1.
2004 United States Grand Prix
It was the ninth round of the 2004 Formula One season. Rubens Barrichello started from pole position in his Ferrari ahead of team mate Michael Schumacher, Takuma Sato became only the second Japanese driver to achieve a podium finish. The race is most remembered for two Michelin tyre failures in what would be a precedent for the 2005 United States Grand Prix, the impact concussed Schumacher and prevented him from racing until the 2004 Chinese Grand Prix. However, Rubens Barrichello, Schumachers team mate at Ferrari, was only 16 points behind him, having taken six podiums, four practice sessions were held before qualifying - two 60-minute sessions on Friday and two 45-minute sessions on Saturday. All of the teams, with the exception of Ferrari, Williams, McLaren, Rubens Barrichello topped the timesheets in practices one and three, with times of 1,11.354,1,10.365, and 1,10.911 respectively. Jenson Button, driving for BAR, prevented Barrichello from a sweep in the second Saturday session. Third was Takuma Sato, Buttons team mate, whilst Barrichello languished in fourth, despite the pace of the Ferraris, their Bridgestone tyres had grained in the long runs, meaning that balls of rubber would form on the surface of the tyre, reducing mechanical grip.
Qualifying was split into two sections, in the first season, dubbed pre-qualifying, each driver took turns to record one lap at a time. The order the cars ran in was the order to the classified results at the 2004 Canadian Grand Prix. For example, Michael Schumacher won the race, so would be the last car to run in pre-qualifying, the second qualifying session repeated this process, but with the caveat that the drivers would not be allowed to alter their fuel loads between and the race. The fastest time in the session would take pole. As in 2003, setups and fuel loads could not be altered between the end of the qualifying session and the race. Rubens Barrichello started from pole from team-mate Michael Schumacher after setting a time of 1,10,223, Michael Schumacher started second, making it an all-Ferrari front row. BAR locked out the row, with Takuma Sato lining up ahead of team leader Jenson Button. Williams locked out row three, with Juan Pablo Montoya in fifth, ahead of Ralf Schumacher, a gearbox issue prevented Jarno Trulli in the Renault from setting a lap, meaning he started last.
Jean Todt had told the media that Barrichello would be allowed to race Schumacher and would not be forced to concede to him, as in the 2002 Austrian Grand Prix. As the formation lap began, Juan Pablo Montoyas Williams failed to start its engine, causing Montoya to jump out of the car, the spare car was set up for Montoya, as he was higher up on the grid than his team mate. Montoya started the race from the pit lane, Rubens Barrichello started well from pole position and led into the first corner
2.
Scuderia Ferrari
Scuderia Ferrari S. p. A. competing as Scuderia Ferrari is the official name of the racing division of luxury Italian auto manufacturer and competes in Formula One racing. It is the oldest surviving and most successful Formula One team, the team was founded by Enzo Ferrari, initially to race cars produced by Alfa Romeo, though by 1947 Ferrari had begun building its own cars. As a constructor, Ferrari has a record 16 Constructors Championships, Alberto Ascari, Juan Manuel Fangio, Mike Hawthorn, Phil Hill, John Surtees, Niki Lauda, Jody Scheckter, Michael Schumacher and Kimi Räikkönen have won a record 15 Drivers Championships for the team. Since Räikkönens title in 2007 the team narrowly lost out on the 2008 drivers title with Felipe Massa, Schumacher is the teams most successful driver. Joining the team in 1996 and departing in 2006 he won five titles and 72 Grands Prix for the team. His titles came consecutively between 2000 and 2004, including the constructors title of 1999 consecutively being won until the end of 2004, this was the teams most successful period.
Currently, World Champions Kimi Räikkönen and Sebastian Vettel are the two race drivers. The team is known for its passionate support base known as the tifosi. The Italian Grand Prix at Monza is regarded as the home race. The Scuderia Ferrari team was founded by Enzo Ferrari on 16 November 1929 and became the team of Alfa Romeo. In 1938, Alfa Romeo management made the decision to enter racing under its own name, establishing the Alfa Corse organisation, Enzo Ferrari disagreed with this change in policy and was finally dismissed by Alfa in 1939. The terms of his leaving forbade him from motorsport under his own name, in 1939 Ferrari started work on a racecar of his own, the Tipo 815. The 815s, designed by Alberto Massimino, were thus the first Ferrari cars, World War II put a temporary end to racing, and Ferrari concentrated on an alternative use for his factory during the war years, doing machine tool work. After the war, Ferrari recruited several of his former Alfa colleagues and established a new Scuderia Ferrari, the team owns and operates a test track on the same site, the Fiorano Circuit built in 1972, which is used for testing road and race cars.
