Formula One News — April 2003

The Princess Royal visited Silverstone this week to help the circuit highlight its role in the British motorsport industry.

Giorgio Pantano will drive for the ambitious Durango operation, which won races last year with Rodrigo Sperafico.

The Brazilian Grand Prix will be the 700th FIA Formula 1 World Championship event.

Pedro de la Rosa has joined the Team McLaren Mercedes team as a test driver to assist David Coulthard, Kimi Raikkonen and Alexander Wurz with the development of the MP4/17D and the new MP4/18.

The news that Sao Paulo health authorities have found the first suspected case of the deadly SARS virus has sent panic through the Formula 1 world. The person in hospital in Sao Paulo is reported to be a 42-year female British Formula 1 journalist who arrived in Brazil on Monday.

The FIA says that it is going to take action against the European Union over the change of date for the European tobacco sponsorship ban.

The mayor of Zurich yesterday said that on a local radio station that he is bidding for a Grand Prix.

The FIA announced today that they are planning to take the European Commission to the European Court of Justice in a bid to prevent them bringing forward the plans to outlaw tobacco advertising, which is presently due to come into effect July 31, 2005, and restore the original date of October 1, 2006.

The Jordan team will celebrate its 200th race this weekend in Brazil.

The FIA World Motor Sport Council meets in Paris tomorrow and although there are no major items which are on the agenda, it is thought quite likely that the council, which has not met since December, will return to the thorny issue of the European Union's attitude towards tobacco sponsorship.

The Principality of Liechtenstein is not on the major tourist routes of Europe. The tiny sovereign state that has existed since 1806, is located between Austria and Switzerland and is mainly mountainous.

Eddie Irvine has successfully appealed the decision of a High Court judge to award him just $3000 damages in a case which he won but which left him with a legal bill of an estimated $435,000.

According to Willi Weber, Ralf Schumacher's manager, his young charge wants to stay at Williams and is not talking to Toyota.

The FIA's recent announcement about driver aids was a masterpiece of ambiguity. It implied that launch control, traction control and fully-automatic gearboxes will not be banned until the start of 2004. This is how it was reported by most media organizations. But the announcement did not actually say that.