Formula One News — November 2007

Australian Ryan Briscoe, the Toyota F1 test driver between 2002 and 2004 has finally landed a top drive in the Indy Racing League. The 27-year-old Australian has been in America since 2005 when his hopes of getting a Jordan F1 drive were dashed.

World Champion Damon Hill is again on the attack against the way in which the FIA handled the case against McLaren last summer. Speaking to The Daily Telegraph in London, Hill said that he would "like to understand how the Ferrari-Toyota case, which ended in court, did not lead to the same outcome as the Ferrari-McLaren case?

Kazakh cyclist Andrey Kashechkin has nothing to do with motor racing but a legal action he is taking against the Swiss-based Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) could have repercussions for other sporting authorities.

Britain's Minister of State for Defence Equipment and Support Lord Drayson has taken a "leave of absence" from the Labour government in order to take part in the Le Mans 24 Hours in 2008.

Fernando Alonso has reportedly gone off on holiday and this is probably a good time to do it. The Spaniard has been much-rumoured as a future Renault driver but such decisions may now be put on hold until the FIA World Council meeting in Monaco in December.

Things have been moving on at Force India F1 in recent weeks and the team is about to announce its plans for testing in the run up to Christmas. The team has yet to confirm any driver but is believed to have an option to keep Adrian Sutil if it chooses to do so.

Formula 1 is becoming more and more like tennis - with action taking place in the courts rather than on the track. The latest point of interest is a dispute between BMW and Toyota over Timo Glock.

They say that there are three Chinese curses of increasing severity: the first "is may you live in interesting times". The second is "may you come to the attention of those in authority" and the third, and worst, is "may you find what you are looking for".

Representatives of the Renault F1 Team have been requested to appear before a hearing of the FIA World Motor Sport Council in Monaco on Thursday, December 6, 2007 to answer a charge that between September 2006 and October 2007, in breach of Article 151c of the International Sporting Code.

Further to the rumours about deals for Renault to get Fernando Alonso in at Renault, it seems that the man who may be involved is Mexican businessman Carlos Slim.

The suggestion that the Spanish bank Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA) is one of the supporters of the plan to get Fernando Alondo into the Renault F1 team has led to questions about the validity of the rumours.

Australia's Channel Nine is reporting that there are discussions going on to move the Australian Grand Prix from Albert Park in Melbourne to the Flemington Racecourse in the north-west of the city.

As we suggested would happen yesterday, Williams has announced that Kazuki Nakajima has been signed up as Nico Rosberg's team-mate next year. He replaces Alexander Wurz.

It is expected that Williams will announce soon that Nico Rosberg will be joined in the team by Kazuki Nakajima.

Michael Schumacher will test for Ferrari later this month in an effort to help the team improve its technical package. Schumacher retired at the end of last season and is doing the test for fun as well.

Bruno Spengler is one name that has been quietly mentioned as a possible F1 driver for some months now and he could be one of the outsiders in the running for the McLaren drive, although it is highly unlikely that the team would sign up the Canadian youngster before seeing him test.

India's Karun Chandhok is to test for Red Bull Racing in Barcelona. The 23-year-old from Chennai, is currently racing in GP2 with the Durango team but is tipped to move to a more competitive drive next season, probably with Red Bull backing. Chandhok, who scored his first GP2 victory at Spa is aiming to follow in the footsteps of Narain Karthikeyan into F1 in the future.

McLaren is running two recent winners of the McLaren Autosport BRDC Young Driver of the Year Award winners at Silverstone today.

Champ Car has just released its 2008 calendar and it will feature 14 races, the same number as happened this year, although this was reduced from the original calendar because of events that were cancelled.

The departure of Fernando Alonso leaves McLaren in search of a new driver for 2008 and the team needs to decide on its strategy. There is no rush to sign anyone as the same drivers available now are more than likely going to be available in three months from now.

Fernando Alonso's management says that the Spaniard is free to sign for any Formula 1 team he would like to - and that seems decidedly odd. There is no indication that Alonso has paid anything to McLaren to buy his freedom from the two remaining years of his contract and it seems rather unlikely that McLaren would let him disappear off to a serious rival - a Ferrari or a Renault.

Mika Hakkinen has announced his retirement from motorsport. "I've got good news and bad news," the double World Champion told the fans at the Mercedes-Benz Stars & Cars event in Stuttgart. "The bad news is that it is time for me to stop DTM. That will be over. The good news is that my competitors can have a little more peace on the track."

This is down time for Lewis Hamilton, although he is keeping busy with sponsor work and other events. On Saturday he was in Stuttgart for the annual Stars & Cars event, a celebration of the Mercedes-Benz racing programme in the last 12 months, similar to an event held last week at Mugello by Ferrari.

In a move that seemed inevitable, two-time World Champion Fernando Alonso will not drive for McLaren-Mercedes next season.

Max Mosley's habit of criticising the sport's heroes has led to the inevitable backlash with The Daily Mirror today headlining an anti-Mosley article "Mad Max" and talking of his "poisonous attack" on Sir Jackie Stewart.