CURRENT NEWS
THE DRIVER MARKET
In the next few days there may be some more driver announcements for 2009. The end of August is often used as an option date and so it will be no surprise to learn that one or two variables have been removed from the market.
IRL TO GO TURBO. F1 TO FOLLOW?
The Indy Racing League is set to switch away from normally-aspirated engines in 2011, and intends to adopt rules with small displacement turbo engines.
WHAT IS GOING ON WITH KIMI RAIKKONEN?
Formula 1 is a world which tends to make judgements based on what happened five minutes ago, rather than looking at longer-term trends or the bigger picture. Thus it is no surprise that Felipe Massa's victory in Valencia is seen as confirmation that the Brazilian is now Ferrari's challenger for the World Championship.
RACE REPORT - A SIESTA RATHER THAN A FIESTA
Before the start of the European GP on the new Valencia street circuit we had a quick straw poll in the Media Center. How many Safety Cars are there going to be? "Seven," said one chirpy soul. "Three," said another. In the end, there were none - and the race was worse off for it.
TENSIONS AT FORCE INDIA
The Force India team has been doing rather better this year than in previous incarnations in previous seasons, thanks in large part to the arrival of Indian billionaire Vijay Mallya, who has provided the team with financial stability.
MARLBORO ON THE MOVE?
The e-magazine GrandPrix+ is reporting that Marlboro may be preparing to end its relationship with Ferrari - earlier than has been thought.
FERRARI'S $10,000 FINE
The FIA Stewards have decided that Ferrari should be fined $10,000 for "unsafe release" of Felipe Massa from his pit stop. The stewards ruled that Massa had not gained any advantage from what happened and should not be further punished.
RACE RESULTS
European GP - Race Results
QUALIFYING REPORT - FELIPE PASSES THE PORT
Felipe Massa took pole position for the European Grand Prix after a weird qualifying session on the streets of the port of the Spanish port of Valencia.
QUALIFYING RESULTS
European GP - Qualifying Results
PRACTICE 3 REPORT - KUBICA AT THE TOP
Robert Kubica set the fastest time of the morning session on Saturday at Valencia, on a track that had been washed clean by a huge storm on Friday night.
PRACTICE 3 RESULTS
European GP - Practice 3 Results
PRACTICE 2 REPORT - FERRARI LEADS THE WAY
Kimi Raikkonen ended the second session for the European GP at Valencia fastest for Ferrari. The times, however, remain rather suspect as Fernando Alonso was second for Renault and Jenson Button was third in his Honda, a rather unlikely result.
FORMULA 1'S OLYMPIC GOLD
Brazil's Maurren Higa Maggi won the gold medal in the women's long jump at the Olympic Games in Beijing. She became the first ever Brazilian woman athlete to win an Olympic gold. Maggi is nicknamed "The Phoenix" because of her ability to come back from adversity.
PRACTICE 2 RESULTS
European GP - Practice 2 Results
PRACTICE 1 REPORT - A QUIET START IN VALENCIA
The Formula 1 cars took the streets in Valencia this morning with the drivers discovering the new circuit around the port. This produced a rather unexpected result with Sebastian Vettel fastest in his Toro Rosso-Ferrari and team-mate Sebastien Bourdais fourth fastest.
PRACTICE 1 RESULTS
European GP - Practice 1 Results
THURSDAY PRESS CONFERENCE
European GP - Thursday Press Conference
INGENUITY STILL BRINGS SUCCESS IN FORMULA 1
For years engineers have complained that the rules of Formula 1 mean that there is little room left for innovation but Cambridge University's engineering department has just revealed that this is not the case at all.
A RACE TEAM'S NIGHTMARE
Penske Racing is one of the most successful in US racing, but even the great suffer setbacks from time to time and early on Wednesday morning disaster struck Penske when the transporter carrying its race cars west to California, for this weekend's race at Sears Point, caught fire at four o'clock in the morning on a stretch of remote road in Wyoming.
THE POWER OF POKER
Poker has enjoyed a boom in recent years with the televising of the game and its influence has managed to achieve something which Formula 1 has struggled to do for years - it has got the drivers socialising at races.
