Formula One 2012

[Katsuya]

I can't say I'm ever that enamoured by Silverstone, but I can appreciate it as a great circuit. I like Melbourne a whole lot more, it's *the* season opener and always should be.

[Fry_4000]

so happy Spa is staying on the calander, one of the best circuts there is.

[MJB]

I can't say I'm ever that enamoured by Silverstone, but I can appreciate it as a great circuit. I like Melbourne a whole lot more, it's *the* season opener and always should be.

I've driven Silverstone, so that's probably got a lot to do with it

[Lineker]

Magny-Cours chiefs hope the forthcoming young driver test at the venue will help boost its chances of winning the French Grand Prix back.

As AUTOSPORT revealed earlier, the circuit is to play host to the second of this year's young driver tests with Ferrari, Mercedes and Force India all due to run in the week after the Italian GP in September.

And on the back of extensive upgrades that have been made to the track since it last hosted an F1 race in 2008, circuit bosses believe that having grand prix machinery running at the venue is important.

Serge Saulnier, Chairman of the Magny-Cours board, said: "I am thrilled to be able to confirm that Formula 1 cars will return to Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours next month.

"We have worked tirelessly to upgrade the venue, which has just been homologated to F1 standards for another four years, and I am certain that the teams and drivers will appreciate the work that has been put in.

"What's more, this is an extremely positive step forward as we seek to return Formula 1 racing to our circuit.

"With Magny-Cours a candidate to host future French Grands Prix, it will be fantastic to showcase the track and our staff's know-how to the high-calibre F1 personnel who will be on-site."

Kimi Raikkonen says he cannot afford to lose any more ground to his rivals this season if he is going to end the campaign as world champion.

The Lotus driver heads to next weekend's Belgian Grand Prix, an event he has won four times, as one of the favourites for a win that would put him right in the title hunt.

Raikkonen himself is not ruling out a full-on championship tilt but is equally aware that he cannot afford to lose any further ground to his rivals - especially since he is 48 points adrift of current points leader Fernando Alonso.

"I am now fifth in the championship and obviously aiming at getting more points than the guys in front of me," he said on Friday. "The smaller the gap to the leaders is, the better for me and for the team.

"Every race from here on is very important. The whole team is pushing 100 per cent and we need to beat our rivals and take more points than they do every time."

Raikkonen does not feel that his impressive record at Spa gives him any advantage this time out – although it does mean he can head there assured of his competitiveness around the Larry Zbyszkoary venue.

"Usually I've achieved good results at the Belgian Grand Prix, but what's happened before doesn't help me right now," he explained.

"Saying that though it doesn't do any harm either. Obviously it would be great to win at Spa for a fifth time. I haven't won during the first part of the season and the extra points are always good."

And although Lotus has seen good opportunities to win this season slip through its fingers, Raikkonen says the team is not disheartened but rather is fired up to keep pushing until the end.

"We always try to win; some days you get close to it and it's a bit disappointing that we haven't quite made that final step," he said.

"We know the reason though; we've not been so strong in qualifying as we have in the race which makes life harder for ourselves on Sundays.

"Of course we would rather win than come second or third but it's a long season and I think we're improving all the time. If it comes then great, if not we'll keep trying.

"I've been in the business long enough that I don't really worry about things too much. We've been improving our position in the championships - both for myself and for the team - so as long as we keep doing that hopefully the win will come."

Michael Schumacher thinks his Mercedes team must celebrate his 300th grand prix in the right way - with a strong performance on track in Belgium.

Despite some recent difficulties for Mercedes, Schumacher believes the high-speed nature of Spa-Francorchamps allied to car improvements should help his outfit get back on form.

"Spa is like my living room; for me, it's clearly the number one race track in the world," said Schumacher, who will become only the second driver in history to compete in 300 grands prix.

"It's uncanny how I always seem to have special moments there - my debut, my first win, a world championship victory and many great races.

"The fact that I will also take part in my 300th grand prix at Spa was somehow almost inevitable and we will have to celebrate it in the right way. I'm proud to be just the second driver in the history of the sport to reach this milestone and there's no question that we are looking to have a particularly nice weekend.

"We delivered a good performance in Spa last year; I'll be doing everything possible to drive a strong race."

Team-mate Nico Rosberg is under no illusion, however, about the amount of effort Mercedes must undertake before it can get back to the kind of form that helped it triumph in China earlier this year.

"There's a lot of hard work ahead to make sure we are competing where we want to be and challenging towards the front of the field," he said.

Lotus is open-minded about whether or not its radical double-DRS will race in the Belgian Grand Prix.

The outfit was encouraged by early testing of the system that was undertaken by Kimi Raikkonen in Germany and Hungary, and the team is hoping it will be ready for Spa.

However, technical director James Allison says the final call will depend on how confident the team is on its running trouble-free - which it probably will not know until both Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean have tested it in practice.

Speaking about the work undertaken at the team's factory during the summer break, Allison said: "A big focus has been getting ready for Monza which is immediately after Spa and requires a unique downforce package.

"It's only one race but it requires a whole new set of wings and a disproportionate amount of work.

"We've also been focusing on ensuring that we have the capability to run the new device in Spa should we be confident enough to do so."

The Lotus double-DRS is designed to help provide a straight-line speed boost in race conditions - unlike the Mercedes concept that is primarily beneficial in qualifying when the wings are open.

Grosjean hopes that the design, plus other upgrades the team are bringing, should help the outfit in its ambition to win its first grand prix of the season.

"It's going to be good," he said about the weekend. "I hope the upgrades to the car are going to make the difference.

"If we'd had the pace we displayed at Budapest on a more normal track with better places to overtake we could have taken the win. Spa is a more regular circuit with good passing opportunities, so let's see what happens."

Speaking specifically about the double DRS, he added: "If it gives me an advantage I'm certainly looking forward to driving with it!

"I'm sure it will be a good thing, especially if we have it working well. Hopefully it gives us an advantage and the race win that we want."

Sauber drivers Kamui Kobayashi and Sergio Perez believe next weekend's Belgian Grand Prix will be one of the team's best opportunities for success this season.

Perez has already taken podium finishes in Malaysia and Canada this year, and Sauber is determined to maintain that strong form through to the end of 2012.

Kobayashi believes that whatever the notoriously fickle Spa weather delivers, Sauber will be very competitive in Belgium.

"I'm confident we can be very competitive under all kinds of conditions in Spa because the characteristics of this track with its fast corners should suit our car," he said. "I'm really looking forward to this race."

Perez added that it will be very important for Sauber's motivation if it can kick off the second part of the 2012 campaign in style.

"I believe the fast circuit in the Ardennes will suit our car," he said. "We should get everything right there and make sure we start into a productive second part of the season.

"Last year I qualified ninth there, but retired in the race. In what will be my second Formula 1 grand prix in Spa I want to at least score points."

Dani Clos will return to action for HRT at the Belgian Grand Prix, with the team confirming he will drive in first free practice again.

The Spaniard is to have his fifth outing of the season, and will take over Narain Karthikeyan's cockpit for the Friday morning session.

"Once again I have a chance to step into the car and work for the team and that fills me with satisfaction," Clos said.

"Especially after having run in the events leading up to the summer break, for me it is really important to stay active and be able to continue growing alongside my team-mates Pedro [de la Rosa] and Narain."

Paul di Resta believes Force India has the potential to deliver some 'big' results in the second half of the season, as it bids to overhaul Williams and Sauber.

Although the Silverstone-based outfit is currently eighth in the standings, it thinks it can do better in the second half of the campaign to lift itself ahead of its closest rivals.

"There's still a long way to go in the championship and we need to get back to scoring regular points," said di Resta about the prospects for the remainder of the year.

"Last year we ended the season strongly and we need to do the same this year. Williams are not too far ahead of us, but Sauber have a big points advantage and it's going to be a big task to overcome that.

"But we won't give up; we'll keep pushing and see what we can do. We definitely have the potential to get some big results before the end of the year."

Force India had come in to the season hoping to improve on its sixth place finish in last year's constructors' championship, but it now concedes that Lotus' progress means that feat is out of reach.

Team principal Vijay Mallya reckons there is still plenty to play for though.

"We were sixth in the constructors' championship last year and we had the objective this year of coming fifth," he explained.

"However, the improvement of Lotus has been exceptionally dramatic, so I think to target fifth is probably overreaching our capabilities for this year.

"We should at least target sixth, where we finished last year, and that means getting ahead of both Sauber and Williams."

Belgian Grand Prix organisers have stepped in to assist almost 6,000 Formula 1 fans who risked not getting their tickets for next weekend's race.

Customers of 'The Ticket Enterprise' faced the prospect of missing out when the Dutch company hit financial trouble - meaning those who had paid for tickets would not get them.

In light of that problem, Spa has decided to do all it can to help – and has written to those affected by the problem to promise them that they will get their tickets in time.

In an email sent to those involved in the situation, Spa said: "Although not liable for any shortcomings of The Ticket Enterprise, with whom you have chosen to order your tickets for the Belgian Formula 1 Grand Prix of August 31 and September 1 and 2, SPA GP has decided to resolve the problems encountered by purchasers wronged by this Dutch company and provide you with the tickets you had ordered."

Belgian GP organisers have told fans that they will be able to collect tickets in Belgium, and they will try and recover the money from Ticket Enterprise after the race.

Lewis Hamilton is convinced that McLaren has a 'real chance' of winning both Formula 1 championships this year.

Having triumphed last time out in the Hungarian Grand Prix, the Briton is eager for the return to action in Belgium next weekend as he aims to close down the advantage that title leader Fernando Alonso currently enjoys.

"My win in Hungary was a fantastic way to go into the summer break: it had the added bonus of sending the whole team away for their holidays with a positive feeling in their hearts," said Hamilton.

"It's also given me the hope and assurance that we can come back for the final nine races with a real chance to go for both world championships."

Hamilton is currently fourth in the drivers' standings, 47 points behind Alonso.

And in a season that delivered seven different winners from the first seven races, Hamilton thinks that the second part of the campaign will also produce its fair share of surprises.

"Given the unpredictability of the sport, I think it's still difficult to predict accurately who'll win the next grand prix, but I reckon the coming few weeks ought to give us a much clearer idea of the destination of the world title," he said.

"It's going to be an extremely tough, tactical and interesting finale to the season. There's no team with a clear advantage - although we're all pushing hard to catch Fernando's points tally in the drivers' championship – so there's still everything to play for."

[Lineker]

McLaren will become stronger in the future despite its move away from manufacturer ownership and the potential need to find a new title sponsor for 2014.

That is the view of its boss Martin Whitmarsh, who says that the company's expanding business portfolio and brand strength in Formula 1 gives him every reason to feel confident about where McLaren is heading.

"It will be stronger," said Whitmarsh about the potency of the McLaren brand in an exclusive interview with AUTOSPORT. "Next year we celebrate our 50th anniversary, and we have been in F1 since 1966.

"We have won 25 per cent of the races; we have been on the podium for 50 per cent of the races and we have won Le Mans. We are well placed for the future."

McLaren has been surrounded in recent months by speculation about its future plans - on both the engine front and in terms of sponsorship backing.

There have been wild rumours about it building its own F1 engine, and also of a tie-up with Honda – but Whitmarsh insists it is sticking with current partner Mercedes-Benz.

"We will be with Mercedes," he said. "I don't think we have ever contradicted that..."

On the sponsorship front, there are question marks about whether or not Vodafone will continue as title sponsor beyond its current deal, which runs until the end of 2013.

If the mobile phone company elects to withdraw from F1 totally, or downscale its profile with the team, then that means McLaren will need to find a new title sponsor.

Whitmarsh said his outfit was not daunted by that situation though – as its long relationship with a number of sponsors is evidence of its attraction to major companies.

"There's a challenging world out there," he explained. "We have a track record of delivering value, and we are also fortunate that we have good blue chip companies supporting us.

"Vodafone is title sponsor, and we hope and expect to continue there, but we have had an unprecedented relationship with sponsors, some of whom have been around for 30 years.

"We have 10 sponsors that have been with us for more than 15 years, and 15 years in sports sponsorship, let alone F1 sponsorship, is incredible. That diversity is part of the strength.

"But our core business is F1. We have to win in F1.

"People will and have taken pot shots at us to say, 'you are distracted because of the vision of Ron [Dennis] for MTC [the McLaren Technology Centre] and other businesses', but I think people would now say that industrially and economically we are stronger by being more diverse.

"History shows that 107 F1 teams have failed since we have been in F1, and therefore being a pure F1 team has undoubted peril.

"If you look forward now and ask anyone in this paddock or beyond it, name two teams that you believe will be in F1 in five year's time, I think 98 per cent of respondents would say McLaren and Ferrari. F1 drives us on..."

McLaren managing director Jonathan Neale says the team is under no illusions that it will automatically resume its pre-summer break form when Formula 1 gets back underway in Belgium this weekend.

After a string of tough races, McLaren got back into contention at the front in Germany before winning in Hungary with Lewis Hamilton.

That gave the team a confidence boost heading into F1's August hiatus, but in a video interview released by McLaren, Neale said there could be another total reset in the pecking order for Spa.

"I think we were probably out-developed around Easter time by some of our competitors, and then we out-developed our competitors through June," he said.

"What happens during July and August is still being played out, so we'll see. But with only a tenth or two separating the top 10 cars, it is still very marginal.

"It's going to be a really excited play-out during the rest of the season."

Neale added that while McLaren was not going to get complacent, it could be confident it had at least arrested its slide.

"I think that the upgrades that we brought through Germany and Hungary have definitely restored a degree of competitiveness, but we can't take anything for granted," he said.

"So we have reasons to believe that we're making progress, but it was a very tight race [in Hungary]. This season is going to run long and hard for everybody."

He also singled out the team's pitcrew for praise, following criticism of some problematic tyre changes early in the year.

"I'm pleased with the way that the race team have got around the pitstops," Neale said.

"It's nice to have fast pitstops but what we're really after is consistency.

"There's no point having 2.31 seconds as the fastest but then doing six, seven, eight second stops filled full of problems."

Bernie Ecclestone's move in switching Formula 1 to a pay channel this year with the Sky/BBC tie-up should be viewed as a positive, despite the overall audience figures for some races going down.

That is the view of McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh, who thinks initial fears from both fans and those involved in the sport that it would be damaging for grand prix racing have not materialised.

One year on from the announcement that left many spectators outraged, Whitmarsh says that there have been a number of benefits that have materialised from Sky's arrival in F1.

"My inbox is less choked now with emails from Mr. Outraged from Leamington Spa," Whitmarsh told AUTOSPORT in an exclusive interview. "I take things like that seriously, because they are our fans and they felt betrayed by it.

