Argentina looks set to replace Korea on the 2013 formula one calendar.

That is the claim of Italy’s Autosprint magazine, reporting that the Argentinean national government will sign a three-year contract next month.

President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner said last month that the 2013 Argentine grand prix, last held at the ageing Autodromo Oscar Alfredo Galvez in Buenos Aires in 1998, will take place on the streets of the coastal city of Mar del Plata.

Autosprint now quotes Argentine tourism minister Carlos Enrique Mayer as saying: “The national government accepts the challenge of organising the grand prix of Argentina to promote our country to the world.

“In May, the three year contract between all the parties involved will be signed,” he added.

The report said Hermann Tilke will be responsible for the 5 kilometre city layout.

Autosprint also reported that next year’s calendar will remain at 20 races, so with the addition of Argentina as well as New Jersey, two current grands prix will need to give way.

One place will likely open up due to a new alternating scheme in Spain, with Valencia to wait until 2014 for its next race.

And Autosprint added: “The grand prix of Korea no longer seems able to honour the financial obligations agreed with (Bernie) Ecclestone.”

Ferrari is planning to follow Sauber’s lead when the first major development of the disappointing F2012 car is unveiled soon.

“No doubt about it,” Fernando Alonso said after winning the Malaysian grand prix, “they (Sauber) were quicker than us.”

The Italian magazine Autosprint have mischievously christened the updated Ferrari a ‘Ferrauber’, explaining that the rear of the ‘B’ F2012 will be very similar to Sauber’s impressive C31.

Right at the end of the pre-season test period, Red Bull rolled out a Sauber-esque solution at the rear of Adrian Newey’s 2012 car, the RB8.

In the wake of the blown diffuser clampdown, the Sauber exhaust layout reportedly flies close to breaching the spirit of the 2012 rules, but the FIA has declared it legal.

“We are not in a position to be able to say exactly how much aerodynamic influence each individual system has,” said the governing body’s technical delegate Charlie Whiting.

“Hence, it’s impossible for us to say ‘That’s too much, or that’s ok’. The aim of the new regulation was to ensure that we don’t have to do that,” he explained.

So, Ferrari looks to be the next in line to copy Sauber’s rear solution, particularly as the small Swiss team already uses Ferrari’s engine and gearbox.

It is believed the new 2012 Ferrari gearbox is narrower than last year’s unit.

Autosprint reports that the F2012 ‘Ferrauber’ will also be similar to the Sauber in the area of the sidepods.

Fernando Alonso’s win was a complete surprise, but the name of another team was on more paddock-dwellers’ lips after Malaysia — Sauber.

“Only one team could do consistently good laptimes on all the tyres and in all the conditions, and it was Sauber,” confirmed Martin Whitmarsh, whose McLaren team had travelled to Sepang with arguably the fastest car.

Also in Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport, Red Bull team boss Christian Horner agreed: “They (Sauber) have somehow managed to get all of the tyres to work perfectly, which at the moment is the key to success.

“The (tyre) window is so small that it’s very easy to not be in it,” added the Briton.

And Sepang winner Fernando Alonso, whose victory was only ensured by a late-race mistake by Sauber’s Sergio Perez, admitted: “No doubt about it, they were quicker than us.”

Some believe it was only the Malaysian weather chaos that brought the Ferrari-powered C31 to the top of F1′s form-guide, but the Sauber was in fact also fast in Australia.

“Our cars were severely damaged at the start (in Melbourne),” explained chief designer Matt Morris. “At the front for Perez, the rear for Kobayashi.”

Nonetheless, both finished inside the top eight.

“The race in Malaysia showed very clearly how fast our car is,” insisted team boss Peter Sauber, writing in Blick newspaper.

“After two very different tracks, we have the assurance now that the C31 is a success.”

The next question is precisely how the small Hinwil based team has managed to build a pace-setting car.

One possible answer is the end of the blown diffuser era, and the fact that Sauber’s 2012 solution has already been copied by F1′s formerly-dominant Red Bull.

Italy’s Autosprint, meanwhile, claims Ferrari is next, mischievously suggesting that the updated F2012 might aptly be called the ‘Ferrauber’.

Referring to the FIA exhaust clampdown, Morris admitted: “We had to give up less than our opponents.”

Peter Sauber added: “When I saw that Red Bull had chosen a similar route to us, I was sure that we were right.”

Another trick on the C31 is a clever use of the loophole allowing an opening at the front of the car for driver cooling.

“It’s no match-winner,” Morris insists, “but it gains us some (lap) time.”

And Autosprint reports that another “trick” on the Sauber is located in front of the rear wheels, exploiting yet another “grey zone” in the regulations.

Aldo Costa has revealed he is unhappy with Ferrari’s comments in the wake of his departure last year.

