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.

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.

It was a breakthrough for Mercedes and Nico Rosberg, but the Chinese grand prix was a “difficult day” for Michael Schumacher.

That is the admission of Shanghai winner Rosberg, whose first race win after more than 100 attempts also delivered German marque Mercedes’ first works victory for more than half a century.

“I felt he was very happy for me,” Rosberg told Auto Bild Motorsport, when asked what seven time world champion Schumacher’s reaction was.

Since returning to F1 more than two years ago, 43-year-old Schumacher – although stepping up his pace in 2012 – is yet to finish a single grand prix on the podium.

Nonetheless, he offered his congratulations “very, very warmly” after China, Rosberg revealed.

“At the same time I know that it was, of course, a difficult day (for him),” he admitted.

Norbert Haug, the team’s motor sport director, recently sounded inclined to keep Rosberg and Schumacher together beyond 2012, despite the fact the older and more famous German’s contract is ending.

He insisted there is “nothing negative” about their relationship.

As for ongoing rumours that Schumacher still enjoys number one status, Haug called that idea “absolute nonsense”.

“Do you know what Nico said to me, before Michael came? He said ‘If you can get Michael (on the team), then try everything for it’.”

Rosberg has not changed his tune.

“There was never a situation in which Michael got anything before I did,” he confirmed.

F1′s new face of 2012 is polarising the sport.

It seems teams, drivers and spectators alike either love or hate the new great influence brought largely by Pirelli’s new generation of tyres.

An admitted critic is Michael Schumacher.

“It’s a 1000 piece puzzle that you need to put together at each race,” said the seven time world champion, according to Auto Motor und Sport.

Not for three decades have four different drivers driving for four different teams won the opening four grands prix of a season.

“From the standpoint of competition,” wrote Livio Oricchio in O Estado de S.Paulo newspaper, “there is no doubt that the Pirelli 2012 generation meets fully the objective of promoting the show.

“But if you think purely about the engineering challenge that is formula one, and the genius of the people and the immense financial and technical resources needed for success, the tyres have now taken on such an importance that the results don’t seem compatible.

“Myself, and many in formula one, hope the new versions of tyres that Pirelli is developing returns a little more predictability in terms of how they behave, without affecting the show too much.”

For now, however, the teams need to put their puzzles together, and that will undoubtedly be the focus of this week’s three-day in-season test at Mugello.

“He who understands the tyres first,” McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh astutely noted, “will have a huge advantage in the world championship.”

A broad understanding is already developing, including why 2012 winners Jenson Button, Fernando Alonso, Nico Rosberg and Sebastian Vettel won from the very front of the field.

“When you’re in a battle, you can’t take the lines that are best for the tyres,” said Mercedes’ Ross Brawn.

All eyes are now turning to Mugello, where the understanding will continue.

“These test days could change the balance of power in formula one,” Norbert Haug predicted dramatically in Bild newspaper.

Not everyone is enthusiastic, however, including McLaren who oppose the Mugello test on cost grounds.

Williams’ chief engineer Mark Gillan agrees: “The days of test teams are gone, so this is not logistically easy,” he is quoted by Germany’s Sport1.

Bruno Senna added: “Mugello is not an ideal test track, as it’s very different to most of the tracks that are on the calendar.”

Kimi Raikkonen insists he is “not interested” in formula one — except the cars, and winning.

Asked by the reporter for Bild am Sonntag newspaper if the famous Finnish character might remove his sunglasses for an interview, 2007 world champion Raikkonen replied simply: “No.”

At the end of his fourth race since returning to F1 from rallying, the 32-year-old was back on the podium in Bahrain.

“It’s not going too bad,” he said. “I like what I’m doing, that’s enough. I don’t care if someone says whether I’m doing it well or not.

“Still, it’s disappointing when you’re only second. Who knows what’s going to happen at the next race,” the Lotus driver added.

Just after leaving F1 at the end of 2009, Raikkonen said he disliked everything about the sport — except the cars.

Nothing has changed.

“No. I’m only here for racing,” said Raikkonen.

“All the other bulls**t I can do without. If you took away the cars from formula one, I would not be there.