The team is named after its founder, Enzo Ferrari, Scuderia is Italian for a stable reserved for racing horses and is commonly applied to Italian motor racing teams. In 1947 Ferrari constructed the 12-cylinder,1.5 L Tipo 125, a Formula One version of the Tipo 125, the Ferrari 125 F1 was developed in 1948 and entered in several Grand Prix, at the time a World Championship had not yet been established. In 1950, the Formula One World Championship was established, and it is the only team to have competed in every season of the World Championship, from its inception to the current day. The company switched to the large-displacement naturally aspirated formula for the 275,340, after the 1951 Formula One season the Alfa team withdrew from F1, causing the authorities to adopt the Formula Two regulations due to the lack of suitable F1 cars
3.
Formula One
Formula One is the highest class of single-seat auto racing that is sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de lAutomobile. The FIA Formula One World Championship has been the form of racing since the inaugural season in 1950. The formula, designated in the name, refers to a set of rules, the F1 season consists of a series of races, known as Grands Prix, held worldwide on purpose-built F1 circuits and public roads. The results of each race are evaluated using a system to determine two annual World Championships, one for drivers, one for constructors. The racing drivers are required to be holders of valid Super Licences, the races are required to be held on tracks graded 1, the highest grade a track can receive by the FIA. Most events are held in locations on purpose-built tracks, but there are several events in city centres throughout the world. Formula One cars are the fastest road racing cars in the world. Formula One cars race at speeds of up to approximately 375 km/h with engines currently limited in performance to a maximum of 15,000 RPM, the cars are capable of lateral acceleration in excess of five g in corners.
The performance of the cars is very dependent on electronics – although traction control and other driving aids have been banned since 2008 – and on aerodynamics, the formula has radically evolved and changed through the history of the sport. F1 had a global television audience of 425 million people during the course of the 2014 season. Grand Prix racing began in 1906 and became the most popular internationally in the second half of the twentieth century. The Formula One Group is the holder of the commercial rights. Its high profile and popularity have created a major merchandising environment, since 2000 the sports spiraling expenditures and the distribution of prize money favoring established top teams have forced complaints from smaller teams and led several teams to bankruptcy. On 23 January 2017 it was confirmed that Liberty Media had completed its $8 billion acquisition of Delta Topco, the Formula One series originated with the European Grand Prix Motor Racing of the 1920s and 1930s.
The formula is a set of rules that all cars must meet. Formula One was a new formula agreed upon after World War II during 1946, the first world championship race was held at Silverstone, United Kingdom in 1950. A championship for constructors followed in 1958, national championships existed in South Africa and the UK in the 1960s and 1970s. Non-championship Formula One events were held for years, but due to the increasing cost of competition
4.
Marlboro (cigarette)
Marlboro is a brand of cigarettes. It is made by Philip Morris USA within the United States and it is well known for its billboard advertisements, magazine ads of the Marlboro Man, and its long associated history in the sponsorship of motorsport. Richmond, Virginia, is the location of the largest Marlboro cigarette manufacturing plant, Philip Morris launched the Marlboro brand in 1924 as a womens cigarette, based on the slogan Mild As May. The name was taken from a street in London where PMs British factory was located, however, as early as 1885, a brand called Marlborough was already being marketed as a ladies favorite by Philip Morris & Co. In the 1920s, advertising for the cigarette was primarily based on how ladylike the filter cigarette was, to this end, the filter had a printed red band around it to hide lipstick stains, calling it Beauty Tips to Keep the Paper from Your Lips. At the time, filtered cigarettes were considered safer than unfiltered cigarettes, men at the time indicated that while they would consider switching to a filtered cigarette, they were concerned about being seen smoking a cigarette marketed to women.
