The changing face of Formula 1
John Wickham left Formula 1 20 years ago, only to return this year as Renault team manager. Now he tells Dieter Rencken how much the sport has changed in the two decades he was absent from it
Wikipedia's dictionary definition of 'Doing a Rip van Winkle' is 'to awake suddenly to profound changes in one's surroundings. This may be due to physical absence or to absence of mind.'
One day, after drinking a strange liquid with a bunch of strangers, Rip van Winkle went into a slumber, waking up two decades years later to an entirely different regulatory, political and social landscape, one which bore virtually no resemblance to the one he knew prior to nodding off. Yes, the geography remained largely unchanged, albeit with updated landmarks, but, for the rest, all was new for him.
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