Formula One News — March 2005

The tiresome wrangling between Minardi and the FIA grinds on. The team went to court on Friday evening to get an injunction which would allow him to race. The Supreme Court of the state of Victoria has granted the team an interim injunction to allow it to participate.

Australian GP - Friday Photos

Australian GP - Friday Press Conference

Paul Stoddart has been told that his cars cannot race in Melbourne, despite the fact that he finally managed to convince all the other teams to agree to let him use 2004 cars. Stoddart got the signatures and then went to the stewards to be allowed to race but was told that he could not.

Australian GP - Friday Team Quotes

Australian GP - Practice Session 2 Results

Team boss Jean Todt may be willing to be uncompromising in his views on rule changing in F1 but the attitude is not helping the team's cause.

Narain Karthikeyan began his Formula 1 career with a hefty fine for speeding in the pitlane as he went out to begin the second session of practice on Friday. The Indian was clocked at 86.2kmh when the limit was 80 and so took a hefty hit from the FIA Stewards of the meeting.

The Formula 1 pit stops this year will not feature tyre changes but we understand that things will be a little bit more exciting than expected because the teams will be using hand-held tyre pressure adjustors.

Australian GP - Practice Session 1 Report

Australian GP - Practice Session 1 Results

Minardi is not running the first practice session for the Australian Grand Prix because Ferrari continues to refuse to sign to let the team run.

Max Mosley's lengthy discourse with himself is unlikely to make any impression on the Formula 1 teams and their views about the FIA President - but that is not what it was designed to do.

Max Mosley has taken the opportunity of the first race of the new Formula 1 season to give his position on the current state of Formula 1 politics. The questions and answers have been supplied by the FIA.

Australian GP - Preview

Former F1 driver-turned World Rally Championship star Stephane Sarrazin is to race for the Aston Martin team in the Sebring 12 Hours in Florida on March 19. He replaces Tomas Enge who has had to drop out because of his recently-signed Indy Racing League deal with Panther Racing.

Mathias Lauda, the son of triple World Champion Niki Lauda, has signed to be the second driver for the Coloni GP2 team, alongside Gianmaria Bruni. Lauda drove for Coloni's second team CMS last year but without any notable results. Lauda hopes to be a frontrunner in GP2 this year.

Refusing to sign to allow Minardi to race in Melbourne would be an act of monumental stupidity for Ferrari boss Jean Todt.

Melbourne traffic clogged up completely on Wednesday when F1 cars went for a spin in Melbourne's central business district.

There are reports in Germany - not the first - suggesting that Sauber may be sold to BMW. The idea has been plugged for some years by BMW Motorsport boss Dr Mario Theissen but to date the board of directors has refused to accept the idea. We believe that if BMW does ever decide to do its own team, it would do it in Munich.

That may be the headline again this weekend in Melbourne but it has already happened in the United States where defending NHRA champion Tony Schumacher kick off his new season with victory at Firebird International Raceway.

President Pervez Musharraf was present on Monday for the launch of Team Pakistan in the new A1 Grand Prix series. The launch took place at Lahore Fort with the announcement that Nur B Ali, a graduate of the Skip Barber Racing School who has raced in Formula Mazda in the United States will drive for the team.

The Toyota Motor Corporation has inaugurated its new Fuji Speedway and says that it hopes to get a Grand Prix at the facility in the near future. The Japanese GP was held at Fuji in the 1970s but since 1987 has been held at Suzuka, a circuit which is owned by Honda.