Ferrari has launched its new car - the F2012 - via an online presentation from its base in Maranello.

The 2012 car is visually different from last year's car and the new McLaren MP4-27 in that it features an aggressive Caterham-style stepped nose. The car also has heavily sculpted sidepods and a double air-intake like the 2011 McLaren. Ferrari will hope that the ban on off-throttle blown diffusers will mean that the car is more competitive than in 2011, when the team only won one grand prix. Felipe Massa said that he hoped the risks taken in the car's design would help the team be successful.

"It really looks very aggressive," Massa said. "This is something that was part of my dreams ... I really trust the team and the new car."

The team was forced to cancel the official launch ceremony for the car at Maranello due to the weather, with heavy snow across much of Europe. As a result it is also unable to shake the car down at its Fiorano test track.

McLaren has launched its 2012 car - the MP4-27 - at the McLaren Technology Centre.

The car is an evolution of the MP4-26 which took six victories in 2011, with the team hoping to close the gap to Red Bull this year. The car features a different front end solution to the Caterham that was launched last week, with a gradual transition between the lower nose and chassis. The sculpted sidepods that were prominent on the MP4-26 have also been redesigned, while the car features a neater rear end than the 2011 car.

Lewis Hamilton admitted that the rear end was designed to try and compensate from the loss of downforce due to the banning the exhaust-blown diffuser.

"It's much trickier to drive as it is right now," Hamilton said. "But as we get closer to the season I'm sure we'll find where that downforce can come from."

The new car will be driven for the first time by Oliver Turvey during a straigh-line test ahead of its track debut on Tuesday at the first pre-season test in Jerez, with Jenson Button at the wheel for the first two days before handing over to Lewis Hamilton.

Pirelli has launched its new tyre compounds for 2012, with 'squarer' and softer options being supplied to the teams.

The tyre manufacturer enjoyed a successful return to the sport in 2011, supplying rapidly degrading tyres that forced multiple pit stops and closer racing while also facilitating overtaking. Changes for 2012 see new compounds for all slicks except the supersoft, with the others all softer and delivering a longer performance peak. The 'squarer' profile provides a more stable contact patch to compensate for the new aerodynamic regulations.

"After the positive experience of last year, the teams asked us to continue providing tyres with the characteristics that contributed to spectacular races in 2011," Pirelli president Marco Tronchetti Provera said. "And this is what we have done, optimising the compounds and profiles in order to guarantee even better and more stable performance, combined with the deliberate degradation that characterised the P Zero range from 2011.

"We're expecting unpredictable races, with a wide range of strategies and a number of pit stops: all factors that both competitors and spectators greatly enjoyed last year. The development work on the new compounds took place throughout the 2011 season, thanks to the impressive learning curve and reaction times from our engineers, who are ready to continue those evolutions during the season ahead."

The tyres also have clearer markings, with the four slicks remaining the same colours while the intermediate is now green and the full wet is blue. The wet tyres have also taken on the Cinturato name that was first used by Pirelli in F1 in the 1950s.

Robert Kubica has broken his right leg in a fall in Italy, the same leg he had broken in his rally accident last February.

Reports claim that Kubica slipped on an icy road close to his home in Pietrasanta and was taken to hospital in nearby Viareggio where x-rays showed that he had reopened the fracture in his right tibia sustained in last year's crash.

Kubica was out of contract after his Renault deal ran out at the end of December. He had informed the team in November that he would not be fit for the start of the 2012 season and had yet to test his fitness in a car. At the time he said: "On a personal level, my recovery is still very encouraging and my doctors keep being impressed. I just need more time, as I want to be 100% ready before I commit to anything driving related."

Stefano Domenicali had today distanced himself from rumours that Ferrari had approached Kubica, saying that the team would wait and see how his recovery went.