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I watched the highlights of the 1996 Monaco Grand Prix on Sky F1 at the weekend. Besides the fact that it was one of my all-time favourite Schumacher races , provided some excellent examples of the quality of Eddie Irvine and was one of the greatest disappointments along with Hungary 1997 for Damon Hill , I noticed a couple of other interesting points: Firstly the Gurney flap, which device I had more or less forgotten about. As the circuit dried out from a wet start, one of the drivers had the flap removed from the rear wing during their scheduled re-fuelling stop, thus reducing the rear downforce so as to re-balance the car in the changed conditions. Not quite DRS, but nevertheless an early if crude form of variable downforce, eh?. I wonder, if it hard started to rain again, whether they could have re-fitted it? Secondly, tyre debris off-line. Again I had forgotten (or never really appreciated in the first place) just how much debris the much-vaunted Bridgestone tyres left on the track in the form of 'marbles'. They looked almost as bad as today's Pirellis in that respect. Although I still don't like how extreme the current tyres have gone in terms of degradation, my view of them has been softened just a smidgeon after seeing that race again.
I watched the highlights of the 1996 Monaco Grand Prix on Sky F1 at the weekend.
Besides the fact that it was one of my all-time favourite Schumacher races , provided some excellent examples of the quality of Eddie Irvine and was one of the greatest disappointments along with Hungary 1997 for Damon Hill , I noticed a couple of other interesting points:
Firstly the Gurney flap, which device I had more or less forgotten about. As the circuit dried out from a wet start, one of the drivers had the flap removed from the rear wing during their scheduled re-fuelling stop, thus reducing the rear downforce so as to re-balance the car in the changed conditions. Not quite DRS, but nevertheless an early if crude form of variable downforce, eh?. I wonder, if it hard started to rain again, whether they could have re-fitted it?
Secondly, tyre debris off-line. Again I had forgotten (or never really appreciated in the first place) just how much debris the much-vaunted Bridgestone tyres left on the track in the form of 'marbles'. They looked almost as bad as today's Pirellis in that respect. Although I still don't like how extreme the current tyres have gone in terms of degradation, my view of them has been softened just a smidgeon after seeing that race again.