Five races in, F1′s cleverest brains are still yet to decode the mystery of the bizarre and fascinating 2012 season.

As was the case when he utterly dominated last year, Sebastian Vettel is still leading the drivers’ points chase.

But, before last weekend, if he had been told that Williams’ Pastor Maldonado would be the winner of the Spanish grand prix, the German admitted: “Well, I would have put a lot of money on them!

“I think the odds weren’t bad,” he smiled.

Indeed, the major British bookmaker William Hill was taking bets at 500-1 prior to the Barcelona weekend.

A spokesman confirmed that only two bets at 10 pounds or above were placed on Maldonado prior to qualifying.

“I’m sure Williams don’t understand why they just won the race here,” McLaren’s Jenson Button is quoted by the Guardian newspaper.

But the previously-derided ‘pay driver’ Maldonado is not the only potential new winner in 2012, after Jenson Button, Fernando Alonso, Nico Rosberg and Vettel won the opening four grands prix.

A detailed look at F1′s specialist reporting in the past few weeks shows that Lewis Hamilton, Mark Webber, Kimi Raikkonen, Romain Grosjean, Michael Schumacher, Sergio Perez and Kamui Kobayashi are all also widely regarded as genuine victory candidates in 2012.

And given that their teammates have won grands prix this season, even the struggling Felipe Massa and Bruno Senna should be added to that list.

“Dammit, let’s go for (HRT’s) Karthikeyan!” wrote Chris Hockley in the Sun newspaper.

“It’s really quite crazy right now,” Vettel, who despite his young age would count himself among F1′s currently perplexed purists, told Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport.

“What’s happening is difficult for us to explain,” he added.

The situation has split the F1 audience, with the purists shaking their heads, and others marvelling at the unprecedented spectacle.

“The spectacle has taken over the sport,” said the Paris daily Le Figaro.

“Even the teams can’t be sure who will be the hare and who will be the tortoise at any given track,” wrote Hockley.

Alonso, who is the joint championship leader, is in the purists’ camp.

“Of course it is attractive for the spectators that we are going to Monaco not knowing if we will fight for victory or be left out of the points,” he is quoted by El Pais.

“But in a way, after eleven years in formula one and now I’m at Ferrari, I would like to have more stability,” the Spaniard admitted.

Sir Jackie Stewart said: “What’s going on is unbelievable, which I think is the outcome of the new rules, new tyres — I think it’s many factors,” he told the Spanish sports daily AS.

“What’s happening,” said Maldonado’s race engineer Xevi Pujolar, “is that these tyres are allowing teams who do not have the biggest budgets to be eligible for really good results.

“The reason is that the most important thing now is to have a good setup and also some luck with the temperature.”

Pirelli, F1′s tyre maker, has received both criticism and praise for its huge role.

“Pirelli have been both bold and brave,” Sun journalist Hockley said. “It can’t be easy for a manufacturer to make tyres that sometimes wear out faster than you can say Mercedes.”

Marco Tronchetti Provera, the Italian marque’s company chief, is unapologetic.

“What we have provided is what the teams have asked for, and it was not easy,” Italian language reports quote him saying. “Our engineers have done an extraordinary thing.”

Damon Hill has changed his mind yet again on the controversial issue of Bahrain’s return to formula one later this month.

Amid the debate about the island Kingdom’s return to the calendar in the wake of the cancelled 2011 event, the 1996 world champion said initially: “F1 must align itself with progression, not repression”.

But he changed his tune after travelling with FIA president Jean Todt to Bahrain, insisting the situation on the ground had changed since the 2011 protests.

“The grand prix is of huge economic importance to Bahrain. You’d almost be putting an economic sanction on Bahrain by pulling the race,” said Hill.

But the Briton has now changed his mind again, apparently after the latest reports of violence on the streets and the reaction in the international media.

Hill is quoted by the Guardian newspaper: “It would be a bad state of affairs, and bad for formula one, to be seen to be enforcing martial law in order to hold the race.

“Looking at it today you’d have to say that (the race) could be creating more problems than it’s solving.”

The former Williams driver is scheduled to attend this month’s Bahrain grand prix as a television analyst, but Hill brushed aside any thoughts about his lucrative contract with the British broadcaster Sky.

“Some things are more important than contracts.”

He also expressed misgivings about a recent media briefing in London, in which Bernie Ecclestone and team bosses stood with the Bahrain organisers and insisted the race is going ahead despite the continuing controversy.

Damon said that event was “troubling insofar as it tried to represent the rioting in Bahrain as the result of bad press reporting and as a ‘youth’ issue.

