Formula One News — June 2003

Toyota F1 protege Ryan Briscoe seems to be unbeatable this year in the Formula 3 Euroseries. The Australian on Sunday wrote his name into the record books by winning on the streets of Pau - an impressive achievement for a rookie.

Former F1 driver Tora Takagi has been doing well in the Indy Racing League this year, particularly at the recent Indianapolis 500 but the Japanese driver was in trouble at the weekend at Texas Motor Speedway where he was blamed for a spectacular three-car accident.

Vodafone is being sued for $225m by the Jordan Formula One team, which is claiming that the mobile phone company reneged on a deal to sponsor the team.

There has been speculation in recent days that Sauber's new windtunnel in Hinwil has caught the attention of the Mercedes-Benz management in Stuttgart.

There is little topline racing in Europe this week, so the spotlight falls on Pau where the Formula 3 Euroseries cars will dispute the 63rd Grand Prix de Pau on the streets of the Bearnais city.

The remaining assets of Arrows Grand Prix International Limited are being sold off at auction on June 18-19 at Leafield.

Canadian GP - Preview

General Motors is now admitting that it is willing to make an "extraordinary response" because of the uncompetitive nature of its Chevrolet Indy Racing League engine and rumors continue to suggest that this assistance could come from rival Ford's Cosworth racing division.

The new Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren road car will be unveiled at the Frankfurt Auto Show in the autumn.

British American Racing had Jenson Button out of action after his Monaco crash when its test team headed to Monza for a three-day test this week. The team's third driver Takuma Sato began running on Tuesday alongside test driver Anthony Davidson.

No fewer than 22 schools across Britain entered a recent competition to design an F1-style car, using CAD/CAM software. The resulting machinery was on display last week at the Olympia exhibition centre in London.

The case between British American Racing and Partnership Production Group International (PPGI) is rather more complicated than perhaps appearances have suggested.

The Turks have been quietly working away towards a Grand Prix for several years and that work is now beginning to pay off.

Preparations for the Canadian Grand Prix are well under way as the teams plan their first trip to North America in the 2003 season, with testing taking place all over Europe today.

Justin Wilson and his manager Jonathan Palmer have revealed that the innovative IPO scheme to support Justin's F1 career has been a big success. The scheme closed last Friday with the $2m million he needed to fund his drive with Minardi in the bank.

An attempt was made to seize the BAR equipment after the Monaco Grand Prix on Sunday but the paperwork was not in order and as a result the cars were not impounded and left Monaco shortly afterwards.

A couple of weeks ago Formula 1 boss Bernie Ecclestone was talking about expanding the World Championship calendar to 20 races but now he is back to the normal F1 song sheet, telling the German newsagency DPA that "we found out some time ago that 16 is a good number, maybe one more."

The 1978 Formula 1 World Champion Mario Andretti is not seeking re-election as a director of the board of CART. The shareholders of the company will vote for the board members on July 17.

DaimlerChrysler has warned that competition in the US car markets will result in a loss for Chrysler of $1.1bn in the second quarter. The German firm has already made it clear that Chrysler will not meet its full year operating profit target of $2bn.

Jenson Button is not taking part in this week's F1 testing following his crash in Monte Carlo.

A racing driver knows that he is beginning to get old when people keep asking him about his retirement. In recent years this has started happening to Michael Schumacher.

Chris Pook, the chief executive of the CART series, has confirmed that he is involved in negotiation with Bernie Ecclestone about possible links between CART and Formula 1.

It must be contract negotiation time down at Maranello because suggestions that Juan Pablo Montoya could replace Michael Schumacher at Ferrari are not very likely to happen unless Michael decides he does not want to stay beyond the end of his current contract, which runs out at the end of 2004.

The future of the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps rested largely on the Belgian national elections as the government was unable to alter the laws which had been voted through, including the anti-tobacco legislation which led to the race being cancelled.