M.Lawrenson

Vettel is indeed 'highly rated', like so many who have been in Red Bull's young driver program. Most of whom seem to have completely vanished. Where did Neel Jani go? Anyway, who am I to dismiss such a worthy talent system when RBs F1 team has a couple of vibrant, speedy youngsters driving for them. I wish Vettel all the best for the next few days, but Indy is not the best place for a debutant. It's surprised more than a few. Just ask Michelin.

Just a small note to say that since Kubica's accident, the hit counter on my Roger Williamson page has been spinning like a flying BMW, with a lot of visitors from Poland. Sadly, I don't have Google Ads. That would be just tasteless. Well, even more tasteless than it already is.

You could have at least have waited until the race had finished. Still, Kubica's manager has just been interviewed on TV, and said he's conscious/talking and just been transferred to hospital. Terrible looking accident, though. Word is that Kubica has escaped with only a broken leg. Lucky man, and seeing how his head was thrashing around in the crash, looks as though the HANS device has been a big help.

You could have at least have waited until the race had finished. Still, Kubica's manager has just been interviewed on TV, and said he's conscious/talking and just been transferred to hospital. Terrible looking accident, though.

I'm not confused - from the photo I've seen (admittedly grainy and monochrome) Cevert's legs and torso were no longer where they should have been relative to each other. Whatever happened, it was just as messy, if not more so. One Tyrrell team member said, when checking over the car afterwards, "parts of Francois were still there." And looking at the Koinnig 'tribute' on YouTube, I see that page's 'Related' scrollbar indicates there are at least 5 other 'Koinigg Tributes' on the site. Well, I suppose Helmut wanted to be famous... We've seen how armco barriers killed drivers, but did it actually save any?

This is worse..the victims. That one's positively tasteful to some 'tributes' I've seen (note how the compilers of these montages always call them 'tributes' - I'd rather they were honest and called them 'gawp at death'). At least it didn't show Piers Courage's incinerated corpse surrounded by the magnesium oxide that was his car, or Francois Cevert's legs and torso a lot further apart than they should have been. I'm as morbid as anyone, but let's not pretend these videos are respectful to the memories of the dead.

Not to mention all those years of heavy dieting, always required of a jockey. Quite a strain to maintain a weight of 8 stone if you're 5 foot 8.

I think it was a March - I remember having the Scalextric version which was also crap The only 6 wheeler to race was the famous Tyrrell P34. It only won one race, and its drivers (especially Jody Scheckter) didn't rate it that highly. It was eventually kiboshed by it's tyres - Goodyear didn't want to spend a pile of cash developing special tiny tyres for a single customer, which meant by the P34's second year (1977) it was an also-ran, despite the best efforts of Patrick Depailler and Ronnie Peterson. March and Williams did make 6 wheel cars too, but with 4 wheels at the back rather than the front. Testing times showed they provided so much advantage that it was swiftly banned by FISA. And that was the end of it.

Other top 'crashers' were 'Wild' Willy Mairesse (who sadly ended his days by killing himself in a hotel room), Trevor Taylor (involved in many during his time at Lotus, though few were his fault, and was basically scared away from Formula 1), Vittorio Brambilla (who managed to crash at the finish line in the one race he won) and Gregor Foitek (who's bravery/talent ratio was skewed very far to the former, and nearly finished off Johnny Herbert at Brands Hatch in 1988).

Probably only Hunt would know about any warnings he had. People were surprised when he dropped dead, but not that surprised. What with all the booze, drugs and sex he probably just plain wore out (though I have read rumours of a congenital heart problem). Those who were with him in his final days said he appeared perfectly fine. There was certainly nothing wrong with his final BBC commentary 2 days before his death. Octi probably knows more as he knows people who knew Hunt, and I'm fairly sure the subject would have been mentioned in passing...

