F1′s next winner could be at the wheel of a black and gold car.

“I think Kimi (Raikkonen) will be the sixth different winner in the sixth race,” said Finnish commentator and former driver Mika Salo, to the MTV3 broadcaster.

Although the results in 2012 have proved impossible to predict so far, many paddock pundits expected Lotus’ E20 to be the car to beat last weekend in Barcelona.

“The big surprise was when Kimi didn’t win,” admitted former Ferrari driver Salo, referring to Pastor Maldonado’s victory for Williams.

Also confident about Lotus’ potential is Raikkonen’s teammate, Romain Grosjean, who finished behind the 2007 world champion last weekend.

“It’s good to be a little disappointed with third and fourth,” he told the French language RMC Sport. “It shows that as a team we are convinced we can win.”

According to the reigning world champion team Red Bull’s drivers, however, there is a downside to this year’s impossible-to-predict F1 landscape.

“Maybe we will see an HRT or a Marussia on pole in Monaco,” world champion Sebastian Vettel said, unenthusiastically and half-seriously.

Mark Webber insists that what has been described as the Pirelli ‘lottery’ might not be a good thing for the sport.

“I don’t know if they (the fans) will get sick of seeing so many different winners,” the Australian told Fox Sports.

“It’s nice to have different winners but also we want rivals.”

Ferrari has played down rumours it is close to immediately ousting Felipe Massa, insisting it is possible the struggling Brazilian will still be in a red car next year.

On Twitter, the famous Italian team said the latest rumours – including a claim that former Virgin driver Jerome d’Ambrosio is a candidate to replace Massa in 2012 – are “funny”.

But it was Ferrari itself who fuelled the speculation, publishing a statement on its website that read like a warning to Massa.

“It was a very carefully-worded statement, wasn’t it?” said Telegraph correspondent Tom Cary.

“The way this crazy season is going, I really would not be massively shocked if they ditched him mid-season.”

The Swiss newspaper Blick said Monaco next weekend could be the 30-year-old’s last chance to up his game.

And the candidates are lining up.

“Ferrari knows that I’m ready. If they need me or they want me, then they will call me,” Adrian Sutil, who accompanied his manager to last weekend’s Spanish grand prix, said.

The Spanish newspaper El Mundo said some paddock pundits believe “the only reason” Massa still has its seat is because the “name Todt” – a reference not only to Massa’s manager Nicolas but to the FIA president – has a “protective arm” around him.

Ferrari spokesman Luca Colajanni told Brazil’s O Estado de S.Paulo newspaper this week: “Felipe has the full confidence of the team, starting with our president.

“We have not decided who will be our driver in 2013 but Felipe is not ruled out,” he insisted.

Indeed, while some believe Ferrari has hung a sword of Damocles above Massa’s head, others think the Maranello based team have been patient since the Paulista’s recovery from his near-fatal head injuries of 2009.

“We have no evidence that makes us think that Felipe has slowed down because of the accident. Zero,” Colajanni said.

F1 doctor Gary Hartstein agreed: “An experience like that (Hungary 2009) changes you, but you can’t say that’s why Felipe has not won again.”

More wins could quickly follow for F1′s newest race victor, Nico Rosberg.

The Mercedes driver began the 2012 season with more than a century of races under his belt, causing some pundits to predict he will never taste winning champagne.

But he broke through in China just a day after his maiden pole.

“I took 113 (races to win) and he’s on 111,” 2009 world champion Jenson Button smiled in Shanghai.

Niki Lauda thinks Rosberg’s next wins will be easier.

“It (winning) gets easier,” the Austrian legend said in China late on Sunday, “because he know you can do it, and you’ve proved it.

“The next victories come quite quickly,” Lauda told the German broadcaster RTL.

Patrick Tambay won just two grands prix in consecutive seasons, 1982 and 1983, but he said the first one – achieved in Keke Rosberg’s championship year – came with “a sense of completion”.

“After that, things seem easier,” said the Frenchman, “especially so when you’ve waited 110 grands prix!

“It will feel like a relief,” Tambay told RMC Sport. “Now, he’s still young at 26 but with a lot of experience; he has everything he needs to reproduce this victory.

“The first is the most difficult.”

However, Tambay thinks Rosberg has a fight on his hands if he thinks the Shanghai victory is a springboard to a potential championship challenge.

“I see the McLaren as the best car of the season. They passed up a good opportunity for the (China GP) win,” he said.

