Formula One News — August 2002

Mike Den Tandt is from St-Vith in Belgium, not far from the Spa-Francorchamps racing circuit. He is 19 years old and has been competing in karting since he was five years old.

One can win scholarships at academic institutions for many different things but it seems that 13-year-old Freddie Martin-Dye has started a new trend by winning a sports scholarship to the $20,000 a year Cranleigh School in Surrey.

Things are very quiet at the moment in Formula 1 circles and so much has been made of two incidents in recent days in which leading players in motor racing have attacked photographers.

Former F1 driver Max Papis lost his drive in CART earlier this year when the Sigma Automotive team ran out of money.

There is talk that Sebastien Bourdais will give up his hopes of winning the International Formula 3000 title in order to take over Heinz-Harald Frentzen's drive at Arrows.

Ford Motor Company bosses in Detroit have informed Jaguar Racing that there is no need to worry about rumors in Formula 1 circles that Jordan Grand Prix is about to be named as a Ford factory team.

There has been talk for some time that r"a top Formula 1s" has begun design studies for an America's Cup racing yacht and these have resurfaced again in recent days in The Sunday Times in London.

Gerry Forsythe, the boss the Players Forsythe CART team has confirmed that he wants to run three cars in next year's series and that co"we are looking to bring somebody back to our series who has got star powerne".

BMW has had the most powerful engine in Formula 1 this year but problems with electronic systems and tyres have meant that the Williams-BMW team has won only one race so far this year. Everyone involved is keen to do better next year.

Melbourne and Sydney have traditionally been in competition to be Australia's bestknown city but the two have now joined forces to bid for the Soccer World Cup in 2014.

Mercedes-Benz has not had much to cheer this year in Formula 1 but at the weekend Markus Winkelhock, the son of Grand Prix driver Manfred, gave the Stuttgart firm its first win in the German Formula 3 Championship

The respected American racing journalist Robin Miller has reported on ESPN TV that CART team owner Gerry Forsythe has been to Europe in recent days to make Jacques Villeneuve a huge offer to return to CART next season.

Sebastien Bourdais wants to get into Formula 1 in the next few years and the International Formula 3000 Championship leader is busy adding to his curriculum vitae. His latest victory came on Sunday in the classic Spa 24 Hours.

The rumors suggesting that Fernando Alonso would be the best man to replace Alex Yoong made a lot of sense but if they were true one would have expected to have seen the Spanish driver joining the Minardi team at next weekend's Thunder in the Park at Donington Park.

Felipe Massa's manager Riccardo Tedeschi says it is ho"simply impossibleos" for the Brazilian youngster to be replaced before the end of the season.

It is being widely reported that Heinz-Harald Frentzen is unlikely to race at the Hungaroring for another team - and that begs an obvious question: why then did Frentzen leave Arrows?

NASCAR's biggest star Jeff Gordon has confirmed that there is a plan for him to drive a Formula 1 car in a demonstration at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and that this would include Juan-Pablo Montoya having a run in Gordon's Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet.

Although there have been many reports that Minardi is about to be sold to Prince Al Waleed to be run by Brendan McGuinness, it is worth noting that there is another consortium discussing the purchase with Paul Stoddart.

Speculation has been flying throughout the day since the announcement that Heinz-Harald Frentzen had left Arrows. The suggestion that appears to be emerging is that Felipe Massa is to be dropped at Sauber to make way for Heinz-Harald Frentzen.

There are lots of stories flying about at the moment suggesting that Toyota is close to signing a deal for Cristiano da Matta to come to Formula 1 next year. The big question is who is making the decisions at Toyota.

Heinz-Harald Frentzen has left the Orange Arrows with immediate effect and while this will be a blow to the already struggling team, it is probably a sign that Frentzen has something else to do.

Morgan Grenfell Private Equity has been making up for its losses in Formula 1 activities by selling the Coral Eurobet company.

HRH Prince Al Waleed bin Talal bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud (to give him his proper name) is one of the richest men in the world and has proved in the course of the last 15 years to be one of the mosty astute investors playing with big stakes.

Brendan McGuinness has confirmed that he is part of a consortium led by Saudi Prince Al-Waleed are in talks to buy Minardi. In Formula 1 circles this is no surprise as McGuinness has been knocking around the F1 scene for some time, although his efforts have yet to produce any solid results.

OrangeArrows and Heinz-Harald Frentzen have agreed to go their separate ways. Frentzen informed the team that he no longer wanted to drive for them and, presumably because there was no choice involved, the team agreed to let Frentzen go.