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OTD Lite: 1979 – Scheckter wins Italian GP and title
Montezemolo accepts Ferrari at ‘end of an era’
Williams rivals ‘had an eye’ on Bottas – boss
OTD Lite: 1979 – Scheckter wins Italian GP and title
On this day, thirty five years ago, South African Jody Scheckter fulfilled a lifetimes ambition and took the world championship with his team-mate Gilles Villeneuve trailing behind him – in front of the tifosi at Monza! What a drive by the Canadian, supporting his team-mate selflessly – all he had to do was overtake and he would have won the title… or so the popular press would have you believe.
In 1979, the points system was such that a driver could take his four best results from each half of the season, four from the second. The reliability of the era was somewhat different than today’s and this was deemed a fairer system to allow drivers the chance of having a failure without punishing the title challenge. Could you imagine a similar system in current F1 with Hamilton knowing that from 19 races, only the best 10 or 12 count to the title. So he could walk away from a retirement without fear of ruining his challenge.
Anyway back to the seventies, Scheckter started from third on the grid – in front of his team-mate – and raced ahead of the celebrated Gilles throughout. It is almost criminal that over thirty years later his part of the story has been changed to suit both the legend of team and driver and yet if Villeneuve is one of the best of all time, surely Scheckter must rank even higher..
The Jackal
(sourced from GMM with TJ13 comment)
Montezemolo accepts Ferrari at ‘end of an era’
All signs continue to point towards a major change of direction at crisis-struck Ferrari. Although long-time president Luca di Montezemolo played down the waves of speculation at Monza, his likely successor Sergio Marchionne issued a series of highly critical statements about the 67-year-old on Sunday.
Italy’s specialist Autosprint then published a photo of Marchionne, being driven in a Maserati road car, leaving the area of Montezemolo’s office within the factory grounds at Maranello on Monday. Even the formerly combative Montezemolo now seems resigned to departing, as Marchionne – chairman of Ferrari’s 90 per cent owner – looks to pull back the current separation between the fabled Italian marque and the Fiat-Chrysler empire.
“Ferrari is now American,” Montezemolo reportedly told close associates, according to Corriere della Sera newspaper. He added that it is “the end of an era”.
Also undergoing a major change of direction, albeit amid less headline-grabbing controversy, is the reigning world champion team Red Bull. Daniel Ricciardo has requested number 1 status for the rest of his 2014 title campaign against the dominant but warring Mercedes pairing, which at the moment boss Christian Horner is unwilling to cede.
But it is tough times for the team’s reigning quadruple world champion Sebastian Vettel, who is said to now be seriously considering a big-money offer to spearhead the new McLaren-Honda campaign.
In an interview with the German at Monza, F1’s official website asked Vettel about the “impression” he gave at Spa-Francorchamps “that the team is no longer fully behind you“. Vettel denied that, but the very same impression returned with force at Monza. In a friendly interview with Spanish television immediately after the Italian grand prix, Vettel reportedly said: “It seems that Spanish television sometimes has more faith in me than my own team does.”
Red Bull official Dr Helmut Marko played down Vettel’s remarks. “That was just the first emotion that came out of him. He was naturally disappointed that his teammate beat him, although in qualifying he was better than Ricciardo. I think it was a very normal reaction,” the Austrian insisted to German television Sky.
TJ13 comment: Il Padrino has always appeared a gentleman, charismatic and measured in his approach to Ferrari but his comment in regards to the company being American is a direct assault at Marchionne and Angnelli’s grandson John Elkaan.
For some months we have been writing about the political machinations in the corridors of Maranello. From the staggering appointment of Mattiacci with an early morning telephone call to his not being invited to the meeting that established the FCA group, it was always on the cards.
Initially MM was seen as a sacrificial lamb to the Montezemolo master plan to remain in power, whereas it slowly became obvious that as a personal friend of the two FIAT bosses his remit went far deeper.
As to Vettel, oh the irony of finger boy having to play number two to an antipodean. It is of no surprise that Desparate Dan lookalike, Mark Webber, seems to have issues holding back his delight at his former team-mates trials and tribulations.
(sourced from GMM with TJ13 comment)
Williams rivals ‘had an eye’ on Bottas – boss
After a run of four podiums in five races, Valtteri Bottas had a less enjoyable Italian grand prix. The Finn had to settle for fourth, while his teammate Felipe Massa scored his first podium of 2014. The solid team result meant Williams passed Ferrari on the fabled marque’s home soil for third place in the constructors’ world championship.
