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Honda has finally confirmed a comeback into F1 from 2015 onwards, putting to rest endless rumours about the marque's return to Formula 1 following the change in engine regulations from the current 2.4-litre V8 to the 1.6-litre V6 turbo engines. To add to the excitement, Honda has also declared that it has signed a multi-year deal with old-time partners McLaren which commences from 2015. The deal will take effect one season after the new regulations kick in as the Woking-based team has a year to run on its existing agreement with Mercedes.

"Together, we're about to embark on a new and extremely exciting chapter in McLaren's history. Like McLaren, Honda is a company with motor racing woven into the fabric of its heritage. We're proud and thrilled to be joining forces once more to take on the world in Formula One," said McLaren's Team Principal and Group CEO Martin Whitmarsh.

McLaren cars will then be powered by Honda engines and energy recovery systems renewing an old partnership between the two companies that won four drivers' and four constructors' championships between 1988 and 1992. This renewal once again brings to life the most renowned association in F1 history that brought greats like Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost their championship titles in the late 1980s. Further, it also hints at a re-emergence of Honda turbo power in retrospect of the days when it took technology to unimaginable levels of output.

The Japanese marque has been away from the sport since the end of the 2008 season when it last participated as BAR-Honda with Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello at the wheel. Ironically, immediately after the company withdrew as an engine supplier and constructor, selling the team to Ross Brawn, the new team went on to win both the titles that year under the Brawn GP.

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"Ever since its establishment, Honda has been a company which grows by taking on challenges in racing. Honda has a long history of advancing our technologies and nurturing our people by participating in the world's most prestigious automobile racing series. The new F1 regulations with their significant environmental focus will inspire even greater development of our own advanced technologies and this is central to our participation in F1," said Takanobu Ito, President and CEO of Honda Motor Co., Ltd.

While Honda has already started developing the new engine, it is unlikely for it to provide the engine only to McLaren as it does not make sound business sense. More importantly, with just three engine suppliers confirmed as per the new regulations (Renault, Ferrari and Mercedes; and now Honda), back marker team Marussia might find itself in need of an engine, keeping in mind that its current engine supplier Cosworth has not confirmed its attendance in the sport as per the new regulations.

While the deal between McLaren and Honda brings exciting times along with memories of a thrilling era in Formula 1, it will mark the end of the relationship between McLaren and Mercedes after two decades.

After facing immense criticism post the 2013 Spanish Grand Prix for their quick degrading tyres, Pirelli has now officially released a statement saying they'll be changing the tyre compounds in time for the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal. Post the Spanish Grand Prix Pirelli Motorsport Director Paul Hembery said that they will try making changes to reduce the number of pit-stops prior to the British Grand Prix. But according to a recent announcement they have now decided to fast-track the process and bring the new compounds in time for the race in Canada.

"Our aim is to provide the teams with a new range which mixes the stability of the 2012 tyres and the performance of the current ones," Hembery said. "After evaluating data from the first few races this year, we've decided to introduce a further evolution as it became clear at the Spanish Grand Prix that the number of pit stops was too high," he added.

The 2013 Pirellis were criticised for their rapid degradation, their performance focused nature, overheating of the rear tyres and the tyre delaminations. Tyre delamination is basically a process where the tyre comes apart due to extreme stresses (temperature, lack of pressure or deflation) in racing conditions as suffered by Paul di Resta and Max Chilton in the Free Practice of the 2013 Spanish Grand Prix. There were many such delaminations also noticed in Bahrain, but the issue has been under fire after the current race.

According to Hembery the delaminations were caused due to damage from debris that overheated the tread and that it did not compromise the safety which was being questioned. He explained "It's important to point out that these delaminations, which occur when the tread comes off, do not compromise the safety of the tyres as the core structure of the tyre is not affected in any way, helping drivers to complete the lap and to change the damaged tyres safely."

Pirelli has also had its own share of woes when it comes to testing the compounds where Hembery said "It's worth underlining that the current regulations for winter tests limit the opportunity to test the tyres under the same conditions as the race season because of the lower temperature and restricted time."

Apart from the pre-season testing where the company and teams can test new compounds on the current cars, there is no other way to test the tyres. Currently Pirelli has to test their compounds on a 2010 Renault F1 car which is at least five seconds slower than the current ones.

Therefore the Pirelli boss re-iterated the need for in-season testing, which is also a point most teams are trying to put across. As far as the current 2013 compounds are concerned Hembery said "We developed the 2013 tyres on the basis of careful simulations that were, however, not sufficient, taking into account the improved speed of cars (up to 3 seconds per lap)."

When it comes to a few teams being favoured after the tyres are changed, the finger points towards Red Bull Racing. The only problem the RB9 faces is the tyre degradation, and the team has criticised the tyres since the pre-season tests. Pirelli has been put into a 'Catch-22' situation because changing the tyres also meant that teams like Ferrari and Lotus who had adapted better to the tyres will be affected.

However this tyre debate can get never-ending and fairly technical and hard to decode to an average motorsport or Formula 1 fan but that's how Formula 1 is; complicated business. But it is important to note that from a sport which was getting dominated by the fastest engine or the fastest car has now been transformed into a sport with thrilling action with more overtaking and unexpected winners due to the tyres. As of now one can only wait till the Canadian Grand Prix to know how the new changes will affect the teams, their performance and the pecking order of the championship.

Faultless Ferrari

After two disappointing races from the first four of the season, Fernando Alonso and Ferrari had some catching up to do and that's exactly what they did with a win in the Spanish Grand Prix. Ferrari read the circuit and the tyres well which helped them plan a smart tyre strategy that really proved that the team didn't put a foot wrong in the race. Starting from fifth place on the grid, Alonso was right on the money. The Spaniard got a brilliant start off the line and he was up into third place behind Nico Rosberg and rival Sebastian Vettel in the first few corners of the race itself. The two-time champion stayed ahead after the first round of pit-stops and then there was no looking back. The Italian team planned a perfect four-stop strategy for the local lad helping him earn valuable 25 points on the board.

Team-mate Felipe Massa too had a satisfying end to the race weekend with a third place finish. The Brazilian started from lower down the order in ninth place after being penalised with a three-grid place penalty for impeding Mark Webber during qualifying. Like Alonso, Massa too managed to gain some positions at the start of the race and executed the four-stop strategy to perfection bringing more points for the Italian team.

Tyre Trouble

Once again tyre strategies were central to the result to the extent that it could make or break the race. Although Pirelli introduced the 2011 spec hard compounds for Spain, which were harder than the current season's Orange P Zeros, tyre degradation was something that bothered most of the drivers with 13 out of the 19 race finishers forced to do four or more stops. The Official Tyre Supplier had to face a lot of criticism post the race with respect to the excessive degradation, which in a way diverts all the action into the pits as opposed to where it should be andndash; on the track. That said, the Lotus team has been able to make good use of the existing compounds with Kimi Raikkonen making one stop less than most teams in Spain as well as Bahrain.

Pirelli plans to make some changes on their tyres to reduce the degradation in time for the British Grand Prix in Silverstone and solve any issues and ensure that they build tyres on which drivers can finish the race with two or three stops only.

Ice Ice Baby

Kimi Raikkonen once again proved to be consistent getting his fourth podium finish in five races and closing in to equal Michael Schumacher's record of 24 consecutive points finishes. The Finn opted to run on a three-stop strategy and was the only driver in the top five to make the strategy work successfully. Starting from his fourth place in qualifying, Kimi could maintain good pace and was assisted well as the team planned his strategy well to ensure that he takes second ahead of Massa after the last of his four pit-stops. With his third consecutive second place finish, the Lotus driver is now just four points adrift of championship leader Vettel.

