Formula One News — September 2002

Cristiano da Matta has admitted that he thinks he going to be staying in CART next year. The Brazilian says that Toyota does not seem to be interested in him being anything more than a test driver next year - and that does not interest him at all.

Friday was the last day of testing at the Monza circuit before the Italian GP next weekend. The teams ran in the morning only, allowing the race officials to begin the preparations for the race in the afternoon.

As expected, American Townsend Bell will test for Minardi later this month. The ex-CART driver has F1 aspirations after being replaced at Patrick Racing in July because the team felt he was too reckless.

Minardi would love run Ferrari V10 engines - and a Ferrari rear end as Sauber does. Paul Stoddart would be only too pleased to put his team up into the top 10 at every Grand Prix. The only slight problem is that it costs a pile of money and Stoddart has yet to find it.

It is not a surprise that Bridgestone and Sauber have reached an agreement to continue their relationship until the end of 2004. Sauber has been with Bridgestone since 1999.

There have been stories in Germany that the creditor banks involved in the Kirch debacle have to get European Commission clearance before being allowed to appoint a new board of directors for SLEC, the company which controls the Formula One group of companies and which controls the commercial rights to Formula 1.

There is no secret in the fact that Jordan sponsor DHL, a subsidiary of Deutsche Post, was keen to have a German driver in Formula 1 next year. The company showed itself to be very keen on Heinz Harald Frentzen but that deal never happened.

Testing continued at Monza Thursday, where the teams saw their first full day of dry testing this week. Pedro De la Rosa topped the time sheets in the Jaguar R3, conducting tire testing for Michelin.

Bernie Ecclestone is reportedly in Spain today at the wedding of Ana Aznar, the daughter of the Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar and Alejandro Agag, a former rising star in European politics who is now working for a Portuguese bank.

BAR test driver Darren Manning will drive the Team St. George entry in the Rockingham 500 CART race on September 14th.

We hear that attempts are going on to try to put Felipe Massa into a drive at Toyota, despite the fact that all the signs at the moment are that the Toyota team is going to hire the soon-to-be-crowned CART champion Cristiano da Matta.

The initial fuss about Arrows needing to answer to the FIA for failing to race in Belgium is now over and everyone is waiting to see what the response will be. We are not expecting any response at all.

There have been vague signals in recent months that there may be changes in the Williams-BMW relationship in the future. The relationship was signed for five years and that means that the current arrangement ends next year...

Testing continued at Monza Wednesday, where all the F1 teams except Arrows tested in preparation for the Italian GP.

Gallaher, the owner of Jordan's sponsor Benson & Hedges is about to announce a major deal to break into the Chinese market. The company has signed a letter of intent with the China National Tobacco Corporation.

Marlboro has confirmed that it is to sponsor the Peugeot World Rally Championship for the next four years. The team will become known as Team Marlboro Peugeot Total and the drivers Richard Burns, Marcus Gronholm, Gilles Panizzi and Harri Rovanpera.

Retired world champion Mika Hakkinen will be working at the US Gran Prix, not behind the wheel of a McLaren but behind a microphone. The ex-McLaren driver will act as a commentator for Canal Digital, the digital channel that broadcasts F1 in his native Finland, analyzing the race and giving the drivers' point of view.

Allan McNish's Formula 1 career seems to have come to an end but the Scotsman looks like being employed next year in one of the big factory teams in sports car racing.

Heinz-Harald Frentzen's Formula 1 career is settled for next year but until a new car is built the German driver is not going to be racing. Firstly he has to settle the outstanding lawsuit with Eddie Jordan over his contract for 2002 and secondly he cannot fit in the Sauber chassis

The Lausitzring filed for protection against its creditors recently but it nows seems that the debts are too big to be able to save the company and the whole project is expected to go into receivership shortly. It is believed that there are several potential buyers for the facility in the old East Germany.

A recent FIA statement confirmed that Arrows has complied with the request for a written explaination of the recent goings on at the team, and the governing body is reviewing the explaination.

Six of the Formula One teams tried to kick off a four day test at Monza Tuesday, but heavy rain prevented anyone from completing a full dry day of testing.

Jos Verstappen was kicking around the paddock in Spa and there were lots of rumours of talks with a variety of different teams. The reality is that Verstappen does not have many choices.

The FIA Foundation has moved into its new offices on London's Trafalgar Square and as the new organisation becomes more organised we would expect to see some major new initiatives coming out of the Foundation, a charity which is funded by the lease of the F1 commercial rights to Formula One Management.

There has been much talk in recent months about the damage that Ferrari domination is doing to Formula 1 - but this is not to look at the bigger picture. THe question is not that one team is ahead of the rest but that all the way down through the field it is increasingly hard for one driver to overtake another.