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Williams confirmed tonight that Pastor Maldonado will stay on with the team in 2012, having listed no driver names in the FIA entry that was published yesterday.

Sir Frank Williams had already stated publicly that Maldonado was likely to stay, although a recent controversy in Venezuela over his PDVSA sponsorship led to some question marks.

The team has also confirmed that Valtteri Bottas will now officially be third driver. The GP3 champion will have a schedule of 15 FP1 sessions on Fridays.

The name of the team’s other main driver has not been announced, although Adrian Sutil is among the favourites.

Sir Frank Williams said: “Pastor has proven this year that he is not only quick but also that he is able to maintain a consistent and strong race pace.  Pastor has been responsible for all of our forays into Q3 in 2011 and his race at Monaco was outstanding. Pastor has also settled into the team at Williams very well, contributing strongly in the factory and with our partners. He will play a critical role in 2012 as we rebuild the team and move forward.”

“I am delighted to be able to continue with Williams into my second season and I will give my very best to help the team as we push to return to the front of the grid,” Maldonado was quoted as saying in a team statement.

“This has been a tough season for the whole team but it has given me personally the opportunity to learn and develop. I am convinced that the steps we have taken to improve our competitiveness will bear fruit in 2012 and beyond. I am thrilled to be part of that and also to represent the people of Venezuela in Formula One.”

Regarding Bottas, Williams added: “We have a very specific approach to young driver development, working with one highly talented individual over a period of years. Valtteri has proved a very capable and rounded young man of fierce determination.

“As the team’s Reserve Driver, we anticipate that Valtteri will participate in a Friday practice session at 15 Grands Prix next year, most likely with a more experienced driver taking over for the remainder of the race weekend.  We will announce the identity of that driver in due course.”

Valtteri said: “I would like to thank Frank Williams and the whole team for the investment that everyone at Williams has made to help me over the past two years. The opportunity now to continue this unique development with the position of Reserve Driver will enable me to gain essential experience as part of the race team in 2012.

“In this position, I will do my utmost to help the team to set up for a great race weekend and also look forward to playing a role off the track with the team at the factory and with our partners.”

Bernie Ecclestone has given COTA an extra week to save the US GP.

Ecclestone had insisted that today was the final chance, and it’s believed that COTA’s Bobby Epstein and Steve Sexton met with him in London.

The extra week will push the decision all the way to the crucial World Motor Sport Council meeting in Delhi on December 7.

“The deadline hasn’t been met so we are still trying to make it happen,” Ecclestone told AP tonight. “They need to get some money and a pen. They are struggling to get the financial side sorted out.”

He added: “If it isn’t all signed before the World Motor Sport Council meeting [the race] can’t happen.”

Michael Schumacher admits that Mercedes GP faces a tough winter as the team tries to make the huge steps that will get it back to where Brawn was in 2009.

Asked to sum-up his season, Michael said: “The sum-up is that we very much look forward to next year! We have a tough and strong winter in front of us. All the guys are working flat out to get us where we belong, and that’s closer to the winning road. I hope desperately that next year that’s going to be the first step towards that.”

Schumacher’s final race of the year in Brazil was spoiled by a puncture he received after being tapped in the rear by Bruno Senna – although he admitted it would still have been a hard race. Senna received a drive through penalty as a result of the clash.

Ironically Schumacher experienced a near identical incident in 2006, when he was hit by Giancarlo Fisichella’s Renault while battling for the title with the Italian’s team mate.

“It was a difficult one, and it had quite a few memories to 2006, my last race that I did before my retirement,” said Schumacher. “Exactly the same circumstances, again somebody that seemed to have a problem to take the normal trajectory of corners, and ran into me.

“It’s a shame. It would have been a nice race, some solid points we could have taken home. Although for sure as we’ve seen with Nico it was a tough race for us, we saw already Friday with these sorts of temperatures that we were struggling a bit more than other people were.

“My balance for the first two stints due to some damage that occurred after this tyre damage wasn’t perfect, but we altered it for the last stint, and actually it was OK then.”

Kimi Raikkonen speaks here about his comeback with LRGP, and insists that he is fully motivated for 2012.

He looks pretty happy about it too…

Kimi Raikkonen - already excited to be back on F1 PR duty!

LRGP confirmed this morning that Kimi Raikkonen has signed a two-year deal with the team. The outfit that is set to change its name to Team Lotus thus has a World Champion on its hands.

The news was not unexpected after negotiations moved rapidly when Kimi’s talks with Williams broke down and it became clear that Robert Kubica was out of the frame for the start of the season.

