F1′s governing body on Wednesday published a re-jigged final calendar for the 2012 season.

The unprecedented 20-race schedule begins with back-to-back races in Australia and Malaysia, with the next two grands prix also taking place on consecutive weekends.

The final leg of the opening ‘flyaway’ season is Bahrain in late April, despite earlier provisional calendars giving the island Kingdom either a March or November date.

Former FIA president Max Mosley said there should still be some uncertainty about Bahrain’s return to F1.

“I would monitor the situation and set them a deadline, say the first of March next year.

“It would be rude to shut them out forever, but they do need to completely prove that the situation has calmed down,” he told Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport.

The latest 2012 calendar confirms the axe of the Turkish grand prix in Istanbul, and sees India receive a late October date once again despite recent speculation of a move to earlier in the schedule.

The final calendar, ratified by fax by the World Motor Sport Council, features no fewer than seven back-to-back pairings in total.

These include arduous consecutive events in China/Brazil, Japan/Korea, India/Abu Dhabi and the US/Brazil.

Timo Glock has denied he might throw in the towel, also playing down suggestions his patience with Virgin is running low.
Updates to the German’s MVR-02 car failed to work properly in Turkey, and he then did not even make the grid due to a gearbox failure that could not be fixed in time.

“Every weekend we seem to start at the beginning,” Glock was quoted as saying in Istanbul by Die Welt newspaper.

“I somehow have the feeling that we could save all the test driving and just have a coffee instead,” he added.

But in an interview with Sport1, Glock denied that his ‘coffee’ comment was a stark criticism of the struggling team.

“It had nothing to do with the team,” he insisted.

“I had told a journalist that it was difficult to understand why we had so many problems with the deterioration with the tyres, but the issue looked very different for the actual race,” said Glock.

“I was commenting generally on the tyre situation, but it was neither a criticism of the team or of Pirelli. I read the (coffee) comment but it was never explained what I meant.

“That’s why I was surprised that it was portrayed so clumsily,” explained Glock.

However, he does not hide the fact that he is disappointed, after joining the start-up team following Toyota’s withdrawal from formula one.

“I knew it would be a difficult first year but we all hoped to make a big step forward and we didn’t quite make it. We need to ask ourselves and understand why we are not on par with Lotus,” said Glock.

As for whether he has considered throwing in the towel, the 29-year-old insisted: “No, never. We must keep going together as a team.

“It’s going to be difficult but we have to do all we can to come forward. That’s the only goal we can have at the moment.”

Virgin will attempt to get to the bottom of its problems with the Turkey upgrade during a straightline test at the Idiada facility in Spain this weekend.

Felipe Massa has revealed a racy detail of his preparation for a grand prix.

The Ferrari driver told Italian newspaper Corriere dello Sport: “On the Saturday night before the race I always have sex.”

30-year-old Massa, who has not won a race since his championship challenge in 2008, is married to 33-year-old Raffaela, with whom he has a 1-year-old son Felipe Jr (Felipinho).

The Brazilian said he enjoys his qualifying night ritual “even though I know it doesn’t make me faster!”

He had another disappointing outing in Turkey last weekend but Massa said he is buoyed by the aerodynamic upgrades introduced at Istanbul Park.

“They definitely increased our performance level,” he said.

Martin Whitmarsh had some criticism of Lewis Hamilton’s driving after the Turkish grand prix last weekend.

After the 2008 world champion damaged his tyres in qualifying in Malaysia, he conserved his allocation in China and duly beat Sebastian Vettel.

But Hamilton struggled at Istanbul Park, and his McLaren team boss Whitmarsh blames the 26-year-old’s early aggression including his scrap with teammate Jenson Button.

“We want Lewis to attack but sometimes it does not pay off,” he is quoted as saying by British newspapers.

“If you look at Lewis’s race pace it was ok later in the race but the tyres are so delicate and if you scrap with others including your own teammate you will damage your tyres. In a race that critical you can’t do that,” added Whitmarsh.

Hamilton, who finished the race in fourth place, acknowledged the mistake.

“If I hadn’t damaged the tyres at the beginning, we would have been a lot closer,” he conceded.

“The race is not won at the first two corners. I was impatient and that was my fault but it was a good recovery,” said the Briton.

Michael Schumacher’s reaction to his poor race in Turkey last weekend showed he is a fighter, not a quitter, his manager Sabine Kehm has insisted.
Following the 42-year-old’s admission that “the big joy is not there right now” after a fraught run in Istanbul, many commentators predicted the time is nigh for German Schumacher to return to retirement.

