Latest Formula One News

The battle for control of Formula One, the company which holds commercial control of Formula 1 racing, took a major turn on Friday when the High Court in London rejected an appeal by Formula One Holdings against a court action being held in the United Kingdon rather than in a Swiss court.

Formula One Holdings has lost its appeal against the decision in July that the case between it and the three F1 banks be held in Britain. The main case will now go ahead at the end of the month.

Ferrari has done a deal with the Hornby group to create miniature Ferrari racing cars for use on its Scalextric tracks.

The appeal court in London this morning met to consider an appeal regarding the case between Speed Investments Ltd & Formula one Holdings Ltd. This will determine whether the main case will go ahead at the end of the month as had been originally planned.

Formula 1 is obviously a decent place to learn how to be a PR man or woman as the Volvo Ocean Race is to have an ex-F1 PR Director.

The Sauber Petronas team will be launching its new C24 chassis in Kuala Lumpur on January 11, 2005.

Negotiations are in their final stages for a Red Bull buyout of Jaguar Racing. The sale must be finished by Monday in order for the team to enter next year's World Championship.

Renault Sport has announced the teams who will be competing in the new Renault World Series in 2005.

Prospective Formula 1 team owners would be well-advised to take a look at the details of the forthcoming auction of Minardi items, scheduled to take place between November 17-20.

The announcement that auction house Sotheby's it will be auctioning a Ferrari F2004 with which Michael Schumacher won the first five races in 2004 flies in the face of all Ferrari traditions.

In Brazil the Formula 1 teams got together and agreed to accept a new qualifying plan which had been dreamed up by Bernie Ecclestone, Max Mosley and Jean Todt over coffee at the World Motor Sport Council in Paris the previous week.

This weekend in Sao Paulo Rubens Barrichello, Antonio Pizzonia, Juan Pablo Montoya, Felipe Massa, Luciano Burti and David Coulthard are all scheduled to compete in the annual Granja 500 karting event at the Granja Viana kart circuit.

There are reports in the South African newspapers that plans to host a Formula 1 race in Cape Town are not going as smoothly as some would have us believe with the government apparently unwilling to commit itself to such an expensive programme.

One factor which is important in the current economic slump in Formula 1 is the exchange rate between the US dollar and the Euro. Many of the teams negotiated their sponsorship deals in US dollars but have to pay out large sums of money in Euros.

The Race of Champions in Paris at the start of December is going to be a star-studded affair with F1 World Champion Michael Schumacher, WRC Champion Sebastien Loeb, NASCAR superstar Jeff Gordon, plus former WRC champions Colin McRae and Marcus Gronholm and DTM Champion Matthias Ekstrom.

Tomorrow morning at 09.45 (GMT) the Court of Appeal at the High Court in London will rule on the appeal in the case of Speed Investments Ltd versus Formula one Holdings Ltd.

NASCAR has been opposed to liquor sponsorship throughout its history but it seems that now anything goes.

Minardi has added yet another name to its list of drivers who are due to test at Misano later this month with a deal having been struck with Pastor Maldonado.

Sebastien Bourdais rang the Williams factory on Monday morning, as soon as he had wrapped up his American title and wanted to find out if Williams was aware of his flag-to-flag victory in Mexico City.

The Formula 1 teams say that the British Grand Prix is saved but the owners of Silverstone, the British Racing Drivers' Club do not yet have a deal with Formula One Management.

Scotland's Ryan Dalziel is to test a Champ Car shortly for PKV Racing.

David Richards's Prodrive company is one of the Europe's fastest growing companies, according to Europe's 500, an annual publication of the Europe's Entrepreneurs for Growth organization.

Paul Stoddart, the boss of Minardi, has entered the team for the 2005 FIA Formula 1 World Championship - despite the fact that he does not yet have an engine deal for the team.

The recent days have seen two more countries ratifying the World Health Organization's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, bringing to 36 the number of governments that have ratified the deal.

Jacques Regis, the president of the Federation Francaise du Sport Automobile, says that French companies should come to the aid of the country's racing stars and help them to get to the top. France is looking at a situation next year in which there will be no French F1 driver for the first time since the mid 1960s.

The people behind the new Midland F1 project were in the Champ Car paddock in Mexico City at the weekend and rumour has it that they were in pursuit of some money from Mexico.

The Ferrari team did not bother to attend the meeting of the Formula 1 team bosses in London today and so it could not take part in the discussions surrounding the subject of testing.

