F1 2005-2012

The surgeon said it will take a year for Kubica to recover... Sad to hear...if they almost had to amputate his arm I guess it´s more like 50-50 if he can drive F1 again, then again Niki lauda showed us what will power can do.. Wishing all the best to Robert!

 

And Alessandro Nannini had his arm almost cut off in a helicopter crash ; sadly it ended his F1 career but he was still very quick in touring cars.

Great shame for Poland, though - a country which hasn't had a high profile in motor sport.

 

The first race which is in Bahrain may be cancelled due to the unrest!

 

BBC Sport - F1 - Bahrain Grand Prix off after anti-government protests

The Bahrain Grand Prix has been called off because of anti-government protests in the Gulf kingdom.

No surprise there...

 

Ah well - that's one featureless, flat, constant-radius track less from the season.....

 

Fear not Martin there trying to re-shedule it for later in the season

 

If only they could do like they used to - replace a cancelled GP with a 'European GP' at Brands Hatch......now, that I'd sleep overnight in the car for !

 

Now where talking

 

Not half....while we wait for the new season, click on the link, turn up the volume full, sit back and enjoy Senna......

YouTube - Ayrton Senna 1986 Brands Hatch Qualifying Lap

He's got 1,200 hp behind him and it's those corners at the 'back' of the circuit which give you goosebumps. No run-off areas, as a spectator you didn't have to peer through chicken-wire fencing ; bumps, adverse cambers, hills......I still find an average speed of 140mph around there quite incredible. Dangerous ? Yes. Exciting ? Very.......

 

Excelent post as usual Martin

 

I see the board is dominated by non-yanks. Oh well we have NASCAR so why should we be bothered with such boring stuff!

That is a joke by the way.

I've been to a half dozen GPs, mostly in the early 90's, the only one I've been to recently was the debacle at indy in '05. I bleed Ferrari Red, and if you would have told me I'd see a dominant Schumi victory (remember that was the year they sucked) but that I'd leave the track totally cheezed off I wouldn't have believed it.

I did see Senna's last ever victory in Adelaide in person, thanks to an ex girlfriend who was an exchange student in oz that year.

I was just curious, do any of you get to multiple GPs during a given season? I apologize for my total lack of ignorance if traveling to Europe from GB is not as simple as I think it would be, but it just seems like if I had Silverstone, Spa and Monza within a few hours flying distance I'd have to try to make all of them every year if I could!

 

I used to go to all the British F1 events and quite a number of European ones between 1970-1985. But then the debris-fencing went up, the run-off areas got much further back, humble punters were no longer allowed into the paddock....and somehow it seemed like a lot of money and effort to use binoculars and squint through a double-layer of chicken-wire fencing.

 

I agree Martin I have been to different events in motor sport but GP's are too expensive now, I used to hold an RAC racing license in the late 90's for off roading in a buggy. Where GP's are concernd your better off staying at home or in the pub with friends and whatching it on the TV.

 

I can understand where both of the prior posters are coming from, and I understand the expense is exhorbitant and the experience is nowhere near as close as it used to be, but I do have to say one thing: No matter how much they have changed the circuits, any form of auto racing to me is far better in person that watching on TV. You do not get the sensation of speed (The immensely long lenses make the cars look abysmally slow in comparison to the actual speeds) nor do you get the sound or smells, or especially the chill going down the spine.

Again, I understand the money issue, but if I had the funds I would attend any and all the GPs that I could. As it is, I can't even afford to go to watch the NASCAR good old boys turn left for three hours anymore, and I'm within 2-4 hours driving time from 3 different tracks. I do make it to see the NHRA at least once a year, and I am within an hours driving time of a handful of dirt tracks (the closest is just 20 miles away!) so I can still get my speed fix for about $40 a weekend.

Have fun watching F1 this year fellows, I'll keep touch with this board! Forza Ferrari!

 

I agree 100% : problem is, you don't get the same sensation of speed when you're actually there any more . It's OK if you've never known anything different, but when you've stood at the outside of Surtees at Brands Hatch, looking down into the cockpit of Senna's 1200hp turbo Lotus watching his hands fighting the wheel, and actually feeling the draft as the car blasts past 20ft away.....


....it's all a bit tame now for the spectator.

 

I get my "petrol head fix" once a year at the Goodwood Festival of Speed just 50 miles away, You get old with new in all motor sport history, Last year in the paddocks were ear defenders are essencial whatched them crank up an 1908 Roller which won a GP, they also had the winners of the 24hr Le mons cars there and they actully started one up but couldn't run up the track as it was ( we all know the word ) a great day out! most of the the F1 teams are there as well, but the super cars are spectacular the only car you can't touch is the Bugatti veron

 

No Bernie No...

BBC Sport - F1 - Mark Webber unhappy with Ecclestone's 'fake rain' idea

Mark Webber has dismissed Formula 1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone's idea to liven up grands prix with sprinklers to make tracks artificially wet.

Ecclestone suggested the sprinklers could be switched on with no more than a two-minute warning to ensure suspense.

"I'm happy to make it happen," the 80-year-old told the BBC on Thursday.

"My idea is that we should make a programme that nobody knows exactly which programme is going to be used and it would start at some time during the race. It would be raining effectively.

"It would maybe stop and maybe rain again later. Or maybe not. So nobody would know."

 

Sounds like a thing he would say, Bloody dangerous if you ask me, Basically all the cars on the track have to change tyres in a 2 minute time period

 

I just had to check the date to make sure it wasn't April 1st.....it reminded me of the classic Russell Brockbank cartoon from the 1960s which suggested having an 'electric pedestrian continually doddering back and forth across the track'.......

I'm still hoping that things will straighten out before the first race, but it must be said from what we've seen in the recent testing that the Pirelli 'one-tyre' looks like it may screw up any ideas of close racing. The Pirellis seem very hard, very stiff and chuck lots of 'marbles' onto the track. Which means that the 'overtaking zone' (remember kids - the whole track used to be an 'overtaking zone' ! ) may be useless. It looks like we may have lots of pitstops to change tyres - and that's where the races will be won or lost.

But we'll see. In the immortal words of Frank Gardner - 'When the flag drops - the b*llsh*t stops'.

( Showing my age again - 'flag drops' still sounds better than 'lights change...' ).

 

So - all set for Australia this weekend.....?

At least there'll be plenty to talk about ; there are more 'unknowns' than usual for the start of a season. From what we've seen in testing, Red Bull and Ferrari should be hot favourites, with McLaren struggling and Mercedes either doing very well or quite badly.....but then, if none of them can make the tyres work properly, maybe it'll be Force India .

Anyhow, early viewing for all of us in the UK, compounded by the clocks changing on Sunday