January 1998

30 January 1998 According to M. Schumacher, the biggest question mark on next season is the new tyres. It is as yet uunknown how the grooved tyres will behave during a full GP, whether they will behave like "normal" slicks, or like worn out non-grooved tyres.

29 January 1998 F1 news in short:

Hollywood's Universal Studios have become sponsors of Williams and of the two Williams drivers.

Williams and Ferrari are trying to convince Goodyear to stay in F1, arguing that it will be easier for the tyre company to provide tyres to a smaller number of teams.

Patrick Head said that the new rules are not properly written down and can lead to different interpretations.

Rothmans intends to launch the Winfield cigarettes (the new symbol on the Williams cars) on the European market. The Winfield will be launched in Italy at the time of the San Marino GP.

29 January 1998 A very simple presentation for the new Williams yesterday. During the ceremony Frank Williams said that his aim is to keep Villeneuve for the future, despite the fact that Craig Pollock, Villeneuve's manager, has started his own F1 team. He then added that the teams to beat this year are Ferrari and McLaren.

28 January 1998 Alessandro Benetton said that he wants to pass the presidency of the Benetton team over to his brother Rocco who is, from this year, the financial director of the team. Alessandro Benetton said that his decision was taken following an increase in his involvement in activities outside F1.

28 January 1998 Today the new Williams car, the FW20, will be officially presented at Silverstone. McLaren will present its new car, the MP4/13, in Woking on 5 February. Only Arrows and Minardi have not yet announced a date for the presentation of their new cars.

27 January 1998 Ferrari has sued photographer Oliviero Toscani for libel. The photographer said that Ferrari had ordered M. Schumacher to try and take Villeneuve out of the race in Jerez.

23 January 1998 Tarso Marques announced today that he has left Minardi (with which he had a contract until the year 2000) to try and become a driver for Tyrrell.

23 January 1998 Ex-F1 driver Nigel Mansell has had his driving license suspended for six months following a speeding offence he committed last December. The Englishman has also been fined 400 pounds.

23 January 1998 The new Minardi, the B198, has started being tested. So far Minardi has only one driver, Argentinian Esteban Truero, who is completely new to F1. This year Minardi runs with a Ford V10 engine. The official presentation of the car will take place in the next few weeks, as soon as the team will have decided who the second driver will be.

22 January 1998 Villeneuve commented on an accident he had on Tuesday: one of his tyres suddently deflated. The Canadian is sure that this was caused by the new grooved tyres and he's going to talk to FIA about it. The Canadian also gave an interview in which he said that in the famous Jerez accident M. Schumacher had planned the move, it was not a mistake. According to Villeneuve M. schumacher's car was fine and it was the German who had cracked under pressure, not his Ferrari. He then added that the M. Schumacher has never apologised to him for the collision.

22 January 1998 At the presentation of the new Sauber car, the C17, Alesi said that he sees his move as a step forwards, as the Swiss team has a desire to improve and experiment, it is a team of the future. The C17 will race with a custome made Ferrari engine. Ex driver Berger was also present at the presentation.

21 January 1998 Ken Tyrrell presented the last ever car to have his name (next year it will be called BAR, British American Racing), the 026. The last year of Tyrrell starts with trouble: Verstappen has not been approved as a driver by BAR and the other driver, Toranosuke Takagi, is unexperienced. The possible drivers are ex Williams test driver Jean-Christophe Boullion or Danish Christiansen. From 1999 Villeneuve will race for BAR.

21 January 1998 At the presentation of his new car, Alain Prost said that his objective is to make Prost Racing one of the top teams and win a Championship as soon as possible. The "Professor" then criticised Damon Hill for his decision to race for the Jordan team rather than for his own. Damon Hill had changed his mind about racing for Prost a few hours before he was due to sign the contract.

20 January 1998 The European commission will not ban alcohol advertising in F1.

20 January 1998 Today Alain Prost will present his new car, the AP01, powered by a Peugeot engine.

20 January 1998 At the presentation of the new car, Eddie Jordan said that in his team there is not going to be a first driver and a second driver, but R. Schumacher and Damon Hill are going to be given exactly the same chances. Damon Hill disagreed with his new boss and said that the only way to win is to concentrate on one driver to maximise his potential. R. Schumacher added that he has the same aim as his brother (ie, to win the Championship).

19 January 1998 The new Jordan was presented today. Instead of the snake, this year it has a mean-looking hornet ready to sting on the front.

18 January 1998 M. Schumacher said that in his opinion the real challange for the Championship will come from McLaren and not from Williams. McLaren has recently acquired Adrian Newey and has moved to Bridgestone tyres. The German then added that he is definitely staying with Ferrari two more years and admitted on having done "a very stupid thing" in Jerez.

16 January 1998 Arrows have reached a unique sponsorship agreement with the University of Oxford. The cars will display the University of Oxford Businness School logo and the Businness School will offer financial and marketing advice in return. This is probably the first F1 sponsorship deal in which an exchange of money is not involved.

15 January 1998F1 teams appear to be experimenting with very narrow front tyres to improve stability after FIA's imposition of a maximum width of 180 cm for F1 cars in 1998.

15 January 1998 Barrichello said yesterday that he is confident the new Stewart car with customised Ford V10 engine will perform well in 1998.

14 January 1998 After a few days of testing, the new Ferrari F300 appears to be still suffering from the gearbox problems that plagued it last year. Williams too are having problems with their new gearbox, while Coulthard (McLaren) has suffered from the second blown Mercedes engine in two days.

13 January 1998 For the second year running the Portoguese GP will not take place. The required works on the Estoril circuit will not be complited by 11 October because the Portoguese government and the company in charge of the work failed to reach an agreement. The GP scheduled for the 11th of October will now take place in China (Zhuhai) or South Africa (Kyalami).

12 January 1998 After Ferrari and Williams, tomorrow Stewart Racing will present the 1998 car, the SF02 (Ford V10 engine), while on Thursday Benetton will officially present its new B198, which has already been seen at Silverstone and Jerez.

9 January1998Villeneuve accused M. Schumacher of hypocrisy after M. Schumacher's wife published some photographs showing the two rival drivers at a party, implying that they are friends.

7 January 1998 Ferrari presented the new car for 1998, the F300. The car had previously been already tried on the circuit, but without the team colours. Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo said that Ferrai's goal is to win the 1998 Championship. Concidentally, Williams presented its new colour scheme today and the new sponsor means that the Williams cars too will be predominatly red in 1998.

7 January 1998 The attempted murder charges against M. Schumacher have been dropped.

6 January 1998 The decision on whether to race in Belgium has been postponed again.

6 January 1998 An anonymous letter accusing M. Schumacher of attempted murder has been sent to teh German police. The letter refers to the Spanish GP at Jerez in 1997 when M. Schumacher rammed Villeneuve's car in a desperate attempt to eliminate the Canadian from the race. The police have opened an inquiry.

4 January 1998 Jaques Villeneuve has been involved in a skiing accident. the Canadian driver is shaken but not hurt.

Last updated on 31 January 1998 by Federica Massagrande