Formula One News — November 2000

JUAN PABLO MONTOYA has acquainted himself with his new BMW-Williams team in the last few days at the outfit's Grove base.

MERCEDES-BENZ motorsport head Norbert Haug has revealed details of the new engine his company will provide for the McLaren team in the 2001 season.

RETIRED triple World Champion Niki Lauda has resigned from his post as chief executive of his airline Lauda-air after auditors reportedly discovered financial irregularities over the manner in which the Vienna-based operation was being run.

NEIL RESSLER, chairman of Jaguar Racing, has admitted that he would love to see world champion Michael Schumacher driving for his team.

BENETTON boss Flavio Briatore has dismissed reports linking Minardi's teenage sensation Fernando Alonso with a possible drive at his team.

IT was David Coulthard who hit the nail on the head when he was referring to McLaren-Mercedes test driver Olivier Panis.

THE Benetton team has finally confirmed that Australia's Mark Webber is to be its test driver in 2001.

OUR spies in the United States of America are suggesting that Jaguar Racing could be on the verge of giving Formula 1 a big surprise by naming 48-year-old Californian engineer Gordon Kimball as its new technical director.

BRITAIN's fascination for the rich has resulted in the highly popular Sunday Times Rich List, which features the people that the newspaper estimate to be the richest in Britain, based on their earnings and assets.

JOHNNY HERBERT's manager Mark Perkins has dismissed reports that the Briton suffered a mild fracture of the knee after a crash in his final Grand Prix in Malaysia on October 22.

BMW-WILLIAMS announced on Monday that Marc Gene will be the team's test driver for the 2001 Formula One World Championship.

FERRARI driver Rubens Barrichello won a 500-mile endurance kart race at the Kartodromo Internacional de Cotia, outside Sao Paulo, Brazil on Sunday.

THERE have been reports in recent days suggesting that Ferdinand Piech, the boss of the Volkswagen Group is to retire early and will not be staying on as long as he could with Europe's biggest car maker. Piech has been the architect of much of Volkswagen's growth in recent years but has always been against a direct involvement in Formula 1 despite a trend amongst other car manufacturers to buy teams.

MINARDI driver Gaston Mazzacane has been linked with a move to Arrows.

NEW Benetton test driver Mark Webber is under no illusions of the task ahead as he bids to become the first Australian on a Formula One grid since Alan Jones in 1986.

NEXT years British Grand Prix is heading for a sell out and Silverstone officials are warning spectators to make sure they get their tickets early.

PAN AMERICAN SPORTS NETWORK, PSN, have stated that they intend to continue to back Argentine driver Gaston Mazzacane - despite pulling out of a deal to take control of Minardi.

IT is a reminder of just how committed Ford has become to the F1 long haul that it is prepared to invest an estimated 40 million pounds in establishing Jaguar's bespoke racing headquarters at the home of British motor racing.

BMW-WILLIAMS technical director Patrick Head has said the rookie of the year Jenson Button almost missed out on a Formula One drive - because he had wanted Bruno Junqueira as the team's second driver at the start of the year.

GABRIELE RUMI said he was never coming back to Formula 1 when he quit the sport a few weeks ago but the deal he had struck with the PanAmerican Sports Network was never completed and now Rumi is back in charge at Faenza.

JORDAN GRAND PRIX will use the Honda Athena engine tested by British American Racing when they begin their preparations for 2001.

Ferrari's Rubens Barrichello will be taking a break from his vacation in Brazil to get behind the wheel of a go-kart when he takes part in a 500-mile team race this weekend.

GIANNI AGNELLI, the boss of Fiat and one of the Ferrari Formula 1's biggest supporters, is in mourning this week following the death of his son, 46-year-old Edoardo Agnelli, who was found hanging beneath a motorway bridge near Turin, Italy.

A program of structured change leading to progressively revised F1 technical regulations could be prompted by the reintroduction of traction control next season.

JENSON BUTTON has insisted that he is desperate to return to the cockpit and start testing for his new team Benetton next month - even though he has to prove himself all over again.