News from the Paddock - Austrian GP

Latest news regarding Peugeot is that it will stay in Formula One after all! Britain's F1 News magazine reports that it will do a deal with a new company, Vivendi, formerly known as Compagnie Generale des Eaux, which is working its way up to becoming Europe's biggest media and communications business. Major rivals are Orange (Arrows sponsor) and Telefonica (Minardi sponsor). It is said that the new Peugeot-Vivendi combination could take over the entire Prost team.

The Minardi team is expected to lose the use of its Ford 'customer' engines, badged Fondmetal, at the end of this year. Ford Motorsport's Neil Ressler, who also heads up Jaguar Racing, says: "It is an old engine and we would have to make new parts which we are not eager to do, and we do not have the capacity to do a second team with the new engine." He added that supply this year was as a favour to Minardi. Some say that Minardi will get a customer Peugeot engine, but there is also the possibility of a customer Ferrari engine (at $27m for the first year). However, chief shareholder Gabriele Rumi is said to be selling his 70 percent shareholding in the company, and there are two potential buyers. One is American millionaire Tom Johnson, head of investment company Hidden Creek, while the other is an unknown Arab millionaire whose bid is fronted by a French businessman.

The man who was responsible for the very successful Renault V10 in the early 90s, Jean-Jacques His, has rejoined RenaultSport for the factory return to Formula One next year. His also spent time in the 1980s at Ferrari and has considerable experience in Formula One, starting back in 1972. For the last couple of years, since Renault pulled out of Formula One, he has been manager of the Renault production engine design division.

Jaguar Racing presented the FIA with one of last year's Stewart-Ford racecars for marshal-training purposes. The car is equipped with an extractable seat system and it will be available at each Grand Prix for training the marshals in extracting drivers from cars. The project was a joint effort between Lear, Jaguar and the FIA.

Jean Alesi is last in this year's World Championship, and Johnny Herbert is second last: that's official. After the French Grand Prix, for the first time, the FIA published full championship standings for both the Formula 1 Drivers and Constructors. The importance of these tables is that they differentiate between drivers and teams on similar scores, depending on the quality of results (according to article 26 of the Formula 1 World Championship Sporting Regulations).

Thus we find that while Eddie Irvine, Mika Salo and Jenson Button all have three points, Irvine is ahead because his three all came from his fourth place in Monaco, while Salo and Button scored theirs with one fifth and sixth each. Salo is then ahead of Button because he has a seventh, while Button's next best score is an eighth.

The significance of this, at present, is felt greater at the back end of the field. Alesi lies 22nd on nil points with a best of ninth in the European Grand Prix plus a 10th and a 14th, while Herbert is 21st and has a best of a ninth, one 10th and a 12th. Marc Gene is 20th with an eighth and two 14ths, beaten by his teammate Gaston Mazzacane whose finish record is an eighth and a 10th. Nick Heidfeld is 18th with an eighth and a ninth, while Alexander Wurz is 17th with a seventh and three ninths. Pedro Diniz is top non-points scorer with a seventh and an eighth. As for Constructors, Minardi is therefore ahead of Prost which is bottom of both tables. Equal on three are Jaguar, Sauber and Arrows, but in that order according to their results.

Asked who he fears most in his championship challenge, David Coulthard said: "I don't fear anyone. I relish competing against other Grand Prix drivers, but naturally your biggest challenge comes from within your own team. That's the only person you really know when it comes to other driver's machinery. Clearly, Michael is the championship leader and the person to whom we are trying to claw back the points. Rubens is very close behind Mika and behind myself and it can all change very quickly. I'm just trying to get the best out of myself, looking at the lap times and seeing whether I am in front or behind."

Jacques Villeneuve has hit out at British American Tobacco, owners of the BAR team, after they asked him to negotiate his future with them direct. That, and Honda having recently signed up a second team to join BAR, could tip the 1997 World Champion towards Benetton. "There is no question that Jacques is disappointed by the Honda decision." said his close friend and BAR chief Pollock. "He will only make a decision about his future when he is sure he has a team he can win with." Jacques wants to negotiate his future with Pollock and although he has apparently agreed terms with Renault-owned Benetton for next year, he still has not signed. Apparently he is worried about leaving Honda, although with Renault he has the next best thing: the deal is rumoured to be worth around $37m for a two year contract.

Dario Franchitti has emerged as a potential candidate for the second Jaguar seat next year, rivalling Jenson Button. Johnny Herbert is almost certain to leave the team and head to the USA as he feels that his time in Formula One is over. Having won three Grands Prix and Le Mans, Herbert wants to race at Indianapolis. Who will fill his seat? Jaguar is interested in Button who has a five-year contract with Williams, although there are two options: one at the end of this year and another in two year's time. This makes him less attractive to Jaguar but his management is trying to negotiate him free of this and Williams could agree to waive or delay that contract. Franchitti was due to test for Jaguar this week, but it was called off as his current team boss, Barry Green, intervened.

McLaren's third driver, Olivier Panis, has been talking to British American Racing, Arrows and Sauber about a full-time return to Formula One in 2001. The former Ligier and Prost driver always said that he was only stepping down for a year and that he hoped to make a return to Formula One. He had been offered a short term drive with Williams in 2000 but turned it down. However, Ron Dennis says that while he will not stand in Olivier's way, he will also make him an attractive offer to stay with McLaren. He credits Olivier with a lot of the team's engineering success this year. "He eases the burden of testing and has an engineering brain," says Dennis while praise has also been heaped on the experienced French driver by both technical director Adrian Newey and Mario Illien of Ilmor.

Giorgio Vinella from Putignano, Bari, made his official debut as a Minardi test driver in the week before the Austrian Grand Prix. The purpose of the test at the Vairano circuit, Italy, was to fine tune a new aerodynamic package which could be introduced this weekend. The choice of the Pavia-located circuit was influenced by its two kilometer straight where aerodynamics could be studied. Vinella was assisted by engineer Jean-Francois Sinteff and the team's aerodynamic boss, Nigel Cowperthwaite. Vinella had already tested for Minardi last December, and is to drive at Mugello, on 18 July, along with Marc Gene.