Former F1 driver Mika Salo believes his Finnish countryman Valtteri Bottas is being groomed by Williams for a race seat — in 2012.

When the Toto Wolff-managed Bottas, 22, was announced as the British team’s 2012 reserve, Sir Frank Williams said he would practice on 15 Friday mornings and then “most likely” be replaced with a “more experienced driver” for the rest of those race weekends.

That more experienced driver would ultimately turn out to be Bruno Senna.

So with Brazilian Senna struggling so far in 2012, Salo has revealed he senses things could be about to change.

“Bottas is incredibly respected by the team,” Salo, now a commentator for the Finnish broadcaster MTV3, said.

“When I spoke with Frank Williams, he praised Valtteri to the skies, and said that he belongs in the races.

“I asked him when and he said it wouldn’t be long.

“Yes, I read between the lines that he means this season,” added Salo.

One major spanner in the works, however, is that Senna brings crucial sponsorship to Williams.

“It is a difficult situation for Williams, where both drivers bring money,” Salo acknowledged.

“But the good thing is that Frank Williams is not a businessman first, he is an old racing driver. He thinks about nothing else but how to make his team successful.

“Although Senna is a nice guy, he is not able to drive at the level that he needs to be at.”

When asked about Salo’s theory, Bottas commented: “I have no information.”

Lewis Hamilton threw a potential spanner in the works on Friday by setting the fastest practice time in Abu Dhabi.

Mark Webber and Fernando Alonso have been largely billed as the 2010 championship favourites for the season finale, with Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel – the Interlagos winner – tipped to play a supporting role.

But it was McLaren’s Hamilton, who is also in with a narrow shout of the title, who was quickest in practice when the sun set on Friday night.

The Briton was superb at the circuit in 2009, and he was quicker late on Friday than championship challengers Vettel, Alonso and Webber respectively.

He had said on Thursday: “I have nothing to lose. The guys in front of me have everything to lose, they have got generally faster cars than me but that doesn’t mean that I cannot fight for a win.”

Indeed, winning on Sunday – with the main contenders basically failing to score – is Hamilton’s only real chance of securing a second drivers’ title on Sunday.

But his pace will also be a headache for the Red Bulls, who are more closely chasing points leader Alonso’s Ferrari.

Should Hamilton win in Abu Dhabi, even with Webber in second place, Spaniard Alonso would only need a minor placing to be world champion.

“A Hamilton victory puts Fernando Alonso in prime position for the championship,” agreed former HRT driver Karun Chandhok on BBC radio.

The Formula 1 2010 season includes 19 races and only two have been completed, but already has Sebastian Vettel to reason to be disappointed. In the first two Grands Prix of the Red Bull Racing driver was dominant on the way to win both races and would be 50 championship points can have on the account – would not have made him both times the technique a spanner in the works.

Thus the German ranks with twelve points on the seventh instead of a clear edge on the competition from Fernando Alonso (37 points), Felipe Massa (33), Jenson Button (31) and Lewis Hamilton (23) have. The “Project World Cup title had” the 22-year-old differently.

“In the first moment you’re incredibly angry,” the driver from Heppenheim in an interview with ‘World Online’, which reveals that he his team to radio in the first moment of his displeasure quite clearly expresses: “You cry mostly out loud ‘shit ‘”.

There was currently “no reason to panic” and of course he would already show in the next race, he can also take the victory to the finish: “The first moment is a failure always frustrating, but the next day, everything looks different again from .

“We have no big problem that could plague a team half a season,” Vettel reassured his fans. “Only the problems we got, we’ve never had, and they came quite unexpectedly, that you can not prepare you.”

could expect in the coming race Sebastian Vettel one of ups and downs at the moment we make no clear favorites – including Red Bull Racing is not a clear favorite to win at the next race. If anything, he would call the Ferrari at the moment the strongest team.
(TOTALMOTORSPORTS)

Because the decision about next year’s supplier is taking so long, F1 teams are designing their 2011 cars around the current specification of Bridgestone tyre.

The Japanese marque is departing the sport, and it had been expected that the Italian company Pirelli would be unveiled this weekend as successor.

But Michelin has thrown a spanner in the works, sending competition boss Nick Shorrock to Istanbul, where a 90 minute meeting on Sunday resulted in the teams still not deciding on an outcome for next year’s world championship.

“It’s going to take a little while longer,” Mercedes team boss Ross Brawn told Reuters in Turkey.

But the teams’ designers are out of time, and leading outfits are getting anxious.

“It’s already late and we cannot really waste more time on it,” said Ferrari’s Stefano Domenicali.

Brawn said the teams are handling the situation by producing a “technical specification” of the tyre they want for 2011, and are therefore able to continue with plans for next year’s cars.

“Our cars are being designed around the current tyres because we have no other information,” he explained.

(GMM)