Formula One News — November 2002

The European Formula 3000 runner-up Romain Dumas is to be given a test by Renault F1. Dumas, a protege of longtime Renault favourite Erik Comas, was a frontrunner in the Euro F3000 title this year driving for John Village Automotive in a 1999 Lola Formula 3000 car.

There are a few wild rumours floating around that Alain Prost is about to make a comeback as a front man for a French company in Formula 1. These should not be taken too seriously although it is, of course, possible that Prost may be paid to represent a sponsor.

The name Jim Dutt will probably not mean much to modern Formula 1 fans but once he was seen as the man leading a huge American assault on Formula 1. That was back in the 1984 when Carl Haas announced that he had landed a mega-sponsor to fund an American Formula 1 team.

The laws of insolvency differ from country to country but in most systems there exists a procedure by which a company can gain protection from its creditors for a period of time in order to hold a business together while plans are formulated to rescue the firm. In America this is called Chapter 11.

Morris Nunn Racing has officially announced its plans to switch to Toyota engines for 2003 and expand to become a two-car operation. Felipe Giaffone will be joined by another, as-yet-unannounced driver. MNR becomes Toyota's fourth IRL team joining Penske Racing, Target Chip Ganassi Racing and Kelley Racing.

We hear from a variety of team sources that Bernie Ecclestone has recently circulated a letter asking teams to consider whether they wish to accept the idea that the Arrows team has an automatic entry for the 2003 Formula 1 season. Our spies say that at least five of the teams have rejected the idea.

Over his years in Formula 1 Tom Walkinshaw has pulled many rabbits out of hats but on most occasions the rabbits have been not ended up being quite as first they seemed and there is an enormous amount of scepticism that the Arrows team has suddenly found a saviour.

European Touring Car Championship (ETCC) driver Dirk Muller will get the opportunity to test for Williams-BMW in early December, due to his close ties with BMW.

Numerous sources are reporting that Arrows F1 has been saved in the 11th hour by a group called German Grand Prix Racing, and will now attempt to reenter the championship in 2003.

The announcement that Deutsche Post has ended its various sponsorship deals with the Jordan team was not unexpected.

The Belgian motorsports community was just getting used to the fact that it looks certain that the country has lost its Grand Prix for 2003 but now it has now been hit with the sudden death of John Goossens

People in F1 circles have been wondering why the sport should be visiting Shanghai from 2004 onwards but the first signs are beginning to emerge as to why the city has been chosen.

Jordan's largest sponsor, Deutsche Post World Net has pulled the plug on it's involvement with the team. The company has used the deal to promote its Danzas and, more recently, DHL brands with the deal, thought to be worth in the region of $15m.

Rubens Barrichello, Tony Kanaan and Felipe Massa dominated the annual Granja Viana 500 kart race in their native Brazil over the weekend. The win was the third in a row and fourth overall for Barrichello and Kanaan, who will switch from CART to the rival IRL in 2003, and the second for Massa.

Most of the teams are preparing for the first winter testing, allowed in late November. Some new drivers are expected to test with their teams over the coming months, including newly crowned CART champion Cristiano da Matta for Toyota.

German Brewing company Veltins has come to the end of its five-year relationship with the Williams team.

When some of the teams are given the opportunity to run their cars on the Fridays of grand prix weekends in 2003, Williams will not be one of them.

Mika Salo announced he would follow compatriot Mika Hakkinen into retirement after Toyota decided that they no longer needed his services after two development years with the team, but his announcement was due, in large part, to the betrayal he felt from Toyota and not because he felt his racing career should be over.

Former Jaguar test driver Andre Lotterer will compete in the Mexico City CART race next weekend for Dale Coyne Racing. The young German will make his CART debut in the Cosworth powered Lola that BAR test driver Darren Manning drove in the Rockingham round of the series in September.

Deutsche Telekom has revealed that they will scale back their sponsorship activity, including the immediate discontinuation of their McLaren sponsorship.

Ex-Williams test driver Bruno Junqueira will take Cristiano da Matta's seat at Newman-Haas next year in the US-based CART series the team has confirmed.

After a disappointing 2002 season running the infamous R3 (and then the R3B), it is no surprise that Jaguar became the first of the teams to announce a launch date for their 2003 car.

Michael Schumacher has been trying to buy a farm for himself and his family for some years but the Swiss-German authorities have made life rather difficult for Michael because he has rather grandiose plans which the planning authorities say are too much.

Luciano Burti, Ferrari's second test driver this year, is under the impression that he has just lost his job to Felipe Massa. Burti was quoted in the Swiss daily newspaper Blick as saying that he contract had not been renewed and that Massa will now take over his role.

Stephen Troth, the Monaco-based banker who helped himself to $20m from a number of clients, including Michael Schumacher, has been sent to jail for four and a half years. Troth was also ordered to pay a fine of $30,000.