Formula One News — April 2005

The Formula 1 teams want to get together in Imola to discuss the qualifying format but they do not want any meeting to be confused with the separate issue of the 2008 regulations. The proposal they wish to put forward is, we believe, for a single qualifying session on Saturdays, with a completely new format.

Having Fernando Alonso in one of your cars is a great idea if you want Spaniards to pay attention and the Renault team has taken advantage of this to land a sponsorship deal with Mutua Madrilena, a large Spanish insurance company.

Ferrari is sticking to its guns in F1 politics at the moment, having negotiated itself a very favourable deal with Formula One Management for the period 2008-2012. The problem is that none of the other teams want any part of the same deal.

The president of the international federation of football associations (FIFA) Sepp Blatter has announced that he intends to stand for re-election at the next elections in 2007.

Alexander Wurz will make a return to Formula 1 at the weekend, driving the second McLaren-Mercedes-Benz. It will be Wurz's first drive in a Grand Prix since the end of 2000 when he left Benetton.

Renault has been funding a number of Formula 1 street demonstrations in recent months in order to promote sales of its cars and interest in its F1 activities. The road show has been to Lyons, Madrid, Moscow and last weekend was in Rome.

The Midland Group has bought the Jordan windtunnel at Brackley, which was obviously not part of the original purchase deal between the Russian group and Eddie Jordan. The team says that it will now upgrade the tunnel to deal with 50% scale models.

As Formula 1 forges on towards a potential split with the big teams on one side and the FIA and Ferrari on the other, there is no better advertisement for the stupidity of such a move than what is happening in the United States of America.

Porsche has announced a deal with Penske Motorsports to run a new prototype sports car in the American Le Mans Series. Porsche Cars North America and Porsche Motorsport North America have commissioned parent company Porsche AG to design and build a car to compete in the LMP2 class in ALMS.

Bridgestone goes to Imola this weekend with a 100% record in 2005. The tyres have failed to win all three races so far this year. And that means that the pressure is on the Japanese tyre company to come up with tyres to compete with the best that Michelin has to offer.

Formula 1 has always enjoyed visiting Argentina. Even in the darkest days of military government in the 1970s Formula 1 was an annual fixture at the Autodromo Oscar Galvez in the Parque Almirante Brown.

The news last week that there is interest in holding a Grand Prix in Chennai, India, was interesting but it is unlikely that it will lead to an event because of political battles that have been waging between the country's motor sport authorities for the last six years.

The British Racing Drivers' Club's current problems will be settled on May 12 when the club - which owns Silverstone and promotes the British Grand Prix - meets to discuss the role of its president Sir Jackie Stewart. A number of club members have demanded that Stewart and the board of directors stand down.

The Estoril MotoGP paddock featured a number of Formula 1 visitors with Red Bull Racing team boss Christian Horner in attendance along with the team's new driver Tonio Liuzzi.

James Rossiter and Loic Duval gave the Signature Plus team a 1-2 result in the second round of the Formula 3 Eurocup at Hockenheim. Lewis Hamilton, the winner of the first round, finished third and leads the championship.

Yuji Ide gave the Mobilecast Team Impul victory in the second round of the Formula Nippon series at Suzuka, beating Tsugio Matsuda (5Zigen) by 14secs. Third place went to PIAA Nakajima's Takashi Kogure on a day when the European drivers were up against it.

McLaren protege Lewis Hamilton won victory in the opening round of the Formula 3 Euroseries, establishing himself as the favourite for the title and extending the domination which the ASM team has enjoyed for more than a year. Hamilton was followed home by his team mate Adrian Sutil.

Lewis Hamilton (ASM F3, Dallara-Mercedes) took pole position for the opening round of the Formula 3 Euroseries at Hockenheim ahead of his team mate Adrian Sutil. The pair were followed by Giedo van der Garde (Team Rosberg Dallara-Opel) and Paul di Resta (Manor Motorsport Dallara-Mercedes).

The first Minardi Cosworth PS05 had its initial shakedown test at Mugello yesterday in the hands of Christijan Albers. The new car is very different to the PS04 and ran without drama, Albers completing a total of 125 miles of testing.

Art Cross may not be a name that is wellknown in the annals of the FIA Formula 1 World Championship but he took part in four Grands Prix, all of them at Indianapolis, and finished second in one of them. He was also the first man to be given the title of Rookie of the Year at the Indianapolis 500.

The announcement today by the FIA that it is to push ahead with its plans to create new rules for Formula 1 in 2008 will, no doubt, lead to much talk. There will be reaction (indeed there already has been) and then there will counter-reaction (the phones are already ringing in the world of F1 journalism).

The FIA has issued a statement after its meeting this morning with Ferrari, Red Bull and Jordan which seems to indicate that the federation intends to try to make rules without the current Concorde Agreement.

It is no secret that engineer Enrique Scalabroni wants to have his own Formula 1 team. He has tried several times to make that dream happen, the most recent plan being with the Asiatech engine company.

The Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation says that it no longer has an interest in buying the beleaguered MG Rover car company in Britain. The news means that unless a white knight appears very quickly around 6,000 jobs are going to go at the company's factory at Longbridge, near Oxford.

There are some interesting reports doing the rounds that DaimlerChrysler shareholders are being approached by private equity firms seeking to buy the company and break it up into different companies.