FORMULA 1 - 2015

[MIKA27]

Valtteri Bottas did 'all the things possible' to keep Sebastian Vettel at bay

Valtteri Bottas had to draw on all his talent to keep Sebastian Vettel at bay in Bahrain after holding off the four-time world champion for 15 laps to secure fourth position.

The Finn qualified fifth and had a quiet race until the final stint when Sebastian Vettel had to pit for a new front wing on lap 36. The German rejoined behind Bottas and quickly caught the Williams driver but was unable to get close enough for a pass despite being inside DRS range for most of the stint.

Williams has dropped behind Ferrari in the pecking order this season and Bottas was pleased to claim the scalp of Vettel.

"I think [it was] pretty maximum result so from my side of the garage we can be happy with what we achieved today," he said. "We were closer to Ferrari and Mercedes in race pace compared to China, which is good. Obviously there's plenty of work to do but we're on the right way."

Bottas admits he had braced himself for a tough battle when he saw Vettel's car emerge behind.

"It was not easy because he was approaching really quickly. I knew it was going to be really tricky; they had a lot of pace. I just tried to do all the things possible to keep him behind - getting good exits, making sure at all the corners the lines are completely correct to try and disturb him, try and get better exits than him, and any boost we had available from the engine it was important to use at the right places."

There was one close moment when a late-braking Vettel nearly drove into the back of Bottas, bailing out at the last moment. For Bottas, it was a case of déjà vu.

"I think he just braked a bit too late actually. I had a similar situation last year actually with Kimi [Raikkonen] so it could happen. Luckily there is space on the left so he could move but obviously it was really close."

Like most of the two-stoppers, Bottas completed the race with a soft-soft-medium strategy. Kimi Raikkonen finished second and nearly won the race with soft-medium-soft and Bottas was surprised by his fellow countryman's strategy.

"Yeah, well, I guess they tried something different and it seemed to work. We never really considered it, from our calculations the best thing to do was option-option-prime which was OK. I think everyone is going to analyse it to see if we can do better. "

[Bartolomeo]

Very enjoyable race towards the end

[MIKA27]

JOS VERSTAPPEN: I TRY TO STAY POSITIVE, BUT NOW MY FIST IS HITTING THE TABLE

Having kept their composure until now, Toro Rosso’s patience in 2015 may finally be up as is the patience of the father of their emerging star driver Max Verstappen.

While big-brother team Red Bull has been highly critical of Renault this season, the junior outfit Toro Rosso has kept calm.

But according to the Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf, the Faenza team’s boss Franz Tost made a hasty exit to the airport on Sunday after both cars failed and said, “No comment…”

Former F1 driver Jos Verstappen, the father of Max, explained: “Franz is not happy. They are all a bit desperate, because they cannot do anything about it. All we can do is wait and hope for better times.”

“I know that Renault is doing everything to solve its problems, but it is not possible in three weeks. Formula 1 is a very competitive sport,” Jos added, “there are always highs and lows, but this is a very deep trough.”

For the otherwise highly-impressive 17-year-old Max, it has been a frustrating start to his career with three car failures in four races.

“Maybe that’s a record,” the young Dutchman smiled wryly. “It’s a bit ridiculous. Of course I’m worried about the future.

“I try to stay positive, but now my fist is hitting the table. This cannot continue, but I know they understand that too,” Verstappen added.

[MIKA27]

ALONSO: WE ARE ON THE VERGE OF POINTS NOW

Fernando Alonso believes that the new McLaren-Honda project is now on the verge of being able to score points.

“We did not have a good start to the season,” Yasuhisa Arai, the F1 boss of the struggling Japanese manufacturer Honda, told Speed Week. “The path to the summit is steep. But we have left base camp now.”

Indeed, although an awful weekend of reliability in Bahrain for Jenson Button meant he could not even take to the grid, teammate Alonso left the island Kingdom declaring that Q3 is the target for Barcelona.

McLaren and Honda are preparing significant upgrades for the first European race of the season.

“We are on the verge of points now,” said Alonso, “and hopefully it will be in Spain or Monaco, where the engine matters less,” he is quoted by El Confidencial.

Japanese Arai, meanwhile, insisted the disastrous start of Honda’s return to F1 has not resulted in sackings, “No, that’s not true. We are still working with the same people.”