“Formula one plays no role in my personal life. I have a real life! I think for many people, their life is formula one. For me it’s not.”

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”.

Well-known Brazilian commentator Reginaldo Leme has defended Felipe Massa, amid the Ferrari driver’s career crisis.

Massa’s Ferrari seat hangs in the balance, and according to his boss Stefano Domenicali, he will have to improve in order to simply stay on the F1 grid with any team next year.

But Leme has pointed the finger of blame at Ferrari’s struggling F2012 car.

“It is very difficult to give an explanation for any driver’s bad phase,” Leme acknowledged on the Redacao Sportv programme.

“The car is very bad. The fact that Alonso is always scoring (points) just shows that the Spaniard is the best driver of this generation.

“No other driver, however good, could get anything out of that car.

“I think that’s what’s happening with Massa,” said Leme.

Massa will drive Ferrari’s heavily updated Barcelona-spec car at the Mugello test next Wednesday, while Alonso will drive on Tuesday and Thursday.

Turning his attention to the 2012 championship, meanwhile, Reginaldo Leme said consistency is more important than ever before, with four separate teams having won races so far.

“Look at Webber — he has been fourth four times and is third in the championship. Hamilton has been third three times and is right in contention.”

Australian F1 fans are this week rejoicing in local hero Mark Webber even more than usual.

Pressure applied by the Red Bull driver was reportedly instrumental in returning the sport to the live television airways in Australian capital cities.

Fans were outraged with Australian broadcaster Ten’s decision to take formula one from its high definition channel One, which in turn meant viewers in Perth and Adelaide had no live coverage at all.

Angry fans bombarded Ten’s Facebook and Twitter pages with criticism abuse, and urged Webber to help their cause.

Webber obliged.

“Come on (Ten), I hear our great Australian motor sport fans are not happy with rescheduling of timings of the GPs,” he wrote on Twitter.

“Let’s go live.”

Within an hour, Ten reinstated Perth and Adelaide’s live broadcasts — and in full HD.

“The next time Ten wants to tangle with its motor sport audience, perhaps they should ask Mark Webber first,” read a report at The Australian newspaper.

Kimi Raikkonen can add a second title to his tally in 2012.

That is the claim of the 2007 world champion’s countryman Mika Salo, who now commentates on Finnish television MTV3.

In the fourth race of Raikkonen’s return to F1 from rallying, the 32-year-old last weekend challenged Sebastian Vettel for victory in Bahrain, finishing second for Lotus.

Five years after his title with Ferrari, he is 19 points from the head of the 2012 drivers’ championship.

“The most consistent team has been Lotus,” former grand prix driver Salo said. “They’ve been fast at every circuit so far.

“In that sense, Kimi’s situation looks very good. I would not exclude it at all that he will be fighting at the very end of the championship, if Lotus is able to maintain the pace of development.”

It is on Salo’s final point that Lotus’ 2012 season will really be made.

“They (as Renault) also began the previous season just as well, but soon after they were nowhere,” observed the Swiss commentator Marc Surer, speaking on Austrian television Servus TV.

“So the real question is ‘Do they have the resources to develop the car and stay where they are now?’”

Even if Lotus’ challenge fades, the future for Raikkonen – who has surprised some experts with his re-adaptation to F1 after two years of rallying – is bright, Surer insisted.

“I think he has shown everyone that he is still able to do just what he was doing before (leaving F1),” he said.

“He is a lot younger than Schumacher, and if you look at the past ten years, he is probably one of the best talents that we have seen in F1.”

Surer said he could therefore imagine Raikkonen leaving Lotus and returning to a ‘top’ team, but he wouldn’t know which one to recommend.

“Everything is so balanced this year that it’s impossible to pick a car that he could win the championship in.”

The calamitous Bahrain grand prix saga has not jeopardised the island Kingdom’s future on the F1 calendar.

That is the strident claim of Bernie Ecclestone, after the F1 chief executive and FIA president Jean Todt displayed rare unity as they insisted the country’s civil and political problems would not affect the grand prix.

