Formula One News — April 2002

Two of the banks involved in talks to save Kirch Media have decided they have had enough of the wrangling and have withdrawn from the talks.

Most of the Formula 1 websites were very excited on Wednesday after a report that Jenson Button's future will be decided by the British Grand Prix.

There was no big surprise when Peter Sauber let slip that Felipe Massa could leave Sauber and go to Ferrari next year - if the Italian team decides to take up an option it has on the young Brazilian.

Hans Snook, the former boss of the Orange mobile phone company - and the man who pioneered the company's Formula 1 sponsorship, has recently been appointed chairman of Carphone Warehouse, Europe's biggest mobile phone retailer.

The biggest surprise of the Formula 1 season to date has been the performance of Toyota Motorsport GmbH.

There have been rumors in recent days suggesting that Craig Pollock will be joining the Phoenix Finance Ltd. bid to turn a few assets of the defunct Prost Grand Prix into a Formula 1 team.

There are time when Formula 1 looks like a mad world with all the quibbling and back-biting that goes on in the sport but the Americans have it far worse at the moment.

The Sauber team said at its launch that there is no need for a test driver, but sources within the team say that this is becoming a disadvantage as all F1 drivers have a tendency to have a "mental hangover" for the first couple of days after a Grand prix and do not produce the results that the team wants to see in testing.

The constantly attacking anti-tobacco lobby in the United States has come up with a new plan to try to stop the tobacco companies advertising their products in America.

The weather dried up for the second day of testing at the Valencia circuit in Spain on Wednesday, and the eight teams participating in the test were able to do some useful runs on the dry track.

There have been a lot of rumors in recent days about the engineers who will be employed at Jaguar Racing in the future.

Although pay-per-view television coverage of Formula 1 has not been a resounding success, the NASCAR organization in the United States is reported to be considering launching its own multi-channel pay-per-view television package.

The preliminary TV ratings for Speed Channel's coverage of the first two Grands Prix of 2002 are very disappointing with an audience averaging only 145,000 people.

Jaguar Racing says that it will shortly announce a new aerodynamicist of note to add to the team's collection of windtunnel types.

It is worth noting that in the three races to date only four drivers have consistently out-qualified their team mates.

It is not big news that there are second, third and even fourth generation (Andretti) racing drivers but we have not seen many sons of Formula 1 engineers making much of an impression as racing drivers.

Despite the heavy rain in Spain, the eight teams that made the trip to the Valencia circuit did get some testing in Tuesday.

Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd has confirmed that it is selling the Sepang Circuit - and the company that runs it - to the Malaysian government's investment company Minister of Finance Inc.

The Phoenix Finance bid for recognition is still not dead, according to paddock rumors in Brazil.