Formula One Features

Have you ever wondered why Britain is the centre of the world's motor racing industry? It hasn't always been the case. France started out as the cradle of the sport, dating back to 1894 and the Paris-Rouen reliability trial. The Automobile Club de France (ACF) dates from November 1895 and all the great early racing events were organized from Paris to other European cities. The first international "Grand Prix" was organized by the ACF in 1906 and was won by a Renault, despite opposition from Fiat and Itala from Italy and Mercedes from Germany. In the early years of the sport it was the French automotive industry which dominated with great marques such as Lorraine-Dietrich, Renault, Salmson, Peugeot, Talbot-Darracq, Ballot, Bugatti, Delage and Delahaye.

The most dramatic thing about the latest Grand Prix car from Williams Grand Prix Engineering is its bright red livery. Every since Williams shot to prominence in Formula 1 in 1979 the team has adopted a conservative attitude to its colors schemes, with white and green followed by white and blue. The new FW20 in its red Winfield colours and white and yellow flashes presents a much more aggressive approach from the team.

Jean-Yves Houe is the Formula 1 manager of Mecachrome, the French precision engineering company which will be running engines in Grand Prix racing this year with Williams and Benetton.

Two recent experiences, both as a passenger, have set me thinking about the driver as a control system.

FIA President Max Mosley spends most of his time dealing with matters of the moment. You can call it "fire-fighting" if you like. New problems come up all the time and each has to be solved. But what about the long-term future of Grand Prix racing? Much has been changed in recent years. We asked Mosley about the changes in Formula 1.

The 1997 Formula 1 season will be remembered for the controversy over the final race to determine the Drivers' World Championship. However, this will be to devalue the year as not only being one of the most competitive and exciting for some time, but also one full of technical interest, although much of it was well hidden.

What a year! Way back in March it looked as though Jacques Villeneuve would sweep all before him in the 1997 World Championship but it all went horribly wrong and for most of the season an inspired Michael Schumacher led the title race, scoring memorable and brilliant wins at Monaco and Spa.

Alain Prost is a pocket-sized person, but as a racing driver he was a giant. Now 42, the twisty-nosed, curly-haired Frenchman has embarked on a new career as a Formula 1 team owner, his intention being to go on winning.

The scene is familiar: 22 Formula1 cars are assembled on the grid and the Pit Lane is closed. The start of the race is 15 minutes away and after two days of practice the cars are set up as well as they are ever likely to be.

The United Kingdom has a great tradition in Formula 1 racing. There have been plenty of Englishmen, Scotsmen and Irishmen

Around the middle of this Formula1 season, there occurred a quiet revolution that has passed with little comment.

All the podium ceremonies in Formula 1 are organized by French aristocrat Baron Gerald de Bar de la Garde de la Michardiere, who is employed by Paddy McNally's Allsport Management, which looks after many of the promotional activities on the periphery of Grand Prix racing.

Of the many millions of people around the world who follow Formula 1 motor racing, a tiny percentage are sufficiently inspired by it to pursue their technical interests into a career in the engineering side.

Every driver in Formula 1 is fast and yet only handful of them are ever able to win Grands Prix. Winning is not just about speed, it is something which requires a variety of different talents in a driver.

Damon Hill still wants to win races and at the Hungarian Grand Prix he proved that he can do it - even if his second place result was ultimately a disappointment. The World Champion has not given up hope with Arrows. He led the race in dominant fashion and looked certain to win but then - with three laps to go - he suffered hydraulic problem which deprived him of control of the throttle and the gears. He was stuck in third. If it had been fifth he might still have won because he was half a minute ahead of Jacques Villeneuve, but in the end the French-Canadian was able to get ahead on the last lap.

Olivier Panis's broken legs are likely to be fixed within a couple of months and he should be racing again before the end of the season. Olivier is now at the Centre Reeducation et de Readaptation Sportive in the seaside resort of Treboul-Douarnenez, near Quimper in the Brittany region of north-western France. Dr Gilles Sauleau reckons that it will be at least at least the end of July before Panis can walk although he is already working in the swimming pool to ensure that he maintains the necessary muscle in his legs and keeps up his pre-accident levels of cardio-vascular fitness. If all this is successful Panis could be racing again in mid-September.

Frank Williams went to Hockenheim in the Williams team's company helicopter. Commercial flights are very difficult because of his paralysis - the result of a road accident in March 1986 - and normally Frank would have flown to Germany in the Williams company jet but that has been sold and Williams Grand Prix Engineering is looking for another one.

The really quick guys in Formula 1 never take long to be competitive. Jarno Trulli had to do only one race this year before he started to outqualify his Minardi team mate Ukyo Katayama - a veteran of 80 Grands Prix. The really quick guys in Formula 1 never take long to be competitive. Jarno Trulli had to do only one race this year before he started to outqualify his Minardi team mate Ukyo Katayama - a veteran of 80 Grands Prix.

Four-time World Champion Alain Prost has been a team owner for less than five months - but already he has made his mark on the sport he once dominated as a driver. On the race tracks Prost driver Olivier Panis has been competitive. In Brazil he finished third; in Spain he was second behind Jacques Villeneuve, putting himself third in the Drivers' World Championship.

On the morning of the 16th December 1982, a small group of Team Lotus engineers and mechanics huddled inside their anoraks in the Pits at Snetterton. With nothing to stop the wind as it blows in across the North Sea straight from the Arctic, Snetterton has always been one of the least hospitable testing circuits, especially in the middle of winter, but it does provide a measure of secrecy. On that day the first Active Suspension racing car was due to be given it's initial test run, and Chapman was expected to attend the test later in the day.

In July 1988 Johnny Herbert signed to drive for the Benetton Formula 1 team. He was competing in Formula 3000 at the time and this was his big chance. A few days later Johnny was involved in a huge multi-car accident during the F3000 race at Brands Hatch. He suffered multiple fractures of his lower legs, ankles and feet. Seven months later, despite being unable to walk without sticks, Johnny made his F1 debut for Benetton in Rio de Janeiro and finished fourth in the race. It was a high point but in the months which followed Johnny was unable to reproduce the performance and he was dropped by the team at mid-season because his legs were not strong enough to enable him to drive competitively.

Transmission hardware design in Formula 1 has, at least temporarily, reached a plateau. Such is the level of development that there are one or two layouts that provide the chassis designer with some degree of freedom, without making a significant difference to the functioning and performance of the transmission.

Tyres-suspension-aerodynamics-chassis: one integrated system, made up of highly inter-dependent parts, that determines the performance of any racecar, except when maximum power or maximum braking is applied.

There is a joke in Formula 1 circles which says that Ferrari is in the seventh year of a three-year plan to return to Championship-winning ways. Many a true word is spoken in jest. Ferrari has not won a World Championship since 1983 and Luca di Montezemolo said he wanted to return Ferrari to winning ways when he became President in November 1991.