“I hope the FIA are considering the implications of this fully and that events in Bahrain are not seen as they are often sold, as a bunch of yobs throwing molotov cocktails, because that’s a gross simplification.”

Writing in O Estado de S.Paulo newspaper, Brazilian correspondent Livio Oricchio admitted he thinks it would be “almost reckless” for F1 to travel to Bahrain this month.

“At Sepang,” he wrote, “many team members were very concerned. They said their insurance companies had expressed concern about going to an Arab country in a belligerent state.

“Personally, I don’t think we will be attacked, but it is the goal of the protesters to do anything so that the grand prix is not run.

“The Arab Spring is very much alive in this small country in the Persian Gulf,” he admitted.

And the Times of London’s Kevin Eason wrote on Twitter: “I have been thinking F1 should give Bahrain a chance but I am not convinced now that safety can be guaranteed.”

 Pat Fry, Ferrari’s technical director, thinks Red Bull remains clearly ahead of the F1 field.
There is lots of talk that the reigning champion team is now closely matched by McLaren, with a big chasing group nipping at the heels headed by Mercedes.

But Briton Fry told the Guardian newspaper: “I think Red Bull are ahead of the rest at the moment. Maybe half a second.

“We’re guessing about fuel levels used in testing but I would say Red Bull are between five and seven tenths ahead of everyone else.”

Fry recently wrote off Ferrari’s chances of a podium this weekend in Melbourne, but – at least in the most recent hours – drivers Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso are sounding more positive.

“At the moment we don’t know who is fast and who is not,” insisted Alonso, according to Marca. “Don’t pay much attention to what is said.

“We are not even going to know anything until Malaysia — a normal circuit.”

HRT’s Pedro de la Rosa, at least, is daring a prediction.

“Maybe (Sebastian) Vettel will win again, but if he does, he will have more sweat on his shirt,” the Spaniard is quoted by EFE agency.

As for Ferrari’s apparent problems, de la Rosa commented: “All I know is what I read, but think about how much time has passed since the last test.

“Two or three weeks in formula one is a world.”

F1 could be set to get some new shareholders, amid reports the collapsed US bank Lehman Brothers wants to sell its stake within two years.
The bank, which is being wound up to pay back creditors, still holds a 15 per cent stake in the majority CVC-owned holding company Delta Topco, which the Guardian newspaper said is valued at about $1.5 billion.

Lehman Brothers became a F1 shareholder in 2002, when the German media company Kirch defaulted on a loan.

They are the reigning back-to-back world champions and the favourites heading into 2012, but Sebastian Vettel has admitted Red Bull is not perfect.
“Yes, last year was nearly faultless”, the German is quoted by the Guardian newspaper.

But he admits he made mistakes.

“Fridays have been poor,” said the world champion. “I made mistakes. I crashed the car.”

Dr Helmut Marko elaborated: “He threw the car away four times unnecessarily.”

Vettel, 24, continued: “We got the concentration back when it mattered but on Fridays you only have a couple of hours to prepare the car — so we can improve on that.

“We had a meeting in January and went over the things that we need to do better and you would be surprised. It was a long list. There were lots of points to improve.”

Even heading into the fresh 2012 season, there are already new items on that list: Marko bluntly described the final day of pre-season testing, when Vettel did a paltry 23 laps and was dead-last, as “shit”.

But amid rumours the team might have to scrap its Melbourne update package for now, the Austrian insists Red Bull collected “sufficient” data from Mark Webber’s work last Saturday.

“We had three very good tests, but not perfect,” Vettel admitted to RMC. “Sure, there were a few pieces here and there that worked less well than expected, but overall there were not too many surprises.

“I feel good with the car, it (Sunday) was no big deal.”

McLaren’s Jenson Button, however – runner-up to Vettel last season – is keen to ensure Red Bull feels as much pressure as possible heading into 2012.

“In the last two years we weren’t able to (apply pressure) all that often,” he is quoted by the Koln Express, “but I think this year will be different.

“I want to see how they are when they are feeling that pressure,” the Briton added.

 With the 2012 season now just weeks away, the most serious doubts yet about April’s returning Bahrain grand prix have emerged.
Reports claim that, on the eve of the one year anniversary of the bloody ‘Day of Rage’ protests that led to the cancellation of the race and test in early 2011, violent clashes involving tear gas-firing police have broken out.

“Formula one is monitoring events there”, a report in the Guardian newspaper said.

“Formula one’s governing body is keeping a low profile because it doesn’t want to be part of the mounting pressure and speculation,” added journalist Paul Weaver.

