Formula One News — December 2000

HE Dallas investment company Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst specializes in buying up small struggling companies in an industry, repackaging them and then selling them on.

BRIDGESTONE has been forced to cut its profit estimate by 80% this year because of the effects of the problems with the Firestone brand in the United States of America.

BMW MOTORSPORT director Gerhard Berger and BMW-Williams driver Ralf Schumacher have expressed fears that the team's new Michelin tires could stall their season in 2001.

THE German state prosecution service has announced that it is investigating the activities of EM.TV, the half owner of the Formula One group of companies, which ran into serious trouble recently on the Neuer Markt stock exchange in Frankfurt.

GIANCARLO FISICHELLA will undergo an operation on a knee injury next week, his Benetton-Renault team confirmed on Thursday.

DAVID COULTHARD topped the times for the second consecutive day in Bridgestone tire testing at the Valencia circuit on Thursday.

IT may sound very dramatic that Giancarlo Fisichella needs to have knee surgery but with the increasing use of arthroscopy this has ceased to be the problem it once was for sportsmen.

JENSON BUTTON set the fastest lap time for his new Benetton team on Thursday in testing at the Circuit de Catalunya, Barcelona.

THE mayor of San Francisco Willie Brown, who has hopes of hosting a Grand Prix in the city, is going to struggle to make a race a reality.

FERARRI test-driver Luca Badoer continued the Italian team's hectic testing schedule at their Fiorano circuit on Thursday.

RALF SCHUMACHER has been forced to abandon his BMW-Williams testing plans in Barcelona this week after being hit by flu.

THE future of the Hungarian Formula One Grand Prix is in doubt after the country's parliament banned cigarette advertising.

FURTHER to our story about Minardi doing a deal to use Supertec engines in 2001, the latest rumor in F1 circles is that the precision engineering company Mecachrome, which builds the current Supertec V10 engines, could be on the verge of buying the struggling Italian team.

THREE-TIME world champion Michael Schumacher is predicting that there will be little change in the way of team dominance for next season.

BENETTON's new technical director Mike Gascoyne believes Jenson Button is quickly finding his feet at the Chipping Norton-based team.

MCLAREN dominated testing at Valencia on Wednesday as David Coulthard and Alexander Wurz topped the times - leaving Ferrari's Rubens Barrichello trailing in their wake.

RALF SCHUMACHER produced a scintillating display in testing at Barcelona on Wednesday as he blasted his brother Michael's pole position time for this year's Spanish Grand Prix by over half-a-second.

MICHAEL SCHUMACHER's manager Willy Weber has won a court case which protects his earnings from the marketing of the three-time world champion.

FORMULA ONE new-boy Juan Pablo Montoya continued to impress in testing at the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona -- even though he admitted all he wants to do is learn his Williams chassis.

SOUTH AFRICA is to spend over $50m on a massive advertising campaign to attract more tourists to the country.

PROST GRAND PRIX have announced that they will give Brazilian Enrique Bernoldi and Oriol Servia of Spain a chance to test with the team in Barcelona this week.

SILVERSTONE has yet to approach the British authorities about funding for the planned rebuilding of Silverstone but the organization which decides on whether or not money should be given for the project says that there is a provision for "world class events" which have "national significance".

THE annual BBC Sports Personality of the Year evening resulted in Jenson Button being named as Britain's Newcomer of the Year for his performances in the BMW Williams F1 team.

THE Silverstone racing circuit has long been criticized for the poor access roads in the area which cause enormous congestion at the British Grand Prix but even before the disastrous race in April, the British Department of the Environment has finally announced plans to upgrade the main A43 to provide a much better strategic link between the M40 and M1 motorways.

DOUBLE World Champion Mika Hakkinen became a father today when his wife Erja gave birth to a boy.