With more than two months gone since the end of the 2003 season and less than three months left before the 2004 season begins, the countdown to the Australian Grand Prix is running strong. However, this is Formula One, and behind every number there is always a story - so every day until the race in Melbourne, Atlas F1 will bring the numbers and the story behind them... Don't forget to check this page for a new addition every day!

Since 1950, no less than 66 French drivers entered Formula One. Alain Prost was of course the most successful of them all, collecting 51 wins, 4 Championships and nearly 800 points. Other successful French drivers include Jean Alesi, Jacques Laffite, Rene Arnoux and Didier Pironi.

Besides fast and famous drivers, France also gave us some less brilliant drivers. Philippe Alliot is the Frenchman with the most starts without a podium finish, namely 109. A special role in history is there for Jean-Louis Schlesser. This despite only starting in one Formula One race in his career. In the 1988 Italian Grand Prix, the Frenchman replaced Nigel Mansell and subsequently collided with Ayrton Senna, ending McLaren's eleven race winning streak and holding them to 15 out of 16 victories that season.

The French were present in Formula One from the first race in 1950, when Yves Giraud-Cabantous, Louis Rosier, Pierre Etancelin and Eugene Martin drove for the French Talbot-Lago team. In recent years there are only few French drivers. Since 1996, only Jean Alesi, Olivier Panis and Stephane Sarrazin have driven in Formula One.

The last French win was in the 1996 Monaco Grand Prix, where Olivier Panis won for Ligier in a race that saw only four cars cross the finish line. Since Alain Prost's retirement at the end of the 1993 season, the only other Frenchman to win a Grand Prix was Jean Alesi, when he steered his Ferrari to victory in the 1995 Canadian Grand Prix.

Between 1990 and 1997, Gianni Morbidelli started 67 Grands Prix. He was present at a race for 70 times but he failed to qualify for two and did not start in one Grand Prix.

His F1 career began with the 1990 United States Grand Prix in Phoenix, driving for the Dallara team. Although Morbidelli made it throught pre-qualifying, he failed to qualify for the race. After the next race in Brazil he left Dallara. For the last two races in 1990 and the 1991 season, he joined the Minardi team. Morbidelli scored the first points of his career in 1991. For the last race of the season he replaced Alain Prost at Ferrari and finished sixth in the shortest Grand Prix ever.

For the 1992 season it was back to Minardi and with a highest finishing position of seventh it ment another pointless year. After losing his seat in 1993, the Italian returned to Formula One in 1994 with Footwork/Arrows, scoring three points for them.

In 1995 he continued to drive for Footwork/Arrows with the Australian Grand Prix as the highlight of the year. On the final race held in Adelaide, Morbidelli put his Arrows on the podium behind Damon Hill and Olivier Panis. It was the last V8 powered car to score a podium position to this date.

After a year outside Formula One, Morbidelli made another comeback to Formula One with Sauber. He failed to impress and a ninth place was his highest classification. In his last Formula One race at Suzuka that year he crashed during qualifying and was unable to compete in the race due to a painfull hand.

From 1983 until 1987 McLaren started 68 Grands Prix with a TAG-Porsche engine. The combination made its debut late in the 1983 season, however those early races proved a total disaster: the car didn't finish a single race in the hands of Niki Lauda and John Watson.

From the start of the 1984 season, McLaren-TAG was very successful, winning no less than 12 races and grabbing both Championship titles. Alain Prost won seven races, while Niki Lauda was victorious five times. However, it was Lauda who won the Drivers' World Championship by a mere half point.

The next year the title was Prost's as the Frenchman proved much stronger than Lauda, who was clearly on his way to retirement. Prost consistently scored podium finishes, leaving the competition far behind in the end.

For 1986 Lauda was replaced by 1982 World Champion Keke Rosberg. However, the Finn was unsuccessful, scoring only one second place finish. Alain Prost, at the same time, continued his strong driving for McLaren-TAG, winning four races and once again the Championship, when both Williamses suffered problems late in the final Grand Prix at Adelaide.

The final year of TAG-Porsche in Formula One was considerably less successful. However, this had more to do with the rising force of Williams-Honda than a lack of performance on the part of the German engine manufacturer. Alain Prost won three more races, while his new teammate Stefan Johansson added four podium finishes to give the team a second place in the Championship.

