In brief, April 2008

* Former Ferrari mechanic Nigel Stepney will meet with the FIA to offer his explanation of last year’s spy controversy. He has recently accepted a job at Gigawave, an on-board camera company, as director of race technologies. As part of its racing involvement, Gigawave will run an Aston Martin DBR9 in this year’s FIA GT series.

* The price of a superlicence, obligatory for every F1 driver, has been increased from 1690 euros plus 447 euros per point to 10,000 euros and 2000 euros per point. The dramatic increase means Kimi Räikkönen would have been charged 230,000 euros for his 2007 licence under the new laws.

* Brazilian Lucas di Grassi has landed the role of Renault’s third driver. The long-time Renault protégé, who was second in GP2 last year, got the job after the team decided that the previously announced Romain Grosjean should focus on his GP2 efforts. Sakon Yamamoto has been signed as Renault’s fifth driver.

* Honda has confirmed that Mike Conway and Luca Filippi will be the team’s official young drivers this season, supporting main test driver Alex Wurz. Conway is managed by Martin Brundle and Mark Blundell’s 2MB organisation.

* Christian Klien has been handed an unexpected F1 lifeline by BMW Sauber to be the team’s third driver this year. Klien performed a similar role for Honda last season. As expected Estonian Marko Asmer will also test for BMW this year.

* Malaysian Grand Prix organisers have indicated they will be prepared to hold their race at night from 2009 onwards, following the lead established by their neighbour Singapore.

* The new Force India challenger will be called the VJM01 in honour of team owner Vijay Mallya. The team launched its new livery of white, gold and tungsten in a spectacular ceremony at Mumbai on February 7, with many Bollywood stars and other local VIPs in attendance.