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.”

Kimi Raikkonen has admitted his failed negotiations with Williams ultimately turned out for the better.

When he decided to try to return to F1 this year, the 2007 world champion negotiated at length with Williams.

When those talks faltered, he turned to his second option, and quickly came to agreement with the former Renault team Lotus.

The Enstone based team has been the surprise of the 2012 season so far, and in Barcelona Finn Raikkonen is arguably the overall favourite.

He was asked by Turun Sanomat newspaper if the performance of Lotus, his only actual option for a race seat this year, has surprised him.

“Well, I had another option,” said the 32-year-old, referring to Williams.

“It’s hard to say what kind of results I would have had with Williams. They would have been pretty good as well but perhaps not quite as strong as we are doing now,” said Raikkonen, who finished second in Bahrain recently.

He said he has not been surprised.

“Last year (as Renault) they weren’t bad at the start of the season,” said the former Ferrari and McLaren driver.

“But they had decided to put the exhaust at the front of the car and were not then able to develop the way they needed.”

Sebastian Vettel has hit back at what he thinks was an “exaggerated” reaction to Michael Schumacher after the recent Bahrain grand prix.

Schumacher, Vettel’s countryman and friend, had heavily criticised the sport’s official supplier Pirelli, despite the Italian marque’s 2012 tyres being widely credited for the exciting grands prix seen so far this year.

“It’s been a bit exaggerated,” world champion Vettel, referring to the reaction to Schumacher’s comments, is quoted by Sport Bild.

“Ultimately, we all have the same tyres, but of course as a driver you always want more grip, whether from the tyres or from the car.

“It is in our nature to want more — more especially than the others,” he smiled.

“When I talk about this with Michael, it’s not so dramatic. He has been around for a long time and has seen a lot, also when it comes to tyres.

“I don’t think he is so easily shocked,” insisted Vettel.

* Energy drink Red Bull owner Dietrich Mateschitz made a rare visit to the sport’s action on Thursday, catching the final day of Mugello testing.

Lotus did not consider employing team orders in order to boost Kimi Raikkonen’s chances of winning the Bahrain grand prix.

The 2007 world champion ultimately finished second and even had a stab at overtaking winner Sebastian Vettel.

And he might have had an ever better chance at challenging the Red Bull had his Lotus team chiefs ordered teammate Romain Grosjean aside at a crucial moment.

“Yeah,” confirmed Finn Raikkonen, “but there are no team orders and we know the rules.

“I tried to get past as quickly as I can but it’s not easy with two similar cars.

“It’s always easy to say afterwards ‘if we had done that’ but in the end we were not fast enough to win and we have to take the second,” he added.

Despite team orders being effectively legal in F1, team boss Eric Boullier confirmed that Lotus does not follow that policy.

“We don’t want to play team orders, so we let them race normally and what happened, happened,” he is quoted by the Mirror.

The most important thing, according to Spanish commentator and former veteran F1 engineer Joan Villadelprat, is that the former Renault team still knows how to win.

“Maybe they don’t have the best car on the grid, because McLaren and Red Bull and Mercedes are probably better, but Lotus have made a car capable of competing with the best in the right circumstances,” he wrote in El Pais newspaper.

Internet hackers have threatened to wreak havoc as they sided against formula one over the sport’s decision to push ahead with the highly controversial Bahrain grand prix.

The well-known ‘hacktivists’ Anonymous brought down F1′s official website on Friday, slamming Bernie Ecclestone as “evil” and threatening the “worst sh**storm” if the track action continues to proceed this weekend in the troubled island Kingdom.

“Attacks on their (the teams’) computer servers could prevent the race taking place,” the Daily Express newspaper speculated.

Anonymous also took control of another specialist website, posting a statement that accused the sport of supporting the Bahrain government despite the country’s “human rights situation” and saying F1 will now “be punished”.

In an awkward official press conference on Friday, team bosses continued to support the sport’s decision to press ahead with the race.

“Ultimately we’re a race team,” said McLaren and FOTA’s Martin Whitmarsh. “We’re here to go motor racing and that’s our number one priority.”

A formula one team boss has admitted he hopes the forthcoming Bahrain grand prix is called off.

The Times newspaper is reporting that every team is devising contingency plans for the possibility that this month’s race in the troubled island Kingdom might not go ahead.

“I feel very uncomfortable about going to Bahrain,” one team boss, described as a “leading” member of the F1 paddock and with representative views, told the Guardian.

“We’re all hoping the FIA calls it off,” he admitted.

“It seems to me that while there has been some political progress in Bahrain they’re not quite ready.  The best thing would be for the race to be postponed until later in the year, or even cancelled.”

Ultimately, the decision will be made by the FIA, and a spokesman for the governing body has now admitted it is “constantly monitoring and evaluating the situation” in Bahrain.

Interestingly, the Guardian said FIA president Jean Todt will be in China this weekend.  The teams are currently scheduled to travel directly from China to Bahrain for the second leg of a back-to-back double header.

Salman bin Isa Al Khalifa, the chief executive of Bahrain’s circuit, sounds confident.

