The Formula One Teams’ Association is aiming to cut the sport’s carbon emissions by more than 12% over the next three years, as it unveiled a programme to become more environmentally friendly.

The teams’ alliance, which includes all 12 current F1 squads, on Wednesday published research and analysis conducted on its behalf by consultancy firm Trucost which set out the ways the sport plans to cut its carbon footprint by 2012.

FOTA says that, together with the FIA, it has committed to working to develop new engine and powertrain regulations that will incorporate technologies designed to enhance fuel efficiency when F1's new engine formula is introduced in 2013, in addition to changes to the sporting regulations designed to “enhance and incentivise the competitive benefit” of further fuel consumption reductions.

With recent cost-cutting measures having already helped reduced F1’s carbon footprint, FOTA hopes to cut emissions in real terms from a baseline 2009 figure of 215,588 tonnes CO2-e to 188,784 tonnes CO2-e by 2012.

FOTA chairman Martin Whitmarsh said: “The good news is that, in conjunction with the FIA’s and FOTA’s recent successful efforts to improve efficiencies and restrict resources applied to Formula 1, it has already been possible to reduce Formula 1’s total carbon emissions.

“Moreover, building on what we have already achieved, and extrapolating what is now being planned, we anticipate that by 2012 Formula One will have reduced its total carbon emissions by 12.4% compared with 2009.

“With the support of all its member teams, FOTA has committed to the continuation of this programme, and has undertaken to maintain continuous and independent analysis and assessment in order to ensure that these carbon emissions reduction targets are met or bettered, and to investigate where further carbon emissions reduction opportunities may exist. Measurement and management, in other words.

“In addition, the FIA and FOTA are already working together to tailor the 2013 technical regulations to ensuring that all engines and powertrains used in Formula 1 by that date will showcase, and provide a platform for the ongoing development of, technologies designed to enhance fuel efficiency.

“This is a very exciting time for Formula 1, and I am delighted that our sport has been able to take a global environmental lead in this way.”

The Trucost research showed that only 0.3% of F1’s current emissions arise from the fuel consumed in races and testing, with the majority coming from the production and supply of raw materials and parts for teams.

Fernando Alonso has vowed to put the incidents of Sunday's contentious European Grand Prix behind him.

The Spaniard initially claimed the race was "manipulated" but although he has not apologised for his outburst, he has shifted his stance slightly.

"On Sunday evening, I was very angry about everything that happened," he told Ferrari's official website.

"But now that anger has been transformed into positive energy driving a desire to fight back."

Alonso and his Ferrari team were unhappy after McLaren's Lewis Hamilton effectively escaped punishment after overtaking the safety car.

Hamilton was handed a drive-through penalty but was able to retain second position in the race.

Alonso, who was running close behind Hamilton when the safety car came out following Red Bull driver Mark Webber's spectacular collision with the Lotus of Heikki Kovalainen, did not overtake the safety car, and went on to finish ninth.

But the timing and nature of the penalty on Hamilton enabled the British driver to build up a big enough cushion to complete the drive-through without losing a place.

By finishing second, Hamilton maintained his position at the top of the drivers' championship with Alonso fifth in the standings.

But having had time to reflect on the events, Alonso's anger has subsided, but he is keen to get the team's season on track at the British Grand Prix on 11 July.

"We were particularly unlucky in terms of the timing of when the safety car appeared on track," said Alonso, who also revealed that the FIA had agreed to call an extraordinary general meeting to discuss the various issues to be raised by the incident.

"It would have only needed a few seconds more or less to totally change our race.

"It does not achieve much going over the events that followed on, but obviously, in the clear light of day, I am much calmer than I was in the moments immediately following the race.

"At the time, I reacted emotionally and in that situation it is all too easy to adopt a tone and say things that can be interpreted wrongly, giving rise to suspicions, something which I had no intention of doing.

"Sure, I understand the stewards have a difficult job to do and they have to take decisions that are not easy.

"What I meant was that those drivers who, like us, respected the regulations, unfortunately in this situation, suffered much more than those who broke them, even though they were given a penalty.

"On Sunday evening I was very angry about everything that happened, but now that anger has been transformed into positive energy driving a desire to fight back.

