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The FIA Stewards at the Chinese GP have rejected the protest made by Lotus F1 against the controversial Mercedes DRS/F-Duct system.

The decision means in effect that the legality of the device is not in question as far as the FIA is concerned and rivals are faced with the prospect of copying it, if they can.

Lotus had in essence challenged the Mercedes on the basis that it was an aerodynamic device operated by the driver, even if the F-Duct effect was secondary to the permissible use of the DRS wing.

Lotus director of engineering Alan Permane told this writer recently: “It’s a secondary effect, but it’s absolutely operated by the driver. Mercedes hasn’t invented something, it was there, and other people were under the impression that it wasn’t legal. If this is allowed you’ll see everyone doing it, and it won’t stop there, there are many, many other things that can happen.”

In today’s proceedings James Allison and Permane appeared for Lotus, and Ross Brawn and Geoff Willis for Mercedes. The FIA pointed out that while Mercedes provided a document explaining how it worked, Lotus was not allowed to see it.

The FIA in effect decreed that it was not operated by driver moment, but by the movement of the DRS, which is legal.

One of the principal arguments of the FIA was that “There are many different parts of bodywork fitted to cars from a variety of teams, which have been designed specifically to take advantage of the change in airflow caused by the activation of the DRS.”

Intriguingly the stewards added that the system had already been approved by the FIA whereas in the past approvals given by Charlie Whiting and/or technical delegate Jo Bauer have subsequently been overruled.

The problem for rival teams wishing to copy Mercedes is that they will have to find a way to connect the airflow between the front and rear wings via a system of pipes and ducts, something that was built into the W03 when it was designed. Some may have a better chance than others of succeeding in that.

Fernando Alonso stressed today that his Malaysian GP win won’t make any difference to the status quo in China this weekend.

He expects Shanghai to be a difficult event for Ferrari, whose car has been struggling for pace in normal conditions, and suggested that he might not make Q3.

“Nothing changed,” said the Spaniard. “I think it’s going to be a tough weekend for us again. I don’t expect any big surprises as we’ve been saying, the team and myself, all week, the car has some small improvements, nothing big for this race and I think it’s the same, more or less, for all the other teams around us in the paddock.

“So I expect more or less the positions to maintain, or to keep the same as the first two races, which means a difficult to weekend for us. Struggling to be in Q3, I guess, in qualifying and then in the race to score as many points as possible as we did in the first races – trying to do a good strategy, a good management of the tyres and a little bit of luck. It’s always a factor that we always seem to forget is there.”

Alonso said it was impossible to guarantee that planned future upgrades would make a major difference.

“No big improvements for this race and as I said, we’re working, we’re working on the car and I think we cannot say that for Barcelona there will be a big improvement because we don’t know. We are working day and night to do the work and to improve the car and I think we have some new parts for the car which we need to test tomorrow – maybe they are working fine, maybe they are not working and we need to come back with those parts.

“In Barcelona there will be more new parts which I’m hoping for. We need to test to see if they are working fine. As I said, Formula One these days doesn’t have a magic button where we change something, we arrive in China, we arrive in Barcelona, in Canada and you change one part on the car and you improve by one second.

“This will be constant work from the team, improving one tenth, two tenths, three tenths every step that we do and we need to do it quicker than the others because all the other teams will bring a couple tenths (advantage) to every race so we need to bring some more.”

He conceded that another wet weekend might not be bad for Ferrari: “It can be a very good weekend for you or very bad because it’s a little bit of gamble in the rain. Anything can happen. You can be with the right tyre in the right moment or completely the wrong tyre in the wrong moment, so this is what happens in wet races. As I said, with a normal race we know our possibilities, we know our limitations at the moment, which is not quick enough.

“So in a wet race, we can lose a couple of points or we can win a lot more. Maybe this risk of a wet race can be good for us at the moment because in normal conditions we are not as fast as we expected.”

Lewis Hamilton is still optimistic about his prospects for this weekend’s Chinese GP, despite picking up a five-place grid penalty.

McLaren discovered a problem with the gearbox he used on Saturday/Sunday in Australia and Malaysia, so it was decided today that a fresh one will have to be fitted for the start of FP3 on Saturday.

“When you arrive at a weekend and you’ve done all you’re preparations and the whole team’s done its preparations of course it’s not the nicest thing to hear that we’ve got a problem,” said Hamilton.

“But all you can do is take it on the chin. We’re still here, we’ve still got a great chance to win, we’ve still got a quick car, we’ll try and put ourselves in the best position possible to make the right strategy and make sure that we’re quick enough so that we can still fight for the lead.

“We’ve got some upgrades, the team have done a great job to bring those, and we can still fight for wins. I came from third last year to win the race. You look at the last race and Fernando came from way further back, so anything is possible.”

