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enzoferrari

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5come5帮你背单词 [ complicate /'komplikeit/ vt. 使复杂化，使混乱，使难懂 ]

Mario Andretti

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World Championships	1
Grand Prix Starts	129
Grand Prix Wins	12
Pole Positions	18
Nationality	American

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(1 / 3) - Watkins Glen, October 1968: Andretti caused a sensation when he took pole position on his Formula One debut in the Lotus 49B at the United States Grand Prix. He retired from the race but was offered a full-time drive with the team. © Sutton

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(2 / 3) - Long Beach, April 1977: Andretti celebrates a popular home win. It was one of four victories that season at the wheel of the revolutionary Lotus 78, giving him third place in the drivers’ championship. © Sutton

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(3 / 3) - Monte Carlo, May 1979: Andretti enjoyed limited success as reigning champion. Three outings in the ill-fated Lotus 80 saw two retirements, including here in Monaco, and a third place in Spain, his only podium appearance of the year. © Schlegelmilch

History
Mario Andretti personified the American Dream, an immigrant who came to the land of the free and the home of the brave and achieved considerable fame and fortune. He did so in a job he would have done in anonymity and for nothing. Few drivers loved their racing more, and few suited stardom as much as the congenial man whose unforced charm was as natural as the talent that brought him so much success in so many types of racing. His insistence on racing in his adopted homeland meant he came late to realising his boyhood ambition of becoming Formula One World Champion.

After it became his way of life he always said he was born to race, yet the circumstances in his formative years forced Mario Andretti to take an exceedingly circuitous route to get where he wanted to go. Mario and his twin brother Aldo were born on February 20, 1940, with World War II raging all around their birthplace of Montona, a town near the Italian port city of Trieste. The brothers' first seven years were spent in a camp for displaced persons, where the Andretti family endured exceedingly crowded conditions and severe food shortages. When the war ended and their part of Italy was handed over to the Communists and became part of what was then Yugoslavia, the Andrettis moved to Lucca, where young Mario first became aware of the sport that was to become his all-consuming passion.

With his brother he cycled from home to watch in wonder that portion near Lucca of the famous Mille Miglia road race that sent sports cars hurtling a thousand miles through the Italian landscape. But what really captured Mario's imagination was a visit to the 1954 Italian Grand Prix at Monza, where he was transfixed by the sights and sounds of the exotic Lancia, Maserati and Ferrari Formula One cars and held spellbound by the heroic exploits of such drivers as Juan Manuel Fangio and Alberto Ascari. It was the latter who became Mario's idol and though he was distraught when Italy's great champion was killed at Monza in 1955, Ascari remained his inspiration and role model.

In the same year as Ascari's death the Andretti family emigrated to America in search of a better way of life. For the boys this meant seeking ways to become involved in motorsport, which around their new home town of Nazareth, Pennsylvania, mainly took the form of relatively unsophisticated machinery competing on dangerous dirt track ovals. Mario and Aldo were 18 when they began racing, at the wheel of a self-prepared Hudson Hornet they shared in stock car events. In one of these, in 1959, Aldo crashed and was seriously injured and never raced again. But Mario raced on and on – often several times a week, sometimes as many as five races a day, and with increasing success. All around Middle America he tore up the dirt tracks, in jalopies, sprint cars and midgets, revelling in the sensations of pitching his machine sideways at 120mph, holding it in a controlled four-wheel drift and spewing dirt in the faces of opponents. Though he remained a resolutely fair and honourable racer, in this dog-eat-dog environment where no quarter was asked or given the normally easy-going Andretti transformed himself into an aggressive intimidator on a par with the legendary AJ Foyt, with whom he became a household name in American racing circles. Having made his mark on the short ovals, Andretti then conquered the giant speedways, winning the famed Indianapolis 500 and several times becoming the United States Auto Club (USAC) champion. His versatility extended to success in as many forms of racing as he could find in America (he won the Daytona 500 for stock cars and the Sebring 12 Hours for sportscars), yet there remained a longing for his first love: Formula One racing

At Indianapolis in 1965 (where he finished third in a race won by Jim Clark in a Lotus) Andretti was promised a future Formula One drive by Lotus boss Colin Chapman. In 1968 Andretti made a sensational Formula One debut, qualifying his Lotus 49 on pole position for the US Grand Prix at Watkins Glen. Chapman was then prepared to offer him a full-time drive (to replace Clark who was killed earlier that year) but Andretti was unwilling to abandon the security of his by then very lucrative career in America and would only agree to those occasional Formula One outings that his USAC commitments allowed. Over the next few years his Formula One appearances (in uncompetitive Lotus, March and Parnelli cars) were sporadic and inconclusive, with the notable exception of 1971, when he signed with Ferrari for a campaign in both sportscars (in which he won several races with co-driver Jacky Ickx) and Formula One, where he promptly won the season's first Grand Prix, in South Africa. There followed a lean period in his USAC career that in 1976 prompted Andretti to finally concentrate on Formula One racing, though at the time his decision to join a then faltering Team Lotus seemed a route unlikely to lead to Grand Prix glory.

The relationship between Andretti and Lotus boss Chapman was volatile (they had fiery arguments) but they eventually developed a rapport similar to the Chapman-Clark partnership that had proved so productive in the past. Though Andretti found Chapman's twitchy and unpredictable Lotus 77 frightening to drive, he managed to score a momentous victory in the final race of 1976, the Japanese Grand Prix at Fuji. This first win in five years for Lotus inspired Chapman to greater effort on the drawing board and in his pioneering 1977 creation, the Lotus 78 ground effect car that Andretti helped develop, the Italian-American won four races. In 1978, with six victories, five of them in the innovative Lotus 79, Mario Andretti became World Champion.

Thereafter, Chapman lost his way and his cars were off the pace, and after two unproductive seasons Andretti moved to Alfa Romeo, only to endure two more lost years, following which he left Formula One racing to concentrate again on racing in America. Yet the lure of his first love remained and Andretti couldn't resist when Enzo Ferrari asked him to make a final guest appearance in the 1982 Italian Grand Prix at Monza. There, at the circuit where he first caught Formula One fever as an impressionable teenager, the 42-year-old Andretti qualified the Ferrari 126 Turbo on pole and finished an impressive third.

Text - Gerald Donaldson

Posted: 2007-12-26 18:43 | [15 楼]

enzoferrari

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5come5帮你背单词 [ its /its/ pron. 它的 ]

Jody Scheckter

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World Championships	1
Grand Prix Starts	113
Grand Prix Wins	10
Pole Positions	15
Nationality	South African

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(1 / 3) - Silverstone, July 1973: Jody Scheckter would cause one of the biggest accidents in Formula One history after a mistake at Woodcote corner. It caused the race to be stopped, with eight cars failing to take the restart. © Sutton

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(2 / 3) - Hockenheim, July 1977: Jody Scheckter’s move to the new Wolf team brought them victory in their very first race. Here, at the German Grand Prix, he qualified on pole position and finished second in the race. © Schlegelmilch

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(3 / 3) - Monte Carlo, May 1979: Having started from pole position, Jody Scheckter steers his Ferrari 312T4 to victory in the Monaco Grand Prix, for his second win of the season. © Schlegelmilch

History
He exploded on the scene as an erratic, crash-prone wild man whose desperate deeds of derring-do put himself and his peers in great danger. Jody Scheckter became infamous for causing one of the biggest accidents in Formula One history, after which there were demands that he should be banned from the sport. Instead, he straightened himself out and concentrated his considerable talent and ambition on becoming World Champion. Having achieved his goal (with Ferrari, whose next champion would be 21 years in the future), he quickly retired.

Jody Scheckter was born on January 29, 1950, in East London, South Africa, where his father owned a Renault dealership. Jody worked there as an engineering apprentice and learned to drive when he was quite young, but only knew one speed: flat-out. This attitude naturally led him to try racing, at first on motorcycles and then in saloon cars. In his first national race he was black-flagged off the circuit for dangerous driving. Eventually he learned to temper his aggression with enough skill to become a regular winner. In 1970 he won the South African Formula Ford series and with it the Driver To Europe scholarship. With his prize - 300 pounds cash and air tickets to England for himself and his wife Pam - Jody set out to become the best driver in the world. That was always his goal but the route he took to achieving it was at first strewn with wreckage and many wondered if he would survive.

In England the 'South African Wild Man' quickly made a name for himself as both a spinner and a winner in the Formula Ford and Formula Three machinery he threw around fearlessly yet crashed with alarming frequency. His rugged features and pugnacious personality seemed to match his headstrong driving. With woolly hair and trademark frown he spoke bluntly and had a fierce temper. Yet his speed was undeniable and his car control, whenever he was able to maintain it, could be brilliant. Far-sighted talent-spotters thought the diamond-in-the-rough of a driver only needed polishing to become a Formula One force to be reckoned with. McLaren gave him a trial run in the 1972 US Grand Prix, then contracted him for occasional rides in a third car in the 1973 season.

In the French Grand Prix Jody immediately impressed by taking the lead at the start. Then came a collision with Emerson Fittipaldi's Lotus, which sent the Scheckter McLaren somersaulting off the circuit and the reigning World Champion into a towering rage. This madman, fumed Fittipaldi, is a menace to himself and everybody else and does not belong in F1. The anti-Scheckter movement gained considerable momentum in his next race, the British Grand Prix at Silverstone. Jody had qualified sixth and was fourth on the opening lap when the crowded field of 28 cars converged on the 150 mile an hour Woodcote corner. The Scheckter McLaren went out of control and spun wildly through the middle of the pack before thumping hard into the cement wall in front of the Silverstone pits. As Jody clambered out of the smoking wreckage, completely unhurt, the chaos he had caused continued for some time. Great clouds of smoke and dust obscured the details but there were glimpses of cars flying through the air and bits of wreckage rained down over a considerable area. Mercifully, the only injury was a broken leg suffered by the Surtees driver Andrea de Adamich, but eight cars had been totally destroyed and Jody Scheckter was held responsible for causing the most massive Formula One accident of all time. The Grand Prix Drivers Association's demand for his immediate banishment was put off when McLaren agreed to "rest" its rash rookie.

When he returned, for the Canadian Grand Prix at Mosport Jody immediately collided with Francois Cevert's Tyrrell, putting them both out of the race. Nevertheless, following this contretemps Ken Tyrrell signed Scheckter to replace the retiring Jackie Stewart and become Cevert's team mate for 1974. Sadly, this partnership would never be, as Cevert was killed in a horrible accident during practice for the next race, the US Grand Prix at Watkins Glen. Jody Scheckter was the first driver on the scene and what he saw that day had a profound effect on the rest of his racing life. In fact, Jody said, "From then on all I was trying to do in Formula One was save my life."

Ken Tyrrell helped him iron out the kinks that remained in his racing repertoire, insisting he must stop making mistakes and concentrate on finishing races. With his aggression, and his Tyrrell, under more control Jody won two Grands Prix in 1974 and finished third in the standings. He stayed with Tyrrell for another two seasons, winning a race each year, but felt that Ken Tyrrell's machinery was not up to the task of winning the championship he so craved. He switched to the new Wolf Team in 1977 and won three races but then, after finishing second overall to Ferrari's Niki Lauda, Jody decided the Italian cars were the way to go and Enzo Ferrari happily hired him. "He is a fighter who does not burn himself up by coming on too strongly at the beginning," Enzo said of the mature version of Jody Scheckter, "but measures himself fully and evenly throughout a race."

Enzo's 1978 cars were not of championship calibre but it all came together the next year when, with the legendary Gilles Villeneuve as his team mate, Jody achieved his ambition. Jody and Gilles became close friends and thrived in a good-natured rivalry that produced three race wins apiece. The South African countered the French Canadian's superior all-out speed with a more conservative points-collecting strategy that paid off and made him the 1979 World Champion.

