Ayrton Senna
Ayrton Senna da Silva was a Brazilian racing driver who won Formula One world championships for McLaren in 1988, 1990 and 1991, and, regarded as one of the greatest Formula One drivers of all time. He died in an accident. Senna began his motorsport career in karting, moved up to open-wheel racing in 1981, won the 1983 British Formula Three Championship, he made his Formula One debut with Toleman-Hart in 1984, before moving to Lotus-Renault the following year and winning six Grands Prix over the next three seasons. In 1988, he joined Frenchman Alain Prost at McLaren-Honda. Between them, they won all but one of the 16 Grands Prix that year, Senna claimed his first World Championship. Prost claimed the championship in 1989, 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 been voted as the best and most influential Formula One driver of all time in various motorsport polls.
He was recognised for his qualifying speed over one lap, from 1989 until 2006 he 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, the 1993 European Grand Prix, he holds a record six victories at the Monaco Grand Prix, is the fifth-most successful driver of all time in terms of race wins. Senna courted controversy throughout his career 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 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. He was left-handed; the house where Senna spent the first four years of his life belonged to João Senna.
It was located on the corner of Avenida Aviador Guilherme with Avenida Gil Santos Dumont, less than 100 meters from Campo de Marte, a large area where they operated the Aeronautics Material park and an airport. Senna was athletic, excelling in gymnastics and other sports, developed an interest in cars and motor racing at the age of four, he suffered from poor motor coordination and had trouble climbing stairways by the age of three. An electroencephalogram found, his parents gave Senna the nickname "Beco". At the age of seven, Senna first learned to drive a Jeep around his family's farm and gained the advantage of changing gears without the use of a clutch. Senna attended Colegio Rio Branco in the São Paulo neighbourhood of Higienópolis 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, but dropped out after three months. Overall, his grades amounted up to 68%. Senna's 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, his father supported Lucio Pascal Gascon soon managed the developing talent. Senna went on to win the South American Kart Championship in 1977, he contested the Karting World Championship each year from 1978 to 1982, finishing runner-up in 1979 and 1980. In 1978, he was the teammate of Terry Fullerton, from whom Senna felt was the rival he got the most satisfaction racing against because of the lack of money and politics at that level. In 1981, Senna moved to England to begin single-seater racing, winning the RAC and Townsend-Thoreson Formula Ford 1600 Championships that year with the Van Diemen team. Despite this, Senna did not believe he would continue in motorsport. At the end of that season, under pressure from his parents to take up a role in the family business, Senna announced his retirement from Formula Ford and returned to Brazil. Before leaving England, Senna was offered a drive with a Formula Ford 2000 team for £10,000.
Back in Brazil, he returned to live in England. As da Silva is the most common Brazilian surname, he instead adopted his mother's maiden name, Senna. Senna went on to win the 1982 European Formula Ford 2000 championships. For that season, Senna arrived with sponsorship from Pool. In 1983, Senna drove in the British Formula Three Championship for the West Surrey Racing team, he dominated the first half of the season until Martin Brundle, driving a similar car for Eddie Jordan Racing, closed the gap in the second part of the championship. Senna won the title at the final round after a fought and, at times, acrimonious battle with the Briton. In November that year, Senna triumphed at the inaugural Macau Formula 3 Grand Prix with Teddy Yip's Toyota-powered Theodore Racing Team. In 1983, Senna tested for Formula One teams Williams, McLaren and Toleman. Peter Warr of Lotus, Ron Dennis of McLaren, Bernie Ecclestone of Brabham made offers for testing in 1984 and presented long-term contracts that tied Senna to driving on.
During his test for Williams at the 3.149-km Donington Park circuit, Senna completed 40 la
Drum
The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel-Sachs classification system, it is a membranophone. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, stretched over a shell and struck, either directly with the player's hands, or with a percussion mallet, to produce sound. There is a resonance head on the underside of the drum tuned to a lower pitch than the top drumhead. Other techniques have been used to cause drums to make sound, such as the thumb roll. Drums are the world's oldest and most ubiquitous musical instruments, the basic design has remained unchanged for thousands of years. Drums may be played individually, with the player using a single drum, some drums such as the djembe are always played in this way. Others are played in a set of two or more, all played by the one player, such as bongo drums and timpani. A number of different drums together with cymbals form the basic modern drum kit. Drums are played by striking with the hand, or with one or two sticks.
