Formula One News — June 2006

The pushing and shoving in the world of Formula 1 politics continues with the signs are that there will be another meeting of the Sporting Working Group in the week ahead to consider a new version of the engine homologation rules.

The Sporting Working Group meeting has now finished and we hear that Charlie Whiting, the FIA representative present, ruled that the teams could not vote on an engine proposal - known as the Monaco Proposal.

Canadian GP - Thursday Press Conference

The Formula 1 Sporting Working Group is, according to the FIA regulations for 2008, the body that decides the sporting rules. Its proposals go to the F1 Commission and then on to the FIA World Council to be rubber-stamped.

Damon Hill will test a Mercedes DTM touring car at Brands Hatch as a promotional exercise to draw attention to the forthcoming race at the Kent circuit. This will feature Mika Hakkinen, Jean Alesi and the usual DTM cast.

Michelin has announced that it will not be bidding for the right to become the single tyre supplier in 2008.

Bernie Ecclestone has used his favourite leaking location - The Times in London - to send a message to Indianapolis Motor Speedway boss Tony George about their negotiations for the future United States Grand Prix.

McLaren has no need to sign Lewis Hamilton just yet, indeed there is much to said for not making any move until at least September by which time Hamilton will have finished off his GP2 campaign, his priority this year.

When it comes to Formula 1 anything is possible and so one has to consider the possibility that Renault will do a deal with Scuderia Toro Rosso, if only so as to have a place to put Heikki Kovalainen in 2007.

Grahal Rahal, the rising US star, will be testing for the DPR Direxiv GP2 team at Paul Ricard on Wednesday, June 28. The team will run Olivier Pla on the first day of the test - presumably to provide a comparison and then Rahal will take over for the second day of the testing.

As part of its preview for the North American Formula 1 races, BMW issued a carefully-constructed interview with Dr Mario Theissen, pushing out all the messages that the Munich car maker wants to get across to the world.

Graham Rahal is very clear about he wants in the future: he wants to be a Formula 1 driver. Rahal is 17 but doing well in America and hopes that he will catch the attention of the F1 teams soon in Indianapolis when he races in the Indy Pro Series event supporting the United States Grand Prix.

There have been rumours for some weeks that Renault is being targeted by other teams to pick up good technical staff. McLaren has lost a number of staff in recent months and the team is now recruiting to put together a team to work with Fernando Alonso.

It was no surprise when we heard this morning that Geoff Willis had departed from Honda F1. The news that the team had appointed a "senior technical director" above his head was a clear sign that the Honda-Willis relationship was not one that was going to last for much longer.

Honda F1's lack of success this year is now beginning to make an impact with news that the team has appointed Shuhei Nakamoto, the Engineering Director for Honda Racing Development, as "senior technical director" of Honda F1 Racing.

Williams and Mobilecast has launched an interesting new range of iPod Bluetooth products for the European market. The WilliamsF1-branded devices, which are compatible with all Apple iPods, allow music to be transmitted to Bluetooth-enabled headsets, wirelessly yet maintaining audio quality.

Nothing ever came easily for Nigel Mansell. Even when he was trouncing the opposition in Formula 1 in the summer of 1992 with a Williams-Renault that was clearly the dominant force, he refused to admit that he had an advantage in the World Championship.

Jacques Villeneuve is releasing the debut track from his new album this week in Canada. Villeneuve recorded his album in the course of the winter and the first single, entitled "Accepterais-tu?", a song in French, is the result.

Flexibility is one of the attributes of a modern Formula 1 technical director - and, apparently, a talent also for the rule-makers who seem to be happy to change interpretations of the rules at will in their never-ending quest to keeps the racing teams under control.

Hungary banned tobacco advertising in 1978 with a decree from the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

There are rumours kicking around at the moment that Kimi Raikkonen is close to agreeing a deal to race for Renault in 2007 and 2008.

World Rally champion Sebastien Loeb has shown that he is no slouch on the race tracks with second place in the Le Mans 24 Hours with a Pescarolo-Judd he was sharing with Franck Montagny and Eric Helary.

The vote over the weekend to give the Catalonia region of Spain autonomy from the Spanish government in Madrid. The new powers include more control over finances, the right to have a say in the appointment of judges but does not include formal recognition as a separate nation.

Audi won the Le Mans 24 Hours on Sunday with a diesel-powered R10 sportscar. This will be the cause of much rejoicing at Audi but when the hullaballoo dies down the company will have to face up to the fact that the law of diminishing returns will soon kick in.

AJ Allmendinger switched teams last week but in Portland showed that he is not about to allow the change to affect his performance as he swept to a dominant victory in the GI Joe's Grand Prix of Portland at the Portland International Raceway. The 24-year-old led all the way.