The Old Rumour Mil – September

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Eight years ago Rubens Barrichello’s move to Ferrari was confirmed.

He happily gave the press quotes about how he would definitely be allowed to race Michael Schumacher, which later proved to be not entirely true…

“Ferrari will let me win” – Barrichello
Autosport, September 9th, 1999

“I’m not sure exactly what Irvine’s contract involved, but if I’m in front of Michael and driving better than him, I’m absolutely certain the team will let me win.” The cynics that sneered at Rubens Barrichello’s optimistic words on joining Ferrari were proved right when, three years later, Barrichello made way for Schumacher to win in Austria.

But this wasn’t the only interesting thing about the announcement in September 1999 that Eddie Irvine would be replaced by Rubens Barrichello – for at the time Irvine was battling Mika Hakkinen for the world championship. Hardly a vote of confidence…

Six-wheeled Williams for 1983
Autosport, September 2nd, 1982

Rumours surrounding Williams late in 1982 insisted that they would run a six-wheeled car in 1983 and were preparing to run either BMW or Honda engines in 1984.

The Honda deal happened for ’84 but the plan to use a six-wheeled car was scuppered by a change to the rules mandating four wheels. Their six-wheeler had run very quick in testing.

The BMW deal linked Manfred Winkelhock (late father of this Markus who made his F1 debut at the N??rburgring) to the team, but didn’t come about. Williams used BMW engines much later, from 2000-5.

Asiatech team for 2004
Autosport, September 19th, 2002

Engine suppliers Asiatech (who, despite their name, were based in France) ended their supply of power plants to Minardi in 2002 with a view to returning as constructors in 2004.

Enrique Scalabroni designed a car for them. But their hopes of attracting support from a manufacturer never came to fruition and the car never raced.

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Tags: f1 / formula one / formula 1 / grand prix / motor sport

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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One comment on “The Old Rumour Mil – September”

  1. The Asiatech came back to pages again by the end of 2004, when Ford announced withdrawal from F1, leaving Jaguar up for sale and Jordan + Minardi without engines for 2005. Stodart that time said, that he would be on the grid anyway, in a worst case using his old Asiatech engines :-)

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