Formula One News — August 2005

Jean Todt does not always come across as a man with much affection but he obviously feels strongly enough about Michael Schumacher that he is willing to wait until next Spring to see if Michael will agree to a new contract for 2007 and 2008. In normal circumstances Todt would have tied up his 2007 drivers already.

The International Speedway Corporation and its rival Speedway Motorsports have announced that they are buying the merchandising company Action Performance for $245m. Action Performance holds many of the licences for merchandise related to the NASCAR Nextel Cup.

There was a strange press release this evening sent out by Formula One Management and signed by Bernie Ecclestone. The message, however, was not one that seemed to ring true with Ecclestone's views in recent months.

Michael Schumacher and Ferrari could stop all the rumours about the multiple World Champion retiring at the end of 2006 by announcing a new deal for Schumacher for 2007 or by admitting that Michael is quitting.

The Chinese government has ratified the World Health Organization's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, formalising the country's support for the anti-smoking treaty and obligating the Chinese to ban tobacco sponsorship.

It was a very full weekend for motorsport with all the major series in action apart from Formula 1. In Germany Sebastien Loeb won his eighth victory of the year to move close to a second consecutive World Championship for Citroen.

Michele Dubosc, the most famous timekeeper in F1 in the 1970s and 1980s has died after a long illness.

The Renault F1 team sent a car to Moscow at the weekend and drivers Fernando Alonso and Giancarlo Fisichella made demonstration runs on a street track laid out on Moskvoretskaya street and across the Moskvoretsky bridge.

It is worth noting that while there is much talk of premature rumours of Kimi Raikkonen signing at Ferrari, it is exactly the right moment for Ferrari to make a move.

Former McLaren man Bob McMurray is the chief executive of A1 Team New Zealand.

It might seem unlikely that Formula 1 could be saved from itself by a 40-something-year-old American but stories leaking out that Robin Saunders, once the golden girl of city finance, could be making a comeback with a $1.5bn plan to buy control of Formula One from the three banks involved.

It was a busy week of testing at Monza where all the Formula 1 teams were in action in preparation for the Italian Grand Prix. Juan Pablo Montoya set the fastest time with a best lap of 1m19.813s after two days of running, during which he completed 170 laps of the track.

The High Court in London is currently quiet, with most of the justices away on their summer recess. At this time of year the courts deal only with interim hearings, which can result in interim orders pending the resolution of a legal action.

It is worth noting that the new A1 Team Switzerland appears to be being run by Care Racing Developments, which is the racing operation run by sportscar racer Frederic Dor from his premises at Gilly, near Nyon in Switzerland.

Red Bull has been a big name in Formula 1 circles for 10 years now but one aim it has always had was to bring a top level American driver into the sport, to help its invasion of the United States drinks markets and specifically the youth market.

Williams has taken on a new chief designer in Jorg Zander, a 41-year-old German who cut his teeth in motorsport at Toyota. In recent years Zander has been in charge of mechanics and transmission at BAR.

The Formula 1 team bosses met in Turkey to try to work out what to do about qualifying next year and the opinions seem to be somewhat split, unusual in this age of detente, although the general feeling now appears to be to maintain the status quo with one or two modifications.

Usually reliable sources are now telling us that Kimi Raikkonen will definitely be moving to Ferrari in 2007, which clearly upsets the applecart of the Formula 1 driver market, unless we are to believe that Raikkonen and Michael Schumacher will agree to be in the same team together.

There are reports in Germany this morning that Kimi Raikkonen has signed an option to join Ferrari in 2007. This option is almost certainly dependent on whether or not Michael Schumacher is still with the team or whether the German retires or moves to another F1 operation.

Behind the rumours of Michael Schumacher joining McLaren there appear to be negotiations for the German to stay on for probably two more years with Scuderia Ferrari. Schumacher's current contract with Ferrari runs out at the end of 2006.

Although some of the F1 teams think that they can go on with tobacco sponsorship indefinitely, the ever-closing net of anti-tobacco legislation around the world continues to tighten.

Australian Grand Prix big cheese Ron Walker is to be named chairman of the John Fairfax Holdings newspaper group, which includes the Sydney Morning Herald and the Melbourne Age newspapers.

Clearly aware that he has a credibility problem in F1 circles, Jordan team owner Alex Shnaider is trying again to sound like a serious Formula 1 team owner with Bernie Ecclestone's official website Formula 1.com running an interview, trying to explain his strategy in Formula 1.

Nanotechnology is the creation and use of materials, devices and systems in the nanometre range. In short, microscopic technology (one nanometre being one millionth of a millimetre).

Research into the behind the scenes activity in and around Formula 1 has revealed some interesting new facts, not least that a company called Formula One Promotions and Administration Ltd is not only applying for the European trademarks of GP1 but is also the holder of the GP2 trademark.