 Despite not collecting a single point in Melbourne, the Williams team will travel from Australia to Malaysia in upbeat mood.
The famous British outfit’s slide from its race and title-winning days hit rock bottom in 2011, scoring just five points all season and only finishing ahead of the three struggling new teams in the constructors’ championship.

But Oxfordshire based Williams has restructured for the 2012 season and is now led technically by former McLaren chief designer Mike Coughlan, and in Australia the newly Renault-powered FW34 qualified comfortably in Q3.

In the race, Pastor Maldonado was pushing Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso for fifth place when he crashed heavily on the very last lap.

If he had made it round to the chequered flag, Williams would have scored more points in one hit than it managed all last season.

“The car was considerably better than anything I have seen in recent years,” said team chairman Adam Parr.

Referring to Maldonado’s crash, the team’s new driver mentor Alex Wurz told Austrian ORF television: “Of course nobody is happy.

“The bad news is that we have to leave with no points, but the team has made a huge leap forwards.”

Jaime Alguersuari, the former Toro Rosso driver turned radio co-commentator, called Williams’ step compared to 2011 “giant”.

“No doubt about it, Williams are the big surprise,” the Spaniard told Mundo Deportivo when asked about the new field of 2012.

“Last year their car was really, really, really bad, and so they have taken an exceptional leap.”

 A general consensus has emerged about the likely pecking-order this weekend in Australia.
Based on winter testing, this year’s longest-ever F1 season looks set to be very closely contested, but experts, pundits and insiders fairly agree about the rough shape of Saturday’s Melbourne grid.

“From what I saw in the tests, Red Bull and McLaren seem to be at a similar pace,” Francesco Nenci, Kamui Kobayashi’s race engineer at Sauber, told O Estado de S.Paulo newspaper.

“Then comes Mercedes and then our team along with Lotus and Ferrari. But we’ll only really find out here,” he told Brazilian correspondent Livio Oricchio in Melbourne.

Steve Nielsen, Caterham’s sporting director, roughly agrees.

“Red Bull and McLaren are the best, Mercedes is a little bit behind and then it’s Lotus, Ferrari, Sauber and Force India,” he said.

And given that the top three teams will presumably dominate the first six positions in Q3, the last part of qualifying “should be exciting”, Nielsen smiled.

But so will the fight at the front, with McLaren’s Jenson Button desperate to end Red Bull’s two-year run of dominance.

“With quite a big change in the regulations in terms of the blown diffuser, now is the interesting time to see whether Red Bull can hang onto the advantage they have had,” said the Briton.

“If they can, it is going to be very difficult to beat them over the next few years.”

 Nico Hulkenberg has played down claims Force India could be a podium-getting ‘dark horse’ of the 2012 season.
Behind the top battle involving Red Bull, McLaren and Mercedes, there appears a closely-packed midfield, with potential challengers including Ferrari, Toro Rosso, Sauber and Force India.

German Hulkenberg is returning to F1 with Silverstone based Force India this season, after being ousted by Williams at the end of 2010.

Asked what his goals are by Germany’s Sport1, the 24-year-old answered: “First I want to establish myself (in F1), after the bad experience of 2010.

“A couple of points would also be great,” he smiled.

Some pundits, however, are predicting that podiums may be possible for Hulkenberg – the 2010 Brazil GP pole sitter – and his highly rated teammate Paul di Resta.

“Clearly this is a dream,” the German admitted.

“But at the moment I don’t think that’s our goal. Of course if we should be in that situation in a race, then we will try everything for it.”

Hulkenberg conceded that Force India is not ready to challenge F1′s frontrunners.

“I think Red Bull have their nose in front again, and McLaren are the closest to them. I have no idea what Ferrari are doing at the moment and Mercedes is also difficult to assess because they haven’t shown much.”

He said countryman Sebastian Vettel’s crown, however, may be challenged.

“It’s clear that he is the man to beat,” said Hulkenberg.

 With the 2012 season now looming, Dr Helmut Marko has admitted Red Bull is “slightly ahead” of its rivals.
February’s official testing season is over, leaving competitors and pundits to predict the likely pecking order less than two weeks before the Melbourne grid forms.

“I see it like this,” Red Bull consultant and driver manager Marko told Austrian television Servus TV.

“We are slightly ahead, then there are McLaren and Mercedes — I don’t know exactly, but not far away,” he said.

On the other hand, Marko said Ferrari does not appear an immediate challenger.

“At Jerez, their car was very bad. It has improved since then, but as we speak, Ferrari, I believe, are not in a position to go onto the podium,” said the Austrian.

