Latest Formula One News

India's Tata conglomerate is to become involved with Ferrari by way of its Tata Consultancy Services.

Sebastien Loeb and Jean Alesi gave France the Nations Cup at the Race of Champions event in Paris, beating the Finnish team of Heikki Kovalainen and Marcus Gronholm in the final showdown.

The Race of Champions in Paris has been won by Heikki Kovalainen.

Former Formula 1 driver Jan Lammers has been named as one of the people involved in the consortium which will field an entry for Holland in the new A1 Grand Prix series.

Sebastien Bourdais has confirmed that he has "no chance" of a drive at Williams next year.

NASCAR Nextel Cup racer Casey Mears is to replace Jeff Gordon in the American team for the Race of Champions and Nations Cup competitions in Paris on Saturday.

David Coulthard showed up in Paris for the Race of Champions event and confirmed that he is talking with Red Bull boss Dietrich Mateschitz about a drive with Red Bull Racing in 2005 but no deal is done yet.

NASCAR superstar Jeff Gordon spent Wednesday night in the hospital with flu-like symptoms and he has had to call off his trip to Paris to go head-to-head with Michael Schumacher in the Race of Champions.

Carlos Ghosn, the man who earned the nickname of "Le Costcutter" because of his ruthless ability to slash costs, will take the top job at Renault next year. But his policies at Nissan are now beginning to hurt the Japanese car maker.

Rising British racing star Jamie Green is moving to the DTM series in Germany next year.

Nelson Piquet Jr will have a test with BAR-Honda next week in Jerez de la Frontera. The young Brazilian will be the fourth young driver that the team will have tried.

Michael Schumacher will enjoy a victory parade down the Champs Elysees on Sunday driving a Ferrari F2004.

The Formula 1 team bosses are to meet on Monday to discuss the matters of the moment, including their plans for a testing restriction for 2005.

The GP2 series has announced that, subject to official confirmation of the calendar (and the rules) of the new championship by the FIA, there will be 12 rounds in 2005 with the finale taking place in Bahrain on September 24-25.

Patrick Long, the young American driver supported in recent years by grandprix.com scored a sensational class victory in the inaugural Bahrain FIA-GT Festival in Bahrain at the wheel of his Team Infineon Porsche 996 GTR3. Long was in dominant form and quickly dealt with the opposition.

The World Health Organization's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control has received its 40th signature and will become international law in 90 days from now.

There are rumours today that suddenly David Coulthard is top of the list as a driver at Red Bull Racing.

Craig Pollock is reported to be taking legal action against his former partner British American Tobacco.

The A1 Grand Prix series has unveiled details of a new team from the Lebanon. Team Lebanon was unveiled by the country's president Emile Lahoud at the Le Royal Hotel, Beirut. The event was hosted by Nadhmi Auchi. His son Tameem will be the boss of the new team.

Red Bull Racing is in Jerez this week with the other F1 teams and will run 21-year-old Swiss driver Neel Jani on Friday as part of the team's on-going driver evaluation programme.

Max Mosley was in the United States earlier this week to meet with automotive engineers and US racing industry politicians at the SAE Motorsports Engineering Conference.

There are no big excitements in the official entry list for the 2005 FIA Formula 1 World Championship, which was issued this afternoon by the FIA. The only point of real interest is that, for the moment, the name of Jaguar Racing has not been changed but that appears to be just a formality.

Mark Smith has rejoined Jordan Grand Prix as Technical Director, returning to the team where he spent 10 years before moving to Renault. Smith was one of Jordan's original designers in 1991.

Back in the 1950s and 1960s one of the most popular events of the year was the Nassau Speed Week, which attracted many of the top drivers of the day to the Bahamas for a series of races.

The new GP2 series has announced 12 teams which it says will compete this year. The teams are much as expected with the usual Formula 3000 frontrunners Arden, Coloni, BCN, Durango and Super Nova being joined by a variety of new operations including ART, a new team which will be fielded by ASM for Nicolas Todt.