Despite Raikkonen's second place finish, the team dropped down to third on the constructors' championship table after Ferrari's double podium and Romain Grosjean's retirement from the race due to a suspension failure.

Red Bull troubled by tyre wear

With a fourth and fifth place finish in the race for Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber, the Red Bull Racing team's performance wasn't quite what they may have hoped for. The energy drink team was finding it difficult to keep the tyres in good shape like the Ferraris and Lotus' Raikkonen, despite making four stops. In a race where maintaining tyres played a key factor, the Milton-Keynes based team just didn't seem to have the pace. That said both drivers still managed to finish with good points for the team to continue being on top of the championship table.

Hero to Zero

After Bahrain, Nico Rosberg once again took pole position for Mercedes and was accompanied by team-mate Lewis Hamilton on the front row of the grid, but both drivers couldn't quite make their qualifying positions count. The Mercedes W04 just didn't have the pace to match up to the other front-runners and had to see themselves going backwards. Rosberg opted for a three-stop strategy and could make his tyres last long enough to finish the race in sixth place. Hamilton, on the other hand, simply couldn't find appropriate grip from his tyres and was forced to change from a three-stop strategy to a four-stop one. It was a repeat performance from Bahrain, where Mercedes had an impressive run in qualifying but couldn't capitalise on it in the race.

Sauber andndash; so close to points

Rookie driver Esteban Gutierrez had a pretty good run in Spain finishing in 11th place after starting 19th on the grid. The Mexican constantly gained places and was even in the lead for sometime when drivers were entering the pits for routine stops for tyres. In the first stint, the Sauber driver was going strong and it seemed that he could achieve good results out of the tyres but the second stint didn't quite work in his favour, forcing him to finish just outside points. Meanwhile, team-mate Nico Hulkenberg's race weekend was ruined when an unsafe release from the pits led to a collision with Jean-Eric Vergne. To make matters worse for the German, he seemed to be struggling with the car which he called 'difficult to drive' in the post-race conference. The team also had to change his strategy from a three-stop to a four-stop one which further dropped him down. Hulkenberg crossed the finish line in 15th place.

Force India scores again

Paul di Resta once again brought valuable points for the Force India team with his seventh place finish to ensure that they stay ahead of McLaren on the constructors' championship table despite Jenson Button and Sergio Perez taking eighth and ninth place respectively. The Brit started the race in 10th place and drove a very strong race and was fighting with Rosberg for sixth place right until the end of the race, but had to settle for seventh after crossing the finish line just 0.9 seconds behind the Mercedes driver.

Adrian Sutil qualified in 13th place on Saturday and remained out of the points scoring positions having finished the race in 13th place as well. Sutil had a good start and was up in eighth place in the very first lap of the race but a problem during the first round of pit-stops once again made him lose valuable time and places. Although the German continued with the race, he had lost enough time to finish without points.

What's to come

After three consecutive second place finishes, Raikkonen closes in on championship leader Vettel, who, with 89 points on the board, is just four points ahead of Raikkonen. With a victory in Spain, Alonso now jumps to third albeit 17 points still behind the reigning champion. Alonso seems to be determined to take the title this time round and has a car that is capable of getting him the win as well. Meanwhile, the Red Bull RB9 has the pace to win many races and the championship but they need to get their tyre troubles out of the way. Raikkonen's consistency has got him right up there on the points table. He needs to win a few races to get to the top, podium finishes just might not cut it but a few bad races out of the top three for Vettel could really change the game for the Finn. All said, if last year's season was interesting, this season is indeed going to be one helluva nail biting experience.

Red Bull (Sebastian Vettel 4, Mark Webber 5) Unable to match the pace of Ferrari, the Red Bulls finished solidly among the points to allow Vettel to maintain his place at the top of the drivers' championship. The German opted for four pit-stops after initially planning only three. Webber made up lost ground after a poor start.

Ferrari (Fernando Alonso 1, Felipe Massa 3) A near perfect afternoon for the Italian team, with Alonso winning on his home soil and Massa also on the podium for the first time this year despite a three place grid penalty from qualifying. Alonso started from fifth position on the grid but was third after the first lap. The win was the 32nd of his career and 11th for Ferrari. Massa confirmed his return to form with his best result since the final race of 2012.

Lotus (Kimi Raikkonen 2, Romain Grosjean retired) An afternoon of contrasting fortunes for the two Lotus drivers. Raikkonen, using a three-stop strategy, showed his consistency by finishing in the points for a 22nd successive race. Grosjean retired early in the race with damage to the rear suspension of his car.

Mercedes (Nico Rosberg 6, Lewis Hamilton 12) A huge disappointment after both cars started at the front of the grid with the team on pole for the third race in a row. Fears that they lacked the pace to deliver over a full race materialised. Hamilton, the 2008 champion, made his frustration clear when he complained on the team radio about being overtaken by a Williams.

Force India (Paul Di Resta 7, Adrian Sutil 13) Di Resta proved that his fourth place in Bahrain was no flash in the pan by running Rosberg close and finishing with a result that leaves him in eighth place in the standings. Sutil made a flying start but a slow first pit stop dropped him out of the points.

McLaren (Jenson Button 8th, Sergio Perez 9th) Another race when the former champions failed to challenge for the podium. Button had to claw his way back from a first lap when he slipped to among the back markers. Perez finished just behind him to ensure McLaren at least had some return from the weekend.

Toro Rosso (Daniel Ricciardo 10, Jean-Eric Vergne retired) The Australian finished in the top 10 for the second time this season, performing well in the middle section of the race after a slow start. Vergne was forced out after a collision with Sauber's Nico Hulkenberg in the pit lane.

Sauber (Esteban Gutierrez 11, Nico Hulkenberg 15) Rookie Gutierrez, the youngest driver in Formula One, just failed to win a first point but led for two laps at the first stops and set the fastest lap. He might have done better without a three-place grid penalty for impeding in qualifying. Hulkenberg was given a drive-through penalty after an unsafe release from a pit stop led to the collision with Vergne.

Williams (Pastor Maldonado 14, Valtteri Bottas 16) Williams' miserable start to the season continues after Maldonado was unable to recapture the form that took him to a surprise win last season. Maldonado picked up a drive-through penalty for speeding on his first trip to the pits. Bottas said the car lacked grip from the start, making it harder on the tyres too.

Mercedes urged their many Formula One technical boffins to "think outside the box" and consider the unconsidered after a Spanish Grand Prix that left the team baffled by their cars' lack of race pace. Despite scorching to their third pole position in a row, with Germany's Nico Rosberg notching up his second in succession, Mercedes flopped when it mattered most at the Circuit de Catalunya.

Lewis Hamilton went from second to 12th, in what he said was his worst race for a very long time, while Rosberg finished sixth. How to manage and extract performance from the Pirelli tyres is the conundrum and Mercedes, who have a stellar line-up of senior technical figures, planned to throw all their brainpower into finding an answer.

"Generally what you can say is that the car is a quick car," Mercedes motorsport head Toto Wolff told reporters after emerging from a two-hour post-race technical debrief at the circuit. "This is not about a car or a team struggling with lacking pace, a car where you end up 15th on Saturday and then 12th or 16th on Sunday. It is a car that is tremendously fast on the Saturday and has real speed. And then on Sunday we are not able to manage the car with the tyres.

