Formula One News — October 2002

Michael Schumacher borrowed a Minardi two-seater racer earlier this week and took to the Ferrari test track at Fiorano to give some of his friends a ride with him in an F1 car.

The House of Lords of the British Parliament was the scene last week of a heated debate over whether the government should help to ensure that the British motorsport industry maintains its position as the world leader.

The Belgian Grand Prix is probably not going to make it onto the F1 calendar next year. It is believed that the teams have been unable to agree on whether the race should happen and that means that it is off the calendar.

The rumoured problems of Credit Suisse will not affect the Sauber F1 program at all, according to Credit Suisse spokesman Alexandre Fasel.

Although Shanghai has won the contract to host the Chinese Grand Prix for seven years between 2004 and 2010, there is still much talk in the Chinese newspapers of a bid for a Grand Prix by Beijing. How this could happen is not clear but the that has not stopped the stories.

CART president Chris Pook says that there are no plans to combine the efforts of CART and Formula 1.

There seems to be little connection between asbestos and Formula 1, the current state of the sport and the need for large amounts of money has created some unusual problems for team bosses to worry about.

Fiat boss Gianni Agnelli has been in Paris this week amid rumours that Italy's best known industrialist is trying to find more money to keep Fiat afloat because of the losses that have been suffered by its Fiat Auto subsidiary. The issue is an important one for the Ferrari F1 team because is Fiat a major Ferrari sponsor.

Eddie Jordan is known as a talker and so an invitation to talk to the Oxford Union, Britain's premier debating forum, was just up EJ's street. Keeping up his theme in recent weeks Jordan said that Formula 1 is in need of change.

Dan Gurney's plan to establish an all American Formula One team has been put on hold due to the economic climate and the uncertainty in the future of F1.

While there is much activity at the moment trying to talk up CART as rumors circulate that there might be a takeover of the series by the Formula One group the series's major team - which has won four of the last seven CART titles - has announced that it is to follow Penske Racing into the Indy Racing League.

Word is leaking out that there is to be another meeting between team bosses and the FIA on Friday at the federation's London headquarters in Trafalgar Square. This is believed to be a pre-F1 Commission meeting between the teams opposed to the changes being proposed and FIA President Max Mosley.

At his recent press briefing Sir Frank Williams raised an interesting point. He believes that one of the problems of modern Formula 1 is that the circuits used are not up to standard.

Formula 1 teams do not use tobacco branding in Britain these days but the government continues pushing ahead with its anti-smoking legislation despite the fact that most of Europe is happy to wait until the FIA-backed ban on tobacco sponsorship begins in 2006.

The stories circulating that Bernie Ecclestone may be buying into Championship Auto Racing Teams Inc. are interesting but there is still a long way to go before they become a reality. For a start CART is still a public company and in order for there to be a change in ownership the firm would need to get off Wall Street...

The Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi yesterday received members of the Ferrari team at the Palazzo del Qurinale in Rome. The party included Luca di Montezemolo, Piero Ferrari, Jean Todt, Michael Schumacher, Luca Badoer and Luciano Burti.

Ferrari's parent company Fiat is set to announce even bigger losses for its Fiat Auto subsidiary after a board meeting on October 31. Reports suggest that the loss will be at least one third of its capital and that means that the company will, under Italian law, have to be recapitalised.

The board of the Grand Prix World Championship company met a few days ago and decided to make a proposal to SLEC, the holding company of the Formula One group, to restucture Formula 1 so that all parties can work together. The GPWC has now gone public with the proposal.

There have been stories on and off for a couple of years suggesting that Porsche is planning to return to Formula 1 with its own Formula 1 operation in 2005. To date the idea has always been voted down by the company's supervisory board but now it seems there is more potential than ever.

Alex Yoong may be moving to America in 2003, rather than staying on with the Minardi team in a testing role. The young Malaysian recently revealed that he is close to signing a deal in CART, which would be a boost to both Yoong and the struggling series.

Belgian Jan Heylen won the Formula Ford Festival at the weekend at Brands Hatch. Victory in the event is a major step forward for any young driver and Heylen joins a distinguished list of former winners

Formula Nissan continues to grow and the Nissan 3-litre engine which will be used in the cars next year was given its first run on Monday at Valencia with Bas Leinders doing the development work.

The Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in Mexico City is just finishing major renovation work in preparation for the return of international motor racing in the middle of November when the CART series arrives for the Telmex Gigante Gran Premio Mexico.

Federal Express has said that it will not be continuing its sponsorship arrangements with CART. This is a major blow to the US series but could be a bonus for the BMW Williams team which enjoys FedEx support in Formula 1.

The CART championship is looking to switch to normally-aspirated V10 engines in 2005. This would open the way for the American series to use versions of the current engines used in Formula 1 racing