The precise pecking-order is clouded, but one thing is clear: 2012 looks set to be a highly competitive season in formula one.
“There are a lot of cars out there that look competitive,” said McLaren’s Jenson Button, on the day Williams’ Pastor Maldonado set the quickest time in the midst of the second group test in Barcelona.

Earlier this week, Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg was the pacesetter, causing Mercedes’ Norbert Haug to tell Bild newspaper: “That’s great.”

“I didn’t expect that,” agreed world champion Sebastian Vettel.

Hulkenberg smiled: “‘Test champion’ gives me nothing. But I am in good shape.”

Vettel continued to Kleine Zeitung newspaper: “This year everything is closer together”, he said, after his teammate Mark Webber admitted there is “no question” Red Bull needs to keep working on the pace of its new RB8.

According to Die Welt newspaper, Vettel continued: “Most of the competitors are difficult to assess. It’s the same old game.”

He is referring to unknown fuel levels, tyre age and differing approaches and programmes — and teams’ deliberate sandbagging or ‘show-run’ efforts.

“I never paid too much attention to direct comparisons on headline laptimes,” insisted David Coulthard, “but on the longer runs you can start to build a picture.”

Williams engineer Mark Gillan told Auto Motor und Sport: “It seems as though the entire field has moved much closer together. It will be a tough fight.”

An early assessment of the pecking order might have Red Bull and McLaren at the front, and Mercedes and Lotus possibly ready to join the fight.

“It looks like Red Bull are fairly stable,” Coulthard agreed to Russia’s Ria Novosti news agency, “(and) McLaren and Mercedes maybe closer than they were.

“Ferrari is a bit of an unknown but I wouldn’t write them off. Let’s be patient, another three weeks of tweaking and then we’ll find out,” said the former McLaren and Red Bull driver.

 They are famously close on a personal level, but for the sake of his sport Bernie Ecclestone wants to see Sebastian Vettel suffer in 2012.
The Red Bull driver has won the past two championships on the trot, including last season when the title battle was over long before the finale.

“It wasn’t good. The only person that would say no to that would be Sebastian, but I think everybody else would agree with it,” F1 chief executive Ecclestone told reporters on Thursday.

He had just announced a new connectivity deal for F1 with Indian multinational Tata’s communications subsidiary.

The aim is to modernise F1 in that area because, as the 81-year-old puts it, he is “getting old” and was “asleep” to the world’s new digital era.

But more immediately important to Ecclestone is a better show in 2012.

“I’m surprised we survived with (the TV ratings) we got right at the end,” said the Briton, referring again to Vettel’s dominance. “We need to see everybody else wake up.”

Another element he hopes is in place this year is a fully-firing Lewis Hamilton, but Ecclestone admitted the 2008 world champion might have to farewell McLaren.

“I think if he doesn’t perform this year, he’ll be looking maybe to move on, and the team may also be looking for him to move on,” he said.

And yet another golden egg for Ecclestone would be a winning Michael Schumacher, but he admitted the seven time world champion might need to sit at the wheel of a Red Bull for that to happen.

“I don’t think Sebastian would mind,” he said.

“I’m not saying I don’t want Mark (Webber) around, I’m just saying it would be nice to see him (Schumacher) in the car where you know that if he doesn’t win it’s his fault, not the car.”

Less important, Ecclestone argues, is the rare absence in F1 of a single Italian driver.

“If Ferrari is winning,” he insisted, “it doesn’t make any difference.”

Indeed, there are bigger fish on the F1 supremo’s plate: the thorny issue of Bahrain’s return in 2012, and a looming fight with the teams over the next Concorde Agreement.

On Bahrain, he joked: “Pity I’m not going to be there myself but don’t worry. No, I shall be there, don’t worry.”

As for the teams wanting a bigger share of F1′s revenue pie, Ecclestone answered: “I think they are right. If they don’t ask they are not going to get (it), are they?”

But when asked to rate their chances of success, the Briton replied typically: “Slim to none.”

