Formula One News — September 2005

A lot is happening in the world of Formula 1 television at the moment with a change coming not only in the presenters of ITV's coverage - which appears on channels all over the world - but also in the production of the show.

Indy Racing League champion Dan Wheldon says he might not be racing in Formula 1 because talks with Williams and BMW have not led to any interesting offers. This effectively ends any chance the British driver had of getting into F1.

There is talk that Paul Tracy, Tony Kanaan and perhaps even Dan Wheldon will be seen racing in the A1 Grand Prix series this winter. At the moment the new series consists mainly of younger drivers but as the idea catches on, the level of drivers will probably increase.

We have seen Hills, Villeneuve, Brabhams, Fittipaldis, Laudas, Rosbergs, Piquets and so on, and now it seems we are going to get another son of a famous father. Nicolas Prost has joined DAMS for the Renault World Series meeting at Estoril.

This afternoon Paul Stoddart and Dietrich Mateschitz will complete the deal they have agreed for the sale of Minardi to Red Bull GmbH. This will bring to an end the Minardi story in F1, which dates back to 1976.

There is a chance that Poland's Robert Kubica will be seen in the third Minardi at the Japanese and Chinese Grands Prix in October. Kubica is currently leading the way in the Renault World Series with four wins and a big advantage in the points.

Nico Rosberg has won the GP2 Championship.

Stories that Mike Gascoyne is on his way to Sauber-BMW should be treated with some circumspection.

Formula 1 is about motor racing not about the art of negotiation and F1 fans are bored rigid by the never-ending quibbling over the rules and the commercial rights that surround the sport.

Five manufacturers and seven F1 teams met at Schloss Hohenkammer, a castle to the north of Munich, on Wednesday and the manufacturers committed themselves to move forward to improve the sport and compete only in a championship which satisfies the "fundamental principles of an equitable World Championship".

Nigel Mansell says that his old rival Alain Prost will start as the favourite for the Grand Prix Masters race at Kyalami on November11-13.

BMW Williams has confirmed that Antonio Pizzonia will complete the year as the second driver for the team, alongside Mark Webber.

Before the Brazilian Grand Prix Ferrari sources were saying that the team had nothing new for Interlagos and thus it was something of a surprise to see improvement in the team's performance.

In addition to running Formula 1 Bernie Ecclestone has a large property empire and there are reports in Switzerland that he has just paid out $3.8m to buy a ski resort called "Glacier 3000''.

Brazilian Lucas Di Grassi is to get his chance to test drive a Formula 1 car this week at Jerez de la Frontera. The 21-year-old , a member of Renault's Driver Development programme, is currently competing in the Formula 3 Euroseries and is currently third overall

Fernando Alonso's success is causing a boom in interest in F1 in Spain, similar to the boom the sport has enjoyed in Germany thanks to the success of Michael Schumacher.

Mercedes-Benz is expected to announce shortly that it be cutting 5000 job in Germany, more than 5 per cent of its workforce in the country.

Backmarkers did not cost the McLaren team the Drivers' World Championship. The team's reliability, or rather lack of it, must take the blame for that and blaming others is unfair and indeed unbecoming of a team which will, if it does not screw things up further, will take the Constructors' title at a canter in the final two races.

Takuma Sato is out of a job in F1 next year and he needs a large sum of money to get a drive with the Jordan team. The price at the moment is up around $10m and may go higher as drivers scramble to get one of the two seats left in F1.

McLaren scored a long-awaited 1-2 result in Brazil - the team's first in five years - but that was not the real story of the Brazilian Grand Prix because the achievement of race winner Juan Pablo Montoya and title contender Kimi Raikkonen was eclipsed by Fernando Alonso's World Championship...

In recent days there have been rumours that Fiat boss (and Ferrari protector) Luca di Montezemolo might be in trouble with the company's creditor banks demanding his resignation.

The Formula 1 team principals returned from Brazil on Sunday night and in the days ahead will be preparing for an important meeting which will take place in Munich on Wednesday.

The inaugural race planned for the Champ Car series in South Korea appears to be in danger. The event, which is scheduled for October 16, appears to have run into trouble with preparations lagging behind and money not having been paid.

The A1 Grand Prix series got off to a good start at Brands Hatch at the weekend with an impressive crowd of around 80,000 people turning up to watch the action at the Kentish circuit.

The word in the paddock in Brazil is that Antonio Pizzonia will complete the season with BMW Williams. Pizzonia has not been lucky in his two events at Belgium and in Brazil, being knocked out of the races on both occasions, in Belgium by Juan Pablo Montoya and in Brazil by David Coulthard.