Formula One 2012

[maninblack]

Mercedes GP is making the steps that are needed to eventually get itself to the front of the Formula 1 grid.

That is the view of Mercedes-Benz motorsport boss Nobert Haug, who feels that the outfit has learned valuable lessons over the past two seasons that should help it make good progress.

This being the last year of Schumacher's contract, hopefully 2012 is when he wins another race.

I'm doubtful he and Mercedes can pull it off, but I'd like to be proven wrong about this.

Edited February 23, 2012 by maninblack

[Lineker]

Pastor Maldonado's late morning run was enough to keep Williams at the top of the timesheets as the third and penultimate day of pre-season testing in Barcelona drew to a close.

Long runs were once again the order of the day in the afternoon, with Michael Schumacher delivering the most extensive - a 59-lap stint on only the third public day of testing for Mercedes's W03.

Vitaly Petrov was the only driver to improve upon is morning benchmark, as a switch to Pirelli's super soft rubber yielded a 1m26.448s in the final 15 minutes. He stayed tenth however, just over four seconds down on Maldonado.

The Venezuelan likewise set his best time - the fastest seen so far in Barcelona – on the red super soft compound, lapping the circuit in 1m22.391s in the more advantageous morning conditions.

Schumacher's afternoon work took him to 127 laps for the day, the most by any driver. He ended second fastest as a result of his morning pace, just over nine tenths down on Maldonado.

Kamui Kobayashi was next up for Sauber, completing 99 laps in the C31.

Jenson Button was the last driver to dip under the 1m24s bracket in the morning, while in the afternoon he managed a total of 74 laps – often in individual stints of around ten laps, punctuated by short stops in the garage.

Jean-Eric Vergne finished fifth for Toro Rosso, ahead of Mark Webber in the Red Bull and Felipe Massa in the Ferrari – the latter pair sharing the exact same time of 1m24.771s.

Massa brought the day to a slightly premature halt when he stopped on the exit of the pitlane two minutes from the end. Mark Webber had earlier stopped out on track at Turn 8, one of several short red flag interludes.

Paul di Resta, taking over from yesterday's pacesetter Nico Hulkenberg at Force India, set the eighth fastest time, ahead of Timo Glock in the 2011-spec Marussia.

Despite his afternoon improvement Vitaly Petrov rounded out the day's runners in the Caterham CT 01.

Todays times:


Pos  Driver         Team            Time                Laps

 1.  Maldonado      Williams        1m22.391s           106

 2.  Schumacher     Mercedes        1m23.384s  +0.993   127

 3.  Kobayashi      Sauber          1m23.582s  +1.191   99

 4.  Button         McLaren         1m23.918s  +1.527   114

 5.  Vergne         Toro Rosso      1m24.433s  +2.042   78

 6.  Webber         Red Bull        1m24.771s  +2.380   97

 7.  Massa          Ferrari         1m24.771s  +2.380   84

 8.  Di Resta       Force India     1m25.646s  +3.255   83

 9.  Glock          Marussia        1m26.173s  +3.782   108

10.  Petrov         Caterham        1m26.448s  +4.057   70


All timing unofficial[/code]


Pastor Maldonado topped the third morning of testing in Barcelona, setting the fastest time of the week so far.



The Williams driver set the time on super soft tyres with half-an-hour of the morning session remaining while on a run of three flying laps.



The Venezuelan, who is having his first day in the car this week after Bruno Senna and Valtteri Bottas completed a day each, ended up almost one second clear of the second fastest driver, Michael Schumacher.



The seven-time world champion, driving the new Mercedes W03, set his best time on soft compound Pirelli rubber only a few minutes before Maldonado went fastest.



Sauber driver Kamui Kobayashi was third fastest. He set his time with one hour of the morning remaining, like Schumacher running the soft compound but he later brought the session to a premature end moments before the chequered flag was due to fly after stopping at the exit of Turn 4 on an out-of-fuel run.



McLaren driver Jenson Button was fourth fastest in the MP4-27, lapping a second-and-a-half off Maldonado. He set his time shortly before lunch, running soft rubber.



Scuderia Toro Rosso's Jean-Eric Vergne had his first taste of test action for this week, ending up fifth fastest, two seconds off the pace, and completed 42 laps of running.



He finished ahead of Felipe Massa, who endured another busy morning of work as Ferrari attempts to get on top of its troubled machine. His programme included a number of straightline aero runs on start/finish.



Red Bull had a quiet morning, with Mark Webber completing only 26 laps after taking over from Sebastian Vettel.



Timo Glock drove the Virgin MVR-02 for the first time since last year's Brazilian Grand Prix. He focused on tyre evaluation work using each of the four available Pirelli tyres compounds. Glock also triggered a red flag when he spun, but was able to recover to the pits.



Caterham driver Vitaly Petrov ended the morning ninth fastest after suspension problems restricted his running. He ended up a quarter-of-a-second faster that Paul di Resta, whose Force India caused the red flag to be deployed very briefly when he lost part of his engine cover.



[code]Morning times:


Pos  Driver         Team            Time               Laps

 1.  Maldonado      Williams        1m22.391s           52

 2.  Schumacher     Mercedes        1m23.384s  +0.993   54

 3.  Kobayashi      Sauber          1m23.582s  +1.191   59

 4.  Button         McLaren         1m23.918s  +1.527   39

 5.  Vergne         Toro Rosso      1m24.433s  +2.042   42

 6.  Massa          Ferrari         1m24.771s  +2.380   48

 7.  Webber         Red Bull        1m24.835s  +2.444   26

 8.  Glock          Marussia        1m26.173s  +3.782   51

 9.  Petrov         Caterham        1m26.929s  +4.538   23

10.  Di Resta       Force India     1m27.180s  +4.789   20

Lotus is set to add an extra day of private running to the final pre-season test after abandoning this week's Barcelona test with a chassis problem.

The Enstone team has applied for permission to have an extra day on track, which would require unanimous consent from the other teams.

AUTOSPORT understands that Lotus already has the required agreement from the majority of teams and given that Mercedes was granted an extra day before this week's Barcelona test after only running for three days in Jerez two weeks ago, it is likely to get permission.

The test is expected to take place on February 27, before the final Barcelona test, which runs from March 1-4, but sources indicate that the team is confident that it will have its chassis ready after making modifications to solve a problem believed to be related to the front suspension.

Red Bull Racing and Ferrari have changed their testing plans for next month and will now run at Barcelona from March 2-5.

The test was originally scheduled from March 1 to March 4 - Thursday to Sunday - but Ferrari opted to test from Friday to Monday instead.

Red Bull consulted with Ferrari if they could join the Italian squad on track on Monday, with the Maranello squad giving its rivals the green light.

Both teams will still test just four days like their rivals, but will kick off their programmes a day later.

Red Bull team boss Christian Horner said the decision was made purely for logistical reasons.

"We have decided to join Ferrari in running from Friday to Monday as opposed to Thursday to Sunday. We're just moving it a day," Horner told AUTOSPORT.

"From a logistical perspective, it just made a bit more sense. We asked Ferrari if we could join them, they agreed.

"It's in the test agreement and also within the test regs. We are within the time limit for that. It's something that we've elected to do. Lotus are doing their own thing but that's for different reasons elsewhere."

Lotus is set to be granted a private day of testing after pulling out of the Barcelona test this week because of problems with its chassis.

The FIA is to close off a loophole in Formula 1's new engine mapping regulations as part of a fresh clampdown on exhaust blowing, AUTOSPORT can reveal.

As teams continue to push the limits of the exhaust regulations, sources have revealed that the FIA has been alerted about a way in which teams could get around the stricter engine mapping limits laid down for this year.

Motor racing's governing body has been on a crusade to eradicate any form of exhaust blowing that is primarily aimed at producing an aerodynamic benefit.

As well as agreeing with teams on technical regulations that forced the now-standard periscope exhaust designs, AUTOSPORT revealed in October that the FIA was also imposing strict limits on engine mapping programmes to prevent the continued off-throttle blowing of them.

Although that move went some way to resolving the issue, sources have revealed that the FIA has now been tipped off by one engine maker that there remains the possibility in the current mapping configurations to get around those new limits.

AUTOSPORT understands that the issue relates to the extreme possibility of a team trying to make use of a bigger throttle opening than is allowed, to help increase the flow of exhaust gases by inducing a misfire.

Sources have confirmed that the FIA has worked with the manufacturer involved to cut off this potential avenue of development. An updated version of the software for F1's Standard ECU - which controls the engine maps - will be released before the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.

The FIA does not suspect that any team was making use of this loophole at the present time, although such an action could not have been ruled out if outfits had found out about it later in the campaign.

Williams chief operations engineer Mark Gillan said he remained confident that the FIA had a handle on the exhaust regulations for 2012 - and that the closing of such loopholes would be part and parcel of the build-up to the new season.

"The engine mapping technical directives, which have now been out for a few months, are very clear," said Gillan, when asked by AUTOSPORT about the situation during Barcelona testing.

"How you direct the exhausts is clear as well. As we can see down the pitlane, there are various options and we are investigating all of those options to see what benefit we can get.

"There's definitely performance to be had, but it's nowhere near the performance levels that we had last year. From our side, we have a good idea of the boundaries. There are a few minor technical directives coming out in terms of what is acceptable and what is not, but they are minor compared to the ones that came out in the tail end of last season."

Mark Webber says he is not unduly concerned by the reliability problems he suffered at Barcelona on Thursday, after a gearbox failure cut short a race distance attempt in the morning.

The Australian insists that Red Bull Racing's ambitious targets always leave it wanting more - but he remains confident that recent title-winning form bodes well.

"We have a few plates spinning but that is how Adrian [Newey, tech chief] likes it at this time of year," he said, after completing a race distance run in the afternoon.

"I remember years ago we never had a reliable car, and we seem to have scored a few points in between. We are working away and doing our best."

Webber says that ideally he would have liked to complete more than the 97 laps he did, but still thinks there was reason to be happy with how things are going at the team.

"We could have done a bit more, but everybody is in the same boat," he explained. "You always want to do 20 or 30 laps more each day but, in the end, the guys have worked incredibly hard and done a good job. We need to focus on tomorrow now.

"In Jerez I felt comfortable in the car. Today, we didn't have the smoothest of days but there are still loads of positives to look at. Obviously we are a very ambitious team, and we want to keep improving."

Jenson Button believes Sebastian Vettel is not going to enjoy the kind of advantage he held at the start of last season when the new campaign kicks off in Australia next month.

Boosted by the ongoing promise shown by his new McLaren in testing, Button thinks that his team is in pretty good shape as it continues its preparations for Melbourne.

"Seb is obviously the favourite, as he should be as he has won the last two world championships," explained Button. "There have been regulation changes, and I think still Red Bull will be strong this year from the word go, but I don't think they will have the advantage they had at the start of last year."

Button thinks that McLaren has built on the good base it delivered in Jerez - and he is looking forward to a big update package coming for the next test in Barcelona next week.

"I say that is a good step forward from Jerez in terms of understanding the car more, and also the reliability is much better than we had in Jerez. We are making steps forward but there is no big step forward as we have not changed anything on car.

"But there will definitely be something new for Melbourne. We have an update on the car for the first race. It is not a completely straightforward update as it is not about bolting downforce on the car – it is slightly more than that.

"I just hope we are going in the right direction. The wind tunnel says we are. I am looking to the update next week, and then we can start balancing the car and finding a direction for the first race."

Formula 1 boss Bernie Ecclestone says Lewis Hamilton may leave McLaren at the end of the season if he struggles to mount a serious title challenge.

Hamilton, whose contract expires at the end of the season, won the world title with the British team in 2008.

But he has since finished no higher than fourth in the world championship.

"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," said Ecclestone, 81.

Asked if he thought Hamilton, 27, would end his career at McLaren, the F1 boss replied: "I doubt that."

McLaren have not won a constructors' championship since 1998 and have won just one drivers' title in the last 10 years.

With seats at Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes available next year, Hamilton has options, should he wish to leave the team which has supported him all the way through his racing career.

Hamilton endured a turbulent season in 2011 which yielded only three wins and a host of on- and off-track controversies.

He also said that not having the right combination of people around him was one of the reasons for his troubled mindset last year.

But earlier this month, he said he was "in a good place" mentally after spending the winter analysing his mistakes.

The 27-year-old has also taken on Didier Coton, who previously worked with double world champion and former McLaren driver Mika Hakkinen, as part of his management team.

But while Ecclestone believes Hamilton is in a better frame of mind this season, he is still unsure about his management set-up.

"I spoke to him [Hamilton] the other day and I think he's a bit more focused," said Ecclestone.

"But I don't agree with the people he's got surrounding him and so-called managing him. I think he doesn't need that sort of management."

Asked what type of management Hamilton needed, Ecclestone said: "Someone with their feet on the ground.

"It's a people's job. They don't have to know about technical issues, someone who if you've a problem you can talk to the guy.

"His dad [Anthony] was good, wasn't he? His dad was the right person."

And when asked about his thoughts on Coton, Ecclestone said: "Let's see. I hope so [that he is right]."

Felipe Massa believes that Ferrari is making progress since its difficult first Formula 1 test of 2012 at Jerez; the Brazilian confident that the team is getting itself in shape for the start of the season.

Massa was having his first run at Barcelona this week after Fernando Alonso drove on the opening two days. Although continuing the detailed evaluation work that has been a part of Ferrari's pre-season programme, he can now see light at the end of the tunnel.

"The car is definitely better compared to Jerez and we are beginning to define how we must move forward to continue to improve," said Massa, who ended the day seventh on the timesheets.

"I ran all the time on the hardest tyres and I am reasonably pleased with the work we did. Tomorrow I will try the other compounds and we will work on fine-tuning the car. It will be important to do a lot of kilometres over these final five days to be as well-prepared as possible for the first race of the season."

Ferrari has revised its plans for next week's Barcelona test. It has chosen to join Red Bull in running from Friday to Monday, while the rest of the teams will be on-track from Thursday to Sunday. Its drivers will alternate their running too, with Massa driving on Friday and Sunday, and Alonso testing on Saturday and Monday.

Michael Schumacher is sure this year's Mercedes is a step forward compared to last year's challenger after completing his second day of testing at Barcelona.

The German had another highly productive day on Thursday, covering 127 laps for a total of 592 km, taking the team's total mileage for the W03 to 1756 km since it made its track debut.

Schumacher was second quickest today and he is confident Mercedes has taken a step forward compared to last year.

The seven-time champion said, however, that it is too early to say where that will put the team.

"We had a trouble-free day today. We did a race simulation and the competitiveness of the car is better than it has been. There are some promising signs that I hope we can transform in good results," said Schumacher.

"It's definitely clear that we have improved the car, but the question is how much we have improved the car compared to the others, something that I don't know yet."

When asked about his goals for the season, Schumacher said: "Wait and see."

Nico Hulkenberg says the adaptability of Force India's VJM05 added to his feeling of optimism after topping the timesheets following the second day of pre-season testing in Barcelona.

The German ran at the sharp end of the field throughout the day, before establishing himself at the front after changing to Pirelli's super soft compound in the final stages of the morning running.

While Hulkenberg admits he was pleased to register a good time, he said he was also encouraged by the VJM05's baseline set-up and its resulting ability to adapt to different compounds.

"It was a pretty good day - we had good speed and we were also able to try all the different compounds, run on all of them and get a good idea of how our car reacts," Hulkenberg explained.

"We have a good baseline I think. As always you play with the wing a bit from one compound to another, but we have good knowledge now of how the car reacts and it's pretty good."

When asked by AUTOSPORT about his run on the super soft compound, seen for the first time on Tuesday, Hulkenberg added: "You always aim to do good laps – we're race drivers, you have to drive fast and push the car to the limit to see where the weaknesses are.

"It seems to be a classic qualifying tyre – at least it was yesterday. It's softer rubber which gives you additional grip for one lap. We had to try it at some point to see how the car reacts to it – now we have good experience of that and we can move on.

"We got a lot of laps [on Wednesday] and did some constant speed runs, some aero work and some data gathering and gained a lot of good knowledge. Once again the car has proved very driveable."

Pastor Maldonado reckons the Williams-Renault FW34 with which he set the fastest time of the third day's testing at Barcelona has improved significantly since he last drove it at Jerez.

The Venezuelan, whose lap of 1m22.391s was the quickest time recorded by a 2012 car at the Catalan circuit, said the Williams appears to be a genuinely competitive improvement over its predecessor.

"The car has improved a lot and it's getting better and better every day," said Maldonado. "Especially since we didn't have any issues with the car so we have always done more than 100 laps every day - which is pretty positive for the factory to have many laps to analyse and see the data.

"I'm pretty happy. The car looks competitive and much better than last year's car for sure. Everything is working; the engine, the gearbox, the aero and even mechanically so... it is not a perfect car, it's still early and we have a lot of things to improve, but the car is quick.

"We need to still do analysis and develop the car a little more, but this is a good point to start with."

Maldonado added that new parts are being brought to Barcelona for the final test which he hopes will resolve the slow corner issues identified by both Bruno Senna and Valtteri Bottas.

"We have a good improvement in the aero department so I hope so," said Maldonado. "Hopefully it will improve on all the corners of the track, even the fast ones. We will see, I'm pretty confident."

He added: "I am happy because each time we make a change I can feel it, which is so positive. I have a great feeling with the car, even with the engineer just to explain what it was doing at the moment. Even with high fuel, low fuel, long runs, it all seems clear."

Rubens Barrichello insists that Formula 1 is not a closed chapter for him - even though he is on the verge of securing a deal to race in IndyCar for 2012.

The Brazilian was dropped by Williams in favour of Bruno Senna earlier this year, but wasted little time in looking at other racing options.

And after a positive three days of testing for KV Racing at Sebring last month, Barrichello will return to the cockpit of an IndyCar at Sears Point this weekend as efforts are made to sort out a deal.

But despite that move, Barrichello has told this week's AUTOSPORT in an exclusive interview that he does not believe his time in F1 has come to an end.

