Latest F1 news in brief

Hamilton calls himself the greatest, compares himself to Muhammad Ali, Usain Bolt and Tiger Woods

Button moves to temper Hamilton confidence
Clash of the Finns returns in Mexico
Rosberg breaks Hamilton's dominance one week too late
Alonso told King of Spain he has 'no engine'
Kvyat keeps seat if Red Bull stays in F1
F1 looks to past for thrilling future
Ecclestone Tells European Race Promoters To Learn From Mexico
Mexico track was slippery, challenging
Formula 1 Teams Hesitant On FIA, Ecclestone's Plans For 'Client Engines' In '17

Button moves to temper Hamilton confidence
(GMM) Jenson Button has moved to temper Lewis Hamilton's run of ultra-high confidence.

Hamilton has just sealed up his third drivers' world championship – the second on the trot – declaring to his defeated teammate Nico Rosberg that being paired with him at Mercedes must be the "worst thing".

"Did he really say that?" said Button, who when paired with Hamilton at McLaren in 2011 actually had a better season than his fellow Briton.

But not only that, Hamilton was quoted by a German newspaper at the weekend as declaring that his rivals only have a chance of beating him when he makes mistakes.

Button reminds Hamilton it's all car, Hamilton was a backmarker in the McLaren before he left

And British newspapers have quoted Hamilton in Mexico as comparing himself to Muhammad Ali, Usain Bolt and Tiger Woods as sportsman who stood out in their respective fields.

Button tried to put the brakes on that sort of runaway conviction.

"Lewis is undoubtedly very talented," he told Brazil's Globo. "But if you put myself or Vettel in the same car as him, I think Lewis would not have quite as much confidence as he has today.

"He's in a very comfortable situation," Button added.

"There are many very capable drivers in formula one," he insisted, "but I think at the moment he has such a fast and balanced car and without too much competition from inside the team either."

That sounds like a jab at the performance this year of Nico Rosberg, but Button said the German – who dominated in Mexico – could mount a tougher challenge in 2016.

And Ferrari is also expected to be fully competitive next year, "which will mean Mercedes has to look at how it goes about the races completely differently than it does now, in terms of strategy", Button added.

Clash of the Finns returns in Mexico
(GMM) After their second crash in three weeks, fellow Finns Valtteri Bottas and Kimi Raikkonen sound unprepared to sit down and talk it out.

"I don't know if there's anything to really speak about," said Bottas.

Their nationality aside, the pair have some other shared history, as Bottas in recent months appeared poised to replace the older Finn at Ferrari next year.

Bottas punts Raikkonen

Ultimately, a deal was not done, and now they are warring on rather than off the track.

In Russia, Raikkonen was penalized for his desperate last-lap move that cost Bottas the podium, but in Mexico on Sunday it was the ten-year-younger Finn whose passing effort ended badly.

"We had a contact in Russia but this was just unlucky," Bottas insisted afterwards.

Some, however, wondered if Bottas had held onto his post-Sochi anger at Raikkonen all the way to Mexico, meaning Sunday might be put down to 'revenge'.

"Maybe some forget more easily than others," Raikkonen said cryptically. "Maybe that's the biggest thing. Maybe this has made him feel better."

But Kimi did not even want to say that he thinks it was Bottas who this time deserved a penalty from the stewards.

"It's not my decision," Finnish reports quote him as saying. "Everyone has their view and their opinion about what happened. For us it was bad but this is part of the game."

Bottas insisted he had "no space" to avoid the crash, but Raikkonen commented: "If he had gone more onto the curb, there would have been space. I couldn't go straight — I had to turn the wheel at some point.

"But it was a racing situation. He did what he did and nothing changes now even if we talk about it.

"The press always wants someone to blame, but there is no point," Raikkonen added.

Also keen to play down the Finn-versus-Finn spat was Ferrari boss Maurizio Arrivabene, who when asked about the controversy asked a reporter in Mexico in reply: "Are you Finnish?

"I saw you next to a Finnish guy and thought you wanted to put one against the other," he smiled.

"They are race incidents. It happened in Russia and here because it happens in formula one. Accidents are part of the show and I don't want to blame anybody.

"I also don't want to blame Seb (Vettel)," Arrivabene added, after the German apologized to Ferrari for his admittedly "sh*t job" in Mexico City, including contact at the first corner and a crash.

