Essential Reading for January 7th, 2009

Recommended links for January 7th, 2009:

• Singapore to revise track for 2009 race – "We are modifying turns one, two and three because we want drivers to have more opportunities to overtake this year."

  There are also plans to work on improving the track surface, which drew criticism from drivers as the most bumpy on the Formula One calendar and required teams to make drastic setup changes.

  "We want to reduce the bumps and smoothen out the circuit," said Syn. "So that will be an improvement next year to make the race even better than it was in 2008."

• Donington Park in a race against time to stage 2010 British Grand Prix – The owners of Donington Park, the venue for the 2010 British Grand Prix, face a challenge to raise almost £40 million in funding required to upgrade the track and facilities in time to host the race next year.

  In February 2007 Gillett approached Donington's owner Tom Wheatcroft, who rescued the circuit from decay in 1973, and secured a 150-year lease as well as significant land holdings on the 100-acre site for a sum believed to be £30 million. Just as importantly, he secured from Wheatcroft an introduction to Ecclestone.

• Ferrari is not Honda’s only choice – There has been much reporting in the last day or so which suggests that the team formerly known as Honda Racing F1 is close to a deal to use Ferrari engines in 2009. This is not as clear-cut as some of the stories have suggested.

  Toyota and BMW both had acceptable horsepower levels but it was clear that the fight for the best engine was only ever between McLaren and Ferrari. It is worth noting that engine insiders say that the Mercedes was the better engine because at the end of 2006 the team picked up a lot of people from Cosworth, which was generally agreed to have had the best engine in 2006. Williams left the Northampton firm because there was a better financial deal on offer from Toyota.