It was a breakthrough for Mercedes and Nico Rosberg, but the Chinese grand prix was a “difficult day” for Michael Schumacher.

That is the admission of Shanghai winner Rosberg, whose first race win after more than 100 attempts also delivered German marque Mercedes’ first works victory for more than half a century.

“I felt he was very happy for me,” Rosberg told Auto Bild Motorsport, when asked what seven time world champion Schumacher’s reaction was.

Since returning to F1 more than two years ago, 43-year-old Schumacher – although stepping up his pace in 2012 – is yet to finish a single grand prix on the podium.

Nonetheless, he offered his congratulations “very, very warmly” after China, Rosberg revealed.

“At the same time I know that it was, of course, a difficult day (for him),” he admitted.

Norbert Haug, the team’s motor sport director, recently sounded inclined to keep Rosberg and Schumacher together beyond 2012, despite the fact the older and more famous German’s contract is ending.

He insisted there is “nothing negative” about their relationship.

As for ongoing rumours that Schumacher still enjoys number one status, Haug called that idea “absolute nonsense”.

“Do you know what Nico said to me, before Michael came? He said ‘If you can get Michael (on the team), then try everything for it’.”

Rosberg has not changed his tune.

“There was never a situation in which Michael got anything before I did,” he confirmed.

Michael Schumacher could be the next silver-clad driver who takes a Mercedes to the top step of the podium.

His teammate Nico Rosberg dominated the Shanghai weekend and, at his 111th attempt, finally broke through with a maiden pole and win.

The much-younger German also dominated Schumacher, the 43-year-old, at Mercedes in the last two years — ever since the seven time world champion returned to formula one in 2010.

But former Benetton and Ferrari title winner Schumacher appears much more on Rosberg’s pace this season, and in fact even solidly outqualified his 26-year-old teammate in Australia and Malaysia.

“It’s simple,” Schumacher told Brazil’s O Estado de S.Paulo.

“The way I can drive this car is much more how I have driven a car throughout my whole life.

“If you look at my driving today and compare with ten years ago, not much has changed,” said the famous German. “But if you look at 2010 and 2011, my arms never stopped working.

“It wasn’t my way to drive,” insisted Schumacher.

Having followed Rosberg early in the Chinese grand prix – before his retirement – Schumacher admitted that he could not quite match the leading pace.

But, despite not standing on a podium even once since his F1 comeback, he has now smelled that a victory is close.

“It will be the same feeling as when I went to the podium for the first time with Benetton, and Ferrari,” Schumacher predicted.

“When I started with those teams, we were far away from being able to think about it. But after a lot of work, I would say years – just as now with Mercedes – we had reached the stage of being able to fight.

“Most people have no idea how many things need to be changed, how much effort and investment is required. At 43 I’m going through all of this again, but it’s because I really love what I do.”

Schumacher’s Mercedes contract expires at the end of this year.

“You might not believe it,” he responded, “but I’m so focused on developing this car that I don’t think about it.

“Later on in the season, of course, it’s inevitable.

“Of course it gives me great pleasure that we are starting to see the results of this great work. I am still perfectly capable of winning in formula one,” Schumacher insisted.

Michael Schumacher has dismissed the attempt to have Mercedes’ innovative ‘double-DRS’ system banned.

Having twice previously rejected rivals’ claims the concept is illegal, the FIA late on Thursday threw out Lotus’ official protest.

Seven time world champion Schumacher, who drives for Mercedes, admitted in China he doubts Lotus really thinks the system breaches any rules.

“If someone has a good idea, we always have this sort of dispute,” the famous German told Bild newspaper.

“It (the dispute is) because it’s going to take too long for the other teams to do the same thing. It’s the normal game,” said Schumacher.

It is believed McLaren and Sauber are working on their own versions of the double-DRS, as are the reigning world champions Red Bull.

“We have been working on it for some time,” a Red Bull source told O Estado de S.Paulo’s Livio Oricchio, “but it’s not easy to get even two small tubes down the entire length of the car, front to rear,” he admitted.

Oricchio said Ferrari is also working on a version, to debut no later than next month’s Spanish grand prix.

 Jenson Button has dreamed up a new victory salute, after growing weary of last year’s “crooked finger”.
McLaren’s Button, who beat reigning double champion Vettel to victory last week in Melbourne, admitted last year that the German’s winning salute had started to grate his nerves.