Any talk of a sudden leap from points to the podium, however, is premature for now acknowledges Arai, “A podium would be a wish or a hope. We have only four races behind us and 15 opportunities laying ahead.

“We will begin to score later in the season on a regular basis,” he added.

[MIKA27]

SMEDLEY: CATCHING UP WITH FERRARI WILL BE VERY DIFFICULT

Williams has admitted it will struggle to quickly recover its position in the Formula 1 pecking order as the first force behind title favourite Mercedes, which is now occupied by Ferrari.

The Grove team finished last season as clearly the fastest team behind the title winners, the Maranello outfit has sped past in 2015.

“After the first four races you can already see the balance of power,” chief engineer Rob Smedley said after the Bahrain grand prix.

“We are preparing a series of upgrades for Barcelona, but catching up with Ferrari will be very difficult.”

Team driver Felipe Massa acknowledged in Bahrain that Williams’ much smaller budget against the might of Ferrari is beginning to show.

“Third isn’t anything to be ashamed of,” Williams deputy Claire Williams told Britain’s Sky.

She agreed with Massa that competing against Ferrari’s spending is difficult, “I’ve always said it’s about working harder and smarter than the others. The likes of McLaren and Ferrari have always had bigger budgets than us and we have won sixteen championships against them.”

“I heard that Ferrari are ploughing in another 100 million to their development on top of what they had already allocated – and that’s our whole budget! To be honest, I’d love to be able to win against them,” she smiled, “with a third of their budget.”

But from an engineering perspective, Smedley acknowledged how hard it will be for Williams to fend off his and Massa’s red-clad former employer.

“We have already extracted good potential from our cars,” he said, “and this work continues, but we do not expect to be able to rapidly increase our pace.

“Also, we can’t forget that behind us there are teams like Red Bull, which is a huge organisation, well equipped and with a very considerable resource.

“When they sort out their problems,” said Smedley, “they will be doing much better than they are doing now. Generally, all of our main rivals are very strong.”

[MIKA27]

HAMILTON: I FEEL VERY POWERFUL IN THIS CAR

A second world title appears to have boosted Lewis Hamilton’s performances this year, adding a spring to his step and even at this early stage in the season it would be foolish to bet against him winning his third world title in a Mercedes which clearly suits his style.

Hamilton has started every race on pole and is now 27 points clear of closest rival and team mate Nico Rosberg. Sunday was his ninth win in the last 11 grands prix.

He may not be unbeatable, as Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel showed in Malaysia, but he is feeling stronger than ever.

“I feel very powerful in this car, with the package we have,” he said. “I feel I am able to get everything from it. I feel more comfortable in this one than I even did in last year’s.

“I feel that the power’s greater than ever, in terms of strength in the car… I am getting close to my full potential. Who knows where that is but I feel like I’m extracting everything I’ve got.”

Hamilton can now look forward to spending some time with his brother Nicolas, preparing to compete in the British Touring Car series, before Formula One’s European season kicks off in Spain on May 10.

“I’ve got to improve when I get to Barcelona,” said the Briton, who won four of the first five races last year but was still taken down to the wire by Rosberg.

Meanwhile Jackie Stewart, Britain’s only triple Formula One world champion, knows his record is on borrowed time after Hamilton’s storming victory in Sunday’s Bahrain Grand Prix.

Forty two years have passed since the Scot, now 75, won his third and final title in 1973 but Mercedes’ double world champion is well on the road to joining him after a third triumph in four races.

Stewart was on hand to conduct the post-race podium interviews at the Sakhir circuit, congratulating Hamilton on the ‘hell of a season you’re having.’

He has not always been complimentary in the past, questioning the Englishman’s mind management skills, as well as career and lifestyle choices, but Hamilton accepted the praise gratefully.

“It’s always positive to have other real champions appreciate what you do. So it feels nice,” he told British reporters.

“He said something to me in the room afterwards… he always talks about me catching him. He said ‘You’re going to catch me, but I’m fine with it’.”

Hamilton was already Britain’s most successful driver in terms of race wins — Bahrain making 36 for his career compared to Stewart’s 27 and Nigel Mansell’s 31, although it is unfair to compare eras.

[MIKA27]

FERRARI SET FOR ENGINE POWER BOOST IN BARCELONA

Ferrari is preparing to unleash more horse power for the start of the European leg of the season in Spain.

