Formula One 2012

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Formula 1 fans have been told to brace themselves for an unpredictable start to the season - with the competitiveness of the grid likely to throw up some big surprises in the early part of the campaign.

With pre-season testing suggesting little separates the teams this year – with some outfits appearing quicker in single-lap trim while others excel over race distances – plus Pirelli's aggressive tyres making strategy difficult, leading figures reckon the start of the year will be thrilling.

Lotus team principal Eric Boullier told AUTOSPORT: "Yes, it is going to be a freaky one! Qualifying in Melbourne and the first races are going to be unpredictable.

"The tyres are going to make things very interesting. If you push too hard in qualifying then you are going to be screwed for the first part of the race – and if you pit too early it may mean you need to make an extra stop.

"It is going to be interesting, but we like the challenge. We would always love to have a car that is two seconds faster than the other ones, which would be very comfortable for us, but in the end we like the fight as well."

Mercedes team principal Ross Brawn said that as well as the field looking so competitive, the prospect of six world champions on the grid was something to get excited about.

"It is great for Formula 1 to have so many world champions," he said. "It is the quality of the field and the fact that the cars look like they are going to be close this year, it is going to be a really exciting season and it could be one of the best seasons we have seen for a number of years, so I am quite looking forward to a very challenging season. I am expecting the tightest start to a season that we have seen for a number of years."

Lotus trackside operations director Alan Permane reckoned the competitive picture in F1 was much less clear than it had been for several years.

"I would say it is very difficult to predict," he said. "Normally by this stage we have got kind of an idea, but I don't think we know where we are."

Pirelli's motorsport director Paul Hembery predicts that engineers will get on top of understanding the tyres pretty quickly – but thinks the first few races could throw up some shocks.

"Martin Whitmarsh said we needed to give the teams a challenge, and if that happens then we will get some excitement – at least in the early season," he told AUTOSPORT.

"I think you have to remember the engineers in these teams are the best in the world and, while at the start of the year that may create, like we had at the start of the year, some challenges, as the year progresses they will work out the best way to manage the situation and it will equalise a little bit."

Ferrari's rivals are refusing to write off the team's chances of being a strong force in Formula 1 this year, despite its troubles in testing.

The Maranello-based outfit has not delivered the car it hoped to have for the start of the campaign, and technical director Pat Fry recently ruled out its chances of fighting for early podiums.

However, with Ferrari having still shown flashes of single-lap speed in the build-up to the campaign, and as it has huge resources to plot its recovery, the opposition are not discounting its prospects for 2012.

Lotus boss Eric Boullier, who saw his team deliver a race simulation run in the final test that would have seen it finish ahead of Fernando Alonso, told AUTOSPORT: "It is too early and we have seen Ferrari has a lot of resources, and are also very competent people - so you never know how it will be.

"I would be waiting for the development of the car, and it is not because of one race simulation where we were supposedly faster than them that we are going to beat them this season. We have to keep focused on our car and we have to do our best.

"For sure the package we have this year looks promising, but it is going to be very tough and we need to not miss any opportunity in the first races, because it is going to be tough to score points or take podiums."

He added: "Don't underestimate the capacity of Ferrari to react. They will be back."

Red Bull Racing team principal Christian Horner said about his predictions for the competitive order: "It will be all the usual suspects, so I don't think there will be any surprise to see McLaren looking strong.

"Ferrari, I think, are in better shape than people perceive. Mercedes look like they have made a bit of progress from last year, so I think it is going to be the usual protagonists up there."

Lotus trackside operations engineer Alan Permane said his outfit was not taking it for granted that Ferrari was behind.

"It is evident that it is all very close, so there will be places where some teams' cars are working better, or their set-up is better, and they will jump in there," he told AUTOSPORT.

"People have all said through winter testing, don't read anything into it, and now it is finished and everybody is trying to read everything into it. Until we get to Melbourne we won't know.

"We know Red Bull are going to be there, we know McLaren are going to be there, where the rest of us are? Who knows?

"Ferrari do look like they are struggling, we did the race distance with Fernando and he was slightly quicker, but they did an extra stop. We could have done that too, but we did a very long stint on the hard tyres just so we could see what would have happened, and if we had stopped we would have been another three or four seconds up the road, so we were pleased with that.

"I don't know where Ferrari are going to be. I would love to say we are going to be in front of them, but I think that is probably too optimistic because if they are struggling now then they will not be struggling for long."

Force India team boss Vijay Mallya is confident his squad's new VJM05 will take it a step further up the field this year, describing the car as the 'best engineered' design from the team so far.

Paul di Resta and Nico Hulkenberg will drive for Force India this season, with Ferrari protege Jules Bianchi as reserve. The team finished sixth in last year's standings.

"Our testing form has looked competitive, but it's only when we get to the first race that we really get a feel for the pecking order and how well everyone has done over the winter," said Mallya.

"From our side there is no doubt that Andrew Green and his technical team have done an outstanding job to deliver a well-balanced car. I would even go as far as saying the VJM05 is the best engineered car we have produced and the detail of the design is beautiful. It's a car we believe can help us take another step forward."

Mallya expects fireworks between rising star drivers di Resta and Hulkenberg this year, and reckons that will spur the team on.

"Driver-wise I'm extremely excited by our line-up this year," he said. "Nico and Paul are both young and hungry, and will ensure we squeeze every last thousandth from the car.

"There will be some healthy in-house rivalry, too, which will be fascinating to watch, and I believe that we will get better results in the long run by having two drivers pushing each other on."

Marussia believes flashes of speed from its new MR01 over the Australian Grand Prix weekend will be enough for it to feel its season is back on track, as it bids to put the troubles of the past few weeks behind it.

With the outfit having missed its chance to join pre-season testing because of a failed crash test, it openly admits that it will face an uphill battle to get on top of reliability issues in the opening flyaway races.

However, with hopes high that the new MR01 is a big step forward over its 2011 car, team chiefs are seeking immediate confirmation that it could be on course for its best season in F1

Graeme Lowdon, Marussia's chief executive officer, told AUTOSPORT in Melbourne ahead of the first race of the season: "This is a really crucial weekend for us. We came here last year knowing our car did not have peak performance but we knew it was going to be reliable, and if we had a steady race then we could pick up a good result. And we were on track for that last year, until we had a pitstop problem.

"This year, I think it will be a real challenge to finish these early races because it is a step into the unknown in terms of reliability. But if we see some idea of performance in the sessions at the back end of this week, that will be a massive boost. It is a long season after that!"

Lowdon says that the approach of the team, which raced under the Virgin banner for the past two seasons, is totally different as it heads into 2012.

"We are looking at the longer game now," he said. "There was a lot of complicated surgery taking place at the back end of last year with building up the technical structure, so I think as far as these first flyaways are concerned it is more a case of us understanding the car and seeing where things are at. Without any questions last year, when we knew we were going to be in for a difficult year, it was so important that we tried to pick up any opportunity from the early races we could.

"But there is a different mindset now. We are looking at the bigger picture. We are looking much more at making sure we have the platform to build performance wise."

Team principal John Booth reckons that the outfit should be targeting getting its car in to Q2 later in the campaign - especially when its first ever windtunnel updates come through for the start of the European season.

"I will still maintain that Q2 has to be goal," he said. "It is tough, and we are not underestimating how tough it is. That is the first step, and the first recognisable step for any of the three [newest] teams."

Marussia chiefs have backed Bernie Ecclestone's idea of returning to the concept of a budget cap in Formula 1 - but they think a move to customer cars would be a step too far.

With the then Virgin team having originally entered F1 under budget cap rules, it has found its chances of making progress hampered by the high costs still so prevalent in the sport.

However, with Ecclestone now suggesting that teams may need to be saved from themselves by a budget cap, Marussia CEO Graeme Lowdon thinks such a move would be great for every team – not just his own.

"The attraction for us as a team coming into F1, was that if the rules had not changed and the resources you can employ are limited, then there should be some reward for ingenuity and being clever," he told AUTOSPORT.

"But if this is the international championship of spending, then most teams are not equipped to excel in that field, and it is not clever – nor very relevant to the business world our sponsors live in. So anything that promotes cost control is a good thing."

Team principal John Booth backed the cost control move – but is sceptical over whether move to customer cars would be sensible.

"Cost control and a fairer distribution of the wealth will be a much better way of closing the field up and making the race exciting than the other idea that has been put forward of buying one-year old [customer] cars," he explained. "It sounds like a great idea but it has not been thought well through very well.

"If we went out and bought a Red Bull from last year – then that will be quicker than eight or 10 cars on the grid. Your Toro Rossos or Force Indias – who have done a great job with their cars – will suddenly find themselves shuffled down the grid. So unless there are 24 Red Bulls, it will not work."

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Sebastian Vettel has warned his rivals that he is still hungry for more success in Formula 1, as he bids to secure a third consecutive world championship title.

On the eve of the opening race of 2012 in Australia this weekend, Vettel says that his dominance of last year has not dimmed his desire for victory - and that he will get upset if he is not winning again this time out.

"My target was always to win the world championship, and after winning the first world championship it is a great relief in many ways because you have proven to yourself that you can do it – which is more important than anything else as it is something that no one can take from you," he said during a Red Bull promotional event on St. Kilda beach on Wednesday.

"All in all it is a great relief but that doesn't mean that you don't care what happens next. It is the opposite – you know it all starts again, everyone starts from zero again and you want to do it again naturally.

"So I have never had to ask myself the question, do I want this again or why am I here? Nothing has changed. I am still hungry, and I am still getting upset when there is someone else beating me – which is a good thing for sure.

"Everyone will get beaten one day, and it is not about that particular day but how you come back. There is nothing wrong with losing, but we have a lot of races and the one who is most consistent and on average the best one deserves to win the world championship."

Vettel has echoed the views of many of his rivals in saying the competitive picture of F1 is unclear right now – and he says he is not foolish enough to believe that more success can be taken for granted.

"It will be completely immature to believe that nothing ever goes wrong," he said. "I think from what I have seen so far, and what I have had to go through so far, I should be smart enough to know that it doesn't always go your way.

"To be honest, it didn't in the last couple of years and if you look at last year, for sure we had a great season but even there we had races where I think we could have done better, and other races where we should have done better. That is life in a way.

"You never know what is going to happen but, to be honest, it would be pretty boring if we did. I think not even half the people would be here, to make the effort to fly out and see what is going happen if we already knew [the result] before.

"That is the great thing and in particular this year, where you don't really know where you are, it looks as if all the teams are very close to each other – so there might be a couple of surprises. Lotus was very strong in the test so we have to wait – but only a couple more days, and then we know a lot more."

And although Vettel signed off his pre-season testing programme with a frustrating last day in Barcelona where he was hindered by a gearbox problem, he insists the reliability issues are not worrying him ahead of the first race.

"We would have loved to do a bit more on the last day, but reliability I think is not disastrous to be honest with you. It might look worse than it is," he said.

"Obviously you have to understand it is a new car and it's winter testing, when you have a problem or some numbers start to go a little bit somewhere you don't like then you obviously stop as a precaution, and you check the car – and that takes time. You have to take the floor off or certain parts of the car off to have a look, to get to them.

"It is not that easy, so you lose track time which is a shame but that is how it is. All in all we would have loved to do more laps but I think the issues we had we found always a solution and pretty quickly, but obviously you cannot react on the same day.

"Here we should be all set and we see how we get on. But like every year, cars are built on the limit and you try to get a little bit more, especially with the regulations staying very similar. You try to push the boundaries a little bit more and that is F1 – cars are built on the limit and they do also break from time to time."

Mark Webber believes Red Bull Racing is in 'good shape' with its car ahead of the first race of the campaign - but says there is little point in talking up his chances of success in 2012.

Although the team only ran its definitive Melbourne-specification car for the final two days of pre-season testing, Webber feels positive about the progress his outfit has made over the winter.

"Yep, we are in good shape," he said during a promotional event for Red Bull in Melbourne.

"We believe it is going in the right direction, but it only takes two or three tenths of a second and we need to do more. Let's see when the gloves are off over the weekend, and then still we need to go to Malaysia to see a slightly different track as well because Melbourne is a specific place.

"But the guys have done a good job and we are looking forward to seeing if those upgrades are good. We will have on the car what we had in Barcelona. It is something that worked for us so we will keep it on the car."

Webber reiterated that his winter preparations were better this time around than 12 months ago – and he thinks he is about to head into a strong campaign.

"We have a sensational season ahead of us," he said. "There is no guarantee, but I feel there are going to be some really, really good moments this year. There will be some headwinds, that is normal, and over a long season things can happen to the drivers where we have to deal with adversity here and there.

"That is part of competing at this level and any top sport, but I am bloody excited about the whole season and looking forward to doing some fantastic results."

However, he admitted that there was no point shouting too much about what he can achieve.

"I can tell you what we have done, talk street and say awesome things we are going to do, but we have to go and do it. It has to be done."

Webber also said that he was not thinking about his future plans beyond this year, with him remaining on his rolling one-year contract.

"It's been the same since 2005, and I've done alright since then," he said. "I have achieved some amazing things in the last few years which I am proud of, and if I am sitting here with a two-year contract I wouldn't feel any different.

"I still want to perform. I am not going to say, I've got a two year contract and I will just cruise around and get serious next year. I don't even think about the contract to be honest – I think about results and performing. That is the most important thing, as it has been for the last few years.

"Contracts take care of themselves. If you are not good enough, get out. If you are getting the results, you stay on."

Ferrari team boss Stefano Domenicali is adamant Ferrari "will be in the fight" when the season kicks off in Australia this weekend.

Although the Italian conceded the Maranello squad has not reached its pre-season goals in terms of performance, he insists the situation is far from clear ahead of the first race of the season.

Despite the difficult pre-season, Domenicali says his team must wait to see where it stands once the racing gets underway.

And the team boss says Ferrari will continue to be focused on improving its form whether it starts the season strongly or not.

"Everyone is eager to get going with a new challenge," said Domenicali on Ferrari's website. "It's going to be a very long season and, at least as far as see it, a very unpredictable one: there are many teams who look like being in the hunt, especially in the early stages.

"We arrive in Australia knowing we have not reached our goals in terms of performance for a variety of reasons, which we have discussed at length over the past few days. However, I wish to repeat what I said before, we still need to wait a few days before knowing where we stand in relation to the others.

"I'm convinced that we will be in the fight and we will be there right to the end. I said the same thing at the end of last season: if we happen to do well in the first race, we will not be making a show of ourselves, just as we must not feel downhearted if we are not competitive at the highest level.

"All we must do is stay focussed on the job of developing the car. The championship does not end until the end of November, which is something we should never forget."

