Formula One News — November 2007

Forget, for one moment, about the so-called "issues of the moment": the McLaren appeal, the espionage crisis that Renault will soon have to face and the annual driver market hullabaloo. There is a much bigger issue floating along just below the waterline in Formula 1

There is word from Malaysia that the government there may be on the verge of announcing its support for Fairuz Fauzy to get him into Formula 1. Fauzy does not have the money to make more progress up the racing ladder and his results are not going to help him as most F1 team bosses tend not to look too closely at 25-year-olds who finish 11th in the Renault World Series.

Toyota Motorsport has announced that Timo Glock will race for Panasonic Toyota Racing in 2008. The reigning GP2 Series champion has signed a multi-year contract and the team hopes an agreement will be possible to allow Gloc

With BMW having let both Sebastian Vettel and Timo Glock go to other F1 teams - for the moment at least - the team is looking for a new third driver and there is speculation that this could be British Formula 3 racer Marko Asmer or Germany's Nico Hulkenberg.

The full text of the International Court of Appeal (ICA) of the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile decision.

The decision of the FIA International Court of Appeal - and the way it was handled - has done nothing to add to the credibility of the FIA. Not that it was expected to do.

Timo Glock is free to join Toyota. The news has been confirmed by BMW Motorsport boss Mario Theissen. There had been a dispute over the terms of an agreement between the German driver and Toyota and this meant that the contract was previously rejected by the Contract Recognition Board.

The best way to deal with stories that might prove to be embarrassing is to make sure that the fewest possible number of people get to read them. It is called news management. And the best way to do that is to make sure that the news breaks very late on a Friday, when the Saturday editions of the national newspapers are going to press and all but the most dedicated newsmen have gone home.

Vijay Mallya, the billionaire owner of the Force India F1 team and the major influence behind India™s bid to host a Formula 1 Grand Prix, will give a presentation during the opening session of the Motor Sport Business Forum in Monaco.

The various parties involved in the FIA International Court of Appeal hearing yesterday in London got themselves into a mud-slinging match with Ferrari lawyer Nigel Tozzi accusing McLaren of hypocrisy in its case after McLaren barrister Ian Mill told the court that the BMW Sauber and Williams cars broke the rules on fuel temperature and gained an advantage from the breach.

Singapore Telecommunications Limited (SingTel) has signe dup to be the sponsor for the Singapore Grand Prix. The event will be officially known as the SingTel Singapore Grand Prix.

Toyota Motorsport has announced that Japan's Kamui Kobayashi, a product of the Toyota Young Drivers Programme, is to be the team's third driver in 2008. The 21-year-old has been linked with Toyota since 2001.

While Michael Schumacher has been amusing himself setting the fastest times of the testing in Barcelona in recent days, there has been much interest further down the grid with a couple of new drivers in action.

The word from India is that a deal has been signed for a construction company called JP Associates to build a Formula 1 track at Greater Noida, a major new development to the east of New Delhi.

It would be hard to find anyone in Formula 1 who seriously believes that the FIA International Court of Appeal will result in the World Championship result being overturned.

Triple World Rally Champion Sebastien Loeb will be testing for Renault F1 at the start of next month in a test that is being planned at Paul Ricard. This will give the team a great deal of positive press in France.

Nick Fry and Ross Brawn have been discussing how they are going to work together in the future at Honda Racing F1. Fry said that he had spent seven months chasing Brawn and that the hiring of the former Ferrari engineer as the Honda team principal was "a clear indication of Honda's intention to remain and be successful in Formula 1".

Ferrari has announced that from January 1 2008 Stefano Domenicali will take on the role of Director of Ferrari's Gestione Sportiva, a position currently held - on an interim basis - by Jean Todt.

There is talk that Lewis Hamilton may be floated. This may sound a little bizarre but there is much logic in the idea. From Hamilton's point of view it would provide an instant payment of perhaps $100m with which he would be able to fund anything that he wishes to do.

Honda Racing F1 Team has announced that Ross Brawn is to join the team in the role of Team Principal with full responsibility for designing, manufacturing, engineering and racing Honda's Formula 1 cars. Ross will work alongside Nick Fry who continues as Chief Executive of the team.

Ross Brawn has been tipped as a possible recruit for Honda Racing F1 for some time and there are reports than an announcement will be coming today with Brawn being named team principal and Nick Fry staying on as chief executive.

Back in September we wrote a story saying that the sport was going to have trouble as a result of the FIA World Council's decision relating to McLaren having brought the sport into disrepute. It was called "Holding down the lid of Pandora's Box". The announcement that Renault is now up before the council and has admitted to some of the charges means that the lid has come clean off.

Following the announcement of an FIA investigation into Renault yesterday the ING Renault F1 Team has issued a statement "to clarify the situation". The team admits that on September 6 2007 it discovered that engineer Phil Mackereth, who joined the team from McLaren in Sept 2006, had "brought with him some information that was considered to be proprietary to McLaren".

Details of the plans for the Silverstone circuit have now become available.

This weekend in Phoenix the NASCAR Nextel Cup qualifying will feature no fewer than five topline names from open-wheeler racing competing to make the field for the Checker Auto Parts 500.