Formula One News — February 1999

BRIAN HART has always maintained a very low profile in Formula 1 politics, preferring to concentrate on solving engineering problems and building competitive racing engines. Last week however Tom Walkinshaw was served with a High Court writ from Hart, which claims that Brian is owed $1.2m by his partner Walkinshaw.

ALTHOUGH it is being presented as a merger, Goodyear has finally concluded its talks to take over Sumitomo Rubber Industries, the owner of the Dunlop brand.

IN the course of the last 15 years there have been something like 10 different projects for a Grand Prix in Russia. In the early 1980s it is said that F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone went to Moscow and met with President Leonid Brezhnev to discuss a race but in 1983 Ecclestone gave up on Moscow and did a deal with Hungary instead.

WHEN the Sauber F1 team launched its C18 at the Jean Tinguely Museum in Basle it clearly felt that none of the F1 journalists would be sufficiently educated in modern art to point out that Tinguely made his name by creating machine-like devices which self-destructed.

JOHN BICKFORD is moving to England. This may not mean much to F1 racing fans but it COULD have a profound effect on the future of Formula 1 in the United States.

THERE has been a significant technical reshuffle inside Prost Grand Prix within recent weeks with former team manager Didier Perrin becoming head of the drawing office at Guyancourt and Eric Barbaroux, who was in charge of special projects, taking control of research programs as well.

PATRICK LEMARIE is said to be one of the most charming racing drivers one could ever wish to meet. He can converse on a wide variety of subjects and is entertaining company - but he has little qualification for the job of being a Formula 1 test driver - apart from the fact that he is a lifelong friend of Jacques Villeneuve.

THERE are likely to be battles this year over the legality of the new Benetton-Playlife B199. Despite disappointing performances to date in testing, the new car features an unusual "Front Torque Transfer" system which, rival designers say, is illegal.

ON Saturday at Lausanne, in Switzerland, lawyers representing British American Racing and the international automobile federation, the FIA, met to put forward their cases to commercial judges of the International Chamber of Commerce in an effort to resolve the dispute over whether or not BAR should be allowed to run cars in different color schemes.

THERE has been testing in recent days at Jerez, Barcelona, Mugello and Magny-Cours.

THE last week has seen the appearance of a series of 1999 Formula 1 cars with the presentation of the Ferrari F399, the Williams FW21, the Prost AP02 and the first appearance of the Minardi M01.