"This Scheckter," Enzo Ferrari said, "has shown himself to be a wise co-ordinator of his own capabilities and potential, a man who plans things with the final result in mind, or for safety. I'm not sure."

In Jody's mind he had achieved the only result that mattered. He coasted through the 1980 season with Ferrari to fulfil his contractual obligations then retired at the age of 30. Already rich from racing, he became even wealthier as an astute businessman in fields far removed from Formula One racing. In America he founded a high tech security company then sold it and took time out to shepherd the racing careers of his sons Tomas and Toby before embarking on an organic farming enterprise in England.

Text - Gerald Donaldson

Posted: 2007-12-26 18:47 | [16 楼]

enzoferrari

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∷ 等级: 工作组(版/荣)

∷ 家族: F1 Paddock

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5come5帮你背单词 [ zeal /zi:l/ n. 热心，热情 ]

Alan Jones

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World Championships	1
Grand Prix Starts	116
Grand Prix Wins	12
Pole Positions	5
Nationality	Australian

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(1 / 3) - Zolder, May 1976: Jones switched to the Surtees team for the 1976 season. His first of three point-scoring results that year was a fifth place in the Belgian Grand Prix. © Sutton

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(2 / 3) - Zolder, May 1980: Pole sitter and second place finisher Alan Jones talks with his team boss Frank Williams at the Belgian Grand Prix. © Sutton

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(3 / 3) - Brands Hatch, October 1985: Jones made a full-time Formula One comeback in 1985 with the new Beatrice Lola team. His best finish for them came the following season, his final year in the sport, with a fourth place in Austria. © Sutton

History
A straight-talking, iron-willed, hard-driving tough guy, Alan Jones fought his way to the forefront, where he defended his territory with ruthless determination and large doses of intimidation. His belligerence was partly a by-product of a long and hard struggle to make it to Formula One racing in the first place. Once there, he was considered little more than a journeyman driver, until he teamed up with the then equally undistinguished Williams team. Together, they took on the world and beat it, with AJ becoming the prototypical Williams driver.

His father Stan Jones, an affluent car dealer, was one of Australia's top racers who in the mid-1950s was good enough to be offered tryouts in Europe (with BRM and Ferrari) but declined them in order to stay home and look after his business and his family. Alan Stanley Jones, born in Melbourne on November 2, 1946, was inspired by his father's successes and encouraged by him to have a go himself. At 15 he was a kart racing champion and soon also went well in a Mini and in one of his father's single-seater Coopers. Further progress was delayed when Stan Jones went bankrupt in an Australian economic recession. In 1967 Alan managed to scrape together enough cash to finance a traditional Australian tour of England and Europe. During this trip he decided that any future in motorsport would have to be pursued abroad.

In 1970, with 50 pounds in his pocket, he arrived in London and started a business to serve the needs of fellow Antipodean travellers, selling them well-used minivans. When Alan's girlfriend Bev (whom he later married) joined him in London they rented a boarding house and hired out rooms. With the meagre profits from these enterprises Alan went racing on a shoestring budget. Stan Jones, now divorced, came over to England to provide moral support, much-needed in light of his son's painfully slow progress. Alan failed to make much headway in a battered old Formula Ford then crashed a Formula Three Lotus at Brands Hatch and broke his leg. Finally, a lucky break came in the form of a sponsored F3 ride in a GRD, in which Alan scored a first victory at Silverstone in 1973. Sadly, just before this race Stan Jones died of a heart attack (at 51) and when his coffin was shipped back to Australia it contained the laurel wreath placed there by his distraught son who went on to finish second in the 1973 British F3 championship.

The next year Alan did well enough in Formula Atlantic for a private entrant to upgrade him to Formula One in a Hesketh for 1975. He finished that season with Graham Hill's team, scoring a solid fifth at the Nurburgring that convinced John Surtees to employ him for 1976. They didn't get along, nor did the Surtees cars go well and Alan's Formula One career seemed at least stalled, if not over, until a tragedy gave him another opportunity.

In the 1977 South African Grand Prix poor Tom Pryce was killed in a Shadow and the team hired Jones to replace him. Later that season a plucky drive in wet/dry conditions in Austria resulted in a maiden win for both Jones and Shadow. The team never won again but Alan's albeit somewhat fortuitous victory led to an offer of a Ferrari drive for 1978. When Ferrari reneged, and hired Gilles Villeneuve instead, Jones visited Williams Grand Prix Engineering, which to this point had gone relatively nowhere with a shortage of funds and a succession of journeyman drivers. But Jones was impressed by Frank Williams' ambition and by Patrick Head's neat and tidy Williams FW06 car and the team principals liked what they saw in 'AJ' as they called him. A deal was done and steady progress was made, with AJ winning four races and finishing third in the 1979 championship.

In 1980 the Williams FW07B and AJ was the combination to beat and, with victories in Argentina, France, Britain, Canada and the USA Alan Jones became World Champion. For the elated team boss his first title-winner became the prototypical Williams driver. "AJ was a man's man," Frank Williams said. "And he was great fun to be with. He never needed propping up mentally, because he was a very determined and bullish character. He didn't need any babysitting or hand-holding and that's the way it should be. It shouldn't be necessary for me to ask a driver if he is happy, or if he needs his underwear changed."

He wore red underpants for good luck but the blunt, burly and brave Aussie won races not by good fortune but by forceful fighting. Patrick Head admired the fact that he was "such a hard, competitive, animal in a racing car," and so he could be out of it. He once finished second in a race despite having to drive with a hand broken in a one-sided brawl with four large adversaries in London. Alain Prost, a rookie in AJ's championship year, called Jones "the most fiery, powerful - even violent - driver."

As a boy AJ described himself as "an obnoxious little bastard, a big-headed little prick." As an adult the rough edges remained and he was determinedly politically incorrect. Distrustful of foreigners, he called the French "frogs." Vehemently opposed to the women's liberation movement, he admitted that he easily qualified as a male chauvinist pig.

His season as reigning champion was waylaid by a series of mechanical problems, and though he still managed two wins and finished third in the standings, AJ decided to pack it all in and return to the "best country in the world" and become a farmer. But riding a tractor proved no substitute for racing a Formula One car and he soon became bored. Even falling off a horse and breaking his thigh proved to be no handicap to accepting an offer for a one-off ride with Arrows in the 1983 US Grand Prix West. However, his injury coupled with his being out of shape ("too many barbies and Fosters Lager") meant AJ performed indifferently. A more substantial comeback opportunity came in 1985, when he accepted a big money offer to join a new Beatrice Formula One entry. But the team started slowly, then tapered off and disappeared completely at the end of 1986.

Back home Down Under AJ raced saloon cars, helped his son Christian embark on a driving career and worked as a TV commentator on the sport in which he was once on top of the world.

Text - Gerald Donaldson

Posted: 2007-12-26 18:52 | [17 楼]

enzoferrari

∷ 性别:

∷ 状态:

∷ 头衔: 明年F1上海站我会在现场吗？

∷ 等级: 工作组(版/荣)

∷ 家族: F1 Paddock

∷ 发贴: 10226

∷ 威望: 6

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5come5帮你背单词 [ income /'inkΛm/ n. 收入，收益，所得 ]

Keke Rosberg

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World Championships	1
Grand Prix Starts	128
Grand Prix Wins	5
Pole Positions	5
Nationality	Finnish

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(1 / 3) - Monte Carlo, May 1982: In his first season with Williams - Keke Rosberg explains his retirement from the Monaco Grand Prix after sliding into the barriers as rain began to fall late in the race. © Schlegelmilch

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(2 / 3) - Paul Ricard, April 1983: With turbocharging becoming prevalent in Formula One racing, Keke Rosberg’s fifth place was the best result for a normally-aspirated car in the French Grand Prix. © Sutton

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(3 / 3) - Monte Carlo, May 1986: Keke Rosberg on the way to the final podium of his Formula One career. He finished second in the Monaco Grand Prix, following team mate Alain Prost home for a McLaren one-two. © Sutton

History
The original Flying Finn was a swaggering swashbuckler whose dashing, daring, darting style of driving enlivened every race he was in. He was a late arrival in Formula One racing, having wheeled and dealed and raced his way around the world in other categories for a dozen years, but tried harder than ever to make up for lost time. In the record books his name is not near the top in terms of Grand Prix victories, yet in that select category of those who actually looked as fast as they drove the wonderfully aggressive Keke Rosberg ranks among the very highest.

Keijo Erik Rosberg - he later called himself Keke to make it easier for the media to remember his name - was born in Stockholm, Sweden, on December 6, 1948, where his Finnish parents were students at the time. On their return to Finland his father became a veterinarian and his mother a chemist and both competed in rallies. Their son's first experience behind the wheel came when little Keijo, sitting alone in the family car in the driveway, switched on the ignition and promptly smashed the car into the garage door. Despite that setback he took to karts while still a toddler, greatly enjoyed the wind-in-the-face thrill of it all and by his teens had become an accomplished kart racer.

His goal in life was to become a dentist or a computer programmer but his career path increasingly veered in motorsport directions. Five times he was declared Finnish kart champion and in 1973 he became Scandinavian and European champion. He moved up to Formula Vee and Super Vee and in 1975 won ten of the 21 races he entered. To find other categories to conquer he had to go further and further afield. In 1978 he competed in 41 races on 36 weekends on five continents. Driving for the American entrant Fred Opert, he finished fifth in the European Formula Two championship, second in the North American Formula Atlantic series and, in a similar car, first in the Formula Pacific series.

By this time all plans for a more conservative profession were abandoned and Keke Rosberg's passport listed his job as racing driver. This was a quite legitimate claim since, from his very first race he had never spent any of his own money on his sport and in most years he actually showed a profit. To facilitate this Keke developed what he called his "bread and butter theory: the bread from racing, the butter from elsewhere." Elsewhere usually took the form of marketing himself to sponsors, selling them a patch on his suit or a space on his car, then performing various duties as a salesman for whatever goods or services he endorsed.

Yet no amount of financial savvy could buy a driver a ride in a front-running Formula One car and when Keke made his debut, in 1978, it was in an ill-handling and underpowered Theodore, in a team fielded by wealthy Hong Kong businessman Teddy Yip. "An absolute pig of a car" was Keke's description of the Theodore and his subsequent machinery in a succession of uncompetitive teams - ATS, Wolf, Fittipaldi - warranted similarly faint praise, no matter how hard he drove.

By this time Keke was 33 years old and while his lifestyle was continually improving (he eventually had a Lear jet, a penthouse in Munich, a country mansion in England, a chalet in Austria and a villa on Ibiza where he spent most of his time) his Formula One career was going nowhere fast. The low point came in 1981 when the Fittipaldi team's money ran out and it seemed Keke Rosberg was destined to become a Formula One has-been who never really was.

Meanwhile, at the front of the Formula One field, the 1980 champion Alan Jones unexpectedly announced his retirement and Frank Williams was forced, at the last minute, to hire the only reasonably competent driver available: Keke Rosberg. Ever the opportunist Keke seized the opportunity with both hands and, though he only won a single Grand Prix (at Dijon in France), he proved he could drive as consistently as he could quickly and piled up enough points to become the 1982 World Champion.

That year, in which any one of half a dozen drivers could have won the title, Keke said he "drove every lap absolutely flat out." The next year, when the turbo-powered cars reigned supreme, and he still only had a normally aspirated Cosworth in his Williams, Keke drove even harder: "I was probably the fastest I'd ever been in my career. I just refused to accept that anybody could beat me and to stay with the turbos I was prepared to take massive risks."

