MPH: To the man trying to fill Christian Horner's shoes: good luck!
Laurent Mekies arrives as Red Bull F1 team principal with a series of immediate challenges to solve and long-term issues to tackle. He'll either sink or swim, says Mark Hughes
Paul Ricard will return to the Formula 1 calendar in 2018, the first time in 28 years. Host of 14 Grands Prix, watch Alain Prost close down and pass rival Ayrton Senna for the win in 1988 at Paul Ricard.
It had to happen. For the first six Grand Prix races of 1988 Alain Prost has appeared to be content to let his Brazilian team-mate set the pace, with blindingly quick qualifying laps that gave him six consecutive pole-positions. He agreed to Senna having first call on the McLaren-Honda T-car for those events, and when Senna had trouble in the race (as in Brazil) or crashed (as at Monaco) or got elbowed out at the start (as in Mexico) Prost eased serenely into the lead.
The score before the French Grand Prix was three wins each, but more impressive, and more important to the overall scene, was the fact that the McLaren-Honda MP4/4 cars had won six races out of six.
At the flat and featureless Paul Ricard circuit, on the arid plain in the mountains behind the Mediterranean coast-line between Toulon and Marseilles, Prost arrived with his name on the McLaren T-car and a very aggressive will to win at all costs – quite unlike the normally cool and placid Monsieur Prost.
Laurent Mekies arrives as Red Bull F1 team principal with a series of immediate challenges to solve and long-term issues to tackle. He'll either sink or swim, says Mark Hughes
Former McLaren F1 team-mates Mika Häkkinen and David Coulthard are set to renew old rivalries in a new Evening with... tour – they told James Elson all about it
In Formula 1, driver contracts may look iron-clad on paper, but history shows that some of its biggest stars have made dramatic early exits
Former McLaren F1 ace told James Elson about his private audience with The Beatles' George Harrison, who played an unreleased grand prix-themed song