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Christian Horner says that Red Bull’s new short nose is an ‘engineering masterpiece’ – and is adamant that his team deserves praise for getting it through the FIA crash test.

Teams have been moving towards shorter noses this year in search of aerodynamic benefits. It’s believed that the new nose required four attempts before it pass the test, which created some negative PR. However, Horner says that was just normal practice as the team explored the limits.

“I think that’s fairly usual for something as different as that,” he told this writer. “I think you can see by the aggressively short nature of it that it’s been quite a technical challenge. It’s a great credit to the guys that actually did it to get it through. It’s not a negative at all, it’s an engineering masterpiece that they’ve managed to achieve.”

The nose was run by Daniil Kvyat today, but problems for Daniel Ricciardo – who was running in standard spec – meant that it was hard for the team to make a fair comparison between the two iterations and judge the aerodynamic benefits.

“We haven’t really done a laps so we’ve got a bit more comparison work to do, but the initial signs are encouraging. But let’s see what the results look like, because it has quite a big effect on the rest of the car.”

Jenson Button admits he found the experience of watching the Bahrain GP a useful one, despite his obvious frustration at not taking part himself.

Button watched in the McLaren hospitality building, where he had access to Sky F1’s commentary and the official timing screens. He also entertained fans by Tweeting his thoughts during the race.

“They [the cars] are quite quiet aren’t they?,” he said when asked by this writer what he’d learned. “I had to listen to the commentators all the time – it didn’t drown it out! It was good to see the sparks, that made it for me.

“The thing that amazes me when you watch a race like that is how much you [TV commentators and the media] miss of what is going on. Obviously you’re fully in it and you’re looking at the leaders, but there is a lot going on that doesn’t get picked up. It’s very difficult to pick up on everything, but when I’ve got the timing screens I can see what’s going on. You could see Kimi was possibly going to win the race from where he was, and he went one lap long in the pit stop, and if he hadn’t he probably would have challenged for the win.

“There are so many things to pick up on. You can really see how certain drivers are doing certain things, which is actually really useful for me in the future, because you see what those certain drivers are going to be doing in the future as well – we do the same thing every race. So it was actually a pretty useful day out for me, probably more useful than driving the car that day! Hopefully I’ve learned a lot for this race.”

Jenson made some interesting observations about the show.

“I think one of the reasons F1 is so big compared to say endurance racing is because it’s normally easy to watch. You’re sat on your sofa, maybe you had a big night out the night before, or someone’s cooked a roast dinner, and you say ‘Stick F1 on’. It has been in the past reasonably easy to understand, the racing is the racing, but when you start complicating it with other things it can get a little bit too much for people.

“So yeah I think it’s important to keep the sport simple. I’m not saying the public need the sport to be simple, but I think it’s just easier for people to watch the sport when it’s more simple, when you see the excitement of fighting and all of that. Conserving fuel, conserving tyres, it just takes away a little bit I personally feel.”

Asked how things might be improved he said: “I don’t know, that’s not my job, I’m the driver. I do the bit in the car!”

Valtteri Bottas has laughed off suggestions that he has already signed some sort of pre-contract with Ferrari.

Asked about the rumours in Barcelona today the Finn was adamant that no deal has been done with the Italian team.

“I heard plenty of stories,” he said. “And sometimes it’s quite funny to hear those, because in the end you know what’s the case and what’s not. There’s a lot of people making up stuff. The fact is at the moment I’m just focussing on this season and getting the maximum for us as a team. The rest, I don’t know yet.

“There’s been always many kind of rumours, so I’m not really thinking about those. That’s for my management to think [about]. Like I said before I’m only personally focussing on this moment and this season, because I think that’s the best thing for me to do for the future as well.”

He confirmed that he will be a free agent at the end of 2015: “I don’t have anything for next year.”

However he wouldn’t comment on whether discussions on an Williams contract extension are ongoing.

“My management is doing all that, and maybe there can be some things they don’t tell me, so you should ask them!

“If they have something solid for sure there will speak with me, but at the moment we haven’t spoken about the future. We’re not at that point.

“Of course we want to win here at Williams, we have big plans for the future, and the team has invested a lot. It has great people and made a massive jump from ’13 to ’14. It’s been a bit of a difficult start, but if we can keep the development going we can be again strong at the end of the season.”

McLaren has released the first pictures of the livery that the MP4-30 will run with from this weekend’s Spanish GP.

As previously reported the chrome/silver look that the car started the season with has now been replaced by darker hue, while there is also now more red.

Yesterday a team spokesman told this blog: “We have revised our car’s livery, improving its visual impact, optimising it for not only bright sunshine but also for the floodlights increasingly used in twilight and night races.

“The result is a dynamic, predatory, graphite-grey colouration, complemented by McLaren-dayglo ‘Speedmarks’ and keylines, reducing the reflection issues caused by our latest chrome-silver treatment.”

