Formula One News — June 2006

Anthony Davidson continued to dominate practice at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, taking his Honda to a best lap in the afternoon session of 1m12.013s, eight-tenths of a second ahead of BMW's test driver Robert Kubica.

United States GP - Friday Photos

United States GP - Friday Press Conference

United States GP - Friday Team Quotes

Kirk Kerkorian, the celebrated US investor who holds 9.9% of General Motors, is urging the world's largest car manufacturer to go into partnership with Renault and Nissan in order to create a truly global car company.

United States GP - Practice 2 Results

Anthony Davidson topped the time sheets on Friday morning at Indianapolis, recording a best time of 1m12.083s ahead of Michael Schumacher's Ferrari. The former World Champion did only three laps and caused the only news of the session by spinning off at Turn 4 and ending up in the gravel.

United States GP - Practice 1 Results

United States GP - Thursday Press Conference

The new Super Aguri SA06 will be launched at the German Grand Prix. This is a fortnight later than planned because of production delays.

The negotiating between the Formula One group and Indianapolis Motor Speedway over the terms for a future contract for the United States Grand Prix has resulted in some rather ill-advised remarks in recent weeks, not least the suggestion from Bernie Ecclestone that Formula 1 does not need America.

Reports in the Austrian press suggest that Scuderia Toro Rosso part-owner Gerhard Berger would like to keep Italy's Tonio Liuzzi in his team next year. The fact that Berger wants Liuzzi is a great compliment to the young Italian but it is rather inconvenient as Red Bull Racing has been showing considerable interest.

The Federation Francaise du Sport Automobile, the organiser of the French Grand Prix, is cautiously optimistic that this year's event - which coincides with the French Bastille Day national holiday weekend - will be a financial success.

The German government has accepted that it must implement a European Union directive banning the advertising and promotion of tobacco. Horst Seehofer, the minister involved, said that the legal action against the ban had been begun by the previous German government, which was voted out of office at the end of last year.

Back in 2002 All American Racers, Dan Gurney's racing organisation in Santa Ana, announced plans to enter Formula 1. A few months later came the news that the people involved "were not prepared to commit to a situation which was not properly funded for at least three years."

As Formula 1 heads back to Indianapolis, a year after it attempted to commit suicide in front of the US audience, there is much speculation about how much support the Americans will give the sport.

Dorna, the Spanish company that owns MotoGP is up for sale as part of the deal for CVC Capital Partners to acquire the Formula One group. CVC previously owned Dorna but is required to sell it to satisfy European competition authorities that a monopoly is not being created.

John Barnard, the former McLaren, Ferrari and Benetton F1 technical director, has announced plans to work with the engineering firm Ricardo to create a MotoGP team. After leaving F1 Barnard, one of the great innovators in F1, spent a couple of years working with Kenny Roberts's team.

Stories at the weekend about a merger between Champ Car and the Indy Racing League may have been a little exaggerated, according to the latest remarks from Indianapolis president Tony George. he told Indianapolis's News 8 TV that the deal is not nearly as close as has been suggested.

Graham Rahal's plan to fly to Europe after Cleveland to test at Paul Ricard and then fly back to the United States for the Indianapolis weekend had to be changed on Monday when bad weather resulted in the 17-year-old youngster being delayed so much that the test became impractical.

With Red Bull Racing and Scuderia Toro Rosso both in North America at the moment with all six drivers, Red Bull Racing had to look elsewhere for a driver when it wanted to do some aerodynamic mapping work at Silverstone.

Fernando Alonso has much to celebrate these days as he heads, apparently inexorably, towards his second World Championship. Victory in Canada was Fernando's sixth win in nine races and his fourth consecutive win in recent weeks.

One hundred years ago today in Le Mans Grand Prix racing was born when 32 cars set off at 90-second intervals to complete 12 laps of a 64 mile circuit on the public roads to the east of the city. the field was led away by Fernand Gabriel's Lorraine-Dietrich.

Canadian GP - Sunday Photos

Canadian GP - Race Notes