Formula One News — October 2005

In recent days there have been lots of complicated stories circulating in F1 circles, notably about the second Honda team but also about other potential newcomers in the sport.

Ralf Schumacher had luck on his side at Suzuka, taking pole position with a good lap in the middle of the session but his chief rivals never got the chance to take the fight to Toyota because a rain storm arrived at the circuit soon afterwards.

Japanese GP - Saturday Photos

Japanese GP - Saturday Press Conference

Japanese GP - Saturday Team Quotes

Japanese GP - Qualifying Results

Giancarlo Fisichella ruined the story of the season at Suzuka on Saturday mornming when he pipped Narain Karthikeyan to the fastest time of the session in wet conditions. The Jordan driver has surprised everyone by going fastest ahead of Ralf Schumacher, Jenson Button, Christijan Albers and Tiago Monteiro.

Japanese GP - Practice 4 Results

Japanese GP - Practice Session 3 Results

Michael Schumacher went out in the wet on Saturday morning at Suzuka and while everyone else stayed in the pits and out of trouble the Ferrari star decided to push a little and duly crashed.

The second session on Friday was interrupted by rain at Suzuka which left the fastest time of the afternoon going to Toyota test driver Ricardo Zonta, who ran a lap which was a second faster than Michael Schumacher's Ferrari.

The Mafia has a code of silence, known as omerta, which forbids its members, on pain of death, to reveal secrets of the organisation. Secrets are kept because of fear of retribution if the information comes out.

Japanese GP - Friday Photos

Japanese GP - Friday Press Conference

Japanese GP - Friday Team Quotes

Japanese GP - Practice 2 Results

American entrepreneur Peter Diamandis has announced plans to replace Formula 1 racing with something a little more exciting. Diamandis has established the Rocket Racing League which he says will feature rocket aircraft travelling at 300mph on a three-dimensional race course in the sky.

Pedro de la Rosa set the fastest time of the morning session on Friday at Suzuka but Kimi Raikkonen hit technical trouble again and may now have to drop down the grid with an engine change.

Japanese GP - Practice Session 1 Results

Kimi Raikkonen's Suzuka weekend got off to a bad start on Friday morning when the Finn suffered what appeared to be an engine failure just 20 minutes into the first session.

The word in Switzerland is that Sauber's head of vehicle engineering, test team and research and development, Jacky Eeckelaert is on his way to work for Honda, although it is not clear whether this will be Honda or the new second Honda team.

Advanced Micro Devices continues its drive into motor racing with a new deal to become the official technology partner of NASCAR. This will see the organisation using AMD computer technology on and off the track

Former Formula 1 sponsor DHL has signed a deal to sponsor the Penske Porsche in the American Le Mans Series. The new car, which will run in the LMP2 prototype class, will be debuted on October 15 at Laguna Seca by Porsche factory drivers Sascha Maassen and Lucas Luhr.

Honda is planning to supply a second Formula 1 team in 2006 - and the move makes a huge amount of sense, at least if you are a Honda executive. While many in F1 see the team as being a place for Honda to put Takuma Sato, there is probably a great deal more to it than that...

Honda has yet to come up with an official name for the rebranded BAR and while Honda Racing or something similar would be the obvious choice, there is a possibility that the company may go for something a little more exotic, and given Honda's history, one should not rule out some kind of reference to the word Dream.