Fernando Alonso has urged his Ferrari team to not lose the belief that it can still deliver strong results this year - despite expectations of a difficult start to the campaign.

Ferrari is bracing itself for a tough time at this weekend's Australian Grand Prix, with technical director Pat Fry warning at the final test that he did not expect the team to be able to fight for a podium finish.

But despite the low expectations and a difficult winter testing programme, Alonso has faith that Ferrari can recover.

"We have to stay cool and calm and take one step at a time, starting with the race in Melbourne, where we will get an initial impression," Alonso told the official Ferrari website.

"Once we know where we stand, then we can set ourselves more precise targets. One thing's for sure, with the will to win that inhabits everyone at Ferrari and with the history we have behind us, we feel a responsibility to do well: for us, for our fans and for our partners and that goes for all of us. We must all pull together to reach this target."

Alonso says that his confidence that Ferrari can sort itself out is based on the fact that it knows exactly where its car is under-performing.

"We definitely still need to improve a lot, working on our understanding of the F2012, adapting my driving style to a new car which, with the loss of aerodynamic downforce at the rear and the new Pirelli tyres, is a bit harder to drive," he said.

"We know in which direction we need to go in terms of car development and that's an important step. Sure, we will have to grit our teeth for the first few races, but first of all, we have to see exactly where we are in terms of being competitive and then give our all to bring home as many points as possible in this early stage of the championship.

"I know the fans always expect to hear me say that we can obtain such and such a result, but the truth is that we cannot say with certainty where we are. We must wait until Saturday evening at six, after qualifying and a bit longer still, until after this first run of races outside Europe."

Pirelli's aggressive choice of tyre compounds this year will open up the possibility of more varied strategies from teams, reckons Lotus trackside operations director Alan Permane.

With Pirelli's range of tyres being much closer together in performance this year, there is less chance of outfits all opting for the same tactics as happened on numerous occasions in 2011.

Furthermore, the 2012-specification tyres are very sensitive to how they are treated in the early stages of their life - with degradation being much higher if the tyre is pushed very hard on its first lap.

Permane thinks that those characteristics will make for better racing – because teams will have more opportunity to use clever strategy.

"We have a nicer situation this year where we have tyres that are not as far apart lap time wise," Permane told AUTOSPORT. "In degradation terms, whereas last year we had tyres that were very wide apart on lap time and with the same degradation, these are closer and the hard tends to degrade less.

"So you have probably got an opportunity to use them strategically, whereas last year you had to put softs on and then use the hard one right at the end."

Permane says teams have paid careful attention to the degradation levels of the tyres – and how they react to being over-used early in a stint.

"You can see in testing people went out doing race distances and for the first two, three or four laps the times were very similar – but then they [the tyres] started going away," he said.

"But when people put on new tyres to do set-up work, the tyres seemed to go away very quickly when you really try and hit the first lap. So if you do that in the race you will kill them for sure.

"You would just get a huge step in degradation, but there is no doubt that no matter how much you look after them, you can only make them consistent for two or three laps and then they take a step."

Permane thinks that the nature of the tyres means teams will have to concentrate much more on ensuring their race set-up is spot on – rather than focusing on eking out performance for a single lap.

"If you qualify well you tend to race with the pack you are with. But having said that, with high degradation you absolutely want a good race car, so at the moment if I had to put my money on it I would say concentrate on the race, and maybe sacrifice a qualifying position."

The Lotus F1 team has announced a three-year partnership deal with Microsoft Dynamics, a division of the software giant.

The deal begins with immediate effect and will see the Microsoft Dynamics branding feature both on the Lotus E20 car and on the drivers' overalls.

As part of the agreement, Microsoft Dynamics staff will work directly with the team to implement its solutions.

"Lotus F1 Team is extremely proud to have attracted Microsoft Dynamics as a business and sponsorship partner," said Lotus F1 CEO Patrick Louis.

"We are entering an exciting phase in the development of our business model as we move from our recent change management period to a 'global business transformation' process. Microsoft Dynamics will be a crucial enabler for our objectives.

"This association will help Lotus F1 Team to become comprehensively process and KPI driven, enabling our "smart" approach towards Formula 1."

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Mercedes' hopes of delivering on its strong winter testing form have received a boost, with the FIA confirming ahead of the Australian Grand Prix that a radical wing concept the team has pioneered is fully legal.

The Brackley-based outfit stirred up interest from its rivals throughout pre-season testing with its W03 featuring its own version of a rear-wing F-duct concept - that some suspected was activated by vents being opened when the upper wing elements moves during DRS activation.

It is understood that rival teams queried the legality of such a system – which vents the air through the endplates and in to the main plane, to help stall the wing and boost straight-line speed – with the FIA.

However, despite the way the system effectively makes use of driver movement when he activates the DRS, the FIA has no doubts that it complies with the regulations.

When asked by AUTOSPORT to clarify the situation, the head of the FIA's F1 technical department Charlie Whiting said: "Some teams are questioning it on the basis that they thought F-ducts were banned. Well, F-ducts are not banned.

"At the end of 2010 everyone was using driver operated F-ducts and the regulations that were changed specifically banned the use of driver movement to influence the aerodynamic performance of the car – that got rid of that generation of so-called F-ducts.

"At the beginning of last year, with engineers being unable to unlearn things, they wanted to try and get the effect via different means, and they talked about opening and closing a duct by having interaction with the suspension. We said no, you cannot do that because that is not the primary purpose of the suspension system – which is to insulate the car from undulations in the road.

"There was then a lengthy discussion in the TWG at the beginning of last year about that, to make sure everyone was clear about it. It seems a couple of teams went away from that meeting with the impression that F-ducts were banned in general. Whatever an F-duct is. But they are not."

Whiting would not reveal further details of how the Mercedes system works, but said that he viewed it as completely passive.

"What it appears some teams are doing is that when the DRS is operated, it will allow air to pass into a duct and do other things," he explained.

"That is all I can say – you will probably have a pretty good idea of what it might be doing, and other teams will as well. But it is completely passive. There are no moving parts in it; it doesn't interact with any suspension. No steering, nothing. Therefore I cannot see a rule that prohibits it."

Red Bull Racing team principal Christian Horner believes all of Mercedes' rivals will now be forced to copy its DRS-assisted rear wing F-duct, now that the FIA has confirmed it is happy with the concept.

Although some of Mercedes' rivals were unsure about the legality of the device, which helps boost straight-line speed even more when DRS is activated, the FIA's Charlie Whiting said on Thursday there were no issues.

And Horner, whose Red Bull Racing team is already well advanced in developing its own version, thinks that all teams must now invest in working on similar projects.

"I think the intent of the regulation was to eliminate the use of F-ducts," said Horner when asked by AUTOSPORT about the rear wing situation. "If a team has found a creative solution to circumnavigate that rule, then it is ultimately down to the FIA.

"Inevitably if a team has found a route around, then it is a route that other teams will have to follow - and obviously there is cost involved in that. The question [of legality] is better proposed to the FIA than to us, and we are not totally aware of what the other teams are doing at the moment."

Mercedes team principal Ross Brawn said he had no doubts that the design was completely within the regulations.

"We have a system and we don't believe there is anything contentious about it," he said when asked about it by AUTOSPORT. "Whether we are the first or not the first to have such a system I don't know. But what the system is, I am not going to explain.

"We are very comfortable with what we are doing, and everyone is looking to push the boundaries all the time. We will see over the next few months how it develops, but if teams feel it is an attractive idea that we have got, then it will proliferate on other cars. We don't see it anywhere else, or they've concluded it is not worth having - but I am not going to say what it is."

Brawn also said there was no way that F-ducts could have been banned, because there is no official definition of what one is.

"It is not a debate," he said. "What is an F-duct? People talk about an F-duct but I don't actually know what an F-duct is. And if you ask the FIA what is an F-duct they don't know. So, what we are doing we are completely comfortable and we believe the FIA is happy with, so we will see."

Ross Brawn believes it would be too optimistic to expect his Mercedes team to be fighting for race wins this season.

The team has enjoyed a much stronger pre-season than last year and is adamant it has taken a step forward compared to where it was in 2011.

Mercedes had a disappointing campaign last year, finishing without a podium.

But despite the improved form, Brawn said on Thursday that victories may still have to wait.

"I think that is a bit too optimistic," Brawn said about winning races. "I believe we have moved quite a long way in 12 months and we are much stronger team than we were 12 months ago. I wasn't comfortable at all with where we were 12 months ago.

"We hadn't achieved the things we wanted to achieve over the winter, we had a car that had some problems and we are in a much better position this year.

"We won't know until the first four races really where everybody sits. Melbourne can be a bit unusual, especially now it is an evening race tyre pressures and temperatures can be a little bit of an issue."

"We certainly have a much better platform, the things that we have been building over the last 12 to 18 months are starting to come to fruition.

Brawn insisted the team has the full backing from Mercedes, which he says understands that winning in Formula 1 will take time.

"I think one of the great things for me of being part of Mercedes is the experience and knowledge that the board, they understand that it's a building progress supported of course by Norbert," he said.

"They understand what's needed, you can't flick a switch overnight. You have to build things in the same way that you do in the automotive industry. You can't create a car as important as a Mercedes overnight, you have to build it.

"They have given us massive support to build the team that we need, and we are certainly in a better position than we were 12 months ago, probably not good enough yet, but a big step forward from where we were and we will continue to make those steps."

Mercedes motorsport boss Norbert Haug also downplayed the team's chances for this year, and suggested rival Ferrari is not struggling as much as people think.

"This is a building progress, it has taken two years and we know it will take longer, that is for sure and of course, should you make a bigger step you should like that, but it is not really realistic that you go from fourth to number one," said Haug.

"There is 6 cars ahead of us, very strong and have to say that I think Ferrari is not struggling like this is described right now like now, this is my judgement, this is my feeling.

"We have good testing, good mileage. We had good test days so we have prepared ourselves as well as possible and now we have to wait for the first four races to see where we are."

Ross Brawn says Lewis Hamilton will have learned from his time alongside Jenson Button and will fight back this year.

Brawn believes Hamilton, who endured a season of ups and down in 2011, needs to manage his performance better within the team in order to reach his potential.

"Lewis has raw speed," he said in Melbourne on Thursday.

"On his own admission he didn't have the best year last year, but I think he's intelligent enough to realise that didn't work out and to work to improve his own performance, because he has huge speed and huge talent."

The Mercedes team boss, who worked with Button in his championship-winning year, expects Hamilton to learn from Button's professionalism and focus after two years working together.

"I think with Jenson he has seen someone who is maybe not as ultimately quick as Lewis, but is able to apply himself more effectively and so that is a combination you have, and Jenson is a very intelligent guy. Don't get me wrong, very, very quick, but really focused on his racing."

He added: "He sets his car up well, is totally focused during practice and has the right priorities and that's a big help, I think Lewis can lean a lot from how Jenson works."

Brawn is upbeat about Hamilton's prospects in 2012 but expects him to continue to establish his own identity within the McLaren team.

"Lewis has to do his own thing and it'll be fascinating to see how he does this year, I think he'll do a great job."

Lewis Hamilton says he has no idea what to expect from the season-opening Australian Grand Prix this weekend.

The British McLaren driver, however, reckons Red Bull, plus Lotus, Mercedes and Ferrari are looking strong.

"I'm not expecting anything," Hamilton told reporters in Melbourne on Thursday.

"I would like that to be the case [to win] but we can't expect anything. Whatever the case we're going to be working as hard as we can to get to the top and do the best with what we have."

He added: I really, really don't know. When I look at all the data on long runs it looks like we are in the top three or four, in terms of our long run pace and our degradation.

"Again, I've not been on low fuel so I'm not sure if the others were or not. We'll find out most probably on Saturday but I'm expecting Lotus to be quite quick and I'm expecting Red Bull to be quick and I have a feeling Mercedes will be very fast and also Ferrari."

The Briton also expressed his belief that race strategies will not change at all this year, despite the introduction of new tyres that some of his rivals are expecting to offer more varied ways to go about the races.

"I think it'll be exactly the same. That's my opinion, but I might be wrong. I guess we'll find out. I think it'll be very much the same. I mean, in the long runs we were very similar to last year so I don't feel there will be any difference."

The McLaren driver endured a season full of ups and down in 2011 but says he is now in a happy place and ready to fight back.

"I'm happy to be here, and I still feel quite privileged to be here in F1, even seven years on, it's my sixth year in F1 and I'm still one of the very few drivers in the world that gets to do this job and it's just that I'm constantly having to pinch myself that I'm still here.

"Still living my dream and doing what I love doing. I'm very happy and in a good place."

Jenson Button feels he is in the perfect position to fight for a second title this season ahead of the Australian Grand Prix season-opener.

The 32-year-old Briton, who finished second in the points last year and was the team's strongest challenger for the drivers' title, said that having McLaren's belief behind him was a huge boon as he embarks on his 2012 campaign.

He also revealed that the bond he's formed with his McLaren engineers over the past two seasons is now as strong as it was with Brawn when he won the 2009 Formula 1 world championship.

"I couldn't be in a better place right now," said Button. "I think you grow in confidence the more the people around you and in the team believe in you, and for me that has been a big thing with McLaren.

"Arriving here I didn't really know what to expect but the atmosphere feels very good. It feels like when I won at Brawn - you build the team around you and you build towards a victory.

"I don't just turn up and drive the car, I do many other things as well. I'm working within the team and helping them move forward as a team. It's important for a driver these days."

Button remains unsure where McLaren stands compared to its rivals going into Melbourne, but shares the common view that the field has closed up since 2011.

With that in mind, he says that McLaren's strong record of developing a car through the season will have an impact on the championship's outcome.

"I think that is the main thing for us, we are very good at developing a car through a season and I'm sure other teams are too," he said. "It is not just going to be Red Bull [we'll be racing against]," he said. "They will be strong – they've had a good car for the last three years – but we are going to have to worry about Mercedes, Lotus and even the Saubers.

"It is like the second tier teams from last year are going to be fighting at the front and it's going to be a tough [first] few races for everyone. It is a very long season and it's about who can hold it together for the whole year and you would think the bigger teams are able to do that."

He added that starting well was another important target for McLaren – something that it has failed to achieve in recent seasons: "To start with a good car is key to fighting for the championship. Testing has been tough in terms of reading pace so we have just got our heads down and done our own thing. We feel that we have got a lot out of testing and we are in good shape coming here.

"You want to start with a good result and end with a good result, that's the only way to win a championship. If you have a couple of bad races somewhere it's very difficult to fight for it."

Force India has nominated Gary Paffett as its reserve driver for this weekend's Australian Grand Prix, because its regular incumbant Jules Bianchi is unavailable.

