Getting the setup right is a challenge teams are grappling with in 2012.

So far this season, four different cars have won the four grands prix, with Pirelli’s difficult tyres credited or blamed for the unbalance of power.

The key, according to Mercedes team boss Ross Brawn, is car setup.

“We can’t modify the setup between qualifying on Saturday and the race on Sunday,” he is quoted by Brazil’s O Estado de S.Paulo newspaper. “And they are very different challenges, especially with this year’s tyres.

“It’s one thing to get the car to be fast on one lap and quite another to make it fast and consistent over 70.

“Whoever can anticipate what will be required for the race and come to a compromise – maybe to the detriment of grid position – should have a decisive advantage in the race.

“But it’s not easy to anticipate what happens on Sunday,” insisted Brawn.

Emerson Fittipaldi, the successful Brazilian driver of the 70s, has tipped Jenson Button as a strong contender to match his own tally of two world championships come the end of the 2012 season.

“From what I can see, it will be between Jenson Button and Nico Rosberg. They are the big favourites,” the 65-year-old is quoted by Brazil’s Globo.

“Obviously, if Ferrari improves, then Fernando (Alonso) is spectacular. Lewis Hamilton is very aggressive, very fast, but I think Jenson is very clean, easier on his equipment and the tyres.

“I think this (season) is best suited to his (Button’s) style,” said Fittipaldi.

McLaren’s Button, however, is not so sure, pointing out the unusually closely-packed 2012 grid, and the big role being played by the Pirelli tyres.

“You don’t know who is going to be your main opponent on Sunday,” Auto Motor und Sport quotes the 2009 world champion as saying.

“It could be Red Bull, or Mercedes, or Ferrari, or Lotus or even Sauber,” he smiled. “So who do you focus on for the strategy?”

This weekend, F1 will find out whether the hot track temperatures in Bahrain will reshuffle the order. Button laughed when asked if it means McLaren will pull ahead of Mercedes this weekend: “We hope so, but we don’t know!”

Michael Schumacher, whose career stretches all the way back to 1991, said 2012 is the “closest season I’ve experienced”.

As for what happened in China, where his Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg won from pole for the first time, the German admitted: “I really didn’t think that would happen.”

It is for that reason that Button warned against writing off F1′s reigning champions, Red Bull and Sebastian Vettel.

Vettel said he is not expecting “miracles” in Bahrain, but he also said: “We still haven’t seen a team that is clearly above all the others.

“Maybe McLaren is the most consistent, but they didn’t do what you expected them to do in Shanghai …”

A Daimler shareholder has called on the German car giant to pull its works Mercedes team out of formula one.

Fund manager Ingo Speich, of the Daimler shareholder Union Investment, said at Daimler’s annual general meeting that he is disappointed Mercedes has lost ground to road car rivals Audi and BMW.

“Mercedes is no longer the measure of all things in the premium sector,” he is quoted as saying by Die Presse.

Speich referred to “a lost decade” for Daimler, and called on the company to follow BMW’s recent lead and pull out of formula one.

His speech reportedly received applause from other shareholders.

Mercedes is the biggest formula one team yet to follow the likes of Ferrari, McLaren and Red Bull in signing a new Concorde Agreement beyond 2012.

Ross Brawn has confirmed reports that Mercedes’ 2012 ‘F-duct’ will not be easily copied by rival teams.

We reported on Thursday that while Red Bull and now Ferrari worked quickly to copy Sauber’s clever exhaust solution, they are crying foul over the Mercedes F-duct.

Is it because they really believe it breaks the rules, or is the system simply difficult to copy?

Red Bull designer Adrian Newey was quoted by Brazilian O Estado de S.Paulo newspaper in Malaysia: “In regard to the aerodynamic (F) duct of the Mercedes, and sending the airflow from the back to the front, it is necessary to review the entire project.”

Mercedes team boss Brawn confirmed: “The opposition is so fierce (because) there’s a recognition it’s quite difficult to do.”

He rejected the rivals’ arguments about cost, however, insisting Mercedes’ system consists mainly of carbon tubing costing no more than thousands of pounds.

