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.”

F1 figures have mixed feelings after this week’s Mugello test.

Amid speculation the Ferrari owned circuit would like a spot on the race calendar, it emerged that the famous Maranello based team pushed hard for the Tuscan facility to host the first in-season test in many years.

“It’s very beautiful and the food is very good,” said Red Bull team boss Christian Horner, “but we are spending a lot of money and honestly we didn’t feel the need to come here.”

Indeed, the only circuits comparable to high speed Mugello on the F1 calendar are Monza, Spa and parts of Silverstone.

And testing at Barcelona prior to next weekend’s Spanish grand prix would have made infinitely more logistical sense.

Lotus team boss Eric Boullier said Mugello was “money spent needlessly”.

Of course, those in the Ferrari camp thought differently.

“I would do more tests during the season,” said Fernando Alonso. “One lap here is worth 100 at other places, without considering that one day here is worth a year’s work on the simulator”.

But Mark Webber said Mugello is too fast for a decent test circuit, but he was among those who enjoyed the layout.

And the Australian couldn’t understand McLaren’s opposition, which extended to both Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button giving up their running to test drivers.

“It was an absolute no-brainer for (Sebastian Vettel and I) to be here,” said the Red Bull driver.

“Mileage is so limited these days that it’s good for me to be in the car. Any chance we get to drive the car in the real world, we’ll do it,” added Webber.

It was mission accomplished for HRT Formula 1 Team in Malaysia a couple of weeks ago after both cars qualified and completed their first race of the season after a hard start. The F112 accumulated many kilometres and data on the track and the engineers had a lot of information to work on during the two week period between the race in Sepang and China. Having met the team’s targets last time out, HRT now aims to progress from where it left things in Malaysia and continue improving.

The Shanghai International Circuit is made up of sixteen turns, with nine being right-handers and seven left-handers. Cars reach maximum speeds on the 1.2km straight between corners 13 and 14, where they try and take advantage of the length of the straight to overtake. In China, the team will have a new member on board, Ma Qing Hua, who will be joining the outfit for the first time as a member of the driver development programme at his local Grand Prix.

Pirelli have elected their soft and medium tyres for this grand prix.

Pedro de la Rosa, #22: “After these first two Grands Prix we arrive in China much better prepared, with more mileage and having learned a lot, especially after the Malaysian GP. All the data gathered in the last race is very important for us, as we mustn’t forget that we didn’t have a preseason. Now we have a better insight on the areas where we must improve, but the most important thing in this initial stage is to finish races. That is the prime objective in order to learn and improve race by race. The hardest part comes now but we are better prepared. China is a circuit where I have always done well and a place I know well, both in dry and wet conditions. It’s not a particularly hard track for the car or the driver, but aerodynamics are fundamental”.

Narain Karthikeyan, #23: “We took a step forward in Malaysia and our aim is definitely to carry the momentum into China and rest of the season. Although we managed to finish the race, cooling was still an issue at Sepang and once we have it sorted out completely we’ll be able to unlock some more performance from the car. The back straight at the Shanghai circuit is of course one of the longest on the calendar and the tightening first corner is uniquely challenging since the corner entry is in top gear and by the time you exit you’re in second. Plus there are a fair amount of technical slow-speed corners as well, and the high-speed direction change of turns 7/8. Given these mixed characteristics, it is a demanding circuit for traction, aero and braking stability in equal measures”.

Luis Pérez-Sala, Team Principal: “The start to the season was very complicated because we were behind schedule with regards to the other teams. We had to put in a colossal effort to be able to get on track in Australia and improve our performance just one week later in Malaysia. There’s still plenty to do and many areas to improve on to be where we should be but at least in these two weeks we’ve had a bit more time to analyse data, prepare and recharge batteries, therefore I’m confident that we’re arriving in China in a much better situation. We mustn’t forget that the F112 is only taking its first steps and, as of today, what we must do is progress without stopping. In Shanghai we’ll have some small updates to optimize cooling and aerodynamics, and the target for this weekend is to check that these adjustments work. To sum up, we have to get more out of the car but must also improve on teamwork and coordination”.

