Saturday March 11th, 2000

• The French champagne house Mumm Cordon Rouge has won a battle of the bubblies to supply the winners' podiums at this year's Formula One Grands Prix. Champagnes Mumms, based in northern France, succeeds another French supplier, Moet et Chandon, as the sport's official sparkling wine, seen being sprayed by race winners at each race. In a statement, Champagnes Mumm's chief executive Jean-Marie Barillere said: "Mumm Cordon Rouge has such a dynamic image that it simply had to be involved in such a high-powered and challenging discipline." In previous years, Moet et Chandon has supplied its champagne for every race except for the French Grand Prix.

• Ricardo Zonta has copped the first fine of the year after exceeding the new 60 km/h speed limit by 2.1 kph. This has cost him $750. Last year, the FIA is estimated to have made some $65,000 from pit lane speeding fines.

• Barrichello-mania has apparently broken out in Brazil where the next Grand Prix on the calendar is apparently a sell-out. Although there have been Brazilian Grands Prix drivers in the sport since Ayrton Senna's death - including Barrichello himself, of course - and the crowds have been very good at Interlagos, the crowds haven't been huge. But it seems that they have sold all the tickets for the Grand Prix in two weeks, and are having to create new grandstands, such is the demand.

• Arrows have found themselves in the curious situation of arguing over who is actually the title sponsor of the team. The team has had several 'launches' prior to the new seasons starting, with one being cancelled within two weeks of the start of the season because of the sudden appearance of another new sponsor.

  That one turned out to be Orange, the telecommunications specialists whose share price in England has trebled in the last six months. The deal is worth £70m over three years and not surprisingly, Orange wanted - and got - top billing. However, a company called chello had been told that they were title sponsor. They became the primary sponsor, describing themselves as the world's leading broadband internet company. They join Lost Boys who are creative leaders in multimedia and advanced software solutions, plus Coral who run Eurobet, an online sports betting service owned by Coral International, who are owned by Morgan Grenfell who also own a slice of Arrows.

  Suddenly, Arrows had a major sponsor portfolio which has happily appeared since the team's promising test results, but it did create a certain problem as to whom would be title sponsor. The team was finally launched in Melbourne with Orange coming out on top, conveniently joining Repsol with those corporate colours.

• Milestones: For the first time in his 65 race career, Jacques Villeneuve does not have a Renault or Renault-based engine behind him, as BAR now have Honda engines; Ralf Schumacher is taking part in his 50th Grand Prix this weekend; Jos Verstappen celebrated his 28th birthday eight days before the Grand Prix.