There is talk of running the Formula 1 cars through the streets of Melbourne before the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne next year. The event would be an attempt to bring more people to Albert Park.

Ryan Briscoe's chances of racing in Formula 1 seem to be fading with Jordan having decided not to run the Toyota test driver in a test this autumn.

Michael Schumacher has been named Driver of the Year by The Indianapolis Star newspaper, an extraordinary event for a US paper given that interest in F1 in the United States is somewhat limited.

There is plenty of gossip about the Midland F1 programme at the moment, some of it good and some of it bad.

There are suggestions that Michelin is reorganizing its Formula 1 team following the relative lack of success of the programme in 2004.

The BAR-Honda team is to test Alan Van der Merwe, Adam Carroll and James Rossiter as part of its plans to develop a young driver program.

It is not a secret that teams in Formula 1 without manufacturer backing are at a massive disadvantage. The best that the private teams can hope for these days is a secondary factory supply,

Will Davison says that his test with Minardi has inspired him to try to restart his racing career in Europe.

The Turkish government last Thursday became the 38th to ratify the World Health Organization's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, the international treaty which is aimed at restricting tobacco advertising of tobacco.

The new Ferrari F2005 will not make its debut next year until after the first three or four races. The team will instead rely on an updated version of the all-conquering 2004 car.

Two former employees of Ferrari are to be tried in Italy on charges of industrial espionage. A third man who was being investigated has been cleared. The first hearings are expected to take place next spring.

The Formula 3 Euroseries champion, Jamie Green, will test for McLaren next week.

Those of you expecting to see a story about a Grand Prix team from Holland and Canada are going to be disappointed.

Nicola Larini has been signed to join Alain Menu in the Chevrolet team in the FIA World Touring Car Championship campaign next year. The 40 year-old Italian has been a hugely successful touring car driver in recent years with Alfa Romeo but decided to switch to General Motors.

It was an interesting four days of testing in Barcelona but not too many conclusions should be drawn from the lap times as some teams were clearly not going for lap times.

For the last seven years Sauber has used Sauber Petronas-badged Ferrari V10 engines. It has been an agreeable deal for both sides with Ferrari only too keen to soak up the large sums of money supplied for the engines by Petronas and Sauber happy to play a quiet role and build up the team.

The State Opening of Parliament in Britain is not really of much interest to Formula 1 fans but, for the record, the latest session began on Tuesday and one of the first moves made by members of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition was to table something called an Early Day Motion (EDM).

The ever-weakening US dollar is hurting the Formula 1 teams more and more as it sinks in value against the Euro. The dollar is now worth only 1.33 compared to almost parity in January 2003.

Brian Barwick, the head of ITV Sport, has left the TV channel to become the new head of the Football Association. The FA looks after the development of soccer in Britain and is the governing body of the sport in the UK.

Sweden's Bjorn Wirdheim, who was Jaguar Racing's test and reserve driver will not be continuing with Red Bull Racing. Wirdheim had been due to run in the test at Barcelona and at Jerez but the team has now decided to continue with Vitantonio Liuzzi.

Eddie Jordan and Christian Horner are believed to be only days away from announcing a deal which will see the team pass into the hands of the owner of the Arden International Formula 3000 team.

Belgium's Jeffrey Van Hooydonk will test a Minardi F1 car at Misano later this week.

The Formula 1 teams continued to test in Barcelona and at the end of the day of running it was Felipe Massa who emerged fastest overall in his Sauber.

Ma-Con Engineering, the Formula 3000 team Ma-Con has announced that it is not going to be joining the new GP2 series but rather plans to compete in the rival Formula Superfund championship.

There is talk in rallying circles of Renault becoming involved in a World Rally Championship programme with its new Logan budget car.

Anthony Davidson's test with BMW Williams has been blocked because BAR Honda and Williams cannot reach an agreement on the terms under which he will drive the car.

The BAR-Honda team has conducted a three-day evaluation of a number of rising stars, looking for the men most likely to be the stars of tomorrow.

