Formula One News — November 2006

Ferrari has been in command at the Barcelona test in recent days with Felipe Massa fastest on the first two days of running and test driver Luca Badoer setting the fastest time on the third day - and overall.

One of only two 1939 Auto-Union D-Type racing cars known to be in existence is to be sold by Christie's in Paris next year, and the celebrated auction house is hoping that the sale will bring the highest price ever for an automobile at auction.

Dan Pettit, a wealthy venture capitalist in the telecommunications business, has bought the Rusport Champ Car team. Pettit was previously a partner in Kevin Kalkhoven's PKV Racing but has now decided to move on to have his own team.

Mika Hakkinen will drive a Team McLaren Mercedes Formula 1 car tomorrow in Spain. The former double World Champion will be helping Pedro de la Rosa and Lewis Hamilton with the work as the team waits for Fernando Alonso to be allowed to begin testing.

Speed TV is teaming up with its brother company Fox Sports for a new three-year deal to cover Formula 1 in the United States of America. Fox will broadcast four events in 2007 with live coverage from the US and Canadian Grand Prix while Speed will air the remaining 13 events live, including coverage of practice and qualifying.

Testing for 2007 has begun at the Circuit de Catalunya with eight of the 11 teams in action. Ferrari is running Luca Badoer and Felipe Massa while McLaren has cars for Lewis Hamilton and Pedro de la Rosa.

Carlin Motorsport is entering the GP2 series in 2007 in a joint venture with DPR. Trevor Carlin will head the operation although Dave Price is staying with the team, which will enter under the name of Carlin DPR.

Max Mosley, President of the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile has confirmed that he will deliver a Keynote address at the 2006 Motor Sport Business Forum.

Brian France, the chairman and chief executive of NASCAR, has served notice that the successful US stock car series has global ambitions - something which an dismissive Formula 1 fraternity has thus far refused to take too seriously.

World Champion Fernando Alonso was married on Saturday in a private ceremony in the Maldives to his fiancee Raquel del Rosario, a Spanish singer. Elsewhere, the A1 Grand Prix teams were in action in Malaysia.

Alex Zanardi returned to F1 at the weekend at the Formula BMW World Final at Valencia when he took the wheel of a BMW Sauber C24B and completed 12 laps of the track. It was his first run in F1 since 1999.

Renault may be doing well in F1 and Citroen in the World Rally Championship but both Renault and PSA Peugeot Citroen are suffering from falling sales and this is creating worries for the companies and for France.

Honda F1 driver Jenson Button will miss this week's Formula 1 testing after suffering two cracked ribs in an accident while karting. According to the team, the injury occurred when Button was "participating in a karting test scheduled as part of his winter preparation".

Jos Verstappen says that he will be racing in Champ Car next year. In a column on his website Verstappen has told his fans that they should be ready to watch him in action at Assen in Holland on September 2 next year - when Champ car is due to visit the Dutch circuit.

Lewis Hamilton has been confirmed as the second McLaren driver in 2007. The 21-year-old Briton, who won this year's GP2 champion, becomes has had his career nurtured by McLaren boss Ron Dennis since the age of 13.

The Dutch multinational Philips has announced an agreement to increase it sponsorship for the Williams team in 2007. The company had a trial year in 2006 and enjoyed a 15% increase in its sales of shaving equipment.

Billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian has sold off 14m shares in General Motors, following the company's decision not to ally with Renault. The sale drops Kerkorian's holding in the Detroit firm to 7.4% from the previous 9.9%. GM shares have dropped around 15% in value since rumours began that Kerkorian was selling.

Mika Hakkinen has been named the Responsible Drinking Ambassador for McLaren sponsor Johnnie Walker by its parent company Diageo. Hakkinen's job will be to raise awareness on issues of responsible drinking, particularly in relation to driving.

Real Madrid is a Spanish sports club, best known for its soccer team. The team is one of the best in Europe. The organisation is still run by its membership and in addition to soccer fields a successful basketball team as well. The club has been headed for the last three months by president Ramon Calderon.

The world of karting is in some confusion at the moment following the announcement that the FIA-CIK stewards at the World Championship at Angerville have reconvened an decided that the Formula A World Champion Francesco Antonucci should be excluded from the results.

The rumours that Mika Hakkinen might make a comeback with McLaren are rather odd. It is hard to believe that McLaren would go down that route when the team has a hotshoe like Lewis Hamilton, who would be signed up within minutes if he was on the open market.

Sebastian Vettel has been much heralded as Germany's bright new star and thus it is a bit of a surprise that he has signed to drive for Carlin Motorsport in the 2007 World Series by Renault. Vettel did a decent job in the Formula 3 Euroseries and was expected to move up to GP2.

Given F1's talk of switching to diesel turbos powered with biofuel, it is worth noting that the environment is becmong more and more of a political issue.

For years the facilities at Imola have been a problem for Formula 1 people with a crowded pitlane, paddock and media facilities that were out of date long ago. F1 folk may still wish to rejoice at the news that on Sunday, Italian civil engineers blew up the old pit building.

Former F1 driver Justin Wilson may not have won this year's Champ Car title, finishing second to France's Sebastien Bourdais, but the Englishman did make a mark, winning the Greg Moore Legacy Award for his determination, passion and skill as a racer.