Ferrari has made a “devastating start” to the 2012 season, the Italian sports newspaper Corriere dello Sport has blasted.

“The new season could barely have begun worse,” said the report.

Felipe Massa qualified sixteenth for Sunday’s Australian grand prix, while Fernando Alonso also failed to make the ‘Q3′ cut when he spun into the gravel.

“There are deficiencies with the aerodynamics, with the tyres and the speed,” the Spaniard is quoted as saying.

Added Massa: “I have the impression that the car has deteriorated compared to winter testing.”

Looking on the bright side, however, Alonso said Ferrari’s situation is actually better than it was a year ago.

“In 2011 we started with a deficit of 1.4 seconds, so we have recovered four tenths. Last year our first victory was in July, so this year we need to do it before.”

La Stampa, a major Italian daily, sees it differently.

“A year ago there was one car (Red Bull) clearly stronger than Ferrari, now there is McLaren in front, Mercedes and Lotus as well, and Toro Rosso and Force India improving …”

Massa agrees: “We were more competitive in 2011.”

Alonso, however, is staying positive for now.

“The tests in Barcelona were worse (than Australia), so it means that we have chosen the right path. We must improve and we must do it quickly,” he said.

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

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

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

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

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

Nick Heidfeld on Monday said he is losing out on the straights compared with his teammate Kamui Kobayashi.

The pair are driving identical Sauber cars, but the speed traps usually show Japanese Kobayashi with better ultimate speed in a straight line.

Heidfeld, 33, joined the Swiss team after serving test driving roles with Mercedes and Pirelli this year, and he is currently on the lookout for a full-time job for 2011.

In his three races alongside rookie Kobayashi so far, the German has been out-qualified two times, and is yet to finish a race higher than the Japanese.

Heidfeld said on his official website nickheidfeld.com that his speed deficit compared with Kobayashi is due to his “engine situation”.

He took over ousted predecessor Pedro de la Rosa’s allocation of eight engines for 2010, after the Spaniard suffered several problems with his Ferrari units.

“Therefore the remaining engines have to cover a lot of extra miles,” said Heidfeld.

“This unfortunately leads to an engine power loss due to having ‘older’ engines, which is the reason for losing out on acceleration and top speeds,” he added.

Sebastian Vettel sounds unlikely to voluntarily fall in line behind Mark Webber as Red Bull pushes for its first ever drivers’ world championship.

Although heading for the championship lead in Korea before his engine failure, Vettel is now 25 points off Fernando Alonso.

It means Ferrari’s Spanish driver is the favourite for the title, with Vettel’s Australian teammate Mark Webber the most likely challenger due to his 11 point deficit.

But Germany’s Bild newspaper said it sounds unlikely that Vettel is going to give up.

“Nothing is going to change in my approach to the final two rounds,” he is quoted as saying. “My (engine) failure makes everything more interesting and difficult. But it is still possible.

“I am going to fight until the end,” Vettel vowed.

Like McLaren’s Martin Whitmarsh who is in a similar situation, Red Bull chief Christian Horner said before leaving Korea that team strategy will be discussed internally before the season’s penultimate event in Brazil.

Former Ferrari driver Jean Alesi thinks Red Bull made a big mistake by not establishing a hierarchy some time ago.

“They needed to take advantage of the fact they had the best car,” the Frenchman told CNR Media. “It’s doubtful they will have the same advantage next year, so you have to say they have mismanaged this season.

“I think they’ve missed a great opportunity,” added Alesi.

Joan Villadelprat, a veteran F1 team manager who now operates his own Le Mans team Epsilon Euskadi, agrees.

“There has been a lack of solidarity at Red Bull, who have not been able to manage their superiority and are now giving the title away to Ferrari,” he wrote in his El Pais newspaper column.

“When a double world champion like Alonso takes the kind of advantage he has now, he does not fail,” the Spaniard added.

Lewis Hamilton has admitted it “would be fantastic” to have his teammate’s support in his quest to win a second drivers’ title in 2010.

Fellow McLaren driver Jenson Button is the reigning world champion, but with a bad race in Korea last Sunday his points deficit fell to 42 points with just two races to go.

In the sister MP4-25, Hamilton is 21 points off Fernando Alonso’s championship lead, sparking suggestions the time is nigh for Button to play a Felipe Massa-like supportive role for the rest of the season.

