F is for finance in F1

The 2010 season starts later this month

"I was lucky. I had capable people to take care of the technical side of things," he says.

"That allowed me to focus on the commercial side: the marketing, the sponsorship, the contractual side.

"If you don't have a wealthy benefactor you will need the necessary resources from commercial opportunities such as sponsorship to survive," adds Mr Jordan, whose modestly-funded team finished third in the constructors' championship in 1999 before being sold in 2004.

But when asked if he would do it all again, Jordan was clear.

"Not in a million years," he says.

"Stress is one thing - that's normal. It's the distress that I could have done without, and believe me there was plenty of that."

'Very important'

It's not just the teams, their owners and the organisers for whom Formula 1 is more of a business than a sport.

It can be very lucrative if your area or your country gets to host a race.

Silverstone and Donington have waged an intense battle of late for the right to host the British Grand Prix.

Donington had been anointed by Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone in 2009, only to be stripped of the race in favour of Silverstone, which could now host the event for the next 17 years.

"It's very important for the British motor sport industry. It's very important for the local economy," says John Royce from architecture group Populous, which designed the new Silverstone circuit.

"It drives £51m ($77m; 56m euros) a year [for the track] just from the Grand Prix itself."

"More than that, it's the local jobs. We've a circuit here which can run every day of the week, every day of the year nearly. We're trying to generate as much opportunity for development on the site as we can."

Growing popularity

Formula 1 has had its high and its lows.

It's had to deal with death, destruction and financial delinquency.

But it's now a safer and sexier sport watched by more people worldwide than ever before.

But more than anything else it's a business, or as the legendary team owner Frank Williams famously said: "A highly competitive business which goes racing a couple of times a month."