Formula One Features

"It's not a well-known fact that I designed this car," said Chris Murphy, looking at the Larrousse Formula 1 team's Lola-Lamborghini. "It's a difficult situation. The team is very French, all the sponsors are French. Officially Gerard Ducarouge designed the car.

People have the funniest ways of achieving success in sport: last summer the Olympics suffered the Seoul-destroying assault of the pill-poppers. A few days ago in Las Vegas Frank Bruno and Mike Tyson tried to out-hypnotise each other before belting each other's brains out. Sports psychologists, dietary specialists and chiropractors have quietly become an increasing part of sport. Motor racing has its own peculiarities. In NASCAR some drivers believe they are on a mission from God, while it could be argued that some Grand Prix drivers think they are God. The new Zakspeed Formula 1 driver Aguri Suzuki has his own theories about achieving success.

On Sunday at Hockenheim the Benetton team looked a very real threat for victory against the mighty McLaren and Ferrari. This increased competitiveness is due both to the new Ford Series IV V8 engine and to the fast-developing B190 chassis. Although Nelson Piquet retired, Sandro Nannini led the race for 16 of the 45 laps. Ultimately Senna took the lead, but Sandro finished second, matching the performance of Piquet at the Canadian GP.

Riccardo Patrese is having a tremendous season. With the new Williams-Renault combination he is enjoying his best results for years. In Rio, on the day he became the most experienced Formula 1 driver in history, he started from the front row of the grid and led the race in the early stages...

They were drinking champagne and bouncing off the walls with joy in the Leyton House pit. The team had pulled off the greatest comeback since Lazarus. A fortnight before neither Ivan Capelli nor Mauricio Gugelmin had qualified for the Mexican Grand Prix. Now they were celebrating. Capelli had been beaten, but it had only happened in the dying moments of the race when his fuel pressure suddenly dived and Alain Prost swept by.

Fifty years ago the British armies in France were driven into the sea by the marauding Panzer divisions of the German army. With their backs to the beaches, the British fell back on a place called Dunkirk. The armies were rescued by an armada of little boats and suddenly, somehow, Dunkirk became a famous victory. It had been a disastrous defeat, yet the British turned it into an episode of glory -- and success.

British race fans like to have a hero to cheer. After James Hunt there was John Watson and then along came Nigel Mansell. With 'Our Nige' retiring at the end of the year Martin Donnelly is the obvious candidate to replace Mansell as Britain's new racing star and the object of the public's affection...

Eric Bernard was right on the pace during pre-Grand Prix testing at Silverstone. It was no big surprise. If it wasn't for Jean Alesi, Eric Bernard would be a very successful young Grand Prix driver. The amazing Jean has stolen much of Eric's thunder with his sparkling performances in the Tyrrell 019.

Hard though it may be to believe, one year ago Jean Alesi had not won a Formula 3000 race - and he hadn't really looked like winning one.

For four years Michele Alboreto was a Ferrari driver. He won five Grands Prix and was second in the 1985 World Championship but in 1988 his F1 career went off the rails. Michele fell from favour at Ferrari and was looking for a new team for the 1989 season...

Ivan Capelli had gone for a walk. This being the silly season in F1 a walk can cover a multitude of sins. Was he holed up in some motorhome? No, Ivan was standing around -- just chatting with anyone who happened to pass by - having a breath of fresh air.

Formula 1 observers do not generally believe in coincidence. If something happens there is a logical reason for it. It is just a matter of finding out what that reason may be. Michael Andretti and Al Unser Jr are being linked with F1 drives and then, suddenly, there is talk of a Formula 1 race at Indianapolis.

At Monaco Stefano Modena scored his first Formula 1 points -- finishing third to the two McLarens. It was only his 14th Grand Prix. A look in the records reveals that there aren't many drivers who can match that statistic.

Cesare Fiorio spends his time during Formula 1 qualifying sessions sitting on the pitwall with his eyes glued to the timing monitors.

In motor racing there is a theory that in order to become competitive, a team must improve faster than the opposition. The question is: How fast is too fast? There have been many flashy organisations which have come and gone in Grand Prix racing and often it is the long-term, carefully-constructed, teams which have proved to be the most resilient -- but not always.

Olivier Grouillard has made quite an impact in Formula 1 circles. Johnny Herbert might have stolen the limelight as top new boy in Rio de Janeiro, but Grouillard took a new, untested car to ninth. More importantly he has outpaced his team mate - former Ferrari and Renault ace and winner of seven Grands Prix - Rene Arnoux.

It was a match made in heaven -- or so it seemed. David Brabham, Sir Jack Brabham's third son, had signed to drive for Brabham, the team his father had founded way back in the sixties.

Sitting on the front row of the grid for the USA GP in Phoenix was the Minardi of Pierluigi Martini. In recent months the Italian has emerged from the shadows and built himself the reputation of being one of the fastest competitors outside the big name teams of Grand Prix racing. Few remember that in 1985 Pierluigi had been consigned to F1's scrap heap as a no-hoper.

Alex Caffi wasn't particular happy after the US Grand Prix in Phoenix. The young Brescia driver had been as high as second in the race, chasing after Alain Prost's McLaren. He had to pit, but was charging back through the field. He was going to end the day on the podium but, more importantly, it would have been his first top three finish in F1.

French racing underwent a renaissance in the mid Sixties with Matra, Gordini and Alpine and a new generation of French drivers moving to the forefront of international competition.

Now ends the winter of our discontent, ahead is another glorious summer of Grand Prix racing. And about time too. The endless bickering of the recent months, whatever the rights and wrongs, long ago became wearisome. Now it is the time to hear engines again and watch the world's greatest drivers doing what they know best...

The resdesigned Silverstone circuit was designed by Silvestone Circuit's chairman Tom Walkinshaw, George Smith, the Development Director of Silverstone and Hamish Brown, the Managing Director. The three received advice and comments from Bernie Ecclestone.

We write blithely of the FIA and FISA, of the International Court of Appeal and the World Motor Sport Council. Generally, all are lumped together under the title Paris, from where all the major decisions in international motor sport are made. But how does it all work? And who really controls motor sport?

We write blithely of the FIA and FISA, of the International Court of Appeal and the World Motor Sport Council. Generally, all are lumped together under the title Paris, from where all the major decisions in international motor sport are made. But how does it all work? And who really controls motor sport?