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27-Nov: "FIA changes too little too late" is the title of the 30th issue from the Diagnosis and Prognosis Series for the 2002 season. In this issue, the Heretic looks at the changes by the FIA - Issue 30

26 Nov: Jaguar Racing announced today that Niki Lauda is to step aside as Jaguar Racing boss as well as the head of the Premier Performance Division (PPD). Ford's Chief Technical Officer Richard Parry-Jones described the change as  part of a series of widespread structural reforms. Lauda will be replaced at PPD by Director of Technology Tony Purnell while Lauda's position at Jaguar Racing has yet to be filled.

Richard Parry-Jones said "Niki Lauda is relinquishing his role as head of PPG and Jaguar Racing. I have asked Niki to fulfil the role of special advisor to me and I very much hope he will accept the post.

This is not just about R4, or the next season, it’s about Ford and Jaguar, and all of our partners, making a longer term commitment to success in Formula One. The way the sport is today, you need a deep technical competence at all levels and it doesn’t matter if you’ve got everything else right, you cannot succeed without this.

For Jaguar Racing, we need to build ‘the Jaguar way’ of producing Formula One cars. This means not only that we have the right technical people in place but that we have the managers and support structures that make it a happy place for the engineers to work in."

Niki Lauda described the decision as purely political and said "Honestly, the decision did surprise me - there was no criticism of the way I work or whatever. 
I only tripped over the power plays of the English. Tony Purnell, the engineer I supported, was the driving force behind my being fired. He is now the new technical boss. And he does not want to cooperate with me. The thing is that I am not English and no engineer – I simply have to accept the decision."

18-Nov: "The year of the prancing horse" is the title of the 29th issue from the Diagnosis and Prognosis Series for the 2002 season. In this issue, the Heretic reviews the 2002 season - Issue 29

5 Nov: The Toyota Racing team announced today that 2002 CART champion Cristiano da Matta will join the team to drive alongside Frenchman Olivier Panis from next year. The 29 year old Brazilian signed a 2 year contract with the team.
da Matta has driven Toyota powered cars in the CART series since his debut in 1999.
With the arrival of da Matta to Formula 1, next season will see 3 ex CART champions in the Formula 1 with Jacques Villeneuve and Juan Pablo Montoya in addition to Cristiano da Matta.
The Chairman of Toyota Motorsport Tsutomo Tomita said of the announcement "I am very pleased that Cristiano is joining Panasonic Toyota Racing. He joined Toyota at the start of his career in the CART programme and has shown his tremendous dedication and efforts by helping us to develop together to win the championship with Newman/Haas Racing this season. His long-term partnership with Toyota and his natural driving talent will prove an essential asset to us as our Formula 1 programme enters an exciting new stage of development."
Cristiano da Matta said "I have accomplished one of my goals by winning the CART driver’s championship title. I am very thankful to Carl Haas, Paul Newman and all of Newman/Haas Racing for the support, hard work and accomplishments that we have achieved together. Now I am ready for the next challenge. It is great to be able to join Panasonic Toyota Racing and more importantly to further develop my already successful partnership with Toyota. To be able to combine this with driving in Formula 1 - the top motorsport series in the world - is very special to me and I look forward to the exciting and demanding challenges that lie ahead. Though I enjoyed driving the Toyota Formula 1 car in May this year, I cannot wait to test the more-evolved TF102B car as a Panasonic Toyota Racing F1 driver later this month."

With this announcement, Formula 1 will have at least 3 Brazilian drivers next year with Rubens Barrichello (Ferrari), Antonio Pizzonia (Jaguar) and Cristiano da Matta (Toyota). 2 Brazilian who drove this season may not make it next year with Felipe Massa replaced at Sauber and Enrique Bernoldi's future depending that of Arrows.

Only Minardi have yet to announce their driver line-up while speculation still remains on Jordan's final line-up next year.