"One could say 'Did the others go even much more conservative in terms of race setup?' I don't think so. It's something else and I think it requires out of the box thinking," added the Austrian. "It's about everybody in the team sticking their heads together and saying let's analyse what we do from a Saturday to a Sunday. Is there anything we need to be looking at which we didn't look at until now?"

Dragster Race

Barcelona, like Bahrain before it, is punishing for even the hardest tyres and it would be comforting for Mercedes to think that the circuit characteristics did not suit them and things will improve elsewhere. However the next circuit on the calendar is Monaco, a tight and twisty circuit without high energy corners, which must be treated in isolation.

The risk is that if single lap speed is compromised in exchange for better race pace, Mercedes could lose out in Monaco where pole position carries a premium and overtaking is extremely difficult. Wolff said he was "pretty sure" any solution would cost the team in qualifying pace. He added that it would be looking at matters through rose-tinted glasses to think the problems were more related to the track than the car.

"It's not an inherent car problem. I think it's probably something about processes," he declared. "The question is: 'Is there anything we can be looking at which is similar to previous years?. Is it that this car is being made for a dragster race instead of for a grand prix? A German journalist said that," he smiled. "No. I don't think so. My opinion is it's something else.

"As I am on the rather pessimistic side, I don't believe in magic or a golden key. But it could be. The car is good. It's just changing the approach or looking at these processes for racing." Wolff said Mercedes, who had problems particularly with their rear tyres last year, had done a good long run in final practice and set the car up for qualifying and the race accordingly but it had not worked.

The priority now was to analyse everything, to look at how the tyres were treated, how they were heated up and how that heat is retained. "It's how you drive it, slow or fast in the first couple of laps. How you build it up. We are looking at our competitors and what you can see is that clearly some cars are having an easier life with the tyres," said Wolff.

After a disappointing race in Bahrain due to the KERS failure, Fernando Alonso has bounced back hard with a victory in Spain. His performance in China and Spain is testimony of the fact that the car has the potential to take on the reigning champions Red Bull but like the Lotus F1 Team (Read: Lotus F1 Team Quotes: Post 2013 Spanish Grand Prix) they too need a little more support in terms of points from Felipe Massa.

Further, five races into the season, it is evident that the only thing that is holding the scarlet team back is their pace in qualifying. Although the F138 has proven to be a brilliant machine in the race on Sundays with respect to performance as well as maintaining tyres, it falls behind the Red Bulls, Mercedes and sometimes even the Lotus in qualifying. That said, the team is working to solve their qualifying woes and should hopefully be at pace fight for a good spot in qualifying as well as the championship title.

Here's what they had to say...

Fernando Alonso

"Even if this is the third time I've won a home race, the emotion is still very strong, as if it had never happened before. It's nice to be able to give the whole of Spain this win, especially at a time when the country is in crisis and for many people, it's not possible to come here to bring their support. I thank everyone for that support and the team for doing a fantastic job. After a far from easy qualifying, everything went perfectly, the start, the strategy, pit stops, tyre management. At the start, I had to make up some places but after passing the halfway point on the straight, there was no more room to do so. So I switched off the KERS, so as to use it in Turn 3, where I realised, after watching the GP2 race, that it was possible to attack around the outside. We had to bring forward the final stop because of a slow puncture which meant the left rear tyre was losing pressure in the final part of the lap, but fortunately, that had no effect on the final outcome. I think that with this car we can fight for the World Championship, because in five races we have finished second once and had two wins. From now on, we must manage to produce a consistent performance and score as many points as possible because we are well aware that we are not the quickest and to change that many people are working night and day at the track and in Maranello".

Felipe Massa

"I am very happy with this podium. It was a really nice race and a fantastic result for the whole team. When you start from far back everything's more complicated, but I managed to get away well and I immediately had a fantastic pace. On the first lap I pulled off a few overtaking moves thanks to the car being very competitive, which meant I could be aggressive, while at the same time looking after the tyres. Right to the very end, I thought it might be possible to fight with Kimi, but when I fitted my last set of Hard tyres, the ones we thought would be best as they were new, I had oversteer and began to lose the rear much earlier than I had expected. All the same, I am very pleased with our performance at this track. Now we head for Monaco, a completely different track where overtaking is very difficult. We know we don't have the quickest car, but all we can do is continue to work with the same amount of effort, because I'm sure we are going in the right direction".

Stefano Domenicali

"I am really happy with this great team result We did a great job, both here at the track and back in Maranello. It was a very tense race, in which the slightest little detail could make a big difference. On this front, we read the race very well, when one considers how tyre management and calling the pit stops today made the difference and I can say without being presumptuous, that the team of engineers didn't put a foot wrong. I think that is down to Pat Fry, even he wasn't with us today on the pit-wall. These forty points taken in Barcelona are very important: Fernando yet again drove a great race, aggressive at the key moments and conservative when he had to manage his lead, making up ground on all his main rivals. I'm pleased we have closed the gap to all our closest rivals. I am also particularly happy with Felipe's performance, because on this track, to start ninth and finish on the podium is not easy. He was in the fight right to the final moments and this result is very well deserved. After the way qualifying went yesterday, this result is the best we could have hoped for. We held our own against very strong opposition, but we know there is much to do to improve our car for Saturday afternoons, as we have said many times before, if we want to ensure we start from further up the order".

A tyre strategy dominated Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona has ignited a massive tyre debate, to which Pirelli has finally responded saying that they will make changes to bring down the number of pitstops in the race by the time they reach Silverstone for the British Grand Prix. The allocated tyres for the race were the P Zero White medium compound and the P Zero Orange hard compound, however the hard compound was tweaked prior to the Barcelona race.

The 2013 Spanish Grand Prix which was won by Ferrari's Fernando Alonso saw too many pit-stops due to the demanding nature of the circuit and the hot track conditions which lead to dramatic degradation. The Spaniard completed the race with a four-stop strategy and there were 82 pit-stops in total in the entire race. Lotus driver Kimi Raikkonen was one of the six drivers who managd a three-stop strategy to make it to the podium.

However, the number of pitstops has fuelled a debate as to whether the Pirellis are good or bad for the sport. There has been large amount of criticism and even questioning as to whether the sport is about racing or has become only about tyres and strategy, and also about the fact that drivers have to drive more cautiously, given the nature of the rapidly degrading tyres.

On the criticism after the race Pirelli Motorsport Director Paul Hembery responded saying "Our aim is to have (each car make) between two and three stops at every race, so it's clear that four is too many: in fact, it's only happened once before, in Turkey during our first year in the sport." He further added saying "We'll be looking to make some changes, in time for Silverstone, to make sure that we maintain our target and solve any issues rapidly."

From a fair point of view, Pirelli had been given the task of making tyres that degrade and last for not more than 20 laps, and they did it. The idea behind it was to avoid monotony in the sport as seen when Ferrari had dominated the sport, and now even with Red Bull Racing. The same Pirellis which are being criticised for converting the sport into a 'tyre tyranny' and making it all about strategy were also praised for producing multi-layered entertainment after the Malaysian and Chinese GP.

Nevertheless, there are teams like Lotus and Ferrari who have managed the tyres perfectly and are not complaining whereas the other teams are still struggling to do the same. In the era of Bridgestone and Michelin, tyres were a key factor then too. After all one cannot deny the fact that if it wasn't for Pirellis there would'nt be much excitemenet to the season as seen last year where there were 8 different race winners, and the championship went down to the wire.

