Formula One News — February 2002

The report of the Victorian State Coroner Graeme Johnstone into the death of marshal Graeme Berveridge in an accident during last year's Australian GP was a controversial document, ruling as it did that the accident was "avoidable".

There is no doubt that Craig Pollock was less than happy when he was ousted from his role at British American Racing.

The disappearance of Prost Grand Prix will not change the F1 numbering system this season with numbers 18 and 19, which were to go to Prost, being left unused this year.

It has been a destructive couple of days in Formula 1 circles with David Coulthard rolling a McLaren on Friday in Barcelona and Heinz-Harald Frentzen having two high-speed rear wing failures with his Arrows in Valencia on Saturday.

Jean Alesi has had a seat-fitting at McLaren - but the current drivers are not apparently too worried as the team is not about to hire the veteran Frenchman to race.

Williams and BAR returned to the Ricardo Tormo circuit on Saturday, while Arrows decided to sort out their rear wing problem rather than continue their testing program as scheduled.

Giorgio Ascanelli, the head of research and development at Ferrari, has been transferred to be the new technical head of sporting operations at Maserati. He will be replaced in his role at Ferrari by Ignazio Lunetta.

Max Mosley said that there are three Formula 1 projects at the moment in China: one in Shanghai, one in Beijing and the third at a regional city inside the country.

FIA President Max Mosley says that he would like to see a new appeal system in F1 to stop teams appealing decisions as a matter of course.

Just to underline the state of motor racing in France, DAMS has announced that it is pulling out of Formula 3000 this year.

The testing lineup slimmed down Friday in Valencia, with five teams in action.

David Coulthard became the latest driver this week to suffer a major testing accident when he lost control of his McLaren MP4/17 in Barcelona.

The FIA has hit back at the Melbourne Coroner's ruling that the death of marshal Graeme Beveridge was "avoidable".

Victoria State coroner, Graeme Johnstone's report on his findings into the death of a course marshal during last year's Australian GP were released Friday, and was very critical of race organizers.

While Tom Walkinshaw and Arrows have abandoned Jos Verstappen, Dutch sponsor, Trust, will remain loyal to him.

Jos Verstappen has a right to be less than pleased with life at the moment but to add insult to injury he says he has not heard from the Arrows team that his services will not be required in 2002 - except by reading it on the team website.

The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported this morning that the Kirch Group has approached the car manufacturers with an offer to get them involved in running SLEC.

This is the time of year when FIA President Max Mosley traditionally has a series of lunches with some of the leading F1 journalists.

Giancarlo Fisichella was unhurt after a considerable accident during Thursday morning testing in Valencia.

The dumping of Jos Verstappen is a tough blow for the Dutchman, coming as it does at a very late moment before the start of the new season.

The Orange Arrows team has announced that Heinz-Harald Frentzen will join Enrique Bernoldi in the team this season and says that Jos Verstappen has been "released" from his contract.

There is speculation that Jacques Villeneuve might be planning to race at Le Mans this year, sharing an Audi with his friend Patrick Lemarie.

Alain Prost revealed in his outspoken interview with Autohebdo magazine that there were two American groups which bid to buy Prost Grand Prix.

Alain Prost has lashed out in an interview with the French weekly magazine AutoHebdo at those people who he feels bear some of the responsibility for the failure of Prost Grand Prix.

The launch of the new Ferrari F2002 answered some of the questions which have been asked in recent months but there was one mystery left by the end of the presentation of the new car.