The 2005 British and French Grands Prix will be on the Formula 1 calendar. Nine of the 10 Formula 1 team bosses met with Bernie Ecclestone in London today and agreed a commercial deal for the races to go ahead.

The Formula 1 team bosses meet in London today and Ferrari will not be with them. The meeting is designed to move ahead with attempts to cut costs in F1 but the ability to change things has been severely hampered by Ferrari's refusal to agree with the other teams.

Laurent Redon dropped from the Formula 1 scene in 1999, heading off to America to race in the Indy Racing League. After that he eestablished LRS-Formula, a Formula 1 driving school at Magny-Cours.

The GPWC is already sliding into a position that puts the Formula One group in a difficult situation in relation to the British Grand Prix.

BMW Williams has confirmed that it will be testing Antonio Pizzonia, Anthony Davidson and Nick Heidfeld.

Imperial Tobacco, the owner of McLaren sponsor West, has just announced a 13% rise in profits for the 2003-2004 financial year with an impressive profit of $1.88bn.

Frenchman Sebastien Bourdais clinched the Champ Car World Series with a dominant performance in Mexico City on Sunday. The F1 aspirant led from the start and stayed ahead all the way (despite one spin) to the finish to make sure that there was no chance for his Newman Haas Racing team mate Bruno Junqueira.

British driver Richard Lyons has won the Formula Nippon title at Suzuka, despite finishing only third in the final round of the series behind the Mobilecast Impul team duo of Benoit Treluyer and Yuji Ide.

Mika Hakkinen was vaguely talking to a number of Formula 1 teams about a return to Grand Prix racing but after a small amount of interest from Williams in the late summer, the Finn seemed to be without any real options.

Cristiano da Matta was in Mexico City to watch the showdown of the Champ Car World Series between Newman Haas Racing team mates Sebastien Bourdais and Bruno Junqueira.

Former Grand Prix stars and Le Mans 24 Hour winners Martin Brundle and Mark Blundell say they want to get back to racing in 2006 with a team run by Dave Price.

The news that Sauber is switching to Michelin tyres next year was something of a surprise but only because the deal was thought to be unlikely because of fears that Michelin data would get leaked back to Ferrari.

There is speculation that the financial clout of the Royal Bank of Scotland is being used to try to convince Williams to accept David Coulthard as a driver.

The demise of Jaguar Racing will not mean the end of British Racing Green at the top level of international motorsport as the national racing colour will now be transferred to Aston Martin Racing.

David Coulthard still wants to be a Grand Prix driver and is currently in the process of trying to sell his services to BMW Williams, which is vaguely looking around to see if there is a sensible alternative to Antonio Pizzonia for 2005.

The Altria Group, the parent company of Ferrari's title sponsor Marlboro, could be split into two or three different companies.

The news that Peugeot and Citroen are going to leave the World Rally Championship at the end of 2005 is a blow for the series but the latest figures of French car sales, revealed a couple of days ago, give ample evidence of why such a move was necessary.

Although the Ford Motor Company has committed itself to the FIA World Rally Championship for the next four years, the Citroen and Peugeot teams have decided that they are not going to continue, at least as long as the WRC remains as expensive as is currently the case.

Jacques Regis says that the French GP is not under threat, despite the fact that the F1 teams say they will not do 19 races unless Ferrari agrees to accept control tyres and a restriction on testing next year.

HH Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan has been elected to replace his late father as President of the United Arab Emirates. He has been the crown prince of Abu Dhabi since 1969. The role of Prime Minister of the UAE remains that of Dubai's ruler HH Sheikh Maktoum bin Rashid Al Maktoum.

The Nissan World Series meets for the last time this weekend at Jerez de la Frontera. After seven years the series is being cancelled to make way for the Renault World Series, which will kick off on May 1 next year at Zolder before moving on to a race supporting the Monaco GP.

The Champ Car World Series finishes off this weekend in Mexico City with Newman Haas Racing team mates Sebastien Bourdais (McDonald's Lola-Ford Cosworth) and Bruno Junqueira (PacifiCare Lola-Ford Cosworth) battling it out to win the title. Bourdais goes to Mexico City with a 22-point lead.

The Formula Nippon Championship comes to a head this weekend at Suzuka with Andre Lotterer (PIAA Nakajima) and Richard Lyons (DoCoMo Dandelion) battling for the title.

The word on the street from the Williams factory in Grove is that the team's chief aerodynamicist Dr Antonia Terzi is leaving and her role will be taken by France's Loic Bigois.