The red and white package was designed by the designer Frank Gianninoto, the repositioning of Marlboro as a mens cigarette was handled by Chicago advertiser Leo Burnett. The proposed campaign was to present a lineup of manly figures, sea captains, war correspondents, construction workers, the cowboy was to have been the first in this series. While Philip Morris was concerned about the campaign, they gave the green light. Marlboros market share rose from less than one percent to the fourth best-selling brand and this convinced Philip Morris to drop the lineup of manly figures and stick with the cowboy, known as the Marlboro man. From 1963 the television advertisements used Elmer Bernsteins theme from The Magnificent Seven, in the late 1960s, Marlboro Longhorn 100s were introduced. Although color-coded with gold, they were full flavor cigarettes, not lights, in order to comply with a 2006 court ruling in United States v. Philip Morris USA, Inc. et al. Thus Marlboro and other cigarette companies must use only color-coding instead, Philip Morris responded to the popularity of Pall Mall, the number three brand, by pushing Marlboro Special Blends, a lower-priced cigarette.
Marlboro is known for its association with motor racing and this started in 1972 with the sponsorship of Formula One team BRM who took one win at the Monaco Grand Prix. In 1973 and 1974 the cigarette giant backed Frank Williams Racing Cars team, in 1974 Marlboro became famously associated with the McLaren team, which brought it its first constructors championship and its drivers title for Emerson Fittipaldi. The team was successful through to 1978, with world champion in James Hunt in 1976. Following that the partnership went through a dry patch until Ron Denniss Project Four Organization took over the team in 1981, after the departure of Ayrton Senna in 1993, who died in an accident the following year, Marlboro McLaren did not win a race for three years. Marlboro ended their sponsorship of the team in 1996, which ended the famous red, in 1993 Marlboro began to take over as the primary sponsor, and in 1997 became title sponsor as the team was officially named as Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro
5.
Jenson Button
Jenson Alexander Lyons Button MBE British racing driver currently under contract with McLaren-Honda, as a reserve driver. He won the 2009 Formula One World Championship, driving for Brawn GP, Button began karting at the age of eight and achieved early success, before progressing to car racing in the British Formula Ford Championship and the British Formula 3 Championship. He first drove in Formula One with Williams F1 for the 2000 season, the following year he switched to Benetton, which in 2002 became Renault, and for the 2003 season he moved to BAR. In 2004 he finished 3rd in the World Drivers Championship, with only the two Ferraris ahead of him, BAR was subsequently renamed Honda for the 2006 season, during which Button won his first Grand Prix in Hungary, after 113 races. For 2010, he moved to McLaren, partnering fellow British racer and former World Champion Lewis Hamilton, after finishing fifth for the team in 2010, Button finished the 2011 season as runner-up. In 2012 he took his first pole for McLaren at the 2012 Belgian Grand Prix and he spent a fifth season with the McLaren team in 2014, his fifteenth in Formula One.
From the 305 races that Button has started he has won 15, Button was born on 19 January 1980 in Frome and brought up in nearby Vobster. He was named after his fathers Danish friend and rallycross opponent Erling Jensen and he was educated at Vallis First School, Selwood Middle School and Frome Community College. After his parents divorced when he was seven, he and his three sisters were brought up by their mother in Frome. However, after a while the boy moved to his stepmother Pippa Kerr, when Jenson was 19 years of age John Button and Pipa Kerr divorced. Button junior failed his first driving test for getting too close to a parked vehicle, in 1989, aged nine, he came first in the British Super Prix. He won all 34 races of the 1991 British Cadet Kart Championship, further successes followed, including three triumphs in the British Open Kart Championship. In 1997, he won the Ayrton Senna Memorial Cup, aged 18, Button moved into car racing, winning the British Formula Ford Championship with Haywood Racing, he triumphed in the Formula Ford Festival at Brands Hatch.
At the end of 1998, he won the annual McLaren Autosport BRDC Young Driver Award and his prize included a test in a McLaren Formula One car, which he received at the end of the following year. Button entered the British Formula 3 Championship in 1999, with the Promatecme team and he won three times —at Thruxton and Silverstone—and finished the season as the top rookie driver, and third overall. He finished fifth and second respectively in the Marlboro Masters and Macau Grand Prix, at the end of 1999, Button had his McLaren test prize at Silverstone, and tested for the Prost team. This made him Britains youngest ever Formula One driver, however some had misgivings about his lack of experience and ability to cope with the pressures of Formula One. Making his début in Australia, Button crashed during practice and qualified second-last on the grid, however, he performed strongly in the race and was set to score a point before his engine failed 11 laps from the finish
6.