AND SO TO VALENCIA
Formula 1 teams have been visiting the city of Valencia for some time, to test at the Circuit de la Comunitat Valenciana Ricardo Tormo. This was not enough for the local government, which was looking for a sporting event to draw people to the city, following the successful America's Cup event in 2007.
A FAMOUS NAME LEAVING THE SPORT?
Chevron Corporation announced on Tuesday that it is dropping its Texaco NASCAR sponsorship at the end of the year, bringing to an end a relationship that has endured for 20 years.
A NEW TARGET IN THE MIDDLE EAST
Not long ago, motor racing was banned in Saudi Arabia, but as the sport spreads through the Middle East, things are changing. In 2007 the kingdom was included in the FIA calendar for the first time with a round of the FIA International Cup for Cross-Country Bajas.
THE ENGINE FREEZE HURTS
Mecachrome International Inc, the Montreal-based engineering firm, has announced a second quarter loss of $18.7m. The news was announced at the same time as the firm said that chairman Gerard Casella would be taking over the roles of president and chief executive officer and would be restructuring the business to increase profitability.
AN INTERESTING DEVELOPMENT
The FIA announced recently that it was going to start a new Formula 2 championship and there was speculation that this would be based on the Formula Master championship, which runs with the FIA World Touring Car Championship. This made a lot of sense.
NOW SUPERLEAGUE GETS SERIOUS
Superleague Formula has not been taken very seriously thus far, with no-one really understanding where the funding will come from for teams to run in the colours of the various soccer clubs that have announced their involvement.
RENAULT AERODYNAMICIST DINO TOSO DIES
Former Renault F1 Director of Aerodynamics Dino Toso died Wednesday morning after a long battle with cancer at the age of 39. Toso stepped down from his position at Renault this June.
MORE RACES VERSUS THE NEED FOR COST-CUTTING
The Formula 1 life is a tough one and the annual summer break - in which F1 is at the moment - gives most of those on the race teams the chance to get one week of vacation with their families in the summer holiday period.
FOLLOWING THE FAMILY TRADITION
Belgian Jules Bianchi has had a reputation for being rather wild in his two seasons of car racing to date, but on Sunday he outshone his ART Formula 3 team-mates to win the Masters event at Zolder. The much talked about Nico Hulkenberg ended up second ahead of a third ART car of Jon Lancaster.
SOCCER CARS AIM TO GENERATE INTEREST
Tottenham Hotspur has become the first English Premiership football club to join the Superleague Formula series, which is due to start later this month at the Donington Park. Tottenham will be the 15th club to decide to run a car in the new series.
DOWN MEXICO WAY
Talk of F1 races in Mexico is intermittent and in recent years has never seemed to be very serious. There is, nonetheless, a long history of F1 in the country and good reasons for F1 to want to be there, to help expand interest in the sport in the US timezone and attract the attention of the vast Mexican population.
SPEED WINS AGAIN
Scott Speed won his fourth ARCA race of the season on Saturday night in Nashville. The former Scuderia Toro Rosso driver now leads the championship in his Red Bull-sponsored Eddie Sharp Racing Toyota.
ROYALS USE MOSLEY CASE FOR PRIVACY CLAIM
Mr Justice Eady's ruling in the Max Mosley sex case has established a new privacy law in the UK, based on precedent and it seems that this could, as feared by the media, be used to stop reporting of people's private lives.
ENGINE FAILURES IN F1
What is interesting about Felipe Massa's engine failure in Hungary is that it is a sign that engine development is not dormant as it is supposed to be with the FIA-imposed engine freeze.
KERS, SAFETY AND THE BATTLE FOR PERFORMANCE
The main issue in Formula 1 at the moment, beyond the obvious political fight between Max Mosley and Bernie Ecclestone, and the need for a new Concorde Agreement, is the introduction of the Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems (KERS).
ROSSITER GOING TO AMERICA?
Former Honda and Super Aguri F1 test driver James Rossiter has been announced as a driver with the Andretti Green Racing (AGR) in at least the next two races in the American Le Mans Series. He will join another former F1 man Franck Montagny.
