As you can see, we've decided to give the old girl a bit of a face lift to reflect her new high-profile status. A few of the wrinkles have been lifted from the front page, there's a mouthy new section for all the opinion columns and features that our team will be producing through the 2012 season. We've glitzed up the galleries to make them easier on the eye, and for the nosey sort, we've introduced a history section. And, of course, to give you an earful of information, we've updated all the team and driver elements to reflect the completion of this year's line-up.

In short, we've decided to make www.skysports.com/Formula1 a website within a website. In terms of position, it's a bit of a juggling act - we're mindful it needs to have the look and feel of skysports.com but we also want the site to be a Formula 1 destination in its own right.

Take a look around and let us know what you think. You'll also see quite a few 'Work in Progress' signs around the site. Fret not; they're meant to be there. It's our reassuring give-away that what you're seeing now is far from the finished article. It's an online building site - we have lots more to come.

So why did we launch now? Because the winter season is already underway and we didn't want to wait until the middle of March before revealing a few of the things we've been working on. And it had to be done this week because, as you'll know if you followed our coverage from Jerez last week, we'll be flat out in Barcelona for the rest of February.

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Seven-time Formula One world champion Michael Schumacher set the fastest time in testing at Jerez in Spain, clocking a fastest lap time of 1min 18.561sec in the morning session and completing 132 laps.

The 43-year-old German veteran was half a second faster in his Mercedes than Australian ace Mark Webber in the new Red Bull RB8 with Daniel Ricciardo another half second further back for Toro Rosso.

Frenchman Jules Bianchi also impressed as the Force India reserve driver was fourth-fastest in the new VJM05. While Schumacher was racing last year’s model Webber timed 1:19.184 for the best effort by any of the drivers trying out the new season variant. Sydney Morning Herald

Tuesday pacesetter Kimi Raikkonen was fifth in the Lotus E20, just behind Bianchi, whose Force India team mate Paul di Resta was sixth with his best morning time. They were followed by Felipe Massa, who hands over the Ferrari F2012 to Fernando Alonso on Thursday, and Jenson Button who will similarly step aside for Lewis Hamilton at McLaren. Both teams reported trouble-free sessions, Ferrari working on general data acquisition, McLaren on braking, set-up and software changes.

Sergio Perez was ninth fastest as he got his first taste of Sauber’s new C31. Despite losing some track time to a fuel system issue, the Swiss team reported a positive day, with pleasing results from new aero parts that they trialled in the afternoon. Williams’ Pastor Maldonado rounded out the top ten, with team mate Bruno Senna set to take over the FW34 on Thursday.

Caterham had a highly productive session. Heikki Kovalainen may have been only 11th in the times, but he racked up a mammoth 139 laps as the team ran KERS on their car for the first time. Newly-signed tester Giedo van der Garde will make his first appearance in the CT01 on Thursday. Formula 1

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Team boss Stefano Domenicali said they feel a "responsibility to win from the very beginning" of the season. The F2012 features an innovative step on the top of the chassis in response to regulations aimed at improving safety by lowering F1 cars' noses.

Lead driver Fernando Alonso said: "We have to be optimistic. We have to fight for the title."Ferrari have made no secret of their desire to make amends for a poor 2011 in which they won only one race - the British Grand Prix with Alonso. It was an especially disappointing return as they had narrowly missed out on the title in Alonso's first year with the team in 2010, handing it to Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel with a strategy error in the final race of the season.

They have restructured the technical team, with Englishman Pat Fry replacing Italian Aldo Costa as technical director, and much is expected of the new car, dubbed the F2012. Domenicali paid tribute to Alonso for his "incredible extraordinary season" in 2011, and pointed to the fact that the double world champion had extended his contract with Ferrari until the end of 2016.

