Even amid the chaos of the 2012 pecking order, the star performer is obvious.

That is the view of former F1 driver Christian Klien, who confirmed to the Austrian news agency APA that one of his current roles is a simulator driver for the sport’s latest winning team, Williams.

“It (2012) is very open,” he said, “but for me Fernando Alonso stands out.”

Equal with Sebastian Vettel, Spaniard Alonso is at the top of the drivers’ world championship, a full eight points clear of Lewis Hamilton.

The Spaniard’s car has been the struggling Ferrari F2012, but he has never finished a race this season lower than ninth (China).

He has therefore scored points at every opportunity, even finishing first and second in Malaysia and Spain respectively.

“Alonso has an inferior car,” Klien explained, “but he uses every single little opportunity.

“He is the most complete driver who gets the most out of the package he has.”

Triple world champion Sir Jackie Stewart agrees that, among arguably the most competitive grid of drivers since the late 80s, Alonso is the standout performer.

“Right now we have the best generation of drivers we’ve had for a while,” the famous Scot told the Spanish sports daily AS.

“Everyone talks about Vettel, who is a great driver, and also Hamilton of course, but there is also Button, Schumacher, Kimi — all champions.

“There are others like Webber who also have the quality to win, young drivers coming up, many of them are very good, but also it is true that Alonso is fantastic.”

Asked why the Spaniard has not added a title to his tally since 2006, Stewart said: “The explanation is easy — he hasn’t had the luck to get the best car.

“Now he has one that isn’t good, but it’s in those circumstances that you see even more the quality that he has,” said Stewart.

Given Alonso’s push to the top of the championship with a sub-standard car, therefore, all the talk about Ferrari writing off the 2012 championship has been silenced for now.

“We have to keep developing the car,” Stefano Domenicali, Ferrari’s team boss, said after Barcelona, where significant upgrades were brought to the F2012 package.

“We are not yet fast enough to consistently fight for the podium, but that is the only option if we want to be in contention for the title,” he insisted.

Kimi Raikkonen is not ruling out victory in Barcelona this weekend.

If he does succeed on Sunday, the Finn will become the fifth different driver, driving for a fifth different team, to win the fifth grand prix of 2012 — an almost unthinkable scenario for formula one.

Not only that, some believe that – despite McLaren, Ferrari, Mercedes and Red Bull having fielded the winning cars so far in 2012 – Lotus is actually the favourite in Barcelona.

Raikkonen and his teammate Romain Grosjean were both on the podium in Bahrain, and the black and gold E20 set the pace last week at the Mugello test.

“You would say now that the Lotus and the Red Bull are the cars to beat,” said Melbourne winner Jenson Button on Thursday.

Raikkonen, openly disappointed about his second place recently, hopes so.

“If everything goes smoothly then we can be up there,” he told reporters on Thursday.

He agrees that the car was a true pacesetter in Bahrain and Mugello.

“Let’s hope it works just as well if not better here,” Raikkonen, 32, told the Finnish broadcaster MTV3 at the Circuit de Catalunya.

“Then we will at least have the possibility of victory,” he added.

He does not, however, want to talk about the championship.

“It has happened before that I had the best car overall but was still not the champion,” said Raikkonen. “There are so many little things that have to go in the right direction for you (to win the title).

“It’s pointless to think about the championship. Let’s try to do our job well, and see if that’s enough,” the self-described ‘iceman’ added.

Jerome d’Ambrosio has revealed he could drive one of the Lotus cars during Friday morning practice sessions at some point in 2012.

The former Virgin driver, who is managed by Lotus boss Eric Boullier’s Gravity company, was appointed as the team’s third and reserve driver for this year.

But, until now, it was not known if the role would involve Friday morning practice duties.

Asked by the La Libre newspaper when he will be seen on the grid once again, Belgian d’Ambrosio answered: “I hope in 2013.”

He will get his 2013 campaign up and running on Tuesday, when he gets the chance to drive Lotus’ current E20 for the first time at the Mugello test.

The 26-year-old said on Monday: “I will try to show what I can do every time I have the opportunity, not only tomorrow but also during the Friday morning tests that I can participate in.”

D’Ambrosio admitted he would rather be racing this year, but insists that his role at Lotus is a good stepping stone.

