Formula One News — June 2005

The FIA says it has received 90,000 completed Formula 1 surveys from fans in 180 countries and that it will announce the results of the survey in the run-up to the British Grand Prix.

United States GP - Practice Session 1 Report

United States GP - Practice Session 1 Results

The McLaren Technology Centre in Woking has won the Building of the Year award from the Royal Fine Art Commission Trust, which presents the annual awards. It was described as "the most beautiful industrial building in the country".

It is not rocket science to suggest that should Rubens Barrichello decide that the time is right to move on from Ferrari and take advantage of an offer to be a team leader with another F1 team, Ferrari would probably put Felipe Massa into the second car.

This weekend we should hear that the Jordan F1 team, which is supposed to become Midland F1 in 2006, will have Toyota engines once again. There has been a lot of talk about team owner Alex Shnaider's grand plans but so far we have seen nothing to suggest that he is getting serious about 2006.

If you nose around on the Web, you can find a teeshirt which is designed to resemble an FBI-style Wanted poster. The subject of the poster is FIA President Max Mosley, wanted allegedly for "crimes against F1".

The FIA has issued a list of guidelines and justifications for them for F1 in 2008. The FIA says that F1 needs to cut costs and wants to reduce annual expenditure of the big teams from the current of $300m to around $30m. This is likely to cause much upset with the manufacturers.

The following is the full FIA document related to rule changes in 2008.

Crude oil prices have risen dramatically in recent months as the world begins to worry about the availability of oil in the future and the latest rises are thought likely to create inflation, restricting growth and make current governments very unpopular.

The UK motorsport industry has organused a trade mission to go to this week's Paris Air Show. Organised by the Motorsport Industry Association, the mission is part of the government-supported "Motorsport to Aerospace" initiative that was devised to bring fresh businesses opportunities to motorsport companies.

United States GP - Preview

Formula 1 has moved to become a more global championship in recent years, expanding out of Europe to embrace new events in the United States, the Middle East and China.

Danica Patrick says that she would be interested in racing in Formula 1 at some point in the future if the right opportunity presented itself.

Ralf Schumacher says that his brother Michael will retire from the sport soon. The Toyota F1 driver says that he does not believe that Michael will go on much longer.

It may be 50 years since the Le Mans disaster but some of the legacy of that accident remain and this has been highlighted this week.

Group Lotus has announced that it is building a single-seater racing car to be used for track days and club racing.

Peugeot is to return to Le Mans in 2007, planning to win the classic French event with a diesel powered prototype. The project could however face stiff competition from Audi which is believed to be working on a similar project.

The Toyota company is currently looking at what it intends to do in F1 in 2006 with an announcement expected in Indianapolis about a deal to run Toyota engines again next year.

The miserable season for Ferrari has been such that the team is now looking at abandoning development of the troublesome F2005 and getting down to business with the F2006.

Formula 1 TV audiences have increased dramatically compared to 2004. In the United Kingdom, ITV1's live broadcast of the race in Montreal attracted 50% more viewers than last year.

The Formula 1 circus has dispersed from Montreal with people heading off in different directions.

The damaged front wing Danica Patrick left behind when she spun at the Indianapolis 500 has been sold for $42,650 in an eBay auction.

There were six F1 cars running up the front. Six F1 cars running up the front, but if one F1 car would accidentally fall, they're be five F1 cars running at the front. And so it goes, a childish rhyme which neatly summed up what happened in the 2005 Canadian Grand Prix.

Lewis Hamilton won the Marlboro Masters event at Zandvoort on Sunday in his ASM Dallara-Mercedes.