June 12 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

Hill and Villeneuve Make It One Two
Hill and Villeneuve On Front Row
Alesi and Berger Top Timesheets
Draft 1997 Calendar
Canada Preview
Blundell Back To F1 ?
Bridgestone Testing
Testing Roundup
Ferrari V12 For Minardi ?
Renault To Quit ?
Frentzen Linked With Jordan
Honda Engines For Williams





Hill and Villeneuve Make It One Two

Williams re-established their winning ways in Canada with a brilliant one two for Hill and Villeneuve, Benetton and McLaren also had great races with Alesi followed home by Coulthard and Hakkinen, but my man of the race is Martin Brundle. Brundle managed his best GP of the year finally finishing sixth despite a collision which needed a new nose cone, he looked good throughout the race and Jordan must now be feeling confident for more points and perhaps some podium places in the races to come.
Ferrari had their worst race of the year, Schumacher failing to get away for the parade lap had to start from the back. Irvine had his suspension break on lap 1 and Schumacher's race ended when parts his drive shaft were left behind in the pits after his stop.

Headlines

Hill and Villeneuve On Front Row

Damon Hill grabbed pole position in Canada in the final moments of the qualifying session. Jacques Villeneuve had led throughout most of the session with Hill outside the top six. Schumacher came within 0.002 seconds of pole position. Alesi and Berger who had done so well the day before both crashed out, Alesi quite heavily as he braked for turn three.

Headlines

Alesi and Berger Top Timesheets

Jean Alesi and Gerhard Berger gave Benetton a boost when they ended the Free Pratice session fastest. Hill who had lead for much of the day was fourth fastest and Schumacher third. Martin Brundle, still denying quit rumours was seventh and local boy Jacques Villeneuve was eighth.

Headlines

Draft 1997 Calendar

The first draft of the 1997 calendar is out. The big races (Monaco, Britain, France, Germany and Italy) are unlikely to change. The interesting thing to notice is that the San Marino race has moved forward to the date where the European GP would normally be. Spain and Monaco have also moved forward leaving a gap before Canada (perhaps for a US GP?). The two other missing races are Hungary (between the German and Belgian races) and Portugal (between the Italian and Japanese races). The rumours suggest any from the US, South Africa, Austria, China, Indonesia and another Italian race (Ferrari's Mugello track). I doubt Portugal will be removed, but Hungary could well be replaced.

Headlines

Canada Preview

The Canadian GP this weekend will see Jacques Villeneuve on top form, aiming to win his home GP. Michael Schumacher will be hoping to add to Ferrari's victory there last year and his victory for Benetton the year before. Damon Hill will be looking to end his recent run of bad form and establish his lead again. The circuit has been changed from last year Casino bend (turn 12) has been removed to make the 'Casino Straight' and the North end of the circuit has been resurfaced. The track has two hairpin bends which keep the average lap speed down to around 110 mph. This should make for a closer raceLast year only nine cars were still running at the end.

Headlines

Blundell Back To F1 ?

Mark Blundell has been linked to a 1997 Lola drive. He drove for Lola in Formula Ford and Formula 3000. Lola are fully committed to entering F1 next year and are currently on wind tunnel assessments of their car.

Headlines

Bridgestone Testing

Bridgestone tested tyres on their own Ligier JS41 at Suzuka. They bought the car for test purposes and had Jos Verstappen driving for them. This has fuelled speculation that TWR Arrows will switch to Bridgestone tyres next year.

Headlines

Testing Roundup

Testing last week gave confidence boosts to Johnny Herbert (3rd quickest at Barcelona), Martin Brundle and David Coulthard. Sauber were testing a modified air box and will have new engine parts for qualifying.
Ferrari have continued their testing and the new high nose is reported to give the car more top end speed but affected stability. Ferrari also have modified rear diffuser and a new engine inlet and roll hoop are due soon.

Headlines

Ferrari V12 For Minardi ?

Minardi may return to Ferrari engines and use the V12 next season. The engines will be rebuilt by the Oral group which will help remove any Ferrari involvement. The engines should give Minardi a significant performance increase (100 bhp) over their current Cosworth V8 engine.

Headlines

Renault To Quit ?

Rumours of Renault's departure from F1 at the end of 1997 continue to grow. Renault is supposed to have accomplished all it set out to do in F1 and may switch to the Indy series.

Headlines

Frentzen Linked With Jordan

The driver swapping rumours will start to come through now, first off the blocks this year is Heinz Harald Frentzen. Long rumoured to be going to Williams, he is now apparently being linked to Jordan where he will replace Martin Brundle (before the end of the season according to some). Failing that, he is also being linked with a drive at McLaren Mercedes, presumably in place of Mika Hakkinen as Coulthard has a two year contract.Take with a large pinch of salt :-)

Headlines

Honda Engines For Williams

With Renault apparently quitting F1 after 1997 and the rumour of BMW returning being quashed. Williams are now being linked, (along with Benetton, Ligier, Arrows and Dome) to a Honda engine deal. While it looks almost certain that Honda will re-enter F1, it is unclear how many teams they will supply.

Headlines