Reports are doing the rounds that the Maranello team will debut an upgrade for its turbo V6 ‘power unit’ in June for the race in Canada.

But Bild newspaper said a new specification will in fact make its appearance in Barcelona in just under three weeks’ time.

The report said it could boost Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen’s 2015 car to the tune of 20-30 horse power, giving the SF15-T “almost as much power as Mercedes”.

Team boss Maurizio Arrivabene told La Gazzetta dello Sport: “I want to thank all the people in Maranello who have been part of this work.

“It has been not only about developing the engine, but every single part of the car, realising in three months what normally would have taken six.

“I do not know if we will catch Mercedes, but I definitely like the idea of being able to put pressure on them,” he added.

[MIKA27]

MALDONADO HITS BACK AT CRASHTOR REPUTATION

Pastor Maldonado has fended off his growing reputation as a crash-prone Formula 1 driver.

The Telegraph newspaper said a nickname doing the rounds for the Venezuelan is ‘Crashtor’, while one unflattering website mischievously lists the days and hours since Maldonado’s last crash.

“The world is safe for another day,” the website currently reads.

The PDVSA-backed Lotus driver, however, insists his reputation as a crasher is undeserved, “When Pastor crashes, it’s big news. When the other people crash, there is no news.

“To find the limit, you need to cross the limit. I think I have the big balls to cross the limit every time,” argued Maldonado.

He is yet to score a point in 2015.

[MIKA27]

MERHI EXPECTS TO BE DITCHED BY MANOR

While the other Formula 1 drivers take a weekend off, there will be no rest for Roberto Merhi, as he has not been signed up for the full F1 season by Manor, he will kick off his 2015 campaign in the Formula Renault 3.5 series in Spain this weekend.

Beyond that, the Spaniard knows he might not return to the F1 cockpit in Barcelona next month. Merhi, 24, has admitted he will be sidelined if Manor signs up a better funded driver to be Will Stevens’ full-time teammate.

Not only that, Merhi has struggled notably in 2015, after Bahrain, he said: “I don’t know. I felt like something was missing: top speed, traction, the front of the car and it was very easy to make mistakes.

“We will have to see, because I don’t think this is the way to continue,” he is quoted by Spain’s El Confidencial. “I have been consistent, yes, but consistently slow. I would rather be ahead and finish only once.”

“We have many problems,” Merhi added, “and we have to work on that, because there are too many differences with my teammate which is a bit rare (for me).”

[MIKA27]

KVYAT STRUGGLING WITH PRESSURE CLAIMS VILLENEUVE

Daniil Kvyat is struggling to deal with the pressure of driving for Red Bull, according to outspoken 1997 world champion Jacques Villeneuve.

“Last year he did ok at Toro Rosso,” said the French Canadian, “but it was nothing special.”

Russian Kvyat, 20, was promoted from the junior team over the winter to replace the Ferrari-bound Sebastian Vettel at Red Bull Racing.

“Red Bull is good at creating a hype around someone,” Villeneuve told the Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf, “but F1 is also about handling the pressure.”

Red Bull team boss Christian Horner, however, said it is not fair to judge Kvyat following the team’s disastrous start to 2015.

“I think the problem is that he has had to face so many difficulties,” he said. “When his car was working well, he showed he is up to the job, as in Malaysia.”

“We have no doubts about his speed, he gives good feedback, and after he gets some consistency, then we will see his potential,” added Horner.

[MIKA27]

DC: Arrivabene is getting it right

David Coulthard believes the turnaround in Ferrari's fortunes this year has a lot do with team principal Maurizio Arrivabene.

The Prancing Horse underwent several changes following a poor 2014 campaign with Fernando Alonso, Marco Mattiacci and Luca di Montezemolo all leaving the squad.

In came Sebastian Vettel as Alonso's replacement while Arrivabene took over from Mattiacci with Sergio Marchionne appointed new president in place of Di Montezemolo.

The changes appear to have had the desired effect as Vettel won the Malaysian Grand Prix while the team have also been on the podium in the other three races this season.

F1 commentator Coulthard feels Arrivabene has brought the "Italian-ness back to Ferrari".

