Brought to you by TJ13 contributor Daniel van Bree
On this day in F1 history… the 9th August…
1944 Patrick Depailler was born
Patrick who was born in Clermont-Ferrand France, went onto compete in formula one between 1972-1980. He entered with the Tyrrell team to partner Jody Scheckter from 73 filling the void left by the retiring Stewart and the deceased Francois Cervert. Patrick stayed with Tyrrell until the end of the 1978 season, it was in this season where he claimed his maiden win on the streets of Monaco’s principality.
For 1979 Patrick moved to Ligier who were now to be powered by the mighty ford Cosworth V8 as opposed to the French built Matra V12. A Hang Gliding accident forced him out the 79 season after breaking both his legs. Consigned to not race in 1979, Patrick returned in 1980 with the newly created Alfa Romeo team.
Patrick was killed in testing for the 1980 Hockenheim German grand prix when his suspension failed pitching his car into the high speed ostkurve Armco. Fatal head injuries were sustained after the car skidded along the barrier before flipping over. The ostkurve schikane was first used in 1982 as a result of Patricks’ crash in an attempt to slow the cars down.
1987 Not again Nige!
Nigel Mansell’s luck went from bad to worse when a loose wheel nut forced him to retire from the Hungarian Grand Prix. Nigel having secured Williams 25th pole position the day before, was in a commanding lead five laps from the end. On lap 70 the right hand rear wheel nut freed itself allowing bitter championship rival and teammate Nelson Piquet to take the chequered flag and ultimately the championship that year.
2005 Tyregate mark I
Formula One kingpin & commercial rights holder Bernie Ecclestone, expressed his confidence that the 2006 USA grand prix would take place at Indianapolis despite the “tyre-gate” affair. The 2005 race was contested by only the 3 Bridgestone clad teams when all Michelin runners withdrew their cars on safety grounds. Harsh criticism from the public, and bad publicity from the media eventually led to Michelin refunding all ticket holders.
2007 Lewis and the ‘F bomb’
After the spicy battle between Alonso and Lewis Hamilton during the Hungarian Grand Prix qualifying session, the McLaren team have denied that Lewis Hamilton dropped the ‘f-bomb’ as reported by some quarters of the British media. Hamilton allegedly ‘effed’ abuse in the Spaniard’s direction during a conversation with team principal Ron Dennis.
The back ground was Fernando appeared to have prevented Lewis from getting in another hot qualy lap. It was reported in the red tops that Lewis had told his team principal to “never do that to me again”, and “go f****** swivel” during a heated discussion where tensions were at an all-time high.
On the same day Malaysian Fairuz Fauzy returned to the Spyker cockpit for the first time since May to conduct aero testing for the team, to aid their mid-season development.
…………..you forgot to mention that Lewi Shamilton instigated this fiasco by refusing to let Alonso past previously during qualy. Ron Dennis had failed to get Daddy and Baby Hamiltons to tow the company line earlier in the season, from Monaco in fact where Daddy Lew Lew didnt like Baby Lew Lew having to take second place to Fernando and went crying to the stewards about how Baby Lew Lew was a no2 in the team and acting under “team orders”, at a time when “team orders” was supposedly banned!! Thanks to the Lew Lews actions during that season, and the fallout from FerrariGate and the 100 million fine, Mercedes decided to dump McIdiots and start their own team; which by the end of this season will have given Baby Lew lew his 3rd drivers title at the team!!
@Racehound. Yes. Clearly names like baby Lew Lew and daddy Lew Lew come from a place that aren’t completely biased against Hamilton don’t they.
What you just said is a manipulation of the truth and some of it doesn’t even make sense. I mean you are saying that Mercedes left Mclaren partly because of Hamilton yet they signed him to replace Schumacher and know hes soon to be their 3xWDC? Okay mate.
Also, Hamilton is not the one who exchanged illegal Ferrari information via email with Pedro De La Rosa, an act of industrial espionage, threatened Dennis to give him preferential treatment otherwise he’d tell Max Mosley what was going on(though Mosley already knew from Briatore) and then Alonso got immunity for everything he knew when in reality he should have been kicked out of the sport. Mosley’s vendetta against Dennis was more important to the FIA president amd because of this personal beef, Alonso got let off Scott free just like he also got immunity when Piquet crashed into a wall in Singapore and flushed his career down the toilet in the process all for the sake of one Fernando Alonso.
