Bruno Senna will give up his race car to Williams test driver Valtteri Bottas on fourteen more occasions in 2012.
It has emerged that, every time young Finn Bottas takes to the track on a Friday this season, it will be at the wheel of Senna’s Renault-powered FW34.

“Pastor Maldonado will keep his car in every session,” Turun Sanomat correspondent Heikki Kulta reported.

Brazilian Senna confirmed the news to British Sky television whilst he sat out Friday’s initial running in Malaysia.

Bottas, 22, was just quicker than the British team’s number one driver Maldonado on Friday.

Red Bull is convinced it will put up a stronger fight to Melbourne winners McLaren this weekend in Malaysia.
“In Australia we had basically a construction site, while McLaren’s house was finished long ago,” world champion Sebastian Vettel said by way of analogy to Germany’s Auto Bild.

“So second place (in Melbourne) was not too bad.”

Team advisor Dr Helmut Marko agrees: “Vettel spent most of the last day of the testing in Barcelona in the pits.

“Our car is not yet mature,” he added, referring to the Renault-powered RB8.

Team boss Christian Horner said the team brought out “only 60 per cent” of the car’s potential in Australia.

 Hot on the heels of the new F-duct controversy, Mercedes has turned the heat back onto Red Bull.
Amid complaints from rival teams including Red Bull about its innovative aerodynamic concept aboard the W03, Mercedes’ Ross Brawn admitted he sensed a diversionary tactic.

“The discussion about our system has diverted the focus from the exhaust issue,” he said in Australia.

The FIA has clamped down hard on the exhaust-blown diffusers seen throughout the grid last year, but much pre-season chatter focused on some teams’ post-ban 2012 solutions that reportedly fly close to the boundaries of the new rules.

But now Germany’s Bild newspaper reports that Mercedes suspects Red Bull is also bending the rules in another area.

The report said Mercedes’ sound analysis indicated Renault-powered Red Bull is deploying an “illegal engine trick”, apparently involving the turning on and off of individual cylinders.

Mercedes’ competition vice-president Norbert Haug commented: “There is no official protest by us. But there are some questions that we are asking the FIA.”

Red Bull’s Dr Helmut Marko hit back: “No one will find anything. We comply with the rules.”

German specialist magazine Auto Motor und Sport, meanwhile, reports that Melbourne winner McLaren currently has the most sophisticated exhaust solution on the 2012 grid.

“I wouldn’t say that it’s illegal,” said Peter Sauber, “but it’s borderline.”

Teams including Mercedes, Lotus, Toro Rosso and Williams reportedly used much more conservative solutions in Australia.

“First we wanted to see what is allowed and what is not,” said Williams engineer Mark Gillan.

 From the depths of 2011, Williams is now ‘not far’ from the pace of F1′s strongest teams.
That is the claim of Pastor Maldonado, who in the newly Renault-powered and Mike Coughlan-designed FW34 qualified eighth and was pushing Fernando Alonso for fifth in the race when he crashed out of Sunday’s season opener in Melbourne on the last lap.

It indicated a major turnaround for the formerly championship-winning team that collapsed to a dismal ninth place in last year’s points standings.

Venezuelan Maldonado hopes last Sunday was indeed the start of a Williams resurgence.

He said this weekend in Malaysia “should be interesting”.

“McLaren and Red Bull look strong, but we are not far away,” he is quoted by Finland’s Turun Sanomat.

“We were very close to (Red Bull’s) Mark Webber in the first and second stints,” said Maldonado.

“I think we are faster than Ferrari, Sauber and Force India,” he added.

Maldonado’s last-lap crash in Australia cost Williams a full ten points — double the team’s tally of the entire 2011 season.

“We need points in the future,” he acknowledged, “but we are also now more relaxed now.”

 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.”

 Marussia needs to get the basics right before worrying about KERS, Timo Glock explained on the eve of the 2012 season.
The experienced German, and his rookie teammate Charles Pic, enter the new season with essentially no testing, after the former Virgin team struggled to push its new car – the MR01 – through the FIA’s mandatory crash tests.

