Formula One Features — December 2002

There has been lots of talk this year about Formula 1 being in crisis, but currently I am more concerned with my annual crisis of getting through the forthcoming festive season while avoiding my relatives.

One would think that coming from the Amazon jungle is not really an advantage for a racing driver in Brazil - but it is. The logic is simple. The local region wants to attract business to the city of Manaus and so offers incentives for firms to settle there. As a result a lot of big companies are there.

Gordon Murray, one of the great innovators of modern F1, who built cars which took World Championships with Nelson Piquet in Brabham-Ford and Brabham-BMWs, and later with Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost in McLaren-Hondas, reckons that Ferrari made one mistake this year.