And it showed, which is why he was so noteworthy as a driver and equally compelling as a personality. "I'm a cocky bastard," he would say, "and I know it." He affected an aura of bravado and cut a dashing figure to match. With his flowing moustache, untamed mane of long blond hair and swaggering walk he resembled a swashbuckling pirate who might plunder and pillage for pleasure. He used his car like a sword, swinging it about ferociously, cutting a swathe through the corners, kicking up dust, grass and tyre smoke and carving great chunks of time out of each circuit. The chain-smoking Flying Finn was even more spectacular when Williams got Honda turbo engines. His sensational pole lap for the 1985 British Grand Prix – in which he averaged 160mph around Silverstone - was not only then the fastest-ever lap in Formula One history, but also one of the most exciting.

But Keke scared himself on that occasion and eventually burnt himself out from the wear and tear of his all-out-all-the-time approach that was not conducive to longevity in comparison to the greater circumspection employed by such long-serving champions as Niki Lauda and Alain Prost. "My style of driving is probably more wearing than theirs," Keke said. "Playing defensive tennis is less taxing than playing attacking tennis."

When he retired from Formula One racing, after moving from Williams to McLaren for the 1986 season, Keke continued competing for several years in sportscars (with Peugeot in 1990 and 1991) and touring cars (with Mercedes and Opel in the German DTM series) and also ran his own teams in several categories. He became a successful driver manager, masterminding the careers of, among others, fellow Finn and champion Mika Hakkinen and then, with a paternal interest in his future, Keke looked after a youngster named Nico Rosberg.

Text - Gerald Donaldson

Posted: 2007-12-26 18:57 | [18 楼]

enzoferrari

∷ 性别:

∷ 状态:

∷ 头衔: 明年F1上海站我会在现场吗？

∷ 等级: 工作组(版/荣)

∷ 家族: F1 Paddock

∷ 发贴: 10226

∷ 威望: 6

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5come5帮你背单词 [ shaft /∫a:ft/ n. 杆状物，轴，轴心 ]

Niki Lauda

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World Championships	3
Grand Prix Starts	173
Grand Prix Wins	25
Pole Positions	24
Nationality	Austrian

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(1 / 3) - Monte Carlo, May 1972: Niki Lauda started his Formula One career with March. He is pictured here on his way to 16th place in the Monaco Grand Prix. © Schlegelmilch

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(2 / 3) - Jarama, April 1974: A move to Ferrari for the 1974 season finally brought Niki Lauda Formula One success. His maiden victory came at the Spanish Grand Prix, where he also took pole position and fastest lap. © Schlegelmilch

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(3 / 3) - Monte Carlo, May 1983: Lauda’s second season with McLaren was full of disappointment. At the Monaco Grand Prix both he and team mate John Watson failed to qualify. © Schlegelmilch

History
He bought his way into Formula One racing and very nearly paid for it with his life. Given up for dead after an appalling accident he recovered by what the medical profession called sheer force of will. His astonishingly quick return to the cockpit was called the most courageous comeback in sporting history. After winning two championships he got bored and left the sport, only to return again and win another. During his remarkable career he was called both a hero and a villain. The battle-scarred champion who defied both the odds and convention remains a living legend.

On February 22, 1949, Nicholas Andreas Lauda was born in Vienna into a prominent Austrian business and banking dynasty. Paper manufacturing was how Niki's father made his fortune, though none of it would be made available for a contrary son who would surely bring the respected Lauda name into disrepute by playing at being a racing driver. To further educate himself in this field Niki forsook university and enrolled himself in racing's school of hard knocks, paying for it with money borrowed from Austrian banks. Starting in a Mini in 1968, he crashed his way through Formula Vee and Formula Three and in 1972 he bought his way into the March Formula Two and Formula One teams with another bank loan secured by his life insurance policy. The uncompetitive Marches meant Niki was unable to prove his worth as a driver, let alone stave off pending bankruptcy. With no qualifications in any other line of work he had no choice but to keep on racing.

For 1973 he talked his way into a complicated rent-a-ride deal with BRM. During that season his ever-improving results paid dividends in the form of a new contract that would forgive his debts in exchange for Niki staying with BRM for a further two years. Instead, he bought his way out of BRM with money from his new employer Enzo Ferrari, for whom he went to work in 1974.

Ferrari, who hadn't had a champion since John Surtees in 1964, was impressed by the skinny, buck-toothed Austrian's self-confidence and no-nonsense work ethic, though rather taken aback by his brutal honesty. After his first test in the 1974 Ferrari 312 Niki informed Enzo that the car was "a piece of shit," but promised him he could make it raceworthy. Now in the spotlight as a possible Ferrari saviour, the media noted Lauda's cool, calculating clinical approach and nicknamed him 'The Computer.' However, The Computer's driving still had some glitches and he made several costly errors in 1974. Niki said that learning from mistakes was the fastest way to improve, corroborating this theory with a first Formula One victory in Spain, then another in Holland.

In his 1975 Ferrari 312/T Niki stormed to victories in Monaco, Belgium, Sweden, France and the USA to become World Champion. All of Italy rejoiced at Ferrari's first driving title in over a decade, though the glory meant little to the unsentimental new hero. Claiming that his mounting collection of "useless" trophies was cluttering up his home in Austria, he gave them to the local garage in exchange for free car washes.

By mid-summer 1976 he had won five races and seemed a shoo-in to repeat as champion. Then came the German Grand Prix at the desperately dangerous Nurburgring. On the second lap Lauda's Ferrari inexplicably crashed and burst into flames. Four brave drivers and a marshal plunged into the towering inferno and hauled out the smouldering body. In hospital, with first to third degree burns on his head and wrists, several broken bones and lungs scorched from inhaling toxic fumes, Niki Lauda was given up for dead and administered the last rites by a priest.

Six weeks later, with blood seeping from the bandages on his head, he finished fourth in the Italian Grand Prix. Astonished doctors said he had recovered by sheer force of will. Jackie Stewart said it was the most courageous comeback in the history of sport. Niki said the loss of half an ear made it easier to use the telephone. In consideration of those who found his facial disfigurement unsightly he thereafter wore a red baseball cap, hiring it out to a sponsor for a hefty fee.

The 1976 championship ended in a showdown between Niki and McLaren's James Hunt at Japan's Fuji circuit in torrential rain. Niki decided it was too dangerous to race and pulled out, handing the title to his friend Hunt, who said Niki's withdrawal was an act of bravery. In Italy some called him a coward. Even Enzo Ferrari had doubts and made plans to replace him, a reaction that angered Niki and made his winning the 1977 driving title a form of revenge. Having clinched the championship with two races remaining, Niki decided to skip them and told Ferrari he was leaving. Enzo called him a traitor for moving to Bernie Ecclestone's Brabham team.

In his 1978 season with Brabham Niki won twice and finished fourth in the championship. The next year, in an uncompetitive car, he had scored only four points prior to the penultimate race, in Canada. There, after the first practice session, he walked away from Formula One racing, saying he was "tired of driving around in circles" and would now start his own airline.

Lauda Air, with its proprietor serving as one of the pilots, grew to the point that further progress would require more capital, in pursuit of which Niki returned to his previous profession. In 1982 he signed with McLaren for a reported US$5 million, the most lucrative contract in Formula One history. In his negotiations Niki told the McLaren money men he was only charging one dollar for his services as a driver - all the rest was for his personality. In 1984 he won his third driving title, albeit by the slimmest of margins from his brilliant young McLaren team mate Alain Prost. Niki won a final Grand Prix in 1985 then retired from the sport for good as a driver, though he never really left the paddock.

He worked as an adviser for Ferrari, served as a Jaguar team principal and became a television commentator - a role for which he was uniquely qualified to provide insights into the highs and lows of the sport he was lucky to survive and brilliant enough to conquer.

Text - Gerald Donaldson

Posted: 2007-12-26 19:01 | [19 楼]

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5come5帮你背单词 [ doubt /daut/ v. & n. 怀疑 ]

Nelson Piquet

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World Championships	3
Grand Prix Starts	207
Grand Prix Wins	23
Pole Positions	24
Nationality	Brazilian

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(1 / 3) - Buenos Aires, April 1981: Piquet recorded a clean sweep at the Argentine Grand Prix en route to his first world title. Have qualified on pole position, he then led from start to finish, setting the fastest lap on the way. © Sutton

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(2 / 3) - Jerez, September 1987: Nelson Piquet relaxes in the Williams garage ahead of the Spanish Grand Prix. A season of consistent results took him to his third world championship. © Schlegelmilch

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(3 / 3) - Adelaide, November 1990: Nelson Piquet returned to winning ways with Benetton, taking victory in the final two rounds of the 1990 season, including here at the Australian Grand Prix. © Sutton

History
He was never a dominant driver but a crafty expert in winning by stealth, according to his detractors. He admitted he was lazy, yet willingly worked hard to improve his car. He could be cold and cruel but could also be warm and funny. He hated being a celebrity yet lived the life of a playboy to the hilt. He was never hugely popular but couldn't care less. All Nelson Piquet really cared about was driving a racing car, which he loved with a passion, especially when he won, which he did often enough to become a triple World Champion.

Born Nelson Sautomaior, on August 17, 1952, he used his mother's surname Piquet to hide his early racing adventures from his disapproving parents. His father, a prominent Brazilian government minister, had been a regional tennis champion and when Nelson showed early promise in that sport he was encouraged to pursue it. At 12 he was one of Brazil's most promising junior prospects. At 16, to further hone his tennis skills, his parents enrolled him at a school in California. But whacking a ball around a tennis court began to take second place in Nelson's mind to driving a car around a race track, particularly when his countryman Emerson Fittipaldi started making inroads abroad. And so Nelson Piquet began racing in his home state of Brazilia. Winning championships in karts and sportscars failed to win over his parents, who sought to distract him by sending him to university. But studying philosophy, engineering and management proved no substitute for the lure of racing and Nelson dropped out after a year. He sold his road car to buy a Formula Vee and in 1977 became the Brazilian champion in that category.

On the advice of Emerson Fittipaldi his next career move was to Europe, where he arrived in 1977 with enough cash (L10,000) to embark on a Formula Three program. In 1978 victories in 13 of 26 races made him champion of one British F3 series and runner-up in another. Formula One teams were impressed and he was given outings in an Ensign and a privately entered McLaren before being hired by Brabham boss Bernie Ecclestone to serve as understudy to Niki Lauda for 1979. When the Austrian veteran walked away from Formula One racing at the end of that season the Brazilian newcomer became Brabham team leader by default. He was still learning on the job, but proved entirely up to the task of helping develop designer Gordan Murray's promising car and extracting the best performance from it. In 1980 Nelson won three races and finished second to Alan Jones in the championship. In 1981 his upward mobility continued and, with three more wins and a succession of high finishes in a brilliant Brabham BT49, he became World Champion.

His 1982 season, hampered by an unreliable new BMW turbo engine, produced only one win, though Piquet considered that Canadian Grand Prix victory the best of his career. Throughout the race an oil radiator subjected his feet to 100 degree temperatures that made him scream with pain. And yet the thrill of victory was always worth it for this driver who once confessed: "Winning is a feeling which you cannot imagine. I sometimes piss my pants on the slowing down lap." His sometimes outrageous comments would eventually get him into trouble, though never with the Brabham personnel, who in appreciation of his earthy humour and hard work set up The Nelson Piquet Fan Club.

