Formula One News — May 2001

JORDAN's Heinz-Harald Frentzen believes he has got the concentration span to produce a positive result in Monaco this weekend.

BRIDGESTONE FIRESTONE has announced that it will stop supplying tires to the Ford Motor Company, ending a relationship which dates back 100 years.

MCLAREN's David Coulthard believes his team still have plenty to do if he is to continue his championship challenge.

WILLIAMS driver Juan Pablo Montoya will be using traction control at the start of the Monaco Grand Prix, he confirmed on Wednesday.

MICHAEL SCHUMACHER's future at Ferrari was secured on Tuesday after the German driver extended his contract until the end of the 2004 season.

FORMER Minardi team manager and chairman Gabriele Rumi died after a brave fight against cancer on Monday evening, the team announced on Tuesday.

BRITISH AMERICAN RACING said on Monday their appeal against Kimi Raikkonen's fourth-place finish in Austria was for a change in rules rather than against the Sauber driver.

MICHAEL SCHUMACHER fears that the opening lap of the Monaco Grand Prix could be littered with carnage after he expressed his concerns over the launch control problems.

FEARS that a potentially disastrous startline collision could wreck Sunday's Monaco grand prix were voiced yesterday by one of formula one racing's top engineers.

GERMAN media baron Leo Kirch says that he is going to increase his shareholding in SLEC - the holding company which controls the Formula One group of companies.

FORD MOTOR COMPANY's premier motor sport arms, consisting of Jaguar Racing, Cosworth Racing and Pi will have a new home at the former Royal Air Force nuclear air base of Gaydon, in Warwickshire, England.

FINN Mika Hakkinen is refusing to predict an end to his dismal run of form in the Monaco Grand Prix this weekend.

ALTHOUGH this will be Juan Pablo Montoya's first Formula One race in Monaco, the Colombian driver is very familiar with the streets of Monte Carlo.

TRIPLE world champion Michael Schumacher has said that he wants Rubens Barrichello to continue as his Ferrari team-mate next season.

FERRARI president Luca di Montezemolo's decision not to take up a post in the Italian government has relieved the team's star driver Michael Schumacher.

RALF SCHUMACHER has urged his former BMW-Williams team-mate Jenson Button to push harder to make the most of his opportunity at the Benetton team.

ALTHOUGH Toyota Motorsport is ignoring Minardi's attempts to get compensation for the loss of Gustav Brunner, Minardi insists that a contract does exist and that legal action will follow against Brunner and Toyot

BRITISH AMERICAN RACING's appeal against the rejection of their protest against Sauber's Kimi Raikkonen in the Austrian Grand Prix will not be heard until June 1, it was announced by the FIA on Friday.

JAGUAR RACING boss Bobby Rahal is expecting his team's new aerodynamic improvements to move them up into a challenging position with two Honda-engined rivals.

JACQUES VILLENEUVE has targeted a top-three placing for British American Racing after pledging his allegiance to the Brackley-based team.

LUCA DI MONTEZEMOLO, president of Ferrari, has defended the team's decision to impose team orders in Sunday's Austrian Grand.

A single podium place this year and a distant sixth place in the Constructors' Championship for the team they sponsor and part-own - trailing fellow Honda users Jordan - may be the least of the current PR problems for British American Tobacco this year. Having sluiced an estimated $100 million away supporting Craig Pollock's team over the past two and a half years, they now face an understandably bad press in the UK thanks to a relatively modest $5.7 million gift to a British university.

AFTER tearfully handing over his hard-earned second place to Michael Schumacher at the Austrian Grand Prix, Ferrari's 'equal number one' Rubens Barrichello has broken his self-imposed silence on the matter.

CRAIG POLLOCK, managing director of British American Racing, has said that his team and Jordan must work together to get the best from engine supplier Honda.

FORMULA ONE faced an uncertain future on Friday night as the Association of European Car manufacturers (ACEA) signed an agreement to go ahead with plans to set up a rival series in 2008.