Formula One News — January 2001

INFINEON TECHNOLOGIES AG announced on Thursday that they have extended their involvement and profile in Formula One by sponsoring Jordan.

FERRARI driver Michael Schumacher believes Sauber's new recruit Kimi Raikkonen has the pedigree to become a future world champion in Formula One.

JAGUAR driver Eddie Irvine will have a new race engineer for the 2001 season when Bobby Rahal finalizes negotiations with Prost's Humphrey Corbett.

PIERO FERRARI, the son of the Italian company's founder Enzo, has received a personal invitation from George Bush Junior to take part in the newly-elected US President's inauguration ceremony on Saturday in Washington.

THE British American Racing team has suffered a number of serious accident overs the years because of suspension failures but the timing of the latest crash at Jerez de la Frontera could not have been worse for the team.

THE Benetton team - which will soon become known as "Renault Sport UK" - has been restructuring in recent weeks with the arrival of new engineers and new administrators.

PAUL STODDART, the Australian multimillionaire who runs the European Formula F3000 team, is rumored to be on the verge of buying Minardi.

DOUBLE world champion Mika Hakkinen has declared that the birth of his son Hugo will enable him to drive even faster in the forthcoming 2001 season -- because he is more confident as a person.

ITALIAN Formula One driver Jarno Trulli has vowed only to speak English around his Jordan team-mates, despite being reunited with race engineer and compatriot Gabriele Delli Colli.

FERRARI test driver Luca Badoer narrowly outpaced British American Racing's Olivier Panis to top the times on the final day of a three-day test at Jerez on Wednesday.

MCLAREN's Mika Hakkinen demonstrated his intent to regain his world championship crown as he topped the times for the second successive day on the final day of testing at Valencia on Wednesday.

THE old days of the Buzzin Hornets appear to be over for the revamped and newly-named Benson & Hedges Jordan Honda team - as they are being replaced by a new shark replica on the nose of the new EJ11 car.

JORDAN chairman and chief executive Eddie Jordan has promised to devote more finances than ever in a bid to see his team crowned world champions.

FRENCHMAN Jean Alesi completed the second of two days testing at Magny-Cours for Prost and team principal Alain Prost admitted he was impressed with the car's performance.

AFTER the hype of their launch on Tuesday, Jordan ran their new EJ11 car for the first time at a cold Silverstone on Wednesday.

FORMER Jaguar technical director Gary Anderson is to join Arrows for the 2001 Formula One World Championship.

FRENCHMAN Olivier Panis impressed the onlooking David Beckham as he topped the times on the second day of testing at Jerez on Tuesday.

JAGUAR's early advantage as the first F1 team to unveil its new 2001 challenger encountered an unwelcome setback yesterday when its number one driver Eddie Irvine seriously damaged the new car in a high speed smash.

SAUBER announced on Wednesday a new partnership deal with leading financial services company Credit Suisse.

DOUBLE world champion Mika Hakkinen returned to the cockpit of his McLaren Mercedes-Benz at Valencia on Monday when he tested the car for the first time since the Malaysian Grand Prix in October.

FRENCH tire manufacturer Michelin's name will appear on a host of non-motorsport products in 2002 after they agreed a ground-breaking deal with The Licensing Company (TLC).

JAPANESE rookie Takuma Sato topped the times on the opening day of testing at Jerez on Monday as he made the perfect start to his new role as a British American Racing test driver.

THE first of the new generation, works Honda-engined Jordan F1 cars was unveiled at Silverstone today (Tuesday) just a stone's throw from the British team's factory and at the venue where the car will undergo its preliminary shakedown runs during the remainder of this week.

EDDIE JORDAN has announced that Arrows chief designer Egbahl Hamidy is to join the Silverstone team bat the end of February.

BENETTON's Giancarlo Fisichella has received the award for the best Italian driver in Formula One for the fourth successive year.