Michelin
Michelin is a French tyre manufacturer based in Clermont-Ferrand in the Auvergne région of France. It is the second largest tyre manufacturer in the world after Bridgestone and larger than both Goodyear and Continental. In addition to the Michelin brand, it owns the BFGoodrich, Tigar, Riken and Uniroyal tyre brands. Michelin is notable for its Red and Green travel guides, its roadmaps, the Michelin stars that the Red Guide awards to restaurants for their cooking, for its company mascot Bibendum, colloquially known as the Michelin Man. Michelin's numerous inventions include the pneurail and the radial tyre. Michelin manufactures tyres for space shuttles, automobiles, heavy equipment and bicycles. In 2012, the Group produced 166 million tyres at 69 facilities located in 18 countries. In 1889 two brothers, Édouard Michelin and André Michelin, ran a rubber factory in Clermont-Ferrand, France. One day, a cyclist turned up at the factory; the tyre was glued to the rim, it took over three hours to remove and repair the tyre, which needed to be left overnight to dry.
The next day, Édouard Michelin took the repaired bicycle into the factory yard to test. After only a few hundred metres, the tyre failed. Despite the setback, Édouard was enthusiastic about the pneumatic tyre, he and his brother worked on creating their own version, one that did not need to be glued to the rim. Michelin was incorporated on 28 May 1889. In 1891 Michelin took out its first patent for a removable pneumatic tyre, used by Charles Terront to win the world's first long distance cycle race, the 1891 Paris–Brest–Paris. In the 1920s and 1930s, Michelin operated large rubber plantations in Vietnam. Conditions at these plantations led to the famous labour movement Phu Rieng Do. In 1934, Michelin introduced a tyre which, if punctured, would run on a special foam lining, a design now known as a run-flat tyre. Michelin developed and patented a key innovation in tyre history, the 1946 radial tyre, exploited this technological innovation to become one of the worlds leading tyre manufacturers; the radial was marketed as the "X" tyre.
It was developed with Citroën 2CV in mind. Michelin had bought the then-bankrupt Citroën in the 1930s; because of its superiority in handling and fuel economy, use of this tyre spread throughout Europe and Asia. In the U. S. the outdated bias-ply tyre persisted, with market share of 87% in 1967. In 1966, Michelin partnered with Sears to produce radial tyres under the Allstate brand and was selling 1 million units annually by 1970. In 1968, Michelin opened its first North American sales office, was able to grow that market for its products rapidly. In 1968, Consumer Reports, an influential American magazine, acknowledged the superiority of the radial construction, setting off a rapid decline in Michelin's competitor technology. In the U. S. the radial tyre now has a market share of 100%. In addition to the private label and replacement tyre market, Michelin scored an early OEM tyre win in North America, when it received the contract for the 1970 Continental Mark III, the first American car with radial tyres fitted as standard.
In 1989, Michelin acquired the merged tyre and rubber manufacturing divisions of the American firms B. F. Goodrich Company and Uniroyal, Inc. from Clayton, Dubilier & Rice. Uniroyal Australia had been bought by Bridgestone in 1980; this purchase included the Norwood, North Carolina manufacturing plant which supplied tyres to the U. S. Space Shuttle Program. Michelin controls 90% of Taurus Tyre in Hungary, as well as Kormoran, a Polish brand; as of 1 September 2008, Michelin is again the world's largest tyre manufacturer after spending two years as number two behind Bridgestone. Michelin produces tyres in France, Spain, the USA, the UK, Brazil, Japan and several other countries. On 15 January 2010, Michelin announced the closing of its Ota, Japan plant, which employs 380 workers and makes the Michelin X-Ice tyre. Production of the X-Ice will be moved to Europe, North America, elsewhere in Asia. Michelin participated in MotoGP from 1972 to 2008, they introduced radial construction to MotoGP in 1984, multi-compound tyres in 1994.
