Formula One News — November 2006

Villagers at Elvington, a small community close to York in England, have won a partial victory in their fight to stop Formula 1 testing at the Elvington Airfield. This year there have been 16 tests at the old aerodrome but Judge Kristina Harrison has now ruled that there can be only 10 a year.

Imperial College in London is a famous place for F1 engineers to learn their trade. The list of famous alumni includes Cosworth founder Keith Duckworth, plus such wellknown names as Frank Dernie (now at Williams), Tino Belli, Nick Tombazis, Egbahl Hamidy, Seamus Mullarkey and John Davies.

Having already had a share in a Formula 1 team, Jacques Villeneuve may now be planning to run his own team in NASCAR. The word from the US is that the 35-year-old former World Champion and his manager Craig Pollock are busy pitching sponsors in order to put together a team.

Greg Biffle won the final round of the NASCAR Nextel Cup at Homestead on Sunday, giving his sponsor The National Guard a proper send-off. The Roush Racing driver beat Dale Earnhardt Inc's Martin Truex Jr and rookie Denny Hamlin but Jimmie Johnson's ninth place was sufficient to give him his first NASCAR title.

Alexandre Premat, who drove for the Spyker team as third driver in China, looks like he is heading to the United States next year. Premat will test for the Eric Bachelart's Mi Jack Conquest Racing in Houston on November 28.

Juan Pablo Montoya did a decent job in his first NASCAR Nextel Cup race until the final laps of the race when he crashed heavily and had to extricate himself from the flaming wreck of his car! Ryan Newman was later questioned about whether he had spun Montoya out but said that the two cars had not touched.

There was plenty of action on Sunday in Macau after Saturday's 10-lap race in which Japan's Kamui Kobayashi won pole position for the main event.

The battle for control of F1's most important TV station is getting hotter and hotter. ITV, which supplies its feed to many of the English-speaking audiences around the world, is being fought over by some of the bigger players in the industry.

Juan Pablo Montoya qualified for his first NASCAR Nextel Cup race Homestead on Friday, lapping the speedway at 175.667mph to line up 29th on the 43-car grid. Pole position went to Kasey Kahne in a similar Dodge at 178.259mph.

Williams F1 has announced a new chief executive officer to replace Chris Chapple. The new man is Adam Parr, a executive who was previously an executive with the Rio Tinto Minerals company.

Formula 1 is inextricably linked to the television industry - at least for the moment - and thus it is interesting to note reports in The Financial Times in London that suggest that German F1 rights holder RTL, Europe's biggest broadcasting company, is preparing to bid for ITV, the UK television firm which broadcasts F1.

Forced-induction is a concept which pre-dates the automobile. America's Francis Roots patented a pump system designed to increase the power of blast furnaces as long ago as 1860.

The 2006 Motor Sport Business Forum has doubled in size this year with over 500 delegates and exhibitors preparing to converge in Monaco on December 6-7 for what the organisers hope will be the industry event of the year.

Peace between the FIA and the GPMA is, fundamentally, a good thing. It is also a natural state of affairs. It makes no sense - and never has made any sense - to have the manufacturers fighting with the FIA.

Max Mosley of the FIA and Burkhard Goschel, the main in charge of the GPMA, announced yesterday that they are now in agreement on all the major issues involved in Formula 1. This is what they said.

Christian Klien is to join Honda as test and reserve driver while James Rossiter is being retained as the team's official test driver.

Anthony Davidson will be joining be joining Takuma Sato at Super Aguri F1 in 2007. The Englishman has been Honda test driver for the last few years but is finally going to get a fulltime break in F1.

The FIA and the Grand Prix Manufacturers Association have agreed a deal over how the sport should be run. The deal, which was struck at a meeting in Munich, is yet to be put on paper but a document is planned and should cover the next five years.

Chip Ganassi Racing has confirmed that it will enter Juan Pablo Montoya in the Ford 400, the final round of the NASCAR Nextel Cup, this weekend at Homestead in Florida.

Britain's Darren Manning was missing from the ranks of the Indy Racing League in 2006, appearing only briefly in the A1 Grand Prix Series and driving a Nissan 350Z in the FIA GT Championship for RJN Motorsport. But now he is back in Indycars with a deal with AJ Foyt Enterprises

This is the time of year at which the Formula 1 team financial results become public information and that is always interesting to see how the sport is developing.

The word in Champ Car circles is that Carl Russo, the boss of the Rusport team is to leave the series next year. It remains to be seen what will happen with the team but new owners are being sought.

This is the time of year at which F1 teams tend to revamp their structures and it seems that Renault F1 is reorganising itself slightly with the team's Executive Director of Engineering Pat Symonds taking on a slightly different role.

Work has now begun on the Spa-Francorchamps circuit in Belgium which will return to the F1 calendar next year after missing out in 2005. The work which will be done this winter will include a completely revamped pit and paddock area which will be much bigger than previously.

Mika Hakkinen is NOT going to be making an Formula 1 comeback in 2007. The 38-year-old Finn visited McLaren headquarters in Woking the other day and spent some time trying out the team's racing simulator but according to McLaren chief executive Martin Whitmarsh that is far as it goes.