Hamilton said he was not disappointed at coming away from the first two races with a pair of third places after starting from pole.

“You’ve just got to keep moving forward. I’m pretty happy with the fact that I’ve had two podiums so far, and definitely don’t take anything for granted. I’ve got a good car and we’re in a really good position, but we’re still fighting. I’ve been training very, very hard trying to get myself in the right frame of mind for this weekend, and whilst we’ve come here with a small issue, I still feel very positive about the weekend, and as I said we still have a chance to race.

“I love racing, when I was a kid I always used to love coming from the back of the grid. I’ll be five places back from wherever I qualify, that means I’m going to have to have a good race with a few people to fight for position.”

Lotus Cars has today issued a bizarre press release in a counter attack against suggestions that the company is in trouble.

While it took  pot shots at Tony Fernandes, Mike Gascoyne and others, it also provided some useful detail about the current relationship between Group Lotus and Lotus F1.

As I revealed last month on http://www.speed.com, the F1 team is no longer sponsored by the car company. Instead the new arrangement takes the form of a £30m loan from Proton, and today’s statement gives precise details of the deal – including the fact that the F1 team in its entirety has been put up as collateral, meaning that if the loan is not repaid, Proton will gain control of the team.

With regard to the F1 involvement, the statement reads as follows: “Lotus F1 Team and Group Lotus have reshaped their commercial relationship earlier this year. The new governance agreement signifies the continued commitment of Group Lotus to the team and the sport.

“Group Lotus’ branding and marketing rights and subsequent activities remain unaffected by the new agreement until at least 2017. Alongside continued branding and title partnership status, Group Lotus is also the exclusive master licensee for all Lotus F1 Team merchandise.

“The new agreement was reached following Group Lotus owners Proton providing team owners Genii with a £30m loan which is repayable within three years. In order to secure the loan Genii used 100% of the F1 team’s assets as collateral meaning that under the conditions of the loan agreement Proton have been given full title guarantee to all plant, machinery, show cars, computers, office and the Lotus F1 Team headquarters.

“In addition Proton retains the rights to purchase 10% of the F1 team. Another 10% share option will be activated if the team default on their loan obligations with Proton.”

Lotus has issued a statement distancing the team from a Bahrain press release that threw a positive light on events in the country.

BIC quoted a report from Lotus employees who recently visited Bahrain and who implied that the race should go ahead.

Lotus had not given BIC permission for those quotes to be used publicly. The team said tonight:

“Earlier today, the Bahrain International Circuit (BIC) issued a press release attributing quotes to our team showing support for the Bahrain GP. These quotes were part of a full internal and confidential working document, that was also sent on a confidential basis to all F1 team managers last week.

“Lotus F1 Team is one of 12 contestants of the Formula 1 World Championship and we would never try to substitute ourselves for the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA), which is the only party entitled to determine if a Grand Prix should go ahead or not, and we endorse the FOTA statement that was issued earlier to this effect.”

The Lotus quotes can be found here:

bahrain-hits-back-with-positive-lotus-report

FOTA has pointed out that it does not have the power to cancel the Bahrain GP – despite Bernie Ecclestone suggesting that they could contribute to such a call.

Ecclestone said today that he could not force teams to go to Bahrain and implied that they had the power to stop the race going ahead.

FOTA’s Oliver Weingarten said today: “There’s been some media speculation recently to the effect that the teams may seek to cancel this year’s Bahrain Grand Prix. That wouldn’t be possible. Teams are unable to cancel Grands Prix.

“We race in an international series called the FIA Formula 1 World Championship, and it is therefore for the FIA to offer the Teams guidance on these issues.”

The Bahrain organisers have hit back against recent negative speculation about their race by compiling some positive quotes about the situation in the country – including a view from Lotus personnel who recently paid a visit.

A press release was issued tonight on behalf of BIC by London PR firm Dragon Associates.

It says that two Lotus personnel visited Bahrain and quoted a report they sent to team principals on April 5 as follows: “Yes there is a need to keep the circuit and the teams secure and they are doing this and they feel very comfortable about the arrangements. If there is going to be protestation then it will be confined to peaceful protests – you will maybe see some banners being waved and maybe some tyres on fire but that is all that they expect.

“We came away from Bahrain feeling a lot more confident that everything is in hand and to be honest if it wasn’t for a few more police you wouldn’t know any difference from the last year we were there.”

Exactly who told Lotus to expect only burning tyres and waved banners is not explained.

BIC also quote positive views from Ian Lindsay (British ambassador), Ben Wallace (Chair of the UK All Party Parliamentary Group on Iran) and Professor Mahmoud Cherif Bassiouni (Chairman of the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry), all of whom say the race should go ahead.