"That is a sign of the responsibility we feel," Domenicali said, addressing Alonso directly. "We have to offer you a competitive high-performing car. I'm sure it will be winning from the very beginning."The car has a number of significant features. The step on the top of the nose is there to enable it to meet regulations on the dimensions of the chassis while opening up the area under the nose to create as optimised airflow as possible.

Ferrari admitted in a statement that the nose design was "not aesthetically pleasing" but added: "This is a way of raising the lower part of the chassis as much as possible for aerodynamic reasons."Ferrari said the rear of the car was "much narrower and more tapered" than on last year's car, partly thanks to a new gearbox casing".

The car appears to have exhaust outlets aimed at the rear floor of the car in a bid to improve aerodynamics following the banning of last year's must-have technology, when gases were blown along the rear floor of the car, increasing downforce.

It also finally follows the trend established in 2009 by Red Bull in adopting pull-rod rear suspension, which has a benefit in terms of weight distribution and aerodynamics over the previous standard, known as push-rod. Interestingly, it also features an unusual pull-rod front suspension system - for the first time on an F1 car in 10 years.

Alonso added: "(The car) looks very different from what we have seen in the past two years. I am going to start with the same strength, determination. "I really want to see red cars always on the podium and always winning. We will keep working all together and I'm sure we will do great this year.

"I really believe in the skills we have here in Ferrari. We have to be optimistic. We have two months to get ready for the first race in Australia (on 18 March). We have to fight for this title, we have to get as many points as possible at every race.

"We want to win the drivers' and the constructors' championships. I'm sure we will be able to get great targets even if I feel great responsibility driving a Ferrari."Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo praised the team's "aggressive" design, adding: "We want to go back to the top level, we want to win. We don't want to lose the world championship at the very last race, we have all the ingredients for a perfect recipe."

Di Montezemolo repeated his demand to Alonso's team-mate Felipe Massa to up his game in 2012. The Brazilian's contract runs out at the end of the year and he is not expected to be retained. "As for Massa, he knows as much as we know that he has to do something great, something better after a not-so-positive season," di Montezemolo said. "We are offering him the best conditions to do a great job."Pre-season testing starts in Jerez, Spain, on 7 February.

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Former world champion Kimi Raikkonen is back behind the wheel of a Formula 1 car for the first time since 2009 after joining up with Lotus.  The Finn, 32, began a two-day re-acclimatisation test with his new Lotus team, formerly Renault, on Monday.

After a two-year stint in rallying, Raikkonen is driving a Renault at the Ricardo Tormo circuit in Spain. He will drive the team’s 2012 car at Jerez in next month’s first pre-season test. The 2010 car, with which the team’s former driver Robert Kubica impressed that season, has been repainted in the black and gold colours adopted by the team since they rebranded themselves as Lotus. BBC Sport

Last November he confirmed he was returning to Formula One with Lotus-Renault after signing a two-year contract. “I had no plans for the future, I have no plans now for the future,” he said. “There were different choices for this year but I really wanted to do racing - I did some Nascar last year and I really enjoyed competing against people again.

“It was then that I decided to do some racing again and F1 is the highest level of racing and where people want to be. Raikkonen, who has 18 race wins, and 16 pole positions, believes the biggest challenges to overcome will be the Pirelli tyre, which came in at the start of 2011, and the physical demands of driving an F1 car. ‘The braking distances, the G-forces, the acceleration, those will come back very quickly,’ he said.

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Red Bull have sprung a surprise by naming Sebastien Buemi, who was dropped from feeder team Toro Rosso, as reserve driver for their senior team. The Swiss will provide back-up for Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber.

Team principal Christian Horner claimed that Buemi’s knowledge of Red Bull and three years of Formula 1 experience made the move “logical”. Buemi, 23, said: “I would prefer to be driving at the races, of course, but this is the next best thing.”Later on Thursday, Toro Rosso announced that Buemi would effectively be their reserve driver in 2012 as well.

