January 1999

30 January 1999 The new Ferrari F399 (F for Ferrari, 3 for 3000cc, 99 for 1999) was presented today at Fiorano. The car is the 45th F1 single seater produced by Ferrari and weighs 600 kg when fully loaded and with the driver in. It is 4,387 mm long, 1,795 mm wide and 961 mm high. The 10 cilinder, 2,997 cc engine has 40 valves and can get more than 750 hp. The car is lower than last year's model. Allegedly the car was presented today rather than yesterday for superstition reasons (Friday is considered an unlucky day in Italy). M. Schumacher surprised the audience by talking in Italian for the first time, saying that Ferrari is like a large family and all the fans are part of it. Last year M. Schumacher had promised to learn Italian to prove he intends to stay with Ferrari.

29 January 1999 Given Minardi's current lack of drivers, yesterday Ferrari "lent" Badoer to Minardi to allow the new Fondmetal Minardi Ford M01 to be driven for the first time on the Mugello circuit.

28 January 1999 After the first few test sessions Coultahrd said that the new McLaren is much better than last year's car.

27 January 1999 Esteban Tuero said that he does not intend to reveal the reason why he suddently decided to leave Minardi. He said that he agreed with Minardi that the reason would not be revealed by either party. He added that he is unhappy about all the speculations journalists have been making about the whole thing. He thinks that it will be very difficult for him to get back into F1 because it was his decision to leave. In 1999 he will be part of the Volkswagen team in the Tourism 2000 series in Argentina.

26 January 1999 Current World Champion Mika Hakkinen has said that next year he and Coulthard will have exactly the same car, so he is not going to help his team mate. Last season Coulthard let Hakkinen overtake him and win the first GP.

25 January 1999 Patrick Lemarié (30) is the new BAR test driver. The Frenchman has experience both of F3 and F3000.

25 January 1999 The new Williams FW21 was presented today. It uses the SuperTec V10 engine, evolution of the 10-cilinder Renault engine Villeneuve had when he won the 1997 Championship.

25 January 1999 The Prost AP02 was presented today. The car is narrower than last year's and has a longer nose, which should make it more aerodynamic.

25 January 1999 Today FIA released the new 1999 F1 calendar without Argentina in it. China still is a reserve race.

23 January 1999 Hugo Porta of the Argentinian Ministry of Sport said that it is economically impractical to host the Argentinian GP, which is therefore officially removed from the 1999 calendar.

22 January 1999 Esteban Tuero is resting in a farm by the sea about 400 km from Buenos Aires. After announcing his retirement from professional motor racing the Argentinian driver decided to "think about it" until Wednesday, when he will explain his reasons for leaving motorsport in a press conference.

21 January 1999 Esteban Tuero has announced that he is going to retire from motor racing for personal reasons. Minardi has released an official note saying that they are extremely sorry to lose the driver, with whom they have had a very satisfactory relationship for three years, and which has allowed the team to finish 10th in the Constructors Championship 1998. Minardi's launch has been postponed until the 7th of February.

21 January 1999 In an interview given yesterday, Irvine has said that the new Ferrari (to be unveiled on the 30th) will be fast and reliable. He also said that McLaren's problem in the 1998 season was that they had sacrificed reliability to increase speed, almost risking losing the title. Ross Brawn, on the other hand, is very good at taking a car to its limit without crossing it (ie without losing reliability). Eddie said that he considers 1998 his best season so far and that he has done better than all the other drivers except from M. Schumacher and Hakkinen. He added that he would like to see Ferrari in the two top places in 1999, with M. Schumacher as the World Champion. He said openly that he is paid to let M. Schumacher win and that he had let his team mate overtake him five times last year, such as in Austria. He concluded by saying that "perhaps" there really were no brake problems.

21 January 1999 Alfa Romeo is to launch a new version of its 156 model with a Formula 1 style gear system. The gear change will be completely automatic and will be controlled using two buttons (one to change up, one to change down) located on the steering wheel. It is the first time that the type of gear control used in Formula 1 is used on a standard road car. The new Alfa Romeo 156 2.0 Selespeed will be on sale from the end of February and is expected to cost 5 percent more than the standard model.

21 January 1999 Toyota president Hiroshi Okuda said that Toyota hopes to enter F1 by 2003. The creation of the F1 team will take place at Koln in Germany, where Toyota Motorsport GmbH is based.

20 January 1999 Toyota might enter the F1 arena in competition with Honda to increase its appeal on younger drivers. The news has been given by the Asahi News Service. Toyota has not confirmed the rumour, but has called a press conference for tomorrow to reveal its plans.

