Hamilton Thinks Monaco Will be Better

Lewis Hamilton believes McLaren can increase the pressure on Red Bull at next weekend's Monaco Grand Prix.

Having finished only half a second behind Red Bull's race winner Sebastian Vettel in Barcelona, Hamilton said: We have something good coming for Monaco."

He continued: "I didn't expect to be that quick today, we were quicker than the Red Bulls except in the high-speed corners, pretty much.

"It's positive going into Monaco, where the driver can make a difference."

Hamilton was clearly encouraged at being able to hustle Vettel to the very end of the race in Spain. Vettel has had to work hard for all four of his wins.

"A few more laps and you might have seen a different result," said Hamilton, who is the only other man to win a race this season.

"It was very difficult to balance how many laps you had left and how much life you had left in the tyres, and pushing behind him, he was in clean air and I was in rough air, and the car was sliding so much. Nonetheless we did a great job."

Jenson Button, who recovered from what he himself described as a "disastrous" start to finish third for McLaren, said tyre wear was likely to be a huge factor around Monte Carlo's narrow street circuit.

"I don't think you are going to be having fights like we had [here]," he said.

Button recovers after bad start

"There is a going to be a lot of tyre degradation as we have got the super soft and the soft tyres there, so it is going to be very tricky for all of us. It will make it fun for sure."

McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh said the fact both Hamilton and Button have won at Monaco added to the team's chances of success in the principality.

"We've seen both Lewis and Jenson do great jobs there, they love Monaco, we've won it 14 times and we'd like to do it again," he said.

However he said the race would not necessarily be a duel between McLaren and Red Bull.

"Don't underestimate the others, Fernando [Alonso] did a fantastic qualifying lap yesterday, he can pull those sorts of things out.

"At the moment I think we've got some pace on them [Ferrari], but they can improve very quickly and so can Mercedes.

Asked to explain why McLaren's pace was so much closer to Red Bull in the race than in qualifying, Whitmarsh said: "Red Bull do a number of things to set their car up for qualifying that make it very quick.

"We are working on some of those areas, but we work quite hard to make sure we have a good race pace. You need that. But ultimately you need a better track position.

"We had the race pace today. We didn't have track position. We didn't qualify well enough. So we have to work on that and get the job done in qualifying.

"We've certainly put half a second on the car but we need another few half seconds.

"Monaco is a very different type of track. We have super-soft tyres coming and have very limited experience of those."

Mark Webber won from pole in Monaco last year while Vettel has a first win around the famous circuit in his sights.

And Red Bull boss Christian Horner is predicting that race strategy will once again likely to be the key to success in seven days' time.

"We took a bold decision today and it paid off, but I don't think that will work in Monaco," said Horner.

"It's going to be all about tyre management again. It's less abrasive than here. It's going to be fascinating.

"With Sebastian we went for an extremely aggressive undercut that relied on him making the passes. Are you going to have the bravery to do that in Monaco, where overtaking is generally impossible?

"The encouraging thing for us is that at five circuits with very differing characteristics we have managed to be competitive at all of them and hopefully we will carry that into Monaco."

Ferrari New Rear Wing Banned

Ferrari's new rear wing, which came under scrutiny at Barcelona on Friday, has been banned by the FIA.

Ferrari ran a new-look rear wing at the Circuit de Catalunya in Friday's practice sessions, however, concerns were raised regarding the slot gap separators on the wing.

FIA race director Charlie Whiting met with the Scuderia later in the evening, informing the media that the issue related to "article 3.10.3, which deals with slot gaps separators, the devices which are normally just vertical, which keep the distance between the profiles constant.

"The fact that the separators have to totally encircle the profiles ensures the profiles remain the same.

"We had an issue with changing profiles a few years ago. The separators can't be more than 200mm apart. It's an alternative interpretation of that rule that we are currently discussing."

And after discussing it, Whiting ruled that Ferrari's wing does contravene the regulations.

As such, the Scuderia were forced to remove the wing from both 150° Italias, replacing it with the spec used at the previous race in Turkey.

Alonso Signs 3 Year Ferrari Deal

Alosnmo

Spanish driver Fernando Alonso has signed a new deal with Ferrari that will keep him with the Italian team until the end of the 2016 season.

The announcement comes just over a year into the three-year deal Alonso signed when he initially joined Ferrari.