A statement said: “Although our sister team in Milton Keynes will be the Swiss driver’s top priority, if for any reason Scuderia Toro Rosso found itself short of a driver at a grand prix, then Sebastien would step into the cockpit for us.” BBC Sport

Buemi has been part of Red Bull’s young driver programme for the last seven years and competed in the ADAC BMW series, Formula Three, Formula Renault and GP2 before stepping up to Formula One racing as Red Bull’s reserve in 2008. In 2009 he started racing for Toro Rosso and impressed in his first season, scoring six points and finishing 16th in the standings.

His second year in 2010, however, proved trickier, with Buemi initially struggling to find pace, but four top-ten results saw him ultimately finish ahead of younger team mate Jaime Alguersuari. The duo remained evenly matched last season but Toro Rosso decided to drop both in favour of a new 2012 line-up of Daniel Ricciardo and Jean-Eric Vergne.

“It was entirely logical for Sebastien to continue with Red Bull having been a member of the Junior Team since 2004,” explained Red Bull team principal Christian Horner. “He already knows the team well from his time with us in 2008 and has gained significant race experience over the past three years. He will complete important test and simulation work for us throughout the year and will be in attendance at each Grand Prix.” Formula 1.

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None of the Formula 1 contingent made it to the final in the main event at this year's Race of Champions. The good-natured but ultra-competitive annual contest sees top names from F1, rallying, sportscars, touring cars and extreme sports take each other on in an array of machinery in head to head knockout races around an arena, with the 2011 running taking place in Dusseldorf.

World champion Sebastian Vettel, fellow German legend Michael Schumacher, ex-F1 man David Coulthard and Renault's Vitaly Petrov and tester Romain Grosjean were present to uphold F1 honour, but only Schumacher would get as far as the semi finals. Last night Schumacher and Vettel had teamed up to win the Nations' Cup element for Germany.

Today they blitzed individual paths through their heats, only to come up against each other in the quarter finals. Driving special RoC buggies, it was the seven-time F1 champion who overcame the two-time champion, as Schumacher knocked Vettel out of contention.

But Schumacher would only get one step further, as Le Mans legend Tom Kristensen saw him off in an ultra-close semi-final race in KTM X-bow sportscars. Coulthard had also reached the quarter finals, but was stopped there by DTM touring car champion Martin Tomczyk, who beat him in Skoda Fabia rally cars.

Grosjean and Petrov were eliminated in the heats. Petrov did not manage a single win, and was beaten by Grosjean - ironically his big rival for the second 2012 Lotus Renault seat alongside Kimi Raikkonen - in their heat match-up in Skodas.

But Grosjean was unlucky not to get further, as his heat results meant he was stuck in a tie-break with Kristensen and Vettel, all on two wins apiece, and the organisers had to use their combined lap times to split them.

That meant Grosjean lost out to Vettel by just half a second. With all the F1 men out of the way, the final was fought out between rally star Sebastien Ogier and Kristensen, with the Frenchman blasting to victory on his RoC debut.

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Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone has given organizers of next year's U.S. Grand Prix another week to save the Texas race by proving they have the finances in place. Ecclestone had wanted organizers to sign a contract by Wednesday, but extended his deadline to next Wednesday when the World Motor Sport Council will ratify the 2012 calendar.

"The deadline hasn't been met, so we are still trying to make it happen," Ecclestone said Wednesday. "They need to get some money and a pen … as soon as possible. They know full well. Deadlines are terrible things because people always go to the end of the deadline. But if it isn't all signed before the World Motor Sport Council meeting, it can't happen."

Financial backers of the race in Austin include billionaire businessman Red McCombs. The race would mark Formula One's return to the USA for the first time since 2007. The Circuit of the Americas officials, the track developers, have said they will pay Formula One's sanctioning fee. However, a dispute over signing a final contract and the long-term financing has not been resolved. "They are struggling to get the financial side sorted out — that's the problem," Ecclestone said from London. "They are trying to do it.