After an inconclusive and perhaps even worrying performance at Jerez, the faces in the McLaren garage are looking happier as the second group test progresses this week in Barcelona.
“We’re in a much better position than we were this time last year,” confirmed Lewis Hamilton after Wednesday’s running in the MP4-27, “and also better than we were two weeks ago in Jerez.

“We have learned a lot; the car is much better balanced now. I can say that we have a stronger base than last year,” added the 2008 world champion.

According to Britain’s Mirror newspaper, Hamilton’s teammate Jenson Button agreed: “There are no excuses this year. I feel we have everything.

“We’re on target,” said the 2011 championship runner-up. “There’s nothing to say we’re one and a half seconds quicker than anyone, but then there’s also nothing to say we’re not fast.”

Red Bull’s reigning back to back world champion Sebastian Vettel is quoted by the Telegraph as saying he thinks McLaren will be “strong straight from the beginning of the season”.

Added Mercedes’ team boss Ross Brawn: “Red Bull will have a strong car again, and so will McLaren.

“Ferrari seem to be having a few difficulties,” Auto Motor und Sport quotes him as saying, referring to his former Maranello based employer.

Red Bull reserve Sebastien Buemi, having watched from a trackside position on Wednesday, said Fernando Alonso looked uncomfortable with the handling of the F2012.

“I think we are probably not the quickest today,” Spaniard Alonso agreed, “but neither are we the slowest.

“At the moment we are not where we want to be, nor where we want to be in Australia, but I remain optimistic.

“We just have to hope that we have completed this learning process we are going through with a very complex car by the time the season starts,” Spanish reporters quote the former two-time world champion as saying.

Mercedes is committed to the crumbling teams association FOTA, team boss Ross Brawn insists.
The Geneva based alliance has lost the support of top teams Red Bull and Ferrari, and also smaller outfits Sauber, Toro Rosso and HRT.

It is rumoured Lotus could be the next to go.

But McLaren’s Martin Whitmarsh remains the chairman, and media outlets on Wednesday quoted Mercedes’ Brawn as saying the German marque remains “very committed” to FOTA.

“We believe it’s a great shame that we’ve lost some of the members from FOTA because I think we may live ultimately to regret that,” he is quoted by Sky Sports.

Contemplating the reasons for the FOTA split, Brawn explained: “When there is outside pressure it pushed FOTA together. Now, there is not so much, the natural competitiveness of the teams is pushing it apart a bit.

“I hope we don’t regret it … because one of the objectives was to find the right solutions for F1, not just for individual teams.”

Jarno Trulli has revealed he was offered a seat at Ferrari some years ago.
After fifteen consecutive seasons in formula one, the 37-year-old Italian has lost his Caterham race seat to the well-backed Russian Vitaly Petrov.

2004 Monaco grand prix winner Trulli, 37, drove since 1997 for Minardi, Prost, Jordan, Renault and Caterham’s former guise Lotus.

Writing in his New York Times blog, correspondent Brad Spurgeon said Trulli was made the Ferrari offer while he was racing for Toyota between 2005 and 2009.

Trulli reportedly told Italy’s Autosprint magazine that Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali’s predecessor, the now FIA president Jean Todt, made him the offer.

“Nobody knows this, but at this point I think I can publicly thank Jean Todt for having been one of the few top team managers to consider me during my career,” he said.

“I won’t tell you when exactly — I was racing for Toyota and I was doing very well. But I had signed a rather long contract with the Japanese, and in my career I’ve always honoured my commitments.

“In 15 years of F1 I’ve never needed lawyers,” added Trulli.

Trulli left Renault for Toyota at the end of the 2004 season, driving for the carmaker until it pulled out of formula one at the end of 2009.

Rubens Barrichello left Ferrari at the end of 2005, replaced by Felipe Massa. Michael Schumacher retired a year later, replaced by Kimi Raikkonen.

At Ferrari, Frenchman Todt handed over to Domenicali at the end of 2007.

Nico Rosberg’s father has questioned the decision by Mercedes to delay the launch of its 2012 car.
Nico Rosberg, the German-born son of 1982 world champion Keke, has publicly backed his team’s approach in not running the W03 in anger until now, a full group test after main rivals Red Bull, McLaren and Ferrari got their new cars up and going.

