Rome mayor Gianni Alemanno has announced the city is taking “a step back” with its plans for a formula one race on the streets of the EUR district.
Although formerly supportive of the plans, Bernie Ecclestone last week wrote to Alemanno warning that with Monza already on the calendar, F1 had no room for two Italian rounds per season.

That was interpreted as the start of negotiations to annually alternate Rome and Monza, but Alemanno has announced that Rome should now turn most of its focus towards bidding for the 2020 Olympics.

“The road has not been completely closed, but the interests of our city must be compatible with the national ones,” La Repubblica newspaper quotes him as saying.

Regarding F1, Rome will “take a step back”, Alemanno added, revealing that there “will be a press conference in the coming days”.

He called on the government to now make a “stronger commitment regarding the 2020 Olympics”, insisting that the event “as a target for Rome is not just ambitious but achievable”.

Alemanno suggested that talks about a cooperation between Rome and Monza regarding F1 did not bear fruit.

“We have always maintained contact with the mayor of Monza, with the ministers of the north and all those of the Lombardy region.

“I have to say that we never found a great dialogue, even when we stressed that if it was a choice between Monza and Rome then we would pull back,” he said.

Renault is not ruling out a grand prix debut this year for its new reserve driver Fairuz Fauzy.
The Malaysian, who has switched with the Group Lotus-owning carmaker Proton from Team Lotus for 2011, appeared on the Friday morning at a few grands prix last year.

Closely aligned with Proton, the 28-year-old could be promoted for a race debut towards the end of the season, Lotus Renault GP team boss Eric Boullier reportedly told Malaysia’s Star newspaper.

The report said Frenchman Boullier advised that “if Fairuz did well at some point in time towards the end of the season, he would give him a shot at it”.

“He (Boullier) added that it all depended on Fairuz himself on whether or not he made it as a F1 driver as there were many emerging talent around,” added the Star report.

Boullier said: “He (Fauzy) is being developed and trained for better things with us and is not going to be a passenger. He has potential and we need to work on him to make him mentally and physically ready for such sport.”

Boullier added that the details of Fauzy’s contract are being negotiated now.

Meanwhile, Proton managing director Datuk Syed Zainal Abidin denied that Renault had ‘pinched’ Fauzy from Team Lotus just one year into a five year deal.

“There was no pinching him before his contract expired or any other dealing prior to that. We are all professionals,” he insisted.

Porsche has continued to step away from its earlier hints about entering formula one in the near future.
Late last year, CEO Matthias Mueller said there are some “drawbacks” about entering F1 that are not present in other prominent series.

But then the FIA green-lighted the much anticipated new engine rules for 2013, causing Volkswagen representative Hans-Joachim Stuck to say the “conditions for a possible (F1) entrance of the … group have been created”.

However, Mueller insists that although VW brands including Porsche and Audi might often mention F1, the more realistic forays are elsewhere.

“There are undoubtedly some attractive aspects (of F1),” he told the Swiss car newspaper Automobil Revue.

“But there are other sides to it as well. Formula one is very expensive, while success is far less predictable (than in other series),” added Mueller.

He said a Le Mans foray for Porsche, in the premier LMP1 category, is a more likely target.

“We would not necessarily have to line up against Audi, but we would do it if we need to and it would mean there are two of the (VW) group’s brands fighting in the races.

“The likelihood that the group wins would therefore obviously be increased,” added Mueller.

He urged all the VW brands to get together to “agree on a motor sport strategy for the coming years”.

Lewis Hamilton will be the first McLaren driver to test the 2011-specification MP4-26 next month.
The British team said Jenson Button is then scheduled to drive on day two of the second group test at Jerez, according to Reuters journalist Alan Baldwin on Twitter.

McLaren will not reveal the 2011 car until after the first pre-season test at Valencia, where test driver Gary Paffett will kick off the winter programme in a modified 2010-spec MP4-25.

2008 world champion Hamilton was at McLaren’s Woking headquarters on Wednesday to drive in the simulator.

“(2011) car feels good, never know how others will be but I’m happy with where we are,” the 26-year-old said on his IAmLewis4Real Twitter account.

The Sun newspaper said Hamilton, with a new personal trainer this year in Finn Antti Vierula, has returned from a training holiday in Colorado to attend a team training camp with Button.

Team boss Martin Whitmarsh revealed that, ahead of the gruelling 20-race calendar this year, Hamilton and Button were given a long period of vacation.

“I told my colleagues last year, Let’s give our drivers six weeks in which I am not going to ring them — and I don’t want anyone else to ring them either,” he said.

Eric Boullier has moved to clarify reports about the ownership structure of the Enstone based F1 team called Renault.
French carmaker Renault SA recently sold its remaining shareholding in the team to the Luxembourg based Genii Capital investment company, a report in the Italian magazine Autosprint explained.

There has been some confusion about whether new sponsor Group Lotus has already bought a share of the team or whether it merely intends to in the future.

