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Fernando Alonso has been crunching some numbers and has pointed out that while he has scored fewer points in the first four races of 2011 than in 2010, he is actually ahead when the same four events are compared.

Last year Bahrain (where he won) was among the first four races, and this year Turkey was. He’s also stressed that while he is now 52 points behind the leader, last year he was 47 behind with only eight races to go and still nearly won the title.

“You know I like playing with numbers,” he said on the Ferrari website. “And as I travelled backwards and forwards between home, Maranello and Turkey, I made a comparison between my first four races of last year and those of this year in the corresponding grands prix. What came out of this little game was that compared to 2010 I’m eight points short (49 versus 41).

“But in the same four races, this year I’ve brought home 13 more points compared to last year (41 versus 28). It’s true that my current gap to the top of the drivers’ championship is much greater (52 points) compared to what I had after Shanghai 2010 (11 points) but I well recall that after Silverstone we were 47 points away and we only had eight races left. Today we still have 15 grands prix to come.

“This shows that you can look at the same thing in two different, even completely opposite ways. What matters are results and we’ve started to make the podium: we must do that regularly and if so I’m convinced that we will again be able to fight for the title.”

Alonso said that Ferrari was due the podium he earned in Turkey.

“It was about time because we’d missed out on finishing a race in the top three for too long, but what was especially important was to fight for the top places until the end. That already happened in China with Felipe and in the two previous races we were also close to the podium. Finally we have now achieved what we were capable of.

“Third place was also important for the morale of the team. We were all unhappy with a start to the season that did not live up to expectations and we know how much good it does to see that the efforts expended every day are paying off. But we certainly can’t be happy with a third place and what matters most is that we must be much more competitive in qualifying.

“If we always start from the third row or lower it’s a struggle to fight for the podium. We have a lot of irons in the fire and we hope that as early as next week in Barcelona we will have new parts that allow us to take an important step forward in qualifying as well.”

Renault team boss Eric Boullier visited Robert Kubica after the Turkish GP and reports that he has been making good progress.

“Robert has made another step forward in his rehabilitation process and doctors are pleasantly surprised by the way in which his condition is improving,” said the Frenchman on the team website. “Now, it is a matter of time and even if patience isn’t Robert’s first quality, he is fully aware that rehabilitation could be quite a long process.

“We spoke about the latest developments of the car and of the team, and he was also interested to hear more on the details of the R31, tyres and strategies. Robert is still very much involved, keeping in touch with his engineers, and we have been keeping him informed of every important decision the team has taken. He may not be with us all of the time this year, but he’s very much a part of the Lotus Renault GP family.”

Meanwhile Renault says that Kubica had a routine operation today, and it went to plan: “Three months after Robert’s accident, doctors now consider the first phase of his recovery over. Thanks to Robert’s strength and to a highly-attentive medical plan, the delicate period was overcome positively and without any complications.

“With the progress of his recovery, we are now entering the second phase, which is heavy rehabilitation aimed to restore functionality. More small operations are planned to remove the unavoidable adhesions that are affecting the functionality of his forearm and elbow muscles. This is considered routine practice.”

Martin Whitmarsh says that the Turkish GP was McLaren’s worst race of the season after Lewis Hamilton finished 30 seconds behind third placed Fernando Alonso.

Hamilton’s race was badly compromised by a 15s delay in his third pit stop when a wheelnut crossthreaded and he then had to wait while Felipe Massa came in.

“It’s the worst one this season,” Whitmarsh conceded. “But I think I’ve had worse in my career, and I’m sure we’re going to have a lot better as the season goes on.

“I think we can turn around and we will turn it around as quickly as we can. We will bring an upgrade to Spain and keep pushing, as simple as that.”

Whitmarsh said that McLaren suffered from being involved in fights that damaged the tyres, but conceded that Alonso was too.

