NEWS ARCHIVE
LIUZZI GETS A PENALTY
Tonio Liuzzi and Scuderia Toro Rosso have been docked the point scored with eighth place in Japan because the Italian was judged to have overtaken Adrian Sutil under a yellow flag.
VETTEL GETS A PENALTY
Sebastian Vettel has been given a 10-place penalty on the grid in China for crashing into Mark Webber when they were running behind the Safety Car. At the time the two were running second and third.
RACE RESULTS
Japanese GP - Race Results
QUALIFYING REPORT - LEWIS TURNS THE TIDE?
Lewis Hamilton took his fifth pole position of the year at Mount Fuji on Saturday afternoon, his fourth if you are a Spaniard and do not count the Hungarian GP (where Fernando Alonso was dumped down the grid for dodgy business in the pitlane).
SHAREHOLDERS AGREE SPYKER SALE
The Spyker shareholders have approved the sale of the F1 team but that does not mean that the sale will go ahead as negotiations are continuing over money that needs to be paid to the Friesland Bank, which holds the rights to the Spyker corporate name which was used to secure a loan of $7m.
QUALIFYING RESULTS
Japanese GP - Qualifying Results
PRACTICE 3 REPORT - HALFWAY UP A MOUNTAIN IN JAPAN
The practice session for the Japanese GP on Saturday morning was seriously disrupted by fog. The session was delayed by half an hour because the medical helicopter was unable to fly.
PRACTICE 3 RESULTS
Japanese GP - Practice 3 Results
RALF UNDER FIRE
Ralf Schumacher is having a miserable time at the moment. Things are not going well with Toyota. There does not seem to much interest for his future, and now Ralf has People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is after him for hunting deer in Serbia.
PRACTICE 2 REPORT - LEWIS IN HONDALAND
Lewis Hamilton set the fastest time of the second practice session for the Japanese Grand Prix at Mount Fuji. The McLaren star, who leads the World Championship, was two-tenths of a second faster than his team-mate and title rival Fernando Alonso.
AN IDEA FOR STRUGGLING F1 RACES
Selling F1 tickets is not always an easy task but the Americans have come up with an idea which will go down pretty well in countries where gambling is big news.
SINGAPORE DECIDES ON ITS TRACK DESIGN
Singapore has revealed the definitive design of its Formula 1 track. There has been much discussion over the exact routing for some months but the track is now decided and will be 3.15 miles in length and will have 24 turns.
PRACTICE 2 RESULTS
Japanese GP - Practice 2 Results
BAD NEWS FOR WILLIAMS
Nico Rosberg will have to cope with a 10-place grid penalty at the Japanese Grand Prix. The team has been forced to change engines after a problem was found with the engine that Nico used in Belgium, which was due to be used in Japan.
PRACTICE 1 REPORT - FERRARI ON TOP
Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa emerged ahead of the pack in the first session at Mount Fuji. The two Ferraris were two-tenths ahead of the McLaren of Fernando Alonso with Lewis Hamilton a tenth behind him.
PRACTICE 1 RESULTS
Japanese GP - Practice 1 Results
CHEAP SHOT!
Luca di Montezemolo, the chairman of Ferrari, has developed a bad habit in recent weeks of opening his mouth and saying controversial things. A few weeks ago Montezemolo told students in Rome that he had been a World Champion copier when he was taking exams and that they would do well to copy things from others. This came at the height of the Stepneygate revelations.
THURSDAY PRESS CONFERENCE
Japanese GP - Thursday Press Conference
GP MASTERS FACING TROUBLE
Delta Special Projects, the Silverstone-based company which supplies the chassis for the Grand Prix Masters series is seeking a winding up order against the organisers for non-payment of invoices. The petition will be heard at the Royal Courts of Justice in London on November 28.
FRANCHITTI BEGINS NASCAR ATTACK?
Indy Racing League champion Dario Franchitti looks like starting his stock car racing career with a race in a Chip Ganassi Dodge in the ARCA Re/Max Series race at Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama on October 5.