The never-ending criticism towards the tyres can only end once the Italian tyremaker releases an official statement on the exact measures they will take to tackle the tyre problems. Therefore one can only wait and anticipate what interesting outcome the season delivers once Pirelli decides to change the tyres or makes changes to the tyre allottment.

It was another impressive performance from Kimi Raikkonen with a second place finish in Spain and yet again Romain Grosjean wasn't quite able to support him in the race after retiring due to a suspension failure. Although Grosjean is finishing within the top 10 to bring some valuable points home for the team, he isn't quite as consistent in supporting Raikkonen as Felipe Massa is to Fernando Alonso or Mark Webber is to Sebastian Vettel and this might just be the thing that can cost the Enstone-based team the constructors' title. That said, it is still too early in the season to actually predict anything and judging by Raikkonen's form in the season so far. The Finn has been on a points run for 23 races in Spain and will equal Michael Schumacher's record if he finishes in points in Monaco, which goes to show the potential and the form that the Iceman is in. Can it be that we will get to see a repeat of the 2009 season with three drivers fighting it out for the top spot?

Here's what they had to say...

Kimi Raikkonen

"Unfortunately it's second place again so it's not time to celebrate too much. The car felt good and we did pretty much all we could today, but we didn't have the pace to challenge Fernando [Alonso]. I drove to the maximum and it's good for the championship that Sebastian finished behind us. It's nice to be on the podium for me and the team; let's see what we can do in Monaco."

Romain Grosjean

"Firstly, we need to investigate what happened to Romain's car. I feel sorry for him and for the team. Equally however, I'm delighted for the team to achieve another second place with Kimi today. Once again he drove fantastically and we were able to give him a great car with a good strategy. We took points from Sebastian in the Drivers' Championship, but we have lost out a bit in the Constructors' Championship. It was a good job by the entire team today."

Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director

"We're very happy with a podium. Losing out to Fernando in the first corner was a blow, and being held up behind first Lewis [Hamilton] then Sebastian certainly hampered our progress, but even so I don't think we quite had the pace to take the win today. Unfortunately for Romain, and through no fault of his own, a rear suspension failure curtailed his race very early on. The cause of this has yet to be determined and we've completed many, many kilometres with this suspension configuration, so it's difficult to pinpoint what might have occurred. We'll be sending the parts back to Enstone to have a good look at what went wrong and avoid any recurrence."

Ferrari's Fernando Alonso rewrote the Formula One form book and turned up the heat in the championship battle by winning his home Spanish Grand Prix for the second time on Sunday. The double world champion's second victory of the season, and 32nd of his career, made him the first driver in 23 years of racing at Barcelona's Circuit de Catalunya to win from outside the top three grid positions.

Alonso, who won in Barcelona with Renault in 2006 and also in Valencia last year at the European Grand Prix, took the chequered flag 9.3 seconds ahead of 2007 world champion Kimi Raikkonen in a Lotus. The Spaniard, who started in fifth place with the Mercedes duo of Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton locking out the front row, seized third place through the third corner and had the crowd roaring him on as he led after 13 of the 66 laps.

"It was fantastically emotional and the fans really helped because you feel the support from everyone," said Alonso after doing his slowing down lap with a Spanish flag handed to him by a marshal."We have only had five races and there have been some ups and downs but we know we have the car to fight with the top cars and if we do well we can compete for the championship." Raikkonen, in the points for a 22nd successive race and now just two short of Michael Schumacher's all-time record, denied Ferrari a one-two finish with Brazilian Felipe Massa taking a distant third. Red Bull's triple world champion Sebastian Vettel was fourth, 38.2 seconds behind Alonso, and saw his overall lead over Raikkonen cut to four points. After five of the 19 races, the German has 89 points to Raikkonen's 85 and Alonso's 72.

Hamilton Struggles

Hamilton slipped to fourth overall with 50 points after spending the afternoon falling through the field as Mercedes - as expected - again failed to live up to their electrifying qualifying pace.
The 2008 world champion ended up out of the points in 12th and was even heard exclaiming that he had been overtaken by a Williams - driven by last year's winner Pastor Maldonado - as a measure of how much he was struggling.

"It was way too tough," he told the BBC. "We have got a lot of work to do. We both went backwards, but I went back a long, long way and I don't know why. We will keep going back to the drawing board and see what we can do." Former champions Williams have failed to score a point in five races with a car lacking aerodynamic performance and Venezuelan Maldonado, who finished 14th after a drive-through penalty, had started way back in 17th place.

In a race dictated by the quick-wearing tyres, Alonso pitted four times - the same as Vettel and Massa - while Raikkonen made only three trips to the pitlane. Rosberg, who had also been on pole at the previous race in Bahrain where he finished ninth, led for the first 10 laps before facing up to the inevitable. The German, sixth at the finish behind Red Bull's Mark Webber, was not to lead again as Mexican rookie Esteban Gutierrez took over at the front for two laps in a Sauber amid the pitstops before Alonso asserted himself. Britain's Paul Di Resta was seventh for Force India with McLaren's Jenson Button eighth after starting 14th. Mexican team mate Sergio Perez was ninth and Australian Daniel Ricciardo 10th for Toro Rosso.

After two-wins the Red Bull Racing team now has a strong lead in the 2013 championship standings with 109 points. From the technical standpoint, F1 engineers have a love-hate relationship with the Catalunya circuit. Despite having tested here in the winters and gathering a lot of data, racing there this time of the year in different weather conditions, changes the entire scenario. However Red Bull's weakness is tyre management, and their strengths lie in the aero packages or upgrades that are constantly introduced on the RB9. Depending on the upgrade they bring to Barcelona, in comparison with other teams is what will determine their outcome.

Here's what the Red Bull Racing team had to sayandhellip;

The Formula One season starts its European leg with the first European race of the year at the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona, which hosted two sessions of pre-season testing in February and March. After taking two wins in the first four races of the 2013 season, Sebastian Vettel is looking to be the one to catch again, whilst teammate Mark Webber will look to start his European campaign strongly to build upon his fifth position in the championship.

Although the drivers and mechanics are extremely familiar with the track given it's the sport's habitual testing venue, it remains one of the most challenging from a technical standpoint. With several good overtaking opportunities and such fierce competition throughout the field in 2013 this Spanish Grand Prix should prove to be action-packed. Once again tyre strategy will surely be crucial given the combination of the abrasive asphalt and high ambient temperatures.

In 2011 Infiniti's Director of Performance Vettel beat Lewis Hamilton to take the win by just over half a second, with Webber coming in fourth, and last year the duo finished sixth and 11th respectively. Marking the onset of a lengthy European season, consistency is important in ensuring momentum over the next few months. With seven different winners of the Spanish GP in the last seven seasons, we should see some close-fought battles adding to what is already proving to be an exciting and unpredictable campaign.

Sebastian Vettel

Q. What's your best memory of competing at the Spanish GP?

Sebastian Vettel: The win in 2011 was very special. It was a long race and for the last 20 or 30 laps I had a lot of pressure from behind from Lewis. I had no KERS to defend, so it was good to come out on top at the end.

Q. How's it racing back in Europe?

SV: Yes it's good to be back in Europe, and in Spain in particular. The atmosphere is always very special at the European races and the weather is usually good too. It helps that the travelling time to and from events is shorter and there's no need to adapt to a time difference.

Mark Webber

Q. What's your best memory of competing at the Spanish GP?

Mark Webber: My win in 2010, I qualified on pole and it was a race which I controlled from the front. I pulled a gap from Sebastian, then Lewis was behind me and put a little bit of pressure on me in the middle of the race, but he had a mechanical failure towards the end. It's rewarding because we do so much testing there, so it's good to go there and get a nice result. It's always a brilliant atmosphere in Spain. After the 2010 race I threw my race helmet into the crowd as a present for the fans.

