F1′s season of confusion looks set to continue, with an uncertain weather forecast only adding to the uncertainty ahead of the Spanish grand prix.

The bizarre 2012 contest stepped into yet another gear on Saturday, with events unfolding to put the previously-derided pay driver Pastor Maldonado on pole, alongside the crisis-ridden Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso.

And the Pirelli tyre predicament, worsened on the challenging Circuit de Catalunya layout and under hot Spanish skies, will continue to confound teams on Sunday, with temperatures set to drop and rain clouds predicted to gather.

“I am telling you now, honestly,” said Red Bull’s Mark Webber. “We don’t have even the slightest idea who will benefit when it gets colder.”

The German magazine Auto Motor und Sport laid out the fascinating if bewildering situation as of Saturday in Spain: “Sebastian Vettel doesn’t know why his car suddenly lost grip in qualifying.

“Jenson Button has no idea why he couldn’t generate any tyre temperature on the 40 degrees track. Williams don’t know why Pastor Maldonado clocked the second fastest lap.

“Mercedes’ engineers had to admit they still don’t understand the Pirelli rubber.”

Acting team principal Bob Bell smiled tortuously: “If we did understand, we’d be on pole. But even Pirelli don’t know all the answers.”

Writing in O Estado de S.Paulo newspaper, Livio Oricchio estimated there are up to 12 candidates for victory.

“A grid of madness!” said former F1 driver Patrick Tambay on France’s RMC Sport. “And it’s not over yet.”

So, is Michael Schumacher – having sat out Q3 in order to save tyres for the race – now even more critical of Pirelli?

“I’ll leave it with what has already been said,” he insisted late on Saturday.

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 might be gearing up to incorporate a ‘double-DRS’ setup aboard its improving F2012 car.

If true, the famous Italian team would be the first team to successfully emulate the controversial Mercedes system, which has been declared fully legal by the governing FIA.

Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport said a new rear wing was among the very last upgrades to be trialled by Fernando Alonso as the Mugello test concluded late on Thursday.

“The wing has only minor changes. You have to look closely,” read the report.

The magazine reported rumours that the wing might eventually accommodate the so-called ‘double-DRS’ or 2012-style F-duct, which would work in conjunction with a new and so far unseen front wing.

“That (wing) will debut along with a new diffuser and nose in Barcelona,” added Auto Motor und Sport.

There were happy faces in the Ferrari garage on Thursday, as – despite a minor off by Alonso – the upgrades appeared to work well.

“Barcelona will be a key moment in the season, but not a decisive one,” the Spanish driver insisted.

“It’s not a case that we will suddenly find ourselves back on pole position, because there is no magic button.”

Echoing the earlier words of Mark Webber, Alonso said the “fastest car” at Mugello this week was the Lotus.

Red Bull’s Dr Helmut Marko agrees: “It looks like Lotus are the quickest.”

Veteran Swiss correspondent Roger Benoit wrote in Blick newspaper: “Lotus, with Kimi Raikkonen in super shape, is the championship dark horse.”

A spat between two Britons could drive the German giant Mercedes out of formula one, according to a new media report.

F1 chief executive Bernie Ecclestone recently confirmed he is at loggerheads with Mercedes over the next Concorde Agreement.

But at the same time, he insisted that the Stuttgart marque is “very important to formula one. I have always supported them and I will always,” he is quoted by Auto Motor und Sport.

Indeed, Mercedes has its own and newly-winning works team, powers the marquee McLaren outfit, and also supplies engines to Force India.

Ecclestone’s dispute is with fellow Englishman Ross Brawn, who is the Brackley based Mercedes GP team’s principal.

“I have spoken to the team manager (Brawn) about it (the dispute) and he seems to believe that the team has won a few world titles and about 80 races since the Tyrrell days,” said the 81-year-old.

Sport Bild reports that Ecclestone is refusing to give in to Brawn’s demands for extra Concorde Agreement entitlements for past title successes and history.

The magazine said the relationship has become so intense that Ecclestone has even refused to give a joint interview with Brawn.

“He (Brawn) was never very nice to me,” the F1 ‘supremo’ is quoted as saying.

The German report said there is a risk Mercedes will, as a result of the ‘ice age’ between the British duo, pull the plug on its entire F1 involvement.

Charlie Whiting has admitted F1′s governing body will likely have to change the exhaust rules yet again for 2013.

Led by technical delegate Whiting, the FIA clamped down hard for this season on the sort of ‘exhaust blown diffuser’ layouts that had become widespread last year.

