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Sergio Perez believes his drive to eighth place in Bahrain was one of the best races of his F1 career to date, given Force India’s form this year.

The Mexican, who also finished a superb third in the same event last year, had started from 11th on the grid. He managed to do two stops when several of those around him, including team mate Nico Hulkenberg, went for three.

“Today was one of my best races in terms of managing the tyres and managing the pace,” he said. “It was amazing what the team did, how we did the two-stop, because we never thought that was going to be possible. We thought we just too far away, the car was just sliding too much, and we were too slow on Friday. We picked up a lot of the pace and we managed the degradation, so I’m very happy with today’s performance.”

Explaining why things worked out so well he said: “I think this track suits us well with the engine. It’s not such an efficiency track. When we get to Barcelona we will struggle I think, but today was a very good opportunity to score points, and we did it. I think we as a team have done a very good step forward, and as I say I’m very happy for everyone, and very happy for the drive I did.”

Former McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh has now started his new job as head of the Ben Ainslie Racing America’s Cup challenge, where he will be reunited with Adrian Newey.

In an interview on the BAR website Whitmarsh compared his former and current roles, and talked about his original move from British Aerospace to McLaren.

“It wasn’t a logical career move,” he noted. “But it was an unavoidable and unmissable opportunity that I had to go and do. Everyone thought I was mad to leave that job – where I appeared to have some success and a large organisation of thousands of people working for me – to join a little team, but I never had time or thought or occasion to regret it.

“We grew McLaren within Formula One. But we also realised that racing was a volatile business, and if we were going to have a sustainable business, we needed to diversify and use our technology, our capability and, ultimately, our brand to spawn a range of other businesses. And so we founded McLaren Automotive, Applied Technologies, Electronics and all the rest. It was a fairly significant metamorphosis from the race team that I joined. It was an interesting and exciting path.”

Whitmarsh said the key is growing an organisation successfully: “I don’t think organisations necessarily have to grow for the sake of the organisation. They have to grow for the sake of the people in it. If you’re going to go out and recruit the best people into the team, then I think it’s implicit in your duty of care to them that you are going to grow.

“If you are growing, there are necessarily challenges and demands on people in the organisation and that leads to opportunity. If we said that in ten years time we were going to be the same size and the same organisation, then it’s hard to make a compelling case for people to remain motivated to stay here.

“Firstly [at McLaren] we had to make sure we could succeed and win. In any of these environments, to have confidence and credibility you have to go out and succeed in the core proposition, and develop technical capability as you do it. The next step is to say ok, we’ve got an organisation that’s running well, it’s performing, it’s got technology, how can we monetise that? How can we take some of those opportunities and create shareholder value?

“At McLaren, our first developments were largely technical, selling technical services, then we reached a point where the brand had become established in its own right. We’re in a brand conscious world and if you are going to sell to consumers as well as businesses you need the brand.

“The America’s Cup is a fantastic platform from which this team can demonstrate its capability in high technology, in performance, and in achieving things like cycle-time compression. I think we have a great opportunity to demonstrate how the technical endeavour associated with seeking to win the America’s Cup can be the catalyst of change in bigger technical organisations, can be a hotbed for technical development.

“I think it’s our job to ensure that we can capture the essence of that racing culture and tempo and speed of response, competitiveness and creativity. Those are things that are being searched for and worked hard for in big, big technical organisations. We have them, and that’s a valuable asset.”

He also spoke about the future of the America’s Cup – and made some observations that could also be applied to the state of F1.

“The Cup has been producing great contests for over 160 years, and has often relied on very wealthy benefactors. That’s great if you can find them, and great if you’ve got them, and we should be very grateful for the legacy that those people have funded and created. But if we’re going to have something with a little bit more continuity then we probably need to find a more consistent commercialisation of the sport, with initiatives like the America’s Cup World Series.

“The problem with any form of entertainment – and that’s the business we’re in – is that people have an almost infinite number of choices in how they can spend their leisure time. What I saw in San Francisco – watching as an average punter – was a truly exciting and televisual America’s Cup. And there are those who would say; great we can do it again in four years time. But I think it’s quite difficult to commercialise the sport and grow public interest in it when it only hits awareness once every four years.