Making reference to the comebacks of Michael Schumacher and Kimi Raikkonen, Barrichello said: "I'm leaving my mind very open, I'm leaving my mind probably the same way Schumacher had (when he left), and how Kimi left his mind.

"You never know what might happen. And if I'm not in Formula 1 anymore, I'm going to be around. I want to say goodbye when I'm 60 or something!"

He added: "You never know what Formula 1 is about. People know what I'm capable of and I'm an experienced driver. With so little testing that's obviously high on the list. Last year was hard because all of the contracts were already set."

Barrichello has no hard feelings against Senna for being chosen against him, but has expressed some 'disappointment' about the way Williams handled him not being retained.

Keen not to dwell on that, however, Barrichello has also revealed that he is ready to commit to a full programme of IndyCar – which will include five ovals that it had been previously thought he would not compete because of safety fears expressed by his family.

[Lineker]

Kamui Kobayashi put Sauber at the top of the timesheets as Formula 1's second pre-season test closed.

The Japanese driver managed a 1m22.312s on Pirelli's soft compound in the final hour of the morning, the fastest time set over all four days in Barcelona.

Having ended the morning fastest, Kobayashi's time came under little threat in the afternoon as teams followed the established pattern of focusing on long runs.

The same was true of Pastor Maldonado, who got within a quarter of a second of Kobayashi in the morning before focusing purely on long runs in the afternoon - in the process racking up 131 laps over the course of the day.

Paul di Resta was the only driver to move up the order in the final session, as a switch to supersoft rubber produced a 1m23.119s - enough to demote Jenson Button and claim third.

Di Resta brought about one of the day's three red flags when he went off into the gravel on the outside of Campsa during the morning. The second and third came in the final 15 minutes, as a result of 'out of fuel' runs for Sauber and McLaren respectively.

McLaren driver Button was the last driver to get within a second of Kobayashi, although the Briton set his fastest time relatively early on in the morning on hard tyres.

Like Button and the three drivers ahead in the timesheets, Felipe Massa's lap chart also broke into triple figures. The Brazilian ended the day fifth fastest in the F2012, and completed several runs of around 13 laps each in the afternoon.

Mark Webber and Jean-Eric Vergne both added to their lap counts in the afternoon, but with neither improving their times, stayed sixth and seventh, separated by just 0.018s.

Nico Rosberg achieved 139 laps during the day, second only to Kobayashi, after completing a full race simulation in the morning and several shorter runs in the afternoon.

The German ended the day eighth fastest, ahead of Heikki Kovalainen in the Caterham CT 01.

The Finn's day was interrupted by an electrical problem that forced the team to make an engine change, but he was eventually able to complete 70 laps. His best time came late in the afternoon.

A suspension problem meant Marussia was unable to complete a lap on the final day of testing for its 2011 car; the new MR 01 set to be unveiled in time for the third and final pre-season test.

Fridays times:


Pos  Driver         Team            Time                Laps

 1.  Kobayashi      Sauber          1m22.312s           145

 2.  Maldonado      Williams        1m22.561s  +0.249   134

 3.  Di Resta       Force India     1m23.119s  +0.807   101

 4.  Button         McLaren         1m23.200s  +0.888   115

 5.  Massa          Ferrari         1m23.563s  +1.251   103

 6.  Webber         Red Bull        1m23.774s  +1.462   85

 7.  Vergne         Toro Rosso      1m23.792s  +1.480   92

 8.  Rosberg        Mercedes        1m23.843s  +1.531   139

 9.  Kovalainen     Caterham        1m26.968s  +4.656   70[/code]


Kamui Kobayashi topped the final morning of Formula 1 pre-season testing at Barcelona, setting the fastest time seen so far this week.



The Sauber driver switched to Pirelli's soft compound in the final hour of the morning and was able to get down to a 1m22.312s - thousandths of a second faster than Pastor Maldonado's Thursday benchmark.



Maldonado was also his nearest challenger in this session, getting to within a quarter of a second of the C31 after switching to super softs in the closing stages. The Venezuelan had spent the early morning in race simulation, and racked up more than 80 laps before the lunch break.



He could not deprive Kobayashi of the top spot however, meaning eight different drivers have topped the opening eight mornings of testing.



Jenson Button ended the morning third fastest in the McLaren, having set his best time relatively early on and on hard rubber.



Force India's Paul di Resta was little more than one tenth of a second down the road in fourth, although the Briton's morning was interrupted when he went off into the gravel at Campsa, bringing out about the only red flag of the morning. He was able to return in the final ten minutes.



Felipe Massa finished fifth fastest for Ferrari, which bolted on super softs in the final five minutes but opted to run only installation laps.



Mark Webber put the Red Bull RB8 sixth, just 0.018s ahead of Jean-Eric Vergne in the Toro Rosso.



Webber opted mainly to run on mediums, although he did switch to softs for the final 30 minutes. Vergne meanwhile achieved his time on super softs.



Nico Rosberg finished 1.7s down on Kobayashi in eighth, the German completing 92 laps - the most of any driver - in the W03.



Heikki Kovalainen managed just 16 laps for Caterham before an electrical problem forced the team to do an engine change, and cut his morning short.



Marussia fared even worse, Charles Pic not managing a single run due to suspension troubles.



[code]Friday Morning times:


Pos  Driver         Team            Time                Laps

 1.  Kobayashi      Sauber          1m22.312s           63

 2.  Maldonado      Williams        1m22.561s  +0.249   86

 3.  Button         McLaren         1m23.200s  +0.888   50

 4.  Di Resta       Force India     1m23.304s  +0.992   45

 5.  Massa          Ferrari         1m23.563s  +1.251   56

 6.  Webber         Red Bull        1m23.774s  +1.462   40

 7.  Vergne         Toro Rosso      1m23.792s  +1.480   45

 8.  Rosberg        Mercedes        1m24.092s  +1.780   92

 9.  Kovalainen     Caterham        1m27.047s  +4.735   16

Kamui Kobayashi says 'strange' track conditions on Thursday afternoon hindered Sauber's testing programme on the penultimate day of the second test.

The Japanese driver finished the day third fastest, 1.191s down on Williams's Pastor Maldonado, after a late morning run on Pirelli's soft compound.

He said his programme had centred more upon set-up work however, which the team had been unable to complete, despite totalling 99 laps, due to unusual conditions in the afternoon.

"The track was so strange in the afternoon," Kobayashi explained. "It seemed not to show performance and it was very difficult to compare lap times. I said to my engineer it seemed so strange.

"We have done a pretty good programme already, and I think we can see the picture is not too bad. In the afternoon though we were surprised because lap times dropped a lot, which means we still have homework [for Friday].

"The priority is to check everything and get the data we missed [from yesterday]. Maybe if we have time after we can do a bit more performance wise, but the definite priority is to check and compare the data from yesterday, which was not stable, and improve the car."

Kobayashi said that testing conditions also made it difficult to compare Sauber's C31 to its rivals' efforts, but said the team had already made improvements from Jerez.

"We don't know if we could do anything different," he said when asked about Pastor Maldonado's Thursday benchmark. "We can't compare to others yet.

"It's not about the feeling of the car - I could say it is good, but if the lap time is three seconds slower then there is no chance. I believe the car is not too bad, but it is winter testing, so it's very difficult to say.

"We still have some homework: in high speed corners the balance is okay, but in low speed we have to find something. We've improved though definitely – we just need to do more set-up work before we can see more performance."

Felipe Massa is convinced Ferrari has finally found the direction that will allow the team to unlock all the potential from its 2012 challenger.

The Italian squad has endured a difficult pre-season so far, as it worked on getting to grips with the radical F2012 car with which it hopes to return to winning ways this season.

Massa completed his two days of work at Barcelona today, covering over 100 laps for the first time this year and finishing as fifth quickest.

The Brazilian believes that after a difficult final morning, Ferrari made a breakthrough in the afternoon that will allow the team to finally extract the best from the car.

"I think it's definitely the direction we need to follow for these last days of testing we have, and I think today was a positive day, not so much in the morning but in the afternoon," Massa told reporters.

"I have to say that now we are a little bit more positive because we found the direction to work and I'm sure now, having found the direction, we can see the development coming.

"In the afternoon we were able to do more than eight/nine timed laps consistently. The laps were very consistent and it was very positive. We still need to work a lot but at least we found the direction to get a much better car to drive, not just for laptime for also for consistency."

He added: "In the past we didn't have so many directions to follow. This year we have so many directions, so many possibilities and the most important thing was to find the right one, and I'm sure we found it."

Massa conceded, however, there is still a lot of work left to do before the car is where the team wants it.

"I think more than five," he said when asked how prepared Ferrari is on a scale of one to ten, "but there is still work to be done to be closer to where we want. But at least we made a good step to find the direction."

Mark Webber thinks it would be wrong to write off Ferrari's chances of starting the Formula 1 season strongly, with the early form guide pointing towards Red Bull and McLaren as favourites.

Although Ferrari has failed to shine in the first two pre-season tests, Webber knows that winter running can potentially count for nothing at the first race - especially since the team has a driver like Fernando Alonso on board.

"As long as Fernando has a steering wheel in his hand he is always there," said Webber. "So you can never discount Fernando.

"I think McLaren look pretty well prepared, but we have seen it in the past where people are not very organised in the winter but then arrive at the first race extremely organised.

"We are focused on ourselves. We have a lot of work to do in Milton Keynes over the next five or six days to prepare the car for the next test, and then there is a huge workload for Melbourne.

"The test has been put back by one day, so that makes Melbourne a bit tighter, but in the end we have gathered a lot of information in the last two tests."

Webber feels satisfied with the progress that Red Bull is making, but has expressed some eagerness to get on with the first race.

"Winter testing has gone pretty well in terms of starting quite well with the RB8," he said. "I'm feeling positive and looking forward to the first race.

"We all like driving F1 cars in testing, but the racing is when it really starts because we also have to stop guesstimating - talking about who is quick and who is slow."

Ross Brawn has seen enough of his Mercedes team's new car this week to be convinced it is a step forward over last year's contender - but he does not think it is good enough yet to win Formula 1 races.

As the Brackley-based outfit prepares to wrap up its first full pre-season test, Brawn feels the W03 has delivered exactly what he had hoped for at this stage of the campaign.

"The important thing is that we don't appear to have any core problems, we don't appear to have any major issues," he explained in Barcelona. "It seems okay and the car functions all right.

"Maybe something will come up that we don't know about at the moment, but it seems to work okay and that's great because we're now starting work on the performance.

"We're in a much better position than we were last year. So far, we have done over 2000 kms and we had done less than half of that at this stage last year. I think people can see that we have got something to work with."

Brawn said the focus of the final test at Barcelona would be to eke out more speed from the car - ahead of the first race of the season in Australia next month.

But he played down talk that it could bring a package that would put it in a position to take the fight to Red Bull Racing and McLaren for victory in Australia.

When asked about where a win fits into the team's equation, Brawn said: "It doesn't yet. There's still an awful lot to do and it's too early to make any judgements."

He added: "Both drivers are capable of winning. There's no doubt in my mind about that. We have got to produce the car. I don't think we have the car yet but it has been a good step over where we were 12 months ago."

Brawn did feel that the team had improved on the tyre degradation issues that hurt its form at times throughout 2011.

"We are trying to find that balance of performance over a stint with tyre degradation. Do you push hard at the beginning and the tyre falls away, or do you try and conserve the tyres and keep a consistent lap time? What's the actual quickest way of doing it, and what setu-p do you need to achieve that?

"When we come to the next test, we'll spend a lot more time looking at that. But it's not bad. It's just probably not as good as we would hope, but it's not bad. The thing we have to be careful is that Barcelona is an unusual circuit with a lot of fast right-handers and the grip is going up now. Probably, today is the first day that we've had some representative track temperatures."

Nico Rosberg says he is fired up by the progress he has seen at Mercedes - even though he concedes the team is not in race-winning shape yet.

Although the W03 has proved to be a step forward over last year's challenger, Rosberg backs the view of team principal Ross Brawn that the outfit needs to find another step before it can be ready to take victory.

However, rather than be downbeat because he may have to wait a bit longer to think about winning races, Rosberg says the fact the team is moving forward is enough to keep him happy.

"We want to win, so we are definitely not there yet, but we are making progress and that is good to see," he said after testing finished in Barcelona.

"The team is in the right direction, and the car build, the work they have done at the factory over the winter is so much better than previous years. It is clean, the car build is performing as expected and all these things [are good], so we are looking at big things as a team."

He added: "It is not frustrating; it is a great motivation to be part of this push that is happening at this team.

"The progress is evident so that is really nice to see and everyone is motivated as a result. You see that progress and that is extra motivation, because you think okay, things are happening, now things are moving forward and we can get there."

Williams needs to improve its car's low-speed performance if it is to make progress up the grid, reckons chief operations engineer Mark Gillan.

Although the team is convinced that the FW34 is a step forward over last year's disappointing challenger, the Grove-based outfit already understands the areas where things need to be made even better.

"Obviously, you've got to concentrate on where the maximum performance gains will be had," explained Gillan about Williams' focus going forward.

"Aero-wise, slow speed corners are where the laptime is to be found, so you have to concentrate on that. The aero department spent a lot of time looking at the different weightings and ensuring that the car is optimised for where there is maximum return."

With the car appearing to be a handful to drive in slow speed corners, Gillan admitted that it was the area that stood out for the team at the moment.

"It is a better now, and there is a more stable aerodynamic platform because although it's slow, the aerodynamics are still important. It is probably even more important in the slow speed because that's where most of the lap time is to be had.

"In all areas, there's definitely room for improvement, that's for sure, but things are definitely a step in the right direction. Where we were losing time relative to the competition is pretty much in low speed."

Gillan confirmed that an update would be fitted to the car for next week's final pre-season test at Barcelona.

"We learned a lot in Jerez, this week is building on that and getting into race weekend preparation with Pastor [Maldonado]," he said. "Then next week we will have new bits for Australia, make sure that they correlate well and sign that off before we head off."

While the teams were testing, Formula 1's governing body, the FIA, issued a rule clarification on engine mapping in an attempt to close off any possible use of exhausts for aerodynamic effect.

It was intended that rule changes for 2012 would prevent the increasingly influential practice, but some teams alerted the FIA to the fact that they left open the possibility for teams to deliberately induce a misfire on the over-run - when the engine is used for braking - to allow more throttle than would normally be permitted.

It is believed no teams had done this so far - but the FIA has acted to ensure they cannot in the future.

[Lineker]

The 2012 Formula 1 winter testing schedule offered teams an unusual one-week break between the opening sessions at Jerez and action resuming at Barcelona - giving an opportunity for those who had troubled starts to work hard back at base before hitting the track again, but also giving those who shone at Jerez plenty of time to process their data and make further gains.

A chilly week at Barcelona's Catalunya circuit therefore began to give us a clearer picture of where the field stands and how the picture is chagning as the season-opener in Melbourne approaches.

Day one

World champion Sebastian Vettel commenced the week in ominous form with the fastest time for Red Bull on Tuesday, although it was a relatively close fight at the front of the field, with 0.353 seconds covering the top four cars.

Whereas Jerez had tended to see each day's best time set very early then never beaten, Tuesday's pattern of a morning of close competition and top-spot-swapping followed by a slow afternoon set the tone for the Catalunya week. Vettel jumped to the top with his 1m23.265s shortly before lunch, deposing compatriot Nico Hulkenberg's Force India by 0.175s.

But the biggest news was not who was fastest, but who was already heading home. Romain Grosjean reported "strange" feelings from his Lotus and parked after just seven laps. A major chassis problem - seemingly related to the front suspension - was discovered, and the team packed up not only for the day, but for the rest of the week.

That overshadowed the unveiling of the new Mercedes W03, the last potential 2012 frontrunner to break cover. The new car was sixth on its first public appearance, with Michael Schumacher doing the honours.

Also making a 2012 debut was Marussia, albeit with a 2011 Virgin for rookie Charles Pic to build up mileage and experience in. The GP2 graduate covered a mammoth 121 laps.

Lewis Hamilton was also busy as he completed 114 laps and went third-quickest for McLaren, followed by Daniel Ricciardo's Toro Rosso and Fernando Alonso's Ferrari.

A trackrod problem left Heikki Kovalainen's Caterham parked across the circuit in the morning, but it was resolved in time for him to get a little more running at the end of the day.

Day two

After narrowly missing out on the Tuesday top spot, Hulkenberg established himself at the head of the order on Wednesday as one of several drivers to try Pirelli's super softs.

Sergio Perez did likewise for Sauber and lapped within 0.040s of Hulkenberg's 1m22.608s.

But Vettel was again at the forefront, setting the soft-tyre pace with a time 0.283s off the Force India.

Ricciardo and Alonso again completed the top five, ahead of Hamilton. The McLaren driver and Vettel carried out intriguing long runs at the same time, giving a hint of their potential race pace, and appearing evenly matched.

Williams gave reserve driver Valtteri Bottas a full day in the car and a chance to simulate his grand prix Friday programmes. The Finn was eighth quickest.

There was also a new face at Caterham, as Vitaly Petrov made his debut for his new employer and settled in with the ninth-quickest time.

Day three

Another super soft run grabbed the top spot, this time courtesy of Williams man Pastor Maldonado.

Given that Williams had not looked like a pacesetter so far, this could have been dismissed as low-fuel showboating, but Maldonado was adamant that the FW34 was showing genuinely encouraging signs.

Schumacher took second place for Mercedes, nearly a second off the Williams, having completed an impressive 127 laps - including a 59-lap run punctuated only by tyre changes.

Sauber's Kamui Kobayashi, McLaren's Jenson Button and Toro Rosso's Jean-Eric Vergne were next up.

Day four

The fastest time of the week came on the final morning - and on softs rather than super softs. Kobayashi lapped in 1m22.312s for Sauber - then got within 0.006s of that mark on super softs too.

