Formula One News — June 2003

Patrick Long wanted to be racing in Formula 3 this year but he did not have the budget to move to the British F3 series and so took the decision to become a Porsche factory driver in the Carrera Cup series, driving for the UPS-sponsored Porsche Junior Team.

The Jordan-Vodafone case is providing plenty of controversy at the moment with both sides out to win the battle in the court room and outside.

According to Renault Sport Flavio Briatore, Jarno Trulli - who is managed by one of Briatore's companies - will stay at Renault next year.

The Formula 3 Eurocup and Formula Nissan teams were in action this weekend at the Norisring and at Monza respectively

Despite stories to the contrary the purchase of five Arrows chassis by Minardi sponsors is not confusing at all, if one talks to the people involved.

The GPWC has never been a very cohesive organization with announcements such as the commitment to supply cheap engines to F1 teams not being supported by all the companies involved. Now it seems BMW is less than happy with the predominant role being played in the GPWC by rival Mercedes-Benz.

The accounting firm Ernst & Young has recently conducted a series of interviews with chief executives of German automotive supply firms and 90 of the 130 interviewed say that they expect bankruptcies, mergers and sell-outs in the sector in the next two years.

In amongst the fireworks at the FIA Press Conference last Friday in Montreal there was a rather odd exchange when a German reporter with links to Mercedes-Benz began asking Eddie Jordan who had paid for him to lease trucks at the Spanish Grand Prix.

Jackie Stewart has been campaigning to get the British government to support Silverstone for some years now and wants taxpayers' money to be taken from the government's sport, education, local development and transport budgets in order to safeguard the future of the British Grand Prix

Dario Franchitti is to miss the rest of the Indy Racing League races in order to sort out a problem with his back. Franchitti recently made his return to IRL after missing three races because he fractured his back in a motorcycle accident.

Franck Montagny was named as a Renault test driver this winter, in part because Renault felt the need to have a Frenchman somewhere in the program.

Daimler-Benz's takeover of Chrysler in 1998 continues to be a bone of contention with a federal judge in Delaware recently declaring that a lawsuit against the German giant can be seen as a class action.

Former F1 driver Alex Yoong is to race in the Bathurst 24 Hour race in November. The Malaysian will race a BMW320i for SAE Racing.

The British Racing Drivers' Club, which owns Silverstone, has hit back at comments made about the venue by Formula 1 boss Bernie Ecclestone, calling them "totally unwarranted"

The political fireworks in Canada seemed to have been settled when Bernie Ecclestone stepped in and invested in the Minardi team but Paul Stoddart says that he has not given up on his fight to have the big teams honor their promises.

There are many in Formula 1 who are trying to work out a mystery which emerged from the Canadian Grand Prix weekend: How did Fernando Alonso manage to set the fastest lap of the race in his Renault?

Paul Stoddart was so short of cash until the recent deal with Formula 1 boss Bernie Ecclestone that he was unable to buy in some of the basic raw materials to build and repair Formula 1 cars, notably carbon materials.

The impending announcement that NASCAR is to switch its title sponsorship from Winston cigarettes to the Nextel cell phone company is an indication of what is likely to happen in the future when Formula 1 is forced to give up on its tobacco dependency in 2005 or 2006.

Status Quo, a British rock band which dates back to 1967, is to headline the British Grand Prix post-race concert. The Quo will be joined by Damon Hill and the Six Pistons and Eddie Jordan's V10.

The plans announced by CART to take the company private again with new owners is no great surprise and has been expected for some time but the most important question is who the new owners will be. There has been much speculation that Bernie Ecclestone could be the new owner.

Bernie Ecclestone has once again launched an attack on the British Grand Prix, saying that the race does not have to happen and said that despite all the recent road improvements the race is still "embarrassing".

The CART organization has hired the Wall Street Bear Stearns to help it look at its future options. CART is a publicly traded company but has been struggling in recent years.

Eddie Jordan began his legal action against Vodafone in court in London, claiming $252m for a sponsorship deal which he says was agreed. Vodafone decided to sponsor Ferrari instead.

It is expected that the Virginia-based wireless communications company Nextel will become the new title sponsor of NASCAR's top series, currently called the Winston Cup.

McLaren test driver Alexander Wurz crashed one of the new MP4-18s heavily at Jerez on Tuesday, seriously damaging the car and comes just 10 days after another big crash for the MP4-18 in testing.