Jerome d’Ambrosio is the latest name linked with struggling Felipe Massa’s Ferrari race seat.

While Mark Webber or Sergio Perez are the Maranello team’s more likely longer term solutions, Ferrari may be looking simply for a stop-gap solution, having reportedly run out of patience for Brazilian Massa’s lack of pace and results.

The French sports daily L’Equipe named d’Ambrosio, the Belgian driver who lost his Virgin/Marussia seat at the end of last season.

He is managed by Eric Boullier, and now Lotus’ reserve driver.

Also named as potential substitutes for Massa in recent days were Nico Hulkenberg, Paul di Resta and Kamui Kobayashi.

But, according to L’Equipe, d’Ambrosio “has the advantage of being immediately available, giving Ferrari time to find a more permanent solution” for 2013.

Also ready to step in now is Adrian Sutil, the former Force India driver who is putting his career back together after the Eric Lux assault affair.

“I have no money to offer,” the German is quoted as saying. “After five seasons, people know what is my level. I want a normal salary, that’s all.”

Getting the setup right is a challenge teams are grappling with in 2012.

So far this season, four different cars have won the four grands prix, with Pirelli’s difficult tyres credited or blamed for the unbalance of power.

The key, according to Mercedes team boss Ross Brawn, is car setup.

“We can’t modify the setup between qualifying on Saturday and the race on Sunday,” he is quoted by Brazil’s O Estado de S.Paulo newspaper. “And they are very different challenges, especially with this year’s tyres.

“It’s one thing to get the car to be fast on one lap and quite another to make it fast and consistent over 70.

“Whoever can anticipate what will be required for the race and come to a compromise – maybe to the detriment of grid position – should have a decisive advantage in the race.

“But it’s not easy to anticipate what happens on Sunday,” insisted Brawn.

F1′s new face of 2012 is polarising the sport.

It seems teams, drivers and spectators alike either love or hate the new great influence brought largely by Pirelli’s new generation of tyres.

An admitted critic is Michael Schumacher.

“It’s a 1000 piece puzzle that you need to put together at each race,” said the seven time world champion, according to Auto Motor und Sport.

Not for three decades have four different drivers driving for four different teams won the opening four grands prix of a season.

“From the standpoint of competition,” wrote Livio Oricchio in O Estado de S.Paulo newspaper, “there is no doubt that the Pirelli 2012 generation meets fully the objective of promoting the show.

“But if you think purely about the engineering challenge that is formula one, and the genius of the people and the immense financial and technical resources needed for success, the tyres have now taken on such an importance that the results don’t seem compatible.

“Myself, and many in formula one, hope the new versions of tyres that Pirelli is developing returns a little more predictability in terms of how they behave, without affecting the show too much.”

For now, however, the teams need to put their puzzles together, and that will undoubtedly be the focus of this week’s three-day in-season test at Mugello.

“He who understands the tyres first,” McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh astutely noted, “will have a huge advantage in the world championship.”

A broad understanding is already developing, including why 2012 winners Jenson Button, Fernando Alonso, Nico Rosberg and Sebastian Vettel won from the very front of the field.

“When you’re in a battle, you can’t take the lines that are best for the tyres,” said Mercedes’ Ross Brawn.

All eyes are now turning to Mugello, where the understanding will continue.

“These test days could change the balance of power in formula one,” Norbert Haug predicted dramatically in Bild newspaper.

Not everyone is enthusiastic, however, including McLaren who oppose the Mugello test on cost grounds.

Williams’ chief engineer Mark Gillan agrees: “The days of test teams are gone, so this is not logistically easy,” he is quoted by Germany’s Sport1.

Bruno Senna added: “Mugello is not an ideal test track, as it’s very different to most of the tracks that are on the calendar.”

Mark Webber might have signed a pre-contractual agreement with Ferrari, one of Spain’s leading F1 correspondents has revealed.

Raymond Blancafort, writing for El Mundo Deportivo, referred to widespread speculation in the paddock about Sergio Perez’s likely future alongside Fernando Alonso.

“There may be a pre-contract,” he said, “but between Ferrari and Webber.”

Australian Webber was also linked with Ferrari last year, before Red Bull decided to sign him up for another single season.

The 35-year-old was overshadowed by his teammate Sebastian Vettel last year, but he has begun the 2012 season more strongly.

