As the roulette wheel spins in 2012, Nico Hulkenberg has admitted he finds himself without a chip on the board.

McLaren, Ferrari, Mercedes, Red Bull and Williams have already won so far this season, whilst Lotus and Sauber have shown genuinely winning pace.

The three backmarkers aside, that leaves just Force India and Toro Rosso as perhaps the only teams without genuine chances of victory so far this year.

“According to our measurements, Williams and Sauber were the fastest cars in Barcelona. They must now be counted among the top teams,” said Force India driver Hulkenberg.

It’s a disappointing situation for the Silverstone based team, a distant eighth in the championship.

“We have definitely improved, especially in traction, but in the fast corners Sauber and Williams are better than us,” Hulkenberg acknowledged to Auto Motor und Sport.

The German admitted Force India has a few tenths to find.

“We have no choice but to develop, because we are behind,” said Hulkenberg. “It’s important to find a good balance between improving the car and understanding it.”

Force India’s 2012 goal, fifth in the constructors’, seems a long way away.

That place is currently occupied by Shanghai winner Mercedes, who are flanked by Malaysia and Spain winners respectively, Ferrari and Williams.

“It is still possible,” Hulkenberg insisted, “although difficult, because the others are still going to be getting points.”

Sergio Perez admitted to mixed feelings on Wednesday as he returned to Monaco.

The last time he was in the Principality to race – for his debut grand prix in the fabled Principality – he was hauled away in an ambulance, having been knocked unconscious in a huge qualifying crash.

“To me it’s unbelievable to be back here after such an accident,” the 22-year-old said on Wednesday, according to Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport.

Mexican Perez said Monaco is still his favourite track.

“It is definitely not a good feeling that the walls are so close, but we know the risks. It’s a special place.

“I can remember everything right up to the crash. The next thing I know was that I was on the way to hospital — I was unconscious for several minutes.

“After such an accident it is not easy to come back — I cannot say for sure how I will feel when I come out of the tunnel for the first time. But I think it will be completely out of my head.”

Perez said he really needed “four or five” races to recover from the heavy concussion, but that there was pressure from sponsors to come back as soon as possible.

“I wanted to get back into the car in Montreal, but it was impossible,” he recalled.

“In Valencia it was very difficult for me.”

Now, he is hoping for a very different Monaco weekend, after looking strong last year until his crash.

“Our goal must be the podium. I hope to find a good setup although we have recently had a little problem with the traction.

“We are so close to the top that every tenth can make a difference.

“After our second place in Malaysia, maybe the next step will be victory — I don’t know if we will succeed. But the opportunities are there,” said Perez.

More than half of Michael Schumacher’s German compatriots think the seven time world champion will return to retirement at the end of this year.

After three years of retirement, the 43-year-old returned to F1 in 2010 on a three-year Mercedes contract, which runs out in 2012.

SID news agency commissioned the German market research company Promit to carry out a survey as to whether respondents think Schumacher will quit at the end of this year.

55.4 per cent answered yes, while only 26.2 per cent said they think Schumacher should sign on for at least another season.

The winner of a record 91 grands prix has failed to see the chequered flag in three of the five races so far this year, finishing just tenth in both Malaysia and Bahrain.

In contrast, teammate Nico Rosberg’s three top-seven finishes in 2012 included pole and victory in China, netting him 41 points compared with Schumacher’s 2 overall.

“I don’t think we can write him (Schumacher) off yet,” insisted Telegraph correspondent Tom Cary this week.

“His pace hasn’t been bad and he started the season very well. (He) was unlucky in quite a few races, his wheel fell off when he was running second in China and could have had a big haul of points.

“He is making mistakes in wheel-to-wheel racing though. But if he gets a few decent finishes or even wins a race then we could see him continue (in 2013),” added Cary.

Even amid the chaos of the 2012 pecking order, the star performer is obvious.

That is the view of former F1 driver Christian Klien, who confirmed to the Austrian news agency APA that one of his current roles is a simulator driver for the sport’s latest winning team, Williams.

“It (2012) is very open,” he said, “but for me Fernando Alonso stands out.”

