Michael Schumacher
Michael Schumacher is a German retired racing driver. He is a seven-time Formula One World Champion and is regarded as one of the greatest Formula One drivers of all time. He was named Laureus World Sportsman of the Year twice and he won two titles with Benetton in 1994 and 1995 before moving to Ferrari where he drove for eleven years. His time with Ferrari yielded five consecutive titles between 2000 and 2004, Schumacher holds many of Formula Ones driver records, including most championships, race victories, fastest laps, pole positions and races won in a single season –13 in 2004. In 2002, he became the driver in Formula One history to finish in the top three in every race of a season and also broke the record for most consecutive podium finishes. According to the official Formula One website, he is statistically the greatest driver the sport has ever seen, after beginning in karting, Schumacher won the German drivers championships in Formula König and Formula Three before joining Mercedes in the World Sportscar Championship.
In 1991, his Mercedes-funded race debut for the Jordan Formula One team resulted in Schumacher being signed by Benetton Formula One team as their driver for the rest of that season. Establishing himself as a top driver, finishing third in 1992 and fourth in 1993, in 1995 he repeated the success, this time with a greater margin. Schumacher moved to Ferrari in 1996, Schumacher came close to winning the 1997 and 1998 titles, before breaking his leg at the 1999 British Grand Prix, ending another title run. Things came good for Schumacher who won five consecutive drivers titles from 2000 to 2004. Schumacher retired from Formula One driving in 2006 staying with Ferrari as an advisor and he came close to an eighth title that year, but due to technical problems in the final two races he fell short to Fernando Alonso. Schumacher agreed to return for Ferrari part-way through 2009, as cover for the badly injured Felipe Massa, Schumacher returned to Formula One on a permanent basis from 2010 with the Mercedes team before retiring for a second time at the conclusion of the 2012 season.
Off the track, Schumacher is an ambassador for UNESCO and a spokesman for driver safety and he has been involved in numerous humanitarian efforts throughout his life and donated tens of millions of dollars to charity. In December 2013, Schumacher suffered a head injury while skiing. He was airlifted to a hospital and placed in an induced coma. He was in the coma for six months from 29 December 2013 until 16 June 2014 and he left the hospital in Grenoble for further rehabilitation at the University Hospital in Lausanne. On 9 September 2014, Schumacher was relocated to his home where he continues to receive medical treatment, Schumacher was born in Hürth, North Rhine-Westphalia, to Rolf Schumacher, a bricklayer, and his wife Elisabeth. When Schumacher was four, his father modified his pedal kart by adding a small motorcycle engine, when Schumacher crashed it into a lamp post in Kerpen, his parents took him to the karting track at Kerpen-Horrem, where he became the youngest member of the karting club
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa, is the southernmost country in Africa. South Africa is the 25th-largest country in the world by land area and it is the southernmost country on the mainland of the Old World or the Eastern Hemisphere. About 80 percent of South Africans are of Sub-Saharan African ancestry, divided among a variety of ethnic groups speaking different Bantu languages, the remaining population consists of Africas largest communities of European and multiracial ancestry. South Africa is a multiethnic society encompassing a variety of cultures, languages. Its pluralistic makeup is reflected in the recognition of 11 official languages. The country is one of the few in Africa never to have had a coup détat, the vast majority of black South Africans were not enfranchised until 1994. During the 20th century, the black majority sought to recover its rights from the dominant white minority, with this struggle playing a role in the countrys recent history. The National Party imposed apartheid in 1948, institutionalising previous racial segregation, since 1994, all ethnic and linguistic groups have held political representation in the countrys democracy, which comprises a parliamentary republic and nine provinces.