Hunt crashed quite a bit too, though mostly in his Formula 3 career. He had a remarkable escape at Zandvoort in 1971 where his car overturned and skidded along the ground - he had his knuckles literally worn to the bone but was otherwise uninjured. Compare that to what happened to Roger Williamson two years later. Hunt never seriously injured himself in a race car, but almost as soon as his career was over (he packed it in 1979 citing self-preservation) he had a major skiing accident while drunk and snapped most of the ligaments in his left leg resulting in major pain for a while. It was in this state he did his first commetary for the BBC - the famous 'plaster cast resting on Murray Walker's lap while drinking 2 bottles of Rose' one. A remarkable man, to be sure. Remarkable for what, I'm not so sure.

Sorry, forgot to sign in before. I think we picked de Cesaris in 87 because he seemed to be a disaster waiting to happen in the 86 F1 c'ship. Perhaps our resident experts can clarify the situation - did he really deCrasharis as often as we imagined? A de C crashed an awful lot early on in his career. He wrote off several McLarens during the 1981 season without injury, thus proving that carbon fibre was a safe material to make racing cars from. Andrea became less and less erratic as his career progressed, and by 1994 was reckoned to be a very good bet to get his car home. It's easy to get a reputation as a 'crasher', but very hard to rid yourself of it.

Anyone else and I'd question why they were racing at that age, especially at the Nurburgring (though HJS could probably lap it competitively with his eyes closed by now), but Stuck is a great driver. Hope he's back behind the wheel soon and carries on as long as his old dad did. Send him my best regards.

IIRC, the turbo boost limit was reduced from 4 bar to 2.5 bar in 1988 (this means it had a pop off valve to limit the amount of pressurised air being forced into the engine), and turbos were outlawed in 1989 - thus bringing forth the amazing era of up to 39 cars trying to qualify for a Grand Prix. Those were the days...

Not sure, but it's eminently possible. Possibly a clue could be found here. I found this story although it only indicates that Prince Charles is related doesn't mention Philip though The article says that Charlie's great-grandmother (Queen Mary) was a descendent of Vlad. Not sure about that, but Queen Mary's grandmother was a daughter of a Transylvanian count.

Not sure, but it's eminently possible. Possibly a clue could be found here.

Hope he managed to spend the royalty cheque, as the DVD came out less than a month ago.

I'll have you know I've been off the ADs since December. And if RW is coming off caffeine then he has my sympathy. When I was going through it I was crawling on the floor, trying to throw up constantly - which is very difficult when all your stomach contents were expunged long ago. And I was on probably 10% of the caffeine he's on.

I can't see the Queen being a widow for 39 years, myself. Anyway, there's no reason why Phil shouldn't make his 90s. He doesn't have a history of poor health and he seems active enough at the moment. Genetics is on his side too - his mother lived to 86 and his grandmother to 87. In fact, looking through his relatives you can see that most live to very old age as long as no-one assassinated them (as happened to his uncle, his grandfather and two great aunts).

To be honest, you're not really thinking in those terms at the time.

I expect a lot of the old guard to bow this year as de Graffenried & Oakes have already done, but none of the current F1 racers. Come to think of it Octi, I know about the oldest European ex-racers (Pietsch, Frere, Rolt etc.) but who are the 80+ brigade on the USA scene. I know Lloyd Ruby and AJ Foyt are in their 70s but no really creaking oldies who remember the Brickyard when it really was bricks.

Nothing I could hear about Bernard Matthews' farm would surprise me. What with his frozen turkey roast being basically meat paste (poultry producers love freezing their product as it means they can add more water to bulk it up). He also sources much of his turkey 'meat' from Hungary - which means it must be cheaper than his own farm stuff so heaven knows what conditions it's produced in.

Octi will probably already know this, but I've just read on the Atlas F1 Nostalgia Forum that Emmanuel de Graffenried (winner of the 1949 British GP and 2nd oldest F1 driver alive) has died aged 92.

What about Lord Carrington (born 1919), if we're dealing with ancient Tory Foreign Secretaries?

Denny Doherty, lead singer of the Mamas And The Papas has died aged 66. I've tried to search for a decent pun in their back catalogue about this, but I've not found one. Curse him for not dying on a Monday.