Formula 1 & Other Motor Racing

[Tempus Fugit 214]

Does anyone watch NASCAR? A couple of the drivers came close to killing each other this weekend.

 

That's road rage for you.

 

Why can't they play nice.

[Octopus of Odstock 2,186]

Yuje Ide; 2nd driver in the Super Aguri team makes his first F1 start He's one of the most inept and inexperienced drivers to see F1 action in recent years.

 

Just thought I'd, like, bring it to your attention.

 

Have you based that on a broadsheet guide to the new season?

 

Ide has been racing for over ten years in Formula Nippon, Japanese F3, GT's - he's an extremely experienced driver who I would hardly call inept - he's won races, which is more than Jenson Button has ever done.

 

The broadsheets have been jingoistically praising Button, who so far as been the biggest underachiever since Eddie "undera"Cheever & have done no research on Ide at all, because "he's bound to be slow & he's a Jap"

 

I consider Ralf Schumacher to be a bigger threat to himself & others than anyone on that grid.

[Clive's NOT Dunn 7]

i - World champions who cheat death and get out of the sport alive seem to live a long time.

 

It stands to reason they should live longer. According to Einstein's theory of time dilation the faster one travels, the slower time passes, relative to the spectators perception.

 

Given a lifetime behind the wheel of a formula one car, someone like Stirling Moss will live many billionths of a second longer than he would have had he been a plumber.

[Magere Hein 1,400]

It stands to reason they should live longer. According to Einstein's theory of time dilation the faster one travels, the slower time passes, relative to the spectators perception.

 

Given a lifetime behind the wheel of a formula one car, someone like Stirling Moss will live many billionths of a second longer than he would have had he been a plumber.

That plumber is a bad example. After all, there's also a gravitational time dilation effect near heavy masses. Plumbers, as the name of their trade suggests, use lots of lead, the heaviness of which is proverbial. I suggest balloonist as an example of a non-time-dilated profession.

 

regards,

Hein

[Clive's NOT Dunn 7]

It stands to reason they should live longer. According to Einstein's theory of time dilation the faster one travels, the slower time passes, relative to the spectators perception.

 

Given a lifetime behind the wheel of a formula one car, someone like Stirling Moss will live many billionths of a second longer than he would have had he been a plumber.

That plumber is a bad example. After all, there's also a gravitational time dilation effect near heavy masses. Plumbers, as the name of their trade suggests, use lots of lead, the heaviness of which is proverbial. I suggest balloonist as an example of a non-time-dilated profession.

 

regards,

Hein

 

What if I had picked a different plumber?

 

Everyone knows ballonists don't age at all

[maryportfuncity 10,639]

Have you based that on a broadsheet guide to the new season?

 

Nope it's based more on the fact that in 10 years he's risen more slowly than other drivers, he's never handled F1 power in this kind of company before and he's driving a four year old car. Japanese bit isn't here or there. A rookie in a milk float is the issue. If the leaders are going to collide with a backmarker statistically speaking it's likely to be him because he's the first one they'll catch.

[Anubis the Jackal 77]

And yes, I am still here

 

Just in time for the new season I see.

[maryportfuncity 10,639]

Lawrenson my man, welcome back and thanks for your well informed support for my comments earlier. I was thinking Ratzenberger and/or Ricardo Paletti myself. Although the cars are much safer these days.

[maryportfuncity 10,639]

Just movin' this thread into pole position - heh heh - in case we need it in the next couple of hours!

[Octopus of Odstock 2,186]

Just movin' this thread into pole position - heh heh - in case we need it in the next couple of hours!

 

 

and like I said before, Massa is far a bigger danger than Ide. That was proved today.

[maryportfuncity 10,639]

You may have a point Octi my man, he looked to be struggling to control a machine with so much power. Such inability to keep to the racing line at Monaco could be a disaster. But not for us.

[maryportfuncity 10,639]

Octi; not much sign of the crash footage on yer link although I did find my way to a lively little site where someone compared Dana's driving to Sonny Bono's skill on skis.

 

Assuming an interested and serious minded person wished to view the footage, purely for intellectual and research purposes, any idea where it might be in cyberspace?

[maryportfuncity 10,639]

Man, I was warming my hands on the computer screen just looking at the pictures. I wouldn't have blamed the drivers for running round at 40 mph when they restarted.

[maryportfuncity 10,639]

I'd heard a rumour that Frank Williams was having an affair with Hilary Lister!

[M.Lawrenson 11]

From the IRL's point of view, the Williamson death is irrelevant. The accident that changed US racing forever was The Sachs-McDonald Crash

 

Haven't been here for a few days, but I felt my ears bu...actually, it's probably best not to say this given this topic.

 

The Sachs-McDonald crash was truly horrendous. I remember seeing the photos of the fire and smoke plume and thought it was a Photoshop creation. One pic I found was this. The car McDonald was driving should never been let near an Indy 500 grid. It's build quality left much to be desired, and it's handling qualities scared several drivers off from the race. McDonald was a sportscar ace, but an Indy rookie. But he managed to get the thing qualified.

