Briatore seemingly spoiling for a fight with Brawn

As the global recession continues to bite and the major manufacturers in Formula One continue correspondence with the sport’s governing body regarding cost cutting and suggested budget caps for the 2009 season. Today Renault boss Flavio Briatore confirmed previous reports of salary reductions amongst the high earners within the Anglo-French team.

“We are cutting the costs across the whole team, not only my salary but the top people. Myself, Bob Bell and Pat Symonds have taken a cut of twenty percent,” Briatore said. “The second level have taken a cut of ten percent and everybody else has taken a cut of five percent.”

Briatore has been especially vocal against the Brawn Mercedes team in recent times and at Sakhir today there was no exception as he accused the team and its former owners Honda of going against proposed cost cutting measures.

“I don’t see Ross Brawn with 1200 people looking for cost reductions,” the Renault boss stated. “Maybe we are talking about something else. I don’t see this aggression at Honda last year regarding cost cutting, even though they have thirty or forty percent more people than us.”

The Brawn GP team of course has and is making significant cuts in its Brackley-based workforce.

Red Bull still revelling in maiden win

Red Bull Renault scored a stunning one-two result last time out in Shanghai and while both race winner Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber ran well today in practice for the Bahrain Grand Prix, the team were rightly savouring the break-out result from last Sunday.

"It was a fantastic result for the team, for Red Bull, for Mr Mateschitz who has put so much effort into the teams and into Formula One," declared Team Principal Christian Horner today at the circuit.

"It was a massive high - a monkey off our back to get the first pole, first win and a one-two. We have had great support from our partners. A quite good engine and I thank Flavio (Briatore) and Renault for that. It has just been a great week and the whole team in Milton Keynes have worked tremendously hard to achieve that result. We have just got to do it again now. We did not have long to enjoy it and we are focussed on the next one."

One concern a week ago in China was the driveshaft failures that compromised both drivers ahead of - and in – qualifying, but Horner is confident that the situation has been resolved and the RB5 package will have no such issues at the Sakhir circuit.

“We believed that it was a batch problem,” he explained. “We had done over 6000km of racing and testing and there was no problem in the race on Sunday and no problems at all here, so it looks like a rogue batch.”

While the similarly powered Fernando Alonso was second fastest today for the Renault team, Flavio Briatore was making no bones about the fact that Red Bull has simply done a better job than his team this year.

When asked what makes the difference between the pace of the RB5 and the R29, the Italian Team Principal simply replied ‘the chassis’ as the Anglo-French team pins their hopes on development of the diffuser.

“Red Bull at this moment do a better job,” Briatore explained. “We have no excuse. What we need is to improve the chassis and we have our first version of the diffuser which is not what we believe is the best but at least we have done something. In Barcelona we will have another step and I am sure in Monte Carlo we will have a big one. We started very late like everybody and we try to have the short cut and to be ready, at least in Monte Carlo, to be competitive and to fight for the podium and to win races.”

Red Bull Racing already seems to have the advantage however and are in a similar position with regards to aero updates. The Milton Keynes-based team targeting Monte Carlo for the introduction of its ‘Brawn-style’ double diffuser.

Montezemolo set to arrive in Bahrain today

As Ferrari's fortunes flagged even further, word spread in the Bahrain paddock that Luca di Montezemolo is set to arrive in the Persian Gulf on Saturday.

The Ferrari President may also be on official Formula One Teams' Association business, but figures in the Italian press insist Montezemolo is desperate to avoid his team sinking to the Scuderia's lowest ever trough this weekend at Sakhir.

Never in the history of the Prancing Horse has it attacked the opening four races of a championship without recording a single points finish.

The news coincided with Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen slumping to 16th and 18th respectively on the second Friday timesheet, after Raikkonen earned a 4000 euro fine for speeding in the pitlane.

As the sport's pecking order seems to turn upside down, Force India's Adrian Sutil soared to seventh in the afternoon heat, as he and team-mate Giancarlo Fisichella made use of a new 'double diffuser'.

On the other hand, BMW Sauber 's good morning form fizzed in session two, while Williams' Nico Rosberg topped the times ahead of Fernando Alonso.

In the sister Renault, Nelson Piquet got his hands on the same 'double diffuser' as Alonso, but trailed the famous Spaniard's pace by nearly a full second.

Championship leader Jenson Button settled not only behind the two Red Bulls but also Jarno Trulli's Toyota, while the morning pacesetter Lewis Hamilton dropped to 11th.

"We haven't made significant progress, we didn't bring anything new here this weekend - our goal remains to score some more points," said the world champion.

McLaren set to face the WMSC on wednesday

The 'lie-gate' saga has continued to be a topic in the Bahrain paddock, as McLaren Mercedes' World Motor Sport Council grilling looms for next Wednesday.

The latest twist in the scandal is the leaking to the press of a letter from Martin Whitmarsh to FIA President Max Mosley, in which the McLaren Team Principal acknowledges that McLaren broke the rules and apologises.

"Certainly, there's been no leak about it from us and I can't comment on it," Whitmarsh, asked about the Times newspaper leak, said in Bahrain.

