Formula One News — March 2004

The top Formula 1 team bosses are split on whether they would like to reduce testing away from the Grands Prix if there was more mileage allowed at a Grand Prix event.

McLaren boss Ron Dennis wanted to stop speculation about his position at McLaren and in Malaysia told the international media that he has recently signed a new contract with the team.

Late on Friday afternoon in Malaysia Olivier Panis and his manager Didier Coton were spotted walking quietly into the McLaren team area at Sepang for a meeting with Ron Dennis. This was obviously not a rendezvous of old pals but rather a talk about the future.

The talk about a change of management at Silverstone has gone rather quiet in the last few days.

Malaysian GP - Friday Photos

Malaysian GP - Friday Press Conference

Malaysian GP - Practice Session 2 Results

Malaysian GP - Practice Session 1 Results

The Champ Car series received another major hit with the news that former three-time CART champion and one-time series chief executive Bobby Rahal is pulling his team out to switch to the Indy Racing League. The decision comes a few days after Adrian Fernandez announced a similar move.

Malaysian GP - Preview

In March last year Ulrich Giezendanner, a member of the Nationalrat, the national council of Switzerland, proposed a modification to the law to allow motor racing competitions to be held in Switzerland.

Ralf Schumacher is not happy with his BMW Williams team mate Juan Pablo Montoya after an incident between the two men in Australia and Ralf - who is expected to sign for Toyota for 2005 shortly - says that if the same thing happens again he will "have him off the track".

King Hamad of Bahrain yesterday opened the new Formula 1 racing circuit in Bahrain after 18 months of frantic building work to get the circuit ready for a Grand Prix in April.

It seems that we misinterpreted the rather confusing press release from the FIA which appeared to suggest that qualifying in Malaysia will be changed. It seems that the FIA was merely suggesting what it would like to see happen and not what is actually going to happen.

Sources in Switzerland are suggesting that the country is becoming more serious about its attempts to overturn the ban that exists on competitive motor racing. The Swiss banned races in 1955.

The word on the street up at Silverstone is that the circuit is about to get a new boss with rumours suggesting that Andrew Waller is being moved aside.

As we reported exclusively a few weeks ago Williams is to test the Indy Racing League champion Scott Dixon. The test will take place next week at Paul Ricard with a further session planned for April.

The China Petroleum  &  Chemical  Corporation  (Sinopec)  has signed  a  long-term  agreement to be sponsor of the Chinese GP in Shanghai. The news comes as a surprise as it had been thought that a deal was in place for Marlboro.

The F1 in Schools competition has been such a success in Britain in recent years that last week there was a reception at the House of Commons in London to thank the sponsors and supporters of the programme. These include Jaguar F1, BAE Systems, Denford Ltd and Pitsco.

A fire broke out early this morning at Ferrari's headquarters burning several prototype cars in development at the Maranello production site.

The Sauber team always has a lot to do before the Malaysian Grand Prix, thanks to team's title sponsor Petronas and this year has been no exception.

With a lot of the F1 circus in Asia and not much happening in Europe, some of the F1-related websites have been struggling to put up very much news other than notoriously dull team previews.

Jean Alesi is to demonstrate Juan Manuel Fangio's 1955 Mercedes-Benz Formula 1 car at the formal opening of the new circuit on the Wednesday. The car took Fangio to two World Championship titles in 1954 and 1955.

The president of the Italian Automobile Club (ACI) has written to the country's Prime Minister asking for cash to pay for an upgrade for the Enzo & Dino Ferrari Circuit at Imola, in the hope that the work will safeguard the future of the San Marino Grand Prix.

Justin Wilson will compete in the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring sports car race at the wheel of a Citgo-sponsored Taurus Sports Lola-Judd. The event is the first round of the 2004 American Le Mans Series.