American driver Alexander Rossi will be making his Grand Prix debut for Caterham in Barcelona at next weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix. He will drive in the first Friday practice session in Heikki Kovalainen’s car.

Rossi will be the first American to drive during a GP weekend since Scott Speed raced for Toro Rosso in 2007. He drove in the Young Drivers Test for Caterham last year.

Of course, this practice session takes place at 4am eastern next Friday, but if you’re as excited as I am to see a legitimate American driver in Formula 1 once again, you’ll be able to stream the session online.

This week, teams had a three day in-season test at Mugello. It’s hard to judge anything based on the test because teams use it for different things, but hopefully everyone got something out of it.

Except apparently Christian Horner, who doesn’t think there is any value in it.

Vitaly Petrov spoke out yesterday on the last day, saying the Mugello circuit is too dangerous. Other drivers praised it. But it is beyond tacky to tell Petrov to “man up” or “grow a pair” because you don’t agree with him. He’s the one in the car.

I’m talking to you, Will Buxton.

The link in the top tweet there is a photo of a baby crying. Yes, Petrov does complain a bit. But that in no way makes him less of a man.

Of course, Buxton was not done yet.

Yep, only women crave dessert and white wine! And only men can have beer and burgers. So there you go. And if you think a track is dangerous, you deserve to be emasculated. And craving said sweet things also makes you less of a man so pop open that beer!

I’ve liked Buxton since SPEED brought him on. He has actually never said anything that rubbed me the wrong way until this. As a female fan, I’ve lost a lot of respect for him.

No surprise this is the sport that calls Maria de Villota testing a “publicity stunt” and has a commercial rights holder who hopes new Williams’ test driver Susie Wolff is “as quick in a car as she looks good out of a car.”

Actual lotus flowers around the world are embarrassed to share the name right now. Photo credit: Flickr/gadgetdan

Sorry for this becoming like, Lotus Makes Tons Of Problems, but this is seriously bizarre.

Group Lotus (for those who already have headaches, the title sponsor company for Lotus F1) posted a photoshopped picture of Dany Bahar both on their website and on Facebook from sniffpetrol.com, a motorsport/car humor site, along with a statement that more resembles a crazed rant.

In the statement, Group Lotus attacks Tony Fernandes, Mike Gascoyne, and Joe Saward. According to this statement, Saward is not an independent journalist, but an active director for the Caterham group.

Fernandes is of course team owner and Gascoyne chief technical director of the team…but according to this statement, Gascoyne has “gone missing” because he is “looking for the 30-40 points he predicted last season.”

Fernandes is also attacked because he wishes his team was still Lotus.

WOW.

Now for the actual facts in the statement than the pretty trashy attacks, right?

Let me just copy straight from the statement what the deal is with Lotus F1. If you don’t want to read, it basically says the earlier reports that Group Lotus is not the title sponsor are wrong.

Group Lotus’ branding and marketing rights and subsequent activities remain unaffected by the new agreement until at least 2017. Alongside continued branding and title partnership status, Group Lotus is also the exclusive master licensee for all Lotus F1 Team merchandise.

The new agreement was reached following Group Lotus owners Proton providing team owners Genii with a £30m loan which is repayable within three years. In order to secure the loan Genii used 100% of the F1 team’s assets as collateral meaning that under the conditions of the loan agreement Proton have been given full title guarantee to all plant, machinery, show cars, computers, office and the Lotus F1 Team headquarters.

In addition Proton retains the rights to purchase 10% of the F1 team. Another 10% share option will be activated if the team default on their loan obligations with Proton.

So there you have it. Unorthodox as hell, weird, but eventually it gets to the point.

I used to want a Lotus Exige badly but I think I don’t anymore, knowing it may be paying the salary of someone who thinks a photoshopped photo is actually what everyone thinks, leading to a rant.

But hey, at least it made them FINALLY address the story!

Rossi on the podium during the 2011 World Series by Renault 3.5 season (photo credit: Nicolas Garcia)

Hot on the heels of a female test driver, the other rare category appears: an American!

After days of Rossi hinting at something good in his feature, he was announced as Caterham’s test driver. Rossi is guaranteed some first practice session running time, and I can’t imagine that won’t include the inaugural Grand Prix at Circuit of the Americas.

Alexander will also be racing in the World Series by Renault 3.5 season for the Arden Caterham team.

This should bring us much closer to seeing Rossi in a Formula 1 Grand Prix, hopefully. Congratulations, Alexander!

photo credit: Flickr/Gil Abrantes

Lotus had their first and last day of testing this week, pulling out due to a critical error with their chassis. This was the first running of the second E20 chassis, and the team plans to take the time to find what exactly has gone wrong.

