kiroquai

1997 is such a great season - loads of different winners, close racing, surprise performances, heartache and a finale that’s passed into F1 folklore. Not sure about the foot clutch thing. I do know for a while in his F1 career JV has the left paddle on his wheel entirely for the clutch and used a weirdly set up ‘split’ paddle with his right to change up and down. Think that might have been in his BAR days though.

Nope - it was developed by Steve Nichols I believe. Newey's first McLaren was 1998's all-conquering MP4/13.

Remember that very well. I'd supported Frentzen since his first year in F1 at Sauber and also supported JV since he was in IndyCar in the same year, so 1997 Williams was peak fanboy material for me. Then, Jacques slaps it on pole by 1.7 seconds. Magic! I mean okay, he's got nerfed out the race by Irvine, but shit happens and Frentzen is now controlling the race. Everything is just perfect... ... but hang on, why is David Coulthard still in this? Why is Frentzen not walking this race? WHY HAS HE SPUN? From that moment on my confidence of a private battle between my two favourite drivers for the F1 title kinda just crumbled away.

A sad, if not unexpected, piece of news; Patrick had been suffering from Parkinson’s for years. A moment to remember him by? Well, I’d pick two: his wins for Ferrari at Hockenheim in ‘82 and Imola ‘83 were pure theatre - F1 at its most emotionally raw peak. Obviously this all took place in an era prior to internet and wall-to-wall coverage. Words alone struggle to do those two wins justice, but over the years I’ve read enough of them to get an approximate picture. Hockenheim. Villeneuve, phenomenally popular amongst his mechanics, dies at Zolder in an awful accident. The team dragging themselves through the remaining season, only to see their other main hope Pironi almost killed in a scarily similar accident in practice. Amongst it all, Tambay brings the remaining prancing horse home for his first win and triumphantly returns to the garage afterwards to find mechanics kneeling on the floor crying their eyes out. Then Imola the next year. In ‘82 it was the scene of the Pironi/Villeneuve ‘betrayal’. Fans painted a giant Canadian flag in P1 on the grid. Stalls scattered around the circuit still sold Villeneuve flags, banners, photos and made huge amounts of money from them. The Tifosi always want a Ferrari win, but that particular day at that particular circuit, the Tifosi wanted something more specific: a Ferrari number 27 victory to remember their fallen hero. They got it. This picture sums it up: A driver usually known for being cool, calm and calculated throwing both his arms in the air as he crosses the line. Packed grandstands roaring in unison at deafening volume. Jubilant mechanics, beside themselves with joy and caught up in the moment, dancing on the side of the track. You can Netflix the fuck out of F1 all you want - these two moments are what F1 is about for me. A man digging impossibly deep in moments of despair and almost-insurmountable expectation and finding glory. That is F1 for me and many, many others. Rest well, Patrick.

Hah, that's cool - the 'keeper for England ('Palferman') is actually named after my old buddy Rob Palfreman who worked for Silicon Dreams for a bunch of years and eventually ended up at Rebellion, where I worked/car-shared with him for a good while. Lovely chap. Am guessing a lot of the other player names are Silicon Dreams staff too

If it’s raining outside, ask Lando if he wants to come in to change to wet tyres. (Actually, don’t!) On a serious note, you could ask Zak Brown if preserving and celebrating McLaren’s history is as exciting for him as developing their new cars. The guy is a big petrol head who loves driving around in old racing cars.

I can hear that picture I also have this on the top shelving part of my work desk!

A very good point, that. Definitely something you have to keep in mind when lauding Chapman. Beautiful cars that really pushed the envelope, but that would also fold up like one if you so much as looked at them the wrong way.

