Formula One News — March 2002

As we predicted some days ago, Henri Durand, the technical director of Prost Grand Prix, has joined Jordan as director of development and design, reporting to the technical director.

The majority of the Formula 1 team bosses met in Sepang on Thursday to discuss the matters of the moment in F1.

Most of the Formula 1 team bosses met on Thursday morning to discuss the forthcoming Formula 1 Commission meeting and the plans being proposed to reduce the number of engines allowed per weekend to just one.

It has been announced that Leon Mandel, the publisher of Autoweek magazine, has died after a long fight with leukemia.

Formula 1 people arriving in Kuala Lumpur in the course of Tuesday were greeted by a rather smelly, smoky haze caused by peat fires which have been burning in the region for some time.

Cosworth Racing has confirmed that it will producing an engine for CART in 2003.

Eddie Irvine has won a court victory over a British radio station which used his image to market itself. Irvine sued Talksport radio over documentation published in 1999 to attract advertisers.

The Phoenix Finance Ltd. plan for a Formula 1 team to rise from the ashes of Prost Grand Prix is a strange story, which does not appear to make much sense.

The quote of the week goes to B&T Marketing and Media, an online venture owned by Reed Business Information, which recently ran an interview with Sir Jackie Stewart about his sponsorship-hunting activities on behalf of the Jaguar Racing F1 team.

The Phoenix Finance Formula 1 team failed to appear for scrutineering in Malaysia and when the entry for the event was signed off by the FIA stewards in the middle of Thursday afternoon, all theoretical rights which the organization is claiming are thought to have disappeared as the Concorde Agreement apparently states that.

Kirch, the commercial rights holder of the Formula 1 World Championship, could come crashing down if the German publishing company Axel Springer decided to institute bankruptcy proceedings against the German media empire. If that happened the control of the rights in F1 could be tied up in legal actions for years to come.

The FIA has issued a statement which makes it very clear that the Phoenix Finance Formula 1 team cannot take part in the World Championship this year.

A few years ago FIA President Max Mosley was asked about the possibility that the automobile industry might one day have to face similar restrictions to those endured by the tobacco trade.

The famed Indianapolis Pagoda is to become known as The Bombardier Pagoda, in a naming deal with the Canadian executive jet constructor Bombardier. As part of the deal Bombardier will help to fund the Indy Racing League this year.

There are reports from Europe that Jordan Prix Grand is close to a deal to hire Frenchman Henri Durand as its new technical director.

Canal Plus - which holds the digital TV rights for Formula 1 in a variety of countries - has launched a $1bn lawsuit against Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation.

The FIA has put an end to any hopes of the new Phoenix grand prix team competing in Malaysia, or any other grand prix in 2002.

Tom Walkinshaw and Charles Nickerson's Phoenix grand prix team have arrived in Kuala Lumpur, presumably in an attempt to compete in the Malaysian Grand Prix this weekend.

In the days after Melbourne, several of the British tabloid newspapers ran stories suggesting that Eddie Irvine was considering leaving Jaguar Racing at the end of the season unless performance improves dramatically.

The F1 Commission will also discuss whether or not there should be a new sporting regulation which forces automobile manufacturers to supply more than one team.

One of the issues which will be discussed at the forthcoming Formula 1 Commission meeting is the question of whether or not it is a good idea for there to be two-day Grands Prix.

The first race of the CART series has been won by Cristiano da Matta at the wheel of a Lola-Toyota.

One of Michael Schumacher's Benetton-Ford B194s is to be sold in an Internet auction. The car will be offered by ebay.co.uk with the bidding starting on Wednesday and lasting for 10 days.

Leo Kirch, the boss of the troubled Kirch Group, will decide today whether or not he is going to have to sell off chunks of his media empire to keep the whole business afloat.

Pat Symonds, the technical director of Benetton Formula between 1996 and 2000, is rumored to be leaving the team at the end of the season - but it is not yet clear where he is going to work instead.