Formula One News — February 1997

MIKA HAKKINEN lapped the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona last week in a time of 1m17.70s, in his McLaren-Mercedes MP4-12 - carving a remarkable 0.68s off the best lap achieved at the track this winter by Olivier Panis in his Ligier-Mugen Honda JS45 10 days previously.

THE battle over the 1997-2001 Concorde Agreement remains in the background of Grand Prix racing at the moment.

FORMER McLaren designer and March founder Robin Herd quit motor racing in 1995 and decided to try his hand in the world of English football, as chairman of the Oxford United soccer club.

EDDIE IRVINE set a new lap record at Mugello last Thursday at the wheel of a Ferrari F310B, fitted the 046/2 engine.

THE legal battle over what caused Ayrton Senna's death at Imola in May 1994 began last week in a converted dance hall in the town not far from the racing circuit.

NELSON PIQUET's Autodromo Nelson Piquet in Brasilia is aiming to host the Brazilian Grand Prix in 1999.

A week of frantic record-breaking around the European racing circuits has left the Formula 1 circus with very little idea about which cars are really the most competitive - and we are unlikely to discover the actual pecking order until qualifying for the Australian Grand Prix begins in Melbourne on March 8.

TINO BELLI has been appointed head of research & development with Tom Walkinshaw's Arrows Grand Prix operation.

THE Mastercard Lola Formula 1 team launched its Grand Prix challenge last Thursday at London's Hilton Hotel, unveiling the Lola-Ford T97/30 which will be raced this year by Brazilian Ricardo Rosset and Italian Vincenzo Sospiri.

JACQUES VILLENEUVE finished a five day test at Estoril last week setting a best lap of 1m18.37s, a second and a half faster than Ferrari and McLaren had managed the previous week and two full seconds faster than Damon Hill's pole position lap of 1m20.330s at the Portuguese GP in September.

PROST GRAND PRIX called off a planned test in Estoril because of the Spanish truck drivers' strike and then canceled a replacement test at Silverstone because bad weather was forecast (a wise decision).

BRITISH AMERICAN TOBACCO, the world's second largest tobacco company, which had been talking to Tom Walkinshaw's Arrows F1 team about a major sponsorship deal is now tipped to be the favorite to replace the Williams team's title sponsor Rothmans when the deal finishes at the end of this year.

McLAREN INTERNATIONAL has announced a five-year "technology partnership" with British Aerospace (BAe) which will include, what the team describes as "a broad range of technology programs".

IT may be some time in coming but the international automobile federation is working quietly towards European legislation to avoid the legal problems currently facing the sport as a result of the death of Ayrton Senna at Imola in 1994.

THE West McLaren Mercedes team blew a vast sum of money last week in London to reveal the color scheme of the McLaren-Mercedes MP4/12.

JACQUES VILLENEUVE and Heinz-Harald Frentzen gave notice that the Williams-Renault FW19 is going to be the car to beat this year by quickly getting down to the same sort of times as Ferrari and McLaren had managed at Estoril last week.

WILLIAMS chief designer Adrian Newey remains on fully-paid leave from the team - as he has been since he decided not to turn up for work at Grove on Friday, November 8 last year.

EQUIPE LIGIER GAULOISES BLONDES ceased to exist last Thursday in Geneva, Switzerland, when Alain Prost signed a deal to buy the French team from Flavio Briatore, who bought the team early in 1994 because he was trying to get the team's Renault engine supply for Benetton.

RORY BYRNE has been appointed chief designer at Ferrari and will head the design team of the 1998 Ferrari F1 car.

STEWART GRAND PRIX driver Jan Magnussen had to have six stitches in his lower leg on Saturday after a sizable testing accident in Estoril's Turn 2.

THE first victim of Alain Prost's takeover of Ligier is likely to be the team's 59-year-old sporting director Italian Cesare Fiorio.

THE Formula 1 teams have not been having an easy time in recent days because of a violent strike in Spain which has crippled cross-border truck traffic for the last 10 days.

THE revamped Minardi team revealed its M197 at Monza on Tuesday and then headed straight to Mugello to begin testing the new car, which will be powered by Brian Hart's V8 engines and will run on Bridgestone tires.

KEITH WIGGIN's Pacific Racing - which struggled in F1 in 1994 and 1995 but enjoyed enormous success in the junior formulae with drivers such as Bertrand Gachot, JJ Lehto, Eddie Irvine, Christian Fittipaldi and David Coulthard - has made no secret of the fact that it would like to get back into Grand Prix racing in the future.