A wide variety of sticks are used, including wooden sticks and sticks with soft beaters of felt on the end. In jazz, some drummers use brushes for a smoother, quieter sound. In many traditional cultures, drums are used in religious ceremonies. Drums are used in music therapy hand drums, because of their tactile nature and easy use by a wide variety of people. In popular music and jazz, "drums" refers to a drum kit or a set of drums, "drummer" to the person who plays them. Drums acquired divine status in places such as Burundi, where the karyenda was a symbol of the power of the king; the shell always has a circular opening over which the drumhead is stretched, but the shape of the remainder of the shell varies widely. In the Western musical tradition, the most usual shape is a cylinder, although timpani, for example, use bowl-shaped shells. Other shapes include a frame design, truncated cones, goblet shaped, joined truncated cones. Drums with cylindrical shells can be open at one end, or can have two drum heads, one head on each end.
Single-headed drums consist of a skin stretched over an enclosed space, or over one of the ends of a hollow vessel. Drums with two heads covering both ends of a cylindrical shell have a small hole somewhat halfway between the two heads. Exceptions include the African slit drum known as a log drum as it is made from a hollowed-out tree trunk, the Caribbean steel drum, made from a metal barrel. Drums with two heads can have a set of wires, called snares, held across the bottom head, top head, or both heads, hence the name snare drum. On some drums with two heads, a hole or bass reflex port may be cut or installed onto one head, as with some 2010s era bass drums in rock music. On modern band and orchestral drums, the drumhead is placed over the opening of the drum, which in turn is held onto the shell by a "counterhoop", held by means of a number of tuning screws called "tension rods" that screw into lugs placed evenly around the circumference; the head's tension can be adjusted by tightening the rods.
Many such drums have six to ten tension rods. The sound of a drum depends on many variables—including shape, shell size and thickness, shell materials, counterhoop material, drumhead material, drumhead tension, drum position and striking velocity and angle. Prior to the invention of tension rods, drum skins were attached and tuned by rope systems—as on the Djembe—or pegs and ropes such as on Ewe drums; these methods are used today, though sometimes appear on regimental marching band snare drums. The head of a talking drum, for example, can be temporarily tightened by squeezing the ropes that connect the top and bottom heads; the tabla is tuned by hammering a disc held in place around the drum by ropes stretching from the top to bottom head. Orchestral timpani can be tuned to precise pitches by using a foot pedal. Several factors determine the sound a drum produces, including the type and construction of the drum shell, the type of drum heads it has, the tension of these drumheads. Different drum sounds have different uses in music.
For example, the modern Tom-tom drum. A jazz drummer may want drums that are high pitched and quiet whereas a rock drummer may prefer drums that are loud and low-pitched; the drum head has the most effect on. Each type of drum head has its own unique sound. Double-ply drumheads dampen high frequency harmonics because they are heavier and they are suited to heavy playing. Drum heads with a white, textured coating on them muffle the overtones of the drum head producing a less diverse pitch. Drum heads with central silver or black dots tend to muffle the overtones more, while drum heads with perimeter sound rings eliminate overtones; some jazz drummers avoid using thick drum heads, preferring single ply drum heads or drum heads with no muffling. Rock drummers prefer the thicker or coated drum heads; the second biggest factor that affects drum sound is head tension against the shell. When the hoop is placed around the drum head and shell and tightened down with tension rods, the tension of the head can be adjusted.
