On this day/old race discussions
- Thread starter F1Brits_90
- Start date
On this day in 2007, a rookie driver from Stevenage won his 1st GP. Where on Earth has the time gone.
OTD in 1995 it was a very Happy Birthday for Jean Alesi, who won his one and only GP in Canada.
F1Brits_90
World Champion
12yrs ago. the ending to the longest & fir me the best f1 race ive seen. 2011 canadian gp a race that had everything you could want
including brundle & coulthard, chatting about gazebos, Rihanna & some red breasted kestrel
including brundle & coulthard, chatting about gazebos, Rihanna & some red breasted kestrel
(Sorry that this is such a long post but it was such a bizarre, insane race event.)
In early July of 1984 I attended what can only be considered as one of the most ill-conceived race events ever in F1: the first and only Dallas GP. For starters, it was just insane for F1 to schedule this race for July, right in the midst of the extreme summer heat that this region experiences—an early spring or late fall date was not only preferable but necessary for a race there. The drivers had no real criticisms of the circuit layout (other than that it didn’t contain a single straight of sufficient length) but were quite critical of physical aspects of track itself. It was incredibly bumpy and the track surface wasn’t holding up. As a further safety concern, the track was completely “walled in” with concrete barriers and lacked sufficient run off (there were numerous sections where, if a car had brake failure or otherwise couldn’t slow, it would run head-on into a wall at speed). The Can-Am race that was held on Sat. starkly revealed just how grave the situation was as myself and the other spectators watched the track surface literally crumble under the drive of the powerful Can-Am cars. The obvious sentiment among us was that if the track couldn’t stand up to the Can-Am cars then it surely wouldn’t for the even more powerful F1 cars! Many of us wondered if the race would (or should!) be held the next day. Repairs and patching of the track surface (this patchwork was a sad joke) went on through the night and into race day. In fact, when I arrived in the morning to watch the race day warm-up session (which had to be cancelled) this work was still in progress. Instead of seeing the cars whizzing by, I saw Lauda and some of the other drivers inspecting the ongoing repair work that was taking place in the section of track in front of my grandstand (due to the very real safety concerns, Niki and some of his colleagues attempted to organize a driver boycott of the race but were unsuccessful). The repair work continued until a mere half hour before the race was started!!! And on top of all of this was the extreme heat. The temp. exceeded 100˚ F, which greatly enhanced the probability that the track surface would crumble and made the race so much more difficult for the drivers and cars. I was so uncomfortably hot and I had just a T-shirt on, so I couldn’t help but imagine how unbearably hot it must have been for the drivers (wrapped in full race gear and sitting in a hot cockpit).
The race (despite periods of close racing) was the disaster that everyone with half a brain had predicted. The track surface disintegrated horribly, making the circuit extremely treacherous and dangerous for the drivers. There were a number of sections where the breakup became so extreme that tight wheel tracks from the cars appeared in the midst of heaped up asphalt and if a driver deviated by a mere inch out of the wheel tracks he risked sliding out on the loosened pebbles into the barriers. The general sentiment after the race was that it was more like a rallycross than a road race. More than half the field retired after contact with the barriers (there were only 8 classified finishers)! This was the most contact-related retirements in F1 that I can recall (especially on a dry track). More recent F1 fans who are unfamiliar with its long pre-safety car period will probably be shocked to hear that the circuit was literally lined with retired cars along the barriers (including along the outside barrier at the exit of one of the corners!) and the race was never stopped to remove them. Incredibly, the section along the inside barrier (on the race track!) opposite the exit of a corner near my grandstand became a makeshift F1 car park where, one after the other, 5 cars (including the McLarens of Lauda and Prost) parked in a line as they retired from the race. The extreme heat took a toll on several of the drivers, most spectacularly on Mansell. On the final lap, within sight of (but still a considerable distance from) the finish line Nigel’s gearbox quit. He then got out of the car and began pushing it toward the finish line (which was really useless since the cars were required to cross the line under their own power) but passed out and collapsed in the intense heat while doing so. It was such a chaotic, insane “race” that it seemed almost an afterthought that, “By the way, Keke Rosberg won the race in his Williams-Honda” (this was the first win for the Honda turbo, the first of the many that were to come when, not too long after, the Honda turbo became the dominant F1 engine). Thankfully and miraculously, there were no serious injuries in the race.
The most intriguing story to emerge from this race involves Senna (this was his first season in F1). He retired on lap 47 when he broke a driveshaft after clipping a barrier. After returning to the pits he adamantly reported to his team (Toleman) that he didn’t know how that could possibly have happened because he drove through that area the same as he had been doing all race and told them that the wall must have moved. Needless to say, members of the team thought the rookie was daft and was just making up a ridiculous excuse to cover for his mistake. Out of curiosity, after the race his race engineer (Pat Symonds) went out to the point of contact and discovered that the wall had indeed been moved out by about a half inch! So, apparently with Senna’s amazing precision driving, lap after lap he had been taking his car to with a half inch of the wall there but the lap after another car had contacted the wall and (unbeknown to Senna) pushed it out, with that tiny gap now gone the car clipped the wall instead. Such was an early addition in the building legend of Senna’s uncanny driving skills!