20 January 1999 Yesterday the new Sauber-Ferrari was presented. Alesi has warned that despite the fact that the team expects to do well, the big players will stay at the top because they have the means to do so.

19 January 1999 Pearl assurance Plc has extended its sponsorship of Jordan by another two years.

18 January 1999 Max Biaggi (250cc motorcycle World Champion) has tried the Ferrari F300 at Fiorano, clocking a best lap of 1'06"57 (some 5-6 second more than F1 drivers). It was the first time the car was tested with the new four-grooved Bridgestone tyres. Max said that he really enjoy the experience and that if Ferrari asked him to drive for them he would abandon his motorcycle career and become a F1 driver.

17 January 1999 The launch of the new 1999 Ferrari has been postponed by one day and will take place on the 30th of January.

16 January 1999 Benetton presented the car for 1999, the B199 at their factory in Enstone. According to designer Nick Wirth the car is completely new and it is a lot more "aggressive" than the B198. Both Benetton drivers, Fisichella and Wurz, agree that the new car is very good. Particular attention was paid in making sure that Wurz, who is very tall, could be confortable in the cockpit.

14 January 1999 Arrows have sued Pedro Diniz for 9 million dollars claiming that according to his contract he has to pay a penalty fee of 4.5 million dollars to leave the team. The other 4.5 million the driver is being sued for is for interest on the fee itself. Diniz's spokeperson said that the contract had get out clauses based on the average grid position of the car in 98 and that both Salo and Diniz were below this, so the leaving fee does not apply.

13 January 1999 Nigerian businessman Prince Malik Ado Ibrahim (who brokered the sale of Lotus to Proton), finance company Morgan Grenfell Privat Equity and Tom Wilkinshaw have created a new consortium to bring 110 million pounds to the Arrows Formula 1 team. Wilkinshaw, who retains 25 percent holding in the new company, will maintain his role as chairman. Jackie Oliver is apparently no longer connected with the team.

12 January 1999 Despite the current rumours, Arrows will not be launching the 1999 car (the A20) on the 14th of January. Instead a mid-February date has being given.

12 January 1999 A new revolutionary type of tarmac is being tested at the circuit in Monza. Giorgio Beghella Bartoli, technical director of the race track, said that the accidents at Silverstone and Spa showed that a new type of tarmac to limit the problems caused by water was required. The new tarmac consists of granules which have been modified with a special polymer to make them work like a funnel: the uppermost layer underneath the road surface consists of large granules, the second layer of finer granules (7 cm overall) and underneath everything is a impermeable membrane to drain away the water. The result is that water does not form pools, with a reduction of noise and steering wheel vibration. So far the new tarmac has been laid on 600 metres on a straight on the Monza circuit and by mid February FIA will have an Italian F1 team (it is not known which one) carry out a series of tests. If the results are deemed satisfactory, the new tarmac will be used in Monza for this season's Italian F1 GP. The super-tarmac was developed as a joint project by Enichem and Agip Petroli and it costs 50-60 percent more than standard tarmac, but lasts twice as long.

12 January 1999 Pollock has brought the two liveries case to the International Chamber of Commerce in Lausanne, where it will be heard on January the 30th. The two liveries are understood to be crucial in the deal with British American Tobacco.

11 January 1999 French Formula 3 champion Laurent Redon (25) is the new Benetton test driver. Redon has already performed a similar role at Minardi in 1998.

11 January 1999 The Minardi M01 has passed its homologation tests and is ready to be officially launched on the 20th of January. Despite being a lot lighter than last year, the car passed the impact test at the first attempt on December the 30th.

9 January 1999 The new Stewart Ford Sf3 was officially presented today. Herbert and Barrichello are the drivers for 1999.

7 January 1999 Stewart might enter the F1 Championship as Stewart-Jaguar within the next two years. It is rumoured that Ford might take a majority shareholding in Stewart Racing. Senior Ford boss Neil Ressler was appointed to the board of Stewart Racing last autumn and former Benetton boss David Richards is rumoured to be the candidate for the team management.

7 January 1999 Williams has signed a sponsorship deal with Canadian telecommunication giant Nortel Networks.

6 January 1999 The new BAR (ex Tyrrell) has been presented today at Brackley in UK. The two cars have different liveries, with Villeneuve's Bar-Supertec 01 of Villeneuve painted red and white (to advertise Lucky Strike) and Ricardo Zonta's car painted blue and yellow (to advertise 555). Fia disppproves of the cars having different liveries and the whole situation might have to be solved in court.

Last updated on by Federica Massagrande