The World of F1
The father of the sport is Bernie Ecclestone who was born in Ipswich, England in 1930. He quit school at the age of 16 to devote himself fully to his greatest passion: automobile racing. After several accidents, Bernie stopped competing in 1951 and opted instead to start a used car business, returning to the race track in 1957 as F1 team manager for Connaught.
In 1972, he bought the Brabham team, which earned Nelson Piquet the world championship in 1981 and 1983. Bernie Ecclestone owes his greatest success, however, to his control over Grand Prix media rights. In the 80's, he took on the financial risks as president of FOCA (Formula One Constructors Association). A risk that paid off, since media coverage has slowly but surely built up, drawing with it sponsors and substantial profit.
Still ever present at GP's throughout the world he commands the direction and advancement of the sport.
F1 is owned by CVC, a leading private equity firm in Europe and Asia. Donald Mackenzie is head of CVC Capital Partners & lead partner in the CVC group. He is a low profile, but now hugely influential Formula 1 figure. He has been intimately involved in framing the commercial structure of the new Concorde Agreement, the document that will govern how teams are paid from 2008-2012. CVC has experience of investing in motor sport and rights management, through its ownership of Dorna, the company that organises and manages the commercial rights of the FIM Road Racing World Championship Grand Prix (MotoGP), which was acquired by CVC in 1998. CVC is also a controlling shareholder of the Automobile Association in the UK.
F1's roots are in the UK where top teams such as McLaren Mercedes, Honda F1, RBS Williams Cosworth (Toyota in 07), Renault, Red Bull and Midland (Jordan) are based which says volumes about our technical expertise in the world of Motor Sport. Ferrari in Maranello (Italy) and Toyota in Cologne (Germany) are the only top teams not in the UK.
The UK has some of the most notable drivers including Sir Jackie Stewart, Sir John Surtees, Sir Stirling Moss, Jim Clark, Graham & Damon Hill, James Hunt and who can ever forget "Red 5" and Nigel Mansell. His epic tussles with the greatest driver of his era, Ayrton Senna are well documented.
Jenson Button won his first Grand Prix in Hungary in 2006 and we all hope his breakthrough into the circle of GP winners will see him go to the very top. In 2007 we welcome Lewis Hamilton into the McLaren fold as partner to Fernado Alonso. David Coulthard in the Red Bull is driving as well as ever and the new Adrian Newey designed Red Bull for 2007 along with his new partner Mark Webber are eagerly awaited by David and the team.
The 2006 season proved one of the most competitive in recent times with Fernando Alonso (current world champion) and Michael Schumacher (7 times world champion) fighting for top honors. The championship went down to the wire in Brazil but after a typical masterly final drive from Schumacher, Alonso took the honor's and moved himself into legend status after back to back championship success.
Most F1 drivers come up through Karting, onto lower formulae and onward to championships such as the current GP2 series. New talent is vital for the sport and nurtured by the top teams where only the very best make the grade. Nico Rosberg (son of the great Keke) won the inaugural GP2 championship and now drives for RBS Williams Cosworth and Lewis Hamilton has also made a name for himself in GP2.
The world of F1 is going from strength to strength with new countries vying to enter such as Turkey in 2005 and Bahrain in 2006. Australia goes back to its rightful place in 2007 as the season opener 18 March in Melbourne followed by 16 races ending in Brazil, 21 October. Our own race at Silverstone, the home of British Motor Sport returns to its more familiar July date for 2007.
Under new management F1 will continue to prosper and for we mere mortals watching on a Sunday afternoon long may it stay that way.
A tribute to Michael Schumacher
Michael Schumacher's retirement came in Brazil 2006 and he is probably the best known driver of the current era taking the mantle from the late, great Ayrton Senna. Born in Kerpen, Germany (3/01/69) he took his first F1 win at Spa Francochamps in 1991 with Benneton.
Since then across 250 races and 16 seasons he took the F1 crown on no less than 7 occasions. He has held every lap record, recorded the most wins (91), amassed the most points (1369), achieved most pole positions (68), the greatest number of podiums (154), the most fastest laps (76) and finished 190 times in the points. With Jean Todt he was also responsible for the revival of Ferrari and its beloved Tifosi.
Whilst some suggest Ferrari domination through the late 90's and early 20's made the sport boring perhaps one could also suggest others were just not good enough to beat them.
However, Schumacher had a dark side and he will always be remembered for occasions when he broke the spirit of competition and blotted his copybook big time. The accident with Damon Hill (Adelaide '94) lost him the championship giving it to Schumacher. Then came the same stunt on Jacques Villeneuve (Jerez '97), ironically the same result as the championship again went to Schumacher.
Then the incident at Monte Carlo in 2006. Having set the fastest time at a track where overtaking is impossible and grid position everything, Schumacher said he made a mistake that led to him stalling his Ferrari at the penultimate corner (Rascasse) partially blocking the track. It was no coincidence that his main rival, Fernando Alonso, was halfway through his last lap and the split times showed the Renault driver to be 0.3 seconds faster.
Alonso was forced to back off at the scene of the incident and judging by his thunderous look half an hour later, a place on the front row alongside Schumacher was inadequate compensation. His team boss, Flavio Briatore, was less reticent, referring to the error as being 'Fuxxing disgusting! How can a seven-times world champion make a simple mistake like that? Of course it wasn't a mistake!'
The evidence against Schumacher was damning. Sir Jackie Stewart, a three-time winner at Monaco said he had carefully studied the replay. 'My immediate reaction was that it had been too obvious. I said straight away: That's not an accident". Then, when you saw the replay, you could see he turned in [to the corner], he turned out - there was plenty of time to sort things out. I have to believe it was a piece of very agile mental management in the sense that I've never seen anyone having the presence of mind to do that. He was fully aware, I'm sure, that Alonso was on a quick lap and there were only seconds remaining.'
Schumacher's line into the corner - the first-gear right-hander at Rascasse - had been unconventional and he did not appear to be on a faster lap than his previous best. He locked his right-front brake briefly, which was unusual considering he had not been driving on the limit, and then appeared to straighten the steering and head for the barrier on the outside of the corner - but didn't actually hit it before coming to a halt.
'If he had taken the front wing off, it might have looked better,' said Stewart about Schumacher's clumsy attempt to fake the accident. 'I don't think it reflects well on Michael. It's not what you expect from the best racing driver in the world.'
Keke Rosberg, the 1982 world champion, referred to yesterday's incident as 'the cheapest, dirtiest thing I have ever seen in Formula One. He should leave F1 and go home.'
Michael Schumacher's credibility as a worthy champion and example to young drivers came under question and not for the first time in his career. What a petty after such a remarkable F1 career that one of its greats, if not the greatest will be remembered for the bad and not the good.
