Formula One News — April 2007

Nicolas Sarkozy's victory in the first round of the French presidential election, could be good news for France's struggling racing industry as Sarkozy has promised to relax labour laws, lower taxes on business and encourage a more entrepreneurial culture.

The Financial Times has today published the second annual Brandz Top 100 Most Powerful Brands ranking, compiled by the market research firm Millward Brown Optimor. This identifies the most powerful brands measured by their dollar value, based on both financial data and perceptions of the brand.

NASCAR is not doing much these days to disguise its international aspirations and the news that chairman Brian France, senior vice president Paul Brooks, international managing director Robbie Weiss and consultant Ken Clapp are all off for a week-long visit to China to discuss possible projects with the government there should set alarm bells ringing in F1 circles.

Perhaps a little spooked by the news that Singapore is getting deadly serious about a Grand Prix, the Malaysian government gave Mokhzani Mahathir, the chairman of the Sepang International Circuit (and the son of former Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad), the go-ahead to do whatever was necessary to reach a new deal with Bernie Ecclestone

The Formula 1 circus might have been having the weekend off but there was plenty of racing going on around the world with the Indy Racing League in Japan, Champ Car and ALMS in Houston and the DTM kicking off in Germany.

The Turkish Grand Prix is guaranteed until 2021 under a new deal announced at the Istanbul Park Circuit. A new company formed by F1 ringmaster Bernie Ecclestone has taken over the operation of the Istanbul Park circuit for all events, including F1 and the MotoGP.

An appeal against the $150,000 award of damages made to Tony Purnell in his claim for libel against BusinessF1 Magazine and its editor Tom Rubython has been rejected.

The rebuilding work at Spa is pushing ahead with the spring weather helping to speed things up.

Ralf Schumacher's contract expires at the end of the year and already Nick Heidfeld's management has been stirring up rumours that he might be moving across to Toyota to replace Ralf.

Bernie Ecclestone was a visitor at Istanbul Park circuit today in the lead-up to this weekend's Turkish MotoGP race.

We hear from India that Bernie Ecclestone has decided that he prefers the idea of a race around the streets of the capital Delhi, rather than at a purpose-built location in the suburbs of the city.

Outgoing Australian Grand Prix chief executive Tim Bamford was on the radio in Melbourne this morning and let slip that there will not be any night racing going on in 2008.

With Formula 1 having gone home, the newspapers in the Gulf have now revealed that police foiled 70 attempts by rioters to sabotage the Grand Prix at different locations in Bahrain.

With the first three Grands Prix out of the way and the teams now settling in back home in Europe, there is time to assess the first three races and it is a traditional time of year for the first changes to be seen in the structure of teams that are not doing very well.

Tristan Gommendy wanted to be a Formula 1 driver when he was growing up but with money very hard to find in France it was not not easy. He shot to prominence in 2002 by winning the French Formula 3 title and the Macau Grand Prix in 2002 but then did not have the backing to get beyond the Renault World Series until last year when he found the money to do a handful of GP2 races.

It has been announced that Tim Bamford has stepped down as the chief executive of the Australian Grand Prix Corporation, he has been the chief executive officer of the race for the last three years.

The second round of the Formula Nippon series at Suzuka in Japan was an interesting affair with an earthquake measuring 5.7 on the Richter Scale, with the epicentre just 15 miles from the track just before the start.

There is much hyperbole doing the rounds at the moment about Lewis Hamilton's three-race Formula 1 career. The one thing we have learned is that Lewis is not a man who should be underestimated.

For some weeks Red Bull Racing has been looking at legal responses to the recent revelation that Spyker had acquired design documents from Milton Keynes. Spyker revealed the drawings as part of its case against Scuderia Toro Rosso, claiming that Red Bull and Toro Rosso parts are interchangeable.

The Bahrain Grand Prix is usually a slow one for news. The design of the paddock and the heat means that team people tend to hide away inside air-conditioned boxes, out of the range of lurking pressmen and even when meetings do occur, the heat is such that they are usually kept to a minimum.

The wind was blowing in Bahrain. The wind of change. With Michael Schumacher gone we expected to go into an era of Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen. We have had three terrific Grands Prix this year, with the pendulum swinging backwards and forwards between McLaren and Ferrari.

The FIA and the United Nations are working together with the launch of the UN Global Road Safety Week (April 23-29), which is designed to raise awareness of the scale of the global road safety problem, especially amongst young people.

By way of illustration of why Formula 1 has trouble finding promoters in the United States comes from the latest financial returns of the listed Dover Motorsports company, based in Dover, Delaware.

Juan Pablo Montoya is never far from the headlines and he was back in the spotlight on Sunday in Texas when he spun and took out former champion Tony Stewart, who was none too impressed by the move.

Bahrain GP - Race Notes