Latest F1 news in brief

Rosberg just not fast enough

'Base payment' could resolve boycott threat – Lopez
Rosberg 'not thinking about' title defeat (He should be)
Mercedes close to agreeing engine 'unfreeze'
Ericsson: My money wasn't only factor (Sure it was)
USA could support three F1 races, says Ferrari boss
Ferrari 'working tirelessly' to improve (but cannot because of engine freeze)
Sutil: Perez move completely needless
Moss says Hamilton can win six titles with superior Mercedes

Gerard Lopez

'Base payment' could resolve boycott threat – Lopez
(GMM) F1 authorities are scrambling this week to put down a lingering boycott threat ahead of the Brazilian grand prix.

As the sport's air freight touches down in Sao Paulo, the Brazilian news agency Estado reports that organizers of the Interlagos race are dismissing claims of a boycott threat, insisting that 18 cars – every team with the exception of insolvent Caterham and Marussia – will line up on the grid.

In truth, the organizers are probably not in a position to issue such a guarantee.

Angry Force India, Lotus and Sauber threatened to sit out last Sunday's Austin race, and the threats have resurfaced ahead of the remaining two grands prix in 2014.

Indeed, it appears that Bernie Ecclestone and F1 owners CVC are taking the threats seriously.

It is believed CVC chairman Donald McKenzie has telephoned Lotus owner Gerard Lopez with the aim of diffusing the situation.

Lopez is making clear his demands.

"I know CVC and Bernie have been looking at this, but it's going to be a base payment given to the smaller teams, the racers, which is essentially going to make it possible for a normal budget to be pretty much closed," he said.

Initially, the big teams instinctively baulked at Ecclestone's proposal that they give up a percentage of their huge contracted bonus payments.

But, perhaps also realizing the angry minnows are serious in their boycott threat, Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff has now said he is willing to give up "a few per cent" if that is also matched by Red Bull and Ferrari.

If Formula One's cash-strapped teams are looking for sympathy they're unlikely to find it from Red Bull boss Christian Horner; or for that matter, Ginger Spice.

Until very recently, Mercedes' grandee rivals appeared unmoved.

"The teams are there to compete," Red Bull team boss Christian Horner is quoted by France's L'Equipe, "not to sponsor each other."

And Ferrari's Marco Mattiacci agreed: "Ferrari is focused on making the pie bigger, not changing the way the pie is cut."

The latest reports and rumors, however, suggest a solution may now have been found.

"To be honest, it's really not a complicated thing to do," said Lopez. "It just requires a bit of goodwill. The overall amount we're discussing, once you start dividing it by the number of teams, is not that massive.

"I really think there is a way to solve this in the coming days, probably even to get to a proposal before Brazil. In which case I don't see the point in doing anything drastic that would damage the sport," he added.

With Lewis Hamilton in top form, Nico Rosberg's title hopes are fading fast.

Rosberg 'not thinking about' title defeat (he should be)
(GMM) Earlier the runaway title leader, Nico Rosberg's championship hopes have faded dramatically after five straight wins for teammate Lewis Hamilton.

The in-house Mercedes showdown is now guaranteed a 'double points' finale in Abu Dhabi, but it is true that German Rosberg's fight-back is now slipping out of his grasp.

That is because a pair of second places in Brazil and Abu Dhabi will still guarantee a second drivers' crown for the ultra on-form Briton Hamilton.

"I am not thinking about how I will react if I don't win the title," Rosberg told Germany's Bild. "And I don't want to think about such negative things.

"But my situation is really not negative — all the possibilities are there, even if it is a bit harder now," he said, referring to his latest defeat to Hamilton in Austin.

Indeed, while 24 points with two races to go might ordinarily be 'check mate' in a title fight, the controversial double-points finale is a potential problem for Hamilton.

Hamilton agreed: "If the points were the same for the next two races, I would feel in a much more opportunistic position.

"But I know it's very much still open. It is what it is," said Hamilton. "There's no point being upset about it."

If technical reliability or collisions do not intervene, most experts now expect Hamilton to nonetheless hang onto his lead until the Abu Dhabi checker.

His thoughts will then turn to celebration and negotiations for a new Mercedes contract beyond 2015.

In Austin, he confirmed his split from entertainment manager Simon Fuller. He now says he feels "quite comfortable" handling the talks with Mercedes by himself.

"Nico did his himself, Sebastian (Vettel) did his himself, and there's no reason I couldn't do it myself."

