Virgin’s heavily updated car is visibly different to the one that raced in China three weeks ago.

With the full package available only to Timo Glock this weekend, it has a much higher nose than before and a Red Bull-style blown exhaust following a dire start to the team’s second F1 season.

Auto Motor und Sport said the car is 1.5 seconds quicker than the Shanghai version, with the high nose “a bit like the Mercedes”, admitted Glock.

Other teams, however, have had problems with such radical improvements, moving the German to play down reports Virgin could beat Lotus this weekend.

“We can’t expect the exhaust to work right away. Williams tried it in Shanghai and had to pack it up again,” insisted Glock.

He denied on Thursday that he is critical of designer Nick Wirth’s aversion to wind tunnels, confirming only that he is unhappy “with the car, that’s the main point”.

Now working as a consultant to the team is Pat Symonds, who is still banned from having a direct operational role due to the 2008 ‘crashgate’ scandal.

Nick Heidfeld has admitted he has been surprised with the strong pace shown by his teammate Vitaly Petrov so far in 2011.

The German veteran admitted he had expected to easily beat the Russian based on his pace alongside Robert Kubica in 2010.

For this year, Heidfeld has replaced Renault’s injured regular Kubica, with the pair knowing each other’s strengths well following their almost four common seasons at BMW until 2009.

Asked if he therefore expected to easily outpace Petrov, Heidfeld told F1.com: “I had, to be honest.

“I think he has made some good improvements and I would assume that he is as good as the team hoped he would be,” he added.

Niki Lauda said this week that Heidfeld is not compensating Renault for the loss of Kubica, but the 33-year-old German insists he is at least as good as his Polish successor.

“Some people will probably tell you that Robert was quicker, but there are also numerous others who will swear that I was quicker and if you look at the real numbers we’ve always been pretty equally matched,” he insisted.

Two of the F1 drivers closest to Robert Kubica have indicated the Pole is unlikely to race in 2011.

The injured 26-year-old has just returned to his Monaco home after 76 days in an Italian hospital, with doctors to assess his rehabilitation with regards to a possible return to formula one only in the late summer.

“We know he just left hospital, now he has a long time to recover,” Vitaly Petrov, Kubica’s regular teammate at Renault, said in Turkey on Thursday.

“I hope that this year we can see him in the paddock, just to say hello,” added the Russian.

Kubica’s closest friend in F1, meanwhile, is Fernando Alonso, who spoke to the Pole three days ago.

“He is doing well, even if it is not an easy recovery, but I am sure he will be with us, maybe this year and no doubt next year,” said the Spaniard.

Sebastian Vettel lost the entire day of running after crashing in the rain in Turkey on Friday morning.

The championship leader’s Red Bull sustained serious damage when he hit the wall after losing control at Istanbul’s famous Turn 8.

German Vettel, 23, then watched the entire season session – ran entirely in the dry – from the pits.

“The car is badly damaged and from a safety point of view we need to check everything,” team boss Christian Horner told German broadcaster Sky.

“We would rather be on the safe side, checking everything three or four times,” he added.

Famous F1 team Williams is teaming with British carmaker Jaguar to create a $1 million hybrid supercar.

Jaguar, wholly owned by India’s Tata Motors, said the C-X75 will reach 200 miles per hour with “incredibly low C02 emissions”.

Williams has been appointed for its “engineering expertise in areas including aerodynamics, carbon composite manufacture and hybrid technologies”, according to a media statement.

“Williams has always considered itself an engineering company and so this project will allow us to combine our technical expertise to create something truly exceptional,” said Sir Frank Williams.

Mark Webber has stepped away from his comments of last week by insisting a move from Red Bull for 2012 is “unlikely”.

The Australian had told an Italian newspaper that if his current team “doesn’t want me any more” he could not rule out a change of teams as opposed to retirement.

That rekindled rumours about Ferrari, with Webber telling F1′s official website on Thursday: “I always look good in red.

“But Red Bull is what I associate all my success with, so the only red is in Red Bull, as when I wear Red Bull colours I think of success,” he insisted.

Whether he stays, however, depends on him being offered a new contract, and a prime mover in that decision will be the curt Austrian Dr Helmut Marko.

