Formula One 2010

[Lineker]

Tony Fernandes today confirmed that his team will race under the 'Team Lotus' name next year, and that an engine deal with Renault is all but tied-up.

Also, no Yamamoto this weekend. He's ill.

Christian Klien will stand in for Sakon Yamamoto at Hispania this weekend as the Japanese driver is suffering from illness.

Team boss Colin Kolles confirmed that the arrangement was a one-off for Singapore and that Yamamoto would return to the seat at Suzuka provided he was healthy.

"It looks as if Sakon Yamamoto has food poisoning and he doesn't feel well," Kolles said.

"Because of this, Christian Klien will be driving the car this Friday and the rest of the Singapore Grand Prix. I hope Sakon gets well soon and is able to drive at his home Grand Prix in Japan."

Klien has already driven the Hispania in Friday practice at the Spanish and European Grands Prix. This weekend will be his first Formula 1 start since the 2006 Italian GP, which was his final appearance for Red Bull. He had driven in 46 races for Jaguar/Red Bull since joining the team in '04, taking a best finish of fifth at Shanghai in '05.

Since losing his Red Bull seat, Klien has filled test and reserve driver roles with Honda, BMW and this season Hispania, and was also part of Peugeot's Le Mans programme before deciding to focus solely on his F1 ambitions in 2010.

Note that the crazy time sheet is due to a damp track...

P1


Pos  Driver         Team                   Time              Laps

 1.  Webber         Red Bull-Renault        1:54.589            10

 2.  Schumacher     Mercedes                1:54.708  + 0.119   24

 3.  Sutil          Force India-Mercedes    1:54.827  + 0.238   15

 4.  Vettel         Red Bull-Renault        1:55.137  + 0.548   12

 5.  Alguersuari    Toro Rosso-Ferrari      1:55.160  + 0.571   20

 6.  Button         McLaren-Mercedes        1:55.333  + 0.744   12

 7.  Liuzzi         Force India-Mercedes    1:55.510  + 0.921   15

 8.  Buemi          Toro Rosso-Ferrari      1:55.523  + 0.934   15

 9.  Kubica         Renault                 1:55.672  + 1.083   11

10.  Petrov         Renault                 1:55.914  + 1.325   20

11.  Alonso         Ferrari                 1:56.090  + 1.501   12

12.  Kobayashi      Sauber-Ferrari          1:56.339  + 1.750   22

13.  Heidfeld       Sauber-Ferrari          1:56.458  + 1.869   18

14.  Rosberg        Mercedes                1:56.598  + 2.009    8

15.  Kovalainen     Lotus-Cosworth          1:56.603  + 2.014   12

16.  Barrichello    Williams-Cosworth       1:56.615  + 2.026   17

17.  Hulkenberg     Williams-Cosworth       1:56.840  + 2.251   14

18.  Hamilton       McLaren-Mercedes        1:56.884  + 2.295    9

19.  Massa          Ferrari                 1:57.760  + 3.171   22

20.  Glock          Virgin-Cosworth         1:59.034  + 4.445   19

21.  D'Ambrosio     Virgin-Cosworth         1:59.275  + 4.686   16

22.  Senna          HRT-Cosworth            1:59.783  + 5.194   23

23.  Klien          HRT-Cosworth            2:03.424  + 8.835   17

24.  Fauzi          Lotus-Cosworth          2:05.694  + 11.105  11

All Timing Unofficial[/code]




