Safety belts - - -Each driver must wear the following restraint belts for safety: two 75 mm wide shoulder straps, one abdominal strap and two straps between the legs, all securely fixed to the car.
Safety car - - -An automobile clearly identified as a Safety Car and carrying flashing yellow lights on its roof, it must be driven by an experienced circuit driver and contain an FIA-approved observer who is in radio contact with race control. Thirty minutes before race time, the Safety Car takes up position at the front of the grid and remains there until five minutes before race time, when it covers a whole lap of the circuit and enters PIT LANE. The Safety Car is brought into operation to "neutralise" a race on the instruction of the CLERK OF THE COURSE. When the order is given for deployment, YELLOW FLAGS are displayed at all OBSERVER POSTS and "SC" is displayed on nearby boards. When the Safety Car is deployed, all race cars must form up behind it, no more than five car lengths apart, and overtaking is forbidden. Each lap completed while the Safety Car is on the track counts as a racing lap.
Saint-Jovite - - -Quebec village, 120 kilometres north of Montreal, near the CIRCUIT MONT-TREMBLANT, site of the GRAND PRIX OF CANADA in 1968 and 1970.
Sakai, Tenji - - -Chief engineer of MUGEN HONDA, who has been involved with a variety of F1 teams, including TYRRELL, ARROWS, LOTUS, PROST and JORDAN.
San Marino Grand Prix - - -A Grand Prix race held every year since 1981 on the 4.93-km ENZO E DINO FERRARI circuit at IMOLA, in northeastern Italy, midway between Bologna and Ravenna.
Sauber, Peter - - -Swiss-born founder of the RED BULL SAUBER PETRONAS Formula One team, Peter Sauber began building and racing sportscars in 1970. By 1988, his company had effectively become the MERCEDES racing department, and it captured the World Sportscar Championship in 1989 and 1990 with its mildly turbocharged V8 cars nicknamed "Silver Arrows" after the famous Mercedes Grand Prix cars of the 30’s and 50’s.
Sauber Petronas - - -Still looking for its first Grand Prix victory, the latest incarnation of PETER SAUBER'S persistent Swiss-based Formula One team showed real signs of progress in 1998. Main sponsor, PETRONAS (Malaysian state-owned oil company), also has naming rights to Sauber's Ferrari-supplied V10 engines.
Sauber Formel 1, Team - - -Owned by former sports car manufacturer, PETER SAUBER, this team began F1 competition in 1993, and was the official FORD works team in 1995-96. The team is based in Switzerland.
Scandinavian Raceway - - -Largest motor racing circuit in Scandinavia, this 4.025-km track near ANDERSTORP, in southern Sweden, was home to the SWEDISH GRAND PRIX from 1973-78.
Schumacher, Michael - - -The best driver in F1 at the moment. There are only two current drivers who could give him a race in equal machinery, and over a season, I would still expect him to come out on top. Since he left BENETTON, the team has gone downhill rapidly (In fact that is the only thing it appears to do rapidly these days). Even the FERRARI designers reckon that he drives their car 1 to 1.5 seconds per lap faster than it should be capable of going.
Schumacher, Ralph - - -Younger brother of MICHAEL SCHUMACHER, Ralph has just transferred from JORDAN to WILLIAMS. Fast but erratic, it will be interesting to see if PATRICK HEAD and SIR FRANK WILLIAMS are as tolerant to broken cars as EDDIE JORDAN was. History suggests not.
Sebring - - -Town in south central Florida, equidistant from St. Petersburg in the northwest and Fort Lauderdale to the southeast, site of a famous road racing track used for the running of the first UNITED STATES GRAND PRIX in 1959. BRUCE MCLAREN, in a Cooper T51, won the race.
Sepang - - -Site of a new motor racing circuit located near the recently completed Kuala Lumpur International Airport.
Shell - - -Multinational petrochemical giant, replaced AGIP as supplier of fuel and lubricants to Ferrari in 1996.
Silverstone - - -Current home of the BRITISH GRAND PRIX (since 1987) and site of the first five British Formula One races in the modern era (1950-54). It is also the base of the JORDAN Grand Prix team
Simtek - - -Formula One team founded by ambitious young engineer, Nick Wirth, in 1993. The death at the 1994 SAN MARINO GRAND PRIX of Simtek driver Roland Ratzenberger, and a serious lack of sponsorship, saw the little team struggle on through the first five races of the 1995 season before withdrawing after the MONACO GRAND PRIX. Wirth is now Chief Designer at BENETTON.
Slicks - - -Treadless racing tyres, used in dry conditions, replaced at the start of the 1998 season by "grooved" slicks intended to reduce Formula One cornering speeds.
South African Grand Prix - - -Grand Prix held between 1962-85 (with the exception of 1964, 1966 and 1981) and in 1992-93. The first two races were run on a 3.919-km circuit in the resort city of EAST LONDON, on the Indian Ocean north of Port Elizabeth, with the remainder at KYALAMI, near Sandton, just outside JOHANNESBURG.
Spa-Francorchamps - - -Famous circuit just outside the resort town of Spa, near the German border in northeastern Belgium, has been home to the BELGIAN GRAND PRIX in the following years: 1950-70, 1983, and 1985 to present. Circuit layout in the first 20 years was 14.1 km in length, while the current track has fluctuated between 6.94 km and 7 km since 1983. Ayrton Senna of Brazil won five races (1985, 1988-91), while Jim Clark of Britain won four in a row (1962-65). Damon Hill of England (1993-94, 1998) and Michael Schumacher of Germany (1995-97) lead the current crop of drivers with three wins each.