General Motors has announced that it is withdrawing from the Indy Racing League after the end of its current contract in 2006. The US company has struggled to be competitive against Honda and Toyota and last year had to resort to desperate measures and ask Ford subsidiary Cosworth Racing to supply it.

The latest moves in the musical chairs of the Formula 1 teams have speeded up in recent days with Red Bull suddenly back in the picture with Jaguar Racing and the Chinese businessman who was looking at Jordan having suddenly faded from the scene.

There are reports in today's Financial Times in London suggesting that Red Bull is in the final stages of negotiations to buy Jaguar Racing. The newspaper, which can often be relied upon, cites sources close to the deal saying that Red Bull and Ford are fighting over the price of the team.

The Formula 3 Euroseries will be one of the support races for next year's Monaco Grand Prix following lengthy negotiations between the series organisers and the Automobile Club de Monaco.

As we reported on Monday, Kimi Raikkonen is planning to set up his own Formula 3 team in league with his manager Steve Robertson, a former F3 race winner between 1989 and 1991.

Arden International is pushing ahead with its plans to contest the new GP2 series with tests in recent days in Estoril and Barcelona for a number of young drivers. The tests will continue next week in Jerez.

Nicolas Todt, the son of Ferrari boss Jean Todt, will be fielding a team in the new GP2 series next year in association with the French Formula 3 team ASM. The team will be based at Villeneuve la Guyard, near Fontainebleau, to the south-east of Paris.

Bernie Ecclestone says that there will be a Grand Prix in South Africa within five years - but it is not the first time he has said that.

The Australian Grand Prix cost the state $9.5m in 2003-2004 according to the latest report from the grand prix corporation. This year's figures reveal an increased attendance of 3.5%, resulting in ticket sales of $30m, with total revenues up to $38m.

The death of United Arab Emirates President HH Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan of Abu Dhabi looks likely to increase Dubai's influence in the Gulf region.

The Ford Motor Company is not flavour of the month in Formula 1 circles at the moment, with continuing rumours of legal actions in the pipeline against the Detroit automobile maker.

The Sauber team has signed a contract with French tyre manufacturer Michelin. This agreement comes into effect immediately, and the team will conduct its first test with Michelin tyres between November 24 and 26 in Barcelona, when Jacques Villeneuve will also be getting his test test with the team.

Ford's recent success in the World Rally Championship seems to have tipped the Detroit company into staying in the WRC for four more years.

Jaguar Racing test driver Bjorn Wirdheim seems to have given up on his immediate ambitions in Formula 1 and is rumoured to be on his way to Champ Car racing next year with Kevin Kalkhoven's PKV Racing.

Rising British racing star James Rossiter is believed to have signed a deal to race for the Signature team in the Formula 3 Eurocup next year.

We hear that the onset of the new Midland F1 team will mean some changes at Carlin Motorsport in the months ahead.

The action by nine of the 10 teams in Brazil, proposing a cut back in testing and requesting a control tyre situation seems to have run out of steam as team bosses have gone their separate ways since Interlagos.

The recent departure of Karl-Heinz Kalbfell, the chairman and chief executive of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, came as a shock to everyone at parent company BMW.

The Toyota Motor Corporation has reported a 11.4% increase in its earnings in the six months up to September 30. The company made profits of $5.5bn on sales of $85bn (an increase is sales of nearly 10%).

There is talk that there may soon be two Grands Prix in Japan and it is easy to see how that is going to happen. The current deal between the Formula One group and Suzuka runs out in 2006 by which time the Mount Fuji International circuit will be ready to challenge Suzuka for the deal.

The A1 Grand Prix series has announced five more franchise-holders including Alan Jones, the 1980 Formula 1 World Champion, who is fronting an Australian entry, and deals for South Africa, Portugal, Canada and Malaysia.

The Ford Motor Company is believed to be close to selling Cosworth Racing, its competition engine subsidiary which in recent years has supplied Jaguar Racing with its V10 engines, Champ Car with its power units and built engines for Chevrolet in the Indy Racing League.

The Austrian finance company Superfund has announced plans for what will be known as Formula Superfund in 2005. This has grown out of the Euro3000 series but will have a brand new car in 2005, called the SF01.

FIAT and Ferrari President Luca di Montezemolo is admitting that Ferrari's 2004 performance is probably as good as it gets in Grand Prix racing.