Equal with Sebastian Vettel, Spaniard Alonso is at the top of the drivers’ world championship, a full eight points clear of Lewis Hamilton.

The Spaniard’s car has been the struggling Ferrari F2012, but he has never finished a race this season lower than ninth (China).

He has therefore scored points at every opportunity, even finishing first and second in Malaysia and Spain respectively.

“Alonso has an inferior car,” Klien explained, “but he uses every single little opportunity.

“He is the most complete driver who gets the most out of the package he has.”

Triple world champion Sir Jackie Stewart agrees that, among arguably the most competitive grid of drivers since the late 80s, Alonso is the standout performer.

“Right now we have the best generation of drivers we’ve had for a while,” the famous Scot told the Spanish sports daily AS.

“Everyone talks about Vettel, who is a great driver, and also Hamilton of course, but there is also Button, Schumacher, Kimi — all champions.

“There are others like Webber who also have the quality to win, young drivers coming up, many of them are very good, but also it is true that Alonso is fantastic.”

Asked why the Spaniard has not added a title to his tally since 2006, Stewart said: “The explanation is easy — he hasn’t had the luck to get the best car.

“Now he has one that isn’t good, but it’s in those circumstances that you see even more the quality that he has,” said Stewart.

Given Alonso’s push to the top of the championship with a sub-standard car, therefore, all the talk about Ferrari writing off the 2012 championship has been silenced for now.

“We have to keep developing the car,” Stefano Domenicali, Ferrari’s team boss, said after Barcelona, where significant upgrades were brought to the F2012 package.

“We are not yet fast enough to consistently fight for the podium, but that is the only option if we want to be in contention for the title,” he insisted.

Tony Fernandes has admitted he would have liked corporate Malaysia to have backed his formula one team.

The Malaysian entrepreneur founded a UK based start-up team in 2010, calling it Team Lotus before a bitter spat developed with the Lotus name’s owner Proton.

“While I was building a formula one team, I was being sued by my own countrymen,” he told The Star newspaper.

“We’re the only true formula one team developed in Malaysia.”

Now called Caterham, the team’s only Malaysian sponsorship is from AirAsia — Fernandes’ own low-cost airline.

“Never mind that we were not sponsored (by Malaysia), that’s a company’s prerogative,” he said. “But, we were sued.”

Some have accused Caterham of not having progressed much since 2010, but Fernandes strongly disagrees.

“Two years ago we had nothing. We’re now 1.5 seconds away from Red Bull who are the world champions. We’re closing the gap.

“You can’t build Rome in a day,” he insisted.

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.”

Rumours that F1 team owner Genii is contemplating buying the Group Lotus sports car company are continuing to gain steam.

That is despite Genii’s Gerard Lopez confirming recently that the Enstone based team has ended its sponsorship deal with the carmaker, even though the team will continue to carry the Lotus name.

But subsequent media reports indicate that the newly Malaysian conglomerate DRB-Hicom owned Group Lotus is for sale.

“Genii … is thought to be interested, and its boss, Gerard Lopez, is said to have had talks with Hicom, but also with (Group Lotus chief) Mr (Dany) Bahar about a possible management buyout,” read a report in the Independent newspaper.

Bahar is not ruling out the transaction.

“Whatever happens will happen,” he told the local Norfolk publication edp24.co.uk.

“Genii has expressed interest and if there is a good deal to be done, why should they not be interested? I think it would just make sense.”

Jean Alesi would like to see the pressure eased on the shoulders of France’s new F1 hope.

Until Sunday, Alesi was the last French driver to have stood on a formula one podium, after taking his Sauber to third at Spa in 1998.

Romain Grosjean therefore ended a 14-year podium drought for France, tasting top-three spoils in just his eleventh race in formula one.

“(Grosjean as) My successor?” Alesi told RMC Sport. “I don’t see it that way.

“It’s promising but we need to leave him alone now,” the 47-year-old veteran of 202 grands prix over 13 seasons insisted.

Alesi is referring to the media hype about Grosjean after the first two races, when he failed to get his Lotus around even the first lap in Australia and Malaysia.

He then scored his first ever points in China and seven days later was on the podium, triggering press speculation in France that the tones of ‘La Marseillaise’ are next.