In 1983 Piquet powered his turbo-charged BMW-Brabham BT52 to three race wins and, after a season-long battle with Renault's Alain Prost, sensationally snatched his second driving title. At this point, having grown tired of all the travel, Nelson considered retiring but was persuaded by the noted aviator Niki Lauda that a private jet would make it easier to enjoy private life. Thanks to his personal jet Nelson was able to enjoy more of his version of the good life. In the harbour at his Monaco base he kept an 18-meter motor yacht manned by a permanent crew and capable of cruising at 28 knots. On his much-loved Mediterranean voyages laid-back Nelson enjoyed swimming, water skiing, watching TV and entertaining a series of gorgeous female companions. With them he fathered several children and always provided for his extended family.

His costly lifestyle made making more money a priority and Nelson began looking for a better deal from Bernie Ecclestone. More championships might have helped the financial cause but the 1984 and 1985 Brabhams were far from world beaters. To continue with the team Nelson asked for his $1 million retainer to be doubled. While Ecclestone baulked at this Frank Williams offered to triple it and so began two tumultuous years at Williams-Honda. The car was a winner and so were the team's drivers: Nelson Piquet and Nigel Mansell. The problem was the team mates hated each other and in 1986 were so preoccupied with their personal feud that Alain Prost sneaked in and beat them both to the driving title. The bothered Brazilian accused Williams of favouring their British driver and tried to destabilize Mansell by publicly calling him "an uneducated blockhead" and defaming his wife. "Piquet is just a vile man," Mansell said.

In the 1987 edition of the Nigel versus Nelson conflict Mansell won more battles, (six wins to three) but Piquet won the war by means of a better finishing record that brought him his third driving title. Some critics decided his refusal to play a role in the showbiz aspect of his sport made him an unsatisfactory World Champion. "What do they mean by that?" Nelson wondered. "Do they mean doing a lot of publicity? I don't want to make friends with anybody. I don't give a shit for fame. I just want to win."

With few wins in his future his fame duly declined. He left Williams in a fit of pique and moved to Lotus for a couple of seasons at a time when the team was on the wane, then spent two years at Benetton where it was his motivation that waned. After winning twice in 1990 and once the next year he left Formula One racing at the age of 40, though he wasn't yet finished with motorsport.

An attempt to qualify for the 1992 Indianapolis 500 ended in the worst accident of his career, leaving him with badly crushed lower limbs. Thereafter he raced occasionally in Brazil and abroad in touring cars and long-distance events. He became a successful businessman in Brazil, establishing a satellite navigation company that earned him a fortune and enabled him to fully support the promising career of his son, Nelson Piquet Jr.

Text - Gerald Donaldson

Posted: 2007-12-26 19:05 | [20 楼]

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5come5帮你背单词 [ patience /'pei∫əns/ n. 忍耐，耐心 ]

Ayrton Senna

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World Championships	3
Grand Prix Starts	162
Grand Prix Wins	41
Pole Positions	65
Nationality	Brazilian

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(1 / 3) - Monte Carlo, June 1984: In his debut season Ayrton Senna scored his maiden Formula One podium with second place for Toleman in a rain-shortened Monaco Grand Prix. He was rapidly catching leader Alain Prost when the red flags came out. © Schlegelmilch

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(2 / 3) - Monza, September 1987: Ayrton Senna in the cockpit of the Lotus 99T ahead of the Italian Grand Prix. He would finish the race second behind the Williams of fellow Brazilian Nelson Piquet. © Schlegelmilch

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(3 / 3) - Imola, April 1993: Ayrton Senna at the wheel of the McLaren MP4-8 in his final season with team. He retired from the San Marino Grand Prix on lap 43 with hydraulic problems. © Schlegelmilch

History
He streaked through the sport like a comet, an other-worldly superstar whose brilliance as a driver was matched by a dazzling intellect and coruscating charisma that illuminated Formula One racing as never before. No one tried harder or pushed himself further, nor did anyone shed so much light on the extremes to which only the greatest drivers go. Intensely introspective and passionate in the extreme, Ayrton Senna endlessly sought to extend his limits, to go faster than himself, a quest that ultimately made him a martyr but did not diminish his mystique.

Ayrton Senna da Silva was born on March 21, 1960, into a wealthy Brazilian family where, with his brother and sister, he enjoyed a privileged upbringing. He never needed to race for money but his deep need for racing began with an infatuation for a miniature go-kart his father gave him when he was four years old. As a boy the highlights of Ayrton's life were Grand Prix mornings when he awoke trembling with anticipation at the prospect of watching his Formula One heroes in action on television. At 13 he raced a kart for the first time and immediately won. Eight years later he went single-seater racing in Britain, where in three years he won five championships, by which time he had divorced his young wife and forsaken a future in his father's businesses in favour of pursuing success in Formula One racing, where he made his debut with Toleman in 1984. At Monaco (a race he would win six times), his sensational second to Alain Prost's McLaren - in torrential rain - was confirmation of the phenomenal talent that would take the sport by storm.

Deciding Toleman's limited resources were inadequate for his towering ambition, Senna bought out his contract and in 1985 moved to Lotus, where in three seasons he started from pole 16 times (he eventually won a record 65) and won six races. Having reached the limits of Lotus he decided the fastest way forward would be with McLaren, where he went in 1988 and stayed for six seasons, winning 35 races and three world championships.

In 1988, when McLaren-Honda won 15 of the 16 races, Senna beat his team mate Alain Prost eight wins to seven to take his first driving title. Thereafter two of the greatest drivers became protagonists in one of the most infamous feuds. In [屏蔽] Prost took the title by taking Senna out at the Suzuka chicane. In 1990 Senna extracted revenge at Suzuka's first corner, winning his second championship by taking out Prost's Ferrari at Suzuka's first corner. Senna's third title, in 1991, was straightforward as his domination as a driver became even more pronounced, as did his obsession with becoming better still. Some of his greatest performances came in his final year with McLaren, following which he moved to Williams for the ill-fated 1994 season.

Beyond his driving genius Senna was one of the sport's most compelling personalities. Though slight in stature he possessed a powerful physical presence, and when he spoke, with his warm brown eyes sparkling and his voice quavering with intensity, his eloquence was spellbinding. Even the most jaded members of the Formula One fraternity were mesmerised by his passionate soliloquies and in his press conferences you could hear a pin drop as he spoke with such hypnotic effect. His command performances were captured by the media and the world at large became aware of Senna's magnetic appeal.

Everyone marvelled at how he put so much of himself, his very soul, into everything he did, not just his driving but into life itself. Behind the wheel the depth of his commitment was there for all to see and the thrilling spectacle of Senna on an all-out qualifying lap or a relentless charge through the field evoked an uneasy combination of both admiration for his superlative skill and fear for his future.

He drove like a man possessed - some thought by demons. His ruthless ambition provoked condemnation from critics, among them Prost who accused him of caring more about winning than living. When Senna revealed he had discovered religion Prost and others suggested he was a dangerous madman who thought God was his co-pilot. "Senna is a genius," Martin Brundle said. "I define genius as just the right side of imbalance. He is so highly developed to the point that he's almost over the edge. It's a close call."

Even Senna confessed he occasionally went too far, as was the case in qualifying for the 1988 Monaco Grand Prix, where he became a passenger on a surreal ride into the unknown. Already on pole, he went faster and faster and was eventually over two seconds quicker than Prost in an identical McLaren. "Suddenly, it frightened me," Ayrton said, "because I realised I was well beyond my conscious understanding. I drove back slowly to the pits and did not go out anymore that day."

He said he was acutely aware of his own mortality and used fear to control the extent of the boundaries he felt compelled to explore. Indeed, he regarded racing as a metaphor for life and he used driving as a means of self-discovery. "For me, this research is fascinating. Every time I push, I find something more, again and again. But there is a contradiction. The same moment that you become the fastest, you are enormously fragile. Because in a split-second, it can be gone. All of it. These two extremes contribute to knowing yourself, deeper and deeper."

His self-absorption did not preclude deep feelings for humanity and he despaired over the world's ills. He loved children and gave millions of his personal fortune (estimated at $400 million when he died) to help provide a better future for the underprivileged in Brazil. Early in 1994 he spoke about his own future. "I want to live fully, very intensely. I would never want to live partially, suffering from illness or injury. If I ever happen to have an accident that eventually costs my life, I hope it happens in one instant."

And so it did, on May 1, 1994, in the San Marino Grand Prix, where his race-leading Williams inexplicably speared off the Imola track and hit the concrete wall at Tamburello corner. Millions saw it happen on television, the world mourned his passing and his state funeral in Sao Paulo was attended by many members of the shocked Formula One community. Among the several drivers escorting the coffin was Alain Prost. Among the sad mourners was Frank Williams, who said: "Ayrton was no ordinary person. He was actually a greater man out of the car than in it."

Text - Gerald Donaldson

Posted: 2007-12-26 19:09 | [21 楼]

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5come5帮你背单词 [ convert /kən'və:t, 'konvə:t/ vt. 使转变，更改；n. 改变信仰者 ]

Nigel Mansell

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World Championships	1
Grand Prix Starts	191
Grand Prix Wins	31
Pole Positions	32
Nationality	British

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(1 / 3) - Osterreichring, August 1981: Having made his Formula One debut with them in 1980, Nigel Mansell drove his first full season with Lotus the following year. A third in Belgium was his best result. © Schlegelmilch

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(2 / 3) - Silverstone, July 1991: Sparks fly as Nigel Mansell heads to a home victory at the British Grand Prix. He dominated the weekend in the Williams FW14, also taking pole position and fastest lap. © Sutton

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(3 / 3) - Silverstone, July 1992: Nigel Mansell is saluted by fans who invaded the circuit in celebration following their hero’s triumphant home win in the British Grand Prix. © Sutton

History
No driver fought harder to get into Formula One racing and few fought harder when they got there. Hugely determined, immensely aggressive and spectacularly daring, he was one of the most exciting drivers ever. With his win or bust approach - 31 wins and 32 crashes - he became the most successful British driver and ranks third in the world in fastest laps, fourth in wins and fifth in poles. With the Union Jack on his helmet and a chip on his shoulder, he was both quick and controversial. His awkward personality made him some enemies, his heroic performances made him millions of fans. Nigel Mansell was a driven man and it showed.

Born on 8 August, 1953, near Birmingham, Nigel Ernest Mansell first drove a car in a nearby field at the age of seven. That same year he watched Jim Clark in a Lotus win the 1962 British Grand Prix at Aintree and decided then and there to emulate the great Scot, an ambition no doubt entertained by countless other small boys. Few of them would have persevered through Mansell's many misfortunes.

After considerable success in kart racing, he become the 1977 British Formula Ford champion, despite suffering a broken neck in a testing accident. Doctors told him he had come perilously close to quadriplegia, that he would be confined for six months and would never drive again. Mansell sneaked out of hospital (telling the nurses he was going to the toilet) and raced on. Three weeks before the accident he had resigned his job as an aerospace engineer, having previously sold most of his personal belongings to finance his foray into Formula Ford. Next, Mansell and his loyal wife Rosanne sold their house to finance a move into Formula Three. In 1979 a collision with another car resulted in a huge cartwheeling crash he was lucky to survive. Again he was hospitalised, this time with broken vertebrae in his back. Shortly after this, stuffed with painkillers and hiding the extent of his injury, Mansell performed well enough in a tryout with Lotus to become a test driver for the Formula One team. In his Formula One debut, at the 1980 Austrian Grand Prix, a fuel leak in the cockpit left him with painful first and second degree burns on his buttocks.