MotoGP star Valentino Rossi has often been linked to a switch to four-wheeled racing but it is not going to happen in the immediate future, if at all.

Rising American star Ryan Hunter-Reay has been signed up by CSS Stellar Management plc, the company which has managed the careers of many drivers Ayrton Senna, Alain Prost, Dario Franchitti, Richard Burns, Max Biaggi, Dan Wheldon, Pedro de la Rosa, Oriol Servia and Allan McNish.

It seems that Formula 1 is willing to go just about anywhere so long as the money is right. With Turkey and Mexico coming on to the F1 calendar, all that is now left is a race in Bulgaria. And why not? It seems that "a consortium of businessmen from Germany, Switzerland and Benelux" are willing to put up the money.

David Richards and his family went on holiday after the Brazilian Grand Prix, as did a lot of sensible F1 people after a very long and tiring season. The fact that the end of the F1 season coincides with half term in British schools probably has something to do with it.

The Arab world is beginning to get excited about motor racing, following the first Grand Prix in the region in Bahrain and the recent announcement that there will be a Team Dubai F1 operation in 2006.

At the same time that Australian Grand Prix chief executive Ron Walker was saying that his race would have nothing to do with the Grand Prix World Championship (GPWC), the Australian government was announcing that it is one of 34 countries which have now ratified the World Health Organization's anti-tobacco treaty.

The Champ Car World Series has announced a 14-race schedule for 2005, including two new events: one on the streets of Edmonton in Canada and the other a street race in San Jose, California.

Volkswagen AG and the Malaysian car maker Proton have agreed a long-term strategic partnership which will result in VW building cars in Proton's factories in Malaysia. There are no plans for any equity involvement between the two firms.

Eddie Jordan is close to a deal with Toyota for a supply of engine for his team but it looks like the deal will include a number of other changes, including the arrival in the team of a new owner in the form of a mysterious businessman from China, whom we have yet to identify.

Racing champions have never been great team owners, with the notable exception of Sir Jack Brabham, but this does not ever seem to stop them trying.

Hermann Tilke will build the new Mexican Grand Prix circuit at Cancun. The German architect, who builds all the F1 tracks today, will oversee the construction of the $70m facility which will be located close to Cancun's international airport.

German Andre Lotterer and Britain's Richard Lyons will go to head to head for the Formula Nippon title at Suzuka on November 7. The two were both beaten last weekend at Twin Ring Motegi by Yuji Ide (Mobilecast Impul).

Justin Wilson seems to have given up his Formula 1 ambitions for the time being and is hoping to continue his career in the United States next year.

The announcement by the GPWC that it has appointed International Sports and Entertainment (iSe) AG to prepare for the planned new Grand Prix Championship in 2008 has led to much noise about how it will never work but one needs to take a look at the organization chosen to see that the GPWC is actually very serious.

The news that the Australian GP is not going to go along with the GPWC is no big surprise because race promoter Ron Walker is Bernie Ecclestone's best pal and advisor.

The GPWC has announced that the company has appointed International Sports and Entertainment AG to "start building immediately the operational and commercial structure for a new open-wheel motor racing series"

Jean Todt of Ferrari was apparently outraged when he first found out that the Italian had been isolated from all the other teams over the Cost Saving Initiative in Brazil.

There has been much talk about Renault's involvement in F1 in recent days because of plans for a change of management which will almost certainly mean new philosophies and new structures.

On July 31, 2005 all Formula 1 teams with any link to the United Kingdom will have to stop running their cars with tobacco sponsorship, whether they want to do so or not.

There are rumours in F1 circles that BAR is bidding for a major sponsorship deal with the Spanish oil company Repsol. The apparent intention is for the team to run Fernando Alonso as one of the drivers after his current contract with Renault runs out.

Brazilian GP - Race Report

Tomorrow afternoon the Grand Prix World Championship (GPWC) organization is going to announce its full plans for a Grand Prix series in 2008, after the end of the current Concorde Agreement

Bridgestone/Firestone is planning to launch a bid to the right to supply NASCAR tyres when the current Goodyear contract runs out in 2007. The company is expected to start testing tyres in the course of 2005

Our thoughts are with the Hendricks Motorsport team in the United States today following the plane crash on Sunday which killed five team members, two family members and three pilots.

Tim Edwards, Jordan Grand Prix's team manager for the last four years, has decided that after 14 years in Europe it is time to go home to Australia where he plans to get a job in the local Supercar V8 series.