They achieved 360 victories in 36 years, from 1993 to 2006, the world championship had gone to a rider on Michelins. In 2007, Casey Stoner on Bridgestone tyres won the world championship in dominating fashion, Valentino Rossi and other top riders complained that Michelins were inferior. Rossi wanted Bridgestones for the 2008 season. In 2008, Michelin committed errors of judgment in allocating adequate tyres for some of the race weekends. Dani Pedrosa's team switched to Bridgestones in the midst of the season, a unusual move that caused friction between Honda Racing Corporation and their sponsor Repsol YPF. Other riders expressed concerns and it seemed that Michelin might not have any factory riders for the 2009 season, leading to rumours that Michelin would withdraw from the series altogether. Dorna and the FIM announced that a control tyre would be imposed on MotoGP for the 2009 season and Michelin did not enter a bid ending its participation in the series at the end of 2008. Mi
Brazil
Brazil the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At 8.5 million square kilometers and with over 208 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area and the fifth most populous. Its capital is Brasília, its most populated city is São Paulo; the federation is composed of the union of the 26 states, the Federal District, the 5,570 municipalities. It is the largest country to have Portuguese as an official language and the only one in the Americas. Bounded by the Atlantic Ocean on the east, Brazil has a coastline of 7,491 kilometers, it borders all other South American countries except Ecuador and Chile and covers 47.3% of the continent's land area. Its Amazon River basin includes a vast tropical forest, home to diverse wildlife, a variety of ecological systems, extensive natural resources spanning numerous protected habitats; this unique environmental heritage makes Brazil one of 17 megadiverse countries, is the subject of significant global interest and debate regarding deforestation and environmental protection.
Brazil was inhabited by numerous tribal nations prior to the landing in 1500 of explorer Pedro Álvares Cabral, who claimed the area for the Portuguese Empire. Brazil remained a Portuguese colony until 1808, when the capital of the empire was transferred from Lisbon to Rio de Janeiro. In 1815, the colony was elevated to the rank of kingdom upon the formation of the United Kingdom of Portugal and the Algarves. Independence was achieved in 1822 with the creation of the Empire of Brazil, a unitary state governed under a constitutional monarchy and a parliamentary system; the ratification of the first constitution in 1824 led to the formation of a bicameral legislature, now called the National Congress. The country became a presidential republic in 1889 following a military coup d'état. An authoritarian military junta came to power in 1964 and ruled until 1985, after which civilian governance resumed. Brazil's current constitution, formulated in 1988, defines it as a democratic federal republic. Due to its rich culture and history, the country ranks thirteenth in the world by number of UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
Brazil is considered an advanced emerging economy. It has the ninth largest GDP in the world by nominal, eight and PPP measures, it is one of the world's major breadbaskets, being the largest producer of coffee for the last 150 years. It is classified as an upper-middle income economy by the World Bank and a newly industrialized country, with the largest share of global wealth in Latin America. Brazil is a regional power and sometimes considered a great or a middle power in international affairs. On account of its international recognition and influence, the country is subsequently classified as an emerging power and a potential superpower by several analysts. Brazil is a founding member of the United Nations, the G20, BRICS, Union of South American Nations, Organization of American States, Organization of Ibero-American States and the Community of Portuguese Language Countries, it is that the word "Brazil" comes from the Portuguese word for brazilwood, a tree that once grew plentifully along the Brazilian coast.
In Portuguese, brazilwood is called pau-brasil, with the word brasil given the etymology "red like an ember", formed from brasa and the suffix -il. As brazilwood produces a deep red dye, it was valued by the European textile industry and was the earliest commercially exploited product from Brazil. Throughout the 16th century, massive amounts of brazilwood were harvested by indigenous peoples along the Brazilian coast, who sold the timber to European traders in return for assorted European consumer goods; the official Portuguese name of the land, in original Portuguese records, was the "Land of the Holy Cross", but European sailors and merchants called it the "Land of Brazil" because of the brazilwood trade. The popular appellation eclipsed and supplanted the official Portuguese name; some early sailors called it the "Land of Parrots". In the Guarani language, an official language of Paraguay, Brazil is called "Pindorama"; this was the name the indigenous population gave to the region, meaning "land of the palm trees".