One of the more intriguing quotes comes from John Yates, described as “a former assistant commissioner in the London Metropolitan Police Service who is an adviser to Bahrain’s Interior Ministry on policing.”

Yates says: “It is very much hoped that the policing will be low key and discreet. But if there are problems, they…must be able to escalate their response if need be. People can be assured that if problems arise, then there will be a plan to deal with that, as there would be with any public event in the world.”

BIC boss Zayed Al Zayani concludes by saying: “What has been happening is that armchair observers – who have not been sufficiently interested or committed to investigate the situation for themselves – have been driving this debate, at the expense of those neutral parties who have taken the trouble to investigate the situation at first hand. This, combined with the scaremongering tactics of certain small extremist groups on social networking sites, has created huge misconceptions about the current situation.”

Bernie Ecclestone said today that he can’t force the F1 teams to go to the Bahrain GP.

Tensions have been rising in Bahrain due to both the imminent arrival of the F1 circus and a hunger strike by a prominent imprisoned activist.

Abdulhadi al-Khawaja was jailed for life after last year’s uprising, and will be the subject of an appeal to be held the day after the Grand Prix.

On Monday evening seven policemen were injured when what was described as a home made bomb exploded during a skirmish with protestors. A government spokesman said it was being treated as an ‘act of terrorism.’

Ecclestone insists that the race is still on, although his latest statement appears to be an attempt to divert responsibility for any decision away from himself, as clearly the teams themselves are waiting for action from the FIA and FOM.

“We’ve no way we can force people to go there,” he told Ian Parkes of Press Association Sport. “We can’t say ‘you’ve got to go’ – although they would be in breach of their agreement with us if they didn’t go – but it doesn’t help.

“Commercially they have to go, but whether they decide to or not is up to them. I’ve had no-one say anything other than ‘we’re going to be racing in Bahrain’.”

Regarding the prospect of the race being cancelled, Ecclestone insisted that the Bahrainis were happy for it to go ahead.

“We’re not involved in any of the politics in Bahrain, over who is right or wrong. When you go to somebody’s country you have to respect exactly how they run their country and the laws of that country.

“The National Sporting Authority in that country are the people who can say ‘well, we think we’d prefer not to run the event’. The promoter [ie the government] can also say we don’t want it because there is too much risk.

“We’ve an agreement with the FIA that Bahrain is a round of the World Championship, and we’ve a contract with the promoters, but I want to make clear it’s nothing to do with finance.”

Pirelli has confirmed that Jaime Alguersuari and Lucas di Grassi have both been signed up as test drivers for the tyre maker’s 2010 Renault R30.

The company says that there will be four development tests at Jerez, Spa, Monza and Barcelona, which be “aimed at defining the 2013 range of Pirelli tyres, which will have new compounds and structures, as well as trying out compound developments that could be seen later on this season.”

BBC Radio pundit Alguersuari, who spent much of his Malaysian GP weekend in the Pirelli hospitality building, said: “I can’t wait to get started with this very important and challenging job of developing the new tyres for the future, which I’m looking forward to a lot. I have a huge desire to get behind the wheel of a Formula One car again and return to competition, so this is a brilliant chance for me.”

“We learned a lot together and so we are both very happy to continue,” said Di Grassi of his return to the job. “This is a good opportunity for me to carry on the work that we started last year, which allows me to compare and contrast with all the tyres I have tested so far. These tyres are now a fantastic feature of Formula One.”

Pirelli’s motorsport director Paul Hembery explained: “Our commitment to providing the best possible spectacle in Formula One is underlined by the fact that we have two extremely fast and talented test drivers this year.

“Lucas will provide us with the reference point that we need from the development programme so far, while Jaime brings an extra dimension from his experience of racing at the sharp end of the field throughout the last three seasons. We’re going to be using the drivers for all of our single-seater testing activities, including GP2 and simulator development as well.”

A brilliant performance from Bruno Senna inevitably went largely unheralded in Malaysia, given the attention focussed on Sergio Perez.

However the Brazilian’s drive to sixth – after a first lap crash led to a nose change and fortuitous early switch to full wet tyres – was almost as impressive.

In effect he gave Williams the result that team mate Pastor Maldonado threw away in Australia a week earlier, and the performance went some way to confirming that Senna deserved the seat.

“In the wet we were very strong, we had some pretty good racing with some good people around me,” he said. “It’s very satisfying when you’re competitive.

“I think when the conditions are difficult the drivers who adapt fastest are the ones who make the most ground, and I had to adapt really quickly, and I wanted to prove to these guys that I can do a good job. Hopefully they are satisfied with the job.”

Senna is confident that the team has some upward momentum.

“I think so. We have a good package and I hope we can continue developing everything. I’m really happy for everybody.”