Formula One News — February 2001

THE Prost and Benetton teams continued testing at Estoril on Tuesday, with the French team's tester Pedro De La Rosa fastest of the day on his debut.

AS Formula One builds up for a tire war, Bridgestone has changed one of its senior technical men, less than three weeks before the first race of the season.

LAST night in London's Royal Albert Hall four "Bernie" awards were made to big names in Formula 1 in the course of a charity Grand Prix ball in aid of Professor Sid Watkins's Brain and Spine Foundation.

ITALIAN Luca Badoer will return to testing duties with Ferrari on Tuesday after three weeks on the sidelines, it has been confirmed.

FOR some time the management of British American Tobacco has been under investigation for an involvement in international cigarette smuggling in Asia and Latin America.

DAVID COULTHARD broke the lap record at the Valencia track for the second day in a row on Tuesday.

SCOTT LANPHERE, the American executive who took Morgan Grenfell Private Equity into the F1 business, is quitting the venture capitalist organization after a major row with the rest of the board.

MCLAREN's Mika Hakkinen was quickest for the second successive day in testing at Valencia on Sunday as he demonstrated his intent to regain the Formula One world crown.

MICHAEL SCHUMACHER's name is literally on the road to success after it was given to a street that leads to his family's karting circuit.

BENETTON driver Jenson Button endured a lonely day of work in testing at Estoril on Monday when he ran alone after Prost ended their work at the Portuguese circuit on Sunday.

BMW-WILLIAMS driver Ralf Schumacher returned to the top of the timesheets at Kyalami on Monday as he enjoyed another trouble-free day in South Africa.

MCLAREN dominated testing at the Valencia circuit on Monday as David Coulthard topped the times, closely followed by the team's test driver Alexander Wurz.

THERE have been reports from Germany suggesting that Marlboro is contemplating an end to its involvement in Formula 1.

THE flotation of Orange is going ahead but the price of the shares has been cut several times in recent weeks with the shares expected to be offered at around $10 each.

THE BBC has fought off stiff competition to win the exclusive radio rights to Formula One for the next five seasons.

AUSTRALIA's largest beer maker Foster's has just reported a 10% increase in its profits and a leap of 21.6% in sales despite slow demand for beer in Australia at the moment.

LEO KIRCH, the man who is trying to get control of the promotional rights to Formula 1, has other things to worry about in addition to the battle over shares in SLEC, the holding company of the Formula One group of companies.

BRAZILIAN Rubens Barrichello finalized Ferrari's seven-day test at Mugello as he finally performed the long-distance run planned for Saturday.

MCLAREN driver Mika Hakkinen topped the times in Saturday's testing at Valencia as he familiarized himself with the team's new MP4/16 chassis.

A consortium of the world's top car makers took another step closer to buying a stake in the Formula 1 business last Friday when the trustees of SLEC, the Ecclestone family trust which controls 50 per cent of F1, held a board meeting to consider such a sale.

EUROPEAN MINARDI will become the fifth Formula One team to sign a deal to run on Michelin tires for the 2001, owner Paul Stoddart has confirmed.

THE Arrows team have decided to change testing venues after adverse weather conditions hindered testing at the Estoril circuit in Portugal.

FERRARI were forced to abandon their proposed schedule for Saturday's testing at Mugello and work on settings for the F2001.

MAX MOSLEY, the president of Formula One's governing body the FIA, has hinted that Beirut could host a Grand Prix in the future.