Felipe Massa says he will not have to hand back the F1 car gifted to him by Williams for his ultmately premature retirement.

Amid his emotional farewell to the sport late last year, the British team promised to give the Brazilian the 'Massa'-branded car with which he raced at Interlagos. However, Massa's eventual retirement was short-lived, as he is now returning to Williams for 2017 to replace the Mercedes-bound Valtteri Bottas.

"I wish (Bottas) well now that he has this opportunity to go to Mercedes," Italy's Corriere dello Sport quotes Massa as saying. "He is going to the team that has won the last three championships and I am sure they will be competitive this year."

As for his gifted 2016 Williams, meanwhile, Massa got awfully possessive.

"It's mine. It's mine," he said. "I saw it at the factory a few days ago and it still had my name written on it. What happened in the last races was incredible, especially in Brazil. It was a perfect ending, but then things changed and I followed my heart.".

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner believes Formula 1 is in need of a bigger shake-up than the 'window dressing' changes for 2017.

While F1 is braced for radical new cars this year amid efforts to make them faster and more spectacular, Horner believes more sweeping changes are needed.

"At the moment we're doing a bit of window dressing," Horner told Autosport late last year.

"I'm still hugely in favour of going back to a power unit that generates noise and emotion, to turn the volume back up.

"It's part of the DNA of Formula 1.

"In Japan [last year] where Honda fired up their Ayrton Senna V10 McLaren - when it drove past, every member in the garage came to the front to see it go down the pit straight.

"Formula 1 misses that, and it's something that crucially needs to be addressed for the longer-term future.

"The technology in these [V6 hybrid] engines is wonderful, it's mind-blowingly clever - but the average man or lady in the grandstand, or viewer, they have no idea what's going on.

"We should go back to trying to make Formula 1 absolute entertainment - and part of that entertainment being the engine."

The current turbo V6 hybrid engines are set for use until 2020, with meetings set to take place soon to discuss whether F1 will continue with them or switch to something different beyond that.

Speaking at the end of the 2016 season, long before news broke of a major overhaul at the top of F1 including the appointment of Ross Brawn, Horner said he felt teams should have a reduced influence in discussions over future rules, allowing F1 chiefs to focus on longer-term planning.

"My view has always been: try and look far enough ahead that you take away the emotion of the immediacy of now," he said.

"The problem the teams face - and they're all guilty of that, us included - is you try to protect your competitive position.

"Who knows what's five years down the road, so why shouldn't five years down the road we look at getting rid of windtunnels, look to limit the amount of CFD you can do, or introduce a normally-aspirated engine with a standard hybrid or KERS technology?

"They're all things, big ticket items that contribute to the show, reduce significant cost and just create a great spectacle.

"We are in danger, severe danger, of Formula 1 becoming stale.

"Hopefully, if these regulations do shake things up a bit [and] it does become a little bit less predictable, that's great for the fans, it's great for the teams, it's great for the drivers."

Formula One racing’s governing body, the FIA, has modified the regulations regarding penalties ahead of the 2017 season, meaning that drivers will now only be punished if it is absolutely clear that they are at fault.

Under the new procedures, race director Charlie Whiting will still report incidents to the stewards as before, but from there the stewards will have the choice as to whether to launch an investigation or not.

"It shall be at the discretion of the stewards to decide if any driver involved in an incident should be penalised,” article 38.2 of the sporting regulations now states.

"Unless it is clear to the stewards that a driver was wholly or predominantly to blame for an incident no penalty will be imposed."

It is hoped that this move will encourage drivers to attempt more overtaking moves, without the fear that they may be punished for minor contact.

In other penalty changes, drivers now unable to serve an imposed time, stop-and-go or drive-through penalty during a race due to retirement may be hit with a grid penalty at the next event.

Formula 1's new racing boss Ross Brawn says he wants to develop a purer, simpler sport in which more teams and drivers can win.

The ex-Mercedes team boss, who has been appointed managing director of racing by F1's new owner, was critical of some rule changes of recent years.

Brawn said he wanted to "narrow the gap between the top and bottom" of the field and give F1 a broader appeal.

"I have ideas we should study and perhaps use in 2018 or 19," he said.

Brawn pointed to the example of football's Premier League, where Leicester City were able to transform themselves from relegation candidates to champions in the space of 12 months and on a limited budget.

