Formula One News — May 2006

The Permanent Bureau of the Formula 1 Commission has decided to withdraw Yuji Ide's Superlicence with immediate effect.

Social observers sometimes remark that F1 is not a truly global sport because it features no black drivers and no Chinese but the fact is that it does not matter if you are an eskimo or a Navajo as long as you are one of the fastest men in the world.

There has been a little bit of tweaking going on at Ferrari and Toyota as the two teams shuffle people around to fit the new circumstances in which they find themselves.

Formula 1 teams like to leave race meetings with something positive to say about their performance. There are times when that involves a lot of imagination and public relations "spin". But at the Nurburgring almost everyone had a good hard luck story.

Many sponsors these days are looking for more than just exposure from their racing involvements and hope to engage with the public so that they feel good about the product and thus go out and buy more.

European GP - Sunday Photos

European GP - Race Notes

European GP - Sunday Press Conference

European GP - Sunday Team Quotes

European GP - Race Incidents

European GP - Race Results

Ron Dennis has admitted that GP2 driver Lewis Hamilton he is a possible candidate for an F1 drive with McLaren next year although Dennis said he is far too busy worrying about this year to be thinking about 2007 just yet.

Thirty years ago Niki Lauda crashed at Bergwerk during the German Grand Prix. The Austrian was trapped in the flaming wreck and had to be rescued by fellow drivers Arturo Merzario, Brett Lunger, Harald Ertl and Guy Edwards, who stopped and pulled Lauda from the remains of his car.

BMW Sauber driver Jacques Villeneuve was docked his three fastest lap in the qualifying session by the FIA Stewards on Saturday evening after they decided that he had impeded the progress of Giancarlo Fisichella at a vital moment during the Q2 session.

Michael Schumacher's amazing form in recent weeks looked like it was going to continue at the Nurburging on Saturday until the final minutes of the final qualifying session when Fernando Alonso gave the Ferrari star a little of his own medicine.

There was a meeting on Saturday morning involving BMW's Burkhard Goeschel, McLaren's Ron Dennis, Renault's Alain Dassas and Bernie Ecclestone, who talked about possible solutions to the current negotiations. According to GPMA sources this did not result in any change of position.

European GP - Saturday Photos

European GP - Saturday Press Conference

European GP - Saturday Team Quotes

European GP - Qualifying Results

The whisper on Saturday at the Nurburgring was that there was a meeting on Saturday lunchtime at which the major teams informed Bernie Ecclestone that they are now in a position to agree to the new F1 regulations for 2008 and to a commercial deal.

The two Williams-Cosworths are to have their engines changed, which means that Mark Webber and Nico Rosberg will both have to take a 10-slot drop on the grid for the European Grand Prix.

Practice on Saturday morning at the Nurburgring produced a rather odd list of runners with Ferrari seemingly having continued to accelerate away from the opposition.

European GP - Practice 3 Results