The key backer of the scheduled 2012 US grand prix insists he remains committed to the Circuit of the Americas project.

Construction in Austin, Texas, has continued amid raging local media speculation, as lawsuits are pending and questions are constantly asked about the viability of the project commenced by the now offside promoter Tavo Hellmund.

With 84-year-old billionaire Red McCombs now reportedly in the driving seat, he insisted it is “without question” he will continue to push the project forwards.

“Never has been any question,” McCombs is quoted by mysanantonio.com, after the authoritative Austin American Statesman newspaper had suggested he was on the verge of pulling out.

“I’m there for the full ticket,” McCombs insisted, although he admitted the row with Hellmund is proving a speed-bump.

“I will say we do expect to have some resolution to those issues in a timely fashion, but in dealing with the courts, I don’t know what a timely fashion is.”

He told reporters the circuit is now 60 per cent complete ahead of the inaugural November 18 race date.

Angry students could threaten next month’s Canadian grand prix.

Protests in Montreal, regarding planned university tuition fee increases, have been turning increasingly ugly and even violent, involving the throwing of glass bottles and hundreds of arrests.

According to the French language La Presse newspaper, at least one student association has specifically threatened to disrupt the F1 race, scheduled for 10 June on the nearby Il Notre Dame.

“I cannot deny that we are following this out of the corner of our eye and will continue to follow it in the coming days,” admitted race promoter Francois Dumontier.

The report said students’ chants at recent demonstrations included references to the grand prix.

At a recent meeting, one association of students approved a resolution to adopt “a weekend of disruption” aimed at “the cancellation” of the race, which represents “sexist, non-environmental and elitist” values.

“It is not clear that we will be targeted,” Dumontier insisted, “but we are an international event and are ready with a safety plan ranging from dealing with simple mischief to a wider disruption.

“The grand prix is often targeted because we are a major event. We are not worried but we have our eyes open and will work with the public authorities,” he added.

Preparations for the inaugural Russian grand prix in 2014 appear to have hit a roadblock.

We reported last weekend that rumours were circulating in the Barcelona paddock that the Sochi race now appears “doomed”.

The state owned Moscow news agency Ria Novosti now reports that political issues have created “serious delays” in the race’s preparations, according to an adviser with the Russian Automobile Federation.

The official, Igor Yermilin, insisted that the project is not doomed, but he said very few efforts have taken place following the bureaucratic reshuffling of the local Krasnodar region.

He said some officials of the Omega company, responsible for the F1 circuit project, have lost their jobs.

“In the Krasnodar region there has been have been quite serious changes in the leadership,” Yermilin said, “including people from Omega who signed the contract on holding the Russian grand prix”.

The coastal city Sochi is also scheduled to host the 2014 Winter Olympics.

“The main thing at the moment is the Olympics — the grand prix is on the back burner,” said Yermilin.

Valencia will not be on next year’s F1 calendar, Bernie Ecclestone said on Saturday.

He confirmed that, starting in 2013, an annually alternating deal between the Spanish port city and Barcelona will begin.

Barcelona, the scene of this weekend’s Spanish grand prix, will host the race in 2013, before Valencia returns to the schedule in 2014, the F1 chief executive told Reuters.

Less secure, meanwhile, is France’s touted spot on the 2013 calendar, particularly with the country’s new anti-F1 president Francois Hollande now taking power.

Until recently, the F1 chief executive was saying Paul Ricard was set to join the 2013 calendar, annually alternating a race date with Belgium’s Spa Francorchamps.

As for the state of the deal now, the 81-year-old admitted: “I have no idea. No idea what they (France) are doing.

“It’s a funny arrangement they were making anyway. So I just don’t know.”

Ecclestone is also working on a new deal for the popular Canadian grand prix, having told promoter Francois Dumontier that the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve needs to be upgraded.

“There are two ways of looking at it,” Dumontier, in the paddock of the Circuit de Catalunya, is quoted by La Presse newspaper.

