Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone warned the teams that were they to be party to any takeover of the sport it would be the equivalent of committing ‘suicide’.

The 80-year-old Briton - who reconstructed F1 into the modern global media-sport that it has become - and many Fomrula One observers were shaking their heads at the prospect of seeing the sport sold to media tycoon Australian Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation.

Less than 24 hours after the leading teams in the paddock had told a media briefing that they, through their official body - the Formula One Teams Association ( FOTA) - were keen to take a stake in any new ownership following a takeover, Ecclestone warned them such a move, notably to pay-per-view television, would “be suicide.”

“Murdoch hasn’t got anything really big to drive their TV audiences and Formula 1 would be good for that,” he explained.

“They have been trying to buy the TV rights from us for a long time, but we won’t because they are not free-to-air television broadcasters. They are a subscription service. Times of India

The rumor mill has hit top gear with reports that Red Bull, Mercedes, McLaren and Ferrari are to meet with Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation and Ferrari investors EXOR next week. F1’s major shareholders, CVC, insisted they did not want to sell when the bid was made last week, and Ecclestone feels teams should be grateful they’ve made that stance.

“I hope these people come to their senses. The teams should be happy to have somebody like CVC not selling to the wrong people,” said Ecclestone, who is also chief executive of CVC. 7DAYS

However, Formula One CEO Bernie Ecclestone has said other groups have made approaches apart from prospective bidders News Corp and EXOR.

Ecclestone confirmed he had discussed the News Corp and Exor approach with Formula One owner CVC Capital Partners, but not with News Corp CEO Rupert Murdoch. Ecclestone added that CVC doesn’t want to sell unless there is a “bloody enormous” offer. ESPN STAR Sports

But while buyout talks may not go any further, the F1 teams, Ecclestone (on behalf of CVC) and the FIA will have to come to an agreement over a new Concorde Agreement in 2012. All three parties are interested in getting a better deal from the document that binds the commercial aspects of F1 together, but the teams have been the most vocal and made several demands over the weekend.

Formula One Teams Association (FOTA) chairman Martin Whitmarsh said on Friday: “We want to see investment. Whether that is with existing partners or future partners.” ESPN F1

“There have been enough times people have wanted to do a breakaway and they haven’t succeeded up until now,” the 80-year-old told reporters at the Turkish Grand Prix when asked whether he was worried about the prospect of that re-emerging.

“We’ve had five or six ‘Concorde Agreements’ and there are always these sort of discussions going on beforehand. It’s normal foreplay before these things happen.”

The ‘Concorde Agreement’ between the commercial rights holders CVC, the governing International Automobile Federation (FIA) and teams expires at the end of next year. It is a lengthy and confidential legal document that sets out the commercial basis of the sport and division of revenues.

After a largely quiet 2010 where the racing was the main focus of attention, the paddock has again become a hotbed of intrigue with speculation about the future of the sport and what the main players are doing behind the scenes.

Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp and Italian financial holding EXOR, which controls Ferrari through FIAT, have teamed up to explore the “possibility of creating a consortium” that could run the sport.

They plan to talk to potential minority partners and the main operators. Shareholders, who would include investment funds from Abu Dhabi and Bahrain, in the big four teams are expected to meet them next week. Times of India.

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Shades of Schumi’s greatness some said with others comparing this German youngster to one of the greatest F1 racers to have ever graced this planet we all call home, Ayrton Senna. All comparisons aside, the 2011 Turkish Formula1 Grand Prix at Istanbul brought out a sheer dominance that Vettel has wielded upon his rivals throughout the 2011 F1 championship season.

In a stellar display of raw pace, Vettel first stormed into pole position in yesterday’s grand prix only to maintain the sheer pace that saw him hurtling across the chequered flag to emerge victorious at Istanbul even as team mate Mark Webber followed in second place after powering ahead of Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso with 6 laps to go.

Driving on a four pit stop strategy, Sebastian Vettel simply powered ahead of the rest, virtually un-challenged throughout the race by any of the other leading F1 drivers fighting pitched battles behind him. Team mate Mark Webber too followed a four pit stop strategy and managed to edge out Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso in a gripping battle to emerge victorious.

Ferrari finally showed come pace and the aerodynamic improvements that has been touted to dramatically improve Ferrari’s dismal form until now in the 2011 F1 championship season seems to be working, at least for Alonso, that is. Plenty of action ensued from the very first lap as Nico Rosberg in his Mercedes leapfrogged past Mark Webber of RedBull from third on the qualifying list to second by the first corner.

Webber was hustled by Lewis Hamilton’s Mclaren too but managed to fend off Hamilton who overdid the overtaking maneuver only to end up running wide, even as Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button capitalized to pass Hamilton. Up ahead Sebastian Vettel powered ahead unchallenged even as Micheal Schumacher got engaged in the first of many battles to come in this race by colliding with Russian F1 racer, Vitaly Petrov of Renault.