THE 2009 DRIVER MARKET
The end of July - a classic option date - came and went with little action in F1 this year. McLaren confirmed Heikki Kovalainen for 2009 and Nico Rosberg let it be known that he will be staying with Williams.
RACE REPORT - SMOKE SIGNALS END FOR MASSA
You had to feel a little sorry for Felipe Massa on Sunday at the Hungaroring. The chirpy little Brazilian did everything that was needed to win the Hungarian GP in impressive fashion. He made a superb start and went around the outside of Lewis Hamilton in the first corner.
RACE RESULTS
Hungarian GP - Race Results
QUALIFYING REPORT - A PRETTY DECENT WEEKEND
Lewis Hamilton took pole position for the Hungarian Grand Prix and, with Heikki Kovalainen behind him on the grid and Kimi Raikkonen back in sixth place, was well-placed to improve his World Championship chances after qualifying in Budapest. With two wins behind him and the McLaren obviously getting better all the time, Lewis seemed very confident.
BOURDAIS GETS A PENALTY
Sebastien Bourdais has been given a five-place grid penalty for impeding Nick Heidfeld during the Q1 qualifying session in Budapest. This meant that Heidfeld was unable to get through the session and so ended up 16th on the grid. Bourdais went on to qualify 14th, but the penalty will drop him to 19th.
CVC AND ECCLESTONE "CLARIFY"
CVC Capital Partners has issued a press statement saying that "press speculation" about them is not true.
QUALIFYING RESULTS
Hungarian GP - Qualifying Results
POWERBROKERS
Before the British Grand Prix relations between Bernie Ecclestone and Max Mosley were best described as frayed. Things were then patched up. This was rumoured to have come about because CVC Capital Partners, which owns the majority of the Formula One group, was becoming increasingly uncomfortable about the situation between F1's two powerbrokers.
PRACTICE 3 REPORT - HAMILTON STAYS AHEAD
Lewis Hamilton stayed ahead of the field in the third practice session for the Hungarian GP, beating rival Felipe Massa by three-tenths of a second.
PRACTICE 3 RESULTS
Hungarian GP - Practice 3 Results
SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT
Last weekend was an embarrassing one for the NASCAR world. The Allstate 400 at the Brickyard was disrupted by tyre problems, which were not dissimilar to what happened to Formula 1 in 2005.
WHAT HAPPENED AT ENSTONE?
William Millar, a research and development engineer, was found on Wednesday morning lying by a footpath at Renault's Whiteways Technical Centre in Enstone, Oxfordshire.
PRACTICE 2 REPORT - MCLAREN GOES FASTEST
Lewis Hamilton took the fastest lap of the second session on Friday in Budapest with a best time that was two-tenths faster than his nearest challenger, on this occasion Nelson Piquet.
PRACTICE 2 RESULTS
Hungarian GP - Practice 2 Results
THE DEADLINE FOR 2009 ENTRIES IS PASSED
The FIA deadline for entries in Formula 1 in 2009 has now passed and although the list of teams has yet to be announced, there is no indication that any application has been made by an 11th team.
TRACK DEVELOPMENTS IN HUNGARY
The contract for the Hungarian GP runs until the 2011 race but the circuit president Laszlo Palik has told the local media that negotiations for a five-year extension until 2016 is close to being finalised and may be announced this weekend.
MOTORSPORT AND YACHTING TO MINGLE IN MONACO
This year’s Motor Sport Business Forum will offer even more value for delegates, sponsors and exhibitors as it is running in tandem with the World Yacht Racing Forum. The two world's will come together with a jointly-hosted cocktail event at the end of the first day.
A DEATH AT ENSTONE
The Renault F1 team was shocked on Wednesday when a research and development engineer was found dead at the team factory in Enstone. Police and paramedics were called and William Millar was pronounced dead at the scene.
PRACTICE 1 REPORT - FERRARI ON TOP IN HUNGARY
The morning session for the Hungarian GP resulted in a 1-2 for Ferrari with Felipe Massa three-tenths of a second faster than Kimi Raikkonen. The two McLarens of Heikki Kovalianen and Lewis Hamilton were next up, with Fernando Alonso fifth fastest, ahead of Timo Glock, Robert Kubica, Nelson Piquet, Nick Heidfeld and Jarno Trulli.