 

In the above picture, the sidepods (unusual in 1960s racing cars) were the fuel tanks. Each held (IIRC) 40 gallons of petrol. During the second lap, McDonald's car got away from him, and went side on into the wall, with obvious results. Most of the cars following went right through the flames, but Eddie Sachs was unlucky enough to hit McDonald's car. He was killed instantly. McDonald, sadly, lived for another 2 hours. This is a quote from article about another driver involved in the accident, Johnny Rutherford :

 

At the infield hospital, his gurney was placed beside MacDonald's. MacDonald was burned beyond recognition, but his chest was heaving as his system tried to continue breathing, and there was a streak of pink liquid matter running down the side of his face. Rutherford asked an attendant what that was, and the attendant replied, "That's his lungs; that's what happens when you inhale the fire." MacDonald died at 1:20 in the afternoon. Eddie Sachs, the clown prince of the Indy 500, died in the middle of the inferno.

The main effect this accident had on future races was that Indycars were only allowed to run on methanol fuel and not petrol (gasoline). Methanol isn't quite as effective a fuel, but it's an awful lot less volatile and any flames (provided you can see them) can be quickly extinguished with water. In a final note, IRL cars in 2008 will run on ethanol (bit like me, really)...

[maryportfuncity 10,639]

Lawrenson; as a matter of interest do you know why they restarted the race? I'm guessing that amount of heat wouldn't do the track any favours. Was it similar to the Le Mans shunt in 1955 in that they didn't want hordes of spectators clogging the access to the emergency vehicles?

[M.Lawrenson 11]

I presume the track surface wasn't damaged enough to cause postponement of the race. They cleared up the wrecks, took the injured to the hospital (some spectators got flash burns), and the dead to the morgue. The Indianapolis 500 is stopped for no dead driver (not even 2-time winner Bill Vukovich who was killed while leading the 1955 race). Sign of the times, perhaps.

 

Even today, did they cancel that race because Paul Dana was killed? Yes I know he died officially 2 hours after his crash, but even if he was alive after they freed him from the wreck the medical team must have known he was beyond help.

[Josco 49]

Breaking news...

 

Button involved in Horrific F1 Accident

 

Quite intrigued to know why one would be looking at a website entitle muscletalk?

[Lady Die 63]

Breaking news...

 

Button involved in Horrific F1 Accident

 

Quite intrigued to know why one would be looking at a website entitle muscletalk?

Purely by accident....

[Cowboy Ronnie 78]

Breaking news...

 

Button involved in Horrific F1 Accident

 

talk about wishful thinking. Unfortunately, I don't think Jensen Button could get any car going fast enough to get into a horrific accident. A minor fender bender at best.

 

Another from the pantheon of crap British sportsmen

[maryportfuncity 10,639]

Also from the Johnny Rutherford article. This is the kind of little detail that makes for a real story:

 

At the end of his story, Rutherford said, "They got my car back to the garage about the same time I arrived from the infield hospital. We walked over to the car, and Herb Porter, my chief mechanic, undid the hood restraints and lifted the hood. There was all kinds of broken plexiglass and gravel and trash in there. Herb reached in and picked up a lemon that had a cord looped through it and one end cut off to expose the meat.

 

"Later, I asked around and discovered that Eddie Sachs had always hung a lemon around his neck, so that during a caution flag, he could suck on the lemon and get a little moisture—maybe the tartness gave him a little boost. Evidently, when Eddie smashed into Davey, the lemon flew off his neck and sailed into the air, and my car scooped it up.

 

"That's close."

[Octopus of Odstock 2,186]

Yuji Ide has been replaced at Super Aguri bar the much more talented & experienced Frenchman Franck Montagny.

But Ide, who'll now be third driver has certainly made an impression, albeit a non-favourable one:

 

From Autosport:

McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen sounded relieved to hear the news that Super Aguri will replace Yuji Ide from this weekend's European Grand Prix.

 

The Formula One newcomers have replaced struggling Japanese rookie Ide with France's Franck Montagny on advice from the sport's governing body.

 

Ide, 31, will take up Montagny's role as driver of the team's third car in Friday practice only.

 

Ide's Formula One career has been troubled from the start.

 

At the last race at Imola, he was reprimanded by the stewards for causing a spectacular accident that sent Midland's Dutch driver Christijan Albers barrel-rolling into the gravel on the opening lap.

 

He also hit a mechanic at a pitstop in the Bahrain season-opener. Several teams and drivers have voiced safety concerns about his driving and the reaction on Thursday was equally unflattering.

 

"In Monaco it could have been a bit disastrous," Raikkonen told reporters. "He's a nice guy but he was quite slow and then he was spinning quite often so you never knew if he was going to spin in front of you when you were close to him."

 

"Without judging Ide's driving, I don't think it will change a lot if he does more testing," said BMW Sauber's Nick Heidfeld.

 

"Sometimes he has really different lines to us. Maybe that's because they drive on the other side in Japan," added Red Bull's Austrian Christian Klien.

 

Ide, a runner-up in last year's Formula Nippon championship, had barely any testing under his belt and was never at ease in an uncompetitive car derived from a four-year-old Arrows.

 

 

Never fear MPFC, Massa is still crashing.

[maryportfuncity 10,639]

I'd be fearing if I was a track marshall.

[maryportfuncity 10,639]

Monaco this weekend, still a few very slow cars and inexperienced drivers in the pack.....you never know.

[Bennett_Cerf 2]

Monaco this weekend, still a few very slow cars and inexperienced drivers in the pack.....you never know.

Young lady, why are you so angry and hopeful that things will go awry? I realize that a large part of what happens here at this forum is predicting deaths successfully; but, you seem to have a nearly un-natural urge to see people die in the most predictable of ways.