The pressure is on Romain Grosjean to have a clean race in China next weekend. The reigning GP2 champion has shown pace in his return to Formula 1 so far this year, making good use of the competitive Lotus E20. But in the actual races, the 25-year-old is yet to see much action in 2012, colliding with Pastor Maldonado in Australia and spinning in the Sepang rain. With Kimi Raikkonen also yet to enjoy a fully trouble-free race weekend on his own return to F1, […]

World champion Sebastian Vettel was unapologetic this week, having shown his Indian rival Narain Karthikeyan the one-fingered salute recently in Malaysia. The German also called the HRT-driving backmarker a "gherkin" and "idiot" in the aftermath of their Sepang clash that cost Vettel fourth place. "I lost a solid fourth place so that's obviously disappointing," the 24-year-old is quoted by German media, including Sport Bild, after being asked this week about his loss of temper at Karthikeyan. It was suggested Vettel might have breached the FIA's […]

With the pecking order still not entirely clear after two races, it could be set to change all over again in the near future. That is the view of Peter Sauber, the Hinwil based team's owner and boss who witnessed his Mexican driver Sergio Perez display almost race-winning form at Sepang recently with the impressive new C31 car. He argues that the real key to 2012 is ongoing car development. "The decisive factor of course is how quickly can the teams develop their cars," he […]

Sergio Perez insists he is "100 per cent" committed to Sauber, but revealed he would like to be with a "big team" within two years. After his strong second place in Malaysia recently, and amid Felipe Massa's struggle for form at Ferrari, speculation has linked Mexican Perez with an imminent move to the famous Maranello based team. He is already the cream of Ferrari's development driver academy and linked with an eventual move to the Italian squad. "I think we have to assume that Massa […]

Amid his performance slump and rumours Sergio Perez will soon replace him, Ferrari's struggling Felipe Massa has been summoned to Maranello. A report on the Italian team's official website said there is "sorrow" within the team at witnessing the "particularly difficult time" being suffered by Ferrari's Brazilian driver. While Fernando Alonso leads the drivers' world championship at present, 30-year-old Massa is yet to record a race finish better than his fifteenth at Sepang. But amid the calls for Massa's head, team boss Stefano Domenicali - […]

Red Bull has hit back at claims the team lied about a technical problem in Malaysia in order to gain a tactical advantage for the forthcoming races. Near the end of the Sepang race, Sebastian Vettel's engineer repeatedly instructed the back-to-back world champion to retire his RB8 car. Team boss Christian Horner said the brake temperatures had risen to a dangerous level, but Vettel nonetheless raced to the chequered flag and finished eleventh, one position out of the points. Horner explained Vettel did not hear […]

Even two races into the 2012 season, it is pointless to draw up a 'pecking order'. Indeed, the picture in the media is muddled. With Ferrari in deep trouble until the Sepang downpour, Fernando Alonso's surprise win was therefore a "maximisation of misery" for the famous Italian team, according to Finland's Turun Sanomat newspaper. After Australia, and another qualifying lock-out in Malaysia, some elements of the media were already referring to McLaren as the "dominant" team. But Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button struggled in Sunday's […]

Michael Schumacher is looking on the bright side, even though the best qualifying effort of his F1 comeback washed away on Sunday. The seven time world champion qualified his Mercedes in the top three at Sepang, but the tyre-eating W03 could deliver him only a single point. "On no other car does the rubber dissolve so quickly," read a report in Germany's Bild newspaper. Schumacher, however, is upbeat. "We are a second behind. Last year it was two (seconds)," he is quoted as saying. "Clearly […]

After the near-perfection of 2011, reigning back-to-back world champion Sebastian Vettel lost his cool in Malaysia. Red Bull's dominance since late 2009 has finally ended, and that fact was fully demonstrated at Sepang when German Vettel could not hang on even to fourth place. He collided with backmarker Narain Karthikeyan and lost his temper with the Indian, showing him a middle-finger salute no less than twice. Vettel, 24, then described Karthikeyan as a "gherkin" on German television. And his description got worse in front of […]

'Iceman' Kimi Raikkonen on Sunday proved he is not without a sense of humour. The last time he was at Sepang, in 2009, the Ferrari driver caused raucous laughter in the F1 media centre when the global television feed showed him enjoying a chocolate ice-cream and can of coke. The rest of the field was damply awaiting the race's re-start on the sodden grid. There were similar conditions looming in Malaysia on Sunday, and so the Lotus team delivered a present from Raikkonen to each […]

Fernando Alonso has insisted that his remarkable Malaysian Grand Prix win changes nothing when it comes to Ferrari’s place in Formula One pecking order and that the team has a lot of work ahead if it is to be competitive this season. “I think it changes nothing, to be honest,” said Alonso of his 28th career win, achieved from eighth on the grid and in chaotic conditions. “We are in a position that we don’t want, to be fighting to go into Q3 and then […]

World champion Sebastian Vettel didn't just criticise Narain Karthikeyan after their clash in Malaysia -- he called the Indian driver a vegetable. The back-to-back title winner's points hopes went up in flailing Pirelli rubber towards the end of the rain-affected Sepang race following contact with Karthikeyan's back-of-the-field HRT. "He was off the track. In my view, it was over," Red Bull driver Vettel, now 17 points behind the championship lead after just two races, said on German RTL television. "As in real life, there are […]