McLaren
McLaren Racing Limited, competing as McLaren Honda, is a British Formula One team based at the McLaren Technology Centre, Surrey, England. McLaren is best known as a Formula One constructor but has competed in and won the Indianapolis 500. The team is the second oldest active team after Ferrari and they are one of the most successful teams in Formula One history, having won 182 races,12 drivers championships and eight constructors championships. The team is an owned subsidiary of McLaren Technology Group. Further American triumph followed, with Indianapolis 500 wins in McLaren cars for Mark Donohue in 1972, the combination of Prost and Senna was particularly dominant—together they won all but one race in 1988—but their rivalry soured and Prost left for Ferrari. Fellow English team Williams offered the most consistent challenge during this period, however, by the mid-1990s, Honda had withdrawn from Formula One, Senna had moved to Williams, and the team went three seasons without a win. Ron Dennis retired as McLaren team principal in 2009, handing the role to longtime McLaren employee Martin Whitmarsh.
At the end of 2013, after the teams worst season since 2004, McLaren announced in 2013 that they would be using Honda engines from 2015 onwards, replacing Mercedes-Benz. The team raced as McLaren-Honda for the first time since 1992 at the 2015 Australian Grand Prix, Bruce McLaren Motor Racing was founded in 1963 by New Zealander Bruce McLaren. Bruce was a driver for the British Formula One team Cooper with whom he had won three Grands Prix and come second in the 1960 world championship. In 1964 and 1965, McLaren were based in New Malden, during this period, Bruce drove for his team in sports car races in the United Kingdom and North America and entered the 1965 Tasman Series with Phil Hill, but did not win it. He continued to drive in Grands Prix for Cooper, but judging that teams form to be waning, Bruce made the teams Grand Prix debut at the 1966 Monaco race. His race ended after nine laps due to an oil leak. Neither car brought great success, the best result being a fourth at Monaco, for 1968, after driving McLarens sole entry for the previous two years, Bruce was joined by 1967 champion and fellow New Zealander Denny Hulme, who was already racing for McLaren in Can-Am.
That years new M7A car, Herds final design for the team, was powered by Cosworths new and soon to be ubiquitous DFV engine, Hulme won the Italian and Canadian Grands Prix in the year, helping the team to second in the constructors championship. The year 1970 started with a place each for Hulme. After his death, Teddy Mayer took over control of the team, Hulme continued with Dan Gurney. Gurney won the first two Can-Am events at Mosport and St. Jovite and placed ninth in the third, but left the team mid-season, and Gethin took over from there
7.
Sauber
Sauber Motorsport AG, competing as Sauber F1 Team, is a Swiss Formula One team. It was founded in the 1970s by Peter Sauber, who progressed through hillclimbing, Swiss investment firm Longbow Finance S. A. are the current majority owners of Sauber. Having not won a Grand Prix as an independent, the team was sold to BMW in 2005, and competed as BMW Sauber from 2006 to 2009, scoring one victory. At the end of the 2009 season, however, BMW pulled out of Formula One, due to issues with the Concorde Agreement, the team remained as BMW Sauber for the 2010 season. In March 2010, Peter Sauber announced plans to change the name during the season. At the beginning of the 2011 Formula One season the team dropped BMW from their name. Peter Sauber sold his controlling 66. 6% stake in the team, with the remainder belonging to CEO Monisha Kaltenborn being sold, the team was sold during the 2016 season to investment firm Longbow Finance. Pascal Picci took over Peter Saubers role as chairman of the board and president, with Kaltenborn remaining as Team principal, Peter Sauber began building sports cars in the 1970s.
