I am pretty impressed by your familiarity with every corner of the F1 circuit in the Monte-Carlo circuit!
No need to be... in my days of F-1 wanna be, you study every circuit. In those days, we did not have the advantage of electronic games that replicate every circuit. I have not had access to the latest state of the art ones, although once I tried those simulators at Disney World, and I have to say they do quite a good job allowing you to familiarize with whatever circuit in play is.
This is a tremendous advantage. I remember coming to a new circuit and going over the notes of someone else's experience, then you go around for the first time and there are points where I could not figure out why the notes said what they did.
This is one of the major setbacks for the rookies that have never been to a particular circuit, and where one's skill comes into play quite dramatically, how quickly can you adapt and remember all of the braking and gear-shifting points on every corner...
Imagine the old Nuerburgring circuit in Germany, which used to be 14.5 miles long (or so) It used to be a handful to go through those curves, up, down, etc... There used to be a point called the "Flugplatz" where every single car would become airborne (all 4 wheels in the air).
As a result of Niki Lauda's fiery accident in 1976 that nearly killed him, they eliminated the old circuit from the F-1 calendar. It was re-instated in 1982 as a much shorter and reconstructed new circuit.
btw... Lauda owes his life to fellow drivers Arturo Merzario, Guy Edwards, Bret Lunger and Harald Ertl, who pulled him out of his burning Ferrari. Niki returned the same year, lost the championship by one point, and the following year re-gained the crown for the second time (out of a total of three).
Oh and how about Schumacher getting another racer's wife and making her his own wife? That's a good story, too :-)
That would be former fellow F-1 Heinz Harald Frentzen, drove for Sauber last year, and this year he is out of Formula One. It is very Ironic as he is considered to be a driver FASTER than Michael Schumacher... particularly in the early days... somehow a form of very unjust "poetic justice” -ggg Today, he is driving in the German touring car championship. HHF (along with Nick Heidfeld, who was HHF team mate at Sauber) is one of those drivers that are very very good, yet, they do not get those "magic" brakes like Schumacher, Alonso, Montoya, Raikkonen etc... that in time makes them Super-Stars.
I suppose, that Corinna has an eye for choosing the correct "ride" -ggg
Then again, Henry Louis Mencken, an American writer/newspaper editor whom I admire, said:
"The true success in love is knowing that "the other guy” married her" -LOL !!
That is why there are these huge cantilever thingies at major corners (like the one next to the casino last year) that, in case of accident, whisk the car(s) out of the road in a second.
Yes, indeed, they have these cranes in most "tight" circuits, and it is impressive how quickly the Marshals and track Stewards (in most cases), execute the clean-ups quickly.
One exception that will live in my memory forever is Roger Williamson's fiery accident and death at the Dutch GP in Zandvoort. In 1973, in his second F-1 race, Roger Williamson, who won the F-3 Championship and was extraordinarily skilled and mature, had a massive accident in Zandvort, where a tire puncture was suspected; his car overturned, caught fire and was trapped in it...
Fellow driver, David Purley (with whom I had a few practice sessions in Goodwood circuit in a Formula Atlantic) tried to rescue Roger, but the flames were simply to hot and big... What I will never forget is watching (on TV) the Dutch fire marshals sitting on the other side of the track without giving David any help, later they claimed that it was too dangerous to cross the track and that they did not have the proper fire fighting equipment...
Rubbish.
_________
my boyfriend turns to me and asks "What is that music?". He was serious.
Evidently, the lagging fumes of wine and whatever else you were drinking, allowed your boyfriend, for a brief moment, to be capable of listening to the true sound of these marvels of engineering.
It has been a while for me, but I still remember the very distinct higher pitch of the V-12 Matra (A French engine that did not have the success it deserved); in fact the Matra V-12 had its debut at Monaco in 1968 with French bad-boy Jean Pierre Beltoise...
This at a time where the Cosworth V-8 was king...
Even if there were music, we couldn't possibly have heard it. I swear I thought for a while that he lost it :-)
Clearly, he was able to elevate himself to a sublime level.... -g Perhaps you were not paying attention... -gggg |
