The oddest element of the 2012 season so far is that the unlikeliest of candidates could now be genuine title contenders.

Before the Spanish grand prix weekend, Pastor Maldonado was a commonly derided ‘pay driver’ with 500-1 odds of winning in Barcelona, and just a single point to his name in 2011.

Now, he is F1′s newest pole-getter and race victor, and genuinely regarded as a potential contender for the world championship.

And Dr Helmut Marko, the reigning world champion Red Bull’s motor racing manager, said: “If the Williams really has traction that good, then Maldonado will run rings around everyone in Monte Carlo,” he is quoted by Auto Motor und Sport.

Maldonado travelled straight from Spain to Caracus, where he was being quizzed by the local media as to his chances of a back-to-back victory repeat in Monaco next weekend.

“I think it’s going to be a great opportunity for us to be strong again,” 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.”

Toro Rosso counts Caterham – the 2010 start-up team that has failed to score a single point since inception – among its close rivals for 2012.
Last season, the Red Bull-owned rookie team Toro Rosso finished the championship in eighth place with 41 points, well clear of Williams and behind Sauber and Force India.

“Our direct competitors are Sauber, Force India and Caterham,” the Faenza based team’s boss Franz Tost is quoted by autohebdo.fr.

Formerly Lotus, the Tony Fernandes-led Caterham team has been the best of the new 2010 teams including Marussia (nee Virgin) and HRT.

“Caterham has managed to build a good infrastructure,” Tost is quoted as saying.

“They have the Renault engine and a KERS from Red Bull and it means their package is good.

“They have two experienced drivers and I expect they will become our rivals.

“Our goal is to take seventh place in the championship — we must do better than last year,” added Tost.

Red Bull can afford to let its huge points lead over McLaren drop this weekend and yet still wrap up the constructors’ world championship with three races to spare.

Last weekend in Japan, Sebastian Vettel needed a single point to beat Jenson Button to the 2011 drivers’ crown, and duly scored 15 with his podium place.

The next step is the teams’ crown, with Red Bull’s lead of 130 points over McLaren able to drop to 129 points in Korea and yet still ensure a winning lead by the time of the chequered flag at Interlagos late next month.

“It is unlikely that it will elude us, but you still have to get it,” said team owner Dietrich Mateschitz, according to the Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf.

And boss Christian Horner is quoted by Austria’s Kleine Zeitung: “The drivers’ title was the first part, now we want to retain the constructors’ title.

“As a team it’s almost the most important one, relating to the prestige in the pitlane and, of course, the bonus payments,” said the Briton, referring to the revenue distribution tables in the commercial Concorde Agreement.

Red Bull’s 2012 car will “surprise” the F1 paddock, its famous designer Adrian Newey has been quoted as saying by a Finnish newspaper.
Already this week, Ferrari’s chief designer Nikolas Tombazis has revealed that next year’s single seater is “fairly different” to the current 150 Italia and could provoke a “wow factor” when it is launched.

But the same is also true of Newey’s RB8, according to Turun Sanomat newspaper, despite the current Red Bull being an evolution of the 2009 concept.

Blown diffusers aside, the rules are staying essentially the same in 2012 but Newey has “revealed that next year’s RB8 will amaze everyone”, correspondent Heikki Kulta wrote.

“When he was asked what about it is so surprising, he replied that if he revealed that now then it would no longer be a surprise.”

Even team boss Christian Horner apparently knows very little about the 2012 Red Bull.

“So far he (Newey) has only told me that it’s going to be blue,” he joked, according to Die Presse.

Dr Helmut Marko said on the Servus TV channel this week that the 2011 car will feature some new parts in Japan this weekend.

“What we learn can be used for the new car in 2012,” said the team advisor. “We want to come back with a clear lead for the first race of the season.”

But before the full focus turns to 2012, Red Bull and Sebastian Vettel need to mathematically conclude their 2011 title triumphs, and Newey insists there is no celebrating yet.

“We still have not won anything,” the Briton said ahead of Suzuka, where Vettel needs only a single point to secure his second drivers’ title.

Horner however insists the team will not be on ‘cruise and collect’ in Japan.

“We are not looking at the one point but the (maximum) 43,” Kleine Zeitung quotes him saying.

As for the future, Horner insists he can live with the constant sniping about Red Bull’s approach to F1 rules and financial agreements.

“We take it as a compliment,” he said. “We have shown that what we have achieved was no fluke.

“Ferrari and McLaren were sworn enemies for twenty years, yet now they are united against us.”

Red Bull has already produced the t-shirts to mark Sebastian Vettel’s 2011 world championship victory.
The German is tipped to secure the single point he needs to mathematically wrap up his second consecutive drivers’ crown next weekend in Japan.

And according to the Bild-Zeitung daily, Red Bull has jumped the gun by producing a run of white t-shirts bearing Vettel’s logo and the words “2011 F1 drivers’ world champion”.

It will be sold for EUR 29.95, Bild added.

Actually, however, the 24-year-old is highly superstitious and refusing to count on his title victory until it is definitely in the bag.

“Statistically the chances are on our side but generally in sports there have been a lot of stories written, and this one also has to wait to be closed,” he said.

Swiss newspaper Blick reports that Vettel and his parents Norbert and Heike therefore hosted a “One-Point-Missing-Party” in the Singapore paddock late on Sunday.

