Formula One Features

All big companies which enter Formula 1 think that they know how best to run their operations. They have been successful in other forms of motorsport and they think they know what they are doing. Sooner or later they all discover that F1 is harder than they think. Mercedes-Benz built a factory for Sauber in Switzerland before realizing that it was a waste of time and money. Ferrari has spent 20 years trying to win the World Championship. The Ligier team was never a big success.

Formula 1 has become a "franchise" sport. Following Toyota's decision to pay a $48m deposit to become the sport's 12 team in 2002, anyone wanting to become involved has to buy an existing F1 organization.

It will be hard for Formula 1 to match 1999 for sheer drama and the sport may suffer a little as a result.

Some people in Formula 1 think that Frank Williams has gone barmy.

Jenson Button was expecting to have a fairly quiet winter after a busy season racing in the British Formula 3 Championship. As there was not much happening in the middle of December Jenson decided to go off on holiday in Mexico with his girlfriend. And then the telephone rang?

In so far as the Formula1 Technical Regulations are concerned, the year 2000 may prove to be the lull before the storm - that is, if you believe the forecasters.

About 15 years ago the Williams Formula 1 team was being sponsored by Imperial Chemical Industries.

Twelve months ago Formula 1 folk thought Morgan Grenfell was a NASCAR driver and Scott Lanphere, director of Morgan Grenfell Private Equity Ltd, had been to one single Grand Prix in his life.

A perfectly imperfect year. When, in a few years from now, we wander through the record books it will seem that the 1999 season was one which was won by Mika Hakkinen's McLaren-Mercedes.

The success and growth of the UK Motorsport Industry is well documented and has even been sanctified by being studied by academic institutions and business study groups.

Fighter aircraft have for many years had a cockpit design philosophy that sets out to allow the pilot to fly the aircraft in combat with "hands on throttle and stick".

At the beginning of October Prost Grand Prix announced that it had formed an alliance with the world's largest luxury goods conglomerate - Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy.

Absolute performance counts for nothing in Formula1, only relative performance matters. It is of no consequence how fast or slow you are, as long as you are faster than your competitors on a particular circuit, at a particular time on a particular day.

Many of the Formula One Technical Regulations depend upon dimensions, which in engineering terms can never be absolute. They require tolerances to enable parts to be manufactured, assembled and for inspection measurements to be made.

You may think that Prince Malik ado Ibrahim was an unusual character but in Formula 1 terms he was really rather quiet.

On October 28 Bernie Ecclestone celebrates his 69th birthday and while the boss of Formula 1 racing says that he is going to keep running the sport, despite the fact that he had major heart surgery during the summer, there are signs that he is slowing down.

Murray Walker is the most popular television commentator in Grand Prix racing, his fame having spread from Britain to outposts all over the world thanks to other nations which receive the Formula 1 television coverage produced by ITV.

Design teams led by Adrian Newey have created six of the Formula1 cars that have won the Constructors' World Championship in the last seven years. Whoever wins in 1999, few would dispute that Newey's McLaren MP4-14 is the best car of this year and it is undoubtedly the favourite to raise his tally to seven out of eight. His influence has dominated the last decade of the first century of motor racing and, whatever he achieves in the future, his name will go down in history among that elite group of engineers who, in their time, could almost be guaranteed to create a successful Formula1 car: Colin Chapman, Mauro Forgheiri and Patrick Head.

There are many unusual and interesting people in Formula 1 but probably the most interesting group are the Press Officers.

The highs and low of Eddie Jordan.

There are a lot of kings and princes in Africa - and a large number in Nigeria, a country with a great tribal, cultural and religious diversity.

In recent weeks there have been a lot of questions about Formula 1 teams being involved in drug smuggling.

For the last three years Bernie Ecclestone's digital broadcast centre - known in the Formula 1 paddock as "Bakersville" after Eddie Baker, the former Brabham mechanic who runs it for Ecclestone - has been producing groundbreaking digital TV coverage of Grands Prix racing.

Jac Nasser, the president and chief executive of the Ford Motor Company, jetted in to Hockenheim to have talks with members of the Formula 1 circus while avoiding giving away any of the company's plans in Grand Prix racing.