Hm tricky one if we have to pick an F1 car. I'd love a 156 (Sharknose) Ferrari from 1961, but they were all chopped up eventually and none remain. Obviously love the FW14B too. The Ferrari F2004 is possibly the most dominant (and fastest) F1 car ever. I can't take my overall choice as it's a series of cars, but I'll take arguably the best version of it: The Lotus 72D. The most successful form the 72 took over its 6 (!) years of service. 72D spanned the end of 1971 until the start of 1973 and gave Emmo a world title. Plus, I mean... just look at the thing. Before the Lotus 72, F1 cars looked like this: After the Lotus 72, F1 cars looked like this: That's an insane amount of progress in six years, and it can all be traced back to Colin Chapman waving his magic wand and changing the entire face of the sport again back in the Spring of 1970.

Hm, well... 1967 Ferrari 330P4, chassis 0856. Only one left in good condition (four were built). This exact one finished 2nd at the Daytona 500 and 3rd at the Le Mans 24 that year. It also won the 1000km of Monza, which was one of the very last races that Lorenzo Bandini was able to drive before his tragic Monaco crash in May. It kind of bridges that gap between the old and the new, in a lot of ways. Sports car racing was about to be totally re-invented by Porsche and the 917 (I'd happily have a 917 as my second favourite after the P4). It looks incredible. It sounds even more incredible. Currently under the ownership of one Mr. Lawrence Stroll.

So, having heard much about it I’ve been playing this little gem the past few nights: It’s fantastic! So much personality and variety packed into such a little file size. Not hugely challenging but still a total joy to play - controls are good, music is great and it packs a bunch of character into its visuals too. Sadly, it’s also hideously expensive. You’re looking at £100 and above for a genuine English-language copy. I’m using a… er… ‘tribute’ cartridge sourced from AliExpress. You can also find it on the Castlevania Collection (which I also own) if you fancied a slightly more legal/moral way to play. Highly recommend it!

Myself the the wife plan to once we’ve done The Quarry (which we are nearing the end of and distinctly so-so about). She got me into the series as she’d played Until Dawn and loved it. I also really enjoyed that, and I actually really liked Little Hope too. Wasn’t hugely keen on Man of Medan and House of Ashes wasn’t particularly memorable for me. Will be interesting to hear your thoughts on Devil In Me. It’s apparently rather divisive

Amazing! Looks like the chassis of one of their mid-eighties CART cars with a million other things bolted to it. Remember listening to a podcast about the dreadful 1993 Lola F1 car and discovering it had its roots in a wind tunnel refurb they had done in 1990/1991. Ended up screwing up their F1 stuff and CART stuff for a number of years and almost bought the entire company down. (It amazingly wasn’t an excuse for their 1997 disaster as the wind tunnel had been fixed and that car didn’t actually run in the wind tunnel anyway). Sad they’re gone, really. An iconic name.

All this talk of rubbish commentators reminds me of one of my few ‘I was near a famous person’ stories. I’d been in London for a day or two and had hopped on my usual train back up to the midlands. There I was, reading my Autosport and sipping my coffee, when an awfully familiar voice rang out from the chair in front of me. Who else could it be but our lord and saviour I always relentlessly mocked his commentary on the FIFA games and would make clear my disdain to anyone within earshot when he was co-commentator on any game I was watching on telly. Anyway, it was a quiet train and I couldn’t help but overhear the phone conversation he was having. Dunno who it was to or quite what about, but I ended up feeling bad for the years of anti-Townsend propaganda as he sounded like a really lovely bloke, repeatedly telling whomever it was on the other end not to worry and that be delighted to help in any way he could. This all lasted as far as my usual destination of Banbury. Had a cursory glance as I disembarked and sure enough, it was definitely him. I did have to summon insane amounts of self-control not to turn around and say ‘You’re right there, Clive!’ as I walked past, mind.

I enjoy pretty much most types of games, but I've never clicked with 2D fighters at all. I'm awful at them, and despite many attempts to get into one I just can't. Tekken, Soul Calibur etc I am alright with, but Street Fighter. King of Fighters, Jojo's Bizarre Adventure etc aren't my bowl of pudding. That said, I can really appreciate the depths of understanding many have for them and I find watching two skilled players fighting it out good fun.