Formula One News — October 2007

FIA President Max Mosley has been saying some odd things of late and his latest series of remarks on the BBC programme Hard Talk have carried on the same trend. Mosley suggested that he believes there is "a tendency to exaggerate the importance of Lewis Hamilton" and said that if Hamilton was not there people would be talking about Nico Rosberg, Robert Kubica or Sebastian Vettel.

The Australian Grand Prix is continuing to make losses with the latest report showing that this year's race cost the taxpayers $31m. The revenues for the race declined once again from $43m last year (which was supposed to have been affected by the Commonwealth Games) to $40m this year.

Fernando Alonso and Ron Dennis, while not talking to one another, are busy negotiating their future at the moment. McLaren has handed over responsibility for the Court of Appeal protest to Martin Whitmarsh, leaving Dennis free to sort out what to do about drivers. There have been various rumours but no-one has yet come up with the solution.

Indianapolis 500 winner and IndyCar Series champion Dario Franchitti has moved to NASCAR in the United States and will be replaced at Andretti Green Racing by Japan's Hideki Mutoh, who is funded by Aguri Suzuki's operations.

We hear that negotiations about Fernando Alonso between Renault and Telefonica have not been going very well in recent days with there being disagreements about some of the people involved in the Renault F1 project.

The FIA Institute has concluded its two-year programme to develop crash helmets specifically for young drivers. This involved studying data about children™s head mass, head geometry and the changes that occur with growth to find the best solution possible.

Honda has announced that GP2 drivers Mike Conway, Luca Filippi and Andreas Zuber will drive at the team's first winter test in Barcelona next month. The three are all being looked at to see if they have longtime F1 potential.

The BMW Sauber F1 Team has appointed Christoph Zimmermann as its new chief designer. The 39-year-old Swiss will be responsible for the design of the race cars of from January 1 2008, reporting to Technical Director Willy Rampf.

The FIA's International Court of Appeal will hear McLaren's case against the decision of the Brazilian Grand Prix stewards on Thursday, November 15. The race stewards at Interlagos decided not to penalise the BMW Sauber and Williams teams despite the fact that temperature readings from their fuel rigs were too low.

There has been some talk in the last couple of days about whether McLaren is correct in going ahead with its appeal against the decision not to exclude the Williams and BMW Saubers cars from the result of the 2007 Brazilian Grand Prix.

The FIA World Council met in Paris and announced its plans to have a total freeze on engine development for a period of 10 years, starting in 2008. The federation says that a change can be made after five years but only with the unanimous agreement of all stakeholders and following a further two-year notice period.

Damon Hill has gone on to the attack against the stewards' decision in Brazil, telling Radio 5 Live that he does not understand the decision.

Kimi Raikkonen, the outsider in the World Championship, won an astonishing victory and the World Championship at Interlagos.

McLaren says it will appeal the decision of the Stewards in Brazil not to punish the BMW Sauber and Williams teams despite the fact that fuel temperature in all four cars was more than 10-degrees C beneath the ambient temperature, which is not allowed according to the regulations.

Brazilian GP - Race Notes

Brazilian GP - Sunday Photos

The results of the Brazilian GP are official.

The problem is Brazil is that the fuel in the two BMW Saubers and the Two Williams-Toyotas was too cool during the race. Article 6.5.5 of the Formula 1 Technical Regulations states that "no fuel on board the car may be more than 10 degrees centigrade below ambient temperature".

As darkness was falling in Brazil there was a rush of excitement as it became clear that the FIA Stewards have been asked to look into allegations that there are problems with the fuel temperatures of the BMW Saubers and the Williams. If two of the cars are excluded from the race, Lewis Hamilton would be the World Champion.

Brazilian GP - Sunday Press Conference

Brazilian GP - Sunday Team Quotes

Brazilian GP - Race Incidents

Brazilian GP - Race Results

If there is any doubt that the McLaren team feels that it has been harshly treated this year by the FIA., it should be forgotten. This was highlighted on Friday when team boss Ron Dennis was called to the McLaren garage by team manager Dave Ryan.

Sebastien Bourdais won his fourth consecutive Champ Car title on Sunday with a commanding victory in the Gold Coast Indy 300. He finished the race nearly seven seconds clear of Justin Wilson.