The 62-year-old said: "We all know the analogy of Leicester City - that would be the ideal in F1, when a good team on a great year with a great driver could really mount a challenge. But at the moment that's not really possible."

Brawn is a member of a new senior management team appointed following the removal of Bernie Ecclestone from his position as chief executive.

American media executive Chase Carey, who was appointed president when new owner Liberty Media began its takeover in September, has now also taken on Ecclestone's former title.

Brawn is heading up the sporting and technical side of Liberty's business and former ESPN sales and marketing chief Sean Bratches is to run the commercial side.

What needs to change?

Carey has outlined plans to better promote the sport, by making more of grands prix as events in their host country and with a much wider use of digital media.

Brawn's job is to hone the on-track show to make it more appealing after criticism it has become predictable and has lost some of its edge in recent years.

He was critical of decisions made by Ecclestone, such as the adoption of a double-points finale in 2014 and a short-lived attempt to change the format of qualifying at the start of last season.

He told BBC Sport: "These have been short-term, knee-jerk reactions and that is exactly what we mustn't do.

"We need to stabilise the small teams and get them on a better financial footing.

"We need to reduce the scope of the technology because there is too big a gap between the bigger and smaller teams."

He also hinted he wanted to remove the controversial drag reduction system, an overtaking aid that drivers can use at the press of a button to give them a boost in straight-line speed.

"We need to make sure there is no artificial solutions," Brawn said. "The drag reduction system; everyone knows it's artificial. We need to find purer solutions.

"We need to think through the solutions. I have ideas - I can't share them all with you because I want to share them with the teams first - but I have ideas of things we should start to study and perhaps use in '18 or '19."

Will the technology have to change?

Brawn said the high-technology aspect of F1 was a crucial part of its appeal but added: "You must balance the technology with the sporting side."

He indicated he would be open to trying to change the turbo hybrid engines introduced in 2014, which have seen revolutionary steps forward in terms of fuel efficiency but which have been criticised for being too expensive and sounding dull.

"That is something we need to discuss with the teams," Brawn said. "They have made a huge investment in these engines so you can't just discard them and say: 'We are going to change the engines.'

"But how do we get from where we are today to where we want to be in two or three years' time with a great racing engine that everyone admires and enjoys?"

Could a driver at a smaller team win the F1 title?

Part of the reason for the lack of competitiveness is the huge spread of budgets between the front and back of the grid.

Brawn said: "The level of resource the top teams are using has made an enormous gap. My nirvana would be you get slightly odd circumstances and suddenly a team from the back wins. But at the moment you have two or three teams who can win and we need to spread that."

He said a budget cap was a "delicate" issue, but added: "It has never really been tried, it was never fully adopted by Formula 1, and I think we should at least discuss it again and see if there's potential."

But he said there were other ways of closing up the field.

"We have to see if we can develop the rules to reward innovation less," Brawn said. "Because as it is now innovation is heavily rewarded and if you can afford it, the slope is still quite steep - more money, faster cars. If we can flatten that off with the regulations that would go in the right direction."

He also said he would like to try to establish a 'draft' system for promoting drivers from junior categories so the drivers who make it into F1 were there "purely on merit".

Historically, some drivers at the back of the grid have paid for their seats in F1.

"What I'd love to see is a proper progression of talent into F1 where you could even introduce a draft system where the guys who win the GP2 or Formula 2 are available for the lower teams to use in their first year or two in Formula 1."

Manor Formula 1 team closes after efforts to find a buyer fail

Attempts to find a buyer to save the Manor Formula 1 team have failed and it will close ahead of the 2017 season.

Manor went into administration earlier this month after efforts to secure much-needed financial investment had failed to reach fruition.

With the first pre-season test looming at the end of February, administrator FRP Advisory knew it was in a race against time to find a buyer.

Despite interest from potential purchasers - believed to include an Asian consortium - discussions never got far enough for FRP to feel comfortable that the finances were there to save the outfit.

With progress having stalled, FRP Advisory took the decision on Friday to call time on its hopes of saving the team - informing staff that no buyer would be found and deciding that Manor's parent company Just Racing Services would cease trading.

