Formula One 2013

[MJB]

Kovalainen would be a great choice for Marussia. Much better than Razia.

[Lineker]

Mark Webber put Red Bull on top of the timesheets on the opening day of Formula 1's final pre-season test at Barcelona on Thursday.

The Australian's 1m22.693s lap time was set on soft-compound Pirelli tyres with just seven minutes of running remaining and put him 1.655s clear of Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes.

After the late-morning rain left drivers with a wet track to tackle, rain tyres were the weapons of choice during the early afternoon running, with Webber recording a series of 1m44s laps.

Track conditions soon improved enough for intermediates, with Paul di Resta the first man to try the green-stickered Pirellis in his Force India.

Webber having lowered the pace to the 1m38s bracket, it was Felipe Massa who was the first to gamble on a switch to slicks, the Ferrari driver using medium-compound rubber to gradually bring the times down into the 1m30s.

By that stage conditions were dry enough to allow a range of tyre strategies to be deployed, with medium, soft and supersoft rubber all being used at various points during the afternoon.

A late red flag, caused when Massa's Ferrari stopped at the exit of Turn 9, led to a flurry of fast times during the 12 minutes that remained.

Webber and Hamilton initially exchanged the top spot before the Red Bull driver twice went quicker still to end the day on top.

Hamilton, who suffered a quick spin at Turn 1 while on pushing hard on slicks, was followed by Jean-Eric Vergne's Toro Rosso, the Williams of Valtteri Bottas and McLaren's Sergio Perez.

Hamilton completed more laps than anybody else. His total of 113 was one more than Massa. Perez was the only other driver to get into triple figures.

[MJB]

Jules Bianchi has replaced Luiz Razia at Marussia, the team have confirmed.

This would also suggest they Marussia will be using Ferrari engines in 2014.

[Katsuya]

Which all seems very odd given how close Marussia were getting to McLaren last year.

[Lineker]

Pat Symonds is saying that it isn't yet a given. Way too early to tell.

[Katsuya]

And in today's WTF news, Honda are coming back in 2015, albeit only as an engine supplier. And McLaren are dumping Mercedes for them.

[Adam]

I thought McLaren and Mercedes had agreed to part ways not so long ago anyway? I'm sure I didn't imagine that...something like they would continue to supply the engines until the end of 2014/15 then McLaren wanted to look elsewhere.

[Lineker]

Honda back, awesome! Here's the text story.

Ex-Jordan/Renault/Lotus man Hari Roberts is the new director of aerodynamics at Caterham.

Ferrari are saying that they will have a major update on the car for the Chinese GP.

[Lineker]

BBC have announced their coverage plans for 2013, including having every practice session live.

Also Martin Whitmarsh has rejected the Honda story, for whatever that's worth.

[Adam]

BBC have announced their coverage plans for 2013, including having every practice session live.

Not strictly true. They're showing every practice sessions for each race they have live coverage for, which is about half.

I've never seen the appeal in watching a practice session myself, though.

[MJB]

They're not going to be in Australia, which is a shame.

[Lineker]

[Katsuya]

I like how the biggest star of the season may very well be a bulldog. Bernie's now said he'll look after it while Lewis is racing.

[Lineker]

McLaren's long-running title sponsorship deal with Vodafone will end later this year. The partnership began in 2007, but it had been widely expected since last season that the contract would not be renewed when it ran out at the end of '13. In a statement issued by the team on Thursday, McLaren said that a replacement title sponsor for 2014 would be announced on December 2. There are rumours swirling that Telmex could be named as title sponsors.

Marussia has recruited Venezuelan Rodolfo Gonzalez as its reserve driver for the 2013 Formula 1 season. Gonzalez will drive in a number of Friday practice sessions at grands prix as part of his deal. The 26-year-old has previous F1 test experience with Caterham and Force India. He has spent the last three years in GP2.

Williams technical director Mike Coughlan is to take on temporary team principal responsibilities at the outfit for this weekend's Australian Grand Prix. In the wake of the death of Ginny Williams, the wife of founder and team boss Frank Williams, family members are staying at home rather than travelling to Melbourne.

Williams will run back-to-back tests of its new sidepod design during Friday practice for the Australian Grand Prix before it commits to racing it. Although the latest design has delivered a significant step forward in pace, the team is not yet convinced about its impact on the car in warmer temperatures.

Thursday's press conference:

DRIVERS - Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes), Mark WEBBER (Red Bull Racing), Daniel RICCIARDO (Toro Rosso), Fernando ALONSO (Ferrari), Kimi RAIKKONEN (Lotus), Sebastian VETTEL (Red Bull Racing)

PRESS CONFERENCE

Q. Gentlemen, welcome. Let's start with you Mark. There have been a couple of retirements from the sport, so you're the oldest man on the grid this year – don't worry, you don't look it just yet.

Home race to start the season. Pretty much everyone here apart from Kimi has a home race. Is it good to get one out of the way first of all, all the pressure and extra attention that goes with it?

