Old magazine/literature articles you now find amusing

[James1978]

I was looking at a few old magazines from 2007/08 recently, and a couple of articles I found rather amusing given events which have happened since then, and I wondered if any other people have any similar stories to these they would like to share.

The two I found were as follows:

There was a late 2007 edition of Autosport, I believe it was the Belgian GP review, and also the week after McLaren had been punsihed for "Spygate" and they were discussing who should replace Alonso at McLaren for 2008 - well although the actual drive went to Kovalainen, they were actually extolling the virtues of Jenson Button joining Hamilton. It didn't happen then but did 2 years later!

Also the May 2008 edition of F1 Racing has a "Top 100 Greatest Drivers" list in it, there's an obvious bias towards current/recent drivers (like you've got Mike Hawthorn ranked lower than Nick Heidfeld for heavens sake) , but I noticed Sebastian Vettel was ranked at a lowly number 80, though admittedly he'd only down about 12 races at the time, but he's behind such luminaries as Pedro De La Rosa (#79), Takuma Sato (#78), Frank Gardner - best ever result an 8th place (#65), Jochen Mass (#70), Half Schumacher (#68), and funniest of all a whole 25 places behind his current number 2 Mark Webber.

If it was done now I bet he's be in the top 10 (Kimi Raikkonen as defending champion was #7 above the likes of Lauda, Moss, Gilles Villeneuve, Mansell, Piquet, both Hills etc), and also Kimi only won a single race after the poll was done!

[jpm]

May not be old (its less than a week ago), but Danica Patrick's unprompted attack on Brazilian drivers made me chuckle.

http://www.racer.com/danica-patrick-tak ... le/212061/

[Ferrim]

Got loads of F1 Racing (Spanish) issues from 2002 to 2009 and some from later. There will be plenty of gems there.

Just remembered something I found pretty strange at the moment, because it didn't fit the magazine. In the September 2005 edition there was a long article by Peter Windsor about Fernando Alonso. The cover read, in big capital letters: "Alonso. Retrato de un campeón" (Alonso. Portrait of a champion). By that point Alonso still wasn't champion and Räikkönen had a chance, as he was 20-something points behind with five races to go and the McLaren looked so dominant, although unreliable.

Sometime later, can't remember how exactly, I found out that the cover of the English edition read: "Alonso. Portrait of a champion?". The question mark had been conveniently removed in the Spanish edition! This is the English cover: http://www.ebay.com/itm/F1-Racing-Magaz ... 0543150404

[MinardiFan95]

In the August 2006 issue of F1 Racing (which I found in a bargain bin for $2 at a local newsagent) there is an article asking Americans what they think about Scott Speed's involvement in F1. Some of the quotes are absolute gold. Here's a selection of the best;

"Scott Speed? Who's that? Is he one of them soccer players from Europe?"
"I think he'll be a top six finisher on Sunday if he doesn't win it."
"I reckon Scott's a future world champion."
"I like Scott because he's American. Half the drivers I can't understand because they talk weird"

...and saving the best until last...

"I don't know what you're talkin' about, son. I'm just here to get drunk. I'm the prettiest motherbathplugger in the valley!"

[patrick]

I remember reading (and then re-reading years later) I think it was some issues of F1 Racing in the early 2000s, one of which had a cover story and article proclaiming Ralf Schumacher to be champion "When, not If", several others had brief articles writing off Fernando Alonso during his first season, Kimi Raikkonen etc. Predictable stuff, but it was funny to read again about 4 years later. I've lost them now

On a more depressing note, I recently read an article in a 50's edition of "Motorsport" magazine (from my late grandfather's decaying basement collection) that proclaimed Formula 1 and motorsport would remain accessible to all types of gentleman for many years to come. If only!

[Ferrim]

This is not exactly amusing, but... I've always found chilling that Joe Saward wrote this piece, not because of the article itself but of the date: April 10, 1994.

"I believe that F1 people no longer treat death with the respect it deserves."

"This is testament to the wonderful safety of today's machinery, but it means that there is complacency. People think you can survive anything."

"F1 folk complain that cars are being slowed down too much; that race tracks are boring because all the challenging corners have been changed for safety reasons."

And a few more similar quotes. The first time I came across this article I was amazed. This was written three weeks prior to Formula One's worst weekend; it was like something of a premonition. Reading this changed completely my perception of safety issues in F1: I may complain about bitching drivers and stupid rules introduced for safety reasons, but I no longer think the drivers are invulnerable, no matter how safe today's cars and tracks may look. Someone could write a similar article these days, and we would say "hey, this guy doesn't know what he's talking about, no one can be killed in today's cars", but that was exactly the mood, back in 1994: no one could be killed. It's not just Saward, I've read other sources from the time, and many praised the FIA for making F1 a safe competition.

The conventional wisdom today is that Senna's death brought big changes that saved many lives, and that these year's cars were death traps. That's a cheap line of thought: it easily leads to the conclusion that, thanks to these changes, the drivers can hardly be killed anymore. But that's exactly what they believed in 1994, and they (seemingly) had good reasons to do so! Drivers had been surviving nasty crashes for years, just like now, and I will say something politically incorrect: all the changes thay have been made to the cars since 1994 have been much less important than people think, because they were pretty safe already. Alesi, Lehto, Wendlinger, Barrichello, Montermini, Lamy... there were lots of horrible crashes in 1994 and, for me, only one of them was fatal because of something that could have been improved (Senna's death was so, so, so, so, so unbelievably unlucky that it will always hurt me. A bit like if Massa had been killed at Hungary two years ago, what was the chance of that spring only hitting him?!). But that's no reason to be complacent. These changes had to be made because no car is ever too safe, not even safe enough, and this is something we should never forget.

