F1: off season round-up

Fist - it's the only time Hispania Racing will be first in anything for a while - is news that the cash-strapped team has made the decision to bring Narain Karthikeyan back into F1. Depending on one's view he was a crash-magnet or a wasted talent when he sat in a Jordan in 2005. As a Jordan driver, the biggest sponsors badge on his overalls was that of Indian conglomerate TATA.

He's been bumming around on the sidelines for the past five years: a couple of stints in the much-missed A1GP series, an entry in the Le Mans 24 Hours and other series races, he's driven a truck in NASCAR (NASCAR truck racing, that is, not the truck-like cars that NASCAR usually races) and a spell as the test driver for Williams. In Le Mans, he drove for the team that now owns Hispania Racing and so the there's some common ground. His arrival appears to seal the deal that Karun Chandok, who this publication feels is a very under-rated driver, will not get with his old team.

Hispania still have a seat to fill.

So, too, do Force India - which is a UK based team and, ironically, the latest owner of what was, once, the Jordan team. Force India - which has got itself embroiled in various court cases - has yet to name either of their two drivers.

Lotus-Renault (which may or may not be officially named that) have confirmed the re-signing of Vitaly Petrov for two more years. The former GP2 star had a tough time in about half of the 2010 season races but in the other half provided more than like-for-like performance with his generally highly rated team-mate Robert Kubica. But while Petrov's performance may be half-and-half, the money he brings is not and although the cars will be black and gold instead of yellow next year, the name of his banking sponsor will remain prominent.

The new Lotus-Renault black-and-gold livery - along with other Group Lotus racing cars - will appear at the Autosport International show in Birmingham's NEC tomorrow (Thursday 13th January).

The following day, one of last year's Williams cars will be blatting around the streets of Caracas, Venezuela. The car will run close to Los Proceres. President Chavez is also expected to attend the show. But "chuffed grin of the day" will no doubt go to Pastor Maldonado, who has been confirmed as the second driver for Williams, behind veteran Rubens Barrichello. Rumour has it that Maldonado was able to bring big money to the team which, this year, has lost RBS and is expected, at the end of its current contract, to lose AirAsia.

Fans of fabulous f1 fotography should drop by the Mclaren website (www.mclaren.com) where the team has posted a pic of team founder Bruce McLaren in his Cooper Climax at the 1965 German GP. The photo is not captioned "Wings? What wings?" But it should be. The team has also announced a "McLaren Museum" at the opening race of the season in Bahrain. Oh, and although it's not F1 related, kudos to McLaren to whom we award this year's "Sod That For A Game Of Soldiers" award : the new road car hasn't arrived on the market yet but the division, which Ron Dennis runs after handing over the F1 team to Martin Whitmarsh, can't help themselves. They have announced a racing version of the MP4. That'll put the cat amongst the pigeons in GT racing.

We're all going to have to find out if he's a JeRome or JeromE now that D'Ambrosio has a confirmed place at Virgin where he will partner Timo Glock. Oh, and the team's got a new name, officially at least: Marussia Virgin Racing. Sounds like a restaurant, or a white slave trade gang. We must have got that wrong. The team has also announced a sponsorship deal with QNET, a direct marketing company which has been sponsoring racing in Asia for some years.

Team Lotus has a new website to go with its new name. teamlotus.co.uk. So, new name but same colours after principal Tony Fernandes ran a poll on his Twitter page. Surprisingly, more people wanted Team Lotus to remain it the original yellow and mustard than to run in black and gold. Then Lotus-Renault decided to use black and gold so the decision was kind of made for them, anyway. There will be some questions over Team Lotus funding now that Proton, owners of Group Lotus, are indirect owners of their own rival team; some will ask why the government owned car company is sponsoring a privateer when it has its own entry - and given that the two teams are in litigation in the UK over the rights to the name.