Stefano Domenicali on Wednesday refused to say whether Ferrari is committed to retaining Felipe Massa beyond 2011.
The Brazilian driver had a bad season in 2010, the year after his near-fatal accident, and team boss Domenicali suggested that he needs to improve.

During a press conference at the ‘Wrooom’ event in the Dolomites, the Italian did not directly answer three questions about Massa’s tenure beyond 2011.

“It would be wrong to say anything at the beginning of the season,” said Domenicali, admitting however that Massa will need to show comparably alongside his teammate Fernando Alonso.

“I hope it will be close between them; that he (Massa) will be as good, or maybe even faster than Fernando. But for sure we need two strong drivers to win the constructors’ title,” he added.

Domenicali’s comments were reported internationally, with La Gazzetta dello Sport quoting him as saying he “expects” Massa to be “always close” to Alonso this year.

Blick in Switzerland quoted Domenicali as saying 2011 “is an important season” for the 29-year-old, and according to Sao Paulo’s O Estado Domenicali said Massa has had talks with Ferrari management “as have other team members”.

“We must all learn from the mistakes of the past year and put it behind,” he added.

“I trust that, as in other situations in which he was under immense pressure and reacted very well, he will do the same now,” said Domenicali.

Vitaly Petrov, not his highly rated teammate Robert Kubica, will be giving Renault’s 2011 car its maiden outing at Valencia next month.
The day after the launch of the Lotus Renault GP R31 on January 31, group testing at the Ricardo Tormo circuit at Cheste begins.

The French autohebdo.fr website reports that Russian Petrov has been asked to do the driving on 1 February, before Pole Kubica takes over for Wednesday and Thursday.

“At the moment our car looks good and this year will be easier for me because I know the team better and I know all the tracks. I can’t wait for things to begin,” Petrov said on the team’s blog.

French TF1 commentator Christophe Malbranque reports that Romain Grosjean will be the team’s third driver in 2011.

Only four of F1′s twelve teams have budgets in place for the long term, according to an analysis by Auto Motor und Sport in Germany.

The report said only Red Bull, Ferrari, McLaren and Mercedes are secure from a financial point of view, with at least half of the sport’s teams fighting for survival.

Auto Motor und Sport named HRT as the team with the smallest budget (EUR 40 million) and lowest head-count (120).

On the other end of the scale are the reigning champions Red Bull, spending 330 million annually.

The report said Virgin (60m budget and 220 head-count) and Lotus (70m / 240) are the other minnows, with Williams, Force India and Toro Rosso running on just EUR 80 million.

Williams and Sauber have paying drivers on the books for 2011, and Vitaly Petrov has reportedly doubled the money he is taking to the Renault seat compared to his debut last year.

Arturo Merzario, an Italian driver of the 70s famous for pulling Niki Lauda from his burning Ferrari, thinks the sport is living on borrowed time.

“It will go back to being a sport only for a few car manufacturers,” he told La Repubblica in an interview.

Ferrari’s 2011 car will be given its track debut on the day of its launch on January 28.
While most of the Italian team’s rivals will not get up to speed until the Valencia group test the following week, it has emerged that the Ferrari – currently known only by its codename 288 – will make an earlier debut at Fiorano.

It is believed Ferrari has received clearance for the 100km rollout for filming purposes, due to the debut of a new logo and livery.

Ferrari confirmed that the January 28 debut will take place “weather permitting”.

It is further believed that the driver at Fiorano will be Fernando Alonso, with team boss Stefano Domenicali confirming that the Spaniard will be at the wheel of the sole chassis a few days later at Valencia.

Only on the third day of the test will Felipe Massa get his first taste of the car, Domenicali also confirmed.

Meanwhile, Alonso on Wednesday brushed off any fears about a minor ankle injury by doing some skiing at the ‘Wrooom’ event in the Italian Dolomites.

Robert Kubica is not sitting out next week’s Monte Carlo rally due to contractual restrictions or a rift with Renault, it has been clarified.
It was reported this week that the Pole will miss the famous event because his full-time F1 employer did not give him permission to drive a car other than a Renault.

But Finland’s Turun Sanomat clarified that when it emerged that a four-wheel drive Renault would not be available for Kubica, he simply decided against contesting the rally.

The report said the 26-year-old did not enquire about finding another car to drive, adding that there is “no dispute” between Kubica and Renault.

Romain Grosjean is set to become Renault’s third driver in 2011.
The source of the information is French broadcaster TF1′s commentator Christophe Malbranque.

24-year-old Swiss-born Frenchman Grosjean became Renault’s test driver in 2008, moving into the race seat in the middle of the next season when Nelson Piquet was ousted.

