Formula 1's Latest Rumours and Talk: Renault, Summer Break, Force India, More

As the Formula One teams prepare to close down for the mandatory two-week summer break, commercial rights chief Bernie Ecclestone is facing a revolt from the teams over next season's August shutdown.

The provisional 2016 calendar has only a three-week gap between the Hungarian Grand Prix on August 7 and the Belgian race on August 28. This doesn't give the teams enough time to let their hard-working staff enjoy a proper 14-day break, and they appear to be united in calling for a change.

Also looking ahead to next season—or perhaps 2017—Renault has revealed it will make a decision about its future in the sport by the end of 2015. The French carmaker is tipped to return as a full constructor, perhaps buying the Lotus team.

But its relationship with Red Bull and Toro Rosso could well be coming to an end.

Elsewhere, Jenson Button has been tipped to join the presenting team on the revamped BBC TV show Top Gear, Autosport has published the results of its detailed fan survey and Force India are confident the failures that blighted their Hungarian Grand Prix weekend will not be repeated.

Read on for a full roundup of the top stories from the last few days.

Renault is set to make a decision regarding its future in F1 in the second half of the season.

The French carmaker is pondering returning to the sport as a full constructor, with a buyout of Lotus—the team Renault sold to Genii Capital in 2010—looking its most likely route back.

But whatever happens, the company remains committed to its relationship with the two teams it currently supplies with engines—at least, until the end of next year.

Speaking to ESPN, Renault Sport F1 managing director Cyril Abiteboul said:

Nothing is done as of yet, but we are much further down the road and we are much closer to a conclusion and a decision. We are much clearer on why we want to be in F1 and also we are much clearer on the value of the sport and the sort of cost and budget we think we should allow. We are clear also on the conditions that are required to have a successful involvement in Formula One and what we want to do and what we don't want to do. So, a lot clearer internally, but nothing to express.

We will have some news in the second half of 2015 and some news on what we will do beyond 2016 because at this point in time our plans are made and fixed for 2016, which is that we have a binding contract with Red Bull and Toro Rosso, which we will be allowing. We are making plans in that respect and start to work on engine parts in that respect.

Abiteboul went on to reveal Renault is treading carefully so far as finances were concerned, adding that a full investigation of Lotus' monetary situation is needed before a decision can be made.

But most telling is that he didn't make any reference to his company's relationship with Red Bull continuing beyond the end of their current contract.

If Renault does buy Lotus—or another team—it seems unlikely it will complete the full rebrand by the start of 2016. Last time it entered as a constructor (buying Benetton in 2000), it only put its own name and colours on the car when it was ready to be competitive.

So perhaps that will be in 2017—when the company will be free of distractions from elsewhere.

Force India believe they will quickly identify and fix the problems that led to spectacular crashes for Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg over the Hungarian Grand Prix weekend.

Perez came to a halt upside down during first practice following a suspension failure as his car rode the kerb at the exit of Turn 11. The team missed second practice as a precaution while they found a solution.

Modifications to their rear suspension allowed them to run again on Saturday, but in Sunday's race, Hulkenberg's front wing failed in spectacular fashion, sending him spearing into the tyre wall.

Chief operating officer Otmar Szafnauer told Autosport he believed, as had been the case with Perez's crash, vibrations from running over the unusually tough Hungaroring kerbs were to blame.

But deputy team principal Bob Fernley isn't overly concerned. Asked by Autosport if he was confident the incidents would not happen again, he said:

Completely. Reliability and design integrity are two of the key strengths of Force India, and I don't think that has been compromised. It's just unfortunate it was a weekend when we had a couple of incidents that were high profile.

We can expect a slight strengthening of the parts in different areas and then we will be fine.

Force India exceeded expectations with their relatively undeveloped "A-spec" car early in the season, and their heavily updated VJM08 has seen them take a further step forward.

The two failures in Hungary are a worry but are likely to be issues unique to the circuit's robust kerbs—the wing that failed is the same one used by the team at Silverstone, where both drivers finished without any problems.

Furthermore, Ferrari also had difficulties on the kerbs, evidenced by Raikkonen's front wing failure in practice and his camera pod falling off during the race.

The fixes Fernley mentioned—likely to at the very least include a beefing up of the front wing support struts—might add a tiny bit of extra weight, but the overall competitiveness of the car won't be significantly affected.

Jenson Button is rumoured to be under consideration for a hosting role on the revamped version of motoring TV show Top Gear.

The Daily Mail's Sebastian Shakespeare reports McLaren driver Button is in discussions with the BBC to join Chris Evans as a co-presenter of the globally distributed programme. He quotes an unnamed source as saying "an announcement is imminent."

Spokesmen for Button and BBC did not deny talks were taking place.

In its most recent incarnation, Top Gear was hosted by Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May and became one of the most popular programmes on British TV. Clarkson was removed from his position earlier in the year following what a BBC statement described as a "fracas" with one of the show's producers.

Hammond and May opted against renewing their own contracts, and the show is set for a major overhaul with Evans as its primary host.

What role, if any, Button is being considered for may depend on where he sees his F1 career going.

