Formula One News — December 2007

The full World Council decision against Renault has now been published.

There has been talk for some time about an international racing circuit at Portimao on Portugal's southern coast. The promoters of the idea were at the Motorsport Business Forum in Monaco to give more information about the track and to show the world that work has already begun on the construction of the complex.

The decision by the FIA World Council in September to fine McLaren $100m and take away all the team's Constructors' World Championship points and the decision yesterday not to give Renault any punishment despite very similar charges will lead to much analysis of the differences between the two cases as it is hard to understand why one warrants a massive penalty - the biggest in the history of any sport - and the other warrants no action at all.

Before the FIA World Council met and decided not to punish Renault, Sir Jackie Stewart was the keynote speaker on the second day of the Motorsport Business Forum in Monaco.

The FIA World Council has ruled that Renault was guilty of the charge that the team was in breach of Article of 151c of the International Sporting Code - but decided to impose no penalty.

The meeting of the FIA World Motor Sport Council has ended today in Monaco, and the FIA has issued a release stating that Renault F1 was found to be in breach of article 151c of the International Sporting Code, but will not be imposing any penalty on the team.

Thursday is going to be a highly-charged day in Formula 1 circles as the FIA World Council members gather in Monte Carlo to decide what to do about the espionage claims against Renault F1.

The Rotterdam Racing BV organisation is to take F1 to the streets of Moscow in 2008 with plans for an event on July 13, the weekend between the British and German Grands Prix. The plan is to create a street circuit around the Kremlin.

The first day of the Motorsport Business Forum in Monaco provided some interesting insights into the way that Formula 1 is going and and how there needs to be some serious thinking about the future.

The Force India F1 team has hired Mark Smith and Ian Hall from Red Bull Racing and Toyota respectively. Smith will join the team as Design Director to work under the direction of Chief Technical Officer Mike Gascoyne and alongside Technical Director James Key.

Formula 3 Euroseries racer Nico Hulkenberg will test for Williams at Jerez in Spain this week. The young German, who won the German Formula BMW title made his first big impression in A1 Grand Prix and finished third in the Eurrocup F3 Series with the dominant ASM team.

In any normal Formula 1 year we would have spent the day running through the official FIA Formula 1 entry to see if there could be anything gleaned from the list of teams and drivers. It is rare that there is much to be said but it gives the gossipmongers something solid to gossip about.

The Australian V8 Supercars are reported to be bidding to be part of the programme at the Singapore Grand Prix in September 2009. V8 Supercars chairman Tony Cochrane has had discussions with the race organisers about having the V8 race during the day and the F1 cars at night.

It was no big surprise that the Autosport Awards were dominated by Lewis Hamilton. The youngster picked up three awards as Best International Racing Driver, Best British Competition Driver and Rookie of the Year.

BMW Motorsport announced that it will be testing Marko Asmer (23) and Javier Villa (20) at Jerez this week. The two will be competing to become the new reserve driver for the German company following the departures of Sebastian Vettel to Scuderia Toro Rosso and Timo Glock to Toyota.