Some of the earliest human remains found in the Americas, Luzia Woman, were found in the area of Pedro Leopoldo, Minas Gerais and provide evidence of human habitation going back at least 11,000 years. The earliest pottery found in the Western Hemisphere was excavated in the Amazon basin of Brazil and radiocarbon dated to 8,000 years ago; the pottery was found near Santarém and provides evidence that the tropical forest region supported a complex prehistoric culture. The Marajoara culture flourished on Marajó in the Amazon delta from 800 CE to 1400 CE, developing sophisticated pottery, social stratification, large populations, mound building, complex social formations such as chiefdoms. Around the time of the Portuguese arrival, the territory of current day Brazil had an estimated indigenous population of 7 million people semi-nomadic who subsisted on hunting, fishing and migrant agriculture; the indigenous population of Brazil comprised several large indigenous ethnic groups. The Tupí people were subdivided into the Tupiniquins and Tupinambás, there were many subdivisions of the other gro
Germany
Germany the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central and Western Europe, lying between the Baltic and North Seas to the north, the Alps to the south. It borders Denmark to the north and the Czech Republic to the east and Switzerland to the south, France to the southwest, Luxembourg and the Netherlands to the west. Germany includes 16 constituent states, covers an area of 357,386 square kilometres, has a temperate seasonal climate. With 83 million inhabitants, it is the second most populous state of Europe after Russia, the most populous state lying in Europe, as well as the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is a decentralized country, its capital and largest metropolis is Berlin, while Frankfurt serves as its financial capital and has the country's busiest airport. Germany's largest urban area is the Ruhr, with its main centres of Essen; the country's other major cities are Hamburg, Cologne, Stuttgart, Düsseldorf, Dresden, Bremen and Nuremberg. Various Germanic tribes have inhabited the northern parts of modern Germany since classical antiquity.
A region named Germania was documented before 100 AD. During the Migration Period, the Germanic tribes expanded southward. Beginning in the 10th century, German territories formed a central part of the Holy Roman Empire. During the 16th century, northern German regions became the centre of the Protestant Reformation. After the collapse of the Holy Roman Empire, the German Confederation was formed in 1815; the German revolutions of 1848–49 resulted in the Frankfurt Parliament establishing major democratic rights. In 1871, Germany became a nation state when most of the German states unified into the Prussian-dominated German Empire. After World War I and the revolution of 1918–19, the Empire was replaced by the parliamentary Weimar Republic; the Nazi seizure of power in 1933 led to the establishment of a dictatorship, the annexation of Austria, World War II, the Holocaust. After the end of World War II in Europe and a period of Allied occupation, Austria was re-established as an independent country and two new German states were founded: West Germany, formed from the American and French occupation zones, East Germany, formed from the Soviet occupation zone.
Following the Revolutions of 1989 that ended communist rule in Central and Eastern Europe, the country was reunified on 3 October 1990. Today, the sovereign state of Germany is a federal parliamentary republic led by a chancellor, it is a great power with a strong economy. As a global leader in several industrial and technological sectors, it is both the world's third-largest exporter and importer of goods; as a developed country with a high standard of living, it upholds a social security and universal health care system, environmental protection, a tuition-free university education. The Federal Republic of Germany was a founding member of the European Economic Community in 1957 and the European Union in 1993, it is part of the Schengen Area and became a co-founder of the Eurozone in 1999. Germany is a member of the United Nations, NATO, the G7, the G20, the OECD. Known for its rich cultural history, Germany has been continuously the home of influential and successful artists, musicians, film people, entrepreneurs, scientists and inventors.
