With just two 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!

Some cars are better than others, and most cars were better than the Brabham BT59. The BT59 started its life in the third race of 1990. As it did, Gregor Foitek was replaced by David Brabham, the youngest son of Jack Brabham. The vast difference in experience between Brabham and his teammate Stefano Modena clearly showed in qualifying. Brabham missed the cut six times, while never qualifying higher than 21st. Modena on the other hand managed to qualify in the top ten three times in the first half of the season, two of which were with the BT59.

The closest the BT59 came to scoring points was in the Canadian Grand Prix. After a wet start the track began to dry and through solid racing Modena moved up place after place as others retired. When the entire field had switched to slicks, the Brabham driver was back in the tenth position he had started from, after which retirements of Jean Alesi, Riccardo Patrese and Martin Donnelly helped him up to seventh place. However, that's where it stopped. Despite reducing the gap to number six Derek Warwick by nearly 20 seconds in the last ten laps, the gap was just too big to move into the points, leaving Modena rather more frustrated than a seventh place warranted.

After the Canadian race things started to go downhill rapidly. Even Modena couldn't put the BT59 in the top half of the grid anymore, as a lack of development meant the competition overtook them left and right. Retirements became more and more frequent and it was clear that Brabham was on its way out of Formula One.

David Coulthard has been on the F1 podium a total of 60 times so far. He won 13 times, finished second 26 times, and third 21 times.

Coulthard's first podium was in the 1994 Portuguese Grand Prix, driving for Williams, where he finish just 0.603 seconds behind teammate and race winner Damon Hill. In 1995, Coulthard finished on the podium for eigth times - including a win in the Portuguese Grand Prix.

In 1996, Coulthard moved to McLaren. His first podium at the Woking based outfit was in the 1996 European Grand Prix, where he finished third behind first time Grand Prix winner Jacques Villeneuve and second place Michael Schumacher. Coulthard's best year, podiums-wise, was in 2000, when he was on the podium for eleven times.

In last season Coulthard was on the podium only three times. In the first race of the year, the Australian Grand Prix, Coulthard took the victory. It would then take until the German Grand Prix before he would be on the podium again - this time as second behind race winner Juan Pablo Montoya. And, in the final race of the year, in Japan, Coulthard finished third - behind race winner Rubens Barrichello and his teammate Kimi Raikkonen.

In the 22 years that BRM took part in Formula One, the Britsh constructor finished 61 times on the podium. In their first full season, in 1958, both Harry Schell and Jean Behra were on the podium in Zandvoort. The next Dutch Grand Prix gave BRM their first victory, when Jo Bonnier won. In that year and the two following, Stirling Moss, Graham Hill and Tony Brooks gave BRM podium finishes.

By 1962, Graham Hill and Ritchie Ginther collected eight podium finishes between them, a one-two at Monza and the Constructors' Championship. The next year was even better, with ten podiums and a 1-2 finish in Monaco as well as in America. However, the Championship went to Lotus, as Jim Clark single-handedly scored more points than any team. 1964 gave BRM only seven podiums, but again a one-two in Monaco, showing their supremacy on the tight and twisty track for the second consecutive year.

In the next season Ginther was replaced by Jackie Stewart, making the BRM line-up a very strong one. However, once again eleven podium finishes weren't enough to beat Jim Clark and Lotus, leaving the team with a bad feeling after their best season.

From then on podiums became scarce for BRM. Stewart and Hill collected six in the next two years, after which Pedro Rodriguez was the only other driver to score multiple podiums for BRM until 1971. In that year, Jo Siffert scored two. In the six years that ended BRM, only two more podiums were scored, both by Jean Pierre Beltoise.

Since 1950, 45 German drivers competed in Formula One and managed to be on pole position for 62 times.

With 55 poles, Michael Schumacher holds most of the German pole positions - ranking himself second overall behind Ayrton Senna. Ironically, though, Schumacher's first pole - at the 1994 Monaco Grand Prix - was actually a second place on the grid because the pole position was left empty in honour of Ayrton Senna who had died the race before. Schumacher's most successful year in terms of pole positions was 2001, where he was on pole for 11 out of 17 races.

The World Champion's brother, Ralf Schumacher, ranks second in the list of German pole holders, with 4 poles. In the 2001 French Grand Prix he put his Williams 0.014 of a second in front of his brother's Ferrari, giving himself his first pole position and Williams's first pole since the 1997 European Grand Prix.