Mark WEBBER: I think it's just great to come to Australia at any stage let alone for a race, so we're all looking forward to finally getting racing. There's a lot of testing that goes on in Spain and we can all get down to what we all enjoy doing and that's racing the cars. So, yeah, all the teams, drivers come here with a little bit more anxiety let's say just because it's the first grand prix of the year, whether it's pit stops or whatever department you're in, it's a fresh challenge for the new year. For sure around round six, round seven everyone is more comfortable with their jobs but it's the same for everyone. It's a great event and looking forward to getting into the car.

Q. Daniel, I'm sure you're looking forward to getting into the car as well for what is your home grand prix. It's your second full season at Toro Rosso – extra pressure that goes with that? You against Jean-Eric Vergne. Is it a shootout between the pair of you? How do you see your season coming?

Daniel RICCIARDO: Just hanging out for it to start, actually. Obviously I'll try and take the experience I learned from last year and bring it into this season; a bit of extra confidence and whatnot and then just try to get some better results and start to creep up the order a bit. That's really the plan. You always want to try to beat the team-mate. That's always there, but I'm definitely focused on myself and just do than usual, not doing any dramatic changes.

Q. I'm not sure there's anything that's pretty much usual for you Lewis. New team. Melbourne might be familiar but Mercedes still not quite the familiar team that McLaren would be. How much different is your life at the moment with your new outfit?

Lewis HAMILTON: It's not that much different. It's put me in a better place. Just settling into the team pretty well. It's still a Formula One team and they still exist to win. The guys are doing a fantastic job and I'm really excited about the season and excited to get back in the car.

Q. More excited after Barcelona? It went well that final weekend for you and for Nico.

LH: Not particularly any more excited I think. You can't really take too much from the tests.

Q. With that in mind Kimi, let's reflect on yours and Lotus' chances for this season. A slight touch of unreliability in the tests but a lot of people are saying you, the team are genuine contenders for the title this year. Is that accurate?

Kimi RAIKKONEN: It's difficult to say but we will see after maybe two or three races where we are. We had a few small issues and unfortunately the issues just took a long time to fix. That happens. I think we should be OK. There are always things that can go wrong but I think we are more or less, speedwise, similar to where we were last year when we started and like I said it's difficult to say exactly where we will be. We'll see a bit tomorrow.

Q. Do you believe, going into you second full season since your comeback, that you're a better driver this year – that the rustiness you had maybe at the start of last year is gone?

KR: I don't think it's going to really change. I know the team so it should be a bit easier to start the year but there is no promise that this will give you better results. It's another year and we'll try to do as well as we can.

Q. For you Fernando, another year but a much better car than this time last year – 200 times better I think you said, the Ferrari in 2013. Is this your best chance to become a world champion at Ferrari?

Fernando ALONSO: We'll see. I think it was not difficult to start better than last year because it was difficult to start any worse. We were a little bit too far behind and the winter has been much better than the last year, understanding the car and working with the car and getting the results we more or less expect. That will give us much more confidence and optimism to start the season, but who knows. I think it will be a very interesting championship, very challenging first part of the championship with Australia, Malaysia. Difficult circuits, difficult weather as well – changeable. So we need to start on the right foot and hopefully scoring some good points for the championship.

Q. And Sebastian, three consecutive titles. How much difficult is a fourth title in a row now that you've got those three in the bag or does it make no difference whatsoever?

Sebastian VETTEL: I don't think it makes a difference. I think every year we start again from zero. I think everyone has the same chance. As we said, testing obviously this year was probably not as conclusive as previous years, so we arrive here not knowing what is going to happen. But I think it is very exciting so as every year, excited to start.

Q. Not knowing what's going to happen, does that make it even better for you – that the challenge could be tougher ahead?

SV: I think it's going to be a long year. Obviously we're looking forward to this weekend and this is the first of many. But I think we've seen in the last couple of years, last year in particular, that it's a long season and every race is very important. So this is the place we start but then there are many other places coming.

Q. Nineteen races ahead and lots of questions to answer. Bob, I'm sure we've got a few hands raised among our media delegates here with some questions for the drivers.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q. (Livio Oricchio - O Estado de Sao Paulo) To all drivers: during the winter tests tyre temperatures didn't go over 60 maximum Celsius and the temperatures here approach the temperatures indicated by Pirelli. Are you afraid that the handling of the car can be completely different to what you got in the winter tests?

SV: I think in winter testing we all suffered the same problem: the tyres didn't last. It was extremely difficult for us to do a lot of laps on the same set of tyres, to test certain things. We hope it gets better here. Otherwise it could be quite funny.

FA: Nothing to add. Let's hope it's different than the tests, with the temperature.

Q. The guys at the front, Daniel, probably have a touch more downforce on their car than the Toro Rosso. Do you feel the effect of the tyres that much extra in the midfield?

DR: I don't know. We're probably not afraid of what the weekend is going to be. We're probably more excited. It was a little bit frustrating at times, so I think we're excited about what it's going to bring here, so I'm sure it's going to better. Looking forward to it more than anything else. There are still some answers that need to be found. We're all in the same boat, so I think that's going to make it exciting.

Q. (Gabriel Polychronis– F1plus.com) This one is for you Mark. Do you feel that the recent criticism from Helmut Marko on your performances acts as a motivator for you to prove yourself throughout the season.

MW: I've answered this question a few times in the last six weeks and as I said, he has his agenda and I'm not part of it, so that's fine. Everyone can have their opinions. I'm always pretty good for motivations.