“He keeps doing that,” Button grimaced a year ago, demonstrating Vettel’s awkward index-finger salute that always followed the Red Bull driver’s latest pole or victory.

“It would be alright if it was straight.”

At one point, just after yet another Vettel pole, the young German saluted the ranks of photographers with his finger, and Button jokingly attempted to bite it off.

So, after winning in Albert Park ahead of Vettel in the 2012 opener last weekend, Button unfurled a new salute.

Asked if Vettel will now get sick of the two-handed ‘W for winner’ gesture, Button smiled: “Hopefully he will.

“I actually did the ‘W’ with a water bottle in my hand, which didn’t really work very well,” said the Briton.

“I’m sure we will sometimes see the crooked finger but hopefully not very often this year.”

Marussia Racing’s new MR01 finally made its first on-track appearance during a promotional ‘filming’ day at Silverstone, just a few miles from is Banbury base.

The Anglo-Russian team endured a torrid time in its attempts to get the car ready for the third and final group test at Barcelona last week, having skipped the opening session in Jerez to prepare the MR01 for early March, only to fail the mandatory FIA crash tests. Although both Timo Glock and rookie Charles Pic got some miles under their belts in Barcelona last month, it was at the wheel of the 2011-spec car, leaving them preciously short of time in the new machine ahead of its race debut in Melbourne next weekend.

The Silverstone shakedown, part of a promotional event ahead of the car’s departure for the Australian Grand Prix, will provide both team and driver with vital information on the new machine, which has been conceived after a ground-up re-evaluation of the way Marussia designs its racing cars. As such, the car is almost entirely new, with very few carry-over components from last year’s Marussia Virgin MVR-02.

The desire to make a clean break from the previous CFD-only creations presented the design team, led by technical consultant Pat Symonds, with the challenge of going back to basics to produce a solid mechanical package, whilst maintaining an eye towards achieving the incremental performance steps required to move the team forward.

The starting point for the design programme was a consideration of the people and resources available to the Banbury-based team. The former three-base operation has been consolidated into one site, the Marussia Technical Centre in Banbury, bringing the various elements of the business together to form ‘one team’. In particular, the design department and practices now benefit from far greater integration and collaboration. Furthermore, the aerodynamic department has been completely restructured and the aero methodology reinforced, blurring the boundaries between CFD and experimental work in the wind tunnel, as well as enhancing the fidelity of the team’s aero approach.

The technical partnership forged with McLaren Applied Technologies in July of last year has also been influential in the design process and the relationship is starting to yield benefit as the advanced facilities that the Marussia team has access to have been used to prove the correlation process with the MVR-02. It is however early in the relationship and the MR01 will become a beneficiary of the relationship in due course.

The key design priorities were to address previous aerodynamic deficiencies and, mechanically, achieve greater weight saving. At the same time, a lot of the detail of the car has been refined and the design team have been a little more adventurous than before, stepping closer to the engineering boundaries. The car can best be described as a significant evolution of its predecessors. The relationship with McLaren is also evident, as the MR01 is only the second car launched this season, after the Woking giant’s MP4-27, to eschew the stepped nose concept favoured by the rest of the field.

“We are very pleased to be running the new MR01 for the first time this morning,” team principal John Booth admitted, “It has been a long and frustrating wait for everyone in the team, but we can now get back on track – literally – and start working towards the first race of the season in Australia next weekend.

“Today is the first of two promotional events, so while the drivers will be able to get a feel for the car, they won’t be able to draw any real conclusions until we start running in anger in Melbourne. Nevertheless, this is an important day for us and we’ll enjoy every minute on track with the new car.”

Glock turned the first laps with the MR01, beginning his third season with the team and providing the all-important element of continuity required to keep moving the package forward. He is joined in 2012 by Frenchman Pic, who embarks on his rookie year in F1, having made the step up from GP2 to replace Belgium’s Jerome d’Ambrosio. Both drivers will get track time with the new car over the next two days, albeit running on demonstration tyres as opposed to the Pirelli P-Zeros that they will use once competition starts in Melbourne.

It is too soon to be picking the winners and losers ahead of the 2012 season, reigning back-to-back world champion Sebastian Vettel insists.
An early analysis might suggest Ferrari is struggling whilst Lotus could be set to join the pacesetters this season.

