Driving to survive

Britain is about to introduce driver training into the school curriculum. The traditional three Rs (reading, 'riting, 'rithmetic) will be joined by the three Es - engineering, enforcement and education. High schools in the Australian Capital Territory are doing something similar. The project, called Road Ready, will teach road safety and responsible driving before young drivers are legally able to get behind the wheel. The Australian teenagers will be required to log at least 50 hours of practice before sitting for their learner's licence. A study in 1998 estimated that a programme like Road Ready could cut injuries and deaths by between 10 and 17 per cent.

More than 30 per cent of road deaths in the ACT involve drivers aged 17 to 25 - an age group that accounts for only 15 per cent of the population. If the project proves successful, it will probably be adopted nationwide. In New Zealand, teenagers can get a driver's licence without knowing how to drive. That's unless the Automobile Association's 2000 National Driver Education and Awareness Conference in Wellington on Thursday and Friday recommend a change.

The money-go-round

Want to get a team into Formula One racing? Better have $160 million to spend in the first year, say the Jordan Grand Prix team marketing people. But Jordan gets it back in revenue - if everything goes well. For example, anywhere from $20 million to $50 million goes to each team from television rights, and Jordan gets about $10 million from sales of its merchandise. The bulk of Formula One team budgets comes from sponsors. Jordan gets $16 million from Mastercard, $49 million from Deutsche Post, $60 million from Benson & Hedges, and $28 million from electronics companies Sony, Brother and Pearl, each ultimately using the grand prix team to reach consumers. There are plenty of them, too. In 1998 a cumulative audience of eight billion people in 193 countries watched Formula One.

Blue-chip Ferrari

An analysis of the value of teams in this year's Formula One championship concluded that Ferrari is the most valuable franchise and would be a blue chip company if listed on the stock exchange. F1 Racing magazine estimated that Ferrari was worth about $3 billion, McLaren $1.9 billion and Jaguar $460 million. Italian carmaker Fiat owns 87 per cent of Ferrari, DaimlerChrysler owns 40 per cent of McLaren, and Ford owns Jaguar outright. For the record, the remaining shares in Ferrari are held by Piero Ferrari (10 per cent) and an Italian investment group (3 per cent). Fiat's controlling interest is held by a subsidiary company, an arrangement which protects Ferrari from a Fiat buyer.

Action over auction

Adolph Hitler's personal staff car, a six-metre-long, four-tonne Mercedes-Benz, sits in the Canadian War Museum - and there it is likely to stay. The museum talked about auctioning it but there was such a public outcry that it ditched the idea. One fellow who might have been interested in bidding is Las Vegas casino owner Ralph Engelstad. But he might be short of cash - the Nevada Gaming Commission fined him $2 million the other day for holding a Nazi theme party.