Features

Displaying stories 441 - 460 of 908 in total

News Feature - Walter Hayes - The Father of the DFV

Boxing Day last year saw the passing of a man to whom British motorsport owes a deep debt. While looking at the fabulous achievements of the Ford Cosworth DFV engine that he inspired, here is also an insight into what made Walter Hayes such an influential player.Full Story

The Youth of Today - Monte Carlo or bust for the WRC

I feel a special cheer following the result of the Monte Carlo Rally. The fact that Tommi Makinen tore up the form book to win in his museum piece of a Mitsubishi is neither here nor there, to be honest. Neither that Colin McRae carried the flag for Britain with aplomb. No, it was dear old Skoda taking on all comers to finish fourth on one of the world's most famous events.Full Story

Big Al - Schadenfreude is alive and well and living in the F1 pit lane

I suppose it's a fact of life that rather too many people in the F1 pit lane get a kick out of other people's misfortunes. When you add that to the other key F1 affliction, namely an inability to remember anything that took place earlier than yesterday lunchtime, then you can understand why misfortunes in pre-season testing are almost doubly painful as anything one might experience in the helter-skelter of the season's fortnightly racing.Full Story
The Youth of Today - Hats off to Bob Williams, Grand Prix legend

On the way home from the Jordan launch I did something of which I could never previously have believed myself capable. I bought a Robbie Williams CD.Full Story

Historical - Soichiro Honda: The man behind a legend

Honda-engined cars have been very quick in the last tests of the 2000 season, and the company stands on the brink of a new era in its F1 history after returning from a seven-year break this season. Racing is in its blood, but that's not surprising, given the early life of the unusual man who founded an empire: Soichiro Honda.Full Story

The Youth of Today - And next week: a yellow car

With a gigantic sigh of relief Jaguar Racing did the decent thing and ended a winter of rumors, deals, testing times, driver line-ups and hyperbole. In a few short weeks all this tedium will be as a bad dream from which we will have awoken to get on with the business at hand: motor racing. That was the overriding feeling as Messrs. Irvine and Burti peeled away the cloth from their new Jaguar R2 in front of the world's media. Oddly, therefore, there was no palpable air of anticipation, no admiring gasp and barely a ripple of appreciative murmuring.Full Story

News Feature - Jaguar Racing: the youth will out

By far the most impressive thing about Jaguar Racing's launch was not the shiny new Jaguar R2. Nor was it that memories of last year's epic Cecil B. de Mille-style launch were banished by its no nonsense presentation. It was instead the air of anticipation generated by a quartet of young hooligans who will be driving most of the British Racing Green cars in 2001. After the glamour of the big F1 launch wore off a little, each reverted to type and looked at their cars anew - itching to get to a race circuit and beat the living daylights out of them.Full Story

Technical - SEA Motorsports Engineering Conference - 2000

The fourth SAE Motorsports Engineering Conference (MSEC) took place in Dearborn, Michigan at the end of November, attracting 38 technical papers on motor sports related subjects. The number of papers is down on previous years, and I believe that this reflects the increasing level of competition in major racing series and the increased involvement of the motor industry. Engineers involved in these series simply do not have the time to write up their research to the level required for publication, and much of the basic research is carried out in cooperation with engineers from major-manufacturer partners, and they do not want their technical secrets widely disseminated.Full Story

The Youth of Today - 21st Century Blues

As the hangovers wear off and life begins to happen once more the motor industry has to contend with a little piece of bad news that passed almost unnoticed amid the hunt for aunt Gertrude's Christmas present and plans to see in the New Year.Full Story

Big Al - Jackie won't worry about no Knighthood

I have always been a little suspicious about the merits of being included in the New Year and Queen's Birthday Honours lists. This is not, you understand, because I feel that anything as insignificant in the overall order of things as spending a lifetime traipsing round the world reporting on motor racing merits a Knighthood - and that consequently I have been left out.Full Story