"At Silverstone we will try and channel all that accumulated energy into the car to try and make up for what escaped us, for one reason or another, in Valencia."

Ferrari has rejected suggestions that it contravened the testing ban by running new developments on its car during a promotional filming day at Fiorano, but says it accepts moves to clarify the regulations.

In-season testing has been banned since the start of 2009, but teams are still allowed to do a small amount of running for promotional purposes and in straightline aerodynamic tests.

Ferrari raised eyebrows by admitting it tried its new exhaust system during a filming session a week before Valencia, and McLaren boss Martin Whitmarsh said the Italian squad wasn't the only one pushing the limits of the testing rules.

"The temptation was there, we've had some arguable decisions - we've seen Mercedes, you hear rumours of Renault doing something, Ferrari doing something - and once one does it then everyone thinks 'if that's how you're going to interpret it, I'll push it to the limit,'" Whitmarsh said.

"We will clarify and remove any hint of ambiguity - that I didn't think existed - and we'll hopefully solve the particular problem we have at the moment by that refinement."

But Ferrari boss Stefano Domenicali remained adamant his team had done nothing wrong - and hit out at Ferrari's critics for not discussing the matter directly.

"I think that a lot of people like to speak," he said.

"If I have any problem I take my mobile phone and I call personally. This is my style, I don’t use [the press] to say something.

"But I think that the filming day was pretty clear.

"If people want to be more comfortable then I know there are discussions in order to tidy up the wording, and I have no problem with that.

"A filming day is something related to the fact that we wanted to use our possible 100km in order to produce filming for the customers, our network, our dealership.

"And if someone has a problem they can call me and I will explain, that's my way of speaking."

Whitmarsh added that it might be time to consider a slight relaxation of the testing rules in any case.

"Drivers enjoy testing, teams enjoy testing and developing cars, so I think it's a good thing to do - as the health and wellbeing of the teams improves," he said.

"A happy medium would be one or two single-car tests during the year of maybe two or three days."

Mercedes GP chief Ross Brawn agreed that testing could probably now make a comeback.

"I think we should look at it carefully, I don't think we want to get back to having separate test teams again because that's a step change in the costs," he said.

"But we can look at adding on some testing around races, or post-races.

"I think we need to manage it carefully, but it does raise issues and we get the arguments about what's a test, what's not a test and all that sort of thing lurking around.

Ferrari boss Stefano Domenicali says the penalties issued for safety car infringements in Valencia were not stringent enough - and will only encourage teams to break the rules in the future as they could gain more by doing so than they would lose if punished.

Lewis Hamilton was given a drivethrough penalty for passing the safety car as it emerged from the pits, the Briton having not realised that the Mercedes sportscar had reached the crucial marker line slightly before him, but it the punishment did not affect his second place as by the time it was awarded he had enough of a gap back to third-placed Kamui Kobayashi to pit without losing a position.

Nine other drivers were adjudged to have exceeded the permitted speed when getting back to the pits during the safety car period, and were awarded 5s penalties after the race, but this had minimal impact, with four of the nine not losing any places in the classification as a result.

The Ferraris had been third and fourth before the caution period, but got caught right behind the safety car so ended up eighth and 11th in the results - leaving the team livid.

"Of course we are very angry because we didn’t get the points that we should have got from this race – considering the performance," said Domenicali.

"It has obviously affected Ferrari very, very heavily.

"Next time it may affect another one but today it is pretty obvious that we must make sure this kind of situation does not happen again."

He argued that awarded penalties either much later in the race or retrospectively gave teams a chance to try and make up for the punishment before it was applied - and suggested that this was effectively an incentive to break the rules if they felt the initial gain was worthwhile.

"By doing this kind of precedent then in the future you might sometimes prefer to break the rule and have this kind of penalty and not respect the rules," said Domenicali.

"This is not correct in my view.

"For sure, everyone is thinking how to use the sporting decision from a performance point of view.

"If you also look at the moment that there were a lot of cars under investigation, then you suddenly realise everyone is pushing because maybe they would get a 20s penalty so they would try to catch up and calculate.

"This is something that from the principle point of view is not correct."

Domenicali confirmed that Ferrari would not seek to protest any of the stewards' decisions or the race result any further, but would push for adjustments to the rules.

