F1 in the news 20

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In the F1 news this week three old hands get back behind the wheel, the wise money’s on Lewis Hamilton but the even wiser money is in Bernie Ecclestone’s pocket.

Plus a corruption scandal in China and some good old-fashioned Ferrari vs. McLaren gossip.

Trio enjoys return to F1 action – Ex-F1 racers Aguri Suzuki, Martin Brundle and Christian Danner got back behind the wheel in one of Suzuki’s Super Aguri SA06 cars.

F1 rookie Hamilton to drive bookies mad? – Astute F1 fans had their money on Lewis Hamilton a long time ago…

Who needs $2.9bn? F1 of course? – It must be some indication of Bernie Ecclestone’s confidence in the future of Formula One that he’s willing to take out at loan of ?âÔÇÜ£2.9bn from the Royal Bank of Scotland.

The cash injection will further oil the wheels of the fearsomely complicated corporate machines at the heart of the sport. Get this – although new parent company CVC told the carmakers that it would try to improve the transparency of F1’s business structures, it has nonetheless set up 15 new companies – eight offshore – rekated to the governance of F1 since taking over.

China’s F1 GP ‘unaffected by Shanghai scandal’ – A serious corruption scandal implicated Yu Zhifei, general manager of the Shanghai International Circuit, in October last year following the third running of the Chinese Grand Prix.

But happily for F1 fans, the scandal itself doesn’t seem to involve the circuit, although some may consider it scandalous how so much money could be thrown at a track which has no interesting corners and saw a kerb come loose and damage a car in the 2005 event.

Illien denies Ferrari ‘tank’ comments – Earlier in the week it was suggested that Mercedes’ Mario Illien had said Ferrari would need to build a ‘tank’ of a car to guard against the destructive tendencies of new driver Kimi Raikkonen – but it seems the comments printed in Bild are erroneous.

Nonetheless, the belief that Raikkonen precipitated his retirement from the 2005 San Marino Grand Prix with careless kerb-hopping is a popular one.

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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