Ferrari has played down rumours it is close to immediately ousting Felipe Massa, insisting it is possible the struggling Brazilian will still be in a red car next year.

On Twitter, the famous Italian team said the latest rumours – including a claim that former Virgin driver Jerome d’Ambrosio is a candidate to replace Massa in 2012 – are “funny”.

But it was Ferrari itself who fuelled the speculation, publishing a statement on its website that read like a warning to Massa.

“It was a very carefully-worded statement, wasn’t it?” said Telegraph correspondent Tom Cary.

“The way this crazy season is going, I really would not be massively shocked if they ditched him mid-season.”

The Swiss newspaper Blick said Monaco next weekend could be the 30-year-old’s last chance to up his game.

And the candidates are lining up.

“Ferrari knows that I’m ready. If they need me or they want me, then they will call me,” Adrian Sutil, who accompanied his manager to last weekend’s Spanish grand prix, said.

The Spanish newspaper El Mundo said some paddock pundits believe “the only reason” Massa still has its seat is because the “name Todt” – a reference not only to Massa’s manager Nicolas but to the FIA president – has a “protective arm” around him.

Ferrari spokesman Luca Colajanni told Brazil’s O Estado de S.Paulo newspaper this week: “Felipe has the full confidence of the team, starting with our president.

“We have not decided who will be our driver in 2013 but Felipe is not ruled out,” he insisted.

Indeed, while some believe Ferrari has hung a sword of Damocles above Massa’s head, others think the Maranello based team have been patient since the Paulista’s recovery from his near-fatal head injuries of 2009.

“We have no evidence that makes us think that Felipe has slowed down because of the accident. Zero,” Colajanni said.

F1 doctor Gary Hartstein agreed: “An experience like that (Hungary 2009) changes you, but you can’t say that’s why Felipe has not won again.”

Two days after winning in Spain, Williams is scrambling to put together the equipment it needs to contest next weekend’s Monaco grand prix.

Mere hours after Pastor Maldonado secured the once-great British team’s first victory since 2004, a huge fire broke out in the pits, leaving one team member still in a Barcelona hospital with burns.

“His family are in constant communication and he is in good spirits,” Williams said in a media statement.

The Oxfordshire based team is now making efforts to ensure it can race in Monte Carlo, having lost a lot of equipment in the fire.

Mercifully, however, Bruno Senna’s car appears to have survived, with the Finnish broadcaster MTV3 saying an initial inspection of the chassis showed no devastating damage.

Maldonado’s winning car was in parc ferme at the time of the incident.

“We had a lot of damage and lost a lot of equipment, including IT equipment,” chief operations engineer Mark Gillan said, according to the Daily Mail.

“Over the next couple of days we will be looking at where we are parts-wise.

“We will have everything we need to run operationally at Monaco, but we may be missing a few of the extras because obviously we don’t carry a complete set of spares for everything,” he said.

It is believed more than one rival team has offered to help Williams by loaning the Sir Frank Williams-led outfit any equipment it needs.

A McLaren spokesman confirmed the Woking based team has offered to help.

Germany’s Bild newspaper said Williams’ damage bill runs into the millions.

Team manager Dickie Stanford denied a rumour the fire was caused by a cigarette in the vicinity of Senna’s fuel tank while it was being emptied.

“We don’t know the cause, but we would never allow smoking in the pits,” he insisted.

Williams and F1′s governing FIA are investigating.

PRESS CONFERENCE

Kamui, so far this season a couple of good races and a couple not so good. What’s been the difference between them?

Kamui KOBAYASHI: Of course it’s definitely the car. We had quite good performance at the start, quite a good start to the season. Unfortunately, we also some races where the strategy was not really going well. It’s not let’s a bad thing for my season. I had a great start but I think we have to work hard especially on the long runs.

Yesterday, Fernando talked about drivers having more respect for one another. Do you think that’s the case? Should drivers leave more space for each other?

KK: Maybe. I don’t know. It’s always difficult to say.

You’re quite an aggressive overtaker

KK: Yeah, but for me I’m doing something quite normal. It’s not special. I’m just doing my job. Maybe it looks aggressive but I never crash with anyone. I never crash and stop the car. There may be contact but it’s always quite OK. Maybe it looks aggressive but it’s not aggressive in fact.

And of course, you’ve been on the receiving end as we remember from Spa last year.

KK: Spa last year? Where? Ah, with Lewis, you mean? That’s what I mean that was just an accident you know. I didn’t expect both cars to make contact because there was no point. I didn’t expect Lewis to come across and I just stayed on my line. It was just sudden, you know. There was no way to avoid that. That was something special though, it’s not really a racing accident and not aggressive stuff from me, so…

Nico, on paper you’ve been beaten by your team-mate so far this year. How are you feeling about it?