Q. It doesn't make your motivation any less though?

MW: Of course not.

Q. (Ian Parkes – PA) Sebastian, after winning three titles in a row now, coming into this season, how do you approach it? Is your motivation any different to the past three seasons when you've gone on to win the title? And if it isn't, how do you build yourself up, keep yourself going, keep yourself focussed.

SV: Well if there is a secret I think it's not to think about what happened the last three years. I think the first title was very, very special. After that I don't think you have that pressure any more. You've proved to yourself more than to anyone else that you can do so. After that obviously we had two fantastic years again. Very different to each other. But as I said, you probably don't think about what happened last year or the last three years. We are here, we have zero points on our side at the moment, the same as everyone else. So everyone has the same opportunities. The cars didn't really change. Last year we saw it was very close so I don't expect it to be any different that last year. If anything maybe a little bit tighter. So it will be crucial to make the most out of every single race – but in terms of motivation... it was a long flight but I'm happy to be here now and very pleased to start again.

Q. (Trent Price – Richland F1) Question for Lewis. Obviously we can't take a lot from testing but obviously Mercedes did quite well towards the end of the times. Are you pushing quite hard to get time out of the car or are you feeling comfortable with it? Are you feeling quite snug?

LH: I feel comfortable in the car. I feel we've definitely made some really good steps forward. We've still got a lot of work to do. Obviously, normally when you go to a new team it takes a while to get settled in but I'm still working as hard as I can to make sure that feels as comfortable as possible. I think it just takes time and as time goes on I think I'll get even more and more comfortable in the team.

Q. What's been the one thing that you've appreciated more than anything since you've moved to Mercedes? What have the team done or allowed you to do that's made you feel more comfortable?

LH: Just a little bit more time at home. Training and to spend with family and friends. It's been good.

Q. (Manuel Franco - Diario AS) Question for Fernando. Ferrari can win this race?

FA: I think difficult to know. No-one knows who can win this race at this moment. We have to wait and see for answers to some questions that winter testing doesn't answer. I think there are top teams with a little bit of advantage. Maybe it's not the same as last year where we saw seven different winners in the seven first races. It was a little bit mixed on the grid. I think this year with the consistency in the rules I expect the five top teams to have a little advantage and not to have many, many surprises in the first races. But from these five top teams I think it's very difficult to see really after winter testing who has this extra two- or three-tenths that can make you win. At the moment I think it's very close and very difficult to choose one favourite.

Q. So, would you say ten drivers go into this race with a realistic chance of winning on Sunday?

FA: I think so. I think Mercedes, McLaren, Lotus, Ferrari and Red Bull show up some potential in different days in testing and different parts of races last year. I think difficult to choose.

Q. (Carlos Miguel Gomez – La Gaceta) Question for Fernando. After Barcelona, we see in Barcelona you have the best time in the last sector. With these conditions could this track be very good for the Ferrari?

FA: I don't know. I think winter test, as we've said many times, very difficult and dangerous to make any conclusions. I think in terms of sector times and things like that, a lot of different tyres for every team, a lot of different fuel loads etcetera and different moments of the race. We are happy with the job we have done in the winter. We more or less did the programme that we planned – even though we had some weather changeable on some days – and we arrived here with our hundred per cent of the potential at the moment in the car. We don't really miss anything, that was a problem before. So, hopefully it's enough to be competitive and this circuit in particular I like a lot. I have been always very comfortable here and with good performance, the same in Malaysia, these first two races can be a good opportunity for us to score some good points. But I don't know how quick we can be.

Q. (Richard Fowler – motorsportretro.com) Mark, it's the 60th anniversary of the race here at Albert Park. What would it mean for you to win at home and join the likes of Jack Brabham and Alan Jones as a winner of the Australian Grand Prix?

MW: Any grand prix victory is special. I'm lucky to have had that feeling a few times now, which is great: Monaco, the British Grand Prix, those are very prestigious races. This is for sure up there in the top three of events a driver wants to win: your home grand prix is for sure very special. It would be a sensation feeling to be able to do it. But as you say, all that, anniversaries and the nice, fuzzy stuff, is not really going to make it easier for me. I realise I've got to put together a clean weekend and pull it all together and make all of the right decisions. We're capable of it but we're also mindful that it's a very tricky weekend to execute – especially with it being the first event and things like that. But looking forward to it.

Q. (Kate Walker – Girl Racer) Question to any of you who want to answer it. We've heard a lot about the new tyre compounds that Pirelli have provided but the new tyres also have different weights, which has affected the front-rear balance of the car. To what extent has that affected your handling on track, downforce, things like that please?

KR: I think everybody has similar issues with the tyres. All winter, conditions, they wore out very quickly but I thought they had better grip on one lap than last year but then they go off more quickly. But it's difficult to say with the conditions we've been running over the winter testing, so it might be a completely different story here. Balance-wise they are quite similar to last year.

Q. Lewis?

LH: I don't really have much more to say about it. The tyres are a little bit different, it's not a big drama, everyone's in the same boat so it'll be interesting to see how long the supersoft tyre lasts, if there's a little more graining than there was last year. But again, everyone's got the same tyre. I haven't seen any discrepancies between each tyre.