 Red Bull is considering taking the ‘old’ version of its new car to Melbourne for the 2012 season opener.
That is the claim of Germany’s authoritative Auto Motor und Sport magazine, after the radically updated model made a troubled debut late last week as the pre-season test period ended.

Rivals and pundits believe the reigning champions are still leading the field, but the latest Barcelona-spec car – featuring a significantly different exhaust layout – did not complete many laps.

Moreover, it also did not appear fast.

“When I watched Webber’s long run on Saturday afternoon,” said an engineer for a rival team, “it was nothing special — not the laptimes nor the tyre wear.”

Also unconvinced are the drivers, with Mark Webber saying the new car did not feel “massively different” to the earlier launch-version RB8.

Sebastian Vettel, meanwhile, was dead last after just 23 laps on Sunday, and is quoted as saying: “It wouldn’t be fair for me to judge the upgrades, so we have to rely on the data collected by Mark.”

Another rival engineer said there is visual evidence that the exhaust gases on the revised layout “are not going where they (Red Bull) want them to go”.

Niki Lauda has tipped Mercedes to flirt with the top positions in 2012.
After February’s winter group tests, rivals and pundits are now assessing the likely pecking-order less than two weeks before the season opener in Australia.

“My feeling is that McLaren and Red Bull are almost equal,” triple world champion Lauda told Austrian television ORF’s Sport am Sonntag programme.

“The big positive surprise is Mercedes. They have chosen a different way,” said the 63-year-old.

“The nose is relatively small, making the car look quite different to the others, because they have the (front wing innovation) F-duct.

“For me, it’s the most innovative car, and it also looks to me as through the (F-duct) mechanism works very well.”

Lauda said a strong Mercedes will be the first real test for Michael Schumacher since the great German returned to F1 in 2010.

“It’s a very important year for him,” he said, “because for the first time he and us will really know the answer to how he stands against Rosberg.

“Michael needs to prove to us all how good he really is — which of course is difficult, since logically you do not get faster with age.”

Meanwhile, Lauda agrees with speculation sweeping the F1 world about Ferrari’s current pre-season crisis.

“They’re behind, no doubt about it,” said the Austrian. “The car is pretty unstable, slipping at the front as well — I think they could be two or three tenths behind the top three.

“At the beginning of this year, that’s quite a lot,” explained Lauda.

“In Alonso they really have a top man, but if the car is too far behind then he can’t do anything about it, especially as he has a not-so-strong teammate in Massa who is not going to push him.”

Former Jordan and Jaguar designer Gary Anderson has singled out Lotus and Force India to impress in 2012.
The Irishman stood trackside at the Barcelona test on Thursday and later told the German-language Speed Week magazine that Mark Webber in the Red Bull suffered from “a bit too much understeer” in the new title-defending RB8.

He admitted, however, that the team may have been experimenting with setup, as the new Red Bull and McLaren have so far been “model students” in terms of handling.

Force India’s Paul di Resta, meanwhile, did not look impressive on the end-of-day timesheet, but Anderson said he was pleasantly surprised with the long-run consistency of the VJM05.

He said both di Resta and Nico Rosberg were both circulating at the same time with medium times, and the Force India was faster than the Mercedes, which was suffering from heavily-degrading tyres.

And Anderson added: “Lotus had to miss last week in Barcelona, but today they could confirm their good impression of Jerez.

“The car is fully sorted and the laptimes are consistent.”

Ferrari, however, is another matter.

“They are still using the coloured (aerodynamic) paint, which for me is a sign that the engineers don’t understand what is happening with the airflow.

“And just before the start of the season, that’s pretty alarming.”

Also trackside on Thursday was Sky commentator Martin Brundle, who confirmed Anderson’s view that the new McLaren looks “very good”.

Similarly, he added: “The Ferrari looks a bit of a handful, especially when it’s coming out of a corner trying to put the power down.

“It doesn’t look as bad as the McLaren did last year, but they’ve got some issues — there’s no doubt about it.”

Brundle also agreed with Anderson that, unlike the cakewalk of 2011, Red Bull could be set for a close fight this season.

“You can see Mark Webber working quite hard at the wheel,” said the former McLaren driver, “so I can understand why some of my mates in the paddock are saying it’s looking really close.”

Drivers-turned-pundits Niki Lauda and David Coulthard have defended Red Bull’s use of team orders at Silverstone.

An openly unhappy Mark Webber ignored the instruction to hold station behind Sebastian Vettel in the closing laps of the British grand prix.

Despite team orders now being legal under Jean Todt’s reign as FIA president, Sunday’s incident has reopened the old debate about unfettered racing versus the interests of a team of hundreds of staff.