New exhaust layout rules, combined with new restrictions on engine mapping, have made it much more difficult for teams to achieve an aerodynamic effect from the fast-moving hot gases produced by the engine.

“We are aware, however, that they (the teams) will do as much as they can to direct the exhaust gases down into the area where they want them,” Whiting said in the FIA’s Inmotion magazine.

“I think (the effect) will be 20 per cent of what they had before.”

Among the cleverest and most effective solutions for the 2012 rules has been seen on the Sauber, and so Red Bull has followed suit and it is believed Ferrari will be next.

But Whiting hinted that the 2013 rules will clamp down even harder: “I suspect we’ll have to have another go at it in 2013,” said the Briton.

He admitted, however, that the egg cannot be unscrambled.

Referring to the jet of high-speed gas emanating from the exhausts near aerodynamic surfaces, Mercedes’ Aldo Costa confirmed to Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport: “You can’t ignore a gift like that.”

Whiting explained: “It is a classic case of not being able to unlearn things once they have been invented. The engineers know that there are benefits to be had and there is still some scope for development in this area.

“And we can’t wipe the memories of the engineers like a computer, can we?”

Argentina looks set to replace Korea on the 2013 formula one calendar.

That is the claim of Italy’s Autosprint magazine, reporting that the Argentinean national government will sign a three-year contract next month.

President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner said last month that the 2013 Argentine grand prix, last held at the ageing Autodromo Oscar Alfredo Galvez in Buenos Aires in 1998, will take place on the streets of the coastal city of Mar del Plata.

Autosprint now quotes Argentine tourism minister Carlos Enrique Mayer as saying: “The national government accepts the challenge of organising the grand prix of Argentina to promote our country to the world.

“In May, the three year contract between all the parties involved will be signed,” he added.

The report said Hermann Tilke will be responsible for the 5 kilometre city layout.

Autosprint also reported that next year’s calendar will remain at 20 races, so with the addition of Argentina as well as New Jersey, two current grands prix will need to give way.

One place will likely open up due to a new alternating scheme in Spain, with Valencia to wait until 2014 for its next race.

And Autosprint added: “The grand prix of Korea no longer seems able to honour the financial obligations agreed with (Bernie) Ecclestone.”

Ferrari is planning to follow Sauber’s lead when the first major development of the disappointing F2012 car is unveiled soon.

“No doubt about it,” Fernando Alonso said after winning the Malaysian grand prix, “they (Sauber) were quicker than us.”

The Italian magazine Autosprint have mischievously christened the updated Ferrari a ‘Ferrauber’, explaining that the rear of the ‘B’ F2012 will be very similar to Sauber’s impressive C31.

Right at the end of the pre-season test period, Red Bull rolled out a Sauber-esque solution at the rear of Adrian Newey’s 2012 car, the RB8.

In the wake of the blown diffuser clampdown, the Sauber exhaust layout reportedly flies close to breaching the spirit of the 2012 rules, but the FIA has declared it legal.

“We are not in a position to be able to say exactly how much aerodynamic influence each individual system has,” said the governing body’s technical delegate Charlie Whiting.

“Hence, it’s impossible for us to say ‘That’s too much, or that’s ok’. The aim of the new regulation was to ensure that we don’t have to do that,” he explained.

So, Ferrari looks to be the next in line to copy Sauber’s rear solution, particularly as the small Swiss team already uses Ferrari’s engine and gearbox.

It is believed the new 2012 Ferrari gearbox is narrower than last year’s unit.

Autosprint reports that the F2012 ‘Ferrauber’ will also be similar to the Sauber in the area of the sidepods.

New media reports have contradicted claims French PM Francois Fillon will on Friday announce the country’s 2013 return to the formula one calendar.

Le Parisien newspaper on Thursday said Fillon’s visit to the Paul Ricard circuit on Friday is to confirm the successful end to long negotiations to revive the French grand prix.

Those negotiations were for Paul Ricard to annually alternate a race date with Belgium’s fabled Spa Francorchamps.

But the French-language RMC insists that Belgium is “not ready for the alternation”.

“If France has received a contract to organise a grand prix every other year, this is not the case for the Belgian promoters, who are still waiting for the document to send to the government of Wallonia,” the report read.

RMC said the hold-up could be because Spa is having trouble paying its sanctioning fee for this year’s race date in September.

The French magazine Sport-Auto agrees, insisting that Fillon “will not announce the return of the grand prix de France on Friday”.

