Formula One News — January 2004

Marc Gene, the Williams F1 test driver, set the fastest lap of the winter in Barcelona yesterday, lapping the Circuit de Catalunya in 1m15.928s. Ralf Schumacher was not far behind with a lap of 1m16.176s.

The Formula 1 races in Belgium, Britain and Spain are in immediate danger because of their implementation of the latest European Arrest Warrant legislation.

Renault has announced its plans to run a Formula 3000-level series to be called GP2 at every Grand Prix in 2005.

Jordan Grand Prix will confirm Jos Verstappen as one of its 2004 drivers tomorrow. The Dutchman will then test for the team in Barcelona on Thursday and Friday. The team is running Bas Leinders and Timo Glock on the first two days of the test but neither of them is in line for the second Jordan seat.

Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro has lost its chief track engineer for engines, Pino d'Agostino. The 55-year-old engineer from Taranto was in charge of dyno development, production and track development in the tests and at races. He had been with Ferrari since recruited from Alfa Romeo in 1997.

Jos Verstappen and his manager Michel Perridon made a big mistake some weeks ago when they announced to the world that they were no longer in negotiation with Minardi, and that gave Eddie Jordan the whip hand in all negotiations.

Jaguar Racing boss Tony Purnell says that the team will be disputing fourth place in the World Championship this year.

The Toyota Driving Academy has been extended to add two new youngsters, who will follow in the footsteps of Australian Ryan Briscoe, who last year won the Formula 3 Euroseries driving for the Prema Powerteam.

Jaguar Racing launched their new contender for the 2004 Formula 1 season at Barcelona on Sunday morning. The car is an evolution of last year's R4 with the problem areas having been redesigned and a great deal of work going into vehicle dynamics and reliability work.

Mark Webber says that he hopes that the new Jaguar R5 will give him his first chance to get on the F1 podium.

One of the major items under discussion at Friday's team bosses meeting was the new European arrest warrant which is due to replace the current system of extradition between countries.

Although Toyota will not say how much it is spending in Formula 1, the team's President John Howett admits that it is not as big as last year, despite additional sponsorship deals from Denso and Intel.

Ryan Briscoe has been named Toyota's second test driver for the 2004 season. The young Australian is not going to be racing in any other series but there are rumours that he might be seen testing for Minardi, the deal being paid for by Toyota, which is keen for Briscoe to get as many miles as possible in F1 machinery.

Paul Stoddart's idea to run celebrity races with his two-seater F1 cars in 2004 looks like it is going to go ahead with one car per team, painted in team colours and driven by the regular third drivers, with a VIP guest in the back.

Panasonic Toyota Racing has unveiled its new TF104 in Cologne with the aim being to score points on a regular basis and get the team its first podium finish in F1.

The Toyota TF104 has been testing for two days at Paul Ricard and Olivier Panis says that the initial shakedown runs were very positive.

Former Toyota team boss Ove Andersson, who has stood down to make way for Tsutomu Tomita but remains an advisor to Panasonic Toyota Racing, says that the team is beginning to work as it should do.

The Formula 1 team bosses have somehow agreed that they will have an 18th race this year and the French Grand Prix is back on again. The race will take place on July 4, its original date.

The Denso Corporation, one of the world's leading automotive component firms, has become a commercial sponsor of the Toyota F1 team in addition to being a technical partner. Denso's logos will appear on the engine cover of the TF104, which is unveiled tomorrow in Cologne.

The word on the street at yesterday's launch of the Le Mans Endurance Series in Paris was that Jacques Villeneuve and Alain Prost are both looking around for drives in the new four-race championship.

One of Australia's most successful fashion models, Rachel Swaney, has been named as the "Face of Foster's" for the 2004 Australian Grand Prix. Swaney will undertake a series of duties which include promoting the event on nationwide television.

Giancarlo Fisichella and Felipe Massa were both in action at Valencia yesterday with the new Sauber C23 and the lap times of the Ferrari-lookalike car were impressive.

Formula 1 pretender Augusto Farfus Jr from Brazil has signed to drive alongside Gabriele Tarquini and Fabrizio Giovanardi in the works Alfa Romeo touring car team. Farfus is only just 20 and was the European Formula 3000 champion last year.

David Coulthard is not counting on being at McLaren in 2005, the team having already signed up Juan Pablo Montoya from Williams. But officially at least DC is not out of work until McLaren takes up its option to continue with Kimi Raikkonen.

Portugal is the latest country to have committed itself to enforcing a ban a global ban on tobacco sponsorship. The Portuguese signed the World Health Organization's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control a few days ago.