Click here for the 2003 Team and Driver Line-up  

1 Nov: Jaguar Racing announced today that both of their drivers for this season Eddie Irvine and Pedro de la Rosa will be replaced by Australian Mark Webber and Brazilian Antonio Pizzonia. It was expected to see Eddie Irvine go but Pedro de la Rosa has a contract with the team for next year, however his performances weren't impressive and it appears that Jaguar have decided to pay him out.

Both Mark Webber and Antonio Pizzonia tested for Jaguar this year and it is now clear that both drivers have impressed the team.

Niki Lauda was delighted with the announcement and said "I am thrilled to be welcoming Antonio and Mark to Jaguar Racing for what promises to be an exciting and new partnership in Formula One. In Antonio, or ‘Jungle Boy’ as he has been nicknamed, we have a very gifted raw racer who will undoubtedly inject a new lease of life into Formula One. His speed and racing instinct are what attracted us to him and I have little doubt in his ability to shake-up the establishment in a big way.
Mark, on the other hand, has solid F1 experience and now’s his chance to prove exactly what he’s capable of. We have two very different characters and I have every intention of revving them up in an effort to extract the maximum from them. Team orders is not something we play by at Jaguar and if anything, these two drivers will be under strict instructions to go out and fight each other on the race track – as well as everyone else, of course! We are red-blooded racers at Jaguar and from what I have seen of Antonio and Mark, I am confident of seeing a very competitive duel next season."

Niki Lauda praised Eddie Irvine for his efforts in the past 3 years and said “I cannot thank Eddie enough for his hard-work and commitment during the last three seasons. He has been with us right from day one and while there have been some difficult and challenging periods to endure, Eddie’s resilience and focus remained throughout. His experience, speed and race craft are exemplary and the decision to replace him in no way reflects upon his clear ability as a competitive racer.”

Lauda thanked Pedro de la Rosa for his efforts but indicated that de la Rosa struggled within the team and said  “Pedro has unfortunately struggled with some aspects of the programme and in simple terms, it hasn’t really worked out for either party. It’s unfortunate, yes, but that’s Formula One. We wanted to adopt a fresh approach for next year and our strategy is firmly geared towards making progress at all levels of the business.”

Antonio Pizzonia was delighted to be part of Jaguar Racing next season and said “After having spent a year testing solidly for BMW WilliamsF1, the logical next step was to secure a race drive for 2003 and to have been given that opportunity by Niki Lauda is simply fantastic. Jaguar Racing has made considerable progress in recent months and combined with the solid work being undertaken right now, I am very excited about racing for Jaguar next season. My testing role with BMW WilliamsF1 this season has generated over 14,000kms of mileage and my aim now is to focus this experience towards helping Jaguar achieve its goals next season.”

Mark Webber was equally thrilled by this announcement and said “I'm truly excited about racing for Jaguar next season. It is one of the most emotive and successful names in motor racing and one that has a wealth of motorsport heritage. As the latest recruit to join what is a distinguished line-up of Jaguar drivers from the past, I realise my role will be very important in helping the team succeed.
It is a phenomenally competitive time in Formula One right now and given the intense development programme Jaguar has in place, it is critical that Antonio and I help accelerate the team’s progress over winter so as to be ready for what promises to be a very exciting season given the revised format of the race weekend. Having tested with the team at Barcelona earlier this year and from visiting the Jaguar Racing factory, I know there are a lot of good people involved with the team and we all know what we have to deliver next season.”

With Jaguar announcing their driver line-up for 2003, only Minardi and Toyota have yet to announce their complete line-up. Toyota already signed Olivier Panis but have yet to announce who will partner him. There is still speculation over the Jordan team line-up although Eddie Jordan has verbally confirmed that both Fisichella and Sato will be with the team next year. There is also the Arrows team although it is not known yet whether they will be back.

Click here for the 2003 Team and Driver Line-up  

1-Nov: "The death of Real Racing ?" - The Quali-flyer comments on the latest regulation changes ... Report ... Responses

30-Oct: "Your thoughts on the Formula 1 regulation changes" - Topic of the week - Have Your Say

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