“I’m not complaining,” he said. “I remain convinced that my decision to become a reserve driver with a big team was the best thing for me.”

And he insisted he is not jealous of the similarly-aged Romain Grosjean, who took the E20 to the podium in Bahrain recently.

“Honestly not,” said d’Ambrosio. “I would be a fool to think that if Romain had crashed twice more I would replace him in Barcelona.

“Instead, what Grosjean has done confirms that young guys can be trusted. I am glad to see him succeed.

“I don’t come to grands prix hoping one of my teammates is hurt. I’m here to learn, not to laugh.”

He thinks Lotus could win a race in 2012.

“It’s possible, yes,” said d’Ambrosio. “The E20 works well when it’s hot, degrading the tyres not too much.

“In Bahrain, we had the best car in the race. We cannot afford to miss opportunities.”

Lotus did not consider employing team orders in order to boost Kimi Raikkonen’s chances of winning the Bahrain grand prix.

The 2007 world champion ultimately finished second and even had a stab at overtaking winner Sebastian Vettel.

And he might have had an ever better chance at challenging the Red Bull had his Lotus team chiefs ordered teammate Romain Grosjean aside at a crucial moment.

“Yeah,” confirmed Finn Raikkonen, “but there are no team orders and we know the rules.

“I tried to get past as quickly as I can but it’s not easy with two similar cars.

“It’s always easy to say afterwards ‘if we had done that’ but in the end we were not fast enough to win and we have to take the second,” he added.

Despite team orders being effectively legal in F1, team boss Eric Boullier confirmed that Lotus does not follow that policy.

“We don’t want to play team orders, so we let them race normally and what happened, happened,” he is quoted by the Mirror.

The most important thing, according to Spanish commentator and former veteran F1 engineer Joan Villadelprat, is that the former Renault team still knows how to win.

“Maybe they don’t have the best car on the grid, because McLaren and Red Bull and Mercedes are probably better, but Lotus have made a car capable of competing with the best in the right circumstances,” he wrote in El Pais newspaper.

More wins could quickly follow for F1′s newest race victor, Nico Rosberg.

The Mercedes driver began the 2012 season with more than a century of races under his belt, causing some pundits to predict he will never taste winning champagne.

But he broke through in China just a day after his maiden pole.

“I took 113 (races to win) and he’s on 111,” 2009 world champion Jenson Button smiled in Shanghai.

Niki Lauda thinks Rosberg’s next wins will be easier.

“It (winning) gets easier,” the Austrian legend said in China late on Sunday, “because he know you can do it, and you’ve proved it.

“The next victories come quite quickly,” Lauda told the German broadcaster RTL.

Patrick Tambay won just two grands prix in consecutive seasons, 1982 and 1983, but he said the first one – achieved in Keke Rosberg’s championship year – came with “a sense of completion”.

“After that, things seem easier,” said the Frenchman, “especially so when you’ve waited 110 grands prix!

“It will feel like a relief,” Tambay told RMC Sport. “Now, he’s still young at 26 but with a lot of experience; he has everything he needs to reproduce this victory.

“The first is the most difficult.”

However, Tambay thinks Rosberg has a fight on his hands if he thinks the Shanghai victory is a springboard to a potential championship challenge.

“I see the McLaren as the best car of the season. They passed up a good opportunity for the (China GP) win,” he said.

Fernando Alonso kept up a positive outlook on Sunday despite some Italian newspapers describing Ferrari’s situation as a “crisis”.
Melbourne qualifying confirmed the famous team’s winter woes, but Spaniard Alonso fared better in the race.

“After the way qualifying went, ending up with ten points behind the top two teams is good news,” he is quoted by La Gazzetta dello Sport.

The sports daily Marca described the attitude as Alonso “seeing the glass half-full”.

“For the Ferrari fans I say ‘wait a few races’,” former F1 driver Jarno Trulli told Italy’s Rai Uno television.

“Alonso managed to do something good but Ferrari needs to react, immediately,” the Italian, who was Alonso’s Renault teammate in 2004, added.

Team boss Stefano Domenicali, however, told Finnish MTV3 television that the F2012 will not be in better shape for ‘a few races’ at least.

Alonso agreed that, with one week between Australia and Malaysia, “We will have almost exactly the same car” at the Sepang circuit this weekend.

Added Domenicali: “We know what needs to be improved, but it can’t be done overnight.”