Q. On the subject of supersofts, do you enjoy the challenge Seb, of having to go with a tyre that has never been used here before?

SV: We didn't use it in winter testing either; we haven't used that tyre. I think generally, as Kimi said, it will be interesting to see whether the temperatures make a difference or not at all. We are keen to find out and then we'll know a little bit more.

Q. (Ian Parkes – PA) Fernando, you've agonisingly missed out on the title twice in the last three years. Do you carry the pain of those near-misses into this season? Does it serve as motivation for you to drive you on this season?

FA: Well, I think I feel privileged to fight for the world championship two times in the last three years. Not many people have the opportunity to be on the podium and to enjoy the podium ceremony in Formula One and even less people have the opportunity to win races and very few people have the opportunity to fight for a world championship. So I feel lucky and privileged to have those opportunities. Sure, we lost two times in the last three years, in the last race and we want to have again the possibility once again to fight for the world championship, hopefully this year and hopefully this year change the final result. But this is just a normal thing for the sport and this is maybe some extra motivation for me and from the team, to really have one happy result at the end.

Q. (Michael Wittershagen– Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung) Question to Sebastian and Fernando: could you please tell us what you think of each other as a person and as a driver?

FA: Well, I think as a driver, really not much to say: three times World Champion beating all the records in terms of wins and fastest laps and pole positions etc. 2011 was nearly a record championship and this is not only about the car or about the package. You need to perform, even when you have the car that is available. Seb has won everything perfectly in the past years and for that he is World Champion and he's a tough rival and contender for the next couple of years. As a person, we obviously don't spend much time together. We are of a different generation. We didn't race together in go-karts or anything like that. He's a normal – or looks like a normal guy – and nothing more so all good.

SV: Thank you very much. I think, as a driver, I don't have to introduce Fernando. I think he's one of the most respected and most accepted drivers in the world. I think in all circumstances he has the ability to be on the limit. I think he's a very intelligent driver and I think that's the reason why he was always fighting for the championship until the end, in many years of his career. Fortunately we had the upper hand in the last couple of years but surely he's trying his best to give everyone a hard time again this year, and as a person, as he said, we don't spend that much time together, hardly with any of the drivers. It's probably what people think or expect from the outside but there's obviously not a lot of time during the weekend but in private – I don't drink coffee so I'm not inviting you for a coffee but I can invite you for a Red Bull if you want to talk.

Q. At least you're on one each other's Christmas card list now for the future.

Q. (Alex Popov - Russian TV) There is strong opinion about the new qualifying, in Q2 especially, because there are fewer cars and the tyres are very soft, so maybe it's better to preserve the tyres than get into Q3? Do you agree?

MW: In Barcelona we were still qualifying all together. Just start the race. The tyres at the back of the grid... don't worry about Q3, we don't worry about Q1 or Q2 either. You need the tyres to finish the race.

Q. Can any of you see an advantage there in missing out on Q3, potentially in the first few races?

SV: I don't think so. I think you always want to start from the front. There's the odd example here or there where people maybe had a bit of a benefit putting on that extra set at the end of the race but on average I think if you can chose, you go for the front (of the grid).

Q. Same for you Daniel?

DR: Yeah, I'd like to! I'd like to. Obviously if I was in the position to do that as well I would definitely go for starting at the front. Starting in the mid-pack and taking that risk to save tyres is obviously putting yourself in a bit more of a tight situation potentially on the first lap with more cars around. The thing is, if you're able to fight for the front row you go for it, that's the logical one for me.

Q. (Gary Meenaghan – The National) Is there such a thing as an ideal size of field; we've lost a team, obviously, over the break? Are we now the ideal size, should it be higher, less?

MW: I think that's a nice number; twenty is probably getting a bit low so between 26 and 20 is a nice little number. More than 26 is probably too much on some tracks – Monte Carlo, whatever – in qualifying. I think that's a good number, certainly in a nice window but that level of numbers – I think what's important is the level of the teams, that's the thing we've got to keep an eye on, keep the level of the teams at a high level in Formula One, not to have cars on the grid that are properly not at the level, so we just need to keep an eye on that in the future.

Q. (Livio Oricchio - O Estado de Sao Paulo) Start with me, finish with me: Sebastian and Mark, the new test for the front wing and forbidden to use DRS on many parts of the circuit; how do these changes affect your team particularly?

MW: Look, we've had a lot of different front wing regulations in the last few years. It's normal in Formula One that we have to adjust technically around new rule changes, sometimes within the season itself, not just at the start of the season: January, February. We obviously make the car fit within those regulations and we will have to adjust the car around the findings of how that front wing will form in those new regulations, so that's fine. In terms of the DRS, it's not a big thing for us. I think that we have been OK in qualifying in the past, also quite strong in races so the effect of the DRS, the delta of the DRS, all those type of things which is not something that we're having a huge eye on, we're not disappointed that the DRS is less in qualifying. For example, Sebastian and I are very happy; we pushed quite hard to have DRS dropped down in terms of volume on Saturday afternoon so we're quite relaxed with that one.

SV: I think most of the changes to the front wing came in trying to stop us so something that we maybe did better or that the others couldn't do and then there's just one more thing, so it's not a new situation.

