F1: Webber revs up 2012 hopes

MOTORSPORT REPORT

While stopping short of predicting he will beat Sebastian Vettel, Webber says that beating his 24-year-old dual world champion Red Bull Racing teammate is his 2012 target. He has declared that he can take the title fight right up to Vettel.

"I am very, very optimistic I am going to have a very, very strong season next year," Webber said. "It will be different from this season and I reckon I'll be able to take the fight to Seb for the championship.

"I'm very hungry to start the season well next year ... it's absolutely possible, and to get the momentum going."

It is amazing optimism from the Australian, who won just one grand prix this year compared with German Vettel's 11, after they -- and Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button -- fought to the wire in 2010. And that one victory this year, at the season-ending Brazilian GP, came after Vettel had a gearbox problem -- even though there was skepticism about the severity of it as he still finished second in that race.

While Webber has been third in the world championship twice in a row now, the gap between Vettel and him last year was 14 points but this year was 134 points (with McLaren's Jenson Button 12 points of Webber too).

Not only is Webber talking confidently about big improvement next season but Red Bull Racing team principal Christian Horner has given him strong endorsement. Horner insisted that Webber was "very strong mentally" and had not been crushed by Vettel's dominance this year when others would have been.

"Sebastian has driven at an unbelievable level this year," Horner said. "Lesser drivers would have crumbled under that pressure, but Mark isn't like that... He uses the pressure to motivate himself and will come out really fired up for Melbourne in 2012 [the season-opening Australian GP on March 18].

"He's a world-class driver. He's very strong mentally... He'll be focussing hard over the [northern] winter and will be determined to come back and have a really strong 2012."

Webber has spoken a lot at his Tasmanian adventure challenge last week, at the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) awards in India on Friday and over the weekend during a Red Bull demonstration at Milton Keynes, the team's British base. He has said that contemplating retirement is "not the right attitude".

"The attitude is to focus 100 per cent on the next race," he said. "The results are the important thing -- not the age... I've had teammates who don't get the results and they are finished when they are 21.

"It's a results-based industry. If you don't get the results you don't operate with the top teams... There were lots of races in the back part of this last season that I was reasonably happy with. Winning in Brazil was a nice way to finish the season. It's nice to have the motivation in this direction."

Force India, which finished a creditable sixth in the constructors' championship this year, Williams and HRT each have only one driver so far. Caterham, which has run as Team Lotus for two years, apparently has Italian veteran Jarno Trulli contracted for next year, as well as the Finn who has outshone him there, Heikki Kovalainen.

However, reports continue to suggest that Red Bull-backed 22-year-old Aussie Daniel Ricciardo will replace Trulli. Ricciardo drove 11 GPs this year with small Spanish outfit HRT.

Caterham will use Red Bull gearboxes, Kinetic Energy Recovery System and Renault engines -- all of which increases the likelihood of a Red Bull driver being placed in the team.

Lotus Renault, which had already signed 2007 world champion Kimi Raikkonen after his two years in the World Rally Championship, has confirmed Frenchman Romain Grosjean's return in 2011 -- leaving Russian Vitaly Petrov and Brazilian Bruno Senna out in the cold.

Grosjean did not impress greatly as Fernando Alonso's Renault teammate in 2009 but returned to the GP2 series, which he won this year. He has backing from French oil company Total.

Meanwhile, Raikkonen crashed in a snowmobile race in Austria at the weekend and has a sore wrist. Lotus Renault will be hoping it is nothing more than that, having seen its Polish ace Robert Kubica sidelined before the start of the 2011 championship by a rally crash.

Doubts remain whether Kubica will return to F1, although he is considered a future Ferrari or Red Bull driver if his recovery is complete, but Lotus Renault appears to ruled him out of its future.

"We have signed our drivers for next year and we want to stick with them," team principal Eric Boullier said. He said Kubica would only be allowed to test or use the team's simulator if he signed a long-term contract with it.

Brazilian veteran Rubens Barrichello's chances of retaining a seat at Williams for a 20th year in F1 have been helping by Raikkonen joining Lotus Renault rather than the long-established British team which has just endured its worst season.

The other profile driver out of a seat at the moment is German Adrian Sutil, who could be a contender for the Williams drive -- provided he has sponsorship support -- while his countryman Nico Hulkenberg, a former Williams driver and champion in the defunct A1 GP series, could fill the Force India vacancy.

French rookie Charles Pic, 21, has already been installed at the Marussia team, formerly Virgin Racing. The other youngster in the wings is 21-year-old Frenchman Jean-Eric Vergne, who like Aussie Ricciardo has been groomed through the Red Bull junior program and won this year's British Formula Three Championship.

Provided Red Bull-owned Toro Rosso retains Sebastien Buemi and Jaime Alguersuari, Friday morning practice sessions with the Italian-based team that for so long was Minardi may be as close as Vergne gets for the time being.

Bill Hayes, a former Perth policeman, collected the trophy as co-driver in winning the Asia-Pacific Rally Championship with WA-based Scotsman Alister McRae. And Queenslander Chris Atkinson picked up one as the winning driver in rallying's Pacific Cup.

The full list of FIA champions for the year is here: fia.com

A record number of international drivers -- 15 from 11 countries - will compete in NZ's openwheeler Toyota Racing Series early in the new year.

Ferrari F1 protege Raffaele Marciello is among them, with others from GP2, World Series Renault and F3.

Josh Hill, the grandson of two-time F1 champion and 1960s Tasman regular Graham Hill and son of 1996 champion Damon Hill, is returning for a second NZ season.

The five-round series will be run on successive weekends, starting at Invercargill in the country's deep south on the second weekend of January.

"We feel we need to give our technical team ample time to conduct thorough testing [of the new Dallara IndyCar] at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, once we complete our ongoing investigation into the 15-car accident during the October 16 race at the track," IndyCar chief executive Randy Bernard said.

Meanwhile, Frenchman Simon Pagenaud -- a former teammate of Will Power in Champ Cars and David Brabham in sportscars, and considered by V8 Supercar team owner as a replacement for Lee Holdsworth -- has secured an IndyCar drive with Sam Schmidt Motorsports.

Pagenaud won the 2006 Formula Atlantic series in the US and then raced for Craig Gore's Team Australia in Champ Car. The merger of Champ Car and IndyCar in 2008 left him without an openwheeler drive and he turned to sportscars. He teamed with Gil de Ferran Motorsports in the American Le Mans Series and then took a title with David Brabham at Highcroft Racing last year.

This year Pagenaud was third at the Le Mans 24-Hour in France with countryman Sebastien Bourdais and Portugal's Pedro Lamy in a Peugeot 908.

It said of the Tasmanian, who broke through for his Cup race victory this year on the Watkins Glen road course, that he "now knows what it takes to win, but he needs to be in position to take advantage of strong runs when the opportunity is there".

"The momentum built in the final few races of the season could bode well for the team heading into 2012.

"A fast start is crucial -- nine of the top 12 in points after the first five races of 2011 went on to make The Chase.

"With the exception of the one engine issue at Homestead [the final race], realiability doesn't appear to be a concern for the team."

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