Organisers of the 2012 US grand prix have received a green-light to begin work on the circuit at the Austin site.

Local KVUE news reports that a conditional approval has been granted for work within the Dry Creek flood plain to begin.

The authoritative American Statesman newspaper explained that the approval of Travis County Commissioners on Tuesday means initial “grading work” at the site will likely now take place before final approval is granted by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

“County officials said they anticipate no significant objections from FEMA,” said the report.

Organisers have said they would begin work this month, necessary to have the facility ready for the formula one circus to arrive in 2012.

However, there is still some uncertainty about who will pay the $6m price-tag for road improvements. A recent county study found that it might take race-goers as long as 12 hours to leave the area after the inaugural event.

“Everybody is talking about a lot of people coming to our community and that this event is going to be a wild success,” said US GP spokesman Richard Suttle.

Ferrari’s 2011 car will be launched officially in the week proceeding the first group winter test at the end of January.

That was one of the revelations made by Luca di Montezemolo on Tuesday as he met with the Italian press at Fiorano for a traditional pre-Christmas media event.

The Ferrari president said the F10′s successor will be launched on January 25-31 — before the first test of the pre-season at Valencia.

Asked to sum up the season, he told reporters: “We were disappointed, there’s no point denying it.

“But, realistically, it was more bitter in 2008, when Felipe Massa crossed the finish line as world champion.

“From 1997 onwards, except 2005 and 2009, we have either won or lost at the last race. The opponents – Williams, McLaren, Renault, Red Bull – always change, only Ferrari is there,” said Montezemolo.

Asked to give a report card for the 2010 drivers Massa and Fernando Alonso, he answered: “9 and a half to Alonso. He did not win, but (the score is) from the point of view of results, character and relationship with the team.

“Less than a 7 for Felipe Massa. For some reason with have a problem with the brothers of our drivers arriving during the season,” he smiled.

“It happened with Schumacher, Raikkonen and now Massa. I think Felipe got a bit tired mid-season and went home, sending his brother to drive,” joked the Italian.

“He gets a minus-7 but he has promised to come back next year.”

As for Ferrari: “8. You do not get full marks when you don’t win, but it was an exceptional year for commitment and determination,” he said.

On formula one, Montezemolo vowed to “fight for common sense, for races on circuits (not streets) and to have not more than 19 races, preferably 18″, he revealed.

“And to have three cars. Better to have a third car with a competitive team than a team that cannot even do GP2,” the 63-year-old charged.

“I think it’s common sense and Bernie Ecclestone agrees. Who (would run the third Ferrari)? A small but competitive team.”

Montezemolo hailed 2010 as Mark Webber’s “best season with a competitive car”.

But he played down the possibility of shock personnel changes for 2011, hinting only that “some adjustments” to the team will be announced before the new season.

As for the possibility of his near future being in politics, Montezemolo insisted: “The confidence vote (of the Italian parliament)? No comment.

“Let me do my job,” he added when pressed. “I’m so glad we have many, many things to do here at Ferrari.”

Although lamenting France’s dwindling involvement in F1, Alain Prost believes Renault’s decision to be only an engine supplier from 2011 is not a bad one.

Although it still bears the French carmaker’s name, Renault no longer owns any of the Enstone based team following the buy-in deal involving Group Lotus.

Instead, Renault has launched Renault Sport F1, to supply engines to the two Lotus teams as well as Red Bull.

“As the owner of a team it’s always a bit complicated because you have to manage many things at once,” said quadruple world champion Prost to autohebdo.fr.

The famous Frenchman said a lack of results is also difficult for a manufacturer in F1.

“With just the engine (supply), you can always offload your responsibilities to the chassis, especially since the latter is the most important for the performance in F1.

“There is always a little war between the car side and the engine side. But if you’re doing the chassis and the engine, it’s always more difficult when you lose,” added Prost.

It is believed that Renault Sport F1 intends to develop a 1.6 litre four-cylinder engine for the beginning of the new turbo era in 2013.

“For a manufacturer like Renault, it (the new formula) is a big plus.

“In terms of technology, F1 is going to be closer to what is happening in road cars, including the reduction in engine size – which is called downsizing – with turbocharging.

“It’s an aspect that is very positive for Renault,” Prost said.

It is not right to say Michael Schumacher’s return to formula one this year was a failure, his former championship rival Jacques Villeneuve insists.

