My relationship with Narain is very good: Pedro De La Rosa

Pedro De La Rosa is the grand old man of Formula One. At the age of 41, he is one of the oldest drivers on the circuit this season, already into his 14th season in F1, says a report in The Times Of India, adding that for the first time in his long career, De La Rosa is driving for a Spanish team - HRT - and the hunger is very much there for the veteran. At the halfway stage of the F1 season, De La Rosa looked back at his performance so far.

"These have been seven very intense months, with a spectacular amount of team work. We've made steady progress but now we're at a key moment and we must take another step forward. My assessment is very positive because we set ourselves realistic targets, we've accomplished them and we're, more or less, where we expected to be," De La Rosa told this newspaper on Friday.

On his relationship with teammate Narain Karthikeyan, he said, "My relationship with Narain is very good. There's a lot of sincerity and we both want what's best for the team. We fight hard on the track but in an honest way and, out of the teammates I've had, he's one of the most sincere ones. We try to achieve the best set-up on the car between the two of us without hiding anything from each other. One of the characteristics of Narain and the engineers is that there is total transparency and no bad intentions, we're aware that we're last and if one of us finds something that can improve the car he shares it with the other because the objective is to progress. We're team players," he said commenting about the Indian.

Meanwhile another report in TOI says that the 2012 season so far has been one of the most unpredictable years in Formula One so far. One of the reasons has been the emergence of teams like Sauber and Lotus, who are challenging the top guns - Red Bull, McLaren and Ferrari - for podium place. After 11 races so far this season, Sergio Perez is currently ninth in the drivers' championship with 47 points, while teammate Kamui Kobayashi is 10th with 33 points. With 80 points to its tally the Sauber F1 Team is firmly entrenched at the sixth place in the constructors' championship.

Now as the F1 teams head into a mid-season break, the Sauber drivers took time out to look back at the year so far. "I had some great moments in the first half of the season. There were the two podiums in Malaysia and Montreal, which, of course, made me very happy. Nevertheless it was also a period with ups and downs because we didn't make the most of every situation," the Mexican driver said.