Maldonado continued to produce encouraging pace for Williams in a close second place, followed by Force India's Paul di Resta, who caused a morning red flag by slewing into the gravel at Campsa.

As well as going quickest, Kobayashi also had the honour of the greatest lap tally, as he completed 145 circuits of Catalunya.

Only nine cars took part in the final day. With Lotus already long since departed and HRT still not ready, Marussia caused numbers to dwindle further when a suspension issue on Pic's 2011 Virgin meant it could not take part in the Friday running.

COMBINED TIMES


Pos  Driver      Team         Best time            Total laps

 1.  Kobayashi   Sauber       1m22.312s            244

 2.  Maldonado   Williams     1m22.391s  + 0.079s  240

 3.  Hulkenberg  Force India  1m22.608s  + 0.296s  209

 4.  Perez       Sauber       1m22.648s  + 0.336s  151

 5.  Vettel      Red Bull     1m22.891s  + 0.579s  183

 6.  Di Resta    Force India  1m23.119s  + 0.807s  184

 7.  Alonso      Ferrari      1m23.180s  + 0.868s  162

 8.  Button      McLaren      1m23.200s  + 0.888s  229

 9.  Schumacher  Mercedes     1m23.384s  + 1.072s  178

10.  Massa       Ferrari      1m23.563s  + 1.251s  187

11.  Hamilton    McLaren      1m23.590s  + 1.278s  234

12.  Ricciardo   Toro Rosso   1m23.618s  + 1.306s  126

13.  Webber      Red Bull     1m23.774s  + 1.462s  182

14.  Vergne      Toro Rosso   1m23.792s  + 1.480s  170

15.  Rosberg     Mercedes     1m23.843s  + 1.531s  221

16.  Senna       Williams     1m25.711s  + 3.399s  97

17.  Bottas      Williams     1m25.738s  + 3.426s  117

18.  Kovalainen  Caterham     1m26.035s  + 3.723s  101

19.  Glock       Marussia     1m26.173s  + 3.861s  108

20.  Petrov      Caterham     1m26.448s  + 4.136s  139

21.  Grosjean    Lotus        1m26.809s  + 4.497s  7

22.  Pic         Marussia     1m27.343s  + 5.031s  229[/code]


Kamui Kobayashi warned not to pay too much attention to his timesheet-topping performance in Barcelona testing on Friday - but believes Sauber looks capable of achieving consistent points finishes and has made strides with its reliability.


The Japanese driver set the fastest time of the Catalunya testing week yesterday morning with a lap in 1m22.312s.


"It's testing, it's better than nothing and it's better than last, for sure, but I don't think this is a real result," he said. "I don't believe it is, and I know more than anybody what the situation is. I don't think McLaren and Red Bull are slow..."


After some concerns about reliability in the first test at Jerez, Kobayashi felt Sauber had got on top of its teething troubles by Barcelona.


"It's pretty good. I think we could do a little bit more but we had a moment with an exhaust problem and we lost a little bit of time," he said. "Overall I think it was a very good test here and a very good programme. We did two races' mileage in one day, which is good.


"Still we have a couple of issues, but they're getting much less and this is a good sign. They're only small reliability issues, which is good."


Kobayashi does not expect big improvements for the final test back at Catalunya next week.


"It's not easy to find new parts in one week, but it's important that we do more on set-up and do more long runs on heavy fuel. I think this will be key," he said.


He added that he was taking a realistic approach to Sauber's prospects for the 2012 Formula 1 season.


"We have to be very stable. I think when we are good we have quite good pace for our team and can be scoring points," said Kobayashi. "We don't really wish for wins or podiums, for us this is a bit too far away. To be realistic for us, we want to be consistently scoring points."


The HRT team has passed all the mandatory FIA crash tests, AUTOSPORT has learned, although its presence at the final Barcelona Formula 1 test is still in doubt.


HRT had hoped to debut its new car - the F112 - in the second test at Barcelona this week, but the failure to pass two crash tests forced the Spanish squad to alter its plans.


AUTOSPORT has learned that on Friday the team passed the final rollhoop test successfully and so its car is now homologated to test and to race.


The team's presence in the final test in Barcelona, however, is still in doubt, as HRT is facing a race against time to have the car ready. A source said the outfit is hopeful of at least testing for two days.


The final test of the 2012 pre-season kicks off on Thursday and ends on Monday.

[Lineker]

Fernando Alonso says he and Ferrari remain relaxed about their pre-season preparations - as he insists it is far too early to get excited or depressed about its progress.

Although the Maranello-based outfit has faced a tough time in trying to get an understanding of its radical F2012, the outfit was boosted by progress it made during the closing stages of last week's Barcelona test.

But Alonso insists that now is not the time to get emotional about what Ferrari may or may not achieve this year – as the focus must remain on getting through the work that still needs to be done before the Australian Grand Prix.

"There is no worry, nor is it a case of seeing a light at the end of the tunnel," said Alonso about his post-test reaction, during a promotional event with Santander at Jarama on Monday.

"There has been a tendency from the media's point of view to believe that Ferrari is having a bad pre-season, or that the car for some dark reason that we don't know is a bad one.

"But for us, we've always kept calm and we have kept working in a consistent way. The complexity of the car has made everything a bit slower. In fact, after two tests we still have plenty of things to do in the final test.

"The last day they still kept on trying things and I'm sure some of them were interesting. So maybe after Barcelona we are better then we were after Jerez. And after Barcelona 2 we will be better than after Barcelona 1. Then let's hope we arrive in Australia with a competitive car.

"But apart from a slight delay due to the complexity of the car, as I say, we haven't seen the light and we weren't inside any tunnels before."

Alonso thinks the complexities of winter testing make it impossible to say for definite where Ferrari stands in the rankings right now – but he has faith that his outfit will deliver the goods again.

"I can't say if we are first, or second, or ninth," he said. "As of today we are in a position of work in which it is very hard to know where everybody is. It's all speculation.

"You would suppose Red Bull, after dominating the sport for two years, won't be out of Q2 in Australia. You suppose McLaren, Mercedes and Ferrari will not be far away from victory, because they are great teams. But all these are assumptions and let's hope they are true and we can be in the fight.

"The message is the same after every test. The team is working well. Ferrari is the only team that can give you a car capable of fighting for victory. In a year that was relatively bad like 2011 we won a race and finished on the podium 10 times. That's something only Ferrari can give you year after year. And that's the main reason for optimism from everybody."

Alonso also dismissed suggestions that he and the team were feeling the pressure to deliver the world title this year – with the outfit having been without a crown since it took the Constructors' Championship in 2008.

"What's obvious is that every season the demands are bigger, both for Ferrari and for me, because none of us likes to finish second, and second for us is not the result we are looking for.

"So the demand to win every world championship you start, year after year, is demanding, but it's needed for Ferrari and to me too as a competitive athlete.

"It's an important year, yes. But that is only because of the demands we set for ourselves, and not because it has been more or less years without a title."

Ferrari has been urged to take a risk and consider signing a young Italian by the country's most experienced Formula 1 driver, Riccaro Patrese.

Patrese, who started 256 grands prix during his 16-year grand prix career, believes that his nation's lack of drivers on the grid now can only be rectified if an outfit like Ferrari takes a punt.

"Why this has happened I don't know," Patrese wrote on his official website about why there were no Italians on the F1 grid for the start of a season for the first time since 1970.

"Jarno Trulli has had time at the top, but he has been racing at the back for a while and maybe it is better for him to stay at home rather than continue like this. I hope some young Italians can come into F1 in the future.

"We know how important the Ferrari team is. I remember Imola in 1983 when the fans cheered when I crashed because a Ferrari, not an Italian driver, was going to win."

Patrese thinks Ferrari, which dominates the Italian racing scene, is well placed to provide the opportunity that a young Italian drivers needs - because it could be on the look out for a replacement for Felipe Massa if the Brazilian does not impress this year.

"The best three drivers are [Fernando] Alonso, [sebastian] Vettel and [Lewis] Hamilton at the moment, but maybe Ferrari, if they wanted, could have an Italian driver as the second driver in the team – particular as Massa hasn't looked particularly good in the last couple of seasons.

"They could take a small risk to take a young Italian driver but this hasn't happened since the time of Michele Alboreto.

"Italian drivers don't get help from a team. Ferrari have their driver academy where the Italian F3 champion gets an F1 test, but nothing seems to happen after that. I think there are good young Italian drivers but they need to be given the opportunity to prove their ability."

Mark Webber says he will waste no time worrying about rival drivers gunning for his Red Bull Racing seat for next year.

With the Australian's contract up for renewal again at the end of this season, Webber knows he must deliver results if his bosses are not going to consider slotting in youngsters like Daniel Ricciardo or Jean-Eric Vergne.

But rather than feel that the situation is a cause for concern, Webber is well aware of what is expected - and knows the best thing for his future is focusing on his own performances rather than what other drivers are doing.

"The most important thing for Mark Webber is that I perform," he said in an interview with the official Formula 1 website. "The rest I can't control, so I'll just look after myself.

"When you are in front in Formula 1 you are always under intense scrutiny. Every corner is analysed. If teams don't like a driver's style or discipline it does not matter who is waiting in the wings - you are out anyway.

"Teams will always look at what's best for them as drivers are a huge part of the team. I respect that and will focus on 2012 in this fashion."

When asked if that meant his sights were set on a full-scale championship assault this year, after a disappointing 2011 campaign, Webber responded: "Absolutely!

"I had a pretty strong finish last season but unfortunately it was not the best of starts. So for 2012 I want to have a good start, keep it together in the middle part and have a good finish. And then let's count up the points!"

Force India's owners must decide within the next few months if they are happy for the outfit to keep fighting in Formula 1's midfield pack, or if they want to dig deep into their pockets to help fund a push to the front of the grid.

That is the view of the Silverstone-based outfit's deputy team principal Bob Fernley, who says that Force India's shareholders must soon make a call on their long-term ambitions.

"I think we have got to have a fundamental rethink," Fernley told AUTOSPORT on the back of an encouraging winter testing programme so far.

"The reconstruction plan was put in place by the beginning of 2009. We are now into the third year of that, and pretty well have delivered what we wanted to deliver on that.

"The question for the shareholders I think really is: do you want to stay the best of the rest, or do you want to make a move to become a podium contender?

"They have got to make that decision, because financially it has a huge impact. We will be preparing that process for them over the coming months, and they will give us the direction."

Fernley feels that even without a ramping up of investment this year, Force India can fulfil its ambitions of fighting in the top five this year.

"Hopefully we can gain a position this year, which would be wonderful," he said. "As long as we don't lose anything, and can still be in the mix for the next year or two, we will have achieved the goals for our current status, and then hopefully we can back it up with the next programme."

Fernley is pleased with how winter testing has gone, but says the outfit is still unsure just where it stands in the rankings.

"A lot is going to depend when we get the pecking order in Melbourne, and we know what we are really fighting against from a performance point of view," he explained. "Then we will know how hard it is to achieve it.

"At the moment it looks like we are in the mix for where we want to be - with the same people chasing us, and we chasing them – are as expected."

Fernley also suspects that the bigger teams may well move ahead of the chasing pack after the final test, thanks to larger upgrades planned for their cars for the first race of the season.

"I am sure everyone will start running the Australia package towards the end of next week, and we will be no different," he said. "But it is not massive. From our point of view it will be relatively small – I think you will see the big changes on the front running teams."

Williams pairing Bruno Senna and Pastor Maldonado have welcomed new driver mentor Alex Wurz's arrival at the team.

Wurz, a veteran of 69 grands prix for Benetton, McLaren and Williams, attended last week's Barcelona test in his new capacity and both drivers believe that he will help to improve their performance.

"It is a positive thing because there is one more driver in the team looking from the outside," said Maldonado.

"It's not always easy to look at everything from inside the cockpit and Alex is so experienced that he can help us to improve our performance."

Senna also backed Wurz's arrival and plans to do as much as he can to learn from the 38-year-old.

"Alex is a great addition to the team," said Senna. "He has been around long enough to know things that we can benefit from. I'll try to use him as much as possible."

Williams chief operations engineer Mark Gillan, who worked with Wurz at McLaren, is confident that the decision to appoint a driver coach will be of benefit to the team.

He hailed Wurz's influence on the drivers in Barcelona testing, adding that the two-time Le Mans 24 Hours winner is ideally suited to the role.

"He's one of the drivers who I would feel comfortable with bringing in in this particular role," said Gillian.

"He has settled in very well and it has been an easy introduction. He is already bringing good insight and knowledge [to the drivers]."

Read Alex Wurz's thoughts on his new role, how F1 has been slow to embrace driver coaching and exactly what he can do for the team's drivers.

Marussia has been forced to scrap plans to run its new Formula 1 car at this week's Barcelona test after failing its final mandatory crash test.

The outfit had hoped to give the new MR01 its first track action from Thursday this week, but it cannot go ahead after its car did not pass the last of the 18 crash tests that are required in the regulations.

For the first time this year, F1 teams have had to pass the crash tests before they are allowed to run their cars at an official test. Previously, teams only had to pass the tests before the first race of the season.

In a statement issued by Marussia on Monday night, it said its efforts now would be focused on trying to pass the final crash test.

"All cars are required to pass 18 FIA-observed tests for homologation to be granted. Despite the fact that the MR01 has passed all 17 of the preceding tests, the regulations require the car to have completed all of the tests before running commences," said the statement.

"The team will now not take part in the final pre-season test in Barcelona later this week (1-4 March) and will instead focus its efforts on repeating the crash test at the end of the week."

Marussia is the last of the teams to complete its crash tests, with HRT having passed all its tests in the last few days, and hoping to get its new car ready in time for some running in Barcelona this week.

The news of the failed test for Marussia means the outfit is unlikely to be able to test its car properly prior to the first race of the season in Australia on March 18.

[Katsuya]

Jesus. Says something when HRT are more prepared for the new season than you.

[Lineker]

Ferrari and Red Bull Racing have been forced to abandon plans to run a revised testing programme at Barcelona this week following the intervention of the FIA.

Both outfits had hoped to run from Friday to Monday at Barcelona, instead of the Thursday to Sunday schedule that other outfits present at the test had originally agreed to.

However, Ferrari revealed on Tuesday morning that an FIA clarification of article 22.4 of Formula 1's sporting regulations, which governs testing, on Monday night had meant it was no longer possible to stick to its change of plans.

AUTOSPORT can reveal that the intervention from the FIA came after a request for clarification about the wording of article 22.4C of the rules.

This clause states that apart from some straightline testing and a Young Driver test, no testing may take place: "between the start of the week preceding the first Event of the Championship and 31 December of the same year."

The issue at stake was the definition of when the 'week preceding the first event of the championship' was.

While Ferrari and Red Bull Racing believed they could test next week, because they believed the week preceding the Australian Grand Prix begins on Monday March 12, the clarification from the FIA stated a different viewpoint.

It is understood the FIA believes the rule refers to the full week before the week of the event - so the blackout period begins on Monday March 5.

Despite shifting its days, Ferrari will maintain its original driver rotation plan - with Felipe Massa testing for the first and third days (Thursday/Saturday), and Fernando Alonso driving on the second and final days (Friday/Sunday).

Red Bull Racing will also alternate its drivers for the final test, with Mark Webber driving on Thursday and Saturday, and Sebastian Vettel slotted in for Friday and Sunday.

The confirmation that teams may not test after this Sunday, means that Lotus will not be able to slot in any extra testing to make up for its withdrawal from the Barcelona test because of front suspension problems.

Furthermore, Marussia will also not be able to do anything other than a straightline test or filming day for its new car if it passes the final crash test that is scheduled for later this week.

Frank Williams views Adam Parr as the natural successor to take over the running of the famous Formula 1 team in the future.

Although Williams has no intention of stepping down from the team principal role that he has held since he formed the outfit, he says Parr has impressed him enough to be viewed as the right man to step into the senior position when he eventually moves aside.

"If for whatever reason I couldn't come in to do my job, Adam would fill the gap," said Williams in an exclusive interview with this month's F1 Racing magazine.

"He's a young man and physically fit like I was at his age. He's not a racer but, in a way, that's probably an advantage in these distinctly commercial days. He's very good at making financial decisions and working out cost-to-benefit. And he can hold his own in the Formula 1 meetings."

Williams believes Parr has added great strengths to the team, having arrived in 2006 as chief executive officer and then stepped up to the role of chairman in 2010.

"Adam is a very good man: utterly honest; hard-working; very efficient and with great marketing acumen," added Williams.

"All I would say is that Adam is a very clever individual with a strong sense of business. He's a lawyer by training - he's got a lot going for him."

Reflecting on last year's disappointing campaign, which was the team's worst in its history, Williams knows exactly where his team's car was lacking.

"I'm not an engineer but I've seen lots of good cars and lots of bad cars – and ours wasn't quick enough," he added. "Why wasn't it quick enough? It was deficient in most of the areas that matter. But we were completely lacking in the most important one of all – which is aero. And probably a bit of horsepower.

"It just wasn't a quick car. And I don't think it carried much ballast. Some of our clever brethren created an enormous amount of ballast – which is a great performance benefit."

[Lineker]

Lotus technical director James Allison is optimistic having missed the second pre-season test will not be a big setback for the team as it prepares to get back on track tomorrow.

The team decided to pull out of the Barcelona test last week after it found a problem with its chassis right after Romain Grosjean took to the track for the first time.

Lotus has now worked to fix the problem and will be on track from tomorrow for the final test at Barcelona.

Allison admitted missing four days of running was far from ideal, but he is adamant there are reasons to be optimistic.

"Of course, missing four days of testing is not ideal," said Allison. "We need mileage at this stage of the year, as does any other team. That said, there are reasons to remain optimistic.

"First of all, we completed many trouble-free laps in Jerez and gained a good understanding of the car. Also, some of the small issues we identified in Jerez needed to be fixed, and the parts were not available last week. On Thursday, the car will run with all the required redesigned parts. We're looking forward to being back on track."

When asked if he was confident about the repair, he said: "Yes."