Woking based McLaren, however, operates a strict policy of driver equality, even though boss Martin Whitmarsh said before leaving Korea that a team strategy will be discussed internally “before we get to Brazil”.

When asked about his and Button’s approach with now just the Interlagos and Abu Dhabi rounds to go, Hamilton said: “We both push as hard as we can to score as many points as we can for the team.

“Clearly we’re both far behind, him further than me. I’m 21 points behind, so I’ve got to get a lot of points.

“I don’t know what will happen. You will have to speak to Martin on what he thinks he will have to do.

“All I know is I have to get as high as possible and it would be fantastic to have Jenson with me,” added the 25-year-old Briton.

Button said in Korea that he will only voluntarily fall in line behind Hamilton when he is “mathematically” no longer in the hunt. He also said he is confident he “won’t be asked” to support Hamilton until then.

“Lewis is still very much in the hunt. Mathematically, it’s not impossible for Jenson, but it looks quite tough, very difficult for him,” said Whitmarsh.

Jenson Button has indicated he will not fall in line behind his McLaren teammate until his championship chances are “mathematically” over.

The reigning world champion fell 42 points off Fernando Alonso’s new title lead in Korea on Sunday; 21 points shy of his McLaren teammate Lewis Hamilton’s tally.

Immediately after the race, 30-year-old Button – when asked about his fading chances of defending his title – admitted he is “not really” still able to win the championship.

But later, he told the BBC that his comments had been made “in the heat of the moment”, adding that he is confident he “won’t be asked” by his bosses to play a number 2 role.

“I don’t stand by that (statement) now,” he said, referring to when he earlier wrote off his championship chances.

“You don’t win world championships by conceding defeat before it is all over. You have seen today how things can change,” insisted Button.

With the two wins in Brazil and Abu Dhabi worth potentially 50 points in total, Button’s 42-point deficit means that he is still mathematically able to win in 2010.

“If mathematically I couldn’t win the championship then, yes, I would help Lewis,” he said.

McLaren team boss Martin Whitmarsh said after the race that he thought Button would “voluntarily” back Hamilton’s championship push.

Asked if there was a role McLaren could play in the strategy, he answered: “We will think about that and talk about it before we get to Brazil.

“We’re going away still very much in contention with Lewis and two really interesting races ahead … it’s still wide open,” he added.

Spanish newspapers on Sunday noted that, for example in the event of another DNF for Mark Webber, Fernando Alonso could in theory wrap up the world championship in Brazil next month.

If Christian Horner was in charge at McLaren, Jenson Button would be relegated to a supporting role for the rest of the 2010 season.

After a catastrophic day in Korea for Red Bull, where both Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber retired, the team’s boss said both drivers will still be given a clear run to the Abu Dhabi finale.

A smarter strategy might be to fully back Webber, who is 11 points shy of Fernando Alonso’s new championship lead, while Vettel is asked to play a supporting role due to his 25 point deficit.

“It would be wrong to do that. Our strategy will be to push both drivers,” a dejected Horner told BBC television in Korea.

Meanwhile, at McLaren, Jenson Button – now 42 points behind the lead – all but conceded the championship in the Yeongam darkness.

But when asked if he will now merely help his teammate Lewis Hamilton bridge his more realistic 21 point gap to Alonso, Button told reporters: “I won’t be asked.”

Horner thinks the Briton should help Hamilton, however.

“That’s a different situation,” said the Red Bull chief. “It’s a bit of a no brainer; I mean, there’s only 50 points available.

“But I don’t run McLaren, that’s their issue, not mine,” he added.

With three races left to run in 2010, McLaren’s title-winning rhetoric has turned a corner.

After Suzuka, Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button are now 28 and 31 points respectively behind the leader Mark Webber, moving Hamilton to admit that even a winning streak through to November’s Abu Dhabi finale might not be enough now.

“Podiums won’t do it,” he said after a nightmare weekend in Japan, having nursed a second gearbox problem of the event to the chequered flag with an ear infection.

“Wins will get it if the others have problems.  But if Red Bull finish all the races then it’s a walkover,” added Briton Hamilton.

Button is also downbeat about defending his world championship after Japan.

“If we don’t turn up in Korea with some good improvements to get us near the Red Bulls, it is almost impossible,” he said.

“I would like to think we don’t have to hope Red Bull crash or have reliability issues and we have a car to challenge them.  But when they have the pace they had here, they can cruise it,” added Button.