"We all felt a little bit upset that it happened - although in fairness to Bernie, everyone blamed him, the sport, and me for it, but actually the decision, the choice, was the BBC's in the first place.

"So in fairness to Bernie, he did a masterful job to sidestep an issue, to create what we have got today."

The BBC and Sky have shared coverage of races this year, with half the races being broadcast exclusively live on Sky and the other half being shown on both channels.

Audience figures recently published by AUTOSPORT show that the race audience in the UK is holding up - with some events like Australia, Malaysia and China having a greater combined audience across both channels, while others like Spain, Monaco, Canada and Britain are down compared to 2011 when races were all shown live on the BBC.

Whitmarsh is aware that there has been an impact on audience numbers this year - with not all households having access to Sky - but thinks that F1 must also wake up to the changing ways that people follow sport.

"I think Sky has put a tremendous amount of energy into the coverage," he said. "We used to be obsessed with bums on seats in front of television sets, but that is going to be as antiquated as considering the lending of library books as a measurement for literature.

"We can't think of bums on seats on the living room any more, because there are mobile phones, tablets, PCs, internet – plus storage for viewing later.

"We are only at the start of that process, and I think that Sky has got a lot of energy and creativity for the future.

"We were all very worried about it, but pay-per-view, with all its different outlets, it is much more complex than the traditional approach."

Ferrari has revealed that its new 2014 engine is running on the dyno at its Maranello factory.

With Formula 1 engine manufacturers Renault and Mercedes already believed to have begun bench tests of their new power-units, Ferrari's head of engine and electronics Luca Marmorini says that his outfit is also well-advanced with its work.

"It is a very challenging period for power train people," Marmorini told the official Ferrari website.

"We are working on the 2012 power train and the rest of the season is very important, but no-one mentions we also have to work on the 2013 engine with a new installation which is big work.

"At the same time, we have the V6, and the first of the V6s is running on the dyno. It is an interesting project."

While Ferrari, Renault and Mercedes continue efforts on the new turbo-charged engines, the fate of independent supplier PURE remains uncertain - after the company suspended operations earlier this month because of funding difficulties.

It is also unclear yet as to whether or not Cosworth will elect to invest in expensive development of a 2014 engine either – which could leave F1 with just three manufacturers for the start of that season.

Pirelli believes that the decision to bring its hardest tyres to the Belgian Grand Prix should allow drivers to push to the maximum in the race.

In a year when there has been a lot of focus on managing tyre degradation through races, Pirelli motorsport director Paul Hembery is hoping that this weekend's race at Spa-Francorchamps is not impacted by drivers having to be conservative with their speed.

"From a tyre perspective, it's certainly one of the most demanding circuits that we face all year, because of the high speeds and extreme forces involved, which are often acting on the tyres in more than one dimension," he said.

"The nomination of the hard and the medium tyres will allow drivers to push hard from start to finish, which is what Spa was designed for."

The characteristics of this year's rubber played its part in helping F1 deliver seven different winners from the first seven races - and Hembery thinks the campaign remains wide open as it heads to the final races.

"The first half of the season began with the most close and competitive start to a year ever seen in Formula 1's history, so I am looking forward to seeing how the rest of 2012 pans out, and which teams have made which steps forward over the summer break," he said.

"Currently the grid is so closely-matched – particularly in the midfield – that it's impossible to predict."

Kimi Raikkonen never had doubts Lotus would bounce back from its troubled 2011 campaign - as he insists the team has what it takes to gun for the title.

Ahead of what is expected to be a full-on victory bid for Raikkonen and Lotus at the Belgian Grand Prix, the former champion says his Enstone outfit has strengths that can help it overcome bigger budget rivals like McLaren and Ferrari.

Speaking exclusively to AUTOSPORT about why he was so keen to sign for Lotus after its difficult time last year, Raikkonen said: "There have been years when I've been in top teams and we've had a pretty bad year, and then the next year has been completely different.

"It's still one of the biggest teams; they're based in the same place, they have more or less all the tools to make the fastest car and the best car.

"It's not maybe on the level of McLaren or Ferrari or Mercedes as for how many people we have, but they have the knowledge and they have the will to make a good car and push hard."

Raikkonen believes the error in pursuing the front-exhaust solution in 2011 that derailed its campaign actually disguised how good Lotus was – and also helped deliver lessons that have helped its performance this year.

"Once they made the decision to have a completely different car to the others, there was no way they could have come back from that decision. So they looked worse than they actually were because the decision was made and unfortunately it wasn't right.

"But I think they learned a lot from that, so I wasn't really worried about how they were doing.

"You always take a gamble to come back and sometimes you choose the right team, sometimes not, that's life. I've been very happy with how things have gone and the people are great and I enjoy it."

Raikkonen also thinks it is too early to start considering his plans for next year – either for himself or the team.

The Finn is expected to sign a fresh deal with Lotus, despite speculation linking him with Ferrari, after an encouraging return to F1 with the Enstone-based team this year.

But although Lotus has grown in strength all season – and should be able to carry that momentum in to 2013 – Raikkonen says he is keeping grounded about future ambitions.

"We have to look at this year first, and I want to do as well as we can at every race," he said.

"You can do well in one year, but we've seen even in the biggest teams that they can have a hard time the next year. You'd think we should only get better and better but you never know.

"It's not easy to make a fast car and sometimes the small details can either go your way or go against you.

"Usually the big teams, if they are not starting well [they can recover] – we've seen Ferrari this year, they have improved and they are the best team right now.

"We always wish to continue next year but it's way too early to say what will happen. We're putting our efforts into this year and try to improve in the second half."

Kimi Raikkonen is keen to return to rallying "for fun" after his Formula 1 career is over.

The 32-year-old Finn has no plans to walk away from grand prix racing and has impressed on his comeback after two years competing in the World Rally Championship.

But when his time in F1 does come to an end in the future, he wants to try his hand at rallying again.

"I will do it for fun," Raikkonen told AUTOSPORT. "The one reason why I wanted to do it in the first place was to see if I can do it or not.

"I'm a big fan of it and I always thought it was so difficult that I wanted to see what happens.

"I still want to improve in it and try to do well. It's something that, when I'm a bit older, I can do and have fun with. I will definitely do it when I have more time.

"I enjoy both [rallying and F1]. I would like to do both of them at the same time but because of timetables, schedules and other reasons it's not possible."

Raikkonen denied the suggestion that his return to F1 was indicative that he has lost interest in rallying.

He was keen to contest Rally Finland earlier this year but was prevented from doing so by his Lotus team.

But Raikkonen did admit that he missed the wheel-to-wheel aspect of racing.

"It's not that I lost interest in rallying," said Raikkonen. "It's just that I've always raced in my life and when you race against each other it's different to just doing times.

"I enjoy racing against people. It's why I came back, to have a fight against others.

"It's completely different to last year in rallying. When I did NASCAR [in 2011] I enjoyed it a lot and even though it is very different to F1, it's still racing against each other.

"I had a good time. I kind of missed it [racing]."

Caterham team principal Tony Fernandes says his team is not getting disheartened by its failure to yet score a point.

As the outfit begins the next chapter of its life at its new Leafield factory, Fernandes concedes there has been disappointment at its lack of results so far.

However, he believes that the trials that the outfit has faced - which has included court battles with Group Lotus and Force India – shows that there is a fighting spirit that is vital if it is to achieve its aims.

"We have not scored our first point yet, and we have much more work to do to chip away at that gap to the pack ahead, which is now less than one second," he explained.

"It is fair to say we are disappointed with where we are, as I am sure many people who follow us are," he explained.

"However, the belief that we can achieve what we have set out to is what drives us on and we have to remember that just 35 months ago we did not even exist.

"Since the first day of this team we have had to fight extremely hard and, off track, we have had to deal with two major court cases.

"Both cases we have had to face, with Group Lotus and Force India, have been painful processes, for the team and personally for everybody involved, but we have not let them distract us.

"Whilst those fights were being won in court we have continued to make significant progress on track, particularly compared to the other two teams who joined the sport at the same time as us.

"We are absolutely determined to keep building on that progress and use the passion we have to join the midfield to keep pushing us forwards, and we will get there.

"We have everything in place to accomplish our goals and with the fierce determination we have to succeed we can kick on from there and keep climbing up the grid."

Fernandes has also announced that his outfit will reveal a major new sponsor at this weekend's Belgian GP.

"We will be unveiling that new partnership on the Thursday of the race weekend and that will send out another very powerful message about how serious we are about taking the fight to the teams ahead," he said.

Dany Bahar, the former CEO of Group Lotus, has issued court proceedings against the car manufacturer and its owners DRB-Hicom for wrongful dismissal.

After being removed from his post in June, Bahar has decided to take legal action - and is seeking £6.7 million in damages.

Papers were issued in the London High Court last week, and both Group Lotus and DRB-Hicom have now been officially informed about the action.

The Malaysian-based DRB-Hicom has vowed to fight the court case – and has warned that it intends to counter-sue Bahar.

In a statement that was issued in Malaysia, DRB-Hicom said: "Upon advice by our lawyers, DRB-Hicom and Lotus will vigorously oppose and/or defend the claim by Bahar, including filing counter-claims against Bahar.

"We shall make the requisite announcements when appropriate."

It added: "The claim is not expected to have any major impact on the financial or operations of the group. The exact quantum of costs arising from the claim cannot be determined at this point in time."

Marussia will use the Williams Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS) when it adds the device to its car for the first time in 2013.

The decision was revealed by Marussia consultant Pat Symonds in a interview released by the team, in which Symonds also confirmed that Marussia would continue with Cosworth engines for a fourth season.

"Yes we will be using KERS next year," said Symonds.

"We plan to adopt the system that has been developed by Williams, which was used by them with the Cosworth engine last year and is currently with their Renault-engine car. Our 2013 unit is a development of this.

"We've been very impressed with the engineering, the efficiency and the weight. Williams are also a pleasure to work with both technically and commercially."

Marussia is one of only two teams in the 2012 Formula 1 field not using KERS, along with HRT.

Although other former Cosworth users such as Williams and Caterham have moved away from the unit in favour of Renault power in recent years, Symonds said he still thought Marussia could make progress with the British firm's V8s.

"We are happy with the work we are doing with them and I think that we are working together to try and improve the areas that we are able to under the regulations," he said.

"We are concentrating on improving the driveability of the engine and enhancing its performance as a unit with the car."

Marussia brought the first windtunnel-derived developments to its car this season after previously relying on Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) for its design process. Symonds said although the transition had been tough, he was now confident Marussia was edging forwards.

"We can certainly say that the start of the season was very difficult for us and from that we have experienced a lot of new heights - getting our windtunnel programme working, delivering performance to the car in a cost-effective way, improving our procedures," he said.

"It is important to remember that we're a very new team, and therefore there is an awful lot to be addressed.

"But I think rather than a single highlight there is just a continual improvement - a slow march forward towards the leaders and our direct competitors. Those are the things that give us some confidence in where we are heading."

[Lineker]

Lewis Hamilton says that he will be 'business-minded' when it comes to making a final decision on his Formula 1 future.

Although it is widely expected that the former world champion will remain at McLaren for 2013, a final contract is still far from sorted.

It is understood that one of the major sticking points between McLaren and Hamilton's management company, XIX Entertainment, is over the financial package for his next deal.

Hamilton made it clear at Spa-Francorchamps on Thursday that his eventual decision will not just be based on sporting considerations nor loyalty to the outfit he has raced for since he entered F1 in 2007.

"This is a business," said Hamilton. "I always wear my heart on my sleeve, but I also have to be business-minded as well."

He added: "I am pretty much in a similar position to what I was going into the season. There is work being done in the background now, and I am not really focusing on that.

"The guys that are paid to do that job are discussing that, and working on getting that resolved."

Even though his future is not settled, Hamilton insists that he is fully focused on doing his best for McLaren this year as they bid for world championship glory.

"I think it is important at the moment that the team know I am massively committed to them winning the championship," he said. "That is the most important thing."

Sergio Perez wants his Formula 1 future to be sorted out in the next few weeks, as he insists there is no reason for him to leave Sauber.

The Mexican has had an impressive season, scoring two podium finishes so far, and has been linked several times with a future switch to Ferrari.

But with Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo claiming earlier this year that Perez was still too inexperienced for that move to happen now, it is almost certain that he will stay put.

"It's getting closer to when I have to make a decision and I haven't made one yet," said Perez ahead of the Belgian Grand Prix. "It's still a bit early, but it has to be made quite soon, in the next weeks.

"I'm not really worried about it. I'm in a good position, and I'm just thinking about the second half of the season, which is the most important for me."

When asked if there were any updates on his situation at Ferrari, Perez said: "No, not really. Nothing has changed in the last month, and that is why at some point, I need to make a decision."

With Sauber having produced a competitive car this season that has allowed Perez to shine on occasion, he certainly sees every reason to remain where he is.

"Sauber is a great team doing a fantastic job," he said. "When I go to the factory and I see the people so motivated every day, I don't see any reason why I want to leave. I'm happy here, and every day I'm more comfortable.

"I think the team can build a good car for next year, so I don't see any reason to step away from it. I'm in a good position, the team is doing a good job and I'm happy."

Felipe Massa is confident that he has more to offer if Ferrari decides to re-sign him for next year, despite his difficult 2012 season.

The Brazilian has scored just 25 points so far this year compared to championship-leading team-mate Fernando Alonso's haul of 164.

His scoring rate of 15.2 per cent of Alonso's tally makes him the worst-performing driver relative to a team-mate among the points-scoring teams.

Massa's future is uncertain after Ferrari failed to pick up the option it held on him that expired in July.

But Massa insists that he still has the ability to justify his place in the team.

"Because I believe that I am a good driver," he said when asked why Ferrari should retain him. "I think I can do a lot more than I have done in the first part of the season.

"I am much more happy and going in a better direction than I was in the first few races. I can do more than what I did [in the first half of the year].

"The direction is to stay here, but nothing is really sure yet.

"We need to concentrate on the races. The races and good results are the most important thing for me."

Massa scotched suggestions that the next nine races represent the most important spell of his career.

He emphasised that he has been in similar situations before during his 10 seasons racing in Formula 1.

"It's not the most important of my career because so many times have been the most important of my career," he said.

"I've had a similar situation many times. Together with these, this is an important moment of my career."

Michael Schumacher says that a decision on his Formula 1 future will not be made until October.

The seven-time champion and his Mercedes team are weighing up whether they wish to continue beyond his current deal, which runs out at the end of this season.

But although there had been suggestions that the matter could have been sorted out over the summer break, Schumacher revealed at Spa that nothing will be settled for at least another month.

"I think we made a very clear statement some time ago that by October we would be able to give indications," said Schumacher, who is celebrating his 300th grand prix in Belgium this weekend.

