NewsOnF1 - March 7

Friday Practice Session 1 Friday Practice Session 2 Saturday Practice Session 1 Saturday Practice Session 2 Qualifying Session Warm-up Session Race	11 AM KL Time / 3 AM GMT 1 PM KL Time / 5 AM GMT 9 AM KL Time / 1 AM GMT 10:15 AM KL Time / 2:15 AM GMT 1 PM KL Time / 5 AM GMT 10:30 AM KL Time / 2:30 AM GMT 3 PM KL Time / 7 AM GMT KL: Kuala Lumpur - World Clock
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10-Mar: Ferrari concluded their testing at the Fiorano circuit today. Rubens Barrichello drove the F2001 covered a total of 47 laps concentrating on aerodynamic development for the Malaysian GP. His session was interrupted due to a problem with the engine forcing an engine change.
Luca Badoer continued testing the F1-2000 fitted with traction control in preparation for its introduction at the Spanish GP.

Click here for the timed results

The McLaren team have tested in private at Magny Cours last week. The team had two cars at hand and concentrated on tyre development for the Malaysian GP with one and traction control for the Spanish GP with the other. Alexander Wurz and British F3 driver Gary Paffet were on duty.
Neither Mika Hakkinen nor David Coulthard took part in the test. Mika Hakkinen took time off to spend with his wife Erja and son Hugo and is now ready for round two and said "‘I left Australia on the Sunday after the race to go back and spend some time with my family and am now ready for round two, I’m focusing on securing my first points of the 2001 season and the whole team is optimistic that we will leave Malaysia with a good result. I enjoy driving at Sepang as it offers a good mixture of corners and fast straights, the only downside is the humidity, but as long as we maintain our fluid intake I can't see that this being a problem."
Team boss Ron Dennis is also confident of a good result in Melbourne and said "In Australia David demonstrated the potential of the MP4-16 with his second place and the whole team has been working hard since then to ensure that this potential is fully harnessed."

10-Mar: BAR Honda boss Craig Pollock has indicated that the BAR Honda team is fully prepared for Malaysia despite all the trauma from the Australian Grand Prix. He indicated that they will have at least 3 cars in Malaysia and perhaps 4 and said "The accident put us behind in our production of chassis for the season. But the team will have three cars minimum, potentially four cars in Malaysia. We are very lucky that production is well enough on schedule that we can take three cars."
Pollock also commented on the situation with his star driver Jacques Villeneuve and indicated that while the accident has affected Jacques badly he is confident that he will bounce back and said "He didn’t appear to be shaken up after the accident, I think because of the adrenaline. The shake-up came that evening. The way that I could tell that was because Jacques rates accidents. He basically says ‘that was a good one’, ‘that was a big one’. This time he didn’t say anything about it all, which is proof to me that he was thinking about how bad this one was. I do not think the crash will affect Jacques adversely on a personal basis. Jacques is a very cool character and is very capable of putting this out of his head."

9-Mar: Pedro de la Rosa sets the fastest time on the final day of testing at Silverstone over a second faster than Mark Webber in the Benetton and Ricardo Zonta in the Jordan. The session started on a damp track but dried later on in the session.
5 teams were present with 5 drivers setting lap times. Ricardo Zonta covered the most number of laps with 88 followed by Johnny Herbert with 66 and Marc Gene with 63 laps.
Most teams were testing their traction control systems in preparation for their re-introduction at the Spanish GP on the 29th of April.

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At Fiorano, Rubens Barrichello returned to the track a day late as the F2001 didn't arrive in time. Barrichello concentrated on aerodynamic development on the F2001 in preparation for the Malaysian GP. He covered a total of 68 laps and did 8 practice starts.
Luca Badoer continued his test programme at Fiorano running the F1-2000 fitted with traction control. He covered 66 laps and did some practice starts as well.
Both drivers continue testing at Fiorano tomorrow.

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9-Mar: Heinz Harald Frentzen continues to accuse Ferrari and their partners of using traction control illegally. Late last month he openly accused Ferrari (story), now in his Australian GP review, he has accused Sauber (who run Ferrari engines) of using traction control. Frentzen wrote " ... Heidfeld was the next car ahead and even though I managed to catch him quite quickly, I knew passing him would be another matter. I don't know if traction control comes as a factory option with Ferrari engines, but every time I got close in a slower corner he would pull away under acceleration, which was strange as I could here the engine misfiring!."

Jaguar's CEO Bobby Rahal wants Dario Franchitti to move to Formula 1 before it is too late. Dario Franchitti test drove for Jaguar in July of last year (story) but nothing came out of that test. Now Bobby Rahal wants Franchitti to land a drive for a team this year and said "I rate Dario very highly, because he is one of the few guys who can run wheel-to-wheel with Juan Pablo Montoya. He is still young enough, but if he is going to come here with any team, it has to be this year."

