Formula One News — December 1996

DAMON HILL was expected to win the 1996 World Championship - and he did. From the start of the season it was very clear that the Williams-Renault FW18 was the quickest car in Formula 1 and as Benetton - the only other team using Renault V10 engines - seemed to have gone off the technical rails after the departure of Michael Schumacher, it was left to Williams to dominate, winning 12 of the 16 races, finishing 1-2 in the Drivers' Championship and completely dominating the Constructors' title.

GIANCARLO FISICHELLA spent two days last week testing for the Jordan-Peugeot team at Jerez de la Frontera.

THERE have been legal actions against American tobacco companies since the first links were established between smoking and cancer.

THE 1992 Formula 1 World Champion Nigel Mansell has decided that he is not going to make another Formula 1 comeback - and that is bad news for Eddie Jordan.

THE Benetton Formula 1 team may not have won a Grand Prix in 1996 but the Enstone-based team has emerged as the winner of the race to build the first 1997 chassis.

THE last of the Team Lotus companies is to be wound-up by the High Court in London on January 15, when Team Lotus Holdings Ltd. - which owns all the assets of the team - will be declared insolvent.

DANKA BUSINESS SYSTEMS has agreed to become the title sponsor of Tom Walkinshaw's Arrows team for at least the next two years.

FRANK WILLIAMS and five others have been charged with the manslaughter of Ayrton Senna at Imola in May 1994. Court proceedings are due to begin before a local magistrate in Imola on February 20, although Italian law does not insist on the five being present at that hearing.

THE Mastercard Lola F1 team has signed Ricardo Rosset and Vincenzo Sospiri for the coming season.

UKYO KATAYAMA is to drive for Minardi in 1997.

THE Mastercard Lola Formula 1 team is rumored to be planning to nominate Ricardo Rosset and Vincenzo Sospiri for the 1997 FIA Formula 1 World Championship.

NIGEL MANSELL returned to F1 in Barcelona last week, completing a day and a half of testing with Jordan.

THE Ford Motor Company has just appointed a new Director of Special Vehicle Operations and he made his first European appearance at the launch of Stewart Grand Prix.

SIX Grand Prix teams were in action last week at the Circuit de Catalunya, near Barcelona, conducting tire testing and working on parts which will appear on the 1997 cars.

THE wave of anti-tobacco legislation around the world continues to cause problems for Formula 1 racing and now Canada looks like joining the crusade.

BRITAIN's Department of Trade and Industry is rumored to be about to bring legal action against five of the directors of Team Lotus Ltd.

THREE different sources are telling us that Rothmans has decided not to continue its sponsorship of the Williams team when the contract comes up for renewal later this year.

AT Bologna last weekend Benetton's managing-director Flavio Briatore let it be known that if members of the Williams team are convicted of the manslaughter of Ayrton Senna he will not consider taking the team to race in Italy.

THE new Stewart Grand Prix became the first F1 team to launch its 1997 car at a presentation in London last week.

THE Sauber Formula 1 team is hard at work in Hinwil, Switzerland, in an effort to produce the Sauber-Petronas C16 chassis by the middle of February.

ANDRE DE CORTANZE is officially "on holiday" at the moment, which is a strange time for a technical director to be taking a break and is usually a sign that all is not well inside a team.

THE FIA Formula 1 World Championship entry list revealed that Tom Walkinshaw's Arrows team did not nominate a title sponsor.

THE FIA entry list also revealed that Ferrari wants to be known in the future as "Scuderia Ferrari-Marlboro".

NIGEL MANSELL's fourth Formula 1 comeback continues apace with the unsurprising news that the 43-year-old Englishman will test for Jordan-Peugeot at this week's Barcelona testing.

THE brain drain at Renault Sport - which has been predicted for some time - has begun with the departure from Viry-Chatillon of one of Renault Sport technical director Bernard Dudot's brightest young engineers - 32-year-old Vincent Gaillardot - who is to join Tom Walkinshaw Racing.