Formula One News — March 2002

One of the issues which will be discussed at the forthcoming Formula 1 Commission meeting is the question of whether or not it is a good idea for there to be two-day Grands Prix.

The first race of the CART series has been won by Cristiano da Matta at the wheel of a Lola-Toyota.

One of Michael Schumacher's Benetton-Ford B194s is to be sold in an Internet auction. The car will be offered by ebay.co.uk with the bidding starting on Wednesday and lasting for 10 days.

Leo Kirch, the boss of the troubled Kirch Group, will decide today whether or not he is going to have to sell off chunks of his media empire to keep the whole business afloat.

Pat Symonds, the technical director of Benetton Formula between 1996 and 2000, is rumored to be leaving the team at the end of the season - but it is not yet clear where he is going to work instead.

The Minardi team, the heroes of Melbourne, have been looking around in recent days to strengthen its engineering team.

Henri Durand, the technical director of Prost Grand Prix, has still to find a new job following the collapse of the French team.

The Northern Irish media is suggesting that Gary Anderson will soon be named technical director of Jordan Grand Prix once again.

Time is ticking away before the Formula 1 Commission meets to discuss the proposed changes to the FIA sporting regulations which could introduce a restriction on the number of engines allowed during a race weekend.

With McLaren's regular drivers still in Asia, testing was left to Jean Alesi, the F1 veteran doing tire development work for three days at the Circuit Paul Ricard at Le Castellet.

David Richards, the new boss of British American Racing, has an interesting definition of insanity: believing that things will improve if you do the same thing all over again with the same people.

new Ferrari F2002 is responding to treatment in Italy as the team's test driver Luca Badoer continues to put more miles on the new car.

As expected, Ferrari will again use the F2001 to compete in Malaysia, giving the test team more time to develop the new F2002 before it is debuted.

The German tobacco company Reemtsma, the owner of McLaren title sponsor West, has been sold to Britain's Imperial Tobacco for $5.1 billion.

Tommy Suharto, the man who was behind the plan to hold a Grand Prix in Indonesia a few years ago, has been charged with masterminding the murder of Supreme Court judge Syafiuddin Kartasasmita in July 20001.

Formula 1 boss Bernie Ecclestone met with automobile manufacturers at Geneva this week to discuss a deal over the commercial rights to Formula 1 racing.

Jacques Villeneuve's idea that there should be 25 races and no testing sounds good but in reality would greatly increase the costs of Formula 1.

For some months Formula 1 has been trying to convince the ABC network increase its coverage of Formula 1 in the United States of America.

Jaguar Racing may have scored three points in Australia but the team is well aware that luck was an important element in Melbourne and it is not likely to happen again.

Formula 1 and the European Union spent years sorting out the problems which were perceived to exist within the structure of the sport.

CART has issued its financial forecasts for the forthcoming year and has revealed that it will be spending $9.9m in 2002 in "production cost and time-buy expenses" as part of its agreement with Fox/Speed Channel and CBS.

It has been rumored for some months now but it looks increasingly likely that Ferrari is going to be floated at some point in the near future.

Ferrari's sporting director, Jean Todt, has told the Italian press that the team is considering taking both the F2001 and F2002 to Malaysia for the second round of the world championship next weekend.

As scheduled, Jean Alesi tested for McLaren at the Paul Ricard circuit on Tuesday. The Frenchman was offered the test after signing a deal to drive for Mercedes in the 2002 German touring car series (DTM).