Formula One News — May 2007

Monaco GP - Practice 3 Results

A US appeals court has rejected an attempt by US fans to get their money back after the disastrous 2005 Grand Prix at Indianapolis when 14 of thee 20 cars pulled into the pits before the start of the race.

The weather on the Riviera is rather grey this morning as the teams begin preparations for the final practice for the Monaco Grand Prix.

After a night of partying on Thursday, the Formula 1 circus was rather muted on Friday with the paddock in Monaco a lot quieter than usual, as the F1 fraternity recovered and quietly did business with the many sponsor representatives who are in town for the biggest event of the year.

Fernando Alonso set the fastest time of the Formula 1 afternoon practice session in Monaco on Thursday, with a best lap of 1m15.940s in his McLaren-Mercedes. The lap was almost three-tenths faster than the best lap recorded by Kimi Raikkonen in his Ferrari.

Monaco GP - Thursday Photos

The British Grand Prix has announced that actress Gemma Atkinson will be the Female Face of the Santander British Grand Prix. Atkinson (22) started out as a model but has become wellknown in the UK as a star of the teenage soap opera Hollyoaks. She is also the "sex and relationships columnist" for the magazine Zoo Weekly.

The GP2 Series has launched GP2 Asia, extending the current championship. Beginning in 2008, GP2 Asia will hold races between January and April and will be held in league with the new Speedcar Series.

Monaco GP - Thursday Press Conference

Monaco GP - Thursday Team Quotes

Monaco GP - Practice 2 Results

The Williams team has announced backing for the Monaco Grand Prix weekend from Mappin & Webb, the celebrated British silverware company.

The first practice session for the Monaco Grand Prix saw Fernando Alonso set the fastest time with a lap of 1m16.973s. His McLaren team-mate Lewis Hamilton had been ahead early in the session but was then sidelined with a problem when the shaft of the external starter broke, which that meant the team had to remove the back of the gearbox to extract pieces of debris to avoid further problems.

Monaco GP - Practice 1 Results

The Business F1 magazine is in the news again - this time in France. The publication and its editor Tom Rubython have featured in "advertisements" in Autohebdo magazine and the L'Equipe sports newspaper as a result of a May 2006 judgement in the Tribunal de Grande Instance in Paris for having defamed FIA President Max Mosley in a story in the magazine in February 2005.

Sebastian Buemi will make his GP2 this weekend at Monaco, at the wheel of an ART car. The Swiss youngster is leading the Formula 3 Euroseries, although there has been only one meeting thus far this season. In those races Buemi finished first and third in his Red Bull-sponsored Mucke Motorsport Dallara.

Monaco GP - Wednesday Press Conference

There is Marlboro signage all over Monaco this weekend with the Ferrari team running the cars with full Marlboro branding, as they did in Bahrain recently. We understand that the cars will also run with full colours in China as well.

Ferrari has introduced a new colour scheme at Monaco. The cars will henceforth be seen in a darker red than has been the case in recent years, when the red was changed to get closer to the colour scheme used by Marlboro.

The Honda Racing F1 team is to go testing on the island of Menorca after the Monaco Grand Prix, following McLaren to the local aerodrome where the team can conduct some warm weather aero-mapping work.

There is little doubt that the poor performance of the Honda F1 team this year will result in changes being made to the team. The big question is what these changes are going to be - and what effect this will have on the long-term future of the team.

The media reports suggesting that Melbourne could give up the Australian Grand Prix are rather exaggerated, but that has not stopped the story spreading to Queensland where news-hungry hounds have found a local tourism boss who says that the region should take a look at having a Grand Prix in the future.

Bernie Ecclestone knows how to apply pressure. At the moment Mr E is rather keen for the TV viewing figures of F1 to rise and in order to achieve this without needing to invest any money in better television or promotion of the World Championship.

Tomas Enge's career in racing seemed under threat a few weeks ago when the former F1 racer crashed heavily at the wheel of an ALMS Ferrari and shattered his elbow.

Yu Zhifei, the man in charge of the Chinese Grand Prix, has been fired by the government for misuse of funds. Yu used company money to pay for a house and indulged in what the government media referred to as "other illegal behaviour". He had been under investigation since last autumn.