But Bottas admitted: “Probably the new contract is what I will remember most from this weekend. It is not bad — 12 points and a contract!” he grinned to the Finnish newspaper Turun Sanomat. Indeed, at Monza, Williams announced that Bottas and Brazilian Massa will remain paired together in 2015. “Of course it’s nicer when you know what you’re doing in the future,” the 25-year-old said, “even though I have known about it for a while.”
For some, however, the Oxfordshire team’s announcement was a slight surprise, after Bottas marked himself out as a star of the future in 2014 and was linked with a potential move to McLaren.
“Of course,” team deputy boss Claire Williams acknowledged, “when you have someone of Valtteri’s ability on board, the competitors keep an eye on him. But Valtteri began his career with us and he wanted to continue with us. Over the years we have changed the drivers but now we wanted continuity,” she added.
It is rumoured, however, that one of the conditions of Bottas remaining loyal to Williams is that the terms of his contract may have been improved. For example, when reserve Felipe Nasr or Susie Wolff have stepped in to practice on Friday mornings this year, it has always been Bottas who vacates his cockpit rather than Massa. As for whether that will change now for 2015, Claire Williams answered: “It remains to be seen. I can’t comment on that.”
TJ13 comment: Come now Claire, don’t be so shy, of course you can comment. With rumours emerging over the weekend that Massa was looking to use part of his personal $80 million dollar fortune to help the team – in effect a pay driver – and with Mercedes motor-sport boss Toto Wolff still being a share holder at Williams, providing what is essentially the Mercedes B team with engines and his patronage of Valtteri Bottas as his manager – there is plenty to comment on.
Still at least Mercedes are bringing Bottas on slowly as at 25 he is currently nine years older than Max Verstappen. Max was offered a proper progression plan by Mercedes yet was advised by the “great” Jos in moving to the bright lights of the Red Bull mothership – like father…
Bob Bell to Ferrari
Monza, Monza Monza…. The end of the road for many, and the beginning for a few. After what can only be described as a savage attack on Luca di Montezemolo by his boss the CEO of FIAT/Chrysler, the wheels of change are moving quickly in Maranello.
Adam Cooper has just reported that Bob Bell will be joining Ferrari. Bell resigned from Mercedes along with Brawn, but has been working on ‘non-F1 projects since.
Clearly with Il Padrino having been delivered a fatal blow, Mattiacci has proven to the recruits he has lined up, that things will be very different from now on in Maranello. The fear of potential candidates for the Scuderia that they will be working with their hands behind their back, due to Montezemolo’s dictatorship, has been clearly allayed.
Bob Bell is probably best known for his time at Renault and his input in delivering championship cars for Fernando Alonso in 2005-06.
Having worked with James Allison in the past, this appears a good fit and Cooper believes that this will “allow Allison to focus more on the car rather than organisational aspects. He would also bring with him substantial knowledge of how Mercedes developed its successful 2014 package”.
Following Mattiacci’s comments last week which suggested he may recruit someone above Allison as team principal, Bell would be an excellent candidate for this role, which would mean the return of Brawn to Ferrari is now a dying dream.
Bob Bell has previously expressed his desire to become team Principal, and his qualifications for the role are impeccable, which is good news for Ferrari.
Ricciardo on Vettel
Before the far reaching hand of ‘The Empire’ removes this YouTube clip, For Colgate fans… here it is once more
Judges Chamber: Ban pit to car radio
Jonathan Noble has penned an article advocating the banning or a significant reduction the pit to car radio transmissions.
The premise for this is Noble taking the baton from Christian Horner who believes the drivers need to once again become ‘heroes’ as were Jim Clark, Jackie Stewart and Ayrton Senna.
Noble argues that the tremendous battle at this years British GP between Alonso and Vettel was diminished by their persistent appeals across the radio attempting to get the other penalised.
Lauda is cited as supporting this ban on radio transmission for a different reason. “Even going to the starting grid”, says Niki, “they need to be briefed about what to do, as it is so complicated,” The viewer hearing drivers’ being instructed by engineers on how to operate the car is apparently a turn off”.
