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Ferrari has done an about turn on its ‘barcode’ livery and replaced it with a plain red rectangle from today.

Marlboro is the only cigarette brand with an ongoing involvement in F1 via a longstanding commercial arrangement between Philip Morris and the team, and while the full logo has not appeared for some time, the Italian cars have run with the barcode design in the place where the Marlboro name used to appear.

That led to some controversy in the media this week, to which Luca di Montezemolo responded by claiming that the design was nothing to do with the cigarette brand, despite the fact that various versions of it had been used in place of full branding by Ferrari and McLaren for over two decades.

The team announced today that the barcode has now gone, while still denying – to the bemusement of any sane observers – that it had any connection with Marlboro…

The statement read: “Together with Philip Morris International we have decided to modify the livery of our cars starting with the Barcelona Grand Prix.

“This decision was taken in order to remove all speculation concerning the so-called “bar code” which was never intended to be a reference to a tobacco brand.

“By this we want to put an end to this ridiculous story and concentrate on more important things than on such groundless allegations.”

Michael Schumacher says he was angry with himself after a below par performance in China, and insists that the race was just a blip after he’d made upward progress since the start of the season.

Mercedes is pinning its hopes on major revisions to the package for this weekend, and Schumacher is expecting to be more comfortable with the car.

When he met the media in Spain on Thursday afternoon the seven-times World Champion inevitably faced a lot of questions about his form.

“Naturally the joy is higher if you win races, no doubt,” said Schumacher. “And China – no worries – I was very disappointed, and I was angry at myself. But things will be different.

“There was a trend, and if you look at this, except China, things were going in the right direction. Without in the final moment, like in Malaysia, [being able] to actually position ourselves. But then there were circumstances being part of this. Nevertheless it’s only four races that we have done. So let’s see.

Asked whether he would have no excuses now that the car has been modified, Schumacher said: “I’m sure there are always excuses you can find if you want to. But the matter of fact is that some might see now I have the car and now I have to perform and now it should be and if not and blah, blah, blah.

“I’m less thinking this way, because it’s going to be the first time we worked with this car, and only after we’ll understand what is the positive and what is the negative about it. Again I just sort of feel very positive that I will follow the trend after Malaysia, and not what happened in China.”

Michael also acknowledged that while he has always had talented rivals, there are more competitive cars around today..

“It’s certainly a very high level of talent, but I don’t think it’s higher. There was Fernando at the time, and Mika Hakkinen and so on, I think they were all at this level. What you do now have is you have more cars on an even playing field, and you have the good drivers that are around in those cars. So you have a higher level of competition.”

Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah T Healy has put a stop to plans for a Grand Prix in Libery State Park, just a day after they became public.

The Jersey Journal reported today that Healey had in effect responded to pressure from interests who wanted to protect the park, which is regarded as an important natural asset.

Healey commented: “After a review of the draft proposal prepared by the City’s Tourism Office, I have come to the same conclusion that this type of event is not suited for Liberty State Park.

“While we work to attract national and international events to our city, we must ensure that they are appropriate and will have the least impact upon the quality of life of our residents and our community.”

Plans for the race had been pursued by Destination Jersey City, a non profit operated by the city’s Economic Development Corporation. The race was to be held from 2012.

Project opponent Sam Pesin, president of Friends of Liberty State Park, said: “Mayor Healy did reach out to me yesterday and we had a very constructive conversation. Instead of a negative wasteful controversy, we can all focus on working together on positive efforts to benefit Jersey City and Liberty State Park.”

It’s not yet clear how seriously Bernie Ecclestone took the Jersey City project, or whether he has other credible candidates in the US to pursue.

Christian Klien has signed as test and reserve driver for HRT, and will make his debut in the car in place of one of the regular drivers at Barcelona in Friday morning practice.

The 27-year-old last raced for Red Bull in 2006, and had since had spells as test driver for Honda and BMW Sauber. He has also tested for Spyker. HRT has already announced Sakon Yamamoto as an extra driver.

Team boss Colin Kolles said in a statement: “We are very proud to welcome Christian Klien to HRT F1 Team. He is a young and fast driver. I have been keeping a close eye on him since his first races in the ADAC series as I believe he has great potential. We look forward to having Christian alongside us in Barcelona later this week so he can spend some valuable familiarisation time with the team. As a young team we are looking for drivers who can grow with us.”

Meanwhile Klien, who also has Peugeot sportscar commitments, added: “I am thrilled to be joining HRT F1 Team. This role offers me the opportunity to rejoin the Formula One environment and drive again, which is naturally where my longer-term ambitions lie. I was in Bahrain and China and had a close look at the car already.

“I have also met the team members and I know quite a number of them from my previous race seasons. I would like to thank Dr. Colin Kolles for the interest he has shown in me at this stage. It is exciting and very motivating to be part of a new team structure in such a challenging sport. At only 27 years with six seasons of F1 under my belt I am sure I can bring a lot of experience and enthusiasm into HRT F1 Team.”

It’s an interesting opportunity for Klien, but it remains to be seen how much the regular drivers suffer when they have to give up their places, albeit only for the opening session of the weekend.