“There is definitely some risk,” said former McLaren and Williams driver Keke Rosberg, 63.

“It’s Barcelona and so there could be some snow and the test could even be cancelled.

“Or if it happens to you what happened to Ferrari in Jerez, then you have even a shorter amount of time to fix everything.

“The tests are separated only by days and then there is the last one, and again it could be snowing or raining,” added Rosberg. “It’s not Andalucia, remember, but the Costa Brava.”

Rosberg said the issue for Mercedes and also Ferrari is the risks they are needing to take in order to catch up with last year’s pacesetters, Red Bull and McLaren.

“How could Ferrari be having such problems, when without the exhaust gases last year they won at Silverstone?

“Maybe it’s because they had to take such a leap, but when you do that there’s the risk it will go wrong.

“It’s the same for Mercedes, because last year they were in calm waters with a big gap to the top and the middle groups.”

 A former world champion has dealt Lewis Hamilton a mild rebuke after the Briton refused to appear at Adrian Sutil’s assault trial.
Not only did the McLaren driver defer to his team’s looming car launch date rather than leap to his former friend’s aid in Munich, he has also refused to contact Sutil or answer a single question on the matter posed by the media.

Sutil’s father has called the 2008 world champion “pathetic” while the former Force India driver himself described Hamilton as a “coward”.

“I don’t know whether you’d call him a coward,” 1980 title winner Alan Jones told GMM, “but I don’t know whether I’d like to have him in the trenches with me.”

Hamilton, who recently reunited with his girlfriend Nicole, had a tumultuous 2011 season and so this year will be accompanied to races by experienced manager Didier Coton.

When involved with Mika Hakkinen’s career, Coton worked for the management company headed by Keke Rosberg.

“In the past, Lewis has certainly made mistakes in the professional organisation of his life,” Rosberg, backing the changes Hamilton is making, commented to the Finnish broadcaster MTV3.

“You can’t go flying every other week to America when you’re making a serious job of being a formula one driver,” he said.

Keke Rosberg also questioned a recent claim made by the 27-year-old Briton.

“He says he wants to win all the races this season. That’s quite a claim.

“I would think Jenson Button wonders how he will do it when he will probably win a few races in the same car,” said Rosberg.

 Amid all the ‘ugly’ talk, Alan Jones doesn’t mind the look of F1′s field of 2012.
With McLaren the notable exception, every team has incorporated an awkward ‘step’ into its nose design as the optimum solution to new FIA rules.

Paul Hembery, Pirelli’s motor sport director, recently decried the look as “pig ugly”.

But 1980 world champion Jones doesn’t think so.

“I don’t think aesthetics matter, and anyway I don’t really find them (the 2012 cars) particularly ugly,” the Australian told GMM.

“There’s a couple of interpretations of the new nose that aren’t as nice as some of the others, but there are a few out there that don’t look too bad at all,” said Jones.

“And I’ve never seen an ugly car in the winner’s circle,” he smiled.

Meanwhile, another former world champion – 1982′s Keke Rosberg – described McLaren’s solution as aesthetically pleasing, but hopes the British team has not made a mistake by going a different route to the rest of the grid.

“At least it’s nice looking and I wish the others would have done the same,” said the Finn.

“Jenson Button is quite a big guy and he has said he is sitting significantly lower than last year.

“If it (McLaren’s solution) suddenly becomes a problem for them, with the chassis already homologated then that’s just what they’ve got,” he told the MTV3 broadcaster.

 Pirelli is closer to finding a solution to its current lack of a F1 test car.
In the past two years, the sport’s Italian supplier has used the last car raced by defunct team Toyota to develop its tyres.

But Paul Hembery, Pirelli motor sport director, has said the 2009-spec TF109 is now too outdated and has been retired.

It is believed the marque initially intended to find an agreement to run a competitive 2011-spec car, but the new plan could be to acquire a single seater from the 2010 season.

“We do most of the work in the simulator,” Hembery told the El Pais newspaper, “but it’s more difficult to work on the compounds because it requires the interactivity with the asphalt.”

The Briton admitted that, so far, the teams have been unhelpful in terms of agreeing a solution for a new-specification car, because of the potential performance advantage that could be gained by the chosen team.