And Webber warned before the 2012 season began that if Red Bull didn’t re-sign him for 2013, “I’d need something (else) competitive (to drive)”.

“Being at the front, is certainly a big, big factor of me staying very hungry and motivated.”

Ferrari may be looking to replace Alonso’s current teammate, the struggling team veteran Felipe Massa, for 2013.

“They (Ferrari) would be able to take advantage of his (Webber’s) experience, the consistency of his results and the fact that he gets along with Alonso.

“Interestingly, Webber is also still involved with Flavio Briatore”, as is Alonso, Blancafort noted.

It was mission accomplished for HRT Formula 1 Team in Malaysia a couple of weeks ago after both cars qualified and completed their first race of the season after a hard start. The F112 accumulated many kilometres and data on the track and the engineers had a lot of information to work on during the two week period between the race in Sepang and China. Having met the team’s targets last time out, HRT now aims to progress from where it left things in Malaysia and continue improving.

The Shanghai International Circuit is made up of sixteen turns, with nine being right-handers and seven left-handers. Cars reach maximum speeds on the 1.2km straight between corners 13 and 14, where they try and take advantage of the length of the straight to overtake. In China, the team will have a new member on board, Ma Qing Hua, who will be joining the outfit for the first time as a member of the driver development programme at his local Grand Prix.

Pirelli have elected their soft and medium tyres for this grand prix.

Pedro de la Rosa, #22: “After these first two Grands Prix we arrive in China much better prepared, with more mileage and having learned a lot, especially after the Malaysian GP. All the data gathered in the last race is very important for us, as we mustn’t forget that we didn’t have a preseason. Now we have a better insight on the areas where we must improve, but the most important thing in this initial stage is to finish races. That is the prime objective in order to learn and improve race by race. The hardest part comes now but we are better prepared. China is a circuit where I have always done well and a place I know well, both in dry and wet conditions. It’s not a particularly hard track for the car or the driver, but aerodynamics are fundamental”.

Narain Karthikeyan, #23: “We took a step forward in Malaysia and our aim is definitely to carry the momentum into China and rest of the season. Although we managed to finish the race, cooling was still an issue at Sepang and once we have it sorted out completely we’ll be able to unlock some more performance from the car. The back straight at the Shanghai circuit is of course one of the longest on the calendar and the tightening first corner is uniquely challenging since the corner entry is in top gear and by the time you exit you’re in second. Plus there are a fair amount of technical slow-speed corners as well, and the high-speed direction change of turns 7/8. Given these mixed characteristics, it is a demanding circuit for traction, aero and braking stability in equal measures”.

Luis Pérez-Sala, Team Principal: “The start to the season was very complicated because we were behind schedule with regards to the other teams. We had to put in a colossal effort to be able to get on track in Australia and improve our performance just one week later in Malaysia. There’s still plenty to do and many areas to improve on to be where we should be but at least in these two weeks we’ve had a bit more time to analyse data, prepare and recharge batteries, therefore I’m confident that we’re arriving in China in a much better situation. We mustn’t forget that the F112 is only taking its first steps and, as of today, what we must do is progress without stopping. In Shanghai we’ll have some small updates to optimize cooling and aerodynamics, and the target for this weekend is to check that these adjustments work. To sum up, we have to get more out of the car but must also improve on teamwork and coordination”.

Red Bull has hit back at claims the team lied about a technical problem in Malaysia in order to gain a tactical advantage for the forthcoming races.

Near the end of the Sepang race, Sebastian Vettel’s engineer repeatedly instructed the back-to-back world champion to retire his RB8 car.

Team boss Christian Horner said the brake temperatures had risen to a dangerous level, but Vettel nonetheless raced to the chequered flag and finished eleventh, one position out of the points.

Horner explained Vettel did not hear the radio calls due to a “lightening strike”, but photos prove that the German driver was also repeatedly shown pit boards with the same messages.

And the 24-year-old revealed after the race: “Of course you can save the car, but I wanted to see the chequered flag. I think that’s how it should be.”

Moreover, the authoritative Auto Motor und Sport quotes Vettel as confirming: “I heard the command.”

Red Bull has been accused in some media reports of feigning the brake problem in order to retire the car for tactical reasons and therefore install a fresh gearbox for China next month without penalty.

