Fernando Alonso has played down his Renault team's chances of taking on Ferrari and McLaren in next month's Australian GP.
Lewis Hamilton says he would welcome Jenson Button or anyone else as his McLaren team-mate next year.
Ferrari's 2008 cars lapped quicker than the new McLarens in Formula One's first official test of the year in Jerez.
Lewis Hamilton expects McLaren to be a far more harmonious team now that Heikki Kovalainen has replaced Fernando Alonso.
Formula One champions Ferrari will reveal their 2008 cars in a low-key presentation in Maranello on Sunday.
Hamilton, 22, crashed heavily in Saturday's qualifying but was cleared to race by doctors on Sunday morning. He will start the race in 10th position.
Nico Rosberg won the Austrian Formula One Grand Prix for the second year in a row in a Mercedes one-two finish with team mate Lewis Hamilton on Sunday.
Formula One is feeling a fresh wave of optimism under its new owners, while Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso are the two most popular drivers, according to an extensive fan survey released on Friday.
Valtteri Bottas won a dramatic first race of the delayed Formula One season for champions Mercedes in Austria on Sunday
Every young racer wants to be the next Lewis Hamilton but most are in too much of a hurry to give themselves the best chance of success.
"Over there people don't come up to you, they leave you alone and give you space," the 22-year-old McLaren driver, who finished one point behind Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen in a remarkable debut season, told the BBC.
Max Verstappen dashed Ferrari's home hopes and won the Italian Grand Prix
Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel battle to match the late Argentine's 1950s feat of five world championships.
Lewis Hamilton felt regret and relief in equal measure on Sunday after a wet Italian Grand Prix full of missed opportunities for Formula One's title contenders.
One word seemed to encapsulate Fernando Alonso's Malaysian Grand Prix weekend.
Bernie Ecclestone's 40-year reign as Formula One's commercial supremo ended on Monday with the sport's new owners Liberty Media replacing the 86-year-old Briton with American Chase Carey.
Formula One's first pre-season test ended in Jerez with Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen fastest.
McLaren's title prospects were plunged back into doubt on Tuesday when Formula One's governing body agreed an appeal court should have the final say on the 'spy saga' gripping the sport.
"The comparison? I see still Ayrton winning the game because in the end Ayrton was such a charming guy and a personality. And obviously if someone loses his life and stays with us in the way of a legend, it's always something special. But I try to see it from a performance point and from a performance point, Lewis is going from one pole position to the next one and Lewis is going from one race win to the next one. Just like Ayrton did."
Quadruple world champion Sebastian Vettel continued to set the pace at the U.S. Formula One Grand Prix, topping the final practice time sheets in another Red Bull one-two on Saturday.
Lauda won two world championships in 1975 and 1977 with Ferrari and a third in 1984 with McLaren. His rivalry with British driver James Hunt, the 1976 champion for McLaren, was intense and became the subject of the acclaimed 2013 film "Rush".
Ferrari's Felipe Massa took pole position at the Turkish Grand Prix for the third year in a row on Saturday. Brazilian Massa, who has won at the Istanbul Park circuit for the past two years, will have McLaren's Heikki Kovalainen alongside him on the front row in Sunday's race.
Force India reached the giddy heights of second place in the Formula One constructors' championship on Sunday after Mexican Sergio Perez secured only the second podium finish in the team's history.
Red Bull's Max Verstappen, last year's winner at his team's home circuit, qualified third.
Tail-enders Force India could be Formula One's surprise package this season with the help of McLaren and Mercedes, former driver David Coulthard said on Monday.
The Mercedes driver discusses the strength of his faith -- along with a wide selection of topics ranging from his hatred of school and his dyslexia to the frozen sperm and $700-a-day modelling career of his pet bulldog Roscoe.
The new Force India car, equipped with Mercedes engine and McLaren gearbox, will be unveiled in Spain early March, team owner Vijay Mallya said in New Delhi on Sunday.
Champions Ferrari will be the first Formula One team to reveal their 2009 car with an unveiling scheduled for their Maranello factory on Jan. 12, the Italian team said on Monday.
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.
The France-Austria-Britain sequence of races poses a fresh logistical challenge for teams hitherto committed only to back-to-back weekends, with the 21-round season hurrying to the halfway point.
Ferrari team principal Maurizio Arrivabene has said the 'door at Maranello will always be open' for Michael Schumacher's son Mick should the German prospect follow in his father's footsteps and progress to Formula One.
Italian Giancarlo Fisichella and German Adrian Sutil will race for Force India again next season, the Formula One team has said. The pair had been confirmed for 2009 in October but a new technical deal between Force India and McLaren Mercedes led to speculation of a change with McLaren test driver Pedro de la Rosa testing for Force India last month.
The 1998 and 1999 F1 champion was the slowest man on the track in his first test for McLaren in more than five years.
Red Bull are among a number of team frustrated by their inability to keep up with Mercedes, who dominated Formula One last year and cruised to an easy victory in Sunday's season-opening Australian Grand Prix
Lewis Hamilton won in Sunday's Azerbaijan Grand Prix ahead of Kimi Raikkonen and took championship lead.
Norris said he had also been on pain-killers for a back problem and had not felt confident in the car, limiting his track time in the afternoon.
Force India did not say who the other driver would be, but that is assumed to be Canadian Lance Stroll whose billionaire father Lawrence heads a consortium that now controls the Silverstone-based outfit.
Ferrari are considering whether to lodge a protest that could lead to the result of the Formula One world championship being overturned.
The 22-year-old Briton will line up alongside Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen on the front row for Sunday's race.
