Formula One News — November 2002

It is anticipated that the World Rally Championship will soon adopt the same scoring system as Formula 1. Confirmation will come at the forthcoming World Motor Sport Council in December. This will mean that the top eight finishers will all score points on a scale of 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1.

Jenson Button will be allowed to test for BAR for two days in December. The

That Ecclestone gets everywhere. This week Ecclestone, ridden by Francine Gueros, will compete in the French national dressage competitions at Saumur.

McLaren, Williams and Renault finished up testing at the Valencia circuit in Spain Friday. David Coulthard set the fastest time of the day for McLaren, concentrating on the MP4-17, which he will start the 2003 season in.

Responding to the furore over Renault's refusal to let Jenson Button test before the end of the year, Renault F1 boss Flavio Briatore said that he had never been asked if Button could be released from his Renault contract in order to drive for British American Racing.

Rising British star Dan Wheldon has joined Andretti Green Racing in the Indy Racing League and will act as the team's test driver. If money can be found for a fourth car he will join Tony Kanaan, Dario Franchitti and Michael Andretti.

In a rather unsporting gesture, Renault Sport has decided to stop Jenson Button taking part int he two planned days of testing he has in December with British American Racing. The French team argued that Button remains under contract to Renault until December 31 and thus cannot test.

Antonio Pizzonia had a lively time on Thursday in Barcelona when he wrote off a $70,000 Jaguar sports car while giving a demonstration run for a magazine article. Pizzonia rolled the car at the exit of the first corner at Barcelona at around 155mph. No-one was injured in the crash but there were a few bruises.

Ferrari test driver Luca Badoer continued to set the pace in the testing at Barcelona on Thursday with a best lap of 1m17.141s. This was over 1.5 secs faster than Mark Webber's Jaguar, the Australian finally getting some mileage after two days of engine problems with the new Cosworth V10.

McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen continued to set the pace in the third day of the Valencia F1 testing, lapping the track in 1m10.664s after 114 laps. This was more than a second faster than his McLaren-Mercedes team mate David Coulthard, who completed only 65 laps for a best of 1m11.833s.

British American Racing has offered Kosuke Matsuura, runner-up in this year's German Formula 3 Championship this year, the opportunity to test at Jerez next month. The 23-year-old Japanese driver will join Ralf Firman Jr at the test.

There is to be an auction of Prost Memorabilia on Sunday, December 15 at the Palais de Congres at the Porte Maillot in Paris. The sale is being organised by the Poulain Le Fur auction house and begins at 10.30 in the morning.

The supporters of the Turkish Grand Prix are getting very excited at the moment, following a visit to Istanbul by Hermann Tilke, the architect who designs Formula 1 circuits these days. Tilke visited the proposed site for a Turkish Grand Prix and told the locals that it would be fine.

McLaren took to the top of the time sheet for the second day of testing at the Valencia circuit Wednesday. Kimi Raikkonen and Alexander Wurz led the ten drivers who conducted testing at the Spanish circuit.

Jaguar's Antonio Pizzonia set the pace in Barcelona for the second day of preseason testing at the Spanish circuit. After running second to Ferrari's Luca Badoer Tuesday, the two swapped positions on the time sheet Wednesday.

Ever since the Moscow Formula 1 project flopped last summer, things have gone quiet in Russia but in St Petersburg the local authorities are still talking about a race track to welcome Formula 1 in 2005 or 2006.

The Financial Times Deutschland is reporting that EM.TV is preparing a law suit to claim back its share of the Formula One group, arguing that the takeover of the shares by the now-defunct Kirch Group was not carried out correctly.

Gerhard Berger, the former F1 driver who is now in charge of BMW Motorsport, says that he may not stay with BMW when his current contract is finished - although his intention if he does stop with BMW is to retire.

The attention may be focussed on the four American drivers who have Red Bull backing for their racing in Europe next year but there are still other Americans trying to make their way up the motor racing ladder without the Austrian backing.

Jackie Stewart appeared at yesterday's Jaguar Racing announcement with a rather dramatic scar on his cheek, having recently undergone an operation to remove a tumour. The operation took place at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, one of the world's bestknown surgical establishments.

Tony Purnell has kept such a low profile in recent years that the boss of PI Research often has his name spelled wrong. In fact it is Tony Purnell, rather than Parnell, and he founded PI Research in 1987.

As exclusively revealed by Grandprix.com, Tony Purnell has been named as the new boss of Jaguar Racing.

Niki Lauda has confirmed to Austrian television that he is to be replaced as boss of Jaguar Racing.

Grace is not something one really associates with Niki Lauda and so his reaction to being fired by the Ford Motor Company from his role as head of the Premier Performance Division and Jaguar Racing is not altogether surprising.

The teams that made their way to the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona tuesday for the first testing of the off season picked up where they left off the 2002 season... looking up the time sheet at a Ferrari.