Sepang International Circuit, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Sunday, 25th of March 2012

Weather: Rainy – Air 26ºC, Track 28ºC
Race: 56 laps
Track distance: 5.543 km

Pedro de la RosaF112-02 #2221st
Narain KarthikeyanF112-01 #2322nd

Mission accomplished for HRT Formula 1 Team today as Pedro de la Rosa and Narain Karthikeyan crossed the finish line in the 56-lap race that took place at the Sepang International Circuit. It was an eventful race from the beginning with De la Rosa’s car having to start from the pit lane, but a correct tyre strategy gave its rewards when it started raining heavily and the HRT’s were two of a few cars who were running on extreme wet tyres. The event came to a halt only 9 laps in with Karthikeyan and De la Rosa in 10th and 17th place respectively .The cars were on the grid for almost an hour before the restart and Pedro was penalized with a drive-through penalty but, despite all of this, both drivers put in a fantastic shift at the wheel of the F112 that needs as much running time as possible to be at the level it should be. The team also did a good job with the strategy and the mechanics completed their first pit stops.

Overall it was a satisfying result for the team who now has two weeks ahead to prepare for the Chinese Grand Prix in better conditions.

Pedro de la Rosa: “I must say I really enjoyed myself in that race. It really was the best race to make my debut with HRT. I don’t think anyone could imagine we would finish after starting from the pit lane due to an issue with the fuel pressure that we were dragging over from yesterday, I was penalized with a drive-through penalty, we completed our first real pitstop… to sum up, a lot of things happened but, in the end, the car held out really well given where we were at the beginning. We have to improve many things but this was a perfect test. My teammate also finished so that’s doubly satisfying. I’m very happy for the team, we accomplished our objective. Now we have to go a little bit further”.

Narain Karthikeyan: “It was a very interesting race in really wet conditions. We were running in 10th at one point, which I think is the best position we’ve ever been in but unfortunately the rain stopped and the track dried out and it was impossible to keep ahead of the rest. I made a mistake, locking up the front, and went off on turn 9 but apart from that it all went pretty well. We finished the race, did some mileage and made up two positions from 23rd so that’s something to smile about. Everyone did a great job and we’re all really happy with the result, now we have to go on from here and try to progress in China”.

Luis Pérez-Sala, Team Principal: “Yesterday after qualifying we were satisfied and today, thankfully, we are again. We met another target which was to finish the race with both cars. There are aspects that need improving, without a doubt, such as reliability and the speed of the car, but by completing the race we have accumulated a lot of data which will be of great use to continue progressing. We also need to improve pit stops and team coordination but it was the first time they did it and from the first stop to the second you could already tell the difference. Today I want to highlight the work everyone did and thank them for their effort these past weeks and today’s result is a small reward for that enormous amount of work that is taking place”.

All the hard work has finally paid off today as the F112, the car with which HRT Formula 1 Team will compete this season, completed its first laps at the Circuit de Catalunya, in Barcelona.

Since the car passed the last crash test and was homologated, the team has carried out work shifts to cover 24 hours a day to make sure it could make it, for the first time in its history, to the first Grand Prix of the season having run previously.

The car was able to run after the team took advantage of one of the filming days available during the season.

The car made it to the circuit from Munich, Germany, just after one in the afternoon and the mechanics and engineers got straight down to business, working on relevant adjustments. It was a combined team effort, working against the clock, which saw its rewards four hours later when Narain Karthikeyan led the car out onto the track. Pedro de la Rosa, Dani Clos and Tonio Liuzzi were also present, as were Carlos Gracia, President of the Spanish Motorsports Federation and Salvador Servià, General Director of the Circuit de Catalunya.

The tests were carried out without any setbacks and the car carried out over ten laps. The team was able to check that the car functioned properly both from a mechanical and aerodynamic point of view as from a systems standpoint.

The team will prepare the necessary material in the upcoming days and head down under for the first Grand Prix of the season which will take place at Melbourne, Australia, in just two weeks.

