Formula One News — June 2002

The focus of the world was on Yokohama, Japan, on Sunday for the soccer World Cup Final between Germany and Brazil.

Sri Lanka has just opened its first racing circuit and it is hoped that the 1.3-mile circuit, located 40 miles to the north of the capital Colombo, will host Formula 3 races in the future.

There have been rumors about Audi entering Formula 1 for almost two years and with the Ingolstadt company having recently scored its third consecutive 1-2 in the Le Mans 24 Hours there is little sense in the firm staying on in sports car racing.

Bonhams is offering 10 Formula 1 Tyrrells for sale at this year's Goodwood Festival of Speed Sale.

Mark Webber showed that he should be considered as a challenger for any of the good midfield F1 seats for next year.

Fiat has sold 34% of the Ferrari company to the Italian bank Mediobanca for $768m.

Minardi is now confident that it will get to the end of the current season and so the team's focus has switched to finding a good package for the 2003 season.

Testing came to a conclusion in Barcelona Friday, where Alexander Wurz finished the day on top of the time sheets for McLaren.

As we predicted yesterday, Fiat has sold 34 percent of Ferrari to investment bank Mediobanca.

Jaguar Racing has shaken down its revamped R3 chassis and this is now running at Barcelona.

The world's media was focussed on the team orders in Austria issue and no-one paid much attention to the fact that the Australian Grand Prix remains provisional on next year's World Championship calendar.

Reports in Italy are suggesting that Fiat may not float Ferrari as had been announced because of the fears that the market would not respond well to an IPO at the moment.

For the last 25 years Britain's "Motorsport Valley" has dominated the global industry with the specialist teams and racing car manufacturers and suppliers selling their products across the world.

An Extraordinary General Assembly of the FIA in Paris has voted in favor of a complete merger with the Alliance Internationale de Tourisme (AIT).

Emilio Gnutti is one of Italy's wealthiest financiers and for most of the last 12 years has been quietly involved as a shareholder in Formula 1.

Testing continued in Barcelona at the Circuit de Catalunya Thursday, where McLaren out-paced the field.

A number of the high technology companies involved in Grand Prix racing have been hit by the knock-on effects of the current Worldcom scandal.

Tomas Scheckter says that he wants to get back into Formula 1.

Ferrari may have shown admirable cohesion in recent years with Jean Todt's little army all singing from the same song sheet almost all of the time.

In the days after the Austrian Grand Prix the world seemed scandalized by the actions of the Ferrari team, and the outburst from the general public was spontaneous and vitriolic and the fans demanded that the FIA do something about what was seen as race-fixing.

FIA President Max Mosley told the international media that he was "irritated but impotent" about team orders.

The FIA have announced the provisional 2003 calendar.

Bernie Ecclestone has confirmed to reporters outside the FIA headquarters in Paris that the first in a series of payments has been made to Minardi.

A verdict was reached in the case regarding Ferraris actions at the Austrian Grand Prix.

The FIA World Council has ruled that Ferrari, Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello should share a $500,000 fine for what happened on the podium at the Austrian Grand Prix.