Formula One News — July 2005

There was a big crowd at Silverstone on Friday for the first practice for the British Grand Prix.

The greatest weapon that the civilised world has against the sort of people who perpetrate acts of violence such as were seen yesterday in London is normality.

British GP - Preview

The FIA has announced details of its survey of race fans, which took place before the recent debacle at Indianapolis. The survey attracted 93,000 answers and revealed pretty much what one expect to see from fans.

An Indianapolis lawyer is advising fans that they should not accept Michelin's offer to refund tickets from this year's United States Grand Prix - lest it affect their rights to claim damages.

The details of what happened in Munich on Wednesday are a closely-guarded secret but our spies suggest that the focus of the F1 teams was very much on the longterm future rather than getting too much involved with politics.

Today in Munich there is another meeting of the Formula 1 teams which are opposed to the current way in which the sport is being run.

Safety, according to Max Mosley's letter to David Coulthard this morning, is "of paramount importance" to the FIA. This is an admirable statement but clearly 22 drivers do not agree that this was in the forefront of Mosley's thinking last week when he was on the telephone to David Coulthard.

Mark Webber has launched an attack on F1's qualifying format because he says he had to suffer burns into order to finish the French Grand Prix so as to avoid running early in the qualifying session at the next race.

Red Bull Racing is to appeal the FIA World Council decision which found the team guilty of "acts prejudicial to the interests of a competition".

Max Mosley earlier today cancelled a meeting planned for Friday meeting with the Formula 1 drivers to discuss safety measures with drivers. The FIA President called off the meeting because of remarks made by David Coulthard in an interview in The Times.

Max Mosley and his troops like to make fun of Paul Stoddart, calling him "a sad case" and trying to laugh him off as being a ridiculous figure. But the Minardi team boss is a danger to the FIA President - as he showed earlier this year in Australia.

Red Bull Racing has announced that David Coulthard has extended his contract and will stay with the team in 2006, when he will be driving a Ferrari-powered RB2. Coulthard will probably be joined by Tonio Liuzzi but that decision has yet to be confirmed.

The Grand Prix Drivers' Association has blown the lid off the rumours that have been doing the rounds in recent days about what Max Mosley said to GPDA chairman David Coulthard in a telephone conversation on Tuesday June 28

The proposed FIA regulations for 2008 are much as expected but they do include two very interesting items: a restriction on testing to no more than 30,000 km in a calendar year and the introduction of a control tyre.

David Coulthard was under pressure at Magny-Cours. He told his fellow drivers about conversations which he had had with FIA President Max Mosley. This upset the majority of the drivers.

The FIA yesterday published a draft of the technical regulations it wants for 2008 and beyond - and an explanation of why it wants them. The primary aim is to cut costs by reducing the technology involved.

There are two ways of looking at what happened at the French Grand Prix at Magny-Cours. There was the French way. "Eh bah, voila! Quelle victoire! Vive la France! etc etc etc." A massive win for Renault and Michelin. A defeat for the Anglo-Saxons. Fantastique. Or there was the Ango-Saxon way to look at the story.

Ferrari boss Jean Todt has told reporters that he supports FIA President Max Mosley. This is not a surprise. The views underline once again that Ferrari is completely isolated from all the other Formula 1 teams of note.

French GP - Race Notes

French GP - Sunday Photos

The Formula 1 drivers spent a lot of time talking to one another last weekend at Magny-Cours with a series of meetings taking place over the course of the weekend. There was also a lot of action with documents flying around, some of which required signatures.

French GP - Sunday Press Conference

French GP - Race incidents