Formula One News — October 2002

The International Court of Appeal met in Paris to examine various appeals resulting from the recent Formula 3000 race at Monza and the conclusions of the court ended up having a fairly dramatic effect on the championship order with Antonio Pizzonia dropping down the order.

A Los Angeles jury has ordered Ferrari sponsor Philip Morris - the owner of the Marlboro brand - to pay $28 billion in punitive damages to a 64-year-old woman with lung cancer who blamed her tobacco addiction on the company's failure to warn her of the risks of smoking.

With the Formula 3000 series having ended and drives in Formula 1 being in short supply the recent days have seen a number of tests and contacts between Formula 3000 racers and the US teams.

The McLaren team has admitted that it intends to start next season with an updated version of the current car before bring in the new MP4-18 at the start of the European season.

Felipe Massa was back behind the wheel for Sauber this week at the Mugello circuit, in preparation for his final race with the Swiss team next weekend, the Japanese Grand Prix.

Antonio Pizzonia was the fastest man in Barcelona Thursday during the third day of testing before the Japanese Grand Prix.

The organizers of the Premier1 Grand Prix series, who have been silent in recent months, have released a statement confirming their intentions and where they currently stand in their plans to launch the series.

The Discovery Channel is to broadcast a three-part series called The Secret Life of Formula 1, a behind-the-scenes documentary featuring the WilliamsF1 team.

The FIA World Council 's new Formula 1 calendar for 2003 has one very significant but unnoticed change. The provisional status of the Australian GP has now disappeared, indicating that the problems surrounding the Melbourne race have now been sorted out.

The FIA World Council has ruled that in future there will be no advertising allowed on the race track itself.

The McLaren MP4-17B, the updated version of the current car in development for 2003, broke the Circuit de Catalunya track record in the hands of test driver Alexander Wurz Wednesday.

Tony George says he has no complaints about what happened at the end of the United States Grand Prix on Sunday.

Honda is having a major reshuffle of its Formula 1 staff with Toru Ogawa, the executive chief engineer of Honda R&D Ltd. being replaced by Takeo Kiuchi.

Turkey has been chosen to host one of the 14 rounds of the FIA World Rally Championship in 2003.

For the last 12 years readers of the British magazine Formula 1 News have enjoyed the adventures and revelations of a character called

The 2003 Belgian Grand Prix will go ahead as planned next August - if all the Formula 1 teams agree to run without tobacco advertising. And that means that there is very little chance of the race taking place.

Jaguar Racing's spokesman Nav Sidhu says that Helio Castroneves is not in the frame at Jaguar Racing and never has been. This contradicts well-placed sources in Detroit who are indicating that there is a push from the Ford Motor Company top management to get Castroneves.

Testing resumed Tuesday in Barcelona, as the Formula One teams prepare for the Japanese Grand Prix in two weeks, as well as looking ahead to next year. McLaren, BAR and Toyota tested both current and future components at the Spanish circuit.

The FIA World Motor Sport Council has ruled that Tomas Enge will be excluded from the results of the Hungarian Formula 3000 race this year - which means that the title goes to his rival Sebastian Bourdais. The ruling came after Enge was found to have tested positive in a random dope test after the event.

The Formula One Commission will meet on October 28 to discuss what shape the F1 regulations should take next year.

The World Motor Sport Council met in Paris on October 1st and amended the Formula 1 calendar for 2003. The Hungarian GP has been pushed back a week to August 24, creating a three-week break between the German and Hungarian events but this means that Hungary and Belgium are now just a week apart.

Helio Castroneves has confirmed that talks are going on to get him into a seat at Jaguar Racing, as we exclusively revealed on Saturday.

Nico Rosberg has won the Formula BMW championship - with two races to go.

The FIA World Motor Sport Council meets in Paris later today and it is expected that there will be a number of important decisions, notably the shape of the Formula 1 calendar for next year.