Some WDC statistics - Interesting (to me anyway ;))

I live for this stuff....as you know....

 

Please. You went to a lot of trouble and at the very least it was worth mentioning. The Red Truck was quite nice btw .

Never heard back from Jack-The-Lad. He asked what podium represented the most WDCs. I said the latest one but it's a guess.

Fwiw, the Spanish GP in 93 had Shoe, Prof and Senna but, at the time, this would have only represented 6 WDCs (......14 now... ).

 

Longest time between wins in F1?

 

Ian,

I am still in my self-inflicted strike of watching the 2012 Grand Prix season on TV, but I am still a Formula one anorak of some sort, and therefore can answer your question despite my strike:

1. Riccardo Patrese: 6 years and 210 days
2. Bruce McLaren
3. Jack Brabham
4. Mario Andretti
5. John Watson
6. Rubens Barrichello.

Best,

 

Thanks for the above ! Guess among manufacturers Merc is ...ahem, Ian... a Shoe in...

 

I think it is difficult to compare older WDC (60-70s) with today, they only had nine races a year back then. IMHO the race car(chassis,engine etc.) has more to do with success today than driver skill. Now I still think that there are a very few gifted drivers in today's F1, but my OP, I think the skill of the driver can't carry the car as in the past. And today's tire choices and strategy has a bigger effect now. In the past if you pitted you lost! I do like this years F1 with the passing and the unpredictability.



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I know this stuff because I like odd statistics and, in that case precisely, because I was a fan of John Watson when I was young, and, as you may remember, he had a rather long wait between his first (Austria '76) and his second (Great Britain '81).
I always remained interested in drivers with "long waits"...fascinating from a "keep your motivation alive" perspective, isn't it?
As for Patrese, the wait is not between his first and second, but between his second and third.
Jack Brabham's wait is interesting; but anything about Jack Brabham is out of the ordinary, as is the man himself. Beating Ferrari in 1966 with that Repco engine...great stuff.

I am boycotting because, in a nutshell, I am dissatisfied with the tires comedy. "Too much is too much" as we say in French ("Trop, c'est trop").
I find rather sad that a driver of Lewis Hamilton calibre (whatever anyone may think of the man...) is unable to resist Maldonado in the last two laps of a race and clouts the wall because its tires are shot to the point that he is unable to simply keep the car on the track. Great for spectacular images for the news on TV, not great for racing fans.
And my wife is questioning my mental sanity, when she pops in the TV room and asks me in passing "who is leading?" and I have to answer "well, I don't really know..."; and it then goes like this: "how is this possible that you don't know?" "well, you see, for the time being, it is "A", but even if his tires are O.K now, they will probably be shot in three laps from now, so it is in fact "B" with fresher tires, but I don't know how long these will last, so perhaps it is in fact "C", but may be he will pit once more, so..."
What I always liked about Formula One is that the best drivers all have an equation between talent and speed on one hand, and cleverness and brightness on the other; and all equations are different, even if sometimes results are more or less the same (Button vs Hamilton, for instance).
I don't see this now, I think it has gone too far: it is too much unpredictable, too much of a lotery.

Best,

 

The setup + driver has a lot to do with that. Sometime a team tries too much for lap time, at the expense of tires.

I remember watching a NASCAR race where it was the same teams over and over blowing out their tires....hmmm, none of the other teams had trouble, and all the cars blowing out their tires where really fast in the corners. Too aggressive on the setup, driving it faster, and you won't go as far as others. I think it makes it interesting. I like to see how some drivers are conserving, others, think they can make up more time on the track, than they lose in the pits.

 

Well...I wish I could still believe that it comes down to set-up and driver in the 2012 Formula One, but I don't think so. Been following Formula One closely since 1971; I think that today, nobody, neither designers nor drivers is able to understand anything from these tires, it's just a lottery.
If I was convinced that it is still a question of set-up + driver, I would be still watching the races, as it would suit me just fine.

Best,

 

This is what happens when you look too closely and think too much.
If I were intellectually honest with myself I'd have left a while a go.

 

I won't comment.

 

But you did

 

Ian,

If by Fred you mean Alonso, I totally agree.


Nerofer,

By boycotting you are only hurting yourself, F**k Bernie




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Nerofer,

By boycotting you are only hurting yourself, F**k Bernie




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David,

Thanks for the thought but in fact, the most surprising thing is that boycotting the TV doesn't hurt at all; I read about yesterday's race in the monday papers and that's enough. I shall turn the silver screen on again only for Spa, and see if the bug bites again?
As for Bernie, it may seems strange but I kinda, somehow, like the man and admire what he has done. I only think that it is not very responsible nor reasonable that a 81 year old man still handle all that business alone, without having planned his succession. He should have retired some years ago.
And as for what you plan for him, I think that the consequences of yesterday's decision in the Gribkowski affair in Germany could, this time, spell the end for him.

Best

 

F1 has been my favorite form of racing since I was 14years old, 1964. Some years my interest wanes, but I still follow it.





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This should be an easy one. Who won both the pole at the Daytona 500 and was on the podium for WDC points...

 

Who is the king of the 3rd place....?

 

I don't know about the pole for Daytona, but Mario Andretti won both the 1967? ( I believe) Daytona 500 and the WDC 1978.


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