Formula One News — February 1998

TOM WALKINSHAW finally unveiled his plans for 1998 at a launch of the Arrows A19 at the TWR headquarters in Leafield, Oxfordshire.

THE resignation of Ken and Bob Tyrrell from the Tyrrell Racing Organization leaves Dr. Harvey Postlethwaite in charge of the entire team - of which he was a 10% shareholder.

KEN and Bob Tyrrell have resigned from the Tyrrell Racing Organization with immediate effect, following disputes with British American Racing over how the team should be run.

MCLAREN continues to dominate testing in Barcelona with Mika Hakkinen last week setting the fastest lap time of the winter with a best lap of 1m21.45s in the course of last week's testing at the Spanish circuit.

THE Belgian Grand Prix has been saved thanks to some neat political side-stepping by the government of Walloonia, the region of Belgium in which the Spa-Francorchamps racing circuit is situated.

THE announcement that Arrows is to use its own engines brings to a close the disastrous history of Yamaha in Formula 1.

THE Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company seems intent on pulling out of Grand Prix racing, even if it makes little commercial sense to do so.

THE line-up of drivers for the 1998 Formula 1 World Championship was completed last week with the announcement that Ricardo Rosset from Brazil has been signed to partner Toranosuke Takagi at Tyrrell.

NO sooner has the wheeling and dealing for Formula 1 drives in 1998 stopped than negotiations have begun for 1999 with CART star Alex Zanardi admitting that he has already been contacted by Williams, Ferrari, Jordan and the new British American Racing.

MOVIE STAR Sylvester Stallone, who has bought the rights to make a film about Formula 1 racing is understood to have begun work on a script in which the central character will be based on Ayrton Senna.

FRENCHMAN Emmanuel Collard - who has never raced in a Grand Prix but has completed many thousands of miles of testing with a string of different F1 teams - has found a new job for 1998.

THE McLaren team dominated last week's Barcelona Formula 1 testing with the brand new McLaren-Mercedes MP4/13 with Mika Hakkinen quickest and David Coulthard setting the third fastest time in the course of the three-day test. Hakkinen's best lap was a 1m21.88s which was considerably faster than the 1m23.40s lap achieved by Heinz-Harald Frentzen the previous week in the new Williams FW20.

AS expected Jordan has concluded a sponsorship agreement with the Spanish fuel company Repsol, which is supporting the team's test and reserve driver Pedro de la Rosa.

FRENCH motor racing is waiting to see whether there will be a Grand Prix in France this year as the French government debates a new law which will clear away the problems over television coverage which have plagued the race for several years.

WORRIES over Esteban Tuero's superlicence faded last week when the FIA agreed that the 19-year-old Argentine will be granted the licence necessary if he completes 1,250 miles of testing before the start of the new season in Melbourne on March 8.

IN a recent interview Formula 1 boss Bernie Ecclestone has said that he expects there to be a decision within the next three months as to whether there will be a United States Grand Prix in 1999.

WILLIAMS took its new FW20 chassis to Barcelona last week and was quickly on the pace with the new car, setting the fastest times throughout the six days of testing at the Circuit de Catalunya.

AFTER weeks of problems with the new F300, Ferrari has taken the radical step of botching together a new rear end for the car, using the 1997 suspension to stop heat build up from the exhausts affecting the electronic systems.

MCLAREN gave the motor racing press a sneak preview of the new McLaren-Mercedes MP4/13 at Woking last week, but played down suggestions that the team will be a major contender for the World Championship this year.

THE final decision over the French Grand Prix is expected this week as legislation which will allow the race to go ahead passes through the French National Assembly.

BERNIE ECCLESTONE told The South China Morning Post newspaper last week that China will have its own Grand Prix in 1999 at the Zhuhai International racing circuit.

BRIDGESTONE has rejected claims that Benetton switched from Goodyear to the Japanese tire-manufacturer taking with it all the very latest data on Goodyear's 1998 rubber.

OBSERVERS at the test in Barcelona reported that the relative performance of the Williams and Benetton teams seems to suggest that perhaps the two teams are being supplied with rather different versions of the Mecachrome V10 engine.

WE hear that Minardi is having difficulty convincing the FIA that Esteban Tuero should be granted a Formula 1 Superlicence, which he must have if he is to race this year.

WHILE some people in Formula 1 found that Nigel Mansell had the ability to send people into comas when he started talking, Michael Schumacher seems to have the opposite effect.