Formula One News — September 2006

Italian GP - Friday Press Conference

Italian GP - Friday Team Quotes

All 11 current Formula 1 teams have confirmed their intention to participate at the 2006 Motor Sport Business Forum - and they will be joined by the sport's future 12th team Prodrive, represented by chief executive David Richards.

Italian GP - Practice 2 Results

The Formula 1 teams arrived at Monza with a lot on their collective minds. The engines that will be used this weekend are the ones that will be frozen for use in 2007 and 2008 and so many of the engine-makers had decided to take risks.

Italian GP - Practice 1 Results

Peter Brock, Australia's biggest motor racing star for the last 30 years, has been killed in a rallying accident in Western Australia. The 61-year-old was driving a 1964 AC Cobra Daytona Coupe on the Targa West in Western Australia.

Italian GP - Thursday Press Conference

Michael Schumacher's manager Willi Weber has told the German news agency Deutsche Presse-Agentur that a decision has been made about Schumacher's future. Inevitably, Weber will not talk about the decision and Michael Schumacher is refusing to even talk about the subject.

The plans have been in place for some time but the Italian government has now confirmed that it will be providing $13m for work at Autodromo Enzo & Dino Ferrari and that work will begin in October and be completed by March.

Weather forecasting is a famously imprecise art but at the moment the meteorologists are suggesting that this weekend's Italian Grand Prix will be troubled by rain at various points during the weekend.

As we reported a fortnight ago, the news that Spyker is negotiating for Ferrari engines for the Midland F1 team in 2007 should not come as a surprise.

When he is not banging himself on the head while having accidents racing old sports cars, Red Bull Racing's Adrian Newey is worrying about next year's RB3 Formula 1 car.

We suggested a month ago that Michael Schumacher was on the verge of retiring and while that suggestion was knocked down by a number of sources at the time, there is now increasing speculation that Schumacher will announce his retirement at the Italian Grand Prix this weekend.

Renault's announcement that Heikki Kovalainen will join Giancarlo Fisichella next year with the addition of two new test drivers and the news that Flavio Briatore will stay or for two more years has obscured one important fact: the team does not have a title sponsor for next season.

Heikki Kovalainen goes into the 2007 season as replacement for World Championship Fernando Alonso. These are big shoes to fill.

The Ford Motor Company has named Alan Mulally as its new chief executive. Mulally is currently head of Boeing's commercial aircraft division. Mulally (61) will take over the job from Bill Ford, although he will remain involved as the company's executive chairman.

Renault F1 loses Fernando Alonso at the end of the current season and the team was somewhat caught out by the Spaniard's move to McLaren and, unable to hire a top name driver, has finally settled on Giancarlo Fisichella and Heikki Kovalainen, with test drivers Ricardo Zonta and Nelson Piquet Jr.

Silverstone has announced that it will gives fans $95 back if they buy an adult grandstand seat before the end of September and Jenson button wins the race in July next year.

Champ Car is suing Canadian GP promoter Normand Legault, demanding $325,000 for outstanding fees owed by the Canadians.

Kasey Kahne won the NASCAR Nextel Cup race on Sunday at California Speedway giving Dodge a much-needed victory. Dale Earnhardt Jr was second ahead of Clint Bowyer. Seventh-placed Matt Kenseth moved into the lead in the Nextel Cup overtaking Jimmie Johnson, who finished only 11th.

We hear that Dario Franchitti may be doing the couple of Champ Car races of the season for the Rusport team, replacing Cristiano da Matta. We also hear that Andretti Green Racing will be running Patrick Carpentier.

The new A1 Grand Prix Series has always made much of the fact that it has no intention to trying to rival Formula 1. It is thus rather odd that the series has just announced plans to upgrade the performance of its cars in 2008 to "a level comparable with Formula 1".

The Turkiye Otomobil Sporlari Federasyonu (TOSFED), the national sporting authority of Turkey, says that it did not break any FIA rules at the weekend when Mehmet Ali Talat was allowed to present the winning trophy to Felipe Massa, arguing that he fulfils the criteria in the FIA regulations.

There are increasing stories suggesting that Jacques Villeneuve will be re-appearing in NASCAR next year.