[code]P2


Pos  Driver         Team                    Time              Laps

 1.  Vettel         Red Bull-Renault        1:46.660            29

 2.  Webber         Red Bull-Renault        1:47.287  + 0.627   27

 3.  Button         McLaren-Mercedes        1:47.690  + 1.030   28

 4.  Alonso         Ferrari                 1:47.718  + 1.058   20

 5.  Hamilton       McLaren-Mercedes        1:47.818  + 1.158   28

 6.  Barrichello    Williams-Cosworth       1:48.302  + 1.642   31

 7.  Massa          Ferrari                 1:48.341  + 1.681   28

 8.  Rosberg        Mercedes                1:48.679  + 2.019   26

 9.  Kubica         Renault                 1:48.855  + 2.195   15

10.  Schumacher     Mercedes                1:48.889  + 2.229   31

11.  Hulkenberg     Williams-Cosworth       1:49.153  + 2.493   32

12.  Kobayashi      Sauber-Ferrari          1:49.438  + 2.778   30

13.  Heidfeld       Sauber-Ferrari          1:49.558  + 2.898   26

14.  Petrov         Renault                 1:49.608  + 2.948   30

15.  Liuzzi         Force India-Mercedes    1:49.896  + 3.236   28

16.  Sutil          Force India-Mercedes    1:49.984  + 3.324   11

17.  Alguersuari    Toro Rosso-Ferrari      1:50.191  + 3.531   31

18.  Buemi          Toro Rosso-Ferrari      1:50.896  + 4.236   35

19.  Kovalainen     Lotus-Cosworth          1:51.878  + 5.218   30

20.  Glock          Virgin-Cosworth         1:52.150  + 5.490   22

21.  di Grassi      Virgin-Cosworth         1:53.431  + 6.771   25

22.  Trulli         Lotus-Cosworth          1:53.526  + 6.866   27

23.  Senna          HRT-Cosworth            1:54.725  + 8.065   27

24.  Klien          HRT-Cosworth            1:55.542  + 8.882   25


All Timing Unofficial

P3


Pos  Driver              Car                   Time       Gap       Laps

 1.  Sebastian Vettel    Red Bull-Renault      1m48.028s            15

 2.  Fernando Alonso     Ferrari               1m48.650s  + 0.622s  16

 3.  Lewis Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes      1m49.000s  + 0.972s  12

 4.  Felipe Massa        Ferrari               1m49.023s  + 0.995s  18

 5.  Nico Rosberg        Mercedes              1m49.056s  + 1.028s  17

 6.  Mark Webber         Red Bull-Renault      1m49.212s  + 1.184s  13

 7.  Nico Hulkenberg     Williams-Cosworth     1m49.304s  + 1.276s  17

 8.  Robert Kubica       Renault               1m49.520s  + 1.492s  16

 9.  Adrian Sutil        Force India-Mercedes  1m49.916s  + 1.888s  15

10.  Sebastien Buemi     Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m49.949s  + 1.921s  16

11.  Vitaly Petrov       Renault               1m50.040s  + 2.012s  15

12.  Rubens Barrichello  Williams-Cosworth     1m50.053s  + 2.025s  16

13.  Jenson Button       McLaren-Mercedes      1m50.060s  + 2.032s  12

14.  Jaime Alguersuari   Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m50.067s  + 2.039s  16

15.  Michael Schumacher  Mercedes              1m50.067s  + 2.039s  14

16.  Tonio Liuzzi        Force India-Mercedes  1m50.868s  + 2.840s  16

17.  Nick Heidfeld       Sauber-Ferrari        1m51.016s  + 2.988s  15

18.  Kamui Kobayashi     Sauber-Ferrari        1m51.027s  + 2.999s  17

19.  Timo Glock          Virgin-Cosworth       1m52.340s  + 4.312s  14

20.  Heikki Kovalainen   Lotus-Cosworth        1m53.146s  + 5.118s  15

21.  Lucas di Grassi     Virgin-Cosworth       1m53.297s  + 5.269s  15

22.  Jarno Trulli        Lotus-Cosworth        1m53.681s  + 5.653s  17

23.  Christian Klien     Hispania-Cosworth     1m54.826s  + 6.798s  16

24.  Bruno Senna         Hispania-Cosworth     1m55.367s  + 7.339s  16


All timing unofficial[/code]




