Latest F1 news in brief

Alonso leads Alexander Rossi during Sunday's rain-hit Rolex 24

Alonso eyes F1 paddock return for 'rest'
Bottas aims to 'be better' in 2019
F1 may have to quit petrol engines – Rosberg
McLaren press officer joins Ferrari
Teams reject Liberty 'joint launch' idea
Webber brands Mercedes 2019 F1 favorites

Alonso eyes F1 paddock return for 'rest'

Although retired from formula one, Fernando Alonso says he is busier than ever.

Just hours ago, the Spaniard and 2018 Le Mans winner also won the Daytona 24 hour race. Later this year, he will once again vie for Indy 500 victory, and he has been linked with a Dakar rally tilt for 2020.

According to some, the 37-year-old two-time champion only quit F1 because he could not secure a cockpit more competitive than his at the once-great McLaren team.

Alonso says he needed other challenges.

"I have more to do this year than 12 months ago," he insists.

"Of course it will be stressful for those in formula one as soon as the season starts. But I have not had a single month off this month, and in February the tests with (Le Mans team) Toyota start again.

"The Indy program will also start, so I will be very, very busy until June."

McLaren boss Zak Brown has also invited Alonso to be involved with the Woking based team if he wants to.

Brown said: "I think his influence is positive and he's very welcome. He is useful both for me and for our engineers and drivers."

Alonso said: "I did not expect this busy schedule.

"People ask me what life is like without formula one and my answer is 'Maybe I'll come back to the F1 paddock to rest a little'."

Bottas aims to 'be better' in 2019

Hamilton will destroy Bottas again in 2019

Valtteri Bottas has got his 2019 season off to a good start with a competitive rally performance.

In his first professional rally, at the Arctic Lapland event in Finland, the Mercedes driver finished fifth overall including a stage win.

"Tricky but truly enjoyable stages," Bottas said.

For the looming F1 season, however, the pressure is on. 29-year-old Bottas struggled in 2018, and now new reserve driver Esteban Ocon is being strongly linked with the race seat for 2020.

Bottas says: "My target is always to be better so I will continue my work together with the team and try to be a better driver.

"Of course I want to be ahead of Lewis many more times than I was in the last two years. I know it's going to be hard work but I'm willing to work hard.

"Lewis and I have a great team around us and the team spirit is amazing so the amount of strength I get from the team has been amazing and that's going to help me also this year," he added.

F1 may have to quit petrol engines – Rosberg

Rosberg states the obvious. When car manufacturers no longer make internal combustion engines, they will leave F1 unless the motors are electric

2016 world champion Nico Rosberg says F1 may have to give up its fuel-powered engines someday.

Since retiring from F1, the German has made several 'E-mobility' investments, including in the all-electric single seater series Formula E.

Rosberg says battery power could be the future of F1, too.

"If the whole world is buying electric or hydrogen cars, F1 could not keep its gas engines," he told the world economic forum in Davos, Switzerland.

"It would not make sense," Rosberg is quoted by France's Auto Hebdo. "At some point, they would have to change, I think."

Currently, many F1 figures and fans reject the appeal of Formula E, even though it is increasingly attracting world-class drivers and car manufacturers.

"It's just a different category," said Max Verstappen.

"It seems like it's getting more interesting, but at the moment I'm happy where I am. I will probably be one of the last people in the world to try and buy the last barrels of oil."

Rosberg, though, says those types of attitudes could change quickly.

"Two years ago, everyone rejected electric vehicles, and now, some fans of thermal engines are opening their minds. It gets cool very quickly," he said

McLaren press officer joins Ferrari

Ferrari has made yet another change to its team ahead of the 2019 season.

Earlier, following the 2018 death of president Sergio Marchionne, team boss Maurizio Arrivabene has been ousted and Charles Leclerc appointed as 2019 race driver.

Now, Alberto Antonini has left the Maranello team.

Antonini, formerly a prominent Italian journalist, was the head of Ferrari's F1 press office.

He has been replaced by Silvia Hoffer Frangipane, who in turn has left McLaren.

David Coulthard, a former F1 driver and now British commentator, responded by saying he is "looking forward to working with Silvia to deliver for the Ferrari fans and the wider F1 fans".

During the Arrivabene era, Antonini was criticized for Ferrari's closed door policy when it came to communicating with the media and fans.

"I've known Antonini since he was a boy," said Leo Turrini, a prominent Italian correspondent.

"He has passion. He is competent. I think he did everything he could in difficult circumstances."

Teams reject Liberty 'joint launch' idea

The former Force India team prefers to launch in Canada

F1 teams rejected Liberty Media's plans for a joint 2019 car launch event.

Earlier, we reported that instead of letting every team reveal their new cars separately, F1 rights holder Liberty wanted a big, joint event to take place.

Auto Motor und Sport reports: "The teams rejected the proposal because they did not want to share attention with the competition."

As a result, teams are announcing separate launch events for the days immediately prior to the start of official winter testing in mid-February.

But most are expecting to simply reveal photos online.

Correspondent Tobias Gruner claims most of the 2019 cars "will only be seen in detail in Barcelona".

Force India is one exception, opting for new team owner Lawrence Stroll's native Canada for a 2019 launch.

But Tobias said the 2019 car will not be on show, rather "a new livery on the previous car".

Webber brands Mercedes 2019 F1 favorites

Mark Webber must be a genius to be able to make that prediction

Mark Webber believes Mercedes will start as favorites for the 2019 Formula 1 season ahead of pre-season testing beginning in Spain next month.

Lewis Hamilton won his fifth drivers’ world championship last year, his fourth with Mercedes, while the team claimed its fifth consecutive constructors’ title.

Though Ferrari challenged for a time, the Anglo-German squad ultimately proved too strong with Webber predicting much of the same for the year ahead.

“Mercedes are the favorites," he told Speedcafe.com.

“Obviously didn’t wrap it (2018 championship) up until quite late, so it is going to be interesting to know when they switch their car design over.

“It’s going to be an interesting start to the season, no question about it, whether Ferrari can take it to Mercedes," he ventured.

“Red Bull are going to have a red hot go at trying to win grands prix.

“The car is exceptional but they suffered a lot of reliability issues, Red Bull really need to get on top of that.

“There was obviously some Renault ones and there are probably some Milton Keynes ones in there as well – when you’ve got the design of the car on the limit like they have, when you’ve got no horsepower, then the Red Bull, unquestionably, in concept and design, could be a little on the edge in places."

The Australian also believes Ferrari’s new recruit, Charles Leclerc, will flourish after graduating from Sauber following a stunning debut season.

“That’s going to be interesting to see how he is going to settle in, sitting on the first two rows every weekend, it’s a different beast to be sitting mid pack," Webber said.

“I reckon he is going to do brilliantly but there will be a couple of tricky moments for him, just because it’s the nature of learning grand prix racing at the front – it’s different to mid pack.

“Bottas as well," he continued.

“Valtteri is under a lot of pressure to keep his drive (at Mercedes), so I think he will do better.

“I think it (2018) really was a tough year for him and I think he can really bounce back this year."