Ferrari has been given permission by the FIA to modify its engines, and the team will have the revised units in action in Spain this weekend.

Although all F1 teams are subject to a strict engine freeze, manufacturers are allowed to introduce updates for specific reliability purposes, if the FIA agrees.

This year Fernando Alonso has already lost two engines from his allocation of eight, and Ferrari has been troubled by its pneumatic system. In the past it was replenished at pit stops, but with today’s shorter tyre-only stops, there has been no time to do it.

A Ferrari statement on Tuesday confirmed that permission has been granted: “A lot of work was carried out on the test bench, completing several long runs and this work produced some solutions which it is felt will solve the reliability problems experienced in Bahrain and Malaysia. The team therefore requested and received authorisation from the FIA to make some changes within the framework of the current engine regulations and these modifications will be fitted to the engines to be used in Spain.”

The team has confirmed that it will also experiment with its wing stalling system this weekend, Giancarlo Fisichella having tested it in straightline running at Vairano recently.

“On Friday in Barcelona, the wing will be tested by both drivers during the free practice sessions, as they will need to get used to actually operating the system and there will be no need to do a back-to-back evaluation against the existing wing as this has already been carried out at Vairano. After free practice, a decision will be taken regarding its use for qualifying and the race.”

Robert Kubica has been one of the stars of the season so far

Renault F1 shareholder and Genii Group boss Gerard Lopez says that Robert Kubica has what it takes to be a World Champion one day.

After a low-key 2009 with BMW the Pole’s reputation has been boosted by some great performances with Renault so far this year, and he has scored a second, a third and a fifth in the last three races. He continues to be linked with a future at Ferrari.

“I knew Robert from BMW, even before he was an F1 [race] driver there,” Lopez told this blog. “I’m a very strong believer that on pure speed and character he’s one of the few that deserves a World Championship at some time.”

Kubica had another great race in China, running third for many laps before slipping back to fifth. His team mate Vitaly Petrov was also in the points after both men joined Nico Rosberg and Jenson Button in staying out on dry tyres in the early laps.

“It was a good race for us,” said Lopez. “The basis was the fact that again the team made no mistakes, and made the right decisions, and they’ve been doing that since the beginning of the season.

“I’m pleased with Vitaly, and how he recovered from a rookie mistake, when he spun out. Rain is a great leveller, and rain tells you a lot about drivers, because it levels the playing field much more. So the job he did was amazing in rain conditions.”

Lopez says that Renault needs to improve its qualifying pace in the coming weeks.

“In qualifying Robert is pretty much where we are supposed to be right now, between sixth and eighth probably, with Vitaly scratching around for 10^th, which is great for a rookie obviously. In the races we’re better. The car is where we expected in the races, and we’re working very hard to get it up to speed in qualifying.

“After we took over the team we worked extremely hard on development.  We’re bringing out a package pretty much every race, so it’s a very aggressive development schedule. Obviously if you remember at the last test in Barcelona [in February] we were not brilliant, but we had a major upgrade and the car was different for Bahrain. So the car is obviously good.

“For Barcelona we’ve new bits on the car, but obviously it’s a big Grand Prix for all the other teams, so there are going to be major updates. Hopefully we’ll catch up, but we’ll see. It’s going to tell us where we stand and then we’ll take it from there.”

"...and all I got was a lousy t-shirt"

Stefan GP’s website has woken up after several weeks of inactivity and announced that the team is to bid for a 2011 entry slot.

Toyota made it clear some time ago that it would have nothing more to do with the project so it’s not clear yet what technical support the team will have.

Stefan has also announced the creation of the ‘Stefan Technology Park,’ where the team will be based. The facility will include a race circuit that supposedly will be of F1 standard, although its proposed 3.5km length makes that sound a little ambitious.

Stefan have bizarrely also added pictures of 12 drivers it talked to about possible seats for 2010, and while most names were in the public domian, others probably won’t be very happy to have been unmasked in this way.

The team’s statement reads as follows: “AMCO Corporation and its owner Zoran Stefanovic have today signed an agreement with the Mayor of Stara Pazova, located 25km from Belgrade, Serbia, to build the STEFAN TECHNOLOGY PARK . This will include a racing circuit suitable for the competition of Formula One, and a technical complex that will serve as STEFAN GRAND PRIX’s team headquarters upon completion in two years time.

“’I think this is an excellent development for our team, Stara Pazova city, region and country,’ Mr Stefanovic said today. ‘This is proof that we want to put ourselves on the map as a serious hi-tech company, and that we are serious about competing in Formula One for the long term.’

“’Bearing in mind that we will soon be on a par with top teams, in terms of facilities and organisation, as Stefan Technology Park looking to be compared with them, we expect many positive improvements in the future,’ concluded Stefanovic.

“StefanGP would also like to officially announce our bid for the FIA 2011 Formula One World Championship.”

Elsewhere on his website, Stefanovic quotes Sir Winston Churchill as an inspiration:  “A great man by the name of Sir Winston Churchill once said something that I try to implant into the minds of the people in my team. It’s something along the lines of: NEVER, NEVER, NEVER GIVE UP! In the last almost 12 months you were all witnesses of the fact that I strongly stand behind my beliefs.