Dr Helmut Marko told Bild newspaper: “After the crash (with Narain Karthikeyan), the temperature of the brakes rose far above the allowed level.

“We called him in purely because the car was no longer safe. It was not a tactical decision,” the Austrian insisted.

It is reported that Vettel will sit with his team bosses this week in Milton-Keynes to discuss the apparently ignored team order.

German racing legend Hans-Joachim Stuck said: “Another driver would be fired, but Vettel has the confidence of being a double world champion.”

According to Welt newspaper, Swiss commentator Marc Surer added: “It was the right decision by Vettel, as the team needs to be careful with commands like that.”

 If Caterham’s Mike Gascoyne was in the market for a McLaren driver, he would sign Jenson Button.
The green-clad team’s technical boss, Gascoyne, was at Renault in 2002 when it was decided to oust Button in favour of Fernando Alonso.

But a decade on, Gascoyne says the tables have now turned, as 2009 world champion Button now heads the 2012 points standings for McLaren.

“We weren’t wrong (to replace Button), Fernando won two titles very quickly, but Jenson has developed into a hell of a driver,” Gascoyne is quoted by the UK Express newspaper.

He said Button’s advantage over Lewis Hamilton, his highly rated teammate, is his mental strength.

“The difference right now is that Jenson can handle it when Lewis wins, but Lewis really struggles when Jenson does,” said Gascoyne.

Another of Button’s strengths, he explained, is his smooth driving style, which better conserves Pirelli’s highly-degrading tyres.

“Lewis is struggling to match that and then with his attacking style, the more aggression he puts in the harder it gets for him in the race,” said Gascoyne.

Comparing today’s Button with the 22-year-old of 2002, Gascoyne concluded: “Jenson is still the same nice guy, same talent, but mentally so very strong. Right now, Jenson would be the man for me.”

In an interview with Spanish agency EFE, Pedro de la Rosa summed up Button with the words “finesse and intelligence”.

 F1′s governing body has cleared Red Bull and Renault following accusations they are deploying an ‘illegal engine trick’.
Reports suggested Mercedes, having analysed sound recordings of the Red Bull RB8 in Melbourne, suspected the ‘trick’ of cutting more than the allowed four cylinders in corners was not legal.

“As far as we are concerned, it’s legal,” said the FIA’s Charlie Whiting in Malaysia.

There was some good news for Mercedes at Sepang, however, as its W03 passed pre-race scrutineering despite Red Bull and Lotus continuing to argue that its ‘W-duct’ system is not legal.

“The car got the green light again,” competition boss Norbert Haug told Kleine Zeitung newspaper.

Some suspect that the innovation could give Mercedes such a top-speed advantage on Sepang’s long straights this weekend that pole position is already in the bag.

“I think some get a little bit too excited,” smiled Michael Schumacher

Fernando Alonso was spared the Italian media’s wrath after Ferrari opened its 2012 campaign with the troubled F2012 car.
“Alonso once again saved Ferrari from disaster,” said the authoritative La Gazzetta dello Sport, after the Spanish driver drove the car to fifth place in Australia.

The under-pressure Felipe Massa’s opening race, however, “was a nightmare”, the daily newspaper added.

Jaime Alguersuari, the former Toro Rosso driver who is now a media analyst, also praised fellow Spaniard Alonso.

“For Ferrari, it is an unique advantage to have a driver like Fernando Alonso,” he told El Mundo newspaper.

“He did a sensational Sunday, with intelligence and ambition, which will push and raise the team, I’m sure.”

Alonso remains confident.

“There may be cars quicker than us now,” he is quoted by Britain’s Daily Mail, “but it’s like Manchester United or Chelsea who play badly for a game but still win 1-0.

“Before this race we were working 24 hours (a day),” Alonso is quoted by Marca, “now it must be 25.”

The Spanish press, however, is livid.

“The fifth place is really a miracle,” said the sports daily Marca. “The car is ridiculous, rendering the team a midfielder.”

Jenson Button, meanwhile, received universal praise from the international press corps, as did the fact that Red Bull’s dominance appears to have been knocked by McLaren.

“That’s good news for everybody except (Sebastian) Vettel,” insisted Corriere dello Sport.

The fight, however, has just begun.