But German Vettel, who drives for 2010 and 2010 constructors’ champions Red Bull, said after the Jerez test that it is way too soon to be drawing conclusions about his rivals’ form.

“There is a bit of a reference when you look at what runs they’ve been doing, but if you look at previous years at this time of year it’s all up and down. Nothing really shows yet,” he is quoted by PA Sport news agency.

“Now we wait for Mercedes (to launch their 2012 car) and then we will know a little more, certainly at the last test in Barcelona,” added Vettel.

“The change in rules have also given people an opportunity to catch up, so we’ll see what happens.”

One of those with potential to catch up is midfield team Sauber, but boss Peter Sauber insisted that Jerez provided “no more than a snapshot” with two group tests yet to run before Melbourne.

“For me, any attempt to create a pecking order based on Jerez is no more than reading tea leaves,” he told the Swiss Sonntagsblick newspaper.

Sauber agreed with Vettel that the final test in Barcelona next month will “lift the fog” ahead of the trek to Australia for the season opener.

“Only at the last test will we see the teams using their technical packages for Melbourne,” he said.

Vettel added: “Lotus looks quite good from what I’ve seen — fast and consistent.

“Ferrari and McLaren are the big unknown, and perhaps us as well,” he is quoted by Spain’s Europa Press.

 McLaren has once again stepped in to prevent Lewis Hamilton from answering a reporter’s question about the Adrian Sutil affair.
At the recent launch of the MP4-27 car, a reporter asked Hamilton about his former friend Sutil’s accusation he is a “coward” for not appearing as a witness at the recent assault trial in Munich.

“We’ve been told that Lewis shouldn’t really go there because it (the conviction) might go under appeal,” the spokesman quickly intervened.

Hamilton smiled: “I’ll listen to him.”

The Briton’s former F3 teammate did indeed file an appeal, but not before Sutil’s father Jorge described Hamilton as “pathetic” in the German press.

Asked about the latest insult from the Sutil camp, Hamilton was once again prevented from answering in the Jerez paddock by a McLaren media minder.

“That question is not permitted,” the spokesman is quoted as saying by Auto Motor und Sport.

The German magazine article read: “We say that Hamilton should have the courage to speak for himself.”

In other courtside F1 news, former Benetton driver JJ Lehto’s attempt to appeal his prison sentence for manslaughter got off to a dismal start, the Swiss newspaper Blick reports.

Finn Lehto’s lawyer reportedly appeared in court to file the appeal but was “immediately arrested himself, apparently because of money laundering”.

HRT team members had their fingers crossed this week that the 2012 car would pass the FIA’s mandatory crash tests.
Most of the Spanish team’s rivals have already begun testing their new single seaters, but at Jerez Pedro de la Rosa had to be content with the outdated 2011 machine.

“If it (the new car) passes (the FIA tests), we will have the car at the next test in Barcelona,” said the Spanish driver.

“It is very important that we pass the tests even though we know it’s not easy given that some top teams failed at the first attempt.

“We need every mile,” de la Rosa was quoted in Spanish reports.

But bad news about two of the crash tests emerged late on Thursday, meaning de la Rosa and Narain Karthikeyan will not get their hands on the 2012 car at the forthcoming Barcelona test.

New rules in 2012 mean teams cannot test their new cars until they are fully homologated by the FIA.

Christian Horner on Wednesday said it is “ridiculous” to suggest Mark Webber tried deliberately to take out his rivals after crashing in Sunday’s Korean grand prix.

Former grand prix winner Gerhard Berger said on Tuesday that the Australian “could have hit the brakes” after crashing out of second place during the rain-hit race in Yeongam.

“Yes, I think that’s very clear,” said the Austrian. “It’s very obvious, you can see his wheels are not locked up.”

Webber actually collected the Mercedes of Nico Rosberg, but – according to Berger – he “would have preferred” to wipe title contenders Fernando Alonso or Lewis Hamilton out of the race.

Red Bull team boss Horner responded: “As with every incident in formula one, opinions will always be made without all the facts.

“Just to be absolutely clear — Mark’s intention was not to take out another driver after his crash and it’s ridiculous to suggest otherwise,” he told the Telegraph.

