Jed's F1 News - January 1997

Welcome to Jed's F1 piece!
As one of The Pits resident F1 nut's (I've been watching since 1979 and I'm only 21!) I've been given the job as the F1 news reporter. Many of the European readers will probably know quite a bit of whats here, but for those less fortunate, I hope that this will be of interest to you.

Well first of all Happy New Year! Hope you all had a good holiday season. Sorry that my promise of weekly reports nevery happened - sadly work commitments and lack of time put paid to that! :-(

Still a few stories of interest despite the quiet testing season. Most of the driver line ups have been settled, althought one or two are still in the air.

Jed

Lola signs Rosset and Sospiri.
Lola Cars, who announced its return to F1 in November, have now signed their two drivers. Benetton's test driver Vincenzo Sospiri, 30, and ex-Arrows driver Ricardo Rosset, 28, where confirmed as the drivers at a launch in Brazil during December.

It was well known that Mastercard, with its strong links in South America, favoured the Brazillian. Sospiri was chosen because the US arm of Mastercard stated they wanted a European driver.

The two drivers last raced together as team mates for the Super Nova team in the 1995 Formula 3000 International Championships where they finished one-two. Rosset commented that he feels that the first year will be hard, but with Lola's experience in Indycars and a commited backer, his futre seem secure.

Senna trial date set.
Willams team bosses Frank Williams and Patrick Head along with Andrian Newey and three others face trial on February 20th for the manslaughter of Ayrton Senna.

The offical accident report for the crash which killed the driver in 1994 at the Imola Grand Prix, says that a faliure in the steering column caused the crash. It's believed that modifications where made to it the night before and that it had failed during the race when Senna attempted to take Tamburello corner causing him to hit the wall.

William laywer Roberto Causo said that they denied the charges absolutely. However, he wouldn't say if any of his clients would attend the trial.

If those accused are found guilty the case will have a serious effect on the futre of F1 racing in Italy.

Villeneuve sets fastest time on new Goodyear's.
Jacques Villeneuve set a time 1.3s under the pole time for last May's Spansih Grand Prix on Goodyear development tyres at the Barcelona track.

Jaques did a 1m19.35s beating Damon Hills time of 1m20.65s set at the race. Although the cooler weather of winter is know to help lap times drop, Villeneuves time is a good indication of Goodyear's attempts to catch up with the challenger of the Japanese Bridgstone tyres.

Williams, Benetton adn Ferrai drivers were using over 10 sets of tyres a day although many where cautious as the test was more about data collection that the perfromance.

Barcelona Testing Times
1.	Jacques Villeneuve (Willams)	1m 19.35s	6.	H-H Frentzen (Willams)	1m 20.87s
2.	Gerhard Berger (Benetton)	1m 19.64s	7.	Mika Hakkinen (McLaren)	1m 21.04s
3.	Jean Alesi (Benetton)	1m 20.59s	8.	Ralf Schumacher (Jordan)	1m 22.51s
4.	Eddie Irvine (Ferrari)	1m 20.61s	9.	Pedro Diniz (Arrows)	1m 22.51s
5.	David Coulthard (McLaren)	1m 20.84s	10.	Nigel Mansell (Jordan)	1m 22.97s