Force India have signed 2011 Ferrari tester Jules Bianchi as their 2012 reserve driver. The 22-year-old Frenchman, a former F3 Euro champion, will participate in at least nine Friday practice sessions for the team this year

Caterham boss Tony Fernandes has admitted he will be a happy man if his team can score their first world championship point this season, after their new CT01 challenger was officially revealed to the public on Thursday. Caterham's best 2011 race placing was 13th, a result they achieved in Australia, Monaco and Italy, but with the addition of KERS just one of several factors set to lift their performance in 2012

Pre-season testing is yet to begin, but Caterham already have a fixed idea about where in the constructors' standings they want to end the year. As their 2012 car was officially unveiled online on Thursday morning, chief technical officer Mike Gascoyne made it clear that the team are optimistic of stepping into the midfield with the help of the newly-launched CT01. “Until we run the car, we only have numbers and simulation data to work with,” Gascoyne said in an interview with the team, published on their official Facebook page. “But every team wants to move up the grid and we're no different. We finished 10th in the last two years, which has been our target, but now I think it's time we moved forward again.”

While Ferrari's engineers put the finishing touches to the Italian team's 2012 car ahead of its launch and test debut next month, drivers Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa will be intensifying their own preparations at a pre-season training camp in the Canary Islands. Alonso and Massa spent Tuesday at the Italian's team base in Maranello having seat fitting in the new Ferrari and meeting team principal Stefano Domenicali and other engineers to discuss the car's development. They will now jet off to the island of Lanzarote for a spot of physical training, alongside Ferrari young drivers Jules Bianchi and Davide Rigon.

Caterham have become the first team to unveil their 2012 car after issuing a picture of the CT01 via their official Twitter account on Wednesday. The team had originally intended to unveil their new challenger on Thursday, on the cover of February's F1 Racing magazine, but with some subscribers receiving their copies a day earlier, Caterham decided to release a sneak preview.