Formula One News — October 1999

THE FIA World Motor Sport Council has confirmed the $48m bond which prospective Formula 1 team owners will have to pay if they wish to join the 11 teams in the Formula 1 World Championship.

THE FIA World Council also introduced a number of detailed changes to the existing Formula 1 sporting regulations.

THE European Union tobacco ban may mean little to most F1 teams by the time it arrives in 2006 - as the tobacco industry is currently contracting at such a rate that the number of sponsors available is reducing fast.

SWEDISH newspapers are reporting that Sweden is considering a bid to host a Grand Prix in 2005 or 2006.

THE rumor in the United States that Chip Ganassi is planning to run a second team in CART next season has led to suggestions that there will be some European involvement in the planned team, which will be based in Ganassi's existing premises while his Target Chip Ganassi Racing operation will move to a new purpose-built facility in Indianapolis.

THE major F1 teams have been busy testing in preparation for the final two races of the season in Malaysia and Japan.

THE Toyota Motor Corporation has confirmed that it is shutting down its World Rally Championship team in Cologne at the end of the current season.

WE hear whispers that Formula 1 boss Bernie Ecclestone is to continue acquiring racing circuits to give Formula One Holdings some more assets and, at the same time, to secure the long-term television rights as these ultimately belong to circuit owners.

WITH the last of the European races out of the way, the Formula 1 teams are beginning to turn their attention to the development programs for the cars which will be raced next year, although McLaren, Ferrari and Jordan are all rushing ahead with 1999 development as they battle to see who will win this year's title.

THERE has been a lot of fuss in recent days about the appointment of Ian Ross as chief operating officer at British American Racing.

PROST GRAND PRIX's former technical director Bernard Dudot is expected to leave the French team at the end of the year.

WE have heard whispers in recent days that FIA President Max Mosley may quit his job before he comes up for re-election when his current term of office ends in October 2001.

THE Ferrari debacle at the European Grand Prix at the Nurburgring - and the performance in recent races of the Ferrari F399 in the hands of Eddie Irvine and Mika Salo - has led the livelier elements of the Italian media to call for the resignation of the team's sporting and technical directors Jean Todt and Ross Brawn.

THE Belgian Grand Prix may win back its place in the Formula 1 calendar next year thanks to a decision by the Belgian court of arbitration.

Michael Schumacher will not be returning to Formula 1 this season.

BRANDS HATCH LEISURE revealed a profit of $3m for the first six months of 1999 and the company - which hopes to host the British Grand Prix at Brands Hatch in 2002, says that the figure for the second half of the year will be even better thanks to income from the World Super Bike Championship event which was held in August.

AS we predicted in June, Alain Prost has formed an alliance with Bernard Arnault, the chairman and chief executive of the Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy empire.