Formula One News — August 2003

Adriano Morini, owner of the Draco Formula 3000 team has announced that he has freed Felipe Massa from a management contract which has been in place since 2000. Morini and his Brazilian partner Riccardo Tedeschi have been looking after Massa's career up to now.

The Turkish authorities were due to start work on the construction of an F1 track in July but the breaking ground ceremony was delayed. That has now been rescheduled for September 10.

Frank Gardner, one of the most versatile racing drivers of the modern era, who raced in F1 in the 1960s and who regularly drives the F1 Medical Car in Melbourne has just undergone a triple bypass operation in Australia

Canadian Justice Minister Martin Cauchon is leading a government delegation to Hungary in an attempt to save the Canadian Grand Prix. Their aim is to convince Bernie Ecclestone and the F1 teams to reverse the decision to drop the annual event from the 2004 calendar.

It is anticipated that there may be an announcement this weekend that David Coulthard will stay with McLaren for one more season. It is thought likely that after that he will be replaced at McLaren by Juan Pablo Montoya but this is yet to be confirmed.

There is much manoeuvring going on around the CART series as the share price continues to drop. The share price hit a new low earlier today of $1.06 having started the week at $1.83.

As we exclusively reported just after the European Grand Prix, the time Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich has been looking at investing in Formula 1 in addition to his recent spending spree with Chelsea Football Club in London.

The announcement that Ralf Schumacher's appeal has been turned down by the FIA International Court of Appeal but that his penalty of a drop of 10 grid positions in Hungary has been replaced by a $50,000 fine would seem to be the last of the matter. Schumacher is off the hook and all is well.

The Mild Seven Renault F1 Team is to retain Jarno Trulli and Fernando Alonso next year. The news is not a surprise.

Ralf Schumacher has lost his case in the FIA court of appeal over his crash at the German Grand Prix. Although the ramifications of the incident are not nearly as severe for the driver. The FIA has enforced a $50,000 penalty as opposed to the original punishment.

CART team owner Derrick Walker has resigned from the board of the company with immediate effect. Walker said that he was sensitive to the potential for an appearance of a conflict of interest in connection with decisions regarding the future of the company.

After a drop in tourism, the organizers of this weekends Hungarian Grand Prix will hope at best to match last year's attendance of 160,000 fans.

The FIA issued a thick dossier surrounding the case at the hearing of the International Court of Appeal in Paris. This was interesting for various reasons.

The International Court of Appeal met on Tuesday morning at the FIA in Paris to consider the case of Ralf Schumacher's penalty at the recent German Grand Prix. The four judges heard evidence from the BMW Williams team and from the FIA and will rule tomorrow afternoon.

Ralf Schumacher's World Championship chances will be effectively over if he loses his appeal today against the decision of the stewards of the German Grand Prix to give him a penalty of 10 grid positions at the Hungarian GP for having caused an avoidable accident at Hockenheim.

Serge Kubla, the Belgian politician who has been negotiating for a return of the Belgian Grand Prix in 2004, says that the race will be back on the calendar with an August 29 date. Kubla is the Finance Minister for the Walloon region. Kubla added that the new contract runs until 2010.

Trading in CART stock was lively when the markets opened in New York with the share price tumbling by 31% in the first two and a half hours of trading following the announcement that an offer has been made for the company at $0.50 per share.

The future of CART will be decided within a matter of weeks following an offer for the company by Gerry Forsythe, Kevin Kalkhoven, Paul Gentilozzi and Carl Russo. They are offering to buy all the outstanding shares in the company for $0.50 a share, which values the company at $7.4m.

A new group called Open Wheel Racing LLC has proposed a takeover of CART. The group consists of Gerry Forsythe, Kevin Kalkhoven, Paul Gentilozzi, Carl Russo and Motorock LLC.

The situation of the various F1 teams at the moment.

According to the German newspaper Bild Ralf Schumacher had extended his contract for two more seasons and will stay with the team until the end of 2006.

Although the cancellation of the Canadian Grand Prix has eased the pressure on Silverstone to some extent, there is still need for a solution to be found over the long-term funding of the British Grand Prix.

The FIA has been revamping its International Court of Appeal in recent months and the first evidence of that will come on Tuesday when the proceedings of the Ralf Schumacher appeal will be televised.

Riverside was a famous West Coast racing circuit in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, located to the east of Los Angeles on the way to Palm Springs.

British American Racing is not short of drivers but the Brackley team is going to try out a couple more this autumn, having announced plans to run Formula 3000 drivers Townsend Bell and Bjorn Wirdheim.