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.”

Ferrari’s heavily upgraded F2012 has caught the eye of reigning world champion and last-start winner Sebastian Vettel.

The famous Italian team and its lead driver Fernando Alonso have tried to play down the improvements made to the recently struggling red car.

“It was good acting,” said Brazilian newspaper O Estado de S.Paulo’s correspondent Livio Oricchio on Friday.

“The truth is that Ferrari have debuted a new car. Almost everything is different.”

Red Bull’s Vettel has spotted the same thing.

“If you ask me, Ferrari are dangerous,” Bild newspaper quotes the German as saying on Friday.

The ‘B’ Ferrari features new front and rear wings, floor, sidepods, engine cover, exhaust and brake ducts.

“A total reconstruction for a million euros,” said the newspaper.

Alonso was quickest on Friday morning in Barcelona but then a long way down the order in P2. He played down his victory chances.

But Vettel’s boss Dr Helmut Marko insists: “They (Ferrari) have become really fast.”

Jules Bianchi will kick off his season of Friday practice duties this weekend in China.

Despite remaining under contract to Ferrari’s development programme, the Frenchman was signed to be reserve driver at Force India this year.

The team said 22-year-old Bianchi will practice during “a minimum of nine” Friday sessions this season.

The first will be in Shanghai late this week, according to the French weekly Le Journal du Dimanche.

The report said Bianchi, who will also race in the Renault World Series in 2012, will take over Paul di Resta’s Mercedes-powered car in the initial free practice session beginning at 10am local on Friday in China.

“I hope it (the role) will put me in a strong position to one day move into a race seat,” Bianchi said in January.

HRT’s team boss has admitted installing KERS is an unlikely goal for the struggling Spanish team this year.

Luis Perez Sala said the new F112 was designed to accommodate the energy-recovery technology, but qualifying comfortably within the 107 per cent rule is a better target for now.

“We have a car we are yet to discover,” he told El Confidencial.

Indeed, HRT travelled to Australia last month having hardly run its new Cosworth-powered car, and failed to qualify for the season opener.

“It is designed to carry KERS but in the short term we will not (use it). We don’t think we’re going to race with it this year,” he added.

“So, in this respect, it’s not perfect. Right now, we have assembled the car in a hurry and so the private testing at Mugello, just after Bahrain, will be very important to us.”

Sala, having rebuilt HRT following the departure of team boss Colin Kolles, was speaking from HRT’s new headquarters at the Caja Magica (Magic Box).

“After Bahrain, we will have the cars here. From the Spanish grand prix, we will begin to function more effectively.

“In China and Bahrain we will improve things in the car and the team, but it is a slow process that will last all year.

“As I sit here (in Madrid), some people are in Valencia, others in Germany, England … the cars are flying to China and we need to address issues of reliability, not just performance.”

It is a tough situation for HRT, but Sala concedes that the ‘paddock perception’ of the team is that it has gone backwards since debuting in 2010.

“It is really our first year,” he insists.

He reveals that Bernie Ecclestone, once a staunch critic of the struggling backmarkers, is “quiet”.

“We have not had any problems, I think he is calm,” said Sala.

It is also a busy time off the track for HRT, as many rival teams are busily signing the new Concorde Agreement for 2013.

“There are teams that are more advanced than others; for us, the negotiations are still at the beginning,” he said.

The most obvious goals right now, Sala insists, are to have “a team that works together, has a reliable car and a small team that can develop it, and we’re around 105pc off the pole”.

Fernando Alonso is F1′s shock world championship leader, after Malaysian rain shook up the order at Sepang.

“It’s a tough time for us at the moment, but we will remember this day,” said the Ferrari driver, who finished ahead of another surprise podium-sitter, Sauber’s Sergio Perez.

The young Mexican was catching Alonso at a rate of knots when he made a mistake.

“I think the win was possible,” Perez, who has been linked with Felipe Massa’s works Ferrari seat, said after beating the back-to-back 2012 polesitter Lewis Hamilton.

Former Toro Rosso driver and BBC radio commentator Jaime Alguersuari, however, was not overly impressed.

“The team did a fantastic strategy to put Perez on the right tyres at the right moment. For me, that’s it,” said the Spaniard.

Back-to-back world champion Sebastian Vettel had an horror Sunday, cutting a tyre whilst passing an HRT and eventually retiring with what Red Bull described on the radio as an “emergency” technical problem.

The German lies sixth in the drivers’ world championship, four points behind Perez and 17 off the lead.