“If we want to have the pinnacle of our sport with advanced technology then that costs money, and if it costs money then you have got to find either a rich oligarch who’s going to indulge you, or you develop a business that is actually sustainable because the commercial value of the business exceeds the cost of participation.

“And as I’ve already said, we owe it to the people here at BAR – who bring their time, energy, passion, knowledge and capability into this team – to see if we can not only win, but develop a business that means that they have a career path and development in front of them. That’s our duty of care to our people.”

Red Bull Racing’s frustration with Renault moved up a notch after Daniel Ricciardo’s spectacular engine failure at the end of the Bahrain GP.

While the Aussie managed to get across the line in sixth place it means he will now be on his fourth V6 at the Spanish GP – and will thus be just one step away from the first grid penalty of the season.

“The engine decided to join the firework party at the end there,” team boss Christian Horner told this writer. “There was no warning, it was instantaneous. It went 200 metres before the line, so the good thing is he managed to get over the line.”

Asked what he would say to Renault he added: “They know what the situation is. I don’t need to say anything – they know what they need to do.”

In effect the RB11 proved itself the fourth fastest car in the race, but Horner takes little comfort from that.

“That doesn’t really mean much. We can see at the end of the stints that we’re closer to the pace, but there’s still about a second to find, and we know where that is.”

Sebastian Vettel insists that he’s not thinking about a championship challenge – and is focussing instead on short term efforts to make Ferrari more competitive and push Mercedes harder.

Nevertheless Vettel has been gathering points with huge success thus far in 2015, and thus remains very much in the title hunt.

“My mind is now in April,” he said after Sunday’s race. “It’s a long, long way to go if you talk about the season. I think for now, up to this point, we can be very, very happy. I think overall it’s still a very big surprise to everyone how good we are, how strong we are. That’s very positive. We had another very strong weekend in total here. Obviously the target is to catch Mercedes from where we are, because we seem to be the team right behind them.

“But when I say right behind them there’s still a bit of a gap. Anything else would be more of a surprise, I mean they had a very, very strong season last year, they had a strong build-up at the beginning of the year, so I think it is amazing to see how good we are already. For sure it will take a while before we are a decent match, but every weekend that is coming we’ll try to put more and more pressure on if we can.

“To be honest there’s plenty of stuff that we need to do and need to improve so that’s where my focus is, and that’s our best chance, whatever you might call it, looking at performing well this season, looking at having the strongest chance of the championship, whatever. At this stage as I said it’s April, it’s the time where you keep your feet on the ground. We’re not the favourites, we know that, but I think up to this stage we surprised a lot of people. We know that we can do well and we know that we can do better.”

Vettel denied suggestions that Mercedes might have something in reserve: “I don’t think they are trying to do something stupid. In the end I am sure Lewis and Nico are pushing as hard as they can. The first stop was very close when we all came out of the pits, even between Nico and Lewis, so I don’t think they were sandbagging at that point.

“I think in the second stint they were probably managing a little bit more the tyres just because you can when you are in the lead, you have free air, you are free to do what you like, because you know that for a couple of laps you won’t get undercut, because that wouldn’t make sense. But that’s normal, I think. Last year we didn’t see them sandbagging, but they had way less reason than this year.”

Ferrari boss Maurizio Arrivabene is not in a hurry to extend Kimi Raikkonen’s contract – and has made it clear that he sees that as source of motivation for the Finn.

He also denied suggestions that there had been contact between the Maranello team and Lewis Hamilton.

“Did Lewis Hamilton call you? Because he never called me!,” joked Arrivabene. “Every driver here in the paddock they want to drive for Ferrari, this is normal. Even guys that were quite a lot of times World Champion. But I’m happy with the drivers we have. This doesn’t mean that I want to sign tomorrow with Kimi. We were very, very clear, I repeat again and again, I said to Kimi look it depends on your performance.

“He’s demonstrated that he’s a great driver, so if you’re asking me now if he deserves to renew the option now, today, I’m going to say ‘yes.’ but if I’m going to say ‘yes,’ I don’t want a driver to fall asleep. I want him him up.