Germany has a large number of World Heritage sites and is among the top tourism destinations in the world. The English word Germany derives from the Latin Germania, which came into use after Julius Caesar adopted it for the peoples east of the Rhine; the German term Deutschland diutisciu land is derived from deutsch, descended from Old High German diutisc "popular" used to distinguish the language of the common people from Latin and its Romance descendants. This in turn descends from Proto-Germanic *þiudiskaz "popular", derived from *þeudō, descended from Proto-Indo-European *tewtéh₂- "people", from which the word Teutons originates; the discovery of the Mauer 1 mandible shows that ancient humans were present in Germany at least 600,000 years ago. The oldest complete hunting weapons found anywhere in the world were discovered in a coal mine in Schöningen between 1994 and 1998 where eight 380,000-year-old wooden javelins of 1.82 to 2.25 m length were unearthed. The Neander Valley was the location where the first non-modern human fossil was discovered.
The Neanderthal 1 fossils are known to be 40,000 years old. Evidence of modern humans dated, has been found in caves in the Swabian Jura near Ulm; the finds included 42,000-year-old bird bone and mammoth ivory flutes which are the oldest musical instruments found, the 40,000-year-old Ice Age Lion Man, the oldest uncontested figurative art discovered, the 35,000-year-old Venus of Hohle Fels, the oldest uncontested human figurative art discovered. The Nebra sky disk is a bronze artefact created during the European Bronze Age attributed to a site near Nebra, Saxony-Anhalt, it is part of UNESCO's Memory of the World Programme. The Germanic tribes are thought to date from the Pre-Roman Iron Age. From southern Scandinavia and north Germany, they expanded south and west from the 1st century BC, coming into contact with the Celtic tribes of Gaul as well
Japan
Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies off the eastern coast of the Asian continent and stretches from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and the Philippine Sea in the south; the kanji that make up Japan's name mean "sun origin", it is called the "Land of the Rising Sun". Japan is a stratovolcanic archipelago consisting of about 6,852 islands; the four largest are Honshu, Hokkaido and Shikoku, which make up about ninety-seven percent of Japan's land area and are referred to as home islands. The country is divided into 47 prefectures in eight regions, with Hokkaido being the northernmost prefecture and Okinawa being the southernmost one; the population of 127 million is the world's tenth largest. 90.7 % of people live in cities. About 13.8 million people live in the capital of Japan. The Greater Tokyo Area is the most populous metropolitan area in the world with over 38 million people. Archaeological research indicates; the first written mention of Japan is in Chinese history texts from the 1st century AD.
Influence from other regions China, followed by periods of isolation from Western Europe, has characterized Japan's history. From the 12th century until 1868, Japan was ruled by successive feudal military shōguns who ruled in the name of the Emperor. Japan entered into a long period of isolation in the early 17th century, ended in 1853 when a United States fleet pressured Japan to open to the West. After nearly two decades of internal conflict and insurrection, the Imperial Court regained its political power in 1868 through the help of several clans from Chōshū and Satsuma – and the Empire of Japan was established. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, victories in the First Sino-Japanese War, the Russo-Japanese War and World War I allowed Japan to expand its empire during a period of increasing militarism; 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 Japanese surrender. Since adopting its revised constitution on May 3, 1947, during the occupation led by SCAP, the sovereign state of Japan has maintained a unitary parliamentary constitutional monarchy with an Emperor and an elected legislature called the National Diet.
Japan is a member of the ASEAN Plus mechanism, UN, the OECD, the G7, the G8, the G20, is considered a great power. Its economy is the world's third-largest by nominal GDP and the fourth-largest by purchasing power parity, it is the world's fourth-largest exporter and fourth-largest importer. Japan benefits from a skilled and educated workforce. Although it has renounced its right to declare war, Japan maintains a modern military with the world's eighth-largest military budget, used for self-defense and peacekeeping roles. Japan is a developed country with a high standard of living and Human Development Index, its population enjoys the highest life expectancy and third lowest infant mortality rate in the world, but is experiencing issues due to an aging population and low birthrate. Japan is renowned for its historical and extensive cinema, influential music industry, video gaming, rich cuisine and its major contributions to science and modern technology; the Japanese word for Japan is 日本, pronounced Nihon or Nippon and means "the origin of the sun".