When asked how many races he expected to reach in his career, Schumacher was non-committal.

"How many it will be in the end we have to find out," he said. "I don't know yet, but certainly it will be until the end of this season."

Although Schumacher's season has been derailed by poor reliability, he insists that he has total faith in his Mercedes team.

"You have those moments where things do run against you, and I have mentioned that at any time that I have full trust in the guys. They all do their utmost, they don't want to retire, but unfortunately things like this do happen.

"I don't mind too much about this, I was aware earlier in the season that we would not fight for the championship, so it was not a big deal if we were not in the championship. If I was in the championship it would bother me much more.

"I look forward to the rest of the season. We have a lot to go through, a lot to improve on, and push on to go forward to make our process more a reasonable step."

Pastor Maldonado has confirmed that staying at Williams is his first choice for the 2013 Formula 1 season.

Despite his run of mishaps in recent races, Maldonado's stock is relatively high thanks to his accomplished victory in the Spanish Grand Prix, but he claims to have no plans to chase a drive with another team.

He is almost certain to be retained if Williams continues its relationship with Venezuelan petroleum giant PDVSA, which is understood to stipulate that the team must run a driver from the South American country even though it is not tied exclusively to Maldonado himself.

"From my point of view, yes, because I have confidence in the team," said Maldonado when asked by AUTOSPORT if remaining at Williams was his first choice for next year.

"This team has a big future, is improving all of the time and I would like to win the championship here before I leave."

Maldonado does not expect his future to be confirmed until the end of the season as Williams plans to wait until the current campaign is finished before firming up 2013 plans.

Williams did not announce that Maldonado would remain with the team after his 2011 rookie campaign until December 1 last year.

Despite his confidence, the 27-year-old Venezuelan insists that he is not making any assumptions about his Williams future even though he is satisfied with his performance.

"We've not had any talks," said Maldonado. "They [Williams] will wait for the end of the season.

"You never know in Formula 1, but I think I am doing quite well. I like the people and have a great relationship with them but we will see. Anything could happen.

"There are still nine races to go [this year] but I am looking forward to next year as well. The team is working hard on next year too, so we will see."

Jenson Button may be asked to support Lewis Hamilton as the 2012 Formula 1 title battle reaches its climax, McLaren team boss Martin Whitmarsh has admitted.

Whitmarsh underlined that at present there would be no restriction on Button finishing ahead of Hamilton in a grand prix, but that the door was open for such a move later in the year.

Button currently has 76 points, 31 behind Hamilton and 78 behind championship leader Fernando Alonso, after struggling to get to grips with this year's Pirelli tyres in the opening half of the season.

"There may well come a point [where Button would have to support Hamilton], but with nine races to go and 25 points per race things can change quite quickly," said Whitmarsh in a Vodafone McLaren teleconference.

"We must be measured when we talk to the drivers about when they put their support behind another driver," he added.

Whitmarsh insisted that both drivers would have equal opportunity to win in Belgium this weekend and that McLaren would not be making a decision for a number of races, especially following Button's upturn in form in Germany and Hungary.

"I think the good news is that we go into Spa and both our drivers will be trying to win. Jenson has had some strong showings before the break and he is a very intelligent driver," he said.

"It would be quite a few races' time before we would look at the situation.

"Jenson is a winner. He and Lewis have a great relationship but Jenson will try to beat Lewis this weekend."

Jenson Button has dismissed suggestions that he should support Lewis Hamilton's championship bid for the rest of the Formula 1 season.

The 2009 world champion slipped back in the title race during a dramatic mid-season slump, caused by himself and McLaren getting lost on set-up ideas.

That left Button 88 points behind championship leader Fernando Alonso going into the summer break, while McLaren team-mate Hamilton is only 47 adrift.

McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh suggested earlier on Thursday Button might have to support Hamilton later in the season, but the Australian Grand Prix winner hit back at suggestions that he should already be playing a back-up role.

"Personally I think it is a pretty pointless conversation right now," Button said at Spa ahead of this weekend's Belgian Grand Prix. "Forty points [between the McLaren drivers] is not a big margin, it's less than two wins.

"Half the grid are in front of their team-mates, and all their team-mates will not say they are going to help them. You always think you have a good chance, and until that chance is gone you will fight for it.

"We are here to fight, to do the best job we can for ourselves and for our team. It would be a pretty boring championship if only 12 drivers are fighting for victory and the rest are helping them.

"We will fight all the way until either we win the championship or it is no longer possible."

Button added that he was buoyed by his return to form ahead of the summer break, which included fighting for victory in the German GP.

"The last two races before the break were very good," he said. "I was second in Hockenheim and Lewis won in Hungary. So we come here positive of a good result.

"So [having to support Hamilton] is not the situation. We go racing as always, and we do the best we can.

"We want to get as many points for ourselves but also for the team. The constructors' championship is important to McLaren and something that we will work for as hard as we can."

McLaren boss Martin Whitmarsh has denied rumours that the team will introduce double DRS at this weekend's Belgian Grand Prix, but left the door open for the appearance of such a device later in the year.

There had been speculation that McLaren would become the third Formula 1 team to employ such a system, which gives a straightline speed boost by stalling the airflow over wings.

Mercedes pioneered it at the start of the season, before Lotus' version made its debut in German GP practice.

When asked by AUTOSPORT if a McLaren double DRS would appear at Spa, Whitmarsh dismissed such suggestions. But he also hinted that a comparable system might be in the pipeline.

"There is no doubt that the double DRS is interesting, but I think there are other variants of it starting to be seen on other teams' cars, so they might not follow a pattern that we saw on the Mercedes," he said.

"But we are not announcing when, where or if we are going to introduce it.

"I think people will see different wing variants, certainly on our car in scrutineering tomorrow and as they take to the track.

"So we will see new bits but McLaren will not have a double DRS in Belgium."

Lotus is set to race its double DRS for the first time this weekend if the system performs without problems in practice.

Spa is regarded as the ideal track for the device due to its long straights and the potential for drag reduction.

Although Monza has similarly long straights, it requires minimal drag levels so double DRS would not offer as great a benefit.

AUTOSPORT revealed last month that double DRS would be banned for 2013.

Fernando Alonso believes a wet Belgian Grand Prix would better suit his and Ferrari's championship hopes.

Although Alonso holds a 40-point advantage in the Formula 1 title standings, he reckons the fact that Ferrari has not had the quickest car all season means that a downpour at Spa-Francorchamps could offer him more opportunity for a big points haul.

"When your car is competitive and you are good in that weekend, maybe a dry race is better because it is more consistent," he said during a media event with Shell on Thursday.

"If you are quick you are 99 per cent [likely to be] on the podium, which would be a good result already for us.

"If you are not competitive, I am sure the wet conditions are a help because you can do more, like choose the right tyre in the right moment.

"At the moment, I don't know [which would be best], but looking at this year's championships, maybe a wet race is better for us."

He added: "At the same time, wet is more risk. There is aquaplanning, white lines, kerbs, so the wet race can help you a lot and take a lot as well.

"I think with the championship position, you must finish races, you must always score points, and a wet race means more risk, but it is more risk for everybody."

Alonso said that he was raring to go after the summer break - and felt that the time off was vital for everyone ahead of the punishing end to the campaign.

"It was nice time to switch off from F1 a little bit, for 10-15 days, recharge the batteries and now arrive 100 per cent again with a lot of motivation, a lot of desire to be in the car," he said.

"I have been looking forward to tomorrow for many days already. There are seven races out of Europe, a lot of time changes, a lot of travelling now coming, so you need to be 100 per cent because it will be a long final part of the season."

Fernando Alonso reckons Ferrari is the "slowest" of the teams fighting for the 2012 Formula 1 title, despite the Spaniard leading the championship.

Alonso currently has a 40-point advantage at the top of the standings, having won the Malaysian, European and German Grands Prix.

But his strong season has come as a surprise given Ferrari's very tough start to the year, and Alonso remains pessimistic about his car's pace.

"I think nothing has changed over the summer," the Spaniard replied when asked whether he felt like the title favourite.

"When you stop for four or five weeks, and you see the point you need to talk about F1 for some days and you see the classification, it looks like a big advantage for us. But if there are two or three bad races it changes everything.

"And in terms of performance, out of the contenders or the guys at the front, we are clearly the slowest.

"We have the points advantage but we have a performance disadvantage so I don't think we are the favourite."

Alonso highlighted Ferrari's lack of pace during the totally dry Hungarian GP weekend, which followed stronger performances in the rain-affected British and German events.

"The difference from pole position in the last race was eight tenths of a second, which is a little bit too much," he said.

"We need to improve that situation. We will see how much it is here and at Monza because they are two strange circuits in terms of characteristics of the car - you need low downforce compared to other circuits, so anything can happen in these next two grands prix and hopefully we can score some good points.

"Then the next point of reference is Singapore, at that point we must close this gap to pole position."

Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton do not believe Ferrari is truly an underdog in the 2012 Formula 1 title battle and reckon Fernando Alonso's car is now a match for his main rivals'.

Despite holding a 40-point world championship lead, Alonso insists that Ferrari is the "slowest" of the top teams.

But Red Bull driver Vettel argued that Alonso could not hold such a commanding points lead if his car was not up to the task.

"He's not just leading because someone wrote a cheque and gave him that amount of points. I think he deserves to lead," Vettel said.

"Obviously if you look at the beginning of the season and then winter testing, Ferrari seemed to have a lot of problems and then they got their act together and built a very competitive car. And they have been competitive in all kinds of circumstances and conditions.

"I think they deserve to be in that position and if you look at the last couple of races, they were always quick enough to finish on the podium and sometimes to win races."

Hamilton, currently in fourth place in the points after his Hungarian Grand Prix win, suggested Alonso was just playing mind games with his statements about Ferrari's pace.

"He would say that wouldn't he?" said the McLaren driver, who is 47 points off the lead. "He is just positioning himself in a nice way.

"I could say the same thing: 'my car is definitely the slowest out of the top four teams, but let's see what we can do with it.'"

Hamilton added: "I don't know why he would say his car is not as quick - unless he feels he has taken a step backwards, but I don't think that is the case.

"Fernando is still probably the best all-round driver at the moment who is bringing in the points consistently.

"He is finishing every race in the points so he is doing a solid job there and has won several races, so I definitely would not say he has the worst car."

Kimi Raikkonen believes he has as good a chance as anybody of winning the 2012 Formula 1 World Championship, but has admitted that Fernando Alonso remains the title favourite.

The Lotus driver is fifth in the standings, 49 points behind Alonso and says that while the Ferrari man goes into the second half of the season with a clear advantage, everyone else is well within striking distance.

"I have almost as good a chance as anybody else," he said at Spa. "I don't see that I have any better chance and I probably have the worst chance from the five guys [in the fight].

"But apart from Alonso the rest are pretty close to each other and there are also many points to be won."

When asked if he thought it realistic to think in terms of taking a second world championship in the first year of his F1 comeback, Raikkonen replied: "We still have a good chance, so why not?

"Nobody knows what will happen between now and the end of the year."

The 32-year-old Finn added that with nine races to go, there were plenty of opportunities to recover ground and for Alonso to trip up.

"He [Alonso] has quite a big gap in the points but there are many points still on the table," he said. "Any of us only needs to have a bad race and it's going drop you out of a few positions.

"Every race is important, but until we don't have any chance then we'll keep pushing. There are nine races left and after these back-to-backs [at Spa and Monza] there are still seven, so there are a lot of points to lose easily if you have some problems."

Raikkonen also played down his status as a favourite to win at Spa off the back of four Belgian Grand Prix wins there and Lotus's plan to use its new 'double DRS' at the high-speed venue.

"It's not any more special than other places," Raikkonen said of Spa. "It's a nice race circuit and usually it produces nice racing but I know this circuit as well as any other circuits, I haven't really raced here more than any others. It just has been pretty good for us, but I have had some bad races also. It's not like I come here and suddenly I should be good. It can be a disaster.

"Hopefully we can have a good normal weekend and we can be up there but we don't know yet.

Asked if he thought he could fight for a win if he had a 'normal' weekend, Raikkonen said: "We've been able to in most of the races this year so I don't see why we shouldn't be.

"We'll try. It's all we can do and then we'll see what happens. There is not any special thing that we could do more, and hopefully the new stuff we are getting is working and hopefully we can be up there and put ourselves in a position to try to win."

Nico Rosberg is confident that Mercedes has learned the lessons of its drop in form this season, meaning that the team will be stronger in the long-term.

The German's maiden victory in China brought him into championship contention despite having failed to score in the first two races of the year.

But a run of just 18 points in the last five races means that Rosberg is no longer a title challenger.

"We understand some of the reasons why others have managed to get away from us a little bit," said Rosberg when asked about the team's form by AUTOSPORT. "Some of them are not totally unexpected.

"It's just a matter of understanding it and improving the situation. A lot of the things that we've done are longer term and will improve things. We've just taken a bit of a hit now."

Rosberg admitted that it was disappointing after his strong run of six top-seven finishes from China through to the European Grand Prix to have struggled to repeat his podium form.

"It is [difficult to deal with]," he said. "I was really confident that I could be up towards the front of the championship.

"From there on, it really dipped. It's not a great experience."

Rosberg added that he was unsure how strong Mercedes would be in this weekend's Belgian GP.

The team has generally struggled at circuits with long corners this year and Spa's second sector in particular could cause it some difficulties.

"Quick corners haven't been our strength up until now so I'm not really sure what to expect here," said Rosberg.

"I'm sure we can have a decent weekend, but if it's enough to really do something good or not, I don't know."

Thursday's press conference:

DRIVERS - Jean-Eric VERGNE (Toro Rosso), Charles PIC (Marussia), Vitaly PETROV (Caterham), Pedro de la Rosa (HRT), Michael SCHUMACHER (Mercedes), Jenson BUTTON (McLaren)

PRESS CONFERENCE

Q. Jean-Eric, this is a new circuit for you in Formula 1 but I understand you've raced here before?

Jean-Eric VERGNE: Yeah, I think it's my favourite track. I'm really happy to be here in F1, to learn this track in and F1 car. I found it amazing in Formula 3 and World Series. So I can't wait to drive tomorrow in this car, it should be nice.

Q. So you've been here in Formula 3 and World Series by Renault?

JEV: Yes. I won three races in F3 in the same weekend here and last year I won as well. I finished second and first. It's generally a good track for me, so hopefully I make a good run here as well this weekend.

Q. A lot of people feel that with the problem with the technical director at Toros Rosso that development might have finished but I understand that's not the case.

JEV: So far everything is OK. The team is still pushing really hard. I don't have much to say about it.

