Professor Sid Watkins

Sid Watkins is the Formula one doctor. With a fantastic sense of humour everybody loves his company and he has made a great many friends with drivers past and present.

He is a brain surgeon who has a passion for Formula one. He spends his weekends in the medical car with an ex-racer on circuit whilst the cars are on track ready to leap to assistance very fast if anything goes wrong.

He has all kinds of technical equipment in the car with him so that he can be up to speed with what's going on at every moment including a TV and radio communication with race control.

Max Mosley

Max Mosley is the President of the F.I.A. He is a qualified barrister and son of MP Oswald Mosley from the 30's.

Max became President of the F.I.A in 1991 after acting as lawyer for Bernie Ecclestone in the 80's. His involvement in the sport started before the 80's though, He founded March (a racing car manufacturer) in the 60's.

He was a key member of the creation of the Concorde agreement and has a lot to do with safety in motor sport.

He is well known for rows with teams and manufacturers whilst trying to implement and discuss new plans.

Ken Tyrrell

Ken was a part of motor racing for five decades and was a part of Formula one for thirty one years.

He was in the timber industry in the fifties and just raced cars for fun in F3 and F2. He became part of the management for Cooper F3 and in 1964 he came across Jackie Stewart. The two of them became a successful duo for years to come.

The team became Tyrrell, Stewart and Ford. However, when Stewart retired in 1973 the team suffered and never achieved the same glory again. Ken became involved in the organisation and politics of formula one and became quite a powerful man before Bernie Ecclestone arrived.

Like Colin Chapman he was responsible for introducing some big sponsors to Formula one such as Benetton who started life off at Tyrrell. He has a talent for spotting talented drivers and introduced Martin Brundle, Mark Blundell, and Johnny Herbert to name a few.

In 1998 he sold his team B.A.T (British American Tobacco) which evolved in to B.A.R.

Colin Chapman

Colin Chapman, born in 1928, had a huge impact on motor sport and had an immense influence on car design.

He built himself a car as a teenager and called it Lotus. In 1952 he was responsible for the creation of Lotus engineering after having so much success in club racing.

In 1958 he became an entrant in Formula one. Two years later he gained his first win with Stirling Moss and in 1963 and 1965 he won the World Championship. Four more Championships followed in 1968, 1970, 1972 and 1978.

Formula one became a rich sport after Chapman introduced Players as a tobacco sponsorship in 1968 and billions of pounds poured in.

In the fifties Chapman helped out other teams that were struggling, namely Vanwall and BRM, he designed their chassis for them.

Tragically Colin died from a massive heart attack in December 1982.

Charlie Whiting

Charlie Whiting is the FIA's Technical Director. He started life in racing as a mechanic in the Brabham team alongside Bernie Ecclestone.

Bernie realised his talent and potential and in 1988 he got promoted. With his knowledge he could make sure that no illegal cars would slip through the net.

These days he has more responsibilities that include FIA Race Director, Safety Delegate and head of F1 technical Department. He starts every race and decides when races get stopped and when and which flags go out. He also acts as politician to all the teams!

Bernie Ecclestone

Bernie Ecclestone is the big boss behind Formula 1. Love him or hate him he is a powerful man who has the ability to instil fear in to the mightiest of men.

Bernie started the F1 revolution in the 80's and started negotiations for television and marketing rights for all the teams involved in the sport.

He was a racer himself in the 50's but after a serious crash had to give up the sport he loved. Although he couldn't race, he refused to give up the entirely and went in to management. He went on to manage Stewart Lewis-Evans and Jochen Rindt.

He bought the Brabham team in the 70's and sold it on to become the man he is today.

Bernie is a very rich man. This is largely due to the fact he is a shrewd business man. He owns a network of companies with the exclusive right to the F.I.A's TV rights.