South Africa is often referred to as the Rainbow Nation to describe the multicultural diversity. The World Bank classifies South Africa as an economy. Its economy is the second-largest in Africa, and the 34th-largest in the world, in terms of purchasing power parity, South Africa has the seventh-highest per capita income in Africa. However and inequality remain widespread, with about a quarter of the population unemployed, South Africa has been identified as a middle power in international affairs, and maintains significant regional influence. The name South Africa is derived from the geographic location at the southern tip of Africa. Upon formation the country was named the Union of South Africa in English, since 1961 the long form name in English has been the Republic of South Africa. In Dutch the country was named Republiek van Zuid-Afrika, replaced in 1983 by the Afrikaans Republiek van Suid-Afrika, since 1994 the Republic has had an official name in each of its 11 official languages. Mzansi, derived from the Xhosa noun umzantsi meaning south, is a name for South Africa.
South Africa contains some of the oldest archaeological and human fossil sites in the world, extensive fossil remains have been recovered from a series of caves in Gauteng Province. The area is a UNESCO World Heritage site and has termed the Cradle of Humankind
Colin Chapman
Anthony Colin Bruce Chapman CBE was an influential English design engineer and builder in the automotive industry, and founder of Lotus Cars. In 1952 he founded the car company Lotus Cars. Chapman initially ran Lotus in his time, assisted by a group of enthusiasts. His knowledge of the latest aeronautical engineering techniques would prove vital towards achieving the major automotive technical advances he is remembered for, subtracting weight makes you faster everywhere. Under his direction, Team Lotus won seven Formula One Constructors titles, six Drivers Championships, the production side of Lotus Cars has built tens of thousands of relatively affordable, cutting edge sports cars. Lotus is one of but a handful of English performance car builders still in business after the decline of the 1970s. Chapman suffered a heart attack in 1982, aged 54. Chapman studied structural engineering at University College London, joined the University of London Air Squadron, Chapman left UCL without a degree in 1948, resitting his final Mathematics paper in 1949 and obtaining his degree a year late.
He briefly joined the Royal Air Force in 1948, being offered a permanent commission, after a couple of false starts Chapman joined the British Aluminium company, using his civil engineering skills to attempt to sell aluminium as a viable structural material for buildings. In 1948, Chapman designed the Mk1, a modified Austin 7 and he named the car Lotus, he never confirmed the reason but one theories is that it was after his girlfriend Hazel, whom he nicknamed Lotus blossom. With prize money he developed the Lotus Mk2, with continuing success on through the Lotus 6, he began to sell kits of these cars. Over 100 were sold through 1956, along with John Cooper, he revolutionised the premier motor sport. Their small, lightweight mid-engined vehicles gave away much in terms of power, with driver Jim Clark at the wheel of his race cars, Team Lotus appeared as though they could win whenever they pleased. With Clark driving the Lotus 25, Team Lotus won its first F1 World Championship in 1963 and it was Clark, driving a Lotus 38 at the Indianapolis 500 in 1965, who drove the first ever mid-engined car to victory at the Brickyard.
Clark and Chapman became particularly close and Clarks death in 1968 devastated Chapman, among a number of automotive figures who have been Lotus employees over the years were Mike Costin and Keith Duckworth, founders of Cosworth. Graham Hill worked at Lotus as a mechanic as a means of earning drives and it was Chapman who in 1966 persuaded the Ford Motor Company to sponsor Cosworths development of what would become the DFV race engine. Many of Chapmans ideas can still be seen in Formula One and he pioneered the use of struts as a rear suspension device. Chapmans next major innovation was popularising monocoque chassis construction within automobile racing, the technique resulted in a body that was both lighter and stronger, and provided better driver protection in the event of a crash
Ross Brawn
Ross James Brawn OBE is the Formula One Managing Director of Motorsports. He is a former engineer and Formula One team principal. He had worked for a number of Formula One teams, serving as the director of the championship-winning Benetton. He took a sabbatical from the sport in 2007 but returned to F1 for the 2008 season as Team Principal of Honda. He was the owner of the Brawn GP team, which acquired the Honda team in early 2009, Mercedes bought into the team in November 2009, making Brawn Team Principal and Co-Owner with Nick Fry. In 2011 Brawn and Fry sold the shares to Mercedes Benz. In November 2013, it was announced that Brawn would step down, following speculation linking him with other teams, Brawn announced his retirement from Formula One in February 2014. Teams with Brawn in a role have won, in total,8 constructors championships and 8 drivers championships. Brawn was born in Ashton-under-Lyne, England and he became interested in engineering during his early years, often visiting Belle Vue Stadium to watch various forms of motor racing.
