Bahrain cancelled.

F1 2011 - Australian Grand Prix
 

Practice 1 Fri 01:30
Practice 2 Fri 05:30
Practice 3 Sat 03:00
Qualifying Sat 06:00
Race Sun 07:00

Who do you think will come good for the first race of the season?

Red Bull’s Mark Webber topped the timesheets as the final pre-season test began at Barcelona’s Circuit de Catalunya on Tuesday. Webber’s best time, a 1m 22.544s, was almost four tenths of a second faster than the quickest lap from McLaren's Jenson Button in second.

The weather made life tricky for the eight teams in action, with lower-than-expected temperatures and a blustery wind hampering their programmes at the Spanish circuit. Most, however, enjoyed productive days, with Webber managing to complete almost 100 laps in the RB7.

Renault’s Vitaly Petrov and Nick Heidfeld ended the day in third and fifth respectively, with Sauber’s Sergio Perez dividing the duo in fourth. Force India were in sixth place with Paul di Resta at the helm of the VJM04. The team’s tester Nico Hulkenberg was in action before lunch and ended the day in ninth.

Seventh slot went to GP2 driver Davide Valsecchi in the Lotus. Valsecchi’s AirAsia team mate Luiz Razia also enjoyed a drive in the T128 and finished in 10th. Toro Rosso’s Sebastien Buemi was eighth, whilst Virgin’s Jerome D’Ambrosio was the day’s final runner in 11th.

Testing continues at Barcelona on Wednesday, when Mercedes, Williams, Ferrari and HRT are expected to join proceedings.

Unofficial Tuesday test times from Barcelona:
1. Mark Webber, Red Bull, 1:22.544, 97 laps
2. Jenson Button, McLaren, 1:22.910, 74
3. Vitaly Petrov, Renault, 1:22.937, 27
4. Sergio Perez, Sauber, 1:24.117, 90
5. Nick Heidfeld, Renault, 1:24.735, 20
6. Paul di Resta, Force India, 1:25.039, 38
7. Davide Valsecchi, Lotus, 1:25.406, 50
8. Sebastien Buemi, Toro Rosso, 1:26.004, 48
9. Nico Hulkenberg, Force India, 1:26.030, 31
10. Luiz Razia, Lotus, 1:26.723, 29
11. Jerome D’Ambrosio, Virgin, 1:32.060, 57


Source www.f1.com

The World Motor Sport Council (WMSC) met on Tuesday and agreed a number of changes to the sporting regulations, which will be applied with immediate effect. The amendments include tweaks to safety car periods and tyre usage. The FIA also revealed the Circuit Design Group is to examine Grand Prix circuits to identify the possibility of increasing overtaking opportunities.

Details from the WMSC in full:
Amendments have been made to the Sporting Regulations for immediate application:

At certain events, one additional specification of dry weather tyre may be made available to all teams for evaluation purposes. Teams will be informed about such an additional specification at least one week before the start of the relevant event. Two sets of these tyres will be allocated to each driver for use during P1 and P2, and any such tyres must be returned to the tyre supplier before the start of P3.

One additional set of ‘prime’ specification tyres may be made available to all drivers. Teams will be informed about such an additional set at least one week before the start of the relevant event. In this instance, the additional set will be available for use during P1 and P2. One set of ‘prime’ tyres must then be returned to the tyre supplier after P1, and two further sets of ‘prime’ and one set of ‘option’ specification tyres returned before the start of P3.

The safety car speed limit (an approximate 40 percent decrease in lap time) will now be enforced over two laps instead of one. The purpose is to ensure that cars are driven at a safe speed until they reach the safety car.

During a safety car period the pit exit light will remain green for the duration, unless the race is subsequently suspended.

Other than when the safety car has been asked to use the pit lane, no car may enter the pits while the safety car is deployed unless it is for the purpose of changing tyres.

Source www.f1.com

Sebastian Vettel continued where team mate Mark Webber left off yesterday by setting the fastest time for Red Bull.

The world champion set a 1’21.865 within the first hour of the test and the time wasn’t beaten all day.

Sebastien Buemi was second fastest for Toro Rosso.

But his STR6 stopped shortly after Buemi did his best time. The team did a series of practice pit stops in the afternoon.

McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton spent much of the day towards the bottom of the times sheets but moved up to fourth behind Vitaly Petrov later on.

Felipe Massa was fifth-quickest for Ferrari.

Williams had more problems with their Kinetic Energy Recovery System which caused Pastor Maldonado to stop early on. The team removed the system before continuing with the test.

Among the other drivers to hit trouble with Paul di Resta, Sebastien Buemi and Jerome d’Ambrosio, all of which caused stoppages during the day.

D’Ambrosio’s Virgin had an electrical fault and Force India said the failure on di Resta’s car was “minor”.

For the second day running, the red flag ame out in the dying minutes of the test following a late stoppage. This time it was Petrov in the Renault whose car came to a halt on the track.
Driver Car Best time Laps Difference
1 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault RB7 1’21.865 112
2 Sebastien Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari STR6 1’22.396 120 0.531
3 Vitaly Petrov Renault R31 1’22.670 115 0.805
4 Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes MP4-26 1’22.888 57 1.023
5 Felipe Massa Ferrari 150° Italia 1’23.324 99 1.459
6 Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes VJM04 1’24.334 118 2.469
7 Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari C30 1’24.436 105 2.571
8 Nico Rosberg Mercedes W02 1’25.807 100 3.942
9 Jarno Trulli Lotus-Renault T128 1’26.090 98 4.225
10 Pastor Maldonado Williams-Cosworth FW33 1’26.989 29 5.124
11 Jerome d’Ambrosio Virgin-Cosworth MVR-02 1’28.982 42 7.117

Latest times, 7 minutes to go

1.) Schumacher 1:21.249
2.) Alonso 1:21.614
3.) Rosberg 1:21.788
4.) Heidfeld 1:22.073
5.) Barrichello 1:22.233
6.) Kobayashi 1:22.315
7.) Alguersuari 1:22.675
8.) Vettel 1:22.933
9.) Kovalainen 1:23.437
10.) Sutil 1:23.921
11.) Maldonado 1:24.108
12.) di Resta 1:24.721
13.) Button 1:25.837
14.) dAmbrosio 1:27.375

They reckon it's gonna be minimum of 3 pitstops per race :S

Mercedes GP is still far from disappointed when it comes to the performance of the seven-time World Champion, Michael Schumacher. While talking to the media earlier today, the team management stated that they have not actually ruled out extending the driver’s contract with the team.

Schumacher returned to the track at the start of the 2010 Formula 1 season after three years. However, the much anticipated comeback of statistically the best racer ever in the history of the sport was much of a disappointment. The team failed to hand over a competitive car to the driver, while he failed to get the best out of what he was given.

However, unlike expectations, even after the abortive season, the driver not only chose to stay in the sport, but also revealed his strong desire to win another Championship before leaving the sport once for all.

Currently, the German has signed a three year contract with the team. This means even after the upcoming 2011 season, he will have a chance to run another season with the squad. The competition director at Mercedes, Norbert Haug, admitted earlier today that he would love to see the legendary racer with the team for a long time.

He explained, “If Michael wants it and we can agree on a right price — with pleasure.”

However, the initial pre-season test sessions did not unfold brilliantly for the team, as it was seen suffering from various issues of pace and reliability. Although many predict another poor season from the team ahead, yet, the team boss Ross Brawn is adamant to make the car stronger with some quick upgrades.

Brawn not only admitted that the team will soon be able to improve its car and hand over the drivers a stronger and better package, but also predicted a strong season ahead for its driver, Schumacher. He admitted, “Michael looks really strong. He could surprise some people this year.”

Moreover, the two-time World Champion and Ferrari driver, Fernando Alonso also proclaimed that Schumacher was still the most dangerous man on the track. While the Red Bull driver and the reigning World Champion, Sebastian Vettel also predicted a strong season ahead for the driver.

I hope Webber does well this year, he was so close last time!

Everyone is saying watch out for Schumi..... Alonso said it first, then Bernie, now Vettel....... I think (and pray it happens)

If not Schumi then I want webber to do well.