Last year, the Cosworth-powered team was soundly beaten by its closest rival Team Lotus, who as well as changing its name to Caterham for 2012 has also added a Red Bull KERS system to its Renault-powered package.

“On the subject of KERS, it is of course a disadvantage not to have it,” Glock is quoted by the SID news agency.

“But we have said that our focus is right to first get rid of the four seconds of aerodynamic deficit, before we worry about the money and the manpower we need for five tenths with the KERS,” added Glock.

“We have to get the foundation right first,” said the almost 30-year-old.

 The latest twist in F1′s endless ‘blown diffuser’ saga was reportedly triggered by Mercedes.
Amid last week’s Barcelona test, it was rumoured that Mercedes and Renault-powered teams would have to make tweaks, after a loophole was discovered in the standard electronics software.

For 2012, the FIA has clamped down on engine exhaust blowing for aerodynamic purposes, but speculation continued to sweep the paddock that some teams had devised ways to minimise the impact of the ban.

Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport reports that it was Mercedes engineers who found the loophole, in terms of how to utilise the standard electronic software to maximise the off-throttle exhaust blowing effect.

“The FIA has responded by rewriting the software,” read the report.

Auto Motor und Sport said Mercedes was right about the loophole, but that it could only have been exploited at the price of dramatic fuel consumption, and potential damage to the engine.

“We have erred on the safe side,” an FIA source is quoted as saying.

Writing in Spain’s Mundo Deportivo, Raymond Blacafort said the 2012 Red Bull’s exhaust was making a strange sound in the chicane in Barcelona last week.

Williams’ official launch took just five minutes in the Jerez pitlane on Tuesday, before the new Renault-powered FW34 had a difficult birth.
“Unfortunately testing was cut short with a couple of initial teething problems which we are currently investigating,” said engineer Mark Gillan.

Official testing action burst into life in 2012, with every team except Marussia – and nine all-new cars in action for the first time – kicking off their campaigns.

Returning 2007 world champion Kimi Raikkonen was fastest all day.

“The lap times don’t matter today,” Lotus’ Finn insisted.

“I do have a good feeling, and that was not always the case in my career after the first day of testing,” he told Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport.

“But I would rather be P1 at the end of the first race than at the end of the first test day,” smiled Raikkonen.

Red Bull’s Mark Webber, with the team’s brand new title-defending car only the third quickest of the 2012 runners, agreed.

“If what we saw today happens in Melbourne, then we’ll talk again,” he laughed, explaining the missed morning of testing as due to a crucial part being held up at an airport shrouded in fog.

The Guardian also reports that a Red Bull truckie was stopped for speeding.

Lotus team boss Eric Boullier, however, is convinced Raikkonen’s speed is real – and his motivation intact – after two years away.

“Believe me, he is there.”

Agreed technical director James Allison: “You can tell Kimi is a class act.”

Like fellow top team Red Bull, the new McLaren also had a low-profile day, with Jenson Button just eighth quickest.

But he didn’t accuse Lotus and Raikkonen of showboating.

“Maybe he (Raikkonen) was running heavy,” said the 2009 world champion. “We maybe haven’t seen eye to eye a lot of the time when we’ve been racing, but he’s a very quick driver, a world champion.

“He’s obviously in a very competitive car, and whatever they did today – low fuel or whatever – it was still quick.”

Struggling on Tuesday was Caterham, whose new car could not be restarted following damage to the engine starter shaft, and Toro Rosso with an oil leak.

And Felipe Massa was just ninth in the new Ferrari.

“It is obviously too early to say if this year we will be able to win or not,” said designer Nikolas Tombazis.

Mike Gascoyne has admitted it is unlikely Team Lotus’ 2011 car will ever feature a KERS system.

The Renault-powered T128 was designed without the energy recovery technology in mind, but chief operating officer Keith Saunt said last month: “We might end up with it, who knows?”

“We will discuss it with Renault, but for a small team like us, KERS is a very high cost,” technical director Gascoyne told Auto Motor und Sport.

“We would need to change the chassis significantly, as at the moment there is no room for KERS,” he said.

But Gascoyne is not ruling out a change of mind, especially as arguably the biggest benefit of running a KERS system this year is expected to be the race start.

