Pastor Maldonado hopes that Hugo Chavez, Venezuela's president, will recover soon. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

Lauda - Schumacher Had Talks With Sauber, Ferrari: Niki Lauda has confirmed that Michael Schumacher turned to Sauber and even Ferrari once he knew he would lose his Mercedes seat. Austrian legend Lauda, who has joined Mercedes as non-executive chairman, insists seven-time World Champion Schumacher lost his seat only because his decision-making period about the future beyond 2012 was so prolonged. He says Mercedes had to look around for alternatives, and closed a deal with Lewis Hamilton. "We have seen how fast-moving and ruthless Formula One is, with Mercedes responding extremely quickly once Hamilton was available," former F1 driver Alex Wurz told the Austrian broadcaster ORF. Lauda revealed to the German broadcaster RTL that, once Schumacher realized Mercedes' future was with Hamilton, the 43-year-old German "talked to Sauber and telephoned Ferrari." But he ultimately decided, on the Tuesday before the Japanese Grand Prix, to retire. However, if both the Hamilton signing and Schumacher's decision happened at around the same time, why didn't Mercedes delay the Hamilton announcement so that Schumacher could avoid the perception that he was pushed out? Team boss Ross Brawn explains: "Once we knew Lewis was coming to the team, we had to respond quickly, because Lewis wanted McLaren to know about the new situation. He has been with them (McLaren) for a long time and wanted to deal with them fairly. So once it was clear, we made it public."

Lotus Sidelines 'Double DRS' For Now: Lotus has sidelined its 'double DRS' system for now. While Red Bull quickly got its similar concept up and running to great effect with wins in Singapore and Japan, Lotus has been trying for several Grands Prix to fine-tune its version. The Enstone-based team intended to finally debut it at Suzuka, but engineers failed to get it working properly in free practice. "It hasn't been easy," technical director James Allison is quoted by Germany's Auto Motor und Sport. "It's been harder than expected to get it to switch correctly with the limited testing time. We will put it aside for now, have a think about it and bring it out again in the young drivers test in Abu Dhabi." In the meantime, Lotus is ready to test a Mercedes-style 'Coanda' exhaust layout this weekend in Korea, the German magazine reported. Allison confirmed: "Since the launch of the E20 we have always been working on a Coanda exhaust in the wind tunnel. As we have seen that the benefits are greater than our current system, it was clear that we needed to implement it."

Danner Tells Lauda To Fire Mercedes Staff: A German F1 pundit has advised Niki Lauda to take an axe to Mercedes' current personnel lineup. Lauda, the great Austrian triple World Champion, has been signed on as Mercedes' non-executive chairman — effectively a decision-making link between the German marque's Stuttgart headquarters and the racing team in the UK. So far, he has negotiated Mercedes' new Concorde Agreement deal and lured Lewis Hamilton onto the team for 2013. RTL commentator Christian Danner, a former driver, now wants Lauda to sack staff. "The people who built this car should really all be fired," he told Bild newspaper. It can't be that you drive all around the world for nine months only to find that your car is as fast as a Toro Rosso." Danner said it is now up to Lauda to put things right. "He is responsible to make the next decisions. And those decisions will primarily be about the personnel."