Williams Grand Prix Holdings has reported a loss of £34.3m for 2014 – but the company insists that this year will see a much better financial performance.

Revenues were down from £130.4m to £90.2m, but the much better results achieved on track last year will be reflected in more money coming in this season from both sponsors and commercial rights income.

In 2013 the group made a profit of £11.9m – when results were boosted by a significant extra payment related to the departure of PDVSA and Pastor Maldonado to Lotus.

In a statement the company noted: “In 2013, following a number of years of deteriorating performance, Williams embarked on a turnaround strategy to reinvigorate the performance of the Formula One team and put in place the foundations for a profitable engineering business. Consequently, and as anticipated, 2014 was a year of transition and the financial results reflect a year of higher costs in a sport in which commercial rights revenue is earned a year in arrears.

“The loss was driven by lower revenue and higher costs in the Formula One operation. More than half the reduction in revenue is due to the recognition of a one-off sponsorship payment for 2014, which had to be recognized in the 2013 financial statements. It was also the result of lower commercial rights and partnership income due to our ninth place finish in the Constructors’ Championship in 2013, and the impact of the sale of the Williams Hybrid Power business earlier last year. The higher costs were attributable to the introduction of the new hybrid power unit into Formula One, and investment in the Group’s operation to turnaround its performance.”

Group CEO Mike O’Driscoll noted: “Mid-way through 2013 we set out on an ambitious turnaround strategy to reinvigorate the Formula One team, create a strong and profitable Advanced Engineering business, and divest non-core activities. In 2014 we made very good progress against those objectives, investing significantly in people, facilities, and technology which we believe will provide a solid foundation for the future.

“The financial performance of the Group in 2014 reflected the poor on-track results of the prior three years, which resulted in a marked deterioration in commercial rights and sponsorship income. Last year was also adversely impacted by the costs of relocating our Advanced Engineering activities.

“Our much improved performance in the 2014 Championship will be seen in higher commercial rights and sponsorship income in 2015, coupled with improved performance from our Advanced Engineering division. Our ambition in 2015 is to consolidate the progress we made last year, continue building the necessary foundations for future sporting and commercial success, and consequently to materially improve our financial results for the coming years.”

After being out of the points for nearly 11 months Romain Grosjean made it two scores in eight days when he followed up seventh in China with the same result in Bahrain.

The Frenchman agrees that the Lotus E23 has put the smile back on his face following a dreadful 2014 season.

“I’ve had it since Day One,” he told this writer. “At least I can understand the car, I can play around with it, I can push hard, and it makes such a big difference to last year, where it was doing whatever it wanted, so I really hated it.”

He agreed that the double points finish was a big boost: “It’s good for all of our guys, and myself as well. I think we worked hard, we deserved them. The [Bahrain] weekend didn’t start in the best way, I had really a lot of struggle, and the first time we had a good car was qualifying. They did a good job to guess the set-up and go for it in the race. I’m very happy with that. A lot of tyre management of course, but it’s good to score some more points.

“Everything was on target. Having a new set of options would have helped the second stint, we should have managed to keep one from quali, as Red Bull did and other top guys. But the strategy was perfect, so that was good.”

Grosjean expects the close battle with Red Bull Racing to continue.

“In China in the race they were less quick, here they were quicker. It’s good to fight with them, and also in qualifying Sauber is quite quick as well, so there is a good group around who we can fight with.”

Force India supports Bernie Ecclestone’s plan to introduce a budget ‘customer’ engine that will run in competition with the current works hybrid V6s.

As outlined here yesterday Ecclestone supports the idea of making available a cheap V8 with KERS (or even a V6 twin-turbo with KERS) that independent teams could use at a much lower cost than current customer engine deals.

“I think the principle of maintaining the V6 hybrid is absolutely correct and proper,” Force India’s Bob Fernley told this writer. “From the manufacturers’ point of view it’s very beneficial both for their marketing and technical programmes. I don’t see any doubt that the hybrid has a long term future in F1.

“What Bernie is looking at is that the independent teams will be offered a ‘parity’ engine, possibly a V8 with KERS, at a half of the price at least of what we are paying today. Of course, as an independent team to be able to cut our costs down by half and have parity with the V6s is attractive. It doesn’t disadvantage us, we’re still putting on a great show.

“If say Cosworth brought in a V8 with a KERS system it would be a very, very good unit. The advantage to that is we’ve got an independent supplier, and there’s nothing wrong with that for the health of F1. I think Cosworth and Renault are the two operations that can do it.

The obvious drawback is that there will be a debate on how the FIA can ensure parity, but Fernley does not see that as a problem.

“At the end of the day the teams cannot survive on the current cost base. So I think Bernie’s initiative has got tremendous merit. Whether it causes a few issues in terms of discomfort in determining where parity is… Well there is already discomfort between where Mercedes are and where Renault are! You’re always going to have that.