6 days, 6 hours and 58 minutes until the Australian Grand Prix

The 2011 FIA Formula One World Championship finally gets underway in Australia next weekend, with all 12 teams eager to discover how their new cars stack up against the competition. There’s new rules, new tyres and more, but one thing that remains reassuringly consistent is the warm welcome guaranteed for the paddock at Melbourne’s Albert Park…

Heikki Kovalainen, Lotus
2010 Qualifying - 19th, 2010 Race - 13th
"As Melbourne is now the start of the season it will be very exciting. The Australian fans are great people and the city always has a carnival atmosphere because the race is right in the middle of town. The track itself is a semi-street circuit so it's tricky. It evolves a lot throughout the weekend as the rubber builds up and traction and grip improves. On Friday morning it's always very slippery and you need to bear that in mind when you're setting the car up. If you have some balance problems in the first session it's better not to worry about it too much as you just need to get a feel for the downforce levels, gear ratios and the tyres. By the third session on Saturday morning the track really starts to come into its own. In qualifying it improves every lap and the grip level gets better as people put more rubber down - it can be hard on the tyres as well so you need to look after them. It's a difficult track to overtake on and whether we get an opportunity to make the moveable wing really work for us there is still open to question. Whatever happens I'm really excited about getting back to racing and with the steps forward we have taken this year I think we're going to have a really good year."

Jarno Trulli, Lotus
2010 Qualifying - 20th, 2010 Race - DNF
(On DRS (Drag Reduction System), aka moveable rear wing): "People sometimes ask me what the acceleration of a Formula One car is like, and the only way I can describe it is that it's like driving a rocket - now we have a rocket that suddenly takes another leap forward when it's already at full speed! It was a strange feeling the first time we used the moveable rear wing, because you suddenly have about 15% less drag and therefore a lot more speed. The more you use the wing the more you get used to it and its effect on the car's behaviour. We can use it wherever we like in practice and qualifying but in the races it'll only be when we're within one second of the car ahead and in the designated area so I think it will have a big part to play strategically. We'll see how it improves the actual racing, but I hope it will make a difference."

Tony Fernandes, Lotus team principal
"I cannot wait to get back to racing. This is a very important season for Team Lotus as we are no longer a new team - we achieved what we set out to in 2010 but now it's effectively a clean sheet - an entirely new car, a fully fledged race team and factory and much higher aspirations. Now comes the next phase of the hard work - time to prove that our pre-season promise can help us take the next step forward in the amazing story that is Team Lotus."

Mark Webber, Red Bull
2010 Qualifying - 2nd, 2010 Race - 9th
“As an Australian I'm looking forward to Melbourne being the first race. We've done a huge amount of testing and a lot of work has gone into the cars - now we'll put them through their paces at Albert Park and lots of questions will be answered. It's going to be an eventful weekend, especially as the weather can be a bit hit and miss. We'll learn a lot about the tyres, which will play a key role. I hope I can improve my luck there, as it hasn't been incredible since since my first GP in '02. I hope to get my best result and there's every indication we can do that. This is the best winter we've had - let's hope we can carry it on into this event.”

Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull
2010 Qualifying - 1st, 2010 Race - DNF
“We know what it feels like to start the season in Australia, it's a special place with a special track - It's one of the few cities that lives Formula One for the week, so I'm looking forward to it. It has been an exciting winter and the time around Christmas was important to calm down, but since February we have been back in the rhythm. It's nice to look back at last year and at what we achieved but we're all looking forward now and focusing on the new car and season. It all starts from zero again; we're excited, we've had enough of testing now and we want to go racing again."

Lewis Hamilton, McLaren
2010 Qualifying - 11th, 2010 Race - 6th
“It’s felt like a very long winter. I started the new season feeling fitter and more positive than ever and I’ve maintained that enthusiasm and momentum despite a somewhat difficult few weeks of winter tests. We can’t hide the fact that testing has been tougher than we expected: our test mileage hasn’t been as high as that of our rivals, nor have we had the outright pace of the fastest cars. Still, I have a good feeling with MP4-26: I like driving our car, I think it will look after its tyres quite well and I understand that we’ll be making further performance steps ahead of this opening race.

“Nevertheless, we know we go to Melbourne ready for battle: some teams are extremely well prepared - both from a pace and reliability point of view - but that can sometimes count for little in the unpredictable and somewhat chaotic opening races where it’s equally vital just to take points home. I strongly believe that, while our preparations haven’t gone as smoothly as we’d have liked, I get the impression that we’ll be arriving in Melbourne with everything finally meshing together - and that makes me really excited.”

Jenson Button, McLaren
2010 Qualifying - 4th, 2010 Race - 1st
“In the past, I’d always travelled to Melbourne full of positive energy and enthusiasm. But, at the moment, my heart is with the people of Japan as they struggle to come to terms with the scope of the terrible devastation and loss of life wreaked by last week’s earthquake and tsunami. While the prospect of a Formula One race seems to pale in the face of such a disaster, there have been occasions before when the healing power of sport can actually be beneficial; an escape for people. So I go to Melbourne this weekend resolving to not only try my best, but also to salute the brave people, and my many friends, throughout Japan.

“Albert Park has been good to me: I’ve won there for the past two seasons; it’s a great circuit for racing, it always seems to create unpredictable races and, perhaps because it’s habitually at the start of the season when a precise pecking order has yet to be established, we often see fast cars running out of sequence - and the excitement that that brings. With the added issue of multiple tyre stops, it could be a very exciting and unpredictable race weekend. I’m regularly being asked if I can make it three wins in a row this year. On paper that might not look likely, but, seriously, who knows? I most definitely wouldn’t rule it out.”

Martin Whitmarsh, McLaren team principal
“Over the winter, we set ourselves some extremely ambitious performance targets for MP4-26. Vodafone McLaren Mercedes are an uncompromising team and, as with every car we build, we tend to push development to the limit. In some cases, we’ve pushed over those limits, and the resulting lack of mileage has invariably eaten into our pre-season preparation.

“However, it’s called testing for a reason - and testing MP4-26 beyond its limit has, in some ways, been highly instructive. In actual fact, we’ve gathered a huge amount of useful data about the car, its handling characteristics and its management of the tyres. So while we’ve further fine-tuned the package for Melbourne, we’ve once again set ourselves some extremely tough targets for this opening race weekend.

“So, do I think our testing pace is representative of the pace we’ll show in Australia? No. Do I think we head into the weekend as race favourites? Unfortunately, no. But do I feel that we have the capacity to surprise a few people and be competitive? Very much so. As with everything we do at Vodafone McLaren Mercedes, we never give up: we’re fighters - that’s the spirit that has won us 20 world championships in the past and which makes us a team you can never under-estimate.”

Michael Schumacher, Mercedes GP
2010 Qualifying - 7th, 2010 Race - 10th
"Australia has always been one of the highlights on the Formula One calendar in all my years of competing. It is the atmosphere which makes Albert Park so special, and when you see all of the fans having fun, that just gives you a great feeling of how motorsport can be. I am lucky enough to have a lot of good memories from Melbourne: it's a venue where I have won four times and those races will always be very special. I'm sure it will be a great weekend, and an exciting season-opener. I'm looking forward to getting to the paddock on Thursday.

"We are well prepared. All of the hard work over the winter will start to come together over the first few races and then we will know more about the position we are in, and what still needs to be achieved as Formula One never stands still of course. I feel very 'at home' with the team after one year of working together and this experience has really benefited our pre-season preparations."

Nico Rosberg, Mercedes GP
2010 Qualifying - 6th, 2010 Race - 5th
"I love visiting Australia and Melbourne is one of the most chilled-out cities on the calendar so it's a cool venue for the first race of the season. I'm travelling out early to get acclimatised to the time zone and am looking forward to training by the beach and relaxing in St Kilda in the evenings. The Australian fans are so enthusiastic which is great to see and it makes the atmosphere around Albert Park very special. The circuit holds some great memories for me from achieving my first podium here in 2008, and I have finished in the points in the last four races.

"We're in good shape. The team and car have progressed a lot over the winter, we're pleased with the performance from our upgrades and the car is handling well. Our aim is to make a good step forward from last season and I am confident that we will be able to achieve this."

Ross Brawn, Mercedes GP team principal
"This year marks our second season as Mercedes GP Petronas, and the team has made real progress over this period. With the support of Daimler, Aabar and our team partners, we are gaining strength from being a single entity and building the team that we want for the future.

"Our pre-season programme has gone as well as we could have wanted. However, as always, the first race will be the real measure of where we are in terms of competitiveness. Everyone is eagerly waiting to see how the grid shakes out in Melbourne, and wherever we find ourselves, we will respond accordingly. Our ability to react strongly has improved considerably over the past twelve months and we have a robust development plan in place for the season. 2011 will be the second season with our drivers, Michael and Nico, and this continuity, together with our well-established relationships, has enabled both the drivers and team to prepare well for the challenges ahead.

"I believe that we can expect a very exciting season in 2011. The strategic battle is going to be fascinating with the Pirelli tyres, combined with the new adjustable rear wing and the return of KERS, increasing the challenges for the teams and drivers, and hopefully providing lots of track action for the fans.

"The Australian Grand Prix is always a fantastic motorsport weekend, and with the added excitement of being the first race of the season this year, we are all looking forward to the racing starting again next week."

Norbert Haug, Vice-President, Mercedes-Benz Motorsport
"It has been an intensive winter for Mercedes GP Petronas. We covered more than 5700 km during a total of 15 test days, which is the equivalent of more than 18 Grand Prix distances. The final test in Barcelona with our planned technical updates saw us take a step forward which is a tribute to the dedication and hard work of our whole team. There are still a lot of question marks about how the racing will unfold in 2011 with the new Pirelli tyres, the adjustable rear wing and the reintroduction of KERS. These are demanding challenges for the drivers, and Michael and Nico have done a good job mastering the new systems and understanding how to get the most out of the tyres.

"Melbourne holds many good memories for Mercedes-Benz, as the venue for our first modern era victory in 1997 with David Coulthard in a McLaren-Mercedes, and Albert Park has the knack of producing exciting races. Making predictions before the first Grand Prix of the season is certainly not what I want to do, but our target is clear from the first race: to improve on the position in which we finished our first season as Mercedes GP Petronas.

"I would like to take this opportunity to thank all our hard-working team members in Brackley, Brixworth and Stuttgart for their relentless efforts since the final chequered flag of last season. The best reward for all of us would be to start the new season in a stronger position compared to 2010."

Kamui Kobayashi, Sauber
2010 Qualifying - 16th, 2010 Race - DNF
“Of course I was very worried about my country and so went to Japan after the Barcelona test. I must say the situation is really, really bad. So many have lost their lives, become homeless, are without food and water in the cold winter, and have lost their loved ones. It is difficult to believe that a scenario worse than in any movie has become reality. We need to stay together and we need help from all over the world. I am worried the whole country could disappear - it is just too awful. Since the earthquake and the tsunami news is getting worse every day, there is nothing positive to look forward to at the moment. I feel I have to do something, I want to help - but in fact there is nothing I can do by myself. I think at least for the time being what I can do is to be focused and fully concentrate on the season’s opening race in Melbourne. Originally I was looking forward to this with great joy. Now what I really want to do is my very best to achieve a good result, which perhaps can at least give the people in Japan a little bit of hope and positive news.”

Sergio Perez, Sauber
2010 Qualifying - n/a, 2010 Race - n/a
“Without a doubt I am also worried about the people in Japan, and I really wish them all the best. At the same time personally a dream is about to come true. I have dreamed for many years of competing in my first Formula One Grand Prix, and now it is going to happen. I am excited and I am very much looking forward to it. It will be a weekend during which I have to adapt quickly to many things - to the circuit, which is new to me, and to all the aspects of a grand prix weekend from free practice to qualifying and the race. I cannot imagine yet how it will be for me when the lights go out on Sunday, but I can’t wait to find that out. I have never been to Australia before. Of course, I have checked the circuit lay-out and other things. I understand it is a tough track, very challenging and not easy to find the limit, so it will be hard.”

James Key, BMW Sauber technical director
“Everyone in the team is looking forward to starting the 2011 season in Melbourne. It’s a good track to go to for the first race. It will be interesting to see on how things develop on what could potentially be a higher track temperature, because this is something none of us have tested yet, and there are still a few unknowns in this respect. We will go with the specification of the car that we finished the Barcelona test with, with some final refinements to it after what we learned from that test.

“The format of the weekend will be somewhat different, given the fact the tyres are little less consistent than those we are used to, so this is something we need to optimize. With regard to the drivers, we’re obviously looking forward to working with Sergio at a F1 race weekend for the first time. He displayed some good progress during winter testing, and we hope we can transfer that directly to the first race weekend where the pressure of course is higher. I’m sure he can manage that. Unlike Sergio, Kamui doesn’t have to learn the track, so it will be more a case of car set up and general performance work for him. Particularly on Friday, it will be important to find the right direction. Considering the events in Japan, we know this will be a very difficult weekend for Kamui, but everybody in the team will give him all possible support.

“With regard to the track, Albert Park is half street circuit with stop start, some chicanes at the beginning and then a few medium to high speed corners in the latter part of the lap. It will be interesting because it tends to be a circuit that is hard on the rear tyres, whereas the ones we have been testing on were harder on the fronts. So the balance of the car could really change in Melbourne, and if the track temperatures are higher we’ll have to watch out for the rear tyres a little more than in testing, but this is part of the process. We go there as well prepared as possible.”

The 2011 FIA Formula One World Championship finally gets underway in Australia next weekend, with all 12 teams eager to discover how their new cars stack up against the competition. There’s new rules, new tyres and more, but one thing that remains reassuringly consistent is the warm welcome guaranteed for the paddock at Melbourne’s Albert Park…

Heikki Kovalainen, Lotus
2010 Qualifying - 19th, 2010 Race - 13th
"As Melbourne is now the start of the season it will be very exciting. The Australian fans are great people and the city always has a carnival atmosphere because the race is right in the middle of town. The track itself is a semi-street circuit so it's tricky. It evolves a lot throughout the weekend as the rubber builds up and traction and grip improves. On Friday morning it's always very slippery and you need to bear that in mind when you're setting the car up. If you have some balance problems in the first session it's better not to worry about it too much as you just need to get a feel for the downforce levels, gear ratios and the tyres. By the third session on Saturday morning the track really starts to come into its own. In qualifying it improves every lap and the grip level gets better as people put more rubber down - it can be hard on the tyres as well so you need to look after them. It's a difficult track to overtake on and whether we get an opportunity to make the moveable wing really work for us there is still open to question. Whatever happens I'm really excited about getting back to racing and with the steps forward we have taken this year I think we're going to have a really good year."

Jarno Trulli, Lotus
2010 Qualifying - 20th, 2010 Race - DNF
(On DRS (Drag Reduction System), aka moveable rear wing): "People sometimes ask me what the acceleration of a Formula One car is like, and the only way I can describe it is that it's like driving a rocket - now we have a rocket that suddenly takes another leap forward when it's already at full speed! It was a strange feeling the first time we used the moveable rear wing, because you suddenly have about 15% less drag and therefore a lot more speed. The more you use the wing the more you get used to it and its effect on the car's behaviour. We can use it wherever we like in practice and qualifying but in the races it'll only be when we're within one second of the car ahead and in the designated area so I think it will have a big part to play strategically. We'll see how it improves the actual racing, but I hope it will make a difference."

Tony Fernandes, Lotus team principal
"I cannot wait to get back to racing. This is a very important season for Team Lotus as we are no longer a new team - we achieved what we set out to in 2010 but now it's effectively a clean sheet - an entirely new car, a fully fledged race team and factory and much higher aspirations. Now comes the next phase of the hard work - time to prove that our pre-season promise can help us take the next step forward in the amazing story that is Team Lotus."

Mark Webber, Red Bull
2010 Qualifying - 2nd, 2010 Race - 9th
“As an Australian I'm looking forward to Melbourne being the first race. We've done a huge amount of testing and a lot of work has gone into the cars - now we'll put them through their paces at Albert Park and lots of questions will be answered. It's going to be an eventful weekend, especially as the weather can be a bit hit and miss. We'll learn a lot about the tyres, which will play a key role. I hope I can improve my luck there, as it hasn't been incredible since since my first GP in '02. I hope to get my best result and there's every indication we can do that. This is the best winter we've had - let's hope we can carry it on into this event.”

Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull
2010 Qualifying - 1st, 2010 Race - DNF
“We know what it feels like to start the season in Australia, it's a special place with a special track - It's one of the few cities that lives Formula One for the week, so I'm looking forward to it. It has been an exciting winter and the time around Christmas was important to calm down, but since February we have been back in the rhythm. It's nice to look back at last year and at what we achieved but we're all looking forward now and focusing on the new car and season. It all starts from zero again; we're excited, we've had enough of testing now and we want to go racing again."

Lewis Hamilton, McLaren
2010 Qualifying - 11th, 2010 Race - 6th
“It’s felt like a very long winter. I started the new season feeling fitter and more positive than ever and I’ve maintained that enthusiasm and momentum despite a somewhat difficult few weeks of winter tests. We can’t hide the fact that testing has been tougher than we expected: our test mileage hasn’t been as high as that of our rivals, nor have we had the outright pace of the fastest cars. Still, I have a good feeling with MP4-26: I like driving our car, I think it will look after its tyres quite well and I understand that we’ll be making further performance steps ahead of this opening race.

“Nevertheless, we know we go to Melbourne ready for battle: some teams are extremely well prepared - both from a pace and reliability point of view - but that can sometimes count for little in the unpredictable and somewhat chaotic opening races where it’s equally vital just to take points home. I strongly believe that, while our preparations haven’t gone as smoothly as we’d have liked, I get the impression that we’ll be arriving in Melbourne with everything finally meshing together - and that makes me really excited.”

Jenson Button, McLaren
2010 Qualifying - 4th, 2010 Race - 1st
“In the past, I’d always travelled to Melbourne full of positive energy and enthusiasm. But, at the moment, my heart is with the people of Japan as they struggle to come to terms with the scope of the terrible devastation and loss of life wreaked by last week’s earthquake and tsunami. While the prospect of a Formula One race seems to pale in the face of such a disaster, there have been occasions before when the healing power of sport can actually be beneficial; an escape for people. So I go to Melbourne this weekend resolving to not only try my best, but also to salute the brave people, and my many friends, throughout Japan.

“Albert Park has been good to me: I’ve won there for the past two seasons; it’s a great circuit for racing, it always seems to create unpredictable races and, perhaps because it’s habitually at the start of the season when a precise pecking order has yet to be established, we often see fast cars running out of sequence - and the excitement that that brings. With the added issue of multiple tyre stops, it could be a very exciting and unpredictable race weekend. I’m regularly being asked if I can make it three wins in a row this year. On paper that might not look likely, but, seriously, who knows? I most definitely wouldn’t rule it out.”

Martin Whitmarsh, McLaren team principal
“Over the winter, we set ourselves some extremely ambitious performance targets for MP4-26. Vodafone McLaren Mercedes are an uncompromising team and, as with every car we build, we tend to push development to the limit. In some cases, we’ve pushed over those limits, and the resulting lack of mileage has invariably eaten into our pre-season preparation.

“However, it’s called testing for a reason - and testing MP4-26 beyond its limit has, in some ways, been highly instructive. In actual fact, we’ve gathered a huge amount of useful data about the car, its handling characteristics and its management of the tyres. So while we’ve further fine-tuned the package for Melbourne, we’ve once again set ourselves some extremely tough targets for this opening race weekend.

“So, do I think our testing pace is representative of the pace we’ll show in Australia? No. Do I think we head into the weekend as race favourites? Unfortunately, no. But do I feel that we have the capacity to surprise a few people and be competitive? Very much so. As with everything we do at Vodafone McLaren Mercedes, we never give up: we’re fighters - that’s the spirit that has won us 20 world championships in the past and which makes us a team you can never under-estimate.”

Michael Schumacher, Mercedes GP
2010 Qualifying - 7th, 2010 Race - 10th
"Australia has always been one of the highlights on the Formula One calendar in all my years of competing. It is the atmosphere which makes Albert Park so special, and when you see all of the fans having fun, that just gives you a great feeling of how motorsport can be. I am lucky enough to have a lot of good memories from Melbourne: it's a venue where I have won four times and those races will always be very special. I'm sure it will be a great weekend, and an exciting season-opener. I'm looking forward to getting to the paddock on Thursday.

"We are well prepared. All of the hard work over the winter will start to come together over the first few races and then we will know more about the position we are in, and what still needs to be achieved as Formula One never stands still of course. I feel very 'at home' with the team after one year of working together and this experience has really benefited our pre-season preparations."

Nico Rosberg, Mercedes GP
2010 Qualifying - 6th, 2010 Race - 5th
"I love visiting Australia and Melbourne is one of the most chilled-out cities on the calendar so it's a cool venue for the first race of the season. I'm travelling out early to get acclimatised to the time zone and am looking forward to training by the beach and relaxing in St Kilda in the evenings. The Australian fans are so enthusiastic which is great to see and it makes the atmosphere around Albert Park very special. The circuit holds some great memories for me from achieving my first podium here in 2008, and I have finished in the points in the last four races.

"We're in good shape. The team and car have progressed a lot over the winter, we're pleased with the performance from our upgrades and the car is handling well. Our aim is to make a good step forward from last season and I am confident that we will be able to achieve this."

Ross Brawn, Mercedes GP team principal
"This year marks our second season as Mercedes GP Petronas, and the team has made real progress over this period. With the support of Daimler, Aabar and our team partners, we are gaining strength from being a single entity and building the team that we want for the future.

"Our pre-season programme has gone as well as we could have wanted. However, as always, the first race will be the real measure of where we are in terms of competitiveness. Everyone is eagerly waiting to see how the grid shakes out in Melbourne, and wherever we find ourselves, we will respond accordingly. Our ability to react strongly has improved considerably over the past twelve months and we have a robust development plan in place for the season. 2011 will be the second season with our drivers, Michael and Nico, and this continuity, together with our well-established relationships, has enabled both the drivers and team to prepare well for the challenges ahead.

"I believe that we can expect a very exciting season in 2011. The strategic battle is going to be fascinating with the Pirelli tyres, combined with the new adjustable rear wing and the return of KERS, increasing the challenges for the teams and drivers, and hopefully providing lots of track action for the fans.

"The Australian Grand Prix is always a fantastic motorsport weekend, and with the added excitement of being the first race of the season this year, we are all looking forward to the racing starting again next week."

Norbert Haug, Vice-President, Mercedes-Benz Motorsport
"It has been an intensive winter for Mercedes GP Petronas. We covered more than 5700 km during a total of 15 test days, which is the equivalent of more than 18 Grand Prix distances. The final test in Barcelona with our planned technical updates saw us take a step forward which is a tribute to the dedication and hard work of our whole team. There are still a lot of question marks about how the racing will unfold in 2011 with the new Pirelli tyres, the adjustable rear wing and the reintroduction of KERS. These are demanding challenges for the drivers, and Michael and Nico have done a good job mastering the new systems and understanding how to get the most out of the tyres.

"Melbourne holds many good memories for Mercedes-Benz, as the venue for our first modern era victory in 1997 with David Coulthard in a McLaren-Mercedes, and Albert Park has the knack of producing exciting races. Making predictions before the first Grand Prix of the season is certainly not what I want to do, but our target is clear from the first race: to improve on the position in which we finished our first season as Mercedes GP Petronas.

"I would like to take this opportunity to thank all our hard-working team members in Brackley, Brixworth and Stuttgart for their relentless efforts since the final chequered flag of last season. The best reward for all of us would be to start the new season in a stronger position compared to 2010."

Kamui Kobayashi, Sauber
2010 Qualifying - 16th, 2010 Race - DNF
“Of course I was very worried about my country and so went to Japan after the Barcelona test. I must say the situation is really, really bad. So many have lost their lives, become homeless, are without food and water in the cold winter, and have lost their loved ones. It is difficult to believe that a scenario worse than in any movie has become reality. We need to stay together and we need help from all over the world. I am worried the whole country could disappear - it is just too awful. Since the earthquake and the tsunami news is getting worse every day, there is nothing positive to look forward to at the moment. I feel I have to do something, I want to help - but in fact there is nothing I can do by myself. I think at least for the time being what I can do is to be focused and fully concentrate on the season’s opening race in Melbourne. Originally I was looking forward to this with great joy. Now what I really want to do is my very best to achieve a good result, which perhaps can at least give the people in Japan a little bit of hope and positive news.”

Sergio Perez, Sauber
2010 Qualifying - n/a, 2010 Race - n/a
“Without a doubt I am also worried about the people in Japan, and I really wish them all the best. At the same time personally a dream is about to come true. I have dreamed for many years of competing in my first Formula One Grand Prix, and now it is going to happen. I am excited and I am very much looking forward to it. It will be a weekend during which I have to adapt quickly to many things - to the circuit, which is new to me, and to all the aspects of a grand prix weekend from free practice to qualifying and the race. I cannot imagine yet how it will be for me when the lights go out on Sunday, but I can’t wait to find that out. I have never been to Australia before. Of course, I have checked the circuit lay-out and other things. I understand it is a tough track, very challenging and not easy to find the limit, so it will be hard.”

James Key, BMW Sauber technical director
“Everyone in the team is looking forward to starting the 2011 season in Melbourne. It’s a good track to go to for the first race. It will be interesting to see on how things develop on what could potentially be a higher track temperature, because this is something none of us have tested yet, and there are still a few unknowns in this respect. We will go with the specification of the car that we finished the Barcelona test with, with some final refinements to it after what we learned from that test.

“The format of the weekend will be somewhat different, given the fact the tyres are little less consistent than those we are used to, so this is something we need to optimize. With regard to the drivers, we’re obviously looking forward to working with Sergio at a F1 race weekend for the first time. He displayed some good progress during winter testing, and we hope we can transfer that directly to the first race weekend where the pressure of course is higher. I’m sure he can manage that. Unlike Sergio, Kamui doesn’t have to learn the track, so it will be more a case of car set up and general performance work for him. Particularly on Friday, it will be important to find the right direction. Considering the events in Japan, we know this will be a very difficult weekend for Kamui, but everybody in the team will give him all possible support.

“With regard to the track, Albert Park is half street circuit with stop start, some chicanes at the beginning and then a few medium to high speed corners in the latter part of the lap. It will be interesting because it tends to be a circuit that is hard on the rear tyres, whereas the ones we have been testing on were harder on the fronts. So the balance of the car could really change in Melbourne, and if the track temperatures are higher we’ll have to watch out for the rear tyres a little more than in testing, but this is part of the process. We go there as well prepared as possible.”

Italian tyre manufacturers Pirelli, embarking on the first season of a three-year agreement to supply Formula One, have revealed the colours that will distinguish the six different types of rubber that will be used throughout 2011.

Each type will carry its own distinct colouring on the Pirelli and PZero logos affixed to the sidewall. Under the sport's rules, only two compounds of slick tyre - known as the prime and the option - will be used for each race. In addition to this, intermediate and wet tyres can be fitted if it rains.

The six colours are as follows:
Wet - orange
Intermediate - light blue
Super soft - red
Soft - yellow
Medium - white
Hard - silver

In order to make the differences between the prime and option tyre more pronounced, Pirelli's strategy is to offer a step of at least one compound between the tyres nominated for each race. If the track conditions require it though, this strategy may be revised.

The prime and option tyres for the first three Grands Prix of the year - Australia, Malaysia and China - will be hard and soft compounds, meaning that silver and yellow tyres will be first to make an appearance in Melbourne.

"We' re very excited by the prospect of returning to Formula One for the first time in 20 years, and we're aiming to be a proactive and colourful partner in Formula One,” commented Pirelli's Motorsport Director Paul Hembery. “So what better way to symbolise this than a brightly coloured selection of Pirelli logos to run on the sidewalls? These will enable both live and television audiences to tell at a glance who is on what compounds, which will be vital knowledge as tyres are set to form a key part of race strategy this year."

Pirelli is no stranger to brightly-coloured tyres: when the firm was previously involved in Formula One, the Benetton team was supplied with multi-coloured rubber to run as part of their ‘United Colors’ campaign back in 1986.

If you thought that 2010 was a classic year of F1, buckle up and get ready for the 2011 season in which four or even five teams seem set to go head-to-head as no fewer than five world champions go into battle, and the midfield fight promises to be harder-fought than ever.

Red Bull and Ferrari appear to have set the genuine pace in the four pre-season tests in Spain, with Mercedes moving up to a perceived third in the pecking order after the final runs but still slightly adrift, and McLaren possibly in trouble and seeming likely to battle initially with Renault for fourth place.

Sebastian Vettel, Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alonso, Jenson Button and Michael Schumacher give Formula One tremendous heavyweight glitter, while promising rookies such as Scot Paul di Resta, Mexican Sergio Perez, Venezuelan Pastor Maldonado and Belgian Jerome D’Ambrosio underline the sport’s ability to keep re-inventing itself. In between them, long-time runners Felipe Massa, Nick Heidfeld, Jarno Trulli, Heikki Kovalainen and Nico Rosberg add further depth.

The midfield battle is also likely to be just as fraught as the fight for the title, with Williams, Force India, Sauber, Toro Rosso and, perhaps, Lotus, scrabbling for supremacy.

Yet again, the rules have been revised, throwing things back into the melting pot once more. Out go the double diffusers (that so helped Jenson Button and Brawn GP to the world championship in 2009), F-ducts and the adjustable front wings that were meant to promote more overtaking but which most drivers neither liked nor used. In their place come moveable (for which, read adjustable) rear wings, KERS (making a return after a year’s hiatus), trick exhausts and a new tyre supplier in the form of Pirelli.

The idea behind the rear wing is that in certain parts of the circuit a following driver will get a signal that he can momentarily activate the control that opens the gap between the upper and lower wing planes, in order to boost straight-line speed by reducing drag. The driver of the car in front cannot do that, thus conferring a temporary advantage on the follower. The exact location and length of the ‘wing zones’ will be decided by the FIA, who are committed to making the technology work.

There has been talk of making the Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems (KERS) more powerful in the future, but for now the outputs are the same as in 2009 - 80 bhp. Unlike the rear wings, it’s up to the driver to decide when and where to deploy this technology. With KERS and adjustable rear wings to figure out, F1 2011-style is more likely to favour the more cerebral than the aggressive. In 2009 McLaren and Ferrari won with KERS, with which Renault, Sauber and Williams also experimented; this year McLaren, Ferrari, Red Bull, Mercedes, Renault, Williams and Force India will all use it, as may Sauber and Toro Rosso.

The forward-facing exhaust introduced this year by Renault on their R31 could, according to Mercedes GP’s Ross Brawn, be more significant than the double diffuser. By routing the gases forward, which the rules permit, teams can clean up the rear end of the car significantly, enhancing airflow and thus aero efficiency.

The arrival of Pirelli to replace Bridgestone has already started to shake things up. The Italian tyres degrade far quicker than the Japanese - deliberately, Pirelli stresses. Some drivers speak of only three laps on the super-soft compound and eight on the soft before performance drops off markedly, which suggests that the smoother, Alain Prost-like drivers will be advantaged when it comes to nurturing their rubber. Step forward Jenson Button...

With up to four pit stops envisaged at some races, it’s going to be a busy year for the pit crews and lap charters. Last year Ferrari and Virgin both recorded remarkable 3.6s stops, and that could well become the ante this season.

For all that, Fernando Alonso believes that it will still come down to the fastest car when all is said and done, rather than canny strategy, tyre preservation and fast stops. “As usual the quickest or best car will win the championship in the end,” the Spaniard says. “Maybe one or two races will be decided by very good strategy, which will be important, but over 19 races it will still be more important to have the best car and that’s what we will always be aiming for.”

Elsewhere, the dreaded 107 percent qualifying rule makes a return, which means that the tailenders won’t get to race if they don’t get within five or six seconds of the Q1 time on a Saturday afternoon. The ban on team orders has been lifted, in tacit recognition that it is almost impossible to police; the race stewards, aided once again by former F1 drivers, will have wider powers; and as drivers are now officially only allowed to move once to defend themselves in a corner, the act of crowding - such as Michael Schumacher did to Rubens Barrichello in Hungary last year - is now punishable.

So who is going to set the initial pace? It really is almost impossible to say. While Alonso acknowledges the inherent strength of Red Bull and counsels not to overlook McLaren’s threat regardless of testing form, Red Bull boss Christian Horner says he is feeling far from complacent.

“We genuinely don’t know where we are in comparison to the others,” he says. “The fuel loads make such a big difference.” In testing these could vary between 10 and 160 kg, with each 10 kg adding 0.3s to lap time.

“We’ve had our best pre-season to date, and arguably we are in the best shape ever,” Horner continues. “But there are no points for winter testing; the points start in Melbourne and right now everyone is on the same number.”

In the second installment of our look ahead to the start of the 2011 FIA Formula One World Championship, we examine the prospects of the key contenders in the race for the drivers' and constructors' crowns (Continued from Part One)...

Red Bull
1 Sebastian Vettel
2 Mark Webber
Red Bull-Renault RB7
A year ago Red Bull boss Dietrich Mateschitz made it clear that he expected his burgeoning team to deliver a world championship. It looked at times as if they were deliberately seeking a means by which to make things as difficult for themselves as possible, but in the end they came up with not one, but two, the constructors’, which they clinched in Brazil, and then the drivers’ which Sebastian Vettel wrapped up in the dramatic finale in Abu Dhabi. Can they do it again?

Well, don’t rule out some serious Red Bull domination. For the first time design guru Adrian Newey (whose cars have now won for three different teams) got his new contender out early, and pre-season test form has shown the RB7 not only to be fast in qualifying and race trim, but also fearsomely reliable.

Factor in Mark Webber, who will be fitter and more determined than ever, and it is going to be very difficult to beat the team from Milton Keynes.

McLaren
3 Lewis Hamilton
4 Jenson Button
McLaren-Mercedes MP4-26
Oh, oh. The signs this early in the season have not been favourable for McLaren. They deliberately ‘did a Red Bull’ and did not introduce their new car, the MP4-26, until as late as possible. But seemingly the plan has thus far backfired.

The new car looks the part, with its L-shaped sidepod intakes and trick rear end, but reliability issues dogged its progress in the three tests that it did, and the team have logged only about half the testing mileage of either Red Bull or Ferrari. That’s down to some technical issues which saw rear end problems - believed to have centred around the exhausts - seriously impinging on the test programme.

Jenson Button said he thought the balance was better when an upgrade went on the car for the final Barcelona test, while Lewis Hamilton has suggested that they haven’t really been able to put all the factors together at once, so that their form seems worse than it really is. Equally, however, the 2008 champion says the car is not yet a title winner... There’s much work to be done here.

Ferrari
5 Fernando Alonso
6 Felipe Massa
Ferrari 150° Italia
It is not possible to overstate just how much it burned Ferrari to have fumbled their world championship chance in Abu Dhabi last year. They were gutted. But where years ago heads would have rolled, Luca di Montezemolo and Stefano Domenicali simply pulled their troops back together over the winter and the Scuderia looks every bit as dangerous as it did at its title-winning best, even if the team did initially run into trouble with the Ford Motor Company after initially christening its 2011 contender the F150. The way it’s been going in testing suggests that nobody is likely to mistake it for a pick-up truck; it’s the one car that genuinely looks as if it is ready to give the Red Bulls a run for their money.

Alonso is raring to go, and remains what he has so long been: one of the two best drivers out there. If Vettel starts favourite, the Spaniard is right up there at his shoulder. Meanwhile, Felipe Massa knows that he has to deliver solid results this year, if he is to retain his Ferrari seat.

Mercedes GP
7 Michael Schumacher
8 Nico Rosberg
Mercedes MGP W02
The final test in Barcelona changed the way observers thought about Mercedes’ hitherto disappointing MGP W02 challenger. Up until then it had been generally disappointing, rather like the McLaren, but a significant upgrade transformed the car into something that was impressively quick in short runs. It remains to be seen how fast it is over a race distance, and the feeling persists that Red Bull and Ferrari will be the outright pacesetters, with Mercedes chasing them ahead of McLaren and Renault.

Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg both believe that the team, whose purchase from the former Brawn principals was finalised at the beginning of the month, now have the platform from which to make the significant progress that they lacked in 2010.

Schumacher said recently that while he does not believe they can challenge for the world championship, he does think podiums will be possible, while Rosberg will be going all out to prove that his dominance of the older German last year was no fluke.

Renault
9 Nick Heidfeld
10 Vitaly Petrov
Renault R31
Renault may have rallied quickly around Nick Heidfeld, but there is no doubt that Robert Kubica’s rally accident will have a very debilitating effect on the chances of a team that showed such promise in initial testing. The Pole has speed, commitment and charisma in spades and just loves driving an edgy car that gives its best at the very limit. Heidfeld is older and less aggressive, and prefers an easier car to drive. That difference may prove critical. That said, the German is a safe pair of hands, but one can’t help wonder whether the team would have been better off with Vitantonio Liuzzi, whom Kubica recommended.

Vitaly Petrov far from disgraced himself in his first season, despite a few heavy shunts, and his containment of Fernando Alonso in Abu Dhabi was indication of the progress he’d made.

Renault’s test form has been difficult to assess accurately, but their trick exhaust system has attracted a lot of interest and several other teams are investigating similar solutions. Expect Renault to challenge McLaren for fourth overall in the early going.

In the final instalment of our look ahead to the 2011 FIA Formula One World Championship, we consider the chances last year’s midfield teams have of challenging the frontrunners, and the odds on the newest teams breaking free from the back of the grid (Continued from Part Two)…

Williams
11 Rubens Barrichello
12 Pastor Maldonado
Williams-Cosworth FW33
In Rubens Barrichello and reigning GP2 champion Pastor Maldonado, Williams have two very aggressive drivers. And now they have an aggressive car too, in Sam Michael’s FW33 which features one of the most tightly packaged rear-ends in the business.

The team have full sponsorship for 2011 and were recently floated on the German stock market, so things are looking up and there is an air of confident determination to get back to mixing it with the top teams the way that last happened at times during the ill-fated alliance with BMW.

Michael said in 2010 that Barrichello was the best driver he had ever worked with in F1, and the evergreen Brazilian still has much to give. Maldonado is an unknown quantity thus far in F1, but the Venezuelan brings welcome financial support from his national oil company, and could spring some surprises.

Force India
14 Adrian Sutil
15 Paul Di Resta
Force India-Mercedes VJM04
Out goes Tonio Liuzzi and in comes promising Scottish rookie Paul di Resta. Part of the Anthony Hamilton-managed youngster’s dowry is reportedly Mercedes’ KERS system, and that should help the Silverstone-based team to fight hard for its place in the upper midfield.

Adrian Sutil stays for another year, after plans to have him replace Felipe Massa at Ferrari fell apart in the aftermath of last year’s team orders argument. This will be a crucial season for the German, who showed great pace in 2010 allied to the occasional brain fade (Korea springs to mind). Di Resta will be praying for better reliability than Liuzzi enjoyed (notably with his car’s F-duct), and the man who beat Vettel to the European F3 title is itching to show that he can do the same to Sutil.

Sauber
16 Kamui Kobayashi
17 Sergio Perez
Sauber-Ferrari C30
Confounding the critics, Peter Sauber’s little team regrouped again in 2010 after the departure of BMW. Times were still tough for the men and women from Hinwil, even though there was some helpful BMW cash to smooth the transition, but they made it.

Along the way they acquired James Key from Force India as long-time technical director Willy Rampf retired, and the Englishman did not lose much time pointing the C29 in the right direction. At the same time Kamui Kobayashi established a reputation as a racer that was only marginally diminished by a penchant for long opening stints which meant he was later able to use fresher rubber to embarrass rivals towards the end of a race. Good tyre management will be a feature of 2011 races, so watch him.

In GP2 runner-up Sergio Perez, Kobayashi has a team mate who will push him all the way and the money that the fiery young Mexican brings from Telmex will undoubtedly help the team.

Toro Rosso
18 Sebastien Buemi
19 Jaime Alguersuari
Toro Rosso-Ferrari STR6
This time last year Sebastien Buemi and Jaime Alguersuari had been setting some very quick times during testing for Franz Tost’s Red Bull-supported satellite team. But in the races the STR5 disappointed more often than not. This time around the story looks the same, and even Lewis Hamilton was recently moved to suggest that the STR6 might spring a surprise.

But will all that apparent promise just turn out to have been some low-fuel grandstanding in an attempt to draw attention to a team that still needs to find decent funding? Time will tell, but it would indeed be surprising to see an outfit that has to design its own car these days being able to run at the pace of one penned by Adrian Newey.

Meanwhile, Buemi and Alguersuari will be looking over their shoulders in the first half of the season as World Series by Renault racer Daniel Ricciardo is waiting for the chance to step into one of their seats at the midpoint.

Lotus
20 Jarno Trulli
21 Heikki Kovalainen
Lotus-Renault T128
By the time his team heads to his native Malaysia, Tony Fernandes should know whether he can still use the Team Lotus name, as the court case with Group Lotus will be heard in London’s High Court during the Australian Grand Prix. But regardless of the outcome, the AirAsia boss has clearly won the right to race at the highest level.

Last year’s start-up T127 was a necessarily conservative machine intended simply to get the team racing. This year technical director Mike Gascoyne has been more adventurous with the aerodynamics, while mating the chassis to a Renault rear end complete with the pull-rod rear suspension made fashionable again on last year’s Red Bull RB6.

With Jarno Trulli and Heikki Kovalainen, Lotus have two proven race winners who can deliver the goods, and who should be able to challenge Toro Rosso and Force India if either of those more established teams falter. Reliability issues in testing, however, will be an early concern.

HRT
22 Narain Karthikeyan
23 Vitantonio Liuzzi
HRT-Cosworth F111
On the face of it HRT are in as much trouble in 2011 as they were heading to the first race of 2010 when neither of their cars had turned a wheel, after the sleek new F111 was unable to run as planned in the last Barcelona test. Ironically, the team’s national customs held up their dampers.

However, the new car comes from respected F1 designer Geoff Willis of BAR and Red Bull fame, and the statement livery from famed Hollywood designer Daniel Simon signals a clear intention by team principal Colin Kolles to move far away from the drab grey image the team had in its rookie season.

Signing Narain Karthikeyan, who last raced in F1 in 2005, is something of a gamble but makes sense as he brings strong budget from Tata and can be quick when the mood is upon him, while opting for Force India refugee Tonio Liuzzi is clear indication that Kolles values speed, experience and technical ability over other ‘renta-drivers’ potential budgets.

Virgin
24 Timo Glock
25 Jerome D’ambrosio
Virgin-Cosworth MVR-02
Like Lotus and HRT, Virgin defied the pessimists and go into 2011 stronger than ever thanks to recent investment by Marussia. The result is a sound financial position and enhanced management, but the early signs are that the latest car from Nick Wirth is some way off the pace. Glock, the tough German racer who is recovering from a recent appendectomy, admits that they are some way off realising their early season targets. D’Ambrosio, the quick young Belgian who replaces Brazilian Lucas di Grassi, will find his graduation to race seat status even harder as a result.

If you thought that 2010 was a classic year of F1, buckle up and get ready for the 2011 season in which four or even five teams seem set to go head-to-head as no fewer than five world champions go into battle, and the midfield fight promises to be harder-fought than ever.

Red Bull and Ferrari appear to have set the genuine pace in the four pre-season tests in Spain, with Mercedes moving up to a perceived third in the pecking order after the final runs but still slightly adrift, and McLaren possibly in trouble and seeming likely to battle initially with Renault for fourth place.

Sebastian Vettel, Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alonso, Jenson Button and Michael Schumacher give Formula One tremendous heavyweight glitter, while promising rookies such as Scot Paul di Resta, Mexican Sergio Perez, Venezuelan Pastor Maldonado and Belgian Jerome D’Ambrosio underline the sport’s ability to keep re-inventing itself. In between them, long-time runners Felipe Massa, Nick Heidfeld, Jarno Trulli, Heikki Kovalainen and Nico Rosberg add further depth.

The midfield battle is also likely to be just as fraught as the fight for the title, with Williams, Force India, Sauber, Toro Rosso and, perhaps, Lotus, scrabbling for supremacy.

Yet again, the rules have been revised, throwing things back into the melting pot once more. Out go the double diffusers (that so helped Jenson Button and Brawn GP to the world championship in 2009), F-ducts and the adjustable front wings that were meant to promote more overtaking but which most drivers neither liked nor used. In their place come moveable (for which, read adjustable) rear wings, KERS (making a return after a year’s hiatus), trick exhausts and a new tyre supplier in the form of Pirelli.

The idea behind the rear wing is that in certain parts of the circuit a following driver will get a signal that he can momentarily activate the control that opens the gap between the upper and lower wing planes, in order to boost straight-line speed by reducing drag. The driver of the car in front cannot do that, thus conferring a temporary advantage on the follower. The exact location and length of the ‘wing zones’ will be decided by the FIA, who are committed to making the technology work.

There has been talk of making the Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems (KERS) more powerful in the future, but for now the outputs are the same as in 2009 - 80 bhp. Unlike the rear wings, it’s up to the driver to decide when and where to deploy this technology. With KERS and adjustable rear wings to figure out, F1 2011-style is more likely to favour the more cerebral than the aggressive. In 2009 McLaren and Ferrari won with KERS, with which Renault, Sauber and Williams also experimented; this year McLaren, Ferrari, Red Bull, Mercedes, Renault, Williams and Force India will all use it, as may Sauber and Toro Rosso.

The forward-facing exhaust introduced this year by Renault on their R31 could, according to Mercedes GP’s Ross Brawn, be more significant than the double diffuser. By routing the gases forward, which the rules permit, teams can clean up the rear end of the car significantly, enhancing airflow and thus aero efficiency.

The arrival of Pirelli to replace Bridgestone has already started to shake things up. The Italian tyres degrade far quicker than the Japanese - deliberately, Pirelli stresses. Some drivers speak of only three laps on the super-soft compound and eight on the soft before performance drops off markedly, which suggests that the smoother, Alain Prost-like drivers will be advantaged when it comes to nurturing their rubber. Step forward Jenson Button...

With up to four pit stops envisaged at some races, it’s going to be a busy year for the pit crews and lap charters. Last year Ferrari and Virgin both recorded remarkable 3.6s stops, and that could well become the ante this season.

For all that, Fernando Alonso believes that it will still come down to the fastest car when all is said and done, rather than canny strategy, tyre preservation and fast stops. “As usual the quickest or best car will win the championship in the end,” the Spaniard says. “Maybe one or two races will be decided by very good strategy, which will be important, but over 19 races it will still be more important to have the best car and that’s what we will always be aiming for.”

Elsewhere, the dreaded 107 percent qualifying rule makes a return, which means that the tailenders won’t get to race if they don’t get within five or six seconds of the Q1 time on a Saturday afternoon. The ban on team orders has been lifted, in tacit recognition that it is almost impossible to police; the race stewards, aided once again by former F1 drivers, will have wider powers; and as drivers are now officially only allowed to move once to defend themselves in a corner, the act of crowding - such as Michael Schumacher did to Rubens Barrichello in Hungary last year - is now punishable.

So who is going to set the initial pace? It really is almost impossible to say. While Alonso acknowledges the inherent strength of Red Bull and counsels not to overlook McLaren’s threat regardless of testing form, Red Bull boss Christian Horner says he is feeling far from complacent.

“We genuinely don’t know where we are in comparison to the others,” he says. “The fuel loads make such a big difference.” In testing these could vary between 10 and 160 kg, with each 10 kg adding 0.3s to lap time.

“We’ve had our best pre-season to date, and arguably we are in the best shape ever,” Horner continues. “But there are no points for winter testing; the points start in Melbourne and right now everyone is on the same number.”

In the second installment of our look ahead to the start of the 2011 FIA Formula One World Championship, we examine the prospects of the key contenders in the race for the drivers' and constructors' crowns (Continued from Part One)...

Red Bull
1 Sebastian Vettel
2 Mark Webber
Red Bull-Renault RB7
A year ago Red Bull boss Dietrich Mateschitz made it clear that he expected his burgeoning team to deliver a world championship. It looked at times as if they were deliberately seeking a means by which to make things as difficult for themselves as possible, but in the end they came up with not one, but two, the constructors’, which they clinched in Brazil, and then the drivers’ which Sebastian Vettel wrapped up in the dramatic finale in Abu Dhabi. Can they do it again?

Well, don’t rule out some serious Red Bull domination. For the first time design guru Adrian Newey (whose cars have now won for three different teams) got his new contender out early, and pre-season test form has shown the RB7 not only to be fast in qualifying and race trim, but also fearsomely reliable.

Factor in Mark Webber, who will be fitter and more determined than ever, and it is going to be very difficult to beat the team from Milton Keynes.

McLaren
3 Lewis Hamilton
4 Jenson Button
McLaren-Mercedes MP4-26
Oh, oh. The signs this early in the season have not been favourable for McLaren. They deliberately ‘did a Red Bull’ and did not introduce their new car, the MP4-26, until as late as possible. But seemingly the plan has thus far backfired.

The new car looks the part, with its L-shaped sidepod intakes and trick rear end, but reliability issues dogged its progress in the three tests that it did, and the team have logged only about half the testing mileage of either Red Bull or Ferrari. That’s down to some technical issues which saw rear end problems - believed to have centred around the exhausts - seriously impinging on the test programme.

Jenson Button said he thought the balance was better when an upgrade went on the car for the final Barcelona test, while Lewis Hamilton has suggested that they haven’t really been able to put all the factors together at once, so that their form seems worse than it really is. Equally, however, the 2008 champion says the car is not yet a title winner... There’s much work to be done here.

Ferrari
5 Fernando Alonso
6 Felipe Massa
Ferrari 150° Italia
It is not possible to overstate just how much it burned Ferrari to have fumbled their world championship chance in Abu Dhabi last year. They were gutted. But where years ago heads would have rolled, Luca di Montezemolo and Stefano Domenicali simply pulled their troops back together over the winter and the Scuderia looks every bit as dangerous as it did at its title-winning best, even if the team did initially run into trouble with the Ford Motor Company after initially christening its 2011 contender the F150. The way it’s been going in testing suggests that nobody is likely to mistake it for a pick-up truck; it’s the one car that genuinely looks as if it is ready to give the Red Bulls a run for their money.

Alonso is raring to go, and remains what he has so long been: one of the two best drivers out there. If Vettel starts favourite, the Spaniard is right up there at his shoulder. Meanwhile, Felipe Massa knows that he has to deliver solid results this year, if he is to retain his Ferrari seat.