Ta Da! Noble concludes by banning pit to car radio, “the change would make the drivers the stars again. No longer able to rely on the stacks of information coming in their ears every second, they would have to manage tactics, fuel use, tyre wear and strategy alone – and cope alone with their great battles, just as Rene Arnoux and Gilles Villeneuve did at Dijon in 1979”.
As Byron Young notes, car radio has brought back the emotion of Formula 1 which used to be evident as the drivers wrestled the steering wheels of cars which were trying to kill them.
You can bet your bottom dollar this Autosport apologetic for banning pit to car radio is one which has been suggested to Noble from on high. Yet the intellectual gap in ‘thinking in the round’ is remarkable.
Fans love pit to car radio and squeals and spats from and between the drivers. Further, the modern F1 fan is aware of how complicated the cars are to drive. This knowledge cannot be unknown and the teams will rail against this change on the grounds of safety.
Thus, as the thin end of the wedge, the decision will be not to ban pit to car radio, but to cease it’s transmission.
Mmm. That’ll do it. The fans will suddenly believe the car is now being operated completely by the driver with no engineering input whatsoever and return to adoration and worship of each of these modern racing heroes.
The real problem is like him or loathe him, Stewart was indeed a hero – as were other drivers before and just after his era. For 200 odd miles, they battled to tame unwieldy beasts whilst knowing one mistake from them or a reckless competitor could mean instant death.
This knowledge cannot be unknown and neither can the clock be turned back to that era.
Formula 1 cars are complex twenty first century machines, and the delusion of a recent era where many believed the drivers were the all important factor in a motor race has been banished. F1 is a team sport once again.
No one seriously challenges ‘ 80/20 rule of thumb, yesterday or today. To win races and titles, the car is 80% of the performance and the driver 20%.
The information age is upon us and F1 should be delivering more insight and more information not less.
Banning pit to car radio – or its transmission – is a retrograde step and smacks of ‘The Empire’ once again deciding what we the fans should know and what we should not. More nonsense from the ‘F1 school of bright ideas’.
It is highly concerning that anyone in F1 leadership or the sycophantic entourage who publish their views believes by not hearing Jenson squealing over Perez behaviour, or Alonso and Vettel’s squabbling, will result in the fans falling to their knees and proffering the kind of hero worship and adoration commanded by Clark, Stewart et al.
“What monkey doesn’t see – monkey doesn’t know” – who are these supercilous people???
Maybe if the drivers wish not to be perceived as petulant children, then they should be instructed to not behave so.
Further, in an attempt to appeal to a younger audience, the notion of a 16 year old kid being recruited to drive in the world’s premier class of motorsport is a nonsense to many over the age of puberty. Just another example of failure to do ‘joined up’ thinking and panic amongst the coup of headless chickens. This will not create hero’s.
Make the cars harder to drive and drivers may find a return of respect from those who watch. Now there’s an idea.
The fundamental problem within F1 which lurks behind all the issues facing the sport – is the business plan. Stop charging fans exorbitant prices to go to races, offer F1 on free to air TV and distribute the prize money amongst the teams more fairly – Hey Presto…. Job done.
Yet greed and sanctimonious self interest rules the sport, and the strong get stronger and the weak will be eliminated. How most Darwinian… except the apes have weapons of thermo nuclear power….
Horner backs Magnussen
Starved of the oxygen of publicity and with no need to bother looking presentable anymore, Christian Horner is clearly feeling the love of a good woman and wants to share it around.
He believes Magnussen was penalised unfairly in the race in Monza. “Personally, I thought it was a racing incident at Turn 1. He had the inside line [and] that’s his prerogative if he keeps going there. It’s not ‘after you sir’ – it’s racing, it’s wheel-to-wheel combat.
I thought the move he made into Turn 1 was a legitimate move, but the stewards thought otherwise.”
Indeed they did.
But there were many other voices of dissent including Jenson Button who all but admitted what happened between him and Perez was worse.
So why is Kevin Magnussen the focus of the stewards’ attention? One can only assume there is a policy inside Charlie’s World, which beats a promising rookie into submission so they’ll learn to respect their elders and betters – and grow up to be pillars of the F1 establishment.
Boullier is bullish about his young steed’s progress. “It’s clear that he’s stepping up. He’s maybe punching above his weight, because obviously he doesn’t have the car to be fast enough and chase better results, but he’s trying his best.