"It would be a loss to everyone (if it didn't happen). They would like the race to take place … I'd rather see the race happen than not."The dispute has been caused by F1's decision to scrap a previous contract it had with Tavo Hellmund, a former race driver with long family ties to Ecclestone who was originally granted the right to stage the U.S. Grand Prix.

The deal with Hellmund was recently canceled over a contract breach, and F1 officials instead have been negotiating with Circuit of the Americas. If the 2012 race in Texas is canceled, F1 will still return to the U.S. the following year in New Jersey. A 10-year deal will put the race along the Hudson River waterfront, providing views of the Manhattan skyline. The 2011 championship, which was won by Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel, finished Sunday in Brazil.

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Formula One preview - The final countdown for the 2011 FIA Formula One World Championship has begun, on the weekend of the 25th to the 27th of November the Sauber F1 Team will be doing everything to ultimately gain a position in the Constructors’ Championship.

The Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace in Interlagos is as famous as it is notorious for thrilling and unexpected racing. While Kamui Kobayashi finished in the top ten in both his starts there, in his debut race in 2009 as well as last year, Sergio Perez is a first timer at the challenging Brazilian Formula One Grand Prix.

Kamui Kobayashi (car number 16):
“Sao Paulo is one of my favorite tracks with a nice combination of high speed and low speed corners. Overall, the track layout with its long uphill straight is very nice. The most thrilling aspect of the Brazilian Grand Prix is the fans who are very excited and emotional, and who create a fantastic racing atmosphere. For me Sao Paulo is a special place because it was here where I drove my first Formula One race in 2009.

"I finished ninth and had some good fights on the track. But there’s another reason why I like to go to Brazil: it’s the Churrascarias with the fantastic meat! Sao Paulo will be the last race of 2011. For our team it has been an exciting season, and I will give my utmost so the team can finish the season with a positive result.”

Sergio Perez (car number 17):
“I have never been to Brazil and I’m very much looking forward to my first visit. Before I fly to Sao Paulo I will spend a few days in Mexico, and I must admit I’m also looking forward to going home. The last time I went back home was during the summer break in August. I have heard a lot about Sao Paulo and Interlagos. Apparently it is a great race track and the crowd can get very emotional. I expect them to be a bit like my Mexican fellow countrymen, and am looking forward to the atmosphere passion creates.

"Of course I have also had some warnings that the city can be a dangerous place. It will be the final Grand Prix of my rookie season in Formula One. To me this year feels like three years because so much has happened, including my accident in Monaco. However, I think it was a good season. I learnt a lot and was getting better and better with every race. Considering the fact that I had to miss two races in which the car and the team performed very well, I really think I can be happy with what I have achieved so far. Without doubt I am determined to finish this season, which I will personally never forget, on a high.”

James Key, Technical Director:
“We have already reached the end of the season. It’s gone very quickly, but equally it’s been a lot of hard work for everyone. Obviously we want to extract the most out of the race in view of our championship position, and, of course, we want to score points there. Sao Paulo is one of these circuits that doesn’t have an obvious optimum wing level. There are two strategies, one which is a higher downforce setting where the middle of the lap is better optimised, and the other one is a lower downforce setting which is better for the long straight up the hill through to turn one and then the second straight down to turn four.

"That will cause a little bit of work on the wing level, both from a strategic and also the lap time point of view. Pirelli will provide the medium and soft compound tyres, the same ones we had in Abu Dhabi. We think the nature of the track will allow us to get a little bit more out of the tyres over a single lap. In Abu Dhabi we were unable to get the new tyres to work in qualifying, but the nature of the track in Brazil should allow us to use the new tyres better.

"One thing we have seen over recent years is the weather is quite unpredictable. This may or may not be a factor over the weekend and could be a game changer. With regards to the car, we’ve gathered some good data from the past two events to help us try to improve our qualifying performance a bit more. In addition, we had some test items that we ran in Abu Dhabi, and we will be focusing again on making the most out of those. Otherwise the plan is to maximise our opportunities and try and make sure we can realise the full potential of the car in the race.”