[code]Qualifying


Pos  Driver         Team                   Q1        Q2         Q3

 1.  Alonso         Ferrari                1:46.541  1:45.809   1:45.390

 2.  Vettel         Red Bull-Renault       1:46.960  1:45.561   1:45.457

 3.  Hamilton       McLaren-Mercedes       1:48.296  1:46.042   1:45.571

 4.  Button         McLaren-Mercedes       1:48.032  1:46.490   1:45.944

 5.  Webber         Red Bull-Renault       1:47.088  1:45.908   1:45.977

 6.  Barrichello    Williams-Cosworth      1:48.183  1:47.019   1:46.236

 7.  Rosberg        Mercedes               1:48.554  1:46.783   1:46.443

 8.  Kubica         Renault                1:47.657  1:46.949   1:46.593

 9.  Schumacher     Mercedes               1:48.425  1:47.160   1:46.702

10.  Kobayashi      Sauber-Ferrari         1:48.908  1:47.599   1:47.884

11.  Alguersuari    Toro Rosso-Ferrari     1:48.127  1:47.666

12.  Hulkenberg     Williams-Cosworth      1:47.984  1:47.674

13.  Petrov         Renault                1:48.906  1:48.165

14.  Buemi          Toro Rosso-Ferrari     1:49.063  1:48.502

15.  Heidfeld       Sauber-Ferrari         1:48.696  1:48.557

16.  Sutil          Force India-Mercedes   1:48.496  1:48.899

17.  Liuzzi         Force India-Mercedes   1:48.988  1:48.961

18.  Glock          Virgin-Cosworth        1:50.721

19.  Kovalainen     Lotus-Cosworth         1:50.915

20.  di Grassi      Virgin-Cosworth        1:51.107

21.  Trulli         Lotus-Cosworth         1:51.641

22.  Klien          HRT-Cosworth           1:52.946

23.  Senna          HRT-Cosworth           1:54.174

24.  Massa          Ferrari


All Timing Unofficial

Massa failed to set a time as he had a a suspected engine problem during Q1 and therefore will fail to set a time. He has opted to use a new gearbox and engine, even though it is his ninth one of the season, he incurs no real penalty as he was already starting from the back of the grid.

Finally, Sauber has been fined $20,000 for the unsafe release of Nick Heidfeld during qualifying. He was released in front of Michael Schumacher when the seven-time champion was driving down the pitlane. Christian Klien was fined twice for speeding in the pitlane during the day, his Hispania team-mate Bruno Senna and Virgin's Timo Glock were also fined for the same offence.

[EddieG]

Massa was extremely close to crashing into Senna and Kobayashi, on the exact spot where he crashed himself was it 2 years ago ?

[Asuka's Gonna Kill You]

Hamilton went for it and fucked up. Entertaining to see him push for it, but gutted

[Guest Mr. Potato Head]

F1 has too many rules, it hampers enjoyment of the race.

[maninblack]

Ugh. Alonso again.

[LUKIE]

F1 has too many rules, it hampers enjoyment of the race.

How so? What in particular from that race did you disagree with?

Just curious.

[Guest Mr. Potato Head]

Eh this was actually one of the better races of the few I've caught this year. At the time I said that though, the safety car was coming out and the announcers were talking about how Alonso and somebody else would rejoin the grid at a certain time and in a certain position because they went in for pit stops under race conditions and not safety conditions and I really just couldn't have cared less.

[Lineker]

"Until it's on there's always concerns obviously," Ecclestone told The Associated Press. "We have to get lucky and hope it will happen."

AUTOSPORT understands the inspection will now take place in the week after the Japanese GP.

F1 is going HD next year!! According to Bernie on the F1 Forum, anyway. About time, it'll look spectacular. He's also unsure about the Korea situation. Could be touch-and-go.

PROVISIONAL RACE RESULTS


The Singapore Grand Prix

Singapore, Singapore;

61 laps; 309.087km;

Weather: Dry.