Anyway, not saying what Hamilton did at Hungary was right but its nowhere near as bad as what Alonso did in 2007. Also, in his defense, at the previous race in Hockenhiem, Hamilton went flying into a wall in qualifying after a tyre failure so had to start 10th in a weekend that he was supposed to get first call on the qualy order between himself and Fernando. Of course the race didn’t help either. He started 10th and was up to 4th immediately behind Alonso by the first corner but misfortune struck again when in the process of this, the two colliding BMW’s clipped Hamilton’s tyre, giving him a puncture basically a full lap away from pit entry. A double blow even though he caught Alonso straight away.
So with this in mind Hungary makes a hell of a lot more sense and at the end of the day, Hamilton didn’t break any rules, Alonso did. Also, and Hamilton even said this during an interview, nothing stopped Alonso bombing it after Hamilton and burning off the same amount of fuel but instead Alonso slowed down and moaned to the team over the radio. Alonso could have burnt off as much fuel as Hamilton, that’s a fact.
As for Daddy Lew Lew and Baby Lew Lew at Monaco? Well Alonso already got given preferential treatment in Australia when Hamilton passed Alonso into t1 but was then short fuelled at the first stop, meaning Alonso went longer and jumped him at the 2nd stop. (This, in the era of refuelling when taking on more fuel meant running a lighter car at the end of a stint when other cars pit to rejoin with heavier cars so you made up loads of time). This is actually beyond doubt because Dennis admitted immediately after the race that he gave Alonso the preferential strategy. Monaco was the 2nd time Fernando got preference on strategy and that was after Webber cost Hamilton the chance of pole in qualifying.
……………..but like I said before……..winning in the fastest car on the track with at least half a second per lap advantage over the rest is not really winning at all is it?
Whining Much ?
GO, 44 !
Put any pair of drivers from any other team in the Mercedes and they will still be winning both championships this year.
The “Go F***ing Swivel” rumour turned out to be an exaggeration of what was actually said and it was revealed during The FIA investigation into Alonso’s actions during qualifying.
The radio chatter between Dennis and Hamilton was actually the pivotal evidence the FIA used to prove that Alonso’s actions were deliberate.
Firstly, the Hamilton family flatly denied the “Go F***ing Swivel” rumour to the media and asked McLaren to make a statement that no such words were spoken by Lewis. Secondly, what actually happened was that Lewis made a sarcastic comment, “Ha Ha, very funny guys” and it was Dennis’ response that gave the FIA sufficient grounds to believe that Alonso acted deliberately when a clearly ticked off Dennis responded with “that’s what happens when you don’t f***ing do as you are told”.
Now, clearly, that doesn’t prove Dennis was in on it. Judging from him throwing his headset down and marching Alonso’s physio away it certainly didn’t appear to be the case. What it did prove though was that Dennis was acknowledging Alonso’s actions as a deliberate act of retaliation to Hamilton refusing to let him through during the burn off phase and that’s why the FIA deemed that Alonso brought the sport into disrepute, or however they worded it. “Not acting in a sporting way” or something like that, I forget exactly.
The “Go F***ing Swivel” rumour turned out to be an exaggeration of what was actually said and it was revealed during The FIA investigation into Alonso’s actions during qualifying.
The radio chatter between Dennis and Hamilton was actually the pivotal evidence the FIA used to prove that Alonso’s actions were deliberate.
Firstly, the Hamilton family flatly denied the “Go F***ing Swivel” rumour to the media and asked McLaren to make a statement that no such words were spoken by Lewis. Secondly, what actually happened was that Lewis made a sarcastic comment, “Ha Ha, very funny guys” and it was Dennis’ response that gave the FIA sufficient grounds to believe that Alonso acted deliberately when a clearly ticked off Dennis responded with “that’s what happens when you don’t f***ing do as you are told”.
Now, clearly, that doesn’t prove Dennis was in on it. Judging from him throwing his headset down and marching Alonso’s physio away it certainly didn’t appear to be the case. What it did prove though was that Dennis was acknowledging Alonso’s actions as a deliberate act of retaliation to Hamilton refusing to let him through during the burn off phase and that’s why the FIA deemed that Alonso brought the sport into disrepute, or however they worded it. “Not acting in a sporting way” or something like that, I forget exactly