Adam Cooper F1

Jenson Button was much happier this afternoon after changes to the McLaren MP4-26 transformed the car between sessions.

Button was 15^th and struggling with lack of grip in FP1, but was second – and just 0.005s off Mark Webber – in the second session.

“We found it a little bit difficult this morning,” Button admitted. “It’s very different conditions to what we’re used to. I think we went a direction after Melbourne with the car to try and solve the issues we had there, and it’s very different here, so we’ve gone back on a lot of the changes, and really turned the car upside down.

“It’s performing much better now. I’m happy with that. This session is so much better than the last session on short runs, and also on the long run at the end.

“I think for everyone it’s rear grip, that’s what’s difficult round here. The tyres are doing what was expected, they have low rear grip, but it’s very different to what we saw in Melbourne. But the last run on the soft tyre was reasonable, but when they drop off, they fall off a cliff. It’s very tricky and there’s a lot of degradation. That’s pretty much what we saw in testing, so we’ve got experience.

“It’s tough out there on these tyres, especially in the heat, but it’s the same for all of us.”

Button says he has no idea what the real gap to Red Bull might be.

“I don’t know. We don’t know what fuel they’re running, as always. Normal Friday comments I know, but that’s the way it always is. We’ve just got to do our own thing. And for me the balance improved a lot today, and that’s the important thing. We changed a lot on the car, and we found that we made positive steps.”

Button expects the DRS to be a useful tool: “It’ll work really well round here, because you’ve got such a long straight. In a way it will make it too easy to overtake. This is a circuit where if you get within one second of the car in front, normally you can have a chance of overtaking. I think the difficulty will be to get within that one second.”

Fernando Alonso was in an upbeat mood in Malaysia today despite modest positions in both practice sessions after a less than perfect day for Ferrari.

Alonso was ninth in both sessions, and was 1.7s off the frontrunning pace in the afternoon. Team mate Felipe Massa was sixth in both sessions. However, the Spaniard expects to make progress tomorrow.

“We struggled a little bit with the balance of the car,” said Alonso. “We tried to do some set-up changes, some aero work as well in the morning. We tried to do our programme. Obviously we know that we need to keep working tonight, to keep changing what we can improve in the car, and be more competitive tomorrow.

“I think the race weekend is very interesting, what we have in front of us. A very interesting qualifying tomorrow then a difficult race for everybody here, with pit stops, with tyre degradation that seems to be higher here than Melbourne, with the weather conditions we can face on Sunday, so still many things to answer this weekend. We are trying to get ready for all of them.”

Alonso says he’s not worried about Ferrari not being a challenger for victory in the first race, after looking so good in testing.

“I think McLaren did a very good step in Melbourne with the car, and Red Bull was just testing in the winter and was not making the full potential. I think we arrive in our 100% in Australia with a very good winter, but obviously maybe we were not quick enough compared with our main rivals.

“That was only a first race, the championship is long, it seems also last year in some races McLaren and Red Bull were fighting, some other races Ferrari and Red Bull were fighting, some others only Red Bull was in front of everybody. I think this can change circuit by circuit, and hopefully we can have a better weekend here than Melbourne, and better in the future as well.”

Like other drivers Alonso expects the DRS to be more effective here: “I think this should be one of the places where it should work better. On the main straight there’s enough space to maximise the potential of the top speed. If the race is dry and we can use I think we can have more overtaking manoeuvres than in the past, and hopefully a better show for everybody.”

Mark Webber is keeping his feet on the ground despite topping both sessions in Malaysia today.

Webber was an amazing 1.6s clear of Lewis Hamilton in the first session, but in the afternoon he was only 0.005s clear of Jenson Button. Nevertheless it was a solid start for the Aussie.

“Obviously there’s not much in it,” said Webber. “We’re all pretty close, give or take a couple of tenths – who got traffic, who didn’t, how their KERS worked. So far, so good, I’m towards the front somewhere.

