Formula One News — May 2001

WILLIAMS driver Juan Pablo Montoya will be using traction control at the start of the Monaco Grand Prix, he confirmed on Wednesday.

DR. ROBERT HUBBARD and James Downing, inventors of the Head and Neck Support device (HANS), have been honored with the USA's Louis Schitzer Award for technical innovation and engineering excellence.

ONE of the least impressive showings in Formula 1 this year has been the performance of the Honda V10 engine.

BRIDGESTONE FIRESTONE has announced that it will stop supplying tires to the Ford Motor Company, ending a relationship which dates back 100 years.

MIKE GASCOYNE, Benetton's technical director, is aware his team needs an improvement in reliability as well as speed if they are to end their dismal run of form.

MCLAREN's David Coulthard believes his team still have plenty to do if he is to continue his championship challenge.

GERMAN media baron Leo Kirch says that he is going to increase his shareholding in SLEC - the holding company which controls the Formula One group of companies.

MICHAEL SCHUMACHER's future at Ferrari was secured on Tuesday after the German driver extended his contract until the end of the 2004 season.

BRITISH AMERICAN RACING said on Monday their appeal against Kimi Raikkonen's fourth-place finish in Austria was for a change in rules rather than against the Sauber driver.

FORMER Minardi team manager and chairman Gabriele Rumi died after a brave fight against cancer on Monday evening, the team announced on Tuesday.

MICHAEL SCHUMACHER fears that the opening lap of the Monaco Grand Prix could be littered with carnage after he expressed his concerns over the launch control problems.

FEARS that a potentially disastrous startline collision could wreck Sunday's Monaco grand prix were voiced yesterday by one of formula one racing's top engineers.

FORD MOTOR COMPANY's premier motor sport arms, consisting of Jaguar Racing, Cosworth Racing and Pi will have a new home at the former Royal Air Force nuclear air base of Gaydon, in Warwickshire, England.

FINN Mika Hakkinen is refusing to predict an end to his dismal run of form in the Monaco Grand Prix this weekend.

TRIPLE world champion Michael Schumacher has said that he wants Rubens Barrichello to continue as his Ferrari team-mate next season.

ALTHOUGH this will be Juan Pablo Montoya's first Formula One race in Monaco, the Colombian driver is very familiar with the streets of Monte Carlo.

RALF SCHUMACHER has urged his former BMW-Williams team-mate Jenson Button to push harder to make the most of his opportunity at the Benetton team.

FERRARI president Luca di Montezemolo's decision not to take up a post in the Italian government has relieved the team's star driver Michael Schumacher.

ALTHOUGH Toyota Motorsport is ignoring Minardi's attempts to get compensation for the loss of Gustav Brunner, Minardi insists that a contract does exist and that legal action will follow against Brunner and Toyot

FORMULA ONE faced an uncertain future on Friday night as the Association of European Car manufacturers (ACEA) signed an agreement to go ahead with plans to set up a rival series in 2008.

LUCA DI MONTEZEMOLO, president of Ferrari, has defended the team's decision to impose team orders in Sunday's Austrian Grand.

JACQUES VILLENEUVE has targeted a top-three placing for British American Racing after pledging his allegiance to the Brackley-based team.

A single podium place this year and a distant sixth place in the Constructors' Championship for the team they sponsor and part-own - trailing fellow Honda users Jordan - may be the least of the current PR problems for British American Tobacco this year. Having sluiced an estimated $100 million away supporting Craig Pollock's team over the past two and a half years, they now face an understandably bad press in the UK thanks to a relatively modest $5.7 million gift to a British university.

CRAIG POLLOCK, managing director of British American Racing, has said that his team and Jordan must work together to get the best from engine supplier Honda.