Hembery, however, used the example of the common electronic unit which is supplied to all teams by a McLaren subsidiary.

“They all have it and no one complains,” he said.

“But we have asked for help and they tell us that we should continue with the Toyota, and that’s nonsense,” added Hembery.

He said talks are still taking place.

“We have to find a car that was competitive in 2010, which was reliable and that allows us to incorporate all the systems that allow us to do our work.”

All the teams, except HRT will be at the Spanish circuit, with ten, including Mercedes, which will unveil its 2012 challenger at the track, running with their new cars. Marussia will be in action, but will use its old car.

The full planned line-up is as follows:

Red Bull

Sebastian Vettel – February 21st-22nd
Mark Webber – February 23rd-24th

McLaren

Lewis Hamilton – February 21st-22nd
Jenson Button – February 23rd-24th

Ferrari

Fernando Alonso – February 21st-22nd
Felipe Massa – February 23rd-24th

Mercedes

Michael Schumacher – February 21st and 23rd
Nico Rosberg – February 22nd and 24th

Lotus

Romain Grosjean – February 21st-22nd
Kimi Raikkonen – February 23rd-24th

Force India

Nico Hulkenberg – February 21st-22nd
Paul di Resta – February 23rd-24th

Sauber

Sergio Perez – February 21st-22nd
Kamui Kobayashi – February 23rd-24th

Toro Rosso

Jean-Eric Vergne – February 21st-22nd
Daniel Ricciardo – February 23rd-24th

Williams

Bruno Senna – February 21st
Valtteri Bottas – February 22nd
Pastor Maldonado – February 23rd-24th

Caterham F1

TBC

HRT

Won’t run

Marussia

Charles Pic – February 21st-22nd and 24th
Timo Glock – February 23rd

 Rubens Barrichello on Saturday said it is “sad” another established formula one veteran, Jarno Trulli, has lost his race seat.
After 19 consecutive seasons, Barrichello is poised to switch to Indycar in 2012, while Trulli – who made his debut in 1997 and is a Monaco grand prix winner – has lost his seat to Vitaly Petrov.

“Money is dominating everything,” said Barrichello, with Caterham even admitting that the “global economic market” influenced the decision to replace Trulli with the well-backed Russian.

And with F1 now not boasting an Italian driver for the first time since the end of the 60s, Trulli lamented that no one is poised to succeed him.

“During a crisis as we have in our country, I can’t see how a youngster can find the help needed to be considered by any team,” he told the Ansa news agency.

“I knew of the difficult economic situation that would force the (Caterham) team to look for a driver with adequate backing,” added the 37-year-old.

Also lamenting the new dearth of Italian drivers, Ferrari team boss Stefano Domenicali admitted: “It’s a difficult moment for our sport, partly for external reasons.”

Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport said former Lotus driver Petrov is bringing a “double digit” sum in the millions to Caterham for Trulli’s 2012 seat.

Former Ferrari driver Mika Salo has admitted he was “surprised” his former team opted to honour Felipe Massa’s contract for 2012.
The Finn, who raced at the famous Maranello team for a time in 1999 after Michael Schumacher broke his leg, said Fernando Alonso is the “clear number one” nowadays.

“I don’t think Massa will be staying after this season,” former Sauber and Toyota driver Salo, who attended last week’s Jerez test, told the Finnish broadcaster MTV3.

“I was surprised that he was allowed to continue this year.”

Salo, 45, said there is a similar pecking-order at Red Bull, where Sebastian Vettel last year utterly dominated his teammate Mark Webber.

He also commented on McLaren’s duo, comprising two world champions.

“If McLaren has a good car then the drivers will be taking points off one another — that’s not something that will happen in the other teams.

“On the track, (Lewis) Hamilton is the fastest but not quite as smart as (Jenson) Button in the races.”

Salo sees less of a close battle at Lotus this year, where his countryman Kimi Raikkonen is returning to F1 alongside GP2 champion Romain Grosjean.

“Kimi should be much faster than Grosjean,” he said, “who is only there because (Eric) Boullier is his manager.”