I think it’s good for him and good for the fans as well, good for the show I think, to see this young kid, and this young Viking, if I may say this, fighting with the big boys. And obviously it means his self confidence is massively growing, and it’s good for his race craft, which is going to be only better and better.”
K-Mag is becoming a favourite with the fans for his no nonesense style of driving, and in the words of our erstwhile podcast host – Spanners – watch out, because “he can eff you up”.
Let’s hope he K-Mag develops a personality as quickly as his driving skills, because the young crop of drivers will not be providing much entertainment when Alonso, Raikkonen, Button, Hamilton, Massa and Vettel are being cared for and enjoying their bed baths.
” Still at least Mercedes are bringing Bottas on slowly as at 25 he is currently nine years older than Max Verstappen. Max was offered a proper progression plan by Mercedes yet was advised by the “great” Jos in moving to the bright lights of the Red Bull mothership – like father…”
Your speaking before your turn. Bottas turned out fine, but MV is somehow destined to fail?
Not necessarily, but at the judge’s offices they believe he’s being rushed in to f1. Just as his dad was. And therefor they believe that his star will fade just as fast as his dad’s did. Because let’s face it, jos’ career was over long before he actualy stopped racing.
The difference is the car.
Jos got in a top car, in a top team, run by the most disgusting boss ever around: the Flav.
I know the red Bull consortium is big and Marko is a proper rear-end-exit, but stepping in a midfield car is different.
Now, if Max underperforms an gets fired, I hope he gets over it sooner than a certain Spanish boy, who had his mind too much with his turntables. He can make a proper come back via GP2 like Glock and still be young.
When will the podcast be available to listen?
So judge what is this “electric” info coming out of brackley? And when will the podcast be up?
Being recorded tomorrow, be patient young padawans 😊
Merc to offer Lewis less than his previous £60m salary package.
oh ok, I was hoping for something a bit more spectacular than that….
There’ll probably be a lot more juicy stuff coming out of Brackley in the podcast. It should make for a fun week until Singapore.
But in the meantime, let’s enjoy the sounds of a Zonda 760LH in the tunnel at Monaco.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KFDJc5wn6hc
I’m dying to hear this electric news myself.
One of the podcast panel has been building it up.
I’m looking forward to recording.
RE: Gilles Villeneuve
You are so right Carlo. He was a great talent, no doubt, but there has been a lot of romance and falsehoods woven into his career posthumously. A greater disparity between deceased racing hero and reality one could not find. I touched on this with some career analysis many months ago, much to the chagrin of a few around here who needed to hold onto that Gilles Villeneuve romance. It’s become a beautiful amazing story, literally, when a reasoned reality would still be adequate enough.
RE: Ferrari
Strip out the era of 1998 (when the Todt / Brawn / Byrne / Schu team were all functioning) to 2007 (as they disbanded) and one will see that Ferrari are relatively uniform across all eras in terms of politics, squabbling, under performing relative to resources and political power. They have never, or rarely, been a truly sustainable top team outside of the decade period I mention. Flashes of greatness, then long periods of nothing…
RE: Williams
Finally the daughter gets what the father could not. Driver continuity is valuable. Father was a legend and amazing leader in his day, but this was his big flaw, chopping and changing drivers worse than the Toro Rosso development team (who’s job it is to do that). Good to see. The car/driver package will be further optimised, which is performance, which is reliable laptime.
A reasoned and well argued comment, which gets a recommend from me.
Flashes of greatness, then long periods of nothing…
As I just said…
🙂
Lol fair enough Nigel. Don’t worry buddy, I just pulled 3 completed articles that I was about to submit to John M. Probably wait a while I think… no point in wasting good work on deaf ears. Ahhh sh|t gets crazy on race weekends, doesn’t it. 😀
Williams is coming to the end of a transitional phase from the old guard in the team (Sir Frank and co) to the new one (Claire and co). So going forward you’d hope that with the driver line up locked in for at least another season or so and with the Mercedes power units Williams can go from strength to strength.
My sister works for Williams (a cleaner, so nothing exciting), but the loyalty to Sir Frank is palpable when I ask cheeky questions about the team.
No idea if this has been reported here yet or not but Wolff has sold more shares in Williams http://www.pitpass.com/52424/Wolff-sells-35m-option-on-Williams
@Taperoo2k
“My sister works for Williams (a cleaner, so nothing exciting)…”
What! Not sure why I have to make this connection for you but Cleaners have access to rubbish bins, rubbish bins have discarded notes / drawings / emails, said docs could be given to a brother who anonymously visits a website anonymously run by someone part of the clandestine underbelly of F1, despite their sloppy attempt at hiding their identity by accidentally posting the same message under their two names. Whoops…
But I digress.
