Word: driver
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...first appearance of Fernando Alonso, a Spaniard and former world champion, as a driver for Ferrari's Formula One racing team. Whenever he briefly poked his head out, crowds hooted wildly and waved red Ferrari hats and Spanish flags. Further down the paddock, where the F1 teams park their massive rolling pavilions, journalists were shoving microphones and cameras at another small man, this one all in silver. Michael Schumacher, the seven-time F1 world champion, was coming out of retirement in the livery of his new Mercedes team. The questions were not tough. "How does the car feel, Michael...
...fined $100 million after an engineer was caught with documents supplied by a rogue Ferrari employee. Then, last September, one of F1's most flamboyant team managers, Renault's Flavio Briatore, was barred from the sport for life after the FIA determined that he had ordered one of his drivers to crash in a 2008 race to help out Renault's other driver - Alonso, in this case. Briatore is still fighting the ban. (In January, a French court overturned it; the FIA is appealing that decision.) "At times it felt like the whole thing was imploding," says former F1 driver...
...negotiations that went nowhere, Mosley tried to impose a budget cap of $64 million per team. The teams couldn't figure out which they liked less, the cap or Mosley. "Max has an expression: 'Don't wound if you don't intend to kill,'" says Martin Brundle, a former driver who now commentates on F1 for television and manages drivers. "We've all been on the receiving end of that attitude, and it tended to smother all Max's good work." (See the most exciting cars...
...years. Last year's champion, Jenson Button, and 2008 winner Lewis Hamilton, both Brits, are driving for McLaren. Schumi's back and trying to win another championship at 41. Red Bull, last year's runner-up in the constructor's race, has a quick young German driver named Sebastian Vettel whose nickname is Baby Schumi. With Alonso and Felipe Massa behind the wheel, Ferrari is again a strong contender, and Ferrari, by general consensus and its own elevated self-image, is the beating red heart of F1. Three out of 4 fans who follow a team are Ferrari fans...
Ecclestone, a former driver and team owner, began to exert control over F1 in the late 1970s, when he got a lock on the sale of the sport's TV rights, its most valuable asset. In 2005 he sold most of his stake in Formula One Management to private equity firm CVC Capital Partners. But thanks to a complicated ownership structure, he's still the straw that stirs the drink. Ecclestone alone makes the big TV, sponsorship and track deals that keep F1's cash gushing. He rests his legacy on the numbers, and they are indeed impressive, not least...