Latest F1 news in brief
- Dennis happy to see Ferraris win in Brazil
- Team bosses pull out of Mosley's Geneva summit
- Hamilton would be worthy winner – Alonso
- Team order ban 'nonsense' – Marc Gene
- Raikkonen not bothered if Massa doesn't win
- Gene does not back refueling ban proposal
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| Ron Dennis does not care if Massa wins in Brazil. He just wants Hamilton to score enough points to clinch title |
Dennis happy to see Ferraris win in Brazil
(GMM) McLaren boss Ron Dennis says he would not mind if Ferrari records a dominant one-two in Brazil, so long as Lewis Hamilton is crowned world champion.
In Shanghai on Sunday, Hamilton drove to an easy victory, ensuring a 7 point advantage over Ferrari's Felipe Massa with just the Interlagos finale in two weeks to go.
The mathematics of the points standings means that, even if Massa wins at Sao Paulo and the other Ferrari finishes second, 23-year-old Hamilton will still be champion if he secures fifth place or higher.
"We have no problem with Massa coming first and Kimi coming second," Dennis, when asked about the last race, told reporters before leaving China.
"It doesn't really worry us. We will compete fiercely through practice and qualifying, see where we are and take a view from there," he said.
In his post-race message of congratulations to Hamilton over the radio in China, Dennis praised the British driver for his "discipline".
Now Dennis is asking for one more show of calm.
"To win the world championship, we have to finish the next race, it's as simple as that. I think for everybody it will be very exciting, but our objective will be to make it boring for everybody," he smiled.
"The most important thing will be to stay out of trouble."
After losing last year's championship at the last hurdle despite a similar advantage, and with his mistake of the recent Japanese grand prix in mind, Hamilton indicates that he agrees with Dennis' advice.
"We know what we have to do," he said.
"We will use a similar approach to what I had this weekend, which was better than I had last year coming here; a bit calmer, a bit more confidence in the package and what we have to do," Hamilton added.
Team bosses pull out of Mosley's Geneva summit
(GMM) A climate of hot politics has once again descended on formula one, as the competing interests of car manufacturers and the governing body collide.
FIA president Max Mosley recently invited team bosses to Geneva for a meeting on Tuesday, as he attempts to ram through drastic cost-slashing measures — including his highly controversial proposal for a standard engine design.
The issue, however, took a dramatic turn last weekend when, on the eve of the Geneva get-together, Mosley put out a tender for a third party supplier of the F1 engines for 2010.
The move shocked and angered the carmaker-backed teams, who under the cover of their new FOTA alliance gathered for a marathon meeting in the Shanghai paddock to consider a riposte.
Ultimately, the ten F1 team bosses have decided not to travel to Geneva, instead sending only FOTA chairman Luca di Montezemolo, and deputy John Howett, to deliver a unified response on behalf of the alliance.
McLaren boss Ron Dennis said: "All parties had agreed a clear agenda for next Tuesday.
"It is incomprehensible that the FIA torpedoes this schedule with a radical proposal," he is quoted as saying by Auto Motor und Sport.
There is no doubt that F1's big spenders are violently opposed to the single engine concept.
Via Montezemolo, they are expected to push for alternative cost-cutting measures on the engine side; the extension of the one engine per two races rule to three races, and perhaps a reduction in the rev limit from 19,000 to 18,500rpm.
Former double world champion Fernando Alonso makes clear he does not support the idea of a single engine formula.
"I don't think it is good for formula one to be honest. We have big (car) brands here in the paddock and it would seem strange that we all race with the same engine. This would no longer be F1," he said.
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| Alonso had to swallow hard before admitting Hamilton deserves to be champion. At McLaren as a rookie, Hamilton dominated Alonso. Alonso claimed team was favoring Hamilton |
Hamilton would be worthy winner – Alonso
(GMM) Fernando Alonso concedes that if his nemesis Lewis Hamilton wins the 2008 title, he will be a worthy world champion.