[LUKIE]

Qualifying has been post-poned until 11am EST Sunday morning. 8am my time. Get out of here.

[Lineker]

Crazy rain apparently, will catch the BBC highlights show at 1.

They did manage to do Q1 though. 17th Maldonaldo (who declared the Williams 'undrivable'), 18th Gutierrez (minus a Sauber front wing I believe), 19th Bianchi (Marussia), 20th Chilton (Marussia), 21st van der Garde (Caterham), and 22nd Pic (Caterham).

For what it's worth, Grosjean topped FP3 in the Lotus ahead of the Ferrari's of Alonso and Massa. And Nico Rosberg was the fastest in quali before it got postponed.

Also, drivers will be left without in-cockpit warning lights in the Australian Grand Prix because of a telemetry problem. The problem, which the FIA revealed on Saturday afternoon, also means that race control will not be able to deactivate the DRS.

Friday's press conference:

Team representatives - Eric Boullier (Lotus), Paul Hembery (Pirelli), Jean-Michel Jalinier (Renault Sport F1), Martin Whitmarsh (McLaren), Toto Wolff (Mercedes).

Q. Jean-Michel, after three very successful years in your partnership with Red Bull as the engine supplier, what are your objectives for this 2013 season? Another double world championship?

Jean-Michel Jalinier: Obviously to renew the success of the past year and win a new title or two new titles with our partner Red Bull.

Q. Could it be quite a difficult season for you as an engine manufacturer? Whilst you're keen to develop and progress the 2013 engine it is the last year we'll be using that engine and you have a very big programme for 2014 ahead. How do you manage that balancing act?

J-MJ: Well, it's correct that there is a challenge because we have to provide the right level of service and performance with the current engine and at the same time develop the new engine. And during the current year the staff of Renault Sport F1 are going to be allocated from V8 to the new engine progressively.

Q. Paul, an awful lot of data to go through after the first two practice sessions of the season. How happy are you with the way the tyres stood up to the demands of the Albert Park circuit today?

Paul Hembery: I'm really pleased, to be honest. After the winter testing, which was obviously not particularly good from a tyre perspective. To finally get running in the normal running conditions, we are pleased. We found that the medium tyre is lasting 22-24 laps which is what we needed. And the supersoft - very much a qualifying tyre here. You've got to your time in and probably do a short stint at the start and then you'll be looking at a two, possibly three-stop strategy. From our point of view that's in line.

Q. Do you feel the drivers might have to change the way they warm the tyres up, especially for qualifying with the supersoft, the changes to the compound and the construction? Do they need to be a little more gentle before they go for a flying lap?

PH: Well, we haven't had the debriefing yet, that's going to happen this evening to try and understand how it felt when they were doing quick runs and also when they were on the full fuel loads at the end, to do the start-of-race simulation. But at the end of the day the supersoft really is just intended as the tyre to do a time with and the main race will be held on the medium tyre. So we don't see any particular issues.

Q. Toto, rather dramatic end to the second practice session. Explain to us what happened with Lewis Hamilton and subsequently Nico Rosberg as well.

Toto Wolff: We got some good mileage on the car today but at the end we had some minor issues. We had a gearbox issue and a problem with the bib. So it's not a big drama.

Q. On both cars, gearbox issues?

TW: No, on one car.

Q. And what happened to Lewis, driver error?

TW: No, we had a slight problem on the bib, not a driver error, it caused some understeer and he went off.

Q. Off-track it's been quite a busy winter at the team, changes to the management structure. Explain to us now who's in place and who does what and who has responsibility for what.

TW: It's pretty clear now isn't it? We tried to keep you busy over the winter! The structure's actually pretty simple. Niki [Lauda] has been the chairman of the board since a couple of months in a non-operational function. And I have been recruited, basically, to step in for Norbert [Haug] as the motorsports director, and equally in an executive function in Brackley for MGP. So I'm having two heads on, actually.

Q. And beneath you Ross [brawn], as team principal, still has the same responsibilities as before?

TW: He's not beneath me, it's a different position and he's team principal, he stays the team principal and he's responsible for the racing. It didn't change to last year.

Q. Eric, Lotus, how do you fare from today's two practice sessions? How pleased or otherwise are you with your performance?

Eric Boullier: I'm pleased because obviously we had to fulfil our testing schedule for today, so no issue and we could go through everything we wanted to test and obviously understand. Performance is not so bad, I have to say, so happy and pleased with where we are. Obviously there's still a lot to learn from tyres and obviously the rest of the weekend, maybe the wet forecast is obviously another challenge coming.

Q. Talking of challenges, if we have a development race this season, how well-equipped are Lotus? Do you have the budget you think you need to win a development race?

EB: Definitely. We have the budget in place. We have already anticipated the split from the resources we have to put on the 2013 car and obviously the 2014 challenge, so now everything is in place.

QUESTION FROM THE FLOOR

Q. (Dieter Rencken - The Citizen) Gentlemen, your companies are in Formula One basically to use performance as a marketing pedestal or platform to be seen by a worldwide audience. Yet with the recent move to pay-per-view television audiences are dropping off. People are talking about 19% cumulative drops in the UK, 70% possibly in France, Jean-Michel. How do you people feel about this and how can you reverse this trend?