“It’s still early days in the weekend. We got some good dry running in, and the car performed well. Obviously it was reliable, which was a nice bonus, so we got to check all the tyres, and also Pirelli’s new tyre that they brought here.

“The team ran very well today, both sides of the garage. A big night for the guys again tonight, and we’ll go from there.”

Asked if his KERS worked OK, Webber said: “Most of the time…”

He expects the DRS to be more valuable here than in Australia.

“It should be better than Melbourne. Obviously we’ve got a very slow corner opening the lap, or opening the activation of it, and then a pretty big braking area into Turn One, and plenty of options on the straight. It will definitely be better than Melbourne. Whether it’s enough remains to be seen.”

Colin Kolles had some pretty hefty excess baggage when he arrived in Kuala Lumpur this afternoon in the form of severel large cardboard boxes of bits for the HRT F111.

The largest contained several noses for the new car, which will be in use from Friday practice after the team successfully passed the FIA crash test this week.

The team had to use the old version in Melbourne, but Kolles admits that he doesn’t know what the new wing will be worth.

“In Australia we just did the roll-out in qualifing,” he told this blog as we waited at the baggage carousel. “The drivers were looking in their mirrors for quicker cars. But everything worked, including the moveable rear wing.”

HRT’s next target is to beat the 107% rule, having got within 1.7s of it after minimal running in Melbourne.

The F1 teams earned $658m in prize fund payments in 2010, according to the accounts of Formula One Administration Ltd, which were revealed this week.

The typically fascinating document shows that the figure was up from $544m in 2009. The rise reflects the first full year of the current Concorde Agreement and the fact that there were 12 teams on the grid.

Meanwhile overall turnover for FOA Ltd was up $19m on the previous year to £1082m. The company says that the rise is a result of the addition of Korea and Canada to the calendar, which helped to offset other economic factors.

As of January 2011 FOA Ltd handed over the commercial rights to a different company, Formula One World Championship Ltd. This season represents the start of the 100-year rights agreement that Bernie Ecclestone signed with the FIA on behalf of SLEC Holdings back in April 2001.

All commercial deals done with FOA have been transferred to FOWC, which was gradually being ramped up over the course of 2010, in readiness for its new role, while FOA is in turn now being wound down.

The FOWC accounts say, with some understatement, that “with the company now undertaking the commercial rights to the championship… the directors consider the company is well positioned to perform satisfactorily in the future.”

In June last year FOWC acquitted Formula One Management Ltd from fellow SLEC subsidiary Petara Ltd for $23.5m.

FOM provided ‘business management services to FOA including the provision of technical support and broadcast services’ at a cost of $70m in 2010. It will continue to do the same job for FOWC.

One interesting detail shows that FOA Ltd has written off $11.1m in relation to Istanbul Park Organizasyson, which was sold to FOWC Ltd for $1.

Jean Todt has declined to respond to recent criticism from Bernie Ecclestone, who called the FIA President a “poor man’s Max Mosley.”

Speaking to Roger Blitz and James Allen for the Financial Times, Todt chose not to get into a war of words with the F1 boss.

“It is important not to overreact,” he said. “I feel with confrontation, unless it is necessary to achieve a result, you lose time. I prefer to achieve results with harmony rather than confrontation.”

It’s assumed that recent tensions between the pair stem from early discussions over the future Concorde Agreement. Todt confirms that he’s determined that the FIA should have a bigger say.

“I will make sure that everybody realises that since the agreement was signed, times have changed. Technology has changed. Evolution has a price. I must make sure that the funding for the FIA is correct.”

He also reiterated that the FIA can veto potential purchasers should CVC sell: “If CVC decides to sell, definitely we have a role to play. It is my job to make sure we secure the present and the future of the FIA F1 world championship.”

You can read more – including Todt’s plans for electric car racing – at http://www.ft.com.

