Formula 1's Latest Rumours and Talk: Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull and More

Jock Clear only started work with Ferrari at the beginning of the year, but the highly experienced engineer has already seen enough to understand why Sebastian Vettel is among the most successful drivers in modern-day Formula One.

Vettel's third-place finish at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix means he has claimed 14 podiums in his first 20 races as a Ferrari driver, but Clear has claimed the key to the German's success is not only his on-track performances but also his outstanding communication and motivational skills.

An ability to extract the most out of the team around him played an instrumental role in Vettel's four consecutive title triumphs with Red Bull Racing, but his former employers have been unable to hit those heights since the end of 2013.

Following an encouraging start to 2016 at Albert Park, Melbourne, however, team principal Christian Horner has claimed Red Bull are aiming to fight Ferrari and Vettel from June's Canadian GP.

While Red Bull are looking ahead, Williams are very much looking over their shoulder after a muted performance in Melbourne, with chief technical officer Pat Symonds admitting they have fallen behind Toro Rosso—a team with year-old engines—in the competitive order.

Much of Williams' disappointment at the Australian GP can be attributed to Romain Grosjean, who kept a number of cars behind him—including that of Valtteri Bottas—to score points for the brand-new Haas team.

Haas have been warmly welcomed to F1, but Symonds has questioned whether the American outfit's journey to the grid is positive for the sport.

Closing our latest roundup is Bob Fernley, who has explained why Force India are in favour of persevering with the unpopular elimination-style qualifying format.

Jock Clear Praises Sebastian Vettel's Influence on Ferrari

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Jock Clear, the Ferrari senior performance engineer, has praised Sebastian Vettel's impact on the team, claiming the four-time world champion is as influential off the track as he is behind the wheel.

Since arriving at Ferrari at the beginning of 2015, Vettel has established himself as the Prancing Horse's focal point, claiming 13 podiums finishes—including three race victories—last season before recording a third-place finish at Sunday's Australian Grand Prix, during which he led the opening phase of the race.

Clear is one of the most recognisable team personnel in F1, having worked alongside the likes of Jacques Villeneuve, Rubens Barrichello, Lewis Hamilton and Vettel's boyhood idol, Michael Schumacher, before formally joining Ferrari from Mercedes at the beginning of the year.

And the 52-year-old has claimed Vettel has exceeded his expectations, praising the German's intelligence, leadership and communication skills. Clear said, per ESPN F1's Nate Saunders: 

"

I knew a little bit about him before. Having worked with Michael a few years ago, he was a good friend of Michael's and I remember well that Michael spoke very highly of him when we were all working together. So I was excited about this opportunity as I was about working with Kimi [Raikkonen], and Seb has been everything I was expecting of him. ...

He is a four-time world champion and that shines through whenever you see him in the garage, in the car, or in the factory, or in the simulator. He knows how to bring the best out of people. He knows how to drag the team forward. He knows how to communicate and those aspects of being an F1 racing driver are so critical to the modern F1 team driving forward.

It is a team effort and they do carry a huge responsibility of motivation and direction, and I know that Seb understands that. You can see that what be bring to the part is just invaluable and that is what singles out the world champions from the other guys in the pit lane. They just know how it works and Seb has all of that and more.

"

As well as his work with Ferrari, Vettel has an active role as a director of the Grand Prix Drivers' Association, which on Wednesday published an open letter claiming "the decision-making process in the sport is obsolete and ill-structured and prevents progress being made."

Red Bull Hope to Match Ferrari by Canada After Encouraging Australian GP Display

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Christian Horner, the Red Bull team principal, believes the four-time world champions may soon be capable of challenging Ferrari after an encouraging performance in the Australian Grand Prix.

After failing to win a race for the first time in seven years in 2015, Red Bull made a promising start to the 2016 campaign at Albert Park, where Daniel Ricciardo finished a comfortable fourth.

Although Daniil Kvyat failed to start the race in Australia for the second successive season, Ricciardo made good progress from eighth on the grid, crossing the finish line just 14 seconds adrift of third-placed Sebatian Vettel and more than 34 seconds ahead of fifth-placed Felipe Massa.

In pre-season, Horner said Red Bull were expecting a year of two halves in 2016, per BBC Sport, suggesting his team would start poorly before making "significant progress" over the course of the campaign.

But after the RB12 car's "pretty competitive" showing in Australia, per Motorsport.com's Jonathan Noble, Horner believes the upgrade to Renault's power unit, which is scheduled to arrive at June's Canadian GP, could propel Red Bull even closer to the front. 

He told Noble:

"

I think for sure we made a bit of progress, particularly in the race conditions. It's less so in qualifying, but particularly in the race.

So I think if we get the next step that we're all hoping for, then that's going to move us into a more competitive position.

But fundamentally the chassis is working very well. The degradation on the tyres has been very good. Our stint lengths seemed as long as the best, and we were competitive when Ricciardo was on the same tyre in clear air: he was doing the same times as Seb. ...

Ferrari isn't a huge amount ahead. So if we can keep our heads down and keep pushing, it's not unfeasible that in the second half of the year we can be taking it to them a bit.

"

Ricciardo has shared Horner's enthusiasm, saying Red Bull "were not far off" the pace set by Mercedes and Ferrari "in parts of the race," according to Motorsport.com's Adam Cooper.

Meanwhile, Red Bull advisor Dr Helmut Marko has revealed the team seriously considered building their own V6 turbo powertrains in the early stages of 2014, when their relationship with Renault began to deteriorate, per Autosport's Dieter Rencken and Lawrence Barretto.

However, Marko said "the costs and complexity of the whole thing" meant the team didn't pursue the idea for long.