Narain Karthikeyan: “Today was a shakedown of the F112 and I have had the honour to be the first driver to test it. The first impressions are quite good; it’s definitely a step up from last year. We couldn’t do any set-up work or stuff like that but everything seems to be working fine and there are no major problems so we can look forward to the season now. Everyone has worked hard and the new team management has put everything together in a very short period of time. They’ve done a proper job with the car and I’m sure that it’s a big step forward from last year, so hopefully we can take the competition to the teams we were fighting last year”.

Pedro de la Rosa: “Today has been a very special day because the car saw the light for the first time; Narain did some installation laps and then various times laps without any issues. This is very important, it might not seem like it, but any sort of mileage before Australia is vital to see that the car is in good conditions. From here it is our job to try and improve it and make it progress”.

Luis Péres-Sala, Team Principal: “I’m very satisfied today as it is a very important day for us because we were able to test some things out with the new car during this filming day. I’m very proud of each and every member of this team because everyone has contributed their little bit for this to be possible. Now we have to focus on Australia because we still have a lot ahead”.

McLaren was the least reliable team of the 2011 pre-season.

An analysis by Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport shows that, excluding HRT who did not run a new car at all during the winter tests, Ferrari’s 150 Italia did the most mileage.

And at the bottom of the ranking, behind Force India, Lotus and Virgin, is McLaren, having done almost half of Ferrari’s nearly 7000 kilometres.

“I’m not going to lie. It’s not the best way to go into the season,” admitted Jenson Button.

The MP4-26 was launched late after skipping the opening Valencia test, but it has since been plagued with exhaust, hydraulic and aerodynamic problems.

800 kilometres behind Ferrari on the mileage list is Red Bull, whose Christian Horner said the team has “never been so well prepared” for a new season.

Button insisted: “We are a long way down on it (mileage) but there is no point getting negative about it and down at this point of the season.”

Third best was Sauber, ahead of Mercedes, Toro Rosso, Renault and Williams.

Nick Heidfeld will test Renault’s new R31 car at Jerez this week.
It had been speculated that the 33-year-old German, who had yet to secure a role in F1 for the 2011 season, was a leading contender to replace his injured former BMW teammate Robert Kubica.

With Pole Kubica in an Italian hospital with multiple injuries following a rally crash, another change to Renault’s Jerez test schedule is that reserve driver Bruno Senna will be testing this week.

Vitaly Petrov will drive on Thursday and Friday, before Heidfeld and Senna get mileage on the next two days.

“The exact running order for the weekend will be confirmed on Friday evening,” said the Lotus-sponsored team in a statement.

Renault clarified that Heidfeld, with more than 170 grands prix under his belt but no wins, has not yet been definitely appointed as Kubica’s substitute.

Instead, the team said it will “evaluate Nick Heidfeld, who is a potential replacement for Robert Kubica as a race driver”.

The engine to be used by Sebastian Vettel in Brazil this weekend has already contested two grands prix, it has emerged.

The German was heading for the lead of the world championship two weeks ago when the Renault unit in his Red Bull suddenly failed.

Renault’s customer programme boss Fabrice Lom revealed on Thursday that the unit to be fitted in Vettel’s RB6 this weekend has contested two previous races.

“It is the engine from Italy and Singapore,” confirmed the Frenchman to Auto Motor und Sport.

“It has a mileage of 1066 kilometres,” he added.

The failed engine in Korea had completed about 1600 kilometres of its projected 2000 life.

Lom said the failure was a connecting rod in cyclinder 4.

Fernando Alonso’s engine situation is not as dire as it appears on paper, according to a German publication.

On the face of it, the championship leader is well into his allocation of eight engines for 2010, facing a ten-position grid penalty if he needs to use a ninth unit before the finale.

In fact, this weekend’s Brazilian race will be the last the Ferrari driver will have to tackle with a high-mileage engine, Auto Motor und Sport explained.

One of Alonso’s eight engines has very low mileage, but has been unable to be used because it was replaced after qualifying at the Bahrain season opener.

The rules prevented Ferrari from re-deploying this engine for anything other than free practice sessions, after it was replaced in Bahrain as a precaution due to the F60 almost overheating.

