FORMULA 1 - 2012

[MIKA27]

Haug: No big surprises on W03

Mercedes motorsport boss Norbert Haug has played down suggestions that the team's new W03 will have some groundbreaking features.

The Brackley-based squad opted to skip the first test in Jerez and media reports suggested they were trying to hide a "clever new front wing" from their rivals.

Pictures that emerged from the team's shakedown at Silverstone last week showed that the new car has a stepped nose, but no other obvious innovations were spotted.

All will be revealed at Barcelona's Circuit de Catalunya on Tuesday though, as the team will launch their new challenger shortly before the start of the second pre-season test.

"I don't think that your eye will be caught by any big surprises when you see the car during the unveiling," Haug told Autosport.

"But I certainly hope that we have some clever solutions and we have some good ideas incorporated on the car.

"It's a good base to work from and certainly we will not turn the world upside down, but we do need to make a good step [with this car]."

Mercedes, who completed a private test with the new car at Barcelona on Sunday, are determined to move closer to Red Bull, McLaren and Ferrari this season after finishing a distant fourth the past two campaigns.

"I wouldn't say that it's a new start," said Haug. "This car is the product of what we have learned in the last two years.

"We had three podium finishes in the first year, but last year we did not head in the right direction. We had some highs, like the Chinese Grand Prix when the track was front-tyre limited and the performance was a little better. But over the course of the year it wasn't good enough.

"To be a regular contender with Red Bull, Ferrari and McLaren is quite a task. We need to learn, we need to develop our team in that direction and I'm sure that we can do that."

[MIKA27]

Teams unwilling to supply Pirelli with test car

Pirelli's motorsport director Paul Hembery has revealed that the teams are unwilling to help the sole tyre supplier, in its bid to acquire a modern F1 car for testing purposes.

The Italian company has been using the now defunct Toyota TF109 raced in 2009, but with the major regulation changes seen in the following two seasons, Pirelli have retired the chassis in the hope they can acquire a newer test car.

However, Hembery revealed that the teams have been far from helpful in sourcing a car for the company to develop its tyres

"We do most of the work in the simulator," he told El Pais, "but it's more difficult to work on the compounds because it requires the interactivity with the asphalt.

"We have asked for help and they [the teams] tell us that we should continue with the Toyota, and that's nonsense," he added.

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

[MIKA27]

Wurz returns to Williams as driver mentor

Alex Wurz has returned to his former outfit, Williams, as a driver mentor, the team confirmed on Monday.

Wurz will work with Pastor Maldonado, Bruno Senna and the Williams team to share his 11 years of Formula 1 experience as the outfit looks to return to competitive form.

The Austrian has 18 years of motorsports experience, in which he claimed three F1 podium finishes with three different teams; Renault, McLaren and Williams.

"This is a great initiative by Williams and highlights just how hard the team is pushing to optimise its performance," Wurz said.

"Throughout my career as a sportsman, which started at the age of 12 in BMX racing, includes over a decade in Formula One and is still ongoing (racing in the World Endurance Championship), I am lucky to have gained so much experience.

"I grew up in a family business of driver training and naturally I enjoy helping fellow athletes to operate at their best. I'm really looking forward to using my expertise to help Williams at this important stage in its history."

Mark Gillan, Chief Operations Engineer at Williams F1, added: "I am delighted to be working once more with Alex and look forward to his valuable input with the drivers as the whole team strives to continuously improve in all aspects of its operation."

Wirz will be present at the upcoming Barcelona test and will attend most, if not all, of the 2012 races.

[MIKA27]

Martin Brundle says leading BBC coverage in 2011 made him a better commentator

Martin Brundle believes he will be a better commentator for Sky in 2012 thanks to the experience he gained from leading the BBC's television commentary during Formula 1 races last season.

Brundle became lead commentator for the BBC in 2011, standing alongside his former rival David Coulthard in the box, after Jonathan Legard was dropped from the line-up the previous winter.

Brundle has switched to Sky Sports this year and will now revert to his preferred 'expert' co-commentary role for qualifying and races on the satellite service, alongside former BBC 5 Live radio presenter David Croft.

"One thing is absolutely for sure, having now done a year of lead commentating," Brundle said when asked by AUTOSPORT at a media briefing for Sky's new F1 HD channel, "I will now be a better co-comm.

"I have now realised some of the challenges there are being a lead which I hadn't experienced before. I'd kind of sensed it, but hadn't it experienced it, so when Murray [Walker] used to look at me as if to say 'Shut up!' I now know why."

Brundle added that he is much more comfortable in the co-commentator's role, a job he took up for ITV in 1997 after quitting driving in F1, and then continued when BBC took over the coverage for 2009.

"I much prefer being the co-comm," he said. "I realised halfway through last year when I was lead comm - which I enjoyed doing, and I think it worked well with DC. I got a lot of nice comments; I mean there were a lot of people who said we couldn't carry the comm box as well, but we had a four hour and four minute race [in Canada] where we carried it just fine. But I prefer to be the co-comm.

"And then when I did the rehearsal the other day [for Sky], it just absolutely cemented that in my head. I had to force being lead commentator whereas I don't have to do that with co-comm."