He was not retained for 2010, instead racing in GT, Auto GP and GP2, debuting at Le Mans and becoming one of Pirelli’s F1 test drivers.

Grosjean has contested just 7 grands prix, scoring no points.

Ferrari driver Fernando Alonso is nursing a minor muscle injury, it emerged from the ‘Wroom’ media event on Tuesday.
When his 2011 teammate Felipe Massa began skiing at the Madonna di Campiglio resort, Spaniard Alonso simply posed for photographers at the top of the slope.

Spanish media reports reveal that the 2010 championship runner-up is suffering from a minor muscle lesion in his right leg.

“Sitting on the couch,” Alonso told La Nueva Espana when asked what it will take for the injury to heal.

In fact, even though the 29-year-old has set aside his racing bicycle for now, the reports insist Alonso has still been working in the gym.

Kimi Raikkonen has ended speculation about his motor racing career by signing up for another season of the world rally championship (WRC).

After talks about a possible return to F1 broke down, and then the death of his father Matti two days before Christmas, rumours had suggested F1′s 2007 world champion might hang up his helmet.

Having made his debut with Citroen’s junior team in 2010, the 31-year-old Finn has now formed his own team called ICE 1 Racing to run a Citroen DS3 WRC.

L’Equipe in France said the team is funded by Raikkonen’s own sponsors.

The WRC confirmed that his entry for the opening Swedish rally was received “shortly” before this week’s deadline.

L’Equipe said Raikkonen’s has committed to 10 of the 13 rallies in 2011.

“With Kimi’s limited experience, it may be better to do additional testing while the others are competing,” his manager Steve Robertson told Finland’s Turun Sanomat.

The 2011 season begins in mid February.

Raikkonen told the official WRC website that he considered returning to F1 this year.

“Of course I thought about it, because you think about everything,” he said. “But I never really thought seriously about it, because actually I didn’t miss formula one at all this season.”

Sky Deutschland has become the first formula one broadcaster to announce it will televise the sport in true high definition (HD) in 2011.
The news will benefit subscribing viewers in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, and raise the hopes of fans in other countries that similar announcements by their host broadcasters are looming.

“This agreement is a late Christmas gift to our customers,” said Sky’s sports chief Carsten Schmidt.

Norbert Haug has denied Helmut Marko’s claim that Mercedes is making a move to sign Sebastian Vettel for 2012.
After Marko this week admitted that Ferrari is pushing hard to poach Red Bull staff, the Austrian has now told Kleine Zeitung that Mercedes is moving on the energy drink-owned team’s reigning world champion Vettel.

Asked by the newspaper who other than Ferrari is interested in the 23-year-old, motor racing consultant Vettel answered: “Mercedes for sure.

“Knowing that Sebastian has a contract with us, Mercedes expresses quite an interest in him.”

Marko confirmed that Vettel’s contract expires at the end of the year but includes an option for 2012.

“For the time after (2011), we are already talking,” he revealed.

But when asked about Marko’s comments, Mercedes’ motor sport vice president Haug said the German marque has “not made Sebastian Vettel an offer”.

“We have exactly the drivers we wanted in Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg,” he told the German press agency DPA.

Haug however admitted it is “no secret” he has a good personal relationship with German Vettel but said it is “absolutely wrong” to make any assumptions because of that.

Multiple MotoGP champion Valentino Rossi thinks Mercedes would be right to be on the market for another driver.

At the Madonna di Campiglio ‘Wrooom’ event for Ferrari and Ducati, the rider said he thinks it will be “almost impossible” for Schumacher to win again following a three-year retirement.

“Michael is still going (with his comeback) and hopes to get the results he wants,” the Italian is quoted by SID news agency. “But as I said, it will be very difficult.”

Ferrari’s high profile new recruit Neil Martin will not travel to grands prix in 2011.
The information emerged from the Madonna di Campiglio ski resort as team sponsor Marlboro’s annual ‘Wrooom’ media event jointly staged with Ducati started in earnest.

200 members of the specialist media are reporting from the scene in the Italian Dolomites this week, where the details of Ferrari’s revamped team structure for 2011 will be made clearer.

Martin, a 38-year-old Briton who was a chief strategist at Red Bull, is heading the team’s new operations research department, so is expected to stay at Maranello when the race team travels to races.

Australian Chris Dyer, whose new “redefined” role will also be clarified this week, has lost his job as head of race track engineering after calling the strategy that cost Fernando Alonso the 2010 drivers’ title.

