Will Davison and Will Power will be fitted with an individually moulded Minardi seat in the team's garage during the March 4-7 Australian Grand Prix.
Narain Karthikeyan said he was happy with his performance in the F1 debut race even though he had a "very bad" start.
Starting second behind pole-sitter Hamilton, Bottas got the jump on the Briton during a typically messy start at Albert Park and ended up cruising to his fourth win by some 20.80 seconds after delaying a tyre-change.
Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes suffered a rare mechanical failure on Friday as Formula One teams wrapped up pre-season testing in Barcelona with Ferrari back on top of the timesheets.
The Ferrari driver's best time of one minute 16.231 seconds was close to the 2018 Spanish Grand Prix pole time by Lewis Hamilton for Mercedes.
The circuit agreed last year an extension to cover this year's race, which was held in August and without spectators due to the COVID-19 pandemic, after fears it would drop off the calendar.
Sahara Force India drew a blank from the Formula 1 Malaysian Grand Prix after Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg finished 13th and 14th at the Sepang International Circuit in Malaysia on Sunday.
Formula One rolls into Malaysia this week for the second round of the championship at the Sepang International Circuit, where talk surrounding the utter dominance of Mercedes will for once take a back seat to the belated arrival of Fernando Alonso.
This year marks the first that two quadruple champions are competing in the same season and their battle to see who joins Argentine legend Juan Manuel Fangio in second place on the all-time list with five titles promises to light up the series.
Verstappen struggled for grip through qualifying but it all came together in his last effort
Sebastian Vettel led a Ferrari one-two at the top of the timesheets in final practice for the Bahrain Grand Prix on Saturday, ending the stranglehold of previously dominant champions Mercedes. Vettel lapped the Sakhir Circuit in a best time of one minute 31.683 seconds, 0.040 faster than team mate Kimi Raikkonen on the supersoft tyres. It was the first time this season that any driver from outside the Mercedes pairing of Nico Rosberg and triple world champion Lewis Hamilton had ended practice on top. Hamilton was quickest in all three sessions in Australia two weeks ago while championship frontrunner Rosberg led his team mate in Bahrain practices one and two on Friday. Rosberg was third fastest in practice three, his time of 1:32.104 slower than Friday when he did 1:31.001, with Hamilton fourth.
Fernando Alonso can see a brighter future for McLaren, despite turning up at his home Spanish Grand Prix on Thursday with a stye in his eye.
While Valtteri Bottas claimed a dominant win for Mercedes and his team mate Lewis Hamilton held off Red Bull's Max Verstappen for second, Ferrari's drivers were left scrambling for minor points in a sobering start for the Scuderia.
Formula One is changing its scoring system to award a point to the driver who sets the fastest race lap, starting from this weekend's season-opening Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne.
The Briton eased his Mercedes across the line 6.2 seconds ahead of Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel, with Max Verstappen, who started 16th, finishing a surprise third for Red Bull.
The gap between Mercedes and the rest has narrowed and Ferrari "have something up their sleeve" at this week's season-opening Australian Grand Prix, according to champion Lewis Hamilton.
'NO problem. Nobody was hurt, which is the most important thing'
Three rookies are set to make their race debuts and Azarbaijan will make it's Formula One debut even as Sebastian Vettel, Nico Rosberg pose to challenge odds on favourite Lewis Hamilton.
Mexican Formula One driver Sergio Perez will miss Sunday's British Grand Prix after testing positive for COVID-19, his Racing Point team said on Thursday. The Canadian-owned outfit said the 30-year-old, who is the first driver to test positive since the pandemic-hit season started this month, is "physically well and in good spirits".
Summary of all sports events and persons that made news on Thursday.
'I'm the first one to say we shouldn't be speaking bad about things on TV, but I think the new qualifying format is pretty rubbish'
Three-time world champion Lewis Hamilton dominated practice at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix on Friday, putting Mercedes on top of the timesheets and leaving his Formula One rivals with plenty to ponder before the weekend.