Mansell became very close to Lotus boss Colin Chapman and was devastated by his sudden death in 1982. He stayed with the team for two more years, then moved to Williams in 1985. Near the end of that season, having no victories to show for 71 Grand Prix starts, Mansell suddenly blossomed into a prolific winner, starting with the 1985 European Grand Prix at Brands Hatch, where he wept on the podium. In a span of 18 months he won 11 races, yet lost out on two World Championships he was poised to win. In 1986 a burst tyre in Adelaide destroyed his season at the last possible moment. In 1987 it was a serious qualifying accident at Suzuka that injured his back again (a spinal concussion) and handed the title to his hated Williams-Honda team mate Nelson Piquet (who called Mansell "an uneducated blockhead" and took verbal shots at Rosanne). For Mansell (who never physically attacked Piquet as he had Ayrton Senna after they collided at Spa), the highlight of 1987 was his scintillating late race charge to beat his least favourite Brazilian at Silverstone. Mansell was simply unstoppable, setting lap records 11 times in the final moments as he reeled in the other Williams. On his victory lap, as thousands of patriotic fans in the feverish grip of 'Mansellmania' flooded onto the track, their hero stopped to kiss the tarmac at the spot where he'd overtaken Piquet at 180mph.

Mansell thrived on adversarial situations, using them to fuel his motivational fires, and if they didn't exist he seemed to go out of his way to create them. His 'me against the world' mentality caused conflict. At Williams, Patrick Head said "he thinks everybody is trying to shaft him at all times" and Frank Williams called him "a pain in the arse". The media also tired of Mansell's chronic complaining. But the fans loved him for the pure, palpable aggression with which he raced. Even that wasn't enough to overcome the deficiencies of the Judd-engined Williams cars in 1988 and when an opportunity arose at Ferrari Mansell seized it with both fists.

His [屏蔽] debut with Ferrari began with a win in Rio and throughout the season he flogged his Ferrari for all it was worth, endearing himself to the fanatical Italian tifosi who called their moustachioed British hero 'Il Leone' (The Lion). At the Hungaroring, where overtaking is supposed to be impossible and where he had qualified a seemingly hopeless 12th, Mansell stormed through the field, scraped past Senna's McLaren in a breathtaking manoeuvre and won the race. In 1990 the wheels came off Mansell's Ferrari bandwagon when Prost became his team mate and out-manoeuvred him politically. At Silverstone the 'British Bulldog' theatrically threw his gloves into the adoring crowd and announced he was retiring at the end of the season. A couple of months later he made a U-turn and announced he was returning to Williams. In 1991 he won five times in the Williams-Renault but lost out on reliability to McLaren's Senna, who took the title. The next year Mansell dominated, winning nine of the 16 races in his Williams-Renault FW14B, but shortly after he was declared the 1992 World Champion he again announced his retirement. His grievances with Williams included a dispute over money and anger that the despised Prost might be his 1993 team mate. Williams offered a last-minute incentive of whatever conditions he wanted but Mansell stalked off to IndyCar racing in America, where he immediately dominated, even on the unfamiliar high speed ovals, and became the 1993 IndyCar champion.

In 1994 Williams persuaded him to return for the final four races, the last of which, in Australia, he won in stunning fashion from pole position. The next year he raced twice for McLaren but decided the car wasn't up to his speed. And so, after 187 hard races in 15 tumultuous seasons, 41-year-old Nigel Mansell left Formula One racing for good.

He retired a rich man, operating several business enterprises, including a Ferrari dealership and a golf and country club (he played golf to a professional standard) and lived the good life with his wife Rosanne and their three children.

"I had my fair share of heartaches and disappointments," he said of his career, "but I also got a lot of satisfaction. I only ever drove as hard as I knew how."

Text - Gerald Donaldson

Posted: 2007-12-26 19:14 | [22 楼]

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5come5帮你背单词 [ transverse /'trænzvə:s/ a. 横向的，横断的 ]

Alain Prost

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World Championships	4
Grand Prix Starts	200
Grand Prix Wins	51
Pole Positions	33
Nationality	French

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(1 / 3) - Paul Ricard, April 1983: Alain Prost won his home race, the French Grand Prix, from championship rival Nelson Piquet, who would eventually beat him to the title by just two points. © Schlegelmilch

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(2 / 3) - Monte Carlo, May 1985: Alain Prost pictured ahead of his Monaco Grand Prix win. It was one of the five victories that season that would make him France’s first Formula One world champion. © Schlegelmilch

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(3 / 3) - Spa, August 1990: Alain Prost’s first season with Ferrari brought five wins and second in the championship. Here, at the Belgian Grand Prix, he finished second to Ayrton Senna. © Schlegelmilch

History
His place in Formula One history as one of the sport's greatest drivers is secure, though a career full of conflict and controversy detracted somewhat from his considerable achievements. He won four championships but also left teams acrimoniously on four occasions. He made winning races - 51 times - look easy but was less successful at the politics in which he was invariably embroiled. His bitter feud with Ayrton Senna brought out the best and worst in them both. And yet among the champions only Michael Schumacher and Juan Manuel Fangio won more than Alain Prost.

Alain Prost was born on February 24, 1955, near Saint Chamond in the Loire region of central France, where his father Andre manufactured kitchen furnishings. Alain was a busy little boy with a boundless energy that more than made up for any shortcomings he might have in terms of physical height. He threw himself into wrestling, roller skating and playing football with such vigour that his prominent nose was broken several times. Athletically inclined, he thought about becoming a gym instructor or parlaying his proficiency at soccer into a professional career. Instead, his passion turned to kart racing which he discovered at 14 while on a family holiday in the south of France. What began as fun quickly became an obsession and he won several karting championships. In 1974 he left school to become a full-time racer, supporting himself by tuning engines and a becoming a kart distributor. His prize for winning the 1975 French senior karting championship was a season in Formula Renault, a category in which he went on to win two driving titles before moving to Formula Three. In 1978 and 1979 he won both the French and European F3 championships, by which time he was on the shopping lists of several Formula One teams. After carefully considering his options he chose to sign with McLaren for 1980.

In his first Formula One season he finished in the points four times but also had several accidents, breaking his wrist in one of them and suffering a concussion in another. Some of his crashes were caused by worrying mechanical failures and Alain also had misgivings about the way the McLaren team was run. Amidst some acrimony he chose to break his two-year contract and signed with Renault.

His first Formula One victory came at home: a French driver in a French car in the 1981 French Grand Prix at Dijon. For Alain the momentous occasion that marked the beginning of his winning ways was memorable mostly for the change it made in his mindset. "Before, you thought you could do it," he said. "Now you know you can." The victories kept coming - he had nine during his three seasons with Renault - but the winner found himself increasingly at odds with the home team's management, who made him the scapegoat for failing to win a championship, and with the French fans, who much preferred the homely appeal of his ragtag team mate Rene Arnoux, with whom Prost had a running feud. Fed up with it all, Alain moved his wife Anne-Marie and their son Nicolas to Switzerland and went racing again with the British-based McLaren team in 1984.

In his six seasons with McLaren Alain Prost won 30 races and three driving titles and was runner-up twice. In 1985 he became the first French World Champion. In 1986 he became the first back-to-back champion since Jack Brabham ten years earlier. In 1987, his 28th Grand Prix victory beat Jackie Stewart's 14-year-old record. In 1988, Prost contributed seven wins to his McLaren-Honda team's one-sided season total of 15 victories from 16 races. However, his brilliant new team mate Ayrton Senna won eight races and the driving title. Thus began the sensational rivalry that conspired to push two of the sport's greatest drivers to unprecedented heights of success and controversy.

Alain Prost, nicknamed 'The Professor' for his cerebral approach to racing, needed all his brainpower and driving skill to take on the formidable Senna. Unable to match him in pure speed, The Professor (like his heroes Stewart and Lauda) managed to hold his own by perfecting an economical style: starting a race conservatively, taking it easy on the brakes and tyres and then making a late race challenge. Meanwhile, the Brazilian's tendency to go flat out all the time (even in the rain, which Prost hated) left his French team mate behind in terms of public appeal, which was another contributing factor in what became the most bitter feud in Formula One history.

McLaren's domination continued throughout [屏蔽] and the Prost-Senna struggle for supremacy put them on a collision course. Mutual admiration turned to all-out hatred, with the Frenchman accusing his Brazilian team mate of dangerous driving and of receiving more than a fair share of attention from both McLaren and Honda. Their embittered season ended in a controversial clash in the chicane at Suzuka, where Prost deliberately shut the door on Senna and clinched his third driving title, whereupon he promptly stalked off to join his new employers: Ferrari.

In his first year with Ferrari Prost won five races and again came to the 1990 season finale in Japan with only his McLaren adversary capable of depriving him of the championship. Senna did just that, taking his second driving title by deliberately driving into the Ferrari at Suzuka. "What he did was disgusting," Prost said. "He is a man without value."

In 1991 Ferrari fell off the pace and for the first time in ten years Alain Prost failed to win a race. He blamed the Italian team for losing the plot, went public with his criticism and was fired before the end of the season. With no time to find another ride he took a sabbatical from driving and spent 1992 as TV commentator, before returning in 1993 with Williams-Renault to win seven more races - bringing his total to a then record 51 - and take his fourth driving title. Faced with the prospect of having the hated Senna becoming his Williams team mate The Professor announced his retirement, saying: "The sport has given me a lot but I decided the game wasn't worth it any more."

But he wasn't yet finished playing the game. He went back to TV commentating and worked as an adviser and test driver for McLaren, before buying the Ligier team in 1997 and renaming it Prost Grand Prix. Beset by political and financial problems the team was an embarrassment for the four-time champion, who closed up shop at the end of 2001.

Text - Gerald Donaldson

Posted: 2007-12-26 19:18 | [23 楼]

enzoferrari

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5come5帮你背单词 [ stair /st/ə/ n. (常pl.)楼梯，阶梯 ]

Damon Hill

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World Championships	1
Grand Prix Starts	122
Grand Prix Wins	22
Pole Positions	20
Nationality	British

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(1 / 3) - Silverstone, July 1992: Damon Hill finished 16th and last in the Brabham BT60B on his Formula One race debut at the British Grand Prix. © Sutton

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(2 / 3) - Silverstone, July 1995: Damon Hill at the wheel of the Williams FW17 at the British Grand Prix meeting where he qualified on pole position for the fourth time that season. © Schlegelmilch

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(3 / 3) - Spa, August 1998: Race winner Damon Hill holds off the Ferrari of Michael Schumacher early in the Belgian Grand Prix. Hill went on to take victory, his first for Jordan, and the last of his Formula One career. © Sutton

History
When Williams made Damon Hill a Formula One driver, despite his undistinguished racing record, Frank Williams said it was because he was "a tough bastard" and Patrick Head said he admired his "fierce inner determination." Like his World Champion father Graham Hill, he needed these qualities to achieve ultimate success in the sport to which - also like his father - he came late after a long struggle. His heritage helped, as did luck, but in the end it was his own ability that enabled Damon Hill to add lustre to the family name.

Damon Graham Devereux Hill was born on September 17, 1960, two years before his father Graham won his first driving title. The Hills lived comfortably in a large London house where from an early age Damon was accustomed to visits from such family friends as Stirling Moss, Jim Clark, John Surtees and Jackie Stewart. But he found their line of work boring to watch and was instead much more interested in motorbikes, a small example of which his father bought for him when he was 11. Four years later the Hill's happy home life was torn asunder when Graham and several members of his Formula One team were killed in an air crash. Insurance claims wiped out all the family savings, leaving Bette Hill to bring up Damon and his two sisters in drastically reduced financial circumstances.

Damon credited both his parents for instilling in him the qualities he needed to endure and overcome the hardships that came his way. His father had become a champion through dedication, persistence and hard work and was also noted for his keen sense of humour. Both Graham and Bette Hill were highly competitive, single-minded people when they first met at the London Rowing Club (where she also rowed for England) and it was in their honour that Damon (like his father) chose to use the club's insignia on his helmet when he went racing.

