Was Irvine faster or as fast as than Coulthard or Villeneuve?

Prost always scored more points than Senna, both in 88 and 89, wich is obviously impressive. He also almost defeated Piquet in 83 (and everyone knows the brabham was using ilegal fuel). Prost was that good, in fact to stop him from winning, Senna had to ram him out of the track! Also Prost won in 86 with a Mclaren that was clearly inferior to the williams of both nelson and Mansel, on the other hAND, HE WOULD HAVE PROBABLY LOST THE 85 TITLE TO aLBORETO HAD fERARI NOT TURNED THE 156 INTO A WALKING TIME BOMB!

 

Facts of race; that happens. There are some we see, many we don't; each driver in each car must have had things like that happening to him.
There are many, many exemple: John Watson's engine stuttering from fuel starvation in the last lap of the 1977 french Grand Prix in Dijon, etc...too bad and heartbreaking, but that's racing.
In the end, the winner is the guy who crosses the line first. I would not say that this is all that counts to me, but it counts more than the rest. See Jean-Pierre Jarier at Interlagos in 1975, then 1976: he clearly was the fastest on track, but didn't win the race; he, again, had the fastest car on track in Watkins Glen in 1978...and didn't win either.
As I have written many times, I think that going fast is not sufficient; you have to apply a good dose of intelligence and control to your talent to maximise your opportunities; this is what I admire: combining some talent and some brain. The equation is quite different from one man to another: it can be less talent and more brain, or half and half, etc...But without your brain, you are simply fast, but that is not sufficient.

Rgds

 

I couldn't agree more. To win, you need the whole package, not just raw speed.
Many drivers are fast, but that's not enough to bring them success.

 

Nice to bring back memories of Jean Pierre Jarier, a driver I met several times at that period, mostly at the Paul Ricard circuit.
"La Godasse" (the Boot), as they used to call him, was certainly a charger, a bit in the Clay Regazzoni or Alan Jones mould.
True that he was let down by unreliability a few times; back then, the cars weren't so well prepared as they are now, no telemetry, etc ...
At Watkings Glen, Colin Chapman was thrilled by Jarier's performance; He had taken over the 2nd Lotus after Ronnie Peterson's death.
At the end of the race Chapman announced publicly that Jarier would have a drive at Team Lotus the following year.
Unfortunately, Lotus sponsors didn't agree with that, Jarier told me, and he went to drive for Tyrrell instead.

 

As for the anecdote, did you know that JPJ did most of the driving for John Frankenheimer's movie "Ronin" in 1998, which has a quite good car chase?
They took a Right Hand Drive car (I think it was a BMW 6 cylinders), to which they connected a second steering wheel in front of the "normal" (for a french car) Left Hand Drive seat, but it was "Godasse de plomb" (= the lead boot) who did the driving from the right seat...

Rgds

 

I did not know, but i love the movie, the Audi did some great chasing....(i'm a Jean Reno fan)

 

Out of my memory, Pedro, so it would be better to check...Jean-Pierre Jarier did a good part of the driving himself, but he was also the "coordinator" for the 300 or so stunt drivers required for the different car chases of the movie.
Again, if my memory, etc...he drove at 180 km/h in the "tunnel du Chatelet"...

Rgds

 

You can also say that Alonso won the Singapur GP in 2008...he did, but we know how he did it...do i give him any credit for it? no, i don't. Just like Elton this year in canada...the FIA say he won...but we all saw he didn't, so to me, results are really not that important.
F.1 is an entertainement, a sport, but we watch to be entertained, and gilles was the biggest entertainer of them all!! Prost? not really, a wonderfull driver, but a very boring one. Of course some apreciate his style, just not me. Abit like Nelson and Mansell, i do believe Nelson was the hardest one to beat when fighting for a championship, but Nigel was faster, and definitely much more entertaining to watch! I remener after the 79 season, Frank Williams, who was not Gilles biggest fan said, he did more for f.1 this year than the rest of us together! I like Michael, and saw some unbelievable races from him, but on most days, i would rather watch Jean pushing that Ferrari to the limit's, even when he didn't finish...i guess we all look for diferent things.

 

Jumper Jarier was fast, but unlucky driver...Gilles won his first race because his lotus failed!..i also remenber arace whn he was insulted in public by James Hunt, i know it was 83, not sure if Austria, he was being doubled by the ferraris and he held up Tambay...a total mess!!!

 

You can tell that DeNiro isn't driving the car in the film--one of his least convincing performances.

 

Everyone knows that the only good driving actor if Vin Diesel

 

You mean Mr Potato Head ?