No matter what BS he may write on his blog, Saward will always have my appreciation and respect because of this article.

[IdeFan]

What ultimately killed senna was a piece of debris from his suspension striking him on the helmet, a very relevant topic in today's formula 1!

Back on topic: I do enjoy reading old Autosports with the sort of smugness that only comes with 20:20 hindsight. Just recently I was reading one from late 2006 where one of their writers was convinced that Lewis Hamilton needed a year's testing and they should put Pedro de la Rosa in the car....

...given his seemingly rookie-like driving this year, maybe they should!

[Cynon]

May not be old (its less than a week ago), but Danica Patrick's unprompted attack on Brazilian drivers made me chuckle.

http://www.racer.com/danica-patrick-tak ... le/212061/

Sounds like Paul Tracy's "the French guys always keep their helmets on when they fight" remarks. I loved TK's response.

[David AGS]

I remember F1 Racing in early 2001 when they were reviewing the opening Australian round, and they had a feature on he four rookies, Alonso, Bernoldi, Montoya, and Raikkonen. All apart from the obvious one, they raved about them, in particular with Raikkonen with little experience, and Alonso in an un-competitive Minardi.

They also wrote, (along the lines of...) one will be champion very soon.

I also used to like the F1 Racing silly season; Jonny Kane at Arrows alongside Verstappen, Minardi Team Asiatech with Yoong and Karthikeyan etc etc

[eagleash]

Not exactly "amusing" but an article that's stuck in my mind from 1967 or '68 (probably from "Car" magazine...which had an excellent separate racing supplement back then).

"The next Grand Prix dominator will come from Ickx, Rindt or Stewart"

Not a bad call as it turned out & if Ickx had stayed with Tyrrell perhaps he & not JYS would have 3 World titles.

[Alianora La Canta]

1990 season review. Guess what team is referred to in this statement?

"The season was one in which they prepared to muster their forces for a full-scale attack on the top six in 1991".

Minardi must surely wish that one came true...

[dr-baker]

1990 season review. Guess what team is referred to in this statement?

"The season was one in which they prepared to muster their forces for a full-scale attack on the top six in 1991".

Minardi must surely wish that one came true...

But if that had been part of an upwards trend, would Minardi have remained/became everybody's second-favourite team?

[Ferrim]

That prediction wasn't far off. Minardi finished 7th in 1991 and would have been 6th if Jordan hadn't been successful, which probably didn't look too likely in late 1990.

[Salamander]

That prediction wasn't far off. Minardi finished 7th in 1991 and would have been 6th if Jordan hadn't been successful, which probably didn't look too likely in late 1990.

What was the difference between 6th and 7th in the TV money back then, I wonder? If it was a significant amount, does this mean we can blame Eddie Jordan for Minardi's eventual demise?

Also, this goes to prove that the battle for 6th in the WCC is far more important and interesting than the battle for 1st.

[David AGS]

You cant blame for Minardi's eventual demise, they were still round 15 years later.

But you got to remember, if Minardi did claim that sixth position (and there were some races that they could of socre points in which they didnt) Jordan probably would not survive much after 1992-1993.

Despite healthy backing for 1992 (Sasol, Barclays etc) they ended the 1991 season in a lot of debt therefore loosing the expensive Ford V8 Customer units. Hence the reason they struggled in 1992, with the free Yamaha engines which proved troublesome amongst other things.

Ironically Jordan would finish equal 10th in 1992, with Modena finishing 6th in Australia, Minardi finished 10th as well, Fittipaldi scoring in Japan

[AdrianSutil]

I remember F1 Racing in early 2001 when they were reviewing the opening Australian round, and they had a feature on he four rookies, Alonso, Bernoldi, Montoya, and Raikkonen. All apart from the obvious one, they raved about them, in particular with Raikkonen with little experience, and Alonso in an un-competitive Minardi.

They also wrote, (along the lines of...) one will be champion very soon.

I also used to like the F1 Racing silly season; Jonny Kane at Arrows alongside Verstappen, Minardi Team Asiatech with Yoong and Karthikeyan etc etc

I can remember reading that F1 Racing article. They gave all three drivers a fairly average rating yet were convinced one would be a Champion in 4 years.

[dr-baker]

Not necessarily amusing, but certainly ironic:

A cartoon in an old magazine, drawn by Jim Bamber, April 6th 1994:

Frame 1: A cat, sitting in an armchair, watching TV. "Right - that's IT! I'm getting a satelite (sic) dish!"

Frame 2: A red balloon. "Oh dear, how terribly working class! You said you'd NEVER get one so why the change of heart?? ... And another thing. Satellite has two 'L's!!"

Frame 3: Back to the cat. "Well, I don't think I can go the whole year listening to Murray Walker saying - "I-ER-TON SENNA!!""

Frame 4: "So, I've got a balloon that can spell!"

Erm...

[Klon]

I can remember reading that F1 Racing article. They gave all three drivers a fairly average rating yet were convinced one would be a Champion in 4 years.

Alonso and Räikkönen became world champions. They were considering Montoya the future champion. Hindsight sometimes is hilarious.

[tristan1117]

What old things do I found amusing now? Well, the back editions of the F1 Rejects Podcast, of course!