27 February 1998 Prost has entered in a new sponsorship deal with Sodexho, which specialises in food and management services.
27 February 1998 Scottish sportwear company Sports Division is the new sponsor of Stewart Racing.
26 February 1998 In a new book just published ("Frank Williams - The inside story of the man behind Williams Renault" by Maurice Hamilton) an ex-Williams engineer, Dennis Ruschen, says that years ago the Williams team was so strapped for cash that they could not afford new tyres. He was often sent to the Goodyear area to try and find full sets of tyres to be used on the Williams amongst those Ferrari had discarded because not good enough for Clay Regazzoni and Nicki Lauda.
26 February 1998 The Australian police are expecting trouble from the environmentalists protesting against the GP at Albert Park. Last year they poured diesel all over the circuit, thus alienating a large section of those who had supporetd their cause beforehand.
25 February 1998 Esteban Tuero has driven the 2,000 km required to obtain the F1 super-license.
25 February 1998 Today in London the technical directors of all 11 teams taking part in the 1998 F1 championship will meet. The aim of the meeting is to discuss te new FIA regulation and reach an agreement on how to read the more ambiguous rules. Max Mosley has threatened to get FIA directly involved in the matter if the technical directors fail to reach an agreement on any point.
24 February 1998 FIA presented today in Paris the provisional F1 calendar for 1998. The French GP is not included, nor is the South-African one, which was rumoured to be a likely replacement for the Portoguese GP.
23 February 1998 Today in the afternoon Minardi will present the 98 car, the M198, which has already been tested in Barcelona.
20 February 1998 Ken Tyrrell has left F1. Harvey Postlethwaite takes up the double role of general manager and technical director until the arrival of Craig Pollock, Villeneuve's manager.
20 February 1998 A new law has been approved by the French government practically giving FIA exclusive broadcast rights for any F1 race run on French territory. This will probably put the French GP back into the calendar, either as a replacement for Portugal or as a new race. If a new race is to be added to the calendar, all the teams taking part in the current F1 season must give their consent.
19 February 1998 The Belgian GP is back on the calendar. FIA and the president of the region of Wallon (where the Spa-Francorchamps circuit is) made the announcement simoultaneously yesterday. FIA said that they have taken into consideration a new law proposal which is going to be submitted to the Parliament of Wallon and which will allow unrestricted sponsorship in international cultural and sporting events. The Belgian GP is scheduled for the 30th of August.
18 February 1998 Today is the 100th anniversary of the birth of Enzo Ferrari, the founder of the famous car company of Maranello. A monument dedicated to him will be unveiled today in his home town of Modena by his son Piero. Important F1 and Ferrari people, such as Ecclestone, M. Schumacher, Lauda and Regazzoni will be present at the ceremony. After the ceremony a book dedicated by Piero Ferrari to his father will be presented. The book contains "secret" information taken from Enzo Ferrari's own notebooks and previously unpublished photographs. The book (titled "Una vita per l'automobile") has been put together by Franco Gozzi, who was Ferrari's assistant for 30 years. In the afternoon Montezemolo will open a photographic exhibition on the life of Enzo Ferrari.
17 February 1998 With a surprise announcement, Tom Walkinshaw revealed today that Arrows will build their own engines for their F1 cars. Ferrari is the only other team which builds the engines used by the team's car, all other teams buy the engines they use.
17 February 1998 A South African GP in 1998 appears to be almost a certainty, despite the FIA not making any official announcement. It is as yet not clear which race will be replaced. The decision on the Belgian GP was scheduled for February the 15th, but FIA postponed it after receiving new documents to examine.
17 February 1998 McLaren (which had been officially presented in orange) revealed yesterday this season's racing colours. It will have a white front, black sides and silver bonnet. Very few splashes of the original orange are left. McLaren's two drivers, Coulthard and Hakkinen, have so far obtained very good results in the pre-season tests.
16 February 1998 The Hungarian government said that they will continue to give financial backing to the Hungaroring and the Hungarian GP.
12 February 1998 New setback for the Belgian GP. Both the region of Wallon (where the Spa-Francorchamps circuit is) and the province and council authorities of the Francorchamp area had gone to court to have the tobacco advertising ban lifted. Today the court declared itself to be not competent on the matter and therefore unable to suspend the law on tobacco advertising which was approved last December by the Bruxelles Parliament. FIA has threatened to cancel the Belgian GP from this year's schedule because of the tobacco advertising ban.
12 February 1998 Apparently Esteban Tuero has been given a temporary super-license to race in F1. The license is valid for four months and Tuero's performance in the first races of the season will determine whether he will get a full license.
11 February 1998 Tyrrell ended the rumours and speculations of the past few weeks yesterday when they announced that their second driver for 1998 is Ricardo Rosset. Rosset accepted a drive with the Lola team last year, only to see the team retire from the championship after two races.
10 February 1998 According to the latest rumours, the second driver for Tyrrell will be Jos Verstappen and not Norberto Fontana.
10 February 1998 The new Arrows car will be presented on the 17th of the month, when it will also be announced whether the Hart or Yamaha engine will be used.
10 February 1998 The lack of clarity in the 1998 tyre regulations has sparked fear that drivers will be disqualified for excessive wear on the tyres. The new rules state that the grooving should be visible on at least half of the tyre after the end of the session.
9 February 1998 There are rumours that the reason Tuero has not been given the super-license required to race in F1 is an internal war between the owner of Minardi, Gabriele Runi, and Jean Todt. Todt is allegedly upset about Minardi hiring Gustav Brunner and, apart from the Tuero affair, he has used his influence to prevent Minardi from testing at Mugello.
6 February 1998 Max Mosley sent a letter to Le Monde replying to the accusations of the European Commission. Mosley states in the letter that all the applications for hosting a GP are automatically accepted, except where there is no guarantee of safety (such as at Estoril) and that F1 drivers are allowed to participate in the trials of their respective national competitions. He also adds that the problems caused by some TV stations and private organisers are purely of an economic nature and that FIA allowed teams to use the "Formula 1" logo on their merchanides to distinguish the objects from fakes. About the French GP, Mosley says that all they asked France was protection of FIA's broadcast rights.
5 February 1998 The new McLaren, the MP4-13 has been presented in Woking. This year McLaren will be racing with Bridgestone tyres and will benefit from the expertise of Adrian Newey, formely of Williams.
4 February 1998 The Argentinian Automobile Club said that they have no doubt that Esteban Tuero will get his super-license from FIA. The Automobile Club has already sent FIA the curriculum and all the required information about the young driver.
4 February 1998 Bernie Ecclestone has replied to three warning letters with which the International Commission accused him of not repecting international laws on fair competition in Europe. Karel Van Miert, the European Commissioner, said he's not happy with Ecclestone's reply and added that the International commission will not bow in front of FIA, no matter how powerful FIA is.
4 February 1998 Bernie Ecclestone said that there wil definitely be a GP of China in 1999, at the circuit of Zhuhai. It is also possible that the Chinese GP will be introduced into this year's calendar to sobstitute the Belgian or the French GP, which are currently under threat (the French GP is not even provisionally in the calendar) because of issues related to the tobacco advertising ban and TV broadcast rights. China, Malaysia, Indonesia and South Korea have come forwards to be considered a sobstitutes for the two races.
3 February 1998 Bad news for Minardi: FIA refused to give Esteban Tuero license to race, claiming he is not experienced enough. Minardi did not comment on the news.
Last updated on 27 February 1998 by Federica Massagrande