It remains to be seen who will partner the 2007 champion. Vitaly Petrov has a contract while both Bruno Senna and Romain Grosjean are on standby. Against the odds there has also been contact with Adrian Sutil, despite the German’s issue with Eric Lux earlier in the year.

When he went to the WRC Kimi had ambitions to return with Red Bull Racing – something he openly admitted to this writer last year – but Mark Webber’s ongoing contract extensions put a stop that.

“I never really lost the passion in racing in F1, but maybe all the other things around it,” he said Raikkonen in a video interview. “But I did some NASCAR races this year in the States and I started to miss more and more the racing side, to race against each other, because in rallying it’s against the clock, really. That’s what I was missing.

“Then I got the call from certain people in Formula 1 and then also sorts of things happened and then in the end we managed to have a nice conversation with Lotus Renault, and ended up making a deal with them. So I’m very happy with that.

“There were two options. It was this team or Williams, and in the end everything worked out with Lotus Renault GP as we wanted, so that’s really the reason.”

Kimi insisted that there was no problem with his motivation: “I wouldn’t come back if I wouldn’t be motivated. There is always a lot of talk about the motivation, but nobody really knows what I do or what I think, apart from myself, so I don’t really care about what people say.

“I wouldn’t put my name in a contract if I wouldn’t think I would enjoy it. It will be interesting. It will be exciting to get back.”

Raikkonen said he would feel more at home in F1 after struggling to come to terms with the WRC.

“It’s been really nice in the last few years, trying to learn it. It’s been easier this year than it was last year, but still it’s a very difficult. But I’m really looking forward to coming back, at least F1 is something that I know how everything works.

“I’ve been there for many years. When I went to rallying I didn’t really know what would happen, and when I went to NASCAR I had no clue how it would be. In that way it should be much, much easier to come back. It should be pretty normal.”

Team boss Gerard Lopez added: “All year long, we kept saying that our team was at the start of a brand new cycle. Backstage we’ve been working hard to build the foundations of a successful structure and to ensure that we would soon be able to fight at the highest level. Kimi’s decision to come back to Formula 1 with us is the first step of several announcements which should turn us into an even more serious contender in the future.

“Of course, we are all looking forward to working with a world champion. On behalf of our staff, I’d like to welcome Kimi to Enstone, a setting that has always been known for its human approach to Formula 1.”

Red Bull motor sport chief Helmut Marko insists that no decisions have yet been made on who will drive for Toro Rosso next year, and says that the options will be discussed next month.

The team has four candidates, with Daniel Ricciardo and Jean-Eric Vergne both vying to replace the current drivers.

Theories about what might happen range from Sebastian Buemi and Jaime Alguersuari both staying to – at the other extreme – both being booted out.

The bottom line is that the main purpose of STR is to develop a driver who can replace Mark Webber at RBR in 2013, should he finally take the retirement route.

It’s no secret that Ricciardo and Vergne are generally regarded as the better long term prospects, but there remains a possibility that Red Bull could find seats for one or both elsewhere, as it did with the Australian at HRT this year. Caterham has been mentioned as a possible home, on the basis that Jarno Trulli will be invited to retire.

“It’s a luxury problem, and I’m sure we’ll find a solution,” Marko told this writer. “We will analyse it. There’s no need for next year, we are talking about 2013, so we have time, and all four of them can prove something.

“We have a meeting in Salzburg later in December, and then we go through all the possibilities.”

Asked about how he rated the seasons of Buemi and Alguersuari, Marko said: “I would say they both improved from mid-season onwards, unfortunately Buemi had more technical issues. But still, we are not looking for a good F1 driver, we are looking for a top F1 driver.”

The last comment doesn’t sound like an endorsement of the current line-up…

Meanwhile Christian Horner made it clear that he’d like to see Daniel Ricciardo continue to gather racing miles in 2012.

“I think that Daniel has done a good job in the races that he’s had, so we need to look at the opportunities and options that are available,” said Horner. “I’m sure in the run-up to Christmas we’ll conclude on what his programme will be for next year.

“He’s learned for sure in the races he’s done, obviously it’s in difficult circumstances, in a car that is a long way off the pace. But he’s still been learning, he’s been up against a competitive team mate. I think he’s acquitted himself well. It will be nice to see him in a Grand Prix seat next year.”

Asked by this writer what influence he had on STR choices, Horner said: “Toro Rosso discussions are between Toro Rosso and Dietrich [Mateschitz], but obviously we have a vested interest in terms of the young drivers coming through.

“We’ve got four guys in the programme, in Buemi, Alguersuari Daniel and Jean-Eric, they’re four strong drivers, and I think for Red Bull it’s a healthy situation to have a pool of talented youngsters.”

The future of the US GP in Austin should become clearer this week, as Bernie Ecclestone has set a deadline of Wednesday for COTA to conclude its deal to run the race.