Michael Schumacher’s aggression to prevent the clearly faster Petrov passing him cost the seven time world champion a pit stop in the very second lap that put paid to whatever Ross Brawn might have strategized for Schumi. Plenty of the new fangled Drag Reduction System(DRS) was used by the front runners and overtaking maneuvers were actually pulled off quite successfully.

Webber got past Rosberg in Lap five with the DRS system helping even as Lewis Hamilton locked horns with team mate Jenson Button only to run wide yet again. The battle between the Mclarens ensued with Hamilton retaking fifth place only to be passed by Button once again. Some really dramatic F1 racing ensued, that would’ve definitely caused flutters for a certain Ron Dennis on the pit wall.

Up ahead, Webber couldn’t catch up with Vettel who continued to pile on the pace, quite reminiscent of Michael Schumacher in his dominant years. Behind the front runners pitched battles ensued with plenty of overtaking to make the 2011 Turkish Grand Prix a real racing spectacle that simply puts the bang right back into Formula1. A pity really, given that the 2012 Turkish Grand Prix might not happen at all.

After the top six made four pit stops each except Nico Rosberg with three, who finally passed Button with two laps to go to take fifth place, Alonso was passed by Mark Webber with six laps to go to retake second place. All said, Ferrari displayed some very good pace with Alonso showing real pace throughout the race while Massa could manage it in fits and bursts.

It was an action filled race, disappointingly so for Michael Schumacher who appeared to overdo the aggression to compensate for the lack of race pace and Michael, it seems is losing more pace as the season progresses and it wasn’t a pretty sight at all. Force India’s Paul Di Resta had a mechanical failure while his team mate, Adrian Sutil managed finished out of the points in 13th place, to make for a disappointing weekend for the Indian owned team.

The two HRT cars were off colour when it came to race pace but managed to be reliable enough to take the chequered flag with Narain Karthikeyan managing to bring back his HRT home ahead of team mate Vitantonio Liuzzi. Timo Glock of Virgin Racing was the only other retiree in a surprising race which had 22 of the 24 F1 cars finishing. That, pretty much wraps up the super exciting Turkish Grand Prix and down below, you can check out the detailed time sheet.

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World champion Sebastian Vettel damaged his Red Bull in a crash during a wet first session and missed the second, in which team-mate Mark Webber was fifth. Nico Rosberg was second, 0.542secs and two places ahead of his Mercedes team-mate Michael Schumacher.

Ferrari's Fernando Alonso was hampered by a hydraulics problem and finished 1.613secs off the pace in 11th. After seeing his winning streak broken at the last race in China by Hamilton, Vettel made an error on his return to competition in Istanbul.

The German, who leads the title chase by 21 points from Hamilton, lost control coming out of the high-speed Turn Eight, which stretches through four apexes, and crashed into the barriers.

"I hit the kerb," Vettel said. "There is nothing I could have done."Red Bull were unable to repair Vettel's car in time for the afternoon session and the world champion will only have a final hour of practice on Saturday before qualifying begins at 1200 BST.

Team principal Christian Horner said: "It was one of those things. We were keen to look at the intermediate tyres but as he went out the rain increased. "He was just unlucky and unfortunately it did quite a bit of damage. He managed to hit about every corner of the car. It just caught him out.

"The team have plenty to do this evening. Sebastian missed out on a lot of running time."BBC Radio 5 live analyst Maurice Hamilton added: "Vettel and his engineers must now totally rely on Webber's input and he will give it to him no doubt. "But Webber is getting a psychological advantage as he is having the car set up to his liking."

Webber, who took pole in Turkey last year and was leading when he was spectacularly taken out by his team-mate, set a best lap of one minute, 27.149secs.

After three long-haul races, Red Bull arrived for the European leg of the season as the team to beat and McLaren, Ferrari and Mercedes landed in Turkey with upgraded cars.

But the damp and chilly conditions, with track temperatures a meagre 11C at the start of the day, put paid to any meaningful running in first practice at Istanbul Park.

Hamilton and Button only emerged for installation laps before they hunkered down in the McLaren garage as the team chose to conserve their limited sets of wet and intermediate tyres.

A brighter afternoon, and a quickly drying track, saw both McLaren drivers do a full session's running.

When the team fitted the soft tyres inside the last half an hour, Button set his benchmark time of one minute 26.456 seconds.

"I'm relatively happy," Button said. "There are always things you want to improve (but) we've made some good progress.

"Trying to get the car to ride the bumps well into Turn 12 is a little bit difficult but that is something we're working on.

