It is believed static electricity could have sparked Williams’ garage fire two weeks ago in Barcelona.

Even in the Monte Carlo paddock, the huge Spanish blaze was still a hot topic.

The British team and the FIA conducted investigations, but there has been no definite finding about the cause of the fire.

Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport reported suggestions simple static electricity, caused by the specific weather conditions and the fact a container was not grounded at the time, was the culprit.

Williams has scrambled to be ready for Monaco, but the only obvious sign of the fire on Wednesday was one missing mechanic, who is still recovering from burns.

“He’s on the road to recovery,” said co-owner Toto Wolff.

It is believed the mechanic was pumping fuel from one container to another when the fire started.

Wolff confirmed the static electricity theory.

“This is extremely rare. The weather may have played a role, as we had low pressure over Barcelona that day,” he explained.

Auto Motor und Sport said Williams lost mainly computers in the fire, but the crucial data survived. Of the team’s 150 radios, only 40 were intact.

Wolff said Bruno Senna’s chassis survived because of the partitions at the back of the main pit area.

“They are flame retardant,” he confirmed. “This meant the fire did not come beyond the back (area). The walls melted in the heat, but they didn’t burn.”

And financially, the Oxfordshire based team is completely undamaged, due to insurance.

Volkswagen, the German carmaking giant, has played down suggestions it could launch a formula one project some time soon.

“There are always rumours about Volkswagen and formula one,” said Jost Capito, who has taken over from Kris Nissen as the head of the Wolfsburg-based company’s motor racing boss.

However, he is quoted by Germany’s Sport1 as insisting that VW is only concentrating on its world rally programme.

“The WRC programme is approved from 2013 to 2015,” Capito insisted. “There is no room to think about anything else.

“It (F1) is not on our radar,” he is also quoted as saying by France’s L’Equipe. “Our hands are full already.”

In the wake of BMW, Honda and Toyota’s departures, the only mass production carmakers in F1 are Renault – as an engine supplier – and Mercedes.

Ferrari, McLaren, Lotus and Caterham produce niche sports cars.

Mercedes is “on the verge” of quitting formula one.

That is the alarming claim of the London newspaper The Times, in an article written by its authoritative F1 correspondent Kevin Eason.

Eason wrote that while rival top teams Ferrari, McLaren and Red Bull will get to appoint directors once F1 is floated on the Singapore exchange, Mercedes has not been extended the same offer.

“Why should Mercedes have the same deal as the others?” F1 chief executive Bernie Ecclestone is quoted as saying. “What have they done in formula one?

“They won a race and that is it.”

That attitude, Eason argues, has left Mercedes “on the verge of quitting formula one”, having apparently conducted a study into how its Brackley based works team could be withdrawn.

Eason also quoted Ecclestone as having “scoffed” at the suggestion Mercedes quitting could wipe 20 per cent off the value of F1′s stock market floatation.

Another theory about Force India’s absence from a practice session in Bahrain last weekend has emerged.

Word has it the Silverstone based team sat out the second session on Friday because staff were spooked by a Molotov cocktail incident and didn’t want to be returning to their hotels in darkness.

Officially, Force India said the decision to skip a practice session was for “logistical reasons”.

“None of the other teams seem to have a problem,” said Bernie Ecclestone last weekend. “Maybe (it’s) nothing to do with being in this country, maybe it’s something else.”

An event summary by Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport said: “There are rumours that Force India wanted to save its engines because they are short on cash.”

The team’s Bahrain crisis was handled by deputy chief Bob Fernley, in the absence of owner and principal Vijay Mallya.

Indeed, Indian Mallya does seem to have bigger problems, with the latest reports indicating he is considering selling 26 per cent of his flagship spirits company in order to rescue his dying airline Kingfisher.

A spokesman for JM Financial, representing Mallya, dismissed the suggestion as “factually incorrect and speculative”.

Whilst admitting the RB8 has “very nervous” handling, Sebastian Vettel insists there is nothing fundamentally wrong with the 2012 Red Bull.

The German looks likely to struggle to add a third consecutive drivers’ title to his tally this season, after slumping to just sixth in the points standings after the first two races.

In China, he has reverted to a launch specification of the Adrian Newey-penned car’s exhaust layout, whilst Mark Webber is plugging ahead with a further development of the Australia-Malaysia solution.

“There is no question of something (being) wrong,” Vettel is quoted in Spanish media reports as saying in Shanghai, “just a few things that are probably just not working in an ideal manner.