But because Abu Dhabi is the season finale, Alonso is allowed to use any engine in his allocation there, and the Bahrain qualifying unit is extremely low on mileage.

Christian Horner hopes Sebastian Vettel’s engine situation does not further dent his championship chances.

The Red Bull driver retired from the lead of the Korean grand prix last Sunday with a sudden and catastrophic failure of his Renault engine.

The 2.4 litre V8 unit that failed was the eighth he has used in races so far in 2010, but it had successfully completed 1600km of its projected life of 2000km.

But the other engines still available to the German are also quite high on mileage, which explains why Vettel did relatively few laps in practice last weekend.

“It’s obviously not an ideal situation,” team boss Horner said when asked about Vettel’s engine situation going forward.

“Hopefully it will have a negligible effect on him,” he added.

A gutted Red Bull team on Sunday night was ruing a catastrophic Korean grand prix, where Mark Webber lost the championship lead, and Sebastian Vettel the race.

The immediate attention centred on pole sitter and race leader Vettel’s Renault engine failure, which Helmut Marko said took the team and its supplier by complete surprise.

“It did,” the Austrian said on German television RTL. “It’s our first engine failure this year.

“The mileage was at about 1600 kilometres, and normally the average (life) is 2000-2100,” added Marko.

“Something broke in the valve area, so it’s the first time. On Friday we were using an engine with much higher mileage,” said the team’s motorsport consultant.

He advised German Vettel, 23, not to give up.

“It’s not easy, but there are still 50 points to get,” said Marko. “Alonso is on his last engine. We’re not giving up.”

Renault apologised for the failure.

Fernando Alonso I need the engines to the end of the season divided exactly – At Ferrari about a fix already smoked their heads.

In the battle for the championship crown Fernando Alonso wants in the three races to play a major role. But quite apart from the question of whether his Ferrari is competitive enough for it, also plays into it with the motor bottleneck. With the block in Korea as the motor would drive Ferrari in Abu Dhabi. In this case, the season for Alonso would be feasible without penalty.

But if there were an engine problem and a ninth engine must be used, it would be a disciplinary transfer of ten ranks given in the starting lineup – in the championship fight a hard punishment. “If we have reliability problems, it would be traumatic, because then it would be almost impossible to make up the necessary points. Red Bull and McLaren are just extremely strong. We can not afford any mistakes, otherwise it’s over,” said team boss Stefano Domenicali.
Nevertheless, the task is difficult. “It will be extremely difficult to wade to the end,” he said. “We will try to divide the mileage of the current engine. This is the plan and hopefully we make it to the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.” Alonso himself has full confidence in his team, however.

“Of course we got our engine problems in the second and third race in a difficult situation, no question, but from then on we have planned the season just different,” said the Spaniard. “Until now we have the situation under control. I’m doing for the last three races, no worries. Everything is okay.”
But Ferrari have to stretch to match the optimism of the star drivers. “The question is how much mileage we get on an engine,” said Domenicali. “We have extended the mileage and tested it at home so it’s no problem. But we must be careful that something is not overheated. At the temperatures we may not be aggressive. We have to watch really in the climatically hot race to South Korea. ”
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Both Red Bull drivers had engine problems last weekend at Hockenheim, according to Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport.

For Sebastian Vettel, his problem came between the Friday practice sessions, when his Renault V8 with high mileage was replaced after an oil sample was tested.

Mark Webber, meanwhile, had to reduce his speed in the second half of the race because the supply of oil from an auxiliary tank was not working.

“I was happy to just get to the finish,” said the Australian, who finished sixth.

He believes Red Bull’s raft of reliability problems are due to the team’s unique winter strategy.

“It was our strategy to only show our final package on the very last day of testing.  So we were down on kilometres to guard against all those sorts of issues,” said Webber.

Another problem has been the difficulty to convert pole positions to good race starts.

Vettel squeezed Fernando Alonso against the pitwall at the start at Hockenheim, only to be also beaten to the first corner by Felipe Massa’s sister Ferrari.

“They were definitely not the best starts,” admitted team boss Christian Horner, also referring to Webber’s start in Germany.

“It has happened to us several times this season,” he added.