“It’s a very simple, cheap system, but not so easy to implement if you haven’t integrated it into your car,” said the Briton.

“This is at the heart of the frustration of some of our opponents. If someone could put it on their car easily, I promise you we wouldn’t be having these discussions.”

It emerged this week, however, that despite the FIA having consistently sided with Mercedes on the F-duct issue, Lotus’ technical boss James Allison has come up with two new arguments that will be put to Charlie Whiting next week in China.

“We would obviously be extremely disappointed if someone was to take a different view,” said Brawn.

“The FIA have been fairly consistent over their position so we have faith that they’ll maintain that consistency.”

Michael Schumacher has played down expectations he or Nico Rosberg could put their 2012 Mercedes on pole in Malaysia.
“I think we will be somewhere near the top,” Rosberg is quoted by Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport. “The race is more of a worry for us.”

Last weekend in Australia, the W03 was strong in qualifying but faded in the race as it ate through the Pirelli tyres.

Mercedes insists it is working on the race pace problem, but the Brackley based team could shine even brighter in Sepang qualifying, with the innovative W-duct working particularly well on the long straights.

So could Schumacher secure his 69th pole on Saturday?

“That would be too optimistic,” said the 43-year-old German. “I think the battle for fifth place is the maximum.”

A really good qualifying for Mercedes, however, would be a problem for a team like Red Bull.

“With the (W-duct) system, the Mercedes will be very difficult to overtake,” Dr Helmut Marko told Bild newspaper.

It is believed the reigning champions, despite insisting the system is illegal, are hard at work on their own F-duct.

But Marko admitted: “It is very difficult to recreate.”

Mercedes team boss Ross Brawn believes all the fuss about the W-duct is a ploy by teams like Red Bull.

“They are bombarding the FIA with questions about our technology in the hope of finding out the secret,” he said.

 Nico Rosberg is regularly able to qualify a car beyond its abilities, according to his Mercedes team boss Ross Brawn.
While Michael Schumacher had an improved 2011 compared to the contest with his teammate Rosberg a year earlier, Brawn said a few days ago that the younger German remained clearly the better driver in the qualifying hour.

“In qualifying, he really can get the most out of the car. Nico comes closer to its limits,” he is quoted by Germany’s Sport Bild.

“I think we’ve often seen him in a better qualifying position than where I would expect the car to be.

“Nico might think this is normal, but it’s not. For me, he is definitely among the best drivers in formula one.”

But Brawn thinks a few cards could fall in seven time world champion Schumacher’s favour in 2012.

“It could be that the new Pirelli tyres help him because you don’t have to be quite as gentle with them as you did with the 2011 generation,” said the Briton.

With one group test and three weeks until Melbourne, Ferrari, Red Bull and Lotus have modified their pre-season programme.
According to widespread media reports, and confirmed by the top teams, Red Bull and Ferrari will delay their Barcelona running next week by a day.

They will therefore test between Friday and Monday rather than Thursday through Sunday.

It is believed they argued successfully to their competitors, who needed to unanimously green-light the change, that Mercedes set the precedent by leaving Jerez one day early recently in order to run alone on the day before this week’s Barcelona test.

Speculation indicates that Ferrari wants the one-day delay in order to gain more time to manufacture parts.

Following a difficult start to the life of the Italian team’s radical new F2012 car, F1 chief executive Bernie Ecclestone this week said Ferrari “know what the problem is”.

“It’s not a (difficult) problem to fix,” he told reporters, “so I think you’re going to find that they are going to fix it quite shortly.”

Red Bull, meanwhile, wants some quieter running in order to test parts that have been held back by Adrian Newey’s technical team, according to rumours.

“They haven’t shown everything yet,” thinks Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg, according to Bild newspaper.

And Lotus will almost certainly be granted an extra test day in addition to next week’s four days of Barcelona running, after the former Renault team pulled out this week after discovering a serious chassis problem.

“This request will probably be accepted by the other teams,” Mercedes team boss Ross Brawn confirmed to Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport.

