The penalty might be harsh, but the loss of Lewis Hamilton’s pole in Spain is just the latest calamitous mistake by McLaren.

That was the tone of the paddock’s reaction to the news late on Saturday that a McLaren gaffe saw the FIA send Hamilton from first to last on the Spanish grand prix grid.

The Sun newspaper called it a draconian “24-place grid penalty” imposed by the FIA after an “astonishing cock-up” by McLaren.

Hamilton was told on the radio to pull over after his pole lap due to a “technical problem”.

Sporting director Sam Michael argued ‘force majeure’, but the stewards ruled that it had been entirely McLaren’s fault that not enough fuel was put into Hamilton’s car to ensure a scrutineering fuel sample.

Writing in the Telegraph, Tom Cary said the severity of the disqualification “raised eyebrows”, but agreed that “McLaren’s mistake was horrendous”.

He said it has been “a season of errors” by the famous British team, who are yet to get Hamilton’s signature on a new contract beyond 2012.

“Hamilton must be seething,” read an article in the Daily Mail newspaper, while The Times laid out McLaren’s “catalogue of errors”.

27-year-old Hamilton’s “raw talent is being thwarted by mishap and cock-up,” said journalist Kevin Eason.

“McLaren are lovely people but how the hell do they get themselves in this position?” wrote the Mirror’s Byron Young on Twitter.

Even the non-English language media agreed.

“It was another great mistake by McLaren that could eventually cost Hamilton the championship,” wrote Livio Oricchio in O Estado de S.Paulo.

Italy’s La Stampa called McLaren’s fuel gaffe a case of “harakiri”.

Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport added: “It was error number 13 for McLaren since last year”.

While highly critical of McLaren’s own-goal, however, the feeling in the paddock is that the stewards’ penalty – although accepted by McLaren – was overly harsh.

“Back of the grid? Way, way too harsh”, said the Mirror’s Young on Twitter.

“Draconian penalty in my view,” agreed PA Sport’s Ian Parkes. “Dropping Q3 time would have sufficed.”

Sky commentator Martin Brundle added: “(I) feel they should have deleted that (Q3) laptime only which would have put him sixth”.

And excluding Hamilton from Q3 altogether would have put him 11th. Now, he will be “lucky to score a point”, Auto Motor und Sport predicted.

In the Independent, however, David Tremayne noted: “Welcome to the draconian world of F1.”

David Croft, the lead Sky commentator, said the FIA stewards had acted correctly.

“A good rule should be one that covers all eventualities with a penalty that acts as a deterrent which in this case is what happened.

“Too little fuel can’t be tolerated,” he added. “It seems harsh but had Lewis taken pole by one thousandth of a second, would it be harsh then?”

The Spanish fans – not Hamilton’s biggest supporters dating back to his spats with Fernando Alonso in 2007 – were happy.

Asked on the El Mundo website whether the penalty was fair, 76 per cent answered yes.

Ferrari’s title tilt could hinge on the competitiveness of the updated F2012 this weekend in Barcelona.

“What I want is to have a competitive car in Barcelona,” insisted the famous Italian marque’s president Luca di Montezemolo on Tuesday.

“That’s what I’ve asked for,” he is quoted as saying by Brazil’s O Estado de S.Paulo newspaper.

Ferrari had congregated at its Fiorano test track, to watch Jacques Villeneuve drive the 1979 single seater to mark the 30th anniversary of his father Gilles’ fatal crash.

But Montezemolo’s disappointment is with the latest Ferrari, which has been heavily updated since the Bahrain grand prix three weeks ago.

“Our technicians are confident, but we will have to see how our opponents have advanced too,” he added.

O Estado de S.Paulo correspondent Livio Oricchio claimed “Montezemolo knows” that anything other than a big step forward in Barcelona will mean Ferrari has to “start thinking about” its 2013 project instead.

“Now we have to make a quantum leap, to have a car that is more competitive, less difficult to drive, and gives confidence to the fans,” Montezemolo is quoted by La Stampa newspaper.

“Let’s see how it goes in Spain,” he told Rai television.

“I have asked for an extraordinary response from our engineers,” Montezemolo is also quoted as saying by Italy’s Sky Sport 24.

