Latest F1 news in brief

Raikkonen the perfect #2 to Vettel

Ferrari keeps Raikkonen for 2016
Ferrari 'sensible' to re-sign Raikkonen – Salo
Bottas likely to stay at Williams – manager
Jet on standby for Rosberg baby birth
Vettel vows to keep title fight 'alive'
Race start changes 'step in right direction' – Ecclestone
Renault working on step forward for 2016
Belgian GP penalties for McLaren drivers
New start procedures may need adjustments – Hamilton

Ferrari keeps Raikkonen for 2016
(GMM) Ferrari has ended speculation about Kimi Raikkonen's future by re-signing the Finn for 2016.

"The driver lineup next season will still consist of the Finnish driver and Sebastian Vettel," team boss Maurizio Arrivabene declared in a short statement.

The news follows speculation a deal between Ferrari and younger Finn Valtteri Bottas fell through after Williams demanded millions for his contract release.

Moreover, the Ferrari insider Leo Turrini suggests that the Maranello team would have almost certainly driven down Raikkonen's salary, having let the automatic 'option' in his existing contract run out at the end of July.

"The Scuderia is my family, as I always said, it's here I want to end my career," 35-year-old Raikkonen was quoted as saying in a separate statement.

"I am more committed than ever and I want to say thank you to the people who gave me this chance."

Arrivabene added: "We believe that extending Kimi's contract into the next season will provide further stability to the team. This has been our guideline, also considering the very good relationship between Kimi and Seb.

"On our side, this shows our great confidence in him, and I expect this confidence to be well rewarded," he said.

Hulkenberg to Haas to wait for 2017 Ferrari seat?

Ferrari 'sensible' to re-sign Raikkonen – Salo
(GMM) Ferrari was "sensible and wise" to have re-signed Kimi Raikkonen for 2016.

That is the view of Mika Salo, another Finnish driver who once raced for the fabled Maranello team.

"Ferrari has made a sensible and wise decision," he told the Finnish broadcaster MTV. "There were no better options than Kimi."

Salo, 48, suggested that the last few weeks must have been filled with intense negotiations between the 2007 world champion and Ferrari, perhaps about salary.

"All I know is that Kimi's option expired a month ago. We will probably never know more," he added.

"What we do know is that all this speculation was completely pointless. When a cooperation works, then it will be continued," said Salo.

Nico Hulkenberg and Romain Grosjean predicted repeatedly that, once Raikkonen's future is known, the rest of the driver market will fall into place.

But Michael Schmidt, the highly respected correspondent for Auto Motor und Sport, thinks the key to the market now lies elsewhere.

"The other drivers will fall into place once Renault decides if it will run a works team or not," he said.

Schmidt speculated that if Lotus becomes Renault, Pastor Maldonado's PDVSA sponsorship may no longer be appropriate alongside stronger Renault and Total branding.

He might then move to Force India, while Nico Hulkenberg heads to Haas in order to wait for a full Ferrari works seat for 2017.

Bottas likely to stay at Williams – manager
(GMM) With the Ferrari seat to remain occupied by Kimi Raikkonen, Valtteri Bottas will now almost certainly stay at Williams next year.

The Finn was reportedly the leading candidate to oust his older countryman at Maranello, but it appears Ferrari would not agree to Williams' demands for Bottas' contract release.

The Grove team has a firm 'option' on Bottas for 2016, but his manager Didier Coton was quoted on Wednesday as saying that is not a certainty the 25-year-old is staying put.

But when asked what are the chances of a Williams seat for Bottas in 2016, Coton told the Finnish newspaper Turun Sanomat: "Many, many per cent."

Jet on standby for Rosberg baby birth
(GMM) Nico Rosberg has a private jet on standby as the minutes tick down to fatherhood.

The Mercedes driver's wife Viviane is set to give birth to their first child any day now — in fact, Bild newspaper reports that the due date actually came and went on Tuesday.

However, Rosberg has now had to travel to Belgium for F1's return to action, but not without putting in place a plan for a rapid return to Monaco.

"60 kilometers away in Liege, a private jet is waiting," Bild reports. "So too is a driver, to bring Rosberg quickly to the airport if necessary."

Rosberg's boss Toto Wolff commented: "When the baby comes, Nico may fly back immediately."

Vettel vows to keep title fight 'alive'
(GMM) Sebastian Vettel has vowed to keep his foot to the floor on his outside shot at the 2015 world championship.

Having entered the break with a second win of the season, Vettel has now been buoyed by the news that his preferred choice as Ferrari teammate is staying put for 2016.

"Kimi is straightforward and cool," the German told the Berliner Kurier newspaper as he attended a sponsor appointment at the Cologne Bonn airport before travelling to Belgium.

"We get on well together," added Vettel.

Ferrari figures including Vettel have played down their chances of beating the more competitive Mercedes to this year's championships.

But Vettel said that does not mean he is giving up.