PRACTICE 1 RESULTS
Hungarian GP - Practice 1 Results
THURSDAY PRESS CONFERENCE
Hungarian GP - Thursday Press Conference
KOVALAINEN STAYING AT MCLAREN
It is no great surprise but Heikki Kovalainen has agreed to stay on at McLaren as Lewis Hamilton's team-mate in 2009. The Finn has done a decent job this year and will get stronger as he gets to know the team better.
SILVERSTONE GETS PLANNING - MINUS HOUSES
The British Racing Drivers’ Club has been granted planning permission to go ahead with its rebuilding at the northern end of the circuit. The only problem is that in order to get the agreement the circuit has had to drop the plans to build housing in Silverstone village.
MONTEZEMOLO HEADS FOTA
Getting Ferrari to join an association of Formula 1 teams was obviously not an easy thing to achieve and so it is not really a surprise to hear that the president of the new Formula One Teams Association (FOTA), will be Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo.
MICHAEL IN ROAD ACCIDENT IN ENGLAND
Michael Schumacher was involved in a road accident in England on Sunday, after attending the Silverstone Classic event. He was on his way to Lydd Airport in Kent at the wheel of a Fiat van (odd, but true) when he rounded a corner in Lydd-on-Sea and collided with a garage door, while overtaking another car.
A NEW BEGINNING
What goes around comes around. Back in the early 1970s the Formula 1 teams established an association to represent their interests in discussions with the governing body of the sport. That association became the Formula One Constructors Association.
F1 TEAMS IN NEW ASSOCIATION BID
The Formula 1 teams had a meeting today in Maranello, Italy, and have agreed to set up a new association called the Formula 1 Teams Association, that will negotiate with the FIA and Formula One Management to agree on a new Concorde Agreement.
RUMOURS ABOUT ALONSO
We reported some months ago that we believed that Fernando Alonso had signed a deal to race for Ferrari in 2010. This has been consistently denied by all concerned, but the rumours do not go away and the latest is that the Spaniard is looking at buying a house in the Italian-speaking region of Switzerland, which would be close enough to get to and from Maranello without too much drama.
A MEETING IN MARANELLO
The Formula 1 world is going through a quiet patch at the moment but today in Maranello the team principals will meet to discuss their response to the FIA's demand for proposals for new regulations.
CONSEQUENCES
Max Mosley has today issued proceedings against the News of the World for libel. Following his privacy claim, Mosley is now pursuing a claim for damages and aggravated damages in relation to defamatory allegations in the April 6 edition of the News of the World.
MULLER GETS INTO TROUBLE
Victor Muller, once the boss of the Spyker F1 team, has been fined $150,000 for insider trading when he was in charge of the team. The case relates to a bank loan that Muller had negotiated, using Spyker shares as the collateral.
NO NAZI PARTY SAYS JUDGE, JUST STRAIGHT S&M
Max Mosley has won his privacy action against the News of the World newspaper for printing pictures and publishing videos of a five-hour sadomasochistic sex sessions with prostitutes in a cellar in Chelsea.
RYAN GETS A PROMOTION
McLaren team manager Dave Ryan has been with the team since 1974 and has played a big role in turning McLaren into what it is today.
MICHELIN JOINS A1GP
Michelin is to become the exclusive tyre supplier to A1GP, beginning this autumn. The deal is for three years. The tyres have been tested on the new Ferrari-built cars and have clocked up 2500 miles of running in the hands of Andrea Bertolini, Patrick Friesacher and Marc Gene. The design of the tyres stem from technologies developed in F1.
THE GLOCK ACCIDENT
Timo Glock suffered a rear suspension failure at Hockenheim on Sunday and crashed heavily into the pitwall. The rearward impact had little in the way of deflection and so the driver took a lot of the force of the shunt.
RACE REPORT - LEWIS THE DOMINATOR
Thank you Timo Glock. It is true that the substantial impact that you had with the pit wall may have been a little painful and, despite the rather eccentric method by which you were extracted from your wrecked car, you did everyone a favour. Before the impact the German Grand Prix had been a rather dull affair. The crash lit the race up.