[MIKA27]

Jarno Trulli 'surprised' to receive plenty of job offers since being dropped by Caterham

Jarno Trulli admits that he is surprised by the number of offers he has received since being dropped by the Caterham Formula 1 team.

The 37-year-old is keen to continue his racing career, and has not ruled out continuing in F1 even though such a possibility appears unlikely.

But despite the opportunities that have already arisen to race outside of F1, Trulli insists that he will take his time before deciding on his future.

"I was very surprised by the fact that one or two days later, I had already received some offers," Trulli told AUTOSPORT. "I didn't think that it would move so quickly.

"But I don't want to take any decisions now. I want to put all of the offers on the table and see what is the best for me.

"At the moment, I have no plans."

Trulli insists that he is not limiting his horizons as to where he will race. As well as not ruling out continuing in F1 in some capacity, he confirmed that America could be of interest when asked about the prospect by AUTOSPORT.

He is also likely to evaluate opportunities in sportscar racing.

"I'm open to any possibilities as far as top level and professional racing is concerned," he said. "I'm happy to work hard, to go testing, to develop a project but I want something with a structure that at least gives me the potential for performance.

"NASCAR and IndyCar could be a possibility, but obviously I don't have sponsors. I've never had that in my career so I've had to deal with my talent and nothing else."

The Italian is hopeful of reaching a deal to race somewhere, but is focusing on finding an opportunity that will allow him to compete at a higher level than he was able to with the team then known as Lotus in 2010/11.

"We would like to do something at a higher level than what I've been doing for the last two years," he said. "I spent the last two years at the back of the grid and it was a bit frustrating after spending my entire career fighting for the top."

[MIKA27]

Mercedes unveils its W03 2012 Formula 1 car

Mercedes became the last of the frontrunning Formula 1 teams to officially unveil its 2012 car, when it rolled out the W03 at Barcelona prior to the start of the second week of testing today.The new car has already shaken down the car at Silverstone last week, and conducted a private test at Catalunya on Sunday - which Mercedes was permitted to undertake because it had only been present for three of the four days of running at Jerez earlier this month.

Mercedes chose to stick with its 2011 car for Jerez in order to gain data on this year's Pirelli tyres, and was quickest on two of the days it was present - though it was running to full '11 specification, including the no-longer-permitted exhaust-blown diffuser.

Mercedes' motorsport chief Norbert Haug told AUTOSPORT earlier this week that the W03 would not feature any radical innovations - contrary to speculation that the team had waited until the second test to reveal the car because it featured technical breakthroughs it did not want rivals to copy.

The most obvious outward change is the move to a stepped nose, in common with the majority of rival teams.

Having been unable to beat rivals Red Bull, McLaren and Ferrari to race wins in its first two years, Mercedes GP is hoping to get among the top three on a more regular basis this year.

Last season it revamped its technical team with the addition of former Renault man Bob Bell, ex-Ferrari design chief Aldo Costa, and Geoff Willis, formerly of Williams, BAR and Red Bull.

Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher continue in an unchanged driver line-up at Mercedes. With Schumacher coming into the final season of what was initially planned as a three-year comeback deal, speculation about whether the seven-time champion will stay on into 2013 and beyond is likely to be one of the biggest stories around Mercedes this season.

[MIKA27]

Norbert Haug says Mercedes is taking the right steps to get to the front

Mercedes GP is making the steps that are needed to eventually get itself to the front of the Formula 1 grid.That is the view of Mercedes-Benz motorsport boss Nobert Haug, who feels that the outfit has learned valuable lessons over the past two seasons that should help it make good progress.

"We are in the building up process," said Haug as his team unveiled its new W03 at Barcelona on Tuesday. "We have been two times fourth in the last two years and our ultimate goal is to move up the ladder and go in the ultimate direction of first place.

"It takes time and a lot of effort, but we are working very hard and ultimately we can achieve it.

"We want to climb up the ladder. To beat Red Bull, Ferrari, and McLaren-Mercedes is quite a task, but ultimately we want to achieve that. We are still a young team, we need to learn and I think our learning process is underway. My feeling is we are heading in the right direction."

The W03 features the stepped nose that is common in F1 this year, but is more sculpted than other designs.

"I think our designers did a good job," he said. "With these stepped noses you need to get used to it, but wait and see. After a while the car that is winning races looks good, and I think our new Silver Arrows is a pleasant and nice car."

Mercedes GP elected to skip the first pre-season test at Jerez in order to give itself more development time for the W03, which has already had a shakedown test at Silverstone and a full day of running at Barcelona. It joins the second pre-season test at Barcelona this week.

[MIKA27]

Ross Brawn says Mercedes must move up in 2012 F1 season

Ross Brawn believes Mercedes GP must move up the Formula 1 grid this year, following two consecutive seasons where it finished fourth in the standings.After officially unveiling its new W03 at Barcelona on Tuesday, Brawn said that the Brackley-based outfit has the ingredients it needs to deliver improved form on track - which means regularly fighting for podium finishes.

"We have to go forward," he said. "None of us are happy with a recurring fourth place. That is not why any of us are here. We have to go forward, but I am quietly confident with the strength we have got, the resources we have got and the team we are building that we can do that."