Summary:
Sister – Rubbish – Brother – Clandestine Fellowship – Website – SiS consumption.
Kapish?
Not sure companies like Williams just dispose of sensitive paperwork in bog standard bins.
……lol. You’d be surprised….. we had a CAD drawing of a significant car component from somewhere last year and they should have known much much better…….
@thejudge…
I’m not saying it’s not impossible for that not to happen, just that I’d assume a company like Williams would be a lot more careful with how they dispose of information.
Could that CAD drawing be the nose of the Caterham? If it is, then it’s ok to just throw it in the bin😉
…someone reported to us that during the May Bank Holiday whilst the factory was closed, a certain Mexican contingent were present….
What made the source more credible was that another unrelated individual informed us there were 2 tequila bottles in the trash Tuesday morning…. 😉
You are right SIS and now appointed chief TJ13 recruiter of ‘moles’.
We currently have word from Brackley….. which is startling… but awaiting corroboration….
“We currently have word from Brackley….. which is startling… but awaiting corroboration….” – is this the “electric” news you were talking about or a separate matter?
…separate matter…
“We currently have word from Brackley….. which is startling… but awaiting corroboration….” – is this the “electric” news.
So judge, is this connected with what I sent you at the beginning of the season? No wonder Charlie and Jo refuse to answer my emails. Will the drivers table change, or just the mfrs.
Something diff
how long will this “corroboration” take then? Don’t leave us hanging!
Never heard of paper shredders 😉 I don’t ask my sister anything other than joke questions. I have a lot of respect for Williams, as it’s the team that got me hooked on F1. I’m not going to do anything that’s detrimental to the team. Just grateful I got to have a look round the factory to see how an F1 car is put together. Front wings are deceptively heavy and seeing a trophy with Senna’s name etched onto it sent shivers down my spine.
Just thought it would be interesting to discuss how Claire Williams has slowly risen up the ranks in the team to how the teams fortunes have changed since she’s been given a more prominent role in recent years. As for the chopping and changing of drivers ? Given how Williams have struggled for funding in the last decade, it’s not much of a surprise.
The whole Williams situation gives me a warm fuzzy feeling inside.
It took every bit of energy Smedley could muster to suppress the smile on his face whenever the name Ferrari was mentioned in the post-race interviews. He was must have been exhausted..
Nothing would please me more than to see Sir Frank up on the podium before the year is out.
In an ideal world Williams would be the business model for all F1 teams.
In an ideal world Williams would be the business model for all F1 teams
Especially now that they seem at last to have worked out how to manage drivers.
Though I’m not sure I’d want Toto Wolff to have a stake in all F1 teams…
He sold more shares recdntly
But, at the end of the day, there’s no doubting that Villeneuve had more pace than Scheckter, just like there’s no doubting that Vettel had more pace than Webber.
There’s an interesting parallel for Gilles and Seb – that Seb is 30 years later. They both made one-off debuts with reputable teams, before moving to the teams they eventually made their name with.
Gilles had just won a race, before being thrust into title contention – 79 was his 09. Seb narrowly lost 09 as well to a more experienced driver, with retirements playing a part, just like Hawthorn/Moss in 58.
Gilles reached full pace in 1981, just like Seb in 2011. These seasons they were acknowledged as the fastest on the grid. But imagine if Seb had reacted as badly to team orders to give the 2011 Brazilian GP to Webber.
Malaysia 2013 might have then happened a year earlier, when battling for 2012, and if they had contacted then only the increased car safety would have prevented a big accident (especially if it was with the pit wall). Webber walked away from Valencia 2010 without a scratch.
We could even speculate that Gilles would have been very successful in 1983 as well, before going off the boil in 1984 and being outpaced by his new Italian team-mate in the 1985 title challenge, probably hastening his departure from the team…
Re: Ricciardo on Vettel
Just enjoyed his and Bottas’ overtakes yesterday. Future champs for sure
They just put that up to annoy the Hippo. But it was pretty
Ric was the fastest in the speed trap (362 kph), did he achieve that with or without a tow?