Bianchi is testing this week ahead of his campaign in the Formula Renault 3.5 championship, so Force India has asked Paffett to help fill in if required.

"I'm happy to be available for Sahara Force India for this weekend," said Paffett, who is also reserve driver for McLaren.

"Of course, it's unlikely that I will be called up and hopefully it won't happen, but it's nice to know that the team thought of me. I'd also like to thank McLaren and Mercedes for making me available should the need arise."

Fernando Alonso is not ruling out fighting in front of the field in Australia despite a difficult pre-season for Ferrari.

The Maranello squad has admitted it has not reached the targets set for winter testing with its F2012 car, but Alonso said on Thursday that does not mean Ferrari will be slower than its rivals when the racing kicks off.

"I'm confident. I'm very relaxed about the possibilities of our car," said Alonso during a Shell VPower promotional event on Thursday in Melbourne.

"I think the winter has been tough for us with so many tests to do. It's quite a complex car in terms of set-up and understanding it.

"Maybe we didn't reach our targets but it doesn't mean that we are slower than the other cars. That we will not know until Saturday.

"We want to be world champions in November, that's the ultimate target, and in Melbourne we need to have a good start. But we will find out how competitive we are on Saturday."

The Spaniard insisted he has full confidence that Ferrari will be fighting for victories eventually if the start of the season proves to be difficult.

"We will put all the best pieces together in Melbourne for the first time. In the winter tests you are always doing different programmes. I believe in this team. I trust this team completely and it will be a long championship and Ferrari will always be there."

Team-mate Felipe Massa conceded he was happy the waiting is over to see how strong Ferrari actually is.

"I hope we can see a competitive car, even more than we saw in the tests, which was not what we expected. Now we are going to get the answers," he said.

"We expected to be a little bit stronger, so we are waiting for the first race. Now we are going to stop talking and we'll see on track the real results. Testing is always testing and we'll see how it's going to be now."

Felipe Massa has urged Ferrari to fight as if it is competing for victory in this weekend's Australian Grand Prix, even if that proves beyond the capabilities of its 2012 car.

Ferrari has been at the centre of attention for its difficulties in pre-season testing, as it struggled to get to grips with the F2012.

But Massa has called on his team to approach the first race of the season in the same way it would if it had a frontrunning car, to make sure the Italian squad gets the most out of this weekend.

"We hear so many things that we are not going to fight for the podium here," Massa told reporters on Thursday. "Maybe not. But we need to try everything we can to fight for the podium, to fight for the victory, to fight for the best we can with this car.

"We need to be prepared for everything. It's important to find the right direction to develop this car in a quick way, race by race, week by week.

"I'm mentally prepared for a difficult start, but also mentally prepared for a good start. We prepare positively."

The Brazilian added that the difficulty of reading into winter testing still gave him some hope that Ferrari is not in as much trouble as it seemed during pre-season.

"We were not so happy with the tests, but last year we were very happy with the winter and then we arrived here and we were not happy," he said. "Not just here but the whole season.

"We always need to understand that many things are not clear in the tests. We did not a bad race simulation [at Barcelona], and when you look at that result you don't see that we are completely far away. But in testing you can only be sure of your own car.

"It's nice that we finish with the blah blah blah. On Saturday after qualifying we will have a clear picture, and after the race on Sunday we will know exactly how our car compares to the others."

Bruno Senna says he is heading into the new season more relaxed than he has been before in his Formula 1 career.

The Brazilian, who has previously raced for HRT and Renault, switched to the Williams team over the winter on the back of some strong race performances last year and the backing of sponsors.

And having had his first full pre-season testing programme, Senna says that he is much calmer about things now.

"I feel really excited," he said in Melbourne on Thursday. "Now it is less than a day to start driving, so the blood starts to boil and the heart starts to race.

"I think it is a very different beginning to everything I have done before in Formula 1, and I feel much more relaxed than I did the previous two times. But, at the same time, I feel much more excited because everything is a bit more straightforward I must say - so it is very interesting and I am looking forward to tomorrow."

Senna believes people will be better able to judge his potential this season now that he has enjoyed the same amount of testing mileage as his rivals.

"This is the first time I am going to have the same preparation as the other guys, and my pre-season has been very strong because we managed to do so many miles

"My car has been very reliable and that enabled me to conclude almost 100% of the test programme that we were supposed to do. Some things were not in there, but that is pretty common to have when you start with new engine, new systems and new team - and I think it has been great.

"We come here with as much experience as I could have in the short period of testing I have, and I think we can do a pretty reasonable job. The consistency has been pretty good and hopefully the reliability will give us the edge we need."

He added: "2010 was a very tough one, and I barely survived that, but last year was fairly good in fairness. It was important to show good potential to show some good strong performance, and that enabled me to be here now.

"Without the races I had last year I don't think I would be able to find a race seat, but this is really the first chance on a straightforward position for people to assess me, and if I can show the strong showings from last year, consistently, then it could be a good long career."

Paul di Resta believes that the midfield teams in Formula 1 are under more pressure this year because the competitive spread of the grid has closed up.

One of the trends to come out of winter testing appears to be a much closer spread between most of the teams, with very little to choose between those in the middle of the pack in particular.

Di Resta's Force India team worked its way towards the front of the midfield with a very strong finish to 2011, but the Scot believes that the competition will be even fiercer in that battle than it was last year.

"I do believe it will be more bunched up, and everybody will need to raise their game," di Resta told reporters in the Melbourne paddock.

"I think what we'll see is that if someone is having a very good weekend there will be a bigger benefit [than would have been the case in 2011], and if someone's having a bad weekend they'll be in more trouble.

"I think it's been a difficult year to read [in testing]. We'll see where we are Saturday afternoon, but it looks a lot tighter, so it's crucial to get everything right."

The former DTM champion has also urged his team to carry its momentum from the end of last year into the new campaign.

"As a team I think we have massively moved on, and you can see that from the performances we had from mid-season onwards last year," he said. "But it doesn't get any easier.

"This is a big year for the team. We've got to see where we are after where we left off in 2011. Coming into this race, if we can score points it would be a box ticked."

Jean-Eric Vergne says he is not putting any pressure on himself ahead of his grand prix debut in Australia this weekend.

The Frenchman, the 2010 British F3 champion, is making his race debut in Formula 1 machinery in Melbourne after having secured a deal with the Toro Rosso team.

Vergne conceded he was still finding it hard to believe he is an F1 driver and says he will treat his debut as any other race.

"I don't believe it, and I don't want to believe it," Vergne said on Thursday in Melbourne.

"I want to take it like a normal race, except with an F1 car in my hands. It's great to be here in Melbourne for my first grand prix.

"I don't put any pressure on myself. I will try to learn as much as possible and take the race as it comes."

He says he is not focused on beating team-mate Daniel Ricciardo this weekend, but rather on doing the best possible job for his team.

"I haven't set any targets for myself. I will drive the car as quick as I can and then we will see where we are. It makes no sense to me to say that I will start behind him or ahead of him.

"I just take it easy, drive fast, try to make the car better and in qualifying try to be as quick as possible."

And the 21-year-old Frenchman admitted it was hard to say where Toro Rosso stands, although he believes it will be involved in the tight battle in the midfield.

"I think it's quite hard to see where we are compared to the others. I think we are pretty similar with Sauber, Williams, Force India. Some might be a little bit quicker, some may be a little bit slower. We have to wait until Malaysia or China to get a better idea."

HRT has requested a delay to the scrutineering of Pedro de la Rosa's car until Friday morning, while it continues to work on completing its second chassis.

The Spanish outfit lodged a request with the Australian Grand Prix race stewards on Thursday to be allowed to delay scrutineering of car number 22, with the FIA duly agreeing for it to be examined before 11am.

HRT only managed to shake down one of its cars at Barcelona last week during a filming day, before shipping its contenders to Melbourne for the first race of the campaign.

De la Rosa's car will need to go through scrutineering before it will be allowed to take part in practice.

Argentina is on the verge of securing its return to the Formula 1 calendar, the country's president said on Wednesday.

Cristina Fernandez said the country has agreed a three-year deal that will see grand prix racing return to the South American nation from 2013.

She said the race will be hosted at a circuit in seaside resort Mar del Plata, 400 km from Argentina's capital Buenos Aires. There is currently no circuit in Mar del Plata.

The race, Fernandez said, will take place at the end of November from the 2013 season.

"We are closing [the deal]," Fernandez said. "For three years, in 2013, 2014 and 2015 in the city of Mar del Plata.

"For us it will be very important because after football, racing is the second favourite sport for Argentineans. Getting Formula 1 back to Argentina is something we deserve in order to be able to show the things we have."

Argentina, which hosts the Dakar rally and a round of the World Rally Championship, last hosted a Formula 1 grand prix back in 1998 in Buenos Aires.

Thursday's press conference:

DRIVERS - Charles PIC (Marussia), Kimi Raikkonen (Lotus), Daniel RICCIARDO (Toro Rosso), Jenson BUTTON (McLaren), Sebastian VETTEL (Red Bull), Mark WEBBER (Red Bull).

PRESS CONFERENCE

Q. Charles, it's looking like a pretty tough initiation for you into Formula One with no testing of the new car, brand new car tomorrow. Tell us what your thoughts are.

Charles PIC: Yes, we have had not so much driving but we made an ad day in Silverstone for the shakedown and everything went fine. So looking forward to tomorrow and hopefully it will be dry to have some kilometres.

Q. Charles, how important has it been to have the mileage in the old car?

CP: Yeah, very important. I made two days in Barcelona. We were able to make many laps so it was just great for me. It was very, very helpful.

Q. Was it a big step up from GP2 to Formula One?

CP: Yes, of course, you have much more things to do and you have to understand in a very short space of time.

Q. Kimi, welcome back. How much has Kimi changed in the two years that you've been doing WRC? And how much has your driving changed during that time?

Kimi RAIKKONEN: Oh, I don't know really. I don't think a lot, a little bit older, that's all. It's the same really.

Q. Has it been good to be back in a Formula One car again?

KR: Yeah, it was nice. It really hasn't changed a lot, the car feels pretty similar, the tyres are slightly different but I was expecting to have more difficulties with them but they seem pretty good, especially when they are new – but of course they will wear out a bit faster but it's been nice to drive.

Q. We've seen pretty good pace from you and Romain Grosjean your team-mate, how real is that pace?

KR: We could probably have gone a bit faster if we wanted but I don't know what the others are doing. The car feels good, the lap time at least in testing was OK – whether it's enough we will see over the weekend and over the next races but so far it has been OK.

Q. Daniel, obviously your home race, how big is this race? Was your first Formula One race bigger or is this it?

Daniel RICCIARDO: I think the first one last year in Silverstone was still pretty hectic. I think not having the preparation as I have at the start of this year probably made it a bit more intense. I've had a lot of media attention the last couple of days but I think the on-track stuff was, or will be, more intense in Silverstone. But yeah, I understand what Mark means about the attention here. It's pretty full-on but it's been nice, really supportive. And hopefully I'll just get out on track and do a good job over the weekend.

Q. You're obviously with a new team with Scuderia Toro Rosso and in testing it looked as if it's pretty good, certainly the first test looked pretty good, perhaps less so since then. What are your feelings about the team?

DR: It's a good opportunity for me this year, it's progress from last year and we'll be fighting further up the grid. I think it's hard to know where we are. From what I see the top teams are still going to be more or less the top teams or at least the top two or three but the midfield does seem a bit more tight. So yeah, I think everyone showed signs of potential but until Saturday qualifying and Sunday racing we probably won't know where we all really stand. But I think realistically we're still in the group we were in last year but it does seem like it's closed up. So there's probably more opportunity to leapfrog a few.

Q. Mark, your 11th Australian Grand Prix – just to remind you if you didn't know – and also of course you were the winner of the last grand prix as well, though it was some time ago, how are you feeling coming into this one?

Mark WEBBER: Good, yeah! We had a pretty good winter, the team worked incredibly hard so we need to see how it's going to unveil this weekend obviously, and then Malaysia is just around the corner, so we have two big races, we're going to get a really good snapshot of the performances of the cars, and we feel like we've done pretty well but we have McLaren and Ferrari and Lotus and Mercedes, lots of good guys doing well so it's going to be very exciting and difficult to see who's going to do the business until we get going.

Q. As an honest opinion, is it nervousness or excitement or apprehension – how do you start a new season like this?

MW: Probably a little bit of all of that. I think there's a little bit of rust in all the teams, obviously we haven't raced for a while so you're looking at pit stops and strategy and drivers because we haven't competed for a while. So, that's always interesting to get on top of that at the first grand prix. I think we're all just looking forward to getting our helmets on and getting on with it now. Obviously we've been talking about it for nine weeks now, about who's doing what and we're just sick of talking about it and want to get out there and get on with it.

Q. Sebastian, a previous winner here and twice on pole. How much emphasis has there been in testing on qualifying pace? We get the feeling that we haven't seen qualifying pace in testing and yet I would have thought for you it was very important last year in the races that you won.

Sebastian VETTEL: I think, no doubt, qualifying is always very important. It's usually easier when you start from the front so yeah, I think generally as the other drivers said already it was difficult to read testing one hundred per cent – so we've got a feeling: first of all it's important to have a good feeling about yourself, about the car, how you feel in the car. We were quite happy with that, surely it didn't always go to plan but overall we can be happy and as I said it's unknown at this stage what is going to happen. It's good to finally be here and only a couple of days before we really find out.

Q. When is going to be the first indication? Very often people say 'you won't know until Melbourne' and then we get to Melbourne and they say 'wait until qualifying' or then it's the race. When exactly is it?

SV: It's the same again. I think nothing has changed to be honest. Now, we say after qualifying we will know a bit more and surely then you need to see. This is the first race, there are many more to come. This track is very different to, let's say, a 'normal' race track, such as the track we have been to a couple of weeks ago in Barcelona. So, tomorrow we will not know that much more regarding the pace. Surely the guys who will be on top will be the ones to beat. Again, we will give you the same answers. You don't know about fuel etc. Really, we have to wait until Saturday and then it's the first couple of races that will show you a trend. Sooner than that is really not possible.

Q. Quite a lot has been made about you chasing a third title. Have you thought about that at all?

SV: I'm here to win the championship, so that's the target. Whether it's the third or not wouldn't make a difference. Well, it would but... it would be a nice thing but as I said the reason we're here is to race and to win and the season is long, so there are a lot of races to come.

Q. Jenson, like Sebastian and Kimi you've won here before, you've had two wins actually. You made your debut here as well. What are your feelings about the Australian Grand Prix?