One interesting attendee was Luca Colajanni, the Ferrari team spokesman.

A quirk of 2011-style formula one is that Jaime Alguersuari is hoping to qualify poorly for the German grand prix.

At the first five grands prix of the season, the Toro Rosso driver was always in Q2 and even Q3 but failed to go on to score a single point.

But in Canada, Valencia and Silverstone, 21-year-old Spaniard consecutively failed to progress out of Q1 yet went on to score points on all three occasions.

“I wouldn’t mind not going into Q2 and qualifying eighteenth at the Nurburging,” he told Radio Nacional de Espana. “That way I keep a set of tyres.”

18th is the highest grid position possible without graduating into Q2 and having to use a further set of Pirelli tyres.

“I am sure about it because at first I did the opposite and it was very bad,” said Alguersuari. “I’d prefer not to qualify, have a good race car and finish in the points.”

Alguersuari, meanwhile, thinks Sebastian Vettel is right on course for the 2011 title.

“For me, the championship is decided already,” he said. “This year the Red Bulls don’t break down and, compared to us, are in a different galaxy.”

After Sunday’s Korean grand prix, Christian Klien could return to the wheel of the HRT for one or both of the remaining races of 2010.

That is the claim of the Austrian newspaper Kleine Zeitung, recalling the 27-year-old’s strong performance with the struggling Spanish team in Singapore recently.

With his apparent food poisoning gone, Japanese pay-driver Sakon Yamamoto returned to the Cosworth-powered car in Japan and Korea.

But Kleine Zeitung said HRT is now considering putting reserve driver Klien back in the car for Brazil or Abu Dhabi, in a last-ditch effort to beat Lotus to tenth place in the constructors’ world championship.

Lotus has been the best of the three new teams in 2010, but neither it, HRT or Virgin has scored a single point.

Lotus is currently tenth due to Heikki Kovalainen’s 12th place finish at Suzuka, but an eleventh for HRT or Virgin at Interlagos or Yas Marina next month would see Lotus overhauled.

Only the top ten constructors share in the annual distribution of prize-money under the provisions of the Concorde Agreement.

Klien said in Yeongam that 2010 has shown that some pay-drivers are not necessarily the best value for F1 teams relying on the lucrative Bernie Ecclestone income.

“There is one at Virgin and Renault, and possibly two at Hispania,” he said.

But Klien acknowledged that a surprise result for HRT with the F110 car is unlikely.

“We are the only team that, since the season opener in Bahrain, has not aerodynamically improved its car,” he said.

He is therefore more hopeful about 2011.

“In March next year, I definitely see myself in a formula one cockpit,” said Klien.

Nelson Piquet Jr has admitted he never repaired his relationship with countryman Felipe Massa after the ‘crashgate’ scandal.

Ferrari driver Massa accused Piquet of “robbery” last year, after it emerged that he deliberately crashed his Renault during the 2008 Singapore grand prix.

The crash helped Piquet’s then teammate Fernando Alonso win the race, but Massa – who had led comfortably from pole position – famously drove away with the fuel hose still attached when he made a pitstop under the safety car.

“My relationship with Barrichello and Massa had always been very friendly — they always treated me very well, gave me a lot of advice,” Piquet, now a NASCAR truck series driver, told the Brazilian weekly newsmagazine Istoe.

“But after Singapore Massa was offended by me, and to this day he thinks he lost the 2008 world championship only because of me.”

It is true that Massa lost many points at Singapore, whilst missing out on the drivers’ title to Lewis Hamilton by just a single point.

“Massa is still completely insulted, I’ve never spoken with him (since),” added Piquet.

May 15 (GMM)  Peter Sauber has denied recent rumours and reports suggesting the seats of his Swiss team’s drivers are in doubt.

With Pedro de la Rosa and Kamui Kobayashi failing to score a single point so far in 2010, it was rumoured Sauber could replace them with drivers who at least bring sponsorship to the mostly blank-liveried car.

But team founder and boss Sauber, 66, is quoted in Monaco by the EFE news agency: “I do not understand why this (claim) is repeated again and again.

“The Spanish grand prix was the first time we were able to give the drivers a competitive car, which is very important for their confidence.”

After a dismal start to the season, the Swiss believes Sauber’s fortunes are now beginning to turn.

“I think that in Spain we made significant progress and took two steps forward; something that was necessary,” he said.

Sauber also revealed that, after several steps of development, the C29′s F-duct system is now “working well”.

With F1′s points system of 2009, Fernando Alonso would currently be the world championship leader.

Before this season began, the FIA tweaked the points system so that two extra finishers per race score points, while the points gap between the winner and second place was widened.

But under last year’s system, Alonso would currently be leading Jenson Button by a single point, according to an analysis by Spain’s Diario AS.

Instead, Button – who has won 2 races compared with the more consistently-competitive Alonso’s single victory in Bahrain – is leading the Spaniard by three points.

Briton Button told the Spanish sports newspaper that when he moved from Brawn to McLaren for 2010, he did not expect to be leading the world championship after five races.

“For the first five races my goal was to feel at home and adapt to the car,” said the reigning world champion.

“Leading the championship at the moment is a great feeling, but it’s only the beginning.  There’s a long way to go in a championship that is going to be very challenging and close,” added Button.

(GMM)