Formula One News — December 2008

BMW Sauber sponsor Credit Suisse, Switzerland's second-largest bank, has announced that it is axeing 5,300 jobs and scrapping bonuses for its top executives after losing $2.5 bn in the last two months. This amounts to around 11% of the company's workforce.

While Formula 1 teams meet in London to discuss rule changes for 2010 and beyond, including the thorny question of standardised engined, there are far more important things going on in the United States where General Motors, Ford and Chrysler appear in front of Congress trying to win a $34 billion loan package from the US government.

The Dubai-based Speedcar Series kicks off later this week for its second season of racing with seven teams from six countries.

Hockenheim says that without financial aid from the state of Baden-Wurttemberg there will be no more Formula 1 races at the circuit near Heidelberg. Hockenheim made a substantial loss on this year's German Grand Prix and says that it is not possible for that to happen again.

Scott Speed will join fellow F1 refugee Juan Pablo Montoya next year as a full time driver in the NASCAR Sprint Cup The former Scuderia Toro Rosso driver has taken the oval racing world by storm this year and has now been confirmed as the permanent replacement for AJ Allmendinger at Team Red Bull.

There are reports in The Citizen newspaper in South Africa that a new company called GP Motorsport (which apparently stands for Gauteng Province) has been formed with the goal of bringing Formula 1 back to the country.