Martin is to head the remote operations unit where a dozen engineers will work and analyse decisions away from the noise and stress of the pitlane and feed their conclusions to the pitwall, the news agency Sapa reported based on information from Italian media sources.

British F1 broadcaster the BBC is poised to announce officially that David Coulthard is moving into the race commentary box for 2011.

He will join his former manager and fellow former McLaren driver Martin Brundle, as the often-criticised Jonathan Legard has been dropped.

“Life moves on,” Legard said on Twitter on Tuesday morning. “Ask Nick Heidfeld or Narain Karthikeyan. You never know what’s next.

“To the critical and the complimentary, thanks for the company,” he added.

The Telegraph’s Tom Cary said Brundle will continue his famous grid walk even though he is now the lead commentator, while Coulthard will continue to appear alongside fellow pundit Eddie Jordan “where possible”.

Also early on Tuesday, it emerged that Sir Richard Branson might have to pull out of his appearance as an AirAsia stewardess on a London to Kuala Lumpur flight on 21 February.

The billionaire lost a bet with fellow airline owner Tony Fernandes because Branson’s Virgin Racing finished behind Lotus in 2010.

“(There) may be a delay as Richard injured himself skiing,” said Lotus team boss Fernandes. “Will call him today. So that’s why no announcement yet.”

Karun Chandhok is facing legal action by his former F1 employer HRT, according to reports in the Indian press.
The Sun this week quoted team boss Colin Kolles as saying the 26-year-old Indian was dropped mid-season in 2010 “because he did not fulfil his contractual obligations”.

A report in the Hyderabad based Deccan Chronicle newspaper said the Spanish team is set to take legal action for breach of contract.

“When he signed an agreement with us for the 2010 season, Karun made a lot of promises on paper. But he failed to fulfil his obligations,” Kolles said.

“We waited for some time, but we didn’t have any other choice than to suspend him at the German GP,” he added.

“However, we did everything diplomatically. We didn’t make it public. Since then, Karun was never in the team’s radar,” said Kolles.

Sources told the newspaper that Chandhok’s sponsors paid only EUR 2 million out of a promised 8m, and Kolles claimed the missing money affected HRT’s progress.

“We were planning to do certain upgrades on the car, but everything got disturbed,” he said.

Narain Karthikeyan has vowed to “catch up” with formula one after spending much of 2010 racing a NASCAR Truck in America.
The newly-signed HRT driver revealed on Twitter that among his first jobs in preparation for 2011 is to buy the 2010 F1 Season Review on DVD.

“Missed loads of races while racing in the US, need to catch up!” said the Indian, who turns 34 this week.

Karthikeyan has not raced in F1 since his debut season in 2005, and quotes attributed to him in the Deccan Herald newspaper suggest that he is struggling even with the very short history of his new employer.

When asked if he expects HRT to have a better season this year than in 2010, Karthikeyan answered: “The car that they had last year was really bad in terms of the engine they used.”

HRT used the Cosworth engine in 2010 and intend to stay with the Northamptonshire marque this year.

“They (HRT) have a lot of promising plans drawn out for the 2011 season and I’m hoping that it all materialises,” added Karthikeyan.

Another problem for Karthikeyan might be his physical condition, given that he revealed that only “10 days ago” he “almost signed up” for another NASCAR Truck season.

Team boss Kolles admitted that when he was in charge at Jordan in 2005, Karthikeyan’s “biggest negative point” was his fitness.

“But his physical fitness during the Le Mans races, which are very long, was very good,” added the HRT chief.

Karthikeyan admitted recently that leaving NASCAR for a seat with a small team in F1 was a “big risk”.

“In 10 months, I will know if it was the right or wrong decision,” he told the Times of India on Monday.

Jarno Trulli has said he can imagine racing in a different series once his formula one career is over.
The Italian veteran has admitted he did not enjoy the 2010 season with the new Lotus team and is not prepared to stay forever at the back of the grid.

“One year I can suffer, another one no,” he told the Gazzetta Sportiva newspaper.

The 36-year-old is signed up for another season but is quoted by La Gazzetta dello Sport as saying that racing in other series might be interesting.

“NASCAR could be an interesting experience,” said Trulli, who tested a Sprint Cup car at the end of the 2009 season.

“It is a completely different concept that could give me new motivation — just like DTM or long-distance racing,” he added.

The former Renault and Toyota driver admitted he thinks F1 has taken “an ugly turn” in the last couple of years.

“Contracts are worth less and less. The only thing that interests is the big money brought by various ‘little’ drivers,” he said.

“Only four teams can guarantee excellent drivers. As for the rest, the level is extremely poor,” added Trulli.