Marussia needs a KERS system to catch up with its direct rivals.

That is the admission of team boss John Booth, who told the Russian website championat.com that he is looking into adding the energy recovery technology to next year’s Marussia package.

“First of all, I want to say that while it is said it (KERS) is a ‘green’ technology, in reality it’s just a serious waste of money,” he said.

“But in our situation it’s time to start thinking seriously about KERS. Of the gap to Caterham, five or six tenths is due to KERS,” added Booth.

“So we are thinking seriously about it for 2013, but so far there is no decision.”

Both admitted the start of the 2012 season has been a disappointment so far for Marussia, which in its first two years was called Virgin.

He said the team has recently completed a phase of serious restructuring.

“We had a good team of people before, but now we have a good team of designers. Though we have been in F1 for three years, I have the feeling that we were actually born in July 2011.”

Both is undoubtedly referring to the split mid last year with former technical chief Nick Wirth, and the relocation to a new headquarters.

A third team has decided to join Red Bull in Abu Dhabi for the young drivers’ test.

Due to the calendar congestion at the end of this season, and also to cut costs, most teams have opted to drop the Abu Dhabi option in favour of testing young drivers in July, at Silverstone.

But Red Bull, and its second team Toro Rosso, are sticking with the original November plan, amid criticism July is too early to be assessing young drivers.

McLaren is now following suit.

“Our plan at McLaren at the moment is to test in Abu Dhabi,” said the British team’s sporting director Sam Michael, who said another factor against Silverstone is that teams are only half-way through their engine mileage allocations in July.

“Engines is a significant factor,” the Australian explained.

“If you want to test at the end of the year, you have so many part-mileage engines that all have a little bit of mileage on them so you can effectively do it for free, in terms of your race engines,” said Michael.

“If you try and do that in the middle of the year, you can’t use your race engines so you have to prepare a special test engine.”

The boss of Abu Dhabi’s F1 circuit has criticised plans to run the young driver test at Silverstone later this year.

Originally, the young driver test was scheduled to take place as usual this year at Yas Marina, the week after the Abu Dhabi grand prix.

But, due to the calendar congestion at the end of this season, the majority of teams have decided instead to go to Silverstone in July, with only the two Red Bull-owned teams sticking with the Abu Dhabi plan.

Lotus team boss Eric Boullier, however, is quoted by The National newspaper as saying the Silverstone plan is “nonsense”.

Yas Marina chief Richard Cregan agrees: “If you’re a good young driver in the middle of a season, then it’s not ideal to be testing a formula one car midway through the year.

“These guys should be focusing on whatever series it is they are racing, which is why the F1 testing in Abu Dhabi worked so well in the past because it was effectively the end of their season.”

He also warned that the earlier timing of the Silverstone test means teams could spend more time trying to develop their cars than on seriously evaluating the next generation of drivers.

“It is first and foremost a young drivers test and it must remain that,” Cregan insisted.

“It is a chance for young drivers to get maybe a first chance to drive an F1 car and it is chance for teams to run their eye over a driver and evaluate his performance.

“Developing the car and parts should be secondary,” he said.

Abu Dhabi could, however, be back on if Silverstone’s weather forecast looks poor, even though as soon as a car has left the pitlane in July, that team will no longer be allowed to change its plans.

Even though Lotus’ Boullier thinks the Silverstone decision was wrong, he has vowed to stick with the majority.

“But actually I would like it to rain, so we will go back to the original schedule,” said the Frenchman.

Cregan said Abu Dhabi’s door remains open.

“We’ll still be working to the same standards,” he said. “So in that sense nothing changes.”

Red Bull’s two teams look set to test alone in Abu Dhabi later this season.

Until recently, the now-traditional young drivers’ test – giving inexperienced drivers the chance to drive current F1 cars amid the sport’s strict testing limits – was scheduled to take place as per usual at the Yas Marina circuit in November.

But those plans were reconsidered due to this year’s congested calendar.

India takes place just one week before Abu Dhabi, the young driver test is scheduled for the week after and then the races in the US and Brazil happening back-to-back next.

In the light of that arduous schedule, Reports in March said the teams were keener on having the young driver test at Silverstone.

“It’s a long season as it is and there are a lot of back-to-back races this year, so it’s tough for them (the teams),” Abu Dhabi circuit boss Richard Cregan conceded.

The German-language Speed Week reports in its May 2 edition that the majority of teams want to test instead at Silverstone, in July.

But the magazine said Red Bull’s two teams – Red Bull Racing and Toro Rosso – are sticking with the original Abu Dhabi plan.

The report also said other teams might cancel Silverstone at the last minute and join Red Bull in Abu Dhabi, should weather reports indicate the British weather would likely affect the July test.

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 Racing’s new MR01 finally made its first on-track appearance during a promotional ‘filming’ day at Silverstone, just a few miles from is Banbury base.