However, Schumacher was not the first German to put his car on pole. In the 1961 Italian Grand Prix, Wolfgang von Trips was on pole position for the first and last time in his career; during the race Von Trips crashed and died.

The last German, other than the Schumacher brothers, to have so far set a pole position is Opel's new DTM driver Heinz-Harald Frentzen. In the 1997 Monaco Grand Prix - three years after Michael Schumacher's first - Frentzen put his Williams on pole. In the race, however, it didn't bring him much luck. Williams thought the rain would soon end and let both Frentzen and his then-teammate Jacques Villeneuve start on dry-weather tyres (slicks) in what would become one of the wettest Monaco Grands Prix in recent history. On lap 39, Frentzen spun out of the race.

From 1982 to 1988, the streets of Detroit were the scene of one of the American Grands Prix held in those years. After some changes in the first two years, the race settled for a 63 lap format around a 4,034-metres course along the western bank of Detroit River.

Centered around the Renaissance Center, the track mostly squeezed itself between an assortment of skyscrapers. Just like the track on the other side of the ocean in Monte Carlo, the Detroit track also made the drivers go from light to dark to light through a long tunnel.

On the asphalt that was normally serving every day traffic, the Formula One cars reached average speed of up to 147 km/h in qualifying. Considering the fact that most of the track consisted of short straights and slow corners, this was really ripping apart the asphalt in the late July heat. This was especially an issue in the 1985 race, when numerous drivers crashed out because the asphalt was literally crumbling down under their wheels.

Whether it was because of the characteristics it shared with the track in Monaco or something else, Ayrton Senna certainly went well in Detroit: the Brazilian won the last three events held on the street circuit.

Teo Fabi drove a total of 64 races between 1982 and 1987. He started his career with Toleman, where he struggled to qualify for most of the 1982 season. The first time Fabi made it into the race was in the San Marino Grand Prix, where the boycot of the FOCA teams meant that there was in fact no elimitation in qualifying. This was also the only time Fabi saw the chequered flag during the 1982 season, but being eight laps down meant he wasn't classified after all.

After that season, Fabi left the team to race in the American CART series in 1983, where he finished second in the championship after winning four races. For 1984 Fabi returned to Formula One, driving for Brabham. However, the Italian was still under contract in the CART series and therefore had to skip the Formula One races that conflicted with CART. On three occasions his place was taken by his brother Corrado Fabi. In Detroit, Teo scored his first podium finish as many drivers retired.

In 1985 Fabi returned to Toleman, now fully concentrating on Formula One. The season was a complete disaster. Only in his home Grand Prix did Fabi see the chequered flag. However, the highlight of the year was the German Grand Prix. Held at the new Nurburgring, it gave Fabi his first Pole Position. The next season was little better, as he switched to the faster but equally unreliable Benetton. 1987 was his final Formula One season, giving him one more podium finish, in Austria.

The 1985 Portuguese Grand Prix was the starting point of what is certainly one of the most recognized records in Formula One: Ayrton Senna's 65 pole positions. That the first Pole was no fluke was proven throughout the rest of the season. In only his second season, Senna set a total of seven pole positions in the Lotus-Renault.

The next year he continued to set his reputation as extremely fast qualifier by adding another eight poles to his total. 1987 then became a year with a small harvest: the Brazilian only put his car first on the grid at Imola, for the San Marino GP. However, it was an investment year. While the Lotus-Honda combination wasn't the strongest package available, it helped Senna further in his career.

For 1988 both Senna and Honda moved to McLaren. The combination was very dominant right away, achieving 13 pole positions in that season. The next year continued in similar fashion and in Phoenix, for the US Grand Prix, Senna broke Jim Clark's record of 33 poles. At the end of the year it was again 13 pole positions for the Brazilian, bringing his total to 42.

After that the total domination ended, but Senna was still good for respectively ten and eight poles in the following two years. After that, the flood of pole positions nearly stopped, as McLaren faded away and Williams dominated. In 1992 and 1993 Senna scored a single pole in each season, after which he moved to the strongest team again.

The first three races of 1994 saw Senna's Williams on pole, bringing his total to an unprecedented 65. Sadly, that was where it all stopped, when Ayrton Senna was killed at Imola, the circuit where he stood on pole position for an incredible seven consecutive races.

Previous 2004 Countdown Facts & Stats...