Nine drivers have been handed time penalties after the European Grand Prix. (which considering so many drivers had penalties, made little difference)

All the drivers investigated for the speed behind the safety car received five-second penalties: Jenson Button, Nico Hülkenberg, Rubens Barrichello, Robert Kubica, Vitaly Petrov, Adrian Sutil, Vitantonio Liuzzi, Sebastien Buemi and Pedro de la Rosa.

Timo Glock also got a 20 second penalty for ignoring blue flags.

The penalties promote Fernando Alonso ahead of Buemi and Nico Rosberg claims the final point instead of Pedro de la Rosa.

Update: the stewards explained the punishments as follows:

The Stewards received a report from the Race Director regarding [the cars] failing to stay above the minimum time set by the FIA ECU when the Safety Car was deployed,

The Stewards met with the [drivers and team representatives], considered the evidence and decided that this was a breach of Article 40.7 of the 2010 Formula One Sporting Regulations.

Article 40.7 of the sporting regulations says:

All competing cars must then reduce speed and form up in line behind the safety car no more than ten car lengths apart. In order to ensure that drivers reduce speed sufficiently, from the time at which the “SAFETY CAR DEPLOYED” message is shown on the timing monitors until the time that each car crosses the first safety car line for the first time, drivers must stay above the minimum time set by the FIA ECU.

Nico Rosberg escaped a penalty for a similar infringement in the Japanese Grand Prix last year when the stewards decided he had not been able to see the target lap time.

Here is the revised finishing order of the race:

Fernando Alonso called the result of the European “unreal and unfair” after falling from third place behind the safety car to ninth at the chequered flag (Alonso was promoted to 8th)

Meanwhile Lewis Hamilton got a drive-through penalty for overtaking the safety car yet still finished second.

Alonso said:

I think it was unreal this result and unfair as well.

We respected the rules, we don’t overtake under the yellows and we finish ninth. That is something to think about.

It completely destroyed the race. Hopefully we can move forward because after the victory of Vettel and podium for McLaren ninth place is very little points for us.

We need to apologise to the 60 to 70 thousand people who came to see this kind of race.

They gave a penalty already to Hamilton but it was too late – 30 laps to investigate one overtake.
Fernando Alonso

The stewards were also considering whether to penalise nine drivers for their speed behind the safety car, a decision which has not yet been taken.

The delay in giving a penalty to Hamilton, combined with the gap opening up behind him because of the slow Kobayashi, meant he didn’t lose a place when he took his drive-through.

But he lost a lot of time to Sebastian Vettel and was unable to challenge him for the lead at the end of the race.

Hamilton denied he overtook the safety car deliberately, saying:

I saw the safety car was pretty much alongside me, I thought I passed it so I continued.
Lewis Hamilton

However it does appear from replays that he might have backed off at first, unsure whether to overtake the safety car or not.

Alonso may suspect Hamilton backed off deliberately to prevent him from getting past the safety car as well – but if he’d had the awareness to do that, surely he’d have also made sure he stayed ahead of the safety car himself?

This controversy could have been avoided had the stewards made their decision more quickly. This is not the first time we’ve seen them take a long time to make an important call like this one.

Update: Ferrari described the race as a “scandal” in a statement:

A scandal, that’s the opinion of so many fans and employees who are all in agreement: there is no other way to describe what happened during the European Grand Prix. The way the race and the incidents during it were managed raise doubts that could see Formula 1 lose some credibility again, as it was seen around the world.

Update 2: Ferrari continue their criticism, issuing this quote from Piero Ferrari:

I am incredulous and bitter, not just for Ferrari, but for the sport as a whole, as this is not the sort of thing one expects from professionals. For a long time now, I have also followed races in championships in the United States, where the appearance of the Safety Car is a frequent occurrence, but I have never seen anything similar to what happened today at the Valencia circuit. If it raises some doubts over the actions that led to a false race, to me that would seem more than reasonable.

Sebastien Vettel once again showed his speed and maturity to comortable win the GP from start to finish. McLarens Lewis Hamilton come home in second place after much controversary.

Sebastian Vettel scored his second win of 2010 in the European Grand Prix.

