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Dutch driver Jos Verstappen was involved in an ugly fracas at a kart meeting in Kerpen, Germany, over the weekend. The incident, in front of five-time World champion Michael Schumacher, saw an enraged Verstappen grappling with a spectator after spinning off the track.

It is the second time the fiery Dutchman has let his emotions get the better of him. Two years ago, the former Arrows driver, who was without a drive at the time, came to blows with another competitor at a kart meeting in Belgium.

Verstappen insisted this incident however, had been blown up out of all proportion. "To make things clear, I regret what has happened. But as so often the highest positions are the most exposed the whole thing is being exaggerated. Then again I did over react,” he said.

“Look, I am a driver with passion. If I go for something, I do it whole-hearted. Even on a kart race like that, otherwise I might as well stay home. It really was nothing more than a big exchange of words in the heat of the battle. After a collision where both me and another driver shot off the track.

"A typical racing incident, something that goes with the territory. For me racing is 100 per cent commitment, and then the adrenaline pumps through your body, which does prevent you from reacting rational from time to time. After the fact you'll say, it would have been better if you'd counted to 10 first."

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There are to be no radical changes for next season, according to the remaining Formula One team principals after a lengthy meeting in London on Wednesday. Instead, the 10 F1 bosses revealed plans to reduce costs and increase excitement by the start of the 2005 season.

Minardi boss Paul Stoddart said the eight-hour meeting had provided a positive long-term plan to help the survival of the sport as a whole. "It was a very constructive meeting and everyone has pulled together to get these things into action," he said.

"It was always going to be uphill to bring in changes for 2003 because everything is so far advanced. But it was great to see peoples' interest in the state of the sport as a whole take over from interest in the gain of individual teams. Today has been a genuine spirited cooperative experience."

Rumoured plans to reintroduce slick tyres for 2003 were not even discussed and the team principals are understood to have chosen to keep the regulations relatively static for the next two years.

They signed a unanimous agreement to make six alterations, mostly involving the format of race weekends for next year, and put together draft proposals for 2004 and beyond. It is thought the long-term plans involve a return to slick tyres, the removal of traction control and a reduction in downforce.

A Formula One insider has been quoted as saying: "The whole idea is to have less emphasis on the technical side of things again and get the excitement back into the sport."

The 2003 regulation suggestions are now subject to the agreement of the sport's governing body, the FIA.

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Jacques Villeneuve has slammed Jaguar’s new drivers and called for the introduction of rally drivers to Formula One, starting with Scotland’s Colin McRae.

The British American Racing driver, whose team is managed by Rally boss David Richards, made the surprising announcement at Edinburgh on Wednesday.

McRae, a former world rally champion, does have experience of driving an F1 car when he piloted Martin Brundle's Jordan at Silverstone in the mid-nineties and stunned the team's technicians by his pace.

Whether he would be able to handle the technology which dominates the current F1 cars is questionable, but Villeneuve is in no doubt. "Sure, Colin would be great for F1," the French-Canadian said during his visit to a Honda dealership in Edinburgh.

"The sport is desperately short of characters at the moment and there's no doubt Colin has the speed to make an impact in any level of motorsport he cares to have a go at. I know he's already tested an F1 car and, let's be honest, he couldn't really do much worse than the drivers (Mark Webber and Antonio Pizzonia) currently ensconced in the Jaguar cars."

Villeneuve, in Barcelona on Thursday to begin winter testing in his Honda-powered British American Racing car, believes his close friend and rival, David Coulthard, has missed his one great opportunity of being crowned World champion.

"David's a good guy," he said, "and we spend a lot of time together, but seriously I think he's missed the boat when it comes to winning the World championship. He had his chance two or three years ago."

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Jaguar Racing’s Chief Aerodynamicist Mark Handford became the second high-ranked casualty at the beleaguered outfit a week after Niki Lauda was dismissed as team boss.

A spokesman said on Wednesday that Handford was among those being made redundant in a major restructuring. The Milton Keynes-based team is off-loading approximately 60 posts ahead of the 2003 F1 season.