Classified:


Pos  Driver        Team                       Time

 1.  Alonso        Ferrari                    1h57:53.579

 2.  Vettel        Red Bull-Renault           +     0.293

 3.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault           +    29.141

 4.  Button        McLaren-Mercedes           +    30.384

 5.  Rosberg       Mercedes                   +    49.394

 6.  Barrichello   Williams-Cosworth          +    56.101

 7.  Kubica        Renault                    +  1:26.559

 8.  Sutil         Force India-Mercedes       +  1:52.416

 9.  Hulkenberg    Williams-Cosworth          +  1:52.791

10.  Massa         Ferrari                    +  1:53.297

11.  Petrov        Renault                    +     1 lap

12.  Alguersuari   Toro Rosso-Ferrari         +     1 lap

13.  Schumacher    Mercedes                   +     1 lap

14.  Buemi         Toro Rosso-Ferrari         +     1 lap

15.  Di Grassi     Virgin-Cosworth            +    2 laps

16.  Kovalainen    Lotus-Cosworth             +    3 laps


Fastest lap: Alonso, 1:47.976


Not classified/retirements:


Driver        Team                         On lap

Glock         Virgin-Cosworth              51

Heidfeld      Sauber-Ferrari               35

Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes             34

Klien         HRT-Cosworth                 30

Kobayashi     Sauber-Ferrari               29

Senna         HRT-Cosworth                 28

Trulli        Lotus-Cosworth               26

Liuzzi        Force India-Mercedes         1



World Championship standings, round 15:                


Drivers:                    Constructors:             

 1.  Webber       202        1.  Red Bull-Renault          383

 2.  Alonso       191        2.  McLaren-Mercedes          359

 3.  Hamilton     182        3.  Ferrari                   316

 4.  Vettel       181        4.  Mercedes                  168

 5.  Button       177        5.  Renault                   133

 6.  Massa        125        6.  Force India-Mercedes       62

 7.  Rosberg      122        7.  Williams-Cosworth          57

 8.  Kubica       114        8.  Sauber-Ferrari             27

 9.  Sutil         49        9.  Toro Rosso-Ferrari         10

10.  Schumacher    46       

11.  Barrichello   39       

12.  Kobayashi     21       

13.  Petrov        19       

14.  Hulkenberg    18       

15.  Liuzzi        13       

16.  Buemi          7       

17.  De la Rosa     6       

18.  Alguersuari    3       


All timing unofficial[/code]


Another fantastic race under the lights in Singapore. Spectaclar fire at the end too to boot. So so tight now, I do hope that Webber pulls it off. I do agree with EJ's argument on the F1 Forum on Schumacher being past it; I think that come January he won't be in a race seat, at Mercedes at least.

[LUKIE]

The problem with Schuie, is that he is still trying to do the shit he was doing (and getting away with) when he was racing in Ferrari, when Ferrari were dominating. You can tell he is past his prime, but he certaintly has a lot to give to the sport in the drivers seat still. He just needs to level himself, instead of pushing his car beyond the capabilities.

This isn't 1990, and he isn't in a shitty Benneton, and he isn't in his early 20's.

But!

Kubica <3

What a fucking champion.

[Lineker]

Kubica is a beast.

Things I like in F1: Webber, Kubica, Lotus, Force India.

Also, sidepodcast is saying that Sutil has been penalised. Apparently Sutil may have cut a chicane and passed Jaime Alguersuari and is getting a 20 second penalty but nothing official yet. Massa would move up into a points place... will look for something more concrete on this.

Lewis Hamilton says he is not thinking specifically about the championship anymore following his retirement from the Singapore GP.

The McLaren driver suffered his second retirement in two races after he made contact with Mark Webber when trying to overtake the Australian.

His retirement left him 20 points behind Webber with four races to go.

Hamilton admitted the gap to Webber was quite big, and said he will try to enjoy the rest of the races without looking at the standings.

"There are still four races to go. I'm 20 points behind Mark, and that's a reasonable gap, but it's not an insurmountable one," he said. "I guess I'll just have to keep my head down and hope for the best.

"I'm not going to think specifically about the world championship right now, I'm just going to try to enjoy the rest of the season - and whatever happens happens. But I'll keep fighting to the end, because it's the only way I know."

The British driver said he was unsure about what had happened with Webber, but believed it was a racing incident.

"I'm still not exactly sure what happened with Mark and me," said Hamilton. "But, telling it from my point of view, I saw that he'd made a mistake, and had got caught up with the backmarkers, so I was in position to slipstream him. I was on the outside going into Turn Seven, and he was in my blind-spot, just behind me.