Brawn says that the one factor that has encouraged him about Mercedes GP's prospects was the bolstering of the technical department that occurred last year – and specifically the arrival of Bob Bell, Geoff Willis and Aldo Costa.

"I think the important thing for me is the strengthening we have done of the team," he said. "We have much more depth in the engineering team that we had 12 months ago, especially with Bob Bell joining, and Geoff Willis and Aldo Costa.

"We had a great, very bright team of engineers, but adding that maturity and that strength gives me the confidence that we are going to react more strongly to anything we face. I don't know where we are going to be with the car, I feel reasonably comfortably with what we have done but wherever we are, I am sure we are going to have a much stronger response that we ever had in the past."

When asked if the team was now mature enough to go for top three finishes regularly, Brawn said: "We are definitely ready to go for podiums. Any team that has not won the world championship has to look at how it can improve, how it can strengthen and how it can achieve better results. Even if you win the world championship you still look at that.

"And if you are not winning races and not winning a championship then perhaps you have to look at even stronger improvements. But the key is not to ruin what you already have to build something stronger, and that is what we have been very focused on.

"We have some great people in the team already and I was comfortable in adding Geoff, Aldo and Bob because they are people I know would fit in with the existing structure, but also enhance the structure and make it stronger."

Brawn says he remains comfortable with the team's decision to skip the opening pre-season test at Jerez, even though it means the outfit has less time to prepare its W03 for the first race.

"For us at least (Jerez) was quite important, because we wanted to correlate the new car, the old car, the new tyres and the old tyres and understand where we are," he said.

"With the old car being so reliable it meant we did a solid three days of testing, and we did almost as much mileage in that as many people did in four. That meant we just did lots of useful tyre testing, so we could get that out the way and now focus on new things on the new car."

The W03 features the now common stepped nose, and Brawn says the outfit has learned lessons from last year in its design – when some radical concepts on the W02 did not deliver the steps the team had hoped for.

"Notwithstanding the distinctive nose design, which is certainly an acquired taste, the F1 W03 is an elegant interpretation of the current regulations, and a clear step forward over its predecessor in terms of detail design and sophistication," he said.

"Last year, we produced a very bold car and, although its more radical elements didn't always deliver the results we had hoped for, the experience we gained has been invaluable to the design of the 2012 car."

[MIKA27]

Michael Schumacher pleased with new Mercedes F1 car potential

Michael Schumacher is positive about the potential of the new Mercedes W03 after his first day of public running on Tuesday.The German, who had already driven the car during a shakedown and during Sunday's private test in Barcelona, managed 51 laps on his way to the sixth quickest time of the day.

Although Schumacher's session was shortened due to a hydraulic problem, the seven-time champion was pleased with how the new car handles.

"Reasonably positive," said Schumacher of his day. "It is the fourth day we are in the car and it's the first time we had a little issue with the hydraulics.

"It has good potential. I had a good feeling inside the car. It's difficult to say what that feeling is worth because of the rule changes, but the potential is good."

He refused to judge the pace of the car compared to the opposition, however.

"I don't want to be too precise right now, because I have not been able to overlay our running with the other guys and that is the important matter that can give me a direction, or at least confirm the feeling that I have."

Schumacher also said he had no concerns about the looks of the new car as long as it's quick.

"For us it's very transparent. The main point is that the aero numbers are good and there are different ways of interpreting the rules. We'll find out what is the better way. For us it's not really anything special. The most important thing is what we see on the clock and that is what I'm looking at."

And the Mercedes driver, whose contract with the team expires this year, said he is not thinking about his plans at the moment.

"There's no reason to make any statements or comments about my future. I will make a decision when it's the right time."

[MIKA27]

Lotus F1 team pulls out of Barcelona test due to chassis problems

Lotus has pulled out of the Barcelona test with immediate effect as a result of the problems it encountered with its chassis this morning.The team has decided to abandon running in order to fully understand the problem with the chassis that manifested itself on chassis 2, which ran for the first time today.

This is despite chassis 1 completing the full Jerez test two weeks ago. The team said the problem requires modification to both chassis.

The car completed 1788 km of testing at Jerez, but the problem manifested itself at the higher-speed Barcelona configuration.

"Before we were due to fly chassis E20-01 out to Barcelona in replacement of chassis E20-02 - damaged this morning - we ran a series of simulations at the factory based on the data provided by our brief running on track today," said technical director James Allison.

"As a result, we were able to identify an area which requires some additional work. It will be more productive for us to carry out these modifications to both chassis at Enstone rather than send E20-01 out to this week's test. We'll put the right measures in place and we will be able to fix the problem before next week."

Team boss Eric Boullier added: "Not running this week has been a tough decision to take, but we feel that our choice is the right one. On the positive side, we have quickly identified the issue with the chassis and our design office has already devised a solution. We will be present at next week's test in Barcelona.

"We draw faith from the fact that the E20 was quick out of the box in Jerez and showed its reliability there. We have a lot of work ahead of us over the next week but everyone at Enstone is ready for this challenge."

[MIKA27]

Bruno Senna says Williams needs to work on low-speed corners consistency

Bruno Senna believes Williams has to improve its consistency on slow corners following his first day of testing at Barcelona.The Brazilian had another productive day in Spain on Tuesday, covering 97 laps on his way to the eighth fastest time of the session.

Senna said he was pleased with the car's handling over medium and high-speed corners, but he reckons there is still room for improvement on lower-speed ones.

"I think we are learning about it," said Senna at the end of the day. "Today I don't think we managed to improve as much as I think we need to. There is still room for improvement.

"Our car seems to be consistent on the medium and high-speed corners, but on the slow speed we still need to work."

Senna admitted he had run out of time to test solutions to try to solve the problem today.

"We'll have to wait and see if the changes we make are going to be enough to mitigate the issue that we have. I didn't have enough time today to try enough stuff to see."

Despite that, he was still pleased with his day's work after completing nearly 100 laps.

"We did a lot of laps today and again, reliability seems to be in a good place," he said. "The tyres are behaving differently here than they were in Jerez so we need to understand what we are doing, but overall we have learned a bit about the car."

[MIKA27]

Vettel impressed by McLaren's long-run pace

Sebastian Vettel has singled out McLaren as Red Bull's early rival after admitting the MP4-27 looked 'very strong' during its longer runs.

Vettel managed the quickest lap on Tuesday, a 1:23.265, which was just over three tenths faster than Lewis Hamilton, but the German suspects the Woking outfit was concentrating on longer runs.

"I think McLaren looked very strong today," he said after Tuesday's session. "I haven't seen all the lap times yet, I have only had a couple of looks on the long runs that Lewis did today – they seemed to be quite interesting.

"To be honest I haven't seen much of the other cars on the track [but] obviously I can judge for myself that the feeling [from the RB8] is fine but I don't know whether that is good enough or not.

"I think the McLaren looks quite competitive. I think they didn't go for one lap at all but they did long runs etcetera and they looked fairly competitive, so I think they will be strong straight from the beginning of the season."

When asked who else he was keeping a watchful eye out for, he replied: "I think we saw in Jerez Lotus was quite a surprise, whether they can keep it up or not, I don't know. Today they didn't run much.

"Ferrari is a bit of a secret at this stage and nobody knows whether they are really good or really bad – and I don't know what other people think about us, so we will have to wait and see."

[MIKA27]

Vettel edges Hulkenberg on day one in Barcelona

Sebastian Vettel ensured Red Bull's Barcelona test began on the right note as the reigning World Champ netted the first P1 of the week.

Vettel, who will be in action for the first two days at the Circuit de Catalunya, posted a 1:23.265 shortly before the lunch break. However, he was one of three drivers to improve his time in the afternoon.

The Red Bull racer shaved almost a tenth off with a 1:23.265 to extend his advantage over Nico Hulkenberg.

The Force India driver, returning to action after a year as the team's tester, clocked a 1:23.440 to edge Lewis Hamilton by 0.150s.

Hamilton, however, swapped his programme from short runs to longer distances in the afternoon and amassed an impressive 114 laps in McLaren's new MP4-27.

Daniel Ricciardo was fourth for Toro Rosso, finishing ahead of Fernando Alonso.

Yet again it was a day that saw Ferrari fail to reach the 100-lap mark despite the team admitting how important that would be. Alonso managed just 75 as he was sidelined with a a "small issue" during the morning's session.

Michael Schumacher had a solid first day in Mercedes's new W03, which was launched minutes ahead of Tuesday's start.

The seven-time World Champ finished in sixth place and less than a second behind Vettel's P1 time. However, he managed just 51 laps.

Sergio Perez and Bruno Senna completed the top eighth ahead of Heikki Kovalainen, another driver who lost vital track-time.

The Caterham driver managed just 31 laps after bringing out the red flags in the morning. That was followed by a lengthy delay in the garage as his mechanics worked furious on the CT01, which eventually returned to the action in the last hour.

That, though, still was not as bad as Lotus's day as the team was forced to cut short their running after just seven laps when they found a problem with Romain Grosjean's new chassis. The team is expecting to be back out on track on Wednesday.

Charles Pic, Marussia's rookie racer, was the final driver in action using last year's Virgin racer. He completed 121 laps as the team gave him the opportunity to familiarise himself with a Formula One car having previously only had a few days in the cockpit.

[MIKA27]

RBR have something up their sleeve:

Red Bull team boss Christian Horner says the team launched their car on the Internet so that their rivals couldn't get a close look at the RB8.

McLaren and Mercedes unveiled their cars in front of the media while Ferrari also intended to do a "public" launch only for bad weather to scupper the plans.

The Milton Keynes outfit, though, took to the Internet to introduce their 2012 challenger. They also released only three pictures to the media.

"We didn't want the competition to photograph our car from all sides," Horner explained to Germany's Auto Motor und Sport.

"At last year's presentation in Valencia there were 100 photographers taking pictures from the pit roof and in no time at all everyone knew the dimensions of our car."

Horner also admits the team have one or two secrets up their sleeve regarding some innovative designs, but they will wait right until the last moment to show the rest of the world.

"Last year we had to show the blown diffuser very early because we had to find out how the exhaust gases affected the tyres. This time, the secret is in the detail, and you don't want to give your competition too much of a helping hand," he said.

[MIKA27]

Analysis: mounting issue to blame for Lotus's chassis problems?

