Formula One Features — May 2001

Mark Webber did it all right at Monaco - even if he did total a car in qualifying. The accident came after he had taken pole position for the big Formula 3000 event of the year. In the race Webber was in total control and so became the first Australian to win on the streets of Monte Carlo since Dave Walker won the Formula 3 Grand Prix in 1971.

Carbon Fibre Technologies (CFT) Ltd. is one of those companies that make up the backbone of the British motorsport industry.

They have identical engines, but the fortunes of Sauber and Prost in 2001 could scarcely be more different. One has been the talk of F1 after its best-ever performances, the other's pre-season hopes have been dashed by feeble efforts. So why is one doing so well and the other so badly?

This coming weekend sees what could be a seminal moment in the history of British domestic motorsport as the Rockingham Speedway opens its doors officially with Nigel Mansell demonstrating a Champcar - albeit at reduced speed - as part of the promotional razzmatazz surrounding the event.

When Renault announced they were returning to Formula 1, they declared that they were planning a radical approach to the design of their 3-liter V10 engine. That engine is now running in the Benetton, giving everyone involved a headache, and there has been much speculation about which radical technologies are incorporated. Renault admit that the V-angle is unusually wide at 110 degrees, in order to lower the center of mass of the engine, and there have been rumors that both direct fuel injection (GDI) and electromagnetic valve actuation (LVA) are used.

The rise to full competitiveness of BMW Williams has been one of the talking points of the 2001 season. But what does technical director Patrick Head feel about the team's new dawn?

The Formula 3000 series has been struggling a lot this year and the first signs of that came in Austria where Kid Jensen Racing (the entry having been taken over from the British team by Monaco Motorsport) failed to appear, reducing the entry to just 12 teams. The need for better performance had led to the disappearance of Indonesia's Ananda Mikola from Team Astromega and his replacement by Dino Morelli, an Ulsterman with an Italian name.

Today he can walk through an F1 paddock and very few will recognize him. Indeed, in San Marino recently it was son Derek who made the headlines after a spectacular accident in the F3000 race. But none of that bothers Philip Toth Hill as he enters his 75th year. The first American ever to wear the World Championship crown remains what he has always been, an immensely likeable, laconic man relaxed in his own company and devoid of any need to aggrandize himself.

Everbody would like the immensely popular Mika Hakkinen still to be in with a chance of winning his third World Championship title this season, but I fear his chances went up in smoke - literally - when his McLaren-Mercedes suffered clutch failure on the last lap of the Spanish Grand Prix.

Juan Pablo Montoya has said he wouldn't do it, and Ralf Schumacher says that it would be less fun. Nobody, it seems, wants to be Michael Schumacher's team mate as Ferrari puts feelers out for a new man to step into Rubens Barrichello's shoes. Although the team has publicly stood by its second driver, insiders have pointed to disharmony as Barrichello chafes at the non-appearance of the ?equal number one' status he feels contractually entitled to, and that contract ends at this season.

When you close your eyes, Michele Alboreto told himself when he carved out a career as a sportscar driver, you can almost believe that you are still driving in Formula One. Though his friends Gerhard Berger and Riccardo Patrese pleaded with him to stop driving, Michele enjoyed it just too much. These are some of the memories left by one of the great characters taken by the sport following an accident his Audi sustained during a test session at the Lausitzring.