Formula One News — June 1998

FURTHER investigation into the contractive suspension - the system which we believe McLaren is using to gain a massive advantage over the opposition this season - reveals that a similar system has been patented and trademarked by a French company called SA Mauro Bianchi, based in Cogolin in Provence.

WE understand that Piers Portman, who runs the Portman Racing team in the British Formula 3 Championship is to run an Arrows Grand Prix junior team for the next five years, in a deal which is worth $7m to Tom Walkinshaw's operation.

THE Honda Motor Company continues to put out confusing smokescreens about its Formula 1 plans, with contradictory rumors circulating in the Magny-Cours paddock last weekend.

BOBBY RAHAL stops driving at the end of this season and is looking for a top name from Grand Prix racing to replace him in CART racing.

WITH Goodyear continuing to pursue its incomprehensible plans to withdraw from Formula 1 at the end of the year, Michelin's sporting boss Pierre Dupasquier is pushing hard to convince the French tiremaker to leap into Grand Prix racing with Williams and Ferrari.

AS predicted, Tyrrell's deputy technical director Mike Gascoyne has left the team and is having a couple of weeks of vacation before he starts work with Jordan - possibly at the forthcoming British GP.

THE Ford Motor Company's situation in Formula 1 remains uncomfortable although Detroit insiders insist that the company was not taken by surprise when Volkswagen's subsidiary Audi bought Cosworth, which designs and manufactures F1 engines for Ford.

THERE has been a management shake-up at Peugeot Sport with managing-director Pierre-Michel Fauconnier being "promoted" to a new position in South America and his job at Velizy being taken by public relations supremo Corrado Provera.

THE Benetton team is expected to announce shortly that it will be using Mecachrome V10 engines again in 1999 although it is expected that these will continue to be badged as Playlife V10s and not called Supertec Sport V10s.

BRITISH AMERICAN RACING has announced its plans to use Supertec Sport V10 engines in 1999 and 2000 - but the news comes as a big disappointment as the new team had been promising to surprise the F1 world with a new factory-backed engine.

JAN MAGNUSSEN has been dropped by Stewart Grand Prix and will be replaced for the rest of the year by Jos Verstappen.

AS we predicted a month ago Volkswagen is trying to buy the rights to the Bugatti name from Italian businessman Romano Artioli.

AS we predicted two weeks ago Air Canada is to sponsor the Canadian GP for the next five years.

INDIANAPOLIS MOTOR SPEEDWAY is waiting to hear from Formula 1 boss Bernie Ecclestone whether there can be a Grand Prix at The Brickyard in the year 2000.

LOCAL hero Jean Alesi gave French fans something to dream about last week when he set the fastest lap of the four days of testing at Magny-Cours in his Sauber Petronas.

DENMARK may have lost its only current Formula 1 driver with the announcement that Jan Magnussen is being booted out of his Stewart Ford drive, but there could be another Dane in Grand Prix racing within a matter of days.

THE FIA World Motor Sport Council met in Stockholm last week and voted through changes which are the result of the months of wrangling over the new Concorde Agreement.

THE FIA General Assembly met in extraordinary session last week in Stockholm to agree a number of important changes in the organization's structure.

THE Extraordinary General Assembly of the FIA in Stockholm has elected Marco Piccinini its Deputy President.

BOTH Michael Schumacher and Heinz-Harald Frentzen had big accidents on Friday at Magny-Cours - but contrary to early reports they did not hit one another.

AS predicted Volkswagen has bought the Lamborghini car company, through its Audi subsidiary.

ONE or two curious facts have emerged in the wake of the announcement that Volkswagen is to buy Cosworth which would seem to indicate that the Ford Motor Company was not perhaps quite as prepared as it would like to appear to be.

THE financial details of the new Concorde Agreement remain a mystery but there is no doubt that at least some of the benefits will only be paid out to the top 10 teams, based on their performances in the previous two half-seasons.

HEINZ-HARALD FRENTZEN emerged fastest during a weather-hit three-day test last week at Silverstone.

AS we predicted back in March, the Honda Motor Company will enter Formula 1 in 1999 with an announcement expected to be made at the British Grand Prix. The story has resurfaced in recent days with much excitement in the British specialist press.