In total there were 11 teams running in Jerez, with only Marussia not present. Most teams were giving their new cars a debut outing, however both Mercedes and HRT were running 2011 specification cars. Both Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher got a chance to run in the Mercedes today.

Raikkonen wanted to start strongly and send out a positive message and he certainly did that; he was straight into the groove, after his two day outing in Valencia in an old Renault F1 car recently. His time of 1m19.670s was competitive and he set the pace for most of the day in the new Lotus Renault E20, but Force India’s Paul di Resta ran him close. The Scot had an encouraging day with over 100 laps covered in the new Force India car, which was shaken down at Silverstone on Friday.

Also putting in a solid mileage was the new Sauber C31, with Kamui Kobayashi covering the highest mileage of the day with 106 laps, pretty impressive for a brand new car.

Caterham’s new car had a few Day 1 niggles including a starter shaft problem which meant they had trouble getting the engine started as well as a cooling issue, and the new Toro Rosso stopped out on track with Dan Ricciado at the wheel due to an oil pressure problem.

Times are secondary at this stage to mileage, but nevertheless the pace was pretty strong for Day 1. Last year Felipe Massa set the fastest time on Day 1 in Jerez with 1m 20.709s, a second slower than this year. And last year Jerez was the second test after a session at Valencia, so the cars were more sorted.

The Pirelli tyres are a step softer this year, but against that the cars have lost a lot of downforce from the banning of blown diffusers.

Jerez test: Day 1
1. Kimi Raikkonen Lotus 1m19.670s 73 Laps
2. Paul di Resta Force India 1m19.772s + 0.102 101 Laps
3. Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1m20.219s + 0.549 56 Laps
4. Mark Webber Red Bull 1m20.496s + 0.826 53 Laps
5. Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso 1m20.694s + 1.024 57 Laps
6. Michael Schumacher Mercedes 1m20.794s + 1.124 41 Laps
7. Kamui Kobayashi Sauber 1m21.353s + 1.683 106 Laps
8. Jenson Button McLaren 1m21.530s + 1.860 60 Laps
9. Felipe Massa Ferrari 1m22.815s + 3.145 69 Laps
10. Heikki Kovalainen Caterham 1m23.178s + 3.508 28 Laps
11. Pastor Maldonado Williams 1m23.371s + 3.701 25 Laps
11. Pedro de la Rosa HRT 1m23.676s + 4.006 44 Laps

The Genii Capital-owned outfit revealed the E20 – the ‘E’ in reference to Enstone, the team’s home of 20 years – on the internet but, rather than a live stream, released a novel pre-recorded broadcast from its factory which included the car’s unveil, interviews with drivers and management, along with behind-the-scenes footage.

The black and gold-liveried challenger features the in-vogue stepped nose, but is less dramatic than the one on the new Ferrari that caused a stir on Friday with a more attractive curved slope. The E20 is certainly sleek around the sidepods and rear, with the exhaust exits, as is mandated, considerably higher and further back on the car than last year when Renault pioneered the complex forward-exhaust concept which proved troublesome.

Having been able to finally draw a line under the team’s largely successful decade-long Renault era and rebrand as Lotus for this season, the team is looking to deliver more consistent results in wake of a 2011 campaign that started promisingly but ended up with the team just clinging on to fifth place in the constructors’ championship ahead of Force India.

Team owner Gerard Lopez said: “I think the hopes are to be able to get one season together in the way that we were already expecting last year. That is to have a strong car, strong drivers –of which of them is obviously an ex-world champion – and to bring the car up to the front of the pack, probably trying to aim for fourth as a reasonable goal for this season.”

The world champion Lopez referred to is of course Kimi Raikkonen, the 2007 title winner returning to F1 this year after two campaigns spent largely in the World Rally Championship. Although Michael Schumacher famously struggled to get back up to speed after three years away, Raikkonen is characteristically downplaying the challenges presented by his own re-acclimatisation process.

Asked if he was nervous about his return in wake of the difficulties Schumacher faced in 2010, the Finn, who will partner France’s Romain Grosjean, replied: “Not really. It will be something slightly different than it used to be when I was in Formula 1 with a different team, little bit different regulations.

“But everyone’s different. Some people have more difficulties to get used to the new stuff, and it depends a lot on the car also. If you have a good car it makes your life a lot easier than if you have an average car. So I was pretty happy after the first test we did a few weeks ago and it felt pretty normal already. But before the first race it’s pretty difficult to say still. So we wait and see but I’m happy so far with the way things are going.”

