Watched a documentary tonight called "1", its about the drivers who risked their lives during the deadliest time of the sport and those who changed it forever.
It allows new drivers, engineers, technicians and managers a grounding in the sport. It is where people like Rob Smedley (Jordan), Mark Webber (Minardi), Michael Schumacher (Jordan) and Adrian Vettel (Toro Rosso), Rubens Barrichello (Jordan) and Kimi Räikkönen (Sauber) started.
Not ignoring, of course, today's crop of up and coming talent, Nico Hulkenberg's performance is getting noticed as well as Romain Grosjean (I know, who'd have imagined it?).
Adrian Vettel? Not heard of him, is he related to Sebastian Vettel? Alonso also started at Minardi. Schumacher also paid for his drive with Jordan.
It looks like I was wrong about Nico. It seems he went whilst the light was red. Although the light changed from red to green, whilst half his car was still in the box. Still it looks like it was his fault, even though if he had waited for the light to change to green, he would have still got a penalty.
The drivers may love the Suzuka track but yesterday's race was one of the most boring of the year.
To be fair, there were quite a lot of times where there were cars running closely to each other but, at the risk of flogging the same old dead horse, it's getting to the point where that's not really interesting cos we all know that no driver is going to risk damaging their tyres with a prolonged session of wheel-to-wheel racing.
Instead it's all about driving as carefully as possible and then going quickly for a couple of laps after the guy in front has pitted in the hope that you'll make up enough time that you'll come out ahead after your own pitstop.
No but, teams like Ferrari and Mercedes, who will build the new engines and also design their own chassis will have an advantage over the other teams like RBR. RBR will buy in an engine, in this case a Renault engine. Whilst they will have a general idea of the dimensions of the engine, and its weight. Until they have the final production level engine, they cant with any real confidence be sure their chassis will be the ideal one.
I think next season teams like Ferrari and Mercedes will a good start. Then by mid-way RBR would have got their act together, and Vettel will start coming good. We will have to see if the Ferraris and Merces have built up a big enough lead. I some how doubt it, as the four drivers will probably end up taking points of each other. They are all capable of winning races.
The new in-season tests next year will also play into RBR hands. As they will be able to test new parts out. They should thank Mercedes for that.
I saw the Senna Movie as well and when I saw the Ratenberger Crash I read Steve Rider Autobiography and asked Bernie what would happen if a driver die at a track and Bernie Said no drivers die on the track, But looking at the senna movie it looks like Ratenberger's crash it looked like he died on impact to me
Did Senna and Prost really hate each other because at the end of Film it said Prost is a Trustee of his Foundation
I'm done watching F1 for now. I suspect many others are doing likewise, I'm sure viewing figures are down.
I haven't watched the last few races, just read the news reports afterwards and decided not to waste my time watching the highlights. I have no desire to see Vettel process towards the title - I want to watch an interesting title fight, not a driver I don't particularly admire getting more titles to his name than I feel he merits relative to other drivers on the grid.
I saw the Senna Movie as well and when I saw the Ratenberger Crash I read Steve Rider Autobiography and asked Bernie what would happen if a driver die at a track and Bernie Said no drivers die on the track, But looking at the senna movie it looks like Ratenberger's crash it looked like he died on impact to me
To all intents and purposes both Ratzenberger and Senna were both dead at the track but I think due to Italian law if they pronounced them dead at the scene then the event would have to have been cancelled, so they were taken to hospital for 'treatment' before it was announced.
