NEWS FLASH

Pedro de la Rosa believes James Key's arrival at the Sauber team has been a big boost for the Swiss squad. Key started working as technical director of the Hinwil-based squad in last weekend's Chinese Grand Prix, having left the Force India team earlier this year. The 38-year-old Briton is now aiming to raise the performance of the team following a slow start to the season.

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Ross Brawn has admitted to being shocked by the lack of pace of Michael Schumacher in Shanghai. In the first three races, seven times world champion was always close to his team-mate Nico Rosberg, but in China was more than seven tenths slower than Rosberg in qualifying and the race finished with more than hour time gap. Norbert Haug suspect a problem with the car chassis of Schumacher, and he told the German press that Schumi will race in Barcelona with a new version of the W01.

"Give us a chance to check this theory and find a good explanation," said Haug.

Sporting director Ross Brawn, who worked with Schumacher at Benetton and Ferrari always with great success, admitted after the Chinese Grand Prix that "the pace is problem for German.

"It`s difficult to understand difficulties of Schumacher. So far, he was catching Nico, but what happened in China was totally oposite," said Brawn.

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Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo has announced that he will step down as chairman of the Fiat group. The Italian will be replaced by 34-year-old John Elkann, scion of the Agnelli family that controls the group. Di Montezemolo had been the Fiat chairman for the past six years, during which the car maker enjoyed a significant revival when it was struggling financially.