"There is undoubtedly a new airiness to Ferrari, but I don't think that is necessarily down to Alonso leaving and Vettel arriving," he wrote in his latest BBC Sport column.

"The new team boss, Maurizio Arrivabene, has brought a lightness and Italian-ness back to Ferrari, which was maybe not there before.

"Predecessor Marco Mattiacci just seemed like he was bringing procedure in his short-lived reign. He did not get it right on any level.

"Mattiacci did not connect with the paddock or the business of F1, which is the sport. You can't just work by numbers in F1 - if you could, Toyota would have dominated in the 2000s, instead of failing spectacularly.

"Arrivabene, on the other hand, is getting it right."

[MIKA27]

Valtteri Bottas: Upgrades should bring Williams closer to pace

Valtteri Bottas believes that Williams is making inroads into pacesetters Mercedes and Ferrari, having proved itself to be Formula 1’s third-quickest team.

Williams has been overtaken by Ferrari in the pecking order over the winter, and while the challenge from Red Bull has faltered, neither Bottas nor teammate Felipe Massa has managed to climb on to the podium in 2015.

Bottas showed his class in Bahrain, however, when he doggedly managed to hold off the delayed Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel in the closing laps to claim fourth place.

“It was a good battle in the end and I'm really pleased that we could get a few extra points by keeping him behind,” said the Finn. “I think we can see that we were a bit closer to them than in China. Obviously we still have a bit of work to do because if it would be a clean race for the top two teams we're clearly still third.

“We could work better with the option tyre, so the second stint was much more competitive than what we had in China. Even in the beginning it was not too bad, the Ferrari and Mercedes were not getting miles away. So progress, but we need more.”

Targeting extra speed in Barcelona

Despite the team’s performance chief Rob Smedley playing down expectations regarding the next race in Barcelona, Bottas was far more upbeat: “We do have some updates there, and obviously we have testing there as well.

“It didn't feel too bad for our car, and with getting updates for our car hopefully we can be a bit closer again to Ferrari and Mercedes. I think this race showed that we made a small step forward from China.”

[MIKA27]

Perez: Bahrain one of my best F1 races

Sergio Perez believes his drive to eighth place in the Bahrain Grand Prix was one of the best races of his Formula 1 career to date.

The Mexican, who also finished a superb third in the same event last year, had started from 11th on the grid in the Force India.

He managed to do two stops when several of those around him, including teammate Nico Hulkenberg, went for three to climb up the order.

"It was one of my best races in terms of managing the tyres and managing the pace," Perez said.

"It was amazing what the team did, how we did the two-stop, because we never thought that was going to be possible. We thought we just too far away, the car was just sliding too much, and we were too slow on Friday.

"We picked up a lot of the pace and we managed the degradation, so I'm very happy with today's performance."

Explaining why things worked out so well, he said: "I think this track suits us well with the engine. It's not such an efficiency track. When we get to Barcelona we will struggle I think, but today was a very good opportunity to score points, and we did it.

"I think we as a team have done a very good step forward, and as I say I'm very happy for everyone, and very happy for the drive I did."

[MIKA27]

Formula 1 Television as a political weapon

There were more than a few people in Bahrain who felt that the TV coverage of the Grand Prix was decidedly strange – and not up to the usual high standards that the sport has been used to in recent years. In the old days, individual Grands Prix were televised by different local broadcasting organisations and that meant that the coverage was patchy and that fans would find themselves screaming at their TVs as the local directors ordered the cameras to follow the local heroes, even if they were only wombling along in a dull 17th place.

The urge to create more consistent coverage was the motivation behind the gradual disappearance of the old “host broadcasters” and the coverage of the sport being created almost exclusively by Formula One Management (FOM), the TV production and distribution business of the Formula One group. These days the only remaining host broadcaster is Télé Monte Carlo, which provides the coverage of the Monaco Grand Prix. All the other races now use a world feed produced by FOM from its mobile production unit that travels to all the races. This is fine as long as the TV producers are left to operate as they would in a normal media operation and do not show any favouritism to one team or another. If that is the case, the TV feed basically ceases to be journalism and becomes propaganda. This has always been a bit of a fine line and it is why democracies have always relied on either commercial TV stations or have created independent but government-funded broadcasters to ensure that coverage is fair and balanced. One tends to pay limited attention to state television that only provides a one-sided view of events.