He moved south aged 11 as his father took a job near Reading, Berkshire and he went on to start an HNC in Mechanical Engineering, still funded by Harwell. Living in Reading he found an advertisement for Frank Williams Grand Prix, Williams were looking for a milling machinist which was one of the skills he learnt at Harwell. Brawn lives in Stoke Row, near Henley-on-Thames, in his spare time he enjoys gardening and listening to music. In 2006 Brawn received a degree of Doctor of Engineering from Brunel University for his services to motorsport. On 18 November 2011, Brawn received a honorary doctorate from Heriot-Watt University. His career in began in 1976 when he joined March Engineering in the town of Bicester as a milling machine operator. Soon afterwards he joined their Formula 3 racing team as a mechanic, Brawn was hired by Sir Frank Williams in 1978 as a machinist for the newly formed Williams team. He quickly moved up through the ranks, working in the R&D department with Frank Dernie, Brawn joined the Haas Lola team in 1985 and was part of Neil Oatleys design team at FORCE that produced both the Lola THL1 and THL2 cars used by the team.
When the Haas team left F1 at the end of the 1986 season, there he designed the Megatron powered Arrows A10 and its update, the A10B for the 1987 and 1988 seasons respectively and the Ford V8 powered Arrows A11 used in 1989
John Barnard
John Barnard is a race car designer and is working with Terence Woodgate designing high specification carbon fibre furniture. In 1968 Barnard was recruited by Lola Cars in Huntingdon as a designer and began working on many of the chassis manufacturers projects, including Formula Vee racers. While at Lola, Barnard was introduced to Patrick Head, who helped Frank Williams found the Williams Formula One team, the two engineers became good friends and Head was best man at Barnards wedding in the early 1970s. By 1975 Barnard had been hired by Parnelli Jones to work with Maurice Philippe designing the teams Formula One racer which campaigned from 1974 to 1976, the cars best finish was 4th by Mario Andretti at the 1975 Swedish Grand Prix. After Philippe left Vels Parnelli Jones Racing, Barnard modified the design for the Indycar circuit, further Indycar designs followed and in 1980 the Barnard-designed Chaparral 2K chassis took Johnny Rutherford to the prestigious Indianapolis 500 and the CART drivers title.
At the 1981 Italian Grand Prix at Monza, the strength of the MP4/1 was given a public test when John Watson suffered a massive crash in his MP4/1 coming out of the second Lesmo turn. Many feared the worst for the Irishman as crashes like that in Formula One often led to the death of the driver. However, the strength of the Carbon Fibre monocoque saw Watson survive unhurt to the surprise and delight of many, not the least being Watson himself, within months the design had been copied by many of McLarens rivals. In 1983, Barnard pioneered the coke-bottle shape of sidepods still visible to this day, the 1984 season saw McLaren drivers Lauda and Prost win an amazing 12 of 16 races with the TAG-Porsche powered McLaren MP4/2. By the time Barnard left McLaren for Ferrari at the end of 1986 his cars had won 31 Grands Prix for the team. The 80° V6 TAG engine had been financed by Mansour Ojjeh of Techniques dAvant Garde and was built by Porsche to Barnards specification for the MP4/1E, by 1986, the working relationship between Barnard and McLaren boss Ron Dennis had deteriorated.
