McLaren looks set to run a higher nose this weekend in Spain.

Last week, at the very end of the Mugello test, test driver Oliver Turvey debuted a new front wing that featured a conspicuously higher nose tip.

McLaren, the early 2012 frontrunner but having struggled recently in Bahrain, was the only notable team this year to ignore the new design trend for ugly ‘stepped’ front noses, introduced as arguably the best solution to new nose-height safety regulations.

The MP4-27′s new nose does not feature a step element, but the tip is notably higher than its predecessor.

“Nowadays it is quite a critical part of the car, you’re looking to find very small improvements,” team boss Martin Whitmarsh said on Wednesday.

As for whether the new nose will be seen in Barcelona, he confirmed: “You may well see it again, yes.

“There’s a reasonable chance you’ll see it on Sunday.”

A respected F1 correspondent is expecting F1′s 2012 calendar to shrink to eighteen races this year.

Livio Oricchio, who writes for Brazil’s O Estado de S.Paulo, thinks the sport is now on the verge of cancelling next weekend’s visit to Bahrain.

And he also thinks November’s US grand prix, scheduled to take place at the brand new Circuit of the Americas in Austin, is in doubt.

“The construction has fallen way behind,” said Oricchio, “and there are serious problems between the promoter and the Texas government.

“Each side is looking to the other on the obligation to pay the fee, estimated at $18 million, to FOM (Formula One Management).

“So the championship that should have 20 races will most likely have only 18,” he concluded.

At least publicly, however, the Circuit of the Americas is continuing to take shape.

This Thursday, a private ceremony is scheduled to take place as circuit contractor Austin Commercial celebrates the milestone of completing the full height of the main three-storey pit building.

The Austin Business Journal reports that “several business and civic leaders are scheduled to attend”.

Martin Brundle has described Red Bull’s lack of pace as the biggest surprise of the 2012 season so far.

After consecutive world championships with Sebastian Vettel, the energy drink-owned team was universally tipped as the pre-season favourite for yet another F1 title.

But McLaren dominated in Australia before Ferrari and Sauber surprisingly set the pace recently in Malaysia.

Former F1 driver Brundle admitted the struggling RB8 was the surprise of the opening salvo in 2012, but he also acknowledged that the turnaround might have been predicted.

“When you look at how the regulations have changed, it’s almost like they were designed to slow the Red Bulls down,” the Sky television commentator told the website of the BBC programme Top Gear.

“Doubling the torsional stiffness of the front wings, the way Red Bull were ‘flying’ their car down the track with lots of rake, nose close to the ground, exhausts helping to sort the high rear ride height out, it’s all been taken away from them,” added Brundle.

An unnamed engineer at Red Bull has admitted the team was caught on the hop in the winter pre-season, when it became clear McLaren was better prepared for the new rules.

“McLaren came with a (exhaust) system on the edge of legality,” the engineer told Germany’s Auto Bild, “and it was declared legal by the FIA.

“So (Adrian) Newey had to adapt,” he added, referring to Red Bull’s last-minute decision to change tack at the very end of the pre-season test period.

The message coming from the Milton Keynes based team, therefore, is that Red Bull is playing catch-up.

“We need to understand the car better,” admits team advisor Dr Helmut Marko, “which is why for the next race (in China) we will have hardly any new parts.”

So until he’s back at the front, F1′s formerly-dominant Vettel – who lashed out at backmarker Narain Karthikeyan recently in Malaysia – needs to adapt.

Asked if the German was justified in calling his Indian rival an “idiot”, Brundle insisted: “No.

“That’s just an angry man who hasn’t got a front-running car at the moment. He’s just frustrated.”

 Contrary to recent speculation, McLaren does not yet have a Mercedes-style new F-duct on its dominant 2012 car.
When boss Martin Whitmarsh said in Melbourne that he would not be joining a theoretical protest against the Mercedes innovation, many suggested it was because the MP4-27 is already hiding something similar.

Not yet, although the FIA did take a long look at the silver car in Melbourne.

“If they were looking for an F-duct, we don’t have one,” Whitmarsh smiled to Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport.

In fact, the scrutineers were checking and then re-checking the height of the MP4-27′s front wing.

But the F-duct might be coming.

“All the teams are going to be trying to extract the maximum within the permitted regulations,” confirmed managing director Jonathan Neale in a media teleconference this week.

But he also revealed that McLaren doesn’t yet “understand well enough” how the Mercedes system works.

