Formula One News — March 2006

The slippery Albert Park circuit caught out a lot of drivers on Friday afternoon with low temperatures and dusty roads combining to make life difficult for the F1 stars.

The FIA has confirmed that it has received applications from 22 teams wishing to compete in the 2008 FIA Formula 1 World Championship. The federation has invited all of them to attend a meeting in London on April 10, 2006.

The negotiations over the rules for 2008 continue with the plans to restrict engine performance being greeted with considerable disquiet in the car companies around the world.

Antonio Pizzonia will race for the Rocketsports team in the Champ Car World Series this year. The former Williams test driver headed to the United States this year after being unable to find a decent job in F1 and has been looking for a deal to give him the chance to challenge for the title

The dissenting members of the British Racing Drivers' Club have got together the necessary 85 signatures needed to call for an emergency meeting during which they intend to reject the plans put forward by the club's board of directors to develop the facility in league with property St Modwen.

It is no big surprise that David Richards has submitted an entry for the 2008 FIA Formula 1 World Championship in the name of Prodrive. The company is an important motorsport organisation and competes in a variety of different championships around the world.

Wherever the Formula 1 circus goes, F1 teams and sponsors like to display cars to attract interest.

Australian GP - Friday Photos

Australian GP - Friday Press Conference

Scuderia Toro Rosso driver Tonio Liuzzi was spotted having a seat fitting the other day with Red Bull Racing and our spies tell us that the Italian will test for the team next week at Paul Ricard.

Australian GP - Friday Team Quotes

Australian GP - Practice 2 Results

The Australian Grand Prix weekend got off to a slow start in Albert Park on Friday with the teams sending out their test drivers but only allowing the race drivers a few laps in order to not risk problems with engines.

Australian GP - Practice 1 Results

Australian GP - Thursday Press Conference

Ask around in the Formula 1 paddock about this year's calendar and you will hear a lot of people saying that they prefer having the first race in Melbourne - but not everyone thinks that is such a good idea.

There are rumours floating around that McLaren would like to see Nico Rosberg in a car alongside Fernando Alonso in 2007. It is a great idea for Mercedes-Benz, of course, which would like to have a German star in the future.

Tim Mayer has been named chief executive officer of the American Le Mans Series. At the same time he will remain as chief operations officer of IMSA. Mayer is the son of former McLaren team boss Teddy Mayer.

Former Champ Car champion and Formula 1 driver Cristiano da Matta has been struggling to get a drive in recent weeks after PKV Racing decided to hire Katherine Legge and Oriol Servia.

Alex Hooton, the chief executive of the British Racing Drivers Club, is to stand down at the end of June, following BRDC chairman Sir Jackie Stewart out of the door. Hooton has been with the company for five years.

CVC Capital Partners has completed its purchase of all the shares in SLEC, the holding company of the Formula One group of companies. The 14.175% of SLEC which CVC did not own belonged to the investment bank Lehman Brothers but this has now come under CVC's control.

Paul Stoddart says that he is going to come back to F1 in 2008 and has submitted an entry in the name of European Minardi F1 Team Ltd. The team will presumably be based in the team's old premises in Ledbury as the Italian base was sold to Red Bull at the end of last year.

The race this weekend in Albert Park will give us a much clearer picture of the relative competitiveness of the various Formula 1 teams afetr two races in hot temperatures.

Red Bull is to fund a MotoGP Academy for the commercial rights-holders for the MotoGP World Championships, Dorna Sports. The aim is to discover and develop new riders from all different backgrounds all over the world.

The FIA has given details of a meeting that took place on Friday at Maranello with Cosworth, Ferrari and Renault.