 Nico Rosberg has overcome a chink in his armour, Mercedes team boss Ross Brawn has revealed.
When Brawn GP became Mercedes’ works team ahead of 2010, the former Williams driver was signed to be the returning Michael Schumacher’s teammate.

Nearly two seasons on, despite an improved turn of form by Schumacher in the last three or four races, it is 26-year-old Rosberg who has been the faster.

But team boss Brawn did spot a weakness.

“I have to be honest, when Nico first arrived from Williams there were times when he was not fit enough,” he is quoted by the Telegraph.

Rosberg has since blitzed fellow amateur triathlete Jenson Button’s best time at the multi-sport discipline, and regularly posts Youtube videos proving his high fitness.

“I can’t criticise him at all on that score now,” admitted Brawn. “He goes above and beyond.”

Brawn’s praise comes amid speculation rival teams have expressed interest in Rosberg beyond his 2012 contract, with Mercedes’ Norbert Haug revealing he would like to sign him up for the long term.

Rosberg says he is buoyed by the team’s acquisition of well-known technical directors Aldo Costa and Geoff Willis.

“Mercedes are in the background and they are pushing flat out. Whatever it takes,” he said, admitting it would be special to succeed with what is effectively a German national team.

“The other thing that is special is I know that this team is betting on me; counting on me to deliver once I have the car to do so. And I’m very confident that I will be able to. I just have to be patient,” said Rosberg.

“Michael, of course, isn’t getting any younger. So theoretically it is all set up perfectly for me here.”

Ross Brawn has called upon rival teams to stop asking for “favours” before helping Renault and Team Lotus to change their names for 2012.

Because name changes are generally frowned upon by the sport’s officials, the Renault/Lotus issue has been referred to a meeting of the F1 Commission early next month.

But Mercedes team boss Brawn suggested it is not right that rival teams have a say.

The Briton told reporters that one “unfortunate (thing) about formula one” is that motives are not always pure.

“Unfortunately, if it becomes a trading position – and I guarantee those teams that are trying to change their name will have had approaches from other teams who want different favours paid in order to agree to the name change – that’s not correct,” he said.

As team principal, Brawn negotiated the change of Mercedes’ name from Brawn GP after the German carmaker bought his Brackley based team.

“I know that (teams asking for favours) happened to us when we wanted to change our name,” he revealed. “People sought to get favours from that decision. (But) it needs to be done in an adult way and not used in a divisive way.”

McLaren and FOTA chief Martin Whitmarsh agrees.

“I recall when there was a desire to change the (Brawn) team name to Mercedes, how a number of people conspired against that, which was a ridiculous position to take and very damaging to the sport,” he said.

“As Ross said, if (a team comes) up with a clearly silly, divisive name or a name that’s damaging to formula one, then we should be able to use good judgement to prevent it.

“But if it’s clear that the name change facilitates the funding and the retention of that team, then we shouldn’t use the polemics and politics of formula one to prevent it,” he added.

Red Bull boss Christian Horner agreed that F1 has to be “a little bit careful” when agreeing to team name changes because the sport needs to be able to consistently market its brands.

But on the other hand, “it doesn’t make any sense for a team to be called Renault when it isn’t Renault, therefore a name change in a situation like that makes sense”, he said.

Similarly, Whitmarsh agrees that “for there to be two Lotus teams doesn’t seem very sensible”.

Gerhard Berger has criticised the latest high-profile appointments by Mercedes’ formula one team.

With Renault’s former chief Bob Bell already on board, the Brackley based team announced last Friday that Geoff Willis and Aldo Costa will start their new roles in November and December respectively.

Willis was leading HRT’s technical team until very recently, while Italian Costa was ousted by Ferrari earlier this season.

Former F1 winner, joint BMW motor sport director and Toro Rosso co-owner Berger questioned the appointments, which are the latest in a recruitment push by the works Mercedes team.

“It looks to me as though Mercedes are shooting with a shotgun in the hope of landing a hit,” the Austrian told Auto Bild Motorsport.