The seven time world champion struggled with the Mercedes car alongside Nico Rosberg in 2010, but Villeneuve thinks Schumacher ultimately had the edge on his younger teammate.

“It was difficult for him until mid-season but by the end he was ahead of his teammate,” the French Canadian told French language autohebdo.fr.

Villeneuve, who beat Schumacher to the 1997 title, also thinks F1 fans have a rosy recollection of the great Schumacher.

“At Ferrari, he was one or two tenths ahead of his teammate but rarely more,” said the 39-year-old.

“Everyone thought he was going to be a second ahead of Rosberg, but it was never even like that in the past.”

Villeneuve also wanted to come back to F1 this year and he said he acknowledges the enormity of the challenge.

“It’s difficult,” he said. “I was away for six months (in 2004) and physically it was tough, and then you’re getting your bearings. The last tenth is hard to get back.”

Villeneuve also backs Schumacher’s claim that the 2010 Mercedes car was a main reason for his results this year.

“If the car didn’t suit him then that’s hard to resolve,” he said, “but at the end of the season he was there.”

In a new interview with CNN, Schumacher was asked whether he is risking his reputation by pushing ahead with an unsuccessful return to F1.

“I enjoy it. I feel I have the right to do what I enjoy. Whether I put in dispute my reputation … I just feel good about my decision and I have so much support from people,” said the German.

Despite now searching for a 2011 employer, promising rookie Nico Hulkenberg made fewer mistakes than any of his competitors this year.

That is according to an analysis by Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport, which found that – at the other end of the scale – his fellow rookie Kamui Kobayashi had the most spins, off-track moments and crashes in 2010.

Although named F1′s rookie of the year in a recent awards ceremony, Japanese Kobayashi committed no fewer than 60 recordable errors this year, the analysis found.

But in all the practice and qualifying sessions and the races themselves, 23-year-old Hulkenberg only had two incidents in which his car was damaged or he was unable to return to the pits.

2009 Brawn teammates Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello, both now with different teams, ranked in second place.

“I don’t know if that’s a compliment,” smiled former reigning world champion Button. “Maybe it means I didn’t risk enough.”

Title contenders Fernando Alonso and Mark Webber each made 30 mistakes, and world champion Sebastian Vettel’s 34 excursions ranked him 13th overall.

Lewis Hamilton also had a lot of incidents this year, as did Vitaly Petrov and Michael Schumacher, with the seven time world champion ranking just 18th on his difficult return to F1.

The most error-prone this season was Kobayashi, but he insists the stereotype as a “kamikaze” driver is not right.

“If I was a kamikaze driver, I would not have got this far,” the 24-year-old, who has been retained by Sauber for 2011, told spox.com recently.

Peter Sauber added: “It would be doing him an injustice to only focus on this aspect of his driving. Kamui is also a very clever driver and understands how to put a pre-defined strategy into action.”

Team Lotus will use its new GP2 team to replace ousted 2010 reserve and ‘Friday’ driver Fairuz Fauzy next season.

Malaysian Fauzy had signed a long-term contract with the Tony Fernandes-run outfit but was dropped “prematurely” and “without reason” after a single year, the driver’s management has confirmed.

His successor will be selected from the drivers appointed to race with Fernandes’ new AirAsia GP2 team in 2011, a team spokesman told the Reuters news agency.

“There will be two guys who will be given that opportunity to bridge the gap (between GP2 and F1),” he said.

A motor racing company based in England has emerged as a possible solution to HRT’s car predicament for 2011.

With the Spanish team having split with both its 2010 and 2011 car suppliers Dallara and Toyota, Hispania is facing the prospect of trying to beat the new 107 per cent qualifying rule with the uncompetitive F110 chassis.

But according to Spanish website f1aldia.com, Formtech Composites could be the UK based company that HRT has fallen back on with less than 90 days to go until Bahrain.

HRT team owner Jose Ramon Carabante said this week that the 2011 car is being built “in Germany and in England”.

Oxfordshire based Formtech is headed by Mark Preston, who after serving as Super Aguri’s technical boss acquired the assets of the failed team along with German investors.

The company supplies composites to F1 teams including Renault, Lotus and Toro Rosso, but has also built and run a F1 chassis to current specifications based on the 2006 Super Aguri.

