Formula One News — September 1998

THERE has been a great deal of noise in recent days about the incident between Michael Schumacher and David Coulthard during the recent Belgian Grand Prix, with the Ferrari management publicly blaming the McLaren driver for taking the German out of the race.

DAVID BROWN, the boss of the West Competition Formula 3000 team - a McLaren offshoot - is rumored to be on the shopping list of several Formula 1 teams for next year.

TOYOTA continues to be a name whispered in the F1 paddock in relation to a possible assault in F1 in the course of the next three years.

WE hear rumors that the Ford Motor Company is keen to get more control over its future plans in Formula 1 and is currently in negotiation with the Benetton Family to purchase a shareholding in the Italian team.

THE new Formula 1 Commission met for the first time at the Nurburgring last week to discuss the matters of the moment in Grand Prix racing.

ALTHOUGH it is yet to be officially announced, we understand that the German tobacco company Reemtsma has agreed to extend its sponsorship of McLaren with its West cigarette brand.

FORMER Jordan Technical Director Gary Anderson has caused considerable confusion in recent weeks by agreeing to work for both the Arrows and the Stewart teams.

WILLIAMS's announcement that it is going to run Alex Zanardi and Ralf Schumacher means that the newly-crowned Formula 3000 Champion Juan-Pablo Montoya is unlikely to find an F1 drive next year. We believe that Williams is hoping to convince Zanardi's current boss Chip Ganassi to sign up the Colombian for CART racing for the next couple of years.

AS we have been predicting for some time, Williams has finally confirmed that it will be running Alex Zanardi and Ralf Schumacher in 1999 and the year 2000.

BOTH the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Bernie Ecclestone have denied reports in the Indianapolis Star newspaper that a deal has been reached for the United States Grand Prix to be held at the Brickyard for 10 years, starting in September 2000.

BRITISH AMERICAN RACING has been having a very bumpy ride in recent days with the Formula 1 Commission deciding to torpedo the team's plans to run cars in different liveries. We have also heard stories of financial problems and we have even heard that BAR managing-director Craig Pollock has sold his shareholding in the team to American CART team owner Jerry Forsythe.

THE word in the paddock at the Nurburgring was that Pedro Diniz has signed a deal to drive for Sauber in 1999 and 2000.

FIA President Max Mosley has warned the European Commission that if the international federation loses its fight over the question of unfair competition then motor sport in Europe will be seriously affected.

WILLIAMS GRAND PRIX ENGINEERING will announce this week that it has signed Alex Zanardi and Ralf Schumacher to be its drivers for the next two years.

AS we predicted last week Ford has now successfully completed the purchase of Cosworth Racing from Audi AG.

CART star Jimmy Vasser has signed a new three-year deal with Target Chip Ganassi Racing, ending speculation that he would switch to Formula 1 next year.

PRINCE ALBERT of Monaco has told Lebanese Prime Minister Rafic Al-Hariri that the Monaco authorities will help in any way they can in the organization of a Grand Prix in Beirut in the year 2003.

FORMULA 1 is not going to Las Vegas, despite years of negotiation and planning.

ALTHOUGH Bernie Ecclestone's plans to float Formula One Holdings are currently on hold because of a dispute between the FIA and the European Commission we believe that Bernie still intends to sell shares in the company once the stock markets have gotten over the current financial crisis.

THE incredible - some might say insane - Formula 1 testing schedule continued last week with major tests going on at Magny-Cours and at Mugello. The F1 testing this year has been more intensive than ever before with the result that Ferrari, for example, has done 20,000 miles of testing this season. That works out at around 1000 miles a week, given the ban on testing in the week before a race.

FERRARI bosses are aiming to rebuild Maserati and are planning to enter the US market in the year 2001 with a sporty range of cars aimed at those who cannot afford to buy a Ferrari.

MINARDI made a series of announcements at Monza, the most important of which was a continuation of the Italian team's involvement as a Ford customer team although the deal is being dressed up as "official support" from Ford.

RICARDO ZONTA and Pedro Diniz are fighting it out for the second seat at British American Racing.

ALEX ZANARDI is to test for Williams within the next month, the team keen to begin working with the CART champion before the month-long end of season testing ban comes into effect.

WILLIAMS GRAND PRIX ENGINEERING is understood to be putting together a second test team for the 1999 season.