With 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!

David Brabham, son of three-time World Champion Jack, was present in 30 F1 races but started in just 24 of them. David made his Formula One debut in the San Marino Grand Prix of 1990 driving for the Brabham team, but failed to qualify for the race. His Grand Prix debut was one race later in the Monaco Grand Prix where he started 25th but failed to finish the race due to a transmission problem.

It would not be the only time he did not finish a race. In only one of the 14 races that Brabham attended in 1990 did he manage to finish the race. In the French Grand Prix he finished in 15th position. After the disastrous 1990 season David Brabham would not return to Formula One until 1994.

He signed a deal to race for the new Simtek team and in the Brazilian Grand Prix he was back in Formula One. Reliability was better than with Brabham and he qualified for all the races. His best performance of the year was a 10th position in the Spanish Grand Prix. After his Formula One career David Brabham raced in various sportscar series with the highlight being winning the Le Mans 24 hours with Bentley in 2003.

Unlike today, there was a time when there were so many teams trying to qualify for a Formula One race that pre-qualification was needed. Gabrielle Tarquini has the dubious record of being the driver that failed to pre-qualify the most times. He failed to pre-qualify in 25 races.

Pre-qualifying consisted of a 30-minute session at 9am where the new teams of the current year and the worst teams of the previous season had to battle for four slots in qualifying. Most of the times the drivers coming out of pre-qualifying would fail to qualify for the race anyway but at least they made it to Saturday afternoon instead of going home on Friday.

Further down the list of drivers who failed to pre-qualify there are names like Roberto Moreno with 22, Bernd Schneider with 14, Stefan Johansson with eight and even Michele Alboreto with three failed attempts to pre-qualify.

Early in his career, Mika Hakkinen was already considered a fast driver, but it wasn't until 1997 that it really started to show in numbers. In that year the Finn started his collection of 26 pole positions with a surprising fastest time in the Luxembourg Grand Prix. In 1998 everything worked for both Hakkinen and his McLaren team and on his way to the World Championship he achieved no less than nine poles. What made things more interesting for Hakkinen was that he was very efficient in turning pole positions into efficient results. He won five of the nine races and finished another two on the podium.

In 1999 the Finn was even more dominant in qualifying. In eleven of the 16 races he started from the front. However, this time many retirements caused the championship to go to the wire, before Hakkinen eventually clinched it in the final race of the season.

The next year things appeared to continue in similar fashion when Hakkinen started the first three races from pole, but after that it quickly went downhill for the Finn. Only two more poles followed, but it was clear that Hakkinen and McLaren were no longer a match for Michael Schumacher and Ferrari. Hakkinen continued to be a very fast qualifier, but usually had to settle for second or third.

In his final season things didn't improve and Mika Hakkinen remained at 26 pole positions, which he achieved in a period of just 48 races.

The number 27 will always occupy a special place in Formula One history. Since Gilles Villeneuve displayed his unique style with that number in 1981 and 1982, the number is rarely thought of without thinking of the Canadian. That this didn't have much to do with success, shows in the fact that three drivers won more races than Villeneuve with number 27. Alan Jones won nine times in the Williams, Ayrton Senna six times in the McLaren and Michele Alboreto three times with the Ferrari.

The fact that so many successes were achieved with this relatively high numbers is because Williams grew from mediocrity in the early eighties. The former privateer team carried the number from 1978 until 1980. Rules then prescribed that the team of the World Champion should carry the numbers one and two and that the team of the previous champion would drive with the numbers that team used in the previous season. Hence Ferrari got the numbers 27 and 28 for 1981.

In 1989 Alain Prost won the championship in a McLaren, but moved to Ferrari for 1990, taking the number one with him and thus giving McLaren the number 27. Ayrton Senna promptly won the championship, which returned the number to Ferrari again, where it remained until 1995. After that season the rules for numbering cars were changed to reflect the position in the championship and as there weren't as much teams as before, the number 27 wasn't used again. The last driver to use the number 27 was Jean Alesi.

In 381 appearances, the number 27 won 25 times, collected 24 pole positions and drove the fastest lap 25 times.

In the period from 1954 until 1960, Vanwall engines powered Formula One cars in 28 races. It didn't quite start out as a success story. In 1954 the only Vanwall powered driver was Peter Collins, who's best feat in the three races was a seventh place in Italy. The next year Mike Hawthorn, Ken Wharton and Harry Schell drove Vanwalls, but neither of them with any success. Vanwall's first points came when Harry Schell finished fourth in the 1956 Belgian Grand Prix. In that year, the Vanwall power slowly started to build, with the cars usually just behind the front row in qualifying.

The next year everything worked for Vanwall. Stirling Moss and Tony Brooks joined forces in the British Grand Prix to give it its first completely British victory. Moss won again in the Pescara and Italy Grands Prix to give Vanwall a very good season. In 1958, the first year of the Constructors' Championship, things went even better. Moss won in Holland, Portugal and Morocco, while Brooks was victorious in Belgium, Germany and Italy. Vanwall won the championship, but Moss narrowly missed out on the drivers' crown as Mike Hawthorn was the more constant driver.

After that, only twice more a Vanwall powered car appeared on the grid. Tony Brooks brought it back in the 1959 British Grand Prix and the 1960 French Grand Prix.

While Formula One is predominantly a men only affair, several women have competed with the boys over the years. In total women participated in a Formula One race 29 times. The first woman to participate in a World Championship race was Italian Maria Teresa de Filippis, who entered a private Maserati for the 1958 Monaco Grand Prix. She didn't qualify for that race, but later that season she returned and qualified 19th at Spa. She finished the race in tenth place. Later in 1958 de Filippis drove another two races, but she retired from both. For 1959 she signed with the Porsche team, but only stranded in qualifying in Monaco again.

It took until 1974 until another woman made it to Formula One. In the British Grand Prix of that season, Lella Lombardi made her debut. She didn't qualify, but returned with March the next year. In her second race for the team, she finished in the points. However, she only got half a point for her sixth place in the shortened race. With four more attempts in 1976, Lombardi reached a total of 17 attempts.

British Olympic skier Divina Galica then attempted unsuccessfully to qualify three times in 1976 and 1978, followed by Desire Wilson from South Africa who gave it a shot at the 1980 British Grand Prix. The final woman thus far to reach Formula One was Italian Giovanna Amati. In the heyday of the Brabham team she was given three opportunities to qualify, before she was replaced by one Damon Hill.

Between 1952 and 1985 the Dutch Grand Prix was held at Zandvoort 30 times. In the Dutch dunes only World Champions have won multiple times. Jim Clark was the most successful with four wins, while fellow Scot Jackie Stewart won the race three times.

Except for Clark's three consecutive wins with Lotus between 1963 and 1965, no team has dominated for a long period at Zandvoort. However, over the years Ferrari and Lotus have divided nearly half the wins between them, with Ferrari winning eight and Lotus six. In the first Grand Prix in 1952, the entire podium was filled with Ferrari drivers. Alberto Ascari won, ahead of Nino Farina and Luigi Villoresi.

The final Grand Prix at Zandvoort was also the final win for Niki Lauda. In 1985, the Austrian was plagued by many retirements in his McLaren, but on a fresh Sunday afternoon on the Dutch coast things finally worked again and closely followed by teammate Alain Prost, Lauda won his 25th and final race.

The 1961 Dutch Grand Prix is one that earned it's special spot in the record books. All 15 drivers that started the race also finished it, which makes the race the only one in Formula One history without retirements. Wolfgang von Trips and Phil Hill made it a Ferrari one-two with just nine tenths of a second separating the two.

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