Hispania HRT F1’s decision to drop Karun Chandhok surprised many, but many had also expected it. Its no secret that India and Indians are primarily looked as a source of funds by the various formula one teams as well as the FIA itself. The only reason for offering Narain Karthikeyan a seat for racing was that he had the dollars of Indian multinationals behind him, same is the case with Chandhok. Unfortunately , it looks like he shall also suffer the same fate as Narain. Narain was kicked out when his sponsorship dropped.

Thats the problem with these lower rung teams, they don’t hire the drivers for their skills, just for the amount of money they bring in.

For those who are a little out of touch, earlier Bruno Senna had been dropped to make way for Sakun Yamamoto, however now Senna has his seat back and its time to kick Karun out of the picture.

Meanwhile Chandhok has expressed hope that he will race again :

“I expect to be back for races later in the year,” Chandhok was quoted 

“At the moment we are talking only about Hockenheim but with four drivers and two cars, it is probably inevitable I will miss some more races.

“I came into this team looking to establish myself as a credible, respectable formula one driver and I’ve done that.” said the Indian

Lewis Hamilton was out once again giving interviews which some may call as controversial. At Sunday’s British Grand Prix, Mark Webber was not happy that his wing was given to teammate Sebastien Vettel for qualifying. Using that very same wing Vettel beat Webber.

Lewis Hamilton added oil to the fire :

“I can imagine how Mark feels. If that was me, jeez! When you’re in a team that you love, all you want to do is to be loved back,” Lewis Hamilton was quoted.

“At least with the guys that we’re mainly competing with we have more harmony in our team. That’s why we’re leading both championships.

“We’ve got two weeks to work on our upgrades before the next Grand Prix and then we should be looking pretty strong. We just have to keep on pushing as this world championship is still all to play for,” The Brit Hamilton added.

In a sensational accusation Ferrari driver Fernando Alonso has gone onto say that the result of this weekend’s European Grand Prix was fixed. He was ofcourse referring to the Lewis Hamilton incident with the safety car which saw the Brit illegally overtake the safety car to get a better position.

On lap 10 after pitting Hamilton came out from the pits just behind the Safety car which had been deployed after Mark Webber’s accident. Fernando Alonso was right behind. While Alonso respected the rules, Hamilton quickly overtook the safety car. the end result was that despite being a few meters from each other Lewis Hamilton came 2nd and Feranndo Alonso came 9th at the end of the race.

A drive through penalty was given to Lewis Hamilton, but with the super short pit-lane at Valencia it was in consequential to say the least.

Fernando’s outburst seems justified especially at the deliberate rule breakage by Lewis Hamilton, it seems he twisted the rule into his favour being well aware that a drive through penalty wouldnt affect him a lot if he was able to overtake the safety car. Also the penalty came too little too late according to most observers and in the end Hamilton was able to get mileage by breaking the rules and was able to finish in a better position.

‘All the kids in the stands know that you cannot pass the safety car. When the safety car came out I was one metre behind Hamilton. I finished ninth; he finished second. I respected the rule: he didn’t.’

‘I think 20 laps to see the replay is long.’

“But here, when you do the normal thing, which is respecting the rules, you finish ninth, and the one who doesn’t respect them finishes second.”

Lewis Hamilton put up a meek defence :

“As I was coming around turn one, literally as I got to the safety car line I saw the safety car was pretty much alongside me.”

“I thought that I’d passed it so I continued and that was it.”

Meanwhile Ferrari in a statement opined on the incident :

A scandal – that’s the opinion of so many fans and experts involved in the sport, who are all in agreement

Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo released the following statement:

“The result of yesterday’s race was misrepresentative. Ferrari, which showed itself to be competitive in the European Grand Prix, paid a price that was too high for respecting the rules. Meanwhile those who didn’t follow the rules were penalised by the race officials in a way that was less severe than the damage suffered by those who did respect them.

That is a very serious and unacceptable event that creates dangerous precedents, throwing a shadow over the credibility of Formula One. We are sure that the FIA will fully analyse what happened, taking the consequent necessary decisions. Ferrari will watch this with interest.”

The World Motor Sport Council of the FIA today delivered the final blow to the USF1 team by finding them guilty of financial mismanagement. The USF1 team was one of the four teams to have been granted a license for the 2010 formula one season but after much anticipation they failed to participate in the season opener at Bahrain.

As a result of non-participation, they have been fined 309,000 Euros an equivalent of 255,000 Pounds. This is basically the amount they had deposited with the FIA as entry fee. This fee will now not be refunded and will be retained by the FIA.

Apart from the fine the USF1 team is disqualified from the formula one races and other FIA events in the form of sanctions imposed on them. The order listed Ken Anderson and Chad Hurley as the owners of the team.

Separate parts of the decision by FIA read :

“It was wholly unacceptable that the FIA was presented with only three weeks warning of the total non-appearance of the team at the Grand Prix in Bahrain and for the 2010 season, and WMSC members had real concerns about the impact on the championship, not least the deprivation of the opportunity for another team to have provided two cars to run in the championship in 2010 instead of US F1.”

“USF1 had displayed poor financial management and had underestimated the requirement to present an F1 car for the 2010 season in the time and with the financial resources available to them.”

Jacques Villeneuve,the veteran formula one driver and son of the great Gilles Villeneuve (on whom the Montreal circuit is named), has said that he will try for one last time to secure a F1 seat for the 2011 season.

Till the start of the season he was being linked to Stefan GP who weren’t able to secure a slot for the 2010 formula one season. Since the Stefan GP outfit are trying desperately hard to get a slot for next year, its very much possible that Villeneuve might be able to get a seat with them if he is able to convince them.

“I’m quite happy right now being busy raising kids. I would obviously be happier behind a wheel. Once you’ve been a racer, I think you’re a racer all your life,” Villeneuve said.

“I worked hard on it in 2010. I’m giving myself until 2011. There’s still a few months,” he added.

“The teams don’t want to take a risk. There comes a point where you’ve been out for too long and the teams just won’t give you a chance,” he said.

Meanwhile German rival Michael Schumacher who has had a controversial relationship with the Canadian agreed with Villeneuve.

“I have proved this year F1 is not like football and other sports, you don’t need to be a young age to perform,” said Michael Schumacher.

“The point is, as Jacques was saying, we are racers, and we have that in our blood. So, what you have there, you always keep.” The German ace added.