Formula One News — October 1997

THE tobacco battles in Europe may lead Formula 1 to new pastures in the years ahead in addition to races in Asia and the United States.

THE British American Tobacco Reynard Formula 1 team has secured an engine deal for testing in 1998 and racing in 1999 and beyond.

TOM WALKINSHAW says he will not be making an announcement about engines until the middle of November but there is no doubt that his deal is now in place and we hear that Yamaha has agreed to increase its financial and technical commitment to Formula 1.

THE Ford Motor Company has finally confirmed that it is planning to have an all-new V10 engine for Stewart Grand Prix in 1998.

TED BALL, who financed the Brabham and Lotus Formula 1 teams in the early 1990s has been jailed for three years at the Old Bailey in London, having admitted that he defrauded millions of dollars from banks simply in order to fund his passion for Grand Prix racing.

FIA President Max Mosley used the Grand Prix of Europe at Jerez, in Spain, to launch a campaign against a threatened European Union tobacco advertising and sponsorship ban.

WE understand that one of the fuel companies involved in Formula 1 ran into trouble at the recent Luxembourg Grand Prix when its representatives were caught siphoning fuel from an oil can belonging to a rival team.

THERE will be no winter testing in Estoril this year as the Portuguese track is still a long way from being completed.

FIA President Max Mosley hinted at Jerez that the recent controversies over advanced electronic systems on Formula 1 cars may be restricted in the course of the winter months. The FIA is worried that electronic brakes balance systems, differentials, and three-dimensional engine mapping have led to developments which mean that the cars are no longer being driven by the drivers "alone and unaided" as the F1 regulations state they should be.

THERE was a meeting in London on the Friday before the Grand Prix of Europe and another on the Thursday at the event to try to sort out the problems between the teams and the FIA about a new Concorde Agreement for 1998-2008.

IN Jerez on Sunday, Jacques Villeneuve became the first North American driver to win the Formula 1 World Championship for 19 years, the last being Mario Andretti who took the title in September 1978.

THE Williams team has withdrawn Jacques Villeneuve's appeal against his exclusion from the Japanese Grand Prix.

THERE has been a change in the management structure at McLaren with Ron Dennis becoming chairman of the TAG/McLaren Holdings Ltd. and giving up his role as managing-director of McLaren International. He is to be replaced by the team's operations director Martin Whitmarsh.

MCLAREN's dreams of building the first car able to travel faster than the speed of sound evaporated last week when Richard Noble's Thrust SSC jet-car set the first supersonic world land speed record in Nevada's Black Rock Desert. Thrust completed the necessary runs to create a new record of 763.04mph. Driver Andy Green beat his own 714mph land speed record, which he set three weeks ago in the same car.

AS we suggested recently Pacific Racing has closed down.

OLIVER GAVIN, the 1995 British Formula 3 Champion, who has been struggling to find work in recent years and has spent this season driving the Formula 1 Safety Car, was delighted to receive a call last week from Benetton to do three days of testing at Silverstone for the Enstone team.

ALL the major F1 drives for 1998 are now decided and there are only four jobs still available: one at Prost, one at Tyrrell and two at Minardi.

FIA PRESIDENT MAX MOSLEY is to meet the French Sports Minister Marie-George Buffet on November 4 to try to hammer out a deal which will put the French Grand Prix back on the Formula 1 calendar.

LAST week saw the last big Formula 1 tests before the month-long testing ban which begins on the Monday after the European Grand Prix and continues until December 1.

GERHARD BERGER, one of the most colorful characters in Grand Prix racing over the last 13 years, is retiring from Formula 1 racing, but the Austrian has left the door open just in case an opportunity of a new drive presents itself. Berger announced the news in a press conference in Vienna, telling reporters that he needed a break from the sport.

AFTER a lengthy fight the TAG McLaren empire received planning permission in March to build a $100m factory on a 125-acre site at Mizens Farm, near Woking.

GIANCARLO MINARDI has secured a supply of customer Ford V10 engines for next season.

JACQUES VILLENEUVE may have blown his chances of winning the Formula 1 World Championship.

WHILE the BAT Reynard team is planning a multi-faceted assault on motor racing, some of the current Grand Prix teams are already looking seriously at expanding into Formula 3000, running in-house teams in the same livery as the F1 parent operation.

THE most surprising aspect of the Japanese Grand Prix weekend was Yamaha's failure to announce that it will be continuing in Grand Prix racing next year with Tom Walkinshaw's Arrows team.