Allison revealed the car is now around one kilogram heavier, but he is confident it won't impact performance much.

"We're only talking about 1kg, which is manageable. It won't have any significant impact on handling or performance."

Speaking about the problem, he added: "We arrived in Barcelona with a brand new chassis, the E20-02. We completed installation laps on Tuesday morning then Romain left the pits for his first run of the day.

"As soon as he touched the brakes before turn 1 on his first flying lap, he felt that something was wrong. He told us on the radio that he was aborting that run and returning straight to the pits.

"We saw immediately that we had a problem with the mounting of the upper front wishbone rear arm."

Allison said the chassis did not have to pass the mandatory crash tests again, but he admitted it had been a very busy couple of days.

"It's been an intense few days, but I have to say that everybody has completed their tasks in tremendous fashion. On the first day back at the factory, I spoke to the entire Enstone personnel and clearly explained what happened. Everybody understood that the situation was unfortunate, but under control.

"We designed the new parts, manufactured them, and fitted them to the chassis. We then completed the necessary tests satisfactorily and the chassis left for Spain."

Lotus will use chassis 01 this week at Barcelona, while chassis 02 will be used as a spare from now on.

Mark Webber has been singled out as the man who has the best chance of stopping Sebastian Vettel landing a third consecutive title this year.

That is the view of Formula 1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone, who reckons that with Red Bull Racing again looking like the team to beat, a fired up Webber could be key to ensuring there is a close fight for glory in 2012.

"I just hope, I really, really, genuinely hope that Mark has a good crack at the title this year because it would be nice to see," Ecclestone said in an interview with The Age newspaper.

"I even think perhaps, in a funny way, Sebastian would be happy as well if he won the title - provided he couldn't.

"I think Mark will be the guy who will threaten him if anybody. The last time I spoke to him about it ... he's really motivated now. I think he realises. I said to him, 'Sebastian is quick. You've got to be quicker. Keep your head down and don't make mistakes you could manage to get the job done'."

Webber said last week that he felt fired up by his prospects for the season ahead, and believed a good start to the championship was going to be vital if he was going to rediscover the form that helped him take the title fight all the way to the final round in 2010.

"I had a pretty strong finish last season but unfortunately it was not the best of starts," he told the official Formula 1 website. "So for 2012 I want to have a good start, keep it together in the middle part and have a good finish. And then let's count up the points!"

Formula 1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone has heaped further pressure on Australian Grand Prix organisers to make their event a night race - by dropping the firmest hint yet that he will not renew its contract if the start time does not move.

While Melbourne organisers have resisted moves to shift the Albert Park event into a night event - because of cost and environmental factors – Ecclestone has not given up his crusade for the start time to shift from its current 5pm slot.

Speaking to The Age newspaper, Ecclestone said: "We have a contract which we will respect - so up until 2015 we are in good shape. After then, we really don't know.

"If we were to have a divorce from our friends in Melbourne we would probably be walking away from Australia. Because I can't see how Adelaide could make it happen, or anywhere else, if Melbourne can't. The race itself, from our point of view, is probably the least viable of all the races we have."

Despite his threat, and his insistence that other races are ready to step into the breach if Australia's deal is not renewed, Ecclestone said he would rather a deal could be reached to keep the event on the calendar.

"We have other races ready to take the place of Australia - which we don't want to happen," he said. "But it would be wrong of me to have to report to our board, 'Terribly sorry about this but we have to walk away from wherever to retain Australia'."

Ecclestone's threats against the Australian Grand Prix are nothing new, and 12 months ago he was involved in a public war of words with Melbourne's Lord Mayor Robert Doyle over the future of the event.

McLaren has played down the significance of the recent engine mapping clampdown by the FIA that has closed off a loophole in the regulations.

As AUTOSPORT reported last week, the FIA had to act after it was alerted by Mercedes-Benz that there was a way in the regulations to get around throttle limits in the engine maps by inducing a misfire.

That move prompted talk that it could have an impact on the competitive order - even though FIA sources insisted that it was not aware of any team making use of the practice.

McLaren managing director Jonathan Neale told the FOTA Fans' Forum in Barcelona on Wednesday, however, that his team would not be affected by the changes.

"For us it has not been a big deal," he explained. "We understand the point that Charlie Whiting is making there, and what is happening is really a very fine technical point. But it is not a deal breaker for us.

"Certainly at McLaren Mercedes, it hasn't changed our plans, and it doesn't change our game programme for Australia. We had understood that to be the case anyway, so Charlie just confirmed that."

Mercedes-Benz motorsport boss Norbert Haug welcomed the move by the FIA – especially as it would prevent teams from trying to pursue development opportunities in this area.

"I think it was a good decision to stop the potential development in that direction at a very early stage," he said.

The 2012 Formula 1 season will be significantly closer than the one just gone, according to Formula 1 team bosses.

With the season-opening Australian Grand Prix just weeks away, F1 team bosses believe that the quality of the field and the mixed results from testing point to an exciting battle for this year's world championship, a point they made at the most recent FOTA Fan's Forum, held in Barcelona on Wednesday night.

"None of [the team bosses] are going to be brave enough or foolish enough to either predict our position or divide our drivers," McLaren managing director Jonathon Neale said.

"We should look forward to a good year. No one here can be certain on who is quickest, especially because there are teams bringing big upgrades. With number of world championship drivers we have and the competitive pace from teams so far, we should have a first quarter that is really close."

Lotus boss Eric Boullier agreed that the 2012 season is shaping up to be a cracker.

"We have six world championship on the grid, it is going to be a challenge, make the racing better," he said.

"If a guy wins the championship he will do so because he deserves it. It's up to the teams to give the drivers the car to fight for wins and pole positions this year. It will be closer than last year, and the racing and competition will be much more tough."

Mercedes boss Norbert Haug added that it won't be until the Australian Grand Prix that the form guide will truly be clear.

"We have had quite a good start to now, but you never know how competitive [the car is] until the first race," he said.

"We have to wait. We have a few more days here in [barcelona], which is fantastic track to learn, challenging for car and driver. It's the ideal test track, but where you are you do not know.

"We have been fourth two times as a team, and we have strong competitors ahead of us. They have six cars, so to jump ahead of six cars on a regular basis is a tough job to do. But we want to be successful in this respect, and hopefully we can make a good step this year."

Pastor Maldonado is convinced Williams will enjoy a 'much better' season in 2012 as it bids to move on from its disappointing campaign last year.

With the outfit having undertaken a major reshuffle of its technical department, which included the departure of Sam Michael and the arrival of Mike Coughlan, Maldonado has said he is encouraged with the early progress of the new FW34.

"This season will be much better than last, not just for me but also for the team," said Maldonado, during the FOTA Fans' Forum event at Barcelona on Wednesday night.

"We have worked hard since last year to improve the project. We will grow and improve, and we look to be more competitive."

Maldonado says the whole Williams-Renault package is a step forward over last year's car - and he has been encouraged by what he has experienced in testing so far.

"Things have changed substantially within the team," he explained. "We now have a totally new car, almost a revolutionary concept, because last year we had some problems and we have solved them for this season.

"Actually, from a driving point of view, the car feels better, it is more reliable, and I am more comfortable within the car. There is no doubt that the Renault engine has helped us design the new car...I am happy to be with Renault this year and things will improve as the year goes on."

Maldonado also says that he feels he will be able to deliver more for Williams this year, now that he has a season's experience behind him.

"I feel much more comfortable now this year," he explained. "The first year is tough, because you don't have much time and you don't have much mileage before the start of the season.

"It is really hard. I think last year I did quite a good job, I learned a lot and I was lucky to have a colleague and team-mate such as Rubens [barrichello] to learn all the positive things he had. This year I have more responsibility, which I understand and appreciate."

Pedro de la Rosa is hopeful that his HRT team can get its new car ready to run for the first time at Barcelona on Sunday.

The Spanish outfit only passed its final crash test last weekend, and it is now facing a race against time to complete the F112 before this week's final pre-season test ends.

De la Rosa said the plan was still focused on trying to get the car ready for Sunday - although he suggested there could be an opportunity for a straight-line test or filming day on Monday if it was necessary.

"The fact is that the goal this day is to try and get to Sunday," de la Rosa said during the latest FOTA Fans' Forum in Barcelona on Wednesday night. "The crash test was passed last Sunday, and since then the team has been building the car.

"We are in the car build phase, and if we come to Sunday fine. If not, then we have the possibility to do a new test on Monday."

De la Rosa said that he was positive HRT would make good progress over the campaign – even though it was facing such a rush to get its car ready for the first race.

"We intend to grow: grow orderly and improve – and if we are able to improve race by race that will be good," he said. "Let's not forget the F1 championship is 19/20 races a year, and we will have room for improvement.

"But we need to take it step by step and lay down foundations. What I have seen so far has really impressed me, and the team management has been doing a good job."

De la Rosa also revealed that HRT would consider adding KERS to its car later this season.

"The car is designed to use KERS, but the team has decided to start without KERS. During the season, once we have more time to test and be in Europe, then we can make the decision to use it or not. But the main thing is the car is designed around KERS."

Pedro de la Rosa has called for increased in-season testing in Formula 1, claiming that it may even save the teams money long term, and save reserve drivers from potential embarrassment.

The Spaniard told AUTOSPORT that the current lack of in-season testing was unhealthy for Formula 1, denying drivers of valuable seat time, and leaving even experienced reserves exposed should they need to sub for a regular driver in a grand prix.

"I've been pushing for more testing for a long time, because I think its not right [as it is]," de la Rosa said.

"I understand where the teams are coming from; they're trying to cut costs, that's the bottom line. I understand that.

"But on the other hand we have to have some sessions during the year for the health of the sport, and for the future drivers, the existing drivers, and the reserve drivers. It's healthy for the sport.

"It's one of the reasons I am racing now. I wanted to go racing again, because being a reserve driver was taking me nowhere.

"And it could have been embarrassing. Imagine if McLaren would have needed me towards the end of last year, without me having tested for eight months? It would have been embarrassing to drive a McLaren, a car capable of winning races, and not even make it into Q2."

The Spaniard added that the young driver concept should be scrapped, with teams able to test more often, with any driver of their choosing.

"I don't necessarily agree with the young driver definition. Secondly, I think reserve drivers who have been there all year, been to every grand prix, should have some mileage.

"It's all common sense. I think everyone agrees, but nobody wants to have the fight. I've been trying to do it in a very discreet and unsuccessful way since the very beginning.

"I'm not saying unlimited testing, I'm just asking for something that makes sense for everyone in the current economic climate. I think [testing] is even cheaper than investing money in simulators.

"We need two or three sessions a year of open Formula 1 testing, with any driver the team wishes to appoint. Old, young, experienced - it shouldn't matter, as long they have a superlicense. That's healthy for the sport, and healthy for the drivers."

HRT team principal Luis Perez-Sala says his outfit has taken no satisfaction from seeing rivals Marussia fail its final crash test.

With both outfits facing a race-against-time to get their cars ready for the start of the season, Perez-Sala does not believe that his outfit now has the edge over its rivals because it has completed all the mandatory checks.

"We have been able to pass the crash tests, but it does not mean we are leaving any teams behind," Perez-Sala said at the FOTA Fans' Forum event in Barcelona on Wednesday.

"We are a humble team, and we have to go day-by-day. Our car is not ready yet, so we will see if we can test on the final day at Barcelona (on Sunday) or maybe on Monday with a filming day. If not, we will go to Melbourne."

Although admitting that passing the crash tests was a fraught experience, Perez-Sala paid tribute to the safety benefits of them.

"We passed the crash tests and that was a nightmare!" he explained. "I was not familiar with them, so I went to Cranfield which is where we passed them.

"There are almost 20 tests and it really deserves having a close look, because after seeing these tests and seeing what the chassis have to withstand, you understand why certain accidents we have watched in the past did not have any consequences."

[EddieG]

Barrichello signed on to race in the IndyCar series with KV Racing.

[Adam]

That depresses me, even though I already knew he won't be competing in F1 this year.

[Lineker]

Yeah, good for Rubens that he has a drive somewhere competitively this season. Hopefully he will return to F1 is some shape or form one day soon.

Second Barcelona test got underway today...

Romain Grosjean made sure Lotus' return to testing was a positive one by going fastest on day one of the final pre-season Formula 1 test in Barcelona.

The Frenchman waited until there was less than 30 minutes remaining for the day before he set the benchmark time of 1m23.252s, using a set of Pirelli's soft tyres to eclipse Jenson Button's fastest time from the morning's session.

Faster times were a rarity in the afternoon sessions, with teams opting to use the stable track conditions to go for longer runs. Grosjean was one of only two drivers to improve after lunch, the other being Red Bull Racing's Mark Webber.

However, Webber was only able to shave a tenth off his best morning time, leaving him behind Button and Perez - both with morning times – in fourth for the day.

Behind Webber it was Nico Rosberg, the Mercedes driver the busiest of the day with 128 laps for the day, mostly completed over long stints. Jean-Eric Vergne was sixth fastest, with Toro Rosso dedicating much of the last hour to pitstop practice.

Felipe Massa had a busy afternoon, eventually completing 105 laps for the day, despite a lengthy stay in the pits after lunch. However, his best time was only good enough for eighth.

Vitaly Petrov, subbing for the ill Heikki Kovalainen, was the second busiest man of the day, putting the new Caterham through 123 laps.

His reward was avoiding the bottom of the time sheets, with Petrov ending the day 0.711s clear of Pastor Maldonado, the Williams driver completing the least number of laps for the day with just 58.

Testing resumes tomorrow at Barcelona.

Todays times


Pos  Driver         Team            Time                Laps

 1.  Grosjean       Lotus           1m23.252s           73

 2.  Button         McLaren         1m23.510s  +0.258   64

 3.  Perez          Sauber          1m23.820s  +0.568   118

 4.  Webber         Red Bull        1m23.830s  +0.578   102

 5.  Rosberg        Mercedes        1m23.992s  +0.740   128

 6.  Vergne         Toro Rosso      1m24.216s  +0.964   113

 7.  Di Resta       Force India     1m24.305s  +1.053   98

 8.  Massa          Ferrari         1m24.318s  +1.066   105

 9.  Petrov         Caterham        1m24.876s  +1.624   123

10.  Maldonado      Williams        1m25.587s  +2.335   58[/code]


Jenson Button put McLaren on top of the timesheets after the opening morning of Formula 1's final pre-season test at Barcelona.



The 2009 world champion barely completed a lap during the first hour of running as he and McLaren practiced pitstops. But he was immediately quick after taking to the track and set his best lap of 1m23.510s on hard tyres shortly before 11:30am.



That was enough to knock Sergio Perez off the top spot by 0.310s, and with nobody else improving over the remaining time, the Sauber driver remained second thanks to the time set on medium tyres.



Sauber said that the Perez had earlier lapped on "prototype medium rubber", but Pirelli has since confirmed that those tyres, which are unlabelled, are of standard type. There are unlabelled tyres of each of Pirelli's four compounds in use at Barcelona.



Romain Grosjean spent almost an hour in the pits early on, Lotus having to change sensor equipment on his E20 after the Frenchman's initial runs. He gradually moved up the order throughout the morning and went third with half an hour to go.



Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg, who completed numerous stints of eight laps each, was fourth, just 0.001s slower than Grosjean while Mark Webber's Red Bull and Jean-Eric Vergne's Toro Rosso were next up, ahead of Force India driver Paul di Resta and Ferrari's Felipe Massa.



Vitaly Petrov, who was not scheduled to drive until Saturday, was a late call-up for Caterham after Heikki Kovalainen fell ill with food poisoning overnight.



The Russian completed a session-high 67 laps, the team confirming that it had made adjustments to the brake blanking and front wing flaps late in the morning. He was an encouraging 1.4s off Button's time and 0.7s up on Pastor Maldonado's Williams, which was slowest.



[code]Morning times


Pos  Driver         Team            Time                Laps

 1.  Button         McLaren         1m23.510s           27

 2.  Perez          Sauber          1m23.820s  +0.310   57

 3.  Grosjean       Lotus           1m23.959s  +0.449   36

 4.  Rosberg        Mercedes        1m23.992s  +0.482   57

 5.  Webber         Red Bull        1m23.993s  +0.483   53

 6.  Vergne         Toro Rosso      1m24.216s  +0.706   61

 7.  Di Resta       Force India     1m24.305s  +0.795   48

 8.  Massa          Ferrari         1m24.318s  +0.808   45

 9.  Petrov         Caterham        1m24.876s  +1.366   67

10.  Maldonado      Williams        1m25.587s  +2.077   37

Lotus must make the most of its final pre-season test at Barcelona in Spain this week if it is to capitalise on the promising form of its car, reckons team boss Eric Boullier.

With the outfit being forced to pull out of last week's test at Barcelona because of a front suspension issue, and having plans to make up for that time with a run at Silverstone next week now scuppered, the pressure is on to ensure it has a perfect next few days of running.

"Obviously we want to have the same reliability that we showed in Jerez and do the maximum mileage we can," Boullier told AUTOSPORT ahead of its revised E20 taking to the track at Barcelona on Thursday.

"We will never catch back these four days we lost, but we need to make the best of these four days coming up in front of us to make sure that we do well."

Boullier says there is some encouragement from the fact that Lotus showed so well in the first test in Jerez, but he knows that what really matters is how its updated car compares to the opposition.

"In Jerez the reliability was good and the pace was good, but it means nothing too much because it was the first test," he said. "We have a lot of upgrades coming for the car like the others, for the test and for the first race, so let's see now.

"But definitely the basis was good, and the drivers were happy with the handling of the car. The car had a good balance so it was a good start."

Boullier has denied talk that the front suspension issue was the result of the outfit having tried to push too hard to take weight off its design - a theory backed up by the fact that the revised suspension components are 1kg heavier.

"No, no, no, it was nothing like this," he explained. "There was a small deviation between design simulation and one component we had on the car, and obviously with the fitting of this mount on the front – we were not happy with the results. We decided for many reasons to focus on redesigning it and redoing it, and to get rid of this."

