In the round-up: Lotus doubt Ferrari will close the gap to Red Bull next year.

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Ferrari ‘should forget’ 2014 title hopes (Autosport)

Lotus trackside operations director Alan Permane: “If I was Fernando, talking about winning the championship? Forget it, they are not even close. And they won’t even be close next year, if they [Red Bull] have got that sort of advantage now.”

‘Vettel always wins and he will continue to do so’ (The Telegraph)

“They (Red Bull) made a step somewhere on the car this weekend, but I still feel like we can fight at some point through the weekends for the rest of the season.”

Q&A with Lotus?������s Eric Boullier (F1)

“The strategy behind the team was to build the team up and bring it back as a top team. Genii gives us the means to achieve that, but obviously to go to the next level you need more means and more resources and it is no secret that for quite a while Genii have been looking for partners to make sure that we can bring more money to the team and have access to a bigger sponsor portfolio. We need to secure sponsors, as this is the only way to step up.”

Lewis Hamilton: “I wonder how Kimi came from where he did…” (Adam Cooper’s F1 Blog)

“I wonder how Kimi [Raikkonen] came from where he did ?����ǣ jeez, that was incredible.”

Disgraceful disrespect – why the booing of Sebastian Vettel is simply not on (Sky)

Martin Brundle: “That’s disgraceful and I instinctively felt the need to say something as I was the one chosen to do the podium interviews at the event.”

Why Red Bull is a perfect fit for Vettel (BBC)

Gary Anderson: “In second practice on Friday, Vettel was one second-per-lap faster than the Mercedes. If you add up the leads Vettel built up during the race in a safety-car interrupted race in Singapore at various times, it adds up to 63 seconds. In a 61-lap race. A second a lap in other words. So that one-second margin on Friday was real.”

How Formula One hit the big screen with ‘Rush’ (Autoweek)

“[Peter] Morgan tuned his script, meeting people like Alastair Caldwell and Bubbles Horsley, former McLaren and Hesketh team managers, respectively, who knew Hunt well. Hunt’s own family was very skeptical, though that changed over time.”

Passenger safety in F1 (ESPN)

“Tino, telling his man to side astride the engine cover and hold the rollover bar, sets off. But, being a Brambilla, he only knows one speed.”

Formula For Success (F1 Confidential)

“Autonomy?������s Virage software… helped Mercedes to save 0.1 seconds of lap time. This made them more successful on-track, gave them a higher championship position and greater end-of-year prize money. A great story to tell potential customers! But could it have been more powerful at Marussia, where it could have helped the team gain more time, let?������s say, half a second? Last year that half-second could have meant 10th place in the championship and the millions of dollars the team ultimately missed out on.”

Tweets

Así es como quedaría el AHR para el GP de México, como ven? http://t.co/COE86KV3Vi — Luis Manuel López (@chacho_lml) September 24, 2013

Appalled to see @AussieGrit and @alo_oficial receiving a penalty for a lift back to pit lane. You wouldn't get that in any other motorsport — James Calado (@JamesCalado) September 24, 2013

Re Webber/Alonso penalty +other Steward's decisions. Known Derek Warwick 30 years, would trust my family's life with him. He had a job to do — Martin Brundle (@MBrundleF1) September 24, 2013

At Argentina GP the pit road had a small chicane before Ferrari pit, I had totally side ways and almost went into Ferrai Garage with 80km/h. — Taki Inoue (@takiinoue) September 24, 2013

Find more official F1 accounts to follow in the F1 Twitter Directory

Comment of the day

@JerseyF1 says the FIA made the right call when it came to Alonso and Webber’s reprimands:

I think that on these types of issue the FIA has generally been quite understanding of the fine line between applying rules and entertaining fans. For example I don?������t believe that Hamilton was punished for doing ‘doughnuts’ at the end of the British Grand Prix in 2009 or Alonso for picking up a flag at Barcelona this year. In both cases I think the FIA could have punished the drivers but applied common sense. I think that the difference in this case is the fact that both Alonso and Webber acted recklessly and therefore common sense actually suggested some form of punishment, a reprimand is the lowest level of punishment and therefore I don?������t think the FIA or stewards can be faulted here. We?������ll never know whether the stewards would have overlooked the matter if Alonso had stopped safely and Webber hadn?������t run so close to the moving Mercedes but I suspect they would have based on the other examples above.

@JerseyF1

From the forum

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On this day in F1

Relations between the McLaren team mates began to deteriorate 25 years ago today after Ayrton Senna edged Alain Prost towards the pit wall during the 1988 Portuguese Grand Prix.

Prost prevailed and won the race while engine-troubled Senna slipped to sixth. That put Prost back in the lead of the championship.

Ivan Capelli was second for March, revelling in the Adrian Newey-designed chassis, with Thierry Boutsen third for Benetton.

Here’s the contentious moment between Senna and Prost: