FORMULA 1 - 2015

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BAHRAIN GRAND PRIX: FULL RACE REPORT

Lewis Hamilton claimed his third win of the season with a controlled drive to the chequered flag in Bahrain, but it was Kimi Raikkonen who shone under the lights of the Sakhir Circuit as the Finn closed a 19-second gap to Nico Rosberg in the closing stages of the race to steal second place from the Mercedes driver two laps from home.

After a solid start, Hamilton controlled the race effortlessly from the front, the only blip in an otherwise regulation race coming from of a slow first pit stop that briefly saw the champion drop back toward the chasing pack. He soon restored order though and eventually took the chequered flag 2.3s ahead of Raikkonen after backing off on the final laps.

Rosberg and Raikkonen, meanwhile, tussled mightily in the closing laps, with Raikkonen working a soft-medium-soft tyre strategy against his rivals choice of mediums for the final stint to erase a 19-second gap to Rosberg in the closing stages. Rosberg pushed hard to defend but brake issues at the end of the race led to the German running wide two laps from home and the Ferrari man swept past to claim an excellent second place.

At the start of the race Hamilton got away well to lead into turn one with Sebastian Vettel in close attendance. The German was challenged by Rosberg and as Vettel defended second place Raikkonen went around the outside of the Mercedes and sealed the pass as the field streamed through turn two.

Rosberg regained third place at the start of lap four, passing the Finn with a neat move through turn one. Rosberg then began to close on Vettel but was told to look after his brakes for a period before attacking the next Ferrari on the road.

Hamilton, meanwhile was busy building a gap to Vettel. At the end of the first lap the champion was 0.8s up on the Ferrari and over the next seven laps he widened the advantage to 2.3s.

He was aided in that task by Vettel coming under increasing pressure from Rosberg. The Ferrari driver made a mistake into turn one on lap eight and narrowly avoided losing second, but Rosberg used the closer proximity to launch another assault into turn one, under DRS, on the following lap. The pass was clean and it was two-by-two for Mercedes and Ferrari at the head of the field with the Silver Arrows in front.

Behind the front four, Williams’ Valtteri Bottas was fifth, four seconds behind Raikkonen, while Red Bull Racing’s Daniel Ricciardo was three seconds adrift of Bottas back in sixth. Romain Grosjean was seventh for Lotus ahead of Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson, with the Force Indias of Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez in the final points positions.

Vettel was the first of the front runners to pit, on lap 13, with the German taking on more soft tyres. Rosberg followed on the next lap to take on more soft tyres and he was followed by Bottas and Ricciardo. Hamilton pitted from the lead on lap 15, but Raikkonen elected to stay out.

The undercut and a 2.4s stop for Vettel, against more than three seconds stationary for Rosberg, saw the Ferrari get ahead of the Mercedes man. However, Rosberg soon put the lapse right, passing Vettel with an aggressive move under DRS on the pit straight on.

A poor 3.7s pit stop for Hamilton dented his lead, too and by lap 19 he was 1.3s ahead of Rosberg with Vettel a further three seconds back.

Raikkonen made his first visit to the pit lane, for medium tyres, on lap 17. The stop appeared to seriously disadvantage the Finn, who was soon 10 seconds behind Vettel. However, it remained to be seen whether his strategic choice would bring him back into play in the latter stages.

On lap 20 Bottas remained in fifth place, with Ricciardo sixth ahead of Grosjean, Ericsson, Hulkenberg and Massa, who had clawed his way into the points after being forced to start from the pit lane after he failed to get away from the grid for the formation lap.

Massa would soon be passed by Felipe Nasr, with Pastor Maldonado in close attendance in P12. The three pitted in tandem on lap 24 and it was Maldonado who profited most. His Lotus crew got him out of his pit box quickest and after a side-by-side battle with Massa towards the pit lane exit the Venezuelan leapfrogged both rivals. Maldonado again had an eventful race. At the start he was hit with a fiev-second time penalty for being out of position on the grid and he eventually was forced to retire with brake issues after see-sawing up and down the order.

At the front, though, Raikkonen was flying on his medium tyres and within 10 laps he had taken four seconds out of his 10-second deficit to Vettel and was 12.6s behind leader Hamilton.

Once again, Vettel was the first of the frontrunners to make his second stop, the German heading for the Ferrari box on lap 32 where he took on a final set of medium tyres. Hamilton made his second visit to the pit lane at the end of the following tour and he too took on the harder Pirelli tyres.

Rosberg also took on mediums on lap 34 but once again Vettel’s undercut worked and after a race fastest lap of 1:37.547, the Ferrari driver again found himself ahead of the Mercedes.

However, in a repeat of the earlier episode, Vettel made a mistake, this time in the final turn, and Rosberg swept past to take third as Raikkonen stayed out in the lead ahead of Hamilton. Vettel then reported front wing damage after his off and headed to the pit lane for a new nose cone. The unscheduled stop dropped him to P5 behind Bottas.

Raikkonen was now 3.7s ahead of Hamilton but losing chunks of time to the hard-charging Mercedes driver. He was however, 10 seconds ahead of Rosberg and a late-race challenge for P2 looked possible.

Hamilton regained the lead by passing Raikkonen into turn one at the start of lap 40 and the Ferrari driver immediately headed for the pit lane for his final set of soft tyres at the end of the lap, though he was now only 6.0s ahead of Rosberg. When the Finn rejoined he was 19 seconds adrift of Rosberg.

Vettel, meanwhile, was closing on Bottas, and by lap 42 the gap to the Williams driver was down to 1.3s. Behind Vettel, Ricciado was still secure in sixth ahead of Grosjean, Massa, Perez and Daniil Kvyat, who had climbed from 17th place on the grid to stake a claim to a points position.

Raikkonen, meanwhile, was again flying, and by lap 48 the 19-second deficit had been cut to 7.6s. By the final laps Raikkonen was almost in DRS range but it was the brake issue for Rosberg that eventually allowed the Finn to take second.

Behind Rosberg, Bottas kept Vettel at bay to finish fourth and Daniel Ricciardo completed his lonely run to sixth, but only just. The Red Bull Racing driver’s Renault engine expired in the final corner and he crossed the line with a rooster-tail of smoke pouring from the back of his RB11. Grosjean was seventh for Lotus, ahead of Perez and Kvyat, who passed Massa for P9 in the closing stages.

It was a day of contrasting fortunes for McLaren’s drivers. Prior to the start Jenson Button was ruled out of the race, with the team unable to get his car repaired in time. Fernando Alonso, though, got McLaren to the cusp of the points, the Spaniard also using a option-prime-option strategy to race to P11 ahead of Sauber’s Felipe Nasr and Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg.

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FORMULA 1 RULE CHANGES SET FOR 2017 SEASON

Widespread technical and rule changes are coming to Formula 1, starting with the 2017 season.

Days ago, Bernie Ecclestone told La Gazzetta dello Sport his ideal scenario would be to scrap the quiet, expensive and complex turbo V6s and replace them with 1000 horse power V8s.

“The people would return, the show would return, the sponsors would return,” the F1 supremo predicted.

Talks with F1 team bosses were then held in Bahrain. Ecclestone, 84, would clearly like to impose his changes “as soon as possible”, but the realistic aim is for 2017.

The Briton has accused Mercedes and Toto Wolff of blocking any proposals and “killing” the sport, but Wolff said in Bahrain: “I think the rules are going to get changed for 2017.”

He told F1’s official website the talks this weekend have been about making the cars “more spectacular and quicker”.

“That is happening,” Wolff added.

He told Britain’s Sky that the “chassis side and the power unit side” will be tweaked, amid rumours one of the changes could be twin-turbos and a relaxing of the fuel flow limit, which would also make the engines louder.

Reverting to the old V8 technology, however, is unlikely, “This (V6) is where the technology of road cars goes, so this is important for car manufacturers. But we can do a lot on the chassis side.”

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Seb: I feel like I let the team down

Sebastian Vettel was downcast after the Bahrain Grand Prix after he could only manage P5 following a mistake while he was battling Nico Rosberg for third.

Having produced an excellent qualifying display that saw him start P2 behind Lewis Hamilton, the German made a solid start and settled into second place after the opening lap.

With the teams opting for different strategies, he found himself P3 behind Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen in the other Ferrari with Rosberg on his gearbox.

Vettel, though, made a mistake at the final corner and ran wide, not only allowing Rosberg to go through to P3, but he also had to pit again as he damaged his front wing in the process.

He re-emerged behind Valtteri Bottas in fifth place and although he was right behind the Williams until the end of the race, he couldn't get past.

"I went wide on the last corner and damaged my front wing. I felt like I had less front grip and decided to pit which was the right call. It was a shame as I got stuck and could not get in front," the four-time World Champion told BBC Sport.

"I feel like I let the team down a little when it was in reach. Kimi proved with second it is possible and he drove a good race. It would have been difficult to catch Nico and overtake as we were both on the same tyre and I had some damage to my front wing but I recovered well and got some decent points."

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Nico: I had no chance with brake issue

Nico Rosberg believes the brake-by-wire problem cost him second place in Bahrain, saying he would've been able to hold of Kimi Raikkonen without the issue.

The German started third on the Sakhir grid and he was down to fourth place behind Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton and the Ferraris of Sebastian Vettel and Raikkonen by the end of the first lap.

However, he fought his way back and overtook both Ferraris on his way up to second place.

Raikkonen, though, was on a different strategy and produced a blistering final stint on the softer tyres and kept chipping away at Rosberg's lead.

The German appeared to have things under control though, but he picked up a brake problem on the penultimate lap and ran wide at Turn 1, allowing the Ferrari man to move up into second place.

"It was disappointing to lose second place two laps from the end but the pedal just went straight down without any resistance. Without that problem I could have held Kimi off for sure because his tyres were quite destroyed at that point."

He added: "Other than that it was quite an enjoyable race, and very exciting in the beginning to be able to pass the red cars which gave me particular pleasure.

"I really liked the car today and told the guys after the start that it really felt good. So I went for it, and I had to of course because I was fourth and had to get past the red cars to try to chase down Lewis. I tried my best but in spite of a similar pace, it just wasn't possible."

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Alonso happy with competitive MP4-30

It was a day of mixed results for McLaren in Bahrain, but Fernando Alonso admits he was delighted to see the chequered flag.

The day got off to a disastrous start for the Woking-based squad as Jenson Button's dismal weekend continued as he failed to start the race due to an electrical problem with his MP4-30.

Alonso, though, flew the flag for McLaren and found himself mixing it with the midfield teams for most of the race and he just missed out on the points as he finished P11.

"I have to be realistic and I am happy with the race today," the double World Champion said. "We had concerns and you saw with Jenson who did not even start the race.

"It was important to finish the race and get some laps done. We have an important three weeks ahead to increase the performance and reliability. But to finish the race more less competitively is the best news of the day."

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Massa: One point better than nothing

Between an engine that didn't fire up and a smack from Pastor Maldonado, Felipe Massa had "so many problems" in Bahrain.

Massa qualified sixth for Sunday's 57-lap Bahrain GP but started from the pit lane after his FW37 failed to fire up ahead of the formation lap.

The Brazilian quickly began to make up places and was soon up to 14th.

His efforts, though, were hampered when Maldonado smacked into the back of him.

Massa still managed to finish inside the top ten, bringing his Williams home in 10th place.

"It was not a good race," he told Motorsport.com. "I had so many problems. The engine didn't fire up, so I started last.

"After overtaking some cars, already in the first stint Maldonado was behind me and missed his braking point in Turn 4 and hit my diffuser.

"Maybe something is damaged on the car because I lost stability.

"The race was so difficult for me from there until the end.

"One point is better than nothing definitely, but we'll have to focus on the next one."

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Dan happy to get over finish line

Daniel Ricciardo had a lonely Bahrain GP for most of the day, but he had a spectacular finish as his engine blew up moments before he crossed the finish line.

The Red Bull driver started P7 and, unlike in China when dropped down the grid following a shocking getaway, he made a good start and found himself P6 by the end of the first lap.

He stayed there for the rest of the race with the Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel too far ahead of him while Romain Grosjean in the Lotus were too far behind him to challenge for P6.

However, he did have a nervy finish as his V6 Renault engine gave up on the start-finish straight with smoke bellowing from the back of the car.

"There was a lot of smoke so it didn’t look great," he told Sky Sports F1. "The bright side is I just got over the line, but literally out of the last corner I saw smoke everywhere. It didn’t look good so let’s see what happened."

He added: "I felt I drove to the best of my ability and unfortunately I didn’t give us much more. It wasn’t an exciting sixth place, but it was all I could do. I thought the pace and the improvements we made during the stints were good so we need to keep building on that."

Team boss Christian Horner admits they are now in the danger zone when it comes to engines.

"We are now on our engine limit. That's three engines in four races," he said.

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Kimi 'looking for better results'

Despite achieving his first podium since 2013, Kimi Raikkonen was only a "bit" pleased with his runner-up result in Bahrain.

Opting for a different strategy to the other front runners, which had him using the medium tyres in the middle stint and finishing on the soft Pirellis, Raikkonen kept those ahead within his sight.

On the option tyre in the final stint, he was able to close rapidly on Nico Rosberg and applied pressure as the laps counted down.

Raikkonen made his move on the penultimate lap, swopping past the Mercedes driver, who had run wide, and up into second.

"You're never happy when you finish second, but after a difficult start of the year I'm a bit pleased to get a better result," he said.

"We came through in the end but we ran out of laps. We have to be happy with that after where we qualified, but we are looking for better results."

The Finn hailed Ferrari's improvements, saying a "good" atmosphere within the team has resulted in a "big step" forward.

"I'm very happy with how the team is working after last year. Where we are now is a big step.

"The atmosphere is good now and we have a good direction to keep pushing.

"It seems to be working well - I'm sure as a team we will get there to fight for wins all the time but it will take a bit more time."

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Lotus' Grosjean drove a strong and measured Bahrain GP to finish seventh

Romain Grosjean: "I’ll happily take seventh place as my birthday gift for myself and the team.”

Romain started from tenth and worked his way up to seventh without incident whilst Pastor Maldonado endured an eventful race to finish an eventual fifteenth in the first night race of the season.

Pastor started from sixteenth on the grid, served a five-second pit stop penalty then experienced engine-kill activation when entering the pits for his final stop. The subsequent reset and restart process cost Pastor considerable race time, translating to his fifteenth-position finish.

• Romain started from P10 on the grid on his qualifying soft compound tyres, changing to scrubbed soft tyres on laps 12 and new medium tyres on lap 31.

• Pastor started from P16 on the grid on new medium compound tyres, changing to new soft tyres on laps 10, 24 and 41. Pastor served a five second penalty in the first stop and had an engine restart on his final stop.

Romain Grosjean: “It had been a tough weekend until now for me, so it was really great to get another strong seventh position. Today’s race was great, especially as there was lots of overtaking. I was really hoping to catch Daniel Ricciardo but he was too quick for us today. It was quite difficult to manage tyres, especially with the rears so I think we did a good job to make the two-stop strategy work. We only had new medium compound tyres for the race, the rest were scrubbed, so it really was a great job by the team. It was a good recovery from Friday and Saturday’s session and I’ll happily take seventh place as my birthday gift for myself and the team.”

Pastor Maldonado: “That was a frustrating race for me. I pushed as hard as possible at the start on the medium tyres whilst everyone around me was on the grippier soft compound rubber. Once I moved to the soft tyres I was able to set the race’s then fastest lap so things looked good with our strategy. Unfortunately the engine anti-kill triggered when I came in to make my final pit stop which cost me a lot of time. It’s frustrating as we should have finished strongly. My focus is now Barcelona where I’ve delivered very strongly in the past."

Federico Gastaldi, Deputy Team Principal: "Congratulations to Romain once more for a strong race and thank you to the race team for some great pit work as well as engineering over the weekend to get the car to Romain’s liking so he could deliver today. It’s thanks to the hard work of everyone at Enstone that we can score points like we did here in Bahrain. Pastor had a difficult race and we need to investigate exactly what went wrong so we can improve for our next time out.”

Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director: "That was an excellent, straight-forward copybook race from Romain. Unfortunately, we didn’t have the pace to challenge the Red Bull of Daniel Ricciardo today but we were ahead of the rest of our near rivals. We were able to complete some very quick pit stops, which helped both drivers during the course of the race. For Pastor we ran with a different strategy to most of the field, with a three-stop strategy, starting on the harder medium compound Pirellis. This looked to be working very well and Pastor should have finished around the same position as Romain however a five-second pit stop penalty and the engine-kill activating when he entered the pits extinguished any opportunity of a strong result."

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Despite good performance, no points for Sauber in Bahrain

Monisha Kaltenborn: "Both drivers fought impressively, but we didn’t get any rewards today."

The Bahrain Grand Prix, the first night race of the season, ended in disappointment for the Sauber F1 Team. Despite competitive lap times the drivers only managed to finish in 12th (Felipe Nasr) and 14th (Marcus Ericsson). Both drivers were hindered by technical problems.

Marcus Ericsson lost a lot of time during his second pitstop due to a mechanical issue when changing the front left wheel. Felipe Nasr was slowed down by a temporary loss of power. So, despite good lap times, the team was not able to convert the good performance into points.

Marcus Ericsson: “I had a really good start into the race. On the first lap I moved up from 13th to ninth. In the first and second stints our lap times were quite strong, keeping up with our direct competitors. We were running as planned, but then unfortunately we had the mistake during the second pit stop due to a mechanical problem that came up when the crew changed the left front wheel.

Of course, it is very disappointing, but sometines this happens in racing. We win together, and we loose together. After that our race was extremely compromised. However, I still tried to do my best and during the rest of the race my pace was good. All in all, we showed a reasonable performance and this is what counts for the next race in Barcelona.”

Felipe Nasr: “It was a difficult first lap for me as I got squeezed in turn 1, so I lost a few positions. Afterwards I got stuck in traffic which compromised my race pace during the whole first stint. In the course of the race I lost power for several laps, which made us loose ground. On the positive side of things, I was quite satisfied with our lap times on the medium compound. Overall, I think we could have scored points if we would have had a clean race. It is a shame not to have them.”

Monisha Kaltenborn, Team Principal: “There is no doubt that today we missed a very realistic chance of finishing in the points, particularly as our lap times were competitive. On Marcus’ car we had a technical issue during his second pitstop, where he lost a lot of time. We are sorry for that. Felipe lost time due to a temporary loss of power. The engineers were able to fix this after some laps, but the time lost was too big, and so he was also not able to fight for points like his team mate. Both drivers fought impressively, but we didn’t get any rewards today.”

Giampaolo Dall’Ara, Head of Track Engineering: “Obviously this is a disappointing result. On Marcus‘ car we had a mechanical issue during his second pitstop when changing the front left wheel, which delayed him by 24 seconds. He was then simply not able to recover from this and couldn’t get the points he would have deserved. Felipe was hindered by a temporary loss of power, which was able to be fixed after some laps, but this cost him 12 seconds. Both drivers drove strongly, and it’s just a shame that we were not able to convert that into points.”

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Sahara Force India scores four points on the Bahrain GP

Sergio Perez raced to eighth place ahead of teammate Nico Hulkenberg in P13.

Sergio Perez P8: “Eighth place feels very good and I’m very satisfied. It was a great opportunity to score points today and this is a nice reward for the whole team. Before the race we were not sure a two-stop strategy was possible for us – we thought the tyre degradation would be too high, but the team did an amazing job to make it happen.

My engineers were giving me good information over the radio and after the first stint we knew that stopping twice was our best chance of scoring points. I think this was one of my best races in terms of managing the pace and the tyres. There are a lot of positives to take from this weekend and once again we showed that this team has a lot of heart and that we never give up.”

Nico Hulkenberg P13: “It was a disappointing result for me tonight: we didn't seem to be able to find the same level of grip we had in qualifying and that made it really hard in the car. We were in a few battles, but we just couldn't get the right edge, which is a shame.

We seemed to be struggling to preserve the tyres compared to the cars around us and this cost us positions. We will need to investigate what caused us to suffer so much in the race, and hopefully it will at least give us an answer to avoid a similar situation in future races.”

Robert Fernley, Deputy Team Principal: "Finishing with some points is always a good result, especially considering the way in which Sergio and the engineers executed the two-stop strategy. We needed Sergio to preserve his tyres to make our strategy work and he did this perfectly. When there was the need to pull a decisive move, he did so without compromising tyres or car and that proved to be the key for tonight's result.

Nico had a busy race and he always seemed to be in the middle of some battle. He suffered with high degradation today and the extra pit stop compared to Checo dropped him outside the points. Overall, though, we feel very positive leaving Bahrain - it’s a solid result to wrap up the first round of fly-away races and adds four important points to our tally as we head to Europe.”

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Mercedes explain reason for double brake failure

Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg both suffered brake failure come the final laps of the Bahrain Grand Prix, resulting in the latter losing out to Kimi Raikkonen.

Whilst Hamilton was able to cruise to the checkered flag, Rosberg's issue came on two laps earlier, meaning he had to manage the situation whilst the Ferrari came bearing down on him at a second per lap.

Rosberg was unable to hold off Raikkonen when he ran wide at Turn 1 as a result of his brake-by-wire failure, costing him second place.

Mercedes said the issue was a known one from the very first lap, but due to the amount of hard braking the German was forced to do as he overtook cars, meant it failed sooner than Hamilton's.

"We saw it in Nico's system all race from lap one but it finally went wrong on the third last lap, so that's why he went long because the brake-by-wire system converted from active to passive where it's no longer a powered system," technical boss Paddy Lowe said.

Meanwhile Toto Wolff explained that it was the result of a compromise due to changes made to the cars in order to get better tyre wear in the hope off keeping Ferrari behind them.

"It is set-up issues and we knew the changes we made on the car were compromising a little bit the brake temperatures," he added. "We knew what we were doing.

"It was a hard race with lots of overtaking, especially in Nico's side, and then both cars struggled to make it through the backmarkers at the end of the race. The minute you follow another car or a couple of cars, the airstream collapses and this is why it made the brakes go.

"It is never one single solution, so you try to tackle the problem that we had on the Friday and the Saturday afternoon with a couple of adjustments. One of them was linked to the capability of brake wear, so in hindsight and knowing that this caused a problem and nearly cost us the race and P2 we will probably look at things again and do things differently in the future."

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AYRTON SENNA WALLPAPER

The story of Ayrton Senna and his rise to the highest echelons of motorsport reads like a slightly unrealistic Hollywood script – a young Brazilian boy who started life with such poor coordination that he needed medical tests goes on to learn how to drive a Jeep by the age of 7 (without use of the clutch), becomes the South American Kart Championship in 1977 and the Formula 1 World Champion by 1988.

Senna’s fatal accident in May 1994 sent shockwaves through Formula 1 that can still be felt today, no Formula 1 driver has been killed on track since Senna – largely because of safety improvements made to the sport as a direct result of his accident.

The above wallpaper measures in at 1920px x 1080px and can be downloaded here.

BONUS:

“Ayrton Senna – The Right To Win” is a documentary that came out in 2004, a few years before the recent and brilliantly made “Senna”. It offers a slightly different look back at Ayrton’s life and features great interviews with Prost, Hill, Walker and many more.

If you watched and liked Senna, I’d recommend this film as a great follow up.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShPc3nY5m5w

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UNCONFIRMED FERRARI AND MERCEDES SEATS BIG TALKING POINT

Ferrari team principal Maurizio Arrivabene says Kimi Raikkonen approached him to enquire about staying with the Maranello team in 2016.

In the Bahrain paddock, rumours are swirling about the possibility of a Ferrari ‘dream team’ for next year starring Sebastian Vettel alongside Lewis Hamilton.

Hamilton’s contract negotiations with Mercedes appear terminally stalled, with a source at the German giant admitting: “If Ferrari tries to sign a driver with an unlimited amount of money, it would no doubt succeed.”

Boss Toto Wolff is trying to stay calm and told Sky, “We have seen teams without any drivers in November and we are in April, so we are feeling ok.”

Clearly, Ferrari is leaving the door slightly ajar for now, with Arrivabene revealing in Bahrain he has told Raikkonen to his face that he is not ready to sign him up.

“He (Raikkonen) asked me about the contract and how to proceed,” the Ferrari team boss told Finland’s MTV3. “I said: You just have to be good on the track. ‘And if you do it, the contract is yours’. It is therefore very simple.”

“I think Kimi is someone who appreciates this, and I appreciate that he did not send in his manager to talk to me about it. We know each other and we met eye-to-eye.”

1997 world champion Jacques Villeneuve thinks Raikkonen has a good chance of retaining his seat, even though he has not yet proven a match for Vettel in 2015.

“If he keeps driving like this, why wouldn’t Ferrari keep him?” the Canadian told Turun Sanomat newspaper. “The whole team seems to be in good spirits with a lot of energy. So who else would they take?”

“If Lewis Hamilton is available, he would probably be Ferrari’s first choice, but I don’t think Ferrari cares so much if Kimi wins races or not.

“There is not really the need for two winning drivers. They need one driver to win and another to be a strong support,” added Villeneuve.

So for now, all eyes are on the unconfirmed seats at both Ferrari and Mercedes.

“Only fools are confident,” said Wolff, “and it’s only a contract once it is signed.”

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ARRIVABENE: KIMI IS BACK

Ferrari team principal Maurizio Arrivabene welcomed back the Kimi Raikkonen of old on Sunday after the 2007 world champion stepped back on the Formula One podium in Bahrain after a long absence.

The Finnish ‘Iceman’ took a strong second place in the floodlit race at the desert Sakhir circuit for his first top three finish since he was second for Lotus in South Korea in October 2013.

It was also his first podium finish for Ferrari since 2009, the final year of his first stint at Maranello. The Finn returned in 2014.

“I’m happy for Kimi because now I can say officially that… Kimi is back and we have two strong drivers,” said Arrivabene.

Raikkonen is out of contract at the end of the season, although Ferrari have an option for 2016, and the 35-year-old has indicated he wants to stay on at the sport’s most successful team.

His form has certainly picked up, after a disappointing 2014 alongside Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso when he scored only 55 points to the Spaniard’s 161, but so too has the team’s performance.

The arrival of four-times champion Sebastian Vettel from Red Bull has already brought Ferrari their first win since 2013 and Raikkonen said on Sunday he wanted a piece of the action.

His strategy on Sunday, leaving a set of soft tyres to last when others were running on slower mediums, could certainly have brought more.

As it was, he still set the fastest lap of the race — the 41st of his career and lifting him level with four-times champion Alain Prost in joint second place in the all-time lists.

“You cannot feel happy. We are happy to be second but it’s still disappointing. It’s not what we want to do,” Raikkonen told reporters.

“I had a pretty hard time last year. This year in the beginning, just some bad luck in the races but the team has done a great job over the winter and everybody is pushing together in the same direction.

“I’m sure we are only going to get stronger and better as a team and improve the car. So, it’s a great place to be,” he added.

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BAKU GOOD REPLACEMENT FOR MONZA CLAIMS ECCLESTONE

Formula 1 Bernie Ecclestone on Sunday confirmed the sport’s newest host nation is Azerbaijan.

It was already known that the sport’s chief executive had inked a deal for a street race in Baku, the capital of the oil-rich former Soviet country.

But earlier this week, it emerged that the Formula One Group had published a human rights policy vowing to respect “human rights in all of our activities”.

But several independent bodies, such as Human Rights Watch, have repeatedly criticised the Azerbaijani government for its human rights record, including arbitrary arrests, indefinite detentions, beatings and torture.

Ecclestone, however, said in Bahrain: “Baku? No problem. That’s going to be another good race.”

Asked if he had conducted the “due diligence” promised in his the policy, he added: “We have. I think everybody seems to be happy. Doesn’t seem to be any big problem there.”

It appears Azerbaijan could be on the calendar while the historic Italian grand prix is not, as Monza race organisers are yet to agree a new deal with Ecclestone.

Reporters on Sunday told Ecclestone F1 without Monza is unthinkable, “I was told that when we didn’t have a race in France actually. And Germany now. We’ve got some good replacements, haven’t we?”

Meanwhile, Ecclestone has been in talks with team bosses this weekend, as he presses his case for louder, cheaper and more powerful engines.

Mercedes’ Toto Wolff earlier said the changes are heading for 2017, but Ecclestone said the sport needs to react “with maximum urgency”.

“It’s no good talking to these people — they will have to be told,” said Ecclestone. “If its going to be the current engine upgraded to 1000 horse power then good — and they need to supply it at a price that the team can afford to pay.”

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RENAULT READY TO SPEND TO FIX F1 CRISIS SAYS HORNER

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has acknowledged Renault is now getting serious about fixing its obvious problems in formula one.

Earlier, the Briton and other Red Bull officials were scathing of the French supplier’s performance and reliability so far in 2015, and the problems did not appear to significantly lessen in Bahrain at the weekend.

Horner’s highly critical tone, however, notably eased in the island Kingdom, although he did joke that the engine used by Daniel Ricciardo on Sunday would now be best suited for nothing more than a “coffee table”.

He says Renault has finally acknowledged the need to seriously react, “Last week, after the Chinese grand prix, I was in Paris where we had very constructive discussions with Renault representatives.”

Media reports have suggested no less a figure than Renault chief executive Carlos Ghosn has admitted the problem and guaranteed additional funds.

“Renault wants to change the situation,” Horner confirmed, “they want to succeed in formula one, because the situation at the moment is not good for them.

“Of course, that cannot be achieved for free. They understand that and seem to have found a solution.”

Red Bull, however, has also been accused of contributing to its own difficult situation in 2015 by not building a title-ready car. But Gerhard Berger, a former Toro Rosso co-owner, does not agree with that.

“I think the team itself and the car would still be in a position to win world championships,” he told the Austrian broadcaster ORF in Bahrain.

“The only questions now are: can Renault bring itself out of this miserable situation? And if not, what are Red Bull’s alternatives to return to winning again?” added Berger.

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ARRIVABENE: I AM NOT GOING TO SIGN A CONTRACT WITH KIMI TOMORROW

Ferrari is leaving the door slightly ajar for Lewis Hamilton, by not committing to confirming Kimi Raikkonen for next season despite the Finn’s good showing in Bahrain.

After declaring that Hamilton would make a great teammate for Sebastian Vettel next year, Bernie Ecclestone backtracked just ahead of the race in Bahrain.

“No,” the F1 supremo told British television Sky. “He’s happy where he is.”

But Mercedes and Hamilton are yet to agree terms for a new contract beyond 2015, and rumours in Bahrain about a potential move to Ferrari were widespread.

That, however, was before Raikkonen bounced back from a below par 2014 to challenge Hamilton for victory in Bahrain. The Finn is also making it no secret that he wants to stay on at Maranello.

“I’m happy for Kimi,” said Ferrari chief Maurizio Arrivabene after the race, “because now I can say officially that he is back and we have two strong drivers.

“But that does not mean that I am going to sign a contract with Kimi tomorrow, which I made clear when I talked about the matter with him.

“If you ask me now if he deserves the agreement, I say yes. But I want to keep him alert. Kimi is at his best when he is a bit worried. This is his kind of psychological approach,” Arrivabene is quoted by Finland’s Turun Sanomat.

“At the moment, the paper is still white,” the charismatic Italian continued. “It seems that when I picked up the pen, Kimi went onto the podium!”

Arrivabene’s position also sends the loud-and-clear message to Hamilton that the door to Maranello is not slammed shut.

“Lewis is a world champion,” he is quoted by Sky, “and every world champion dreams of driving one day for Ferrari. “But right now we have two world champions and we don’t need another.”

Also happy with a timely driver resurgence on Sunday was Mercedes, whose Nico Rosberg fought aggressively and only lost second place due to a brake problem.

“It was a new Rosberg,” declared team chairman Niki Lauda.

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WOLFF: NICO WAS AT HIS BEST AND FIGHTING HARD

Nico Rosberg slipped further behind championship-leading Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton in the Formula One standings on Sunday but showed at least that he had lost none of his fighting spirit.

The German is now 27 points behind the Briton after the double world champion took his third win in four races in Bahrain.

But for brake problems, which allowed Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen to pass and denied Marcedes a one-two finish, the gap would have been narrower but Rosberg at least answered some critics.

“Everybody who ever doubted Nico saw Nico at his best, fighting hard and overtaking,” said Mercedes motorsport head Toto Wolff after the German, accused by Hamilton of not trying and being too slow at the previous race in China, finished third.

“Losing that position because of a brake failure is a bit of a pity, but all in all a one and three must be satisfactory,” he added.

“We are four races into the season and there are another 15 left, so I have no doubt that after his driving today, which was exceptional, we will have a very strong Nico bouncing back in Barcelona.”

Rosberg was third on the grid, and immediately lost out to Raikkonen after being squeezed at the start.

From then on, while Hamilton led from pole, the meat of the race became the cut and thrust between Rosberg’s Mercedes and the resurgent Ferraris.

Rosberg thrice passed Sebastian Vettel, only to lose out in the pitstops, before his compatriot made a mistake and damaged his car’s front wing.

With Vettel no longer posing a threat, and finishing fifth, Raikkonen became more of one and the closing stages saw a battle between the two before Rosberg ran wide as the brakes gave out.

“It started off on a disappointing note for me after the start with losing the position to Kimi. I just did the wrong…well, got caught out,” said Rosberg.

“But then immediately I felt that the car was awesome, so went full on the attack straight away and was happy to get by Kimi and Sebastian. Great fight with those, that was very exciting at that point in time.

“Unfortunately (I was) struggling with brakes a little bit throughout the whole race and just lost them. Two laps from the end I lost the brakes, so went straight on and had to carry the car home for the last two laps.”

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McLaren confident of first points finish at Spanish GP

McLaren believe they'll be capable of fighting for points with both cars at the next race in three weeks time according to racing director Eric Boullier.

The Woking outfit has yet to score a single point in four races - their worst ever start to a Formula 1 season - but that should all change come the Spanish Grand Prix with the introduction of aero upgrades and an upgraded power unit.

"After finishing 11th [in Bahrain] nearly on merit, if we have the increase of performance Honda promises for Barcelona then we should ideally be able to not be lapped anymore and to go for points," the Frenchman told Autosport.

Although better race pace is expected, Boullier is still expecting Q2 to be the aim on Saturday despite Fernando Alonso only missing the cut to get through to Q3 by four tenths in Bahrain.

"Our qualifying pace is still far from [our rivals], so Q2 should be the target and after finishing 11th in Bahrain, we want to finish in the points."

Honda F1 boss Yasuhisa Arai is confident they can close the top speed gap which saw Alonso losing out by more than 15km/h on the main straight.

"Obviously there is an engine-performance deficit in the straight-line and you can see the top speed is not there yet, but it is coming," he confirmed.

It's believed Honda still have a number of development tokens remaining, allowing them to bring yet more updates later in the season.

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Horner: Bahrain charge will boost Kvyat

Red Bull Racing boss Christian Horner says that Daniil Kvyat's drive from 17th to ninth place in Bahrain will serve as a big confidence boost for the under-pressure Russian.

Kvyat, who was promoted to Red Bull’s senior team in only his second season of F1 at the age of 20, was knocked out in Q1 at Sakhir as teammate Daniel Ricciardo went on to qualify seventh.

Although Kvyat earned the same result in Malaysia, this time he has to fight his way up from 17th after a troubled qualifying session.

“I think both drivers got everything they could out of it,” Horner told Motorsport.com. “The recovery Daniil had from 17th was pretty good really.

“He drove a good race in Malaysia, but he's had the lion's share of bad luck. If anything's gone wrong it's tended to happen with him.

“It's good for his confidence, a race like that. He just needs a clean weekend really, and the potential's there. Then you'll see him just get stronger and stronger.”

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Boardroom power shift moves VW closer to Formula 1

Internal boardroom power struggle deep within the VW Group appears to have positioned one of its brands closer to a Formula 1 entry in 2018.

Ferdinand Piech – the 78-year-old chief of the Volkswagen Group – has been effectively shunned by the VW Executive Committee of the Supervisory Board, which has recommended that CEO Martin Winterkorn (pictured below) be offered a new extensive and long-term contract from 2016 onward.

This comes after Piech was believed to be orchestrating the removal of his former favourite from the company, and an emergency meeting was called last week to resolve the internal power struggle.

Piech will have to relinquish his role as chairman of the VW Executive Committee of the Supervisory Board in 2017. The boardroom shift could see plans set in motion for a new decision making processes that could see the VW Group restructure its motorsport programme in the coming 18 months.

Winterkorn took over as CEO of VW Group from Bernd Pischetsrieder in 2007. Prior to that, he had worked as Chairman of the Board at Audi AG, and was a big supporter of its racing projects in sportscars and the DTM. Winterkorn has overseen the expansion and growth of VW Group in recent years to further enhance its status as the leader of EU automakers.

Piech, a member of the Porsche family who strategically moved the ailing brand upmarket from its 1990s doldrums, recently criticized Winterkorn for VW's poor performance in the USA.

VW is made up of several shareholders, with Porsche Holdings SE owning the leading percentage. The rest of the board is made up of unknown and private shareholders: Qatar Holding LLC, led by Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani, plus the State of Lower Saxony and other German industrial investors.

Why F1 move is on the radar

The VW Group has long been rumoured to be looking at a Formula 1 entry with one of its brands. Audi is widely understood to be the most likely to undertake an F1 programme, but Motorsport.com understands that Suzuki and Bugatti have also undertaken feasibility studies in recent years.

Audi last year employed three key ex-F1 staff members. They were ex-Ferrari F1 team team principal Stefano Domenicali, former BMW and Williams engineer Jorg Zander and Gabriele Delicolli, who is a former Ferrari simulator specialist.

In 2011 Wolfgang Durheimer, director Bentley and Bugatti, told German magazine Auto Motor Und Sport that “if [the VW group] is at the forefront of the auto industry, I can imagine us competing in Formula 1 in 2018. We have enough brands to pull it off.”

An end to VW's 'personality issue'

The main stumbling block to this previously has been the fact that Piech did not like F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone, and despite the two having only met on fleeting formal occasions there appears to be a mutual dislike between the two on a personal basis.

However, Ecclestone said during the Bahrain Grand Prix weekend that he would step down if Audi demanded it as a condition to enter F1.

The VW Group currently structures its racing successfully around the thriving World Endurance Championship (Audi and Porsche), the World Rally Championship, Rallycross and F3 (VW) and GT racing (Bentley and Lamborghini). It produces road cars under the brands Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, Porsche, SEAT, Skoda and VW.

VW also owns the Bundesliga team VF Wolfsburg, where the company is based and was a sponsor of the 2014 Winter Olympics.

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F1 closing on 1000bhp future from 2017 onwards using current V6s

Formula One is closing on an agreement to have 1000bhp engines based on the current V6 turbos from 2017 onwards.

Over the winter pressure to up the power of the engines and rethink the look of the cars grew from certain stakeholders in the sport. Mercedes had been reluctant to completely rethink the layout of the power units or revert to V8s, but now it seems a middle ground has been found.

Bernie Ecclestone has been one of the main supporters of 1000bhp but also wanted a return to V8 engines as recently as last week. Now he appears happy to give his blessing to 1000bhp V6 turbos as long as they are supplied to the smaller teams at a reasonable price

"We need to make the car more difficult to drive," Ecclestone said: "But the two things that have to happen is that whoever supplies engines to the teams have to supply the same engine that they use. If it's going to be the current engine upgraded to 1000bhp then good, but they need to supply it at a price the teams can afford to pay."

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff said the current engines will be producing up to 950bhp with normal development by 2017, so the best way to reach the 1000bhp mark is to up the fuel flow. The engines are currently limited to 100kg of fuel per race and a fuel flow of 100kg per hour, but Wolff warned that upping the fuel flow would result in increased costs when redesigning the engine.

"In 2017 these engines between all the teams are going to have north of 900bhp, and then it's a question of what do you want to tell [that story] and how do you want to market that," he said. "Does it make a big difference to have 950bhp or 1000bhp?

"I think there are easy tools to increase the horsepower and this is increasing fuel flow. If you want to increase the fuel flow by 10kg/hour or 20kg/hour you will have more than 1000bhp, but you have to redesign crucial components of the engine to make them more reliable and that again involves a lot of development cost.

"We all understand that we want to have a spectacular formula, not only on the chassis side but also on the power unit side, and this is what is going to be discussed at the moment, how to achieve it.

"I think all engine manufacturers are pretty clear that the current engine architecture with a hybrid component needs to stay in place. That is the direction we have headed to and this is at least at the moment the current status between Ferrari, Renault, Honda and Mercedes."

Wolff said a valuable meeting had taken place this weekend in Bahrain with Ecclestone and the FIA's Charlie Whiting.

"The discussion about 1000bhp engines has been around for quite a while and I appreciate very well that it needs to be a spectacular formula and if that's the way forward we should continue to work on it. There are various groups coming together in terms of how the 2017 rules can look like in terms of what the power unit and chassis can look like. Yesterday there was a very valuable meeting; Charlie was there and Bernie was there and concepts are being put in place to make it a spectacular new formula in 2017."

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Ferrari resurgence is proof F1 is in good shape - Toto Wolff

Mercedes says Ferrari's performance at the first four races is proof the sport is in good shape.

Mercedes dominated the first season under the new V6 turbo regulations, leading to calls for equalisation at the start of this year and Bernie Ecclestone to say Mercedes boss Toto Wolff "can have a lovely inscription on his gravestone that says: I helped to kill Formula One". However, Wolff believes the resurgence of Ferrari this year, including its performance at last weekend's Bahrain Grand Prix, is proof the sport is healthy in its current state.

"It's important for the commercial rights holder to not have one team running away with the championship and having close battles for the lead, because battles for the lead is what is most interesting for the spectators and we had more of that today and in Malaysia," Wolff said. "We tend to be between very lows and very highs and I wouldn't say now everything is solved.

"We had a good race and I think the sport is in good shape and today we saw that. We had two teams fighting with the knife between the teeth for the victory."

Mercedes technical boss Paddy Lowe said Mercedes is ready to take on the challenge from Ferrari in what he described as a "more normal" championship.

"Nervous isn't the right word," Lowe said. "It's a competition and this is a more normal championship where teams compete to win each race and it's never easy.

"The car seemed strong. Why that was I will have to go away and analyse, but the car was strong on both tyres. We had the better pace compared to the Ferrari, otherwise we wouldn't have won to be honest!"

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The battle for ninth

The Bahrain International Circuit offered another great race on Sunday, it's just a shame fans were not able to watch some of the most important parts.

It is an open secret in Formula One that to displease Bernie Ecclestone means risking a lack of coverage of your team's cars (and their sponsors) on the world television feed.

Force India learned the lesson back in 2012, when the team's decision to pull out of the second free practice session so that team members could travel back to their hotel when the sun was still high in the sky resulted in a race weekend which - based on a review of the broadcast footage - took place without a single VJM05 in attendance.

Based on coverage of the 2015 Bahrain Grand Prix, someone at Mercedes must have done something very naughty indeed.

For the first half of the race, when the Mercedes and Ferrari pairs were jostling for position at the front of the pack, the bulk of the action on screen focussed on the tense yet hardly crucial battle for ninth. Those present in the press room could watch the gaps between the front-runners extend and close up on the live timing screens, but those watching at home would be forgiven for forgetting that the Silver Arrows and Prancing Horses had turned up to work on Sunday evening.

When the gaps were steady in the podium positions the oddly unbalanced TV coverage was noteworthy, but hardly problematic. But by the time it became clear that Sebastian Vettel was making uncharacteristic errors off-screen, running wide in the middle sector while Kimi Raikkonen's lap times confirmed that the Finn would be a force to be reckoned with come the finish, the lack of TV time given to those teams who are the biggest draw to fans was little short of lunacy.

F1's falling viewing figures are largely attributable to the move to subscription-only access, but some blame should also be laid at the feet of those who are choosing to ignore the moments of drama generated by those men fighting for a chance at the championship.

Nico Rosberg's second pit stop - a strategically crucial moment (were it not for the German's later brake problems) - was not shown on screen. It was only in the closing laps that appropriate screen time was given to Raikkonen closing in on the stricken W05 ahead, the gap between the pair decreasing from 19.1 seconds on lap 41 to less than four seconds by lap 51.

Instead, and in something of a coup for the sponsors of traditionally ignored teams like Sauber, an inordinate amount of the Bahrain Grand Prix world feed featured on-board footage from Felipe Nasr's car. Sponsor Silanna received a season's worth of exposure in the one hour, thirty-five minutes, and 5.809 seconds it took Lewis Hamilton to complete at 57 laps of the race.

Inside the press room, the director's decision to avoid broadcasting footage of the Mercedes pair unless it was unavoidable to do so for the narrative of the race was so apparent that we took to shouting out every time a Silver Arrow appeared on screen - usually a pinprick in the background of a shot featuring a Ferrari. The Scuderia's sponsors would have had much better value for money had Raikkonen and Vettel not spent the evening running so close to the championship leaders.

For the second year running, the Bahrain Grand Prix was an exciting race with top-notch driving and a nail-biting finish. As a two-hour TV feed of competition and drama at the highest level, it was exactly the sort of event that broadcasters drool of, and a night that should have attracted legions of new fans to the sport. Instead, thanks to a decision to film the race while ignoring the best of the footage, Formula One scored yet another own goal when it was on course to deliver a winner.