A statement issued by FRP Advisory said: "During recent months, the senior management team have worked tirelessly to bring new investment to the team to secure its long-term future, but regrettably were unable to do so within the time available and were left with no alternative but to place JRSL into administration to protect the best interests of the underlying businesses and in order to continue a search for a buyer.

"Since their appointment earlier this month the joint administrators at FRP Advisory have continued to work, with the support of senior management, to try and secure new investment into the business resulting in negotiations with a number of interested parties. During that period funding was secured to ensure payment of all staff salaries until 31 January 2017.

"Regrettably since the appointment of administrators no investment has been secured in the limited time available to continue the group in its present form.

"With no sustainable operational or financial structure in place to maintain the group as a going concern, the joint administrators have now ceased trading JRSL and unfortunately have had to send all staff home from work today Friday 27 January.

"While all 212 staff have been paid up to Tuesday 31 January, all but a small handful of staff are expected be made redundant by the end of January."

Although the parent company of Manor - Just Racing Services - will cease trading, the company that holds the right to race in F1 - Manor Grand Prix Racing Ltd - is not in administration.

FRP partner Geoff Rowley said he was saddened by the decision.

"It is deeply regrettable that the team has had cease trading and close its doors," he said.

"Manor is a great name in British motorsport and the team has achieved a great deal over the past two years, invigorated under new ownership.

"Operating and running an F1 team to the high standards demanded however requires significant ongoing investment.

"We would like to thank all the staff for their support and professionalism during this difficult process."

The Manor Formula 1 team's demise came just when it should have been close to signing off its 2017 car.

Images of the MRT07 that emerged last week give a glimpse into what to expect from F1 2017 and the new regulations.

Manor's two chassis had been constructed and were positioned in their respective race bays at the factory but little else was ready - the diminishing cashflow having meant supplier payments were on hold.

The chassis' rear indicates that Manor had decided to run a liquid-air cooler sandwiched between the fuel cell and front face of the engine, following Mercedes' 2014-16 practice.

It is also understood it had decided to move some of the electronics from within the sidepods to this crevice in order to maximise aerodynamic performance from the car's flanks.

The deltoid shaping of the front wing is a requirement of the new regulations, with the addition of a wedge shape forming the leading edge of the neutral centre section.

The wide shallow nose has been set as far back over the neutral section as possible, rather than perched out over it like its predecessor.

The position of the nose tip has been a focus for teams since the neutral section was introduced in 2009.

Its proximity and shape changes how the neutral section behaves, using it to generate downforce and improve performance downstream.

The front wing has been subject to numerous changes, taking into account the increased width and the tyre.

A more aggressive outwash tunnel is complemented by numerous upper elements, with an outward turning 'r' cascade sat slightly inboard of a three-element open-ended cascade, with lower surfaces curved to match those of the flaps below.

This is a design feature used by both Williams and Caterham on the FW36 and CT05 respectively, and has likely been revived by a need to break up airflow across the face of the wider tyre and push it out around it.

The outwardly curved endplate is also furnished with an upwash canard, assisting in this redirection of airflow around the tyre and improving the shape of the wake shed by the tyre.

The main plane is separated into two main elements and supplemented by additional slots above the curvature of the outwash tunnel.

The upper flaps have been redesigned, their tips meeting as the lower of the two is upturned to meet the other.

There will likely be moves to employ more complex structural designs to improve aerodynamic impact.

The delta shape of the sidepod has expanded the role of the bargeboards for 2017.

The Manor windtunnel model's examples wrap around the sidepod's front face and meet with an extended axe head section on the corner of the floor.

Their forward most section draws alongside the car's splitter, and the serrations help to improve efficiency while the leading serration curves over to form both a support and a horizontal aero surface.

The sidepods have grown in width to suit the car's overall girth and allow the team to play around with the orientation of the radiators and intercoolers to improve internal airflow efficiency.

They are still flanked by an upper leading edge slat, stretching from the cockpit and mounted astride a single vortex generator, before curving around the sidepod's shoulder and finishing several inches above the floor, in a similar fashion to the appendages used circa 2005-08.

The slat and conditioner sit further away from the sidepod's surface compared to recent years' trends.

Having reached their maximum width at the front, the sidepods swiftly taper around the internal structures toward the cooling outlets, which are raised to improve the undercut and expose the floor.

