Formula One News — July 1995

ONE intriguing rumor doing the rounds at Silverstone suggested that the DAMS Formula 3000 team - which has ambitions to enter F1 next year - is in serious negotiation to sign an engine supply deal with Mugen Honda.

WHENEVER Benetton beats Williams in a fight in the pitlane, there are always questions as to how such things are possible.

FOR some weeks there have been strong rumors suggesting that the Williams team will be running Mugen Honda engines in 1996.

RUMORS in Italy are suggesting that the new Ferrari V10, which is already bench-testing in Italy and will run in a car later in the autumn, is going to be revolutionary in terms of current F1 design thinking.

IT'S been a weekend of drama in Melbourne, Australia, where work continues in the city's Albert Park on the site which is destined to host the 1996 Australian Grand Prix.

MCLAREN boss Ron Dennis has chosen American Steve Nichols to lead the long-overdue technical revival at McLaren.

THE Italian Grand Prix will take place at Monza - and it's official.

WITH just a few days to go before the British Grand Prix, it is still unclear as to who will be driving for the Arrows and Pacific teams at Silverstone.

IN comparison to the great old tracks of Europe, Silverstone is a comparative youngster, beginning its career as a race track in 1948.

IT may seem unlikely but there continue to be moves in France to form a Russian Formula 1 team which will be called Partner F1.

WE hear from France that both Elf and Gitanes Blondes are planning to alter their sponsorship strategies in Formula 1.

THE FIA World Council was in a generous mood when it met last week in Paris, France, and let off both Monaco and Canada for incidents during the recent Grands Prix. Monaco received no punishment for the incident in which Taki Inoue's Footwork was destroyed when hit by a course car which was traveling far to fast.

THERE was a minor kerkuffle on Saturday at Magny-Cours when Benetton team management complained to the race stewards that a Goodyear engineer had punctured two of Michael Schumacher's seven sets of tires while taking temperatures with a needle thermometer.

BENETTON boss Flavio Briatore had the Minardi Scuderia Italia F1 team seized last week at Magny-Cours by French bailiffs.

SIMTEK designer and team principal Nick Wirth may have had to close down his Formula 1 team with huge losses, but we hear that the 29-year-old Briton has received a bewildering array of offers of work for 1996.

THE leading F1 team bosses met in the Williams motorhome at Magny-Cours last Saturday afternoon to discuss the issues of the moment and debate a proposal to introduce transfer fees for F1 drivers.

JEAN-PAUL DRIOT of the DAMS Formula 3000 team says that he has not given up hope of entering F1 next year and is promising to have the Reynard-designed DAMS chassis up-and-running by September.

KEEP an eye open for a number of driver changes before the British GP in a fortnight.

THE FIA will decide today whether the Italian Grand Prix at Monza can go ahead on September 10 or whether the event will be canceled.