The Italian was stepped down as the famous team’s technical director, and he switched to Mercedes before the German marque made a significant step forwards with its 2012 car.

He has remained quiet about his treatment by Ferrari until now, telling Autosprint magazine that the Maranello marque lacked “style and professionalism” as it handled its restructuring.

Asked for more information, he said Ferrari explained “things that not only myself but also the whole world of formula one knows is not the truth”.

Costa confirmed that he was referring to Ferrari’s suggestion that he lacked “creativity”.

Still, he said he is not happy to see his old team struggling to make it into Q3 with the aggressive F2012.

“I still have so many friends in Maranello, but now I want to be 100 per cent engaged on succeeding with Mercedes.”

He said the Ross Brawn-led team has a “different” approach to Ferrari’s “that makes it easier to do things”.

 Felipe Massa’s formula one career appeared in deep crisis on Wednesday, as the Italian press lined up multiple candidates to replace him.
Earlier, the weekly Autosprint suggested out-of-work grand prix winner and Italian Jarno Trulli is available to step in immediately to replace the beleaguered Brazilian, whose contract expires this year.

Ferrari seemed to clear a path for the 30-year-old’s removal by moving to replace his F2012 chassis ahead of Sepang, “to clear up any doubts about the unusual performance of his car” last weekend in Australia.

On Wednesday, the authoritative daily La Gazzetta dello Sport said Ferrari is considering dropping a driver mid-season for the first time since Rene Arnoux in 1985.

The newspaper said Ferrari development driver Sergio Perez, who is currently at Sauber, is an option, as is the former Force India driver Adrian Sutil.

A poll at Autosprint’s website, meanwhile, asked readers to nominate a worthy replacement for Massa — Mexican Perez scored the highest, with 44.7 per cent of the vote.

Second was Trulli with 27.6pc, followed by Rubens Barrichello at 6.6pc.

Only 1.3 per cent voted for 30-year-old Massa, who never returned to form following his serious accident in Hungary in mid 2009.

So far in 2012, McLaren stands all alone — with not only the fastest car, but also the best-looking one.
With almost every other team fielding an ‘ugly’ stepped nose, Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button dominated qualifying in Melbourne with their sleek silver machine.

A report in the Mirror suggested McLaren’s rivals have all made “a design blunder”.

“We felt it (the conventional nose) was the right decision and we’re pleased it looks good and it’s reasonably quick as well,” smiled team boss Martin Whitmarsh.

As for the direction taken by McLaren’s rivals, including Red Bull who pioneered the ‘high nose’ philosophy for the now-past blown exhaust era, Whitmarsh insisted: “It’s not a question of right or wrong.

“But there’s no doubt which one looks best. Ultimately, it’s which one is quickest.”

Writing in Autosprint, Alberto Antonini wondered if Saturday in Australia marked “the end of an era”, after Red Bull dominated the past few seasons in formula one.

“A new era in F1 has begun,” agreed Marca newspaper’s Marco Canseco.

At least for now, there is no obvious signsof panic at Red Bull, with Mark Webber telling Speed Week: “There is nothing fundamentally wrong with the car, we just haven’t got everything out of it.”

As for Sunday’s Melbourne opener, former driver and RTL commentator Christian Danner predicted: “I think the McLarens are unbeatable.

“Behind them we will see a wonderful fight for third place, with Grosjean, the two Mercedes drivers and, of course, Sebastian Vettel.”

Ferrari has set to work to fix a problem at the rear of its troubled F2012 car, Italy’s Autosprint reports.
The report said initial winter testing highlighted problems with the car’s exhaust solution, prompting Pat Fry to order the outlets be moved inwards.

This, however, left the homologated portion of the chassis that housed the original exhausts intact, with modification to require a new FIA crash test.

“I want to understand what is happening, and how many seconds it will take to be fixed,” president Luca di Montezemolo is quoted as having said.

Triple world champion Niki Lauda is alarmed.

“I have never heard comments like this from within a team — this is dramatic,” the great Austrian told Blick newspaper.

However, the Swiss newspaper also said some of Ferrari’s rivals are making similar modifications to their cars that will require new FIA crash tests.

Even so, “nobody at Maranello expected this”, wrote the famous Italian sports daily La Gazzetta dello Sport.

Corriere dello Sport, meanwhile, said the fact Ferrari gagged its drivers for the first time ever recently is “more worrying than the testing results”.

Test driver Marc Gene told Spanish television Antena 3: “This will be a very long world championship, and we will fight to win.

“At the moment we are not at the level we wanted to be.”

It is faintly possible Ferrari is playing an extreme hand of bluff, but Lauda insists that theory is now believed by “only a few”.

“They’ve got a great team,” Red Bull team boss Christian Horner told Sky Sports, “they haven’t fully shown their hand yet. I think they’re more competitive than people believe they are.