"We (Ferrari) do not need to come up with excuses and neither do they (the drivers)," Arrivabene said. "We are a team."

Rosberg puts Hamilton in his place in Mexico City

Rosberg breaks Hamilton's dominance one week too late
(GMM) Relations remained cool between Mercedes teammates Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg after the Mexican grand prix.

A week ago in Austin, the pair hurled podium caps at one another, while in Mexico they simply kept the niceties to a bare minimum after Rosberg finally broke through for a win from his fourth consecutive pole.

"Perhaps the Sombreros were far too large to throw around," joked Telegraph correspondent Daniel Johnson.

What was interesting is that Rosberg's breakthrough – his first win in almost five months – came just a week after Hamilton knocked him out of contention for the drivers' world championship.

One theory is that the relieved pressure helped Rosberg to deliver. Or perhaps Hamilton, with his boyhood dream of matching Ayrton Senna's title tally achieved, was just not trying hard enough.

"Not at all," Hamilton insisted. "I was pushing the whole way, it's just that you can't follow (another car)."

Indeed, it was rare occasion of late for Rosberg to get a good getaway from the grid, where he was then able to control the race.

"It's just like everything else," said the German. "I've been working on it to try and get everything perfect and this time it worked out and that (the start) was important — maybe the most important part of the race."

But Rosberg had also admitted earlier in the weekend that a new approach might now be needed, after two consecutive title beatings by his confident teammate.

"Nico has got to get his head down, work on his strengths, and work on Lewis' weaknesses," advised Jenson Button, who beat Hamilton at McLaren in 2011.

One obvious weakness on Rosberg's side of the garage was clear to see in Austin, when he threw away the win when what he described as a "gust of wind" swept him off the track.

"Nico drove really well," Hamilton said on Sunday. "No mistakes, no gust of wind …"

But Hamilton's runaway confidence might be among his own weaknesses, off the back of a full weekend of pointed verbal barbs aimed in Rosberg's direction.

And in the race, Hamilton spent a couple of laps arguing with the Mercedes pitwall about the need for a tire pitstop, while Rosberg simply obliged and got the immediate advantage of fresh rubber.

In the end, Hamilton had to be told explicitly that he was being given an "instruction" that he did not have the freedom to debate.

"The calls are decided by the team, not the drivers," agreed team chairman Niki Lauda afterwards on German television RTL.

"An order is an order and the technology these days is far too complex to dispute it."

Rosberg agreed: "There was nothing to discuss. The experts are sitting on the pitwall and that's who I rely on, simply because they have a much better picture of what is going on than I do."

In F1 it's all about the engine you have. Driver skill in 1% or less

Alonso told King of Spain he has 'no engine'
(GMM) Fernando Alonso admitted his feelings about his Honda engine to the former King Carlos of Spain.

It was one year ago when 77-year-old Juan Carlos spilled the beans on fellow Spaniard Alonso's then-unknown future, revealing that he is heading to McLaren-Honda for 2015.

Now with Alonso firmly at struggling McLaren, as Carlos attended the Mexican grand prix, it appears the pair had another confidential conversation.

"He told me that he has no engine and he can't do anything," the former King told the Spanish broadcaster Movistar.

It seems Alonso may have been referring to a terminal engine problem that had been discovered aboard his car before the race.

Indeed, Alonso admitted afterwards that he knew he would break down after one lap, but he wanted to at least line up on the grid "out of respect" for the hordes of passionate Mexicans.

Alonso and his fellow champion teammate Jenson Button are having to stumble through the last few grands prix of the season with a firm eye on a much better 2016.

Alonso has said he holds out faint hopes even of race victories.

"Will we win races? I don't think so," Button told Brazil's Globo Esporte in Mexico, "but I think we will fight for the podium. Hopefully a win.

"But I am feeling especially excited about 2017, when I think McLaren-Honda will be able to fight for the title. There are big changes coming for the regulations and Honda will be much more experienced by then," he added.

Button admitted Mexico, strewn with more grid penalties for the McLaren drivers and with Honda dozens of kilometers per hour down on the fastest cars, was "painful".

But he says a lot of those problems can be eliminated for 2016.

"The power unit we will have next year will be quite a lot different to what we have now," Button said. "We will not have the problems generating power from the hybrid side, which everyone knows is our biggest issue," he added.

