Found some news
Game over, again, for Villeneuve
02/11/2005 14:09
For the second time in three years, 1997 champion Jacques Villeneuve could be about to find himself without an F1 home.
Although the French Canadian last year signed a 2005 and 2006 contract to drive for Sauber, the Swiss team has been bought and taken over by BMW.
While that does not affect the status of Peter Sauber's legal agreement, the Munich based carmaker did not choose the 34-year-old, and therefore might not want him at Hinwil.
To sidestep its contractual obligation, then, BMW could simply pay Jacques his modest $3m retainer to do little more than gardening next year.
It is believed that Alex Wurz (McLaren tester) and Heikki Kovalainen (Renault RDD driver) are further up BMW's wish list to be Nick Heidfeld's BMW teammate in 2006.
Villeneuve told f1total.com that there has been no dialogue between himself and likely 2006 BMW principal Mario Theissen. "I find that surprising," he told the German language internet website.
Jacques added: "I always adhere to my contracts, so I would be surprised if (BMW) did not see it the same way."
Villeneuve added that he had not been advised when he might be required for pre-2006 winter testing, which is set to kick off in late November.
Surgery for Kimi
31/10/2005 08:00
F1 driver Kimi Raikkonen is currently recovering from surgery.
The 26-year-old 2005 title runner-up, who drives for McLaren, had planned a post-season holiday with wife Jenni, but called it off when he visited a doctor complaining of pain in his left knee.
It is reported that Raikkonen has undergone an 'arthroscopic meniscal' procedure in Helsinki (Finland).
The surgery involves the removal and repair of damaged knee cartilage. Kimi is reportedly already at home and hobbling about on crutches, and is not expected to alter plans to test the new McLaren MP4-21 in January.
JV's eyes slow him down?
31/10/2005 14:31
Like a few other drivers, the 34-year-old Canadian wears contact lenses while at the wheel of his grand prix racer.
But, unlike Ralf Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello, the French Canadian - who may stay at Hinwil (Sauber) next year to drive for BMW - is seldom seem anywhere in the paddock without a pair of glasses.
It has led to speculation that JV has the worst eyesight in formula one. Moreover, it is understood that contact lenses do not restore his vision to '20-20'.
"If my eyesight was bad," Jacques told F1 Racing magazine, "then I would have hit a guardrail at Monaco.
"Well, I was very quick at Monaco."
Villeneuve reckons some other drivers - not just Ralf and Rubens - 'hide the fact' that they also wear contact lenses.
Honda queries radical FIA wing
02/11/2005 14:09
BAR-Honda has given a lukewarm reception to the FIA's proposed 2008 radical rear wing.
Team principal Nick Fry said the idea, effectively to chop out a middle section of the current design to aid overtaking, needs 'a lot more work' to ensure it's a good move.
The FIA's proposal was devised with the help of commercial partner AMD computational fluid dynamics (CFD).
"We're one of the biggest proponents of CFD," Fry insisted, "but it only gives you a good guide for what you should be doing, it doesn't ... give you all the answers."
The concept has been passed on to F1's technical working group, and Fry agrees that 'more work' and 'more wind tunnel tests' need to be done.
In the 'knockout' qualifying department, Fry gave a thumbs-up, but he dithered when asked about the scrapping of the '05 tyre rule.
"Those of us on Michelin tyres clearly had a big advantage over our Bridgestone rivals," Fry said of the return of tyre changing.
Ferrari hails F1 revamp
02/11/2005 13:39
Ferrari has hailed the changes to formula one's rulebook for 2006.
At the end of the worst season for the Maranello team in more than a decade, president Luca di Montezemolo saluted a new "knockout" qualifying format for 2006, and branded the axing of the one-tyre-per-race regulation a 'good move' for formula one.
"We could not go on arriving at Monza on the Saturday to be greeted by empty stands or have people turning on the television for only the final 10 minutes," he told the Corriere della Sera newspaper.
"It seems to me to be a good solution as a spectacle and a challenge."
Montezemolo, a staunch critic of the 2005 formula, said the new qualifying format should reinvoke the 'last second' dash for pole as seen in 'Lauda or Senna's day', and heralded the return of tyre changing because he said tyres had become 'too important'.
He added: "Being unable to change tyres made races more dangerous.
"The drivers were forced to drive like taxis over the closing laps." Unsaid, meanwhile, the change will also allow Bridgestone the opportunity to relive the dominance of the pre-2005 period.
Luca insisted: "The drivers, cars and engines should make the difference - not the tyres."
No red card for Schumi
02/11/2005 13:39
It is no surprise that many F1 contracts include clauses forbidding a multi-million dollar driver from engaging in dangerous sporting pursuits.
In Michael Schumacher's Ferrari agreement, though, is a section that explicitly allows the seven time world champion to lace up his boots whenever the urge entices him.
Schumacher, 36, is a passionate football fan, who religiously plays in the F1 drivers' team as well as for the Aubonne team, the local club near his huge Swiss mansion.
"No one could ever tell me to stop playing," the German said, "because it would affect my quality of life too much."
Ferrari back to work
02/11/2005 13:39
Brazil's Felipe Massa, facing a busy winter of Ferrari toil, resumed work at the Vallelunga track near Rome on Tuesday.
Sharing the load with Maranello regular Luca Badoer, the long time test driver, they took turns at the wheel of a F2004 and F2005 'for ... comparative tests.'
A statement also explained that around 1000 spectators watched on as Massa, 25, outpaced Badoer by two seconds.
The test continues on Wednesday.
(poor massa, why didn't they sign badoer as driver 2 anyway?)
Any thoughts on this?
) as I agree that wasn't the fault of the tyre. No doubt Coulthard certainly never seemed to have problems himself, but he was probably the driver who 'campaigned' the most for the tyre rules to be changed earlier in the season. 