Although the team’s plans to run an innovative braking stabilising system on the car were kyboshed by the FIA last month, and on the outside the attractive E20 doesn’t appear overly radical, team boss Eric Boullier has promised the car has some additional secrets. “It’s true that the team’s reputation is good in terms of innovation and we’ve brought through the last years some nice ones. But definitely we have some this year,” he said, before adding: “[My] biggest hope is to make sure this team is back at the front of the grid for many years and a long time.”

Lopez, meanwhile, additionally confirmed the arrival of two new sponsors from the male grooming product world in Rexona and Clear for 2012, while expressing his relief that the team can now clearly move forward as Lotus following the end of the naming row with Tony Fernandes. “We’re also extremely proud that the Lotus name is a clear concept for everyone in Formula 1 now,” he said.

Although the Group Lotus car company is currently the team’s main sponsor, there have been suggestions that Lopez’s Genii investment firm has been looking at raising funds to buy the Proton-owned business.

Raikkonen, the 2007 F1 world champion now aged 32, drove for two days at Valencia’s Riccardo Tormo circuit, which has been used for F1 testing for many years. Testing restrictions meant that he was in a two year old Renault on Pirelli demonstration tyres, but the Finn said it was enough to give him back the old feelings and to show that he’s still got it.

“I was a little concerned about finding the sport had really moved on. But frankly, on Monday and Tuesday I wasn’t surprised. I didn’t feel any difference,” he told L”Equipe today.

“The memories came back, all those times I spent driving various F1 cars, on this track. The old reflexes and feelings came back really fast. Of course it took me a while to find the limit. But after a first day of acclimatisation on Tuesday it went much better, even if there’s still room for improvement.”

Raikkonen also explained that the main motivation for turning his back on rally and coming back to the F1 fold was the desire to go wheel to wheel against other drivers.

“Last year I did a test in NASCAR and I loved rediscovering competition. I really had a good time. In rally you are alone, racing against the clock. In NASCAR you’re in a peloton, battling with forty cars,” he said.

“It was the first time in two years that I raced against others and I just wanted to relive that feeling of real combat. And on a race track there’s nothing better than an F1 car. We had some discussions with Williams, but then very quickly Lotus approached me and everything went together to get an agreement.”

Raikkonen becomes the sixth F1 champion on the grid this season, the first time in the sport’s history that this has happened. He was famous for not enjoying the obligations which come with being an F1 champion, such as dealing with promotions and media, but he says he has his eyes open about this for his comeback,

“In this sport there are loads of things I don’t like and which weigh you down. But when you’re racing, everything’s okay. I love racing other people, It’s what I do best and which gives me the most pleasure.”

It’s the car with which Robert Kubica and Vitaly Petrov campaigned the 2010 World Championship.

It’s the first time Raikkonen has driven an F1 car since the 2009 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. He covered 300kms on his first day and will do more tomorrow.

“Having not driven a Formula 1 car for two years and obviously with a new team, there is a lot to get used to,” said Raikkonen. “I’m happy because I was pretty quick to get back in the groove. Obviously you get more into the zone with the more laps you complete, as you discover more about the car and the tyres. Knowing when to turn, brake, and when to get on the power didn’t take long at all. The good thing is that running today gives me something to compare the new car to, so I’m looking forward to it. Hopefully we’ll be fast straight away and it’s going to be an interesting season.”

Although testing is strictly controlled in modern F1, teams can let drivers run in cars which are two years old. They must use a special Pirelli demonstration tyre, so that they don’t gain any specific gain over rivals from the testing.

It is a mechanism designed for the specific purpose of evaluating drivers or bringing them up to speed after an absence, as in Raikkonen’s case.

So much changes so quickly in F1, however. Since 2010 we’ve had the introduction of the DRS wing, specified weight distribution front to rear, changes to the nose and front wing.

But it will give Raikkonen a good feel for the speed and handling again and prepare him for his first test in the new Lotus Renault car at Jerez in two weeks time.

Testing is controlled for reasons of cost; it costs around $1500 per lap to run an F1 car. And if there was more than the three pre-season tests plus the new in-season test at Mugello in May, then teams would need to employ an entirely separate test team.

He says that he hasn’t really followed the 2011 F1 season or the progress of the Lotus Renault team and reckons that the biggest thing he’ll have to get the hang of is the new Pirelli tyres, on which his rivals will have a year’s head start.

He also says that he’ll have to step up his training and that he started a month ago on F1 level fitness.