Melbourne winner Jenson Button and his teammate Lewis Hamilton will therefore race a basically unchanged McLaren this weekend in Malaysia.

But Hamilton’s downbeat mood has been picked up with the news that he was beaten by Button from pole last Sunday due to a minor clutch issue.

“It wasn’t my fault,” said the Briton, “but we now understand and know how to improve in the future.”

As for their differing race performances, Hamilton insists he now understands “the reasons” for Melbourne “and it puts me in a really positive frame of mind” ahead of this weekend’s Malaysian grand prix.

Charlie Whiting has vowed to do what he can to ensure next year’s cars are not as ‘ugly’ as the 2012 generation.
“It’s an ugly regulation,” said Red Bull’s Mark Webber, referring to the compromise reached between the FIA’s push for lower nose heights, and the teams wanting to keep the old monocoque dimensions.

It has meant every 2012 machine, with the notable exception of the McLaren, has a conspicuous ‘duck head’-style bump in the middle of the front of the car.

“We only got a sense of what was coming in December,” Whiting is quoted by Brazil’s O Estado de S.Paulo, “when it was too late.”

The Briton said the new rule for 2013 would have to be agreed by the end of June.

“I promise to do everything I can so that the representatives of the teams agree to a change,” said Whiting.

 Marussia’s new car for 2012 does not feature a ‘step’ on its front nose.
Every team on the 2012 grid, including HRT who are yet to release their 2012 car, responded to the FIA’s new height regulations by designing an awkward ‘step’ between the monocoque and the tip of the nose.

The one exception, until now, was McLaren.

But Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport reports that the 2012 Marussia, which will be seen for the first time in Barcelona next week, also has a clean aerodynamic line at the front.

The former Virgin team works closely with McLaren, including using the famous British team’s test rigs and wind tunnel.

“In fact, there was little difference in theory between the two solutions. So why take risks with something that we do not know?” a Marussia team source is quoted as saying.

Timo Glock has already driven the new step-less Marussia in the McLaren simulator.

“We don’t have too much experience with the simulator so we hope that it’s right, but we will not be too optimistic — that’s not to say that I’m disappointed,” said the German driver.

“I think we have a good base to build upon,” added Glock.

“We have been focusing for a long time on finding the errors with the previous car and getting over them,” he is quoted by Speed Week magazine.

When Adrian Newey said a mysterious ‘letterbox slot’-shaped air inlet in the stepped nose of his new RB8 car is for driver cooling, a wave of speculation eased.
But not everyone inside the F1 paddock was entirely happy with that answer.

When the 2012 Red Bull was launched recently, it was apparent the ‘step’ nose design differed from its rivals in the form of a sizeable inlet where the monocoque meets the new mandatory lower nose height.

Some surmised it must be for KERS cooling, or perhaps even an F-duct style channel through to the diffuser.

Amid suggestions Mercedes has come up with an F-duct style channel in its 2012 front wing, Red Bull designer Newey explained that the nose slot is in fact simply to cool the drivers.

“Traditionally the driver cooling slot is at the front of the nose,” explained Newey, “but really for styling as much as anything we moved it to where you now see it to break up the aesthetics of the ramp.”

There are, however, doubts about that explanation, particularly with close-up images showing that the main inlet is actually divided into two channels at the middle.

Indeed, the Telegraph last week quoted Newey as having said the slot is “primarily” for cooling, which suggests that it might have another use.

According to Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport, “the competition is suspicious”, having already been outsmarted by Newey in past years in the area of flexing wings and blown diffusers.

When asked about Newey’s driver-cooling explanation for the big letterbox slot-style inlet, an unnamed rival engineer smiled: “Then the drivers are going to get their feet wet when it rains.”

Asked last week about the ‘cooling inlet’ amid Jerez’s cold temperatures, Mark Webber reportedly grinned to Autosprint: “The toes are a bit too cold now actually.”

HRT F1 Team has reached an agreement with Dani Clos by which the young 23-year-old driver from Barcelona will become test driver of the Spanish outfit for the 2012 season.

The incorporation of Clos is another step in the team’s aspirations of establishing itself as a platform for young talents to reach the pinnacle of world motorsport.

Dani Clos will form an integral part of the team, taking part in several free practice sessions on Fridays and travelling to every Grand Prix throughout the season, with the main objective of learning and getting to know the team. There is a lot of hard work ahead of him but Dani will have the whole team’s support, including that of his teammates Narain Karthikeyan and Pedro de la Rosa, to help him learn and progress in such a demanding environment.

