Ponderbox

[dinizintheoven]

I think it is almost certain that Toro Rosso will not change for as long as their under their current ownership. I think it is not impossible to see a different Lotus livery depending on the level of sponsorship from that Coke owned energy drink company that I can't remember the name of.

Relentless, presumably.

[mario]

I think it is almost certain that Toro Rosso will not change for as long as their under their current ownership. I think it is not impossible to see a different Lotus livery depending on the level of sponsorship from that Coke owned energy drink company that I can't remember the name of.

Relentless, presumably.

I believe that the drink in question was called Burn and the deal was to the tune of $15 million a year.

[DanielPT]

I think it is almost certain that Toro Rosso will not change for as long as their under their current ownership. I think it is not impossible to see a different Lotus livery depending on the level of sponsorship from that Coke owned energy drink company that I can't remember the name of.

Relentless, presumably.

I believe that the drink in question was called Burn and the deal was to the tune of $15 million a year.

Meanwhile, in a future not so distant:

<<And here goes Vettel in the Red Bull. He is leading the GP and just behind is the Monster of Lewis Hamilton, who is been closing in the last few laps. They are very close and Lewis can line up a move pretty soon... And what's this? Well, it's Grosjean's Burn tangling with Maldonado's Rockstar. Again.>>

<<For the second race in a row, nothing can separate those two. Literally. >>

<<Yes, indeed! And with all this, Raikkonen, driving his Grey Goose car is up to third!>>

<< Wait... Grey Goose is a vodka and not an Energy drink, right?>>

<<Erm... Yes, I suppose so...>>

<<This was about Energy drinks, remember? You have just rendered this whole "in the future" cutaway gag completely useless!>>

<<I am sorry, I just though that Kimi driving a vodk...>>

<<Just forget it... And besides, that joke is a few years past it now!>>

I'll grab my coat...

[dinizintheoven]

Meanwhile, in a future not so distant:

<<And here goes Vettel in the Red Bull. He is leading the GP and just behind is the Monster of Lewis Hamilton, who is been closing in the last few laps. They are very close and Lewis can line up a move pretty soon... And what's this? Well, it's Grosjean's Burn tangling with Maldonado's Rockstar. Again.>>

<<For the second race in a row, nothing can separate those two. Literally. >>

<<Yes, indeed! And with all this, Raikkonen, driving his Grey Goose car is up to third!>>

<< Wait... Grey Goose is a vodka and not an Energy drink, right?>>

<<Erm... Yes, I suppose so...>>

<<This was about Energy drinks, remember? You have just rendered this whole "in the future" cutaway gag completely useless!>>

<<I am sorry, I just though that Kimi driving a vodk...>>

<<Just forget it... And besides, that joke is a few years past it now!>>

This cannot possibly end well.

[DanielPT]

This cannot possibly end well.

Nico Rosberg and Jenson Button to drive those cars?

[Phoenix]

This cannot possibly end well.

Virgin Pussy GP anyone?

I'll make sure I close the door on the way out...

[FullMetalJack]

This cannot possibly end well.

Virgin Pussy GP anyone?

I'll make sure I close the door on the way out...

Already done that in another thread.

[Divina_Galica]

I think it is almost certain that Toro Rosso will not change for as long as their under their current ownership. I think it is not impossible to see a different Lotus livery depending on the level of sponsorship from that Coke owned energy drink company that I can't remember the name of.

Relentless, presumably.

I believe that the drink in question was called Burn and the deal was to the tune of $15 million a year.

Quick google shows Burn as being basically black with flames so would fit easily in with the current "JPS"-style livery

DG

[Ben Purse]

When was the last time 2 Mexicans were on the grid?

[dr-baker]

When was the last time 2 Mexicans were on the grid?

Were the Rodriguez brothers both in F1 at the same time?

[UncreativeUsername37]

When was the last time 2 Mexicans were on the grid?

1968 Mexican GP, Pedro Rodriguez and Moises Solana. If you mean full-time, then it's never happened before.

[Nuppiz]

When was the last time 2 Mexicans were on the grid?

Were the Rodriguez brothers both in F1 at the same time?

The Rodriguez brothers never entered for the same GP, but Pedro Rodriguez and Moises Solana were on the grid at the same time in all of the Mexican GPs between 1963 and 1968 and the US Grand Prix of 1965. Solana also entered for the 1966 US GP where Rodriguez took part in, but withdrew.

[Gerudo Dragon]

In the Italian GPs of 1971 and '72, Lotus ran under the name "World Wide Racing" Why?

