JEREZ MID-WEEK

Marussia have confirmed their full driver line-up for the 2013 season. Brazilian GP2 Star Luiz Razia will partner Max Chilton in the newly launched MR02. The news broke on Wednesday morning and it was straight to business for the newcomer as he was in the driving seat for testing. Team principle John Booth said “We are pleased to have concluded our driver line-up, which means that we can now focus all our attentions on what looks set to be a very promising 2013 season.”

Caterham launched their new Renault powered CT03 car on Tuesday morning in the Jerez pit lane. Charles Pic and Dutch newcomer Giedo van der Garde will be taking the wheel of this rather beautiful looking car. Team technical director Mark Smith said, “We decided that CT03 would be an evolution of CT01 rather than a complete redesign, allowing us to focus our resources on developing areas of last year's package where opportunities would give us the greatest return, whilst also beginning work on the 2014 package.”

F1 Television coverage takes another groundbreaking step in the hands of Sky Sports. We have High Definition, we have full surround sound, and now Sky will be giving us 3D. From the 28th February to March 3rd, all the Barcelona tests can be viewed Live in glorious 3D. Sky Sports F1 HD commentator Martin Brundle said, “3D will show us the real challenges of the race track with added depth and perspective. It will be a new, immersive experience for viewers and I can’t wait to see what F1 action in 3D will reveal”.

Bernie Ecclestone confirms a 19 race season for 2013.
The demise of the Jersey Grand Prix opened up opportunity for a new European race, he said it was too late to agree a deal, but said that 20 races a season is more or less the aim. The Nurburgring has agreed a deal to host this seasons German Grand Prix after a battle with fellow venue Hockenheim. There have also been recent discussions with Russia and Mexico to host Grand Prix's in the future, and it's believed Hong Kong and Bangkok are highly interested in entering the Formula 1 circus in the future.

I will be running another news feature next week to keep you updated. I'll also run a special Jerez feature focussing on team's performances during the first round of testing.

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