Formula One News — February 2002

Now that Tom Walkinshaw and Arrows has sorted out who will drive the new A23 in the coming season, the team has announced that they will officially launch the new chassis in Melbourne just days before the opening round of the 2002 season.

Thursday was the final day of testing in Valencia for McLaren and Jaguar, and Kimi Raikkonen lowered the track record to 1m10.937s in the new McLaren MP4/17.

How fast do you need to be going to receive a $103,600 speeding ticket?

Renault is going to need all the help it can get from its F1 program as its operating profits fell 77% because of the recession and the fact that the company is now beginning to suffer from an ageing product range.

The demise of the DAMS Formula 3000 project has released longtime engineer Claude Galopin onto the job market. Galopin is a former Ligier engineer who became a designer with AGS and then went back to Ligier to design for the team.

There are glamorous locations and then there is Brussels Airport, the venue for the launch of the new Jordan-Honda package on February 22.

McLaren and Jaguar returned to Valencia Wednesday for day two of the three day test. Both teams fielded two drivers and two 2002-spec cars.

There is little doubt that ousted British American Racing boss Craig Pollock does not consider his F1 career to be over just yet and there are rumors linking the Scotsman to takeover bids of Prost.

Werner Klatten, the boss of EM.TV, has revealed that his company still owns 16.7% of SLEC because a deal to sell those shares to Kirch has never been completed and at the moment the shares cannot be sold as they are being used to secure a loan with the Bayerische Landesbank.

Wednesday was the final day of testing at the Circuit de Catalunya before the season starts on March 3rd.

A year ago this week Niki Lauda was appointed the head of Ford's Premier Performance Division and put in charge of Jaguar Racing, Cosworth Racing and Pi Electronics.

The Kirch Group, the troubled commercial rights holder of the Formula One group of companies, has begun selling off its assets in an effort to avoid being taken over by a bigger media company.

McLaren and Jaguar began a three day testing session in Valencia on Tuesday, where both teams fielded two 2002-spec chassis.

There is a feeling in Formula 1 circles that the planned automobile manufacturer World Championship in 2008 will never be a success because of the changing needs and the changing faces in the automobile world.

One problem which is currently not being addressed by F1 is the fact that TV revenues are going to drop in the years ahead.

Formula1.com has been a thorn in the side of Formula One Management for the last few years, the website arguing that "F1" is a generic term and that as such anyone can use it.

Testing continued in Barcelona on Tuesday for the second day of the three day session, and Jarno Trulli set the pace in the new Renault R202 once again.

We reported just the other day that Jean Alesi had a seat fitting with McLaren, and the reason for that seat fitting has just been announced.

Four teams began testing at the Circuit de Catalunya near Barcelona on Monday, where fog delayed any running for over an hour in the morning.

New Ferraris always break lap records and the drivers always say that they are "promising" so Michael Schumacher's much-publicized first laps with the F2002 at the weekend should not be taken too seriously.

Gary Paffett, a McLaren test driver and something of a protege for the team, raced in German Formula 3 last season, and while he did not win many races he was nonetheless right up there with the frontrunning teams.

There is expected to be much talk of brakes when the new season gets underway in Australia as there are more than a few engineers who feel that brakes which are being cooled with what are effectively turbines are actually being used because they help to improve the flow of air over the front end of the car.

You have to feel sorry for International Formula 3000 champion Justin Wilson.

Jos Verstappen has made it very clear that he is less than delighted by the behavior of the Orange Arrows team and is considering legal action against the outfit.