“I’m sure the car looks a handful but sometimes a difficult car can be a quick car so it would be foolish to write off Fernando (Alonso) going into Melbourne,” he added.

 F1′s governing body reportedly rejected a push to lower the in-race pitlane speed limit from 100 to 60kph for 2012.
The latest edition of Italian magazine Autosprint said FIA president Jean Todt made the decision after reviewing the widespread lower speed limits in other major series, including Le Mans, GT1 and Nascar.

It was said the change would have a major impact on race strategy this year.

But in the wake of the Autosprint report, Britain’s BBC claims the FIA in fact rejected a push by the teams to lower the speed limit to 60.

Race director Charlie Whiting reportedly “told them he feels there is no need to make the change as there is no evidence that the current arrangement is unsafe”, according to the broadcaster.

Instead, the 2012 rules state that the race limit is 100kph at most races, but that the speed “may be amended by the stewards following a recommendation from the FIA F1 safety delegate”.

 Jaime Alguersuari has told his fans he “will return” to formula one despite not having a seat on the 2012 grid.
Along with Sebastien Buemi, who moved to Red Bull’s reserve role, Spaniard Alguersuari was dumped by the energy drink company’s rookie team Toro Rosso.

A Barcelona native, the 21-year-old’s fans showed their support by displaying banners as the Circuit de Catalunya test began on Tuesday.

“I did nothing wrong, but I wasn’t killed either,” Alguersuari told the Italian magazine Autosprint. “I’m only 21 and I did my best with the equipment I had.”

One of the men who replaced Alguersuari, Daniel Ricciardo, backed Red Bull’s decision to make a clean-sweep of the Toro Rosso lineup for 2012.

“The only reason they kick you out is if you are not performing. And then you probably don’t deserve to be world champion,” the Australian is quoted by The Sun newspaper.

“That’s just the business we’re in.”

But Keke Rosberg, the 1982 world champion and Mercedes driver Nico’s father, criticised Red Bull for not giving Alguersuari a fair chance.

“They (Alguersuari and Buemi) had been there for three years and they (Red Bull) didn’t think they would go all the way to the top, so I understand if Red Bull wants to do something else.

“What I don’t understand is why the decision was made so late, when there was not anything else available for them.

“If someone says in June that they no longer need your services the following year, that’s fair. Then you have the time to find a new job.

“Buemi would probably have found something, if he’d have had more time,” added Rosberg.

Jarno Trulli has revealed he was offered a seat at Ferrari some years ago.
After fifteen consecutive seasons in formula one, the 37-year-old Italian has lost his Caterham race seat to the well-backed Russian Vitaly Petrov.

2004 Monaco grand prix winner Trulli, 37, drove since 1997 for Minardi, Prost, Jordan, Renault and Caterham’s former guise Lotus.

Writing in his New York Times blog, correspondent Brad Spurgeon said Trulli was made the Ferrari offer while he was racing for Toyota between 2005 and 2009.

Trulli reportedly told Italy’s Autosprint magazine that Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali’s predecessor, the now FIA president Jean Todt, made him the offer.

“Nobody knows this, but at this point I think I can publicly thank Jean Todt for having been one of the few top team managers to consider me during my career,” he said.

“I won’t tell you when exactly — I was racing for Toyota and I was doing very well. But I had signed a rather long contract with the Japanese, and in my career I’ve always honoured my commitments.

“In 15 years of F1 I’ve never needed lawyers,” added Trulli.

Trulli left Renault for Toyota at the end of the 2004 season, driving for the carmaker until it pulled out of formula one at the end of 2009.

Rubens Barrichello left Ferrari at the end of 2005, replaced by Felipe Massa. Michael Schumacher retired a year later, replaced by Kimi Raikkonen.

At Ferrari, Frenchman Todt handed over to Domenicali at the end of 2007.

 Mercedes’ highly-anticipated 2012 car made its track debut this week during a secret test day at Silverstone.
“Lots of questions about Silverstone and shakedowns,” admitted the Northamptonshire based team on Twitter on Thursday.

Youtube video footage, captured by a trackside observer, showed the ‘step’ nose W03 turning laps at the British grand prix venue, which is located just a 15-minute drive from the German team’s Brackley headquarters.

Mercedes said the test was for “filming” purposes, with Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher’s equally sharing the allowed 100 kilometres of running.

Italy’s Autosprint website said the car appeared “fairly conventional”, despite speculation the late test debut is due to the team keeping an explosive technical innovation close to its chest.

Adrian Newey, Red Bull’s car designer, admitted he and Mercedes’ rivals might have a very close look at the W03 if the rumours about the technical secret are true.

“If it comes out and goes three seconds quicker than anybody else, yes of course,” he is quoted by Reuters.

“Other than that, simply because its later doesn’t mean to say you are going to suddenly show more attention at that than anybody else’s.”