Vettel was chased home by the two McLarens, Lewis Hamilton delayed by a drive-through penalty and Jenson Button spending much of the race behind Kamui Kobayashi.

The outcome of the race was decided by a safety car period following a violent crash for Vettel’s team mate Mark Webber.
Webber had fallen from second to ninth on the first lap as Hamilton, Fernando Alonso and a string of others passed him.
Webber made an early pit stop but a slow front-left wheel change meant he fell behind Heikki Kovalainen’s Lotus. The pair collided on lap 14, Webber flipping through the air (see separate story).

The safety car came out behind Vettel, in front of Alonso – and more or less alongside Hamilton. This seemed to confuse the McLaren driver who, after appearing to hesitate, passed the safety car before the first corner. But replays shown he had been behind the safety car at the line.

Meanwhile the other cars had to queue up behind the safety car which, for some of them, ruined their races. Chief among them were Ferrari, who had to make Felipe Massa wait behind Alonso for his pit stop.

The field pitted together behind the safety car. Vettel and Hamilton held their positions but Kamui Kobayashi appeared in third place, having started on the medium tyres and not pitted. He was about to become a thorn in the side of Button – and the saviour of Hamilton’s race.

By the time Hamilton got his penalty Kobayashi and Button had dropped so far behind that McLaren were able to bring Hamilton in for his drive-though without losing his position to the Sauber driver.

Kobayashi left his pit stop to make his mandatory change to super-soft tyres until there were just three laps to go. He came out behind Alonso and Sebastien Buemi, who were disputing seventh.
With the benefit of fresh tyres Kobayashi disposed of both of them in the final two laps. He dived down the inside of Alonso at turn 17 on the penultimate tour, then got Buemi for seventh at the last corner of the last lap.

Ahead of him Vettel took the chequered flag to win and move up to third in the drivers’ championship. Hamilton, second for the third year in a row at Valencia, keeps the lead in the championship ahead of Button, who finished third.

Rubens Barrichello finished an excellent fourth for Williams – though a double points finish was in the offing until Nico Hülkenberg parked up with eight laps to go.

Robert Kubica brought his Renault home fifth and Adrian Sutil was sixth for Force India, thanks to an earlier pass on Buemi.
The final point went to Pedro de la Rosa, ahead of Vitaly Petrov and Nico Rosberg.

Felipe Massa was 14th behind Vitantonio Liuzzi, ahead of Jaime Alguersuari and Michael Schumacher, the latter making three pit stops during the race.

First among the new teams was Lucas di Grassi, who swapped places with team mate Timo Glock early on in the race.
Glock later collided with Bruno Senna while Kobayashi and Button came up to lap them. Glock recovered to finish behind his team mate.

Last of the finishers were Karun Chandhok, Senna and Jarno Trulli. But many of these positions could change as the stewards are investigating nine drivers for their speed behind the safety car.

Video of Mark Webber's Crash.


Our comment on the incident
It was a horror accident for Mark which could of been ALOT worse than it was, thankfully, due to the FIA safety regulations and car design requirements and safety features, Mark was perfectly 100% ok and its just astonishing how safe F1 has become after a driving is unharmed after such a massive accident.

The defunct US F1 team have been banned from Formula 1 and fined 309,000 euros(£255,000) for their failure to compete in this year's world championship.

Governing body, the FIA, disqualified them from all future events.

The fine is equivalent to their entry fees to the championship - which will be simply retained - and the costs of bringing a disciplinary case.

The team now have seven days to launch an appeal, but they are not expected to contest the verdict.

After being named as one of four new entries last year, the team ran into financial difficulties.

Formula 1 chief Bernie Ecclestone expressed doubts about their ability to make the grid as early as December 2009.

They confirmed to the FIA in February this year - only three weeks prior to the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix - that they would not be able to take part.

In looking into the case, the judging body of the FIA's World Motor Sport Council decided to come down hard on the American team.

US F1 were found guilty of infringement of the International Sporting Code, the sporting regulations of the 2010 Formula One world championship, and the obligations resulting from its entry in the championship.

In their findings ,the FIA concluded US F1 "had displayed poor financial management and had underestimated the requirement to present an F1 car for the 2010 season in the time and with the financial resources available to them".

