HRT boss admits financial problems

HRT owner Jose Ramon Carabante has admitted his team's failure to qualify for the Australian Grand Prix was down to financial problems, insisting: "If we had the budget of the other teams, we would have come to the first race of the season with 3,000 kilometres under the belt."

HRT failed to qualify under the 107% rule, but despite that Carabante bullishly predicted that by May it would be beating the other 2010 newcomers Lotus and Virgin.

"Like last year, we began the development of the car too late due to the budget," he told Cadena Ser radio. "We were closing [sponsor] agreements that in the end did not come." He added a technical deal regarding 2011 with Toyota was "broken" at a late stage: "So we set a realistic goal with the budget that we had."

Revealing that HRT's budget for this year is €45 million, he said the team's showing in Australia was an achievement. "We did 11 laps with Liuzzi. If he had done 20, he would have qualified. Getting within 1.7 seconds without driving hardly at all is a miracle."

The team plans to have its 2011-spec front nose on the car in Malaysia, and Carabante said a whole "new aerodynamic package" will be fitted for May's Spanish Grand Prix. "It will be enough to be ahead of Lotus and Virgin," he said. "Last year we were in a worse condition than now and we ended up ahead of Virgin with twice our budget, and behind Lotus due only to one accident."

He also reacted to the strong criticisms of HRT, noting he had "not read a single criticism of Virgin in the English press".

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McLaren copied us

Adrian Newey has said that the progress made by McLaren is down to the team copying Red Bull's exhaust system.

McLaren looked to be well off the pace in pre-season testing, but abandoned its complex exhaust design for a much simpler one and became Red Bull's closest challenger in Melbourne. While acknowledging the impressive progress made by McLaren, Newey said Red Bull should take some credit.

"McLaren made a huge leap forward - by copying our exhaust, it has to be said," Newey said. "But the bottom line is they still made huge leaps forward. I am sure they will be pushing us hard. We think it (the exhaust) works for us. It seems it also works for McLaren. It's a form of flattery but it's a bit of a pain if they then beat you with it."

Newey also said that the team would try its best to run KERS in Malaysia, after scrapping the system in Melbourne due to "trivial" reliability issues.

"If we feel it's reliable then we will try to race it," he said. "We will have to make that decision on Friday evening (in Malaysia). KERS is a benefit off the start line. So even if you are on the front row, without KERS there's a risk that you won't be first into the first corner."

"It's not really a packaging problem as such. We have packaged it in quite an aggressive manner but that wasn't the cause of the problem. It was actually a relatively trivial problem but KERS is a complicated system, we have been trying to develop the element of it that has been giving us a bit of trouble ourselves and we're not experts in that field."

With Red Bull comfortably quickest in Australia even without KERS, there is a big deficit for the chasing teams to close. Nico Rosberg said that Mercedes were already focussing on bettering themselves rather than attempting to beat Red Bull.

"We have to say that Sebastian [Vettel] and Red Bull are far ahead of everyone," he told Sport Bild. "In the chasing field, we want to play a serious role and improve on our fourth place of last year."

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Hamilton 'a topic' for Red Bull

Red Bull motorsport advisor Helmut Marko has said that Lewis Hamilton is a topic for the team to consider for next season.

Hamilton was linked with a move to Red Bull during the winter after his McLaren appeared well off the pace during testing. The 2008 world champion has since quashed such rumours, although admitting that "I'm going to be in Formula One for some time, and you never know which way the wind will take you."

Hamilton has declared himself pleased with the progress made by McLaren and was second behind Sebastian Vettel in Melbourne. But with Mark Webber only signed up until the end of 2011 and comprehensively beaten by his team-mate Vettel, Marko said the team would have to keep Hamilton in mind.

"First we have to see how the season goes for Mark and what he decides," Marko told Sport Bild. "Definitely with his aggression and his speed, Hamilton must always be a topic. Our philosophy is to have the quickest drivers together in our team."

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Petrov's success will attract sponsors

Renault owner Gerard Lopez is confident Vitaly Petrov's on-track success will open up more sponsorship opportunities in Russia.

Petrov, born in Vyborg near the Russian-Finnish border, took the first podium of his Formula One career at the Australian Grand Prix last weekend. Lopez believes there are more to come and is hoping his driver's success can open up a valuable revenue stream for the team.

"Quite a few Russian companies are strong partners of Lotus Renault GP this year," he told Renault's website. "They seem to enjoy what our platform offers and the visibility they get. I'm sure that Vitaly's showing in Melbourne will attract even more partners, especially as his performance did not look like a one off. I'm definitely optimistic."

He added that interest in Russia rocketed during Petrov's first season.

