Formula One News — March 1998

LIFE is never easy for the Minardi team but being Formula 1's least successful team has disadvantages.

TWO former Tyrrell employees have joined forces with Canadian disc jockey David "Kid" Jensen to launch a new team which they hope will eventually grow into a top racing operation.

WE understand that Bernie Ecclestone is within a matter of days away from signing a deal to take Grand Prix racing back into the United States of America - although the man himself is not giving anything away.

THE Honda Motor Company is expected to announced on March 28, at the Twin Ring Motegi CART race in Japan, that it is about to launch a major Grand Prix campaign which will be ready in time for the 1999 season.

BENETTON announced on the eve of the Australian Grand Prix that it is to run with engines called Playlife V10s.

HAVING lost out on a drive with Tyrrell to Brazilian Ricardo Rosset, Holland's Jos Verstappen is trying to resurrect his F1 career and is understood to be in negotiation with Benetton for the role of reserve and test driver.

McLAREN kicked off the new Formula 1 season not only with a stunning 1-2 for Mika Hakkinen and David Coulthard in Melbourne but also with the revelation that it is building a two-seater Formula 1 car to enable VIPs and media to understand more about how Grand Prix drivers work and what it is like to go at racing speeds in a modern F1 machine.

THE two McLaren-Mercedes MP4/13s of Mika Hakkinen and David Coulthard demolished the opposition at the Australian Grand Prix, lapping the track three seconds faster than the opposition throughout the race and giving the team a quite remarkable victory.

THE British Labour Party has revealed that F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone has cashed the £1 million cheque which was returned to him in November last year following a political scandal in Britain.

THE serpentine manoeuvres between Formula 1 racing, the tobacco companies and the European Commission continued in Melbourne when FIA President Max Mosley announced that the governing body could bring in a worldwide ban on tobacco advertising in Formula 1 as early as 2002.

THE Formula 1 team bosses met in Melbourne to discuss the F1 calendar.

FORMULA 1 team bosses are heading to Melbourne worried about the FIA's ambiguous regulations regarding tire wear of the new grooved slick tires.

THE long-running squabbling over the 1998-2008 Concorde Agreement are very close to being settled with several sources suggesting that the document will be signed by all the teams before the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne next weekend.

IT is with great regret that we must announce the death of The Honourable Gerald Lascelles who, as President of the British Racing Drivers' Club, played an important role in building up Silverstone circuit between 1964 and 1991.

TOM WALKINSHAW's Arrows team gave a warning last week that the operation should not be overlooked this year. Pedro Diniz, at the wheel of the new John Barnard designed Arrows A19 was faster in the wet at Silverstone than both Benetton and Jordan.

MOST of the Formula 1 teams finished their winter testing programs last week with shakedown runs before the cars were packed up and sent to London's Heathrow and Milan's Linate airports to be despatched to Australia where practice for the Australian Grand Prix begins on Friday.

MINARDI unveiled a completely new livery in Bologna last week, underlining the increased importance in the team of Gabriele Rumi, who is the major shareholder in Minardi's holding company.

PROST GRAND PRIX last week announced a major new sponsorship deal with the Sodexho Alliance, a French restaurant services and management group which has become Europe's largest catering business, involving 30 different companies, including several restaurant chains and specialist catering firms which cater for events such as the Tour de France cycle race and the Olympic Games.

THE new McLaren factory at Mizens Farm in Woking is to be designed for the team by Britain's best-known architect Sir Norman Foster.

THE Circuit Paul Ricard near Toulon, in the south of France, is up for sale, following the death of the drinks magnate who built the track in 1969.

THE French Grand Prix is expected to return to the Formula 1 calendar later this week following the passage through the French Senate and National Assembly of a new law concerning the televising of sport in France.

FRANK WILLIAMS has admitted that he is not going to waste time signing up his drivers for 1999, which will force Jacques Villeneuve to make up his mind very early in the season if he wants to stay with the team next season.