Sport The Formula 1 Thread

[kiroquai]

Something that has taken me almost 20 years to notice: After his angry rant, Senna is so wound up that he punches his glass off the side of the table!

[kiroquai]

I think racing Schumacher taught Senna how Prost must have felt when he was racing against him in the late 1980's. Mansell was overseas, Prost had retired, Piquet was long gone and I think Ayrton was really feeling the weight of suddenly being F1's elder statesman alongside Berger.

I remember Senna's message to Prost over the radio as he went around the warm up lap at Imola '94. Makes me sad every time I hear it .

[p1nseeker]

Hugo boss are running a competition letting you design Lewis'/Jenson's overalls for the British GP!

http://www.hugoboss.com/uk/en/emag/mcLaren/index.php#/configurator

[marsh]

Can I just say, despite the intense animosity between the drivers, Senna always had an enormous respect for Prost. In '94 he begged Prost to come back because without him racing, he didn't have as much motivation to compete.

I remember that too, it really had calmed down between the pair of them and I think Ayrton felt a bit lost without Prost alongside him.

[Rattlehead.ie]

No matter what people say about Schumacher, he obviously has a lot of respect for the good drivers around him.

I remember watching this live and I will admit it brought a tear or two to my eyes.

I got dragged out of the house to go watch a local rugby game instead of watching the Imola GP in '94. I ended up sitting in the car listening to the radio when the accident happened. My parents felt so bad for dragging me out, (I was 10).

[kiroquai]

My parents were a bit concerned about how Imola '94 had affected me (I was 11 at the time) - I distinctly remember getting up from watching the race on TV and in some futile attempt at releasing the tension loading up Grand Prix 1 on the PC and just doing lap after lap of Imola with Senna's McLaren whilst feeling particularly angry.

No one bothered me (lived with my parents and my brother and sister at the time) until bed time. I was tucked up and just about to fall asleep when both my parents walked in and asked if I was okay and had a bit of a chat. I had Eurosport at the time so I had seen both Senna and Ratzenberger's crashes and it was the first time I'd had to deal with death in the sport other than reading about it in history books.

Strangely though, I was far more upset when Greg Moore died in 1999, by which time I was 16. I'd been following him since he took over the Forsythe livery from Villeneuve in 1996 and he was my favourite driver in any form of motorsport; to see him die in front of me on TV caused my brain to shut down for the rest of the evening. The race ended about 10.30pm UK time but I just sat there in the living room chair until well into the next morning. Didn't want to move, didn't want to speak... took the day off from school the next day too because I knew I'd have people running up and asking me about it.

[marsh]

My memories of 94 are of missing the qualifying session, but seeing the rather grim footage of Roland having CPR as they tried to get him into the back of the helicopter. There was alot of talk at the time of how Ayrton was struggling to get his season started after the first two races which by his standards had been pretty awful.

The whole race that day was an absolute disaster, and without looking it up, and not including Rubens flying into the catch fence, I can recall a benetton being cut in half after it stalled on the grid sending a tyre into the crowd which bought out the pace car etc etc....

Didin't a wheel fall off a Lotus comming out of the pits which flattened a mechanic late on in the race too?

[kiroquai]

Was off Alboreto's Minardi I seem to recall - the wheel scythed into the Lotus pit area and knocked over a few of their mechanics. Thankfully none were too seriously hurt.

[kiroquai]

Worth mentioning that arguably the finest driver in the sport's history passed away 43 years ago today during an F2 race at Hockenheim. A man who Ayrton Senna had a huge amount of respect for, too.

Rest in peace Jimmy Clark: gone but not forgotten, even by those like us who are too young to have seen him race.

[marsh]

Here's another thing about that weekend fellas. The day before the race, or perhaps before qualifying, both Senna and Berger were at Tamburello with the race director/head marshall discussing safety. While there, the director asked Senna, "Do you want us to put some tyres against the wall?" ...

Now that, despite countless hours of reading, I did not know. I still feel that they should never have reprofiled that part of the track, it's not what he would have wanted. And it's not like Berger, who only a few years previous had gone off at the same corner which tried to melt his face off was unfamiliar with what could have happened.

[Halo]

Weather forecast for Sepang, Malaysia

[JPR]

To add to the Imola 94 memories that weekend is some of my most vivid memories I can still picture parts perfectly. On the Saturday I remember playing in the field next to my house and my dad coming to tell me that Ratzenberger had been killed, for some reason I had to immediately run to the local shop to look at him in Autosport. The next day we went to some Classic car show at the NEC, I remember clearly queuing for the coach to the carpark and getting on just as the radio was saying he'd been killed. Latter that day I was out with a few friends and another friend and I who was also a big motorsport fan where just sat silently, only thing I could think about was Senna. It did have quite a big impact on me, have to admit I shed many a tear, I think partly because this was my first real time faced with death I was 11, but mainly I love F1, these where my heroes. For as long as I can remember watching F1 I've only missed a handful of live races and those I've always avoided the result and watched it as soon as possible, except Imola 94 which I never watched and never will.

I'm not sure why but a few years later a friend printed off a picture of Senna, just a small one I think from Encarta, but it fit perfectly in my wallet. I always kept it there and I would probably still have it if some fucker hadn't mugged me and taken my wallet, losing that picture was the worst thing I even tried to keep the wallet and just give my money but no chance.

