Thursday, April 06, 2006

i'm a big fan of formula 1

not known to many, ducky and yoda are great fans of formula 1. while ducky was already watching it in the 80s, yoda was still in his diapers.

F1 has definitely changed in recent years. one significant changed would be the safety aspect. less ppl die nowadays.

i'm not sure when was refuelling initiated, but definitely new. tyres change has been some time now, which is one of the highlight in the pit stop, you take the tyre change out of the pitstop, there is nothing really to watch in a the pitstop other than the chicks.

even speeding in the pitlane is new, new meaning around 10 years or so, some time meaning since time zero maybe. fia started 80km/h rule after some ppl was knocked down and died in the pitlane, they didnt listen to their mother when they were young i guess, look to your left, look to your right, then cross. but an F1 is super fast, my guess is when you look at your left, the car wasnt there, but when you look at your right, the F1 car has already appeared on your left, by the time you cross, crash, bum, bang, you're dead !

and the most significant changed fro me personally, is the gear changing. now it's just push button. then it was manual shift. imagine monaco in manual gear shift. one hand constantly on the gear knob and one hand on the steeing. i believe it was ferrari that started all this push button gear changing. ferrari then wasnt a leader at all in F1, world champion in 1976 with james hunt before michael gave them their long awaited constructor championship 7 years running, willaims and mclaren ruled F1 then.

another changed i've notice, is the strategy, if you look at renault, i'm not very sure how good alonso is, but the team management strategy is very good, the two cars are playing vital roles in the circuit. its like a tag team. i feel they are winning not because they have good drivers, but they have a good winning strategy. williams and mclaren the dominant of the F1 sport until recent years still follows the rule of thumb, race and win. which of course is what makes F1 racing interesting.

current williams rookie, nico rosberg, is 1 time world champion, finnish Keke Rosberg, keke actually molded some great finnish drivers, like ice man Mika Hakkinen. nelson piquet jr in A1 racing is the son of another world champion brazillian Nelson Piquet. Damon Hill a couple of years ago is the son of legendary Graham Hill. hot headed Jacques Villeneuve is the son of canadian Gilles Villeneuve, i believe 1 part of the montreal circuit is name after him. not so great F1 driver David Brabham is the son of Jack Brabham .

and of course the greatest driver ever live is my hero ayrton senna. the who held the most pole position in the lifetime of F1 at 65 was finally equalled by schumacher. but do that percentage wise, michael has a long way to go.

while most F1 cars has changed in colours in the years as they changed sponsors, ferrari is the only car that remain the same. red and marlboro sponsored.


1995, since from time zero, mclaren has been spotting this colour

then came 2004

then now, 2006, this is the most weird coloured mclaren i've seen in my life,
it look more like a stealth then a F1 cars, maybe thats the secret.

now lets take a look at ferrari, from time zero red until now red.

1985

1995

2000

2006, see no change ! maybe just the shade of red !

1 comment:

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