….indeed and who says Mercedes don’t manage their drivers behind the scenes…. more to come on that too….
Ever heard of ‘not taking the bait’ ? 😉
….a sage hippo… Mmm….
Here’s something I think you’d might like to read.
http://www.jamesallenonf1.com/2014/09/did-red-bull-use-sebastian-vettel-as-a-strategy-play-to-help-daniel-ricciardo-in-italy/
Well played, sir Hippo, well played.
A better solution regarding the banning of pit-to-driver messages would be to limit the total amount of data transmitted for team to driver but not the other way round. For example, let’s say that on average there is 5 Gb of data transferred from team to driver, couldn’t the FIA limit that to say 1 Gb?
…..Told you once, you should be running F1. Good thinking. It’s the outrageous patronising treatment of the fans which beggers belief.
Turn off the radio so they can’t hear the drivers being what they are !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Massively angry……..
But the radio transmission also has some hilarity to it as well.
Hey guys, need some help please?…
With what Nico?
How to drive!
Come on, you can’t tell me that didn’t get you to laugh judge?
Well I hope you’re capable of laughing.
Frankly, they should put all transmissions up in mp3 and let fans make mashups of their favorite bits then give a prize at the next GP to the best……
That would be great
Whilst I’m at it they should also let fans make highlight reels and pick the best one to run at the next GP. End of year have a grand prize winner in each category and offer them a gig at FOM
The Judge,
There is a saying where I am from. Or a quip… “Put your credit card into a glass of water, then freeze it. Whenever you want to use your credit card, pull the glass out and by the time it thaws chances are you won’t want to buy what you intended”
Now how does that tie into F1…
Over the last 10-15 years, I have noticed an extraordinary amount of sporting and technical reg changes. Often tried and flipped in a single season. It’s become addictive to the powers that be to add things, change things, take things away, tweak rules, season by season.
This pit to car ban is symptomatic of this, IMHO. There is a greater problem.
My suggestion would be more macro… BAN or “freeze” all sporting and technical regs for 5 years minimum. Let cars and teams develop confidently. Save all rule changes “transactions” for yr 5, including track tweaks. Then when the glass is thawed, affect whatever changes the teams, FOM and FIA still want. Freshen up the series, then stick with it another 5 years.
I bet 100 bucks that many changes over the 5 year freeze would be dropped off.
This presents a stable sporting and commercial platform. Allows a series to be reborn, then mature over 5 years, then be reborn again to shuffle things up.
It also avoids all these dumbass micro transactions.
I like your thinking. But the biggest obstacle is the teams themselves. As we’ve seen for years, they can never unanimously agree on anything. We saw with Renault when they lobbied to have their V8 engines brought into line with that of the Mercedes and Ferrari’s. At some point in time, someone will find an areas within the rules that doesn’t suit what they’re trying to accomplish and as such look to have it changed mid way through the season.
Look what happened this season with FRIIC
I think the problem with FRIC was that some systems were pushing up against the definition of active suspensions, which are obviously banned. I actually think Charlie got that one right. He sidelined the possibility of the championship being decided in the courts by a “well-timed” technical challenge.
The crazy thing is that the mooted future change to bigger wheel diameters was apparently likely to require a return to active suspensions.
FIA: Arthur / Martha / ladyboy
…..reborn??? – will become Frankenstein’s Monster
Reborn technically I mean (09), then matured technically (13) as all cars start looking the same. Then reborn once again technically.
All the quali full fuel, then quali no fuel, double pts, pit to car bans, DRS intros, KERS intro/exit/intro/change/, continual overtaking guideline adjustments, team order rules, then no team order rules, holes then no holes, would be gone. And that’s just the last 5 seasons! One tyre, many tyres, one groove, two grooves, three grooves, no grooves, etc etc etc are the five before.
Better to ek stable for set terms than this bitsa-yearly-knee jerk approach to reg writing.
What successful business or sport runs like that?
The radio messages are a rare glimpse of the drivers’ true selves outside of the carefully stage-managed situations outside of the bit where the drive cars.
Like classic / ballsy passing moves, there are quite a few of these unguarded moments that I can easily run through my mind – Webber’s first win, Webber #2 driver, Felipe-baby, *** is faster than you, Seb counting Fred’s track limit infringements, Fred bitching back about Seb, “Leave me alone”, “Yes, yes, yes, I’m doing all that”, Lewis telling the put wall to go away and then complaining they’ve gone quiet, …
It’d be nice to hear some one-liners actually, ala Dick Johnson back in the day, flat out on Conrod, elbow in the breeze, slagging off Brocky.