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Vodafone McLaren Mercedes today pays tribute to test and reserve driver Pedro de la Rosa, who leaves the team he initially joined in 2003 to start a new chapter in his life at Spain’s national Formula 1 team.

Pedro very quickly established himself as a vital part of the McLaren team following his arrival at the team in March 2003. His engineering skills, mechanical understanding and ability to think both analytically and laterally in order to solve problems immediately made him one of the most valued and important test and development drivers in the world.

As a racer, Pedro’s finest moment came at the 2006 Hungarian Grand Prix, where he finished second behind Jenson Button to claim the best result of his Formula 1 career to date at the wheel of the McLaren-Mercedes MP4-21.

But it is as a friend and colleague that Pedro will be best remembered by all of us at Vodafone McLaren Mercedes: his loyalty, enthusiasm, comradeship, team spirit and good humour made him a hugely respected and well-loved member of the team and a friend to us all.

Pedro de la Rosa (test and reserve driver, Vodafone McLaren Mercedes) said: “After more than a decade in Formula 1, I’ll always think of Woking as a second home. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank sincerely everyone at Vodafone McLaren Mercedes for helping me develop into a much more complete driver, and person, than I was when I first joined the team back in 2003.

“Of course, the happiest McLaren moment for me personally was finishing second in Hungary in 2006, but I’m just as proud of helping Lewis [Hamilton] and the team to the 2008 drivers’ world championship – a genuine team effort – and helping to develop a fantastic series of cars that won grands prix throughout my entire time with the team.

“Finally, I want to thank Martin [Whitmarsh] for giving me the opportunity to follow my heart. He’s not only been one of my strongest supporters throughout my career, but also a very good friend to me and my family.

“I regard Vodafone McLaren Mercedes as the best and most professional team in Formula 1 and, while I’m proud to be taking on a new challenge in my life and career, there will always be a special place in my heart for my friends, the hard-working men and women of Woking, for whom I have a huge amount of respect and admiration.”

Martin Whitmarsh (team principal, Vodafone McLaren Mercedes) said: “Pedro’s contribution to Vodafone McLaren Mercedes has been fantastically valuable – perhaps even more valuable than may be apparent to outsiders in fact – ever since he joined us in 2003.

“As a test driver, he’s been extraordinarily hard-working – on track and, latterly, more often, in our simulator – and his feedback has been reliable and expert. But his contributions have gone wider and deeper than that: Pedro is the archetypal team player, a big motivational presence in our team, and, perhaps because of that, he’s someone whom I personally will always count as a true friend.

“In 2010 and 2011 he drove some races for the Sauber team – and, although he’s always approached his test and development work with McLaren with energy and enthusiasm, he remains a racer at heart. For that reason, we understand and support his decision to join HRT as a race driver, and we wish him well. It goes without saying, however, that he’ll be missed.

“Having said that, we’ll continue to be well served by Gary [Paffett] and Oliver [Turvey], both of whom will continue their excellent test and development work for us in Pedro’s absence.”You could get van insurance for as little as £276 (based on quotes provided to 10% of callers. (Source: MORE TH>N BUSINESS October 2009) when you buy online as well as other great offers when you buy a business insurance product.

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Fortune finally smiled on Lewis Hamilton on Sunday when he won the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix as Sebastian Vettel’s luck ran out. The McLaren driver was on hand to make the most of the spin Vettel suffered exiting the very first corner of the race at the Yas Marina Circuit.

Vettel suffered a right rear puncture and was forced to retire for the first time this season. That means the world champion’s attempt to match Michael Schumacher’s record of 13 victories in a single season is now at an end. Hamilton’s win was his third of 2011 but much-needed in the context of a difficult season for the 26-year-old, who has been criticised for the number of collisions he has been involved in.

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