“At 34, Mark is no longer at the beginning of his career,” he is quoted as saying by Die Welt.

“I know other drivers who are trading a similar path as Sebastian (Vettel) did,” added Marko, surely referring to Jaime Alguersuari, Sebastien Buemi and Daniel Ricciardo.

And if Marko consults Vettel, there is no guarantee the 23-year-old will not ask for a new teammate for 2012.

Asked in Turkey about his relationship with Webber, a year after their crash at the same circuit a year ago, the German answered: “Sometimes you get along well with your teammate and sometimes you don’t.

“I am fine with him. We have a common understanding. We might not be best friends but show me a couple in formula one who go to the pub in the evening for a beer.”

As for Webber’s future, Vettel answered: “I know that Mark is racing alongside me here and all the races this year, after that happens we will see then.”

Until the future is clearer, it’s an awkward period for Webber. “If I want to talk to Fernando and go to the Ferrari motor home, what happens then? Exactly, rumours,” he said on Thursday.

Lucas di Grassi kicked off life as Pirelli’s new main test driver with a two-day test in Barcelona.
The Brazilian and former Virgin driver did over 1000km at the Spanish grand prix venue on Monday and Tuesday at the wheel of Toyota’s newly-updated 2009 car.

Di Grassi, 26, told Globo Esporte he was happy with the outing.

“A reserve driver in formula one will not do 500 kilometres in a whole season and I did over a thousand in two days.

“I’m satisfied because we ran through the schedule and gathered important information,” he said.

The Brazilian report said di Grassi’s goal is to return to F1 in 2012.

“I’m well prepared physically and technically,” he insisted.

The loss of Robert Kubica has hurt Renault’s ambitions for 2011, according to the always-blunt Niki Lauda.

With Kubica recovering from horror injuries in a pre-season rally crash, Renault turned to the German veteran Nick Heidfeld to become Russian regular Vitaly Petrov’s new teammate.

“Renault have had a good car from the beginning but the team is being limited to some extent by its drivers,” triple world champion Lauda told the German broadcaster RTL ahead of the Turkish grand prix.

“They are doing a good job but when you are looking for that last little bit from your car you do miss the top drivers,” he added.

The 62-year-old gave a similarly forthright view when asked about the proposed four-cylinder engine rules for 2013.

“I’ve thought about it and don’t understand why there are always smaller and smaller engines. It is expected that in formula one there is a lot of power for high speeds and with a noise level that everyone wants,” he said.

“Now if the new engine comes they need to think about how to make them loud enough.”

As for rumours CVC could sell F1 to a bidding consortium, Lauda answered: “CVC is an investor, so it’s natural that they buy cheap and after a period of time they sell. But I don’t know anything about it so I can’t comment.”

Neither Jarno Trulli or Heikki Kovalainen will have to give up their T128 cockpits on Friday morning in Turkey.

It will be the first time in 2011 that the green-clad team has not appointed a Friday driver for the initial practice session.

Finland’s Turun Sanomat reports that Angolan Ricardo Teixeira, backed by the state oil company Sonangol, is next in line for a Friday outing.

“But he will not be seen in Turkey as negotiations with his sponsor are still ongoing,” said the report.

Team boss Tony Fernandes said he expects Lotus to make its “next step” forwards not in Turkey this weekend, but in Barcelona in two weeks.

“I am not expecting us to have found another chunk of time here as we have been focusing on the Barcelona race for the update package,” he said.

Derek Warwick will make his third appearance as an FIA steward this weekend in Turkey.

The 56-year-old British veteran of 146 grands prix fulfilled the role last year in Spain and Hungary.

Working alongside Warwick and experienced Swedish steward Lars Osterlind in Istanbul is 25-year-old female steward Silvia Bellot, a Spanish graduate of the FIA’s trainee steward programme.

Mercedes’ Norbert Haug has laughed off reports that Nico Rosberg could be set to switch to Ferrari.
Italian magazine Autosprint reported that Ferrari made initial “contact” with German Rosberg recently about racing alongside Fernando Alonso next year.

Bild newspaper said it believes that, depending on his results at Mercedes this season, the 25-year-old could get out of his contract at the end of 2011.