“It would not be good if we’re among a few of our direct opponents in qualifying and then before the first corner we lose three or four places because we lack that extra power on the line,” he explained.

Bruno Senna, the nephew of the great Ayrton Senna, is in talks to switch for 2011 from struggling HRT to F1′s best new team Lotus.

That is the claim of Brazil’s Globo Esporte, noting that the move would reinvoke the fabled Lotus/Renault/Senna combination of the 1980s.

Rookie Senna, who turned 27 earlier this month, has had a difficult debut season in 2010 at the wheel of the slowest and least developed car on the grid fielded by the Spanish newcomer Hispania.

“Bruno Senna is close to getting something better,” said the Portuguese language report.

“He is in talks with Lotus and these talks are already well advanced,” Globo added, nominating Jarno Trulli as the driver most likely to leave the Malaysian team in the event that Senna is signed.

The report cited sources “close to the driver” as insisting that Senna cannot finalise the deal until his sponsors agree, adding that these talks with “several companies” are also already taking place.

Globo Esporte also said Lotus’ announcement of its Renault engine deal for 2011 will be made next weekend at Interlagos.

Late triple world champion Ayrton Senna won his first grand prix at the wheel of a Renault-powered Lotus in 1985.

He won a further 5 grands prix in a Lotus-Renault, as well as 24 podiums, 16 pole positions and 150 points before moving to McLaren.

Red Bull still had the F-duct fitted to its RB6 on Saturday morning in Valencia.

According to the BBC, the Milton Keynes based team has confirmed the downforce-stalling device will also remain on the Renault-powered car for qualifying and the race.

Sebastian Vettel topped the final 60 minutes of practice at the sunny street circuit, with his teammate Mark Webber third, split by Renault’s Robert Kubica.

The two Force Indias were fourth and seventh, with the team having ironed out the problems with its F-duct version.

“(It) is working very well now and it makes a real difference,” said German Adrian Sutil.

Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso was fifth, while the McLarens were just ninth and tenth, and Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg 11th.

“There are a lot of quick cars out there,” said Jenson Button.  “The Ferraris look very fast, so do the Red Bulls, Renaults and Mercedes.”

Jun.18 (GMM)  There could be more Renault-powered cars on next year’s formula one grid than any other engine supplier.

Although the French marque currently supplies its 2.4 litre V8 only to the team that bears its name as well as Red Bull, it is reported that Williams is now close to agreeing a deal for 2011.

There have been reports that the Grove based team is less than fully happy with the returning supplier Cosworth this year, while at the same time Renault has confirmed it is looking to add a team to its customer engine roster.

Also linked with a switch to Renault has been the currently Cosworth-powered new team Lotus, while Cosworth’s business director Mark Gallagher recently said he suspects equipping the sport’s 13th team for 2011 will be “a Cosworth/Renault competition”.

A report by France’s Auto Hebdo said it is likely that eight cars on the 2011 grid will be fitted with Renault engines.

“An agreement with Williams is almost done,” said the magazine.

Apr.27 (GMM)  Barcelona next weekend will not be the scene of a radical shakeup in the pecking-order of the leading teams.

That is the opinion of drivers Fernando Alonso and Adrian Sutil, ahead of the forthcoming Spanish grand prix where most teams will debut significant upgrades in the wake of the opening flyaway races of 2010.

“I don’t expect any major shifts in the (Barcelona) field,” Bahrain winner Alonso, third in the championship for Ferrari, is quoted as saying by Auto Motor und Sport.

If anything, “one car will improve by three tenths and another by four”, he explained, adding that while he thinks Ferrari can catch Red Bull’s quickest car, the Renault-powered RB6 “will be strong until the end of the season”.

German Sutil agrees that the top ten will be “very similar” in Barcelona compared to the pecking-order established so far in 2010.

“Nobody will be finding half a second in their car, because right now it’s really hard to improve them.

“Everybody is at a point where it’s hard to find every single tenth,” the Force India driver told F1′s official website.

Like Alonso, Sutil also expects Red Bull to maintain its edge.

“There (in Spain) you just need downforce, so I think it’s a Red Bull circuit again.  You have a long straight, but if you have a quick car through the corners, it’s definitely a better way.”