BISHOP TO MCLAREN
Matt Bishop, the editor in chief of F1 Racing magazine, and the editorial director of Haymarket Motorsport Ltd has resigned his position and will be leaving the company in December.
THE FUNDING OF THE SPORT
Max Mosley has been complaining to members of the F1 media that the sport is wasting too much money. The FIA President is entirely right.
FORMER F1 TEST DRIVER SURVIVES BOMB ATTACK
Police in Moscow are investigating what appears to have been a murder attempt against Sergei Zlobin, the first Russian to drive a modern Formula 1 car. Zlobin climbed aboard his Mercedes G500 SUV on Monday morning in the north of the city. The car exploded after it had moved only a couple of feet.
HOLDING DOWN THE LID OF PANDORA'S BOX?
As the Formula 1 circus heads out to Japan there are many whispered stories doing the rounds about espionage scandals which may or may not come to light. With the FIA having punished McLaren so harshly, despite having almost no concrete evidence that the information was used, the federation may now find that it has opened a Pandora's Box of similar cases in the F1 world.
SO IS IT OVER?
The announcement that McLaren has decided not to appeal against the World Council's astonishing $100m penalty comes at the end of a week of intense negotiation between then team, the FIA and various other parties, including other F1 teams.
A STATEMENT FROM FERRARI
Ferrari has put out the following press statement.
MCLAREN WILL NOT APPEAL
McLaren Racing has notified the FIA of its intention not to appeal the verdict of the World Motor Sport Council, as announced on September 13. Having now had time to study the judgement of the World Motor Sport Council with its lawyers and shareholders, McLaren thinks it is in the best interests of the sport, and its goal of winning races and world championships, not to appeal.
THE FUTURE OF FILIPPI
Spies in Italy are nor always reliable (as we have seen this summer with regard to the Stepneygate business) and we are hearing that rumours about Luca Filippi joining Ferrari may be a little more than premature, as the young Italian appears to have been in earnest discussion with other teams and thus is not thought to have agreed anything.
EU HEALTH COMMISSIONER LEANS ON CHINA
Markos Kyprianou, the European Union's health commissioner, has continued his attack on Ferrari's continued use of tobacco advertising and has asked China to ban tobacco promotions at next month's Chinese Grand Prix. Kyprianou has told China's Deputy Health Minister Chen Xiaohong that the EU is concerned about images of the cars being beamed back into Europe.
ALONSO TO RENAULT? WHY NOT FERRARI?
There is no doubt that part of the negotiation going on at Spa last weekend was to find a way for Fernando Alonso to get out of his McLaren contract. Our spies suggest that while everyone seems to think that Fernando will wash up at Renault, it is much more likely that he will be popping up as Kimi Raikkonen's team-mate at Ferrari.
SPYKER SIGNS RODRIGUEZ FOR TESTING
The Etihad Aldar Spyker team has announced that GP2 driver Roldan Rodriguez will join its test and development driver line-up over the 2007/08 winter period. Twenty-two year old Roldan, from Valladolid, Spain, completed a 50km shakedown of the Spyker F8-VII at Silverstone last week.
LUCA FILIPPI SIGNS FOR FERRARI?
Our spies in Italy and telling us that 22-year-old Luca Filippi has been signed up as a Ferrari test driver for 2008. It is expected that he will also compete in the GP2 Series with Nicolas Todt's ART Grand Prix team and be managed by Todt Jr.
AN OPINION FROM A LEGAL MIND
Ian Mill is a Queen's Counsel, a lawyer appointed to be one of "Her Majesty's Counsel learned in the law". In order to receive such recognition and "take silk" one has to serve as a barrister for at least 10 years and one has to be eminent. Mill is a leading light in commercial litigation, intellectual property, media and entertainment and sports law.
REVELATIONS FROM THE FIA TRANSCRIPTS
The full transcripts of the FIA World Council meetings have now been published and these reveal some interesting things, not least the state of the relationship between McLaren boss Ron Dennis and the team's number one driver Fernando Alonso.
