Formula One News — January 2005

Former F1 driver Tomas Enge has been confirmed as Tomas Scheckter's team mate with the Panther Indy Racing League team. The 28-year-old Czech driver raced in Formula 3000 last year before running a couple of races with Patrick Racing.

Formula One Holdings is on its way back to the High Court in London today to begin a new case against its subsidiary Formula One Administration. It is not clear at the moment what the details of this case will be.

If the price is right, Russian tycoon Alex Shnaider would be mad not buy Jordan Grand Prix. There are simply too many advantages in buying the team.

British American Racing Honda is ready to accept a restriction of 30 days of testing. This ends speculation that the Japanese giant was trying to get out of the deal agreed by all the teams except Ferrari about restricting testing in the future.

A lot has been written in the last couple of days about whether or not Eddie Jordan has agreed to sell his Formula 1 team to Russia's Midland F1 operation. The latest word from the inside is that Jordan has shaken hands on a deal and that now there is a certain amount of paperwork to be got through.

The new deal between CBS and the Grand Prix Entertainment (GPE) to show Formula 1 racing on a national network is a huge step forward for Formula 1 and part of a much bigger deal which sees Grand Prix Entertainment now controlling the TV rights to F1 in the US.

British American Racing knows that it will need to have an impressive performance in 2005 if it is to hold on to Jenson Button next year. Button's contract with BAR stipulates that he will only have to stay in 2006 if he has more than 70% of the total number of points of the World Championship leader on July 31 2005.

Automobile manufacturers like to spend money in Formula 1 in order to spread the word about their cars and prove their technology. The association, however, is as much to do with the perceived glamour of Grand Prix racing as it is to do with what the regulations say.

British American Racing is intending to continue to run its Lucky Strike livery outside the European Union, despite British legislation which appears to make this illegal for a British-based company. The team will not run the livery in the EU after a new ban comes into force in August.

The BAR-Honda team did the initial shakedwon runs of its new car at Barcelona on Sunday and then packed up the car and headed off unexpectedly to Valencia, reporting that the new surface at the Circuit de Catalunya offered no grip at all and was therefore useless for testing.

Eddie Jordan spent the weekend in the Alps and was not easily contactable but our sources tell us that the Irishman is denying that a deal has been done with the Russian businessman Alex Schnaider to sell the Jordan F1 team to the new Midland F1 organization.

There are reports that Eddie Jordan has sold his Formula 1 team to the new Midland F1 operation and we hear that Gary Anderson will be the technical director of the new operation. If the news is confirmed Anderson will be working once again with designer Mark Smith.

British American Racing Honda has launched its new BAR-Honda 007 chassis but there is no sign of any new sponsorship on the car and one must therefore presume that British American Tobacco and Honda are footing the majority of the bill in 2005.

Triple World Champion Nelson Piquet (52) has decided it is time to get back to racing and is to take up truck racing. Piquet will join Pedro Muffatto in Brazil's Formula Truck this season.

When it was announced last autumn that Formula 1 qualifying would be on Sunday mornings, no-one really took the whole thing seriously. It was obviously a bad idea, decided upon by people who were not looking at the problem from the right viewpoint.

The European Union has asked FIA President Max Mosley to be a member of CARS 21, the Competitive Automotive Regulatory System for the 21st Century. The aim of the group is to generate recommendations to improve the worldwide competitiveness of the European automotive industry.

The tit-for-tat squabbling at the British Racing Drivers' Club continued today with deposed chairman Ray Bellm explaining that he had "stepped down" despite the fact that the club put out a statement to this effect.

As we suggested would happen last week the A1 Grand Prix series will kick off at Brands Hatch on September 18 this year.

As we exclusively reported last week Gunther Steiner has been appointed as the new technical director of Red Bull Racing. The team will be making more changes in the weeks ahead but has confirmed that the car will run at Jerez on February 7.

It has not been a happy Dakar Rally this year with two competitors dying as a result of accidents in the desert.

While Formula 1 continues to look at itself in the mirror and regard itself as the greatest motor racing series in the world, there are moves going on which the powers within the sport ought to take into account.

Martin Brundle and Mark Blundell, former F1 drivers who now commentate together on ITV, have set up a new company called 2MB Sports Management Ltd, which aims to provide a management service for young racing drivers.

AT&T, a former sponsor of the Jaguar Racing team is to join McLaren this year. The American communications giant signed a three-year deal with the Ford Motor Company at the start of 2002 but this was not renewed when it became clear that Jaguar Racing was being sold.

The American network CBS Sports is to give Formula 1 coverage a try in 2005. The network has agreed a deal to broadcast four Grands Prix, beginning in late April, with two hour-long lifestyle specials to promote Formula 1 in the United States.

Most companies have a chairman, a board of directors and a chief executive (who is sometimes given the title of president). There are also honorific titles, which sometimes the roles of vice-chairman, president and vice-president.