Formula One News — December 2004

David McKay has died at the age of 83. As a driver, journalist and team owner, McKay played an important role in helping to establish the sport in Australia and bring it to international attention.

Audi has sold its high-performance engine unit Cosworth Technology Ltd to Germany's Mahle.

The Woking News and Mail is reporting that 48 jobs may go at McLaren because of uncertainty over the future of a new concept car called Project 8.

It may be Christmas and a quiet time in the F1 world but in the world of British politics the wheels are still turning and the news today is that Prime Minister Tony Blair is going to have to explain why he failed to declare a holiday with a tobacco baron.

Christijan Albers has been confirmed as a Minardi Formula 1 driver for next season and Holland is currently rejoicing.

John de Mol is one of Holland's best known businessmen. He made a vast fortune as one of the partners of the Endemol company which brought reality TV to the world and eventually sold out to the Spanish telephone company Telefonica.

Richard Caborn, the British Minister of Sport, has opened an $8m Innovation Centre at the Silverstone Technology Park, a joint venture between track owner, the British Racing Drivers' Club, and the East Midlands Development Agency.

Former Grand Prix driver Adrian Campos, who nurtured the career of Fernando Alonso, has another new star on his books and will be running a car in the new GP2 series for 19-year-old Juan Cruz Alvarez from Arrecifes.

American Scott Speed has had a great year in Europe, winning the German and Eurocup Formula Renault titles as part of his third season in the Red Bull Driver Search programme. Now Speed is setting his sights on GP2 and hopes to be testing for Red Bull Racing before the year is out.

Sauber has announced a small deal with the Swiss watch brand, Certina, but the branding will not appear on the car in 2005. As part of the deal Certina will equip all the team's members with watches while in return Certina will receive "a number of marketing services, including worldwide visibility for the brand".

Stories about Red Bull being banned in France must be making the company's boss Dietrich Mateschitz smile all the way to the bank. Red Bull likes to be seen as a slightly subversive product and this has been hugely helpful in building up the company's image of being out there on the edge.

It is anticipated that Minardi will announce tomorrow that it has signed a deal for 2005 with Dutchman Christijan Albers.

Antonio Pizzonia, the favourite for the second seat at BMW Williams in 2005, has become a father for the first time. His girlfriend, the international long jumping star Maurren Maggi gave birth today to a daughter, named Sofia, in Jungle Boy's home town of Manaus, in the middle of the Amazon jungle.

The HiTech Racing GP2 team will go into 2005 with two Formula 3 champions on its books: Nelson Piquet Jr, who won the British Formula 3 Championship, and Xandinho Negrao, who last weekend won the SudAm F3 Championship at Interlagos.

The three banks involved in a dispute with Bernie Ecclestone over the control of the Formula One group have given a hint that they might be willing to compromise and save everyone the time and cost of spending the next few months (and perhaps years) in court.

The most sought-after document at the moment is the minutes of the meeting between FIA President Max Mosley and the representatives of BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Honda when they met recently in Monaco to dicuss the question of arbitration.

The German government has joined the list of 47 countries that have now ratified the World Health Organisation's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.

The rich and famous gather at this time of year at Gstaad in Switzerland and for the last seven years Bonhams has organised the Exceptional Ferrari Motor Cars, Automobilia and Fine Wristwatches auction in the run-up to Christmas so that those with cash can pick up their last-minute Christmas gifts.

Although not keen to be seen to be giving way to the FIA, we hear that Mercedes-Benz has also given up on its plans to go to arbitration with the federation over the change of the engine regulations in 2006.

There as been a brief flurry of activity in the German media today with the suggestion being that Nick Heidfeld has signed to be the team's second driver in 2005. This is not true.

Toyota will launch the new TF105 in Barcelona on January 8. The new car which will be the first to be designed entirely by a team put together by Mike Gascoyne is expected to be a big improvement over previous cars.

The Ford Motor Company has sold the Pi Group to Kevin Kalkhoven and Gerry Forsythe, co-owners of the Champ Car World Series and heads of the PKV and Forsythe Championship Racing Champ Car teams, respectively.

The plethora of novice championships surrounding Formula 1 is very confusing - even to the experienced race fan. There was a time when the racing world was neatly structured with Formula 1, Formula 2 and Formula 3.

Former Formula 1 driver Erik Comas and his team mate Toshihiro Kaneishi took their Hasemi Nissan 350Z Turbo to victory in the inaugural All-Japan GT promotional event at the California Speedway.

Formula 1 has been talking about racing in Russia for several years but the DTM has got there first and is to race on the streets of Moscow in 2005. The German-based racing series is to hold a race on the streets around Moscow State University.