Formula One Features — September 1992

Patrick Head doesn't admit a great deal when journalists come visiting. He puts on a gruff exterior, answers questions with succinct "yes" and "no" replies, and he is happy to sit through long silences, without needing to keep on talking.

It is no great secret that Formula 1 is a sport for the rich, but just how rich does one have to be to run a Formula 1 team? What does it really cost? There was a time when people like Lord Hesketh, Walter Wolf, or more recently Jean-Pierre Van Rossem, were able to fund their own teams, but even for these extravagant folk the dream is now over. Money is the only master of the game. Dollars are counted in tens of millions, soon it will be hundreds of millions for the wealthy teams like McLaren, Ferrari or Williams-Renault.

The Formula 1 world is buzzing with the rumours that Honda - the most influential engine manufacturer in Grand Prix racing

Mario Illien and Paul Morgan established Ilmor Engineering at the start of 1984. With backing from Roger Penske and Chevrolet the pair built a highly-successful Indycar engine, but at the start of last year Ilmor entered F1, to take on Renault, Honda and Ferrari in Grand Prix racing.

Jean Alesi hasn't been in the headlines much in the last recent months. The sensation of the 1990 season in the dramatic trend-setting Tyrrell 019 was signed by Ferrari at a time when the famed Scuderia was coming apart at the seams. Today everyone is talking about Michael Schumacher while Jean battles to get Ferrari back up to speed.

Max Mosley, the president of the Federation Internationale du Sport Automobile and nominally the most powerful man in the sport, is an intriguing character. He was elected in October last year, defeating Frenchman Jean-Marie Balestre, who had held the office for 13 years. It was a dominant victory with polling 43 votes to Balestre's 29.

Martin Brundle had a difficult time at the start of the year. The 1988 World Sportscar Champion - a veteran of 97 Grands Prix and the winner of the Le Mans and Daytona 24 Hour races - finally got a good break with a top F1 team. His mentor Tom Walkinshaw insisted that Martin be Michael Schumacher's team mate at Benetton, but for a while the drive looked like being the kiss of death to Martin's F1 career.

Keke Rosberg won the Formula 1 World Championship in 1982. He was 34. At the end of 1986 he retired and today looks after the careers of two young Finnish hopefuls: Mika Hakkinen and JJ Lehto.

It is Sunday morning at Monza. Rugged race ace Nigel Mansell has just set the fastest time in the warm-up - by the enormous margin of two seconds, but trouble is brewing... Mansell heads for the Media Centre. He seems in a relaxed mood as he arrives in the Monza media centre.