Formula One News — December 2000

FERRARI driver Rubens Barrichello recorded the quickest lap time on the final day of testing at the Valencia circuit, Spain, on Friday.

FERRARI president Luca di Montezemolo has declared that he wants two more world titles from Michael Schumacher before the German retires.

BRITISH AMERICAN RACING announced on Friday that Japan's Takuma Sato will test for the team in Barcelona next week.

THE recently-announced deal for Bavarian media baron Leo Kirch to buy a 25% share of EM.TV and to take over 49% of the Formula One group of companies is not yet definite.

FERARRI test-driver Luca Badoer continued the Italian team's hectic testing schedule at their Fiorano circuit on Thursday.

DAVID COULTHARD topped the times for the second consecutive day in Bridgestone tire testing at the Valencia circuit on Thursday.

HE Dallas investment company Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst specializes in buying up small struggling companies in an industry, repackaging them and then selling them on.

BRIDGESTONE has been forced to cut its profit estimate by 80% this year because of the effects of the problems with the Firestone brand in the United States of America.

IT may sound very dramatic that Giancarlo Fisichella needs to have knee surgery but with the increasing use of arthroscopy this has ceased to be the problem it once was for sportsmen.

THE mayor of San Francisco Willie Brown, who has hopes of hosting a Grand Prix in the city, is going to struggle to make a race a reality.

THE German state prosecution service has announced that it is investigating the activities of EM.TV, the half owner of the Formula One group of companies, which ran into serious trouble recently on the Neuer Markt stock exchange in Frankfurt.

BMW MOTORSPORT director Gerhard Berger and BMW-Williams driver Ralf Schumacher have expressed fears that the team's new Michelin tires could stall their season in 2001.

GIANCARLO FISICHELLA will undergo an operation on a knee injury next week, his Benetton-Renault team confirmed on Thursday.

RALF SCHUMACHER has been forced to abandon his BMW-Williams testing plans in Barcelona this week after being hit by flu.

JENSON BUTTON set the fastest lap time for his new Benetton team on Thursday in testing at the Circuit de Catalunya, Barcelona.

MCLAREN dominated testing at Valencia on Wednesday as David Coulthard and Alexander Wurz topped the times - leaving Ferrari's Rubens Barrichello trailing in their wake.

FURTHER to our story about Minardi doing a deal to use Supertec engines in 2001, the latest rumor in F1 circles is that the precision engineering company Mecachrome, which builds the current Supertec V10 engines, could be on the verge of buying the struggling Italian team.

THREE-TIME world champion Michael Schumacher is predicting that there will be little change in the way of team dominance for next season.

BENETTON's new technical director Mike Gascoyne believes Jenson Button is quickly finding his feet at the Chipping Norton-based team.

RALF SCHUMACHER produced a scintillating display in testing at Barcelona on Wednesday as he blasted his brother Michael's pole position time for this year's Spanish Grand Prix by over half-a-second.

THE future of the Hungarian Formula One Grand Prix is in doubt after the country's parliament banned cigarette advertising.

MICHAEL SCHUMACHER's manager Willy Weber has won a court case which protects his earnings from the marketing of the three-time world champion.

FORMULA ONE new-boy Juan Pablo Montoya continued to impress in testing at the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona -- even though he admitted all he wants to do is learn his Williams chassis.

THE annual BBC Sports Personality of the Year evening resulted in Jenson Button being named as Britain's Newcomer of the Year for his performances in the BMW Williams F1 team.