Dario Franchitti regrets conducting a test with Jaguar in July due to internal team conflicts and said "The team was in no condition at the time to run a test for me. They had their own fires to put out. They didn't do me any favours by putting me out there and then not being able to give me a full run at it. It was nice of them to offer the test, but I think it would have been better to have been conducted at another time."

Slow ticket sales have forced the Malaysian GP organisers to blackout the coverage of the GP on TV in Malaysia. The organisers are hoping to boost ticket sales if the event is not covered live on TV. Basir Ismail, the chairman of the Sepang circuit said "There will be no live telecast during the three days of the event, the race on Sunday will be a delayed telecast, at 9pm. We want to encourage more people, especially locals, to come to the Sepang F1 Circuit to catch the event live. Ticket sales so far have been very slow. In 1999 and last year 70 percent of tickets had been sold three weeks before the event but this year with just 10 days to go, only 30 percent of tickets has been sold."

9-Mar: "So I was wrong. For how long?" is the title of the 4th issue from the Diagnosis and Prognosis Series for the 2001 season. In this issue, the Heretic looks at the aftermath of the Australian Grand Prix - Issue 4

8-Mar: On the second day of testing at Silverstone, the Jordan team joined the other teams present and their test driver Ricardo Zonta set the fastest time ahead of Mark Webber and Marc Gene.
5 teams were present with 6 drivers setting lap times. Mark Webber covered the most number of laps with 56 closely followed by Ricardo Zonta with 55. Johnny Herbert covered the least number of laps with 19.
Testing was conducted on a mainly wet track today. Testing concludes tomorrow.

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Luca Badoer continued testing for Ferrari at Fiorano for the third day concentrating once again on electronic development using the F1-2000. He covered a total of 89 laps with a best time of 1:02.777.
Rubens Barrichello was supposed to start testing the F2001 however he was delayed due to the late arrival of the F2001.
Both Barrichello and Badoer will be testing tomorrow .

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8-Mar: Clay Regazzoni who drove for 10 years in Formula 1 for several teams including Ferrari, Williams, Shadow and Ensign has called for Max Mosley to step down after failing to limit the speeds of the cars. Regazzoni who suffered serious injuries in 1980 after crashing into a wall at the USA - West GP said "When Mosley says that his engineers have made mistakes in calculating the progress the cars have made this year, he should have the courage to resign, but I don't think he will do it, look how many accidents there have been this year, even in private test sessions. Everybody knew that with the whole Bridgestone-Michelin rivalry times would have decreased considerably. We should be worried; thinking that in Spain with electronic aids, the cars' speeds will increase significantly. In corners, cars will be able to go even faster and be more dangerous. What a great idea! What they should do is replace the carbon brakes with steel ones, go back to manual drives and reduce the power."
Regazzoni also had some words for Jacques Villeneuve and said "Villeneuve should be punished for what he did in Melbourne, and Barrichello also should be penalised for what he did to Frentzen. They take too many risks. In these last years a lot has been done to protect drivers, but very little for those who are on the outside of the track. The priority now should be for these people."

8-Mar: Support for the family of track marshal Graham Beveridge, who tragically died following an accident at the Australian Grand Prix, is streaming in from all over the world.

Moral support from motorsport enthusiasts and marshals as far away as Quebec in Canada has been arriving since Sunday night, while there has also been significant material support, with donations being sent in from a wide
variety of sources.

To meet requests for a central point to which donations can be sent,
Australian motorsport authority CAMS has created a Trust Fund Account for
the Beveridge family in conjunction with National Australia Bank.

Donations should be titled 'Confederation of Australian Motor Sport Limited
In Trust For Graham Francis Beveridge Deceased Estate' and addressed to
CAMS, Box 147 Caulfield, Victoria, 3145, Australia.

Alternatively, donations can also be paid directly into National Australia
Bank BSB Number 083 669, Account Number 52 798 2725.

There will be a memorial service for Graham, who leaves wife Karen, daughter Kelly, and sons Peter and Matthew at St Jude's Anglican Church, Bowral, New South Wales, at 11am on Friday 9 March.

7-Mar: Johnny Herbert set the fastest time at Silverstone on his return to Formula 1 following the winter break where he unsuccessfully tried to move to the CART series. Herbert was over 0.3 seconds ahead of Mark Webber in the Benetton who was ahead of Pedro de la Rosa testing for the first time in the Jaguar.
4 teams were present with 5 drivers setting timed laps. Mark Webber covered the most number of laps with 54 followed by both Johnny Herbert and Marc Gene with 46 laps each.
The track was damp in the morning but dried later in the session allowing for testing on dry tyres. Most of the teams are testing with modified 2000 cars. None of the regular drivers were present as most drivers have decided to stay in South East Asia or the South Pacific to remain in the same or similar timezone for the upcoming Malaysian GP.

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Luca Badoer continued testing for Ferrari at Fiorano concentrating on electronic development using the F1-2000. He covered a total of 87 laps with a best time of 1:01.458. Badoer continues testing tomorrow with Rubens Barrichello joining him.

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7-Mar: " Should the cars be slowed down ?" Topic of the week - Have Your Say