Nico HULKENBERG: Well, the first four races have been quite tough to be honest. I would have liked to take more than two points out of the first four races. We have been quite unfortunate in some races, such as Melbourne, where we had a first-corner incident and there was very little I could do and then a clutch failure issues in Bahrain. These were two races where we potentially could have finished in the points. But I’m looking forward, I’m bedding in well with the team. I think the team is doing a good job in putting everything together and if we get a bit more luck then I think it will be good.

How do you feel about team development? Are the developments coming at a reasonable rate as far as you’re concerned?

NH: Yes, definitely. We bring some new parts, probably like every other team, here and we have to wait and see where the new parts put us but obviously we’re hoping it’s a step forward. I think it is a step forward but just how big a step we’ll see over the next two days.

Pedro, we see a new team that has recently moved to new premises and taken on a lot of new staff. What sort of role do you see yourself playing in the development of Hispania Racing Team?

Pedro DE LA ROSA: As you’ve said, everything is new. We’re establishing ourselves; restructuring the team; we are growing. But really I’m not playing any different role than any other race driver would do. I’m part of the team; I’m a race driver; I’m experienced. If they need my advice on anything, I am there. But I’m not playing any special role other than driving as fast as I can and giving good feedback about the car.

You spent so long at McLaren are you not trying to put some of those influences on the team?

PDLR: Gradually I will. That’s the aim and that’s what I’m here for as well. But so far the team has been extremely busy trying to move into our new premises in Madrid, establish a structure, a ‘basement’ as I say, and after that we will grow gradually and that’s when I think my input will be, if possible, more beneficial. But so far the objective has been clear. We have to establish ourselves, we have to put he ground for building more floors on top of us but so far I’ve been very discreet and not in a very important position.

And where do hope the team will be at the end of the year?

PDLR: I have no idea really. We are improving race by race. We have made the car a lot quicker. Don’t forget at the first grand prix we did not qualify and gradually we have been closing the gap to pole position. That’s what we have to aim for: race by race, closing the gap, making sure that our car is a little bit quicker than it was at the previous grand prix. After that, at the end of the year, we will see. We don’t have to set ourselves any targets other than making the team more competitive race by race.

Kimi, you were plainly a little frustrated that you could have won at Bahrain but didn’t. Is that a true appraisal of your feelings about Bahrain?

Kimi RAIKKONEN: Yeah, I think once you get so close, you’re not happy with second. If you’re 20 seconds behind then it doesn’t really matter but we had a chance but at least for the team it was a good weekend.

You’re a two-time winner here, both from pole position. Do you think a win is possible here? You’ve said you team will be winners at some stage.

KR: Well, the rules are different, so you don’t have to be on pole now to win. We’ll try. I don’t know how it will go. It’s very difficult to say before the weekend starts. The teams are very close. So if everything goes smoothly then we can be up there. But small difficulties in some areas and you’re suddenly much further back. We try to do everything right and then see what happens.

You didn’t test at Mugello as apparently the team hadn’t brought major modification, but for this race have you at least brought modifications that will at least see you maintain where you were at the opening rounds?

KR: We should have some new parts and we’ll see what happens.

Fernando, another winner here in 2006. How did you feel the Ferrari was in testing? Did you feel it was a lot different?

Fernando ALONSO: No, not really. We didn’t have any big improvements in the car, so what we tested were different set-ups and things we missed from winter testing. It’s been quite difficult for us with a lot of problems on the car and not many laps. The Mugello test was to complete what we had left from winter but in terms of improvements, we had minimum changes on the car so it felt the same?

Did that set-up research, as it were, make you feel more comfortable with the car, more competitive?

FA: Well, we’ll see. Obviously we had some ideas in terms of setup and some different possibilities that we were not introducing in the first four races because we didn’t have the opportunity to test them. So, it was good in Mugello: some of them were positive; some of them were negative so it’s good to know. As much information as you have is better preparation for the next grand prix. Obviously we arrive more prepared now than how we arrived in Australia with only three tests in the winter. But to make the car faster I think in terms of setup you cannot find much. If you want to be running at the front it’s more aerodynamic parts and updates in the car. Hopefully they come but we need to wait.

You know this circuit pretty well, you had a very good start to the race last year – do you think we’re going to see more overtaking on the circuit now, what with more KERS and a longer DRS as well?

FA: I think it will be similar to last year, to be honest. I saw some numbers of previous races here. On average like four or five overtaking manoeuvres in the last nine years and last year there were 57 – so it was a big change. The race this year will be similar to last year because of the degradation, the DRS and the KERS. With all the possibilities that we have now, as we had last year, for sure we will see some more overtaking. This changes also a little bit the philosophy of this circuit. As Kimi said, pole position was 60 per cent of the victories, now pole position is obviously the best starting position but it’s not crucial anymore because with this year’s tyres it’s less important.