To help finance his education (he studied English, history, economics and business administration) Damon worked as a labourer and as a motorcycle courier. In 1981 he started competing on bikes, preparing them himself and towing them to the races where he slept in a tent. In 1985, at the age of 25, he found enough sponsorship for a season of Formula Ford racing, where he showed promise but was not rated highly. The same was true of Formula Three, where he won three races in three years, following which another three years in Formula 3000 failed to produce a victory, though his obvious attributes as a hard-working, hard-tryer impressed Williams enough to hire him as a test driver, beginning in 1991. His Formula One debut the next year, with an impoverished Brabham team in a hopelessly uncompetitive car, proved to be a disaster when Damon only managed to qualify twice in eight races. Meanwhile, his continuing testing role with Williams (where he logged over 18,000 miles in two years) paid dividends: for Nigel Mansell, who won the 1992 driving title in a car Damon helped develop, then for Damon himself, who was promoted to replace him when Mansell left Formula One to race IndyCars in America.

In 1993, at the age of 33 and with only two Grand Prix starts on his CV, Damon made the most of the opportunity, winning three races and finishing third overall to his title-winning team mate Alain Prost, who then retired from Formula One racing. The next year, after Prost's replacement Ayrton Senna was killed in his third race with Williams, the task of leading the team fell to Damon, who responded brilliantly, helping rebuild morale and driving himself to exceed all expectations, save his own. His 1994 championship battle with Benetton's Michael Schumacher ended when they collided controversially in the final race at Adelaide. Schumacher, who was accused by some of deliberately taking his rival out, won the title by a single point from Hill, whom others thought could have avoided the crash.

In 1995, after he again finished second best to Schumacher, criticisms of Hill escalated. Some in the Williams team thought he should have done better in what was the best car and Schumacher suggested he was a second-rate driver. Many in the media were like-minded, though none could deny the dignity and decency of the man. His articulate way of speaking, laced with a dry humour (he played guitar in a punk rock band called Sex Hitler and the Hormones) and common sense wisdom, set him apart from mostly much younger peers (Schumacher was eight years younger), though his self-deprecating manner belied his steely resolve.

"Some people might think I got here because I had a sweet smile and a famous name," Hill said. "Well it wasn't like that. I was written off a lot during my career. The point I am making is that the fact I am at Williams is a measure of my determination to succeed. As for the team, it will naturally be more inclined to put its faith in someone who has actually done the job, rather than someone who claims he can do it."

And yet when he duly took the driving title in 1996, by winning eight of the 16 races and out-pointing his rookie team mate Jacques Villeneuve, the team lost faith in Damon Hill. Late in the season Williams told him his services were no longer required (and replaced him Heinz-Harald Frentzen). Though shocked by his unceremonious dismissal Damon maintained the decorum he thought a champion should have, leaving his indignant wife Georgie (they married in 1988 and had three children) to speak up for him. "Damon has proved himself to have more integrity and dignity in his little finger," Georgie Hill said, "than most people have got in their whole body."

With no top drives available he endured an unproductive 1997 at Arrows, then moved to Jordan, scoring that team's first Formula One victory in the 1998 Belgian Grand Prix. In his final season, with Jordan, his motivation waned noticeably and at the end of 1999 he finally hung up the well-known Hill helmet. There was no doubt he had done justice to the family name. To Graham Hill's total of 14 wins and two driving titles, Damon Hill added 22 victories and a World Championship.

Text - Gerald Donaldson

Posted: 2007-12-26 19:22 | [24 楼]

enzoferrari

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5come5帮你背单词 [ belief /bi'li:f/ n. 相信，信任，信仰，信念 ]

Jacques Villeneuve

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World Championships	1
Grand Prix Starts	165
Grand Prix Wins	11
Pole Positions	13
Nationality	Canadian

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(1 / 3) - Estoril, September 1996: Jacques Villeneuve’s third win of the year at the Portuguese Grand Prix kept him in contention for the title and set up a final race showdown with Williams team mate Damon Hill. © Sutton

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(2 / 3) - Jerez, October 1997: Jacques Villeneuve celebrates becoming world champion with the Williams team following his third place in the European Grand Prix. © Sutton

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(3 / 3) - Hockenheim, July 2006: Jacques Villeneuve spent the 2005 season with Sauber and was retained by new owners BMW for 2006. Here he crashes out of the German Grand Prix in what would turn out to be his last Formula One appearance. © Sutton

History
Judging by the record books Jacques Villeneuve had a Formula One career in reverse. He nearly won the driving title in his debut year, did so in his second season, then went steadily downhill and eventually dropped right out of the sport. Yet the statistical rise and fall of the son of one of the greatest racing heroes was not an accurate reflection of his driving ability, nor do the numbers do justice to his impact as one of the most colourful and controversial champions. As a distinctive personality he stood alone and in terms of his entertainment value he had few peers.

When he decided to become a racer the son of legendary Ferrari driver Gilles Villeneuve was always going to be a name to watch. Having a famous father was a mixed blessing. While doors opened for him quickly the son of the late hero was expected to speed through them and continue the family tradition of hard-driving success. As it developed, Jacques Villeneuve soon made a name for himself.

He was certainly to the manner born, on 9 April, 1971, in Canada's French-speaking province of Quebec, from where Gilles Villeneuve took the racing world by storm - and took his family with him. Gilles, his wife Joann and their children Melanie and Jacques lived a nomadic life, touring around North America to Formula Atlantic races in a motorhome, in which they also lived on Grand Prix weekends in Europe after Gilles joined Ferrari. Little Jacques, who grew up in Formula One paddocks watching his father race, was bewildered when Gilles was killed in practice for the 1982 Belgian Grand Prix at Zolder. His mother sent him to private school in Switzerland, where Jacques developed into a fiercely independent character, threw himself into downhill skiing with a vengeance, then chose to follow in his father's footsteps.

He swept through the international ranks - saloon cars in Italy, F3 in Europe and Japan, FAtlantic and IndyCars in North America. In 1995, aged 24, he became the youngest winner of both the famed Indianapolis 500 race and the IndyCar championship. In 1996 Williams brought him to Formula One racing, where he started from pole at the first race of the season, in Australia, led (until slowed by an oil leak) and finished second to his veteran Williams team mate Damon Hill, with whom he engaged in a see-saw struggle for supremacy for the rest of the year. In the end the championship went to Hill, who won five races to Villeneuve's four, but the feisty French Canadian's electrifying debut was the talk of the racing world.

In 1997 Villeneuve fulfilled his fast and furious promise, winning seven races and taking the driving title in spectacular fashion from Michael Schumacher in a notorious championship showdown at Jerez in Spain. Schumacher's infamous failure to ram his rival off the road left the Ferrari superstar in disgrace and Villeneuve on the top of the world. It was a wonderfully dramatic story - the brave son of a racing legend who fended off a villain's worst efforts to become World Champion - that confirmed Villeneuve's place in Formula One history and folklore.

In the car, his fighting spirit, lust for speed, penchant for risk-taking and eagerness to engage in close combat were reminiscent of the qualities that endeared his famous father to the fans. Like him, Jacques Villeneuve thrived on the sensation of driving on the limit and delighted in daring himself to go beyond it. He had several spectacular accidents, from which he would emerge grinning and marvelling at the thrill of it all.

Engagingly eccentric, opinionated and outspoken, he defied convention and challenged authority, saying exactly what he thought in an era when drivers were expected to express only sweet-talking platitudes. Villeneuve called his well-behaved peers ‘corporate robots’ and said fans wanted real characters they could identify with. The rebel talked the talk and walked the walk, dying his hair in rainbow colours and wearing 'high grunge' clothing like a rock star - or a pop icon, which is what he became for millions of adoring fans. Females loved the idiosyncratic, spectacle-wearing, studious-looking heartthrob with the fashionable chin stubble, though he always had a steady girlfriend and was once engaged to Australian pop diva Dannii Minogue (Kylie's sister), before becoming the fiance of a teenage American ballerina, then marrying Johanna, a Parisian girl he met in a restaurant.

His unpredictable behaviour was not always appreciated by the FIA, which several times warned the unruly renegade to clean up his act because he was bringing the sport into disrepute. When Villeneuve publicly described proposed rule changes as ‘shit’ the governing body threatened to suspend him. And yet when he was no longer a frontrunner FIA president Max Mosley said the sport would benefit from the controversial element Jacques Villeneuve would surely contribute to the championship.

In 1998 a performance drop-off at Williams coincided with preparations by Villeneuve's long-time manager Craig Pollock to set up the British American Racing team. When Villeneuve joined the new venture critics claimed the lure was a huge offer from BAR that would make his income second only to Michael Schumacher. Villeneuve denied he was driving for dollars and said that in life you have to follow your dreams and take risks.

But BAR went nowhere fast and Villeneuve's reputation suffered, as did his motivation. In his five years with the uncompetitive team he fell steadily off the pace, yet was still collecting a champion's salary (about US$20 million a year), which caused extra friction when BAR came under new management. After a 2003 season of strife Villeneuve's contract was not renewed and it seemed the ex-champion was history.

However, most observers believed he could still be a driving force in a good car and this, together with his sky-high publicity value, led to Villeneuve's second coming. Renault hired him for three races in 2004 and in 2005 he signed a two-year contract with Sauber, where his fair to middling results were a reflection of the small Swiss-based team's capability. When Sauber became BMW in 2006 Villeneuve stayed on, but halfway through the season he was asked to sit out a race while a young driver (Robert Kubica) was evaluated. The 35-year-old Villeneuve viewed his temporary demotion as a preview of the future and immediately walked away from the sport.

"Screw this," he declared. "It's time to get on with the rest of my life."

Text - Gerald Donaldson

Posted: 2007-12-26 19:26 | [25 楼]

enzoferrari

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5come5帮你背单词 [ scorn /sko:n/ v. 轻蔑、瞧不起 v. & n. 蔑视，藐视，嘲笑 ]

Mika Hakkinen

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World Championships	2
Grand Prix Starts	165
Grand Prix Wins	20
Pole Positions	26
Nationality	Finnish

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(1 / 3) - Adelaide, November 1991: Mika Hakkinen made his Formula One debut with Lotus, scoring points in only his third race. He finished 19th in the season-ending Australian round, which was stopped after 14 laps, making it the shortest Grand Prix ever. © Su

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(2 / 3) - Melbourne, March 1998: Mika Hakkinen at the wheel of the McLaren MP4-13, en route to victory in the Australian Grand Prix. © Sutton

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(3 / 3) - Hungaroring, August 1999: Hakkinen took his fourth win of the season at the Hungarian Grand Prix, to close the gap on title rival Eddie Irvine. The Finn went on to clinch his second successive drivers’ title. © Schlegelmilch

History
He never said much, preferring to let his driving speak for itself. And it spoke volumes for the laid-back Flying Finn who always drove flat out. Everybody liked the silent star and nobody begrudged the success of the brave man who was nearly killed before he achieved it. Consistent as well as quick, he scored points in over half his races, taking his lop-sided grin to the top of the podium on 20 occasions. In their 11 years as rivals the only driver who achieved more was Michael Schumacher, who said the opponent he most respected was Mika Hakkinen.

