MOTORSPORT: Webber leans towards staying put

Now Ford's top V8 Supercar team loses major sponsor
Mark Webber has signalled his preference to remain with Red Bull Racing in Formula One next year. Ahead of this weekend's British Grand Prix at Silverstone, where Webber is hoping to repeat his brilliant victory of two years ago, he has indicated that he'd like to strike another one-year deal with Red Bull for a seventh season with it -- and his 12th in motorsport's premier competition.

Standing second in this year's world championship, trailing Ferrari's Fernando Alonso by 20 points, there has been a lot of speculation about Webber becoming the Spaniard's teammate in the Italian squad next season.

Webber said this week that Ferrari was "such a great team with great history" and that he could foresee a driver change coming there in light of Brazilian Felipe Massa's dismal results in comparison with Alonso.

But of his own future, Webber said; "First I will talk with my team, because I would be happy to continue here."

"I'm motivated. I feel good. I've got a great job to drive the fastest cars on the world's best stretches of road. That's a dream. I think given Felipe's result there could be a change there [at Ferrari].

"It's also unclear what's happening with Michael [Schumacher, at Mercedes] and Lewis [Hamilton] at McLaren]."

Webber has rated McLaren a big chance of winning the British GP, although the likelihood of rain will shorten Alonso's odds. Vodafone is now reviewing its sponsorship of McLaren, which expires at the end of next season. That review follows the telecommunications giant's decision to end its sponsorship of Australia's dominant V8 Supercar outfit, Triple Eight Race Engineering, at the end of this year.

This week there has been news that Trading Post won't sponsor beyond this year the Ford Performance Racing Falcon driven by Will Davison that has won the most V8 Supercar races so far this season. The Orrcon sponsorship on the other top FPR Falcon of Mark Winterbottom is up for renewal too.

Concerns about the sponsorship outlook in V8 Supercar racing coincide with more intensive talks now about the next television deal for the category.

A few hot topics in Townsville
The V8 Supercar show is in Townsville for the fourth year this weekend amid speculation the North Queensland round could move to Cairns or Mackay after the expiry of the Townsville contract next year.

A lot of interest there this weekend is on the performance of 1997 F1 world champion Jacques Villeneuve, who is driving injured Greg Murphy's Holden Commodore.

Series veteran Russell Ingall has been playing up the prospect of the aggressive Villeneuve creating havoc, perhaps for the championship contenders.

However, the Canadian -- under fire in America for punting Danica Patrick as she was headed for her best finish in NASCAR's Nationwide Series - has declared he's not out to cause any trouble.

Of greater importance in Townsville will be whether Triple Eight, whose Jamie Whincup and Craig Lowndes won the two races in Darwin three weeks ago, have put an end to FPR's early season dominance, and whether races 14 and 15 of the championship can produce a fifth and perhaps sixth different winner for the year.

Whincup has the best record on the Townsville street circuit with three wins and two seconds from the six races there over the past three years.

While only Triple Eight and FPR have won championship races so far this season, Lowndes declared this week that "there are about seven or eight cars that are all good enough for the win and probably three or four teams that are good enough as well".

The Triple Eight drivers strongly advocated the North Queensland round remaining in Townsville.

"Townsville is a great location for us, it's a part of Queensland we've tapped into, and I think it's been a huge success for us since we've been here," Lowndes said. "It would be a shame for it not to continue. Fingers crossed the powers that be show some common sense and extend the contract."

And Whincup said: "This is a great round for us, highly successful and I think it will be around for a long time... There's a little bit of talk going around that the contract's due to be renewed, and there's a rumour that that's not going to happen, but I highly doubt it."

On the broader touring car front, Chevrolet is ending its participation in the World Touring Car Championship after eight years and 59 victories, including manufacturer and driver titles the past two years.

WTCC general manager Marcello Lotti said Chevrolet had been "a precious partner for what has been an unusually long period for a motorsport program".

"At the same time we welcome Honda's arrival in 2013 and are in negotiations with a few other car makers interested to join," Lotti said.

NASCAR expert gives Ambrose Daytona hope
NASCAR is back at Daytona this weekend as the Sprint Cup reaches its midpoint and Jeff Hammond, a TV commentator who was a crew chief to Darrell Waltrip in his heyday, has predicted Australian Marcos Ambrose could notch his breakthrough oval-track win there.