"We will give everything all the way to the end," he is quoted by DPA news agency. "We want to make the impossible possible.

"If there is a chance, then we need to keep it alive," he added.

"The victory in Budapest was a surprise but it gave us all a boost," said the former quadruple world champion, who lies 41 points behind Lewis Hamilton's title lead.

"We are not in the favorite’s role yet, but we want to change that in the future. We will do everything to continue to annoy Mercedes," added Vettel.

This weekend will be Vettel's 150th career grand prix.

"When I saw the paint on the car I realized it is Ferrari's 900th race," said the German. "And it's my 150th, which I also didn't realize as I was not counting.

"This race will be the replacement for my missing home grand prix," Vettel added.

Race start changes 'step in right direction' – Ecclestone
(GMM) F1's clampdown on assisted race starts is a step in the right direction, according to Bernie Ecclestone.

The F1 supremo, openly no fan of the sport's current era, has given his approval to the new rules governing race starts that will debut this weekend in Belgium.

"We are making a tiny step backwards technology-wise for the sake of the entertainment," explained Toto Wolff, the Mercedes team boss.

Some teams, however, have reportedly complained about the mid-season rule change, arguing that the current cars have been designed only for the sophisticated settings and instructions that are now banned.

But Ecclestone said: "It is the fault of the engineers that formula one is now regarded as a series in which you can almost put trained monkeys in remote-controlled cars.

"The new starting procedure is the first step back in the right direction," he told Germany's Sport Bild.

Renault working on step forward for 2016
(GMM) Renault is confident it will take a step forward for 2016.

The French carmaker will soon decide how it will proceed for the future, as the relationship with Red Bull breaks down and talks proceed with Lotus over a team buyout.

But no matter what happens, Renault will be on the grid in one way or another next year, and so the marque is determined to have a much better 'power unit'.

Romain Grosjean, frustrated with stalled progress at financially-struggling Lotus, is barracking hard for a Renault takeover.

"It would be good to be part of the factory team," he told the French magazine Auto Hebdo, "and I'm sure that they will be able to improve the power unit.

"Currently, Mercedes has the best engine, but there is a lot that can be done for next season," added Grosjean.

Indeed, while much of the F1 world took a summer vacation, Renault has continued to work hard on its turbo V6 design throughout August.

"The dynos have run as usual," confirmed operations chief Remi Taffin, "and we've conducted some notable performance work for the rest of the season and also concepts for next year. The results are good."

Belgian GP penalties for McLaren drivers
McLaren Formula 1 drivers Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso will incur grid penalties at the Belgian Grand Prix after taking their seventh Honda engines of the season, AUTOSPORT reports.

Honda is hoping to match Ferrari's power output from Spa onwards with a revised internal combustion engine, featuring changes to the combustion chamber, intake, exhaust layout and gear-train system.

To do this, it has used three of its engine upgrade tokens and this required a new ICE to be fitted to both cars.

The rules state that a driver will take a 10-place penalty for the first change of a set of components and five places for subsequent changes to that set.

As Button has already taken a seventh turbo charger and MGU-H, the move to a seventh ICE will likely mean he takes a five-place drop.

Alonso has yet to use the seventh component of any element and is therefore expected to take a 10-place grid drop.

Honda has made further changes to ancillary parts of the engine, such as to allow the ERS to pair to the ICE, and thus further penalties could be applied.

The total penalties Button and Alonso will take should become clear once the cars run in first practice on Friday.

Following a rule change last month, the most a driver can be penalized is to be demoted to the back of the grid, thus eliminating in-race penalties for these infractions. That system had been declared too harsh by some teams. Autosport.com

New start procedures may need adjustments – Hamilton
Spa this weekend will see the implementation of a new start procedure decided by the FIA, with the aim to put race starts more in control of a drivers rather than his engineer.

Basically, the rule now forbids any information fed to the driver regarding clutch bite points in the build-up to the race. The clutch bite point will not be able to be changed from the time the car leaves the garage for the first time after the pit lane is open until after the start lockout period after the race has started.

Given his relatively slow launches off the line recently, Lewis Hamilton is sure to draw attention as the new rule is enforced and the lights switch to green on Sunday.

The reigning World Champion earned himself a comfortable pole position in both Austria and Hungary but failed to lead the field into the first corner on both occasions.

"It would have been a different race in Hungary if I'd had a good start," Hamilton told The Guardian, " but it wasn't the case and how I reacted was not the correct way, especially when I know better."

While Hamilton acknowledged that the FIA's decision was a step in the right direction, he remains uncertain of how the starts will pan out in the short term, and what impact they may have on the race.

"It is going to be interesting. I think they might underestimate how much they influence the races. The starts might not change or they might be disastrous. It could make more weaving, who knows?"

"They might need to make changes to it. My guess is that it is not going to be the right thing and it is going to be adjusted. It is a good idea, though."