Valtteri Bottas has refused to criticise the Williams team for not scheduling a test day for him in November.

The 20-year-old Finn has been a frontrunner in the F3 Euroseries in 2010, whilst serving as the famous British team Williams’ test and reserve driver.

He said earlier in 2010 that he has done some aerodynamic straightline testing in the FW32 this year “and after the season (I will do) the young drivers test in Abu Dhabi”.

But whilst confirming that Bottas is staying as test driver next year, Williams announced this week that it will be F2 champion Dean Stoneman and Pastor Maldonado at the wheel of the car for November’s Abu Dhabi test.

But Bottas is not critical of the team, despite missing out on the test opportunity.

“They need to test someone else,” he is quoted by Turun Sanomat newspaper. “It doesn’t change anything for me.

“I respect their decisions and I’m working as usual to support the team,” added Bottas, who is managed by Mika Hakkinen.

Bottas will still be in Abu Dhabi, having scheduled a test with the GP2 team ART.

Toro Rosso is back in action this week as the Italian team bids to get its blown exhaust and F-duct up and running as soon as possible.

At Monza on Friday morning, six grands prix from the end of the 2010 season, the Faenza based squad became the last of the established teams to run the technical innovations.

“We are just beginning to test it and it still requires a lot of work,” said Sebastien Buemi, who debuted the new parts during a straight line test at Vairano last week.

The Swiss said the F-duct was taken off the STR5 “after a few laps” at Monza. “It was never our intention to run it for the (whole) weekend,” confirmed chief engineer Laurent Mekies.

It now emerges that the F-duct will make another appearance at Vairano this Thursday, this time in the hands of Buemi’s teammate Jaime Alguersuari.

“Maybe we can have it on the car for Singapore,” said Buemi.

“If we continue like this I hope to be able to fight fair and square with the Williams and Mercedes in the final races,” he added.

The Italian press rounded on Fernando Alonso after the leading Ferrari driver dropped more than 40 points off the championship lead last weekend.

After showing early promise with the F10′s latest upgrades in practice, the team newcomer qualified just tenth at Spa-Francorchamps before being taken out on the first lap by Rubens Barrichello.

Ferrari then fitted intermediate tyres that had to be changed shortly afterwards, before Alonso lost control over a kerb and crashed.

“An Alonso flop. While Kimi Raikkonen always drove brilliantly at Spa, his successor slipped on a puddle,” remarked the Milan-published Il Giornale.

The sports daily La Gazzetta dello Sport said Ferrari’s championship chances “are now gone”.

But that’s not the message being trotted out by the Maranello team’s officials, and La Stampa reports that Ferrari is pressing ahead with development of the car.

In the coming days, a straight line test at Vairano is scheduled.

“In addition to reviewing solutions for Monza, engineers will try to understand why the innovations introduced at Spa-Francorchamps did not work as expected,” said the La Stampa report.

Ferrari acknowledges it is running out of time.

“Everyone in Maranello is aware that if more ground is lost, it could compromise any chance of a comeback,” said the team.