Formula One News — October 1995

MCLAREN boss Ron Dennis told pressmen in Japan that stories which suggested that Roger Penske was buying shares in McLaren had been accurately reported - but that the whole story had actually been a joke between Dennis and F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone.

THE Formula 1 drivers may be paid a lot of money - but they do have work for it.

AUTOPOLIS - the company which sponsored Benetton a few years ago and which built a state of the art racing circuit in a remote part of Japan - is to be liquidated shortly and company president Tomonori Tsurumaki is in some difficulties with the Japanese authorities.

THE future of the Argentine Grand Prix in Buenos Aires seems to be in some doubt at the moment with the volatile peso being only part of the problem.

THE Pacific Grand Prix team will shortly announce that it has agreed a deal with John Judd's Engine Developments company for the supply of ex-Yamaha V10 engines for next year.

RUMORS in Japan say that the team is about to sign a contract with Brazilian Pedro Diniz, who has $8 million of sponsorship for any team which wishes to sign him up.

RATHER than visiting the Pacific and Japanese Grands Prix F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone flew to the United States of America to meet the top management of the McDonald's Corporation, the world's largest global restaurant chain, which currently operates 15,000 outlets around the world.

JAPANESE racing star Aguri Suzuki was injured last Saturday when he crashed his Ligier-Mugen Honda backwards heavily into a wall at Suzuka during final qualifying for the Japanese Grand Prix.

THE newly-crowned European Formula 3000 Champion Vincenzo Sospiri is busy trying to find himself an F1 drive in 1996.

THERE is little doubt in F1 circles that the Honda Motor Company is planning to return to Formula 1 racing within the next few years.

FOLLOWING promising testing results with Sauber at Mugello recently, Karl Wendlinger was given another chance to prove that he is fit to race in F1.

SUZUKA, in the Mie Prefecture of Japan between the cities of Nagoya and Osaka, is Honda's own racing circuit, built in 1961-62 to test the company's products.

WE hear from the United States that Chrysler is once again considering an involvement in Grand Prix racing, despite having been left standing at the Grand Prix altar by McLaren in 1993.

MCLAREN'S Danish test driver Jan Magnussen did a remarkable job at Aida last weekend, standing in for Finnish star Mika Hakkinen, who was forced to miss the Pacific Grand Prix as a result of surgery for an acute appendicitis.

DAVID BROWN, one of F1's best known race engineers, is to leave Williams at the end of the year, after 14 years with the team.

THERE were wild rumors doing the rounds in Japan last weekend suggesting that Gerhard Berger and Damon Hill are to swap their 1996 drives.

PEUGEOT SPORT, suppliers of engines to the Jordan Formula 1 team, is making major structural changes for the future in an effort to become more competitive.

MCLAREN boss Ron Dennis has reacted angrily to stories suggesting that shares in the team are being acquired by Indycar team owner Roger Penske.

MICHAEL SCHUMACHER'S brilliant victory at Aida yesterday clinched the German's second World Championship.

THE FIA World Council met last week in Paris, France, to vote through a number of important changes for motor sport.

ARGENTINE rising star Norberto Fontana is to test this week for the Red Bull Sauber Ford team at Mugello in Italy.

THIS weekend in Japan Michael Schumacher should become the 1995 Formula 1 World Champion.

NICOLA LARINI last week broke the outright lap record at Ferrari's testing facility at Fiorano, Italy, using the brand new Ferrari V10 engine.

THE FIA World Motor Sport Council meets in Paris, France, on Thursday and is expected to announce a provisional calendar for the 1996 Formula 1 World Championship that evening.

THE FIA World Council will also be voting on a variety of issues relating to the future sporting and technical regulations for the Formula 1 World Championship.