"I thought I'd got sufficiently past him, though. I braked, turned in, and tried to leave enough room for him on the inside – and the next thing I knew I'd got clipped, my tyre was blown, and that was it. But, as the saying goes, I guess that's motor racing."

Team-mate Jenson Button, fourth today, was satisfied with the result, despite the gap to Webber increasing to 25 points.

"It's a circuit where we knew they'd be competitive, and probably one that was going to be difficult for us, so I go to Japan pretty happy," Button said.

"We've got a good upgrade for Suzuka: we'll have something that we tried to put on the car this weekend but couldn't – for reliability reasons. Coupled with our planned-for-Suzuka upgrade, it should hopefully be a bit of a double-whammy.

"My championship hopes were dented a little bit by Mark [Webber] finishing ahead of me, but the points gap to the front is just a race victory away. It shows there's still everything to play for – one bad race can cost you a lot of points."

Mark Webber declared himself very happy with third place at the Singapore Grand Prix after a strategy gamble paid off for the championship leader.

Webber, starting from behind all his championship rivals, decided to pit very early in the race, the charging through the field, moving from 12th to third.

The result allowed the Red Bull driver to stretch his lead in the standings to 11 points over Fernando Alonso.

Webber conceded he was delighted with third after a difficult weekend.

"I am very happy with third," said Webber. "It has been a pretty difficult weekend here for me, probably the toughest weekend of the year.

"I didn't feel mega comfortable here this weekend, so I'm very happy with how the race went. To get third I am very happy with it.

"It was easy to panic and worry about losing a lot of time behind guys. Getting out of bed this morning I would have taken third. This guy in the middle is hanging in there but we need to get rid of him soon.!"

The Australian was involved in an incident with Lewis Hamilton, with the duo clashing as the Briton tried to overtake.

Hamilton was forced to retire, but Webber could continue, and the Red Bull driver believes the incident was similar to that of Monza, where Hamilton made contact with Felipe Massa.

"Lewis certainly was a little bit ahead but it was similar to the last race with Felipe and Lewis," said Webber. "Felipe probably didn't know he was there. Lewis was quite a long way behind.

"This can happen sometimes, we brake completely on the limit. For sure it was incredibly tight, we did not hit that hard but enough to probably put both of us out of the race. Fortunately I could continue."

EDIT: Sutil drops to 10th behind Hulkenberg and Massa but still ahead of Petrov; after cutting turn 7 on lap 1, 20 seconds added to his race time

Edited September 26, 2010 by Lineker

[LUKIE]

For the second time running, it was Hamiltons fault. He turned in way too tight, and he would have known Webber was going to be close. Not a complete dick move this time, as it was last time though. I don't blame him for trying it, but it could have been better, and pulled off in a better way. The way he cut sick when he was out of the race was just ridiculous though.

Who cares?

CAUSE!

KUBICA!!! What a champ. Puncture, comes back on, fresh tyres, and makes an absolute mockery of everyone in his path. He is my hero

[Lineker]

Right, after all of the various appeals....

Nico Hulkenberg has been handed a 20-second penalty following a protest by the Force India team in Singapore.

The Silverstone-based squad protested against Hulkenberg after its own driver Adrian Sutil was given a 20-second penalty for having gained from going around the outside of Turn 7 on the opening lap of the race.

The team felt the Williams driver has also gained from cutting a corner.

Sutil, who had finished the race in eighth, was demoted to 10th, but has now moved to ninth following Hulkenberg's penalty.

The Williams driver, meanwhile, drops to 10th.

The penalty means Force India is back in front of Williams in the Constructors' Championship. Force India has also confirmed it has withdrawn its protest against Sutil's penalty decision.

Ferrari's Felipe Massa, having finished in 10th, moves up to eighth.