But there remains other pressures on Grosjean; exalted as France’s new hope, and at the same time accused of preventing Kimi Raikkonen from winning in Bahrain by not letting his faster teammate through in the absence of team orders.

“I know what I’m talking about,” said Alesi. “Since the beginning of the season there have been all sorts of comments about him.

“That isn’t right.

“He needs to have calm and take the time that he needs to get on top of everything.

“When it’s a podium, we’re all happy but when it’s a bad performance, we all have to be behind him too,” he added.

With the F1 world now returned from Bahrain, the sport is assessing the fallout of one of the most controversial grands prix in history.

The drivers were conspicuously quiet over the saga in the island Kingdom, but – with no contract tying him down – former Force India driver Adrian Sutil admitted he was glad he was not there.

“In a situation like that, it is probably better not to go,” the German said on Sky Deutschland.

“On the one hand, the decision was made (to go to Bahrain), on the other hand, it’s very difficult when there are so many problems in a country.”

Red Bull reserve driver Sebastien Buemi, who has family living in Bahrain, does not agree at all.

“I arrived on Monday and I had no problem — maybe there were a few more police than two years ago, but nothing happened to me,” the Swiss insisted on Austrian Servus TV.

Force India and Sauber, however, witnessed Molotov cocktail attacks on their treks to and from the circuit.

And Caterham team spokesman Tom Webb told the Sun that there was “one minor incident when one of our (hire) vans slowed down in traffic and its occupants saw a local youth on the side of the main road brandishing a bottle with a rag stuffed in its neck”.

World champion and race winner Sebastian Vettel also admitted the feeling was tense in the paddock throughout the weekend.

“It was not easy for anyone,” the Red Bull driver admitted, according to SID news agency, “but I’m glad that nothing happened to any of us (in F1).”

And the Telegraph quotes Vettel adding: “Hopefully, we come back in the future when everything’s a little bit safer.”

Reuters reports that Vodafone, the main sponsor of the half Bahrain-owned McLaren team, sent no staff to the country and expressed concerns to the British outfit.

But Jim Wright, an F1 sponsorship expert, told the Guardian that he thinks while the sport’s image took a beating last weekend, sponsors will be happy.

“Most teams handled a difficult decision very well,” he said. “On that basis I think a lot of people would be pleased with that and happy to get involved with them.”

The television audience was also unaffected – even boosted – with the BBC reporting more viewers for Bahrain than Australia and Malaysia, and Germany revealing similarly strong figures.

Still, there remains criticism.

“Now is an opportunity to reflect,” former F1 driver Alex Zanardi told Tuttosport, “and make sure that major sporting events are assigned only to governments that deserve the honour of hosting them.

“Ecclestone is brilliant and has made formula one what it is, but he can’t administer races at any cost and above all else,” insisted the Italian.

Due to security fears, Force India sat out a practice session on Friday so that staff could return to their hotels in daylight.

F1 chief executive Bernie Ecclestone was reportedly enraged, and according to rumours got his revenge by instructing Formula One Management’s television cameras to ignore the Silverstone based team’s cars in qualifying.

“There was a bit of fuss about what we did,” deputy team principal Bob Fernley is quoted by Spain’s AS newspaper, “and it was not easy, but I think it turned out to be the right response.

“We had a lot of pressure, our attitude was not well received,” he confirmed, “but I think that we had a duty of care to our employees, and to do the right thing by the team.”

Amid Ferrari’s performance crisis with the struggling F2012 car, the Italian team has emerged from the opening ‘flyaway’ races with a solid head of steam.

He might be just fifth, but Fernando Alonso is a mere 10 points off the lead of the drivers’ world championship, after a see-sawing pecking order emerged from the overseas races in Australia, Malaysia, China and Bahrain.

The Spanish driver admitted mere days ago that the F2012, at present, is perhaps the “sixth or seventh” best on the grid.

But next up is the test at Mugello, where major upgrades to the car – so significant that some sections of the media are expecting a ‘new Ferrari’ – will be tested ahead of its Barcelona debut.

Sepang winner Alonso’s latest surprise was to finish ahead of the best McLaren in Bahrain.