The Guardian said the contrite letter is a break from McLaren's ‘previously oppositional stance towards motor sport's governing body’.

Some have therefore interpreted the letter, and the leak, as a manoeuvre to reduce the prospect of a harsh penalty next week.

According to rumours, the most likely punishments are either a 30 point reduction or race bans.

"It's very difficult to predict what the court will do," Red Bull's Christian Horner commented. "It would be a shame to lose a team for a couple of races but then again there has to be a penalty for lying to the stewards."

Mosley agreed to reduce 2009 drivers superlicences

Max Mosley has also agreed to lower the cost of this year's Formula One superlicences.

It was reported last month that the FIA President had backed down in his dispute with the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association, who were unhappy about recent price hikes for their mandatory credential.

The FIA said a month ago that a proposal "will be made to the World Motor Sport Council to revise super licence fees for drivers in the 2010 championship."

But Germany's Auto Motor und Sport insists that the lower price will also apply to 2009.
Instead of 2000 Euros being charged per point, the FIA has agreed to charge only €500 per point scored.

Drivers have already paid for their 2009 licences, so they will be issued refunds to reflect the change, the magazine said.

Button - This time will be very close

The Brawn Mercedes team has become used to topping the timesheets on a regular basis this year, but today in Friday practice for the Bahrain Grand Prix Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello had to be satisfied with the sixth and ninth fastest times. Button for one however was not concerned.

"A pretty standard programme for us today on what has been a very hot Friday in Bahrain," the championship leader began. "We have successfully completed our scheduled test items and evaluated a number of set-up options to find the best balance for our car around this track."

"The pace looks good from our initial evaluations and I am sure it will be a closely fought battle in qualifying tomorrow," he added.

Barrichello was not quite as content in the sister BGP 001 as he looks to finder a better general balance.

"It was quite difficult to find a good balance today," the Brazilian veteran explained. "But overall I am comfortable with the work that we have achieved. We are running quite competitively but have further work to do before qualifying tomorrow as other cars around us were also quick."

Team Principal Ross Brawn explained that due to the lack of pre-season testing, the team focused solely tyres today whilst also keeping an eye on temperatures.

Rosberg aims strong resulted

The development race is well and truly on with a number of teams flying in new aero components to fit to the cars. Williams Toyota is no exception as Nico Rosberg’s FW31 featured developments for the opening day of the Bahrain Grand Prix weekend, something team-mate Kazuki Nakajima has to wait until the Spanish Grand Prix for.

Rosberg topped the timesheets in the second practice session this afternoon with a best time of 1:33.339 seconds, two-tenths clear of his nearest challenger.

"You can only ever compare your performance to other race weekends so, relatively, I think we are looking okay," the German racer said. "We’ve done a lot of set-up work today and I am quite happy with everything so we’ve made good progress."

“The team brought some new parts to Bahrain and they seem to be working well so thanks to our aero guys for their continuing hard work in developing the car."

Topping the timesheets is nothing new for Rosberg this year, but to date the race results have been harder to come by. This is something that he feels will change this weekend.

"I am really convinced that we will be able to do something positive at this race," he continued, "and to get the points that the car is worth."

Team-mate Kazuki Nakajima lapped just over half a second shy of Rosberg and will be looking at the data to see where he can make gain tomorrow.

"Today didn’t go too badly but we are lacking some pace compared to Nico," the Japanese racer admitted. "I’ll now de-brief with my engineers to try to find out where I’m losing that time so I can make it up in tomorrow’s qualifying."

Bahrain GP Free Practice 2 - Rosberg set the pace

Nico Rosberg returned to familiar territory this afternoon in sizzling Sakhir, as the German racer topped the timesheets in the second practice session of the Bahrain Grand Prix weekend.

Rosberg is no stranger to showing the undoubted pace of the Williams Toyota FW31 package in practice and like his rivals, the switch from the medium prime tyre to the super soft option tyre brought big gains as he stopped the clocks in 1:33.339s.

As ever, we do not know exactly what fuel levels the teams opted to run this afternoon, but there can’t be a great deal in it as the entire 20 car field is covered by just 1.451 seconds.

Renault looked to be struggling for pace for much of the 90 minute session as Fernando Alonso and Nelson Piquet lapped well off the pace and propped up the rear of the timesheets. The team however later took some fuel out of the R29 challenger and armed with the option tyre, Alonso was able to vault up the order ending the session just two tenths shy of pace-setter Rosberg.

Toyota really picked up the pace this afternoon with Jarno Trulli and Timo Glock recording the third and eighth fastest times respectively. Red Bull Renault continued to show well with Chinese Grand Prix winner Sebastian Vettel fourth fastest, a hundredth of a second quicker than team-mate Mark Webber.

Championship leader Jenson Button was sixth fastest, and as ever, the Brawn Mercedes package looked very well balanced. Team-mate Rubens Barrichello was ninth fastest.

Adrian Sutil was a surprise seventh fastest in his much updated Force India Mercedes ahead of Glock.

