British company Zytek won the Powertrain Innovation of the Year award at the Professional Motor Sport World Expo held in Cologne this week. The prize came as a result of development work performed on the hybrid technology seen in Formula One and the American Le Mans Series.

Zytek is the operation behind the Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS) used by the McLaren MP4-24 this year, and also designed the device fitted to the GZ09HS Le Mans Prototype hybrid which raced in the United States.

McLaren's KERS assisted Lewis Hamilton in winning the Hungarian Grand Prix in addition to the Singapore night race; he also finished second in Valencia and was contesting the victory in Abu Dhabi until a braking issue forced him to retire.

"Turning the concept of kinetic energy recovery into a race-winning reality was a major breakthrough and Zytek made a vital contribution to this achievement," said awards judge Charles Armstrong-Wilson.

"Motorsport is one of the best environments in the world to showcase and develop technology," said John Manchester, Zytek's Operations Director. "This type of focus can help to educate people about hybrid systems and ultimately lead to the transfer of technology onto our everyday road vehicles."


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No sooner had newcomer Kamui Kobayashi dazzled the world of Formula One with his aggressive racing style and a points haul in only his second grand prix – he finds himself poised to return to his father’s sushi restaurant after Toyota pulled the plug on grand prix racing.

The Japanese driver was acting as a stand in for the injured Timo Glock at Toyota, but a staunch defence of his position against Jenson Button in the Brazilian Grand Prix, followed up by an impressive charge to fifth place in the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, looked set to consolidate his position on the grid next year with the Cologne-based outfit.

But in the wake of Toyota’s shock withdrawal from the sport this week, Kobayashi has been forced to look at alternative options for 2010, with the new Lotus team top on the list of his priorities.

“Obviously my seat [at Toyota] is gone,” he told the Times. “I was close to signing the contract for that season only, but with four new teams, and a couple of current ones with no confirmed drivers, there are options, but to the current teams, I am a “risk”, which isn’t very good for my morale really,”

“I do believe I’ll get a seat, if I had to choose a team, I’d choose Lotus. The name is enough really.

“McLaren are out of my league, Ferrari are the same, Renault I’m not sure of, Red Bull are secure, Brawn have Rosberg I think, Williams are done, I do not even know if Sauber will be here next year, Toro Rosso just want the same drivers. I think for me, my options are the four new teams really.”

Kobayashi confirmed that Toyota are offering him support to find a seat despite pulling out of Formula One.

“They’re working with myself and my agent to help me find a seat, they are doing the same for Kazuki Nakajima as well, Toyota explained to me that they couldn’t compete in the sport no longer but will help me in my career as much as possible.”


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Aerolab, the Italian operator of the wind tunnel which the Force India team uses, has announced that it is to take legal action against the Silverstone-based team for what it has described as 'serious and persistent' breaches of contract.

The situation dates back to earlier this week, when some media reports had suggested that Force India was worried that the new Lotus F1 outfit, which is working with Fondtech - the parent company of Aerolab - may have copied or used details of the 2009 Force India to help develop the 2010 Lotus.

Speculation has been fuelled further when considering that Mike Gascoyne, Technical Director of Lotus, worked with Force India before a management reshuffle took place prior to this season.

"The truth is that Aerolab is suing Force India for not fulfilling its obligations," explains Aerolab Managing Director Jean-Claude Migeot via a statement, according to Reuters. It is also believed that a 3-year deal between Force India and Aerolab came to a rather gloomy and premature conclusion in September.


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The ongoing discrepancy between Kimi Raikkonen's wage demands and the salary that his most likely F1 2010 employer McLaren-Mercedes is willing to pay him could drive the Woking-based outfit to look to out-of-work BMW-Sauber refugee Nick Heidfeld instead – as it emerged that the Finn might do better financially by taking a year off.

Following the official announcement that he was being released by Ferrari to make way for fellow F1 World Champion Fernando Alonso next season, Raikkonen was linked with a number of teams, from Renault to Red Bull and Toyota to McLaren.

However, whilst the 2007 title-winner wasted little time in making clear that only the latter option was of interest to him – having competed for the Silver Arrows for five years from 2002 to 2006, triumphing nine times along the way and arguably being unlucky to miss out on title glory in 2003 and 2005 – it soon became apparent that there was, and remains, quite a gap between his own valuation of his financial worth and McLaren's estimation.

