It’s been a bit of a sad time in F1 circles these last couple of months. Charlie Whiting passed away just before the Australian Grand Prix as well.
RIP Niki Lauda. Always said what he thought and I really admired that about him.
If you haven’t already, you should go check out the movie Rush (2013) with Chris Hemsworth and Daniel Brühl which follows the epic 1976 formula one season. Brühl is outstanding as Lauda. He really captures his direct and forthright personality, expressed through his odd Austrian accent.
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I’m beginning to think that the Renault is not very good.
You don’t say
It’s so disappointing to see how badly Renault are struggling, but it is clear Ricciardo couldn’t stay at Red Bull. Hamilton knew how much of a threat Ricciardo was so he made sure last year that Mercedes wasn’t an option. Subtle, but notable all the same. And Ferrari would’ve been a terrible option anyway, given the politics of that team. It is great to see Leclerc try to break that, but Ferrari have broken his strategy more than once already this season to take the pressure off Vettel.
To be a world champion, you really need to be a team that has your back. Max was increasingly favoured at Red Bull, and Ricciardo knew the writing was on the wall. He didn’t want to be another Mark Webber, who simply stuck around because they had a good car, regardless of the bullshit within the team.
Renault aren’t looking good for Monaco. Hulkenberg 16th and Danny Ric 17th after the second session of practice. That’s poor even by their standards.
I do think the best bit about the Renault is that it isn’t Red Cunt Racing.
Here’s a disturbing comparison of F1 cars.
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Seeing photos of formula one cars from the 1980’s, you’re struck by how short the wheelbase is. They look like go karts. The wheelbase of this season’s Mercedes F1 W10 is almost 3.7 meters!
And then race it at Monaco …
Nice touch for both Vettel and Hamilton to wear Niki Lauda replica helmets at Monaco. Vettel wears the helmet Lauda wore at Ferrari and Hamilton the helmet he wore at McLaren.
It’s also worth noting the genuine respect these two have for each other.
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Revolutionary Renault - Formula uh
Mark Marquez is still a freak.
I do quite enjoy watching motorsport but I never really understood so this maybe a stupid question.
I always notice that during practice and even in qualifying that the mechanics never wear the fire proof suits.
Why do they only wear it on the race day? Is there zero chances of anything going wrong during practice and qualifying?
You don’t necessarily pit during qualifying do you? And even then, I’m guessing it’d be quite slow and there’d be no re-fueling due to the lower number of laps
It’s actually a good question. During practice and qualifying you generally don’t have your proper two to three second pit stops you have on race day. Also you don’t get unscheduled pit stops due to technical or mechanical dramas, which can result in a fire in the pit lane. Also, the pit lane on race day is a much more dangerous place to be, with your cars and cars from rival teams flying about only feet away from you. Injuries among pit crew definitely happen. Ferrari had a crew member suffer a broken leg in two places at Bahrain after a botched stop.
So bottom line, race day = dangerous. Practice and qualifying = not so dangerous.
If you pit during qualifying they generally bring you into the garage, not service the car out in the lane, as they have more time to actually sort any issues. Obviously the garage with not so much time pressure is a safer place than out in the lane on race day.
This looks really good. The story of Ford’s development of the GT40 by Carroll Shelby and Ken Miles which eventually won the 1966 Le Mans 24 hours.
The back story to this is great. Ford attempted to buy Ferrari in 1963 and were in Maranello to sign the final contracts for the takeover. Enzo Ferrari abruptly stormed out of the negotiation room after reading a clause in the contact where he would lose status as sole controller of the open wheel racing team.
Henry Ford II absolutely cracked the shits and vowed to beat Ferrari at Le Mans, plowing unlimited resources into the project and thus, the GT40 was born.
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I need new pants.
A pretty good Indy 500, bettered by an absolutely cracking Italian MotoGP.