Johnny Herbert has admitted that he is worried that this could be his last year in Formula One, particularly if he doesn't improve soon. "I am realistic about my prospects, and unless things improve soon, this looks like being my last year," he said. "I have to beat Eddie (Irvine, his teammate). When I do that, perhaps I can start looking at the bigger picture. I could not have done more this season. The car would not allow it."
Jarno Trulli has been suffering an ear infection in recent weeks. The Italian felt that he caught the infection when he flew to a sponsor event. It appeared the weekend before the European Grand Prix when Trulli was taking part in a charity event, causing him to book himself into a hospital as he began to hear noises in his ears. In order to give him a good chance of recovering, he travelled to the Nurburgring by train and car. However, he has been testing in Valencia this week.
Although Peugeot is not due to make an official announcement until early July at the French Grand Prix, it seems that a deal to continue to build Formula One engines at its engine shop on a customer basis has been completed. Minardi is said to be likely recipient and Sauber is also interested. It is said that the intellectual property rights to the Prost team's current V10 have been sold to a Japanese company called Asian Motor Techniques for a nominal fee. Among those said to be involved are Hideo Morita, the elder son of Akyo Morita, founder of Sony; former Japanese Formula Two driver Tetsu Ikuzawa; and former Ferrari and Williams designer, Argentine Enrique Scalabroni. The company is to continue to design, develop and build the engines on a similar basis to that of Supertec and Mecachrome who do the same with the Renault engine.
Prost could use Renault's Formula One engine for a year, as it seems that Supertec or Renault have decided that they can supply three teams rather than two, and so there is spare capacity after Benetton and Arrows have taken the initial supply of engines, although Arrows has yet to sign a long-term contract.
Olivier Panis has been saying that he very much expects to be back in Formula One next year. The 33-year old winner of the 1996 Monaco Grand Prix has this year been McLaren's third driver, after a six year career with Ligier and Prost which included 91 Grands Prix. After scoring just two points last year in a difficult year for the French team, Panis resignedly took a back seat and moved to McLaren, where his duties have included driving the West McLaren-Mercedes two-seater Formula One car - but also a lot of testing with McLaren which makes him a valuable commodity. He has revealed that he could have joined Williams for this year's season, but the contract offered was too short term.
In spite of an apparent disagreement over contract, Brazilian hot-shoe Antonio Pizzonia, who is contesting the British Formula Three championship, tested for Benetton at Valencia last week, in company with Giorgio Pantano who is contesting the German Formula Three championship. The pair are being evaluated for an eventual testing job. Pizzonia is particularly prized after his dominating performance in last year's Formula Renault championship in Britain.
Renault is building an all-new Formula One V10 engine for 2001 as a precursor for its full re-entry into Formula One in 2002. The new engine should be completed in the late summer of this year, and it will then be tested in an adaptation of the B200, this year's Formula One car, which will be modified to take the different specification V10.
