little ballerina

You're a cruel man making her sit in a baby seat in the back! - Let her sit up front in the passenger's seat!

 

Hehehehe. It's funny, if she wears the wrong clothes, she looks very young, and people think she's my daughter, so it's easy to shock them by giving her bum a squeeze at the right time..... funny watching people's reactions!

 

Thanks, the fezza had to go as I had an offer I couldn't refuse. Now waiting on a 488 next year

 

Humor for Monday - Three-time world champion Lewis Hamilton is unhappy when critics mock his singing. "I don't know why they're hating on me. And why do they keep saying I'm a rapper? I'm a singer. I love R'n'B," he is quoted as saying. (Daily Mail)

 

I can't wait for the Elton feat Bieber single release...

 

Probabaly his nascar car exaust fumes....

 

Lewis, don't worry, it was just a bad dream. You're actually a racing driver. Now don't go letting that singing nightmare with the big hairy monsters stop you from beating Bottas.

 

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6Z0rfau6f0[/ame]

Gee I don't know LuLu

 

At least he's got the moves..now he 's just missing the singing part!!

 

LOL @ massive autotune!

 

Great lyrics... Groundbreaking... :|

 

Quality.
Lewis, don't give up your day job. Yet.

 

... and the charisma, the likability, the talent, the push, ...

 

For the record, it was Jackie Stewart that made the statement a monkey can drive a Formula 1 car. This was, IIRC< ~15 years go.

CW

 

God I hope Ferrari win this year, so bored of the whole Merc thing it puts me off the road cars. Well that and Merkel and the Brexit threats and stuff.

 

IIRC it was Lauda, then he had a go, failed didn't do as well as he thought he'd do, but to his credit he did say he underestimated it somewhat .

 

Don't know about Lauda, but Stewart made the statement at a dinner. I heard him say it.

CW

 

And do you actually believe that? This year's cars in particular?

 

Would/could a monkey be competitive? I don't think so. Could a monkey be trained to get a car around a track? Possibly. Interesting experiment. Ought to be easy enough to set one up in a simulator and find out.

It's always possible (in fact, likely) that Stewart was being somewhat and purposefully facetious or imprecise in his comments for effect. It may be that what he intended to convey was that with all the computerized systems in the cars at that time (TC, active suspension, data acquisition, etc.) that he meant that much of a driver's contribution is diminished, which is what I personally believe he meant when he said it (context of the discussion).

Just saying that the words originated (tongue-in-cheek or otherwise) from people who have some basis in real life to make an informed comment as opposed to merely the Internet ranks. I don't believe we'll see a bunch of monkeys driving F1 cars anytime soon, however. Nor would I want to.

CW

 

send a car out with a self driving computer. See what happens

 

The cars did become too driver aid friendly for sure at one point. But that is no longer the case IMO. Although I do think they need to replace or drastically reduce the power steering. The cars are too easy to steer IMHO. It would add to the excitement and also have the effect of limiting the aero to some extent.

 

N/A engines with throttle and clutch cables would deter the monkeys from leaping into the cockpits. If Liberty are in doubt, they can check out Blue Planet 2 with the superb David Attenborough for gratis research

 

There is no functional difference between a physical throttle cable and a drive by wire throttle when they are both working properly.

What is the greater challenge you believe an NA engine represents? I'd say the toughest engines were likely the smaller displacement, less sophisticated turbos from the 80s and 90s.

A foot clutch would certainly require more skill.

It's amazing how little credit some of you guys give these modern drivers. Makes me wonder how many have driven anything close to one of these cars.

They might be "easy" to drive. They are incredibly difficult to drive well.

 

+1

Easy to drive...no way! Just look at Richard Hammond trying the Renault 2004 car for Top Gear a few years ago. By no means was it easy!

I'd actually go as far as saying that cars from ~mid 80s onwards where harder to drive than the pre mid 70s cars. Yes the latter had clutch pedals but no real aero, much lower horsepower. Still took the right driver to actually get it to the front, of course, and in no way I'm saying it was easy. But when aero started to become seriously important, and power went up substantially, it became a lot more difficult IMO. It's tough to get your head round aerodynamics. An average person can't get their head round that something they can't see, will make them stick to the road as long as they go fast enough.

That said, the monkey reference for 2014+ Mercedes car does stand, a little. It's my belief that any GP3+ driver could've been put in that car and won the race/championship (provided they beat whoever their teammate was).

 

Well...Jochen Rindt, in 1970, after his first victory at the wheel of the Lotus 72, when complimented by another driver, answered by shruging and saying "even a monkey could have won at the wheel of this car".

Rgds