The Anglo-Russian team endured a torrid time in its attempts to get the car ready for the third and final group test at Barcelona last week, having skipped the opening session in Jerez to prepare the MR01 for early March, only to fail the mandatory FIA crash tests. Although both Timo Glock and rookie Charles Pic got some miles under their belts in Barcelona last month, it was at the wheel of the 2011-spec car, leaving them preciously short of time in the new machine ahead of its race debut in Melbourne next weekend.

The Silverstone shakedown, part of a promotional event ahead of the car’s departure for the Australian Grand Prix, will provide both team and driver with vital information on the new machine, which has been conceived after a ground-up re-evaluation of the way Marussia designs its racing cars. As such, the car is almost entirely new, with very few carry-over components from last year’s Marussia Virgin MVR-02.

The desire to make a clean break from the previous CFD-only creations presented the design team, led by technical consultant Pat Symonds, with the challenge of going back to basics to produce a solid mechanical package, whilst maintaining an eye towards achieving the incremental performance steps required to move the team forward.

The starting point for the design programme was a consideration of the people and resources available to the Banbury-based team. The former three-base operation has been consolidated into one site, the Marussia Technical Centre in Banbury, bringing the various elements of the business together to form ‘one team’. In particular, the design department and practices now benefit from far greater integration and collaboration. Furthermore, the aerodynamic department has been completely restructured and the aero methodology reinforced, blurring the boundaries between CFD and experimental work in the wind tunnel, as well as enhancing the fidelity of the team’s aero approach.

The technical partnership forged with McLaren Applied Technologies in July of last year has also been influential in the design process and the relationship is starting to yield benefit as the advanced facilities that the Marussia team has access to have been used to prove the correlation process with the MVR-02. It is however early in the relationship and the MR01 will become a beneficiary of the relationship in due course.

The key design priorities were to address previous aerodynamic deficiencies and, mechanically, achieve greater weight saving. At the same time, a lot of the detail of the car has been refined and the design team have been a little more adventurous than before, stepping closer to the engineering boundaries. The car can best be described as a significant evolution of its predecessors. The relationship with McLaren is also evident, as the MR01 is only the second car launched this season, after the Woking giant’s MP4-27, to eschew the stepped nose concept favoured by the rest of the field.

“We are very pleased to be running the new MR01 for the first time this morning,” team principal John Booth admitted, “It has been a long and frustrating wait for everyone in the team, but we can now get back on track – literally – and start working towards the first race of the season in Australia next weekend.

“Today is the first of two promotional events, so while the drivers will be able to get a feel for the car, they won’t be able to draw any real conclusions until we start running in anger in Melbourne. Nevertheless, this is an important day for us and we’ll enjoy every minute on track with the new car.”

Glock turned the first laps with the MR01, beginning his third season with the team and providing the all-important element of continuity required to keep moving the package forward. He is joined in 2012 by Frenchman Pic, who embarks on his rookie year in F1, having made the step up from GP2 to replace Belgium’s Jerome d’Ambrosio. Both drivers will get track time with the new car over the next two days, albeit running on demonstration tyres as opposed to the Pirelli P-Zeros that they will use once competition starts in Melbourne.

A friend of injured driver Robert Kubica admitted the Pole is still months from knowing when he can return to the wheel of a F1 car.
The former BMW and Renault driver suffered horror injuries in a rally crash more than a year ago, but there are reports he might be well enough to return some time in 2012.

A close friend of the now 27-year-old said in the Barcelona paddock: “Robert is close to leading a normal life.

“He drives his road car and goes out by himself,” the friend, who wished to remain anonymous, told the BBC.

“He is still building up the strength in his right arm. It will be June or July before it can be determined if he is fit enough to test a F1 car.”

Teams are not getting enough time to respond to the FIA’s decisions about DRS, according to Sauber’s James Key.
For the first time in 2011, there will be two independent DRS overtaking zones at Monza this weekend, each with a separate activation point.

“It’s going to be a pretty major asset for a following car,” predicted McLaren’s Jenson Button.

But with top teams bringing special rear wings to Monza for the Italian venue’s uniquely high speed layout, Key is not so sure the full potential of the DRS will be seen this weekend.

“They FIA always let us know about the DRS areas a week before the race,” said the Swiss team Sauber’s technical boss.

“It is very important in the development of the wing to know how often we will be able to use it. But the design (for Monza) was already set in July.”

Auto Motor und Sport also quoted Key as revealing that Sauber expected there to be only one DRS zone at Monza.

“We don’t know yet how effective the DRS will be,” the Briton continued, referring to the fact that rear wings for Monza are already designed to severely reduce drag and produce less downforce.

“We think the effect (of DRS at Monza) will be half the normal amount,” added Key.

Felipe Massa has confirmed that if he can help Fernando Alonso to reinforce his lead in the drivers’ world championship this weekend, he will.

“If it depends on me, then for sure (I will help),” he is quoted as saying in Brazil by the news agency EFE.

Massa, who was controversially ordered aside for his Ferrari teammate at Hockenheim in July, is a specialist of his local Interlagos circuit and a crowd favourite.

But he concedes the Italian team’s desire to put its full weight behind Alonso’s title charge.

