Formula One News — April 2003

American racer Phil Giebler will make his Formula 3000 debut this weekend with David Sears's Den Bla Avis.

Bernie Ecclestone says he does not believe in democracy in Formula 1.

A quiet visit by former World Champion Phil Hill to the Minardi factory in Faenza is being linked to the plan which emerged last year for an All American Formula 1 team.

Jaguar Racing has made an offer to sign Alexander Wurz but it is still not clear whether McLaren will let the Austrian go.

Spanish Grand Prix - Preview

Matteo Bobbi is seen in Formula 1 circles as a pay-driver who is bringing money, but the Italian is working hard to get rid of that image and his activities in the FIA GT championship seem to be bearing fruit.

The Brand Motorsports team, which bought the assets of the Helmut Marko's old Red Bull Junior Team, is withdrawing from the FIA International Formula 3000 series. This means that German Formula 3 Champion Gary Paffett is out of a job.

Honda is expected to put more effort than ever into the F1 program under the guidance of new president Takeo Fukui.

The Orange mobile phone company has cut back on its motor racing sponsorship, but this has not stopped the Dutch affiliate Orange Nederland from agreeing a three-year sponsorship deal with the Spyker sports car team.

The Toyota Motor Corp is rumored to be on the verge of an announcement that it will build a factory in Russia with the aim of starting production of SUVs in within the next four years.

The Williams and McLaren team took Bernie Ecclestone to arbitration at the International Chamber of Commerce in Switzerland more than a year ago because of a supposed agreement between them and Ecclestone over the teams getting a percentage of the money raised by a sale of the SLEC company.

Bernie Ecclestone and his wife Slavica are not as rich as they used to be according to the latest Sunday Times list of rich British residents.

A few years ago the authorities in Portugal were gung-ho about bringing Formula 1 back to Estoril. It never came to anything and ever since then the track has been hosting minor events.

The Formula 1 teams will meet again on Tuesday this week to discuss the future of traction-control in Formula 1.

The second round of the Formula Nissan series took place at Zolder over the weekend with Williams test driver Marc Gene winning one race and Renault F1 test driver Franck Montagny winning the other.

The Union Internationale Motonautique is looking at adopting the HANS system for its Formula 1 Powerboats.

The speculation in recent days has been that Alexander Wurz will replace Antonio Pizzonia at Jaguar Racing after the Spanish Grand Prix, but our sources say it may not be quite as easy as that as McLaren may not want to releease its third driver at this point in the season.

Australia's Ryan Briscoe is still rebuilding his career after a disastrous season in Formula 3000 last year but that process has been aided considerably by a double victory in the opening event of the new Formula 3 Euroseries at Hockenheim.

Ferrari will run the new F2003 GA in Barcelona next week, the team now being satisfied that the car will be reliable enough in the races.

France's efforts to hold on to its national Grand Prix have been boosted by the completion of an $8m revamp for the Magny-Cours facility.

The boss of Red Bull Dietrich Mateschitz, who will become the owner of the A1 Ring later this year, says he is going to make big investments in the Austrian facility, including a hotel complex, a private university and a flying school.

The CART franchise board is continuing to change its rules to make its Champ Car World Series more flexible in the future.

The former Prost Grand Prix test driver Jonathan Cochet has struggled to find a job in single-seater racing this year and has now decided to sign to drive for Courage Competition in 2003.

The Nissan World Series is in action this weekend at Zolder in Belgium with series leader Franck Montagny, a Renault F1 test driver, hoping to continue his domination at Jarama.

Juan Pablo Montoya had a fairly big accident at Silverstone during testing when he lost control of the Williams-BMW at Becketts.