Alexander Rossi has today been confirmed as Caterham F1 Team's Test Driver, joining Race Drivers Heikki Kovalainen and Vitaly Petrov, and Reserve Driver Giedo van der Garde in the Anglo / Malaysian team's driver line-up. In his F1 role he will be taking part in FP1 sessions in 2012, helping him to gain further experience at the highest level of global motorsport and further embedding him within the Caterham F1 Team.

In addition, Alexander has confirmed today that he will be competing for the second year in World Series by Renault 3.5, the championship in which he finished third in his rookie season. In 2012 he will be driving for the newly formed Arden Caterham team, aiming to fight for the outright championship victory from the first race in Motorland Aragon, May 5th / 6th.

One of the most famous long distance races in the world turns 60: The twelve hour classic on the Sebring International Raceway is the oldest and toughest sports car race in the USA. Not only does the American Le Mans Series kick off the new season at the anniversary event on 17 March on the legendary airfield circuit in the heart of Florida. Fans can also experience the long-awaited debut of the new World Endurance Championship as well as the first race outing of the Porsche 911 GT3 RSR, which underwent improvements in many areas. As the most successful manufacturer in the history of the race, Porsche is strongly represented with seven works drivers.

The race

On 15 March, 1952, the 12 hour race celebrated its inauguration. Immortalised on the winners' list are racing legends like Juan Manuel Fangio, Phil Hill, Dan Gurney, Jacky Ickx and Mario Andretti. Hollywood stars have also fulfilled their racing dreams here: For instance, Steve McQueen who finished second overall in 1970 with a Porsche 908.

It wouldn't be a new Formula One season without a few new regulations to get our heads around. For 2012, they are relatively few in number, but have had a dramatic impact on the look of the current generation of Formula One cars - and also have the potential to alter the sporting outcome of races. Here are the most important new sections of the 2012 Sporting and Technical Regulations.

Sporting Regulations

* Maximum race time: Art. 5.3, no race may now last longer than a maximum of four hours. Last year's Canadian Grand Prix lasted a total of 4hrs 4min 39.537s, although only 57min 10s were actually spent at racing speed!

The FMSCI Indian National Autocross Championship (INAC) makes its formal entry as a premier championship in the Motor-Sport calendar of the Federation of Motor Sports Clubs of India (FMSCI). Wynnsport, the Promoter of the series, in association with An Open Mind (AOM) as Principal Associate, is bringing this exciting National Motorsport Championship to the motorsport enthusiasts in the country. The FMSCI, Wynnsport and AOM jointly announced the first edition of FMSCI Indian National Autocross Championship 2012 at a press conference here today.

The FMSCI INAC will be held in five cities including Bangalore, Chennai, Coimbatore, Cochin and Mumbai with the final round again in Bangalore in December 2012. The  first round of the championship will be held in Bangalore on April 28th - 29th followed by Cochin on May 26th - 27th and will then move on to the other cities.  The schedule of the  locations with the respective dates of the championship is listed below in detail.

Lotus F1 Team finished their pre-season testing with Kimi Räikkönen setting the fastest time of the day at the Circuit de Catalunya near Barcelona today. Kimi’s 1min 22.030secs lap was the fastest set over the two weeks testing at the 4.7 km circuit. He also completed the furthest distance today, with 121 laps.

Kimi Räikkönen, Lotus F1 Team Race Driver: “I was happy with today’s running. We didn’t have any major issues so it was certainly better than yesterday. Everything worked, we tried a lot of set-ups on the car and it all came together well. It was a long time in the car today but I feel fine. It was cooler today so the tyres didn’t work as well as otherwise but everything was okay. Of course, the fastest time at the end of the day looks good but no-one will know how fast any of the cars are until we get to qualifying at Albert Park. All the changes we have made over testing have been improving the car, so we’ll have to see what happens in Melbourne in a couple of weeks’ time. I’m feeling positive.”

Sahara Force India wrapped up its winter test programme today with Nico Hulkenberg covering 101 laps in the VJM05 as the team finalised its preparations for the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.

Nico Hulkenberg: “We managed to fit a lot in today and hopefully when we have been through all the data we will have learned a lot, too. The race weekend simulation was useful, but unfortunately my race distance was cut short, so we will rely more on the data from Paul’s run yesterday. We were also busy trying all the tyre compounds to learn more about tyre management and how to get the most from them. You always want more time in the car, but I think we can be pleased with how our three tests have gone. We still need to find some more performance because the whole grid looks very close and competitive, and I expect the grid in Melbourne to be extremely tight.”