Q. You have some updates here though?

JEV: Yeah we have some good updates. Well, I don't know if they're good, but we have some and also we're testing some new things for next year's car – front suspension. So, everything is still going on quite well in the team and we're looking forward to this weekend.

Q. Charles, obviously you've raced the first half of the season – how do you feel it's gone as far as you're concerned?

Charles PIC: Quite good. I am quite happy about my first half of the season. Everything was new for me. So, first races were not easy because everything was new and there were a lot of things to learn. But I am quite happy with my progress and quite happy with the team's progress because the start of the year was not easy. We were not able to make the winter tests. They worked really hard and made a lot of improvements and even if you cannot always... it's not easy to see because the position is not changing but we are trying to close the gap. So, really looking forward to the second part of the season and to updates coming from the summer, so we'll see how it is and on my side I will be focused to keep pushing hard and improving myself.

Q. I guess you measure yourself on your team-mate obviously but also on the people either side of you and in front of you. Are you happy with the gap between yourselves and Caterham?

CP: Yes, we are not in the position yet to fight with them but it was much closer for the last two races – Hockenheim and Budapest. It's great and I hope that with the update it will be even closer this weekend.

Q. Vitaly, the one problem you've had so far is qualifying in relation to your team-mate, whereas in the races you seem to have beaten him. Is that something you intend to tackle in the second half of the season?

Vitaly PETROV: Of course I will try my best. What is good is that I know the problem, so we will try to fix this problem in the second half of the season, so I will try to get close to my team-mate and then we will see.

Q. One of the things you did during the break was visit some cities in Russia. It seems that you're going to all sorts of cities that most of us have never heard of. What's the idea behind that programme?

VP: First of all it was part of my private sponsor, called Russian helicopters, so I visited two big cities, the first one is Rostov and the second one is Ulan-Ude. Actually, it was a good visit because it's the first time I've been there. You know, Ulan-Ude is very close to China. It's like if you go across the river you will be in China. From Moscow it's six or seven hours flying. I visited the biggest lake in the world, it's called Baikal. Unfortunately I was just there for one day. This lake it's line is for 365 kilometres and length, it's quite... I don't how much it is. Actually, it was a good experience and I hope that I will go back there maybe, one day.

Q. Pedro, the team has obviously made strides forward, what are your own ambitions for the second half of the season and what about your thoughts professionally for the second half of the season?

Pedro DE LA ROSA: Professionally? You mean racing? Well, I think that we've made progress; we've managed in this first of the season to go in qualifying, from not qualifying in Australia outside the 107 per cent, to 103.4 per cent in Valencia, so I think that's a very, very aggressive improvement. However the positions are similar. In fact we're qualifying in more or less the last two positions and then it's difficult for us. Although we're closer to pole position we still haven't made enough steps on the positions regarding the qualifying and the race finishes. So that's where we are concentrating: we still have to make the car quicker in the second half of the season. We don't have anything new for the next few races. We will have an upgrade for Singapore. That's where we are – but we are definitely happy with what we've done and what we've achieved, although it may not look like it in the results. We've still can do a lot better in the second half.

Q. And how important will the break have been to the team? OK, you're saying they won't have brought anything for the immediate races – but for future races?

PdlR: I think the break is nothing as we haven't been able to work or gain any advantage from the break, so for us it doesn't make any difference. Before the break we knew that the upgrade was coming in Singapore, if everything goes to plan – and after the break it's still the same. Until Singapore I think we will be more or less in the positions that we've been so far, and then wait for Singapore for this next upgrade.

Q. Michael, another milestone here at Spa: 300th grand prix weekend. What does that mean to you? Does that mean a lot to you at this stage or will it in the future?

Michael SCHUMACHER: It's certainly an interesting, beautiful, nice number to be around. A number that I didn't think about, that I would do that, at the time that I retired at the end of 2006. And now here we are and I'm counting the 300 – because at one point it was the talk about whether there would be somebody able to beat Riccardo Patrese's record of 250-whatever. I said 'forget that, it isn't interesting for me', and here we are. And suddenly... it isn't anything that I'm challenging or looking for to have just a number on my board but being the 300, yeah it's a beautiful side-effect.

Q. I think you've seen the poster down the road which says 'Michael, make it 400'. What chances?

MS: I guess I can say not. It's obviously nice that the fans are still with me and encourage me to go on. This morning I had a beautiful welcome, becoming the honorary citizen of Spa, that is something very special to me. And that's why the 300 becomes special – because it's in Spa. It all happened to me here in Spa. First race, first victory, some beautiful victories and interesting races and 2004 the seventh title, last year the 20th anniversary and now number 300 and being honoured. So it's a full package. Spa has always meant a lot to me. I always called it my living room – now I can officially call it my living room. It's good.

Q. But should we never say never?

MS: For the 400? We probably say no for that one.

Q. Jenson, during the break, not only an Iron Man but your own triathlon as well. But the triathlon didn't end quite the way you wanted to – perhaps we should share that story?

Jenson BUTTON: I think we should move on from that one!

Q. The whole of Britain knows about it, so how about the whole of the world.

JB: I did a triathlon for [charity] Help for Heroes and it was quite cold in the water. People were wearing wetsuits, I'd left mine in the hotel so I decided to try to squeeze into my girlfriend's... which felt OK until I got into the water and then it tightened up in... certain areas. So that was the end of my race. I had a panic attack in the water! So yeah, good and bad memories but it was a great event and I think everyone had fun and we raised a lot of money for Help for Heroes. In the end it was fun but the most important thing is what we raised.

Q. Your aims for the second half of the season? How do you see the second half of the season? People are talking about perhaps driver orders that you'll help Lewis...

JB: I'm I think 40 points behind Lewis, so you'd say that I'm going to give up on fighting for the Championship just because I'm 40 points behind my team-mate? Lewis is 40 points behind Fernando and I still think he thinks he's got a very good chance of winning this Championship, so no, we go racing as always and try to do the best job we can. The last two races for us before the break were very good: I had a second in Hockenheim and obviously Lewis's win in Hungary – so we come here positive we can get a very good result. So, no, that's definitely not the situation and we want to get as many points for ourselves but also for the team. The team championship, the Constructors' Championship is very, very important to McLaren and it's something that we're going to work on as much as we can.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR:

Q. (Mike Doodson - Honorary) Michael, congratulations on the 300. When you were with the red team, I think you set a record for reliability. I think it was something like more than 50 races without a single mechanical retirement. With the current team, things have been quite the contrary. I wonder if you have thought about trying to move elsewhere, which is what somebody, let's say 20-years old would be doing at that stage of his career?

MS: I haven't thought about that. Maybe I should! First of all, you have those moments when things do run against you and I have mentioned that at any time I have full trust in the guys because they all do their utmost. Nobody wants to retire, everybody does their best job but then we have prototype cars and unfortunately things like this do happen. I don't mind too much about this, because I was aware, reasonably early in the season, that we wouldn't be fighting for the championship so to retire is not a big deal for me at that moment, not being in the championship anyway. Much more important is that if you would be in the championship, then it would obviously bother me much more. So, no, I look forward to the rest of the season. We still have a lot to go through and a lot to improve on, a lot to understand. The team is pushing hard to go forward in order to make our process a much more reasonable step forward compared to what we have been doing. Already we have achieved quite a bit more but I think it needs a bit more of that. And then reliability.

Q. (Adrian Huber - EFE) Michael, congratulations again. You said just now, forget about the 400 but having all the records in Formula 1, can we maybe think about 326/327? Can you remember all of your races? How many can you remember without looking at the stat sheets?

MS: I don't know how many I would remember; certainly not all of them, that is very clear. How many it will be in the end? We will have to find out. Don't know yet. Certainly go to the end of the season.

Q. (Paolo Ianieri- La Gazzetta dello Sport) My question is similar: when does the point come when you decide if you're going to continue or if Mercedes decides whether they want to stay with you? Do you already have a deadline, or are you already starting to talk about it?

MS: I think we made a very clear statement some time ago that by October we will be able to give an indication and nothing has changed since then, so no news I'm afraid.

Q. (Ian Parkes - PA) Jenson, just following on from the earlier question and your answer regarding not supporting Lewis at this stage, Martin Whitmarsh has today suggested that there could come a point at some time this season when you might be asked to support Lewis. Is that something you would consider further down the line if the situation dictated, or does your personal attitude just say no, I'm not going to do that at all?

JB: Personally, I think it's a pretty pointless conversation right now. If I was 40 points behind Lewis in the championship and he was leading, do you think they would turn round and say 'you've got to support your teammate'? It's not a big margin, it's less than two wins. Half the grid is in front of their teammates. All their teammates are not going to turn round and say 'yes, we're going to help my teammate win the championship' because you still think you're going to have a good chance. And until that chance is gone you're going to fight for it. I'm not here to just race around and just help my teammate win a championship because none of us are. We're here to fight and we're here to do the best job we can for ourselves first of all and also for the team. I think it would be a pretty boring championship if there's only twelve of us actually fighting for a victory and the rest of us were there to help our teammates. It's not the sort of formula that we should want. So yes, I'm going to be fighting all the way until I either win the championship or it's not possible.

Q. (Vladimir Rogovets – Znamya Ynosty) Michael, we know that all drivers are very very superstitious. Do you have a mascot without which you cannot sit down in the car? Maybe for Spa you have a very special mascot.

MS: I've had one for more than 20 years. It's my wife. She comes tomorrow.

Q. (Oana Popoiu - F1Zone.net) Michael, do you remember the feeling you had on your first podium, and how was it different after that?

MS: I think it was in Mexico, if I'm right? Is it right? '92? Was it two? Yeah, '92, OK, so there you go. Is it different? Probably a little bit but no matter what, up there it's always special. It depends on the circumstances. If you are a regular podium contender and you have the package to win races then you end up being third, you have less joy up there obviously versus not expecting to be there at all and then being third. So it really depends on the circumstances. Remembering Valencia, yes, it was a beautiful feeling, for myself, for all the guys, the team for everybody, it was beautiful. It was that way in '92.

Q. (Gabor Joo - Indexonline) Michael, you have 299 races so far. Can you single out one which is your favourite?

MS: I keep talking about Suzuka in 2000, both for the quality of the race, for the end of the race and for the whole meaning of that result obviously, so it was a total package of many circumstances, why that race turned out to be a very special one for myself and then for so many others.

Q. (Pierre van Vliet - F1i.com) To all of you: Spa is a very historical circuit where Grand Prix racing started back in 1925. Have you ever been on the old track having a look at the 14 kilometre layout like the fast Masta downhill between Malmedy and Stavelot?

JEV: I was too young.

MS: Even not me!

PDLR: Why me? Unfortunately not.

Q. (Frederic Ferret - L'Equipe) Michael and Jenson, why is Spa so particular for drivers, why do you like it so much?

MS: There are many reasons, particularly for me because I started in the days when corners like Eau Rouge and Blanchimont were extremely challenging corners, because the cars were built in a certain way and the circuit made them absolutely on the edge. It's one of the old character tracks with lots of history. It is going through the natural countryside that we are in, the up and down like a rollcoaster so there are so many variants that make it so particular and so special. We all, as race drivers, prefer high speed and if you have a challenging high speed corner it's special, and if you go through Eau Rouge... even nowadays it's probably a little bit too easy flat out except maybe in the race sometimes, but the sensation, the forces that go through you in a cornering sense and in a vertical sense, that is a combination that you don't find everywhere.

JB: I think there are many different things: the history of the place. When you used to watch Formula 1, you would see the greats racing around here and the circuit has changed over the years, even since I've been racing in Formula 1, but it still feels very special. This circuit is very very flowing and there are only two corners that are below third gear and that's very unusual, especially when you have so many corners on a circuit and it is one of those circuits which you just love driving. Whatever car you're in, it's just such a great feeling driving around a circuit like this. I think there are only a couple of other circuits like it. One is Suzuka, one was Silverstone. I think it's changed a little bit now. It's lost a little bit of the flow but those three really stand out for me, to be a real fast flowing circuit, and a circuit where we just love driving out of the pits and knowing you're going to tackle.

Q. (Livio Oricchio - O Estado de Sao Paulo) Michael, you are here for your 300th Grand Prix. Do you still have the same passion as you had at the beginning for the first races, and are you able to deliver in the same way as you used to do when you started in Formula 1?

MS: I think that by saying yes I answer both of the questions. I have the same passion for what I am doing, yes, absolutely. Formula 1 is the ultimate racing and if you're involved, you're only involved because you want to do the best that you can do. Obviously we all depend on our machines, but nevertheless, within your machine you have a certain frame with which you can prove yourself and that's the challenge and that challenge you like to outbrake that frame and you like to do anything on top of that. That's the particular moment that you can have and the great thing in sport is that you have immediate feedback: whether you do achieve or you don't achieve. There's been plenty of satisfaction that I've had over more than 20 years now and I still enjoy it.

I would probably think that my capacity to achieve is better, because I have a much better view and understanding, a lot more experience. If we have problems, it takes me less to come to the point with the team in explaining those problems and that's helpful.

Q. (Walter Koster – Saarbrucker Zeitung) Michael, for the second time, you are now an honorary citizen in Maranello and now here in Spa. What are the conditions which are necessary to fulfill this reputation and do you have special duties? Please explain to us concerning this subject?

MS: The only thing I can say is that both moments, the idea and invitation from those citizens that they offered me this honour and I was definitely pleased to achieve it, but I have no obligations and I'm just happen to have received such an award.

Q. (Paolo Ianieri- La Gazzetta dello Sport) Next week, after Spa, we have Monza, another special for you, Michael. Is there any particular souvenir of the Italian Grand Prix that you remember? Which has been your best race?

MS: We obviously had a very beautiful ending in 2006 at the time. In both ways, I do remember it being special, because we were behind in the championship and in that race we put ourselves back into the championship fight. Then came the beautiful celebration, obviously my message to retire after the race so it was a very particular weekend.

Q. (Ian Parkes - PA) Jenson, it was only a year ago that you did your 200th Grand Prix but given the number of races in the calendar, do you see yourself emulating Michael and hitting 300?

JB: Yeah, there's no reason why not. It's four and a half years of racing. Yeah, it's possible. I really don't know how I'm going to feel in a couple of years' time. Now, of course, the hunger is there. If I lose that, that's when I'll stop. If I'm in a position where I get the choice to retire it's the best position to be in, but it's a long time before I need to start thinking of that.

Q. (Oana Popoiu - F1Zone.net) Jenson, you never won at Spa and you've had a bit of misfortune here. Do you think that's maybe a little jinx?

JB: Not really, because that was really only one year. I think you mean 2010, with Sebastian. I love racing here. It's a great circuit to race on because to qualify here when you get everything out of the car is such a nice feeling because this place is really unforgiving, so you're always living on the seat of your pants. It's a great place to race. There are a lot of possibilities for overtaking, in wet and dry. I've had quite a few podiums here but never on the top step. Hopefully that opportunity will arise very soon.