[tommykl]

In the Italian GPs of 1971 and '72, Lotus ran under the name "World Wide Racing" Why?

I believe it was because Chapman was still under investigation from the Italian police due to Jochen Rindt's fatal crash in 1970.

[mario]

In the Italian GPs of 1971 and '72, Lotus ran under the name "World Wide Racing" Why?

I believe it was because Chapman was still under investigation from the Italian police due to Jochen Rindt's fatal crash in 1970.

That is, as far as I am aware, correct - Chapman was, at the time, facing a potential charge for manslaughter (which is why he avoided attending those races), and it is also said to be the reason why Fittipaldi drove the Lotus 56B in 1971 rather than the works 72D (amid suggestions that the Italian authorities were threatening to impound the cars as part of their crash investigations).

On another note, has anybody seen some of the interesting comments that have come up in an interview with Mansell and Piquet Sr in the Brazilian press? F1Fanatic have published a rough translation of some of the comments, and some of the comments make for interesting reading, such as Piquet Sr.'s comments about his performance from 1987 onwards (he says that he never really recovered fully from the after effects of the accident he had in Imola in 1987 - moreover, whilst he says that he feels he should have won the 1986 title, he feels that Mansell deserved to win the title in 1987, something I would not have expected him to say).
The other bit that is interesting is Mansell's take on the internal politics of Williams in 1986, with his reflections on how Piquet Sr. managed to gain an advantage over him in the Hungarian GP that year by holding back information on how the teams latest differential worked. Mansell's objections to that incident aren't directed at Piquet Sr. - in fact, he says that he was perfectly entitled to behave as he wanted; it is the fact that he feels that Williams's engineers were deceiving him at the time that seems to rankle most of all.
http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2013/01/26/n ... 1-rivalry/

[That said, I see that Piquet Sr. has a rather nasty dig at Senna towards the end of that interview - I guess that he still cannot let bygones be bygones with regards to him.]

[Faustus]

Interesting article mario. You're right that the video seems to be gone from the link, but I found it on YouTube. I can understandthe original in Portuguese so I am going to watch it, because some of the translation sounds a bit questionable.

[mario]

Interesting article mario. You're right that the video seems to be gone from the link, but I found it on YouTube. I can understandthe original in Portuguese so I am going to watch it, because some of the translation sounds a bit questionable.

If you can provide an independent translation of that article, I'd be very interested in that - I suppose that there is always going to be some question about how accurately the original comments have been translated (whether by accident, given that some phrases in some languages lose their context when translated, or by design to make the quote sound a bit more sensational).

[CoopsII]

I wonder whether Maldonado will be racing without the brace in his chops this season?

[AndreaModa]

I wonder whether Maldonado will be racing without the brace in his chops this season?

I think he'd already ditched it by the end of last season. Ricciardo on the other hand...

[Ataxia]

When Williams had the Ralf/Montoya lineup, I remember both drivers being quite prone to...well, porkiness.

I wonder if they might have actually won a championship with a fitter/better/smaller driver, like Fisichella...

[FullMetalJack]

When Williams had the Ralf/Montoya lineup, I remember both drivers being quite prone to...well, porkiness.

I wonder if they might have actually won a championship with a fitter/better/smaller driver, like Fisichella...

Maybe if he didn't suffer from Fisichellitis

[Ataxia]

When Williams had the Ralf/Montoya lineup, I remember both drivers being quite prone to...well, porkiness.

I wonder if they might have actually won a championship with a fitter/better/smaller driver, like Fisichella...

Maybe if he didn't suffer from Fisichellitis

Maybe so, but I think Fisi could have been at his peak in the early 2000s if he wasn't saddled with such crap machinery...

[CoopsII]

When Williams had the Ralf/Montoya lineup, I remember both drivers being quite prone to...well, porkiness.

I wonder if they might have actually won a championship with a fitter/better/smaller driver, like Fisichella...

Just think how big the Williams development budget could've been if all those dollars hadnt been committed to Pies.

[mario]

When Williams had the Ralf/Montoya lineup, I remember both drivers being quite prone to...well, porkiness.

I wonder if they might have actually won a championship with a fitter/better/smaller driver, like Fisichella...

Montoya did get quite a bit of stick over his fitness, IIRC, from the other drivers - IIRC, some of the other drivers nicknamed him "The Michelin Man" whilst he was at Williams since they joked that his physique bore a marked resemblance to him...