“If you’re in front and you’re looking after your tyres and you’re driving in that manner, it’s a positive. Conversely the fact is that Ferrari were up there giving Red Bull a tough time. They are doing a good job, they’re very strong, and we’ve got to make sure that – there’s no secret here – we’ve got to improve our car at a faster rate.

“Fernando did a good job, congratulations to him, we’ll make sure we try and jump ahead at the next race.”

He admitted that the pit stop delays were frustrating: “We’ve had the mean average best pitstops of everyone, and then to have a couple of those is disappointing.

“The fact is you’re trying to spin a nut on very quickly, it cross threaded, he hauled off, he went to get the second gun, he felt that was cross threaded so he tried to put it on manually. It will always happen, you will always have, when you’re trying to bang nuts on that fast, a situation where occasionally you have one cross threaded.”

Max Mosley has lost the latest battle in his campaign for tighter UK privacy laws after a judgement today from the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

Since leaving the FIA presidency Mosley has focussed much of his attention on the matter in the light of the scandal exposed by the News of the World.

He has been campaigning for individuals to be informed of upcoming stories so that they would have a chance to get an injunction to prevent publication.

In the case of Max Molsey v United Kingdom the seven-judge court decreed: “The European Convention on Human Rights does not require media to give prior notice of intended publications to those who feature in them.”

The judges couldn’t find any example of such a process in law and in essence supported the UK legal system: “The current UK system fully corresponded to the resolutions of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe on media and privacy.”

The judgement said that in the UK the right to a private life was protected by a system of self regulation of the press, and by access to civil courts to seek damages, adding that “if individuals were aware of an intended publication touching upon their private life” they could still seek an interim injunction.

Williams has anounced its annual results for the year to December 31  2010, the first such report since the company sold shares to the public.

The team’s turnover was £91m – down from £108.3m in 2009 – but reported profits, after investments in new subsidiaries were taken into account, were up from £4.5m to £5.8m. The numbers also show a much reduced debt.

Sir Frank Williams said in a statement: “Commercially, 2010 has given Williams a solid foundation from which to grow. Amidst one of the harshest sponsorship environments for a long time, we signed Petroleos de Venezuela S.A. (PDVSA) and upgraded and extended existing partners, Randstad and Oris. This year has seen us build on that with our joint venture with Jaguar Land Rover and we are looking forward to further developments with our new businesses, WHP and WTCQ.”

Adam Parr added: “We are pleased to report a solid set of results for our shareholders. We enter 2011 in a stronger financial position with a strategy to take the business forward again over the coming years. Our March IPO and listing on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange demonstrates investor confidence in Williams, and secures the team’s long-term future by providing a sustainable ownership structure.

“A core element of the strategy set out to investors in March was a partnership with a leading car manufacturer. Our new association with Jaguar Land Rover, announced this month, demonstrates the strategy is on track.”

For those who can translate them the full numbers are as follows. (EBITDA is earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation!)

• EBITDA on a like for like basis up 25% to £12 million (2009: £9.6m)
• Reported EBITDA up 5% to £10.1 million (2009: £9,6m)
• Profit before tax on a like for like basis up 33% to £7.7million (2009: £4.5m)
• Reported profit before tax up 28% to £5.8 million (2009: £4.5m) after investment of £1.9million in Williams Hybrid Power and Williams Technology Centre Qatar
• No tax charge for the year. Estimated carry-forward losses for taxation purposes of approximately £88 million
• Turnover of £91 million (2009: £108.3m)
• Cash at hand more than doubled to £27.2 million (2009: £13.2m)
• Cash generation strong, debt reduced to £2.4 million (2009: £9.3m, 2007: £24.8m)
• Williams Hybrid Power’s flywheel contributes to Porsche’s race success with its 911 GT3R Hybrid
• Williams Technology Centre Qatar partners with Sainsbury’s to leverage F1-developed vehicle simulator technology for the UK supermarket’s drivers to enhance energy efficiency and safety

Sebastian Vettel may already have a commanding lead in the World Championship, but his team boss Christian Horner is adamant that there’s no room for complacency given that three teams are leading the chase.