Man, I remember Dick Johnson charging around Bathurst in his Sierra talking casually with the commentators. They asked him how the car was and he says “Mate, it’s like an ashtray on a motorbike.” Or Win Percy chatting away but having to break off his conversation to pitch his commodore through some of the more challenging corners over the top, before picking up the conversation again. Pit to car radios have delivered some great stuff.
since i doubt that radio is transmitted by voice over ip, i’m not sure you could measure it in gb
You could measure it in seconds: Average / 5
🙂
I presume this is largely said in jest, but the issue with any partial ban on pit-to-car radio is that they’ll just find a way around it. They already seem pretty keen on code words/phrases/sequences so it’d just be a case of changing them around. RB basically streamlined Smedley’s “____ is faster than you. Repeat: _____ is faster than you” schtick into “Multi 21”.
All it means is that for the people watching the race who aren’t party to these codes/phrases, it’ll just end up sounding like a quarterback calling to his team how they’re going to do the next play, rather than hearing specifics.
Yeah, I thought of this, too. You would hear things like:
L9 red (meaning in Turn 9 you go too deep)
L1 mango (Bozo, you lose time to Britney in Turn 1)
Very true. You’ve got one guy in the car and about 100 guys in the pits staring at computer data. Of course they’re going to find things that the one guy in the car can do better, and they’ll just find a sneakier way to transmit it. We already know about Nico’s tyre-status buttons for instance, they could just enhance that.
actually all the teams use motorola TETRA digital encoded radios so measuring data is very easy.
Shouldn’t you also be flogging the first race this Saturday? I’m setting the DVR….. Can’t wait to see it
@thejudge
Re: Ric on Seb…
Did you post that to piss off Mr FH?
He suckered 2 WDCs with that move into that very same corner
I note he’s said to be getting another new chassis in Singapore…
Is there an annual limit ?
🙂
….Marko’s soooooooooo very sorry – he’s paying 😎
It’s not daft.
Singapore should be his best chance of the year. Even without a safety car.
But didn’t they also say the same for Monaco and Hungary?
Hence the new chassis.
re pit car radio:
funny thing is the FOM is already censoring what you hear on the world feed. You get what some idiot director chooses and also a lap late.
its time for F1 to use simple existing software technology and stream every team radio for every driver real-time on their website for free. that, plus existing timing sites / apps and your local broadcast, would improve the experience.
Improve the experience? All recent changes have managed exactly the opposite: destroy the experience (as, for example, that the Online Timing on Formula1 website no longer shows many of the interesting pieces of interest that were formerly offered).
…They want you to buy the F1 app…
That app is absolute garbage!
I have it. but I’m in the US so all races are dvr’d. pit radio feature on it is useless. since I’m dvr when I skip through the commercials it’s a pain to re-sync the app to the image. really FOM has to give us a better broadcast.
…an app. so backward it’s steam-powered.
…. we want holograms…. fanbots……. the Star Ship Enterprises transporter module….
@thejudge13 regarding purchasing the app. I understand that’s the point. But to me, the only thing it meant is that I stopped watching Qualifying, which is as boring as watching a lettuce grow without proper timing information. The price to pay for watching qualifying (dollops and dollops of advertising) is now too steep of a price for an uninteresting show.
So, now, I just watch the last 3 minutes, when everything happens. I am sure lowering the audience of the show is not what they wanted, but that’s what they got.
You mean that piece of garbage that wants access to every part of my device. Really why would a timing app need to have access to my contacts? It is either build sloppy or it spies on you.
Ferrari. For a company that is so concerned about their public image, they sure are airing their dirty laundry quite prominently for the world to see. This is turning into an Italian soap opera. LDM went to the press and basically told his bosses, “F-You, I’ll leave when I’m God-Damn ready to leave”.
Either he has an iron-cad contract that was issued by Enzo himself, or he has the biggest testicles in history. If I was his boss, he wouldn’t have made it through the rest of the day.
“Ferrari is now American”. OUCH. This will probably not gain Ferrari any fans across the pond that are capable of understanding what he means. It is also a direct shot at Mattiacci, as everyone knows he gained his position in red by running the US side of Luca’s business. Makes me think that MM was definitely not LDM’s choice, but a placement by FIAT, with the intention of using him to replace Luca.
