F1: Webber to race for Ferrari?

MOTORSPORT REPORT

Seven-time grand prix winner Webber is only on a one-year contract as dual world champion Sebastian Vettel's Red Bull teammate but will be 36 before the end of this season.

Of other possible Massa replacements, Montezemolo said Jenson Button was "just excellent" while Nico Rosberg, Schumacher's Mercedes teammate, had done well with an uncompetitive car. He also pointed out that Sauber's Mexican driver Sergio Perez had been "developed in Ferrari's academy", while French youngster Jules Bianchi -- who has come through the same system -- "could develop further if he can test".

Montezemolo has been lobbying long and hard for a return to regular F1 testing. Noticably, he did not mention among possible Massa replacements the injured Polish star Robert Kubica, who if not for his shocking rally crash a year ago might already be in the second Ferrari -- or Red Bull -- seat.

Montezemolo said this year was "crucial" for Massa. "We were not satisfied with his past season and neither was he," Montezemolo said. "But what I cannot forget is that Felipe was often faster than Michael Schumacher and Kimi Raikkonen (before Massa's head injury at the 2009 Hungarian GP)."

Poland's Krzyzstof Holowczyc notched his first Dakar stage win on the fifth day of this year's event -- the last full stage in Argentina as competitors now head through the Andes into Chile and then on to the new finish in Lima, Peru.

MINIs have now won four stages -- each by a different All4 Racing -- and occupy the top three spots in the outright classifications.

Frenchman Stephane Peterhansel, six times a Dakar winner in Africa on a motorcycle and three times on four wheels but chasing his first victory since the marathon rally moved to South America, is 4 minutes 18 seconds clear of Holowczyc, with Spaniard Nani Roma third.

American Robby Gordon is fourth in his Hummer, 13½ minutes off the lead and ahead of South Africa's 2009 winner (for Volkswagen), Giniel De Villiers, in a Toyota Hilux that lost 20 minutes on stage five.

Russian Leonid Novitskiy is sixth in the fourth MINI.

Reigning Dakar winner, Nasser Al-Attiyah of Qatar, was the fastest driver again for much of stage five but lost another 24 minutes when the radiator of his Hummer emptied itself.

Australia's Marcos Ambrose lines up for a second season with King Richard's team, and expectations of the dual V8 Supercar champion, are rising in America. Petty's other driver, following A.J. Allmendinger's switch to Penske Racing, will be Aric Amirola, who is of Cuban heritage. Amirola's family fled Cuba as part of a "freedom flight" in 1966 and he was born in Florida 27 years ago.

While Ambrose remains in the No. 9 Ford for Petty, Amirola will become the ninth driver at the wheel of the No. 43 entry made famous by Petty since the King's retirement from race driving in 1992. Primarily because of Petty's 200 victories as a driver -- almost three times the number of Earnhardt, even though they both won seven Cup titles -- 43 is the most winning number in NASCAR history.

Andy Murstein, one of the businessmen who rescued RPM from likely collapse little more than a year ago, says there were "at least five strong candidates" for the seat vacated when Allmendinger departed to fill the Penske seat when Kurt Busch was fired. One of those candidates would have been David Ragan, a proven Sprint Cup winner.

Amirola has had 35 Cup race starts with five teams -- but none last year, when he was fourth (but winless) in the second-tier Nationwide Series.

Foxsports NASCAR commentator Lee Spencer has called Amirola's selection "curious" -- but it does not appear to have been influenced by him bringing a big-name sponsor, which Petty needs for the No. 43 car. RPM seems to have been genuinely fond of Amirola from the five Cup races he did with it at the end of 2010 following Kasey Kahne's exit. Amirola finished fourth in that year's Cup finale at the Homestead Miami Speedway in Florida.

Allmendinger and Ambrose were both in the Cup top 20 last year -- finishing the season 15th and 19th respectively.

Amirola has predicted that he can at least match Allmendinger's performance this year, although he admitted: "There will be some growing pains. I'll make my share of mistakes, being a rookie [not having raced a full Cup season].

