Formula One News — January 2006

The Mayor of London Ken Livingstone has never been backward in saying what he thinks and he thinks that Formula 1 is too expensive for London. Instead the city has done a deal with Amaury Sports Organisation to run the prologue and the first stage of 2007 Tour de France in London.

The Honda Racing F1 Team has revealed its new RA106 which will be raced this year by Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello.

According to our spies, Red Bull Racing has hired McLaren's head of aerodynamics Peter Prodromou. If the news is confirmed this would be a second big hit for McLaren following the departure of Adrian Newey.

Formula 1 teams are always looking for a way to do things faster and more efficiently as this gives them an advantage over the opposition. And it is not just on the race track that this makes a difference.

Toyota has announced that it will have at least three two-car teams in NASCAR in 2007 and there is no surprise that two of these will be Bill Davis Racing and Michael Waltrip Racing. The third is unexpected as it will be an organisation called Team Red Bull.

The Silverstone circuit has announced plans to add 8,900 new grandstand seats for the British Grand Prix in June. The circuit is putting up new grandstands in the premium viewing areas, notably at Luffield (where there will be 4,000 new grandstand seats), Copse and Stowe.

We hear from our spies that Super Aguri F1's headquarters will not be at Leafield for very long and that the long-term plan is for the team to move to Brackley, just up the road from the Honda Racing F1 factory.

Ferrari chief designer Rory Byrne has been trying to retire for a number of years but the 62-year-old designer just cannot seem to make the break and has now agreed to stay on at Ferrari as a consultant for two more seasons.

MF1Racing, the Formula 1 team owned and operated by the Midland Group has announced that 25-year-old Markus Winkelhock will be one of the team's official test drivers in 2006.

Ferrari has unveiled its new car for 2006. This will be called the 248 F1 and will be raced by Michael Schumacher and Felipe Massa. The designation goes back to old Ferrari traditions of the engine configuration, with 24 being for the 2.4-litre capacity and 8 being for the number of cylinders.

Getting access to the F1 Paddock is not an easy business and even Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone has had trouble getting in on occasion in the past. However, thanks to reader Tom Kearney we have stumbled across a useful tool for "illegals" to use as they try to get through the paddock gates.

Gunnar Nilsson is a name that will not be known by the young fans of Formula 1. Nilsson was a Swedish racing driver born in 1948 who became one of the stars of British Formula 3 in the early 1970s and in 1976 was signed by Team Lotus to race in Formula 1.

An interesting piece of information has come to light in recent days regarding the Super Aguri F1 operation.

Fans of John Frankenheimer's famous 1966 movie "Grand Prix" have been frustrated that the film is not available on DVD. The rights to the movie are now owned by Warner Home Video which says it has no plans to put the film on DVD because there has been no requests for that to happen.

According to the magazine Property Week, St Modwen Properties PLC has won the deal to develop Silverstone in partnership with the British Racing Drivers' Club. The Birmingham-based property company, which is quoted on the London Stock Exchange, is a leading UK developer specialising in regeneration schemes.

Marlboro and Mild Seven are now the only tobacco firms left sponsoring cars in Formula 1. MF1 Racing has yet to unveil its full package of funding but there seems little sign that Benson & Hedges will be back.

Super Aguri Fernandez Racing has announced that Kosuke Matsuura will stay with the team for another season, driving the Panasonic ARTA Dallara-Honda. The announcement means that Matsuura is now out of the equation at Super Aguri F1.

Markus Winkelhock is going to be the test driver of MF1 Racing this, according to reports in Germany. The 25-year-old son of Grand Prix driver, the late Manfred Winkelhock, may be seen in the car on Fridays but that decision apparently depends on which driver has the most sponsorship available.

Toyota has announced that it is going to enter the NASCAR Nextel Cup and Busch Series in 2007 with its new Camry model. The 2007 Camry was unveiled a few days ago at the North American International Auto Show.

Making a Formula 1 Grand Prix into a financial success seems to be a bit of a problem for promoters around the world. Many of the races make a loss and promoters complain about the cost of hosting the event. The big problem seems to be the annual fees demanded by the Formula One group.

The British Racing Drivers' Club has announced that Jackie Stewart, president of the Club since 2000, will not be seeking re-election at the annual general meeting in the Spring.

Martini has confirmed that it is returning to Formula 1 in 2006 as an official partner of Scuderia Ferrari. The drinks company has signed a multi-year deal with the team and branding will appear in the cars. Martini wants to use Formula 1 to reflect its dynamic, cosmopolitan, and sophisticated nature.

McLaren managing-director Martin Whitmarsh says that McLaren is in the process of trying to revive its plans to produce a new road car to follow the current project with Mercedes-Benz.

McLaren says that it would like to start its relationship with Vodafone earlier than the 2007 start date which has been announced.

The hiring of Adrian Newey from McLaren by Red Bull Racing in the autumn has led to a number of rumours about other members of staff at McLaren. There have been rumours circulating for a month that Nicolas Tombazis is looking to return to Ferrari although this has been denied on several occasions by McLaren.