Stewart suggested to F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone that he should host a race in Bahrain and the first one took place in 2004. The 2011 Bahrain Grand Prix was notoriously canceled after a political uprising in the country and although it went ahead this year, there is already talk of the 2013 race being under threat. Stewart said that Bahrain's rulers have taken steps to accommodate the demands of the majority Shia population who were behind the uprising. However, he added that this may not be apparent immediately and it is part of a long process.

“They have got to change but it will not happen in five years, never mind 12 months,” he said. “It's not true that nothing has happened since we were there . . . my view is that we really need that region of the world because it is one of our biggest allies for energy and all sorts of things in the economy.”

Bahrain's Mumtalakat wealth fund owns 50 percent of the McLaren F1 team, and Stewart said, “If you didn't have Bahrain you wouldn't have McLaren.”

After more than 22 years as Head of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport, Daimler AG Vice President Norbert Haug will conclude his career at the end of 2012. His contract will come to an end by mutual agreement with the Board of Management. Preparations for the forthcoming season continue as planned.

Formula 1 would be better off with just 10 teams as long as Ferrari is one of them, according to Bernie Ecclestone.

F1's governing body backtracked on aerodynamic changes for the 2014 season because of fears the next generation of cars would be too slow.

After the recent World Motor Sport Council meeting in Turkey, the FIA announced that scheduled bodywork rule changes for 2014 to reduce downforce have been replaced by "2012 specification".

Dumpster diving yields better results when it’s done in the correct dumpster. Kevin Thomas, a regular bloke living near Brighton, England, is surrounded by fantastic dumpsters. In his garden shed, Thomas is slowly putting together his own Formula 1 car based on parts from a 2001 British American Racing 003. The idea came to him after seeing an F1 car in a Renault showroom. Not long after, he saw an F1 tub listed on eBay. The auction ended with no bidders, so he sent the lister an e-mail. It worked. Thomas told Racecar Engineering magazine: “[The seller] turned up on my doorstep with a Reynard BAR  01 and a BAR 003. I paid him cash for the pair.”