Fans have been on tenterhooks for months to see whether the 2007 world champion, who is still only 32 years old, would make a comeback, following in the footsteps of Michael Schumacher, who spent three years on the sidelines before coming back with Mercedes in 2010.

Like Schumacher, Raikkonen was eased into early retirement by Ferrari. The Finn has been in rallying since he was dropped by the Scuderia after a disappointing 2009 campaign, but started talking to Williams in September about making an F1 comeback. They got a long way down the line, even to the point of discussing promotional days, but it didn’t work out.

Instead he has done a deal with Lotus Renault, with whom he had a bit of a spat in September 2010 over the subject of a potential comeback. At that time it was a rumour which the team was openly discussing and the Finn didn’t like them using his name in that way “for their marketing purposes.”

Boullier at the time questioned Raikkonen’s motivation: “I would have to speak personally with him first, look him in the eyes to see if I see enough motivation there for him to return to F1,” he said. “It doesn’t make sense to hire somebody, even a former world champion, if you cannot be sure that his motivation is still 100%. Why should you invest in somebody who leaves you guessing.”

The question of motivation is one that has troubled teams about a possible return, but the signs are clearly there that the Finn still feels he has unfinished business in F1 and also an appetite to earn some more money.

Raikkonen himself says that motivation is no problem, “I wouldn’t come back if I wouldn’t be motivated,” he said. “There’s always a lot of talk about the motivation but nobody really knows what I do or what I think apart from myself, so I don’t really care what people say. I enjoy [being able] to come back, I wouldn’t put my name in a contract if I wouldn’t think that I would really enjoy it. So it will be interesting and it will be exciting to get back.”

It looks like Boullier and Raikkonen have put all that behind them now with this exciting deal, which is great news for F1 fans as it brings back one of the best supported drivers, witha a huge world wide fanbase.

“My time in the World Rally Championship has been a useful stage in my career as a driver, “he said. “but I can’t deny the fact that my hunger for F1 has recently become overwhelming,” he said. “It was an easy choice to return with Lotus Renault GP as I have been impressed by the scope of the team’s ambition.”

Raikkonen has 18 wins, 62 podiums and 16 pole positions to his credit. He is also close friends with reigning champion Sebastian Vettel, who is a neighbour in Switzerland.

Team owner Gerard Lopez said, “Kimi’s decision to come back to Formula 1 with us is the first step of several announcements which should turn us into an even more serious contender in the future. Of course, we are all looking forward to working with a world champion. On behalf of our staff, I’d like to welcome Kimi to Enstone, a setting that has always been known for its human approach to Formula 1.”

The 2007 world champion has been in discussions with the team for several weeks, following a recent visit to the factory in Grove. Sources suggest that discussions are going the right way and they are now close to a deal.

It is understood that the Finn, who will be 32 next month, is keen to get back into F1 competition after two years on the sidelines in rallying. The timing is significant as Williams are on the look out for a bold move to boost the team and Raikkonen can see that the F1 driver landscape is likely to change a lot at the end of 2012 and a strong season, reminding everyone what he can do, might open some doors.

Michael Schumacher’s comeback is both a positive example, but also a warning to the Finn as it took the seven times champion some time to get up to speed. Raikkonen has kept sharp by competing in world rally for the past two seasons, but at the same time he will take a while to get fully up to speed with the Pirelli F1 tyres. All his rivals will have a year’s experience on them.

From Williams’ point of view, team boss Adam Parr will want to make a bold move after a season to forget in 2011. He has hired a new technical team, led by Mike Coughlan, with Dr Mark Gillan (who is here in Singapore) in charge of race operations and Jason Sommerville as chief aerodynamicist. His other options are to retain Rubens Barrichello, hire a known quantity like Heikki Kovalainen or go for a rookie alongside Pastor Maldonado. Or he could wait to see whether a Robert Kubica comeback might dislodge Bruno Senna from Renault. Rumours of a connection with Adrian Sutil have been firmly denied on both sides.

One thing is for sure, Williams are likely to finish 9th in the Constructors’ Championship this year and that will mean a shortfall in prize money and sponsor bonus money.

However most major sponsor contracts have a clause where they pay more if a world champion comes to the team and that may be another factor to encourage the Raikkonen move, particularly if his wage demands are reasonable.

Hiring Raikkonen would be a very bold statement from Williams as he is a world champion and an 18 times race winner. He certainly has the speed and the skills to compete with the best in F1, will certainly get some eye catching results and his name might also help attract a sponsor or two, although he is not known for being keen on promotional appearances. For F1 it would mean that there would be 6 world champions in the field of 24 drivers, which has never happened before in its 61 year history. The feeling in the paddock is that it would be a good thing, if it happens.

