Latest F1 news in brief

A dejected Arrivabene knows in his heart Ferrari car inferior

'No panic' as Ferrari says title fight still on
Safety car start criticized after Silverstone
Bottas likely to stay at Williams – Salo
Radio ban making waves again after Rosberg penalty
F1 CEO Says Collisions Between Hamilton, Rosberg Boosting Mercedes' Popularity
McLaren Inks New Five-Year, $10M-Per-Year Sponsorship Deal With NTT Communications

'No panic' as Ferrari says title fight still on
(GMM) While Sebastian Vettel is urging Ferrari not to "panic", boss Maurizio Arrivabene says the team must quickly resolve its issues before Hungary.

Ferrari's slide in the pecking order continued at Silverstone, where the fabled Italian team was clearly outpaced all weekend by Red Bull.

"In the race we were quick, just not quick enough to compete with Red Bull and Mercedes," said Vettel.

"But there is no need to panic, it's just a bad day."

When told by a reporter that the whole weekend at Silverstone had been disastrous, Vettel hit back: "You're always so negative, even when things don't go well once or twice."

But some say Silverstone was a sure sign that president Sergio Marchionne's title target is now definitely gone.

"We are not even half of the season gone," Arrivabene insisted after the British grand prix. "Of course the fight is not over.

"But I do not hide the fact that if we want to keep this dream alive, we have to get some things under control."

Arrivabene said the main problem is the car's aerodynamics, but he also acknowledged multiple recent reliability problems with the gearbox.

Asked if it is a design or quality problem, he said: "I cannot answer that in detail yet. I believe it is the material and I hope that it is not the basic design.

"The first objective must be to once again put Red Bull Racing behind us. Only then can we attack Mercedes.

"In Hungary we will know where we stand and that Britain was the exception. We cannot afford a defeat at the Hungaroring," Arrivabene added.

Heavy rain called for the field to follow the pace car to start

Safety car start criticized after Silverstone
(GMM) Drivers are split over whether Sunday's British grand prix should have been started behind the safety car.

A growing trend in F1 is that significant pre-race rain means the race will not be started from the grid but instead only after several laps behind the safety car.

Nico Rosberg backed race director Charlie Whiting's call at Silverstone.

"Yes, for sure," he said. "There were some big, big rivers in places so it's important to let us have a look at least where they are before getting going."

But Max Verstappen said he thinks the length of Sunday's pre-racing safety car period was too long.

"I was ready to race after maybe two laps," said the Dutchman.

Lewis Hamilton agreed, going so far as to say a start behind the grid would also have been safe.

"For sure there were patches (of water) all over the place and it would have been tricky — but that's what motor racing's about," said the world champion. "For sure we did stay out (behind the safety car) for far too long.

"There was more water on the track when we started in 2008 from the grid, that's why I say that," Hamilton added.

Sections of the media also criticized Whiting's decision on Sunday, as The Sun newspaper called it the "dullest (race) launch in history".

Red Bull's Christian Horner said: "The decision to start behind the safety car was fully justified because of the standing water. But in my view, the safety car stayed on the track for too long."

Toro Rosso driver Carlos Sainz agreed: "The safety car was necessary at the start because we could see nothing, but after the first two laps, once we saw the condition of the track, it was no longer necessary."

Valtteri Bottas has no better options

Bottas likely to stay at Williams – Salo
(GMM) Valtteri Bottas looks set to stay at Williams next year, according to former F1 driver Mika Salo.

Finn Bottas has been eyeing a move elsewhere for the past couple of seasons, but Salo said Kimi Raikkonen's new Ferrari deal means Bottas will surely stay put at F1's fourth-quickest team.

"He no longer has any hurry," Salo, also a Finn, told the Finnish broadcaster MTV.

"Mercedes is full, Ferrari is full, Red Bull is full. Where else would he want to go when the next team is Williams?" Salo said.

Salo, who drove for F1 teams including Ferrari and Toyota, thinks Williams will also be keen to stick with Bottas for 2017, having developed the now 26-year-old.

"Valtteri is an extremely good driver who fits with the team very well, so I could see them wanting to hold onto him for the next ten years," he insisted.

Horner wants rule modified if car has a technical issue

Radio ban making waves again after Rosberg penalty
(GMM) F1's controversial ban on radio instructions is making waves again, as world champion Lewis Hamilton moved to within a single point of the title lead on Sunday.