But amid the bubbling Bahrain saga, Ecclestone had suggested that Bahrain might face trouble when it comes to negotiating a new contract, with the existing agreement only set to extend for three more years.

However, when asked by Reuters if F1 is going to keep returning to Bahrain despite this year’s troubles, Ecclestone insisted on Sunday before leaving the Persian Gulf: “Absolutely. Forever. No problem.”

Like Todt, he even played down the damage done to F1′s reputation this weekend.

“I think it’s good because people talk about things, you know. You know what they say — there is no such thing as bad publicity,” said Ecclestone.

In truth, reputation damage has undoubtedly been done. But Roger Benoit, the veteran correspondent for the Swiss newspaper Blick, admitted he is dismayed with how politics interfered with sport so strikingly this weekend.

“On all continents, somewhere, all hell is breaking loose. And as a formula one reporter, you’re flying around this globe two or three times a year,” he wrote.

“We go to countries that are politically explosive. Where human rights are violated, where poverty reigns.

“But we hardly talk about it — not in China, India, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore or Brazil. In 2014, we’re going to Russia.

“Years ago, our circus happily danced around in apartheid South Africa, and the military dictatorship of Argentina.

“Formula one is pure entertainment. Detached from the problems of the world. But here, in Bahrain, every reporter entered the political field, whether he liked to or not,” wrote Benoit.

So that is why Ecclestone is unapologetic, after championing the Bahrain grand prix.

“Because, basically, the problems they have in Bahrain have nothing to do with F1,” the 81-year-old told El Pais newspaper.

“The relevant agencies gave the nod as far as security was concerned, and I think it is clear that they were not wrong.”

He also sees no problem with F1 being used as a political tool.

“Governments want to have an F1 race for the same reason as they want the Olympics. We come to agreements with the promoters and, if that’s good for the country, fine,” said Ecclestone.

F1′s surprise 2012 season has kept on bubbling in Bahrain.

It is a measure of the excitement and unpredictability of the new championship that, just days after some media said the reigning title winner was in ‘crisis’, Sebastian Vettel won from pole and took the lead of the 2012 points standings.

But the German only narrowly beat the returning 2009 world champion Kimi Raikkonen, with Lotus also completing the surprise podium as Romain Grosjean sampled the sport’s prestigious rostrum for the very first time.

Vettel leads the championship by 4 points from Lewis Hamilton, who finished just eighth.

Red Bull also leads the constructors’ chase, by 9 points from McLaren.

Vettel is the fourth different winner in F1′s four races so far this year, following Jenson Button, Fernando Alonso and Nico Rosberg.

It is his first win since India last year.

“How many good stories can we have in formula one in terms of the racing?” David Coulthard said on BBC television. “We’re only four races in and we’ve had such a mix of winners.”

Sauber has become the second formula one team to reveal a brush with Bahrain’s civil unrest.

Force India was involved in a Molotov cocktail attack earlier this week, resulting in two team members returning to the UK and Nico Hulkenberg and Paul di Resta sitting out the second practice session on Friday.

Now, the Swiss team Sauber has revealed it saw masked protesters throwing petrol bombs whilst returning from the circuit to their Manama hotel late on Thursday.

“At 20.50 the 12 mechanics, being on that minibus to the Novotel, noticed fire on the medial strip of the highway,” said spokesman Hanspeter Brack.

“On the opposite lane there was no traffic. The team members saw a few masked people running from there over to their lane where a bottle was burning as well.”

No one was hurt.

F1 chief executive Bernie Ecclestone on Friday played down the latest drama, accusing reporters of “wanting a story” and offering to ride in the cars with the frightened Force India team members if they are afraid of Bahrain’s night.

A member of the Force India team is returning to Europe following a firebomb attack in Bahrain.

The BBC reports that an incident occurred near a Force India hire car as members of the Silverstone based team came to a halt in a traffic jam after leaving the circuit.

No one was hurt, but “one team member not involved in the incident asked to return to the UK”, the BBC said.

“A spokesman said they were not the target of the attack, which took place on the outskirts of the capital Manama,” the report added.

