Formula One News — May 2004

In a surprise announcement DaimlerChrysler has revealed that Dr Wolfgang Bernhard will not be taking over from Jurgen Hubbert as head of Mercedes-Benz as had been planned.

Jean Todt has been named as director-general of the Ferrari company and will take over some of the work previously done by Luca di Montezemolo.

FIA President Max Mosley has been giving details of the Formula 1 meeting in Monaco.

The Formula 1 bosses meet today in Monte Carlo to discuss FIA President Max Mosley's proposals for Formula 1 in 2008. The teams have little or no say in how these are formulated because the Concorde Agreement, the document that has controlled the sport for the last 22 years, runs out at the end of 2007.

Work is now close to completion on the Shanghai International Circuit in China. The work began in October 2002 with a plan to complete everything in 18 months. It was an impressive undertaking but the work has kept to schedule.

There was plenty of action over the weekend with British Formula 3 at Croft, the Euroseries at Estoril in Portugal, the Eurpean Formula 3000 series in Brno in the Czech Republic and Formula Nippon at Sugo in Japan.

It is 10 years today since the death of Ayrton Senna at Imola. The Brazilian three-time World Champion (1988, 1990, 1991) was a man of monumental genius, frightening commitment and a willingness to push right to the edge.

Jacques Villeneuve may be making some noise about a possible return to Formula 1 but while Jacques may be interested in returning to a team like Williams - which has a vacancy or two in 2005 - it is highly unlikely that the team is going to show much interest in him.