"We ran both tyres in the session. Turn Eight is very difficult for the cars.

"It's about getting the balance right and we've concentrated on that quite a bit - we're getting there but there's quite a bit to find.

"We haven't got everything we wanted put on the car here but we do have some updates so it's always nice to move forward.

"I had a quiet morning - lots of tea - but this afternoon we did high fuel and low fuel running but it's difficult to get a balance around here."

Hamilton added: "I initially struggled a little bit with set-up, which we can look at and fix overnight, but I was really pleased with my long-run pace - I think it was probably one of the best practice long-runs I've ever had."

Ferrari sit behind champions Red Bull and second-placed McLaren in the constructors' championships after struggling for pace in the opening three races.

The Italian team are trying out a new front and rear wing this weekend and new brake ducts and Fernando Alonso was confident before practice that the car would be "a couple of tenths faster" than at the last race in China.

But it was a mixed day for the double world champion who set the pace on intermediate tyres in the morning before a more testing afternoon.

Alonso spun out of Turn Six and then came to a stop at the entrance to the pit lane because of a hydraulics problem.

The team, who had checked the Spaniard's car for potential hydraulics problems earlier in the session, wasted little time solving the problem and he returned for a spell on soft tyres.

Despite his problems, Alonso said he was encouraged by the Ferrari's performance.

"We did a step forward," he said. "We need to see how big it was.

"The car felt good. Felt OK this morning, felt OK this afternoon. We had some mechanical issues in my car, but nothing too worrying. So we'll see (in qualifying)."

Mercedes were understood to be running with a new front wing in Turkey and the team will take a fillip from Rosberg and Schumacher's Friday performance.

Schumacher had an adventurous day. He aquaplaned off the track in the morning before he ploughed onto the grass during the second session as he reacquainted himself with Istanbul's unique challenges.

"Are we potential winners?" said Mercedes vice-president of motorsport Norbert Haug. "Not yet but we're working on it. "There's big potential there. Hopefully we can stabilise from our level of performance in China and go forward from there. The direction is the right one I have to say."Ferrari's Felipe Massa, a three-time winner in Istanbul, finished sixth just ahead of Vitaly Petrov's Renault.

Scottish rookie Paul di Resta, who experienced his first two runs around the circuit, was eighth for Force India and 1.269secs off the pace.

Sergio Perez's Sauber and Adrian Sutil's Force India rounded out the top 10. Williams, who announced that technical director Sam Michael would stand down at the start of the season on Tuesday, abandoned their updates during the morning session.

And things hardly got better for the Oxfordshire-based team as Pastor Maldonado spun off twice before Rubens Barrichello's session ended early because of a water leak in his Kers power-boost system.

Hispania drivers Narain Karthikeyan and Tonio Liuzzi finished ahead of both Virgin cars, which had a new floor and other major changes in Turkey.

Team Lotus are planning their major changes - including a Red Bull style floor and rear package - in Barcelona but Heikki Kovalainen was just 0.402secs behind Kamui Kobayashi's Sauber in Friday's afternoon session.

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The owners of Formula One today echoed the words of Bernie Ecclestone by insisting the sport is not for sale. Italian investment company EXOR and media giant News Corporation yesterday confirmed their interest in a potential takeover of F1. The consortium pitches media mogul Rupert Murdoch together with the powerful Agnelli family who, among many interests, run Fiat which in turn owns Ferrari.

F1 supremo Ecclestone, however, yesterday told Press Association Sport that private equity firm CVC, who hold the commercial rights to F1, had no interest in releasing their asset at present. Ecclestone, who operates as CVC's chief executive, said: 'I know they don't want to sell, so it's going to be a bit difficult. I can see CVC in for the long haul, absolutely, 100%.'

In a statement released today by CVC, they confirm an approach has been made, albeit a tentative early enquiry, but underlining the fact F1 is not on the market. 'CVC can confirm that it has recently received an approach from the Exor/News Corporation consortium,' read the statement.

'James Murdoch has informed us the approach is friendly, at a very preliminary stage, and they acknowledge Formula One is privately owned by CVC and not currently for sale. 'CVC recognises the quality of Exor and News Corporation as potential investors, but any investment in Formula One will require CVC's agreement and will need to demonstrate that it is in the interest of the sport and its stakeholders, taken as a whole.'

It is clear from the remarks made by CVC, who purchased F1 in 2006 for £1.8billion, that they are not totally ruling out EXOR and News Corporation as likely future backers.

Given CVC are currently in debt following their acquisition of F1, with the projection they will remain so until 2014, investment is not beyond the realms of possibility. However, as Ecclestone also remarked yesterday, everything has its price and CVC could ultimately sell if the money was right.