Ferrari, McLaren and Mercedes have all given Red Bull a hard time over the last couple of races, and with everyone throwing updates on their cars Horner says that the balance of power may shift over the coming races.

“They’re all great teams,” said Horner. “It would be a foolish person to write off Ferrari, and Fernando in particular. McLaren made a big step just on the eve of the championship, and they’re quite capable of making another big step. And Mercedes are showing real flashes of pace.

“So you can’t underestimate any of our rivals. We’re trying to focus on our own performance and keep learning and keep delivering the kind of performance that we saw today.

“It’s fantastic to be heading to Barcelona with a 43 point lead in the constructors’, and Sebastian is 24 points in the drivers’. But as we all know those points can vanish pretty quickly. We gave away 43 points pretty easily here last year, so it was a very sweet victory today 12 months on.

“The bottom line is things can change so quickly. Fernando gave us such a hard time today, nobody else seemed to be in the same ball park. Three weeks ago it was McLaren, and it looks like Mercedes have made a step.

“Once you hit the sweet spot there’s quite a big performance return from that. We can’t afford to be complacent. We just keep our heads down, keep pushing, keep trying to optimise, keep trying to learn and get performance to the car. That was our 18^th win in two and a bit years, so we’ve come a long way and we’re building on that experience.”

Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali has reiterated that Ferrari has to improve its qualifying form after another strong race in Turkey – and he hopes to be able to force Red Bull into making mistakes.

Ferrari has set good times in race trim all year but Fernando Alonso has been compromised by starting fifth and having bad first laps.

“Overall we have improved, if you see the gaps in qualifying, we have reduced that,” said Domenicali. “In the race pace, I think we have reduced that [gap], but it was already good. The outcome of it is that we need to improve in qualifying, that’s for sure the thing that we need to make happen, starting already in Spain.

“We need to work all around the car because with such a competitive situation if you lose one area it’s difficult because the others will take advantage. For sure the area where we need to maximise our effort is on the aerodynamic side, and in qualifying also the usage of the exhaust system connected to the floor and that specific point.”

Domenicali didn’t want to elaborate on why the car was weaker in qualifying, but suggested that there was no obvious handling issue.

“I think that we have some ideas, because from a balance point of view we have some comments that are quite neutral in that respect. So we have ideas where we believe that is the area where there is something to work on, and this is the area where we should concentrate ourselves to improve that.

“If you look from the outside it’s difficult to explain to anyone why in qualifying there is such a gap, and in the race you are so competitive. I think we have understood, now we need to react already in Barcelona if possible.

“For sure this is what I’m expecting from my people, my engineers. I think that at least what we have seen this weekend is going in the right direction, and I’m expecting another step in that direction because if we do that it means two things, one we have understood the situation, and secondly we are working in the right direction.

“What I’m saying to my people is don’t think that the others will stay asleep. For sure all the other competitors will react and improve. I think that this year will be a very challenging season. We have seen so many different conditions, apart from the fact that the Red Bull was always the fastest car and the more reliable.

“But we will see. The pressure could also be on their side to keep that level of performance. So we will try to be one of the teams that will make the pressure on them. If there’s pressure they can make mistakes.”

Jean Todt has declined to give his viewpoint on the News Corp/Exor bid to get involved in F1, other than saying it was ‘strange’ that the story had come out before it was clear whether CVC was willing to sell.

Todt has confirmed that the FIA has a veto on any sale.

“I heard about and I even spoke to some people who are involved in that,” said Todt. “I have very simple comments. As you know FIA is the regulator of the sport and is not involved with commercial matters. F1 commercial rights do belong to CVC.

