The Grid
Once a fortnight, from March to October, a 50-yard stretch of tarmac is fought over by some of the world's most dedicated engineers. The Formula One grid has space for 24 Grand Prix cars. Thirty enter the fray, six never make it and then there is the all-important battle for the front row. Tonights programme returns with the Williams team to the frantic efforts of the British engineers to stave off the big French and Italian factory onslaught. This season was supposed to have seen the end of ' ground-effect ' aerodynamics that held cars on to the track through corners. An end, too, to the tyre war that had companies adding super-sticky ' qualifying ' tyres to their cars in the battle for the front row of the grid. Within weeks they had innovated their way round all the rule changes, and their cars were faster and more dangerous than ever. Narrator MARTIN jarvis
Film editor colin JONES Editor GRAHAM MASSEY
Written and produced by Patrick uden