“The FIA and Bernie (Ecclestone) have never shown any doubts about our race,” he told The National.

“I do see there is fear, but I just wish such people would listen to those who have the information — maybe not us, because we as a circuit are perhaps not perceived as an objective voice, but there are other people who know the region and know the situation and they are saying that this race should go ahead.”

France’s return to the 2013 formula one calendar is not quite at the finish-line.

Many expected prime minister Francois Fillon’s visit to the Paul Ricard circuit last Friday to coincide with an announcement about the revival of the French grand prix next year.

Some think that was indeed the intention, but ultimately a couple of details were missing at the last hurdle.

The first was the identity of the host circuit that will annually alternate the race date, amid reports Belgium’s Spa Francorchamps is not yet ready or able to agree.

“The formula one management has approved the plan without indicating who would be the other country,” Fillon is quoted as saying in local reports.

Another problem is on the financial side, with Fillon admitting that – politically – there can be no direct government subsidy other than a mere “bond”.

The difference between a deal and no deal between Bernie Ecclestone and the Le Castellet organisers, then, is “about two million euros”, Fillon revealed.

“The formula one organisers’ proposal is reasonable enough,” he said, “but we have to make them remove the ‘enough’,” he added.

“Symbolically it would not be acceptable (for the government) to subsidise a grand prix,” he insisted, “as was the case in the past with Magny Cours.”

Magny Cours, the former French GP venue, reacted with shock and anger, accusing the prime minister of “bias in favour of Le Castellet”, where temporary grandstands will have to be erected to host spectators.

On the other hand, Magny Cours has “all the facilities, infrastructure and expertise needed to organise such an event”, insisted Patrice Joly, president of the conseil general of the Nievre department.

“Contrary to what you would expect from the head of government, the prime minister strives to implement a solution based on partisan considerations and personal issues away from the general interest,” he added.

HRT was not ready to race last weekend in Australia, Pedro de la Rosa has admitted.
Ultimately, the Spaniard and his teammate Narain Karthikeyan failed to satisfy the sport’s 107 per cent qualifying rule, and therefore sat out the 2012 opener.

The hurriedly-compiled F112 car did not feature a functioning ‘DRS’ rear wing system, and de la Rosa has also revealed that it didn’t have power steering.

“It’s essential to fix that,” he is quoted by Marca newspaper, “as it can be very dangerous to try to make corrections without the (steering) assistance.”

Team boss Luis Perez Sala admitted that fixing power steering at a circuit is not ideal.

“Really it should be at the factory in almost laboratory conditions,” he said, “but we have no choice.”

As for whether he will qualify this time in Malaysia, de la Rosa is not sure: “I think so, I hope so,” he said.

 The debate about Mercedes’ controversial new ‘F-duct’ solution looks set to speed across the Indian Ocean.
Red Bull team boss Christian Horner, and particularly his Lotus counterpart Eric Boullier, had warned in Melbourne at the weekend that they might protest the qualifying and race results.

They are arguing that Mercedes’ technical innovation is not legal, but ultimately the 2012 season opener was run without a protest being filed.

But the threat is merely on the back-burner, as Boullier and Horner seek urgent talks with the FIA and Mercedes’ Ross Brawn.

“We want to sit together at a table with Mercedes and the FIA and find a solution,” Frenchman Boullier is quoted by Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport.

Separately, Horner agreed: “We are expecting some pretty heated discussions in the next five days.” By then, the F1 circus will be firmly based at the Sepang circuit, for the second round of the season at Sepang.

McLaren, the dominant winner of Sunday’s season opening Australian grand prix, is staying out of the debate about the Mercedes concept.

“I think the system is legal,” said team boss Martin Whitmarsh.

Auto Motor und Sport writer Tobias Gruner explained: “The reason for (Whitmarsh’s) opinion is simple — his engineers at Woking have been hard at work on a copy for some time.”

So far in 2012, McLaren stands all alone — with not only the fastest car, but also the best-looking one.
With almost every other team fielding an ‘ugly’ stepped nose, Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button dominated qualifying in Melbourne with their sleek silver machine.

A report in the Mirror suggested McLaren’s rivals have all made “a design blunder”.

“We felt it (the conventional nose) was the right decision and we’re pleased it looks good and it’s reasonably quick as well,” smiled team boss Martin Whitmarsh.

As for the direction taken by McLaren’s rivals, including Red Bull who pioneered the ‘high nose’ philosophy for the now-past blown exhaust era, Whitmarsh insisted: “It’s not a question of right or wrong.

“But there’s no doubt which one looks best. Ultimately, it’s which one is quickest.”

Writing in Autosprint, Alberto Antonini wondered if Saturday in Australia marked “the end of an era”, after Red Bull dominated the past few seasons in formula one.

“A new era in F1 has begun,” agreed Marca newspaper’s Marco Canseco.

At least for now, there is no obvious signsof panic at Red Bull, with Mark Webber telling Speed Week: “There is nothing fundamentally wrong with the car, we just haven’t got everything out of it.”

As for Sunday’s Melbourne opener, former driver and RTL commentator Christian Danner predicted: “I think the McLarens are unbeatable.

