Having cancelled its media launch event due to the snowy weather in Italy, Ferrari is preparing for a live internet reveal of its 2011 car on Friday morning.
Hot on the heels of the McLaren launch, and on the same day as the unveiling at Silverstone of Force India’s new car, Ferrari will show its 2012 single seater at 10am central European time, the Maranello based team said.

“The livery has been completed one hour ago and now we’re doing the photo shooting inside the logistic building,” said Ferrari on Twitter.

“This is always a special night, the one before the unveiling,” added the team late on Thursday.

An article in Autosprint said that the possible official names for the 2012 car are F2012, F12 or perhaps F2012-AA, in honour of the 60th anniversary this year of Alberto Ascari’s 1952 championship title.

Elsewhere, Williams gave its 2012 car, the newly Renault-powered FW34, its private track debut along the straight line at Idiada proving ground outside Barcelona on Thursday.

Finnish test driver Valtteri Bottas was driving.

And Pedro de la Rosa – the only confirmed HRT driver so far for 2012 – on Thursday had his seat fitted and pedals adjusted in readiness to test the Spanish team’s old car at Jerez next week.

“Impressed by what I have seen today at HRT,” the former McLaren test driver said on Twitter. “Great effort in less than three months. Good job guys.”

The teams, the fans and the world’s media will not be the only ones with their eyes firmly on the action at Jerez next week.
It is rumoured Charlie Whiting, the technical delegate of formula one’s governing FIA, has scheduled to attend the first test of the 2012 pre-season.

The news follows speculation some teams are flying too close to the limits of the regulations with their new cars, notwithstanding the banning of blown exhausts.

At the launch of the new McLaren, for instance, the exhausts and the diffuser were carefully hidden.

“The fact of the matter is that exhausts exist on a car, you have to have them, they blow gas,” said the team’s technical director Paddy Lowe.

“That will always generate some performance, a finite level of performance.”

When the very aggressive-looking new Ferrari was unveiled in Italy on Friday, team president Luca di Montezemolo said he hoped arguments about the rules would not overshadow 2012.

“There are reports that … Whiting may travel to Jerez next week due to concerns over the designs of the new cars,” correspondent Tom Cary wrote in the Telegraph.

 McLaren was left the odd-one-out on Friday, as Ferrari and Force India joined Caterham in launching new cars with ‘ugly’ noses.
The odd feature – a quirk of new regulations – is the centrepiece of Ferrari’s new F2012, launched on Friday morning at Maranello, and the Mercedes-powered Force India VJM05, whose covers were pulled off in the chilly Silverstone pitlane.

“(The car) looks very different actually from what we have seen in the past two years,” said Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso.

Agreed Felipe Massa: “Let me tell you that it looks very aggressive.”

Telegraph correspondent Tom Cary, however, had another view, insisting the Ferrari, Force India and Caterham have “nasty nose jobs”.

But McLaren’s new MP4-27 features a clean aerodynamic line at the front.

“It’s a bit of a hot topic this year,” Andrew Green, Force India’s technical director, acknowledged to Sky Sports.

“Obviously a lot of people commented on the McLaren a couple of days ago. For us, it’s not a big deal. It’s purely aesthetics.”

Paddy Lowe, McLaren’s technical boss, said the team had retained a more conventional look because last year’s car already had a “philosophy” in line with the new rules.

“You can’t see performance necessarily by eye, it’s a matter of fine-tuning the balance between all the relevant aspects,” he insisted.

 HRT, the Spanish team that until now had the final vacancy on the 2012 grid, has finally completed its race driver lineup by signing Narain Karthikeyan.
The Indian began last year’s championship with the back-of-the-grid outfit before he was replaced by Red Bull protege Daniel Ricciardo.

But with Australian Ricciardo moving to Toro Rosso for 2012, 35-year-old Karthikeyan – who briefly returned for his home race in India late last season – has taken back his full-time seat.

The news is a blow to Vitantonio Liuzzi, who had acknowledged that a driver with higher-paying sponsors could oust him for 2012 despite his long-term contract.

Karthikeyan will be Pedro de la Rosa’s teammate.

“It has taken a lot of hard work to make this happen but I am absolutely elated to feature on the 2012 grid with HRT F1 team,” he said in a statement on Friday.

De la Rosa will begin HRT’s pre-season preparations at Jerez next week, before Karthikeyan drives at the second test, at Barcelona.

 While his teammate’s plans beyond this year are unclear, McLaren driver Jenson Button is sure his career is on the right track.
Lewis Hamilton has been making headlines this week after saying he wants to think about his future beyond 2012 – when his existing contract expires – soon.