When you stop and think about it, however, having a TV production company that is part of the Commercial Rights Holder organisation does leave the way open for abuse. Normally no-one in F1 thinks twice about this but there have been a couple of times in the past when questions have been asked, notably a few years ago in Bahrain when Force India decided to sit out a session after some of the team staff witnessed some of the rioting going on at that time.

This year, you would have to be a forensic scientist to find traces of the Manor team in race coverage. Admittedly, the cars are not up to speed but it has sometimes felt as though the cameras were avoiding Manor cars. The odd thing was that this was the impression in Bahrain, in relation to Mercedes Benz.

Now it is pretty hard to avoid showing the leader of a motor race, particularly if there is a fight going on at the front, but it was very definitely what some people thought as we watched Saubers when the battle at the front was tense and interesting. One could not put this down to incompetence because of the usually high standards of the production work, so questions were asked.

One might ask what a team gets (or loses) from the amount of coverage it receives and the answer to that is very clearly money. Teams get paid by their results on the track, but also from the amount of time that their cars are seen on TV. If someone can control the amount of TV time that a team gets then one can affect these numbers and so make it harder to raise money. Last year coverage of Mercedes was almost at saturation point and that looked good when the end of season reports came in showing the advertising value equivalency (AVE) figures for Mercedes – and the brands featured on the cars. Reducing the time that a car is seen on screen is thus a way to reduce AVE and to make the property less valuable.

One hopes that TV coverage is not being used as a political weapon.

[MIKA27]

WHITMARSH: NEVER ONCE DID I REGRET JOINING MCLAREN

Martin Whitmarsh, once a prominent figure in the Formula 1 paddock appeared to vanish overnight as he became victim of the Ron Dennis led revolution at McLaren, now the Englishman has emerged as the Chief Executive Officer of Ben Ainslie Racing and gave an interview on the yachting team’s website a week into his new appointment.

“It wasn’t a logical career move,” explained Whitmarsh who at the time of joining McLaren was a hotshot engineer working at British Aerospace as a structural analysis engineer. In 1988 he was promoted to the rank of Manufacturing Director and was put in charge of Hawk and Harrier airframe production.

A year later he was head hunted by McLaren and made Head of Operations in 1989. He remained with the Woking team for the next 25 years. At the time of his ousting he had risen to CEO of McLaren Group, CEO of McLaren Racing and Formula 1 team principal of McLaren Mercedes

Whitmarsh reminisced, “It was an unavoidable and unmissable opportunity that I had to go and do. Everyone thought I was mad to leave that job – where I appeared to have some success and a large organisation of thousands of people working for me – to join a little team, but I never had time or thought or occasion to regret it.”

When he joined McLaren the organisation totaled hundred employees and had an annual turnover of £19 million, two and a half decades later, under Whitmarsh’s stewardship, the team were employing over 3,000 people and had a turnover of £650 million.

“We grew McLaren within Formula 1,” he said, “but we also realised that racing was a volatile business, and if we were going to have a sustainable business, we needed to diversify and use our technology, our capability and, ultimately, our brand to spawn a range of other businesses.”

“And so we founded McLaren Automotive, Applied Technologies, Electronics and all the rest. It was a fairly significant metamorphosis from the race team that I joined. It was an interesting and exciting path.”

“We had to make sure we could succeed and win. In any of these environments, to have confidence and credibility you have to go out and succeed in the core proposition, and develop technical capability as you do it.”

“The next step is to say ok, we’ve got an organisation that’s running well, it’s performing, it’s got technology, how can we monetise that? How can we take some of those opportunities and create shareholder value?”

“At McLaren, our first developments were largely technical, selling technical services, then we reached a point where the brand had become established in its own right. We’re in a brand conscious world and if you are going to sell to consumers as well as businesses you need the brand.”

Whitmarsh sees a similar path and opportunities for Ben Ainslie Racing, “The America’s Cup is a fantastic platform from which this team can demonstrate its capability in high technology, in performance, and in achieving things like cycle-time compression.”

“I think we have a great opportunity to demonstrate how the technical endeavour associated with seeking to win the America’s Cup can be the catalyst of change in bigger technical organisations, can be a hotbed for technical development,” added Whitmarsh.

