Formula One News — February 2002

Michael Schumacher said he was sad that Jos Verstappen lost his Arrows drive at the last minute to Heinz-Harald Frentzen despite the fact that the Dutchman had a contract with Tom Walkinshaw's team.

Formula 1 is sometimes stranger than fiction and on Wednesday evening in Australia a security guard at Albert Park was somewhat shocked when she encountered an intruder at the track, wearing a black balaclava.

There are lots of rumors at the moment that there might still be 12 teams in Formula 1 this year but the reality is that there is no hope of such a thing.

Damon Hill is to make a Formula 1 comeback as a TV commentator on Sky TV's British coverage of Grand Prix races.

The Tom Walkinshaw Racing organization has apparently agreed a deal to buy elements of the defunct Prost Grand Prix.

Tyson Deceleration Research will unveil its latest fully FIA-approved Formula 1 crash barrier system later today at a press conference in Melbourne.

The decision of a French court to sell TWR the major assets of Prost Grand Prix for a tiny sum of money is an extraordinary one and the reaction in France is going to be interesting because the deal leaves Prost's creditors with little hope of getting any money back.

Craig Pollock was much in evidence in the F1 paddock in Australia and when asked what his role was for the weekend he replied that he was there is his capacity as "owner" of British American Racing and manager of Jacques Villeneuve.

As we speculated a while ago, the giant Deutsche Bank may be looking to buy some of the shares of SLEC, the Formula 1 holding company, from the Kirch Group.

Former US President Bill Clinton is in Melbourne this weekend and its expected to be a guest at the Australian Grand Prix in the course of the next few days.

McLaren boss Ron Dennis warned the Formula 1 media not to be distracted by sensationalist stories in the weeks ahead and to look at the sport in a calm and considered way in the months ahead.

Jaguar Racing's Eddie Irvine says that he is going into the new F1 season with trepidation because of the problems which the team has been having in pre-season testing.

The Australian Grand Prix kicked off on Thursday with local races being watched by a first day crowd of 51,300 people - the second biggest first day crowd in the history of the event.

The Minardi team has recently signed up another engineer to help bolster the team.

Tomas Scheckter, the former Jaguar F1 test driver, has been signed up by Red Bull Team Cheever to be Eddie Cheever's team mate in 2002.

The British legal firm Herbert Smith has been granted the honor of being "Competition Team of the Year" for its defense of the international automobile federation during the European Commission's investigation into competition issues in motorsport.

Ron Dennis is never backward in coming forward when it comes to complaining about the international automobile federation and in a letter to all the other team bosses has criticized the FIA for the way it handles the regulations in Formula 1.

As the Arrows team was launching its Formula 1 program for 2002 in Melbourne, a curious rumor surfaced in Paris with word that the Tribunal de Commerce of Versailles is studying a last-minute attempt to keep a 12th Formula 1 team going.

Arrows unveiled its livery to the public in Melbourne on Wednesday morning, just two days before the new A23 will take to the Albert Park circuit in the hands of Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Enrique Bernoldi.

Jaguar's sister company Aston Martin is to have its own Le Mans 24 Hour program, according to reports in The Financial Times in London.

Michelin is not going to take on the FIA over the question of whether F1 tires should be allowed to have asymmetrical grooves.

Mercedes-Benz boss Jurgen Hubbert says that the automobile manufacturers might buy the commercial rights to Formula 1 racing if the Kirch Group came up with a sensible price.

Malaysian F1 driver Alex Yoong may be having his first race in Melbourne in Formula 1 but the Minardi driver is not new to competition in the city.

Eddie Jordan and Honda's Takeo Fukui have admitted in a press conference in Tokyo that the new Honda V10 engine is a bit short of horsepower.

Two years ago Orange launched its three-year sponsorship deal of Arrows with team boss Tom Walkinshaw making some fairly radical claims.