Formula One News — April 1996

THE Sauber team looks like keeping its Ford V10 engines in 1997, despite the fact that Stewart Grand Prix continues to suggest that it has an exclusive deal to run the Zetec-R units.

MCLAREN boss Ron Dennis, Mercedes Motorsport boss Norbert Haug and Ilmor engine designer Mario Illien left the Nurburgring on Friday afternoon to fly down to Stuttgart for a meeting with Mercedes-Benz top management to discuss the current state of the McLaren-Mercedes relationship.

THE FORMULA 1 COMMISSION meeting at the Nurburgring was stormy affair, not only because of the tire issue but also because the F1 teams and the governing body failed to agree on several points under discussion.

THE FIA F1 COMMISSION met on Saturday at the Nurburgring to discuss the matters of the moment in Grand Prix racing and top of the list was the issue of tire supply.

GOODYEAR is already pulling back its F1 involvement in preparation for the arrival in F1 of Bridgestone in 1997 - and the possibility that Michelin will soon follow suit and announce its intention to be in Grand Prix racing.

THE FIA announced details of its investigation into the fire which engulfed Pedro Diniz's Ligier during the Argentine Grand Prix in Buenos Aires recently.

ALTHOUGH Japanese tiremaker Bridgestone has announced that it is planning to enter Grand Prix racing in 1998, we believe that there is a plan for the company to start racing a year earlier than announced - in what appears to be an attempt to catch Goodyear and Michelin unprepared.

TOM WALKINSHAW last weekend unveiled the revamped Arrows team under the "TWR F1" banner, although at the moment the cars are still called Footworks and the team's official entrant is still Arrows.

STEWART GRAND PRIX has denied that it is to use the design of abortive Ikuzawa F1 team as the basis of its 1997 chassis, but admits that it has recently hired the aerodynamicist from the Ikuzawa F1 project - who did several hundred hours of windtunnel work on the Ikuzawa design.

THE worldwide demand for Formula 1 races, particularly in the Far East, could lead to the teams accepting a bigger calendar if the race meetings are reduced to just two-day events.

IMOLA, 20 miles to the south-east of Bologna, in northern Italy, is the home of the San Marino Grand Prix.

RUMORS in Europe suggest that a group of Americans are trying to float the idea of a Formula 1 Grand Prix in San Francisco.

LAST week in Vienna, Michael Schumacher launched another childish attack on Damon Hill.

THE SUNDAY TIMES in London last week published a list of the 500 richest people in Great Britain and a few well-known names in motor racing figured strongly on the list, which was compiled using company records available to value assets.

TWO representatives of Bridgestone Motorsport spent last week touring Britain, visiting a variety of different Grand Prix teams to discuss Formula 1 tire supply in 1998.

HENNY VOLLENBERG, boss of March F1 between January 1992 and April 1993, has been arrested by the Dutch police.

FORD's Director of European Motorsport Peter Gillitzer has been dumped in a reshuffle which puts Martin Whitaker in charge of the company's motorsport programs, notably in F1, World Rallying, British Touring Cars and Formula Ford.

WE may be only three races into the 1996 season but already there is gossip about who will be driving where in 1997.

AFTER six consecutive intercontinental races (Pacific, Japan, Australia, Australia, Brazil and Argentina) the F1 circus will gather in Europe once again - with the familiar traveling circus of motorhomes and trucks.

WILLIAMS continues to dominate F1 this year with Damon Hill and Jacques Villeneuve setting the fastest times during last week's four-day test at Jerez in Spain.

THE Williams Grand Prix Engineering windtunnel - one of only three 50% rolling road windtunnels in the world - is on the move next weekend in a vast operation to relocate it from Didcot to the team's new base at Grove.

MINARDI looks like being the only F1 team which will not be testing between the South American races and the first European events.

WE understand that Oscar-winning film director Sidney Pollack is starting work on a film about the life of Enzo Ferrari.

MCLAREN, Tyrrell, Arrows and Jordan will all be in action this week at Silverstone - although there is a slight risk that the test could be delayed as work on the new Stowe Corner is not expected to be finished until the early part of the week and the weather in England is currently not very good.

WITH the Italian press baying for blood, and rumors flying around of personnel changes, Ferrari began work trying to fix the problems of the F310 last week at Monza.