[Orion21]

Formula 1 Television as a political weapon

Mika,

I read the article, but I disagree. My view is that F1 is so skewed towards 1-2 teams based on the performance level of their cars the rest of the field is already considered an "also ran" before the beginning of the race. In sports, especially, fans don't like watching their teams lose over and over and over again. In F1 that means if you are a fan of any team, but Merc, all you will see is losing. F1 needs to change their structure to allow for more competitive teams. I enjoy F1, but when you see 1 team win the vast majority of the races there really isn't much to root for. When races are decided by technical errors or equipment malfunctions, and not the skill of the drivers, is it really racing? Food for thought.

[Baldy]

Mika,

I read the article, but I disagree. My view is that F1 is so skewed towards 1-2 teams based on the performance level of their cars the rest of the field is already considered an "also ran" before the beginning of the race. In sports, especially, fans don't like watching their teams lose over and over and over again. In F1 that means if you are a fan of any team, but Merc, all you will see is losing. F1 needs to change their structure to allow for more competitive teams. I enjoy F1, but when you see 1 team win the vast majority of the races there really isn't much to root for. When races are decided by technical errors or equipment malfunctions, and not the skill of the drivers, is it really racing? Food for thought.

Mecedes only dominated for 1 year--last year--with Ferrari catching up rapidly this year. Before that Red Bull dominated for 4 straight years. Do you start legislating just because 1 team is dominate for a few years? It goes in cycles but is limited to only a handful of rich "nobility" class teams.

F1, like most sports, have and always will have different class of teams who between then will split the championship, Ferrari, McLaren, recently Red Bull with Williams and works Renault once in a while. I do hate the "privilege nobility class" that exist in F1 though.

My team is McLaren, how do you think I feel but I still enjoy F1 knowing that one day they can get back to where they were. I'm not calling for everyone to run Honda engines in order to make my team competitive. I believe it's up to McLaren-Honda to get their act together and fight with the big boys. Don't want F1 to turn into Indy Car or Nascar which I find boring and can't watch.

Having said that, a "salary" cap type structure in F1 might not be a bad idea. I would also like to see better designed tracks that is more conducive to passing vs purposely designing tire degradation. I would like to see less technical restrictions within a cap structure to allow the minnows a fighting chance. Reliability is up to the technical abilities of the teams and good teams, as with brilliant teams, should be rewarded and not penalize.

There's lots of problems with F1 with politics, Bernie E., and huge discrepancy in budgets being the worse of these IMO.

[MIKA27]

Mika,

I read the article, but I disagree. My view is that F1 is so skewed towards 1-2 teams based on the performance level of their cars the rest of the field is already considered an "also ran" before the beginning of the race. In sports, especially, fans don't like watching their teams lose over and over and over again. In F1 that means if you are a fan of any team, but Merc, all you will see is losing. F1 needs to change their structure to allow for more competitive teams. I enjoy F1, but when you see 1 team win the vast majority of the races there really isn't much to root for. When races are decided by technical errors or equipment malfunctions, and not the skill of the drivers, is it really racing? Food for thought.

Completely understand your point of view but in all honesty, this is how F1 has always been.

There are a handful of teams that almost always dominate or fight for the podium.

I follow Mercedes and it killed me watching them struggle when they first came back in Formula 1, even greats like Schumacher couldn't do much with such a lame car but here they are now fighting strong. Did I dislike Formula 1 because of it? Not on your life.

The same said for Williams, to me Williams IS Formula 1, they have been around so long, been so strong yet slumped for years. Again, they are back strong.

I don't know if I'd be interested in a standardised Formula where all Chassis and engines are the same, this is what makes F1 so enjoyable (Politics aside ).

I do agree with Blady regarding the budgets, I feel if everyone were in line with the same capped budget then perhaps we will see some of those other dominating teams struggle up against a Sauber or Force India more often.

But that's a dream mate, It will never happen.

[MIKA27]

RAIKKONEN FINALLY WAKES UP AFTER NEARLY QUITTING IN 2014

Kimi Raikkonen considered returning to Formula 1 retirement after his disastrous 2014 season, according to a media report in Spain while in Italy the press are hailing the Finn’s awakening.

In Bahrain, Raikkonen bounced back from a slump, where he had not been on the podium since Korea 2013, by chasing reigning world champion and championship leader Lewis Hamilton close for victory.

