Formula One News — June 2005

French GP - Preview

The Formula One Management company has filed its financial returns for 2003, revealing a number of interesting developments.

The Formula 1 teams have pointed out a curious anomaly in the FIA World Council judgment of yesterday.

Hidden away behind the smoke and mirrors of the World Council decisions and subsequent reactions, the FIA issued a calendar of 20 blocked dates for Formula 1 next year.

The FIA World Council made a number of other decisions, notably approving the distribution of the consultation document on regulations for the 2008 FIA Formula 1 World Championship to the relevant stakeholders.

The recent days have seen the question of tyre safety bubbling away quietly beneath the surface in F1, notably between the FIA and Michelin. This was sparked by the Michelin tyre problems in Indianapolis.

FIA President Max Mosley said the following in his press conference in Paris, this afternoon.

As part of the F1 team's submissions to the World Council today in Paris, there was a statement from 19 drivers, supporting the teams.

These are the submissions made by the Formula One Teams to the FIA World Motor Sport Council.

The headlines all say "Michelin teams guilty" but the actual FIA World Council decision in Paris today said very little. This is not necessarily a bad thing. The entire United States Grand Prix debacle is an issue over which the potential existed to blow Formula 1 apart.

BAR-Honda, BMW Williams, Renault F1, Sauber Petronas, Team McLaren Mercedes and Toyota Motorsport GmbH - but not Red Bull Racing - have reacted to the announcement from the FIA World Council.

The World Council's decision.

The World Council meeting is now taking place in Paris

This morning in Paris, the Formula 1 world will make important decisions. The FIA World Council, a gathering of some of the top club officials in the automobile federation, will decide on whether Grand Prix racing should be ruled by commerce or by the book.

Michelin has announced that it is to contribute to the costs incurred by spectators at the United States Grand Prix by offering to refund their tickets. The company will also buy 20,000 tickets for next year's race and will give them to spectators who were present at this year's race.

If you are mad enough to want to sit next to a Grand Prix driver, you can bid your way to be co-driver in the Dodgems Challenge at the Silverstone Grand Prix Ball, which kicks off the weekend on Friday, July 8.

As all eyes in Formula 1 are on a committee room in Paris, fans of NASCAR can this summer enjoy their favourite sport playing host to Herbie, the free-wheeling automotive film star, which first hit the big time in the 1960s in The Love Bug

There may be huge interest in Formula 1 in India at the moment but that does not mean that the Indians are going to see the racing on television, despite the fact that Narain Karthikeyan is the first Indian to be racing in Grands Prix.

Carlos Ghosn, the new boss of Automobiles Renault, has spent the last three months looking at the way the company operates and deciding how to move forward.

Edouard Michelin, the man in charge of the giant Michelin tyre company, has responded to a communication last week from Max Mosley, which apparently questioned Michelin's safety record in Formula 1.

Toyota has announced that it is pulling out of open-wheeler racing in the United States after 12 years involvement with CART and more recently IRL.

The seven Formula 1 teams involved in the debacle in Indianapolis will meet today in Paris, with Minardi's Paul Stoddart and representatives of the car manufacturers involved in Formula 1 to discuss their plans for the FIA World Council meeting tomorrow.

The Indianapolis Motor Speedway was not happy about what happened at the United States Grand Prix and just so the locals get the message,

The French tyre company Michelin has issued a statement about what happened at the United States Grand Prix.

The FIA's outline for the Formula 1 rules in 2008, issued just before the current F1 crisis blew up in Indianapolis, called for annual expenditure to be cut from $300m per team per year to a figure of around $30m a year and all manner of technology coming under tight restrictions.