WORLD COUNCIL TRANSCRIPTS
Here are the transcript of the World Council meetings on July 26 and September 13 w2ith all the details of the Stepneygate Affair.
STEPNEY IS NOT JOINING ASTON MARTIN!
Nigel Stepney is not joining either Aston Martin or Aston Martin Racing. The former Ferrari team coordinator has been reported to be working for Aston Martin by the Italian newspaper Gazetta dello Sport and has been picked up by other news sources, which have not checked the story.
A NEW F1 CALENDAR
The FIA has published a new Formula 1 calendar for 2008 with the Belgian and Italian Grands Prix having swapped places. The Belgian GP will now be on September 7 with the Italian race a week later on September 14, rather than vice-versa.
MCLAREN WITHDRAWS HUNGARY APPEAL
Negotiations behind the scenes are keeping the phone lines buzzing at the moment as McLaren, the FIA, Bernie Ecclestone, Ferrari and perhaps other teams try to find what Ron Dennis refers to as "closure" in the Stepneygate business.
SPEEDCAR TO SUPPORT F1 IN MALAYSIA AND BAHRAIN
The brand new Speedcar Series will feature an eight-date, 16 race calendar on tracks across Asia and the Middle East, kicking off at the Bahrain International Circuit on November 3. This will be followed by a race in Dubai on November 17. There will be an event each month during the winter and then the series will link up with F1 at Sepang on March 22, and Bahrain on April 5.
A1 TEAM SWITZERLAND SIGN TITLE-WINNING F1 ENGINEER
A1 Team Switzerland has signed James Robinson to engineer for the forthcoming season. The 47-year-old Yorkshireman boasts an impressive motor racing career, winning World Championships as a race engineer with Nelson Piquet, Ayrton Senna, Damon Hill and Jacques Villeneuve.
RACE REPORT - TWO BY TWO
Ferrari dominated the Belgian Grand Prix from start to finish. It looked a lot like a massacre but the list of fastest laps made for interesting reading. Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen were evenly matched and Fernando Alonso was just a tenth behind. And Lewis Hamilton was just a tenth behind his team-mate.
RACE RESULTS
Belgian GP - Race Results
QUALIFYING REPORT - ROUGE BUT NO EAU
Ferrari qualified 1-2 for the Belgian Grand Prix in a dramatic last minute showdown at Spa. Kimi Raikkonen emerged ahead of Felipe Massa by a tiny margin after the Brazilian locked his brakes in the final chicane.
QUALIFYING RESULTS
Belgian GP - Qualifying Results
RON'S DILEMMA
McLaren boss Ron Dennis has to decide in the next few days whether he will pay the $100m fine to the FIA or whether he will fight the fine and cause more disruption in the sport.
PRACTICE 3 REPORT - FERRARI AHEAD
Kimi Raikkonen set the fastest time of the Saturday morning session in Spa with a time that was two-tenths ahead of his team-mate Felipe Massa.
PRACTICE 3 RESULTS
Belgian GP - Practice 3 Results
PUTTING THE FIA JUDGEMENT INTO PERSPECTIVE
The FIA has issued a 14-page judgement from yesterday's World Motor Sport Council hearing. As expected, this includes evidence that suggests that Pedro de la Rosa and Fernando Alonso received specific information from Mike Coughlan and even knew that the information had come from Ferrari's Nigel Stepney.
FOUR BIDDERS FOR SUPER AGURI
Sources in the Formula 1 paddock say that there are four bidders for shares in Super Aguri F1. These are believed to be the South African wheeler-dealer Tony Teixiera; Dutch billionaire Marcel Boekhoorn; Spain's Alejandro Agag and a fourth mysterious buyer who is believed to be from Asia.
THE FIA DECISION IN FULL
Here is the full decision of the FIA World Council.
