Arrows Misses Belgian Target

The Arrows team had been hoping to compete in this weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix but they have announced that the sheer volume of paperwork involved in the sale of the team was too much for them to finish in time and so they have been advised not to compete.

They packed up and went home before practice started today and once again the grid will be down to 20 cars this weekend.

Posted: Friday, August 30th, 2002

Frentzen To Sauber In 2003

Heinz-Harald Frentzen has signed a one-year contract to drive for Sauber next year. It will be something of a homecoming for Frentzen who started his Formula 1 career with a three-year stint at Sauber from 1994-1996.

Sauber will be Frentzen’s fourth team in three years as he was released mid-way through the 2001 season by Jordan only to get a drive with the Prost team that folded after the season ended. This year he was hired by Arrows but he left them a few weeks ago after their financial and legal problems made it impossible for them to field a team at several recent races.

Frentzen will partner current Sauber driver Nick Heidfeld which means that Brazilian rookie Felipe Massa will lose his seat. Massa has been offered the opportunity to stay on as a test driver but his agent is apparently trying to find him a better option for next year.

Posted: Tuesday, August 27th, 2002

Montoya Stays With Williams

The BMW WilliamsF1 team has announced that they have extended Juan Pablo Montoya’s contract for two more years to the end of the 2004 season.

Could it be a coincidence that this means that Montoya will be available after 2004 when Michael Schumacher’s contract at Ferrari expires?

Posted: Friday, August 23rd, 2002

Barrichello Wins 2002 Hungarian GP

Since Michael Schumacher clinched the Formula 1 Drivers’ World Championship two races ago the emphasis has shifted to winning the Constructors’ title for Ferrari and getting his teammate Rubens Barrichello into second place in the Drivers’ Championship…

Complete GP of Hungary results.

In Hungary today they achieved their goal. Barrichello started from the pole and led all the way to the finish — apart from a few shuffles during pit stops — with Schumacher never more than a few seconds behind him which secured the Constuctors’ title and moved Barrichello into second place. Beyond that they were the class of the field easily pulling away from the third place Williams of Ralf Schumacher and finishing as far ahead of him as they wanted. The final gap was around 14 seconds but the Ferrari pair had eased off to ensure maximum points for the team or it could have been several times as much.

Kimi Raikkonen was fourth having battled past Juan Pablo Montoya early in the race. Just like in the German GP they drove side-by-side but this time Raikkonen came out on top and Montoya ran wide onto the grass. Montoya saved the Williams but lost several places and part of his bodywork in the process and he would eventually finish 11th on a weekend where — unusually for him — he never got to grips with the track.

David Coulthard moved up several places to bring the second McLaren home in fifth but he had never really been in contention during the race.

Giancarlo Fisichella was sixth for Jordan but had been better placed for much of the race until the last pit stop which allowed both of the McLarens to get past him.

During a pit stop Pedro De La Rosa pulled out of his pit and was accelerating along the pit lane when the Toyota pit crew waved Mike Salo out in front of him. Luckily de la Rosa avoided running into the back of the Jaguar but he almost hit the pit wall in the process. After the race Toyota and Salo were given a time penalty which dropped him from 13th to 15th place below de la Rosa and his own teammate Allan McNish.

Anthony Davidson spun out of his first ever Grand Prix and finished with the wheels of his Minardi buried in a gravel trap.

Posted: Sunday, August 18th, 2002

New Man At Minardi

BAR test-driver Anthony Davidson will replace Alex Yoong in the Minardi at this weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix. Yoong has failed to reach a qualifying time within 107% of the pole time three times so far this year.

It will be Davidson’s first Formula 1 start although he has completed thousands of test miles in the Honda powered BAR F1 car.

Davidson (23) was last year’s FIA European Formula 3 champion and was a runner up to his (then) teammate Takuma Sato in the British F3 series. Sato has since gone on to drive for the Jordan Honda F1 team.

Whether Davidson will keep the seat or Yoong will return at some point has not yet been announced.

Former CART driver Bryan Herta tested last year’s Minardi in England during the week and there is a possibility that he might be joining the team in the future as F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone has long maintained that he would like an American driver in the series to raise the level of interest in the US but it is doubtful if Herta could get enough seat time to be considered for this year’s USGP next month.

Posted: Thursday, August 15th, 2002

No Arrows In Hungary

The Arrows team have announced that, as a result of their ongoing conflict with their existing shareholders, they will not be taking part in this weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix while they continue to look for new investors.

It remains to be seen if this is a temporary hiatus or if it means the permanent end of the team.

Heinz-Harald Frentzen announced after the German Grand Prix that he would not be driving for the team again.

Posted: Wednesday, August 14th, 2002