It came after an horror 2014 for Raikkonen, who was thrashed by his now-departed former Ferrari teammate Fernando Alonso.

“He wants to stay at Ferrari, 100 per cent,” a source close to the 2007 world champion is now quoted as saying by Marca, who also claimed after Bahrain that Raikkonen, 35, “seriously considered” returning to retirement at the end of last season.

“He could not get the car how he wanted and was very frustrated,” the source added.

But that has all changed in 2015, as Raikkonen is happy with the James Allison-penned SF15-T and the better atmosphere under new boss Maurizio Arrivabene.

“He is a different person now,” the source said, “happy and excited.”

After his first Ferrari tenure ended in 2009, Raikkonen spent two years in rallying and Nascar.

“The only problem I have,” said Raikkonen in Bahrain, “is that Seb is faster in qualifying, but that changes in the race.”

La Gazzetta dello Sport said after Bahrain: “Raikkonen, dreaming of a new Ferrari contract, finally wakes up.”

[MIKA27]

ROSBERG: I CAN’T ALWAYS HIDE MY DISAPPOINTMENT

Although he is by no means giving up yet, but Nico Rosberg admits he could not hide his bad mood after finishing third in the Bahrain Grand Prix.

A bad qualifying session left him six tenths behind teammate Lewis Hamilton, but Rosberg appeared to have returned to top form in the race with a fighting performance punctuated by overtaking moves on Ferraris.

Ultimately, however, he finished third due to a brake problem, when Kimi Raikkonen passed him.

“I can’t buy much with third place,” Rosberg wrote in a column for Bild newspaper early this week. “I don’t even care if it’s Kimi or Seb (Vettel) overtaking me.”

“The distance to Lewis in the world championship has unfortunately also grown. Fortunately, the season is still very long,” he added.

Nonetheless, his body language on the podium was obvious, and Rosberg does not even deny his foul mood, “I can’t always hide my disappointment. Maybe I’m just nod a good actor. It’s just who I am.”

Rosberg says he has now returned to his home in Monaco, “I flew home immediately and was there the next morning. When I saw my wife – who is now almost one-and-a-half women – the frustration was gone.”

“Thank god Vivian is now much better after the first few months of pregnancy,” he explained, “as she was constantly so sick.”

“Now I want to be home for a while before Barcelona, catching up on some sleep to recover from the long journeys at the start of the season.”

Last year Rosberg finished second to Hamilton at the Spanish Grand Prix, and has yet to win in Barcelona.

Finally, Rosberg denied reports that teammate Hamilton’s new contract might be delayed because the Mercedes driver is demanding clear number 1 status.

“That will not happen,” the German is quoted by F1’s official website. “In my contract it is written that the team follows a philosophy of two completely equal drivers.”

MIKA: I'm a Rosberg fan BUT that article is a clear case of "First world problems" IMO

[MIKA27]

RED BULL AND TORO ROSSO UNITE TO END RENAULT CRISIS

Amid a torrid and well below par start to their season, Red Bull are mobilising and looking to speed ahead with the help of its sister team, Renault and an Austrian partner called AVL.

Right now, according to Omnicorse, a Toro Rosso car is up and running on the sophisticated AVL dynamic test bench in Graz, Austria.

It follows a disastrous start to the season for Red Bull, due mainly to the problems with Renault’s supposedly-improved turbo V6 ‘power unit’ for 2015. In reality, it is underpowered and unreliable, and even Renault is not denying it.

“Reliability has been our Achilles heel since the last two races,” boss Cyril Abiteboul said after Bahrain.

“But with 18 days to go before Spain, we have the time to introduce the more permanent fixes we have in the pipeline and start making the performance steps we are all keen to make.”

In the meantime, Red Bull’s Christian Horner and Dr Helmut Marko are now tempering their earlier scathing criticisms of the French supplier.

But Horner admits: “We are all frustrated because we became accustomed to victory and success. It is particularly frustrating in that it is not something within our power to fix.”

And in reality, any hopes of a rapid recovery and a tilt for the 2015 title are now gone.

“We can’t do anything better than third place now,” Marko, referring to the already big points gaps to Mercedes, Ferrari and to a lesser extent Williams, told Blick.