“Either Bernie requires an annual fee windfall, or he will charge a reasonable fee and ask in return for investment in the infrastructure.”

He said the contract on the table is for 10 more years, taking Montreal’s existing deal through 2024.

Ecclestone said on Saturday that he is sure an agreement will be reached, because Canada is one of F1′s most loved destinations.

“I remember saying to Bernie, ‘New York, Austin, I don’t know why you want to go there. Your sure bet is Montreal’. He knows that.

“He’s been in Montreal for 34 years. And in the 22 years of the grands prix in the United States, they’ve had eight different cities.

“He said ‘You’re right’,” added Dumontier.

Another rumour, repeated by The Times’ Kevin Eason on Saturday, is that the planned 2014 Russian grand prix in Sochi “is doomed”.

Fernando Alonso has denied Ferrari is on the verge of giving up on the 2012 championship.

The Maranello based team has brought significant updates to its so far disappointing F2012 car for this weekend’s Spanish grand prix.

Imagining the single seater doesn’t make a major step forward in Barcelona, Alonso was asked whether Ferrari might start turning its focus to an all-new project for 2013.

“We’ll see, we’ll see after the race, because we don’t know what car we have (yet),” the Spaniard told reporters on Thursday. “I answer you on Sunday.”

Alonso said more updates for the F2012 are also scheduled for the forthcoming Monaco and Canadian grands prix.

But what if the Barcelona changes leave Ferrari with a midfield car? Would the time be right to get an early jump on the 2013 project?

“I don’t think so,” answered Alonso. “If the step is not good enough … we need to work harder, for Monaco and for Canada, and bring more new parts in a more aggressive approach.

“The championship is long and we will never give up in May,” he insisted.

The boss of Abu Dhabi’s F1 circuit has criticised plans to run the young driver test at Silverstone later this year.

Originally, the young driver test was scheduled to take place as usual this year at Yas Marina, the week after the Abu Dhabi grand prix.

But, due to the calendar congestion at the end of this season, the majority of teams have decided instead to go to Silverstone in July, with only the two Red Bull-owned teams sticking with the Abu Dhabi plan.

Lotus team boss Eric Boullier, however, is quoted by The National newspaper as saying the Silverstone plan is “nonsense”.

Yas Marina chief Richard Cregan agrees: “If you’re a good young driver in the middle of a season, then it’s not ideal to be testing a formula one car midway through the year.

“These guys should be focusing on whatever series it is they are racing, which is why the F1 testing in Abu Dhabi worked so well in the past because it was effectively the end of their season.”

He also warned that the earlier timing of the Silverstone test means teams could spend more time trying to develop their cars than on seriously evaluating the next generation of drivers.

“It is first and foremost a young drivers test and it must remain that,” Cregan insisted.

“It is a chance for young drivers to get maybe a first chance to drive an F1 car and it is chance for teams to run their eye over a driver and evaluate his performance.

“Developing the car and parts should be secondary,” he said.

Abu Dhabi could, however, be back on if Silverstone’s weather forecast looks poor, even though as soon as a car has left the pitlane in July, that team will no longer be allowed to change its plans.

Even though Lotus’ Boullier thinks the Silverstone decision was wrong, he has vowed to stick with the majority.

“But actually I would like it to rain, so we will go back to the original schedule,” said the Frenchman.

Cregan said Abu Dhabi’s door remains open.

“We’ll still be working to the same standards,” he said. “So in that sense nothing changes.”

Red Bull’s two teams look set to test alone in Abu Dhabi later this season.

Until recently, the now-traditional young drivers’ test – giving inexperienced drivers the chance to drive current F1 cars amid the sport’s strict testing limits – was scheduled to take place as per usual at the Yas Marina circuit in November.

But those plans were reconsidered due to this year’s congested calendar.

India takes place just one week before Abu Dhabi, the young driver test is scheduled for the week after and then the races in the US and Brazil happening back-to-back next.

