[Kit Spackman]

Perhaps in future a driver will be given a penalty because he even THINKS about winning the race, as that would constitute having a mental advantage over a driver who's NOT thinking about winning?

 

[Kit Spackman]

Ah, Raymond Baxter, now he was a superb commentator. My Dad would wake me up every hour all through the night to listen to Raymond's short updates on the Le Mans 24 hr races in the 50s.

Years later I did a 'Tomorrow's World' programme with him and we chatted about those Le Mans commentaries more than we did about doing the filming!

 

[Kit Spackman]

Plus the current crop of cars are as ugly as sin with myriad fins and trim tabs sprouting out all over the place.

I thought they'd banned that business over 10 yrs ago, but it seems not.

 

[Kit Spackman]

The 'Well anyone would be quick in Lewis' car' response is wholly predictable, but it ignores George's prowess in lesser formulas. He was VERY good, and it looks like he still is.

 

[Kit Spackman]

Merc have a choice on hand, Mr. Russell. They'd be mad to go for anyone else after y'days showing.

 

[Kit Spackman]

If a relative newbie, could win a race at the first time of asking, with an ill fitting car and shoes, and he could nearly do it twice in that race despite a major pitstop 'error' then it would show that Hamilton wasn't quite as good as they've pumped him up to be and Bottas is in fact far worse than they pretend he is. Both of these would make them look pretty embarrassed. So maybe, just maybe, I started to ponder they felt they needed to intervene.

Interesting idea.......

I'm a big Bottas fan, but since the weekend I'm wondering if the real situation is that George is the 'next big thing' amongst UK F1 drivers, and he's been hobbled by driving a less than adequate Williams recently.

 

[Kit Spackman]

I'm not sure that shouting would have worked in that environment.

The tyre choice decision was taken by the guys on the pit wall control centre, and had to be transmitted to the pit crew in the garage. That was on the OTHER side of the pit lane, and with loads of turbo-electric V6s all hammering past at 160 mph just shouting wouldn't have been loud enough.

 

[Kit Spackman]

Apparently LH was tested negative today so he should drive at Abu Dhabi.

If they let him in of course................

 

[Kit Spackman]

After reading all that anti-Lewis stuff from Jonathan Liew (who's he that I should take any notice of him?) I'm still left with my opinion that he's a DAMN good driver, the best in fact.

 

[Kit Spackman]

Perez is racing for Red Bull next year, Albon has been demoted.

Not before time either!

 

[Kit Spackman]

They say this will have no connection to Ferrari and they won't share technical information with Haas......

Won't that rather defeat the object of Haas' exercise?

 

[Kit Spackman]

I was being sarcastic in my post Kit, the ..... at the end of my sentence was actually saying, "yeah right".

Ooopps, sorry David. We're of similar mind on that front then.

 

[Kit Spackman]

The NASA craft that picked the brief signal up is flying at nearly 112,000mph, apparently, which means it's capable of circumnavigating the Earth more than four times every hour.

And they don't have to change the tyres every 15-20 laps either............

 

[Kit Spackman]

. When the organisers heard about this, they decided that it was time to run the event more strictly.

Except for French entrants.............

 

[Kit Spackman]

Totally agree - There have been many periods in F1 that were dominated by one particular team partly because of the disparity in budgets. To be fair that is probably true in most types of motorsport and is never likely to change. It is good when someone manages to shake things up a bit very now and then though as it keeps the interest alive.

And it will keep on going like that while the winners always get paid LOTS more than the non-winners just because they win. It's a sort of perpetual motion system operating with money.

But it's difficult to think of any other method that would work without the majors leaving in droves.

 

[Kit Spackman]

If that bloke on the bike doesn't watch out he'll end up draped over the Victor's bonnet!

Is that actually Raymond Mays driving the BRM in that pic?

I love the look on the kid's face on the left, I bet he remembers that occasion to this day!

 

[Kit Spackman]

Yes, Kit, it is Mays in the V16. My younger brother has had this photo hanging on his sitting room wall for years. Rather fun, eh?

An amazing pic.

However was the bloke on the bike able to hear Mays saying a word over the noise of that V16?

 

[Kit Spackman]

To be honest, Gripping Pneus, I've always believed that whilst both Schumacher and Senna did have unquestionably brilliant driving talent, their concept of sportsmanship was to say the very least a bit questionable.

Questionable? More like non-existent!

In both cases their egos were so massive they were larger than most circuits that they drove on.

 

[Kit Spackman]

Bike tech meets car tech. Honda's 1.5l V12:

And it's mounted SIDEWAYS too.

 

[Kit Spackman]

I used to listen to Raymond Baxter's Le Mans commentaries on the radio (remember that...?) every hour all through the night in the 50s and 60s. My Dad and I had our alarms set for the next hour after every 5 min listen.

Some years later I took part in a 'Tomorrow's World' episode and told Raymond about doing that all-night listening and he laughed for some time.