After using turbocharged Mercedes V8 engines in the 1980s, his became the official factory team of Mercedes-Benz. They won the 24 hours of Le Mans and the World Sports Prototype Championship, competing against Jaguar, among others, drivers such as Heinz-Harald Frentzen, Michael Schumacher, Karl Wendlinger, Jochen Mass, Jean-Louis Schlesser and Mauro Baldi raced for Sauber. Sauber participated in a number of racing series before its involvement in Formula One, including the Swiss Sportscar Championship. The first Sauber car, C1, was built in 1970, Sauber, in partnership with Mercedes, won the Le Mans 24-hour race in 1989 and the World Sports Prototype Championship in 1989 and 1990 with the Sauber C9 and Mercedes-Benz C11 respectively. Sauber built a Group 5 version of BMW M1 The first turbo era of Formula One ended with the 1988 Formula One season, the 1. 5-litre turbocharged engines were phased out in favour of normally aspirated 3. 5-litre engines. Other projects never progressed beyond design studies, such as one carried out by Simtek for BMW and it was a turbulent time that led to the withdrawal of many small teams and even more famous marques such as Brabham and Lotus.
A planned Mercedes collaboration with Sauber to enter their own Formula One team was shelved, the team was to be powered by V10 Ilmor engines in a chassis dubbed the C12, a continuation of Saubers naming policy from sports car construction. It was to be piloted by JJ Lehto and Karl Wendlinger, the cars racing debut took place in the first race of 1993, in South Africa. The car was soon turning heads not only for its sharp FW14-like lines and striking black livery but its impressive performance, despite this impressive entrance to the grand prix scene, over the remainder of the season the team rarely saw the finish line due to unreliability and racing accidents. However, they proved their form was not a flash in the pan recording a slow stream of points finishes, despite not achieving a podium, they ended the season with twelve points, seventh out of the thirteen original entries
8.
Rubens Barrichello
Rubens Rubinho Gonçalves Barrichello is a Brazilian racing driver who competed in Formula One between 1993 and 2011. After losing his seat at the Williams F1 team, Barrichello moved to the IndyCar Series in 2012 with KV Racing Technology, Barrichello holds the record for most races in Formula One and has scored the eleventh highest points total in Formula One history. Barrichello drove for Ferrari from 2000 to 2005, as Michael Schumachers teammate and he finished third in 2001 and 2009. During his six years with Ferrari, Barrichello was involved in winning five constructors titles, at the end of 2005 Barrichello left Ferrari to sign a contract with Honda. Schumachers retirement at the end of 2006 made Barrichello the most experienced driver on the grid, in 2009, he finished third in the drivers championship for Brawn GP, as his team mate Jenson Button won the title. This meant Barrichello was involved in a sixth constructors title and he became the first driver to reach 300 Grand Prix entries and 300 starts, doing so in 2010.
He was appointed chairman of the Grand Prix Drivers Association in 2010, in 2013 he started covering F1 race weekends for Brazils TV Globo, interviewing drivers and team members on the grid and commentating during qualifying and race coverages. Barrichello has won eleven Formula One Grands Prix, the paternal side of his family comes from Veneto, Italy. Both his father and paternal grandfather are named Rubens, Rubens Barrichello was known as Rubinho, which has become his nickname. Barrichello won five karting titles in Brazil before going to Europe to race in the Formula Vauxhall Lotus series in 1990, in his first year, he won the championship, a feat he replicated the following year in the British Formula 3 Championship, beating David Coulthard. He very nearly joined Formula One, the highest category of single seater racing, instead he competed in Formula 3000 in 1992. He finished third in the championship, and joined the Jordan Formula One team for the 1993 Formula One season, during this time, and early in his Formula One career, Barrichello lived in Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, UK.
Barrichello had a rookie year. In his third race, the European Grand Prix, he started from 12th place in wet conditions but was fourth by the end of the first lap. He ran as high as second and was running third, having passed the Williams of Damon Hill and Alain Prost and his Jordans reliability in 1993 was poor, and he finished few races. Barrichello regularly outpaced his more experienced teammates, Ivan Capelli and Thierry Boutsen, in the French Grand Prix, he almost scored his first grand prix point but Michael Andretti passed Barrichello for the sixth and final point-paying position on the final lap. His only points finish of the season came at the Japanese Grand Prix with fifth place and these 2 points put him in 18th place in the standings. 1994 started well with a place in Brazil and a third place at Aida
9.