The Autosprint report clarified that Genii in fact currently owns 100 per cent of the team.

“Renault decided to re-focus its resources in F1 and sold its remaining 25 per cent to Genii Capital,” team boss Boullier confirmed.

He said the long-term agreement signed with Lotus is essentially for sponsorship at present but that it could “lead to Lotus Cars becoming a shareholder” at a later date.

Meanwhile, Boullier revealed that while the R31 car will debut at Valencia next month, he is not yet sure if Magneti-Marelli’s KERS system will be fitted to the car at that stage.

And it has emerged that 25 engineers belonging to Group Lotus’ Malaysian carmaker owner Proton will be sent for two-year engagements to work at the F1 team.

“It’s a good way to get fresh ideas and a new way of thinking,” Boullier said.

The uncertainty surrounding Force India’s driver lineup for 2011 looks set to end soon.
It is believed that despite Vitantonio Liuzzi having a firm contract for this year, it will be Paul di Resta racing alongside Adrian Sutil in the two VJM-04s.

Williams refugee Nico Hulkenberg looks to have secured a third driver role involving Friday morning practice sessions, but his manager Willi Weber insisted this week that before “anything is said officially, I can’t say anything myself”.

The Silverstone based team’s boss and owner Vijay Mallya has now hinted that the uncertainty is soon to end, with the delay believed to be due to the severing of Liuzzi’s contract.

“There are some legal loose ends to be tied up,” the Indian billionaire told the BBC.

Mallya added that the lineup should be named “in the next few days”.

China’s date on the 2011 world championship calendar will remain provisional until mere weeks before the scheduled race in mid April.
The Reuters news agency said the FIA will not inspect mandatory changes to the Shanghai circuit until March.

It emerged late last year that the 7-year-old $240 million venue has been told to improve its track surface and rain drainage before it is re-homologated.

“The Shanghai International Circuit has confirmed that all work as requested by the FIA will be carried out and should be completed by the end of February,” a spokeswoman for F1′s governing FIA confirmed on Tuesday.

“Before a new licence can be issued, the FIA will carry out a final inspection in March,” she added.

Pirelli’s 2011 tyres are “very different” to the Bridgestones of last year and should contribute to “more interesting” races.
That is the view of Pedro de la Rosa, the Italian marque’s test driver who this week wound up Pirelli’s private tyre development programme after four days in Abu Dhabi.

Speaking to Barcelona radio Rac1, the Spaniard confirmed reports that the Pirellis have been designed to improve F1′s show and are “very different” to departed Bridgestone’s.

“The races will be more interesting, because they have designed a tyre for the show — especially the super soft which is very fast but also has a very big degradation,” he said.

De la Rosa added that he thinks the outcomes of the races will be “more open” with each driver making “2 or 3 stops per grand prix” in 2011.

But he played down speculation that the new tyres, combined with adjustable rear wings and the return of KERS, will mean that qualifying is far less important than before.

“Qualifying will always be 70 per cent of the outcome of the race,” said de la Rosa.

“Of course, it is true that the difference between the first and the second choice of compounds is very large.

“So those who start further back than eleventh will have a chance to fight for points because the harder tyre will last much longer than the soft. But that’s only speculation,” he warned.

Pedro de la Rosa is returning to his native Barcelona this week unsure about his future in formula one.
After he was ousted as race driver last year by Sauber, the 39-year-old become the main tester for incoming tyre supplier Pirelli.

But after testing the Italian marque’s wet tyres over four nights in Abu Dhabi this week, Spaniard de la Rosa’s contract is now set to expire.

“The truth is I don’t know what will happen next,” he told Barcelona radio Rac1.

“In January the contract with Pirelli ends and my priority is to find a seat in formula one,” added de la Rosa, who has been linked with the remaining race cockpit at HRT but is believed to not have enough sponsorship funding.

He agreed that the current situation for aspiring F1 racers is “very difficult”.

“If I don’t race I would be happy to continue in F1 as a reserve driver,” announced de la Rosa.

He spent several years as McLaren’s main test driver, but de la Rosa insists he is currently “not close to any teams, even McLaren”.

“This is an important time for my sporting career,” he added, not ruling out a longer stay with Pirelli given that the marque is only just beginning its new F1 tenure.

Fairuz Fauzy will be reserve driver at the Renault team in 2011.
The 28-year-old Malaysian left the same role at Lotus Racing just one year into a five-year contract, raising suggestions the deal was tied in with the team’s official naming license.

Indeed, after revoking Lotus Racing’s name license, Group Lotus and its Malaysian carmaker owner Proton signed up with Renault, which is now called Lotus Renault GP.

Fauzy will also race in 2011 with the GP2 team Super Nova, whose cars will feature significant Proton branding.

“We will focus on Fairuz’s progress and evaluate his capabilities to be a race driver for us,” Renault team boss Eric Boullier said, according to the Bernama news agency.