Brazilian stock car driver Gustavo Sondermann has died after a crash in soaking wet conditions at Interlagos on Sunday.

Fellow drivers including Rubens Barrichello, Bruno Senna, Nelson Piquet Jr and Luciano Burti have paid tribute on Twitter.

Sondermann was competing in the Copa Chevrolet Montana – the support event to the main series – when he crashed heavily coming onto the pit straight. He was then hit hard by a following driver, and suffered serious head injuries.

The accident was uncannily similar to one that claimed the life of his then team mate Rafeal Sperafico at the same track in 2007.

Sondermann, who was 29, followed the traditional path to Europe early in his career. In 2004 he competed for Motaworld Racing in the British Formula Renault series against the likes of Paul di Resta and Mike Conway, and the following year he was briefly seen in the European series with Comtec, where his rivals included Kamui Kobayashi.

When his single-seater ambitions didn’t work out, he returned to Brazil.

Veteran defender Jarno Trulli could be the key to the name dispute

Group Lotus and Team Lotus have agreed to drop their court actions and resolve their legal dispute in a five-a-side football match in Kuala Lumpur next Wednesday.

Sources say that the idea was suggested to Tony Fernandes by Her Majesty the Queen when the Malaysian entrepreneur received his CBE at Buckingham Palace yesterday. Fernandes, a life long fan of West Ham United, immediately agreed.

The Air Asia boss contacted Group Lotus CEO Dany Bahar through his lawyers and, against expectations, a deal was concluded by last night. Proton is said to be relieved that the potentially damaging court action is over.

The match is to be played at 8pm in the Malaysian National Stadium in Bukit Jalil – where the Queen herself opened the 1998 Commonwealth Games – and will see driver squads from each team in action, both sides having the option to field substitutes.

Lotus Renault has Vitaly Petrov, Nick Heidfeld, Bruno Senna, Romain Grosjean, Fairuz Fauzy, Ho-Pin Tung, Jan Charouz and recently announced F1 demo driver Nicolas Prost, while Team Lotus will field charity football veteran Jarno Trulli, Heikki Kovalainen, Karun Chandhok, Davide Velsecchi, Luiz Razia and Ricardo Teixeira.

Lotus Cars has requested permission to add IRL contender Takuma Sato after Ferrari refused to let Lotus ART GP2 driver Jules Bianchi participate.

The Queen reportedly told Fernandes yesterday that she was disappointed that the Lotus name has been dragged through the mud in recent times.

Although Her Majesty is not noted as a keen follower of motor sport she is known to be a fan of the Lotus marque thanks to her children. Princess Anne used to own a Europa before replacing it with a Reliant Scimitar, and while better known as an Aston Martin man Prince Charles briefly owned an Esprit in the 1970s. His mother is believed to have occasionally borrowed it for evening drives around London, and is rumoured to once been stopped for speeding on Park Lane.

It’s thought that Bahar agreed on the basis that he can regain a Royal Warrant for the company, and is hoping that either Prince William or Prince Harry will take delivery of an Evora.

Prince Charles takes delivery of his Lotus Esprit in 1979

Princess Diana was another fan of the Norfolk marque

Sergio Perez's Sauber awaits its fate after scrutineering on Sunday

Sauber’s decision not to proceed with its appeal against the exclusion of Sergio Perez and Kamui Kobayashi in Australia was inevitable, given that the team admitted that it had made a mistake with the dimensions of the upper wing flap.

Submitting notice to appeal on Sunday night at a Grand Prix is standard procedure after any exclusion, and it gives a team a little time to consider all its options.

The rule that was broken is a new one, introduced as part of the effort to ban blown rear wings by ensuring that no one could have a hollow section with a slot in it.

It’s checked by the FIA with an aluminium template with a 100mm radius. The test was carried out for the first time on the cars that finished the race, which means that Mercedes and Williams – both of whose cars retired – have not yet been officially checked.

