Features

Displaying stories 481 - 500 of 908 in total

Exclusive Interview - Sam Michael: BMW-Williams' New Star

Around many of the motorhomes ranged around the F1 paddock you can always tell where the stars are, for there are herds of hangers on migrating from being near Eddie Irvine to looking as though they're David Coulthard's relatives to straightening their mini dresses and Gucci jeans beside Giancarlo Fisichella. It's like watching antelope on a Sunday evening TV documentary, but I'm watching this happen from the Jordan motorhome, where I'm alone. Their drivers are safely locked in with their sponsors' guests so all is calm, and as the herd shifts once more I get to speak to one of F1's hottest properties without interruption. A man who will, at the end of this season, become a key ingredient in BMW-Williams' surge towards great things in 2001...Full Story

Technical - Blowing in the Wind - CFD v Wind Tunnels

Everyone agrees that aerodynamics is the most important part of the F1 design package. But which research route will ultimately be the most effective, the tried and tested wind tunnel, or the increasingly popular mathematical modeling process, Computational Fluid Dynamics?Full Story

Big Al - Three into one won't go

The way I see it, if Ralf Schumacher doesn't regain more of the consistency which made him such a formidable F1 during the 1999 season, then he could be out of the BMW Williams squad when his current contract comes to an end in two years time.Full Story

Exclusive Interview - The joy of Luca di Montezemolo

Eight years after he returned to Ferrari tasked with rebuilding it into a Championship-winning force, Luca di Montezemolo is finally celebrating.Full Story

Big Al - Coulthard's last throw

You've got top admire David Coulthard's resilience. After what amounts to another bruising season with the McLaren-Mercedes team, the popular Scot is as far away as ever from his burning ambition to win the World Championship. Yet, while he will certainly be driving for McLaren in 2001, I suspect that unless he wins the title from the front of the field, one is bound to conclude that he will not enjoy another year of Ron Dennis's patronage beyond next year's Japanese Grand Prix.Full Story

Technical - Movers and shakers

There are many individuals and organizations involved in Formula 1 who would like to be thought of as "Movers and shakers", but few deserve this title more than Servotest Ltd. , based in Feltham, Middlesex, England.Full Story

News Feature - Johnny Herbert's top five

On the verge of his last Formula One Grand Prix, Jaguar's Johnny Herbert looks back on the top five F1 drivers he has raced against.Full Story

Exclusive Interview - Return for Zonta: Why Jordan test role is imbuing the Brazilian with fresh enthusiasm

In the first instance there was Nigel Mansell, the first man to make it work. More recently there was Olivier Panis. Confused? We're talking about the once-scorned role of F1 test driver.Full Story

News Feature - How can Formula 1 expand?

There is no shortage of venues around the world which would like to host a Grand Prix. It seems that every month there is another plan revealed. But it is not that easy. To begin with hosting a Grand Prix is vastly expensive. Even if you have a venue which is up to Formula 1's demanding safety standards, you still need to find around $10m a year in fees to get the Formula 1 circus to come and visit. And for that you have to sign over most of your potential sources of revenue: TV revenues, merchandising, corporate hospitality and trackside advertising must all be handed over as part of the deal. As a race promoter you have to survive on the number of people you can get through the gate.Full Story

The Youth of Today - Who Wins the Battle of the Brands?

Walter Wolf once pointed out that when one of his cars won a Grand Prix it was reported that Jody Scheckter won the race in a Wolf, but when a Ferrari won it was the opposite - Ferrari won the race driven by the lucky incumbent. Oh how times have changed.Full Story

News Feature - Share trading in F1 - what does it all mean?

In July we suggested that a group of European car manufacturers were bidding to buy shares in Bernie Ecclestone's Formula One group of companies via the Association des Constructeurs Europeens d'Automobiles, the European federation of car manufacturers. The car manufacturers had a meeting at the recent Salon de l'Automobile in Paris and EM.TV, the German media firm which currently owns 50% of SLEC, the Formula 1 group's holding company, is now admitting publicly that it has received a letter of intent from the ACEA stating that the organization wishes to buy EM.TV's share in SLEC.Full Story

News Feature - Jaguar's Olympic spirit

When the Olympic Games was established the theme of the competition was that the important thing was taking part rather than winning. That premise has long since disappeared. It is now about rampant commercialism. Of all sports only Grand Prix racing matches the Olympics for gaudy sponsorships. Winning is all that matters in Formula 1 as it is in the Olympic Games and by any form of contemporary logic Jaguar Racing has been less than impressive this year.Full Story

Technical - "On your marks. Get set. GO!"

"On your marks. Get set. GO!" These immortal words, or the electronically signalled equivalent of them, are used to start almost all forms of race. The precision and monitoring of the start of Formula 1 races has reached a level that far exceeds that of any other race starting process. The way the cars settle onto their starting "blocks", engage their starting systems and launch themselves on the "GO!" signal is more akin to the start of a 100 meter sprint than a marathon, to which a two hour Formula 1 race is much nearer the equivalent.Full Story

News Feature - The Indianapolis Hall of Fame

When Formula 1 came to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway 91 years of history was swept aside. Where once the wide open space of the paddock and Gasoline Alley epitomized the old days, the ten floor Pagoda Tower reached 199 feet into the air, flanked by 248,346 square feet of new pit garages topped off with hospitality suites to one side and a four floor media center to the other.Full Story

Big Al - Hakkinen versus Schumacher: the showdown

Michael Schumacher and Mika Hakkinen will again underline their status as the dominant formula one rivals of the current era when they go head-to-head in Sunday's Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka, both knowing that this could be the day when the Ferrari driver regains the drivers' world championship for the famous Italian team for the first time since Jody Scheckter 21 years ago.Full Story

News Feature - On The Road

Despite the fact that the youth of Britain is weened on American cartoons, watches American movies and then wonders why we can't produce sitcoms like Frasier and Sex in the City, not much can really prepare you for the first visit. This was my first proper trip to the United States (barring a day trip to play golf ten years ago... long story), and a prodigal return to the USA for the rank and file of Formula 1.Full Story

Exclusive Interview - Juan Pablo Montoya: Is he the man who will topple Schumacher?

He doesn't say very much outside of the garage. Point of fact, he's deemed arrogant because of his apparent reticence. And that's just in ChampCar circles, where the atmosphere is laid back enough that most drivers feel sufficiently relaxed to spend a little time chilling out with the media. So wait until he gets to F1, some say, and he'll make even Michael Schumacher and Mika Hakkinen seem talkative in comparison.Full Story

The Youth of Today - F1's Purple Patch

At the age of 16 my classmates and I gained entry to the hallowed third floor of my school: the sixth form. In quite possibly the greatest rite of passage known to man all bottle green sweaters and ties were abandoned, grey Farrah slacks cremated and citrus colored exercise books swapped for A4 folders. Miss Pickering became Kay, essays swelled to 1500 words, opinions were encouraged and some began speaking in iambic pentameter as schoolchildren mutated into students.Full Story

Big Al - Who takes over the F1 baton?

If Ferrari finally wins the 2000 World Championships and takes both the Drivers' and Constructors' crowns together back to Maranello for the first time since 1979, one is bound to wonder whether this will represent a sea change in F1 trends - or merely a blip on a canvass which has in the past, and will in the future, be dominated by the McLaren-Mercedes brigade.Full Story

News Feature - The People Versus The United States Grand Prix at Indianapolis

So much had been said and written about the relationship between Formula 1 and the United States of America over the years - let alone the final countdown to the epochal Grand Prix at Indianapolis - that opinions had long been cemented everywhere... except, that is, amongst the fans who paid up and got themselves to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.Full Story

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