Formula One News — February 2009

The last few days have seen movement going on at Honda Racing F1 with eight mortgages being paid off by the holding company of the team and the registration of various web domains for Brawn Racing, in the name of Caroline McGrory, who happens to be the team's legal counsel.

The FIA says that it is going to propose radical changes to safeguard the future of Formula 1.

The F1 drivers seem to have decided to pay their superlicence fees, faced by an FIA that is clearly not going to negotiate. The drivers may not be happy about the fees but they seem to have now understood that now is not the time to force the issue. The hikes in price last year were impressive but the FIA argument is that the drivers are well-rewarded and so should contribute to safety.

Multiple sources are confirming our reports that the management buyout of Honda Racing F1 has now been agreed and that Ross Brawn and Nick Fry will run the team, using Honda money - plus the money that comes from TV income, plus whatever sponsorship can be found.

The Royal Bank of Scotland says it will be ending its alliance with Williams F1 at the end of 2010. This is no surprise given that the bank has lost billions and is now 70%-owned by the British government.

Reports from the Middle East suggest that F1-X, the Formula 1 theme park in Dubai, has been postponed by developer Union Properties. It seems that the project has run out of money.

The expected announcement of a US-based Formula 1 team has led to much speculation about possible drivers. There has been some fairly obvious talk about Danica Patrick and a few other mutterings about open-wheeler drivers who have made some impression in Europe, such as Jonathan Summerton.

Tony Teixeira is an unusual man. The Portuguese South African has a most colourful background, having started his career as a soldier and ended up parlaying these skills providing protection for mining operations and ultimately into controlling mines.

Italian justice is a curious thing that can drag on for years on end and it is thus intereresting to see that McLaren and the investigators in Modena appear to have reached an agreement to bring an end to Stepneygate, with a number of fines for McLaren personnel.

Honda Motor Co has announced that Takeo Fukui is to retire as president and chief executive officer in June. He will be replaced by Takanobu Ito. The 55-year-old joined Honda in 1978 and worked in R&D for much of his career, heading Honda R&D in the Americas from 1998 onwards.

The Real Automovil Club de Espana (RACE) built the Jarama racing circuit near Madrid back in the mid-1960s in order to compete with Barcelona's Montjuic Park. The two tracks shared the Spanish GP for several years but then the race moved permanently to Jarama between 1976 and 1981, after which it disappeared.

Renault F1, which will lose title sponsor ING at the end of the season, is looking to India for a replacement. There are reports in the Indian media that a senior official in Renault India has confirmed a sponsorship approach to "a major Indian multinational".

It has been many years since the teams were truly a force in Formula 1 politics. They have been divided by the different demands on them and by the fact that some of them were given incentives to break away from the rest of the pack.

The fans at the Australian Grand Prix at the end of March will get not only a Formula 1 Grand Prix but also the popular local V8 Supercars and a free concert by British rock legends The Who, featuring Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend, the two surviving members of the original band.

Grands Prix are often closely linked to one individual and thus the news that Francisco Camps, the President of the Generalitat Valenciana, has been implicated in a corruption scandal needs to be taken seriously in F1 circles.

General Motors says it is looking at selling stakes in its Opel, Vauxhall and Saab brands. The company is also believed to be looking for buyers for its Hummer and Saturn brands in the US market.

Silverstone Circuit has donated $6400 raised from parking fines at the British Grand Prix to four local organisations. Parking regulations were implemented at the event to ensure that visitors adhered to the parking rules which, in turn, enabled the circuit to manage traffic flow in the most efficient way possible.

Honda has now confirmed that it is talking to the Virgin Group about the possible purchase of its F1 team. With six weeks to go before the start of the new season, time is short but clearly the team must now be building parts that will fit the Honda chassis to the available Mercedes-Benz engines.

Red Bull boss Dietrich Mateschitz does not say much about his Formula 1 involvement. He runs two of the 10 teams and thus has considerable power as his defection would do the sport considerable damage.

Silverstone has unveiled provisional plans for the MotoGP circuit. The most significant addition will be a new section of track running from the approach at Abbey corner to a spectacular 'Arrowhead' at the inside of Becketts. The Arrowhead will then join up with the existing National Straight. There will be additional changes to the layout at Chapel and Club.

According to IEG Sponsorship Report, a leading authority on sponsorship, North American-based companies will spend an estimated $3.3bn in motorsport this year - but that will be a nearly six percen down on the $3.5bn spent last year.

There are rumours that the new bidder for Honda could be the Virgin Group, the venture capital firm that is headed by Sir Richard Branson. This specialises in travel, entertainment and lifestyle products. The company is estimated to be worth $8bn.

It seems that the plans for a management buyout at Honda were almost completed when a new bidder arrived on the scene, which has thrown the whole process into some confusion.

ING is to quit F1 at the end of the year. This will mean that Renault will need to find a new title sponsor.

The Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Rhine-Neckar region of Germany, which represents the interests of more than 65.000 member companies, has written to its members urging them to buy tickets for the German Grand Prix in 2010, in order to save the race.