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It's a bit like choosing your favourite M&Ms...

Pirelli has revealed the identification method for its 2011 tyres, with each type of tyre represented by a different coloured logo.

The company says that “the colours reflect the unique personality of each tyre,” but didn’t say whether a psychologist helped out with the selection…

The colours are as follows:

Wet – orange
Intermediate – light blue
Supersoft – red
Soft – yellow
Medium – white
Hard – silver

Pirelli’s Motorsport Director Paul Hembery said: “We’re very excited by the
prospect of returning to Formula One for the first time in 20 years, and we’re
aiming to be a proactive and colourful partner in Formula One. So what better  way to symbolise this than a brightly coloured selection of Pirelli logos to run on the sidewalls?

“These will enable both live and television audiences to tell at a  glance who is on what compounds, which will be vital knowledge as tyres are set to form a key part of race strategy this year.”

McLaren boss Martin Whitmarsh admits that the team pushed ‘over the limits’ in testing with the new MP4-26, and the resulting loss of mileage after failures proved expensive.

However he insists that the team learned a lot from the experience and that the car will be better in Australia that it has looked thus far.

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

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

Whitmarsh expects the car to be faster than expected: “So, do I think our testing pace is representative of the pace we’ll show in Australia? No. Do I think we head into the weekend as race favourites? Unfortunately, no. But do I feel that we have the capacity to surprise a few people and be competitive? Very much so.

“As with everything we do at Vodafone McLaren Mercedes, we never give up: we’re fighters – that’s the spirit that has won us 20 world championships in the past and which makes us a team you can never under-estimate.”

Jenson Button admits that events in Japan have had a big impact on him over the past week, but says he hopes he can use the Australian GP as a way of paying tribute to the country.

Button has spent a lot of time in Tokyo in recent years since he hooked up with girlfriend Jessica Michibata in 2007.

“In the past, I’d always travelled to Melbourne full of positive energy and enthusiasm,” he said. “But, at the moment, my heart is with the people of Japan as they struggle to come to terms with the scope of the terrible devastation and loss of life wreaked by last week’s earthquake and tsunami.

“While the prospect of a Formula 1 race seems to pale in the face of such a disaster, there have been occasions before when the healing power of sport can actually be beneficial; an escape for people. So I go to Melbourne this weekend resolving to not only try my best, but also to salute the brave people, and my many friends, throughout Japan.

“Albert Park has been good to me: I’ve won there for the past two seasons; it’s a great circuit for racing, it always seems to create unpredictable races and, perhaps because it’s habitually at the start of the season when a precise pecking order has yet to be established, we often see fast cars running out of sequence – and the excitement that that brings. With the added issue of multiple tyre stops, it could be a very exciting and unpredictable race weekend.

“I’m regularly being asked if I can make it three wins in a row this year. On paper that might not look likely, but, seriously, who knows? I most definitely wouldn’t rule it out.”

Lewis Hamilton meanwhile says he remains optimistic, despite a tough time in winter testing.

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

“Nevertheless, we know we go to Melbourne ready for battle: some teams are extremely well prepared – both from a pace and reliability point of view – but that can sometimes count for little in the unpredictable and somewhat chaotic opening races where it’s equally vital just to take points home.

“I strongly believe that, while our preparations haven’t gone as smoothly as we’d have liked, I get the impression that we’ll be arriving in Melbourne with everything finally meshing together – and that makes me really excited.”

Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg say that Mercedes is in good shape going into the first race in Australia, following the recent test in Barcelona.

Mercedes has appeared to be struggling in February testing, but Ross Brawn always maintained that later winter updates would make the difference.

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

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

Meanwhile Brawn said: “Our pre-season programme has gone as well as we could have wanted. However, as always, the first race will be the real measure of where we are in terms of competitiveness. Everyone is eagerly waiting to see how the grid shakes out in Melbourne, and wherever we find ourselves, we will respond accordingly.

“Our ability to react strongly has improved considerably over the past twelve months and we have a robust development plan in place for the season. 2011 will be the second season with our drivers, Michael and Nico, and this continuity, together with our well-established relationships, has enabled both the drivers and team to prepare well for the challenges ahead.

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

The Prost and Senna names will be connected once again in 2011 after Nicolas Prost joined Gravity Management, the sister organisation to the Lotus Renault F1 team.

Prost will do some demo runs in a Renault R30 at Renault World Series events – a job that you might have expected third driver Bruno Senna to be invited to do, at least on occasion. Prost has already done a Renault demo at Magny-Cours last year.

At 29 Prost appears to have missed the boat as far as an F1 career goes, and he is currently at Sebring for the 12 Hours with Rebellion Racing. It will be interesting to see what plans Gravity – who placed Jerome D’Ambrosio at Virgin – have for the Frenchman.

Prost said: “I’m thrilled to have signed up with Gravity Sports Management. I have a busy year ahead and the pace is already hotting up for the start of the ILMC season out here in Sebring. Our pace looked good during the test at Paul Ricard so we’ll really hope to make the most of that this weekend.

“I’m also looking forward to the chance to drive the Lotus Renault F1 car during the year. It will be great to get another taste for the very latest top-of-the-range machinery, after the run I did with Renault F1 Team in Magny Cours last year. After all, it’s fair to say I have Formula 1 in my blood!”

Bernie Ecclestone has re-iterated his opposition to the 2013 turbo engine rules, and emphasised that he’s not happy with the FIA’s pursuit of the new formula.