QUALIFYING REPORT - LEWIS'S SMASH AND GRAB
Lewis Hamilton snatched pole position at the end of the qualifying session for the German Grand Prix at Hockenheim. The McLaren star edged out Felipe Massa by two-tenths of a second in the final seconds of the session, while his team-mate Heikki Kovalainen bounced up to third.
QUALIFYING RESULTS
German GP - Qualifying Results
PRACTICE 3 REPORT - HEIKKI LEADS THE WAY
Heikki Kovalainen set the fastest time of the Saturday morning session in sunny but windy conditions at Hockenheim.
PRACTICE 3 RESULTS
German GP - Practice 3 Results
PRACTICE 2 REPORT - HAMILTON STAYS ON TOP
Lewis Hamilton set the fastest time of the second practice session for the German GP, lapping the Hockenheim track in 1m15.025s, a time that was seven-tenths clear of the best recorded in the session by Felipe Massa
F1 IN AMERICA
Yesterday Windshear Inc. held "a grand opening" for the world's first commercially available full-scale, single-belt, rolling road wind tunnel. This is located in Concord, North Carolina, in the heart of NASCAR country.
BMW SAUBER RUNS KERS SYSTEM
BMW Sauber conducted its first track tests of its Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS) at the company's Miramas test track in France last week. The work was done with a F1.07 with Marko Asmer doing the driving.
HOW FORMULA 2 CAN WORK
There has been much doubt expressed about the FIA's plans to reintroduce Formula 2 racing. The criticism has centred on the fact that there will be no promotion, no television and the price is so low that teams believe that the chassis will not be very sophistocated.
PRACTICE 2 RESULTS
German GP - Practice 2 Results
NO CHANGE AT HONDA?
Honda's Ross Brawn says that he is not looking to change the driver line-up next year. Brawn says that Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello will stay on with the team in 2009 and that the team's priority is to build a better car to help the drivers produce results.
PEUGEOT SNOOPING AROUND F1?
Peugeot Sport's director of communication Jean-Claude Lefebvre appeared in the paddock at Hockenheim, saying that he was "on holiday". This was much the same answer he gave 15 years ago when he appeared in the paddock prior to Peugeot's entry into F1 as an engine supplier in 1994.
PRACTICE 1 REPORT - MCLAREN 1-2 IN FRIDAY PRACTICE
Lewis Hamilton and Heikki Kovalainen set the pace in Hockenheim for the McLaren-Mercedes team, on a damp circuit.
PRACTICE 1 RESULTS
German GP - Practice 1 Results
THURSDAY PRESS CONFERENCE
German GP - Thursday Press Conference
VETTEL MOVES TO RED BULL FOR 2009
Red Bull has announced that Sebastian Vettel will move from Toro Rosso to drive for the Red Bull team starting in 2009, to replace David Coulthard, who will retire at the end of this season.
BUTTON TO JOIN RACE OF CHAMPIONS
Jenson Button has signed up to compete in the Race of Champions event at Wembley stadium on December 14.
DPR BUILDS UP ITS BUSINESS
The demise of the Super Aguri F1 team has resulted in a number of engineers coming on to the market and the Dave Price Racing organisation has moved quickly to snap up Gerry Hughes, the former chief race engineer of the team. Price says that he now intends to develop an aerodynamic research consultancy, with the focus being on simulation technology and 7-post rig testing.
A BIG CHANGE IN THE BEER WORLD
The Belgian brewery firm InBev has acquired the US beer firm Anheuser-Busch for $52bn. The purchase creates the world's largest beer company. The new company, which will be the number one beer company in the world, will be called Anheuser-Busch-InBev and will control brands such as Stella Artois, Bass, Beck's, Boddingtons, Brahma, Labatt, Lowenbrau, Budweiser, Busch, Michelob and Rolling Rock.
F1 ON THE STREETS OF MOSCOW
Hundreds of thousands of Russians turned out on Sunday to see a street demonstration put on by Holland's Rotterdam Racing and featuring Formula 1 cars from Williams and Red Bull Racing.