Title leader Alonso, meanwhile, is not overly happy with the rain-soaked win.

“I think it changes nothing,” he said. “We are in a position that we do not want, fighting to get into Q3.”

Team boss Stefano Domenicali agreed: “I hope this helps the people at home to push, but we were not stupid yesterday and we are not phenomenal today.”

The Italian also denied that Perez’s debut podium is the ideal time to immediately pluck the Mexican from Sauber and put him in struggling Felipe Massa’s red car.

“Not true, not true,” Domenicali told British Sky television.

 Former boss Colin Kolles and his Greding-based company is no longer involved, but there remains a strong German input with the struggling team HRT.
A report in the Augsburger Allgemeine newspaper reveals that the new Cosworth-powered F112 car, which failed to qualify in Melbourne last weekend, was designed and built in Augsburg, a city in the south-west of Bavaria.

It is there that, since November 2011, the Holzer-Gruppe company has been frantically building up the Cosworth-powered cars for Pedro de la Rosa and Narain Karthikeyan.

“Under our management almost everything has been made here in Bobingen,” said Gunther Holzer.

“For the wind tunnel we used the Mercedes facility in Brackley (UK),” he added.

Eight of F1′s 12 teams are based in England, with the others either in Italy (Ferrari and Toro Rosso) or Switzerland (Sauber).

HRT uses Williams’ gearbox.

“We wanted to go our separate way, not like almost everyone else who are all within a few miles of Oxford,” said HRT chief executive Saul Ruiz de Marcos.

The team’s longer plan is to be solely based in Madrid, but for now Holzer will lead the development of the F112.

“For the start of the European season in Spain we are planning the first improvements to the car,” said Marcos.

Holzer explained: “The car is designed first for safety and so is heavy compared to the competition. For the future we are focused on making it lighter.”

Before the lighter car debuts in Barcelona, HRT faces three more challenges – Malaysia, China and Bahrain – at which the sport’s 107 per cent rule will be a major hurdle.

“The goal is to qualify, there is no other,” admitted de la Rosa. “Race reliability is something else we need to work on, but first we have to qualify.”

The McLaren drivers and beaming returnee Romain Grosjean on Saturday looked to have knocked Red Bull from its dominant perch.
“McLaren had an upgrade at the last test and it’s performed here at Albert Park,” said former team driver and BBC commentator David Coulthard.

Lewis Hamilton beat his teammate Jenson Button to pole in Melbourne, but just a few tenths behind is the reigning GP2 champion Grosjean.

Frenchman Grosjean’s teammate Kimi Raikkonen had a dire return qualifying performance by missing the Q1 cut, describing the session as “shit” according to the German press.

In total contrast, Grosjean was beaming: “A few people believed in me through the toughest time and I’m back — almost at the top!”

The surprises continued beyond the top three: Mercedes’ Michael Schumacher is fourth, and reigning champion Sebastian Vettel sixth.

“We are aware we need to improve,” said Mark Webber, who qualified the sister Red Bull in fifth as both RB8 cars had KERS issues.

In much bigger strife is fabled Ferrari, with neither F2012 making it through to Q3.

Fernando Alonso threw his red car into the gravel and Felipe Massa is a disastrous 16th, with Sky analyst Martin Brundle described the handling of the F2012 as “horrible”.

“Forget the reds,” the summary report at Italy’s La Gazzetta dello Sport website, written by correspondent Andrea Cremonesi, said.

Said Spaniard Alonso: “We need to change the direction quickly if we’re to challenge for the championship. We have to react.”

Meanwhile, Lotus boss Eric Boullier answered “maybe” when asked on Sky UK television if the team will lodge an official protest against Mercedes’ qualifying result, based on the belief the W03′s F-duct solutions are illegal.

 Two teams are in danger of sitting out Sunday’s Australian grand prix.
“The idea, here, is to qualify for the race,” Marussia’s Timo Glock told Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper from Melbourne.

The hurdle that the struggling former Virgin team – as well as HRT – must get over, is the 107 per cent rule in Q1.

It is an even higher hurdle than last year, because Pirelli has made its harder tyres softer in 2012 — meaning the difference between the tyres being used by the quickest cars and the slowest cars in Q1 will be smaller.

More bad news is that Red Bull has brought new parts to Australia that could make qualifying-specialist Sebastian Vettel even faster on Saturday.

“If that’s true then the qualifying test for us – with zero kilometres under our belts – is almost impossible,” admitted Glock.

