Formula One News — November 2001

The McLaren-Mercedes team's decision to switch from Bridgestone to Michelin tires in 2002 looks a bold and audacious decision.

Grand Prix racing has millions of fans around the world but one of the biggest fans of them all was Beatle George Harrison.

Arrows has announced that they will continue to use Bridgestone tires in 2002 and beyond, extending a relationship that began in 1996.

Jaguar Racing is to launch the new R3 chassis at its Milton Keynes headquarters on January 4.

The McLaren Formula 1 team says it will be producing and marketing its own range of furniture in the future, based on its designs which have been commissioned for the new Paragon factory.

Tommy Suharto, the Indonesian playboy who once planned to have a Grand Prix in Jakarta, has been arrested after a year on the run from the authorities.

The Ford Motor Company is about to announce major cost-cutting measures, which are expected to include around 20% of the management jobs in North America and the possible closure of four of the company's US factories.

London Bridge was moved to the United States brick by brick, but CART is hoping that less drastic measures will be required to conjure up the magic of the Monaco Grand Prix.

On Tuesday in Geneva the Formula 1 team bosses (with the exception of Tom Walkinshaw) turned up for a presentation about the planned Grand Prix World Championship in 2008.

A couple of months ago the European Minardi team announced a deal to help the Argentine automobile club to promote young drivers and on Wednesday Martin Basso visited the team's Faenza facility.

McLaren boss Ron Dennis says that the team has no plans to buy a share in Ilmor Engineering but said that it is not impossible that DaimlerChrysler will increase its involvement and thus strengthen the links between the various companies.

Jaguar F1 team principal Niki Lauda's determination to shape his operation into a competitive force has seen him raiding a rival section of the Ford competitions empire to secure the services of Guenther Steiner as Managing Director of the Grand Prix team.

There are reports from the United States of America of a revolt by the promoters of the races who are rumored to be insisting that CART guarantees a minimum number of cars and a cut in the fees being levied for the races.

Trevor Crisp has been running Cosworth Racing in for the last two years but he has now reached retirement and the company has decided to appoint 49-year-old Brendan Connor as the new chief executive of the company.

The City of Sao Paulo says it cannot afford to invest in safety work which has been asked for by the FIA for the 2002 race.

There was a time when the annual karting at Bercy attracted World Champions and other Formula 1 stars but in recent years the event has faded and this year has lost the backing of Elf. Philippe Streiff, the organizer of the event, has landed support from Speedy and the Speedy World Cup Indoor Karting will take place this weekend.

The finance director of EM.TV Marius Schwarz has quit the operation after only three months in the job, having fallen out with the new boss Werner Klatten over whether or not EM.TV should sell its remaining shares in SLEC.

It is not a big surprise to hear that as soon as Prost Grand Prix was placed in redressement judiciare a number of different projects to take over the team began to be mentioned.

According to reports in the Canadian Press a Ottawa group is once again trying to buy Prost Grand Prix. The group was mentioned as a possible buyer of several teams a year or so ago.

The Motor SportBusiness Conference in Monte Carlo on December 13-14 will feature a variety of speakers.

Ferrari chief designer Rory Bryne has rejected reports that the team will start the 2002 season with the F2001. Bryne admitted that they are experiencing some trouble with the new single unit engine/gearbox, but said they are still on schedule to start next year with the new car.

GPWC is the company that intends to start its own World Championship in 2007 and one can only guess that the name stands for Grand Prix World Championship.

The Sauber team has announced that it will be unveiling its new Sauber Petronas C21 in Zurich on January 25. The car will be raced next year by Nick Heidfeld and Felipe Massa and while the team cannot really hope to much better than this year.

Michael Schumacher has sensationally not won a major German sporting award.

Despite stories which are circulating to the contrary we believe that Heinz-Harald Frentzen does have some form of agreement with Arrows - even if the actual contract is yet to be signed.