Adam Cooper F1

Lotus is the first team to confirm that it is skipping the Jerez test at the end of this month, and the Enstone outfit will instead debut its 2014 car at the second test in Bahrain.

Teams have had to make the choice between missing the test and opting for extra R&D time, or attending it and spending the interval before Bahrain reacting to what was learned.

Lotus technical director Nick Chester said: “We’re going to keep our car under wraps a little longer than some other teams. We’ve decided that attending the Jerez test isn’t ideal for our build and development programme. We are likely to unveil the car before attending the Bahrain tests, and in Bahrain we should really be able to put the car through its paces in representative conditions.”

Despite the delay, Chester insists that all is going well with the new car.

“From our perspective the figures look promising and development has been positive. That said, we are very much working with very little idea of what the other teams are doing. This is the first year of radically different regulations which means that all teams are developing their cars along potentially quite different avenues. It’s fascinating for us engineers and I hope it is fascinating for the fans too. We think we have a very good solution to the challenge and hopefully this will be seen when the E22 turns its wheels in anger.

“We’ve made very good progress with the various homologation tests which took place before Christmas including chassis squeeze and side impact loading tests as well as the rear crash structure, meaning we just have the nose test to complete the car’s homologation. We’ve undertaken chassis fits for Romain and Pastor. Certainly, our partners who have seen the car have reported themselves to be very impressed with the layout and various solutions to the new technical challenges.”

The Grenoble hospital issued a statement today confirming that Michael Schumacher remains in a stable but critical condition, and underlined that there will be no more information for the time being.

The statement read: “The clinical state of Michael Schumacher is considered as stable and is constantly monitored by the medical treatments that are administered to him. However the medical team responsible underlines that they will not stop to consider Michael’s condition as critical.

“The privacy of the patient demands that we are not going into details of his treatment, and this is why we do not plan any press conferences, nor [to] give out any press releases, for the time being.

“We again insistently ask you to respect the medical secret [sic] and to stick to the information given by the medical team in charge of the patient, or his management, as this is the only valid information.”

Meanwhile the French authorities are still looking into the circumstances of Schumacher’s accident.

Former F1 engine supplier Brian Hart died on Sunday at the age of 77 after a long illness.

A brilliant engineer who worked miracles with limited funding, he was also a great character who was never afraid to speak his mind.

Trained as an aeronuatical engineer, Hart was a successful driver himself in Formula Junior, F3 and latterly F2, where he was a regular for many years. He won at Enna in 1964, and finished 9th in the first European Championship in 1967 and 12th in 1968. He scored a famous non-championship win at Hockenheim in 1969.

He also made one Grand Prix start at the Nurburgring in 1967, with an F2 Protos. He finished 12th overall and fourth in the F2 class.

After making his last F2 start in 1971 Hart retired from racing to concentrate on his engine business, which he had started in 1969. He initially developed Ford and Cosworth engines, finding huge success in F2, before his own 420R unit became a mainstay of the category. In 1980 it powered Brian Henton to the European title with Toleman.

In 1981 Hart moved into F1 with Toleman and a 4-cylinder turbo engine. Taking on the likes of Renault, BMW and Ferrari on a shoestring budget was never going to be easy, but after a difficult start the partnership made progress, and in 1984 rookie Ayrton Senna scored his first podium finishes with the team. In 1985 Teo Fabi earned the Hart name its first pole at the Nurburgring, before the team switched to BMW the following year. Hart also supplied the Beatrice/Haas team in 1985 and early 1986, before the works Ford was ready, as well as RAM and Spirit.

After the turbo era ended Hart developed a normally aspirated V10, while servicing Cosworths for a variety of teams. He returned to F1 in his own right with Jordan in 1993, and the following season Rubens Barrichello earned pole at Spa. Later he supplied a V8 to Arrows and Minardi before his company was absorbed by Tom Walkinshaw Racing in 1997, and the Hart name disappeared.

Michael Schumacher’s condition remained stable over Tuesday night, and there are no developments to report.

His manager and spokesperson Sabine Kehm made a brief statement outside the Grenoble hospital this morning, and stressed that there will be no formal press conferences until there is some further news.

“Michael has been carefully supervised overnight, and his condition at the moment is stable and has been stable all over the night,” she said. “That’s why we don’t feel to have the need to do a press conference, because as we told all of you we would only hold a press conference if there’s something to report.”

At a press briefing at the Grenoble hospital this morning surgeons confirmed that Michael Schumacher remains in a critical condition and is “fighting for his life”.

They confirmed that he has had only one operation thus far, to relieve pressure in his head, and that a second one is not planned as yet. He is in an artificially induced coma.

They noted that he had suffered an impact on the right hand side of his head, and that without a helmet, “he would not be here.”

The surgical team said: “He is still in a coma and he will be kept in a coma. Everything that needed to be done has been done and is being done. At the moment we can’t really say what is going to happen, and when he will recover. We cannot answer this yet.

“He’s undergoing some treatments which are limiting the damage to his brain. We are trying to release pressure in his head. His situation is critical, it definitely is crticial. We are working hour-by-hour, we cannot say anything more, we cannot speculate.

“He is in a critical situation, and we can say he is fighting for his life.”

They added: “Despite the helmet we observes some very serious head injuries, so it was quite a big trauma to the head. What we observed initially was an impact on the right hand side of the head. He was agitated when he came in, he had some spontaneous movements, and he wasn’t in a normal state when he came in.”

The role of the helmet was stressed: “We think that with the violence with which his head hit the ground, the helmet did help. Without the helmet, he wouldn’t be here now.

“The helmet obviously wasn’t enough to protect him completely, but it really did help.”

Meanwhile Paris surgeon Prof Gerard Saillant, a close friend of Schumacher, said: “Honestly I came here not really as a doctor but as a friend, so I can’t really answer any technical questions.

“I am very worried just like any of his family, his children, his wife, we’re all very worried about his condition. The doctors won’t tell you more because they can’t tell you more. They are working hour-by-hour and it’s only at this level that you can take decisions.”

Michael Schumacher is in a “critical” condition following his skiing accident in France earlier today, according to a statement issued by the hospital.

Schumacher suffered a head injury after striking a rock when he fell while skiing off piste in Meribel. He was wearing a helmet, and initial reports suggested that his condition was not serious, but later he was transported from a local medical facility to a major hospital in Grenoble.

Shortly before 2300 French time, and some 12 hours after his fall, the hospital said that “was suffering a serious brain trauma with coma on his arrival.”

Top surgeon Gerard Saillant, a close friend of both Schumacher and Jean Todt, travelled from Paris earlier today, while Ross Brawn is also reported to have flown to France.

Pirelli says that the tyre that failed on Nico Rosberg’s car in Bahrain today was a prototype – and won’t be used again.

Rosberg reported on Twitter that he’d spun on the straight after the failure. Although he quickly deleted the Tweet, his incident soon became big news.

A Pirelli statement said: “The tyre tests in Barhain regarded a number of prototypes, which were completely innovative in terms of structure and compounds, with the aim of developing the most suitable solutions for the next season.

“This morning Nico Rosberg’s Mercedes was fitted with one of these prototypes, a tyre which had only been tested in the laboratory and which will not be proposed again.

“Thus, the safety of the tyres which will be supplied for the next Championship is not in question. The accident which happened to Rosberg’s car is being investigated and the findings will be communicated to the FIA and the teams.”