Russian rookie Vitaly Petrov may yet be replaced as second Renault driver for 2010 – as the bank loan he needs to pay for the drive has not been received.

Petrov is rumoured to have guaranteed the Anglo-French concern £13million to drive for them in the 2010 season, but his father confirmed yesterday that the loan he would need to pay the first instalment had not come through.  Read more... (110 words, estimated 26 secs reading time)

Lotus F1 technicaL director Mike Gascoyne has said he believes the team are ahead of schedule with the development of their 2010 car after it was first fired up yesterday afternoon.

The ex-Toyota and Renault man put paid to rumours that the Malaysian-funded team would not be ready for the first grand prix in Bahrain on March 14th.  Read more... (242 words, estimated 58 secs reading time)

Eddie Jordan has said that Lewis Hamilton will be spurred on to the 2010 world championship by the presence of Michael Schumacher. The BBC pundit, speaking to the Daily Telegraph, was sure that Hamilton’s motivation and performance level would be increased by the sight of the seven-time champion lining up on the grid beside him.  Read more... (260 words, estimated 1:02 mins reading time)

Williams starlet Nico Hulkenberg has said he is “confident” about his prospects for 2010, ahead of what will be the 23-year-old’s debut season.

The German is hotly tipped to follow in the footsteps of Lewis Hamilton, with whom he shares the honour of having won the GP2 series at first attempt, and namesake Nico Rosberg, who also made his name at Williams.  Read more... (303 words, estimated 1:13 mins reading time)

Christian Klien and current F2 champion Andy Soucek both remain hopeful of securing a drive in Formula One for the 2010 season.

USF1 and Campos have yet to name their second drivers and both men have said that they are in talks with both teams and are hoping to be offered the last two race-seats in the sport.  Read more... (258 words, estimated 1:02 mins reading time)

Adrian Campos is confident that Campos Meta 1 will compete in Formula One this season after revealing that he expects the team’s financial woes to be solved on Monday.

Speculation continues to surround the financial security of the new entry, with reports suggesting that it is unable to pay Italian manufacturer Dallara for producing its car.  Read more... (163 words, estimated 39 secs reading time)

The new Virgin-Cosworth VR-01 has been given its first seal of approval after both Lucas di Grassi and Timo Glock completed two successful shakedown tests around the Stowe circuit at Silverstone.

Glock debuted the new car on Thursday and then remained in the car for Friday morning where he completed 42 successful laps.  Read more... (271 words, estimated 1:05 mins reading time)

Ferrari today played down the early pace that saw them top the Valencia timesheets on all three days of the first test of 2010. The Maranello squad are managing expectations that they have recovered some of the dominance they had at this point ten years ago, but nevertheless rumours are abounding about how fast they really are. What about all those famous variables that are at play in pre-season testing? How much of the speed has come from their fired-up drivers? And what does it mean for the rest of the teams?  Read more... (724 words, estimated 2:54 mins reading time)

Ferrari are playing down their dominance at the Valencia tests, stating that other teams may have been sand bagging to disguise their true pace.

Alonso was asked by Autosport whether he thought Ferrari were favourites and he replied, “No, I don’t think so. It’s just the first day and at least for me the priority was getting completely comfortable.  Read more... (200 words, 1 image, estimated 48 secs reading time)

Nick Heidfeld will be the reserve and test driver for Mercedes next season. The German driver was widely expected to race for the ex-Brawn team when it was bought by Mercedes late last year, however the team eventually plumped for a driver line-up of Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg.  Read more... (265 words, 1 image, estimated 1:04 mins reading time)