“Kimi is giving the best when he’s a bit in trouble. This is the psychological approach. The paper at the moment is white, OK? Sometimes I have to take the pen, and then take it back, and Kimi is going to the podium.”

The Bahrain GP will be something of a step into the unknown for Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg as Mercedes has yet to fully prove set-up changes made after Friday.

In an attempt to improve tyre usage and get on a par with Ferrari over long runs the team introduced the changes for Saturday, but the ultra hot FP3 session – followed by the one-lap sprints of qualifying – meant that the cars have not be run in that form in the cooler race conditions. Nevertheless the team is confident that it went in the right direction.

“We have corrected quite some things, looking at the deficit we had on Friday,” explained Toto Wolff after qualifying. “But then we didn’t really have the time to test it properly, because we didn’t have the conditions any more from [Friday] night. I think we made the right developments to get the tyre in the right window, but the ultimate proof we’re going to have tomorrow night.

“That’s a bit of a risk. But I think what we did was not any guessing, it was an engineering and scientific approach, how can you get the tyre and the set-up in the best possible place. And I think what has been done was right, but again, tomorrow night we’re going to see.”

Elaborating on the challenge all teams face he said: “There is a surface issue, surface temperature, and there is a bulk temperature. And the two of them can go into opposite directions. This is what we had [on Friday], and again we had differences between the soft tyre and the hard tyre. It is not just one formula you need to get right, but on both of them.”

Regarding how the race might unfold Wolff said: “I expect the Ferraris to be strong, and if the Ferraris are strong and we’re going to see four cars close to each other at the beginning that could well mean that you need to have various strategies in place to react or to be proactive or reactive. It depends where each of the cars is, and how the race pans out.”

The F1 engine manufacturers have agreed than any move towards 1000bhp engines for 2017 has to involve using the current V6 as a starting point.

None of them wants to go in the V8 direction that has been suggested by Bernie Ecclestone, and Mercedes boss Toto Wolff says that the V6 plan now has priority.

“The discussion about a 1000bhp engine has been around quite a while,” he said. “And I appreciate very well that it needs to be a spectacular formula, and if that’s the way forward then we should continue to work on it. But there are various groups coming together in terms of how the 2017 rules can look like in terms of power unit, and in terms of the chassis side. Yesterday there was a very valuable meeting, Charlie [Whiting] was there, Bernie was there, and concepts have been put in place to make it a spectacular new formula in 2017.

“All engine manufacturers are pretty clear that the current engine architecture with a hybrid component needs to stay in place. This is the direction we’ve headed to, and this is at least at the moment the current status between Ferrari, Renault, Honda and Mercedes.”

Wolff says that the current engines will in any case gain power as they are developed, and that a change to the fuel flow rules would be the easiest way to provide an extra boost.

“I think by 2017 those engines, between all manufacturers, are going to have north of 900bhp. Then it’s a question of how do you want to market that? Does it make a big difference between having 950bhp or 1000? I think there are pretty easy tools to increase the horsepower, and this is increasing fuel flow. If you want to increase the fuel flow by 10kgs an hour or 20kgs or whatever it is, then you are going to have more than 1000bhp.

“But you need to redesign crucial components of the engine, you need to make them more reliable, and that again involves a lot of development costs. We all understand that we want to have a spectacular formula, not only on the chassis side but also on the power unit side, and this is what’s being discussed at the moment – how to achieve it.

“There’s a governance in place and for 2017 you need a simple majority in the F1 Commission to change the rules, and this is the reality. So if you’re being a hardliner and you’re blocking everything, you’re going to be run over. So at least let’s stay on the table and discuss in a sensible way what we can do and what is for the benefit of the sport and the good of the sport, and this is what we’re trying to do.”

Nico Rosberg says the interests of Mercedes will continue to have priority as Ferrari’s pace has an impact on his battle with Lewis Hamilton.

In China Rosberg asked for Lewis to speed up as he was at risk of being jumped by Sebastian Vettel in the pits, and afterwards he was clearly not happy with the way things played out, as he felt the team’s one-two had been under threat.

