Adam Cooper F1

Mark Webber gave himself a boost by topping the times in FP2 at Barcelona, ahead of Lewis Hamilton and his team mate Sebastian Vettel.

2010 Spanish GP winner Webber was a handy 0.362s ahead of the World Champion.

“One of our better Fridays actually, the car ran well, and we got a lot of information,” said the Aussie. “It’s the first time we’ve been to Barcelona in these temperatures, obviously in the winter when we’re here it’s much cooler, so it’s good to get both cars out there running round getting all the information we need for Sunday.

“The usual suspects are going to be there. We’re going to be towards the front, Ferrari and McLaren should be how it’s been the last two and half years so I don’t think it’s going to change this weekend.

“We go a lot slower because of the tyres. Last year we ran I think 1m19s, we know that ultimate grip is not there. Also the degradation, so we do similar lap times to GP2 on the long runs. This is how it is, the same for everybody.”

Webber admits that Barcelona is a track where things usually work out for him: “It’s nice to come here with a nice result from last year and also a solid result from the year before as well. It’s always been reasonable for me around here. I don’t try any harder than other venues, but it seems the results have come a little bit easier in the past. Of course I need to get my head down again this weekend, and do something similar.”

Ferrari hogged the headlines today by announcing that Fernando Alonso will stay on board until 2016.

The extension came as a surprise to the F1 paddock, and while no one doubted the commitment of each side to the other, a firm deal of that length is unprecedented.

On the other hand the Spaniard had already suggested that he would finish his career with the Scuderia, and given that he was never going to return to McLaren, sealing his deal now makes a lot of sense. It also leaves us wondering who might be a suitable team mate over the long term.

“It was good news for me, for my career to extend the contract and to make an extension to 2016,” said Alonso this afternoon. “As I also said last year the intention is to finish my career at Ferrari. I don’t imagine any other better place to race for a racing driver. I have been lucky to arrive here last year.

“I felt at home from day one and now I have this possibility to be racing here. At the end of 2016 it will be seven years in Ferrari, so I feel very privileged, very happy to that, and in 2017 we will see maybe another contract, if I am not too old at that point, and if Ferrari are still happy with me.

“It is not a big change in my mind or in my head as it was already for me very clear that I would race here for many years. Despite what the number of the contract said, which year it finished, the stability was already 100 per cent in my case and I felt the same with the team. This is just a public confirmation, nothing changed inside the team and stability is always good for a Formula One team.

“There are so many rule changes, so many things to look at, that for a driver point of view or a team point of view it is good to programme in the long-term to develop and to create a good partnership together and bring some success to Maranello.”

Alonso said that negotiations started and finished very quiuckly. “I think it was very easy, very simple for us. We started talking maybe one or two weeks ago, about the future. Both sides wanted to continue. I was very happy with the team; they seemed to be happy with me as well. So we said, OK, we make an extension of the contract. We arrived at the date of 2016 and everything is more clear for us, for the team members and for everyone: to have some stability, as we said. It was a decision from both sides.

“I think when both sides want to continue, it’s the best thing. You find a compromise, a decision, very, very quickly.”

While a long term commitment might seem like a gamble, he made the point that even in a bad year, Ferrari usually manages to finish no lower than third.

“Formula One is impossible to predict and it’s impossible to think about winning championships before I’ve even started. I think the intention is to keep enjoying racing. For sure, I think I’m in the best team possible to fight for World Championships. I think some other teams go up and down. They have good years and bad years.

“At Ferrari, in the worst season you finish third or second in the World Championship, so this is something that Ferrari can offer to a driver. So in these six years, I will try to enjoy racing and I’m sure that opportunity will come. Opportunity came last year. We missed it by only four points and hopefully we can repeat that fight and next time, hopefully, we can take it. But it’s impossible to predict…”

After the French media heard his side of the story over the Istanbul weekend Genii co-owner Eric Lux has now issued the following statement in the form of a press release from a Swiss legal firm:

“In the view of the recent events which occurred in Shanghai on 17 April, Mr Eric Lux has decided to file a criminal complaint against Mister Adrian Sutil for physical assault and grievous bodily harm.