Schumacher’s first team boss Eddie Jordan likened the end of his career to boxer Muhammad Ali’s, with David Coulthard agreeing that the Mercedes driver is “a once proud warrior now out of fight and damaging his reputation”.

“If he feels he can still be competitive, and he is still enjoying himself, then fair play to him,” the Scot wrote in his Telegraph column.

“The trouble is at the moment he is not enjoying himself and he does not look consistently competitive,” added Coulthard.

But Schumacher’s manager Kehm told Bild newspaper: “The guys should all know Michael better than that.

“He shows again and again that he is a fighter. The fact that he is disappointed after a race like Istanbul doesn’t disprove the hunger that he has, in fact it reinforces it,” she added.

Mercedes’ racing boss Norbert Haug agrees: “He is driving like a hungry youngster.

“Of course while the results are missing, there is criticism,” he told SID news agency.

The F1 paddock is split between either raging against Sebastian Vettel’s current dominance, or accepting that the 2011 crown seems destined for the head of the 23-year-old German.

“If he keeps it up like this, the season will be over at half distance,” the blunt RTL commentator and triple world champion Niki Lauda said after Turkey.

At Istanbul Park, Vettel continued his perfect pole record and won his third race of the season, moving France’s L’Equipe to dub him ‘Mr 93 per cent’.

That is a reference to the fact the Red Bull driver is only 7 points short of having captured a maximum 100 points haul from the first four rounds of 2011.

“If it continues like this, it is no longer a question or if (Vettel) will win the championship, but just when,” wrote La Gazzetta dello Sport.

McLaren’s Jenson Button, however, sounded angry when told by reporters that Vettel will almost certainly defend his title.

“What’s the point in saying that? We might as well fu**ing go home. I mean, come on guys, let’s not make it too negative,” said the Briton.

But Button’s teammate Lewis Hamilton acknowledged: “It’s very similar to when Schumacher was dominating. Now Sebastian is dominating.”

Told the season could be over after as few as 10 races, he responded: “I don’t have a fear that will happen, but it is possible. But it is also possible we could catch up and overtake them.”

Sebastien Buemi’s future looks brighter after a shining performance in Turkey.

The 22-year-old Swiss was earmarked as the most likely to move over at the end of the season so that Daniel Ricciardo can make his Toro Rosso debut in 2012.

But Buemi drove a brilliant race at Istanbul Park, running seventh near the end after starting 16th on the grid, and eventually crossing the line in ninth place.

“We have rarely seen so much fight from Sebastien,” team boss Franz Tost told the Swiss newspaper Blick.

Agreed Toro Rosso’s highly respected technical boss Giorgio Ascanelli: “Buemi has really matured. He has learned from his mistakes and with his new fitness coach is now focused on his job.

“He’s a driver with a future,” added the Italian.

According to one F1 correspondent, Sebastian Vettel’s slippery slide into the wall on Friday revealed a hidden secret of his dominant Red Bull car.
The team’s rivals are yet to uncover the mystery of how the RB7 passes the ever-stricter flexibility tests whilst the front wing still so obviously bends towards the track.

It is believed teams including Ferrari and Mercedes are getting closer to the mystery, but the damage to Vettel’s wing incurred by his Istanbul practice crash might have provided yet another clue.

El Pais correspondent Oriol Puigdemont wrote from Turkey that unidentified wires or cables were seen dangling from the upright supports after the main element of the front wing broke off following Vettel’s crash.

The cables were “the beginning of much speculation”, claimed Puigdemont, acknowledging that the wires could simply be for observation cameras placed around the car by the team.

Jean Todt held a media briefing at Istanbul Park on Sunday so low-key most journalists were not aware it had taken place.
In a rare meeting for the Frenchman with the press at a grand prix, his minders reportedly posted a notice in the media centre that was not seen by most journalists after qualifying.

Snippets of the press conference have however emerged, including those posted by BBC pitlane correspondent Ted Kravitz saying Todt called the total in-season testing ban “stupid”.

Todt reportedly wants to allow teams to do a few tests next season, and if they do not agree he said the rule will definitely be introduced in 2013.

The Telegraph’s Tom Cary, who was one of many reporters to miss the briefing, described Todt’s media aproach as “poor”.

The Times’ Kevin Eason said the meeting had been “so low key, key media missed it, including top agency staff”.

Sebastien Buemi in Turkey admitted he is still in the dark despite Toro Rosso making clear plans to replace one of its regular drivers at the end of 2011.
Team boss Franz Tost said earlier at Istanbul that Friday driver Daniel Ricciardo is being groomed this year for his grand prix debut with the Faenza based team in 2012.

Swiss Buemi and his teammate Jaime Alguersuari know they are under pressure but Buemi told L’Equipe that – officially – they remain in the dark.

