Formula One News — May 2001

THE Williams Formula One team have secured a partnership with World Sports Solutions to develop a long-term merchandising program, the team announced on Wednesday.

FERRARI president Luca di Montezemolo could leave the Italian car making company after the forthcoming Italian general election on Sunday - because he will have a cabinet post if Silvio Berlusconi wins.

GOODYEAR's competition boss Stu Grant will be at the Austrian Grand Prix this weekend and is expected to meet Bernie Ecclestone.

MICHAEL SCHUMACHER is expected to don his football boots again this month for the annual charity football match prior to the Monaco Grand Prix on May 27.

JACKIE STEWART, three times a world champion, has publicly castigated British youngster Jenson Button for enjoying himself too much in Formula 1.

NIGEL MANSELL, the mustached hero of Formula 1 and Indycar in the 1980s and 1990s, is to return to the cockpit of a super speedway racer this year at the Coy's International Historic Festival.

INSIDE F1's rising star Patrick Long took his first victory in the British Formula Ford Zetec Championship this weekend at the Oulton Park circuit, near Liverpool, England.

THE UK motor racing industry is pretty strong when it comes to nurturing new driving talent, but when the plans were recently mooted to develop Silverstone into a unique center for the British motor racing training and development as one element of its long-term expansion as a world-class F1 venue, it was immediately identified that developing new driving talent was only part of the equation.

TRIPLE world champion Jackie Stewart and former Grand Prix driver Martin Brundle have been re-elected as president and chairman respectively of the British Racing Drivers' Club (BRDC).

EUROPEAN MINARDI team chief Paul Stoddart is set to block his technical director Gustav Brunner's announced move to Toyota.

BMW-WILLIAMS driver Ralf Schumacher will bid to add to his points tally at the Austrian Grand Prix this weekend in a race he has labelled his new "home" event.

JORDAN driver Jarno Trulli has thrown down the gauntlet to his Honda rivals British American Racing by stating that he and team-mate Heinz-Harald Frentzen are quicker.

THE announcement from Cologne that Gustav Brunner is moving to Toyota Motorsport is good news for the team.

THE European Minardi team were left reeling on Monday as their technical director Gustav Brunner announced that he has joined the Toyota Formula One project.

TWENTY year old Scott Dixon has become the youngest ever winner of a major single-seater event with his victory yesterday in the Lehigh Valley Grand Prix CART race at Nazareth, Pennsylvania.

SOUTH AFRICA may not be able to afford a Grand Prix but Bobby Hartsleif, the chief executive of the Welkom Super Speedway at Phakisa is currently in the United States finalizing a deal to get the Indy Racing League teams to visit the facility for a non-championship race in November.

THE opening of Universal's "The Mummy Returns" over the weekend hammered receipts for Sylvester Stallone's racing movie "Driven".

ACCORDING to a recent survey the United States Grand Prix at Indianapolis was the fifth biggest sports event in the US last year - in terms of money generated.

JORDAN GRAND PRIX has opted to have three race engineers per car from the Spanish Grand Prix onwards as it attempts to turn its strong form into a position to challenge the front-runners.

GASTON MAZZACANE will not be returning to Minardi, team-boss Paul Stoddart has said.

YOUNG German Touring Car driver Timo Schneider will get an opportunity to realize his Formula One dream after being told he will test with Jordan at the end of the season.

MERCEDES-BENZ motorsport director Norbert Haug has predicted that Mika Hakkinen will be involved in the title shake-up at the end of the season, despite his failings so far this year.

NEWLY recruited Prost-Ferrari driver Luciano Burti has made some positive observations about both his new team and his colleague Jean Alesi after three days of testing at Valencia this week.

TOMAS SCHECKTER, the son of 1979 world champion Jody Scheckter, has had his contract as Jaguar's F1 development driver terminated with immediate effect.

JAGUAR believes that its fortunes will be enhanced by the arrival of new chief race engineer, Mark Ellis, who comes to the team after a short spell at BAR but is best known for his work in the British Touring Car Championship.