Barcelona - Toro Rosso will bec

Woking, Britain - Martin Whitmarsh officially takes over the reins of the McLaren-Mercedes Formula One team Sunday from Ron Dennis, who is stepping down from the post of team principal after nearly 30 years at the helm.

"Neither Ron nor myself expect there to be radical change within the group as a result of our changing roles," Whitmarsh said in an interview with Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

Charlotte, North Carolina  - Formula One is known throughout the world for its glitz and glamour, where money seems to flow freely and teams spend millions to stay competitive.

In contrast, Tuesday's launch in Charlotte, North Carolina, of a new Formula One team that is to compete for the first time in 2010, was refreshingly simple.

Team leader Ken Anderson and Peter Windsor, who is responsible for the sporting side of the USF1 team, held a 30-minute press conference at their Charlotte headquarters, broadcast by the American TV station SpeedTV, where they presented their goals and plans for the future of their new team.

Santiago  - The Rally Dakar is set to be held in South America again in 2010, the Chilean government said Tuesday.

The Chilean government's Chief of Staff Francisco Vidal said Rally Dakar organizers had confirmed the plan, which would give Chile a larger number of stages than it had in the 2009 edition.

This year was the first time that the classic extreme motorsport competition took place completely outside Africa. Fourteen stages were held in January in Argentina and Chile, and proved to be very popular with local spectators.

Milan, Italy  - Former Ferrari engineer Nigel Stepney is still facing action over the spying scandal that rocked Formula One two years ago, an Italian newspaper reported Tuesday.

Gazzetta dello Sport said that prosecutor Guiseppe Tibis said he is hoping to wrap up by March a probe against Stepney.

Earlier, Italian authorities ended legal action against McLaren's former chief designer Mike Coughlan and three of the British Formula One team's current technicians, after ordering them to pay fines related to a spying case involving rival team Ferrari.

India's status as the hottest emerging market for Formula One has been reinforced by reports that Renault F1 has approached an Indian multinational for a sponsorship deal starting from next year.

A Renault India official has been quoted as saying that the French team was in talks with an Indian multinational company following the decision by its main sponsor ING to withdraw from Formula One from 2010.

Meanwhile, an official of Renault F1 confirmed that the team was exploring a number of opportunities in new and developing markets including Asia and the Far East. "But at this stage discussions are of a confidential nature," he remarked.