Formula One News — September 1997

WE understand that the three "rebel" teams - McLaren, Williams and Tyrrell - which last year refused to sign the 1997-2001 Concorde Agreement, have lodged a formal complaint with the European Commission against the agreement, claiming that the agreement is in violation of Articles 85 and 86 of the Treaty of Rome, which prohibit cartels and the abuse of a dominant position.

THE FIA Formula 1 Commission met at the Nurburgring to discuss a number of issues for the 1998 season.

FRANK WILLIAMS was due to announce as we were closing for press that he is retaining Jacques Villeneuve and Heinz-Harald Frentzen for the 1998 season.

TONY DOWE, who switched from the role of operations manager to that of marketing manager at Arrows a few months ago, has quit Tom Walkinshaw's team and is rumored to be returning to the United States of America to work for Panoz Motor Sports in Atlanta, Georgia.

IT was no great surprise when Benetton finally announced that Flavio Briatore is to leave the team and that David Richards has been appointed chief executive.

RUMORS in the Luxembourg Grand Prix paddock suggested that Spanish driver Pedro de la Rosa, who has recently clinched the Formula Nippon Championship in Japan, will be moving into F1 next season with backing from the Spanish oil company Repsol.

THE word in the paddock at the Nurburgring was that Jarno Trulli will be back in a Prost-Mugen Honda at the season-closing European Grand Prix at Jerez on October 26.

WE hear that Ferrari is to end its associations with the clothing company Cerruti and with the Japanese electronics firm Pioneer.

WITH Benetton having finally admitted that it has a deal to run Mecachrome V10 engines in 1998, Tom Walkinshaw is almost certain to put the finishing touches to another deal with Yamaha - despite a string of engine problems this season.

GERHARD BERGER seems to be the man left standing after the annual round of F1 musical chairs and he is now having to face up to the fact that he will almost certainly not be racing in F1 next year.

THE Formula 1 silly season died a quick death in the days before the Austrian GP as the 1998 driver combinations fell into place.

THE Benetton team has announced that it will be running Giancarlo Fisichella and Alexander Wurz next year, following a decision of the High Court in London last week that Fisichella was bound by a Benetton contract.

ALAIN PROST was very unhappy when he discovered on Wednesday last week that he did not have Damon Hill for 1998.

FLAVIO BRIATORE has told the staff of Benetton Formula that he is leaving the team in the near future.

THERE does not seem to be a place for the French GP in the Formula 1 World Championship next season.

DAMON HILL has signed a two-year deal to drive for Benson & Hedges Jordan for a rumored $10m a year.

WE hear that Maserati is planning to return to high profile motor racing.

MICHELE ALBORETO was back in the witness box at the Senna trial in Imola last week claiming that mechanical failure caused Ayrton Senna's fatal crash in 1994.

INDIANAPOLIS bosses Tony George and Leo Mehl flew to London last week to have talks with Bernie Ecclestone about the possibility of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway hosting a Grand Prix in the future.

THE much talked about British American Tobacco Formula 1 project is apparently back on track after a couple of rocky weeks during which it was rumored that the money would be going to David Richards to support his efforts to take over the Benetton team. These were apparently rather wide of the mark.

FIA President Max Mosley met the Portuguese Minister of the Economy last week in Lisbon and confirmed that there is no longer any reason why Estoril should be excluded from the 1998 Formula 1 World Championship.

TED BALL, the man who funded both the Brabham and Lotus F1 teams in the early 1990s, went on trial last week at the Old Bailey in London facing charges of conspiracy to defraud and accepting bribes.

OLIVIER PANIS made a successful return to F1 last week at Magny-Cours, lapping the track in a time which was faster than Michael Schumacher's pole position at the French Grand Prix in June.

ALAIN PROST has been quietly building up his technical team in recent weeks with the hiring of a number of new young designers for his drawing office at Magny-Cours which is run by veteran Ligier engineer Claude Delbet under the instructions of chief designer Loic Bigois.