Formula One News — September 2004

Williams chief designer Gavin Fisher likes motocross and at this time of year tends to spend a week or two in southern California enjoying a break before the final dash designing next year's car. This year's trip however ended in disaster with Fisher in hospital after a serious accident last Wednesday.

There was no Formula 1 racing at the weekend but there was no shortage of action for some of those who hope one day to make it into Grand Prix racing.

Chinese GP - Preview

Rising British star Jamie Green won another victory in the Formula 3 Euro Series at Brno on Saturday. The 22-year-old, who has already won the title, beat his ASM team mate Alexandre Premat five seconds in the 15 lap race at the Czech circuit. There will be a second race on Sunday.

Paul Stoddart is preparing for a $5m sell-off of some of his Formula 1 assets at his English factory in Ledbury. The Australian aviation magnate has been an avid collector of Formula 1 cars and equipment for the last 10 years but has now become fed up with "falling over all the cars that are lying around".

Jarno Trulli says that he is not going to race for Toyota in China and will start work with his new team next year. This is good news for test driver Ricardo Zonta who will get another three races in which to show his skills.

The implications of the announcement that the Ford Motor Company is pulling out of Formula 1 are still sinking in and there has not been much time to think through all the varous issues involved.

The American racing scene's reaction to the announcement that Cosworth is for sale has been measured. In addition to designing and building Formula 1 engines for Jaguar, Jordan and Minardi, Cosworth supplies the engines for the Champ Car World Series and provides General Motors with its Chevrolet engines in IRL.

Eddie Jordan says that his team is analysing the situation withe regard to engines for 2005.

The Contract Recognition Board has changed the date of its planned hearing into Jenson Button's contractual status in 2005 and we hear that there will now be a hearing on Wednesday next week.

The Minardi F1 team says that it has a contract in place for next year with Ford-owned Cosworth Racing and that it will be working closely with Cosworth to find a suitable solution to the problem, which could involve a substantial payment in lieu of the engines.

The Ford Motor Company's decision to quit Formula 1 and sell its F1-related operations is a setback for the whole sport. It paints F1 in a negative light: Formula 1, Richard Parry-Jones said, was too expensive and was too slow to change.

There seems to be little doubt that there are a variety of companies which might be interested to step in and take control of the company currently known as Jaguar Racing. There has been plenty of speculation in recent weeks over names as it is an open secret that the team was on the market.

Come what may, there is no future for the team named Jaguar and the striking British Racing Green cars that have graced the circuits in recent years. The team has not been a success and most observers are convinced that the problem was that Ford internal politicking caused more damage than anything else.

The Ford Motor Company has announced that Jaguar Racing and Cosworth are up for sale and will leave Formula 1 at the end of the year unless buyers can be found for the two entities, which will be run as going concerns until the end of the year.

The Cosworth Racing company has important contracts in the United States of America, supplying all the engines for the Champ Car World Series and providing engines for the Chevrolet operations in the Indy Racing League.

The Ford Motor Company has announced that Jaguar Racing is to leave the FIA Formula 1 World Championship, at the end of the year.

Renault F1 has confirmed that Jacques Villeneuve will partner Fernando Alonso for the final three races of the 2004 Formula 1 season, beginning with next week's Chinese Grand Prix.

The Ford Motor Company will announce today that it is to close its Browns Lane plant in Coventry, which employs 2,000 workers and builds the XK sports coupe and XJ luxury saloon.

There have been rumours in recent days about Arden Motorsport taking over Jordan Grand Prix. This does not seem very likely to happen because Arden boss Christian Horner admits that he does not have the money that is needed to go to Formula 1 in 2005.

BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Honda have proposed radical plans for the F1 engine regulations for next year in their bid to stop the FIA imposing two-race engines. At a meeting in Paris on Wednesday they proposed that the rules remain with engines being used for one race weekend only.

General Motors has made the potentially significant decision to rebrand its GM Daewoo range as Chevrolet in Europe and is planning for a new range of cars to be introduced into the European market starting in January.

For the last few weeks there have been many rumours about the future of Jaguar Racing and with very obvious problems with Jaguar Cars and a cutback in the Ford World Rally Championship programme, the speculation has tended to be rather negative.

Vitantonio Liuzzi made an extremely positive impression in his Sauber test at Jerez today, even though it was beset by numerous mechanical problems.

The recent spate of signings has calmed down the F1 driver market to some extent with very few seats now available for next year.