Formula One News — February 2006

Eddie Cheever is to return to open-wheeler racer at the age of 48. The former F1 man who went on to win the Indianapolis 500 and run his own team in the Indy Racing League.

The announcement that Direxiv has signed up Jean Alesi to be its senior executive director is an interesting one as it underlines the Japanese company's desire to use motor racing to spread the word about the company.

The Marlboro Masters Formula 3 race has been one of the major races on the F3 calendar for the last 15 years but with anti-tobacco legisation meaning that the sponsorship can no longer continue, Zandvoort has been out looking for money and has done a deal with BP to use its Ultimate brand to fund the event.

David Pitchforth ran Jaguar Racing in its final period before the team was sold to Red Bull. Since the takeover Pitchforth has been mentioned in connection with a number of roles with other teams but has now decided that he is going to get "a serious job in the real world".

The GP2 Series has now announced its full driver line-up for the season ahead with 26 cars expected this year, following the agreement to accept a 13th team.

Graham Rahal is to race for Team Lebanon in the A1GP series. The 17-year-old American, son of Bobby Rahal, tested a Formula 3000 car at Misano last week and did well and is expected to be named as the driver for Team Lebanon for the rest of the year.

The Ferrari team is staying on in Bahrain next week to try out its latest aerodynamic package which the team hopes will close the gap between the Italian team and current pre-season favourites Renault and Honda.

The IEG Sponsorship Report, a Chicago-based trade magazine, says that US corporations have increased their sponsorship in motorsports by 5% in the last year with a total of $2.9bn being spent in the sport in 2006.

Michael Schumacher is thinking about starting his own Formula 1 team, at least according to Eddie Jordan. Michael is a big name in F1 and would probably not have too much trouble finding the money to start an operation if the right opportunity was to come up.

Heribert Rech, the Interior Minister for the German state of Baden-Wuerttemberg has told the German media that there are no fears about the future of the German Grand Prix at Hockenheim, despite the financial problems which the circuit is currently facing.

Formula 1 has been looking at Morocco for a long time. In 1997 Bernie Ecclestone's envoy Philippe Gurdjian spent several months in the country visiting different cities to try establish the best possible venue for a Grand Prix.

Gary Anderson has been taken on by the Racing Engineering GP2 team to work with Adam Carroll. The two Ulstermen will be mounting a challenge for the GP2 title with backing from Repsol and Telefonica.

The details of the redevelopment of Silverstone are yet to be made public but already there is talk that some of the famous corners at the track will be axed when the track is rebuilt. This is not surprising.

Rumours that there might be a Formula 1 race in Las Vegas in the new few years would suggest that negotiations over the future of F1 at Indianapolis are now well advanced with the parties involved no doubt haggling over the price.

The details of the redevelopment of Silverstone are yet to be made public but already there is talk that some of the famous corners at the track will be axed when the track is rebuilt.

McLaren has hit back at Red Bull Racing by hiring the team's chief designer Rob Taylor. This is not a surprise as Taylor worked with McLaren chief designer Mike Coughlan at John Barnard's Ferrari Technical Office in the 1990s and then worked alongside Coughlan again at Arrows before moving to Jaguar Racing.

The Grand Prix Manufacturers' Association is saying nothing about the latest ideas which have put into the public domain by FIA President Max Mosley. What is perhaps more interesting is the fact that none of the team principals involved have made any public statements about the proposals.

The tests this week in Valencia have given Red Bull Racing hope that the team has fixed the problems with the RB2 chassis. The three days of running resulted in the team completing a total of 900 miles.

McLaren and Ferrari are both admitting that their cars are not as good as they could be. Mercedes-Benz boss Norbert Haug is now admitting that the new 2.4-litre V8 engine is not as good as the company had hoped it would be and says that work is going on to make sure the package is improved.

The FIA says that Formula 1 budgets need to be cut to around $100m per team in order to preserve the sport and keep the smaller teams in business and paints a picture of a Formula 1 Armaggedon with all the manufacturers pulling out and leaving the industry in ruins.

Katherine Legge has landed a drive in Champ Car, America's premier open-wheeled road racing series. The 25-year-old Englishwoman says she wants to compete for the Rookie of the Year award and collect as many points as possible against a strong field.

Super Aguri F1 has finally announced its drivers and it is no surprise to see the names Takuma Sato and Yuji Ide. Sato is quick but has been rather erratic in his F1 career to date and was finally dropped at the end of last year by BAR-Honda.

The Super Aguri F1 team took its prototype SA05 car out for its first shakedown testing today at the Kemble airfield in Gloucestershire. The test was simply a system check before the car is sent off to test in Spain. The car was driven at Kemble by Takuma Sato.

Briton's Katherine Legge will become the fourth female driver in Champ Car history later today when the PKV Racing team announces its plans for 2006 at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles.

The Renault Driver Development programme has enjoyed some successes over the years and has now named two new drivers for the scheme: Romain Grosjean, a 19-year-old who was born and lives in Geneva but has French and Swiss nationality, and 21-year-old Briton Ben Hanley.