Formula One champions Mercedes expect to be beaten by Ferrari this season and also see McLaren catching up fast after a dismal 2015 for the Honda-powered team, engine head Andy Cowell said.
Champions Ferrari will be the first Formula One team to reveal their 2009 car with an unveiling scheduled for their Maranello factory on January 12, the Italian team said on Monday. The wraps will come off Hamilton's new McLaren at that team's Woking factory in England on January 16, a day after Toyota launch their challenger on the internet.
Vettel, a four time world champion, is now 62 points adrift of the Briton.
Max Verstappen became the first Formula One driver to take 16 victories in a season
Max Verstappen won the Spanish Grand Prix from pole position to stretch his Formula One championship lead to 53 points.
Formula One is to award double points for the last race of the season in a controversial attempt to keep championships undecided to the very end after four years of Red Bull domination.
Poland's Robert Kubica, tipped as a future Ferrari driver, backed the Italian team's Felipe Massa on Thursday as his favourite for this year's Formula One title. Brazilian Massa has won four of the season's 12 races so far, the same number as McLaren's Lewis Hamilton, and is six points off his championship-leading rival.
Lewis Hamilton dominated Sunday's Hungarian Grand Prix from pole position, with a bonus point for fastest lap, to take a five point lead over Bottas, the winner of the Austrian season-opener.
Felipe Massa led a Ferrari one-two to win the French Grand Prix on Sunday and take the lead in the Formula One championship for the first time.
Ferrari will still win the Formula One championship despite failing to score any points in Britain at the weekend, according to their double world champion Fernando Alonso.
Hamilton, who clinched his fourth world championship in Mexico two weeks ago, started from the pitlane after crashing in qualifying but led the race after 31 of 71 laps when others pitted.
Sebastian Vettel cruised to a third straight Singapore Grand Prix victory on Sunday and moved closer to a fourth consecutive Formula One world title with a dominant drive under the floodlights at the Marina Bay Street Circuit.
Max Verstappen won the Miami Grand Prix from ninth on the starting grid with a masterful display of tyre management on Sunday.
Ferrari's Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen made a flying start to the Formula One season on Friday with the fastest times in free practice for the Australian Grand Prix.
The German said Barcelona was a circuit that showed a car's true potential, particularly in terms of aerodynamic performance.
Ferrari chief desigener Rory Bryne said the F1 champions would start next season with an interim version of their F2004 car.
The cancellation came as no surprise, with the race recognised as being uncertain by Formula One chief executive Stefano Domenicali in a Liberty Media third-quarter earnings call with analysts this month.
"The FIA will further examine the causes of the incident in order to evaluate whether further action is necessary," it announced in a statement.
Formula One World champion Sebastian Vettel drove his new Red Bull for the first time on Thursday with the team saying they were on course to tick all the right boxes in pre-season testing at Jerez.
The pole was a record-extending 88th of Hamilton's career and fifth of the season.
A weekend that began at the top of the timesheets for Max Verstappen ended with the Dutchman out of the points and in a war of words with Ferrari rivals after a nightmare Belgian Formula One Grand Prix.
The regulations have not changed significantly but there are always details that can be improved, new ways of packaging the whole. And teams will want to know who has done something different.
Red Bull's Max Verstappen sang "Viva Las Vegas" after racing to a record-extending 18th victory of the season and joining Sebastian Vettel in third place on Formula One's all-time winners' list.
Points rather than a podium finish may be the best Ferrari can hope for from their home Italian Grand Prix this weekend, said the Formula One champion.
Fernando Alonso reiterated his long-term love and loyalty to Ferrari on Friday after McLaren, the Formula One team he left in acrimonious circumstances in 2007, said they would be keen to sign him.
The French Formula One Grand Prix will return in 2018 after a 10-year absence with the race scheduled to take place at the Circuit Paul Ricard in southern France, regional politician Christian Estrosi said.
'It's a great job by the team. Usually in the first day you don't get that many laps so I'm really happy'
Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel, McLaren's Fernando Alonso and Williams' Valtteri Bottas have all been highlighted in media speculation but 22-year-old German reserve driver Pascal Wehrlein remains the bookmakers' favourite.
Kimi Raikkonen made clear on Friday that his Lotus Formula One team had issues to resolve before he could have serious discussions about staying on next season.
Verstappen hustled his Honda-powered Red Bull around the popular figure-of-eight layout in one minute, 29.304 seconds
Ferrari boss Jean Todt has ruled out any prospect of Formula One world champion Fernando Alonso moving to the team from McLaren next year.
It is Formula One's most tantalizing driver line-up in decades, and yet all we have is hope that the FIA sees sense and does something to make the races less processional.
Verstappen won a sprint race on Saturday to put Red Bull on pole position
Max Verstappen took his fifth pole position in a row at the British Grand Prix.
Seven times world champion Lewis Hamilton was seventh for Mercedes and Lance Stroll collected the final point for Aston Martin.
More Formula One teams could follow Caterham and Marussia into administration or failure, the former head of the sport's governing body Max Mosley warned on Monday.
Max Verstappen won Red Bull's home Austrian Grand Prix from pole position and with the fastest lap on Sunday for the team's 10th successive Formula One victory and ninth in nine races this season.
Valtteri Bottas seized his first pole position of the Formula One season in Austria on Saturday with Mercedes team mate and world championship leader Lewis Hamilton having to settle for second.
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