Formula One News — February 1998

JUDITH GRIGGS, the chief executive of the Australian Grand Prix Corporation, is to leave the job after this year's event.

CHARLIE MOODY is tipped to become the team manager of British American Racing.

MCLAREN has announced another major new sponsorship deal, in addition to the deals already made public involving Schweppes and Finlandia Vodka.

THE signing of Shinji Nakano by Minardi means that there is now only one remaining Formula 1 drive for the 1998 season, and competition for the second Tyrrell seat is surprisingly intense given the likely level of competitiveness of the Ockham team, which closes down at the end of the year.

GUSTAV BRUNNER is to return to Minardi after nearly five years with Ferrari in Maranello.

MINARDI has announced that it has signed a deal with Japanese driver Shinji Nakano for the 1998 season.

THE Federation Internationale de l'Automobile is to fight the European Union over its suggestion in December that the motor racing industry is in violation of a number of European Union competition rules. In a letter to the EU Competition Commissioner Karel Van Miert, which was leaked to press, FIA President Max Mosley says that the European Commission "makes a number of claims which the FIA believes are erroneous or based on a very limited understanding of structures of national and international motor sport" and picked holes in several of the EU claims.

FRANK WILLIAMS has named Brazilian rising star Max Wilson as his team's second test driver.

THE new Ferrari F300 continues to be difficult with the team now having wasted almost a month without a decent test of the car. The F300 was first tested before Christmas at Fiorano but serious work did not begin until after the team's launch on January 6.