Boullier also said his team accepted the decision of the FIA not to allow his outfit to test for an extra day next week – because the governing body believed it would be a breach of rules that prevent running in the week 'preceding' the first event.

"I think we had a different interpretation [of the rules]," explained Boullier. "The teams agreed that we could go for another day next week, but the FIA came back to us and said we cannot – so that is the end of the story."

Romain Grosjean says his Lotus feels just as good now as it did in the opening test, despite the revisions his outfit was forced to make to its front suspension.

The team had to pull out of the first Barcelona test last week after it found a problem with the front suspension of the E20.

The issue meant the team had to make changes to the chassis, also adding an extra kilogram of weight to it.

But, after topping the times on the opening day of the final test today, Grosjean said he was encouraged the car's positive attributes had been kept.

"Not at all, nothing really different," said Grosjean. "It doesn't change much. Exactly the same good feeling as in Jerez, we can push and we can trust the car - and you can really play with it, which is enjoyable.

"When you have a problem you are a little bit wondering what is going on, so we checked all day long that everything was fine - but I knew what we needed to do to repair the car and make it strong, and when we left we got much stronger.

Grosjean said he had no worries about jumping into the car again despite the problems he suffered last week.

"If you are a driver you are mad in a way so you don't think about it. It is like - when you jump in a car you never think it could be dangerous. I know the team is working really hard, I know the team was doing what we needed to and I knew the theoretical numbers said it was fine so no worries."

The Frenchman admitted the team will have to work harder this week after having lost four days of testing, but he reckons it will not be a huge problem.

"We lost some days last week, now we have to work twice as hard to get back those days and hopefully the car is good straight from the beginning," he said.

"We are still finding some good points on it, good set-up items that we can work on and at the moment. Okay, we have missed a bit of running but it is not as bad as we could have expected."

FOTA is proving it still has an important role to play in improving Formula 1, even though some big-name teams left the organisation at the end of last year.

That is the view of FOTA's vice-chairman Eric Boullier, who believes the fact that teams like Ferrari are still involved in discussions about cost cuts, testing - plus played an official part in this week's FOTA Fans' Forum – is important.

"I think the key thing is that even if some teams left officially the organisation, they are still committing on the main subjects – which are the RRA, and the testing agreements," Boullier told AUTOSPORT.

"Teams are still actively working together, and FOTA also is now about thinking of changing the way we want to operate, and the way we see it perceived in the paddock.

"If all the teams are not together, it is a different position in the paddock. But there is still some interest for me for all the teams to sit down together and to participate in F1 development – and this kind of [fans'] forum is a good example."

FOTA non-members Ferrari and HRT both sent representatives to speak on the panel at this week's Fans' Forum in Barcelona – something Boullier thinks bodes well for the future.

"It means the basis of FOTA is still remaining," he said. "It has changed, it will change again, but I think the F1 teams should at least, for the fans, be together."

Boullier also believes it important that FOTA continues with the Fans' Forum, after another successful event in Barcelona was attended by more than 200 people.

"For me it is good to have fans which actually can ask you direct questions, and it is good to be in contact directly with the fans," he said. "I think we should do this.

"I am clearly in favour of this contact with the fans of F1 and it is good to see them happy, to meet different people – and we are happy to be available for them to answer their questions."

HRT is not yet ready to rejoin FOTA, despite team principal Luis Perez-Sala making an appearance at this week's Fans' Forum event in Barcelona.

The Spain-based outfit quit FOTA at the beginning of 2010, when then team principal Colin Kolles grew frustrated with the organisation and the costs of its membership.

Perez-Sala's role in Barcelona this week was the first time an HRT representative had appeared at a FOTA event since then, but he insisted that it is not yet certain the outfit will move back under the organisation's umbrella.

When asked by AUTOSPORT if HRT had plans now to rejoin FOTA, Perez-Sala said: "No. We have many things in common with FOTA, but at the moment there is not any change."

Perez-Sala does believe that events like the Fans' Forum were valuable for both teams and spectators - and especially valuable in the build-up to the season.

"I think it is nice to be with the fans, and to be close to them because maybe Formula 1 is a small closed world, and with these events you can be open more," he explained.

"Plus maybe it is better at the beginning of the year because everyone is more relaxed and the heat of competition has not started yet."

Mark Webber is predicting a tight battle for victory in the season opening Australian Grand Prix, with teams still unsure about how well their preparations are going in winter testing.

While many view Red Bull Racing and McLaren as favourites for victory in Melbourne, Webber insisted on Thursday that his team was feeling good about its progress - but was taking nothing for granted.

"We are all anxious to get to Melbourne eventually and see where all of our work is, but I think the team have done a phenomenal job in terms of preparation and working as hard as we can – and we just have to see if that is going to be enough," he said, after ending the first day of the Barcelona test fourth fastest.

"There are some phenomenal teams out there pushing very, very hard, like McLaren, Mercedes, Ferrari and Lotus as well. We are pretty happy so far, but that can change very quickly as you know in F1."

When asked about his prediction on how close the fight was likely to be in Australia, Webber said: "I think it is going to be really tight. The racing will be between several teams for sure and it is difficult to understand who is doing what at the moment, because we have such a big variation in fuel and tyre conditions and all sorts of stuff.

"You can analyse it until you are blue in the face but ultimately – even when we have done the race in Melbourne we need to go to Sepang and we need to get a picture on how the championship is unfolding.

"One 90 minute race in Albert Park won't be deciding the championship, it will be whoever can pull things together for the first part of the championship and come back with some decent points."

Webber believes Red Bull Racing had made some steps forward in getting a better understanding of the RB8 since last week's test – but he feels there is room to be even better.

"We are making progress, and there are so many things to obviously consider when we have a pretty condensed winter programme like all the teams have," he said.

"You need to get your priorities right and work on those as best you can, and that is where the experience comes in with the team like we have here.

"So it is going well in terms of what we want to test, but there are not enough hours in the day at the moment and I am sure we are not the only team doing that."

He added: "We have more boxes to tick for sure. We have some more data to gather, more crucial information to gather and that is important before we go racing because obviously at a race weekend it is harder to capture that data.

"So we are still going through that at the moment and the next three days it will be important to do that. There are definitely some boxes still to tick - but some of those boxes we hope are exciting, some might not be so exciting, and that is the way testing is."

Nico Rosberg believes that Mercedes' strong showing in pre-season Formula 1 testing so far has justified the manufacturer's decision to give its new W03 car a late debut.

The W03 did not appear publicly until last week's four-day Barcelona test, but was reliable enough to complete 399 laps in the hands of Rosberg and his seven-time world champion team-mate Michael Schumacher.

After racking up a further trouble-free 128 laps on the opening day of this week's final test on Thursday, Rosberg said that he was confident of making yet more progress ahead of the Melbourne season-opener later this month.

"I think it shows that brining the car to the second test [as opposed to the Jerez opener] was the right decision, because we have no reliability problems," he said.

"The reliability is better than last year and it means we can focus more on performance.

"I'm not sure [what it means for Melbourne]. We have to wait and see, but it's great to be part of all this progress."

Rosberg ended the day fifth fastest, completing five back-to-back runs of eight laps each on soft tyres during the morning during which his lap times became more consistent due to a combination of car tweaks and improving track conditions.

He then focused on longer runs during the afternoon with four runs of between 11 and 13 laps on the hard Pirelli rubber.

Afterwards, he said that he was pleased with the level the team is now operating at compared to the same stage last year.

"The tyre degradation is still an issue, but it's certainly better than it used to be; better than 2011. But it's mainly reliability. It's obvious how different that is."

Rosberg hands over to Schumacher for Friday's running before resuming driving duties the following day.

Paul di Resta is not concerned about Force India's low-key start to the final pre-season test in Barcelona.

The Scot completed 98 laps today, winding out the final session seventh fastest with a best of 1m24.395s, one second behind chart-topper Romain Grosjean.

But di Resta has no concerns about not being closer to the top of the timesheets, claiming that the data gathered from today - particularly during this afternoon's longer runs – will be crucial for the team to push for more performance later in the test.

"I think [our feeling] is relatively positive," he said. "We cleared all of our objectives today. It's the first day of four, at the last test, so I suppose there is a lot of correlation on this day.

"[We had] some new bits on the car [to] see how they perform, and to get an idea ahead of what the main focus should be, which is performance, and set-up direction – which we'll head into tomorrow."

Nico Hulkenberg will take over running of the VJM05 tomorrow, with di Resta expecting the car to look more competitive when he jumps back in on Saturday.

"I'm out of the car tomorrow, Nico is taking the seat, but I'll be back in the car for day three and hopefully there will be another step forward," he added.

"But I think we're on an upward slope, so as long as that progression continues, from what we can see around about us, we should be relatively clear."

Heikki Kovalainen will return to Formula 1 testing at Barcelona on Friday.

The Finn was due to undertake driving duties on Thursday, but fell ill with food poisoning following a trip to a sponsor event in Finland. Caterham instead called up his team-mate Vitaly Petrov to drive at short notice.

Kovalainen admitted he was feeling much better by the afternoon and wrote on Twiter: "Stomach feeling better, only some temperature now hopefully fighting the bug off."

A Caterham spokesman confirmed to AUTOSPORT that Kovalainen would return to driving duties on Friday and Saturday before handing the car back to Petrov.

Pirelli is open to the idea of making its softer tyre more aggressive later this year if the compound does not deliver the high levels of degradation it is hoping for.

After its experiences so far of testing the new-for-2012 compounds, Pirelli is happy with the performance differential between its compounds - which it estimates being between 0.4-0.5 seconds - but fears that its soft tyre may not degrade as much as it had hoped for.

Although data from testing can sometimes be misleading, and the true race situations in warmer conditions may provide a different picture, Pirelli is ready to look at different options.

When asked by AUTOSPORT about the degradation levels of the tyres, Pirelli motorsport director Paul Hembery, said: "I think we would probably like to see more on the softer compound, much more aggressive degradation, but ask me the same question after we have been in 50 degrees in Malaysia on a hot circuit.

"I think you have to be careful about drawing too many conclusions and I think it will be better when we have some race data."

Last year the softer tyre proved so consistent and quick that it became the default option at every race. That is why Pirelli wants it to degrade more – because then it forces teams to be more risky with their strategy.

Hembery said a change in compounds would not happen until after the Monaco Grand Prix in May – although testing of a revised tyre, if it proved necessary, would take place at Mugello earlier that month.

"I don't see anything happening for six races – we always leave open the possibility to make changes, but equally you don't want to be pushing off in a direction where you create more problems than you solve," he said.

Looking at the way the various cars have been performing, Hembery believes the field is much closer now than it was 12 months ago.

"We have got this year a greater number of cars that have got performance closer together – whereas last year there was one car in front and then a little group of two, then a couple on their own again and a group of four. It looks like performance is closing up between the top six/seven cars."

Pirelli has finally sorted its test car plan for this season - but wants to inform teams first about its intentions before confirming the details in public.

Formula 1's official tyre supplier has been trying to find a replacement for the former Toyota car that it used throughout last year.

But talks with teams about providing it with a 2010 car had failed to deliver a satisfactory outcome, and there was mounting frustration that a solution could not be found because it was vital it continues track testing as it prepares for some big changes with its 2013 rubber.

Pirelli's motorsport director Paul Hembery confirmed on Thursday that he had finally resolved the matter, however, and that with a car in place he could now consider appointing a new test driver.

When asked by AUTOSPORT if he had a test car now, Hembery said: "I have. In the next week or so, we will let you know. We have to communicate with the teams first before we speak to you guys, but it is a good solution."

Hembery added that there was no shortage of drivers available to become its official tester, as he made it clear he would prefer an available driver with 2011 race experience - such as Jarno Trulli, Vitantonio Liuzzi or Adrian Sutil.

"You can imagine from a driving point of view our interest is having someone that has experience," he said. "We will evaluate our options, and take references from people who have worked with various drivers.

"It is an important decision for us, because you don't want somebody jumping in the car trying to show they should be in F1, drive flat out and then spin a car every two laps - it is a very particular type of work that has to be performed."

Williams Hybrid Power will build part of Audi’s new Le Mans car, the team has confirmed.

WHP will produce the hybrid system energy storage supplier for the Audi R18 e-tron quattro.

The company has produced an ultra-lightweight electric flywheel and electronics system for the car, which was revealed yesterday. The flywheel spins at up to 45,000rpm and produces 150kW of power.

The Audi R18 e-tron quattro will make its race debut in the six hours of Spa on May 5th, a round of the new World Endurance Championship, prior to the Le Mans 24 Hours.

A statement released by WHP said: “The defining features of WHP’s flywheel made it the prime energy storage candidate for Audi’s project when compared to other technologies such as batteries, ultra-capacitors or mechanical flywheels.

“The main benefits of the WHP system are a high power density and correspondingly low mass, high efficiency energy transfer to and from the e-storage, the ability to continuously deep power cycle and an insusceptibility to performance or life degradation over a wide range of operating temperatures. In short, the technology is perfectly suited to the high performance demands of endurance racing.”

Williams Hybrid Power managing director Ian Foley said: “To be chosen as a supplier by Audi, the most successful brand in Le Mans’ recent history, is testament to the progress made by Williams Hybrid Power in its relatively short existence.

“Audi has won the 24 Hours of Le Mans a total of ten times since the year 2000 and we are incredibly proud and honoured to have been chosen to work with them and to have our hard work and technology recognised in this way. Such a high-level motorsport application represents the ultimate proving ground for our electric flywheel technology.

“This same technology can be used in everyday applications to save fuel and reduce emissions, for instance in city buses, that also require large power flows for short periods of time.”

Williams’ hybrid devices have also been used by Porsche in sports car racing.

[Sam]

Anybody know which drivers are testing on Sunday? I'm heading off to go watch it.

[Lineker]

No, not yet. But keep an eye on the thread and as soon as it's known I'll post it.

Jealous, by the way!

[Lineker]

Romain Grosjean has become the first driver to go fastest on two separate days in pre-season Formula 1 testing, topping the times on the second day in Barcelona.

Having been third fastest in the morning session, Grosjean was busy after lunch, completing a full 60-lap race simulation in the Lotus, using Pirelli's soft and hard compounds.

He backed that up with a series of fast laps, setting the benchmark time of 1m22.614s with just minutes remaining, on a set of soft tyres.

Jean-Eric Vergne ended the day second, despite not completing a flying lap following the lunch break. The Toro Rosso stopped and briefly caught fire with an engine problem right before lunch in Barcelona, bringing out the red flag.

While a full race simulation was planned for the afternoon session, the STR7 didn't appear again until within half an hour of the session's end, and was restricted to pitstop practice.

Neither Vergne nor Grosjean will be back in their respective cars for the rest of the test, with Daniel Ricciardo set to take over for Toro Rosso tomorrow, and Kimi Raikkonen jumping into the Lotus.

Sebastian Vettel was one of the big movers of the afternoon session, improving to a 1m23.361s to jump from fourth to third.

Behind Vettel it was Fernando Alonso, who didn't improve on his morning time, focussing instead on a full race simulation using soft and medium compound tyres.

Heikki Kovalainen was fifth thanks to a run on the supersofts, while Kamui Kobayashi improved to sixth before spending most of the afternoon in the pits, the Sauber sidelined by a hydraulic leak.

It was a similar story for seventh-placed Nico Hulkenberg, his Force India stopping with a drive-line problem just minutes after lunch and never reappearing.

Michael Schumacher improved his time slightly, but still finished the day eighth, while Lewis Hamilton failed to improve, finishing ahead of the Williams pair of Bruno Senna and Pastor Maldonado.

Todays times:


Pos  Driver         Team            Time                Laps

 1.  Grosjean       Lotus           1m22.614s           123

 2.  Vergne         Toro Rosso      1m23.126s  +0.512   31

 3.  Vettel         Red Bull        1m23.361s  +0.747   85

 4.  Alonso         Ferrari         1m23.447s  +0.833   124

 5.  Kovalainen     Caterham        1m23.828s  +1.214   104

 6.  Kobayashi      Sauber          1m23.836s  +1.222   77

 7.  Hulkenberg     Force India     1m23.893s  +1.279   33

 8.  Schumacher     Mercedes        1m23.978s  +1.364   79

 9.  Hamilton       McLaren         1m24.111s  +1.497   65

10.  Senna          Williams        1m24.925s  +2.311   48

11.  Maldonado      Williams        1m25.801s  +3.187   20[/code]


Jean-Eric Vergne ended the second morning of Formula 1's final pre-season test at Barcelona on top of the timesheets.



The French rookie, who had spent most of the opening day completing hard tyre runs, got a chance to lap with soft Pirelli rubber on Friday, and took his opportunity well, his 1m23.126s lap knocking Fernando Alonso's Ferrari off the top spot by 0.321s.



Vergne, who completed 31 laps during the morning, then ventured out on a set of supersofts, and had set his best first sector time of the day. His lap was ruined though when his car stopped at the uphill Turn 8 with flames pouring out, causing what was the fourth red flag of the session.



Alonso, who set his best time on hard rubber, retained second place. Nobody completed a longer stint than Alonso, whose seven-lap run on hards during the second hour featured a drop-off of around 2.5s from start to finish.



Lotus driver Romain Grosjean was third fastest, another tenth down on Alonso. He was running a programme that concentrated on set-ups and aerodynamic work.



Sebastian Vettel was fourth fastest, the Red Bull driver bringing out the fifth and final red flag of the morning when his car stopped at Turn 5 with five minutes remaining.



Fifth was Heikki Kovalainen, the Finn having recovered from food poisoning to take his place in the Caterham. His best lap came on a set of supersofts with half an hour of the morning to go, and was only 0.702s off the pace.



Next up were Force India's Nico Hulkenberg, McLaren's Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes driver Michael Schumacher, who forced two red flags. First when his car stopped at Turn 7, and then when he went off into the gravel at the left-handed Turn 5, his car needing to be retrieved.