Lauda was sacked as Jaguar Principal last week but is said to be considering whether to take up an advisory role with the Ford-owned team.

Handford had worked on the under-performing 2002 Formula One car: the ill-fated R3, which was launched last January with some fanfare as the 'first proper Jaguar' only to then require extensive remodelling when it proved embarrassingly inept.

Handford joined Jaguar in 2000 from the Newman-Haas CART team where the Briton was head of aerodynamic development. Jaguar recruited Ben Agathangelou from Renault as its new head of aerodynamics in April.

Its new R4 car is due to be launched on January 13.

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Ferrari’s chief designer Rory Byrne has warned that an immediate return to slick tyres could put drivers' safety at risk.

Byrne expressed his concerns just as the momentum for the reintroduction of slicks gathers pace but claimed such a move would increase speeds and could make the cars too dangerous.

"If slicks are re-introduced, there will be a reasonable increase in cornering speeds and a reduction in lap times and that will clearly be a safety concern," said Byrne. "We would need to speak with Bridgestone and have their input on the amount of grip we would get and whether our suspension could handle it. I would imagine there would be quite a significant increase in grip."

Byrne, who has masterminded the design of Ferrari's World championship-winning cars over the last four years, insisted it would be impossible to instigate regulation changes in time for next season.

He said amendments to the rules would give him and his team of designers an interesting challenge and could change the Formula One pecking order. But he said that any proposals for change will inherently help the manufacturer-backed teams with greater resources and make life even more difficult for the privately funded outfits.

"Certainly there could not be a change for next year as people have already designed their cars and there is no scope for change," he said. "We are far too far in for 2003.

"Something new could be brought in for 2004 and I would find the challenge interesting. But people keep saying the regulations must remain stable to keep the costs down and every time we change them, the teams with more resources are better off," he said.

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- Justin Wilson is hedging his bets after being handed a test drive with CART team Newman-Hass in the United States.

The 24-year-old is hoping to secure a drive with the Minardi Formula One team for next season. However, his chance of breaking into Formula One could be scuppered by a $3 million sponsorship deal required by the Faenza-based outfit.

Minardi boss Paul Stoddart confirmed the former F3000 champion would need to stump up the cash to secure a seat for 2003. “I hope Justin finds a budget, but unfortunately we've made it quite clear that whoever drives for us this year is going to need to have sponsors. That's life. We have to look at the team first, we make no secret of the fact that the team needs money. That money must come from drivers or their sponsors. But I also have a great personal faith in Justin's ability and it would be a crying shame if he missed the opportunity.”

With this in mind, the British driver is weighing up his options by flying out to America in the next couple of weeks for a drive at Florida's Sebring circuit. Newman-Hass won last season's CART title with Brazil's Cristiano da Matta who has now moved to Formula One with Toyota.

The predominantly US-based series has seen several leading teams and drivers defect to the rival Indy Racing League for 2003, but is considering expansion with more races in Europe. For the past two seasons Britain has held a leg of the championship at the Rockingham circuit in Corby, Northamptonshire.

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Ferrari insist they will continue to use some form of team orders despite the practice being outlawed by motorsport chiefs.

The Italian team caused a storm of protest in Austria last season when Rubens Barrichello moved over in the closing metres to hand Michael Schumacher victory.

The drivers need to think of the team's interest before thinking of their own gain Luca di Montezemolo,
Ferrari president

Formula One's governing body, the FIA, has since banned team orders and any team suspected of imposing them during a race will be reported to the stewards.
But Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo insists his team's interest will still take priority over that of the drivers.

"For us, the team is the number one element," said Di Montezemolo.

"To win in F1 you need the right mechanics, the correct strategy, the best suppliers, the top drivers; the whole team, in other words.

"Team orders have always been in the spirit of the sport. In cycling and long distance running, team orders are always prevalent - but nobody complains there.

"There needs to be a middle-ground but we cannot forget how important the teams are.

"I will never allow an individual to think for his best interests and then to the team.

"We'll respect the public and the sport but the drivers need to think of the team's interest before thinking of their own gain."