Sebastian, you broke the mould last year by winning from second on the grid, where you’ve started for the last three years but you won last year from there. This is such a performance track, is this a track where you’re really looking for an indicator for the rest of the first half of the season? If you’re competitive here you will be elsewhere?

Sebastian VETTEL: Well, I think if you are competitive here I think it means that you have been previously. It’s a track that we usually know quite a lot from winter testing, we have some data to compare to, so it’s very familiar. But it doesn’t mean if you are competitive here you are competitive everywhere. Equally, if you are not competitive here it doesn’t mean you will never be competitive. I think it’s similar to other tracks. Really, if you think which sector you’re talking about, which speed range of the cars. I think you have sectors on every track where you could get an indication. As I said, I think it’s the fact that we know a lot about this track, we have a lot of data to compare against, to see if we did a step forward compared to the winter and how big the step was. Surely then you have to consider different temperatures: it’s a different time of year so it’s also difficult to compare black and white – but yeah as a rule of thumb probably this circuit does give you an idea because simply you have all the corners you find somewhere else, you have tight chicanes like in the last sector, hard braking for the hairpin, fast corners like in the first sector. You have a bit of everything.

And yet everyone has been here, everyone knows exactly what sort of setup they would require. Is it perhaps one of the toughest races in that respect?

SV: Yeah it is. But as I said as well, you race here in May, it’s quite different if you look at the temperatures compared to February or March, so yeah, it does have a big change on the setup, so whatever you might have found out over the winter in testing, it might not work in the same way or the same style it did during testing. Also, you need to consider that the cars you launch are quite different to the cars you race at the first race, and then, you know, you race around May or June later in the season. So, yeah, it’s a bit wishy-washy because of that – but overall it’s a track we know fairly well from a driving point of view as we’ve done a lot of laps here. We should know our way around here.

Questions from the floor:

(Alex Popov – RTR TV) Question for Pedro and Fernando, about the Spanish Grand Prix in general because here and there we read about the difficult situation in Valencia, the difficult situation in Barcelona and now we have two grand prix but in the worst situation we will finish with no grand prix at all. Your thoughts about it.

PDLR: I’ve said a lot already since the first time we were told that Spain would have two grands prix, that it was a historical moment and a unique situation and we should be very, very proud of it. I still say the same answer: we still have two grands prix in Spain this year, and we should, all of us, be very proud, very happy and maximise this moment and then wait for the future to tell us what will happen – which is completely out of our hands, you know? This is all I can say. I’m very happy to be here, this is a Spanish Grand Prix, but also a Spanish Grand Prix with a Spanish driver in a Spanish team – so let’s forget about what might happen in the future because, as I said, I have absolutely no control over it.

(Mike Doodson – Honorary) Gentlemen, Michael Schumacher persistently criticises the Pirelli tyres, or at least the policy of Pirelli. To us and the fans it’s clear that Pirelli has been a major ingredient in the improvement of the quality of the racing this year and last year. Do any of you share Michael’s concerns about the tyres or do you think he’s just making excuses for not winning?

FA: I think Seb should answer, being German.

SV: Yeah? I think, y’know, we get a completely different impression inside the car than you might get outside the car. So, you’re always talking of two different worlds. I think for us quality of racing, if you compare racing today, you have to, I think, look after your tyres a lot more than probably you had to three, four, five years ago. For us, if you take, for instance, 2009 where we were allowed to refuel, we had new tyres and the tyres lasted longer, in that they didn’t see that much degradation. It’s a different quality inside the car because you can push nearly every lap similar to qualifying, whereas now I think the racing is different: we fuel the cars up, they are much heavier, and if you have a heavier car there’s more stress for the tyres, so it puts the whole thing in a different window. If you put a new set of tyres on with 20 laps to go, or 15 laps to go, which is, let’s say, the stint length, earlier, a couple of years ago, it’s a different world for the tyres. The tyres do see more degradation and then we start to slide and then one guy slides more than the other because he puts his tyres on two laps earlier. It creates a different type of racing, more overtaking, which I imagine is seen as better quality from the outside, simply because things happen. I think it depends what you really want. We have more overtaking. Fernando is good with numbers, so like Fernando said earlier. I think the races today – over the last two years since we have changed a couple of things – has become much better. Also for us. I had a race here where I was following – how many laps is the race, 66? – I think I was following Felipe [Massa] for 60 laps out of that and I couldn’t pass. Nowadays you know that your chance will come in the race and that’s changing the position inside the car as well.

Fernando…

FA: I don’t know. I agree with Seb but I don’t agree that Michael has continually criticised Pirelli. Michael said one thing and what has been written in the press has maybe exaggerated what he said. I read what he said and I don’t see any big problem with that.

Q: (Livio Oricchio – O Estado de Sao Paulo) Fernando, you have a very different car from this race. Let’s suppose this car does not correspondent to that criteria…

FA: We’ll see, we’ll see after the race, because we don’t know what car we have. Obviously we have new parts, but everybody has new parts. Because it’s Ferrari, there are quite a lot of expectations every race we go to. It seems like only Ferrari is bringing new parts. We have a step forward, we believe, on what we had in Bahrain, but we also know that it’s not the last step we have to do. It’s a continuous work, that we need to start here in Barcelona, making a step forward and try to improve our qualifying position and our race pace, but in Monaco we have to bring new parts. In Canada (we have to) bring new parts. So we will not bring a new car to every race as it seems that we brought here in Barcelona.

Q: (Livio Oricchio – O Estado de Sao Paulo) But just to finish the question: if the car does not correspond…

FA: I answer you on Sunday.

Q: (Livio Oricchio – O Estado de Sao Paulo) Yes, but just to finish: considering your car has completely new ideas, a revolutionary car, do you think this could be the end of the season for Ferrari and you will start thinking about next year’s car?

FA: I don’t think so. I don’t think so. We need to see how the car works here and if it works fine, it will be a good step, the first step of many that we have to do during the next couple of races. If the step is not good enough, because the others improved the same or more than us so we remain in the same position, we need to work harder, for Monaco and for Canada, and bring more new parts in a more aggressive approach or whatever, because the championship is long and we will never give up in May, after four races.

Q: (Livio Orricchio – O Estado de Sao Paulo) Do you think the basis of this car could be used for next year’s car?

FA: I think so. Yes.

Q: (Gary Meenaghan – The National) For all of you: if you look at the drivers in 1992, there were only two non-European countries represented. If you look at the same field twenty years later, this year, there are seven non-European countries represented. Is there a chance that in a few more years, the majority of the drivers will come from outside Europe and how do you think that will impact the sport?

KK: It’s difficult to stay. For drivers I think it’s very difficult, everywhere, Asia especially. I don’t know for the future, but at the moment I don’t know how many Europeans there are now? 17. We have to see. It’s very important for a programme for the development of drivers. I think that this programme is quite weak everywhere. I think for the future, they definitely have to work a lot. It’s very difficult to find how young drivers come to Formula One. I don’t know how it can be changed for the future but I definitely think we have to work on programmes for driver development.

Q: A huge German presence on the grid at the moment, Nico. Can you see that being maintained by a young driver programme in Germany?

NH: Which young driver programme? Is there one? I don’t know. We don’t keep track of that statistic. I think it will always be a good mixture between European and non-European drivers in the future.

Q: (Andy Benson – BBC Sport) To anyone, but Fernando and Sebastian particularly: following the rulings in the two Nico Rosberg incidents in Bahrain – one of which Fernando was involved in – are you clear in terms of what’s allowed and what isn’t when it comes to defending your position?

FA: Yes.

Q: (Andy Benson – BBC Sport) Has your understanding changed between before Bahrain to now?

FA: No, maybe I did…

SV: Fernando made it pretty clear. He said ‘you have to leave the space. All the time you have to leave the space!’

FA: Yes. Yes.

SV: It was clear, no?

FA: As I did last year with Sebastian. In Monza.

Q: (Andy Benson – BBC Sport) That isn’t what happened in Bahrain.

SV: He just thought my car was slimmer.

FA: But you passed. You passed.

SV: I think the rule is clear. You can argue. I think there were two incidents with Nico in Bahrain, one with Fernando and I think Fernando made his point clear afterwards. And with Lewis, and I think Lewis got past, so I think you can talk for hours now, but if you saw the situation in Bahrain, it’s exceptional, because you have a kind of asphalt run-off. Yes, it’s pretty dirty but we always try to go on the limit, the one who is overtaking, the one who is defending. Surely sometimes you need to respect that the guy is there and you need to leave the space. I think if it would have been grass, it would have been a different story. You wouldn’t go there in the first place. In Fernando’s case I think he would have made the same point.

Q: (Carlos Miguel- La Gaceta) Fernando and Pedro, if a fan of Formula One in Spain is thinking about coming here on Sunday, what are your goals for the race? What can you offer to the people?

PdelaR: Well, from our point of view, you know our goal is to fight and to improve from where we left it in Bahrain and that’s all we can offer, we can promise. We cannot promise victories – we leave that for Fernando – but we will promise, wherever we finish, we will do it with the pride of being here and doing a serious job, giving it all, and maximising what we have.

FA: Same thing. And giving 100 percent. We cannot promise anything. This is not a mathematical problem, it’s a sport, we all try to do our best so we will work hard, we will take care of every detail this weekend as we do normally, trying to do a serious job and hopefully finishing in the best position possible, but you cannot promise anything.

Q: (Alan Baldwin – Reuters) Leaving aside whether or not it’s a home race for you guys, how much of a difference does it actually make for you to be back in Europe again? Kimi, you don’t actually like the travelling very much out of Europe, do you?

KR: Yeah but I I arrived in China on the Thursday morning, so arriving for a European race on the Thursday morning is no different really.

PdelaR: I’m biased answering this question because it’s back to Europe, but especially it’s back to Spain, so for us, it’s a Grand Prix that arrives a little bit too early in our development programme, as far as I’m concerned. We have been improving since Australia but we probably need more Grands Prix to offer a more competitive show to our fans. That’s the only downside, but nevertheless, we are here, we are in Spain. It’s our home ground and we are very happy to be here. I’m looking forward to it. I used to live ten minutes away from the track and this is something that – when you grow up – you can always listen to the engines, so the Formula One cars, when you wake up every morning during the weekends – for me it’s a very special event, absolutely.

Q: Kamui, not so easy commuting from Japan.

KK: For sure. I’m used to being here a lot of times. I came to Europe 17 years ago and I’ve been here to Barcelona a lot of times. After long trips being back in Europe in Formula One is always great and it’s always great to see the motorhomes in Barcelona. This is always great and it’s always good to be back in Europe for Formula One.

SV: I think for all of us we’re happy to race in Europe. Surely we have races overseas which we enjoy. For instance, we all love going to Australia. Yes, it’s a long trip but once we are there I think we all enjoy being there and it’s the same here. In the end, I don’t think it makes a difference how long you travel. Yes, it is more convenient if you are only an hour, an hour and a half or two hours on the plane rather than twelve and then another twelve. As I said, I think every country we go to, there is a strong culture for motor sport. We hope for a lot of excitement and for a lot of people to come. It makes us feel very special when we are on the grid, to see that the grandstand is packed and usually around here are a lot of fans, cheering, especially for Fernando and the Spanish drivers, but it’s the same when we go to Silverstone, they’re cheering for their drivers. I think we can be very happy everywhere we go, and hopefully put on a great show so that the people enjoy it as well and they come back next year.

Q: (Alex Popov – RTR TV) Gentlemen, after testing at Mugello, Vitaly Petrov criticised the circuit, because he expressed concern about its safety, so do you think he was wrong to express his concern like this? He was criticised by other drivers, because he expressed concern. Is he wrong?

FA: I think everyone will have his opinion. I’m not someone to say that Vitaly is right or wrong. It’s more maybe the safety commission’s job or whatever. Personally, everyone will have their opinion, as I said. I like Mugello, I like the layout, I like the feelings, the emotions that you have driving there. As I said after the test, driving one lap in Mugello is like driving one hundred at another circuit, for adrenalin and how much you enjoy the lap. We were in Italy, with a lot of Ferrari support. I enjoy those three days testing so much, but in terms of how safe the track was or not, I don’t have the information to give an answer.

NH: Personally I enjoyed Mugello very much. I think it’s a very different circuit to all the others that we go to. You always feel like you’re flying there, a lot of fourth, fifth, sixth gear action which is great to have. Like Fernando said, whether you feel safe or not is a very personal thing. I think it was OK.

KK: That’s a great circuit. There are a lot of very safe circuits like Abu Dhabi without gravel, but this circuit had gravel and if we made a mistake we ended up in the gravel which is good for drivers and good for training and testing. The test was something we had to try and in the race, of course we have to stay on the track and it’s difficult to take a lot of risks but during testing we can take more risks to improve our driving. It’s great for me.

SV: Well, the first time I heard that he was saying something about safety at Mugello. I think we all loved the track because it’s different – like Nico said, there’s a lot of high speed corners. Sure, if the speeds are high, there is higher risk. There is obviously quite a lot of run-off but surely here and there you would like to have more. As long as nothing happens, everything is fine; if something happens… it’s always easy to say something after there’s an incident and say this and that. I think it was not as if we felt we were scared. We left the garage feeling safe. I think if we would race there one day, potentially yes or no, then surely here or there you can argue to make improvements for safety, but I think they did everything they could on the day.

Q: (Vanessa Ruiz – Radio Estado ESPN) Nico mentioned that Mugello is different from every other track that you guys race on in the year so does this very fact make it less useful to have tested there instead of somewhere else?

KK: Difficult. I think maybe it’s not really useful for mechanical stuff but definitely useful for aero development at least, because we can test the aero on the straights. Difficult to see the stability in the corner. Basically I think this was a good test.

SV: I agree. I think it was good to test some parts of the car, not for some others, but like all the other circuits. When we test in Jerez, test in Barcelona, we try different things. I remember in the old days testing in Paul Ricard. Some days we test on the 50s lap circuit because we were testing for Monaco Grand Prix: different tyres and different parts, so every test is welcome for different areas of the car, but it’s good. For people who don’t like Mugello there is a very easy solution.

Fernando Alonso has denied Ferrari is on the verge of giving up on the 2012 championship.

The Maranello based team has brought significant updates to its so far disappointing F2012 car for this weekend’s Spanish grand prix.

Imagining the single seater doesn’t make a major step forward in Barcelona, Alonso was asked whether Ferrari might start turning its focus to an all-new project for 2013.

“We’ll see, we’ll see after the race, because we don’t know what car we have (yet),” the Spaniard told reporters on Thursday. “I answer you on Sunday.”

Alonso said more updates for the F2012 are also scheduled for the forthcoming Monaco and Canadian grands prix.

But what if the Barcelona changes leave Ferrari with a midfield car? Would the time be right to get an early jump on the 2013 project?

“I don’t think so,” answered Alonso. “If the step is not good enough … we need to work harder, for Monaco and for Canada, and bring more new parts in a more aggressive approach.

“The championship is long and we will never give up in May,” he insisted.

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The boss of Abu Dhabi’s F1 circuit has criticised plans to run the young driver test at Silverstone later this year.

Originally, the young driver test was scheduled to take place as usual this year at Yas Marina, the week after the Abu Dhabi grand prix.

But, due to the calendar congestion at the end of this season, the majority of teams have decided instead to go to Silverstone in July, with only the two Red Bull-owned teams sticking with the Abu Dhabi plan.

Lotus team boss Eric Boullier, however, is quoted by The National newspaper as saying the Silverstone plan is “nonsense”.

Yas Marina chief Richard Cregan agrees: “If you’re a good young driver in the middle of a season, then it’s not ideal to be testing a formula one car midway through the year.

“These guys should be focusing on whatever series it is they are racing, which is why the F1 testing in Abu Dhabi worked so well in the past because it was effectively the end of their season.”

He also warned that the earlier timing of the Silverstone test means teams could spend more time trying to develop their cars than on seriously evaluating the next generation of drivers.

“It is first and foremost a young drivers test and it must remain that,” Cregan insisted.

“It is a chance for young drivers to get maybe a first chance to drive an F1 car and it is chance for teams to run their eye over a driver and evaluate his performance.

“Developing the car and parts should be secondary,” he said.

Abu Dhabi could, however, be back on if Silverstone’s weather forecast looks poor, even though as soon as a car has left the pitlane in July, that team will no longer be allowed to change its plans.

Even though Lotus’ Boullier thinks the Silverstone decision was wrong, he has vowed to stick with the majority.

“But actually I would like it to rain, so we will go back to the original schedule,” said the Frenchman.

Cregan said Abu Dhabi’s door remains open.

“We’ll still be working to the same standards,” he said. “So in that sense nothing changes.”

F1 figures have mixed feelings after this week’s Mugello test.

Amid speculation the Ferrari owned circuit would like a spot on the race calendar, it emerged that the famous Maranello based team pushed hard for the Tuscan facility to host the first in-season test in many years.

“It’s very beautiful and the food is very good,” said Red Bull team boss Christian Horner, “but we are spending a lot of money and honestly we didn’t feel the need to come here.”

Indeed, the only circuits comparable to high speed Mugello on the F1 calendar are Monza, Spa and parts of Silverstone.

And testing at Barcelona prior to next weekend’s Spanish grand prix would have made infinitely more logistical sense.

Lotus team boss Eric Boullier said Mugello was “money spent needlessly”.

Of course, those in the Ferrari camp thought differently.

“I would do more tests during the season,” said Fernando Alonso. “One lap here is worth 100 at other places, without considering that one day here is worth a year’s work on the simulator”.

But Mark Webber said Mugello is too fast for a decent test circuit, but he was among those who enjoyed the layout.

And the Australian couldn’t understand McLaren’s opposition, which extended to both Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button giving up their running to test drivers.

“It was an absolute no-brainer for (Sebastian Vettel and I) to be here,” said the Red Bull driver.

“Mileage is so limited these days that it’s good for me to be in the car. Any chance we get to drive the car in the real world, we’ll do it,” added Webber.

He may be in Bahrain, but Fernando Alonso’s mind is thinking firmly ahead to Europe as the Spaniard prepares to struggle on Sunday yet again.

Ferrari’s number one driver squeezed into Q3 with the struggling F2012 on Saturday, and is targeting some minor points on Sunday.

“The two McLarens and the two Red Bulls are at the front, and there’s (also) Rosberg,” Alonso is quoted by Auto Motor und Sport, predicting how Sunday’s race will unfold.

“We’re not going to go past them. For us, we are racing behind the top five.”

He is hoping it will be his latest and last experience of life as a midfielder in 2012.

For Barcelona, the first European race of the season mid next month, Ferrari – so disappointed with its start to the season – is planning a major upgrade for the F2012.

An added bonus is that it can be tested at Mugello in early May.

“Despite our problems I am in third place in the championship, and tomorrow (Sunday) I have a chance to score well. That’s more than we expected.

“Next is Barcelona, a most important race for us. I hope the season starts again for me (there),” said Alonso.

Whilst admitting the RB8 has “very nervous” handling, Sebastian Vettel insists there is nothing fundamentally wrong with the 2012 Red Bull.

The German looks likely to struggle to add a third consecutive drivers’ title to his tally this season, after slumping to just sixth in the points standings after the first two races.

In China, he has reverted to a launch specification of the Adrian Newey-penned car’s exhaust layout, whilst Mark Webber is plugging ahead with a further development of the Australia-Malaysia solution.

“There is no question of something (being) wrong,” Vettel is quoted in Spanish media reports as saying in Shanghai, “just a few things that are probably just not working in an ideal manner.

“The problem we have is that the balance of the car is not as good as we had last year. It’s not a question of downforce, but of ensuring that all the parts are behaving as a whole.

“That is what we are trying to achieve.”

Vettel dismissed the suggestion that because Red Bull’s cars are in two different specifications this weekend, it means the team has “lost” its way.

“I wouldn’t say that,” he said. “I firmly believe we have a very competitive car, at the moment we are just not able to take its full potential out.”

Meanwhile, the 24-year-old said he has spoken with Narain Karthikeyan, following their collision in Malaysia.

Vettel twice showed his Indian rival the middle finger, and described Karthikeyan – who was penalised by the stewards – as an “idiot”.

“I spoke with him and he apologised,” Vettel is quoted by Germany’s spox.com.

But when told that he was once a backmarker like Karthikeyan, the German insisted: “I was never as far behind as the HRT.

“Of course you have to drive your own race. But you still have to know what is going on around you.”

Pressure is on Romain Grosjean to have a clean race in China next weekend.

The reigning GP2 champion has shown pace in his return to formula one so far this year, making good use of the competitive Lotus E20.

But in the actual races, the 25-year-old is yet to see much action in 2012, colliding with Pastor Maldonado in Australia and spinning in the Sepang rain.

With Kimi Raikkonen also yet to enjoy a fully clean race on his own return to F1, Lotus’ trackside chief Alan Permane is quoted by the Sun: “It would be nice to have a straightforward race with no penalties and no crashes from Romain after the first couple of corners.

“I think it is McLaren and Red Bull at the front, and then I believe we are there.”

Grosjean has duly vowed to do better.

“When you make mistakes you have to admit it and not repeat that mistake. When it’s not your fault — well it’s not your fault.

“I know that we can do some great things in the future races. My season starts properly in China,” he said.

Martin Brundle has described Red Bull’s lack of pace as the biggest surprise of the 2012 season so far.

After consecutive world championships with Sebastian Vettel, the energy drink-owned team was universally tipped as the pre-season favourite for yet another F1 title.

But McLaren dominated in Australia before Ferrari and Sauber surprisingly set the pace recently in Malaysia.

Former F1 driver Brundle admitted the struggling RB8 was the surprise of the opening salvo in 2012, but he also acknowledged that the turnaround might have been predicted.

“When you look at how the regulations have changed, it’s almost like they were designed to slow the Red Bulls down,” the Sky television commentator told the website of the BBC programme Top Gear.

“Doubling the torsional stiffness of the front wings, the way Red Bull were ‘flying’ their car down the track with lots of rake, nose close to the ground, exhausts helping to sort the high rear ride height out, it’s all been taken away from them,” added Brundle.

An unnamed engineer at Red Bull has admitted the team was caught on the hop in the winter pre-season, when it became clear McLaren was better prepared for the new rules.

“McLaren came with a (exhaust) system on the edge of legality,” the engineer told Germany’s Auto Bild, “and it was declared legal by the FIA.

“So (Adrian) Newey had to adapt,” he added, referring to Red Bull’s last-minute decision to change tack at the very end of the pre-season test period.

The message coming from the Milton Keynes based team, therefore, is that Red Bull is playing catch-up.

“We need to understand the car better,” admits team advisor Dr Helmut Marko, “which is why for the next race (in China) we will have hardly any new parts.”

So until he’s back at the front, F1′s formerly-dominant Vettel – who lashed out at backmarker Narain Karthikeyan recently in Malaysia – needs to adapt.

Asked if the German was justified in calling his Indian rival an “idiot”, Brundle insisted: “No.

“That’s just an angry man who hasn’t got a front-running car at the moment. He’s just frustrated.”

 The Italian press is reporting that Ferrari could abandon the innovative pull-rod suspension layout of its disappointing F2012 car.
The Spanish sports daily AS concurs, adding that the revised car could be ready as soon as next month, and certainly in time for Barcelona in May.

“Ferrari may even give up its revolutionary front suspension,” wrote correspondent Manuel Franco.

Until the F2012, the pull-rod layout has not been seen at the front of a formula one car since designer Gabriele Tredozi’s 2001 Minardi.

Interestingly, Spaniard Fernando Alonso raced both cars.

According to O Estado de S.Paulo correspondent Livio Oricchio, Ferrari spokesman Luca Colajanni played down the reports.

“But I am not so sure the information is unfounded,” Oricchio insisted.

At Sepang, La Gaceta reporter Carlos Miguel Gomez asked Alonso about the ‘big step’ for the F2012 that is being imminently planned by Ferrari.

“It is up to you to write that there will be a new car coming,” the Spanish driver answered.

“It won’t be just us: I think everyone will make updates at every race. We just need to make ours work a little bit more,” said Alonso.

“New parts will slowly come at every race and hopefully they work, but there’s not one magic race or one magic moment when we think things can change.”

Malaysia is not yet committing its future to the formula one calendar beyond its 2015 deal.
Sepang was Hermann Tilke’s first full creation that made its grand prix debut in 1999.

But Razlan Razali, the Kuala Lumpur circuit’s chief executive, said on Wednesday he is unable to say if there will be a race in 2016.

“We can recommend all we want, but as (the) prime minister announced last year, the decision will be made by the cabinet,” he told the New Straits Times.

Sepang commissioned consultants PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) last year to study the economic impact of the Malaysian grand prix.

“PWC advised us to have another study on this year’s event,” revealed Razali.

He also pointed some criticism at the lack of enthusiasm from some parts of the government, particularly when it comes to promoting the annual race.

“Not all ministries seem interested,” Razlan admitted.

 Force India has been ordered by a British court to pay over a million dollars.
With team boss Vijay Mallya already in financial strife over his collapsing airline Kingfisher, his Silverstone based team must now pay Italian wind tunnel Aerolab.

The high court judge on Wednesday said the amount, which according to the Daily Telegraph will skyrocket to over $6 million once legal costs are added, is for unpaid fees following a copyright dispute with Aerolab and Caterham.

The newspaper said the bill could be the final straw for struggling Mallya, who may now cede control of Force India to 42.5 per cent shareholder Subrata Roy, another Indian billionaire.

But Force India hit back in a media statement on Wednesday by revealing that Aerolab and its client Caterham were found “liable for copyright infringement”.

“Some parts created using Force India confidential information were used on the Team Lotus race cars in the early part of the 2010 season,” it read.

Force India said it has referred the court’s ruling to the FIA.

 After putting his tumultuous 2011 season behind him, Lewis Hamilton has kicked off this year’s world champion in downbeat mood.
The 2008 world champion had put his well-documented personal problems and on-track struggles behind him with a positive approach to his sixth season in F1.

But after his teammate Jenson Button beat him in the 2011 standings, Hamilton could not hide his disappointment on Sunday when the 2009 title winner also beat him to the first corner in Melbourne, before Button and reigning champion Sebastian Vettel filled the top two podium spots.

“I just struggled out there,” confused pole-sitter Hamilton said afterwards.

David Coulthard, the former long-time McLaren driver and now paddock analyst, expressed concern about Hamilton’s “striking” post-race body-language and “stony-faced” performance on the podium.

“Has it (Button’s win) knocked Lewis?” he wondered in his Telegraph column.

Many in F1 are astonished by how Button, described as having entered Hamilton’s “lion’s den” at McLaren two years ago, is now being described by the famous British team as its title-winning hope.

“People underestimate him,” said team boss Martin Whitmarsh. “He’s such a calm, mature and easygoing fellow that people don’t realise necessarily the hunger that’s in him to compete and to win.

“He must now believe he’s in a good chance of a proper title run this year and providing we can continue to improve the car, not make mistakes, be reliable there’s no reason why he can’t do that,” he added.

On Hamilton’s side of the garage, meanwhile, is a downcast driver and an expiring contract.

“On his day, Lewis is unbeatable, and yet I suspect McLaren are wondering whether or not they want to keep him, because he brings so much baggage with him,” another former McLaren driver-turned commentator, Martin Brundle, told April’s Motor Sport magazine.

As for Whitmarsh, McLaren’s team principal insists there is no concern yet that Hamilton has already re-entered another spiral of despair so early in 2012.

Downplaying Hamilton’s post-race mood in Australia, he said: “When he starts getting happy with being third, or beaten by his teammate, then he won’t be the Lewis we all love and admire.”