Essential Reading for January 16th, 2009

Recommended links for January 16th, 2009:

• A summit at the summit? – Ferrari President Luca di Montezemolo turned up unexpectedly at the Wrooom event in the Italian ski resort of Madonna di Campiglio, meeting Bernie Ecclestone (who was on a similar "surprise" visit) over lunch in one fabulous chalets in the area.

  "Despite all the polemics and the many clashes we had, Ron Dennis will always be a great person," he said. "He and his team have done some extraordinary work over the last decades. I don't think that he'll completely leave Formula 1. I appreciated the support he and all the others are giving to FOTA."

• Mark Hughes analyses the new cars – Some have suggested that the tall vertical fin ahead of the F60’s sidepods that doubles up as a wing mirror support is against the spirit of the ’09 regulations.

  But Ferrari, by moving the sidepods further back, has created a narrow ‘blind spot’ not covered in the regulations, into which it has inserted this fin that in the process of creating more downforce will also give it a more choppy airflow wake.

• More on the Honda situation – It is a fair guess that the original complaint was linked to Achilleas Kallakis, the 40-year-old scion of a Greek shipping family, who has made a name for himself recently in the London property market and as a player of TV poker. It was reported in the Daily Telegraph that he was not satisfied with the receeption his bid received from Honda.

  Honda wants to avoid a situation in which the team is sold to someone who does not have the money to run it properly. The fear is it would create another situation similar to Midland F1, when an apparently wealthy steel magnate – Alex Shnaider – was unable to fund his F1 team properly.

• Webber back to business: 11 February – Mark Webber has confirmed with BBC Radio Five Live that he will be getting back behind the wheel on 11 February, in time for Red Bull’s first test after launching their new RB5 car two days previous.

  "I’m going to have a crack at driving the car on 11 February, and then we’ll see how that goes."

• Dennis steps aside at McLaren – Ron Dennis has announced that he is to stand down as the team principal of the McLaren formula one team, to be replaced by Martin Whitmarsh, who is currently the team's CEO.

  "I don't see this as a form of retirement," Dennis said. "It's very much the opposite because I will now be working harder in other areas. I will now take on more responsibility, greater responsibility, in certain key areas of the group.