Formula One News — March 2005

The third practice session for the Australian Grand Prix gave us a good indication of the speed of the current F1 cars in relation to one another with Kimi Raikkonen emerging fastest in his McLaren with a lap of 1m27.297s.

Australian GP - Practice Session 4 Results

Australian GP - Practice Session 3 Results

A sudden flurry of activity in the final moments of the second practice session gave us a hint of what to expect in qualifying on Saturday and Sunday. The fastest time of the session went to McLaren test driver Pedro de la Rosa, three-tenths of a second ahead of his team mate Kimi Raikkonen.

Paul Stoddart gained an injunction in court in Melbourne to allow the two Minardis to take part in the event. And then suddenly for no obvious reason backed down and had his team convert the cars to 2005 specification.

Formula 1 rarely learns anything from other sports but it might be worth looking at the US ice hockey scene to see how to sort out the problems of the sport.

The tiresome wrangling between Minardi and the FIA grinds on. The team went to court on Friday evening to get an injunction which would allow him to race. The Supreme Court of the state of Victoria has granted the team an interim injunction to allow it to participate.

Australian GP - Friday Photos

Australian GP - Friday Press Conference

Paul Stoddart has been told that his cars cannot race in Melbourne, despite the fact that he finally managed to convince all the other teams to agree to let him use 2004 cars. Stoddart got the signatures and then went to the stewards to be allowed to race but was told that he could not.

Australian GP - Friday Team Quotes

Australian GP - Practice Session 2 Results

Team boss Jean Todt may be willing to be uncompromising in his views on rule changing in F1 but the attitude is not helping the team's cause.

Narain Karthikeyan began his Formula 1 career with a hefty fine for speeding in the pitlane as he went out to begin the second session of practice on Friday. The Indian was clocked at 86.2kmh when the limit was 80 and so took a hefty hit from the FIA Stewards of the meeting.

The Formula 1 pit stops this year will not feature tyre changes but we understand that things will be a little bit more exciting than expected because the teams will be using hand-held tyre pressure adjustors.

Australian GP - Practice Session 1 Report

Australian GP - Practice Session 1 Results

Minardi is not running the first practice session for the Australian Grand Prix because Ferrari continues to refuse to sign to let the team run.

Max Mosley's lengthy discourse with himself is unlikely to make any impression on the Formula 1 teams and their views about the FIA President - but that is not what it was designed to do.

Max Mosley has taken the opportunity of the first race of the new Formula 1 season to give his position on the current state of Formula 1 politics. The questions and answers have been supplied by the FIA.

Australian GP - Preview

Former F1 driver-turned World Rally Championship star Stephane Sarrazin is to race for the Aston Martin team in the Sebring 12 Hours in Florida on March 19. He replaces Tomas Enge who has had to drop out because of his recently-signed Indy Racing League deal with Panther Racing.

Mathias Lauda, the son of triple World Champion Niki Lauda, has signed to be the second driver for the Coloni GP2 team, alongside Gianmaria Bruni. Lauda drove for Coloni's second team CMS last year but without any notable results. Lauda hopes to be a frontrunner in GP2 this year.

Refusing to sign to allow Minardi to race in Melbourne would be an act of monumental stupidity for Ferrari boss Jean Todt.