J-MJ: Yes, it's true that in France we're going to pay-per-view but it's a worldwide exposure and this is France and only France, so it's not a worldwide big issue. We're counting on quality because we have today a commitment from Canal Plus to deliver real quality in the job they're going to do to cover Formula One. We hope quality is going to be the master word.

PH: Well, I agree that there's some quality broadcasters going into the sport and there's no doubt that the level is being raised all over. Having said that, when you do your calculations to monitor your investment in the sport, or any sport, viewing figures are also vital. There's probably a bigger picture involved in terms of what's happening with the television world overall. It's not just about motorsport in reality. Broadcasting is something that can't rely on national broadcasters anymore. Pay TV is probably going to be future. It might not be today. At the moment we might lose some viewers in the short term but long-term that's probably where we're all going to end up. So, it's a hard one to call. You have to be slightly worried about it, but equally [about] what's happening in the television world generally. It's not just about Formula One, it's the television business model as it currently stands.

TW: I would agree with Paul. We're seeing a switch in the model. I'm not so worried because what we see is that in the US it's functioning very well. All the big sports platforms are transmitting on pay-per-view or pay TV. Probably it's a difficult transition, it's going to be painful at the beginning but it looks the way forward.

MW: We've got to accept that the world is changing and media is changing, so clearly pay-per-view in the first instance has reduced the classic audience size and that's got to be a concern. All we can do in Formula One is put on the best show and make the most entertaining show we possibly can. Also I think we have to work hard on all the other platforms because less people are watching television in the traditional sense. They are watching it in deferred modes, so they're watching it through mobile devices, laptops, tablets etc. So we have to look at the complete picture of how people view their entertainment, how they use entertainment. The idea that the audience is always going to sit down at one or two o'clock on a Sunday afternoon and watch us is clearly going to change and we've got to accept5 that we have to make the best show we can and Bernie and his team have got to go out and market it and exploit it and get us as big an audience as we can possibly get.

EB: I think most has been told by my colleagues but if I may add something, going pay TV obviously it's a changed audience. It's clear that with live TV viewers you have different figures but I think the cumulative audience will be also stronger. I think if you take the example of some urban markets going to pay TV, I mean we always look at the global audience and actually America is going to be free-to-air so I'm sure the audience numbers will largely cover the difference in Europe

Q.(Alex Popov – RTR) The question is for Toto and Eric. What about the new passive DRS on your car, will you use it here, or if not, will you use it in Malaysia. And also for Toto, can you confirm that Daniel Juncadella is the reserve driver or not because it's not clear.

EB: We have not used the passive DRS on our car and we don't know yet when we are putting it on the car.

TW: Same for us. As for Daniel, he is part of the DTM line-up. It's something we want to have a close look, that starting from F3 where we have engines into DTM we want to build that platform and really have a ladder for young drivers in the system to grow up into Formula One and obviously putting them in the simulator and educating them properly is something we want to do in the future and Daniel is going to be part of that group of young drivers.

Q. (Ed Krause – Australian Motorsport News) The question goes back to the first question. Given the broadcast model is changing does that mean your revenue models need to change? You sell sponsorship based on bulk viewing essentially through free-to-air. Will you expect that the uptake in revenues from pay-per-view will offset any potential losses or reductions in your actual sponsorship?

MW: I think clearly you would hope that there would be an uplift in revenue from pay-per-view but I think all Formula One teams now have a more complex business model than purely selling the live television audience. We have for some time had to work harder and harder. Advertising has become a more challenging worldwide marketplace. Of course we hope we get some more revenue from pay-per-view. But I think Formula One is a mass audience sport and I think we inevitably have to maintain that. As we just said, we're going through a transition period and people can point to Formula One as maybe making some decisions that are wrong, but actually I think if you take the case of the UK, Formula One really didn't have a choice. The BBC was reducing its sporting budget, Bernie really had to move when he did and I think Sky are doing an excellent job. We've got to work with them, we've got to enhance our show, we've got to look at all the other media platforms outside of television that are increasingly being used and we've all got to work together to do so.

EB: Yes, as you said, obviously as you said the business model today of a Formula One is much more complex maybe than the past, than just selling TV viewerships. If we could get more money from pay TV it would be welcome. It's more complex in looking at the future. I mean football went to pay TV and got huge revenue from pay TV, but I think Formula One, because first its global and this is the only global sport in the world it needs to be something more complex and it's going to take time.

TW: I think it's much tougher today with big sponsors and sponsors leaving the sport is not good for any of us. But we shouldn't talk it down. As Eric said it's the largest global motorsport – sport platform actually – and I think we are just in a terrible environment. It's a long cycle. Big corporations pull out and in a couple of years we will look back and say that was pretty tough. But if you look at the revenue we are having from TV and Bernie's marketing that revenue is going up. So maybe that model is changing and we are going to go more regional. We have seen it in the past where teams are doing regional sponsorship through various channels, through the Internet and classical sponsorship, so the whole model is in a transition but I think it's in a transition to a different maybe better model. It's going to increase the potential revenue streams and as I said before it's just a very tough market at the moment.

Q. For Paul and Jean-Michel at the back. Obviously you're not teams but partners and suppliers for Formula One, so how does this affect you as engine and tyre suppliers?