“Probably, after the first couple of races, it’s something we will probably want to get out of the way, probably in the earlier part of the year rather than later,” said the Briton.

2011 championship runner-up Button, however, inked a new multi-year contract last season, now telling the Sun newspaper that at the age of 32, it is too soon to think about retiring.

Agreeing that 2007 world champion Kimi Raikkonen’s return to F1 this year is good for F1, Button said: “It also tells me not to leave F1 too early.”

Also among the six world champions on the 2012 grid is Michael Schumacher, who returned two years ago at the age of 41.

“Two of the six champions have left and come back again. You always think the grass is greener but you’ve got to be careful about when you retire,” said Button.

The quality of the 2012 grid is also making predictions about the outcome of the world championship particularly difficult.

“It will be close,” agreed McLaren team boss Martin Whitmarsh. “It’s a massively competitive championship these days.

“No one, in my view, is going to run away with this victory, not us, not anyone else.”

With the launch event at Maranello cancelled due to heavy snow covering the entire area, the reveal of the Ferrari F2012 was done through a series of online streaming interviews with key players including Fenando Alonso who spoke about the new car and the season ahead.

“It looks very different from what we have seen in the last two years,” said Alonso of the F2012 which features a ‘platypus’ style raised nose which first broke cover when the Caterham CT01 was revealed to the world last week.

The Spaniard, who won the Formula 1 world title in 2005 and 2006, is motivated as ever, “This is my third season at Ferrari and I am going to start with the same strength and determination. I want to do great this year.”

“Of course it’ll be quite competitive for the whole season, but we want to see red cars on the podium. We start [testing] next week in Jerez and we keep working together. I am sure we will do well this year.”

“I believe in the skills we have here in Ferrari. We have two months to get ready before the first competition. We have to fight for the title and try and get as many points as possible. We really want to be right at the top of the ranking,” said the Spaniard who has 27 grand prix victories under his belt.

“We have to be as consistent and resolute as possible. I am sure, really, really sure we will be able to achieve great targets and fulfil the great responsibility of driving for Ferrari.”

 Force India has acknowledged it will not challenge for the world championship until the team is bigger.
Otmar Szafnauer, who is the Silverstone based team’s chief operating officer, told Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport that the former Jordan, Midland and Spyker team’s head-count is currently 310.

“Here at Silverstone we have 212, and there are 98 in our aero department in Brackley.

“500 would be too many,” he told the magazine. “We don’t have room for that.

“What is ideal? If we have 330 people next season, fifth place (in the world championship) should be possible.

“Can we be world champion with that? Probably not. We’d need 450.”

The next step for Force India is the inauguration in February of its new driver simulator.

“We are growing cautiously. (This year) five to 10 per cent more people, but only in the departments where we can follow suit with the equipment. CFD for example,” continued Szafnauer.

“In the wind tunnel, we are more limited.”

The issue is that Force India is effectively unchanged since the Jordan days, with departed team founder Eddie Jordan opting instead for the philosophy of minimising infrastructure and paying external suppliers.

“Even if we wanted to buy all the manufacturing machinery in the world tomorrow, we would have nowhere to put it,” explained Szafnauer. “We would need a new factory.

“We have autoclaves that are too small for a chassis or a floor.

“Strategically, it would be better to produce more parts ourselves because of the speed at which you can react.

“We felt that (last year) in the blown diffuser area as we had to wait for some parts, while we could have produced some of them ourselves overnight.”

Force India’s 2012 car, the Mercedes-powered VJM05 with a McLaren gearbox, will be launched at the chilly Silverstone circuit early on Friday morning.

“I’m not getting carried away,” race driver Paul di Resta told the Herald Scotland ahead of his second F1 season.

“A podium will be a massive challenge. We are a midfield team and you have to be realistic. I’m not saying it can’t happen but it will take a lot for us to achieve that.”

Adrian Sutil deserves to keep his formula one race career alive.
That is the claim of Nico Hulkenberg, the driver who is replacing his German compatriot at Force India in 2012.

Sutil, 29, has failed so far to secure an alternative seat, and days ago was dealt a further blow with a Munich court convicting him of grievous bodily harm for an assault on Lotus team executive Eric Lux last year.

He did, however, have a strong 2011 season, outscoring his teammate Paul di Resta – the Scottish rookie who has retained his race seat – by 15 points.