He ruled out reuniting professionally with his father and former manager Anthony. "Nope," said Hamilton. "Me and my dad have a great relationship (now).

"I hope to see a long future with this team. Nothing needs to be changed too much," he added.

Mercedes close to agreeing engine 'unfreeze'
(GMM) Talks over a touted engine 'unfreeze' for the 2015 season appear to have taken a dramatic turn.

On Monday, media reports in Italy suggested Ferrari, Red Bull and Renault may have pulled off a political masterstroke over the US GP weekend by convincing F1's dominant force Mercedes to agree to the relaxing of the engine homologation rules.

That is despite Mercedes chiefs Toto Wolff and Niki Lauda respectively describing the proposals as "nonsense" and "irrational", as it drives up costs and unfairly attacks the German squad for performing best under the new rules.

But now Italy's La Repubblica is also reporting that Mercedes "has agreed to a compromise" over the engine freeze, which currently dictates that manufacturers may modify 48 per cent of the engine but have it re-frozen before the start of the 2015 season.

"Finally," read the report, "thanks to pressure from (Bernie) Ecclestone and the FIA, the Germans gave in."

La Repubblica cautioned that the compromise, while agreed by the Brackley team, will now have to be approved by Mercedes' paymasters in Stuttgart.

Ferrari boss Marco Mattiacci said: "At the meeting on Saturday, Mercedes said it was willing to compromise.

"But I do not feel like saying the matter is closed now, because Mercedes had already declared its willingness before and then changed its mind."

However, Mattiacci thanked Mercedes chairman Niki Lauda for at least "putting everyone around a table to discuss" the issue.

Other reports suggest the 'unfreeze' will now mean that manufacturers' 2015 designs will not be locked in until July next year.

Christian Horner, the boss of Renault's works team Red Bull, confirmed: "Mercedes have accepted that they need to provide a window of opportunity to the others to introduce competition.

"They participated in a discussion, so they haven't actually agreed to anything as yet, but there was a very constructive discussion which hopefully will see a solution in place in the very near future," he added.

According to Marcus Ericcson, money wasn't the only reason he landed a drive with Sauber. But as team boss Monisha Kaltenborn said, it sure didn't hurt.

Ericsson: My money wasn't only factor (Sure it was)
With Caterham's future in Formula 1 hanging in the balance, Ericsson is set to swap to Sauber for next year's Championship.

The team confirmed his signing in Austin on Saturday with the deal sweetened by his multi-million Swedish sponsorship deals.

No shying away from the subject, team boss Kaltenborn confirmed that the money had helped Ericsson secure the race-seat.

"Yes, there are," she told Crash.net when asked if there were 'financial considerations' involved.

"We have to be open about it because I think if you look at the situation today in Formula One for private teams you have to consider these kind of arguments when you make a decision. If it is now good or bad, let's leave that aside.

"The fact is that we did consider that as well, however he is not the only driver who has this kind of support so there's nothing negative about it."

The Sauber boss added that she has been impressed with Ericsson's on-track form in recent weeks and is confident he will be an asset to Sauber.

"I am excited. I don't know him from a very long time – I only met him recently – but I have been watching him for the last couple of races and it was impressive to see what performance he showed, particularly in the last races.

"I can see that it must have been a very tough season for him, that's something that we have in common! It's good to see when somebody can keep cool that way, remain so focused and then still show actually this kind of improvement in his performance.

"So I think he is bringing the right qualities and the right experience over to us."

Marco Mattiacci wants more races in America.

USA could support three F1 races, says Ferrari boss
Ferrari boss Marco Mattiacci is adamant that the best way forward for F1 is to create bigger revenues rather than change the way funds are distributed.

Mattiacci also put a big emphasis on the USA, and believes the country could support three races.

"Ferrari is very focused on making the cake bigger, not to change a different way of how to slice the cake," he said. "We don’t have to overreact. We need to look at first how to increase revenues, that’s priority number one.

"Second, to make sure that who comes in F1 is very well aware about the challenge of F1. This sport is innovation, innovation costs money, a lot of investment, long term investment. We keep investing in F1, we are here since decades, we will be for a long time, so that’s our focus.

"We are contributing a lot to the sport, supporting the teams that are working with us. We are ready to do our part, as we always said., I don’t think even if you redistributed revenues those teams would have survived or been competitive. There is money, managers, defining priorities of a project – some teams like Red Bull proved that, coming from very far, with a strong five years project, they came first to be competitive, and then be four-times World Champions. I don’t think that distribution is the solution."