Pastor Maldonado - the other man to cause a stoppage early on due to an issue with his engine - was ninth for Williams with Kamui Kobayashi bringing up the rear of the field for Sauber.



Due to the morning session starting late because thick fog around the Barcelona circuit, running has been extended by 30 minutes during the afternoon. The test will now finish at 17:30 local time.



[code]Morning times:


Pos  Driver         Team            Time                Laps

 1.  Vergne         Toro Rosso      1m23.126s           31

 2.  Alonso         Ferrari         1m23.447s  +0.321   35

 3.  Grosjean       Lotus           1m23.528s  +0.402   34

 4.  Vettel         Red Bull        1m23.536s  +0.410   37

 5.  Kovalainen     Caterham        1m23.828s  +0.702   34

 6.  Hulkenberg     Force India     1m23.893s  +0.767   33

 7.  Hamilton       McLaren         1m24.111s  +0.985   30

 8.  Schumacher     Mercedes        1m24.663s  +1.537   19

 9.  Maldonado      Williams        1m25.801s  +2.675   20

10.  Kobayashi      Sauber          1m26.111s  +2.985   35

The Williams team has announced Frank Williams is to step down from the board, with his daughter Claire joining from next month.

Williams made it clear, however, that he will continue to be team principal for the squad that bears his name.

But he said it is time for him to start the process of handing over the reins of the team since he will turn 70 next month.

"This is an opportune moment for me to consider my own role in the team," he said. "I turn 70 in April and I have decided to signal the next stage in the gradual but inevitable process of handing over the reins to the next generation by stepping down from the Board at the end of this month.

"This is not as dramatic a move as it may appear: I shall continue to work full-time as Team Principal and I shall continue to attend all Board meetings as observer. I also remain the majority shareholder of Williams Grand Prix Holdings PLC."

Williams co-founder Patrick Head left the board at the end of last year.

The team also announced that Claire Williams will join its board from 1 April as director of marketing and communications.

The position became available following the decision of Dominic Reilly to leave the company at the end of March.

"It is no secret that Claire is my daughter but I am proud to say that she has fought hard to earn this appointment and of all the battles she has had to fight, the prejudices of her father were not the least challenging," said Frank Williams.

"Dominic Reilly has proven a unique talent in the field of sports marketing and filling the gap he leaves was daunting. But I have come to the view that Claire, with her profound love and knowledge of the sport and the team, can do so and I am proud and delighted that the Board has given her this opportunity."

Williams chairman Adam Parr added: "Claire has worked at Williams for 10 years, taking on increasingly demanding positions and demonstrating throughout all of the qualities needed in this critical role. The Board concluded that Claire's appointment would further strengthen its quality, diversity and effectiveness."

Frank Williams said last week that he saw Parr as his natural successor.

Lewis Hamilton says McLaren has nothing to fear from rivals' upgrades as top teams prepare to introduce their final pre-season developments at Barcelona this weekend.

Both McLaren and Red Bull are tipped to bring substantial updates to the last two days of 2012 Formula 1 winter testing, but Hamilton reckons his team will be in good shape whatever the opposition does.

"I think the car's strong - stronger than it was last year at this point," he said.

"With the fuel loads that we've been running, I think we are relatively strong compared to the others, but I'm not necessarily saying we're the fastest. We'll find out when we get to Melbourne.

"But I definitely feel we have a competitive car and we'll be fighting for a podium finish, for sure."

The Briton believes McLaren has not shown its hand yet.

"I think people have been running a lot less fuel than I have been running," said Hamilton. "I think we've just been focusing on our programme. With the fuel load that we've been running, I think we seem competitive when you do the calculations.

"But that doesn't really matter to us at the moment. It's how the car feels and what we can improve on."

Asked if McLaren was likely to do a low-fuel run this weekend, Hamilton replied: "We probably won't do that until Melbourne."

He also underlined how much stronger McLaren's position was compared to 12 months ago, when a radical exhaust system left it struggling in testing and forced a last-gasp redesign, despite which the team still took a podium in Australia.

"If you look at last year, we arrived in Melbourne and finished second in that race, and we had less than half the mileage anyone else had from testing," said Hamilton.

"We're now up there with them and we've definitely done a similar amount of mileage to everyone else, and put good enough mileage on the car to understand where the car wants to be."

Sebastian Vettel expects to have a clearer understanding of the RB8 car he will begin the defence his double world crown with when Red Bull fits a major update package to a new chassis for team-mate Mark Webber to drive at Barcelona on Saturday.

Amid speculation that several new teams will put the final upgrades on their cars prior to the Australian Grand Prix opener at Melbourne in a fortnight's time, Vettel insisted that it would still be difficult to accurately define the pecking order before the first race.

"We have some new bits for the next two days and then we'll know a little bit more," he said. "Everyone is a bit in the same situation. Usually the last couple of days of testing are quite important because you bring some new bits and the car is closer to what you will race at the first race, so we will see if that comes true.

"Hopefully we can make another small step forward and then we should be okay.

"I think other people will as well, but still it is a bit difficult to judge whether you are really quick or not because people play around with the fuel loads and the tyres. The time of day makes a big difference as well so it's hard to really judge it. I think we'll know more than now in Australia."

Vettel endured a fractured day's running on Friday and was forced to stop on track for an unspecified problem, but said that he remained happy with progress after ending up third in the times, some 0.7s off Romain Grosjean's ultimate pace.

"So far testing has been quite good for us, not perfect," he said. "Surely we had you know some bits here and there failing and some bits that we need to sort out but all in all I feel happy.

"It was quite a messy day in terms of finding the rhythm because we had a lot of red flags out there today but we didn't have a big problem.

"We stopped on the circuit, but fortunately at a spot where there were not that many photographers at the time, so that was good! It's never nice to stop, but we brought the car back and it wasn't a big problem and after lunch we went back out and I think we did more or less what we wanted to do.

"Obviously we always want more at the end of the day so we didn't fulfil the programme entirely but I think we ended it on a good way.

"It's good to have another day in the car today and I have another one on Sunday which is a good feeling," he added. "It's good to know that in two weeks we are going racing again. I can't wait really to get down under."

Ferrari technical director Pat Fry believes his team is in 'reasonable' shape for the start of the season, although admits that it must keep working hard to improve its position.

As the Maranello-based team continues to make progress on its radical F2012, Fry says there remain plenty of issues that need to be solved in the final two days of testing.

When asked by AUTOSPORT about what position he felt the team was in now as pre-season testing nears it conclusion, he said: "Reasonable shape I suppose. You are always going to be happy when you are sitting there half a second a lap quicker than everyone knowing that you have still got 60 kilos of fuel in the car. I think we have got a lot of work to do. We just need to keep on.

"New bits are coming through, and we have to sort out exactly what we have got and understand how to deal with the car balance. And then it is a case of trying to get the last few developments that are coming on to the car. There are another four reasonable development items coming through before Sunday."

Fry said he was not too worried about the form that Fernando Alonso showed over a race distance simulation that was conducted on Friday afternoon, even though it did not appear as competitive as that done by Romain Grosjean in the Lotus at the same time.

"I haven't had time to go through the other long runs and overlay it to the others yet, but we were trying a mixture of new and scrubbed sets, with various mileages on," he said. "Some show quite bad degradation and some were quite reasonable."

Fry did admit, however, that one of the problems the team is facing is that the car tends to have a narrow performance window - where its form fluctuates dramatically as conditions change.

"We drop in and out of having a good balance or not, and that is something we are working on trying to understand still. Yesterday there were times when the car was good and times when it suddenly changed, and that is what we are trying to understand."

Ferrari evaluated a new front wing on Friday, which was not used for its race simulation run, and Fry said that more experiments were expected on its exhaust configuration, with the team having moved away from a more aggressive concept used at the last Barcelona test.

"It showed some good promise but after the test we did here last week, it was clear that we needed to do a lot more development before we race it, so it is something that we will carry on working on and look at later.

"Now obviously, having developed that car for that concept, we are looking to try and re-optimise everything for the week and a half we have got. There is not a massive difference between the two but we need to go through and check all the details – there are more bits turning up tonight and some other bits for Sunday to try and do the final optimisation."

Michael Schumacher has revealed that tyre degradation is an area where Mercedes must improve, as well as admitting that some of the team's chief rivals were getting better mileage out of the Pirelli rubber.

Schumacher completed 79 laps during Friday's testing, setting his best time late in the day, on the first flying lap of one of several short runs on Pirelli's soft compound tyre.

However, in the same eight-lap stint as the German set his quickest time, he lost almost four seconds, the first two seconds lost within five laps.

While Schumacher played down the Mercedes' tyre usage, he did point it out as an area for improvement before the Australian Grand Prix.

"The best is if you have [no degradation]," he said. "Everybody has some. I don't know where we are compared to the others, but I have seen some can do better. So, certainly, we can improve."

Despite causing two red flags during the morning's running, Schumacher was upbeat at the end of the day, claiming that the team had worked through its entire Friday programme.

"It was a bit of a slow start in the morning," he added. "We stopped twice ourselves, and had other red flag issues, but the afternoon was straightforward. We made most of the work we needed to do, so it's okay."

Schumacher wound out the day eighth fastest, 1.3s behind Romain Grosjean's benchmark time.

Romain Grosjean declared himself satisfied with the progress made by the Lotus team after topping the timesheets for the second day in a row at Barcelona on Friday.

The Frenchman said that his pace-setting 1m22.614s lap, which was set on a short run on soft Pirellis late on, was a result of "KERS, DRS and enough fuel to do some laps."

But of far more importance to him was the long-run pace of the new E20 following a race simulation on a mixture of soft and hard compounds during the middle of the afternoon.

A 59-lap stint, separated only by pitstops, featured a particularly impressive 24-lap run during which his laptimes dropped off by only two seconds.

"It [the race simulation] was pretty interesting," he said. "It's a long time since I've been that long in a car.

"With the Pirelli you can really play with your driving style to save the tyres, so it was good to know what the result of my driving style was on the tyres.

"It was pretty consistent and good. I'm happy the tyres were quite consistent and the reliability was good. It's very encouraging for Melbourne."

Despite his Lotus appearing to suffer from mid-corner snap-oversteer on worn tyres, Grosjean said this was not a concern and that the car has retained its strong handling characteristics throughout pre-season testing.

'When the tyres get tired you have either the fronts through getting used from the fast corners, or the rears from the traction in the slow corners, and when the car is playing everywhere, it's quite difficult," he added.

"But that's just the tyres, and that point is the same for everyone. I saw a Ferrari [Fernando Alonso's] during my run and he was struggling too, so I'm not worried.

"The main thing is that we've been to the factory, looked at the data and seen where I can improve myself and where we can improve the car, and we've done those things.

"Hopefully we can give [team-mate] Kimi [Raikkonen] and his engineer some good feedback and then they can take this and use it to try some items to make sure we're in the best shape for Melbourne."

Lotus must target an aggressive development programme in 2012 if it is to build on the early promise shown by its new E20.

That is the view of Romain Grosjean, who feels the outfit has delivered itself a good platform for the start of the campaign with a car that is easy to work with.

"You can trust the car and push it to the limit," said the Frenchman. "If you push a little bit too much you know what is going on next, and this is really good when you are driving the car.

"You push hard and it understeers in the fast corners, then if you push a little bit harder there will be a little bit more understeer. But what is not coming is that you have a snap from somewhere and you don't understand what is going on, which is not really nice when you are driving.

"This car is really good on that aspect, and you can get quite easily on the paper a good laptime."

Grosjean believes, however, that the ultimate potential of the team will rest on how well it can keep improving its machine.

His comments come after a disappointing 2011 campaign, where Renault (as the team was previously called) started the year with a very strong package but slipped back as it failed to deliver the necessary steps forward.

"I think last year the challenge of the front exhaust was pretty big," said Grosjean. "It worked pretty well at the beginning, but then the team realised quite early that the development of the car would be really tough with this choice.

"This year, we have to bring every race new pieces, even if it is half a tenth or a tenth. It will make the difference at the end of the year. There are 20 grands prix and, if you bring one tenth, which is maybe too optimistic, but half a tenth at each grand prix, then you are one second quicker at the end of the season."

The Lotus has shown itself to be quick in the two tests it has taken part in, and Grosjean thinks the outfit is in the chasing pack behind Red Bull Racing and McLaren.

"There are a few teams that are ahead, like Red Bull and McLaren, who are clearly really good at the moment. But we have a good car.

"Barcelona was important for us to know that what we found in Jerez is still working well here. The car is as good as it was there, so that is a positive answer we have got. And that is an encouraging sign for the next tests and the first race of the season."

FOTA is now planning to hold a series of Fans' Forums this year following the success of its latest event in Barcelona earlier this week.

More than 200 fans attended the event in downtown Barcelona to pose questions to a number of leading Formula 1 figures, including Pedro de la Rosa, Vitaly Petrov, Lotus boss Eric Boullier and Mercedes-Benz motorsport boss Norbert Haug.

On the back of similar Fans' Forums last year in Woking, Montreal, and Milan proving a hit with fans, FOTA is now trying to organise a number of them to coincide with races throughout 2012.

FOTA's secretary general Oliver Weingarten told AUTOSPORT: "One of the key tenets of FOTA is to engage with the fans. The Fans' Forums have proven to be a success for the teams, whilst moreover have really resonated with the fans, who are not only passionate about the sport, but are also extremely knowledgeable as was evidenced at the Barcelona FOTA Fans' Forum earlier this week.

"Accordingly it is our intention to work with various circuits and stakeholders to have a comprehensive schedule of Forums and other forms of promotional activity this season."

Jean-Eric Vergne has been encouraged with the in-roads Scuderia Toro Rosso is making on the low-speed grip of its new car in Barcelona.

Following yesterday's full programme of testing, in which Vergne completed 113 laps, the Frenchman said that the all-new STR7's strength was grip in the high-speed corners.

And while he fell short of also admitting there was an issue with the low-speed grip of the car, Vergne did reveal that it was an area the team was working on, and that it was heading in the right direction.

"I think we have a good car in the high-speed corners," he said.

"In the low speed corners, there is just a little bit more grip [compared to last week's test]. That's what you want, more grip. We crave more and more grip.

"I don't think we'll ever have enough, but we'll keep pushing until the end of the year," he said. "The more grip you have, the better it is. We've made some good progress."

Today will be Vergne's final run in the STR7 before the Australian Grand Prix gets underway, with Daniel Ricciardo set to take over testing duties for the final two days in Barcelona.

Vitaly Petrov has admitted that he is still far from comfortable in the new Caterham CT01, as he has yet to receive his definitive-specification seat.

The 27-year-old Russian, who first drove for the team at Barcelona last week, was unexpectedly called up to drive on the opening day of the final pre-season test at the same circuit on Thursday after his team-mate Heikki Kovalainen came down with food poisoning.

Petrov completed 123 laps during the opening day, which came to an early end after he stopped out on track during a dry fuel run and brought out the red flags with half an hour remaining.

Despite ending up ninth quickest - ahead of Pastor Maldonado's Williams and less than 1.7s off Romain Grosjean's pace-setting time - he insisted that he will not be able to extract the maximum from himself or the car until his new seat is delivered.

When asked by AUTOSPORT about comfort levels in the car, Petrov said: "At the last test it was my seat, but it was not fitting properly. The guys made something with the seat that was quite uncomfortable and I had a lot of pain in the back and shoulders.

"Here it is not perfect, but it's better. My new seat gets delivered on March 3 [saturday], so I can use it on Sunday when I drive.

"It affects your concentration because you start to brake and you get something pinching you, and then you're in the corner. Of course you lose concentration. Things will be much better on Sunday."

Petrov, who was originally scheduled to drive on the final two days of the test, was only informed two hours before testing got underway that he would be replacing Kovalainen.

"I got a call at 6:40am. It's strange because usually I turn off my ring tone at night, but I forgot, so the call came through," he added. "The first time I didn't take it, but when I saw who it was I realised it could be important.

"It wasn't a problem. I always get to the track for the 8am briefing, so I would have been up by 7am. He'll be back in the car on the second day though."

Sergio Perez believes his Sauber team has made a big step forward with its car at Barcelona, after a troubled start to its pre-season testing programme.

The new C31 was plagued with reliability issues in the first two tests, but the team now appears on top of its problems - and Perez is upbeat about the way it is getting itself in shape for the first race.

"I think things are coming together definitely," said the Mexican. "They are getting better than they were last week, so we are moving in the right direction.

"Here, I have to say I am very happy with the car and the performance. I feel comfortable with the car, so we are moving in the right direction.

"I think in many areas we have more information which we could not get before, especially me. I could not get information from the car because every time I tried there were problems, but now I think we have a good grip on the car. We have tried much stuff in the long runs, and short runs as well, so everything is going quite okay."

Perez thinks the new Sauber is an improvement on its predecessor when it comes to switching on its tyres for single lap performance, even though that appears to have come at the expense of its ability to look after it rubber over longer distances.

"We are turning on the tyre a lot better than we used to do last year," he said. "On this we are positive, and I think it has been a good step forward.

"But the tyres have a big degradation compared to last year. Although if I remember last year in testing, we had the same and when we went racing everything changed."

Perez does not expect Sauber to bring any big update package for the first race in Australia, and he thinks the outfit will be fighting in a similar position in the midfield at the start of the campaign – with improvements to come after that.

"I think we are more or less where we were last year with our package at the moment, but I think we are looking good and the team is doing a good job so I think we can move forward from that position. We will see in Melbourne where we end up."

[Lineker]

Formula 1's pre-season testing moved up a notch of intensity on Saturday when Red Bull Racing unveiled its latest updates at Barcelona. McLaren is also set to bolt on a new upgrade later today or tomorrow.

With just two days of testing left before the season-opening Australian Grand Prix, rival teams are now making the final preparations to their cars with their latest development parts.

Most of the focus on Saturday morning at Barcelona was at Red Bull, with the team having fitted its latest aerodynamic package to a chassis that it has brought to the track for the last two days of running.

