NEWS ARCHIVE
QUIET TIMES
The current lull in F1 activity has come about for several reasons. The FIA-FOTA dispute seemed to have been resolved but Max Mosley's suggestion that he might stand again in the FIA elections have reopened the possibility of conflict - and thus stopped all serious action in terms of sponsorships and driver movements.
A RETURN TO WAR?
Max Mosley has written to FOTA President Luca di Montezemolo saying that he is reconsidering his decision to stand down as FIA President in October. In a letter leaked to the media he said that he has decided on this course of action because of FOTA's "deliberate attempt to mislead the media" after the deal was struck on Wednesday.
TODT IN WARM WATER
Jean Todt, rumoured to be a potential candidate for the FIA presidency in October - if Max Mosley does not stand - has been in the newspapers in Malaysia in recent days as the result of a planned payment of $411,000 from the government for him to act as a tourism ambassador.
A TIME TO LOOK AHEAD
Today the talk is of who won the FIA-FOTA conflict and what will happen next. The reality is that it does not matter who won and who lost and it is wise for the winners to be generous in victory. There are more important things to do than gloat.
ZANDER TO LEAVE BRAWN
Brawn GP's chief designer Jorg Zander is leaving the team. This has led to speculation that he may be bound for another team but it would be unusual for a designer to be allowed to leave with immediate effect if he is off to join a rival outfit.
A DEAL IS STRUCK, MOSLEY AGREES NOT TO STAND AGAIN
The FIA World Council meeting this morning in Paris produced a surprise settlement in the FIA-FOTA dispute. Yesterday Max Mosley was saying that he would stand again in the FIA elections in October and was preparing legal actions against the FOTA teams.
FIA CONFIRMS 2010 FORMULA ONE ENTRY LIST
At the meeting of the World Sport Council in Paris today the FIA confirmed the 13 teams that will race in Formula 1 next season.
MOSLEY REMAINS DEFIANT
Max Mosley was never going to give up without a fight and he has responded to rumours of a coup d'etat against him at the FIA by writing to all the member clubs justifying his actions and seeking their support. Mosley says that "the dissident teams" (he has now stopped using the expression "loonies") aim to have him resign as FIA President.
FOTA AND IMG
According to rumours at Silverstone, the organisation of the new FOTA championship could be placed in the hands of the International Management Group (IMG), the world's premier and most diversified sports, entertainment and media company.
ANOTHER PROBLEM FOR FLINS?
Liberty, equality and brotherhood are enshrined as concepts in the French psychology, but that generally means that the French have great difficulty agreeing on anything.
A FOTA CALENDAR?
A supposed FOTA calendar has been appearing in the media in the last few hours, including Monaco, Monza, Suzuka, Abu Dhabi and Singapore. In addition there are former F1 venues in Buenos Aires, (Argentina), Mexico City, Jerez, Imola, Montreal, Indianapolis, Magny-Cours and potentially either Adelaide or Surfers' Paradise in Australia.
QUALIFYING REPORT - VETTEL BY THREE-TENTHS
Sebastian Vettel took pole position for the British Grand Prix, with a best lap that was three-tenths clear of the Brawn of Rubens Barrichello.
VILLENEUVE LOOKING FOR AN F1 DRIVE
Former F1 World Champion Jacques Villeneuve was at Silverstone over the weekend, scouting around to see whether there is any interest from any of the teams for next year.
BERNIE CONFIRMS BRITISH GP FOR 2010
Bernie Ecclestone says that there will be a British GP in 2010, even if Donington Park is not ready.
PRACTICE 3 REPORT - WILLIAMS 1 AND 2
The two Williams-Toyotas of Nico Rosberg and Kazuki Nakajima were 1-2 in the Saturday morning session at Silverstone, the team running with low fuel loads at the end of the session.
PRACTICE 2 REPORT - RED BULL STILL AHEAD
Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber continued to dominate practice at Silverstone, ending up six-tenths ahead of the field in the session. Adrian Sutil was third in a Force India.
THE FIA GOES LEGAL
The FIA has issued the following statement: "The FIA's lawyers have now examined the FOTA threat to begin a breakaway series. The actions of FOTA as a whole, and Ferrari in particular, amount to serious violations of law including wilful interference with contractual relations, direct breaches of Ferrari's legal obligations and a grave violation of competition law."