Former F1 driver Jaime Alguersuari remarked that the improvement in Alonso’s pace between Saturday and Sunday was significant.

“The opposite of Mercedes,” he told AS newspaper. “I think Alonso once again showed his quality, although clearly they have much work ahead.

“A driver can only win with the best car, but what he can do is demonstrate his quality with a good or a bad car,” he added.

It is on that final point that the pressure on Felipe Massa merely increased in Australia, as the Brazilian had a disastrously poor weekend from start to finish.

“We need to get behind him now as it’s clear he’s under pressure,” Domenicali told Gazzetta dello Sport.

“When people find themselves under pressure you have to find a way to relieve that pressure so they are free to express themselves in the way they can.

“I’ve asked his engineers to work closely with him and analyse the data so they can offer their support,” he added.

Fourth in the 2012 championship is a “realistic” target for Lotus.
That is the claim of reigning GP2 champion Romain Grosjean, amid suggestions his new mount – the black and gold E20 – is among the very best cars on this year’s grid.

“If I am really positive, we can say we are the third force, with Mercedes,” he is quoted by RMC.

“If I am more realistic, we can say that we will fight for fourth place with Ferrari, Force India, Sauber and Toro Rosso,” added the Frenchman.

Former F1 driver Mika Salo said the development race will be Lotus’ true test.

“They are a contender at least early in the season,” the Finn told the MTV3 broadcaster. “But the biggest teams develop at such a fast pace.”

 Most leading specialist publications see Red Bull as the continuing pacesetter in formula one.
In their recent analysis, outlets including Auto Motor und Sport (Germany), La Gazzetta dello Sport (Italy) and Autosport (Britain) believe world champion Sebastian Vettel again resides the best car ahead of the 2012 season.

“They still have an advantage, but it’s smaller,” agreed Jenson Button, according to Brazil’s O Estado de S.Paulo.

His boss Martin Whitmarsh added: “Red Bull has a solid, fast car, better than us in slow corners, but we’re better in the fast ones.”

Switzerland’s Sonntagsblick, however, sees McLaren actually ahead of the energy drink-owned team, with Mercedes in third place and Force India a surprise fourth.

“Red Bull is faster (than Mercedes),” said the German marque’s boss Ross Brawn, “and clearly a little more than we had hoped for,” he told Auto Motor und Sport.

The international publications said Lotus, amid their chassis flaw problems, rank anywhere between third (Auto Motor und Sport) and eighth (Blick).

According to the same press, Ferrari is in trouble, ranking no higher than fifth in the lists of the aforementioned publications — and the authoritative Auto Motor und Sport predicting nothing short of a disastrous season for the fabled Italian team.

Felipe Massa is quoted by Spanish reporters as saying Barcelona was “a little more positive” than the Jerez test recently, and he was asked to rank the development of the new F2012 car out of ten.

“Probably more than five. There is still much to do, but now we are closer than we were,” said the Brazilian.

As for whether the car is a race winner, Massa added: “I hope so, but it’s very difficult to say anything in testing,” he is quoted by Finland’s Turun Sanomat.

Indeed, Sauber’s Kamui Kobayashi ended last week’s Barcelona test with the quickest time, but Blick’s veteran correspondent Roger Benoit warned against taking that too seriously.

“When with the same tyres at the same time, (Mercedes’ Nico) Rosberg was a second faster per lap than Sauber’s Japanese,” he said.

“In testing, the truth is seldom revealed — if the teams used lie detectors, they would all be laying exploded around us.”

According to Britain’s Sun newspaper, Kobayashi confirmed: “I don’t think McLaren and Red Bull are slow.

“We don’t really wish for wins or podiums. For us this is a bit too far away.”

Instead, the midfield battle looks extremely tight, with Brazilian correspondent Livio Oricchio surmising that Sauber as well as Force India, Toro Rosso and Williams are all in there.

“It will be race to race,” Toro Rosso’s Giorgio Ascanelli told the Italian press. “From what we’ve seen so far, this fight will be amazing.”

And Oricchio concluded: “As for HRT and Marussia, who have not even presented their 2012 cars, they undoubtedly have capable people, but also almost as many difficulties.”

