Latest F1 news in brief
- Campos will not pay Senna in 2010
- Sponsor problem to thwart de la Rosa/Campos deal
- Alonso to appear at Ferrari 'World Finals'
- Rejected F1 team loses FIA legal action
- Brawn hints team will not pay Button more
- Teens enter frame for Alguersuari's F1 seat
- Belgian GP posts 5m euros loss for 2009
Campos will not pay Senna in 2010
(GMM) Bruno Senna will not be paid by his 2010 team Campos, the Brazilian rookie has revealed.
Having already denied he is a pay-driver, the nephew of the late Ayrton Senna admitted that he hopes to help Campos to attract sponsors.
And as for earning a living himself, the 26-year-old – who has signed a two-year contract – said: "I will receive no pay, but I'm allowed to have personal sponsors."
Senna said: "I am here because I trust Adrian (Campos) completely.
"I spoke with all the teams except Ferrari, and almost all of them demanded that I contribute five million euros in sponsorships.
"In the end I reached an agreement with Campos because they believe in me and because they think that my name will help them to get sponsors."
Sponsor problem to thwart de la Rosa/Campos deal
(GMM) Two candidates have overtaken Pedro de la Rosa as favorites to become Bruno Senna's 2010 teammate at Campos.
The Spanish team's chief Adrian Campos has this week revealed that his desired collaboration with de la Rosa, McLaren's main test driver, is likely to fall over due to a lack of corporate backing.
"I would like to have Pedro de la Rosa, but he is Spanish and there are problems with the sponsorships of Spaniards," he said.
"There are other options from Russia and Venezuela, but everything depends on the sponsors," Campos added.
Team president Jose Ramon Carabante clarified that Pastor Maldonado is the front-running Venezuelan, while the Russian referred to by Campos is Vitaly Petrov.
Alonso to appear at Ferrari 'World Finals'
(GMM) The news is strictly unofficial, but Fernando Alonso is tipped to appear at Ferrari's 'World Finals' event at the Valencia circuit this weekend.
The Italian team, and the 28-year-old double world champion, cannot confirm the news, because Spaniard Alonso remains strictly under contract to Renault until the last day of 2009.
Ferrari confirmed Alonso's current status recently, when the Maranello based team's press department said he is not yet "an official (team) member due to his contractual commitments regarding image management, which still tie him to his previous team and his sponsors".
The winner of 21 grands prix will therefore wear casual clothing rather than Ferrari's iconic red at Valencia, but – after his recent private visit to Maranello – it will nonetheless be Alonso's first public appearance with his new F1 employer.
Ferrari's World Finals event combines the decisive races of the Italian, European and North American series of the Ferrari Challenge Pirelli Trophy and the Shell Ferrari Historic Challenge.
Rejected F1 team loses FIA legal action
(GMM) Unsuccessful F1 team applicant N.Technology has also lost a round of court action against the FIA.
The Italian entry claimed the governing body's team selection process earlier this year had been "highly questionable", and a court hearing took place last month in Paris' Tribunal de Grande Instance.
The verdict was handed down this week, but the reasons for the court's decision are not yet known.
Brawn hints team will not pay Button more
(GMM) The Brawn team is unlikely to simply agree to Jenson Button's demands for a higher retainer in 2010.
Team boss Ross Brawn has been quoted in British newspapers as saying the most the new world champion will be offered is more freedom to seek his own personal sponsors.
The two parties have been deadlocked in their negotiations about a new contract for next season, with Button wanting to revert to his retainer of the Honda days after agreeing to slash his pay amid the management buyout last winter.
The Guardian and Daily Mail newspapers said Button, who has reportedly been in talks about an alternative drive alongside Lewis Hamilton at McLaren, is seeking more than 6 million pounds sterling — about double his 2009 wage.
"We can offer a higher proportion of driver freedom and that will probably be the route we will go," said Brawn. "Jenson has some freedom for his own endorsements but has a commitment to meet our obligations."
Teens enter frame for Alguersuari's F1 seat
(GMM) Another driver has entered the frame at Toro Rosso, after the Italian team confirmed this week that Jaime Alguersuari has not yet been signed for the 2010 season.
The Red Bull-owned team has inked a new contract with the impressive Swiss rookie Sebastien Buemi, amid confirmation that the New Zealand youngster Brendon Hartley will test a Toro Rosso at Jerez in December.
Driving for Red Bull Racing at Jerez will be Australian Daniel Ricciardo, the new British F3 champion.
Only drivers with less than 3 grands prix under their belts are eligible for the young driver test, and it emerges that 19-year-old Mirko Bortolotti has been lined up to accompany Hartley, also 19, and Ricciardo at the Spanish circuit.
Italian Bortolotti, who will test for Toro Rosso, made headlines last winter when he broke the Fiorano lap record while testing with Ferrari as a reward for winning the Italian F3 series.
He finished this year's F2 championship in fourth place, and earlier in 2009 was linked with injured Felipe Massa's Ferrari race seat, having already been put under contract by the energy drink Red Bull.
Bortolotti said in August: "My mentality is just to do a good job in formula 2 for the remaining three rounds — after that, I'll start thinking about my future."
But while Alguersuari's seat is theoretically in doubt, STR team boss Franz Tost hints strongly that the Faenza outfit will field an unchanged lineup in 2010.
"I'm quite confident that from the middle of next year onwards we will have a good driver lineup, because then Alguersuari will know all the tracks and Buemi is increasing his performance already," he is quoted as saying by The Sun.
Belgian GP posts 5m euros loss for 2009
(GMM) It has emerged that the 2009 Belgian grand prix, held at iconic Spa-Francorchamps, made a loss of more than 5 million euros.
As a local court ruling relating to noise threatens the circuit's operating license, race organizers were already considering annually alternating the grand prix with the Nurburgring at the end of its contract in 2012.
The Belga news agency reports this week that the 2009 event, attended on race day by just over 50,000 spectators and won by Kimi Raikkonen, cost Spa 5.134m euros.
"(Race organizer Etienne) Davignon should come to us with concrete proposals to achieve financial balance so that (the GP) is viable," said Jean-Claude Marcourt, the economics minister of the regional government of Wallonia.