The new format remains unknown at this time, but it's likely any full-time host would need to make a serious commitment to the show in terms of time. Prior to Clarkson's removal, episodes were often filmed in locations all over the world with the three presenters spending weeks at a time on the road.

If the new Top Gear features similar excursions to far-flung destinations, it's difficult to see a full-time hosting role fitting in alongside the training, travel and other commitments that come with being an F1 driver.

He could only realistically take on such a job if he was leaving the sport at the end of the season.

But a role similar to that of The Stig (an anonymous character whose role was track testing all the cars featured on the show) could be performed alongside any F1 duties and would arguably provide the best showcase of Button's talents.

The only question is, would McLaren and Honda be happy to see him driving and saying nice things about Ferraris, Mercedes and Renaults?

Autosport has published the full results of the fans' survey it carried out around the time of the Monaco Grand Prix. Selected results of the GPDA survey—which was done at around the same time—have already been released.

Almost 35,000 fans responded to the Autosport survey. An impressive 64.5 per cent of them had been following the sport for at least 15 years; fewer than six per cent had less than four years of F1-watching under their belts.

The most interesting responses were to questions examining the basic fabric of the sport and how it should operate. Only 5.3 per cent wish to see 2014's double points rule return, while support for the use of "artificial methods" to tighten up the racing stands at just 16.5 per cent.

Reverse grids in any form are supported by just 24.1 per cent of respondents, with qualifying races (which would replace the traditional qualifying sessions) popular with a lowly 25.9 per cent.

However, support for a freeing up of the F1 technical regulations stands at a whopping 86.9 per cent (13 per cent higher than the equivalent question on the GPDA survey). Fans were 61.3 per cent in favour of a return of refuelling and 63.3 per cent wanted to see more durable tyres.

Customer cars of any form (the type was not specified) received the backing of 62.1 per cent, and only 40.6 per cent want the use of DRS to end.

As was the case with the GPDA survey, the results seem at least partly at odds with what those in charge of the sport want to see. The regulations have been getting tighter and more restrictive for years—there is clearly no appetite at the highest levels for them to be relaxed.

BBC Sport reported in early July that plans to bring back refuelling from 2017 onward had been scrapped, and Bernie Ecclestone seemed unimpressed with the prospect of more durable tyres when he spoke to Autosport in May.

A final interesting point of note is in the gender balance of Autosport survey respondents—92.2 per cent were male.

A huge 85 per cent of GPDA survey takers said F1 needs to attract new fans. Perhaps doing more to woo the female half of the population would be a good start.

Every summer, Formula One shuts down for two weeks. The Red Bull team website reveals everything just stops—the factories are locked up, emails are turned off and all the staff disappear, trying their hardest to put F1 out of their minds.

It's an essential part of the sport's year, giving the tired factory staff, mechanics, aerodynamicists and everyone else involved a well-earned breather.

A four-week space between races is scheduled to allow all the teams plenty of time for this to happen, but when the provisional 2016 calendar was revealed, a notable feature was the shorter, three-week gap in August. This isn't enough time for a full two-week shutdown and the teams want it changed.

Speaking to Motorsport.com, Red Bull's Christian Horner said:

I think the break is something that is important.

F1 is such a demanding schedule for all people involved, not just technicians and people in the factory, but all the support staff, FOM, the media, and so on.

It's important to have that moment to catch your breath. So it's something that has been raised with Bernie, and as we see sometimes the calendar does move around a bit before October.

It's nothing new in that the calendar does sometimes change a little, but obviously there's a lot of races crammed into a shorter period.

There's usually a bit of fine tuning that goes on, so it wouldn't surprise me if it did get tweaked a little bit.

McLaren's Eric Boullier had a similar view, and Williams deputy team principal Claire Williams also agreed, telling the same source:

From a Williams perspective the factory shutdown is important.

The calendar is long and it's arduous, and people put their blood, sweat and tears into going racing, and they sacrifice a lot to do that.

Those two weeks, regardless of anything else, allows them time with their families, to have a bit of a normal life and a normal existence.

To not have that is a concern. If I had I would have that conversation with Bernie I would put our arguments forward as to why it is important.

The summer break is deemed sufficiently important that it is written into the F1 Sporting Regulations. The relevant passage states: "All competitors must observe a shutdown period of fourteen consecutive days in the month of August during the time that two consecutive Events are separated by at least twenty four days."

According to the regulations, an "Event" starts early on Thursday (with initial scrutineering) and ends late on Sunday. By this definition, the 2016 calendar gives a separation of only 17 days—and a proper, 14-day shutdown cannot be shoehorned into such a small window.

For the teams, race weekends don't run from Thursday to Sunday—personnel arrive at the circuit early in the week before the race to carry out tasks such as setting up the garage, putting the cars together and preparing the ground for the drivers.

Packing up to head home is a quicker affair, but getting everything back to the team HQ still takes a day or two. At the most, there would be space to give all workers a 12- or 13-day break—and that isn't enough.

Motorsport.com reports commercial rights chief Bernie Ecclestone, the man ultimately in charge of the calendar, doesn't expect any changes to be made.

But the teams appear to be firmly united against him. Whenever that happens, they tend to come out on top.

I'm on my own summer break until August 17, but you'll still be able to find me on Twitter:

@NeilJamesF1