“The prime minister will travel to the (Paul Ricard) circuit,” an official close to Fillon is quoted as saying by AFP news agency, but Fillon “will not announce the return of the grand prix to the calendar in 2013″.

The official, however, said Bernie Ecclestone as approved “in principle” France’s presence on the calendar every other year, beginning in 2013.

But “It (the alternation) will not necessarily be with Belgium,” the report added.

In an interview to be published by the Nice-Matin newspaper on Friday, Fillon is quoted as saying a grand prix is crucial to France.

“Bernie Ecclestone has just sent us a draft contract,” said the prime minister, “which is the result of negotiations that began several months ago.

“We now have a concrete basis for discussions,” he added.

F1 team bosses turned out in force as officials insisted next month’s Bahrain grand prix is definitely on.

The sport’s chief executive Bernie Ecclestone joined Sir Frank Williams, Martin Whitmarsh, Christian Horner, Mercedes’ Nick Fry and Pirelli’s Paul Hembery at a media lunch in London.

“Talk about heavy support,” wrote Reuters correspondent Alan Baldwin on Twitter.

The self-described ‘PR offensive’ to promote the forthcoming Bahrain grand prix followed reports earlier this week that said the FIA had decided to cancel the race due to ongoing unrest in the island Kingdom.

“It’s all nonsense. We’ll be there as long as they want us,” said Ecclestone.

“Seriously, the press should just be quiet and deal with the facts rather than make up stories.”

If it was up to the drivers, though, they might give it a miss. Timo Glock is a brave lone voice: “Why should we expose ourselves to unnecessary risk?” he asked rhetorically.

“If it was up to me, we wouldn’t go there,” he told Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport.

Bahrain circuit boss Sheikh Salman bin Isa Al-Khalifa, however, dismissed the risk of violence.

“These incidents can happen anywhere,” he told AP news agency. “It’s not going to stop our grand prix.”

Ecclestone added: “I don’t need any personal security, but whatever’s necessary will be looked after.”

According to a poll in popular British magazine F1 Racing, 60,000 of the 100,000 F1 fans polled internationally said it is “not right” for the race to go ahead.

Looking forward to the event, however, is the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights.

Nabeel Rajab, the president, is quoted by the Telegraph: “(F1) is helping dictators and we are going to protest.

“We are going to use the opportunities that a lot of journalists are there and we are going to protest everywhere.”

Ferrari’s new deal for the 2013 Concorde Agreement reportedly involves a $50 million annual fee.

It is believed the Italian team has now finalised its commercial agreement with Bernie Ecclestone.

The same is reportedly true for fellow top teams McLaren and Red Bull, whose annual additional fee is, according to German newsmagazine Der Spiegel, $35m apiece.

Ecclestone wanted to announce the conclusion of successful Concorde Agreement negotiations in Malaysia, but major teams including Mercedes and Williams were yet to sign up.

Instead, the F1 chief executive released a statement saying deals have been done with ‘the majority’ of the teams.

Mercedes, in particular, is more than unhappy.

“It can not be,” a Daimler insider is quoted as saying, “that transparency from our business partners is lacking regarding a contract through 2020.”

Aldo Costa has revealed he is unhappy with Ferrari’s comments in the wake of his departure last year.

The Italian was stepped down as the famous team’s technical director, and he switched to Mercedes before the German marque made a significant step forwards with its 2012 car.

He has remained quiet about his treatment by Ferrari until now, telling Autosprint magazine that the Maranello marque lacked “style and professionalism” as it handled its restructuring.

Asked for more information, he said Ferrari explained “things that not only myself but also the whole world of formula one knows is not the truth”.

Costa confirmed that he was referring to Ferrari’s suggestion that he lacked “creativity”.

Still, he said he is not happy to see his old team struggling to make it into Q3 with the aggressive F2012.

“I still have so many friends in Maranello, but now I want to be 100 per cent engaged on succeeding with Mercedes.”

He said the Ross Brawn-led team has a “different” approach to Ferrari’s “that makes it easier to do things”.

 Hot on the heels of the new F-duct controversy, Mercedes has turned the heat back onto Red Bull.
Amid complaints from rival teams including Red Bull about its innovative aerodynamic concept aboard the W03, Mercedes’ Ross Brawn admitted he sensed a diversionary tactic.

“The discussion about our system has diverted the focus from the exhaust issue,” he said in Australia.

The FIA has clamped down hard on the exhaust-blown diffusers seen throughout the grid last year, but much pre-season chatter focused on some teams’ post-ban 2012 solutions that reportedly fly close to the boundaries of the new rules.

