Features

Displaying stories 641 - 660 of 908 in total

Interview - Frank Williams

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.Full Story
News Feature - Formula 1 drivers: coping with injury

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.Full Story

News Feature - The Secret Plans of Alain Prost

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.Full Story

Technical - Colin Chapman- What would he have thought of Formula 1 today?

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. Full Story

Interview - Johnny Herbert talks about injury

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.Full Story

Technical - Formula 1 Transmission Trends

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. Full Story

Technical - Formula 1 Suspension Trends

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. Full Story

News Feature - Ferrari: Schumacher and Irvine

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.Full Story

News Feature - Adrian Newey

On Friday November 8 1996 Williams chief designer Adrian Newey did not turn up for work at the team factory in Grove. Full Story

Technical - Bad Vibrations

Winter testing on the latest batch of Formula 1 cars, fitted with the new-for-1997 rear impact absorbing structures, threw up an interesting vibration problem. Full Story

Interview - Alain Prost

Alain Prost is the most successful Grand Prix driver of all time. He won 51 of the 199 Grands Prix which he contested. Full Story
Interview - Nicola Larini

You could call him the "Comeback Kid" if he was a bit younger, but at 33 years of age (this week) Italian racer Nicola Larini is a bit too old for that. He has been involved in Formula 1 racing for the last 10 years but this year has popped up with the Sauber Petronas team and he looks like having his best season to date.Full Story

News Feature - Team Prost

It is eight years since we first heard vague rumours that Alain Prost wanted to run his own Formula 1 team. In mid-1989, when he had fallen out with Ayrton Senna and was on the verge of leaving McLaren, he and engineer John Barnard came very close to doing a deal for Renault engines. The problem on that occasion was that the world was going into a recession and they could not find any sponsorship. Alain went to Ferrari instead...Full Story
Technical - The Lola T97/30

Eric Broadley's Lola Cars embarks this year on its sixth foray into Grand Prix racing with 68-year-old Broadley - who founded Lola back in 1958 - leading from the front.Full Story
News Feature - Bridgestone in F1

The Bridgestone Corporation enters Grand Prix racing this season, supplying tyres to the Arrows, Ligier, Minardi, Stewart and Lola teams. It will be the Japanese company's first involvement in Formula 1 but all the signs are that the world's biggest tyre seller will be very competitive with Goodyear, which has dominated Grand Prix racing for the last 10 years.Full Story
Financial - The size of Formula 1 Teams

Tom Walkinshaw bought the Arrows team in the middle of last year and since then there has been a great deal of changing of the personnel. Many of the old Arrows F1 crew from Milton Keynes have moved on to other teams.Full Story

Technical - Formula 1 Technical Regulation changes for 1998

The FIA World Motor Sport Council met in Monaco on 6th December last year and voted in the most radical and far reaching Formula 1 performance regulations seen for a long time. Full Story

Technical - Arrows-Yamaha A18

The Danka Arrows Yamaha team unveiled its 1997 car at the Autosport International Show in Birmingham, England, on January 9. The Arrows-Yamaha A18 will be driven by World Champion Damon Hill and by Brazilian Pedro Diniz.Full Story
Technical - Ligier-Mugen JS45

Equipe Ligier Gauloises Blondes unveiled its Ligier-Mugen Honda JS45 at the Cafe de Paris, in Monte Carlo's Casino Square on January 22. The car will be driven this year by Olivier Panis and Shinji Nakano. It will once again be powered by Mugen Honda V10 engines and will run on Bridgestone tyres.Full Story
Technical - The new McLaren's MP4-12...

The West McLaren Mercedes Benz team had a "sneak preview" of its new 1997 car at its factory in Woking early on the morning of January 14. The prototype McLaren-Mercedes MP4-12 was unveiled in an orange and black livery - the color used on the old McLaren CanAm cars of the 1960s - but will be raced in a silver color-scheme this year. Silver is, of course, the traditional racing livery of Mercedes-Benz, but it is also the color used by the Germany West cigarette brand - the team's new title sponsor - for its West Lights packaging. The team wanted to get as much testing achieved as possible and so the McLaren sponsorship package will be revealed separately at a major launch in London's Alexandra Palace exhibition centre on February 14. The team says it is expecting to have 4000 people present for the event.Full Story

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