The news was confirmed by The Times’ Kevin Eason, who said the incident involved a Molotov cocktail, as well as Telegraph correspondent Tom Cary.

Cary said Force India confirmed team members were “momentarily caught up in (a) disruption”.

“One team member will go home, they tell me,” he added.

Just after backing his friend and countryman to bounce back, Rubens Barrichello has refused to rule out returning to formula one to replace the struggling Felipe Massa.

After 19 consecutive seasons in F1, 39-year-old Barrichello had to switch to the Indycar series for 2012 after losing his race seat at Williams.

Speaking to Brazilian television Sportv this week, however, the Brazilian said he cannot rule out returning to the grid — even with Ferrari.

After a six-year tenure, Barrichello left Ferrari at the end of 2005 and – until now – has not looked back overly fondly on his treatment alongside the famous Italian team’s former number one Michael Schumacher.

But in the wake of Massa’s recent performance struggles, Barrichello was voted in an Italian poll as the ideal replacement for the diminutive 30-year-old.

When asked about Ferrari, Barrichello said this week: “I want the fans to understand that I don’t have any hard feelings.

“If they called me today to go drive for them I would go. It was the best team I’ve ever driven for in terms of support, of creativity. But there were definitely some spicy episodes,” he added.

With the backing of sponsors, Barrichello has signed on with the KV team in Indycar for 2012, but he insists he is “completely open” about returning to F1.

“It would be something to think about,” he said in the televised interview on Wednesday.

“I think anything can happen. I’m not saying it will happen, but I have to be ready.”

Barrichello, the longest-serving driver in F1 history, revealed that he still enjoys the backing of Bernie Ecclestone, the sport’s influential chief executive.

“He asked me if I was really going to race in Indycar and I told him ‘Yeah, because you didn’t find me a place in F1′,” he joked.

“He said he will see what he can do about it. Really, you just have to see what happens, you have to stay open about it,” added Barrichello.

Fernando Alonso’s win was a complete surprise, but the name of another team was on more paddock-dwellers’ lips after Malaysia — Sauber.

“Only one team could do consistently good laptimes on all the tyres and in all the conditions, and it was Sauber,” confirmed Martin Whitmarsh, whose McLaren team had travelled to Sepang with arguably the fastest car.

Also in Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport, Red Bull team boss Christian Horner agreed: “They (Sauber) have somehow managed to get all of the tyres to work perfectly, which at the moment is the key to success.

“The (tyre) window is so small that it’s very easy to not be in it,” added the Briton.

And Sepang winner Fernando Alonso, whose victory was only ensured by a late-race mistake by Sauber’s Sergio Perez, admitted: “No doubt about it, they were quicker than us.”

Some believe it was only the Malaysian weather chaos that brought the Ferrari-powered C31 to the top of F1′s form-guide, but the Sauber was in fact also fast in Australia.

“Our cars were severely damaged at the start (in Melbourne),” explained chief designer Matt Morris. “At the front for Perez, the rear for Kobayashi.”

Nonetheless, both finished inside the top eight.

“The race in Malaysia showed very clearly how fast our car is,” insisted team boss Peter Sauber, writing in Blick newspaper.

“After two very different tracks, we have the assurance now that the C31 is a success.”

The next question is precisely how the small Hinwil based team has managed to build a pace-setting car.

One possible answer is the end of the blown diffuser era, and the fact that Sauber’s 2012 solution has already been copied by F1′s formerly-dominant Red Bull.

Italy’s Autosprint, meanwhile, claims Ferrari is next, mischievously suggesting that the updated F2012 might aptly be called the ‘Ferrauber’.

Referring to the FIA exhaust clampdown, Morris admitted: “We had to give up less than our opponents.”

Peter Sauber added: “When I saw that Red Bull had chosen a similar route to us, I was sure that we were right.”

Another trick on the C31 is a clever use of the loophole allowing an opening at the front of the car for driver cooling.

“It’s no match-winner,” Morris insists, “but it gains us some (lap) time.”

And Autosprint reports that another “trick” on the Sauber is located in front of the rear wheels, exploiting yet another “grey zone” in the regulations.