Formula One News — December 2000

MCLAREN shareholder DaimlerChrysler has been suffering on the stock markets in the Christmas week with the share price dropping to its lowest point in four years following the announcement that the company has slashed its profit forecasts because of the problems with Chrysler and fears that there will be similar problems with the debt-ridden Mitsubishi, which is also controlled by DaimlerChrysler. Interestingly many of the shareholders who are selling DaimlerChrysler stock are buying into Volkswagen and BMW.

STUART TURNER, the former Director of Motorsport for Ford of Europe, today paid tribute to his former boss, colleague and friend Walter Hayes who died aged 76 in the London Independent Hospital on Boxing Day.

THE gradual attack of the world's legislators against tobacco advertising continues with new countries pushing through bans with each passing month.

WALTER HAYES, the man who funded the construction of the Cosworth DFV Formula 1 engine in the early 1960s, has died at the age of 76.

THE international automobile federation is to be one of the sponsors of an international conference on sports governance, which is planned to take place in Brussels, Belgium, at the end of February.

THE motor racing industry does not often stop but on Christmas Day there is not much action going on.

AS the Formula 1 circus shuts down for the Christmas break, many people will be wondering if anyone in Formula 1 will figure in the New Year's Honours List, which will be revealed next week.

MOTOR RACING film maker Brian Kreisky and four members of his family were killed when his turboprop aircraft crashed just after take-off from Blackbushe Airport in Hampshire on Saturday.

THE rumors that Ferrari will be using Michelin tires in 2002 seem to have been created because there is not much news about Ferrari in Italy at the moment.

JOHN COOPER, the junior half of the famous father-and-son partnership which revolutionized Grand Prix racing in the 1950s, died on Christmas Eve at the age of 77.

THE national government of India has approved a plan to rename Calcutta and that is expected to be a major boost for the plan to hold a Grand Prix near the city.

LANDING a major sponsorship deal from the Pan-american Sports Network is a coup for Alain Prost but it is almost certain that there will be strings attached to the deal.

THE Honda-owned Suzuka racing circuit in Japan is to be upgraded in an effort to stave off a challenge for the Japanese Grand Prix from the Mount Fuji racing circuit, which was recently acquired by Toyota.

ARROWS will launch its new passenger car, the AX3, as part of the Arrows F1 Xperience program, at the Autosport Show on Thursday 11 January.

THE German authorities have visited the EM.TV offices in Munich and have taken away documents and spoken to members of staff.

JAGUAR Chief Executive Officer Bobby Rahal will be amongst a number of guest speakers at the Motorsport Industry Association (MIA) Business Congress conference.

MINARDI are remaining upbeat about their future in Formula One, despite the recent announcement that Prost have teamed up with PSN.

FERRARI on Friday denied reports that they will switch to Michelin tires in 2002, after Italian newspaper reports suggested a deal had been completed.

BRITON Marc Hynes will learn early in the New Year if he has done enough to secure a test drive with British American Racing, after he completed a test with the team in Barcelona.

PRIOR to Monday's EGM of the board of the BRDC, at which the recent deal with Brands Hatch to retain the British Grand Prix was ratified, somebody somewhere let their feelings be known.

DINO TOSO, one of the bright crew of young engineers at Jordan in recent years, is following the team's former technical director Mike Gascoyne to Benetton.

THE Suzuka circuit, which hosts the Japanese Grand Prix, will feature changes for the 2001 World Championship in a bid to increase driver safety in Formula One.

THE Hungarian Grand Prix has been given a reprieve after the country's government excluded "world-class motorsport events" from the newly-imposed tobacco ban.

THE German Federal Securities Trading Supervisory Authority has recommended that there be a formal investigation into the share movements of EM.TV in the last few weeks amid suggestions that there may have been insider trading.

MINARDI's position as a devoted ally of Ferrari and Benetton on the convoluted F1 political scene will be guaranteed on a long-term basis when Renault subsidiary Mecachrome buys the team to ensure its future.