Formula One News — May 2004

Umberto Agnelli, the boss of Fiat, has died at the age of 69. Agnelli was suffering from cancer. Agnelli took over from his brother Gianni Agnelli who died at the start of last year.

European GP - Practice Session 1 Report

European GP - Practice Session 1 Results

Karl-Heinz Kalbfell, the man who led BMW Motorsport for most of the 1990s, has been appointed chairman and chief executive of Rolls Royce Motor Cars to replace Tony Gott. Gott resigned yesterday two years after taking control of the firm when it came under BMW ownership at the start of 2003.

European GP - Preview

The latest rumour of the very silly season in 2004 is that Mika Hakkinen will be coming out of retirement to join Williams next year. This is about as likely as the team turning again to Nigel Mansell.

The British Racing Drivers' Club has elected a new board of directors with Sir Jackie Stewart retaining his position as president of the club. The club renewed the roles of Vice-President for Sir Stirling Moss, Sir Jack Brabham, Sir Frank Williams,

It is no big surprise but Jos Verstappen has withdrawn from the Jordan Grand Prix test which was planned to take place in the days after the European Grand Prix.

Scott Dixon had dreams of moving from the Indy Racing League and becoming a star in Formula 1. Earlier this year the New Zealand driver had two tests with the BMW Williams team but it is fairly clear that the relationship did not gel and our sources say that there was no chance for Dixon with Williams.

The British Racing Drivers' Club has confirmed that the British Grand Prix will remain at Silverstone for the next two years. A deal has been agreed between the club and Formula 1 commercial boss Bernie Ecclestone which will see an anonymous new promoter taking on the race.

Sam Michael is 33 and grew up in Canberra, not far from Mark Webber's home city of Queenbeyan, NSW. Michael studied mechanical engineering at the University of New South Wales in Sydney and because of his passion for motorsport soon began working part-time for team owner Gregg Siddle.

Much has been written about the shortcomings of the McLaren-Mercedes Benz MP4-19 this year but while the Woking team has been taking a lot of the flak, there performance of the BMW Williams team has also been rather less good than one would have expected.

While Formula 1 was in Monte Carlo, the British Formula 3 series visited glamorous Knockhill, near Dunfermline in Scotland and the event resulted in victories for Venezuela's Ernesto Viso and Britain's James Rossiter.

It seems that finally the Red Bull Driver Search is beginning to bear fruit with 21-year-old Californian driver Scott Speed winning the fourth round of the German Formula Renault Championship at Assen.

The access to Silverstone for the British Grand Prix will be improved this year with the announcement that the A43 dual carriageway will become part of the circuit one-way systems on the Friday of the event, in addition to Saturday and Sunday.

Ding Dong! The Witch is dead! Blue and yellow is nicer than red. Rub your eyes, get out of bed. Let the joyous news be spread: Formula 1 has got some cred. Ding Dong! The Witch is dead!

Today in Grove the BMW Williams team will be opening its new second windtunnel and making a mysterious announcement. We believe that the team will announce that Sam Michael, currently the team's Senior Operations Engineer, will be promoted to become Technical Director.

Most of the recent focus on Jacques Villeneuve has been on whether or not the French-Canadian will be seen testing for BMW Williams, but we believe that he has much more of a chance of landing a job next year with Toyota Motorsport.

The Renault victory in Monaco is likely to result in a big boost for ticket sales for the French Grand Prix as the famously-chauvinistic French fans now have someone to cheer for.

The FIA President Max Mosley may have been very dismissive of rumours to have a Grand Prix in London but there are plenty of good reasons why such an event would work.

Monaco GP - Race Notes

Monaco GP - Sunday Photos

Monaco GP - Sunday Press Conference

Monaco GP - Race Results

Jarno Trulli took pole position for the Monaco Grand Prix and Formula 1 rejoiced. At last we had something other than Ferrari and this time, unlike in Imola and Barcelona there seemed a very real hope that Michael Schumacher would not be able to recover to win a sixth consecutive victory.