 Dietrich Mateschitz is giving Mark Webber at least an equal chance to get back on terms with his Red Bull teammate Sebastian Vettel in 2012.
After his 2010 title challenge, Webber was utterly dominated by back to back world champion Vettel last year.

But team owner Mateschitz told Kleine Zeitung newspaper that the pair will continue to have equal status this season.

“Our attitude has not changed — there are no team orders,” the Austrian billionaire said. “It starts at zero again, for both of them.”

As for which Red Bull driver will get the upper hand in 2012, Mateschitz is open minded.

“From today’s point of view it is difficult to say. But why not (Webber)? I’m curious to know how hard or difficult or impossible it will be for Vettel to defend his dominance,” he added.

Beyond 2012, however, Webber has no contract, and Mateschitz confessed that “our primary goal is to put one of our juniors in the car”.

He also admitted that rule changes could play against Red Bull for 2012, but still expects Adrian Newey’s car to be on the pace.

“The competition copied from us so much last year that at the end our advantages were no longer the same. But at the last race we still had quite a bit of an edge.

“Of course you take that into the new year.”

Based on the initial Jerez test, however, he said it is too early to say the RB8 is the best car.

“These tests are not to scale,” said Mateschitz. “Everyone drives with their own goals and plans or to meet certain criteria.

“But I do think the balance of power has stayed about the same.”

The race failed to yield even a podium place for the famous team, but Korea showed that Ferrari is getting back on track.
That is the claim of team boss Stefano Domenicali, who referred to the successful debut of a new front wing raced to fifth place by Fernando Alonso.

The part, based on the 2012 car philosophy, was not necessarily much faster than the conventional wing run to sixth place by Felipe Massa.

But according to Domenicali, the “data obtained in the wind tunnel matched the data seen throughout the (race) weekend, so it’s a good sign. There is no doubt,” AS newspaper quotes him as saying.

He was referring to Ferrari’s earlier troubles with the correlation of information between the wind tunnel and the track.

Spaniard Alonso hopes the team can provide him with a good car for 2012.

“I do not need the best car to win the world championship, just a competitive one,” he is quoted as saying.

Sebastian Vettel’s father insists his son deserves his recent success in formula one.
The 24-year-old is on the cusp of becoming the sport’s youngest ever back-to-back world champion.

But some observers still question the young German’s wheel-to-wheel talents and give more credit to Adrian Newey, the designer of the dominant Red Bull cars of the last few seasons.

“I hear it over and over again, ‘Vettel only wins because he has the best car’,” his father Norbert told the Swiss Sunday newspaper Sonntagsblick.

“But first you have to get into the best car, and Seb worked hard for it.”

The Cologne tabloid said that, despite Vettel’s superstitions, Red Bull has manufactured special caps and t-shirts to mark his title victory at Suzuka this weekend.

Fernando Alonso has defended Sebastian Vettel amid reports the reigning world champion is “not a real racer”.

As the Red Bull driver runs away with his second consecutive title in 2011, former grand prix winner David Coulthard observed in his latest Telegraph column that doubts remain about the 24-year-old German’s quality.

“He (Vettel) continues to sweep all before him, and yet there are still those who question Seb’s driving,” wrote the Scot. “As if he is simply fortunate to have found himself in a Red Bull. As if he is an average racing driver because he wins races from pole.”

Coulthard however thinks Vettel could go on to be F1′s “best driver ever”, and Alonso – Ferrari’s lead driver and also a two-time champion – also rates the young German highly.

“I don’t understand the criticisms about him, that he is not a real racer,” Alonso told Germany’s Auto Bild Motorsport. “He is a great champion about to win his second title and has remarkable qualities; a lot of speed.

“Yes he has the best car that gets a good place on the grid, but you need to be able to get the most out of it at every race and Sebastian does that very well.

“Even in difficult moments or when he makes a mistake, he is always fighting for the win. It is proof of his great qualities,” added the Spaniard.

Alonso however also has great respect for Vettel’s team, including the famous designer of the Red Bull car, Adrian Newey.

“They have played to the regulations better than us and the others and this year they have a great car,” he said. “Adrian Newey is obviously the key person but behind him is a strong team.

“Ferrari attracts drivers but also technicians, so if Newey wants to come to us it would be a pleasure to drive his car,” smiled Alonso.

The 30-year-old, meanwhile, has indicated he will keep on signing Ferrari contracts at least until he has added a third world championship to his resume.