When the tension is increased, the amplitude of the sound is reduced and the frequency is increased, making the pitch higher and the volume lower. The type of shell affects the sound of a drum; because the vibrati
Autodromo Nazionale Monza
The Autodromo Nazionale Monza is a historic race track located near the city of Monza, north of Milan, in Italy. Built in 1922, it is the world's third purpose-built motor racing circuit after those of Brooklands and Indianapolis; the circuit's biggest event is the Formula One Italian Grand Prix. With the exception of 1980, the race has been hosted there since the series's inception. Built in the Royal Villa of Monza park in a woodland setting, the site has three tracks – the 5.793-kilometre Grand Prix track, the 2.405-kilometre Junior track, a 4.250-kilometre high speed oval track with steep bankings, unused for many decades and is now decaying. The major features of the main Grand Prix track include the Curva Grande, the Curva di Lesmo, the Variante Ascari and the Curva Parabolica; the high speed curve, Curva Grande, is located after the Variante del Rettifilo, located at the end of the front straight or Rettifilo Tribune, is taken flat out by Formula One cars. Drivers are on full throttle for most of the lap due to its long straights and fast corners, is the scenario in which the open-wheeled Formula One cars show the raw speed of which they are capable: 372 kilometres per hour during the mid-2000s V10 engine formula, although in 2012 with the 2.4L V8 engines, top speeds in Formula One reached over 340 kilometres per hour.
The circuit is flat, but has a gradual gradient from the second Lesmos to the Variante Ascari. Due to the low aerodynamic profile needed, with its resulting low downforce, the grip is low. Since both maximum power and minimal drag are keys for speed on the straights, only competitors with enough power or aerodynamic efficiency at their disposal are able to challenge for the top places. In addition to Formula One, the circuit hosted the 1000 km Monza, endurance sports car race held as part of the World Sportscar Championship and the Le Mans Series. Monza featured the unique Race of Two Worlds events, which attempted to run Formula One and USAC National Championship cars against each other; the racetrack previously held rounds of the Grand Prix motorcycle racing, World Touring Car Championship, TCR International Series, Superbike World Championship, Formula Renault 3.5 Series and Auto GP. Monza hosts rounds of the Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup, International GT Open and Euroformula Open Championship, as well as various local championships such as the TCR Italian Series, Italian GT Championship, Porsche Carrera Cup Italia and Italian F4 Championship.
The Monza circuit has been the site of many fatal accidents in the early years of the Formula One world championship, has claimed the lives of 52 drivers and 35 spectators. Track modifications have continuously occurred, to improve spectator safety and reduce curve speeds, but it is still criticised by the current drivers for its lack of run-off areas, most notoriously at the chicane that cuts the Variante della Roggia; the first track was built from May to July 1922 by 3,500 workers, financed by the Milan Automobile Club – which created the Società Incremento Automobilismo e Sport to run the track. The initial form was a 3.4 square kilometres site with 10 kilometres of macadamised road – comprising a 4.5 kilometres loop track, a 5.5 kilometres road track. The track was opened on 3 September 1922, with the maiden race the second Italian Grand Prix held on 10 September 1922. In 1928, the most serious Italian racing accident to date ended in the death of driver Emilio Materassi and 27 spectators at that year's Grand Prix.
The accident led to further Grand Prix races confinement to the high-speed loop until 1932. The 1933 race was marked by the deaths of three drivers and the Grand Prix layout was changed, with two chicanes added and the longer straights removed. There was major rebuilding in 1938–39, constructing new stands and entrances, resurfacing the track, moving portions of the track and adding two new bends; the resulting layout gave a Grand Prix lap of 6.300 kilometres, in use until 1954. The outbreak of World War II meant racing at the track was suspended until 1948 and parts of the circuit degraded due to the lack of maintenance. Monza was renovated over a period of two months at the beginning of 1948 and a Grand Prix was held on 17 October 1948. In 1954, work began to revamp the circuit, resulting in a 5.750 kilometres course, a new 4.250 kilometres high-speed oval with banked sopraelevata curves. The two circuits could be combined to re-create the former 10 kilometres long circuit, with cars running parallel on the main straight.
