Latest F1 news in brief

Sainz Jr: I deserve Toro Rosso seat

Brothers look to save troubled Marussia – report
F1 set for three-car teams as more risk collapse
Alonso future unclear amid Audi, Lotus rumors
Sainz says he 'deserves' Toro Rosso debut
Recovery vehicle driver says F1 'never safe'
Ricciardo: Austin best of the new circuits

Brothers look to save troubled Marussia – report
(GMM) Marussia is not commenting on claims it will sit out the next races and is on the verge of being put into the hands of administrators.

Amid Caterham's well-documented troubles, Bernie Ecclestone revealed that Marussia will also sit out the Austin-Brazil double header.

And F1 business journalist Christian Sylt claims the team has notified the High Court that it also intends to go into administration.

"I have no idea if Marussia are going to make it in the long run," F1 chief executive Ecclestone told the Daily Mail. "It's better if they didn't have to go into administration."

Despite multiple media outlets making attempts, Marussia has refused to comment on the apparently escalating situation for at least three days consecutively.

The team, rocked by Jules Bianchi's life-threatening crash at Suzuka recently, has also not issued a single 'tweet' for the past 10 days.

But amid reports owner Andrey Cheglakov wants to sell, the Telegraph reports that British-Indian steel industry brothers Baljinder Sohi and Sonny Kaushal are lining up as potential buyers.

"We are very close to a deal," Sohi said. "But it has to be the right price. We have put in a serious offer and we will see what happens."

F1 set for three-car teams as more risk collapse
(GMM) F1 risks sliding into crisis and having to reinvent its very DNA as struggling backmarker teams begin to succumb to collapse.

HRT folded in 2012, and now F1's two other newest teams Caterham and Marussia are in the throes of financial administration.

Organizers of next weekend's US grand prix look set to welcome just 9 teams to an 18-car grid, unprecedented since BAR-Honda was banned for a time almost a decade ago.

"It's a fantastic sport," departed Caterham founder Tony Fernandes said on Twitter at the weekend. "Bernie (Ecclestone) has done an amazing job but it needs to relook at itself."

And former HRT driver Narain Karthikeyan added: "F1 just too expensive and completely unsustainable for minnows."

Max Mosley, the former FIA president who warned of a looming crisis in F1 years ago, quietly pointed a finger at his successor Jean Todt.

"It seems that the chickens have come home to roost," Mosley is quoted by The Times.

For now, F1 and its race promoters will have to cope with a diminished grid as big teams are promised at least two months notice before having to field three-car teams.

Dipping below 20 cars is the trigger for the three-car stipulation, giving Ecclestone a buffer so as not risking his contractual promise of at least 16-car grids to the big-paying race promoters.

But with Caterham and Marussia looking set to fall, it now appears possible F1 will lose even more small-sized independent teams, particularly after the sport baulked earlier this year at introducing radical cost-cutting or even a cost cap.

"Formula one is not so great that it cannot fail," Sauber team boss and co-owner Monisha Kaltenborn is alarmingly warning, according to Italy's La Stampa.

It is not only the Swiss team that is worried. Germany's Auto Motor und Sport claims that Force India needs to make an engine payment to Mercedes by Monday or risk joining Caterham and Marussia in missing the US grand prix.

And Force India deputy boss Bob Fernley admitted more teams are in danger of collapse.

"We've had three new teams since 2010, and all three have collapsed," he told the Telegraph. "The writing was on the wall from the beginning.

"Only five teams have a say in the running of formula one — we'll lose more teams if we carry on like this," said Fernley.

If the F1 grid keeps diminishing, three-car entries are inevitable.

Auto Motor und Sport said Ferrari, Red Bull and McLaren are lined up by Ecclestone as first in the queue to start supplying third cars.

Eric Boullier and Ron Dennis say they would need at least six months warning to field a third car.

If any of that trio declines, Mercedes is reportedly the next in line.

Ferrari and Red Bull have apparently already given Ecclestone the green light, while McLaren for the moment is hesitating, perhaps due to uncertainty about who should pay for the third car — Ecclestone or the team.

Red Bull's Dr Helmut Marko told Sport Bild he does not see a problem.

"We have the capacity at Milton Keynes, and it would also solve our luxury problem of having too many good drivers for too few cars," he said.

And Karthikeyan, who only drove for backmarker teams in his F1 career, thinks the slowest cars will not be missed.

"18 cars in Austin," he said, "but sadly no one will miss the absentees once the opening lap is completed without incident. That's the truth."

Just when you thought the 2015 F1 Silly Season couldn't get much sillier, there are now Alonso-to-Audi rumors floating around.

Alonso future unclear amid Audi, Lotus rumors
(GMM) A major sponsor of the Lotus team has stirred up the already confusing speculation about Fernando Alonso's next move.

