Whom was /were your favourite Grand Prix Drivers growing up!

Mammie!

 

I’ll put the jet on standby...

 

How I love you, how I love you...


Silly signature here to annoy KIAI

 

Funny how that works isn't it?

Am I part of the crowd on here who constantly refer to washing aircraft, 11psi, torch, luggage, 3 seconds, etc?

I make an effort to applaud John's good posts, we don't always have to be cynics on here. I long ago worked out that he has a temper, but I don't know why he's so focused on me. Perhaps it all stems from a comment about his divorce, something someone said to me sitting in a bar in QLD, which I stupidly repeated in a private call with someone else who's mates with both of us, who probably egged it up when he passed it on. I later apologised to John in person and I thought he'd accepted the apology. It's all a bit hard to keep up with frankly.

In person, I like John and I do not want to not be on speaking terms with him. He supported me in the FCA President bid and I won't forget that.

I was a bit annoyed when I worked out that he'd forwarded a private message of mine to Klink, but when I learn't that he'd phoned people with a story that I was part of banning PP I was really upset, because that entire banning episode was total bulls**t and I made an effort to stop it. So when one of the perps in the ban (Rob) made an attempt at humour that I didn't understand (who could?) I made a reference to "backstabbing" on here, but not mentioning any names. Because John knew what I was referring to, he lashed out at me with a torrent of angry nonsense, including a heat-of-the-moment "I'm finished on here" statement.

I expect he's feeling a bit silly now and knows that he'll have to suck up a lot of teasing when he eventually returns. But we've all said things on here at some time that we've regretted later and the measure of a person is how they recover from a reverse. John has more than enough strength of character for that.

So John, let's put it behind us - we need you on fchat, the real villains are the Hamilton fanboys!

 

TLDR

 

Bully

 

Thanks for your support, chunts

 

No. You really need to lift your game in that regard. You’re letting the side down...

 

Two favorites. Jones probably didn't think Villeneuve would try to pass on the outside like that. Brilliant !

 

I’ve been a huge fan of F1 since 1983, when it was televised on Channel 9 live for the first time.
I really got into cars around 1982, so I read Wheels, SCW, Car and Motor Motor often, especially old used issues from the previous decade. Of course, I really enjoyed Mel Nichols but I particularly enjoyed Jeff Hutchinson F1 reports in Modern Motor.
So my first motor sport hero was Niki Lauda. When I read his story about the crash at the Nurburgring in 76, I was mesmerised. Here was a demonstration that the mind (or spirit depending on your leanings) can overcome the body. He drove with his brain and if you are focussed enough, you can achieve anything. That’s why Niki is a favourite. To come back the way he did, when most people would’ve been done and dusted borders on the supernatural. The fact he won two further championships, well, that’s god like status. And he made it look so effortless, that’s it easy to forget just how brilliant his achievements were. If not for that infamous crash, he surely would’ve won the 1976 title, stayed at Ferrari and got the 1979 title as well. I simple can’t imagine the narcissistic Hamilton doing the same - ever!
My next two favourites were Nelson Piquet and Rene Arnoux. What can I say? I really enjoyed the 83 season, loved the Ferraris and Gordon Murray Brabhams. Nelson is a massively underrated Champion and brilliant test driver - just watch the way he passed Senna at Hungary in 1986 as a testimony of his sublime talent and the way he developed the active ride FW11 into a multiple winner in 1987. Mansell was so poor as a test driver that Williams dropped the active ride following year and didn’t get back to it until 1990. Nelson’s weakness was his lack of fitness and his concentration could lapse.
As for Arnoux, well, just watch the 1979 French GP. A pole merchant extraordinaire. All talent. No brain. The exact opposite of a driver like Piquet or Lauda.
And finally Senna. Look at all the best attributes of Niki, Nelson and Rene and they were all rolled into Senna. Brain, talent and sheer speed. His weakness? Physical strength. On sheer pace, or as a rain master, he’s even greater than Schumacher but in the post 94 GP world, Senna would be behind Schumacher because he lack the fitness required to drive flat out 100% every single lap - that is what the refuelling era brought to F1.
After Senna died, my passion for F1 was never quite the same but I watch and still read every race.
P.S
I also loved the way Villeneuve drove but never watched him raced in period. Sadly, his genius is slowly being forgotten, much like Peterson and Rindt before him. French GP 1979 and Spanish GP 1981 stand as towering achievements. Burn bright. Burn fast.

 

Alan Jones is a very underrated driver. Jackie Stewart, one of the most astute observers of the sport (as well as an all time great) once said (1983-84 Autocourse interview) that the best two drivers of the ground effect era were Jones and Piquet.
People tend to rate the Williams FW07 as the best ground effect car but I think the Brabham BT49 was the better car.
Because people rate the FW07 as the best car, they tend to over look Jones achievements. But in period, he was rated as the No 1 driver in the Autocourse ratings from 1979 to 1981. Jones was so good in the ground effect era because he was so strong. He was a bull like driver that he could squeeze every ounce of speed from the high downforce.
I believe different eras require different skill sets, hence why comparing drivers over the eras is so difficult.

 

100%
Patrick Head and Frank Williams STILL rate Jones as their best driver.
David Coulthard once recounted at the 1995 Monaco GP that Patrick Head advised him ‘Alan would take this particular line into the first corner’. Only problem was that David thought initially he was talking about Alain - as in Alain Prost - who drove for the team in 93. So 14 years after Jones left Williams, his shadow didn’t!

 

And drink