Source: Autosport:

AUTOSPORT's technical correspondent Gary Anderson believes that the high lateral loads experienced at Barcelona played a key part in revealing the chassis fault that forced Lotus to abandon this week's test.

Lotus ditched plans to run chassis 1 in place of the new monoque that ran briefly at Barcelona before Romain Grosjean complained of a 'strange' feeling.

Speaking to AUTOSPORT about the Lotus situation, Anderson said: "The aerodynamic loads on the car are higher in Barcelona than in Jerez, so that could explain why the problem didn't manifest itself at Jerez.

"Reading between the lines, I would say it was likely to be something to do with a mount rather than the front suspension, as if it was a suspension problem you could have a good go at patching it up at the track with a glue injection and fastenings to hold it in situ.

"The fact that Lotus has pulled out of the whole test rather than going back to the factory to patch it up and then run later in the week suggests it's a serious problem. Unless it is something that is too severe to fix so quickly or that you need to produce new parts to solve."

Anderson believes that the confirmation that Lotus also detected a potential problem that will require modifications to chassis 1, which completed almost 1,000 miles of testing at Jerez two weeks ago, supports the hypothesis that it is related to an attachment.

"Lotus wasn't as quick on the final day of that test, though, so maybe there was a little deterioration," he said.

"Barcelona is a very different challenge. There was a pretty vicious bump around the start finish line in the past, so it's possible this has caused a problem. Alternatively, it could be the long right-hander at Turn 3, where there is a huge amount of torsional stress on the chassis.

"It could also be that chassis 1 was used for the torsion and bending tests that a team would do and then chassis 2 did the crash tests. But as you wouldn't push to the absolute limit to see how stiff the car was, the problem might have been hidden on chassis one."

Lotus plans to make modifications to chassis 1 and chassis 2 to allow it to continue testing in the second Barcelona test that kicks off on March 1.

The team has not confirmed where exactly the problem on the chassis is, but one theory Anderson has is that it is related to the engine mounts.

"The mounts will be a solid insertion and could be made of carbon fibre, machined aluminium, titanium, all sorts of things. It's basically to give a solid fastening," he said.

"It's the kind of thing that you can fix, ideally back at the factory in a controlled environment. But you could do that in one day so if they aren't going to run this week, it suggests that they maybe need to do more than just inject glue and put fasteners in. So it could be a more dramatic problem and maybe it will need new chassis.

"Chassis 3 would likely be on its way for Melbourne and might be at the point in the manufacturing process where you could integrate the fix properly. If they did that, it's possible that Lotus might have to have that chassis and one patched up one for Melbourne as it's a tight turnaround to build a fourth chassis if it hasn't started."

Anderson adds that he feels the problem is more likely to be a manufacturing fault than a design error.

He also backed the team's decision to pull out of the test."The engine specification and the mount positions won't have changed with the Renault engine, so I doubt if there's a design error," he said. "There's no point in re-inventing the wheel so it's likely to be the same.

"If it is the engine mounts, then I would have thought that either an error in the material or with the bonding or something like that has caught them out instead. But if it's, for example, a glue problem, then what starts as a small problem could become a big one because there might be 50 inserts all over the chassis.

"The problem isn't a huge safety issue, but if the car feels strange, as Romain Grosjean says it did, then it's only going to get worse.

"It's a dramatic enough problem to wipe the test out, so it's going to be interesting to see what happens from here."

[MIKA27]

Nico Hulkenberg puts Force India on top on day two of F1 testing at Barcelona

Nico Hulkenberg's morning efforts were enough to ensure Force India topped the second day of pre-season testing.With the sun at its zenith in the afternoon, teams opted to pursue long-run programmes rather than chase outright times, and there was therefore little change to the morning's order.

Fernando Alonso in the F2012 was one of the rare movers, as a late 1m23.180s - set in the final 30 minutes - moved Ferrari up to fourth, ahead of Daniel Ricciardo in the Toro Rosso.

The Australian was not able to register a lap until the final minutes of the afternoon, when he banged in two mid-1m25s.

Valtteri Bottas and Charles Pic were the only other drivers to ostensibly improve – the Finn registering a 1m25.738s and the Frenchman a 1m27.343s. Neither improved in the order however, staying eighth and tenth respectively.

There was still plenty to be learned though, not least from the fact that Red Bull and McLaren were both able to complete almost full race simulations runs - a useful indicator that they are fairly comfortable with their 2012 challengers.

Red Bull's performance was in stark contrast to the morning, where it managed just 31 laps, the least of any team. In the afternoon it completed a 67-lap run broken only by pitstops, with Vettel switching between tyre compounds throughout.

His run coincided with Hamilton's, with the pair at one point the only two on track and separated by less than a second – Vettel eventually working his way past after spending several laps tucked up behind the MP4-27.

Hamilton ended the day with 121 laps completed, one of five drivers – Vettel, Nico Hulkenberg, Bottas and Pic the other four – to break into triple figures.

It was Hulkenberg who ended the day on top however courtesy of a late lap in the morning session, set on Pirelli's super soft compounds.

Sergio Perez, who finished just four hundredths of a second down the road, and Ricciardo also set their best times on the red-painted rubber.

Vettel's afternoon runs married with strong pace in the morning, with the German setting the pace until Hulkenberg and Perez's late runs.