The character nichi means "sun" or "day". The compound therefore means "origin of the sun" and is the source of the popular Western epithet "Land of the Rising Sun"; the earliest record of the name Nihon appears in the Chinese historical records of the Tang dynasty, the Old Book of Tang. At the end of the seventh century, a delegation from Japan requested that Nihon be used as the name of their country; this name may have its origin in a letter sent in 607 and recorded in the official history of the Sui dynasty. Prince Shōtoku, the Regent of Japan, sent a mission to China with a letter in which he called himself "the Emperor of the Land where the Sun rises"; the message said: "Here, I, the emperor of the country where the sun rises, send a letter to the emperor of the country where the sun sets. How are you". Prior to the adoption of Nihon, other terms such as Yamato and Wakoku were used; the term Wa is a homophone of Wo 倭, used by the Chinese as a designation for the Japanese as early as the third century Three Kingdoms period.
Another form of Wa, Wei in Chinese) was used for an early state in Japan called Nakoku during the Han dynasty. However, the Japanese disliked some connotation of Wa 倭, it was therefore replaced with the substitute character Wa, meaning "togetherness, harmony"; the English word Japan derives from the historical Chinese pronunciation of 日本. The Old Mandarin or early Wu Chinese pronunciation of Japan was recorded by Marco Polo as Cipangu. In modern Shanghainese, a Wu dialect, the pronunciation of characters 日本; the old Malay word for Japan, Japun or Japang, was borrowed from a southern coastal Chinese dialect Fukienese or Ningpo – and this Malay word was encountered by Portuguese traders in Southeast Asia in the 16th century. These Early Portuguese traders brought the word
Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours
Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours is a motor racing circuit located in central France, near the towns of Magny-Cours and Nevers, some 250 km from Paris and 240 km from Lyon. It staged the Formula One French Grand Prix from 1991 to 2008, the 24-hour Bol d'Or motorcycle endurance events from 2000 to 2014, it hosted the French motorcycle Grand Prix in 1992, the Superbike World Championship in 1991 and annually since 2003. Magny-Cours has hosted several additional international championships, like the World Sportscar Championship, World Touring Car Championship, FIA GT Championship, World Series by Renault and Formula 3 Euroseries; the FFSA GT Championship has visited the circuit since 1997. A campus of the French engineering college Institut supérieur de l'automobile et des transports is located on the circuit. Dubbed Magny-Cours, it was built in 1960 by Jean Bernigaud and was home to the prestigious Winfield racing school, which produced drivers such as François Cevert, Jacques Laffite and Didier Pironi.
However, in the 1980s the track fell into disrepair and was not used for international motor racing until it was purchased by the Regional Conseil de la Nièvre. In the 1990s the Ligier Formula One team was based at the circuit and did much of its testing at Magny-Cours, it had hosted the French Formula One Grand Prix since 1991, the Bol d'Or since 2000. The circuit was re-designed in 2003 and used for a wide range of events include various sports and commercial use. For the 2003 event, the final corner and chicane were changed in an effort to increase overtaking, with little effect; this did, change the approach to strategy at this circuit as it made the pitlane much shorter. Because less time was lost making a pit stop, Michael Schumacher was able to win the 2004 French Grand Prix using an unprecedented four-stop strategy. In 2006, Michael Schumacher became the first driver to win any single Formula One Grand Prix a total of 8 times and at the same circuit; the 2008 race was to mark the last French Grand Prix at Magny-Cours, as the French Grand Prix had been indefinitely suspended from the Formula One calendar.
