Formula One News — November 1999

JAGUAR RACING has confirmed that Brazilian Luciano Burti will be its test driver for their 2000 season, supporting Eddie Irvine and Johnny Herbert.

MINARDI and Daewoo have one thing in common: they are both struggling.

THE classic 24 hour endurance sportscar race at Le Mans is not as attractive as once it was to the major motor manufacturers.

IT has been a long time in coming but there is no surprise that Brands Hatch Leisure has run into problems from environmentalists over its application for planning permission to develop the circuit into a Formula 1 standard facility.

DAIMLERCHRYSLER AG continues to insist that it is not shopping for new partners at the moment but that has not stopped a variety of rumors about the company in recent days.

A decision over the future of Olivier Panis is expected this week as the Frenchman is scheduled to begin testing for McLaren and if Williams wants to sign him up as a replacement for Alex Zanardi the team now needs to move quickly.

OLIVIER PANIS is in line for the second Williams drive because of his fighting spirit and evidence of this was given in court in Nevers at the end of last week when the Frenchman came before the local magistrates to answer charges relating to an incident at Magny Cours in May when Panis and some of his friends had gone to the circuit's kart track to have a little fun.

PATRICK HEAD and Adrian Newey have finally been acquitted of all charges relating to the death of Ayrton Senna at Imola in May 1994.

ITALIAN prosecutors returned to court last week to appeal against the acquittal two years ago of Adrian Newey and Patrick Head on charges of "culpable homicide" related to the death of Ayrton Senna at Imola in May 1994.

JUAN-PABLO MONTOYA told Colombian television last week that he is definitely staying in the United States of America for the 2000 season with Target Chip Ganassi Racing.

THE long-awaited reshuffle of engineers at Benetton Formula happened last week with the resignation of chief designer Nick Wirth and the announcement that Wirth deputy Sergio Rinland is to join Sauber.

JACQUES VILLENEUVE says that he will see out his contract with British American Racing - even if his mentor and manager Craig Pollock is dumped as the team chairman and chief executive.

DAVID RICHARDS has announced that he has sold 49% of Prodrive to venture capitalist company Apax Partners with the intention of using the money raised to expand the company's activities to create a more stable business.

LUCIANO BURTI, runner-up in the British Formula 3 Championship, will be nominated as Jaguar Racing's test driver this week.

AS expected for some time there has been a technical reshuffle at Sauber.

TOM WALKINSHAW has vehemently denied stories that he is negotiating the sale of Arrows to David Richards of Prodrive, but most Formula 1 sources do not seem to believe the Scotsman.

TOM WALKINSHAW's hope of a long-term deal with Nissan in F1 took a dive last week when the Japanese car company announced that it was cancelling its Le Mans 24 Hours program.

DESPITE losing most of its customer teams in CART this year, Mercedes-Benz is redoubling its efforts to be successful in the series and is expected to announce shortly that it will run its own factory operation alongside Bruce McCaw's PacWest team.

RUBENS BARRICHELLO paid a visit to the Ferrari headquarters in Maranello last week to meet the major players in the team and have a seat fitting.

BRITISH Formula 3 Champion Marc Hynes says that he is close to signing a deal which will see him racing in the International `Formula 3000 series and testing for a Formula 1 team.

BRANDS HATCH LEISURE PLC, the company which owns and operates most of the racing circuits in Britain, notably Brands Hatch itself, has been bought by the Octagon sports marketing and entertainment group, a division of the huge American advertising firm Interpublic.

IN April, Formula 1 boss Bernie Ecclestone confirmed that he was talking to the government of Dubai about a Grand Prix and in recent days Dubai's most famous motorsport personality Mohammed Bin Sulayem confirmed that those talks are now very advanced with the government taking them "very seriously".

THE German car manufacturer BMW continues to struggle with its Rover Group subsidiary with reports in the German papers in recent days suggesting that the Quandt Family, which controls around 45% of BMW's shares, are beginning to lose patience with the company and may decide to sell out to one of the car companies interested in buying BMW.

OVER the weekend Malaysian newspapers ran stories suggesting that there is a convoluted deal going on which will see Lotus Engineering becoming involved in Grand Prix racing once again.

THE British Racing Drivers' Club has announced plans to promote young British drivers in the hope of finding replacements for the current generation of British F1 racers, who are getting old.