Formula One News — August 2004

Johnny Herbert is to race the new Maserati GT car this year and was out testing with the car this week at Mugello in Italy, alongside Fabrizio De Simone, Mika Salo and Andrea Bertolini.

We hear from Italy that the Dallara company is likely to return to the Formula 1 world in 2006 with a Formula 1 chassis having been commissioned by a mysterious investor.

Vitantonio Liuzzi had a meeting with Peter Sauber on Thursday in Belgium and it is no surprise that the Italian, who is dominating the Formula 3000 title at the moment, is a strong contender for one of the Swiss team's seats in 2005.

The BMW Williams team will be running this weekend with a new message on the side of its cars. The words "tobacco free" will be seen in the spot which is usually filled with NiQuitin CQ, the GlaxoSmithKline brand managers wanting to stor things up a bit to draw attention to the "smoking cessation brand",

Tony Purnell, the boss of Ford's racing activities in Formula 1, recently came up with the idea of changing qualifying in Formula 1 in order to improve the show, without affecting the purity of the sport.

The reliance of tobacco money in Formula 1 has reduced in recent years and will continue to reduce as the World Health Organization's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, the world's first international treaty on health, moves quietly towards being ratified.

Belgian GP - Preview

There have been lots of rumours in recent days about the future of Christian Klien at Jaguar Racing but there does not seem to be very much logic being applied in any of them.

Paul Tracy has been rumoured to be on his way to NASCAR in 2005 but the Champ Car title-holder of 2003 looks like he is going to stay where he is.

The announcement that BAR-Honda is to test Enrique Bernoldi is interesting. The team needed an extra driver to do development work while Jenson Button and Takuma Sato are away in Asia and has picked Bernoldi, apparently because of his experience in F1.

There have been stories in recent days about the much-rumoured dealings between Jordan and the Al Maktoum family in Saudi Arabia.

Paul Stoddart announced in Melbourne that he would be testing a variety of drivers in the course of the season and the Australian is to deliver on that undertaking with Australians Will Power and Will Davison, Portugal's Tiago Monteiro and Russian pay-driver Sergey Zlobin all due to run later this year.

Former Grand Prix driver Eddie Cheever was watching TV with his daughter the other day when they got into a fight over the remote control. She wanted to watch the Olympic Games and he wanted to watch automobile racing.

Although there is talk of three drivers still being in the running for the second Toyota drive next year, our sources continue to suggest that a deal is done with Jarno Trulli.

The battle between the banks and Bernie Ecclestone for the control of SLEC, the Formula One group holding company was in the courts recently with a skirmish over whether or not the case can be heard at the High Court in London because of questions of jurisdiction.

Dario Franchitti won the Indy Racing League race at Pikes Peak International Raceway at the weekend, his second consecutive victory and the Andretti Green Racing team's seventh win in 12 races.

Jenson Button was due to race a BAR-Honda against a powerboat at London City Airport on Saturday, the stunt being organized by Britih American Tobacco

The rumour mill is never silent for long when it comes to the plans for Jaguar Racing in F1. The latest whisper is that there is a "strong possibility" that Jaguar's parent company Ford, will decide to get rid of the Jaguar branding.

Jacques Villeneuve wants to come back to Formula 1 after a year sitting by the sidelines. This is a nice idea because Villeneuve can be a very exciting driver. The problem however is that while there is no shortage of talk about where Villeneuve could end up, there do not appear to be any serious offers.

Former F1 racer Christian Fittipaldi is still a racer at heart even if his adventures in NASCAR have not been very successful. The 33-year-old did three years in F1 in the early 1990s before heading to America where he raced in CART for many years, winning two races and finishing runner-up at Indianapolis in 1995.

The Brazilian authorities have struck a blow for freedom by banning Takuma Sato from entering the country because he did not have a visa.

The Jordan team yesterday announced a small sponsorship deal with the Shoulu-Huayuan Company, China's biggest property development company, which is promoting its latest upscale project, Beijing Chateau.

Jordan Grand Prix announced today an agreement with Shoulu-Huayuan Co. the largest property development company in China.

Bruno Senna, the nephew of the late Ayrton Senna is set to compete this weekend in the Formula BMW UK Championship at the Brands Hatch circuit in Kent. Senna will be driving for top team Carlin Motorsport.

Ford's racing boss Tony Purnell has proposed an interesting and intelligent concept for Formula 1 qualifying which spices up the action without detracting from the purity of the sport. The concept is based on procedures which have worked very successfully in karting for many years.