Q. (Patricia Sanchez - La Gaceta) We've been hearing about F1 with electric cars. What would you think about that sort of competition, and how would you like to drive a noiseless car? Is that safe for you?

MS: Looks like none of us has heard anything about that. We have partially electric cars already. We have KERS!

Q. (Patricia Sanchez - La Gaceta) My question is basically about having a Formula 1 race with no noise. Would that be the same feeling for you? If it happens.

JB: If. I'm sure we could try and make some sort of noise that we like. It would save our hearing, because these things are pretty loud. We wouldn't need earplugs, which is quite a good thing. I don't know. I don't know what the possibility is of having a completely electrical car, how many manufacturers would be involved.

PDLR: I must say I've heard about it, it's Formula E, and it's obviously a new era, and we should be open-minded to the fact that we're used to racing with noise, but I remember a few years ago, going to indoor karting in Finland and racing with electrical cars for the first time which was an incredible experience because you were racing, you were braking for turn one, or accelerating on the straight and then you had a kart next to you and you didn't hear it, which was shocking, because we are basically from the noise era, but we should be open-minded. Let's wait and see how it develops, because it could be extremely interesting...

JB: Can you hear a Formula 1 car coming?

PDLR: Absolutely, yeah. You can feel... yeah, especially when I'm shown blue flags, I can hear you guys!

JB: You get out of the way straightaway. I've seen you Pedro!

PDLR: I mean karting, karting, karting, indoor karting. I don't know how it will feel with single-seaters, but for sure you can still hear something. Maybe when you get very old you won't but...

JB: You tell me, Pedro!

PDLR: Anyway, my bottom line is it's a new era, it's an interesting avenue, we should be open-minded and let's wait and see how it looks like, because we've never seen a fully electrical single-seater and I'm really looking forward to that.

JEV: I have no idea. Maybe it will come. To be honest, I haven't heard about it, so I don't know how it is, I don't know how it's going to be. I know I did a kart race last year in Bercy with electric karts. It was quite a fun race. We could hear other noise as well. The funny thing is that we could hear the whole crowd around the stadium. But I have no idea how it would be in F1 or single-seaters.

MS: That's actually a good point. It would be the first time that we could hear the crowd and not the crowd us.

JB: I think you've got to ask the fans more than us. It would be a big difference for the fans. I know there are the obvious reasons for doing it which are very important, but for the fans, they would miss something, with the buzz of the sound of an F1 car, because that's the first thing you notice when you come and watch an F1 car, it's the sound.

[Lineker]

Kamui Kobayashi emerged quickest for Sauber in a wet first practice session for the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps.

Consistently heavy rain over the Ardennes circuit left the track saturated, resulting in a morning of little action.

Indeed in the first half of the session, Kobayashi was the only man willing to try a flying lap.

His 2m17.705s from an early four-lap run held a lonely top spot as all the other drivers settled for cautious installation runs.

Although the rain barely relented, more drivers took to the track going into the final 40 minutes.

Toro Rosso duo Daniel Ricciardo and Jean-Eric Vergne led the way for a while, before a busy five minutes around the hour mark featured Vergne, Kobayashi, Ricciardo and finally Williams driver Pastor Maldonado taking turns on top.

Kobayashi then reasserted himself with a 2m11.389s, 17 minutes from the end. That put the Sauber on top by 0.552 seconds over Maldonado, with Ricciardo and Vergne next up.

Red Bull's Mark Webber was the best of the title contenders in fifth place.

His team-mate Sebastian Vettel took ninth, behind Sergio Perez (Sauber), Nico Rosberg (Mercedes) and Williams reserve Valtteri Bottas.

Michael Schumacher escaped a scary moment at Eau Rouge to complete the top 10 with a late lap.

Points leader Fernando Alonso was among those choosing not to set a proper time, along with Ferrari team-mate Felipe Massa and the Lotus duo.

Massa also stopped at the chicane with smoke eminating from the rear of his Ferrari, apparently in some kind of engine trouble.

Despite the appalling conditions, everyone managed to stay clear of the barriers, with incidents limited to a few trips down escape roads and twitches of aquaplaning.

FP1


Pos  Driver              Car                   Time       Gap       Laps

 1.  Kamui Kobayashi     Sauber-Ferrari        2m11.389s            20

 2.  Pastor Maldonado    Williams-Renault      2m11.941s  + 0.552s  14

 3.  Daniel Ricciardo    Toro Rosso-Ferrari    2m12.004s  + 0.615s  12

 4.  Jean-Eric Vergne    Toro Rosso-Ferrari    2m12.824s  + 1.435s  15

 5.  Mark Webber         Red Bull-Renault      2m13.191s  + 1.802s  13

 6.  Sergio Perez        Sauber-Ferrari        2m13.861s  + 2.472s  16

 7.  Nico Rosberg        Mercedes              2m14.210s  + 2.821s  14

 8.  Valtteri Bottas     Williams-Renault      2m14.660s  + 3.271s  16

 9.  Sebastian Vettel    Red Bull-Renault      2m14.860s  + 3.471s  12

10.  Michael Schumacher  Mercedes              2m15.402s  + 4.013s  13

11.  Paul di Resta       Force India-Mercedes  2m15.812s  + 4.423s  11

12.  Timo Glock          Marussia-Cosworth     2m16.409s  + 5.020s  16

13.  Nico Hulkenberg     Force India-Mercedes  2m16.786s  + 5.397s  10

14.  Vitaly Petrov       Caterham-Renault      2m16.788s  + 5.399s  16

15.  Lewis Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes      2m16.827s  + 5.438s  5

16.  Jenson Button       McLaren-Mercedes      2m16.861s  + 5.472s  8

17.  Charles Pic         Marussia-Cosworth     2m17.519s  + 6.130s  14

18.  Heikki Kovalainen   Caterham-Renault      2m18.199s  + 6.810s  10

19.  Pedro de la Rosa    HRT-Cosworth          2m19.546s  + 8.157s  12

20.  Dani Clos           HRT-Cosworth          2m19.689s  + 8.300s  12

21.  Romain Grosjean     Lotus-Renault         2m38.701s  + 27.312s 9

22.  Fernando Alonso     Ferrari               2m40.749s  + 29.360s 4

23.  Kimi Raikkonen      Lotus-Renault         2m46.580s  + 35.191s 9

24.  Felipe Massa        Ferrari                                    2


All timing unofficial[/code]




Second practice for the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa was a near-total washout, with not a single competitive laptime set.



With track conditions even worse than the morning session but a more promising forecast for the rest of the weekend, few saw any point in risking damage by running on the saturated track on Friday afternoon.



It was 48 minutes into the session before a car took to the track at all, with Nico Rosberg first to brave the puddles.



His Mercedes team-mate Michael Schumacher would also venture out, as did Heikki Kovalainen, the McLaren, Saubers, Williams, Marussias, Ferraris, Toro Rossos and Force Indias. Many only came out at the very end so they could do a practice start, logging some nominal times - including stopping on the grid - as a result.



Nico Hulkenberg had the most running, but still completed a mere five laps.



Ferrari did attempt to get some work done, with Massa setting off with flo-vis paint on his rear wing - although it soon appeared to wash off. The Brazilian had an engine change between sessions following his morning failure.



No one was willing to push hard, but even so Kovalainen had a spin on the way out of Les Combes and Hamilton slid over the run-off at the same point, demonstrating how slippery conditions were.



[code]FP2


Pos  Driver              Car                   Time       Gap        Laps

 1.  Charles Pic         Marussia-Cosworth     2m49.354s             4

 2.  Daniel Ricciardo    Toro Rosso-Ferrari    2m49.750s  + 0.396s   3

 3.  Fernando Alonso     Ferrari               2m50.497s  + 1.143s   3

 4.  Paul di Resta       Force India-Mercedes  2m51.333s  + 1.979s   3

 5.  Pastor Maldonado    Williams-Renault      2m51.660s  + 2.306s   4

 6.  Timo Glock          Marussia-Cosworth     2m52.076s  + 2.722s   4

 7.  Kamui Kobayashi     Sauber-Ferrari        2m53.232s  + 3.878s   4

 8.  Jean-Eric Vergne    Toro Rosso-Ferrari    2m58.232s  + 8.878s   3

 9.  Nico Hulkenberg     Force India-Mercedes  2m59.125s  + 9.771s   5

10.  Sergio Perez        Sauber-Ferrari        3m12.901s  + 23.547s  4

11.  Nico Rosberg        Mercedes                                    3

12.  Michael Schumacher  Mercedes                                    4

13.  Heikki Kovalainen   Caterham-Renault                            1

14.  Lewis Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes                            2

15.  Sebastian Vettel    Red Bull-Renault                            3

16.  Jenson Button       McLaren-Mercedes                            2

17.  Felipe Massa        Ferrari                                     2

18.  Bruno Senna         Williams-Renault                            3


All timing unofficial

Mark Webber will have a five-place grid penalty for the Belgian Grand Prix because of a gearbox change.

The Red Bull driver, who is Fernando Alonso's closest challenger in the Formula 1 world championship, finished the last race in Hungary so the gearbox change means he is in breach of the regulations.

Webber suffered a similar penalty at the German GP for having a new unit fitted to his car.

A statement issued by the FIA confirmed that the change, which will be made before the start of practice three on Saturday, will lead to a five-place penalty.

"The above driver [Webber] did finish the last race in Budapest and this gearbox change was before the five consecutive events expired," it said.

Webber and team-mate Sebastian Vettel have suffered their share of reliability problems this year - although the Australian has not retired from a race.

Speaking about the team's reliability performance this year, Webber said: "Seb lost a lot of points in Valencia. I've lost a lot of points a few times too, so we've had a bit of friendly fire within our own operation, but generally we always grab something at the end. Generally that's down to the quality of the team."

Mark Webber believes that Red Bull is still the benchmark team in Formula 1 despite the 2012 season being so competitive.

Red Bull has only won three races and taken four pole positions from the first 11 races this season, while at the same stage of the 2011 campaign it had six wins and 11 poles.

Webber and team-mate Sebastian Vettel are both trailing Ferrari's Fernando Alonso in the drivers' championship as well, but the Australian believes that the constructors' championship - where Red Bull leads the way by 53 points - is proof of the team's continued strength.

"We've had a bit of friendly fire within our operation this year, so Seb has lost points and I have too," Webber told reporters at Spa. "But generally we always grab something at the end.

"That's down to the quality of the team. We still are the benchmark in many many areas, and that's related to the position in the teams' championship.

"We don't have as many podiums as some of the other teams, but I haven't really thought about that. We've got more points and that's what matters. We won't count the podiums at the end of the year, we'll count the points."

Webber added that despite his faith in the strength of Red Bull, he does not expect the mixed-up nature of the 2012 season to change in the championship run-in.

"We've been saying since Malaysia, when is it going to change?" he said. "I don't see anything changing too much now, unless someone comes out with something pretty special. But if that was going to happen I think we would have seen it by now.

"There's a long way to go. There's plenty more sticks in the river for all of us to come across.

"When you have someone with the quality of Sebastian on one win, it shows you the quality and the depth we have this year."

Paul di Resta says he is not getting distracted by off-track management issues - even though he wants to start getting his house in order within the next month.

The Force India driver parted with manager Anthony Hamilton earlier this year, and is currently involved in a court case over matters relating to their partnership.

Di Resta has not appointed a replacement manager yet, but hopes to do so within the next few weeks.

"I have been thinking a lot, it was nice to have that time off and just really see where I am in life and what I am doing," said di Resta ahead of the Belgian Grand Prix.

"It is something that I need to look at in the future and, when I feel it is appropriate, I will do it.

"But I am content at the moment and certainly in the near future I need to make a clear decision on what exactly I am doing - where I need to be to explore my opportunities best, whether that is in the racing or equally away from it, because there are other aspects of the business that you need to work on as well."

When asked for a timeframe on making that call, di Resta said: "That's a hard one. It is certainly something I'll be looking at relatively soon. I said I would give myself the August break and then I would explore it."

Although not happy to have to be involved in a court case, di Resta says he is relaxed about the situation – and insists it is not diverting his attention from racing.

"It is not what I really want to go through, but you employ the right people and trust who they are and I will focus on the racing, which is the bit I'm good enough to do," he said.

Di Resta's future in Formula 1 remains open, with the Scotsman favourite for a switch to Mercedes if Michael Schumacher does not continue, and also linked with a move to Ferrari if the outfit elects to replace Felipe Massa.

The Scot preferred not to discuss his current position in the driver market.

"I've said we won't discuss contracts and that is the team's policy, so we won't talk about it," he explained.

Felipe Massa has paid tribute to Ferrari team-mate Fernando Alonso's driving, describing his first half of the season as "perfect".

The Spaniard won three of the first 11 races and leads the drivers' championship by 40 points.

Massa believes that his team-mate has extracted the most from the Ferrari F2012.

"Fernando had an incredible first part of the championship," said Massa. "He did a fantastic job. Even at the tracks where we didn't have a competitive car, he was able to finish in a better position than he should have finished.

"He did a perfect job with the car that we had at some tracks. At some tracks, we had a good car but he had a perfect first part of the season."

Massa is aiming to get closer to Alonso in the second half of the year having struggled to match his team-mate so far in 2012.

He blamed bad luck for his failure to score more than 25 points so far this season.

"With me, in many, many races something has happened so I couldn't finish in the position that I was supposed to finish.

"Now I need to concentrate on going in the same direction that Fernando has done. That's the only thing I'm looking forward to."

Massa is also confident that Ferrari will be more competitive in this weekend's Belgian Grand Prix than it was in Hungary before the August break.

At the Hungaroring, the Ferrari F2012 was consistently the fourth-fastest car and Alonso described it as the "slowest" of the frontrunning machines, but Massa is hopeful that Spa will suit it.

He cited the pace of the car in the Canadian GP, which requires comparable downforce levels, as proof that the Ferrari should be stronger here.

"I hope that our car is more competitive than it was in Hungary, not just here but from here until the end of the championship," said Massa.

"We had a good car in Montreal so hopefully we can have a good car here as well. At Montreal, you don't have the high speed corners but here you have, but normally we have a good car in the high speed [corners]."

Lewis Hamilton does not want Jenson Button to play a supporting role to him this season.

Although there has been talk that Button could be asked to move aside for his McLaren team-mate later in the campaign if his own title hopes are over, Hamilton insists he wants to win the title by himself.

"Jenson races for the team and he races for points for himself as well, plus he is getting stronger as the season goes on," explained Hamilton, who trails Fernando Alonso by 47 points in the title chase.