Preston said: “Formtech … would fit perfectly with Hispania to provide the resources they might need.”

With time rapidly running out for HRT ahead of the 2011 season, the Australian added: “If we were able to launch Super Aguri in just 100 days, then almost anything is possible.”

Formtech also owns the intellectual property of the defunct Arrows team and confirmed that it could “quickly design and manufacture bespoke solutions in both prototyping and short run production on site”.

Team mechanics in 2011 will be barred from working all night on formula one cars before practice days.

The new rule emerged as, late on Monday, the FIA published the full sporting and technical regulations for next season.

The mechanics curfew will apply to team personnel “associated in any way with the operation of the cars” between midnight to 6am when practice is due to start at 10am, or 1am to 7am if practice is scheduled for 11am.

“However, each team will be permitted four individual exceptions to the above during a championship season,” the FIA said.

Another new rule for 2011 relates to driving standards, probably inspired by Michael Schumacher’s controversial move on Rubens Barrichello in Hungary this year.

“Manoeuvres liable to hinder other drivers, such as more than one change of direction to defend a position, deliberate crowding of a car beyond the edge of the track or any other abnormal change of direction, are not permitted,” said the FIA.

Stewards also have new powers to penalise drivers, including by imposing a one-race ban.

The one-gearbox-per-four-races rule has been toughened to five races in 2011, with one penalty-free gearbox change per driver allowed.

Meanwhile, the race director has been given the power to close the pit entry during races “for safety reasons”.

With less than 90 days until the 2011 season kicks off, Bruno Senna has admitted he is not sure he will be in Bahrain.

The great Ayrton Senna’s nephew had a difficult debut season in formula one with the uncompetitive new Spanish team HRT.

It had been reported Senna had a chance of moving on for 2011 to the more promising Team Lotus outfit, but Brazil’s Globo Esporte said the 27-year-old “came close to signing but the negotiations failed”.

Asked in Sao Paulo on Monday about his prospects for 2011, he answered: “There is nothing definite.

“I am still negotiating but it is not easy to find a free seat.”

When asked what teams he is negotiating with, Senna added: “Those with free seats.”

HRT, Renault, Virgin and Force India all have seats whose occupants have not been officially announced for next season.

Senna admits that HRT was not the ideal place to prove his talents this year.

“The season was difficult and I was unable to demonstrate what I can do,” he confirmed.

Jacques Villeneuve has denied he threw away a good chance to return to formula one in 2011.

A French Canadian radio commentator had implied that the 1997 world champion was offered the Indycar drive in Lotus colours this year and would then have progressed to F1 when the sports car marque announced its 2011 tie-up with Renault.

“That was never discussed,” Villeneuve insisted, according to French language Rue Frontenac.

Late last year, the 39-year-old visited Lotus’ Norfolk headquarters for talks with his friend Gino Rosato.

“There was never any discussion of F1,” Villeneuve said.

“Everyone knows how hard I worked on my return to F1. If the only thing I needed to do was spend a year in Indycar, I would have done it!

“The truth is that F1 only came into the plans of Lotus Cars in the last few months,” he explained.

Rosato, who for a long time worked in F1 with Ferrari before moving to Lotus as vice-president of corporate affairs, backed Villeneuve’s story.

“F1 was not in our plans when I spoke to Jacques about Indycar,” he said. “I would have loved for him to race with us. In my head, Villeneuve and Lotus was a natural fit but the planets were not aligned.”

Villeneuve agreed: “It’s true that we talked about Indycar, but Takuma Sato had already been hired as their first driver and I was asked to bring some of the budget that my partners at the time wanted to invest for F1.

“It was not an option,” he clarified. “And Indycar and the Indy 500 — I’ve already done that. And that was before the separation, when the series was more competitive.

“If I have to bring a budget, it will be for a new challenge like NASCAR, not to go back to something I have already ticked off and achieved,” added Villeneuve

Paul di Resta is expected to sit down with Force India this week to discuss his role with the team for 2011.

The new DTM champion served as the Silverstone based outfit’s reserve and Friday driver in 2010, and is a contender for a race seat next year.

But also in the running is ousted Williams rookie Nico Hulkenberg, while Adrian Sutil is expected to be retained and Vitantonio Liuzzi has a firm contract for 2011.

Scot di Resta’s manager Anthony Hamilton is confident: “There hasn’t been one bit of negative information from the team about Paul.