The tyre squirt deck ahead of the rear tyre has two large L-shaped cut-outs, in order to shape the airflow as it is pushed laterally off the tyre into the diffuser, which starts 175mm ahead of the rear wheel centre line rather than on it like its predecessor.

Toward the rear of the car, the 'shark fins' have returned.

The shorter, slanted wings of 2017 will protect the rear wing from turbulent airflow generated upstream that could be problematic to the lower assembly.

The lower, wider, slanted rear wing maintains leading edge slots to take airflow inboard even with the regulated curvature of the new endplate surfaces.

The open-ended louvres pioneered by Toro Rosso and used by several teams last season to displace the vortex generated at the wings tips are also present.

With Manor's difficult financial position clear in early January, the team had begun work an interim solution that required modifying the 2016 car to be designated the MRT05B.

It is understood the changes included a revised underbelly and wing pillars for the nose, a revised splitter and plank installation, bargeboards, sidepod upper covers, a new floor, rear wing and revisions to the height of the diffuser.

Manor's planned MRT07 may well have been the car with the fewest details but it does show how complex aero development is likely to be in 2017.

When a driver hits the barriers at speed, the Formula One Medical Car is on the scene in seconds. But how does a nearly two-tonne car laden with doctors and medical equipment get there so quickly? We spoke to Medical Car driver Alan van der Merwe to find out…

The first track action of a Grand Prix weekend has a rather deeper note than those that follow. On Thursday, usually between 1400 and 1500, the FIA Safety Car and Medical Car take to the track for an hour of high-speed practice. Bernd Maylander’s Mercedes-AMG GT S safety car is a pretty familiar sight for fans around the world - but the Mercedes-AMG C 63 S Medical Car will spend the rest of the weekend in relative anonymity, should everything go to plan.

Anonymity, says Medical Car driver Alan van der Merwe, is what the job’s all about. “We’ll be most visible if we make a mistake - so the biggest part of the job is being as anonymous as possible,” says the 37-year-old, who took on Medical Car duties in 2009.

“We want to be on track as little as possible; when we are on track we never want to shunt the car, or get involved with any of the race cars. There’s a lot that goes into that, from making sure the cars are mechanically right, to how we drive on the circuit to ensuring there is sufficient margin for error.”

And when it comes to driving, Van der Merwe is more than a safe pair of hands - in fact he might well have made it to the F1 grid himself if his career had taken a few different twists and turns. A former Formula Ford Festival and British Formula 3 champion, the South African can count a stint as BAR-Honda’s test driver amongst his racing accomplishments.

Driver, not paramedic…

The Medical Car carries the FIA medical rescue co-ordinator, Dr Ian Roberts, and frequently a local doctor specialising in emergency medicine to the scene of an accident. Extraction teams are positioned around the circuit to deal with these situations, under the supervision of Dr Roberts, who is variously a consultant in anaesthesia and intensive care, a veteran HEMS (Helicopter Emergency Medical Service) specialist and the former chief medical officer of the British Grand Prix. Contrary to popular opinion, the logic of having an experienced racing driver - rather than, for example, a paramedic - delivering the medical staff to the scene, is not based on speed.

“The most important factor is not that you can drive a car fast: there are millions of people who could drive the car fast enough to get to an incident within a clinical time frame where it matters,” says Van der Merwe. “The thing to consider is the environment: you’re driving a big, heavy estate car and sometimes sharing the track with extremely fast racing cars, probably the fastest racing cars in the world over a lap. It’s a difficult combination. It isn’t enough to be driving around close to the limit: you need to be constantly thinking about other people also.

“You need the extra capacity to be driving close to the limit while thinking about what’s ahead, what’s behind. You have to be prepared for drivers making mistakes, marshals jumping over the barrier ahead of you. It’s about having the capacity to drive the car quickly enough to get to the scene, stay ahead of the cars on track while maintaining a huge margin of error to deal with the unexpected.”

The harder car to drive…

The 550hp Medical Car, as Alan suggests is both big and heavy. Powered by a 4-litre twin turbo V8, when fully loaded it weighs in at nearly two tonnes. Watching it circulate in tandem with the Safety Car, it’s obviously rather more of a handful to drive at high-speed than its smaller companion.

