Formula One News — October 2008

Robert Kubica set the pace for BMW Sauber in the Saturday morning session for the Japanese Grand Prix, but the times were not deeply significant with Timo Glock's Toyota second fastest, Nelson Piquet's Renault third quickest, Nick Heidfeld's BMW Sauber fourth and Kazuki Nakajima's Williams-Toyota fifth.

Japanese GP - Practice 3 Results

Friday is traditionally a day when teams can make themselves look good if they choose to do so, and thus it was no great surprise to see Timo Glock go fastest in his Toyota, at the Toyota-owned Fuji Speedway in Toyota-mad Japan.

Japanese GP - Friday Photos

Japanese GP - Friday Press Conference

Japanese GP - Friday Team Quotes

Japanese GP - Practice 2 Results

The pages of Le Monde in Paris are rarely filled with Formula 1 stories, but an interview yesterday with banker Emilio Botin of Spain's Santander served to confirm rumours that have been kicking around in F1 circles for some weeks. "On the F1 scene," the article said, "his business sponsors the Spanish driver Fernando Alonso and, soon, the red cars of Scuderia Ferrari."

Lewis Hamilton led the way in the first practice session in Japan beating World Championship rival Felipe Massa by a tenth of a second.

Japanese GP - Practice 1 Results

The word on the street in Fuji suggests that there might be a change of engine supplier next year for the Force India team. Vijay Mallya's operation has been using Ferrari engines for the last two seasons, but the team has never been competitive.

Japanese GP - Thursday Press Conference

Formula 1 will support the FIA's Make Cars Green campaign by running on special green-grooved tyres at the Japanese Grand Prix.

Canada is in shock today following the news that the Formula 1 race in Montreal in 2009 has been cancelled and its slot on the calendar taken by Turkey.

The FIA World Motor Sport Council has ruled that the top 3 finishers in the new FIA Formula Two Championship will qualify for an FIA Superlicence in 2010. the current rules allow for the granting of an F1 licence to the top 3 in GP2 or in GP2 Asia, the top 3 in Formula Nippon in Japan, the top three in the Indy Racing League or as a Formula 3 Euroseries champion, or the F3 champion of Britain, Italy, Japan or Spain, or the Renault World Series champion.

The FIA World Motor Sport Council has unanimously agreed to give Max Mosley full authority to negotiate with the Formula One Teams Association (FOTA) with regard to the introduction of radical measures to achieve a substantial reduction of costs in the World Championship from 2010.

Alan Donnelly is FIA President Max Mosley's representative in many respects these days. In recent years he has attended all the Grands Prix doing the necessary for Mosley and this year he has added the additional role of being advisor to the FIA Stewards.

Nazir Hoosein, a longtime ally of Max Mosley at the FIA, has been fighting for his survival in the corridors of power in recent months over the question of the sporting power in India.

Marco Piccinini, the FIA Deputy President for Sport, has confirmed that he is to leave his position, one year before the end of his term, officially this is "in order to focus on his other professional commitments" but it is clear that he has been doing this for years.

The Canadian Grand Prix has been dropped from the F1 calendar in 2009 and Turkey has moved from its August date to replace the event on June 7. This means that there will be no race in North America in 2009. It will also create a month-long break in the summer.

Renault F1 boss Flavio Briatore was in Paris last week to discuss not only F1 budgets but also a new structure for the Renault team. Briatore admitted before the trip that things are going to change and that he will be taking a role which will be less hands-on (not that hands-on was his speciality) and that there will be 'a director' responsible for the day-to-day running of the team.

Helio Castroneves pleaded not guilty to federal charges that he used offshore companies to evade US taxes. The Brazilian appeared in court in handcuffs with his legs chained. He was released on bail of $10m.

The BMW Sauber F1 team has announced that it is to retain its current driver line-up in 2009. This is not a surprise as the team had taken up the options on both men. Christian Klien will also be retained as test driver.

FIA President Max Mosley has decided to continue his campaign to increase privacy laws by taking his spanking case to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. He wants newspapers across Europe to have to tell the subject of a story about any revelations before they are published.

More details are emerging of the plans to revamp Donington Park for the British Grand Prix in 2010. Donington Ventures Leisure Ltd has submitted plans for the first phase of the re-development of Donington Park. North West Leicestershire District Council has accepted the plans as being valid and they will now move on to the approval process, which the circuit hopes will be completed by early next year.