Jenson BUTTON: First of all, I think it's exciting for us all to start a new season. You do all the hard work over the winter of testing and what have you, and I think we all get very excited about coming to the first race in Melbourne. It's the perfect place to start the F1 season. It's good to be here. I've always enjoyed driving around Albert Park from the first time I drove here, and there have been a couple of special occasions for me, in '09 and 2010. It's nice to be back and nice to come here having had a good winter as well. The last couple of years have been a little bit tricky for us over the winter but this winter everything seems to have gone to plan. It's difficult to know where we stand, as everyone has said, but I'm happy with what we've done.

Q. And at least you're going to hit the ground running at the start?

JB: We hope so, yes. You know, everyone always says it's important to get points on the board at the start of the year. We all know that, it's not a new thing.

Q. What do you think about having two DRS zones here this year?

JB: I think it's great. If you have a good DRS system it's good for you and ours is pretty good. You always think that if you're quick enough you don't want DRS because you're leading the race but if you're a little bit further back in the pack it's good to have two zones. Whether it's going to make much of a difference I don't know. The one DRS zone here (last year) was… some of us complained that it wasn't good enough to overtake but I think it was the right amount. It made overtaking tricky, which is what it should be, but it gave you the opportunity. So we'll have to wait and see what the two zones do.

QUESTIONS FROM FLOOR

Q. (Simon Cass – Daily Mail) For the three guys who've won the world title up to now. Could you just tell me who your grand prix hero is? And Kimi, if you decide you want to say you still haven't got a hero, then could just tell me who you admired when you were coming up through the ranks?

SV: Kimi to start!

KR: I still don't have one! Of course, I was hoping for good results for Finns but I didn't really… it didn't make any difference who won it then. There wasn't one guy I hoped for or was looking up to so… SC: Nice try…

JB: Do you still want ours or not?

SV: Obviously, when I was growing up, and I think similar to a lot of kids at that age in Germany, we were admiring Michael [schumacher]. He was our hero, he was my hero. I had posters of him on my wall. And when I got a bit older I took them off and put some other posters on the wall, but anyway… So I was looking up to Michael but there have been and there are a lot of great drivers. For sure for me Michael is one of them.

JB: For me, it was a little bit earlier than Michael. For me it was Ayrton [senna] and Alain [Prost] back in the early '80s, because that's when I started watching Formula One, at seven or eight years old. Obviously 'Our Nige' [Nigel Mansell] has got to be up there, just for the moustache more than anything else. But yeah, it's difficult. Those are the guys I watched when I was younger. I suppose you get some inspiration from them and you want to be like them in the future. That's obviously a lot of our aims.

Q. (Fulvio Solms – Corriere dello Sport) A question for Kimi. In this your second career, what do you bring from your experience at Ferrari?

KR: I don't think this is my second career. I've been racing all the time, just in a different thing. I've been racing at a few different teams and all the teams run a slightly different way, mainly because they are all different nationalities, but you always learn from all the people and all of the teams and I have good memories, most of the time, of the teams. I try to get things in the team how I know I like it and I'm very happy with the team, they've been great people to work with – easygoing, no real need to change anything, and just if you like to do something differently, they're happy to try to do it that way and it's just been a good experience.

Q. Paolo Ianieri (La Gazzetta dello Sport) Kimi, in 2007, when you started your first race with Ferrari, you won here; it was quite a big surprise. In winter testing, you have been very fast and many people have been saying you could be the surprise here this year as well. Do you think this is something we can expect, or are you ruling that out?

KR: Like I said before, I have no idea where we are going to be. We had a good winter, it could have been better but hopefully we are fast. We will know during the weekend but I think that many teams will be fast so… Are we going to be in the front? I don't know, we hope we are going to be but let's wait and see.

Q. (Julien Febreau – L'Equipe) For all of you: what do you think about the new noses of Formula One cars, from the onboard point of view and as a viewer? Is it a shame for TV viewers or spectators?

JB: Ours looks great.

MW: You can't see the nose from the cockpit so it doesn't matter if it's last year or this year, you can't see it. Honestly. You laugh, but you can't see it so it doesn't really matter. Even if the front wing is not on the car we can't see it so… we're very low in the car as I found out in Monza last year. The looks? Yeah, they look ugly, for sure. That's disappointing. Adrian (Newey) always make beautiful cars. I still think ours looks better than the McLaren but the McLaren looks nice but we will see which one gets the most champagne. It's an ugly regulation but that's the way most of the teams have gone.

Q. (Livio Oricchio – O Estado de Sao Paulo) This isn't a new completely new question but it would be interesting to hear from you about the regulations regarding your positioning on the track. You can change position once but when you come back to your original position, you must leave room for your competitor. Will it be easy to judge that, and for you, the drivers, how can you manage it?

SV: I think generally with this whole rule debate, whatever, I don't think anything has changed, to be honest. Yes, there's a little bit more in writing but I always found that there's a code of honour, if you like, or a gentlemen's agreement. If you're racing someone, I think you are allowed to race him hard but you should always give him enough room. Surely, here and there you might disagree but I think most of the time it has worked and people raced fairly against each other, so I don't see that the rule will change much, to be honest. It's not natural to… you're not racing to push someone off. You're trying to defend your position if someone tries to overtake and equally, you're trying to overtake if someone tries to defend, then you at least expect to have enough (room) to survive.

JB: I don't think anything's changed for us. We had that rule last year anyway, it just wasn't in writing, but it's the case for us for a couple of years now.

Q. (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Kimi, you have come here with many new cars. Compared to 2004, let's say, McLaren, 2009, Ferrari, is this better or worse? How do you feel?

KR: Usually you have a new car here every year, so it's not a big surprise. I don't know, it's different tyres, the car feels very similar in the test to what I remember in the past. You have DRS, it's just a button that you push, it doesn't really change the driving itself a lot. It feels similar, I don't have very good things to compare, really, because it's a few years since I last drove a Formula One car. It doesn't feel much different.

Q. (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport) We will have six World Champions in this year's championship but no Italian drivers. Most of you raced in Italy in go-karts or drove for an Italian team. May I have a short explanation about this situation, why it's so difficult for the Italians to grow up and come into Formula One?

MW: Daniel, yeah, exactly, Daniel. You have an Italian passport Daniel or not?

DR: (Speaks mock American-Italian!) If you watched Family Guy you probably know what I'm talking about. I see a lot of things as coincidence. I haven't been around long enough to know the reasons for it. Yeah, that's probably the way I'll see it. It's not like the Italian drivers are doing anything wrong. There are two Australians on the grid now, a few people from other countries and whatnot. I don't know the answer. I lived in Italy as well and raced there and the competition was always fierce and there were some Italian drivers at the top but there were also a lot of other European guys and whatnot. For me, it's probably more just coincidence. I don't know if there's any more intelligence behind it.

SV: When I was in karting and I raced in Italy it was always the toughest challenge to go to Italy and race the guys there but there were a lot of Italian drivers that I admired when I was young throughout the classes: in my class but also in the higher classes. I don't really understand… maybe it's the Italian industry not being open enough to spend money on young talents. I don't know. If I compare to Germany, generally I think you will have years when you have, I don't know, three German drivers, no French drivers, then four or five French drivers and no German drivers, five English drivers. So it changes. Last year we had complaints from French journalists that we didn't have a French driver. This year we have three French drivers in Formula One. This is how quickly it changes. It's a shame to see on one hand that there are a lot talents from Italy, young drivers. I remember a lot of guys I raced against. It was pretty impressive what they did but then not to see them in the junior categories in single-seaters, so throughout BMW, Formula Three and later on. The problem is that motor sport became – always has been – but lately became quite expensive, so you really need the support from early on. I think motorbikes are quite big in Italy and there's a lot of drivers from Italy in MotoGP for instance, but not necessarily in Formula One.

Q. (Adrian Rodriguez – Agencia EFE) Kimi, you've been in Formula One for many years and the last two years you've been watching from the outside; what do you like the best from Formula One and what is the worst for you?

KR: I didn't see much in the last few years so, like I said, it's the same people, similar stuff going on. In my mind, it hasn't really changed a lot. I have nothing really to comment on that.

Q. (Alex Popov - RTR) I just saw Daniel take a picture, I suppose it will be Tweeted. It is not as extreme as Brad Keselowski from the car during Daytona but… But Seb, why don't you Tweet? Come on!

SV: I don't like it. There are some good new technologies but I prefer to talk to people.

Q. (Livio Oricchio – O Estado de Sao Paulo) Kimi, if Formula One is so far from you that you didn't even watch the race, why did you come back?

KR: I had other things to do than watch the races. It doesn't mean that I don't like the sport. If I didn't like it, I wouldn't be here. I always liked the sporting and the racing but like I said, I was busy doing other stuff. I watched some races when I was home and it was on TV, but I didn't try to go to the TV and watch it somewhere, like it was something I had to do. I'm happy to be back, like I said, otherwise I wouldn't have come back but I like the racing in Formula One.

Q. (Wei An Mao – La Vie Creative) I would like to ask all of you if you like Melbourne and do you think it's important to keep Australia on the calendar?

MW: Of course, yes. I think it's in the top three on the calendar. I think that we should work hard to keep it here. I don't think there's many people who don't like coming here. Of course the flight's a little bit long but once you're here it's a pretty good place. It's a very well organised event. It's one of the few events where Bernie actually trusts the organisation to have lots of different categories racing in amongst the Formula One schedule, which you can hear now on Thursday and there's still stuff going on. It's the same on Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Definitely one of the best events of the year, so we need to keep the best events because not all the races we go to are like this.

SV: I think it's a great race like Mark said. Obviously it's his home Grand Prix but I think that for most of us Australia is far away but it's definitely part of the calendar and should always be. I think the people here are very enthusiastic about racing, very passionate and I think it needs Formula One. It's a great place to be and I'm looking forward to being here but also to come back in the future.

JB: Yup. I totally agree. This is the best place to start the season, it really is. I heard of talk of it possibly being somewhere else in Australia – I don't know if that is true – but personally I love Melbourne. I think it's a great way to start the season. The circuit's obviously very different to most circuits we drive - it's a street circuit – but it's a lot of fun, I've had some good years here.

CP: Yes, for me, it was the first time here in Melbourne and in Australia, very nice city, very nice parks to do some sport in, and a very nice track, so it's all very nice and I'm looking forward to driving the track tomorrow. MR: It's a nice place to come, nice race usually, exciting races, things happen and hopefully it stays. As Mark says, it's a bit far away to come but once you're here it's OK.

DR: Yeah, of course, I'm all for it. Yeah, any excuse to come back to your home country but to have a race here is amazing. I think it's a great city. I've spent quite a few years racing karts here as a kid, so it was always a nice event to come to Melbourne. I did drive the track last year in P1. I thought the circuit was very good as well. I'm a fan of street circuits, it's bumpy, it's close to walls, it's got good character, so there's a lot reasons why it should stay. Now that I've given Mark some support on the Australian front, hopefully it will stay a bit longer.

Q. (Matt Coch – pitpass) Following the track thread a bit, you guys have all had long careers and driven on a number of different circuits. If you could pick one circuit, taking the event out of equation, just picking one circuit, what's your favourite track – ever?

JB: Wow, that's a tough one. Obviously you'd look at most on the F1 calendar for your best track. For me I love the fast flowing circuits, I think we all do, like Spa or Suzuka but also circuits on other calendars. Macau is crazy to drive in an F3 car, good experiences there. And some other circuits in karting. It's difficult to pick one.

CP: For me, I think it's Nurburgring and Barcelona.

KR: Spa

DR: I think that out of the F1 calendar I think Macau as well. I would definitely vote to race an F1 around there. I think it would be awesome.

MW: Spa

SV: I've got more than one. The question was name your favourite one. I don't have only one so…

[MJB]

Q. (Julien Febreau – L'Equipe) For all of you: what do you think about the new noses of Formula One cars, from the onboard point of view and as a viewer? Is it a shame for TV viewers or spectators?

JB: Ours looks great.

This is the best part

[Lineker]

Q. (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport) We will have six World Champions in this year's championship but no Italian drivers. Most of you raced in Italy in go-karts or drove for an Italian team. May I have a short explanation about this situation, why it's so difficult for the Italians to grow up and come into Formula One?

MW: Daniel, yeah, exactly, Daniel. You have an Italian passport Daniel or not?

DR: (Speaks mock American-Italian!) If you watched Family Guy you probably know what I'm talking about.

As is this!

[Fry_4000]

Time for FP 1

[Quom]

Unfortunately I accidentally stumbled across qualifiers or people driving around in circles alone. But I did see something that made up for the disappointment. Who is the guy who looks just like a shaved Ricky Rubio with a straight nose? I must know. I think he works for Ferrari. He was standing there with a headset on and wearing a jacked and stuff. Unfortunately it was a brownish colour that had nothing but Pirelli on the back (and other sponsors on the arms). By the time I turned the sound up he was no longer on. He was just standing around staring at the monitors, which looks really easy. I am always watching television, nobody watches me watching it.

But I must know who this is. Linekels I assume you know? If you don't you must find out.

Spoilers contain a photo of Rubio. Guy had exact same haircut but blue eyes and his nose didn't bulge out, it was still a big nose, but straight.

[Lineker]

I haven't seen FP1 or FP2 yet so it's kind of hard to say! Was it Massa or Alonso?

Jenson Button led a McLaren one-two in the first free practice session of the 2012 Formula 1 season in Melbourne.

Damp conditions early on meant relatively little serious running until the final half an hour, with Button going quickest by 0.245 seconds over team-mate Lewis Hamilton.

Michael Schumacher was third for Mercedes, followed by Fernando Alonso (Ferrari) and home hero Mark Webber (Red Bull).

World champion Sebastian Vettel was a quiet 11th in the second Red Bull.

Toro Rosso's Jean-Eric Vergne had the honour of leading the field out for the first time in an official session in 2012, and the Frenchman and team-mate Daniel Ricciardo had the track largely to themselves at first - choosing to rack up laps while the circuit was still drying, whereas most waited in the pits until conditions improved.

It was Ricciardo who duly logged the season's first flying lap with a 1m47.448s after 20 minutes.

Nearly an hour passed before the Albert Park circuit was in good enough shape for slick tyres. Sauber's Kamui Kobayashi - who by that time was the fastest man on intermediates - led the move to dry tyres and blew his previous benchmark away by just over five seconds.

Webber then deposed Kobayashi, who grabbed the top spot back again, but only momentarily before Schumacher began a long stint in first place, which lasted until Button put in his session-topping 1m27.560s with nine minutes to go.

Hamilton then joined his team-mate at the front with a lap 0.245s slower in the closing moments, pushing Schumacher back to third.

