Formula One Features — November 2001

It was the unfulfilled dream of Enzo Ferrari that his cars should add the Indianapolis 500 to the list of achievements on the Scuderia's roll of honor.

To a large degree British American Racing remained throughout 2001 a hostage to the philosophy behind its own foundation. Back in 1999 it seemed a novel concept to found an F1 primarily driven by promotional requirements rather than underlying engineering capability. But the sun has long since gone in on that approach and BAR has singularly failed to establish itself as anything more than a struggling midfield also-ran.

It was always going to be a difficult season for Benetton, in part because the team had been purchased by Renault prior to the first race and the whole year was of necessity a transitional period as the fullscale Renault F1 challenge built up momentum in preparation for 2002.

Major administrative changes were made following the end of previous season with Bobby Rahal now running team with help from former F1 champion Niki Lauda, now employed by Ford's Premier Automotive Group. The new car was powered by uprated Cosworth CR3, 72-degree V10 developing 790bhp powering R2 chassis originally penned by Gary Anderson before his departure, but now developed by technical team of Steve Nichols, John Russell and aerodynamicist Mark Handford. Eddie Irvine remained as team leader partnered by former F3 star Luciano Burti.

Back in the good old days of motor racing they used to have Grands Prix for all kinds of things. The opening of the Montlhery race track in 1924 was celebrated by with a Grand Prix de l'Ouverture and each year the Paris Automobile Salon boasted a Grand Prix du Salon. The tradition continued until after World War II when France's first autoroute opened at St. Cloud in 1946 and a race was held in celebration.

Tom Walkinshaw believes that his TWR Arrows empire has the stuff on which to build the foundations of F1 success. Yet Arrows has been promising much and delivering precious little over the past few seasons and, in that respect, 2001 was no exception. The team's Asiatech-engined machines shone occasionally thanks largely to ambitious and imaginative low-tank race strategies and to lead driver Jos Verstappen's unquenchable enthusiasm. Yet they failed to make any sort of sustainable performance breakthrough.

We are supposed to learn from history. Therefore when we are told that the sort of cyclical changes we've experienced in the past are henceforward consigned to those very same history books from which we are supposed to learn, then we have grounds for being cautious. Suspicious, even.

To my surprise and doubtless Mr. Ecclestone's dismay I went to a Formula 1 race on a Saturday night in November. No, the paddock wasn't a millimeter perfect array of motorhomes and gleaming pantechnicons, neither was it a dress rehearsal for a floodlit attempt to make the Malaysian Grand Prix interesting.

To receive a payout from F1's commercial rights pot, it's necessary to have finished the previous year's World Championship amongst the top ten of the eleven competing teams. Prost finished 2001 in ninth place with four Championship points scored, but whether the team can sustained itself through the off-season on its current lurid overdraft is anybody's guess.

One of the problems of writing technical articles about Formula 1, in fact THE problem, is that there is a lack of source information. The level of paranoia among the teams is at such a level that they spend considerable sums on making hi-tech covers for the cars to wear when they are being worked on in the garages, usually interfering with the work of the mechanics in the process.

Life in the F1 pit lane can so often be about little triumphs behind the scenes rather than high profile glory out on the circuit. With that in mind, it was a miracle is that any Minardis are on the starting grid at all this season.

Over the next few week Grandprix.com will be reviewing the 2001 FIA Formula One World Championship team by team. Today we start with a general overview.

Ford has been the most active company ever in global motorsport and in F1 for 34 years since the advent of the Ford-funded Cosworth DFV realigned the entire F1 technical landscape. Those unyielding facts should be born firmly in mind when one considers last week's departure of Jac Nasser from the role of Ford Chief Executive.

Paris was the cradle of motor racing and there are still plenty of signs of that fact if one looks around the French capital.