Welcome to F1Minute - Caterham unveil their 2012 car, the CT01.

Under their new guise as Caterham, Tony Fernandes and his team have revealed their 2012 challenger - officially launching it via F1 Racing magazine. Pictures of the car emerged yesterday, with the new nose design causing quite a stir. With the regulations changing so that the nose has to be of a lower height, there is a significant step at the bridge which gives the car a clunky and not particularly attractive look.

However, technical boss Mike Gascoyne believes they won’t be the only team heading in that direction, saying: “As we’re the first car out it is obviously stirring up a lot of debate, but because of the 2012 regulations, I think you’ll probably be seeing this type of nose on most of the cars this year.”

Meanwhile, team boss Tony Fernandes has given the squad a goal for the upcoming season saying: “Target wise, I have been quoted as saying I want us to score a point this year and that really has to be the aim. It has to be.”

This is F1Minute - Pirelli reveal new tyre markings for 2012 season.

F1’s sole tyre supplier Pirelli held an event in Abu Dhabi today to unveil their new range of rubber for the upcoming season. The most visible change is to the sidewall markings which have been tweaked.

The four compounds of dry tyres remain the same colour, but with thicker lines and text to make them more distinguishable in motion. The intermediate tyres remain blue, but the full wet tyres have changed from orange to green.

In terms of performance, Pirelli claim to have made the tyres “softer, with increased grip, better performance, a longer performance peak, but an unaltered lifespan.” They want to keep at least two pitstops per race for teams, but also create potential for more variety when it comes to strategies.

Pirelli have also created the first realtime database for teams and engineers, recording performance, temperature and pressure. There’s also talk of more information eventually feeding its way through to fan’s TV screens as well.

Welcome to F1Minute - Kimi Räikkönen returns to cockpit in two-day Lotus test.

This year’s comeback king Kimi Räikkönen was back behind the wheel of an F1 car today for the first time since he quit the sport in 2009. Lotus are running a two day test for Kimi to help him brush up on his F1 skills, although the testing limitations have forced him into a 2010 chassis with demonstration tyres from Pirelli.

After his first day of running, Räikkönen admitted that it may take a little while to get used to everything again, saying: “The main driving, braking, turning, that doesn’t take many laps. But of course to start learning about the car and team and tyres, that will take time.”

Meanwhile, Lotus themselves will be scrabbling to prepare for the official testing next month after the FIA deemed their new adjustable ride height development illegal. The innovation had preciously been declared as acceptable, as it was not driver operated, but the FIA have apparently sent a note to teams saying they are no longer satisfied with the legality.