Formula One Features

McLaren International is probably the most secretive of all the Formula 1 teams and does not like to give away any information if it can be avoided.

It is only a few months since Indianapolis Motor Speedway owner Tony George announced that the world's most famous racing circuit would host a Grand Prix in 2000.

Way back in 1962 Soichiro Honda set his engineers the task of building a car and an engine that would win in Formula 1.

Few topics have caused as much discussion over the last 5 years as that concerning overtaking in Formula1.

Forty years is a long time in motor racing. The last forty have seen the technical explosion that has taken racecars from the front engined, tube-framed, skinny-tyred vehicles, devoid of all aerodynamic aids other than an eyeballed, aluminium, streamlined body, to the sophisticated machines racing all over the word today.

A lot of the people involved in Formula 1 think the sport is rather dull.

Four races into the 1999 Formula1 season and the pattern is becoming clear. McLaren have retained their performance superiority from last year, but have achieved it at the expense of reliability.

It is five years since Ayrton Senna died at Imola and his shadow still lurks over the Formula 1 circus.

Honda has just announced that it is to supply its new Formula 1 engines to British American Racing between 2000-2002.

Dr Harvey Postlethwaite was an intellectual racer whose motor racing career spanned more than a quarter of a century.

Every so often in Formula1, the combination of regulations and the status of the participants come together in such a way that it is the heart of the car, the engine, that for a while becomes the key component.

Georgetown Road runs north from 16th Street, through the Indianapolis suburb of Speedway.

Eddie Irvine always thought he could win a Grand Prix - but in the Formula 1 paddock he was in the minority.

How can the best driver in the world stall his $2,000,000 car trying to get it into first gear for the start of two consecutive races?

The first race of 1999 is over. Ferrari's winter emphasis on reliability rather than speed has triumphed over McLaren's strategy of producing their car late, in order to include the very latest research, and everyone is delighted that Eddie Irvine has won his first GP.

Formula 1 and The Brickyard

Grand Prix racing is becoming more and more of a business with confidence in the financial world gradually increasing as F1's revenues climb and the political battles of recent years subside. In recent months there have been some significant investments made in teams and we expect more in the years ahead - not only from investment banks and venture capitalists but also from major motor manufacturers.

Formula 1 teams used to exist solely as racing operations.

We know that the Honda Motor Company is aiming to enter Formula 1 in the year 2000 with its own team; a prototype Honda Formula 1 car has been testing around Europe in the last few weeks, with Jos Verstappen at the wheel; the team involves a lot of former Tyrrell employees. That is about all we know and no-one involved is going to reveal much more about Honda's F1 plans.

Battling with Sir Francis

The time between of the launches of the new Formula1 cars and the first GP in Melbourne seems shorter this year than ever. It is during this time of that season's previews are written, based on the highly optimistic claims of team of principles, the cautious descriptions of the cars made by their designers, and comments by drivers that vary from being bullish, following initial shake down runs, to ever more frustrating as the first race approaches.

At the launch of the new Prost-Peugeot AP02 Olivier Panis admitted that for much of last season he was worried about that if he crashed we would injure his legs so badly that his F1 career would be over.

Alain Prost did not much enjoy the 1998 Formula 1 World Championship.

It may sound like a crazy idea for Grand Prix cars to race on a combined oval and road course at Indianapolis but it is a little-known fact that there has already been a "Grand Prix" on a combined road-oval circuit, which was almost identical to the track which is being laid out at Indy for the United States Grand Prix in the year 2000.