The team says the problem applies to both cars, which will have to be modified. The team did not name what exactly the problem is, but said the first chassis looked to have the problems after tests were run at it back in Enstone.

Romain Grosjean was able to complete seven laps before Lotus called it a week. Grosjean said the car felt strange to drive before the team abandoned the test.

Sebastian Vettel topped the timesheets for the day, first taking the top time from Nico Hulkenberg before going even quicker later in the day. Vettel’s fastest lap was a 1:23.265 out of the 79 laps he completed.

Many teams went with long runs. Charles Pic completed 121 laps for Marussia, but was the slowest of the 11 cars present at the test.

Heikki Kovalainen had a rough day in the Caterham. After nine laps, a broken rod left him stranded out on track. He was able to return in the afternoon to complete an overall 31 laps.

Lewis Hamilton was third fastest for the day, completing 114 laps in the McLaren.

The new Mercedes was sixth for the day, with Michael Schumacher at the wheel for 51 laps total.

(photo credit: Flickr/Sum_of_Marc)

Well, everyone kind of knew this was coming. There was talk that clearly Jarno Trulli would be the first to go this season, but who knew it would be after one week of testing?

Trulli has had to defend his contract for what feels like years now, and finally the Caterham team dumped him. Vitaly Petrov, who raced for Lotus Renault last season, will replace him. Petrov had been linked to the team for a couple weeks.

Trulli is now without a drive for the first time since his F1 debut in 1997. It’s also the first time there will be no Italians on the grid since 1970.

Team boss Tony Fernandes says the decision was not an easy one to make. Fernandes said the decision was made with an economic factor in mind, as well as a need to move to a new chapter for the slightly new team.

By economic factor of course, he is probably referring to the upcoming race and Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, in 2014.

Goodbye, Trulli Train. We will probably not miss the times you held everyone up.

Former Formula Renault 3.5 champion Giedo van der Garde signed with Caterham to become the team’s reserve driver. The Dutch driver has previously tested for other F1 teams including Super Aguri and Renault.

Van der Garde will get to drive in pre-season testing as well as on select Grands Prix Fridays.

Since winning his title, van der Garde has raced in GP2, where he finished 5th this past season.

Meanwhile, Force India’s reserve driver, Jules Bianchi, hopes to continue racing while holding his test driver role. He also raced in GP2 the past season, but GP2 is an unlikely place for him to land again due to those races typically taking place with F1 races.

Perhaps endurance racing of some sort might suit him?

Finally, the running order for Jerez was announced. Mercedes will do tire testing on their 2011 car for 3 days, and HRT will be testing the 2011 car for two. It’s not entirely complete, but can be seen under the cut. » Continue reading “Saturday Roundup: Reserve Roles, Jerez Running Order”

At first I thought the idea of revealing your car on a magazine cover was cool. Except this is the photo we all get:

(credit: Caterham Team Facebook page)

Wow, thanks for all that buildup. I can maybe see a car in there? Why is the lighting on the part that isn’t really a change? Why can’t we get a better look at what is going on with that nose?

The team will be revealing more pictures tomorrow, so we have to be stuck with all these mysterious questions until then.

I think a regular old unveiling on a stage with your drivers works better than this. Just saying. I’m kind of disappointed.

We’ll see the car run in a couple weeks though.

I hope everyone had a great Christmas, perhaps you also got the Haynes manual for the RB6. My ability to get on the internet currently relies on the use of a Verizon MiFi right now, so needless to say it’s not very much.

from the Bruno Senna Fans Page on Facebook

Bruno Senna posted this absolutely precious picture on Facebook on Sunday. For other cute holiday photos, you must go to Karun Chandhok’s Twitter. He kept me entertained at the airport with photos with his dog.

Speaking of Chandhok, he hopes to keep his spot as reserve driver for Caterham or with another team and drive in the new World Endurance Championship. There is also the new i1 series, but Chandhok has his eyes set on racing in Le Mans. It’s possible he could join the WEC with a privateer team rather than a factory team.

Damon Hill believes that Kimi Raikkonen is definitely capable of at least one more world championship. Hill doesn’t think Raikkonen will have any problems getting back into the pace of Formula 1.

Michael Schumacher was the top passer this past season, narrowly beating out Sebastien Buemi. Schumacher made a total of 116 passes, with Buemi right behind at 114.

