Formula One News — May 2005

British American Racing Honda has announced that it is not going to go to a civil court because it cannot get legal matters sorted out fast enough to be able to run in Spain.

BMW has revealed a major problem for the Spanish Grand Prix and as a result the engines in both Nick Heidfeld's and Mark Webber's cars will need to have engine changes because of problems with a faulty exhaust valve.

British American Racing Honda is facing a race against time to get a court to rule that it can take part in the Spanish Grand Prix. The problem is that the FIA is under French jurisdiction and there was a French national holiday on Thursday.

The first stop in the battle between the FIA and BAR-Honda is likely to be Tribunal de Grande Instance in Paris. There are 181 such courts in France and as the FIA is officially headquartered at 8 Place de la Concorde in Paris, it is governed by French law.

BAR Honda is not going to take the FIA International Court of Appeal decision sitting down. The team's chief executive Nick Fry read a statement to the media in Barcelona two hours after the FIA decision was made public and made it clear that the team is not going to give up.

The FIA International Court of Appeal has ruled that BAR-Honda should be suspended from the next two races and has been given a six-month suspension, suspended for a year.

Juan Pablo Montoya will be back in action for McLaren at the Spanish Grand Prix this weekend after missing two races through injury. The team announced the news in a statement on Wednesday.

Bernie Ecclestone says that France needs a Grand Prix driver. Ecclestone was a surprise guest of the French Federation boss Jacques Regis at a media lunch yesterday in London, to promote ticket sales for the Magny-Cours event.

Australia's Mark Preston says that he has longterm plans to enter a team in Formula 1.

Bernie Ecclestone told journalists in London ion Wednesday that F1 should restrict its testing during the F1 season to just 10 days and increase activity on the Friday at each Grand Prix.

Spanish GP - Preview

Reports in Australia indicate that the Australian Grand Prix will be run on April 2 next year, clashing with the start of the Aussie Rules football season and will come just a few days after the end of the Commonwealth Games.

The FIA Court of Appeal met in Paris this morning to discuss the case of BAR Honda at the San Marino Grand Prix. The judges present for the case were Xavier Conesa (Spain), Vassilis Koussis (Greece), Erich Sedelmayer (Austria) and Pierre Tourigny (Canada).

The FIA technical delegate delegate Jo Bauer admitted at the FIA International Court of Appeal that he knew about the fuel collector inside the BAR fuel tank in Malaysia and was not a secret mechanism.

Chris Chapple has been appointed as the chief exceutive of the BMW Williams F1 team. The appointment is part of a reorganisation which includes a new Senior Management Group, which will be the key decision-making forum within the organisation.

The FIA has asked the FIA International Court of Appeal to exclude BAR-Honda from the 2005 Formula 1 World Championship and to fine the team at least $1.3m.

The British American Racing test last week at Mugello resulted in the BAR-Hondas going fastest and completing an impressive number of laps.

After being pounded by criticism at Imola, the GP2 series has decided to make changes to its rules. In the first race the drivers will now have to make only one compulsory pit stop rather than the two that occurred at Imola.

Mario Theissen, the head of BMW Motorsport is to propose to the BMW board of directors that the Munich company increase its investment in F1 and buy control of the Sauber team.

Sir Jackie Stewart held a lunch for some of the British media this week and the British Racing Drivers' Club president told the reporters that the battle for control of the club is about his honour.

The FIA International Court of Appeal meets today in Paris and its deliberations over British American Racing will be watched closely by the Formula 1 world.

The Minardi F1 Team has confirmed that it has signed an engine supply contract with Cosworth Racing for the 2006 season, with an option to continue in 2007. The arrangement will see the Faenza team's 2006 cars powered by a further development of the the current V10 engine.

Ferrari continues to test whenever it chooses to do so. The Italian team says that the testing is justified because it is the only major team using Bridgestone rubber and that the other teams rejected all of its proposals regarding testing.

There is no question that McLaren talked down the seriousness of Juan Pablo Montoya's shoulder injury in Bahrain, reporting only of a minor fracture of the left scapula.