This led to speculation that Barnard would leave the team and it came as no surprise when it was announced before the 1986 German Grand Prix that he would be joining Ferrari in 1987. The Scuderia had not won a Grand Prix since Michele Alboreto had won the 1985 German Grand Prix, Ferrari finished 4th in the Constructors Championship in 1987 and 2nd in 1988. While at Ferrari, Barnard ruffled a few feathers with his way of doing things and he put a ban on the teams long-standing tradition of having wine at the mechanics lunch table during testing, something that proved unpopular with the teams mostly Italian mechanics. In 1989 Barnard pioneered the electronic gear shift mechanism – now known as a semi-automatic gearbox – which was operated via two paddles on the steering wheel and this revolutionary system had proved fragile in testing since early in 1988 and many in F1 were expecting it to fail. However, new team recruit Nigel Mansell took the new V12 powered Ferrari 640 to victory first time out at the Brazilian Grand Prix in Rio de Janeiro, Barnard had instigated his second technical revolution, and by 1995 every team was running a copy of the Ferrari gearbox.
However, by the time the got to France the problems had been solved, One such advantage of the new system was put to good use by Gerhard Berger after he suffered a fiery crash at the high speed crash at the San Marino Grand Prix. The car had hit the wall at the Tamburello curve at close to 180 mph and with an almost full fuel load had burst into flames, following Mansells second place in France and the cars new found reliability, results improved dramatically
Ayrton Senna
He was killed in an accident while leading the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix for Williams. Senna began his career in karting, moved up to open-wheel racing in 1981. He made his Formula One debut with Toleman-Hart in 1984 before moving to Lotus-Renault the following year, in 1988, he joined Frenchman Alain Prost at McLaren-Honda. Between them, they won all but one of the 16 Grands Prix that year, Prost claimed the championship in 1989, and Senna his second and third championships in 1990 and 1991. In 1992, the Williams-Renault combination began to dominate Formula One, Senna nonetheless managed to finish the 1993 season as runner-up, winning five races and negotiating a move to Williams in 1994. Senna has often voted as the best and most influential Formula One driver of all time in various motorsport polls. He was recognised for his speed over one lap and from 1989 until 2006 held the record for most pole positions. He was acclaimed for his wet weather performances, such as the 1984 Monaco Grand Prix, the 1985 Portuguese Grand Prix, and he holds a record six victories at the Monaco Grand Prix, and is the fifth-most successful driver of all time in terms of race wins.
Senna courted controversy throughout his career, particularly during his turbulent rivalry with Prost, in the Japanese Grands Prix of 1989 and 1990, each of which decided the championship of that year, collisions between Senna and Prost determined the eventual winner. Senna was born in the Pro-Matre Maternity Hospital of Santana, a neighbourhood of São Paulo, the middle child of wealthy Brazilian landowner and factory owner Milton da Silva and his wife Neide Senna da Silva, he had an older sister, Viviane and a younger brother, Leonardo. The house where Senna spent the first four years of his life belonged to Neides father, Senna was highly athletic, excelling in gymnastics and other sports, and developed an interest in cars and motor racing at the age of four. He suffered from poor coordination and had trouble climbing stairways by the age of three. An electroencephalogram found that Senna was not suffering from any problems and his parents gave Senna the nickname Beco. At the age of seven, Senna first learned to drive a Jeep around his familys farm, Senna attended Colegio Rio Branco in the São Paulo neighbourhood of Jardins and graduated in 1977 with a grade 5 in physics along with other grades in mathematics and English.