Bernie Ecclestone confirmed that F1 would not return to Magny-Cours in 2008, instead moving to an alternative location in Paris. However in a striking U-turn, it was revealed that the 2008 French Grand Prix would take place at Magny-Cours with the release of the official calendar in July 2007. In May 2008, Ecclestone confirmed that Magny-Cours would stop hosting the French Grand Prix after the 2008 race, suggesting that he was looking into the possibility of hosting the French Grand Prix on the streets of Paris; the venue suffered from poor attendances due to its remote location, poor access and insufficient accommodation. In June 2008, the provisional calendar for the 2009 season was released, a French Grand Prix at Magny-Cours appeared on it, scheduled for 28 June. However, in October 2008 the 2009 French Grand Prix was cancelled after the French Motorsports Federation withdrew financing for the event. In 2009 the track hosted its first Superleague Formula event, it hosted a second event in 2010.
The circuit was used as part of stage three of the 2014 Paris–Nice cycling race, with the peloton completing a full lap of the circuit – in the reverse direction to its motorsport use – before the finish on the front straight. The track nowadays is a smooth circuit with good facilities for the teams, although restricted access prevents spectators from reaching many parts of the circuit. Unusually, many corners are modelled on famous turns from other circuits, are named after those circuits, i.e.. The fast Estoril corner, the Adelaide hairpin and the Nürburgring and Imola chicanes, it has a mix of slow hairpins and high-speed chicane sections which includes a long fast straight into the first-gear Adelaide hairpin, the best overtaking opportunity on the circuit. The circuit is flat with negligible change in elevation; the circuit provides few overtaking opportunities, despite modifications in 2003, which means the races here are regarded as quite uneventful. Formula 1 races at Magny-Cours tend to have a processional nature, with most overtaking occurring during pit stop sequences.
More varied racing occurs when it rains, such as in the 1999 race, interrupted by a downpour. After a restart, most top contenders developed problems, which paved the way for Heinz-Harald Frentzen to claim a surprising victory in his Jordan. Although the Bol d'Or 24-hour motorcycle endurance race was held at Magny Cours for several years, it never quite matched the cachet of the Le Mans event. World Superbike Tom Sykes Magny-Cours Lap Record. Official website Google Maps satellite view of Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours Nevers Magny-Cours History and Statistics Track info from official F1 site A lap of Magny-Cours with Honda’s Alexander Wurz Magny-Cours - the technical requirements
Toyota Racing (Formula One team)
Panasonic Toyota Racing was a Formula One team owned by the Japanese automobile manufacturer Toyota Motor Corporation and based in Cologne, Germany. Toyota announced their plans to participate in Formula One in 1999, after extensive testing with their initial car, dubbed the TF101, the team made their debut in 2002; the new team grew from Toyota's long-standing Toyota Motorsport GmbH organisation, which had competed in the World Rally Championship and the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Despite a point in their first-ever race, Panasonic Toyota Racing never won a Grand Prix, their best finish being 2nd position, which they achieved five times – in 2005, 2008 and 2009. Toyota drew criticism for their lack of success after the 2006 Formula One season, in which the team's best result was 3rd place in the Australian Grand Prix. Toyota was a well-funded team. On 4 November 2009, Toyota announced its immediate withdrawal from Formula One, ending the team's involvement in the sport after eight seasons. Toyota made an early entrance into motorsport when a Toyopet Crown entered the Round Australia Trial in 1957.
The Formula One team's roots can be traced to a development in 1972, when Swede Ove Andersson's Andersson Motorsport team used a Toyota Celica 1600GT in the RAC Rally in Great Britain. The team was renamed Toyota Team Europe and after being bought by Toyota in 1993, Toyota Motorsport GmbH; the rally team won four World Rally Championship drivers' titles, most notably with Carlos Sainz, as well as three constructors' titles. The FIA banned the team from competition for 12 months in 1995 for running illegal parts, causing the team unable to race at next season. Toyota continued to win rallies after their return in 1997, but did not achieve the same level of dominance. In 1997 the team moved into track racing with a sports car project, twice failing to win the Le Mans 24 Hours. On 21 January 1999 Toyota announced its move into Formula One; the company ended its rallying program. On 30 June 2000 the team secured its place as the 12th entry for the 2002 Formula One season. Intending to enter F1 in 2001, Toyota forfeited an $11Million deposit by delaying their entry.
