Formula One

[Wodrick]

The Boy Rosberg too.

[Seenenough]

The Boy Rosberg too.

My mistake.

[TheGreenGoblin]

Max Verstappen's old man Jos, never a champion though, was a useful driver whose career was blighted by his violent criminality. One wonders if Max will ever be world champion? He has the skill but does he have the temperament?

[Seenenough]

Max Verstappen's old man Jos, never a champion though, was a useful driver whose career was blighted by his violent criminality. One wonders if Max will ever be world champion? He has the skill but does he have the temperament?

I think he is much like Senna was.Very fast but unable to accept that tehre are days where others are faster.I think also he is going to have a big scare at some point.

[OFSO]

Agree, and said as much to Mrs OFSO over lunch. I'm watching practice, as much as adverts permit. Looks dry. Half an hour to qualifying.

[OFSO]

All top drivers into Q2 but not in the usual order. Few drops of rain to spice things up ?

[Seenenough]

The Red Bulls have lost their way somewhat.

[G-CPTN]

Rory Byrne 'back in charge'.

[TheGreenGoblin]

Rory Byrne 'back in charge'.

Trust a Saffer to sort them out.

Rory Byrne came over to England at the same time as Kenny Gray, ex Formula Ford, and Formula 3 racing driver and an old acquaintance of mine and old Simons Town fellow tippler, who was an extremely talented driver whose career was cut short by a massive accident at Silverstone, his life being saved by Dr Sid Watkins at the side of the track. Kenny was in a coma for weeks and it took months of therapy before he was able to function again, his career over and his one time car preparation expert Rory Byrne staying on in the UK and going on to greater things!

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royale_Racing

https://www.constantiabergbulletin.co.z ... ck-5222022

wp77535a5f_05_06.jpg (46.05 KiB) Viewed 482 times

[Ibbie]

This was posted by the recently departed Cape in the other F1 thread, just over a year ago:

Re: F-1

#4 Post by Capetonian » Tue Jun 11, 2019 1:05 pm
Of course, I must add a disclaimer :
My comment above regarding bratty F1 drivers with rings in their noses and ears was not directed at any F1 driver, living or dead, or anyone of any particular creed, colour, or ethnic origin.
The fact that a current 5 times World Champion may, or again may not be, of darker hued origin or appearance is of course entirely coincidental and no slur or aspersion was implicit or explicit.
"Religion is the advertising campaign for something that doesn't exist."
The late Clive James
Top

It is once again relevant, in view of the collapsing knee syndrome encourage by one driver in particular. He also has peruaded his team that has raced in silver and has been known as the Silver Arrows for over 60 years to use black this season. How dare he change history and be allowed to do so.

Time for the motor racing oficionardos to write to Mercedes stating that they will not buy any further products/vehicles from them until the "Silver" tradition is restored.

[TheGreenGoblin]

There is an abiding myth that Mercedes painted the Silver Arrow W25 white originally and then later stripped the car down to bare metal to reduce the weight...

In 1958, Alfred Neubauer described the origin of the Silver Arrows as being accidental. In 1934 the international governing body of motor sport prescribed a maximum weight limit of 750 kg for Grand Prix racing cars, excluding tyres and fuel. Neubauer said that when in spring 1934, the Mercedes-Benz team placed its new Mercedes-Benz W25 on the scrutineering scales prior to the Eifelrennen at the Nürburgring, it allegedly recorded 751 kg (1,656 lb). Racing manager Alfred Neubauer and his driver Manfred von Brauchitsch, who both later published their memoirs, claimed that they had the idea of removing all the white lead-based paint from the bodywork. The story continues that the next day the shining silver aluminium beneath was exposed and scrutineering was passed. After the 350 hp (260 kW) car of Von Brauchitsch won the race, the nickname Silver Arrow was born, according to this version.

Mercedes Silver Arrow W196
There is however, controversy and doubt regarding this story. It did not appear until 1958, and no reference to it has been found in contemporary sources. It has since been established that von Brauchitsch had raced a streamlined silver SSKL on the AVUS in 1932, which was called a Silver Arrow in live radio coverage. Also, in 1934, both Mercedes and Auto Union had entered the Avusrennen with silver cars. The next big event was the 1934 Eifelrennen, but as few cars complying to the new rules were ready, it was held for Formule Libre, so weight was still not a race-critical issue at that time. By the 1930s, modern stressed-skin aircraft fuselage construction was already using polished and unpainted aluminium panels for streamlining and to save weight. Also the wealthy motor-racing fraternity would have been aware that in heraldry, white and silver are the same colour, or 'tincture', described as 'Argent'; (similarly yellow and gold are both called 'Or').[citation needed] Neubauer's 1958 autobiography has been shown to include several embellished stories and dubious claims, including a fabricated hoax surrounding the 1933 Tripoli Grand Prix, where he falsely accused several drivers of "fixing" the race.