The track infrastructure was updated and improved to better accommodate the teams and spectators. The Automobile Club of Italy held 500-mile Race of Two Worlds exhibition competitions, intended to pit United States Auto Club IndyCars against European Formula One and sports cars; the races were held on the oval at the end of June in 1957 and 1958, with three 63 lap 267.67 kilometres heat races each year, races which colloquially became known as the Monzanapolis series. Concerns were raised among the European drivers that flat-out racing on the banking would be too dangerous, so only Ecurie Ecosse and Maserati represented European racing at the
Scuderia Ferrari
Scuderia Ferrari S.p. A. is the racing division of luxury Italian auto manufacturer Ferrari and the racing team that competes in Formula One racing. The team is nicknamed "The Prancing Horse", with reference to their logo, it is the oldest surviving and most successful Formula One team, having competed in every world championship since the 1950 Formula One season. The team was founded by Enzo Ferrari to race cars produced by Alfa Romeo, though by 1947 Ferrari had begun building its own cars. Among its important achievements outside Formula One are winning the World Sportscar Championship, 24 Hours of Le Mans, 24 Hours of Spa, 24 Hours of Daytona, 12 Hours of Sebring, Bathurst 12 Hour, races for Grand tourer cars and racing on road courses of the Targa Florio, the Mille Miglia and the Carrera Panamericana; as a constructor, Ferrari has a record 16 Constructors' Championships, the last of, won in 2008. 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 Räikkönen's title in 2007 the team narrowly lost out on the 2008 drivers' title with Felipe Massa and the 2010 and 2012 drivers' titles with Fernando Alonso. Michael Schumacher is the team's most successful driver. Joining the team in 1996 and departing in 2006 he won five drivers' titles and 72 Grands Prix for the team, his titles came consecutively between 2000 and 2004, the team won consecutive constructors' title from 1999 until the end of 2004. Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc are the two main 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 team's home race; the Scuderia Ferrari team was founded by Enzo Ferrari on 16 November 1929 and became the racing team of Alfa Romeo and racing Alfa Romeo cars. In 1938, Alfa Romeo management made the decision to re-enter racing under its own name, establishing the Alfa Corse organisation, which absorbed what had been Scuderia Ferrari. Enzo Ferrari disagreed with this change in policy and was dismissed by Alfa in 1939.
The terms of his leaving forbade him from motorsport for a period of four years. 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, 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, which would design and build its own cars; the team was based in Modena from its pre-war founding until 1943, when Enzo Ferrari moved the team to a new factory in Maranello in 1943, both Scuderia Ferrari and Ferrari's roadcar factory remain at Maranello to this day. The team owns and operates a test track on the same site, the Fiorano Circuit built in 1972, used for testing road and race cars; the team is named after Enzo Ferrari. Scuderia is Italian for a stable reserved for racing horses and is commonly applied to Italian motor racing teams.
The prancing horse was the symbol on Italian World War I ace Francesco Baracca's fighter plane, became the logo of Ferrari after the fallen ace's parents, close acquaintances of Enzo Ferrari, suggested that Ferrari use the symbol as the logo of the Scuderia, telling him it would'bring him good luck'. In May 1947, Ferrari constructed the 12-cylinder, 1.5 L Tipo 125, the first racing car to bear the Ferrari name. A Formula One version of the Tipo 125, the Ferrari 125 F1 was developed in 1948 and entered in several Grands Prix, at the time a World Championship had not yet been established. In 1950, the Formula One World Championship was established, Scuderia Ferrari entered in this first season, it is the only team to have competed in every season of the World Championship, from its inception to the current day. In fact the Ferrari team missed the first race of the championship, the 1950 British Grand Prix, due to a dispute about the'start money' paid to entrants, the team debuted in the 1950 Monaco Grand Prix with the 125 F1, sporting a supercharged version of the 125 V12, three experienced and successful drivers, Alberto Ascari, Raymond Sommer and Gigi Villoresi.
The company switched to the large-displacement aspirated formula for the 275, 340, 375 F1 cars. The Alfa Romeo team dominated the 1950 Formula One season, winning all eleven events it entered, but Ferrari broke their streak in 1951 when rotund driver José Froilán González took first place at the 1951 British Grand Prix. 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. Ferrari entered the 2.0 L 4-cyl Ferrari Tipo 500, which went on to win every race in which it competed in the 1952 Formula One season with drivers Ascari, Giuseppe Farina, Piero Taruffi. In the 1953 Formula One season, Ascari won only five races but another world title; the 1954 Formula One season brought new rules for 2.5 L engines. Ferrari had only two wins, González at the 1954 British Grand Prix and Mike Hawthorn a
1988 Formula One World Championship
The 1988 FIA Formula One World Championship was the 42nd season of FIA Formula One motor racing. It featured the 1988 Formula One World Championship for Drivers and the 1988 Formula One World Championship for Constructors, which were contested concurrently over a sixteen-race series that commenced on 3 April and ended on 13 November; the World Championship for Drivers was won by Ayrton Senna, the World Championship for Constructors by McLaren-Honda. Senna and McLaren teammate Alain Prost won fifteen of the sixteen races between them. McLaren's win tally has only been equalled in seasons with more than sixteen races; the following drivers and constructors competed in the 1988 season. The pre-season was a contentious time, with many theories of the championship flying around: whether the Honda engines would prove successful with McLaren; the Jim Clark and Colin Chapman cups, awarded the previous year for drivers and constructors who were using aspirated engines, had been withdrawn as such engines would become mandatory from 1989 onwards, with severe restrictions on turbocharged units for this season.