The German marque’s motor sport chief Haug responded: “Last weekend it was the first of May, not the first of April. So this joke is a month too late.”

Bild said Rosberg would not comment on the Ferrari reports.

But he told the newspaper’s Sunday edition after Shanghai that he would have no qualms lining up in a team alongside the likes of Alonso, Lewis Hamilton or Sebastian Vettel.

“They are all top drivers and I would take on any of them,” he said, then referring to Michael Schumacher: “I already have the best driver of all time in my team.”

And Rosberg told the DAPD news agency: “I am very happy where I am, I believe in the team and want to go with them to the top.”

Sebastian Vettel insists he is not worried about KERS in Turkey this weekend, nor a repeat of last year’s clash with his teammate Mark Webber.

Red Bull left China three weeks ago with clearly the fastest car but far from the best KERS system, after Adrian Newey repackaged the Renault-based unit over the winter for best aerodynamic performance.

That caused cooling problems at the first three races of 2011, but Dr Helmut Marko insisted this week that the team used the Easter break to fix the system.

“We have had some problems but have had very good people working on it,” agreed championship leader Vettel to Auto Motor und Sport.

“That’s why for this next race I am not worried,” he added.

The German also revealed that the RB7 will have some other improvements for Turkey this weekend.

“When I asked the team what (new) to expect, I received many answers,” Vettel answered coyly. “You’ll have to ask them for yourself.”

Also in the back of his and teammate Webber’s minds at Istanbul Park will be their clash last year, which brought their working relationship under severe strain.

Asked about the crash a year on, Vettel told DPA news agency: “I cannot change what has already happened, but I can learn from it.”

F1′s 2011 formula has pulled another key player into the foreground, according to former driver and now Austrian commentator Alex Wurz.

“Now, as well as the driver and the designer, the strategist has a crucial role,” he told Kleine Zeitung newspaper.

China three weeks ago was a good example; many tyre pitstops and different strategies, and McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton emerging with victory despite Red Bull having ultimately the quicker car.

And Mark Webber’s run to the podium from deep on the grid showed the value of compromising qualifying in order to save crucial Pirelli rubber for the race.

“A new set of tyres for the race can be better than two or even three rows of the grid,” agreed Wurz.

“Qualifying is still important but it’s only half the battle. In the past, 90 per cent of the weekend was decided in qualifying,” the 37-year-old added.

An unnamed team principal has criticised formula one’s so-called ‘green’ energy-recovery KERS technology.

“It gives us a green look,” the boss is quoted as saying by Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung newspaper.

KERS gives drivers a power ‘boost’ after collecting heat energy from braking and charging a battery.

“In reality, KERS is used only for acceleration and forces up the (car’s) weight, so that in the end the fuel consumption is higher.

“That’s not to mention the question of what happens to the batteries when they’re finished,” the unnamed F1 chief added.

Stefano Domenicali is calling for a “discussion” in formula one about the disproportionate influence of aerodynamics.
As Ferrari struggled with the opening stanza of 2011 and worked to get to the bottom of a wind tunnel problem, president Luca di Montezemolo said aerodynamics is playing an “80 per cent” role in the performance of the cars.

“F1 is also about the mechanical, the engines. This F1 does not sit well with me,” he said.

Team boss Domenicali told Auto Bild that he fully agrees.

“Actually, in formula one at the moment there is really only aerodynamic development,” he said. “It is 90 per cent of the performance which from the perspective of a car manufacturer such as Ferrari is unacceptable.

“The future of the automobile is not in the aerodynamics; only a small portion of our (road car) budget is in this area.

“If we had the same approach for formula one, we would not qualify for the races. So there is an imbalance between real cars and formula one,” insisted Domenicali.

He admitted that Ferrari is not “traditionally” the best in F1 in the field of aerodynamics, arguing that it is Red Bull’s Adrian Newey who is making the difference in the current era.

It’s why Ferrari is working hard to catch up, such as by introducing a Red Bull-style flexible front wing as soon as possible.

He denies the concept is illegal.

“There is only a foul if the referee blows the whistle,” said Domenicali. “So long as it passes the FIA tests, there is nothing wrong. So we need to make sure our front wings work just the same.”