Formula One News — January 2004

The Dubai authorities have announced plans for a new winter championship to fill the winter months. Sheikh Maktoum Hasher Maktoum Al Maktoum, the nephew of the Crown Prince of Dubai, told the Reuters newsagency that the series, to be called A1 will start in the autumn of 2005.

There is no big surprise in the announcement that Imola will not be holding a Grand Prix again after the race in 2004. The Italian circuit will make way for one of the new races, probably Turkey.

DAMS, the Le Mans-based team which once had F1 aspirations is planning to move back up the motor racing ladder after a period in the Renault V6 championship.

Nick Heidfeld will drive for Jordan in 2004 and that means that Jos Verstappen is in trouble because if he wants to drive for the Silverstone team this year he is going to have to outbid Benson & Hedges for the second seat.

Renault F1 boss Patrick Faure said at the Renault launch yesterday that all the teams will be receiving a $10m payout once the deal is down between the Formula One group and the car manufacturers. The money will come from a fund which was frozen for some years as part of the Formula One Eurobond issue.

On Thursday afternoon Antonia Pizzonia showed why he feels that he was treated badly at Jaguar Racing last year by taking his 2003 Williams-BMW around the Valencia track in a new lap record, beating Juan Pablo Montoya by two-tenths of a second and going half a second quicker than Ralf Schumacher.

The launch of the Renault R24 took place in the Teatro Massimo, in Palermo, Sicily with the French F1 team hoping that this year will be the year in which it begins to challenge the top Formula 1 teams.

The Renault Formula 1 team decided for some odd reason to launch its new car in Palermo, Sicily. The Italian authorities are happy to turn a blind eye to tobacco rules so long as teams pay a small fine so there is some logic in launching in Italy but having the unveiling 1000 miles from Milan makes little sense.

The split in American open-wheeler racing will continue - and Formula 1 will be able to take advantage of the situation. Yesterday in Indianapolis Judge Frank Otte approved the sale of the assets of the Champ Car World Serie to Open Wheel Racing Series.

Renault F1 boss Flavio Briatore reckons that the team will be serious challengers for the World Championship this year - and he hopes that the words will no come back to haunt him.

As we have been suggesting for some time, it seems that Antonio Pizzonia will shortly be named as BMW Williams's second test driver for 2004. The Brazilian driver was back with Williams at Valencia on Wednesday and it is anticipated that he will be confirmed in a permanent role with the team later this week or next week.

Toyota has overtaken the Ford Motor Company to become the world's second biggest car seller. In 2003 the Japanese firm sold a total of 6.78m cars while Ford sold 6.72m.

Formula 1 bosses will be looking to America later today to see the outcome of the auction between CART and the Indy Racing League to see whether there will be two competing open-wheeler championships in the United States or whether the two will be combined under the control of the IRL.

The negotiations between Jordan Grand Prix and Jos Verstappen have come to a screeching halt with an announcement from Holland that the talks are off. The Verstappen management, headed by Trust owner Michel Perridon, are not happy with the contracts which Jordan is offering.

The chances of tobacco sponsorship coming to an end around the world in 2006 are reducing. Originally the intention was for all tobacco sponsorship in all motorsport to be stopped at the end of 2006.

The news that at least two cities of India's states are bidding for a Grand Prix is not really a surprise. India is a country with an extraordinarily complex social system with ethnic, religious, social and linguistic diversity and there are many complicated rivalries between the regions.

Ferrari technical director Ross Brawn last week had a day off from Ferrari in order to tour Bridgestone Europe's Technical Centre on the outskirts of Rome.

Renault has announced  details of its Driver Development programme with the announcement that Jose-Maria Lopez will be moving to Formula 3000 and that Heikki Kovalainen will stay for another year in the the Formula Nissan World Series.

Although the Ferrari F2004 is an evolution of the successful F2003 GA it has been completely revised with each part being looked at to see if improvement is possible, particularly in relation to the change in the engine regulations.

The new Ferrari F2004 is not radical at all - despite descriptions earlier this month by team boss Jean Todt. The new car is an evolution of the existing F2003 GA with the team having once again looked at all aspects of the cars and tried to improve them.

Indy Racing League president Tony George has said that, if he needs to, he will bid higher than $3.3m he has offered for selected assets of the bankrupt CART.

The negotiation process for a future Grand Prix in India is now developing quickly.

Ferrari's new F2004 will be unveiled later today in Maranello and the Formula 1 world is waiting with interest to see what Ferrari is going to do to improve on last year's F2003 GA, which often struggled to compete with the Williams FW25.

The management of the Sepang International Circuit in Malaysia is encouraging the local population to race at Sepang and not on the streets of the country.

There are reports in Sweden's Expressen magazine that Bjorn Wirdheim has landed the deal to be Jaguar's test driver in 2004, fighting off a bid for the job from America's Townsend Bell and from British Formula 3 Champion Alan Van der Merwe from South Africa.