"So I anticipate that will be the case throughout the rest of the season. We need him, and I need him, to score points as well. I want him to do well."

When asked if he would expect Button to help him in the closing stages of the campaign if circumstances dictated it, Hamilton said: "I don't see racing like that.

"You watch back in the years where drivers let drivers past to win the championship. It doesn't feel right to me. I think it doesn't feel right to me. I wouldn't be asking for that."

He added: "If I am not quick enough, I am not quick enough. I want to win because I am the quickest, not because I was given points by someone being held up."

McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh said ahead of the Belgian Grand Prix that he could not rule out Button being asked later in the season to help Hamilton, but for now both drivers were free to race.

Sebastian Vettel says the experience of coming from behind to win his maiden title in 2010 gives him hope for this season.

The German did not lead the world championship at all before clinching the crown with victory in the Abu Dhabi finale two years ago.

But he argued that this year's points situation was a better reflection of Red Bull's pace, whereas in 2010 the team had squandered a lot of points before its late charge.

The reigning champion is currently 42 points behind leader Fernando Alonso in the Formula 1 standings.

"The most important race to lead the championship after is the last one, and we had that experience in 2010," Vettel said.

"If you compare this year to any year, at least for myself, then probably 2010 is close.

"But equally I think we made a lot more mistakes in 2010 - myself and the team. I think we lost a lot more points than this year so far.

"This year there are probably two races standing out where we should have scored more points.

"One is Valencia, which is easy and obvious, and the other one is probably Malaysia, but that was a racing incident [with Narain Karthikeyan] so I'm not regretting what happened and these things happen to other people as well.

"Sometimes you have a year where they don't happen and for sure for some of the guys, these things will happen in the next nine races.

"We have to look after ourselves and be on top of our game. I think that's the lesson we learned in 2010."

As was the case in 2010, Vettel's title rivals include his Red Bull team-mate Mark Webber, who is two points ahead at present.

The points gaps between team-mates in the other championship-chasing teams are much larger. But Vettel does not think having an intra-team fight to contend with again will put him at a disadvantage against Alonso and Lewis Hamilton.

"Obviously if you look at the table now that might be the impression you get," said Vettel. "It could be completely different five races down the road, so we'll see.

"I think the message is that we are free to race, and that's what we have been doing every since I've raced against Mark at Red Bull Racing. That's what we'll continue doing. It's nothing new for us.

"I think if you asked Jenson [button] whether he's happy to be the number two [at McLaren], I think his answer will be self-explanatory."

Kimi Raikkonen insists that winning or losing a second Formula 1 world championship in 2012 would not change his life.

While it remains his target, he maintains is not the only motivating force behind his return to the sport.

The 32-year-old Finn, who won his first world championship title with Ferrari in 2007, says that he and the Lotus team will do everything they can to close the 49-point gap to championship leader Fernando Alonso, but that he does not feel 'desperate' to recapture the title.

"I always said that if I win one I'm happy and then if something comes after that good, but I am not desperate on it," Raikkonen said at Spa. "We do everything that we can to try and win it, but if it doesn't come, it doesn't come.

"It doesn't change my life in the long run. We are here to try to win races and championships but it is not like it is going to suddenly change my life completely.

"When I feel I want to stop I will stop and it's not that I try to carry on and try to win. It's not going to be the reason why I am going to stay here."

Raikkonen added that being in the championship hunt in the first year of his return to F1 has not changed his approach to race weekends, and that he brings the same attitude to his driving week in, week out.

"It doesn't change anything for me. It doesn't change if I am in the last position in the points to the first," he said. "We always race as well as we can and we will see what happens.

"It was difficult to expect anything so... it was a new team and we expected to have a good car but then it was hard to say after the previous year that we would have a very easy time so I've been really happy with how things have gone but for sure we could have done a bit better also in many ways. But it could have been much worse."

Asked if winning a second title could compare to winning with Ferrari, Raikkonen replied: "I have only won with Ferrari so it is hard to say. I had a good time there, I won my championship, things could probably have ended up to go slightly more nicer in the end but that's life and that's racing.

"Now we are here and I am happy with them and hopefully we can win races and fight for the championship."

Bruno Senna believes that he is well-placed for a strong second half of the Formula 1 season after racing at eight of the nine remaining tracks last year.

The Brazilian sat out the first half of last season before replacing Nick Heidfeld at Renault, making his first appearance in Belgium.

He believes that this familiarity will make it easier for him to get the best out of his Williams-Renault machinery than it has been so far this year.

"I think so," he said when asked if having raced on these tracks last year would make things easier.

"The learning curve is much less steep and even though the tyres are new, we have a good idea of where they suffer and where the tyres can be worked harder. But it is really just experience with the car and the tyres from this year.

"We have been getting more and more competitive on dry pace and I have struggled in qualifying for one reason or another but in general the race pace has been very good.

"I'm confident that going to the track before can make the difference too. I should qualify where I should qualify and finish the race where I finish the race and score some better points."

Senna endured a difficult start to the season, with his qualifying performance suffering as he struggled to adapt his style to the Pirelli tyres.

The 28-year-old has a very different driving style to aggressive team-mate Pastor Maldonado, who has regularly qualified in the top 10 this year.

But in recent races, set-up changes have boosted Senna's qualifying form, culminating in his first top 10 starting position of the year in Hungary, which he converted into seventh place in the race.

That gives Senna confidence that he can repeat such results consistently in the second half of the season to prove himself as an F1 driver.

When asked by AUTOSPORT whether he felt his was on course in what is characterised as a make or break season, Senna replied: "Yes. It is easy to forget mistakes or be too critical about mistakes so I am trying to learn as much as I can, but I am much more confident now than I was in the beginning of the year.

"I think we are getting there and hopefully from now on we can do a good job."

Lotus is keeping its hopes in check for this weekend's Belgian Grand Prix despite being viewed by many as favourite for victory, says Romain Grosjean.

With the Enstone-based team having secured a double podium finish in Hungary, and its car expected to be well-suited to the high-speed Spa circuit, the outfit is being tipped for its first Formula 1 victory of the season.

However, Grosjean says the lessons of this year show that form at each race has been hard to predict - which is why it is not getting ahead of itself just yet.

"It is always difficult," he said, when asked by AUTOSPORT if he agreed with the perception that Lotus is favourite for victory this weekend.

"Going into Monte Carlo people said we wouldn't be good because it's a low-speed track and then the car was very good.

"Here it looks good, and I hope we will do well. But it is not like straight from the beginning we can say that we are going to win or whatever.

"We have to work and do our job on Friday and then see where we are before the qualifying, and what we think we can do."

The Lotus E20 has shown itself to be quite sensitive to temperature this year, and has particularly struggled to switch on its tyres for qualifying in cooler conditions.

Grosjean thinks the team has made good progress in this area, which should boost its chances of taking a much-needed slot near the front with Pirelli bringing its hardest compounds this weekend.

"I think we are much better now than in the past," he said. "We have seen in Silverstone where it was very cold that we were working the hard tyres very well, and the medium should be more or less the same so I am not too worried about that."

Fernando Alonso's world championship lead is 'exposed' due to Ferrari not having the quickest car right now.

That is the view of McLaren technical director Paddy Lowe, who says that his outfit takes heart from the current pecking order in Formula 1 - which makes it more likely Ferrari's rivals will be able to close down its advantage.

"They are certainly not the frontrunner of the four [leading] teams," said Lowe, when asked by AUTOSPORT about Alonso's comments that Ferrari was slowest of the title contenders.

"So that gives us cause for some encouragement. Of course Fernando has the points lead in the drivers' championship but, with 25 points for a win and without the quickest car, then they are exposed. And that is the opportunity that we want to exploit."

Lowe thinks that the remainder of the season will see the top teams edge clear of their rivals, because those outfits not involved in the title fight will start switching development focus on to their 2013 contenders.

"I think with it being as close as it is, there are several teams who will think they are in the chance for a championship so they will be pushing to the end," he said.

"I suspect there will be teams who are below that threshold who will be switching far more vigorously into 2013 development. So I think you will see that trend where three to four teams will be stretching out a gap to the rest, and we have seen that trend before."

McLaren has introduced a raft of updates for this weekend's Belgian Grand Prix, including a new rear wing and a revised sidepod concept.

Lowe says that further developments are in the pipeline, which makes him positive about what can be achieved this year.

"We have got a great programme for aerodynamics with what we have brought so far and we will continue that for the remainder of the season," he said.

"In the last couple of races we had one of the quickest cars and we think we are in a position to win races.

"Although we are on the backfoot points wise, we have done all the calculations and made all our own estimates – and we think that we can put ourselves in a great position to win both championships still."

Romain Grosjean says a final decision on whether Lotus gives its double DRS a race debut in Belgium is unlikely to be taken until after Saturday morning practice.

Lotus was thought likely to use the device in a grand prix for the first time at Spa.

- the circuit where it is expected to be most beneficial - but Friday's heavy rain meant there was little chance to evaluate it.

"We will see what we can do tomorrow," said Grosjean. "I don't know what is decided yet, if we keep it on both cars or only one car.

"For sure it was not the best conditions and we needed some dry weather to see if it was working as expected, but tomorrow we'll maybe keep it for P3 and then we take the decision."

When asked if it would be straightforward to remove double DRS between final practice and qualifying, Grosjean replied: "I think it will be hard work for the mechanics, but we should be able to achieve it."

Grosjean was ambivalent about whether Lotus decided to run the system at Spa or not.

"I think the best decision has to be taken by the engineers, but honestly on my side it is the same if I use it or not," said Grosjean.

"Hopefully the performance is good without the upgrade and we'll have an easy solution.

"Nobody knows where we are. Let's see tomorrow in P3.

"It will be a hard work session but by then we should know a bit more about performance and if we want to take a risk or not."

Lotus looks set to postpone the race debut of its double DRS after announcing that it will not run the device in Saturday morning practice at Spa.

Friday's rain hampered the team's efforts to evaluate the system ahead of what was expected to be its first use in a grand prix.

Lotus technical chief James Allison said the team had decided that with just one dry practice session likely, it was more sensible to remove the double DRS.

"Today's rain also prevented us from seeing how the 'device' would perform in the expected race conditions," he said.

"With discretion being the better part of valour we will conduct P3 tomorrow with a conventional aero package rather than attempting to squeeze Friday's intended evaluation into the precious final practice session."

Kimi Raikkonen has carried out the double DRS testing in previous practice sessions, and Romain Grosjean was set to get his first taste of it at Spa.

"I was really looking forward to trying the famous 'device' for the first time, but I guess I'll have to wait," said Grosjean.

Valtteri Bottas believes that his Belgian Grand Prix practice outing for Williams was still a valuable learning experience despite difficult weather conditions.

It was the Finn's 10th appearance for Williams in Friday practice and he ended the session eighth fastest overall.

His Spa performance continued an impressive run, during which he has often outpaced team-mate Pastor Maldonado, suggesting that he is potentially the fastest of Williams's three drivers in terms of pure pace.

"Every kilometre with these cars, even in wet conditions, is always about learning at the moment," said Bottas when asked by AUTOSPORT how useful the session was.

"It was nice to experience Spa, even though it was wet. Still, it was really challenging.

"We are always trying to get some running in no matter what the weather is. I just need to take care that I bring the car back in one piece. We were trying to get some laps in."

Bottas added that he was frustrated that rain has hit so many of his outings so far this season.

But despite that, he believes that the experience he is building will help him next year.

With the remaining nine races of the season taking place over 13 weekends, he is hoping that being in the car so regularly will also help him to build momentum.

"I think it has been a little bit unlucky," he said. "Most of the weekends, there has been a bit of rain on the Fridays.

"But we have still got some laps in every session. If you look at today, second practice was even worse than the first so maybe I was a bit lucky.

"[The regularity of races] helps me in my situation because I'm not getting so many laps. The closer the races are together the better it is for me to keep the feeling of driving.

"I'm looking forward to it, also to see what it's like with the travelling and the jetlag."

Pirelli is confident there will be no repeat of last year's Belgian Grand Prix camber controversy, despite Friday's practice washout.

The 2011 Spa event had also featured a rain-affected Friday. Some teams subsequently had issues with tyre blistering, which Pirelli put down to them running outside its advised camber settings.

Pirelli motorsport chief Paul Hembery said the tyre firm had responded to last year's Spa issues so had no concerns about a repeat of the problem.

"We have reduced the camber advisory to 3.5-degrees front," he said.

"Last year it was 3.75 degrees, so this year is a little bit more conservative.

"We have also brought a tyre with a slightly thinner guage on the tread so there is less material at the shoulder of the tyres, and that stops overheating.

"The less material there is, the less heat build-up there is in the tyre.

"We came here and tested, and came here to test because of last year's issues to understand if everything was working well and with the information we have and the data we have we feel we are in a better position."

Asked if the FIA could force teams to follow Pirelli's camber advice, Hembery replied: "No. It is the same situation as last year... but it could be a similar situation to last year and we could advise the FIA that we felt our advice would not be possible."

Leading Formula 1 drivers have played down the loss of Spa Friday practice mileage to heavy rain.

Wet weather affected the whole day in Belgium, and although many teams went for relatively long runs in the morning, no one tried a flying lap at all in the afternoon.

Jenson Button said: "P1 was better because you could do a couple of laps. There was aquaplaning on the straights, but it was safe enough to do some running.

"But P2 was extremely wet, and the only reason why anyone ran was to do out and in-laps to practice starts.

"Most of the lap you aren't pushing, and you can't really because on the straight after Eau Rouge it gets wetter, it's a different type of asphalt."

Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg was the first to try a lap in practice two, and said he was confident his team could hit the ground running on Saturday even without any dry laps on Friday.

"We always come to a race with a very good starting point with past knowledge and so that is what we will do tomorrow," he said.

"Last year we had no dry running until qualifying. This year tomorrow should be dry so it is not a problem."

Lewis Hamilton is optimistic that McLaren's simulator resources mean it could be in better shape than some rivals as a result of the weather.

"It's been incredibly wet, lots of rivers on the track, with no real benefit bombing around, except trying to find out if the updates were working," he said.

"Everyone is in the same boat, so it's going to be very interesting trying to find the correct set-up in the short space of time we'll have tomorrow.

"Hopefully our simulator has helped us so we are best prepared."

World champion Sebastian Vettel said he felt sympathy for fans who had sat in the rain to see little track action.

"It's a shame when there's so much water, as we'd love to go out on track more, but you can't," he said.

"It's a shame for fans around the track - it's quite windy and probably not so nice out on the grandstands.

"Hopefully they can come back tomorrow with dry clothes and we'll have some sunshine - that's the forecast anyway!

"You can't race in these conditions, as the tyres can't get rid of the water."

