Formula One News — February 2002

Australia will have another driver in topline racing in Europe this year with the announcement that Rob Nguyen has joined Team Astromega to be team mate to Mario Haberfeld.

The commercial rights for Formula 1 are up for sale.

Health officials from the European countries have issued what they are calling the Warsaw Declaration for a Tobacco-Free Europe, throwing their support behind the World Health Organization's plans to ban tobacco advertising around the world.

Testing continued in mostly wet conditions at Silverstone Wednesday, but the track dried for a brief period in midmorning, allowing some useful dry runs for some of the teams.

The new Sky TV Formula 1 coverage in Britain is to feature John Watson.

Jordan Grand Prix announced a three year partnership with communications solutions company Damovo Wednesday.

The Silverstone circuit was busy Tuesday with teams conducting final preparations for the season opening Australian GP.

According to the highly-influential Wall Street Journal the Kirch Group could have debts and liabilities of $11.35bn - more than twice the accepted figure.

The hit quiz show "Who wants to be a millionaire?" helped out a Jaguar Racing designer on Monday, Chris Martin one of John Russell's design team at Milton Keynes taking home $50,000 to brighten up his week.

Times are tough in the car industry at the moment and on Monday the organizers of the 69th Turin Motor Show announced that the show in April is to be cancelled because most of the big car manufacturers have pulled out.

A couple of years ago Brazil's Max Wilson was being talked about as a potential Formula 1 driver.

Jaguar Racing announced a new partnership with DuPont Performance Coatings, a branch of American materials company DuPont.

The Formula 1 engine manufacturers are not that keen on the idea of a one-engine-per-weekend rule which was first suggested to them in December by FIA President Max Mosley.

Sauber finished up preseason testing on Monday in Mugello, but not the way they would have liked.

The Kirch Group, who control the commercial rights to Formula One, may be saved temporarily from the brink of bankruptcy by its German creditors.

Patrick Head, the technical director of Williams says that the different characteristics of the Michelin and Bridgestone tires this year could result in some fascinating qualifying and race strategies.

The Formula 1 teams agreed in October at Suzuka that they would institute their own testing regulations for 2002 as the FIA decided that it was no longer going to be responsible for policing testing.

Juan Pablo Montoya will have a new race engineer in 2002, Williams's Tim Preston having decided to stop travelling after two years running Jenson Button and then Montoya.

Preseason testing began to wind down over the weekend, with less than a week before the cars are shipped to Melbourne for the first GP of the year.

Ralf Schumacher had a fairly sizeable accident in Estoril at the weekend, wiping the two front wheels off his car as the result of a brake failure.

When Williams Grand Prix Engineering moved to its new factory in Grove, near Wantage, six years ago the team seemed to be a little lost in the vast new facility.

Final testing began on grand prix tracks in Great Britain, Italy and France for various teams on Monday.

Testing times are never very significant because teams can if they wish remove the ballast from their cars and make them go quicker than they can legally go to impress sponsors and so on.

According to advertisements in the United States, Formula 1 will be broadcasts this year by Speed Channel.

We may never see the Prost AP05 in action but photographs of the windtunnel model reveal that the car does not have the Sauber-like front end aerodynamics.