The Silverstone-based team has an extensively revised aerodynamic package on the VJM02 this weekend and ran well throughout the afternoon session. Italian veteran Giancarlo Fisichella was 12th fastest, making gains as the chequered flag flew. Kazuki Nakajima rounded out the top ten in the second Williams ahead of some of the big names.

McLaren has further aerodynamic modifications to the MP4-24 package this weekend as they look to close the gap to the front-runners. Lewis Hamilton lapped just over half a second off the ultimate pace to set the 11th best time while Heikki Kovalainen was eight-tenths off his team-mate and just 19th.

The Toro Rosso Ferrari duo of Sebastien Buemi and Sebastien Bourdais were 13th and 14th respectively behind Fisichella and ahead of Nelson Piquet in the second Renault. The Ferrari struggle continued again today with Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen just 16th and 18th while it was another tough day for BMW Sauber with Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld 17th and 20th.

Clearly Ferrari and BMW Sauber are struggling, but it is still a surprise to see such quality teams so far down the timesheets. Today of course counts for nothing however as it is tomorrow that the serious business gets underway in Bahrain.

Diffuser modified looking good for McLaren

McLaren is using another development of its modified Shanghai-spec diffuser in Bahrain.

"We have an adaptation of our conventional diffuser," Team Principal Martin Whitmarsh is quoted as confirming to Auto Motor und Sport.

The changes, as in China, are based on the Court of Appeal ruling, where the controversial Brawn, Toyota and Williams-style diffusers were deemed fully legal.

While those teams are thought to be benefiting to the tune of several tenths per lap, however, those needing to adapt can expect less advantage.

Whitmarsh said of McLaren's Bahrain update: "It brings a bit more downforce but is not a giant step."

He said aerodynamicists in the wind tunnel are yet to unlock the full potential of the 'double-decker' concept.

"It is a difficult area," Whitmarsh continued.

"If we had begun with it a year ago, the whole car would have been conceived on that basis."

This morning at the Sakhir circuit, Heikki Kovalainen’s MP4-24 featured the now familiar flow-visualisation paint on the left hand side of the diffuser.

Ferrari is also working on a new diffuser, that should be ready by the forthcoming Spanish Grand Prix.

But Stefano Domenicali warned: "It depends on what our people in the wind tunnel find. It will be no 'F61'. There will no new car because it would be finished too late."

Bahrain GP Free Practice 1 - Hamilton fastest

The opening practice session of the Bahrain Grand Prix weekend saw Lewis Hamilton return to the top of the timesheets for the second time this year. The McLaren Mercedes driver set the best time of 1:33.647s mid-session and until the closing moments, was an impressive seven-tenths clear of the field.

Practice times are always hard to read as we don’t know what relative fuel levels the teams are running, but as the Woking-based squad continue to evaluate aero enhancements to the MP4-24 package they will be encouraged by the early pace at Sakhir.

While the majority of the field completed the session on the harder prime tyre, BMW Sauber opted to run both Nick Heidfeld and Robert Kubica on the softer option tyre. The result was immediate with Heidfeld finding 1.2 seconds to vault second fastest while Kubica also found time to record the third best time. Prior to the switch in tyre, Heidfeld and Kubica were 14th and seventh fastest respectively with both running KERS today.

Nico Rosberg was again impressive in his Williams Toyota as he set the fourth fastest time. Rosberg has run well in most of the practice sessions so far this year and generally it seems the team opt to run with slightly less fuel on board than its rivals.

Championship leader Jenson button was fifth fastest in his Brawn Mercedes with team-mate Rubens Barrichello a tenth slower in seventh position. Button only completed 15 laps however as his BGP 001 suffered from a minor gearbox problem.

Heikki Kovalainen split the Brawn duo in the second McLaren while Felipe Massa led the Ferrari challenge with the eighth fastest time in his KERS-equipped F60.

Mark Webber was ninth in the leading Red Bull Renault while Kimi Raikkonen ran without KERS on his Ferrari and was tenth fastest. It was largely an uneventful session, but Raikkonen did suffer a high speed spin exiting turn two early on and very nearly made contact with the unforgiving tyre wall.

Kazuki Nakajima was 11th best in the second Williams Toyota while Shanghai winner Sebastian Vettel was just 12th this morning in the second Red Bull Renault.

The under pressure Nelson Piquet will be mildly encouraged by his 13th fastest time in the updated Renault but the session was a difficult one for team-mate Fernando Alonso as he struggled to 18th as he evaluated KERS on the R29.

Adrian Sutil was 14th best in his Force India Mercedes with team-mate Giancarlo Fisichella 16th but it was a surprise to see Toyota seemingly struggling for pace with Jarno Trulli and Timo Glock just 15th and 17th respectively.

Toro Rosso Ferrari brought up the bottom of the timesheets with Sebastien Bourdais two-hundredths of a second clear of Sebastien Buemi who was forced to pull his STR4 to a halt late in the session with a mechanical fault.

1.7 seconds cover the entire field as the teams now prepare for the afternoon practice session.