Formula One News — April 2002

The weather dried up for the second day of testing at the Valencia circuit in Spain on Wednesday, and the eight teams participating in the test were able to do some useful runs on the dry track.

The constantly attacking anti-tobacco lobby in the United States has come up with a new plan to try to stop the tobacco companies advertising their products in America.

The Sauber team said at its launch that there is no need for a test driver, but sources within the team say that this is becoming a disadvantage as all F1 drivers have a tendency to have a "mental hangover" for the first couple of days after a Grand prix and do not produce the results that the team wants to see in testing.

There have been a lot of rumors in recent days about the engineers who will be employed at Jaguar Racing in the future.

Although pay-per-view television coverage of Formula 1 has not been a resounding success, the NASCAR organization in the United States is reported to be considering launching its own multi-channel pay-per-view television package.

The preliminary TV ratings for Speed Channel's coverage of the first two Grands Prix of 2002 are very disappointing with an audience averaging only 145,000 people.

It is not big news that there are second, third and even fourth generation (Andretti) racing drivers but we have not seen many sons of Formula 1 engineers making much of an impression as racing drivers.

The Phoenix Finance bid for recognition is still not dead, according to paddock rumors in Brazil.

Jaguar Racing says that it will shortly announce a new aerodynamicist of note to add to the team's collection of windtunnel types.

It is worth noting that in the three races to date only four drivers have consistently out-qualified their team mates.

Despite the heavy rain in Spain, the eight teams that made the trip to the Valencia circuit did get some testing in Tuesday.

Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd has confirmed that it is selling the Sepang Circuit - and the company that runs it - to the Malaysian government's investment company Minister of Finance Inc.