"When Vitaly arrived in Formula One, we had to face two important tasks," Lopez said. "The first one was to make him an accomplished driver in the space of a few months. With no testing allowed and the pressure you have to face when racing at the highest level, his progress has been impressive. Secondly, we had to 'educate' Russia to Formula One. There's been a lot of explaining to do, a sport culture to explain. I'm happy to say that both these processes were successful. Very few people knew what the sport was all about when Vitaly arrived onto the grid. Last season, TV figures in Russia have already doubled within 8 months. This is more than encouraging."

Echoing comments from team principal Eric Boullier, Lopez said Renault's decision to sign Petrov to a two year contract had been vindicated by his performance.

When asked about those who doubted the team's decision to stick with the Russian, Lopez said: "Well, we've proved them wrong, haven't we? As a country, Russia has been very strong in every sport, from an international point of view: football, athletics…. The only piece missing until now was a competitive racing driver. With Vitaly, Russia now has a fantastic ambassador and we are proud to have supported him."

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Alguersuari blames Buemi for Heidfeld damage

The two Toro Rosso drivers have been blaming each other for incidents during the Australian Grand Prix.

Jaime Alguersuari was involved in a collision with Michael Schumacher which eventually forced the Mercedes driver to retire, and Renault's Nick Heidfeld has since said he had his race ruined after being hit by either Alguersuari or Sebastien Buemi, as he sustained some heavy sidepod damage on the first lap.

"I would definitely have scored some points," Heidfeld told Auto Motor und Sport. "But a Toro Rosso hit me in turns 10 and 11 and I lost 1.5 seconds every lap."

With Daniel Ricciardo having driven the STR6 on Friday morning in Melbourne, Alguersuari and Buemi know they are under pressure to retain their seats. And after Heidfeld's comments, Alguersuari pointed the finger at Buemi.

"I hit with Schumacher, but for Heidfeld I am not responsible," Alguersuari said. "I was right behind and saw exactly what happened. Seb [Buemi] was in corner ten fighting with the Renault and he hit him at corner 11."

The remarks come after Buemi had said he was annoyed with his team-mate for some first corner contact between the pair, claiming that it was Alguersuari who was at fault.

"It's not the first time it has happened, so I think we will be having a chat about it," Buemi said.

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Things will be different in Sepang

Read Tonio Liuzzi's full ESPNF1 column here

Tonio Liuzzi is confident HRT will be in a much better position to qualify for the Malaysian Grand Prix than it was for the Australian Grand Prix.

The team put the F111 together at the last minute at Albert Park and missed out on most of the free practice running ahead of qualifying. Liuzzi and team-mate Narain Karthikeyan then failed to get within 107% of the fastest time in Q1, meaning they were not allowed to start the race.

But Liuzzi believes the car will be in much better shape with a number of upgrades, including the 2011 specification front wing.

"We will have lots of new parts on the car, the proper front nose and wing, some better rear dampers - we have a lot of things to change for Malaysia," he told ESPNF1. "So I think we will be in much better shape."

However, he warned that Sepang, with its downforce-dependant, high-speed corners, was one of the more difficult circuits to get within 107% for a back marker.

"I think things will be different there but, unfortunately, if I was to say at the beginning of the year which track would be worst for the 107% rule I would have said Malaysia because of its characteristics," he added. "Even so, I still think we can show improvement compared to Australia and good pace compared to Virgin."

He said the most important thing was to hit the track on Friday in order to debug the car and better understand it.

"For us racking up the kilometres is the most important thing," he said. "At the moment we are fighting against people with thousands of kilometres and a lot of information about their cars, while we have just 40 kilometres."

Karthikeyan, who was over a second off Liuzzi in Australia, is also confident, telling Reuters: "If we get the new front wing - not if, we are going to get it - we are reasonably confident that we will qualify and if all these things happen then we don't have any excuse not to qualify for Malaysia.

"We respect the 107% rule. We are a serious team. When it all gets kicking off, I think we are going to surprise a few people."

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Boullier admits to Petrov gamble

Renault team principal Eric Boullier has said he took a risk in retaining Vitaly Petrov for this season, and that he "would have had no excuses" if the decision didn't pay off.

Petrov was disappointing in 2010, scoring only 27 points to team-mate Robert Kubica's 136, but an impressive drive in the last race in Abu Dhabi helped him hold on to his seat. He then put in his best performance to date to secure his first podium finish in the Australian Grand Prix on Sunday, but Boullier said there had been a lot of discussions about his future over the winter.

"He had a couple of good races last year, but there were also mistakes as well," Boullier said. "So I put a lot of pressure on him. I spent a lot of time talking with him, to understand what was wrong and why he was making all his mistakes. We spent a lot of time discussing with him and putting in place an environment to help him understand the English culture, let's say, and the culture of Formula One.

"We also had to help him improve his communication around his car, to find a way for him to deliver the message about improving his speed, but also for him to understand what the team were expecting. We had a commitment from him that he would make the move to get closer to what we were expecting, including the most physical in moving to England."

And Boullier admitted that despite all of the discussions, he was still taking a gamble by retaining Petrov with a two-year contract, and would have had to take the blame if he did not begin to deliver.

"It was not an easy decision (to keep him) because I would have had no excuses if he had failed for a second year. He has reacted in a good way, and it looks like we have achieved something with him."

Despite the encouraging start to the season, Boullier warned that Petrov was still young, and far from assuming the mantle of team leader in the absence of the injured Robert Kubica.

"You can't give the title of team leader to a young guy who has only had one year in Formula One, and who started without having done a single mile," Boullier said. "But if he takes this position then I'm happy, and if he keeps repeating the performances we saw on Sunday, to be honest I'll be more than happy."

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McLaren closer to RBR than this time last year

Jenson Button believes McLaren is closer to Red Bull's race pace this year than it was at the start of last season.

After the first race in Australia the hard facts indicated that Sebastian Vettel's Red Bull was quicker in qualifying trim by about 0.8 seconds and 22 seconds faster over a race distance. But Button believes those statistics are misleading and is confident the McLaren is quicker than it looks, especially in race conditions.

"Clearly, the Red Bulls are quick, Sebastian's pole lap showed everyone that," he told his official website. "But, on race pace, it would look as if we're already a lot closer at this stage of the season than we were last year. I know you can say that Red Bull weren't using KERS Hybrid, which puts a couple of tenths in your pocket, but I don't think it's as clear-cut as you might have believed on Saturday evening.

"We're very definitely in the hunt. I think there's a massive amount of untapped potential in our car: Sunday was the first time we'd even completed a race distance with the car, which tells you how much there is to get out of the package.

"And I think Ferrari will be very strong too. They started the weekend strongly, but it sounds like they went a little backwards on Saturday and into Sunday. But their race pace was good, so I think they'll only be stronger at the next two races. All in all, it's looking like a continuation of the battle between the three top teams that we saw last year, which will be great for the sport and the fans."

Button finished sixth after a drive-through penalty for cutting a corner while overtaking Felipe Massa, but said the car felt very driveable and is a solid platform for McLaren to develop.

"At no point did the car ever feel anything less than totally planted underneath me," he added. "That's the most encouraging thing. At the start of the race, I was stuck behind Massa, and, even when I was in the tow, I could still pretty much keep the car right up behind him. Our car just felt incredibly strong through the corners. He was moving about a bit trying to keep me behind - on the whole he did a good job of defending, but it got a bit frustrating because it was pretty clear that I was faster than him.

"And, at the end of the race, it was also encouraging that we could also pretty much match the pace of the three-stoppers, who had fresher tyres. Like I said, it was frustrating to be stuck behind them rather than ahead of them. But we can clearly see the potential is there to get some more good results in the next few races."

Lewis Hamilton also praised the drivability of the updated MP4-26, which was running a new diffuser made of titanium because the team did not have enough time to manufacture it from carbon fibre. At the next round in Malaysia a significantly lighter diffuser in carbon and exotic Pyrosic heat shielding will be ready and Hamilton is confident the car can only get quicker.

"I feel really comfortable with this car - I'd always said the car felt good, we just lacked a bit of downforce and some decent mileage during the winter tests - and I feel like it's a car that is easy to push to the limit, so I'm very hopeful of what will be coming along to add to its performance down the line," he told his official website.

"Don't forget: before the race on Sunday, we'd only really had about four hours of track time to develop and understand the new floor and exhausts. And Sunday was our first race distance of the year. So I think there's a lot there that we can really learn to push and get an even better understanding of how the car works.

"I've been speaking with Doug [McKiernan] and the aerodynamicists and engineers and we've got a huge amount of interesting stuff in the pipeline. As a team, Vodafone McLaren Mercedes never sits still - you can guarantee we'll have new parts arriving for the next race, and Martin [Whitmarsh] is fantastic at pushing the team to bring forward whatever we have. It's relentless, but it's really where we excel as a team: we never give up, we work incredibly hard and we make sure we deliver."

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De la Rosa to test Pirellis in Turkey

McLaren reserve driver Pedro de la Rosa will test Pirelli tyres in a special test in Turkey planned for next weekend.

De la Rosa was the Pirelli test driver towards the end of last season and over the winter, but having since resigned for McLaren it appeared that he would be unable to continue in the role. However, Pirelli motorsport director Paul Hembrey said that McLaren had allowed him to participate, and that so far there had been no objections from any of the other teams.

"I've written to the tyre working group advising them that Pedro will be doing that test," Hembrey told Autosport. "I haven't had any negative feedback from them. We need to use him actually. He drove the car last year and we have modified the Toyota very heavily - going outside of the current regulations to create much higher downforce. The objective of that is to try and replicate 2010 downforce levels.

From what I understand the cars here are close to the end of 2010 levels, which is extraordinary considering the number of changes we have had. So we need him to tell us the differences between the car then and the car now, and we will go through a screening of the current products and work with the new products."

A test in Turkey is important for Pirelli as the track is notoriously hard on tyres, especially the multi-apex turn eight. Having previously said that they plan to develop an 'extra-hard' compound for this year's race, Hembrey also said that they want to check the tyres will hold up, as well as developing compounds for future years.

"The test is about working primarily for 2012, and we are working on new products too. It is also a check for us for Turkey because Turns 8 and 9 at Istanbul are a big challenge. I am not talking compound but structurally. We want to go there and have a double check to be sure."

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De la Rosa to test Pirellis in Turkey

McLaren reserve driver Pedro de la Rosa will test Pirelli tyres in a special test in Turkey planned for next weekend.

De la Rosa was the Pirelli test driver towards the end of last season and over the winter, but having since resigned for McLaren it appeared that he would be unable to continue in the role. However, Pirelli motorsport director Paul Hembrey said that McLaren had allowed him to participate, and that so far there had been no objections from any of the other teams.

"I've written to the tyre working group advising them that Pedro will be doing that test," Hembrey told Autosport. "I haven't had any negative feedback from them. We need to use him actually. He drove the car last year and we have modified the Toyota very heavily - going outside of the current regulations to create much higher downforce. The objective of that is to try and replicate 2010 downforce levels.

From what I understand the cars here are close to the end of 2010 levels, which is extraordinary considering the number of changes we have had. So we need him to tell us the differences between the car then and the car now, and we will go through a screening of the current products and work with the new products."

A test in Turkey is important for Pirelli as the track is notoriously hard on tyres, especially the multi-apex turn eight. Having previously said that they plan to develop an 'extra-hard' compound for this year's race, Hembrey also said that they want to check the tyres will hold up, as well as developing compounds for future years.

"The test is about working primarily for 2012, and we are working on new products too. It is also a check for us for Turkey because Turns 8 and 9 at Istanbul are a big challenge. I am not talking compound but structurally. We want to go there and have a double check to be sure."

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De la Rosa to test Pirellis in Turkey

McLaren reserve driver Pedro de la Rosa will test Pirelli tyres in a special test in Turkey planned for next weekend.

De la Rosa was the Pirelli test driver towards the end of last season and over the winter, but having since resigned for McLaren it appeared that he would be unable to continue in the role. However, Pirelli motorsport director Paul Hembrey said that McLaren had allowed him to participate, and that so far there had been no objections from any of the other teams.

"I've written to the tyre working group advising them that Pedro will be doing that test," Hembrey told Autosport. "I haven't had any negative feedback from them. We need to use him actually. He drove the car last year and we have modified the Toyota very heavily - going outside of the current regulations to create much higher downforce. The objective of that is to try and replicate 2010 downforce levels.

From what I understand the cars here are close to the end of 2010 levels, which is extraordinary considering the number of changes we have had. So we need him to tell us the differences between the car then and the car now, and we will go through a screening of the current products and work with the new products."

A test in Turkey is important for Pirelli as the track is notoriously hard on tyres, especially the multi-apex turn eight. Having previously said that they plan to develop an 'extra-hard' compound for this year's race, Hembrey also said that they want to check the tyres will hold up, as well as developing compounds for future years.

"The test is about working primarily for 2012, and we are working on new products too. It is also a check for us for Turkey because Turns 8 and 9 at Istanbul are a big challenge. I am not talking compound but structurally. We want to go there and have a double check to be sure."

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De la Rosa to test Pirellis in Turkey

McLaren reserve driver Pedro de la Rosa will test Pirelli tyres in a special test in Turkey planned for next weekend.

De la Rosa was the Pirelli test driver towards the end of last season and over the winter, but having since resigned for McLaren it appeared that he would be unable to continue in the role. However, Pirelli motorsport director Paul Hembrey said that McLaren had allowed him to participate, and that so far there had been no objections from any of the other teams.

"I've written to the tyre working group advising them that Pedro will be doing that test," Hembrey told Autosport. "I haven't had any negative feedback from them. We need to use him actually. He drove the car last year and we have modified the Toyota very heavily - going outside of the current regulations to create much higher downforce. The objective of that is to try and replicate 2010 downforce levels.

From what I understand the cars here are close to the end of 2010 levels, which is extraordinary considering the number of changes we have had. So we need him to tell us the differences between the car then and the car now, and we will go through a screening of the current products and work with the new products."

A test in Turkey is important for Pirelli as the track is notoriously hard on tyres, especially the multi-apex turn eight. Having previously said that they plan to develop an 'extra-hard' compound for this year's race, Hembrey also said that they want to check the tyres will hold up, as well as developing compounds for future years.

"The test is about working primarily for 2012, and we are working on new products too. It is also a check for us for Turkey because Turns 8 and 9 at Istanbul are a big challenge. I am not talking compound but structurally. We want to go there and have a double check to be sure."

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De la Rosa to test Pirellis in Turkey

McLaren reserve driver Pedro de la Rosa will test Pirelli tyres in a special test in Turkey planned for next weekend.

De la Rosa was the Pirelli test driver towards the end of last season and over the winter, but having since resigned for McLaren it appeared that he would be unable to continue in the role. However, Pirelli motorsport director Paul Hembrey said that McLaren had allowed him to participate, and that so far there had been no objections from any of the other teams.

"I've written to the tyre working group advising them that Pedro will be doing that test," Hembrey told Autosport. "I haven't had any negative feedback from them. We need to use him actually. He drove the car last year and we have modified the Toyota very heavily - going outside of the current regulations to create much higher downforce. The objective of that is to try and replicate 2010 downforce levels.

From what I understand the cars here are close to the end of 2010 levels, which is extraordinary considering the number of changes we have had. So we need him to tell us the differences between the car then and the car now, and we will go through a screening of the current products and work with the new products."

A test in Turkey is important for Pirelli as the track is notoriously hard on tyres, especially the multi-apex turn eight. Having previously said that they plan to develop an 'extra-hard' compound for this year's race, Hembrey also said that they want to check the tyres will hold up, as well as developing compounds for future years.

"The test is about working primarily for 2012, and we are working on new products too. It is also a check for us for Turkey because Turns 8 and 9 at Istanbul are a big challenge. I am not talking compound but structurally. We want to go there and have a double check to be sure."

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Inquest begins on Webber's race

Mark Webber admitted his post-race debrief on Sunday lasted longer than normal after his disappointing fifth-place finish at the Australian Grand Prix, as his Red Bull engineers tried to find out why he was so far off the pace of team-mate Sebastian Vettel.

"We found a few pointers in the data but we'll need to strip the car down before drawing any conclusions," Webber said in his column in the Telegraph. "Only then will we know whether something was broken, or whether there was something fundamentally wrong with the car.

"More than anything, I struggled with a lack of grip. That affected the longevity of my Pirelli tyres because the degradation was much higher on my car than on Seb's. I was forced to make three pit stops during the race, whereas he dominated proceedings with a two-stop strategy.

"When I was told that Sauber's Sergio Perez completed 34 laps on the soft tyre and did just one pitstop in the entire race, I was blown away. That was very impressive and it proved that the durability of the tyre was there, if you could unleash it.

"Immediately after the start at Albert Park, I was pleased with my pace. I got away from the grid well and retained my third place on the run to the first corner, despite not having KERS on my car. I was all over Lewis Hamilton's gearbox during the opening laps and thought the new DRS rear wing would help me overtake him. As I entered the pit straight on lap three, I utilised the drag-reducing rear wing and it made no difference. OK, I gained on Lewis a little bit, but not by enough to make a pass into Turn 1. From that moment I knew it would be difficult to finish second."

Red Bull boss Christian Horner was also understandably keen to find out what happened. "We need to go through things with a fine tooth comb," he said. "That was the biggest gap we've seen between the two of them that I can certainly think of.

"We found some front wing damage that might have had an effect, but to what extent is difficult to quantify. We need to get the car back, look at the data, understand if there is anything that was damaged, how it affected the car, and make sure they're both back to business as usual in Malaysia."

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Lewis Hamilton: Fernando Alonso is my Alain Prost

Lewis Hamilton has called Fernando Alonso his "nemesis", saying that the Spaniard is the Alain Prost to his Ayrton Senna.

Despite reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel laying down an early marker as the driver to beat once again this season, Hamilton points to the undercurrent that runs between himself and Alonso from their unsettled season together at McLaren as the bigger rivalry.

"I will always think that my nemesis and my closest rival will always be Fernando," Hamilton is quoted in The Guardian. "Just because of my history, when I started out. I see him as my Prost, if we were Prost and Senna. If you were to say 'choose a driver' [that I would like to be] I would clearly choose Ayrton. And maybe I would put him as Prost."

Hamilton continued the comparisons when talking about Sebastian Vettel, who he says needs to run at the front for a prolonged period, likening him to the 1992 champion Nigel Mansell.

"I don't think [Vettel is my biggest rival]. If he continues to have a car like he does now then, maybe, but I think when we get equal pace then we will see some serious racing. Maybe he is the new Mansell? Not that I would rate him like I do Mansell."

Returning to the present, Hamilton admitted that Vettel's Red Bull team were likely to be strong in Malaysia as the circuit would suit the RB7's characteristics, but that there was more to come from McLaren.

"Malaysia is a massive downforce track so you're going to see Red Bull as quick if not quicker. But I have no doubts our car can be competitive as well."

Hamilton confirmed he would not be heading straight to Malaysia for the next grand prix, instead returning home to support his brother Nicolas in his first competitive race in the Renault Clio Cup at Brands Hatch this weekend.

"I can't miss my brother's first race. It's OK, I can sleep on the flight. I can still stay in this time zone. I'll just head back to see his qualifying and race and then pop back out. It's cool. Me and my brother are close. I mean, everyone has their situations in life, but it has been tough for him. I can understand what he has been through because I am the closest person to him, but even I cannot comprehend what it must have been like to have the difficulties he has had. And now he gets to have the opportunity to live the dream himself. Me and my dad will be there."

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Critics hit out at 'on the cheap' HRT

The head of the Spanish motor racing federation has slammed Hispania after its drivers failed to qualify for the 2011 season opener.

In the untested F111, Tonio Liuzzi and Narain Karthikeyan kicked off HRT's second season in F1 with a handful of practice laps before failing to meet the new 107% qualifying rule.

Carlos Gracia, also a member of the FIA's World Motor Sport Council, told Radio Marca he was "annoyed at the attitude" of HRT's team bosses.

"I wouldn't say disappointed, because you could see this coming," he said. "Like this, I would prefer there was no Spanish team in Formula One. I want a Spanish team that is serious and with the necessary budgets, not a team that is made a fool of.

"Hispania has not done its homework. You cannot be in Formula One in such precarious condition."

Meanwhile, Johnny Herbert, who in Australia was the driver representative on the stewards' panel, said his fellow officials had no choice but to uphold the 107% qualifying rule.

"I felt bad but you cannot compete in Formula One on the cheap," he said. "Hopefully this setback will give the team the kick they need to get ready to compete properly in Malaysia with the right funding."

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Barrichello hampered by DRS glitch

Williams have said that Rubens Barrichello had a problem with his Drag Reduction System (DRS) during the Australian Grand Prix which meant it was wrongly programmed for use on a different part of the track.

Barrichello ran wide on the first lap at turn three, and had to try to fight his way back through the field. Williams team manager Dickie Stanford said that he was hampered by incorrect sector settings, which meant he was unable to use his rear wing to aid overtakes on the pit straight.

"Something in the race control system was wrong," Stanford told Auto Motor und Sport. "Barrichello couldn't use his rear wing on the home straight even though a few times he was close enough to the car in front. It was (mistakenly) programmed for the second sector."

Barrichello was told not to use the wing until the error was cleared, with Williams waiting for race control to correct the problem.

"That's why I took so long to get past Heidfeld," Barrichello said.

He was the only driver to experience problems with the DRS, but the system had little impact due to the short length of the main straight on which it could be used. Fernando Alonso said that it did help him pass much slower cars, but was ineffective when behind someone on a similar pace.

"The wing helped me to pass Rosberg, but not Button," Alonso told La Stampa. "If the pace gap between the cars is 2-3 tenths only, it's not enough to pass."

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Horner unmoved by McLaren's rehtoric

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner doubts his opposite number at McLaren - Martin Whitmarsh - truly believes his team has the potential to take victories at the upcoming races.

Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel stormed to the top step of the podium at the opening round in Australia, taking the chequered flag 22 seconds ahead of McLaren's Lewis Hamilton in second.

Part of that gap can be accounted for by a flapping undertray on Hamilton's car, which eased the pressure on Vettel and forced the Briton to "nurse" his car home. And Whitmarsh believes the rest of the gap can be made up by better understanding the MP4-26, which received a significant upgrade at the eleventh hour in Australia to replace its problematic and overcomplicated exhaust used during winter testing.

"We've seen a lot of exhaust blowing, and this is because increasingly the rear diffuser has become boxed in by the regulations," Whitmarsh told GP Week. "It's quite difficult within these regulations to create performance differentiation. We had some very create solutions of our own, but they were very difficult to achieve technically, too ambitious.

"We've stepped back a little bit, said let's find a simpler solution. Given the timeframe we gave ourselves it's unlikely that we've optimized the solution. I'd be disappointed if we can't really make some progress now on the diffuser, floor and exhaust system. Lewis and Jenson are still learning about the car, which they only first drove on Friday really. There's a limit to how exploratory you can be given the restrictions on tyres and laps on a grand prix event."

He added: "What we had here in Melbourne was put together pretty quickly and wasn't the best job we can do. Now we have to make it better for Malaysia. We leave Australia knowing we had a car capable of taking two places on the podium. It was genuine pace."

But Horner questions Whitmarsh's conviction and doubts Red Bull, which left the performance-enhancing KERS off the car at Melbourne, can be caught so easily.

"Of course McLaren say they will win, otherwise there would be no point in him turning up at the next race," Horner told the Times "Whether they believe it or not is another thing. "They are a great team and they have made massive steps. They always have strong development during a season but we outdeveloped them last year, we did it the year before and we are determined to do it again."

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Melbourne wasn't a disaster

Fernando Alonso has said that the Australian Grand Prix was not a disaster for Ferrari, despite the team being further off the pace than expected.

Ferrari had looked like the most likely challenger to Red Bull at the front of the grid throughout pre-season testing, but they struggled to live up to that billing in Melbourne, with McLaren closest to Sebastian Vettel's pace and Vitaly Petrov's finishing third in his Renault. Although Alonso could only manage fourth and Felipe Massa seventh, the double world champion tried to take a calm perspective of the weekend.

"It wasn't the start that we all wanted but nor is it anything to get worried about," he said. "I already said it at the track: 12 points is not far below the world champion's average last year and two title contenders [Jenson Button and Mark Webber] finished behind me. So overall the Australian Grand Prix can't be defined as disastrous."

Alonso acknowledged that the car's lack of pace in qualifying was unexpected, but said the team managed to extract a bit more performance from the 150th Italia in time the race. "Certainly, in qualifying we were very far from Vettel's Red Bull and far from Hamilton's McLaren but in the race the situation improved - perhaps not compared to Sebastian but certainly against the others. The start was a pity: if I hadn't found myself down in 9th place at the beginning of the first lap I'd have been able to fight to the finish for the two lower steps of the podium."

Conditions were relatively cool throughout the weekend, with Ferrari struggling to get heat in to the front tyres. Alonso refused to use the weather as an excuse though, saying he felt there was a more fundamental problem that needs to be investigated.

"I'm not one of those who believes a degree of temperature here or there can determine major changes in the performance of the car on the track. So I don't agree that the fact that Sunday was hotter compared to Saturday necessarily played into our favour. On Friday, when temperatures were similar to those during qualifying, the car went very well. The next day, from the morning, it wasn't so good and we have to understand why that happened by carefully analysing the data."

Despite the lack of temperature causing problems for Ferrari, Alonso said that the performance of the Pirelli tyres were actually one of the positives that he could take away from the weekend.

"For me there weren't any big surprises this weekend, particularly because I didn't arrive in Melbourne with a clear idea of how the grid would line up. From the tests, especially this year, it was difficult to have a realistic picture of the situation. The only positive surprise was the behaviour of the Pirelli tyres which, at least at Albert Park, showed less degradation than what we saw at the test. We will see how things go in Malaysia at Sepang, on a track that is very different to the semi-street circuit of Albert Park."

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Williams yet to show true potential

Williams technical director Sam Michael insists the best is yet to come from the new FW33 after a shaky start to the season in Australia.

The car appeared to be relatively quick in testing, but failed to deliver on its potential at the first race after lead driver Rubens Barrichello made a mistake in qualifying and both drivers retired with gearbox problems on Sunday. Nevertheless, Michael is confident the car is better than its performance suggested and that it will be in the hunt for points in Malaysia.

"The competitiveness of the FW33 was encouraging given the limited running and set-up time we had in Melbourne," he said. "There is more to come from the car and I hope in the next few races we can show what the FW33 is capable of.

"Heading to Sepang we will once again be hoping to get into the top ten in qualifying and end the weekend with some points for both cars."

A feature of the Williams is its tightly packaged rear end, which features an ultra slim-line gearbox casing. However, it was the gearbox that caused the team problems at the weekend.

"We had transmission failures on both the cars this weekend," confirmed Michael. "We had a failure on Pastor [Maldonado]'s car early on in the race with Rubens retiring on lap 48. We are still currently investigating both problems.

Barrichello also had a gearbox oil leak during final practice.

"It was unrelated," added Michael. "The issue we had on Saturday was with the rear gearbox oil seal that caused a leak."

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Button hails 'unbelievable' progress

Jenson Button has described the progress made by McLaren at the start of the season as "unbelievable".

Following a poor pre-season, the team's new MP4-26 appeared to be well off the pace, but upgrades brought to the Australian Grand Prix worked immediately and saw Lewis Hamilton finish second, while Button was sixth following a drive-through penalty. Button himself admitted that he expected to be fighting towards the back of the midfield before the new exhaust system was introduced.

"Over two weeks ago we thought we were probably on the pace of the Force India cars in testing," Button told the Daily Mail. "But we qualified two seconds quicker than them. We have picked up so much pace, it is unbelievable. Looking at the performance of the car now and seeing where we have come from, it's massively impressive. I've never seen anything like it."

Button also said that the updates had yet to show their full potential, having been fast-tracked on to the cars in time for the season-opening race in Melbourne. The 2009 world champion was looking forward to the future development that McLaren could make, and predicted further improvements for the next race in Malaysia.

"You can see in the team everyone is now really positive," he said. "And there is a good atmosphere because we know this is only the beginning for us. With this new exhaust system, it's the starting point, and whereas everyone else has had all winter to play around with theirs, we can make some improvements. So ahead of the next race in Malaysia, with the way the exhaust worked in Australia, that is a circuit that should suit our car."

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Brawn blames Mercedes set-up

Mercedes team principal Ross Brawn has said that the reason the team struggled in Melbourne was due to it being unable to get the W02 properly set up.

Mercedes showed encouraging pace at the final pre-season test in Barcelona after adding a major update to the car, which increased expectations of how competitive it could be in Australia. However, both cars were off the pace all weekend before accident damage caused them to retire during the race. Brawn said its confidence had been undone by an inability to get the car working properly.

"We took an approach over the winter which culminated in the final spec of car in Barcelona," Brawn was quoted by Autosport. "Barcelona is a track that we've never been super strong on, but the car was very good there. Michael was very happy with the car on the last day, we swapped around the drivers to give Nico an hour or two in the car and he thought it was quite a different car to what he had been experiencing up until then. So we came into this weekend with reasonable confidence that we could do a good job.

"But we had a very messy weekend. Cars these days have got a lot of interesting systems on and we had a job keeping everything running, which means that we haven't done the fundamental work of getting the car balanced and finding the right set-up. It has been a disappointing weekend and we should have been able to do better than we achieved. The problem we have got is that the drivers don't quite know what car they are going to have each time they enter a corner. The inconsistency is the thing that makes it difficult for them."

Brawn highlighted the numerous systems on the car as a specific problem that hampered its progress, and said that the key to its development was not going to be further upgrades but being able to get the most out of the current car.

"We have had difficulties with a number of systems on the car. There are a number of things that have got messy this weekend and the main difficulty is that drivers and engineers have not had a consistent enough car to work on. There are a series of upgrades planned, but what we have got to focus on is using what we've got already. The fundamentals are there and we've got to get everything to work well together over a weekend, and then we can show a much stronger performance."

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Sauber decides not to appeal

Sauber has announced that it will not be appealing its disqualification from the Australian Grand Prix.

Sergio Perez had secured a brilliant seventh place on his Formula One debut, stopping only once, while Kamui Kobayashi followed him home in eighth place. However, a post-race scrutineering check found both cars to have an uppermost rear wing element that contravened the regulations, and they were subsequently excluded.

The team said in a press release that it would not appeal, and technical director James Key confirmed that having looked in to the reasons for the disqualification, Sauber felt it had no grounds.

"It did not bring us any performance advantage, but the fact is that it was a deviation from the regulations. We take note of the stewards' decision," Key said. "We have since found that there was an error in the checking process for the relevant dimension on this component. We have already put measures in place to ensure that nothing of this kind occurs again in the future."

Team principal Peter Sauber paid tribute to the team's drivers, and pointed to the original finishing positions as reason for the team to take confidence in to the rest of the season.

"Both Sergio and Kamui put in a tremendous performance on Sunday," Sauber said. "They gained no advantage from the inaccurate rear wing. They both fought hard to secure their finishing places and had really earned their points. Notwithstanding the disappointment, we have shown that we have a fast car and two highly talented drivers. It makes me optimistic for this season."

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Gérard Lopez : “Proud to have supported Vitaly”

BLOG | 27/03/2011

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DRS to be reviewed after China

FIA race director Charlie Whiting has said that the governing body will analyse the effectiveness of the Drag Reduction System (DRS) after the Chinese Grand Prix.

The moveable rear wing was seen in race conditions for the first time in Melbourne, and although it led to some overtaking in to turn one, it was largely ineffective. The teams were critical of the positioning of the overtaking zone, with the preceding corner being the fast right-handed turn 16, despite the zone being the full length of the longest straight on the track.

Whiting said that the FIA were willing to make changes to the system if required, but that it needed more time to be analysed before making any decisions.

"It is true that the effectiveness of this system in Melbourne was not ideal," he is quoted by Swiss newspaper Le Temps. "The straight is too short and the corner before it too fast. We'll see what happens in Malaysia and China and then adapt the system as needed."

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