I swear I saw something about some school kids winning the remote control F1 world championships or something but can't find anything online, did I dream it?
I doubt you dreamt or imagined it. Hamilton's potential was spotted as a kid racing remote controlled cars. Then it was suggested he should have a try out in a go-kart and the rest, as they say, is history!
One for the old gits (like me). I attended my first Grand Prix in 1964, at Brands Hatch, and was left in awe... http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00jw9cw/jim-clark-the-quiet-champion
Anyone see the huge crash for Mark Webber in the 6 hours of Sao Paulo at the weekend? Pretty horrific crash but he's OK - taken to hospital for precautionary checks.
It was also a carbon copy of his accident at Brazil in 03. Main thing he's OK though, so that's good. Speaking of the WEC, my favorite driver, Nico Hulkenberg is racing at Le Mans next season and I'm very happy about that. The guy is wasting his talent in the midfield of F1 and frankly, F1 (or the top teams) has failed him rather than the other way around. Rumors of Alonso and Button joining up WEC as well next season, so its good to see F1 drivers branching out after almost 20 years I think.
Wow, I thought I was one of the eldest to post in the F1 thread but your F1 experience pre-dates mine by nearly twenty years! Thanks for the link, that documentary had completely escaped my attention. Will definitely check it out. After Schumacher and Bianchi, F1 could seriously do without any more bad news for a long time. So relieved that Webber is ok. I share your frustration re.Hulkenberg. I know you and I have discussed this before but put in 2014 context, I think Hulkenberg is at least as good as Rosberg and maybe as good as Ricciardo. Certainly, the Hulk and Bianchi are/were more intriguing to me than, say, Bottas and Kvyat both of whom have a lot of supporters singing their praises.
Bottas is the driver I watch the most, apart from Hamilton - he's got something very special to me... All the other drivers listed are amazing too - it's a titanically strong line-up in F1 now, more than ever.
Hulkenberg, Bottas and Kvyat are far more deserving of a top drive than, say, Maldonado, Grosjean or Sutil. Unfortunately F1 has never been about the best 22 drivers in the world though. And probably never will be.
I agree re. Grosjean. He is just about ok for a mid-field team but definitely not a top team. Vettel's first day at Ferrari. Odd seeing him in red: [video=youtube;k_Y47PhY1PY]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_Y47PhY1PY[/video] Some of the comments are pretty desperate though i.e good riddance to Alonso, welcome Vettel - Schumacher Mk II and the like. I don't see this move working out very well. Ferrari's next best chance will be for the next major regulation changes and god knows how many years that will be. Besides, it's highly unlikely that Vettel will ever again get the levels of downforce he got from Newey's designs 2009-2013. Even then, the 2014 Red Bull had a good chassis and nearly as much downforce as you're going to get nowadays and still Vettel chewed up his tyres. Ferrari should have gone for Red Bull's no.1 driver...and as an added bonus, he's of Italian heritage too.
I think he's a good driver - top six of the current grid. But nothing more. But even during those four successful years, I was seeing little that truly made him standout. He pretty much won four WDCs from the front of the grid in a dominant car and without a competitive teammate. And in 2010 and 2012 I think he made a bit of a pig's ear of things. That Alonso and Hamilton could get close to him (2010 and 2012) in his Red Bull cars, is testament to their ability. Vettel had the chance to do the same against Mercedes in this year's Red Bull but he failed miserably. Watching F1 since the early 80s, I'd always judged drivers in a broader context than just wins, points and championships. "Don't show me what you won, show me who you beat." But suddenly that wasn't applicable to Vettel - his results were too frequently analysed without reference to the car he was driving. Eddie Jordan stated: "Fernando Alonso has missed his opportunity to be rated alongside Senna, Vettel hasn't." Murray Walker, "there have been three standout drivers in my time covering F1 - first there was Senna, then there was Schumacher, now there is Vettel." But then he could barely muster a reason as to why Vettel stood out. It was laughable. Now this year Eddie Jordan has shamelessly stated about Red Bull: "more importantly, they've kept Ricciardo, who is a better driver than Vettel." I suppose they've got to sell F1 but some depth and consistency of opinion would be nice. Vettel's 2014 wasn't a surprise to me - there were plenty of hints it was coming in 2010 and more so in 2012. Granted, I was a bit surprised that it was Ricciardo who was the one to prove Vettel's critics correct but I always thought a number of other drivers would do that to him. But Vettel confirmed in 2014 what I had always suspected - he is in the tier of Button and Raikkonen, rather than in the tier of Alonso and Hamilton (and potentially a couple of others.) Or put another way, he's the 2009 version of Jenson Button but with a four year car advantage. Meh!
I think it is reasonably fair to compare drivers to their teammates (as long as they are at similar points in their career). Vettel has "only" outperformed Mark Webber, who despite being a solid driver, no one really saw as a future world champion. In comparison to Hamilton who has beaten Rosberg, Button and Alonso in the same car - The only teammate who has ever got the better of Alonso who by my opinion (and most) is the best driver in F1. Still think Vettel is currently the third best but this change in rules has shown a vulnerability that wasn't there. I do feel though that sometimes when discluding Vettel from the very best of current they forget about some of his earlier drivers in his career. That win he had with the Toro Rosso was one of the most impressive performances from a driver in a mid table team I can remember. It is interesting though comparing Ricciardo's record to his last two team mates and the fact that Vergne was actually a closer match to the honeybadger than Vettel was. He can definitely feel harshly done that he is yet to have a seat for next season. Comfortably beat Kvyat this season and this season proved that narrowly losing to Ricciardo doesn't make him a bad driver.
Even with Toro Rosso, I thought Vettel was a mixed-bag. Yes there were some excellent drives and results but also a lot of errors and avoidable collisions, both of which seem to have remained throughout his Red Bull days. Taking the Monza 2008 win into consideration, it was of course a superb result but it also came in an unusual set of circumstances i.e Raikkonen and Hamilton getting caught out by the rain and therefore not making it into Q3. But it also is, to me at least, a microcosm of Vettel. He seems to have a measured and methodical approach to driving where everything needs to be nearly perfectly in place before the race starts if he is to succeed. Which gives him an almost Button-esque narrow operating window. Such an interpretation would certainly explain his struggles in 2014. I guess I've never rated him as anything other than being a "good" driver and four WDCs is therefore disproportionate to his actual level of ability. I agree that Vergne can feel very hard done by. At the very least he is certainly worthy of another mid-field drive. There have been rumours that he might join Williams as their Test Driver.
I thought I was concurring with your final point about Ferrari going for Ricciardo - now there's a superstar. Vettel was always overrated for me...not in the same league as Alonso and Hamilton. Well, in the same league, obvs, but just in the Europa spots...
Ah well, that too! Ricciardo looked immense in 2014. He seems to have the measured but relentless approach of Alonso and the instinctive overtaking ability of Hamilton. Honestly, I was impressed more by Ricciardo in 2014 than I was by Vettel 2010-2013. But even then, I'll still wait before I've seen a bit more of him before adding to my personal top tier ranking in F1. But he certainly looks like the real deal and a WDC in waiting.
4x4 car managed to smashed into the entrance and despite staff being their working got away with the cups.