Takuma Sato
Takuma Sato is a Japanese professional racing driver. He currently races full-time in the IndyCar Series for Andretti Autosport, in 2002 Sato graduated to Formula One with the Honda-powered Jordan team, and was paired with Giancarlo Fisichella. His low point was a crash in Austria, caused when Nick Heidfeld lost control of his Sauber under braking and hit the side of Satos car. Throughout he showed flashes of speed but wild driving, nevertheless the teams faith in Sato was repaid by a drive to fifth at his home Grand Prix in Suzuka. With Hondas focus shifting solely to British American Racing for 2003 Sato joined the Brackley-based outfit as a test driver, for the final round in Japan Sato replaced Jacques Villeneuve and scored the second points finish of his career with sixth, despite a collision with Michael Schumacher. He was signed to race full-time in 2004 and his season was blighted by numerous engine failures, suffering no less than six. He finished eighth in the championship with 34 points and helped the team to second in the Constructors championship, Sato was retained by BAR-Honda for the 2005 season, but the 2005 car was not as close to the front of the pack as the previous years design.
The Court did not find that this was deliberate, Sato joined the new Super Aguri F1 team for 2006, run by former Japanese driver Aguri Suzuki. The new outfit was in effect a Honda B-team but ran the first half of the season with a version of a 2002 Arrows A23 chassis. Nevertheless, Satos reputation improved thanks to his attitude and competitive spirit. The team introduced a new car, the SA06 at the German Grand Prix, at the season finale in Brazil Sato finished tenth just two places short of a points finish and comfortably ahead of both Toro Rossos and the Spyker MF1s. For 2007, Super Aguri ran a version of the previous years Honda RA106 chassis. Their performance improved drastically as Sato made it through to Q3 at the Australian Grand Prix and he scored the first point for the team at the Spanish Grand Prix. Financial problems began to affect the team in the winter break. The team used a modified Honda RA107 chassis, which was launched just before the first Friday Practice session that weekend, the car was just as uncompetitive as the Honda had been in 2007 and the team withdrew from Formula One after the Spanish Grand Prix.
In late 2008, Sato took part in tests at Jerez with Scuderia Toro Rosso and he was competing against former Toro Rosso driver Sébastien Bourdais and Red Bull Racing test and reserve driver Sébastien Buemi for one of the two race seats. Bourdais eventually won the seat and in March 2009 it was announced that Sato would not be the reserve driver for the Red Bull team. Sato visited the Indianapolis 500 in May 2009 and he signed with KV Racing Technology to drive in the 2010 IndyCar Series season finishing in 21st place, he signed for the same team for 2011
10.
Petronas
PETRONAS, short for Petroliam Nasional Berhad, is a Malaysian oil and gas company that was founded on 17 August 1974. Petronas is ranked among Fortune Global 500s largest corporations in the world, Fortune ranks Petronas as the 75th largest company in the world in 2013. Fortune ranks Petronas as the 12th most profitable company in the world, since its incorporation, Petronas has grown to be an integrated international oil and gas company with business interests in 35 countries. As of the end of March 2005, the Petronas Group comprised 103 wholly owned subsidiaries,19 partly owned outfits and 57 associated companies, these companies make the Petronas Group, which is involved in various oil and gas based activities. The Financial Times has identified PETRONAS as one of the new seven sisters, the company is headquartered at the Petronas Towers which was officially opened on Malaysias 42nd National Day,31 August 1998 – in the corporations 24th Anniversary year. PETRONAS was not the first company to extract oil or gas in Malaysia and it was Royal Dutch Shell that began the oil exploration in Sarawak, under the White Rajahs, at the end of the 19th century.
In 1910, the first oil well was drilled in Miri and this became the first oil producing well known as the Grand Old Lady. The authorities in the two new states retained their links with Royal Dutch Shell, which brought Malaysias first offshore oil field onstream in 1968, by 1974, only Esso was still in the area. It made its first discoveries of gas in that year. By 1974, Malaysias output of crude oil stood at about 81,000 barrels per day, several factors converged in the early 1970s to prompt the Malaysian government into setting up a state oil and gas company, as first proposed in its Five Year Plan published in 1971. Former Chief Minister of Sarawak, Tun Abdul Rahman Yakub was one of the people who proposed the idea of Malaysia setting up their own oil company, by 1985, the majors, reduced in number from seven to five, were producing less than 20% of the world total. The oil crisis of 1973–74 made the government even more aware of Malaysias dependence on foreign oil, another factor in the decision was that the technology had recently been developed for extensive exploration and drilling offshore.
