Formula One News — March 2007

There have been rumours since last summer that Gerhard Berger was planning to get engineer Giorgio Ascanelli as the technical director of Scuderia Toro Rosso and that deal has now been done and Ascanelli will start work at the team next weekend in Malaysia.

The FIA does not like to be seen to be backing down on anything and thus the press release after the recent FIA World Council meeting mentioned nothing about letting the Turkish racing federation off its fine from last year nor any details about "a number of amendments" that had been agreed for 2008.

The word from Germany is that HWA, the company that runs all of Mercedes-Benz's non-Formula 1 motor sport activities, is to be floated on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange later this year.

Giedo Van der Garde may come to regret his decision to walk out on Super Aguri F1 and sign a deal to test for the Spyker team. The problem is that Super Aguri has a valid contract lodged with the Contract Recognition Board and this will remain valid until a settlement can be found.

Prodrive has joined the space industry, having manufactured a number of lightweight panels for the recently launched Cibola Flight Experiment satellite, which was one of six deployed in space recently a the United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket.

With entries now flooding in for the Indianapolis 500 it looks like there will be three women in the 2007 field with the news that Venezuela's Milka Duno will be driving for the Samax team in a Citgo-sponsored Dallara-Honda.

Paul Stoddart is to run his fleet of F1 two-seater cars as part of the support programme at Champ Car races this year. The cars will not be used for races but will allow VIPs and fans to have a chance to get an idea of what drivers experience when they are racing.

The Champ Car troops are in the final stages of preparation for the start of the new season in Las Vegas on April 8 and there are clear signs that the drives available need funding and those without funding have little chance of landing a drive.

Midlands property developer Oliver Speight is reported to have tabled a $110m offer to buy Silverstone from the British Racing Drivers' Club. The club has around 900 members and so there is no doubt that the members could each make huge financial gains if such a deal went ahead.

The new Formula 1 technical regulations for 2009 and beyond was designed to create opportunities for engineers to start new companies to sell technology to the Formula 1 teams and the first such company is now up and running with the news that Jon Hilton and Doug Cross, two engineers from Renault F1, have started a new business called Flybrid Systems

The FIA has agreed to halve the $5m fine imposed on the Turkish race authorities after last year's podium scandal when Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat presented the winner's prize to Felipe Massa, a move that was designed as a nationalistic statement which triggered serious questions over the FIA's political neutrality.

The F©d©ration Fran§aise du Sport Automobile (FFSA) has decided to take a year out of the FIA Formula 1 World Championship in 2008. The Magny-Cours circuit is reckoned to be no longer viable from a financial point of view and it is too early for other projects.

Although there are beginning to be signs of celebration for Toyota's 50 years in motorsport, it should be remembered that the Japanese company still has another six months to go before the actual anniversary.

Anthony Davidson will be back in action in Malaysia today having now fully recovered from his back problems in Australia.

The Formula 1 clans are gathering again, this time in Malaysia where there is a test this week prior to the Grand Prix there at the end of next week. The testing began on Tuesday with Robert Kubica setting the pace for BMW, with 92 laps of the track and a best time of 1m36.187s.

Honda Racing F1's Gil de Ferran is a busy man and so decided to take his family off for a little holiday in Florida at the weekend.

Although the government of Valencia has voted through its plans for the funding of a Formula 1 track in the downtown area, there is still one hurdle that needs to be overcome. The mayor and the local government both face elections at the end of May.

Valencia is keen to stay in the international spotlight when the America's Cup departs and the city government has just voted through the funding for a rebuild of the streets to open the way for an F1 track in 2009. The track will run around the harbour area and hopes to become a Spanish version of Monaco.

Stoxx Ltd has launched a Grand Prix Index on the Dow Jones. The new index measures the performance of the major players in the Formula 1 series, including engine manufacturers, tyre makers, oil and fuel suppliers and team sponsors.

More details of the Aston Martin sale have emerged in recent days with the price paid being $570m, plus $390m in debt. This means that the business is now free of debts. The biggest shareholder is Investment Dar which owns 50% of the business.

Heinz Schiller has died at the age of 77. He raced in just one Grand Prix but was nonetheless a talented Swiss driver, who was often seen alongside Jo Siffert in sports car racing.

Michael Schumacher is to have a section of the Nurburgring named after him. The track has had sponsored corners for many years with some, such as the Dunlop Kurve, becoming wellknown but others being referred to more often by number.

The Indy Racing League action at Homestead over the weekend saw a double triumph for British exiles in the United States with Dan Wheldon dominating the main event, leading 179 of the 200 laps.

There has been some significant action in the High Court in recent days between the FIA director of communications Richard Woods and Tom Rubython, the editor of BusinessF1 Magazine. Both sides have issued press statements claiming victory.

Gary Paffett, 2005 DTM-Champion with the DaimlerChrysler Bank AMG-Mercedes C-Class, will return to the DTM this year after a year spent testing for the McLaren Mercedes F1 team. Paffett will drive a 2006 AMG-Mercedes C-Class for the Persson team.