Hamilton not hopeful

Lewis Hamilton has said he believes a top-eight finish in the season-opening Australian Grand Prix will likely prove beyond him. The World Champion was speaking one day ahead of opening practice for 2009's curtain-raiser and in the knowledge that his team, McLaren Mercedes, have so far struggled with their new car. McLaren's MP4-24 has experienced problems with its aerodynamics during winter testing, to the extent that staff are currently working 24/7 in a bid to regain ground lost to rivals.

Although progress has been made, Hamilton has conceded that he will probably be an also-ran come Sunday at a track on which he scored victory 12 months ago.

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Toro Rosso launch

Alonso's salary is crunched by £4m to help Renault

Former double world champion Fernando Alonso has taken a £4million pay cut to help his Renault team meet the cost of staying in Formula One. The Spaniard is believed to have accepted a revised salary of about £8m ahead of Sunday’s opening race in Melbourne.

Team-mate Nelson Piquet, already one of the grid’s lowest earners, will now be paid just £250,000. The cuts follow Dutch insurance company ING recently announcing they will end their title sponsorship of Renault at the season’s end.

It makes the Renault pair the latest victims of the credit crunch, which has already seen Britain’s Jenson Button agree an annual reduction from £8m to £3m to help Ross Brawn’s management buy-out of the former Honda team.

New Fomula One circuit in Australia

According to reports in the Australian press, a secret study has been completed that could see a new Formula One track built near Melbourne’s Avalon airport to the tune of 200 million Australian dollars.

The new circuit would be built to rival the current home of Formula One in Australia, the Albert Park Circuit with Trucking giant Linfox discovering that it was a very viable and much cheaper alternative than the current venue that requires twenty million dollars a year just to set up for the race.

"If the Government could extend the agreement with Bernie Ecclestone then we believe we can justify a new facility of an F1 standard - world's best practice - at Avalon," Linfox director Andrew Fox explained to the Melbourne Herald.

The Australian event has been losing a lot of money over the past few years with taxpayers expected to cover another 50 million dollar loss this year due to the 66% rise in costs.

Lewis can beat Schumi

MCLAREN'S Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton can go on to match or even surpass Michael Schumacher's record of seven world titles, according to new team principal Martin Whitmarsh.

"Oh yes, he clearly has the potential to do that," Whitmarsh, who will take the helm from Ron Dennis before the season starts in March, told the Guardian newspaper in an interview published yesterday.

"He won't talk about it because he's too modest, and what Michael did is extraordinary. But with great champions you don't want to match it, you want to beat it.

"The key thing about Lewis is that he's still very young and he hasn't reached the peak of his powers as a racing driver," Whitmarsh added of the 24-year-old Briton.

"That must be very worrying for his competitors," added the McLaren boss.

Hamilton, the youngest Formula One world champion, said at the unveiling of his new car last week that he would be starting the new season in a more relaxed mood and with his goals reset "back to where I started out in Formula One".

Whitmarsh said Hamilton, who won the title by a single point despite winning fewer races than Ferrari's Brazilian Felipe Massa, was determined to to win the title again to show that he was a worthy champion.Reuters