“If we had said that beforehand, it would be unthinkable,” he told Antena 3 television.

“It was another race where we have limited the damage pretty well.

“We were eight points behind the leader, now it’s 10. We have spent the first four races outside Europe losing ten points, which I think is more treasure than we deserve.

“For Montmelo (Barcelona) we have to be better. We have to stop depending on others and start depending on ourselves,” added Alonso.

Asked how much he is expecting the F2012 to improve, the 30-year-old was coy.

“I have said it could be one tenth, maybe two, one and a half … but we may not be in the same situation as before.”

Alonso was also critical of the stewards’ decision to leave Nico Rosberg without a penalty on Sunday, after the German driver forced him off the circuit whilst defending position.

“He also did the same to Hamilton, so it’s two to zero for him (Rosberg),” said Alonso.

“But if there was a wall there, you would have to be talking to someone else now …”

On Twitter, he sarcastically added: “I think you are going to have fun in future races. You can defend position as you want and you can overtake outside the track! Enjoy!”

The calamitous Bahrain grand prix saga has not jeopardised the island Kingdom’s future on the F1 calendar.

That is the strident claim of Bernie Ecclestone, after the F1 chief executive and FIA president Jean Todt displayed rare unity as they insisted the country’s civil and political problems would not affect the grand prix.

But amid the bubbling Bahrain saga, Ecclestone had suggested that Bahrain might face trouble when it comes to negotiating a new contract, with the existing agreement only set to extend for three more years.

However, when asked by Reuters if F1 is going to keep returning to Bahrain despite this year’s troubles, Ecclestone insisted on Sunday before leaving the Persian Gulf: “Absolutely. Forever. No problem.”

Like Todt, he even played down the damage done to F1′s reputation this weekend.

“I think it’s good because people talk about things, you know. You know what they say — there is no such thing as bad publicity,” said Ecclestone.

In truth, reputation damage has undoubtedly been done. But Roger Benoit, the veteran correspondent for the Swiss newspaper Blick, admitted he is dismayed with how politics interfered with sport so strikingly this weekend.

“On all continents, somewhere, all hell is breaking loose. And as a formula one reporter, you’re flying around this globe two or three times a year,” he wrote.

“We go to countries that are politically explosive. Where human rights are violated, where poverty reigns.

“But we hardly talk about it — not in China, India, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore or Brazil. In 2014, we’re going to Russia.

“Years ago, our circus happily danced around in apartheid South Africa, and the military dictatorship of Argentina.

“Formula one is pure entertainment. Detached from the problems of the world. But here, in Bahrain, every reporter entered the political field, whether he liked to or not,” wrote Benoit.

So that is why Ecclestone is unapologetic, after championing the Bahrain grand prix.

“Because, basically, the problems they have in Bahrain have nothing to do with F1,” the 81-year-old told El Pais newspaper.

“The relevant agencies gave the nod as far as security was concerned, and I think it is clear that they were not wrong.”

He also sees no problem with F1 being used as a political tool.

“Governments want to have an F1 race for the same reason as they want the Olympics. We come to agreements with the promoters and, if that’s good for the country, fine,” said Ecclestone.

Statistically, the Chinese grand prix raced straight into the history books as one of the most exciting formula one events of all time.

“For me, we are having some of the best races in formula one history,” agreed Jenson Button after finishing Sunday’s Shanghai race behind Nico Rosberg.

Finland’s Turun Sanomat newspaper reports that only three grands prix in the history of the sport played host to more individual overtaking moves.

The report said there were 72 passes in total on Sunday, not including the first corner of the race. Seven of the moves were on Kimi Raikkonen on one lap, after the Lotus driver’s Pirelli tyres gave up the ghost.

Last year in Shanghai, there were 63 passes. So far in 2012, there were more overtaking moves in China, Malaysia and Australia compared to the same races last season.

Canada 2011 still stands as the site of the most passes during a single grand prix, at 89.

In second place are the 1983 US grand prix and the 2011 Turkish grand prix (79 passes), followed by China last weekend.

McLaren team boss Martin Whitmarsh is celebrating the spectacle of the 2012 season so far.