“Adrian definitely deserves a cockpit — more than some of the other current race drivers,” Hulkenberg, who steps up from the reserve role after losing his Williams race seat at the end of 2010, said.

“There is absolutely no bad blood between us,” the 24-year-old, referring to his relationship with Sutil, told Sport Bild magazine.

He blames the situation – with drivers like Sutil and Rubens Barrichello out in the cold – on ‘pay-drivers’.

“I was one of the few drivers in formula one who don’t need to bring any money,” said Hulkenberg.

“But that so many experienced drivers are without seats shows just how brutal the sport can be.”

His plan for 2012, therefore, is to ensure a place on the 2013 grid.

“At the end of the year I don’t want to have to worry about my seat for the next season,” insisted Hulkenberg.

And he said helping Force India to secure fifth place in the constructors’ world championship – one position better than in 2011 – is another goal for his second season in F1.

The Mercedes-powered VJM05 will be launched on a chilly Friday morning at Silverstone.

 The likelihood is rising that Rubens Barrichello will switch from formula one to Indycar for the 2012 season.
Left without a race seat after 19 consecutive seasons of grands prix, the 39-year-old Brazilian has been testing this week in Florida with the team of an Indy driver he describes as his “brother”, Tony Kanaan.

Barrichello was scheduled to test at Sebring over two days, but he completed yet another half-day on Wednesday, the Brazilian newspaper O Estado de S.Paulo revealed.

“I don’t know how things are going to move forward now,” he told the correspondent Livio Oricchio. “I have not spoken with (owner) Jimmy Vasser about racing in the season.”

Much has been made about an earlier promise Barrichello made to his wife Silvana about never racing at high speed on American ovals — the kind that claimed the life of Dan Wheldon late last year.

“She has come here (to Sebring) now,” Barrichello revealed, “and today she was supporting me, seeing how happy I am.

“Silvana even joked with Tony, saying that he was to blame for all of my enthusiasm,” he laughed.

The 15-round 2012 season, featuring four oval tracks including the fabled Indy 500 in May, and a city race in Barrichello’s native Sao Paulo, kicks off at the end of March on the streets of St.Petersburg, Florida.

“What is certain is that it (the speculation) will not last long. Whether I race or not will be known soon.

“There is a lot of work still to do and KV (Racing) needs to know its driver,” said Barrichello.

F1 team owner Dietrich Mateschitz has donated a staggering EUR 70 million to a medical research university in his native Austria.
The local ‘Salzburg 24′ reports that the 67-year-old billionaire, whose energy drink company owns the Red Bull and Toro Rosso teams, donated the money to the Paracelsus Medical University.

Mateschitz reportedly wants the money to be used for research into incurable spinal injury and paralysis.

The report said the university was founded in 2002 with Mateschitz’s support.

“This is the third highest amount ever donated to a university in Europe by a private person,” said a university official.

“We are very grateful and also aware of the great responsibility that comes with such a high sum.”

The Spanish press quoted the publicity-shy Mateschitz as saying: “It is a very worthy project and I want to help.”

 McLaren has denied that a senior staff member expressed concern the team’s newly-launched 2012 car flies close to the limits of the technical regulations.
The staff member made the comments about the new MP4-27 single seater before it was launched by the British team at its Woking headquarters on Wednesday.

The story was only live on the internet for a short time before it was removed.

After that, members of the media were contacted by McLaren insisting that the quotes had not been accurate.

The saga caught the attention of the widely circulated German newspaper Bild, which wondered: “(the risk of a) protest? So maybe the car is illegal?

“The rivals will now be looking very closely (at the car) at Jerez,” wrote correspondent Frank Schneider.

He said the MP4-27 has “mysterious lumps” on the side, perhaps to “hide the exhausts”.

Spanish sports newspaper Marca’s correspondent Marco Canseco, meanwhile, said the new McLaren is “not revolutionary” at first glance, with the disappearance of the L-shaped sidepods of last year even indicating a “backwards step”.

The exhausts, however – with blown diffusers now banned – were “very well camouflaged” at the launch, “embedded in a strange bulge” at the rear of the engine cover.

The diffuser, added Canseco, is “nonexistent” in the MP4-27′s launch version “to avoid clues being given to the rivals”.

2008 world champion Lewis Hamilton, meanwhile, laughed as he revealed that McLaren answered his call for better mirrors in the wake of several incidents last year.

He said the new MP4-27 mirrors are higher and “don’t flap around”, joking that “Felipe (Massa) will be very happy about that”.

