BBC Sport brings you a regular round-up of the gossip in newspapers and on specialist websites around the world.

Formula 1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone has floated the idea of introducing "shortcuts" on race tracks to encourage overtaking and improve entertainment for television.

"I've tried to push the teams with a number of proposals. Imagine a shortcut which a driver can use five times every race.

"It would stop people getting stuck behind others. It would be good for TV," said Ecclestone.

Red Bull Racing is to skip the first of the official pre-season Formula 1 tests, making it the only established outfit that will not have its new car ready for the first run-out, which takes place in Valencia from 1-3 February.
Full story: Autosport.com

Alonso is all smiles as he attends Ferrari's traditional ski event

Heikki Kovalainen says Lotus will only take part in Formula 1's last two testing sessions before the season-opening race in Bahrain. (Associated Press)

Fernando Alonso made his first appearance in the legendary scarlet Ferrari outfit on Monday as he arrived at Madonna di Campiglio for the Italian team's annual skiing event.
Full story: gpupdate.net

The word on the street in banking circles is that the Virgin Racing team principal Alex Tai has been removed from office with immediate effect by the team's board of directors.
Full story: Joe Saward's grand prix blog

Rumours of US F1's demise appear to be largely exaggerated, with news that motorsport's governing body the FIA has given the team "special dispensation" to conduct extra days of straight-line testing.
Full story: planet-f1.com

McLaren has revamped its engineering team in the wake of Jenson Button's arrival at the team, with Lewis Hamilton's former race engineer Phil Prew promoted to principal race engineer.
Full story: mclaren.com

Spanish bank Santander has drafted in 2008 Formula 1 champion Hamilton for a TV advertising campaign that marks the disappearance of household names Abbey and Bradford & Bingley.
Full story: The Guardian

This story will be updated throughout the day.

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