No penalty for Alonso engine swap

teamcar - Renault on Friday confirmed reports that championship leader Fernando Alonso's 'd' specification of V8 engine was changed prior to practice at Brazil.

Head of engine operations Denis Chevrier said the unit now residing the rear of the Spaniard's racer at Interlagos was originally fitted to the t-car.

He said: "The latest results of our dyno testing in Viry indicated it offered us the optimum performance-reliability compromise. This unit functioned faultlessly today, as did the E specification engine in Giancarlo (Fisichella)'s car.

The engine change does not incur a penalty because it was completed before he turned a lap in Sao Paulo. He was tenth quickest in the decisive second session.

Alex Wurz sets the Friday pace

teamcar - The teams permitted to run third drivers dominated the Friday afternoon practice session today at Interlagos. Free of such concerns such as tyre preservation and engine mileage restrictions, it was Alex Wurz who set the pace for Williams Cosworth with a best lap of 1:12.547s, over a second faster than Kimi Raikkonen’s morning best.

With Wurz out front in what may well be the final race in F1 for Cosworth, Anthony Davidson was very busy on his Honda as he completed some 37 timed laps and took the second fastest time. Sebastian Vettel was third fastest in his BMW Sauber.

Jarno Trulli was the fastest race driver which will be of encouragement to the Toyota team after their rather low-key home race at Suzuka last time out. Trulli set a best time of 1:13.483s to pip Honda’s Jenson Button by just two-thousandths of a second.

Michael Schumacher set the sixth fastest time and like fellow racers will have opted to use just one set of tyres in Friday practice. Schumacher was 1.1 seconds off the ultimate pace, but being Friday practice, this in reality means almost nothing. Perhaps more significantly was the pace of Felipe Massa in the sister 248 F1.

Sporting green and yellow overall for his home event at Interlagos, Massa found himself just 17th as the chequered flag flew. There is undoubtedly more pace to come from the Turkish Grand Prix winner.

Renault man says dirty tricks unlikely

teamcar - Renault's engine chief Denis Chevrier has played down reports that Michael Schumacher might revert to 'dirty tricks' to win the World Championship.With the Ferrari racer basically needing Fernando Alonso to retire from the Brazilian Grand Prix a week Sunday, it has been suggested by some that Schumacher could repeat past indiscretions such as those at Adelaide in 1994, or at Jerez in 1997.

"No, I can't see it," Chevrier, who has been involved in F1 throughout Schumacher's sixteen year career, said.

"I am sure it will be a clean fight, particularly because Ferrari need both cars to finish for the constructors' championship."

Green light for 2007 Belgian Grand Prix

teamcar - The Belgian Grand Prix, axed from this year's Formula One calendar, will definitely return to the historic Spa-Francorchamps circuit in 2007, it was confirmed Wednesday.The classic race's comeback was assured after the signing of a contract between Formula One Supremo Bernie Ecclestone and the race's new management team, the local regional government announced.

It is due to be staged on September 16 by the Spa-Grand Prix company which succeeded DDF1, whose bankruptcy led to the cancelling of this season's race. Ecclestone gave his go-ahead after Spa-Grand Prix agreed to carry out major renovation to improve the track's infrastructure at an estimated cost of 40 million euros.As to the Belgian GP's future after 2007 there are three options on the table.

The first sees Spa-Grand Prix remain as organisers for 2008. The second involves the regional government severing Belgium's links with F1 altogether and paying Ecclestone 18m euros in compensation. The third scenario hands Ecclestone full control for the 2008, 2009 and 2010 editions and receiving 18million pounds in compensation.

Ferrari fastest again at Jerez

teamcar - Testing continued at Jerez on October 11th with nine drivers from five teams at the Spanish track. For the second day in a row Ferrari topped the times, Michael Schumacher's best a 1:16.225 and tester Luca Badoer was a second behind. Schumacher worked on tyres and Badoer focused mainly on new components for next season.

Robert Kubica was third on the time sheet for BMW Sauber and had a busy day working with chassis 06 and chassis 07. He completed 121 laps, and worked on tyres and transmission in chassis 06 and parts for next year in 07. He will continue on Thursday and will again use both chassis in preparation for Brazil.

McLaren had Pedro de la Rosa and youngster Lewis Hamilton on duty, fourth and sixth respectively. Set up and tyres for Brazil were their focus as well as development work for 2007. Speculation suggests that this test is to measure de la Rosa and Hamilton against each other for the second race seat at Interlagos, although McLaren has denied that is the case.

Test driver Ricardo Zonta was the lead Toyota in fifth and fellow team tester Olivier Panis was eighth. The former worked on tyres and the latter followed a data collection programme. The team reported no particular problems and the two drivers will be back on track tomorrow to carry out tyre tests for Brazil.

Schumacher focused on constructors' title

teamcar - It's not over until it's over, as they say, but while Michael Schumacher could still win the drivers' title in Brazil he feels his chances are unrealistic and is now focused on the constructors' championship. Rival Fernando Alonso took advantage of Schumacher's engine failure at Suzuka and won the race, putting a 10 point gap between himself and the German and an equal number of race wins.

For Schumacher to claim his eighth title he has to win in Brazil and have Alonso not score. It could happen -- Alonso had an engine failure at Monza and Schumacher went on to take the victory but even if Schumacher wins at Interlagos, Alonso just needs one point to retain his crown. Both Ferrari and Renault have suffered failures but in general they are very reliable so the ball seems to be in Alonso's court.

Schumacher weathered the premature end of his race at Suzuka with notable grace. "Defeats like this are part of Formula One as in life," he said. "It is no-one's fault. We have all worked incredibly hard over the past months. We managed to turn around a championship that seemed hopeless, especially in the light of the poor 2005 season."