Fun F1

Recently, Renault engine guru Denis Chevrier said his favourite memory of the 2006 Formula One World Championship were the opening laps in Hungary. He said:

Without a doubt, the opening laps in Hungary, in the wet. Fernando gave a master class in driving an F1 car, and the only comparison I could find was with Ayrton Senna at Donington in 1993. It was an exceptional performance, he was on another planet. Even in the midst of the race, it felt like we should have been applauding this virtuoso drive.

I totally agree with the man on this point. In fact, this is probably the best drive of Fernando Alonso’s entire career to date. It’s ironic that he failed to finish the race due to a mechanical failure (er, a wheel nut came loose).

Fernando Alonso may well be the star McLaren has been seeking all these years…

Last month, 7.6% of searches that hit this web site came by searching the term f1. That makes sense. What’s more interesting is that searches for the wives and girlfriends of F1 drivers bring more traffic to this site than the drivers themselves!!

After the search term f1, the next most popular search phrases were Connie Montoya and Johanna Martinez (Jacques Villeneuve’s wife). It’s also ironic that these 2 drivers are no longer in F1..

Here are the top searches for October:

After winning the Japanese Grand Prix this year, former Renault driver Fernando Alonso performed some Karate Kid moves to celebrate. It seems Renault may already have a new Karate Kid lined up for their team in the form of the World Series by Renault Champion. His name? Wait for it.. Alx Danielsson.

The winner of the World Series by Renault gets a chance to test with the Renault Formula One team. Mr Miyagi, Danielsson’s manager is said to be excited by the test.

Felipe Massa has revealed that he wore the same pair of underwear throughout the entire Brazilian Grand Prix weekend due to superstition. He said:

If my weekend begins well I use the same underpants on Saturday. If that is also a good day, I wear them on Sunday. That is what I did in Brazil.

This reminds me of David Coulthard who also has his favourite pair of “lucky underwear”. I find it amazing that these guys can be paid millions of dollars to drive Formula One cars yet have such ridiculous superstitions. If they truly believe things like this has an effect on their performance then imagine what else could impact them! It’s kind of like the Spanish MotoGP riders who always magically do better at their home events.. It’s all in the head!

The Australian Formula One Grand Prix Corporation has been granted an exemption by the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) to sell discounted tickets exclusively to women. Unfortunately it’s not an event-wide discount – it’s only for the Traction function area, however it’s definitely a step in the right direction if you ask me.

Some may argue it goes against equal rights, but when you go to a motor sport event there is certainly an imbalance in the number of males versus females. And after all, what man would complain about having to pay a few dollars more than women if it meant more beautiful women at the event?