Mark Webber gave the new car - which features a number of updates including a heavily revised exhaust layout (similar to Sauber's) and a new front wing - its first lap on Saturday morning with world champion Sebastian Vettel admitting that the next two days were crucial.

"We have some new bits for the next two days and then we'll know a little bit more," he had said on Friday. "Everyone is a bit in the same situation. Usually the last couple of days of testing are quite important because you bring some new bits and the car is closer to what you will race at the first race, so we will see if that comes true.

"Hopefully we can make another small step forward and then we should be okay."

Webber completed a single installation lap of the car on Saturday morning, before the RB8 was returned to the pits for post-run checks prior to further tests.

Red Bull showed how keen it was to keep its design under wraps from the opposition as the car was heavily shrouded by covers as it returned to the pits, and mechanics swarmed over the car to keep photographers at bay.

AUTOSPORT's technical correspondent Gary Anderson believes the updated Red Bull Racing RB8 is a big philosophical change from the version tested already - especially with the revised exhaust layout.

"It is March 2 today and that is a whole new package from Red Bull, which is impressive this early in the season," he said. "They had a good advantage last year with the exhaust pipes - and they know how that area of the car operates so they are continuing to push forward in that area."

Anderson believes that the location of the exhausts is aimed at getting the gases attached to the airflow around the rear Coke-bottle area of the car.

"The exhaust pipes are further forward on the outer part of the sidepod," he explained. "They are not blowing anywhere in particular, but there appears to be some idea of getting the exhaust gases attached to the bodywork and being channelled somewhere they don't want to go.

"That is why they have detailed that Coke bottle area much more - plus there appears to be a large duct on the underfloor, feeding the flow between the double-skinned floor, to the diffuser."

The revised front wing on the RB8 features a straighter mid-section, which differs from the curved design the team has run up until now.

Edited March 3, 2012 by Lineker

[Sam]

Been sent the list now, Vettel, Hamilton, Alonso, Schumacher, Kimi, Hulkenburg, Kobayshi, Riccardio, Maldonado and Petrov will be testing tomorrow

[Katsuya]

Ferrari have rather thrown their toys out of the pram today and have said their drivers won't be at any press conferences now until the mandatory ones in Melbourne.

[Lineker]

FYI that last news story I posted earlier today has now been updated with analysis.

Sergio Perez remained on top of the timesheets for Sauber on day three of the final pre-season Formula 1 test at Barcelona on Saturday, despite not improving on his morning mark.

The Mexican, who had reached the lunchbreak on top thanks to his 1m22.094s lap on soft Pirelli rubber, joined most of the rest of the field in concentrating on race simulations with heavy fuel loads during the afternoon.

Jenson Button was one of the few drivers not to undertake a long run in the afternoon. The McLaren driver made the most of medium compound tyres and a lower fuel load to climb to second place, only 0.009 seconds adrift of Perez.

Daniel Ricciardo (Toro Rosso) completed the most laps of anybody - 130 - and this included an impressive 35-lap stint on a succession of sets of soft tyres. A further run of a similar distance was shortened by the onset of mid-afternoon rain. The track did not dry enough to enable anybody to switch back to slicks before the end of the day.

Felipe Massa was fourth fastest in the Ferrari and was, like Ricciardo, one of the few to take to the track on intermediate rubber during the height of the rain. Paul di Resta was next up for Force India, the British driver just managing to finish his 52-lap race simulation as the rain began to fall.

There was only one flag during the afternoon, caused when Bruno Senna stopped on the approach to the La Caixa hairpin. The Williams driver was sixth fastest.

Behind him were Heikki Kovalainen's Caterham and the Red Bull of Mark Webber - which completed just a single run of more than five laps during the entire day.

Propping up the timesheets were Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg and Lotus man Kimi Raikkonen. The 2007 world champion lost over an hour during the morning while an issue with his steering was rectified and only completed 43 laps during the day.

TODAYS TIMES


Pos  Driver         Team            Time                Laps

 1.  Perez          Sauber          1m22.094s           114

 2.  Button         McLaren         1m22.103s  +0.009   44

 3.  Ricciardo      Toro Rosso      1m22.155s  +0.061   131

 4.  Massa          Ferrari         1m22.413s  +0.319   122

 5.  Di Resta       Force India     1m22.446s  +0.352   108

 6.  Senna          Williams        1m22.480s  +0.386   111

 7.  Kovalainen     Caterham        1m22.630s  +0.536   64

 8.  Webber         Red Bull        1m22.662s  +0.568   70

 9.  Rosberg        Mercedes        1m22.932s  +0.838   129

10.  Raikkonen      Lotus           1m25.379s  +3.285   43[/code]


Sergio Perez ended the morning session in Barcelona on top, setting the fastest time recorded at Barcelona this year.



The Sauber driver scorched his way to a 1m22.094s best while completing a qualifying simulation on soft tyres, just 40 minutes before the lunch break. He reappeared moments later on supersofts, but was unable to eclipse his previous benchmark time.



Perez's fastest time came just minutes after Daniel Ricciardo had jumped to the top of the sheets on supersoft tyres, the Australian just one of many drivers to break the 1m23s barrier during a flurry of quick laps on the red-marked Pirellis.



Ricciardo wound up second for the session, ahead of Felipe Massa, who sat on top of the sheets for much of the morning after setting his fastest time on supersofts quite early.



In total, there were eight drivers sub-1m23s, a stark contrast to yesterday (Friday) where only Romain Grosjean recorded a time in the 1m22s bracket.



Behind the leading three this morning it was Paul di Resta, Bruno Senna, and Heikki Kovalainen in the Caterham.



Mark Webber and Nico Rosberg were also in the 1m22 bracket, although neither used supersoft tyres at all throughout the morning. Webber set his best lap with a late run on soft tyres to go seventh in the revised Red Bull. Rosberg meanwhile focussed almost exclusively on short soft tyre runs, setting a 1m22.932s best along the way to be eighth, as well as completing more laps than anyone else with 63 throughout the morning programme.



Neither Jenson Button nor Kimi Raikkonen did much work this morning, with Button only completing 17 laps, most of which were completed in the first two hours.



Raikkonen, meanwhile, spent most of the morning in the garage, having been unable to get comfortable with the Lotus's steering. He also only completed 17 laps, and was slowest of the 10 drivers, 3.526s behind Perez.



[code]MORNING TIMES


Pos  Driver         Team            Time                Laps

 1.  Perez          Sauber          1m22.094s           49

 2.  Ricciardo      Toro Rosso      1m22.155s  +0.061   50

 3.  Massa          Ferrari         1m22.413s  +0.319   48

 4.  Di Resta       Force India     1m22.446s  +0.352   45

 5.  Senna          Williams        1m22.480s  +0.386   36

 6.  Kovalainen     Caterham        1m22.630s  +0.536   44

 7.  Webber         Red Bull        1m22.662s  +0.568   46

 8.  Rosberg        Mercedes        1m22.932s  +0.838   63

 9.  Button         McLaren         1m23.409s  +1.315   17

10.  Raikkonen      Lotus           1m25.620s  +3.526   17


All Timing Unofficial

HRT has failed in its bid to get its car ready in time to make the final day of pre-season testing at Barcelona on Sunday - but the outfit still hopes to get some mileage on the car before the Australian Grand Prix.

The Spanish outfit successfully passed its crash tests last weekend, and had hoped to be able to complete its F112 so it could join this week's Barcelona test tomorrow.

However, work on the car could not be finished in time for the team to be able to transport it from Greding in Germany by this morning, which means that it will not make it in time to be ready to run before the test finishes.

Although no official testing is allowed after Sunday, HRT is hoping to complete a filming day at Barcelona on Monday instead.

According to F1's Sporting Regulations, teams are allowed to run their cars during the period of the test ban for 'promotional events carried out using tyres provided specifically for this purpose by the appointed supplier'.

Although that means any running HRT does on Monday will not be on Pirelli's 2012 rubber, it would at least allow the team to get some valuable mileage on its car prior to first practice in Melbourne.

Since HRT's inception three years ago, the team has still yet to run a newly unveiled car in an official pre-season test, although for the past two years it has been present at some with a year-old car.

Mark Webber has played down the scale of the update package that Red Bull introduced for the final weekend of pre-season Formula 1 testing - and insists that the champion team faces huge competition at the front of the field.

Red Bull brought its latest chassis to Catalunya today, and the revised RB8 features extensive changes including a new exhaust layout and front wing.

But asked how different the car felt, Webber replied: "Not massively to be honest. A few changes but not massively different, and we got through our normal programme.

"There are a few more things coming tomorrow, but nothing drastic. We will just keep working away."

The Australian was only eighth fastest today, but just half a second off the pace, and he did not opt for the qualifying-style runs that many midfield teams tried.

Webber still maintained that the times rivals were doing - however they were achieved - proved that the competition would be tight.

"It is important for us to keep focusing on the programme here," he said. "It is impossible to know what other people are doing, and there are clearly some very, very fast teams out there.

"Everyone today was in the 1m22s so that is not hanging around at Barcelona these days. So there are a lot of quick teams, a lot of fast cars and we need to continue to work hard."

Webber added: "People can talk all they want about us but until we are at the top of the timesheets we have work to do. So there is still a long way to go."

He acknowledged that McLaren seemed to be Red Bull's closest rival, and also tipped Lotus and Mercedes as threats.

"I think McLaren look very strong, and some of the other times done by other teams were pretty handy too," said Webber.

"We have seen some quick times from Romain [Grosjean]. Kimi [Raikkonen] did not have much of a run today.

"The mystery a bit is the Ferrari.

"Also Nico [Rosberg] is going fast in the Mercedes, so he is quick and Mercedes is very fast. They are the guys who are extremely strong."

Asked if he therefore felt that F1 was closer at the front than it had been in 2011, Webber replied: "I think so, the pack is very tight. As I touched on several times that we have run, it is very tight between all the teams and Q2 will be interesting."

A new suite of aerodynamic upgrades have allowed McLaren to make a 'definite step forward' as it aims to kick off its championship campaign strongly with the promising new MP4-27, according to an upbeat Jenson Button.

Despite a hydraulic problem limiting the Briton to just 44 laps running in the car fitted with upgrades on his final day of pre-season testing ahead of the Australian Grand Prix, Button declared himself comfortable with the McLaren he takes into the season opener in two weeks' time.

"It worked out well - the laps I actually ran in it," he said afterwards. "Immediately when we put the upgrades on it felt much better.

"There were some areas where we were lacking in the car, but we knew it would become better when we put the updates on."

Button's programme was disrupted through the morning with the hydraulic issues, which hindered his ability to fully explore the new package: "I did two runs but both were difficult because we had issues with the hydraulics, but we knew we had to get some running in so we could collect data for the new package.

"Then we had two hours plus of downtime before lunch. So we lost a good part of the day when there was a good temperature and no wind. After lunch we went out and did some short runs, basically comparing tyres and the car felt good.

"We were just about to get into the setup work and then it started raining. But it's a definite step forward.

"It's great the upgrade we got today, but we weren't able to progress with it and get a perfect set-up. Hopefully tomorrow Lewis [Hamilton] can have a nice, clean day and we can progress with it because there's still more to come. The feeling is positive though."

Button added that in spite of the positive feedback about the new package, it was still too difficult to tell whether it was enough to make the MP4-27 a Red Bull beater in the early stages of the season.

"The good thing is that it gives us what we expected," he said. "The car is feeling good. Whether we're fastest, second fastest, not fast, I don't know. But it feels we've made a good step.

"I'm reasonably happy with what we have going to the first race. I don't know where we are, but I'm feeling comfortable. Look at the times and a few people stand out as impressive. One is [sergio] Perez because he did his time on softs, and we noticed that with [Kamui] Kobayashi at the last test - most people do theirs on supersofts. [sauber] have done a good job. Nice to see the smaller teams competitive, but hopefully not too competitive.

"The Red Bull, in my opinion, was heavy on fuel today. They made some upgrades today that they ran. Perhaps they don't want to show their hand, so they're running fuel. We don't know how much, so why guess? Let's just focus on what we're doing."

Nico Rosberg is confident that Mercedes will be able to "annoy" Red Bull Racing and McLaren early in the season, after his pre-season testing programme wrapped up at Barcelona today.

Rosberg will not drive the new W03 again until it arrives in Melbourne for the Australian Grand Prix, having completed his two days of testing at Barcelona. But the German is convinced that the team is in a position to improve on its fourth place finish in the 2011 constructors' championship.

"I think we're ready," he said. "It's important for us this year to progress from last year, and we're definitely able to do that. From that point of view I'm pleased, and it's exciting now to go to the first race and see where we are, and finally the talking stops.

"It's still going to be the teams from last year that we need to beat, but I think we have a good chance to annoy them a few times early in the season."

While the Mercedes' tyre degradation is one of the talking points of the test so far, Rosberg shrugged off claims that the car is using its tyres too quickly.

"It's been a positive day, on the longer runs and the shorter runs," he added.

"For the long runs, it's looking okay. No, no concerns. [Degradation] is always a limitation, but it's difficult to know where everyone is. We put in a decent long run today, and we can't really compare. But it's a good base to start off with for us. We're heading in the right direction."

Rosberg also warned that the Barcelona test might not be an accurate barometer for the opening races of the season, with very difficult conditions expected in Australia and Malaysia.

"The thing is that it's very different conditions here to what we'll have in the first few races," he said. "It will be hotter, less grip, and we got caught out a bit last year. Not caught out, but it's just difficult to test well here, and carry everything over.

"You have to be very careful, because a lot of things will just not apply for the first couple of races."

Kimi Raikkonen says he is not concerned about having missed out on a lot of pre-season testing mileage and still has confidence in Lotus's reliability.

Today was the returnee's first day on track since 8 February as Lotus had to withdraw from last week's Barcelona test due to a chassis issue, and Raikkonen's first session back in the car was then disrupted by steering problems, limiting him to 43 laps.

"The power steering just didn't work. It was the same system as yesterday but it just decided not to work today," Raikkonen explained.

"We tried to fix it, we thought that there was some small issue that we could fix, they tried to do it and unfortunately those things take a long time to do and it still didn't work as it should and we had to change the whole system, which takes another one and a half hours. It takes a long time. It wasn't perfect still [afterwards], but it was OK."

The Finn denied that the lack of running would be a major issue for Lotus, and said he still had complete faith in the team.

"I guess you always wish to have more days, but it is what it is and you have to deal with it," Raikkonen said.

"At least in the first week we had very good running and I don't think we have any major reliability issues in the car so I think that's a good thing. We had one problem last week - that's fixed and there are not going to be any more issues.

"Now it's just to get things on a level where you think you're happy and you know to press the right buttons at the right time. Maybe a few more days wouldn't hurt but I'm very confident that we will get it right."

He does not feel like the lost mileage has hampered his efforts to readjust to Formula 1 after two years away in rallying either.

"We're still learning things but everything is going smoothly and there are no problems," he said.

Bruno Senna is excited by how kind the new Williams is on the Pirelli tyres, admitting that even he was surprised with how well the rubber lasted during his final pre-season race simulation at Barcelona today.

Senna completed almost a full race distance during the afternoon session, highlighted by a 15-lap stint on the soft tyre, and a 19-lap stint on Pirelli's medium compound. According to Senna, it was pay-off in an area the team has been especially focused on.

"We've been working very hard to find a way for the car to take care of the tyres," he said. "The morning was good, we managed to learn a lot about each tyre compound; some of them went well, some of them didn't go so well in terms of getting the maximum out of the tyres.

"The afternoon was very productive with the race sim. It was tough, the track conditions were changing during the afternoon. But we managed to put more laps into the tyre than we were expecting, in general.

"I think it was an informative race stint, which unfortunately got cut short by the rain. I wanted to see how the harder tyres were going to behave at the end of the stint, but they were behaving very well and the lap times weren't too bad, so I think we're looking OK."

Not long after the rain set in, Senna was halted by an electrical problem. However, he is confident there will be no reliability issues in Melbourne.

"We had a small issue with the electronics again. The car has been running its fair share of kilometres, and sometimes one or two systems decide they've had enough. It was a small issue, nothing to worry about."

Pastor Maldonado has no concerns over the time he's lost in the new Williams over the first two days of the final pre-season Formula 1 test at Barcelona.

Maldonado's Williams only managed three laps during the Friday morning's session, before stopping on track with an engine problem. He didn't make it back on track until within an hour of lunch, managing just 17 more laps before the break.

After lunch, Bruno Senna took over the new car, leaving Maldonado stranded at the bottom of the times for the second day in a row - on Thursday, an electrical problem interrupted the team's programme while Maldonado was in the car.

However, with the Williams team almost focussing exclusively on pit-stop practice throughout Friday, Maldonado said that the lost time was not a big issue in terms of his own preparation for the Australian Grand Prix.

"We had some problems with the engine in the morning, but today was a pit-stop test, so we didn't lose any important time," he said.

"We got to the bottom of the [engine] problem. It was a simple problem. Nothing serious, nothing important."

Despite the stoppages and lost time, Maldonado is happy with the progress of the FW34, particularly an update with the front wing.

"The car is looking good," he said. "We need to improve the pace on the long run a little better. [but] the car feels consistent, and every time we change something the car is responding. So I'm confident.

"I think at the moment it's very close. It's difficult to predict, because at the moment we don't know what the other teams are testing, but I feel confident. We need to work hard, keep concentrating, keep pushing."

[Lineker]

Kimi Raikkonen ensured that Lotus finished pre-season Formula 1 testing on top as nobody was able to beat his morning time on the final afternoon at Barcelona.

Most of the field spent the afternoon focusing on race simulations, meaning that Raikkonen's 1m22.030s lap, set inside the final 20 minutes of the morning, was unlikely to come under fire.

The Lotus driver's race simulation was among the most impressive of the day as he completed a 65-lap run on four sets of Pirelli tyres; three soft, one hard. During these stints he suffered performance drop-off of no more than 1.8s on any given set of tyres.

