Formula One News — November 2005

The FIA has announced a change to the 2006 schedule, with the dates for the Japanese and Chinese Grands Prix being swapped.

The Midland Group has announced that it will enter the Formula 1 World Championship under the name of MF1 Racing. This is an unexpected change of branding as it was thought that Midland wanted to use Formula 1 to spread its name around the world.

The word from Germany is that Ralf Schumacher and Willi Weber have ended their relationship.

There are four companies in the final bidding to win the contract for redevelopment of Silverstone. The final decision will be made by the board of the British Racing Driver's Club on November 24.

Ferrari has announced that it is to establish its own theme park in Abu Dhabi, in league with ALDAR Properties, a real estate development company whichis controlled by the Mubadala Development Company.

According to reports in Germany Volkswagen boss Bernd Pischetsrieder and Red Bull boss Dietrich Mateschitz have been talking about deals in the future in Formula 1. The stories say that former BMW Motorsport boss Gerhard Berger is in the middle of all the intrigue.

BMW has registered its new Formula 1 team under the name BMW Sauber F1 Team. This name will have to now remain the same for the next five years, keeping the Sauber name alive in Formula 1.

Nigel Mansell won the Altech Grand Prix Masters in Kyalami on Sunday in front of a crowd of 70,000. The 30 lap race was a fight between Mansell and Emerson Fittipaldi.

The old Formula 1 champions may like to think that they can do everything that they used to be able to do but Alan Jones proved at the weekend that things are not quite what they used to be.

The Altech Grand Prix Masters event kicked off in Kyalami on Friday with the first practice sessions for the event with Nigel Mansell setting the pace with a lap of 1m35.0862s.

Former Formula 1, Champ Car and IRL driver Roberto Moreno will make his debut in Brazil's Stock Car V8 series this weekend at Jacarepagua. Amazingly, it will be the first time that Moreno has ever raced in a Brazilian national series.

If Sebastien Bourdais can do it, Franck Montagny reckons that he is up to the job as well. Now that Montagny is no longer the Renault test driver and does not seem likely to get a drive anywhere else, he is looking to the United States where Bourdais, his old rival, has done so well.

The United States government is coming under increasing attack from health campaigners for its failure to ratify the World Health Organization's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, to which it is a signatory.

Alec Stokes, one of the key members of the BRM Formula 1 team has died. Stokes joined the team in November 1947, shortly after it was established by Raymond Mays.

The regional government of Wallonia in Belgium met yesterday to discuss the problem of the Belgian Grand Prix and concluded that the best way forward was to negotiate with Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone.

Former Ferrari employees Angelo Santini and Mauro Iacconi were formally indicted on Monday in Italy accused of having stealing information from Ferrari to give to their new employer Toyota.

The British Racing Driver's Club says that there are nine bidders for the redevelopment of the facility. The $880m scheme would include a new circuit, an extended technology park, leisure facilities and a hotel.

There is a school of thought in F1 these days that no one man (or woman) can be wholly responsible for the design of a modern Grand Prix car. It is an interesting argument.

Tiago Monteiro is going to get the second Jordan seat in F1 next year. The Portuguese driver is rumoured to have around $12m from the Portuguese government.

The big question at the moment in Formula 1 circles is who is going to partner Nick Heidfeld at BMW next year. On paper Jacques Villeneuve has a contract but there is no doubt that BMW is talking to other drivers.

John Armstrong, the UK's CEO of Momentum, one of the world's biggest sponsorship agencies, will deliver the keynote address on the second day of the forthcoming Formula 1 Sponsorship Forum in Monte Carlo.

As part of its ongoing effort to discover talented drivers, The Midland Group is going to test Renault World Series driver Markus Winkelhock at Jerez on December 10.

Red Bull Racing has confirmed that Adrian Newey will join the team as Chief Technical Officer at the end of February 2006. The 46-year-old engineer will leave McLaren after eight seasons during which the team won the World Championship twice with Mika Hakkinen.

There are reports in The Independent newspaper in London that McLaren's Adrian Newey is to join Red Bull Racing, when his contract with McLaren expires in January. Newey has been the most successful F1 designer of the modern era.

The tickets for the French Grand Prix went on sale today and in an effort pull in an even larger crowd than last year the organisers of the race are offering a 10% discount for all tickets purchased before the start of the new F1 season.