Formula One News — October 2005

The Formula 1 calendar has finally be published and although there are some changes, there are some bits of good news as well, notably that the season will not drag on into November as had been discussed but will end in Brazil on October 22. The bad news is that October is going to be a killer month for jetlag.

Australian Grand Prix Corporation chairman Ron Walker is accustomed to controversy, but in his latest skirmish in Melbourne he has been branded "yesterday's man" by a member of the Liberal Party, for which he has long been an important fundraiser.

Gary Paffett will probably be defending his DTM championship next year for Mercedes-Benz but he still wants to be an F1 driver and is looking forward to a run in a McLaren-Mercedes as a reward for his work in DTM.

Antonio Pizzonia is not thought likely to stay next year with the Williams team, even if there is a Friday testing job available. Pizzonia has had a difficult F1 career to date but has been associated with Williams since the beginning of 2001.

Juan Villalonga, the former chairman of Telefonica and the man who took the telecommunications giant into Formula 1 is to be one of the keynote speakers at the Formula 1 Sponsorship Forum in Monaco on November 16-17.

The news that Ukraine's largest steel mill has been bought by Mittal Steel for $4.8bn is interesting from a Formula 1 perspective as it gives a clear impression of the sort of money that the steel business can generate these days - and it begs the question of why Midland is not funding its F1 activities in a more active way.

The Race of Champions in Paris will feature a strong team from Brazil this year with Nelson Piquet Jr and Ferrari's new signing Felipe Massa.

Satoshi Motoyama last weekend tied up his fourth Formula Nippon title with a victory at Motegi. Starting from pole position the Arting Team Impul driver was chased in the early stages by Andre Lotterer (PIAA Nakajima Racing) and Sakon Yamamoto (Team Kondo).

The F1 Commission agreed that the teams could continue to use third cars next season, despite the fact that some teams wanted to get rid of the rules, which gives the big teams an advantage.

Michael Schumacher tested a Ducati Desmosedici MotoGP bike at the Mugello circuit in Italy, lapping the track around 20secs off the pace of pole position at this year's MotoGP event.

Former Grand Prix winner Heinz-Harald Frentzen is in hospital in Mannheim following a big accident at the final round of the DTM series at Hockenheim yesterday. The 38-year-old has concussion, multiple bruises and muscle strains in his neck.

The Midland Group has announced that Nicky Pastorelli is to be the team's official test and Friday driver next year. The 22 year-old Dutchman tested for the team on three occasions last year, running at Silverstone in April, at Santa Pod in May and then at Monza in August.

There may be any number of benefits from the new FIA-inspired rear wings, which will - if all goes to plan - be introduced in 2007. The teams will no doubt soon have the wings in their windtunnels to see what the effect will be on the cars running closely behind.

The Formula 1 Commission met in London on Tuesday to discuss the matters of the moment in Formula 1 and decided on a number of new measures for the future. There was no vote of no confidence in FIA President Max Mosley and, in the recent F1 tradition, everything was "very positive".

Bernie Ecclestone will be 75 years old on Friday and the Formula 1 Commission decided to recognise the occcasion by offering him a large cake, transported into the meeting room by 10 young ladies, clad in different team clothing. Mr E seems to have enjoyed the event.

The latest accounts filed by the Formula One group have revealed some interesting new developments, including the appointment of Gerhard Mann as chief executive of Formula One Holdings. Mann was previously the man in charge of the Bayerische Landesbank's London office.

The French national team, run by DAMS and represented by Alexandre Premat won the two A1 Grand Prix races at Estoril at the weekend.

Britain may no longer rule the waves but Europe's island offshoot is certainly doing well this year in Germany with Gary Paffett having become the first British driver to win the DTM Championship and Lewis Hamilton ending his extraordinary year in the Formula 3 Eurocup with two wins to bring his tally to 15 victories in 20 races.

France's Sebastien Bourdais makes no secret of his desire to be in Formula 1 and has proved to be the class of the field in Champ Car racing for the last two seasons.

The demand for automotive engineers in Britain, particularly in motor racing, has led to a number of schemes to encourage youngsters to get into racing engineering.

The Formula 1 Commission meets this morning to discuss the matters of the moment in Grand Prix racing but this is a big week for F1 and we are expecting a few interesting developments, not least some radical thinking for the 2008 regulations.

The engineering firm Mecachrome, last seen in F1 with their Renault-based Supertec engines, has been trying to drum up interest of late in an IRL engine they plan to build.

Takuma Sato is a man in demand at the moment in F1 circles, despite his somewhat erratic driving in recent months. The former BAR driver had an awful season which ended up in a flurry of accidents, penalties and unforced errors.

There are reports in Belgian that the race promoter DDGP (Didier Defourney Grand Prix) has run into major financial problems because of a dispute with the local authorities over how much they should be paid.

There has been talk for some time of Michelin's F1 programme losing engineers at the end of the season, following the departure of Pierre Dupasquier, the man who led the company in F1 for many years.