While his drop-off figures were the best of the race simulations, his overall pace was still shy of Lewis Hamilton's McLaren, which seemed to have a 0.2s advantage on any given lap of a stint.

With nobody improving, Fernando Alonso retained second spot in the times - 0.220s down on Raikkonen.

The Ferrari driver's race run was affected by a couple of red flags caused by Kamui Kobayashi's Sauber - which suffered an engine problem and stopped between Turns 4 and 5 – and Vitaly Petrov's Caterham, which took a trip through the gravel at Turn 4 with half an hour to go.

Bruno Senna remained third overall, despite the Brazilian being replaced by his team-mate Pastor Maldonado for the afternoon. Maldonado completed 48 laps – which included two stints on supersofts – putting him ninth.

Nico Hulkenberg's Force India and Kobayashi were next up, ahead of Hamilton, Petrov and Michael Schumacher's Mercedes, which focused on a succession of 10-lap runs on soft tyres.

Daniel Ricciardo's Toro Rosso and the Red Bull of Sebastian Vettel brought up the tail of the field. Vettel completed just six laps right at the end of the day; his RB8 having to be cured of gearbox problems that had also restricted his morning running.

TODAYS TIMES


Pos  Driver         Team            Time                Laps

 1.  Raikkonen      Lotus           1m22.030s           121

 2.  Alonso         Ferrari         1m22.250s  +0.220   115

 3.  Senna          Williams        1m22.296s  +0.266   53

 4.  Hulkenberg     Force India     1m22.312s  +0.282   101

 5.  Kobayashi      Sauber          1m22.386s  +0.356   72

 6.  Hamilton       McLaren         1m22.430s  +0.400   115

 7.  Petrov         Caterham        1m22.795s  +0.765   101

 8.  Schumacher     Mercedes        1m22.939s  +0.909   100

 9.  Maldonado      Williams        1m23.347s  +1.317   48

10.  Ricciardo      Toro Rosso      1m23.393s  +1.363   100

11.  Vettel         Red Bull        1m23.608s  +1.578   23[/code]


Kimi Raikkonen put Lotus at the head of the order on the final morning of Formula 1 pre-season testing at Barcelona on Sunday.



The Finn, who had worked through a programme of five-lap simulations on soft and medium rubber during the early hours, completed a number of single-lap runs in the final hour and set the pace in 1m22.030s - the best time achieved at Barcelona during pre-season running.



Raikkonen, who finished the morning with 41 laps to his name, was 0.220s faster than home hero Fernando Alonso, who completed 63.



Alonso's best time also came on soft tyres, backing up claims that while the Ferrari F2012 may not have great long-run pace, its single-lap speed is not in question. He focused on short runs; his longest being a pair of four-lap stints.



Bruno Senna was third fastest for Williams, the Brazilian having his final run in the car before handing over to Pastor Maldonado for the afternoon. Force India's Nico Hulkenberg and Sauber's Kamui Kobayashi were next up.



Sixth was Lewis Hamilton, the McLaren driver making up for the time lost to a wet circuit and Jenson Button's hydraulics problems on Saturday by completing 60 laps - more than anyone other than Alonso.



Seventh, after a late run on supersofts, was Vitaly Petrov's Caterham, while Michael Schumacher was one spot further back in his Mercedes, having run extensively on softs.



Daniel Ricciardo was ninth quickest, but was only 1.1s off the pace. Significantly, however, he completed the longest run of the morning - 11 laps – on mediums and suffered only a 1s drop-off in performance during it.



By contrast, Senna's Williams – completing a 10-lap run on the same tyres at the same time – lost 2.5s of pace during the stint.



Sebastian Vettel, trying the upgraded Red Bull RB8 for the first time, spent most of the morning in the pits and completed only five flying laps. Vettel's morning was hampered by a damaged front wing sustained when he briefly went off the track.



[code]MORNING TIMES:


Pos  Driver         Team            Time                Laps

 1.  Raikkonen      Lotus           1m22.030s           41

 2.  Alonso         Ferrari         1m22.250s  +0.220   63

 3.  Senna          Williams        1m22.296s  +0.266   53

 4.  Hulkenberg     Force India     1m22.312s  +0.282   45

 5.  Kobayashi      Sauber          1m22.386s  +0.356   56

 6.  Hamilton       McLaren         1m22.430s  +0.400   60

 7.  Petrov         Caterham        1m22.795s  +0.765   43

 8.  Schumacher     Mercedes        1m22.939s  +0.909   57

 9.  Ricciardo      Toro Rosso      1m23.393s  +1.363   53

10.  Vettel         Red Bull        1m23.608s  +1.578   15

Ferrari technical chief Pat Fry has admitted that at present he does not believe the team is competitive enough to finish on the podium in the Australian Grand Prix.

Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa have struggled to get consistent frontrunning pace out of the Ferrari F2012, which is a radical departure from the team's recent designs, in testing.

Asked where he felt Ferrari stood and if he was excluding podium finishes at present, Fry replied: "At the moment, I'd say yes. But I suppose I'm always slightly pessimistic."

He admitted that Ferrari had plenty of ground to make up, and that a decision to change its exhaust position mid-way through testing had added to the challenge.

"I am disappointed by our performance level at the moment," said Fry. "I think we've got a lot of work to do.

"The change we made last week to the exhaust position has put us a little bit on the back foot and we're trying to optimise to that. We've obviously still got a lot of work going on at the factory and we'll have new bits to test in Melbourne."

Fry said it was hard to be certain exactly where Ferrari stood in the pecking order, beyond that it was trailing the frontrunners.

"Testing is always hard to see exactly where you are," he said.

"We knew historically what fuel levels people have run, so we've got an idea where they are, but if they've changed what they've done for the last two or three years, I could either be depressed, more disappointed or less disappointed, I don't know.

"I think we've still got a reasonable amount of work to do."

Mercedes team boss Ross Brawn believes everything is in place for the squad to take a significant step forward over its 2011 form this year.

Despite choosing to miss the first test of the winter, Mercedes has looked strong in the pre-season running so far, and Brawn said the build-up had been much more smooth than a year ago.

Asked if the W03 was better than last year's car, he replied: "Yes, very much so. Some of the fundamentals are good, the cooling is good, the systems are working well and it means that all of our engineers can focus on finding performance from the very beginning.

"Whereas last year there was a lot of resource soaked up fixing problems with the car, so we have certainly moved a long way in 12 months.

"I also believe we have got a much stronger structure in the company compared to before, greater depth in the company and more resource in the company, so I am more confident that we will move forward."

Mercedes has appeared to suffer a greater tyre performance drop-off over a stint, particularly on softs, than rivals, but Brawn played this problem down.

"I think the difficulty is that we are in relatively cool conditions in Barcelona trying to work out what the degradation is going to be with different tracks and different ambients and different duty cycles, so it is a little bit difficult to predict," he said.

"But what we are understanding is the sensitivity - things that we can do that change the level of degradation. The drivers are understanding the balance of the car they should try and have to reduce the degradation and I think it is how you translate what you learned here to what we are going to have between Melbourne and the first few races which will be the big challenge.

"I don't think we have a core problem – I think we have a reasonable car in that respect and our race distance simulations are quite reasonable."

Asked where he felt Mercedes currently stood in the pecking order, Brawn said the only certainty was that the frontrunners had moved closer together.

"It varies from day to day, there is no definitive ranking. There is a group," he said. "Even yesterday with the new package the Red Bull didn't seem to stand out but of course they may have been running a huge amount of fuel, we just don't know.

"I think they are going to be competitive, McLaren were pretty sensible and they have a good car, and I don't think we are too far off. But it is just so difficult to judge.

"In the race simulation, you only have to be a little bit out with the balance and it can cost you quite a lot of lap time that you can obviously fix in time for Melbourne.

"So, what is apparent that there are five or six teams in a much closer grouping perhaps than we have seen for a number of years."

Michael Schumacher is unconcerned by the level of soft tyre degradation experienced by the Mercedes team during the final pre-season Formula 1 test of 2012 at Barcelona this week.

Schumacher suffered one-lap drop-off of 3.3 and 3.7 seconds across stints of 10 and 11 laps respectively during the afternoon, while the Lotus of Kimi Raikkonen and Lewis Hamilton's McLaren lost just 2.5 and 2.8s in longer stints on the same rubber - and while track conditions were similar.

However, when asked by AUTOSPORT if there were any concerns about the amount of drop-off being experienced from the soft tyres, Schumacher said: "No".

While the 43-year-old German ruled himself out of the battle for wins this year, he does believe that the team is in a stronger position heading into a new season than at any other point since the team was re-established in the winter of 2009/10.

"I don't think that's possible for us to fight for first position," he said. "Already Red Bull is quite strong. It's a separate thing to be first position.

"But after this it's a pretty tight field. With this testing knowledge and not knowing everything in detail, and how much fuel people are running, it's very difficult to assume and assess what that means.

"The good thing is that we've definitely worked on the car and improved it; it's always a question of how much we've moved forward though. [Compared to the last two years], we're certainly much better prepared."

Sebastian Vettel is hoping for more running in the afternoon session of the final pre-season test of 2012 after being hindered by problems in the morning.

The world champion, who got his first taste of the updated Red Bull RB8 today, managed only 15 laps in the morning, finishing at the bottom of the times.

Apart from a gearbox problem, Vettel also damaged his car's front wing when going off track, losing more track time because of that.

The German admitted it had not been a good morning.

"So far not so good," said Vettel of his day during the lunch break. "We would love to be on the circuit more, but this morning I had an issue.

"I went off track and broke the front wing and had to come in, and it took quite a while to get back out and just before lunch we suffered a problem with the gearbox so we have to fix it and get back out after lunch."

He admitted it was hard to judge the updates introduced yesterday because of the lack of running.

"It would not be fair to judge it because I haven't enough laps on the track yet with the new car. Yesterday was quite a decent step and a good day for Mark, so hopefully I get a few more laps in the afternoon."

And the world champion said he is not making any predictions about the pecking order for the Australian Grand Prix.

"Last year was too long ago, I can't remember. I think it is always a bit the same, you never know where you are until you get to Melbourne and everyone puts their pants down - and you can see what they have got and you show what you have got in qualifying.

"Until then we still will not know, but if we have a good Friday and the team is on top of Friday that will probably be the likely be the same on Saturday."

Mark Webber says he is heading to the season-opening Australian Grand Prix in much better shape that he did 12 months ago, as he targets a strong start to the Formula 1 world championship campaign.

After signing off his pre-season running at Barcelona in Spain on Saturday, Webber feels that he has the package and the winter behind him that he wanted to be able to launch a title bid if his car is up to it.

"I am looking to have a much better year this year than I did last year - which of course means a lot of winning and improving the start of the season, which is clearly possible," said Webber, whose only victory in 2011 came at the season finale in Brazil.

"I feel better than I did this time last year, in terms of off the back of the pre-season testing, and it is nice to have the feeling I did in Brazil.

"It is going to be a great battle again at the front, and this is what I am excited about – it is what I am training for, it is what I am preparing for and this is why I am looking forward to getting the first part of the championship underway."

Webber did concede, however, that it would not be too difficult to be in better shape than a year ago, because he admitted that he had gone into 2011 feeling uncomfortable with the car and Pirelli's new rubber.

"I feel better than I did last year – which wouldn't be hard because I was pretty much in the s**t at the start of the year, so this year should be better," he said.

Webber reiterated that the update package Red Bull Racing has brought to Barcelona is not a dramatic improvement, but he feels happy with the way progress is going.

"There were just some some subtle changes," he said. "There are parts of the car that have improved a bit and other parts that we have to improve, so this is what the guys in the trucks will be going through.

"It wasn't like a big new package for me. It was just some minor aerodynamic improvements to be honest, so we have to analyse those.

"You cannot just throw these changes on and expect the get the most out of them straight away, so we have a lot to go through and the cars are extremely complex these days – there were some things we liked out of it and some things we need to look at."

Austin Grand Prix promoters are facing a lawsuit from former partner Tavo Hellmund, in yet another twist to the story of the event.

Hellmund was once the figurehead of the race, which is set to signal the return of Formula 1 to the United States later this year, but his involvement in the project was believed to have ended last year amid a dispute with Bernie Ecclestone over the contract.

However, according to a report in the Austin Statesman newspaper, Hellmund has now filed a lawsuit against track investors Bobby Epstein and Red McCombs, plus other companies involved in the grand prix.

The suit does not make reference to the damages he is seeking, but mentions a potential buyout option that was supposed to have taken place - and the $500,000 salary per year he was supposed to have received for the next 10 years.

The Statesman quotes the lawsuit as stating: "With the relief requested herein — namely, access to the Company's books and records and declaration that he cannot be removed as a manager — Hellmund hopes to steer the now-teetering circuit back on track and determine how best to proceed, if at all, to acquire Epstein's remaining interest in the company."

Hellmund was unavailable for comment over the weekend, but Epstein said: "This is just a latest step in a pattern of behaviour. Mr Hellmund uses negative press to try and create an advantage for himself at every turn. The fact is, he has been found to be in breach of contract by Formula 1 and he has not fulfilled his agreements."

Daniel Ricciardo is hoping the tight battle brewing for Formula 1's midfield honours will play into the hands of Scuderia Toro Rosso in 2012.

The Australian drove the STR7 for the first time this week on Saturday, completing a full programme of more than 130 laps in Catalunya testing. His running included super soft tyre qualifying simulations, a full race distance, and even running of both of Pirelli's wet tyres, and he ended the day third fastest.

With both Williams and Force India making comparable long runs on Saturday afternoon, Ricciardo believes the closeness of the midfield teams will give Toro Rosso the opportunity to fight for points this season.

"I'm hoping it's going to be very tight," he said. "That will give us more opportunities to make positions. The top teams, the top two teams, will still have an advantage, from what I understand. But I think the midfield does look much tighter this year. Every last bit of perfection is going to be needed to make that position."

Ricciardo also praised the Toro Rosso team for completing what he described as an optimistic Saturday programme.

"We had a great day," he added. "We did 131 laps, which was really good. It's not all the time you set a programme that big, and then complete it. To complete a very optimistic programme was very good. We got some different weather too, so we tried a few different compounds, and I was happy with the performance of the car.

"We had some long runs [in the] afternoon which made me adapt better and get a better feeling for [the tyres]. I'm learning, but I'm learning fast, which is good. We're understanding it all pretty well."

Heikki Kovalainen believes Caterham could be within 0.3 seconds of joining the battle in the Formula 1 midfield this year, following the completion of his pre-season test programme at Barcelona on Saturday.

Kovalainen, who handed over the CT01-Renault to his team-mate Vitaly Petrov for the final day of testing on Sunday, suspects that the outfit is now in a far stronger position than before, when it competed under the Lotus name.

After ending the day seventh quickest - and ahead of the upgraded Red Bull RB8 of Mark Webber - Kovalainen said that there was less cause for caution than in previous seasons.

"I think scoring points is the great goal, but the main aim right now is to join the main pack, the midfield. Whether we have the pace to do that or not, I don't know yet," said the 30-year-old Finn.

"Looking at today's running I'd say we are reasonably close to a lot of people, but I don't know exactly what they've done and they don't know what we've done. We can only guess.

"It looks like Williams is the next one for us and if today [saturday] we were running the same fuel loads then we are a couple of tenths behind them. I'm not sure if that's the case or not. We just have to keep working towards that."

Kovalainen said the biggest improvement since last week's Barcelona running had come in feel of the car on corner entry, and that he was now far more confident in the grip levels at the front end.

"We've found the direction we needed to go in," he added. "We know where the lazy turn-in is coming from and we ran some modifications for today that were helping – especially on the short runs.

"We have a new front wing coming for Melbourne, so I think we will make even more progress there."

HRT will be able to run its 2012 car on Monday at the Barcelona circuit, the Spanish squad confirmed on Sunday evening.

The team was hoping to join its rivals for the four-day test at the Circuit de Catalunya, but was unable to get there in time.

HRT said, however, that the new F112 will take to the track tomorrow taking advantage of the filming days regulations.

Indian Narain Karthikeyan will be the man in charge of driving the car, but Pedro de la Rosa and reserve driver Dani Clos will also be at the track following the proceedings.

The test will have to be carried out with demo tyres, as rules stipulate teams cannot using proper racing tyres during filming days.

The running is also limited to 100km.

Monday's planned filming day for HRT will be crucial for its chances in the coming season, according to driver Pedro de la Rosa.

While HRT had hoped to test at Barcelona on Sunday, it became clear that it would be at least Monday before the new car arrives from Munich. With the official test over by that point, HRT will be restricted to a filming day, which means limited miles and exclusive use of older-spec Pirelli tyres.

But while the filming day may have its restrictions, de la Rosa believes that if it goes ahead, it will hugely aid preparations for the new season.

"If we manage to do a few laps on Monday, it's a victory for us," he said.

"I was not expecting to do any kilometres before Australia, so if we manage to accomplish that, it leaves us in a much better position than HRT has ever been in before a first championship race."

According to de la Rosa, even limited laps will allow the team and the drivers to get comfortable with the latest car, which he claims is completely new compared to last year's HRT.

"It is so important to just do a few laps to check the system on the car, make sure everything is working well, because it is a completely brand new car," he added.

"There is no carryover from last year. This is quite different, because if you look at the cars from other teams, they are all evolutions from last year.

"We have to be sensible and do some kilometres before Australia. That will give the team a chance to sort out any problems before Australia. And as a driver, it will help us get a proper race seat ready. I did it three days ago in Munich, but I need to do some laps to make sure it is OK.

"Ideally, we'd do days and days of pre-season testing, but I'm not here to complain about it. If we do a few laps on Monday, it's a victory."

[Sam]

I'm in love with F1, thinking of buying tickets for the real deal in May now, expensive but will be worth every penny. The noise is just mind blowing and that's two or three cars going down the straight, I can only imagine the noise of 24! I think I would cream myself.

Also the McClaren is a beautiful car, whilst the Ferrari is ugly.