Two-time world champion Fernando Alonso set the fastest time in free practice for Sunday's European Grand Prix.

The Spaniard lapped the Valencia street circuit in one minute 39.283 seconds to top the times for Ferrari.

Red Bull pairing Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber were close at hand in second and third positions, followed by Mercedes' Nico Rosberg.

Englishman Lewis Hamilton was fifth fastest in his McLaren-Mercedes, with team-mate Jenson Button taking ninth.

Ferrari's Felipe Massa caused the session to be stopped when he spun and stalled after 30 minutes and lost the following half an hour of running, but the Brazilian recovered to take seventh-fastest time.

Virgin driver Timo Glock was another in the wars. He lost the final 40 minutes after he stopped out on the circuit with a mechanical problem, while Renault rookie Vitaly Petrov had a spin before rejoining.

Red Bull drivers Vettel and Webber were first and second fastest on the harder 'prime' tyres before teams started fitting the softer 'option' tyres during the final half-hour of the session.

But Alonso, performing this weekend in front of his home crowd, looked extremely strong as he vaulted his Ferrari to the top of the times.

Much attention is focused on Ferrari, who have fitted to their car a new exhaust system that follows the trend set by pace-setters Red Bull.

This is estimated to improve the car's pace by at least 0.5secs a lap, and BBC F1 pit-lane reporter Ted Kravitz said that the indications were the new parts were working well.

Kravitz added that the teams believed that McLaren, Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes were all evenly matched in Valencia.

Renault and Mercedes have also brought their versions of the system to Valencia.

Ferrari, featuring new update kit, carried Alonso to fastest time

Mercedes driver Rosberg used the update to go fastest in this morning's opening practice session, followed by McLaren-Mercedes pairing Hamilton and Button.

While Rosberg looks strong, team-mate Michael Schumacher finished just outside the top 10 on his first visit to the Valencia street circuit.

Force India again look to be contenders for points, with Adrian Sutil taking the eighth spot and Vitantonio Liuzzi in 12th.

The top 10 in both sessions was completed by Rubens Barrichello's Williams, the team working on their version of the rear-wing 'F-duct', which increases straight-line speed.

Two teams gave their reserve drivers a run-out in the opening session.

Scotsman Paul di Resta replaced Sutil at Force India. He was 0.057secs slower than Force India team-mate Liuzzi and took 16th place.

Hispania Racing's reserve, Christian Klien, was 0.220secs slower than Bruno Senna and finished 23rd. He was then replaced by race driver Karun Chandhok.

Senna's car prompted a session stoppage when it lost a mirror, which was run over by the Toro Rosso of Sebastien Buemi, prompting a red flag to clean up the debris.

Tomorrow's practice session starts at 1000 BST.

Nico Rosberg was fastest in the first practice session for the European Grand Prix.

The Mercedes driver led the McLaren pair of Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button after a session which was interrupted by a red flag.
Bruno Senna lost a wing mirror from his HRT in the first half of the session. It was hit by a couple of cars, including Sebastien Buemi and Heikki Kovalainen, and the session was briefly stopped so marshals could clear the debris from the track.

Several teams tested major upgrades to their cars including Ferrari, Mercedes and Renault – all running their exhaust-driven diffusers for the first time – and Red Bull – who were evaluating their version of the F-duct.

The track was also very dusty and several cars ran wide at the first corner, taking to the escape road to avoid hitting the barriers.
Mistakes became more frequent as the session went on and drivers’ tyres became increasingly worn. Jaime Alguersuari was heard on his team radio saying the tyres were “destroyed”.
Lotus strugged with graining on their front tyres, particularly the front-left. Despite that Heikki Kovalainen was the fastest of the new teams, within one second of Alguersuari.

McLaren led the way to begin with and were half a second quicker than their rivals for a large part of the session.

Rosberg beat Hamilton’s time while testing Mercedes’s F-duct, setting the quickest time while running their rear wing stalling device.

Two teams ran reserve drivers during the session. Paul di Resta appeared for Force India in Adrian Sutil’s place, and Christian Klien took over from Karun Chandhok at HRT. The regular drivers are expected back in the cars in second practice this afternoon.