Coulthard - I quit F1 one season too soon

Jun.29 (GMM) David Coulthard believes he might have quit formula one at least a season too soon. The Scot, 38, contested nearly 250 races over 17 seasons, before retiring at the end of 2008.

Turkish GP Review: Red Bull

Mark Webber drove to a brilliant second place in Istanbul, having started fourth, with Sebastian Vettel finishing right behind him in third for the team to come away with 14 points in total.

Coulthard defends 'honest' Hamilton

Jun.7 (GMM) David Coulthard has defended Lewis Hamilton, after the reigning world champion qualified 16th in Turkey and then wrote off his 2009 campaign and car.

Red Bull still wants new engine manufacturer

Jul.7 (GMM) Even at the apparent conclusion of the FIA-FOTA war, it seems Red Bull is still on the market for a new formula one engine supplier for 2010.

German GP Friday Review: Red Bull

Morning session: Mark Webber (1st) 1:33.082 19 laps; Sebastian Vettel (8th) 1:33.909 13 laps. Afternoon session: Sebastian Vettel (2nd) 1:32.331 31 laps; Mark Webber (4th) 1:32.480 28 laps.

Joy for Mark Webber in qualifying

• Webber scores first pole of career• Resurgent Hamilton will start fifthThe old 14-mile long Nürburgring Nordschleife long ago entered the motor racing history books as the stuff of legends, so when, in 1984, the sanitised new, current circuit was opened many hard-liners were left simply aghast that the old track's memory was being sullied by its replacement with such a sterile facility.Yet somehow this weekend, the ascetic new Nürburgring seemed strangely in tune with the tortured times of the sport. In contemporary Formula One, money talks even more than driving genius or engineering excellence, but the 2009 German Grand Prix might yet be remembered as the day the sport's commercial madness was laid to rest and the foundations were put down for a sane new future.A glance down the timing sheets offered little insight into the real story. At the end of a qualifying session rendered tantalisingly unpredictable by a succession of intermittent rain showers, Mark Webber stormed his Red Bull-Renault to the first pole position of his 128-race career, edging out the Brawn-Mercedes duo, Rubens Barrichello and Jenson Button, while local star Sebastian Vettel could manage only fourth ahead of the resurgent McLaren-Mercedes pair, Lewis Hamilton and Heikki Kovalainen.Webber, a huge paddock favourite, could hardly contain his delight. "This is a very special day for me," said the 32-year-old. "I've been close to getting pole a few times in the past. It was very, very chaotic and to deliver the lap time when it absolutely counted was very important to me."We have been quick all weekend and I hope that it can be my first win tomorrow. Obviously these guys [Barrichello and Button] have had a very strong season and will push us, but I'm looking forward to a fight. I'm certainly up for trying to take the first win of my career."As for Button, third place was perhaps a little less than the world championship leader had been hoping for, but in terms of the strategic imperative to keep the upper hand over championship rival Vettel, he was certainly satisfied."Just getting into the final qualifying session was an achievement today," he said. "It was a pretty eventful hour and the second stint in particular was madness, but it was good fun. I thought it was too wet for slicks, but Rubens made it work and we were able to switch tyres with just enough time to make my own timed lap count."McLaren came into the weekend feeling that at last there was light at the end of the tunnel as far as the development of their troublesome MP4-24 was concerned. Hamilton's car was fitted with a new front wing and revised upper bodywork for Friday free practice, and a second new front wing was fitted to Kovalainen's car on Friday evening. In the end, the reigning world champion counted himself satisfied to have made it into the top 10."If it stays dry tomorrow, then we will definitely be in a good position," said Hamilton, "and we can shoot for the podium. We could even fight the Red Bulls. I think it will probably be wet, though. For Heikki and I to be in the top 10, that's all down to the work done back at the factory. It has made a huge difference."Yet that most pressing of agendas was being hammered out behind the smoked-glass windows of the lavish team motorhomes that lined the paddock. At the end of a week that had seen a rash of provocative exchanges between Max Mosley, the FIA president, and the eight-strong membership of the Formula One Teams' Association, over the future of the F1 world championship, it emerged that there had been a seismic shift in the balance of power within the motor racing community.Having started the weekend as the masters of their high-octane universe, Bernie Ecclestone and Mosley were reduced to the role of bit-part players as the realisation dawned that the sport's most pressing priority was servicing the $2.8bn bond that had been launched in 2007 by investors CVC Capital Partners to buy a stake in Ecclestone's F1 business.The only source of income available to service this debt is the future race and TV fees generated by the competing teams – and those teams had made it clear they had no intention of sticking around to be dictated to by an FIA under Mosley's stewardship. By this morning it was clear that time had run out for Mosley when Ari Vatanen, the 1981 world rally champion and a former member of the European parliament, arrived in the paddock to be greeted by a staged photocall shaking hands with Ecclestone.Of course, it is still possible that Mosley, or his approved nominee, the former Ferrari team principal Jean Todt, will offer themselves as candidates for the FIA presidential election in October. But Ecclestone's tacit endorsement of Vatanen – who proclaimed himself intent on restoring the governing body's somewhat tarnished reputation – renders this an unlikely dawn.Formula 1 has for too long been a cash cow milked dry by vested interests. If it is to survive and prosper, it needs a little breathing space in which to catch its breath.Formula OneRed BullLewis HamiltonJenson ButtonBrawnMcLarenMotor sportguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds