Nico Hulkenberg insists he is happy in formula one without his famous manager Willi Weber.

After a year on the reserve bench, the German returned to the grid in 2012 with Force India, but no longer represented by Weber, the famous former manager of the Schumacher brothers.

“There were a few reasons why I separated with Willi Weber,” Hulkenberg told spox.com.

“Now I’m doing it without some new management,” he explained. “I have assistants, because of course I can’t do everything by myself.

“It’s going quite well at the moment.”

Hulkenberg, 24, is not the only F1 driver without a manager, as Kimi Raikkonen now handles his own career.

“I have (also) taken Sebastian Vettel and Nico Rosberg as role models,” admitted Hulkenberg.

Many F1 insiders are now expecting next weekend’s Bahrain grand prix to be called off.

“We’re not going to Bahrain, the decision will be announced soon,” wrote Livio Oricchio, the correspondent for Brazil’s O Estado de S.Paulo newspaper.

In the wake of the latest reports about the ongoing political situation inside the island Kingdom, Oricchio said he expects the news about the race to be known “today or tomorrow”.

He referred to the direct threat made by the protest organising group February 14th Youth Coalition, who said it could not “ensure the safety” of the sport’s travelling members.

A spokesman for the international group Human Rights Watch admitted it is worried.

“On the ground we see an increasing number of deaths, and serious injuries from tear gas and beatings,” he is quoted as saying by the BBC.

And the latest fears have been intensified by the explosion of a bomb that injured seven policemen on Monday, and news that a jailed activist on hunger strike is now close to death.

An unnamed team boss admitted he is worried about his employees “and their families”, but an advisor to Bahrain’s interior ministry tried to play down those fears.

“People can be assured that if problems arise, then there will be a plan to deal with that as there would be with any public event in the world,” former London police assistant commissioner John Yates told the Associated Press.

But even Bernie Ecclestone, who will be in China this weekend, could now be stepping back from the controversy.

“If the teams don’t want to go, then we cannot make them,” the F1 chief executive told the Times.

All the FIA has said is that it is “monitoring” the situation, with it believed that contingency plans are in place so that F1 can cope with a cancellation decision made as late as this Saturday or Sunday.

The Bahrainis, meanwhile, are confident.

“We anticipate formula one will continue and hope it will be a success,” said government spokesman Sheikh Abdulaziz bin Mubarak al-Khalifa.

The Bahrain circuit’s Shaikh Salman bin Isa Al Khalifa added: “The race is going ahead — there is no doubt about that.

“There are several reports doing the rounds that are saying a lot of things which are baseless,” he told the Gulf Daily News.

“We are ready and there is a plan in place to ensure the safety of the teams, officials and fans.”

Photos of Bernie Ecclestone giving a middle finger salute are complementing reports on Thursday about the F1 chief executive’s birthday.

F1′s chief executive and long-time ‘supremo’ is turning 80, and Red Bull marked the forthcoming occasion in Korea last weekend with a mischievous present.

It was a zimmer frame, featuring a Red Bull front wing and a special F1-style steering wheel with a range of custom buttons.

One of the buttons was labelled ‘Viagra’, another ‘Nurse’, and yet another ‘Pasquale’ — referring to his ever-present assistant Pasquale Lattuneddu.

Posing at the front of the Red Bull garage with Christian Horner and his favourite driver Sebastian Vettel, Ecclestone greeted the massed photographers with good humour and the obscene single-finger gesture.

And according to Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport, Ecclestone does not intend to mark the occasion of his actual birthday on Thursday.

“I hate parties,” he said.

When asked what he really wants for his 80th birthday, the Briton was quoted a few days ago by the German weekly Die Zeit: “I just want to get there.”

Ferrari is “wise” to have poached an experienced engineer from McLaren, according to former grand prix driver Jos Verstappen.

Briton Pat Fry, McLaren’s former joint chief engineer who was with the Woking team for 17 years and recently working on the 2011 car, will start his new role at Ferrari next week as assistant technical director.

“Getting Pat Fry is a wise move,” Verstappen wrote in a column for the Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf.

“Like last season, you could say again that Ferrari’s performance has not been good enough.

“It is not the drivers’ fault — in particular, I estimate Alonso very highly.

“But in recent years Ferrari has lot some very important people and I think they are still affected by that,” he added.

(GMM)

Ferrari on Tuesday confirmed reports that Pat Fry is joining the famous Italian team.

It emerged at the weekend that the 46-year-old Briton, who until recently was heading McLaren’s 2011 car project as long-time joint chief engineer, was linked with a move to the Maranello based squad.

Italian reports had said Fry, although currently on compulsory ‘gardening leave’, will be able to have an impact on Ferrari’s next car.

A team statement on Tuesday confirmed that Fry will begin his new role as assistant technical director, reporting to Aldo Costa, on 1 July.

Ferrari said the “structure of the technical department remains (otherwise) unchanged”.

Fry joined McLaren from Benetton in 1993.

“I think it was probably good for him, the right decision for him to take a bit of a break, take a breather,” McLaren boss Martin Whitmarsh said last month.

(GMM)