Fernando Alonso has been linked with a seat at Toyota to take part in the WEC rookie test in Bahrain on November 19th ahead of a possible run at the Le Mans 24 Hours in 2018, according to various media reports.

The Spaniard, who will race full-time for McLaren in Formula 1 next season, is looking likely to follow up his attempt at the Indianapolis 500 back in May with a run at the world's most famous endurance race, which is also another leg of motorsport's Triple Crown, along with the Monaco Grand Prix.

Following Graham Hill and becoming just the second driver to win the three most prestigious races in racing has become a goal for the double F1 world champion and he will get his first experience in a 24-hour race when he competes at the Rolex Daytona 24 in January, joining another of McLaren Executive Director Zak Brown's teams, United Autosports.

Though Alonso has not been named yet in the official line-up for Toyota for the event later this month at Sakhir, it is understood he was in Cologne at the Japanese manufacturer's motorsport HQ beginning preparations for his appearance. It is also claimed the 36-year-old will share driving duties with LMP2's Thomas Laurent and current Toyota racer Mike Conway.

A run with Toyota would represent the most likely place to achieve victory at Le Mans as they will be the only major carmaker left in LMP1 after 2017 with Porsche, who Nico Hulkenberg won with during his appearance in 2015, pulling out at the end of the year ahead of their entry in Formula E.

Mexican Sergio Perez admits he was not expecting the impact Esteban Ocon has made in his first full season in Formula 1 and first with the Force India team.

Some were surprised when the young Frenchman was chosen by the Silverstone-based over fellow Mercedes junior and then Manor teammate Pascal Wehrlein to replace Nico Hulkenberg for 2017, but Ocon has more than repaid the trust with points results at every race bar Monaco.

Only Perez's higher points scoring finishes have kept him ahead in the Drivers' standings despite having two fewer top 10's and it has led to tensions with the pair colliding notably in Baku and Belgium.

Talking to France's Auto Hebdo publication, the 27-year-old claims despite their vast difference in experience, such as been the former European F3 champion's form, he has been looking to him to help improve his own performance this year.

“I did not think he would have such results in his first year,” he said. “Even with a difficult car, Esteban still manages to go fast. That’s one of his strengths and I have to learn from that. Recently, he has also managed to improve a lot in qualifying too."

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In Mexico, Force India secured fourth in the Constructors' Championship after dominating the midfield battle throughout the year. In fact, it has been that domination which has put the two drivers on the same part of the racetrack so frequently and resulted in these incidents.

Team orders had to be introduced to prevent further dramas but for Perez that competition has been welcome given the inability to challenge further up the grid.

“For me it’s good to have a teammate to push me to my limits because in today’s F1, your teammate is your only reference," the seven-time podium scorer claimed. “The three teams in front of us are untouchable.”

Ahead of his final home race this weekend in Brazil, Felipe Massa has accepted it is time to end his career in Formula 1 despite feeling he is "still competitive enough" to stay on for at least another year.

It is the second consecutive year the Sao Paulista will go to Interlagos believing it is the last time he will race at a circuit he has won at twice before with last year's race memorable for the guard of honour he was given walking down the pit-lane having crashed out in the rain on the long top straight.

That would all change when he re-signed with Williams for this season, enabling Valtteri Bottas to join Mercedes, but with the Grove team now looking at alternatives and with no decision coming before this weekend, the 36-year-old has appeared to take matters into his own hands announcing his retirement at the end of 2017.

"Part of me wanted to carry on because I think I’m still competitive enough to race a top-line F1 car, and also because I feel very good at Williams," he said in his Motorsport.com column.

"But every story has to come to an end at some point, and on my part, I have no regrets. Exactly a year ago I lived the same situation, and then suddenly the team asked me to come back.

"For me, it was a real privilege to do so and something I appreciated a lot, and a year later I am ready to follow a different path – happy with what I have done and what we have achieved this season."

Previously, Massa has tested and expressed an interest in Formula E as the next potential challenge in his racing career, but commenting on what comes next, he claimed: "There are those who will be curious to know where I will be racing next year, but it is too early to declare now.

"I will consider all the possibilities that I have been offered, and then decide without hesitation nor with the stress of being on track at all costs. I like to race, I feel competitive, and that’s what I want to do.