Alonso escaped a massive slide at the final corner on his last lap to take fourth, but his Ferrari team-mate Felipe Massa ended the morning in the gravel after putting a wheel on the grass under braking for Turn 9 with 13 minutes to go, sending the Brazilian spinning.

Nico Rosberg completed the top six for Mercedes, followed by Ricciardo, Pastor Maldonado's Williams, Kimi Raikkonen's Lotus and Kobayashi. Raikkonen only got out in the final few minutes after a long pause in the Lotus garage having his steering rack changed.

HRT endured what has become its traditional very tough start to an F1 season with neither car setting a flying lap. Pedro de la Rosa's machine was not ready in time to leave the pits during the session, while rising engine temperatures led to Narain Karthikeyan's car cutting out on the backstretch after 32 minutes.

FP1


Pos  Driver                Team                   Time               Laps

 1.  Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes       1m27.560s            11

 2.  Lewis Hamilton        McLaren-Mercedes       1m27.805s  + 0.245   14

 3.  Michael Schumacher    Mercedes               1m28.235s  + 0.675   17

 4.  Fernando Alonso       Ferrari                1m28.360s  + 0.800   21

 5.  Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault       1m28.467s  + 0.907   21

 6.  Nico Rosberg          Mercedes               1m28.683s  + 1.123   22

 7.  Daniel Ricciardo      Toro Rosso-Ferrari     1m28.908s  + 1.348   23

 8.  Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Renault       1m29.415s  + 1.855   16

 9.  Kimi Raikkonen        Lotus-Renault          1m29.565s  + 2.005    8

10.  Kamui Kobayashi       Sauber-Ferrari         1m29.722s  + 2.162   26

11.  Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault       1m29.790s  + 2.230   21

12.  Nico Hulkenberg       Force India-Mercedes   1m29.865s  + 2.305   17

13.  Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes   1m29.881s  + 2.321   18

14.  Bruno Senna           Williams-Renault       1m29.953s  + 2.393   21

15.  Sergio Perez          Sauber-Ferrari         1m30.124s  + 2.564   22

16.  Romain Grosjean       Lotus-Renault          1m30.515s  + 2.955   16

17.  Heikki Kovalainen     Caterham-Renault       1m30.586s  + 3.026   16

18.  Felipe Massa          Ferrari                1m30.743s  + 3.183   11

19.  Jean-Eric Vergne      Toro Rosso-Ferrari     1m31.178s  + 3.618   17

20.  Vitaly Petrov         Caterham-Renault       1m31.983s  + 4.423    8

21.  Timo Glock            Marussia-Cosworth      1m34.730s  + 7.170    8

22.  Charles Pic           Marussia-Cosworth      1m40.256s  + 12.696  11

23.  Narain Karthikeyan    HRT-Cosworth           no time               3

24.  Pedro de la Rosa      HRT-Cosworth           no time               0


All Timing Unofficial[/code]




Michael Schumacher set the pace in a rain-affected second free practice session for the Australian Grand Prix.



The seven-time champion set his 1m29.183s lap on the last of the session, on a track that was improving in terms of grip with every second of running, but in spite of being at the right end of the roulette wheel the Mercedes driver had look good for it throughout the last frantic 20 minutes of running.



In the end Schumacher denied Nico Hulkenberg another giant-killing headline, and the young German had to settle for second best this time. Sergio Perez was third fastest for Sauber.



Torrential rain during the break between the two sessions rendered much of FP2 largely pointless, and it was Perez and Schumacher that were nominally fastest on the intermediates by the time the teams reached a natural pause around two thirds of the way through the practice.



As Albert Park fell silent, it was clear many of the teams were protecting their new cars from the walls that enclosed the slippery surface - aware perhaps that spares are at premium at this point in the season.



Only in the last 20 minutes did they deem it safe enough to venture back out and the session finally came alive when it was dry enough to run on slicks.



And during this period it was Hulkenberg who starred as he embarked on a battle with Schumacher for top honours - the Force India driver on the soft tyres and the Mercedes using mediums. Hulkenberg's team-mate Paul di Resta also had a brief spell at the top of the times before fading to sixth.



Fernando Alonso was fourth fastest in the Ferrari ahead of Kamui Kobayashi - who had a wild ride at the final turn on his last lap.



Felipe Massa, Heikki Kovalainen, Nico Rosberg and world champion Sebastian Vettel completed the top ten.



Neither McLaren driver featured much in the session as they preferred to stay out of the danger zone, and both ended up behind Timo Glock's 12th placed Marussia.



There were several visits to the grass and run-off for much of the field, including Perez, Jean-Eric Vergne, Webber and Kovalainen, but no contact with the barriers.





[code]FP2


Pos  Driver                Team                    Time               Laps

 1.  Michael Schumacher    Mercedes                1m29.183s            16

 2.  Nico Hulkenberg       Force India-Mercedes    1m29.292s  +  0.109  19

 3.  Sergio Perez          Sauber-Ferrari          1m30.199s  +  1.016  23

 4.  Fernando Alonso       Ferrari                 1m30.341s  +  1.158  13

 5.  Kamui Kobayashi       Sauber-Ferrari          1m30.709s  +  1.526  14

 6.  Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes    1m31.466s  +  2.283  13

 7.  Felipe Massa          Ferrari                 1m31.505s  +  2.322  14

 8.  Heikki Kovalainen     Caterham-Renault        1m31.932s  +  2.749  16

 9.  Nico Rosberg          Mercedes                1m32.184s  +  3.001  17

10.  Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault        1m32.194s  +  3.011  19

11.  Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault        1m32.296s  +  3.113  20

12.  Timo Glock            Marussia-Cosworth       1m32.632s  +  3.449  17

13.  Vitaly Petrov         Caterham-Renault        1m32.767s  +  3.584  15

14.  Romain Grosjean       Lotus-Renault           1m32.822s  +  3.639  11

15.  Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes        1m33.039s  +  3.856  18

16.  Lewis Hamilton        McLaren-Mercedes        1m33.252s  +  4.069  11

17.  Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Renault        1m34.108s  +  4.925  21

18.  Kimi Raikkonen        Lotus-Renault           1m34.275s  +  5.092   7

19.  Bruno Senna           Williams-Renault        1m34.312s  +  5.129  17

20.  Jean-Eric Vergne      Toro Rosso-Ferrari      1m34.485s  +  5.302  29

21.  Daniel Ricciardo      Toro Rosso-Ferrari      1m34.604s  +  5.421  31

22.  Charles Pic           Marussia-Cosworth       1m34.770s  +  5.587  13

23.  Narain Karthikeyan    HRT-Cosworth            1m42.627s  +  13.444 16

24.  Pedro de la Rosa      HRT-Cosworth                                  1


All Timing Unofficial

The FIA will renew a push to try and get rid of stepped noses from Formula 1 next year; even though it is likely fans will be used to the concept by then.

The ugly look of the current generation of F1 machinery has drawn stinging criticism from fans and insiders alike - a situation brought about by a push to lower the noses of cars for this year while not bringing the height of the chassis in that area down to the same level.

Discussions took place at the tail end of 2011 about the possibility of the cars not looking good for this year, and some consideration was given to introducing a mandatory cover to hide the height transition.

Those plans failed because there was not universal support for such a move – which is required for a rule change of that nature to take place at that time of the year.

However, with there still time to make a change to the 2013 regulations without the need for every team to agree, the FIA's head of the technical department Charlie Whiting has said that he plans to bring up the matter again soon.

"It will doubtless be discussed," said Whiting ahead of the season-opening Australian Grand Prix. "In 2014, the rules will be entirely different and there will be much, much lower noses so that problem will disappear in 2014 I imagine.

"But of course I will raise the question [for 2013] with the TWG [Technical Working Group] when we next meet. Everybody would like to see something nicer."

Whiting said that there may have been more appetite to change the noses even last year if people had realised just how widespread the noses would be.

"At that point I don't think anyone outside of the very small group of designers that were designing the cars knew what the cars might look like," he said. "It was pointed out that there could be a bit of a step there, as it was put, but frankly it didn't seem important for us to get excited about.

"Hopefully we can resolve the situation, but by the time we do everyone will have got used to what we have got anyway."

Formula 1 teams are pushing the FIA to police the Resource Restriction Agreement through the sporting regulations.

AUTOSPORT understands that 10 of the 12 teams signed a letter to FIA president Jean Todt calling for the governing body to step in following the breakdown of talks between McLaren, Red Bull, Mercedes and Ferrari on the future of the RRA.

Red Bull Racing and sister outfit Scuderia Toro Rosso were the two teams who did not support the request - so did not sign.

Lotus team principal Eric Boullier confirmed that a group of teams had been in touch with the FIA about looking into the idea.

"We have many correspondences with the FIA on many subjects and one of the subjects was the RRA and trying to find a way to make the FIA involved in the process of reinforcing the RRA through an idea like sporting regs," said Boullier.

"So we contacted the FIA and Jean Todt to try and set up a group to discuss the matter."

It is understood that Todt responded to the original request by expressing an interest in also formulating the terms of the RRA - something the teams are not keen on.

Discussions are ongoing with the teams and the FIA on the matter.

Mercedes team principal Ross Brawn has backed the move to reduce expenditure in F1, insisting that this would make for a healthier sport.

"It was a letter of support to the FIA to say that we want to continue the process of reducing costs and look at fair ways of introducing the regulations or procedures to keep the costs under control and further reduce the costs," said Brawn.

"If we had a Formula 1 where teams like the smaller teams at the back of the grid could be commercially viable - more commercially viable - then I think that's a healthier Formula 1, so we have to find ways of trying to achieve that."

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner supports the idea of cost control, although doubts that an RRA is the best way to achieve this.

He wants to see expenditure reduction addressed in other areas in the regulations so that teams cannot gain a competitive advantage by spending more money.

"The technical and sporting regulations are determined by the FIA," Horner told AUTOSPORT last month. "How much money a team spends should be down to the individual team. It shouldn't necessarily be that a team gains an advantage by doing that [spending too much].

"Controlling costs in F1 is important. Whether the RRA is the way to do that is another matter. Elements that are tangible and transparent have been successful, such as a the restriction in personnel at the circuit, the reduction in testing and the limitation of engines and gearboxes.

"But once you get into equivalence, structures of companies are different and that is where it becomes murkier."

Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher were both excited by Mercedes' form in the second free practice session in Australia, even if much of the running was lost due to the rain.

Schumacher ended the session fastest, having set his best time on his final tour of the drying Albert Park circuit. He had rarely been out of the top three during the entire session.

The seven-time world champion said he had not been bothered by the rain as he labelled the W03 an 'excellent machine'.

"The car feels positive, we have an excellent machine," Schumacher said. "We all anticipate a dry weekend from here on, so we weren't too bothered by the rain."

Rosberg meanwhile finished seventh fastest, but said he too had been encouraged by the early feel of Mercedes' 2012 car.

"In general I am quite pleased: the car feels good, and it's been a decent start," he said.

"It was good to get going again, and to get an idea of where we are compared to the others.

"Today was mixed conditions, but we got some good dry laps in and I was able to learn some things that will be useful for a dry forecast.

"I especially learned a lot through high fuel running, which is good preparation for the race."

Ross Brawn has played down the performance advantage of his DRS-activated F-duct, as the first pictures of the design in action emerged on Friday.

The photograph published here shows a hole on the inside of the endplate that matches the shape of the activated DRS flap. The hole would be covered when the DRS is not activated, but is then open when the wing lifts.

It has been suggested that when the slot is open, air is fed through the inside of the endplate and into the hollow main plane, before emerging out of the central section of the wing where it helps stall the wing for a straight line speed boost.

However, sources at rival teams say they are keeping a close eye on whether or not the hole is feeding air to other areas of the car - such as the diffuser or even the front wing.

Amid intense focus from the media and rival teams about what exactly Mercedes is up to with its rear wing, Brawn was keen on Friday to suggest that the F-duct concept was not the golden ticket for his team.

"We have an interesting system on the car and it's not complicated at all, so I'm sure other teams are looking at it and they need to decide if it's worthwhile or not," said Brawn, who played down any talk that the it could be as vital as the double diffuser that rival teams protested back in 2009.

"It's not in the same magnitude as the diffuser concept that we had or even the exhaust concepts the cars ran the last few years. It's obviously helpful: that's why we're doing it but it's not a massive performance gain."

Mercedes driver Michael Schumacher finished the afternoon's practice session on top of the times.

There is also interest in the F-duct front wing that the team is using - and where exactly the slots that feed air to stall that are situated.

Brawn defended his team's aggressive design concepts - claiming that technical innovation was the lifeblood of F1.

"I can tell you it's great for F1, because for me the magic of F1 is not just the drivers - it's the technology, the engineering, the innovation, the stories that fill the web pages and the media," he said.

Sebastian Vettel is hoping his Red Bull Racing team will be much quicker tomorrow after a slow start to the weekend in Friday practice.

The German struggled with his car's handling in the morning, finishing down in 11th position, but was happier with his afternoon form.

The rain, however, meant little running was done and Vettel managed 19 laps in the second session. He was 10th quickest.

"Maybe we did not get everything we needed but we can be quite happy," said Vettel.

"This morning it was not very good - I wasn't happy at all in the car. This afternoon was a bit better but with the conditions it is difficult to get a lot of running. It's more or less the same for all of us.

"The little time we had in the afternoon was quite okay. It's up to us to find the balance and understand the car a bit more on these conditions on this circuit, and hopefully go a lot quicker tomorrow.

"The important thing now is to make a step overnight and go from there. Track time is important when the car is still young."

Vettel said it was still very hard to read into the times and claimed his goal for Saturday was to go into Q3 and see what his chances are from there.

He added: "It was pretty messy in the end, especially the only a couple of laps in the dry. It's difficult to read.

"First of all we need to see, analyse the speeds or who had his DRS open or not, then you can guess who had more fuel and I think that is how you do it as well. It's difficult to say. Tomorrow the target is to get into Q3 and then we go from there."

The German admitted the team had "a lot" to learn after the first day of running.

"It would be nice if we were in a similar position to control the race from the front. There is a long way to go. This morning was not good at all, this afternoon was better. We have to learn a lot and go from there."

Toro Rosso duo Daniel Ricciardo and Jean-Eric Vergne have been told that they have a genuine chance of grabbing a race seat at Red Bull in the future - with the team making it clear that it would prefer to take one of the youngsters than a driver from elsewhere.

With Red Bull currently having a vacancy for next season - as Mark Webber's contract remains on a rolling one-year deal – there is already talk about what the team may choose to do if its current driver decides not to stay.