Michael Schumacher has been hit with a fine of €2500 for not using the pit-entry road correctly during Friday afternoon practice at Spa.

The Mercedes driver was charged with breaching Appendix L, Chapter IV, Article 4(b) of the FIA International Sporting Code, which covers a driver's conduct when he comes into the pits.

The stewards, which includes ex-March, ATS and Ensign grand prix driver Eliseo Salazar found that Schumacher "did not stay to the right of the bollard on the left in the pit entry" when he drove into the pits with 28 minutes of the session remaining.

But Schumacher escaped any punishment on top of the fine because he was alone on that part of the track at the time.

The stewards' verdict said: "The driver did not enter the pitlane via the pit entry as defined in the race directors' notes to team managers.

"However as no other cars were in the vicinity, the offence is not regarded as dangerous and it did not impede another competitor."

Red Bull boss Christian Horner says Formula 1 'should not be run by accountants', after hitting out at plans for the FIA to get involved in cost control.

As discussions continue for motor racing's governing body to help police F1's Resource Restriction Agreement (RRA) in the future, Horner has issued his most outspoken criticism of the idea yet.

Horner is not against cost controls in F1, but does not believe the RRA is the right means - because of the difficulties in how it restricts activities of both independent teams and manufacturers.

His Red Bull team and Scuderia Toro Rosso have been alone in voting against the FIA's involvement, and without unanimous support the idea cannot proceed for 2013.

A likely delay until 2014 has not gone down well with other teams, but Horner is standing firm in his belief that any implementation of an RRA that involves control of spending is wrong.

"Our feeling is quite simple: F1 should not be run by accountants," he said when asked by AUTOSPORT about the latest developments on the RRA situation.

"It is a sport; and strong sporting and technical regulations are a better way to control costs than audits and examination after an event. It is important not to stifle creativity and ingenuity, but it needs to be done cost effectively.

"We are absolutely as keen as any other team to make sure the costs are controlled within F1, and the cost to be competitive is ideally reduced in F1, but it is our belief that that shouldn't be done through an RRA unless it potentially encompassed the entirety of a car or a corporate entity. But it is impossible to cherry pick elements."

Horner has openly stated several times that his outfit does not support the idea of an RRA that only control chassis costs. He wants similar restrictions placed on engines as well.

Mercedes team principal Ross Brawn said on Friday that the chances of getting the necessary unanimous agreement for 2013 were receding, but that 2014 was still likely.

"It's difficult to see the FIA RRA being introduced next year unless there's unanimous agreement," he explained.

"We believe that you should still follow the policies and principles that have served F1 very well for a number of years - but our feeling is also on that basis, because there was a strong majority, it should be something which can come in for 2014."

When asked what Red Bull's position would be if the RRA went ahead for 2014 – which only needs majority support, Horner said: "It is a discussion that we inevitably have to have. The FIA is quite clear on what Red Bull's position is."

Marussia will run a significant upgrade to its MR01 for the rest of the Belgian Grand Prix weekend despite being unable to gather any data during Friday's two wet free practice sessions at Spa.

The team brought a big package to Belgium, consisting of several new parts including new bridge wings, bodywork and tea tray, exhausts, flick-ups on the rear brake hubs, and a completely new concept rear wing.

It is the second big upgrade Marussia has been able to produce this year using McLaren's windtunnel, as part of its technical agreement with the Woking outfit, and the team hopes it could be worth as much as half a second in race trim.

But Marussia decided not to run some elements of the upgrade during Friday's sessions, including the rear wings, given the lack of information it was likely to gather and the potential for damage.

"It's all part of a package, so unless it's all on the car we're not learning much," team principal John Booth told AUTOSPORT.

"We will definitely run it all tomorrow now. There's no point in not doing so.

"It was a shame we couldn't find out more about them today, and see whether the aero data from the track correlates with what we expect from the upgrade, but hopefully we can find out more in P3."

Marussia's chief race engineer Dave Greenwood added that the latest upgrade was part of a deeper programme of improvement that he expected to pay dividends through the rest of the year.

"I think it's easy sometimes to look at the classification sheet and see the gaps and the positions at the end of the race and not think that there are improvements being made but that's not the case," he said. "But if you look at the underlying pace that's getting a lot better.

"We started the season around 4.5 per cent off the leaders in the race and it's somewhere around 2-2.5 per cent now, so that's a good improvement and going forward that will look even better when we have these upgrades and at the end of the year the gaps will be significantly less."

Friday's press conference:

TEAM REPRESENTATIVES - Paul HEMBERY (Pirelli), David GREENWOOD (Marussia), Mattia Binotto (Ferrari), Ross BRAWN (Mercedes), Paddy LOWE (McLaren).

Q. Paul, are these ideal conditions and temperatures for you at Spa? Seriously, looking at temperatures though, this combination of dry tyres is the same as we had in Malaysia and Monza, which you can imagine would be similar temperatures to each other and this here is pretty cold.

Paul HEMBERY: I think you have a situation here where the temperature can change very rapidly here. We can easily have 25-30 degrees and you can obviously have what we have today 11 degrees and full rain. We do have a limitation on the choices, we have four compounds to choose for the season and sometimes you're maybe a little bit more compromised than you'd like to be. Having said that, the harder tyre will work reasonably well in cooler conditions. If it gets near 15 degrees that will be right at the lower end of the area we'd like to working at. Here the challenge is normally for integrity reasons – the loadings on the tyre, which are our real challenge.

Q. What about the rest of the season? People have talked a great deal about how unpredictable the championship has been. Has there been a policy change? Are you going to stay very much with the way the choice has been so far this year?

PH: Yeah, pretty much so. We're certainly not making any changes to the tyres. Last year we did make a few changes during the season. This year, because it's so close with tenths of a second between the teams, it would be wrong for us to have changed anything because if one team had started then maybe performing better we would have been accused of favouritism. So we've had to leave it. The choices probably going through to the end of the season are pretty logical now and I'm sure the teams will guess what's used.

Q. Have you been happy with the way things have gone so far?

PH: Yes, absolutely. It's been an exciting season. I'm sure the headaches for the technical guys here have been quite big. But the racing's been fun – very interesting. I think we're seeing a pattern emerging now in terms of results.

Q. Dave, have you been happy with your season so far, from the Marussia point of view?

David GREENWOOD: Yeah I mean, obviously from the start of the season we knew we had a long way to improve. That's mainly what we've working on with recent upgrades. I think it's easy sometimes to look at the classification sheet and see the gaps and the positions at the end of the race and not think that there are improvements being made but that's not the case. But if you look at the underlying pace that's getting a lot better. We started the season around 4.5% off the leaders in the race and it's somewhere around 2–2.5% now, so that's a good improvement and going forward that will look even better when we have these upgrades and at the end of the year the gaps will be significantly less.

Q. Now, you've already announced Cosworth continuing for next, plus you'll have KERS next year as well. Are you feeling that's heading in the right direction?

DG: Yeah, I mean one thing this year, obviously we haven't had the KERS. Conscious decision to concentrate on aerodynamics. That's all happening now and we're much happier with progress on aero and correlation to the windtunnel etc. So logical step with 2014 in mind and the new powertrain that's coming along is to take KERS for 2013, get operational and sort of start the next stage of our journey.

Q. Mattia, quick question about Felipe this morning: what was the problem there?

Mattia BINOTTO: Obviously the engine failed. We'll need to analyse it. I don't think we have a clear answer at the moment. The engine was quite close to the end of its life, so it's something that can normally happen on a Friday even if you never expect to have such a problem during a Friday practice session. We have been lucky due to the weather conditions so we have not compromised the programme of Felipe. The engine will be back in Maranello, we expect, next week.

Q. Now, Ferrari are very much developing the V6 already. How difficult is it to work with the current race engines and the new engine?

MB: That is I think the real challenge of the new power unit. Designing it, developing it is quite difficult but having two types of project in parallel, overlapping is quite difficult. From the facilities point of view, at some stage to put the V6 engine means using that dyno for V6 and no more for the V8. It means that all the dynos need at some stage to be transformed from V8 to V6 and you need in terms of scheduling to choose the right moment to do it. We are running the V6, that's correct and in some ways that means we have one less dyno for the V8s, and that will be more and more. So it's really difficult. Moving on the facilities is a real job, in terms of investment, in terms of timing, in terms of schedule. To shorten up that timing is very challenging and very important because each day you gain in that respect will be one more day you can spend on the development of the V6. You need to push on the current season, on the next you can obviously not slow down on your development of the V8 but at some time you have to move to the V6.

Q. And you're also having to manage the use of eight engines in 20 races. How does that work as well?

MB: You need already to create your pool at the start of the season and then you need in some way to decide when to fit a brand new engine in the car and at which race. Normally you make your choice based on what is the power effect, circuit by circuit. So the circuits where the power is more important in terms of lap time you'll fit a new engine. It is normally the case for Belgium and Monza. I'm expecting all the manufacturers will do as we do in some way. Looking at the current situation we have so far used four engines, five for our competitors, which we believe can in some way be an advantage at the end of the season. Fitting new engines in Belgium and Monza means that everybody else will be at seven engine already used and then you need in some way to manage the end of the season. Having a brand new engine compared to an engine having already done one race, it's some horsepower, not a lot, but looking at the power effect it can up to one tenth per lap in qualifying. Knowing that the grid is very short, everything is quite important at the moment.

Q. Nico (Rosberg) was quite interesting recently in saying that both he and the team have learned from the barren patch that you've gone through. Tell us what was learned during that time?

Ross BRAWN: I think our season has in many ways improved over previous years. We've won our first race this year. Michael was fastest in qualifying in Monaco. So, we've had some highlights but we've not been consistent enough. And I think the consistency has been amplified by the closeness of the cars. There's been a few tenths between cars and often a few tenths have been extremely significant. So, I think we're working towards better consistency, both of the car and how we use the tyres. Tyres have been a very interesting challenge this year: the same challenge for all the teams. But getting the most out of the tyres is where we want to improve. I think we still want to... as everyone does, we're fighting hard to make progress with the team. So we strengthened the team considerably last year and the first half of this year and I think we're going to see the benefits of those changes start to feed through into a stronger, competitive position for the future.

Q. Does that translate into a specific aim for the second half of the season?

RB: Well we're still very hard on this year's car, given the rules haven't changed very much for next season. Anything you do this year will be relevant for next year. We have started next year's car, as I think most teams have, but we're not so concerned about continuing the push this year because we know things we run this year can be carried over into next year's car. There's still a strong push this year and there probably will be until the end of the season.

Q. Paddy, I can ask you pretty much the same sort of thing: how do you manage next season and you're still in contention for the championship as well? How much of a juggling act is that?

Paddy LOWE: It's very difficult actually, although in this particular season, as Ross said, it's less difficult than it can be. If you have a big rule change then you're faced with a dilemma as to how much resource you put into the current season relative to the following year. But as Ross says, in this season the rules are very similar in 2013, so most of what you develop now will carry across, so it is easier. We have quite a few teams who would still believe they're in the running for a championship and I think we will see a lot of development carrying on right through for the next two or three months and that will make it tough, because inevitably you do have to put significant effort into next year's car at some point, if only to get it out the door in March.

Q. And yet at the same time we've got four double-headers, just one standalone race, so everything has to be timed presumably for those double-headers and then you get, as you pointed out, three Fridays that have been complete washouts…

PL: Yeah, I mean that doesn't make life easy at all because now, with no in-season testing, what we've grown used to is using Fridays as effectively our tests for all the new parts – very difficult when they're rained off. But it's the same for everybody I guess.

Q. And what are the drivers saying now about the car? What are they looking for mainly?

PL: I think it's the same story we always have: they need balance through the corner and between the high and low speed – and to keep that consistent, that's a matter of getting the best out of the tyres through the various stages of the race. It's the same formula it's always been but I think particularly with the tyres this year, that has proved to be very difficult.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q. (Dieter Rencken – The Citizen) Ross, I believe after the last race the FIA circulated a multiple-choice proposal about the RRA. With entries closing on the 30th September, with it being effectively a month away, what's your prognosis of the situation?

RB: We've always been strong supporters of RRA. We're also strong supporters that there should be correct procedures and policies followed in Formula 1, so on that basis, the existing Concorde Agreement, it's difficult to see the FIA RRA being introduced next year unless there's unanimous agreement. We believe you should still follow the policies and principles that have served Formula 1 very well for a number of years – but our feeling is also on that basis, because there was a strong majority, that it should be something which can come in for 2014, the FIA-policed RRA. Because we have an RRA at the moment but it's an inter-team agreement and probably we'd like to see some more strength in terms of the application of the RRA, some more consistency between all the teams on how it's interpreted and I think that's the next step we have to make with the resource restriction.

Q. (Oana Popoiu - F1 Zone) Question for both Ross and Paul: what is the connection between the Mercedes engine and the degradation of the tyres? How does the characteristics of the engine influence that?

RB: I think any engine, whether it's Renault, Ferrari, Mercedes or Cosworth, can have an influence on the tyre's behaviour and tyre degradation and every team in the pitlane is looking at their setting-up on the engine, the tuning of the engine that we're allowed to do during a weekend to make the best of that. I don't think there's any evidence we're in a more difficult or better position than anyone else. I think undoubtedly the more power you try to deliver, the more stress you put on the tyres, so it's a balancing act at always. But I don't think we have any unique issues – but it is a challenge for all the engine engineers – and Mattia can probably comment with more experience than I can – but you're always seeking over the race weekend to find the best setup of the engine as well as the chassis. Hot track, high temperatures is where you can feel perhaps the most sensitivity to the engine characteristics.

Q. Mattia, would you like to comment on that?

MB: It seems that Ross already commented. Mainly it's very difficult to work on the engine in some way to improve the durability of the tyres. Setup-wise you can do a lot more [with] mechanical grip of the car itself. We can try to help: we do it by fine-tuning and calibrating the mapping but at the end, the things you can do from the mechanical parts of the car are a lot more important that what you can do with the engine.

Q. Paul, anything to add?

PH: Not really anything to add to that.

Q. (Pierre Van Vliet – F1i) Question for Paul. A couple of months ago your test team came here to test the 2013 tyres, I believe. Do you plan any other tests this year and what about the future? Because I read somewhere that you consider the Renault you are using is becoming a bit obsolete now.

PH: We have some more testing planned, yes. When we were here we had much better weather than we've got here now, so it was a very useful session. We were meant to have been at Monza at the beginning of August, but unfortunately for some reason we weren't able to test – but we are going to Barcelona in a few days. So we do have a number of sessions still planned before the end of the season. The Renault car that we're using has been extremely good, very reliable. Going forward it depends of course whether we're going to be in the sport beyond the end of our contract – because anything we did next year would be related to cars for 2014, not 2013. And also, probably the Renault is the right level of car going forward, because the cars of last season were quite substantially different. So, at the moment we're happy with what we've been doing with the test plan. Very reliable, good engineering support and we've been able to achieve what we want – so at the moment we're happy.

