Formula One News — September 1997

ALAIN PROST has been quietly building up his technical team in recent weeks with the hiring of a number of new young designers for his drawing office at Magny-Cours which is run by veteran Ligier engineer Claude Delbet under the instructions of chief designer Loic Bigois.

TED BALL, the man who funded both the Brabham and Lotus F1 teams in the early 1990s, went on trial last week at the Old Bailey in London facing charges of conspiracy to defraud and accepting bribes.

DOUBLE World Champion Emerson Fittipaldi, who has not raced since he fractured a vertebrae in his neck during a crash at Michigan International Speedway in July 1996, was seriously injured last week when he crashed a light aircraft he was piloting near a citrus fruit farm he owns outside the town of Araraquara in Brazil.

THE Jordan Peugeot team ran two simultaneous tests last week with one team at Silverstone running Ralf Schumacher for a day of testing while another did two days of running at the Goodyear test track at Mireval, near Montpelier with Giancarlo Fisichella.

BENETTON topped the time sheets during last week's Formula 1 testing at Silverstone with Gerhard Berger setting a fastest lap of 1m22.29s during his two days of engine testing for Renault.

MINARDI last week tested nineteen-year-old Argentine driver Esteban Tuero at Mugello.

WITH Damon Hill busy at the Frankfurt Motor Show and test driver Jorg Muller still recovering from breaking his leg in a recent accident while testing the TWR Nissan Le Mans sportscar, the Arrows team turned to F1 veteran Martin Brundle at Silverstone last week.

AS exclusively predicted by INSIDE F1 in October 1995, BMW is to return to Grand Prix racing with Williams Grand Prix Engineering.

THE FIA International Court of Appeal last week ruled that the fuel in Mika Hakkinen's McLaren-Mercedes in qualifying for the recent Belgian Grand Prix was illegal and that he should be deprived of his third place finish as a result.

AFTER months of talk about a new Formula 1 super team involving Adrian Reynard, Craig Pollock and British American Tobacco, it seems that BAT has decided to look at other possibilities.

OLIVIER PANIS was back in racing car last week and will begin testing a Prost-Mugen Honda on Tuesday.

THE Tyrrell team's plan to build its own half-scale rolling-road windtunnel is to be unveiled later this week, as part of the team's Racing Towards the Millennium program.

A provisional Formula 1 calendar for the 1998 season was doing the rounds in the paddock at Monza.

DAMON HILL is rumored to be close to signing a deal to drive for Prost Grand Prix next season - but the deal has yet to be confirmed and there are a number of sticking points in the negotiations.

TOM WALKINSHAW and Mika Salo have been in heavy negotiation in the last few days as it has become clear that Damon Hill is not likely to be staying at Arrows next season.

THE battle between Benetton and Jordan for the services of Giancarlo Fisichella goes to the High Court in London this week.

AS we reported a month ago Don Panoz is planning to host the United States Grand Prix at Road Atlanta, starting in 1999 and running for a minimum of five years.

AS we suggested in June, Sylvester Stallone is planning to make a blockbuster film about Grand Prix racing.

FLAVIO BRIATORE is expected to leave Benetton Formula at the end of the season.

WE hear stories from the United States that Benetton's big new backer Federal Express is about to be named as the title sponsor for the CART World Series and may not continue its involvement in Grand Prix racing beyond the end of this season.

THE Jordan-Peugeots of Giancarlo Fisichella and Ralf Schumacher dominated the pre-Italian Grand Prix testing at Monza last week - at which 37,000 spectators were present.

RATHER than join the party at Monza, Arrows and Stewart both decided to stay in England and test at Silverstone in the hope that the British summer would give them a little sunshine without all the problems needed to get to Monza.

LUIGI "GIGI" VILLORESI died on August 24 at the age of 88.

AS expected, Tyrrell has announced its deal to run Ford V10 engines in 1998 and has launched a plan called "Racing Towards the Millennium", a comprehensive program to make Tyrrell competitive in F1 by the year 2000.