Formula One News — June 2008

We are hearing rumours from Australia that the Australian GP contract with Melbourne has been extendede until 2015. This is great news for Australia as there had been fears that the race would fall victim to higher bids coming from elsewhere in Asia and the Middle East.

There have been a series of denials regarding rumours that there have been talks between CVC Capital Partners and News Corp about the possible sale of the Formula One group of companies.

McLaren team boss Ron Dennis's contribution to engineering has led to the award of the Prince Philip Medal by the Royal Academy of Engineering. The gold medal is "awarded periodically to an engineer of any nationality who has made an exceptional contribution to engineering as a whole through practice, management or education".

Dutch racing driver Giedo van der Garde has launched a legal action in Breda, Holland, against the Force India F1 team, aiming to recoup $3m which, he argues, was paid to the team in order to guarantee 6000km of testing. The deal was done when the Silverstone team was under previous ownership and was known as Spyker.

Kelvin O'Reilly, the former boss of the Touring Car Entrants Group of Australia (TEGA) is in England this week to advise FIA consultant Tony Purnell about budget-capping.

Bernie Ecclestone has written to all the FIA club presidents saying that he wishes to clarify the current situation, blaming confusion on the media - a regular thing in F1 circles.

For years Formula One has dreamed of hosting a race in Moscow, but a deal has never been done and event organiser Rotterdam Racing is going to beat the F1 circus to Russia in July with a display around the Kremlin on Sunday July 13. This will be the first foreign edition of Rotterdam Racing's concept, which has proven to be very successful in the Dutch city in recent years.

It is with great regret that we must report the death of one of motorsport's most extraordinary characters Ove Andersson, a legend in the rallying world who went on to become the force behind Toyota's motorsport activities for more than 30 years. He was the Toyota F1 team principal until his retirement. He was 70 years of age.

There are reports that the British Formula 3 team Ultimate Motorsport is negotiating to buy a shareholding in Scuderia Toro Rosso, with funding for the project coming from the Angolan oil company Sonangol. Ultimate was formed in 2006 by Barry Walsh, a former racer.

Monday was the 40th anniversary of McLaren's first Grand Prix victory, although Bruce McLaren did win the non-championship Race of Champions prior to his victory at Spa on June 9 1968. Forty years on the team had little to celebrate at the Canadian Grand Prix, with Lewis Hamilton not only crashing out of the race but also being landed with a 10-place grid penalty that will hurt his race in France in two weeks.

Robert Kubica is happy to admit that he does not have the car to do the job this year, but if the rest of the F1 frontrunners want to hand him a victory, he is not going to turn it down. In Montreal they did exactly that.

Canadian GP - Race Notes

Canadian GP - Sunday Photos

Canadian GP - Sunday Press Conference

Canadian GP - Sunday Team Quotes

Following the stewards investigation into the pitlane accident which took out Kimi Raikkonen and Lewis Hamilton from the Canadian Grand Prix, both Hamilton and Rosberg will lose ten grid positions in the French Grand Prix.

Canadian GP - Race Incidents

Canadian GP - Race Results

Lewis Hamilton took pole position for the Canadian Grand Prix, finding his way around a crumbling track to record a time that was six-tenths of a second faster than his nearest rival. Six-tenths of a second in modern Formula 1 is a huge margin and the underlying story was clearly that Lewis had figured out something that the others had not worked out.

Canadian GP - Saturday Photos

Canadian GP - Saturday Press Conference

Canadian GP - Saturday Team Quotes

Canadian GP - Qualifying Results

There has been much talk overnight about the possibility of a breakaway Formula 1 series without the FIA being involved. Those who were talking it up yesterday are now denying that there is anything to the story.

Canadian GP - Practice 3 Results