REVISED RACE RESULTS


Classified:


Pos  Driver        Team                    

 1.  Alonso        Ferrari

 2.  Vettel        Red Bull-Renault

 3.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault

 4.  Button        McLaren-Mercedes

 5.  Rosberg       Mercedes

 6.  Barrichello   Williams-Cosworth

 7.  Kubica        Renault

 8.  Massa         Ferrari

 9.  Sutil         Force India-Mercedes

10.  Hulkenberg    Williams-Cosworth

11.  Petrov        Renault

12.  Alguersuari   Toro Rosso-Ferrari

13.  Schumacher    Mercedes

14.  Buemi         Toro Rosso-Ferrari

15.  Di Grassi     Virgin-Cosworth

16.  Kovalainen    Lotus-Cosworth




Revised World Championship standings, round 15:                


Drivers:                    Constructors:             

 1.  Webber       202        1.  Red Bull-Renault          383

 2.  Alonso       191        2.  McLaren-Mercedes          359

 3.  Hamilton     182        3.  Ferrari                   319

 4.  Vettel       181        4.  Mercedes                  168

 5.  Button       177        5.  Renault                   133

 6.  Massa        128        6.  Force India-Mercedes       60

 7.  Rosberg      122        7.  Williams-Cosworth          56

 8.  Kubica       114        8.  Sauber-Ferrari             27

 9.  Sutil         47        9.  Toro Rosso-Ferrari         10

10.  Schumacher    46       

11.  Barrichello   39       

12.  Kobayashi     21       

13.  Petrov        19       

14.  Hulkenberg    17  

15.  Liuzzi        13       

16.  Buemi          7       

17.  De la Rosa     6       

18.  Alguersuari    3       


All timing unofficial[/code]

[Katsuya]

Numerous things I noticed during the race; Kubica is awesome once again, but I really hope he doesn't go to Ferrari for the sole reason that having Kubica and Alonso in the same team would never really work. Ferrari have almost always run a "preferred" driver when you look at it (Schumi > Irvine, Rubens, Massa, Kimi > Massa in 07, Massa > Kimi in 08 and now Alonso > Massa) and Kubica really isn't a second fiddle. The ease he just blitzed past, fresh tires or not, was staggering.

How did Petrov fall so far back that the 20 second penalties didn't matter? He was right up in the train when Kubica was scything through them, so unless I'm forgetting something, there was maybe an issue there. Heikki driving the Lotus over the line to try and still get ahead of Virgin was pretty damn dramatic/awesome too.

And I've realised what it is that makes this season so good: all the battles in the table. You've got the top 5 for the title, then Massa/Rosberg/Kubica for 6th, Sutil/Schumi's back and forth tussle, Koba/Petrov/Hulk for best rookie and then the Lotus/Virgin scrap. None of which would really work were they to introduce Bernie's dumbass idea

Edited September 26, 2010 by Katsuya

[Adam]

That race came alive halfway through and was fantastic in the end. Considering the grid I'm well happy with Webber's finish, and I imagine he is too. Definitely not his fault on the Hamilton retirement, I kind of feel sorry for Hamilton, at least he went for it but his title hopes are severely dented now which I won't ever moan at. I really hope Mark can hold on and take the title, he's been my favourite driver since Jaguar days and I never thought I'd see him in this position.

[Lineker]

Sauber has signed Sergio Perez to race for the team in 2011. The 20-year old Mexican driver will line up alongside Kamui Kobayashi.

Sergio Perez has been a member of Escuderia Telmex, which supports racing drivers in various categories, for a number of years. He finished second in this year’s GP2 Series, winning four races – including the prestigious championship round in Monaco – in the process. Sergio began his career in Karting, where he won a total of five championships. He followed that up with two years in Formula BMW before moving on to the National Class of the British F3 International Series, where he won a still record 14 races. In 2008 he finished fourth in the International Class of the British F3 International Series. In GP2 Asia he became the series’ youngest race winner at the age of 18.

Sergio Perez: “Formula One is the dream of every young racing driver. And now this dream is about to come true for me. Although I’m very much aware that this is also a big challenge and responsibility, I’m happy to accept that and am proud to be representing my country in the highest category of motor racing. I would like to thank Peter Sauber for the faith he’s shown in me and I’ll do everything I can to make the most of this wonderful opportunity.”