“It’s always the same and it will not change,” he said. “It’s something that we have agreed together, it’s an agreement we have, that when the team’s one-two is at risk to another team then some measures will be used to ensure that, and that might mean the disadvantage of one or other driver or whatever. We want to finish one-two and get the most possible points, so the more annoying a Ferrari like Sebastian becomes in China, the more those measures are going to be used. Just like in China, where Lewis was told to speed up.”

Asked when a driver would put his interests above those of the team he said: “It’s impossible to say the situation. We could say Abu Dhabi. The team said, ‘Nico stop, drive the car into the garage,’ and I asked ‘Can I please finish the race?’ That could be putting my own thing in front of the team if you want to see it that way.

“So it really depends, and it’s not possible to go into individual scenarios, but of course we have to respect what the team wants, because you’re driving for the team. It’s always such a fine line, but in the end yes, I have to respect the team.”

Rosberg was asked if he had changed his opinion about Lewis running too slowly in China: “It’s not an opinion, I was stating facts. I never stated an opinion. So my facts are still the same. Facts are facts, it’s not opinions.”

He said he would still speak out after the race, given the same situation.

“I would do it again because I felt the need to state the facts, because there was a need to discuss things after that race. Everybody saw that need, not only me. That’s it. Now for me, except for standing in this room and discussing it with you, it’s a long time since I last discussed it. It’s in the past and I’m moving on. The best answer I can give is on the race track, and I’m going to try to use that opportunity.”

Fernando Alonso says that McLaren’s double finish in China was a big step forward for the team – and he expects more progress this weekend as more is learned about the package.

Alonso, who finished the Shanghai race in 12th place, believes that McLaren could make Q2 this weekend if everything goes right.

“We both finished the race because we had some new parts in the car to avoid the problems of the Malaysia retirements,” he said in Bahrain today. “Being able to finish the race was a good step forward because there was a concern again that finishing the race was not a possibility. So I think that was a good step forward and in terms of performance we were a little bit up and down during the weekend. Good on on Friday, more or less OK on Saturday, on Sunday some parts of the race we were competitive, some not. And we know the reasons, so in terms of performance there are things that we will improve here hopefully.”

Asked if he could make Q2 this weekend he said: “The cars are very similar to China, not only for us, but for everybody, because it’s only four days between China and here, so I don’t think the performance will change so much, but the goal is still to keep improving, and if the track characteristics and the weekend go well for us then Q2 is possible, if it doesn’t go in the right direction maybe Q2 is not possible. Many things we need to learn.

“There is a good programme of testing tomorrow, with some aerodynamic parts in FP1, some tyre testing, and some other set-up changes in FP2, so this is the key part of the weekend for us, to keep improving and not to concentrate in position 15, or 13, or 17. This is a little bit of a second priority at the moment, until we don’t find for important things, to be 15 or 17, it doesn’t change too much. But if we make sure that all the direction we are going is the right one, this is the key performance.

Alonso doesn’t believe that the Bahrain circuit will suit the car more than China.

“I’m not sure… I don’t think so. I don’t think that there are big differences between here and Shanghai for our performance. As I said at the moment it’s important and we are racing, but it’s not a matter of one position or two positions when you are in this kind of area. The important things are on Fridays and the direction we may take for Barcelona.”

Toro Rosso boss Franz Tost continues to be impressed by the form of both Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz thus far in 2015.

Verstappen was particularly strong in China before he retired in the closing laps.

“It was a fantastic race from his side especially regarding the tyre understanding, the tyre usage,” Tost told this writer. “And also from the car. It’s encouraging, but at the end you need a result! Only this counts. We are convinced that Red Bull made the right decision with Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz, and the results show this.”

Regarding Verstappen’s impressive start to the season he said: “He is a very high skilled driver, and also his commitment and attitude is very positive. He’s spending a lot of time with our engineers, they analyse everything. He’s learning very fast, his gradient on the learning curve is very steep. I must say we are more than happy with both drivers because they’re doing a really good job.

“Of course we must provide them with the best possible material so that they can show their talent and they can finish the race within the points, and this is possible, under normal circumstances.

“In Sepang we had a fantastic race result. Here we had a bad race result. We think we know the reasons why, and that also belongs to the education process. It forms the character of everybody.”