Formula One News — May 2002

Renaud Derlot and Bruno Besson gave the Signature team a 1-2 result at Pau on Monday.

Despite the fact that there was no grand prix this weekend, there were quite a few F1 names racing around the world.

Solidere, the company which is redeveloping central Beirut and is behind the plan to run a Grand Prix in the streets of the city, has announced that it made a profit of $1.9m last year.

Most of the work that is done these days on Formula 1 cars is done by the teams themselves but there are always parts which require outside manufacturing.

The University of Nebraska engineers who developed the "soft" walls which have been fitted in recent weeks at Indianapolis have been awarded the Louis Schwitzer Award.

Monaco's Prince Rainier went into hospital last week because of bronchial problems but he is expected to be out of hospital again before the start of the city's biggest week of the year: the Grand Prix week.

The Monaco Grand Prix usually takes place on the Ascension Day weekend which means that Friday is a holiday in the principality and so there is no racing.

For the next 10 days motor racing around the world is in the media spotlight, with the Monaco Grand Prix, the Indianapolis 500 and one of NASCAR's biggest events of the year at Charlotte as well.

Alex Yoong is to take part in tomorrow's Historic Grand Prix of Monaco at the wheel of a Lotus 72. The car in question was used by Ronnie Peterson to win four Grand Prix victories in the course of 1973.

Since the demise of Prost Grand Prix there has been no word at all about the future of John Barnard and his B3 Technologies company in Shalford, Surrey.

The news that five Formula 1 teams are supposed to have joined forces to act as a rival to Bernie Ecclestone's companies is really not a story which should be taken too seriously.

The CART organization in the United States is to move from Troy, Michigan to Indianapolis this weekend.

The Monaco Grand Prix circuit is planning to make some significant changes to the race track for the race in 2003.

CART series frontrunner Cristiano da Matta has always wanted to race in Formula 1 and thanks to Toyota was able to have his first runs in an F1 car on Friday at Paul Ricard.

ABC has named John Watson and Ben Edwards as it two lead commentators for the Monaco Grand Prix.

The final day of testing at the Paul Ricard circuit went off without a hitch Friday, as Heinz-Harald Frentzen led all drivers testing for Arrows.

Five of the teams competing in Formula One have formed a company, GPT Ltd., aimed at buying the majority of the commercial rights to Formula One from the recently defunct Kirch group.

Toranosuke Takagi returned to Formula 1 this week at the wheel of a Toyota F12 at Paul Ricard.

A day after Tora Takagi got his chance behind the wheel of the Toyota TF102, fellow CART star Cristiano da Matta took his turn Friday.

Michael Schumacher, Rubens Barrichello and the Ferrari team could face legal actions as a result of what happened at the end of the Austrian Grand Prix.

Octagon Motorsports, the organizers of the British GP, are considering offering 5,000 more tickets to the race on July 7th.

Jean Redale, the founder of Alpine - one of the key players in bringing Renault into frontline motor racing, celebrates his 80th birthday tomorrow.

This weekend will see the first international Formula 3 race of the year on the streets of Pau, in the south-west France and the cream of the current Formula 3 runners will be present, racing one another on Michelin tires, which will hopefully mean that no-one gains an unfair advantage.

Testing at the Valencia circuit in Spain continued Thursday, as the teams continue to prepare for the Monaco GP in just over a week.

A week is a long time in Formula 1 politics.