In the light of that arduous schedule, Reports in March said the teams were keener on having the young driver test at Silverstone.

“It’s a long season as it is and there are a lot of back-to-back races this year, so it’s tough for them (the teams),” Abu Dhabi circuit boss Richard Cregan conceded.

The German-language Speed Week reports in its May 2 edition that the majority of teams want to test instead at Silverstone, in July.

But the magazine said Red Bull’s two teams – Red Bull Racing and Toro Rosso – are sticking with the original Abu Dhabi plan.

The report also said other teams might cancel Silverstone at the last minute and join Red Bull in Abu Dhabi, should weather reports indicate the British weather would likely affect the July test.

HRT has announced it will sit out next week’s rare in-season formula one test at Mugello.

For the first time in years, the sport has relaxed slightly its strict testing ban in order to give teams the chance to run between grands prix.

The three-day session at Ferrari’s Italian circuit will begin next Tuesday, during the three-week gap between Bahrain and Spain.

Struggling backmarkers HRT, however, will not be there, opting instead to be “completely focused” on relocating to its new Caja Magica headquarters in Madrid.

Every other team will be at Mugello, 30 kilometres from Florence — the first in-season test for four years.

26 drivers will be in action, as will a lot of update packages following F1′s return from the hectic ‘flyaway’ season.

Red Bull, Ferrari, Mercedes, Sauber, Marussia and Toro Rosso will use their regular race drivers.

Running regular racers and a tester will be Lotus (Jerome d’Ambrosio), Williams (Valtteri Bottas) and Force India (Jules Bianchi).

Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport said Caterham is “using the opportunity to earn some money” by accepting the sponsorship of the Venezuelan Rodolfo Gonzalez.

McLaren has scheduled to run its testers Oliver Turvey and Gary Paffett, although Lewis Hamilton has indicated he might gatecrash the programme in order to help solve the MP4-27′s newfound tyre problems.

Lewis Hamilton is rethinking McLaren’s scheduled approach to the rare and crucial in-season test at Mugello next week.

The British team announced last week that both Hamilton and his teammate Jenson Button would sit out Mugello, so that testers Gary Paffett and Oliver Turvey can run over the three-day session instead.

But that was before Bahrain, where McLaren’s early-season upper hand vanished, leaving the drivers and team members scratching their heads over the way the MP4-27 ate rapidly through the Pirelli tyres.

“It (the Mugello schedule) might change,” British newspapers report Hamilton as saying.

“I need to get back in the car. We need to figure out why the tyres are going off.

“If there are other things to test or ways to figure it out, I will be the one to do it, not let someone else do it,” said the 2008 world champion.

A McLaren source indicated that if Hamilton wants to test in Italy, the programme will be altered to accommodate him.

Button, however, appears unavailable to test, as he is scheduled to attend a promotional team event in Budapest early next week.

Force India might skip Friday’s second practice session in Bahrain.

Two of the Silverstone based team’s staff members returned to the UK earlier this week after a Molotov cocktail incident.

The BBC is reporting rumours that other members are the team are now refusing to travel from the circuit back to their hotels after dark.

That would mean Paul di Resta and Nico Hulkenberg will not be able to practice in the second 90 minute session scheduled for 2pm local.

The BBC said the rumour ties in with Force India’s drivers unusually running soft tyres in the initial practice session on Friday.

And F1 chief executive Bernie Ecclestone called the team’s deputy principal Bob Fernley off the pitwall during the initial practice session for talks.

Force India said it “wouldn’t want to comment”.

Organisers of the New York street race have hit back at Bernie Ecclestone’s claim the inaugural 2013 date might be delayed a year.

The F1 chief executive had announced a race on the streets of New Jersey for 2013, and recent photos showed that work on the main pit building is well underway.

But Ecclestone told the BBC this week: “Maybe the New York race will be 2013. It’s a (question of) when. 2013 or 2014.”

