Formula One News — January 2002

The Sauber-Petronas C21 completed its first shakedown at the Ferrari team's Fiorano test track on Tuesday.

There was a time when Renault Sport boss Patrick Faure had ambitions of becoming the boss of the entire Renault company, as the successor to current chairman Louis Schweitzer.

The construction work for the 2002 Australian GP has begun in Melbourne, despite the fact the race has still to receive an official green light from the FIA.

The Olympic Flame, on its way to Salt Lake City for the Winter Olympics next month, drops into Indianapolis Motor Speedway this week.

One could never accuse Red Bull boss Dietrich Mateschitz of being conventional and his decision to sell his shares in Sauber but remain as a sponsor, while also supporting (and trying to buy) Arrows is best described as an idiosyncratic move.

There has been a great deal of speculation of what Ferrari is up to this season and it is rumored that Michael Schumacher's recent test at Fiorano was to try out one of the new systems on the car.

As part of the plan to make the company profitable again, Ford is believed to be selling off its car repair business in Britain known as Kwik-Fit.

Franck Michel, the judicial administrator appointed to oversee the affairs of Prost Grand Prix, is now studying the dossier put forward by Alain Prost.

Alain Prost has done all he can do to save his indebted Formula 1 team and he is now waiting to see if the latest offer is enough to convince the team's legal administrator that the team can be saved.

Ferrari is reportedly chasing Juan-Pablo Montoya for the 2003 season.

French motor racing has been in the doldrums for some years following the government's decision to ban tobacco and alcohol sponsorship.

There have been reports in the German press that Ralf Schumacher could be in trouble because Formula 1 drivers are not allowed to wear glasses.

The Dresdner Bank, which is owed around $400m by the Kirch Group, the commercial rights holders to Formula 1 racing, has granted the German firm an extension in order to pay the money outstanding.

The World Rally Championship kicks off very early on Friday morning with the 70th running of the Monte Carlo Rally, which takes place in the Alpes Maritime area of southern France.

There has been some speculation on the Continent in recent days that BMW Motorsport may be considering an assault on the World Rally Championship with the Mini Cooper.

Testing resumed Tuesday at Valencia, and teams who tested for Michelin on an artificially soaked track Monday were joined by the likes of Jordan, Minardi and Toyota.

While the testing for the 2002 season has begun at Ferrari in the hands of Luca Badoer and Luciano Burti.

Ferrari's intensive program of tire development with Bridgestone has stepped up a gear having left the rather public group test at Barcelona for some track time behind closed doors at Fiorano.

World Champions Ferrari are looking to secure Juan-Pablo Montoya as a long term replacement for four time World Champion Michael Schumacher, the BBC Sport Online is reporting.

There are whispers from Germany that Kurt Steinhausen, the boss of the Olympia Reisen travel company, is going to be one of the major supporters of the planned Russian Grand Prix.

Four teams resumed testing Monday in Valencia, conducting wet and intermediate tire testing for Michelin. McLaren-Mercedes driver David Coulthard set the fastest lap of the day at 1m30.750s.

The word on the street in France is that the group of investors which may be coming to the aid of Alain Prost will include the Michelin family, which control the Michelin tire company.

The news that the Ford Motor Company is closing five factories in North America and laying off 35,000 people has been followed by comments from Jaguar Racing that this will have no effect on the Formula 1 project.

After proving that driving today's F1 racers is perhaps not as difficult as it looks, Niki Lauda pulled off a personal PR coup for the whole Jaguar formula one program by persuading Wolfgang Reitzle, the president of Ford's Premier Automotive Group to take a turn behind the wheel.