And, with renewed reports over the winter suggesting that Lewis Hamilton could be a contender, Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has responded by suggesting that it was actually Ricciardo and Vergne who would be in pole position for an RBR opportunity if they shine this season.

"I think it is entirely logical that if you have a youth policy, and that youth policy is delivering real talent, and that talent is exciting talent as Sebastian Vettel has demonstrated, then it would make more sense to take a home grown driver rather than going externally," explained Horner in Melbourne. "But that's not something we need to be thinking about for a little while."

Horner believes that Ricciardo and Vergne could develop into exactly the kind of drivers that Red Bull Racing needs – although he thinks it is too early to state which one will come out on top.

"We'll be keeping a very close eye on them," he said. "They're both RBR drivers that have been placed on loan effectively to Toro Rosso. They are both very talented young guys that have had their GP debuts as a result of Red Bull's investment in youth and talent, and it's a really exciting period.

"I think they are two of the most exciting youngsters to have been on the periphery of F1 over the last couple of years and they have the opportunity now to go head-to-head to show they have warranted that opportunity and investment that has been placed within them. I think it'll be fascinating to see how the two of them evolve throughout the season."

Lewis Hamilton says he is 'massively excited' to see what Formula 1's first qualifying session of 2012 reveals, and is confident that McLaren will be in the mix for pole.

A rain-hit second practice session furthered the uncertainty over which of this year's teams enters Australia in the strongest shape - pre-season testing also having failed to establish a clear favourite.

While Hamilton finished second to team-mate Jenson Button in first practice, he said it was still hard to gauge others teams' form - and can therefore only be confident that qualifying will be close.

"We feel like we are there or thereabouts, but again we don't know what fuel loads people are on," Hamilton said.

"I think it looks quite close between us, maybe Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes. It's going to be interesting tomorrow.

"People usually go through the same programmes in P3 so I think then we will get a better understanding of just how quick people are. I'm massively excited to see how it goes."

Hamilton played down talk of being frustrated by his lack of running in second practice, but did concede that it would be important for the team to maximise tomorrow morning's third and final session ahead of qualifying.

"It wasn't frustrating [the lack of running], just a bit boring. It dulls the intensity - I'd rather be in the car," he said.

"In practice tomorrow we will try and make sure we get out immediately and maximise the whole session, make the correct set-up changes so that we are in the window, in the zone.

"The tyres are the tricky part, trying to get them working in the cold conditions is not the easiest."

Asked whether it was significant that the race has been won from pole position four times in the last five years, Hamilton added: "[Pole position] is definitely a step in the right direction, but I don't think it is the be all and end all."

Jenson Button felt the chance to get some running on a wet track in Australian Grand Prix practice was useful even though it could leave the field unprepared for the dry conditions expected for the rest of the weekend.

The McLaren driver was fastest in first practice, which saw the longest spell of dry running.

"I think we all say it's only practice one, it's only practice two but it's a nice way to start the season," said Button. "You'd still rather be first than last. But a positive day I think.

"It's the same for all of us, we didn't get a lot of running today because of the track conditions. But it was useful because we haven't run in the wet so to get an idea of the wing angles for the wet tyres, the inters and the dries, and the difference between them was very useful and also to get an understanding of how the car works in those different conditions.

"I'm reasonably happy with the car here actually, it feels nice. There are a few areas we need to improve but a relatively good Friday considering the limited running."

Button did acknowledge that the conditions made it impossible to draw any conclusions about form ahead of qualifying. Michael Schumacher was fastest for Mercedes in the second session.

"There is a certain one that side of us that will be quick [Red Bull], and has been quick for the last couple of years so they are still going to be the ones to beat I think," said Button.

"I think them and Mercedes looked quick as well. But it is really difficult to say with this limited running we had. And also it's still a Friday."

Ferrari remains in the dark about the progress it has made since pre-season testing due to the mixed weather conditions on the first day of running for the Australian Grand Prix.

Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa were both in the top 10 following a short spell of dry running at the end of the second practice session. However, Alonso believes that Ferrari are no closer to knowing if it has a better car than it did in testing.

"Not really," said Alonso when asked if he felt more comfortable with the car after free practice. "Overall a good Friday, but the feeling with the car didn't change too much.

"I think especially in FP2, with the conditions we had it is impossible to see the level of competitiveness.

"The car feels OK, we got some answers and a good feeling driving the car, but we had a good feeling during testing."

Ferrari technical director Pat Fry reiterated Alonso's claim that judging the performance of the car was still "impossible" heading into Saturday.

"Today was even harder than usual to interpret because of the weather, making it very difficult to work through the programme we had set ourselves," said Fry.

"Honestly, it's impossible to give any sort of assessment of the performance of the F2012 and on the prospects for this weekend. We too are very curious to know where we stand compared to the competition."

Alonso added that he expected a fraught battle in qualifying, with Red Bull and McLaren leading the way.

"I think the favourites are always the top teams, so Red Bull, McLaren, Ferrari and Mercedes," he said. "But I think Sauber is also an interesting team in these first races, and Force India went quite well today.

"But I guess McLaren and Red Bull should be the ones [at the front]."

Formula 1 drivers will have to push more with their tyres this season thanks to the nature of the new Pirelli rubber.

That is the view of Toro Rosso's Daniel Ricciardo, who thinks that it will be important not to be as conservative in looking after tyres as last year - even though degradation appears to be harder.

"You still have to be very conscious about it [looking after tyres], because when we did a race simulation, with higher fuel, the tyres were prone to more wear," explained Ricciardo during a promotional event with Pirelli in Melbourne.

"I was still driving a little bit conservative to save the life of the tyre, but I think I could have gone harder particularly in the first stint. Looking back at what I did, there was plenty of tyre left in the first few laps.

"I didn't have that last year. So I think you still probably will not be going at 110 per cent in the first stint or second stint, but maybe instead of 85 per cent as you saw last year, you will be pushing 99.5 per cent.

"I think driving will be a little bit more on the aggressive side and there will be a bit more passing, and even more excitement – with more chance of getting further up the grid."

Ricciardo is excited about getting a full season with Toro Rosso this year, and thinks his half season with HRT in 2011 will be a massive help.

"I was fortunate to spend some time with Toro Rosso at the beginning of last year, and the team remains unchanged, so this helps at the start of the year.

"With testing, everything went smoothly and I have a much better opportunity to get further up the grid. Last year served me well doing 11 races with HRT. It was not a frontrunning team, but it was good to learn like that. It toughened me up a bit and I will use that to help me this year."

Daniel Ricciardo believes he has made a good start to his home grand prix weekend after the first track action of the season in Australia on Friday.

The Toro Rosso driver was seventh in the first session and 21st in the afternoon.

He put his afternoon result down to changeable weather conditions, but hinted that he took a lot of confidence from his performance in the first session of the season.

"This track is very different to the two circuits we tested this winter, but it looked positive," said Ricciardo. "This morning went pretty well, very good even.

"The afternoon was a bit mixed because of the weather. The changing track conditions made it a bit 'cat and mouse': you'd go out on one tyre, then come in and wait for it to dry a bit and you had to be patient."

The Australian added that his afternoon session was not a total waste, and hinted that there was more to come from the Toro Rosso package.

"This afternoon, I did a long run and I think we can still gain some more pace," he said. "And the good thing is I know what we have to do to achieve that."

Kimi Raikkonen fears it may take some time for Lotus to deliver a total fix to his power steering problems, after further issues with it hampered his opening day of running at the Australian Grand Prix.

The Lotus driver only completed eight laps in first practice while the team made alterations to the power steering because the Finn was not happy with the way it originally felt.

It is understood Raikkonen is seeking to get more precision from the steering, and solutions implemented by his Enstone-based outfit so far have not been successful.

Although he is hopeful that a further update planned for the Malaysian Grand Prix will improve matters, he thinks a solution that makes him happy on all types of track may not be the work of the moment.

"It is what it is, and I will try to do the best with it," he said when asked by AUTOSPORT about the steering situation.

"It seems to be working okay at some circuits, but in some certain conditions and some places it might give us a small problem, but hopefully before the next race we will have a new one and we can be okay.

"For sure it will take a while before we get it right exactly I think. Here we are fine with what we have now, but at some circuits we definitely have to improve."

Raikkonen does not believe that his form will be hurt too much in Australia, with it simply being a matter of the new version trialled on Friday morning not being to his satisfaction.

"We have many, many different ones and unfortunately in testing we didn't have time to try all of them," he said.

"We have to try them all at some point and it is the best time to try them on Friday. It takes quite a while to change it and we knew that it was going to be slippery anyway, and we weren't going to run for a while so we had time.

"I think it would have been okay to run it: it's just then that we decided to change something that we needed and it's okay because we are going to stick with it for the weekend anyhow."

Allied to his steering problems, the mixed weather conditions experienced in Melbourne left Raikkonen unsure about the feel of his car.

"I had one lap in the morning without traffic and almost one lap in the afternoon so I don't know where we're going to be," he said. "Tomorrow should be a bit better and after qualifying hopefully we are happy."

Nico Hulkenberg insists that neither he nor his Force India team see his top two finish in second practice as a realistic reflection of their current pace.

The German had topped the timesheets until the final minute of the rain-hit session, when he was displaced by Michael Schumacher.

Hulkenberg however was keen to dispel the notion that Force India might be able to spring a surprise in Melbourne, explaining that the session had not been representative - and that he was still expecting making Q3 to be a struggle.

"It is always nice to be quite high up on the sheet but you have to be realistic and stay grounded," he reflected. "That's not where I or the team see ourselves.

"Certainly we will try and always push as hard as I can but I don't think that is our expectation. It's just normal that times drop on a damp circuit with 24 cars running on it."

Pushed on whether Force India can spring a surprise - a view fostered by a seemingly strong pre-season – Hulkenberg said: "Why do people say that? I see a lot of other strong teams out there at the same time, I'm not so sure about that comment.

"The car feels quite okay, there are no dramas – driveability and balance seem good – but ultimately what the performance is at the end of the day I'm not sure about yet.

"I think [Q3] is possible, but we also have to really stretch ourselves. P2 wasn't entirely representative – people are on different fuel, different compounds, so it's not a fair comparison. I don't see us in that position."

Hulkenberg added that the missed running in second practice could serve to make the final session and qualifying a bit more of a lottery.

"[it could be] more difficult [tomorrow] because you are not as prepared as you would be with two dry runs," he explained. "Then you pretty much know what to expect.

"Now it is potentially quite a difference. It could hurt some people, and help others."

Charles Pic is optimistic he will be able to qualify for the Australian Grand Prix despite the lack of significant running on Friday.

The Marussia driver, making his grand prix debut this weekend, finished nearly 13 seconds off the pace in the morning and over 5.5 in the afternoon.

The cut-off time is expected to be around 1m31s on Saturday if qualifying is dry.

Today's damp conditions limited Pic's running, but the Frenchman believes team-mate Timo Glock's time shows qualifying will be possible.

"I think what we saw is positive," said Pic, whose team was unable to run its 2012 car in any of the official pre-season tests.

"The time that Timo made is quite good so we have to wait for tomorrow for some dry conditions and to see, but I think it will be positive."

Despite the lack of running, Pic was positive about his first day of work, although he conceded he needed more track time in order to learn the circuit properly.

"It was a good day, no big problems on the car and the car is very reliable so that is very positive," said Pic. "On the negative points, the weather was not very good today and we got some rain so it was difficult to get some laps.

"But overall I think it was a good day and tomorrow it will be sunny and bright so we will be able to make some more laps before the qualy."

He added: "For the moment it is very difficult for me because I still don't know very well the track, and I made a few laps today but not enough to know really well yet with my driving so it important to come back tomorrow and make some more laps and fix it."

Narain Karthikeyan believes qualifying for the Australian Grand Prix could have been straightforward had Friday's practice not been hit by rain.

The Indian managed just 19 laps on the first day of practice, while team-mate Pedro de la Rosa completed only a single lap, meaning that the HRT F112 heads into tomorrow's running with very little track time.

Both drivers now face a massive challenge to make the 107 per cent qualifying cut-off.

"I have to qualify, there are no two ways about it," said Karthikeyan when asked by AUTOSPORT how tough it would be to make the cut.

"Everything has changed with the team and because of that I am here and I have to qualify, so I will push tomorrow. If we don't qualify, it's a shame.

"If we had a lot of running today, I don't think it would have been a problem but tomorrow we will have to see how it goes."

Karthikeyan lost track time with a loss of fuel pressure after only three laps in the morning and then hydraulic problems in the afternoon.

Tomorrow afternoon's one-hour free practice session is now key to exploiting the potential of a car that Karthikeyan rates as an improvement over last year's in some areas.

"The mechanical grip has improved but I can't say much more than that. We just need to focus on single-lap pace.

"We have done more laps than last year, so that's positive, but we still have a long way to go. We start from scratch tomorrow because we have done practically no dry running."

De la Rosa missed the first session entirely, but lost all but one lap of the second after encountering hydraulic problems.

He fears that the team will encounter further troubles with the car tomorrow.

"We managed to complete our installation lap in order to check the systems, but we detected a problem with the hydraulic system which forced us to stop.

"We know where the problem is for tomorrow and can fix it. We start tomorrow with one problem less, and will surely run into another one, but that is part of the learning process."

HRT team principal Luis Perez Sala is not convinced his team will qualify for this weekend's Australian Grand Prix. "We will see about qualifying, but here it is about taking the information from the cars and to go forward for the next few races. Then in Malaysia and Shanghai I would like us to improve our pace." HRT had to break the curfew in order to get the car ready, so has already used the first of its four exceptions for the season.

World champion Sebastian Vettel and Felipe Massa will remain as directors of the Grand Prix Drivers' Association (GPDA), AUTOSPORT can reveal, as Pedro de la Rosa was officially voted in as chairman on Friday.

As AUTOSPORT reported earlier this month, de la Rosa will be replacing Rubens Barrichello as head of the drivers' organisation following a decision that was taken last year.

"The agreement we had at the end of last season was that if Rubens would not be in Formula 1, then I would take over," the HRT driver said. "That was the vote from the drivers, so I will take over."

The move was officially ratified at Friday night's meeting of the GPDA in Melbourne, where it was also agreed that Vettel and Massa would be continuing in the roles that they assumed at the start of last year.

Friday's press conference:

TEAM REPRESENTATIVES - Luis PEREZ-SALA (HRT), Paul HEMBERY (Pirelli), Eric BOULLIER (Lotus), Ross BRAWN (Mercedes), Adam PARR (Williams)

PRESS CONFERENCE

Q. Luis, it must have been an extraordinary experience coming here, you had so much work to do. Just give us some indication of what it's been like?