The possible question mark with Raikkonen is motivation; he seemed to have run out of motivation in his final season with Ferrari in 2009 and driving what is likely to be a midfield car, even if it is a regular points challenger, he will be seeking to prove a point rather than win races.

One key relationship he will not have to develop from scratch is with new Williams technical director Mike Coughlan, who worked with the Finn at McLaren from 2002 until his move to Ferrari in 2006. They know each other well.

Team Principal Eric Boullier has been promoted to managing director and so now holds the exact same position as Flavio Briatore held.

Raikkonen is angry with Renault (Darren Heath)

“I am very disappointed with the way they have used my name for their marketing,” he told Turun Sanomat newspaper. “I have never seriously considered driving for Renault, and I can assure you 100 per cent that I will not be driving for them next year,”

Raikkonen’s current deal is with Red Bull who fund his drive with the Citroen junior team in rallying. This contract needs renewing for next season.

It seemed odd when Boullier mentioned the talks with Raikkonen, first because teams and drivers normally want to keep these things quiet and second because the Finn had made many disparaging remarks about F1 during the course of the year.

Boullier reiterated in Singapore that the team hopes current second driver Vitaly Petrov will raise his game sufficiently in the final races of the season to justify being retained for 2011. The Russian has had an erratic season with some strong performances punctuated by mistakes. But his presence in the team is a very useful platform for the commercial department to develop business relationships and sponsorships in Russia.

Boullier has rubbished Raikkonen’s claims this weekend, “We have not piggy-backed on Kimi’s image at all, which is what he has been claiming in the press,” Boullier told Autosport.com.

“We were contacted by his managers after Spa. They wanted to enter into discussions and at that time we said: ‘Please wait. Yes, we are very flattered that you have contacted us, but we need to finish the evaluation of Vitaly’s [Petrov] potential and from that point, when we have our own conclusion, we will get back to you.’ There was nothing else.”

Meanwhile Bob Bell is no longer with the team, having left his role as managing director, which he held since the Singapore crash scandal blew up last Autumn. When Briatore was removed, Bell took over as team principal for the final part of 2009, prior to the take over by Gerard Lopez’ Genii Capital company.

Bell rose to the top as an engineer, starting out at McLaren before working as number two to Mike Gascoyne at Jordan and then Renault. Bell took over in charge of the technical department, when Gascoyne left for Toyota. He worked closely with Pat Symonds, Bell overseeing the design and build of the car, Symonds overseeing the racing of it.

There is no word on where the Northern Irishman is going next but his technical management skills are likely to be in demand in the pit lane. He may even be reunited with Gascoyne one day.

One would expect that if this works out well, he may be retained next season alongside Kamui Kobayashi, who has already been signed. One problem is that de la Rosa’s car has already used 9 engines this season, so Heidfeld could be rather on the back foot when it comes to engine penalties with five events still to go.

This abrupt late season switch is reminiscent of 2006, when Sauber replaced another older driver whose hiring that season had surprised many people; Jacques Villeneuve.

Heidfeld started the year as a Mercedes reserve driver, but quit to lead the Pirelli testing programme. He has done two tests to date and has now grabbed the opportunity to race again with Sauber. Although he will have some idea of the characteristics of the Pirelli tyres from those two tests, it is early days and his information to the Sauber designers will be of use, but its relevance will decrease as the programme evolves.

It will be interesting to see whether Pirelli now decide to take Pedro de la Rosa on to continue the development programme. He is a very experienced test driver, having covered hundreds of thousands of kilometres in the role. He may take the tyres in a different direction.

De la Rosa has had a tough season. Sauber is prone to the odd left field driver choice and has historically tended to like either older experienced drivers or raw rookies. He gave Kimi Raikkonen his first run in F1, ironically in 2001 alongside Heidfeld, and today’s other news is that the 2007 champion has been in contact with Renault about a possible return next season.

Raikkonen has been in rallying this year, driving for the Citroen junior team with backing from Red Bull. “It is true that the summer has passed and we have had more and more requests – and the guy you mentioned [Raikkonen] is on the radar now,” Boullier told Autosport. “He is on the radar because he contacted us.”

Raikkonen: Has he unfinished business? (Darren Heath)

The second question is, do they need him? Renault lie 5th in the constructors’ championship table, 31 points behind Mercedes. But most of these points have come from Kubica, just as most of Mercedes’ points are from Rosberg. Renault would like Vitaly Petrov to succeed, but he has had two poor weekends in a row at a bad time and seems to find it hard to string a whole Grand Prix weekend together consistently.

