Jenson Button says members of the McLaren team will be watching the World Cup on Friday from the track in Montreal. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

McLaren To Delay Debrief To Watch World Cup Match: McLaren may have to delay its usual post-qualifying debrief so that patriotic team members can watch England kick off its FIFA World Cup campaign. Saturday's qualifying in Montreal conveniently finishes with half an hour to spare before the Group C match against the United States takes place in South Africa. "I don't think we'll be able to do the debrief until after the game," Lewis Hamilton is quoted by PA Sport. Jenson Button confirmed: "Possibly the engineering debrief will go out of the window for a couple of hours because it's mostly English (people)involved." The reigning World Champion said he might even fly out to watch a live match before the tournament concludes next month. "I'm not sure if I'm free yet, but I'm going to try my best to get out there," said Button.

Webber Phones Rossi After Similar Leg Break: Valentino Rossi has revealed he received a phone call from F1 championship leader Mark Webber while recovering in a Florence hospital. MotoGP great Rossi badly broke his right leg in a practice crash at Mugello last Saturday. The break, with the shin bone broken through the skin, was reportedly similar to Webber's cycling injury in the 2009 pre-season. "He told me to be very patient and that I would have some moments of discomfort, but that in the end recovery was guaranteed," said the Italian, 31. Rossi was moved to a hospital closer to his home on Thursday.

Teams To Be Charged For Pit Wall Services: F1 teams are set to receive a bill for pitwall services that were previously provided free of charge. Italy's Autosprint reports that the affected services are the detailed live weather forecasts provided by Meteo France, as well as the GPS information about the location of cars on the circuits.

Nico Rosberg is optimistic the racing surface at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve will be much improved for this weekend's Canadian Grand Prix. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

Rosberg Cautious About Montreal Track Surface Fix: Nico Rosberg has admitted he is cautious about the news that Montreal's Circuit Gilles Villeneuve has fixed its track surface problems. On F1's most recent visits to Canada, in 2007 and 2008, the asphalt broke up on the racing line in several sections. The FIA announced on Wednesday that "the track has been resurfaced in the areas affected by degradation" in 2008. "We must be cautious," the Mercedes driver said, "because there have been improvements every year, and every year was a disaster. But I'm still confident, as I have spoken with FIA officials. The FIA has said it has paid close attention, so it should be fine," German Rosberg said in fluent French at a pre-race event in downtown Montreal, according to La Presse newspaper.

Mercedes Targets 10pc Budget Cut For 2011: Mercedes is reportedly considering a 10 percent cut to its Formula One budget. According to the well-known French commentator Jean-Louis Moncet, the German marque's board of directors met on Monday to discuss spending on Formula One. Moncet, whose blog is published by France's Auto Plus, said Mercedes will review its budget after July's Hockenheim race with a view to a 10 percent reduction in 2011-2012. He also writes that the Mercedes directors discussed supplying customer engines to a fourth team in 2011.

Red Bull Not Close To Perfecting F-Duct: Several more races could pass before Red Bull is ready to race a McLaren-style F-duct system. The Austrian team tested an early prototype of the downforce-stalling concept during the practice sessions in Turkey, but it is believed the F-duct will not re-appear at all this weekend in Montreal. According to Finnish newspaper Turun Sanomat, the subsequent Valencia and Silverstone rounds might also pass without a race-able version of the F-duct fitted to Mark Webber or Sebastian Vettel's RB6 cars. The report said the German round at Hockenheim could be the earliest possible qualifying and race debut for the Red Bull F-duct. Before then, new iterations of the Turkey-specification F-duct could be tested in practice as soon as the forthcoming European Grand Prix at Valencia later this month.

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Fittipaldi To Be Steward In Canada: Emerson Fittipaldi will be the race steward presiding alongside the three FIA officials at this weekend's Canadian Grand Prix. The 63-year-old Brazilian Fittipaldi won his two F1 World Championships in 1972 and 1974, before winning the Indy 500 twice and becoming the Indycar title holder in 1989. In F1, he won his first race during his rookie season for Lotus in 1970, and two years later become F1's youngest champion at 25. In 1974 he moved to McLaren and won the title again, but then moved to his brother Wilson Fittipaldi's team and struggled. He stopped driving in F1 at the end of 1980 at the age of 33, joining his brother in managing the team before it fell apart in late 1982. Fittipaldi switched to American CART racing in 1984, winning the title in 1989 at the age of 43. At 47 he won the Indy 500 for the second time, but an injury ended his Champ Car career in 1996 when he was 50. He was a Champ Car team owner in 2003 and recently the boss of the Brazilian A1 GP team. Fittipaldi's nephew Christian drove in F1 for Minardi and Footwork between 1992-1994.

Still No Friday Practice Plans For Virgin's Soucek: Virgin still has no plans to give its test and reserve driver Andy Soucek some laps on the Friday of a Grand Prix weekend. We reported in April that the reigning F2 champion is contracted to do some driving in 2010, but he said the new British team "currently have other problems than to be thinking about the third driver." The 24-year-old Austrian-Spaniard now tells laola1.at: "I have a contract that states I will test at the end of the year for two days." As for the possibility of a Friday practice session outing, Soucek adds: "I believe it would be interesting for the team to have a third opinion about the car, but at the moment they do not see it the same way. Every week I'm putting pressure on the CEO by sending emails." With Timo Glock and Lucas di Grassi in the race cockpits this year, Soucek is not sure he sees a future at Virgin for 2011. "It's hard to say," he said. "I have a one-year contract with a clause for renewal. There is a chance of a (race) cockpit, but there are other options."