Luis PEREZ-SALA: For us it has been almost a success just to be here in Melbourne because it has been very tough. We missed the crash test at the beginning of February and then almost until the end of February we were working to try and pass the crash test. Then, once we have done that, we went to a filming day at Barcelona, this helped us a bit, and here we have been working last night, the whole night, to have ready at least the second car. And in P1 we were running only with one car, several laps, three or four laps, and then in P2 we could afford to run at least the installation lap with Pedro's [de la Rosa] car.

Q. How worried are you about qualifying, do you think you can get both cars in [to the race]?

LP-S: It will be difficult for us. I'm not thinking now about the speed of the cars, now we are trying to fit all of things to make do as best as possible to make P3 tomorrow, doing several laps and then we will see on the qualifying. For us Melbourne is like a place where we are going to take certain information from the cars and go forwards for the next races.

Q. Your championship really starts in Malaysia.

LP-S: We hope! I will see. For us the most important thing is to be here as we are and then to try to learn as much as possible. Of course the team is a bit tired as well, they have been working hard for the last month and I would like them to relax a bit and take information and we will see if it's Shanghai or Malaysia-Shanghai, whenever we start to do our real pace and then trying to improve and to get better and better through the season.

Q. Good luck

LP-S: We need it!

Q. Paul, obviously this is the start of your second season. How different is it this year to one year ago?

Paul HEMBERY: I would probably have made similar comments to Luis last year at this time, having to get ready in a short space of time. Obviously experience is great, you understand, even from the small things like logistics, which help a lot in this world because it's a complex world from a logistical side and there's a lot of things that go on in the sport that I guess are invisible to the outside world. So, yeah, it's a much better position to be in.

Q. The teams are saying that the tyres don't seem to be degrading as much, is that the case? What's been the reaction to the new tyres?

PH: I think it's early days to see that. They're certainly degrading – whether it's enough or not I don't know – if the comments are too positive Bernie calls me up and gives me an earful! I think the general balance of the car, judging from the comments of the drivers and the teams is that they're happy with the balance. Part of that is a few of the small changes that we've made. Also I think the teams have had more time to design the cars around the tyres this season. So, I think it's a combination of the two things.

Q. Looking at the amount of running they've had today, very little dry running – where would you say the teams are in preparation for this race?

PH: I think you have to ask them that. When they did do a run in the dry I guess they're all using different fuel loads and they've all got different programmes in mind, what they're trying to achieve in the sessions. But I think the general comment that everyone's seen so far in testing is that the cars seem to be much closer together in terms of performance this year than last year – and hopefully that's going to mean we're going to have a great season.

Q. Adam, first of all, to what extent are we seeing a new Williams team? A number of things have changed, tell us about the team as it stands now.

Adam PARR: We have made a lot of changes but hopefully nothing of any importance because Williams, part of the secret is trying to keep what we have as a team – but we've made a number of changes, we've got a new technical leadership who've been able to deliver this car but we have another 500 people who haven't changed. I'm really pleased we've been able to completely redesign the car top to bottom, change engines, and without missing a trick. We did a lot of mileage in testing, so that's all gone very nicely. On the board side Claire [Williams] is stepping up to join our board as director of marketing and communications in early April and we're very excited about that. I think she's going to be a fantastic asset for this team – and the great thing is no-one can poach her!

Q. Another point is that you've got two relatively inexperienced drivers, whereas you had Rubens [barrichello] with a massive amount of experience. How has that gone and how, in turn, has Alex Wurz been able to contribute?

AP: I think it's very early to say, isn't it? But what I do feel is both Bruno and Pastor are... they're not in their first seasons in Formula One, they are very competitive and I think they can have a lot of fun between the two of them and with the team. Alex is playing the role of a wise head and mentoring them as necessary, and so far, so good.

Q. How much are you asking him to do? Giving him a free rein to talk to the drivers?

AP: Yes, he has an absolutely free rein and he attends the debriefs etc, and how he does it is up to him. He should know better than anyone what he has to do.

Q. Ross, first of all it couldn't be a better start to the season could it – than to be top on the first day?

Ross BRAWN: Well, it's certainly better than being at the back! The only reason I qualify it is that we have no idea what people are running on fuel. We've had little windows of running on the dry. Our cars were doing different things to try to understand and get some information for tomorrow because we've got one hour of timed practice before we have to go into qualifying and, as Paul commented, we don't really know these tyres very well yet, because testing in the winter in Barcelona with a heavily rubbered track is not giving us all the information we need to know how to use the tyres, what strategy to choose and so on and so forth. So we're trying to get snapshots in these weather conditions of what's going on. It's been a reasonably encouraging start but we're not getting carried away because different people were doing different things today.

Q. In terms of preparation you missed out the first test with the new car, you obviously hit the ground running with it for the two Barcelona tests – how different has it been starting this season to last season?

RB: We're much better prepared than we were last year. Last year we were not in good shape at this stage of the season. We'd tried to leave it as late as possible to run the final aerodynamic package and that hadn't gone that well, and we had some cooling issues, some other functionality issues of the car and that takes a lot of resource out of the organisation fixing those things. So, we made a big effort to strengthen the team, do things more effectively, and to arrive at the beginning of this season in a much better state of preparation. I must commend the people who've been involved with that. As Adam was saying, we're keen to strengthen the team without losing the strengths that we already have. So, Bob Bell has been a great asset to the team, Bob's been involved in this car from the beginning. He's done a great job of the organisation, keeping everyone to schedule, getting the right decisions made, so we're not where we want to be yet in many ways but we're a lot better than we were 12 months ago. And if we can keep that rate of progress going, then I'm extremely optimistic for the future. We're in a place now where the car functions well, it cools well, it does all the basic things properly. And all of our resource can be focussed on trying to find performance for the next part of the season.

Q. Everybody's talking about your supposed front-wing stalling system, is there anything you can tell us?

RB: Well, I can tell you it's great for Formula One, because for me the magic of Formula One is not just the drivers, it's the technology, the engineering, the innovation, the stories that fill the web pages and the media. It's something that I think is a great thing for Formula One. When I hear these people talking about how we need to have standard cars and just let the drivers… they miss the whole point of Formula One, which is the magic of everything that happens in Formula One. You know, we've got drivers out there, world champions, who are perhaps not in the best car at the moment and that's a story. That's a great aspect of Formula One. We have world champions in much better cars and the teams without the better cars have got to fix that and improve. So it's great people are talking about different things. Today it's us, tomorrow it will be somebody else. That's why Formula One is so fascinating, why it's so appealing to our fans and enthusiasts.

Q. Eric, sorry to keep you waiting first of all. How much of a setback was losing the first Barcelona test?

Eric BOULLIER: Obviously we missed some track time, some development time of the systems and some track time for the drivers as well, as obviously they were not racing last year in Formula One. But I have to say that number one, we have a reliable car and we were able to do a lot of mileage in Jerez and at the second Barcelona test.

Q. Kimi had some problems with comfort in the car in Barcelona. Is he still having those problems now or was it something different today?

EB: It's very similar, let's say. But also it's a new chassis and you have to adjust a little bit his position in the car.

Q. Are you curing that?

EB: Of course, definitely.

Q. And Romain today? How quickly did he learn the circuit and do you feel confident in him now?

EB: Yes, I think he showed in the second session that he was now ready to drive and he knew the track. This morning you could see that the conditions were a bit tricky and this is why we waited for the best conditions for him to go out and learn the track, as we think… the forecast is for it to be dry on Sunday.

Q. Are they working well together, those two? One would say they might be slightly different personalities?

EB: Yes, I have to say it's matching quite well. I mean they are team-mates, they are professional drivers and they work well. We have no issues with this.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q. (Alberto Antonini – Autosprint) May I ask all of you your feelings about racing in Bahrain in four weeks' time?

RB: We want to go there. It's been a great place to race in the past. It has its troubles, we hope those troubles are largely behind them and if racing can help bring things together then we should try and do it. We need to monitor the situation, try and make a judgement. People who've been there are telling us the situation's much, much better than it was 12 months ago. So, as I say, if Formula One can help to improve the situation then that would be a great thing for us to do. But it's certainly clearly a lot calmer situation than it was 12 months ago.

Q. (Dieter Rencken - The Citizen) I believe that a letter was addressed and sent to the Federation regarding the Resource Restriction Agreement (RRA) being enshrined in the regulations. If so, which teams signed, which teams didn't sign and also, what do you hope to achieve and how, please?

RB: I answered the last one.

AP: I think you should do this one as well.

EB: We have many correspondences with the FIA on many many subjects and yes, one of the subjects was the RRA and trying to find a way to maybe make the FIA involved in the process of reinforcing the RRA through an idea like sporting regs. So we just contacted the FIA and Jean Todt to try to set up a group together to discuss the matter.

Q. (Dieter Rencken - The Citizen) My question was also who signed and who didn't sign the letter. Was it unanimous?

EB: Yes, it was unanimous. Most of the teams have signed it.

Q. (Dieter Rencken - The Citizen) Most. Who not?

EB: Doesn't matter.

AP: I thoroughly agree with what Eric just said, with everything he said.

Q. (Kate Walker - GirlRacer) Eric, we saw that Kimi didn't get very many laps in either session today. Was that just comfort or were there problems with his steering column and you changed it?

EB: Second session was just planned. Because of the rain, we didn't want to run in the wet conditions so we just waited for a dry situation.

Q. (Mike Doodson - Honorary) I was interested by Ross's comments about the excitement of the technical challenge of Formula One, which is obviously an ongoing thing. But it still costs all of you millions. Some of you have more than a hundred people in your aero department. I wonder if there are any savings that could be made which would be acceptable to the technician in you, for example, a standard under-car aerodynamic profile?

RB: I'm a little bit reluctant to have standard parts on the car. I'm a great supporter of the concept of the Resource Restriction Agreement, that we have a certain amount of money, a certain number of people we can use and we try and get the cleverest people to do the best job and we win because those people are doing a better job than other people in other teams, not because we've spent twice as much as somebody else. Certainly Mercedes' principle is not to steamroller Formula One with unlimited resource and win on the power of what we've spent. We're very prudent, we want Formula One to be a good example and we believe that the Resource Restriction and some sensible technical regulations and sporting regulations is the best way. There is an argument that perhaps we need to make sure that as we tighten the resource restriction that we don't end up moving all the activity into the aerodynamic field because that's perhaps the area of greatest return for investment, and we do need regulations to make sure that we keep a spread. So I think there can be quite strong constraints to make sure that we don't have cars which are just purely focused on aerodynamics but I'm not a great fan of standardising parts but perhaps in keeping parts within a closer constraint.

AP: I agree with Ross. The prime area of means of controlling costs should be controlling expenditure and that's what the Resource Restriction Agreement… in part the Singapore agreement which was signed by all teams 18 months or so ago. That's the primary way of controlling costs because in the past, attempts to cure them purely by technical rules just squeezed the balloon into another shape. However, I think there is also a desire to look at areas of the car that have become ludicrously over-complicated. An example is used of the corners of the car. I think we have over 130 moulds for one brake duct now. And I'm not sure that that does genuinely add to the show. What does add to the show is when people come up with clever ideas, and you can only really have that if you control overall spending, because otherwise it is the more money you've got, the more clever ideas you should be able to come up with. So I think it's a combination of both, as Ross said, and I also feel… I read just a few days ago that Mr Ecclestone was commenting that we should introduce budget cuts into Formula One, so I think you could say that there's quite a consensus now about doing something further.

EB: I do share the same visions as my colleagues. Using the restriction on the resources and expenditure is one of the best ways, obviously, and we need to adjust a little bit the technical and maybe the sporting regulations to cut some costs and that's going to be much better. We need to keep the Formula One philosophy. LPS: For us, we are maybe the team that has the lowest budget on the grid. It's not going to be easy for us to reduce the budget, no? Even we are trying to reduce our budget more and it's not easy. I'm not sure what we can afford. Maybe we say regulations dictate the budget cut. I don't know.

Q. (Paolo Ianieri – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Ross, before, you were talking of the magic of Formula One. In the last few days, Flavio Briatore has said that for him, this is a Formula One where only cars are now counting. Drivers are not making the difference as they did in the past. They don't have that big a personality. Do you agree with that?

RB: I think there is a good equilibrium to try and achieve. If the car starts to become a totally prevalent factor then we don't want that. Equally, as I say, we want a situation where if there's a great driver in not such a great car then he will struggle a bit. You've always got two drivers in the same team, so there's a competition going on there as well, so if there is a very good car, then you've still got two drivers within that team. There's very few poor drivers that have won World Championships so I think that tells us that the great drivers win the World Championships. Getting an equilibrium is something that we should be mindful of. But I think that at the other end of the scale is let's have GP1: standard cars, all that sort of stuff – and I think we would be shocked how quickly we would lose interest in Formula One if we did that.

Q. (Dieter Rencken - The Citizen) I would like to return very briefly to the letter. The four team principles here, did you sign the letter please? It's a very simple question.

RB: Yes, we signed the letter.

AP: Do you think I wouldn't sign a letter to do with cost control?

RB: The teams asked the FIA to continue the process of looking at cost control. It's something which the FIA are very keen to do as well, so it was a letter of support to the FIA to say that we want to continue the process of reducing costs and look at fair ways of introducing the regulations or procedures to keep the costs under control and further reduce the costs. If we had a Formula One where teams like the smaller teams at the back of the grid could be commercially viable - more commercially viable - then I think that's a healthier Formula One, so have to find ways of trying to achieve that.

Q. (Kate Walker – GirlRacer) It emerged last week that the Lehman Brothers' stake in Delta Topco has to be sold by the middle of 2014. Could you confirm whether or not you are interested either individually or as a group in purchasing that 15.3% stake, per team or by FOTA or however you can guys can get a better slice of the F1 pie?

RB: Individually as in me personally or…? It's certainly not something we've considered.

EB: It's not something that has been considered.

Q. (Wei An Mao – La Vie Creative) Yesterday, I asked the drivers – now you – that since 1996 Melbourne has been on the calendar, do you think it is important to keep it in F1 and should it be changed to a night race after 2015?

EB: I think this year the schedule is a little bit later than in previous years, and there are still around 300,000 people attending the weekend so I would say why not?

RB: We very much enjoy being here. It's a great race, the huge enthusiasm from the city and from the fans. It's a really enjoyable race, so we have to find a way of moving forward and trying to keep the race and finding solutions. If the solution is a night race, then we have to find a way of achieving that but personally - and I think as a team - we would be very disappointed if we couldn't continue racing in Australia. It's a great place to start the season.