In the end Sauber accepted that there was nothing it could do. The intention of the rule was satisfied, but the ‘no performance gain’ argument alas is no excuse, and no reason for a lesser penalty than exclusion.

It seems that the team simply made a mistake in the factory, which was extremely painful for technical director James Key, who has done such a great job of guiding the team after it was downsized following the departure of BMW.

“It did not bring us any performance advantage, but the fact is that it was a deviation from the regulations,” said Key in Tuesday’s team statement. “We take note of the stewards’ decision. We have since found that there was an error in the checking process for the relevant dimension on this component. We have already put measures in place to ensure that nothing of this kind occurs again in the future.”

What has confused a lot of people is that the offence wasn’t found earlier in the weekend. The reason for that is simple – the FIA never does all the checks that the rules require, because with 24 cars, it would be impossible. And in any case a ‘legal’ car on Thursday could be in a different spec by the end of the weekend.

“People expect these things to be found, but the fact is teams can change anything on the car after Thursday without us having to be involved,” an FIA source told me. “That’s why we don’t check cars on Thursday for compliance with the regulations, we only check for safety.

“Anything regarding performance is never checked. Teams can come and do their own checks. That’s simply because the specification of the cars can change at any time until the start of qualifying. Even then there are hundreds of things to check and you can’t check all things on all cars, so you do things at random.”

The bottom line is it was a great shame for the team, who lost 10 priceless points, and for Perez, who did such a brilliant job. He has lost his place among those who have scored points on their debut, but in the ‘disqualified’ class he joins the likes of Martin Brundle, fifth on the road for Tyrrell in Brazil in 1984, and Robert Kubica, who like Perez was seventh in a Sauber in Hungary in 2006. Not a club that anyone would like to be part of…

The upper flap of the C30, captured here in practice

The FIA is set to extend the DRS overtaking zone in time for the Malaysian GP, after analysing the knowledge gained in Australia.

Melbourne was always going to be a tricky debut for the DRS, given the short nature of the pit straight. Nevertheless rather than stick with the 600m and see what happens at Sepang the FIA is likely to allow drivers longer at full throttle. No figure has been confirmed by my FIA source, but 700m appears to be the logical choice, although it’s possible that an interim number could be chosen.

Following the Barcelona tests the zone was initially finalised at 600m at full throttle for Melbourne, a distance that represents a ‘virtual’ zone measured back from the start of the braking area.

The actual zone in which the DRS can be operated starts a lot earlier and allows for acceleration up to full throttle. It was 867m in Australia.

In Sepang the DRS zone will be on the pit straight rather than the approach to the final corner, which the FIA believes is already a clear overtaking opportunity.

For the same reasons it is likely to be on the pit straight again in Shanghai, rather than the back straight, which had been mentioned as the likely spot.

Before the race in Australia the FIA’s Charlie Whiting gave an insight into how the original distance was arrived at: “With all the teams the sort of thing we were looking at was a 600m section of the straight in question. From the simulations we thought that would be enough.

“We didn’t want to do the whole straight, because depending on the length of the straight, it would vary the effect of the wing, and the last thing we want is to have an easy overtaking. We felt 600m was about the right time on full throttle, ie 600m before the braking point.

“We always indicated that this would be varied depending on the circuit and the speed at the beginning of the relevant sector. To that end we did more simulations after Barcelona, and then we came up with what we felt was appropriate for here, and last week we made a map that we sent to the teams.”

Whiting also confirmed that later in the season the FIA might add more than one DRS opportunity at some circuits.

“It’s something we’re certainly going to consider. But it’s quite a complex matter to get a detection point, notification point and activation point for one straight. We want to make sure that all the things are working first, and if that looks promising then there’s no reason that we couldn’t use it in other places.

“We are also looking towards a more GPS-based system, which could give us far more proximity detection opportunities without having to go from one loop to another one to another one. We’re looking at other ways of doing it. But we really ought to see how it goes first – we don’t want to run before we can walk.”