JEAN ALESI met with Flavio Briatore last week to discuss his future with Benetton and, according to Briatore, it has been decided that the Frenchman will remain as Gerhard Berger's team mate for the 1997 season.
TALKS between Sauber and Ferrari appear to have resumed after last week's tumultuous announcements in which Sauber announced a deal to run Ferrari V10s and Ferrari denied any such arrangement.
THE FIA World Council will meet at Monte Carlo on December 6 to discuss the latest modifications to the Formula 1 sporting regulations - and we hear that the teams which have signed the 1997-2001 Concorde Agreement are pushing for the new rules restricting testing to be modified.
FORD MOTOR COMPANY managers are about to embark on a major cost-cutting plan around the world - the intention being to slash $2.5 billion from the company's 1997 budgeted expenditure.
ITALIAN racer Sandro Nannini will test a Grand Prix Benetton this week in Portugal - six years after his F1 career was ended when his right arm was severed in a helicopter accident.
AS has been rumored since the summer of 1995, Benetton's technical director Ross Brawn and its chief designer RoryÊByrne are both leaving the team.
AT this time of year the focus in Formula 1 switches away from the race tracks to the team factories where engineers and production teams are working flat out in preparation for the 1997 season.
DAMON HILL began testing for Arrows in Japan last week - using the old 1995 Ligier-Mugen Honda which the team uses for its Bridgestone testing at Suzuka - and set some impressive times in the car.
EDDIE JORDAN is expected to decide shortly who will be the second driver for Benson & Hedges Jordan Peugeot next season.
WE hear from France that Alain Prost now has all the necessary financial backing to buy the Ligier team from its current owner Flavio Briatore - but Prost is waiting to move on the sale because Peugeot will not commit itself to supplying the team with its engines for 1998 and beyond.
AS we speculated in June (INSIDE F1, Week 29) Sauber is planning to design and build its own V10 engines.
MICHAEL SCHUMACHER is beginning to worry that the arrival of Bridgestone tires in Formula 1 will blunt his challenge for the 1997 Formula 1 World Championship.
REAR ADMIRAL ROGER LANE-NOTT, who has been Formula 1's race director and safety delegate since February, has quit the World Championship after just one season.
JOHN BARNARD has been in charge of chassis design at Ferrari since he signed a five year contract with the Italian team in August 1992 but when his current contract expires at the end of July next year all the signs are that Formula 1's highest-earning designer is going to be on the market again.
LOLA CARS has confirmed that it intends to enter its own team in Formula 1 next season and has announced a four-year sponsorship deal with the giant American credit card company Mastercard.
GIANCARLO MINARDI has confirmed that the Minardi team will be using Brian Hart's V8 engines next season.
THE Red Bull Sauber team will soon confirm that it is planning to use customer Ford ED4 V8 engines next year, thus putting the last piece into the jigsaw puzzle of Formula 1 engine supply in 1997.
MICHAEL SCHUMACHER has signed to remain with Ferrari until the end of the 1999 World Championship - an extension of his current contract by two years.
ACCORDING to reports in some of the Dutch newspapers Jos Verstappen may be returning to Benetton next season.
TWO and a half years after the death of Ayrton Senna and six months after the last whispers about the inquiry into the accident, there has still been no official action taken by the Italian authorities and it looks increasingly likely that the Italians will let the matter rest.
THE decision by the FIA World Council not to issue a 1997 calendar has led to a variety of rumored calendars circulating in F1 circles.
TWO months ago Benetton team boss Flavio Briatore was telling the F1 media that he had "no intention of changing" drivers for 1997 and that Benetton's priority was improving technical performance.
CHINESE officials have confirmed that the country is bidding for a Grand Prix next year with the Federation of Automobile Sports of the People's Republic of China's FIA delegate Qi Jincheng expected to propose a race in November next year when the World Motor Sport Council meets in December.
MARTIN BRUNDLE - who hopes to remain in F1 next year with Jordan - is to try his hand at rallying at the end of November, driving a Ford Escort Cosworth in Britain's RAC Rally.
THERE have been some curious rumors surrounding Minardi in recent days with suggestions that Flavio Briatore may be selling shares in the team to Fondmetal boss Gabriele Rumi.
KEN TYRRELL announced last Wednesday in Tokyo that he has signed a three-year "marketing consultancy agreement" with his former driver Satoru Nakajima.
AS we speculated last week, Malaysia's Proton car company has bought the Lotus Group - taking 64% of the British car company with Proton chairman Yahaya Ahmad buying a 16% personal shareholding. The deal is believed to be worth $85m to Lotus's owner Romano Artioli.
BRITAIN's Princess Royal - formerly Princess Anne - officially opened the new Williams Grand Prix Engineering's factory at Grove last week, unveiling a commemorative plaque to mark the event.