November 2001

3 November 2001 Juaguar will unveil the season 2002 car, the R3, on 4 January 2002 in a location still to be decided in Great Britain. The R3 was designed by Steve Nichols, John Russell and Mark Handford. The car is expected to be tested in Barcelona four days after being presented.

3 November 2001 Following the less-than-ideal 2001 Formula 1 season, DaimlerChrysler has decided to set up a technical commission to improve the cooperation between McLaren, Mercedes and Ilmor. The announcement was made by Juergen Hubbert, who also denied that there are any plans to retire from Formula 1.

2 November 2001 Fernando Alonso, who debuted in Formula 1 with Minardi this year, will join Renault in 2002 as test driver. Briatore said that he is convinced that Alonso will be a contender for the title in the future.

2 November 2001 Juergen Hubbert of DaimlerChrysler said that the Formula 1 constructors are close to creating a new organisation for an alternative series to Formula 1, unless an agreement with the Kirch Group, that owns 75% of SLEC, is found. According to Hubbert this means that Formula 1 will carry on until 2007 and that from 2008 something new will be in place, probably not called Formula 1. The new organisation will have a management committee lead by Hubbert himself and by the president of Jaguar (Reitzle), that of Ferrari (Montezemolo), that of Renault (Faure) and that of BMW (Goeschel).

1 November 2001 According to Pedro Paulo Diniz, who controls 40% of Prost Acer, there are very real chances that the team will not take part in the next Formula 1 Championship. Diniz said that he hopes that the team can be saved, but that its future has been severely compromised by some decisions taken by Alain Prost. It should be clear by December whether the team can carry on or not but, if it does, it will be without Diniz who was expected to take on a mjority stake in Prost Acer before a rift developed between him and Alain Prost.

1 November 2001 Toyota will present its debut car on 17 December in Cologne.

1 November 2001 The new BAR-Honda will be officially launched on 18 December.

1 November 2001 The competition department of the European Commission has informed the Fédération Internationale d'Automobile (FIA) and the Formula One companies that it has closed the various anti-trust investigations into certain regulations and commercial arrangements involving the sport. This action was made possible after the parties agreed to make changes which limit the FIA to a regulatory role and remove the commercial restrictions put on circuit owners and TV broadcasters. This move was deemed enough to prevent any conflict of interests. The sector will be kept under check to ensure that the changes work in practice.