Q. How's it racing back in Europe?

MW: It's a little bit easier; obviously the travel is very convenient and everything is within a striking distance of two hours. We all know the hotels well and the drill of how to get around. It's much more straightforward than some of the new venues; it's a nice time to be racing in Europe with the weather generally and it's a good atmosphere.

Here's what McLaren team had to sayandhellip;.

Jenson Button

"The start of the European season in Spain always feels like a fresh start to the year. Suddenly, you're back in Europe, the motorhomes and transporters are all lined up in the paddock, and it feels like a second home for everyone. It's been difficult for the team to make consistent progress through the first four races, but I think returning to a circuit where we undertook two of the pre-season tests will give us a useful benchmark of our progress so far."

"There's been a lot of talk about the importance of next weekend's upgrades; but, as with every upgrade, they're simply part of the series of continuous improvement that are made across the season. As always, there'll be elements of it that work, elements that perhaps work in a different way to what we'd anticipated, and elements that don't work, or perhaps require further work. That's life in modern Formula 1. So I'm pragmatic about what we'll discover next weekend. Of course, I'm hopeful that it'll move us a step closer towards the destination."

Sergio Perez

"I'm looking forward to having my first European race for Vodafone McLaren Mercedes. The Circuit de Catalunya is a place all grand prix drivers know well because we do a lot of miles there in the winter. It'll be a good place to test the car as it's a very demanding circuit aerodynamically. We have a lot of historic data from our testing there, and we'll get a good read on our performance when we start testing next Friday. It's quite a demanding circuit aerodynamically, too, so it should be a very useful weekend for us in terms of understanding the MP4-28 and the direction forwards that we choose to take."

"I hope that the introduction of two DRS zones at Barcelona will help improve the racing. We saw in both China and Bahrain that Formula 1 cars can race really closely if they are under the right conditions; Barcelona has always been a difficult circuit for overtaking, so I hope the new regulations will improve matters. It would be great for the thousands in the grandstands if there were some spectacular overtaking along the main straight."

Martin Whitmarsh , Team principal, McLaren Team

"The pace of life in Formula 1 never relents, and it's incredible to think that our return to Europe next week will see a quarter of the 2013 championship already gone. As with last year, form at the start of the season is still somewhat volatile and unpredictable; last year's Spanish Grand Prix saw an unexpected but worthy winner in Pastor Maldonado, and while it would be difficult to see another left-field runner emerging as a contender for victory, the formbook is still hard to read. We are pushing ahead to develop MP4-28, and will be hoping for a productive weekend that will allow us to gather a useful data set for the races ahead."

Despite the techincal failures that Mercedes had in the first round of the pre-season tests, they have come back strongly and put in some remarkable performances in the race. The W04 has managed to show good pace, especially in qualifying but definately suffers from excessive tyre wear, especially at the rear. If they manage to keep their tyres in shape, which they should taking into account that the Formula 1 circus is now heading to the relatively cooler regions of Europe, then we can definately expect a remarkable performance from the Silver Arrows team. Further, both Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg seem to be in top form, and given a car that manages tyres well, they can surely make a place for themselves on the podium. Hamilton currently runs third in the Championship standings, therefore a storng performance can help him increase his points lead over Ferrari's Fernando Alonso who has slipped down to fourth on the points table following two bad race weekends.

Here's what the Mercedes team had to say...

Nico Rosberg

"Iandacute;m looking forward to travelling to Spain next weekend. We know that the car went very well at the Circuit de Catalunya in pre-season testing so I am hopeful that we can have a strong weekend. We will have to wait and see how our pace compares however. Iandacute;ve been in the factory for a couple of days this week, on the simulator and meeting with the team, and everyone has been working hard to make progress on our race day performance. It will be an interesting weekend and once we see how everyone performs in Barcelona, it should give a good idea of how the rest of the season will look. "

Lewis Hamilton

"It feels like a long time since Bahrain so weandacute;re all looking forward to getting to Barcelona next weekend and starting to get into the routine of the European season. The short break has been good however, and Iandacute;ve had the chance to catch up with family and friends, and also spend some time at the factory with the guys, working on our efforts to improve. Weandacute;ve been boosted by the results that weandacute;ve had at the start of the season and to come away from the first four races with two third and two fifth places feels like a real achievement. Iandacute;m feeling very comfortable in the car now and we know the areas that we need to improve so a lot of effort is being put in to close that gap to the front-runners. Barcelona should be a good test as we know the circuit so well having completed most of the pre-season test programme there. The weekend should be a good benchmark of the progress we have made since then."

Ross Brawn

"In the two weeks since we returned from Bahrain, there has been a lot of hard work taking place in Brackley and Brixworth to prepare for the start of the European season in Barcelona next weekend. We have focused our efforts in two key areas; finalising our upgrade package for Spain and understanding our comparative lack of race pace in Bahrain. We have made progress in the latter area and will evaluate some developments over the upcoming race weekends to help improve the situation. Weandacute;re not there yet but we are making progress and of course, performing in the race is what really counts. The Circuit de Catalunya is a circuit that we know well and we have a lot of data from the two pre-season tests to help prepare for the weekend. However in the late spring conditions, we can expect the track to be of a very different nature to what we experienced earlier this year. Overtaking is more difficult there than at some of the early season tracks and, of course, every team will be bringing new developments so the weekend should provide an interesting challenge."

Toto Wolff

"The three-week break between the Bahrain and Spanish Grands Prix was welcome, as it gave us extra time to analyse in detail what happened at the last race. We have built a good picture of our varying levels of race performance and why we under-performed overall in Bahrain. In Barcelona, we will test some solutions aimed at improving our tyre management in addition to our planned upgrade package. The circuit itself is well known as a benchmark for aerodynamic performance and we performed strongly there at the end of winter testing. The track conditions and temperatures will be very different on the race weekend, though, so we must dial the car in to those circumstances. Our target is to improve our Sunday afternoon performance to match what we have delivered on Saturday in the past two races. It will certainly be interesting to see what gains everybody has made since the last time we were at the circuit and how the planned upgrade packages work from car to car."

After an unlucky weekend in Bahrain, Ferrari does seem optimistic about the Spanish Grand Prix mainly due to the upgrades that have been installed on the F138 and also because its Fernando Alonso's home track. Last year Alonso finished second in Spain and has won the race just once in 2006. However, to recover from the bad weekend Bahrain, the seven-time World Champions will have to to make sure that this time round they do no wrong, not on or off the track and aim for a win to reduce Sebastian Vettel's lead in the World Championship and to get close to Red Bull Racing team in the Constructor's title. Currently they are in third spot with 77 points trailing 32 points behind Red Bull Racing team and 19 points adrift of Lotus F1 team. A strong finish in Spain can help them make up for the points deficit.

Here's what Ferrari team had to sayandhellip;..

This weekend's Spanish Grand Prix signals the start of the European part of the season and more importantly, the point when all the teams run their first significant car updates of the year: in an interview to ferrari.com Scuderia Ferrari's Chief Designer, Nikolas Tombazis, assesses the first quartet of races and looks ahead to the Iberian weekend.