Some sensed that the surprise news might be a diversionary tactic by Ecclestone, who is under intense pressure to cancel this weekend’s highly controversial Bahrain grand prix.

Indeed, a spokesman for the 2013 New York street race has reacted to the 81-year-old’s news with surprise.

“There’s nothing to it,” the spokesman, Stephen Sigmund, is quoted by NJBiz. “The race is on, as scheduled, for 2013.”

The race site is predominantly in the Port Imperial development, owned by Roseland Property Co.

That company’s managing partner Carl Goldberg said: “As the primary land owner for the race site, we continue to plan and prepare for a June 2013 race.”

Bahrain protesters have stepped up their anti-grand prix campaign, with formula one vowing to push ahead with a race in the troubled island Kingdom next week.

After the FIA declared that the race is definitely going ahead, Bernie Ecclestone on Friday met with team bosses in the Shanghai paddock.

“There’s nothing (bad) happening. I know people who live there and it’s all very quiet and peaceful,” the F1 chief executive insisted.

Media reports, however, suggest otherwise.

Photos have emerged of protesters burning flags depicting Ecclestone’s face, whilst others marched in F1 overalls and helmets, carrying machine guns.

Anti-F1 graffiti, meanwhile, is sprayed on walls throughout the capital Manama.

Ecclestone, however, told the BBC late on Friday that the Bahrain protesters are “not protesting about formula one”.

So with the race still scheduled, are the teams feeling comfortable?

“All the teams are happy to be there,” insisted Ecclestone.

Commented Red Bull’s Christian Horner after the meeting with the F1 chief executive: “The FIA have obviously done their research and come out with a clear statement that as a team entered into the championship we respect.

“We’ll do our best to ensure that all our guys and girls are in a secure environment, but I don’t doubt that for a moment.”

With F1 currently scheduled to arrive en masse in Bahrain next week, a crisis surrounding the possible cancellation of the island Kingdom’s race is continuing to deepen.

The teams have now denied Bernie Ecclestone’s claim that they can simply choose to skip the event.

“That would not be possible,” said a statement issued by the teams association FOTA. “Teams are unable to cancel (a) grand prix.”

Bahrain, meanwhile, stepped up its campaign, accusing some of deploying “scare-mongering tactics” designed to force the race’s cancellation.

The race organisers released a report conducted by Lotus, following the Enstone based team’s recent reconnaissance mission to Bahrain.

“We came away from Bahrain feeling a lot more confident that everything is in hand,” Lotus is quoted as having reported.

The team, however, reacted angrily, accusing the organisers of having released a “confidential” document.

“Lotus F1 Team is one of 12 contestants of the … world championship and we would never try to substitute ourselves for the FIA”, said the Enstone based team.

Surmised Times correspondent Kevin Eason on Twitter: “(It’s) getting messy…”

At the same time, F1 chief executive Ecclestone became fully immersed in the political situation on Tuesday, reporteding personally phoning Bahrain’s crown prince to express concern about the jailed hunger striker.

An Amnesty International report published this week had called for Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja’s release, amid claims he is now close to death and being force-fed.

But the Bahrain government, through its information affairs authority, insisted that only police and rioters are being injured in “infrequent and remote clashes”.

Also weighing into the argument was Sir Jackie Stewart, the eloquent triple world champion, who said: “I would go.

“The commercial rights holder has sold a package, at a price, and it is part of the constructors’ agreement that they attend the races that have been published,” he told the Guardian.

“As a team owner I would have to honour my agreement both orally and legally.”

Whatever happens, the Bahrain saga – stretching back now over a year – is not good news for the future of the island Kingdom’s calendar spot.

“Maybe we wouldn’t renew it (the contract),” Ecclestone admitted to the BBC. “We’ll have to look and see.”

Construction of the facilities for the 2013 New York grand prix is speeding ahead.

At the same time, there remain grave doubts about the Texas project, despite the permanent Circuit of the Americas venue being scheduled to host its inaugural US grand prix in November.