“The problem we have is that the balance of the car is not as good as we had last year. It’s not a question of downforce, but of ensuring that all the parts are behaving as a whole.

“That is what we are trying to achieve.”

Vettel dismissed the suggestion that because Red Bull’s cars are in two different specifications this weekend, it means the team has “lost” its way.

“I wouldn’t say that,” he said. “I firmly believe we have a very competitive car, at the moment we are just not able to take its full potential out.”

Meanwhile, the 24-year-old said he has spoken with Narain Karthikeyan, following their collision in Malaysia.

Vettel twice showed his Indian rival the middle finger, and described Karthikeyan – who was penalised by the stewards – as an “idiot”.

“I spoke with him and he apologised,” Vettel is quoted by Germany’s spox.com.

But when told that he was once a backmarker like Karthikeyan, the German insisted: “I was never as far behind as the HRT.

“Of course you have to drive your own race. But you still have to know what is going on around you.”

McLaren is not yet ready to roll out a Mercedes-style ‘F-duct’ to complement its highly competitive 2012 car.

Despite Mercedes struggling with tyres in the actual races so far, the W03 is a standout qualifying performer, thanks in part to the so-nicknamed front and rear ‘super-DRS’ system.

Red Bull, Lotus and perhaps even Ferrari are threatening to protest, but until now McLaren – with arguably the dominant package of the 2012 season so far – has stayed out of the argument.

“We don’t have a strong view one way or the other,” technical director Paddy Lowe confirmed during the regular Vodafone media teleconference on Tuesday.

The F-duct will remain a hot topic in China this weekend, with Lotus’ technical boss James Allison believed to be armed with two new arguments against its legality.

It was thought McLaren was quite advanced with its own version of the system.

But Lowe revealed: “Until we’ve got clarity it’s difficult for us to commit a huge about of effort in that direction. So that’s where we are at the moment.”

He steered away from suggestions Mercedes, including boss Ross Brawn, have flouted the “spirit” of the recent F-duct ban.

“There’s no such thing as the spirit of the rules,” insisted Lowe, admitting that if there was a ‘spirit’ of the DRS rule, the Mercedes system is “definitely” in breach.

“The debate around whether they can keep that system on the car is not about whether it is in that spirit or not, it’s about whether the text of the regulations means they can’t,” he explained.

Sebastian Vettel remains unapologetic after insulting his rival Narain Karthikeyan.

The reigning world champion twice showed Indian Karthikeyan the middle finger in Malaysia recently, also describing the HRT driver as an “idiot” and “gherkin” following their on-track clash.

Karthikeyan hit back by calling the 24-year-old German “unprofessional” and a “crybaby”, amid suggestions Vettel did not display sporting values befitting a double world champion.

Indeed, when asked by Germany’s Sport Bild if he is a ‘bad loser’, Vettel replied: “It’s true, I can only lose badly.

“Why should I lie? If I could lose well, I would not be in formula one. I was disappointed.”

But the Red Bull driver also insists his outbursts should be taken in the context of the moment.

“So soon after the race, I feel like I should be honest rather than playing the ‘smiling boy’.

“Sometimes it takes ten minutes after finishing a race to return to normal, sometimes you need a night’s sleep to check things off and look ahead positively.

“When I put Jenson Button out of the race at Spa in 2010, I apologised to him the next day.”

So, Vettel is much more positive now.

“From a pure sporting perspective, I have more points now than I had at this point in 2010 when I won the championship. So I’m only looking forward,” he insisted.

Norbert Haug has the ‘F-duct’ debate around by admitting he questions the exhaust solution featured on this year’s McLaren car.

Some teams – notably Red Bull, Lotus and Ferrari – have complained loudly about the W03′s aerodynamic configuration, arguing the F-duct ban completely ruled out similar systems that are triggered by a driver’s movement.

Mercedes argues that its new F-duct is entirely passive and is triggered not by the driver but by the activation of the ‘DRS’ rear wing system.

So far, the FIA agrees, but it has led to suggestions Mercedes is only performing in qualifying because of its questionable F-duct, before struggling in the race when DRS use is much more limited.

“We have to live with that,” Mercedes’ motor racing chief Haug is quoted by Sport Bild, “until we are faster in the race, but it’s not true that we do not have a good car.

“We are a serious team that has to pretend nothing; we have prepared well in winter testing.”

Team boss Ross Brawn said recently he suspects all the fuss about Mercedes’ F-duct is a diversion when it comes to the exhaust solutions taken by some of his rivals in the wake of the blown diffuser clampdown.