Closer to Webber’s lead – and level-pegging with Sebastian Vettel’s 14 point deficit – is Fernando Alonso, who remains confident of winning his first title at the wheel of a Ferrari.

“We are convinced that this was the worst track of the remaining races for us,” said the Spaniard after finishing third in Japan.

“To be world champion I need one more win and two podiums,” Alonso is quoted by La Stampa.

Also smiling after Suzuka is pole sitter and winner Vettel, despite admitting that his Australian teammate is now tantalisingly close to the title.

“His 14 point lead is of course an advantage,” he said, referring to Webber.

“If he wins again, it will be difficult for all of us,” German Vettel is quoted by Auto Motor und Sport.

“But anything can still happen.”

The 23-year-old’s confidence was boosted by the apparent ease with which he won in Japan.

“Without sounding arrogant,” he said, “I would say I always had Mark under control.

“I could see him all the time,” Vettel told Bild newspaper.  “He was one, two or three seconds behind.  Every time he came a bit closer, I went on the gas a bit more.

“It’s looking okay.  If I win the next three races, everything will be fine, so that must be my goal,” he said.

Dietrich Mateschitz is confident about Red Bull’s ability to win the 2010 world championship.

But the Austrian billionaire, who owns the famous energy drink as well as the Milton Keynes based team, admitted he is disappointed with the score card so far this season.

With 9 of this year’s 19 grands prix now run, the RB6 has usually proved the quickest in the field.

But Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber are only third and fourth in the drivers’ standings, while McLaren is also leading the constructors’ table.

“I am satisfied with the drivers and the car,” Mateschitz told the Salzburger Nachrichten newspaper.

“What I am not satisfied about is the score, because on paper we should have a lead rather than a deficit.

“Now we have to make up lost ground,” he added.

Asked if he thought Red Bull was capable of winning the titles, he answered: “Of course, because expecting anything else would be absurd.

“If someone with our potential cannot expect to win the world championship, then who?”

(GMM)

Red Bull can avoid the alleged detriment of engine performance been good. But team boss Christian Horner is not sure whether this can succeed again in 2011. His team will also start next year with Renault engines. “According to studies, we have three percent less power,” Horner says to ‘Autosport’ to compare the engines of Renault and Mercedes top of the class.

“These are about 30-35 hp, which may account for duchaus four tenths per lap. As long as we have not rehearsed on independent test facilities, we can not say exactly,” said Horner. He added: “We hear Ross Brawn often talk about weight, focus or efficiency of cooling. The more power you, the more heat is also generated. You have to see it holistically. When can the aerodynamic rules little room, then the motor an important factor. ”
Horner himself is now sorry to have to bring the subject motor alignment always on the table. “In the regulations it is not clearly defined, that is the problem.” The Red Bull team boss wants to know his words understood nich as criticism of Renault. “We have a great relationship with Renault. Unfortunately, the product is frozen in the development, at the same time remains of course the deficit.”

“Mercedes has made clear that they will serve no other team, so we must find other ways for the coming season to establish a healthy balance,” said Horner. “It is not good if one engine is significantly superior to all others.” The Renault engine but also have advantages: “It is compact, a good machine – just like the Ferrari. But lack of PS-figures can not be offset by other things.”

Jun.18 (GMM) Luca di Montezemolo has continued his sustained attack on formula one’s new teams.

The Ferrari president thinks the grid should be filled by the bigger teams fielding three cars, rather than by opening the doors to newcomers including Lotus, Virgin and HRT.

Next year, another small team is likely to make its debut.

Spain’s El Mundo newspaper this week claims that the budget of the new Spanish outfit HRT is ten times smaller than Ferrari’s.

“In modern F1 races cars with GP2 levels of performance shouldn’t be allowed to participate — they are supposed to race on Sunday mornings,” Montezemolo is quoted by Italy’s La Gazzetta dello Sport.

Montezemolo argues that Fernando Alonso’s push for Montreal victory was ruined by the lapping of backmarkers, an apparent reference to his delays behind Jarno Trulli’s Lotus and the HRT of Karun Chandhok.

But while it is true that, earlier this year, the small teams were vastly off the pace, all of the six cars were faster by multiple seconds than the entire GP2 field in Turkey recently.

And in Canada last weekend, Heikki Kovalainen’s Lotus qualified just two tenths behind the Ferrari-powered Sauber of Kamui Kobayashi, while Virgin and HRT runners were also easily within 107 per cent of the pole time.