Kvyat beating Ricciardo on a fairly regular basis

Kvyat keeps seat if Red Bull stays in F1
(GMM) If Red Bull is on the 2016 grid, it will be Daniil Kvyat lining up with Daniel Ricciardo again.

"He (Kvyat) is doing great," team boss Christian Horner said in Mexico, amid speculation Max Verstappen might be promoted from Toro Rosso.

"So as long as we're here, he (Kvyat) will be in the car next year," he told the BBC.

'If', however, seems to be the operative word.

Team owner Dietrich Mateschitz's end-of-October deadline for a solution to the engine supply crisis has come and gone.

Asked if the deadline has now been extended, Horner answered: "Obviously it has to be."

Eventually, however, even a team as well-resourced as Red Bull will simply run out of time to get a car designed around a 'power unit' – whatever it will be – for 2016.

And the time factor for the smaller team Toro Rosso is even more crucial.

Earlier, Bernie Ecclestone sounded confident a solution would be found. But when asked in Mexico if he can guarantee that Red Bull will be there in 2016, he told Auto Motor und Sport: "There is no guarantee, no.

"But I would be very surprised if it didn't work itself out."

However, Red Bull's options are drying up. Mercedes is refusing to reverse its decision, and the relationship with Renault appears broken beyond repair.

"Our car was excellent in sectors 2 and 3," Horner said in Mexico, referring then to the ultra-long main straight. "I think you can clearly see in sector 1 what our weakness is."

It appears that only two options are still on the table.

The first is Honda, with the Japanese carmaker willing to supply power units for 2016 but McLaren's Ron Dennis wielding a veto and refusing to budge.

"He has a veto and he doesn't have a veto," Ecclestone said cryptically.

It is believed he is referring to the fact that Honda, while granting the veto to Dennis – who was absent in Mexico – also promised the FIA to start supplying customers from 2016.

And it is believed Ecclestone has won the support of FIA president Jean Todt in trying to enforce that promise.

If they fail, however, the final option for Red Bull could be a last-resort 2015-spec supply of Ferrari power, amid rumors the Italian marque's president Sergio Marchionne has had a favor called in.

The only question is whether Ferrari has the actual physical ability to supply two teams with a quality service at such late notice, whilst also working with customers Sauber and Haas in 2016.

"It may well be the case. I might agree with you," Horner said a week ago when asked about the Ferrari option. "At the moment everything is open."

Rosberg is surrounded by Mexico fans and media

F1 looks to past for thrilling future
(GMM) F1 is looking to its past as it speeds into the future.

With 1992 winner Nigel Mansell interviewing them on the podium, the sport's latest stars including world champion Lewis Hamilton could not believe the spectacle of this weekend's return to Mexico City.

"It's the most incredible thing I've ever seen," said the Mercedes driver after standing on the podium in the massed stadium section, after the country smashed its previous race attendance record with a more-than-capacity 130,000-plus crowd.

"In the whole entire time I've been in formula one, I've never seen anything like it," he added.

Niki Lauda, Mercedes team chairman and F1 legend, agreed: "In terms of the organization and the fans, it's the best race I've ever seen."

Nico Rosberg, the winner of Sunday's race, said F1 returning to other hallowed former stomping grounds would be ideal "But I know how much money it takes to set up something like this".

F1 reporter for the BBC, Christian Sylt, said Mexico – whose poverty rate has hit 46 per cent – is paying Ecclestone $25 million a year for the privilege.

In recent years, F1 has dramatically expanded into new and developing markets, but the local support in the Far and Middle East has often been lukewarm at best.

That could all be about to change.

Bernie Ecclestone revealed in Mexico that he is also back in talks with Argentina, who last hosted a grand prix to a big and passionate crowd in 1998 at a circuit in Buenos Aires that was falling into disrepair.

"We're talking to them and it can happen," he said.

Another potential race revival is South Africa, the country that hosted F1 23 times, most recently in 1992. Ecclestone has targeted Africa as it is the only continent not represented on the calendar.

"There is a huge following there and it is one of the most important grands prix we need to get on the calendar," Hamilton admitted to the BBC World Service.

Lauda concluded in Mexico City: "I think the organizers in South Africa or Argentina need to look at what has been done here."

The start in Mexico – it was quite an event

Ecclestone Tells European Race Promoters To Learn From Mexico
Formula 1 CEO Bernie Ecclestone said that "European race promoters should come to Mexico to see how it should be done," assuring the country's long-term future on the calendar, according to Alan Baldwin of REUTERS.

