Michael Schumacher is to call time on his F1 career at the end of the 2012 season. Schumacher, who originally retired in 2006 before returning to the sport with Mercedes in 2010, announced the news at Suzuka on Thursday.

Williams have announced they have journeyed to Venezuela this week with driver Pastor Maldonado. The visit will include a demonstration event around Caracas’s renowned national monument, Los Proceres.

Marussia’s Timo Glock will play no part in Sunday’s 2012 Formula 1 Grand Prix of Europe after taking doctors’ advice on the stomach bug that also caused him to miss Saturday’s qualifying session.
“Timo received medical guidance yesterday afternoon and his symptoms suggest that he is suffering from an intestinal infection,” read a team statement.

Williams’ celebrations of Pastor Maldonado’s Spanish Grand Prix victory were cut dramatically short on Sunday afternoon after a fire broke out in the team’s garage around 90 minutes after the end of the race, engulfing the Barcelona pit lane in thick smoke.

Force India’s third driver Jules Bianchi will be behind the wheel for the team on the opening day of next week’s Mugello test. Bianchi will run in the car on Tuesday before handing it over to Paul di Resta on Wednesday.

After some careful assessment, HRT have announced they will not be attending next week’s Formula One test in Mugello, Italy. With planned upgrades to the Spanish team’s car not due for completion until after the session, they will instead concentrate on moving to their new headquarters.

Michael Schumacher’s difficult Bahrain weekend continued on Sunday morning after his Mercedes team confirmed he will drop five places on the starting grid as penalty for a late gearbox change.
Schumacher qualified a disappointing 18th after a DRS problem in Q1 and was due to start 17th thanks to a similar gearbox penalty for Williams’ Pastor Maldonado.

Sergio Perez will drop five places on the grid for Sunday’s Australian Grand Prix after the gearbox was changed on his Sauber following Saturday’s qualifying session.
Perez was unable to complete a timed lap during Q2 because of gearbox problems and thus qualified in 17th.