Grand Prix Rejects

Niki Lauda seems a plausible answer to me, but just in case it isn't, I'm going to take a guess at... Alessandro Nannini.

It is neither Niki Lauda nor Alessandro Nannini.

i am going to guess at Bernie Eccelstone saying he set records not as a pilot but as a passenger on Concorde

Jackie Stewart?

David Purley?

Jack Brabham?

None of these are correct, though if I may make a small correction to the question: the world record set for circumnavigation was not absolute, but rather for a certain type of aircraft. He did, however, set absolute records for Los Angeles-New York and New York-Paris.

tommykl wrote:] He did, however, set absolute records for Los Angeles-New York and New York-Paris.

The fastest person ever to fly between these locations? sure the fastest ever flight between LA and NY was done by a Convair B-58 back in 1962. Between NY and Paris i dont know i thought it would have been Concorde or the SR71 they could sustain supersonic flight for hours although Concorde could do it without an afterburner

peteroli34 wrote:

tommykl wrote:] He did, however, set absolute records for Los Angeles-New York and New York-Paris.

The fastest person ever to fly between these locations? sure the fastest ever flight between LA and NY was done by a Convair B-58 back in 1962. Between NY and Paris i dont know i thought it would have been Concorde or the SR71 they could sustain supersonic flight for hours although Concorde could do it without an afterburner

...you're correct, I in fact meant that he set those records for single-engine aircraft.

This'll be a massive stretch but what the hell:

Colin Chapman was technically an F1 driver, having qualified for the 1956 French Grand Prix only to DNS.

He died in 1982, but I remember reading that towards the end of his life he dabbled a bit in small aircraft. Is it him?

I dont know why but i have a feeling that he is American so i will say Carroll Shelby he raced in F1 and was a Test pilot during the war?

Dan Gurney?

I was wrong he is not american was it Henri Pescarolo?

peteroli34 wrote:I was wrong he is not american was it Henri Pescarolo?

That is indeed the correct answer! The circumnavigation record in question was when he, with three other people including Hubert Auriol, flew around the world faster than Howard Hughes in a similar plane.

peteroli34 wrote:The 2004 Bahrain GP saw Mark Webber What?

Become the first driver to finish in the last points-paying position anywhere in the Middle East?

peteroli34 wrote:The 2004 Bahrain GP saw Mark Webber What?

Qualify behind his team mate for the first time that season?

tBone wrote:

peteroli34 wrote:The 2004 Bahrain GP saw Mark Webber What?

Qualify behind his team mate for the first time that season?

I'm kind of riding on your coat tails on this - I think that it was actually the first time in his career that a team mate was able to beat him in qualifying.

mario wrote:

tBone wrote:

peteroli34 wrote:The 2004 Bahrain GP saw Mark Webber What?

Qualify behind his team mate for the first time that season?

I'm kind of riding on your coat tails on this - I think that it was actually the first time in his career that a team mate was able to beat him in qualifying.

Yeah The answer i was looking for was that it was the first time in Mark Webber's career that he was out-qualified by a team mate

I feel a little guilty as tBone had done much of the hard work there, but if it is OK I'll pose a question.

When Lauda left Jaguar Racing, what was the first thing that Ford sent to him, and why?

A Parmalat cap because he left it lying around in the factory?

(yes, that's a complete shot in the dark )

mario wrote:I feel a little guilty as tBone had done much of the hard work there, but if it is OK I'll pose a question.

When Lauda left Jaguar Racing, what was the first thing that Ford sent to him, and why?

His P45, because it was a British legal requirement?

He didnt get anything due to some performance clause in the contract

I'm going to guess it was an accounts form to fill out; when Niki joined Jaguar, the admin people gave him a hugely complex document outlining which items he could claim on expenses. In true Niki fashion, he said something like "screw that, I'll just pay for it all myself".

Ford came scurrying back to him after his employment was terminated to demand his expenses so he could be paid, and Lauda told them there were none, which caused the admin team a mini-meltdown.

So, uh, I'm going to guess it's that whilst knowing that's probably not what you're looking for. It's probably something ridiculous like a fur coat made out of shark, or a small "sorry you're leaving card" that everyone forgot to fill out. I dunno...

Guessing..on the opposite tack--- they sent him a bill. For breach of contract ..or something
Or a Fiesta

Ataxia wrote:I'm going to guess it was an accounts form to fill out; when Niki joined Jaguar, the admin people gave him a hugely complex document outlining which items he could claim on expenses. In true Niki fashion, he said something like "screw that, I'll just pay for it all myself".

Ford came scurrying back to him after his employment was terminated to demand his expenses so he could be paid, and Lauda told them there were none, which caused the admin team a mini-meltdown.

So, uh, I'm going to guess it's that whilst knowing that's probably not what you're looking for. It's probably something ridiculous like a fur coat made out of shark, or a small "sorry you're leaving card" that everyone forgot to fill out. I dunno...

Your initial answer was closer to the mark and probably deserves the point, but Ford chose to be even more inefficient about the matter than you thought: instead of an accounts form, Ford sent an entire accounts team.

Lauda did indeed complain that Ford's accountancy system was rather Kafkaesque and did choose to pay for his own expenses rather than trying to deal with their system. In fact, I think it is best to quote from Lauda here about how bizarre their expenses system was:

"When I started working there, the finance guy at Jaguar called me and said he had to give me this book. He called it the 'Ford Compliance Rules' and said it means whatever you do, it has to comply with what's in this book. I asked him for an example.

"He said: 'Okay. Let's say you are staying in a hotel and you take a mineral [sparkling] water from the mini bar, you have to pay for it. But if you take a still water, you don't have to pay for it.' I asked him if he was serious and when he said he was, I told him to keep the book. He said: 'Niki, you really need to take this. You don't want to make any mistakes.' I said I didn't want to know. I told him he would never have an invoice in his system from me because I will pay for my own expenses rather than have all this bullshit. So, that's what I did; everything like that was paid by my private credit card.

As you say, that decision sent Ford's accounts team into a mini meltdown - they were so confused by Lauda's behaviour that, when his contract was terminated, they sent a team of accountants from the US to Milton Keynes to ask Lauda for his accounts to go through them line by line because they were utterly convinced that he must have expenses claims - or, as Lauda put it:

They just could not believe it. Can you imagine? These people had come all that way, looking for this f------ mineral water! After six months fight, I got my money. And they found no mineral water."

Oh, cool, I got it. It's a great story, really underlines how much Ford meddled in Jaguar's affairs to their detriment.

Anyway, what I've got here are five quotes, you just need to work out to whom they refer. I guess the person who gets the most right gets the point, it's up to Simtek really!

1.

"Good, aren't they?"

2.

"A great, great driver in the making. [Team principal] is lucky to have him and should listen to him for most of his technical direction-finding."

3.

"An intelligent and well-rounded racer with age on his side."

4.

"He used to drive an Oldsmobile hearse, which had a bench seat at the front. At traffic lights, he would slide over to the passenger side and stare ahead solemnly so if another car came alongside, it would look as though the hearse had no driver. Then he'd floor the throttle, and the guy would be left there having been blown off by a driverless hearse!"

5.

"I'm not sure he knows what he's letting himself in for. The speed feels normal now, but the first time you race in F1 everything just comes at you; your heartbeat goes up 20 or 30 beats. The engine is not up to it, and an experienced driver wouldn't go there in that situation."

Ataxia wrote:I guess the person who gets the most right gets the point, it's up to Simtek really!

That's the now-standard procedure, and of course, the tiebreak question rule still applies

And a clue so you're not going in completely blind, they're all from around the turn of the millenium.