The Austin American Statesman newspaper has this week quoted county commissioner Sarah Eckhardt as saying: “It appears they (the organisers) don’t have the cash flow to prepare the site for the event.”

It is a very different story so far at Port Imperial, where the American grand prix will take place mid next year on the streets of West New York and Weehawken, amid the Manhattan skyline.

Wheels.ca published a photo depicting the advanced construction of the pit and garage building, which will reportedly house the F1 teams in June next year.

Sahara Force India looks ahead to the third round of the 2012 season in Shanghai, China. To download the full PDF preview or the media schedule for the weekend, please click on the links below.

Vijay’s Vision

After two races the 2012 season appears to have all the ingredients needed to serve up a spectacular year of racing. Already the fans have enjoyed two thrilling races and the intensity of the competition across the grid is sure to capture everybody’s attention.

I said last year that the competition in the midfield was close, but this year it seems to be even more so with the majority of the grid capable of fighting for points. It’s a good situation for Formula One, but it also means points are harder to come by. It’s encouraging that we have scored points in both races and that will be our aim once again in China.

I have to congratulate Paul and Nico on their excellent drives in Malaysia. They are only in their second full seasons of Formula One, but they both showed their maturity in the difficult conditions. At times Paul was one of the fastest cars on the circuit, excelling in the conditions, and it’s clear that we can expect another strong season from him. I was also delighted to see Nico pick up his first points with us after such a strong showing.

In terms of car development, the factory at Silverstone continues to work at full capacity to improve our performance. The first two races have given us a great deal of information to work with and we will put it to good use in the coming races.

Dr. Vijay Mallya

Paul on Shanghai
Following points finishes in the first couple of races, Paul Di Resta sets his sights on more of the same in Shanghai this weekend.

Paul, you must be pretty happy with your start to the season…
I think the whole team is pleased to have nine points on the board after two races and it was important that we picked up some good points on such an unpredictable day in Malaysia. We’ve seen how close all the teams are this year and getting points isn’t easy, so it feels good to start as we mean to continue.

Do you enjoy visiting China and experiencing the different culture?
China is a great place and Shanghai is a city I enjoy visiting. It’s such a big place, there is a lot to see and I enjoy it even more each time I go there.

Tell us about the track…
It has some unusual features. Turn one is very long and feels like it goes on forever. The key to getting it right is how much entry speed you can carry into the corner. You also have to look out for one of the biggest bumps of the year at the corner entry, which makes it difficult.

And what about the overtaking opportunities?
The best chance is turn one or into the very tight hairpin of turn 14, which widens on the entry and makes it difficult to defend. We also saw the effectiveness of DRS last year, which helped produce some good racing and it should be the same this year.

Nico on Shanghai
Nico Hulkenberg looks ahead to racing in Shanghai following his points finish in Malaysia.

Nico, after the disappointment of Melbourne, you finally got some racing miles under your belt in Sepang…
Yes, I’m happy with the race we had in Malaysia, which was basically the first proper race I have done since the end of 2010. It wasn’t an easy race and I was never in any clean air, but it was good to pick up a couple of points – my first points for the team.

Did you learn much about the car given that the conditions were so changeable in Sepang?
You always learn something and a race distance is always valuable for your knowledge of the car, even racing in the wet. The most difficult part of the race was just after the restart when I struggled for balance on the wets and intermediates, but when I switched to slicks the performance was pretty good.

Does the team have a better idea of the pecking order yet?
We’re only at the start of the season – we’ve only had two race weekends, so we still need to wait and see. Because the midfield is so compact nobody can afford to relax. We all need to push hard to improve performance and with 18 races still to go there’s plenty of time to do that.

What are your thoughts ahead of this weekend’s race in China?
It’s not my favourite race of the year, but they’ve done a good job to build a really impressive facility and it’s a fun track to drive. It’s difficult to predict how well we will do there, but given how close the grid is at the moment I think it should be a good show for everyone who is watching.