Ronnie Peterson

The Top-20 #F1 GP Drivers who did NOT win a championship…

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Brought to you by TheJudge13 chronicler: BlackJack’sBriefs  A few conclusions…            “In space, nobody can hear you scream – when surf-boarding nobody can see you cry…” First I have to express my gratitude to ‘TJ13’ for agreeing to publish this series, and encouraging me to write it, and then offer a Big Thank You to those … Read more

The Top-20 #F1 GP Drivers who did NOT win a championship…

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Brought to you by TheJudge13 chronicler BlackJack’sBriefs
 Such a list is not easy to compile, and it is even harder to be objective. The way I reduced 830 F1 drivers to 20 is detailed in Part I. I wanted twenty top drivers (top No.2’s who might have been a team leader.) who had proved their ability to win … Read more

On This Day in #F1: 14 February

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Brought to you by TheJudge13 chronicler Carlo Carluccio – 1944: Ronnie Peterson – A superstar is born When I think of Sweden in the 70’s there’s little that stands out as exciting; other than tank proportioned Volvos, a pop group (sorry, I can’t call ABBA music), videos of blonde floppy haired men and women in … Read more

On This Day in #F1: 15 January

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Brought to you by TheJudge13 chronicler Carlo Carluccio – 1978: Andretti and Lotus dominate Argentina The Formula One circus descended on Argentina for the first race of the 1978 season. Mario Andretti started from pole position ahead of the Ferrari of Carlos Reutemann and Andretti’s new team-mate – Ronnie Peterson. The Braham-Alfas of John Watson … Read more

US Grand Prix 2002, Indianapolis: A Ferrari Fix

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In the run up to the return to the US for F1 racing, I’m looking for good stories that maybe veteran F1 fans want to relive and new ones can read for the first time. Most people with any vague knowledge of F1 racing in the US will know of the tyre debacle at Indianapolis in 2005 where only 6 teams ran.

Yesterday, thejudge13 published a review and some video footage from Dallas 1984, another farcical event where the track disintegrated before the drivers eys. So much so the Pole Position fastest time was set on Friday some 2.5 seconds quicker than anything possible on the Saturday – and there was no rain. (LINK)

Controversy has not been far from the US Grand Prix it seems in recent years. This race at 2002, I remember watching live and listening to the incredulous voice of the commentator who wailed in disbelief at the finish as it unfolded before his eyes. The article is from Grandprix.com but is abridged due a great level of detail some may find dull. The link to the full article is at the end for those wanting the 10th’s of seconds etc…  suffice to say the race was a fairly dull Ferrari domination (as was much of 1999-2004).

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HRT Engineers worried about safety, Villenueve: ‘Vettel’s a child’, COTA wins Global award, Partially sighted driver wins Indy 500, Rosberg on Schumacher, Alonso/Vettel title permutations, RB to join elite club, US GP record: F1’s smallest winning margin

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HRT price tag 40m euros: Thesan Capital (who we think are Banco Popular in disguise – see news yesterday) have most reasonably come clean today and suggested they would be happy to receive back their original investment of 40m euro’s. I bet they would, these are the last desperate scrabbling to realise some cash back on what was a ridiculous venture destined to fail.

If someone pays Thesan 40m euro then there is still 10’s of millions more for the new owners to find to get the team back on its feet again after paying off the debt. Of course there is the prize money from coming last this year, and whilst prize money in F1 is a closely guarded secret, I believe 12th is worth only about 7.5m euro ($10m). The likelihood is HRT will just cease to exist.

The reason I say this, is because there has been for 3 years agreement among the teams for a 13th team to race. This has never happened due to the inability of anyone to get the required funding for an F1 start up. Buying HRT is worse than starting a new team as there will be debts, unpaid wages, a factory in Madrid that would be better located in the UK – why pay anything for them? The prize money is insignificant compared to the rest of the costs.

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Chequered Flag and Podium Politics, Ferrari policy of a No.2 statistically irrational, Ferrari upgrades ‘no revolution’

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With many of the F1 personnel heading inter-continental, news yesterday and today is a little slow. But here we go anyway.

Ferrari admit they’re in trouble: Marc Gene at a publicity event for Shell Motorsport in Madrid today says the team have a number of upgrades for the Indian GP. He has been testing them in the simulator but is uncertain as to their effectiveness. He admits they will not know whether the upgrades work or not until they try them out on track on Friday. The most troubling comment was, “In India we will take a number of improvements to the cars, but they will not be a revolution, but we hope to help”. (as.com) Playing down the upcoming Indian GP Gene adds,  “Each of the next four races will be important but not decisive in itself.”

The problem Ferrari face is their recent lap times relative to Red Bull. In Singapore and Japan, their best time for the weekend was around 1% slower than Red Bulls, and although they closed this to 0.3% in Korea the kind of upgrades Gene is talking about will at best close the gap and of course Red Bull will not be standing still. To win in India, Alonso most likely needs to qualify on the front row and with the weather set fair this will be a huge ask.

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