“I still believe that F1 would be a much more interesting competition with SGP, and my team and I feel like the battle is just starting. We want to be a part of F1 for both the long and short term future, and I hope that we will finally have the success we deserve.

“This quality is shared by every person who has changed the world. NEVER, NEVER, NEVER GIVE UP! Thank you for supporting us, and I hope to see you at GP soon! Best Regards, Zoran Stefanovic”

We await developments with baited breath…

Michael Schumacher says his lack of experience with Bridgestone’s current intermediate tyres cost him performance in China.

The German says that the tyres have changed since 2006, and with his lack of knowledge relative to other front runners, it’s hard for him to judge how to get the best out of them. In China all drivers struggled to keep their tyres alive, losing performance when the rain eased and they began to grain.

“It’s a new condition and these intermediates are slightly different to what I obviously knew in the past,” he said. “You have to really pace yourself dramatically in order to keep them alive long enough. The difficulty with the weather was to predict how long is rain going to last, or not going to last, do we change back to dries, how quick we can push. It’s a new experience again for me.”

In China he tumbled down to 10th place, having spent much of his race fighting people off.

“I’m sure for spectators it’s been very exciting, but for me it’s one of those ones that you call frustrating, actually. As you can imagine there were some good emotions, but there were unfortunately too many bad emotions! Actually at the beginning I thought we were quite clever compared to some others when we changed onto intermediates, but it turned out to be the wrong decision.

“Honestly all weekend didn’t work out for myself. I think I have to compliment the ‘English team,’ and say congratulations to them, they’ve done a great job. I had a nice battle with Lewis at some point, some nice kissing to each other! But nevertheless they did it, and congratulations to Nico who made it onto the podium, so at least one of us scored good points.”

Apologies for lack of activity recently due to difficulty in accessing WordPress in China (they don’t like bloggers) and subsequent travel problems!

Bruno Senna says that the HRT team has to find performance soon, having already shown that the Dallara-built car can be reliable by getting both examples to the finish in Malaysia.

Senna saw the chequered flag for the first time at Sepang after suffering early retirements in the first two races, while team mate Karun Chandhok also finished.

“As a team we’re quite happy,” Senna told this blog. “I think most of the big problems we have are being solved. There are still a few problems with fuel pick-up and this sort of thing which need to be solved for the next race, but performance will only come with updates and developments, so we need to focus on that. The team needs to sort this part out, and from then on I think we can start looking forward to competing with the other guys, because for the moment we’re a bit far behind.

“To be fair it’s a great achievement to finish a race with both cars. It’s a very reliable car considering how many miles it’s done and the conditions, but as well as reliability we want to have performance, and performance needs to come fairly soon. But we’re pushing very hard as a team.”

Senna hopes that the team will have a useful package for the first European race in Barcelona.

“We hope so. It’s hard to say exactly when the updates are going to come, but we hope we can have a few for Barcelona. For sure there are a few things that will come that will improve telemetry and comfort and all these things that are sometimes overlooked, but are very essential. And then the big things will come as they are ready.”

Meanwhile the biggest problem he faces is not losing too much time while being lapped, something that was a major concern in Malaysia.

“It took me about half the race to understand how to let the other cars overtake, I was losing a lot of time. We need to work a bit more on that. It’s better when we don’t have to let people past us more than once! Once or twice I was a bit close with cars overtaking, but you cannot always jump out of the way…”

Flavio Briatore has now confirmed that he has reached an agreement with the FIA to put an end to the 2008 Singapore GP affair, but says that he has not admitted any personal guilt in relation to the incident.

The FIA issued a statement this afternoon saying that Briatore and Pat Symonds had recognised their ‘share of responsibility’ for the affair.

The Italian has since put out his own statement confirming that while he has agreed to that principle – in respect of his role of team boss at the time of the Singapore incident – he has not made any admission of personal guilt, or recognised that the original World Motor Sport Council decision against him was ‘well-founded.’

In place of the ‘lifetime ban’ that was originally imposed, Briatore has instead agreed not to have any involvement with F1 until the end of 2012.

Briatore’s statement reads as follows: “Flavio Briatore announced today that he has reached an agreement with the FIA, to put an end to the differences between the parties, caused by the events of the Singapore GP 2008

“By effect of this settlement, the FIA will withdraw its appeal against the decision rendered by the Tribunal de Grande Instance de Paris on January 5th 2010 declaring irregular the World Council’s decision issued against Mr. Flavio Briatore on September 21st 2009.

“Flavio Briatore informed the FIA of his intention not to undertake any operational role in Formula One before the end of 2012, nor in any other FIA Championship, before the end of the Racing Season 2011.

“He confirmed his acceptance to bear his share of responsibility in the Singapore events in his capacity of Managing Director of the Renault F1 Team, at the time they happened, without any admission of a personal guilt in these events and without any recognition of the fact that the decision of the World Council rendered against him would have been well-founded.

“No further comment will be made by Flavio Briatore, who wishes to put behind this matter and focus on his plans for the future.”