Most insiders believe the Spaniard and Ferrari have already dissolved their contract, paving the way for Sebastian Vettel to join Kimi Raikkonen at the Italian team in 2015.

Alonso's future, however, remains unclear, amid claims he will either switch to McLaren-Honda for a year before bidding for a Mercedes seat in 2016, or simply take a sabbatical.

But it may not be as simple as that.

Spain's Marca claims the delay in an official announcement by Ferrari is because the only way Maranello can clear Alonso's seat for Vettel is by paying the Spaniard $50 million to compensate for the remainder of his deal.

Might former Ferrari team boss Stefano Domenicali be part of the Alonso to Audi deal?

The latest rumors are that, with Stefano Domenicali already headed to Ingolstadt, Audi could be set to quit Le Mans and start up a F1 team centered around Alonso in 2015.

France's Auto Hebdo quoted a spokesman for the VW-owned marque as playing down the reports.

"These rumors have been around for several years," the spokesman said. "It is still only pure speculation without any foundation.

"We are engaged in the WEC, DTM and GT, and we will add the Audi Sport TT Cup to our program in 2015," he added.

Meanwhile, although Lotus says it on the verge of re-signing Romain Grosjean for 2015, the Enstone team's Coca Cola-owned energy drink sponsor Burn is now getting mischievously involved in the Alonso speculation.

"We think Alonso could look great in black and gold, don't you?" Burn said on Twitter, having photoshopped an image of Alonso wearing Lotus F1 overalls.

Sainz says he 'deserves' Toro Rosso debut
(GMM) Carlos Sainz Jr is convinced he should be handed his F1 debut by backer Red Bull.

The 20-year-old is the newly crowned champion of the highly rated Formula Renault 3.5 series, but he was overlooked by Red Bull for a guaranteed seat at the junior team Toro Rosso for 2015.

Red Bull decided instead to fast-track the F1 promotion of teenage F3 sensation Max Verstappen.

It means Spaniard Sainz is now clinging to hope he will be picked to be fellow rookie Verstappen's teammate next year, even though keeping the experienced Jean-Eric Vergne for another season now appears the safer bet.

Sainz, whose father and namesake is the world rally legend, sounds increasingly impatient as he waits for Red Bull's decision.

"I think I deserve the seat," the young driver told the Spanish daily Marca, "and anything other than a seat at that level would bother me a bit.

"Max was third in his championship (European F3), which was won by another rookie," said Sainz.

He is referring to 18-year-old Frenchman Esteban Ocon, who according to Lotus performed "exceptionally" during his F1 test debut at Valencia last week.

And "I'm at the level above that," Sainz, the new Formula Renault 3.5 champion, insisted.

"I'm the youngest in history and I've won it with record wins and fastest laps. If Verstappen deserves that (Toro Rosso) seat then I deserve it even more," he added.

Recovery vehicle driver says F1 'never safe'
(GMM) An experienced F1 recovery vehicle driver in Brazil has defended his Japanese colleagues in the wake of Jules Bianchi's horror crash.

Brazil's Globo Esporte says Rafael Ricciardi has been driving the vehicle charged with removing stricken cars from the Interlagos circuit near the pit exit for four years running.

Marussia racer Bianchi is fighting for his life after striking a nearly identical vehicle at Suzuka during the recent Japanese grand prix, but Ricciardi insisted: "Have no fear, everything is safe.

"What happened in Japan is just part of the risk of racing.

"In terms of the rules, there was no problem, the procedure that had to be done was done. What happened (with the actions of the marshals) in Suzuka was right," he said.

"An accident never has one cause, it is always a combination of circumstances. Formula one will never be 100 per cent safe," Ricciardi added.

The Circuit of the Americas layout and seemingly just about anything else, bring a smile to the face of Daniel Ricciardo.

Ricciardo: Austin best of the new circuits
Red Bull driver Daniel Ricciardo believes that the Circuit of the Americas, the venue for next weekend's United States Grand Prix, is the best of the newer tracks on the Formula 1 calendar.

The facility was purposely built for Formula 1 in 2012 and Ricciardo reckons it is the most exciting of the new breed of tracks to have been created in recent years.

"This is probably the date on the calendar I look forward to the most," said Ricciardo, who finished 12th and 11th on his two visits to the circuit with Toro Rosso.

"The Circuit of the Americas, in my opinion, is the best of the new breed of circuits. The nature of the corners is interesting. It's also a very busy track where you don't get much respite.

"The first sector is very special and that first turn, blind up the big hill is like nothing else in F1. It's also a good example of the excitement a late-apex can create: you can have a really good lunge there. They've done a very good job."

Ricciardo heads to Austin requiring a win, and other results to go his way, to remain in mathematical contention for this year's championship against the Mercedes drivers.