Team radio. Again, the FIA has decided to “fix” something that does not need fixing, for the sake of what, who knows.
If implemented, the teams will just find a way around it, like any other rule imposed. Interestingly, I was listening to the “Stuff you should know” podcast this week. They were discussing how the U.S. Neilsen ratings work.
It seems that every television show here has a unique ultrasonic tone that it broadcasts. The neilsen box “listens” for that tone, and is able to keep track of what is on the TV. How does this relate to F1?
We all know that the only communication form pits to the car, during a race, is the radio. If the teams could bury a similar tone in their radio signal, they could be making changes to the car without anyone knowing about it, and without driver input. Would this be cheating? In the spirit of the law, absolutely. But by the letter of the law, I am not sure.
Something to think about.
K-mag. I was ready to write him off a few weeks ago, figuring that Mclaren would probably drop him by next season for a Japanese driver, or at least someone more to Honda’s liking. Maybe he figured this out too, as the last 2 races he has really impressed. Being penalized twice in two races for essentially driving his ass off, should go a long way to either keeping his seat, or at least finding another one. Good luck to him.
There’s an interesting article on James Allen’s website today about how the use of the KERS energy is helping with the racing a lot this season.
It’s something that hasn’t really been mentioned much this season how that energy is deployed over a lap. With the output being at 120 kw, double last season’s I believe it has definitely helped with overtakes. Just look at Perez being able to get Button in the Lesmo’s on sunday. All thanks to the KERS this year.
Another positive thing this year nobody talks about because thr cars sounds shit remember and that’s all that matters!! Oh and look Hamilton’s blown his nose with Britney’s hanky, I better lose my shit!
….the alliteration is “Bozo…. and Britney”
I’m a bit behind obviously, where does Bozo come from? He hasn’t even given his dogs names that bad!
….we had some banter to find a pairing for Britney last week – had to start with ‘B’ – so B&B
So Nico is called ‘Britney’ “a pop superstar” and Lewis is referred to as ‘Bozo’..”a stupid or insignificant man.”
It’s ok to banter occasionally, but to refer to anyone as a Bozo or Britney, whether it be Lewis, Nico, Seb or anyone else for that matter, for me is crossing the line.
You require that the comments are kept respectful and refrain from personally attacking anyone, then you should also show the same level of respect to the people that your whole site is dependant on.
Bozo was a very much loved and popular clown….
Did anyone get around to Beavis & Britney?
I did ask for input, but got little…. This is good…
Britney and Bling Bling
Barbie and Sparkles
Britney and bling bling fulfills the “B & B” criterea
Can’t have Beavis… it’s narrated by ‘the Judge’
@Fortis96 (referred to as ‘Bozo’..”a stupid or insignificant man.”)
I think you were thinking of Bono…
@dobzizzle
No, i meant ‘bozo’
Look it up and you’ll see what I wrote, is the actual meaning of the word.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bozo_the_Clown
@thejudge
And a clown is there for the amusement of others, whether he’s loved by everyone.
Do you actually think when you or anyone else uses the word, they’re thinking of….
Bozo the the popular and well loved clown?
….it was my first thought…. Hey… Hamfosi come up with Britney and then get upset when we try to find a cerebral alliteration for Lewis…. get a grip…..
Britney – the druggie, self obsessed crazed lunatic, who entertains the uneducated masses???
Think I’d rather be Bozo…. be careful what you say of others Fortis… cos it all comes flooding back at you…..
Neither are complimentary… which is the point…. particularly given the extreme interpretations which ONLY you appear to be capable of conjuring up
Once again you made a fool of yourself……
Fortis, you need to stop taking life so seriously………
@Fortis96
– Yeah, I know, man. I just couldn’t resist the temptation to have a pop at the bug-eyed Blair-hugger from U2…
@thejudge13: “Hey… Hamfosi come up with Britney and then get upset when we try to find a cerebral alliteration for Lewis”
wasn’t it mark webber who came up with britney?
Schumacher at home.
When our royalty go home, they die. The Royal family Has certain religious beliefs, making it impossible to just – pardon my English – pull the plug.
I hope this is not the case with Schumacher.
I don’t think they want anyone to see or know what he is now, put it that way.