AN INTERESTING SETTLEMENT
Ferrari and McLaren have announced that they are bringing to an end the various legal disputes between them. McLaren has agreed to pay Ferrari's legal costs arising from the actions, which relate to the spying scandals of 2007.
VOLKSWAGEN AND F1
Hans-Joachim Stuck, the man who is in charge of all Volkswagen group motorsport activities, has told the Austrian newspaper Vorarlberger Nachrichten that the Wolfsburg conglomerate will not be entering Formula 1 in the next three years.
GREAT NEWS FOR F1
With all the hullabaloo surrounding the British Grand Prix last week one event was rather overlooked, although it is worth a mention for its is very good news for the F1 world.
BERNARD CAHIER 1927-2008
Bernard Cahier, one of the leading photojournalists in the history of Formula 1 has died at the age of 81. Cahier began photographing F1 in 1952 and developed strong friendships ith many of the stars of the era, notably Juan Manuel Fangio, Stirling Moss, Graham Hill, Jim Clark, Phil Hill, Dan Gurney, Jackie Stewart and Emerson Fittipaldi. In 1968 he was one of the founders of the International Racing Press Association (IRPA) which began the process of organising the media in F1, the famous red IRP armband becoming the F1 press pass for many years.
NEWS OF THE WORLD LOSES STAR WITNESS
The leading witness for The News of the World in the case against Max Mosley has withdrawn from giving evidence because her "emotional and mental state was such that it would not be fair or reasonable to call her to give evidence".
GARRETT TO LEAVE WILLIAMS
Scott Garrett, the head of marketing at Williams, has resigned from the team and is to become chief executive and a shareholder in KHP, a sports marketing agency which is close to the Formula One group.
FRANCE GOES TO WOKING
Jim France, vice chairman of the board of directors and executive vice president of NASCAR and the chief executive officer of International Speedway Corporation, was a visitor to the McLaren technical centre in Woking, Surrey, to day. It is not clear what France was doing in Woking but it seems that he was impressed by what he saw.
LOOKING AHEAD TO THE FORUM
With five months to go before the fourth annual Motor Sport Business Forum in Monaco the leading lights in the motor racing world have already signalled their intention to play a major role in this year's event.
PLANNING PERMISSION IN ENGLAND
Donington Park says it will be the home of the British Grand Prix by 2010, but there are many obstacles to be got over before that announcement becomes a reality.
ANOTHER IDEA FOR ST PETERSBURG
There has been talk of a Grand Prix in St Petersburg for some time, but thus far no deal has yet been agreed. It is thus interesting to hear that Valentina Matviyenko, the governor of St Petersburg, has told the Ekho Moskvy radio station that St Petersburg will bid for the 2020 Summer Olympics. She also said that if the city did not win the 2020 bid then it would bid again for 2024.
SUPER AGURI ASSETS ON SALE
The assets of the Super Aguri F1 team, will be sold in an online auction later this month. Auctioneers SHM Smith Hodgkinson have been instructed by administrators PKF to sell the assets between July 29 -31.
RACE REPORT - LEWIS SHOWS HIS CLASS
In the days when Mr Kipling was a celebrated poet, rather than a man who makes cakes, he wrote a poem by which many young men of the age tried to live their lives. It typified the attitude that built the British Empire.
WHERE TO DRAW THE LINE?
FIA President Max Mosley was revealed in March as having been involved in a sado-masochistic orgy, with five prostitutes. He has refused to resign his position, arguing that what he does in private is his own business and that the world does not need to know.
DONINGTON BOSS SAYS FANS WILL PAY FOR RACE
Donington Park boss Simon Gillett has astonished the F1 world by announcing that the circuit does not have a secret backer, nor planning permission. And he says that the rebuilding work will be achieved by selling debentures on seats at the British GP - or by a bond issue.
QUALIFYING REPORT - HEIKKI'S SILVER BULLET?
In recent years Ferrari has led a charmed life in Formula 1. Everyone else has been looking for a means to slay the mystical Ferrari beast. At Silverstone the McLarens looked like silver bullets - and the folk at Ferrari looked rather worried.
