'anti-circuit' for our characteristics.

"Here and in Monza we know that we will be around the last position," added Alonso.

But what about the horse power boost promised by Arai? "The engineers have all the data, also those in Japan, and will analyze it," he said.

As for how to proceed in Belgium from Saturday, Alonso confirmed that both he and Button will have yet another new power unit fitted, setting the pair up for more competitive outings in Singapore and beyond.

"For Saturday what I expect is to try not to do too many kilometers, achieve the 107 per cent and return to the garage," he said.

Ecclestone ready to give the finger to Monza

Ecclestone says high chance of Monza axe
(GMM) Bernie Ecclestone has admitted hopes of rescuing the endangered Italian grand prix at fabled Monza are now slipping away.

Optimism had risen recently, as crucial tax exemptions finally passed through parliament and officials sounded hopeful their campaign to keep the popular circuit on the calendar had succeeded.

But F1 supremo Ecclestone applied the brakes when speaking at Spa-Francorchamps, explaining: "I don't know what the situation is in Monza now.

"I have some meetings there in September, so we'll see what happens. I hope we don't lose this track, but the chance of it happening now is very high," he is quoted by UOL's Grande Premio.

Ecclestone confirmed that the main stumbling block to a new deal is negotiations over the commercial terms.

"We cannot make exceptions," he said. "The conditions are the same for Monza and any other circuit on the calendar."

Where Ecclestone is apparently prepared to make an exception is on key television broadcast deals, amid reports the new contract with Germany's RTL is for half the money paid previously by the broadcaster.

And he said at Spa-Francorchamps that he does not want to lose the BBC, the free-to-air complement to Sky's subscriber-based coverage in Britain.

"We're not interested in the money," said Ecclestone, "we are interested in entertaining the public and doing a service. That's what we are here for."

And unlike Monza, Ecclestone is more hopeful about the future of the German grand prix, which was absent in 2015 but set to return with a race at Hockenheim next year.

"I have not seen much interest from the people at the Nurburgring, but they are not racing people," said the 84-year-old Briton.

"Hockenheim are (racing people), but I have no idea what will happen. We have a contract with Hockenheim until 2018, we'll see what happens."

Pirelli rules out tire failure in Rosberg blowout
(GMM) Nico Rosberg's 300kph blowout at Spa-Francorchamps on Friday was not caused by a structural tire failure.

That is the highly anticipated news from Pirelli early on Saturday, following an exhaustive investigation at the scene of the Belgian grand prix and also back at the marque's Milan headquarters.

Pressure had been piled onto Pirelli following the scary incident, just a month after the death of the drivers' late colleague Jules Bianchi.

"The drivers need an explanation and it must be ensured that this does not happen again," Mercedes team chairman Niki Lauda had told German television.

Pirelli spokeswoman Maria Stella Narciso said on Saturday morning: "We have completed the investigation. It ran all night, both here in Belgium as well as in Milan.

"We can rule out with absolutely certainty that it was a structural problem of the tire," she said.

"It's very, very difficult to find the source of a possible tire damage after the fact, but we have come to the conclusion that the damage must have been caused by external influences," Narciso told Speed Week.

She also denied any suggestion Mercedes may have pushed beyond the recommended usage guidelines of the tires regarding pressure and camber, insisting: "Mercedes have behaved exemplarily."

Christian Bale has signed on to headline Michael Mann’s long-gestating Enzo Ferrari biopic
In the planning stages for more than a decade, four-time Academy Award nominated director Michael Mann’s Enzo Ferrari biopic appears to finally be moving forward. Deadline today brings word that the film, simply titled Ferrari, has found its leading man in Academy Award winner Christian Bale. According to the outlet, Ferrari is now looking for buyers with the plan being to shoot next summer.

Mann has been working under the hood of this film for close to 15 years, at one time in partnership with the late director Sydney Pollack. It is a real passion project for the director and is exactly the kind of picture he should be making. The film takes place in 1957, a year where passion, failure, success and death and life all collided. Several actresses circling the female leads. Mann and Bale previously teamed on 2009’s Public Enemies.

Ecclestone meets with Spa dairy farmers
Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone met disgruntled Belgian dairy farmers on Saturday after fears they could blockade the country's grand prix circuit in a campaign for higher milk prices.

The 84-year-old Briton talked to a farmers' leader in front of a plastic cow in the fan village at the Spa circuit and then chugged from a liter of milk — jokingly pretending to faint as he did so.

A police spokesman said the farmers had agreed not to stage a more serious protest, such as blocking access roads, in return for being allowed to make a symbolic gesture and meet Ecclestone.

Ecclestone said he had not been worried by that: "They wouldn't block the roads," he told reporters when asked about the threat, also expressing sympathy with the farmers' grievance.

Dairy farmers in Belgium have burned tires and blocked roads with tractors in the past to protest against tumbling prices triggered by a global surplus and shrinking demand from China and the halting of exports to Russia.

Europe's milk market was liberalized in April with the removal of 30-year-old quotas, creating expansion opportunities for some dairy farmers while threatening the livelihood of others.

A European Union council of farm ministers is due to meet on Sept. 7, with more action by farmers expected that day.