“As soon as the complaint is registered, the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) and the team Force India will be notified.

“Furthermore, please note that Mr Eric Lux does not exclude commencing an action against any other persons involved in this matter.”

Nico Hulkenberg has parted company with manager Willi Weber, who masterminded his rise through the ranks.

A statement on the Force India reserve driver’s website last night said: “Nico Hulkenberg and manager Willi Weber part their ways. The 23-year-old Formula 1 driver from now on takes management matters in his own hands.

“Both sides are currently working on a smooth changeover and on a satisfying solution for anyone. Hulkenberg will from now on be supported in executing his management issues by his former PR advisor Timo Gans. “

Raine Group LLC, described in the business media as a ‘boutique merchant bank,’ is the latest organisation linked with the News Corp/Exor consortium’s interest in F1.

The likes of Bernie Ecclestone, CVC and Jean Todt have downplayed any possibility of a serious bid, but the story continues to gather momentum.

Sky News’s business editor Mark Kleinman says that Raine has been in contact with News Corp/Exor about a possible investment.

It was recently reported by the Financial Times that Raine, which has links with IMG, has $500m to spend on sports/media/entertainment assets.

Intriguingly Jeff Sine, co-founder and CEO of the company, was previously associated with F1 sponsor UBS.

Mubadala  – the Abu Dhabi investment arm that a significant stake in Mercedes GP and is associated with Ferrari – has an investment in Raine.

Raine holds investments for a number of Hollywood stars, while other well known names involved in its fund apparently include Eric Schmidt  (executive chairman of Google), Sean Parker (former president of Facebook), Marc Andreesen (founder of Netscape), the Lee family (Samsung) and Terry Semel (former chief executive of Yahoo), all of whom carry some clout.

Felipe Massa says that he doesn’t know why Ferrari has been struggling in qualifying, but emphasies that under 2011 rules race pace is much more important than it was.

The Brazilian had a nightmare weekend in Turkey, starting 10th and finishing 11th after some glitches in the pits.

“It’s hard to pinpoint the exact reason,” said Massa on the Ferrari website on the car’s qualifying pace. “But let’s say it just seems to be a characteristic of the car, because even last year, we had a similar situation. I think qualifying is still important, but much less than before, like in the days when it was almost the most crucial part of the weekend, when overtaking another car during the race was so difficult.

“Even if qualifying is less important, there is nothing disappointing about that, because for the fans, it’s the race that counts as the most important part of the weekend, so the current situation is, in my opinion, good for the sport.”

Massa admitted he was disappointed by the pit stop problems in Turkey.

“As for the pit stop difficulties, I would say I had a few too many, because without them I was definitely heading for a top five finish. This was frustrating for me and for the team. We do a lot of pit stop practice, but that Sunday it just did not work properly.

“We will have to study the problem and try to be more consistent, because in a single stop, just a small delay in changing wheels and you can lose position, as happened to me in Istanbul.

“The pressure on the pit crew is now very great, because not only are they having to be perfect several times during a race, but also since the banning of refuelling, they no longer have that time cushion changing wheels, while waiting for all the fuel to go in. We all have to improve ourselves, drivers included, because our role in the pit-stop operations is very important as well.”

Fernando Alonso has been crunching some numbers and has pointed out that while he has scored fewer points in the first four races of 2011 than in 2010, he is actually ahead when the same four events are compared.

Last year Bahrain (where he won) was among the first four races, and this year Turkey was. He’s also stressed that while he is now 52 points behind the leader, last year he was 47 behind with only eight races to go and still nearly won the title.

“You know I like playing with numbers,” he said on the Ferrari website. “And as I travelled backwards and forwards between home, Maranello and Turkey, I made a comparison between my first four races of last year and those of this year in the corresponding grands prix. What came out of this little game was that compared to 2010 I’m eight points short (49 versus 41).

