F1 latest news - live: Max Verstappen Red Bull exit rumours denied as Lewis Hamilton returns to social media

LIVE – Updated at 14:26

Red Bull boss Helmut Marko has said he is confident world champion Max Verstappen will not leave his team for Mercedes in the event that Sir Lewis Hamilton decides not to race in the upcoming 2022 season.

Hamilton has hardly been seen since the controversial conclusion of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on 12 December, in which he was pipped to an eighth-consecutive championship when Verstappen overtook him on the final lap, and is thought to be “disillusioned” and weighing up his future in motor sport.

However, Sir Lewis did appear in a promo video for Mercedes alongside his new teammate George Russell that appeared on the Chinese social network Beibo to celebrate the Lunar New Year, suggesting he could stay on whatever the FIA Commission’s inquiry concludes regarding last year’s final race.

The commission is set to hold its first meeting on 14 February as team’s begin to unveil their new cars ahead of pre-season testing in Barcelona on 23-25 February.

Here’s the very latest news as the new season gears up for its opening weekend in Bahrain on 20 March.

The coming season will bring a massive overhaul of the rules for cars and their aerodynamics, with some tipping the changes to be the most drastic in Formula 1 history, adding to the excitement of the unveiling of this season’s new models.

So far, the following six teams have confirmed their launch dates, according to Sky Sports:

10 February - Aston Martin

11 February - McLaren

14 February - AlphaTauri

17 February - Ferrari

18 February - Mercedes

21 February - Alpine

While the launch cars we will be shown are rarely identical to the versions that finally hit the track, they often provide a crucial insight into the engineering tweaks and design