But now Germany’s Bild newspaper reports that Mercedes suspects Red Bull is also bending the rules in another area.

The report said Mercedes’ sound analysis indicated Renault-powered Red Bull is deploying an “illegal engine trick”, apparently involving the turning on and off of individual cylinders.

Mercedes’ competition vice-president Norbert Haug commented: “There is no official protest by us. But there are some questions that we are asking the FIA.”

Red Bull’s Dr Helmut Marko hit back: “No one will find anything. We comply with the rules.”

German specialist magazine Auto Motor und Sport, meanwhile, reports that Melbourne winner McLaren currently has the most sophisticated exhaust solution on the 2012 grid.

“I wouldn’t say that it’s illegal,” said Peter Sauber, “but it’s borderline.”

Teams including Mercedes, Lotus, Toro Rosso and Williams reportedly used much more conservative solutions in Australia.

“First we wanted to see what is allowed and what is not,” said Williams engineer Mark Gillan.

 After putting his tumultuous 2011 season behind him, Lewis Hamilton has kicked off this year’s world champion in downbeat mood.
The 2008 world champion had put his well-documented personal problems and on-track struggles behind him with a positive approach to his sixth season in F1.

But after his teammate Jenson Button beat him in the 2011 standings, Hamilton could not hide his disappointment on Sunday when the 2009 title winner also beat him to the first corner in Melbourne, before Button and reigning champion Sebastian Vettel filled the top two podium spots.

“I just struggled out there,” confused pole-sitter Hamilton said afterwards.

David Coulthard, the former long-time McLaren driver and now paddock analyst, expressed concern about Hamilton’s “striking” post-race body-language and “stony-faced” performance on the podium.

“Has it (Button’s win) knocked Lewis?” he wondered in his Telegraph column.

Many in F1 are astonished by how Button, described as having entered Hamilton’s “lion’s den” at McLaren two years ago, is now being described by the famous British team as its title-winning hope.

“People underestimate him,” said team boss Martin Whitmarsh. “He’s such a calm, mature and easygoing fellow that people don’t realise necessarily the hunger that’s in him to compete and to win.

“He must now believe he’s in a good chance of a proper title run this year and providing we can continue to improve the car, not make mistakes, be reliable there’s no reason why he can’t do that,” he added.

On Hamilton’s side of the garage, meanwhile, is a downcast driver and an expiring contract.

“On his day, Lewis is unbeatable, and yet I suspect McLaren are wondering whether or not they want to keep him, because he brings so much baggage with him,” another former McLaren driver-turned commentator, Martin Brundle, told April’s Motor Sport magazine.

As for Whitmarsh, McLaren’s team principal insists there is no concern yet that Hamilton has already re-entered another spiral of despair so early in 2012.

Downplaying Hamilton’s post-race mood in Australia, he said: “When he starts getting happy with being third, or beaten by his teammate, then he won’t be the Lewis we all love and admire.”

 Mercedes could be set to surprise the entire F1 world by setting the pace in 2012.
That is the claim of the German magazine Auto Motor und Sport, having found that the W03 had the strongest ‘long run’ pace during recent pre-season tests.

The major daily Bild agrees, crowning the Ross Brawn-led team the “Bluff champion!” of the winter.

“The analysis of recent testing in Barcelona shows that Mercedes are even faster than Red Bull,” the report exclaimed.

Brawn is quoted by Brazil’s Globo: “You always believe it. You want a winning car, and I have not seen anything that tells me that we don’t have (now).”

Perhaps even more sensationally, Sauber ranked second in the Auto Motor und Sport analysis of long runs, although last year the Swiss team looked similarly fast in testing.

Red Bull, McLaren and Lotus come next, followed by the struggling Ferrari.

Peter Sauber wrote in Blick newspaper: “It has never been as difficult as it is this year to get a picture of where everybody stands.

“Why? Because the field has never been so close together.”

McLaren and Mercedes look to be leading the way with the latest technical ingenuity in formula one.
Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport reports that the two teams are set to combine the button-activated DRS system with a sort of additional F-duct at the rear of their 2012 cars.

It was believed F-ducts were no longer legal, but new passive systems have emerged on the front wings of some 2012 cars, pioneered by Mercedes.

As for the rear wings, those F-ducts are also still legal “under certain circumstances”, the German magazine claims.

Combining a legal rear F-duct with DRS could result in a “huge top-speed gain”, writer Michael Schmidt claims, with the Mercedes W03 reportedly racing ahead by a whopping 18kph at the recent Barcelona test.