Formula One Features

Bertrand Gachot was released from prison on the Tuesday before Suzuka. He flew straight out to Japan, but he no longer had a Formula 1 drive. He had been jailed just before the Belgian Grand Prix in August, convicted of causing actual bodily harm to a London taxi driver after a collision at London's Hyde Park Corner in December last year. In the ensuing altercation Bertrand sprayed CS gas into the face of the cabbie. In Britain CS gas is illegal. Bertrand was sentenced to six months for possession and 18 months for assault.

The 1991 season was always going to be an interim year for Guy Ligier's team -- an excuse which has been used far too often in the recent history of what is, effectively, France's national racing team.

In the final moments of Friday morning's free practice session at Suzuka Eric Bernard crashed heavily on the exit of the hairpin after the underpass. His Larrousse Lola went a little wide as he put the power down and it slid on to the kerbing. Earlier in the session Pierluigi Martini had done the same and had had a large accident. Eric's would be even larger. The car snapped to the right and crashed into the barriers, virtually head on. It was a massive impact with almost no deflection of the energy involved. The Lola stood up remarkably well.

John Barnard left the Benetton Formula 1 team in the mid-summer and has been sitting on the sidelines ever since. Watching. We asked him to examine the technical progress in Grand Prix racing this season.

It was another troubled year for the AGS team and, as the year ended, it seemed that the team would finally disappear from Formula 1 after six years trying to establish itself. The plan was to merge with Team Larrousse, the theory being that two teams, each with half a 1992 budget, would be better off together. The details of the deal are still being finalised.

To understand the complicated relationships between the French government and French motor racing takes a lot of explaining.

The days before the Italian Grand Prix were traumatic for Roberto Moreno. Just two days before going to Monza he lost his drive. He ended up driving a Jordan. Roberto's sudden departure from Benetton was a big surprise - not least for the Brazilian himself. To most observers Roberto had done a good job at Benetton. He joined the team after Sandro Nannini's helicopter crash in October last year. He finished second, behind team mate Nelson Piquet in his first race for the team in Suzuka last year and was retained for this season. Up against the vastly experienced Piquet - with 200 GPs to his credit - Roberto had been doing well. The team, however, had informed Moreno after Belgium that it did not wish to take up his option for 1992. Until the Tuesday afternoon before Monza, however, Roberto thought his immediate future was secured.

There is nothing new about Grand Prix drivers who started their careers, racing on motorcycles. A quick look back through the record books reveal some great names in Grand Prix racing started out on two-wheels: Tazio Nuvolari was a top bik racer in the 1020s in Italy and his motor racing rival Achille Varzi started out as one of his to-wheeled rivals on bike, Varzi being the first Italian to compete in the Isle of Man TT bike races. German Bernd Rosemeyer was also an accmplished bike racer before he joined Auto Union.

It is no great secret that Formula 1 is a sport for the rich, but just how rich does one have to be to do F1? What does it really cost? There are no definite figures, only estimates. And these have to be revised every year by at least 15%.

For a spectator at a race track, doing a lap chart can outline battles which you may not know were happening and chases which you had not previously appreciated.

Johnny Herbert has many ups-and-downs during his motor racing career. June saw him return to Formula 1 with Team Lotus, win the Le Mans 24 Hours for Mazda and celebrate his 27th birthday.

In the intense heat and humidity of a race like the recent Brazilian Grand Prix, drivers are working hard in extreme heat. They are encased in triple-layer nomex suits, balaclavas and full-face helmets. The body's reaction is to sweat. If, in the course of a race, fluid loss becomes too serious, drivers will pass out. It is only natural. Unconsciousness is the body's inbuilt protection mechanicism, yet when a driver does collapse everyone throws their hands up in horror. How can it happen?

For a decade Andrea de Cesaris has been fighting off a reputation he made as a youngster at McLaren. Today he is ninth in the World Championship and the Formula 1 circus is beginning to look differently on the Italian.

Over in France Gerard Ducarouge's switch from Larrousse to Ligier is big news but "The Duke" is not keen on talking to the press. However, we persuaded him to tell his story.

Frank Williams took a lot of risks when he decided to introduce the Williams-Renault FW14 this year. The car had a semi-automatic gearbox which had never been raced. If it failed he would have Renault breathing down his neck, demanding success. He would have his drivers screaming for reliable cars, but if it worked the FW14 would fly. It would be unbeatable.

Eddie Jordan is the darling of Formula 1. He knows it - and loves it - but behind the persuasive Irishman is a rock-steady Ulsterman, Jordan's technical director Gary Anderson.

Mark Blundell is Britain's newest Grand Prix driver. Silverstone will be his first British GP.

Michael Kranefuss oversees all Ford motor sport programmes in the world - and has to report back to the top management of the Ford Motor Company. It can be a very stressful job. Kranefuss spends a great deal of his time involved in Ford's Formula 1 project - a programme which is sometimes hard to justify.

Who is the most important person at a Grand Prix? Is it Bernie Ecclestone the paymaster? Is it a star in a car? Or the man with the chequebook at Marlboro? No. Some would say that it is the man from the EBU. The what?

The Canadian Grand Prix was a spectacular event, with an exciting and totally unexpected result. The race had been dominated from the start by Nigel Mansell in his rapid Williams-Renault FW14. Halfway round the final lap, as Nigel was waving to crowds -- delighted with his seemingly unstoppable victory -- his car died beneath him, trickling to a halt less than a mile from the chequered flag. It was bitter luck for Mansell.

You would think that driving for the best Formula 1 team in the world would be every Grand Prix driver's dream. But it isn't always like that. Sometimes the dream can be a nightmare, as Gerhard Berger has been finding out.

"Internal crisis is a normal thing at Ferrari. When the team wins there is a crisis of optimism. When that happens everything stops. That's what happened in the off-season."

Olivier Grouillard had an extraordinary weekend in Mexico City. He qualified 10th on the grid. It was the first time this year that the 32-year-old Toulousain has escaped from pre-qualifying.

Last September Sandro Nannini's Formula 1 career was cut short in a helicopter accident. His right hand was severed in the crash and sewn back on by micro-surgeons. Since then Sandro has been fighting to return to F1. Nannini returned to the F1 paddock for the first time in Imola. How is his right arm now?