Formula One News — March 1999

THE Williams Formula 1 team was due to turn up at Magny-Cours last week but failed to appear, the test being called off because of a lack of spare parts since the Australian Grand Prix.

GENERAL MOTOR's Cadillac division has decided to put the striking Evoq roadster into production in 2002. The car, which was shown to the world as the recent North American International Auto Show in Detroit, marks a radical attempt to rid Cadillac of its dull middle-aged image and attract new car buyers.

RENAULT's chances of returning to Formula 1 in the near future reduced dramatically over the weekend when the French car company announced that it is spending $5.1bn to buy a 36.8% shareholding in the Japanese car company Nissan.

LEBANON seems to be having second thoughts about plans to host a Formula 1 Grand Prix in 2003.

COLIN McRAE says he is thinking about switching from rallying to Formula 1 racing in the future and the Ford Motor Company says it will organize a serious test for him at the end of the season.

AS we reported after the Australian Grand Prix, Honda is now in the final stages of deciding on whether to push ahead with its $1bn five-year plan to run its own F1 team.

FORMULA 1 testing continued at various tracks around Europe, despite poor weather which ruined McLaren's test at Jerez in southern Spain and disrupted running at Magny-Cours. The French test was the biggest, featuring Jordan, Prost and Sauber. The first day was ruined by rain although all the drivers present took the opportunity of running in the wet.

THE rumors that Mercedes-Benz might be interested in buying Mansour Ojjeh's majority shareholding of the McLaren team were followed last week by a whisper from France that Ojjeh is keen to sell the TAG McLaren Group in order to finance the purchase of a majority shareholding in Bernie Ecclestone's Formula One Holdings (FOH).

GERMAN newspapers last week began speculating that DaimlerChrysler - the parent company of Mercedes-Benz - may be negotiating to buy Mansour Ojjeh's 60% shareholding in the TAG/McLaren Group. This would include buying McLaren International.

WITH Argentina having dropped out of the World Championship this year because no money could be found to fund the race in Buenos Aires, the city of Cordoba is planning to make a bid to host the race in the future.

THE only Formula 1 team which was not seen out testing last week was Williams and we hear that this was because the team is suffering from a serious shortage of spare parts for the FW21.

OUR spies within the Ford Motor Company tell us that there is a strong possibility that Ford's V10 Formula 1 engines will be rebadged as Jaguar V10s next season.

RUBENS BARRICHELLO demolished the 1999 lap record at Barcelona last week, lapping the Circuit de Catalunya in 1m20.491s.

McLAREN, Benetton, British American Racing and Arrows were all in action last week at Silverstone with McLaren working on the reliability of the cars - and everyone else trying to figure out how to catch up with the rapid silver cars.

RENAULT is going to struggle to get back into Formula 1 if its plans to take a 35% shareholding in troubled Japanese carmaker Nissan go ahead. Renault is rumored to be investing around $5.5bn in the deal, which will include the purchase of a shareholding in Nissan Diesel Motor, the Japanese company's truck-making subsidiary.

THE battle between Grand Prix racing and the European Commission took a new twist last week when all 20 of the European Commissioners resigned in the wake of a scathing report into fraud and mismanagement. The Commission had agreed to an independent investigation in January in order to avoid being fired by the European Parliament.

THE fact that Cadillac is to enter a factory team in the Le Mans 24 Hours with a Riley & Scott-built sportscar and that Riley & Scott is about to be bought by Reynard suggests that there may be more to the Cadillac announcement than meets the eye.

BRITISH AMERICAN RACING has escaped sanction from the FIA World Motor Sport Council.

REYNARD MOTORSPORT INC., the holding company of all Reynard operations, is rumored to be on the verge of buying the US racing car manufacturer Riley & Scott.

GENERAL MOTORS announced at the Geneva Motor Show that, despite gloomy forecasts for the European car market, the company has decided to expand its sales in Europe and will be entering a two-car Cadillac factory team for the 2000 Le Mans 24 Hours.

JAPAN TOBACCO, the owner of Mild Seven, has just agreed an $8bn deal to buy all the non-American tobacco business of RJR Nabisco.

SEVERAL members of the Formula 1 circus stopped off in Malaysia on the way back to Europe from Australia to be present at the official launch of the Sepang International Circuit.

BRITISH AMERICAN RACING representatives will travel to Geneva, Switzerland, on Friday to appear before the FIA World Motor Sport Council to answer allegations that the new team breached the International Sporting Code and the FIA Statutes during its dispute with the governing body over whether or not it could run cars in different liveries.

JORDAN GRAND PRIX is not planning to have an official test driver this year but it is planning to give several drivers a proper test with the team.

THE British Racing Drivers Club (BRDC) is to hold a meeting for its 800 members next month to decide the future of the Silverstone racing circuit which it owns.