Formula One News — January 2002

Peter Sauber says that he has bought Red Bull's share of the Sauber F1 team but says that he is planning to sell it on to the team's sponsor Credit Suisse.

Renault will launch its new Formula 1 team in a couple of weeks from now in Paris.

The start of a new season is always a time when there is a great deal of media interest in the sport.

The World Rally Championship has managed to build up quite a following with its computer games and Formula 1 is following suit as sales of Sony's Playstation 2 console boom.

Alain Prost has finally confirmed that his team will run with Ferrari engines in 2002 - if it survives the January 15 deadline which has been set by the team's legal administrator.

There has been a flurry of reporting about the first Formula 1 tests of the year with all the latest quotes being rushed out by the drivers.

Tomas Enge, who raced for the Prost team at the end of last season, has given up his plans to try to find a ride in Formula 1 this season.

Maria Bellanca, who used to work as a press officer in Formula 1, has been named a director of Octagon Motorsports.

Gerhard Schroeder has been Chancellor of Germany since the elections in September 1998 but this year the Social Democrat leader is to be challenged for power by Dr. Edmund Stoiber, the Christian Socialist who is the Minister-President of Bavaria.

Former Grand Prix driver Ukyo Katayama has been competing in the Paris-Dakar Rally this year at the wheel of a diesel engine, production-based Toyota Land Cruiser 4x4.

The announcement that 54-year-old Jean-Jacques His is to become managing-director of Renault Sport in Paris marks an important shift in Renault policy.

Eighteen drivers took to the Catalunya circuit in Barcelona for testing on Wednesday in rainy conditions. The weather cooperated briefly.

The Autodromo Nazionale at Monza has proved itself to be adept at dodging change in recent years but the pressures on the 80-year-old circuit have gradually increased to such an extent that finally a major revamp is happening to bring the facilities up to a more modern standard.

The European Commission is planning to announce later this month big changes to the way in which cars are sold in Europe.

The world economy is a complicated concept but analysts around the world are predicting that Argentina's decision to devalue the peso by 30% is going to have an effect on the value of the Brazilian real.

The Gulf state of Bahrain is in the process of building a Formula 1 racing circuit in order to promote its new liberal image around the world.

Just days before a deadline which would have closed down Prost Grand Prix, it seems that a group of French businessmen are going to come to the rescue of the team.

David Coulthard set the fastest time for the McLaren-Mercedes squad on the second day of the Barcelona F1 test which was spoiled by heavy rain during the morning.

The Malaysian government has decided that a company called Minister of Finance (MOF) Inc. will buy the Sepang racing circuit from Malaysia Airport Holdings.

Jean-Jacques His will take over as Managing Director of Renault F1 France on March 1 this year, the day of first practice for the opening Grand Prix of the season in Melbourne.

Hungary voted a ban on tobacco advertising a year ago and that has now come into force.

Although everyone in Formula 1 likes to say that the recession will not have an effect on the sport, there is no doubt that the value of the teams has been dropping in recent months.

It is possible that Red Bull boss Dietrich Mateschitz will use the money he has raised by selling his Sauber shares to buy into Arrows.

More information is now emerging about the sale of Dietrich Mateschitz's shares in Sauber.