PRACTICE 2 RESULTS
Belgian GP - Practice 2 Results
SPYING AFFLICTS NOT ONLY F1
The New England Patriots National Football League team in the United States has got into trouble with the NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, who has just ordered the team to pay a $250,000 fine and coach Bill Belichick $500,000 for spying on an opponent's defensive signals.
A POSITIVE THING IN ALL THIS MESS
The mood at Spa this morning is somewhat subdued but there is possibly one ray of hope that something good will come out of the current McLaren-FIA mess. The team's fine of $100m is, in reality, not quite that because around $30m of that will not be in cash but rather deducted from the FOM prize and TV funds.
DENNIS-ALONSO - ALL (VERY) QUIET
Another fact to emerge from the FIA World Council in Paris on Thursday was that McLaren boss Ron Dennis and Fernando Alonso have not talked since the Hungarian Grand Prix, despite the fact that the Spaniard is battling to win the Drivers' World Championship for the team.
PRACTICE 1 REPORT - RAIKKONEN TOPS THE TIMESHEETS
Kimi Raikkonen was fastest in the first session of the Belgian Grand Prix, half a second up on the two McLarens of Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso. Nick Heidfeld was fourth fastest in his BMW, just a tenth slower than Alonso. Felipe Massa went off at Rivage early in the session and thus lost the entire 90-minute session.
PRACTICE 1 RESULTS
Belgian GP - Practice 1 Results
THE ULTIMATE IRONY
Our spies in the FIA World Council meeting have revealed that there are going to be some surprises when the details come to light next week. We understand that the most extraordinary revelation will be in relation to the identity of the man who tipped off the FIA that there was additional evidence against McLaren: it was none other than Ron Dennis.
THE REAL THREAT TO F1
Formula 1's top management seems to believe that it exists in a vacuum, untroubled by the real world. Everyone is consumed/outraged by the penalty inflicted on McLaren but no-one seems to be looking beyond the end of their noses.
HANG ON THERE
The yet-to-be-explained decision by the FIA World Council to deprive McLaren of all its points in this year's Constructors' Championship and to fine the team $100m seems like a Draconian punishment for a breach of Article 151c of the International Sporting Code which states that competitors can be punished for "fraudulent conduct or any act prejudicial to the interests of any competition or to the interests of motor sport".
THURSDAY PRESS CONFERENCE
Belgian GP - Thursday Press Conference
MCLAREN LOSES 2007 CONSTRUCTORS' POINTS AND GETS $100M FINE (UPDATED)
The Vodafone McLaren Mercedes team has lost its points in the Constructors' World Championship for 2007 and will not be allowed to score in the final four races - and has been fined $100m, although this will be reduced because the team will be credited the money that it would have won this year.
MCLAREN PRESS STATEMENT
McLaren has issued the following Press Release.
FIA STATEMENT
The FIA issued the following statement.
WHAT IF?
If, according to the rumours swirling in the F1 paddock in Belgium, the McLaren team has been thrown out of the F1 World Championship for 2007 and 2008 there will be many effects, not just in terms of the immediate impact on the team but also on the long term funding.
THE WORLD WAITS
The FIA World Council has attracted unprecedented interest with the F1 media (and those claiming to be) around the world waiting for a result from Paris.
NOT JUST YET
Stories that McLaren has been banned for 2007 and 2008 are not confirmed, according to our sources in Paris. The World Council is debating the matter but no decision is yet official.
A LITTLE BUSINESS ON THE SIDE
The recent A1 Grand Prix test at Silverstone was not an affair with much interest in Formula 1 circles and it was odd therefore that one of the people spotted at the end was Ferrari F1 team manager Stefano Domenicali.
BERNIE'S NEW FRIEND
The Italian Grand Prix was a busy affair with a lot happening in the Formula 1 paddock. One man who slipped under the radar was Tony Teixeira, who was to be seen walking the grid with Mr E on Sunday.
THOUGHTS BEFORE THE WORLD COUNCIL
In the next 36 hours there needs to be a lot of thinking in FIA circles - at least one would hope that will be the case because the "trial" of McLaren is as much a trial of the FIA as it is of the team.
