Button denies Rosberg 2012 McLaren seat

McLaren look set to take up their one-year option on Jenson Button as well as extending his contract through to the end of the 2013 season.
The 2009-champion signed a two-year deal with the British outfit after he left Brawn GP at the end of the 2009 season. However, the deal included an 'option' which can only be activated by the team.
It's thought his stunning win in Canada could all but guarantee that the Woking outfit will announce the deal to retain Button at the British Grand Prix in just under three weeks time.

Pirelli promises not to get complacent

Pirelli insists it cannot sit back and think that it has done enough with its tyres to guarantee exciting races in 2011, despite the first three events of the year having been deemed a success.

The Australian, Malaysian and Chinese races all produced mixed-up grands prix thanks to the nature of the 2011 tyres - and that bodes well for a spectacular remainder of the campaign.

But despite the sport's bosses, drivers and fans all welcoming the way the racing has been made more thrilling so far, Pirelli reckons the lessons of the first events are that there is no guarantee things will continue in the same way.

"It is going to vary race to race, and circuit to circuit, depending on what tyre of surface it is," Pirelli's director of motorsport Paul Hembery told AUTOSPORT.

"The next race in Istanbul is very tough on tyres - and is probably the worst for us as a tyre maker. So that will change again the type of strategy needed in a race.

"But we have had a lot of credit from a lot of people about the nature of the races so far – and if we continue like that we will have a great season."

Hembery believes that the next few events could well be very different from what has been experienced so far – with the punishing Turkish and Spanish venues followed by the tricky Monaco and Montreal ones.

"I think Turkey will be similar to Sepang in terms of tyre wear – and if not even worse because of the very, very abrasive surface. After Spain, we have Canada and Monte Carlo, which will be with our super soft and soft tyres."

One area that Hembery believes Pirelli needs to improve is in extending the life of the harder compound tyres. The evidence from the two most recent events is that teams are automatically using the softer tyre in races because its durability is not much less than the hard – meaning that over a stint it is much quicker.

"We are looking at maybe doing work with harder compound so it can do a few more laps," he said. "What we realised in these last few races is we are missing three or four laps of durability, particularly with the harder compound on abrasive surfaces. What we don't want is the teams to adopt the same strategy."

Pirelli is due to evaluate a new experimental hard compound in Turkey, with a view to introducing it at either the Spanish or British races.

Peugeot expects ultra-close Le Mans

Peugeot motorsport boss Olivier Quesnel believes the Le Mans test day proved there will be very little to choose between his squad and arch-rival Audi in this year's race.

Although Audi's new R18 TDI set the top two times yesterday, lead Peugeot runner Stephane Sarrazin was only just over 0.2 seconds off Tom Kristensen's 3m27.687s benchmark in third place.

"We showed both endurance and performance today," said Quesnel. "We have all the data required to make sure we come back to Le Mans with optimised race cars. Spa-Francorchamps will give us another opportunity to prepare for Le Mans.

"We have seen today that this year's 24 Hours of Le Mans really is going to be very hotly contested."

Technical director Bruno Famin said that the day's only problem had been a precautionary engine change on the #9 car.

"We pretty much completed our full work programme," he said. "The #7 car completed the endurance programme started at Aragon. We have significantly exceeded the race distance for the 24 Hours of Le Mans with this car.

"We have worked well on the set-up for the two other cars, in spite of an engine alert on the #9. Until we know more, we preferred to change it.

"Overall, it was a highly productive day of work, the three cars are intact and the drivers stuck perfectly to the scheduled programme."

DRS hailed as 'best idea ever'

Nico Rosberg reckons Formula 1's 'Drag Reduction System' could be up there as the best rule in the sport's history because of the way it has helped spice up the racing in 2011.

Although a number of drivers had been sceptical about the DRS before the first race of the campaign - fearing it would either make overtaking too easy or not even help at all – the way it has panned out in the first three races of the campaign has been encouraging.

And Rosberg, who has both lost and gained position through the DRS, has gone so far as to reckon its introduction alongside the new Pirelli era can be singled out as the greatest regulation that F1 has seen.

Speaking exclusively to AUTOSPORT, Rosberg said: "F1 has done a brilliant job. How exciting have the races been? They have been stunning.

"There is nobody saying we are having boring races. There is overtaking left, right, and centre - everywhere. So, they have done a really, really good job and that is the most important thing that needs to be highlighted.

"The people in charge have made the sport from one year to the next so much more exciting, and that is awesome for the fans and everything. It is really cool, isn't it? It is the tyres and the rear wing.

"The rear wing – best idea ever probably, for this sport. No? And tyres also. Pirelli, everybody has been criticising them, but they have made our sport spectacular. So that is cool."

Despite Rosberg's enthusiasm for the regulation, Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali thinks it will take a bit more time to work out if the DRS is a certain success.

"We've seen three different situations in three different races, so we need to wait more to find out what is the right balance," explained the Italian. "In my view, and this is a personal view, you see the activation point of the DRS has a different effect if you are at the beginning of the race or the end of the race, depending on the tyres that you have.

"So it is a tyre effect, not related to the speed or that you are behind. It is the way the tyres behave, so we need to see what is the best solution in that respect. We saw Australia, Malaysia and China were different, but the main reason in China for overtaking was that the tyres were so different you could overtake."

As well as drivers using the DRS to overtake at the designated zone, one consequence of the straightline speed boost is that it is helping cars stay closer to each other for more of a lap - further increasing the chances of overtaking elsewhere.

DRS hailed as 'best idea ever'

Nico Rosberg reckons Formula 1's 'Drag Reduction System' could be up there as the best rule in the sport's history because of the way it has helped spice up the racing in 2011.

Although a number of drivers had been sceptical about the DRS before the first race of the campaign - fearing it would either make overtaking too easy or not even help at all – the way it has panned out in the first three races of the campaign has been encouraging.

And Rosberg, who has both lost and gained position through the DRS, has gone so far as to reckon its introduction alongside the new Pirelli era can be singled out as the greatest regulation that F1 has seen.

Speaking exclusively to AUTOSPORT, Rosberg said: "F1 has done a brilliant job. How exciting have the races been? They have been stunning.

"There is nobody saying we are having boring races. There is overtaking left, right, and centre - everywhere. So, they have done a really, really good job and that is the most important thing that needs to be highlighted.

"The people in charge have made the sport from one year to the next so much more exciting, and that is awesome for the fans and everything. It is really cool, isn't it? It is the tyres and the rear wing.

"The rear wing – best idea ever probably, for this sport. No? And tyres also. Pirelli, everybody has been criticising them, but they have made our sport spectacular. So that is cool."

Despite Rosberg's enthusiasm for the regulation, Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali thinks it will take a bit more time to work out if the DRS is a certain success.

"We've seen three different situations in three different races, so we need to wait more to find out what is the right balance," explained the Italian. "In my view, and this is a personal view, you see the activation point of the DRS has a different effect if you are at the beginning of the race or the end of the race, depending on the tyres that you have.

"So it is a tyre effect, not related to the speed or that you are behind. It is the way the tyres behave, so we need to see what is the best solution in that respect. We saw Australia, Malaysia and China were different, but the main reason in China for overtaking was that the tyres were so different you could overtake."

As well as drivers using the DRS to overtake at the designated zone, one consequence of the straightline speed boost is that it is helping cars stay closer to each other for more of a lap - further increasing the chances of overtaking elsewhere.