“Behind them we will see a wonderful fight for third place, with Grosjean, the two Mercedes drivers and, of course, Sebastian Vettel.”

HRT has survived a close call in Melbourne, after crucial parts of Pedro de la Rosa’s chassis did not arrive in time for scrutineering.
The back-of-the-grid Spanish team had to apply to the FIA for an exemption to Thursday’s scrutineering deadline, because pieces of the suspension for the second car had yet to arrive from Europe.

And even when de la Rosa’s car was ultimately cleared to enter the Albert Park circuit shortly before first practice, the mechanics were still hard at work ‘dressing’ it for action.

Ultimately the late start was of little consequence, when the sporadic rain around the Victorian capital made a wet deposit just before practice, ensuring that early action was scarce.

But de la Rosa did not even appear later in the session.

More showers are possible later in the day and also on Saturday, but Sunday’s season-opening race should be dry.

Pirelli would have preferred to test with a 2011-specification car this year, Paul Hembery has admitted.
After writing off the 2009 Toyota as too outdated, F1′s tyre supplier struggled to find a solution with the teams as it pushed for a newer car for private tyre testing.

Ultimately, Pirelli acquired a 2010 Renault.

“We would have liked to have had a 2011 car,” Pirelli motor sport director Hembery told Auto Motor und Sport. “So we are one step away from being happy.”

He said it is no mistake that the chosen 2010 car is a Renault, not a title-winning Red Bull.

“We wanted a midfield car — there probably would have been too many complaints about the world championship-winning one.

“Also, the costs played a role,” added Hembery.

Missing now is a driver for Pirelli’s R30 Renault.

“There are a lot of names on the list,” revealed Hembery. “Even some that you wouldn’t have thought of.

“Ideally we want someone with experience from the 2011 season — so that reduces the number of candidates a bit.”

Kimi Raikkonen’s managers have revealed they only now take a back seat in the career of the 2007 world champion.
Britons David and Steve Robertson have guided the famous Finn throughout his motor racing career.

But Steve told Finland’s Turun Sanomat that they only intervene now when the 32-year-old driver requests it — such as when he needed to negotiate last winter with Williams and his ultimate 2012 employer, Lotus.

“We came to the end of the road really in late 2009,” he said.

That is when Ferrari bought out the rest of Raikkonen’s contract, and he headed to world rally.

“We can’t honestly say that we are real rally fans — it’s alien to us, while we know F1 through and through.

“When Kimi wanted to go back to F1, he turned to us for help with the agreement. After a few months Kimi got what he wanted.”

Robertson, however, explained that the father-son duo are no longer involved in the “day to day” running of Raikkonen’s career.

“I have known Kimi for 11, 12 years, and he has become really close to us. When he asks for help, he knows that we are always ready to give it,” he continued.

“I was delighted when he wanted to come back where he really belongs (in F1),” said Robertson. “There is so much nonsense about Kimi’s problems with motivation.

“The truth is that he wanted to come back for one reason only — because he is super-motivated to race in F1 again.

“By taking Kimi, it shows the (Lotus) team’s desire to succeed. I think Kimi and Romain Grosjean are a good combination.

“By changing the drivers the team has showed that it was not satisfied with the level of last year and that they want to come back to being among the big teams,” he concluded.

Peter Sauber has admitted his Swiss team is flattered after Red Bull apparently copied the C31′s exhaust layout ahead of the 2012 season.
Red Bull ran at the initial Jerez and Barcelona tests – and then the two opening days of the final Barcelona test – with its own solution in the wake of the FIA’s blown exhaust clampdown.

“We had a nice surprise on the penultimate day (of winter testing),” Sauber team boss Peter Sauber wrote in his column for Sonntagsblick newspaper.

“Red Bull announced their plans to use a heavily modified car, as it will race in Melbourne.

“Compared to their first version it had a completely different rear, which differs significantly from most cars — but not ours.

“The Red Bull and our C31 have a very similar concept, concerning the management of the airflow at the rear.

“For our engineers, it was an extra confirmation that they have chosen the right development direction. They are convinced that this concept has the potential for further development,” added Sauber.

 Rubens Barrichello has finally confirmed reports he will race in America’s premier open wheeler Indycar series in 2012.
After 19 consecutive seasons in formula one, the 39-year-old Brazilian makes the switch with the backing of the sponsor BMC Brasil Maquinas.

AP news agency said Barrichello, a winner of 11 grands prix with Ferrari and Brawn, has signed a one-year contract with the KV team.

“I’m loving the idea I’m going to be a rookie,” he said. “That makes me young, and I’m loving that,” he said.

Barrichello, meanwhile, explained the apparent contradiction of heading into the Indy 500 and other similar events this year having earlier promised his wife he would never race at high speed on dangerous ovals.

“What happened is we were watching an oval race and there was a crash and she looked at me and said ‘You are never going to do that, right?’

“And I told her at the time, ‘Of course not, don’t worry’.”

He said he ultimately won Silvana’s backing, having initially considered skipping the five oval races.

But “I wouldn’t feel comfortable sitting at home and watching someone else driving my car,” explained Barrichello.