Formula One Features

Bitter rivalries are nothing new in motor racing. Today everyone talks of Alain Prost versus Ayrton Senna, but 60 years ago, it was a case of Tazio Nuvolari against Achille Varzi.

In motor racing nothing is impossible. The history of the sport is littered with amazing feats - and not always involving the drivers...

It used to be called the Circuit Jean Behra. It was a tumbledown kind of place with a rudimentary pitlane and a few basic garages. Today, in its new guise as the Circuit Nevers Magny-Cours, it is the future home of the French Grand Prix. A quite remarkable transformation has taken place -- thanks to a little help in the corridors of power.

Sunday, September 10 1933 will always be remembered as a black day in the history of motor racing, and a day on which Enzo Ferrari's view of racing drivers changed irrevocably.

Formula 1 thinks itself superior to other forms of motor sport -- particularly Indycar racing. Such arrogance is not new. In 1921 it was much the same...

It is 80 years since the first Spanish Grand Prix and much has changed in the world. It is unlikely that this year's race will be won, as was the first, by a Rolls Royce and unlikely also that second place will go to a marquis, but there will still be the essential excitement which exists at every motor race.

Today (Thursday) marks the 70th anniversary of the first Italian Grand Prix at the Autodromo Nazionale at Monza, in the northern suburbs of Milan.

Tazio Nuvolari was born 100 years ago this November. Some say he was the greatest driver who ever lived. Certainly he was a legend in his own lifetime.

Donington Park last played host to Grand Prix racing 55 years ago, when the Tazio Nuvolari, probably the greatest racing driver of all-time, gave the British fans a victory to remember.

Carlo Bugatti was born in Milan in 1856. The son of a sculptor and inventor who spent his life trying to discover perpetual motion, Carlo studied at the Brera Academy in Milan and later at the Ecole des Deaux Arts in Paris. He chose furniture making. In 1880 he married Therese Lorioli. In the years that followed his furniture became wellknown. In 1902 he exhibited at the International Exhibition in Turin and his fame spread worldwide. He quit his job with the De Vecchi company and moved with his family to Paris. He opened a workshop in the 13eme arrondissement and began to experiment in gold and silver.

It is now a quarter of a century since Jacky Ickx became the first Belgian to win a Formula 1 World Championship Grand Prix. Ickx was 22 years old, younger even than Michael Schumacher was when he won his debut victory at Spa last year, and it was only his ninth GP. A new star was born.

"Georges Philippe" appeared in motor racing in 1928. Like the other famous pseudonymous driver of that era "Williams", no-one knew much about him.

The Australian Grand Prix has never had a permanent home in the same way that Italy has Monza, Germany the Nurburgring or Belgium Spa. In fact the race has been held at 24 different locations. It would take a book just to list them, let alone to tell all the stories. It is one of the world's most enduring Grands Prix. At the time of the first event in 1928, many of the great Grands Prix of the modern era had not even started: Italy had only had a national GP since 1921; Germany since 1926 and Monaco wwould not to begin until the following year. And it has been a colourful history with the race moving from circuit to circuit around the country. Being so far from Europe, the centre of the racing car industry back to even the earliest days of the sport, the supply of competitive cars to Australia has always been limited. The Australians always had to make do with what was available.

There are people who don't belong in the real world. They are comic book heroes and their life histories are so unlikely that they just have to be true. Eddie Rickenbacker was one

FIA president Max Mosley's avowed intent to exorcise the spectre of death from Formula One racing received a tragic setback during the Italian Grand Prix at Monza, following the accident that took the life of a fire marshal.

You're standing in the F1 paddock at Spa, minding your own business and holding a conversation. Suddenly, from behind, a hand smacks the back of your head. Somebody laughs. Bouncing into view comes the smiling face of Jean Alesi. He waves a cheerful greeting. He might be leading the World Championship, so sunny is his demeanour. But this is Friday morning, the calm before the usual storm. The way his season - his career - is going, he should be crying, for his situation is a tragedy.

Max Mosley was born into controversy. Eleven days after making his appearance in the world in 1940 in war-torn London his mother, Diana Mitford, was incarcerated in Holloway Prison. His father was the notorious politician Sir Oswald Mosley, busy at the time stirring up pro-Nazi feelings in the East End of London as his Black Shirts marched against the Jews. It was not the most propitious time to be a sympathiser with Adolf Hitler.

Hakkinen, Coulthard, Michael Schumacher, Barrichello, Frentzen, Irvine, Herbert, Button, Wurz, Heidfeld, Diniz, Salo, Gene, Villeneuve... a fair slice of Formula 1 talent in that little lot I think you'll agree - and all with one thing in common. While we're at it, let's add Gilles Villeneuve, Nigel Mansell and Ayrton Senna to this colourful collective of racers (and I use the term advisedly). You see they all learnt a fair proportion of their art in simple, skinny-wheeled single seaters powered by the Blue Oval.

Despite all the speculation in the run-up to Wednesday's meeting of F1 Constructors at the Hilton Hotel next to Heathrow airport's Terminal Four, Max Mosley has successfully fronted down disjointed attempts by various team owners to dislodge him from his post as FIA President.

The very mention of Belgium does, it has to be said, make me chuckle. Nothing to do with Euro sausages or institutionalized tedium. Oh no, it's the bewilderment that swept through thousands of FC Bruges fans when the visiting Chelsea rose to their feet to chant: "Are you French or are you Dutch? Arrrrr-eee you French or arrr-eee you Dutch? Who are ya? Who are ya? Who are ya?"

West Cigarettes are the major sponsor of the McLaren Formula 1 team. The West brand is owned by the German tobacco company Reemtsma, which is based in Hamburg.

When Michael Schumacher climbed the steps of the rostrum after being roundly beaten into second place by Mika Hakkinen's McLaren in Sunday's Belgian grand prix, for the first time the Ferrari driver wore the expression of a man who knew that the game was up.

Team Astromega scored the perfect result at Spa with a 1-2 finish for Fernando Alonso and Marc Goossens. The cars were in a class of their own but both drivers did a good job, Alonso in particular impressing the Formula 1 teams with a mature drive to a crushing victory. The 19-year-old Spaniard may end up in F1 next year as a result.

The history of the Compaq Computer Corporation dates back to 1981 when three Texas Instruments employees Rod Canion, Bill Murto and Jim Harris sat in a Houston restaurant and sketched out the design of a personal computer on a table napkin. They established a corporation with backing from famed computer venture capitalist Ben Rosen (who funded the start-ups of firms such including Apple, Intel, Lotus, Silicon Graphics and Electronic Arts). Compaq produced its first computer in July 1982 and its Portable PC was an immediate success and in 1983 the company turned over $111m. The introduction of a Compaq desktop and increased sales of the laptop trebled that figure in 1984 when Compaq began operating in Europe under another former TI employee Eckhard Pfeiffer.