"I would like to accept a new challenge, as long as it is a professional role and with good prospects to deliver strong results. While I enjoy racing, I want to keep doing it – and keep getting the pleasure that I have always had throughout my career."

For now, though the 11-time Grand Prix winner wants to enjoy what this time is likely to be his final hurrah in the sport he has competed in since 2002.

"My focus is on finishing the season. I have two more Grands Prix to do, which will be important for me and the team, and then you will see," Massa concluded.

2017 GP3 champion George Russell is to drive for Force India in Practice 1 on the final two Friday's of the Formula 1 season, starting this weekend in Brazil it has been announced.

The 19-year-old has enjoyed a highly successful year, first holding off ART Grand Prix teammate Jack Aitken to claim the GP3 crown with two races to go last month in Jerez.

Before that, he would complete his first running behind the wheel of an F1 car back in August, driving for Mercedes, where he is part of their junior program, at the post-Grand Prix test in Hungary and will run again for Force India at the final race in Abu Dhabi.

“I’m extremely excited to be driving in free practice for Sahara Force India in Brazil and Abu Dhabi," he commented. "2017 has already been a year full of great opportunities and to top off the season with these two outings feels fantastic.

"I’ve never driven the VJM10 before or driven at Interlagos, but I’m really looking forward to the challenge. I would like to say a big ‘thank you’ to Sahara Force India for this opportunity and also thank Mercedes for their continued support.”

The Silverstone outfit has history of being the place where the four-time consecutive world champion's like to trial their youngsters. Pascal Wehrlein and their current race driver Esteban Ocon both had the chance to test with team owner and boss Vijay Mallya pleased to add another name to that list.

“We are happy to give George this opportunity. He’s an up-and-coming talent and we’ve followed his success in GP3 closely," he said.

"George has already been in our simulator several times and has worked well with the team. Now that we have secured fourth place in the championship, it’s the ideal time to look to the future and handing George his free practice debut will allow us to evaluate his potential.”

Mercedes Motorsport boss Toto Wolff claims the battle for supremacy in 2018 "has already begun" as the German manufacturer along with their rivals look to make the most of the final two races of this season.

The shift comes after the Brackley outfit secured the quadruple-double of championships in the space of a week with the 2017 Constructors' title in Austin and Lewis Hamilton becoming a four-time Formula 1 champion last time out in Mexico.

With development continuing all the time and now the opportunity to try and get ahead with concepts for next season by testing in a real racing environment, that's why Wolff assures there will be no complacency in the final rounds.

“It might be tempting to think that, with both championships now secure, the pressure is off for the two remaining races of 2017 but that couldn't be further from the truth,” he began in his pre-Brazilian Grand Prix preview.

“Inside the team, we are looking at the next two race weekends as the first two Grands Prix of 2018. We have two races that we are determined to win in order to take that positive momentum into the winter and there will be no backing off just because the championship business is now done.

“In fact, these next two races speak to every principle that makes us what we are," Toto added. "We aspire to excellence in everything we do, from the first lap of the winter shakedown in Silverstone to the final lap of the post-season test in Abu Dhabi and every time we race, we race to win. That is the mind set we take to Sao Paulo.

“Lewis is operating at the peak of his powers right now, and will be determined to add another victory to last year's success; Valtteri [Bottas] made a promising step forward in Mexico and will aim to build from this at Interlagos."

The Austrian is also aware of the sustained and growing threat posed by their rivals and insists efforts will continue to overcome the weaknesses they have uncovered with their car this season.

“As recent rounds have shown, winning Grands Prix is never easy," he said. Red Bull has taken two victories in the past four races and, although we have claimed the other two, Ferrari remain formidable opponents.

"With the championship now settled, the battle for 2018 has already begun. We plan to keep the characteristics of our 'diva' [car] that we like but to get rid of the ones that have caused us difficulties.

“Many of the teams have struggled to understand the new cars and tyres, why they function one day and not the other but if we look at the qualifying statistics and the race statistics, the W08 was the quickest car with the quickest driver.

“We had some oscillations along the way, and we had some races where we struggled,” Wolff acknowledged, “we understand pretty well why that was the case. Now we just have to come up with a way of optimising it for next year. In the process, we will be leaving no stone unturned.”

Williams Technical Director Paddy Lowe puts the disparity between the top three teams and the rest of the grid as a bigger problem for Formula 1 to address than engines.