FORCE INDIA STICKS WITH THE FIA
In response to the FOTA statement sent Thursday 18 June 2009, Dr Vijay Mallya said
PRACTICE 1 REPORT - RED BULL DOMINANT
The Formula 1 World Championship continues despite the political fighting off the track. Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel outpaced Mark Webber by 0.282s, but the pair were eight-tenths faster than the Brawns.
PRACTICE 1 RESULTS
British GP - Practice 1 Results
F1 TEAMS SET TO FORM BREAKAWAY SERIES
Late Thursday night FOTA issued a statement on behalf of its members that it is starting preparations to form a new series.
THURSDAY PRESS CONFERENCE
British GP - Thursday Press Conference
MOSLEY RESPONDS
FIA President Max Mosley has responded to FOTA by saying that the FIA will talk about changes in the Concorde Agreement and systems of governance, after the teams make their entries unconditional. This is not likely to influence the teams.
FOTA CALLS FOR COMPROMISE
In a letter to FIA President Max Mosley, Bernie Ecclestone of the Formula One group, with copies going to all members of the FIA World Council and Senate, FOTA has called for compromise in the ongoing dispute.
LOLA WITHDRAWS F1 PLAN
The Lola F1 Team Ltd has today advised the FIA of its decision to withdraw its application to enter the 2010 FIA Formula 1 World Championship. The team thanked the FIA for considering its application but said that significant financial investment had been made in producing its 2010 contender and the FIA had requested that the Lola F1 Team remain in a state of readiness for a possible future entry.
THE FIA'S VIEW ON THE FIA-FOTA CRISIS
The FIA has set out its ideas of what the current troubles in Formula 1 are all about. We publish them without comment.
NASCAR IS WATCHING F1...
NASCAR boss Brian France is keeping a close eye on the politics in Formula 1 and pointing out that there are other options for the car manufacturers. France says that he has been talking with several companies but nothing is planned in the short term.
THE FIA RESPONDS
The FIA has responded to the statements put out on Friday by FOTA and the ACEA, the European car manufacturers' association. The federation said it was surprised at the ACEA's rejection of the FIA cost-cutting measures.
A GOOD DAY FOR THE FRENCH
Peugeot scored a 1-2 at Le Mans on Sunday, victory going to Marc Gene, Alexander Wurz and David Brabham after they had led for three-quarters of the event.
ACEA COMES TO THE RESCUE OF FOTA
The members of the Board of the European Automobile Manufacturer's Association (ACEA) have announced that the current governance system in F1 cannot continue.
AN IRRITATED FOTA
The Formula One Teams' Association has issued a statement regarding the FIA entry list.
FERRARI: DON'T COUNT ON US
Ferrari says it will not take part in the 2010 FIA Formula 1 World Championship until the conditions of its entry are satisfied, despite the fact that the FIA has included the team on the official entry list.
NO PRODRIVE, NO LOLA
Two names that are missing from the list are those of Prodrive and Lola. Both were believed to have strong cases for an application and thus their non-appearance is interesting.
THE FIA ENTRY LIST
The FIA has given the Formula 1 teams a week more in which to drop their conditions for entry into the FIA Formula 1 World Championship in 2010.
LE MANS READY TO ACCEPT F1 REFUGEES
The Automobile Club de l'Ouest, which runs the Le Mans 24 Hours, the Le Mans Series and provides regulations for the American Le Mans Series, says that it would welcome manufacturers from Formula 1 if they no longer want to take part in Grand Prix racing.
DOMENICALI SAYS NO AUTOMATIC ENTRY FOR FERRARI
A FOTA meeting took place today in London, attended on behalf of Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro by Stefano Domenicali. He was asked about rumours that Ferrari would be given an automatic entry in the 2010 FIA Formula 1 World Championship.
A CHANCE TO EXCHANGE VIEWS
There will be three Motorsport Business Forums this year with the traditional Monaco event in December, another in the Middle East in the days leading up to the Grand Prix in Abu Dhabi and an American event, which will be linked to the PRI Show in Florida in December.
RACE REPORT - THE CURIOUS CASE OF THE UNBEATABLE BUTTON
Jenson Button won his sixth victory of the year in Turkey. His sixth in seven races. This is really an extraordinary achievement and one that has rarely been matched in the history of the sport.