"I think in general, the first results mean we can be reasonably optimistic about the rest of the season, with a sense that we can fight for wins and the championship," reckons Tombazis. "However, if I was to score our overall performance, I would only give it a 6 out of 10 and that's for two main reasons: one is that we are not yet quite where we want to be. In the first four Grands Prix, we were not really able to fight for pole position and that is one of our main objectives at the moment. Secondly, if you look at the actual results, even if it's true we've had a win, which naturally we can be very pleased about, we have also had two very bad results where we scored very few points. However, I reiterate, that overall, we can be optimistic for the future."

The Scuderia has had its most competitive start to a season for many years and Tombazis reckons that is down to a variety of factors. "We have made a series of changes to our approach in terms of our working practices and also from an organisational point of view. At the same time, we are improving our facilities and I believe we now also have a better understanding about how certain aspects of the car work. Putting all that together has enabled us to make a better start to the season than in previous years."

"However, the process is not complete and we feel we are only halfway through these fundamental changes and we continue to work on improving all these parameters, which, in the case of our facilities, includes the work we are doing on our wind tunnel. I think the new working methods we have adopted and the new structure put in place has allowed us to be more creative and this was one of the objectives we established along with Pat Fry, to reorganise the place and to give people more time to think. We identified areas where, in the past few years, we were a bit understaffed, which meant people were under pressure and did not have time to think about what could make the car go faster. It is working, but there is room to improve still further, even though this aspect has definitely contributed to the improvement in performance that we have seen so far this year."

The first four races have taken place on race tracks each with very different characteristics to the others and added to this, the weather has thrown a full range of variables at the teams, from very hot to cold, from tropical downpours to dry desert heat. This has been challenging but it has also allowed engineers to get a view of how the cars perform in all conditions in just a few races.

"The variability of weather conditions as well as the different characteristics of the four tracks we have raced on so far has enabled us to gauge our relative strengths and weaknesses compared to our competitors," concurs Tombazis. "We have seen that we have been stronger in certain conditions, both in terms of track type and weather, than in others andndash;this includes looking at the type of corners, whether a circuit involves heavy braking and other similar parameters. Overall, depending on the circuit, some of these strengths and weaknesses will be highlighted and therefore, based on what we have seen so far, we do not expect a constant performance level over the next few races, but rather we do expect to be reasonably competitive in most conditions."

All this means that the Spanish Grand Prix is an important barometer of what we can expect from all the teams and what the hierarchy might be, at least for the next few races, because the Barcelona circuit provides an all-round test of a Formula 1 car's ability. "I believe most of our competitors will have a significant number of updates in Spain, which is not surprising, as there was a reasonably long gap after the first four races," says Tombazis.

"Of course, we too have updates and naturally, I don't want to go into too much detail, but they extend to the bodywork, floor and wings. With any new component, the difficulty lies not so much in its development but in deciding whether or not it is working on track as well as we had hoped. Therefore, by Friday evening in Barcelona, our objective is to have a clear view on what we will take forward to use in the race, in the hope of seeing measurements taken from the wind tunnel confirmed on track."

After a race win in Spain last year and an impressive overall performance in 2012 , Williams has had a really tough start to the season so far with not a single point scored after the first four rounds. Although their FW34 hasn't quite suffered from any major problems except for the KERS failure in Malaysia but their car just doesn't seem to have the pace to match up with the other mid-field teams like Force India and Toro Rosso. Having said that, they have been trying hard to make their way into the top ten and have got really close with two 11th place finishes. Williams have upgraded their car for Spain so they will be hoping that these changes with the motivation from their victory here last year will probably help them display a better performance in the upcoming race.

Pastor Maldonado: It will be very special to return to Barcelona after my win there last season. Whilst all the drivers know the track very well and we have some good data from testing here earlier in the year, the track changes quite a lot so you still need to familiarise yourself with the conditions during practice and set up the car accordingly. The choice of tyre compound will also be a big factor on how well the teams handle the track conditions as the track can be quite hard on tyres. We are now entering a very important part of the season because the next couple of races are quite close to the factory, so there will be more opportunities for us to react to our performance on track and make changes to the car.

Valtteri Bottas: Whilst I have never raced at Barcelona in Formula One, I know the track really well as I've raced there in Formula Renault and Formula 3 and I've done a lot of testing with Williams at the circuit. The win last year in Barcelona was a big motivational boost for everyone and was a good example of what we can achieve when everything comes together. We are working hard to get back to that level and following a good aero test last week at Idiada and a number upgrades coming for this race, hopefully Barcelona can be the start of improved performance for us this year.

Mike Coughlan, Technical Director: The Spanish Grand Prix is always one we look forward to as it is a track we all know well due to the amount of time spent there during winter testing. We also have fond memories of Pastor's win there last season. A lot of engine and chassis decisions are also based around Barcelona as teams have so much data from there.

Track conditions can change a lot during the weekend, making it a challenge to get a good set-up. The track layout, with its high average speed, also makes it quite hard on tyres. Surprisingly it has a similar power sensitivity to Monaco, due to the long corners and demand on handling. As the first race back in Europe, traditionally many teams will bring upgrades to their cars - and we are no different. Following a successful aero test at Idiada last week, we have a number of upgrades which we will be looking to run over the coming races.

In technical terms, the Lotus E21 is a championship contending car, but has lacked qualifying pace. With new front wing end plate detailing, a different rear wing, aero updates and modifications to the diffuser as a part of the upgrade package before the Spanish Grand Prix, it will be interesting to see how the E21 fairs in qualifying. James Allison has been the brain behind the car and a new Technical Director, Nick Chester replaces him in Barcelona. Having tested the cars previously at the same circuit, it will be interesting to see how the team manages to make the seamless transition after all the changes at Enstone in terms of team structure and a revised E21. Lotus has been known for its efficient tyre management and with the Pirelli hard tyre being tweaked to a harder compound for Spain, we may once again get to see Kimi Raikkonen pull a rabbit out of the hat and gain an advantage by making fewer stops than all other drivers on the grid.

Here's what James Allison had to say...

Q: What's the technical view heading to the first European race of the season?

James Allison: We're pretty well placed. Barcelona is similar in many regards to Bahrain; it's hard on the tyres with some challenging fast stuff thrown in. It's not so obviously rear-limited as Bahrain, but is nevertheless a circuit that challenges the tyres which has been a strength of the E21 thus far. That said, the start of the so-called European season andndash; where many teams unleash a raft of their latest upgrades andndash; could shake up the order somewhat.

Q: Talking of developments; what do we have in the upgrade cupboard for Catalunya?

JA: Nothing revolutionary, but plenty which should help us go faster. We have new front wing endplate detailing, new aero around the rear drums, modifications to the diffuser and a different top rear wing so there's plenty to help keep us in the hunt.

Q: The tyre allocation for Barcelona is different from the past two seasons and the hard compound has been revised: your thoughts?

JA: We've used Pirelli's hard and soft compounds for the last few years, so we were slightly surprised to see them opt for the more conservative hard and medium this season; albeit with the hard compound revised from what we have been using so far in 2013. The new hard is akin to last year's rubber; giving its best grip at lower temperatures than the one we started the year with and being more in line with the working range of the other compounds in use this season. It should work well for us in the race and the gap between option and prime in qualifying should be smaller than in previous years, giving more choices about how to tackle Q1 and Q2.

Q: What are the performance considerations for this race?

JA: Spain is certain to be cooler than Bahrain, but it's not that dissimilar. It's a circuit where the outcome of the race isn't only determined by whether you're on pole position, but rather by a combination of how far up the grid you are, how good your car is on race pace, how you manage the tyres and your race strategy. In pre-season we did one of the best race simulation runs at the final Barcelona test. but it's always difficult to tell what everyone's doing in testing and that was a good few months ago now.