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Computer Associates and the McLaren-Mercede Formula One team have expanded their technology partnership, with the aim of further boosting the team's race performance.


Under the terms of the agreement, Computer Associates (CA) will provide McLaren with the technology to protect mission-critical IT systems at the track-side. BrightStor High-Availability software will provide the McLaren team with non-stop access to telemetry data that is transmitted live between the cars and the pits.


It will also protect McLaren's servers against OS (operating system) or other software crashes during Formula One tests and races.


By using the telemetry system, Formula One engineers are able to analyse the data in real-time, upload updated parameters to the cars while they run, and feedback information to the drivers, in order to achieve maximum performance on the track.


Hayley Tabor, CA general manager, Europe, Middle East and Africa, said: “We are delighted McLaren has shown its confidence in Computer Associates' software solutions, ensuring our technology partnership will continue to go from strength to strength.


"We feel the time is right for the partnership to move into a phase where our software technology can play a more and more active role in the West McLaren Mercedes team. Formula One is technically sophisticated and complex, and provides a great showcase for our software.”


Ron Dennis, chairman and CEO of the TAG McLaren Group added: “We are always very pleased when one of our long term partners extends its relationship with the company, and shows the commitment and dedication to explore how the partnership can be further strengthened.”

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India’s rising star Karun Chandok, is set to have a dream fulfilled next week when he will spend a day at the Williams F1 headquarters in Grove, England.


Chandok, who made his racing kart debut at Daytona in the UK at the tender age of 15 – which he won – confessed the experience will be invaluable in his pursuit of achieving his ultimate goal: a drive in F1.


"I have been invited to see the Williams factory in London on December 13 and spend a day with Montoya," he revealed.


The 18 year-old from Chennai, who became the youngest Indian national champion in 2000 before becoming the youngest Asian Formula 2000 champion a year later, is aiming to take an Formula 1 test in 2004, said the encounter with the former F1 champion would be a “good first hand experience as to what the world of formula racing is all about.


"Until now every thing has gone according to my plan. But there is cut-throat competition in F1. About 200 drivers race in the F3 circuit and only 20 progress to F1.”

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Formula one supremo Bernie Ecclestone was forced to pull the plug on a planned meeting at the Stuttgart headquarters of DaimlerChrysler scheduled for next Wednesday, after the sport's governing body, the FIA, intervened in the proceedings.


The meeting was intended to try and resolve the ever-growing concerns over the future of the sport and the threat by the car manufacturers to form a breakaway series. The big carmakers competing in F1, leading independent teams and three banks with a US$1.6bn stake in F1 had been scheduled to attend.


Instead, the FIA, made it clear on Friday in a letter that the FIA would not allow such a series to proceed. They would sanction a manufacturers' championship, but not as a substitute for F1.


The letter was in effect a rebuke to Mr Jurgen Hubbert, soon to retire as head of DaimlerChrysler and thought to perceive himself as a potential successor to 72-year-old Ecclestone.


This would begin in 2008, after the end of the current Concorde agreement governing financial and other relationships between the teams, FIA and the F1 promotional companies, including the Formula One Management (FOM) management company, which is still controlled by Mr Ecclestone though he sold a 75 per-cent stake to German media groups two years ago.


The collapse of both the Kirch and EMTV groups has left Bayerische Landesbank, JP Morgan and Lehman Brothers, creditor banks, with an unwanted holding.


The carmakers and teams want a greater share of F1's lucrative revenues - mainly from media rights - for themselves and the independent teams.


They also want a sizeable chunk of the banks' equity in F1 in pursuit of more direct control. When they launch the new championship, they warn, without an agreement there would be no value left in the holdings of the banks or Mr Ecclestone's family trust.


In cancelling next week's meeting, Mr Ecclestone acknowledged that peace proposals put to the manufacturers through their advisers, Goldman Sachs, two months ago had failed to win a response.


The crisis is developing during mounting uncertainty among the large international corporations which provide the sponsorship support for F1 teams. Sponsorship problems have been behind the collapse of the Prost team early this year and Tom Walkinshaw's UK-based Arrows team.