Formula One Features

When Philippe Alliot was young it never crossed his mind that he would ever become a racing driver.

Keith Wiggins wants to do Formula 1. His Pacific Racing team has won a championship at every level it has contested and now Grand Prix racing beckons, even if there is a recession.

Johnny Herbert has been one of the stars of Formula 1 this year. He hasn't been winning racing like Nigel Mansell, but then Johnny doesn't have the same machinery. In fact his car is over two years old.

Gerhard Berger is 32 - the same age as Ayrton Senna. Of the top F1 drivers Berger is the least controversial. He doesn't make a fuss if a team mate is quicker than him - he merely learns how to go faster...

Bertrand Gachot qualified his Venturi Larrousse-Lamborghini 11th on the grid at Silverstone. It was a fine showing for the Belgian in what was once his adopted country.

Earlier this year Michael Schumacher did not really believe that he could win a Grand Prix in 1992. He would not even dare to dream that such a thing was possible.

It is no great secret that Formula 1 is a sport for the rich, but just how rich does one have to be to run a Formula 1 team? What does it really cost? There was a time when people like Lord Hesketh, Walter Wolf, or more recently Jean-Pierre Van Rossem, were able to fund their own teams, but even for these extravagant folk the dream is now over. Money is the only master of the game. Dollars are counted in tens of millions, soon it will be hundreds of millions for the wealthy teams like McLaren, Ferrari or Williams-Renault.

Patrick Head doesn't admit a great deal when journalists come visiting. He puts on a gruff exterior, answers questions with succinct "yes" and "no" replies, and he is happy to sit through long silences, without needing to keep on talking.

The Formula 1 world is buzzing with the rumours that Honda - the most influential engine manufacturer in Grand Prix racing

Max Mosley, the president of the Federation Internationale du Sport Automobile and nominally the most powerful man in the sport, is an intriguing character. He was elected in October last year, defeating Frenchman Jean-Marie Balestre, who had held the office for 13 years. It was a dominant victory with polling 43 votes to Balestre's 29.

Keke Rosberg won the Formula 1 World Championship in 1982. He was 34. At the end of 1986 he retired and today looks after the careers of two young Finnish hopefuls: Mika Hakkinen and JJ Lehto.

Jean Alesi hasn't been in the headlines much in the last recent months. The sensation of the 1990 season in the dramatic trend-setting Tyrrell 019 was signed by Ferrari at a time when the famed Scuderia was coming apart at the seams. Today everyone is talking about Michael Schumacher while Jean battles to get Ferrari back up to speed.

Mario Illien and Paul Morgan established Ilmor Engineering at the start of 1984. With backing from Roger Penske and Chevrolet the pair built a highly-successful Indycar engine, but at the start of last year Ilmor entered F1, to take on Renault, Honda and Ferrari in Grand Prix racing.

Martin Brundle had a difficult time at the start of the year. The 1988 World Sportscar Champion - a veteran of 97 Grands Prix and the winner of the Le Mans and Daytona 24 Hour races - finally got a good break with a top F1 team. His mentor Tom Walkinshaw insisted that Martin be Michael Schumacher's team mate at Benetton, but for a while the drive looked like being the kiss of death to Martin's F1 career.

It is Sunday morning at Monza. Rugged race ace Nigel Mansell has just set the fastest time in the warm-up - by the enormous margin of two seconds, but trouble is brewing... Mansell heads for the Media Centre. He seems in a relaxed mood as he arrives in the Monza media centre.

Nigel Mansell is World Champion and a considerable part of his success has been due to the Renault V10 engine. Nigel has been trying to win the F1 World Championship since 1980, but Renault Sport's engine wizard Bernard Dudot has had to wait three years more than Nigel...

McLaren's Ron Dennis is at the centre of the Formula 1 'silly season', which traditionally kicks off at Hockenheim. At Hockenheim he was in the spotlight. Rumours suggest that Honda is going to pull out.

A year ago Michael Schumacher was a little-known Mercedes sportscar driver. He had won the German Formula 3 championship the previous year, but had moved into sportscars rather than progress into F3000.

You might have heard of Bob Judd. He writes novels about motor racing. Go to an airport and you will probably find copies of Formula 1 and Indy on the shelves. It sounds a great life, doesn't it? How does one do it?

Peter Collins, the boss of Team Lotus was not quite sure whether to laugh or cry after the Canadian Grand Prix. Johnny Herbert and Mika Hakkinen had both run in the top six - but both had retired.

You would think that driving for the best Formula 1 team in the world would be every driver's dream. But it isn't always like that...

In the last 12 months the recession has hurt the world economy. But is it hurting Formula 1? Is Grand Prix racing really facing a crisis or is the money being badly managed?

Peter Wright is a self-confessed boffin. Generally regarded as the man behind the introduction of ground effect in F1 in 1978, Wright was later involved in the development of active suspension for Lotus Engineering. Today he has given up being managing director of Lotus Engineering and gone back to his spiritual home Team Lotus. In Barcelona he unveiled the Lotus 107 which he hopes will take the famous team back to the front of the F1 grids. As technical director, he has instigated a programme where technology once again leads the way.

Giancarlo Minardi has been trying to break into the F1 winners' club since 1985. He reckons everyone from the Romagna region of Italy is stubborn and will not give up. Motor racing history suggests that Giancarlo is probably right. The region is the home of the Italian motor racing industry and always has been. It was here that the Maserati brothers set up shop in Bologna; it was here that the Ferrari factory still stands. Lamborghini is in Modena and Dallara at Parma. There are the circuits too: Varano in the north, Misano in the east and Mugello to the south. And right in the middle is Imola.