Malaysian crude turned out to be high quality with low sulphur content. A final and crucial factor in the creation of PETRONAS, the difficulties this policy has caused for foreign companies and investors are outweighed by the benefits they believe they gain from Malaysias political stability. The Malaysian government chose to create a company, rather than using taxes, production limits, leasing. The government wanted, and needed, the co-operation of the majors, PETRONAS was established in August 1974 and operates under the terms of the Petroleum Development Act passed in October 1974. It was modelled on Pertamina, the Indonesian state oil and gas company founded in 1971 in succession to Permina, on 6 September 1974, Malaysias prime minister, Tun Abdul Razak, announced the appointment of Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah as chairman and chief executive of PETRONAS. Tun Razak said, From among the new blood, I intended to bring Tengku Razaleigh into the Cabinet, however, I have an important job for him, a job as important as that of a Cabinet Minister
11.
Japan
Japan is a sovereign island nation in Eastern Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies off the eastern coast of the Asia Mainland and stretches from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea, the kanji that make up Japans name mean sun origin. 日 can be read as ni and means sun while 本 can be read as hon, or pon, Japan is often referred to by the famous epithet Land of the Rising Sun in reference to its Japanese name. Japan is an archipelago consisting of about 6,852 islands. The four largest are Honshu, Hokkaido and Shikoku, the country is divided into 47 prefectures in eight regions. Hokkaido being the northernmost prefecture and Okinawa being the southernmost one, the population of 127 million is the worlds tenth largest. Japanese people make up 98. 5% of Japans total population, approximately 9.1 million people live in the city of Tokyo, the capital of Japan. Archaeological research indicates that Japan was inhabited as early as the Upper Paleolithic period, the first written mention of Japan is in Chinese history texts from the 1st century AD.
Influence from other regions, mainly China, followed by periods of isolation, from the 12th century until 1868, Japan was ruled by successive feudal military shoguns who ruled in the name of the Emperor. Japan entered into a period of isolation in the early 17th century. The Second Sino-Japanese War of 1937 expanded into part of World War II in 1941, which came to an end in 1945 following the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Japan is a member of the UN, the OECD, the G7, the G8, the country has the worlds third-largest economy by nominal GDP and the worlds fourth-largest economy by purchasing power parity. It is the worlds fourth-largest exporter and fourth-largest importer, although Japan has officially renounced its right to declare war, it maintains a modern military with the worlds eighth-largest military budget, used for self-defense and peacekeeping roles. Japan is a country with a very high standard of living. Its population enjoys the highest life expectancy and the third lowest infant mortality rate in the world, in ancient China, Japan was called Wo 倭.
It was mentioned in the third century Chinese historical text Records of the Three Kingdoms in the section for the Wei kingdom, Wa became disliked because it has the connotation of the character 矮, meaning dwarf. The 倭 kanji has been replaced with the homophone Wa, meaning harmony, the Japanese word for Japan is 日本, which is pronounced Nippon or Nihon and literally means the origin of the sun. The earliest record of the name Nihon appears in the Chinese historical records of the Tang dynasty, at the start of the seventh century, a delegation from Japan introduced their country as Nihon
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Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro
Michael Schumacher
Rubens Barrichello
BMW WilliamsF1 Team
Juan Pablo Montoya
Marc Gené
Kimi Räikkönen
Mild Seven Renault F1 Team
Jacques Villeneuve
Takuma Sato
Sauber Petronas
Mark Webber
Björn Wirdheim
Christian Klien
Jordan Ford
Robert Doornbos
Bas Leinders
Zsolt Baumgartner
![[icon]](/wiki/File:Wiki_letter_w_cropped.svg){kind=small}
– Drivers did not finish the Grand Prix, but were classified as they completed more than 90% of the race distance.
– Drivers did not finish the Grand Prix, but were classified as they completed more than 90% of the race distance.