AP: I was in Western Australia over the last few days and interestingly, WA suffered a 20percent decline in tourism in 2011 whereas Victoria's tourism has grown, and I think the state has a tremendous record of attracting great events and there's no doubt that that puts Melbourne on the map around the world. If having a night race meant more excitement, more publicity, a bigger global audience for the race here, then I think it's something that the state should very seriously consider. As Ross said, whatever happens, we really want to come back, because it is a fantastic weekend, really fantastic.

PH: I agree with the comments made. They've put a lot effort into creating an event for the fans. If you walk around the infield, there's a lot of activity going on and if anybody follows motor sport in Australia, that's something that they do very well. There are other events like the Clipsall which is an amazing event, if you ever get the chance to go there over in Adelaide I recommend that you do so. So I think yeah, as long as it's viable for the promoter and they can make it work and it seems that the fans seem to like it then I think everyone's very happy to be here. LPS: I've been driving in Adelaide which was a nice track and now here where I drove in the Lamborghini Trophy in 1999, fantastic track, the fans and everything, for us to come here is a nice place to come.

Q. (Naoise Holohan – ManipeF1) Adam touched on Bernie's comments on the budget cap a few minutes ago. I'm just wondering how much consensus there is among the teams to bring it in. Is it a viable option at the moment, and what has changed from a couple of years ago when the vast majority of the teams refused to go with the budget cap option?

AP: I think, to be specific, Mr Ecclestone's comments were about budget capping. The teams have agreed a different process: the Resource Restriction Agreement and the Singapore Agreement. I'm not suggesting that we should change the overall structure at this point. I think there is, however, a very high degree of consensus amongst everybody – the FIA, Formula One and the teams – that we should continue to reduce costs.

Q. (Matt Coch – pitpass) Luis, how confident are you that you've got the money to reach the end of the season?

LP-S: I'm confident to reach the end of the season, I'm confident of the money. It's secure.

Q. (Paolo Ianieri – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Ross, with the FIA saying that your F-duct system is legal, how long do you think it will take the other teams to copy the same solutions and do you think that this could be an advantage that you could carry on for a while as was the case of the Brawn with the double diffuser?

RB: Innovation is the lifeblood of Formula One racing, I've oversold that point already. Obviously I'm not going to go into detail of what people are calling the F-duct. I'm surprised they are calling it that, because I don't quite know what that means. We have an interesting system on the car and it's not complicated at all, so I'm sure other teams are looking at it and they need to decide if it's worthwhile or not. But it's not in the same magnitude as the diffuser concept that we had or even the exhaust concepts the cars ran the last few years. It's obviously helpful, that's why we're doing it but it's not a massive performance gain.

AP: That's a relief to hear, so we can stop developing ours.

RB: I would like you to spend all your money on it, Adam, and then we can get on with other stuff.

AP: It wouldn't take long!

Australian GP in quotes

[Lineker]

Early start for work tomorrow so can't enjoy quali

Paul di Resta believes Force India can progress into the final stage of qualifying at this weekend's Australian Grand Prix.

The majority of the teams had their Friday programmes disrupted by a rain-hit second practice session at Melbourne. But di Resta said that the understanding his outfit gained of the new VJM05 during pre-season testing and morning practice had helped negate the effects of the lost dry track time.

When asked by AUTOSPORT if there was any reason why Force India would not be in the mix for Q3, the British driver replied: "Not at the moment. We are ready as best as we can be should it happen.

"P2 was the same for everyone up and down the pitlane - not really reflective at all. I don't think anyone has a clue what is going on.

"[because of that] it was difficult to learn a lot. Basically your winter work is your driving force at the moment, and hopefully your impression from FP1 was enough.

"We got a reasonable read so at the moment, with the package we have, we're relatively comfortable heading into Saturday morning. Whether conditions change and throw anything else up is another thing."

Di Resta added that he had still been able to gather some information from the second practice.

"I got a bit of an impression – we made some changes going into P2 and I think they worked well. We have progressed the car on slightly more from where we started," he said.

"[We need to get through] quite a lot in FP3, and I think a lot of people up and down the paddock a lot of people will be out there quite quickly.

"The big thing is running with high fuel and seeing the [tyre] degradation. It will be quite interesting on Sunday to see if being aggressive reflects in the final result.

"It's never a negative to be in the top 12, but there are a lot of people who have moved on as well as us. We would certainly like to be there tomorrow rather than today."

[Katsuya]

Hm. Seems that it's going to be a close one between RBR, Mercedes and McLaren this weekend, with Ferrari just ahead of what seems to be a massive scrap between Force India, Lotus and Sauber, with Toro Rosso ahead of Williams and Caterham.

[Lineker]

Mercedes could do very well with that rear wing, but it must remain dry for them to gain the advantage from it because it needs DRS enabled to work effectively, basically.

I wouldn't under-estimate Toro Rosso or Williams either. I think they could very well surprise.

But Ferrari to flounder

[MJB]

Still up after a long night out with the missus but determined to get up for qualifying. McLaren to get on pole, and Mercedes to impress with one lap pace.

[Adam]

Mercedes going very well in practice, should be interesting to see how this pans out. I am a Red Bull fan first and foremost but it would be so dull if they walked off with the title easily again, definitely want to see a competitive year.

[Lineker]

Mercedes could do very well with that rear wing, but it must remain dry for them to gain the advantage from it because it needs DRS enabled to work effectively, basically.

I wouldn't under-estimate Toro Rosso or Williams either. I think they could very well surprise.

But Ferrari to flounder

Called it. Both Alonso and Massa out in Q2!

[Katsuya]

Bizzare so far. Mercedes seem to be fastest, but McLaren might not have pushed as fast as they could have going in to Q3. Red Bull look like they're 3rd fastest, Ferrari are awful and then it's just such a jumble behind them. Kobayashi and Perez seemed massively quick in Q1 but out in Q2, Maldonado has suddenly put pace in the Williams and Kimi messed up majorly.

[Lineker]

I didn't see Q1, what happened to Kimi?

[MJB]

Got caught on the high speed chicane, ran wide and had to lift off completely on his final flying lap.

McLaren lock out the front row! Great lap from Grosjean aswell.

[Katsuya]

He had an excursion heading in to the final sector and just lost so much time from that he never got close to setting a final lap.

McLaren 1-2 and what the fuck, Romain Grosjean is in 3rd.

[Lineker]

Lewis on pole as McLaren lock out the front row. Heroic stuff from Grosjean in the Lotus just behind them. Full results to come.

Lewis Hamilton put McLaren on top of the times in final practice for the Australian Grand Prix, in a session that saw world champion Sebastian Vettel spin into the gravel.

Hamilton waited until the final minute to complete his flyer, stopping the clock at 1m25.681s to outpace the Lotus of Romain Grosjean, second quickest.

Red Bull's Mark Webber was third quickest, while team-mate Sebastian Vettel finished down in seventh after spinning off with 15 minutes of the session left.

Hamilton's team-mate Jenson Button was fourth fastest, the Briton followed by Mercedes duo Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher.

Ferrari endured a difficult session, with Fernando Alonso finishing down in 16th position, two places ahead of team-mate Felipe Massa.

Track conditions improved vastly compared to yesterday's sessions, which were hit by rain, and final practice took place on a dry track under clear skies. That meant teams took full advantage of the 60 minutes in order to make up for the time lost yesterday.

Teams had an extra set of tyres available following yesterday's rain-hit practice.

After the initial installation laps from all drivers, Rosberg was the first man to attempt a timed lap five minutes into the session, but the German ran wide at the first corner. The same happened to team-mate Schumacher just seconds later but this time at Turn 2.

Rosberg still set the early benchmark initially with a 1m26.982, the quickest lap of the weekend at that point. The Mercedes driver remained on top of the times until the 17-minute mark, when Hamilton completed his first flying lap to relegate his rival to second.

The Briton did not last long as pace-setter, however, as Schumacher went quickest just seconds later, moments after the yellow flags were deployed when Felipe Massa spun at the penultimate corner. The Brazilian recovered straight away.

Rosberg returned to the top at the 23-minute mark with the first lap of the weekend in the 1m25s, outpacing Schumacher by three tenths of a second. A minute later the yellow flags were back out as Bruno Senna lost control of his Williams at the penultimate corner, spinning into the grass and driving straight back into the pits.

Vettel's session came to an early finish when he lost control of his car at Turn 6, the German spinning off the track. His Red Bull got stuck in the gravel and the world champion was unable to return to action, continuing with his difficult start to the weekend.

Grosjean jumped to first place with seven minutes remaining as the teams began to run with the softer Pirelli compound. Schumacher's session came to a halt a minute later when he spun into the gravel at Turn 9. The yellow flags ruined some of his rivals' runs.

With a minute to go, Hamilton put his McLaren at the head of the times with a time 0.077 seconds quicker than Grosjean, including the best time in sector three.

Pedro de la Rosa managed his first timed lap of the weekend in the HRT, the Spaniard struggling with power steering problems to finish over seven seconds off the pace in 23rd, ahead of team-mate Narain Karthikeyan.

With the 107 per cent cut-off time expected to be around 1m31s, both de la Rosa and team-mate Narain Karthikeyan face a tough battle to qualify for the race.

FP3


Pos  Driver                Team                  Time               Laps

 1.  Lewis Hamilton        McLaren-Mercedes      1m25.681s           18

 2.  Romain Grosjean       Lotus-Renault         1m25.758s  + 0.077  21

 3.  Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault      1m25.900s  + 0.219  20

 4.  Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes      1m25.906s  + 0.225  17

 5.  Nico Rosberg          Mercedes              1m25.929s  + 0.248  23

 6.  Michael Schumacher    Mercedes              1m26.078s  + 0.397  14

 7.  Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault      1m26.211s  + 0.530  12

 8.  Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Renault      1m26.470s  + 0.789  17

 9.  Sergio Perez          Sauber-Ferrari        1m26.632s  + 0.951  20

10.  Daniel Ricciardo      Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m26.723s  + 1.042  17

11.  Jean-Eric Vergne      Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m26.733s  + 1.052  15

12.  Kimi Raikkonen        Lotus-Renault         1m26.737s  + 1.056  19

13.  Kamui Kobayashi       Sauber-Ferrari        1m26.755s  + 1.074  21

14.  Nico Hulkenberg       Force India-Mercedes  1m27.029s  + 1.348  23

15.  Bruno Senna           Williams-Renault      1m27.119s  + 1.438  20

16.  Fernando Alonso       Ferrari               1m27.323s  + 1.642  19

17.  Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes  1m27.428s  + 1.747  22

18.  Felipe Massa          Ferrari               1m28.023s  + 2.342  19

19.  Heikki Kovalainen     Caterham-Renault      1m28.341s  + 2.660  19

20.  Vitaly Petrov         Caterham-Renault      1m28.702s  + 3.021  11

21.  Timo Glock            Marussia-Cosworth     1m30.728s  + 5.047  13

22.  Charles Pic           Marussia-Cosworth     1m31.225s  + 5.544  14

23.  Pedro de la Rosa      HRT-Cosworth          1m33.114s  + 7.433  12

24.  Narain Karthikeyan    HRT-Cosworth          1m33.261s  + 7.580  13


All Timing Unofficial[/code]


Red Bull Racing and Lotus have asked the FIA to reconsider its view that the Mercedes DRS-activated F-duct is legal, with sources suggesting that an official protest cannot be ruled out.


On a weekend of major interest about the design of the Mercedes rear wing, which makes use of a hole to help flow air to either the wing itself or the diffuser to stall them for a straight-line speed boost, rival outfits are now uneasy about the situation.


AUTOSPORT can reveal that representatives of Lotus and Red Bull Racing approached the FIA's head of the technical department Charlie Whiting before final practice in Melbourne on Saturday morning to discuss the matter.


Neither outfit was willing to comment officially on what was discussed, but sources have suggested that the issue revolves around Articles 3.15 and Articles 3.18 of the Formula 1 Technical Regulations.


Article 3.15 states: "With the exception of the parts necessary for the adjustment described in Article 3.18, any car system, device or procedure which uses driver movement as a means of altering the aerodynamic characteristics of the car is prohibited."


Article 3.18 covers the specifications and components for the DRS elements of the rear wing, with Red Bull Racing and Lotus arguing that there is no part of the rules here that would allow the F-duct type system Mercedes is understood to be running.


Whiting said earlier this weekend, however, that he could see nothing in the regulations that would outlaw the Mercedes wing - as it was totally passive.


"What it appears some teams are doing is that when the DRS is operated, it will allow air to pass into a duct and do other things," he explained.


"That is all I can say - you will probably have a pretty good idea of what it might be doing, and other teams will as well. But it is completely passive. There are no moving parts in it; it doesn't interact with any suspension. No steering, nothing. Therefore I cannot see a rule that prohibits it."


It is possible that Whiting could issue a clarification of the matter, as he did before the start of the system on the Lotus reactive ride design that was outlawed on the basis it was providing an aerodynamic benefit.


However, if Whiting stands firm on his belief the Mercedes wing is legal, then Red Bull Racing and Lotus would have the option of lodging a protest about the wing after qualifying for the Australian Grand Prix.


Bernie Ecclestone is convinced that the Bahrain organisers would not take any risks if there was the possibility of serious trouble at this year's race.


Amid ongoing speculation about the future of the event, with reports over the past few days suggesting that threats have been made against it, Ecclestone said on Saturday that he had faith the Bahrain organisers would cancel the race if there was proper danger.


Speaking to The Daily Telegraph, Ecclestone appeared unconcerned about the possibility of a terrorist attack.


"That's a danger," Ecclestone said. "Nothing you can do about that. It could happen anytime, anywhere.


"There are always people threatening. I don't believe the [organisers] would take a risk if they thought there was a risk. Let's see."


Ecclestone believes protesters would actually be better off trying to delay the race than do anything violent.


"They [the protesters] don't need to resort to violence," he explained. "All they need to do is stand on the road on the way to the circuit, with placards, and they would get their message out there. Nobody's going to shoot them."


He added: "If I was the organiser, I would wait until 4pm or whenever the race starts, blocking the road, a few thousand of them, and then go home. And if they successfully delay the race then they would get more coverage than they could dream of."


A protest group called the Coalition of the Young of 14 Feb Revolution wrote to Ecclestone last month threatening to disrupt the Bahrain Grand Prix.


"We in the Coalition of the Youth of 14 Feb Revolution address you this letter to say clearly we do not accept the distortion of this popular sport for the sake of obliging a failing dictatorship," it wrote.


"We demand you reverse your decision and call off the F1 race in Bahrain, else wise we will have no choice but to do everything in our capacity to ensure the failure of the race rather than see it stained with blood and shame."

[MJB]

Since 2007, the driver who has qualified on pole in the first race of the season has gone on to become World Champion.