Formula One News — October 2007

Ferrari has announced that it has re-signed Felipe Massa until the end of 2010. This is an odd announcement but taken at face value would seem to indicate that there is thus no room for Fernando Alonso at Ferrari. The announcement ends speculation that the Brazilian could move to Toyota next season.

Although the problem of Fernando Alonso and McLaren will not be solved until after the Brazilian Grand Prix, it is our understanding that a number of the teams are putting options into place so that they can react as soon as the future of Alonso is known.

Formula 1 may have given up with the United States Grand Prix in 2008 but that does not mean that the sport has given up on the United States and BMW Sauber is obviously keen to use its involvement in F1 to help sell more road cars to the US audience and thus is heading to Las Vegas in January with its Pit Lane Park.

Following FIA President Max Mosley's refusal to withdraw his remarks about Sir Jackie Stewart, the Scotsman has hit back at the federation again, saying that he does not understand what the FIA is doing at the moment.

Cosworth Racing's 39-year relationship with F1 ended this time last year when Williams switched to Toyota V8s and Scuderia Toro Rosso gave up its V10s and moved on to Ferrari V8 engines.

The 2007 Motor Sport Business Forum continues to develop as the networking event of the year, with leading industry figures from every continent now confirming their attendance at the two-day conference and exhibition in Monaco on December 5-6.

There have been a lot of rumours in recent weeks about the future of Scuderia Toro Rosso and all the indications continue to be that the team will soon be sold by Dietrich Mateschitz and Gerhard Berger to South Africa's Tony Teixeira.

It is with much sadness that we must report the death of Formula 1 photographer Glenn Campbell, fondly known as "Rhinestone" by his many friends in the F1 world, because of US country singer Glen Campbell, who was best known for his hit "Rhinestone Cowboy".

Kazuki Nakajima was busy for Williams on Sunday, running a Williams-Toyota F1 car around the streets of the Aterro do Flamengo neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Nakajima will make his F1 debut with the team in Sao Paulo this weekend, replacing Alex Wurz.

The FIA International Court of Appeal met in Paris and rejected Scuderia Toro Rosso's protest against the Stewards of the Japanese GP who decided to penalise Tonio Liuzzi 25 seconds for overtaking the Spyker of Adrian Sutil under yellow flags. This means that Sutil's point is confirmed. It is the first scored by a Spyker.

The FIA International Court of Appeal met in Paris today to hear the appeal lodged by the Automobile Club dItalia/Commissione Sportiva Automobilistica Italiana (ACI/CSAI) on behalf of Scuderia Toro Rosso against the Stewards of the Japanese GP who decided to penalise Tonio Liuzzi 25 seconds for overtaking the Spyker of Adrian Sutil under yellow flags.

Following a winding up order in the High Court in London on September 5, 2007, BusinessF1 Magazine Ltd has been placed in the hands of the Official Receiver. The magazine's publisher Thomas Anthony John Rubython (52) has also been declared personally bankrupt.

If the German media is correct and Fernando Alonso has signed a letter of intent to drive for Renault in 2008 then he is likely to be in breach of his McLaren contract and unless he has a very good argument as to why he can walk away, would thus have to bash open his piggy-bank and pay the Woking team for the two years that remain on his contract.

As we exclusively reported some weeks ago, Ferrari and A1GP have agreed a long-term deal which will see the Italian firm supplying the chassis and engine design for the A1 Series for a six-year period, between 2008 and 2014.

There is not another investigation into McLaren - at least not yet. The latest reports come from members of the Spanish media who are trying to find explanations for why Fernando Alonso cannot match the speed of Lewis Hamilton and seem to have missed the rather obvious possibility that there might be someone is the world faster than Fernando.

Prodrive has admitted that it may not be able to take up its place on the Formula 1 grid next year because the sport cannot sort out its differences are come up with a new Concorde Agreement.

FIA President Max Mosley is standing by his attack on Jackie Stewart, despite Damon Hill describing it as "a gross insult to one of the sport's leading figures over the last four decades and a thrice World Champion", "bad manners" and "conduct most unbecoming of an FIA president" which brought the sport into disrepute".

The Swiss Council of States (known as the Senat) has examined the law passed by the National Council to alter the terms of the Road Traffic Law of 1958 which prohibits circuit racing in Switzerland.

The word from Grove is that Kazuki Nakajima will be racing for Williams in Brazil.

In recent months we have grown so used to seeing Lewis Hamilton driving like a Formula 1 veteran that we have reached a point at which it seems that he simply isn't going to make the kind of mistakes that all Formula 1 rookies make.

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