Caterham moving from Norfolk to Oxfordshire during mid 2012

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/97528

People were protesting (even rioting) in Bahrain yesterday on the first anniversary of the pro-democracy protests. Riot police were deployed. And the only official announcement I heard from a Bahraini government official was that the F1 race would still be on.

It's staggering IMO that the only thing the Bahraini ruling family cares about is hosting its luxurious race in the dessert. The ruling family doesn't appear to care about its people. It commissioned an independent enquiry into what happened last year and then it seems to have cherry-picked recommendations for implementation. One would assume these were only the reforms that were easy to adopt and acceptable to the ruling family. Call me cynical but the appointment of the enquiry and the adoption of a few insignificant reforms was designed just to make it look like the ruling family was doing something ... so that the race could return. If the uprising intensifies, you can bet that the Bahraini government will ask for troops from Saudi to help suppress the protestors again, like they did last year in a ruthless military campaign.

F1 is sport. Going to Bahrain and pretending it's business as usual doesn't sit well with my conscience as a F1 fan. A ruling family (which is Sunni) is ruling undemocratically over a majority Shia population that is treated like second class citizens in their own country with no legal means of changing this situation.

http://www.planetf1.com/news/3213/7522507/Bernie-Sticks-To-His-Guns-Over-Bahrain

Early feedback from Lotus's Alan Permane is that the car is reliable and responds well to small adjustments making it a good base to work with and easily adjustable as the season progresses.

http://www.planetf1.com/driver/18227/7521266/Lotus-delighted-with-E20-s-reliability

Q&A with Hulkenberg

http://www.planetf1.com/driver/18227/7522729/Q-A-with-Nico-Hulkenberg

Vergne planning to keep the tension low with his team mate. Both will be targetting a promotion to a RBR in 2013 is Webber leaves at the end of 2012.

http://www.planetf1.com/driver/18227/7521070/Vergne-hopes-to-keep-tension-low

I think this is unlikely. One of the rookies would have to be absolutely outstanding (like another Vettel) for this to happen. RBR wants to win not only the Drivers' Title but also the Constructors' Title. They need both drivers to be getting big points consistently each race for this. A driver with only 1 year of rookie experience (by the time 2013 comes along) is unlikely to be good enough. I think Webber knows this and may decide to delay his departure for this reason. Alternatively, I suspect RBR will look elsewhere for experience and keep Vergne and Ricciardo at Toro Rosso for a couple of years at least (like they did with Buemi and Alguersuari) to let them develop and gain experience and to evaluate their potential properly before considering them for a promotion.

Vergne thinks Toro Rosso is among the strongest midfield teams.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/97530


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