“So from what I know CVC has not the intention to sell. If it will be true in five years, 10 years, honestly it’s not a question for me, it’s a question to CVC. If one day CVC is deciding that they want to sell the rights they have for the commercial organisation of F1, as president of the FIA if I am still by then the president I need to speak with my people in FIA to give the agreement whether we’re happy with the people who will take over or we are not happy.”

“I feel it’s strange [for someone] to say we want to buy before we know it’s for sale. I think the first action would be for whoever is keen to take over the commercial rights to find out with CVC what is the situation.”

Pushed for his opinion, he said: “I’m sorry but there is no validity for this question. Maybe Coca-Cola want to take over. First CVC must be willing to sell. Why should I answer a question without knowing… For the time being CVC doesn’t want to sell.”

Regarding the prospect of the owner of Ferrari getting involved, he said: “Exor is the family company from the major shareholder of the Fiat Group. You have other examples in F1 where you have some organisers who are shareholders of some teams [ie Bahrain/McLaren, Abu Dhabi/Mercedes]. It’s just a kind of personal opinion the first people who should be involved are the owners of the actual commercial rights.”

Regarding criticism of the teams’ interest in the bid from Bernie Ecclestone, Todt said: “It would be completely inappropriate to react to what you heard. For me as president of the FIA we would all be stronger if we worked together instead of against each other. It’s a fact of life, you know. And it’s what I’ve been trying to do since I am head of the FIA, if we are able to have the teams, the commercial rights holder, the FIA as the regulator, working politically and hopefully with the media.”

Jean Todt has made it clear that he has no intention of dropping or postponing the 2013 turbo rules, despite opposition from Bernie Ecclestone and most of the teams.

He made the point that both Bernie and vocal opponents Ferrari had voted for the new rules.

He also confirmed that there will be a meeting at the Spanish GP where engine makers will discuss their progress with the FIA.

“Before I was elected at the FIA it had been decided to freeze the V8 2.4 engine until 2011, first,” said Todt. “Then it was decided that it was going to be postponed to 2013. In the mean time the engine working group, it’s the FIA technical people, it’s one representative of each engine supplier from the present time, from potential participants in the future, and they all came out with the proposal of engine rules for 2013, which was presented to me.

“I made some comments, and they unanimously proposed that. The next step is to have that voted through the WMSC. It was unanimously voted.

“Who is part of the World Council? We have 26 members and among the members you have two representatives of the F1 world, one of which is the oldest team representative, which is Ferrari, and the other one which is the representative of the commercial rights, which is Bernie Ecclestone. I repeat it was unanimously agreed. So in 2013 we will have the introduction of the new engine.

“Incidentally, because I’m happy to listen to comments, in two weeks time – on Saturday May 21 – I’ve asked our people to make a meeting in Barcelona with all people involved in engine regulation – most probably I will make my best to attend this meeting to hear the point of advancement, of the development of this engine. I must say I’m very happy to welcome a new entry as an engine supplier, which is a company called PURE. And that’s where we are.”

Todt did concede that sometimes circumstances changed but made it clear that there would have to a big reason to adjust the 2013 rules.

“In the next meeting we could say, if we have some strong new evidence – because we are in a world where things change, again it’s not only our little world of F1, you have other things happening in the world – dramatic things could happen and then we could reconsider something. But at the moment there is no reason to reconsider it because it has been unanimously agreed, again after lengthy discussions and meetings with people who are involved in this business.”

The FIA has told teams that DRS will be used in Monaco, this blog can exclusively reveal.

Some teams and drivers had asked that it be disabled for the weekend on safety grounds, and there was a discussion on the matter in the drivers’ briefing in Turkey. Mark Webber was the most vocal opponent, citing safety concerns.

Teams who wanted to keep DRS pointed out that they would be forced to hurriedly develop ‘normal’ Monaco wings if DRS was banned.

Race director Charlie Whiting informed the teams this morning by letter that having taken various opinions on board, competitors would be free to use DRS during the weekend.

At the moment the intention is that the race DRS zone will be on the pit straight rather than through the tunnel and into the chicane