Actually, Nico Rosberg was still 4 points ahead after the checker at Silverstone, but a post-race stewards decision demoted him from second to third.

Although team instructions to drivers are now banned, Mercedes told the German driver how to fix a gearbox problem that would have seen him stuck in seventh gear.

But Mercedes argued that the call was legal.

"It was a very critical problem," said Rosberg. "I was about to stop on track, so they told me 'change default' to try and fix it."

Rosberg duly finished second but the stewards ruled that he had not driven the car "alone and unaided" and a penalty dropped him behind Max Verstappen.

Mercedes signaled its intention to appeal whilst team boss Toto Wolff argued: "These rules maybe need a rethink. It needs to be discussed."

Team chairman Niki Lauda told German RTL television: "I am sure that we interpreted the rules correctly."

But Red Bull's Christian Horner, whose Verstappen benefitted from Rosberg's penalty, said Mercedes "know all too well" that the radio message was illegal.

Force India team manager Andy Stevenson agrees, saying it was no different to Austria a week ago when Sergio Perez could not be told his brakes were failing.

"How absurd is that?" Williams' Pat Symonds told Auto Motor und Sport. "How many tens of thousands of pounds did that accident cost the team?"

There is also an issue of consistency, after Williams was allowed to warn Felipe Massa about a similar brake problem.

"No one understands why they were (allowed to tell the driver) and we weren't," said Stevenson.

Horner added: "We need to address this issue at the next strategy group meeting and modify the rule.

"I understand what the FIA wanted to achieve with driver coaching, but in the case of technical problems, we must be able to support the drivers."

Ecclestone telling Hamilton to keep hitting his teammate so fans don't fall asleep watching the Mercedes parade at the front?

F1 CEO Says Collisions Between Hamilton, Rosberg Boosting Mercedes' Popularity
F1 CEO Bernie Ecclestone said that collisions between Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg have made Mercedes "more popular than their wins," according to Alan Baldwin of REUTERS.

He said, "Right now people think: they will win anyway. That’s it. There are no emotions about something that is so obvious. The two Mercedes guys crashing gives them more popularity than winning. Just look at what is going on since Austria; more positive publicity in my opinion. It’s shown that they let their guys race."

Triple world champion Hamilton and Rosberg "collided on the last lap in Austria a week ago."

The incident, the third in five races between the two, "has been the talk of the paddock with Mercedes announcing on Thursday that both would remain free to race but with stricter rules of engagement."

Asked about Mercedes' rivals, the 85-year-old hoped Ferrari and Red Bull "could mount a serious challenge next season" but said that Ferrari "has become very Italian again."

Ecclestone: "(Ferrari president Sergio) Marchionne is doing a super job trying to pull it all together. But he has an awful lot of things to do and to be in charge of that operation you need to be him seven days a week, 24 hours a day. It is not a part-time job."

He also said that "he had yet to find anyone suitable as a successor."

He said, "They didn’t want a job — they wanted to travel, look at the bank account and be in the press. I have said it so many times before: we need another used-car dealer" Reuters

New associate sponsor for McLaren-Honda. Was it a B2B deal thru Honda?

McLaren Inks New Five-Year, $10M-Per-Year Sponsorship Deal With NTT Communications
British F1 team McLaren has secured a new sponsorship deal ahead of its home grand prix in Silverstone with NTT Communications Corp.

The ICT solutions and int'l communications company, a subsidiary of Japan's NTT Group, has signed on as the team's official technology partner.

NTT Communications will provide network, cloud and data connectivity for McLaren-Honda over the course of the agreement. The company will pay $10M annually over five years for its association with the team, a source familiar with the deal told SBD Global.

However, a team press release put the length of the deal at three years. The company will also work with McLaren to innovate and explore other advanced technologies to enhance the team's performance. NTT Communications' logo appeared on the rear-wing side plates of both McLaren-Honda MP4-31 cars, driven by Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso, during Sunday's British Grand Prix.

The agreement with McLaren is the company's first in the racing series. The deal was brokered by Indianapolis-based JMI, a division of CSM Sport & Entertainment.

NTT Communications' sister company NTT Data has been the primary sponsor of Chip Ganassi Racing's No. 10 car, driven by Tony Kanaan, in North America's IndyCar series since '14. HJ Mai/SBD