 McLaren on Wednesday stopped Lewis Hamilton from responding to former friend Adrian Sutil’s “coward” accusation.
Sutil, the 2008 world champion’s former F3 teammate, has been Hamilton’s closest friend in the paddock throughout their subsequent formula one careers.

But the German slammed his British rival for being “not a man” this week after Hamilton declined to appear as a witness at Sutil’s assault trial in Munich.

Despite sitting alongside Sutil in the Shanghai nightclub last April, Hamilton claimed in a written statement to the court he could not remember the details of the alleged assault on Lotus team executive Eric Lux.

“I do not want to be friends with someone like that,” Sutil, referring to Hamilton, said after receiving a 18-month suspended jail term and EUR 200,000 fine for grievous bodily harm.

A reporter asked Hamilton about Sutil’s anger following the launch on Wednesday of the 2012 McLaren car.

Before the Briton could answer, a McLaren spokesman intervened: “We’ve been told that Lewis shouldn’t really go there because it (the conviction) might go under appeal.

“So can we move on to the next question,” he added.

Hamilton told the reporter: “I’ll listen to him.”

The winner of 17 grands prix had a tumultuous season on and off the track in 2011 but on Wednesday thanked McLaren for granting him a long winter break that left him feeling “fresh” for the new year.

“What I have decided to do this year is just focus on the most important thing and that’s racing,” said Hamilton.

He also hopes to quickly ease rumours about his expiring McLaren contract.

“I think probably after the first couple of races it’s something we will probably want to get out of the way so we can focus on the rest of the year without the team being concerned and without it being something that’s just hanging around for us.

“Then you guys won’t be having to ask questions about it,” he smiled to reporters.

 Snow looks set to spoil the scheduled debut on Friday of Ferrari’s 2012 car.
The Italian team had intended to give its new single seater a shakedown debut after its covers are pulled off at Maranello on Friday, or on the following day.

But on Wednesday, surrounding schools were closed for the rest of the week and Ferrari’s Fiorano test track is shrouded in snow, with the team announcing there is “no sign of a let up” in the weather.

Ferrari also said temperatures are dropping well below zero, ensuring “icy roads”.

“It now looks as though there is little chance of carrying out the planned promotional filming featuring action shots of the car at the Fiorano track,” said the team.

“Even if the snow was to stop it’s hard to imagine that the escape roads could be cleared of their blanket of snow which is gradually building up.”

A spokesman added, however, that work to set up the infrastructure to host the launch ceremony at Fiorano “is still going ahead, even if it is not proving straightforward”.

Team boss Stefano Domenicali said recently the Ferrari launch event will be “very conventional”.

The car is now likely to make its debut alongside its 2012 rivals at Jerez next week.

 The assembled world of F1 was surprised on Wednesday when Jenson Button declared the 2012 McLaren “beautiful”.
With the new Caterham featuring a radically-stepped front nose, and Ferrari also preparing to unveil a less-than-attractive single seater, most insiders expected the entire field of 2012 to be ‘ugly’.

“This is a beautiful car,” said 2009 world champion Button when the MP4-27 was unveiled to the media at Woking.

“Many of the others you will see won’t be,” smiled the Briton.

He is referring to the fact that, while the new regulations require a lower extremity of the nose section, the aerodynamic shape at the front of the McLaren remains smooth.

The MP4-27 will be debuted in team youngster Oliver Turvey’s hands at an aerodynamic test this weekend, before Button drives it at the opening of the Jerez test.

“It may look like a direct evolution of last year’s car, but we’ve analysed every area of performance over the winter and the whole car has benefited from lots of fresh thinking and new ideas in every area,” said Button.

 Bernie Ecclestone has once again backed Mark Webber to shine in 2012.
Australian Webber came close to winning the championship in 2010, but ultimately it is his young teammate Sebastian Vettel who is the reigning back-to-back title winner, having utterly dominated last season.

And it is likely Adrian Newey has penned another field-beater yet again for 2012.

“I don’t want Red Bull to dominate in the same way but I fear that’s what will happen. That’s why I put my hopes on Mark Webber’s shoulders,” F1 chief executive Ecclestone said recently.

Webber turns 36 later this year and many tip Red Bull to replace him with one of rookie team Toro Rosso’s new chargers for 2013.

But Ecclestone insists it is not too late for the Australian.

“I think he could win, yes for sure,” he is quoted by the Herald Sun.

“I think you are going to see a different Mark this year. What he has to do is come to appreciate that Sebastian is quick, and he has to make sure he is quicker.

“(And) get it out of his head that people are not supporting him because they actually are.”