Five years after Mika Pauli Hakkinen was born, on September 28, 1968, his parents hired a go-kart for him to try at a track near their home outside Helsinki. On the very first lap little Mika had a big accident, though fortunately without injury to himself. Yet his first racing memory was not of his own fear but the look of it on his father's face. Unphased by his shaky start, Mika pestered his parents - Harri (a short wave radio operator and part time taxi driver) and Aila (a secretary) - until they bought him a kart of his own. As Mika became an increasingly quick karter the whole family - including his sister Nina - went racing for fun, forming their own little team and driving to races in a minibus. Though Mika preferred action to studying (briefly combining both by training as an acrobat at a circus school), he finished elementary school and enrolled in a metal working course. This was soon abandoned in favour of pursuing a career in a more obvious metier: by 1986 he was a five-time karting champion and had become a protege of fellow Finn, Keke Rosberg, the 1982 World Champion. They met, appropriately, in a sauna and Rosberg became his manager, arranging sponsorship that helped propel Mika "flat out" (a favourite expression of both Finns) through the junior categories of single-seater racing.

The new Flying Finn won three Scandinavian Formula Ford championships, the Opel Lotus Euroseries championship, then the 1990 British Formula Three championship, following which he was promoted to Formula One racing by Team Lotus. Though Lotus was then on a downward spiral Mika's obvious talent made him a driver in demand. In 1993 McLaren boss Ron Dennis signed him (and came to take a paternal interest in him) for testing duties and to serve as understudy to Ayrton Senna and Michael Andretti. When the latter left Formula One racing with three races of the season remaining, Mika became superstar Senna's team mate, famously out-qualifying him on his debut, in Portugal. Senna's move to Williams for 1994 (when he would die) made Mika number one at McLaren but he still had imperfections. At Hockenheim he was found guilty of triggering a ten-car crash on the first lap and received a one-race ban.

The worst accident of his career was not his fault but had nearly fatal consequences. Mika's promising 1995 season, he had seven podium finishes, ended disastrously in Adelaide. In practice some debris punctured a tyre and pitched his McLaren into a wall with sickening force. Rescue crews rushed to his aid and found Mika critically injured, bleeding profusely from the mouth and turning blue from lack of oxygen. Doctors, led by FIA medical delegate Professor Sid Watkins, performed an emergency tracheotomy, making an incision in his throat and inserting a tube so he could breathe, before transporting him to hospital where his life hung in the balance for some time. As he slowly regained consciousness Mika began to recognise the concerned faces surrounding his bed, among them his girlfriend Erja, who helped nurse him through the difficult period that followed.

Back at his flat in Monaco, where, Mika joked, he slept more than his pet tortoise Caroline, he gradually recovered all his faculties, except for a hearing impediment that contributed to a slightly slower way of speaking. But he was unsure about being able to resume his racing life. "You can only get over your fears if you attack them head on," he said. "So I had to go driving again flat out." Early in 1996, in a private test arranged by McLaren, he was immediately as quick as ever.

If the Flying Finn was still fast he had yet to translate his speed into a Formula One victory. When it came, in the last race of 1997 at Jerez, it was inconclusive in that both his McLaren team mate David Coulthard and Williams driver Jacques Villeneuve (en route to becoming champion) moved out of his way to let Mika win. His second victory, in the 1998 season-opener in Melbourne, came also through the courtesy of the loyal Coulthard, who honoured their pre-race agreement to let him take the chequered flag first. From then on there was no stopping Mika, though Ferrari's Michael Schumacher did his best in what became a season-long championship battle. Ultimately, Mika won half the season's 16 races (Schumacher won six) and became the 1998 World Champion.

In 1999 the reigning champion's task of defending his title was made easier by the absence of Schumacher (who missed several races with a broken leg) and Mika ultimately defeated Ferrari's Eddie Irvine to secure his second successive driving title. However, his season was blemished by a rare mistake made at Monza, where he threw away a seemingly sure win by selecting the wrong gear and spun out. The disconsolate driver jumped out his car, hopped over the fence, knelt down behind some bushes and wept. Cameras caught the surprising outpouring of emotion from an otherwise apparently unflappable Finn.

In truth, and in private, Mika was a sensitive man who thought deeply but spoke little about his inner feelings. "Brain fade," he said of his Monza miscue. "Formula One is a mind game, no question. You have to think so hard sometimes smoke comes out your ears! And if you don't keep your head in gear the car will overtake you."

Before long thoughts of retirement began to enter Mika's head. He kept on winning, four times in 2000 and twice the next year, by which time he and Erja (now married) had become the proud parents of little Hugo Hakkinen. Fatherhood made Mika more conscious of his sport's dangers and he grew weary of the constant effort to maintain the speed for which he was acclaimed. At the end of 2001, his ninth year with McLaren, he announced he was going to take a year's sabbatical to spend more time with his family. In fact, he never came back to Formula One racing, where the likeable man who drove flat out was sorely missed.

Text - Gerald Donaldson

Posted: 2007-12-26 19:31 | [26 楼]

enzoferrari

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5come5帮你背单词 [ amend /ə'mend/ vt. 修改，修订 ]

Michael Schumacher

hof_profile_left_7.jpg

hof_profile_right_7.jpg

World Championships	7
Grand Prix Starts	250
Grand Prix Wins	91
Pole Positions	68
Nationality	German

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(1 / 3) - Spa, August 1991: Michael Schumacher made his Formula One debut with Jordan at the Belgian Grand Prix. He qualified a sensational seventh, but then went out on lap one with clutch failure. © Schlegelmilch

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(2 / 3) - Magny-Cours, July 2002: Michael Schumacher crosses the finish line to win the French Grand Prix and claim his record equalling fifth world drivers’ championship. © Sutton

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(3 / 3) - Suzuka, October 2004: Having already safely secured his seventh world title, Michael Schumacher celebrates his 13th win of the season at the penultimate round, the Japanese Grand Prix. © Sutton

History
Since the Formula One World Championship began in 1950 the title has been won by 28 different drivers, 14 of whom won more than one championship. Of the previous multiple champions the most prolific was Juan Manuel Fangio, whose record of five titles stood for five decades until it was eclipsed by the most dominant driver in the history of the sport. By the time he retired, still the man to beat after 16 seasons at the top, Michael Schumacher had seven driving titles and held nearly every record in the book by a considerable margin. Though his ethics were sometimes questionable, his sheer brilliance behind the wheel was never in dispute.

The most extraordinary driver's origins were most ordinary. He was born on 3 January, 1969, near Cologne, Germany, six years before his brother Ralf, who would also become a Formula One driver. Their father, a bricklayer, ran the local kart track, at Kerpen, where Mrs Schumacher operated the canteen. As a four-year old Michael enjoyed playing on a pedal kart, though when his father fitted it with a small motorcycle engine the future superstar promptly crashed into a lamppost. But Michael soon mastered his machine and won his first kart championship at six, following which his far from affluent parents arranged sponsorship from wealthy enthusiasts that enabled Michael to make rapid progress. By 1987 he was German and European kart champion and had left school to work as an apprentice car mechanic, a job that was soon replaced by full-time employment as a race driver. In 1990 he won the German F3 championship and was hired by Mercedes to drive sportscars. The next year he made a stunning Formula One debut, qualifying an astonishing seventh in a Jordan for the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa, whereupon he was immediately snapped up by Benetton, where in 1992 he won his first Formula One race, again at Spa, the most demanding circuit of them all.

Over the next four seasons with Benetton he won a further 18 races and two world championships. His first, in 1994, was somewhat tainted in that Benetton was suspected of technical irregularities and in their championship showdown race in Adelaide Schumacher collided (deliberately, some thought) with his closest challenger, the Williams of Damon Hill. But Germany's first world champion was unquestionably worthy of the 1995 driving title, following which he moved to Ferrari, then a team in disarray and without a champion since Jody Scheckter in 1979. The Schumacher-Ferrari combination began promisingly with three wins in 1996 and five more in 1997, though that season ended in infamy when in the final race, at Jerez in Spain, Schumacher tried unsuccessfully to ram the Williams of his title rival Jacques Villeneuve off the road. As punishment for his misdemeanour Schumacher's second place in the championship was stricken from the record books he would thereafter begin to rewrite.

After finishing second overall in 1998, Schumacher's 1999 season was interrupted by a broken leg (the only injury of his career) incurred in crash at the British Grand Prix. From then on there was no stopping 'Schumi' - who in 2000 became Ferrari's first champion in 21 years, then went on to win the driving title for the next four seasons in succession. In 2002 he won 11 times and finished on the podium in all 17 races. In 2003 he broke Fangio's record by winning his sixth driving title. In 2004 he won 13 of the 18 races to secure his seventh championship by a massive margin. Disadvantaged by an off-the-pace Ferrari in 2005 he still managed third overall in the standings. In 2006 he finished his career with a flourish (though at Monaco he was found guilty of deliberately parking his Ferrari to prevent anyone from beating his qualifying time): extending his pole position record to 68 (Ayrton Senna had 65), scoring seven victories to bring his total to 91 (40 more than his nearest rival, Alain Prost) and nearly winning yet another driving title.

Like all the great drivers Schumacher had exceptional ambition, confidence, intelligence, motivation, dedication and determination. What set him apart and helped account for his unprecedented length of time at the top of his profession was a pure passion for racing and an endless quest for improvement. Blessed with a supreme natural talent, he had a racing brain to match, possessing spare mental capacity that enabled him to make split-second decisions, adapt to changing circumstances and plan ahead while driving on the limit, which with his superb state of fitness (he trained harder than any driver) he was easily able to do for lap after lap. The smoothly swift and mechanically-aware driver operated with a keen sensitivity for the limits of his car and himself (he made comparatively few mistakes) and his feedback to his engineers (led by technical director Ross Brawn who worked with him throughout his career) was exceptionally astute.

No Ferrari driver worked harder for the team, nor were any of them more appreciated than the German who led the famous Italian Scuderia to six successive Constructors' Championships. He led by example, frequently visiting the factory at Maranello, talking to the personnel, thanking them, encouraging them, never criticising and invariably inspiring everyone with his optimism, high energy level and huge work ethic. The team was totally devoted to the driver who often said he loved the Ferrari ‘family’.

Life with his own family - wife Corinna and their children Gina-Maria and Mick - was deliberately kept as normal as possible (the children never came to the races) and held sacred by the essentially shy and private man who reluctantly became one of the most famous sportsmen in the world. Rich beyond his wildest dreams (he reportedly earned as much as US$100 million a year), he generously supported charities, especially those for underprivileged children, and to help victims of the 2004 Asian tsunami disaster he made a personal donation of US$10 million.

In his last season the 37-year-old driver who had made Formula One racing his personal playground was still at the peak of his powers. No champion had been so excellent for so long, but Michael Schumacher finally grew tired of the effort necessary to continue to excel and decided to quit while he was still ahead - so far ahead that his achievements are unlikely to ever be surpassed.

Text - Gerald Donaldson

Michael Schumacher更详细资料请点击舒马赫职业生涯7个总冠军，91个分站冠军全回顾

[ 此帖被enzoferrari在2007-12-26 21:26重新编辑 ]

Posted: 2007-12-26 19:37 | [27 楼]

enzoferrari

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Fernando Alonso

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World Championships	2
Grand Prix Starts	105
Grand Prix Wins	19
Pole Positions	17
Nationality	Spanish

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(1 / 3) - Spa, August 2000: Fernando Alonso completed his first (and last) season of Formula 3000 in style by winning the final round at Belgium’s legendary Spa-Francorchamps circuit. © Sutton

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(2 / 3) - Magny-Cours, July 2004: Pole position and second place at the French Grand Prix were the highlights of a difficult season for Fernando Alonso with Renault. © Schlegelmilch

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(3 / 3) - Sao Paolo, October 2006: Renault mechanics swarm around Fernando Alonso after his second place in the Brazilian Grand Prix ensures he and the team retain both championship titles. © Sutton

History
The 28th Formula One World Drivers' Champion was the youngest ever. Just 24 years old, Fernando Alonso also led the Renault team to the 2005 Constructors' Championship, thus ending the reign of the Michael Schumacher-Ferrari combination that had dominated for the whole of the 21st century. The precocious and personable youngster who made so much history so soon comfortably wore the crown - a bright, polished, perfectly poised new star. Confirmation of his brilliance came in 2006 when he successfully defended his title against strong opposition from Schumacher, whose subsequent retirement from the sport left Alonso well-placed to succeed him as Formula One racing's resident superstar.