"Marcos Ambrose has had some good runs at super-speedways," Hammond said in his Foxsports.com column this week. "The Fords have been very strong at the restrictor-plate races … [and] his crew chief [Todd Parrott] knows this track. This could be a surprise opportunity for him [Ambrose].

"We could pretty much feel like his best chance is a road course race, but he could make up for the lack of a win at the recent road-course race at Sonoma [in California] by basically stealing one at Daytona."

It was at Daytona 28 years ago that Ambrose's team owner Richard Petty scored the last of his record 200 NASCAR race wins.

"King" Petty is being feted this week, having just turned 75.

Atkinson gets Citroen for Rally Finland
Australia's top rally driver Chris Atkinson is to drive a Citroen in next month's Rally Finland. Atkinson, who is leading the Asia-Pacific Rally Championship in a Super 2000 Skoda Fabia run by India's Team MRF, has leased the Citroen DS3 of Qatar's Dakar Rally winner and regular WRC competitor Nasser At-Attiyah, who will be competing in the shooting at the London Olympics.

Atkinson, a Subaru factory driver in the WRC until the Japanese manufacturer quit at the end of 2008, last drove a WRC Citroen at Rally Ireland in 2009. However, he drove a Ford Fiesta for Ken Block's Monster World Rally Team at this year's Rally Mexico, retiring with suspension trouble after winning a stage.

Of his deal for the August 2-4 Rally Finland, Atkinson said: "Competing in the best rally in the championship in the best WRC car is a superb opportunity and I can't wait to test the car."

Citroen Racing Technologies boss Benoit Nogier added: "Ever since Chris Atkinson took part in the 2009 Rally Ireland in a C4 WRC, we have kept in touch and maintained good relations with him.

"As Nasser's Citroen DS3 WRC was available for this rally, we offered Chris the chance to lease the car and compete for the Qatar World Rally Team. We are very pleased to have him back with us in one of our customer racing teams for one of the championship's flagship events."

Horror accident for F1 test driver
An F1 test driver lost an eye this week. Mara de Villota, daughter of one of Spain's first F1 racers, Emilio de Villota, was ending a straight-line run in one of the Marussia team's MR-01 cars at the Duxford airstrip near Cambridge in England when she collided with the tailgate of a transporter.

While there were many dismissive comments about her in some media reports and on fan forums, F1 race drivers were sympathetic and concerned for de Villota -- especially fellow Spaniards Fernando Alonso and former Toro Rosso driver Jaime Alguersuari.

De Villota, 32, has been racing seriously for a decade, including in the World Touring Car Championship and the Daytona 24-Hour. She did a little F1 testing for the Renault factory team last year but the Duxford outing was her first with Russian-owned Marussia, which began life as Virgin Racing and is in its third year in F1.

The BBC's Chris Mann witnessed her low-speed accident and reported: "The top of her car and her helmet seemed to take the brunt of it. She didn't move for about 15 minutes."

Tom Cary of London's Telgraph newspaper wrote that the incident, in which the car is believed to have accelerated into the tailgate, may have been caused by de Villota's unfamiliarity with the car's anti-stall system. Her injuries initially were reported as life-threatening and in lengthy overnight surgery she lost her right eye.

While her condition has stabilised she remains under critical care.

Webber had to fight his way through the field from 19th on the grid to fourth at the finish in Valencia, while the similarly Renault-powered Lotus of Frenchman Romain Grosjean suffered an alternator failure like that of Vettel.

"I would have been concerned five or six years ago, but we [Red Bull Racing] weren't a world-class team then," Webber said. "Now we are. Our guys get their act together pretty fast."

Not only has Vettel welcomed the idea of Webber remaining his teammate next year, but RBR team principal Christian Horner said this week: "Mark's doing a great job. I think he's driven extremely well this year. His consistency has been strong. He's enjoying his driving and I think they are a strong pairing."

While RBR has had pole position at the past three GPs Vettel has now gone four races without being on the podium and is fourth in the championship, on 85 points -- behind Alonso on 111, Webber 91 and Lewis Hamilton 88.

Meanwhile, world championship leader Fernando Alonso reckons Ferrari has improved his car as much as 1.5 seconds a lap since the season-opening GP in Melbourne.

"The job the team has done over the last three or four months has been amazing, recovering the maybe 1.5 seconds, or something like that, that we were off the pace in Australia in March," Alonso said. "Now, definitely, we are in a good direction. There is still a lot to come from the team in the next couple of races, and in the next couple of months.

"At the moment championship positions or points are important, but it's not our main priority … first thing is to improve the car."

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