The new teams’ laptime deficit in Canada was between 3 and 4 seconds, compared with Giancarlo Fisichella’s 2.2 second qualifying deficit in a Ferrari-powered Force India at the same circuit two years ago.

A report at Italiaracing said: “It should be noted that the only complaints this season about the smaller teams have come from Ferrari.”

Robert Kubica and Montreal – that’s a Hochschaubahn: 2007 pilot of the accident, the then BMW Sauber F1 Team at the hairpin difficult, but escaped miraculously with minor injuries. A year later he led a complete surprise double victory of his team ahead of Nick Heidfeld – it was the only win for the Bavarians in the premier class. Last year there was no race in Montreal – Kubica this year but returns to the Ile de Notre Dame. “The Grand Prix of Canada is something like my destiny race,” says the poles ‘Auto Bild motorsport’.

And so he feels: This year a sensation in the air – “with little luck.” Because: “The course our car will be. It’s fast on the straights and is as wonderfully out of slow corners. It is these properties are required in Montreal.” The strength in tight corners is based on the small wheel base of the Renault R30 – no current Formula 1 racing car can compete in this discipline with Kubica’s car. It showed the team had in Monaco, where the 25-year-old is the sharpest of the superior competitor Red Bull pilot was.

And although the Renault engine has a power deficit, Kubica and Vitaly Petrov scores are in the top speed is always at the front – reason is the low air resistance of the R30. Moreover, the French have for the Grand Prix of Canada, a secret weapon in the quiver: the first time is given to an in-house interpretation of the F-shaft system, which turned out on the long straights of the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve as a great advantage. Now the only question is whether the system works right away, or if you have it like Red Bull in Turkey to expand after the first test.

That will leave Robert Kubica after just one season, the team Renault is unlikely. After Felipe Massa contract extension with Ferrari in Maranello in 2012 the door is closed. Even if the pole for 2011 is not linked to Renault, there are few other enticing options. This Renault boss Eric Boullier had managed to retain its number-one pilots in 2011 and to his team. The Luxembourg wants to build the Renault racing team to head the Polish pilots around.

(MotorSportsTotal)

A car defect has prevented Sebastian Vettel from scoring pole position for the Turkish grand prix.

Instead, his on-form Red Bull teammate Mark Webber netted his third consecutive qualifying triumph, and on Sunday could complete a hat-trick of wins from pole.

But Vettel, with his new ‘Randy Mandy’ chassis at Istanbul Park, was actually quicker in Q1 and Q2, and on course for a much faster lap when his front wheel began locking under braking.

“The chassis change has paid off, if only they had changed this braking part too,” Niki Lauda said wryly to Motorsport-Magazin.com after qualifying.

The problem translated to a half-second deficit to Webber for Vettel, allowing McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton to slip between them on the grid.

“It was a tight fight with all of us and I think Seb had a bit of a problem with his car,” admitted Australian afterwards.

The disappointment clearly told on 22-year-old Vettel’s face, having come so close to bouncing back to top form after two races clearly behind his teammate.

“It should easily have been a lot quicker,” said the German.  “I’m not the type of guy who says ‘the car is broken, that’s it’.”

Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko described Vettel’s problem as a “pity”, but for the energy drinks brand, its run of pole positions in 2010 remains unbroken.

“One and three is not so bad,” said the Austrian Marko.

(GMM)

Karun Chandhok will have to admit to being “amazed” after sitting out the morning practice session in Barcelona.

To both his and teammate Bruno Senna’s chagrin in Spain, the Indian rookie’s HRT car was occupied instead by new test and reserve driver Christian Klien.

Austrian Klien’s 26 laps were the first at a grand prix weekend since he practiced in a Honda in 2007, but he has been brought in by team boss Colin Kolles for his experience of 48 grands prix and three subsequent years of testing.

Before the morning session, Chandhok was quoted as saying by the BBC: “I’ll be amazed if he goes half a second quicker than Bruno; I highly doubt it.”

However, Klien was in fact exactly half a second quicker than Brazilian rookie Senna, cutting the deficit to F1′s other new teams to just five tenths.

Chandhok said: “Christian has got good experience of some good teams so he could bring something.

“The team is a little bit behind the game, so any information we can get from other people is useful.  It’s frustrating for me, I want to drive the car as much as possible.”