"It means a lot to me coming from where my family has come from and the sacrifices that they have made to get to the US to create a better life for themselves and their family, and then for me to live out that dream that they had in 1966... I grew up in Tampa watching my grandfather race dirt sprint cars all around Florida and the south-east, and then I started racing go-karts when I was eight.

"I remember growing up watching Richard race, so to have the opportunity to race in the Daytona 500 [start of the 2012 Cup season on February 26] in the No. 43 car is unbelievable."

Almirola says he and Ambrose are mates. "Marcos and I actually started racing in the (pick-up) truck series (NASCAR's third-tier competition) at the exact same time, so we've been friends on and off the race track through that," he said. "We talked a lot when we were racing in the truck series together.  I've watched him go on to Cup racing and have kept up with him and see him from time to time in the garage.

"I've always had a friendly relationship with him and I respect him a lot as a race car driver, so I'm excited to be his teammate now."

Seven drivers were unanimous choices -- in alphabetical order there were Kyle Busch, Carl Edwards, Jeff Gordon, Kevin Harvick, Jimmie Johnson, Matt Kenseth and Tony Stewart. Ambrose got as many nominations as the well-credentialled but volatile Kurt Busch, now with Phoenix Racing, and Allmendinger.

Here's what Mark Aumann, who nominated Ambrose for the Chase, has said of the Aussie: "Marcos Ambrose finally broke through in 2011 for his first Sprint Cup victory at Watkins Glen. Now it's time for the Tasmanian devil to take that next step and make his first Chase.

"All the pieces are in place for Ambrose to do just that. Heading into his second season with Richard Petty Motorsports, he should be more comfortable with the team, the equipment and crew chief Todd Parrott. The only race Ambrose didn't finish in 2011 was the season finale, when he had engine trouble.

"Based on his road-course racing background, Ambrose is favored at places like Sonoma and Watkins Glen. But what fans may not realise is how good he's become on intermediate ovals. Ambrose finished fourth at Las Vegas, sixth at Texas, posted a pair of top-10s at Charlotte and was ninth at Kansas in the fall. And he's dynamite on concrete, with three top-10 finishes at Bristol and Dover.

"If Ambrose can improve at the tracks of two miles (3.2km) or longer he'll be right in the thick of things by the race at Richmond in September [race 26, when the Chase line-up is finalised]."

Schumacher says he was "a little bit rusty at first" when he returned from three years in retirement. "Things are much better now and I am convinced that Mercedes and I can be successful," he said. "We just need another small step and then we can make it to the top."

"He already knows the team (RBR) well from his time with us in 2008 and has gained significant race experience over the past three years," Horner said. "He will complete important test and simulation work for us throughout the year and will be in attendance at each GP."

While Horner portrays logic in the decision, it is odd in light of Buemi having scored 15 points in his third F1 season while the younger and less experienced Spaniard Jaime Alguersuari accumulated 26 in the other Toro Rosso car.

Meanwhile, Australian youngster Daniel Ricciardo will go to Toro Rosso's Italian factory next week to be fitted for the seat he will occupy this year. Jean-Eric Vergne in the other Toro Rosso will be one of three French drivers on this season's F1 grid.

An alternative to Embratel as a replacement for America's AT&T on the Williams cars could be the Qatar National Bank.

Williams already has Qatar connections and Sir Frank Williams spent weeks there late last year trying to raise the money to hire 2007 world champion Kimi Raikkonen, who subsequently resurfaced from the world rally championship at the Lotus Renault GP team.

Verstappen, 39, reportedly turned himself into police after fleeing the scene of the incident with the 24-year-old woman in the city of Roermond.

Verstappen was said to have driven a car at her and that she was taken to hospital with heavy bruises and cuts. He competed in more than 100 GPs between 1994 and 2003 but in 2008 was jailed for three months for assaulting his ex-wife. He also was convicted of fracturing a man's skull at a kart track more than a decade ago.

News of Verstappen's latest strife comes just weeks after the sentencing of Finnish ex-F1 driver J.J. Lehto over the death of a friend in a boating accident.

The court in that case was told Lehto was piloting the boat at 80km/h in a 5km/h zone and that he had been drinking for days beforehand.

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