International news agencies including Reuters and the Associated Press reported this week’s clashes involve protesters trying to reoccupy the symbolic scenes of the 2011 violence.

“Traffic came to a standstill on the main thoroughfare into the capital (Manama), and teargas canisters, rubber pellets and rocks littered the highway,” said Reuters, adding that elsewhere “youths threw petrol bombs, iron bars and rocks” and police returned fire with “stun grenades”.

The New York Times, meanwhile, referred to numerous

F1 marketing specialist Zak Brown has been named as a potential successor for the sport’s long-standing chief Bernie Ecclestone.

American Brown, who is racing alongside Martin Brundle and Mark Blundell in this weekend’s Daytona 24 hour race with his own team, also heads Just Marketing, the leading sponsorship agency that represents several high-profile formula one team backers.

A report in the Guardian newspaper said the 39-year-old, whose company fronts for F1 sponsors including LG, Johnnie Walker and Lenovo, said Brown is well poised to “become the most influential man in his sport”.

He is already close to Ecclestone, who attended the launch last year of Brown’s Le Mans team United Autosports, with Brown confirming he has “done a lot of business” with F1′s 80-year-old chief executive.

As for one day replacing the famous Briton, Brown laughed: “That’s flattering.

“Certainly this is my life,” he explained, before adding that Ecclestone is not looking to retire any time soon.

“I think it will be impossible to replace Bernie,” said Brown. “You’d certainly have to approach it with a bit of a team.

“There’s a lot I don’t know,” he admitted. “I’ve not done television contracts but those things can be learned, or there are other people that have the expertise.

“I want to be in the sport forever, so if I were ever to get the call to participate in the future of formula one in some way shape or form, I’d jump all over that,” added Brown.

Force India has emerged as Nico Hulkenberg’s best chance to stay in formula one next year.

The promising German rookie has been ruled out of an extended stay at Williams next year, as the British team apparently clears a seat for a paying driver.

“I heavily regret that, because I would have been happy to stay,” the 23-year-old said.

Hulkenberg’s manager Willi Weber revealed: “I am negotiating with other teams. Nico will have his seat in F1 in 2011.”

Revealing that more news will come in the next “one or two weeks”, Weber told SID news agency: “He has to stay in formula one. He is the next biggest hope for Germany after Vettel and Rosberg.”

Auto Motor und Sport named Silverstone based Force India as the best option, with Adrian Sutil considering a seat elsewhere and Vitantonio Liuzzi’s future clouded despite his possession of a 2011 contract.

Hulkenberg “requires far less salary than Sutil, but he brings far less sponsor money”, the German report noted.

Another race seat might be open at Renault, but the latest speculation is that the Russian rookie Vitaly Petrov has done enough to justify the place alongside his sponsors.

And Spain’s El Mundo reports that the Kremlin might add to Petrov’s 2011 coffers, now that Russia is embarking on a F1 circuit project.

“Soon we will know what we are going to do,” Petrov is quoted by The Guardian newspaper. “We have been going forwards, forwards, forwards, everything going in the right way.”

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.

Having earlier flagged a possible return to F1 in the future, Flavio Briatore seems now to have set a definite date.

“We shall see how my return to F1 goes in 2013,” the former Renault team boss, who renegotiated his ‘crashgate’ ban with the FIA, said in an interview with the Times of India.

Present at several races this year and still closely aligned with Bernie Ecclestone, the potential roles for Briatore – perhaps with Pirelli, Ferrari or alongside the F1 chief executive – are the subject of speculation.

“I have drawn a line under the role of team boss, but that does not mean I am saying goodbye to F1. Far from it,” he recently told the Journal du Dimanche.

Briatore, 60, has indicated he will focus on the sport’s “commercial” or “business” side, triggering rumours that Ecclestone sees the Italian as his successor.

But although contemplating his 80th birthday later this month, Ecclestone insists he is not planning to step aside by 2013.

Asked if he will still be running the sport at 90, the Briton told the Guardian newspaper: “Yes! The way I feel at the moment, why stop?”

Bernie Ecclestone has admitted that, mere weeks ago, this weekend’s inaugural Korean grand prix risked not going ahead.

The F1 chief executive recently expressed doubt about the incomplete Yeongam venue, which has now been passed fit by the FIA to host the formula one circus.

“It’s done now,” Ecclestone said in an interview with the Guardian newspaper.

“Last month I didn’t think it would be finished. And it would have been cancelled then — for sure.”

