Formula One News — January 1996

JACKIE STEWART has begun his hunt to find the money he needs to launch Stewart Grand Prix into F1 in 1997.

TREVOR FOSTER, one of the most respected managers in F1, has returned to Jordan Grand Prix.

LOLA CARS has been planning to return to Grand Prix racing ever since its disastrous involvement with Scuderia Italia came to an end in 1993.

THE new Jordan-Peugeot 196, revealed recently in Portugal, is a pretty standard F1 car - except that there is an awful lot of white space on the bodywork.

THERE are increasing suggestions that Frank Williams, Patrick Head, other members of the Williams team and officials from the Bologna-based SAGIS SpA company - which runs Imola and promotes the San Marino Grand Prix - are to be charged by the Italian authorities in connection with the death of Ayrton Senna at the track on May 1, 1994.

BENETTON FORMULA has just announced a new relationship with aerodynamics company Fondmetal Technologies.

WILLIAMS GRAND PRIX ENGINEERING has lost its director of sponsorship and marketing, Richard West. West is one of F1's top marketing men.

IT seems now to be only a matter of time before it is announced that there will be a United States Grand Prix in Las Vegas, Nevada at the end of 1997.

ALTHOUGH Arrows is yet to confirm that it has signed Jos Verstappen and Ricardo Rosset, it seems there is little doubt that these will be the team's drivers and that means that - with six weeks to go before the start of the new F1 season - there are only two drives still up for grabs.

ARROWS GRAND PRIX INTERNATIONAL is expected to announce on February 7 that it has signed Jos Verstappen and Ricardo Rosset for the coming season.

LIGIER technical director Frank Dernie has yet to decide if he intends to stay with Ligier for another season.

THE announcement that Ukyo Katayama was to be retained by Tyrrell put paid to Mark Blundell's hopes for a Grand Prix drive in 1996, and the Englishman has decided not to wait around to see if there is any chance of staying at McLaren for another season.

MICHAEL SCHUMACHER may be facing a year of struggling with Ferrari on the race tracks, but he is not suffering when it comes to money.

MICHAEL SCHUMACHER walked away unscathed from a sizable crash last Tuesday morning at the Ferrari test track in Fiorano, Italy.

WILLIAMS continues to dominate winter testing with Damon Hill, Jacques Villeneuve and Jean-Christophe Boullion all outpacing the opposition with ease at Estoril last week.

ALTHOUGH the Jordan-Peugeot 196 briefly ran for the first time in a shakedown test at Silverstone eight days ago, it was the Swiss Sauber team which won the race to be the first F1 team to officially unveil its 1996 challenger.

THE new Jordan-Peugeot 196, unveiled last week at Estoril, continues Gary Anderson's tradition of producing good-looking cars.

PEDRO LAMY has signed to stay with Minardi this year.

THE FIA is planning to introduce new regulations covering the issuing of the Formula 1 Superlicense.

AS predicted last week, Jean-Christophe Boullion has been named Williams test driver for the second consecutive year.

SHADOW - an American racing team which was involved in Formula 1 racing throughout the 1970s - is planning to return to racing - aiming to win the Le Mans 24 Hours.

WITH seven weeks to go before the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne, protests against the race continue, despite legislation which bans protesters from the site of the Albert Park race.

THERE are strong rumors in F1 circles that Renault is considering withdrawing from Grand Prix racing at the end of 1997.

FERRARI and McLaren - two teams with high expectations for the coming F1 season - were both testing last week.

UKYO KATAYAMA has re-signed for Tyrrell for what will be his fourth season with the team.