Formula One News — January 2005

The latest word from Italy is that the NASCAR teams are sitting up and taking notice of some of the engine technology which is available now in Modena, Italy, and that High Performance Engineering, a company run by Piero Ferrari (Enzo's son) is to be developing engines for one of the NASCAR teams in 2005.

Christian Horner has been appointed as the Sporting Director of Red Bull Racing. The news was confirmed a few minutes ago by the Austrian drinks company although confirmation of Gunther Steiner as the new technical director has not yet been made.

In recent weeks it has been very clear that there has been considerable stress and strain between Red Bull, the new owners of Jaguar Racing, and the former management which has run the team for previous owners Ford.

Champ Car has lost another of its Mexican stars with the news that Michel Jourdain Jr has signed to drive for Ford Motorsport to run a full season in the NASCAR Busch stock car series.

The FIA has launched an appeal fund which it hopes the member clubs of the organization will donate money to help the victims of the Boxing Day tsunami. FIA president Max Mosley has written to all the clubs and asked them to donate to help relief operations.

As we reported back in October, Williams has concluded a new sponsorship deal with the Royal Bank of Scotland Group. The deal is believed to be worth in excess of $15m a year. The banking group, the sixth biggest in the world, has seen the success in Formula 1 enjoyed by HSBC and is obviously keen to expand.

Michael Schumacher has announced that one of the many victims of the Asia tsunami was one of his bodyguards, Burkhard Cramer who died in the disaster along with his two sons.

Red Bull is to sponsor American Scott Speed in the GP2 series. Speed won the German and European Formula Renault titles in 2004 and was expected to move up to the new series but Red Bull's decision to sign with the iSport Internatonal team is a bit of a surprise.

The word on the street at Silverstone is that Jordan Grand Prix is not for sale after the failure of negotiations between Eddie Jordan and Christian Horner of the Arden International Formula 3000 team.

It has been announced in Austria that both Christian Klien and Vitantonio Liuzzi have been signed by Red Bull Racing for the season ahead. It is not clear exactly what the two men have signed and it is not clear how both will be involved in the team given that the David Coulthard is already under contract.

While the motor racing world was recognised in Britain's New Year's Honours List by David Richard being appointed a CBE for his services to the sport, hidden away in the listings was a similar award for none other than Richard Parry-Jones.

Michael Schumacher is to donate $10m to the relief efforts in Asia. The World Champion says that the effects of the Boxing Day tsunami are "horrible" and has promised to give the money, which represents about 10% of his annual income, to UNICEF.

There are reports from Italy that Michael Schumacher has bought the Casa Cassinella, an impressive villa located on the northern shore of Lake Como, close to the town of Lenno.

The 10th anniversary celebrations of Petronas's involvement in Formula 1 - and the launch of the Sauber C24 - have been cancelled as a mark of respect to the victims of the tsunami disaster in South East Asia.

This year the Australian Grand Prix celebrates 10 years in Albert Park in Melbourne and with Australian Mark Webber getting into a top car for the first time, the interest should be higher than ever, even if the country remains fixated by the V8 Super Car series.

Formula 1 cruises merrily on with both Bernie Ecclestone and the GPWC trying to convince the Formula 1 teams that they want to support one or the other. At the same time the planned A1 Grand Prix Championship is building up and we hear that the series will soon be ready announce an impressive calendar.

The rather sad "revelations" of a former Ferrari doctor suggesting that a number of Formula 1 drivers are cocaine users is an indication, if nothing else, that the doctor in question is somewhat out of date.

David Richards, chairman of Prodrive, has been named a Commander of the Order of the British Empire for his services to motor sport.