Did Senna and Prost really hate each other because at the end of Film it said Prost is a Trustee of his Foundation
They had reconciled by the time of Senna's death. Prost himself has publically criticised the film because it didn't mention that fact.
the only thing I didn't really like about the Senna/Prost rivarly was it was completely seen as one-sided with Prost basically the film's villian. They mentioned Senna taking him out to win the World Championship in 90 but it was sort of glossed over compared to Suzuka 89 where Senna was excluded from the race result for restarting the car and missing the chicane. I think most people would say running somebody off the road to make sure you can win the title (compare it to Schumacher with Hill in 94 or Villeneuve in 97) is worse than what Prost did with the 89 one
I'm sure it's been mentioned plenty of times before in discussion but Ratzenberger's death on the Saturday was definitely at the track as the footage shows him with his head slumped to the side similar to what Senna has on Sunday and of course under Italian law, the race wouldn't have been run on Sunday and Senna's death wouldn't have happened. Whoever decided to let it go on, whether it be Bernie, sponsors, the race organisers probably wonder why they made that decision
the only thing I didn't really like about the Senna/Prost rivarly was it was completely seen as one-sided with Prost basically the film's villian. They mentioned Senna taking him out to win the World Championship in 90 but it was sort of glossed over compared to Suzuka 89 where Senna was excluded from the race result for restarting the car and missing the chicane. I think most people would say running somebody off the road to make sure you can win the title (compare it to Schumacher with Hill in 94 or Villeneuve in 97) is worse than what Prost did with the 89 one
I must say, I didn't think they really made Prost out to be the baddie in Senna.
I think that role was really reserved for Jean Marie Ballestre who, possibly because he wanted a fellow Frenchy to win, seemed to be doing everything in his power to sabotage Senna and McLaren's championship.
S'funny really, after watching Senna and Rush you start to realise why Ron Dennis might've thought the FIA was out to get McLaren.
In other news...
Was watching the Japan race and Ross Brawn made a comment about how next year's calender is taking things to the point where teams ARE going to need two race-teams to piggy-back each other from race to race so they can set up in time for each race.
It occurred to me, would there be any benefit in deliberately controlling the number of people in a race team?
I mean, would it make things more interesting if, say, each team was only allowed to bring 15 people to each event and, perhaps, only allow 3 people to service a car during a pitstop?
Seems like reducing the team numbers might force teams to build cars which were more straightforward so they could be maintained by a smaller team and if the cars were more straightforward that might improve the racing.
More bad news following Maria's death and Dario's accident 2 weeks ago. Motor racing is still an increadibly dangerous sport and despite the good work done to make F1 seem very safe it seems there's a lot of work still to do to see those benefits filter down into other formulas.
More bad news following Maria's death and Dario's accident 2 weeks ago. Motor racing is still an increadibly dangerous sport and despite the good work done to make F1 seem very safe it seems there's a lot of work still to do to see those benefits filter down into other formulas.
No - if you read the reports, you'd know that Sean wasn't killed in a Supercar race. He was doing some instructing, which drivers at the lower levels do to supplement their income.
As for Dario'a accident, the same could easily happen at Monaco or other street circuits - youtube Conor Daly's accident at Monaco GP3 race. There's no saying that couldn't happen at a F1 race at the same circuit.
No - if you read the reports, you'd know that Sean wasn't killed in a Supercar race. He was doing some instructing, which drivers at the lower levels do to supplement their income.
As for Dario'a accident, the same could easily happen at Monaco or other street circuits - youtube Conor Daly's accident at Monaco GP3 race. There's no saying that couldn't happen at a F1 race at the same circuit.
I never said he was killed in a 'supercar' race (by which I assume you mean Supercup). I disagree with your suggestion that the same could happen at other street circuits. Yes, of course, a similar accident could happen in F1 and also to be fair the new chassis Dario was in probably saved his life but the Indycar chassis are still years behind F1 chassis. Chances are if he had been in an F1 car he would have escaped some of the injuries he sustained.
I totally agree about GP3 and to a lesser extent GP2 racing. I think they are pushing their luck in those series. Not a race goes by without some incidents and sooner or later it's going to end badly.
I never said he was killed in a 'supercar' race (by which I assume you mean Supercup). I disagree with your suggestion that the same could happen at other street circuits. Yes, of course, a similar accident could happen in F1 and also to be fair the new chassis Dario was in probably saved his life but the Indycar chassis are still years behind F1 chassis. Chances are if he had been in an F1 car he would have escaped some of the injuries he sustained.