La Gazzetta dello Sport, meanwhile, quoted lead driver Fernando Alonso as saying: “Our goal is to be world champions in November, and if we are to succeed then we must do better than we have done so far.”

Team boss Stefano Domenicali agreed: “We expect a significant evolution that will bring us closer to the step we need.

“The Spanish grand prix is definitely open, as is the championship. I say this because we believe.”

An obvious tension was evident at Mugello when Pirelli’s Paul Hembery was asked about Michael Schumacher.

The seven time world champion had slammed F1′s official supplier after Bahrain, arguing that the 2012 tyres degrade so quickly it makes driving a grand prix car as slow as a safety car.

“We haven’t spoken,” Briton Hembery is quoted by Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport. “I’ve just read something on the net about the tyres from his teammate Nico Rosberg which is very different.”

Asked if Schumacher’s criticism was irritating, he answered: “We built the tyres the way we were asked to.

“The FIA, Bernie Ecclestone, even the teams wanted it this way. The spokesman for the teams at the time was Ross Brawn, Schumacher’s team boss.

“There have been four different winners in the four races so far, which alone shows that we must have done something right,” Hembery insisted. “As a fan I would be thrilled.”

Asked if he can at least understand Schumacher’s frustration, he continued: “The four winners this year have not won by chance.

“They were absolutely the best drivers in those races and all of them were faster than their teammates.

“I can understand that Michael was frustrated at the last race. Among the four winners so far were two Germans, and then you had Kimi (Raikkonen), who in the fourth race of his comeback is on the podium.

“Racers are winners; they’re not happy unless they’re winning.”

Hembery denied that tyres have, in 2012, become more important than the cars or drivers.

“That’s a misconception,” he insisted. “The driver has a huge impact.

“Anyway I’m convinced that at Silverstone at the latest the teams will have the problem under control. Just as they did last year.”

Finally, he insisted that Pirelli is not going to make any knee-jerk reactions.

“If there are 23 drivers satisfied and only one dissatisfied, then I don’t think we need to change something,” Hembery is quoted by Bild newspaper.

Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso, however, acknowledged a slight frustration.

“For the top teams it’s a bit frustrating,” he told La Stampa newspaper, “when it’s difficult to exploit all your potential.

“It’s like Real Madrid, Barcelona and AC Milan suddenly playing with the budget of Cesena.”

Ferrari’s task is to improve step by step, rather than make a quantum leap in Barcelona next weekend.

That is the claim of Spaniard Fernando Alonso, as the famous Italian team disappointed some headline-writers on Tuesday by not launching a ‘B’ car at the Mugello test.

“We have to take a step forward in Montmelo, one in Monte Carlo, another in Canada, and so on,” Alonso is quoted by La Stampa, after topping the rain-affected first day of testing on Tuesday with the improved F2012 car.

He acknowledged that Ferrari cannot win the 2012 season if the performance of the opening four grands prix is repeated throughout the season.

“We have to be qualifying in the top ten, fighting for the top five and having both cars in the points in every race,” he insisted.

Asked if he thinks the title is a realistic goal, Alonso said: “We are optimistic.”

He said he pushed as hard as he could in Australia, Malaysia, China and Bahrain with a sub-standard car.

“It was like walking on a wire a hundred feet up,” said the 2005 and 2006 world champion. “If you do one thing wrong – hit a curb in qualifying or miss a braking point in the race – you’re not in the top ten.

“We do not have the fastest car, but with a team like Ferrari, a good car is enough.

“I’m not the best in qualifying, or in the rain, or on the street circuits, but I try to be a 9.5 in everything.”

Another television broadcaster has pulled out of this weekend’s Bahrain grand prix.

It had already emerged that Sky Deutschland, MTV3 Finland and Japan’s Fuji TV would not be reporting from the scene of the race in the troubled island Kingdom.

Now, it emerges that the travelling regulars for France’s TF1 are not in Bahrain either.

The French-language RMC Sport reported that, like the other broadcasters, the decision was taken “because of the unstable situation” in Bahrain.

It has also emerged that Stefano Mancini, the regular F1 correspondent for Italy’s La Stampa newspaper, had trouble entering Bahrain this week.

He reported that he encountered the trouble, which ended when the FIA intervened directly, due to an interview he conducted last week with a Bahraini activist.

