With over a month 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!

In 1984 Brabham scored 38 points. In itself that's no miracle as it brought the team only the fourth position in the championship. However, the start of the season was a disaster for the team. The BMW engine was very powerful, but it was also a source of constant trouble. After six races Brabham was still without points and had finished only once.

So when the circus moved to North America, the trust in Brabham was rapidly fading away. An extra radiator at the front prevented the car from overheating and the car lasted the distance and Nelson Piquet led from start to finish. After the race it became clear how hard the race had been for the World Champion. The radiator had caused his right foot to burn, leaving a nasty blister.

The next week in Detroit, the Brazilian repeated the feat. This time without burns, but with a strong performance from teammate Teo Fabi behind him. The little Italian finished a well deserved third place. A few races later in Austria things were looking good until Piquet made an error on badly worn tyres. This allowed McLaren driver Niki Lauda to pass him and even though the Austrian ran into problems later on, Piquet only followed, unaware of Lauda's problems. In the end the Brabham drivers finished second and fourth.

Fabi managed a fifth place at Zandvoort, where Piquet retired early, while in a comfortable lead. The World Champion managed a third and sixth place in the final two races of the season, but Lotus was too far ahead by then.

In the four years since Stewart became Jaguar, the team in green has collected 39 points. The first of those came at the 2000 Monaco Grand Prix, where Eddie Irvine finished fourth. The Ulsterman finished in the points one more time that season with a sixth place in Malaysia. The four points put Jaguar ninth in the Constructors' Championship.

The following year showed a good improvement and with nine points the team finished a place higher in the standings. It was again Monaco where the team was successful and this time it was even better than in 2000. Eddie Irvine's third place meant the team's first podium finish. At the next race, in Canada, it was Irvine's teammate Pedro de la Rosa who scored a point. Both drivers went on to score a fifth place finish late in the season, de la Rosa in Italy and Irvine in America.

In 2002 things started off well with Irvine finishing fourth in the opening race in Australia. From there on it was a tough season with many retirements. However, towards the end of the season, Irvine reached the points twice more with a sixth in Belgium and a third in Italy. Despite scoring one point less, the team again finish a place higher in the standings.

Last year the new point system saw an obvious increase in points with new driver Mark Webber scoring four seventh places and three sixth places for a total of 17 points. In the American Grand Prix, Justin Wilson added another point to make the team total 18.

Christian Fittipaldi, the nephew of World Champion Emerson Fittipaldi, competed in Formula One between 1992 and 1994 for a total of 40 Grand Prix starts.

He started his career at the Minardi team, running alongside Gianni Morbidelli. Highlight of the year was the Japanese Grand Prix where he scored his first points by finishing sixth. For 1993, Fittipaldi continued to drive for Minardi and with much better luck. Already in the first race of the season he scored three points by finished fourth in the South African Grand Prix. In the Monaco Grand Prix, Christian finished fifth, bringing his total points in 1993 to five.

Fittipaldi will mostly be rememebered for being the first driver to finish a race upside down. In the last metres of the 1993 Italian Grand Prix he ran into the back of teammate Pierluigi Martini and was launched into the air.

In 1994 Christian Fittipaldi moved to Footwork/Arrows for his final season in Formula One. Highlights of the year were two fourth place finishes in the Pacific and German Grands Prix. After his Formula One career ended, Fittipaldi continued racing in the United States - first in Indycar/CART and now in NASCAR.

With his 41 wins, Ayrton Senna ranks third behind Michael Schumacher (70) and Alain Prost (51). The Brazilian started his winning in 1985 at Estoril, when he won the rain soaked Portuguese Grand Prix in his Lotus. Later in the season he added a second victory when he dominated in Spa, where conditions were again rainy.

In his second year at Lotus, Senna again scored two victories, in Jerez and Detroit. In 1987, his final year with Lotus, the Brazilian scored the first of his six Monaco victories and his second straight victory in the streets of Detroit, showing that he was something special on tight and turny street tracks.

For 1988 Ayrton Senna moved to McLaren and had the best season of his career. Eight victories helped him win the championship. The next year was a step back with only six wins. However, the same number of wins gave Senna his second World Championship in 1990. The year after, the Brazilian scored seven wins to claim his third championship in four years. However, that's where the McLaren domination ended and in 1992 Senna had to settle for just three wins against the nearly unbeatable Williams. The next year McLaren and Senna were without the Honda power that had brought them so many victories, but Senna performed strong nonetheless and secured five victories to bring his tally to 41.

In 1994, Senna moved to what had been the strongest team in the past two years in order to make a run for his fourth championship. Three pole positions didn't lead to success and on 1 May 1994, Ayrton Senna was killed at Imola, while leading the race.

Between 1993 and 1999 Damon Hill finished on the podium 42 times, ranking him 13th in the all time list of podium finishers. Out of those 42 podiums only two were not in a Williams. Damon Hill's first podium was in the 1993 Brazilian Grand Prix, his second Formula One race, where he finished second behind Ayrton Senna. In the remainder of 1993 Hill would be on the podium for nine more times including race wins in Hungary, Belgium and Italy.

Podium-wise, 1994 was Damon Hill's best season in Formula One, with 11 podium finishes. From the Spanish Grand Prix onwards Hill finished outside the podium only twice. Only in the German and Australian Grands Prix Hill finished outside the podium and points. In 1995 Hill finished on the podium for eight times including four wins. In his Championship winning year 1996 Hill finished on the podium for ten times.

The 1996 Japanese Grand Prix was Hill's 40th and last podium for Williams. In the Hungarian Grand Prix in 1997, Hill was close to doing the impossible and winning a race for Arrows, but after technical problems he had to settle for second place behind former teammate Jacques Villeneuve. Hill's final podium position was in the Belgian Grand Prix of 1998, where he won Jordan Grand Prix's first race.

Chassis manufacturer Lola competed in 148 Formula One races between 1962 and 1997. In those 148 races the team scored 43 points. The first points for the team were scored by John Surtees in the 1962 Monaco Grand Prix driving with a Climax engine. During the remainder of the 1962 season, Surtees would score points in four more races bringing the total to 19 points. 1962 would be Lola's best season in Formula One.

It took until 1974 before Lola would score a point again. In the Swedish Grand Prix Graham Hill finished in sixth position. The point by Hill would be the only one for Lola in the seventies. In 1985 Lola returned to Formula One after a ten-year absence, but it would take until 1986 for Alan Jones and Patrick Tambay to score a total of six points for the team.

Lola's second best season after 1962 in Formula One was the 1990 season in which Aguri Suzuki and Eric Bernard scored eleven points. Lola's final points in Formula One were scored by Eric Bernard in the 1991 Mexico Grand Prix where he finished sixth.

From 1989 onwards a race at Spa-Francorchamps has been 44 laps long. From the fourteen races held between 1989 and today, Michael Schumacher won six. In 1992 he won his first F1 race at the Belgian circuit exactly one year after he made his F1 debut. He also won the race in 1995, 1996, 1997, 2001 and 2002. In 1994 he finished the race in first position but was later disqualified because the wooden plank installed under his car was worn beyond what was allowed.

Damon Hill and Ayrton Senna both won three races. Senna in 1989, 1990 and 1991, and Hill in 1993, 1994 and in 1998. Damon Hill's win in the 1998 Belgian Grand Prix was the first for the Jordan F1 team. Mika Hakkinen and David Coulthard both won one race in Belgium. Coulthard won in 1999 and Hakkinen in 2000.

Previous 2004 Countdown Facts & Stats...