The Swastikas on some of the 1930's Auto Union and Mercedes cars were very black indeed though...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver_Arrows

[TheGreenGoblin]

Mercedes Swastika.JPG (26.41 KiB) Viewed 438 times

[Pontius Navigator]

I believe black is the base colour for its cars for the last few years. Lucky I guess.

[TheGreenGoblin]

If one wanted black F1 cars, they didn't come blacker, in all senses of that word, than the Shadow F1 team started in California by the enigmatic American, Don Nichols who later re-registered the team in Britain. I was a big fan of the team and of their American drivers, people like the forceful, cantankerous George Follmer and the playboy heir to the Revlon fortune, Peter Revson, who was killed at Kyalami, hitting the barriers at Barbecue Bend. Kyalami wasn't kind to the team, also being the scene of the awful accident that killed Welshman Tom Price and a marshal in a collision.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadow_Racing_Cars

UOP.JPG (11.84 KiB) Viewed 371 times

Don Nichols was an interesting person.

Nichols, a U.S. Army combat veteran of World War II and Korea who then served in Military Intelligence, later found success as an entrepreneur in Japan before returning to the U.S. and setting up his own company called Advanced Vehicle Systems in 1968. In 1970 he raced his first CanAm car. He decided to call it Shadow, with the team's logo featuring a cloaked spy. Jackie Oliver won the CanAm title for Shadow in 1974. With major sponsorship from Universal Oil Products, Nichols expanded his operation and entered F1 at the start of 1973 with Oliver and George Follmer driving. In 1975 Oliver became the team's commercial director, but the original sponsor pulled out and could not be adequately replaced. In 1977 most of the team management walked out of Shadow to join the Arrows team. Nichols sued and won, claiming copyright infringement, and that year Alan Jones scored Shadow's single Grand Prix victory. Shadow was in financial decline, however, and in 1981 Nichols sold his assets to the Theodore team of Chinese businessman Teddy Yip. He died at the age of 92 on August 21, 2017.

UOP Shadow.JPG (30.35 KiB) Viewed 371 times

[TheGreenGoblin]

I watched this film on Amazon Prime over the weekend! It is both gratuitous (the first scene distastefully and exploitatively so) and yet it typifies the things that made F1 in the 70's so gripping. This film shows why racing today is banal and a pale palimpsest of the politically incorrect, dangerous and yet totally fascinating F1 glory days of yore.

Available on Amazon Prime... Worth watching!

[TheGreenGoblin]

One of the scenes in that film noted above brought back some memories. Mike Hailwood was a friend of South African motor cycle rider and F1/F5000 driver Paddy Driver and as a fan of Driver's I was fascinated, in my youth, by Hailwood's transition from bikes to cars and supported him as a fan.

I was sitting at Crowthorne Corner with my dad when this took place just further down from where we were sitting. It was not until I watched that film this weekend that I realised how brave Hailwood had been.



Dennis Jenkinson (RIP) remembers that late great Mike Hailwood... Mike Hailwood

[Magnus]

My Merc is silver. I have no intention of painting it black.

[TheGreenGoblin]

I was reading up on some of the US drivers who made it big in Europe in the 50's and 60s. People like Caroll Shelby, Maston Gregory, Phil Hill and Richie Ginther!

Hill and Ginther came out of the Californian crucible at around the same time. Hill becoming the only US born driver to win the F1 World Championship while Ginther was a brilliant test driver. I thoroughly enjoyed this interview with Hill



Ginther was a more enigmatic man...

https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/arch ... t-wanderer

[TheGreenGoblin]

Here is the Alfa mentioned by Phil Hill in that interview. Beautifully restored. Sold by Mr Hill for $4000. Now worth over $3000000! As he joked, his wife never let him forget his folly.

d.1123.jpg (262.61 KiB) Viewed 254 times

https://paulrussell.com/rPortfolio/alfa/38_2900/

[TheGreenGoblin]

I was reading up on some of the US drivers who made it big in Europe in the 50's and 60s. People like Caroll Shelby, Maston Gregory, Phil Hill and Richie Ginther!

Not forget Harry Schell.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Schell