Dani Clos experienced his first contact with the team this past November, during the Young Driver Test in Abu Dhabi, and made the most of the opportunity given to him. The good sensations that the team and driver had, along with the objective of strengthening HRT F1 Team, helped to reach a quick agreement that was desired by both parties.

The Spanish driver will start to exert his functions as the team’s test driver immediately and will be with the team for the third pre-season tests in Barcelona from the 1^st to the 4^th of March.

Dani Clos: “I’m very proud to be a part of HRT Formula 1 Team. It is a great step in my career, something that I have dreamt of all my life and, finally, my dream is starting to come true. I’m very impressed with the job the team is doing; they’re achieving fantastic things in a short space of time. The team has changed a lot since we met in the Abu Dhabi tests and I think it’s a great opportunity and an honor to form a part of this new team. What they’re achieving is very important for motorsport in our country and has a lot of potential. Also, being alongside Pedro de la Rosa is very important for me, since he and Karthikeyan can positively contribute to me becoming a better driver. I want to thank Saúl Ruíz de Marcos and Luis Pérez-Sala for the trust they’ve shown in me from the start and, above all, I would like to thank the people who have always been by my side, such as Leonardo Soldevila and my father. For me a new chapter is beginning, one where hard work and dedication are going to be my priorities; I’m going to give it my all so that this phase is as successful as it can possibly be for the team, my teammates and myself”.

Luis Pérez-Sala, Team Principal of HRT: “I’m very happy to have Dani on the team. He’s a quick, talented driver who, above all, is very willing to progress. The incorporation of Clos is another step in our project of restructuring HRT but also fits in with our desire to promote young motorsport talents. I’m sure that it will be a very positive experience for both parties”.

-Ends-

Dani Clos – Profile

Date of Birth: 23rd of October 1988

Place of Birth: Barcelona (Spain)

Nationality: Spanish

Height: 1,77cm

Weight: 68 kg

Country and place of residence: Barcelona (Spain)

Website: www.daniclos.com

Twitter: @daniclos

Dani Clos was born in Barcelona on the 23rd of October 1988. With a renowned trajectory in karting, Clos made his debut in single-seater racing in 2004 in Formula Renault Italia 2.0, going on to win the Championship in 2006. A year later he joined Renault’s F1 programme and took part in the Formula Three Euroseries. In 2008 he entered Williams F1’s young drivers’ programme and finished in 2^nd in the 24H Barcelona race. In 2009 he made his debut in the GP2 series, with a 3^rd place finish in Portimao being his best result. In his second year in GP2 he achieved his first win in Turkey alongside various podium finishes. Last year, Dani Clos took one win and two podiums in what was his third season as a GP2 driver. Also in 2011, he took part in the Young Driver Test in Abu Dhabi with HRT F1 Team, completing total of 377.67km in one day and leaving a very good impression on the team.

Career Summary:

2011: GP2: Racing Engineering, 9^thin the Championship

F1: Young Driver Test with HRT F1 Team

2010: GP2: Racing Engineering, 4^thin the Championship (1 race win)

2009: GP2: Racing Engineering, 21^stin the Championship

2008: F3 Euroseries: Prema Powerteam: 14^thin the Championship

2007: F3 Euroseries: Signature Plus: 13^thin the Championship

2006: Formula Renault 2.0 Italia: Champion (8 race wins)

Renault 2.0 Eurocup: 7^th position

2005: Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0: 32^ndin the Championship

Italian Formula Renault Championship: 16^th in the Championship

 Adrian Newey has cleared up the mystery about the ‘letterbox’ opening in the nose of the newly-launched 2012 Red Bull car.
The F1 world noticed that Newey’s ‘step nose’ differs from its rivals in the form of an air inlet where the monocoque height meets the new lower nose height.

Some surmised it must be for KERS or engine cooling, or perhaps even an F-duct style channel through to the diffuser.

Designer Newey, however, said it is to just cool the drivers.

“The toes are a bit too cold now actually,” grinned Mark Webber to Italy’s Autosprint.

“Traditionally the driver cooling slot is at the front of the nose,” explained Newey, “but really for styling as much as anything we moved it to where you now see it to break up the aesthetics of the ramp.”

Newey also took the opportunity to reject speculation he might contemplate a switch to Ferrari in the near future.

“To now leave for another team would kind of feel a little like walking out on your children in a way,” said the Briton.

 French GP2 driver Charles Pic’s manager has confirmed talks about securing a place in formula one next year for the 21-year-old.
Pic, fourth in this year’s GP2 championship, has been linked recently with a Toro Rosso test in Abu Dhabi next month, and possibly a race seat with Virgin in 2012.