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BOULLIER WARNS PROGRESS WILL BE GRADUAL DESPITE ALONSO OPTIMISM

Fernando Alonso left Bahrain expecting McLaren-Honda to make a big step for the start of the forthcoming European season, at his home race in Spain.

Having switched from the now-resurgent Ferrari, the Spaniard – as well as fellow champion teammate Jenson Button – have struggled so far in 2015 and are the only drivers except those at Manor yet to score a single point.

But a car and engine upgrade are now due for Barcelona, Alonso’s home race and the first event after the opening quartet of ‘flyaway’ races.

El Confidencial newspaper quoted team boss Eric Boullier as saying “most of the back of the car” will be new in Spain.

“In Spain we will see the first big step forward,” Alonso said.

But Boullier warned: “Any step would be good. We cannot expect to take a big step. Those days are gone. It’s more a case of gradual improvements in this modern Formula 1.”

Former long-time McLaren driver Mika Hakkinen, who won both of his world championships wearing grey, wonders if Alonso has the patience to wait for the team’s next phase of success.

“You are right,” he told a reporter for the Daily Express, “is Fernando ready to work next two, three, maybe four years in a situation when you are not close to winning?

“It can be a really boring process because it’s not only 15, 16 races in the season, it’s a long year, travelling around the world, it’s really, really tough, so can he motivate himself all the time?” Hakkinen added.

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SAUBER DENIES TESTING NEW FERRARI POWER UNIT

Sauber has denied it ran Ferrari’s next-specification Formula 1 power unit during the 2015 winter test season.

Following reports Ferrari is planning to introduce a new specification of its 2015 power unit in Canada, Bild newspaper claimed that a Barcelona debut has actually been scheduled for the 20-30 horse power boost.

“The new engine was already tested in the winter, in Barcelona,” the major daily revealed. “The competition did not notice, because Ferrari put the unit in a Sauber car.”

Writing on his website, German correspondent Ralf Bach said the new engine will probably debut only in Canada in early June.

“An earlier debut does not make sense,” he explained, “because Vettel only began to use his second of the allowed four engines in Bahrain.”

Indeed, once an engine has been used, it cannot then be upgraded to the latest specification. And the Swiss team Sauber also denied Bild’s claim that it ran the upgraded Ferrari engine in the winter.

“We only had one engine in use,” the Ferrari customer said, “and we don’t think this was a special version. We would have certainly noticed the difference.”

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Pirelli reveals latest tyre choices

Pirelli has confirmed its tyre choices for the next four races and it's a case of "as you were" as the selections are the same as last year.

Formula 1 is off to Europe next with the Spanish Grand Prix pencilled in for 10 May and the orange-marked hard tyres and white-branded medium rubber will be used at the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona.

The soft and super-soft tyres will be available for use at the next three races in Monaco, Canada and Austria with the supersofts being used for the first time this season on the streets of Monte Carlo.

The soft-medium combination was used in three of the first four races this season while medium-hard was the choice for the Malaysian Grand Prix.

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Williams still targeting Ferrari

Williams insist there is "more to come" in terms of upgrades to its current package as it aim to close the gap to Ferrari.

The Grove-based squad finished the 2014 season as the second-fastest team behind Mercedes and they were expected to once again be the main challengers this campaign.

However, they have been overtaken by Ferrari during the first four races of this season, but performance chief Rob Smedley says they are still aiming to catch up with their Italian rivals.

"We've had four races now and it's quite clear what the order is," he is quoted as saying by F1i.com.

""We have some upgrades coming for Barcelona, but it will be a fair old challenge to catch [Ferrari] back up - especially in terms of race pace by Barcelona - but the target is that we'll catch them back up."

There is a three-week break before the next race in Spain and, like most teams, Williams will be working hard to improve their package at a "higher and faster" rate.

"I think that we're optimising fairly well the package that we've got now," he said. "There's more to come, but there's not huge chunks to come out of what we've got, but we need to develop the whole car package faster, at a higher rate and faster if we're going to catch the people in front.

"Our aim is primarily to catch the people in front. We also have to bear in mind that you've got a huge organisation, very technically able in Red Bull behind us, who will eventually get their act together and will be a lot stronger than they are now.

So we need to be looking forward but keeping an eye on what's going on behind as well. We're dealing with massive teams, very well organised teams with Ferrari in front and Red Bull behind, that's the playing field that we're in."