Formula One News — April 2004

San Marino GP - Practice Session 2 Report

The GPWC has cancelled the Memorandum of Understanding which was signed with the Formula One Group before Christmas.

San Marino GP - Friday Photos

San Marino GP - Friday Press Conference

San Marino GP - Practice Session 2 Results

San Marino GP - Practice Session 1 Results

The FIA dropped a legislative bomb on Formula 1 at Imola with a list of preliminary proposals for its rules and regulations for 2008. These must be decided by the end of December 2005 and obviously there is going to be a lot of negotiating before the final package emerges.

A few days after the company announced a profit, showing signs that the Detroit giant is on the way to recovery, the Ford Motor Company has had a management reshuffle with Sir Nicke Scheele giving up his role as chief operating officer but staying on as president.

Even though Bernie Ecclestone has recently re-acquired the rights to run the British Grand Prix, this does not mean that the race is not under threat. Ecclestone says that Silverstone "has to come up to scratch" if it wants to stay on the F1 calendar.

The new structure at McLaren and Mercedes=Ilmor has now been confirmed by McLaren with Hans-Ulrich Maik, the managing director of Mercedes-Ilmor having left the company which he has been running since November 2002.

The Ferrari team has published its first official "inside story" under the title "Formula Ferrari", a book which covers the team's activities in the last 13 years, from the appointment of Luca di Montezemolo as chairman until the end of the 2003 season.

Naoki Tokunaga, the Nissan engineer who designed the electronic systems which are used by the Renault F1 team, notably the software used aat the start of the races, has been a man in demnd in recent weeks with offers from his services from Ferrari, Williams and BAR.

The Jordan team is going to run with its usual drivers this weekend but there are still deals being discussed between the team and Dutchman Jos Verstappen. According to our sources, the stories about Verstappen stepping in are not far from the truth but the team would replace not Giorgio Panatano but rather Nick Heidfeld.

San Marino GP - Preview

Former Ford Europe boss Martin Leach is to join the Ferrari-Maserati Group with rumours suggesting that he will be put in charge of Maserati. The appointment is necessary because Luca di Montezemolo is moving to take on the role of the head of Confindustria, the Italian employers' organisation.

Any ideas that there might have been about a boycott of the Spanish GP by Formula 1 teams protesting against the new European Arrest Warrant are unlikely to go ahead because of commercial pressures on the teams.

Motorcycling world champion Valentino Rossi tested Michael Schumacher's Ferrari yester day at Fiorano.

Britain's Prince Andrew visited the Shanghai circuit construction site during an official visit to China to promote British interests and industry.

Jos Verstappen's website has confirmed a meeting that took place earlier this week between Eddie Jordan and Trust chiefe executive Michel Perridon in Dordrecht, in Holland. Jos Verstappen's manager Raymond Vermeulen was also present at the meeting,

The President of Egypt Hosni Mubarak was a guest at the recent Bahrain Grand Prix but he allowed other guests to take the limelight.

Having successfully cobbled together the Bahrain Grand Prix, having been called in to help out in the last months before the event took place, Frenchman Philippe Gurdjian is going home.

Bernie Ecclestone and Formula One Administration have regained control of the rights to the British Grand Prix from the Interpublic Group - and been paid $93m by Interpublic, which was keen to get out of its motor racing commitments.

The Formula 1 teams all go to Imola having made improvements in their cars and while there has been a lot of coverage for Renault and BAR this does not mean that they will have made the biggest improvement.

The Red Bull Driver Search has not been a huge success in terms of results scored by the drivers involved but at the weekend Scott Speed finally chalked up the scheme's first major result with victory in the fourth round of the Formula Renault 2000 Eurocup championship in Valencia.

Although Formula 1 had a weekend off, there was plenty of racing going on around the world, with the opening round of the Champ Car series at Long Beach and in Europe the first round of the Formula 3 Euroseries.