Formula One News — February 2003

Richard Lyons, who was mentioned as a possible driver with the Jordan team this year, has decided to stay in Japan and has re-signed for Kiyoshi Muraoka's DoCoMo Dandelion Formula Nippon team.

Toyota says that it has not yet made a decision as to whether or not to sign up as a member of the GPWC. The suggestion that this was about to happen was made in The Sunday Times over the weekend,

The Swiss Alinghi team and its America's Cup sailing rival Team New Zealand have been fighting it out in recent weeks for the big prize but in recent days weather problems have delayed the racing.

As exclusively predicted by Grandprix.com, Jaguar Racing has now confirmed that its new sporting director is to be John Hogan, the former boss of Marlboro's racing activities. Hogan (59) retired from Philip Morris last year.

Paul Tracy won the opening round of the CART Champ Car series in St Petersburg, Florida on Sunday, taking his Players Forsythe Racing entry to victory by 12 seconds over Michel Jourdain Jr of Team Rahal.

There have been a rash of stories arising for a report in The Sunday Times suggesting that Bernie Ecclestone is willing to buy back the Formula One group from the banks which currently own the 75% which the Ecclestones do not control. This is not news.

The Sunday Times is reporting - presumably from a leaK - that Toyota is on the verge of joining the GPWC, a move which would strengthen the stretched credibility of the manufacturers' organisation which is supposed to be running its own championship in 2008.

The FIA has released details of the timetable which will be in place at all Grands Prix this year. The action will begin at 08.30 on Friday mornings with the two-hour testing sessions.

Our spies tell us that John Hogan, the man who spearheaded Marlboro's efforts in Formula 1 for more than 29 years before retiring last April, is likely to be named as the new sporting director or Jaguar Racing with his role including all commercial aspects of the team.

It is expected that the the Dutch offshoot of the Halfords car accessory company will be sponsoring Jos Verstappen at Minardi this year - but it is not a major sponsorship deal for the struggling team.

Safety is clearly a subject about which Ron Dennis and Frank Williams feel strongly, as over the years both have had to deal with difficult situations resulting from accidents which have befallen their drivers.

The FIA President Max Mosley has played down the news that McLaren and Williams are going to go to arbitration over the federation's re-interpretation of the Formula 1 regulations.

The Arden Formula 3000 team, which came close to winning the International Formula 3000 title last year with Tomas Enge is rumoured to be planning to embark on a CART Champ Car programme this year.

Months of drought have come to an end in Melbourne, with rain falling across the state of Victoria and more rain expected in the days ahead. In some places as much as five inches have fallen in the last 36 hours.

Poor weather conditions limited track time again in Barcelona Thursday, where six of the teams continued pre-season testing. The circuit was closed in the morning, but opened after lunch, allowing those who wished to take advantage of the track time.

Ron Dennis told pressmen on Thursday that he is happier to help out the Jordan team than he is to support Minardi.

Here is the text of the letter sent from Williams and McLaren to the FIA President Max Mosley.

The news that Williams and McLaren are going to take the FIA to arbitration over the federation's decision to re-interpret its rules and change a number of procedures in Grand Prix racing is not altogether unexpected as both teams have clearly indicated that they are not happy with the way the change was introduced

Speaking to the press after the announcement that McLaren and Williams will be challenging the FIA's reinterpretation of the Formula 1 rules, McLaren boss Ron Dennis claimed that FIA President Max Mosley has been too autocratic.

The FIA has responded to the news that McLaren and Williams are to go to arbitration over the rule changes announced in January and says that it is confident that its position will be upheld.

Williams and McLaren are going to take the FIA to arbitration over what they call "new regulations" which have been introduced this year. They claim that the federation is "in breach of the contract that covers the running of the World Championship".

Ousted Ferrari test driver Luciano Burti is going back to racing and will be testing an Adrian Campos Racing Telefonica World Series Car in Barcelona shortly.

Our spies say that McLaren and Williams have decided that they will be going to arbitration because of the way in which the FIA decided to reinterpret its Formula 1 regulations on January 15. The two teams are believed to be arguing that the decisions break the Concorde Agreement.

The question of the Head and Neck Support system which is to be worn by Formula 1 this year has provided media outlets with ready-made stories when one driver or another has griped about wearing the new system.

As the new Formula 1 season approaches there are signs that the new Williams-BMW is not going to be very competitive at the start of the year. Testing times so far suggest that the Williams may not even be on the same pace as the Toyotas.