JULY 8, 1996

Doubts over Dome

THE Dome Formula 1 team, which was launched in Tokyo in March, did not appear at the Silverstone testing as had been planned and rumors in Japan suggest that the Japanese operation is struggling to find the money for its planned 1997 F1 assault.

THE Dome Formula 1 team, which was launched in Tokyo in March, did not appear at the Silverstone testing as had been planned and rumors in Japan suggest that the Japanese operation is struggling to find the money for its planned 1997 F1 assault.

The prototype Dome-Mugen Honda F105 chassis has been running in Japan, being driven by Italian Marco Apicella and Dome's F3000 driver Shinji Nakano, but plans for the testing to move to Europe have flopped.

At the launch the team let it be known that the F1 program was dependent on finance and it seems that finding money in Japan at the moment is not at all easy.

Any team which is considering a serious assault on F1 in 1997 needs to have all the necessary elements in place before the end of July, and as things stand it seems unlikely that we will be seeing Dome on the tracks in 1997.