Formula One News — October 2002

Dr. Mario Theissen, the boss of BMW Motorsport, has been talking about the company's plans in Formula 1 and says that the Munich firm has three options for the future.

The Suddeutsche Zeitung newspaper is reporting that a solution has been found between the banks which are now in control of the Formula One group of companies and the car manufacturers.

The International Formula 3000 champion of 2001 Justin Wilson is talking to Minardi about a drive for next year while also keeping his options open by testing for the Newman Haas CART team.

We are hearing rumors that the CART board of directors has given the go-ahead for chief executive Chris Pook to embark on a major investment program to save the series with a rumored $40m being taken out of the CART bank accounts to be used to attract teams and drivers to the series.

Two former Formula 1 men are making waves in America at the moment as they build the first chassis to be produced by the all-new Falcon Cars in Charlotte, North Carolina.

The surviving members of the 17th Operational Training Unit of the Royal Air Force gather today at Silverstone to unveil a memorial to their fallen colleagues who flew from Silverstone during World War II.

The chief executive of Fiat Gabriele Galateri says that he has no further plans to sell more shares in the Ferrari company, despite the financial troubles of the Fiat group. In an interview with the Fiat-controlled newspaper Corriere della Sera, he said that job cuts are needed at Fiat Auto if the company is going to survive.

Bernie Ecclestone flew out to Shanghai on Saturday in order to finish final negotiations with the organisers of the planned Chinese GP. The commercial agreements should be signed on Monday.

For some time Formula 1 observers have been trying to work out what is holding up movement on the driver market. Mark Webber is expected to be confirmed as a Jaguar Racing driver but the deal has not been confirmed. There is also much talk of Cristiano da Matta joining Olivier Panis at Toyota - but the deal has not been announced.

Sir Frank Williams had a discreet press briefing on Friday at the Williams factory at Grove and explained the team's views about a number of issues in the run-up to the forthcoming Formula 1 Commission meeting. Williams said that he hoped that sense would prevail and that the future of the sport would remain the focus.

As we have been predicting for some months, the plans for a Chinese Grand Prix have now come to fruition with FIA President Max Mosley announcing plans for a race in Shanghai from 2004 until 2010.

Pedro de la Rosa seems a mild-mannered sort of fellow, always happy to please and not one to rock the boat but being team mates with Eddie Irvine has obviously been a strain for the Spaniard, not least after Irvine launched a critical salvo in his direction a few weeks ago. De la Rosa chose not to respond at the time. But now...

Tomas Scheckter once seemed on a trajectory which was going to take him to Formula 1 but the young South African, son of the 1979 World Champion, went off the rails in 2001 and was dumped by Jaguar Racing.

Formula 1 team owners have an extraordinary amount of power, compared to participants in many other sports. The Concorde Agreement gives teams a strong voice in deciding the rules and regulations of the sport - and that is becoming more and more of a problem because the teams can never agree on anything.

The Interpublic Group of Companies is the world's second biggest advertising company but in recent months its results has been adversely affected by its involvement in motorsports. The firm has just given its second profit because of the problems it is encountering at Octagon Motorsports.

Allan McNish has flown to the United States of America and is due to test for the Penske IRL team early next week at the California Speedway at Fontana. McNish might be in the running for a Penske drive if Helio Castroneves gets the chance to race in Formula 1

The Red Bull Driver Search is over with Danny Sullivan and his crew having picked the four young American drivers they think have the best chance of making it to Formula 1 in the future - after a series of tests at Paul Ricard.

The news that Asiatech has been unable to move to the second phase of its plans to become a Formula 1 team means that there is no reason for the company to remain in operation. This is bad news for the 200 people at Velizy, in the southern suburbs of Paris.

The French motorsport magazine Autohebdo has come up with an interesting theory about why Bernie Ecclestone was meeting with CART bosses Gerry Forsythe and Chris Pook recently.

On September 2 the European Commission received notification that three banks: the Bayerische Landesbank, JP Morgan and Lehmann Brothers were planning to take control of SLEC Holdings, the Formula One group holding company.

The Telefonica World Series by Nissan, a rival championship to the International Formula 3000 series, has announced two major new signings for the 2003 series: Carlin Motorsport and Saulnier Racing.

This week the big kerfuffle in Formula 1 circles is an apparent threat by Ferrari to race elsewhere if certain proposals suggested by the FIA are voted through by the F1 Commission on October 28. This is about as credible as the proposal to institute a system in which drivers switch between teams in the course of a season.

This weekend the young racers of Europe will gather at Brands Hatch for the annual Formula Ford Festival. A victory in the Festival has been the launching pad for a number of drivers who ended up in Formula 1

A Monaco-based British banker was in court yesterday charged with siphoning money from the bank accounts of his clients, including Formula 1 driver Michael Schumacher. Stephen Troth has confessed to spending up to $20m which belonged to others.

The big question in F1 circles for those who have not gone away on holiday after the last race of the season, is what will now happen at the meeting of the Formula 1 Commission on October 28.