Formula One News — March 2006

The five GPMA-affiliated Formula 1 teams have, as we predicted, submitted entry forms for the 2008 World Championship. The teams say that they are looking forward to being involved in the process of finalising the 2008 regulations between now and the end of June.

The Autodromo Nazionale at Monza can run the Italian Grand Prix without problems. A deal has been brokered by the mayor of the city Michele Faglia with three families living in the village of Biassono.

Dan Wheldon gave notice of his desire to get to Formula 1 by starting his career with Target Chip Ganassi Racing with a victory at Homestead, but the death of rookie Paul Dana in a crash in the pre-race warm-up cast a shadow over the Indy Racing League's opening event.

The FIA met with Ferrari, Renault and Cosworth representatives at Maranello yesterday to discuss engine homologation proposals. It is not clear whether Renault was attending the meeting as a representative of the GPMA or in its own right.

The one thing that is missing from the new 2008 Formula 1 Sporting Regulations is any reference to a common electronic control unit. This in included in the Technical regulations published some time ago but that may still be changed.

The FIA will be publishing the entry list for the 2008 Formula 1 World Championship on April 28. This will give the teams "accepted or rejected in its absolute discretion" by the FIA the chance to be involved in two months of discussion about the regulations.

Fernando Alonso signed his deal with McLaren around the start of November but was unable to get a face-to-face meeting with Flavio Briatore for the six weeks that followed before the news was finally announced.

Easton Sports, a manufacturer of sporting goods in the United States with a tradition of innovation, has just launched the world's first bicycle featuring nanotechnology products.

Silverstone is set to host one of the biggest crowds for England's opening game of the soccer World Cup on Saturday June 10.

As we reported a week ago, the Japanese Grand Prix is moving to Mount Fuji in 2007. The news is a coup for Toyota, as the race has been lured away from rival Honda, which owns the Suzuka circuit.

Jorg Zander, the chief designer at Williams for the last seven months has left the team unexpectedly but there is no signs of any problem with the team, rather that Zander felt the need to move for personal reasons.

The result of the Malaysian Grand Prix did not feature Ferrari to any great extent. After Michael Schumacher's impressive showing in Bahrain, the red cars faded out of the limelight in Kuala Lumpur, with engine troubles dumping Schumacher and Felipe Massa down the grid.

Australia will ban all tobacco advertising at Albert Park and Phillip Island after October 1 this year.

Indy Racing League founder Tony George and Champ Car's Kevin Kalkhoven are now finally admitting that they are talking about merging the two self-destructive championships to create a single entity to challenge the ever-increasing dominance of NASCAR in the United States market.

The Institute of Mechanical Engineers, which organises the Formula Student racing car design competition in Britain, has announced that Jon Hilton, the technical director of of the engine division of the Renault F1 team will be its chief judge for the event in 2006.

The Italian nation is currently in the middle of an election campaign with Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right coalition known as the Casa delle Liberta against the centre-left L'Unione, headed by former prime minister and ex-president of the European Commission, Romano Prodi.

Fernando Alonso had a new way to celebrate victory in Formula 1 in Bahrain when he did a curious hip-twirling move on the podium. This caused much excitement in Spain where reports have claimed he was imitating the character of The Grinch from the movie "How the Grinch Stole Christmas".

The FIA World Council has accepted the 2008 FIA Formula 1 World Championship Sporting Regulations. Entries for the 2008 championship will open on Friday and will close on Friday March 31, seven days later.

The FIA World Motor Sport Council meets today in Paris to endorse the ideas being put forth by FIA President Max Mosley over the future of Formula 1. The body is not famous for its independent thought and so the plans will no doubt be put through accordingly.

GP Masters, the series which allows F1 stars of yesteryear to compete with one another in similar machinery is heading for Silverstone on August 12-13. The series kicked off last year in South Africa and is now planning to bring the show to Silverstone, hoping to revive the Mansell Mania that was around in the early 1990s.

The sound of a Formula 1 may get the fans tingling but in recent years it has been getting engineers excited as well, although for rather different reasons.

The negotiations in the paddock in Malaysia last weekend over the question of what is legal and what is not legal was an unusual thing for Formula 1.

CVC Capital Partners will be allowed to acquire Speed Investments Ltd and thus gain control of SLEC, the holding company of the Formula One group. The European Commission has given its go-ahead to the deal on the understanding that CVC sells Dorna, the company that promotes the MotoGP World Championship.

The 2006 Malaysian Grand Prix looked like being a really interesting race but as things turned out, it was not a classic. The early demise of Williams and Kimi Raikkonen and the lack of performance of others meant that Giancarlo Fisichella had things pretty much how he wanted them.

Malaysian GP - Sunday Press Conference