Q. It's fair to say that the teams are pretty familiar with Barcelona: how does this affect things?

JA: The familiarity means you're not hunting around for things like ride heights, weight distributions, aero balance or roll stiffness as you know roughly where you want to be and it's a matter of fine tuning rather than finding your feet from scratch. That said, we know all of the circuits pretty wellandhellip;

Q: What went wrong in qualifying in Bahrain?

JA: We didn't manage to reproduce our Q2 time and although Kimi felt he'd produced a decent lap. It's so close at the front that just the smallest margin can make that difference; a slight temperature difference from the track, a small variation between sets of tyres, a change in wind direction or force, or the way a driver prepares the tyres on the out-lap can all be a factor. Fortunately it was at a track where the net result was unchanged; a podium looked possible from the front row or elsewhere.

Q: Romain had a much better race in Bahrain andndash; can this be sustained?

JA: We're confident that the step forward in Bahrain was genuine, and is something we can continue in future races to allow Romain to show what he's got.

Q: What can we realistically expect in Barcelona?

JA: With our pre-season form at the circuit and our reasonably useful showing at all four races so far this season, we head to Spain hopeful of a good race.

After a season in which Sauber proved to be the strongest mid-field team in Formula1, it has had a pretty unimpressive start to the season. With two retirements for Mexican rookie Esteban Gutierrez in the first four races, Nico Hulkenberg remains the only driver to bring the team some points. However Sauber is relying the updates made to the C32 for strong performances in Spain and Monaco. The C32 gets a modified rear wing and aero packages that will be installed for Barcelona. It is critical for a Sauber to pick up on its pace as they have only earned five points in the first four races and are two points adrift off Torro Rosso in eighth place on the constructors' table

Here's what the Sauber F1 team had to say andhellip;..

After eight months, the Sauber F1 Team's trucks finally leave the workshop again this Sunday. Their destination will be the kick-off for the European races at the Spanish Grand Prix, which takes place on 10th to 12th May in Barcelona. Sauber F1 Team drivers Nico Handuuml;lkenberg and Esteban Gutiandeacute;rrez know the Circuit de Catalunya well. However, both drivers agree that, since winter testing in February and March, many things have changed. During the first four races, the C32 has been updated. For the fifth round of the FIA Formula One World Championship the team will bring further aero updates and a modified rear wing to the race.

Nico Handuuml;lkenberg :

"I'm looking forward to the Spanish Grand Prix because it kicks off this season's European races. Barcelona is a nice city where you can get a real feel for the Spanish life style. We know the Circuit de Catalunya well, of course, from the winter tests. However, since winter testing many things have changed and also the climate will be different from the one we had in February, which you have to take into consideration. The circuit is diverse. The first two sectors are fast with fast, long corners, which require good down force and a well-balanced car, whereas the third sector is quite technical. The aero updates we bring to this race will show how well our car is suited to this track."

Esteban Gutiandeacute;rrez :

"The first time I raced in Barcelona was in 2008. I know the track and during the winter tests I was also able to experience driving a Formula One car there. As the first of a series of European races, I think it is going to be an exciting event and I'm looking forward to that. The track is quite demanding, especially the last sector. Tyre management will be crucial here, and, especially during a qualifying lap, you need to nurse your tyres in the first two sectors in order to get a clean third sector. You must make sure the tyres still have good grip when you approach the final corners of the lap, including the chicane. We have to wait and see if the updates will help us to catch up with the guys further up the field."

Tom McCullough, Head of Track Engineering:

"Although Barcelona is a track we know well from winter testing, the higher temperatures do change how the tyres perform, so we have to adapt to that. The first two sectors are biased towards higher speed corners, whereas the third sector is dominated by a technical sequence of lower speed corners, hence the set-up is always a compromise. The option tyre will be the medium compound and for the prime Pirelli are re-introducing the 2012 hard compound for this event. We have some further aero updates, including a modified rear wing, and we will be evaluating these during Friday practice. Qualifying is particularly important here as overtaking can be difficult in the race. Our target for the race is to finish with both cars in the points."

In a recent announcement the Lotus F1 Team declared the appointment of Nick Chester as the new Technical Director of the team. Chester will be replacing James Allison who has worked with the team since 2005 and has been the Technical Director of the team for over four years.

James Allison has worked with the team from 1991 to 1992 and 1994 to 1999 when the team was in the Benetton outfit. He had a short stint with Ferrari where he worked under Ross Brawn from 2000 to 2004 and later rejoined Lotus in 2005 when it started as the Renault F1 team. Allison continued with the outfit even when it changed from the Renault F1 Team to the current black and gold Lotus outfit.

Allison has played a prime role in designing the E20 and the current E21 and shaping the team's performance over the last two seasons. Team Principal Eric Boullier commented on Allison's exit saying "As a team and individually, we would all like to thank James Allison for his efforts during his three stints at Enstone and wish him all the best in his future endeavours."

Although Allison is yet to officially announce his future plans, after Paddy Lowe's exit from McLaren, he has been linked with the Woking-based team according to some speculations. Williams is also another team that could possibly use his expertise to revive its form. The Grove based outfit has been a front-runner and won multiple championships but has failed to live up to that image in recent times, and Allison's entry there could change the course of the game for the team.

Nevertheless, at Enstone he has been replaced by Nick Chester who was previously the Engineering Director of Lotus F1 team. Chester has worked with the team for more than twelve years and has played the role of Head of Performance Systems, Head of Vehicle Performance Group and Race Engineer within that span.

On appointing the new Technical Director Boullier said, "Nick is well known to everyone at Enstone having been with the team for over twelve years. He is already directly involved with this and next year's cars, ensuring a smooth transition which has been underway for some time."

Prior to joining the Enstone based squad Chester has worked with the Arrows Grand Prix team for five years. On stepping into his new role at the team Chester said, "I am very aware of our need to keep pushing development of this year's E21 whilst developing next year's car to a set of very different regulations. There are some exciting times ahead for Enstone and I'm honoured to be part of it."

Allison resigning comes as a big blow to the Enstone based team mainly for the fact that he has played a critical role not just in developing the E21 but also in moulding the team from a mid-field team to a championship contending team. Also, taking into consideration the fact that he has been the brains behind championship winning cars for Benetton, Ferrari and Renault, speaks volumes about the man; and all of his experience could really come in handy for the team in developing the new car as per the reformed regulations for 2014.

With a victory in the opening race of the season and two other podium places Kimi Raikkonen has undoubtedly proven to be even more consistent than last year. The Lotus E21 has been reliable and has maintained tyres like no other car on the grid and the result was evident in Bahrain when the Finn opted for a two-stop strategy when mos other drivers were struggling with their rubber. The Enstone-based team needs to take a closer look at the pace of the car in qualifying, especially for a circuit like Catalunya and Monaco where overtaking opportunitites are fewer and the qualifying position reflects in the race result.

Here's what Kimi Raikkonen had to say...

Q. Yourself and the team currently occupy P2 in both the Drivers' and Constructors' Championships; are you pleased with how things are going?

Kimi Raikkonen: For sure it's an okay start and we're in a better position that this time last year, but there's a long season ahead and it's too early to say if we can fight for the Championships right to the end. It's going to be hard to catch Sebastian [Vettel] if he keeps taking good results so we need to start taking more points from him, but you never know what can happen. We'll keep pushing to improve the car and see where we end up.

