Formula One news

Panis survives to see China

Panis with team mate Zonta

Olivier Panis survives his F1 career long enough to see the inaugural Chinese Grand Prix next week in Shanghai. The veteran racer has announced he will retire from racing at the end of this season and has signed a two-year test driver deal with Toyota there after. 

"I am very happy to be going to China," said the Frenchman who famously won the 1996 Monaco Grand Prix. "New races are always exciting, and so much will be different this time with a new country and culture to experience. Everyone in the business world looks to China and Shanghai is now one of the big business centres with a huge population. So it is good both for the image of Formula 1 to race there and for the Chinese to have such a high technology event."

"Before the weekend itself I'll go round the circuit with my engineer," he added. "Then I'll spend the first session on Friday just learning the track without playing about too much with the set-up. You have to find your own speed before you change something. But I'm looking forward to it because the circuit design looks really nice, but also challenging for the driver."

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