I totally agree about GP3 and to a lesser extent GP2 racing. I think they are pushing their luck in those series. Not a race goes by without some incidents and sooner or later it's going to end badly.
There was an accident at Indianapolis a couple of weeks ago, the car just disintegrated on impact with the fence and debris ended up in the bleachers, injuring several spectators. As soon as I saw it, I said to myself, "I can't see that happening at a Formula One event."
I never said he was killed in a 'supercar' race (by which I assume you mean Supercup). I disagree with your suggestion that the same could happen at other street circuits. Yes, of course, a similar accident could happen in F1 and also to be fair the new chassis Dario was in probably saved his life but the Indycar chassis are still years behind F1 chassis. Chances are if he had been in an F1 car he would have escaped some of the injuries he sustained.
I totally agree about GP3 and to a lesser extent GP2 racing. I think they are pushing their luck in those series. Not a race goes by without some incidents and sooner or later it's going to end badly.
Your whole point was that F1 is safer than other formulas - Sean was not racing, he was instructing which is nothing to do with what series are safe or not
As for Dario, Martin Whitmarsh has actually said that what helped Dario was something they don't have in F1 - energy absorbing seat structure and Martin wants F1 to look into it.
As for the crashes,the reason Indycar tends to have bigger crashes is because its a spec series - the cars run closer together than they would in F1. Yes the fencing was suspect in this case - unlikely that the fence would have broken at Long Beach.
Your whole point was that F1 is safer than other formulas - Sean was not racing, he was instructing which is nothing to do with what series are safe or not
As for Dario, Martin Whitmarsh has actually said that what helped Dario was something they don't have in F1 - energy absorbing seat structure and Martin wants F1 to look into it.
As for the crashes,the reason Indycar tends to have bigger crashes is because its a spec series - the cars run closer together than they would in F1. Yes the fencing was suspect in this case - unlikely that the fence would have broken at Long Beach.
The reason for the the injuries in the bleachers, was not wholly the fault of the breaching of the fence, it was the way the car broke up. If the car had not disintegrated the way it did, it would probably have not breached the fencing in the first place.
Comments
It was fantastic.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2518788/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
Adrian Vettel? Not heard of him, is he related to Sebastian Vettel?
It looks like I was wrong about Nico. It seems he went whilst the light was red. Although the light changed from red to green, whilst half his car was still in the box. Still it looks like it was his fault, even though if he had waited for the light to change to green, he would have still got a penalty.
See: Hill, Kovi, Glock, Trulli.
To be fair, there were quite a lot of times where there were cars running closely to each other but, at the risk of flogging the same old dead horse, it's getting to the point where that's not really interesting cos we all know that no driver is going to risk damaging their tyres with a prolonged session of wheel-to-wheel racing.
Instead it's all about driving as carefully as possible and then going quickly for a couple of laps after the guy in front has pitted in the hope that you'll make up enough time that you'll come out ahead after your own pitstop.
Oh right, you had word Vettel's retiring?
No but, teams like Ferrari and Mercedes, who will build the new engines and also design their own chassis will have an advantage over the other teams like RBR. RBR will buy in an engine, in this case a Renault engine. Whilst they will have a general idea of the dimensions of the engine, and its weight. Until they have the final production level engine, they cant with any real confidence be sure their chassis will be the ideal one.
I think next season teams like Ferrari and Mercedes will a good start. Then by mid-way RBR would have got their act together, and Vettel will start coming good. We will have to see if the Ferraris and Merces have built up a big enough lead. I some how doubt it, as the four drivers will probably end up taking points of each other. They are all capable of winning races.
The new in-season tests next year will also play into RBR hands. As they will be able to test new parts out. They should thank Mercedes for that.
she had been granted her race licence actually and still held it but had chosen to persue a carreer in motovational talking following the crash
Overall, a very boring race.
also how sad that maria de villota story is
and i saw most of SENNA, and as for that barrichello crash, how high his car went, it almost missed completely the tyre barrier!