McLaren has shown the benefits of having two top drivers and if they can afford it, hiring Raikkonen would seem a smart move. He’s not political so wouldn’t trouble Kubica much, other than keeping him on his toes. Raikkonen will be 31 at the start of next season, a few months older than Jenson Button and two years older than Fernando Alonso, so he still has plenty of good years in him and if he’s serious about a return it must be because he’s had a good think about where he went wrong last time.

If you look at performance charts of achievement by drivers, Raikkonen’s ratio of 18 wins and 62 podiums in 156 starts is very strong.

There is still some confusion about the finances of the Renault F1 team, after it leaked out that they had asked for an advance on their share of the F1 commercial rights from Bernie Ecclestone, a request which was denied.

At the time the team explained it away by saying that they had a cash flow issue, as payments from some of the new sponsors they had signed, such as Chinese solar company Trina Solar, were not due until later this year.

It has been suggested that internet entrepreneur Gerard Lopez, who holds 75% of the team and is a long time friend of Ecclestone, may be keeping the franchise warm while Renault, which owns 25%, considers whether a full scale return to the sport is viable. Renault themselves say that there is no substance to this story and that Renault are very happy as things are.

My sources suggest that Renault is waiting to see how the share of revenues under the new 2013 Concorde Agreement is resolved.

If the teams are successful in what is likely to be a hard fought and bitter negotiation, and manage to raise their share of the total revenues from 50% to more like 75%, which would make F1 more cost neutral – or even profitable – to participants, then it would be much more attractive.

Either way this will not have happened by next season and so if Raikkonen is offering his services – and one would have to question why team principal Eric Boullier would want to admit that to Autosport at this early stage – it will likely be a Renault team set up essentially as it is today.

The 2007 world champion switched to rallying this season after being dropped by Ferrari in favour of Fernando Alonso. He joined forces with Red Bull and Citroen in WRC and this led to suggestions that his route back into F1 might be with the current championship leaders, but RBR team principal Christian Horner has always dismissed such suggestions and this weekend Raikkonen seems to be saying that he will not be back in F1,

“You never know, but I will probably not return to Formula 1,” he said. “I became the F1 world champion, which I had always wanted to do, but times have changed. I do rallying now and there is far more to life than F1.”

He always looked and behaved like a man who believed that there is far more to life than F1. Raikkonen disliked the politics in the sport and the intensity of the media scrutiny, especially at Ferrari. He found the sport rather inward looking, as it certainly can be. He is more temperamentally suited to the ambience of rallying.

Although he was never afraid of any competitor in F1, the level of driving is very high at the moment and with several top drivers in top cars, the competitions is probably as high as it has been for a couple of generations. To come back and face that he would have to be with a top team, like Red Bull, but as all the leading teams have at least one long term lead driver, there isn’t really a place for Raikkonen.

And Red Bull and Ferrari’s contrasting experiences this season of trying to handle two top drivers shows, it’s not easy to manage.

In rallying Raikkonen seems to be enjoying the challenge of building up a mental database of how the car behaves on the different surfaces, a process which takes many years and is the main challenge facing road racing converts such as him.

Therefore it makes little sense to do a year of rallying and then stop. Only with several years of experience will the results start to come.

“In racing, the surface of one circuit is not massively different to the surface of another, although there are some small changes, ” he says. “In rallying, the difference is huge on every event. There is so much variety on a rally: every kilometre and every corner is different. That’s why experience is so important in this sport. So I just need to keep on building up my knowledge.”

His fellow Finn Tommi Makinen believes that Raikkonen should stay in rallying and that he is having a good time in WRC,

“He seems to be happy,” he said.”Kimi is the kind of guy who wants to make success and find the best performance from himself. I’m sure he is the guy who is not giving up. That’s why I’m pretty sure he won’t jump out of rally yet. I’m pretty sure he will stay next year.”

F1 is the elite level of motorsport and it is where great talents should reside and live out their careers. It’s interesting that for personality and temperament reasons, both Raikkonen and Juan Pablo Montoya ended up competing elsewhere, although Raikkonen did put in a nine year stint in F1, which is longer than most Finns, who historically don’t have very long F1 careers.

Raikkonen also reveals that he hasn’t paid much attention to this year’s F1 championship, “I’ve watched a few races, while for others the result was enough. I’m not particularly hooked.”