Williams Have Fallen Behind Toro Rosso in Pecking Order, Admits Pat Symonds

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Pat Symonds, the Williams chief technical officer, has admitted his team have lost their status as the third-fastest team in Formula One, claiming Scuderia Toro Rosso are now ahead of them in the competitive order.

After finishing third in the constructors' championship in 2014 and 2015, Williams entered the new season with aspirations of winning their first race since the Spanish Grand Prix in May 2012, as Valtteri Bottas said at a pre-season event.

However, the team made a quiet start to the campaign in Australia, where Bottas could only recover to eighth after being eliminated from Q2. Team-mate Felipe Massa finished fifth—almost a minute behind the race-winning Mercedes of Nico Rosberg.

Although mistakes by their team meant Carlos Sainz Jr. and Max Verstappen finished ninth and 10th in the race respectively, Toro Rosso made an impressive start to 2016 at Albert Park, where Verstappen qualified a career-best fifth after conducting plenty of mileage over the winter.

And Symonds has acknowledged Williams are behind the Red Bull B Team, who are running year-old Ferrari engines in 2016, in the pecking order, per Autosport's Lawrence Barretto: 

"

In testing, we were not completely clear where Toro Rosso were.

When we rank the cars, we put error bars on our rankings because it's not perfect data and we had put error bars which were more negative than positive on the Toro Rosso and that was a mistake.

We should have made them symmetrical and then they would have been pretty good. 

Toro Rosso is the one which has really surprised us. The others are quite close to where we thought they would be.

"

The same source reports Symonds claimed the battle between Williams, Force India and Red Bull is too close to call but suggested the competitiveness of each team may "change on different circuits," warning against drawing too many conclusions from the first race of 2016.

Pat Symonds Criticises Haas' Approach to F1 After Point-Scoring Debut

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As well as expressing fears about his own team, Symonds expressed concerns over the way Haas have entered Formula One following the American outfit's points finish in the Australian Grand Prix.

Haas became the first new team to score debut points since 2002. Romain Grosjean was fitted with medium-compound tyres following the red-flag stoppage and resisted pressure from faster cars, including Force India's Nico Hulkenberg and Williams' Valtteri Bottas, to finish as high as sixth.

After being granted an entry to F1 almost two years ago, Haas agreed a technical partnership with Ferrari, which allowed the newcomers to buy several components, known as "listed parts," as they prepared for their maiden campaign.

As such, Haas have been regarded as a Ferrari B Team, with team principal Guenther Steiner saying, per Motorsport.com's Pablo Elizalde, Grosjean's lofty finish at Albert Park "wouldn't have happened" without Ferrari's help.

Following the troubles experienced by the three new teams in 2010—of which only one, Manor, remain on the grid today—Haas' approach to F1 has been widely commended.

But while Symonds has congratulated Haas, he fears the American outfit's success may signal the beginning of the end for so-called "constructor teams" in F1, per Motorsport.com's Jonathan Noble: 

"

I think that the status of being a constructor is being gradually eroded. And some would like it completely eroded.

I think what Haas has done is good for him, but I don't know if that's the way F1 should be going.

It is totally legal, but is it really what F1 wants? I'm not sure. ...

I think that when we had the listed parts, the original listed parts, it was quite pragmatic.

It allowed you to sell a few sensible things like transmissions that are high value, low performance impact. But it got whittled away, and some wanted it whittled even further.

I would prefer F1 to have more of an emphasis on constructors.

"

Team owner Gene Haas has defended his outfit's approach, per a separate Motorsport.com article, saying Haas' rivals should "welcome" and "appreciate" the "good competition."

The same source reported he added that teams that purchase engines, gearboxes and other components from manufacturers are not too dissimilar to Haas.

Force India's Bob Fernley Hopes F1 Perseveres with Elimination-Style Qualifying

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Deputy team principal Bob Fernley has revealed Force India are not in favour of Formula One reverting to its previous qualifying format despite the widespread criticism of the elimination-style structure used at the Australian Grand Prix.

Under a month before the beginning of the 2016 season, the FIA confirmed that the F1 Commission had "unanimously accepted" a proposal to overhaul qualifying—aimed at enhancing the spectacle of the racing—with a three-part elimination procedure used for the first time at Albert Park.

Although the change led to frantic on-track action in the early stages of qualifying, a lack of drama in Q3 led to the team bosses meeting on the morning of the race and deciding to revert to the previous format—first introduced in 2006—in time for the second round in Bahrain, as reported by BBC Sport's Andrew Benson.

However, Motorsport.com's Jonathan Noble has reported that F1 is set to "trial a tweaked elimination format" at the Bahrain GP that will see Q1 and Q2 will be held under the new regulations and Q3 under the previous structure.

Fernley believes F1 should think carefully before rushing to abandon the completely elimination-style format, claiming qualifying played a part in the exciting season opener by allowing teams to experiment with different tyre strategies. He said, relayed by Autosport's Dieter Rencken and Glenn Freeman:

"

Part of the reason the qualifying [change] was done was the race.

How can you make that decision if you have not even done the race?

We didn't vote for it [to be changed back].

I asked for it to be noted that we were strictly against it on principle and time should be given for it.

I hope that more people will take our position with a bit of time to think about it.

The tyres, the qualifying, everything had an impact on this race. Maybe we should wait a little bit more.

It was too knee-jerk a reaction and I think some very interesting things came out of it.

"

Per the same source, Fernley claimed the lack of track action at the end of Q3, when no cars were circulating during the supposed crescendo of the hour-long session, has been overplayed. But he insisted Force India would not prevent a return of the previous qualifying structure "if it is in the best interest" of F1.

Fernley's comments come after Mercedes boss Toto Wolff said, per Motorsport.com's Noble, that F1 should examine better ways to implement an elimination-style format.

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