He ended the day third fastest, ahead of Alonso, Ricciardo and Hamilton.

Nico Rosberg was the last driver to get within two seconds of Hulkenberg as he got to grips with Mercedes W03 for the first time in public.

Bottas, Petrov and Pic rounded out the day's order, with Lotus deciding to abandon the test after discovering chassis problems on the opening day.

[MIKA27]

Ross Brawn says F1's competitors could end up regretting that four teams quit FOTA

Ross Brawn believes the decision by four of his rivals to quit the Formula One Teams' Association (FOTA) was short-sighted, and fears all the sport's competitors may live to regret it.With Ferrari, Red Bull Racing, Sauber and Scuderia Toro Rosso all having quit FOTA in the wake of ongoing wrangling over a Resource Restriction Agreement, there have been questions raised about the future of the organisation.

However, the remaining members of FOTA are wholly committed to it, and Brawn says he hopes that circumstances do not play out - such as in imminent talks over a new Concorde Agreement - where teams wish they had stuck together.

"We are very committed to FOTA, we believe it's a great shame that we've lost some of the members from FOTA because I think we may live ultimately to regret that," said the Mercedes boss.

"When there is outside pressure it pushed FOTA together. Now, there is not so much, the natural competitiveness of the teams is pushing it apart a bit.

"I think we're very short-sighted with not recognising that FOTA has a very important role to play. I think it is unfortunately the nature of F1 that we all seem to find it difficult to come together with these much bigger issues.

"I am a great believer in FOTA, but I am disappointed with what has happened in the last few months. I hope we don't regret it in Formula 1, because one of the objectives was to find the right solutions for F1, not just for individual teams."

Mercedes has been involved in talks with Ferrari, McLaren and Red Bull Racing to try and reach agreement on the RRA, following disagreements about various aspects of the deal teams are currently working to.

Those discussions have not produced a positive outcome, but Brawn thinks it vital efforts are ramped up to try and get the matter sorted.

"The RRA is very important," he said. "We have to find some means of restraining the costs in Formula 1, as technical and sporting regulations can only go so far.

"The concept is very important, but it does need everyone to commit to it and work together to find the best solution to having an RRA system.

"We are committed to it, and we are going to persevere to try and make sure it is applied properly and is part of the future of F1, because without it we are at higher risk."

[MIKA27]

Vitaly Petrov not setting targets for himself ahead of F1 season with Caterham

Vitaly Petrov sees no point in setting targets for himself and Caterham this year - and instead thinks the most important thing right now is simply in getting to understand the team better.Speaking after his first day of running with the Hingham-based outfit at Barcelona in Spain on Wednesday, Petrov sees plenty of room for improvement in how he and the team work together.

"At the moment I don't want to talk about high levels, or what team we will pass – what is more important in this moment is to understand what we want," he said.

"I want to improve with this team, go step-by-step in front – not to win but to close the gap in front of the team. And what we need is to work for 24 hours [each day].

"I know this year they will have bigger factory, have more people, have some technology – and [manufacture] carbon fibre themselves – so the team is moving in the right direction little-by-little.

"So we don't need to hurry up to take the first points until the end of the year. We need to continue to work the same, like we started here and they started before – but perhaps a little push more now."

Petrov's biggest problem on his first day in the Caterham was getting his tall frame comfortable in the cockpit – with the Russian only having done his seat-fitting last Friday.

"It was a normal first day when you want to understand the car, what brakes you use, and how they work," he said. "It was a positive day – and what is important is that they understand what I like and I what I want to have on my car in the future, so they can keep that in mind.

"Tomorrow is another day and we will start to work with the set-up. The steering position was right, but there was only a short time to make the seat, and they did maximum they could do [in that time].

"I am comfortable mostly, but my left hand side and legs are not comfortable - so today I continue to work with the seat and tomorrow I hope it will be easier to drive."

[MIKA27]

Sergio Perez urges Sauber to keep developing promising C31

Sergio Perez says Sauber has good reason to be optimistic for the opening races of 2012 after labelling the new C31 as a good starting point to work from this season.But he insisted that the Swiss team must keep working hard to develop the car right up to the first race in Melbourne to capitalise on it.

The Mexican, who impressed on his debut at Melbourne nearly a year ago by finishing seventh on the road, was second fastest overall after two days of testing at Barcelona and ended Wednesday just 0.040s slower than the best time - set by Force India's Nico Hulkenberg.

"I think we are optimistic of course," said Perez afterwards. "It's a good starting point for us, but we must develop our car from now to Melbourne – we have to find performance because most of the other teams will too.

"It is really important to push the maximum to try to get the performance before Melbourne which will make the difference now. I believe that we are now in a good position, but everything could change when we get to Melbourne."

Perez said the team plans to bring more developments to the final test at the end of next week and added that he believed there was more time to come from the car through set-up work.

The Ferrari Academy driver also revealed that he felt in a far better shape approaching his second season than he had in his rookie year.

"Physically I am a lot fitter than last year as a starting point, so I have done a very good training during the winter," he said. "Mentally with my engineers the communication is a lot better too, so I am very well prepared for this season and I am looking forward.