STORIES OF BOYCOTTS
The Formula 1 is getting very excited this morning about the suggestion that the FOTA teams might not race this afternoon. This does not seem very credible at the moment. It is hard to imagine that Brawn and Red Bull Racing, both of which are caught in the middle of the FIA-FOTA fight, are going to give up the opportunity to collect more points.
QUALIFYING REPORT - VETTEL LEADS THE WAY
Sebastian Vettel took pole position for the Turkish Grand Prix in his Red Bull Renault in a last-gasp effort that bounced Jenson Button from the top slot. Rubens Barrichello was third quickest for Brawn.
THE RETURN OF TEAM LOTUS
Litespeed has announced that it intends to enter F1 in 2010 under the Team Lotus banner. The team says that a deal has been truck with David Hunt to use the name he has been trying to revive since 1995.
PRACTICE 3 REPORT - FELIPE IN TURKEY SHOOT
Felipe Massa set the fastest time of the first practice session on Saturday morning in Turkey. The Ferrari driver looked very strong, but had the two Toyotas right up with him, Jarno Trulli beating Timo Glock to second.
PRACTICE 2 REPORT - KOVALAINEN TO THE FORE
Heikki Kovalainen set the fastest time of the second session of Friday practice for the Turkish GP, beating Fernando Alonso, Robert Kubica and Kazuki Nakajima. This unusual line-up suggests that the times should not be taken too seriously.
FORCE INDIA JUMPS FROM FOTA SHIP
Force India has confirmed that it has made an unconditional entry for next year's World Championship, thus joining Williams in breaking away from the Formula One Teams' Association (FOTA).
FIXING PROBLEMS AT DONINGTON PARK
Wheatcroft and Son, the owners of Donington Park, and Donington Ventures Leisure Limited, which leases the track, have reached an agreement which they hope will secure the future of East Midlands’ parkland circuit Donington Park.
PRACTICE 1 REPORT - ROSBERG QUICKEST IN TURKEY
Nico Rosberg was the fastest in the first session in Turkey ahead of Lewis Hamilton, Jarno Trulli and Sebastian Vettel. Felipe Massa was fifth fastest.
THURSDAY PRESS CONFERENCE
Turkish GP - Thursday Press Conference
TONY MAGGS 1937-2009
Tony Maggs, South Africa's first Grand Prix driver, has died from cancer at the age of 72. The son of a war hero, he was expected to work on the family farm in the Zoutpansberg district of the northern Transvaal, close to the border with Mozambique but instead he discovered motor racing with an old Riley.
THE RETURN OF BRABHAM
An organisation called Brabham Grand Prix Team has applied for one of the F1 entries for 2010. The team is headed by German entrepreneur Franz Hilmer, the owner of Formtech GmbH, a machine tool business based in Niederwinkling in Germany.
THE WORST CASE SCENARIO
We are in a period of quite extraordinary calm in Formula 1. Nothing much seems to be happening. The Formula 1 teams (at least nine of the 10 members of FOTA) have agreed to enter the World Championship provisionally, based on terms that they wish to dictate before the deadline of June 12.
RUSSIAN PHONE COMPANY BACKS RENAULT F1
The ING Renault F1 Team has announced a new partnership with MegaFon, one of Russia’s major telecommunications companies. The agreement sees MegaFon’s branding appear on the drivers’ suits and on the carbon fibre floor (in front of the rear wheels) of the team’s cars at this weekend’s Turkish Grand Prix.
ASSESSING THE NEW FORMULA 2
The new FIA Formula 2 Championship kicked off last weekend in Valencia with Max Mosley in attendance to watch the first two rounds of the series, which was proposed (by him) less than a year ago.
WHO IS SERIOUS AND WHO IS NOT?
The entries for the 2010 FIA Formula 1 World Championship are now closed and the FIA says that it would "inappropriate" to comment about who these have come from - and even how many entries there are. There are various stories about new teams and it is hard to know what is serious and what is not serious, largely because it is not really clear what rules will be adopted.
A MAJOR EARTHQUAKE IN THE UNITED STATES
The Formula 1 world probably will not have noticed, but General Motors went into Chapter 11 bankruptcy yesterday. It is the largest ever industrial bankruptcy in history. The company has assets of $82.29bn and debts of $172.81bn.
