Formula One News — February 2002

Williams and Renault began testing at the Valencia circuit on Monday in artificially wet conditions.

The new Arrows A23 was run for the first time at the Kemble airfield in Gloucestershire.

Gunther Steiner has been appointed technical director of Jaguar Racing to replace the departed Steve Nichols.

Jaguar's announcement that Steve Nichols has been dropped by the team was phrased in typically public relations waffle.

Steve Nichols, the technical director of Jaguar Racing, has been dropped by the troubled racing team and while the news is not exactly a big surprise given the performance of the Jaguar-Cosworth R3 in recent tests, it is not going to make life any easier for the team as it tries to sort out the problems.

Eddie Jordan has flown off to Tokyo today for what are believed to be talks with the management of Honda.

Yesterday we hinted that there was about to be a reshuffle amongst some of the top engineers in F1 and rumors have already begun that Egbahl Hamidy is about to depart Jordan Grand Prix and may be replaced by Renault F1's Pat Symonds.

BAR boss David Richards has recently had an hour-long cup of coffee with none other than Eddie Irvine, lead driver of Jaguar Racing.

The British government says that it "does not anticipate that" the entire Silverstone by-pass will be finished in time for the British Grand Prix in July.

The Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne is due to take place a month from now but the date remains provisional at the moment because of the legal implications that might exist in the report and recommendations of the Melbourne coroner.

February is traditionally the time of year when a number of F1 technical directors have contracts which run out.

It is one year since Niki Lauda took over as head of the newly-created Premier Performance Division of the Ford Motor Company, his role being to run Jaguar Racing, Cosworth Racing and Pi Electronics.

Jaguar had the Circuit de Catalunya to themselves Saturday, but only managed 47 laps between two drivers and cars.

Enrique Bernoldi is scheduled to test the first new Arrows-Cosworth A23s on Monday in England before the car is sent to Spain for more intensive tests.

With less than a month to go now before the start of the Formula 1 World Championship in Australia, the race in Melbourne remains provisional on the F1 calendar pending the delivery of the Coroner's Report into the death of track marshal Graeme Beveridge during last year's race.

Mika Hakkinen, taking a year's "sabbatical" from Grand Prix racing is waiting for the Australian Grand Prix to see how he feels when he is not at a Grand Prix track for the first time in years.

As we predicted a week ago, Australian rising star Ryan Briscoe will be racing a Ferrari sportscar at Albert Park in order to learn the race track in preparation for his F1 debut which is expected to take place in 2003.

Suzuka has long needed to be revamped.

The new KL Minardi-Asiatech PS02 made its first appearance on Friday with Alex Yoong doing the first shakedown runs at Imola.

It is German election time and Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder is looking at ways to hold off the challenge from Edmund Stoiber.

Antonio Pizzonia was the sole test driver for Williams on Friday in Barcelona, and, in 74 laps of the Circuit de Catalunya, the Brazilian out-paced the rest of the field by more than half a second in an FW23 fitted with the new BMW engine.

The cable company United Pan-Europe Communications, the parent company of Arrows sponsor Chello, has announced plans to pay off $7bn of debt by issuing new shares, thus diluting the existing shareholdings.

General Motors launched its Cadillac Le Mans program two years ago to change the international image of the brand and to increase sales around the world.

The Sauber team was very confident at the launch of the new C21 that the car was going to be better than the 2001 car but testing in Barcelona has shown that the car is very impressive indeed.

Williams's sponsor Compaq has gained clearance from the European Commission for the takeover of the firm by Hewlett-Packard.