Haug agrees that championship leader McLaren’s solution, for example, is “probably not what they (the FIA) had in mind when the blown diffuser was banned”.

But he also said Mercedes is not threatening to protest the “clever” British team.

“It is quite legitimate that we ask the FIA for a clarification, otherwise we could be missing a trick.

“It’s part of the game,” he explains.

Amid speculation regarding Felipe Massa’s immediate future, Sergio Perez’s father has revealed that Ferrari approached Sauber.

Earlier, Sauber driver Perez played down the rumours about Massa’s future, including the suggestion he was at the very top of Ferrari’s replacement list.

“Sergio is focused one hundred per cent on (performing in) Malaysia,” the 22-year-old Mexican’s father Antonio is quoted by the Spanish-language Medio Tiempo.

Perez snr’s son is the cream of Ferrari’s development driver ‘academy’ programme.

“Since last year, Ferrari has had three drivers: Alonso, Massa and Perez,” he said.

“‘Checo’ has a great relationship with the team but I can say today that Perez is signed only with Peter Sauber.”

Nonetheless, it has been suggested Ferrari made an approach to Sauber recently, amid Massa’s performance slump.

“Yes, Monisha (Kaltenborn), who is the chief executive of Sauber, confirmed that Ferrari people approached her to talk about Sergio,” said his father Antonio.

At the very least, Perez is a candidate for Massa’s seat next year.

“That would be a good package,” the Mexican answered when asked about the potential pairing of his son with Fernando Alonso.

“I see it only as a matter of time. We have to wait and be patient rather than distract Checo from what he is doing now.

“Sergio was not even aware of the statements made by Ferrari: he was training and focused on his fitness,” added Perez snr.

Luca di Montezemolo, Ferrari’s president, urged calm over the famous team’s current situation, including the calls for Massa’s scalp.

“I understand that the fans are disappointed,” he is quoted by Stuttgarter Nachrichten newspaper, “but I ask them to remain calm.

“We must remain calm and focused.”

Still, the rumour mill waits for nobody, and even Ferrari’s official ‘Tweet’ about the “reasonable job” done by Massa on Saturday did not go unnoticed.

“I take that to mean, ‘You’re useless!’ German RTL commentator Christian Danner joked.

Aldo Costa has revealed he is unhappy with Ferrari’s comments in the wake of his departure last year.

The Italian was stepped down as the famous team’s technical director, and he switched to Mercedes before the German marque made a significant step forwards with its 2012 car.

He has remained quiet about his treatment by Ferrari until now, telling Autosprint magazine that the Maranello marque lacked “style and professionalism” as it handled its restructuring.

Asked for more information, he said Ferrari explained “things that not only myself but also the whole world of formula one knows is not the truth”.

Costa confirmed that he was referring to Ferrari’s suggestion that he lacked “creativity”.

Still, he said he is not happy to see his old team struggling to make it into Q3 with the aggressive F2012.

“I still have so many friends in Maranello, but now I want to be 100 per cent engaged on succeeding with Mercedes.”

He said the Ross Brawn-led team has a “different” approach to Ferrari’s “that makes it easier to do things”.

Fourth in the 2012 championship is a “realistic” target for Lotus.
That is the claim of reigning GP2 champion Romain Grosjean, amid suggestions his new mount – the black and gold E20 – is among the very best cars on this year’s grid.

“If I am really positive, we can say we are the third force, with Mercedes,” he is quoted by RMC.

“If I am more realistic, we can say that we will fight for fourth place with Ferrari, Force India, Sauber and Toro Rosso,” added the Frenchman.

Former F1 driver Mika Salo said the development race will be Lotus’ true test.

“They are a contender at least early in the season,” the Finn told the MTV3 broadcaster. “But the biggest teams develop at such a fast pace.”

Dr Helmut Marko has dismissed suggestions Red Bull is entering the 2012 season with a question mark over the legality of its new car.
With two days of pre-season testing remaining, the reigning world champions took a heavily revised car to Barcelona recently and guarded the rear exhaust solution intensely, with covers and – oddly – even umbrellas.

Initial analysis indicated it might be close to what the FIA will allow, following the strict clampdown on exhaust diffuser blowing.

Asked by the Kleine Zeitung newspaper if the FIA has completely banned the aerodynamic use of exhaust gases, Marko replied: “No.

“The regulations stipulate the position of the exhaust, within a certain parameter.”

As for the ‘cheating’ rumours, the team advisor insists: “It bounces off us completely. The way we see it, there are no grey areas and we are well within all the regulations.”