"[Circuit knowledge] will help a lot. It's not just knowing the circuits, but being used to the complete race weekends. I already have the information from last year now; what happened in that race weekend, how conditions are change, what we have to change – so I can guide the team a lot more than I could last year. In that side it's how experience counts."

[MIKA27]

Alonso: 'We are not the fastest, or slowest'

Fernando Alonso acknowledges that Ferrari's new car is "not the fastest" at the moment, but says it is too early to judge exactly where they stand.

Alonso and team-mate Felipe Massa have rarely troubled the pacesetters during pre-season testing so far. The team, though, have stayed pretty quiet about their position, insisting they are "collecting data".

The double World Champion, who was third fastest with a 1:23.180 on day two at Barcelona, shrugged off their performances in testing, saying they will only get a clearer picture from the third test onwards.

"We [will] see [if we can fight for victory in Austrlia]. I think it is too early to say," he told Autosport.

"Definitely our targets are very ambitious. It is normal for Ferrari; you always try to win straight away the first race of the Championship if you want to be a contender, so that was the target over the winter.

"At the moment we don't know exactly where we are. I think maybe we are not the fastest but definitely we are not the slowest - so we need to wait and see, especially in the final test. With hotter temperatures in Australia etc we will see how the cars work and in Q3 there is the time to see where you in Melbourne.

"Red Bull seems competitive. That is not a surprise, as they have continuity in the last two or three years with that car, so it is difficult to get it wrong completely.

"They will be always there, so McLaren/Ferrari they need to invent something and be a bit more creative to beat Red Bull, and that is what both teams did. McLaren and Ferrari, they chose different solutions, different philosophies maybe and maybe more complex, but the result we will see in Melbourne and more importantly in November."

[MIKA27]

Hamilton pleased with Barcelona form

Lewis Hamilton is delighted with McLaren's work on the first two days of testing in Barcelona after completing more than 1 000kms.

The 2008 World Champion completed 120 laps on Wednesday to go with the 114 laps he did on the opening day. It's a far cry from 2011 when McLaren were close to bottom in the mileage stakes during pre-season testing.

Hamilton's MP4-27 was sixth fastest with a 1:23.806, but the team focused on full race simulation most of the day.

"To have completed more than 1000km in the past two days is incredibly encouraging - the whole team should feel proud," he said.

"The car behaves really well in the high-speed corners - I think the baseline of our car is higher than it was last year - and it's better overall at high-speed. It's performing well in Turns Three and Nine, too.

"We don't know the fuel-loads of the other cars, so it's still hard to determine the pecking order. We didn't bring any upgrades here, but our understanding of the car has developed since the test in Jerez.

"We're learning more about how the tyres work, how the temperatures behave and how to balance the car using set-up. It's been an extremely productive few days - and I think Jenson [button] will continue to improve the car tomorrow.

"Now, I'm just looking forward to the final test - it's where you get a really good feeling of where the car will be. It's also exciting because it's the last stop before the first race!"

[MIKA27]

F1: Caterham Barcelona testing - Day 2 report

Vitaly Petrov:

"I think that was a pretty positive day. We completed 69 laps and got through most of what we had planned. This morning we had a couple of issues with the seating position and the brakes, but you expect that from a new car and they were little things that we were able to fix quickly. In the afternoon we put in a few more long runs and that'll give us a lot of data to work on tonight and I think tomorrow it will be more of the same. "Physically I feel really good. It's obviously been a while since I've been in a car, but I've kept up my fitness levels and I enjoyed myself on track, so it's a good first day back. One thing I have noticed is that this car behaves a little differently from my previous experience and I think I may have to adjust my driving style to get the best out of it - I've been quite aggressive before, but I think this car responds better to smoother inputs, so that's something I can work on, and work with the engineers on. Let's see what we can come up with for tomorrow."

Mike Gascoyne, Chief Technical Officer:

"A very reasonable first day with Vitaly in the car. We spent some time this morning getting him acclimatised, focusing particularly on the brakes, but he has settled in well and did exactly what we asked of him today. We have a few points to work on tonight, one of those being to understand how to give him a setup he feels most comfortable with, so tomorrow we expect to be able to continue to progress when he's back on track for the second day."

Riad Asmat, Caterham Group Chief Executive Officer:

"A good way to introduce Vitaly to the team on track. He acquitted himself well today, putting in a decent number of laps and working well with us to fine-tune the basic setups we need to give him so he's comfortable in the cockpit. As first days go this was pretty much faultless, and that's exactly what we wanted from him."

Driver: Vitaly Petrov

Chassis: CT01-#2

Total laps: 69

Best lap: 1.26.605

[MIKA27]

F1: Red Bull Barcelona testing - Day 2 report

After spending yesterday on development, Sebastian Vettel and a full Red Bull Racing race team put the RB8 through the rigours of a full race simulation today.

Sebastian said:

"I'm happy that we got a lot of laps done. Unfortunately, we had a little bit of a problem, it was small, but with testing you stop whenever there's a issue, take a look and see what's what and that always takes up a bit of time. But nevertheless, in the afternoon I was quite happy. We got a lot of laps done, more than 100, so we got through most of the programme.