Of the eighteen teams on the grid, twelve – including Williams and Benetton – took the gamble of using either the new Judd CV or 1987's Cosworth DFZ V8 engines, to give themselves an extra year to get used to the new regulations. As they had a contract with Ford, Benetton had exclusive use of the Cosworth DFR engine; the DFR, a development of the customer DFZ engine used by various teams in 1988, was the most powerful non-turbo engine, producing 610 bhp. Six teams – McLaren and Lotus with their 650 bhp Honda engines, Ferrari produced around 660 bhp version of their 1987 engine, Arrows with their 640 bhp Megatron engines, Osella with the old Alfa Romeo 890T V8 turbo re-badged as the "Osella V8" which produced around 700 bhp, Zakspeed with their own 640 bhp 4cyl turbo – decided to build one last turbo car to make the most out of their experience using such engines, despite the aforementioned restrictions. Of the teams running turbocharged engines, only McLaren and Lotus produced new cars for the season, the McLaren MP4/4 and Lotus 100T.
Ferrari, Arrows and Osella all fronted with updated versions of their 1987 cars and engines. Honda went all out and produced the RA168E, designed to cope with the new 2.5 bar turbo limit and the lower fuel limit of 150 litres, down from 1987's 195 litre limit. This was hoped to give Honda teams an advantage as all other turbo engines had been designed for previous years higher boost levels and greater fuel allowance; the turbo powered cars were producing 300 bhp less than in 1987 thanks to the FIA's controversial pop-off valves. Introduced in 1987 to restrict turbo boost to 4.0 bar, this was further reduced in 1988 to only 2.5 bar, while the turbos were restricted to a fuel tank size of only 150 litres compared to a maximum of 215 litres for the "atmos". The March team introduced a new designer to Formula One in 1988, one who would go on to produce many Grand Prix and World Championship winning cars in his career. Adrian Newey designed the sleek looking and aerodynamically effective March 881 for the team's second season back in F1.
Like Williams, March took a gamble on the new 600 bhp Judd V8 engine. Looking for an advantage now that they couldn't rely on superior Honda turbo power, Williams added their reactive suspension system, introduced late in 1987, to the new Williams FW12. Lotus on the other hand, who had re-introduced active suspension to Formula One at the start of 1987, reverted to conventional suspension for their 1988 challenger, the Lotus 100T, due to the extra weight and the 5% engine power that the computer controlled system required to run properly; as Williams would find out, the power needed to run the suspension made the underpowered Judd V8 sluggish compared to its rivals. There were three new teams on the grid this year – BMS Scuderia Italia and EuroBrun – while Coloni was embarking on its first full season after entering two races towards the end of 1987. Between them, these four teams entered five cars, thus increasing the number of participants at each race to 31, it was decided that only 30 cars should be allowed to participate in the qualifying sessions, so pre-qualifying, used in several races during the late 1970s and early 1980s, was re-introduced.
For 1988, this consisted of the aforementioned five c
Honda in Formula One
Honda has participated in Formula One, as an entrant and engine supplier, for various periods since 1964. Honda's involvement in Formula One began with the 1964 season, they returned in 1983 as an engine supplier, a role that ended in 1992. They returned again in 2000. By the end of 2005 they had bought out the BAR team, based at Brackley, United Kingdom, renamed their new subsidiary Honda Racing, it was announced on 5 December 2008 that Honda would be exiting Formula One with immediate effect due to the global financial crisis and were looking to sell their team. On 27 February 2009 it was announced that team principal Ross Brawn had led a management buyout of the Brackley team; the team raced as Brawn GP in 2009. On 17 May 2013, Honda announced their intention to return to the sport in the 2015 season under a works agreement with McLaren to supply V6 engines and kinetic energy recovery system units; the Honda engines proved to be unreliable, fuel thirsty, underpowered, with Honda head calling the engine's reliability problems a "disaster".