Without singling out any European races — "although it could be assumed Italy, Germany and Britain would be high on the 85-year-old's list" — Ecclestone said that "Mexico's return for the first time in 23 years provided a useful lesson to others."

Ecclestone: "This is when some of our people in Europe who complain about things, when they realize what people like these do to promote the race and make it happen and compare it with what they do. For them mostly, Sunday night when the race finishes that’s it. They remember it sort of a week before the next year's (event). We should get some of the European promoters to come to these races and have a look and see what they should be doing."

The Briton said that "Mexico's place on the calendar was assured."

Ecclestone: "It was long-term before and it will be long-term again."

Latin America now has two races, with Brazil following Mexico next month and Ecclestone said that he was "also talking to Argentina" — another race that has been absent since the '90s.

Ecclestone added, "It can happen. Not will, can. It's incredible. All these countries in a little bit of financial problems and they are getting the job done. And the so-called mighty Europe…

It's really and truly the people behind things that make things happen." European promoters, such as British Grand Prix organizers Silverstone, "must recoup hosting fees through ticket prices while many newer venues on the calendar receive significant state funding." REUTERS

Mexico track was slippery, challenging
In London, the BBC reported F1 champion Lewis Hamilton described the new Mexican Grand Prix circuit as "challenging for everyone but fun." He "praised the atmosphere created by thousands of fans."

Hamilton: "It's crazy how slippery it is, just sliding around, a bit like a go-kart track in the slow areas."

The track is at an altitude of 2,285m, which means "the cars' aerodynamics work less effectively than at circuits with a lower elevation because of the thinner air."

Hamilton's Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg said, "It is great to learn a new track. They have done a good job." BBC

The Honda twin-turbo IndyCar V6

Formula 1 Teams Hesitant On FIA, Ecclestone's Plans For 'Client Engines' In '17
F1 teams have mixed feelings about FIA's proposal to introduce low cost "client engines" in '17. The motorsports governing body last week announced its plan for a much cheaper alternative to F1's current 1.6-liter V6 hybrid power units, which have a reported $22M price tag.

While not yet confirmed, the alternative engine is expected to be a 2.2-liter twin turbo V6, which is essentially the same engine that is used in IndyCar.

The plans follow Ferrari's decision to veto a proposed cost cap of $13.2M for current power units, which teams unanimously agreed on at the last strategy group meeting. The FIA is planning to launch a tender process for the alternative engine that is expected to attract companies such as Cosworth and Ilmor.

F1 CEO Bernie Ecclestone, who from the beginning had his issues with the new power units, first brought up the idea for an independent engine supplier.

RESISTANCE FROM TEAMS: However, teams up and down the pitlane seem hesitant about the idea of two different types of engines in F1. "These new power units that we have, they may be expensive but the technologies that they incorporate are all about driving innovations, and we have to be at the cutting edge of that," said Claire Williams, deputy team principal at Williams F1.

The proposed new low-budget engines might be a step in the wrong direction, as they don't have the hybrid element in them, Williams added. Sauber Team Principal Monisha Kaltenborn agrees that F1 should showcase the latest technology and believes the series should stick with the V6 hybrids. For her, the problem has to do with the way the new technology was implemented.

"The implementation was too shortly timed and at a far too high price," she said. Kaltenborn advocates for a sensible price point where nobody loses. She said the number put forward by the FIA was such a figure.

There is also fear that F1's manufacturers — Mercedes, Ferrari, Renault and Honda — that invested millions in the development of the engines could pull out should the series revert back to simpler specifications.

"They’ve all bought into this power unit that we have at the moment as it relates very well to their road car business," Williams said. "If we go back to an old engine what is that going to do to them?" She added that losing those manufacturers would be even more damaging to the sport.

SINGLE EXCEPTION: Red Bull has so far been the only team that welcomed FIA's move toward client engines. However, the team's current engine situation may have contributed to its positive attitude on the issue. Red Bull is without an engine for next year — let alone '17 — following a public spat with current partner Renault.

Speaking to grandprix24.com, Red Bull motorsport consultant Helmut Marko said, "This is the way back to real racing. We always said that hybrid is the wrong way, but at the time everyone laughed at us." HJ Mai/SportsBusinessDaily.com