He enrolled in a college that specialised in business administration, his grades amounted up to 68%. Sennas first kart was built by his father using a small 1-HP lawnmower engine, Senna started racing at Interlagos and entered a karting competition at the age of 13. He started his first race on pole position, facing rivals who were some older than him, despite this. His father supported his son and Lucio Pascal Gascon soon managed the developing talent, Senna went on to win the South American Kart Championship in 1977
Ferrari F1-2000
The Ferrari F1-2000 was a Formula One racing car designed by Rory Byrne for the 2000 Formula One season. The car was a development of the F300 and F399 from the previous two seasons, using the same basic gearbox and a new engine with a wider V-angle. This new wider angle improved and lowered the centre of gravity of the car and it featured improved aerodynamics, which put it on par with that years McLaren MP4/15. Michael Schumacher drove the F1-2000 to his third World Drivers Title and it defended Ferraris constructors crown, and signified the start of the teams dominance throughout the first half of the decade
Thailand
Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand, formerly known as Siam, is a country at the centre of the Indochinese peninsula in Southeast Asia. With a total area of approximately 513,000 km2, Thailand is the worlds 51st-largest country and it is the 20th-most-populous country in the world, with around 66 million people. The capital and largest city is Bangkok, Thailand is a constitutional monarchy and has switched between parliamentary democracy and military junta for decades, the latest coup being in May 2014 by the National Council for Peace and Order. Its capital and most populous city is Bangkok and its maritime boundaries include Vietnam in the Gulf of Thailand to the southeast, and Indonesia and India on the Andaman Sea to the southwest. The Thai economy is the worlds 20th largest by GDP at PPP and it became a newly industrialised country and a major exporter in the 1990s. Manufacturing and tourism are leading sectors of the economy and it is considered a middle power in the region and around the world.
The country has always been called Mueang Thai by its citizens, by outsiders prior to 1949, it was usually known by the exonym Siam. The word Siam has been identified with the Sanskrit Śyāma, the names Shan and A-hom seem to be variants of the same word. The word Śyâma is possibly not its origin, but a learned, another theory is the name derives from Chinese, Ayutthaya emerged as a dominant centre in the late fourteenth century. The Chinese called this region Xian, which the Portuguese converted into Siam, the signature of King Mongkut reads SPPM Mongkut King of the Siamese, giving the name Siam official status until 24 June 1939 when it was changed to Thailand. Thailand was renamed Siam from 1945 to 11 May 1949, after which it reverted to Thailand. According to George Cœdès, the word Thai means free man in the Thai language, ratcha Anachak Thai means kingdom of Thailand or kingdom of Thai. Etymologically, its components are, ratcha, -ana- -chak, the Thai National Anthem, written by Luang Saranupraphan during the extremely patriotic 1930s, refers to the Thai nation as, prathet Thai.
The first line of the anthem is, prathet thai ruam lueat nuea chat chuea thai, Thailand is the unity of Thai flesh. There is evidence of habitation in Thailand that has been dated at 40,000 years before the present. Similar to other regions in Southeast Asia, Thailand was heavily influenced by the culture and religions of India, Thailand in its earliest days was under the rule of the Khmer Empire, which had strong Hindu roots, and the influence among Thais remains even today. Voretzsch believes that Buddhism must have been flowing into Siam from India in the time of the Indian Emperor Ashoka of the Maurya Empire, Thailand was influenced by the south Indian Pallava dynasty and north Indian Gupta Empire. The Menam Basin was originally populated by the Mons, and the location of Dvaravati in the 7th century, the History of the Yuan mentions an embassy from the kingdom of Sukhothai in 1282
BMW M12
The BMW M12/13 turbo 1500 cc 4-cylinder turbocharged Formula One engine, based on the standard BMW M10 engine introduced in 1961, powered the F1 cars of Brabham, Benetton. Nelson Piquet won the FIA Formula One Drivers Championship in 1983 driving a Brabham powered by the BMW M12/13 turbo and it was the first Drivers Championship to be won using a turbocharged engine. The engine powered the BMW GTP and in the 2.0 liter naturally aspirated form, as BMW M12, the engine design since the 1960s became one of the most successful engines in racing. Starting with the European Touring Car Championship, it was used in Formula 2. In the Deutsche Rennsport Meisterschaft, a 1400 cc variant was turbocharged by Paul Rosche according to FIA Group 5 rules, at well over 350 hp from the beginning, it rendered the normally aspirated engines in the two liter category useless. After some development, power and reliability improved, especially in the IMSA car, and BMW began to think about entering F1, the BMW proved to be fast in its first year in Formula One, though its reliability with turbocharging still in its infancy was lacking.