“It’s very important to me,” Alonso admitted.

“I will not stop my career until I am champion with Ferrari. If it doesn’t come by 2016 then I will stay in formula one until 2021 — for twenty years like Michael!”

He had a long face on the Montreal podium but Sebastian Vettel might still be cruising to the 2011 title.
The Red Bull driver was gutted after handing his Canadian grand prix lead to McLaren’s Jenson Button almost within sight of the chequered flag.

“If you have got it in your hands and you give it away, it’s not the sweetest feeling,” admitted the German.

But in actual fact, because his closest challenger Lewis Hamilton did not finish, Vettel actually extended his championship lead in Canada,
now over the sister McLaren.

“Vettel is only counting down the time before his new world championship comes,” wrote Italy’s Tuttosport, while Marca said the outcome in 2011 is “practically decided”.

Agreed Joan Villadelprat in his El Pais column: “Make no mistake, the Red Bull is still the best car and Vettel extended in Canada. I’m guessing it’s going to be very difficult to beat him in the coming races.”

Red Bull, meanwhile, said all weekend that Canada is perhaps its “weakest” race of the season with the RB7.

“He should not be too disappointed,” said boss Christian Horner afterwards.

Der Spiegel quotes Vettel as agreeing: “It’s annoying to lose a race because of a moment of distraction just before the finish.

“But when I look at the world championship standings after the seventh race, I am quite satisfied.”

Long-time McLaren team boss Ron Dennis, however, said before leaving Canada that the race had proved “Vettel is not invincible”.

And the RB7′s dominance might be affected by the forthcoming restrictions on blown exhausts.

“The rule changes are going to spice things up,” Lewis Hamilton predicted, according to The Independent.

In the Telegraph, Montreal winner Button agreed: “There’s a lot happening this year in terms of the regulations. It could go our way, it might not. We’ll have to see.”

Pat Fry is the most obvious change to Ferrari’s personnel structure for 2011, Luca di Montezemolo reveals.

After starting work on McLaren’s 2011 car, Briton Fry switched to the famous Maranello based team mid-season to become deputy technical director.

There has been speculation since the race strategy blunder in Abu Dhabi that Ferrari would be making other major changes ahead of the marque’s next championship campaign.

But president Montezemolo told Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport: “We will not repeat the mistakes of the past.

“There will be a few job changes and adjustments but nothing dramatic, just the normal process of good people from the second row moving forward.

“With Pat Fry from McLaren, we have only brought in one man from the outside, and this happened long before Abu Dhabi,” added the Italian.

Montezemolo said Ferrari’s goal for 2011 is to end the habit of the past two seasons of kicking off a new campaign without possessing the best car.

“Even though we won the first race this year, we did not have the best car from the start, we won (in Bahrain) only because Red Bull had a problem.

“We improved significantly this year compared to 2009, but – as was the case the previous year as well – Red Bull had the best car,” he admitted.

“Next time we must have the best car from the first race.”

The team did not field the best car in 2010 but Mercedes’ pit crew was the fastest in pitlane.

An analysis by Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport showed that the Brackley based team turned around Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg faster in pitstops than any rival outfit.

The refuelling ban this year put in focus the speed of a pit crew’s tyre changing.

The fastest stop in 2010 was 2.9 seconds, achieved by the Red Bull crew whilst servicing world champion Sebastian Vettel at Monza.

But overall, Mercedes’ was the fastest crew, emerging with the quickest stop of the race no less than 8 times — in Malaysia, Turkey, Germany, China, Spain, Monaco, Britain and Belgium.

Red Bull was next best, changing the RB6′s tyres quickest of all in Bahrain, Australia, Hungary, Italy and Abu Dhabi.

Ferrari’s pit crew was quickest three times, and Sauber was best in Korea and Brazil. The fastest pitstop was achieved by McLaren only once this season, in Japan.

Mercedes’ quick stops were achieved with a fully automatic ‘traffic light’ system which is up to half a second faster than using a traditional ‘lollipop man’.

Red Bull, meanwhile, reportedly selected its key tyre changers after a series of tests and training sessions last winter, and the lollipop-holder was chosen after winning a psychological exam.

At the bottom of the list in 2010 was Lotus, with five slowest pitstops of the race overall, followed by four wooden spoons apiece for HRT and Renault.