J-MJ: The only way it can affect us is through the budget of the teams. If the team has got less budget it will be more difficult to find a way to get enough revenue for Formula One to live with engine suppliers, but we have no direct impact.

PH: For ourselves on one level there is an impact because it's a major investment for us to be in the sport and the viewing figures do have a big impact on how we calculate the value of our involvement. Having said that, the other aspect is that it is a unique global platform. As Martin mentioned there is no other sport that has the global cohesion. F1's gone away from a European-based sport to a truly global sport and if we do finally go to Russia, we have another race in the US and there's always talk of something else in Latin America, it is a unique proposition for many people like ourselves, particularly in the automotive world. So it has some value. There are also different channels that we don't really evaluate today. We talk about gaming for example. I've yet to see anyone calculate what's the value of having a brand exposed in gaming. I'm sure that will come soon but there are areas that we will evolve into as a sporting platform that will give us more value than just the classical television audience. Martin's right – most people under the age of 20 don't watch television on a television anymore. That is the way the world is changing. Formula One has an opportunity to be at the forefront of that technology, particularly as it's such a technological sport. We have to look at it from two points of view.

Q. (Ian Parkes – PA) Martin, given that at the end of last season McLaren finished that season with the fastest car, a winning car, what was the thinking with the team over the winter to decide to make so many changes? And secondly, given the team also lost Paddy Lowe over the winter, has that played any part in the team starting the season on the back foot?

MW: Well, answering the last piece first, obviously Paddy was with us through to the launch of the car, so I don't think the Paddy Lowe decision had an impact. I think the primary decision is you make a judgement during the course of last year. We made good development of the car. If you look at our year, in fact we were very strong here in Australia. We didn't make as much progress for a while, and then towards the end we came strong again. We took the view that there is a natural asymptotic profile to development and we felt that if we wanted to have the ability to develop the car between now and the end of the season we needed to make some season. Inevitably when you do that there is some risk involved and that was the judgement we made. We still believe that we've got a platform we can develop. It's a platform we don't know as well as the one we have left. Undoubtedly, if we took last year's car and just concentrated on that, would we be quicker today? I think, yes we would, today. But would it have the development potential during the year? It was our judgement, we'll see later whether we're right or wrong, but it was our judgement that we needed to make some changes which is what we did.

Q. (Jacob Polychronis – F1plus.com) Martin from a managerial perspective is it easier now at McLaren considering that you no longer have two world champions with the team or was that considered a situation you'd prefer to have?

MW: I think any team wants the strongest driver line-up. We've had various stages in the life and history of McLaren where we've had two world champions and those have usually been interesting and good phases because you have two good drivers. It wasn't managerially a real challenge. Occasionally you have a situation where drivers are near the front and they're competing with one another, if you're in the middle of the pit wall you know if it goes wrong the heat comes on you. You have some uncomfortable moments but overall it's not a bad place to be.

Q. (Kate Walker – Girl Racer) Question for the three of you in the front row: going back to the issue of sponsorship, but away from the broadcasting and TV rights, to what extent has the financial crisis affected your ability to pull in sponsors? We've seen Burn come in, Glaxo Smith Kline, Blackberry but there have also been a few high profile losses. Toto, I'm particularly interested in your response because you've seen this through both Williams and Mercedes. Is there a difference at the front end of the grid to the back?

TW: I think it's – as I said before – a tough environment. I'm in a totally different place than I was last year and it helps to kind of give me a good perspective as to how important it is for us all to push for the sport and not just go flat out in an opportunistic way for ourselves. So yes, the financial crisis and the economic environment has a big impact. If big corporations have to scale down their investment, marketing or sponsorship is probably the first thing that you're looking at, but I guess the sport is in good form and good health. It's cyclical, it's going to come back, maybe in a different way, in a different form, maybe different kind of partners and as you said, we have seen Coca Cola coming into the sport; Blackberry, obviously, with us, has been a very important milestone for the team so I don't feel so depressed for the sponsorship market but we have to be very careful and look at the situation and we can't, as I said before, we can't just look after ourselves, we have to look after all the teams and try to keep the sport healthy.

EB: I think that for me it's a little bit more complex. The world economic situation doesn't help because every company still looks at their budget and obviously how it is spent. The funny thing about the situation is that Formula One is attractive today to a lot of companies and we actually have on our shirts signs of a couple of new sponsors including Coca Cola and Microsoft and Unilever which are big companies and looking at new strategy, and I'm telling you, the global strategy of Formula One – and I'm repeating myself – but it is the only global sport in the world. I think, in our case anyway, the most difficult challenge is to... we have a lot of discussions with sponsors and it's mostly the heritage from the last decade, where you have car manufacturers selling cars and obviously today we are selling Formula One which is a bit different. It's all an educational process which you have to do and go through and go to the new companies which were interested in Formula One and, as you say Toto, the sport is healthy in this way but it's definitely the challenge and we have to be cautious but it will take time to rebuild all the portfolio.