Mercedes GP
7 Michael Schumacher
8 Nico Rosberg
Mercedes MGP W02
The final test in Barcelona changed the way observers thought about Mercedes’ hitherto disappointing MGP W02 challenger. Up until then it had been generally disappointing, rather like the McLaren, but a significant upgrade transformed the car into something that was impressively quick in short runs. It remains to be seen how fast it is over a race distance, and the feeling persists that Red Bull and Ferrari will be the outright pacesetters, with Mercedes chasing them ahead of McLaren and Renault.

Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg both believe that the team, whose purchase from the former Brawn principals was finalised at the beginning of the month, now have the platform from which to make the significant progress that they lacked in 2010.

Schumacher said recently that while he does not believe they can challenge for the world championship, he does think podiums will be possible, while Rosberg will be going all out to prove that his dominance of the older German last year was no fluke.

Renault
9 Nick Heidfeld
10 Vitaly Petrov
Renault R31
Renault may have rallied quickly around Nick Heidfeld, but there is no doubt that Robert Kubica’s rally accident will have a very debilitating effect on the chances of a team that showed such promise in initial testing. The Pole has speed, commitment and charisma in spades and just loves driving an edgy car that gives its best at the very limit. Heidfeld is older and less aggressive, and prefers an easier car to drive. That difference may prove critical. That said, the German is a safe pair of hands, but one can’t help wonder whether the team would have been better off with Vitantonio Liuzzi, whom Kubica recommended.

Vitaly Petrov far from disgraced himself in his first season, despite a few heavy shunts, and his containment of Fernando Alonso in Abu Dhabi was indication of the progress he’d made.

Renault’s test form has been difficult to assess accurately, but their trick exhaust system has attracted a lot of interest and several other teams are investigating similar solutions. Expect Renault to challenge McLaren for fourth overall in the early going.

In the final instalment of our look ahead to the 2011 FIA Formula One World Championship, we consider the chances last year’s midfield teams have of challenging the frontrunners, and the odds on the newest teams breaking free from the back of the grid (Continued from Part Two)…

Williams
11 Rubens Barrichello
12 Pastor Maldonado
Williams-Cosworth FW33
In Rubens Barrichello and reigning GP2 champion Pastor Maldonado, Williams have two very aggressive drivers. And now they have an aggressive car too, in Sam Michael’s FW33 which features one of the most tightly packaged rear-ends in the business.

The team have full sponsorship for 2011 and were recently floated on the German stock market, so things are looking up and there is an air of confident determination to get back to mixing it with the top teams the way that last happened at times during the ill-fated alliance with BMW.

Michael said in 2010 that Barrichello was the best driver he had ever worked with in F1, and the evergreen Brazilian still has much to give. Maldonado is an unknown quantity thus far in F1, but the Venezuelan brings welcome financial support from his national oil company, and could spring some surprises.

Force India
14 Adrian Sutil
15 Paul Di Resta
Force India-Mercedes VJM04
Out goes Tonio Liuzzi and in comes promising Scottish rookie Paul di Resta. Part of the Anthony Hamilton-managed youngster’s dowry is reportedly Mercedes’ KERS system, and that should help the Silverstone-based team to fight hard for its place in the upper midfield.

Adrian Sutil stays for another year, after plans to have him replace Felipe Massa at Ferrari fell apart in the aftermath of last year’s team orders argument. This will be a crucial season for the German, who showed great pace in 2010 allied to the occasional brain fade (Korea springs to mind). Di Resta will be praying for better reliability than Liuzzi enjoyed (notably with his car’s F-duct), and the man who beat Vettel to the European F3 title is itching to show that he can do the same to Sutil.

Sauber
16 Kamui Kobayashi
17 Sergio Perez
Sauber-Ferrari C30
Confounding the critics, Peter Sauber’s little team regrouped again in 2010 after the departure of BMW. Times were still tough for the men and women from Hinwil, even though there was some helpful BMW cash to smooth the transition, but they made it.

Along the way they acquired James Key from Force India as long-time technical director Willy Rampf retired, and the Englishman did not lose much time pointing the C29 in the right direction. At the same time Kamui Kobayashi established a reputation as a racer that was only marginally diminished by a penchant for long opening stints which meant he was later able to use fresher rubber to embarrass rivals towards the end of a race. Good tyre management will be a feature of 2011 races, so watch him.

In GP2 runner-up Sergio Perez, Kobayashi has a team mate who will push him all the way and the money that the fiery young Mexican brings from Telmex will undoubtedly help the team.

Toro Rosso
18 Sebastien Buemi
19 Jaime Alguersuari
Toro Rosso-Ferrari STR6
This time last year Sebastien Buemi and Jaime Alguersuari had been setting some very quick times during testing for Franz Tost’s Red Bull-supported satellite team. But in the races the STR5 disappointed more often than not. This time around the story looks the same, and even Lewis Hamilton was recently moved to suggest that the STR6 might spring a surprise.

But will all that apparent promise just turn out to have been some low-fuel grandstanding in an attempt to draw attention to a team that still needs to find decent funding? Time will tell, but it would indeed be surprising to see an outfit that has to design its own car these days being able to run at the pace of one penned by Adrian Newey.

Meanwhile, Buemi and Alguersuari will be looking over their shoulders in the first half of the season as World Series by Renault racer Daniel Ricciardo is waiting for the chance to step into one of their seats at the midpoint.

Lotus
20 Jarno Trulli
21 Heikki Kovalainen
Lotus-Renault T128
By the time his team heads to his native Malaysia, Tony Fernandes should know whether he can still use the Team Lotus name, as the court case with Group Lotus will be heard in London’s High Court during the Australian Grand Prix. But regardless of the outcome, the AirAsia boss has clearly won the right to race at the highest level.

Last year’s start-up T127 was a necessarily conservative machine intended simply to get the team racing. This year technical director Mike Gascoyne has been more adventurous with the aerodynamics, while mating the chassis to a Renault rear end complete with the pull-rod rear suspension made fashionable again on last year’s Red Bull RB6.

With Jarno Trulli and Heikki Kovalainen, Lotus have two proven race winners who can deliver the goods, and who should be able to challenge Toro Rosso and Force India if either of those more established teams falter. Reliability issues in testing, however, will be an early concern.

HRT
22 Narain Karthikeyan
23 Vitantonio Liuzzi
HRT-Cosworth F111
On the face of it HRT are in as much trouble in 2011 as they were heading to the first race of 2010 when neither of their cars had turned a wheel, after the sleek new F111 was unable to run as planned in the last Barcelona test. Ironically, the team’s national customs held up their dampers.

However, the new car comes from respected F1 designer Geoff Willis of BAR and Red Bull fame, and the statement livery from famed Hollywood designer Daniel Simon signals a clear intention by team principal Colin Kolles to move far away from the drab grey image the team had in its rookie season.

Signing Narain Karthikeyan, who last raced in F1 in 2005, is something of a gamble but makes sense as he brings strong budget from Tata and can be quick when the mood is upon him, while opting for Force India refugee Tonio Liuzzi is clear indication that Kolles values speed, experience and technical ability over other ‘renta-drivers’ potential budgets.

Virgin
24 Timo Glock
25 Jerome D’ambrosio
Virgin-Cosworth MVR-02
Like Lotus and HRT, Virgin defied the pessimists and go into 2011 stronger than ever thanks to recent investment by Marussia. The result is a sound financial position and enhanced management, but the early signs are that the latest car from Nick Wirth is some way off the pace. Glock, the tough German racer who is recovering from a recent appendectomy, admits that they are some way off realising their early season targets. D’Ambrosio, the quick young Belgian who replaces Brazilian Lucas di Grassi, will find his graduation to race seat status even harder as a result.

Practice 1 is on in less than 2 hours EEK

Raining in Melbourne, Mercedes expect to be very Fast, Ross Brawn compared this car to the 2009 Brawn car :amazed:

Webber fastest folowed by Vettel, Lewis 7th, schumi 8th.

(Merc have the fastest car in the speed traps.... very packed Practice though and schumi lost a lot with the tyres, whcih by the way degrade stupidly, massive chunks out of them)

Not watching Practice 2 but it's on at 5.30 for anyone whos up.

Also Chandhok is the first person to crash this season on turn 3 LOLOLOLOL

I was thinking of doing a prediction game, but don't know how much interest there is in it.

If I can use Gavs predictions I'd be interested:joker:

didn't Hamilton and Button do best?

Yes :D