Numerous times Luca di Montezemolo, president of Ferrari, has been rumored to run for political office. Formula 1 is political enough to give you all the experience you need for some job like that, but it was never true. Recently, di Montezemolo wrote a letter to the Italiafutura group, which read as an announcement of candidacy. It is signed “Luca di Montezemolo, future president of Italy.”

But di Montezemolo denies that’s what it was about, saying he’s with Ferrari.

He took the opportunity though to say Ferrari will be debuting their 2012 car on February 3, so all is not lost apparently.

The president of not-Italy also said Ferrari will be pushing for more testing, because current regulations are restrictive to helping new drivers get a taste for the sport.

Other news:

- Robert Kubica and his rehab doctor Riccardo Ceccarelli have parted ways over a disagreement on the last phase of his post-accident recovery. No idea what the rift was, but it should come as no surprise the doctor, who does not work in driver management, has no idea if Kubica has been in talks with Ferrari.

- A London High Court judge says that Bernie Ecclestone’s payments to Gerhard Gribkowsky are indeed bribes, despite Ecclestone saying he had no choice but to pay up….one of the definitions of “bribe.” This is getting good.

- Jenson Button thinks he can do even better next year than he did this year. While not plotting his second world championship, he is being recognized for his amazing(ly bad) commercial acting talent.

- Kimi Raikkonen will test a 2009 Renault car with GP2 tires next month. Raikkonen doesn’t think he’ll have much of a problem getting back into the F1 swing of things, citing his 9 seasons in the sport before heading to rallying. He says the most difficult thing will be tires, as the manufacturer has changed since he was last racing.

- Bruno Senna was spotted at the Williams factory. Senna’s experience driving for a Renault powered car interests the team as they switch back to Renault engines, and he met with engineers there. Rubens Barrichello has also revisited recently, and has supposedly gained about $5 million in personal sponsorship money.

- There are rumors that Jarno Trulli is not exactly safe over at Caterham. Martin Brundle took to Twitter to say he thinks Vitaly Petrov popping up with the team is entirely possible.

Jaime Alguersuari has recently been linked to the test driver role for Mercedes. The rumors surrounding Alguersuari to HRT are all but crushed after new team principal Luis Perez Sala says that it’s not realistic, as the team has been in talks with several other drivers for weeks now.

- Fernando Alonso and his wife Raquel del Rosario, singer for the Spanish band El Sueno de Morfeo, are splitting up. The two had been married since 2006. In a joint statement they said they will never separate as friends, and would appreciate the media continuing to respect their personal lives at this time.

Photo from Flickr user sBerna.

At first it looked like it wasn’t happening today. And then it happened. After weeks of speculation, Force India finally confirmed that Nico Hulkenberg will replace Adrian Sutil. Paul di Resta was also confirmed for his second season with the team.

No word on who replaces Hulkenberg as reserve driver.

This leaves just two obviously open spots: one at Williams and one at HRT.

In other news:

- In the United States, we’re all a bunch of idiots who will not be able to comprehend cars turning left and right all the time at high speeds.

Oh no wait, sorry, Bernie Ecclestone is using the excuse that “the US wants to see profits before anything else” regarding US races. So despite approving not one, but two, American grands prix he thinks the sport will not be big in America.

Just shut up.

Ecclestone also said the US Grand Prix is not guaranteed for 10 years. Of course, there’s never been any mention of the specifics of the new contract between Ecclestone and Circuit of the Americas. Neither seem to want to comment on the length, which possibly could have changed.

- Caterham announced their car has passed the required FIA crash tests. They have not announced when they will reveal their 2012 car.

- Sauber will unveil their car on February 6, the day before pre-season testing starts.

- I’ve been considering adding a bit of GP2 coverage in here, since many drivers come from the series.

The 2012 calendar for GP2 includes 12 events. Each event is made up of two races: one Saturday race with a format similar to an F1 race, and one Sunday shorter sprint race, where the top 8 finishers reversed. So, if you finish 8th on Saturday, you start first on Sunday.
March 23-25 – Sepang, Malaysia
April 20-22 – Sakhir, Bahrain
April 26-28 – Sakhir, Bahrain
May 11-13 – Barcelona, Spain
May 24-26 – Monte Carlo, Monaco
June 22-24 – Valencia, Spain
July 6-8 – Silverstone, Great Britain
July 20-22 – Hockenheim, Germany
July 27-29 – Budapest, Hungary
August 31-Sept 2 – Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium
September 7-9 – Monza, Italy
September 21-23 – Marina Bay, Singapore