At HRT, the situation is arguably worse — especially for Pedro de la Rosa, who was little more than a spectator on Friday as the Spanish team built up his Cosworth-powered car at the eleventh hour.

“Keep smiling, be patient,” he is quoted by Auto Motor Und Sport, when asked what his mantra is in Melbourne.

“We need to think more in the medium term. We are experiencing the birth of a new racing team.

“For us, this year is not just about getting the new car up and running — over the next months, we are taking the whole team to Madrid.

“At the moment we are still operating from Madrid, Valencia and Munich,” he explained.

The Spanish team’s new boss Luis Perez Sala agreed that qualifying at Albert Park is a big ask.

“For us it has been almost a success just to be here in Melbourne because it has been very tough,” he said on Friday.

As for the 107 per cent rule, “It will be difficult for us,” said the former Minardi driver.

“I’m not thinking now about the speed of the car, I’m just trying to get all the things done that we need to do as best as possible to get into (practice) tomorrow.”

He said HRT will try again next weekend, in Malaysia.

“I would like them (the team) to relax a bit and we will see. Malaysia? Shanghai? Whatever.”

 Despite a difficult winter for the Marussia team, Timo Glock is in a positive mood as he travels to Australia for the 2012 season.
The former Virgin squad struggled to get its new car through the FIA’s mandatory crash tests, which according to new rules meant the MR01 was grounded throughout the official pre-season period.

Indeed, the Russian website F1News quotes technical consultant Pat Symonds as saying the “last two months were the most difficult of my 20 years in formula one”.

Due to a testing loophole allowing some running on demonstration Pirelli tyres, the Cosworth-powered car finally made its debut over two days of ‘promotional filming’ early this week at Silverstone.

“The basis is definitely good; the first test miles were really good,” German Glock is quoted by the German-language Speed Week.

“The car did exactly what we expected from it. The data we recorded corresponded exactly to what we had calculated previously,” he added.

The report said Glock will travel to Australia on Friday, with his 30th birthday set to coincide exactly with the start of the new season.

Symonds added: “There is still much to be done, but it is a long term project and so I hope that we move forward step by step.”

 Marussia’s 2012 car will be on the Melbourne grid next weekend, after the MR01 finally passed a missing FIA crash test.
The former Virgin team’s Cosworth-powered car sat out the entire official pre-season period due to a new regulation in 2012 requiring single seaters to be fully homologated before they can even be tested.

The MR01 finally made its track debut on Monday and Tuesday, due to a loophole allowing limited running on demonstration Pirelli tyres for filming purposes even when the mandatory crash tests have not been passed.

But finally, late on Tuesday, Marussia announced that the crash tests have now all been passed.

“After a challenging few weeks for the team, we are pleased to have overcome the last hurdle of the final FIA observed crash test, which we passed today,” said technical consultant Pat Symonds.

“Whilst we have a lot of catching up to do, we take heart from the fact that everything is back on a more positive trajectory,” Renault’s former engineering director added.

HRT is hoping to get one up on its tailender rival Marussia by at least running its 2012 car before shipping it to Australia.
Marussia, formerly Virgin, has announced that after failing an FIA crash test, it will be unable to run its new Cosworth-powered car at the final Barcelona test this week.

“Of course it’s a shame,” German driver Timo Glock told the DPA news agency, “but safety comes first.”

HRT’s 2012 single seater, however, has – despite a similar delay – at least now satisfied the FIA’s safety rules and is therefore allowed to run at the Circuit de Catalunya if able.

Indeed, in the Barcelona paddock this week, the HRT motor home is present.

But team figures Pedro de la Rosa and boss Luis Perez Sala have admitted that, while now homologated, the 2012 car is not quite ready to be tested.

“The truth is that, today, the goal is to try to debut on Sunday,” de la Rosa is quoted by the Diario Sport newspaper. “If not, we would have the possibility to do a test on Monday.”

The FIA has already declared that testing on Monday – the day after the final official Barcelona test ends – is not allowed because that would be the week before Melbourne.

But HRT is yet to do its allowed filming day, team boss Perez Sala is quoted as saying on Wednesday.

“We are in the construction phase of the car and it would be great to have it ready for Sunday,” added de la Rosa.

The former McLaren test driver also revealed that HRT’s new car is designed to run KERS, unlike the 2012 Marussia.

“It is designed to use it, but the team has decided to start the season without (KERS),” said de la Rosa.