“He has done a great job, the team love him,” Hamilton, father of McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton, told the BBC. “He’s a champion and a leader.

“Nothing has changed; he is still a contender for a race seat. We are very positive,” he added.

It is believed Sutil will have one seat in 2011, while the other will be occupied by either di Resta or German Hulkenberg after Liuzzi’s contract is bought out.

Stefano Domenicali has welcomed the FIA’s abolition of the rule prohibiting team orders.

The governing body, now headed by president Jean Todt, revisited the controversial rule after Ferrari’s place-swapping during this year’s German grand prix at Hockenheim.

The Maranello based team never admitted to ordering Felipe Massa to move aside for Fernando Alonso, but at the same time has always maintained that F1 is a team sport in which team strategies are commonplace.

“Finally, we have said goodbye to this pointless hypocrisy,” said team boss Domenicali after Friday’s announcement that article 39.1 has been “deleted” for 2011.

“For us, formula one is a team sport and we have always maintained that viewpoint and it should be treated as such,” he told reporters at the Bologna motor show.

Team Lotus has decided to ditch its plans for a black and gold livery in 2011.

On Thursday, after Group Lotus announced it is entering F1 with Renault and revealed John Player Special-inspired colours for 2011, fans of the separate Tony Fernandes-headed team urged the Malaysian outfit to stay with its current green and yellow livery next year.

“Having four black cars looking the same I think is silly and one has to relent,” Fernandes told the Reuters news agency.

“We’re not childish and emotional and saying ‘Oh no, we’ve got to be black and gold’. We’re pragmatic,” he added, revealing there had been some “negativity” about the earlier plans for a livery inspired by a cigarette brand.

As for the Lotus name, however, Fernandes vowed to push ahead, meaning the dispute is likely to now be settled in the London High Court sometime next year.

“Having two Lotus brands on the grid I think is no issue,” he said.

Meanwhile, a date has been set for Sir Richard Branson’s day as a skirt-wearing AirAsia stewardess, after losing a bet with Fernandes this year.

“It’s confirmed February 21, 2011,” Fernandes wrote on Twitter, revealing the flight will travel from London to Kuala Lumpur.

Christian Horner has revealed his “disappointment and frustration” at the news Mark Webber kept secret a fractured shoulder.

A new official book published by the Australian admitted Webber used injections to drive through the pain of the injury sustained whilst mountain bike riding prior to October’s Japanese grand prix.

Red Bull team boss Horner told London’s Telegraph he felt “disappointment and frustration” to hear about the injury for the first time late on Monday.

“I didn’t even know about the book, let alone the shoulder,” the Briton said.

The reports on Monday said only FIA doctor Gary Hartstein and Webber’s trainer Roger Cleary knew about the injury.

“It is obviously disappointing that Mark said nothing,” admitted Horner. “It was an injury that did not appear to have any effect on his performance but all the same it would have been nice to know about it.”

Given the mountain bike crash in the 2009 pre-season that left Webber with a broken leg and shoulder, Horner indicated that the 34-year-old should stay off two wheels.

“Our drivers have an obligation to make sure they are fit,” he said. “It seems bikes don’t agree with Mark so maybe it would be better if he stayed away from them.”

Horner was speaking as he collected a Gold Star on Webber’s behalf at the British Racing Drivers’ Club awards ceremony in London.

The fact Belgium did not win its bid for the 2018 World Cup could be a blessing in disguise for fans of the historic F1 race at Spa-Francorchamps.

Spa’s grand prix contract expires in 2012, and it has been suggested that Bernie Ecclestone might drop one or two of the less lucrative European races to make way for new hosts.

Alain Courtois, a Belgian politician who was the front-man for the failed Benelux World Cup bid, thinks the region should now ensure that it does not lose its highest profile event.

“I think we need to be careful, because one of the conclusions to be drawn is that the sports world is heading towards southeast Asia and all these emerging countries,” he told RTBF television.

“So, we are not going to have the World Cup. Our other world event, the only one, is the formula one grand prix,” Courtois insisted.

“We need to try at least to keep this because you hear ‘it costs so much’. But the key is to position Belgium. We have a country that is dynamic, that is efficient, that has successful companies. We also need to have an image to the world.

“It (having the World Cup) was now or never. Let’s now continue with what we have, because it is not bad,” he insisted.