So was Red Bull wrong to clip Webber’s wings?

“No, not at all,” triple world champion and now RTL pundit Lauda told Germany’s motorsport-magazin.com.

“I can perfectly understand Horner making that call over the radio, simply because he was worried about his two cars. That’s fine by me.”

British pundit Coulthard agrees with Lauda, although he is aware that the readers of his Telegraph column may not.

He insisted: “You cannot expect teams who have sponsorship contracts worth millions to risk throwing away valuable points at that late stage of the race.”

The obvious implication is that Webber’s stance might affect his negotiations for a new contract with Red Bull, with boss Christian Horner already flagging private talks this week.

1996 world champion Damon Hill said: “If he was asked not to overtake, that’s a bit serious for a racing driver.”

But Coulthard, a former Red Bull driver and still a consultant to the energy drink’s premier team, doubts Webber’s reaction will affect his future.

“(Owner) Dietrich Mateschitz wants a fighter; he wants two guys battling hard for wins. He does not want a pussycat,” said the Scot.

Michael Schumacher believes it was “logical” for Fernando Alonso to recently nominate him as the major challenger for the 2011 title.
Some insiders and pundits have played down the seven time world champion’s chances of success on his return to F1, particularly after a mixed performance in the wake of his three-year retirement in 2010.

But Schumacher told Bild newspaper that Alonso’s prediction was not empty flattery.

“Fernando knows how to count and that things are going better and better, with the curve clearly on the up at the end of last season.

“He also knows that we have been working on our new car for a long time, so I think it’s realistic for him to put Mercedes on the bill,” said the 42-year-old.

Schumacher was also asked about the latest rumours surrounding Sebastian Vettel, including claims he is eyeing a future tie-up with either Ferrari or Mercedes.

“Purely hypothetically,” answered the German, “it would be unreasonable if Mercedes didn’t try to figure out if Sebastian wants to be with us in the future.”

There would never have been a single mention of team orders at Red Bull had Sebastian Vettel enjoyed a run of technical reliability in 2010.
That is the claim of Helmut Marko, Red Bull’s ever-controversial driver manager and motor racing right-hand man to team owner Dietrich Mateschitz.

Vettel, the new reigning champion, and his teammate butted heads last year when Webber led the championship and pundits pushed the wisdom of a team strategy in the Australian’s favour.

There were claims of team favouritism in Vettel’s favour but Red Bull clung to its stated policy of equality and the young German ultimately won the battle.

But speaking to Sport Bild, Austrian Marko hinted that Vettel’s dominance last year was muted only by technical setbacks.

“Without the 66 points he (Vettel) lost due to technical defects, the standoff with Mark Webber would never have occurred,” he said.

Team orders have been legalised for 2011 but Marko is adamant that Red Bull’s policy will not change.

“We don’t use them (team orders) because the sporting aspect should be the primary focus of formula one,” he insisted.

Jean Todt has vowed to push hard to improve the spectacle of overtaking in formula one.

“We need to encourage more overtaking,” the FIA president said in an interview with La Stampa.  “In Abu Dhabi it was impossible.”

Pundits were critical after the 2010 finale at the spectacular Yas Marina circuit, because Fernando Alonso was unable to pass Vitaly Petrov, while another title contender – Lewis Hamilton – could not overtake Robert Kubica.

“I’m speaking as the president of the FIA,” said Frenchman Todt.  “Hamilton had fresh tyres and was 2 seconds faster than Kubica and yet he failed to pass.

“From now on, before a new circuit is approved, we will evaluate the potential for the spectacle as well as the safety,” he revealed.

And Autosprint quotes Todt as adding: “In this way we have already convened a meeting with technical experts such as Patrick Head and Rory Byrne.”

Dietrich Mateschitz insists that team orders will play no role in whether a Red Bull driver secures the energy drink-owned team’s first title in 2010.

A myriad of pundits believe Mark Webber, with a higher points tally, should now be backed by his teammate Sebastian Vettel in order to chase down the lead of Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso with two races to go.

But Austrian billionaire Mateschitz told Der Spiegel newspaper that there will be no team orders.

“This is a sport and the best should win,” he said.

“Power, politics, manipulation and so on should be kept as far away as possible.

“The game is ‘come and get me, if you can’, and not ‘let me through because I’m better’,” insisted Mateschitz. “Racing must remain racing.”

And their points tallies aside, he is adamant that the events about to happen on the circuit will determine whether Webber or Vettel triumphs.

“They are different in personality, but equally fast,” he said.