“By design the Safety Car is a perfectly-balanced supercar,” he says. “We didn’t need to modify it much, in fact you can buy that specification, minus the FIA safety gear. The Medical Car, on the other hand, is a little bit different. It has to cope with two tonnes of weight when we’re loaded up so it’s extremely stiff and everything we don’t need has been stripped out.

“To get close to the limit in a car like this, you need to be able to push it. On Thursdays I’ll be driving faster than I do throughout the weekend. It’s about getting into a rhythm where I’m comfortable at 98 percent, so that in the race I can drive at 95 percent and be on the radio talking to race control, looking in my mirrors and that sort to thing. You’ve got some capacity in reserve, and so does the car. You don’t want to be at 100 percent so that when something strange happens, there’s no exit option.”

Dishing out punishment

In common with the F1 cars, the Safety and Medical Cars have their own garages, usually at the start, sometimes the end, of the pit lane where a crew of AMG mechanics tend to them. The nature of the job ensures the cars take a lot of punishment, particularly, as Alan says, at the start of the event when the drivers want to test the conditions and so push hard, ride the kerbs and find the limits.

“We do punish the cars on Thursday,” says Alan. “The AMG guys want to see how the cars cope mechanically, and we need to find out how the tyres are holding up. Somewhere like Sepang, for example, in those temperatures you can’t pound around endlessly: we can do maybe two or three laps and then things start deteriorating. Essentially it’s still a road car and when we’ve got it fully stocked with gear in the back and three people in it, it’s under a lot of load.”

The back-up plan

A frequent question fielded by Bernd Maylander and Alan van der Merwe is what happens if one of their cars fails? The answer is rather more mundane than many people expect: AMG bring two of each and the drivers use them in rotation according to tyre mileage and brake wear. Failures are incredibly rare - but they do happen.

“We had to swap cars after the first lap at Silverstone in 2015 - but I don’t think anyone noticed!” says Alan. “We take the two Medical Cars to every race, I don’t think anyone outside could tell them apart but, because we spend so much time sitting in them, I know which is which. We have a primary car for the weekend and only run the back-up for the track test in the mornings, to make sure the tyres are bedded in and the thing’s ready to go if necessary.

“At Silverstone we had a tyre failure. I felt it about halfway around the lap and we had to crawl back and quickly swap cars. These things happen - it all went to plan and was very well orchestrated. I think our car is the one that gets the biggest beating out of all the service vehicles because it’s driven through all sorts of rubbish on the track and we hammer it over kerbs all weekend and it goes from sitting in the pit lane fairly cold - to flat out, trying to stay in front of Bernd, so it gets a hammering. One failure in seven years is pretty good!”

Always on call

The track test, together with reconnaissance laps ahead of each running session and the first lap of the Grand Prix (where the Medical Car follows the pack around before pulling into the pits) is the most visible part of the job - but it’s a busy weekend around that for the Medical Car crew. They cover the GP2/GP3 sessions also, and other series as requested, and thus attend a lot of driver briefing sessions, and whenever cars are on track, they’re sitting with the engine running at the end of the pit lane, permanently ready to go. Like the rest of the world they see the live TV feed - but they also have extra data feeds supplied by race control, such as the GPS track map and the alerts transmitted from the cars on track, registering impacts and their severity. The latter is vital for the doctors, allowing them a little lead-time in formulating their response when they receive word from race control to proceed onto the track.

No heroics

Over a race weekend a track ‘evolves’, with grip improving on the racing line as rubber goes down but also as the line is cleaned by the passage of cars. This is particularly prevalent on street circuits, as normal roads are considerably dirtier than permanent circuits. By virtue of being first on track, the Safety and Medical Cars experience the track at its absolute worst, and so, in the role of guinea pig and despite vast experience, the drivers tend to approach the session with a lot of caution.

“Somewhere like Baku (a lap of which you can see in the video above) or Monaco, you could go out like a hero - but clip a wall and you’ll destroy a road car quite easily. There’s no grip, it’s dirty, and Baku was also quite oily because the tarmac was new, so you build up slowly. You go out and chip away. We’re not going to prove anything by being five-tenths quicker a lap. Nobody cares. It’s not important.”