"I am very happy to have reached this agreement," said the 29-year-old double world champion.

"I immediately felt comfortable within Ferrari and now it feels to me like a second family."

In signing such a lengthy deal, Alonso is convinced he will now finish his F1 career with Ferrari.

"I have the utmost faith in the men and women who work in Maranello and in those who lead them," added Alonso.

"It is therefore natural for me to decide to extend my relationship in the long term like this, with a team at which I will no doubt end my Formula One career one day."

Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo said: "It is a great pleasure to have renewed our agreement with a driver who has always demonstrated a winning mentality, even in the most difficult circumstances.

Ferrari can be champions - Alonso

"Fernando has all the required qualities, both technically and personally, to play a leading role in the history of Ferrari and I hope he will be enriching it with further wins very soon."

Last week, Di Montezemolo insisted that Ferrari would honour Felipe Massa's contract with the team which expires at the end of next season.

The Brazilian has been under pressure since Alonso's arrival but Massa has shown signs of recovering some of his best form this season out-scoring his team-mate in Malaysia and China.

Alonso, who will compete in his home Grand Prix in Barcelona this weekend, earned his and Ferrari's first podium finish of the season at the Turkish Grand Prix on 8 May, finishing third behind Red Bull duo Vettel and Mark Webber.

The result means he trails the German world champion Sebastian Vettel by 52 points after four races of the 2011 season.

Since winning the world championship with Red Bull, Vettel has spoken of his desire to drive for Ferrari in the future.

But Alonso's contraction extension appears to rule out a role for Vettel or McLaren's Lewis Hamilton, whose contract runs out in 2012.

Vettel pipped Alonso to last year's title, in what was an eventful debut Ferrari season for the Spaniard.

Alonso had started in stunning fashion with victory in the first race of the season in Bahrain in March 2010, but then had to wait until July to record his next win, in Germany, a triumph that was shrouded in controversy.

Leading the race, team-mate Massa was told in coded team orders that were banned at the time to let Alonso pass him.

The result proved to be the start of an Alonso charge as he reeled off three victories in four races in September and October that put him within touching distance of his third title.

However, a bungled pit-stop strategy proved costly in the last race in Abu Dhabi, meaning Alonso finished seventh and missed out on the title.

Alonso's title successes came in 2005 and 2006, when he was driving for Renault.

Clock Does Not Stop Even for Schumacher

Michael Schumacher

The big joy has gone right now," said Michael Schumacher in the wake of a wretched Turkish Grand Prix in which he finished a miserable 12th, leaving him with just six points to his name after four races.

"I guess I was responsible myself to have the result that I had. With Petrov I guess it was mostly my mistake what happened there. I need to analyse it. It was a bit strange that suddenly we got together and I lost my front wing. The race was a given from there – lots of fighting, lots of action, but for nothing."

It is an indicator that the seven-times world champion could now start to question whether he still has what it takes to compete at the highest level of motorsport.

The statistics make significant reading because in 23 races since he was tempted out of retirement, Schumacher has undeniably been second best to team-mate Nico Rosberg.

This year Schumacher has been out-qualified by Rosberg in all four grands prix, and beaten by his younger German compatriot in the last two, and 15 overall.

Around Istanbul Park, Schumacher was not dominant and at times bullied out of the way, initially on lap two when Renault's Vitaly Petrov dived down the inside at turn 12, only to run over the 42-year-old's front wing.

An early pit stop compromised Schumacher's race in which another German, Adrian Sutil, later barged his way through at turn 12 again.

The aura has gone, leaving former Formula One rival and BBC co-commentator David Coulthard to suggest Schumacher may start to be questioning his future.

"He's not performing at the same level of his team-mate, that's a fact," said Coulthard. "The statistics show Nico is getting more out of that car than Michael.

"I don't think we should write Michael off by any stretch of the imagination, there's a lot of talent there, but he must be asking himself questions. I think the key thing is he's not enjoying it, and to be perfectly open and honest with you there was an element of that for me at the beginning of 2008.

"I wasn't as competitive as I felt I should be, I wasn't enjoying the races as much as I used to, and then that's the moment.

"It slowly builds until you look in the mirror and realise that feeling you've been having for a few weeks or months is the internal message. You can't hold back the clock."