Unusually, Toyota opted to start their own works team rather than partner with a specialist race team and chassis manufacturer. The team was set up away from Formula One's traditional manufacturing centre in "Motorsport Valley" in the United Kingdom. During 2001, Toyota tested with their prototype TF101 car and drivers at 11 F1 circuits; the idea was to gain telemetry data for the races, which allowed them to make aerodynamic changes for the TF102, for the drivers to experience the tracks in the new cars. Finn Mika Salo, who can communicate in Japanese, Scotsman Allan McNish, who drove the GT-One during the 1999 24 Hours of Le Mans, were appointed as test drivers. Toyota F1 made their Formula One debut in 2002, with McNish and Salo driving the Toyota TF102, designed by Gustav Brunner. Despite having one of the biggest budgets in Formula One, Toyota scored only two points all year, their first point was scored in their first race, the Australian Grand Prix, when half the field was eliminated by a first corner accident caused by Ralf Schumacher colliding with Rubens Barrichello.
The team could have scored another point in the next race at the Malaysian Grand Prix, but Salo suffered an electrical misfire and the team fumbled McNish's pit stop. The Scot thus lost ground, finished seventh, just out of the points, behind Sauber's Felipe Massa; the Brazilian Grand Prix, third race of the season, yielded Toyota's second and final point, once again scored by Salo. McNish endured a huge crash during practice for the end-of-season Japanese Grand Prix and missed the race on medical advice. Neither McNish nor Salo were offered a race seat for 2003. For the 2003 season, Toyota signed Brazilian Cristiano da Matta, who had won the American ChampCar series the previous year using a Toyota powered car, former BAR driver Olivier Panis to take over the racing duties from Salo and McNish; the team managed several points finishes during the season, but only as high as fifth place in Germany. High points of the season included Toyotas running first and second in the British Grand Prix, thanks to making their pit stops whilst the safety car was out, Panis qualifying third at the US Grand Prix.
At the end of the season, the team had accumulated sixteen points, an improvement on the previous season, but still only 8th in the constructors' championship, ahead of the struggling Jordan Grand Prix team and Minardi. Toyota retained their driver line-up for 2004. Both Toyotas were disqualified from the Canadian Grand Prix for running illegal parts. Cristiano da Matta, following disappointing performances, left the team after the German Grand Prix and was replaced by fellow Brazilian Ricardo Zonta, the team's third driver. Zonta drove for Toyota for the subsequent four rounds, before being replaced by Italian Jarno Trulli, who had left the Renault works team. Panis, announced his retirement from racing, bowed out before the final race of the season in Brazil to allow Zonta, who had stepped aside for Trulli, to compete in his home race. Neither Trulli nor Zonta scored points for the team in those late season races, although Trulli qualified well in both Grands Prix he took part in. Toyota brought in ex-Jordan and Renault designer Mike Gascoyne early in the year to oversee the development of the car, which improved during the year.
The team scored just over half the points they scored in 2003, but equalled their best finish of fifth at the United States Grand Prix with Panis and maintained the
Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile
The Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile is an association established on 20 June 1904 to represent the interests of motoring organisations and motor car users. To the general public, the FIA is known as the governing body for many auto racing events; the FIA promotes road safety around the world. Headquartered at 8 Place de la Concorde, the FIA consists of 246 member organisations in 145 countries worldwide, its current president is Jean Todt. The FIA is known by its French name or initials in non-French-speaking countries, but is rendered as International Automobile Federation, its most prominent role is in the licensing and sanctioning of Formula One, World Endurance Championship, World Rally Championship and various forms of sports car and touring car racing. The FIA along with the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme certify land speed record attempts; the International Olympic Committee provisionally recognized the federation in 2011, granted full recognition in 2013. The Association Internationale des Automobile Clubs Reconnus was founded in Paris on 20 June 1904, as an association of national motor clubs.