Meanwhile, after the struggling Spanish team’s 2012 car recently failed two mandatory FIA crash tests, HRT will sit out next week’s Barcelona test.

Last week at Jerez, Pedro de la Rosa ran at the wheel of the 2011 car.

 Jules Bianchi’s personal sponsor has signed up with the Force India team for 2012.
The French rookie, also with the strong backing of Ferrari’s development programme, will be Force India’s reserve and ‘Friday’ driver this season.

Without mentioning 22-year-old Bianchi’s name, the Silverstone based team announced this week that Brazilian car parts maker Aethra is a new sponsor.

Aethra was Bianchi’s main sponsor in GP2 last season, when he finished the feeder series in third place behind champion Romain Grosjean and Luca Filippi.

“Particularly after a bad start, it is unfortunate that 2011 did not go as we wanted for Bianchi in GP2,” his manager Nicolas Todt told Italy’s Autosprint magazine last week.

“It was therefore impossible for him to win the title and so similarly (impossible) to find him a formula one race seat with a good team.”

When Adrian Newey said a mysterious ‘letterbox slot’-shaped air inlet in the stepped nose of his new RB8 car is for driver cooling, a wave of speculation eased.
But not everyone inside the F1 paddock was entirely happy with that answer.

When the 2012 Red Bull was launched recently, it was apparent the ‘step’ nose design differed from its rivals in the form of a sizeable inlet where the monocoque meets the new mandatory lower nose height.

Some surmised it must be for KERS cooling, or perhaps even an F-duct style channel through to the diffuser.

Amid suggestions Mercedes has come up with an F-duct style channel in its 2012 front wing, Red Bull designer Newey explained that the nose slot is in fact simply to cool the drivers.

“Traditionally the driver cooling slot is at the front of the nose,” explained Newey, “but really for styling as much as anything we moved it to where you now see it to break up the aesthetics of the ramp.”

There are, however, doubts about that explanation, particularly with close-up images showing that the main inlet is actually divided into two channels at the middle.

Indeed, the Telegraph last week quoted Newey as having said the slot is “primarily” for cooling, which suggests that it might have another use.

According to Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport, “the competition is suspicious”, having already been outsmarted by Newey in past years in the area of flexing wings and blown diffusers.

When asked about Newey’s driver-cooling explanation for the big letterbox slot-style inlet, an unnamed rival engineer smiled: “Then the drivers are going to get their feet wet when it rains.”

Asked last week about the ‘cooling inlet’ amid Jerez’s cold temperatures, Mark Webber reportedly grinned to Autosprint: “The toes are a bit too cold now actually.”

 Fernando Alonso managed to brighten Ferrari’s spirits before the opening test of the 2012 test concluded.
His best time in Friday’s proceedings was set with soft tyres and still shy of the promising Lotus’ earlier pace, but it nonetheless triggered sighs of relief within the Maranello ranks after a troubled early start.

“At the beginning of the test we had arrived and put our wheels on the ground and were slower than we expected,” Alonso is quoted by Italy’s Autosprint.

“We had to change the way we were working with the car and we are still learning; we will come to Barcelona more prepared.”

“In four days we went from black to white,” Alonso is quoted in Spanish by El Mundo, “but we still have a lot of work to do, particularly on the reliability.”

He is quoted by AS newspaper: “Where will we be in Melbourne? No idea.

“From what we have seen so far, the highlight of the car is that it heats up the tyres so that you can use them to the maximum from the first lap, which is something we could not do last season.

“We still have much to do in the area of the aerodynamics and, above all, the reliability.”

Alonso – like Ferrari in general – is a regular critic of F1′s testing limitations and he admitted it may be a factor in getting the all-new F2012 ready for Melbourne.

“Unfortunately there are only two more tests, which is one less than last year. At Montmelo (Barcelona) we need to be doing at least 100 laps (per day).

“At the moment we are at maybe 20 per cent of what we need to do (before the season) overall.”

 Adrian Newey has cleared up the mystery about the ‘letterbox’ opening in the nose of the newly-launched 2012 Red Bull car.
The F1 world noticed that Newey’s ‘step nose’ differs from its rivals in the form of an air inlet where the monocoque height meets the new lower nose height.

Some surmised it must be for KERS or engine cooling, or perhaps even an F-duct style channel through to the diffuser.

Designer Newey, however, said it is to just cool the drivers.

“The toes are a bit too cold now actually,” grinned Mark Webber to Italy’s Autosprint.

“Traditionally the driver cooling slot is at the front of the nose,” explained Newey, “but really for styling as much as anything we moved it to where you now see it to break up the aesthetics of the ramp.”

Newey also took the opportunity to reject speculation he might contemplate a switch to Ferrari in the near future.

“To now leave for another team would kind of feel a little like walking out on your children in a way,” said the Briton.