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F1: McLaren Looks To Keep Up With Red Bull In Britain, Audi Boss Says No To F1

Red Bull might now be expected to maintain its return to form as Formula One moves on to Silverstone.

After two McLaren victories on the trot, and the British team leading both the drivers' and constructors' world championships, Red Bull&#3


Red Bull might now be expected to maintain its return to form as Formula One moves on to Silverstone.

After two McLaren victories on the trot, and the British team leading both the drivers' and constructors' world championships, Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel won from pole position last weekend at Valencia.

It was a circuit with long straights and many slow corners that had been expected to favour McLaren, but Red Bull got its F-duct up and running in Spain.

And although with a revised layout for 2010, the continuing fast nature of Silverstone is expected to bring out the best of the RB6, whose predecessor was driven to dominant victory from pole position by Vettel a year ago.

"We hope that the next couple of circuits are more in our direction," the German confirmed after winning on Sunday.

This year's Red Bull is considered better than the 2009 car, and at Silverstone last year, Mark Webber finished behind his teammate in second place -- 26 seconds ahead of the nearest competitor.

McLaren, however, is set to introduce its version of the Red Bull-style exhaust and 'blown diffuser' layout next weekend, while the Red Bull will feature only minor revisions.

"If we can be competitive there then we have a good chance to win both championships," McLaren team boss Martin Whitmarsh said.

But like Ferrari, Mercedes and Renault also showed flashes of speed in Valencia, so McLaren driver Jenson Button thinks those teams could be in the running in Britain.

"I don't think you can ever count out Ferrari," said the reigning world champion. "Also Mercedes. You can come back from bad races and I think they will be competitive.

"A lot of the teams had new updates (in Valencia) and maybe they're not working to the full potential. I think when we get to Silverstone we will see a little bit more of where people are," he added.

(GMM)

Audi Boss Says No To F1

Audi has rejected speculation its name might soon appear above a Formula One pit garage.

It has been reported for some time that the German carmaker's parent Volkswagen could be interested in entering the sport as an engine supplier.

VW's motor racing boss Kris Nissen said a month ago: "Within the group, for sure, (the branding) could be Audi, it could be Porsche and might also be Volkswagen."

But Audi's sporting boss Wolfgang Ullrich is not interested, according to the German news agency SID.

"We believe formula one and Audi do not fit, so long as the technology has no relevance to the development of our production cars," he said.

Audi prototype sports cars finished first, second and third at the recent Le Mans 24 hour race, and the marque also competes in the premier German touring car series DTM.

"The technologies are closely related to those used by our clients, so they directly benefit from our motor racing. In F1 that is not currently the case," Ullrich insisted.

And despite recent and current efforts to reduce the costs in formula one, top teams still require more than EUR 150 million to be competitive.

But in DTM, the budgets are under about 30m, and "the new regulations for 2012 aim to reduce the budgets by about 50 per cent," he said.

"So, the DTM continues to be the benchmark in cost-versus-benefit," said Ullrich.

(GMM)

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