Due to having been forced to terminate Raikkonen's contract a year ahead of schedule, Ferrari promised to pay the 18-time grand prix-winner €17 million if he does not compete in F1 in 2010, or €10m if he does. To that end, German magazine Auto Motor und Sport reports that McLaren is offering a deal of just €5 million, reasoning that his total would thereby be a still more-than-acceptable €15 million – but the 30-year-old's management team of Steve and David Roberston is said to be unwilling to budge on its demands, as well as the stipulation that Raikkonen has to attend fewer sponsor days than would be the norm.

Should no agreement be forthcoming, it is being mused that of all the other names mooted as potential team-mates to 2008 F1 World Champion Lewis Hamilton – assuming, as is widely anticipated, that Heikki Kovalainen is not retained for a third consecutive season at the multiple title-winning concern – Heidfeld is near to the top of the list, with team principal Martin Whitmarsh having told spox.com that in his opinion the experienced German is perhaps the most underrated driver on the grid.

Heidfeld himself has admitted that he is 'not ruling out any team' in the wake of BMW's withdrawal, and should 'Quick Nick' indeed join McLaren, it would doubtless please engine-partner Mercedes-Benz and represent a deserved boost for the oft-overlooked man from Mönchengladbach.

The 32-year-old acted as McLaren-Mercedes test driver back in 1998 and triumphed in the International F3000 Championship (now GP2 Series) for the McLaren Junior Team the following year, only to be passed over in favour of then Sauber team-mate Raikkonen when Mika Hakkinen retired at the end of 2001, to the general surprise of paddock observers. Whilst Raikkonen's career subsequently took off, Heidfeld's has yet to really accelerate out of neutral – but a McLaren seat in 2010 could finally offer him the chance to fulfil his undoubted talent and, after more than 150 starts in the top flight, belatedly break his grand prix duck.


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When the new Lotus F1 team released pictures of its 2010 car's wind tunnel model in mid-October, people at Force India took a second look at what they saw.

"The as yet undesignated model is the product of the recent collaboration between Lotus F1 Racing Chief Technical Officer Mike Gascoyne and the team's technical partners, and represents an important step in the team's preparations for next season," the Malaysian outfit's press release explained.

However, Force India believe certain portions of the car hold an uncanny resemblance with their current VJM02 racer.

Adding to their suspicion is the fact that former technical chief Mike Gascoyne now works for Lotus, and his team is now using the same Italy-based Aerolab/Fondtech wind tunnel facilities previously used by Force India.

When Force India ceased working at the site, some equipment – including a model and tyres – were not recuperated.

Gascoyne played down the whole affair, explaining that the Lotus wind tunnel model was designed by Fondtech and takes into account the requirements of the 2010 season such as a larger fuel tank in addition to several Lotus-designed components.

However, speaking to Autosport, he acknowledged that "The Fondmetal guys put some generic bodywork" on the current Lotus model in order to conduct wind tunnel testing.

Gascoyne went on to suggest that if Force India decide to pursue the matter, it should be taken up with his team's sub-contractor Fondtech, and not directly with Lotus.


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Judge Gray, sitting in the London High Court, has ordered Etihad Airways, the Abu Dhabi national carrier, and Aldar Properties to jointly pay the Force India Formula One team US$4.683 million in damages as compensation for a terminated sponsor deal.

Etihad, the title sponsor of the team, switched its sponsorship to the Ferrari team for the 2008 season citing conflict with Kingfisher, the airline owned by Force India shareholder Vijay Mallya.

The original three-year deal was signed between the team and Etihad on 16th April 2007 and agreed at US$5 million for 2007, US$6 million for 2008 and US$9 million for 2009. The deal was brokered by Jamie Cunningham, now one of the Middle East's leading sponsorship agents. Bonus clauses were also incorporated in the deal which meant the team could earn US$100,000 for each championship point it scored and US$500,000 for each place in the overall championship. The cost of the sponsorship was split 60 per cent for Etihad and 40 per cent for Aldar, builder of the Yas Marina circuit in Abu Dhabi.

At the time the team was called Spyker and there was no conflict. That occurred when Mallya bought a shareholding in the team the following year. Etihad and Aldar subsequently took the decision to end the sponsorship, claiming that Mallya entered into an agreement with Kingfisher Airways in direct breach of the existing contract.

Judge Gray awarded US$2.483 million for the wrongful termination of the agreement after only one year. He awarded US$500,000 for termination of the bonus for points agreement and US$1.3 million for termination of the championship performance bonus agreement.

Judge Gray said the damages would have been much higher if the team had not mitigated its loss by finding replacement sponsors.

An Etihad spokesperson told SportsPro:

Both Etihad and Aldar Properties were surprised at the judgement and strongly disagree with its conclusions. We have been advised that there are strong grounds for appealing the decision and will be pressing on with an immediate appeal.

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