Flavio Briatore, owner of the Benetton team, has announced that their new Formula One car for the 1997 season will be ready in December. The first test with the Benetton-Renault are planned for February.

Briatore commented: "Our new car is build exactly according to the wishes of Jean Alesi and Gerhard Berger."

It seems Willi Weber has found a first big sponsor deal for Michael Schumacher's little brother Ralf. The deal with the 'Süddeutschen Klassenlotterie' is rumoured to be worth one million german marks, around 700.000 US dollars.