McLaren split with Honda after three years, with Toro Rosso agreeing to use Honda engines in 2018. Following a successful season with Toro Rosso, the parent team Red Bull Racing agreed to take on Honda engines for the 2019 season. Honda entered Formula One Grand Prix racing in 1964 just four years after producing their first road car, they began development of the RA271 in 1962 and startled the European-dominated Formula One garages with their all-Japanese factory team. More startling was the fact that Honda built their own engine and chassis, something only Ferrari and BRM – of the other teams still running in 1962 – had done. In only their second year of competition, Honda reached the coveted top step of the podium with Ginther's win in the RA272 at the 1965 Mexican Grand Prix. For the new 3.0L rules from 1966, Honda introduced the Honda RA273. Although the RA273's engine was a well-designed, ~360 bhp V12, the car was let down by a heavy and unwieldy in-house chassis. Honda returned to the winner's circle in 1967 with the new Honda RA300, driven by John Surtees.
This won the 1967 Italian Grand Prix in only its first Formula One race. The RA300 chassis was designed by Lola in the UK, this resulted in the car being nicknamed the Hondola by the motoring press; this was the last competitive car. The following year's Honda RA301 only reached the podium twice; the team's new Honda RA302 appeared in only a single race at Rouen-Les-Essarts, lasting only a few laps before its fiery crash resulted in the death of driver Jo Schlesser. The death prompted Honda to withdraw from Formula One at the end of the 1968 season. From 1993 to 1998, Honda's only presence in Formula One was as an engine supplier through its related but independent partner, Mugen Motorsports, who supplied engines to Footwork, Ligier and Jordan. Mugen-powered cars had won 4 Grands Prix by the end of the 1999 season. In 1998, Honda was considering entry in Formula One as a constructor, going as far as producing an engine and hiring Harvey Postlethwaite as technical director and designer. In addition, Honda pulled engineer Kyle Petryshen from HRC to help with the design and management of the new engine in the new chassis.
A test car, RA099, designed by Postlethwaite and built by Dallara, was made and tested during 1999, driven by Jos Verstappen. The team impressed at test sessions, beating some more experienced and better financed teams if they were in the midfield. At a test of this car, Postlethwaite suffered a fatal heart attack, the project was shelved and Honda decided to recommit as a full works engine supplier to BAR, starting in 2000. In September 2005 Honda purchased the remaining 55% share of BAR to become the sole owner. BAT continued as title sponsor with the Lucky Strike brand in 2006, but withdrew from Formula 1 for 2007, it was decided that the team would race under the name Honda Racing F1 Team from 2006. Despite showing promise pre-season, Honda demonstrated mediocre performance at the start of the 2006 season despite a pole position at Australia. Prior to their win at Hungary, they had only accumulated a single podium finish, a third place from Jenson Button at Malaysia; the main reason for lack of form was down to reliability, with the team dropping out of contention for race victories many times.
Pit-stop problems hampered the team early on, in one case ruining Jenson Button's chances for a good result and possible podium at Imola. Rubens Barrichello did not have a good season for the team, down to the fact that he had to get used to the new brakes and traction control, after moving from a successful six-year stint at Ferrari. Rubens had out-qualified his teammate in two of the final four races. Honda had a poor showing at the British Grand Prix in 2006. In particular, Jenson Button was eliminated after the first portion of qualifying after the team failed to get him out for a second run; this resulted in his qualifying 19th. He retired with an oil leak. In light of this poor form, it was announced that Geoff Willis would be adopting a factory-based role to concentrate on aerodynamics. Following the appointment of Senior Technical Director Shuhei Nakamoto over Willis' head and Mariano Alperin-Bruvera as Chief Aerodynamicist Willis' positi
Formula One
Formula One is the highest class of single-seater auto racing sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile and owned by the Formula One Group. The FIA Formula One World Championship has been one of the premier forms of racing around the world since its inaugural season in 1950; the word "formula" in the name refers to the set of rules to which all participants' cars must conform. A Formula One season consists of a series of races, known as Grands Prix, which take place worldwide on purpose-built circuits and on public roads; the results of each race are evaluated using a points system to determine two annual World Championships: one for drivers, the other for constructors. Drivers must hold valid Super Licences, the highest class of racing licence issued by the FIA; the races must run on tracks graded "1", the highest grade-rating issued by the FIA. Most events occur in rural locations on purpose-built tracks, but several events take place on city streets. Formula One cars are the fastest regulated road-course racing cars in the world, owing to high cornering speeds achieved through the generation of large amounts of aerodynamic downforce.