Over the past week, the topic of engines has been in focus following the unveiling of proposals born from talks between the FIA, F1 bosses and manufacturers to alter the current formula from 2021.

However, Lowe, formerly team boss at Mercedes before switching to the Grove team at the start of the season, believes such changes are pointless if the current gulf in performance and spending between the top teams and the midfield is not closed.

"I think when you look at F1 although there is a lot of discussions about the problems with engines -- it isn't the biggest problem in the sport," he claimed. "It is seen as a problem among the top three teams fighting for the top steps but the biggest problem at the moment is the disparity to the remainder of the teams. It is not a round engine choice.

"If you go look at the race in Austin and the performance split between the top six --- well top five in the end -- and then the rest, it was two different races and that isn't split on engine grounds. I think this is one of the problems in the sport where the [spending] gap is extremely large. We need to find some great wisdom to get through that."

Efforts by the Formula One Group, led by CEO Chase Carey, are being made with a meeting of the rule-making body known as the Strategy Group on Tuesday set to discuss a 2019 budget cap while efforts to equalise the revenue distribution have also been mentioned.

For Lowe, the best solution alongside financial changes would be to maintain stability in the regulations for a sustained period, allowing the midfield teams to close the gap to the front, as they have begun to do barely a year after the current design rules were introduced.

"I think whenever you change regulations you always create opportunity and actually create a divergence whether it is around engines or current limits. What creates convergence is regulation stability," he stated

"The more you leave things alone -- you see that with the engines today as they are a lot closer than they were three years ago. I think the new regulation change has to be done with great care. I find it curious that people place emphasis on new regulations needed to create convergence when it does the opposite."

Red Bull Team Principal Christian Horner has become the first of the leading bosses to throw support behind the proposed changes to the current Formula 1 engines put forward by the FIA and F1 leadership last week for 2021.

The Briton has been known as a critic of the current turbo hybrids since their introduction in 2014, which resulted in his Red Bull team losing their status as the dominant team on the grid to Mercedes who have won both championships each year since.

But he claims his dislike stems from a belief that the current units are too influential in determining performance and are too complex, taking the emphasis away from the driver.

Offering his view on the ideas set out, Horner is excited by what he sees as a shared vision put out, targeting many of the criticisms he and others have had of the current engines.

“I have to say I was very encouraged with what I saw, for once the FIA and FOM were absolutely aligned in what their vision of an engine is for the future," he said. “The really encouraging thing for me, it wasn’t so much the specification, but I accept that we live in a modern world and a V6 turbo engine has been elected.

“They’ve put a key amount of focus on several factors – one being the sound. It’s got to come back into F1, it’s part of the heritage, the makeup," Horner added.

“The other is that for an independent team such as Red Bull is really encouraging is that they want to ensure as a customer you get absolute parity, not just on the product but on electronics as well, so electrical settings will have to be homologated. So the FIA will have to say ‘like for like they’ll have to be the same as on a works car’.

“The other thing is that there’ll be large elements of standardisation of certain components like turbos and perhaps prescriptive design.”

Though the final regulations for 2021 are still far from agreed, based on what he has seen so far, the Red Bull boss believes there will be a shift away from the current engine domination in F1.

“There’s going to be less variance between engine manufacturers,” he predicted. “We have too big a spread at the moment and it puts too much pressure on the chassis side of things.

“I think the FIA has basically looked at the engine and said: one, it costs too much; two, it’s not delivering from an acoustic point of view; and three, it's too much of a performance differentiator from the best to the worst and I think they’re really narrowing that gap. As an entrance, your biggest or bigger influence will be on chassis.”

Two teams have backed the proposals with Haas boss Guenther Steiner offering his backing, but much of the attention will likely be on the negative response from three of the current engine suppliers, Renault, Mercedes and particularly Ferrari.

“Obviously, there are a few engine or works teams that weren’t as happy with that outlay because that’s dumbing down one of the key elements of F1,” Horner said. “But I think the drivers are the biggest importance, teams or chassis secondary, and the engine tertiary.”

Ferrari Chairman Sergio Marchionne admits the Scuderia learnt their lessons "the painful way" in 2017 after seeing hopes of a championship challenge dashed by a series of problems and moments after the summer break.