“I’m a professional. I did it already in 2007,” added Massa, referring to his then teammate Kimi Raikkonen’s successful championship campaign alongside him three years ago.

Team boss Stefano Domenicali has confirmed this week that Alonso and Massa will return to a position of equality in 2011.

When asked if Spaniard Alonso is the best teammate he has had at Ferrari, he answered emphatically: “No. I’ve had three (teammates) all at the same highest level.

“I don’t need to say anything about Schumacher because his career speaks for itself. Kimi was also excellent. I see all three of them on the same level.

“Alonso has had a better season than me and has been more competitive. It has not been my best year, not only with the results but also the problems I have had in qualifying warming up the tyres.

“For me, 2011 will be better than 2010,” he insisted.

In additional comments published by the Globo newspaper, Massa said he thinks his Brazilian fans will understand his position at Interlagos this weekend.

“I think the public has always treated me very well, not only the day before what happened in Germany, but also the day after.

“The journalists, no. But the public, yes — always. I am sure the fans will be great and I will do my best to give them a good result,” added Massa.

Williams reserve driver Valtteri Bottas has put his hopes of stepping into the team’s race cockpit on hold until 2012.

The 21-year-old Finn, third in the F3 Euroseries standings, admitted recently that British team Williams was “not likely to change” its current driver lineup for 2011.

“The next step would be GP2,” Bottas, who is managed by Mika Hakkinen, said in July.

He has now told Finland’s Turun Sanomat newspaper that Rubens Barrichello does indeed look set to have his Williams deal extended.

“He is still fast,” Bottas is quoted as saying.

“He has been really useful to the team and it’s true to say a big part of the development of the car is due to him,” he added.

Meanwhile, Williams’ Austrian minority co-owner Toto Wolff has told the Kleine Zeitung newspaper that Barrichello’s rookie teammate Nico Hulkenberg is also likely to keep his seat.

“Of all the young drivers he is probably the best at the moment,” he said.  “He is actually remarkable; only the experience is missing.

“I feel quite comfortable with this driver combination.  My word has at least as much weight as the others on the board, and this applies to the drivers as well,” added Wolff.

Stefan GP pulled out of the running for the 13th team entry for 2011 because the FIA’s selection process was too slow.

That is the view of Zoran Stefanovic, who after missing out on a place on this year’s grid vowed to try again for the 2011 season.

Alongside other contenders including Villeneuve/Durango and Epsilon Euskadi, the Serbian outfit tackled the initial stages of the selection process, but ultimately pulled out in August.

“We had applied at the beginning but we found out that the process was too long and it didn’t give us assurances on the time when someone will be chosen as the 13th team,” Stefanovic told f1pulse.com.

When the FIA invited expressions of interest for the 13th place in March, the governing body said its decision would be made in July.

But the decision, with the FIA ultimately ruling that the team place should be left open, was made only this month.

Stefanovic said September is “too late to go in and design a car for next year”.

“We think it (the process) should be faster and we think it’s necessary to have a 13th team,” he added.

Contrary to the ‘plan B’ announced by Jacques Villeneuve, Stefanovic said he is not currently contemplating taking over an existing team.

“At the moment we are not doing that thing specifically,” he said. “We will see in the future what we can do.”

According to the International Sporting Code, F1′s governing body should already have approved or rejected the new South Korea circuit ahead of its inaugural grand prix.

Instead, the venue has been given until September 21 to prepare for Charlie Whiting’s final inspection, with a FIA spokesman admitting “a lot of work remains to be completed” at the Yeongam site, according to the Telegraph.

Appendix O of the Code says the final inspection for a permanent venue should take place “not later than 90 days before the first international event to be held” there.

If adhered to, Korea’s final inspection should have taken place at the end of July, given its late October race date.

And if a circuit fails its final inspection, the sporting regulations state that the event “will not be considered for inclusion in the following year’s championship unless the FIA judges the cancellation to have been due to force majeure”.

Countering ongoing speculation about the state of the site, race organisers have released some photos showing completed buildings and an apparently freshly-laid track surface.

But other, unofficial photos recently did the rounds showing that aspects of the venue are far from complete.

However, the Telegraph’s Tom Cary said the FIA is “satisfied” with progress.

Indian driver Karun Chandhok is currently on his way to the east Asian state, where on Saturday he is scheduled to drive Red Bull’s demo car around the circuit.

Event organisers KAVO insist the venue is “90 per cent” complete.

Hockenheim has avoided recording a financial loss following the running of the recent German grand prix.

65,300 spectators attended the July 25 event, which allied with the new arrangement with Bernie Ecclestone gave the venue a rare surplus of EUR 140,000.

Local mayor Dieter Gummer confirmed the news to the Schwetzinger Zeitung newspaper.

With Hockenheim warning that it could no longer afford to host formula one, F1 chief executive Ecclestone last year agreed a new deal through 2018 in which he absorbs some of the financial risk.

Gummer said that under Hockenheim’s old F1 contract, the 2010 event would have resulted in a EUR 7.2 million loss.