Formula One News — March 2005

Bahrain GP - Preview

Bjorn Wirdheim has signed to drive for the Hola Viva Mexico team in Champ Cars this year.

Colin Giltrap is one of New Zealand's richest men and has been an active supporter of motor racing for the last 30 years. He is the country's biggest car dealer ship links to many of the big car companies, including Mercedes-Benz, Toyota and Hyundai.

The government of Bahrain is investing around $750m in a new resort facility which is to be built near the country's Formula 1 circuit. The foundation stone of the Al Areen Desert Spa and Resort was laid on Wednesday.

BMW driver and reigning FIA European Touring Car Champion Andy Priaulx will be back at the wheel of a Formula 1 Williams-BMW in May.

British rising star Lewis Hamilton led the way in the two-day Formula 3 Euroseries test at Spa-Francorchamps with his ASM Dallara-Mercedes F305, a tenth faster than former Formula 3000 driver Esteban Guerrieri, driving a Midland Junior Team Dallara-Toyota.

In a surprise last-minute move in Champ Cars, Forsythe Championship Racing has announced the signing of Mario Dominguez, who had been expected to stay with the Hola Viva Mexico team.

Giancarlo Fisichella will drive a Renault F1 car on the streets of his home city of Rome on April 10.

Red Bull Racing owner Dietrich Mateschitz has too many drivers for his Formula 1 team this year and rather than sending them to play tennis with Juan Pablo Montoya, the Austrian magnate is saying that he would happily lend either Christian Klien or Vitantonio Liuzzi to another team.

The A1 Grand Prix series has laucnhed another franchise holder with the announcement that A1 Team Australia will be fronted by Alan Jones, the former Formula 1 World Champion, and will run Christian Jones.

The FIA World Council has announced an immediate ban on the wearing of jewellery by race and rally competitors.

The FIA World Motor Sport Council met in Paris on Wednesday and, surprisingly, said nothing about Paul Stoddart's activities in Melbourne. The council issued a press statement that says that the technical regulations will remain unchanged in 2005, 2006 and 2007.

The Williams FW27 is getting better and better as new parts arrive to fix the problems that slowed the car at the start of the season. We hear on the grapevine that the team will have a new aerodynamic package at the rear which will be worth as much as two or three-tenths of a second per lap.

Autocourse, the venerable motorsports annual, has been acquired from the Profile Media Group plc by Crash dot Net Ltd, the online publishing house which is led by Formula 1 photographer Bryn Williams.

Juan Pablo Montoya is out of the Bahrain Grand Prix this weekend and may be out for a few more races this year, at least according to our sources. Montoya is reported to have been playing tennis on Saturday last week when he slipped and fell, sustaining a fracture to his left shoulderblade.

Australian expansion in world motor racing continues with the news that Australian businessmen John Fish and Craig Gore have bought "a controlling interest" in Derrick Walker's Champ Car team. The team will henceforth be called "Team Australia" rather than Walker Racing.

Jacques Villeneuve may be an experienced Formula 1 driver but he goes to Bahrain this week at a disadvantage because he has never driven at the track. Jacques's solution is to have ago on a Formula 1 video game so that he knows all the corners of the circuit.

Eric Jensen is to run his own Champ car team this year. The 35-year-old Toronto driver has been a regular competitor in Toyota Atlantics in recent years, running his own team in the series.

Juan Pablo Montoya is one of the more spectacular Formula 1 drivers but it seems that he has done himself more damage playing tennis than he has in an F1 car. The Colombian has hurt his shoulder playing tennis and may not be able to race in Bahrain.

Mark Webber has confirmed that he raced in both Melbourne and Malaysia nursing a fractured rib. The injury originally occured during testing in Barcelona prior to the season opener and, while there was initially some possibility of not racing in Melbourne.

After flopping badly in the marketplace and in Formula 1, Jaguar Cars is looking for a completely new image and has just named Euro RSCG Worldwide division of the French Havas group, as its global creative agency.

Former F1 World Champions Emerson Fittipaldi, Jody Scheckter, Nigel Mansell, Keke Rosberg and Alan Jones were among the stars present at the official launch of the Grand Prix Masters Series at the Durban Motor Show in South Africa.

Some of the Champ Car teams were in action this week at Sebring in Florida and although series regular Paul Tracy (Forsythe) emerged fastest on the first day of the two-day test.

Mosport Park in Bowmanville, Ontario, used to be the home of the Canadian Grand Prix. Now renamed as Mosport International Raceway the circuit is aiming to leap-frog Montreal to become the leading candidate to land a NASCAR race in 2006.

Reports are beginning to emerge in Germany which indicate that the deal between Bernie Ecclestone and the Formula 1 banks is a deal that is heavily in favour of the banks. SLEC's chairman Gerhard Gribkowsky is widely quoted as saying that the banks now have influence relative to their shareholding.