As we prepare to cruise into the New Year, Rediff.com gives you a glance back, through photos, into all the sporting moments that made the last 12 months memorable.
Lewis Hamilton has had more success in Shanghai than any other Formula One driver, which makes Sunday's Chinese Grand Prix the ideal location for the triple world champion to end Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg's winning streak. While Rosberg has started the season with a perfect 50 points from two races, and a run of five successive victories dating back to last November, Hamilton is ready to turn the tables. The Briton has won four times in Shanghai and is on for three in a row after last season becoming the only driver to win the race in successive years. "It's not been a smooth start to the season for me, so to be in the championship position I'm in right now is actually pretty positive," said Hamilton, who lies second in the standings after a second and a third place. "Now we go to China for the next battle. It's a track that's been good to me over the years... so hopefully this race can be the turning point." Hamilton has not won since he took his third world championship in Austin, Texas, last October but the 31-year-old has started both races this season on pole position.
McLaren unveiled their new Formula One car on Sunday, certain it cannot be any worse than last year's but still unsure when they might get back to winning ways after their longest drought in decades. The former champions have not won a race since 2012 and finished last season, the first of a new partnership with Honda, ninth of the 10 teams with just 27 points compared to 703 for dominant Mercedes. The three years without a win is the team's longest barren stretch since their absence from the top step of the podium in 1994-96. "As we embark on the second year of our renewed McLaren-Honda partnership, all of us remain united in our purpose. That purpose is to develop our team towards our shared ambition: to win," said McLaren boss Ron Dennis. "We'll make no predictions as to when those wins will come," he added. The new MP4-31 car was presented online in a predominantly black livery with some prominent new sponsors in LVMH's sparkling wine brand Chandon and watchmaker Richard Mille replacing the departed Tag Heuer.
Valtteri Bottas knows he needs to step up his game from last season if he is to have any chance of keeping his place at Mercedes.
Formula One champions Mercedes can rack up their eighth successive victory on Sunday but even if they do, a winning streak must end for either Lewis Hamilton or Nico Rosberg in Bahrain. Rosberg is chasing his fifth win in a row after starting the season triumphantly in Australia to follow the three victories he racked up at the end of 2015. Hamilton, the triple world champion who finds himself behind his German team mate in the standings for the first time since 2014, is on for a hat-trick after winning in Bahrain for the past two years. The Briton is the favourite at a circuit that has yet to witness a Rosberg victory but Ferrari, who roared into the lead at the start in Melbourne with Sebastian Vettel followed by Kimi Raikkonen, also fancy their chances.
'I think the team has obviously done a really, really great job, a lot of hard work, commitment and... things start to click'
One winning streak ended with a bang for Nico Rosberg in Spain but Monaco's tight, metal-fenced streets could see the continuation of another remarkable run for the Formula One championship leader on Sunday.
Lewis Hamilton spent the off-season crisscrossing the globe to party with A-list celebrities but Formula One's reigning champion is adamant there will be no hangover when he returns to work at this week's season-opening Australian Grand Prix.
A summary of sports events and sports persons, who made news on Wednesday
Hamilton's flying lap of one minute 22.188 seconds set a new record at Albert Park but was only 0.268 seconds in front of German Vettel, offering the tantalising prospect of a competitive championship after three years of domination by the Silver Arrows.
With five of the top 10 in the current rankings aged 28 or older, form suggests another pair of seasoned campaigners could contest the title match at the French Open, which starts in Paris on Sunday.
Fatherhood has changed Sergio Perez's life since the end of last season and the Mexican hopes the coming year in Formula One could be just as transformative on the track.
A summary of sports events and sports persons, who made news on Thursday
Portugal's football team captain Cristiano Ronaldo's agent has revealed that the forward would play out the rest of his career at Real Madrid, shunning reports of a return to Manchester United.