“But in the same four races, this year I’ve brought home 13 more points compared to last year (41 versus 28). It’s true that my current gap to the top of the drivers’ championship is much greater (52 points) compared to what I had after Shanghai 2010 (11 points) but I well recall that after Silverstone we were 47 points away and we only had eight races left. Today we still have 15 grands prix to come.

“This shows that you can look at the same thing in two different, even completely opposite ways. What matters are results and we’ve started to make the podium: we must do that regularly and if so I’m convinced that we will again be able to fight for the title.”

Alonso said that Ferrari was due the podium he earned in Turkey.

“It was about time because we’d missed out on finishing a race in the top three for too long, but what was especially important was to fight for the top places until the end. That already happened in China with Felipe and in the two previous races we were also close to the podium. Finally we have now achieved what we were capable of.

“Third place was also important for the morale of the team. We were all unhappy with a start to the season that did not live up to expectations and we know how much good it does to see that the efforts expended every day are paying off. But we certainly can’t be happy with a third place and what matters most is that we must be much more competitive in qualifying.

“If we always start from the third row or lower it’s a struggle to fight for the podium. We have a lot of irons in the fire and we hope that as early as next week in Barcelona we will have new parts that allow us to take an important step forward in qualifying as well.”

Renault team boss Eric Boullier visited Robert Kubica after the Turkish GP and reports that he has been making good progress.

“Robert has made another step forward in his rehabilitation process and doctors are pleasantly surprised by the way in which his condition is improving,” said the Frenchman on the team website. “Now, it is a matter of time and even if patience isn’t Robert’s first quality, he is fully aware that rehabilitation could be quite a long process.

“We spoke about the latest developments of the car and of the team, and he was also interested to hear more on the details of the R31, tyres and strategies. Robert is still very much involved, keeping in touch with his engineers, and we have been keeping him informed of every important decision the team has taken. He may not be with us all of the time this year, but he’s very much a part of the Lotus Renault GP family.”

Meanwhile Renault says that Kubica had a routine operation today, and it went to plan: “Three months after Robert’s accident, doctors now consider the first phase of his recovery over. Thanks to Robert’s strength and to a highly-attentive medical plan, the delicate period was overcome positively and without any complications.

“With the progress of his recovery, we are now entering the second phase, which is heavy rehabilitation aimed to restore functionality. More small operations are planned to remove the unavoidable adhesions that are affecting the functionality of his forearm and elbow muscles. This is considered routine practice.”

Martin Whitmarsh says that the Turkish GP was McLaren’s worst race of the season after Lewis Hamilton finished 30 seconds behind third placed Fernando Alonso.

Hamilton’s race was badly compromised by a 15s delay in his third pit stop when a wheelnut crossthreaded and he then had to wait while Felipe Massa came in.

“It’s the worst one this season,” Whitmarsh conceded. “But I think I’ve had worse in my career, and I’m sure we’re going to have a lot better as the season goes on.

“I think we can turn around and we will turn it around as quickly as we can. We will bring an upgrade to Spain and keep pushing, as simple as that.”

Whitmarsh said that McLaren suffered from being involved in fights that damaged the tyres, but conceded that Alonso was too.

“If you’re in front and you’re looking after your tyres and you’re driving in that manner, it’s a positive. Conversely the fact is that Ferrari were up there giving Red Bull a tough time. They are doing a good job, they’re very strong, and we’ve got to make sure that – there’s no secret here – we’ve got to improve our car at a faster rate.

“Fernando did a good job, congratulations to him, we’ll make sure we try and jump ahead at the next race.”

He admitted that the pit stop delays were frustrating: “We’ve had the mean average best pitstops of everyone, and then to have a couple of those is disappointing.

“The fact is you’re trying to spin a nut on very quickly, it cross threaded, he hauled off, he went to get the second gun, he felt that was cross threaded so he tried to put it on manually. It will always happen, you will always have, when you’re trying to bang nuts on that fast, a situation where occasionally you have one cross threaded.”