RACE REPORT - MCLAREN (AND THE SPORT) WIN AT MONZA
In the days before the Italian Grand Prix, one might have got the impression that Formula 1 is about conference rooms and devious plots. But it is not. What really matters is what the cars do on the circuits. It is about the emotion and excitement of it all. But when all is said and done it is about what happens on the race track. It is about the tears at the end of the day.
JACQUES AT TALLADEGA
Jacques Villeneuve is continuing his NASCAR education with a test today at the Talladega circuit in Alabama, where Nextel Cup cars reach top speeds of 215mph.
SCHUMACHER JOINS BACARDI
Bacardi has announced that Michael Schumacher is to become Bacardi’s Global Social Responsibility Ambassador, starting in January 2008, Michael Schumacher will work with Bacardi and its portfolio of brands to communicate a global “Don’t drink and drive” message.
RACE RESULTS
Italian GP - Race Results
MCLAREN RESPONDS TO LEGAL CLAIMS
McLaren has responded to stories that it has been charged with criminal offences in Italy by pointing out that although the team did receive notification of being investigated by the Modena prosecution service, it has not been charged with anything.
QUALIFYING REPORT - ONE FOR THE SPANIARD
Fernando Alonso took pole position for the Italian Grand Prix ahead of his team-mate Lewis Hamilton, the gap between the two men being just a fraction of a second.
SCOTSMAN BOUND FOR NASCAR?
Chip Ganassi Racing is expected to announce next week that Scotland's Dario Franchitti will drive in the NASCAR Nextel Cup next year, at the wheel of an Energizer-sponsored Dodge.
FORGET THE TRACK ACTION, LET'S GO LEGAL
The Modena prosecutor Giuseppe Tibis has issued of a string of notifications to McLaren personnel that they are under investigation. The notifications have not yet been delivered to McLaren yet.
QUALIFYING RESULTS
Italian GP - Qualifying Results
SUZUKA AND FUJI TO SHARE JAPANESE GP
Fuji International Speedway and Suzuki are to share the Japanese Grand Prix. Fuji will get the race again in 2008 but in 2009 Suzuka will be back on the calendar and after that the two tracks will alternate.
PRACTICE 3 REPORT - MCLAREN FLYING HIGH
Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton ended the Saturday morning session in Monza well ahead of the opposition with the Spaniard a tenth faster than the Briton.
PRACTICE 3 RESULTS
Italian GP - Practice 3 Results
PRACTICE 2 REPORT - ALONSO LEADS THE WAY
Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton led the way in the second practice session at Monza on Friday afternoon. The Spaniard was eight-tenths faster than the Englishman but Hamilton was three-tenths clear of Giancarlo Fisichella's Renault, which was a surprising fourth fastest ahead of Robert Kubica and Nico Rosberg.
PRACTICE 2 RESULTS
Italian GP - Practice 2 Results
MCLAREN RESPONDS
McLaren has issued a statement regarding the current reports about the new evidence that the FIA has for the World Motor Sport Council next week.
FIA PUBLISHES LETTER TO DE LA ROSA
The FIA has published the letter that was sent to the three McLaren drivers.
THE FIA LETTER REVEALED
The letter sent by the FIA to the F1 teams has now come to light. This reveals that the federation is indeed focussing on the McLaren drivers.
PRACTICE 1 REPORT - FERRARI QUICKEST AT MONZA
Ferrari is usually quick at Monza - sometimes amazingly so - and the Italian Grand Prix weekend began with Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa setting the fastest laps of the Friday morning session. The Finn was a tenth faster than the Brazilian.
PRACTICE 1 RESULTS
Italian GP - Practice 1 Results
THURSDAY PRESS CONFERENCE
Italian GP - Thursday Press Conference
MOSLEY TO SPEAK AT MOTOR SPORT BUSINESS FORUM
Max Mosley, the FIA President will deliver the keynote address to open the 2007 Motor Sport Business Forum in Monaco in December.
