Features
Men of the year
The Talent Scout
Flavio Briatore and the F1 Renault Team
When you've dated Naomi Campbell and Heidi Klum, it's something when you remain best known for the boys you've brought to the party.
Briatore's talent is not like that of team number ones at McLaren, Ferrari or Williams - we suspect he knows even less than James Allen about what made the Renault RS25 so fast. But he knows how to win; his talent is talent.
At the beginning of the Nineties, when Briatore came to F1, all he knew was who was good. Piece by piece, a team came together at Benetton,
engineers, aerodynamicists, strategists and then at Monza in 1991 a driver - Michael Schumacher.
Championships soon followed. Now at Renault
history has repeated itself - and Briatore has found us a new hero.
'Good design means these cars can turn markets on their heads. If not this time around, then next'
The Catalyst
Takeo Fukui, the man driving the Honda
'A Japanese BMW'. More like a Japanese Audi. Takeo Fukui, chief executive of Honda, began to roll out his masterplan in 2005 and it's got everyone in the industry taking notice.
We knew Honda had brilliant engineers
(Fukui's CV reads like a glossary of automotive engineering innovation), but indifferent designers.
The perfect storm European and US car makers so feared - Japanese quality and engineering married to great design - remained a distant nightmare until new the Accord and now the new Civic.
Good design means these cars can turn markets on their heads. And if they don't do it this time around, they will next. Honda plays a long game, hence its committment to fuel cells and F1. Losing won't be tolerated.
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