The bitterness between the pair was obvious last weekend in China, when after Alonso admitted he was willing to help Felipe Massa race to the crown, Hamilton bit back at the Spaniard as a champion who "got beaten by a rookie" in 2007.
But amid the acrimony, 27-year-old Alonso insists he will not campaign to diminish Hamilton's achievement, should the Briton secure the title with a fifth place or better at Interlagos in two weeks.
"The championship is always won by the best driver, so if Hamilton wins in the end it will be because he has collected more points than anyone else," he is quoted as saying by the El Pais newspaper.
Alonso also praised Hamilton's dominant display in Shanghai.
"He was fastest in the practices, got the pole and won the race. It is unquestionable that he deserves it," he said.
If Alonso has one gripe about the outcome of the Chinese grand prix, it is that Brazil will now not host a true showdown between the title protagonists, given Hamilton's relatively easy task.
"It is not good for the excitement of the championship, but honestly whoever wins doesn't concern me too much."
He does, however, admit to staying true to his word of helping Massa, by declining to "get into a fight with Felipe" at the start of Sunday's 56-lap race.
"That is when Kovalainen took the opportunity to pass me," Alonso explained.
Meanwhile, another Spaniard, Ferrari test driver Marc Gene, believes Massa would be the more deserving 2008 champion.
"He has suffered mechanical problems," he wrote in his column for El Mundo, "while Hamilton has not. "However, the British driver would also deserve it."
Team order ban 'nonsense' – Marc Gene
(GMM) Marc Gene has dismissed as "nonsense" formula one's current ban on team orders.
Following the furor of Austria 2002, when Ferrari boss Jean Todt ordered Rubens Barrichello to "let Michael (Schumacher) pass for the championship" within sight of victory, the FIA said such team interference is no longer legal.
It means that in a situation like Sunday's Chinese grand prix, when Felipe Massa logically inherited second position from his teammate, all the players involved had to pretend that the move was a 'driver decision' rather than a 'team order'.
"When you see situations like this you realize that the rule is nonsense," Gene, who is a Ferrari test driver, wrote in his column for the Spanish newspaper El Mundo.
"The situation was purely logical, and any team would have done the same thing," he charged.
Raikkonen not bothered if Massa doesn't win
(GMM) Kimi Raikkonen must play a fully team-oriented role for one more race, but the Finn makes clear he is not in formula one to help his teammates win titles.
The reigning world champion's 2008 title defense ended mathematically at Fuji, paving the way for him to move over for fellow Ferrari driver Felipe Massa in the closing stages in China.
But although similar team tactics could come into play when Massa makes a last effort to win the drivers' championship in Brazil in two weeks, 29-year-old Raikkonen has admitted his heart is not really in the fight.
"For Felipe and Ferrari, it would be nice if he wins the title," he told the German broadcaster RTL.
"But quite honestly, it makes no difference to me who wins," Raikkonen admitted.
Gene does not back refueling ban proposal
(GMM) Ferrari test driver Marc Gene admits he does not think proposals to ban refueling during formula one pitstops is a good idea.
It is believed the FOTA alliance of F1 teams in Shanghai discussed the topic, with some figures arguing that banning refueling would make race strategies less complicated, as well as make the sport safer.
"I think refueling in F1 is good for the show," Ferrari test driver Marc Gene retorted, "because it means strategies can be quite varied.
"There are some people who think that if there was no refueling, drivers would have to do their overtaking on the track rather than in the pits," he acknowledged in a question-and-answer session with the Spanish newspaper Sport.
Banning refueling ahead of the 2009 season would be difficult, as the fundamentals of next year's cars – including fuel tank size – have all now been fixed.
McLaren chief executive Martin Whitmarsh said: "We will have them (pitstops) as part of the show next year and we should then decide during the course of the year whether we can change the regulations in the future."