After Renault left Formula One in 1997, Williams and Benetton were left behind without an engine manufacturer for the 1998 season. The French company Mecachrome stepped, taking over the development of the Renault engine. Williams called the engine Mecachrome and later Supertec while Benetton renamed the engine to one of the Benetton clothing brands: Playlife.

In the three season that Benetton used the Playlife engine they would score 69 points. Only two drivers competed with the engine: Alexander Wurz, now test driver for Mclaren, and Giancarlo Fisichella, now race driver for Sauber. Austrian Wurz scored 22 points over the three seasons with fourth as best finish position, which he achieved no less than five times in 1998.

In the same period, Giancarlo Fisichella scored 47 points. The Italian was especially strong in the Canadian Grand Prix, finishing second in both 1998 and 1999, while finishing third in the 2000 event. In Monaco Fisichella was also successful with a second in 1998 and third in 2000. The Italian also gave Playlife its only pole position, at the 1998 Austrian Grand Prix.

When it comes to wins in Formula One, the clear leader is Michael Schumacher. In his 13 seasons, the German collected no less than 70 wins - 19 more than number two, Alain Prost.

Schumacher's first win came exactly a year after his debut. In the rainy Ardennes, Schumacher got everything right and scored a clear victory at the 1992 Belgian GP over the usually dominant Williamses. Another win followed at the 1993 Portuguese Grand Prix, but it wasn't until 1994 that the German really broke through.

In his first Championship year, Schumacher won eight races. Nine more followed in his second Championship year, before he moved from Benetton to Ferrari. His first year in Maranello was clearly a year of rebuilding, yielding only three victories. However, the win in the pouring rain in Spain stands out as one of Schumacher's best ever races. The next year Schumacher was able to fight for the Championship until the final race, despite winning only five races.

Six victories in 1998 weren't enough to keep Mika Hakkinen from winning the championship. After that came a disaster year for the German, where a broken leg in the British Grand Prix held his win tally in 1999 to just two. However, Schumacher came back stronger than ever, winning four consecutive titles and scoring in 2000 through 2003 respectively nine, nine, eleven and six victories each year.

In its long history, Lotus drivers managed to set the fastest lap of the race 71 times. Just like most of the make's big successes, most of these have been done in the 1960s and 1970s. Especially Jim Clark contributed a great deal, setting 28 fastest laps. Other drivers in the sixties were Stirling Moss, Innes Ireland, John Surtees, Graham Hill, Jo Siffert, Jackie Oliver and Jochen Rindt.

Emerson Fittipaldi, Ronnie Peterson and Mario Andretti were Lotus's fast men in the seventies. Oddly enough, Fittipaldi scored all of his five fastest laps in 1973 and none in his Championship years of 1972 and 1974.

After Jean Pierre Jarier scored the fastest lap in the 1978 US Grand Prix, Lotus suffered a five year drought until Nigel Mansell repeated the feat at the 1983 European Grand Prix at Brands Hatch. In 1985 and 1987 Ayrton Senna added six more fastest laps to the make's tally, after which only one more followed. Satoru Nakajima set his only career fastest lap in the rain-shortened 1989 Australian Grand Prix for Lotus-Judd.

All of Jim Clark's 72 Grand Prix starts were for Lotus. Clark's career with the team started in 1960 and while most races that season didn't provide any remarkable results, the Scotsman did manage to score his first podium finish in the Portuguese Grand Prix. Despite a relatively small field and many retirements helping, this was a sign of things to come.

The next season results gradually improved, highlighted by third places in Holland and France. 1962 brought Clark his first win, when he came back from 12th on the grid at Spa to claim victory. Two more victories followed in Britain and America, giving the Scotsman second place in the Championship behind Graham Hill.

1963 then became the year of Jim Clark. After retiring from the lead at the first race in Monaco, Clark went on to win seven times in the following nine races. This gave him one of the most convincing Championship wins in Formula One history. The next year was less successful, mainly due to problems with the engine, but in 1965 Clark secured his second title early on by winning the first six races of the season. The next season was hampered by problems again, with a win in America as the only bright light.

1967 turned out to be Clark's final season. In a year where wins were as common as retirements, Clark finished third in the Championship. The first race of the 1968 season then became Clark's final race as well as his final victory. In a Formula Two race at Hockenheim, Jim Clark was killed in a crash.

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