Following directly from the news of Renault ditching Toro Rosso and moving to McLaren as engine supplier, driver news surely followed. Carlos Sainz, who has been at Toro Rosso since his F1 debut in 2015, will join the Renault squad for one year only, on loan to the team to partner Nico Hülkenberg. This will leave Jolyon Palmer without a race seat, unless someone else snaps him up.

Carlos Sainz to join Renault for one year in 2018

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The 2017 season has barely been over a week and Sauber are already motoring ahead with their plans for next year, hosting a livery launch in Milan that announced their driver lineup for 2018 as well as showed off a significantly revised colour scheme.

Sauber launch 2018 livery alongside driver announcement

Valtteri Bottas converted his pole position into a race victory relatively comfortably, in a final race of the season that was resoundedly disliked as being dull by almost everyone. Lewis Hamilton, who finished second so obviously has some grounds for dissatisfaction, said of Yas Marina: "It's a great, great track but unfortunately it doesn't suit the cars very well."

Mercedes finish season with 1-2 as Bottas takes victory

Valtteri Bottas was the fastest driver in Q3 on Saturday in Abu Dhabi, with the Finnish driver securing pole position for the final race of the season. Lewis Hamilton was just a tenth of a second behind him, leaving the Red Bull and Ferrari drivers to split the second and third row of the grids between them.

Bottas scoops pole position for final round of 2017

Ahead of the final race of 2017 in Abu Dhabi, Pirelli launched their lineup of tyres for the 2018 season, including two new compounds and extending the range from five to seven levels of hard and softness. The tyres are all one step softer than what we've seen this year, but there's a new superhard tyre that is orange. The hard tyre turns blue, or ice blue, as they call it.

Pirelli reveal rainbow of tyres for 2018

After testing out a rotating selection of drivers for the past few race weekends, Toro Rosso have hit upon a pairing they like - the current form of Brendon Hartley and Pierre Gasly. The duo have been signed for 2018, with both set for their first full season in the sport.

Carlos Sainz to join Renault for one year in 2018

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