“There hasn’t been a meeting, head to head, where I’m told ‘this or that is going to happen’.

“But I haven’t fallen from the moon – he (Ricciardo) is there to be in the car sooner or later,” admitted the 22-year-old.

“My goal is to move forwards. The logic of a junior team is to have space for new drivers and identify the ones who are strong.”

The trigger for the musical chairs could be the departure at Red Bull of Mark Webber, a move that could possibly open a space at the senior team for the best Toro Rosso runner of 2011.

“Of course my goal is to be in that car,” said Buemi. “But before that I want to prove that it wasn’t possible to have someone better at Toro Rosso.

“So I’m not thinking ‘What if Webber stops, what if this, what if that?’ I can’t influence that, only what I am doing.”

Sebastian Vettel lost the entire day of running after crashing in the rain in Turkey on Friday morning.

The championship leader’s Red Bull sustained serious damage when he hit the wall after losing control at Istanbul’s famous Turn 8.

German Vettel, 23, then watched the entire season session – ran entirely in the dry – from the pits.

“The car is badly damaged and from a safety point of view we need to check everything,” team boss Christian Horner told German broadcaster Sky.

“We would rather be on the safe side, checking everything three or four times,” he added.

Derek Warwick will make his third appearance as an FIA steward this weekend in Turkey.

The 56-year-old British veteran of 146 grands prix fulfilled the role last year in Spain and Hungary.

Working alongside Warwick and experienced Swedish steward Lars Osterlind in Istanbul is 25-year-old female steward Silvia Bellot, a Spanish graduate of the FIA’s trainee steward programme.

Sebastian Vettel insists he is not worried about KERS in Turkey this weekend, nor a repeat of last year’s clash with his teammate Mark Webber.

Red Bull left China three weeks ago with clearly the fastest car but far from the best KERS system, after Adrian Newey repackaged the Renault-based unit over the winter for best aerodynamic performance.

That caused cooling problems at the first three races of 2011, but Dr Helmut Marko insisted this week that the team used the Easter break to fix the system.

“We have had some problems but have had very good people working on it,” agreed championship leader Vettel to Auto Motor und Sport.

“That’s why for this next race I am not worried,” he added.

The German also revealed that the RB7 will have some other improvements for Turkey this weekend.

“When I asked the team what (new) to expect, I received many answers,” Vettel answered coyly. “You’ll have to ask them for yourself.”

Also in the back of his and teammate Webber’s minds at Istanbul Park will be their clash last year, which brought their working relationship under severe strain.

Asked about the crash a year on, Vettel told DPA news agency: “I cannot change what has already happened, but I can learn from it.”

Ticket prices for the Turkish grand prix are too high, according to Mark Webber.
The Red Bull driver’s comments come amid great uncertainty about the future of the event at Istanbul Park, with organisers saying the race next Sunday will be the last due to Bernie Ecclestone’s doubling of the sanctioning fee.

The circuit is popular among the drivers and purists but Istanbul mayor Kadir Topbas said actual attendance has always been low because “Turkish people didn’t give the races recognition”.

FOTA chairman Martin Whitmarsh, however, blames a lack of promotion.

“Go around Istanbul and tell me how many billboards or advertisements you see,” he told reporters in China two weeks ago.

But Australian Webber thinks the locals simply can’t afford tickets.

“Unfortunately I think it’s a pretty expensive race for locals to attend, which means the atmosphere is often not what it could be,” he said on Thursday.

Ecclestone owns the long-term management lease to the circuit at present and insists he has done his bit by “subsidising” the sanctioning fee since the inaugural race in 2005.

And the Mirror quotes him as suggesting the local government could be in a better mood for the future after next weekend’s event.

“When our first agreement was made, they subsidised ticket revenue so everyone was expecting a whole bunch of people to be there and if there wasn’t, the government was going to make up for the missing tickets,” said the Briton.

“It looks very much like the crowd is going to be much bigger this year, so it means the government’s involvement will be considerably less,” added Ecclestone.

John Booth sounds downbeat despite Virgin expecting to take a major step forward in Turkey early next month.
After the team’s new car only narrowly staved off the struggling HRTs recently, media reports said an upgrade package for Istanbul includes a higher nose, new floor, Red Bull-like exhaust, modified rear suspension and new wings.

Germany’s Speed Week is calling the upgraded version a ‘B’ model of the MVR-02, but team boss Booth is quoted as worrying about the development of the team in its second season.

“We have stagnated,” the German-language report quotes the Briton as saying.

“The new developments for the Turkish grand prix will eliminate many of our problems, but we will only then be where we wanted to be in Australia,” added Booth.