The cars underwent major changes in 2017, allowing wider front and rear wings, wider tyres, resulting in cornering forces closing in on 6.5g and top speeds of up to 375 km/h. As of 2019 the hybrid engines are limited in performance to a maximum of 15,000 rpm and the cars are dependent on electronics—although traction control and other driving aids have been banned since 2008—and on aerodynamics and tyres. While Europe is the sport's traditional base, the championship operates globally, with 11 of the 21 races in the 2018 season taking place outside Europe. With the annual cost of running a mid-tier team—designing and maintaining cars, transport—being US$120 million, Formula One has a significant economic and job-creation effect, its financial and political battles are reported, its high profile and popularity have created a major merchandising environment, which has resulted in large investments from sponsors and budgets. On 8 September 2016 Bloomberg reported that Liberty Media had agreed to buy Delta Topco, the company that controls Formula One, from private-equity firm CVC Capital Partners for $4.4 billion in cash and convertible debt.
On 23 January 2017 Liberty Media confirmed the completion of the acquisition for $8 billion. The Formula One series originated with the European Grand Prix Motor Racing of the 1930s; the formula is a set of rules. Formula One was a new formula agreed upon after World War II during 1946, with the first non-championship races being held that year. A number of Grand Prix racing organisations had laid out rules for a world championship before the war, but due to the suspension of racing during the conflict, the World Drivers' Championship was not formalised until 1947; the first world championship race was held at Silverstone, United Kingdom in 1950. A championship for constructors followed in 1958. National championships existed in the UK in the 1960s and 1970s. Non-championship Formula One events were held for many years, but due to the increasing cost of competition, the last of these occurred in 1983. On 26 November 2017, Formula One unveiled its new logo, following the 2017 season finale in Abu Dhabi during the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix at Yas Marina Circuit.
The new logo replaced F1's iconic'flying one', the sport's trademark since 1993. After a hiatus in European motor racing brought about by the outbreak of World War II in 1939, the first World Championship for Drivers was won by Italian Giuseppe Farina in his Alfa Romeo in 1950, narrowly defeating his Argentine teammate Juan Manuel Fangio. However, Fangio won the title in 1951, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1957, his streak interrupted by two-time champion Alberto Ascari of Ferrari. Although the UK's Stirling Moss was able to compete he was never able to win the world championship, is now considered to be the greatest driver never to have won the title. Fangio, however, is remembered for dominating Formula One's first decade and has long been considered the "Grand Master" of Formula One; this period featured teams managed by road car manufacturers Alfa Romeo, Mercedes-Benz, Maserati. The first seasons were run using pre-war cars like Alfa's 158, they were front-engined, with narrow tyres and 1.5-litre supercharged or 4.5-litre aspirated engines.
The 1952 and 1953 World Championships were run to Formula Two regulations, for smaller, less powerful cars, due to concerns over the paucity of Formula One cars available. When a new Formula One, for engines limited to 2.5 litres, was reinstated to the world championship for 1954, Mercedes-Benz introduced the advanced W196, which featured innovations such as desmodromic valves and fuel injection as well as enclosed streamlined bodywork. Mercedes drivers won the championship for two years, before the team withdrew from all motorsport in the wake of the 1955 Le Mans disaster. An era of British dominance was ushered in by Mike Hawthorn and Vanwall's championship wins in 1958, although Stirling Moss had been at the forefront of the sport without securing the world title. Between Hawthorn, Jim Clark, Jackie Stewart, John Surtees and Graham Hill, British drivers won nine Drivers' Championships and British teams won fourteen Constructors' Championsh