“Vettel turned the middling new Red Bull into a good race car,” said Gazzetta, referring to the German’s performance on Sunday, “which is a warning to the opposition.

“He is still the world champion, and he will be hunting his first triumph of the year in Sepang.”

Tuttosport, meanwhile, said Mercedes – which until Sunday’s race was the talk of the Melbourne paddock – was the “big disappointment” of the 2012 opener.

 With one race down out of twenty, F1 teams are now hopping from Australia to Malaysia where the new pecking-order will be immediately tested on a more conventional circuit.
Some paddock cynics suspect McLaren – having dominated qualifying in Melbourne before Jenson Button cruised to victory – played a deft hand of bluff in the winter season in order to persuade Red Bull its former dominance remained intact.

New 2012 championship leader Button, however, insists the British team was surprised in Australia.

“It wasn’t bullshit at all,” he said late on Sunday.

“I actually did pinch myself in the race just to make sure I wasn’t dreaming.

“After qualifying I looked across at Lewis (Hamilton) and said ‘Did you think we would be that quick?’, and he was like ‘No’.”

Another possibility is that, while quick, McLaren may not be dominant.

“We knew from winter testing that McLaren were competitive but I think our race pace was every bit the equal of theirs today,” said Red Bull’s team boss Christian Horner, after a betting showing for the reigning champions on Sunday compared to qualifying.

“Malaysia is a very different prospect from here. Here it is short turns, bumpy, not a lot of high-speed corners.

“But Malaysia offers that variant, so I think it will be interesting to see how quick they are in Malaysia,” he added.

Mark Webber was also relieved on Sunday, after a troubled earlier evening.

“It’s never nice to know you might be out of the ball game,” said the Australian, referring to Red Bull’s qualifying performance, “but clearly we are not.”

Yet another possibility is that McLaren will extend their winning streak into Malaysia.

“The Barcelona test showed us that we are better than Red Bull in the fast corners. Their (Red Bull’s) advantage is in traction,” McLaren’s Martin Whitmarsh is quoted by Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport.

Agreed Mercedes’ Ross Brawn: “We could see that the McLaren improved significantly with the introduction of their new aerodynamic specification in Barcelona.”

But the German team’s Norbert Haug warned before leaving Melbourne: “We could see something quite different in Malaysia.”

Livio Oricchio, the correspondent for Brazil’s O Estado de S.Paulo newspaper, agreed: “It is prudent to wait and see what happens now in Malaysia.

“It’s a permanent circuit, much more in line with most of the circuits on the calendar.

“But it seems unlikely that we will see something radically different to what we saw in Australia,” he conceded.

 A general consensus has emerged about the likely pecking-order this weekend in Australia.
Based on winter testing, this year’s longest-ever F1 season looks set to be very closely contested, but experts, pundits and insiders fairly agree about the rough shape of Saturday’s Melbourne grid.

“From what I saw in the tests, Red Bull and McLaren seem to be at a similar pace,” Francesco Nenci, Kamui Kobayashi’s race engineer at Sauber, told O Estado de S.Paulo newspaper.

“Then comes Mercedes and then our team along with Lotus and Ferrari. But we’ll only really find out here,” he told Brazilian correspondent Livio Oricchio in Melbourne.

Steve Nielsen, Caterham’s sporting director, roughly agrees.

“Red Bull and McLaren are the best, Mercedes is a little bit behind and then it’s Lotus, Ferrari, Sauber and Force India,” he said.

And given that the top three teams will presumably dominate the first six positions in Q3, the last part of qualifying “should be exciting”, Nielsen smiled.

But so will the fight at the front, with McLaren’s Jenson Button desperate to end Red Bull’s two-year run of dominance.

“With quite a big change in the regulations in terms of the blown diffuser, now is the interesting time to see whether Red Bull can hang onto the advantage they have had,” said the Briton.

“If they can, it is going to be very difficult to beat them over the next few years.”

 Marussia needs to get the basics right before worrying about KERS, Timo Glock explained on the eve of the 2012 season.
The experienced German, and his rookie teammate Charles Pic, enter the new season with essentially no testing, after the former Virgin team struggled to push its new car – the MR01 – through the FIA’s mandatory crash tests.

Last year, the Cosworth-powered team was soundly beaten by its closest rival Team Lotus, who as well as changing its name to Caterham for 2012 has also added a Red Bull KERS system to its Renault-powered package.