Lead driver Sebastian Vettel went into the final nine races with a 14-point lead over Lewis Hamilton, but poor qualifying in the rain at Monza, a start crash in the rain of Singapore and engine issues in Malaysia and Japan turned that all around as the Mercedes driver would be 59 points clear after Suzuka, eventually wrapping up the title two races later in Mexico.

Looking back on the causes for those season-defining moments, Marchionne admits though the timing and repercussions of them occurring was tough, it highlighted the areas that needed attention to be better next year.

“I don’t believe in bad luck. Ultimately, it’s a reflection of the way in which we manage these businesses,” the Canadian-Italian claimed. “In the second half of the season, it was a combination of technical issues and driver error or driver misjudgement.

“I think we’ve learned a lot. I think it's a painful way of learning it. I think the second half revealed some structural weaknesses in the manner which we are managing this business, which are going to get rectified and hopefully 2018 will be a much better season.”

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Marchionne also insisted this season has been a great success for Ferrari when considering the progress made over the last 12 months even if there was the disappointment at not sustaining a title challenge.

“If I’d asked anybody this time last year how well we would have done in 2017, I couldn’t have gotten a buyer for the idea that we would be that far advanced in the first half of the season,” he said. “So we have done well given our starting point but we were unable to finish the task.

“It’s a 2018 objective now. We regret not having done better, but the car is there. It is in my view probably the best car on the track today.”

Lewis Hamilton has been reassured the tax situation involving his private jet is "above board" according to his representatives after the four-time world champion was named in the recently leaked Paradise Papers.

The documents uncovered and given to German media over the weekend, revealed the financial dealings of many top politicians and businessmen who have stored money in tax havens.

In the case of Hamilton, it is claimed by the BBC that the 32-year-old was given a £3.3 million VAT refund from HMRC (the UK tax office) after relocating his Bombardier Challenger 605 to the Isle of Man, a small island located between the North West coast of England and Northern Ireland.

In response to the report, his representative insists the dealings have been cleared as legal by tax barristers and asked for comment by ESPN, added: "As a global sportsman who pays tax in a large number of countries, Lewis relies upon a team of professional advisers who manage his affairs.

"Those advisers have assured Lewis that everything is above board and the matter is now in the hands of his lawyers."

His plane is registered under the initials G-LCDH (Lewis Carl Davidson Hamilton) and is declared as used for business matters, predominantly flying him around the world to races and promotional events, with around 30% for private usage, holidays etc.

Max Verstappen is pinning his hopes on a repeat of last year's rain to help Red Bull fight for victory at this weekend's Brazilian Grand Prix at Interlagos.

The Dutchman heads to Sao Paulo on quite the run of momentum with four top four finishes in a row including two wins in Malaysia and last time out in Mexico as the Milton Keynes outfit continue their strong end to 2017.

Now Verstappen heads to the circuit where he produced his greatest performance in Formula 1 to date 12 months ago, passing nine cars in the final 14 laps to reclaim third place, and hopes for the opportunity to show his wet-weather prowess again.

“We are looking for another strong performance at Interlagos following a really fun race in the wet last year,” he said. “I really enjoyed 2016, there were some great battles and overtakes which resulted in a hard-earned podium. I also had a big moment near pit lane entry, which was a close call, I managed to save it and carry on to achieve a good result.

“As you would expect I’m hoping for another damp race weekend as I don’t think we can be as competitive there in the dry, especially with the elevation changes on the straight, it is not our strongest point.”

Team Principal Christian Horner is more optimistic about Red Bull's chances in all conditions and does think a fourth win of the year is possible over the final two rounds.

"The last four races we have had the quickest car on a Sunday," he claimed. "Hopefully Brazil can be a good track for us and why not Abu Dhabi? It would be great to finish the season with at least one more victory."

This weekend signifies the last of the great historic races on the calendar, as F1 has been going to Interlagos in its various forms since 1972 and racing on the shorter yet still highly challenging layout since 1991, after initially leaving 10 years prior and moving to Rio de Janiero.

“Being such a narrow starting grid you often end up really close to the grandstand which is a pretty unique and exciting experience,” Verstappen commented on racing at the iconic venue.

“The Brazilian fans are so passionate and vocal so it is always special to feel the atmosphere from the crowd before the start. I think the history of F1 in Brazil means it has a massive following and this is clear to see across the race weekend.”