Did Senna and Prost really hate each other because at the end of Film it said Prost is a Trustee of his Foundation
Yes, I think so, he's had some good weekends - plus he brings sponsorship, doesn't he?
I haven't watched the last few races, just read the news reports afterwards and decided not to waste my time watching the highlights. I have no desire to see Vettel process towards the title - I want to watch an interesting title fight, not a driver I don't particularly admire getting more titles to his name than I feel he merits relative to other drivers on the grid.
To all intents and purposes both Ratzenberger and Senna were both dead at the track but I think due to Italian law if they pronounced them dead at the scene then the event would have to have been cancelled, so they were taken to hospital for 'treatment' before it was announced.
They had reconciled by the time of Senna's death. Prost himself has publically criticised the film because it didn't mention that fact.
I'm sure it's been mentioned plenty of times before in discussion but Ratzenberger's death on the Saturday was definitely at the track as the footage shows him with his head slumped to the side similar to what Senna has on Sunday and of course under Italian law, the race wouldn't have been run on Sunday and Senna's death wouldn't have happened. Whoever decided to let it go on, whether it be Bernie, sponsors, the race organisers probably wonder why they made that decision
I must say, I didn't think they really made Prost out to be the baddie in Senna.
I think that role was really reserved for Jean Marie Ballestre who, possibly because he wanted a fellow Frenchy to win, seemed to be doing everything in his power to sabotage Senna and McLaren's championship.
S'funny really, after watching Senna and Rush you start to realise why Ron Dennis might've thought the FIA was out to get McLaren.
In other news...
Was watching the Japan race and Ross Brawn made a comment about how next year's calender is taking things to the point where teams ARE going to need two race-teams to piggy-back each other from race to race so they can set up in time for each race.
It occurred to me, would there be any benefit in deliberately controlling the number of people in a race team?
I mean, would it make things more interesting if, say, each team was only allowed to bring 15 people to each event and, perhaps, only allow 3 people to service a car during a pitstop?
Seems like reducing the team numbers might force teams to build cars which were more straightforward so they could be maintained by a smaller team and if the cars were more straightforward that might improve the racing.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/motorsport/24532901
As for Dario'a accident, the same could easily happen at Monaco or other street circuits - youtube Conor Daly's accident at Monaco GP3 race. There's no saying that couldn't happen at a F1 race at the same circuit.
I never said he was killed in a 'supercar' race (by which I assume you mean Supercup). I disagree with your suggestion that the same could happen at other street circuits. Yes, of course, a similar accident could happen in F1 and also to be fair the new chassis Dario was in probably saved his life but the Indycar chassis are still years behind F1 chassis. Chances are if he had been in an F1 car he would have escaped some of the injuries he sustained.
I totally agree about GP3 and to a lesser extent GP2 racing. I think they are pushing their luck in those series. Not a race goes by without some incidents and sooner or later it's going to end badly.
There was an accident at Indianapolis a couple of weeks ago, the car just disintegrated on impact with the fence and debris ended up in the bleachers, injuring several spectators. As soon as I saw it, I said to myself, "I can't see that happening at a Formula One event."
Your whole point was that F1 is safer than other formulas - Sean was not racing, he was instructing which is nothing to do with what series are safe or not
As for Dario, Martin Whitmarsh has actually said that what helped Dario was something they don't have in F1 - energy absorbing seat structure and Martin wants F1 to look into it.
As for the crashes,the reason Indycar tends to have bigger crashes is because its a spec series - the cars run closer together than they would in F1. Yes the fencing was suspect in this case - unlikely that the fence would have broken at Long Beach.
The reason for the the injuries in the bleachers, was not wholly the fault of the breaching of the fence, it was the way the car broke up. If the car had not disintegrated the way it did, it would probably have not breached the fencing in the first place.
Could it not have been Fernando?