Formula One News — March 2009

It has been expected for a while, particularly given that this year's Renault F1 is not looking like a world-beater, but Renault has now officially said that it will quit F1 unless the team receives a bigger share of F1's revenues.

The Circuit Gilles Villeneuve on the Ile de Notre Dame in Montreal has long been a favourite venue of the Formula 1 circus. And tens of thousands of F1 fans from across the United States have regularly made the pilgrimage to the city to enjoy the race and the party atmosphere that has been so successfully developed in the last 10 years.

Adding to the belief that Honda Racing F1 will be rebadged as Brawn Racing is the news from official filings that Caroline McGrory has been appointed the company secretary. This follows the news last week that McGrory registered the Internet domain names brawnracing.com and brawnracing.co.uk.

Colin Kolles may be out of Formula 1 but the former head of Force India is busy with a number of other teams in 2009. His long-established Formula 3 operation has been revived under the name of Kolles & Heinz Union, a collaboration with driver manager Werner Heinz, who has overseen the careers of a string of celebrated names such as Nick Heidfeld, Frank Biela and Tom Kristensen.

Tonio Liuzzi has been out of the limelight in the last few months but the lanuch of the new Force India VJM02 has put the Italian back in the news, although there is going to be little chance for him to test for the team this year because of the in-season testing ban.

Yesterday in Jerez all the available current F1 machinery came together for the first time, giving teams the chance to begin assessing the performance of their rivals, many of which have not yet been running with the cars in full 2009 spec, as they are saving their latest developments for Australia, thus avoiding giving away too many secrets too early in the game.

Gordon Murray was one of the great innovators in Formula 1 in the 1970s and 1980s. He started his career as a design draughtsman under Ron Tauranac at Brabham. At the end of 1972 he was appointed chief designer by new owner Bernie Ecclestone and he pioneered innovations such as surface cooling, the fan car and the BT55 "skateboard".

The new Force India VJM02 has run for the first time at Silverstone. It will be officially unveiled later today in Jerez in Spain. The new car marks the start of a new technical partnership with McLaren and Mercedes, who between them have provided the car's engine, gearbox and Kinetic Energy Recovery System, in addition to chief operating officer Simon Roberts.