The FIA has just cancelled the planned Formula 1 Commission meeting on December 9 saying that there was unlikely to be a quorum at the meeting and that none of the teams had volunteered any items for the agenda.

The negotiatons over the British Grand Prix have gone quiet in recent days but that does not mean that the problems have all been solved. The teams may have agreed to race at Silverstone but a deal has yet to be struck between Bernie Ecclestone and the British Racing Drivers' Club, which owns the track.

The Chinese automobile industry is booming and, according to the latest predictions from VDA, the German automobile industry union, this year Chinese production will outstrip that of Germany, to become the world's third biggest manufacturer of automobiles after the United States and Japan.

After a few quiet weeks with nothing much happening in Formula 1 the teams are back in action this week, testing in preparation for the new season with tests so far this week with Ferrari at Vairano and Barcelona.

Formula 1 refugee Justin Wilson has switched from Conquest Racing to join billionaire Carl Russo's RuSport team for 2005. Justin will partner the man who beat him to rookie of the year honours this year AJ Allmendinger.

The Formula 1 world will have to wait for a judgement in the case of Speed Investments versus Formula One Holdings at the High Court in London. After two days of legal arguments, Mr Justice Park said that he will hand down a judgement in a few weeks after he has considered the case some more.

The case between Speed Investments Ltd and Formula One Holdings Ltd kicked off at the High Court in London yesterday with Elizabeth Jones QC, for Speed Investments, asking Mr Justice Park for a summary judgement in the case,

Reports from Italy indicate that the San Marino Grand Prix has agreed the terms of a contract to run until 2009.

As we predicted yesterday, Ferrari has confirmed Marc Gene as its second test driver, sending a clear message to the other teams that it has no intention of getting involved in any testing bans, presumably working on the belief that if Ferrari holds out the other teams will crumble and testing will be left as it is.

The Toyota Motor Corporation has announced to its European dealers that it is going to be spending $650m in the course of the next five years to promote its luxury brand Lexus, to take on Mercedes-Benz and BMW in their home markets.

It is anticipated that Ferrari will name Marc Gene as its second test driver shortly. The team is expected to stay with current number one tester Luca Badoer and take on Gene to help him out.

The long and impressive Formula 1 career of David Coulthard may be coming to an end. Red Bull boss Dietrich Mateschitz says that the team is not really interested in the Scotsman.

The BMW Williams team is to have its team launch next year in Bahrain in the first week of January. The car will be launched at the end of January at the more conventional venue of Valencia in Spain.

France has won at Macau once again with Alexandre Premat bringing his ASM Dallara-Mercedes home at the end of a battle-scarred race which ended after 13 laps with a red flag after a multiple pile-up. Prior to that there had been two Safety Cars.

Despite the rumours of an all-Dutch driver line-up at Minardi and a Jordan test for Christjian Albers, it seems that Jos Verstappen's future is not in Formula 1.

Lewis Hamilton won the 10 lap first heat of the Macau Grand Prix after the usual mayhem and destruction on the first lap. At the first corner Hamilton outbraved his team mate Robert Kubica with an all-or-nothing move.

David Richards will leave British American Racing with his head held high. "I delivered what I said would take five years in only three, and you cannot look upon that as a down. It's very positive," he said.

Twenty-year-old Polish driver Robert Kubica has taken pole position at the Macau Grand Prix ahead of his Manor Motorsport team mate Lewis Hamilton. The two men were separated by two-tenths of a second but were clear of the rest of the pack.

Dutchman Christian Albers is to test for Jordan at Jerez on December 1.

Jenson Button is not going to be running away to Williams because BAR is being sold. The company with which Button has a contract has not changed and will not change ownership.

The long-awaited law suit between the three bank involved in Formula 1 and Bernie Ecclestone's Formula One Holdings company will start on Monday morning with Justice Sir Andrew Park scheduled to hear the case.