“You work for a newspaper?” Mancini said, recalling what he was asked by the polite uniformed official. “Write the name,” the official said.

“My name?” enquired Mancini. “No, the newspaper,” the official clarified.

A support-race team and a respected journalist have become the next to pull out of this weekend’s highly controversial Bahrain grand prix.

The Porsche Supercup team MRS said its decision to skip the support race in the divided island Kingdom is the “first time in our history that we have had to cancel”.

“In the end we have the responsibility for our employees,” said team boss Karsten Molitor, citing security concerns.

Another withdrawal – joining the sacked Williams catering staff member, and the TV broadcasters Sky Deutschland, Fuji TV and MTV3 Finland – is the respected correspondent for O Estado de S.Paulo newspaper, Livio Oricchio.

“I have decided in agreement with Estado to not go,” he said. “We had the tickets for the entire season, except for Bahrain and the United States, because there was a doubt they would be run.

“Like many journalists, I will not be at Sakhir,” Oricchio admitted.

“I always believed that the race would not take place, and I’m still not 100 per cent sure that something will not happen that will lead the FIA or FOM to cancel.”

Indeed, following the sport’s decision to push ahead, the pressure on formula one to cancel at the eleventh hour has only intensified.

Nabeel Rajab, the leader of the government opposition group Bahrain Centre for Human Rights, admitted that the next protests – ‘three days of rage’, to coincide with the race’s three-day calendar – are aimed specifically at F1.

“We’re protesting to show anger at formula one for conducting the race here,” he is quoted by the BBC.

And the wife of a well-known jailed Bahraini activist who is on a long hunger strike, added: “I am not angry with the government… what makes me angry is people like Ecclestone who decide to come to Bahrain because he thinks everyone is happy.”

Italy’s La Stampa reports that F1 personnel have been advised to stay away from restaurants and shops, while “girlfriends and wives stay at home”.

That’s not entirely true, as Felipe Massa touched down at the airport on Thursday with his wife and baby son.

And Giedo van der Garde, the reserve driver for Caterham, said he has found Bahrain peaceful since his arrival on Wednesday.

“I’ve not been here long,” he is quoted by Auto Hebdo, “but everything seems quiet. Obviously, there’s a heavy police presence,” the Dutchman continued.

“But I haven’t seen any trouble or anything. Let’s hope it stays like that.”

Marco Canseco, the correspondent for the Spanish sports daily Marca, said he witnessed a “minor altercation” in the capital Manama on Wednesday.

“Then all the teams and everybody were able to get to the track for work without a hitch, the same on return,” he revealed.

Many are protesting the race going ahead on moral grounds, others due to security fears, whilst others fear for F1′s image.

“The ongoing debate about Bahrain is the only damage to the high gloss of the exciting 2012 season so far,” agreed Austria’s Kleine Zeitung newspaper.

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.

 Vitaly Petrov has hit out again at his ‘pay-driver’ label, insisting even the highest paid driver on the grid has a similar arrangement with his team.
“I see no difference between myself and Alonso,” said the Russian, who has moved his lucrative backing from Renault (now Lotus) to the Caterham team for 2012.

His new appointment is controversial, given he has ousted the experienced veteran and former Monaco winner Jarno Trulli, who was the last Italian in F1.

Comparing himself with Alonso, Petrov told La Stampa newspaper: “Everyone knows that he is funded by the money from (Ferrari sponsor) Banco Santander.

“Anyway, you only get to F1 because of talent.”

And Petrov, 27, insists he does not feel sorry for Trulli.

“Life is hard,” the Italian newspaper quotes him as saying.

He admitted that having friends in F1 is impossible, whilst making some comments that will also not endear him to the sport’s Italian followers.

Asked to explain the rare absence of Italians on the grid, Petrov criticised the country’s junior categories and added: “Your drivers lack the passion.”

And as for Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo’s complaints about the dramatic role being played by aerodynamics in F1 at present, he answered: “When you’re not winning, it’s easy to complain.”

Petrov, however, lived in Italy in his past, revealing that his favourite elements of Italian life are “the food and the girls”.

But on the latter, he does not expect to be wheel-to-wheel with the opposite sex any time soon.

“They do not have the physical ability and also are not prepared for the high speeds. But everything in life is possible,” said Petrov.

