WATCH: When Brundle met Rosberg

Martin Brundle sat down with Nico Rosberg to discuss a host of topics including his title battle with Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton.
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Halo delay: The Formula 1 drivers' verdicts

Formula 1 drivers have been split in their reaction to the decision to postpone the introduction of the halo head protection device to 2018
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Verstappen: Maybe I’ll buy Kimi an ice cream

Red Bull ace Max Verstappen says he is not fazed by the furore surrounding his recent on-track battle with Kimi Raikkonen in Hungary.

Although the FIA didn’t penalise him, F1 veteran Raikkonen complained vociferously about the Dutch teenager having moved in the braking zone.

“Kimi doesn’t say much but when he does, he usually has a point,” world champion Lewis Hamilton said at Hockenheim and most of the rest of the grid agrees too.

“I think all of the drivers are against what Max did,” Verstappen’s former Toro Rosso teammate Carlos Sainz is quoted by the Spanish sports daily Marca.

“Because we say that doesn’t mean we’ve never done it or been tempted but I think it shouldn’t be allowed because it’s very dangerous,” he added.

18-year-old Verstappen, however, says he hasn’t talked the incident over with the Ferrari driver.

“No, it was not necessary,” he told Stuttgarter Nachrichten newspaper at Hockenheim.

But when told about the widespread criticism by his racing colleagues, Verstappen added: “The stewards had all the information and did nothing. So everything was ok.

“Also, I have to say that we’re racing in Formula 1, not doing some sort of Sunday drive where you say ‘Oh you’re faster so I’ll let you pass’.”

So when asked if a gesture to Raikkonen was necessary, Verstappen joked to the Finnish broadcaster MTV: “Maybe I’ll buy him an ice cream. We can have an ice cream together. I think he likes them, and so do I.”

Finally, Verstappen was asked why his famous father Jos is now only rarely seen at grands prix.

Max answered: “My career seems to be in the right direction, so I think he has done his main job in bringing me to F1.

“He also has a family and a home and at some point I have to go my own way.”

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Lauda: We need to end this under investigation craze

Formula 1’s top teams are pleading with race director Charlie Whiting to ease the over regulation of tyhe sport which is serving only confuse and alienate fans.

“F1 needs more easily understood rules so that what people watch on TV corresponds to reality. We can no longer keep changing the outcome as we go. It’s a serious mistake,” F1 legend and Mercedes team chairman Niki Lauda told Brazil’s Globo Esporte.

“We need to end this ‘under investigation’ for every moment we see,” said Lauda. “Like the stupid situation in Budapest, where six hours after qualifying we didn’t know if Nico (Rosberg) was really on pole. How do we explain all this to the viewer? It’s crazy.”

In Thursday’s Strategy Group meeting, officials for Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull thought they had made progress when it comes to not always penalising drivers for simply putting wheels over the lined extremities of the track.

But then in Friday practice at Hockenheim, the FIA’s Whiting was once again strictly enforcing so-called ‘track limits’.

“We all asked Charlie to stop this thing of punishing a driver for being a few centimetres over a line,” Lauda insisted.

“We said seeing drivers pushing is spectacular and good for F1. Charlie said he didn’t agree but would meet our request, but it wasn’t true,” he added.

Indeed, there are suggestions other top teams are similarly losing patience with the ever strict and constantly changing rules of F1, with Ferrari and Red Bull also backing Lauda and Mercedes.

 

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Alonso: I’ve already given up… in each race rules change

Double F1 World Champion Fernando Alonso has revealed he has “given up” trying to follow the complex and ever-changing F1 rules.

He is apparently referring to yellow flag rule changes, the on again, off-again radio clampdown, rules for moving in the braking zone, and ‘track limits’, all of which have been hotly debated in the Hockenheim paddock.

Asked if he will be contributing to those debates, the Spaniard was quoted by Spanish reporters as answering: “No, I’ve already given up. In each race things change, so now I just say ‘tell me what to do’ and I do it, that’s it.”

‘Track limits’, for instance, is a constantly controversial topic with only some corners strictly policed in different ways around the calendar.

Alonso said: “Today it’s this, tomorrow it could be another so I will ask the team what I have to do each time.

“In every race things change: we’re now going back to the (radio) rules of a year ago because they tried to make it super-spectacular but nothing changed or it was even worse.

“When it’s time for qualifying I will ask what I have to do so I don’t waste my time,” he added.

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Magnussen: No one has a contract with Renault for 2017

Kevin Magnussen has called reports that he will leave Renault at the end of the season “annoying”.

Two respected British media outlets, including the magazine F1 Racing, are claiming that the Dane as well as Jolyon Palmer will lose their places at the Renault works team.

It is rumoured Esteban Ocon and Sergio Perez are first in line for the seats, but the Danish newspaper BT quoted Magnussen as calling that speculation “annoying”.

“I think I’m working hard and doing a good job so there is probably no reason to worry,” he added. “And in comparison with Palmer I have had a clear advantage through the first half of the season.”

So Magnussen, 23, played down the apparent seriousness of the situation.

“From a timing point of view it’s not so bad because I’ve been through it before,” he said. “The only thing I can say for sure is that at the moment no one has a signed contract with Renault for 2017,” he added.

BT correspondent Peter Nygaard also said it is not time for Magnussen to panic.

“It is clear that Renault is in no hurry,” he said. “If they want him, they can take up the option when they have to and still look around at the (other) drivers.

“It’s a frustrating situation for Kevin and a repeat of what happened to him in 2014, but fortunately for him he is a much more mature person and driver than he was at McLaren,” Nygaard added.

Asked if he is surprised Magnussen’s career is once again under a cloud, he answered: “No, this is formula one.

“There are 22 seats and I think 12 of them are drivers with much more money than Kevin. So there are 10 left and it’s the eternal battle,” Nygaard said.

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Big row brewing over controversial Halo decision

A big controversy is brewing over Formula 1’s cockpit protection concept ‘Halo’, after the teams and FIA agreed to delay its introduction until 2018.

It has infuriated GPDA president Alex Wurz, after F1 race director Charlie Whiting announced that the system needs more testing and development time.

“Just one week ago the FIA safety experts presented this solution as the most researched safety device ever and said that it is ready to go, so maybe we have a communication problem between here and there,” he is quoted by the Morning Star.

“I am surprised by the decision and I dearly hope it is not one that one day we will all come to bitterly regret.”

The issue has also split the drivers, with the likes of Sebastian Vettel and Jenson Button having strongly criticised Jolyon Palmer for suggesting that Halo is not almost universally liked among the driver camp.

“If you ask the drivers, there’s still a large number that are against it,” said Palmer. “I’m not lying.”

One suggestion, however, is that Halo was delayed because retractable technology that could do the same job but not visually change the ‘DNA’ of F1 could be just down the road.

F1 race director Charlie Whiting played down those claims, “I think it would be wholly impractical, personally. I think it is better to continue down that path (Halo) and not try to do something completely new that might need another three years of development.”

Whiting said ‘Halo’ offers better visibility than, say, a Le Mans prototype, but admitted that in a recent test, Red Bull tester Pierre Gasly talked about being “claustrophobic”.

“I think it would be very difficult to roll these things out at the beginning of the year and then find you’ve got a fundamental visibility problem,” said Whiting.

“What we are looking to do is make it clear that every driver has to try it for a whole free practice session during the course of this year,” he added.

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