But the Briton, to turn 80 later this month, defended his campaign of the last decade or so to expand the sport far beyond its traditional European base.

Since the late 90s, F1 has moved further into Asia and the Middle East, and the likes of India, the USA and Russia will soon also be on the calendar — despite waves of scepticism among some of the sport’s purists.

“In the end common sense has prevailed and we’ve expanded. It’s just having the courage to do it,” said Ecclestone.

A potential problem, however, is that F1′s expansion has put in jeopardy some of the historic, much-loved but outdated venues and hosts — like the popular Spa-Francorchamps.

But is the incredible Belgian venue really in danger of losing its grand prix? “Absolutely,” Ecclestone insisted.

“If it wasn’t supported by the government over there it probably would go because they wouldn’t be able to afford it. It’s the same with the British grand prix,” he added.

Another problem is that the circuits replacing the old guard are mostly penned by Hermann Tilke, who has been accused of churning out bland clones.

“Our problem is that we’re trying to build race circuits that are super safe,” Ecclestone explained. “You don’t get so much up-and-down because you can’t just put a new circuit anywhere.

“But one of the best circuits in the world is Turkey. It’s a great circuit — that’s up-and-down.”

But even the Istanbul venue is in doubt, the Briton revealed, because of efforts to cap the calendar at 20 races.

“Maybe someone will decide they need a rest because it’s not working for them commercially. A good example is probably Turkey,” said Ecclestone.

“They’ve built an incredible circuit and it might even be the best — but there’s not much enthusiasm from the public. I don’t know why.”

Jun.12 (GMM) Stefano Domenicali has dismissed claims he is ‘too nice’ to lead Ferrari back to world championship success.

Taking over from the resolute Jean Todt at the beginning of 2008, Domenicali came close to leading Ferrari to that title before the Italian team slumped last year.

This season, the F10 began the season looking a championship contender, but in Turkey two weeks ago it was good enough only to populate the midfield.

The arrival as team boss of Italian Domenicali, 45, came in the same era as Ferrari lost Frenchman Todt, German Michael Schumacher, Britons Ross Brawn and John Iley and South African designer Rory Byrne.

Max Mosley said recently that an increasingly Italianised Ferrari is now “reverting to type”, while Domenicali is often regarded as too nice to succeed with an eminent position.

“I don’t care,” he is quoted by the Guardian newspaper. “I’m not going to change my philosophy of life because some people don’t like my style.

“There is no specific style to be a winner or to be a manager of a group,” insisted Domenicali.

Rather, he points to a new era where Ferrari is adjusting to the need to scale down and restrict spending, while the team’s own Fiorano test track is now hardly used.

“A couple of years ago there was no limit on investment,” he said.

“No limit on anything. Two years ago you wanted one of something you had hundreds. Now you want one of something you have half.

“Formula one is a different environment now, a different culture, and it’s difficult to change the mentality of a big group. This is the biggest challenge for us.”

May 3 (GMM)  Former Renault driver Romain Grosjean has delivered a less than stirring appraisal after racing on Silverstone’s revised F1 layout.

After his disappointing half-season in F1 last year, the Swiss-born Frenchman now drives a Ford in the FIA’s new GT1 category.

That series was the first to race on the layout incorporating Silverstone’s newly launched ‘Arena’ section.

The 760-metre stretch features some slower bends that could help overtaking, but Silverstone is nonetheless tipped to knock Monza off the perch as the fastest circuit on the F1 calendar.

“It’s nothing special,” Grosjean, 24, told the Guardian newspaper when asked about the new section, which is currently surrounded by building construction works and resembling Bahrain because grass verges have not yet grown.

“We have lost Bridge and the complex which was very nice, and we didn’t gain much with the new part.  I’m not 100 per cent convinced.

“With the single seater cars they are flat-out through Abbey and in formula one it is going to be very fast as well.  I don’t think it gives any overtaking opportunities.  So that’s a bit of a shame,” added Grosjean.

Former F1 safety car driver Oliver Gaven, however – who now drives a Corvette in GT1 – was more positive.

“I think the circuit flows very nicely; I’m very happy with it,” said the Briton.

“It’s got a nice combination of corners and some nice challenging stuff for us.  There are two or three corners that are nearly flat and one or two that you have got to have a lot of commitment.

“The style of Silverstone has been carried on.  They have done a cracking job with it,” said Gavin.

Meanwhile, BBC commentator Martin Brundle doubts the new section will boost overtaking, but fellow former F1 veteran Johnny Herbert thinks ‘Arena’ adds “one” additional overtaking place to the circuit.