The association was designed to represent the interests of motor car users, as well as to oversee the burgeoning international motor sport scene. In 1922, the AIACR delegated the organisation of automobile racing to the Commission Sportive Internationale, which would set the regulations for international Grand Prix motor racing; the European Drivers' Championship was introduced in 1931, a title awarded to the driver with the best results in the selected Grands Prix. Upon the resumption of motor racing after the Second World War, the AIACR was renamed the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile; the FIA established a number of new racing categories, among them Formulas One and Two, created the first World Championship, the Formula One World Drivers' Championship, in 1950. The CSI determined the regulations for holding Grands Prix and selected the races that formed part of the World Championships – a World Sportscar Championship was established in 1953 – but the organisers of the individual races were responsible for accepting entries, paying prize money, the general running of each event.
In Formula One, this led to tension between the teams, which formed themselves into the Formula One Constructors Association founded in 1974, event organisers and the CSI. The FIA and CSI were amateur organisations, FOCA under the control of Bernie Ecclestone began to take charge of various aspects of organising the events, as well as setting terms with race organisers for the arrival of teams and the amount of prize money; this led to the FIA President Prince Metternich attempting to reassert its authority by appointing Jean-Marie Balestre as the head of the CSI, who promptly reformed the committee into the autonomous Fédération Internationale du Sport Automobile. Under Balestre's leadership FISA and the manufacturer-backed teams became involved in a dispute with FOCA; the conflict saw several races being cancelled or boycotted, large-scale disagreement over the technical regulations and their enforcement. The dispute and the Concorde Agreement, written to end it, would have significant ramifications for the FIA.
The agreement led to FOCA acquiring commercial rights over Formula One, while FISA and the FIA would have control over sport's regulations. FOCA chief Bernie Ecclestone became an FIA Vice-President with control over promoting the FIA's World Championships, while FOCA legal advisor and former March Engineering manager Max Mosley would end up becoming FISA President in 1991. Mosley succeeded Balestre as President of the FIA in 1993 and restructured the organisation, dissolving FISA and placing motor racing under the direct management of the FIA. Following the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix, which saw the deaths of Ayrton Senna and Roland Ratzenberger, the FIA formed an Expert Advisory Safety Committee to research and improve safety in motor racing. Chaired by Formula One medical chief Professor Sid Watkins, the committee worked with the Motor Industry Research Association to strengthen the crash resistance of cars and the restraint systems and to improve the drivers personal safety; the recommendations of the committee led to more stringent crash tests for racing vehicles, new safety standards for helmets and race suits, the eventual introduction of the HANS device as compulsory in all international racing series.
The committee worked on improving circuit safety. This led to a number of changes at motor racing circuits around the world, the improvement of crash barriers and trackside medical procedures; the FIA was a founder member of the European New Car Assessment Programme, a car safety programme that crash-tests new models and publishes safety reports on vehicles. Mosley was the first chairman of the organisation; the FIA helped establish the Latin NCAP and Global NCAP. The Competition Directorate of the European Commission and the FIA were involved in a dispute over the commercial administration of motorsport during the 1990s; the Competition Commissioner, Karel Van Miert had received a number of complaints from television companies and motorsport promoters in 1997 that the FIA had been abusing its position as motorsport's governing body. Van Miert's initial inquiry had not concluded by 1999, which resulted in the FIA suing the European Commission, alleging that the delay was causing damaging uncertainty, receiving an apology from the Commission over the leaking of documents relating to the case.
Mario Monti took over as Commissioner in 1999, the European
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