Formula One News — November 2004

The action by nine of the 10 teams in Brazil, proposing a cut back in testing and requesting a control tyre situation seems to have run out of steam as team bosses have gone their separate ways since Interlagos.

The recent departure of Karl-Heinz Kalbfell, the chairman and chief executive of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, came as a shock to everyone at parent company BMW.

The Toyota Motor Corporation has reported a 11.4% increase in its earnings in the six months up to September 30. The company made profits of $5.5bn on sales of $85bn (an increase is sales of nearly 10%).

There is talk that there may soon be two Grands Prix in Japan and it is easy to see how that is going to happen. The current deal between the Formula One group and Suzuka runs out in 2006 by which time the Mount Fuji International circuit will be ready to challenge Suzuka for the deal.

The A1 Grand Prix series has announced five more franchise-holders including Alan Jones, the 1980 Formula 1 World Champion, who is fronting an Australian entry, and deals for South Africa, Portugal, Canada and Malaysia.

The Ford Motor Company is believed to be close to selling Cosworth Racing, its competition engine subsidiary which in recent years has supplied Jaguar Racing with its V10 engines, Champ Car with its power units and built engines for Chevrolet in the Indy Racing League.

The Austrian finance company Superfund has announced plans for what will be known as Formula Superfund in 2005. This has grown out of the Euro3000 series but will have a brand new car in 2005, called the SF01.

FIAT and Ferrari President Luca di Montezemolo is admitting that Ferrari's 2004 performance is probably as good as it gets in Grand Prix racing.

MotoGP star Valentino Rossi has often been linked to a switch to four-wheeled racing but it is not going to happen in the immediate future, if at all.