His main concern is that the the sport will lose engine sound that helps to make it so special.

“I meet people worldwide in all different walks of life – sponsors, promoters and journalists and I think there are two things that are really important for Formula One,” Ecclestone said on Australia’s NineMSN website. “One is Ferrari and second is the noise. People love and get excited about the noise. People who have never been to a Formula One race, when they leave you ask them what (they liked) and they say ‘the noise.’

“I brought some Russian gentlemen to Singapore and I met them afterwards in Russia – it was the first race they’d ever been to and I said what was it that impressed you. I didn’t even think about the noise and they said the most important thing was the noise – it’s incredible, it really gets to you. It’s unbelievable that even more so the women – the ladies – love the noise.”

“I’m anti, anti, anti, anti moving into this small turbo four formula. We don’t need it and if it’s so important it’s the sort of thing that should be in saloon car racing. The rest of it is basically PR – it’s nothing in the world to do with Formula One. These changes are going to be terribly costly to the sport. I’m sure the promoters will lose a big audience and I’m quite sure we’ll lose TV.”

Ecclestone admitted that he didn’t see eye-to-eye with Jean Todt: “He’s not a promoter and he’s not selling Formula One to be honest. Jean and I are a little bit at loggerheads over this engine. I don’t see the reason for it. We had the KERS system and this was supposed to solve the problem that Formula One is not green and now we’ve got something else.”

Lewis Hamilton has signed a management deal with Simon Fuller. Fuller’s XIX Entertainment company manages a number of big music and sporting names, the latter group including David Beckham and tennis Andy Murray.

His previous F1 venture was as marketing guru to the Honda team – a period that is widely regarded as a failure. He was behind the Earthdreams scheme that saw Honda pumping millions into a car that didn’t carry its own branding or indeed that of any sponsors. Honda withdrew from F1 at the end of the second season.

The new deal will clearly open up new earning potential for Hamilton, although McLaren drivers are very restricted in terms of what they can do outside the team, and he’ll also have to sign away a large percentage.

Hamilton said: “It was important I took my time to make this decision as it had to be right for my career and my long-term future. I spoke to many interested companies in recent months but I felt Simon Fuller along with his team at XIX Entertainment not only wanted to help me become an even better racing driver, but they also shared my ambitions for the longer term. I look forward to working with them closely.”

Fuller said: “Lewis is not only one of the leading sportsmen of his generation, he will I believe become one of the best of all time. It’s an honour to be partnering with Lewis in what will be a very exciting stage of his career.”

Co-incidentally Fuller is a long time friend of McLaren boss Ron Dennis, and got the Spice Girls to perform at the launch of the new silver livery in 1997.

Red Bull Racing has confirmed today that Sebastian Vettel has extended his deal to stay with the team until 2014.

That means the current World Champion will have at least four more seasons with RBR, putting an end – for now – to any hopes that Ferrari might have had about tempting him away.

A short statement said simply: “Red Bull announces today that it has extended its agreement with Sebastian Vettel – meaning the current World Champion will remain with Red Bull Racing until the end of 2014.”

What isn’t clear however is whether Adrian Newey intends to still be working at the same rate in 2014 as he is now…

McLaren has completed fewer testing miles with its 2011 car than any other team except HRT, which has failed to run at all.

Indeed chart topping Ferrari has completed nearly twice as many kilometres as McLaren with its new car.

The figures are skewed by the fact that McLaren chose to complete the first three days of testing at Valencia with its 2010 model. However since then it has still run fewer laps than either Force India or Virgin, who adopted the same strategy, underlining just how unreliable the silver car has been.

Even when the old and new car totals are combined – useful when considering the team’s knowledge of Pirelli – McLaren is still only ninth in the list.

The numbers do not include any straightline running (McLaren shook the car down at Idiada) or Ferrari’s Fiorano ‘filming days.’

Kms in 2011 Cars Only

1. Scuderia Ferrari, 6985kms

2. Red Bull Racing, 6129kms

3. Sauber, 5914kms

4. Mercedes, 5778kms

5. Toro Rosso, 5352kms

6. Renault, 5031kms

7. Williams, 4985kms

8. Force India, 4127kms

9. Lotus, 4084kms

10. Virgin, 3709kms

11. McLaren, 3603kms

Kms in 2010 Cars

1. HRT, 1949kms

2. Force India, 1308kms

3. McLaren, 1116kms

4. Virgin, 876kms

(Thanks to Forix for the basic numbers)

Better late than never! The F111 breaks cover today

The HRT F111 has finally been unveiled in Barcelona today, althoyfh ;ack of parts meant it did not run.

That gives the team just a day of testing in the wet tomorrow before it’s shipped to Melbourne, unless they can squeeze in some private running somewhere, on the basis that they have not used all their days yet.

The car has been designed by a team led by technical director Geoff Willis and chief designer Paul White.

It uses a 2010 Williams gearbox, and like the other new teams, HRT will not have a KERS system this year. The chassis was made in Austria by CarboTech.

“Starting the programme to develop the F111 has been an enormous challenge,” said Willis. “The group of engineers working from many separate locations had to produce the 2011 HRT chassis to meet the new regulations, package the Williams LG14 transmission, design all new rear suspension to suit and develop a complete aero package.

“Given the tight time frame, I am very impressed with the result and the enormous efforts everyone has put in to achieve the objective. However we have to be realistic in our expectations of performance; this is very much a baseline car which the team must develop in 2011.”