Meanwhile, FIA technical delegate Charlie Whiting has admitted it is “quite likely” he will have to “revisit” the exhaust regulations for 2013.

Sergio Perez has admitted the possibility he could be paired with Fernando Alonso next year at Ferrari.
The famous Italian team has put Felipe Massa on notice, with Mexican Perez – currently driving for Ferrari-powered Sauber – at the head of Ferrari’s driver development programme.

At the same time, however, Red Bull’s reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel regularly declares his desire to one day race a Ferrari.

“Ah, yes,” Perez told the Spanish sports daily Marca.

So who is the real front-runner for Massa’s seat?

“We will see,” he insisted, “as ultimately it depends on this year, which for me is very important.”

Perez, 22, admitted at least that he is a leading candidate.

“Yes, but this season is yet to even start and everything changes very fast in a year. There are many things that are yet to have been seen,” he said.

“For me, Ferrari is the greatest team for which all the drivers dream of one day winning the championship but … let’s see. I would love to be there some day.”

Perez acknowledged that Spaniard Alonso, Ferrari’s much-loved number one, would be a difficult teammate.

“Very difficult, I would say Alonso is the most difficult on all of the grid to have as your teammate, I respect him a lot,” he insisted.

Reportedly on the cusp of a top seat, Perez is nonetheless still fending off suggestions he is a ‘pay driver’, due to his strong backing by the Mexican sponsor Telmex.

“In these days you do depend more on your support,” admitted Perez, “but I believe the talent remains the priority.

“Even with the drivers having support, I don’t think there are any bad drivers on the grid.

“I was criticised a lot for coming with the Telmex money, but if you look back, a driver who wins five races in GP2 and loses the title by 10 points will normally go in F1 the next year.

“It (Telmex) is an influence, but to say it’s why I’m here is not fair,” he insisted.

When Adrian Newey said a mysterious ‘letterbox slot’-shaped air inlet in the stepped nose of his new RB8 car is for driver cooling, a wave of speculation eased.
But not everyone inside the F1 paddock was entirely happy with that answer.

When the 2012 Red Bull was launched recently, it was apparent the ‘step’ nose design differed from its rivals in the form of a sizeable inlet where the monocoque meets the new mandatory lower nose height.

Some surmised it must be for KERS cooling, or perhaps even an F-duct style channel through to the diffuser.

Amid suggestions Mercedes has come up with an F-duct style channel in its 2012 front wing, Red Bull designer Newey explained that the nose slot is in fact simply to cool the drivers.

“Traditionally the driver cooling slot is at the front of the nose,” explained Newey, “but really for styling as much as anything we moved it to where you now see it to break up the aesthetics of the ramp.”

There are, however, doubts about that explanation, particularly with close-up images showing that the main inlet is actually divided into two channels at the middle.

Indeed, the Telegraph last week quoted Newey as having said the slot is “primarily” for cooling, which suggests that it might have another use.

According to Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport, “the competition is suspicious”, having already been outsmarted by Newey in past years in the area of flexing wings and blown diffusers.

When asked about Newey’s driver-cooling explanation for the big letterbox slot-style inlet, an unnamed rival engineer smiled: “Then the drivers are going to get their feet wet when it rains.”

Asked last week about the ‘cooling inlet’ amid Jerez’s cold temperatures, Mark Webber reportedly grinned to Autosprint: “The toes are a bit too cold now actually.”

 Lotus team owner Gerard Lopez has hit back at suggestions Kimi Raikkonen’s public image is an accurate reflection of the true 2007 world champion.
While the winner of 18 grands prix with Ferrari and McLaren is undoubtedly among F1′s most naturally gifted drivers ever, he also has a reputation for being lazy, unmotivated and uncooperative with the media and sponsors.

But after signing the 32-year-old Finn – who is nicknamed the ‘iceman’ – for his return to F1 in 2012 after two years in world rallying, Lotus insists it is more happy with Raikkonen so far.

“We feel very good with him and he clearly feels at home,” team owner Lopez is quoted by the Sun.

“He smiles a lot when he’s with us. But most importantly he says he feels like part of the family.

“I think Kimi has a public image that honestly from what we’ve seen does not translate into how he really is.

“He’s a very hard worker, very good at providing feedback and has a good team spirit.”

Lopez hinted, however, that he and team boss Eric Boullier did have some doubts about Raikkonen when they were considering their 2012 lineup.

But “Once we talked to him, once we understood why he was coming back to F1, we really felt comfortable,” he insisted.

“If you look at what happened at the (Jerez) test nobody can say he’s not on the pace.”