MOTORSPORT: Not a pretty picture from F1 world

Grim reports still on Michael Schumacher, F1 cars as ugly as aliens on the way, Ecclestone wins one battle but still has a legal “war” to fight, but Alex Zanardi is to race again

Fears grow on Schumi as new F1 cars to appear

Bad news is outweighing the good from the world of Formula One at the minute.

Without official updates from Michael Schumacher’s medical team, dire reports continue about the seven-time world champion’s chances of recovery from his skiing accident.

And an F1 team principal has added to the fears that this year’s cars are going to be ugly, likening them to the monster in the Alien movies.

The first team to reveal the look of its new car, Force India, displayed only a side view, not its low nose front-on.

The news has been better for F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone – yes, he’s still the boss, despite having stood down from the F1 board while awaiting a criminal trial in Germany – with a US$650 million lawsuit against him in America thrown out.

But the most positive development this week has been that Alex Zanardi, the ex-F1 racer and two-time CART champion now with artificial legs, is to return to racing after a four-year break.

The latest reports on Schumacher are that, still in an induced coma almost four weeks after hitting his helmeted head on rock while skiing in France, he may have Apallic Syndrome, which it is said could leave the most successful driver in F1 history in a persistent vegetative state.

“Every day, every week in a coma the chances decline that the situation is improving,” said Jean-Marc Orgogozo, professor of neurology at the University of Bordeaux in France.

The pity is that any comment on Schumacher’s condition is not coming from Schumacher’s medical experts at the Grenoble University Hospital who surely are best placed to know his prognosis.

It was Cyril Abiteboul, principal of F1’s lowliest team, Caterham, that likened the look of his new car – unsighted publicly yet - to the monster in the Alien movies.

“It is going to be ugly,” Abiteboul said. “Kids should be dreaming when they see an F1 car. I don’t know what sort of dream or nightmare you will get when you look at those cars [to start track testing at Spain’s Jerez circuit next Tuesday].

“It does remind me of Alien, with something coming out of the mouth and whatever. It’s not very nice. We need to be seeing some dream.”

Force India is the first F1 team to have released anything of its new car, the side image of its VJM07 model with not only a Mercedes engine but also gearbox.

Force India’s technical director Andrew Green said cooling the turbocharged car had been the biggest challenge under this year’s rules.

McLaren will reveal its car online Friday night, Australian time, followed by Ferrari on Saturday, Sauber on Sunday and Toro Rosso on Monday, while the new Red Bull, Mercedes, Williams and Caterham cars won’t be seen until the day testing starts – and Lotus even later.

Meanwhile, one of Bernie Ecclestone’s three big legal headaches has been eased, with New York judge Eileen Bransten ruling that the US$650 million damages claim against him, one of his family companies, private equity firm CVC and jailed German banker Gerhard Gribkowsky by American investment firm Bluewaters was not a matter for an American court.

Bluewaters has claimed it was prepared to pay 10 per cent more for the controlling 47 per cent share of F1 that CVC bought for $US830 million in 2005 – and that it therefore was entitled to profits CVC has made from the business.

But Justice Bransten said the action was “not about a lost business venture in New York, but rather on allegations that an English citizen [Ecclestone] bribed a German citizen [Gribkowsky] to compel a German bank [Bayern LB] to sell its interest in a Jersey company [F1] to an English company [CVC] rather than another Jersey company [Bluewaters].”

Bluewaters has since moved its operations to the US and even argued that Ecclestone paying Gribkowsky in American dollars (something he admits, although he denies it was a bribe) was reason enough for its case to be heard in the New York Supreme Court – another argument Justice Bransten rejected.

Ecclestone is already awaiting a London court’s decision on whether he should compensate German company Constantin Medien US$100 million for damages it claims to have suffered through the sale to CVC for what it alleged was less than full value.

His trial in Munich on charges of bribing Gribkowsky, allegedly as part of retaining his position in the CVC takeover, is to start in April.

Swiss investigators also have been combing over Ecclestone’s affairs.

But the bright spot lately has been the announcement that Alex Zanardi is to race a BMW Z4 GT3 in the Blancpain sports car sprint series in Europe that previously was known as the FIA GT Series.

The Z4, specially adapted with the hand controls Zanardi fine-tuned in his previous touring car career after losing his legs in a Champ Car crash in Germany in 2001, will be run by ROAL Motorsport, formerly the Ravaglia Motorsport of Zanardi’s Italian countryman and former touring car world champion Roberto Ravaglia.

Zanardi won two gold medals in hand bike racing at the 2012 Paralympic Games and has been acclaimed by BMW Motorsport boss Jens Marquardt as “one of the greatest heroes – a role model to all of us, from both a human and sporting aspect”.

Zanardi said he “got itchy fingers” for racing again after testing a DTM (German touring car championship) BMW a little more than a year ago.

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MOTORSPORT: Not a pretty picture from F1 world

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