“Who’s going to predict who will win?” he said, referring to this weekend’s grand prix in Bahrain. “I won’t.

“We’ve had three very different races and I think we are going to have potentially 20 very different races this year.”

Michael Schumacher could be the next silver-clad driver who takes a Mercedes to the top step of the podium.

His teammate Nico Rosberg dominated the Shanghai weekend and, at his 111th attempt, finally broke through with a maiden pole and win.

The much-younger German also dominated Schumacher, the 43-year-old, at Mercedes in the last two years — ever since the seven time world champion returned to formula one in 2010.

But former Benetton and Ferrari title winner Schumacher appears much more on Rosberg’s pace this season, and in fact even solidly outqualified his 26-year-old teammate in Australia and Malaysia.

“It’s simple,” Schumacher told Brazil’s O Estado de S.Paulo.

“The way I can drive this car is much more how I have driven a car throughout my whole life.

“If you look at my driving today and compare with ten years ago, not much has changed,” said the famous German. “But if you look at 2010 and 2011, my arms never stopped working.

“It wasn’t my way to drive,” insisted Schumacher.

Having followed Rosberg early in the Chinese grand prix – before his retirement – Schumacher admitted that he could not quite match the leading pace.

But, despite not standing on a podium even once since his F1 comeback, he has now smelled that a victory is close.

“It will be the same feeling as when I went to the podium for the first time with Benetton, and Ferrari,” Schumacher predicted.

“When I started with those teams, we were far away from being able to think about it. But after a lot of work, I would say years – just as now with Mercedes – we had reached the stage of being able to fight.

“Most people have no idea how many things need to be changed, how much effort and investment is required. At 43 I’m going through all of this again, but it’s because I really love what I do.”

Schumacher’s Mercedes contract expires at the end of this year.

“You might not believe it,” he responded, “but I’m so focused on developing this car that I don’t think about it.

“Later on in the season, of course, it’s inevitable.

“Of course it gives me great pleasure that we are starting to see the results of this great work. I am still perfectly capable of winning in formula one,” Schumacher insisted.

Despite winning in Malaysia last month, Fernando Alonso is expecting a miserable weekend in Bahrain.

On the back of his surprise Sepang victory, the Spaniard qualified and finished just ninth in China, and he is not expecting a better Ferrari until next month’s return to European grands prix.

“Obviously, this (result) does not leave me very optimistic for Bahrain, on a track where traction and speed are vital, exactly the areas where we are weakest,” said Alonso in Shanghai.

Even more bluntly, he said the Maranello based team is “far behind” the pacesetters because the F2012 has “big problems” in aerodynamics.

But the bright side, Alonso insisted, is that the field of 2012 is oddly tightly bunched.

“If we improve two, three tenths then we can jump several opponents,” he is quoted by Brazil’s O Estado de S.Paulo.

“The fight now is for fractions of seconds.”

After Ferrari and Sauber were quick in Malaysia, Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg dominated in China — but many in the paddock still believe McLaren has the quickest car overall.

Indeed, Jenson Button is ruing a team mistake – a cross-threaded wheel nut during a pitstop – that he says cost him a shot at Shanghai victory.

“There can’t be many more mistakes if you want to compete for a championship, definitely not,” he said.

Narain Karthikeyan has revealed he is sick and tired of what could be described as ‘cucumber-gate’.

After the Indian collided with Sebastian Vettel in Malaysia three weeks ago, he was twice shown the middle finger, and called a “gherkin” and “idiot” by the reigning world champion.

But that’s when the real fuss began, as the world’s media became involved — a mischievous German reporter even presented Karthikeyan with a cucumber in China.

“It’s done and I would have preferred for it to stay private,” he is quoted by the SID news agency.

But the affair is threatening to drag on even longer, with Vettel telling reporters in Shanghai that Karthikeyan had apologised to him.

He did not say if he has apologised himself.

“Sebastian can say what he likes,” HRT driver Karthikeyan responded.

He said the incident had become an affair of “unbelievable proportions”.

“It’s crazy; I was questioned about it day and night,” he said.

“It’s become too much — I don’t want to talk about it anymore and I’d prefer if I never even thought about it again.”