The Italian press has pointed the finger at Vitaly Petrov’s “rubles” as Jarno Trulli races out of formula one.
With Vitantonio Liuzzi replaced at HRT by Narain Karthikeyan, and veteran Trulli ousted at Caterham by Petrov, F1 history enters a new phase as Italy no longer has a single driver on the grid.

“If you look,” said former grand prix winner Riccardo Patrese to La Stampa, “the drivers coming in now are from central America and the East.”

The unsponsored Trulli, 37, said he still wants to race but also has his wine and hotel businesses to keep him busy.

“More than anything else, apart from the results, I am proud to have been able to fulfil my dream of racing in F1 for many years and stay on the grid on my own power, without anybody’s help,” he is quoted by La Gazzetta dello Sport.

Switzerland’s Blick newspaper points out that no fewer than 81 Italian drivers have raced in the modern F1 championship.

And Brazilian correspondent Livio Oricchio reminded that in 1989, no fewer than 16 drivers in the field were Italian.

Some Italian fans are pointing the finger at Ferrari, annoyed that the famous marque has not signed a full-time Italian race driver for many years.

And why Felipe Massa? “Because we believe in him,” an official of the Maranello based team is quoted by Spain’s Marca newspaper.

“It’s not enough to have an Italian passport to drive for Ferrari,” he added.

Christian Horner insists he is not worried that pieces of a current-spec Red Bull front wing are currently sitting in the lounge rooms of fans — and possibly elsewhere.
After Mark Webber’s Monza crash, fans collected up the carbon fibre pieces of the mysterious and highly effective Adrian Newey-penned component.

“No problem. You can’t get any sensitive information from small pieces like that,” boss Horner is quoted by La Stampa newspaper after being shown newspaper photos of the wreckage in a Spanish spectator’s home.

It had been suggested that some of the other pieces had been delivered by ardent Ferrari fans to Ferrari’s Maranello headquarters, preceding the debut of a remarkably similar ‘flexing’ wing that is currently being tested by the famous team.

A Ferrari official is quoted as rubbishing the theory.

“If someone is able to understand from wreckage how something works, study it and put it into a design and build it and all of this in a month, that would not be formula one but something that does not exist,” he said.

The development of Ferrari’s 2011 car has now effectively stopped, Fernando Alonso has revealed.
After Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel pulled his championship lead over the Spaniard to 112 points at Monza, Alonso admitted beating the German to the title this season is now “impossible”.

With Felipe Massa mathematically out of the running, La Stampa newspaper therefore confirms that Maranello based Ferrari’s full focus is now on 2012.

“The last updates did not work as expected,” Alonso is quoted as saying. “There will be no others, except for a little something in Singapore.”

Added Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo: “As the car was born bad, there is no more potential to improve it.”

Alonso, 30, won the floodlit Singapore grand prix in 2008 and 2010 and is therefore the city-state race’s only multiple victor.

Yet another member of the formula one paddock believes Sebastian Vettel is “definitely” cruising to the 2011 title.
After a victory drought that extended throughout July, the Red Bull driver returned to the top step of the podium at Spa-Francorchamps, extending his lead to 92 points with just seven races to go.

“I think he definitely has the title,” Force India driver and German compatriot Adrian Sutil told Auto Motor und Sport in an interview.

“In the next races he really only needs to take points, so I don’t see there is any danger for him.

“Behind him it is still exciting but the world champion is for sure,” added Sutil.

Mathematically, however, the title is still on, with Mark Webber needing to score over 13 points more than his teammate per race to beat Vettel at November’s finale.

For comparison, the difference between first and third places at grands prix is only 10 points, so a string of mere victories will not be enough for Vettel’s chasers.

“Let’s be realistic,” La Stampa quotes Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso – who is a further ten points behind Webber – as saying. “It (the championship) is not in our hands.”

The Spaniard’s boss Stefano Domenicali added: “I can not hide the fact that our heads are already turning towards 2012.”

But his Red Bull counterpart Christian Horner refuses to celebrate just yet.

“We don’t alter our approach, absolutely not, and I can assure you Mark still has a free run at it,” The Sun quotes him as saying.

“There will be no complacency. We’re heads down (and) focused on the next race and not thinking anything is done and dusted at this point in time,” added Horner.