Horner admitted that Webber’s RB6 was “badly damaged” after his initial contact with the wall, but his attempt to keep the car going was a “natural and immediate instinct” to get back into the race.

“It’s absurd to suggest that Mark would ever deliberately take out another driver,” added Horner.

Red Bull is nervous about not throwing away the 2010 world championship, and McLaren will be there to pick up the pieces.

That is the gist of the mind games being played in the media by McLaren team boss Martin Whitmarsh.

“I think it would be tough to take for Red Bull to lose the championship now,” he is quoted by the Guardian newspaper, nearing the end of a season marked by the difficult off-track relationship between the two British-based teams.

Whitmarsh said he hopes the title-charging inexperience of Mark Webber, Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull, and the championships already in the bags of McLaren and its two drivers, will show up in the run to the Abu Dhabi finale.

“I hope it’s massively important and decisive.  Both our guys know what it’s like – even if you’re leading a championship – when the pressure comes.  It’s very easy to get defensive and tight,” said the Briton.

Whitmarsh also said Red Bull “can be disappointed” that their championship lead is relatively small despite having easily the fastest qualifying car for much of 2010.

“That will be weighing on their minds as we get into the championship finale.  I’m sure they feel some sense of frustration,” he said.

Reigning world champion Jenson Button admitted in Korea that he too has been attempting to out-psyche Red Bull’s Webber.

“Everybody plays mind games,” he said.  “It was fun because I have been in his position.  They did it to me last year.

“It’s the little things, like me saying, Are you feeling the pressure, mate?  You always get a reaction, even if they say, Nah I am not feeling it,” added Button.

Mark Webber has rubbished attempts to pre-empt the outcome of the five-driver race to the 2010 title.

With three races to go, the Australian driver has a comfortable 14 point lead, and a complicated formula devised by a doctor of physics at the UK’s Reading University has tipped Webber to still be in front at the chequered flag in Abu Dhabi.

Meanwhile, a Spanish newspaper this week used another probability formula to calculate the percentage changes of the five world championship protagonists

And even the more mathematically-challenged statisticians have surmised that another win and a couple more podiums will be enough for Webber to guarantee his first title.

But the 34-year-old said in Korea: “It’s ridiculous to start calculating things because a lot of things can happen.

“As you say, I win the next two races, it’s all over anyway. Just keep doing our best, that’s the most important thing,” added Webber.

Rubens Barrichello, meanwhile, echoed a widespread view in the paddock that Webber would be a very popular champion.

“For some reason, I’m with (supporting) Webber,” the Brazilian said on Thursday.

“I think since Silverstone, when he spoke his mind and strengthened his position in the team, probably many people think the same,” he revealed.

Help from Germany ensured that Korea’s new F1 circuit is able to host its inaugural grand prix this weekend.

That is the claim of Hermann Tilke, the architect of the circuit but retained only as an ‘advisor’ to the actual construction of the venue in Yeongam.

When it became clear that the Koreans were struggling to complete the facility, Tilke stepped in, reportedly providing workers and machinery, primarily to get the track surface in racing condition.

“In the end we sent workers over from Germany, otherwise it probably wouldn’t have worked,” he is quoted by Auto Bild Motorsport.

Tilke insists that fears the track surface will break up this weekend are unfounded.

“We have used a special formula — one that dries quickly and is ready immediately,” said the German, who said the only problem encountered by the drivers will be low levels of initial grip due to the bitumen sitting above the asphalt.

But Tilke admitted that, earlier, he did have “some doubts” that the circuit would be ready, according to France’s L’Equipe.

“It was necessary to analyse the problems and find solutions,” he said.  “We (Tilke GmbH) helped, but the construction companies in Korea worked hard.

“Overall, everything should be fine, but there might be some shortcomings here and there.”

Indeed, on Thursday as the F1 paddock filled up, many of the sport’s travellers moaned about plumbing and late media shuttles to the circuit, whilst highlighting the circuit’s imperfections.

“F1 has raced in a parking lot in Las Vegas, a desert in Bahrain and a swamp in Shanghai.

“But never on a building site in the middle of nowhere,” said Bild newspaper, as 1500 Korean soldiers hurriedly screwed in seats in the grandstands whilst workers painted dirt track verges green.

“We can hardly expect to be perfect from the outset,” said an event spokesman.