"I think we are on the right road with the car," he added. "The first impressions at the last test were fine. The car reacted the way we expected. I keep talking about the loss of downforce compared to last year, as we don't have the tools we had, but this is the same for everyone, not just us. So, we'll get on top of it and we'll spend the coming days trying to make improvements, find more performance and make the car faster. But so far, so good."

Head of Race Engineering Ian Morgan said

"It was again so cold this morning that we had problems with pit stop practice, simply because the equipment was freezing up as we tried to use it. After that we ran a bit of a free practice simulation, but we discovered a small problem, which lost us some time. It was only a minor issue and didn't require major work, but it meant that we had to run a compressed Quali simulation before lunch. Afterwards we got through a whole race distance, which, at the car's first go, is always very encouraging. </H3>"Mark is in the car tomorrow for his race simulation, so we hope we can get through the full programme with him with no dramas."

Driver: Sebastian Vettel

Car: RB8

Laps: 104 laps

Best time: 1:22.891

Circuit length: 4.655km

Fastest lap: N. Hulkenberg (1:22.608)

[MIKA27]

F1: Ferrari Barcelona testing - Day 2 report

WORK IN PROGRESS

Another study day for Scuderia Ferrari: the F2012 is a complex creature according to Fernando Alonso's comment when he met the press this afternoon. He believes it will need a few more days work to get a full understanding of its behaviour.

The new car completed 400 kilometres today, many of them with several parts covered in the green colour used to check the passage of the air across the surface of the bodywork and wings. In addition many changes were made as various set-up choices were evaluated. Added to this menu we also have the tyres to deal with, as Fernando tried all four compounds available, so it's easy to see how difficult it is to interpret the significance of the order on the time sheet, for fans and experts alike.

"We are trying different components on the exhausts and other areas," said Fernando. "Then on the track and back in Maranello, everyone is working hard on analysing the data in order to improve the performance, a job that takes time. In Jerez, we said that we would start from a more solid base in Barcelona and that has been the case and we hope it will be the same next week at the final session. Then, we are trying to put everything together to be as well prepared as possible for Melbourne, when we will really understand where we are. Our targets are ambitious, which they have to be given we are Ferrari and they remain unaltered: we want to be in good enough shape to win right from the very first race. I think we are probably not the quickest today, but neither are we the slowest. In Australia, when the temperatures should be very different, we will know where we are compared to the others."

Fernando gave an honest appraisal of the car's current level. "At the moment, we are not where we want to be, nor where we want to be in Australia, but I remain optimistic. We still have six days of testing and we will see how it goes. It's also hard to say how the others are doing: Red Bull is definitely very strong, as is normal in fact, given how they have gone over the past three years, but you can't say that McLaren or Mercedes for example, who seem to be behind, are not strong themselves, maybe even more so than Red Bull. This has been a more laborious winter for us than in the past because we have a more complex car, which features very innovative ideas but that requires greater effort from everyone, from the drivers who drive it, the engineers who run and develop it and the mechanics who have to put in over twenty hour days. It's always nice to have a car that is immediately ready, quick and reliable, but that is not always synonymous with winning. Last year, we did a race simulation at the end of the first test and then in Melbourne we were a second and a half off pole position."

Among the positives to emerge over these last six days of testing is the car's ability to do a time right from the very first lap, which was the Achilles Heel for the F2012's predecessor. "It's true that from what we have seen so far, we have always done a good job of warming up the tyres and getting the most out of them immediately. This year, the performance between the different types of tyre is much closer and there is not the big difference between one compound and another that we saw in 2011."

Fernando did not try and hide the area where the new car needs to improve: "We definitely need to make progress on the aerodynamic front, especially at the exit of corners. Every driver always wants more grip and more downforce, but one cannot judge the performance of the others from the outside. Maybe we would have wanted to have a complete picture of the car from the very start, but I prefer to have a quick car and then make it reliable, rather than have one that is strong but slow."

[MIKA27]

F1: McLaren Barcelona testing - Day 2 report

Programme:

Lewis Hamilton undertook another mile-crunching outing for the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes team, clocking up 121 laps and more than 500km of running during the second day of pre-season testing at Barcelona's Circuit de Catalunya.

The focus for the morning was on data gathering and set-up evaluation before the team carried out a race-distance simulation in the afternoon.

Lewis Hamilton:

"To have completed more than 1000km in the past two days is incredibly encouraging – the whole team should feel proud.

"The car behaves really well in the high-speed corners – I think the baseline of our car is higher than it was last year – and it's better overall at high-speed. It's performing well in Turns Three and Nine, too.

"We don't know the fuel-loads of the other cars, so it's still hard to determine the pecking order. We didn't bring any upgrades here, but our understanding of the car has developed since the test in Jerez. We're learning more about how the tyres work, how the temperatures behave and how to balance the car using set-up. It's been an extremely productive few days – and I think Jenson will continue to improve the car tomorrow.

"Now, I'm just looking forward to the final test – it's where you get a really good feeling of where the car will be. It's also exciting because it's the last stop before the first race!"

Driver: Lewis Hamilton

Location: Circuit de Catalunya, Barcelona

Track length: 4.655km

Weather: Warm and sunny all day. Maximum ambient temperature 16.8°C, maximum track temperature 33.3°C

Laps completed: 121

Kilometres covered: 563km

Best laptime: 1m23.806s

Driver for day three: Jenson Button