Jean-Eric Vergne has predicted a good season ahead for Toro Rosso.
Along with Daniel Ricciardo, French rookie Vergne makes up the Red Bull junior team’s new driver lineup, following the ousting at the end of last season of Jaime Alguersuari and Sebastien Buemi.

Perhaps because their prize could be Mark Webber’s seat at the senior team in 2013, Ricciardo and Vergne set almost identical laptimes last week at Jerez as the new STR7 was tested for the first time.

And according to 21-year-old Vergne, the Ferrari powered car showed promising form overall.

“We hope to be one of the strongest teams in the middle of the classification,” he is quoted by the Italian website Tuttosport.

At the same time, Vergne is not getting carried away ahead of eight pre-season test days in Barcelona, starting next week.

“Barcelona could be different as Jerez was rather cold and the surface is very abrasive. I don’t think there’s much difference between the teams.”

Vergne is quoted by France’s L’Equipe: “What Jerez showed us I think is that we have a good basis.”

Sebastian Vettel has once again admitted his desire to race a Ferrari in formula one some day.
The likely 2011 champion has pledged his immediate future to Red Bull but has always admitted his affection for F1′s more famous marques, including Ferrari and also Mercedes.

Fernando Alonso said a few days ago that Vettel, 24, is welcome at Ferrari.

“At the moment we are both bound by contract and I think both of us (are) happy in our teams,” Vettel said in a joint interview with Spaniard Alonso for the German broadcaster RTL.

“But I have already said that I can imagine sitting in a red car at some point. So who knows?” he added.

Vettel is vying for victory on Ferrari’s home soil this weekend but he said doing it with a team “with so much history” would be a “great feeling”.

“In 2008 I had a little bit of that experience with the Italian team Toro Rosso and it was fantastic. I hope I have many years in formula one ahead of me so let’s see what happens,” he added.

Alonso, meanwhile, said he can imagine having Vettel as a teammate, even though both of them are regarded as the unofficial ‘number 1′ drivers at their respective teams.

“Why not?” he said. “At the top teams there is no one who does not want two good drivers.

“It seems as though Sebastian is the number one at Red Bull but I do not say that. For Felipe and me it’s the same; we race with the same conditions and during a season one or the other gets out an advantage.

“Viewed from the outside it’s as though there’s a team leader and a helper, but for the team it’s best to have two top drivers because it increases the chances of winning the world championship,” added Alonso.

During an interview with a German newspaper on Monday, Bernie Ecclestone did not want to talk about accusations of bribery and corruption.
Other publications in the country claim it was the F1 chief executive who paid under-fire banker Gerhard Gribkowsky a $50m kickback amid the sale of the sport’s commercial rights five years ago.

“On the advice of my lawyers I don’t want to say anything more on this issue,” said the 80-year-old, who has previously denied any connection with the bribe.

Ecclestone was slightly more forthcoming on the topic of the 2011 formula one season, but unlike last year – when he correctly predicted that Sebastian Vettel would win the title – he is not yet naming a favourite.

“There is the Spaniard (Fernando Alonso) in the red car who this year will not so easily accept defeat as in the last. Sebastian of course will be strong, and I trust Mercedes and Michael Schumacher to make a leap.

“Any more than that, I want to wait until after the first tests,” he insisted.

Ecclestone, however, is rarely uncontroversial in interviews, so he threw some more fuel on the fire of a spat with authorities in Melbourne.

“20 races is enough,” he answered when asked about the future of F1.

“If we have some new races, some others will fall out — we don’t need Australia, for instance.”

The Williams-racing start in Qatar an initiative to make the roads safer – it is the first of its kind in the region
The Williams team is expanding its efforts to make the road safer. Together with the Qatar National Bank (QNB), the largest private bank in Qatar and the Qatar Science & Technology Park (QSTP) will start the team some safety campaigns to alert the population in Qatar on the dangers in traffic. One wants to move 25,000 residents to more cautious and forward-looking driving style.

Some team members of the racing team will hold lectures in schools and universities. QSTP will promote road safety through simulators, developed in the Williams factory and used for driving instruction, training and education are. The initiative in Qatar as well as other programs will run from Williams, including the partnership with DEKRA in Germany: The Williams program focuses on energy efficiency, education and road safety.

The campaign is the first of its kind in the region. It is intended to encompass all stages of life, not just the current driver, but also the future. As an incentive, a Williams-powered car in different places will be issued.
TMS