On a serious note, it isn't inconceivable driver fitness might have held Williams back slightly at that time given that physical fatigue is, inevitably, a limiting factor of driver performance. Michael Schumacher was considered to be one of the fittest drivers in the sport at the time and, it has to be said, even during his comeback phase his physical fitness appeared to be better than some drivers half his age.
After all, there are contemporary examples of drivers being pushed over their fitness - Toro Rosso pushed Ricciardo pretty hard over the off season before he joined them over criticism of his stamina, and Alonso is reportedly spending the time away from Jerez improving his physical fitness in anticipation of another long season of hard racing.

[Gerudo Dragon]

Is there any actual point to racing numbers?

[Phoenix]

After taking a look at an overhead shot of Mansell's McLaren MP4-10B from the main page, I have to say the car doesn't look bad at all

[UncreativeUsername37]

Is there any actual point to racing numbers?

That's a good point. What do we need them for and why were they even invented in the first place?

[DemocalypseNow]

Is there any actual point to racing numbers?

Same reason football shirts have numbers. Easier identificaiton. The problem is, there's no point in having them unless you make them easily readable. Ironically, the only sport that seems to have got this right is the one many mock for being backwards compared to everything else, NASCAR.

Also, having the bragging rights of #1 plastered on your car is a pretty sweet bonus of being champion

[mario]

Is there any actual point to racing numbers?

That's a good point. What do we need them for and why were they even invented in the first place?

As Stramala [kostas22] points out, one reason would be identifying a vehicle on track and determining its relative position in the race - although GPS is still widely available, it is convenient for the fans and commentators, not to mention the marshals and stewards, to be able to visually distinguish a car, and therefore the driver in it, by its number.

Added to that, there is the advantage of being able to link specific aspects to a particular entrant. For example, when it comes to monitoring how many engines or gearboxes a team has used during the season, the FIA links that to a car number, since the engine and gearbox allocation is then linked with that car rather than a particular driver. Take the situation where Fisichella replaced Felipe Massa in 2009 after the latter's injury - in the case of a driver switching from one team to another, that could have created a difficult scenario if the engine supply was linked to the driver rather than the car, since Massa and Fisichella had used a different number of engines at that point in the season.

Since there are situations where it is more convenient for the teams and the FIA to link things to an entrant rather than a driver, that makes it convenient for both parties to continue using a numbering system for the cars.

[AdrianSutil]

I don't know why teams have two different colours on a certain part of the car to tell them apart. I remember Prost in 1997 running two different cockpit colours (yellow and red I think).

[TomWazzleshaw]

I don't know why teams have two different colours on a certain part of the car to tell them apart. I remember Prost in 1997 running two different cockpit colours (yellow and red I think).

Didn't Sauber run different coloured mirrors for their cars during the late 90s and early 2000s to distinguish their drivers as well?

[AndreaModa]

I don't know why teams have two different colours on a certain part of the car to tell them apart. I remember Prost in 1997 running two different cockpit colours (yellow and red I think).

Didn't Sauber run different coloured mirrors for their cars during the late 90s and early 2000s to distinguish their drivers as well?

It's been going on far longer than that. Ferrari used to run neon yellow stripes on the rear wings of one car to identify it from the other since the 1980s.

[Warren Hughes]

Benetton used to put a bright red mark on the nose of their lead car. The list just goes on.

[CoopsII]

No offence but isnt this less of a Ponder then more of a Stating The Bleeding Obvious? As someone mentioned earlier, teams have done this for over thirty years

[takagi_for_the_win]

In 1997, McLaren ran one car with red wing mirrors and one with silver. Just so you know

[Aerospeed]

In 1999, BAR tried running two completely different liveries, but, well, you know...

[andrew2209]

I think the Lotus solution, of the driver's name on the airbox would be quite effective, as it's visible, but doesn't detract from the livery of the car.

[WeirdKerr]

I think the Lotus solution, of the driver's name on the airbox would be quite effective, as it's visible, but doesn't detract from the livery of the car.

Thats not new in 2003 -05 Mclaren had the drivers name on the sidepod at certain races and in 2010 the mighty HRT had the same....

and of course Mansell had red 5 during his days at Williams

[ibsey]

I think the Lotus solution, of the driver's name on the airbox would be quite effective, as it's visible, but doesn't detract from the livery of the car.

Thats not new in 2003 -05 Mclaren had the drivers name on the sidepod at certain races and in 2010 the mighty HRT had the same....

Likewise Jordan in 1997 (in some races) or Benetton in 2001.

[Klon]

Thats not new in 2003 -05 Mclaren had the drivers name on the sidepod at certain races and in 2010 the mighty HRT had the same....

In 2003-05? The "Name instead of West" thing is as old as the sponsorship deal with West itself, i.e. was debuted in 1997.