By Ted Kravitz BBC pit-lane reporter

Ted Kravitz gives his inside line on the German Grand Prix, bringing you the stories behind the headlines from the 11th race of the Formula 1 season.

The words "Fernando is faster than you" are sure to pass into Formula 1 legend, but I heard them from Ferrari around 20 laps before the infamous radio communication was given.

Immediately after the pit stops, I went into the Ferrari garage. The team's spokesman Luca Colajanni was talking to my colleague from RAI, Italy's main TV network. This is quite a common occurrence: Ferrari listen to RAI commentary during the race and there is always communication between team and broadcaster.

ANDREW BENSON'S BLOG Just because Ferrari effectively asked Massa to let Alonso win, was that necessarily the wrong thing to do?

Once finished in Italian, I asked what the team were saying to the drivers and what the situation was. At that time, Felipe Massa was just starting to pull away from Fernando Alonso.

Colajanni said the race was progressing as normal, that the cars were running well, but then added "but as you can see, Fernando is faster".

This had been the case all weekend, as Alonso explained in the highly-charged post race press conference. Ferrari were only too well aware of this fact.

Team result is most important - Alonso

I went back to the McLaren garage next door to check on their progress, but could see quite a discussion taking place on the Ferrari pit wall. Team principal Stefano Domenicali was busy talking to chief engineer Chris Dyer. At one point, I saw Dyer put his hand up, with a flat palm. It was the kind of gesture policemen use to stop traffic.

Soon after, Massa pulled out a three-second gap on Alonso. The discussions continued. Massa's race engineer Rob Smedley was on the radio to Felipe every lap. At one point we heard him telling Felipe to concentrate. "The gap is three seconds, keep this going, and you can win", assured Smedley.

It was not all smiles on the podium for Ferrari despite a one-two finish

But Alonso closed the gap and the rest is history. There were more discussions between Domenicali, Dyer, Smedley and Alonso's engineer Andrea Stella during the five or so laps before lap 48, but once the move was made, all discussions stopped.

Nobody spoke to anyone for a good 30 seconds before the engineers got on the radio again.

As the race finished, three Spanish reporters rushed the Ferrari pit wall looking for a quote from Domenicali. When I caught him on his way to the podium I congratulated him on winning the race. "Thanks very much", he said, "we are very happy with our one-two in the race". On the podium, the drivers' body language told a different story.

Both Red Bull drivers were let down by their machinery in Germany, to a greater or lesser extent. Sebastian Vettel said his poor start was down to the twin-clutch system common to all the top cars.

Poor start cost me - Vettel

As Sebastian explained to us on the F1 Forum, the driver lets out the first clutch immediately the lights go out and then feeds in the second according to the initial getaway as he goes through the gears.

In his case, the car got bogged down with too low revs and from then on, the Ferrari cars were always going to have the advantage, no matter how hard Vettel squeezed Alonso close to the pit wall.

Mark Webber had a difficult race. First, the team tried a strategic gamble in an attempt to jump Lewis Hamilton. All it did was to feed Webber back into a load of traffic, leaving him unable to use his new tyre advantage.

Webber frustrated by Hockenheim show

Then came a technical problem for Webber, one we haven't seen for a while: the oil system was faulty.

Webber received a series of requests from the Renault engineers to help it move oil around from the oil tank to the engine, all of which worked and ensured the engine was not starved of oil. There may be damage to that engine, however, which could limit Webber's running later on in the season.

Jenson Button was passed by Lewis Hamilton at the start, and that was about it for the rest of McLaren's race.

Hamilton still leads the title race by 14 points

Their lap times were similar, Button was never less than three seconds behind Hamilton and they drove home, fourth and fifth.

While that kind of performance will not set pulses racing at McLaren, it may well end up winning them this year's constructors' championship.

This is understandably very-highly valued, as McLaren have not been champion constructors since 1998, a painful 12 years ago.

Hamilton's heart must have sunk when he was threatened with 'engine mode G8' for the rest of the race. On the McLaren steering wheel, G1 is the richest fuel mix, G8 the leanest.

But Hamilton backed off and saved fuel effectively. That may have allowed him to finish the race but it meant he could not attack and attempt to close the gap to Vettel.

Rivals showed serious pace - Hamilton

In that respect, mid-race fuel saving is ruining the racing. Just as it gets interesting, all the drivers are told to save fuel and the race goes into stasis.

The next step of the FIA's plan to keep F1 relevant in the low emissions future is to make F1 a fuel-efficiency formula. The idea is for each car to get a set amount of fuel, say, 140kg (which is around 15kg less than they use now) and they have to run the race accordingly.

Engineers' focus would then be on how to get more bang from your buck, fuel/power speaking, which will benefit road car technology. But unless someone comes up with a way of producing dramatically more power for the set amount of fuel, it does not promise much better racing.

Following the news that Michael Schumacher is definitely racing again in 2011, Mercedes test driver Nick Heidfeld is trying to sort out a race drive for himself next year.

The testing ban means he has not been in an F1 car since the winter, and Nick understandably wants to get back in a race seat.

Schumacher agrees '100%' with Ferrari outcome

He has various options, including the second seat at Renault, but that would mean pairing up with Robert Kubica again, and the Pole would have one more year's knowledge of the team and car. Heidfeld could choose one of the new teams and work his way up, just as he did with Jordan in 2004.

Even though the new teams are slow, at least he will get to drive and he is a brilliant points-scorer when they are available.

If the test ban is relaxed, as looks likely, Schumacher will be doing as much of it as he can at Mercedes.

Michael called the testing ban 'ridiculous' after qualifying. His argument went that in no other sport do you see so much money invested and the players forbidden from practising and training outside of competition weekends.

Mercedes need to test. Their new rear wing and new floor should make the car go quicker, but they do not have the track time at a race weekend to go through the thousands of combinations of ride heights and hard or soft suspension settings, versus high or low wing levels.

You can see their point but of course it is the same for everyone.

Simulation programmes can help, but nothing replaces track time. Expect Mercedes to be stronger in Hungary when they can do some more running.

Another trouble-filled race for Toro Rosso. Jaime Alguersuari out-braked himself into the hairpin on the first lap and crashed into the back of team-mate Sebastien Buemi, eliminating the higher-placed driver from the race.

Team bosses Franz Tost and Giorgio Ascanelli chose not to make any comment in the team's post-race press release which is never a good sign.

Jaime Alguersuari crashes into Sebastien Buemi in Germany

Indeed the future direction of Toro Rosso is intriguing. On Saturday I watched Red Bull co-owner Dietrich Mateschitz touring the garage with the team's previous boss Gerhard Berger, and a very animated discussion they were having, too.

In recent weeks Tost has said he will keep Alguersuari and Buemi as drivers next year, but the situation is complicated by who Red Bull might want in the main team after either Webber or Vettel move on.

Toro Rosso exists to develop talent in the Red Bull young-driver programme. The ultimate objective is for those drivers to graduate to Red Bull Racing, but one does not hear Buemi or Alguersuari mentioned in that way.

Meanwhile Red Bull's test and reserve driver Daniel Ricciardo is not getting any test driving and is looking for an F1 drive next year while the other star of the programme, Jean-Eric Vergne, is dominating British Formula Three and is tipped for success in future.

It seems Mateschitz has some tough decisions to make.

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