His mentor and manager Olivier Panis, however, indicated that a role as a “third driver” for Pic is most likely.

“We have had discussions mainly with Team Lotus and Virgin Racing,” said the former grand prix winner, working with Pic’s management Lagardere.

“There are two other possibilities that Charles will be in F1 next year, as a third driver, but nothing is signed yet and the discussions are continuing,” Panis told the French daily L’Equipe.

He admitted that the first step for Pic is a seat in November’s young driver test in Abu Dhabi.

“It is important he takes part in the rookie days in order to gain experience,” said Panis.

Karun Chandhok is today a shadow of the boy who a decade ago dreamed of emulating his heroes.

On a trip to Delhi this week, he revealed to the Daily Pioneer that when he left high school he peaked at 96 kilograms.

“I was told that if I wanted to race I had to lose weight in order to first fit in the car,” said Chandhok, who as Team Lotus’ reserve driver is tipped to contest India’s inaugural grand prix late next month.

“So I lost 26 kg in less than six months and went on to win the Indian national racing championship. I guess that was the turning point for me,” added the now 27-year-old, who graduated to British F3 and then GP2.

Nico Rosberg has hinted he will stay at Mercedes beyond his current contract.
Recent reports said the German has been offered a new deal to keep him at the team for at least four more years.

“Nico and Mercedes are interested in a very long term cooperation,” admitted Norbert Haug.

The 26-year-old driver told FAZ newspaper in Singapore: “We are currently discussing that.”

Also on the cards is a new contract for Rosberg’s current teammate Michael Schumacher, whose current deal is also set to expire at the end of 2012.

Rosberg said the structure with “two leaders” in the cockpits is working well.

“Both drivers are on the same level, so that even if I’m faster there is always a corner in which he is faster, or a setup that he understands better.

“So you are always learning something. I’m very open, very interested in trying to pick up all the little pieces that you need. We clearly both benefit,” said the German.

His real goal, of course, is to be the number one.

“Of course, to be the most successful driver in the team is the only way I can win the races to become world champion,” said Rosberg. “It’s up to me to get into that position.”

Jenson Button has laughed at reports linking him with a move to Ferrari in 2012.
The speculation was triggered by the British driver’s protracted talks with McLaren over next year and beyond, and spurred on last week by a report in the Brazilian press.

It is said Button wants to be contractually free at the end of next year so as to be available when Felipe Massa comes out of contract.

“It’s hilarious because it’s not true,” Brazil’s Globo Esporte quotes the 2009 world champion as saying.

“I don’t know who put it out but it wasn’t us and it wasn’t Ferrari,” said Button.

The Briton admitted that the rumours are only gaining wings because of his lengthy talks with McLaren.

“Hopefully it will be sorted out as soon as possible. I hope it is anyway because I don’t want to be talking about it for too long and I don’t want to leave people hanging,” Button is quoted by PA Sport.

“I actually don’t mind being asked about it (the Ferrari story) because I find it quite fun,” he smiled.

At Ferrari, meanwhile, Brazilian Massa said he is determined to stay beyond next year.

“I have a contract until the end of 2012 and after that we’ll see,” he told the Singapore newspaper Today. “I hope to stay here a long time.”

He doesn’t do it often, but Niki Lauda insists he is happy to doff his iconic red cap to Michael Schumacher after the past two grands prix.
Despite recently calling on the 42-year-old German to hang up his helmet, triple world champion Lauda said: “I take my cap off to his performances of the last two races.

“His Mercedes has been good on the high speed tracks and so Michael has been able to show that he is still on it,” the famous Austrian told Germany’s Auto Bild.

Lauda, 62, has been one of the seven time world champion’s staunchest critics as Schumacher struggled for results in the second year of his return to formula one.

“Nevertheless,” Lauda said after praising the winner of 91 grands prix after better showings at Spa and Monza, “I stand by it — if he goes badly, I must criticise him.”

He had accused Schumacher mere weeks ago of driving “for fun, not formula one”.

Qualifying tyres are not returning to formula one in 2012.

Pirelli’s F1 boss Paul Hembery revealed a month ago that ultra-fast and sticky qualifying tyres were among the official supplier’s ideas about how to maximise its involvement beyond this season.

“In the end for something like that the decision is with the teams. They might say no,” he said in August.

Asked by a Twitter follower on Thursday if the proposal was given the green light, Hembery said: “Not for 2012.”