QUALIFYING RESULTS
British GP - Qualifying Results
PRACTICE 3 REPORT - ALONSO FASTEST
In a wet/dry session at Silverstone on Saturday morning, Fernando Alonso set the pace in his Renault with Mark Webber second quickest in his Red Bull-Renault.
PRACTICE 3 RESULTS
British GP - Practice 3 Results
BRITISH GP FOR DONINGTON!
The British GP will be at Donington from 2010, at least according to a press release this morning from the FIA. The announcement says that a contract has been signed. There are a number of very odd aspects to the announcement, not least that it has been made by the FIA, which is not supposed to be involved in this sort of thing.
PRACTICE 2 REPORT - HEIKKI HEADS THE LIST
Heikki Kovalainen was fastest in the second session for the British Grand Prix, but the timesheets revealed that there was not much to be taken seriously in the session.
DONINGTON HAS PLANNING PERMISSION?
The word in the paddock at Silverstone is that Donington Park already has planning permission for a major rebuild to create a new F1-standard facility by 2010.
PRACTICE 2 RESULTS
British GP - Practice 2 Results
BP JOINS THE OLYMPICS
BP has been a major supporter of motorsport over the years dating back to the early days of the sport. At the end of the 1960s the company quit F1 and concentrated on other formulae, but returned to F1 in 1983 with the Toleman team.
PRACTICE 1 REPORT - MASSA A BIG HIT
Felipe Massa set the fastest time of the first session for the British GP at Silverstone, but the Brazilian's morning was ruined when he hit oil and spun heavily into the wall at Stowe, causing considerable damage to the rear end of his car.
PRACTICE 1 RESULTS
British GP - Practice 1 Results
HEAD STRONG ON TODT
Patrick Head is not a man who minces words and this week he has told The Independent exactly what he thinks of the idea of former Ferrari boss Jean Todt becoming the next FIA President.
A MOMENT OF PEACE?
The last few months have seen a deal of stress and strain between Max Mosley and Bernie Ecclestone, although it has been very difficult towork out whether they were really at odds or whether they were (as usual) working together. The one thing on which everyone agreed was that a division between the two made little sense.
AUSTRALIA CONFIRMS DEAL UNTIL 2015
The Australian Grand Prix has been secured for another seven years. The Victorian government and Bernie Ecclestone have agreed to a new deal, with the races starting at 5pm.
THURSDAY PRESS CONFERENCE
British GP - Thursday Press Conference
MARK WEBBER RE-SIGNS FOR RED BULL RACING
Red Bull Racing has announced that Mark Webber will stay with the team until at least the end of the 2009 season.
MOSLEY TALKS RULES
Max Mosley has written to all the F1 teams with his latest ideas about the Formula 1 rules and, in keeping with his current policy of winning friends, he has "invited" the teams to come up with proposals for new rules, rather than telling them how things are going to be.
COULTHARD TO RETIRE
David Coulthard has announced his retirement from Formula 1 at the end of the season. The news is not a surprise.
A CELEBRATION OF NOTE
Motor Sport magazine celebrated its 1000th edition in London this week with a pary in its new offices in Chelsea. Motor Sport was founded in 1924 as the Brooklands Gazette, but changed its name two years later.
F1 KNOWLEDGE TO HELP DRAG RACERS
The death of Scott Kalitta, one of the stars of the National Hot Rod Association's (NHRA) biggests stars a week ago at Englishtown, New Jersey, has called for changes in safety measures in the sport and the NHRA is now looking at ways to improve its safety with the specific aims being to stop engine explosions, find better ways to employ parachutes, develop brakes to more effectively stop the cars and to examine better run-off areas and catch nets.
ANOTHER SLAP IN THE FACE FOR SILVERSTONE
Grand Prix racing is not a favourite of British politicians, although this was not always the case. Back in 1996, the soon-to-be Prime Minister Tony Blair attended the British GP as a guest of the FIA. There were six other MPs present at the event that year.
GURDJIAN CONCENTRATES ON ABU DHABI
Philippe Gurdjian, the man in charge of the Circuit Paul Ricard for the last nine years, is standing down from his role in order to concentrate on getting the Abu Dhabi F1 circuit finished in time for the Grand Prix at the end of next year.