Well this thread has taken a bit of a downswing in mood, though quite nice to actually say those things. Must go find some pictures from Malaysia, maybe HRT will give us something new to laugh at.

[Gommy]

I must have been 12 and pretty much stopped watching F1 after Senna died. I was out that day and didn't watch the race but think my Mum or Dad told me in the car on the way home. Weird sensation.

Only came into the thread recently as I was off to the Grand Prix, and knew/know pretty much nothing of it these days.

[JPR]

To tie it nicely back to current F1, Schumacher picks his five favorite races for the BBC classics and two are Senna and the other three are his battles with Hakkinen including that move at Spa around Zonta.

BBC Schedule for the weekend.

Friday 8 April

First practice: 0255-0435, BBC Red Button/online

Second practice: 0655-0835, BBC Red Button/online

Saturday 9 April

Third practice: 0555-07:05, BBC Red Button/BBC Radio 5 live sports extra/online

Qualifying: 0800-1030, BBC One/BBC Radio 5 live/online

Qualifying repeat: 1300-1415, BBC One

Sunday 10 April

Grand Prix live: 0800-1115, BBC One/BBC Radio 5 live/online

F1 forum: 1115-1215, BBC Red Button/online

Grand Prix repeat: 1300-1500, BBC One

Highlights: 1900-2000 and 0230-0330, BBC Three

[marsh]

I do like these reasonable starts to a sunday with a bit of racing done by mid morning. Australia is just too damn early after a day racing in an enduro!

[JPR]

Pirelli add a stripe to the softer tyre. HRT also have their new front wing, which must make it their first wing upgrade ever I think, can't find any proper pictures of it though.

I'm a Schumi fan, but that's a bit too far for me.

[SF-02]

So the race starts at 4 local time I see. No wonder it rains so much then. I've been to KL and the weather is the same everyday throughout the year - blazing morning sun with horrendous humidity causing cloud buildup by midday, and rain/thunderstorms from early/mid PM onwards.

A good race to bet on some outsiders.

[kiroquai]

If it stays dry I wouldn't be surprised to see one of the Saubers on the podium .

[marsh]

Pirelli add a strip to the softer tyre. HRT also have their new front wing, which must make it their first wing upgrade ever I think, can't find any proper pictures of it though.

It's amazing what you can buy from Halfords these days.

[JPR]

It's amazing what you can buy from Halfords these days.

I just hope they got all the money upfront and no finance deal, never see the money then.

[kiroquai]

It's amazing what you can buy from Halfords these days.

I have horrible images of it being a 1998 Tyrrell front wing they bought on eBay or similar...

[marsh]

I have horrible images of it being a 1998 Tyrrell front wing they bought on eBay or similar...

I can't imagine that they'd have enough sense to get something that would actually make them go quicker. I'm thinking more the walrus tusks of that rubbish Williams, or maybe even:

[kiroquai]

The astonishing thing about that March is that someone came along and made it even more hideous:

[dayte]

from the article above

"We have had obviously a number of comments that people could not recognise the tyres, and the stripe is not an ideal solution," he explained.

"For Turkey, we will have a much stronger branding on the sidewall. We won't have the stripe; we will connect up the Pirelli and P-Zero wording with more bands of colour.

"It will mean that as it rotates, the black won't dominate. It will look like a turning circle of yellow - and be predominantly yellow in colour.

[reani_]

If it stays dry I wouldn't be surprised to see one of the Saubers on the podium .

Bit optimistic, but I do hope so too.... although it's much more entertaining when it rains

[marsh]

What's a 'porno fairytale occult thriller'

[dayte]

Those were 'back in the days', when the British Empire ruled and people were rather mad.

What I don't get is why the stripe isn't ideal... Bridgestone have done it effortlessly for years. Maybe Pirelli don't have a a stripe making machine in their factories.

I also want to see the supersofts and mediums in action, I hope the teams aren't going to stick with soft and hard throughout the season.

[kiroquai]

I'm pretty sure they'll roll out the supersoft/medium combo when we hit Europe .

Incidentally, HRT's new front wing was delivered to the team... by boss Colin Kolles, who carried them in cardboard boxes with his own personal luggage!

[Dom B]

Those were 'back in the days', when the British Empire ruled and people were rather mad.

What I don't get is why the stripe isn't ideal... Bridgestone have done it effortlessly for years. Maybe Pirelli don't have a a stripe making machine in their factories.

I also want to see the supersofts and mediums in action, I hope the teams aren't going to stick with soft and hard throughout the season.

The stripe wasn't ideal when Bridgestone did it either - its not visible enough. Nothing to do with production difficulty!

The idea behind Pirelli's fat coloured lettering was that it would be more visible than Bridgestone's stripe.

And the choice of when to use the supersofts/mediums etc is not down to the teams. Pirelli choose which two tyre types are brought to each race depending on circuit characteristics, temperature etc, and the teams have to use what they're given.

Having said that, I believe Pirelli are providing a few sets of mediums or something for testing during one of the sessions tomorrow.

[dayte]

Ah I didn't know that. The intitial BBC article on tyre choices was a bit ambiguous, bit disappointed as teams having free tyre choice would have made for more wacky races.