Formula 1

US GP Thursday note book

INDIANAPOLIS, Thursday, Sept. 27, 2001 - Last year's Indianapolis 500 winner, Juan Pablo Montoya, said Sept. 27 that the Indianapolis Motor Speedway is a hallowed ground. "This is a holy place for motor racing, and people admire it that ...

Edited: Apr 15, 2002, 11:45 PM

Copy link

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

INDIANAPOLIS, Thursday, Sept. 27, 2001 - Last year's Indianapolis 500 winner, Juan Pablo Montoya, said Sept. 27 that the Indianapolis Motor Speedway is a hallowed ground.

"This is a holy place for motor racing, and people admire it that way," Montoya said. "And that's why I think Formula One is going to be successful in America, because it's at the Speedway."

***

Opening doors: Jacques Villeneuve says that his win in the 1995 Indianapolis 500 helped earn him a seat on the Williams team for which he won the 1997 Formula One World Championship. "Great memories here, definitely," Villeneuve said of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. "Having won here, it opened the door to Williams for '96. So it's been a very important race, and I will always remember it, of course."

***

Proud parents: Rubens and Silvana Barrichello are the proud new parents of their son, Eduardo, who was born Sept. 23 in Brazil.

***

Newly engaged: Juan Pablo Montoya has become engaged. His fiancé is fellow Colombian Connie Freydel, who has been studying law in Madrid, Spain.

***

Rinland joins Arrows: Orange Arrows-Asiatech has signed Sergio Rinland as its new chief designer. Rinland, who helped design this year's Sauber C20 before parting company with that team, is already at work at Arrows under the direction of Technical Director Mike Coughlan. Argentina's Rinland began his F1 career in the mid 1980s when he designed the RAM F1 car. Between 1986 and 1992, he worked for Williams, Dallara and Brabham. He then established his design team, Astauto, working with Fondmetal F1 team.

In 1996, Rinland was appointed senior composite engineer at Benetton where he stayed until 1999, when he became chief designer at Sauber.

***

Alesi celebrates 200th Grand Prix start in Indianapolis: Jean Alesi will start his 200th Grand Prix in Sunday's SAP United States Grand Prix at Indianapolis.

"The last 12 years have gone so quickly, but I feel an incredible sense of achievement to have made it to my 200th Grand Prix," he said. "There are so many things that have happened over this time that make it impossible to sum up my Formula One memories in just a few words - a book wouldn't be enough! I think about how many times I have lined up on the grid, how many people I have met, and the amazing times I have experienced, but mostly, I am so thankful that I have remained safe during my career, as I have unfortunately witnessed some very sad accidents on the track.

"Eddie (Jordan) launched me into Formula One by arranging my drive with Tyrrell in 1989, and since then I have driven for all the teams I wanted to drive for. I still have the same passion for Formula One that I had in the beginning, and I believe this is one of the reasons I have survived so long in this sport - you have to give 100 percent, otherwise you may as well give up. Being back with Jordan now, as I approach the end of F1 career in the next few years, is almost a dream come true.

"I would like to finish my career by racing for Jordan, as I feel I have come full circle."

***

New sponsor: The Orange Arrows team has signed a sponsorship agreement with the European technology and PC peripherals company Trust.

-IMS-

We want your opinion!

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?

Take our 5 minute survey.

- The Motorsport.com Team

Read and post comments

Share Or Save This Story

Copy link

Share on Viber

Previous article IRL: US GP: Giaffone recebe Rubinho no GP dos EUA de F1

Next article US GP: Hakkinen, Raikkonen relationship

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

View More & Comment

Latest news

Why Jorge Martín was not penalised for jump start in Indonesia

MotoGP

MGP MotoGP

Indonesian GP

4 min

Why Jorge Martín was not penalised for jump start in Indonesia

Palou pushes IndyCar’s IR-28 chassis to the limit in rugged Sebring test

IndyCar

Indy IndyCar 14 min

Palou pushes IndyCar’s IR-28 chassis to the limit in rugged Sebring test

Why McLaren cannot fix its F1 car handling until 2027

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

Singapore GP

45 min

Why McLaren cannot fix its F1 car handling until 2027

Christian Horner clears air on “dream job” Ferrari rumours and sets return terms

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

Singapore GP

1 h

Christian Horner clears air on “dream job” Ferrari rumours and sets return terms

Feature

Discover prime content

Why Mercedes' latest 2026 F1 update is no downgrade

Formula 1

Singapore GP

By Jake Boxall-Legge

Why Mercedes' latest 2026 F1 update is no downgrade

'Senior moment' or breakdown of trust? The implications of Hamilton's Singapore GP meltdown

Formula 1

Singapore GP

By Stuart Codling

'Senior moment' or breakdown of trust? The implications of Hamilton's Singapore GP meltdown

What we learned from the 2026 F1 Singapore GP sprint and qualifying

Formula 1

Singapore GP

By Jake Boxall-Legge

What we learned from the 2026 F1 Singapore GP sprint and qualifying

How Honda plans a return to being an F1 powerhouse

Formula 1

By Ronald Vording

How Honda plans a return to being an F1 powerhouse

Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.

From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.

You have 2 options:

Become a subscriber.
Disable your adblocker.

Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here

Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page

Manage Alerts