'If somebody came along and offered them a lot more money than it's worth, they would obviously say "Sit down, let's have a chat",' added Ecclestone. 'But I get the distinct feeling that's not going to happen.'

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The organizers of the 2011 Bahrain Grand Prix continue to keep their fingers crossed with the hope of the 2011 Bahrain Grand Prix being held at a latter date in 2011 in the Middle Eastern country hit by internal turmoil.

Today, the deadline set by Formula1′s governing body FIA, asking the Bahraini F1 Grand Prix organizers to inform it about whether the 2011 Bahrain Grand Prix can be held later this year expires.

While the organizers have not confirmed whether the 2011 Bahrain Grand Prix will indeed be rescheduled for a later date in the year, Bernie Ecclestone hinting at giving more time to the Bahraini F1 organizers to reschedule the Grand Prix has raised hopes amongst F1 fans in the Middle East.All said, the situation in Bahrain remains far from normal with pro-democracy activists writing an open letter to Bernie Ecclestone urging him to refrain from reinstating the Bahraini Grand Prix. Here’s what they wrote.

On th other end of the spectrum, Bahrain International Circuit chairman Zayed Rashid Alzayani had a different tune to sing saying that the conditions in Bahrain had now improved.Thus, the situation at the moment continues to remain tense in Bahrain and therefore, we feel that it will still be sometime before the organizers are really convinced of bringing in the F1 teams after making sure that their safety will not be affected. Until then, the conduction or non-conduction of the 2011 Bahrain Formula1 Grand Prix will continue to hang in an uneasy balance.

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Very soon, you will be able to log on to the ticket portal, BookMyShow, to buy tickets for the 2011 Buddh Indian Formula1 Grand Prix that will happen right here in Gandhiland. Earlier today, the logo of the Buddh International F1 Circuit that will host the Indian Grand Prix was unveiled.

Along with that plenty of things about the Grand Prix were talked about.First of all, the GrandPrix tickets will go on sale from early June. That apart, the tickets can be booked at the BookMyShow ticket portal.

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Question: Lewis, you made a gamble to keep back a fresh set of tyres. Was it the gamble that paid off for you today?

Lewis Hamilton: I think today the strategy we came up with going into qualifying definitely helped. I think my new option tyre seemed to last a little bit longer than the guys in front but I think it was quite a few things that came together really. The pitstops were fantastic. It was good for us. The guys are always pushing to improve and the car felt great. I was just trying to nurse my tyres whilst trying to pick up pace. It was one of the best races I have experienced where guys were out in front of me and I had to do quite a lot of overtaking. But thumbs up to the guys back at the factory and in the garage. They really put their hearts into developing the car and making the car the best it can be every weekend. It feels amazing to be able to bring home the victory for them.

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Tony Fernandes, Team Principal: “We head to China after taking a good step forward in Malaysia, but we are all focused on the reality of where we are now and know there we have a lot of work ahead of us. The main aim for me now is to improve our reliability and make sure both cars cross the finish line on Sunday. We have shown there is pace in the car, and there will be more to come when we start putting the updates on in Europe, but now we have to make sure we give the drivers the time they need on track to optimise the setup and the only way to do that is to avoid reliability issues.

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Amidst gathering thunderclouds that kept both the F1 teams as well as the fans on tenterhooks, Formula1 qualifying at the Sepang Formula1 Circuit at Malaysia saw some on-the-edge action. Just as Mclaren looked to walk away with the qualifying honours with Lewis Hamilton displaying super pace at the Malaysian F1 circuit, reigning World Champion Sebastian Vettel put in an abolute blinder to clinch the pole position for Team Redbull Renault, thus pipping Lewis Hamilton by the slimmest of margins, one tenth of a second, or 0.1 seconds. That was how close it really was.

Jenson Button also displayed some very good pace which saw him qualifying third fastest behind Vettel and Hamilton while Mark Webber somehow struggled with car balance to finish fourth fastest. Both the Ferraris were off color throughout qualifying and to save face had to use softer compounds in Q2 itself which meant that for a brief period, Felipe Massa occupied pole with Fernando Alonso in third place in Q2. Finally the Ferraris of Alonso and Massa only managed to 5th and 7th places respectively and will be hoping to have decent race tomorrow.

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“Sepang is a circuit I really love. It’s big, fast and wide with some really demanding high-speed corners where you can find a lot of time if you’re really able to get the car working to its full extent. “After the pace we showed in Melbourne, I think we can have another good race in Malaysia. Albert Park is a great track, but a circuit like Sepang is where the differences between the cars will start to become clearer.

“I’m really looking forward to using KERS Hybrid and the DRS too – the rapid change of direction you experience when the car is really in the groove is phenomenal around here, and I think both systems will make the cars look sensational, especially in qualifying.

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