Formula One News — February 2002

The dumping of Jos Verstappen is a tough blow for the Dutchman, coming as it does at a very late moment before the start of the new season.

Giancarlo Fisichella was unhurt after a considerable accident during Thursday morning testing in Valencia.

Two considerable accidents marked testing in Valencia Thursday.

Cesare Fiorio has done a lot of jobs in motor racing but his latest is to promote Spain's Formula Super Nissan series.

The Suddeutsche Zeitung newspaper is reporting that the Kirch media group is under pressure from the German government to sell off its non-core assets to avoid being swallowed up by a foreign media business.

Kirch's managing-director Dieter Hahn had resigned from the board of British Sky Broadcasting.

Like many of the Formula 1 teams Ferrari has worked hard on its front-end aerodynamics with the lower suspension mounting points being located beneath the chassis itself attached to a longitudinal underbody "fin".

The launch of the new Ferrari F2002 answered some of the questions which have been asked in recent months but there was one mystery left by the end of the presentation of the new car.

Alain Prost has lashed out in an interview with the French weekly magazine AutoHebdo at those people who he feels bear some of the responsibility for the failure of Prost Grand Prix.

Alain Prost revealed in his outspoken interview with Autohebdo magazine that there were two American groups which bid to buy Prost Grand Prix.

The Orange Arrows team has announced that Heinz-Harald Frentzen will join Enrique Bernoldi in the team this season and says that Jos Verstappen has been "released" from his contract.

Ferrari has signed a new sponsorship agreement with the semiconductor manufacturer Advanced Micro Devices Inc.

It has yet to be officially confirmed by the Orange Arrows team but it now seems certain that Jos Verstappen is to be booted out of the team and replaced by Heinz-Harald Frentzen.

The rumors have been circulating for weeks but the new Ferrari F2002 does not look very different from its predecessor.

Ferrari technical director Ross Brawn says that the Italian team delayed the launch of the F2002 because the development programs had not produced the results which the team had been hoping for.

The testing in Valencia got a little more crowded on Wednesday when BAR, Jaguar and Arrows joined the fray.

Ferrari has launched its 2002 challenger at Maranello and the team has decided to take a risk in an effort to find more performance after winning three consecutive Constructors' titles.

The Bayerische Landesbank has said that it will not be lending the Kirch Group any more money and that opens the way for Kirch to be taken over by a bigger rival media company.

There have been rumblings from Spain that the new Williams FW24 chassis is not as competitive as the team had been hoping it might be - despite the fact that the car is setting good testing times.

A number of Formula 1 teams seem to have found themselves in difficulties because they decided not to copy the Sauber aerodynamic principles which were introduced in 2001.

The Court of Appeal in London has rejected the appeal by the Arrows Formula 1 team against a ruling in February last year that the team should pay Pedro Diniz $700,000 in compensation after it failed to convince a court that Diniz broke his contract with Arrows at the end of 1998.

A week ago Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello both had sizeable accidents during testing in Barcelona.

As we exclusively predicted two weeks ago rising Australian star Ryan Briscoe, the Toyota F1 test driver, will drive for the Nordic Racing team in Formula 3000 this season.

Prost Grand Prix technical director Henri Durand is a man in demand at the moment following the closure of the French team.