the news of Friday !

* the Fia would like to amend the regulations regarding the use of the DRS for 2013. it would be no possible for the drivers to use it in qualifying and free practices but only the way it will be allowed in the race. Reminder: this season it was possible to use the DRS as much as drivers wanted in free practices and in qualifying sessions . 

 * the FIA would also like to introduce a super licence with a points system that would work like this : as soon as a driver would get a fine or a penalty he would have points less on his super licence based on a defined schedule, and as soon as a driver would have exceeded the quota of points of his super licence , he could have a race of suspension.   

* Bernie Ecclestone gets impatient about the holding of a Gp in france ! Indeed Mr E is ready to add a Gp in France (in place of the New Jersey race), in all likelihood on the Castellet circuit, but it would seem that the organizers struggle to find the necessary budget !  

 * Felipe Massa revealed that before his contract has been extended at Ferrari, he had contacts with other teams without however mentioning their names. 

the news of Tuesday !

* Here are the trophies for the United States Grand Prix which will take place this weekend in Austin. 

 * Pirelli will provide to the teams for the Austin Gp and the Brazil one medium and soft tires . 

 * the HRT team is for sale ! According to the Spanish media "El Confidencial", the Spanish team would have already laid off 40% of its workforce ! 

 * Ferrari has conducted aero tests in a straight line (the last of the year for the Scuderia) in Idiada in Spain last week. Ferrari tested a new rear wing, a new bottom plate and several new pieces. Jules Bianchi was at the wheel.

Abu Dhabi Gp : Alonso & Massa Sunday quotes

*Fernando Alonso: 'I'm happy with the way this weekend has ended. It's true that, with Sebastian behind, there was a possibility to increase the gap more significantly, but it is also true that our performance and our position on the grid could make us lose points during the grand prix, I repeat, they have the fastest car, we have the best team. Everyone is fighting with the weapons at his disposal: we will not succeed in having the fastest car with a flick of a magic wand, but we will address their performance with the perfection of our team. The simulation placed us somewhere between the 4th and 5th place and we finished 2nd , so once more it was a perfect race, the most of the start to finish. Of course, there were a number of drop-outs unexpected and two periods of neutralization which not really came at the right time for us, but these are things out of our control. We just had to stay focused on our race and that's what we did. Now, we go to Austin, a new circuit for everyone: we had a taste of it on the simulator, but it's something else on the track. We hope to get a good result and that there will be some spectacle in a country that is important as the United States. This evening I will go to sleep thinking that the glass is half full rather than half empty. We should be proud of what we did, work of track-mechanics and engineers who have tried to refine the car. I struggled from the start to finish: first with Maldonado, then Jenson, and ultimately, I tried to come back on Kimi. I could not relax a single lap . The best race of the year? It is yet to come." 

*Felipe Massa: "it was a race especially difficult for me because I had problems with the soft tires deteriorating more quickly that we had planned after Friday testing, we must therefore understand what has changed within two days. I also had problems with the balance of the car with the understeer in fast curves and oversteer in the slow corners. My duel with Webber was a crucial moment in the race, he has tried to do outside on me and we are affected. Then, he cut the chicane and came back on the track like crazy, forcing me to turn to avoid him . It's really a shame because I think I could have finish in front of Kobayashi but in all cases I scored points that are important for the constructors championship and we are increasing our lead over McLaren. For the next race I will have the same developments that Fernando Alonso had here and so we hope that there are other important areas. However we should not lose sight that the type of circuit can greatly affect the performance because here we saw McLaren and Lotus very strong, well more than the Red Bull for example, but it is not certain that it will be similarly in other races."

Abu Dhabi Gp : the race results

Abu Dhabi Gp : Alonso & Massa Saturday quotes

*Fernando Alonso: "in the three sessions we understood that we could not expect better than just the third row, we thought we would be between fifth and eighth, that's what has happened. I did three times the same time between Q1 and Q3, which means that we could not do better. Nevertheless, I am happy to work as we have used the most out of the car. Innovations brought a performance gain but is not enough, because others did not remain behind the armchair watching television. Usually the Saturday is the day where we suffer the most and Sunday everything gets better, so hopefully this will be the case even if it is true that the degradation of the tire is low. We know we must score 14 points more than Vettel in the three races, this is the goal." 

 

*Felipe Massa: "it's really a difficult and complicated weekend at least until tonight. We hoped to start a little bit better, being on the three first rows of the grid. In Q3, I chose to make a different program than Alonso because I had only a single set of options and in hindsight I have to say that this was not the best choice but it's always easy to talk about once the events past. I did not have all the latest changes here, the little that I have are positive but others are able to still save time as Alonso has shown. On my last lap, I had oversteer in a turn and it made me lose a few hundredths, maybe I have finished eighth, but this would not change much. Honestly we did the hardest, hope that tomorrow, with a good pace of race, which is traditionally our force we can come back. This circuit seems to highlight some cars such as the McLaren that were not fast in the final three races, here Hamilton clinched pole position."

Abu Dhabi Gp : the grid

Abu Dhabi Gp : Alonso & Massa Friday quotes

*Fernando Alonso: "it was one Friday like all others, we worked the morning on comparisons of the various aerodynamic solutions and in the afternoon we evaluated the tyres . Between the first and the second session the track changed a lot, it was predictable, because here there are many races throughout the weekend, initially it was dirty but it significantly improved, tomorrow conditions will be better." 

*Felipe Massa: "we completed our program, which is always positive and both in the first and the second practice session we worked on tires, regularity, we varied loads fuel to see the durability and we could see that we are competitive on the long relay but not on a quick lap . It would be good to us to be a little faster, but we will see what will happen , what will really count, what are the qualifications of tomorrow."