Formula One News — February 2011

The Mercedes GP team is now fully owned by the German car manufacturer's parent company Daimler AG and Aabar Investment PJS, after buying out the remaining shareholders in the team.

Red Bull is set to announce an engine branding deal with Infiniti at the Geneva Motor Show this week.

Williams technical director Sam Michael, speaking at the livery launch of the new FW33 at the team's Grove, England base, confirmed that the start of the new F1 season should see more Red Bull versus Ferrari battles.

Williams F1 unveiled today it's livery design for the 2011 season at an event at it's Grove, England factory.

Subject to the end of current unrest in Bahrain, it is possible that the cancelled F1 season-opener could be rescheduled to an end of season date close to that of the Abu Dhabi GP in November.

Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone says that he will try to reschedule the Bahrain GP on the F1 calendar later this season.

Renault's Robert Kubica, seriously injured in an Italian rally on February 6, is now out of intensive care.

Felipe Massa put Ferrari on top of the Barcelona test times on the final day's action of the third pre-season F1 test at the Spanish track.

The season-opening Bahrain GP has been called off by the organisers due to political unrest in the country.

Nico Rosberg topped the third day of Barcelona testing. The track was damp for much of the morning following overnight rain, and Rosberg's programme was restricted to several exploratory runs to gain experience of the Pirelli intermediate tyre.

Team quotes from the third day of testing in Barcelona.

World champion Sebastian Vettel topped the second day of F1 testing at Barcelona and put another 104 laps on the new Red Bull RB7.

Team quotes from the second day of testing in Barcelona.

The opening day of the Barcelona F1 pre-season test was afflicted by mixed conditions that saw the track wet until almost lunchtime. Sebastian Vettel produced the quickest lap on a short run and finished up more than a second quicker than Fernando Alonso.

Team quotes from the first day of testing in Barcelona.

Mercedes GP has announced that Bob Bell will join the team as technical director, starting on April 1st.

As the Hispania Racing team is continuing to evaluate drivers for it's second seat, it will test Vitantonio Liuzzi this weekend at Barcelona.

This weekend's GP2 Asia race has been cancelled by the organisers due to the civil unrest in Bahrain.

After completing a successful test with Renault at Jerez, Renault has announced that Nick Heidfeld will join the team to replace the injured Robert Kubica.

F1's new tyre supplier Pirelli has announced the compounds that it will use in the first four races of the season.

There are concerns that the Bahrain Grand Prix in March might have to be cancelled, and the race organisers have issued a statement saying that they are monitoring the unrest and will respond accordingly - as the country is the latest Arab state to face dissent.

Construction of the track for the inaugural Indian Grand Prix is on schedule.

Rubens Barrichello set the fastest time of the week as the second pre-season F1 test of 2011 drew to a close at Jerez. The Williams then caused one of the day's red flags when it stopped with a hydraulic leak.

Nick Heidfeld set the fastest time on day three of the Jerez test as he staked his claim to taking over Robert Kubica's seat at Renault.

Former Renault director of engineering Pat Symonds is to work with Virgin Racing in a consultancy role.