British American Racing's parent company British American Racing (Holdings) Ltd. is looking to go into administration. The company is the parent of the important subsidiary British American Racing GP Ltd., which was the company which BAR (Holdings) Ltd. bought from the Tyrrell Family and which is the signatory organization to the Concorde Agreement.

As we exclusively predicted earlier this week Honda has bought into British American Racing. David Richards will now stand down and Nick Fry will take over. For the next three months there will be a period of transition during which Richards will pull back from BAR and Fry will pull out of Prodrive.

Red Bull Racing has confirmed that Formula 3000 champion Vitantonio Liuzzi will be one of the drivers at the forthcoming Barcelona test on November 24-26.

The new GP2 series is not going to have qualifying sessions. The grids being established by the finishing order of the previous race. The starting grid for the first race will be established by a pre-season test to be held at Paul Ricard.

As we exclusively predicted yesterday, there are serious moves going on between Honda and British American Tobacco regarding the sale of the BAR-Honda team to the Japanese automaker.

The recent pushing and shoving in Formula 1 circles has been relatively quiet as F1 team people recover from the long F1 season. But now the entries are closed for 2005 and it is anticipated that there will be 10 teams in the World Championship next year.

Rising American racing star Ryan Hunter-Reay is the subject of much speculation at the moment as he tries to decide whether to race in Champ Cars or in the Indy Racing League.

The new Red Bull Racing is currently readying an interim car with which to go testing in the next few weeks.

The future of Honda in Formula 1 is quite secure. The interesting thing is that rumours continue to circulate in Formula 1 circles that the Japanese manufacturer is going to be buying British American Racing.

The Republic of Ireland is to get a new broadcaster for the Grands Prix with the Setanta Sports channel taking over F1 next year from state-owned RTE.

Automobiles Ligier has now launched its Ligier JS47 Formula 3 car.

There are reports from Austria that Red Bull's masterplan for the A1 Ring may not be running smoothly as first reports would suggest.

The question of drivers at Red Bull Racing has had the British press in a state of some excitement these last 24 hours because team boss Tony Purnell did not say that David Coulthard had no chance of a drive with the team.

The idea of an all-Dutch team at Minardi has been floating around since the summer - but that does not mean it is going to happen.

Red Bull is an Austrian company, and while there is no intention to move the team out of England there is a strong case now for the return to the Formula 1 calendar of the Austrian Grand Prix.

Tony Purnell, the team principal of the new Red Bull Racing says that there is no decision yet as to drivers for the 2005 season.

Jaguar Racing boss Tony Purnell has reacted to the news that the team has been bought by Red Bull.

Richard Parry-Jones has announced that Cosworth is being sold to Kevin Kalkhoven and Gerry Forsythe and says that it was "the best feasible outcome" in the situation.

Jordan Grand Prix this morning announced that it has signed a deal to use Toyota engines in 2005, but it does not mean that Jordan tomorrow will be the same as Jordan today.

The Ford Motor Company has confirmed that Red Bull is the new owner of Jaguar Racing, and Ford has also said that the engine company will be sold to Kevin Kalkhoven and Gerald Forsythe.

The Ford Motor Company has been receiving considerable criticism in the media since the announcement that it is walking away from Formula 1.

There will be an announcement about the future of Cosworth Racing and we expect that the event will mark the confirmation of the sale to Kevin Kalkhoven.

It was a star-studded podium for the annual Granja Viana 500 kart race in Brazil on Sunday.

The news that the new Red Bull F1 team will use Cosworth V10 engines in 2005 is confirmation that the sale of Cosworth racing must also have gone ahead, although no announcement has yet been made to that effect.

Jordan Grand Prix has concluded an agreement with Toyota Motorsport GmbH for a supply of engines in the 2005 Formula 1 World Championship season.

Austrian energy drink firm Red Bull has taken over the Jaguar Racing team. The news was confirmed by Red Bull owner Dietrich Mateschitz in the Salzburger Nachrichten newspaper.

Timo Glock, 2004 Jordan F1 driver, completed a test of the Superfund SF01 yesterday in Jerez, Spain.