Formula One News — July 2001

BAR chairman Kenneth Clarke has pulled of a remarkable victory in the election for the leadership of the British conservative party.

THE British Grand Prix came and went and as usual there were problems with traffic. The track has done a lot of work and earthmoving in underway for the construction of the new Silverstone bypass.

AUSTRALIA's young racing talent James Courtney has turned in an outstanding Formula 1 debut in his first appearance for Jaguar Racing's senior squad in the pre-Hockenheim test at Monza.

MICHAEL SCHUMACHER emerged unscathed from his Ferrari F-2001 after the car was launched into a barrel roll at 120mph in testing at Monza today (Tuesday).

THOMAS HAFFA, the head of EM.TV is understood to be on the verge of selling his shares in the company he founded.

JAGUAR RACING's Australian Formula 3 star James Courtney will at last test the team's Formula 1 challenger at Monza before the German Grand Prix.

JEAN-JACQUES HIS, Renault's technical director, has blamed industrial espionage by former members of the Stasi - the former East Germany's Secret Police - as one factor behind the poor showing of the radical new 111-degree V10 engine which powers the current Benetton B201.

THE automobile manufacturers involved in Formula 1 appear to have given up with the idea of trying to convince the world that there is the potential for a rival series to the FIA Formula 1 World Championship and at the weekend Jurgen Hubbert, the boss of Mercedes-Benz, appeared at a meeting of F1 team bosses to say that the carmakers want to work with the teams to negotiate a new Concorde Agreement. Hubbert said that his views were shared by all the other manufacturers, even hardline Fiat and Renault.

WE hear from Akron, Ohio, that the top management of Goodyear are having second thoughts about re-entering Formula 1 racing because of the cost of securing a deal with a top F1 team.

KENNETH CLARKE, the chairman of British American Racing and a candidate in the leadership battle for the British Conservative Party, says that he does not expect the British government to come up with any money for the rebuilding of the Silverstone racing circuit.

DAVID RICHARDS, the boss of the Prodrive motorsport engineering company and the head of world rallying, has admitted that he still harbors ambitions in Formula 1.

EUROPEAN MINARDI driver Tarso Marques will not participate in the British Grand Prix at Silverstone after an appeal to the stewards of the race was rejected.

DESPITE the fact that his engine deal with Cosworth has been completed for some weeks, Arrows boss Tom Walkinshaw still refuses to confirm that the deal is agreed and the only logical explanation for this is that Tom is busy trying to raise the money for the deal or is trying to find a naming sponsor for the engine so that he can a branded engine.

GRAHAM HUTTON, the man who oversaw Morgan Grenfell Private Equity's disastrous moves in Formula 1 has been dumped as chief executive of the company by its parent Deutsche Bank.

VOLKSWAGEN AG has announced that it will shut down its giant Wolfsburg factory for three weeks this summer because of a slowdown in demand for its cars.

AMONG the many aerodynamic tweaks being performed by Prost's aerodynamic guru Henri Durand upon the team's recalcitrant Ferrari-engined AP02 chassis was a bizarre new front wing featuring a smaller raised aerofoil above the front wing.

AS we have been predicting for some months, Bahrain is bidding for a Grand Prix. The country's Minister of Youth and Sport Fawaz al Khalifa has now confirmed the bid after a lengthy feasibility study.

THE Toyota Motorsport Formula 1 team has informed all of its rivals in 2002 that it will not abide by the end of the season testing ban and intends to go on testing through October, November and December - when everyone else is banned from doing development work at race tracks.

THE Formula 1 engine manufacturers met on Thursday to discuss the future shape of Grand Prix racing.

MALAYSIA's Alex Yoong impressed the Minardi team in his recent testing and he is expected to test several more times for the team in the course of the next few weeks.

MIKA HAKKINEN says he is not retiring and says he is discussing terms of a new contract with McLaren for 2002 and beyond.

KOREA's biggest car company Hyundai has ambitions to enter Formula 1 racing as part of its dream to become a world class automobile company.

THE Executive Committee of the international karting federation, the CIK-FIA, is proposing that the World Karting Championship be held in conjunction with F1 races.

THE Asiatech engine company looks to be in trouble with none of the Formula 1 teams showing much interest in using the French-built engines next year - even if they are supplied free of charge.

HONDA is on the verge of shutting down its racing program in North America to allow the company to concentrate on Formula 1.