Peter Sauber: “Sergio has been on a continuous upward curve over the past few years. He demonstrated his fighting spirit in races over the course of last season and proved that he’s ready to take the step up into Formula One. I look forward to working with him and am in no doubt that, in Sergio Perez and Kamui Kobayashi, we will have a strong driver pairing.”

Today Sauber Motorsport also announce the start of the team’s partnership with Telmex. The Mexican telecommunications company’s logos will have a significant presence on the Sauber Motorsport racing cars as from the coming season.

Telmex is a corporation made up of Teléfonos de México, S.A.B. de C.V. and subsidiaries providing telecommunications services in Mexico. The company’s service coverage comprises the operations of the nation’s most complete local and long distance networks. Additionally, Telmex also offers services including connectivity, internet access, co-location, web hosting and interconnection services to other telecommunications operators.

Telmex Chairman Carlos Slim Domit says: “Sauber has been not only a very successful racing team but also a strong talent developer of some of the most recognized names in racing since their early stages as well as one of the most respected people in the sport. Their decision of having Sergio with them is very significant on his career to become a top driver representing Mexico. For Telmex and our racing project Escuderia Telmex it’s a great step forward, and we feel very proud to be able to consolidate these years of work for having a Mexican driver in F1 with Sauber Motorsport.”

Peter Sauber explains: “Telmex has been involved in motor sport for a number of years already and supports drivers in various race series. Now they are making the key step up into the top category of motor racing, and we are happy and proud that they are taking this step with us. Telmex is an outstanding company and represents a strong partner for our team. We are looking forward to a fruitful partnership.”

[Sam]

Wow that's a great sponsorship deal, I imagine they will receive quite a bit of money through that seeing as Carlos Slim is the worlds richest man and his telecom companies are very powerful throughout Latin America, TelMex is in pretty much every home in Mexico, but of course some people will never have heard of it, so having it on the side of a car watched the world over is a good move for him and a great one for Sauber. Also really excited to see how the Mexican driver fares.

[Adam]

Very good deal for Sauber. Makes me wonder where Heidfeld will end up though, he was saying last week he was hoping to try and land a deal for 2011 in these last few races didn't he?

[DJ Ice]

Good! Sauber have always been my favourite team, Hopefully this will push them back up the grid

[Lineker]

Lotus Racing has confirmed that it will use Red Bull Technology gearboxes and hydraulic systems from the 2011 season.

The news follows on from the announcement that the team has ended its relationship with Cosworth. Lotus had used Xtrac gearboxes and hydraulics during its debut season in 2010.

"The announcement that we have reached a multi-year agreement with Red Bull Technology for the supply of our gearboxes and hydraulics from 2011 is obviously a massive step forward for us, both in engineering terms, and as an expression of our ambitions for next year and for future championships," said technical chief Mike Gascoyne.

"The gearbox / hydraulics package obviously plays a critical role in the performance of the car, not just on track but in design and packaging terms, and this deal gives our design and aero teams a very exciting platform to work with.

"The removal of the double diffusers in 2011 will allow the whole grid to tighten up the rear bodywork and mechanical structures around the gearbox, and this supply deal will allow us to capitalise on that with our 2011 car. Exciting times lie ahead."

Lotus is expected to make two further announcements this week, one of them expected to be a new deal to use Renault engines from next season.

The move would mean Lotus would use the same engine/gearbox combination as Red Bull Racing.

"We are very pleased about Lotus Racing's decision to use Red Bull Technology gearboxes and hydraulic systems from 2011," added Red Bull Racing boss Christian Horner.

"The fact that Red Bull Technology has been chosen to be a supplier to another team despite its short history demonstrates how much we have achieved since our first season. We very much look forward to working with Lotus Racing from 2011 onwards."

[Sam]

I would love to see Lotus succeed so this is good news, hopefully they'll be capable of taking a few points next season. Don't really see Virgin or Hispania making that kind of step up though.