Formula One News — January 2005

The organizers of the French Grand Prix are certainly not short of ideas to promote the event this year and have come up with the original concept of pitching tickets as a gift for Valentine's Day.

Henri Durand, the former Jordan technical director, has reappeared in racing in the United States as the technical director of Red Bull Cheever Racing in the Indy Racing League.

It has been assumed in recent weeks that Gary Anderson will be the new technical director at Jordan but it seems that these stories were not correct at all. The 53-year-old Ulsterman is working as a consultant engineer with Dallara in Italy but it seems that he is doing this on a part-time basis.

Williams has named Nick Heidfeld as its second driver alongside Mark Webber in 2005.

There are rumours that Jordan Grand Prix's Timo Glock may not stay in Formula 1 this year and could be seen testing a Champ Car in the next few days.

Cristiano da Matta will be named as the second driver of Kevin Kalkhoven's PKV Racing tomorrow alongside veteran Jimmy Vasser.

Former Formula 1 team owner Mo Nunn looks like he is not going to be running any more teams in the Indy Racing League with the news that he has sold his Dallaras to Ron Hemelgarn.

The plans for a Team Dubai F1 operation in 2006 have not been talked about for some time but if there is to be such an operation it will have suffered no damage from the announcement on Sunday that the emirate of Dubai has bought $1bn of DaimlerChrysler stock.

There is a long-standing rumour in the United States that there will soon be a joint announcement involving the International Speedway Corporation (NASCAR's sister organisation) and Tony George.

Honda Motor paid "in the region of $180m" for its 45% shareholding in the new British American Racing holding company. Details of the sale have emerged thanks to court records.

Mark Smith is reported to have left Jordan Grand Prix, just a matter weeks after he joined the team. Smith was previously employed at Renault but left to join Jordan when he was offered the job of technical director.

FIA President Max Mosley spent the afternoon talking about the future of Formula 1 with Ferrari bosses Jean Todt and Ross Brawn. The other nine teams stayed away from the meeting.

Our spies tell us that Minardi will soon name Israeli driver Chanoch Nissany as a test driver for the 2005 season. Nissany has tested for the team and looks likely to take on the role of tester although Minardi will not be doing a great deal of testing between races in 2005.

Max Mosley had his meeting with the Formula 1 team bosses who chose to attend and spent the afternoon with Jean Todt and Ross Brawn of Ferrari and Charlie Whiting, the FIA race director. None of the other teams attended the meeting,

Toyota and Honda joined forces with the GPWC teams earlier this week to indicate that it shares theirs and hopes for the future of Formula 1. However the Japanese company is keen to make sure that people do not confuse this with the company having joined the GPWC.

Jos Verstappen wants to get back into racing and the Dutchman is expected to test for at least one Champ Car team in the weeks ahead. Verstappen is talking to the obvious teams in the series, notably Forsythe and Rocketsports.

Bo Derek is to be a VIP guest at the Australian Grand Prix. The star of 1979 movie "10" is to be part of the 10th anniversary celebrations in Melbourne. Derek made 11 films after the success of "10", in which she played the perfect fantasy woman.

Red Bull may be spending a lot of money to promote an American driver in Europe but over in the United States there is already talk that perhaps Marco Andretti will follow in the footsteps of his father and grandfather and try his hand one day in Formula 1.

There has been much chatter about the possible drivers at the Midland-owned Jordan team this year. The current situation is much as before with Timo Glock and Robert Doornbos having spent the last few weeks waiting to see what will happen.

Finland has become the 52nd nation to ratify the World Health Organization's Framework Conventon on Tobacco Control, the world's first international treaty on health.

The GP2 series is gradually collecting together a grid although there are still a lot of seats to be filled. The new ART team has now confirmed that Nico Rosberg will be one of its drivers.

In the next 48 hours Williams will decide who will drive alongside Mark Webber in 2005. There are only two candidates: Antonio Pizzonia and Nick Heidfeld. And no-one has any idea who is going to get the drive.

The mediation process between General Motors and Fiat over the terms of a contract which was intended to enable the two companies to merge operations is now coming to an end and it seems that there is no sign of a settlement between the two parties.

There are a number of stories at the moment which seem to be designed to suggest that the unity between the nine Formula 1 teams will come unstuck over the question of testing.

Unless Jean Todt is feeling particularly charitable and has time to waste, Max Mosley will today have a meeting by himself at the Heathrow Hilton. The nine other teams have all said that they are not intending to attend because they want to wait before discussing regulations changes for the longterm future.