News Feature - Button v Montoya

The F1 world seems obsessed with the idea of the young Englishman and the Colombian who supplanted him at Williams becoming the next great double act. But right now, as they settle into new berths and prepare for 2001, that prospect is as far from their conscious thinking as it could possibly be.Full Story

Historical - Jean-Pierre Wimille: The man who would have been champion...

world has forgotten Jean-Pierre Wimille - and it is not really fair. There were top French stars in the early years of the sport but by the late 1930s the fading French racing industry meant that France did not have many big names.Full Story

The Youth of Today - Let's have a traditional Christmas

Christmas is almost upon us and children everywhere are hoping against hope that their letters to Santa will have been answered, as what they've found in their parents' wardrobe just doesn't fit the bill. Some will be wanting a bicycle, many will have been hoping for a PlayStation 2 and others are holding out for? a Formula 1 contract.Full Story

News Feature - What Renault wants to achieve in F1

When Renault announced plans to withdraw from Formula 1 in January 1997, the company chairman Louis Schweitzer said that the firm would be back "in three or four years". There were more important things to do than extending Renault's incredible run of success in Grand Prix racing. Schweitzer was about to announce a $750m losses for 1996 and he needed to cut costs.Full Story

Exclusive Interview - Steve Nichols

Jaguar Racing's new technical director has been entrusted with the task of steering the British team in a more competitive direction from the engineering standpoint. But to start with, he has to establish at precisely what point the team really is as compared with its opposition.Full Story

News Feature - Home, sweet home

Or why there was precious little chance of Britain's frequently controversial GP going anywhere other than Silverstone, its spiritual home. None of us should have been remotely surprised when the furor first blew up about the British Grand Prix, back in April. More than most races in the F1 calendar, the British race has always had a reputation for controversy.Full Story

News Feature - Futureworld: Will the piston engine ever be toppled from its current supremacy?

Continuing our look at Formula One in the new century, we ask: Will the piston engine ever be toppled from its current supremacy? The demise of the internal combustion engine has been predicted more times than the overthrow of Max Mosley, even though it has been the technical cornerstone of F1 right from the very start of the World Championship half a century ago. The only serious considerations have been what configuration to choose, how many cylinders to have, what capacity to adopt, whether to supercharge or turbocharge it, or whether to allow it to breath naturally. In the early Fifties supercharged units were prevalent, until Ferrari's unblown 4.5 liter V12 ousted the long-running blown Alfa Romeo 1.5. In the late Seventies to the mid-Eighties the blown engine enjoyed a revival, primarily because Renault spotted the loophole in the regulations and introduced the 1.5 liter turbocharged powerplant as an alternative to the 3 liter unblown unit. Today the only engines that are permitted are normally aspFull Story

News Feature - Why Formula 1 might go to Phakisa Freeway

South Africa continues to hope for a return to the Formula 1 calendar. In principle there should be a South African Grand Prix in 2001, following an agreement between Formula 1 boss Bernie Ecclestone and South African President Nelson Mandela in August 1998. Under that agreement Ecclestone agreed to send teams to tests in South Africa in 1999 and 2000 and promised that South Africa would get a slot in the calendar in 2001 if everything was in order.Full Story

News Feature - The future of the German Grand Prix

The problems surrounding the British Grand Prix may have been sorted out in a deal between Silverstone, Brands Hatch and Bernie Ecclestone but the future of another classic Formula 1 race - the German Grand Prix - remains uncertain.Full Story

Exclusive Interview - Bobby Rahal: An open ended commitment

When Bobby Rahal was recruited by Jaguar Racing to take over as chief executive officer, the reaction within the F1 jungle was mixed. If there is one myopically introspective quality about the Grand Prix business it is a belief that only those established leading players inside the exclusive enclave have any real grasp of how to handle the sport's problems. Outsiders are neither qualified, nor welcome.Full Story

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