The good news is that organisers are expecting a healthy crowd – perhaps 90,000 on Sunday – for the track action, although it is understood this number of tickets has not yet been sold.

“We don’t expect too much on our first attempt at this event,” acknowledged the spokesman.  “We hope interest in F1 (in Korea) will increase after this.”

The plans for a formula one team are reportedly still alive, but Villeneuve/Durango is now more likely to turn its attention to NASCAR.

Ivone Pinton, principal of the Italian team Durango that pulled out of GP2 in 2009 with financial problems, echoed Jacques Villeneuve’s comments of last month that the collaboration is looking to buy one of the existing F1 teams.

Colin Kolles said in September that the rumours linking the struggling HRT team with Durango left him “speechless”.

But Durango’s Pinton insists F1 is a real option, telling the Italian website 422race.com that he and the 1997 world champion Villeneuve are “still working together” and in talks with “a couple of” the sport’s current teams.

“If we can do it in 2011, fine.  Otherwise we will go on working on it,” he explained.

French Canadian Villeneuve told the Canadian media last month that another option is to switch focus to NASCAR.

Pinton agreed, explaining that a successful foray in North America could precede a later attempt to “do things well in Europe”.

“This (NASCAR) is the most logical and possible situation,” he said.  “It’s useless to do something if you aren’t sure of the quality.  And we already saw how it is to do F1 without quality.”

Lewis Hamilton took the lead of the world championship from Mark Webber on Sunday, by beating the Australian to victory at slippery Spa-Francorchamps.

As the fickle Belgian Ardennes continued to produce changeable weather conditions, the mere 20-point gap that had separated the top five title chargers blew out to more than 40.

One big loser on Sunday was Fernando Alonso, initially taken out by Rubens Barrichello at the start of the race before crashing on his own at the end.

Also now a long way behind in the championship – 35 points – is Jenson Button, who was innocently taken out by Sebastian Vettel as the Red Bull charger lost control during an overtaking attempt.

“It’s a massive blow — a massive blow,” Button said on BBC television, shortly before Vettel said “sorry” in his own media scrum.

There is clearly no love lost between the drivers’ management, with McLaren boss Martin Whitmarsh admitting he thinks Vettel “got off lightly” with a drive-through penalty.

Red Bull’s Christian Horner naturally adjudged the penalty “a bit too hard”.

“What else can you give him?” said Button.  “It was a racing incident, he didn’t do it on purpose.”

Horner added: “You need to take into account the difficult weather conditions and that Jenson braked early.”

Vettel, scoring no points at Spa and now 31 points behind his teammate, also had to serve extra pitlane time after cutting a tyre on Tonio Liuzzi’s Force India.

“Everything that could go wrong for Sebastian went wrong today,” boss Horner told German Sky television.

In the sister Red Bull, Webber’s second place on Sunday leaves him just 3 points adrift Hamilton and well clear of the next challenger.

He intimated to reporters that the team might now be wise to back him for the last six races of 2010.

“It depends how hungry they are,” he said.

But Horner said: “It’s too early for that.  Sebastian is still in it.  We have seen already how quickly the tide can turn.”

Magny Cours’ new boss is positioning the French circuit for a possible return to the formula one calendar.

The venue, and the country, fell out of the sport after the 2008 season, and attempts to revive the French grand prix at an alternate site have failed so far.

One of F1 chief executive Bernie Ecclestone’s criticisms of Magny Cours, located in rural central France, was the difficulty of the journey from Paris.

But according to Auto Hebdo, improvements mean travellers will soon be “able to come from Paris without interruption to the door of the circuit”, circuit chairman Serge Saulnier is quoted as saying.

Saulnier became chairman earlier this year, after running and owning racing teams from the 80s until 2006 and then working as boss of Peugeot Sport.

“If France is reinstated on the calendar in the near future, it could only be at Magny Cours,” he said.

“The key to F1′s return to France is the promotion.  It is necessary to renegotiate the price to a reasonable level,” added Saulnier.

“We know that the state or the local authorities are not going to put in five or six million euros for the loss,” he continued.

“If there is a chance of having the grand prix back, the negotiation – as it was for the grand prix of Canada – must be done to be on a reasonable basis.

“We are going to work on it discreetly, and without haste,” he announced.

(GMM)