In early July of 1984 I attended what can only be considered as one of the most ill-conceived race events ever in F1: the first and only Dallas GP. For starters, it was just insane for F1 to schedule this race for July, right in the midst of the extreme summer heat that this region experiences—an early spring or late fall date was not only preferable but necessary for a race there. The drivers had no real criticisms of the circuit layout (other than that it didn’t contain a single straight of sufficient length) but were quite critical of physical aspects of track itself. It was incredibly bumpy and the track surface wasn’t holding up. As a further safety concern, the track was completely “walled in” with concrete barriers and lacked sufficient run off (there were numerous sections where, if a car had brake failure or otherwise couldn’t slow, it would run head-on into a wall at speed). The Can-Am race that was held on Sat. starkly revealed just how grave the situation was as myself and the other spectators watched the track surface literally crumble under the drive of the powerful Can-Am cars. The obvious sentiment among us was that if the track couldn’t stand up to the Can-Am cars then it surely wouldn’t for the even more powerful F1 cars! Many of us wondered if the race would (or should!) be held the next day. Repairs and patching of the track surface (this patchwork was a sad joke) went on through the night and into race day. In fact, when I arrived in the morning to watch the race day warm-up session (which had to be cancelled) this work was still in progress. Instead of seeing the cars whizzing by, I saw Lauda and some of the other drivers inspecting the ongoing repair work that was taking place in the section of track in front of my grandstand (due to the very real safety concerns, Niki and some of his colleagues attempted to organize a driver boycott of the race but were unsuccessful). The repair work continued until a mere half hour before the race was started!!! And on top of all of this was the extreme heat. The temp. exceeded 100˚ F, which greatly enhanced the probability that the track surface would crumble and made the race so much more difficult for the drivers and cars. I was so uncomfortably hot and I had just a T-shirt on, so I couldn’t help but imagine how unbearably hot it must have been for the drivers (wrapped in full race gear and sitting in a hot cockpit).
The race (despite periods of close racing) was the disaster that everyone with half a brain had predicted. The track surface disintegrated horribly, making the circuit extremely treacherous and dangerous for the drivers. There were a number of sections where the breakup became so extreme that tight wheel tracks from the cars appeared in the midst of heaped up asphalt and if a driver deviated by a mere inch out of the wheel tracks he risked sliding out on the loosened pebbles into the barriers. The general sentiment after the race was that it was more like a rallycross than a road race. More than half the field retired after contact with the barriers (there were only 8 classified finishers)! This was the most contact-related retirements in F1 that I can recall (especially on a dry track). More recent F1 fans who are unfamiliar with its long pre-safety car period will probably be shocked to hear that the circuit was literally lined with retired cars along the barriers (including along the outside barrier at the exit of one of the corners!) and the race was never stopped to remove them. Incredibly, the section along the inside barrier (on the race track!) opposite the exit of a corner near my grandstand became a makeshift F1 car park where, one after the other, 5 cars (including the McLarens of Lauda and Prost) parked in a line as they retired from the race. The extreme heat took a toll on several of the drivers, most spectacularly on Mansell. On the final lap, within sight of (but still a considerable distance from) the finish line Nigel’s gearbox quit. He then got out of the car and began pushing it toward the finish line (which was really useless since the cars were required to cross the line under their own power) but passed out and collapsed in the intense heat while doing so. It was such a chaotic, insane “race” that it seemed almost an afterthought that, “By the way, Keke Rosberg won the race in his Williams-Honda” (this was the first win for the Honda turbo, the first of the many that were to come when, not too long after, the Honda turbo became the dominant F1 engine). Thankfully and miraculously, there were no serious injuries in the race.
The most intriguing story to emerge from this race involves Senna (this was his first season in F1). He retired on lap 47 when he broke a driveshaft after clipping a barrier. After returning to the pits he adamantly reported to his team (Toleman) that he didn’t know how that could possibly have happened because he drove through that area the same as he had been doing all race and told them that the wall must have moved. Needless to say, members of the team thought the rookie was daft and was just making up a ridiculous excuse to cover for his mistake. Out of curiosity, after the race his race engineer (Pat Symonds) went out to the point of contact and discovered that the wall had indeed been moved out by about a half inch! So, apparently with Senna’s amazing precision driving, lap after lap he had been taking his car to with a half inch of the wall there but the lap after another car had contacted the wall and (unbeknown to Senna) pushed it out, with that tiny gap now gone the car clipped the wall instead. Such was an early addition in the building legend of Senna’s uncanny driving skills!
F1Brits_90
World Champion
i love that story. i never knew that. but i can completely believe it
it before i was born but that is the thing i remember most of it & it was an iconic image. i was ready that dallas is still 2nd hottest race in F1 history only beaten by Bahrain 2005. because they decided the mid afternoon heat in the middle of a desert was perfect time for a race
OOTD in 2020 Lewis Hamilton won the British GP on 3 wheels.
F1Brits_90
World Champion
what an ending that was, ridiculous that was he was doing 120mph in some corners with 3 wheels
F1Brits_90
World Champion
what a day this was 17 years ago, i remember it so well after years of few ups & mainly downs of supporting jenson button. it was all worth it to see him finally break his duck
F1Brits_90
World Champion
Nah
F1Brits_90
World Champion
Look at the 1968 German Grand Prix (run on Aug 4) and see if you can imagine today's drivers being willing to cope with either the circuit or the conditions, let alone both.
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