Formula One News — December 2005

Intel, the world's biggest chipmaker, will launch a major rebranding shortly. The phrase "Intel Inside" is to be dropped and the new motto will be "Leap Ahead". The company will also be changing its corporate logo.

BMW is in the process of adding 100 new staff members to the team at Sauber headquarters in Hinwil, Switzerland. These will be mainly engeering staff. In order to house the new staff the team is renting office space in the town but work will soon begin on a new building which will house the expanded team by 2007.

A court in Paris has fined newspapers Le Point, Le Monde and Les Echos $1000 apiece for failure to observe the advertising rules which insist that photographs of Formula 1 cars must have all tobacco sponsorship air-brushed out of the picture.

McLaren's new test driver has signed a new contract - with his fiancee Lisa. The pair were married in the village of Cavendish, near Cambridge, just before Christmas with his guests including his former DTM team mate Jamie Green.

With most of the big players in F1 away on Christmas breaks in the Alps or sunny beaches in the southern hemisphere, it is a quiet time for the Formula 1 world and as a result there tend to be some fairly exciting stories published as Internet sites look for readers.

The cost of hosting Formula 1 races is a nice little earner for Formula One Management, bringing in around $200m a year, with many of the contracts featuring clauses which increase the cost of the fees by 10% a year.

The staff of Grandprix.com would like to wish you all a very merry Christmas and a happy new year in 2006. The grandprix.com "club" continues to grow each year and now averages more than 400,000 individual users per month, most of you clicking on several times a day.

Super Aguri F1 will run Takuma Sato in 2006. The news has not yet been confirmed but Sato is one of the reasons that the team exists and it would be amazing if he did not drive.

There will be no problem fitting 11 teams into the garages of Bahrain and Malaysia but as the Formula 1 season goes on in 2006 there may be problems in other places, notably Melbourne and Monaco where space has always been very tight.

A website has been established to remember Keith Duckworth, a man who had an enormous influence on motorsport in Britain and around the world. The website is there so that there will be a virtual monument to Duckworth.

Timing is everything in the world of information and you can be sure that it was no accident that the FIA press release relating to regulation changes in Formula 1 in 2008 came out late in the day, four days before Christmas, when most of the Formula 1 teams are winding down for the holiday.

As we exclusively reported two days ago, Super Aguri F1 has managed to secure the necessary 10 signatures from the other Formula 1 teams which will allow the team to compete in the 2006 World Championship. The team will now apply to the F1.

Carlos Ghosn has a big job on his hands. The new chief executive officer of Renault is faced with a situation in which the company he runs is losing market share in Europe.

Bad news often comes at the same time, and we hear following the news of Fernando Alonso's planned departure from Renault F1 there will soon be an announcement that Japan Tobacco is not planning to go on with its Mild Seven sponsorship of the team beyond the end of the current deal at the end of 2006.

Gary Paffett is to replace Alexander Wurz as the second test driver of the McLaren Mercedes F1 team. The news was announced this morning and leaves Wurz out of work for the moment.

Flavio Briatore says that he had nothing to do with Fernando Alonso's deal to join McLaren.

As we suggested a few days ago, Marco Andretti, the 18-year-old son of Michael Andretti, has joined his father's team in the Indy Racing League. Marco will drive the ArcaEx Dallara-Honda which was previously driven by Dario Franchitti.

BMW has announced that it has signed up Robert Kubica of Poland to be its test and development driver in 2006. Kubica will run in the team's third car at Grands Prix events.

Keith Duckworth, the man who designed the Cosworth Formula 1 engine, the most successful engine in the history of the sport, has died at the age of 72. Duckworth's influence on motor racing was enormous not simply as a designer but also for the role he played in building up the British motor racing industry.

Fernando Alonso's negotiations with McLaren will almost certainly have involved his manager Flavio Briatore. At the very least Alonso could be expected to have had to inform his manager that talks were taking place with the Woking team.

Renault F1 president Patrick Faure says that he is disappointed that Fernando Alonso has signed for McLaren in 2007.

Giancarlo Minardi has left the team that used to have his name. The 58-year-old Italian has been involved in running his own teams since 1972 when he entered Formula 2 with a team called Scuderia del Passatore.

The news that Fernando Alonso has signed to drive for McLaren in 2007 is probably just the first of a series of dominos which will fall in the weeks ahead.

Fernando Alonso has signed for McLaren in 2007

Toyota Motorsport GmbH has confirmed that Gustav Brunner has left the team.