Formula One News — April 2005

Lucky Strike BAR Honda has confirmed that Gil de Ferran is to join the team in the newly created role of Sporting Director, responsible for the BAR Honda team at events.

It has been announced in Monaco that Prince Rainier has died. he had been on the throne of Monaco for 56 years and an important figure in the development of the Monaco Grand Prix as one of the world's leading events.

Gil de Ferran, former CART champion and Indianapolis 500 winner, is expected to be named Sporting Director of BAR-Honda this week.

A big Formula 1 test got under way at Barcelona today with Ferrari and Renault in action at the track. World Championship leader Fernando Alonso was in action and, according to witnesses suffered a rear wing failure at one point.

The HVM Champ Car team has announced that it will be running former Formula 3000 champion Bjorn Wirdheim and Denmark's Ronnie Bremer. The funding from the team is somewhat obscure at the moment but we hear on the grapevine that much of the money will becoming from Champ Car partner Kevin Kalkhoven.

Vitantonio Liuzzi will make his Formula 1 race debut with the Red Bull Racing team at the San Marino Grand Prix on April 24.

Fernando Alonso won the Bahrain Grand Prix. No, he didn't. Fernando Alonso waltzed to victory, his second in as many weeks and Renault's third win on the trot. But it was more than that. Alonso saw off Michael Schumacher with a carefree wave of his magic wand.

Ferrari arrived in Bahrain with two F2005s. The spare car was an F2004M. On Friday morning Rubens Barrichello's gearbox suffered what Ross Brawn described as a "catastrophic" problem.

Former Formula 1 test driver Ryan Briscoe made a decent impact in the Indy Racing League race at St Petersburg in Florida. The Australia was leading the race with nine laps to go.

No, not that Michael Schumacher. He had a miserable time but over in the United States Michael Andretti had the kind of weekend that team owners can only dream of having.

Bahrain GP - Sunday Press Conference

Bahrain GP - Race Notes

Bahrain GP - Sunday Photos

McLaren played host to a party from the planned Team Dubai F1 team at the weekend in Sakhir according to our sources within the team.

Danilo Dirani scored a pair of impressive wins for Lola and P1 Motorsport at the opening round of the British Formula 3 series at Donington Park. Dirani won from pole in the first event while his nearest challenger Marko Asmer made a bad start and dropped into the midfield.

Bahrain GP - Race incidents

Bahrain GP - Sunday Team Quotes

Bahrain GP - Race Results

Bahrain GP - Qualifying Session 2 Report

Bahrain GP - Starting Grid

Bahrain GP - Qualifying Session 2 Results

Fernando Alonso gave the other Formula 1 teams a glimpse of Renault's supremacy in first qualifying in Bahrain with a lap that was a tenth of a second faster than Jarno Trulli's Toyota in a thrilling session. Alonso's time of 1m29.848s was two tenths of a second faster than last year's pole position time.

Bahrain GP - Saturday Photos

Bahrain GP - Saturday Press Conference

Bahrain GP - Saturday Team Quotes