Formula One Features — October 2000

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...

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?

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

"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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.