F1 teams will not police their rivals’ adherence to the August factory shutdown.
In the rare month-long gap between the Hungarian and Belgian grands prix, teams have agreed a mandatory two-week break period in which factories are strictly closed.

Staff are not even allowed to email one another, but Mercedes team boss Ross Brawn admitted that the shutdown is not really policed.

“We trust each other and are quite sure that everyone will abide by the agreements,” he is quoted by DPA news agency.

But Brazilian journalist Livio Oricchio said he doubts the agreement will be strictly adhered to, arguing that it would make “no sense” in the midst of a F1 season.

Red Bull designer Adrian Newey however said he intends to take a break.

“I think you have to be able to stop working and thinking, otherwise it would be completely all-consuming and probably not healthy,” he said.

Another journalist, Stefano Mancini, wrote in La Stampa newspaper that “nobody in his right mind” thinks the likes of Newey will really “turn off the light in his office and says to his staff ‘See you in fifteen days’.

“The factories will stop but the brains will not,” he added.

Brawn agreed: “We can’t escape from it completely because that’s our nature, but of course it’s better to be reflecting on the beach than in the office!”

The team has failed to win a race so far in July, but Red Bull remains the favourite for victory this weekend in Hungary.
That is the claim of triple world champion Niki Lauda, who said the energy drink-owned team is usually very fast on the many tight curves of the Hungaroring.

“If normal temperatures prevail, and if everything goes to plan, then yes — he (Sebastian Vettel) is the clear favourite,” the Austrian told APA news agency.

Lauda added that 24-year-old Vettel is “still clearly on course” for the 2011 title, despite Red Bull losing to Ferrari at Silverstone and then McLaren last weekend in Germany.

“He still has a big gap in the standings,” said Lauda. “He need not worry.”

Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso agrees that the championship is still heading Red Bull’s way.

“We did very well in Britain, McLaren won in Germany, but Red Bull is always on the podium, if not with one driver then the other,” he is quoted by La Stampa newspaper.

“They are good on all circuits, so in Hungary they will be competitive. We are the ones who must make further progress,” added Alonso.

At McLaren there is a mix of confidence and trepidation, with Lewis Hamilton winning at the Nurburgring amid the suspicion the MP4-26 might revert to struggling in hotter temperatures.

“We might get to Hungary and be massively off because we might overheat our tyres,” he said.

Paradoxically, Ferrari is looking forward to better weather in Hungary.

“It should be a good race for us to be able to go on holiday after a formidable July,” predicted test driver Marc Gene in El Mundo newspaper.

Hamilton is pushing for a better ‘DRS’ rear wing system for his McLaren, with boss Martin Whitmarsh telling Auto Motor und Sport it will not be ready until Spa after the summer break.

“We don’t have a DRS as efficient as the others,” Hamilton said. “That’s what we need to work on.”

Whitmarsh, meanwhile, thinks McLaren and Ferrari need to unite to combat their common enemy.

“Ferrari is in the same situation as us; we need each other to take points off Red Bull,” the Briton is quoted by Corriere dello Sport.

Luca di Montezemolo has slammed F1′s constantly changing rules.

The Ferrari president was referring to the recent British grand prix, at which the saga surrounding the evolving blown exhaust regulations was denounced as the “biggest farce ever” by outspoken Niki Lauda.

“Unfortunately we have to deal with a carousel of changes to the regulations, which does not help us,” Montezemolo told Sky Italia this week as he insisted the famous Maranello team will push ahead with its 2011 car project.

“Once, the rules were changed after every year, then it was every six months, now they change within a weekend,” he added.

Montezemolo said Ferrari contributed to the solution of the blown exhaust saga at Silverstone even though it disadvantaged the famous team.

“The situation was paradoxical,” he is quoted by La Stampa, “but sometimes you have to put aside your personal interests. We want what is good for formula one.”

But he is quoted by Turun Sanomat newspaper: “This must definitely end. Rules should be made to last. Ferrari will definitely take up this issue with the rule makers.”

Meanwhile, Montezemolo confirmed once again that Felipe Massa’s 2012 contract will be honoured.

“Are the rumours about Felipe false? Absolutely. This is the period for these stories but the (Ferrari) drivers will be the same next year,” he said.