Spanish Grand Prix - - -After two abortive attempts at PEDRALBES in 1951 and 1954, the Spanish Grand Prix was successfully staged at JARAMA and MONTJUICH PARK from 1968 to 1981. After a five-year hiatus, the event moved to JEREZ for five races, and finally settled at its current site, the CATALUNYA circuit just outside BARCELONA, in 1991. The track is 4.728 km in length and is renowned for its hairpin curves and chicanes.
Spoiler - - -Aerodynamic device, affixed to the trailing edge of an exposed surface, designed to create turbulence, and with it, DOWNFORCE. Also driving tactics frequently employed by top drivers to stop another passing.
Starting grid - - -That area of the track where the cars are aligned in staggered pairs, according to their qualifying times, and from which they start the race.
Steering wheel - - -Formula One steering wheels now incorporate virtually all instrumentation and controls that used to be located on the dashboard. The gearchange mechanism is also incorporated into the wheel, with a set of paddles to change up or down the gears. The steering wheel of an F1 car must be fitted with a quick-release mechanism so that a driver can exit the car quickly in an emergency. This requires a driver to pull on a circular flange installed behind the wheel to release it from splines on the steering shaft.
Stewart, Jackie - - -A legendary race driver, the diminutive Scotsman won three Drivers' World Championships between 1965 and 1973, recording 27 victories and 17 pole positions in 99 Formula One races. After a successful debut in F3 racing, Stewart joined the BRM team in 1965, recording his first win at MONZA in only his eighth race. His greatest success (including 25 Grand Prix wins) came when he teamed up with KEN TYRRELL and the TYRRELL RACING ORGANISATION in 1968. Jackie Stewart is currently Chairman of the STEWART GRAND PRIX team, which debuted in 1997, and is headquartered at Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, near SILVERSTONE.
Stewart, Paul - - -Elder son of JACKIE STEWART and Managing Director of STEWART GRAND PRIX. Paul Stewart raced in Formula Ford 1600 and 2000, F3 and European F3000 between 1985-93 before retiring from competition to concentrate on motorsport management at Paul Stewart Racing, a company formed with his father. Three years later, he and JACKIE STEWART announced the arrival of STEWART GRAND PRIX, which entered F1 competition in March, 1997.
Stewart Grand Prix - - -The brainchild of racing legend, JACKIE STEWART, and his elder son, Paul, the decision to form Stewart Grand Prix was announced in January 1996, and the team officially entered competition 13 months later, at ALBERT PARK. A little more than two months after its debut, RUBENS BARRICHELLO scored a scintillating second-place finish at the rain-soaked MONACO GRAND PRIX for the team's first F1 points. The team is headquartered in a state-of-the-art, 80,000 sq. ft. facility at Milton Keynes, in Buckinghamshire, near SILVERSTONE.
Stop-and-go penalty - - -Penalty that may be assessed at the discretion of the race stewards for such infringements as jumping the start or exceeding the pit lane speed limit. It requires the driver to come into his pit and remain stationary for 10 seconds. He may then rejoin the race.
Supercharging - - -A method of forcing the fuel/air mixture into the combustion chambers of an engine at a level above atmospheric pressure (forced induction), a supercharger is normally driven directly from the engine rather than indirectly, by the exhaust gases (TURBOCHARGING).
Supertec Sport - - -Marketing and distribution company for Mecachrome engines (manufactured by Renault Sport). Former Benetton boss, FLAVIO BRIATORE, is Managing Director.
Survival cell - - -As per FIA regulations, a continuous, closed structure on an F1 car containing the FUEL TANK and COCKPIT.
Suspension - - -Those components on a car between the chassis and wheels that allow it to ride over a variety of surfaces and corner efficiently. Currently favoured suspension layout in Formula One involves upper and lower wishbones with pushrods activating chassis-mounted spring/damper units.
Suzuka - - -A 5.864-km race circuit near Nagoya, on Honshu island, permanent home of the JAPANESE GRAND PRIX since 1987.
Swedish Grand Prix - - -The SWEDISH GRAND PRIX was run on the SCANDINAVIAN RACEWAY in the southern centre of ANDERSTORP between 1973-78. The first race, in 1973, was almost won by Swedish star Ronnie Peterson in a LOTUS who led from the start, but was slowed by a punctured tyre and had to let New Zealander Dennis Hulme in a MCLAREN take the lead on the last lap. Niki Lauda was the only double Grand Prix winner at Anderstorp, in a Ferrari in 1975, and a Brabham-Alfa Romeo in 1978. Interest waned in Sweden after Peterson's death at the ITALIAN GRAND PRIX later that year, and the race was never again staged.
Swiss Grand Prix - - -In the first five years of the modern era, 1950-54, the SWISS GRAND PRIX on the 7.28-km track at BREMGARTEN, west of Zurich, was a regular fixture on the Formula One calendar. A SWISS GRAND PRIX was also run in 1982, although the circuit was outside the French wine centre of DIJON. International motor racing was banned in Switzerland in 1955, following an horrific accident in that year's Le Mans 24-hour race.
Symonds, Pat - - -BENETTON engineering stalwart, Symonds assumed the role of Technical Director at the Anglo-Italian team following the departure of ROSS BRAWN and RORY BYRNE to FERRARI at the end of 1996.