Despite not topping a Friday timesheet in Barcelona, one specialist publication sees Lotus as the favourite for Spanish grand prix victory.

Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport said the ‘long run’ pace of the black and gold E20 was studied carefully after Barcelona practice.

“Kimi Raikkonen made a great impression on the critical soft tyres,” the report read.

“First, it (the field) is incredibly close. Second, Lotus could win its first grand prix here.”

If true, the former Renault team would become the fifth different winning constructor in the opening five races of the extraordinary 2012 season.

“Our biggest opponent for Sunday is not Red Bull,” an unnamed McLaren engineer is quoted as saying. “It’s Lotus.”

And another surprise pacesetter is Sauber. “Over 15 laps we were better than Red Bull,” team manager Beat Zehnder enthused.

“If everything goes right, we can be on the podium,” he is quoted by the Swiss newspaper Blick.

Agreed McLaren’s Jenson Button: “The Lotus, Sauber and Williams look very strong.”

But in reality, in F1′s new guise of 2012, no one knows what is going to happen on Saturday and Sunday.

“Lord knows what will happen here tomorrow,” wrote The Times’ Kevin Eason. “Well, perhaps He is the only one who does know what is going on — F1 hasn’t a clue.”

Jarno Trulli has revealed he was offered a seat at Ferrari some years ago.
After fifteen consecutive seasons in formula one, the 37-year-old Italian has lost his Caterham race seat to the well-backed Russian Vitaly Petrov.

2004 Monaco grand prix winner Trulli, 37, drove since 1997 for Minardi, Prost, Jordan, Renault and Caterham’s former guise Lotus.

Writing in his New York Times blog, correspondent Brad Spurgeon said Trulli was made the Ferrari offer while he was racing for Toyota between 2005 and 2009.

Trulli reportedly told Italy’s Autosprint magazine that Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali’s predecessor, the now FIA president Jean Todt, made him the offer.

“Nobody knows this, but at this point I think I can publicly thank Jean Todt for having been one of the few top team managers to consider me during my career,” he said.

“I won’t tell you when exactly — I was racing for Toyota and I was doing very well. But I had signed a rather long contract with the Japanese, and in my career I’ve always honoured my commitments.

“In 15 years of F1 I’ve never needed lawyers,” added Trulli.

Trulli left Renault for Toyota at the end of the 2004 season, driving for the carmaker until it pulled out of formula one at the end of 2009.

Rubens Barrichello left Ferrari at the end of 2005, replaced by Felipe Massa. Michael Schumacher retired a year later, replaced by Kimi Raikkonen.

At Ferrari, Frenchman Todt handed over to Domenicali at the end of 2007.

Pedro de la Rosa has expressed interest in returning to the formula one grid next year with HRT.

After a long stint as McLaren tester, the Spanish driver returned to F1 with Sauber this year but was ousted recently and is now testing tyres for Pirelli.

De la Rosa, 39, was in talks with Hispania’s former guise Campos-Meta before signing with Sauber last winter, and he has told Spanish radio Onda Cero he is once again interested in joining the struggling team.

“If their sporting project is interesting and ambitious, I’ll be happy to be with them. So far there is no hurry,” he is quoted as saying by the EFE news agency.

“I am in contact with the Carabantes,” added de la Rosa, referring to the team’s owners.

“We talk a lot. For Spain it is very important to have a formula one team and what they have done so far has much merit,” he said.

“Now we (Spain) have a team but we are not getting the best value. They succeeded in just a few months to have a car on track at the start of the season and will have another car next year.

“But the project needs more support, not only from companies but also drivers like myself, and the fans. We have to get behind them,” added de la Rosa.

David Coulthard does not back Christian Horner’s view that Ferrari were “naughty” for testing at Fiorano last week.

Red Bull boss Horner has accused the Italian team of breaching the “spirit” of the in-season ban by trying a new exhaust layout at Fiorano under the guise of a filming and promotional run.

“I say fair play to them,” said former Red Bull driver and now team consultant Coulthard.  “The rules are the same for everyone,” he wrote in a column for the Telegraph.

Also running similar low exhaust layouts to good effect in Valencia this weekend are Renault and Mercedes — even though some of Renault’s new parts were delayed when a van en route from Enstone hit a deer.

Sauber is not running the layout, even though the C29 is featuring numerous improvements in Spain.

Pedro de la Rosa told EFE news agency: “We have taken a small step forward, while others have taken a giant one.”

(GMM)

Christian Horner on Friday accused a “naughty” Ferrari of breaching the “spirit” of the in-season testing ban.

The Italian team tested its new Red Bull-like low exhaust layout at its own Fiorano test circuit last week, under the guise of a “filming and promotional” day.

Indeed, Ferrari did distribute media photos of the event and even a video of Fernando Alonso driving the car with a camera mounted on his helmet.

“It was arguably within the letter of the laws but not within the spirit,” Horner, team principal of Red Bull Racing, told the Telegraph.

“You don’t just run these cars – there has to be a lot of planning – and it wasn’t by mistake that they happened to run on that day with the new exhaust system,” he added.

Horner suggested that if Ferrari was really just running the F10 for filming purposes, the car did not need to be fitted with its important Valencia update.

“They managed to have a look at it, and they’ve probably learned a bit.  I’m sure there will be a lively debate at the next team principals’ meeting,” he predicted.

“I think it’s something that needs to be tidied up, because it’s effectively a gentlemen’s agreement, and it’s important that that should be respected.”

But it is true that the Ferrari was running with Bridgestone’s ultra-hard promotional tyres, and Alonso said the runs had been of little competitive value.

“I was running behind a car with cameras at 60kph so it was very stable,” the Spaniard joked.

“We did some laps also with no car in front, and ten cameras on the car and on the helmet, so it was not very comfortable to drive, and it was also the first time driving a Ferrari F1 car at Fiorano,” insisted Alonso.

(GMM)

The Silverstone based team’s long time director of business affairs left Force India earlier this year after a falling-out with boss Vijay Mallya.

The Briton was in the Barcelona paddock on Saturday.

“I’ve just enjoyed my first holiday for 40 years,” said Phillips, who joined the team’s original guise at its inception as Jordan in the early 90s.

“I don’t miss the travel at all, but I need to work so we’ll see what opportunities arise,” he added.

Also seen in the Barcelona paddock on Saturday was 2009 Renault driver Romain Grosjean.

(GMM)