Profiles Index

Brawn GP: Celebrated Technical Director Leads Management Buyout of Honda
Brawn GP was born suddenly in March of 2009, three weeks before the start of the new season as a result of the equally as sudden pullout by Honda Motor Co. from F1 three months before. After six seasons powering the BAR cars as an engine provider, the Honda Motor Co. bought the team and raced under its own name from 2006, only to withdraw entirely from the sport after it said the economic crisis that reduced car sales forced it to cut back and quit Formula 1. Ross Brawn bought the team.

Scuderia Toro Rosso: Former Minardi F1 Team Reinvents Itself as Red Bull B-Team
Toro Rosso was built on the base of the Minardi Formula 1 team after the Red Bull energy drink company bought it in 2005 as the second team in its F1 empire. In fact, Toro Rosso means Red Bull in Italian. But not long after the Austrian company bought the team, it sold half of the shares to Gerhard Berger, the former Formula 1 driver, who took over the job of directing the team. By 2008 it won its first race, and Red Bull bought back Berger's shares to own the team 100 percent.

Force India: A Country Increases its Formula 1 Involvement
The Force India F1 team grew out of the Spyker team, which grew from the former Jordan team, by way of a year as the Midland F1 team. Bought in 2007 by the Indian financial tycoon, Vijay Mallya, the team is seen as a first step toward a greater involvement by India in Formula 1 racing. This should culminate in an Indian Grand Prix by 2010.

Renault: Formula 1 World Champions Against the Odds
Although the Renault car manufacturer was long one of the most successful engine builders in Formula 1, it was not until 2005 that Renault managed to win a world constructors' title as both engine and chassis builder. It also won the drivers' title that year with Fernando Alonso, and then won both titles again in 2006. The team lost Alonso for 2007, dropped in the standings, but rehired the Spaniard for 2008 and won two races.

Honda: Fourth Most Victorious F1 Engine Maker Returns as a Full Team
After six seasons powering the BAR cars as an engine provider, the Honda Motor Co. bought the team and raced under its own name from 2006. It was the second period of the Japanese company as a full fledged team in Formula 1, after it raced in F1 from 1964 to 1968 building both the chassis and the engine. It also turned out to be good luck for the fourth most victorious engine building company, as Honda won its first race since the Italian Grand Prix of 1967 at the Hungarian Grand Prix in 2006.

McLaren Mercedes: F1's Second Most Successful Team
McLaren Mercedes is the second most successful Formula 1 team, behind Ferrari. It has won races in five different decades of racing in the FIA Formula 1 world championship. From its earliest years, in the 1960s, it has been one of the top teams. It made a successful transition to new management in the early 1980s, when Ron Dennis took over running the team, and the period when Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna raced as team mates was one of the strongest in F1 history.

Spyker: The Little Team With Big Ambitions, and a Name
The Spyker F1 team grew out of the former Jordan team, by way of a year as the Midland F1 team. Bought in 2006 by the Dutch sports car company Spyker Cars N.V., it has ambitions - like Ferrari or McLaren - to sell sports cars using the racing team's name as a draw. Spyker uses Ferrari engines, and as a sign of its ambitions, it hired Mike Gascoyne, one of Formula 1's top technical directors.

Ferrari: Formula 1's Most Successful Team Enters a New Era
Ferrari is the only Formula 1 team to have raced in the series since the championship was founded in 1950. It is also the most successful team in F1 history. After dominating for the last decade and breaking F1 team records with Michael Schumacher driving, Ferrari now enters a new era after the German's retirement.

Williams: A Racer's Team, an Engineer's Team - but Where to From Here?
Williams is the third most successful team in the history of Formula 1, behind Ferrari and McLaren. But the team, joint owned by Frank Williams and Patrick Head, has not won a world title since 1997. After a brief return to the forefront in 2003, the team dropped down, but not out. It starts the 2007 season with a new engine supplier, in Toyota, and new hopes.

Super Aguri: A Small F1 Team Takes on the Giants
Founded in 2006 by Aguri Suzuki, a former Formula 1 driver, the Super Aguri team had the help of the Honda Motor Company as it set up as an F1 racing team to support the career of Takuma Sato. Both Sato and Suzuki are stars in Japan, and the Honda team dropped Sato for the 2006 season. Suzuki created the team in just a few months prior to the 2006 season. The team succeeded in finishing as high as 10th place in a race at the end of the season.

Red Bull Racing: The Fun Team With the Big Ambitions
The Red Bull Racing Formula 1 team joined the sport in 2005 after buying the Jaguar team. After a first promising season, it did less well in its second year. But by hiring one of the best technical directors in the sport, Adrian Newey, and changing to the world champion Renault engine, the 2007 season looks promising. The team is part of the marketing program of the Red Bull Austrian energy drink company. Red Bull is involved in many sports around the world.

Toyota: A Bold Team With Racing at its Heart Makes its Own Way in Formula 1
Unlike all of the other car manufacturer teams now in Formula 1, Toyota took a big chance by starting up a completely new team from scratch when it entered the series in 2002. It had spent several years preparing for the step, and scored only two points that year. But the team has worked methodically and built up its level of competitiveness until it finished fourth in the series in 2005. In 2006 it dropped back to sixth, but only one point behind BMW in fifth. 2007 is a crucial year.

BMW Sauber: A Team to Challenge the Old Guard
Although the BMW Sauber team is in only its second year as a full car manufacturer team, it was built on the solid basis of the team founded by Peter Sauber. The Sauber team was always a top team in style, although it never found the budget necessary to graduate to the next level. Since BMW bought the Swiss team based in Hinwil, it has invested in the factory and staff in a way that Sauber was never able to do.