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I've read somewhere this week that vd Garde is a contender for the second seat at Manor

Van der Garde takes legal action against Sauber

Giedo van der Garde is taking legal action against Sauber, claiming that he was unfairly dismissed from the team with which he held a valid 2015 contact, according to Australian media.

Van der Garde raced for Caterham in 2013 but moved to a reserve role with Sauber in 2014, where he participated in selected free practice sessions.

Van der Garde claims that he was guaranteed a spot on the 2015 grid with Sauber during the middle of last year, but the team reneged on the deal and signed Felipe Nasr and Marcus Ericsson.

The Dutch driver has lodged documents to the Victorian Supreme Court in Melbourne, Australia, where he is seeking an urgent case in order to secure one of the Sauber seats ahead of the first round of the campaign.

Local media reports that Van der Garde originally took his claim to the Arbitration Institution in Switzerland - the country in which Sauber is based - which sided with the driver.

GPUpdate.net contacted both Van der Garde and Sauber but neither party was available for comment.

Teams threatening boycott over Alonso crash?

F1 teams are threatening to boycott unless clearer information about Fernando Alonso's mysterious testing crash is revealed.

That is the claim of the German magazine Sport Bild, after McLaren-Honda's star driver was sidelined for next weekend's season opener in Melbourne.

McLaren insists Alonso is completely uninjured, but he will sit out Australia after a mysterious incident saw him spend four days in hospital.

"Sport Bild has learned that several teams are thinking about not letting their drivers race in Melbourne on safety grounds," said correspondents Ralf Bach and Bianca Garloff.

They said teams fear speculation that Alonso was rendered unconscious by an electric shock from the sport's controversial hybrid technology may be true.

Sport Bild quoted a team boss as saying: "If a plane crashes and there is even the slightest risk that it happened because of a system fault, other planes of that type are not left in the air."

The unnamed boss added: "Formula one has been lucky that nothing serious has happened with these hybrid systems.

"If any of my drivers had an incident, I would invite all the other teams to study the data -- just so we can be sure. Honda must provide answers to the FIA."

Another new voice calling for more information about Alonso's mysterious crash belongs to Gian Carlo Minardi, a former team owner and boss.

"Silence in cases like these is not helpful," he is quoted by Italy's La Repubblica.

"In recent years, the FIA has made great strides in the area of safety and has all the tools to find out the truth.

"It would be desirable if it was known before the race in Australia," Minardi added.

When asked about the electric shock theory, he commented: "I have no evidence to support that so I can't comment.

"I have never worked with these power units, but I am told there are three or four fail-safe systems.

"There is this investigation of the FIA, so for the good of F1 there cannot be any classified information," Minardi insisted.

The 67-year-old Italian, however, did say he is not surprised Alonso is sitting out Melbourne.

"No," said Minardi, "it's the only normal thing in this whole affair.

"He is like a boxer who went down with a heavy blow. It takes time to come back, even if all the tests were positive."

Coldtyre has just accurately described The British journalism model.

FTFY.

There have been conflicting reports about the speed of Alonso's accident, which happened on the exit of Turn Three at the Circuit De Barcelona-Catalunya. But some facts are known.

This writer has seen the GPS and lap-time data of both the lap on which the Spaniard crashed and the lap before. The computer telemetry from the car, which contains all the data, including braking and steering inputs, has not been released by McLaren.

The GPS and lap time data shows both the line Alonso was on, and the speed he was doing at the time. It reveals the following:

Alonso's previous lap was the fastest he had done that day. On the subsequent lap, the lap of the crash, he brakes deeper into Turn One, and is wider out of it.

That dictates a different line through the kink of Turn Two, from where he takes a wider entry - a potentially faster line - into Turn Three, the racing line of which sees the drivers run right out at the edge of the track throughout the second part of the corner.

Alonso enters Turn Three noticeably faster than on the previous lap. It is hard to be absolutely sure of the difference, but it is in the region of 5-7km/h. In other words, a significant amount.

He maintains his wider line throughout - so will have had more of the car on the kerb than on the previous lap. He loses control at a speed of about 215km/h (134mph), give or take a km/h or so.

This is about the speed a driver would be expected to be travelling at this point. Some sources say it is a bit slow, but we know it was faster than the previous lap, which was his fastest so far, and we also know he was slightly off line.

McLaren say Alonso lost control because his outside rear wheel was on the Astroturf on the outside of the corner, and also that strong gusting winds - about which the driver had been complaining all morning - may well have played a part.

The car then decelerates heavily throughout the period before Alonso hits the wall.

Engineers who have seen the GPS data say the deceleration trace is almost identical to that for braking into Turn Four, a hairpin.

Alonso did not run at a specific lower speed for any significant amount of time. There is a small blip in the data where the deceleration levels out, but this is for only between 0.2-0.3 secs.

It is impossible to be sure from the GPS data at what speed the car was travelling when it hit the wall.

McLaren chairman Ron Dennis says: "There were two G readings, when his head hit one side of the cockpit and then the other side of the cockpit."

Now Ian, come on! The team behind The Sun's Page 3 probably disagrees!

Sorry all I read there was tits, tits and more tits.

Not unsurprising, I didn't know where I was or what the year or day was, but I knew my name, where I was born and what school I went to, which isn't helpful when you're pushing mid-40's and trying to convince people you're ok., took me a few hours to get my bearings and I hadn't done anything near as bad as Fred.

Why what did he do?