Group Lotus will also be involved in GP2 this year with the newly-renamed Lotus ART team.

A French commentator said last week that he expected Romain Grosjean to be Renault’s third driver in 2011.

Helmut Marko has admitted his plan is to see Daniel Ricciardo with a full race seat in formula one “no later than 2012″.
Red Bull-backed Australian Ricciardo, 21, has been placed for the 2011 season with Toro Rosso and will drive on the Friday mornings at grands prix.

His placement is seen as putting strong pressure on the Faenza based team’s regular drivers Sebastien Buemi and Jaime Alguersuari.

Indeed, Marko did not categorically rule out a 2011 race debut for Ricciardo during an interview with German-language motorsport-total.com.

“It all depends on the parties involved,” said Red Bull’s driver programme manager Marko, clearly referring to Buemi and Alguersuari.

“The plan is to see him in a race cockpit in 2012 at the latest,” added the Austrian.

An amusing story involving 2009 world champion Jenson Button’s father has emerged from Italy.
Media reports, including by the Ansa news agency, said John Button – a former rallycross driver – reported as stolen a Ferrari Testarossa in the coastal town of Alassio.

But the reports said Button Snr, 65 and a regular companion of his son’s at grands prix, had simply forgotten where he parked the sports car.

The reports said the car was located with no sign of tampering near the beach at the nearby town of Laigueglia, which is no more than a 5 minute drive from Alassio.

However, Button had reported the car as having been stolen in Alassio from outside the luxurious Grand Hotel Mediteranee.

Renault’s new black and gold livery might fall afoul of strict anti-tobacco advertising laws in Canada this year.
That is the claim of the Toronto based Globe and Mail newspaper, after the Enstone based team’s newly Group Lotus-sponsored livery was launched officially last weekend at a racing car show in Birmingham.

The 2011 Lotus Renault GP livery is a tribute to the Lotus cars of the 70s and 80s, whose black and gold colours were to promote Imperial Tobacco’s John Player Special cigarette brand.

Group Lotus CEO Dany Bahar recently played down the latter fact, insisting that the 2011 Renault livery will not have any “negative implications with potential tobacco advertising”.

But a Health Canada spokesperson revealed that if a F1 car did resemble a cigarette packet whilst racing on Montreal’s Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, “tobacco inspectors would need to fully review to assess whether a violation of the Tobacco Act has occurred”.

An Imperial Tobacco spokesperson said: “It is categorically against the law to present any likeness to a cigarette pack.

“If I were Lotus (Renault) … I would be concerned — I wonder if they are aware of the law in Canada.”

Five teams are likely to have not yet launched their 2011 cars by the time of the opening pre-season group test beginning 1 February.
That is the claim of Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport, contradicting other reports that said Williams and Lotus will be ready with their new single seaters at Cheste’s Ricardo Tormo circuit near Valencia early next month.

The report said Williams will likely have an “interim car” at the test rather than the new FW33, with a 2011 launch not expected until mid-February.

Force India has already announced that its new car will not be seen until the second test at Jerez, but it had been expected that Team Lotus’ 2011 machine would be in Valencia.

However, Auto Motor und Sport said the Malaysian team, as well as fellow new-in-2010 outfits Virgin and HRT, are likely to be ready with their respective new cars even later than Williams and Force India.

The earliest launch will be the reveal and rollout of the 2011 Ferrari at Maranello/Fiorano on 28 January, a few days before it is taken to Valencia.

On the last day of this month, Sauber and Renault will present their cars at Valencia, and on the following morning the Mercedes and Toro Rosso cars will be photographed for the first time in the pitlane.

Red Bull is also scheduling a Valencia debut for the RB6, but an official announcement of the precise launch date is only expected within the next few days.

McLaren’s MP4-26 will be launched after the Valencia test, on 4 February in Berlin at sponsor Vodafone’s behest.

Pirelli has followed through with its pledge to produce tyres that require drivers to make multiple pitstops in 2011.
Having replaced long-time supplier Bridgestone, incoming sole tyre marque Pirelli announced last year it wanted to contribute to the ‘show’ by designing aggressive compounds.

According to a report in Autosprint, the Italian marque’s 2011 generation of tyres is designed to require two or three pitstops per driver per race.

The report said the request for aggressive tyres was made by FOTA’s technical division, with the harder compounds designed to last only 30 laps on average.

Pirelli’s 2009 Toyota test mule is back in action in Pedro de la Rosa’s hands this week in Abu Dhabi, where the action kicked off under lights on Monday on an artificially-watered track.

It is reportedly during this final private session that Pirelli will finalise its compound selections for 2011, even though the teams may ask for additional changes after the forthcoming group tests in February.

“These tests will provide us with useful information to finalise our tyre development process for formula one,” confirmed Pirelli’s F1 boss Paul Hembery at Yas Marina.