Q. (Stephane Barbé – L'Equipe) Ross, 300 GPs for Michael [schumacher]. You've been alongside for most of them – can we have your comments? And also, has Michael been still able to surprise you over the past two years, compared to the previous times?

RB: I've been very fortunate to be a part of Michael's racing career in Formula 1. It's been… there's so many records that Michael has established that will be extremely difficult for anyone to match. It may happen one day, as with all records. But quite the exceptional performance, quite an iconic performance that, as I say, is going to be extremely difficult to match. I've been privileged to see most of those race wins. And I think Michael's achieved it, not just from his raw ability – which of course is exceptional – but from his attitude and his approach. Being part of a team he's always been very committed, and enjoys being part of a team. So, he understand that part of it. And that's why I think he achieves such consistently good results because he was able to motivate and incentivise the whole team to achieve the results, not just for him but for the other car as well. So I think he's been the most – in my view – the most complete racing driver of my generation. Does he still surprise us? Of course he does. In Monaco he was the fastest driver in qualifying. It's a shame that because of the penalty he wasn't on the front row. So he's still producing exceptional performances and still a privilege to work with.

Q. (Sven Haidinger – Sport Woche) I have a question for Ross concerning your Ferrari era. It was a time you were very successful and that success was very much based on the testing and the tyres. At that time McLaren already focussed very much on simulation and that turned out to be weakness of Ferrari recently – was it on your agenda that Ferrari has to improve in that area at the end of your time at Ferrari – or wasn't it a big topic at Ferrari?

RB: I think Formula 1 does evolve in different directions to suit circumstances. It's possibly correct that we had a very heavy commitment to testing when I was there. We had two test tracks of our own and of course we focussed on the most effective way of improving the performance of the car. Which for us during that period was intensive testing. Also, there were a lot of battles between the tyre companies and that needed track testing. If we had… all the stuff Paul's finding out, it's pretty challenging to develop the tyres without every car in the pitlane out there testing them. I think if we had a tyre war at the moment, that would be very, very difficult without track testing. But I think we also recognise, the period I was at Ferrari, the need for modelling, simulation – and the driver simulator is only a portion of all the simulation that's going on within the team, it's obviously an important part because it does involve the driver – but there's a huge amount of simulation going on in aerodynamics, in the mechanical behaviour of the car. And all of those things I believe that my time there, Ferrari were pretty strong. And, the driver in the loop simulator was something we were starting to look at, and I think most teams are in a pretty good position now with that sort of technology.

Q. (Luigi Perna - La Gazzetta dello Sport) Two questions to Mattia Binotto: first of all, at what stage is Ferrari in developing the new V6 engine, and how much can it influence the performance of the car aerodynamically in 2014?

MB: So, at what stage are with the V6? We are on plan, our plans. We don't know what that means to the others. In Formula 1, it's always a matter of being better than the others and not being good in absolute. We are on schedule in that respect. We are happy. Each day there is something new to be learned. 2014 is just around the corner, so in some ways it's really difficult, very challenging and we cannot be happy at the stage that we are. We are pushing every day, trying to do more than what we are doing at the moment because we know that 2014 is nearly here. At this stage of development we are quite worried because you don't really know what will be the latest stage of your engine. It's really early days. You are mapping it, you are trying to know it better than what was on the paper at the very start but as well, in terms of reliability, I think it's an entire work that needs, in some ways, to be understood. We are pushing, we are on time, we are on schedule but it's never enough. In Formula 1, you cannot be satisfied, you can never be satisfied. In terms of aero, I think it will in some ways modify the car. I think that my friends beside me are more expert than me, but the power unit is quite different to what we had so in terms of layout and architecture it's quite different. It will have big implications for the gearbox as well and I think that even now, maybe we have not chosen what will be the final architecture of the new engines. As well, in that respect, we are still developing.

Q. (Tom Clarkson - Tom Clarkson and Assocs) As a follow-up to the earlier question about Michael's 300th Grand Prix, Ross, were you here in 1992 when Michael won his first race and if you were, what are your memories of that weekend?

RB: Er, yes, I was here. I think it was a mixed weather race from memory. Again, it's completeness that I think Michael has a racing driver, his ability to make the most out of those mixed conditions. I think his ability to work with the team, to come to the right decisions from the pitwall on what to do with strategy, what to do with tyres and giving you the information, giving you the pointers that you need to help come to a conclusion. Yeah, I think those first few race wins that Michael had were probably opportunist wins in the sense that we perhaps weren't the fastest car on the day but he managed to put it all together in difficult circumstances. Then of course as the car improved and we were able to give him a better car then the wins became more consistent.

Q. (Tom Clarkson - Tom Clarkson and Assocs) Could you just elaborate more about the B192, its strengths, weaknesses, what it was like to work on?

RB: I'm getting old now. I think most of the people up here would know that you forget your car almost as soon as you stop racing it and get on with the next one so I can't remember that well quite frankly, but obviously it was the start of my working with Michael, working with Rory Byrne and the start of that era that started at Benetton and then continued at Ferrari. Each year is an evolution when you stay together like that. When you stay together as engineers, when you stay together as drivers then you evolve well, I think, from year to year. I can't remember the B192 specification but it obviously wasn't a bad car but not as good as the cars we were able to do after that.

Q. (Tom Clarkson - Tom Clarkson and Assocs) And the fact that Michael was so quick in that car and is still quick today, just talk us through the versatility of the man who's been able to drive both?

RB: I think it relates to what I said about variable conditions. Michael looks to get the most out of every situation. He's extremely competitive and obviously hugely talented, so it's not looking upon those situations as a problem, it's looking upon those situations as an opportunity. When those situations get difficult, then how can you get the most out of them, how can you extract a result from that, get a race win? I think Michael stated this as one of if not his best favoured track and he's had some sensational results here. I think it is that all-round ability and most importantly consistency. You can count on less than one hand or one hand the number of bad races that Michael has over a season and there's not many drivers who can say that.

Q. (Michael Doodson - Honorary) Ross, you just spoke most eloquently about Michael's ability to incentivise a team but only yesterday Michael himself told us, rather surprisingly, that the lack of reliability that he's had this year, was no big deal for him. This suggests to me that perhaps he's rather less ambitious now than he once was. I wonder if this is going to affect your decision about whether or not to re-employ him next year?

RB: I think you need to separate the opinions Michael gives to the media and the opinions he gives to the team. They are sometimes quite different. Michael's tough, Michael's very demanding in terms of within the team, but he does that in a very positive way. He demands things of the team and he commits himself to the team in return, but that's not something Michael shares outside of the team. As I say, he's a good team member so when we do have a problem, Michael's as disappointed as any of us, perhaps more so and will express that disappointment. But quite honestly he doesn't express that to the media because that's not part of being a team. It's as simple as that really.

Q. (Sven Haidinger - Sport Woche) Ross, you know this year's Mercedes car very well; where do you see its biggest weakness and where do you have to improve the most to be fighting for the championship next year?

RB: It is very close this year. A few tenths seem to make a huge difference. Sometimes we've had qualifying where there is a very small amount between the whole top ten so small differences are pretty significant this year. We've had some good races with the car and some more difficult races. I think the more difficult races - for instance the most recent one was Hungary, we struggled with the balance. Paddy mentioned about what you try to seek with a racing car and it's balance, consistency of balance through a corner: entry, middle, exit. We've been struggling a little bit to find the right balance that also gives the consistency we need with the tyres so we can get consistency with the tyres, but then we don't have the quickest balance, the quickest car. When we have perhaps the balance we need for the quickest time then we perhaps struggle with the consistency of the tyres so it's just finding that... yeah, optimising the car around that has been difficult. We've got ideas, we've got our theories and views on what we need to do with the car and some of those will be implemented this year in order to understand what we need to do for next year's car. But it is this question of finding consistency of balance against tyre consistency and tyre durability. I think at the beginning of the year we had a very quick car but we were damaging the tyres too much. As we've improved our usage of the tyres, we haven't necessarily taken the performance forward and that is what we're focusing on now. But these challenges, these aspects of the car are what all of us here faced, it's what we're fighting all the time. Sometimes your car becomes a reference point; with no changes, after a period, it's not quick enough, because other people have improved, so it's a constantly moving target.

Q. (Andrea Cremonesi - La Gazzetta dello Sport) For all three at the front, it's a question about the V6 engine. The V6 is on the dyno for everybody. With the current test situation, not being allowed to do any testing; what will happen? Are you discussing a new open session just for the V6 and is it a possibility to put the new engine in this year's car or next year's car for some testing?

PL: There have been a lot of discussions about whether we might make what is called a mule car to run the new engine next year. It's very expensive to make a mule car, especially when we have other programmes running as well, not just expensive in money but in terms of the people you need to design it. We talked earlier about the challenge between different seasons; then you're adding a new challenge. Actually, most of the teams are agreeing that we will not have mule cars. The regulations wouldn't currently make a mule car of any benefit anyway but we're not agreeing to introduce any new test sessions that would use mule cars. So then the question is: can we enter a new season with a new power unit, without that track testing? That will place great reliance on the laboratory testing, using dynos, transient dynos. I think that compared to previous points in time when new power trains were introduced the technology is far more sophisticated now in the lab, so I think generally the manufacturers and the teams are feeling that it is realistic to bring in these new power units without needing to introduce special cars to get that earlier learning. But we will see. As we get closer to the time and the fear builds, maybe different agreements will be reached but at the moment, that seems to be the consensus. Ross, I don't know if you have some comments on that.

RB: I think Mattia should answer this one as well.

MB: It's clear that from an engine point of view we are very keen to run the new power unit earlier because what you can find on a car is never equal to what you can find on the dyno: all the dynamics of the car, gearchanges, running on bumps, whatever, is quite different to the dyno itself so we are all afraid that by the start of the season you find out that you have a big issue with the engine and the power unit, and you have no time to sort it out. On the other hand, I think it's very equal for all the manufacturers so whatever will be the decision, and it will be the decision of the teams, we have to accept it and we will try to do our best from that.

RB: I think the points have been expressed absolutely correctly. I think the only point I would add that rather like Paul is doing now with testing of the tyres, he's using an old car to test the tyres and my understanding is that there's nothing to stop a team testing an engine with an old car if they want to. Whether that is the most effective thing to do is a different matter, because it's a huge resource to do that and as Paddy said, there's a lot of improved technologies there since we last introduced a new engine. We have lots of ways of trying to understand the engine and the complete power train and the systems will work together, so I think there's going to be a lot of laboratory work but I think a team can chose to use an old car and put the engine in it, but it's a pretty massive programme.

Q. (Ben Edwards - BBC Sport) Paul, some teams did have issues with blistering here last year. I just wondered if you could just run through what Pirelli have done to look at that and what the teams have been asked to do in terms of that as well?

PH: Yeah, we've obviously got a similar issue to last year, in that we haven't been doing any running today in the dry so replicating what happened last year there's always that risk that the teams don't have a chance to run at what is a very very difficult track for the tyres. Here we've made some slight changes. We've got a slightly thinner tread to reduce the material in the shoulder area which is subject to blistering, reduce the camber levels for the front tyres. We ran here earlier, as I said, in testing and that seemed to give us a positive result so if we get some dry weather we will see.

Q. (Paolo Ianieri - La Gazzetta dello Sport) Ross, there are rumours of Mercedes thinking of quitting the team and AMG becoming the owner of the Formula 1 team. Can you say something about that?

RB: We don't comment on rumours as you know but we're very committed to succeeding in Formula 1 and the level of commitment that's being made in the team is indicative of what we want to achieve. As I say, we don't comment on rumours but Mercedes has been in Formula 1 for a long time through good years, through bad years and we're committed to succeeding.

Q. (Kate Walker - Girl Racer) I'm not sure to what extent this follows on from what you were saying about mule cars, Paddy, but in light of the WEC (World Endurance Championship) rules, is anyone tempted to put some bodywork on an F1 car and try testing your engines at Le Mans?

RB: I think it's a good incentive because obviously it's a huge investment in a new engine and I think the technologies on this new engine are exciting and much more relevant now than the engine we have. I think it's great that the initiative is carrying through into different forms of racing but I don't think any of us would be ready to undertake such a programme plus obviously the needs for an endurance engine can be a little bit different to an F1 engine, although we do have to make the engines last longer again than at the present time so we are moving in that direction, but I think the idea of having a cross-usage of the engine in different categories is very good and could certainly help with the investment that's needed in new powertrains.

Q. Has that been mooted at all with either McLaren or Ferrari?

PL: No, I haven't come across that idea before, but as Ross says, I think the point of the new power unit in Formula 1 is that it's supposed to introduce a technology which is relevant to the automotive manufacturers. It is a positive direction, so if that is the case, then it must also be true for any other form of motor sport so if we can find ways of using the same power unit in other formulae then that must be a great idea.

[hugobomb]

Bye Bye Nico. He must be furious with the team for telling him to back off for extra space and thus missing the flag

[hugobomb]

Jesus that was quick from Button there

[Katsuya]

KAMUIIIII

[MJB]

Pastor Maldonado has been given a three place grid penalty for tomorrow after blocking Nico Hulkenberg during qualifying.

Button, Kobayashi, Raikkonen, Perez, Alonso, Maldonado, Hamilton, Grosjean, Di Resta and Vettel completes the Top 10.

[Katsuya]

Sauber or Lotus to win please?

[Sam]

Going by qualifying I would be surprised not to see Button dominate it, he just looked a cut above today.

[MJB]

The race will be so different though. Qualifying really doesn't mean too much around Spa. The two Red Bull's are still in with a shout, even from 10th and 12th.

[Fry_4000]

Sauber or Lotus to win please?

A Kamui victory would be awesome.

[Katsuya]

Kimi either wins or crashes at Spa, so there's that.

I have a feeling it might end up being a bit like Raikkonen-Fisichella back in 2009 actually. Kimi has double DRS where he had KERS in 2009, which was let him beat Fisi in the quicker car. On paper, Jenson and Kamui (even Perez, in all likelihood) might be quicker but Kimi might have the advantage.

[Lineker]

[Lineker]

I LOVE this feature on the old Spa. Looks awesome!

Also it's really amazing that today is only Button's first ever pole for McLaren.

[Fry_4000]

Mayhem start. so much for a sauber win

Edited September 2, 2012 by Fry_4000

[Sam]

Going by qualifying I would be surprised not to see Button dominate it, he just looked a cut above today.

Booyah prediction correct , even without the big shunt I really don't think anybody could have come close to him today.