McLaren's Jenson Button says that he will be heading to next weekend's Chinese Grand Prix looking to 'reboot' his season. Button finished in ninth place in Australia but retired from the Malaysian Grand Prix, leaving him 38 points behind championship leader Sebastian Vettel. "The Chinese Grand Prix almost feels like something of a reboot of the start of my season. Taking home two points from the first two races obviously wasn’t what we had in mind at the beginning of the year, but I think […]

Jacques Villeneuve, the 1997 world champion turned TV pundit, thinks Lotus' Kimi Raikkonen would be a good bet for this year's championship. "I said before Australia that it would be Alonso and Hamilton for the title, now I think I would bet everything on the Spaniard and the Finn," he is quoted by France's Auto Hebdo. The Enstone based team, however, had a much less impressive weekend in Malaysia, just a few days after Raikkonen's Melbourne win. "It's true, we didn't have a good race […]

The calmer tones of F1's new-generation turbo V6 engines could be artificially enhanced, according to Bernie Ecclestone. The F1 chief executive is worried the sport will lose some of its appeal to fans when next year's engines fail to live up to the dramatic noise of the current V8s. The grand prix circuit promoters, led by Australia's Ron Walker, are also worried. "As Bernie will attest," Walker told F1 business journalist Christian Sylt, "it (the V6) sounds like a lawnmower engine, and we will be […]

Ferrari and Lotus would veto any move to have Pirelli change the compounds of its 2013 tyres. Before the RB9 finished first and second in Malaysia, Red Bull's Dr Helmut Marko claimed F1's Italian tyre supplier "has promised" to make changes to its controversial 2013 product in the wake of the high degradation seen so far this season. Red Bull and Mercedes had reportedly complained to Pirelli that, according to their data, the new tyres are wearing out faster when fitted to the very best […]

New Sauber driver Nico Hulkenberg said eighth place in Malaysia last Sunday was "unacceptable". After moving over the winter from Force India, the German was unable to make his debut as scheduled in Australia when a terminal fuel tank problem developed 90 minutes before the race. But at Sepang, he finished four places ahead of rookie teammate Esteban Gutierrez, collecting four points and declaring himself "quite happy". According to German-language sources Blick (Switzerland) and Auto Motor und Sport (Germany), however, Hulkenberg told his team after […]

Ferrari say it was their call not to bring Fernando Alonso into the pits at the end of the opening lap. Alonso damaged his front wing after tagging Sebastian Vettel but did not pit to repair the damage. The Spaniard's front wing became lodged under his car and he spun off on Lap 2. "Today, unfortunately, we were very unlucky. After making a good start, I touched with Vettel at the second corner: it was a surprise to find him there, almost stopped and I […]

Kimi Raikkonen admitted scoring points was a positive after Lotus endured a difficult weekend in Malaysia. Raikkonen started from tenth place and finished in seventh. "Although the car felt very good on Friday, yesterday and today have been pretty difficult," the Finn said. "Since Saturday morning it has not been behaving as we expected for some reason, especially in the wet where we really struggled for grip. It was a tough race and I lost part of my front wing at the start which didn’t […]

Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso exuded confidence after qualifying second and third for the Malaysian Grand Prix. Massa's second place marks his first front row start since the opening round of the 2010 season. "It was a great qualifying in which we managed to make the most of all the opportunities that came our way," said Massa. "In Q3, we decided to stop towards the end of the session to fit a new set of intermediates and this allowed me to do a lap good […]

Fernando Alonso is confident about Ferrari's prospects ahead of this weekend's Malaysian Grand Prix. Alonso qualified only fifth in Melbourne but believes a front row start is possible for Sunday's race. "Today, the car worked well in all conditions and that is very good news for us," said Alonso. "This circuit is more representative than Australia for evaluating the car’s performance and so it was important to understand here today if the positive feelings from the winter were not just an illusion." "On my lap […]

As Melbourne winner Kimi Raikkonen continues his top form in Malaysia, Lotus' rivals are beginning to wonder if the team has an unfair advantage. At Sepang, arguably even more than in Australia, the keyword is tyres. "Tyres, tyres, tyres, tyres, tyres," grumbled Red Bull's Mark Webber on Friday. Pirelli's more extreme 2013 product could be clearly seen flicking off the wheels on every one of the 15 corners at Sepang during Friday practice. Yet serenely at the top is Finn Raikkonen. Germany's Auto Motor und […]

After Kimi Raikkonen eased to victory in Australia, and set the pace in Malaysia on Friday, the forgotten man of Lotus is Romain Grosjean. The Frenchman suspected his problems in Melbourne were due simply to going the wrong way on setup in limited practice running. But "We're seeing the same phenomenon as in Melbourne and we just don't understand it," Germany's Auto Motor und Sport quoted Grosjean as saying on Friday. Team technical boss James Allison has one explanation -- 2007 world champion Raikkonen was […]

Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber hit out at the state of the tyres after second practice for the Malaysian Grand Prix. Vettel was second fastest in Sepang, with Webber sixth, but both drivers fear the weekend is revolving solely around tyres. "It looked pretty OK but quite a mess if you look at how long the tyres last," Vettel told Autosport. "It doesn't look very nice I would say. I hope we have enough tyres to survive the race. It is not a lot of […]