Such an eventuality seems unlikely given that COTA doesn’t like the new contract that Ecclestone has offered (after the original held by Tavo Hellmund was cancelled), and has returned its own version to the F1 boss – with a predictable response.

Ecclestone is not confident in COTA’s ability to pay for the race over the long term, especially after the $25m sanctioning fee promised by Texas State Comptroller Susan Combs in May 2010 has not been forthcoming.

This blog sat down with Bernie in Brazil for a chat about the situation.

Q: What’s the deadline for Austin?

“The 30^th [of November].”

Q: So if the money’s in the bank by then?

“What’s more important than money in the bank is we want security for the future, so we’ve tried to help them with that. We want a letter of credit up front before every race.”

Q: So even if they get the first $25m you want the next few years guaranteed…

“We want to know that next time it’s going to happen again. We’re changing the calendar a lot to accommodate these people, and if suddenly they’re not there, we’re in trouble.”

Q: Is it fair to say that you wouldn’t have given them the deal without that $25m promised by the state?

“It’s not just the $25m, that’s a small part of it, it’s the whole package. Everybody else seems to be happy and comply. I think the problem is a simple one, they never had the money. It’s simple.”

Q: Tavo told you he had the state money, and you got a letter from Susan Combs promising you the state would pay…

“We don’t have to deal with… We deal with the promoter and that was Tavo, and it’s up to him to respect the contract. He didn’t, couldn’t, and we terminated the contract.”

Q: Was it purely that money wasn’t paid, or were there other things he didn’t do?

“Yeah, lots of things. I’ve spent more time with these people and these races in the States than anybody else. India’s come and gone and other places have come and gone, and we’re still messing around.”

Q: Normally you are dealing with governments, but while they can be a pain, they do get the job done…

“Absolutely. I expect people to do what they say they’re going to do, which is what I do.”

Q: Were you disappointed with Tavo? Obviously he wouldn’t have got in the door if you didn’t know him already.

“I was disappointed insofar as he had what he thought were partners that could finance the business and wouldn’t let him down. Really, they let him down and they’re trying to steal from him, get him out of it, and do the whole thing themselves.”

Q: Was he a bit out of his depth?

“He was a bit out of his depth in relying on trusting people.”

Q: Personally, you don’t have a problem with him now?

“With him, not at all, not in any shape or form.”

Q: Bobby Epstein is saying that when you cancelled Tavo’s contract, the one you offered COTA was different. Is that right?

“Correct. Different insofar as their deal with Tavo, knowing that they were going to be the people bankrolling him, and knowing what happened to them, we don’t feel that they are as reliable as they should be.”

Q: So you want the guarantees that you’re talking about?

“They have a contract, which if they want to sign it, they’re OK, and if they don’t, it’s OK as well.”

Q: They put out a release saying they sent a revised contract to you. It’s not normally your style to sign contracts people send back to you…

“They’re not in a position to do that. Well they are and they have, but we are not interested.”

Q: If it doesn’t happen, will you juggle other races around?

“It’s probably a bit late now. This what these people don’t understand, they’re sitting there on their own, thinking about their race, buying something that they can’t afford, thinking the world is going to change for them. Which it isn’t.”

Q: You could move Abu Dhabi for example, which is now back to back with India.

“We could do, we’ll have to have a look. But I think the India/Abu Dhabi back-to-back is good anyway, the teams like that.”

Q: What’s happening with Korea?

“We’re tidying up bits and pieces, trying to help them.”

Q: So that’s looking good for next year?

“Yeah, yeah. The trouble is they got rid of the guy who in my opinion they shouldn’t have got rid of. He knew what he was doing. They put somebody in who’s brand new, and brand new to motor sport as well, and has had to learn a little bit. He’s had a few surprises.”

Q: So would you say Korea is 95% or better or worse?

“Well, we have a contract with them, I hope it’s 100%. We’re just trying to help them.”

Q: You’ve said that you don’t have any problems with Bahrain, but it’s clear that there are still problems.

“If they’re prepared to put the race on, we’ll be there racing, for sure. Obviously something was wrong. But I’m not so sure if we’d have gone this year we would have had problems anyway. I was happy to go.”

Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali is confident that the Italian outfit will make a big step forward in 2012 after a difficult season that brought just one win.

The team made it clear some time ago that it has to be more aggressive with its new car, and Domenicali insists that the targets he has set can be met.

“That’s what I want, that’s what I hope, and considering the persons that are around in the factory, that’s what I believe will happen next year,” he said after yesterday’s Brazilian GP.