Mattiacci is adamant that teams have to have a solid business plan: "F1 needs competitive teams. There are many corporations around the world, many big brands, that should capitalize on a phenomenal motor sport platform like F1 is.

"We need competitive teams. I’m not here to say small, middle, we need competitive teams with a solid business background, a solid financial background. At the same time as a strong believer in F1 I think the focus is how to increase revenues, how to make the cake bigger. We are here I the United States where we see that F1 is getting traction. My focus as a company where 30% of the sales are United States I want to make sure we get more successful in the United States.

"I want an extra race in the United States. I want three races in the United States. That’s my proposal, because the American market is fundamental to generate revenues, to attract sponsors, so that’s my proposal.

"When you have more revenues definitely you can talk about having more teams on board. Again I don’t know what is the critical mass for those teams that are struggling, what is the amount of money they need in order to be successful or to be consistently in F1. Fifty million, one hundred million? I don’t know. Depends on the business model they want to establish." Adam Cooper's Blog

Williams seems to have a firm grasp on third-place in the Constructors' Championship.

Ferrari 'working tirelessly' to improve (but cannot because of engine freeze)
Ferrari team boss Marco Mattiacci says the Scuderia is "working tirelessly" to improve after another disappointing race in Austin, but their hands are tied because of the engine freeze, guaranteeing Mercedes dominance.

Fernando Alonso hung on to take sixth in the United States Grand Prix, while Kimi RÃ¤ikkÃ¶nen finished 13th, struggling with tire degradation and forced to make three-stops.

The result meant Ferrari slipped further behind Williams in the fight for third place in the Formula 1 Constructors' Championship, the gap increasing from 28 points to 42.

"It was a shame we could not give our fans a better result in Austin, with a Ferrari capable of fighting for the top places," Mattiacci said.

"With Fernando, we were able to maintain his start position, while Kimi had some of those difficulties that we are working hard to solve as a team, to ensure he has a better car."

"On track, we continue to learn a lot," he added, "and at home we are working tirelessly to reach our goals as soon as possible."

Adrian Sutil is none too pleased with Sergio Perez

Sutil: Perez move completely needless
Adrian Sutil has branded Sergio Perez's move on the opening lap of the United States Grand Prix as "completely needless", with both having to retire as a result.

Perez felt Sutil had "left the door open", but was later hit with a seven-place grid penalty for the Brazilian Grand Prix after being deemed responsible for the accident.

That though, was little consolation for Sutil and Sauber, especially as the German had qualified a season-best 10th the previous day.

"Unfortunately, it was a short race for me," said Sutil.

"I had a good start and was in a promising position. Sadly Sergio crashed into my car, which was completely needless.

"It is very disappointing that we missed our biggest chance of points because of this move."

Meanwhile, Sutil's team-mate Esteban Gutierrez finished 14th, having struggled to get his tires to work after the Safety Car period, deployed because of the Sutil-Perez accident.

"After the promising qualifying this result is a huge disappointment especially for Adrian, who was forced out of the race through no fault of his own because of another driver," said Sauber team boss Monisha Kaltenborn.

"Looking at what happened at the end of the race, the question is what would have been possible.

"Esteban, especially during the early race phase, lost a lot of time. We now have to analyze why that was the case."

Two years ago, we at AR1 questioned the wisdom of Hamilton switching from McLaren to Mercedes. Boy, were we wrong!

Moss says Hamilton can win six titles with superior Mercedes
Sir Stirling Moss believes Lewis Hamilton can go onto win around six Formula 1 World Championship titles if he sticks with the superior Mercedes team that is guaranteed dominance because of the F1 engine freeze.

Hamilton became the most successful British driver in Formula 1 history last weekend, when he won the United States Grand Prix, extending his championship lead to 24 points.

The victory put the Mercedes driver on 32 career victories, one ahead of 1992 Formula 1 World Champion Nigel Mansell, while his current streak was extended to a career-best five races.

(With a car that fast) "I cannot see any reason why he [Hamilton] cannot get four or five or six championships," Moss told BBC Radio 5 live.

"He is as good as we have got, and we are very lucky to have him."

"Hamilton looks to be unassailable, quite frankly," added Moss, who was vice-champion in Formula 1 four-times in 1955, 1956, 1957 and 1958.

"He is up with Jimmy Clark [who won the Formula 1 title twice in 1963 and 1965], and people like that.

"He is exciting to watch."