MW: I think our view is that there is still a lot of companies which find Formula One a very attractive sport to invest in but inevitably, if they're going through a tough time, then they're hesitant to come in at this moment. I think we all come across a lot of businesses that would like to come in, they would like to come in at perhaps a rate card that some of the top teams wouldn't support. I think we've got to be very conscious of that but as we said earlier, we've got to make sure we build the show, make sure we work hard at it. The world economy certainly hasn't made it any easier, there's no doubt about that. But I think there's some positive signs in the market at the moment, that people are seeing that Formula One is stabilising, there have been some great World Championships over the last few years. I sense that perhaps we were the last into this recession, we will be the last out of it but I think teams are starting to see better interest in the commodity of Formula One than perhaps we have in the last two or three years where people didn't have confidence because people need to have confidence, need to believe that they're going to be around and survive and be healthy before they invest in Formula One.

Q. (Matt Coch – pitpass.com) To the team principals: we're talking about money almost exclusively here, isn't that a sign that Formula One's excesses have got a little bit excessive? You've got teams at the back spending a million dollars a week where teams at the front are spending four million dollars. Doesn't the whole underlying problem here stem back to the fact that Formula One spends too much money?

MW: Inevitably, if you say we're going to put two cars on the grid 19 times this year and look at the budget, then I think that by most people's... certainly by most people's domestic economics it seems very excessive indeed. But it's driven by the value of success in Formula One because, as we've mentioned already, it's a world sport, it has this great coverage and none of the investors today in Formula One are there for any altruistic motivation, they're there because it makes sense, they get a return on that investment and if they're not, they're not around for long. It's one of those situations. I think Formula One has not been the best environment in which to try and control costs because we're naturally competitive people and you're always trying to find a way forward, find performance, find a way to spend more money. But I do think there is much more discussion about money in Formula One than there needs to be; I don't know how much it interests the audience incidentally, perhaps we talk about it too much. But I think it's clear that if you look at the limitation on the number of engines, the limitations on the number of gearboxes, wind tunnel, cfd restrictions, testing restrictions; all of those things go against the natural inclination of the large teams in Formula One – because they like doing all those things, they like to do them frequently. The fact that we have restricted ourselves quite successfully in those areas, is a demonstration that there is an understanding that the sport has been too excessive in the past and we've got to try and control it, but it's difficult, because you control one space and the sport is very creative and they will find somewhere else to spend the money. It's going to be constant process.

EB: For me I think your question is a bit strange; do we spend too much? It depends on the level of expenditure, obviously, and it's a global sport, successful I think, so obviously success is driving costs. If there are a lot of followers and TV viewers and a lot of people watching across the world it is because they like this sport. I think the real question is how to make sure this sport can last and be sustainable for the long term, rather than do we spend too much or not enough.

TW: If you look at the media value of some of our races, it's huge. I remember I read a figure about Mercedes winning in Shanghai last year and it had a media value of about 60 million for our brand, so the question is that you have to put that in relation: how much do we spend and how much value do we generate for our partners? I think that ratio is still healthy.

Q. (Dieter Rencken – The Citizen) Question predominantly for Martin, only because you've been in Formula One 21 years or so so I think you've operated under virtually all the Concordes except the first one. If we have a look at the 2008/2009 season, there was no proper Concorde in place. All the parties had agreed to operate under the previous one, so in real terms there was proper procedure, governance, whatever. At the moment there is absolutely nothing, so Sunday's race is the first race for about thirty years running outside of a Concorde Agreement; is that sustainable at all?

MW: Well, I think it's sustainable but it isn't desirable. I think now it's clear that the FIA and FOM are working hard together. I think people are operating largely as though the governance of Concorde is in place. Clearly there are some questions about how some rule changes have happened; is there correct governance? I think at the moment people are resisting the desire to get terribly pedantic so I think in the best interest in the sport, rather than arguing about the detail of a particularly rule change, it's better that we all concentrate on converging upon a Concorde which is clear governance, it gives a clear framework, it gives confidence to investors, it makes the teams know how they are going to operate. Is it sustainable for a few more months? Yes. Is it healthy and the right thing for years to come in the sport? No. But I think there are signs that people are working quite hard now to get to a new Concorde.

[Katsuya]

I watched it. There was a huge power cut throughout the circuit and apparently something caused the telemetry buttons to fail. Big problem will be that the FIA can't send the blue light signal on to the wheel, but that's a relatively new thing anyway so they'll just have to rely on flags/the teams.

Hamilton spun after turn one and his rear wing hit the barrier but he kept on going, but Rosberg seemed much more comfortable in the car. Massa looked happier than Alonso did too, even after crashing in the exact same place as Gutierez did in what seemed a heavier accident, but he was able to continue back to the pits.

Big surprise was JEV doing so well (2nd when they were all using full wets). Oh, and van der Gaade and Pic were shit. Chilton was on a quicker lap when Gutierrez crashed at the end so may have been closer to Bianchi.

[Lineker]

Before I left for work at half 5 this morning I saw that Sky had a technical fault and an error graphic up, I'm assuming that that's why then?

[Katsuya]

Yup. They got it back for about a minute, Brundle mentioned the power cut and then the power went off again

EDIT: Also, favourite thing about the hypothesising over what the grid could be called as has to be Horner saying "if they wanted to do it fairly it should be on car number"...in other words, a Red Bull 1-2.

[Sam]

Surely that's only the least fairest ways of doing things.