May 16 1996

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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".....

Previous Issues

Panis Scores First Win At Monaco
Schumacher Grabs Pole At Monaco
Hakkinen Sets Early Pace At Monaco
Hill Hopeful For Monaco
Schumacher Tops Imola Testing
Monaco Preview
Ferrari Settle On Revised Gearbox
Jordan Respray
Mansell On Comeback Trail
Durango Reaffirm F1 Project
Kenny Brack Testing For Arrows
Former Mercedes Boss Blasts McLaren Deal
F3000 Season Starts





Panis Scores First Win At Monaco

Olivier Panis has scored his first ever GP win at Monaco. Only four cars finished the race, Coulthard, Herbert and Frentzen were the only other finishers. Mika Salo and Mika Hakkinen were classified fifth and sixth in a race which saw the lowest number of finshers in the history of modern GP racing.
Provisional Results. Awaiting confirmation.

Headlines

Schumacher Grabs Pole At Monaco

Michael Schumacher has qualified on pole position at Monaco, with another outstanding demonstration of race craft. He set the fastest lap early on in the session while championship leader Damon Hill struggled with poor times. With just over 12 minutes to go Hill came out for his last session and went 0.5 seconds quicker than he had managed all day to set provisional pole just 0.046 seconds inside Michael's time.
With just minutes left on the clock Schumacher came out for his last laps and set an amazing time of 1.20.356 a full 1.596 seconds inside Hill's pole position time of last year.

Headlines

Despite dominating much of the free practice sessions today, Damon Hill found himself second fastest behind McLaren driver Mika Hakkinen.
Mika set his fastest lap late into the session, leaving Hill with no time to respond. Mika's performance underlines his return to race fitness and together with team mate David Coulthard he has built on recent performance improvements from the McLaren team.
The Ferrari cars were dissapointing and Mika Salo was unexpectedly slow.

Headlines

Hill Hopeful For Monaco

Damon Hill will be aiming to win at Monaco for the first time this weekend. The tight twisty circuit makes overtaking very difficult and means that qualifying is more important than ever. Hill has said "I would like to win here because my father won here five times in the sixties". The main threat to Hill's chances of winning must come from Michael Schumacher. His form in qualifying at San Marino was outstanding and he will be hoping to win at Monaco for the third year in succession. Benetton's best hope of a podium finish probably rest with Gerhard Berger who was 3rd in 1994 and 1995. If he can repeat those results the Benetton team may be in a position to improve on what is proving to be a disappointing season so far. McLaren and Jordan both have good chances of points as both teams continue to improve steadily over last season.

Headlines

Schumacher Tops Imola Testing

Michael Schumacher emerged top of the testing table at Imola. Eight teams stayed on to continue testing last week. The best times recorded by the drivers are as follows. Look out for No.7, he looks like he might be a useful driver one day ;-)

Headlines

Monaco Preview

Just over a week to go to one of the greatest races on the calendar. Schumacher will be hoping for a third successive win. Williams haven't won at Monaco since 1983 when Keke Rosberg's Williams FW08C Ford finished ahead of Nelson Piquet in his Brabham BT52 BMW. Both Jacques Villeneuve and Damon Hill will be hoping to win a race that their famous fathers won, Gilles win in 1981 was the last for Ferrari at this circuit. Benetton will be hoping that Alesi or Berger can give them their third win in succession. The most successful team at Monaco in recent times with nine wins from the last twelve is McLaren, their recent form could see them win.

Headlines

Ferrari Settle On Revised Gearbox

Ferrari have settled on a revised version of their new gearbox. The Titanium casing will be replaced with a steel one. Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo defended the designer John Barnard saying that people are quick to criticise when things go wrong. He cited the introduction of semi automatic gearboxes (another Barnard innovation) as typical. Widely doubted by many teams, it is now almost a standard feature of F1 cars.

Headlines

Jordan Respray

Jordan have changed the Gold paint that they use on their cars. From Monaco they will use a metallic gold which should be much closer to the colour of the Benson and Hedges packaging. The new paint finish is said to be "stunning".

Headlines

Mansell On Comeback Trail

Golf club owner and former World champion Nigel Mansell has again stated that he wants to return to Formula1. It is understood that he will be in a position to negotiate a drive after his McLaren contract expires in December. he was quoted as saying "I still have unfinished business in motor racing". There were rumours that he would enter his own team in the Indy car series.

Headlines

Durango Reaffirm F1 Project

Almost as if they were spurred on by our review of new F1 teams in the pipeline the F3000 outfit have re affirmed that they are still expecting to enter F1 next year. The team claim to have most of their operating revenue agreed and it is expected that Agip will be one of their main sponsors. The team hope to have their F1 offering ready by July.

Headlines

Kenny Brack Testing For Arrows

Kenny Brack, long linked with Ligier has followed Tom Walkinshaw to Arrows for a test session. Brack is currently leading the F3000 championship after his win at the Nurburgring.

Headlines

Former Mercedes Boss Blasts McLaren Deal

Jochen Neerpasch, the former motorsport boss at Mercedes has blasted the German giants links with McLaren. Despite the team making good recent progress he described the partnership as a mistake. Current motorsport boss Norbet Haug said "He's not in a position to comment....we were leading for half an hour in (sic) Imola. That wasn't a bad job"

Headlines

F3000 Season Starts

The F3000 season got underway last weekend and as many F1 drivers and teams come from this formula we thought it would be a good idea to carry the results. This will give us all more of an insight into new drivers and teams as they progress. All Formula3000 teams use the Lola T96/50 chassis and the Ford Zytek KV engines

Round 1 Nurburgring

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