Former Formula 1 driver and Indy 500 winner Juan Pablo Montoya is third in points in NASCAR's 'Chase' for the championship. This is just Montoya's third season in the Sprint Cup Series.
MILAN, Italy — Ferrari is planning to accelerate its cost-cutting plans for 2009 in the wake of Honda's pullout from Formula One.
"This process had already begun over the last few years. But now it's going to have a sharp acceleration," team director Stefano Domenicali said in an interview with Corriere della Sera on Monday without providing further financial details.
Still, Domenicali warned that cuts in F1 spending shouldn't reach the point where it wouldn't allow healthy engineering competition. Ferrari announced in October that it too would leave F1 if the sport's governing body goes ahead with plans to have a sole engine and transmission supplier beginning in 2010.
"We're at the forefront in the process of auto racing renewal, which has to remain a technological and sporting competition," Domenicali said. "Ferrari will continue to be a leader. The fans should stay calm."
Honda quit F1 on Friday, saying that in the current economic downturn it needs to focus on its core business of making and selling cars rather than spending $291 million a year to race them on Grand Prix tracks.
In three seasons, and with such massive investment, Honda managed just one race victory.
Ferrari - the oldest team in F1 - has won more than 200 races.
Ferrari Formula One team plans to accelerate cost-cutting....
PARIS (AFP) — Honda on Friday announced its shock withdrawal from Formula One raising fresh fears over the future of the multi-million dollar sport struggling to keep afloat in the current economic downturn.
Honda Motor president Takeo Fukui made the announcement at an emotional press conference in Tokyo, apologising to fans, staff, drivers and F1 authorities.
"This is a complete withdrawal. The future is a blank sheet," he said. "Five years from now, I think history will show we made the right decision."
The decision shocked the sport which had already seen backmarkers, and fellow Japanese team, Super Aguri go the wall earlier this year.
It also sparked new calls for the glamour sport to slash its mind-boggling budgets while the remaining Japanese team, Toyota, hurried out a statement pledging their future to the championship.
"This difficult decision has been made in light of the quickly deteriorating operating environment facing the global auto industry, brought on by the subprime problem in the United States," Fukui added.
Honda Racing CEO Nick Fry , however, said he was hopeful that new owners would be found in time for the team to be on the grid for the start of next season in Australia on March 29.
Formula One: Honda exit casts cloud over F1 future....
Sao Paulo, Brazil (Sports Network) - Felipe Massa did everything in his power to claim the Formula One World Championship by winning Sunday's season-ending Brazilian Grand Prix, but with a twist of luck and the slightest bit of margin, McLaren's Lewis Hamilton earned the 2008 Formula One World Championship with a fifth-place finish at Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace at Interlagos.
Hamilton was on the verge of losing the title to Massa as he was running sixth on the final lap, but the McLaren driver passed Toyota's Timo Glock and grabbed the coveted fifth spot as he entered the last corner.
Hamilton, 23, becomes the youngest driver to win a World Championship in F1 history and the first Briton to take the title since Damon Hill in 1996. He also becomes the 30th different driver to win a title on the racing circuit.
Massa wins Brazilian GP, while Hamilton clinches F1 title....
By Noah Joseph
Everyone's surprised as the FIA has announced it is canceling the Canadian Grand Prix. Those in the world of F1 racing have come to know the event as a staple of the F1 calendar. Racing fans in Montreal, this writer's home town that has hosted the race for the past three decades, are shocked to lose the event. And that includes the race organizers, who apparently learned of the news the same way the rest of us have.
Au revoir, Montréal: FIA cancels Canadian GP for 2009....
By Richard S. Chang
Phil Hill, the only American-born Formula One champion, died today at the age of 81. He died at Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula. He had suffered from Parkinson’s disease and another degenerative neurological disorder.
In a sport known for its playboy personalities, Mr. Hill was an anomaly. He was “a thoughtful, gentle man,” wrote Robert Daley in his book “The Cruel Sport.”
“I’m in the wrong business,” Mr. Hill once said. “I don’t want to beat anybody, I don’t want to be the big hero.”
But Mr. Hill was the hero — and during the most dangerous era of Formula One. Death lurked around every corner and down every straight, and death played a part in his career, although he never had a serious injury. Along with his Formula One title, with Ferrari in 1961, Mr. Hill also won the 24 Hours of Le Mans three times and the 12 Hours of Sebring three times.
“I, as well as all employees of Ferrari, are extremely saddened by the news of the passing of Phil Hill, a man and a champion who gave so much to Ferrari and who has always greatly represented the company’s values inside and outside the racing track,” said Luca di Montezemolo, president of Ferrari, in a statement.
Philip Toll Hill was born in Miami on April 20, 1927 to a prominent family. He was raised in Santa Monica, Calif., and studied business administration at the University of Southern California.
Phil Hill, American Racing Champion, Is Dead....
