Formula One News — December 1996

THE International Automobile Federation has finally managed to produce a Formula 1 calendar for next season.

THE FIA World Council meeting in Monaco on December 6 voted in favor of making Grand Prix racing more interesting to watch with specific technical measures designed to improve the chances of a driver being able to overtake his rivals.

TOM WALKINSHAW has entered into legal action in London to stop Ross Brawn joining Ferrari.

THERE were no great surprises last week in Tokyo when Shinji Nakano was named as Ligier's second driver for the 1997 season.

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 performance of the McLaren team - or rather the lack of it - in the last 12 months has been mystifying when one compares the results to the team's successes in the late 1980s when McLaren won 13 World Championships in eight seasons. In those days winning seemed to be easy. Between 1988 and 1992 McLaren and Honda - with drivers Ayrton Senna, Alain Prost and Gerhard Berger won 41 victories in the 74 races. Team boss Ron Dennis said it was all down to good planning and even went as far as to say that everything at McLaren was planned five years ahead. At the time no-one had any reason to disbelieve him.

JACKIE STEWART has signed a deal with the Malaysian government to promote the country's tourism industry. The deal - which we predicted in September (Week 39) - will see "Visit Malaysia" written on the front and rear wings of the Stewart-Fords.

FORMULA 3000 CHAMPION Jorg Muller has signed a deal to become test driver for Tom Walkinshaw's TWR Arrows F1 team.

GIANCARLO MINARDI has finally announced the new structure of the Grand Prix team which bears his name, revealing that he now controls only 14.5% of the shares.

JOS VERSTAPPEN's precipitous signing with Tyrrell suggests that the Dutchman had been made aware of the fact that there was no drive available for him elsewhere.

LATE last Thursday night Jos Verstappen signed to drive for Tyrrell in 1997.

THE Sauber and Ferrari teams have, as expected, finally managed to sort out the details of their engine supply deal for 1997 and 1998 and the Swiss team will thus run 1996-spec Ferrari V10 engines - although these will probably be rebadged "Sauber Petronas".

THE San Marino and Italian Grands Prix could be dropped from the 1997 Formula 1 calendar if Italian magistrates push ahead with legal action resulting from the death of Ayrton Senna in 1994.

FORMER Benetton designer Ross Brawn starts as technical director of the Ferrari competition department.

THE Williams team's chief designer Adrian Newey is "on leave" and we understand that legal action has begun between the team and Newey.

FRANK WILLIAMS has signed Castrol to replace his fuel sponsor Elf.

THE Toyota Motor Corporation is planning to enter Grand Prix racing in the near future.

ALAIN PROST and some of his backers met with Adrian Reynard and Reynard Racing Cars managing-director Rick Gorne at the Sheraton Hotel in Paris's Charles de Gaulle airport last Tuesday morning.