February 6 1996
All of the information in this section was obtained from a bloke down the pub, which means that while we believe all the following information to be true, we couldn't swear that it is.
What we will say however, is that usually, "there's no smoke without fire".....
Inoue Signs For Minardi
Mika Is Back
French GP On The Move
Senna Enquiry Speculation
New Cars Due Soon
Ligier Pleased With JS43
Jordan Happier With 196
Benetton Confident In B196
Sospiri Gets Benetton Test Role
Arrows Past Crash Tests
Tyrrell Testing Well
Taki Inoue has signed for Minardi for the 96 season. He will join Pedro Lamy at the Italian based team. Inoue was with Arrows last season, but his seat had been taken by Ricardo Rosset. Taki will start testing for the team on February 14, when the new car is due to be launched at Estoril.
Mika Hakkinen has driven a GP car for the first time since his accident in Australia. Mika managed 30 laps in the McLaren at the Paul Ricard circuit in France. He was close to the times set by Rubens Barrichello on Sunday. He was watched by Alain Prost, and his manager former World Champion Keke Rosberg.The new McLaren car is due to be unveiled this coming Sunday (10th Feb 1996).
The French federation of sport (FFSA) have announced plans to switch the French GP from Magny Cours back to the Circuit Paul Ricard at Le Castellet from 1997. The Circuit Paul Ricard has the famous mile long "Mistral" straight. The last driver to win a GP at Paul Ricard was Alain Prost who won in 88, 89 and 90. It is proposed that Le Castellet will host the French GP until 2002 when the GP venue will again be reconsidered. The change has to be approved by the FIA before the move can be confirmed.
Despite many reports in Newspapers last week that claimed the Williams teamand Imola management had been charged with manslaughter, the Italianauthorities have said that the technical report is still being consideredby prosecutor Maurizio Passarini and no charges have been brought yet. Ithas been suggested that Frank Williams, Patrick Head, David Brown (Senna'smechanic) a number of other Williams mechanics, the Imola race directorGiorgio Poggi and the director of SAGIS (the company that promotes theImola race) Federico Bendenelli could all face charges.It is understood that Williams, and FIA president Max Mosley have seen acopy of the technical report. Williams are said to be deeply opposed to thereports findings, they have not had a chance to examine the car forthemselves as it is still impounded at Bologna. Max Mosley has said thatAyrton was terribly unlucky. "It is something which will happen every nowand then, but the sport is becoming safer and safer."
A fleet of new cars are due to be launched in the next ten days. Among themare the new McLaren MP4/11 and the Williams FW18.
Ligier are said to be extremely pleased with the initial testing of theirnew car. The team were at Paul Ricard where they completed just under 300laps. Olivier Panis managed a best time of 1.08.91 and team mate PedroDiniz managed 1.09.79. Ligier were hoping for more testing, but rainaffected the beginning of the week.
Jordan were also at Paul Ricard, where the 196 performed much better.Rumours that the car was a dog were quashed by Rubens Barrichello when heposted a fastest time of 1.07.90
The new Benetton B196 will commence testing at Estoril next week. The carhas a few changes which mark it as an evolution of the B195 rather than acompletely new car. The gearbox is now longitudinal and 7 speed and thefront suspension now has three dampers. Flavio Briatore is confident thatthe team can win the constructors cup again. He has said that last year theteam demonstrated that it was important to have a good driver and a goodteam. Benetton won both titles last year because they were the best teamand Michael was the best driver.
Sospiri Gets Benetton Test Role
Vincenzo Sospiri has landed the test role at Benetton. Vincenzo was brieflylinked to the Ligier seats. As part of the testing role he will also berequired to attend every GP, where he will be the named substitute driverfor the Benetton team.
The Arrows FA17 has passed its crash tests and is expected to be launchedas planned at Silverstone next week.
The Tyrrell team have been testing at Brands Hatch. The car completed over40 laps without any problems (except the weather, it is VERY cold in the UKat the moment :-(... ). Mika Salo and Ukyo Katayama were both very pleasedwith the performance of the new Yamaha engine. As Mika Salo said "theengine is super good". The Tyrrell test seat looks likely to go to EmmanuelCollard (currently Jordans test driver who looks like being replaced byFabrizio de Simone, the son of Jordans sponsor Uliveto)
