[Raceboy]

Ferrari - Snow fails to stop Christmas lunch:

Although Maranello was under a snow storm this week, Michael Schumacher, Rubens Barrichello and Luca Badoer still attended the Christmas lunch for the children of members of the racing department at Maranello yesterday (Saturday). In the afternoon, Michael Schu visited the Maserati stand at the Bologna Motor Show and in the evening received the Autosprint Golden Helmet award. The Ferrari drivers also had a meeting with Jean Todt, Ross Brawn, Rory Byrne and the engine department to discuss developments incorporated into the new car.

McLaren-Mercedes - New engine running:

Examples of the all-new Mercedes-Benz V10 for the 2002 season are now running on transient dynamometers both at Ilmor Engineering, at Brixworth, in the UK, and at Stuttgart. Meanwhile, work on the new McLaren MP4/17 chassis is continuing to schedule at the team's Woking headquarters. There is no fixed date for the new car's launch as yet, but it is expected to make its track debut well before the end of January.

Willimas-BMW - Steady progress:

There have been no major developments from the BMW Williams team although work continues on the new FW23C development chassis and the definitive FW24 race cars in preparation for a planned January launch of the new car.

Sauber-Petronas - Seat fittings at Hinwil:

Work on the new Sauber C21 continues to proceed on schedule with Nick Heidfeld having his seat fitting in the first completed chassis on 11 December. The following day, new recruit Felipe Massa also had his seat fitting done and the team plans to complete the mandatory static load tests on the new chassis this month followed by the dynamic crash tests in January. Meanwhile, Heidfeld is working hard on his fitness programme after a three-week break just after the season to recover from an operation on his nose to improve his breathing. He is carefully optimistic about 2002. "We all know that defending fourth place in the Constructors' Championship will be much tougher to achieve than this year," he said. "But on the other hand, before this season nobody believed we could do it, so why shouldn't it happen again?"

Jordan-Honda - First EJ11 chassis ready:

The first monocoque for the forthcoming Jordan-Honda EJ-11 arrived at the team's Silverstone factory on Tuesday last week and the team is now working on the installation of the mock-up Honda V10 engine. No launch date for the new car has yet been finalised, but a team spokesperson said "it should be towards the end of January or into early February." The team has also announced that Brother International Europe has agreed to extend its sponsorship of the Jordan-Honda team for another two years. The deal provides for continued Brother identification on the cars and on the driving suits of Giancarlo Fisichella and Takuma Sato.

BAR-Honda - No more details:

The BAR-Honda team are working hard to complete their new car. They will officially launch the BAR-Honda 004 to the world's media on the 18th December at the team's headquarters in Brackley

Renault - Youngsters selected:

As work continues apace on the new R202 chassis at Enstone, Renault's Driver Development programme has selected its four drivers to be supported in 2002. Following a two-day driver selection programme at the Estoril track in Portugal, those selected include Eric Salignon (France), Robert Kubica (Poland), Fabio Carbone (Brazil) and Carlo Van Damn (Holland). The four drivers will compete in different categories according to their age and experience. RDD manager Bruno Michel commented: "All the candidates who attended the test were extremely talented and motivated. It was therefore a difficult choice for us, based not only on driving skills, but also maturity, adaptability and the ability to realise their potential."


Jaguar-Cosworth - Flat out on the new car:

Jaguar Racing admits that it was originally going to have the first of its R3 challengers ready for the second week in January, but accelerated the completion programme at the insistence of team principal Niki Lauda in order to be ready for the official unveiling on 4 January. "With our new wind tunnel at Brackley not available until February and the Swift tunnel so far away in California, it was reasoned that the quicker we got out on the track the better it would be for the programme," said a team insider.


Prost - Still under a cloud:

The future of Prost Grand Prix has yet to be assured. The deadline for submitting takeover proposals had been extended to 10 December and the proposals are now being examined.

Arrows-Cosworth - Engines arrive next month:

The Orange Arrows team has confirmed that it expects delivery of its Cosworth V10 engines next month in preparation for a launch in early February after a preliminary first test of the team's new car at the end of January. No further news on the driver line-up was available this week.


Minardi-Asiatech - Testing young drivers:

The team will be officially titled KL Minardi and the new car will be introduced during the fourth week of January, possibly in Kuala Lumpur. The team will test several young drivers and are currently moulding a seat for Spaniard Antonio Garcia, winner of the 2000 Nissan Trophy. Italian Matteo Bobbi (21) and Frenchman Franck Montagny, winner off the 2001 Nissan Trophy will also be tested. Minardi will take part in the first tests of 2002 at Barcelona and Valencia with their 2000 cars.

Toyota - New car ready for launch:

The first of the new Toyota F1 challengers for 2002 is ready to be unveiled at the team's competition headquarters in Cologne on Monday (17 December) and both drivers Mika Salo and Allan McNish will be present to meet a huge media contingent expected from all over the world. No details of the team's test programme for the New Year has yet been revealed, but it is expected that the cars will run at Paul Ricard initially which has been established this season as Toyota's F1 testing base.

beetje leesvoer voor de kerstdagen.