“I don’t think it devalues F1. We run with different chassis, so why can’t we run with different engines? We’ve done it in the past, and sometimes it’s been successful and sometimes it hasn’t, but we haven’t got parity today.”

Fernley says there has been no move from the current suppliers to reduce the prices they charge the independent teams for the current engines: “At the moment it’s not on the table and it’s not something that the manufacturers want to consider.

“The only other thing that’s been on the table is to reduce costs, but not have a parity engine. Why would we want that?”

Dany Kvyat says he has learned a lot from his ninth place finish in Bahrain after his first untroubled race of the season.

Kvyat retired in Melbourne and Shanghai, and while be finished in Malaysia his race was compromised by brake issues. Last weekend he charged up from a lowly 17th on the grid.

“The recovery was not too bad I think, starting from there,” he said. “It wasn’t easy, the first laps. I think we all more or less managed the race on our strategy. So a good recovery, and these kind of races put a little bit of a smile on my face. We finished, we ran solid, we got a lot of information and feedback from the car. So this time we can look at where we can improve.

“It’s very important because in China and Australia I couldn’t learn much, unfortunately. Here I would say it’s probably the first quite clean race from a reliability point of view, and now we can start moving forward from here on.”

Asked what promises he wanted from Renault he said: “I think we don’t want any promises, we just want to see progress itself. We both as a team and the engine side want to improve, working with Renault, improving our chassis, me analysing the race and understanding where I can pick up the pace. It’s a long process, many things are happening and going on, and hopefully we will come up with something.”

Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso both agree that the Monaco GP could give McLaren Honda its best opportunity for a good result in the near future.

It goes without saying that outright power is less critical in the principality than elsewhere, but the fact that the MP4-30 chassis is consistent, and inspires confidence, is also important.

“I think already in Barcelona you will see a good step,” said Button when asked by this writer. “But we’ve got a lot happening before Monaco with the car, so hopefully there will be a good step, not just with the power, but also with the aerodynamic grip. I’ve got a good feeling about it.

“There are a few areas where the car needs to be stonger right now for Monaco, if we’re going to go there tomorrow, but it will be an interesting place to drive this car, defintely. It’s such a tricky circuit to find the limit, and if you have a car that you are confident in, it makes a massive difference.

“I remember Jean Alesi in a Prost doing a really good job round there because he had confidence in the car and the balance was there. It worked for him and it gave him confidence, and that’s a thing that you need around there. You need it anywhere, really. Most drivers are talented, but it’s a real mental game, especially at Monaco, because it’s so unforgiving.”

“Lower power effect circuits will help us at the moment,” said Alonso. “So Monaco is the first circuit that we may enjoy a little bit better result. We’ll see. I think we need to think race-by-race, and Barcelona at the moment is the first step.”

Lewis Hamilton appears to have compromised his 20-year relationship with helmet supplier Arai by swapping to Bell.

Hamilton has long had a “gentleman’s agreement” with the Japanese company, who supply free helmets and service to F1 drivers, but have a policy of not paying them a fee on top.

Despite his Arai history Hamilton has been experimenting with a Bell in testing and practice sessions this year. However, Bahrain was the first time he used one in qualifying and the race.

Drivers usually take into account the aerodynamic properties of helmets – they are part of the complex interaction between the windscreen and the airbox – and Hamilton suggested in Bahrain that was important when asked if comfort, aerodynamics or a commercial arrangement influenced his thinking.

“It’s not something I’m willing to talk about at the moment,” he said when asked by this writer after he used a Bell in qualifying. “Because I haven’t made any decisions. I was just trying… As a driver you want to improve everywhere, and the [Arai] helmet’s not been in the wind tunnel.

“I’ve had Schuberth trying to get me to try their helmet as well. Ultimately you all know I’ve been with Arai since I was 10-years-old, a long, long, long time, but they don’t develop as Schuberth and the others do, and I like that, I like helmets that are developing and improving. That doesn’t mean that Arai… Arai’s still a damn good helmet and I’ve been with them a long time, and you see me swapping back, because I always go back to the old reliable.”

However the following day he opted to use the Bell in the race. Sources suggest that Arai’s Japanese management regard that decision as a tipping point, and that the company can no longer support Hamilton. In addition his comments about lack of development did not go down well. One source said: “The ‘undeveloped’ helmet won the last five World Championships…”

The Bell Racing Europe F1 operation now has strong Bahraini links and has recently opened a new facility adjacent to the Sakhir track, so getting a big name like Hamilton on board is clearly good business. However the management could not confirm that it has a new formal arrangement with the World Champion.

However the company’s Facebook page left little to the imagination when it noted: “Fabulous results for our Bell drivers Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Raikkönen at Bahrain GP 2015.”