Formula One News — January 2002

For some time now there have been worries about the safety of the Monaco racing circuit, particularly the section of track which runs around the famous Swimming Pool.

Marie-Pierre Dupasquier, formerly the Prost Grand Prix press officer, is the new head of public relations for the Paul Ricard facility.

With the McLarens finished with their testing program for the week, Ralf Schumacher, wearing glasses for the first time behind the wheel of a Formula One car, was able to top the time sheets at Valencia on Friday.

The Ford Motor Company has revealed losses of an amazing $5bn in the last three months of 2001.

Kimi Raikkonen continued turning blisteringly fast laps at Valencia on Thursday.

World Champions Ferrari have announced that they will unveil the F2002 on Wednesday, February 6th at the factory in Maranello, and immediately begin testing it at Fiorano and Mugello.

Tomas Scheckter, the former Jaguar Racing test driver, is to try his luck in the United States of America, following a season in Formula Nissan Open in Spain.

We understand that Heinz-Harald Frentzen is still waiting to find out if Prost Grand Prix is going to be in Melbourne. Frentzen has a deal to join Arrows if Prost goes out of business.

Ryan Briscoe, the Toyota Motorsport test driver and Australia's next rising star, has signed to drive for the Coca-Cola Nordic Racing team in the International Formula 3000 series.

The Premier 1 racing series, written off by many in the sport as not being a very serious idea, insists that it will kick off in 2003 and that this year will be spent signing up deals with more of the football clubs which it hopes will lend their support to the championship.

Cesare Fiorio, the former Ferrari team manager, is believed to be behind one consortium believed to have made a bid for Prost Grand Prix.

In a surprise announcement on the eve of the Monte Carlo Rally (January 18-20), British American Tobacco has announced that it will be reuniting its 555 brand with the works Subaru Impreza team of Prodrive, whose boss is new British American Racing chief David Richards.

The leading lights of the motorsport safety world are gathered in Florida this week for a meeting to discuss the latest developments in global safety technology and to exchange information.

The McLaren name is to go back to Indianapolis this year with the announcement that California-based McLaren Engines is to prepare Chevrolet engines for Blair Racing.

The Sauber Petronas team is reported to be less than happy about the decision by BMW Williams to launch its 2002 car on exactly the same day as the new Sauber C21.

Kimi Raikkonen topped the time sheets at the third day of testing at Valencia on Wednesday, just a hundredth of a second faster than his McLaren teammate David Coulthard.

Nobody would question Ferrari sporting director Jean Todt's assurances when he says that there has been no approach, either directly or indirectly, to Juan Pablo Montoya as a possible long-term candidate to replace Michael Schumacher.

A few days ago there were reports of "a Toyota mechanic" having been killed in an accident on the Arras-Dakar Rally.

As part of the plan to make the company profitable again, Ford is believed to be selling off its car repair business in Britain known as Kwik-Fit.

There has been a great deal of speculation of what Ferrari is up to this season and it is rumored that Michael Schumacher's recent test at Fiorano was to try out one of the new systems on the car.

One could never accuse Red Bull boss Dietrich Mateschitz of being conventional and his decision to sell his shares in Sauber but remain as a sponsor, while also supporting (and trying to buy) Arrows is best described as an idiosyncratic move.

There continue to be suggestions that Alain Prost is going to be forced to close down his Formula 1 team later this week as the proposals he has put forward have not done enough to convince the judicial administrator Franck Michel that the team can survive.

Former Williams test driver Bruno Junqueira did not have a great debut season in CART in 2001 but it now looks like he will be staying with the team for a second year.

There was a time when Renault Sport boss Patrick Faure had ambitions of becoming the boss of the entire Renault company, as the successor to current chairman Louis Schweitzer.

The construction work for the 2002 Australian GP has begun in Melbourne, despite the fact the race has still to receive an official green light from the FIA.