Formula One Updates

[Warm Hands]

For the F1 fans here, there are a few bits of news that have hit the airwaves this week, and they all bode well for next year:

1) Red Bull has purchased Jaguar Racing, including the factory and wind tunnel. They'll be racing next year as their own team. No confirmed driver's lineup, but Christian Klien seems a sure bet to get one of the seats as Red Bull is Austrian and would like to sponsor an Austrian. Klien is also familiar with the team.

2) Jordan has signed a deal with Toyota to use race-spec Toyota engines for their cars next year.

3) Minardi has signed a deal with Cosworth, which has been split off from Jaguar racing somehow as a stand-alone entity. They'll be using the 2004 spec engine for the first few races.

With these three pieces of news, the grid is guaranteed to have 10 teams next year, which negates the necessity of certain teams having to run three cars. There are two additional teams that will launch for the 2006 season. One, a Russian expat who now lives in Canada, will be using a Dallara chassis but has not landed an engine package. The other, a team from Bahrain, is partnering with Mercedes for engine/transmission, but will go it alone on chassis.

WH

 

[plyrs99]

cosworth was sold to two-thirds of the open wheel racing group, kevin kalkhoven and gerry forsythe, which owns the champ car world series. cosworth will continue supply of F1 engines, as was stated, to the new red bull team, and to minardi. the new midland F1 group, is trying to secure ferrari engines for it's debut in '06, but, is also talking to cosworth.

as well, the driver seats have not all been filled to this point, as william's second seat, is still up for grabs. probably will go to BAR test driver anthony davidson, when all is said and done.

looks like DC may end up partnering christian klien at red bull racing, but, things could change in a hurry there.

two quick notes, dont be surprised to see 2004 champ car rookie of the year, a.j. allmendinger, get a long look by red bull racing, for a possible ride in '06. "dinger", is quite possibly, the best american talent to come along in quite sometime, and just happens to have a little red bull sponsorship with his rusport racing team in champ cars. don't also discount champ car's justin wilson getting a look again, having driven for the old jag team last year.

as an aside, how long before F1 wakes up to the talent that is newman-haas driver, and 2004 champ car world series champion sebastian bourdais. simply put, he is a tremendous talent. he did have a test lined up with the old arrows team, but they went belly up before he got that test. i do believe, renault should be looking his way, as it is quite a natural fit for the french driver and the french auto-maker. frank williams has in the past, brought in CART champion's jacques villeneuve, alex zanardi, and juan pablo montoya, so i dont understand why he doesnt look in bourdais' direction!

oh well....a few more quick points...

ferrari are still the only team not agreeing to cost-cutting measures all the other teams have agreed to. the one sticking point is testing. ferrari own 2 tracks, and see no point why they can't test on them to their heart's content. the rear wing is to become standard for all teams, and the front wing raised higher, to eliminate some downforce, in effect, trying to slow the car down.

and the race at silverstone, is still not 100% a go for next year. that's all for now! good to see a fellow formula one fan out here!

any champ car fans out here?

Plyrs99