Formula One News — May 2005

We hear that tomorrow morning there may be news regarding the future of Formula 1 with what is rumoured to be a major shift in the current alliances in Grand Prix. At the moment however details are sketchy

QinetiQ may be a new name in Formula 1 but in fact the company, which was originally part of the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency, has a long history of helping F1 teams to develop technologies, notably through its windtunnels at Farnborough and Bedford,

The Conseil General of the departement of the Nievre, the local government of Magny-Cours, has voted to invest in the venue for the next three years.

The Formula 1 teams are to have a race of different kind at Magny-Cours this year. Each team is to be given kits to create Pinewood Derby cars and these will be raced against one another at an event in the build up to the big race.

Adam Carroll has withdrawn from next week's test for the drivers for Britain's A1 Grand Prix team. Carroll's slot will now go to Formula 3 Euroseries driver James Rossiter. It is not known why Carroll has made the move but it may be that he already has a commitment for 2006.

Australian Grand Prix chief Ron Walker is in the newspapers in Australia again, accused of subsidising hotel rooms for officials during the city's Commonwealth Games in March next year.

The Renault F1 team was busy yesterday, running a car on the streets of Istanbul. The event follows in the footsteps of similar demonstration runs in other European cities and featured Fernando Alonso doing seven laps of a circuit which was laid out around the area where the city's ancient hippodrome once stood.

Ray Bellm has resigned from the British Racing Drivers' Club and all the various positions that he held in the subsidiary structures. Bellm wrote to the chairman Stuart Rolt on Monday, quitting the club of which he was chairman until February.

When it was suggested to a member of the BAR Honda management that David Richards was rumoured to be returning to the team, the response was not at all surprising. "Is that before or after Hell freezes over?" came the reply.

Our spies in Athens report that Bahrain International Circuit chief Martin Whitaker is arriving in the city today and will spend the next few days visiting possible venues for a proposed Greek Grand Prix.

Bridgestone has announced that Michael Schumacher tyre failures in Spain were not caused by excessive wear. According to the Japanese tyremaker the first failure (on lap 44) was caused because the carcass of the tyre was weakened by the Safety Car period (laps 1-3).

Tony Kanaan took pole for the Indianapolis 500 on Sunday, the qualifying for the event having been delayed from Saturday because of heavy rain. Kanaan lapped the Brickyard at 227.566mph to become the fourth Brazilian in succession to be on pole for the 500.

Mika Hakkinen scored his first win the German Touring Car Championship at the weekend at Spa-Francorchamps. It was the third round of the series. The Finnish former World Champion started from pole and won by 4.2secs, ahead of 2004 DTM champion Mattias Ekstrom in an Audi with Tom Kristensen finished third.

The French Grand Prix has developed some new and very interesting promotional activities of late, the most recent being an assessment of how the various Formula 1 drivers will do this summer - based on what a French astrologer says is in the solar charts of the Grand Prix drivers!

Some years ago, the Atlas F1 website ran a story called "The Woman of Bernie's Dreams", about a little known 17-year-old girl called Danica Patrick, who had given up the comforts of home in Illinois and was living in Birmingham, England, competing in the British Formula Ford Zetec Championship and doing well.

The Renault F1 team made a profit of $5m in 2004, according to the latest financial results. It is the first time that the Anglo-French team has made a profit since it was acquired from the Benetton company in 2002.

It is emerging that Panasonic Toyota Racing may have been racing for the last few years, without a valid national racing licence. The team has obviously had the necessary F1 Superlicence, issued by the FIA.

The new F1 Racing magazine has just been published and it includes the results of a straw poll in the F1 paddock in Barcelona on the subject of the FIA International Court of Appeal.

South Australian state premier Mike Rann is in London at the moment and yesterday met two important figures: Her Majesty the Queen and Bernie Ecclestone.

Danica Patrick turned the preparations for the Indianapolis 500 into a media circus on Thursday when she set the fastest lap of the day, clocking 227.633mph, in the run-up to qualifying this weekend. Patrick has been fast since the start of practice, which included two days of rookie tests.

The battle for control of the British Racing Drivers' Club is over but now the club must face up to the more important problems it is facing, including the most important issue of all, which is to make the club meaningful again to racing drivers and create a desire for young British racing drivers to want to be members.

The Extraordinary General Assembly of the British Racing Drivers' Club gathered today and after a meeting lasting three and a half hours the vote revealed that Stewart had emerged the winner.

The FIA's desire not to get involved in the regulation of testing may have to be rethought a little bit following remarks made by David Coulthard after the Grand Prix Drivers' Association meeting in Barcelona last week.

What a difference a week makes. On Thursday last week Nick Fry of BAR Honda was complaining that the team was "appalled" by the decision of the FIA International Court of Appeal.

Red Bull Racing is tipped to be on the verge of doing a deal to run Bridgestone tyres in 2006.