Fernando Alonso Diaz (his full name includes his mother's maiden name, according to the Spanish custom) was born on 29 July, 1981, in Oviedo, a city in the Asturias region of northern Spain, where his mother worked in a department store and his father was employed in the mining industry as an explosive expert. The Alonsos and their two children lived comfortably but were by no means a wealthy family. Luis Alonso, a keen amateur kart racer, wished to share his passion with his children and built them a pedal kart in the form of a realistic-looking miniature Formula One car. It was originally intended for eight-year-old Lorena but she soon grew tired of it, whereupon her three-year-old brother eagerly climbed into the tiny cockpit and immediately felt at home. From the beginning little Fernando was not content to simply pedal around. He wanted to compete and to win.

Shortly after his seventh birthday he entered his first proper kart race and won, and before he was ten Fernando Alonso's name was engraved on several kart championship trophies. However, further progress would require more funding than his family's limited resources could provide. While his parents fully supported their son's increasingly successful pastime - with his father acting as his mechanic at the races and his mother making sure he also got good marks at school - Fernando knew the only way forward was to get sponsored drives by winning races - which he continued to do. Age proved to be no barrier - he was invariably the youngest driver in every category, and more often than not, the best. By his mid-teens his collection of kart titles included a world championship.

Onward and upward he sped, easily winning a 1999 Spanish-based championship for single-seater racing cars, parlaying his prize of a tryout in a Minardi Formula One car into a drive in 2000 with a Minardi-backed F3000 team and a testing contract with Minardi's Formula One team, in which he made an impressive debut the following season. His obvious potential prompted Renault (formerly Benetton) to sign him as a test driver for 2002, a valuable experience that would enable him to immediately establish himself as a frontrunner when he joined the French automaker's team in 2003. In Malaysia, only his second race for Renault, the 21-year-old became the youngest ever pole winner. Starting from pole again in Hungary, less than a month after his 22nd birthday, he became the youngest Grand Prix winner in history.

In 2004 the difficult-to-drive Renault R24 kept him out of the winner's circle and he finished fourth in the championship. By now, having slotted seamlessly into the team, further polished his driving skills and honed his racecraft, Alonso was ready to take full advantage of Renault's excellent R25 car, in which he would really come of age.

From the beginning of the 2005 season the man to beat was the upstart Spaniard. Equipment variances were a factor, with Michael Schumacher's Ferrari off the pace for the first time in six years and Kimi Raikkonen's McLaren proving to be fast but fragile. Meanwhile, the Alonso-driven Renault swept serenely through the longest ever Formula One season, scoring points in all but two of the 19 races, finishing in the top three 14 times and winning on seven occasions.

Alonso's nearly flawless performance (his only driving error came in Canada where he crashed while leading) was highlighted by a symbolic defeat of Schumacher at Imola, where he brilliantly fended off the best efforts of the seven-time champion. Schumacher's successor knew when to attack, how to defend, how to control a race - how to win the championship in a car that was usually not as fast as Raikkonen's McLaren. Both drivers had six poles and seven wins, and though the raw racer Raikkonen's challenge was undermined by mechanical misfortune, Alonso's adaptability served him best. His aptitude for adjusting quickly to changing circumstances, his competence at conserving his equipment, his capability of responding immediately to the invariably wise tactical instructions issued by the Renault team, all contributed to his success.

"I'm just a normal guy," insisted Alonso, whose swift ascendancy to superstardom left him somewhat embarrassed. Softly spoken, though fluent and articulate in English, his second language, he eschewed the usual trappings of success, choosing to live quietly in Oxford to be near the British-based Renault team that was totally devoted to their boy wonder.

"My record is going to be in good hands," said Emerson Fittipaldi, who won the 1972 championship when he was 25. In his 25th year Alonso held onto his title even more firmly, securing second successive championships for himself and Renault after an epic duel with a resurgent Michael Schumacher.

Faced with a formidable opponent still at the peak of his powers, the cleverly quick Alonso's focus never wavered in the intensity of battle - the scenario that most appealed to his real racer's instincts. Fiercely determined and eagerly aggressive, he relished the cut and thrust, revelled in the thrill of the chase - all the while remaining supernaturally calm with a maturity that belied his youth and would serve him well in defending his title against the sport's most successful exponent.

Alonso began 2006 with a string of wins and podiums that by mid- season gave him a substantial lead over Schumacher, whose faltering Ferrari was subsequently improved to overcome Renault's initial performance advantage. Thus empowered, the German staged a brilliant comeback that made the Spaniard's eventual title triumph all the more memorable. The fact that they were so evenly matched, with seven wins each, substantiated Alonso's status as a worthy successor to the retiring Schumacher. In pursuit of a new challenge, Alonso left Renault at the end of the year and moved to McLaren, bringing with him the coveted number 1 as the reigning World Champion.

Text - Gerald Donaldson

Posted: 2007-12-26 19:42 | [28 楼]

enzoferrari

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Kimi Räikkönen

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World Championships	1
Grand Prix Starts	122
Grand Prix Wins	15
Pole Positions	14
Nationality	Finnish

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(1 / 3) - Kimi Raikkonen(FIN) Sauber Petronas C20 British Grand Prix Qualifying, Silverstone 14 July 2001. World © Sutton

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(2 / 3) - Kimi Raikkonen (FIN) McLaren MP4/17 failed to finish. Belgian Grand Prix, Spa Francorchamps, Belgium, 1 September 2002

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(3 / 3) - Jean Todt (FRA) Ferrari Sporting Director, Kimi Raikkonen (FIN) Ferrari and Fernando Alonso (ESP) McLaren Mercedes celebrate on the podium Formula One World Championship, Rd17, Brazilian Grand Prix, Race Day, Interlagos, Sao Paulo, Brazil, Sunday, 21 Oct

History
Fast-tracked into the sport with the shortest CV on four wheels, the unknown newcomer who came from nowhere and said next to nothing immediately proved he knew exactly what he was doing: driving a Formula One car as fast as it could possibly go. The car couldn't always keep up with his talent and it took seven seasons for Kimi 'Iceman' Raikkonen to become World Champion. Notoriously inanimate and uncommunicative, the silent speedster's frozen expression in fact masked the hidden depths in one of the coolest, most original characters in the sport's history...

Kimi Matias Raikkonen spent his childhood in a house built by his great grandfather in Espoo, a suburb of the Finnish capital, Helsinki. To provide for Kimi, born on October 17, 1979, and his older brother Rami, their hard-working parents Matti and Paula toiled, respectively, as a road builder and an office clerk. Money was scarce but the Raikkonens were a happy family and their humble homestead surrounded by open countryside was an ideal environment for the two rambunctious youngsters to flex their racing muscles. At first (when Kimi was just three years old) the brothers tore around on miniature motocross bikes fitted with training wheels. A move to karts paved the way for Kimi (who began competitive karting at 10) and Rami (who eventually became a successful rally driver) to make rapid progress in motorsport, though it came at a cost. Matti had to work nights as a taxi driver and nightclub bouncer and funds diverted to karting meant plans to replace the outside lavatory with a proper bathroom in the family home had to be postponed.

Kimi, a reluctant student who used his schoolbag as a sled to slide down snow-covered hills, enjoyed winter sports, especially ice hockey, though he eventually gave it up because he hated getting up for early-morning practice. At 16 he left school and enrolled in a course for mechanics, believing this skill might be the only way to stay involved in motorsport. Very soon his mechanical expertise, and the need for family funding, became superfluous, as Kimi's natural talent for driving fast led to sponsored rides.

Following a rapid series of successes in Finnish, Nordic and European karting, he jumped into a racing car and promptly won two British-based Formula Renault championships. In the fall of 2000, despite having just 23 car races to his name, he was given a test by the Sauber Formula One team. Impressed by his immediate pace and assured approach, Sauber shrewdly signed the 21-year old to drive for them in 2001. His having short-circuited the conventional route to the top provoked fierce debate over his right, let alone his readiness, to race at the pinnacle of motorsport. Raikkonen rapidly silenced his critics (he finished sixth in his Grand Prix debut) and attracted the attention of McLaren, who saw him as a likely successor to the retiring two-time champion, Mika Hakkinen.

One Finn after another proved to be a good thing for McLaren, for whom Kimi the 'Iceman' never gave less than his maximum, always driving to a personal limit that at least equalled, sometimes exceeded, the best of his peers. Experts endlessly praised his seamless, straightforward, mostly mistake-free style. "I never really think about what I'm doing," Kimi said in a rare outburst of self-analysis. "I just do it."

His five seasons at McLaren coincided with a period of unevenly performing, often unreliable, cars. Yet he finished second in the championship twice (2003 and 2005), won nine races and finished in the top three on 36 occasions. His podium appearances and subsequent TV interviews exposed him to public scrutiny under which he tended to squirm and fidget, tugging his ears, rubbing his nose and trying to hide beneath his baseball cap. He seldom smiled, spoke sparingly in a mumbled monotone, then all but ran for the nearest exit.

Yet in his private life the poker-faced enigma's icy reserve was prone to spectacular bouts of thawing out. 'Drunken Race Ace Kimi Bounced Out Of Lapdance Club For Fiddling With His Gearstick!' shrieked a headline in a British tabloid newspaper. Spanish media gleefully reported that the vodka-loving Flying Finn was found lying fast asleep outside a bar embracing an inflatable rubber dolphin. In Monaco he was filmed cavorting on a yacht, swaying unsteadily on the upper deck then falling onto a lower level where he landed on his head.

"What I do in my private life doesn't make me drive any slower," the free-spirited speedster insisted. In truth, the Iceman's private life was running smoothly and he was well-settled on the domestic front, having in 2004 married Jenni Dahlman, a gorgeous Finnish fashion model and former Miss Scandinavia. At their sumptuous Swiss home there was plenty of room for their two dogs and Kimi's car collection. Asked to name his most prized possessions, he replied: "My wife and my Ferrari Enzo."

In 2007 he began driving a Ferrari Formula One car for a living, having been hired (for a reported $41 million a year) to fill the considerable void left by the departing seven-time World Champion Michael Schumacher, whose unrivalled work ethic and team leadership qualities were not part of a Raikkonen repertoire that seemed more akin to another past champion. A week before his debut with the team, Ferrari's new recruit was in Finland, winning a dangerous snowmobile race he had entered under the alias of 'James Hunt.' When the same 'James Hunt' later competed in a powerboat race dressed in a gorilla suit Kimi said he invoked the name of his hero as a riposte to the media sensationalization of his private life.

He got off to a fast start with Ferrari, winning the season-opener from pole position, though by the penultimate race he was third in the driver standings, behind the McLaren team mates Fernando Alonso, seeking a third successive title, and Lewis Hamilton, the record-breaking rookie. Though Raikkonen had won more races, five to their four apiece, he remained the long shot among the trio of contenders at the final race, in Brazil. The phlegmatic Finn delivered sensationally, winning the race and the 2007 World Drivers' Championship by a single point.

On the podium the new champion swigged as much champagne as he sprayed and, grinning at last, the Iceman broke his silence with a veritable torrent of words. "I'm very happy. I came from pretty much nothing but my family, friends and sponsors helped me get here. People will probably look differently at me and make up more stories about me. But I am going to lead my life as I want and that's it."

Text - Gerald Donaldson

Posted: 2007-12-26 19:46 | [29 楼]