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Four times world champion Alain Prost will be the drivers’ representative on the stewards’ panel at the Bahrain Grand Prix this weekend.

Red Bull Racing team principal Christian Horner has played down the possibility of his team deciding to officially protest the McLaren over its ingenious aerodynamic devices. Horner expressed his unhappiness about the slot that McLaren has in its rear wing ahead of the first race of the season - although that area forms only one part of a package of solutions McLaren is using. As well as a very aggressive double diffuser, McLaren is also believed to be using an innovative concept of flowing air through a vent into the cockpit - where the driver can influence it to help stall the rear wing on the straight

McLaren boss Martin Whitmarsh expects his team’s rivals to stop their complaints and instead start copying the radical ‘venting’ system that features on his car after it passed an FIA inspection and scrutineering for the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix.

An officially sanctioned Formula 1 movie is set to hit the cinema screens early next year after a landmark deal was reached with the sport’s commercial chief Bernie Ecclestone. Preparations are now well underway for the film, which will be an action documentary charting the history of the sport but focusing especially on the period between 1968 and 1982.

Participating: Fernando ALONSO (Ferrari), Jenson BUTTON (McLaren), Lewis HAMILTON (McLaren), Felipe MASSA (Ferrari), Michael SCHUMACHER (Mercedes GP). Q

The Renault F1 team has announced a sponsorship agreement with HP for the 2010 and 2011 seasons. The new deal means the HP branding will appear on the Renault cars from this weekend’s Bahrain Grand Prix. As part of the agreement, Renault will gain access to HP technology in order to improve on-track performance

Formula 1’s ruling body will re-open the selection process for a potential 13th team to join the sport in 2011, the FIA said on Thursday. The governing body has taken the decision after US F1, which had the 13th slot for the 2010 season, failed to be ready to compete in this year’s championship. The American team had requested that the FIA delayed its entry for next year

McLaren’s car has been given the all-clear to race at the Bahrain Grand Prix after passing scrutineering checks on Thursday.

Sebastian Vettel believes the top four teams are just a few tenths off each other, but the Red Bull driver believes things could change significantly given the hot weather in Bahrain. “You don’t really know where you are, so we don’t know where we are,” Vettel told reporters in Bahrain. “We think we are really up there

Rubens Barrichello thinks the 2010 season will not only be much more open and exciting than recent years, but also far tougher for the drivers than the last time they had to cope with full tanks in grands prix in 1993. The veteran Brazilian is optimistic that the end of mid-race refuelling will encourage overtaking on-track as disparities between cars’ performance will be greater as some handle better on low fuel and others when fully laden. “I think there will be more overtaking most probably,” he predicted

Jarno Trulli admits his Lotus team’s target for the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix is to make it to the finish of the race. Lotus has been around five seconds off the pace of the leading teams during winter testing, having built and tested its F1 car in record time after gaining an entry in the second half of last year.

Pedro de la Rosa has played down the advantage his Sauber team may have with the use of the tyres ahead of the start of the season. An analysis carried out by Bridgestone suggested after winter testing that the Sauber C29 is very good at looking after its tyres, something that will be crucial this year, with refuelling banned. But de la Rosa reckons the conditions during testing have been very different to those the team will face in Bahrain.

Fernando Alonso is refusing to get too confident about Ferrari’s title prospects despite its strong performance in winter testing.

Robert Kubica has warned that getting Renault back to the front cannot be achieved overnight as the squad has fallen a long way since its title-winning glory days. The team was only eighth in last year’s constructors’ championship, and was rocked by the fallout from the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix scandal. Kubica said that although Renault was winning championships just four years ago, the team was realistic about its current position and not underestimating the task ahead

Nico Rosberg is optimistic that he will be able to hold his own against Mercedes team-mate Michael Schumacher this season and says that he is looking forward to proving himself against the seven-times world champion. Rosberg, who left Williams at the end of last year to join the championship-winning former Brawn outfit, ended the final pre-season Barcelona test with a faster time than Schumacher

Mercedes boss Norbert Haug has called for patience for the new teams coming into Formula 1 this year, but he admits they will have to make big steps to put on a decent showing.

World champion Jenson Button won a prestigious Laureus award on Wednesday evening, the Briton receiving the Breakthrough of the Year accolade.

Jacques Villeneuve is set to join the BBC’s Radio 5 Live commentary team for the Bahrain Grand Prix. The 1997 Formula 1 world champion, who has been disappointed in recent weeks after his plans to return to F1 this year with Stefan GP collapsed when the team was not granted a last-minute 2010 entry, will move into the commentary box for the first race of the season. The incumbent Radio 5 Live team consists of David Croft and ex-Honda driver Anthony Davidson

Bruno Senna says there will not be a problem with disparity in speed between cars this weekend in Bahrain, as long as the drivers respect each other.

Bruno Senna had a few scares in the last few weeks as Campos was restructured as Hispania, but despite briefly fearing he was about to lose his Formula 1 seat, the team was saved and he will make his grand prix debut this weekend. AUTOSPORT was there to hear Senna’s thoughts on the task ahead and the last few nervous months as the Brazilian met reporters in the Bahrain paddock today