F1 Features

by Andy Stobart Just a couple of days before the start to the 2004 Formula One season, Renault driver Jarno Trulli was down the road from Melbourne at Geelong Kart Club enjoying some laps with the circuit to himself in a kart bearing his own name.

Mark Twain once claimed that reports of his demise had been exaggerated, after a premature obituary appeared in the press, and team boss Eddie Jordan was mindful of the quote as he unveiled his latest Formula One contender yesterday.

With the Renault F1 Team having completed the raw carbon monocoque for the R24 (see previous stories), the time has come to make the final transformation and apply the full race livery.

WilliamsF1's FW26 created a stir when it was unveiled at Valencia's Circuit Ricardo Tormo on Monday, but some Formula One insiders believe that its radical-looking front end treatment may not be as big a step forward as the team may want its rivals to believe.

Formula One this season was pretty darn good, wasn't it? Eight different winners, the championship battle went down to the wire and, prior to the US GP - the penultimate race of the season, three drivers were still in with a shot of securing the 2003 F1 drivers' championship.

The final stage in producing Renault's next Formula One car has arrived, as the team prepares to assemble the chassis. It is often called a monocoque, but that is one of the most common misnomers in F1, as the 'monocoque': not quite what it seems.

It was 9.30 am yesterday [Thursday] when the Piaggio P180, the Piaggio plane that bears the Prancing Horse symbol, touched down at Baccarini airport in Grosseto.

In order to streamline the future stages of the 2004 race car build process, and optimise the reliability of the R24, a full-scale chassis is already being replicated at Renault F1's factory in Enstone.

Having already gone through the build-up to the mould-making process (see previous feature), Renault F1's new car, the R24, is well on the way to seeing its first monocoque come to life.

The innovative F1 Scholarship - designed to take a driver all the way to contemporary Formula One competition on talent alone - has today released further details on their unique competition.

Less than two weeks after the final race of the 2003 season, the production of a key element of the new Renault Formula One chassis is well underway.

Driver: Michael Schumacher (Ferrari). TV unilaterals:

Drivers: Jenson Button (BAR-Honda), Heinz-Harald Frentzen (Sauber), Kimi Raikkonen (McLaren) and Michael Schumacher (Ferrari). Questions from the floor.

If you talk to senior Bridgestone engineer Kees van de Grint, a Dutch engineer who has come to Formula One through years of karting, it takes a while before he starts to talk about those round black things.

West McLaren-Mercedes driver Kimi Raikkonen describes a lap of Indianapolis - site of this weekend's US Grand Prix:

BAR-Honda driver Jacques Villeneuve describes a lap of Indianapolis - site of next weekend's US Grand Prix:

With each F1 team travelling about 100,000 miles in a year, which is equivalent to four times around the globe, with tons of kit and hundreds of people it's a bit of a big job keeping everything in check. Sauber's been looking into everything involved...

Drivers: Michael Schumacher (Ferrari), Juan Pablo Montoya (Williams), Rubens Barrichello (Ferrari) TV unilaterals Q: Michael, that is your fifth pole of the year, but your first since Austria in May. Welcome back.

Michael Schumacher:

Have you ever dreamt of riding in a Formula One car? Well, now might be your chance now that Bridgestone Europe have once again teamed up with European Minardi Cosworth to offer another lucky website reader the opportunity to do exactly that.

BAR-Honda driver Jacques Villeneuve describes a lap of Monza - site of this weekend's Italian Grand Prix:

In a hi-tech sport where just one tenth of a second can make the difference between popping corks on the podium and packing up early, F1 teams are constantly reassessing and evolving their car, knowing that the smallest change can make a massive difference on track.

Team Principals: Ove Andersson (Toyota), Eddie Jordan (Jordan), Tony Purnell (Jaguar) and David Richards (BAR). Questions from the floor:

Dieter Gundel - as his name would suggest, Ferrari's electronics and control software engineer is another of the growing band of key international figures that have made the legendary Italian team so successful in recent years.