At the scene

Van der Merwe’s job at the scene is to be an extra pair of eyes and ears, and also, where circumstances dictate, an extra pair of hands. As at a road-traffic accident, the car is parked to protect the people working at the scene, after that the job is to assist the recovery operation.

“A lot depends on the experience of the crews coming to the scene. You have to make sure recovery vehicles have good access, ambulances might require some direction because they won’t be experienced with race tracks and you don’t want anyone stuck in the gravel. The doctors may need one of their kitbags bringing if they’re rushed to the scene. My job is essentially to read the situation, make sure everyone has what they need, direct the arriving vehicles if necessary and generally help out. If I’m not needed, I stay in the car. I can talk on the radio and inform race control of what’s going on with Ian if he has his hands full.”

Formula 1's minimum car weight has been increased by another 6kg for 2017, as part of the switch to wider Pirelli tyres.

The FIA published F1's latest technical regulations a fortnight ago, and mandated that the weight of each car, without fuel, must not be less than 722kg at all times during a grand prix weekend.

However, a later clause in the rules stated that the limit would be tweaked to take into account the increased bulk of F1's wider 2017 rubber.

Article 4.3 states weight limits "will be adjusted up or down according to any differences (rounded up to the nearest 1kg) between the total set and individual axle set weights respectively of the 2016 and 2017 dry-weather tyres."

Autosport's sister title Motorsport.com has learned that the official weight difference between the 2016 and '17 sets of tyres has been put at 6kg, which in turn means the minimum weight of F1 cars for the season ahead will be 728kg.

It is understood each front tyre is a little more than 1kg heavier than in 2016, with each rear tyre just over 1.5kg heavier.

With the value then rounded up to the nearest kilogram as the regulations demand, the final value to be added to the 722kg will be 6kg.

The new 728kg limit for 2017 is a significant leap over last year's mandated 702kg.

Much of the extra bulk is due to the wider cars, and the extra bodywork associated with a 20cm increase in width, while a rise in the fuel limit to 105kg also means larger tanks.

Despite the weight handicap - with 10kg of extra weight costing 0.3 seconds per lap, this increase accounts to a loss of nearly one second in total - the extra downforce and mechanical grip is expected to produce cars that are five seconds per lap quicker than in 2015.

American car giant Ford says that Formula 1's huge costs are the main factor in it showing no interest in making a return to the category in the near future.

The arrival of Liberty Media as F1's new owners has prompted hopes of a brighter future for grand prix racing – and a more popular sport could help attract more manufacturers over the next few years.

Furthermore, the FIA is hoping that those car makers not currently involved in F1 can have a part to play in discussions being planned over the next few months to frame engine rules for post-2020.

Under an agreement between motor racing's governing body and the manufacturers currently involved – Mercedes, Renault, Ferrari and Honda – the current V6 turbo hybrid formula will remain in place until 2020 at the earliest, but things are totally open beyond that.

After that date, a decision needs to be taken about whether to extend the use of the current engines or switch to a totally different concept.

But although a change from 2021 could prove enticing to car makers not involved in F1, Ford says that it sees little benefit from getting involved when the costs of involvement are so high.

Dave Pericak, director of Ford Performance, told Motorsport.com: "We're not really looking at F1. I don't see us getting into that any time soon.

"Formula 1 is so expensive. If you look at every series we are in right now there is a relevance to all the goals and objectives we have, in developing our tools, technology and people and translating that into road cars. Every series that we're in has an element of that."

Ford last had an official works presence in F1 with Jordan from 2003 until 2004, famously taking a shock victory with Giancarlo Fisichella at the 2003 Brazilian Grand Prix.

Road relevance

Pericak was forced to deny last week that Ford was planning a move into IndyCar too, as he reiterated that it felt its racing programme was better served in categories that had road relevance such as GT supercars, WRC and World Rallycross.

"We use the track to test and improve our technologies, and bring it back into the road cars," he said. "That's working well, not just on the GT but other products as well.

"To be able to leverage that [racing] programme to polish the Ford oval and to communicate what Ford is about – our engineering prowess. It's been really powerful."

It is not clear at this stage where Lowe's shares will come from. Equity in the team is split between founder and team principal Sir Frank Williams (51%), US businessman Brad Hollinger (15%), co-founder Sir Patrick Head (9%) and an employee fund (4%), with 21% listed on the Frankfurt stock exchange.