Formula One Features

The boss of the TAG McLaren Group, the parent company of the West McLaren Mercedes Formula 1 team is Ron Dennis. Now 54, Ron was born and brought up in Woking, leaving school at 16 and becoming an apprentice mechanic at the famous Thomson and Taylor company at Byfleet.

Call me a cynic but isn't Formula 1 meant to be a sport? The last time I checked, it was the ultimate unison of man and machine, the awe-inspiring spectacle of heroes risking life and limb to prove beyond all doubt that they were the best within their chosen field.

I was once told by Tim Parnell, BRM team manager in the early 1970s, that meetings of the F1 Constructors' Association could be childlike to the point of disbelief. "We spend the first half an hour debating whether or not to have the window open," said Tim, "and then the next half hour arguing over whose pen it is."

Ten years ago a company called Motor Marketing International Inc. issued a press release announcing plans for the Marlboro Grand Prix of New York, the first automobile race to be held on the streets of New York City.

With each passing year there seem to be more men in suits in the Formula 1 paddocks. Some of them are bodyguards, cruising along become politicians, but most are lawyers and bankers. Now car manufacturers are becoming increasingly involved. But who owns what? And who are the powers behind the thrones?

As the world slips further into recession, and the bottom lines of the major automobile manufacturers turn from black to red, one question being asked in their Boardrooms is: "How long is it going to take (at $1?2?300m/year, straight out of the bottom line) to win the World Chanmpionship?"

The other night I stayed awake until Stupid O'Clock in the morning, watching a group of women throw rocks down an ice rink. Curling is not usually what I'd class as entertaining television, but the fact that this was a fight for an Olympic Gold Medal made it oddly exciting. Even more of a shock to the system was that, against the odds, Great Britain won and it was only then that the reason for my fascination became apparent.

Renault comes back to Formula 1 this season with a full factory team - 100 years after the company's first major victory in automobile racing. And while victory this year may be difficult there is little doubt that the team will be more competitive than was the case in 2001.

They call it "The Louvre of the Automobile" and although the Schlumpf Collection at Mulhouse is in French territory, it is just a few miles from German border and within 20 miles of Switzerland as well. This is Bugatti country and the Schlumpf Collection is reckoned to have collection of Bugattis in the world.

The announcement that Mark Webber will race for the KL Minardi Asiatech team in this year's FIA World Formula One Championship marks the culmination of six years hard work by the 25-year old from Queanbeyan, New South Wales.

Formula 1 teams were tugging at their commercial seat belts yesterday as the turbulent after-shocks of the Prost $35m bankruptcy rippled out through the sport. Desperately, they were trying to read the tea leaves to understand the long-term implications for the sport.

Willy Rampf does not go around making a lot of noise. Unlike some technical directors he can walk into the paddock without having to have an oompah band walking ahead of him. He believes that results speak for themselves.

No Frenchman needs to be reminded that his country was the original home of motor racing. The first motor race was held there in 1894. The first Automobile Club was founded in Paris the following year and all the early races were between Paris and other European cities. The French racing industry was way ahead of the rest of Europe in the early years of the Twentieth Century with firms such as De Dion Bouton, Panhard, Mors, Renault, Peugeot, Darracq, De Dietrich and Richard-Brasier. Delage, Ballot, Bugatti, Salmson and Delahaye took up the challenge after World War I and it was not until the 1930s that the French had been eclipsed by the Italians and the Germans.

Listening to various members of the Ferrari F1 team, Michael Schumacher included, it is quite clear that the Italian squad is extremely confident it can hit the ground running at Melbourne on March 3 and get its title hat trick bid off to a spectacular flying start.

Nowadays Formula 1 consists 11 teams (22 cars). Next year if everyone turns up there will be 12 teams. All of them qualify if they can lap the track with 107% of the time set by the pole position man. But it was not always that.

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.