As for Williams’ lineup of Pastor Maldonado alongside Bruno Senna, Salo said: “I think this is one of the worst pairings. Both are susceptible to mistakes.

“Senna had few good races last year but faded badly by the end.

“Maldonado is a bit of a hothead, so I don’t see it being a good year for them.

“For (test driver) Valtteri Bottas there could be a good opportunity to get a race.”

Two authoritative sources have admitted they doubt Adrian Newey was telling the whole truth about the air inlet in the ‘step’ nose of Red Bull’s 2012 car.
Designer Newey, the pioneer of the now-banned blown diffuser solutions seen throughout last year’s grid, insisted that the mysterious letterbox-slot gap in the RB8 is simply to cool the drivers with air.

But the aerodynamic expert’s explanation was met with some initial scepticism, amid speculation the monocoque air could also be flowing elsewhere for a performance benefit.

“The drivers are going to get their feet wet when it rains,” a suspicious unnamed engineer smilingly told Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport.

Also unconvinced is Joan Villadelprat, a veteran former formula one engineer who has worked at McLaren, Ferrari, Benetton, Prost and – most recently – heading the operations of the sports car team Epsilon Euskadi.

He wrote in El Pais newspaper: “Personally, I don’t believe Adrian Newey’s explanation that the opening is to refresh the drivers.

“If that’s what they need then Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber must drive half-asleep,” the Spaniard joked.

Italy’s La Gazzetta dello Sport speculates that the RB8′s inlet directs air underneath the floor, as per Ferrari’s innovative nose-slot of 2008.

 A leaked invoice suggests PDVSA, the state owned Venezuelan oil company, is paying a staggering US$46 million for its sponsorship of the Williams team in 2012.
Despite its authenticity having not been confirmed, the invoice from Williams – includes the Oxfordshire based team’s correct Barclays bank account – requests the full amount in pounds sterling.

Also appearing on the internet in recent months were the full contract between team driver Pastor Maldonado and Williams, and a stamped letter from Venezuelan congressman Carlos Ramos.

The leaking of the documents, with the invoice now published on the website of the Spanish sports daily Marca, surrounds Venezuelan officials’ doubts about the legality of Williams’ lucrative PDVSA deal.

Ramos’ letter to Williams’ communications boss Claire Williams last November referred to an “ongoing investigation” by the Venezuelan parliament.

“You may … be aware that our congress granted no approval to the sponsorship contract between Williams F1 and PDVSA,” he wrote, demanding Williams divulge the “amount disbursed to date to Williams F1 by PDVSA”.

Maldonado is backed directly by PDVSA, and is famously close to Venezuela’s controversial president Hugo Chavez.

 Lotus could become the next team to withdraw from the formula one teams association FOTA.
Already departed are HRT, Sauber and Toro Rosso and also the top teams Red Bull and Ferrari, leaving fellow grandees McLaren, Mercedes and the others on the wrong side of their competitors’ former unity.

Now, this week, team owner Gerard Lopez has been quoted as admitting that Lotus is contemplating pulling out.

The reasons for the withdrawals appear different, with Red Bull having been accused of breaching the gentleman’s Resource Restriction Agreement (RRA) and Ferrari rumoured to want to use its individual power to shape the future of the sport’s rules and structure.

The formerly BMW-owned Sauber, however, insisted that recent cost-cutting in formula one has not made it easier for smaller teams to survive.

“The RRA was a step in the right direction, but now other steps must urgently follow,” he told F1′s official website.

“It definitely has not become easier for the smaller teams.”

But beneath the surface, unity has not broken down completely, argues McLaren team boss Martin Whitmarsh, who doubles as the FOTA chairman.

It is true, for example, that the new non-FOTA members will continue to respect aspects of the body’s agreements, such as the summer factory closure.

“I’m not too hung up on the brand ‘FOTA’,” Whitmarsh said recently.

“I think what’s important is that the teams realise there are critical issues within this sport where it will be better if we cooperate and take sensible decisions, and I hope and believe that we’ll continue to do that.”

He added last month: “Relations between McLaren, Red Bull and Ferrari remain very good indeed.”