MCLAREN FINED
McLaren has been fined $50,000 by the FIA Stewards at Monza for failure to declare that it was using a new lightweight gearbox in Hungary. The team did not use the new gearbox in Istanbul two weeks ago after learning that it should have been crash-tested, but this procedure has now taken place under FIA supervision and the gearbox is to be used legitimately at Monza.
MORE INFORMATION ON THE "NEW EVIDENCE"
The Formula 1 paddock at Monza has been buzzing with stories about what it is that the FIA has discovered that has convinced the federation to bring the matter back to the World Council rather than dealing with it in the International Court of Appeal.
A NEW PUBLICATION
Formula Money is a new annual report based on the finances of Formula 1. The report contains the breakdowns on every current sponsorship deal, all the race sanction fees, the total resources of all the teams and comparisons of the team turnovers for the last 20 years.
F1 HEADS FOR SERIOUS TROUBLE
Formula 1 folk would be forgiven for having a sense of foreboding about an announcement this afternoon from the FIA, cancelling the upcoming International Court of Appeal and instead recalling the FIA World Council to re-examine the question of whether McLaren breached Article 151c of the International Sporting Code.
BUSINESSF1 IN THE HIGH COURT
Business F1 magazine was subject to a winding-up order which was heard in the High Court this morning. The order was requested by former Jaguar Racing boss Tony Purnell in respect of unpaid damages from his (Purnell's) successful libel suit. The magazine offered no defence in court.
CLARK GOES TO HONDA
Steve Clark, a engineer who has been working in Formula 1 since the late 1980s, is to join Honda Racing F1. He will be the head of race and test engineering. Since 2002 Clark has been at McLaren, running testing, but he has now decided to move on and is expected to join Honda in November.
WHO IS BERNARD REY?
Bernard Rey, the new chairman of Renault F1, is a Renault man through and through, having joined the company in 1969, at the age of 23. He has spent much of his career in purchasing and in 1998 was named as International Purchasing Director by the then chairman Louis Schweitzer.
MANAGEMENT CHANGES AT RENAULT F1
Renault have announced that Alain Dassas, the President of the Renault F1 team, will leave the team on September 17th.
AND STILL THEY COME
Being the son of a famous father in motor racing is something that the drivers look upon as a disadvantage, as it makes them feel that they must prove that they would be good enough to make it even if they did not have a celebrated father.
A LITTLE LESS TRAVEL FOR SIR JACK
Three-time Formula 1 champion Sir Jack Brabham, the first driver to be knighted for services to the sport, has recently begun kidney dialysis treatment which means that the Australian will not be able to travel as much as he has in recent years.
SPYKER CARS IN LEGAL TROUBLE?
Spyker Cars NV, the parent company of the Spyker F1 team, is going to have to answer questions about its activities from the Autoriteit Financiele Markten (AFM), the Dutch stockmarket regulator.
THE TAKEOVER OF QUEENS PARK RANGERS
Queens Park Rangers Football Club has announced that Flavio Briatore and Bernie Ecclestone have made an offer to buy the soccer team. The current chairman Gianni Paladini will remain as chairman while Briatore, Bruno Michel and Alejandro Agag will join the board.
SINGAPORE GETS THINGS UNDERWAY
Singapore began construction work for its Formula 1 race on Friday with a ground-breaking ceremony at the Marina Bayfront, where the pit buildings will be constructed.
FERRARI, TOBACCO AND SUPERCARS
The European Union's Health Commissioner Markos Kyprianou has written directly to Ferrari, asking the company to end its tobacco sponsorship in Formula 1, arguing that it undermines the goal European goal of ending all cigarette advertising at sporting events.
SPYKER DEAL IS DONE
Our spies in Holland tell us that a deal has been done for the Mol family and India's Vijay Mallya to take control of the Spyker F1 team. This will mean that the name Spyker will disappear from Grand Prix racing after just 12 months and that the team will take on a new identity, probably linked to Mallya's Kingfisher brand.