Reigning World Champion Nelson Piquet recorded the first win for the engine in F1 when he led home Brabham team mate Riccardo Patrese in the crash marred 1982 Canadian Grand Prix. Piquet, who won the Brazilian and European Grands Prix in 1983, piquets win was the first time a car powered by a turbocharged engine had won the World Championship. 1984 and 1985 were lean years for the BMW engines in Formula One, with FISA imposing a maximum fuel limit of 220 litres per race, the 4 cylinder BMW suffered from high fuel consumption which often led to drivers running out of fuel. In the years 1986 and 1987, the version M12/13/1 was tilted sideways by 72° for use in the extremely low Brabham BT55, the design was not successful, probably due to cooling issues in the tight compartment. The BMW GTP IMSA series car was powered by the 2.0 liter M12 turbo engine. Claimed output figures were generally accepted from the theoretical calculations. During the 1986 Italian Grand Prix at Monza, Gerhard Bergers BMW powered Benetton B186 recorded the highest straight line speed by a turbocharged Formula One car when he was timed at 352.22 km/h.
In fact, the top five cars through the trap at Monza were all powered by the BMW M12. Founded by long-time F1 aficionado John J. Schmidt, who coined the phrase Horse racing may have been the sport of kings, the engines were serviced by Arrows long time engine guru Heini Mader from Switzerland, a former mechanic of Jo Siffert. Rebadged as Megatron, the BMW engines were used by the Arrows team for the 1987 and 1988 seasons, in the final season for the turbos, Arrows were one of only six teams still running turbocharged engines and the only team to still use the old BMW engines. During the 1988 season the Megatron engines were the oldest turbos still in use in Formula One dating back to 1982, with turbos banned from the 1989 season, the Arrows team reverted to using 3,499 cc, naturally aspirated Ford DFR V8 power plants. The M12s major shortcoming as a Formula One engine was its lack of response due to turbo lag
Derek Warwick
Derek Stanley Arthur Warwick is a British former racing driver from England, who lives in Jersey. He raced for many years in Formula One, collecting four podiums and he did, win the 199224 Hours of Le Mans and 1992 World Sportscar Championship. In 2005 and 2006 he raced in the season of the Grand Prix Masters formula for retired Formula One drivers. He has served as the steward for three Grands Prix in 2010 and 2011. He is president of the British Racing Drivers Club, succeeding Damon Hill, Warwick was born in Alresford, England. He began his career in British stock car racing under the Spedeworth organisation at tracks such as his local Aldershot Stadium and he won the Superstox English Championship in 1971 and the World Championship at Wimbledon Stadium in 1973. His younger brother Paul raced with success in Superstox before progressing to Formula 3000. Derek won the 1978 British Formula 3 Championship, Warwick began his Formula One career with the fledgling F1 team Toleman for the 1981 season.
He managed to qualify for one race that year, the season finale at Las Vegas. Warwick had mainly dismal 1982 and 1983 seasons in the Toleman car and he joined Renault in 1984 after Alain Prost left them at the end of 1983. He finished in place in both the Belgian and British Grands Prix in 1984 and placed seventh in the championship. 1984 would prove to be the beginning of the end for the factory Renault team, neither Warwick nor new teammate Patrick Tambay won a race in 1984, the first time since 1978 that the team did not win a Grand Prix. The turning point in Warwicks career was his decision to stay at Renault for 1985,1985 was a poor one for Renault and the team withdrew from Formula One at the end of the year. Following the death of Elio de Angelis in a accident in May, however. Warwick explained, I got a call from Bernie, who said that he really appreciated the fact that I didn’t call him five minutes after Elio had died. As no Grands Prix clashed with his Sportscar commitments, Warwick was able to race in world championships.
In 1987, Warwick moved to the Arrows team alongside his Jaguar teammate Eddie Cheever and his best race of the season was 4th in the Italian Grand Prix at Monza where he finished only half a second behind Cheever. For the first time this allowed both Warwick and Cheever to fully exploit the power of the 640 bhp Megatron engine and be closer to the front than they had been previously