Italy’s Autosprint magazine, meanwhile, wondered if it is “credible that, to strengthen his technical staff, Ross Brawn turns to someone considered a loser by Ferrari?

“Frankly, it’s not,” the report concluded.

Gerhard Berger has scolded Mercedes for apparently imposing team orders during last weekend’s Belgian grand prix.

Shortly before Michael Schumacher passed his teammate Nico Rosberg at Spa-Francorchamps, the younger German was told by the pitwall to conserve fuel.

Former grand prix winner Berger told Servus TV that the position switch was conceived deliberately to give Schumacher a grandstand finish on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of his debut.

“It should have been a race and not a commercial shoot,” the Austrian groaned.

Team orders are legal in 2011 but Berger believes that “in the circumstances it is totally wrong for Mercedes to do such strategies”.

“They should be putting more thought into making a winning car,” he said.

Berger also commented on McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton, who was involved in two crashes last weekend at Spa.

“He is extremely aggressive and the best overtaker in the field, but at times he overdoes it.

“If he was sitting in the Red Bull, he would not have to take so many risks and so he would get into a lot less mischief,” he said.

Mercedes is investigating how a rear wheel fell off Michael Schumacher’s car during qualifying at Spa-Francorchamps.
Wearing a special golden helmet to celebrate the 20th anniversary of his F1 debut, the famous German will start the race last because he crashed during his outlap in Q1.

“How embarrassing for Mercedes, to destroy his anniversary race because the wheel fell off,” Sky commentator Marc Surer is quoted as saying by Bild newspaper.

20 years ago, Schumacher’s first-ever F1 race ended within half a kilometre because the clutch in his Jordan failed.

And in 2011? “We’ve looked at the data. It happened suddenly, within a second,” Mercedes team boss Ross Brawn said.

“We are still looking into it. There is a locking mechanism and we had a few problems last year but not with the new system this year.

“We have developed the system with our DTM team. There must be an explanation and I’m sure we will find it.”

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!”

Michael Schumacher has denied that the existence of a break clause in his contract means he might not return for the third year of his F1 comeback in 2012.

Mercedes team boss Ross Brawn triggered the speculation two weeks ago when he revealed at Valencia that German Schumacher, 42, has the power to return to retirement at the end of the season.

“I’ve always had the option to stop at any moment I wanted,” the seven time world champion told reporters at Silverstone.

“I’m here for a fixed target, a three-year programme, and that is what it is.”

Schumacher acknowledged that his return to formula one has not always been smooth and that there is room for improvement.

“But I aim for an achievement and a fixed time. In all my first 16 years of F1 I always felt that I constantly developed, maybe in smaller rates than you do initially. And so I do now,” he added.

Charlie Whiting on Friday denied the FIA’s mid-season clampdown on blown exhausts is a political move aimed at slowing down the dominant Red Bulls.
“I am aware of some stories being written but to be frank with you I know it is not a political one,” the governing body’s technical delegate told reporters at Valencia.

Red Bull team figures including Adrian Newey, Christian Horner and the drivers of the RB7 have been pointing out that earlier innovations, like the F-duct and double diffusers, were banned only at the end of a season.

“I know it is a purely technical intervention from our side and I feel perfectly comfortable with that,” insisted Whiting.

A distinction between the F-ducts and double diffusers and the blown exhaust issue is that while the FIA deemed the former as clever rules interpretations, it believes using the engine as an aerodynamic aid is illegal.

“What we are doing is stopping people breaking the existing rules,” said Whiting. “We are not changing the rules; they’re staying the same.”

And he clarified that changing engine maps between qualifying and the race has not been completely banned.

“They (the drivers) are allowed to change things that they can do with a switch, on the steering wheel for example,” he said, explaining that connecting laptops to the cars to change the settings is now forbidden.

Mercedes team boss Ross Brawn backed Whiting’s action and said it has probably prevented some teams from lodging official protests.

“And that (protests) wouldn’t be very good for formula one,” said the Briton. “The stewards would probably find it quite a difficult argument to resolve and it would probably end up in the appeal courts and that’s no good.”