Formula One Features — December 2001

I've always felt that weather forecasters rely as much on instinct bred from long experience every bit as much as on the apparent scientific analysis of previous trends and other evidence at their disposal. So it is with Formula 1. You can analyze all the facts on the table in front of you in a bid to determine just how future events will unfold. But ultimately, a sniff of the air and a dampened finger held up in the breeze has very often proved the best way to reach the correct conclusion.

The history of Grand Prix racing is littered with cars that were built in hope, but that never made it to the start line of a Grand Prix. Few can have tried as hard as the Lotus T88 of 1981, three of which were built and presented for racing at the Long Beach, Brazilian, Argentinian and British GP's, and rejected each time.

Formula 1 can be a baffling world for those who have not grown up with the terminology. Journalists and insiders use expressions which seem somehow unrelated to the sport and now that Murray Walker has retired from being a commentator there is no-one to explain the basics. You may be familiar with a wishbone on a chicken or a turkey but do you know where to find one on a Formula 1 car. And what part do butterflies play in Grand Prix racing?

On the one hand it was a measure of just how crucial the motorsports industry is to the British economy. On the other, it gave rise to smirks all round from the more irreverent members of the F1 community.

Michael Schumacher recently affirmed his belief that F1 is in the middle of a Ferrari era, an era which the team has dreamed of creating for a long time. He added that this process started a long time ago and it is his hope that it can be sustained for a good while yet.

The McLaren team last went a season without a win in 1996, their second year in partnership with Mercedes-Benz. This year the alliance won four races, but such had been the level of expectation prior to the start of the 17 race season that you might have been forgiven for thinking they'd again won nothing in 2001.

Four wins in only the second year of the BMW Williams F1 partnership represented one of the great achievements of the 2002 season. After being away from the F1 winner's rostrum since Jacques Villeneuve triumphed in the 1997 Austrian Grand Prix, Williams was back in the big time thanks to the efforts of Ralf Schumacher and the team's new prodigy Juan Pablo Montoya.

This year has not been one of the safest in recent motorsport history, with fatalities and major injuries in most of the premier series gaining worldwide publicity.

There is no getting away from the fact that the Sauber-Petronas squad deeply embarrassed the likes of Benetton, Jordan, BAR and Jaguar throughout 2001. No matter how one argues the point, Sauber was paying for customer engines - it was effectively a private team like Minardi with no factory backing - no matter that the 2000 spec Ferrari V10s made available by Maranello must have seemed something of a bargain even with lease fees approaching $20m for the season.

US presidential aide James Rubin spoke those words on a UK television interview earlier this year. My mind won't recall what the hell he was referring to, but it could well have been the hugely damaging split between US racing factions CART and the Indy Racing League.

Head-to-head with BAR as the second official Honda factory team, Jordan started the year in upbeat mood with the new EJ-11 which highly impressed regular drivers Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Jarno Trulli at first acquaintance. Former BAR teamster Ricardo Zonta signed as test driver.