“The only thing I can say is we’ve put down targets that are very, very aggressive. It seems that we are working around these targets, but as always we need to wait and see what the others are doing, we need to wait and see what the cars will be at the first qualifying session in Australia. But all the conditions of a good job are there, so I’m very confident that we will do a good job.”

Asked to sum up his team’s season, Domenicali said: “We didn’t perform as we wanted, and this is for sure the basic that we need to improve all around. For sure Fernando did a fantastic season, so I cannot say anything on that. On the other hand I know that for Felipe it was a difficult season, but he knows that he count on all the team, and we have to make sure that he will have a good car, and then it’s up to him to show how good he is.

“We rely on him because he’s part of our group and our family. We are pretty sure that next year also in that respect we will have a pretty good couple of drivers.”

Meanwhile he denied that there was a chance that Robert Kubica – rumoured to be of interest for Ferrari for 2013 – will get a chance to drive the simulator.

“No, not really. If you remember we’ve been speaking about drivers for Ferrari since January of last year. I think that maybe next week we’ll come back to the Valentino Rossi position! So, no.”

Marussia Virgin confirmed tonight the expected news that GP2 racer Charles Pic will join the team in 2012.

The Frenchman will be Timo Glock’s third rookie team mate in three years, after Lucas Di Grassi and Jerome D’Ambrosio. Pic finished fourth in this year’s GP2 series, with two wins to his name, and took part in the recent young driver test in Abu Dhabi. He is looked after by former F1 driver Olivier Panis.

“As a driver you always feel you are ready for the next opportunity but in Abu Dhabi last week it was a tough test,” said Pic. “The team gave me some fantastic opportunities to learn new things but I also knew that I had to impress them and show them I was ready to do a good job. I was pleased with my performance, and obviously the team were too, so a very good start but this is just the beginning and I know that a lot of hard work is ahead of me to reward this chance.

“I like the team a lot; we worked well together in the test and I feel very comfortable. They want to do things the right way and I can see that there is a lot of determination to succeed, so it is very special for me to be part of that. I’m looking forward to working hard in every area over the winter to ensure I am ready for the start of testing and my first Grand Prix.”

“We naturally keep a close eye on the junior formulae and Charles is certainly someone we have been watching over the past few years,” said team boss John Booth. “The real barometer however was our Young Driver Test in Abu Dhabi last week, where we put him through a series of tough tests to thoroughly evaluate his potential.

“This was his first time in a Formula One car so it should have been quite daunting, however Charles was extremely focused on what needed to be done and absolutely rose to the challenge. He continued to improve in every area but his race simulation work particularly caught our eye.

“Winter testing will be upon us before we know it, so it is actually a relatively short space of time ahead with a lot for Charles to get used to, but he is an extremely determined young guy and he worked very well with the team last week. He has an extremely mature head on young shoulders, so I have no doubt that he will be working very hard over the winter to prepare for his debut season.

“I would like to take this opportunity to thank Jérôme D’Ambrosio for his hard work and important contribution to our team over the past 12 months or more. He has an exciting future to look forward to I’m sure and we wish him every success.”

D’Ambrosio, who was backed by Genii this year, may struggle to find another F1 opportunity.

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner says he can’t believe that Sebastian Vettel was able to bring his car home in second place in Brazil after his gearbox lost most of its oil.

Vettel had problems from as early as the fifth lap, and yet having adjusted his driving was able to nurse it to the flag.

“From as early as lap five we could see the gearbox oil level starting to drop, and the early predictions were it might get to half distance,” said Horner. “We monitored it for a couple of laps and could see a consistent pattern. We informed Sebastian and then started to try and manage the problem by him adjusting his driving style.

“At that point he had a commanding lead. Mark caught him, Sebastian radioed and said I’ll let him through at Turn One, which obviously he did, which then released Mark to get on with his race, whilst we focussed on trying to manage the problem.

“Despite running a gear taller in each corner and trying to reduce the amount of shifts, his pace was still very strong. Then it was a matter of managing the gap to Fernando and then Jenson. There must be zero oil left in that gearbox because it literally went off the scale in those last five laps! We were glued to the data and the screen just to see if it was going to make it to the end.

“It was a very mature and measured drive with strong communication from his engineering team to help him nurse it to the end.”

Horner had no time for the inevitable suggestions that the problem was not genuine, and designed to help Webber end the year with a win.

“Anybody that listened to the conversation between the race engineer or looked in the back of the garage at the amount of activity that was going on over that gearbox – of course there will always be people that have theories, but categorically that gearbox, how on earth it got to the end of the race is beyond me. Thankfully it did.

“If anyone thinks that was concocted in any way, I can absolutely hand on heart guarantee you that based on the blood pressure on the pit wall you can rest assured it was a genuine issue.”