“On the subject of KERS, it is of course a disadvantage not to have it,” Glock is quoted by the SID news agency.

“But we have said that our focus is right to first get rid of the four seconds of aerodynamic deficit, before we worry about the money and the manpower we need for five tenths with the KERS,” added Glock.

“We have to get the foundation right first,” said the almost 30-year-old.

 Romain Grosjean will be happy if this week’s weather forecast for Melbourne proves right.
Although Wednesday will be warm and sunny in the Victorian capital, the clouds will begin to gather on Thursday, when the F1 circus congregates in the nearby Albert Park paddock for media and scrutineering activities.

Then, when practice signals the official start of the 2012 season on Friday afternoon, rain and isolated thunderstorms are predicted.

And isolated showers are forecast for the qualifying and race days.

Lotus driver Romain Grosjean has not tested his new E20 mount on a wet track, and the last time he saw rain from the cockpit of any F1 car was in Brazil 2009.

“It feels like a long time ago!” the Frenchman confirmed.

“I’m ready if the (Melbourne) track is more slippery, and I’ll try to make the best of it.

“I like racing in the wet, so maybe it will be a bit of an advantage for me,” added the reigning GP2 champion.

Sunday will be his eighth career grand prix, following 7 races with the Enstone based team – then known as Renault – in 2009.

All the hard work has finally paid off today as the F112, the car with which HRT Formula 1 Team will compete this season, completed its first laps at the Circuit de Catalunya, in Barcelona.

Since the car passed the last crash test and was homologated, the team has carried out work shifts to cover 24 hours a day to make sure it could make it, for the first time in its history, to the first Grand Prix of the season having run previously.

The car was able to run after the team took advantage of one of the filming days available during the season.

The car made it to the circuit from Munich, Germany, just after one in the afternoon and the mechanics and engineers got straight down to business, working on relevant adjustments. It was a combined team effort, working against the clock, which saw its rewards four hours later when Narain Karthikeyan led the car out onto the track. Pedro de la Rosa, Dani Clos and Tonio Liuzzi were also present, as were Carlos Gracia, President of the Spanish Motorsports Federation and Salvador Servià, General Director of the Circuit de Catalunya.

The tests were carried out without any setbacks and the car carried out over ten laps. The team was able to check that the car functioned properly both from a mechanical and aerodynamic point of view as from a systems standpoint.

The team will prepare the necessary material in the upcoming days and head down under for the first Grand Prix of the season which will take place at Melbourne, Australia, in just two weeks.

Narain Karthikeyan: “Today was a shakedown of the F112 and I have had the honour to be the first driver to test it. The first impressions are quite good; it’s definitely a step up from last year. We couldn’t do any set-up work or stuff like that but everything seems to be working fine and there are no major problems so we can look forward to the season now. Everyone has worked hard and the new team management has put everything together in a very short period of time. They’ve done a proper job with the car and I’m sure that it’s a big step forward from last year, so hopefully we can take the competition to the teams we were fighting last year”.

Pedro de la Rosa: “Today has been a very special day because the car saw the light for the first time; Narain did some installation laps and then various times laps without any issues. This is very important, it might not seem like it, but any sort of mileage before Australia is vital to see that the car is in good conditions. From here it is our job to try and improve it and make it progress”.

Luis Péres-Sala, Team Principal: “I’m very satisfied today as it is a very important day for us because we were able to test some things out with the new car during this filming day. I’m very proud of each and every member of this team because everyone has contributed their little bit for this to be possible. Now we have to focus on Australia because we still have a lot ahead”.

 2012 US grand prix founder Tavo Hellmund is suing the Austin event’s backers.
The latest speed-bump in the Circuit of the Americas project is Hellmund’s lawsuit against Bobby Epstein and Red McCombs, claiming he would have made $500,000 per year as chairman for the next decade.

Hellmund also wants “access to the … books” and “declaration that he cannot be removed as a manager”, the lawsuit claims according to the local Austin American Statesman.

Hellmund did not immediately comment, while Epstein said the former promoter no longer works on the project.

“This is just a latest step in a pattern of behaviour,” said the Circuit of the Americas in a statement.

“Mr Hellmund uses negative press to try and create an advantage for himself at every turn.”