My guesses (mostly educated ones with one stab in the dark):

1. Ferrari
2. Jacques Villeneuve
3. Ralf Schumacher
4. No idea! But as you didn't strictly specify F1, and for some reason AJ Foyt popped into my head I'm going to guess him
5. Jenson Button

1) Team Prost
2) Gaston Mazzacane
3) Riccardo Rosset
4) Bobby Rahal
5) Kimi Raikkonen

guessing ...
1. The Schumacher brothers
2.Nick Heidfeld ( although I enjoyed the idea it might be Mad Jacques-the-Hat Villeneuve)
3. Nick Heidfeld
4. D Waltrip
5. Esteban Tuero

I pulled all of these quotes from the March 2000 edition of F1 Racing, some are their words, some are the words of others.

1.

"Good, aren't they?"

This was Bernie Ecclestone on BAR. After 16 races and no championship points, then-designer Adrian Reynard's prediction of winning their first race was way off, leading Bernie to stick the boot in.

2.

"A great, great driver in the making. [Team principal] is lucky to have him and should listen to him for most of his technical direction-finding."

Yep, this is Nick Heidfeld, as yannicksamlad correctly says. F1 Racing go on to say "Alesi, as we know, wants nothing more than a car that turns in; the rest, we're sure, he'll leave to Nick." I mean, if you know how my bread's buttered, that should've been an easy one!

3.

"An intelligent and well-rounded racer with age on his side."

This was written as a Benetton "strength", and the driver in question was Alexander Wurz. This was before he went on to score just two points all year and ended up in a McLaren test seat for the next million years.

4.

"He used to drive an Oldsmobile hearse, which had a bench seat at the front. At traffic lights, he would slide over to the passenger side and stare ahead solemnly so if another car came alongside, it would look as though the hearse had no driver. Then he'd floor the throttle, and the guy would be left there having been blown off by a driverless hearse!"

This is Kai Ebel recounting a story about Heinz-Harald Frentzen, whose father owned an undertaking business. Frentzen would work there prior to joining F1, and this was one of the stories about him and his hearse. Another one - courtesy of Herr Ebel again - goes that Frentzen had to drive to Spain with a body in the back; he was so tired that he nudged the coffin to one side and slept next to it!

5.

"I'm not sure he knows what he's letting himself in for. The speed feels normal now, but the first time you race in F1 everything just comes at you; your heartbeat goes up 20 or 30 beats. The engine is not up to it, and an experienced driver wouldn't go there in that situation."

This one was Jacques Villeneuve on Jenson Button. Button, going straight from F3 to F1 with Williams, received a similar reception to Max Verstappen before his maiden season; Villeneuve was unconvinced of his ability as well as the new BMW engines. Jenson waited until 2003 to exact any revenge; three years is plenty of cooling off time, after all.

So, MorbidelliObese and yannicksamlad both got one right each...Simtek, over to you for the tiebreaker!

Right, for MorbidelliObese and yannicksamlad only:

Which driver would keep food in the cockpit to combat what was suspected to be diabetes?

Hints will be provided if necessary

I'm going to assume it's not Charlie Kimball. Hmm... James Hunt? (based on nothing other than the fact I remember reading he'd often feel ill for other reasons before stepping in a car early in his career)

MorbidelliObese wrote:I'm going to assume it's not Charlie Kimball. Hmm... James Hunt? (based on nothing other than the fact I remember reading he'd often feel ill for other reasons before stepping in a car early in his career)

It wasn't, but that reveals the first hint: The driver in question was active before Hunt.

Another wild guess but I'm sure i read Mike Hawthorn had an illness that would likely have taken him even without his road accident so he 's my second guess

MorbidelliObese wrote:Another wild guess but I'm sure i read Mike Hawthorn had an illness that would likely have taken him even without his road accident so he 's my second guess

Not far off It wasn't Hawthorn, but it was one of his Ferrari teammates from later in his career.

Von Trips? He wasn't a healthy person...

yannicksamlad wrote:Von Trips? He wasn't a healthy person...

And the answer is indeed Wolfgang von Trips!