Q. What's required to bridge that gap to P1?

KR: Some more wins To catch the leaders, we have to work twice as hard as they are. It's no secret that we want more speed from the car in qualifying; it's so tight up there at the front and we really need to be on the first two rows to fight for victories every time. It's good to be able to start the European season where we are as this is when you see teams starting to push on with lots of new parts for the cars. It's still early days, but to have scored strong points since the start of the year is obviously better than not having them. We need to keep scoring points in the same way; even if it's a bad weekend for us, we need to keep finishing as well as we can. That's how we will fight to the end of the season.

Q. How is the Circuit of Catalunya for you?

KR: I have won twice in Barcelona and I was on the podium there last year too, so I really look forward to going there again; hopefully to end the weekend with another good result. It's a circuit where you have to get everything exactly right to be at the top. All the teams have tested many times at this circuit, so to get an advantage there is not very easy. The set-up is crucial as the track changes with the wind and temperature so there's plenty of work for the engineers too.

Q. Is it good to be racing in Europe again?

KR: I really like racing in Europe. We don't have to travel that far so all your energy is saved for the weekend itself. Traditionally the real season starts when coming back to Europe. For me, it's great.

Q. The Circuit de Catalunya is the only circuit at which you've tested the E21 so far; does that help matters?

KR: That's true, but you have to remember that was at the end of February and the beginning of March so conditions were very different compared to what we hope to see in May. It was very difficult to get the tyres working properly when we were last there, but it was the same for everybody. We all start from zero again in FP1.

Q. The team didn't get so much mileage at Barcelona during testing, but reliability doesn't seem to be so much of a concern now the season is underway?

KR: I didn't have that many laps there in testing as there were problems with the car and I also missed a day as I was unwell. That said, me and the team know the track pretty well so I don't think we'll be too surprised about which way the track goes or what setup to use on the car. Even though I didn't get a lot of mileage in pre-season, the main thing was I felt good in the car the whole time. Our car seems to be good at every circuit so farandhellip;

Q. You were quite reserved after the podium finish in Bahrain; were you happy with the result?

KR: You're never really happy if you don't win, but I suppose second place is as close as you can get. We could maybe have been a few places higher in in qualifying which would have made things easier, but I drove to the maximum and luckily we found the pace in the car that was missing in qualifying. Let's hope I'm happier in Spain.

Vijay's Vision

Team Principal, Dr Mallya, reflects on the team's best ever start to a season.

The return to Europe after the first few flyaway races is an excellent moment to catch our breath and evaluate where we stand. Overall the balance is extremely positive for Sahara Force India with our best ever start to a season. In terms of points scored we are nine points up compared to last year and we've been up at the sharp end fighting with the big teams.

After the pit stop problems in Malaysia, points finishes in China and Bahrain have set us back on the right path, but nobody in the team is taking it for granted and we will not rest on our laurels. At both the factory and at the track, everyone is working hard to ensure we can build on these good results. We intend to hold our ground and remain in the hunt for points and podiums.

Looking at our drivers, the performances of Paul Di Resta confirm just how much he has matured as a driver. He's delivering consistently every week and we are reaping the rewards of all his hard work. He suffered a difficult end to the 2012 season, but he's shown great mental strength and determination to regroup over the winter and recapture his best form. He's pushing the team on and demanding the best from everyone, which is what we need.

Adrian Sutil has also shown his speed so far but the luck has not gone his way. The last two races have been very frustrating because he's been the victim of other drivers' mistakes. Without these incidents he would surely have scored well in both China and Bahrain. His race pace in Bahrain was remarkable because he was one of the fastest cars on track.

Having come so tantalisingly close to the podium with Paul last time out, we head to Barcelona full of optimism. The hard work everyone is putting in is paying off and we hope to see the rewards this coming weekend.

Paul on Barcelona

Paul, you've enjoyed your strongest start to a season andndash; what's your feeling after four racesandhellip;

We've got to feel very happy with how things are going and I want to congratulate everybody in the team. We took a very sensible approach to the winter and focussed on understanding the key areas that drive performance, which seems to have paid off. It's important to pick up good points early in the season against our competitors and to be ahead of McLaren after four races is a credit to the team and a nice feeling. Of course we want to be on the podium and it was very close in Bahrain, but I'm sure it will come soon enough.

Do you feel you have a car that will be competitive on any type of circuit?

The car is performing well, especially in the heat, and we were also strong in the cooler conditions of China andndash; so that's a good sign. The key is making sure you find the right operating window whatever the conditions because that's what makes the difference. We need to keep doing what we're doing, but at the same time we know the return to Europe always sees every team bring more upgrades. Hopefully we can stay fighting with the big teams and keep picking up the points.

With two tests already completed in Barcelona do you feel well prepared ahead of this weekend's race?

I guess we have more data around Barcelona than anywhere else, but at the same time the temperatures will be much higher at this time of year. So I'd expect that to change things quite a lot and impact on the tyres. Also, it's one of those tracks where you're constantly chasing the right aero balance to cope with the long, high-speed corners, especially turn three. But when you come to the end of the lap you need the mechanical grip for the hairpins and chicanes.

Adrian on Barcelona

Adrian, four races in, how do you sum up the start of 2013?

The start of the season was good, especially if you consider I had only two or three test days to prepare. Australia was a strong race and the best way to come back to Formula One. Since then I've been unlucky with being hit in China and the puncture in Bahrain, and I definitely missed out on a few good points. On the other hand there are lots of positives, especially the performance of the car and the experience of the races. It is still early in the season so there is more to come and the car is really fast. I'm sure we can recover the points we lost in the last few races.

How hard is it to accept the disappointment when you're simply in the wrong place at the wrong time andndash; as was the case in China and Bahrain?

These things happen all the time in Formula One andndash; sometimes you benefit from them and sometimes it goes against you instead. They all balance by the end of the year. I try not to spend too much time thinking about the negatives, I try to move on and focus on how to do better. If something happens, I think whether I did anything wrong, learn from it and avoid doing it again.

What do you expect from the upcoming race in Barcelona?

I know Barcelona really well from all the testing we've done there over the years. It is important, after three difficult races without points, to finish the race without any incidents. If I do that, I should have the pace to be among the front-runners. I have to do my job, avoid mistakes and hopefully my luck will change. Wherever we have gone so far, the car has been competitive, so the next few races should see us scoring points and close to the podium.

McLaren principal Martin Whitmarsh said last month that the Spanish Grand Prix updates had to deliver a real performance improvement in Barcelona if the team were to stay in the championship reckoning. "It's been difficult for the team to make consistent progress in the first four races," Button said in a team preview on Friday. "But I think returning to a circuit where we undertook two of the pre-season tests will give us a useful benchmark of our progress so far.

"There's been a lot of talk about the importance of next weekend's upgrades," added the 33-year-old. "But, as with every upgrade, they're simply part of the series of continuous improvement that are made across the season. "There'll be elements of it that work, elements that perhaps work in a different way to what we'd anticipated and elements that don't work or perhaps require further work...so I'm pragmatic about what we'll discover next weekend."

Button, who was highly critical of his Mexican team mate Sergio Perez after a wheel-to-wheel duel in the previous race in Bahrain, remained hopeful that McLaren would be closer to the front than before at the Circuit de Catalunya. Rivals also expected that to be the case.

"We know McLaren are going to bounce back, they've got a huge amount of resources, they don't lie down," Force India's Paul Di Resta said in Bahrain after finishing fourth to put his team ahead of McLaren in the constructors' standings. McLaren are sixth with 23 points while Force India have 26. Champions Red Bull lead the standings with 109.